Former Formula One world champion Alain Prost believes that
McLaren are playing with fire in granting Lewis Hamilton and
Fernando Alonso equal status in the team.
"I think it's a mistake to have two cars of the same status in
the same team," the 52-year-old Frenchman was quoted as saying in
Spanish daily El Pais on Monday.
"In the end it will work against them because it will create too
many tensions."
Double world champion Alonso has made it clear he was uneasy
with the euphoria surrounding his McLaren teammate Hamilton who
leads him in this season's standings after grand prix victories in
Canada and the United States.
Prost had a series of more serious run-ins with late Brazilian
Ayrton Senna when at McLaren in the late 1980s.
Between them, the two drivers won 15 of the 16 races in 1988 but
their rivalry turned into animosity.
Senna won the title in 1988 but Prost triumphed the following
year with the two McLarens colliding at Suzuka in the penultimate
race of the year. Prost retired, Senna won the race but was then
disqualified in a huge controversy.
Prost moved to Ferrari in 1990 and Senna got his revenge in
Japan, colliding with Prost again and winning the title back.
The Frenchman said that technology was now more important than
driver skill in Formula One.
"The cars are very evenly matched because of the new limitations
and the technological advances and it is very difficult to overtake
during a race," he said.
"Races are now decided in the pits. The strategy of the team
directors is what is important, the only things they can't control
are driver errors."
Prost added that Hamilton's greater experience of using the
McLaren team's race simulator had given him the edge over Alonso
this season.
"Hamilton has used the simulator much more than Alonso and he
drives more smoothly than the Spaniard," he said. "As a result I
think it is easier for McLaren to adjust their cars to Hamilton's
characteristics. But that doesn't disguise the fact that Alonso is
a super driver, a great, great driver."
(China Daily via Agencies June 20, 2007)