Fernando Alonso reportedly wanted to quit Ferrari to join a rival team “two or three years ago” according to former team-mate Felipe Massa.
The Spaniard has finally managed to achieve that by way of a favour from ex-president Luca di Montezemolo, allowing the 33-year-old to join McLaren-Honda for the 2015 season.
“I think Fernando tried to leave the team two or three years ago, even when I was still at the team, but he couldn’t,” the Williams driver told the official F1 website.
“I think maybe last year the car was not so good, the results were not there but he kept fighting, kept trying to change the team. But the team was already changing completely inside and they decided to change even Alonso.
“But they are also losing a fantastic driver in Fernando. He’s very quick and knows how to score a big amount of points during the championship.”
Massa is unsure whether the change will benefit Ferrari, however he does believe it will be good for Kimi Raikkonen who he expects to perform better alongside Sebastian Vettel.
“It’s a new team, but it’s a team you can never close your eyes to,” he added. “Sebastian knows how to win – he’s won many championships – and I think Kimi will work much better without Fernando in the team.
“So maybe the team can work better. We need to wait and see if it’s better or worse.”
