Symonds: As drivers Alonso and Schumacher were similar

F1 veteran Pat Symonds worked with both drivers during their world championship winning years. Schumacher won in 1994 and 1995 with Symonds in his corner, at what was then Benetton, and just over a decade later he was part of Alonso's double title-winning spell with the same team that had morphed into Renault at that point.

In an interesting interview with Speedweek's Mathias Brunner, Symonds recalled working with the two legends, "They had an exemplary work ethic, a keen sense of detail, a great deal of self-confidence and both worked very closely with their engineers."

"But what stands out for me is the self-esteem. They knew without question they were winners, it would not have occurred to them to consider defeat at all. For me this deep belief in one's own abilities is a trait of all the great drivers. "

"Michael was incredibly good with people. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met in this sport. His staff were really important to him, he knew each one of them by name. If he lived in my neighbourhood, he would be my best friend."

"For Fernando people were not that important, he did not get to know them all. He was close to some, but not like Michael. Schumacher knew he had the whole team behind him. Alonso was more pragmatic, he would be nice to anyone who might help but if he could not help him he was forgotten."

"I only saw two drivers who managed to get a team behind them so effectively: Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber. They just had this very special personality, they were liked by everyone, so the staff literally tore themselves up to help them."

"Fernando was a good leader because everyone respected him, but he was never as inspiring as Michael."

"As drivers, they were quite similar. Both were able to deliver something special, always to extract that little bit extra. I remember the 'sprint race era' with fuel stops in between when Ross Brawn got on the radio and told Michael what he needed from him, we knew Michael would do exactly as requested lap-after-lap. Fernando can do that, too."

"Both are outstanding in reading a race. They can mentally remove themselves from the pure driver and have reserves to think about the course of the race."

"I recall a race in Canada when Fernando was talking on the radio for almost a full lap - and that was his fastest race lap! It did not seem to bother him. This extra mental capacity sets them apart from their rivals. They also remember everything."

"Both Fernando and Michael had a lot of data at their disposal, they knew how to deal with that information, sort it, that's important and then make correct conclusions in which direction to go with setup. Analyzing is the important thing, Not remembering."

"A person with a photographic memory will always know that this table is white here and what the flowers on it looked like. Fernando and Michael would explain to you why the table is white and why these flowers had been selected [at high-speed]," concluded Symonds.