Alonso clears up his recent comments
World champion Fernando Alonso said today at Suzuka that he feels isolated as he goes into the final races of his scrap with Michael Schumacher for this year's title.
The Spaniard told a news conference ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix that he was particularly upset when his Renault team-mate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella flanked and then passed him last Sunday in Shanghai.
I felt alone, for sure. I was first and my team-mate was second and they (Fisichella and Schumacher) came to me, they overtook me and they were gone,"
he said.
"And after, when I recovered the pace, they were too far (ahead), and for sure it is like you are in the Tour de France, in the mountains, climbing, you have a puncture, or whatever, and your team and your rival has gone uphill with no stops.
That was a little bit difficult to understand."
He added that: "In my opinion, in team play, maybe, I should have had more help."
But in a series of comments that were often contradictory, he also praised the Renault team he is leaving at the end of the year when he moves to McLaren Mercedes.
"I think they do the maximum they can," he said. "They have given me a fantastic car, winning the championship last year and fighting this year."
"So, therefore, what the team does in every race is unbelievable - to be equal in the drivers' championship and equal in the constructors'. For sure the team is giving us a fantastic car, but for sure in some occasions in a different view or a different approach I have felt a little alone."
