“Absolutely yes,” answered Alonso in a recent interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera, when asked if he would repeat his move over Massa in future races.
“What is clear is that two weeks after a race you can't keep talking about such unimportant things, so I'm going to refuse to answer,” had said Alonso when talking to Spain's Marca newspaper last week, being asked to further comment on the incident.
Although the Brazilian driver was obviously frustrated with the situation when interviewed by the media after the race, Ferrari managed to keep everything under control in the following days. Practically everyone in Maranello, from team principal Stefano Domenicali to company's boss Luca di Montezemolo, played down the incident, despite the media reports suggesting Alonso made a clear statement that he wants to be No 1 inside the garage.
One of the most experienced drivers in the F1 paddock, Mark Webber – who used to be vice-chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Association until a month ago – also looked at Alonso's move as being a “risky” one, despite the two drivers being known to be good friends.
“It was very hard against your teammate, if fair, but also incredibly risky and incredibly opportunistic. It could have been quite confusing for the team, because they needed to switch the tires around. And I'm not sure I'd want to risk walking into the factory having taken both cars out at the entry to the pit lane,” said Webber, pointing to what could have occurred had Massa refused to let go.
“That would have been a pretty serious one to try and get over. But in the end it turned out OK for Fernando and he got away with it,” added the Australian driver, competing for Ferrari's rivals Red Bull.
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