Q & A with Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso: I think we are more or less in the same position as we have been in the last two grands prix, which is behind the top teams. We are just fighting with different opponents. In Turkey it was Red Bull and here it seems that Williams is performing a little better than expected so I think our fight will be against them.

Q. It is very easy to hit the wall here isn't it?

FA: Yes there is no room for mistakes. We proved it today once more. I braked late into Turn One and I lost the rear of the car, it was impossible to recover, and a little touch against the wall is enough to break the car.

Q. Is the Renault difficult to drive here?

FA: Yes it is difficult to drive. Nelson [Piquet] was P18 in the first practice and P15 in the second, I was struggling as well. We had more difficulties than some of the other guys, but I think we have room to improve, and we have some ideas to change the car on Saturday and prepare for qualifying. This is very important here, the race is not so important, qualifying is the main goal for this weekend.

Q. What is the secret to a good lap around here?

FA: Luck! All the drivers push 100 percent, sometimes you get close to the wall and you gain one tenth or something, sometimes you try to repeat that lap and you are not so close anymore and you lose that tenth. It's a big luck factor, there is no doubt.

Q. Is confidence more important here than any other circuit?

FA: Yes but the confidence comes if you have a balanced car and a quick one. So it is the same as the other circuits, if you have a good car you go quick, and here if you have a good car you get the confidence and you go quick.

Q. The harder tyre seems to be the better race tyre this weekend, what did you learn about the soft?

FA: Not much because, the first run I crashed and on the second set of tyres I only did two laps and I didn't improve my time, so I don't have good feelings with that tyre. So for us I think the hard tyre will be the race tyre and the soft tyre, regarding the other team's information we will choose that one for qualifying, but not because of our own information because we missed the test.

Q. You used a really aggressive strategy in Barcelona, this seems another obvious place to try that.

FA: I don't know what strategy we will choose for Saturday, but I think here the fuel effect is too little to gain much. In some circuits 10 kilos (less) can put you right in the fight, or at least on the front two rows of the grid. Here you gain a tenth, maybe 0.15s, so you need to remove 20 or 30 kilos and then you will go 20 laps less than the others and this is not good.

There is not much play with the strategy here in Monaco, even if it seems as if you should always go light to qualify in front, or fuel heavy and have confidence for the race. At the end of the day we always choose a two-stop strategy and the teams always seem to stop more-or-less on the same laps so there is nothing special.

Q. Is this the position (seventh) you expected to be in here?

FA: I think we are in the position we deserved. And in a position that needed changing in the last three races. But for sure when you arrive in Monaco you think maybe things are different because it is a special track, and you hope that the car will perform differently on a completely different track. But that was only a hope, today is more real.

Q. How different is it to drive at Monaco with no traction control and engine braking?

FA: Not much. I was expecting more difference. I was expecting to use higher gears in the corners to avoid wheelspin and things like that, but no we are using first gear in the slow corners with not too much wheelspin.

Q. Was it harder work out there?

FA: Not much. I think the first couple of laps it was harder and you need to pay more attention but after that you are used to it. Then you drive normally and it seems that all these years it was always like this. You don't feel any different.

Q. Are there any specific problems with the car around here?

FA: We are lacking grip no doubt. But no specific problem. We suffered traction problems in the opening races, but here I don't think that is too bad. Okay we have traction problems, but other people have those as well. It's just the overall grip that we are not at the necessary level.

Q. With less time to qualify in Q3 than last year, are you concerned about traffic?

FA: We will see. Qualifying in Q1, especially with all the cars is difficult. But this year we have two cars less, so maybe we will have a little bit more room there. But we know it is difficult, and we spoke about this in the drivers' briefing as well. We tried to help each other, with the drivers checking their mirrors on the slow laps and things like that. And also the team managers are to tell the drivers when the quick cars are coming, so they know when to let them pass. And I think between all this we won't have any incidents on Saturday.

Q. And Q3?

FA: I think it will be standard. Two sets of tyres with not much things to do. Maybe three runs, but I don't know if this is possible.