Fernando Alonso has no intention of leaving Ferrari in a pursuit for his third world title amid rumours of a return to former team McLaren.
The double world champion has been long linked with the Woking-based outfit as they are looking to bolster their driver lineup ahead of their switch to Honda power next season in an attempt to return to competitive ways.
McLaren have gone to the extent of putting off securing their driver lineup for next year as they wait for Alonso and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, also linked with the team, to inform them of their plans for the future. Whilst current drivers Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen’s futures at the team have been thrown into doubt, with racing director Eric Boullier labelling their situation as “uncomfortable”.
Admitting that having the attention of leading teams in the sport is flattering, Alonso however is not swayed by the prospect of a possibly strong McLaren-Honda 2015 package and remains committed to racing for the Scuderia despite another challenging season with the team among many that has seen him fail to add to his two world championships.
“Obviously there has been a lot of talk from summer last year – the start [of this year] more or less, and from my mouth never came any interest or word saying I will join another team,” the 33-year-old told Sky Sports in an exclusive interview ahead of the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.
“There are a lot of speculation, which is not disturbing – but is half disturbing because it creates a little bit of tension around, but also you feel proud and happy that the best teams have interest in you and they say it.
“It’s not my intention at the moment to move, I want to win for Ferrari, I want to win here and finish the job we started some years ago and we will see,”
When asked about his relationship with new team principal Marco Mattiacci, who took over from Stefano Domenicalli after the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Spainard spoke of the pros and cons of bringing in an inexperienced figure into the senior management of the team.
“He’s obviously trying to change many things, he doesn’t know much about Formula 1 so that’s a negative thing when you need to change very precise areas of the car and some things that we are weak [in] compared to our competitors” said Alonso, while believing the recruitment of Mattiacci provides Ferrari with freshness and a path to unique ideas for turning around the fortunes of the team.
Discussing the intense championship rivalry between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Alonso, with his turbulent experience at McLaren, is a prime figure for explaining the psychological and practical difficulties that are involved for two team-mates fighting for a championship.
“We are very competitive people, we want to win and when in the same team there are two possibilities of winning – it’s not easy,” Alonso commented and replied with “definitely” when quizzed about division between the drivers’ race mechanics and engineers also.
“It’s not only the driver, there are the mechanics and the engineers and some people that are a little bit more friendly with one driver than the other.”
“The driver’s mind – as well – it change when you are in a competition against the other teams or against your team-mate because even though you don’t want to think your mind is trying to think if there’s something weird going on that weekend or something that could be going in favour of the other driver.”
