Fernando Alonso relives his confrontation with Hamilton: “We were too young and ambitious”

The battle between Fernando Alonso Y Lewis Hamilton has evoked many to 2007, the season in which they met at McLaren and raced face to face with the same car. The Asturian driver has spoken of that year, which was the one in which Hamilton made his Formula 1 debut.

“2007 was a very important season for me”, Fernando Alonso has said in Sky Sports. “Lewis came to Formula 1 like a tsunami with all his talent, skills and results, immediate results, that was intense and also a challenge for everyone”Has recognized the Spanish.

Of his confrontation with Hamilton in 2007, Fernando Alonso prefers not to point at anyone. “I don’t want to blame Ron DennisAs a team manager in 2007, I don’t want to blame one name in particular, but as a team and as a management. We were too young, too ambitious and no one guided us”, He recalled.

Alonso has smoothed out rough edges with Hamilton

It is not the first time this season that the two-time champion has referred to the year in which he coincided with the British in McLaren. A little over a month ago, Fernando Alonso emphasized in Efe: “With Hamilton nothing happened. It was more with the team, with which we had our differences. He believed some things that the team gave him and stopped giving. I believed some things that the team gave me and stopped giving me. Y we didn’t understand each other. But there was always respect between us. Even on the track. We went out on Sundays to run thinking what we thought, inside, of the team. But we always respected each other on the track. Y we always try to fight hard but with respect”.

“A World Cup always has moments of comings and goings. The 2007 one was lost by one point; and that point was in many places. But you don’t think about it anymore. If you think about the past, you can also think that you were lucky at some time in the World Cups that you won. Kimi Raikkonen broke his engine in two or three races that he was leading. In 2006 Michael broke the engine at Suzuka in the penultimate race … so, If you start to do the math, you still wouldn’t have won the ones you did; Maybe you would have won the ones you didn’t win. So it is better to take what comes to you and enjoy it, “he added. Fernando Alonso about the year that coincided with Lewis Hamilton.

At McLaren they still remember the impossible coexistence between Alonso and Hamilton

Norbert Haug, who was the coordinator of the McLaren team that season, also recalled the controversial qualifying session of the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix less than a month ago. Fernando Alonso, who was the driver who got pole, took long enough to leave so Hamilton couldn’t complete his last lap. The British driver denounced his own teammate and Alonso was sanctioned with five positions. This is something that both of them would end up regretting since they were only one point Kimi Raikkonen, who was the winner of the World Cup that season.

“We could have accomplished more for sure. I mean, we could have easily done it without the Hungary episode in qualifying. I mean, we had several reasons why we lost the championship with both drivers and we were punished without the constructors’ title. And both drivers did not achieve the title by one point, “he confessed in the official Formula 1 podcast.

“Of course we were criticized a lot in Hungary, I was in the middle of the press conference after the session trying to explain what was happening, trying to explain something that has no explanation ”, added Norbert Haug.

It was precisely he who had to deal with this situation with Ron Dennis. “We exchanged very frequently. Sometimes Ron would attend the media and sometimes I would. It was my turn in Hungary. I looked like an idiot, of course. How could I explain things like that? It was clearly not our best ranking, but it was a remarkable moment indeed. If I wrote about it, it could be turned into a Hollywood movie, forget it, no one would believe it!”, Declared the German.

“Today I no longer suffer, but I suffered a lot then; Normally you have to beat your rivals, not yourself, but to beat yourself is a lesson that I also learned: that hurts a thousand times as much as if you get into your own trajectory, but you can’t help it sometimes ”, he concluded.