Q & A with Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso: I don't really care too much because unfortunately it is not our decision, it's FIA decision or the Appeal Court's. From a driver's point of view, we do not understand, we are not technical people so we are not very sure about what the rules says but it is true that there are some cars that are much quicker than us, Brawn, Toyota and Williams.

And it will take time to recover and close that gap and be as quick as them, because I don't think it is a diffuser thing or a magic part in the car that you put on and you go straight away quick. You need to re-design the car a little bit, starting from the front wing.

The air has to go to the rear-end of the car in a different way. So there is still some months I think to work, to spend money, to develop the car to be as quick as them. It is not only the diffuser, it is just a different philosophy of designing the car.

Q. If it is going to take some months, is the championship over and already won by Brawn GP?

FA: I will see. Personally I hope not because the championship will hopefully be still interesting until the last moment, but it is true that in the next coming races Brawn can score many points and maybe then it is too late for us to recover. But this is the way it is at the moment, and we are a strong team, a very powerful team and I think we can do a good job and improve the car quickly because we have the potential.

It is true that the Brawn is quick now, but the teams that now will redesign their cars, will be the best teams in Formula 1 - Ferrari, Renault, McLaren, BMW - so I think we can do a good job. We are a strong team.

Q. Do you expect a step forward this weekend, a little step with the new parts that you've got?

FA: I think there will be a step forward every weekend, starting from here and slowly we will become stronger and stronger because there is a new area that we will discover and we will make some gains constantly. Some of the teams did this job for four or five months, but for us it is only now the starting point and I'm sure we will discover many new things in the next two or three months. I'm sure we will have some improvements at every grand prix.

Q. GPDA has communicated with the organisers about timings after the incident in Sepang, what was the outcome?

FA: The GPDA try to improve safety in races and in grands prix and we know that in Australia and Sepang these late starts means in terms of safety there were some concerns about the visibility in Australia, and also the visibility in the rain in Sepang. So we will see next year if we can improve that.

Q. How worried are you about the super-softs this weekend?

FA: I am very worried. I think it is the worst decision they made in a long time, because it is a ridiculous tyre for here, for Shanghai. I don't know if Bridgestone made the decision or the FIA, but they have to reconsider this type of decision because we look ridiculous on TV and we look ridiculous for the spectators and it is a joke to be in front of TV six seconds slower.

We need will to change the tyres after five or six laps is our calculations because this track is harder than Melbourne and in Melbourne we only did eight or nine laps. And if they want to be funny and mix the results and having these overtakings they can do a better job. A funny solution, maybe they can put us on the wet tyres or something, like this it looks more spectacular - the difference in the speed. I don't know...

I'm very worried about this and I'm very sad about this, because we look strange in front of people.

Q. Were the drivers consulted about the use of which tyre?

FA: No we expressed our concerns after Australia, after the accident of Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel - it was due to the difference of the speed. He tried to overtake, Vettel was not in control of the car with that tyre, you cannot brake, you cannot turn-in, you cannot do anything. And then Robert had a big crash after that because he damaged the car. And then we expressed our concerns and now in the third race we have the same tyre at a worse circuit. This is something that we need to change immediately.

Q. What is worse the combination of the super-soft on this type of circuit or the lower temperatures?

FA: Okay I think the super-soft on this type of circuit with long, high-speed corners. Super-soft in Turn 1 will be destroyed and in Turn 10 there will be no more left tyre.

Q. What about the harder tyre in low temperatures, might that cause problems as well?

FA: Yes as well. One will be too hard and one will be too soft. The right tyre is at home! This soft tyre is at home and this happened in Australia as well. And the understanding that this is for a better show, for overtaking. As I said, for better show, maybe we can pick up our number and then whoever picks up number 15 can put on wet tyres, or whatever, and it is a better show and its funny. Like this is not funny.

Q. Can you please describe the new parts you are going to put on the car?

FA: I don't know really because I didn't have that meeting yet. I know that some parts are arriving late as well at the last moment. I think we will introduce small details as we did in Australia and Malaysia to the aerodynamics.

Mechanically as well I know there is some improvements to the rear suspension as well to improve our rear grip - which was our main problem in the first two grands prix. We will introduce new parts in every race and hopefully we can close the gap because now we are suffering to be in Q3 and this is not ideal. We need to be closer to the front-runners.

Q. Will you be using KERS in the forthcoming races?

FA: It is something that we need to discuss as well. The plan is yes, we will keep KERS for the next coming races. But we are very open-minded. We need to really understand, we need to keep studying the results and if one day we need to test it, or if one day we need to remove it, we are ready to do it, so we are still open to it.