Fernando Alonso would have come out a stronger person had he remained at McLaren after his tension-fraught season with Lewis Hamilton, according to Steve Nielsen.Alonso's one and only season with McLaren saw the double World Champion partnered with Hamilton, who was in his rookie campaign. However, the latter's results were by no means that of a rookie.
Hamilton took the fight to Alonso out on track, causing a great deal of tension within the team as the Spaniard was not given the number one status that he had been guaranteed at his previous team, Renault.
The on-track feud soon turned into off-track drama with reports of in-fighting and favouritism making headlines as did McLaren's involvement in the Stepneygate spy scandal.
The end result was that Alonso left McLaren at the end of that one season to return to Renault. However, if he had been the Spaniard's manager, Renault's sporting director Steve Nielsen says he would have told Alonso to stay and fight Hamilton.
"Fernando was clearly our No1 driver. I think he liked that. And when he joined McLaren, I'm sure he expected the same thing," Nielsen told eurosport.fr.
"But McLaren treat their drivers equally and Lewis, even though in his first year in F1, was very fast. Fernando was shocked at having been denied No1 status and surprised by Lewis's speed. It was an uncomfortable situation for him.
"From there his relationship with McLaren deteriorated and everything about it has been published (in the Stepneygate scandal). We know what happened and he came back (to Renault).
"In fact, I think - and I do not know if he agrees with me on this but he knows I love him - that return to us was probably a mistake.
"If I had been his manager at the time, I would have said: 'Listen, you have to do this, stay and beat this guy.
"Firstly because you have the best car now, secondly because your best chance of being Champion next season is by still driving for McLaren.'
"I think he would have come out stronger."
Source: Planet F1
No comments:
Post a Comment