Motorsport

LEWIS HAMILTON has brilliantly trolled Fernando Alonso on Twitter after the Spaniard’s comments regarding his world championship wins.Alonso, 42, claimed this week that Max Verstappen’s two titles are worth more than Hamilton’s SEVEN.
Lewis Hamilton posted this picture on social mediaCredit: Reuters
The Spaniard, who famously clashed with Lewis as his team-mate with McLaren, said: “I have a lot of respect for Lewis, but still it is different when you win seven world titles when you only had to fight with your team-mate.
“Then I think a championship has less value than when you have fewer titles but have had to fight against other drivers with equal or even better material.”
Hamilton posted a picture in response to these comments – featuring himself in his McLaren days atop a podium, putting his hand on Alonso’s shoulder beneath him.
He simply accompanied the post with a thumbs up emoji.
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After his comments caused a social media storm, Alonso backtracked to calm the situation.
He wrote on Twitter: “And again…
“Please, all the titles are amazing, well deserved and inspiring.
“Incomparable to each other and let’s enjoy champions and legends of our current time.
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“Tired of the continuous search for headlines. Let’s enjoy them.”
Alonso lost to then-team-mate Hamilton during Lewis’ rookie season in 2007, before seeing the Brit win the world championship the following year.
The veteran won his two championships in 2005 and 2006, prior to Hamilton’s arrival in the sport.
He announced earlier this year that he will be leaving Alpine, with whom he is currently behind team-mate Esteban Ocon, for Aston Martin next year.
Verstappen has also been speaking about Hamilton this week.
In an interview with the Mail, the reigning world champion said: “People have told me that he doesn’t use my name.
“I was always taught that you have to respect what people have achieved in sport.
“I have no problem with what Lewis has achieved. He is one of the best ever.
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“I know it is not only the car he has been driving. That helps. We all know that, but you still have to beat your team-mate and Lewis has done that consistently.
“I think you have to acknowledge the person has done an amazing job as well.”
Max Verstappen spoke about Hamilton this weekCredit: Alamy More

FERNANDO ALONSO has made an astonishing claim that Max Verstappen’s two F1 titles mean more than Lewis Hamilton’s seven world crowns.It came after Red Bull were slapped with a £6million fine and a reduction in wind tunnel time for breaking the £114million budget cap in 2021 when Verstappen controversially beat Hamilton to the title.
Fernando Alonso claims Max Verstappen’s two titles mean more than Lewis Hamilton’s sevenCredit: AP
Alonso reckons Verstappen had to work harder for his championshipsCredit: Getty
Social media raged at the penalty, with Verstappen being labelled a “costcap champion” or simply “costcappen”, as the FIA failed to overturn the championship, despite the outcome of the defining Abu Dhabi GP.
Alonso, who has a history of bad blood with Hamilton following their bitter fallout as teammates at McLaren in 2008, said: “I have a lot of respect for Lewis, but still it is different when you win seven world titles when you only had to fight with your teammate.
“Then I think a championship has less value than when you have fewer titles but have had to fight against other drivers with equal or even better material.
“In 2005 and 2006, I had a good start to the year myself and was able to create a lead. Then others might have had a better car, but I was able to manage that gap.
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“I never had to fight with my teammate to win those titles. Nor did I see Max fighting with [Sergio] Perez or [Alex] Albon to win races.
“But Schumacher in particular fought with his teammate to become champion five times in a row and Hamilton fought with Rosberg and [Valtteri] Bottas. That’s different, I think.
“I want to fight with the best drivers and Max is part of that. I have been lucky enough to fight with Sebastian Vettel, Lewis and Michael Schumacher in the past, but I have never had that chance with Max.
“Hopefully that will still happen in the coming years when I drive for Aston Martin.”
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Red Bull boss Christian Horner said on Friday that while his team accepted the terms of their cost cap breach, he was adamant the overspend of £432,652 would not have increased his team’s cars’ performance.
Horner also said he felt the £6million fine and wind tunnel reduction was “draconian”, as it would reduce his cars’ performance by half a second over a lap.
However, Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, hit back ahead of Sunday’s Mexico GP, saying: “The scale of that penalty isn’t much more than what you would lose if you are just one place higher up in the championship.
“It’s not as big as the penalty if you are positioned two places higher. So I think describing it as draconian is an exaggeration.
“You definitely need to be more efficient but if it were half a second, which I’d heard mentioned, then a team at the back of the grid would have over a three-second advantage to one at the front and that simply isn’t the case.”
When asked by SunSport just how much development you could do with £432,652, Shovlin said it could amount to a “major update” to improve performance.
He added: “Day in and day out we’re making decisions of what we don’t do, that are at the orders of one, two or three thousand pounds.
“We simply don’t have enough money, you’ve got to choose where it goes very carefully.
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“It’s very difficult to put a lap time on it but the reality is that money buys performance.
“In terms of an upgrade kit that could easily be a major update kit.” More

