Ferrari, Alonso: “I feel good, I'm one hundred percent”

It's time for Monza, the Italian Grand Prix and, as usual, both Scuderia Ferrari drivers took part in this afternoon's official FIA press conference. In the case of Fernando Alonso, the first question was inherent to his physical condition, after the frightening accident five days ago at Spa. “After the race I suffered a bit of the after-effects of whiplash and, a couple of hours later, I still had some pain in my back, but Monday morning I woke up feeling good, one hundred percent. It was good news, because often, the day after the accident, you don't know what to expect."

Regarding his chances this weekend, the Spanish driver, as usual, was rather cautious. “It won't be easy, we haven't been so fast in the last races, given the eight tenths of delay from pole position in Hungary and Spa. The Belgian Grand Prix was only five days ago, so we didn't magically recover the gap! We need to maximize our performance, getting everything we can out of the car, hopefully giving us the chance to get on the podium. Monza is special for every Ferrari driver, because the desire is to reciprocate all the support received from the fans from Thursday to Sunday. The best thing would be to get a victory but, from a championship perspective, it doesn't change much. Winning in Monza has a particular value, even if you are not fighting for the title, thanks to the celebrations on the podium, with the whole audience on the main straight below you. We will try to have a good race and see how many points we can win. The Monza circuit is also known for the speeds it reaches and we drivers love speed - I remember that with the V10 engines we reached 370-375 km/h - goals that make the track truly special. When I won here with Ferrari, however, it was a completely different thing and, with the support you receive, the Italian Grand Prix is ​​undoubtedly the best race on the calendar in terms of emotion. Of course, the 2010 race is my fondest memory, when I won here for the first time with Ferrari."

Alonso stated that he was not worried about the damage suffered by the car in the Spa accident. “I have no worries whatsoever, we have fitted components used three or four races ago and, as far as Monza is concerned, the aerodynamic package is unique anyway, because it is different from any other circuit, so it was already planned, as always, to change a large part of the car for this race." As for the outcome of the Championship, at this point, the Ferrari driver believed that everything, or almost everything, could change. “I don't know if I will be able to win the title without winning other races,” he explained. “McLaren are very strong at the moment and if they win three or four more races in a row, their gap in the standings could disappear. We need to continuously focus on who is second in the Championship: today it is Vettel, so this weekend we will try to finish ahead of Vettel, just as we tried to do with Webber in previous races. We just need to make progress over the remaining three months, confident that sooner or later we will make good progress."