Ex-F1 Boss Divulges on the ‘Hollywood’ Moment Between Hamilton & Alonso at McLaren

Lewis Hamilton had the honor of driving alongside two-time world champion Fernando Alonso as his first teammate in F1. While the two drivers finished level on points in 2007, there was a certain amount of tension between them.

Ahead of the British Grand Prix, former Mercedes-Benz motorsport Vice President Norbert Haug shared his experience of dealing with both drivers at the time.

Haug explains how he faced difficulty explaining the tension between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso

Despite being in his rookie season, Hamilton surpassed all expectations in 2007. With four race wins and eight podium finishes, the Briton finished just one point behind Kimi Raikkonen. While Hamilton impressed that season, Alonso was no less. In fact, the Spaniard finished the season level on points with his British teammate with an identical record.

However, their relationship as teammates wasn’t always the best. Tensions between them spiked at the Hungarian Grand Prix that year, with neither driver allowing the other to put in flying laps during qualifying.

Appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Haug admitted the situation with their drivers felt like the script of a Hollywood movie. He said, “Sometimes Ron [Dennis, McLaren boss] did the press briefings and sometimes I did… it was my turn in Hungary.

“I looked like an idiot of course – how could I explain things like that? Certainly not our best qualifying but very remarkable, indeed. Again, if you write that down, it’s a Hollywood movie; forget it, nobody will believe that!”

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Haug: We could have achieved more

The German admitted McLaren had the potential to achieve more in 2007, but the tension between their two drivers prevented them from doing that.

“We could have achieved more, for sure. I mean, we could have easily done without the Hungary saga in qualifying.

“This was one of the reasons. I mean we had several reasons why they missed the championship with both drivers and we got punished because both drivers missed [by] one point at the end.”

While their time at McLaren is in the past, Hamilton and Alonso are at different stages in their career. However, one can only hope the two drivers can get a chance to fight for the title yet again sometime in the future.

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