Fernando Alonso on Thursday refused to back the FIA’s decision to this weekend install an ‘equality steward’ in the McLaren garage for the final grand prix of 2007.
The controversial decision was commissioned by the governing body, after Spain’s highest ranking motorsport official, Carlos Gracia, told Max Mosley that he feared his 26-year-old countryman might not receive fair treatment for his battle against teammate Lewis Hamilton in Brazil.
But Alonso, sitting alongside Briton Hamilton, told reporters at Interlagos: “I don’t agree with the decision, but it’s not up to us.
“We don’t need anything like that in the garage.”
The Spaniard also backed away from recent suggestions that McLaren may have doctored his tyre pressures, contributing to his crash in Japan and six-tenths qualifying deficit two weeks ago in China.
“I have realised that the tyre pressures were a bit high and I just want to think that it was a coincidence and a bit of bad luck,” he said.
Alonso also played down suspicions that the championship battle could be decided after a Senna-Prost style collision.
“I want to be world champion and for that I have to finish the race, first of all,” he said, according to the news agency ‘sid’.
“Lewis and I cannot afford to make any mistakes, because Kimi (Raikkonen) will only be waiting.”
