Fernando Alonso insists he is untainted by the team orders controversy

Fernando Alonso has denied that victory in this year's Formula One world championship would be a "dirty" triumph. "If you win the title, you win the title," the Ferrari driver said, on the day after his team walked free from a disciplinary hearing which had deliberated on the controversy concerning team orders that has clouded the sport since the German grand prix at the end of July. It was still the talking point here, three days before Ferrari's home race in front of their adoring tifosi . The subject has divided opinion in Formula One. But Alonso was at pains to deny that he would be a tainted champion. When asked whether a third world championship would bring him the same satisfaction he felt in 2005 and 2006 he replied, simply: "Yes." When pressed further, and asked what made a worthy champion, he added: "Whoever is first at the end it is because he has more points than the others. "We have already talked too much about the Germany incident during the August break, but the answer will not change. At Spa [the venue for the last race] we were focusing on improving the performance of the car, and it is the same here. "The decision was something we were waiting on and ready to respect whatever it was, so yesterday we had a hearing, we're aware of the decision of the FIA, so we have to respect it. "We keep everything as it was, the points etcetera, so nothing has changed. What happened is in the past, and now we need to concentrate on this race, although I'm happy to see the FIA will look deep into the rules and try to clarify something that might not be clear." Alonso and Ferrari were clearly given a much tougher time than they received in Paris on Wednesday, when the World Motor Sport Council's 26-man body decided to take no further action against Ferrari. The incident that caused all the trouble took place at Hockenheim on 25 July, when the race leader Felipe Massa surrendered his position to his team-mate, Alonso, after receiving coded messages from his race engineer, Rob Smedley. But Ferrari were even more embarrassed by what happened after Massa had slowed down. Smedley said: "Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry." There have always been team orders, and always will be, as long as there are teams and not solitary drivers. The rule banning them, made in 2002, merely made it easier for gullible people to pretend they didn't exist, to pretend that it is a sport in the purest sense. The Wednesday meeting in Paris was still a farce, for it found Ferrari guilty – by upholding the fine imposed on them by the race stewards – but then decided to do nothing more about it. Moreover, by deciding to review the situation at the end of the season they have failed to bring the clarity everyone has been calling for, though clarity when it comes to team orders is difficult to achieve. Alonso has his own pressure here, on a track that is expected to suit his team as well as the McLaren cars. Today, though, he would only shrug pragmatically and point to the championship table. "This is the way it has been in the history of Formula One, and in other sports as well – the Premier League, tennis etc, so it is not too difficult."