Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are easily the two greatest drivers since Schumacher. While Hamilton has gone on to break almost all of Schumacher's records, Alonso hasn't added to his tally since he dethroned the great German in 2005 and 2006. The pair drove as teammates for McLaren in 2007 where both were beaten by Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, but their flare-ups are now part of F1 lore. Alonso left McLaren as a result of the spy gate saga, but revealed in the years on, his relationship with Hamilton became quite close.
"We talked in 2008, 2010, and 2011 and we were closer than ever in those years because we understood that in 2007 we were not very well managed by our bosses," said the Alpine driver during an interview with the PA news agency.
"Then we were both very young and very competitive and we needed some kind of guidance and we didn't get it. It was an easy conclusion to make of the 2007 season and we respected each other a lot and understood each other a lot too," he added.
Fernando Alonso AFP
Photo Credit: AFP
But things have changed in the last few years. Since 2013, Hamilton has been part of Mercedes while Alonso was part of Ferrari till 2014. Alonso's exit from Ferrari coincided with Hamilton's meteoric rise as he won back-to-back world titles in 2014 and 2015. While this was happening, Alonso was struggling in the McLaren Honda which was at the time the slowest car on the grid.
Alonso stayed around till the end of the 2018 season, but that time Hamilton was the biggest brand in F1 thanks to his 5 world titles. Hamilton's lifestyle - his interest in music, environmentalism, fashion, and generally his more outgoing ways have been cited as the reason for a more colder relationship these days.
"Now we have this respectful relationship, but maybe it is colder than it used to be. We have different opinions on different things. Lewis has a different lifestyle to many of us and that separates us," Alonso explained.
Alonso has been critical of the Mercedes dominance multiple times and recently was quoted saying how it was a bad look for F1 that Hamilton was easily able to overtake the field to take the win in Brazil from P10. He also has been in a couple of skirmishes with the defending world champion where he hasn't made things easy and mocked Hamilton for his complaints.
