Lewis Hamilton’s 2007 campaign is still regarded as the best rookie season in the history of F1. While the Briton did miss out on winning a historic Championship by just one point, his superiority over teammate Fernando Alonso made for one of the best-ever rivalries in the sport.
Both had joined McLaren that year—Hamilton as a newcomer, and Alonso as a two-time reigning World Champion aiming for a third title. Before the season began, Alonso saw no threat in his rookie teammate, but as the year progressed, tensions grew as he struggled to keep up with Hamilton’s pace.
Open-wheel driving coach, Martin Villari, in an exclusive interview with The SportsRush, explained why Hamilton had the upper hand.
“If you look at ’06 to ’07 when Fernando [Alonso] had that really aggressive initial steering input and it seemed to work all good for the Renault [Alonso’s former team],“ he said.
“But when he got to the McLaren, he had to totally change and totally adapt his driving style. So, it’s like Fernando came down a little bit and that’s why Lewis could enter in a position which was comparable to Fernando. It was because Fernando…his arms were tied behind his back.”
2007 USA
Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso (McLaren) fought for the win all race.
Here’s James Allen & Martin Brundle commentating on their wheel-to-wheel dice for ITV #F1 pic.twitter.com/MnAUa8gt2N
— F1 Icons That Go Hard (@CrystalRacing) June 17, 2020
Villari explained why Alonso was not as comfortable with the car as Hamilton was. But that did not mean that the Oviedo-born driver gave up. He scratched and clawed, and finished the season level on points with Hamilton, who only finished ahead in the standings because of a greater podium count.
Having two drivers like Alonso and Hamilton on the same team may have seemed like a luxury problem for McLaren, but it quickly spiraled out of control. Tensions between the drivers began to affect the team’s operations. Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley even revealed that the rivalry led to a total breakdown of communication within the Woking-based outfit.
Alonso left McLaren at the end of that season, returning to Renault. Since then, Hamilton has gone on to win seven world titles. However, Villari still believes that Alonso is one of the few drivers on the grid who have successfully adapted to the current generation of F1 cars.
