Former McLaren F1 team mechanic Mark Priestley claims Fernando Alonso once handed out brown envelopes full of cash, so he preferred being in his garage over Lewis Hamilton .
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were teammates for just one year, but the partnership irritated each other.
With Lewis Hamilton making his F1 debut as a rookie and Fernando Alonso establishing himself as a two-time world champion, future seven-time world champion Hailton is expected to fill a role second only to Alonso. It was soon proved that this was not the case.
The rift between the two culminated when Fernando Alonso deliberately stayed out of the pits to delay Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying attack for the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
But it became clear that the dirty tactics weren’t just confined to the track.
McLaren mechanic-turned-mediaman Mark Priestley told PitStop that Fernando Alonso once handed him a brown envelope containing €1,500.
“One of Fernando’s tactics is to pull the whole team to his side of the garage. He tries to wrestle with control,” said 45-year-old Mark Praestley.
“In 2007 Fernando showed up at the race and when I arrived Fernando’s manager or his trainer was handing out little brown envelopes filled with cash to everyone who wasn’t in Lewis’ car.
“His team, his support team, I ran the T Carr team, and I remember all of us receiving that little brown envelope and opening the envelope. There was like €1,500 in it. “
“It was very dangerous. First I got a brown envelope with nothing written on it. It was like, ‘Thank you very much for that. What is this?’ It was full.”
“I started looking around and all my colleagues started asking ‘Did you open it? was just
“Suddenly it started to become clear what happened here. He was trying to get support. For example, people were working to support his side in this fierce battle.”
However, the tactic failed when the McLaren F1 team discovered it and forced the recipient to donate the cash to charity.
“You might say it was a clever tactic, but in the end the team discovered it and had the entire amount donated to charity. This was fine, it was a little insight into two different mindsets.”
“Lewis did different things too. Lewis played a little game with the media. They all did things wrong and they did things right. None of us are perfect, but we become the best F1 drivers. They were different in how they implemented their strategies for 2019. They both achieved great results, they had their own methods and they were very different approaches.”
F1 veterans Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso now look like better friends. Alonso blamed Hamilton over the radio following his crash at Spa, but received a signed Mercedes cap from Hamilton to make up for photos.
Category: F1 / Fernando Alonso / mclaren / Lewis Hamilton
