Early on Friday morning, just after 8am in fact, new Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso arrived at the gates of the Scuderia Ferrari for his first contact with the Maranello based squad, even though he is still not an official member due to his contractual commitments with Renault regarding image management, which still tie him to his previous team and his sponsors.

The first meeting was with Stefano Domenicali, who then left him to the technicians, who started to work with the driver on the upcoming season’s programme. Between meetings connected to the new single-seater’s project Fernando visited the wind channel to see the model and worked on the sitting position in the car’s cockpit, while the day ended just after 5pm.

Before leaving Maranello, Alonso was received by Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who personally wanted to welcome the Spaniard at Ferrari in a cordially meeting of around half an hour.

The day’s intermezzo was a couple of laps on the Fiorano race track with the 458 Italia, naturally in red: as he couldn’t yet drive a red Formula One car Fernando wanted to feel the emotion of driving a Ferrari on the track where all the Prancing Horse’s single-seaters are born and raised.