Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari are in the hunt for both pole position and victory at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
World Championship leader confident of success in night race
Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari are in the hunt for both pole position and victory at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
Speaking in a press conference at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Thursday, the current World Championship leader based his assessment upon the performances he and the Scuderia gave on similar tracks earlier in the season.
"We've been competitive in Monaco, we've been competitive in Canada, which is the same kind of street circuit, so we will try to do our best here again. We know how important pole position is," said the Spaniard, who currently stands 37 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
"We need to wait and see how tomorrow's performance is but our aim is to fight for pole and fight for the win in this race.
With speculation about the identity of Alonso's 2013 team-mate reaching fever pitch, the double World Champion also gave his backing to Felipe Massa.
Alonso said that any replacement must be "better than Felipe". He did not name names, but reckoned the achievements of drivers the media has recently linked with the role do not match those of Massa.
"I think we need to respect the team's decision. In my opinion we need to have a driver that respects Ferrari, that respects the tradition of this team, that understands that here we work for the team, for the red car. This is the first priority," Alonso said.
"Second, I've been working with Felipe for three years now, it's a very good relationship and if the team decide to change Felipe, someone who arrives has to be better than Felipe.
"All the names that have been written, I don't know if they've been written with the head or with the heart.
"Because the names that you listed, I don't know if you compared what Felipe did in Formula 1 and what these names did in Formula 1."
