Alonso: “Despite the disappointment in Sepang, we haven't lost our enthusiasm”

Fernando Alonso is convinced he can start the European season in a stronger championship situation than last season, despite the blow of his early retirement in Malaysia.

Alonso believes Ferrari has the potential to aim for podiums in Shanghai and Sakhir this year, so he can be optimistic of arriving at his home race in Barcelona with more than the 43 points he had at this stage in 2012.

“If we have a weekend with normal conditions, we can hope to have a good qualifying and collect good points,” said Alonso.

“The goal is to achieve more than last year. In China and Bahrain we were ninth and seventh last year, so this year it's relatively easy to improve on that, and if we get to Europe with three podiums, it will be good for our morale.”

The Red Bull one-two in Malaysia did not dampen Ferrari's enthusiasm, and Alonso himself is far from being discouraged by the level of performance of the reigning champion team.

“I don't think Red Bull impressed too much,” said Alonso.

“In Australia they dominated all the sessions but not in the race, in Malaysia we knew they would have problems with degradation and in fact Mercedes was fighting with them until the end.”

“So I think we could have been on the podium.”

“The first two races were very uncertain and we don't really know the positions of the cars yet. We haven't seen the potential of anyone qualifying yet and we really don't know where we are.”