Hamilton made Alonso ‘almost always angry’ at McLaren

Lewis Hamilton had Fernando Alonso in a state of near-permanent fury when they were McLaren team-mates, it has been claimed.

The source is an anonymous insider quoted in a biography of Hamilton by journalist Frank Worrall, and the quote has been picked up by Sky Germany.

Alonso, after winning back-to-back World Championships with Renault, moved to McLaren for the 2007 season and was partnered by an F1 rookie in Hamilton.

Any theories about the Spaniard being the team’s undisputed number one driver were quickly blown out of the water as the young Briton was right on the pace from the outset, finishing the year level on points with Alonso – and only one behind the World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen.

It was a season when the McLaren duo clashed internally and Alonso did not stick around for a second campaign, hotfooting it straight back to Renault where he spent two more years before making a more permanent switch to Ferrari.

Sky Germany have picked out the following quote from Worrall’s book: “Lewis was unique. He put in more than most experienced drivers and just had that gift in the car. Alonso was therefore almost always angry.”

In recent times, there have been no denials, especially on Alonso’s side, about the frostiness of the relationship between the two drivers while they were colleagues 15 years ago.

It appeared things had thawed out between them over the intervening years, although Alonso did say last autumn it is “maybe colder than it used to be” between he and Hamilton compared to previously.

The 40-year-old laid the blame for the 2007 problems at McLaren’s door and said in November: “We (he and Hamilton) talked in 2008, 2010 and 2011 and we were closer than ever in those years because we understood that in 2007 we