Fernando Alonso says Ferrari know what they need to improve for China and Spain

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari know what they need to improve for China and Spain, but has revealed the car will virtually be in the same spec as Australia for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

In an all too familiar situation, the Spaniard once again finds himself fighting to harvest up as many points as possible whilst watching his World Championship rivals drive off into the distance.

Ferrari have been notoriously slow starters in recent years - since joining the Scuderia in 2010 only once has Alonso stood atop the podium at the opening race of the year, and that was his debut race - and after two fourth-place finishes so far this, the Spaniard does not expect the situation to improve in Bahrain this weekend.

"We have some work to do," he told reporters after the Malaysia GP. "Obviously for Bahrain there will not be much to do as in five days we are in the car again, but for China and Spain I think it is very clear what we need to bring [to] the car.

"The car from Australia to here has not got anything new so we know that the situation was more or less the same as Melbourne.

"After qualifying I thought that today we could challenge Red Bull or at least run close to them, but we didn't unfortunately and that is hopefully something we can improve for the next run. For Bahrain I don't think the picture will change too much from here. We are on track again in five days so the cars will not change magically at any of the teams, so it will be more or less similar.

"The track will be a little bit different so on the straights we will probably see Williams, who have a very good top speed, be competitive as we saw in the test with [Felipe] Massa and [Valtteri] Bottas. So it is going to be tough again, but somehow we always manage to be in the top five. At the moment with the performance we have it is giving us some good points and we must finish the race in Bahrain."

If Alonso is now to add to his two world titles it will be the longest gap between championships in F1 history, but despite fighting with Force Indias at Sepang rather than Mercedes' and Red Bulls, the 32-year-old is still taking heart from the fact he is beating new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

"It is not the perfect position to start the championship - we would like to have won the first two races, but we were not in that position," he added.

"The team is doing a massive effort to catch up and improve the situation, personally I would like to fight for victories, but as long as you are in front of your team-mate then you are doing something extra.

"We will improve. We have only done two races, we are analysing the areas were we need to improve - they seem very clear to us and will try to run as soon as possible to the level of Mercedes and Red Bull. Until that day we need to score points as we are doing and looking at the performance we have had in these two races we have one point less than [Lewis] Hamilton and nine points more than [Sebastian] Vettel and that is something that is less negative from these two races. We are scoring good points and until we are competitive that is the goal."

Whilst the Spaniard may only trail Hamilton by one point, he is currently 19 points behind Nico Rosberg in the Drivers' Championship after two races.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24184/9242122

[vcs316]

Formula 1 - Alonso pinpoints Ferrari frailties

Alonso finished a distant fourth in last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix and later labeled his race a "nightmare" as he struggled for grip.

The double world champion identified driveability off the corners and engine performance as two key areas Ferrari needs to work on to catch Red Bull and Mercedes.

"Traction was not good enough," said Alonso of his car's performance in Malaysia. "Out of the corners we were losing ground.

"We compare our traction with probably the best traction car out there, which is the Red Bull, so maybe it was more or less expected this deficit.

"With the top speed it's not secret we are not comparable with the Mercedes.

"They've been fastest in Australia, fastest in the [Bahrain] test, fastest here. I think we have some work to do.

"Obviously for Bahrain, there is not much to do because in a few days we are in the car again, but for China and Spain I think it's very clear what we need to bring to the car and we will do."

Alonso has spent the first two races of the season fighting with Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, rather than battling at the front, but the Spaniard still feels Ferrari has the potential to lift itself to the level he expects in order to fight for the championship.

"Obviously it's not the ideal position to start the championship, [but] the team is doing a massive effort to catch up and improve the situation," Alonso added.

"Personally I would like to fight for victories, but as long as you are in front of your team-mate normally you are doing something extra that the people expect.

"We will improve, that's for sure. We've only done two races. We are analysing deeply the areas we need to.

"They seem clear to us and we will put a lot of effort to improve the car and run as soon as possible at the level of Mercedes and Red Bull. The hope is still perfectly there."

