http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_4850767,00.html Ron Dennis has opened up on why Juan-Pablo Montoya, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso left McLaren during the final years of his tenure as the team's boss. In a wide-ranging interview with F1 Racing Magazine, Dennis, who announced two weeks ago that he is to stand down as McLaren's Team Principal, revealed the reasons why the team has parted company with some of F1's finest driving talent in recent years. The stunning emergence of Lewis Hamilton has softened the blow, especially after his title success last year, and Dennis was phlegmatic as he considered the reasons why each of the drivers departed. Perhaps surprisingly, it was Montoya's exit - from the sport altogether and not merely McLaren - that apparently dismayed Dennis the most. "I felt he'd become disenchanted with Formula 1 as a whole, and that he was therefore uncomfortable in our team. Most of that disenchantment was a result of his early season accident in 2005. He never really got the right mindset back after that." Terminating Montoya's contract with the team therefore, Dennis told the magazine, was "the right thing to do - it wasn't working out for him and it wasn't working out for us." Denying that Kimi Raikkonen was "too wild" for the McLaren ethos, Dennis instead depicted his departure as a simple matter of business. "He was made an offer he couldn't refuse - he secured a much better commercial arrangement with Ferrari than we could have offered." Finances, however, were not the reason why Alonso's contract with the team was terminated last November after the Spaniard's first - and only - season at McLaren was fatally undermined by rapidly-deteriorating relationships both with Dennis and the Woking hierarchy but also team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Reflecting on the breakdown in an apparent tone of regret, Dennis commented: "With Fernando I think he clearly didn't expect the situation with Lewis to unfold the way it did. Again, it just wasn't working out for him or for us and difficult decisions therefore had to be taken - but they were the right decisions." Contrary to the public's perception of Dennis as a cold and distant businessman, his remarks on the gone-but-not-forgotten trio are notably conciliatory and warm. While it is no surprise to learn of his profession respect for each of his former charges - especially Raikkonen with whom he enjoyed the longest working association - there are a few personal asides that reveal a side of Dennis' personality that is rarely witnessed by the public. Mischievously asked if Alonso and Montoya receive Christmas cards from the Dennis household, he replies: "I'd be very surprised if they don't but I'll check and if they're not I'll make sure they are. There's no reason why they shouldn't be." Having also insisted that "I have no malice towards Fernando", Dennis' affection for Raikkonen - to whom, as with Alonso, the McLaren boss only refers to by his Christian name - is particularly evident and generous. "Kimi left McLaren as a friend and he is still a friend. It's great to beat him: although I'd far rather one of our drivers won, it made me smile when he won his world title in 2007."
