ISTANBUL, Turkey — Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton agreed to start afresh after their clash in Hungary when each obstructed the other’s qualifying runs. The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes management also stepped in to iron out the whole mess and its repercussions.
“After the last race (Hungary), I called Fernando and said, ‘Look, we can’t spend the next three weeks without talking while the media report that we’re at war, when really we’re not’,” Hamilton told the British press. “We need to discuss things and move forward. We’re teammates and have to get on.
“He agreed, but we didn’t meet until last Thursday (prior to the Turkish Grand Prix.) First of all, we discussed the holidays we’ve just taken, but I put my hand up and apologized for all that happened at the last race and he said, ‘Yeah, me too.’
“We agreed we didn’t have a problem with each other and needed to push on and fight for the world title on the team’s behalf.”
On the Thursday prior to the race in Turkey, the McLaren drivers did not make their usual appearance at the track to meet with their engineers and the media. Instead, they stayed in the city center of Istanbul where McLaren staged a series of meetings.
“We laid everything out in a long meeting that started at 2 p.m. and finished at 8:30 in the evening,” McLaren director Ron Dennis said. “That wasn’t with both drivers all the time. It was with different elements of the meetings, some with management and some with the drivers. It was a complete run through of the relationship from beginning to end.
“We went into the meeting with the clear intention of coming out with everybody pointing in the right direction.”
Alonso said he has no problems with Hamilton.
“I talked with Lewis,” Alonso said. “Not to laugh, because it is not a funny thing, but about how we have been in the press all summer, creating this fight between each other. I have no problems with him at all, and he has no problems with me at all.
“After what happened in Hungary, we talked to each other. And everything is so clear. We try to understand about why everybody wants to put us in a fight, because it is just not true.”
The relationship between Dennis and Alonso still needs some work, but Alonso said he will probably stay at McLaren for the three years of his contract.
“There are not many options I think, and I have a contract with McLaren so the possibilities for the near future are around here, driving for McLaren,” Alonso said. “As far as I know that is the only possibility.”
Is Alonso happy at McLaren?
“As far as I have a winning car, I’m happy,” he said. “This year we have a winning car; we are first and second in the drivers (championship) and leading the constructors, so I am happy.”
The long break between the races in Hungary and Turkey provided the perfect opportunity for the whole McLaren team to let things chill down. Now it’s up to the team to keep the situation under control as its two drivers fight for the world championship in the final five races of the season.