Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso rivalry made us look like idiots - ex-Mercedes VP

The 2007 Formula 1 season will forever be one of the most dramatic seasons in the sport’s history. Key to this was the rivalry between McLaren-Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Alonso was a two-time and defending world champion when he arrived at McLaren. Hamilton, by contrast, was a rookie. Yet the young Brit outshone his experienced teammate in the first half of the season. This led to a massive rivalry coming up between the two. Incredibly, both drivers would lose the world championship to Kimi Raikkonen, who joined Ferrari.

Indeed, former Mercedes vice-president Norbert Haug, who played a key part in bringing Mercedes back to F1, explains how heartbreaking it was to lose the title.

“We could have achieved more, for sure. I mean, we could have easily done without the Hungary saga in qualifying,” he told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“Remember? This was one of the reasons. I mean we had several reasons why they missed the championship with both drivers and we got punished because both drivers missed (by) one point at the end.

“Today I do not suffer but I suffered a lot at that time; normally you should beat your competitors, not beat yourself. But beating yourself is a lesson I learned as well: that hurts a thousand times as much if you stand in your own way -but you cannot avoid it sometimes,” he explains.

Lewis Hamilton Fernando Alonso rivalry ‘like a Hollywood movie’

Haug was left picking up the pieces after that qualifying spat in the post-session press conference. He admitted that he could not explain to reporters what happened in Hungary.

“Of course we got a lot of criticism, I mean Hungary, I was in the middle of the press conference afterwards trying to explain what’s going on – trying to explain something that is not explainable.

“We turned it around very often. Sometimes Ron (Dennis, McLaren boss) did the press briefings and sometimes I did. It was my turn in Hungary. I looked like an idiot of course – how could I explain things like that? Certainly not our best qualifying but very remarkable, indeed.

“Again, if you write that down, it’s a Hollywood movie; forget it, nobody will believe that,” he says.

The team situation was so bad that Alonso left after just one season. Hamilton, meanwhile, stayed on till the end of 2012 and won a championship too with McLaren.

However, his biggest success came under Mercedes, whom he joined in 2013. He won six world driver’s championships wih them.