FORMULA ONE/ HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX:FERNANDO ALONSO'S lingering hostility towards the McLaren-Mercedes team spilled over yesterday when he said he would not be allowed to win if he was still with the team because their whole approach was slanted towards supporting Lewis Hamilton's efforts.
Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, was speaking on the first anniversary of his acrimonious split with McLaren here in Budapest, a breach that ended with him rowing with chairman Ron Dennis and his right-hand man Martin Whitmarsh.
McLaren sources have since revealed the Spanish driver was almost fired on the spot after deliberately blocking Hamilton during qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian grand prix, earning a five-place grid penalty that dropped him from first to sixth in the starting order.
"If I was driving for them this year, it wouldn't make any difference because I would be in just the same situation as (Heikki) Kovalainen and not allowed to win," he said. "But I am much happier this year (at Renault) for sure.
This could be seen as a deliberately provocative remark intended to offend Dennis, who has denied there were team orders obliging the Finn to defer to Hamilton at Silverstone and Hockenheim.
Alonso's remarks could also be viewed as another manifestation of his frustration that, despite him joining McLaren as a double world champion at the start of 2007, the team did not grant him the contractual droit du seigneur over the new boy Hamilton, which might have enabled him to round off a hat-trick of titles.
Alonso's return to Renault has turned out to be something of a consolation prize intended to keep him in play in case a better opportunity comes along. His name has been frequently linked with Ferrari but the contractual reality is the earliest he could join the famous Italian scuderia would be 2010 - and then only in the event of Kimi Raikkonen's contract not being renewed.
Until then Alonso may have to continue in an unsatisfactory limbo without a car capable of showing off his considerable talent. Strong speculation that he shook on a deal to join Ferrari at some point in the future - at a secret meeting in Rome - with the Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, as long ago as August last year was met with no response from the Alonso camp.
"I have a contract with Renault for the long term," he said, "but of course at the end of every season you need to look at what the possibilities are. It is not the time now in the middle of August to think, but for sure in September and October I will have a think and we will decide."
Asked if he felt he had now made his peace with Hamilton, Alonso responded: "After last year, here in my opinion there (is) nothing to say.
"It was planned before qualifying that it was my turn to do the extra (qualifying) lap here but I got penalised and all the mess started."
There is no doubt that Alonso must be ranked as one of the great formula one drivers of his generation, a natural talent of considerable status who has the potential to race wheel to wheel with any other driver on the starting grid.
Yet out of the cockpit he is capable of displaying a wilfully capricious streak that often sees him marching to his own beat against what might seem to be his own interests. As another team principal remarked wistfully, "He's got great talent but, if he can screw over Ron Dennis, then he can do it to anybody." Ferrari might do well to keep that in mind.
• Guardian Service
