FERNANDO Alonso is a highly regarded, double world champion who, on his best day, can drive the wheels off an F1 car.
But his track record, if you can excuse the pun, is rather peculiar.
Currently Alonso finds himself having just completed his first Dakar Rally and with the clear ambition of returning to F1.
In a recent interview the Spanish driver proclaimed that ‘lies’ had been told of his career in F1.
These ‘lies’ seem to centre on Alonso’s selfishness as a driver, a rumour that has persisted throughout the paddock for all of his time in the sport.
He started his career in 2001 at Minardi, as the protege of Flavio Briatore.
Quickly, he was established as the test driver for Renault, which soon morphed into a full race seat in 2003. Within two years he won his first title with Renault and Briatore and followed it up with another championship title in 2006. By the mid 2000s, there was hardly a higher ranked driver than Fernando.
But then he jumped ship. He joined McLaren for the 2007 season alongside rookie Lewis Hamilton.
Because of his newly minted double world champion status, he arrived at McLaren firmly believing that he would have top billing in the team. He also started the season at McLaren with a secret weapon, but more on that later.
It didn’t quite work out the way he’d envisioned. Hamilton was likely the most prepared rookie ever to make the step up to Formula 1 and he took to it like a duck to water. He pushed Fernando hard, nearly every single race and this the Spaniard didn’t like.
He let it be known too, vociferously. But he was clever about it because the jibes were being made to the Spanish press. In the week after the Canadian Grand Prix, where Hamilton took his first win, he told Spanish media about his ‘difficulties’.
“Well, right from the start I’ve never felt totally comfortable. I have a British team mate in a British team, and he’s doing a great job and we know that all the support and help is going to him and I understood that from the beginning.”
At Indianapolis, for the United States Grand Prix, his frustration had reached boiling point. He swerved wildly towards the pitwall signalling his irritation at not being let past his teammate. By the time the Hungarian Grand Prix rolled around McLaren had already been called in front of the World Motorsport Council (WMSC) to explain why its chief designer Mike Coughlin was in possession of 780 pages of Ferrari intellectual property. At this point McLaren were cleared.
But at the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Alonso and Ron Dennis butted heads in an explosive manner.
As had been widely and factually reported on the morning of the race a furious Alonso informed Dennis that if the team failed to rein Hamilton in and give him priority, that he would provide incriminating e-mails to the FIA.
What were the incriminating e-mails Fernando was referring to? They were in reference to the 780 pages of Ferrari intellectual property of course.
E-mail correspondence took place between Fernando Alonso and then test driver Pedro de la Rosa and former Ferrari chief mechanic Nigel Stepney. Not only was Fernando well aware of the source of the information, but he also used it in an attempt to blackmail Dennis into making him priority number one in the team. This was Dennis’s testimony at the second hearing in front of the WMSC. While Fernando did deny this, he has never given his version of events.
And what’s more Fernando and De la Rosa were given immunity by the council in exchange for handing over the e-mails. Take from that what you will.
It was clear that the relationship between Fernando and the McLaren team had broken down. By the Chinese Grand Prix there was little left to salvage, if anything at all.
Hamilton, in the lead of the championship qualified on pole while Alonso was fourth. And when he returned to the pits, Alonso threw his helmet across the room and nearly broke a door off its hinges. But that’s not all. He later insinuated that the team had tampered with his tyre pressures, making him slower.
The result of this was the FIA appointing a steward to keep an eye on the McLaren pit garage during the qualifying session. Despite Alonso’s claims the steward found nothing. It comes as no surprise that Fernando left the team at the end of the season.
