{"id":248834,"date":"2025-11-07T06:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248834\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:52:14","slug":"alonso-hamilton-compare-mclarens-title-fight-to-2007-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248834\/","title":{"rendered":"Alonso & Hamilton compare McLaren’s title fight to 2007 \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Alonso<\/a> says there is a key difference between the McLaren drivers\u2019 title fight this year and the one he experienced at the team in 2007.<\/p>\n

He joined McLaren that year after winning his second world championship and took the points lead at the second round. However team mate Lewis Hamilton<\/a> later overtook him and the pair went into the final round in competition with Ferrari\u2019s Kimi Raikkonen for the title. Raikkonen won, beating the pair by a single point.<\/p>\n

McLaren face a similar situation this year as Lando Norris<\/a> leads the standings by one point from Oscar Piastri. However Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen has cut his gap to the championship lead in all of the past five rounds.<\/p>\n

With almost nothing to choose between their drivers in the standings, McLaren have consistently refused to single out either of them as their priority in the championship. This week McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said he would prefer to repeat the outcome of 2007 than favour either of their drivers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alonso said the situation was different in 2007. He pointed out comments former McLaren team principal Ron Dennis made following the penultimate round of that season in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the scenario is exactly the same,\u201d he told the official F1 channel. \u201cIn 2007, I remember Ron in China saying that \u2018we were racing against Fernando\u2019 \u2013 \u2018our race was with Fernando, not with Kimi\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo imagine that Zak says now: \u2018our race was with Oscar, not Max\u2019. So a very different scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dennis made the comment after Hamilton retired from the penultimate race of the season in Shanghai<\/a>. He had gone into the race 12 points ahead of Alonso with 20 points available over the final two rounds.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>Feature: Red Bull in 2010 or Ferrari in 1979? Past title fights illustrate McLaren\u2019s current dilemma<\/a>Alonso\u2019s relationship with McLaren broke down earlier in the season after he revealed the existence of emails detailing the team\u2019s use of information belonging to Ferrari which led the FIA to disqualify them from the constructors\u2019 championship and fine them $100 million. McLaren cut short his deal to drive for them and Alonso left at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

At the time Alonso played down Dennis\u2019s comments, saying: \u201cI was surprised, but I think it is difficult to see what is true, what is just normal words that you say after the race and if you take in a different way you can make some problems.\u201d He returned to drive for the team under Dennis in 2015, three years after Hamilton left.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who also fought his team mate Nico Rosberg<\/a> in three consecutive championship contests at Mercedes, said it is difficult for teams to decide whether to prioritise one driver in the title fight. \u201cI\u2019ve had the experience of being in the team where you had two drivers fighting for a championship and we went all the way to the last race and ultimately we lost it \u2013 both of us lost it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of the fans really particularly care, massively, about the constructors\u2019 championship,\u201d Hamilton continued, \u201cthat\u2019s more the team cares about those sorts of things and then we care \u2013 as drivers \u2013 about that for the team. But people care about the drivers\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut choosing a driver is very difficult, I would say. Fortunately I\u2019m not a team manager so I don\u2019t have to worry about those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2025 Brazilian Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso says there is a key difference between the McLaren drivers\u2019 title fight this year and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[103865,6542,59,832,1469,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-248834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2025-brazilian-grand-prix","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-gb","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mclaren","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}