By Jonathan Noble Thursday, April 19th 2007, 09:47 GMT
McLaren have played down any talk that world champion Fernando Alonso is getting rattled by the speed and interest surrounding his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
There were suggestions after last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix that Hamilton may be gaining the upper hand psychologically, with Alonso beginning to express frustration in post-race interviews about the constant focus surrounding his rookie teammate.
But McLaren's F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh is confident there is going to be no repeat of the problems Alonso has had in the past when he has been beaten by teammates - and thinks any hurt Alonso feels by being outpaced by Hamilton in Bahrain is only natural.
"I think that the two guys are very open and honest with each other and the team," said Whitmarsh, whose team lead the constructors' championship with Alonso and Hamilton tied at the top of the drivers' title chase.
"They both want to beat each other. And providing that is in a constructive manner, which it is and has been so far, then that is positive. If a racing driver doesn't want to beat his teammate then there has to be something wrong with that.
"Our guys are really true competitors. But I think Fernando has tremendous resilience, self-belief and confidence. He will recognise that he has come out of the first three races as co-leader of the championship and he will fancy his chances of getting the job done."
McLaren boss Ron Dennis made it clear earlier this week that the team would ensure both his drivers were treated equally - especially now that Hamilton is a title contender.
"We have the young pretender and the double world champion ? and we owe it to both drivers to give them equal opportunity," he said. "The only thing that would make life difficult would be if they started bouncing into each other. But the reality is, it is not in their character (to do that)."
