Not that Alonso is interested in a popularity contest.
“I use Twitter myself,” he explains.
“There was a possibility that someone can help me, but I said it’s better if I
do it myself, because I control what I put.
“Maybe I’m not polite sometimes, but it’s me. If people want to follow it’s
okay, if I have one follower less then it’s okay as well. It doesn’t change
my life.”
He tweets in a mixture of Spanish and English, and often uses pictures to
bring fans closer to the surreal life of a Formula One driver; from the set
of a car advert, boarding private jets and signing autographs. It’s exactly
the kind of “rich”, multi-media material that Twitter itself craves as it
aims to encourage members to spend more time using its services.
“I also use an Instagram account that I combine with Twitter,” says Alonso.
“Sometimes I like to express myself more with a picture than with 140
characters.”
Driver’s eye view: Alonso tweets from a press conference
Alonso is speaking at the offices of the New York Academy of Sciences, on the
40th floor of 7 World Trade Center, and tweets a picture overlooking Ground
Zero. He’s talking technology with Eugene Kaspersky, a Russian computer
security mogul and Ferrari sponsor, who has engaged him to promote his
anti-virus software, despite the fraught ending to the Formaula One season.
“It’s stressful when you arrive at a moment with only 71 laps to end the
championship. All the work of many months will be concentrated in those
laps,” he says.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who serves as the human element in the
world’s most technologically-advanced sport and admits “sometimes Formula
One is more like a business than pure sport”, Alonso appears to have plenty
to say on the matter.
“I think there is never enough technology,” he says. “Technology is our
motivation and the main goal for engineers and designers.”
“I use iPhone 5, I have a PC that I use for travelling and another computer at
home. [But] the most important thing I have is a simulator at home which has
a very big computer to run everything.”
Filming a Fiat advert
However his enthusiasm for Twitter, at least, is not all about drawing fans
closer to the sport. In a sport with plenty of experience of corporate
espionage, including the scandal that overshadowed Alonso’s 2007 season with
McLaren, social media is also used, entirely legally, for spying on rivals’
technology and mood.
“We constantly check what they are doing because sometimes it shows you the
problems they may have or the stress they are facing,” says Alonso.
“You can read behind the tweet what the situation is. If it’s a tweet that is
too optimistic or something you know that they are playing games.”
This season, he points the finger at Ferrari’s overall technological package
for the tall order that faces him this weekend, while piling praise on his
engineers and designers for the “miracle” of his three race wins.
“We know the situation, we are honest with ourselves and with our supporters
that we have not been doing the job for most of the season,” says Alonso.
“We are optimistic that Brazil can suit our car a little bit better than the
last race.”
“I approach it with a lot of trust in my team and in myself. Self confidence.”
On Friday morning he tweeted from Brazil that “we can not turn back, we better
fight than be dishonoured by not doing it”, with the hashtag label
“#samurai”.