Extraordinary as it seems in a season when they have the top two drivers in the championship and a healthy 19-point lead in the constructor's table, McLaren are a team seemingly in danger of total implosion.

The weekend's events at the Hungaroring, coming on top of the ongoing spying scandal, have left the team's principal figures facing a barrage of enquiries from the press. With the situation so precariously balanced, neither the team principal Ron Dennis nor driver Fernando Alonso were willing to provide forthright views on the situation, nor were either willing to confirm the belief that Alonso will leave the team at the end of the season.

But ever aware of the power of their reported words - especially given Lewis Hamilton's claims that he and Alonso are no longer speaking to each other - both men have left more than a little room for interpretation in their words to the media. Alonso claimed to be at a loss to explain the events of the past few days, when he was demoted five grid places after being found guilty of deliberately blocking Hamilton in the pit-lane. "It was a strange decision to penalise me and the team," he said.

"There have been some strange situations in the team all through the year and this was another example. It was one of the most surreal moments I have experienced in formula one: we were first and second in qualifying but nobody was happy.”

Questioned as to whether he felt elements within the FIA were conspiring against him to help Hamilton's cause, Alonso replied: "No, I don't think so."  His reasoning however, seemed more than a little curious. "It is difficult to organise to make a driver win, with all the small things that can happen in a race, the small things that can make a difference," he explained.

For Alonso then, the doubts about their being any conspiracy against him lay in the method, rather than the motivation.

Forthcoming
He was a little more forthcoming on Hamilton's confrontation with Dennis, after the British driver had ignored instructions from the pit wall to allow Alonso to overtake him for tactical reasons.

"It is the first time Hamilton, or any driver, speaks like that to the boss," said Alonso.

Dennis, was no less cagey on recent developments.

"We will continue to function as a team with specific values, and if anybody doesn't want to be a part of those values - irrespective of where they sit in the organisation - ultimately they have a choice," he said.
If that was as close as Dennis came to issuing Alonso with an ultimatum (the Spaniard had replied "I don't know, I don't know" when asked whether he intended to see out his contract with the team), he was very clear that nothing would persuade him to detour from the equality with which the team treats the two drivers.
It is tempting to say that that policy has been a victim of its own success. While Dennis and Alonso both stated their desire for increased calm and tranquillity going into the next race - which is three weeks away - it is all too clear that right now, as Dennis admitted, "(McLaren) have difficult times behind us and some more difficult times ahead of us."


The Guardian