Alonso: Thrilled to be back in Europe

By role
April 15 2003

Fernando Alonso is quite happy to be back racing in Europe. After a great start of the season and a visit to the Hospital, the young Spaniard is looking forward to racing in this weekend’s GP.

“I always enjoy coming back to Europe: even though we have had good results so far, I always feel that this is when the Championship really begins, when you see the motorhomes in the paddock and go to circuits where we have raced more.”, he declared in the official Renault F1 site, “I know Imola very well because I raced there in F3000, and tested there for Minardi. The drivers need to be aggressive and that suits my style: I usually use the kerbs even when I don’t have to, so it won’t be a problem. I enjoy racing there, and I think we can get a very good result.”

He says there is not a particular area of the circuit that can be considered difficult: “There are no particular parts of the track which are difficult.”, he says, “The biggest challenge is setting the car up, because we have to use a lot of the kerbs and it can be hard to get the suspension to cope with that. We have a good opportunity though, because the car seems very good in those circumstances.”

Alonso is running 3rd in the WDC behind Coulthard and leader Raikkonen both with McLaren Mercedes.