Alonso opens up about intense rivalry with Hamilton in 2007
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Fernando Alonso fought a bitter battle with Lewis Hamilton in Hungary. The Mercedes driver had to get past the Spaniard as quickly as possible to gain as many points as possible on Max Verstappen. Alonso defended tooth and nail, however, something that led many to believe that there might still be some old grievances on the part of Alonso, who fought a hard-fought battle with Hamilton in their 2007 McLaren days together.
Hamilton tsunami
Hamilton made his debut for McLaren, where the famous Ron Dennis pulled the strings at the time. Alonso looks back at that period Sky Sports F1 Alonso looks back on that period. The age-old battle between the experienced star and the new rookie caused a lot of friction between them in 2007, but the Spaniard stresses that he has no problems with Hamilton and that both drivers simply needed more guidance at the time.
"Lewis came into Formula 1 like a tsunami," says Alonso. "With all his talent, all his ability and immediately good results. That was intense and that was also challenging for everyone. Looking back, and I think Lewis will feel the same, there were no problems between us. We had a very tough competition, but fair."
Culprit(s)?
Alonso, however, refuses to point a direct culprit: "I don't want to blame Ron (Dennis), I don't want to blame a particular name, but as a team and management we were too young, we were too ambitious and nobody guided us in a certain way. Frankly, I think, and probably Lewis agrees, that the team didn't handle the situation well."