Alonso keyed up for home race

The 21-year-old Spaniard is aware that a driver will always be under pressure from the his home crowd in his home Grand Prix. However, he also acknowledges that his pair of third place finishes will add to that, although in a positive way as it turns them from their traditional support of motorcycle racing to four-wheeled action.

"It means a lot to me to know that people around the circuit are concentrating on me," explains Fernando. "I am a professional and my motivation is high for every race, but I think that every driver tries to do a little bit more for their home race and it's no different for me. A good result here this weekend would be very special indeed."

Although Fernando has tested a great deal at the Circuit de Catalunya, racing there remains something that he has rarely done. "To be honest," he said, "I haven't done that many races at Barcelona, but we always used it for lots of testing and in the junior categories in Spain. I won a race there in Formula Nissan in 1999 and had a good race with Minardi in 2001."

As to his chances in this weekend's Spanish GP, Fernando is open: "I don't think that we can be completely sure about how competitive we will be: the first few races were quite surprising in terms of performance, since we performed well at some tracks where we didn't expect to and had problems at others. I think we can expect a good weekend though, because the most important thing at Barcelona is always aero performance and we have already seen that we're quite strong in that area."