Fernando Alonso has all but given up on securing a third drivers’ title this season, after admitting Sebastian Vettel’s lead in the championship is too large.
The Spaniard finished the Monaco Grand Prix in second, just +1.1s behind the German and could have fought for victory had it not been for a late red flag.
Alonso believes Vettel has ‘nearly won’ having taken five victories from six races so far, with no sign of any let up in performance.
“I think we saw in the last couple of years that if you win five or six grand prix you’ve nearly won the Championship, on average, so if you win five of the first six, you are in a very good position.
“I think at the moment it’s not possible, because to close the gap with plenty of races to go, but if you are one second behind in every qualifying and you have to do some strange strategies, so some starts or something always out of the normal race, it’s difficult, so at the moment, we will try to improve the car, race by race, in order to take the maximum every weekend,” said the Ferrari drive.
He added that he must concentrate on securing podium finishes in the hope that Vettel encounters problems.
“We need to win three races and he mustn’t score. I think that’s more or less the calculation which I can do now.
“Victory for us is maybe too optimistic, so we need to be realistic and start fighting for podiums in Canada and Valencia and then we will see how the Championship develops, because, as you said, the distance now is too much.”
