Alonso wary of Ferrari threat in Australia

The Spaniard and teammate Giancarlo Fisichella have won the opening two races of the year to establish Renault as the early pacesetters, but Alonso is expecting a tougher challenge from their rivals in Melbourne. In particular, he thinks Ferrari could be their biggest threat.

"With Renault having won the first races, we should be again competitive and we want to win again, but Melbourne is a different track to Bahrain and Malaysia," he told a media conference in Melbourne.

"So I expect there will be much more competition from Honda and Ferrari, and McLaren at this particular track.

"In fact, especially Ferrari I think. I think Michael [Schumacher] will be very competitive."

Alonso's fears about Ferrari were backed up earlier in the week by Felipe Massa, who said on Wednesday that he was confident the Maranello team could be set for their most competitive race of the season.

And despite recent comments from Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who said that he would be happy to see Malaysian winner Giancarlo Fisichella take the title, Alonso is sure he will have as equal a chance as his teammate to take the crown.

"Nothing has changed," said Alonso when asked about the impact of his decision to join McLaren in 2007. "There's no question about that.

"The two drivers have the same opportunity and the same machinery. There is no favouritism in the team.

"That's what we had last year and Renault have always been a team who put their two drivers in the same conditions. So even though I am leaving the team, I saw in the first two races that nothing has changed from last year.

"They know that we need to win the championship so they need to try to help both drivers."