The only blot on Fernando Alonso's 2012 F1 landscape came inadvertently, courtesy of his
Ferrari team, but the Spaniard believes that the Scuderia was right to question the validity of the title.
Ferrari decided to press ahead with enquiries that raised doubt over the destiny of the championship five days after Vettel had crossed the line in sixth place at Interlagos, but Alonso insists that his team was right to request the
FIA to look into whether the German had passed Jean-Eric Vergne under yellow flags – an offence that would have seen the German demoted and his crown head Alonso's way by a single point.
“There were a lot of video clips on the internet and we knew our fans were asking for an explanation, so it was right for
Ferrari to turn to the Federation for a clarification,” the two-time champion insisted during Ferrari's Finali Mondiali event in Valencia, “We got a reply and I think everything has now calmed down. I did not pay much attention to all the uproar this incident caused, but I felt we owed our fans an answer.”
While his fans may have welcomed Ferrari's move if it gave their hero an unexpected chance of championship success, the reaction elsewhere has not been as positive – although Alonso says that he doesn't really care what others think.
“Frankly, I'm not that interested in what the opinion is of me in Germany or elsewhere,” he claimed, “What I know is that people who see me in the streets hug me and call me 'gladiator' or 'samurai'. What matters to me are the 1200 people in the
Ferrari family.”