After divorce, McLaren boss is back in the game. Meet his WAG…

The name’s Bond… Annabelle Bond

This is the real-life Lara Croft who is rumoured to have stolen the icy heart of Big Ron Dennis. She’s bona fide posh totty - her father is banker Sir John Bond, who happens to be chairman of Vodafone, McLaren’s chief sponsor.

Senna had no life outside F1, claims McLaren boss

Lewis Hamilton clearly likes to think he has the ghost of Ayrton Senna driving him, but Ron Dennis says Lewis is “very different” to the Brazilian legend.

Speaking to Autosport, Big Ron said:

“When you worked with Ayrton it was always on the basis of ‘When is he going to disappear next?’ He loved going back to Brazil. It was just endless long phone calls because he would think and think. He would make a big list and then you’d spend hours on the phone going meticulously through it.

“With Lewis it’s very different. He’s at the company normally once a week. All the drivers have intense periods in our simulator. Because he’s there, I probably won’t speak to Lewis on the telephone more than twice a month. So it’s a very different relationship.

“Ayrton was so obsessed with F1 that it was to the detriment of his private life. There were very, very few other interests. Model aircraft were pretty much his only distraction.

“Lewis has a diverse range of interests. He loves music, he spends a lot of time with his brother and he races radio-controlled cars. He loves relaxing.”

Is Ron saying that Ayrton was an obsessive nerd? Because, reading between the lines, that’s how it seems. From the outside, Senna seemed to love life just as much as Lewis, if not more. And for “model aircraft” read “radio-controlled cars” - no great difference there.

Crasher bonus! Watch Michael Schumacher get a ticking off from Ayrton:

Lewis to keep selected silverware

Cheeky Lewis Hamilton has somehow persuaded Ron Dennis to let him keep some of his F1 trophies. McLaren would normally keep any silverware won by its drivers, but Lewis managed to catch Ron a good day, clearly.

Speaking at the recent Mercedes Stars & Cars event in Stuttgart, Lewis said: “They (McLaren) do keep all the trophies and I’m respectful of that. But I made a deal with Ron that I would get to keep the ones from my first podium finish, my first win, my first Monaco win and my first championship, so I’m happy with that.”

What Lewis doesn’t know is that Ron will secretly swap the real trophies for replicas. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.

Get your camera phones out! Here comes the champ…

Lewis, still not able to take off his racing overalls, does his bit for company morale by claiming that McLaren were the best team this season - even when Ferrari won the constructors’ championship. Oh well, at least he was the best driver in 2008 - yes, even better than big-nosed Bobby Kubica (titter).

Two more world titles and Lewis gets to keep this…

McLaren boss Ron Dennis has promised to give Lewis Hamilton a McLaren F1 LM if he can win three world titles. Only five LMs were built by McLaren, to commemorate the five F1 GTRs which ran - and won - at Le Mans in 1995.

“This is the car I have always wanted since I had a car book for Christmas with the photograph of this orange McLaren on the cover about 10 years ago,” Lewis said.

“When I am at the factory I always stop and open the door of this machine, which I think is the most beautiful car in the world.”

McLaren boss criticises Ferrari’s tactics at Interlagos

In an interview with BBC Five Live, given just a couple of hours before today’s Brazilian Grand Prix, Ron Dennis questioned Ferrari’s decision to run both of its cars so light on fuel in qualifying. The Scuderia’s decision means Felipe Massa starts on pole, but he will pit several laps before Lewis Hamilton, a strategy that Ron thinks may be a mistake.

Kimi Raikkonen, playing the rear gunner this weekend, is probably running a lap or two heavier than Massa, so he can get in the way of the McLarens.

Big Ron said he was happy to be fourth and fifth on the grid in the light of how much fuel they have in their cars - in other words, McLaren ran much heavier in qualifying than they normally would, a cautious strategy that presumably has half an eye on the weather, or the (very real) possibility of a safety car. Also, Interlagos is an overtaking circuit, and McLaren’s impressive straight-line speed should help Lewis overtake with relative ease on the straight, if he finds himself back in the pack.

McLaren right to mess with a winning car?

McLaren will run with a new rear wing and several other aero upgrades at Interlagos this weekend. It’s a bold move, especially as Lewis Hamilton only needs to finish fifth to become world champion.

McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh confirmed after the Chinese GP that the team were confident enough to implement its new tweaks.“We have put the effort into primarily an aerodynamic package to enhance the efficiency of the car,” Whitmarsh said.

Do you think McLaren are right to do this for the biggest race of their season? Vote below…

McLaren boss makes extraordinary admission

Big Ron Dennis says he would not mind if Ferrari finishes one-two in Brazil - as long as Lewis Hamilton becomes world champion.

“We have no problem with Massa coming first and Kimi coming second [in Brazil],” Dennis told reporters before leaving Shanghai.

“It doesn’t really worry us. We will compete fiercely through practice and qualifying, see where we are and take a view from there,” he added.

For an ultra-professional man like Dennis to admit that McLaren have given up on the constructors’ championship is remarkable and, as far as we can remember, unprecedented. Seems like Big Ron is so desperate for Lewis to win the drivers’ title, even by a single point, that he’s lost sight of the bigger picture.