"He's never really needed them before" - Fans react to Fernando Alonso's 'no mirrors' complaint against Lewis Hamilton

An extended practice session at the 2022 F1 United States Grand Prix saw Fernando Alonso raging over Lewis Hamilton after being held up by the latter while making his way through the track.

Since Pirelli is testing tires for the 2023 season, the usual one-hour FP2 session was given an extra 30 minutes at COTA. While most drivers struggled for grip on the test tires due to the temperatures, there were other issues for Alonso. As he made his way through on his hot lap, he was soon held up by Hamilton, who did not give him space to go through. This agitated the Spaniard as he notified his team on the radio.

Although drivers are not forced to make way for faster cars during a practice session, they usually do so while on their out-lap or in-lap. Since lap time wasn't such an issue during the tire test, however, Hamilton did not get off the racing line, trapping Alonso behind like an actual race battle.

Fans charge at Fernando Alonso as he complaints about Lewis Hamilton on the radio

While Fernando Alonso was still on his radio, fans were fast enough to flood Twitter in support of their favorite driver. Some even mentioned the 2007 controversy about Alonso supposedly holding up Lewis Hamilton in the pits to deny him a better qualifying lap.

Lewis Hamilton still some distance away from a victory this season

The 2022 F1 season has been a hard hit for Mercedes as they haven't been able to adapt aptly to the regulation changes. This made them fall down the grid, further than they had been in many years of domination. Lewis Hamilton has never finished an F1 season without a race win, but this year, the feat seems especially hard to achieve.

With the team having improved a lot since the start of the season, a race win could soon be on the cards. With just four races left in the season, however, the odds appear stacked against them.

About the author

Gunaditya is one of Sportskeeda’s more experienced F1 and NASCAR journalists, having authored over 2,000 posts that have garnered over 4 million reads. He has been in this field for over two years and is currently pursuing a degree in journalism as well.

When it comes to reporting, he is extremely meticulous with his research and tries his best to analyze every topic in its entirety before filing his story. Gunaditya does so by closely following veterans in the motorsports journalism arena and attempts to understand perspectives without personal bias to ensure his stories are accurate and reliable.

He is an old-schooler with respect to F1 as his favorite driver is Michael Schumacher due to the legendary driver’s adrenaline-fueled racing style, aggressive approach and the resilience he showed early in his career. Understandably, his favorite constructor is Ferrari.

Apart from F1, Gunaditya's interest lies in football, and is a keen fan of FC Barcelona and Argentina, and is also immensely interested in art and films. One can say he wears many hats, as he is also a musician, blogger, and story writer.

Know More