Alonso defends loss against Hamilton: 'Had to change driving style completely'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Fernando Alonso returns to Formula 1 after a two-year absence. He is regarded as one of, if not the very best driver of his generation. In the second half of his career, however, his results were overshadowed by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, although he believes he can compete with them.
Especially with Lewis Hamilton, who he had as a teammate for one year at McLaren. 2007 was Hamilton's debut year and he made a big impression by scoring as many points as the Spaniard in the final standings. In fact, thanks to more second places, he officially finished above him.
Bridgestone tyres were a problem for Alonso
It was seen as the changing of the guard, but Alonso wants to put that season into perspective in conversation with WTF1. After all, he had driven on Michelin tyres for years and suddenly had to switch to the Bridgestone, while Hamilton didn't know any better.
"I had to change my driving style a lot and never talked about it publicly because it's not something you want to go public with. But it's true, there was that tyre change in his rookie year and of course luck also played a part," said Alonso, who admits that Hamilton also had bad luck, but that his breakdowns are often forgotten.
Alonso insists on innocence
"He had an incident in the pit lane during the penultimate race in Shanghai, that was a bad moment for him. But transmission problems forced me to start from tenth on two occasions and in Hungary I got one of the most unjustified penalties ever."
Alonso is referring to the famous pit stop incident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso seemingly deliberately held up Hamilton in the pit lane so that the Briton had no time to complete a fast lap. Team principal Ron Dennis was furious and the FIA did not believe Alonso's innocence either. He was given a five-place penalty on the grid.