Alonso expecting no big leap from Renault

The two-time champion enjoyed a promising start to the season in Australia, benefiting from all the retirements to finish in fourth place.

In Malaysia, however, Alonso had to settle for eighth position after struggling for pace.

The Spaniard reckons the result was expected after Felipe Massa was the only retirement from a top team.

"It was more or less as we expected," the Spaniard was quoted as saying by AS newspaper.

"We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult and if it hadn't been for Massa's retirement we wouldn't have made it, that's the reality and that's what the situation is like, it was no surprise.

"In a normal race, with no retirements, we were ninth in qualifying and eighth in the race. Everything was as expected."

The Spaniard reckons it is a situation the team will have to get used to this year, as he is not expecting a big leap in performance.

"Of course," he replied when asked if he will have to get used to the lack of pace. "In Barcelona we will have some improvements for the car, (but) the same ones all teams will have, so the championship is going to stay more or less the same.

"We saw it last year and we see it every year. The cars that win the first two or three races stay on top. We are not going to see big surprises during the year," he added.

Alonso also played down rumours linking him again to the Ferrari team, saying it was normal following Massa's difficult start to the season.

"It's early to talk about moves and rumours, but Massa has had two bad races with mistakes and that has kicked off speculations about Vettel or about me. It's logical, but as I said, it's too early."