New signing Fernando Alonso says he’s under pressure to deliver F1 title to Ferrari

Alonso under pressure to deliver Ferrari F1 title

SUZUKA, Japan — New Ferrari signing Fernando Alonso is already under pressure to deliver the Italian team a Formula One title.

Ferrari confirmed Thursday that Alonso would leave Renault and join the team for 2010 on a three-year contract. There had been a previous agreement — made public Thursday — for him to join in 2011, but he will arrive a year early after Ferrari agreed to buy out the 2010 contract of ousted driver Kimi Raikkonen.

“There will be a pressure to win titles,” Alonso said from Suzuka, site of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

“At Ferrari it is not enough to win one race per year or anything like that. The pressure will be there to be champion again. In the next three years hopefully I can win one at least.”

Alonso will partner with Felipe Massa, creating a potential headache for the team as it seeks to placate two drivers who will feel they should be the natural No. 1 within the Maranello outfit. But Alonso foresees no problem.

“It will work,” Alonso said. “Felipe we know is a great driver, a quick driver but also a good personality. He will be absolutely fine.”

Alonso had a fractious relationship with Lewis Hamilton in their one season together at McLaren in 2007, when the team did not give preference to either driver. The Spaniard said he learned from that experience.

“It will not happen again,” Alonso said. “This is a very different history. I am also more prepared than I was two years ago. It will be fine.

“Ferrari is more important than any driver in the car. It doesn’t matter if you are quicker or slower than your teammate — the Ferrari people want to see a red car in front of the other cars, it doesn’t matter which driver is driving.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said the Alonso-Massa partnership will be handled in the same even-handed manner as the Raikkonen-Massa one.

Asked how the team would manage a potential clash of egos, Domenicali said: “The same way we controlled Felipe and Kimi for the past two years.”

“Drivers who are coming to our team have to respect the rules. That has happened to Felipe … that has happened to Kimi.”

The Ferrari boss fended off speculation that commercial interests were behind the decision to push Raikkonen out and bring Alonso in. Spanish banking group Santander had signed on as a sponsor at Ferrari.

Raikkonen grinned when asked whether the sponsorship deal influenced his departure and Alonso’s arrival.

“I know more or less the reason, and it’s nothing to do with my racing,” Raikkonen said. “It’s some of the other reasons why.”

Domenicali’s response to Raikkonen’s comment was: “I don’t think that’s right, that it was a commercial decision.”

The move, the biggest in the sport since Michael Schumacher signed with Ferrari in 1996, had the blessing of F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone.

“It’s good for Fernando, good for Formula One, good for Ferrari,” Ecclestone said. “It’s looking good isn’t it. Next year will be a good year.”

The Alonso signing was a bold statement by Ferrari of its intention to return to the pinnacle of Formula One after a disappointing 2009 campaign.

“His contribution will be very important to bring Ferrari back to the level where it has to be, to fight at the top,” Domenicali said.

“As chairman (Luca di) Montezemolo said recently, all the great champs want to come to Maranello sooner or later.”

Alonso will finish the rest of this season with Renault, where he won both his world titles. However, his tenure ends in disharmony after team principal Flavio Briatore received an indefinite ban and chief engineer Pat Symonds a five-year sanction for their roles in Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Renault said Thursday that a replacement driver would be named next week. BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica is thought to head the list of candidates.

Raikkonen was widely tipped to return to his old team McLaren to team with Hamilton, with out-of-contract Heikki Kovalainen making way for the Finn.

“I don’t have any bad things to say about them,” Raikkonen said of McLaren. “It’s a chance, but so far I have not thought much about these things.”

He said he may even leave F1 altogether — with rally racing being an alternative — if he does not receive an offer from a top team.

“If I decide to go with some team next year, I’m not going to go with any small team, because it will never give me a chance to fight for the championship,” Raikkonen said. “Otherwise I have no reason to be in Formula One.”