• Turkish Grand Prix

Updates worth 'a couple of tenths' - Alonso

ESPNF1 Staff
May 5, 2011 « Hamilton not getting his hopes up | »
Fernando Alonso: "We can expect the other teams to have also made progress" © Sutton Images
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Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari's upgrades for the Turkish Grand Prix will be worth 0.2 seconds in lap time.

The closest Alonso has got to championship leader Sebastian Vettel in qualifying so far this season is 0.9 seconds in Malaysia, suggesting he still expects to be some way adrift come qualifying on Saturday. The Spaniard said there would be no quick fix for the team this season but is confident the new brake ducts and front and rear wings on the car this weekend would make a difference.

"We know that the new parts we have here will improve the car compared to China: it should be worth a couple of tenths per lap but it is not a revolutionary change," he said. "We will not change the car completely in just one race. Step by step we must close the gap and we are very happy with the work we did over these last three weeks, but we need to wait, probably until qualifying to see how much of the gap we have closed, given that we can expect the other teams to have also made progress.

"It will be a good motivation for everyone in the team if we can do well here. For my part, I did what I could in the break, working in the simulator, which is the most a driver can do really to help the team. I am sure we will recover very soon and hopefully here in Turkey, we can see the first signs of some positive results."

Alonso pointed out that the Ferrari had not been very quick at the start of last season but still went on to challenge for the title, although the comparison is slightly flawed as the two Ferrari drivers actually led the championship after three races last season due to a troubled start for Red Bull.

"Last season we lost points at the beginning and then we recovered in the last part and we got close to winning the championship at the final race," he said. "This year we are currently losing points and we are aware there is some distance to the leaders. But it is much earlier in the season than last year when we only started to recover at Silverstone around race eleven or so and now this is only race four so there is still plenty of time."

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