Though
Lewis Hamilton may deny that he is missing the input of former team-mate
Fernando Alonso in his second season in the top flight in 2008, former
Formula 1 ace Adrian Campos has claimed both the Briton and his McLaren-Mercedes squad are suffering from the double world champion's absence.
When it was suggested by a reporter from German magazine
Auto Motor und Sport that Hamilton's patchy performances this year so far are the legacy of no longer having an experienced driver alongside him – with some believing Alonso helped to guide his team-mate's set-up in 2007 – the 23-year-old was robust in his reply.
“Nonsense!” he fired back. “Fernando and I have a similar driving style, but with the set-up we usually went our separate ways.”
Experts within the sport, however, seem to disagree, even within Hamilton's own team. Alonso's former manager and GP2 team owner Adrian Campos told Spanish newspaper
El Mundo that in his view the Woking-based outfit was a poorer place for the 2005 and 2006 title-winner's premature departure.
“Fernando arrived last year, put the car on the right track, and they thanked him by basically kicking him out,” the 47-year-old said. “And look where they are now.”
Indeed, since Hamilton's victory in the season-opener Down Under last month,
McLaren has hit something of a slump in fortunes, with just one further rostrum finish – courtesy of
Heikki Kovalainen – the loss of its advantage in both the drivers' and constructors' standings and a catalogue of on-track calamities from botched starts to pit-stop fumbles and hefty crashes.
McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh hinted in Barcelona that the team's young charge should focus on himself, telling
Home of Sport that the ex-GP2 champion needs to better manage the ‘two per cent' of his mind that is concentrated on off-track activities.
![Adrian Campos - Campos Racing [pic credit: GP2 media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/219349.jpg)
