AUGUST 30, 2012

Alonso says Ferrari needs more pace

Despite a healthy 40-point lead over Red Bull's Mark Webber in the world championship, Fernando Alonso says he does not see himself as out-and-out title favourite and that Ferrari needs to find more speed.

Despite a healthy 40-point lead over Red Bull's Mark Webber in the world championship, Fernando Alonso says he does not see himself as out-and-out title favourite and that Ferrari needs to find more speed.

Alonso conceded that it was good to look at the points table during F1's five-week summer break, but added: "Two or three bad races can reduce everything. Of the guys at the front we are clearly slowest. We have a points advantage but a performance disadvantage."

Chasing his third championship, Alonso said that strength and preparation will be key during a hectic title run-in during which the Singapore GP is the only stand-alone none back-to-back race.

"It's hard to know the true situation because performance is changing race to race," he said. "But at the last race in Hungary we were 0.8s from the pole, which is a bit too much. Spa and Monza are strange races, you could say, because you run with low downforce, but by Singapore/Japan we must close that eight tenths."