AUGUST 24, 2007

Alonso still feels like the outsider

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton may be making all the right noises about things being back to normal but the Spaniard is still not happy with the way he is treated at McLaren.

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton may be making all the right noises about things being back to normal but the Spaniard is still not happy with the way he is treated at McLaren.

"That is always very clear in any team, you know, to have equal opportunities to everybody and to have an equal car to your teammate," Alonso said on BBC Radio. "What I think sometimes is that I gave the team a lot. When I arrived in December, I remember the car I drove; I remember the results they had in 2006. And now, you know, I brought to the team half a second, six tenths, whatever, and I don't see anything giving me back."

Such statements are not going to make the team happy as McLaren consistently argues that it provides equal equipment for its two drivers. This is widely accepted to be the case within the F1 fraternity and so Alonso's remarks tend to add to the impression that he is looking for excuses for not being able to beat Hamilton, as he ought to be doing, given his experience in F1.