Fernando Alonso has called on his engineers to find clever interpretations of the technical regulations to ensure Ferrari’s 2013 car is on the performance limit.
Whilst Alonso fought until the final race of the season, taking three victories along the way, the F2012 was a relatively conservative design compared to its rivals.
The 31-year-old put his title fight down to a “perfect season” of driving, which he says might be “impossible to do again.”
Therefore he has called upon Ferrari to push the limits of what is possible like its rivals do.
“There were several incidents in which the other teams were at the limit, but not us,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport in relation to Red Bull’s legality.
The team were ordered to change a hole in the rear of their floor, their wheel hubs and engine mapping settings, as all were found to contravene the regulations.
Alonso says this will always happen within Fomula 1 and Ferrari should be more aggressive if it’s to beat its rivals.
“This has always happened and always will,” he added.
“However, we too have to think within the confines of the rules while looking for some limits, some holes, like the other teams do in order to improve our performances.”
He fully expects title winners Red Bull to be the favourites for 2013, but says Ferrari are more confident having discovered their cars weaknesses.
“Red Bull will again be favourites next year, ending this season with seven or eight tenths in hand over us and that will be hard for us to make up over the winter. The McLaren was also quicker than us and, at the end, even Force India and Lotus were ahead of us.
“Having said that, I remain confident, partly because we will be starting from a better base than this year. It would be hard to start as badly as in 2012: in Jerez at the first test, we were two seconds and a half off the pace, in Australia one and a half seconds… There’s a lot of work to do but our objective is clear: to have two Ferraris ahead of the field, both on Saturday and Sunday.”
