Alonso focussed on championship

28/07/2012

Mat Coch writes:

After winning last time out in Germany it could be considered a disappointing qualifying from Ferrari, given its cars line up just sixth and seventh on the grid for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso however disagrees. "Everybody keeps forgetting that we are not quick," he said. "We've been racing with the same car for three or four races with no new parts on the car. This is the problem. We are losing time to the fastest car."

Alonso currently leads the Drivers' Championship in what many believe has been the Spaniard's best season in Formula One to date. Ninth place in China was the 30-year-old's worst result while be remains the only driver to have scored points at every Grand Prix this season.

That he's been forced to take a back seat so far this weekend therefore comes as no surprise, the championship leader convinced only circumstance allowed him to play a larger role in Germany. "We were lucky for a wet qualifying, and in the race we managed the positions," he claimed.

"We are very happy with the points that we achieved with in the first ten races. We are not happy with the performance of the car."

However Alonso knows better than most that points are not handed out on Saturday. In Valencia he started eleventh and won, at a circuit where overtaking is perhaps as difficult as it is in Hungary.

"Anything is possible in this 2012 championship," he said. "We see very strange races and we see changes in performance from race to race.

"We won in Germany one week ago and Sauber was maybe the second or third fastest car in dry conditions, but here they were one or one and a half seconds behind and were out of Q2," he added. "It changes race by race, day by day. Friday can be a very good day for you, Saturday bad, Sunday good and vice versa for everybody.

"At the moment it doesn't look like we are quick enough to win the race but obviously we don't need to win, we just need to do our maximum and score as many points as we can."

Leading the championship at the halfway mark Alonso could potentially be the sport's youngest triple world champion, although it is not a record he's especially concerned with. "It's not very important if you are the youngest or if you are the oldest," he said. "If you can fight for championships or win a world championship the last thing you have in mind is what age you are.

"We all want to be champion at the end of the year."