Alonso taking nothing for granted

The Renault driver has seen Michael Schumacher cut into his points advantage in the last two races. Those results point towards the momentum in the title battle shifting towards Ferrari.

But with Alonso unsure about his chances of staging a fightback in Germany this weekend, he claims that pre-event confidence counts for nothing.

And he cites the example of Schumacher's bullishness after wins at Imola and Nurburgring - prior to a four-race victory streak for Alonso.

"Ferrari were confident after Imola and the Nurburgring, and then I won four consecutive races," said Alonso at Hockenheim on Thursday. "Confidence in F1 is not really very important.

"The important thing is how the package works every weekend. It is so different every race. In Canada we won, and yet a week later with the same car and engine we were a second down compared to Ferrari. This is what is going to happen for the rest of the season.

"We have to approach every Grand Prix not sure what is going to happen. We have to make the right tyre selections and not make any mistakes, and when we have a good Grand Prix we have to win it. If we have a bad GP we have to finish second or third. We cannot have any mechanical problems or mistakes from me.

"I will push to the maximum, be aggressive and on the limit always. But sometimes it is true that you cannot win, like at Magny-Cours, and you have to go for the second place and do the maximum."

Alonso believes that fighting Schumacher this year is an easier task than going up against Kimi Raikkonen last year - primarily because McLaren had an obvious car advantage.

But he is predicting a close end to the year, especially with the form having swung between Renault and Ferrari so regularly this year.

"At the moment I think last year was more tough than this year, but the final result of this year may be tighter than last year. For the last seven races of last year I had the McLaren, which was around half a second quicker than us at every Grand Prix and it was impossible to beat them.

"Only when they had mechanical problems we won the races. If not, we finished second. This year, with Ferrari, some races we win, some races they win because of the tyres, so it is much more equal. But they don't have mechanical problems, so they don't give points away."

Alonso has also made it clear that he is not expecting any more from teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, despite the growing influence of Schumacher's partner Felipe Massa in race results.

"It's the same as last year, when we had Giancarlo and (Juan Pablo) Montoya, thinking they would be very important for the championship," he said. "But, at the end of the day, Kimi and me were winning all the races and we didn't need anybody. If Michael wins all the races he has a chance to be champion, if I win the races I will be champion."

When asked whether he believed Ferrari had an advantage with Massa working so much to help Schumacher, Alonso said: "It can be an advantage sometimes and a disadvantage some other times for the Constructors' Championship.

"For the drivers' championship sometimes Michael has an advantage over his teammate that I don't have, but that is Renault's tactics.

"I just do my race. Sometimes I am in front of my teammate, sometimes I'm behind."