Rookie teammate's strong start has Alonso rattled
MADRID: World champion Fernando Alonso said on Tuesday he felt a little uneasy with the euphoria surrounding McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton's impressive start in Formula One.
Briton Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One victory on Sunday, keeping his cool to win a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix and take an eight-point lead over Alonso after six races.
"From the first moment I wasn't completely comfortable with everything (at McLaren). I am in an English team, with an English team mate, who is doing brilliantly," Alonso told the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
"We knew all the help and support would be for him. It is something I understand and I don't complain.
"I have won two races from six, have had four podium finishes and have earned 40 points. I will definitely be challenging for the title again at the end of the year."
When asked if he felt some of the mechanics in the team celebrated Hamilton's successes more than his, Alonso said: "I have sensed it a little, but I understand it, it's an English team."
The 25-year-old went on to shrug off the British media's ecstatic reaction to Hamilton's victory in Canada.
"I am indifferent to it. We know how they are and luckily the Spanish press have a little more respect than their English counterparts," he added.
Team chief Ron Dennis told the McLaren Web site (www.mclaren.com) that neither driver was being favoured.
"It's completely understandable that the results of each Grand Prix are going to provide both the British and the Spanish media with an opportunity to hang on every word that the drivers say," he said.
"There is a healthy competition between the teams working on each car -- this is inevitable and there is no issue with that.
"However I can categorically state once again that both drivers have equal equipment, equal support and equal opportunity to win within the team and both Fernando and Lewis know and support this.
"Fernando's comments when read carefully are correct," added Dennis. "he hasn't been with the team long and the relationship can only continue to develop. The team is not going to do anything to jeopardise this positive and growing partnership."
Agencies
(China Daily 06/14/2007 page23)
