Alonso : We must keep our feet on the ground

It’s nice to have a few days to relax before the final rush! The Far Eastern leg was very long and it’s always nice to get back home to relax a bit, before heading off for the final two races of the season in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

I am back in the lead of the championship for the first time since way back after the Australian Grand Prix. However, we know that with this points system and the gaps as they are, the standings don’t really mean that much: it only takes one race – as indeed we saw in Korea – for the situation to turn itself round. All the same, It’s always better to be in front than behind! Knowing that achieving our objectives is in our hands means we are a fraction calmer, but in no way does it change our approach. We will have to try and do our utmost, making the most of all the potential we have at our disposal. The only difference is that it would be enough, so to speak, to stay ahead of our closest rivals, without having to think too much about the maths.

The statistics from the second part of the season make interesting reading – 133 points from seven races, 90 of them in the last four – and that makes you think it might have been nice if the season had started in Hockenheim. And yet, for our part, it’s not as though we changed anything special in the way we went about our work: it’s just that we manage to string together a series of strong weekends from start to finish, while earlier, sometimes for a variety of reasons, that was not the case. We were lacking consistency in terms of results until this finally came through later. The car has always been reasonably competitive, with differing levels from circuit to circuit, which was also the case later on. However we have definitely much improved the performance level over these last three months.

In the last few years, Interlagos has usually produced very exciting races, partly because of the track characteristics, but also because the weather can be very changeable. This will be a very important factor and we will need to be ready to tackle all possible scenarios in the best way possible. The lap is fairly short, so we can expect closer times than usual, which means that the slightest little mistake will count even more, because one or two tenths either way can mean having seven or eight cars in front or behind you. We will need to do everything perfectly.

In theory, there are still five of us in the running for the title, but clearly Button is in a trickier situation. There are not many points between us to be honest and we saw how things ended up three years ago, but the fact is that are no less than four drivers ahead of him and it’s hard to imagine none of them scoring points.

Naturally, I’ve got great memories of this track because it was here that I secured my two titles, in 2005 and 2006. Every time I go to Sao Paolo it’s a special feeling and the atmosphere is really great. I don’t want to think about the chances of history repeating itself for a third time: I know it is theoretically possible, but that does not count for me. We want to tackle this Grand Prix in the same way as all the others, concentrating on ourselves with our feet on the ground, trying to do a good job, without making mistakes and with the aim of beating our rivals. I have said it before and I say it again: we will do the maths in Abu Dhabi.

From Fernando Alonso’s blog on www.ferrari.com