Fernando Alonso brutally mocked by F1 rival Lewis Hamilton: 'Why are you so slow?'

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

F1 News & Gossip

Fernando Alonso brutally mocked by Lewis Hamilton: 'Why are you so slow?'

Hamilton began his F1 career as the team-mate to reigning champion Alonso

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 3 August 2026 18:45

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If you have tuned in to any of the 2026 F1 championship so far, then you may have assumed Kimi Antonelli is enjoying one of the best starts to a career ever displayed by a young driver. But you'd be forgetting rookie Lewis Hamilton.

The now 41-year-old joined McLaren ahead of the 2007 season having infamously approached team boss Ron Dennis as a 10-year-old, insisting that one day he would drive his cars.

That dream came true 12 years later when Hamilton made his F1 debut with McLaren, racing alongside defending champion Fernando Alonso.

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The Ferrari star may have seven drivers' championships, 106 grand prix victories and 207 podiums to his name now, but even in his rookie season it was clear the Brit was going to be something special.

Even at the age of 22, Hamilton almost won the title in his rookie season, managing to finish in second place, one point behind 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen and equal on points with third-placed Alonso.

Unsurprisingly, this did not sit well with the man who had just one back-to-back titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, but a former McLaren insider has now revealed that Hamilton and Alonso's rivalry went way back to even before the 2007 season had begun.

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How rookie Hamilton riled up reigning champion Alonso

Speaking on a YouTube livestream with former F1 team manager Peter Windsor, Alonso's racing engineer at the time Mark Slade has revealed just how confident rookie Hamilton was pushing the Spaniard to his limit.

Discussing the one and only season that Hamilton and Alonso had to put up with each other as team-mate's, Slade said: "Fernando struggled through all of pre-season testing at Bahrain, Lewis was always quicker than him there.

"There was one occasion when I was sitting with Fernando in the drivers' room behind where the main office was, and I think we were working on his car, some problem, maybe it was in the lunch break.

"Lewis just wandered in because they were sharing the room, and he just looked at Fernando and said, 'Why so slow?' before the first race to the double world champion."

Quite a statement for a rookie driver to make.