Alonso: Ferrari “very competitive” (Video)

Fernando Alonso expects Ferrari to be “very competitive” in the final seven races of the championship despite Red Bull’s performance advantage in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Speaking in an interview conducted by Ferrari the two-times world champion believes the Hungaroring was a “perfect” circuit for the RB6:

We need to start from the gap between Ferrari and the rest of the teams: McLaren, Renault, Mercedes. It was a couple of tenths in Germany, or half a second, and in Hungary it was the same. So we maintained, more or less, our good level of performance.

It was more Red Bull that, maybe, was under-performing a bit in Germany and over-performing in Hungary due to the characteristics of the Hungarian circuit. It has medium-high speed corners, not many straights, that was a perfect circuit for Red Bull and we knew that.

We will remain calm, the championship is 19 races, and for the overall picture of the 19 races I think Ferrari has a very competitive package.
Fernando Alonso

Alonso currently lies fifth in the world championship, 20 points behind leader Mark Webber with 175 points to be won.

He said he did not view any of his four championship rivals as being a greater threat than the rest:

I think we have to respect everyone. So far, until Hungary, McLaren and Hamilton were dominating the championship so we need to respect them and we know how strong they can be.

Also we know Red Bull has a very quick car this year and they are now leading the championship with Webber.

So it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult, but we are there. We are in a position know where we’re able to take the lead of the championship if we win one race and I think we have to remain calm.

We know that all five drivers will fight until the last race. But we need to use our experience as a team, Ferrari winning so many championships and my personal experience as well, fighting for three championships.

We’ll try to stay calm in these races and fight for as many podiums as possible. I think continuity will be key to winning the championship.
Fernando Alonso

He admitted the F10 will not always be the most competitive car in the remaining races but expects to win more before the end of the year:

We, Ferrari, need to think always about the win. We need to aim for pole position or victories in every race. But in Hungary obviously this was not possible. We were not as quick as our competitors, Red Bull.

So it was a little bit frustrating, a little bit disappointing. But at the end we know there will be some circuits that will suit our car and we need to take the opportunity to win as we did in Germany. And there will be some circuits that, maybe, aren’t great for our car’s characteristics. So we need to make the best of those races as we did in Hungary, being in second at the end of Sunday.

So I think overall as a team, a group, we’ll work very well in the last part of the championship and we will always maximise our performance.
Fernando Alonso

See everything Alonso had to say in the video above.

Read more: Alonso splits Red Bulls for valuable second place