Fernando Alonso has described
Renault MD Flavio Briatore as being more of a father to him than a team manager – despite the Italian joking at the R28's launch back in February that he was ‘too young' to have a 26-year-old son yet.
Alonso came back to Renault – with whom he claimed both his drivers' world crowns in 2005 and 2006 – this year after an unhappy season spent away from the
Régie at McLaren-Mercedes, punctuated by very public fall-outs with the Woking-based outfit's team principal Ron Dennis.
Since his return, however, the Spaniard has appeared visibly more content and at ease, and has thus far notched up nine points from a trio of top eight finishes in the opening five races of 2008, as well as a stunning front row grid position in front of his partisan home supporters in Barcelona.
“I owe him so much,” Alonso said of Briatore in an interview with Italian magazine
Grazia. “He believed in me from when I was 17; he brought me into
Formula 1. He is not just the boss but almost a fatherly figure to me.”
The man from Oviedo also revealed that – despite his superstar status as a driver who has triumphed in almost 20 races in the top flight since his grand prix debut with Minardi back in 2001 – he still regards himself as a completely ‘normal person' away from the race track and prefers to shun the glamorous, high-profile lifestyle, having struggled to adapt to life as a celebrity a few years ago.
“The sudden popularity was de-stabilising for me,” he confessed, “but then I realised that is the price of success. Now I have adopted systems that enable me to continue to have a private life, which is what I want. In Switzerland there is a strong sense of respect for privacy.
“For me, what matters most is my family and loyalty to friends, but I am not boring. In my spare time I play a lot of sports – tennis, cycling, skiing – or I just relax with my family. We are quiet and reserved, like all Asturians.”
