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Some things are more important than titles - Alonso

Fernando Alonso: "With the teams that have seen me working closely there are always zero doubts about my professionalism and my commitment" © Sutton Images

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Fernando Alonso says the way his team and colleagues regard him is more important than the amount of titles he amasses over his career.

Sebastian Vettel took his fourth consecutive title at last weekend's Indian Grand Prix as Alonso goes another year at Ferrari without championship success. Alonso has two titles to his name with Renault, but asked whether he judged the success of a driver by the number of championships he had won, he said that the respect of his colleagues was more valuable to him.

"For me it makes a difference to have the team happy so that at the end of the month they pay me," he said. "I think the rest of the things is a little bit more complicated and it's impossible to make everybody happy. You have to make happy [the people] who give you the food.

"When I went to Renault I had one year at McLaren and they [Renault] wanted me to come back. And now McLaren is also saying publically that they would be happy for me to come back, so this is a good sign. Then at Ferrari they always treat me very good and there is a possibility to extend the contract further.

"This makes me more happy than anything else, that the teams that have seen me working closely there are always zero doubts about my professionalism and my commitment."

Alonso believes Ferrari needs to up its efforts again next year to take the fight to Red Bull under the new 2014 regulations.

"We must start working even harder because we have a very strong challenge in front of us. They have been very strong and dominating Formula One for the last four years and we need to do something better than what we did the last four years because it's clear that it was not enough. We will start immediately and next year we want to win so we have to work."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.