A new Formula 1 starts in Melbourne - Alonso
Fernando Alonso was called to appear in today’s FIA press conference at the Albert Park circuit, on the outskirts of Melbourne. Looking back at the winter months, the Spaniard felt that for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, testing had gone smoothly with no particular problems.
“It is always a challenge when you have regulation changes,” Alonso began. “You have many new things to test and learn about and me and Felipe did enough mileage to understand everything we needed to. So now it’s great to finally be racing, especially as we had to wait these extra fifteen days because the Bahrain event was cancelled, but anyway, I am very happy to be here.”
Asked about his target for the season, Alonso did not have to give the question much thought, so obvious was the answer. “If you race for Ferrari, you always have the goal of fighting for the World Championship, because that is the history of Ferrari: this team is all about passion, motor racing and winning again is our goal for the 2011 campaign. Whether we win or lose will depend on so many factors.”
The Ferrari man has won here in Albert Park once, in 2006 and in a total of nine appearances here in Melbourne, he has always finished the race, which is already quite an achievement at this difficult track that produces so many incidents. “I love Melbourne and everything that goes on, as there are so many attractions around the Grand Prix so that the people get to enjoy the whole weekend from Friday onwards. As the first race of the season, I can expect it to be very exciting, as we have seen strange races here in the past, many involving the Safety Car. Honestly, sometimes it can be a race just to survive. We will try our best and hope to score some points to start the season in a very good way and in a good atmosphere.”
Apart from the fact it is the first race, the Australian GP is also going to be unpredictable because of all the rule changes and particularly because of the higher wear rate of the Pirelli tyres compared to those used in the past. “A new Formula 1 starts here in Melbourne,” stated Fernando. “We will have to remain very focussed and very concentrated on the strategy, because that will play a big part in the final result, while Qualifying will have a bit less value than last year.”
Source Ferrari
