Lewis Hamilton jokingly mocks Fernando Alonso amid Aston Martin podium drought

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Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have been great rivals throughout their respective Formula 1 careers. They were teammates at McLaren for Hamilton’s rookie season in 2007.

The Spaniard ended the notoriously bitter partnership after one year as he returned to Renault. The two drivers would directly compete for a world championship once again in 2010, by which point Alonso had joined Ferrari, but they both lost out to Sebastian Vettel.

Both then took huge gambles, with Hamilton moving to Mercedes and Alonso returning to McLaren as they partnered with Honda. Their fortunes sharply diverged afterwards.

Hamilton embarked on a run of dominance, winning six world championships in seven seasons between 2014 and 2020. Alonso, on the other hand, didn’t so much score a podium during the disastrous McLaren-Honda tie-up.

He would retire from F1 in the midst of Hamilton’s monopoly (2018) before returning in 2021 with Alpine. Two years later, he switched to Aston Martin and joined the fight for ‘best of the rest’ behind Red Bull.

That saw him battling Hamilton on track once again. But Mercedes have now closed the gap to the world champions, while Aston Martin have slipped into the midfield.

Lewis Hamilton’s playful dig at Fernando Alonso as Aston Martin disappoint

Alonso hasn’t stood on the podium since the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the third to last race of the 2023 season. He finished in the top three eight times last year, but six of those results came before the summer break.

The two-time world champion showed some promise at the start of 2024, finishing in the top six in two of the first four races and qualifying third in China. But Aston have now regressed, leaving Alonso some 67 points adrift of the top eight in the standings.

On the most recent episode of ‘Grill The Grid’, posted on F1’s official YouTube channel, the 20 drivers were asked to ‘spot the mistake’ in a series of photos. One image depicted Alonso standing on the podium with the winner’s trophy from the British Grand Prix.

But rather than pointing out the real error, Hamilton quipped: “[The mistake is] just him standing on the podium!”

Fernando Alonso snubbed Lewis Hamilton when asked to name greatest F1 rival

Alonso is still holding out hope of winning a third world championship. That’s why he’s signed a new contract with Aston Martin that will keep him on the grid until at least the end of 2026.

Lawrence Stroll is investing £783m to turn Aston into a contender. He’s already secured Mercedes engine mastermind Andy Cowell and Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile, and Adrian Newey is set to join as well.

At 43, Alonso is clearly running out of time. It’s been 18 years since he won the second of his back-to-back titles in 2006.

Speaking in 2018, Alonso named Michael Schumacher, the man he beat to the title that year, as his greatest rival. In doing so, he snubbed not only Hamilton but also Vettel, his adversary in an epic 2012 season.