A team effort - the full transcript

Q: How does it feel?

Ron Dennis: "How does it feel? A bit croaky! I love Monday mornings. Well, not all Monday mornings, but you're still in racing mode after a grand prix - worrying about scrutineering, worrying about someone doing the wrong thing or saying the wrong thing. Once you get some sleep, then you wake up and the realisation comes to you and it's a really nice feeling.

"I think this is not just special because of Lewis winning the world championship. It's special because so many people are happy about it. My phone is just blocked with text (messages) and I can't even think about how long it's going to take me to respond. There are more than one hundred. It is special. Just special."

Q: How does it compare to the other championships?

Dennis: "It is different because, in truth, there is nothing in life that gets easier. It's not just athletics, it's business - it's everything in life. It gets more challenging and you have to raise your game all the time. This particular world championship is certainly going to be easier than the next because it just gets more difficult.

"But of course it has the added flavour of having been part of Lewis's success. It's so easy to come up with the glib expressions like 'he has returned my faith in him' and all the other things he can say. But most of them are inappropriate because he is just a thoroughly nice chap and it is such a pleasure to work with him. He always returns all the effort you put into him, or the work people put into him, by getting the job done and by his approach out of the car. It is great to see him with such a big smile on his face.

"There has been such a lot of distraction this weekend - a lot of distraction. And most of it we were able to keep away from him, but at the end of the day I think the most difficult thing in the world is to drive a grand prix knowing you have to avoid every single mistake. The backmarkers in the latter part of the race were just so difficult, (Giancarlo) Fisichella was a huge problem at the beginning of the race. We just didn't want to take any chances.

"He (Lewis) radioed over and said: 'Tell me when it's dry enough at the end of the pit straight for me to overtake Fisichella.' So we left him behind for several laps and at the time you don't realise the repercussion on the end of the race because we were so in command of our pace. We were just working on the basis of moving between fourth and fifth, and then (Timo) Glock was just such an unpredictable thing.

"Two spates of rain. We saw that rain coming in and we didn't even think about having to cover that sort of eventuality because when all the quick cars switched into rain tyres, and Glock stayed out on dries, I just could not believe how quick he was in the first part of the last three or four laps. Then going into the last lap, when he did his first sector time, I thought that was it! He was so quick.

"Then he dropped five seconds and we knew we had it then. We knew that all Lewis had to do was keep the pace up. He could probably have overtaken Glock a bit sooner but he had to do it safely. And the outcome was pretty story book really - a fantastic outcome to a difficult season."

Q: Is Lewis now any closer to winning the McLaren F1 road car?

Dennis: "Absolutely. Not only that - as you possibly know there was a standard F1 sold on Thursday evening in England for £2.3 million, and this particular car is the rarest of the F1s - it is an LM. I would say it's worth at least double that - so at least I don't have to give it away for a couple of years. But it will be a small price to pay for three world championships."

Q: Was the Brazilian Grand Prix a good day for F1 - a popular winner and an uncontroversial end to the season?

Dennis: "Yes. You are talking to someone who has made his whole life F1. So of course it is great for F1. It's a privilege to be part of F1. It has given me everything I have had in my life, not always positive. It takes a lot out of you. Things happen in your life that are a legacy of the level of time and commitment you have to spend on F1, but in the end, Brazil was just for you guys, a dream come true.

"This is a story that is going to run for weeks, isn't it? We have all the awards ceremonies and plans all the way through to January to optimise the benefits of having a world champion in the car and we are already looking forward to next year."

Q: Does this championship provide some vindication over what happened last year?

Dennis: "I don't spend any time in last year. It's a waste of energy. This year has been challenging enough and I don't need to spend any thought in the past. We are already looking forward."

Q: A lot of the greats of this sport have said they believe Lewis can now go on to become a multiple champion - even rivalling Michael Schumacher's records. How do you see it?

Dennis: "I don't have them (the statistics) immediately to hand, but I know for example that he has accumulated more points in the last two years than any other driver. I think Massa has equalled his nine race wins in the last two years, but he has been on the podium more than any other driver. He has had more pole positions than any other driver. He is the youngest ever world champion. I think the numbers speak for themselves - and the chances of that momentum being lost are very, very slim.

"Of course, no racing driver goes very far if he is sat on the grid in his underpants. So they have to have the car - and it is our intention to try and give it to him. But at the moment I can see no reason why the momentum of his career is going to falter. As is apparent this year, he has become even more mature - in and out of the car. And the experience in Brazil will be another stone in his career. He is going to be very, very successful in his life, not only as a racing driver but also as a human being because he is a thoroughly nice guy. What you see is what you get."

