Fernando Alonso, the favourite to win this year's Formula One world championship, has suggested that his difficult experience in partnering the British driver Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007 helped him to "grow up" and was good preparation for joining his new team, Ferrari.

"2007 was very difficult but I learnt a lot personally," he says in an interview to be published by the Guardian tomorrow. "It was good for my career to take that step of joining McLaren and growing up. I learned how to work with a team and also to withstand the media pressure. The difficulties I had were coming from the team and the media. Now I am much more prepared for everything in Formula One – and in life as well." Bitter infighting cost McLaren the championship in 2007, and Alonso returned to his old team, Renault, the following season.

Jenson Button, like Alonso in 2007, arrives at McLaren this season as the reigning world champion and it is widely expected that tensions could emerge between him and Hamilton. "Obviously I don't know how McLaren is now but if Jenson arrived in my time then, for sure, it would be very tough for him," Alonso told the Guardian. "But, hopefully, it's now better for Jenson because I learned a lot from that season and McLaren did as well."

Alonso confronts rumours that he has a strained relationship with his new team-mate, Felipe Massa. "People are only writing these things because they know we are very strong. Felipe and I work for the team. After so many years of course I have battled with Felipe. It's the way it is – and we'll keep having these fights. But Michael Schumacher and [Nico] Rosberg will have fights at Mercedes. I am sure Lewis and Jenson Button will have fights at McLaren. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel will have fights at Red Bull – in fact they were fighting last year already. But no one talks about this. They talk about it with Ferrari because we are in a good position."

In tomorrow's interview, Alonso reflects on the inadvertent role he played at the centre of the Spygate and Crashgate controversies that so blighted the reputation of Formula One. He also reveals his hope to form a new Tour de France team with his friend Alberto Contador – who won the race last year.

"It's a project for me – a kind of dream I have because I love cycling. I know it is not easy to create a top cycling team from zero. You need good riders, good staff, a lot of preparation and, most important, a lot of sponsors. It is something Alberto and I can work on. I know this year he is with Astana but from next year onwards, for sure, if there is an opportunity I will be very interested. I think he will be interested as well."

The new Formula One season begins in Bahrain two weeks on Sunday.

Read the full interview online and in the paper tomorrow