F1: Alonso Third And Pleased With Latest Updates

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Third And Pleased With Latest Updates

Fernando Alonso scored well in Austin practice sessions...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 16, 2012 Austin, TX

Photographers and pit crew members stand aside as Fernando Alonso of Spain and Team Scuderia Ferrari departs the pit during the second practice session for the United States Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. (Photo: Getty Images)

Fernando Alonso finished Friday in Austin in third place, and the Spaniard pronounced himself happy with Ferrari’s latest update package.

“The updates, they seem to work,” said Alonso. “We are still analyzing all the data from today, but the first impression is that it’s all going good, so I’m happy. Obviously if we introduce a little step every race the others do the same, so we keep the gap more or less consistent.

“Starting third would be fantastic, but we were third many Fridays, and then on Saturday McLaren, Lotus they seem to use the potential that maybe on Friday they hide. It’s possible that we’ll have a tough qualifying. But we were seventh and ninth in Abu Dhabi, and we scored three points more than Vettel. If we are better than seventh I think we can score even more points.”

Alonso said he wasn’t concerned about the apparent pace of the Red Bull today.

“No surprises for us, they are the quickest out there, they have the fastest package, they do first and second in all the practices, first and second in all qualifying, and if everything goes normal, first and second in the race. In the race sometimes everything is not going normal, and we put more pressure on them on Sundays, we will take out opportunities, we will fight every lap in the race.

“We know the strong point of them, we keep repeating this every race, is the speed of the package. They are very quick. Our strong points are the united team, a very strong team, the driveability of our car. We try to use each of our strong points, and the important thing is to score 11 points more than them in these two races. I’m still convinced that we can do it, but we are not surprised when they are first and second in practice and qualifying.”

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.