The Fernando Alonso gesture that nearly got McLaren colleagues fired

Fernando Alonso’s former race engineer has lifted the lid on a generous act from the two-time world champion that enraged McLaren bosses and almost got his colleagues fired.

At the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Alonso gave €1000 (£869) in envelopes to every member of McLaren crew working on his car as a thank you to his team.

Amid a bitter rivalry and title battle with rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton, Alonso’s actions were interpreted by some as an attempt to gain favour and create division within McLaren.

The move did not go down well, and McLaren staff were told to return the cash, or face being sacked.

"At the Nürburgring in 2007, on the first day, Fernando came up to me and said, ‘Can you give me a list of everyone working on my car?’" Alonso’s then-race engineer Mark Slade explained via Marca. 

"I thought, ‘OK, yeah, I can do that.’ And then I asked, ‘To what extent? ’ Because obviously there’s the parts store guy, the guys who work on your cars, and then there’s the rest, you know, you can’t define who works on your car and who doesn’t.

"So, anyway, I made a list that I thought was okay, as best I could, including the petrol guy, the fuel guy, and the tyre guy. But I didn’t know what it was for, so we already have it ready and in the end I said, ‘Here’s the list.’

"A while later, he came back in the morning and said, ‘Could you have these guys on the list meet me at the back?’ He just wanted to have a chat with his guys before the weekend started.”

"And he said, 'I used to like to share my winnings with my guys in the car. It's not something I've done at McLaren so far, but it's something I like to show my appreciation for being in my car and doing such a good job.' He handed out the envelopes, we opened them, and I think there was €1,000 in each one.

"I was just blown away, and this included Tyler. You know Tyler? Yeah, he was one of the guys there. And he said, 'Wow, that's kind of weird, that's never happened before.' And I think we were a little taken aback, didn't know what to say. So we just said, 'That's so sweet, thank you so much.’"

McLaren hierarchy left furious

As Slade detailed, the gesture angered McLaren bosses, and only created further tension with Alonso, who left the team to rejoin Renault at the end of the season.

”[Alonso] was very humble with me, he just said, 'I really appreciate your help’,” Slade added.

“So we went about our business, and a while later Dave Ryan came into the motorhome with a sour face and asked me, 'What the hell happened in the garage?' And I said, 'Well, Fernando...' and he said, 'Yeah, I thought that's what happened. Basically, you have to give us all the money, you have to give it to me, you have to give it to the team.’

"It's completely outrageous, we can't allow that on this team.' I was like, 'Oh, oh, OK, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, OK.' And he basically said that anyone who didn't get their money back would be fired.”

“It was basically said Fernando was trying to buy the loyalty of his mechanics. And maybe I’m naïve - it didn’t seem that way to me. I think this showed the incompatibility between Fernando and McLaren… I liked Fernando a lot and I liked working with him. He was a good guy.”

Alonso later returned to McLaren for an unsuccessful second stint between 2015-2018.