McLaren dismiss collusion allegations

Ron Dennis, the managing director of the McLaren Mercedes team, has dismissed allegations that he collaborated with the Williams team to fix the result of the European Grand Prix at Jerez, the final round of the 1997 world championship. Reports suggest that Michael Schumacher, who faces a possible ban over his collision with Williams' Jacques Villeneuve, may rely on tapes of radio conversations between the Canadian driver and his pit as part of his defence when he appears in front of an FIA world council meeting in London tomorrow.

Yet Dennis denies that McLaren have anything to feel ashamed of. "Absolutely the opposite," he said. "The evidence of the race completely supports the fact that neither McLaren was ever in the way (of either championship contender). The timing of these allegations could be seen by some as a smokescreen to deflect attention from the main issue facing Schumacher."

Predictably, the word emerging most frequently from the Schumacher camp is "shocked". Schumacher's manager, Willi Weber, admitted too just that reaction. "I'm a bit shocked by this - I just hope it was only the final race of the season they had an agreement for," he told the Bild newspaper. "I'm wondering how Mercedes could have acted to prevent (fellow German) Schumacher becoming world champion," he added.

Ron Dennis, though, was adamant that there was no collusion.

"On the Friday before the race at Jerez, Villeneuve came to see me to apologise for the Japanese Grand Prix where he had slowed everybody down in the opening stages. At that race I had told Mika Hakkinen, our best placed driver on the grid, that he had to be very careful not to get involved with either Villeneuve or Michael Schumacher, the two championship contestants.

"At Jerez I reiterated to Frank Williams that there was no way our cars would get involved in the championship battle between the two contenders - and that if we were in the way, then we would get out of the way, even to the detriment of our own drivers."

Dennis insists that neither of his drivers were in any way disruptive. Coulthard, who was running fourth behind Schumacher's Ferrari and ahead of Villeneuve after the Williams driver made his first refuelling stop, was called in early for his own first refuelling stop to get out of the Williams driver's way. The team did this despite the fact that Hakkinen's McLaren was due to stop first, as a result of which the Finnish driver lost time behind Frentzen's Williams and dropped behind Coulthard after his own first stop.

After his collision with Schumacher, Villeneuve's Williams was lapping inconsistently in the lead, its driver grappling with serious tyre wear problems as a result of his car's suspension being knocked out of line when it made contact with the Ferrari.

"The two McLarens then caught up with Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan, which was a lap down but running between Villeneuve and Coulthard who was now second," continued Dennis. "We then asked David to allow Hakkinen past from third place, which was only fair because he had lost more time early in the race. "It took three laps for David to understand what we were asking and, although he was not amused when he finished the race, once the situation was fully explained, he totally accepted it. There is absolutely no truth that David was threatened with the sack if he did not move over.

"Then Fisichella moved out of the way and Hakkinen closed dramatically on Villeneuve who radioed in that he was not going to resist our attack, which was quite logical because he only had to finish in the top six to clinch the championship. We knew he wasn't going to resist, so we went on the attack."

Dennis also explained that all McLaren driver contracts contain clauses that no team orders will be given to drivers if they still have even an outside chance of winning the championship. "It was the same when we had Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna driving for us throughout the history of our domination of the world championship," he said. "But on this occasion neither driver had any chance of the title, so we could impose instructions on them in this situation."

Nevertheless, Max Mosley plans to go ahead with a meeting of F1 team owners next Friday where he will make it clear that any hint of collaboration between two separate F1 teams in future will be regarded with the utmost seriousness by the governing body.