Survey shows Tifosi fear Hamilton

McLaren are putting the finishing touches to their new MP4/25 car in Woking this evening and in the early hours of the morning will be driving it down the motorway to Newbury for the launch tomorrow. Meanwhile Ferrari have unveiled their car today and are preparing to drive it to Valencia for its first test on Monday. Both teams are hoping that 2010 will be their year after disappointing 2009 campaigns.

Much has been said today about the new Ferrari and the drivers have spoken about who they believe the main opposition will be for this season. But tonight a survey in Italy's leading sports paper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, shows that Ferrari fans, known as the tifosi, emphatically believe that Lewis Hamilton is the danger man for this year's championship.

At the time of writing around 4,000 tifosi have responded to the survey. Asked who they feared the most this season, 45 % of them voted Hamilton, ahead of Michael Schumacher on 37%. Sebastian Vettel polled just 14% of the votes. The survey does not make positive reading for reigning world champion Jenson Button, who polled a mere 4%.

Speaking at the Ferrari launch today, Fernando Alonso dismissed suggestions that this could be one of the most open championships in years, with Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull all in contention,

"This possibility is there, but I don't agree with it. I think at the end of the day, two or three drivers will fight for the championship and two teams will fight for the constructors' title, " he said. "It would be nice to have four or five teams at the same level, but this is not reality. When you come to the first races you realize that there are one or two cars better than the rest. Hopefully we will be one of those cars."