Former McLaren engineer Mark Slade has revealed that Fernando Alonso presented his crew with envelopes containing\u00a0\u20ac1,000 each during the 2007 season.<\/p>\n
However, the team members were threatened with the \u201csack\u201d when McLaren\u2019s senior management found out about Alonso\u2019s act of kindness, with those involved forced to hand back the envelopes.<\/p>\n
McLaren staff threatened with \u2018sack\u2019 in 2007 after Fernando Alonso act of kindness<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n Alonso spent an explosive season at McLaren in 2007 after arriving from Renault as the reigning two-time world champion.<\/p>\n McLaren found itself excluded from the 2007 constructors\u2019 standings as a result of the infamous Spygate scandal<\/a>, with Alonso and rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton both missing out on the drivers\u2019 title by a single point to Ferrari\u2019s Kimi Raikkonen.<\/p>\n Alonso, who currently competes for the Aston Martin team, parted company with McLaren at the end of 2007 before returning for a second stint with the team between 2015 and 2018.<\/p>\n F1 driving style analysis: The genius of Fernando Alonso<\/p>\n Revealed: Fernando Alonso\u2019s secret weapon in battles with F1 rivals<\/a><\/p>\n From \u2018GP2 engine\u2019 to \u2018karma\u2019 \u2013 10 of our favourite Fernando Alonso team radio messages<\/a><\/p>\n In an interview with Peter Windsor\u2019s YouTube channel, Slade has recalled the moment that he felt showed a fundamental \u201cmismatch\u201d between Alonso and McLaren in 2007.<\/p>\n Slade revealed that he was asked by Alonso to gather his crew together ahead of the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, where the two-time world champion presented them with envelopes containing\u00a0\u20ac1,000.<\/p>\n Slade claimed that Alonso had regularly rewarded the crew working on his car during his spell at Renault.<\/p>\n However, the staff were forced to return the money to Alonso after Dave Ryan, McLaren\u2019s sporting director at the time, found out.<\/p>\n Slade said: \u201cAt the Nurburgring in 2007, on the Thursday, Fernando came up to me and he said: \u2018Can you give me a list of all the people who work on my car?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I thought: \u201cOK. Yeah, I can do that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI came up with a list but I didn\u2019t know what it was for. We have our pre-chat and at the end I said: \u2018Oh, here\u2019s the list.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe said: \u2018Thanks very much.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then a little while later, he came back in the motorhome and said: \u2018These guys on the list, can you get them just to meet me in the back [of the garage]? I just want to have a chat with my guys before the weekend starts.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI was like: \u2018Yeah, sure. No problem.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo I went to the garage, got the guys and said: \u2018Can we all just gather? Fernando wants to have a quick word with us.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he appeared at the back of the garage with a bunch of envelopes and said: \u2018At Renault, I used to like to share in my winnings with my guys on my car and it\u2019s not something I\u2019ve done at McLaren so far, but I\u2019d just like to show my appreciation for you being on my car and doing such a great job.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe handed these envelopes out and we opened them and I think there was 1,000 euros in each envelope. I was kind of gobsmacked.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd this included Tyler [Alexander] and he was like: \u2018Oh, blimey.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just like: \u2018Well, that\u2019s a bit strange. That\u2019s never happened before.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were just sort of nonplussed, we didn\u2019t really know what to say. So we just said: \u2018That\u2019s really kind, thanks. Thanks very much.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he was very humble [about it]. He was just saying: \u2018No, I really appreciate your help.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWe went off and did our thing and, a little while later, Dave Ryan came into the motorhome with a face of thunder.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he\u2019s like: \u2018What the hell just happened in the garage?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Well, Fernando just did that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he said: \u2018Yeah, I thought that\u2019s what\u2019s happened. Basically, you\u2019ve got to give us all the money. You\u2019ve got to give the money to me. You\u2019ve got to give the money to the team. It\u2019s completely outrageous, we can\u2019t have that in this team.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI was like: \u2018Oh, OK. Really sorry. Didn\u2019t know that.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he basically said: \u2018Anyone that doesn\u2019t hand their money back is going to get sacked.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt was made known and everyone gave their envelopes back.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the envelopes were basically given to back to Fernando and he was told never to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Put to him that the 11 existing teams will likely have a policy in place to prevent drivers from casually rewarding their crews, Slade replied: \u201cI\u2019m sure. And I actually think that\u2019s fine. I agree with that, really.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the story went out in the media that something had happened and basically [the narrative was]: \u2018Fernando tries to buy the allegiance of his mechanics.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I\u2019m naive but I didn\u2019t feel that was what it was. I think that was a normal thing back in the day.<\/p>\n \u201cI know people who work with other drivers.\u00a0There\u2019s a guy I knew had a watch that Riccardo Patrese had given him.<\/p>\n \u201cVarious people had various things that people who work with them have given them.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I gather it was true that he had given his guys stuff at Renault.\u201d<\/p>\n Slade went on to claim that Hamilton and his father Anthony \u201cstarted some of the stuff that went on\u201d during McLaren\u2019s highly dramatic 2007 season.<\/p>\n One example is believed to related to the events of qualifying at that year\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, where Alonso was handed a costly five-place grid penalty for deliberately holding up Hamilton in the pit lane in Q3.<\/p>\n However, it later transpired that Hamilton, who went on to win the race, had ignored McLaren\u2019s instructions to let Alonso past during the fuel-burn phase of Q3, with the pit lane incident an act of retaliation by Alonso.<\/p>\n Slade insisted that Alonso was a \u201cnice guy to work with\u201d and recalled a heartwarming moment when the pair were reunited during winter testing in early 2008.<\/p>\n Reflecting on the envelope incident, Slade said: \u201cI think it showed the mismatch between Fernando and McLaren.<\/p>\n \u201cI really liked Fernando and I liked working with him. He was a nice guy to work with.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yeah, he did play the game a little bit \u2013 but he was a good guy. He wasn\u2019t a nasty person.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd some of the stuff that went on was started by the Lewis camp, Lewis and his dad, in some of the things they did.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it just showed that Fernando didn\u2019t fit at McLaren and he just got worse and worse after that, certainly after Monaco [where Hamilton dropped a strong hint that team orders had prevented him from challenging Alonso for victory].<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I just thought it was a real shame, because he was a brilliant driver and he was an absolute massive asset to the team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just such a real shame it didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the next year, when he left McLaren and went to back to Renault, we were in Jerez and it was early one morning before the first day of testing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so dark outside and one of the guys came up into the motorhome for me and said: \u2018There\u2019s someone outside who wants to say hello.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI went down and it was Fernando! He just popped along and he gave me a big hug and he said: \u2018It\u2019s great to see you.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just such an honestly, openly friendly, lovely bloke.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a side of him that people don\u2019t see. But he\u2019s a good guy, honestly.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s a good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n