We need to work on our starts - Alonso
The ING Renault F1 Team looks forward to round nine of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship season, the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. After a disappointing race at Silverstone, Fernando Alonso is ready to hit back in Germany.
"We thought that Silverstone would suit the car, but after qualifying we realised that we were not as competitive as we had hoped. In the race I made a poor start and got stuck behind Heidfeld who was heavy on fuel, which ended my chance of finishing in the points. I still had some fun battles, especially with Lewis [Hamilton], but I prefer to be fighting at the front."
Are you optimistic that the team can make up the performance gap to the leaders soon?"The position we are in at the moment is similar to last year, but this time all the teams are much closer together and so it’s more difficult to take a big step forward. If you can find three of four tenths with an upgrade, it can make a huge difference and put you five or six places higher up the grid. That’s what the team is looking for – that magic component which gives us a big boost, but we know it’s not easy to find."
It has been a couple of years since you’ve raced at the Nürburgring, are you looking forward to going back there?"It’s not the most exciting circuit of the year, but it’s a good place to go racing as the track has a bit of everything and so the car has to work well in every part of the lap. There are fast corners where you need a lot of downforce and slow corners where braking stability and good traction are important. We have some new developments for this race, which will hopefully improve our situation and allow us to get some points in the race, but we know all the other teams will have improved as well. We also need to work on our starts because if you lose ground on the first lap it’s very difficult to recover."
