Nigel Roebuck: Fifth Column

'Oh, Ron just wants to sell up and get out...' For several years now paddock people have been saying that, and the man himself has never denied his wish, sooner rather than later, to step back from Formula 1 on a day-to-day basis. Being the sort of fellow he is, Dennis would find unthinkable 'retirement' in the conventional sense of the word, but he is 60 this year, and has more than once said: "There are other things I want to do."

At a McLaren lunch last December, he talked about it a little. "Well, Martin [Whitmarsh] has spent the last 10 years trying to persuade me to retire - and for the last three he's intensified his efforts!

"In respect of F1, Martin does the vast majority of the work, but at the end of the day I'm passionate about F1, and most people's perception of retirement is that you stop working. Mine is completely different: it's just a systematic back-off. There isn't a plan, as such - there is a strategy, endlessly discussed between Martin and myself.

"He and I work exceedingly well together - we've had some difficult times in the past, but by and large we rarely disagree. Retirement for me will be a slow process of disengagement, but not an immediate switch. I don't want to quit a loser..."

In the immediate aftermath of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix, Ron looked like a man who might never want to quit. Not since the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix, when Kimi Raikkonen memorably passed Giancarlo Fisichella on the last lap, had McLaren won a race, an eternity for a team of this pride and pedigree: now, though, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton had finished one-two - and perhaps extra cream for the cat was that Kimi Raikkonen, who left McLaren for Ferrari (and with whom Dennis did not always have the easiest of relationships), was third. At the press conference, Kimi looked about 90.

Perhaps that wasn't altogether surprising. This was Sepang, after all, where you sweat as you breathe, and Raikkonen had indeed given his all, not least in the closing laps as he strove to catch... Hamilton.

"There's a new spirit in the team," said Dennis, "that I believe will have been witnessed by anyone who watched us in the course of the weekend."

That spirit began to evolve as soon as McLaren folk began to speak of the new era, the era of Fernando and Lewis. Over time McLaren has achieved remarkable success, winning many world championships, but rarely, if ever, can there have been a time when the team was so enthusiastic about both its drivers.

Although the partnership of Raikkonen and Juan Montoya seemed to hold boundless promise, in reality, for a variety of reasons, it fell way short, and one doesn't have the impression that either man is much missed. The expression on Ron's face in Malaysia put one in mind of Mika Hakkinen's greatest days.

Alonso was simply majestic at Sepang, and one thought back to the autumn of 2005, when Fernando was en route to his first world championship, yet anything but relaxed about his situation with Renault.

It was at Interlagos - the very day he clinched the title - that he first intimated to Dennis that he would not be averse to a move to McLaren. Ron, for his part, was shocked, having believed that Alonso was tied to Renault for the foreseeable future, but, well aware that the things that come to those who wait are the things left by those who got in first, he lost no time in doing a deal with Fernando for '07 and beyond.

When news of the contract broke, Alonso denied that his decision had anything to do with money, and while one assumed that his McLaren stipend would be substantially more than he was making with Renault, neither did one doubt that his other concerns carried at least as much weight.

For one thing, he felt his achievements were somewhat underappreciated by the Renault hierarchy. A minor point, perhaps, but one which can be well understood. For another - and much more crucial, this - he was justifiably concerned about the company's long-term involvement in F1.

A few months after Fernando's forthcoming move to McLaren was confirmed (and as he embarked on winning a second world championship with Renault), the Regie declared its firm commitment to F1, at least until 2012. Then, last summer, there were talks with Raikkonen about a possible contract, and although these proved to have been a complete waste of time - Kimi was already on board at Ferrari - they were clear evidence of a newly wide-open cheque book.

All this was too late for Alonso. Flavio Briatore was only too aware of the vital need to keep him at Renault, and perhaps now the company bean-counters are beginning to comprehend what their dithering allowed to slip through their fingers. Fernando, in explaining his decision to switch teams, has spoken of his need for 'a new challenge', and one doesn't doubt him, but if everything had been right at Renault it would have been a great deal harder to leave, for he had a fine relationship with the team itself.

On Sunday, in only his second race with McLaren, he won, while Fisichella, sixth, was more than a minute behind, and Heikki Kovalainen finished eighth. Very well, thus far a Renault on Bridgestones is a very different proposition from a Renault on Michelins, and one doesn't suggest that Alonso would have won in an R27, but sixth was a fairly typical finishing position for Fisichella in 2005 and '06 - and in those years Alonso put 14 victories on the board.

In media terms, it was almost inevitable that the world champion's win in Malaysia took second place to his team-mate's second place. Hamilton is attracting more publicity than any F1 rookie I can remember, and who can be surprised?

His drive at Sepang was, if anything, even more startling than his debut in Melbourne: another scintillating start, in which he got the better of both Ferraris, and then another hard-and-fast race, in which, as he said, there were always 'red blobs' in his mirrors. With his drinks bottle long empty, he was suffering in the heat through the late laps, but never faltered for an instant in holding off Raikkonen.

He may be only two races into his grand prix career, but there is nothing about Lewis that says 'novice'. Nico Rosberg - strikingly impressive, if unlucky, in Sepang - was Hamilton's team-mate in their karting days.

A year ago, when Rosberg showed amazing speed in his first couple of grands prix, there was lavish praise, which rather petered out as his Williams slid down the competitive ladder. Last weekend Nico spoke of the difficulty in sustaining initial promise and speed - but Lewis, of course, has a car absolutely on the pace. He may be the best-prepared rookie in the history of F1, but no amount of grooming can teach you how to pick off Ferraris when the lights go out. The kid's a natural, as they say.

"Alonso," said Jackie Stewart before the first race, "hasn't been that much faster than Hamilton in testing, but we know what a remarkably complete driver he is. He's with a new team, and he's got to prove something - he's got to make his mark in the team, because he knows that the McLaren romance with Lewis is a very big one..."

Both were quite superb in Malaysia. Maybe Ron's 'process of disengagement' is going to take longer than he imagined.