Montreal, 10 June

Whenever the popularity of Formula 1 needs to be explained, one of the most common phrases is that it is the most viewed sport in the world apart from the Olympics and the World Cup, except that F1 goes on year in year out, while the other two events only take place every four years. And so it is that, on this Canadian Grand Prix weekend, the racing will be vying for attention with events in South Africa where the 2010 World Cup gets underway.

Here in the paddock at the Montreal circuit, people are already working out how they can fit in watching some of the opening matches around the busy F1 schedule, nowhere more so than in the Ferrari camp, as one would expect from an Italian team with one Brazilian and one Spanish driver, thus representing three of the strongest football nations on the planet. To mark the occasion, today, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro organised a special “World Cup Press Conference” with both its drivers, in the team’s trackside hospitality unit.



Naturally, Fernando Alonso was backing his native Spain to lift the Jules Rimet trophy in one month’s time, “because they play better than any other team,” even if not one journalist was brave enough to point out Spain has never won the competition! Asked what position he would play if he was in the Iberian squad, our driver had a witty reply: “goalkeeper, because it’s the easiest position, as no other team will get near our goal!”

Felipe Massa admitted he was disappointed that he would not have much time for football this weekend. “Maybe when we are not actually driving or in technical meetings, I might get a chance, but on the positive side, Brazil is not playing this weekend which is good news. I love football and I will definitely be supporting “my” team even more than ever. Fortunately, we have a good squad as we saw in the Confederation Cup, so I hope we will be fighting for the final win. But I also enjoy watching other countries play and as a member of Ferrari I like seeing Italy doing well: in the last World Cup, after Brazil was knocked out, I switched my support to Italy, hoping they would win and they did. It will be the same this time, with Brazil the main priority for me. I think Italy has won the World Cup more often than any team other than Brazil, if I am not mistaken and so they too know how to tackle this competition. There are many good teams and in my opinion, the best are Spain, England and Argentina, although I put Brazil at the same level. After that there are other countries that have the talent and the possibility to win and this group includes Italy, Germany and France.”