Fernando Alonso has said that his relationship with Lewis Hamilton has probably 'cooled down' in recent years, even compared to the time immediately following their tumultuous 2007 campaign together at McLaren.

With nine world championships between them, the two drivers can be considered as real greats of their era in Formula 1 and around the start of the last decade they were both regularly competing for championships.

Indeed, in those years between 2008 and 2011, Alonso said that he and Hamilton actually enjoyed a pretty decent relationship despite what had happened in 2007, where inter-team squabbling left the back-door open for Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari to take the title by a single point.

That in itself is a pretty interesting reveal from the now Alpine driver but he has gone on to say that he and Lewis are now not particularly close at all, citing the Briton's different lifestyle as part of the reason that things have 'cooled down:'

"In 2008, 2010 and 2011 we had quite a good relationship, because we both understood that in 2007 we were not managed well by our team boss.

"Now we have a respectful relationship, but it has perhaps cooled down a bit compared to before. We have different opinions on different things. Lewis has a different lifestyle to many of us and that separates him a little bit from the rest."

p1fkp3s3iou4j12o01uk21rcs14jsj.jpg

ENTER GIVEAWAY

Fernando isn't exactly saying he and Lewis do not get on but it does seem as though they have a respectful relationship that is professional and nothing more.

That's fair enough, as a lot of the drivers aren't massively close to one another and Lewis himself has said that he's not really big friends with anyone else on the grid.

The likes of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz have shown you can have pals in the paddock, though, and at the end of the day it's each to their own.