Alonso and Hamilton: Senna and Prost All Over Again?

Recently, Fernando Alonso has been making sure he is always in the headlines. His lucky victory in Singapore, followed by a surprise second victory in Japan have shown he has lost none of his skill since his championship years, but any sportsmanlike behaviour seems to have gone out of the window.

I'm sure you can remember the qualifying incident in Hungary 2007, where Alonso blocked Hamilton in the pits so he was unable to do another fast lap, and the rest of his season at Mclaren was spent in a feud with his team-mate and Ron Dennis. Alonso claimed that Mclaren were giving Hamilton the advantage in their championship bid; supplying him with better equipment, favouring his strategy etc. I believe that it was this tension within the team that cost Mclaren a world championship in 2007, and this bitter relationship has now carried on into 2008.

In a Spanish newspaper, Alonso was reported as saying "without doubt, I will help Massa", referring to his bid for the championship, and then went on to say that it was "good [Hamilton] was punished", despite him unaware of the reason of Hamilton's penalty. This jibe is clearly aimed at his former employers Mclaren, and he confirmed his statements in the Thursday press conference at Shanghai.

Alonso is a very skilled driver, but you have to question his sportsmanship when he makes comments like this. However, look at it like this: Two drivers who do not like each other after being team-mates at Mclaren; One a feisty Latino driver who has had great success, the other a driver with great talent. This situation has occurred before, in the case of Senna and Prost, and we all know what happened when they were fighting for championships.

It was this problematic relationship between Senna and Prost under similar circumstances that caused the two to collide at pivotal stages in 1989 and 1990, and in my eyes the only reason why this still resulted in world title success for the two drivers is that there was no-one else at the time who could mount an effective challenge for Mclaren.

Now I'm not saying that Alonso would try and force Hamilton off the track in either of the last two races, but it does leave you suspicious that some kind of incident between the two could be a major factor in the outcome of this world championship. Hamilton accused Massa of deliberately trying to force him off in Fuji, so at the minute they are not the best of friends either. Last year, the relationship between the top two drivers in the championship allowed the third placed driver in the standings to steal the world title from under the nose of Mclaren.

Enter Robert Kubica...