Fernando Alonso 'scared to drive' for McLaren during heated Lewis Hamilton F1 title battle

Alonso, Hamilton, McLaren, Mercedes, 2007, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

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Fernando Alonso 'scared to drive' for McLaren during heated Lewis Hamilton F1 title battle

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were team-mates at McLaren in 2007

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 9 October 2025 20:28

Spanish F1 journalist Antonio Lobato has revealed some intricate details about Fernando Alonso's tumultuous year spent with McLaren in 2007.

Alonso joined McLaren off the back of consecutive world championship titles earned at Renault, and expected to walk into the team as their championship challenger.

However, young British rookie Lewis Hamilton had other ideas. Hamilton claimed four wins throughout what was one of the greatest rookie seasons in the history of the sport, and he finished level on points with Alonso.

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Both drivers ultimately lost out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who won the 2007 title by a single point. But the story of the season surrounded McLaren and their blockbuster driver pairing.

Alonso was not happy with McLaren's reluctance to fully back him in the championship race against Raikkonen, and he and Hamilton were involved in several off-track squabbles.

On top of that, Alonso was one of the main catalysts of the 'Spygate' controversy, threatening to release incriminating emails, causing McLaren boss Ron Dennis to contact the FIA and tell them to investigate the team, which resulted in disqualification from that year's constructors' championship.

Now, Lobato has revealed some awkward moments in the McLaren hospitality suite during 2007, as well as suggesting that Alonso was 'scared' to drive McLaren's car in an extraordinary claim.

"The isolation was crazy," Lobato told SoyMotor. "I spent a lot of time inside the McLaren hospitality, which was this beautiful glass hospitality they installed, which I used to call 'Die Hard'.

"Fernando had his table inside the hospitality area and his room, but he spent a lot of time in the hospitality area, at the table and I was there a lot with his manager, with his father, with his wife at the time, who was Raquel del Rosario, and we spent a lot of time and it was all very cordial, very affable and there came a time at the end of the season when that table was isolated. There were no waiters or waitresses, no one served them.

"Fernando or the manager or whoever had to get up to get a coffee, to order whatever, because no one approached that table. And then you were like sitting there and everyone looked at you. Fernando called it ‘the table of the plague-stricken’.

"It's not that they looked at us as if we were 'extras' around here, but mmm, especially after the incident with the emails and all that, which was obviously a total declaration of war, and from then on the relationship and the atmosphere was unbreathable. And so everything, after everything that happened, after all the blows they received, the lack of trust there was, Fernando having to get into the car scared because he didn't know if the car was a safe car, if the pressures were right, if the engine was losing tenths or not losing tenths.

"They lost both world championships and even so, when they had already terminated the contract, they called him to come back. And yes, by then he was already beyond repair, he didn't want to come back."

Hamilton v Alonso

While the drivers went their separate ways after that tumultuous 2007 season, Hamilton and Alonso's fiery relationship has continued throughout their respective careers.

It reared its head once more at last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, when Alonso launched an x-rated tirade against Hamilton over team radio.

Even with both drivers now in their forties, they have still been battling for positions in the points throughout the 2025 season, and Sunday's Singapore GP was no different.

Alonso eventually finished ahead of Hamilton after the seven-time champion was handed a five-second time penalty, but the Brit took to social media after the race to poke fun at Alonso's team radio rant, using classic British sitcom character Victor Meldrew.

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren Fernando Alonso