Jenson Button and Ron Dennis

Ron Dennis has revealed that his tete-a-tete with Jenson Button after the Abu Dhabi GP was central to his decision to offer the former world champion an unexpected reprieve.

With Fernando Alonso’s return to the team an open secret in the paddock from October onwards, Button’s demeanour throughout the final month of the season was that of a condemned man. Despite his superior form and points-scoring, few believed that McLaren wouldn't retain the younger and cheaper Kevin Magnussen - including, it seemed, Button himself.

Button’s reprieve, after weeks of deliberations and uncertainty, was only finalised on Wednesday evening, just hours before he was unveiled alongside Alonso, when he signed a two-year contract after agreeing to take a substantial pay-cut.

Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz believes McLaren have made the right decision in pairing Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso together for 2015. Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz believes McLaren have made the right decision in pairing Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso together for 2015.

But while Button’s willingness to make a financial sacrifice – if, that is, signing a deal reputedly worth £8m a year can ever be described as a 'sacrifice' – sealed the deal, it appears that Dennis’ reputed preference for Magnussen over Button first began to shift when he sat down with the 2009 title winner in the immediate aftermath of the season finale.

“The content of the conversations Jenson and I had prior to me signing the contract was preceded by a conversation which took place after the Abu Dhabi race. He was a very different person, both then and last night, and my concerns faded,” Dennis told Sky Sports News HQ.

“There were very defined minuses [to re-signing Button] and we decided to address some of those issues and when I engaged with Jenson and went through those, some of them almost evaporated.

“The decision is mine and Jenson’s destiny is in his own hands. He will get equality and, l hope, a race-winning car.”

The moment the McLaren 2015 line-up began to change: Button and Dennis in discussion after Abu Dhabi

With Button made to wait, to his evident exasperation, for weeks on end before being told he would be retained, and Alonso not on speaking terms with Dennis when his previous stint at McLaren reached its acrimonious conclusion, there are now three fascinating intra-team relationships at play within the Woking camp. Each in their own significant way may prove decisive in the success - or otherwise - of what is essentially a rebirth for the team in 2015.

Relationship one: Button and Dennis’.

“We’ve been very clear and very transparent, as Ron would say, with each other. It’s the relationship I want, I don’t want anything going on behind the scenes, we want to work together closely and be very open with each other – that’s the only way we are going to have any chance of getting anywhere near Mercedes next season,” Button told SSNHQ.

Relationship two: Button and Alonso’s.

“Fernando is an exceptional talent. We’re both very straightforward, if we have an issue with each other we will speak to each other face-to-face, and that’s the most important thing you can have with a team-mate,” added Button.

“For many years, I’ve been asked who is the driver I would most like to partner and for many years I have said Fernando.”

A future career in the diplomatic corps surely awaits Jenson.

And last, but by no means least, there’s the giant elephant in the room which inevitably overshadowed Thursday’s announcement, the relationship between Dennis and Alonso itself. Expect every nuance of body language between the pair to be forensically examined by armchair psychologists in the year ahead.

In 2007, the relationship between driver and team boss collapsed within seven months under the weight of Lewis Hamilton’s unexpected challenge to Alonso’s demand for supremacy and the emergent Spygate scandal. Seven years later, both men have insisted they are older and wiser – and, in a pointed show of reconciliation, admitted they were not blameless in the implosion that tore the team asunder.

“We clearly share the passion of racing and the passion of winning,” reflected Alonso. “Because we are [such] competitive people sometimes we don’t understand each other – or we didn’t understand each other.”

And from Dennis: “I reflected on everything that happened seven years ago and when we reached out to Fernando many, many months ago, the history was one of the first things we dealt with.

Fernando Alonso has said he believes he has been able to learn a lot in the seven years since he left McLaren and has mended his relationship with Ron Denn Fernando Alonso has said he believes he has been able to learn a lot in the seven years since he left McLaren and has mended his relationship with Ron Denn

“Fernando was always a big, big McLaren fan and he has come back with the same level of motivation that he had in 2007. But this time, it’s different: we are more mature, more focused and he has a team-mate he deeply respects.”

The other, potentially critical, difference is that whereas McLaren were bona fide and established frontrunners in 2007 and Alonso joined the team as the reigning world champion, the team will start 2015 very much on the backfoot after failing to win a race in two years and as an unknown quantity ahead of Honda’s return. McLaren’s trio of new leading men will all be aware that unless they can make their relationships work, catching Mercedes will be a forlorn hope.

“He’s an intelligent guy and we both have the same goal of winning the world championship and to do that you have to beat your team-mate at some point. But for now there is a lot work needed behind the scenes from both of us to move this team forward,” noted Button. “We will work together, I’ve a good feeling about that.

“Today is a new start and a very exciting new start. It’s very difficult to know where we stand right now and where will be at the first race. Today is a great day and hopefully the first of many.”