Fernando Alonso: We will win this championship!
He might have finished a lowly and frustrated 14th in the 2010 British Grand Prix last weekend, seeing him slip to some 47 points shy of the world championship lead, but double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has sought to rally the troops at Ferrari by boldly proclaiming: We will win the title this year.
The first time all year that the team has failed to score with either car - following punctures for both drivers, one embarrassingly a product of opening lap contact between them, and a drive-through penalty for Alonso for overtaking Renault rival Robert Kubica on the grass and then neglecting to give the place back again as he should have done - Silverstone was a dark day indeed for the Prancing Horse, but the Spaniard is adamant that everything still remains very much to play for.
"Okay guys, keep your heads up - we will win the championship," the Oviedo native told his team over the pit-to-car radio towards the end of the British Grand Prix, after blitzing the fastest lap by some eight tenths of a second - and more than a second clear of the first non-Ferrari - courtesy of a late pit-stop to change tyres.
"We are only halfway through the season and there is plenty of time to recover. We have a great car; we proved that to everyone this weekend, and confirmed it with this fastest race lap. It is only the first half, we know we have to do better in the second one - and we will do exactly that."
Those sentiments were echoed by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali following the Scuderia's worst result since the 2009 Abu Dhabi finale, and despite Alonso having tallied just 19 points from the last three races and Felipe Massa none at all - leaving the Maranello-based outfit a full 113 markers adrift of championship leaders McLaren-Mercedes in the chase for the constructors' crown, causing some to write the squad out of the title reckoning altogether now - the Italian remains upbeat about prospects looking ahead.
"We are angry that we did not get the results which we were capable of delivering, but this anger must be turned into a positive force," he stressed. "We just have to knuckle down and continue with the development of the car, working calmly, with great concentration and determination. Then, the results will come."
