Fernando Alonso: “This is a very real test for us”

Fernando Alonso says that another podium finish in Malaysia this weekend will confirm that Ferrari is on target with the F138.

A year ago Alonso won in Malaysia, but only after rain handed him a chance to flatter the troubled F2012.

“There is no comparison with last year, we were coming here out of Q3, and nowhere near where we wanted to be,” he said. “This year is a little bit better in this aspect. We have a more or less competitive car, and in Australia everything worked quite fine for us, and we showed a good potential. It’s true that in Australia strategy was very, very strange, a very unusual circuit, so this weekend for us is a little bit of confirmation.

“We need to confirm that the car is performing well after some positive feelings in the winter, and some positive feelings in Australia. This is a very real test for us, and we want a clear weekend and hopefully a good result. A podium will be again a very good target to achieve, and if we do so, I think we can be very, very happy.”

Alonso has not won a race since Germany in July last year: “It’s not frustrating at the moment. If I have the best car on the grid and I do six pole positions and I finish second every race, it will be frustrating. If we are outside the top five in the qualifying and we finish in the podium always, then I’m very proud.”

He says he was not fazed by Kimi Raikkonen’s performance in Australia.

“I think the pace of the Lotus was very good, but nothing we could not do. I think they had a very clean race, with no traffic, good strategy, but the pace was nothing out of reach. I think here we can fight a little bit closer.”