Alonso not worried about bad season with Ferrari

Fernando Alonso has reacted cautiously to those predicting a stellar season for him in 2011.

Bernie Ecclestone and Mark Webber are reported to have tipped the Spaniard for title contention with the new F150 Ferrari, which was three tenths faster than reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel’s new Red Bull at the Valencia test on Wednesday.

"I have nothing to say about it," Alonso told Spanish reporters when asked about the championship predictions.

"Expectations are naturally high but it’s the same for all the drivers with the big teams," he said.

"What gives you some peace of mind is that you know that a bad year at Ferrari or McLaren will have you fifth, while at some other teams you might not be in Q3," added Alonso.

"So that’s not something we have to worry about.

"I like the car but it’s too early to know if it’s good enough to win," he said.

Alonso also tempered his earlier criticism of the Pirelli tyres, whilst many drivers are speaking about high degradation, inconsistency and handling problems.

"It is true that they degrade but it was worse on the first day," said Alonso.

"We have made some setup changes that have helped us, while others have improved maybe less.

"The truth is that adapting the car to the tyres is one of the main challenges."

He also dismissed reports that Renault’s new exhausts which exit near the sidepods is set to be the must-have innovation of 2011.

"There are new things with each team; Renault have that and the others have something else," Alonso answered coyly.

Source: Nextgen

Driving with Kimi – Kaj Lindström; Bad result but a lot of good

11th place was not what we went to Bulgaria for. But there were a lot of positives in this weekend's rally: the speed is there, it's just a shame that a small mistake, which had big consequences on the rally's opening day Friday, ruined the good result. Kimi just braked a little bit too late into one tightening right corner. He did try everything in that situation. When he realised that the car was not turning he tried to turn it with the handbrake but nothing could be done.

The race ended there from the 4th position. We were able to continue on the next two days thanks to the Super Rally rule and a 10 min time penalty but the chances for a good result were gone.

For us the main thing this season is not the result but the learning process. In Bulgaria we learned again a lot about the notes and our pace was good throughout the weekend. After six WRC rallies we were already able to drive pretty close to the top. When with our amount of experience we were only 2 s behind on a 30 km special stage with our amount of experience, that was not very much, not much at all. And we were after all the fastest Finnish pair of the race on several special stages.

Bad result but a lot of good. I have to be very pleased.

It was a good thing that the mechanics managed to get the car into shape and we could continue the rally since especially on Sunday we found new set-ups that suited Kimi really well. It was clearly noticeable that the driving got even better. After the last two special stages we agreed that this alone was worth continuing since we really did find such new things for the set-up that will surely help us on the dirty asphalt roads of Germany.

Before that we drive in Finland. It is a bit weird that during the next month I won't have to drive to the airport once. And our team mate changes for Rally Finland. Sebastian Ogier will rise to the main team and Dani Sordo, who's a familiar team mate for us from Arctic Lapland Rally and a nice dude, will drive alongside us. For Rally Finland we will drive som tests and we go there in good spirits. Some of the stages we know from last year. It's always nice to drive in Finland.

Have a nice rest of the summer everyone and we'll see each other on the last weekend of July in Jyväskylä!

Source: Kolmeks.fi
Courtesy: Dracaena