Lando Norris
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McLaren were determined to avoid a repeat of the infamous 2007 season with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris this year. The prevailing narrative is that the bitter intra-team rivalry between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton handed Ferrari the title that year.
Alonso and Hamilton finished level on points, with Kimi Raikkonen snatching the title at the final race. From Ferrari’s perspective, it was one of F1’s most remarkable comebacks, but for McLaren, it was an almighty collapse.
Alonso says McLaren were racing against him that year, alleging that they wanted academy graduate and rising British star Hamilton to win the title instead. This was exactly the sentiment that Zak Brown and Andrea Stella wanted to avoid.
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Ever since 2007, critics have claimed that Alonso isn’t a team player and painted him as an unsettling presence within a team. But Jacques Villeneuve doesn’t think that’s entirely fair.
McLaren should have let Fernando Alonso win against Lewis Hamilton, Jacques Villeneuve says
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Villeneuve said that Alonso, who had won the 2005 and 2006 titles, should have been McLaren’s ‘hero’ when he joined.
Instead, he was rather overshadowed by his rookie teammate, which turned him ‘evil’. At the Hungarian GP, Alonso waited in his pit box to deny Hamilton the chance to set another lap at the end of qualifying.
But Villeneuve says his reaction to the shift in team dynamics was ‘completely normal’. In his eyes, Alonso should have been the number one that year, which may have guaranteed McLaren a one-two in the standings.
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“Remember, Alonso was signed by the team as the double world champion, meaning, ‘You are our hero, you’re the one who is here to go and win,'” said Villeneuve.
“Suddenly, they sign Lewis and the whole team is [saying], ‘Hey, he’s the champion, not you.’ You don’t do that to Alonso.
“He turned evil, he turned really mean. His only work at that point was, it was better for Lewis to not win the championship and him to finish second.
“Alonso’s reaction was completely normal. That’s where the damage to the team happened, instead of ‘let Alonso win this year’. It’s Lewis’ first year. Then they would have finished first and second in the championship instead of second and third.”
Both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso became number one drivers after 2007
Mark Slade, Alonso’s race engineer in ’07, says Hamilton and his father caused trouble behind the scenes, so it’s unfair to paint the Spaniard as ‘nasty’.
One Spanish commentator claims that McLaren actually wanted Alonso back for 2008 in a U-turn after his contract termination, but the relationship could not be repaired.
Ron Dennis ended up signing Heikki Kovalainen instead, and the Finn ended up becoming the de facto number two as Hamilton won the 2008 title.
Alonso spent the next two years at Renault before his move to Ferrari, where he was treated as the team’s priority ahead of Felipe Massa.
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