Is a Fernando Alonso vs Lance Stroll bust-up inevitable?
His first season at Aston Martin means he is paired with Lance Stroll, whose father Lawrence Stroll is bankrolling the F1 team.
Aston Martin roared out of the traps at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Alonso earning a podium finish and Stroll finishing P6 after a heroic effort with injured wrists, but there was a minor flash-point.
They made contact on Lap 1 and Alonso, before realising who had bumped into him, was asking via his team radio if the perpetrator would be penalised. The team radio, perhaps cleverly, did not reply.
Sky’s Naomi Schiff said: “If Lance brings the battle to Alonso, how will that work?
“It is challenging, a situation he must manage.
“We’ve seen Fernando, and heard him, upset with other drivers on track. Lance clipped the wheel of Alonso and he was saying ‘has a penalty been issued?’ He didn’t realise it was Lance!
“He spent all weekend praising Lance and I think that’s because of the dynamic in the team. It’s one to watch out for.
“Alonso hasn’t always had the best reputation of how he works within a team.
“It’s something he’ll be conscious of in his last stint. Particularly because his teammate’s father owns the team! An awkward dynamic, I would say.”
Simon Lazenby added: “It’s all sweetness right now. He’s saying all the right things. Fernando is brilliant at that, to begin with…
“I wonder if he will maintain that level of optimism! A happy Alonso is a man who gets the job done. They need to keep him sweet.”
Alonso’s newfound optimism even saw him embrace Lewis Hamilton, his ex-teammate from McLaren and often his nemesis over the years, after the Bahrain GP.
But memories are never far of his tear-ups with teammates, most recently Esteban Ocon last year at Alpine. After they collided in a sprint race at Interlagos, Alonso disparagingly said “one more race then it’s finally over” about his time alongside Ocon.
And who could forget Alonso being sent airborne but none other than future teammate Stroll at last season’s US Grand Prix?
This year already, Aston Martin responded to the winter rumours of their development by stealing the show in Bahrain, laying down a marker that they could be Red Bull’s biggest challengers this season.
“Sebastian Vettel will be thinking: ‘What have I done? That could have been me’,” Lazenby said.
“I got the impression that, from Lawrence Stroll’s perspective, if someone like Fernando comes onto the open market, you just snap him up.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
