Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso may have remained teammates for just one year but the rivalry they had was one F1’s fiercest. The duo was so evenly matched that they finished the season on exactly the same number of points. However, two-time champion Emerson Fittipaldi noticed something in the Briton, which he believes gave him a crucial edge over the Spaniard.
Hamilton won his first F1 race in his rookie season in Canada. Incidentally, Fittipaldi was present at the circuit and was closely observing the McLaren teammates. In the biography Lewis Hamilton: Triple World Champion, Frank Worrall quotes Fittipaldi as saying,
Alonso joined McLaren with the reputation that a reigning two-time champion brings. Naturally, the team would develop the car around a driver of his caliber over a rookie. Results turned out quite differently, though, as Hamilton took the grid by storm with that car.
“Lewis talks to the car and the car talks to him. They understand each other very well, and Fernando, I think, was screaming to the car. He was not having a conversation.”
To make matters worse, the team failed to manage the growing animosity between their drivers. Hamilton, just like Alonso, delivered four race wins that year while bagging five P2 finishes against Alonso’s four. That edge handed the Briton the runner-up position in the championship while Alonso settled for P3.
Both, however, ended up losing the championship to Kimi Raikkonen by just one point. The constant tussle with the team and his teammate, however, saw Alonso exit McLaren at the end of the season.
How Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s careers took opposite trajectories
Alonso, before his one-year McLaren stint, had a phenomenal run with Renault. The Spaniard won consecutive titles before moving to Woking. However, that season made team boss Ron Dennis realize that Hamilton was championship material. Hence, they didn’t need Alonso as much. Resultantly, the driver and the team mutually parted ways before the 2008 season.
In 2008, Hamilton faced next to no resistance from his new teammate, Heikki Kovalainen. Hamilton faced the biggest threat from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. In a thrilling final lap of the final race, he defeated the Brazilian to win his first title by just one point.
Alonso, meanwhile, huddled back to Renault for two years. In 2008, he managed to win 2 races with a struggling car towards the end of the season. A winless 2009 saw him make a switch to Ferrari. The move saw him finish runner-up thrice in the championship, coming mighty close to winning on two occasions. A failed 2014 season saw Alonso join McLaren again, but four disappointing seasons led him to announcing retirement before making a comeback with Alpine in 2021.
In the same timeframe, Hamilton bagged six more world championships to equal Michael Schumacher’s seven world championships record. Despite facing a slump currently, the Briton is determined to break that record and become the first F1 driver to hold eight championship trophies.
