F1: Alonso Cautious On Ferrari Progress

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Cautious On Ferrari Progress

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari must continue to chip away race by race...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted May 10, 2012 Barcelona (ESP)

Fernando Alonso says the Ferrari F2012 still isn't where the team wants it to be. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Like its rivals, Ferrari has new parts for the Spanish GP, but Fernando Alonso insists that too much emphasis has been focused on his team’s chances of turning its season around with changes to the recalcitrant F2012.

The local hero is keen to downplay expectations for his home race.

“Obviously we have new parts, but everybody has new parts,” said the Spaniard. “Because it’s Ferrari, there are quite a lot of expectations every race we go to. It seems like only Ferrari is bringing new parts. We have a step forward, we believe, on what we had in Bahrain, but we also know that it’s not the last step we have to do.

“It’s a continuous work that we need to start here in Barcelona, making a step forward and try to improve our qualifying position and our race pace, but in Monaco we have to bring new parts. In Canada [we have to] bring new parts. So we will not bring a new car to every race as it seems that we brought here in Barcelona.

“We need to see how the car works here and if it works fine, it will be a good step, the first step of many that we have to do during the next couple of races. If the step is not good enough, because the others improved the same or more than us so we remain in the same position, we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach or whatever, because the championship is long and we will never give up in May, after four races.”

The double World Champion reiterated that last week’s Mugello test was focused more on setup that new parts: “We didn’t have any big improvements in the car, so what we tested were different setups and things we missed from winter testing. It’s been quite difficult for us with a lot of problems on the car and not many laps. The Mugello test was to complete what we had left from winter but in terms of improvements, we had minimum changes on the car so it felt the same.

“Obviously, we had some ideas in terms of setup and some different possibilities that we were not introducing in the first four races because we didn’t have the opportunity to test them. So, it was good in Mugello: some of them were positive; some of them were negative so it’s good to know.

“As much information as you have is better preparation for the next Grand Prix. Obviously we arrive more prepared now than how we arrived in Australia with only three tests in the winter. But to make the car faster I think in terms of setup you cannot find much. If you want to be running at the front, it’s more aerodynamic parts and updates in the car. Hopefully, they come but we need to wait.”

Alonso expects the DRS to contribute to an exciting race on Sunday.

“I think it will be similar to last year, to be honest,” he said. “I saw some numbers of previous races here. On average like four or five overtaking maneuvers in the last nine years and last year there were 57 – so it was a big change. The race this year will be similar to last year because of the degradation, the DRS and the KERS.

“With all the possibilities that we have now, as we had last year, for sure we will see some more overtaking. This changes also a little bit the philosophy of this circuit. As Kimi (Raikkonen) said, pole position was 60 percent of the victories; now pole position is obviously the best starting position but it’s not crucial anymore because with this year’s tires it’s less important.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.