It was 2007 and Fernando Alonso had joined his boyhood formula one dream team, McLaren. But the dream had turned into a nightmare for the Spaniard as rivalry with rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton spilled out in the open for all to see. Fernando Alonso was somewhat aggrieved at seeing his status as the number one driver sliding as Lewis Hamilton proved to be more than a match for the two-times world champion. Alonso felt then team boss, Ron Dennis, had betrayed him and thus began inter-team reprisals as tensions frayed. McLaren’s former head of communications revealed how the relationship began to deteriorate in a recent media interview.

Apparently, as revealed by Bishop, Ron Dennis is obsessed with cleanliness and admits to being somewhat OCD. Bishop further reveals the following;

“… one of the things he absolutely loathes above almost everything else is people who eat juicy fruit without a knife and fork.

“So if you’re eating a nectarine or a peach or plum, Ron wants you to put it on a plate, have a sharp knife, steady it with the fork, cut it with a sharp knife and then put small, neat pieces of the fruit into your mouth with the fork.

“Fernando arrived with, I think, the largest and ripest peach I have ever seen.

“And he just sat next to Ron [slurping] like that and letting all the juice run down into his beard and leaving the bits of fruit pulp in his beard.

“Not everybody present would have known quite how painful Ron would have been in finding that but believe me, Fernando did. Fernando was definitely on a number then with Ron.”

We here at DCB fully endorse Fernando Alonso’s actions.