McLaren ’supremo’ Ron Dennis went to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to thwart Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Mercedes for 2013, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Dennis, who groomed Hamilton from boyhood to F1 stardom, fell out badly with the 2008 world champion as the British driver toyed with leaving McLaren mid last year.
The Daily Mail on Saturday claims Dennis flew to Stuttgart last year to meet with Mercedes chairman Dieter Zetsche, where they discussed reports in British tabloid newspapers in July about Hamilton partying with 10 women in London.
"For me, this is a real storm in a teacup," former McLaren team principal Dennis is quoted as saying.
"Yes, I had meetings with Dieter, and in the course of those meetings we touched on many issues, some of which related to Lewis.
"The fact that Lewis had been photographed with a group of women at a London hotel was one of the subjects we discussed, but those discussions had no relevance to his leaving McLaren," he insisted.