World champion Fernando Alonso is apparently resigned to finishing behind dominant Ferraris for the next few grands prix.
The McLaren-Mercedes driver, who finished second to Kimi Raikkonen in Melbourne just over a week ago, admitted to the magazine ‘Kicker’ that his MP4-22 is currently not a match for its red rival.
“Over the next three or four races I must finish in the points and aim for the podium,” Alonso, 25, said, “and then after that I must begin to win.”
Mercedes’ competition director Norbert Haug, meanwhile, insists that the gap between McLaren and Ferrari is not as irreversible as it may appear.
The German told the Spanish Sunday newspaper Marca that, for instance, he believed the two teams’ engines are on a par.
“I can assure you that (the performance gap) is not a question of engines,” Haug said, rejecting speculation that Ferrari is enjoying a horse power advantage that – with the new engine ‘freeze’ – would have given the Italian squad a long term advantage.
He insisted: “We are not lacking a single horse power in the fight against Ferrari.”
