Hamilton has received massive amounts of press coverage in the past few months and is the English sporting press’ new darling. After Monaco two weeks ago, Hamilton and the
McLaren team found themselves embroiled in a media-driven controversy about illegal team orders. In many ways the arguments in the press were downright silly but the affair must have been a big learning experience for Hamilton about the media and ‘big-time’ sport.
Steve Hallam is McLaren’s head of race engineering, overseeing the technical work by both its drivers. Hallam has been with the team for many years and is one of the best-placed people at McLaren to assess the working relationship between its drivers.
“Lewis has a very good reference in Fernando who is a consummate professional and the current World Champion,” Hallam observed. “We’ve prepared Lewis as well as we can and he’s lined up against Fernando and done well. Fernando still has the depth of experience and understanding that goes with what he’s achieved. We see on a weekly basis just how good he is and Lewis is benefitting from that. He looks across the table and there is the World Champion and that is his reference.
“This was Lewis’s sixth race and he was on pole position and won the race,” Hallam added. “He has done an outstanding job and there is a long way to go in both of their careers. So we are just so excited about the possibilities for the future."
Hallam compares the Alonso-Hamilton pairing to that of
Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert at the Tyrrell team some thirty-five years ago...
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