Alonso claims LUCKY Hamilton and Verstappen 'never built anything' to win

The two-time world champion claimed his rivals' achievements aren't as great as they may seem

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 8 September 2023 08:57 Updated: 11:53

Fernando Alonso has said that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen's recent achievements are down in large part to luck.

Verstappen is a two-time world champion, and is quickly chasing down a third after breaking the record for consecutive race victories last weekend with his tenth win in a row.

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Hamilton, meanwhile, is a seven-time world champion, and is the most successful Formula 1 driver of all time, tying Schumacher's record of seven world championships and having the outright record for the amount of race wins and pole positions.

Alonso himself has two world championships from 2005 and 2006, along with 32 race wins, and has looked rejuvenated this season with his new Aston Martin team, claiming seven podiums in the first 14 races of the season and sitting third in the drivers' championship.

Now 42, the Spaniard may have given up hope of winning a third world title but is still hoping to add to his tally of 32 race wins, having not won a race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

He claimed that both Hamilton and Verstappen's success is just down to being in the right place at the right time.

"When Hamilton went to Mercedes, he didn't build anything to be champion. It was just a change of regulations (hybrid engines) that changed everything on the grid and pushed Mercedes to the top," he told Marca.

"I feel the same with Max, when he joined Toro Rosso and Red Bull, Hamilton was still winning everything. Red Bull is not a winning team because of him, it's just that another regulation change in 2021 has meant that they now win every race."

Alonso suggesting his achievements better than Hamilton and Verstappen?

Alonso won two world championships with the Renault team, in 2005 and 2006

This sly dig at the two most successful drivers of the past decade in F1 came a little bit out of the blue, and seems to be more a swipe at Verstappen who is so dominant in 2023, rather than at Hamilton, with whom he embarked in a fierce rivalry when they were team-mates in 2007.

Alonso's two world championships came with a team who were the underdogs in Renault, and managed to beat the then dominant Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari team who had just won five titles in a row together in the early 2000's.

He was the youngest world champion ever in F1, before Hamilton and later Sebastian Vettel took that record away from him.

He has never enjoyed success like it since, and wherever he has gone it has been a story of nearly's for the Spaniard, whether that be when he lost the championship by one point in 2007, or when Vettel recovered from an early spin in the last race of the 2012 season to snatch the title from Alonso.

Now, he has suggested that success is more down to luck, than skill.

"When we say that we can 'build' teams around us, I don't understand it. This is a sport where technical decisions, regulations or the inspiration of the design office make more of a difference than your input, your comments, your personality or your driving.

"You just have to be in the right place at the right time. Because a lot of success still depends on luck."