(L to R): Second placed Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates on the podium with third placed Fernando Alonso (ESP) Aston Martin F1 Team. 02.04.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 3, Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia, Race Day.
Fernando Alonso says he would like to become team-mates with Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 again for one final time.
The pair partnered with each other for a solitary season at McLaren in 2007 but tensions spilt over between the then-reigning two-time champion and his rookie counterpart, resulting in both drivers conceding the Drivers’ title to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
The Spaniard hastily returned to Renault before heading on to Ferrari, while Hamilton remained at McLaren until he negotiated a switch to go to Mercedes in 2013.
Alonso has revealed the extent to how badly the dynamic was handled within McLaren at the time and his reasons for departing only one year into his contract.
“We had a difficult season,” he told the Daily Mail about his relationship with Hamilton in 2007. “But we respected what the other was doing on track and still do.”
“We each consider the other to be a talented driver and one of the toughest competitors we have ever met.
“The situation that season was not well-managed by our bosses. We were young. We were immature. We were many of the things we are not now, and we needed help from the management that we didn’t get.”
“I couldn’t continue with McLaren. It was a team with eyes totally one side of the garage.
“As Ron [Dennis] said after the penultimate race in China ‘Our race isn’t with [Felipe] Massa, it is with Fernando’ When your team says that you cannot continue. But you learn in a career.”
Although battles followed in the intervening years, Hamilton’s switch to Mercedes and the German marque’s domination of the turbo-hybrid engine era coincided with Alonso embarking on a disastrous second four-year spell with McLaren in 2015.
However, Mercedes’ plight from the top of the sport in the latest technical era and Aston Martin’s surprise emergence as a front-running threat in 2023 saw the pair contest track position in Bahrain, with Alonso winning out to stand on the podium.
Alonso has now admitted he would relish the potential opportunity to go up against Hamilton in equal machinery again before they both head for retirement.
“It would be nice to end our careers together, I would love that,” he added.
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Aston Martin F1 Team AMR23 leads Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. 05.03.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 1, Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir, Bahrain, Race Day.
With Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell a long-term fixture in the Mercedes ranks, the only realistic possibility the seven-time champion and Alonso could figure in the same set-up would come if the Brit negotiated a switch to Aston Martin.
However, Hamilton has again recently reiterated his commitment to Mercedes, with the ex-McLaren protege wishing to follow in Stirling Moss’ footsteps by becoming an ambassador for the three-pointed star beyond his racing career.
In addition, Lawrence Stroll’s position as team owner of Aston Martin means his son, Lance, is unlikely to have his position come under serious threat at any point.
Hamilton and Alonso appeared on the podium together for the first time since the Qatar Grand Prix in 2021 last time out at the Australian Grand Prix.
With Red Bull appearing untouchable at the front of the F1 field, both are anticipating a battle between their two respective teams for second in the Constructors’ Championship.
After three flyaway rounds, Alonso has asserted that F1’s return at the end of the month will start an intense development race that could prove decisive in the outcome.
Aston Martin’s third and fourth-place finish in Melbourne has handed them a slender nine-point advantage over its engine supplier heading to Azerbaijan.
Despite Hamilton scoring Mercedes’ first podium of the year, George Russell retired early on with an engine failure in the sister W14 car.
Keyword: Alonso hopes to partner Hamilton again in F1