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Fernando Alonso once gave €1000 (£869) in envelopes to every member of McLaren staff who worked on his car - only for them to have to return the cash.
The Spaniard's incredibly generous act came back in 2007 when his rivalry with team-mate Lewis Hamilton was beginning to really heat up.
Hamilton had stunned the team with his pace and was providing a genuine and unexpected title threat to the more senior driver.
With the team under the microscope, Alonso's act was seen by some as an attempt to curry favour and sew division among them.
His former track engineer in 2007, Mark Slade, revealed in a recent interview with Peter Windsor via Marca: 'At the Nürburgring in 2007, on the first day, Fernando came up to me and said, "Can you give me a list of everyone working on my car?"
'I thought, "Okay, yeah, I can do that." And then I asked, "To what extent?" Because obviously there’s the parts store guy, the guys who work on your cars, and then there’s the rest, you know, you can’t define who works on your car and who doesn’t.
Fernando Alonso (left) tried to give McLaren staff £1000 each during his first season racing against new team-mate Lewis Hamilton (right), pictured in 2007 in Brazil
'So, anyway, I made a list that I thought was okay, as best I could, including the petrol guy, the fuel guy, and the tyre guy. But I didn’t know what it was for, so we already have it ready and in the end I said, "Here’s the list."
’A while later, he came back in the morning and said, "Could you have these guys on the list meet me at the back?" He just wanted to have a chat with his guys before the weekend started.
'I said, "Yeah, sure, no problem." So I went to the garage, called the guys, and said, "Come out, Fernando wants to talk to us for a while." He showed up at the back of the garage with a bunch of envelopes.
'And he said, "I used to like to share my winnings with my guys in the car. It's not something I've done at McLaren so far, but it's something I like to show my appreciation for being in my car and doing such a good job."
'He handed out the envelopes, we opened them, and I think there was €1,000 in each one.'
The former track engineer went on to explain that the team bosses were furious when they found out about the gesture.
He added: 'Dave Ryan (McLaren's sporting director at the time) came into the motorhome with a sour face and asked me, "What the hell happened in the garage?" And I said, "Well, Fernando...' and he said, "Yeah, I thought that's what happened. Basically, you have to give us all the money, you have to give it to me, you have to give it to the team. It's completely outrageous , we can't allow that on this team."
'I was like, "Oh, oh, okay, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, okay. And he basically said that anyone who didn't get their money back would be fired.
The team made Alonso take back the money he'd given the team and bosses were furious
Alonso, pictured at the Singapore GP last weekend, had a fractious relationship with Hamilton
'It got out, and everyone returned their envelopes. I think they gave them back to Fernando, and told him not to do it again.'
The story at the time was cast in a negative light in some quarters, suggesting that it was a crude attempt from Alonso to buy loyalty.
The season descended into a bitter fight between Hamilton and Alonso on track.
Alonso famously blocked the Brit in the pits in Hungary and called out the team for favouring him in press conferences, while Hamilton did the same after finishing second in Monaco.
In the end, they ended up denying each other the world championship they both craved and finished level on points, losing the drivers’ championship to Kimi Räikkönen by one.
Alonso then left for Renault, with Hamilton winning the championship the following season.
All these years later, the pair are still on the grid, with 44-year-old Alonso racing for Aston Martin and 11th in the standings, five places behind 40-year-old Hamilton in his Ferrari.
