For a change? Or is it plain nationalism?

Fernando Alonso has claimed that his Britain based McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team has been favouring his English teammate Lewis Hamilton over him.

Such a talk would have been ignored had Hamilton been a star and Alonso an also ran. But here, the situation is quite the contrary. Alonso is a the reigning two-time world champion while Hamilton is just a rookie in his debut season.

In other words, Alonso brings with him a huge truckload of ego, while Hamilton is the blue-eyed boy, having been nurtured by McLaren boss Ron Dennis for the past decade, ever since Hamilton expressed his desire to race for McLaren at the ripe old age of 12!

This seems to be a very unique case in which an experienced person is apparently being sidelined. However, the team categorically denies any such bias, and the team management is of the view that they favour the driver who has the best chance to win at any stage of the race. Not that the other fella is ignored - just that he is divested of some attention.

Another very succint point to note is that Hamilton is a black person of Carribean descent, his forefathers being natives of Grenada. Very rarely have we come across such preferential treatment to a coloured person. Tiger Woods is another matter. Hamilton is actually the first ever black to race in F1 history.

Whatever the case might be, we do sense a ‘change of perception’ happening. At least in the Land of The Queen. Case in point: One Ms. Shilpa Shetty.

And when it happens in the Sports fraternity, it percolates down to the society. Kudos to McLaren for that.

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