01/11/2007
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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Now we have the racing out of the way, the interesting part begins, the 'Stepneygate' affair still hangs over the sport.
It is my understanding that Michael Coughlan has been suspended by McLaren, not sacked. I believe that his contract expires at the end of the year and I would be surprised were it to be renewed. My guess is that the writs will fly in the new year.
Coughlan cannot claim unfair dismissal because he won't have been dismissed. His contract will have run out, that is what contracts are about. If Ron Dennis sues Coughlan to a trailer park I won't be surprised and I won't mind either.
Most people don't let you down, they take pride in their work. If you cannot take pride in what you do there is not much else left. It is pride, not love, that makes the world go round. It seems to me that Coughlan lost pride.
This year's McLaren was a very good car. Coughlan should now be soaking up the glory. He should now be negotiating a new contract with a pay hike. Instead, he is fearing what the post may bring.
Ron Dennis has been hurt, badly hurt, and this time it is not about the money. He has always run an honest team and he has been loyal to employees. You get a job with McLaren and there is no doubt about the expected standard. In return, people are treated with dignity, which is another way of expressing pride.
McLaren makes racing cars, but it operates a factory, which means there are cleaners, canteen staff, people mowing the grass. Inside the factory there are a lot of green plants, they make for a good atmosphere. They are tended by a local outfit that ensures they are fed and watered properly and there are no dead leaves. Pride is at stake.
Then there is the secretarial staff and the accountants. There are the people who run the in-house cinema where presentations to sponsors are made. It is a massive operation and Ron demands the best. Cleaning factory floors may not be the career you had in mind as a teenager, but the cleaners are part of the team and they know that they are the best. They have pride, they are part of the team.
There is a hierarchy of wages at McLaren, of course, but Ron has always included the lowest-paid, the invisible people doing a menial job. Cleaners at McLaren are paid cleaners' wages, plus pride.
When possible, before a Grand Prix, people are sent ahead to paint the McLaren pit garages. When the rest of the team arrive, they go into their work space. It is a detail, but Ron built McLaren by paying attention to detail.
When the McLaren F1 was due to be launched, prototypes operated from Goodwood House, which is close to where I live. Potential customers were given demonstration runs. By no stretch of the imagination was I a potential customer, but I blagged a ride and it was, 'Beam me up, Scottie', one moment you were here, the next you were there.
Not only were the prototypes valeted in the way you would expect, the insides of the exhaust pipes were cleaned. It is something you probably would not have noticed had it not been done, but you did notice when you saw it being done.
Make no mistake, Ron feels pain from the actions of disloyal employees. Coughlan was on a reported £350,000 a year, nearly a grand a day, and that is not small change. You pay someone that sort of money and you have every right to expect them to be loyal. I do not know, but it is a fair guess, that Coughlan had a company car, and McLaren's partner is Mercedes-Benz. I wouldn't mind a free Mercedes and I bet there are no dissenting voices. On a thousand pounds a day, you can buy an Alfa Romeo Brera, the sensible option, and gain Brownie points by presenting the squeeze with the Merc.
There will be civil and criminal hearings over 'Stepneygate'. Ferrari has filed civil proceedings in England. An English court hearing is more open than some, more is allowed to be presented as evidence and there a fewer opportunities for bargaining. Nigel Stepney claims to know where the bodies are buried. We shall see. His problem is that he must have colluded with the burying of the bodies so, perhaps, his legal team may advise caution.
On the other hand, he may go for broke. He has been exposed, his career and reputation are in tatters, and he has an upcoming book to sell.
Stepney had a lot to be proud about until he betrayed his employer and his team-mates. I don't think I want his story in my house. No matter how he tells it, Stepney's story ends in betrayal. If Ferrari cheated, he was part of the scam. I do not believe that criminals should be rewarded. If he has nothing to reveal his story will be the life of a mechanic so file it under 'Sociology'.
We have to reach the McLaren driver line-up for 2008. Lewis is a shoo-in and McLaren has some pretty useful drivers within its programme. Alonso is the problem. He has behaved disgracefully, but he is a major talent and one of McLaren's backers is the Spanish bank, Santander.
No team boss wants to lose a talent like Alonso who has only two realistic escape routes, Renault and Toyota. Flavio Briatore is not going to pay what McLaren paid, but can offer the more realistic chance of winning, though Renault is not going to win in 2008. When it comes to negotiating a deal, Briatore has Alonso over a barrel.
Toyota is never going to win, but it can pay Fernando a large sum of money; he can be a mid-field runner in comfort. If he ever made the podium in a Toyota, it would be a victory of a sort. However, Toyota will never win.
McLaren did not steal data, it was given to an employee. This is something the FIA has overlooked, like it overlooked the (suspended) prison sentences handed down to the two former employees of Ferrari who took the data to Toyota.
The more I think about it, the more I am drawn to the idea that Alonso will be in a McLaren at Melbourne. There is a contract and it runs for two more years. Alonso finished only a point behind Kimi and he won four Grands Prix. Most drivers on the grid dream of winning one.
Ron Dennis has to ask whether he wants Alonso inside the tent pissing out, or outside pissing in. The guy has amazing talent.
Fernando has blotted his copybook, no question about that. He has done, and said, some silly things, basically because he did not understand that when Ron says his drivers get equal treatment, he means it. There are no side-deals, there is no hidden agenda. It makes you wonder what the deal was at Renault.
Alonso claims to have brought half a second a lap to McLaren. Even if it is true, so what? This is why you are paid more than several dozen neurosurgeons, Fernando, you are merely doing your job. Do not get stroppy when all you are doing is your job.
I may have missed Alonso's tribute to the people who made him a car which had 100% reliability. That is a rare achievement and it should be praised. What I have heard is Alonso whinging and whining when he has not as been as quick as Hamilton. He has lost dignity doing that.
Ron Dennis has survived tantrums before, he had to deal with the antics of Senna and Prost. They brought the sport to a new low. I don't think that even Stepneygate reaches as low as the level that Prost and Senna achieved. Ron continued to provide them with equal cars. It would have been interesting to have been a fly on the wall in the McLaren motorhome, but Ron said nothing in public.
Ron has the contract, he has to do nothing. There maybe some clauses he could use, like Alonso bringing the team into disrepute, but that would be messy. Ron holds all the cards.
A German newspaper claims that Alonso has signed a letter of intent with Renault, a story which has been denied. Michael Schumacher once signed a letter of intent with Jordan and drove for Benetton in the next race. If Fernando walks, big money will be involved. McLaren has Lewis Hamilton, it has its star. Lewis has become a sensation all over the world, Fernando is big is Spain. Ron has drivers in his programme and there are some teams who might like to be paid to let a driver go.
If he stays with McLaren, Alonso will have to demonstrate that he can beat the rookie on equal terms. He has to live with the fact that Hamilton is an international superstar and he, Fernando, never will be despite the fact he is a double World Champion.
Alonso is a very fine racing driver and an asset to any team. Ron will not want to lose an asset. He rode out Senna and Prost and Prost is the only Grand Prix winner to have been sacked by two teams. It will be interesting to see if Alonso has the gonads to tough it out and stay with McLaren.
I have done a foolish thing, I have speculated, but we are in the Silly Season.
Mike Lawrence
mike@pitpass.com
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