A banner in the main grandstand of the Yas Marina circuit, in Abu Dhabi: “The warriors are not those who always win but those who always fight”. To the side of the message, a picture of Fernando Alonso. The fabric encapsulates the thousand wonders of the last ten years of Spanish at Formula 1 this Sunday to say good bye to one of its main claims, a pilot is considered unique for his ability with a steering wheel in your hands, that surely was not so when he had to steer his career. This contrast is the one that stand out the majority of peers and rivals to the spaniard when asked what to describe how it will be in the championship without him.

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Lewis Hamilton. “Decisions are key in this business.” The british have always been the counterpoint to the path of the wealthy; the unique neighbor of workshop that was able to desquiciarle and to do so, in addition to, the year of its debut (2007), when both shared roof in McLaren. “Fernando was always a great opponent. Together we had good times and bad times. It is a real privilege to have coincided in the same era as him. I’ll miss him, the sport will miss”, he describes the current champion, who emphatically gives them the reason to those who consider that the great ballast of the champion were his decisions. “In this business, the decisions are a very important key because they are the ones that you placed on one site or another. It is not the wisest thing to think you control the market”, remacha Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel. “It is a pity that runs out as well”. The German and Alonso had a good relationship up to that explosive Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2010, when Ferrari made the unforgivable error of strategy which gave the of Heppenheim the first of his four titles with Red Bull. Neither the McLaren nor Hamilton feel to ‘Baby Schumi’ in the Bahis Siteleri table of pilots more large always. “In the past few years, Fernando has missed in the header of the races. We had our more and our less on the track but it is a pity that runs out as well”, just say who was in charge of relieve you in the Scuderia (2015).

Kimi Raikkonen. “All we can leave at any time”. The arrival of the Finnish Ferrari (2014) not made him any grace to the then flagship of the brand of Maranello, which shattered the nordic in both the timed (16 to 3 in its favor) as in the general table, in which he took more than 100 points. Faithful to his style, the Ice Man does not extend too much in his praise when asked to imagine next season without his former teammate: “we Had our fights [on the track] for a long time. Unfortunately you are going. The fact is that we are all going to have to leave it at some point because there are new pilots”.

Felipe Massa. “Fernando and Schumacher, my co-workers hardest”. If the numbers of Raikkonen left him in evidence in front of Alonso, the comparison with the brazilian is still more bleeding. The total balance in the timed of the four years that coincided clad in the mono red (2010-2013) reflected a brutal inequality (59 to 18 in favour of Alonso), not to mention that the são paulo always ended the course with more than 100 points less than their neighbor. “Alonso and Schumacher were my peers more hard. Outside the car I never had any problem with Fernando, but when he lowers the visor is another person. And its behavior splits the team,” says Massa.

Carlos Sainz. “A person is vital to me.” For the son of double world rally (1990 and 1992), Alonso was always a sort of mentor. While the champion never had a relationship too fluid with other indians such as Jaime Alguersuari or Roberto Merhi, Sainz will swept from the first time and tried to lend a hand whenever he could. From next week, the spaniard will be uploaded in the McLaren. Before, this Sunday, Sainz will be sporting a special case with the number 14 on the chin in homage to his friend. “It’s the least you can do for a person that has been fundamental for me, both in sporting and personal terms”, says Sainz.

Luca Di Montezemolo. “I always accompany the sadness that the relationship with Ferrari does not work”. The arrival of Alonso to Ferrari in 2010 was a bet of its president, Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo, who put him to Maranello to his feet and, unfortunately for him, he saw how Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull will birlaban the title for two times (2010 and 2012), in the last breath. Of his 23 years at the head of Il Cavallino Rampante, that might be the operation that more frustration it has caused. “I will always remember with sadness that the combination between Ferrari and Alonso, which to me remains one of the two or three best pilots of the grill, even now, is not functioning,” says Di Montezemolo in a statement that sets out the BBC.