Fernando Alonso Takes A Dig At Kimi Raikkonen, Supports Stoffel Vandoorne

Fernando Alonso stood up for his McLaren teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, who is under a lot of pressure after struggling to impress this season. And he also took a slight dig at his former teammates specifically Kimi Raikkonen.

The Spaniard has not won a race since 2013 and has failed to step on the podium since 2014 — his last season with Ferrari. He joined McLaren in 2015 when they partnered Honda in order to recreate their glory days of the late 80s, but it turned out to be just the opposite as they struggled at the back end of the grid for most of the last three seasons.

McLaren switched to Renault power in 2018 in the hope of being more competitive, but it has not borne fruit as they continue to battle for a place among the midfield runners behind the top three teams — Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. One thing, however, has remained constant during this period of struggle — Alonso has always been the dominant teammate getting the bigger share of the team’s points.

In Ferrari, he consistently finished ahead of Felipe Massa in the championship during their three years together and then beat Raikkonen convincingly in his final season with the Italian team. In McLaren, apart from the 2015 season when Jenson Button finished ahead of him by one place, he has always been ahead of his teammates.

Vandoorne has endured a similar spell during the last two seasons, more so during the 2018 campaign, as he has consistently struggled to match Alonso’s performances. The Belgian, who is 36 points behind his teammate in the championship in 16th place, could be dropped in favour of another driver in 2019 with McLaren looking at Carlos Sainz as a potential option.

Alonso, however, backed his teammate suggesting he is doing his best with the car that is being provided to him. The Spaniard is certain Vandoorne has nothing to prove to anybody having come through as champion in the junior categories of motor racing before making the step up to F1.

“I think it’s difficult to beat me,” Alonso joked before giving his backing to his teammate, as quoted on F1.com. “He always has to be a little bit behind. But if you see previous team mates, they were a lot further behind than Stoffel. Like in 2014 or something like that, it was six or seven-tenths to Kimi every race. He’s less than that now.”

“I don’t think his reputation is going down. The car is what it is. The car is underperforming. We as a team are trying to find the problem and to have both cars in the same conditions, with the same performance. He has shown his talent already. There’s no need for proof. ... Being a champion in every series before Formula 1, right now in a difficult car with some difficulties last year – and this year as well. He’s OK. He will be very close in performance as soon as the car is delivering the normal performance,” the double world champion explained.

“There’s nothing I need to say to him. For his reputation for you guys, you need to wait and see, or see the result before Silverstone or last year in terms of qualifying.”