F1: Hamilton Is Main Rival For Title, Says Alonso

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton Is Main Rival For Title, Says Alonso

Championship leader Fernando Alonso is keeping a close eye on red-hot Lewis Hamilton...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted September 20, 2012 Marina Bay (SGP)

A battle could be shaping up between Fernando Alonso (Right) and Lewis Hamilton (Left) for the World Championship. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Fernando Alonso considers Lewis Hamilton his main rival for the 2012 World Championship.

Alonso made the point that if Ferrari has to choose which driver to try to beat on strategy, it would be Hamilton, who currently lies second in points.

“Everybody is strong at the moment, and everybody is a contender,” said the Spaniard in Singapore. “So there are still five or six drivers who can fight for the title. We always said from February that Lewis is the one I respect more, because I know what he can do with good cars and bad cars, and he is second.

“For sure, any part of the race we cannot cover in terms of strategy five drivers, because it’s impossible to cover [all of them]. Sometimes one does a pit stop, sometimes two laps later another one; in that case we need to cover which is the closest one.

“At the moment, it’s Lewis, and after three races that McLaren won, again he’s the favorite for this one. We have to stop hopefully this dominant position. We’re bringing some new parts on the car and we’re optimistic that we can do well here and in the next two or three Grands Prix.”

As for Ferrari’s prospects for Singapore, Alonso said: “We need to wait to see how tomorrow’s performance is. Our aim is to fight for the pole and fight for the win in this race.

“We’ve been competitive in Monaco, we’ve been competitive in Canada, which is some kind of street circuit, so we will try to do our best here again. We know important pole position is, so Saturday is an important day.”

Meanwhile, when asked about a second driver for 2013, Alonso gave his endorsement to Felipe Massa.

“We need to have a driver that respects Ferrari, that respects the tradition of this team, and respects that here we work for the team, for the red cars,” he said. “This is the first priority. Second, I’ve been working with Felipe for three years now, we have a very good relationship, and if the team decides to change Felipe, someone that arrives has to be better than Felipe.

“And all the names, and all the things written, I don’t know if they’re written with the head or with the heart, because all the names that you listen, I don’t know if you minimum compare what Felipe did in F1, and what these little names did in F1.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.