Alonso open about rivalry with Hamilton: 'We will never be friends'
Whereas Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen get along just fine, Alonso is not so good friends with his old rival Lewis Hamilton. He tells how the bitter rivalry with the Mercedes driver started and why the two will probably never be friends.
Alonso talks about friction with Hamilton
Alonso and Hamilton were teammates at McLaren in 2007, Hamilton's debut year. Soon it turned out that they were not a golden combination: the two could not get along. "We were in the same team, the same garage, we often travelled together, we were at meetings together and we started to notice that there was friction," the Spaniard said in DAZN's documentary.
The McLaren duo battled for victories and, in the process, tensions ran high. "There were a lot of things that year that disrupted the harmony. We were young, immature and we had a lot of clashes," Alonso continued. He partly blames then-team boss Ron Dennis for this.
"We had a boss who didn't know how to control the situation. This would not have happened with Flavio Briatore. Or with Lawrence Stroll," he adds. "We had too much control as drivers and nobody gave us any serious warning."
Alonso admits that not everything that happened that year came out in the open. "I think it remains under lock and key. I erased a lot of things from my memory, I would have to recall a lot of memories to go into detail. It was a difficult year, in which Hamilton and I were mostly to blame for our immaturity and lack of teamwork," he said.
Alonso: 'Lewis and I will never be friends'
These days, there is mutual respect, although there will always be some form of rivalry between the world champions. It will never come to a friendship, Alonso expects. "I don't think we will ever be friends in the future. I don't think we have many things in common," said the two-time world champion.
I think if Fernando had been backed properly, we probably would have won the ’07 and ’08 championships. Who knows what would have happened after that but there you go. It’s the way it was. “I never had a problem with Fernando himself. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.”Mark Slade former Mclaren engineer
Lewis is a great driver but for a number of reasons he does not have friends among the drivers past or present. Like former teammate Jenson Button said he is a strange fellow.
It might have something to do with age...woukf a 40 yr old hang around with with the lower 20 somethings....I would wonder, no worry what they talk about...f1 is a place of work first and foremost.....all else is a bonus if it happens....
Mclaren shouldn't give a second chance to you, mr.Alonso after you cost that team 100 million USD....But that s the difference between some people who can forget and you who are still upset that a rookie has been your equal...We know that you were the golden boy of Briatore and we know what did for you in 2008 in a particular race..
Alonso already mentioned in another interview, he is closer friends with Max and Russell, as they are more like himself. Just a pure racer. Turns up at the track wearing team clothing, do their best over the weekend and then goes home. Straight forward. It's obviously much harder to find common ground with someone with totally different outlook in the sports. Sticking his nose into things not racing related or turning the paddock into a fashion catwalk, for example. Interviews always sounds to be measured and rehearsed, saying only things that his fans wants to hear to gain brownie points, unlike himself and Max who will give straight forward and no BS answers, which can sometimes cause controversies, but that's Alonso (and Max)
Morning Mech E, I thought they are all racers, surely that's why /how they got into F1 in the first place irrespective of what clothing they turn up in, they all have to wear a race suit before they get in the car, so no difference there, much as you dislike him how can LH 'rehearse' his comments in an interview, personally I think it shows a degree of thought/intelligence to think about a question before answering to make a valid point rather than just having a 'foot in mouth' reply controversial or otherwise, does that make Alonso or Max better people/racers ? Some replies to questions that Alonso gives I understand and agree with the same goes for Max, Lewis, George or whoever, quite frankly if LH wants to turn up looking like he's just mugged a clown or got dressed in the dark I don't give a monkey's I just know it wouldn't be the outfit I would choose, my view is that very very few of them get along as well as they would like us to believe, sure some of them may have more of a man-crush but few and far between, for me, as long as they give their best when they jump in the car I couldn't care less if they all turned up in make-up and wearing a miniskirt and high heels......oh no, what a minute, that's a different website altogether ???
