• Ferrari news

No concerns about missing first test - Alonso

Fernando Alonso will not feature at the first test in Jerez © Press Association

Enlarge

Fernando Alonso is confident he has made the right decision to sit out of the first official test for the new Ferrari F138.

Alonso will not take part in next week's Jerez test, leaving Felipe Massa and test driver Pedro de Rosa to put the car through its paces. Alonso will continue his training regime in the meantime before completing five days in the cockpit over the remaining two weeks of testing in Barcelona, when the car will be closer to its race specification for the opening round in Australia.

"I will follow the test with great interest and of course I will be looking at all the information that comes back from Jerez," he said. "In these last few weeks and in the next few weeks I will certainly be concentrating on preparing for the championship.

"We were very busy in December and I was very much involved with the car in January up until a week ago, so I think it's right to step back and prepare a bit so that I'm 100% from Australia right through to Brazil. Also, we are very lucky in this team because we trust each other implicitly, and within the extended team. Pedro and Felipe are the same because we are just one person."

Alonso also thinks the start of the 2013 season will not be as manic as the start of 2012 when there were seven different winners in the first seven races. Instead, the Ferrari driver predicts a much more straightforward battle among the top teams.

"I think it will be very difficult to repeat what we saw last year with seven winners in the first seven races. That really was a one off with new rules and Formula One a bit different. Now with things more stable, as we saw at the end of the season, in fact, we will see the top teams emerge.

"The teams that have consistently won in the last few years came through and I think it will be highly unlikely that we will have seven race and seven winners. I think we will have two or three teams that will practically win all the races and the objective is to be one of those teams."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.