Delighted Alonso Hoping for Podiums in 2003

Spaniard Fernando Alonso expressed his delight at landing a race seat at Renault for 2003 on Saturday and insisted he was always confident of being offered the drive.

Alonso signed as a test driver with the Enstone-based team this year after leaving Minardi and was confirmed alongside Jarno Trulli as a Renault driver for next season, replacing Jenson Button.

The 20-year-old feels that his work in the test driver role this year proved to his Renault bosses that he deserved a seat for 2003.

"Very happy, of course," Alonso said of his feeelings. "This is a great opportunity for me. I have worked hard as a test driver all through this year to convince the people in the team that I deserve an opportunity to race.

"Next year will, I feel, really be like the start of my career. It will be my first experience of racing for such a big team and it will be really good. I am very excited at the prospect.

"I was feeling confident in myself all year. But I was only thinking of the job, as a test driver. I was not working at the tests with my mind on trying to win a chance to race for the team in 2003.

"I knew that I had to concentrate on the testing job I had in 2002 - to test and develop the car and to improve it. I knew then that things would happen. I was working as professionally as possible to achieve my aim, which has been to be a race driver for the team."

Alonso has targeted a podium finish next year - which will be only his second season of Grand Prix racing - but said that helping Renault move up to third in the Constructors' Championship is the priority.

"It is always difficult to tell," he said of his chances. "Every year is different. They all change. But I think Renault has really strong potential for the future. I think that if we can finish in the top three in the Constructors' Championship then we could be reasonably satisfied.

"For myself, I will try to score as many points as possible and hope also to realise my dream of gaining a podium finish. But I know we all have to work together as a team to achieve anything like that."

Alonso admitted that he feels sorry for Button, who he will replace, after their friendship grew this year. But he said he is looking forward to competing with the Briton on track next year.

"We are friends and we know each other well," said Alonso. "We went together to a lot of training camps this year and our relationship is good. I feel sorry for him and for his family and the people around him.

"But maybe they can understand how I felt this year to be just the test driver and not to do any racing. But, you know, these things happen in this business. I feel sorry for Jenson, of course, but we know how much potential he has to become a great driver. I look forward to racing hard against him next year."

Alonso believes that his spell as test driver with Renault will help him make an impression next year and said that competing in Grands Prix will be something special.

"Renault is obviously very different from Minardi, where I raced last year," he added. "It is really important for me to have had a year to get to know the team, the car, the engineers and the mechanics and the way that a big team, with a corporation behind it, works.

"I have learned how the race weekend is tackled, in detail, and that has been a big help. Renault has a very strong individual concept of how to work and I have learned this now. So, next year will be easier for me thanks to this experience."