Ferrari, Alonso: “I would like to win another race this season”

I am traveling to Abu Dhabi, the penultimate stop of this long season, where I will arrive this evening. We have now reached the end of this championship: second place in the Drivers' standings is still at stake but, if I'm honest, I would be much happier if we managed to add another success to the one we achieved at Silverstone last July.

Talking to the guys on the team I understood that they would really like to give me the chance to finish second in the championship and I am very pleased that this is the case because I understand that they feel it as a sort of recognition for all the efforts made during the season. But you know how we drivers are made: we always want to finish first, placings have a relative meaning.

I am perfectly aware that winning will be very, very difficult. In this last part of the season the balance of power is very clear but we have also seen that there may be conditions in which we can find ourselves fighting for victory, as happened for example in Suzuka. We know that, if we do everything perfectly, we can compete for the podium but our natural qualifying position is represented by the third row. In the race things can go differently but this is the reality. The objective therefore is the podium, a result which, among other things, would allow me to fill a gap in my trophy room, given that the one in Abu Dhabi is the only one I am missing of all the races still part of the calendar iridescent.

I'm sure that the most popular question in tomorrow's press briefings will be about returning to the Yas Marina circuit after last year's race. I wouldn't be sincere if I told you that I won't think about it with a bit of discomfort tomorrow morning, when I enter the paddock for the first time, but then this feeling will disappear and leave room for the present, which means trying to do well this weekend , and to the future, that is, to learn as much as possible today in view of next year. It's right that this is the case because in sport, as in life, you always have to look ahead. Abu Dhabi 2010 was still an important stage in my career and, I'm sure, my relationship with Ferrari has become, even through that bad day, even stronger.