Fernando Alonso has signed a new long-term deal with Ferrari to keep him with the team until the end of the 2016 season.
Double world champion signs new long-term deal with Ferrari
Fernando Alonso has signed a new long-term deal with Ferrari to keep him with the team until the end of the 2016 season.
After finishing second in the drivers' championship in his debut season for the Scuderia, the 29-year-old has seemed to be a natural fit for the Italian outfit.
The Spaniard is due to drive in his home grand prix in Barcelona this weekend and will celebrate the news of his new contract.
Alonso is only a year into a big-money three-year deal he signed before the start of last season, but the two-time world champion is happy and settled with Ferrari.
Five wins last season put him in touching distance of a third world title in his very first Ferrari season, and Alonso believes he will end his Formula One career with the team.
Agreement
"I am very happy to have reached this agreement," said Alonso. "I immediately felt comfortable within Ferrari and now it feels to me like a second family.
"I have the utmost faith in the men and women who work in Maranello and in those who lead them.
"It is therefore natural for me to decide to extend my relationship in the long term like this, with a team at which I will no doubt end my Formula One career one day."
A victory on his Ferrari debut in Bahrain last March looked to signal great times ahead for Alonso and Ferrari, but a second win only came in Germany in July in that infamous race where team-mate Felipe Massa was forced to allow Alonso through when leading the race.
A late-season burst saw Alonso rattle off three wins in four races and he closed the gap on Sebastien Vettel before disaster struck at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Alonso missed out on the title after a poor pit-stop saw him trail home in seventh as Vettel won the title, but despite that and a slow start to the current campaign both Ferrari and Alonso are happy with the way things are progressing.
"It is a great pleasure to have renewed our agreement with a driver who has always demonstrated a winning mentality, even in the most difficult circumstances," said Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
"Fernando has all the required qualities, both technically and personally, to play a leading role in the history of Ferrari and I hope he will be enriching it with further wins very soon."
