Fernando Alonso is not enjoying his home Grand Prix and yesterday evening he had a major blow up with some of the Spanish journalists.
It all relates to an autograph signing session on Thursday in the pit lane, where he was surrounded by photographers, so couldn’t get to the fans. He lost his temper and left the pits, then came back when the photographers had gone and signed the autographs.
This was reported in El Mundo in particular as Alonso being rude to fans and showing arrogance towards poor people who’ve saved up to see their hero. Alonso was very angry with this treatment: “I’m furious, ” he said. “I don’t like it when things are said to set me against the fans.”
When he had calmed down he gave an interesting view on how he and Renault stand at the moment in this critical weekend when so many teams have new parts on the car.
“The updates have given us more downforce, more grip. The car is more consistent now, but it’s not a magic solution.
“The situation is better than 2008, when we had a car that was difficult to drive, but this is the moment to score some big points because in two or three races time most of the grid will be out of the championship, where I want to be.”
This last point is the important one as far as Ferrari and McLaren are concerned and it’s why the next few races are so important. McLaren were making good progress, but were flattered by the circuit in Bahrain and they will be lucky to get a car into the top ten in qualifying, while Ferrari have moved forward, but we will only find out later in qualifying whether it is enough to get them into the hunt. They have to start racking up the points this weekend and in Monaco or they will be out of the championship.
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Unlucky for Alonso. A bit of frustration and the media leap onto him. Mountains and molehills!
Alonso has always been good to his spanish fans.
some members of the media obviously need a lesson in quality responsible reporting from james here..
As far as I remember he never really enjoyed home Grands Prix. Or better to say, he is certainly enjoying the support, but not the crowd hysteria (who would enjoy that?). I remember he expressed frustration at fans being let into the pitlane during a test pre-2007, while he was at McLaren.
But I think he has matured a bit since and he realized that it’s the fans who make this sport (or any other) go around so he is now patient and tries to please the fans as much as he can. But from time to time maybe he still gets irritated at the media.
Yesterday Fernando mentioned that he was trying to get near some people on wheelchairs when he saw a photographer climbing in the back of the wheelchair and get a good picture of Fernando. Fernando told him to leave and stay away 10 metres. He found some photographers actions disgusting and also was furious with some Spanish media blaming the fans.
Can’t trust the national press to censure their own photographers, unfortunately. Of *course* they blame it on Alonso (or the fans).
At times like this I’m glad I boycott sensationalistic newspapers (including all tabloids). Euch.
Fernando Alonso is a fascinating character, and who can blame him for being furious with the Spanish media when he did come back later to sign autographs.
Thinking of the longer term, say 5-10 years when he has hopefully won more championships and is coming to the end of his F1 career, Fernando Alonso would be a fantastic subject for your next book, James.
Hello everybody, I’m from Spain and as far as I know Fernando likes his home Grand Prix…what mingojo says is true and the problem started with the photographers. There were many fans waiting Fernando and it seems to be that the photographers started to discuss (I´ve read that there were even punchs but I don’t know if it’s real) and fans started to discuss too so fernando asked them to be calm…at the end ,as mingojo said, the reserved sites to people on wheelchairs were “forgotten” and you Know the end…fortunately Fernando came back later to sing autographs to the fans 😉
Bye!
please, my english is not perfect..excuse me if I have mistakes 😉
[…] Alonso furious with Spanish media Fernando Alonso is not enjoying his home Grand Prix and yesterday evening he had a major blow up with some of the […] […]
That’s what you get from being a star. Paparazzis will hound you till you drop dead. Look at all the bad news created for Alonso and Hamilton. CRUEL but real.
Well he still has all today to make it up to them.
[…] Alonso furious with Spanish media […]