Mclaren boss hits back with ‘village idiot’ jibe at Jordan
MCLAREN group chief executive Ron Dennis has called Eddie Jordan a “village idiot” following his heavy criticism of the British team.
Dennis and his troubled Mclaren outfit endured another painful weekend in the worst season of their coveted history.
Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were quick enough for only the penultimate row of the grid in qualifying, and while Alonso benefited from a host of retirements in Sunday’s incident-packed British Grand Prix to finish tenth and claim his first point of the season, Button’s race lasted just 20 seconds.
The 2009 world champion, who has failed to finish on the podium in 16 appearances at Silverstone, was inadvertently taken out of his home grand prix by Alonso following an openinglap pile-up through turn three.
Ahead of the race, former team boss Jordan, now working as a pundit for the BBC, said: “Mclaren boss Ron Dennis sacked ex-team principal Martin Whitmarsh but Whitmarsh never did the job of running that team as badly as Dennis is doing it now.
“You can say Honda is a mess but so are Mclaren. They have been a shadow of their former selves since they arrogantly stated that Lewis Hamilton would rue the day he left Mclaren. Look how that has rebounded on them.
“That arrogance is still there at the top of Mclaren. They are hopelessly off the pace and anyone who thinks it is just the engine is deluding themselves.
“The engine is a lot of it, but there are lots of other issues there.”
Responding to Jordan’s remarks, Dennis said: “I consider Formula One a bit of a family. Families live in villages, villages always have a village idiot and he fits the bill perfectly.
“I don’t consider him not a friend. I just think he is disconnected with reality. He wants to be colourful, but colourful at other people’s expense.”
Dennis told Sky Sports: “We have a real challenge with our partners Honda – they are wrestling with reliability as well as performance.
“Honda has a huge resource and it is applying it. We are in deep discussion with them on a regular basis and it is not pleasant for them. Is it painful? Of course, but you have to use pain as a motivating force. It is the right challenge because without the support of a company such as Honda I don’t think it is possible to win the world championship.”
Despite Honda’s troubles on their return to the sport, the man running their Formula One project, Yasuhisa Arai, insisted he remained the right man for the job.