"The 'anti-Alonsos' are on the internet"

by Jaime Rodríguez (special correspondent) / Jerez


Fernando Alonso (Oviedo, 1981), pays attention to details. A lot. He trusts his senses inside the car to discover its pulse and faults. Also out of the car, in his baggy Evisu jeans and red sweatshirt. In the dining Ferrari tent at Jerez, his father, vital guardian, waits for him to go back to the hotel. Around his neck there's a faded lanyard, with a black and white photo of a boyish face looking like a new soldier in the Army. "I've noticed. He carries my 2001 pass", says the driver smiling about Dad's antics. To enter the circuit, José Luis Alonso took the first thing he could from his box of memories. Bingo, the first Formula 1 pass the young aspiring driver ever had. Nine years later, his son wears red on the best F1 team in the world. An honor, a responsibility. Mission accomplished, one more essential step for the next leap: to win again.

Alonso and the details. Photoshoot with EL MUNDO. In the beginning of last week, Filming Day for ferrari at the Jerez track, a journey of publicity recordings. It won't stop raining. In the Ferrari garage, mechanics, cameras and lights. "Look, we get on the plane and I get on that car," he warns and signals to the stand-in that carries his helmet inside the car. "Will my photos be as dark as Cristiano's?", he asks the photographer, with the last issue of DXT in his hand, where the Portuguese football star stares defiantly at the camera. He prefers to smile in the red Ferrari afterall.

El Mundo: Do you like this colour particularly?

Fernando Alonso: As a colour, I've always liked red like any other colour, no more. But now I think it suits me, I look good in red. At the racetrack, I've always known it meant a lot.

EM: They say Ferraris have a special sound.

FA: The street ones yes, but the Formula 1 cars all sound alike. The sounds depend on the position of the exhaust.

EM: Before you got to Ferrari, had you planned on buying one?

FA: No, but I don't really plan things too much. I only think when I'm buying. I decide quickly.

EM: You'd get a red one, of course.

FA: Yes, but I don't know if they'll give me a discount. You'd have to ask the president [he says, looking at the Ferrari press officer].

EM: What calls your attention to Ferrari?

FA: The passion and closeness. Compared with other teams, you can live. In the garage, everybody talks at the same time, they shout, they run, you see people on top of each other trying to screw on a piece... because everything is intuitive, from the heart, creative, thoughtful as well. Every moment whatever's needed gets done, there's no strict programme like in other teams, where you have to read what to do and then do it at the time it's noted. Here you do things as they come up, a little sooner, a little later, and things get done. A very good flexibility for F1.

EM: Felipe Massa, your teammate, has he given you any recommendations?

FA: A lot of advice from the technical point of view, aspects where he has been struggled with in the last years. He explains things to me so I can adapt faster.

EM: So far, you both look comfortable with each other. Are you surprised?

FA: I didn't have a preconceived idea about him. I knew he was a very quick driver and also hardworking and responsible with the team. That's the Felipe I'm getting to know.

EM: Ferrari is your second big team. Have you learn anything from McLaren that you can apply now?

FA: Many things. My year in McLaren was a very rich experience and also at a technical level, because there they have a very interesting work philosophy. I've been able to use the things I have learnt there. And it also helped me grow as a driver. Thanks to all this, I have matured personally with the experiences over the years. I have got more serenity, more peace. I'm ready for any challenge.

EM: What have you learnt from the previous hard years at Renault?

FA: You can always learn positive things, even when you're fighting for intermediate positions in the grid. In my opinion, the last couple of years there were also really good. I'm more ready than before, now. And there were also good results, let's not forget. It's always said about the hell, the purgatory, how lousy the last couple of years were... but I have won two races in 2008 and last year I was regularly in Q3 at qualifying, when the other car from the team [Nelsinho] wasn't. I also got pole in Hungary, one podium... Achievements that a [Spanish] driver had never done before , but when I do it everything seems normal.

EM: Do you talk often to your former boss at Renault, Flavio Briatore?

FA: Yes, every 15 days.

EM: Were you disappointed by your former teammate Nelsinho Piquet?

FA: No, people no longer surprise me about anything. People make their own decision sometimes, and sometimes they're wrong, sometimes they're right. It's the law of life.

EM: When was the last time your father yelled at you?

FA: Well... let me think... I don't remember, it's been a while.

EM: He says you were a well behaved child.

FA: Yes, more or less. When I was little, he yelled at me when we were together and I did something he had told me not to. But it wasn't so much yelling, it was more like demanding, especially with the karts. Or when he took me to a field with sheep we owned. I was eight or nine, and I didn't go there on holiday, but to help my father. To dig dirt from one place and put it in another... and, of course, I always dropped some and he yelled at me!

EM: What was your last joy?

FA: I have those everyday for any reason, because I'm very easy to please and warm to anything, like a football match won by my team, or small details like playing games... anything goes.

EM: At 28 years old, are you ready to be a father?

FA: No, because I'm 100 per cent dedicated to my work. I look forward to, but right now my priority is something else.

EM: Do you believe your public image has improved?

FA: I think it's about the same, isn't it? I have always felt very loved and respected. Those who criticize me has never had any contact with me.

EM: But you know there are 'anti-Alonsos' out there.

FA: They are always on the internet, in any news or forum, that's where you'll find the 'anti-alonsistas', who are against everything anyway. The 'Alonsistas', however, are there, at the Valencia circuit, where there are 36,000 people following a test to see my debut with Ferrari. There are the 36,000 'alonsistas', and the 'anti-alonsistas' are on an internet forum. They don't bother me.

EM: Would you surprise people if they knew you personally?

FA: I think so. If they knew me, they'd find out. I'm nicer than I look, than the image I portray. I'm more normal. But, it's true that if you know me, a little of the magic would be gone... everytime I meet someone, they say: "But man, you're much nicer than I thought!". And I like hearing that. It's good that people don't think so well about me because then when I meet them I surprise them by getting along with everyone. [He laughs].

Source: El Mundo
Translation/adaptation from Spanish: Fran