The extent of the hostility between Ron Dennis, the McLaren Mercedes team principal, and Fernando Alonso was laid bare yesterday when it was revealed that Dennis had described his relationship with the world champion as “extremely cold” — and added that even that was “an understatement”.

In a development that will fuel speculation that Alonso will leave the team at the end of a season marked by rows with Dennis and an increasingly bitter rivalry with Lewis Hamilton, his team-mate, Dennis also described Alonso as a loner. “He does not speak to anyone much. He is a remarkable recluse for a racing driver,” he said. The pair have not spoken for more than a month.

The remarks, which underline the breakdown in relations between the men, were included in the transcript of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) hearing into the Formula One spying row last week that was published by the FIA, the sport’s world governing body, yesterday.

It was at that hearing in Paris, which featured an impassioned plea by a lawyer for Hamilton that the Briton should not be docked points over the affair, that McLaren were thrown out of this year’s constructors’ championship and fined $100 million (about £50 million) — the biggest in sporting history — for conduct that the FIA said amounted to cheating.

Dennis described to the WMSC the build-up to an explosive row with Alonso, who trails Hamilton by two points in the drivers’ championship, on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 5. This was the infamous occasion when the Spaniard allegedly threatened Dennis that, if he was not made the team’s No 1 driver, he would reveal incriminating e-mails about McLaren’s use of Ferrari secrets to the FIA.

“First, the relationship between Fernando and myself is extremely cold — that is an understatement,” Dennis said. “In Fernando’s mind, there is the firm belief that our policy, whereby each driver receives equal treatment, does not properly reflect his status as world champion.

“He bases this assertion on the fact that his experience and knowledge and what came to him from his former team [Renault], is such that he should receive an advantage. In that discusssion he was extremely upset with what had taken place the previous day [Alonso had been demoted five positions on the grid for stopping Hamilton from getting pole], but nowhere nearly as upset as I was.” They have not spoken since.

The McLaren principal described how Alonso made “specific reference to e-mails from a McLaren engineer” and how Dennis had called in Martin Whitmarsh, the team’s chief executive. Alonso then “said everything again” with his manager, Luis García Abad, also present. Dennis informed Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, and that led to the investigation and punishment of the team.

After the race, Alonso apologised for his actions. “Fernando came to me,” Dennis said. “He had come in third. He apologised for the outburst and I put it down to the heat of the moment in which he was angry. That is how I took it.”

Alonso also chose not to go to Paris for the hearing that was attended by the two other McLaren drivers, Hamilton and Pedro De La Rosa, the test driver. “Mr Alonso is not here because he does not want to be here,” Dennis had told the WMSC. “He does not speak to anyone much. He is a remarkable recluse for a racing driver.

“He is not here by choice. Moreover, he said he had other things to do by previous arrangement. I cannot force him to come.”

What they are saying

–– Paddy Lowe, engineering director at McLaren, describes why Mike Coughlan came to have a 780-page dossier of Ferrari secrets. “I can only think that he had some sort of collector’s mentality. I have come across engineers who like collecting things, like people collect stamps.”

Lowe claims that Coughlan, although chief designer, has minimal impact on the design of the present McLaren, the MP4-22.

–– Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, explains why he had no knowledge of the incriminating e-mails between Pedro De La Rosa and Fernando Alonso until the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix in August. “How could I? 1,300 people work for our group. How could I know all about what moves among my employees?”

–– Nigel Tozzi, QC, lawyer for Ferrari, dismisses a letter signed by all 140 McLaren design engineers and submitted to the WMSC, in which they say that no information from Ferrari contaminated the McLaren design effort. “I do not want to belittle or deride that document. I am sure that they are all very loyal to McLaren and are all honest men. The point is, as your President [Max Mosley] said, that they simply do not know.”