Fernando Alonso believes Red Bull Racing are still strongest – Formula 1 news
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso has said that Red Bull Racing have the fastest car in the field despite claiming an impressive victory in the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix held at Shanghai International Circuit.
Alonso performed convincingly well in the qualifying of the Chinese GP and managed to secure third grid slot for the race behind Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. He performed even better on the race day and scored his first victory of the season with a gap of over 10 seconds from his main rival, Raikkonen.
However, the Spaniard has said that they still don’t have the most competent car in the field as they were not the quickest contenders in the Australian and Malaysian grands prix.
“I don't think so. We still don't have the advantage on the car that people try to see after just one victory. In Australia we were clearly not the quickest, in Malaysia we were struggling a little bit, especially in qualifying which was the only dry running we saw and we were not so good,” Alonso said.
In addition, he said that Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull had the fastest car in the third race as compared to all the other competitors, but the German driver failed to secure a podium finish because of a strange race strategy.
Besides, he said that they need to keep on making the necessary step-ups in their car to improve its pace in order to compete well with their opponents in the season ahead.
“In China, looking at the race pace, I think Sebastian was the quickest all through the race if you look at stints, but they chose very strange strategy and maybe they compromised a little bit the race. I think we need to keep improving,” he added.
Additionally, he said that they are aiming to bring in some important updates in their car for Barcelona and Monaco and are hoping to see significant improvement in its performance. He also said that if they want to win this year’s championship, they will have to perform consistently well throughout the season.
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