Formula 1: Does McLaren boss Ron Dennis have the formula to get the best out of Lewis Hamilton?

Cut to late 2006 when McLaren announced their driver line-up, a two-time champion and a rookie who knew every nook and corner of the car he had helped develop over three years.

Add to this the legendary technology and efficiency of McLaren Mercedes and Team principal, Ron Dennis, it looked like a dream team.

On to October 2007, Fernando Alonso cries foul, alleges deliberate attempts to pull him down, claims lack of support and walks out of McLaren into Daddy Flavio Briatore’s Renault. Lewis Hamilton misses out on a certain championship and McLaren are poorer by $100m. And to make it worse, they are stripped of all their championship points.

Before we analyse what McLaren must do to prevent this from happening again, we need to know what went wrong, and why.