- Bahrain Grand Prix
No excuse for lack of pace - Alonso
Fernando Alonso said his ninth place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix was as much as Ferrari could have hoped for after struggling at the Sakhir circuit all weekend.
Alonso finished ninth ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen but said the team had no excuses for its poor showing.
"We are ninth and tenth and we didn't have a crash or an extra pit stop because of a puncture, we were just ninth and tenth and that was what we could do today," he said. "I've won three times at this grand prix and it's not as if I have forgotten how to drive here.
"Kimi probably had some victories here also and we were ninth and tenth because there were eight people here better than us today. We want to change this as soon as possible and that needs to start in China hopefully."
However, Alonso believes the lack of performance was specific to the circuit and made clear that he is not giving up on Ferrari.
"You would like for me to say one day that 'no, I don't believe in the championship'. You are waiting for that answer, but that answer will not arrive until mathematically it has happened. You will need to wait for months or more and hopefully you will need to wait until Abu Dhabi to have an answer.
"It's a long way to go. It's three races and Mercedes has been fantastic and have done a better job than anyone else. Nico and Lewis are driving fantastic with zero mistakes and we are having a difficult qualifying in some damp conditions in the first races but they are doing zero mistakes.
"They are fighting but it's clean and at the moment it's not possible for us to catch them in this first part of the championship, but as I said there is a long way to go. We saw Brawn GP dominate the first six or seven races [of 2009] and then they struggled a little bit.
"We have the resources, we have the potential and everything in our hands. It's up to us to do a good job and we believe we can do better than what we are doing now.
"This track is one of the worst and we are missing some of the characteristics that this track needs. In China I expect to be more competitive and in Barcelona and Monaco there are coming some circuits where we need to get some podiums hopefully."
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