Alonso regrets not having fought more against Lewis Hamilton

The cohabitation of Alonso/Hamilton at McLaren Mercedes in 2007 will certainly remain in history as one of the strongest rivalries that F1 has ever known. It was so tense that it did not last more than one season.

The Spanish double world champion has reflected on his, difficult, collaboration with Hamilton in the “Beyond the Grid” podcast.

« With Lewis, we didn’t find the competition or opposition I was looking for. We were teammates and for the general public, it’s the ultimate showdown but looking back, I think we were not ready, both of us. He wasn’t ready because he was a rookie in Formula 1 and on my side, I wasn’t at my best performance, I wasn’t truly integrated into the team.

Translate: « It’s true that we had all these duels and this stress together, fighting for the championship, but we weren’t well managed and handled at that time. We finished this championship with the same number of points (109 each while Kimi Räikkönen took the title with one more unit) so we can consider it as a very big fight, a balanced fight, but I think we could have done better. »

Except for the year 2007, it must be acknowledged that Hamilton and Alonso have not had so many battles between them throughout their career, even during the 2010s. Apart from the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, one must go back to the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix to find traces of a fight between these two champions, even though Lewis Hamilton found himself behind Alonso due to race incidents and was driving a significantly superior car to the McLaren Honda that had so exhausted the Spaniard. Similarly, before the Qatar Grand Prix this season, Hamilton and Alonso had not shared a podium since 2014 (again in Hungary).

The current Alpine driver regrets not having fought more often against the British driver. When I joined Ferrari (in 2010), I had a better package than him at McLaren so we didn’t really fight directly and since he switched to Mercedes, we haven’t had the opportunity to fight together again.

« I would say that it is a missing aspect in my career. He is a legend in this sport and like Michael Schumacher before him, he pushes you to the limit because if you want to beat Lewis, you have to give your best.

Alonso also added in this podcast that he sees himself staying in Formula 1 for the next two or three years. It might be an opportunity for him, if his Alpine allows him, to compete against Lewis Hamilton again.