Fernando Alonso quipped Lewis Hamilton is "getting old" after comments made about Red Bull's 2023 car.
The reigning champions have enjoyed a dominant start to this season, claiming comfortable victories in the opening three races with a substantial gap over the rest.
After the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen had breezed past him on the straight, Hamilton claimed he had "never seen a car so fast", suggesting Red Bull is even faster than Mercedes was in the early years of the turbo hybrid era.
"I don't agree at all," Alonso told L'Equipe in response. "[In Saudi Arabia,] I finished 20 seconds behind Checo and Max.
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“He and [Nico] Rosberg were a minute ahead in 2014 and 2015… He has a short memory, he’s getting old!”
Verstappen agreed with his fellow two-time world champion, telling RacingNews365: “I think if you look at the statistics, then those statements are not correct.
“But we also do have a very good car. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but still, we are not as dominant as Mercedes has shown in some years.
“I don’t pay much attention to that, that doesn’t get you anywhere.
“Whatever we have done in the eight years that Mercedes is so dominant, we also tried to close the gap. That’s the only thing you can do.”
Though Hamilton claimed his first podium of the year in Australia, the Briton says he feels "disconnected" from Mercedes' W14 car.
And never one to miss an opportunity, Alonso couldn't resist but have a dig at the seven-time world champion.
“With a normal car, you can see that he has weaknesses,” he declared.
“Before, he drove alone or sometimes with his teammate. But look, he is the record holder for poles and George Russell leads 3-0 in qualifying this season. It just goes to show how much the car is still a key factor…”
