Alonso "happy" to uncover Spygate scandal
Alonso said he was "happy" to have helped the FIA in their investigation into the spying scandal
Tuesday, 23, Feb 2010 12:21
By Adam Leveridge
Double world champion Fernando Alonso has said he was "happy" to assist the FIA in their investigation into the McLaren Spygate scandal of 2007.
Alonso will start his first season for Ferrari alongside Felipe Massa when the racing season gets underway in Bahrain on March 14th following two unsuccessful years with Renault, with whom he clinched both his world titles in 2005 and 2006.
Before returning to Enstone, Alonso had a brief stint with McLaren in 2007, where he was partnered-up with and beaten by British rookie Lewis Hamilton.
However, a fierce in-house battle between the driver pairing caused McLaren to lose the championship to Kimi Raikkonen, and the theft of secret technical data from Ferrari almost led to the collapse of the team when they were slapped with a record $100 million fine and were disqualified from the constructors' championship.
In an interview with the Guardian, Alonso said that, while 2007 was a difficult season for him personally, he learnt a great deal and matured as a driver and he said he had no regrets about helping to uncover the spying scandal.
"With the spy history I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I was very happy to help the FIA discover everything," said Alonso.
"2007 was very difficult but I learnt a lot personally. It was good for my career to take that step of joining them and growing up.
"I learnt how to work with a team and also to withstand the media pressure.
"The difficulties I had were coming from the team and the media, but now I am much more prepared for everything in F1 and in life as well."
Alonso said that joining Ferrari has given him "a special feeling" - something his father always told him would happen - and, having recently dubbed Ferrari's latest challenger the F10 as "the best car he has ever driven" he feels under more pressure to perform than ever before.
"My father always said, 'If you race for Ferrari then you can retire. Your life is complete'," said Alonso.
"So after I won my two championships for Renault I said, 'I'm happy now - my career is complete'. And he said, 'No, no, unless you drive for Ferrari people will forget the championships. They will remember you as a Ferrari driver.' I said, 'OK, Papa, we'll see.' Now I think he was right. Ferrari gives you a special feeling."
He added: "When I raced at Minardi in my first year [2001] my family had to watch me on German TV.
"In Spain there were no TV rights for F1. Now I think the attention on me here will go up even more.
"But the biggest difficulty will be outside Spain. When I race in Australia or Korea or Japan I know it will be a big change for me because Ferrari fans are worldwide.
"It's very nice if you win but it's not so good if you lose. All this is part of being a Ferrari driver."