• Spanish Grand Prix

Car not significantly different - Alonso

Fernando Alonso is downplaying expectations this weekend © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso says that the Ferrari F2012 is not significantly different following the Mugello test with the team having focused on different setups.

Ferrari had highlighted the in-season test at Mugello as crucial to its season having started the year with a car that is off the pace. A new exhaust layout was visible on the F2012 during the test, but when asked if the car felt much different Alonso insisted that it didn't because the three days were used to focus on setup.

"No, not really," he said. "I think we didn't have any big improvements in the car so what we tested were different setups and different things that we missed from winter testing. That has been quite difficult for us with many problems in the car and not many laps, so the Mugello test was more to complete what we had left from winter. But in terms of improvements we had minimal changes in the car so the car felt the same."

Alonso also said that he was unsure if the work would help the team more competitive but said preparations for this weekend's race had been helped by the extra data.

"We'll see. Obviously we had some ideas in terms of setup and some different possibilities that we were not introducing in the first four races because we didn't have the opportunity to test them. So it was good in Mugello; some of them they were positive, some of them they were negative so it's good to know. The more information you have it's better for the preparation for the next grand prix. Obviously we arrive more prepared now than when we arrived in Australia with only three tests in the winter, but to make the car faster I think in terms of setup you cannot find much, if you want to be running at the front. It's more aerodynamic parts and updates in the car, hopefully they'll come but we need to wait."

The comments seemed to point to Alonso attempting to downplay expectations, but he did admit there would be new parts coming on to the car this weekend.

"We don't know what car we have because obviously we have new parts but everybody has new parts. But because it's Ferrari there's quite a lot of expectation everywhere we go, and it seems like only Ferrari is bringing new parts. We have a step forward we believe on what we had in Bahrain, but we also know that it's not the last step that we have to do. It's a continuous work that we need to start here in Barcelona - doing a step forward and trying to improve our qualifying position and our race pace - but in Monaco we have new parts, in Canada bring new parts, so we will not bring a new car at every race as it seems that we brought here in Barcelona."

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