Lewis Hamilton has revealed Fernando Alonso was among those who congratulated him on his sixth world championship.
The pair endured an acrimonious year together at McLaren in 2007, when Hamilton made his debut in F1. The pair clashed over the team’s tactics in qualifying at the Hungaroring, where Alonso was penalised. They were beaten to the title by Kimi Raikkonen, by a single point, following which Alonso left the team.However the pair are now on better terms and Hamilton revealed Alonso was among those to congratulate him on his sixth world championship victory.
“I got a text from Fernando,” he said, “which was pretty amazing, I was really grateful for that.
“Because obviously we’ve gone through a whirlwind of experiences together over the years. But in all honesty I’ve always had respect for him, for what he’s achieved and his ability. And also seeing his growth through this period of time at McLaren.”
Another of the sport’s multiple champions, Sebastian Vettel, offered his congratulations to Hamilton immediately after he clinched the title at the Circuit of the Americas.
“Recognition is not something that drives me,” said Hamilton, “but it definitely is an honour.”
“When you have someone, particularly Seb, that you respect so much for their ability, and over the years you’ve commented on their ability and you’ve got belief in their ability and you’ve then built a rapport that’s constantly growing, for them to take a moment to come and show that bit of respect is amazing.
“Because each of us know how hard it is to do what we do. Us 20 drivers, particularly, know how hard it is to do what we do and only a few of us really, truly know how hard it is to win on a consistent basis, year on year, and Seb is one of those. So it’s really awesome.”
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allstargp
14th November 2019, 16:53
“Congratulations, you’re almost as good as me.” – Fernando
Hans Duiven
14th November 2019, 17:08
and Verstappen :-)
bob (@riptide)
14th November 2019, 17:37
No, Verstappen comes out on top of Alonso. His excuses for failure are far better than Alonso’s. And Alonso tripped up a few times and won some WDC’s. No consistency see. Max has managed to come up with excuses 5 years in a row without fail.
FiamD (@fiamd)
14th November 2019, 19:50
@riptide I think Hans Duiven’s point is that Alonso recently claimed Max is the best driver on the F1 grid
F1oSaurus (@)
15th November 2019, 16:30
@fiamd He didn’t really though. He stated that Verstappen was most exciting because he’s always in attack mode.
FiamD (@fiamd)
15th November 2019, 23:01
OK, I stand corrected. @f1osaurus
Mashiat (@mashiat)
14th November 2019, 18:13
Alonso and Hamilton’s relationship seems to have some similarities to Prost and Senna, in that they detested each other at times, but they respected no one quite like each other. It’s great to see their respect for each other even despite their falling out. You really do get the feeling that they genuinely believe the other to be their greatest competitor in F1.
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
14th November 2019, 21:15
Mashiat, you took the words out of my mouth! :) I highly respect Alonso and Hamilton as F1 drivers and Champions. They have seen and done almost everything in F1 like Senna and Prost. It would feel so wrong if there was no respect between them.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
14th November 2019, 22:28
@mashiat
What do you mean ‘fell out’?
They hugged each other after every race in 2007.
I will activate the torrent of the whole season if you want.
There’s a video somwhere of Alonso going into their room after Lewis won a WDC, Anthony and his mum were all over Alonso.
Ipsom
15th November 2019, 6:02
@bigjoe Good point that everyone misses… I also remember Hamilton mentioning that at the height of the controversy they would still play video games between practice w sessions.
The relationship wasn’t perfect but it was far better than most think
Mashiat (@mashiat)
15th November 2019, 7:47
@bigjoe It was fairly obvious there were large fractures in their relationship during and after 2007. This was especially clear after Hungary, and there were tensions before then as Hamilton felt he was being used as a number 2 driver, while Alonso felt the team respected Hamilton more so than himself (mainly down to miscommunication from Ron Dennis). Also, the aforementioned video was in 2014, by which time their relationship seemed to be patched up.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
15th November 2019, 14:35
@mashiat
Alonso was stabbed in the back by Dennis. Or at least that’s how he felt.
After Monaco Ron was out of order. Lewis was furious and misunderstood the team orders. Non of that was Alonso’s fault!
Drivers get very irate, fair enough let’s accept that. Look how Horner handled Verstappen when Ricciardo won. It’s on Netflix. He calmed him down and gave him some love then asked him to be pleased for RIC.
The incident at Hungary seemed to be more to do with their side of the garages than anything personal.
Look at the video where the McLaren mechanics do nothing to get him to move.
At the time, I think it was a BRit channel like ITV reported that HAM was swearing at the team on the radio blaming them for the pit hold up.
Alonso really isn’t the type of character to put up with that sh /t. Even though he gets irate himself in the car.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
15th November 2019, 17:34
@bigjoe I don’t remember ever stating it was Alonso’s fault. Yes, I agree that Ron Dennis’ management was the biggest problem in 2007, but to say there was no bad blood between Alonso and Hamilton would be a lie. Hamilton and his father personally went to the FIA to get Alonso penalized for Hungary, and I doubt that went down well with Alonso. Obviously tensions were flared in the midst of a title showdown, which inevitably calmed down once Alonso moved to Renault.
