Alonso fires warning to McLaren
World championship leader Fernando Alonso has warned McLaren to expect a Renault backlash this weekend at the Nurburgring.
Alonso has been eclipsed by McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen in the last two races to see his advantage in the title race whittled down to 22 points.
But the Spaniard remains completely confident in his car and believes Renault will once again be a match for McLaren in this weekend’s European Grand Prix.
He said: “In Monaco we introduced a new aerodynamic package. Obviously at Monaco it’s difficult to feel the benefit so we hope to really feel the difference here at the Nurburgring.
“We should be a couple of tenths faster compared to Barcelona so we are confident at this circuit we will feel the improvements and be as quick as McLaren.”
Alonso’s race at Monaco was ruined by a tyre problem which saw his rear Michelin wear out rapidly, even though Renault were running harder rubber than rivals McLaren.
But the 23-year-old claims that problem was a one-off and will not be repeated in Germany on Sunday.
“It’s true that between the two tyres we had in Monaco we chose the hard because our wear was too much and McLaren chose the soft and did the race with no problems,” he added.
“It’s obviously something with our car and our set-up in Monaco which didn’t work but I don’t think that our car is a problem because Malaysia and Bahrain were very demanding circuits for the rear tyres with hot temperatures and we won with no problems.
“I think the car is good enough to manage the rear tyres. It’s a very specific set-up in Monaco that we did wrong. For here, for Nurburgring, a normal track and normal set-up, I don’t have much to worry about the performance of our car.”
Tomorrow will see the debut of Formula One’s latest qualifying system, which rids the sport of the unpopular Sunday morning session.
Alonso welcomes the change but believes it offers a glimmer of hope for Ferrari, who suffered more than anyone with the old system.
Ferrari’s Bridgestone tyres struggle for grip over one-lap but come into their own on race day, a trait which was exacerbated by the aggregate qualifying used for the first six races.
Alonso said: “It can help some teams like maybe Ferrari because in Monaco they were struggling in qualifying and with two laps they have even more problems. With one they can do a good lap and be in the top six, top five.”