Friendship in f1 is overrated...bonus if you can get it...can even be a handicap...like with lando.. Paddock believes he has a mental block where max is concerned...f1 is work first......friendship...maybe...respect ranks much higher in importance
I am sympathetic to the circumstances around the friction that developed in the early days between Lewis and Alonso. But to now blame that of the incessant pokes and jibs at Lewis through years is just ridiculous. Lewis has never done the same he has always spoke carefully and respectfully around Alonso over the years. Yes the heat of the battle moments we can give a pass on that for Alonso and Lewis . But most of the stuff Alonso says is outside that scenario. I have always said that the only reason Alonso feels this way is because he had never fully recovered from the Rookie that made him, a 2 WC. Look pretty normal.
I don't see anything wrong with what Alonso said, it's all right. This situation was certainly not pleasant for him, he is the champion and the rookie shows his teeth and offers him surprising resistance. We know that Lewis was a talent, and he simply had nothing to lose, he had no trepidation and did what he does best. I believe when he says that a lot of things did not come to light, and it was certainly not a pleasant atmosphere to work in. From what was seen on the outside, it was known that there was a lot of conflict, and I agree when he says that Dennis did not have it under control. He openly says that because of everything they will never be friends, it is normal that there will always be a special rivalry.
of course Lewis will never talk about it ,he knows what he did in 2007 together with Ron Dennis . Probably he is a ashamed to think about those things and talk about them . In the end , Ron Dennis got what he deserved after choosing to favour Hamilton over Alonso : just one drivers title in 2008 stained by the Crashgate affair , no constructors titles and the biggest fine in the history of the sport a team had to pay - 100 million dollars . He could have had a lot more success if he showed to Alonso the respect he deserved and could have won many titles together .
The actual issue in 2007 was, At the crux of his decision to quit was the fact that he was never given preferential treatment over his British team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who he won the same number of races as and finished equal points with in the championship. Despite speculation that Hamilton had been favoured by team boss Ron Dennis in the title run-in, Alonso said that no such situation had arisen. "I know there have been suggestions of favouritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle," he added. Not forgetting that Alonso was handing out packets if cash to mechanics , so tempting Lewis Hamilton's to not work on his side of the garage . So Lewis has nothing to say about 2007 because he has nothing to say. As for 2008, wasn't the Crashgate organized to benefit Alonso.
Ron Dennis literally came out and said in an interview that in 2007 Mclaren were racing against their own driver , Alonso and not against Kimi . So I dont know what you are trying to convince me of lol .
" We were basically racing Fernando " . By not supporting Alonso and racing against him during at least one race in 2007 and not doing everything in their power to maximise his chances , that's favouritism towards the other driver which got full support from the team . Do you get it now , or will you come back with another reply in which you'll pretend you dont understand english language ?
Yeah well for Lewis is better if he keeps quiet cause he was the favoured driver so he chooses to ignore the whole thing. I would do the same thing if I was him, once he starts answering to those things he knows Alonso will bring up some details that he doesn't want to be made public. Anyway, its all water under the bridge.
Then why is Alonso , like I said in my initial post you responded too: VeganWarrior +32704-02-2024 07:22 I am sympathetic to the circumstances around the friction that developed in the early days between Lewis and Alonso. But to now blame that of the incessant pokes and jibs at Lewis through years is just ridiculous. I was responding to this article that has him poking at Lewis once more , you may have a view of Alonso blaming Ron, but his language and actions speak otherwise. Remember when Lewisnwas being racially abused at the Spanish GP, Alonso said it was because Lewis must have done something to merit the abuse. No in stand by post, Lewis in his rookie year, traumatized Alonso that he hasn't forgive or forgotten after all these years, while Lewis simple says well we all know Alonso ...we do
he was still under contract with McLaren when he said he was treated fairly , he also went back and drove for them once Ron Dennis retired so his issue was only with Ron , not even with Lewis that much , even in this interview he said they were young and managed poorly . That's it , the situation is very simple : Lewis was signed by Ron when he was 12 , became a McLaren junior driver , they were very close during that time , Ron Dennis even called himself Lewis's " surrogate father" in an interview , he gave him the chance in the main team , probably Alonso started to feel something inside the team, became paranoid , things got hot , a bit of an internal war and it finished with Ron saying his team was racing against Alonso for at least 1-2 races that year ,they both lost the title , 100 million dollar fine , Alonso never won any title again , Mclaren never won a constrtuctors title again , Lewis left Ron Dennis the moment he got a better offer and the rest is history. Nothing more to talk about .