Q: What are the plans now for Lewis? Will the demands on his time be greater now that he is champion?

Dennis: "I think that, traditionally, our drivers have three or four weeks running into and after Christmas where they don't have to do anything. Obviously there might be some ceremonies that he might have to go to, but we have always tried to cover these sorts of things in the detail in our contracts. Driver ability is going to be no greater or no less than it would have been either as a world champion or not. These guys have to have a life. We realise that and we put a lot of effort into giving them one."

Q: What about your life? You have talked about this being a special championship and looking to the future. You have said in the past that you don't want to be active on the pitwall for ever, is it a good time to go out on a high? Or is there a fresh impetus for next year?

Dennis: "Nothing that will unfold over the next few months will be as a result of Brazil. Clearly I have made it very apparent that I have still got several ambitions I want to fulfil, there are some things I would like to do. You will most definitely see me at grands prix and it is something I like too much to take out of my life. I think over the next few months I will make it abundantly clear what I am doing and why I am doing it, but it would have taken place no matter what. Don't read too much into it.

"The simple fact is I have got things I want to do. Our production car programme is very close to being publicly launched. Obviously this economic situation makes life very difficult when you are trying to raise the capital it requires, but the programme is extremely advanced and this is something I have got as much passion for as the F1 car.

"I have believed passionately in the need for a grand prix team to diversify and it is not by accident that McLaren is a group of companies, we do intend to try and match the success of Ferrari and to do that we cannot just be a grand prix team. So my role will broaden in some aspects and reduce in others."

Q: What do you mean match the success of Ferrari?

Dennis: "We want as broad a possible a base for the company, not just the race but also making sportscars. This is a highly competitive environment and there is over capacity in this world coming from the automotive companies. They are all having a tough time and putting aside that there is the simple fact there is less money in people's pockets, so the economics of the project such as this have to be carefully considered and you have to get the timing right.

"The market is not going to be always as it is now. We have been given documents generated for the boards of banks, so we have a clear understanding of when this recession will turn around and we have to plan accordingly.

"Alongside that, we are absolutely joined at the hip with other grand prix teams in reducing costs and we intend to take costs out of our business because we have to. These are all the challenges that I face with my colleagues, it is not just grand prix racing - we want to be bigger and better than just a grand prix team. It's critical to survival. If you go back in history, you can see clear examples of teams who have stayed unique to F1 who have just failed. You cannot sustain an F1 team indefinitely, you need to diversify."

Q: So it sounds like you will not have time to continue on the pitwall?

Dennis: "You will see me on the pitwall. I will be at races, don't worry."

Q: Even in Lewis's moments of triumph, back in England on radio phone ins there is evidence that he is quite a divisive figure. Why do you think that is, and it must sadden you?

Dennis: "Well, I think you are mixing up different types of reaction. I think here in Brazil they are very passionate about their motor racing, but if you are at a grand prix venue you are going to be surrounded by the pure enthusiast. And clearly if Massa had the potential to win the world championship, then you are going to have a significant percentage of those enthusiasts anti the competition. And the fact that is Lewis is immaterial. The reaction here would have been the same if it was any other driver that was competing against Massa.

"So I think the reaction here is one here. The reaction in Spain is another. But when it comes to England, I think the reaction tends to be in the culture that we have in England. There is a sort of love-hate relationship with successful people. And there is nothing more certain than Lewis and perhaps the team as a whole being put on a pedestal. That is how it works in England - and then somewhere along the line they will tear us all down again. That happens. We will handle that as we handle all that - just as would have handled the extreme criticism if we had failed to win the world championship. We knew that would have happened and we were prepared for it."

Q: You have talked about Lewis's self-belief, which sometimes is interpreted as arrogance. Is he like that behind the scenes? Does he have self-doubt?

Dennis: "No self doubt. To be good at anything you have to have self belief. If you don't believe in yourself then you have got no chance of success. It doesn't just relate to a sportsman or athlete - it is the same in life.

"It is very easy when you have become successful to step back a little bit and humble yourself - but that is after your achievement, not before. When you are trying to be the best at something, you have to have total belief in yourself and it's only after you have achieved that that you step back a little bit and be a little quieter. But there is not even that in him.

