Fernando Alonso on his way to his first F1 world championship in 2005 (top) while the Spaniard made it back-to-back titles in 2006 (bottom), and with team mate for 2010 Felipe Massa (middle).

With the announcement finally being made official that Fernando Alonso will join Felipe Massa at Ferrari next year, the Spanish two-time world champion has offered his first thoughts on the switch from Renault where he has spent seven of his nine seasons in F1.

"I’m very happy and very proud to become a Ferrari driver," Alonso told the official ferrari.com website. "Driving a single-seater from the Prancing Horse is everybody’s dream in this sport and today I have the opportunity to make this dream come true. Above all I want to thank Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who really wanted this three year contract. We already had an agreement this summer starting in 2011, but then, the last days, the picture changed and we decided to anticipate my arrival in Maranello by one year."

Alonso's arrival at Ferrari has been widely rumoured for many months and it is closely linked to the announcement at Monza during last month's Italian Grand Prix that Spanish banking giant Santander will be a team sponsor next year. The delay in announcing the Spaniard's signing was dragged out due to Ferrari waiting to see if Alonso would be implicated in the "Crashgate" investigation where he was the beneficiary of Renault's race fixing ploy during last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

During his two stints with the Renault team Alonso won two back-to-back world championship titles, in 2005 and 2006, and became (at the time) the youngest-ever F1 world champion. He took 17 wins during his time with the French F1 team, the first coming at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003, when he also entered the record books as the youngest ever winner of an F1 race. "The years at Renault were fantastic, together we won four world titles until this day, twenty-one grands prix," Alonso added yesterday. "I wish the team all the best and let’s hope we gain some good results in the last races this year." Apart from driving for Renault for the bulk of his grand prix career so far, Alonzo made his F1 debut for the tiny Italian Minardi outfit in 2001 and spent the 2007 season with the English McLaren team.

"After this season I will put all my effort in the next season, I’m sure that, together with Felipe, we’ll offer Ferrari and the fans from all over the world some great satisfaction," added the Spaniard, "I can’t wait to start working with my new team."