Fernando Alonso downplays Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s nine world titles

Fernando Alonso has refuted any suggestion that either Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen helped “build” their respective successes at Mercedes and Red Bull. Hamilton’s era of dominance in F1 came to an end in 2021 when Verstappen finally picked up the first World Championship title of his young career.

The Dutchman has been unstoppable since then and this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix marks an opportunity for him to win a record 10th consecutive race. His unprecedented success over the past two years has put Verstappen on the verge of making it three world titles in as many years, passing Alonso’s tally of two.

Verstappen’s dominance has been likened to the same period Hamilton enjoyed with Mercedes. Both racers will go down in history as two of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, along with Alonso.

But the Spaniard stopped short of paying his rivals credit in helping “build” the success they’ve had, insisting they were simply in the right place at the right time. “I think this is something that is always said about drivers ‘building’ teams,” he told the Telegraph.

“But when Lewis went to Mercedes, he didn’t ‘build’ anything. It was just a change in regulations that built everything for him. And when Max joined Toro Rosso and Red Bull it was still Hamilton winning everything.

“He didn’t ‘build’ a winning Red Bull team. In 2021 it was very close between them, and now with the change in regulations last year Red Bull win every race so far this season. So I don’t know exactly what we mean when we say you can ‘build’ teams around you because I think this is a sport where, you know, technical decisions, technical regulations, inspiration from the design office or wind tunnel or something like that normally makes more difference than your input, your feedback, your personality, or your way of driving.”

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Alonso came close on multiple occasions to adding to his two world titles and he’s hoping another opportunity will present itself with Aston Martin. There’s not much the 42-year-old regrets in his illustrious F1 career, but not being able to end Ferrari’s long wait for another world champion was one of them.

“I mean if I could change one thing in my career it would be that,” he added. “At McLaren we were also very close. Only one point. But probably we didn’t deserve it by, you know, the way we handled things.

“But in Ferrari, I felt that we did things quite right. We were fighting maybe with an inferior car until the end. So if I could change one thing in my career, I will probably change that.”

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