Alonso is best driver in F1, says Honda's Brawn

Alonso is best driver in F1, says Honda's Brawn
00:01 BST, Sun 7 Sep 2008

By Alan Baldwin

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) - Fernando Alonso is the best driver in Formula One and Honda still hope to sign him for 2009, team principal Ross Brawn said on Saturday.

"We are just waiting," he told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix.

"My view is that he's the best driver in Formula One at the moment and we're happy to wait and hope that he makes a positive decision for us."

Renault's double world champion has been linked strongly to Ferrari but the Formula One leaders have both their drivers signed up to 2010 and have said they will honour those contracts.

The 27-year-old Spaniard, who returned to Renault from McLaren this year, said this week that he would decide soon on what to do, but excluded making any announcement at next weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Renault are fifth in the constructors' standings and have not won since Alonso's last title with them in 2006.

Honda are faring even worse. Their last win was with Briton Jenson Button in Hungary two years ago and they are eighth overall with just 14 points from 12 races this season.

However they have a big budget and are pinning their hopes on coming back strongly in 2009, when the rules change significantly.

"The reason I think he's the best driver in Formula One is balance of experience and ability," said Brawn, who joined Honda from Ferrari last year.

"To me there are three very quick drivers who have established themselves so far in Formula One," said Brawn, who did not list either of his team's two current ones, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and Button.

"There's (McLaren's) Lewis (Hamilton), there's (Ferrari's) Kimi (Raikkonen) and Fernando. And (Ferrari's) Felipe (Massa) is coming up very quickly and closely behind."

"If you look at those three drivers for a team in our position, where we have a strong rebuilding process going on, then we need a driver with strong development capacity, experience and absolute speed," said Brawn. "For me, Fernando has all of those things.

"So that's why I think he's the best driver in Formula One, because he has a combination of those things.

"Lewis is clearly very quick, a super guy but doesn't have the experience yet. Kimi doesn't have the reputation of being a person who can develop a car strongly but is very quick."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Trevor Huggins)