[Senna4Ever]

Waiting for the ear tweaking message from Luca ...

[bonzo]

Just wonder how long will Alonso continue to express himself in a diplomatic way, before he starts the off shouting...

[20000rpm]

Just wonder how long will Alonso continue to express himself in a diplomatic way, .
Only a matter of time I guess. He must be really disappointed yet still has faith in this team speaks marvels of him.

[Gerhard Berger]

Bahrain will surely be worse than Malaysia. At least in Malaysia we had high speed corners. Bahrain is just slow corners and straights, which will expose our 2 biggest weaknesses - traction and top speed. Also there will be no rain to mask our deficiencies in qualifying.

[PadGeT]

Bahrain will surely be worse than Malaysia. At least in Malaysia we had high speed corners. Bahrain is just slow corners and straights, which will expose our 2 biggest weaknesses - traction and top speed. Also there will be no rain to mask our deficiencies in qualifying.

Ya, we will finish behind the STR boyz, happy?
Our position will remain behind Mercs and RB. We have pretty much got other teams covered imo.

[Kingdom Hearts]

Waiting for the ear tweaking message from Luca ...


Is coming.

[Greig]

The whole ear tweaking thing is beyond boring now.

Anyway it's good that at least we know where we need to improve, and Alonso is only saying the same as Stefano and others.

[AfterLife]

It is always our way of upgrading the car except one time that we did upgrade the car in Malaysia 2011. A small update is for china and the big one for Europe. No surprise.

[bonzo]

In the meantime Merc and RB will stop their development and wait for Ferrari to catch up.:lol

[Greig]

In the meantime Merc and RB will stop their development and wait for Ferrari to catch up.:lol

I am sure they have their own forums where you can support them.

[eddie]

Alonso is again over driving the car, we are still much behind the Mercs and prob RBR which is a surprise. Hats off to RBR for the turn around. Still hate them though!

[bonzo]

I am sure they have their own forums where you can support them.

I am supporting the TEAM and always will. I am critical only of the present team boss and always will be for his failure to bear responsibility.

[Gerhard Berger]

Ya, we will finish behind the STR boyz, happy?
Our position will remain behind Mercs and RB. We have pretty much got other teams covered imo.

Not so sure. I think Williams and Mclaren will be much closer. We will do well to get 1 of our drivers in the top 5 IMO.

[bonzo]

Not so sure. I think Williams and Mclaren will be much closer. We will do well to get 1 of our drivers in the top 5 IMO.

Yeah, if there are 3 - 4 DNFs from mercs, rb, FI and williams

[Jas]

Williams will be strong...very high top speed from massa...very long straights come Bahrain, and they've admitted they don't like high speed so I wudnt be surprised to see them ahead imo!

[Greig]

I am supporting the TEAM and always will. I am critical only of the present team boss and always will be for his failure to bear responsibility.

So you are just going to belittle the team you support. Maybe you can find much more people willing to slate Ferrari along with you on another forum.

[Red is Best]

Nothing new under the sun. Looks like a copy-paste of any interview made between 2011 and 2013.

[shamim179]

If we wait until China or Spain it will be too late by then. By then both Mercedes and Red Bull will have built a healthy lead over us. And we might get Williams and McLaren taking points off of us. You can be pretty sure that both Mercedes and Red Bull will be bringing major upgrades to Spain as will the other teams. I do think our car has massive potential but we're slowly running out of time and it can get critical all that needs to happen is a few DNF's and it will be pretty much game over. Mercedes is just way too strong. The only thing that can swing things in our favor is reliability but so far Mercedes power has been pretty reliable.

[Greig]

Well with Bahrain this weekend it would be pretty hard to do much before China.

[Stormsearcher]

Not so sure. I think Williams and Mclaren will be much closer. We will do well to get 1 of our drivers in the top 5 IMO.

Kinda agree! The williams especially will be much closer, might even be faster than us. We will be fighting with the Mclarens.

