The $100m Fernando fallout

As the full extent of McLaren's complicity in the Formula One controversy was laid bare by the FIA yesterday, Sportsmail has learned how directly Alonso was involved in their downfall.

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It is understood his frustration with Dennis came to a head on the weekend of the Hungarian Grand Prix in early August, following his bust-up with British sensation Lewis Hamilton during qualifying.

The Spaniard went to see the sport's powerful ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone to tell him he wanted to leave McLaren and asked for his help to do so.

The following morning, Alonso told Dennis that he was fed up with not being the all-out McLaren No 1 — a status he thought he deserved by right as a double world champion — and demanded to be released after just one season of his three-year deal.

It is believed that during this exchange, he tried to engineer his departure, saying he would take sensitive details to the authorities if his wish was not granted.

Alonso pointed to his computer and told Dennis: "That's going to the FIA."

Dennis reacted to the threat by contacting FIA president Max Mosley to reveal what he knew.

Yesterday he confirmed: "I want to stress that once I became aware that new evidence might exist, which I did on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix, I immediately phoned the FIA to keep them informed."

The evidence — including several emails — formed a central plank of Thursday's meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, at which McLaren were disqualified from the constructors' championship and fined a record $100million.

Surprisingly, Alonso is still expected to race at tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix in Spa. He was even laughing and joking in the McLaren motorhome yesterday with his inner-circle: father Jose Luis, manager Luis Garcia and physio Fabrizio Borro.

There were no signs of remorse. However, Renault, whom he left at the turn of the year, are almost certainly his destination for next season.

In another twist, the French manufacturers are beneficiaries of the Council's decision to expel McLaren.

They move up to third in the standings behind Ferrari and BMW, a position which will trigger a £1m bonus from their main sponsors, Dutch-based finance group ING, if it still applies at the end of the season.

Flavio Briatore, Renault's boss, will be rubbing his hands with glee. He is still annoyed — despite statements to the contrary at the time — that Dennis pinched his star pupil from him in December 2005.

Alonso's behaviour is just one of Dennis's mountain of problems. Yesterday, the FIA released a 15-page explanation of the Council's judgment. It painted a black picture of skulduggery.

Although there is no suggestion that Dennis was aware of what was going on under his nose, the subterfuge ran through several layers of the organisation.

There were 288 text messages and 35 telephone calls exchanged between Ferrari's disenchanted British mechanic Nigel Stepney, now sacked, and McLaren's suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan.

The illicit intelligence Coughlan garnered was then passed on to Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

It covered five key technical areas: car weight distribution, flexible wing and aero balance, tyre gas, braking system and strategy.

The Council found that the information, which extended far beyond the 780-page Ferrari dossier found at Coughlan's house, gave McLaren an advantage.

The main conclusions were: Coughlan had more information than previously appreciated and was receiving information in a systematic manner over a period of months.

The information had been disseminated, at least to some degree (eg to De la Rosa and Alonso), within the McLaren team.

The information being disseminated within the McLaren team included not only highly sensitive information but also secrets regarding Ferrari's sporting strategy.

De la Rosa, in the performance of his functions at McLaren, requested and received secret Ferrari information from a source which he knew to be illegitimate and expressly stated that the purpose of his request was to run tests in the simulator.

The secret information in question was shared with Alonso.

There was a clear intention on the part of a number of McLaren personnel to use some Ferrari confidential information in their own testing. If this was not, in fact, carried into effect, that was only because there were technical reasons not to do so.

Coughlan's role within McLaren (as now understood by the Council) put him in a position in which knowledge of the secret Ferrari information would have influenced him in the performance.

Hamilton, granted immunity from punishment for co-operating with the investigation, said "Politics suck."

But he added: "My feelings for the team have not changed. I'm very positive. My job is to focus on the track."

McLaren have seven days to appeal.