Barcelona is unique - Alonso
Fernando Alonso, the Spanish World Champion, is really looking forward to his home crowd. According to the Mild Seven Renault F1 driver, Barcelona is unique in the whole championship. Here follows the interview with Alonso.
"I am very happy. You know, when you are fighting for the victory and get pole position, then of course you want to win as well. But we did a good job. Our performance was not as strong as we hoped, and even with that, we got eight points. So for sure, when everything is OK during the race weekend, then we can win more races."
Barcelona will have a record, sell-out crowd of 130,000 people on Sunday. You must be looking forward to it?
"Of course, yes. It is a very special feeling for me to be at my home Grand Prix, it is something unique in the whole championship. It can be a bit stressful too, but the main emotion for me is that I really enjoy the whole weekend, seeing the fans from Wednesday and Thursday onwards. There are so many of them, it is a shame we only have one race in Spain!"
Inevitably, for a home race, people will wonder if it brings more pressure. Does it?"I think that pressure comes when you don’t do your maximum, then you have pressure in your head. In my case though, I always do the maximum, in a test or a race, at Barcelona or any other track. If I am doing the maximum, then I don’t have pressure. As soon as the visor goes down and the race starts, it really doesn’t matter at all."
Will the Renault be strong at the Circuit de Catalunya?"I think we are always good there. It is an aero circuit, which is good for Renault, and the team was on the podium every time in the last three years. We saw in Germany that the car is competitive, but Ferrari were a little bit stronger. The next races in Barcelona and Monaco will be dominated by tyres I think and in the past years they were both Michelin circuits. I think there are some good opportunities coming up for us."
Finally, we don’t want to tempt fate, but what would a victory mean to you at your home race?"Well, last year I think it was not quite so important for me, because I was so focused on the championship and just wanted to win races, it didn’t matter which ones. This season it is a bit different. Of course, I am fighting really hard for the title. But now, it is true that if I have to pick two or three races in the year I want to win, then Barcelona is definitely one of them!"
Source Renaultf1