Islander
14th November 2019, 18:57
Just a thought.
Bloodhound: 763 mph
F1? Stay slow and safe, boys. Congratulations to Alonso from Lewis.
socksolid (@socksolid)
14th November 2019, 20:18
Just a thought.
Voyager 1 top speed 80530 miles per hour.
Kasim
14th November 2019, 20:34
Photons through the vacuum of space:
186,282 miles per second.
Yes, per second.
…just a thought ;)
steveetienne
14th November 2019, 23:21
Objects farther apart than 4200 mega parsecs – travelling faster than light.
Kasim
16th November 2019, 0:08
Oh.
Fair enough, i did think i had it covered there haha.
The more we know, the more we can begin to appreciate how little we know at all!
allstargp
15th November 2019, 9:11
Expansion of space time under the inflationary model:
10^50 in less than 10^-30 seconds
Just a thought.
Kasim
16th November 2019, 0:09
Oh.
Fair enough, i did think i had it covered there haha.
The more we know, the more we can begin to appreciate how little we know at all!
Joseph (@bigjoe)
15th November 2019, 14:36
a thought or a headache ;)
Kasim
17th November 2019, 2:44
Haha it certainly can be, and yet it’s snail speed in comparison to the the sheer scale of the universe!
If you’d like more of a headache there is this fairly short but quite amazing video that attempts to put it all into some sort of understandable perspective..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7NzjCmUf0
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
14th November 2019, 22:03
Talent respects talent which is why Alonso never liked Vettel, and Hamilton never truly respected Vettel
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
15th November 2019, 5:28
@carlosmedrano that’s just pure trolling there
Mashiat (@mashiat)
15th November 2019, 8:05
@thedoctor03 To be fair, he does have a point. Even during Vettel’s dominant years, both Alonso and Hamilton came out with several quotes where they stated the other to be better than Vettel. For example, Hamilton stated at the end of 2013: “I think that in that Red Bull, Alonso would win even more easily than Vettel does”. Similarly, Alonso said, “Sebastian has not quite reached [Hamilton’s] level”.
FiamD (@fiamd)
15th November 2019, 22:59
@carlosmedrano and @mashiat Yes, as a Hamilton follower, I’d go with the notion that Lewis was quite envious of Vettel’s success at Red Bull. I think Lewis felt that much of the results from Seb at the time was due to the “car”. Lewis tried his best to get into Red Bull as he felt he was a better driver than Seb (which in my mind he had already proven even before going to Mercedes).
Interestingly, during the Vettel/Alonso duopoly of 2010-12 (2013 being a Vettel monopoly), Lewis actually had higher podium and point-scoring rates than either driver.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
16th November 2019, 3:28
@fiamd I completely agree with your first paragraph, but your second one doesn’t quite make sense to me whatsoever. In the period of 2010-2012, they each had the following statistics:
Podiums:
1. Vettel – 37
2. Alonso – 33
3. Hamilton – 22
Points:
1. Vettel – 929
2. Alonso – 787
3. Hamilton – 657
Hamilton got less points and podiums in each of 2010, 2011 and 2012 compared to both Vettel and Alonso, so I’m not quite sure how you got that he had higher point scoring and podium rates, when his frequency of both was down.
FiamD (@fiamd)
17th November 2019, 22:26
@mashiat This is a late response (having a very busy time right now), but the point I was raising are quite important.
The podium rate and GP-points scoring rate I referred to concerns these rates for each driver for their entire career up to that period (but not limited to that period). The points-scoring counts the number of GP finishes within a point-scoring position and not the aggregate of points scored.
I hope this helps to clarify. Thanks for sharing some of my views though.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
18th November 2019, 2:41
@fiamd I don’t believe that’s a good metric, as Hamilton enjoyed far superior cars to Vettel in 2007 and 2008, and Alonso in 2008 and 2009. As a result, Hamilton would quite obviously have a higher points scoring rate. But from 2010-2012, Hamilton was statistically the worst of the three, but once again car performance has not been factored in. But in terms of pure consistency, you would rank them in the order of Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton for that period. I’m certain even Hamilton would agree that was not a strong period for him.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
14th November 2019, 23:38
The relationship between Lewis and Fernando have been grossly overplayed by the media. The latter being framed as the pantomime villain.
Fernando has always maintained that he never had any issues with Lewis, he has said this time and again. His disagreement in 2007 was with Ron, not Lewis. He was always been very complimentary to Lewis.
But, never let that get in the way of a good story.
Happy to be corrected though.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
15th November 2019, 14:40
@jaymenon10
you’re’ exactly right that’s how it was. Further to the recent text HAM got from ALO, Lewis also mentioned contact years ago. Something like ‘we still have each others ‘numbers saved’