F1 News: Fernando Alonso in Lewis Hamilton 'FRICTION' claim

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Former Ferrari F1 star in Hamilton 'FRICTION' claim

The pair have shared many battles over the years

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 2 February 2024 09:57

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton's former team-mate Fernando Alonso has admitted that the pair will never be 'friends'.

Hamilton and Alonso shared an almighty battle while competing for the McLaren team back in 2007, a battle that turned ugly on multiple occasions during that season.

Alonso returned to Renault after just one season with the Woking-based outfit, before joining Ferrari, the team that Hamilton is now set to join in 2025.

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The Spaniard had joined McLaren as a two-time world champion, while Hamilton was taking part in his rookie season in the sport.

Both drivers finished on the same amount of points in the drivers' championship, but that was one fewer than eventual world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso now share a respectful relationship

Lewis Hamilton is set to join Ferrari in 2025

Hamilton's fiery feud

A number of incidents - including Hamilton's disobeying of team orders at the Hungarian Grand Prix - has led to what Alonso describes as 'friction' for the rest of the two legends' careers.

Alonso has admitted that he gets extra satisfaction from beating Hamilton, even to this day, after what he feels was a lack of team thinking from the seven-time world champion at McLaren.

“Now there is another type of rivalry, but I don't think Hamilton and I will be friends in the future. After all, we don't have many things in common," he admitted in a new DAZN documentary titled Fernando.

“It is certainly true that by 2007 the rivalry had escalated to the next level.

"We noticed that there was friction. We were playing for the World Championship. At the meetings Hamilton only wanted to correct and improve the defects on his car, he didn't work as a team, in order to gain an advantage.

“There were many things that broke the relationship. We were young, immature, me in particular, and we had many clashes.

"Over time we had several battles," he continued about the pair's later scuffles.

"In 2013 in Canada and last year in Abu Dhabi we played cat and mouse. In Bahrain I experienced one of the happiest moments of the year, because I reached the podium in my first race in Aston Martin, beating Hamilton.

“Every time I overtake him it's an added satisfaction, while, on the contrary, it's a greater pain when I'm overtaken by him. I believe it will always be like this."

Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes Fernando Alonso Formula One