A former Alonso mechanic gave his version of the Hamilton controversy in 2007 and responded to the accusation of ‘bribery’

In 2022, Marc Priestley, a mechanic at McLaren when Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton maintained one of the most tense relationships in memory between two teammates, made a harsh accusation when talking about the Asturian and let it slip that he could bribe McLaren mechanics to be his ally in his rivalry with Hamilton. However, another former mechanic of Fernando Alonso wants to respond to that accusation and clarify what the man from Oviedo actually does. No bribes.

According to Chris Hessey, the Spaniard has been sharing his bonuses with his mechanics during his previous time at Renault, as he understood that they were a key part of his successes. Without them, it is impossible to win. He even revealed that Alonso even gave some of his trophies to his mechanic, instead of keeping them with him for his museum.

According to what Priestley said in 2022, “one of Fernando’s strategies is to try to drag the team to his side. When I arrive before a race, I notice that one of his managers and people from his team are handing out small that brown envelope. of money, they are for everyone who doesn’t work on Lewis’s car. Alonso is trying to get the support of the team, to get the mechanic on his side in the very difficult internal battle with Lewis. It can be said It was a brilliant strategy, but it was discovered and we were forced to give all that money to charity.

With those words, it seems to indicate that Fernando carried out this exercise so that the team was with him and not with Hamilton. But Chris Hassey, who was Fernando Alonso’s number 1 mechanic at Renault when the Spaniard won titles in 2005 and 2006, rubbished that theory, saying Alonso always wanted to share his bonuses with his entire team to keep he is motivated and he feels more involved. .their achievements and exploits.

“I remember that Fernando, when he started winning, one afternoon called me to the back of the truck and said: ‘Can you give me the names of all the people who work on my car?’, and well, I said : ‘yes’. I think there were only six main people working on that car back then. I gave him all the names. Then on the next run he called me back to the back of the truck, he had a big stack of envelopes and he said ‘this is for you and the boys’. This is for you’. So I said, ‘oh.’ “I thought it was a thank you card. I opened the money and there was like 600 euros inside,” he revealed.

“I said, ‘What’s this for?’ ‘This is part of my bonus that Flavio should give me when I do well or when I finish in the top 3. I received a bonus and I want to share it with you, because without you I wouldn’t be able to do it.’ And I said, ‘No, Fernando, you don’t have to do that.’ He said, ‘No, I do,'” he added.

“I went out and gave the money to all the boys. “Every few races he would do the same thing, come out with a bunch of envelopes and say, ‘Here you go, can you give it to the boys,'” he added.

But according to Hassey, when he arrived at McLaren, he tried to do the same and his gesture was misinterpreted. “When he went to McLaren, he tried to do the same thing there for his team and Ron Dennis stopped him. He said, “We’re not going to do it” and he didn’t let it happen. He did it to us. There was no intention. He told me: ‘You share what I do, so I want to share it with you.’”

“At McLaren, Alonso doesn’t bribe people”

“At McLaren, Alonso doesn’t bribe people to do a better job than the other teams, because all the mechanics do the same job. “I just want to share that bonus with his car team.” Hassey then revealed that Fernando Alonso gave him his 2005 Bahrain trophy, a race he won against Michael Schumacher. This is very relevant information. It was just his third win for Fernando Alonso and he decided to give that trophy to his number 1 mechanic instead of putting it in a display case to remember. I wish more success to come. So he didn’t care about that glass, of which Hassey gave a photo to the aforementioned media that published the interview. He still keeps it like a treasure.

“Alonso is a team player. Bahrain 2005… I still have the trophy. He won the race, came up to me in the garage with the winner’s trophy and said, “this is for you.” I said, ‘Okay Fernando, don’t worry, I’ll pack it up and bring it back to the UK, which will save you trying to get on a plane with it.’ And he said, ‘no, it’s for you.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said: ‘I want to give you this trophy, it’s yours.’ That’s how he is,” he revealed.

“I think a lot of the press is just trying to hurt him. He was never aggressive to anyone. He is not manipulative, even the drivers next to him in the other car (his colleagues). “You hear him in the garage talking about the car, the race, the qualifying… he doesn’t hide anything,” he continued.

“Alonso realizes there are manipulative things”

“The thing is, with Hamilton … Ron Dennis brought him when he was a young driver. Ron Dennis said, and this was told to me by one of his engineers at the time, not Marc Priestley , but another guy, he said that Ron Dennis was sick of paying a big salary to get a good driver. That’s why he wanted to make his own pilot. He paid for their education, their careers in youth. He paid for everything until he reached Formula One. When he came to McLaren with Fernando, I think that’s when Fernando realized that there were manipulative things behind the scenes,” argued Chris Hassey about what might have happened in that famous year. 2007 between Alonso, Hamilton and the tension that exists in the McLaren team.

“The classic case is Budapest (Hungary 2007), where Alonso knew he was being held back, because he (Dennis) changed what was supposed to happen to help Hamilton benefit from it, at Fernando’s expense. Fernando’s physio “I was making the pit board and I was giving Fernando a countdown of when to leave the pit. Fernando knew what was happening and he said: ‘I will not allow it,'” he argued about the famous qualifying day in which Alonso He stopped for a few seconds in the pits, enough to go to the pole and prevent Lewis, who was waiting behind in the pit lane, set his time.That action angered Ron Dennis and Alonso was penalized at the start.

“It’s all manipulation to make Hamilton better, because Ron Dennis paid for all his training and wanted to create his own driver. That’s where the conflict arose,” he concluded in a relaxed interview on the ‘pitdebrief’ portal. com’.