07/07/2011
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso has admitted that the only way rival drivers can hope to close the gap to Sebastian Vettel is by the German making mistakes.
It was at Silverstone a year ago that the Spaniard stunned the world, declaring that he would win the title despite Re Bull's obvious dominance. Sure enough, he went into the final race as red hot favourite until poor pit stop strategy and Vitaly Petrov thwarted his plans.
A year on and Alonso admits that the only way he and his rivals can close the 77 point gap to the German is if he screws up.
"We need to wait and see if either Ferrari or McLaren has made a big improvement which would allow us to fight with Red Bull this weekend," he told reporters at Silverstone this afternoon. "At the moment, their car has been too dominant and, if it had not been for his mistakes in Canada and China, we would be talking about eight Sebastian wins in eight races.
"We have not seen this sort of dominance since maybe Michael's time in 2004," he continued. "Hopefully, here in Silverstone we can see a turn around in this situation. There is always hope and there is the motivation to win every race, but we need to make a step forward in terms of performance. All we can do is concentrate on our own job, do the best we can, try and win every race, but in terms of the championship, we need some help from those ahead of us in terms of them making mistakes."
With the FIA introducing its ban on blown diffusers this weekend, Alonso, like the rest of us, is keen to see who is worst hit. "We have done our simulation programmes to look at the effect and clearly it will cost us some downforce under braking," he admitted, "which means it will also cost us in terms of lap times. We probably won't have a real picture until Saturday and Sunday, as I do not expect the situation to be so clear in Friday practice."
In terms of the circuit itself, which has undergone massive redevelopment in the last couple of years and this year sees a brand new pit and paddock complex, the Spaniard, like his rivals, admits to having a soft spot for the high speed tracks.
"Normally, the whole circuit is quite fun to drive, with high speed corners everywhere and I think all drivers enjoy driving here. The only thing that is not fun is possibly when it rains, because even if it is beautiful in the dry and it's nice to experience all the G-force, in the rain, you miss the grip and speed into the corners and, because it rains often here, you are always hunting for that nice dry lap!
"The first corner is quite flat," he said of the revised layout, "and I don't think we will see much overtaking into Turn 1 after the start. There will be more at the third corner, the first one with big braking. I am sure there will be more action which I am happy about as I think the new position for the start-finish line will make for more exciting racing."