Ferrari's Fernando Alonso tried to undermine McLaren's Lewis Hamilton according to Tom Bower's book
According to a new book written by Tom Bower titled No Angel: the Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone, it has been revealed that Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who drove for McLaren in 2007, attempted to undermine Lewis Hamilton’s chances during the 2007
Hungarian Grand Prix.
Bower stated in his book that Fernando asked McLaren’s team boss Ron Dennis in 2007 to make him McLaren’s number 1 driver and to make sure that Lewis's car ran out of fuel in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In the book, Tom adds that Fernando even threatened to report Dennis to the FIA for the Stepneygate spy scandal - when the latter received emails containing secret technical information about Ferrari's 2007 challenger - if his demands were not met.
What further fuels-up Bower's claim is the incident that took place during the qualifying session of the 2007 Hungaroring Grand Prix. Alonso blocked his team-mate Lewis Hamilton's way out of the pits back then and as a result got stripped from his pole position
after receiving a 5 place penalty from the stewards.
However, this concept of a fierce rivalry between two drivers of the same team is not new in the Formula 1 world. Things are bound to heat-up when two drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso drive alongside each other in the same team. Even "wilder"
incidents used to take place when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost used to drive alongside each other in the late 80s in McLaren.
Lewis debuted his Formula 1 career in 2007 and in his very first Formula 1 season, scored 9 consecutive podiums in his first 9 races. Other than that, he led the 2007 Formula 1 season until the very last race of the season but unfortunately due to a mechanical
failure, the young Englishman had to retire from the grand finale that took place in Brazil and as a result, Kimi Raikkonen took the advantage and luckily won the 2007 Formula 1 season for Ferrari.
However, Fernando Alonso was not far behind either. The Spaniard was in 2nd place, just 4 points behind Lewis before the grand finale but unfortunately, he was also unable to score enough points to take the lead from his team-mate in order to
win the 2007 title.
In the end, the two McLaren drivers finished in 2nd place in the drivers’ standings tied at 109 points. The following season, Fernando Alonso left McLaren and joined his former team, Renault once again.
If Bower's claims are to be believed, then this could ignite a new controversy between Alonso and Hamilton, who seemed to have buried the hatchet a while go. However, no word has come out from either of the two drivers or Ron Dennis on the matter, and till
proven, these 'allegations' shouldn't worry the Ferrari driver.
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