Fernando Alonso, a former team-mate of Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, has said he believes the six-time World Champion can be “better than Valtteri Bottas 100 times out of 100” in equal machinery.
“We see Valtteri is close to Lewis in some races and wins two or three per year, gets a couple of pole positions, but we know Lewis can be better than Bottas 100 times out of 100,” Alonso said in a recent interview.
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“Lewis is performing fantastically well. You don’t win seven championships by luck or the best car; you need to deliver something extra, which he does.
“Lewis is doing it every weekend. He’s an amazing talent, a good thing for the sport,” he added.
Bottas claimed victory at the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday after Hamilton was handed a ten-second penalty from performing two practice starts outside the designated area of the pitlane.
After the race, the Finn got on the radio to directly slam his critics.
Aside from hailing Hamilton as the best driver on the grid, Alonso stressed that simply having the best car isn’t enough to win in Formula One.
“Lewis knows if he is in another car, he will not be able to win. We both understand we need the machine.
“For many years with McLaren, Lewis was teammates with Jenson [Button], teammates with [Nico] Rosberg as well [at Mercedes], and he was not winning the Championship those years. He knows he needs the best package as well.
“I understand the fans, they’re always searching for the best driver, and Formula One is a very difficult sport because all the cars are different, so you need to search for the best package, and they are the best.”
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