Fernando Alonso has warned that Ferrari won't be able to deliver a miracle cure to fix the F2012's flaws and that their slump in form could worsen in Malaysia.
Spaniard brutally honest about team's prospects
Fernando Alonso has warned that Ferrari won't be able to deliver a 'miracle' cure to fix the F2012's flaws and that their form could deteriorate further in Malaysia this weekend.
In a terse and rather downbeat press conference at Sepang on Thursday, Alonso struck a defiant but realistic tone as he cautioned against a repeat of his salvage-act performance in Australia when the Spaniard rescued fifth place in a car that didn't even make the third stage of qualifying.
Asked whether the characteristics of the high-speed Sepang circuit might signal a change in Ferrari's level of competiveness, Alonso's answer was bleak and brutally honest:
"Hopefully yes but I don't think so, to be honest. We have been testing at different circuits: Jerez, Barcelona and then in Australia with more or less the same car with the same problems on it. We don't expect any big miracles from Australia to Malaysia because the cars are identical.
"In Australia, no one thought that we could finish fifth. There were a lot of people quicker than us. In the race, there were some incidents that helped us finish fifth. Here, with a normal race, maybe we will finish further behind, maybe with a more crazy race or rain or something, we can finish in front, so we have to play before we see what we can do."
In fact, the chassis driven by Felipe Massa will be different to the car he drove to lacklustre effect in Malaysia, but his-mate Alonso has effectively ruled out the possibility that Ferrari will produce a 'F2012 mark two' to arrest their apparent slide into the midfield pack.
"I think at every race we will try to make improvements as we did over the last few years. New parts will slowly come at every race and hopefully they work, but there's not one magic race or one magic moment when we think things can change. I think we will work day and night and as I said before; the team is very focused on that and I see great reaction from everybody, so I expect a strong Ferrari soon.
"We need to stay focused and work more than the others knowing that we are a little bit behind now. But the championship is long. We stay calm, we stay focused, because we see a lot of determination in the team. We see the team with a very good atmosphere, (we) trust each other in the team, we are very united, so the time will come to us very soon.
"We just need to wait and see but I have 100 per cent trust in the team."
