20/05/2022
NEWS STORY
Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has welcomed his former teammate, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to the midfield club.
The Spaniard was referring to Hamilton's ongoing struggles with the Mercedes W13, which, as opposed to battling with the leaders for an eighth title, see him struggling further down the order.
"This is the nature of the sport," he tells BBC Sport. "Sometimes you have a better car, sometimes you have not such a good car and you still need to fight and make some progress.
"This year we see that the driver is very important in F1 but not crucial," he continues. "Lewis is driving as good as he has been the last eight years, he was dominating the sport and breaking all the records and one-hundred-and-something pole positions.
"Now he is doing a mega lap, as he said in Australia or somewhere, and he is one second behind... so, yeah... welcome."
While it is the driver who dominates the headlines and attracts the glory, Alonso is keen to point out that without the right car and team he is nothing, the Spaniard none too subtly adding his two-penn'orth to the 'he had the best car, so he couldn't lose' debate.
"This is a team sport more than anything and we tend to forget this, especially when we have success. "We are so happy for what we are achieving that even if we try to share with the team, all the headlines are for the driver.
"It happened to me when I won the two championships, I was beating Michael Schumacher," he continues. "This was a big topic, but my car was more reliable at that time and had very good performance and you cannot praise enough that package because the headlines will still be the driver. And with Lewis it's the same.
"To have more than one hundred pole positions in F1 is something unthinkable. You need to have the best car and package for many, many years.
"We were doing magic laps sometimes and we were P15, how do you explain that to people? It will be impossible.
"He deserves everything he's achieved in the past but this year is a good reminder that in all those records and numbers there is a big part on what you have in your hands as a package in the car."
Asked about the relative performance between Hamilton and his new teammate, George Russell, Alonso says: "George has been very fast in the last few years and I think everyone was expecting him to be a tough competitor for Lewis. But I still believe Lewis will eventually finish the championship in front.
"This is just a five-race championship, but eventually when things are more tricky or there are difficult situations, Lewis will still have more experience and maybe more talent."