Lewis Hamilton Responds to Fernando Alonso Jibe by Reminding Him 2007 Australian GP Horror

After a disappointing start to the 2023 season, Mercedes has finally shown some improvement. The eventful Australian GP qualifying saw Lewis Hamilton cruise to a P3 finish in the timesheet.

The 7-time world champion has placed himself just behind his teammate George Russell(P2) and has lined up with his old rival in the second row, Fernando Alonso. While Hamilton said that this was an unexpected result for the Silver Arrows, he also shot a warning toward Alonso following the Spaniard’s recent jibe.

Alonso had said that the Briton has weaknesses when driving a normal car. The Spaniard was speaking about how Hamilton lost 2-0 against his teammate Russell in 2023. After finishing P3 at the Albert Park circuit, Hamilton has given a subtle response to his old nemesis.

Post-qualifying, the Briton said, “We’re hoping for a day like the first year 2007. Turn one here would be awesome. I don’t know if anyone remembers but yeah, that’d be awesome if you can do that.”

when you’re in a “think of lewis hamilton” competition and fernando alonso is your opponent. pic.twitter.com/QCCmHUHKja

— elle (@HAMLEWISIR) April 1, 2023

What happened at the 2007 Australian GP?

Hamilton made his debut in 2007 taking a seat next to 2-time champion Fernando Alonso with McLaren. In that season, the Australian GP was the first race and Alonso had qualified P2 behind Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton was starting his first Formula 1 race from P4 and just executed the beginning of the most ferocious inter-team rivalry in the history of F1. The Briton challenged his 2-time champion teammate right into Turn 1 and impressively took the lead over Alonso.

At the start of the race, Raikkonen stormed the lead and went clear of his rivals. Meanwhile, Alonso got passed by Nick Heidfeld in P3 from the left. For a little while Hamilton was stuck behind the top 3 but he impressively took the outside line, heading into the first corner, and took the third place, dropping Alonso to fourth.

Although, as the race met the chequered flag, Raikkonen won with Alonso following him in P2 and Hamilton in P3. The first race of the 2007 season saw the start of an intense rivalry between the McLaren duo where a 2-time champion was challenged by his rookie teammate until the very end.

Mercedes is faster than people think

Following two poor race performances from the Silver Arrows, the paddock is flooded with talks of the team falling further down the grid. Even team boss Toto Wolff gave a brutal assessment of the W14 and said that the team is considering a change in the entire concept of the car.

But after the shockingly amazing performance at the Australian GP qualifying, drivers have begun to call Mercedes’ bluff. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz agreed with fellow Spaniard Alonso in saying that Mercedes has a quick car.

Sainz said, “In the race, they had a pace very close to Alonso in Jeddah. Hamilton and Russell were flat out and we couldn’t keep up with them. So that car is quick. It isn’t as quick as the Red Bull, no one is, but they put Qualifying together and they can be a very strong package, too.”