After 16 years of controversy and speculations, Fernando Alonso has finally opened up about the incident with Lewis Hamilton that took place at Budapest in 2007.
During the 2007 Formula 1 season, the grid was dominated by the McLarens and the Ferraris. McLaren had just hired two new drivers to their team. Fernando Alonso, who was the reigning Champion, and Lewis Hamilton, a rookie at the time.
From the season opener, it became clear that Fernando Alonso would not have it easy against his rookie teammate. Lewis Hamilton started to show promising results from the first race itself. He accomplished 9 podiums from his first race in Formula 1. In addition to this, he won a total of 4 races in his rookie season. Fernando Alonso had the same amount of wins after the 2007 season.
What happened during the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix?
During the qualifying session of the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix, both the McLarens were clearly the fastest car on the grid. During Q2, Lewis Hamilton posted a time of 1:19.661. This was the fastest time by anyone during the entire weekend. The entire paddock and fans were impressed with this time.
After the first couple of laps in Q3, Lewis Hamilton had posted 1:19.781 which saw him take provisional pole. However, with little time left on the clock, both the McLarens had come into the pits for fresh tires for their final laps.
Fernando Alonso had come into the pits just ahead of Lewis Hamilton. After the pit crew gave him the green light to exit the pit box. However, Alonso stayed in the box for 10 seconds longer than he had to with Lewis Hamilton waiting stacked up behind him. Until Alonso left the pit box, Lewis could not start to change the tires. This incident would see Fernando post the faster lap in Q3 while Lewis Hamilton did not get the chance to do so.
After the incident, Fernando Alonso received a 5-place grid penalty from the stewards that saw him start the race from 6th place, while Lewis Hamilton started from pole position. The Briton went on to win the race the next day while the Spaniard finished in 4th position.
Fernando Alonso has finally backed himself after 16 years
On 2nd August 2023, Fernando Alonso spoke about the incident during a podcast with BBC’s F1: Chequered Flag.
“No one heard my version, or the truth, or the facts,” began Alonso. “I said that I never hold anyone. They just gave me old tires when it was qualifying.”
“So there is the radio transcript, the decision from the stewards, where it is written that they put me a penalty on an article that didn’t exist. They just put the penalty but clarified it was not for any article and things like that.”
“And it was my team putting a protest against myself, which is the first time in the history of the sport. So when you put all these kinds of things and you don’t see the facts, obviously it is difficult to clarify some misunderstandings.”
Lewis Hamilton 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix 5 days later pic.twitter.com/7d93YkzCqG
— Jordan𝕏 (@J0rd4n_MCL) March 1, 2022
Fernando Alonso found it unfair that he was given old tires while Lewis was given fresh ones. He also felt betrayed when his own team protested against him. He felt betrayed by the team after the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix.
After this incident, the team principal, Ron Dennis was seen extremely angry with Fernando Alonso. He was seen in a serious conversation with the Spaniard’s trainer. This instance was one of the main reasons for Fernando leaving the team after just one season.
McLaren however, was denied the chance to win the Championship due to an espionage controversy that accused them of stealing technical information from Ferrari. McLaren was disqualified from the WCC in 2007.
In the WDC, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were equal in points. However, they were so focused on beating each other, that Kimi Raikkonen was able to win the Championship in the last race by just 1 point.