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Alonso-Mclaren split: Off track rivalry
It seemed a match made in heaven -- Fernando Alonso the double world champion joining the ambitious McLaren team.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: November 05, 2007 01:44 PM IST
Read Time:2 min
New Delhi:
But in the end, what it turned out was a marriage made in hell.
On Friday, the final rites of that unhappy marriage were performed when Alonso quit the team after an unhappy season that was dominated by spying scandals and frequent bust-ups inside the team - most notably with his supremely talented teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso - What Went Wrong
Fernando Alonso made his debut for Minardi in 2001, but it was his move to Renault the following season that saw the start of something big.
Renault Boss Flavio Briatore at the time of signing him called him a special talent.
With Michael Schumacher at the end of his career, Alonso was seen to be the man who could take over.
And that soon became a reality in 2005, when Alonso won the world championship with 7 race wins, thus ending Schumacher's five-year dominance of the sport. At 24, he became Formula 1's youngest champion.
After repeating his triumph the following season in 2007, he joined McLaren
It seemed all was right - an ambitious team- the double world champion at one end and the budding young prodigy Lewis Hamilton on the other.
But Alonso frequently complained of partial treatment towards his team-mate and the relationship between the two was in a way fractured after Alonso found the biggest threat to his crown came from his teammate not that the fans were pleased.
With Alonso quitting the team, one may just hope for the sake of the sport that these two drivers form a formidable rivalry on the track and not off it.
It seemed a match made in heaven -- Fernando Alonso, the double world champion joining the ambitious McLaren team.But in the end, what it turned out was a marriage made in hell.
On Friday, the final rites of that unhappy marriage were performed when Alonso quit the team after an unhappy season that was dominated by spying scandals and frequent bust-ups inside the team - most notably with his supremely talented teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso - What Went Wrong
Fernando Alonso made his debut for Minardi in 2001, but it was his move to Renault the following season that saw the start of something big.
Renault Boss Flavio Briatore at the time of signing him called him a special talent.
With Michael Schumacher at the end of his career, Alonso was seen to be the man who could take over.
And that soon became a reality in 2005, when Alonso won the world championship with 7 race wins, thus ending Schumacher's five-year dominance of the sport. At 24, he became Formula 1's youngest champion.
After repeating his triumph the following season in 2007, he joined McLaren
It seemed all was right - an ambitious team- the double world champion at one end and the budding young prodigy Lewis Hamilton on the other.
But Alonso frequently complained of partial treatment towards his team-mate and the relationship between the two was in a way fractured after Alonso found the biggest threat to his crown came from his teammate not that the fans were pleased.
With Alonso quitting the team, one may just hope for the sake of the sport that these two drivers form a formidable rivalry on the track and not off it.
Topics mentioned in this article
Formula 1 Renault Fernando Alonso Italian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton McLaren
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