Question: Fernando, you were talking earlier this week about the significance of Valencia for you. It is a significant race or a significant town or location for you?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah. Why?
Question: In that you signed your contract with Ferrari here. Your first appearance with Ferrari was the Ferrari day at the local circuit here.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, Valencia has been always the debut for Formula One, good years 2005 and 2006 for me. The first time in Ferrari in winter 2010. I did some shows here. First time with McLaren in 2007 on the streets so it has always been a nice feeling here in this city. I raced for a Valencian team in Formula Nissan or F3000 so quite close relationship with this town.
Question: But it’s a circuit that you haven’t necessarily done very well at in this European Grand Prix. Best of sixth in 2009.
Fernando Alonso: Yes, in 2008 I had accident first lap with (Kazuki) Nakajima. In 2009 sixth and 2010 safety car period, safety car line one.
Question: So do you feel it owes you a better result, a more significant result?
Fernando Alonso: No, obviously, we see you need to be competitive, you need to be lucky and where there are safety car periods you need to be in the right place at the right moment. As happened also in Canada with all the rain, all the red flags so all the crazy races you need a little bit of luck and I think last year we missed a little of that. Hopefully this year we can be competitive. That’s the most important thing and try to get this podium here in Valencia which is important for us, important for me as well, and hopefully we can make a good show for all the fans on Sunday. This is a circuit where the attendance is not great in past years and there has been a lot of effort from the circuit and from everybody to get maximum fans through the circuit this weekend so we need to put on a good show for them and hopefully they will enjoy the race.
Question: But you feel with a bit of luck the Ferrari is a winning car?
Fernando Alonso: At the moment it is difficult to win a race. There is no doubt that in Monaco and Canada we had the opportunity to win the race. That’s a fact. It is not a dream. We were very close. We were in the first row of the grid after qualifying in Canada and we were 10centimetres from winning in Monaco, finishing second, so it is true in the last two races the trend is quite good. We improve and we seem to be more competitive. Valencia, the characteristics of the circuit are a little bit similar to Canada and Monaco, so maybe here is another good opportunity but we also cannot forget we are one second behind sometimes in qualifying and with this it is difficult to win.
Question: Fernando, we saw that in qualifying in Canada you were pretty close to Vettel and here, with the outlawing of changing engine mapping between qualifying and the race, some are feeling that Red Bull may be penalised so do you think that this is your chance to try to get pole?
Fernando Alonso: I don’t know. Hopefully. I don’t think it will massively change qualifying. I think Sebastian was quickest in qualifying. It’s true that it wasn’t one second, it was two tenths, but he was the quickest in wet conditions at the start of the race. We were following him and he was nearly eight tenths or nine tenths quicker than us on Sunday with race mapping. We saw a superior car at that moment, a dominant car, the Red Bull, in qualifying and in the race as well. It seems that sometimes they push a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. Because of that, in races you seem a little bit closer. We are not desperate to get pole here or to win this race. We need to know where we are at the moment; we need to keep working, to keep working in the direction we took two races ago, as I said. It seems that we are more competitive but we cannot under-estimate or forget how quick our opponents are.
Question: Fernando, last year in Monza you said that with six, seven races to the end, you need to be on the podium to have a chance at the title and you got it at the end. This year, what do you think you need to have to have a chance to fight for the title?
Fernando Alonso: I think we need to have the best car. If we have the best car we can win the title because there is plenty of time and plenty of races to recover. If we are fifth or sixth, as we are normally in qualifying etc, it’s very difficult because you cannot get the pace that everybody is doing. I think the championship is long. We need to concentrate, race by race. We will try to be on the podium, we will try to win every race we do. Obviously this is sometimes very difficult or impossible but this is our aim. We are Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro so this is our goal but, as I said, we need to respect our opponents and we need to understand that in some places, in some races we cannot do that. This is also some pressure that you have when you are at Ferrari or when you are Ferrari. You need to win every race that you do, you need to win every championship that you do and despite these seven races when I think I drove the best seven races of my career, with the best qualifying laps, compared to my teammate, compared to last year, comparing different years, the starts etc, even with that, it seems that the season has been a very bad season so far, which, in some ways I agree with, because we are Ferrari, we are obliged to win every race but in some other ways, I think we need to understand and respect our rivals and to work harder than them and to close that gap in the near future.
Question: Fernando, can you just talk a little bit about Spain’s relationship with Formula One, when you were growing up, and what it was like, and also how it has developed over the years?
Fernando Alonso: Well, when I was a kid, Formula One was not important at all, or was not a sport we followed. I never saw a race on TV in my life until I was 17 or 18. I was already in Formula Nissan so when I was racing in go-karts I never saw a Formula One race; some news at the end of the year, who was World Champion, who was not World Champion but obviously we didn’t know any of the names that were racing. Now, I think it’s quite popular in Spain. People love this sport and it’s true that it’s quite complex, as Mark said, with some regulation changes every year etc. It’s not easy for the fans to follow but anyway, I think they love their motorsport as we love motorbikes as well in this country. Generally, I think in go-karts and in different categories now there are many drivers so I’m sure that from now on the future will be much better for Spain and I’m happy because it’s obviously my sport and something that I love and now I’m happy that the country shares this love as well.
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