"Fernando Alonso is terrified Lewis Hamilton will do what he couldn't": Fans react to the Spaniard claiming Adrian Newey adds more value than the Brit

F1 fans were left agitated after Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso claimed that Lewis Hamilton would have less impact on Ferrari than Adrian Newey. Newey and Hamilton's departures from Red Bull and Mercedes were arguably two of the biggest switches last year, which saw a chaotic driver market that started during the winter break.

Both parties had rock-solid relationships with their previous teams and achieved a lot of success. But the news of them leaving the teams sent waves in the world of motorsport. While the aero wizard would officially join the British team on March 3, the seven-time F1 world champion will have his first race in Melbourne with Ferrari.

Speaking to the media at the F175 Launch, Fernando Alonso was bullish about Adrian Newey's impact on Aston Martin and compared to Lewis Hamilton's influence on the Italian team, saying (via PlanetF1):

“Adrian Newey will always have more impact than any driver. Drivers come and go, the 20 of us here try to drive well and we have achieved things until we get to F1. I don’t know what Hamilton will bring or add to Ferrari, it will surely be less than what a designer can bring.”

F1 fans took to social media to give their reactions to Fernando Alonso's comments on Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey on X, with one fan claiming:

"Alonso is terrified Lewis will do what he couldn't."

"Classic Alonso waffle. Sorry, who's got 7 championships?"

"Hamilton will be adding more to Ferrari than you ever will to Aston."

"Is Alonso still affected by the 2007 season?? Put a period on it and move on. Let it go," claimed another.

"Alonso calling Max a Newey merchant," asked a fan.

"It's true. There are a lot of great drivers. Not many Newey's out there. But Alonso should also know how important the engine is. Honda has fallen behind in engine development," said another.

Fernando Alonso previews the 2025 season after the AMR25 launch

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso stated that the British team were "in a better place" at the start of the 2025 season after the Silverstone-based team launched its new car on February 23.

Speaking with BBC, the two-time F1 world champion reflected on the team's chances of closing the gap to the top teams and said:

"We think we will catch up pretty soon. We did learn a lot last year, the second part of the season [there were] a lot of experiments going on in the way of learning more things in the 2025 car.

"The simulator has been updated so we have been working a lot in the sim to develop the car a little bit more precisely than the last few seasons. We have new tools, new organization, new people in place to tackle some of the weaknesses we identified last year, so we start in a much better place."

Fernando Alonso was the only ray of hope in a disappointing 2024 season for the Aston Martin F1 team, as the latter struggled to get points consistently.