Former Lewis Hamilton mechanic warns McLaren about ‘terrible teamwork’ after what he saw in 2007

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The last time two McLaren drivers were vying for a drivers’ championship came in 2007, when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso ended up losing out to Kimi Raikkonen at the very last hurdle.

Raikkonen found his form at the right moment in the final stages of the 2007 season to topple the long-time championship leaders in the final race of the season for his first and only world championship in the sport.

The feat looked like it had a chance to be replicated through Max Verstappen’s fine form following the recommencement of racing following the summer break, but Lando Norris has answered back in recent race weekends to shift the momentum back into his own favour.

However, one of the main reasons for McLaren being edged out of the title by their fierce rivals in Ferrari was due to the bitter battle between Hamilton and Alonso behind the scenes at the Woking-based outfit.

Alonso’s reputation in F1 hasn’t been the same since his antics during Hamilton’s rookie season, and the Spaniard was quick to depart from the team after a mutual termination of his contract took place at the end of the year.

READ MORE: Oscar Piastri reveals McLaren have now ‘clarified many things’ after controversial Lando Norris team orders

Marc Priestley warns McLaren about ‘terrible teamwork’ after what he saw in 2007

During a recent appearance on the Business of Winning podcast, ex-McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley was asked about his opinion on the current title fight happening within the ranks of his former team this season in comparison to the one that occurred between Hamilton and Alonso in 2007.

The former mechanic said, “Yeah, there are so many similarities. It’s extraordinary, really. And particularly, you know, Max has sort of dropped away a little bit in this championship over the course of this Brazilian Grand Prix weekend.

“But actually, in this run-up, where he was chasing and chasing and chasing the two McLaren guys down, there were many similarities to 2007. In that year, we had, you know, Lewis and Fernando, who came all the way through.

“They led the championship all the way. You get to the final race, and it was unheard of that it would not be one of our two drivers winning the title that day, both of them were at the front. Both of them are quick.

“And yet we walked away with nothing because in that year, it was Kimi Raikkonen who snuck through, you know, sort of almost unnoticed in a Ferrari and stole the championship by a point.

“Thoroughly deservedly, of course, because as I said, we destroyed our own championship chances with that terrible teamwork.”

Fernando Alonso has seen how McLaren have changed since the events that took place at the end of the 2007 season, praising Zak Brown for his different style of managing the F1 drivers in his stable, as opposed to the no-nonsense Ron Dennis.

READ MORE: Oscar Piastri’s McLaren escape route is ‘crystal clear’ if he decides to switch Formula 1 teams

Marc Priestley highlights how intra-team title battles in F1 usually end ‘in tears’

One of the most well-documented intra-team battles in F1 came during Mercedes’ period of dominance at the start of the turbo-hybrid era.

Beginning in 2014, Hamilton went toe-to-toe with his childhood best friend, Nico Rosberg, and it resulted in some bad blood between the two ambitious drivers.

In his concluding assessment of McLaren’s issues in 2007, Priestley noted how rare it is for two teammates to put up a season-long championship challenge, as well as recalling how they usually end in tears.

He added, “But the point is, it was two drivers in the same team going for the world title, which is actually a fairly rare set of circumstances. It doesn’t happen that often.

“You normally get one driver from one team. And if there is another fight, it’s from someone else. The last time this happened, really, was probably Lewis and Nico at Mercedes. That ended in tears.

“You can then go back to Lewis and Fernando with us. That ended in tears. You can think about Prost and Senna at McLaren all those years ago. Ended in tears.”

Oscar Piastri thinks McLaren have done a good job of not letting the intensity of a title fight divide the two drivers in their garage.

Despite being on the unfavourable side of some of the decisions that McLaren have made throughout the campaign, the Australian is aware of the difficulties that his leaders have had to balance during his quest for a world title.