“Lewis Hamilton didn’t co-operate and was straightforward disobeying”: When former McLaren boss delivered the verdict on contentious moment in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's teammate rivalry at McLaren in 2007 saw a peak of frenzy at the Hungarian GP qualifying. Former team boss Martin Whitmarsh revealed in 2020 how the Briton was non-cooperative in his debut year, which led to the famous fallout.

The Spaniard arrived at the Woking-based squad in 2007 as the reigning champion and was paired with a rookie driver in the form of Hamilton. F1 paddock chatter regarded the intra-team dynamics as remaining one-sided in favor of Alonso, but the initial assumptions were entirely different from on-ground reality.

The two traded several wins across the start of the season, and the tensions between the two reached a boiling point at the qualifying for the Hungarian GP after Hamilton disobeyed team orders. Subsequently, in retaliation, Fernando Alonso halted the Briton in the pit box to prevent him from having his final run in the final minute of the session.

Reflecting on how Lewis Hamilton had grown heedless, Whitmarsh said in a BBC feature on the seven-time champion:

"Lewis [Hamilton] didn’t co-operate with the team or Fernando [Alonso] and that was straightforward disobeying. He impetuously wanted to win."

The 2007 season left a sour taste in both drivers' camps as Alonso and McLaren agreed to part ways at the end of the campaign through mutual agreement.

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When Fernando Alonso talked about his and Lewis Hamilton's fallout in 2007

Fernando Alonso (L) and Lewis Hamilton (R) at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Fernando Alonso had joined McLaren with the hopes of continuing his championship-winning streak. However, Lewis Hamilton's reluctance to obey team orders and their eventual fallout saw the pair lose the title to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by a solitary point at the season finale.

The two-time champion revealed in 2024 how the failure to contain the situation at the Woking-based squad was down to then-team principal Ron Dennis, as he said (via GPBlog):

"There were a lot of things that year that disrupted the harmony. We were young, immature and we had a lot of clashes. We had a boss who didn't know how to control the situation. This would not have happened with Flavio Briatore. Or with Lawrence Stroll. We had too much control as drivers and nobody gave us any serious warning."

"I think it remains under lock and key. I erased a lot of things from my memory, I would have to recall a lot of memories to go into detail. It was a difficult year, in which Hamilton and I were mostly to blame for our immaturity and lack of teamwork," he added.

On the other hand, after Alonso's departure, Hamilton won the F1 world championship in the subsequent year, while the former reunited with Renault for a two-year stint that ended in 2009.