Why Alonso and Hamilton need each other

Never before have Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton needed each other like now. For if either man is going to turn their slim hopes of beating Sebastian Vettel into an actual World Championship this year, then they know they'll need a lending hand.

The current deficits that both men have, with Hamilton 82 and Alonso 86 points behind Vettel, are big enough to effectively mean that if they battle alone then the championship is gone.

They cannot realistically expect Vettel to retire three times on the bounce while they win races to slash the gap, and by themselves they would need a great deal of good fortune to take the average of 10 points out of Vettel at each race that is needed to win the crown.

Yet there is another way, and one that has plenty of fascinating implications should it play out over the rest of the campaign.

For, with the performance of the top three teams having tightened up over the past few races, it was interesting over the German Grand Prix weekend to hear that both Hamilton and Alonso realised that perhaps there did remain a route to the crown: that of seeing the other man actually come to their aid by finishing right behind them.

What Alonso and Hamilton really want is the other one to become their rear gunner, shadowing them on track and finishing as a buffer to Vettel to ensure that the points turnaround happens quickly enough to keep the title alive. And sure enough, that 10 points target is what Vettel would lose to the winner if there is another car between them.

Vettel still has a healthy lead © sutton-images.com

Hamilton and Alonso are mega talents - and both are driven by the conviction that given the right machinery, they are more than able to bring the World Championship home to their teams.

They thrive on pushing their troops forward, and all the frustrations in their careers come at times when they feel their talent and ability to deliver success is being squandered by factors that they have got no direct control over. Cue Alonso's explosive relationship with Ron Dennis over the way he ran his team in 2007, or Hamilton's hot-headed dash to see Christian Horner after qualifying in Canada this year.

Right now, the pair are getting fired on not by negative thoughts about opportunities that have gone begging this year, but of the positive ambition that the 2011 championship is not yet a lost cause. It is something proved not just by gut feeling, but by solid statistics.

For while the story at the start of the season was of Vettel walking away with this championship, the situation heading into each race now is not so clear. And a look at the results of the last few races makes for some interesting reading about who is on form right now.

Looking at the last five races, which is a long enough period to get rid of freak circumstances, the points haul of the leaders would be: Vettel 98, Alonso 79, Mark Webber 72 and Hamilton 57.

More interestingly, if you pull the example forward to discount Canada, where Alonso crashed out - having been on the front row and looking set to challenge for the win - the situation looks even more interesting.

Had the championship started at Valencia, then it would read: Alonso 61, Vettel 55, Hamilton 49 and Webber 45.

With four different winners from the last four races (considering we had two in the first six) it definitely looks more open now than it did earlier in the year - especially now that Ferrari is also up there and ready to muscle in on what started out as an exclusive McLaren/Red Bull battle.

Add into that mix the fact that Webber now seems to have got on top of the Pirelli tyre characteristics to give further opportunity to dent Vettel's points chances, and it is all bubbling up for an intriguing second half of the campaign.

So can Alonso/Hamilton close down on Vettel?

The main answer to that will be based on how Vettel goes on from here. Was the Nurburgring performance simply the result of poor tyre warm-up and degradation issues relating to the track characteristics or was it the sign of a man starting to feel a bit of pressure now that the championship is getting within touching distance?

If Vettel bounces back in Hungary this weekend - where there should not be any tyre temperature issues - then it would be pretty much game over for both Alonso and Hamilton.

Hamilton leads Alonso in Germany © sutton-images.com

However, if the pair continue to battle it out at the front of the grid - with both McLaren and Ferrari coming in and out of performance windows depending on temperature and tyre degradation - then it will start to look like a very different story.

And there seems no reason why they cannot actually end up almost like team-mates pushing each other on to win the crown.

Yet equally, while they want their rival close to them to help act as that 'buffer', what they don't want is them close enough to actually become a proper threat - because if Alonso and Hamilton start sharing out the wins and second places, then all that does is help Vettel.

There is going to be no way of deliberately engineering the situation to suit either the Ferrari or McLaren man. Both have simply to go out there and concentrate on their own performances, and only let themselves smile if, at the end of the race, things have worked out for the best with Vettel knocked down the order again.

What is perhaps most encouraging though is that the Nurburgring offered a glimpse of the circumstances needed for Hamilton and Alonso to do it. They were 1-2 and took a decent haul out of Vettel's advantage. It was enough to give them a glimmer of hope.

And that's all these men have ever needed in their careers: the sniff of success and they are all over it. But could their own individual hunger for that success actually prove a bigger benefit for the other?

It is going to be fascinating finding out.