[shamim179]

Kinda agree! The williams especially will be much closer, might even be faster than us. We will be fighting with the Mclarens.

Think we'll be fighting with Force India! Malaysia suited our car and there won't be any updates for Bahrain. Our drivers as strong as they are will and should make a difference but we are duly bound by the limitations of our car. It will be a damage limitation exercise.

[Suzie]

"The team is doing a massive effort to catch up and improve the situation, personally I would like to fight for victories, but as long as you are in front of your team-mate then you are doing something extra."



Ah Fernando, never change.

[PadGeT]

Not so sure. I think Williams and Mclaren will be much closer. We will do well to get 1 of our drivers in the top 5 IMO.

If Williams are ahead of us come raceday purely on performance, then something is very wrong wid my interpretation of individual car strengths, i mean to say in a normal and fair world, it shouldn't happen.
William's aero is hardly eye catching !! Most slippery low drag car out there, much of its performance is due to the engine. We have better drivers, a much better car, and much larger budget and honestly should stop thinking about challenging Mercs and RBs if we are to fight wid Williams by the way.
Honestly i find it surprising seeing comments about Williams, they are most overhyped team since their season testing. I can understand Mr. Brundle's and co's opinion about Williams resurgence, but coming from u guyz is just frustrating me pain & simple.
People here see Mclaren as our competitor after first race,lets see where they finish at the end of the season with Sam Michael der! I hope Enstone team beat dem and show dem their pace.

[Ophidian786]

I am sure they have their own forums where you can support them.
He is only joking, hence the emoticon.

I have been reading your posts for a while. Just chill will ya, all your posts are so serious. It is a forum ('a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged'), telling people to go to another forum for voicing their opinion is kinda counterintuitive don’t you think?

It is true what bonzo is saying, RB and Merc will not stand still, but Ferrari know this, we hear Stefa say it all the time.

[FerrariF60]

Ah Fernando, never change.

he's speaking the truth though; of course he'd like to FIGHT for victories....SECOND place is the first place for LOSERS and in "his" agenda/volcabulary these words don't belong with FERRARI....

[Kingdom Hearts]

Ah Fernando, never change.


Yeah never change, journalist ask about beating Kimi, he gives an honest answer, never change.

[Ed Harley]

I hope they soon get to race against each other and rest of the field on equal footing ie. without technical or other problems.

Analyzing and identifying the problem areas are fairly easy to do but to find out solutions to correct said problems is another matter. I do hope they can improve the car and that it doesn't take the whole season.

[Ferrarichamp]

Merc will easily win this year imo, they have the best car and engine and 2 capable drivers.

[Senna4Ever]

Ah Fernando, never change.

:Hmm do you mean it positive or negative?
Hard to exploit without seeing the gesture ...

[Fiondella]

I hope we get a few wins this year. I don't think we can expect much more :-(

[Gerhard Berger]

At the moment, it is difficult to see where a win could come from. Even at Monza, where we are usually strong, i can't see us doing much with power unit down on HP.

However, guess we will have to wait until Barcelona, and see what kind of upgrade we have there. I remember in 2012 we brought a very good upgrade package to Barcelona, hopefully we can do something similar this year.

[Gerhard Berger]

EDIT: Duplicate post.

[Suzie]

:Hmm do you mean it positive or negative?
Hard to exploit without seeing the gesture ...

Positive :-)

[sweeper1101]

With so many upcoming improvements I hope our drivers are able to adapt also to the ever changing behavior of the car.
That is our greatest challenge I think. To improve the car alongside the drivers understanding of how to drive it.

[F1NAC]

You know what makes me sad? That when we finish below top 3 for example fourth or fifth, they call it a good result. Where is that damn winning aditude?

[Nero Horse]

I am supporting the TEAM and always will. I am critical only of the present team boss and always will be for his failure to bear responsibility.

You have a very bizarre way of supporting the team with your constant nagging and sarcastic jokes. :-??