Double World Champion Fernando Alonso has claimed the fraught 2007 season he spent at McLaren helped him mature.
Double World Champion says he grew up during fraught 2007 season
Double World Champion Fernando Alonso has claimed the fraught 2007 season he spent at McLaren helped him mature.
The Spaniard, who drives for Ferrari this season, endured an increasingly acrimonious relationship with McLaren during his stay and encountered problems both on and off the race track.
Alonso was clearly rattled by the emergence of then rookie Lewis Hamilton as his team-mate and also fell out with senior McLaren management.
Matters reached a head when he played a pivotal role in the FIA's decision to re-open its investigation in the so-called 'Spygate' saga concerning McLaren's use of confidential Ferrari data.
Although Alonso remained a title contender until the final race of the season, he quickly decided to rejoin Renault, with whom he won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
Happy to help
"2007 was very difficult but I learnt a lot personally," he told the
Guardian.
"It was good for my career to take that step of joining McLaren and growing up. I learned how to work with a team and also to withstand the media pressure.
"The difficulties I had were coming from the team and the media. Now I am much more prepared for everything in Formula One - and in life as well."
The 28-year-old said he was happy to help the FIA, whom he approached at that year's Hungarian Grand Prix after an on-track spat with Hamilton during qualifying.
McLaren were eventually fined $100 million for their part in the controversy and stripped of their Constructors' Championship points.
"With the spy history I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Alonso says. "But I was very happy to help the FIA discover everything."
Despite his troubled year at McLaren, Alonso thinks it unlikely that World Champion Jenson Button, who has joined the team this season, will encounter similar problems.
Strong
"Obviously I don't know how McLaren is now but if Jenson arrived in my time then, for sure, it would be very tough for him," he added.
"But, hopefully, it's now better for Jenson because I learned a lot from that season and McLaren did as well."
Alonso also said that any attempts to undermine his relationship with new Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa would only be a reflection of the team's success.
"People are only writing these things because they know we are very strong," he added. "Felipe and I work for the team. After so many years of course I have battled with Felipe. It's the way it is - and we'll keep having these fights.
"But Michael Schumacher and [Nico] Rosberg will have fights at Mercedes. I am sure Lewis and Jenson Button will have fights at McLaren. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel will have fights at Red Bull - in fact they were fighting last year already.
"But no one talks about this. They talk about it with Ferrari because we are in a good position."
