Jacques Villeneuve recalls the dramatic events of 2007.

      The 2007 season entered the modern history of Formula 1 as one of the most dramatic. The best chances of winning the championship then belonged to the McLaren drivers, but events unfolded so that the title was ultimately won by Kimi Räikkönen, driving for Ferrari.

      Jacques Villeneuve believes that when Fernando Alonso signed with McLaren he found himself in an unfavorable situation, because Ron Dennis, who was running the team at the time, favored Lewis Hamilton.

      “You have to bear in mind that when Alonso was invited to McLaren, or rather, when he was invited by Ron Dennis, he was already a two-time champion,” the Canadian recalled on the Red Flags podcast. “Dennis did it for the sponsors and only afterwards signed a contract with Hamilton. Then he said, ‘OK, Lewis is our champion. Fernando, we don’t like you.’”

      Such an approach by Dennis threw McLaren out of balance. Alonso had no choice but to move to countermeasures. When a boss disrupts the balance within a team like that, you are forced to push back, which is what happened.

      Unfair conditions were created for Alonso at the time, and in that situation he had to fight. In the end it all completely destroyed the team.

      In 2007 the McLaren drivers were taking points off each other, which played into Kimi Räikkönen’s hands; he took six wins that season and became world champion, albeit by a narrow margin.

      If those had been the only consequences of that situation, perhaps few would remember it now, but that year the so-called “spygate” erupted, shaking Formula 1. It ended with the FIA World Motor Sport Council finding McLaren guilty, stripping the team of points in the Constructors’ Championship, and forcing it to pay a record $100 million fine.

      Alonso, who finished the season in third place despite having the same number of points as Hamilton, left McLaren and returned to Renault F1 in 2008.