Alonso looking forward to home Grand Prix

Here we are, with just a few hours to go before my first race for Ferrari in Spain. The Barcelona event has always been special for me. I am sure that this year, the dominant colour in the grandstands will be red, from the Ferrari and Spanish flags, along with the blue of my fans from Asturias. It will give me extra motivation to see so many flags, when I’m in the cockpit of the car and it would be great to give all the fans the result they are waiting for.

After coming home from China, we finally got a slightly longer break after the frenetic start to the season. I made the most of it to do some training and I was always in touch with the team to follow the development programme on the F10. In a championship like this one, you need to push very hard to try and improve the car at every race: it doesn’t take much to make a difference, either on the plus side or the minus.

I also spent a few days in Maranello to meet with the engineers and work on the simulator. One particular test we did involved evaluating the new management system for the blown rear wing, which I had partly tried on Friday in Shanghai. We did a lot of work on this system in the wind tunnel and Giancarlo was able to try it on the car last Saturday at Vairano. The first signs were good, but Felipe and I have to give it a good test in the two free practice sessions on Friday, before deciding whether or not to use it in qualifying and the race.

This morning I was in Madrid for an event organised by the RACC and eSafety, along with the FIA Foundation which promotes electronic driver aids on road cars. Also there with me were Carlos Sainz, FIA President Jean Todt, Sebastian Salvado and Carlos Gracia, respectively the presidents of the Automobile Club of Catalunya and the Spanish Motor Sport Federation. It’s always nice to be able to do something to improve road safety: the understanding and use of technologies such as ESC (Electronic Stability Control) and predictive braking can be very important, but most of all they can contribute to saving thousands of lives.

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