Alonso speaks about his Ferrari move

Fernando Alonso has spoken on the Ferrari website about his move to the Scuderia, while Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has spoken of the reasons why they dropped Kimi Raikkonen and hired Alonso.

The Spaniard was not quoted in the Ferrari press release which was careful to dispense with Kimi Raikkonen's services in a respectful way.

"I'm very happy and very proud to become a Ferrari driver," Alonso said.

"Driving a single-seater from the Prancing Horse is everybody's dream in this sport and today I have the opportunity to make this dream come true. Above all I want to thank Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who really wanted this three-year contract.

"I'm sure that, together with Felipe, we'll offer Ferrari and the fans from all over the world some great satisfaction. I can't wait to start working with my new team.

"We already had an agreement this summer starting in 2011, but then, the last days, the picture changed and we decided to anticipate my arrival in Maranello by one year."

Alonso is bidding to become the second Spanish-speaking driver to achieve greatness with Ferrari, the other being Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s. Fellow Argentine Carlos Reutemann won races for Ferrari, but the serial champions in the team have been German speakers; Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher.

This move will do a great deal for Formula 1 in the Spanish speaking world.

Domenicali said that the team has one objective in mind; to get back to the very top of F1 after a disappointing 2009 season. They had an agreement in place for 2011 with an option for 2010 and saw an opportunity to install Alonso at the earlier date and took it,

"With Fernando we started talking about.. 2011, but then there were the conditions to anticipate the start of our relationship already as of the upcoming championship. We preferred to take the opportunity.

"We’re happy that we made this agreement with Fernando, who is not only a driver of great talent, but also victorious, as he has shown many times throughout his career, also under difficult conditions. His contribution will be very important to bring Ferrari back to the level where it has to be, to fight at the top.”

SkyBet has installed Alonso as 7/2 favourite to win the 2010 world championship!