• Malaysian Grand Prix

Alonso expects no miracles from Ferrari

Fernando Alonso: "Here, with a normal race, we might finish further behind" © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Malaysian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso has warned that Ferrari "cannot expect any miracles" from its car during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The F2012 has proven unpredictable and difficult to drive during pre-season, but Alonso transcended the car with a highly impressive drive to fifth place in Australia last weekend. With the track characteristics in Malaysia likely to accentuate the weaknesses in the new car and no time to bring updates to it between races, Alonso said that the team would remain uncompetitive.

"I don't think the change of circuit will make much difference to us," Alonso said. "We have tested at Jerez, Barcelona and then we went to Australia and I think, for all teams, the cars here are pretty much identical to the first race, so there will not be any surprises here. We will try and adapt the car to the circuit.

"In pure performance, we are not as competitive as we would like, but in the race anything can happen: if you make a good start and have a good pit stop strategy you can put yourself in a decent place. We will try and do the same again and score as many points as possible even if we cannot expect any miracles here."

With rain forecast this weekend, however, Alonso didn't rule out improving on his Melbourne result by taking advantage of the conditions.

"In Australia no one thought we could finish fifth as there were many people quicker than us, but in the race, with events that happened to others that helped us to finish fifth. So here, with a normal race, we might finish further behind, but if it's a crazy race, maybe with rain, then maybe we can finish in front."

Alonso also insisted that he was happy in the team despite the lack of competitiveness so far.

"We need to work hard day and night to try and catch up people. But you all know that the experience for me at Ferrari has been fantastic; fighting for the world championship in my first year with the team and then last year having one win and ten podiums. The target is always to win the world championship, which we could not do for the last two years and for this year we are convinced we will be in the fight for it. We need to work more than the others as we are a little behind now. But this is a long championship and the team is very united and determined."

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