Australian Grand Prix: Pre-Race Interview With Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso

Question: Fernando, your feelings about your preparations so far. How do you think testing has gone? How do you feel coming into this race? More mileage than any other team.

Fernando Alonso: Yeah, it was okay for us. Winter has been smooth for us as well with not particularly big problems, always new challenge when the regulations change so you need to adapt your car to the new regulations. There are many things to test and many things to learn about the new things but I think we did enough mileage to understand more or less everything that we introduced this year. Finally we are racing, as from the last race of last year it has been a lot of months. Also the extra 15 days with Bahrain cancellation it was not the best thing so finally we are racing again and we are very happy to be here.

Question: Your expectations this year. Fernando, The President has set the bar pretty high for Ferrari hasn’t he.

Fernando Alonso: Well I think if you race for Ferrari there is no other goal than fighting for the World Championship. I think that is the history of Ferrari, the power of Ferrari as well and I think this team and this history around us is about passion, about motor racing and about winning so that is our aim, that is our goal for the 2011 campaign, trying to fight for the World Championship. At the end you can win, you can lose. It depends how competitive you are. It depends on many other factors as well, but we need to be there and I am sure we will be until the last moment.

Question: Fernando, a win here and a second place and never any retirements in nine races. That has got to be a pretty good record.

Fernando Alonso: Yeah, I love the place. I love Melbourne, but not only the track. I think the atmosphere around the grand prix is fantastic. All the people here enjoy the whole weekend, not only the race as there are more events around the race on Sunday. They enjoy from Friday onwards and we do as well. Obviously, first race of the championship is always very exciting, always some strange races with retirements, with safety car as Mark said. Sometimes it is a race to survive in a way, the first race of the championship. We will try to do our best, hopefully score some points and start the season in a good way and in a very good atmosphere.

Question: The change in tyres this year is going to change the strategy of the race. How do you see that panning out given that we don’t necessarily understand the way the race is going to shape up like we have previously.

Fernando Alonso: I think there are many things to learn this weekend. We’ve just tested with these tyres. For sure there is a new way of doing the races in terms of strategy, so let’s say that a new Formula One is starting here in Melbourne in terms of the strategy point of view, but we need to learn from here and keep all the new things for the coming races but this is like a new one and we need to be very focused, very concentrated on the strategy because I think it can play a big part of the race result. On the other hand, maybe qualifying on Saturday has a little bit less value compared to last year, because on Sunday there will be more things to come, more factors on the track.

Question: There’s been a lot of talk about the new regulations this year and in particular the rear wing. Do you expect that, as senior driver, you will have some sort of dialogue as the races unwind about how that’s going to be implemented in future races?

Fernando Alonso: I think everyone will have a different opinion. In my case, I don’t think there is any particular problem with the new rules so all the things we need to do on the steering wheel, they are part of our job. We are professional drivers and we need to understand between us and our team, to make the most comfortable way of using all the new things. If you have no time to do all the things on the steering wheel, you don’t do it, it’s not a mandatory thing to do. It will take time and I think that for us, we did a lot of mileage in the winter. I think I can say that for Felipe and me we can get used to the new things and it comes automatically the things that we need to do on the steering wheel, corner after corner, and I don’t see any particular problem or anything to discuss in the near future.

Question: Fernando, could you already estimate how many laps you could do with the hard and soft tyres here ? And how much is your feeling with these tyres?

Fernando Alonso: I think the number of laps is impossible to predict right now but I don’t think there is a big problem because it’s the same tyres for everybody, so after qualifying or after tomorrow’s practice we will try to understand a little bit better how the strategy can work on Sunday but I don’t have any particular worries on that. The feeling with the tyres is OK, obviously. It’s a new tyre, as I said before, compared to last year, a new way of approaching the weekend, a new way of approaching the strategies etc but it’s something that we’ve been practising all winter and we will have more experience after race one now and it will be OK, and hopefully more fun for the spectators.

Question: I know you’re going to tell me that we don’t know the values of the teams now because we haven’t had a race yet, but do you think that Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, perhaps a Renault driver and their teams could be title contenders too, which means that we will have more than Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren as title contenders?

Fernando Alonso: Yeah, I agree. Now it’s impossible to say what is the order or who is competitive and who isn’t but before race one, on paper there are six teams, five teams able to win races and to fight for the championship. After three or four races you see much better that maybe only two or only three can really fight for the championship. I think the important thing for each team and for us especially is to do well and to be competitive in these three races and can be in that smaller group of two or three teams after three or four races, but at the moment everything is very open, I’m sure.

Question: Fernando, what do you expect of your team mate this year? Do you think you will still be driver number one at Ferrari or due to the change of tyres could the fight be stronger between the two of you?

Fernando Alonso: I think that there wasn’t a number one last year, there isn’t a number one this year. I think we all try to do our best. I think Felipe has been very strong all his career and he was also strong last year. I think that he was maybe losing too many points in the end, also with some unlucky moments. I remember Singapore, a very good weekend for our car and he had a mechanical problem in qualifying and started last so it’s not only the pure pace of the performance, it’s just also some other factors to fight for a championship, so I expect Felipe to be very strong and a title contender and hopefully between us both scoring many points for the team, because the constructors championship is a big thing for Ferrari.

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