What Fernando Alonso did in 2007 that ‘damaged’ his F1 reputation for the rest of his career

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The 2007 Formula 1 season was one of the most controversial in the sport’s recent history.

McLaren had what many believed would be a driver pairing capable of toppling the mighty Ferrari and reigning champions Renault who had dominated the sport at the beginning of the decade.

Lewis Hamilton arrived in the sport to much fanfare after winning the GP2 Series the previous year.

He was joined by Fernando Alonso after winning back-to-back titles with Renault.

The pair arrived at McLaren’s factory in Woking with ambitions of winning both titles.

Unfortunately, they narrowly missed out on securing the Drivers’ Championship and McLaren were excluded from the Constructors’ Championship standings after Spygate.

Speaking on the Bring Back V10s Podcast, journalist Mark Hughes recalled one particular incident during the 2007 season that still lives with Alonso to this day.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the scene of one of the most contentious incidents during the campaign, with McLaren beginning to implode.

There were only seven races to go when the paddock arrived at the Hungaroring and both Hamilton and Alonso knew they were in with a shot of winning the title.

Unfortunately, that competitiveness got the better of Alonso and Hughes believes his actions still affect his reputation nearly two decades on.

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What happened between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix?

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix that year, Hamilton had a two-point advantage over Alonso and Felipe Massa was the nearest challenger from Ferrari before Kimi Raikkonen’s exceptional end to the campaign.

Hamilton and Alonso both advanced to Q3 and every car dove into the pits to change their tyres for the final time to set their last laps of the session.

The British driver was on provisional pole position but followed Alonso into the pits and the Spaniard’s tyre change took much longer than expected.

He sat in the pit box for longer than expected, his pit crew urging him to go but instead, he waited an additional ten seconds before allowing Hamilton to change his tyres.

It meant Hamilton didn’t have time to reach the chequered flag to set another time, Alonso went quickest and thought he was starting on pole.

However, Alonso picked up a penalty for his actions and the post-race press conference including former team principal Ron Dennis, Alonso and Hamilton was understandably frosty.

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Fernando Alonso’s qualifying antics still remembered in the paddock to this day

Talking about Alonso’s behaviour after the infamous qualifying incident, Hughes said: “If you remember at the Nurburgring when Fernando had won and Ron came to congratulate him, he just looked straight through him, he didn’t even acknowledge that he was there.

“That relationship as far as Alonso was concerned had broken down entirely, Ron had not lived up to what he’d promised him when he recruited him a year and a half earlier which is that he would be the team leader.

“Whether Ron actually made that concrete promise, we’ve no way of knowing but certainly believed that he had.

“It was pretty much war as far as Fernando was concerned and he does operate very well in a warzone but I think he went over the top in this case and it damaged him, it damaged him for the rest of his career.

“His actions on that post-qualifying actually I believe made his career less successful than it would have been and it damaged McLaren as well.”

How did the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix end and how did Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton both lose the Drivers’ Championship?

With Alonso now starting in sixth and Hamilton on pole position, the British driver led every lap of the race to extend his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship, with Alonso only capable of recovering to 4^th.

Hamilton was joined on the podium by Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld and that started a run of seven straight podium finishes for the Finnish driver.

Going into the final race in Brazil, Hamilton was leading the championship on 107 points, Alonso on 103 and Raikkonen on 100.

However, the Ferrari driver took victory with his teammate’s 2^nd place finish enough to deny Alonso the title as he had to settle for 3^rd.

Hamilton could only finish 7^th after a gearbox issue and watched as a potential maiden F1 championship slipped away.

Alonso left McLaren at the end of the year to return to Renault and his next spell with the British team was arguably even worse.

The following year, Hamilton overtook Timo Glock in Brazil to win his first title and deny Massa in dramatic circumstances and it wouldn’t be the last time he lost a championship on the last day of the season.

However, for Alonso, it was the closest he ever came to adding to his two titles and his actions during that qualifying session still live with him to this day.