He may no longer be on the grid, but Fernando Alonso is always just one tweet away from Formula 1 whenever his name is mentioned.
On Tuesday, the two-time world champion who ambitions to join the great Graham Hill as a recipient of motorsport's Triple Crown, popped up on Twitter to counter a headline quote from his former Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo.
The Italian's comment was lifted by Formula1.com from its latest 'Beyond the Grid' podcast and bitingly used to promote the episode that will be released on Wednesday.
Referring to Alonso's time at the House of Maranello, di Montezemolo said: "When he wins, he's happy. When he doesn't win, it's the problem of the team..."
The Spaniard retaliated with a sarcastic tweet, blending laughing emojis with a 'set the record straight' reply.
“When he wins, he’s happy. When he doesn’t win, it’s the problem of the team…”
On this week's Beyond The Grid, former Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo discusses why he thinks Fernando Alonso didn’t win a world title in red
>> https://t.co/tU4MN6q7MJ #F1 @Bose pic.twitter.com/D2FgA2b3rL
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2019
While the headline brandished by @F1 was indeed a tad inflammatory, the rest of di Montezemolo's comments on Alonso appeared rightly balanced and outright praiseful.
"He was Alonso, not Alonso-Ferrari. When he wins, he's happy. When he doesn't win, it's the problem of the team, he's unhappy," was the full quote from the former Ferrari boss.
"In other words, he's less close to the team than Michael [Schumacher] and Niki [Lauda], particularly in the difficult moments. To be close to the team in the good moments is easy.
"In terms of performance, Fernando was very good. For me, Alonso is with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Sebastian] Vettel and in the race, he's very close to Michael. In the race, Alonso was and is a fantastic driver. He lost the championship [in 2010 and 2012] not for his mistakes.
"If he won one championship, today we are talking about something different. We are talking that Alonso, despite many years he didn't have the best car, he was able to win the championship. Alonso is very strong."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