CHRISTIAN HORNER has slammed the “draconian penalty” dished out to his Red Bull team for breaking F1’s cost cap.Horner’s team have been slapped with a £6million fine AND a 10 percent reduction in wind-tunnel development time, which he says will cost them half a second in laptime.
Christian Horner slammed the penalty Red Bull receivedCredit: AFP
His team were ruled to have overspent the £114million limit last year by £1.8million, although £1.4million of that was due to an overpayment of tax.
It means the total Red Bull crept over was just £432,652 – but still Horner feels his rivals will not be happy with the sanctions dished out.
He said: “For some of them I’m sure, it won’t be enough, even if you burned our wind-tunnel down!”
Horner has “begrudgingly” accepted the FIA’s punishment yet maintains his team’s submission was under the cost-limit when they submitted it in March.
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However, he says the punishment will have “a direct effect on next year’s car” – and will be in place for the next 12 months.
He added: “We’ve been provided a significant penalty, both financially and sportingly, from the $7million [£6million] — which is an enormous amount of money, that is payable within a 30-day period.
“The more draconian part is the sporting penalty, which is a 10 percent reduction in our ability to utilise our windtunnel and aerodynamic tools.
“I’ve heard people reporting [that it] is an insignificant amount — let me tell you now, that is an enormous amount. That represents anywhere between quarter and half a second worth of laptime.”
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The FIA concluded that “there is no accusation or evidence that Red Bull sought to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in fraudulent manner, nor has it wilfully concealed any information”.
The Red Bull chief explained the areas where his team were accused of overspending, which included catering and sick pay.
But he says that in no way did they cheat the system, or benefit from improving Max Verstappen’s car that helped him win the title last year in Abu Dhabi in such controversial circumstances.
He said: “There was zero benefit because the amount we went over, there are mitigating factors.
“If we went over because of sick pay, because of catering, not one penny was spent on the car.
“I am astounded that there were no other teams who found themselves in this position.
Double world champion Max Verstappen will see upgrades for his car limited next yearCredit: GettyFormula One 2022Everything you need to know about F1 this season

“Max won it fair a square on the day. He did his job. The team did their job and he is the world champion.
“What we are talking about now has not added to the performance of his car from last year.”
When asked if he felt the need to apologise to F1 or rival teams for breaking the cost-cap in the first place, he added: “To be honest, we are due an apology from our rivals for some of the claims they made.
“We make no apology for the way we acted and take it on the chin. There are lessons to be learned and we accept some mistakes were made on our side.
“But there was no intent, nothing dishonest and certainly no cheating, which has been alleged in certain corners.
“So no need to apologise. We have taken a public pounding through accusations from other teams. Our drivers have been booed and time is now to stop and move on.”
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Meanwhile, Aston Martin have been fined £388,200 for a procedural breach of the financial regulations.
The FIA said the Silverstone-based team were within the cap but had incorrectly labelled 12 different items, including the costs of their new factory, wind tunnel and simulator. More