Alonso Would Rather Win Than Just Score Points

After being mathematically eliminated from the world title, what means more to a driver – winning an individual race or finishing higher in the world championship standings? Fernando Alonso has emphatically stated his answer – he wants to win. In an interview with Autosport.com, the two-time world champion stated that he favors winning at least one more race this year rather than ending up second in the world championship.

Alonso’s only victory in 2011 was at Silverstone and although he has been technically eliminated from the driver’s championship, he insists that he still has a desire to win. “It’s no different to previous races. I want to win and I want to be on pole position. I know that this may not be possible with the performance that we have now, but you always have the hope to do it,” He said. I don’t like to be second or third so we will try to be in the best position possible.”

Also critical to the Ferrari team is collecting as much information as possible over the last five races and putting that knowledge to good use when developing the 2012 car. “The first thing is to try to learn something for next year in terms of different parts in the car,” said Alonso. “There are some experimental things that we have in the car that can be introduced next year.”

“Everyone in the team is completely focused as if we were in the last race of the championship fighting for the title. We want to do well and that’s the very simple motivation we will find in the next races.”

With five races left, Ferrari is 85 points behind McLaren for second place in the constructor’s championship. There are 215 points up for grabs over that span.