Alonso feels for 'super-talented' Hulkenberg

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Fernando Alonso says the lack of opportunity for drivers such as the "super-talented" Nico Hulkenberg puts his own frustrations in perspective.

Having moved from Ferrari to McLaren, Alonso has yet to score a podium in the past two seasons and looks a long way from being able to add to his tally of two world championships. However, with 2015 Le Mans winner Hulkenberg still yet to score an F1 podium in his career, Alonso says he takes a more optimistic view of his own struggles as a result.

"I have been lucky to win two world titles," Alonso told Sky Sports. "There are people who are very talented who have never had the opportunity.

"I was on the track parade with Nico [Hulkenberg, who started] on the front row in Austria and he was hoping for his first podium. He is a super-talented driver so l cannot be frustrated when l don't win this or achieve that."

Reflecting on that opportunity, Hulkenberg himself says starting from such a high grid position - achieved as a result of a rain-hit qualifying session - can lead to false hope and present more challenges.

"In Austria a few things came together," Hulkenberg said. "In hindsight, starting on the front row is great and nice, but after all not that good because you know when you have the quick cars coming through, then it costs a lot of lap time.

"Also not great for the tyres and it just put us in a bit of a difficult position strategy wise as well. It would have been better if we had started really where the car pace was, like seventh or eighth."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.