Alonso sighned a contract and that's the respect and intent shown for the McLaren team. The problem is your interpretation of preferential treatment differs from what Alonso. He wanted preferential treatment on track and in the garage,multiple mechanics engineers have said the same . The point is Alonso, lost the plot when he wasn't given the preferential treatment wanted, Spygate, bribes, asking for his teammate ls car to be sabotaged, blocking in the pit lane . Unfortunately Alonso has never moved on from that 2007 season and he ,after all these years finds the time to jib and poke at Hamilton, while Hamilton doesn't do the same, I am sure when we read his memoirs we will get the details. Any idea why Alonso said the opposite for many years, saying that he was treated fairly at Maclaren and only recently he has changed his recollections?
I didnt say that he needed it, I say that he might expected it, its normal for a multiple champion to expect be treated in a more special way when paired with a rookie, not necessarily by getting an advantage on track, we talk about a certain level of respect. Its up to the guy with less achievements to prove himself and get the same level of respect from the team and Hamilton proved himself nevertheless. You jumped on that bone so fast, it was so cute ? Hamilton always got preferential treatment as well when paired with Bottas or Kovalainen, 3rd race for Bottas at Mercedes and he was asked to move out of the way. So pls stop twisting my words, I dont know why some of you Hamilton fans are so eager to twist other people's words, to manipulate opinion, to be selective with facts, very strange behaviour.
In short Alonso needed preferential treatment to win ? His 2005 and 2006 titles ,in your eyes, can be viewed as he won them because he had preferential treatment. Then he goes to another team and expected the same preferential treatment and when he didn't get it , he acted out, threatening the team with Spygate, asking the team to not put enough fuel in his teamates car, offering cash payments to mechanics that came to his side of the garage, blocking his teammate in the pits so he could out qualify him. Unfortunately Alonso, without preferential treatment, has never won another championship. So the one thing we can agree on is Alonso needed the preferential treatment against Lewis, because he couldn't compete on a level playing field .
Like I said, he expected preferential treatment and rightfully so if you are the double champion going against a rookie and he realised that he won't get it soon after he joined as Lewis was Ron Dennis's protege so that was definitely out of the books. My point still stands, its not about what Alonso expected but what he got, and he didnt get anything from Dennis. Instead for at least one race during that season, based on Ron Dennis's interview, Hamilton got full support from McLaren while the team was " racing against Fernando". Now, if it was for more than one race, that we dont know for sure but we can speculate as Alonso said that at a point he was paranoid the team was sabotaging his car, so we dont actually know for sure what happened there, maybe that's why he felt the need to pay the mechanics so they dont sabotage his car.Anyway , they they didnt get to keep that money . There is no interview in which someone from McLaren admitted Alonso got any special treatment, but there is one when it comes to Hamilton getting that special treatment. So that makes it for me official that Alonso was not treated fairly that year. Also with McLaren being a british team, and with Lewis being their main driver after that season and Ron's protege, I can suspect that it was in their interest to leak dirty stuff regarding Alonso and to protect Hamilton.
