There was a lot of talk coming from Fernando Alonso and the Spanish media during the 2007 Formula One season suggesting that McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, favoured British rookie Lewis Hamilton over the double world champion and as such were giving him preferential treatment in his quest to become the first rookie champion in the history of the sport.

While Ron Dennis denied any such favouritism, he was not believed by the legion of Alonso fans but now, former driver for the Woking based squad, David Coulthard, has confirmed that in the nine years he raced for the team, they always treated both drivers fairly, even down to the engines used in their cars.

“As for McLaren-Mercedes' handling of their drivers this year, I can only speak from my own experiences. In my autobiography 'It is what it is', I talk at length about some of the ups and downs I had with Ron Dennis and how he communicated with his drivers,” he said in his column on ITV.

“But one thing I didn't mention is that Mercedes' way of going racing has always been fair. They would always take the two best engines they could get to the race and then make the race engineers pull a number out of hat to see which went in which car. There was never any preference irrespective of which driver was in the running for the world championship.”