Had the 2009 world champion been hoping for more? “No. I had no expectations.
I definitely didn’t think we would go out and pound around. Even the car
that won the world championship had a problem second day in. You come into
the first test thinking you’re going to have issues and solve them, and
that’s what it’s all about.
“I could pick a number of a position out of a hat [for where they will finish
this season] but it would mean nothing. The important thing is for us to get
our heads down. We’re not going to be setting the world alight with lap
times or laps on the circuit. Hopefully we’ll get to the first race and be
competitive but we don’t know where we stand right now. In terms of
understanding our performance, we’re still at zero.”
With precious little running on track, most of the attention has been focused
on the visit of Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman, here. Asked about his
fractured relationship with the returning Alonso, Dennis revisited
‘Spygate’, the espionage scandal in 2007 which saw McLaren fined $100
million (£62 million in today’s money). The affair involved the theft of
technical information from Ferrari, which ended up at McLaren.
Dennis has spoken rarely on the subject since the then FIA president Max
Mosley handed down a record fine in the history of world sport, but still
clearly feels McLaren were dealt an injustice.
“The whole thing took on a momentum and whatever happened within the team, it
was at a time when the environment was very controversial for the whole
sport,” Dennis said on Monday night. “Great emphasis was placed on many
things that happened. We were perhaps the recipient of a climate. It was
heavily amplified and everyone got pretty bruised by it.
“But everyone has moved on. I am mellower, Fernando has matured and there are
other people who were involved. To go back into it would be a waste of time.”