{"id":291451,"date":"2023-09-06T09:34:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T09:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=291451"},"modified":"2023-09-06T09:34:29","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T09:34:29","slug":"fernando-alonso-downplays-lewis-hamilton-and-max-verstappens-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/racing\/f1\/fernando-alonso-downplays-lewis-hamilton-and-max-verstappens-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&apos;s success"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&#8217;s success&#8230; insisting &#8216;they didn&#8217;t build anything to become champions&#8217;<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have won eight of the last nine titles\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Two-time champion Fernando Alonso has downplayed their success\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Spaniard says their dominance has been because of F1 regulation changes\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fernando Alonso has rejected the notion that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have played pivotal roles in &#8216;building&#8217; their success over the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton, who joined Mercedes in 2013, won six championships in seven years between 2014 and 2020 &#8211; with only former team-mate Nico Rosberg able to briefly halt his domination of the sport in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen pipped Hamilton to the 2021 championship, and is well on course for his third straight title with Red Bull, after winning 12 out of the opening 14 races of the 2023 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Alonso, is widely regarded as one of the best drivers on the grid alongside Verstappen and Hamilton, but has not won a title since 2006.<\/p>\n<p>As reported by Marca, Alonso insisted that Verstappen and seven-time champion Hamilton have only found winning teams, rather than building one up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/09\/75111999-12486039-image-a-12_1693989557443.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Fernando Alonso has refuted claims that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen &#8216;built&#8217; their success at Mercedes and Red Bull respectively<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/09\/75112219-12486039-image-a-25_1693989828332.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Verstappen and Hamilton have won eight of the last nine drivers&#8217; championships since 2014<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;When Hamilton went to Mercedes, he didn&#8217;t build anything to be champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was only a change in regulations (hybrid engines) that changed everything on the grid and boosted Mercedes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think the same with Max, when he joined Toro Rosso and Red Bull, Hamilton continued to win everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Red Bull is not a winning team thanks to him, simply another regulation change in 2021 has caused them to now win all the races.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Ultimately, you just need to be in the right place at the right time. So I don\u2019t know exactly what they mean when it\u2019s said that you \u2018build\u2019 teams around you.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It has been ten years since Alonso last won a race, with a string of wrong career decisions resulting in him not being in a race-winning car in that time.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso has enjoyed greater success since he joined Aston Martin for the 2023 season, taking seven podiums and sits six points clear of Hamilton in third place in the championship, albeit, 194 points behind Verstappen in the dominant Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/09\/75111997-12486039-image-a-26_1693989879660.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Verstappen made it ten wins in a row at the Italian Grand Prix and is on course for his third title<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/09\/75112011-12486039-image-a-27_1693989901532.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Hamilton has won a record 103 races in his career, but it is nearly two years since his last<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/06\/09\/75112265-12486039-image-a-28_1693989955932.jpg\" height=\"455\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Alonso won the last of his two titles in 2006 but has rarely found himself in a title-challenging car since<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard was last in contention for the drivers&#8217; title back in 2012, when he took the fight in a weak Ferrari car to Red Bull&#8217;s then lead driver Sebastian Vettel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He missed out on the title by just three points, making it his third close-call, after finishing four points behind Vettel in 2010 and just one off Kimi Raikkonen when he raced alongside Hamilton at McLaren in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>The 42-year-old said the one thing he regrets in his career is not winning the title with Ferrari.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/formulaone\/article-12486039\/Fernando-Alonso-downplays-Lewis-Hamilton-Max-Verstappens-success-insisting-didnt-build-champions.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&#8217;s success&#8230; insisting &#8216;they didn&#8217;t build anything to become champions&#8217; Lewis Hamilton and <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&amp;apos;s success - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/racing\/f1\/fernando-alonso-downplays-lewis-hamilton-and-max-verstappens-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&amp;apos;s success - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fernando Alonso downplays Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen&#8217;s success&#8230; 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