Alonso upbeat despite problems in Barcelona

Fernando Alonso was in a good mood at the end of his two-day stint of testing at Barcelona, despite Ferrari losing some time to technical gremlins today.

Despite that he still ran 90 laps and set the third best time of the day, behind Sebastian Vettel and Jaime Alguersuari.

“One of the mechanics said to me that when things go well in Barcelona, we don’t win the championship, while if we have problems here, then it’s a different story,” said Alonso. “Let’s hope that’s really the case! I still believe that, at the moment the Red Bull is the strongest car, but there are at least four other teams – us, McLaren, Mercedes and Renault – that are capable of fighting for the wins. It is always very difficult to assess the results from testing: it only takes ten kilos more or less fuel or for worn tyres to be used at any one point in the day, to make a difference that can amount to seconds.”

Alonso made some interesting comments about tyres: “Here again we saw degradation similar to what we had noticed both in Valencia and Jerez at the first two tests. If we had to race at the Catalunya Circuit tomorrow, we would need three or even four stops to finish the race, however it will not be just a case of changing the way we tackle the race, but also the entire weekend track time, from free practice through to qualifying. Tyre wear will definitely create the best overtaking opportunities. If you find yourself fighting against a driver on tyres that are at the start or the end of their stint, the performance difference could be very big, which would make for overtaking, even more definitely than using KERS and the moveable rear wing.”

Alonso didn’t want to be drawn on the Bahrain issue: “It is hard for us to state a clear cut position, because in the end we only know as much as you journalists, given we are following the situation through the media. We have to wait a few more days and then the powers that be will make a decision.”