I was Lewis Hamilton’s F1 team-mate – we will never be friends after intense rivalry

FORMULA ONE legend Fernando Alonso has opened up about his rivalry with Lewis Hamilton.

The two drivers were McLaren team-mates during Hamilton's debut season in 2007.

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However, their competitiveness resulted in several confrontations both on and off track.

Alonso's contract was subsequently terminated at the end of the season, with Hamilton keeping his seat.

The Spaniard's was banned from joining any team that McLaren considered challengers for the 2008 world championship, but eventually agreed to sign for Renault.

Alonso recently recalled what happened behind the scenes during the 2007 season and admitted that both he and Hamilton were "young and immature".

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Speaking about the rivalry in his new DAZN documentary, 'Fernando. Revealed', Alonso said: "We were in the same team, the same garage, we travelled together many times, we were in the meetings and we began to notice that there was this friction, there was tension, we were playing the World Cup and we were playing each race on Sunday.

"You arrive at the team meeting and you are seeing his telemetry, his 'on board' cameras of the car and that, for example, his car goes a little ahead and when he speaks in the meeting he complains about the rear.

"Things like that so that the team did not take a direction or take a philosophy to develop the car that would be good for both of us, but rather each one was already looking for their own thing, to have that extra advantage, because we were very evenly matched.

"There were many things that broke the relationship harmony of that year. We were young, immature, I was the first, and we had many clashes.

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"Now there is another type of rivalry, I don't think we will be friends in the future or that we will ever have... I think we don't share many things.

"But it is true that in 2007 the rivalry rose to a higher level."

Alonso finished fourth in the driver standings last season, with Hamilton in third.

The 42-year-old is set to remain with Aston Martin for the 2024 campaign.

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