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F1 pundit Johnny Herbert feels that Fernando Alonso's support for Max Verstappen and compliments on him are due to his lingering bitterness towards Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard has always spoken highly of the Dutch driver.
After the Red Bull driver secured pole position, the Spaniard said that only Max could do things like these in a car. Alonso was even more complimentary after the race on Sunday when Max Verstappen ended up winning, as he compared the Dutch driver's campaign with his failed bid in 2012.
Talking about why Alonso complimented the Red Bull driver, Herbert told PokerFirma that this was primarily because the Spaniard was still bitter about what happened with Lewis Hamilton in 2007.
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In 2007, Fernando Alonso joined McLaren to be the lead driver and fight for the title with the team. This coincided with Lewis Hamilton's debut, and his speed shocked everyone, including the Spaniard. This would lead to a complete fallout between Alonso and the team and, subsequently, a departure from the team.
Hebert felt that Fernando Alonso's bitterness is one of the reasons behind him supporting Max Verstappen. He said:
“I understand why Fernando Alonso is very supportive of Max Verstappen. Max and Fernando haven't been teammates. Lewis and Fernando have been teammates. It was a two-time world champion in Alonso who was full of confidence at the top of his game at McLaren in 2007."
Herbert added:
"He expected Hamilton as the young whippersnapper, to be easily beatable. And it didn't happen that way. So then that fight happened that season harmed the relationship at the end of the day from that point on. Purely because Lewis came in with a mighty bang and Alonso didn't have it all his own way. “And he's probably still got a lingering bitterness because of what happened at McLaren.”
Johnny Herbert gets Fernando Alonso's support for Max Verstappen and bitterness towards Lewis Hamilton
Herbert felt that he understood where Fernando Alonso's bitterness towards Lewis Hamilton came from. The Spaniard would feel that he should have been backed by Ron Dennis in 2007, but that didn't happen. As a result, Alonso's career also took a downturn, as he never won another title.
He said:
“I get that as a driver. You do get frustrated when you fully believe that you can do the job, and he probably felt he wasn't supported as much as he felt he should have been by Ron Dennis. So anyway, respect to Max. He's the guy that's delivering even when he went into a weekend saying, ‘I've got no chance.’”
The trio of Alonso, Hamilton, and Verstappen did get the opportunity to battle it out for a while in 2023 when Aston Martin had a decent enough car. The team's decline has meant that fans haven't seen the three champions battle it out much on the same piece of tarmac.
