Ron Dennis' Miscalculation

The McLaren team is experiencing a mixed emotion.

On one hand, its rookie driver Lewis Hamilton is likely to become the first driver to win the Formula One Championship title in his rookie season. On the other, it has been fined $100 million and docked all the Constructor's points for its part in the spying scandal involving Ferrari.

And to rub salt into the wounds, its star driver Fernando Alonso is scarcely on speaking terms with team boss Ron Dennis because:

a) he hasn't got the support that he expects as the "Number One" driver;

b) he threatened to tip off the authority that confidential Ferrari data had been circulating in the team (Dennis, ever the shrewd tactician, immediately sensed trouble and informed the FIA about the data circulation in his team himself, resulting in the severe penalty); and

c) unlike Hamilton, he refused to testify for McLaren at the so-called "Spy-gate" hearing.

Alonso is pretty much a petulant prima donna with a spoiled kid mentality. Just like a kid, he always fights for what he wants while crying and yelling, and if he can't get it, he just vents his anger for no particular reason. I was astounded to see how he confronted Ferrari's Felipe Massa after the European Grand Prix, where he claimed that Massa deliberately ran him off track, a claim which an innocent bystander like me simply found puzzling.

I have always been a Ferrari hater, and when I saw how he confronted Massa at the time, I was sure that he must have a pretty good case. But when I found out what exactly had happened between the two, I had no choice but to side with Massa, and that was pretty much the beginning of my "resentment" towards the Spaniard.

Dennis' attempt to team up two extremely competent and competitive drivers has once again backfired. Like Prost and Senna, the tandem of Alonso and Hamilton is destined to have disastrous consequences. Little did he expect that it would cost his team all the Constructor's points they have been fighting so hard for, and a huge sum of money that could have been spent on car development.

It's a really costly error.