{"id":61991,"date":"2025-08-12T07:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61991\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T07:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T07:34:09","slug":"how-mclaren-staff-privately-reacted-when-fernando-alonso-was-unveiled-alongside-lewis-hamilton-in-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61991\/","title":{"rendered":"How McLaren staff privately reacted when Fernando Alonso was unveiled alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fernando Alonso is approaching 25 years of Formula 1 service in 2026, and he remarkably shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard has driven for five teams, winning two drivers\u2019 championships<\/a> and making the most race starts in the sport\u2019s history along the way.<\/p>\n

One of the most turbulent periods of his career came back in 2007, while driving for a McLaren<\/a> team that he found difficult to fuse with.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Alonso<\/a> would fall short of a remarkable third consecutive title at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix by just one point.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is \u2018now realising\u2019 Alonso was right<\/a> about not being the favourite of his team, much like the two-time champion had to encounter in 2007. His start to life at Ferrari hasn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n

However, Alonso \u2018damaged\u2019 his F1 reputation in 2007<\/a> by purposefully holding Hamilton up in the pitlane at Hungary. The FIA and his team were not happy about it.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Fernando Alonso once got in trouble with Ferrari press office for something Lewis Hamilton is now doing<\/a><\/p>\n

\"McLarenPhoto credit should read DAMIEN MEYER\/AFP via Getty ImagesMcLaren staff privately welcomed Fernando Alonso warmly with Lewis Hamilton in 2006<\/p>\n

McLaren received a \u00a350 million fine<\/a> and were disqualified from the constructors\u2019 championship as a result of the \u2018Spygate\u2019 scandal, but their drivers were allowed to compete for the drivers\u2019 title still.<\/p>\n

The two drivers didn\u2019t get on well, but would avoid clashing with each other much on track. They kept their personal battles clean as they fought Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Before relationships soured, and Alonso opted to leave the team after just one year to return to Renault for 2008, the team were excited to have him.<\/p>\n

In an old ITV<\/a> documentary called F1: Chasing The Dream, which followed McLaren during the 2007 season, some behind-the-scenes footage from the year prior revealed Alonso\u2019s McLaren welcome.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Woking on December 12, 2006, his new team welcomed him with open arms and a warm applause. They were excited to get to work with a driver of his calibre.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Timo Glock shares what he said to Lewis Hamilton after last-lap move that denied Felipe Massa F1 title<\/a><\/p>\n

How Fernando Alonso managed to do something at McLaren that no driver could in 2025<\/p>\n

Modern standards in Formula 1 have come a long way over the last 20 years, and with a longer 24-race calendar, schedules are tighter than ever.<\/p>\n

As a result, one thing Alonso was able to do when he joined McLaren back in 2006 wouldn\u2019t be common practice by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

He got to work with McLaren on December 12, which was over a month and a half after the season had ended on October 22.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, that\u2019s mere days after the Abu Dhabi season-ender, and contracts typically run right up until New Year\u2019s Eve now.<\/p>\n

Unless an exception is made, drivers aren\u2019t allowed to start work with their new teams until that date. Hamilton, for example, had to wait to drive a Ferrari until January, because he was still under contract with Mercedes at the post-season test last December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso is approaching 25 years of Formula 1 service in 2026, and he remarkably shows no signs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,845,823,913,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-61991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fernando-alonso","11":"tag-lewis-hamilton","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motosport","16":"tag-motosports","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}