Formula 1 News

Lewis Hamilton: Alonso not loyal to McLaren 

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton believes Fernando Alonso has not been loyal enough to McLaren this season. “No,” said the Briton when asked if Alonso had been loyal enough to his team. “I think the team have gone out of their way as Fernando has been the world champion coming into the team, especially at the beginning of the season he’s the guy that’s supposed to take them to the championship, and they’ve bent over backwards to make him feel comfortable.

“Me and Pedro (de la Rosa) have done the same, we’ve been told: ‘try and make Fernando feel welcome in the team’. We’ve done that, and then you saw what he did to the team,” Hamilton added, refering to Alonso not attending the Paris hearing, despite McLaren asking him to go.

Alonso played an important role in the spying controversy that cost his McLaren team a record $100 million fine as well as all the constructors’ points. Alonso’s relationship with team boss Ron Dennis has been very cold since a row between the two on the morning of the Hungarian Grand Prix, during which the world champion revealed the existence of incriminating e-mails about leaked Ferrari data that helped seal McLaren’s punishment.

Despite his relationship with Dennis, Hamilton does not believe he will get more support from McLaren in the championship battle. “No, I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I feel as much support as anyone. I think with everything that’s gone on they feel they want to win it even more. I don’t feel it’s more me or him. That’s just between all of us really.”