"Lewis is just Lewis. He is a thoroughly nice guy and you don't win motor races by sitting behind cars. You need to overtake. I remember with Ayrton, you just knew that once a driver saw a yellow helmet in their wing mirrors, they knew he was coming past. Then you just had to decide how difficult you were going to make it.

"In this era of F1, they all make it difficult for each other all the time because it's so fiercely competitive. In the end, when a driver gets overtaken he is never cheerful about it, so why would you expect drivers to be complimentary if they are being beaten. The key problem they have is coming to terms with getting beaten."

Q: You mentioned the yellow helmet. Can you compare Lewis and Ayrton?

Dennis: "Actually, there was a memorable year here when he won the race with just two gears - it was a Herculean achievement. They are similar in many ways, but very dissimilar in most. The thing about a Brazilian driver, and Brazilians as a whole, is that they love their country. They will go to any lengths to get back to Brazil. And Ayrton was no exception - he would travel 24 hours to have just four hours in Brazil, that is how important it was for him.

"When you worked with Ayrton, it was always on the basis of 'when is he going to disappear next? How is he going to get back to Brazil? And how long before he came back?' It was just endless long phone calls because he would think and think and think. He would make a big list and then on the phone you would be there for hours going meticulously through the process.

"With Lewis it's very different. He is in the company normally once a week. All the drivers have intense periods in the simulator. It is one of the most useful pieces of equipment that we have. Then because he is there, there is the dialogue. I probably won't speak to Lewis on the telephone more than twice a month, whereas it would be twice a day with Ayrton. So it is a very different relationship."

Q: What are the similarities?

Dennis: "There are similarities because they both have the same total commitment to winning. Ayrton - he was so obsessed with F1 that it was to the detriment of any private life. He spent virtually all his free time with his family. He rarely had girlfriends and he just lived to win. There were very, very few other interests. He was really into model aircraft - that is how he used to spend a lot of his time. And that was pretty much his only distraction.

"Lewis has got a whole diverse range of interests. He loves music, he spends a lot of time with his brother, and he races radio controlled cars as well. He loves driving. He loves relaxing. I don't know how much he likes working out, but a hell of a lot goes on.

"That is something very different between Ayrton and Lewis - our drivers all have personal trainers, and they don't just pop out of the cupboard every now and again. They are with them 24/7 and they are very, very intense programmes. All of our drivers are Olympic standard as regards anything you can measure. That is the level of physical commitment they have to have now."

Q: Ayrton was a controversial figure for most of his career. Do you think Lewis by his nature as a winner is similarly controversial?

Dennis: "I don't want to contribute anything to Lewis being perceived as anything other than what he is. Talk to him, ask him any question and you can see that he is just a thoroughly nice guy and he doesn't have any disrespect for the people he competes against. But he just likes to keep himself to himself.

"He doesn't want to participate in some of the social things the other drivers do. They play cards together, but he has got two or three guys that he really gets on well with - Nico (Rosberg) and (Adrian) Sutil. We often have dinner with some of the other drivers, but he likes to keep himself to himself. That isn't from people disliking or liking him, but that is how he approaches his life."

Q: It has been a while since you have won a championship. It must be a good feeling for you?

Dennis: "It is just sinking in. I am under no illusions. We are a grand prix team, and you only win as a team. You lose as a team, and you win as a team. So no individuals, not Lewis, not myself, can feel that they are anything other than part of the process. You should feel part of the process, especially if you are English. The reality is we should celebrate the fact that England won a world championship.

"I am sure all of you got up this morning feeling better than on Sunday. You have to look for an angle, you have to try and create some interesting perspectives - that is your job. But when you wake up as a guy, especially as a Briton, if you don't feel better this morning than you felt last year, then you should stop doing what you are doing."

Q: The difference between us and you is that you have spent millions in trying to win.

Dennis: "Just touching on your comment about money, I have a firm belief that money is completely unimportant - unless you haven't got any. The message behind that, is that it should not be the value you drive your life by. It is immaterial - if you are successful you will make money, if you are unsuccessful you will lose money. The only difference between a successful company and an unsuccessful one - a successful one has the ability to spend less money than it has income. There is no rocket science to it.

"That is why I get so offended when we are told how to run our business. We have been very successful. There was a press cutting about our financial performance last year because our accounts have just gone out. Of course we registered a significant loss, but add back $100 million and you can look at the profit. We are a very healthy company, virtually debt free, and all we have is paid for. That allowed us to weather that storm and we will go on and weather any future storms. We will be successful because we are populated in our organisation by competitive people who want to succeed."

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- The Autosport.com Team

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