2007 saw both the McLaren drivers come agonizingly close to winning the drivers’ championship, only to lose it at the final race of the season. Several things went wrong for the Woking-based team during the season, but Marc Priestley has recently pointed out how a lack of communication became the biggest culprit of them all.
With a rookie Lewis Hamilton paired up with an experienced world champion like Fernando Alonso, no one at McLaren knew what would unravel over the season. Thus, they never thought of sitting down to have a talk with their drivers about who would serve what role. In the end, Priestley believes that it was the same lack of communication that cost them the drivers’ title despite a successful season.
“One of the biggest reasons we got that so horribly wrong between our two drivers was that the communication just wasn’t good enough.”, he said on his Pitlane Life Lessons podcast.
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
Rectifying their mistakes in the very next season, McLaren was able to pass the hurdle that stopped them 12 months ago. With Heikki Kovalainen stepping in for Alonso, the roles were made clear. Hamilton became the lead driver at Woking and raced to his first-ever championship.
No intra-team rivalry prevailed within McLaren from then on, but things turned sour between Alonso and Hamilton forever. The duo never became teammates again, but a spark remains ignited between the 2007 McLaren duo.
Hamilton and Alonso have never repaired their relationship since 2007
Following the 2007 season, things were never the same between Hamilton and Alonso. While the former continued winning races and titles, the Spaniard fell out of the running for wins due to the lack of a competitive car. As such, they never locked horns with each other again on track, competing for the title like they did in 2007.
However, there were battles like the 2021 Hungarian GP where Alonso defended fiercely to halt Hamilton’s progress to the top. Even at the 2022 Belgian GP, they had a collision on the opening lap that ended Hamilton’s race with a huge shunt for his W13.
That Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton battle was something else! #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/toeObV31Jx
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 26, 2022
Even away from the tracks, neither driver is a fan of the other and they rarely miss out on a chance to take a dig at the other’s expense. Alonso has made it clear that he doesn’t feel he and Hamilton could be friends in the future, even when they step away from F1.
Meanwhile, the #44 driver became the latest to take a shot at the other in one of Grill the Grid’s recent episodes. Seeing a photo of Alonso celebrating with the British GP’s winner’s trophy, the 39-year-old said Alonso “standing on the podium” was what was wrong in the photo.
