Hamilton, Dennis, move to patch up broken relationship

Sep.6 (GMM) Lewis Hamilton and former mentor Ron Dennis have moved to patch up their broken relationship.

After McLaren and team 'supremo' Dennis built Hamilton's Formula One career from boyhood, it emerged that relationship crumbled spectacularly last year as the 2008 world champion decided to switch to Mercedes.

Dennis, however, said early this week that the British driver will always be "part of the McLaren family".

"Last year I didn't seriously seek to prevent his efforts to explore new pastures with Mercedes -- perhaps it was a necessary part of his maturation," said the McLaren chairman.

"But I'll always remember his time with us very fondly, just as I'm very proud of having been McLaren's CEO and team principal when he became world champion with us in 2008."

When asked about Dennis at Monza on Thursday, Hamilton revealed that he recently had a "nice chat" on the phone with his former boss.

"We spoke for about an hour. It was a really good conversation. I don't think there are any issues there personally," he is quoted by the Daily Mail.

"He has had such a big role in my life so I felt it was important to connect."

Hamilton also insisted he will not be bothered if, on Sunday, he is booed by the Italian 'tifosi', just as he was when he won for McLaren a year ago.

"If I'm up there and I'm being booed that means I've won, so I definitely want that," he said.

Less keen on being booed is Sebastian Vettel, who admitted the reaction of the British crowd earlier this year left him cold.

"I didn't understand it," he told the Daily Mail. "I had not done anything to make them do it.

"I went up on to the stage later for the post-race concert and got booed again.

"Obviously in the British Grand Prix if I am leading and they want a British driver to win they might not like it, which is fair, but booing, I don't think that is fair," added Vettel.