Fernando Alonso believes that Max Verstappen's two world titles carry more value than the seven championships won by Lewis Hamilton during his career.
In a banner year for Red Bull and Verstappen, the Dutchman clinched his second crown in F1 earlier this month in Japan, while his first title was achieved in 2021 after a fierce battle with Hamilton that went down to the wire and to the last lap in Abu Dhabi.
Alonso casts a different perspective on the two champion's achievements and believes that Mercedes' engineering excellence in F1's hybrid era played a big role in Hamilton's success.
"I have a lot of respect for Lewis, but still it is different when you win seven world titles when you only had to fight with your team-mate," the two-time F1 world champion told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
"Then I think a championship has less value than when you have fewer titles but have had to fight against other drivers with equal or even better material.
"In 2005 and 2006, I had a good start to the year myself and was able to create a lead. Then others might have had a better car, but I was able to manage that gap.
"I never had to fight with my team-mate to win those titles. Nor did I see Max fighting with Perez or Albon to win races.
"But Schumacher in particular fought with his team-mate to become champion five times in a row and Hamilton fought with Rosberg and Bottas. That’s different, I think."
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Alonso will enjoy a reset next season when he leaves Alpine to join Aston Martin. But on paper, it's hard to imagine how the Spaniard will benefit from the move.
The 41-year-old nevertheless hopes he'll be in the mix with Team Silverstone at some point, and will therefore be able to go wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen for the first time in his F1 career.
"Actually, we have hardly fought each other," Alonso said. "That's very unfortunate. I want to fight with the best drivers and Max is part of that.
"I have been lucky enough to fight with Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher in the past, but I have never had that chance with Max.
"Hopefully that will still happen in the coming years when I drive for Aston Martin."
Update:
Alonso's comments on Verstappen and Hamilton triggered a wave of controversy on social media on Saturday, which encouraged the Spaniard to take to Twitter to respond to the backlash.
And again…
Please, all the titles are amazing, well deserved and inspiring. Incomparable to each other and let’s enjoy champions and legends of our current time. Tired of the continuous search for headlines . Let's enjoy them 💪.— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) October 29, 2022
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