Motoring News

surprisingly relaxed about the decision of Ron Dennis to step down as team principal of McLaren.

Hamilton has had Dennis in his corner since the age of 12, with years of advice and nurturing from him finally paying off last season when the young Brit won the drivers’ championship at only the second attempt.

But Hamilton’s relaxed attitude to Dennis’s departure has fuelled speculation that the two aren’t as close as they used to be.

The Daily Mail suggested that the relationship between the pair went downhill towards the end of the 2007/2008 season when tensions allegedly arose between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who was racing for McLaren at the time.

The Mail quoted Hamilton as saying: "I only heard Ron was standing down a couple of minutes before he announced his decision.

"The team have never been just Ron, as he says himself."

The new man replacing Hamilton’s mentor in the McLaren team principal hot seat will be Martin Whitmarsh, who has served a lengthy apprenticeship as Dennis’s right-hand man.

It is Whitmarsh who will now take all the final decisions over race weekends.