Fernando Alonso Q&A

While fellow rookies Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen have naturally been getting most of the attention, Minardi's Fernando Alonso has been quietly building a reputation as a man of the future. Despite a dearth of testing and his lack of knowledge of the first three tracks on the schedule, he has been consistently impressive, no more so than at his home track in Spain. He harried Giancarlo Fisichella for many laps, got ahead at the first stops and duly left both the Italian and his Benetton team mate Jenson Button behind. That must have caused mixed feelings in the Benetton pits; the (only) good news was that the Spaniard is under contract to Renault and is thus being groomed to join the team at some point. Quiet and laid back, for the time being Alonso seems content to wait and see what the future might bring. Adam Cooper spoke to the teenage star



"For sure, because for any racing driver to race in F1, at the top level, is very special. So I'm really, really happy to be here."



"The car is quite different compared to an F3000, so you need to change a little bit your driving. You brake with your left foot, and the carbon brakes in F1 are very good. So the car is the most difficult thing."



"It's difficult to answer the question! But for sure to be World Champion in the future is my goal."



"Yes, I raced in karting for 14 years. I won the World Championship in karting, and after that I raced Formula Nissan in Spain, and last year in F3000, and this year F1. So it's been a very quick arrival in F1."



"It's difficult to say. F3000 is a very strange category. You can win a race or the championship if everything is OK, if the team is ready and you are ready, but also you have a lot of risk, and you can finish fifth or sixth in the championship. So I'm better off here in F1."



"Yes, but I didn't say anything. I have a contract with Renault, and they decided my future. I'm just really happy to race F1. OK, I'm racing with Minardi, the last team, but for sure we hope that by the end of the season we can and we can improve the performance and finish with better results."



"I don't know. It's a question for Flavio! I hope so, because Benetton or Renault will be a very strong team, a top team, so racing in that team will be very good for my career."



"It's great to race with very good drivers like them, and Jacques Villeneuve. It's better than racing against only Spanish drivers!"



"Not really, only hello and nothing more. You pass a lot of time with your team so there's no time to meet anyone else."



"I don't know. In Spain motorbikes are the most popular class, but F1 is starting to interest spectators, so I think in the future F1 will be very, very strong."



"Again the Benetton was quite bad, so we could try to stay with them at the start, then at the end of the race I was faster than Verstappen. So for us it was a good race. Normally Minardi just does laps in 21st or 22nd position, and laps, laps, laps, but this race was really good because you could try to overtake somebody, try to pick up a position. I really enjoyed it and all the team was really, really happy, because for us it's really, really difficult."



"When you're in the car, you don't think about that. You just forget and try to push. But for sure it's good if somebody from Renault saw me in the race!"

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