Former Formula 1 champion John Surtees meets Fernando Alonso in Maranello – Formula 1 news
Former Formula 1 champion John Surtees met the two-time champion and Ferrari’s current leading driver Fernando Alonso at the team’s Maranello factory in Italy.
Both the former world champions discussed about their journey in the sport.
“Looking into Fernando’s eyes, I could see the same determination I had when I was racing. Time passes, but passion for racing is something that never changes across the centuries and if you have it in you, you see it in others,” said Surtees.
The British driver won the Formula 1 championship with Ferrari back in 1964 and later on, won the championship for motorcycling equivalent to Formula 1 to become the first driver to win the two titles together.
Alonso on the other hand has won the Formula 1 championship in 2005 and 2006 with Renault who were pretty much the underdogs of the sport before these two years. The Spaniard became the youngest Formula 1 champion in the history of the sport back then but
his record was beaten by Lewis Hamilton in 2008 which was later on beaten by Sebastian Vettel in 2010.
Nevertheless, the former Formula 1 world champion enjoyed talking to Surtees mainly about their lives in general with a team like Ferrari.
“He was very interesting to talk to, comparing our experiences as drivers and, above all, talking about our lives with a special team like Ferrari. It’s nice to meet people who can give you a first hand account of what Formula One was like back then!” said
Alonso.
Other than that, the 1964 Formula 1 champion also got a chance to meet Piero Ferrari and the current team principal of Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali.
It was quite a legendary event for Ferrari with two of its best drivers meeting and touring the team’s museum and assembly line which made it more like a comparison between the cars of 1960s and the 21st century.
Both of the drivers are obviously from two different eras of the sport as a result of which their conversation became even more interesting as the drivers back in the 60s had to go through a lot more than the drivers of today to win the championship.
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