Fernando Alonso warns Ferrari fans he needs more speed

BARCELONA (AFP) –

Ferrari‘s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, Mercedes‘ British driver Lewis Hamilton, Lotus F1 Team’s Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s German driver Adrian Sutil in Montmelo near Barcelona on May 12, 2013. Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix in style on Sunday, the home favourite coming in well clear of his rivals.

Fernando Alonso warned on Sunday that despite his victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari are still behind rivals Red Bull and Lotus in terms of sheer pace and performance.

The 31-year-old Spaniard, who won his two world titles with Renault, said he felt that he was in his best position to take the title since joining Ferrari, but they still have a lot to do.

Alonso said: “Probably yes it is in terms of the performance of the car, although we should have won the championship in 2010 I believe, when we arrived in Abu Dhabi eight points ahead of Seb…

“But we lost there and it’s nothing we can change now. Last year we didn’t win – we were one second off, but we managed to fight until the Brazil race.

“This year we have a package that is still not the fastest but we are working on it.

“Definitely on Sundays it is a competitive team package. We are not the quickest over one lap, we maybe do not set the fastest time in the race, but we have fantastic pit-stops, starts, tyre degradation… many ingredients to have a competitive car to fight for the championship.

“In many years in Ferrari it is true that we are the one to feel most confident, but we are not happy with the performance, we want a good and aggressive development programme for the next races.”

Team-mate Felipe Massa who finished third said he still felt bad after being penalised on Saturday for blocking Mark Webber of Red Bull during qualifying.

Ferrari’s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso celebrates at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona on May 12, 2013 after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix.

“I’m disappointed because of what happened yesterday,” said Massa. “I didn’t cause any issues for him.

“So I tried to be aggressive, passing people and I tried to undercut people as well by stopping before them.”

Once up to third, Massa attempted to chase down Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus for second place, before wearing out his tyres and having to settle for third.

“Maybe there was the opportunity to fight with Kimi, but in the end it was a great race, we did a great job,” said Massa.

“My car was superb for this track and the degradation of the tyres was not like Lotus but we did the best we could do and we showed the performance we expected to have from Friday.”

He said he saw no reason why Ferrari cannot maintain its current form.

“I think it’s an incredible direction,” said Massa. “I hope from now on we are fighting for a podium for the all the races.

“We’re pushing hard to improve the car in qualifying but we know we have a good car in the race.”