I expect our car to be more suited to Sepang - Alonso
The ING Renault F1 Team reflects on the opening race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, and looks ahead to this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso expects that the R29 will be more suited to Sepang and thus hopes to repeat his strong points finish from Melbourne.
"Yes, considering how our weekend went in Australia, we have to be happy to have come away with some points. I lost a lot of positions at the start of the race as I had to avoid the first corner accident in front of me and from then on I was at the back of the field and fighting to recover the lost ground. As usual the first race of the year was quite eventful and in the closing stages we were able to take advantage of the incidents to move up into fifth position. Although it’s nice to have the points, we know we must work hard to improve the car, but we have the belief that we can do that."
Looking ahead to Sepang in Malaysia, what areas do you feel you need to concentrate on?"In Australia we struggled in qualifying and our race suffered as a result. So we need to make sure we qualify well so that we can have a strong race. We also need to make sure we get the most from our KERS system at the start of the race as there is a long run to the first corner where it should make a big difference. We must also concentrate on understanding the tyres because Melbourne showed that the two compounds play a major role in determining the performance of the car. This will be particularly important in Malaysia where the track temperatures will be very high so we need to see how the tyres perform in these conditions."
What are your expectations for the race this weekend?"Sepang is totally different to Melbourne and so I expect our car to be more suited to the circuit. It’s a special track for me as I’ve won there twice and it’s probably my favourite circuit so I always enjoy racing there. There are lots of fast, sweeping corners and it’s a circuit where you can really appreciate the performance of a Formula 1 car. In terms of our competitiveness, I hope we will be stronger there, but as we saw in Melbourne all the teams are very closely matched and we will have to fight hard to finish in the points."
