Briatore - ''Today is Sunday - it is the day''Renault team chief Flavio Briatore and defending world champion
Fernando Alonso called for a calm, cool and focussed 'finish the job' attitude on Sunday morning, hours before the start of the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.
As massive attention centred on
Michael Schumacher's career-ending race and his team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa's bid for glory from pole position in his home race, the Renault men remained calm and determined.
"Today is Sunday - it is the day," said Briatore. "Whatever happened in qualifying we still have one more race. We are trying to do our job and that is what we will do. Let's see. For the moment we are in a better position, but today is the day."
A fuel problem wrecked Schumacher's bid for pole in final qualifying on Saturday and dumped him in tenth place on the grid, six behind Alonso. It meant that only an unexpected drama could keep alive Schumacher's slim and stubborn dream of victory and a possible unprecedented eighth drivers' world title triumph.
Briatore added: "I think Fernando is in a very good position. He will do his own race and Michael still needs to win the race and Massa finishes second. There is a long way for Michael to win, because Massa is not going to wait for Michael. He will do his own race. Let's see what happens."
Alonso said: "If you take risks you are quicker, but you have less reliability.
If we were in another position or already champions in Suzuka then we could take more risks here in Brazil, but we are taking things very safely and very conservatively.
"I think it's the right thing to do. In the race it doesn't matter which position we are in, as long as we are in the top eight. The aim is to be world champion, not to win the race. I don't know what position Michael can get or what he can do but it's also not our problem. In this moment, I think we have the biggest concern and biggest worries in our team.
"We need to finish the race and do a good job and it's a very important race for us. We can get both championships and the whole weekend we are very concentrated and very focused on what we have to do. Everything is going well so far, but we cannot lose concentration or think of another matter than our team. It's a very special race so the last part of it, if we are in a comfortable position and we are in position to win the championship, we can for sure be conservative in terms of revs and mechanical things.
"But this will happen at the end of the race and not before. We have to fight and do our normal race."
Source AFP
