21/04/2014
NEWS STORY
Ron Dennis and Christian Horner take verbal swipes at one another as row over aerodynamicist gets messy.
On Saturday, Dennis shed more light on what looks set to be the next big row in F1, the fate of aerodynamicist Dan Fallows.
In January, McLaren Managing Director Jonathan Neale announced a number of new signings as the Woking team seeks to put the misery of 2013 behind it. In addition to Ettore Griffini and Ciaron Pilbeam from Lotus, Neale confirmed that aerodynamicists Peter Prodromou and Dan Fallows were joining from Red Bull.Prodromou's move had already made the headlines when it was announced over the Japanese Grand Prix last year, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber both expressing surprise.
"Peter's a great guy," said Webber, "obviously a huge amount of experience. I always enjoyed working with him. Obviously he's an integral part of the team and did a good job, (he's) been there a long time."
"I only heard of it just now," added Vettel. "As Mark touched on, he's obviously been a very, very strong character in the background responsible for a lot of good stuff that has happened to us over the last couple of years. For sure I hope he stays with us but I don't know. I only just heard, when I got out of the car."
Whilst unwilling to express his full feelings, team boss Horner made it clear that it would be some time before Prodromou - who joined Red Bull in 2007, a year after the recruitment of Adrian Newey, having previously spent fifteen years with the Woking team - would be able to begin work for McLaren.
"We've enjoyed a long relationship with Peter and he's a valuable member of the team," he told Sky F1. "There's still quite a duration left on his contract... we won't force him to stay, and it's his choice to leave at the end of his contract, but we are quite some way off that."
Whilst Prodromou's eventual destination appeared settled, "despite a "period of gardening leave", on April 9, Red Bull announced the appointment of Fallows as its Head of Aerodynamics with immediate effect.
Later that same day, during a phone in press conference, McLaren team boss Eric Boullier revealed: "Dan Fallows has a legally binding contract with McLaren and the matter is now in the hands of our lawyers."
Speaking on Saturday, Dennis revealed that Fallows had indeed signed a legally binding contract with McLaren last September, but that days before he was due to start work at Woking had informed the team that he no longer wanted to make the move.
Claiming that Fallows had no legal basis on which to make such a U-turn, Dennis also said that all efforts to contact him (and Red Bull) to discuss the situation were ignored. He subsequently confirmed that McLaren's lawyers had written to Red Bull but the response had been unsatisfactory.
As far as Dennis is concerned, McLaren wants to know whether Red Bull coerced Fallows into staying with them and whether he had informed the Austrian team that he'd signed a contract with the Woking outfit.
Speaking on Sunday, shortly before the Chinese Grand Prix, it was clear that the situation is likely to get a lot messier as Dennis and Horner took aim.
"There's always a way that you do things," Dennis told Sky Sports F1. "In our sport we have lots of technical regulations that we have to adhere to, and in life there are regulations, it's called the law. You have to adhere to it.
"We are obviously not too happy to be contracting people in a correct and professional way only to find that those contracts are disregarded and ignored."
Asked if the change of management at McLaren might have had anything to do with Fallows decision, Dennis insisted. "Not at all, in fact it wasn't signed with Martin (Whitmarsh) at all, it was one of our managers.
"At the end of the day, a contract is a contract," he continued. "Although it's life, there are still ways that you go through life, and what I'm particularly uncomfortable with is that people don't just change their minds, they are induced to change their minds. People being induced to break contracts is wrong, it's not the way to go through life.
"You can either ignore it or do something about it, but as with all things in law there are mechanisms available to everybody and we will go through the mechanism to bring out the truth.
Asked about the ongoing situation with Prodromou, Dennis said: "We respect gardening leave, everybody does. At the moment we just adhere by what's been agreed by Peter and Red Bull and just carry on doing what we're doing.
"We've recruited huge quantities of people over the last few months," he continued, "some have joined the team quickly, some are on gardening leave, it takes time to turn a team around, you want to build your technical competence and expertise. You change things, and we try to do things very professionally, very correctly. You run your company with an approach, with a standard, occasionally it's not the way you want it to be but you still stick to the rules and the regulations and when someone strays over them they take the consequences."
Asked if he and Horner really need to resort to law, whether they might sort it out over a cup of tea at the MTC, Dennis grinned and replied: "At the end of the day it's for Christian to reach out. We did everything to ascertain they knew that there was a contract, we sent them messages out and they were ignored. If you send an email to a company and you don't get a response, clearly the onus is on Christian to step up to the plate and sit down and talk.
"I am open to discuss anything," he continued. "I don't like conflict, I am a fighter but I don't like conflict. We are all here to win but there are ways to win, and I want to win the way McLaren wins whether it’s a Grand Prix or involves people or processes. My door is open, I'm a 24/7 guy, that's how you get the job done, he's got my mobile number, he can call me anytime."
Unsurprisingly, Horner sees it ever so slightly differently.
"I have the utmost respect for Ron," he told Sky Sports F1 on the grid shortly before the race. "But I'm not sure what he means. You can't force someone to work somewhere where they don't want to be.
"He (Fallows) signed a contract with McLaren with people who aren't there anymore and then decided he didn't want to go.
"That's the way it is," he continued. "It's not something that Ron's un-used to, it's happened to him quite often in the past."
Asked if it hurts when people question his ethics, Horner replied: "Not when it's from Ron Dennis."
Referring directly to Fallows, Horner added. "He's a good guy, he's been with Red Bull for quite a few years having come up through the ranks. He left, for his own reasons, but then obviously the situation changed with Peter going and he approached us and said 'the situation at McLaren is different now, can I come back, is there anything we can look at', and we started talking from there."
Asked if he was happy to go to court, Horner smiled and replied: "Absolutely".
Shortly after the pair were spotted on the grid chatting quite amiably and smiling. However, ignoring Fallows role in all this, that should change once they see replays of their individual interviews.
Chris Balfe