Alonso: Any future team-mate will be welcome

Fernando Alonso has said he would welcome any team-mate in the future and that he has discussed the issue with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.

However, the Spaniard reiterated that the Italian marque is more than happy with the performance of current partner Felipe Massa.

Questioned in Thursday’s official FIA press conference ahead of the European Grand Prix about rumours liking defending world champion Sebastian Vettel with Ferrari, Alonso said that the team was always the subject of speculation.

“Rumours with Ferrari are always the same,” he smiled. “When I won the 2005 championship with Renault, I was linked to Ferrari immediately – and I arrived in 2010. So, if Sebastian is linked now, maybe he’ll arrive in five year’s time.

“Every summer it is the same with Ferrari, as I said, but at the moment we repeat the same thing: extremely happy with Felipe,” he added. “Whatever team-mate comes in the future will be welcome, will be part of the team and part of Ferrari.

“As I said, when I joined this team the most important thing in Ferrari is to help each other to make one red car win. It’s something that President di Montezemolo is very clear on when you arrive on day one in Ferrari. So, whatever teammate is coming in the future, if it comes, will be no problem and we will try to work as we are doing now with Felipe.”

Alonso did, however, admit that the topic of future team-mates had cropped up in conversations with the Ferrari president and team principal Stefano Domenicali.

“I’m in Italy every week so when we are there, sometimes I see the president, I see Stefano and we talk about development of the car, we talk about GT, now there is some work on a new GT car that they are doing some test with at the end of year,” he said. “We talk about the future of Formula One, about Corsa Clienti, which is owners of old Formula One cars and also about the future and teammates as well.”

Regarding his own prospects in Valencia this weekend, Alonso was circumspect, pointing to consistency at the clutch of races coming before the break in the season in August as perhaps more important than victory here this weekend,

“Getting some podiums now, in the next couple of races, especially in July when we have three races in four weeks… it will be important to have some consistency in this very important month,” he said. “But, being Thursday, we only think about victory, because we want to win, especially here in Spain, in front of our fans and we will try our best. [It’s a] difficult question because we know second in this type of Championship is also good points.”