Alonso: I think this was a perfect year

Final working appearances of 2012 for Fernando Alonso, who was in Madrid today for a series of events organised by the Santander Bank. Then this coming weekend he will be in Maranello for the usual end of year lunch with the Scuderia on Saturday, followed on Sunday by the pre-Christmas party for the children of all the Ferrari employees.

Fernando was at the Ciudad Financera, the headquarters of the “best bank in the world,” as it said on the rear wing of the F2012s for the final seven races of the season, to take part in an unusual press conference. The names of those asking the questions were well known to him, but their appearance was very different, for the simple reason that the interviewers were actually the children of Spanish journalists, invited by Santander for an early Christmas celebration with the Spanish driver.

Clearly, good journalism runs in the blood as the questions these very young writers in the making asked were rather interesting and probably less predictable than those asked by their parents, ranging from football – “who is the best out of Messi, Ronaldo or Facao?” to statistical queries –“how many trophies do you have at home,” and on his private life – “do you know how to dance?” to the inevitable questions on Formula 1: for Fernando, it was definitely a nice way to deal with the press, while for his interlocutors, who knows, it might well have been the first step to trying out the jobs undertaken by their fathers and mothers!

In the meantime, everyone got their first reward in the shape of a push-scooter given them by the Ferrari driver, while the winner of the “Journalist for a Day” competition also got the opportunity to grill Fernando in a one-to-one situation, with the interview available on line and on the social network media of both Ferrari and Santander Bank as from tomorrow afternoon.

Before facing the rapid fire questions from the younger generation, Alonso could not get out of a brief encounter with the grown-ups, this time in the guise of professionals, rather than parents. Obviously, here there was no room for the fun questions that came from the kids, but instead the topics revolved around what the driver had done in Interlagos immediately after the race and then in Valencia for the Ferrari Finali Mondiali. “Sometimes you think you’ve done a good job and at others you feel something is lacking or that you would like to change or improve for the following year, but this time, I think this was a perfect year and I am very happy with my season,” said Fernando looking back on 2012. “I think it will be almost impossible to do the same again in my career.”

“Vettel is a worthy champion: he scored more points than anyone else and that is clear for all to see,” he continued. “Red Bull will again be favourites next year, ending this season with seven or eight tenths in hand over us and that will be hard for us to make up over the winter. The McLaren was also quicker than us and, at the end, even Force India and Lotus were ahead of us. Having said that, I remain confident, partly because we will be starting from a better base than this year. It would be hard to start as badly as in 2012: in Jerez at the first test, we were two seconds and a half off the pace, in Australia one and a half seconds… There’s a lot of work to do but our objective is clear: to have two Ferraris ahead of the field, both on Saturday and Sunday. These past few years, some teams have managed that, but not us: we will try again in 2013. I don’t think the fact the Maranello wind tunnel has been temporarily closed will be a handicap: we will use other wind tunnels, and indeed we have been doing just that for the past few months.”

Finally, Fernando touched briefly on the Vettel pass on Vergne at Interlagos. “I can only repeat what I already said in Valencia: Ferrari was right to ask the FIA for a clarification in order to remove all doubt for the fans: the Federation replied that everything was in order and so the case is closed.”

Fernando’s day ended on an ecologicial-jogging note, as the Ferrari driver along with the Santander Bank President, Emilio Botin inaugurated “El Bosque.” This is a wooded area situated inside the Ciudad Financera aimed at cultural and recreational use. Along with 200 Santander employees, Fernando took part in a one kilometre race within the park wearing a shirt with the slogan “race 1km+” an initiative aimed at raising funds for the Spanish Red Cross.