Fernando Alonso claims Ferrari is capable of what Lotus gained at Australia. Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen secured a win at the First Grand Prix of 2013 in Australia. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished just behind the Fin in 2nd. However, this morning
AutoSport reported Alonso believe that Ferrari can do everything the Lotus could at Australia.
Back in the Days
Admitting that traffic held the Spaniard up, the 2006 World Champion was praising Ferrari for the car they have provided him and teammate Felipe Massa in the 2013 season. However, Alonso claims at Malaysia they can take the fight to Lotus even more so. With the likes of McLaren, in no competiting position (See:
Nightmare start for McLaren continues) Ferrari are set to have a brilliant stance at Malaysia this weekend.
Alonso said:
"I think the pace of the Lotus was very good, but nothing that we could not do," he said in the Sepang paddock. They had a very clean race, with no traffic and a very good strategy but the pace was nothing out of reach. Here we can fight a little bit closer. Sepang is for us a little bit of a confirmation. We need to confirm the car is performing well after some positive feelings in winter and some positive feelings in Australia."
Alonso is using Sepang as the confirmation that the car is doing good in terms of development. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa's return to form is continuing in 2013, even Massa has been reporting to
ESPN about the confidence he has in the Ferrari's 2013 car at Sepang this weekend.
Massa, who up until the end of last season had been out of form since his massive accident at Hungary in 2009. Ferrari have always stood by him, although the rumours are constantly running around that Massa will be replaced in 2014 to make way for Vettel. It show's why they stood by him - after last weekends 4th place finish in Australia. Felipe has told the press that he is confident in Ferrari's race pace.
"In the race, for sure our pace was very good and when the tyres were in a good shape maybe we had the best pace on the track," he said. "We did not have a great degradation compared to Kimi and he showed he had a great car for the race. We did not have that good a degradation rate but it was reasonably good compared to the other cars. That's something we need to concentrate on and get better and better, race by race."
So as long as Ferrari get everything right with the tires this weekend at Malaysia, they are firm believers that they can win this race. After the great performance Fernando and Felipe put in last week, We can not blame them.
Visit our dedicated
F1 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix thread, to discuss anything related to the upcoming GP!
