Fernando Alonso says he isn’t giving up on the 2011 season, and he knows neither will Ferrari despite a poor start to the year.
The Spaniard has failed to make it onto the podium after three races, his best finish was fourth at the season opener in Melbourne.
“It was definitely not the start of the season we were hoping for, for us and all our fans,” he wrote in his blog. “We know our performance is not good enough at the moment.”
The two-time champion isn’t getting himself downbeat as he knows how quickly things can change in the crazy world of Formula One.
“We are aware that this can change very quickly. F1 has always been like this: in one race you struggle to get into the top five and in the next, you’re fighting for the win.
“This year has been no exception to that rule: after the final test in Barcelona, everyone reckoned the McLaren’s were nowhere and then they always got on the podium, ending up with a win in China.
“At the same time, others were saying Vettel was unbeatable and then in Shanghai, we all saw how things turned out in the end,” he added.
Alonso is confident in the Maranello based outfit’s ability to turn things round quickly, citing two examples of when he has seen the team go from bad to good.
“I [have] trust in the team: I know what it’s made of and I can feel the will to fight back from everyone at Maranello.
“In the past I have experienced, first as an opponent and then as an insider how capable the Scuderia is of staging a comeback. I remember when I was at Renault in 2006, that in the first part of the season I had built up a big lead but then Ferrari made such a good job of developing its cars that Schumacher staged a great fight back, overtaking me with two races remaining.
“Then you only have to look at last year: first in Turkey and then in England, it was suggested we should already be looking to the following year, but we did not give up and we managed to be in the fight for the title right up to the final race. It sounds like a slogan, but it’s the absolute truth: never give up in F1!
“But this does not mean to say I am underestimating the seriousness of our situation, far from it. We have to work very hard to improve on every front,” he concluded.
Discussion about this post