Briatore: Ferrari and Alonso remain a winning duo
If questions arise about Fernando Alonso's intentions following his recent comments on the performance of his car, a man who knows him well, Flavio Briatore, does not seem worried about the future of the Spaniard's venture with Scuderia Ferrari.
It only took a simple conversation between Luis Garcia Abad, Fernando Alonso’s manager, and Christian Horner, the director of Red Bull Racing, for the idyll between the double world champion and Scuderia to experience a minor turbulence like it has rarely known since the Spaniard’s arrival in 2010.
If the agent has already indicated that the discussion was about one of the young talents from the Red Bull pipeline, specifically Carlos Sainz Jr., a GP3 driver recently signed by the reigning triple world champion team for the Young Drivers Test, certain Ferrari officials, starting with Stefano Domenicali, needed to break their silence to extinguish the initial fire: « First of all, we have a contract with him. Fernando is an asset to the team. We need him to work closely with everyone because it’s a tough moment in the season. It’s teamwork. We have a job to do, period. It’s the same for everyone, not just for him, » thus declared the director of the Scuderia.
This Friday, it’s Flavio Briatore’s turn to share his opinion on the desires and obligations of a driver he knows well, having been his manager and boss at Renault from 2003 to 2006, then from 2008 to 2009: « Fernando has a contract and contracts must be respected. There is no temptation whatsoever. Alonso has never said he wanted to leave. »
The recent difficulties of the prancing horse team have created slight tensions when Fernando Alonso indicated that he would want « anyone else’s car » as a birthday gift. Again, nothing serious for the former transalpine team director: « Ferrari and Alonso remain a winning duo. It is normal for a racing driver to desire a competitive car, and the team must work hard to provide it, end of story. »
More precisely, it is the pure performance of the F138 that demands all the attention: « He just needs a car that allows him to start from the first two rows. We knew it would be tough in Hungary, just as it was when I was at Renault, » noted Briatore, before taking a little jab at the Reds’ headquarters: « They need to quickly find the instruction manual in Maranello. »
Updated on August 3, 2013, at 12:00 PM: Christian Horner, in an interview with the German newspaper Blid, stated about the meeting with Luis Garcia Abad and the fact that it concerned Carlos Sainz Jr: « It doesn’t make sense. Why would I have discussed with him about Carlos Sainz Jr. when he has long been in the Red Bull junior team? » On his side, Helmut Marko, director of the Red Bull young driver program, added fuel to the fire by stating: « I don’t remember if we discussed Red Bull or Spanish red wine ».
