Fernando Alonso optimistic he has a better chance of title success this year than in 2012

Fernando Alonso remains confident his 30-point deficit to reigning champion Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers' World Championship is surmountable.

By common consent, the F138 is light years ahead of the ill-handling F2012 which Alonso effectively out-muscled to take last year's championship battle to the wire. If the new car has a weakness, it looks to be in qualifying with Alonso yet to line up on the front row this season. History would suggest that any such shortcoming will be particularly burdensome at Circuit de Catalunya, a venue which has seen 14 of the last 16 pole-sitters progress to victory. But Alonso is confident that F1's new vagaries have severely diluted the importance of Saturday's shoot-outs - at least this weekend. "Race pace and tyres are a key factor and more than previously," he reflected. "Obviously, it's good to start on the front and if you start on the front row you can almost touch the podium with your hand. But the first really important qualifying will arrive in two weeks at Monaco. Here it is still more or less a normal circuit and you need to find a compromise."