Fernando Alonso’s relationship with McLaren had reached its lowest point during the 2007 season, when according to Alonso, rookie Hamilton was being favoured by McLaren.
Alonso had started to suffer massively during qualifying, something that he deemed odd and thus took drastic measures in order to get proof of what was happening at McLaren behind the scenes.
So, Alonso had asked the FIA to send an independent steward to Sao Paolo in order to confirm if McLaren were indeed favouring Hamilton.
“The FIA will have a steward making sure that nothing wrong happens to Fernando, especially in qualifying, which is where there have been more complaints or strange situations in the last few grands prix.” said Carlos Garcia, Head of the Spanish Motorsport Federation.
Hamilton was the new kid on the block and was a young British driver racing for a British team, something that triggered the ‘preferential treatment’ statements from Alonso.
Alonso admitted of not feeling comfortable in the team and addressed the fact that the British team was kind of favouring its home grown driver.
“Right from the start I have never felt totally comfortable. I have a British team-mate in a British team. He’s doing a great job and we know that all the support and help is going to him. I understood that from the beginning,” Alonso had said in 2007.
“But I’ve won two races out of six, I’ve finished on the podium four times and I have those 40 points that will allow me to fight for the title in the end.” he added.
It surely would have been a very painful and confusing time for every one at McLaren.
