The myth and merit in Alonso's Hamilton F1 racing claim at Spa

He was so keen to send another ‘karma’ message to a vanquished rival, he missed his engineer's increasingly firm radio instructions to adjust a car setting.

Just as Fernando Alonso once delighted in learning Jolyon Palmer’s Renault had exited the 2017 Italian Grand Prix, he was again sending a message as he wagged his finger at Lewis Hamilton’s stricken Mercedes while passing by under safety car conditions early in last Sunday’s Spa race.

As you’ll well know, the pair had clashed at Les Combes on the previous lap – the race’s first tour. Hamilton, on the outside line having blasted ahead even with a draggy Mercedes and the reduced 2022 slipstream effect, turned across his rival's bow. Alonso did his best to move across but was left with nowhere to go on the inside kerb. The contact sent the Mercedes skywards and eventually out of the race.

Alonso fumed as only he can: “What an idiot! Closing the door from the outside… we had a mega start, but this guy only knows how to drive starting first!”

Aside from the negative impact the incident had on the race, four things really stand out now Formula 1 is a few days removed and heading towards Zandvoort for Max Verstappen’s latest home race.

Let’s start with Alonso. This whole episode simply highlights his worth to F1.

There’s his obvious skill (outqualifying both Mercedes cars and getting stuck in with Sergio Perez at the start once the engine-change grid penalties had demoted the also-excellent-last-weekend Esteban Ocon in the other Alpine). And then there’s the entertainment factor of his radio messages and gesturing.

The Hamilton-Alonso clash into Les Combes rolled back the years, complete with pithy Alonso reaction...

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At 41, every time Alonso signs a new F1 deal various sections of the internet begin to howl about how this is preventing legions of junior drivers from joining the grid. There’s surely a cross section with those who criticise Red Bull for dropping drivers it thinks won’t make the cut, as its want as a deeply invested backer…

And while some F1 legends have indeed held on far too long (Kimi Raikkonen fans look away now, but enjoy the excellent NASCAR foray), Alonso is still performing. Go back and look at his Canada qualifying. It was on the edge and brilliant in the wet, but he knew immediately the Alpine would go backwards in the dry race.

In conditions where his package can compete or circumstances stymie the frontrunners, he can hang on for glory – a la Qatar last year. F1 is simply better for having Alonso on the grid. The PR quandary around his forthright radio messages in an Aston Martin next year will surely be exquisite to witness given that team’s hierarchy.

Racing in the pack is difficult. Ask George Russell how hard he found suddenly jostling with others in 2020 having been off the back for basically all of 2019

But going back to the Les Combes crash, the rest of the takeaways concern Hamilton and Mercedes.

"It was definitely my fault,” Hamilton said after his long, dusty return to the paddock. “I just didn't leave quite enough space and I paid the price for it. It wasn't intentional. It just happened."

The incident was clearly Hamilton’s fault and he owned it. This is to his credit. But to suggest the reason why it happened is because the majority of Hamilton’s 103 F1 wins have come from pole is disingenuous at best.

Firstly, Alonso does have more experience racing in and winning in the pack (18 of his 32 victories are from second or lower). But this conveniently ignores the career move decisions that meant he hasn’t had a consistently frontrunning package for most of the time passed since 2007 and that tumultuous time he and Hamilton were McLaren team-mates.

Although the two drivers generally share respect today, Hamilton and Alonso had a fractious relationship as team-mates in 2007

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And, Alonso has 14 wins from pole himself – the highest number of victories from any grid spot on the Spaniard’s palmares. This just reflects F1’s nature, that the fastest package starting at the front simply will win more often than not. There’s also a sprinkling of the ‘car-not-the-driver’ debate at work too.

Racing in the pack is difficult. The dirty air effect is reduced with the new designs, but’s not totally gone. Ask George Russell how hard he found suddenly jostling with others in 2020 having been off the back for basically all of 2019. Errors such as Russell’s at the second Austrian race in the first pandemic season can happen. So too can Hamilton’s Les Combes gaffe.

Also, Hamilton’s most high-profile recent collisions (say, with Alex Albon at Brazil 2019 and Austria 2020 race one) haven’t come in the lap one jostling the stewards’ considered to be such an important factor at Spa they opted not to impose an additional penalty given they rightly found Hamilton to be at fault.

Silverstone 2021 is the exception of course, but there were so many other considerations at play, that one can’t be chalked up to a simple misjudgement. Hamilton knew what he was doing but had to do it or see Verstappen extend his lead and run of bolshy moves. It worked out for the Briton, but his penalty there was justified.

Finally on Alonso’s Spa radio claim, Hamilton does have 42 wins from below pole starts. This does naturally reflect how many more races he’s entered versus successful drivers from earlier eras, but it proves he can win without heading the grid. It’s the ‘can’t race’ argument unjustifiably flung at Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull domination a decade ago. Snappy, but wrong.

The third big takeaway from this oh-so-excellent storm in a racing teacup, however, is that this was another big Hamilton error.

It’s right up there alongside Imola and Baku in 2021, plus perhaps Abu Dhabi lap one last year (where Hamilton went off under pressure from Verstappen by playing the established racing rules game in the only way he could by scampering across the ensuing runoff then lifting off).

Hamilton's Imola off was another of his mistakes in the past two seasons

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These major mistakes are starting to add up and as we know Hamilton is closer to the end of his career than the start, therefore we are likely correspondingly nearer to establishing that F1 has indeed passed 'peak' Hamilton. Or Hamilton at his very best consistently for a less brusque statement.

Yet, Hamilton in 2022, even with all the difficulties of the unpredictable W13, is still excellent. Consider his recovery drive in Spain, his Silverstone battling and pace against the faster Ferraris. Plus, his Canada and France podium runs and impressive Hungary gains.

With all that established leaving Spa, might we finally wonder just how F1 may be longing for a renewed Red Bull vs Mercedes fight in 2023?

"It was definitely my fault. I just didn't leave quite enough space and I paid the price for it. It wasn't intentional. It just happened"Lewis Hamilton

Verstappen is still ascending and Hamilton apparently descending. That is the potent and brilliant mix witnessed in 2021 and so piles pressure on Mercedes as it evaluates totally altering its 2023 car concept compared to what it has now (although it’s not as simple as ditching the ‘zero-pod’ element).

Ferrari is showing it can't sustain a title challenge and Red Bull is surely more likely to pull further away from the Scuderia as the current rules package matures.

Verstappen was sensational at Spa. His victory from 14th on the grid having put in a chasm to the rest in qualifying was right up there with the best drives of the modern era and matches the brilliance of Hamilton's Brazil 2021 recovery, although perhaps without the righteous fury element the 37-year-old displayed across two races that weekend.

But, although driver off-track politicking can pack another season of ‘Drive to Survive’, F1 surely can't afford to have races decided before half distance too often to sustain its current popularity boom...

Alonso got away from the Hamilton incident unscathed

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