Alonso attacks McLaren 'bias' for Hamilton

Fernando Alonso's on-track performance in the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend, gave the first major indications of the Formula One world champion's unexpected vulnerability, as he made no fewer than four mistakes on his way to seventh place while his rookie team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, scored a devastating maiden victory. And now the Spaniard has compounded that with some remarkable criticism of the 22-year-old's success.

Alonso, who won his two world titles with Renault, had already agreed terms with McLaren in December 2005 before winning the second, but has told the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser he already had misgivings as soon as he joined McLaren officially a year later. "From the first moment, I wasn't comfortable with everything," he said. "It's an English team, with an English team-mate. You know all the help goes his way. I've understood that from the start and I'm not moaning about it."

This is a quite breathtaking comment, given that though Hamilton was the reigning GP2 champion at that time his status was far below his team-mate's. Alonso was regarded as the heir apparent to the retiring Michael Schumacher, the driver most likely to assume his mantle because he drove so coolly. He appeared to have the perfect blend of speed and consistency, without the occasionally vulnerable passion of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, or the apparent self-destructive streak of Kimi Raikkonen.

However, from this year's opening race in Australia, Hamilton has demonstrated similar pace to Alonso, and having finished third there on his debut went on to take four consecutive second places. It is believed that Alonso created such a fuss after Hamilton beat him in Spain that the McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, felt obliged to keep his champion happy by giving him the optimal strategy for the Monaco Grand Prix, during which Hamilton was called in earlier than necessary in order to protect Alonso's chances, and was later instructed very firmly over the radio by Dennis not to launch any challenge.

The Englishman, from Tewin in Hertfordshire, took pole in Canada before scoring his first win. Going into this weekend's US Grand Prix in Indianapolis, he leads the World Championship, eight points ahead of Alonso. The latter's poor result in Montreal owed much to bad luck, as he had to pit for fuel just as the safety car was deployed for the first time and inadvertently contravened a new rule. His subsequent penalty dropped him down the order.

"Yes, Lewis's win is very good for the team," he said. "But it was very lucky as well, as we were on very similar strategies and if the safety car [had come] out one lap before Lewis's stop we would have been eighth and ninth."

While that might have been true, Alonso tried to excuse his afternoon of errors by saying that when you are in the midfield you have to push harder than ever, yet three of his four mistakes came before the safety car incident; he messed up the first corner for the second time in three races, then went off again on laps 15 and 19. Hamilton drove flawlessly while lapping at similar speed. Observers would have been forgiven for thinking that the driver in car No 2 was the veteran, the driver in car No 1 the rookie.

"I'm relaxed," Alonso nevertheless maintained. "I'm good, though I know there is some impatience for the way I arrived and how I am expected to dominate. I'm where I want to be and I have clear options for winning the title, which is what we want."

Support for him came from Heikki Kovalainen, his former team-mate at Renault, who insists the 26-year-old champion won't be feeling pressure. "I don't think Lewis has any impact on him," the Finn said. "Fernando is mentally very tough. He pushes very hard for the win every race and mistakes can happen when you race like that.

"Yes, he might have made a mistake in Barcelona and one in Canada, and because they have happened in a short period of time it looks very dramatic, but I don't think it affects him. He is going to be fighting for the championship for sure."

But Dennis is aware his biggest challenge may be preventing the infighting between his two stars from escalating into the all-out on-track war that characterised McLaren's partnership of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the late Eighties.

Car wars: The fiercest F1 inter-team battles

Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann (Williams 1981)

After the Argentine refused to obey team orders and concede the 1981 Brazilian GP to the Aussie battler, Jones was kept alive by his detestation of him. Reutemann lost the championship to Nelson Piquet in the final race, in Las Vegas. The race winner Jones delighted in humiliating him by lapping him.

Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell (Williams 1986-87)

There was never any love lost here. Like Alonso with Hamilton, Piquet often bleated about Mansell's speed. The Englishman narrowly lost the title due to a puncture in the last race in 1986, and was generally the quicker, but Piquet, who called Mansell a "blockhead", won the title by stealth in 1987.

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost (McLaren 1988-89)

This was the greatest inter-team war of them all as Prost accepted Senna into his team for 1988. In 1989 their rivalry reached fever pitch and by mid-season Prost had already signed for Ferrari for 1990. The simmering acrimony finally boiled over at Suzuka, where they collided in the chicane.