'Taking it easy isn't an option' - Alonso

Fernando Alonso won't take it easy in this weekend's Brazilian GP, even though he only needs to finish to claim the championship. The 24-year-old Renault driver has led the standings for most of the season and is on the verge of creating history by becoming the youngest driver as well as the first Spaniard to win the Formula One Drivers' Championship title.

But Alonso has no intention of allowing McLaren rival Kimi Raikkonen an easy run to a seventh win of the season at Interlagos this weekend, despite only needing to finish on the podium for the fourth time in as many races.

Fernando Alonso I am quite close now to the Championship, but I approach this race like any other. We have been quick in Brazil in recent years, and now our car is even stronger in every area so I am looking forward to the race. As always, I go there trying to do the maximum. What's the point of going to a race and only aiming for a podium? You can't do that, you have to want to be the best, to attack. So that's what I am going to Brazil to do. We need to have a smooth weekend, no problems, and hopefully we will get the result we want."

Fernando expressed his pride at his impending title win, which could come this weekend in Brazil, homeland of the current youngest winner of the Drivers' Championship, Emerson Fittipaldi.
"To become World Champion is the maximum for a driver, so I am happy and proud to have the possibility while I am so young. But being the youngest is not what motivates me. The maximum for a sportsman is to be the best in his Championship, and to be the best in Formula One is the ultimate for any racing driver."

Becoming F1's youngest ever world champion will, according to Alain Prost, make Alonso even stronger. France's Prost was 30 when he won his first Championship (1985). Schumacher was 25 (1994). Alonso, although Kimi could still steal mathematicall the Spaniard's crown, will be 24.

Alain Prost "For him it is just the beginning. He has his whole career still ahead and (winning the title so early) will make him stronger."

On the points standings, Alonso will be a winner, but Prost, says 2005 also has a 'moral victor' : Kimi Raikkonen.
"We have a Spaniard and a Finn but they are actually quite similar; cool, serious and concentrated."

Ferrari's Schumacher, to drop his first championship since 1999, agrees that Alonso cruising to the title is now "very academic. I am pretty sure he will do it."