Outgoing Renault driver and former double world champion Fernando Alonso, took part in Thursday afternoon’s official press conference here at the all new state of the art Abu Dhabi circuit, the new Ferrari driver to be talking about his switch to Maranello, his impressions on the new track so far, Jenson Button’s new championship crown and his thoughts on the new FIA President....

What are your reactions to seeing the Yas Island Circuit for the first time. The facilities? The circuit? Fernando, have you looked at it on the simulator?
No, no simulator for us. Not even Play Station this time. It will be the first lap tomorrow. Again, the same as all the others, I am very impressed with all the facilities. The circuit itself and the lay-out I think we need to wait until tomorrow as in the car you have always different feelings and different sensations, so I am looking forward. It will be an interesting weekend especially with the late start for the race, with the lights, so it can be quite a good show for television.

Fernando, looking at your future and leaving Renault. What are your thoughts on those?
Well, obviously it is finishing one of the steps that you do in your career and now it is time to move forward and change team. It will be quite an emotional race as it has been many years with Renault now, seven years with them, and I know everybody in the team. Some of them after so many years are good friends to me, so for sure I will miss them in the future but a new challenge is ahead of me now and I am looking forward to next year as well.

When do you go to Ferrari for the first time? Is there a date?
No, there is not a date.

No ideas?
No, soon.

Pretty soon?
Hopefully, yes.

I know for a long time you had somewhere to live in Oxford. Are you going to have somewhere in Maranello?
No, I will be in Switzerland, where I am now, but it is not too far from Maranello. It is only three hours driving or whatever, or two, so it won’t be too difficult to go there.

Jean Todt is the new President of the FIA. What would you like to see him achieve and accomplish for Formula One?
I think his experience in Formula One will be a huge help to improve things and he will have a better idea of what Formula One needs. He is quite a clever guy, so I am sure we are in good hands now.

About the late start: starting in the afternoon, going into the evening. We had a situation in Australia, first race of the year, with a similar kind of timing. Towards the end of the race there were complaints from the drivers about the sun getting in their eyes, complaints about the track cooling down, so the grip wasn’t as good. Do you have concerns here for the same reasons? Would ten degrees make a lot of difference to the track temperature?
I don’t think so. I think in Australia the temperatures were different. Here, the track temperature at the start of the race will maybe be 50 degrees, so it will never be cool enough to give you problems warming up the tyres.

Do you think that Jenson Button is a good champion for the sport, or just that he had the best car this year?
I think he’s a good champion for Formula One and he deserved it. He did a very good job this season. It’s true that in the second half he maybe didn’t score the points that people expected but it was very difficult to keep the same average points as in the first half, when he won all the races. For that reason, you have the feeling that he stepped back a little bit but I think he did a very good job. If you look at the overall view of the championship from race one to the final race, he was the best of us, so he deserved it. It’s good for him, good for Brawn and good for the sport, I think.

Do you know anything about the car you will be driving next year and do you have any expectations for the season or are you just taking it as it comes?
I don’t know anything so far, about the 2010 car but hopefully it’s quick enough to fight for the title which is the main goal not only for myself but for the team as well. After one season that was not good for me and maybe not good enough for Ferrari either, I think next year hopefully we have the possibility to fight and then you can win, you lose, it depends on many details but at least there is the possibility to be winning some races and afterwards you will see race by race. You never have any specific programme before the championship. You take it as it comes, later.

After you won the title in 2005, there were still two races to go. How did you approach those? Just thinking of Jenson Button’s approach; he’s done it now, is there a sense of release, any different approach to the race?
I think he will be more relaxed because you did the job already, and they also won the Constructors’ Championship, so there is nothing really to fight for, so you approach the race relaxed and you enjoy the weekend, while in the last two or three races you maybe had some stress when you arrived at a race. For me, 2005 was different because we were fighting for the Constructors’ Championship until the last race, so there was still a little bit of stress in the weekend, but for him it will be quite a fun weekend.