Yip context is key, and Marc Prestly explained that the cash payments to mechanics to where made so it lead to a point where: Mechanics and engineers fought to work in Fernando's garage, remembers Marc Priestley. People didn't want to work on Hamilton's car. He also said :“I have no doubt that the communications between Ron Dennis and Fernando's team, although it was never said, were that Fernando would receive preferential treatment and be the number one driver. I'm sure these things have never been said or written anywhere. We all thought this was going to happen. » Alonso expected preferential treatment, and you also agree with him in your post, that yes Alonso should have gotten preferential treatment. Remeber Alonso also started all the talk of Lewis getting preferential treatment, when he was asked : Alonso finished seventh in Montreal and fell eight points behind Hamilton in the championship. Hamilton has finished on the podium in all six races so far this season, a record for a driver in his first season in formula one. "From the first moment I wasn't comfortable with everything," Alonso said on Cadena SER radio. "It's an English team, with an English team-mate. You know that all of the help goes his way. I've understood that from the first moment and, well, I'm not moaning about it." when the rookie showed himself to be of much the same calibre and fully capable of fighting Alonso head-to-head for the championship, Dennis was in an awkward position. And refused to call Lewis Hamilton off. So Hungary 2007 happened: ‘fuel burn-off gate’ (Hamilton) followed in retribution by ‘pitlane gate’ (Alonso), followed by ‘swivel-gate’ (Hamilton) and ‘FIA laptop threat’ (Alonso), the latter as a threat to Dennis if he didn’t find a way of de-railing Hamilton’s title campaign and concentrate on his instead. He even offered some helpful hints as to how Dennis might do it – like run him out of fuel somewhere. https://www.motorspo...nate-reputation Unfortunately Alonso behaved terribly during the 2007 season because he couldn't understand how a rookie was giving him a clean set of heels, so he muddied the waters and cried wolf , cow , chicken and hen.
well thats what I'm saying , maybe with the team's support Alonso would have won the race in China , but given that they didnt care about Kimi during that race and only cared about Hamilton finishing ahead of Alonso karma hit them ,and hit them hard. They stll havent won a WCC since 1998 . Also the question here is not what Alonso wanted , but what did he get ? Did Ron Dennis come out at any point and say that the team raced against Hamilton ? He did not . Did he say his team raced against Alonso ? Yes he did . The rest is just speculation of who did what . Marc Priestly did say he bribed mechanics , he also said he never touched Hamilton's part of garage with any bribes . He did deliberately stop in the pit lane , but only after Hamilton refused to obey team orders of letting Alonso have the final run in quali . So again , you are selective with your " context" .
Do you know what positions Lewis and Alonso finished in that race ?and which driver took the most points in that race . Again you looking at the quote and not seeing the context. Alonso didn't want equal treatment, he wanted preferential treatment, when he was not getting that he threatened Ron with spygate, he bribed mechanics, he deliberately stopped in the pit lane , thats all happened when Ron says what he said. Remeber the context.
And given the fact that Alonso lost that title by 1 point that year , his own team racing against him for even 1 or 2 races , especially at the end of the season , might have been the main factor for why he lost that championship and "earned" bragging rights for the Hamilton fanbase for the next 17 years claiming that their guy " beat" the 2xWDC while finishing equal on points ? the way I see it , with equal treatment , Alonso would have won the title in 2007 . Ron Dennis made everything possible that it didnt happen. The quote is correct , your initial reply wasn't .
There's one thing when you use quote, and leave out the context it was quoted in. I don't dispute the quote, I am telling you when Ron said what he said, it was during the second last race of the season. The entire context of the comment was " from autosport.com "The problem was rain and his (Hamilton's) tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren't at all fazed about Kimi. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando." Do you disagree with the complete quote and when it was made or the context it was made in?
I gave you an original quote , you gave me your biased opinion . See the difference ? that is why its impossible to have healthy conversations with Hamilton fanatics.
Yip that quote is by Ron Dennis at the 2007 seasons penultimate race in China. Thats after all the shenanigans from Alonso because he wanted preferential treatment and he was not getting it. Ron Dennis was right, Alonso was fighting the team.
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