Fernando Alonso backed to beat 'lost' Lewis Hamilton in head-to-head F1 fight

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert believes Fernando Alonso would beat Lewis Hamilton in a straight fight if they were in equal machinery.

The duo were team-mates for one season in 2007 - Hamilton's rookie F1 season - and finished level on points at the end of the year.

Since then, Hamilton has enjoyed a highly successful career, adding seven titles to his list of achievements.

However, the 41-year-old has not enjoyed a positive run of late and endured a nightmare opening campaign with Ferrari last year, failing to register a single podium throughout the campaign.

Alonso has also not been operating with competitive machinery in the last couple of seasons, but has left Herbert impressed by the pace he has been able to extract from his cars. 

“If I look at those two, and I go, 'right, which one would I expect, if he were given the car, which one would be the one I put my money on?'” Herbert said on the Stay On Track podcast.

“Unfortunately, sadly, I’d probably go [with] Fernando.

“Fernando, he’s in a bad car in that Aston Martin. It’s not the best. It’s sort of there or thereabouts sometimes. But he’s able to sort of squeeze that extra something out of it.”

Hamilton was noticeably downbeat in the second half of the year as he struggled for results and often highlighted his excitement to reach the end of the season.

Herbert stated Hamilton is “lost”, having been unable to get on top of the struggles that plagued him throughout the year.

“And I never saw that happen last year with Lewis, which I’m sort of shocked that we never ever saw that,” he said.

“I’m sure he’s very frustrated and shocked that he wasn’t able to do it. And then I look at his face and those interviews after the race, and you go, he’s lost.

“He cannot understand what he needs to do to get around the problem he’s got. And of course, Charles is getting around it.”