Fernando Alonso: “I felt at home from Day One…”

Ferrari hogged the headlines today by announcing that Fernando Alonso will stay on board until 2016.

The extension came as a surprise to the F1 paddock, and while no one doubted the commitment of each side to the other, a firm deal of that length is unprecedented.

On the other hand the Spaniard had already suggested that he would finish his career with the Scuderia, and given that he was never going to return to McLaren, sealing his deal now makes a lot of sense. It also leaves us wondering who might be a suitable team mate over the long term.

“It was good news for me, for my career to extend the contract and to make an extension to 2016,” said Alonso this afternoon. “As I also said last year the intention is to finish my career at Ferrari. I don’t imagine any other better place to race for a racing driver. I have been lucky to arrive here last year.

“I felt at home from day one and now I have this possibility to be racing here. At the end of 2016 it will be seven years in Ferrari, so I feel very privileged, very happy to that, and in 2017 we will see maybe another contract, if I am not too old at that point, and if Ferrari are still happy with me.

“It is not a big change in my mind or in my head as it was already for me very clear that I would race here for many years. Despite what the number of the contract said, which year it finished, the stability was already 100 per cent in my case and I felt the same with the team. This is just a public confirmation, nothing changed inside the team and stability is always good for a Formula One team.

“There are so many rule changes, so many things to look at, that for a driver point of view or a team point of view it is good to programme in the long-term to develop and to create a good partnership together and bring some success to Maranello.”

Alonso said that negotiations started and finished very quiuckly. “I think it was very easy, very simple for us. We started talking maybe one or two weeks ago, about the future. Both sides wanted to continue. I was very happy with the team; they seemed to be happy with me as well. So we said, OK, we make an extension of the contract. We arrived at the date of 2016 and everything is more clear for us, for the team members and for everyone: to have some stability, as we said. It was a decision from both sides.

“I think when both sides want to continue, it’s the best thing. You find a compromise, a decision, very, very quickly.”

While a long term commitment might seem like a gamble, he made the point that even in a bad year, Ferrari usually manages to finish no lower than third.

“Formula One is impossible to predict and it’s impossible to think about winning championships before I’ve even started. I think the intention is to keep enjoying racing. For sure, I think I’m in the best team possible to fight for World Championships. I think some other teams go up and down. They have good years and bad years.

“At Ferrari, in the worst season you finish third or second in the World Championship, so this is something that Ferrari can offer to a driver. So in these six years, I will try to enjoy racing and I’m sure that opportunity will come. Opportunity came last year. We missed it by only four points and hopefully we can repeat that fight and next time, hopefully, we can take it. But it’s impossible to predict…”