Q & A with Fernando Alonso

AUTOSPORT heard Alonso's thoughts on the current balance of power as the Spaniard prepared for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

Q. Will Sunday be the last race of Red Bull domination before everyone introduces upgrades for Barcelona?

Fernando Alonso: We'll see. Hopefully Malaysia was the last race of Red Bull domination... We'll see what everybody can do here.

Anyway, I don't think the whole picture will change in Barcelona. I'm expecting some evolutions from all the teams in Europe. But normally you keep more or less the same positions. Some teams improve three tenths, some teams improve four tenths, but it remains the same grid positions, more or less. I expect Red Bull to be very strong all season, not just at the start of the championship.

Q. That could be bad for Ferrari...

FA: Well at the moment we are ahead of them [in the points] so the domination is not so clear.

Q. How difficult was it to drive the car in Malaysia with the technical problems you had?

FA: It was difficult, no doubt. I said already with a gearbox problem I had to drive in a different way, and it was something not natural - when you brake to go on the throttle to engage the gears. I was taking some time in the first couple of laps to understand what was the best solution to do the corners, but then as soon as you arrive in a fight with some other cars, it remains impossible to overtake or do anything because you cannot brake late enough to overtake anyone. So I was just trying to arrive at the chequered flag, but unfortunately we didn't make it.

Q. Do you worry that retirement could be crucial in the championship fight?

FA: I think it's very important to finish all the races, but obviously when you have to have a DNF, it's better to retire when you're ninth as I was, because I only lost two points. When you are in the first three positions, you lose a lot more points. Okay it was a shame to retire, but I think sooner or later all the drivers will have a problem, because this is life. So hopefully I lost only two points.

Q. After an engine change in Bahrain and the failure in Malaysia, are you worried about Ferrari's engine situation?

FA: At the moment we are not too worried. Obviously we don't want to lose any engines or have any problems with the gearbox or anything like that. We've been very strong all winter so we cannot be happy with the problems we've had in the first races.

But in terms of engines, the plan hasn't changed too much. The only difference now with the engine problems we had is that we will use more kilometres with the engines on Fridays, so later in the season some Friday engines will be a little bit older. But in terms of race engines on Saturday and Sunday, we will stay with the original plan.

Q. From what you've seen of the development plans, are you confident Ferrari can take the big steps it needs to stay up front?

FA: Yes. I have no doubts that Ferrari will improve a lot during the season and we have the potential to improve the car very quickly - as we saw in the last 10 years in the championship. So on that aspect I'm not worried.

We know McLaren also has the same potential - or even more, as we saw how McLaren improved during the season last year. We are optimistic that we will improve the car consistently every race and have a very strong championship, but we also know that our competitors are very strong.

Q. Is the FIA's clarification on ride height systems good for Ferrari?

FA: I think it can be good for us. I don't see any disadvantage for our team with that clarification in the rule. For the other teams, I'm not sure of their situation. In terms of us, everything remains the same as Malaysia, so maybe it's a good thing.

Q. How big an advantage is McLaren's F-duct at Shanghai?

FA: It will be an advantage, no doubt. It is one of the longest straights in the championship and we know how efficient the McLaren is on the straights and what their top speed in the first races was. We saw McLaren very competitive in Malaysia, especially with Lewis [Hamilton] in the dry. But I still think that Red Bull will have a little advantage over everybody again here.

We will have a difficult weekend, I'm sure Red Bull and McLaren will put us in some difficulties, but we will try our best and hopefully we can beat them here.

Q. When will Ferrari run its own F-duct?

FA: Not sure. I know that we keep developing the car, but it's not maybe the first priority for us, that system. We keep working on our philosophies. There is an important step here to improve the car, and I know that there is more coming in the next races. I'm not specifically worried only about that system.

Q. If you had finished in Malaysia you would probably have had to change the gearbox for China and received a five-place grid penalty here. So did it turn out better to retire from ninth and only lose two points?

FA: Difficult question. No one likes to lose five positions, but no one likes to lose a championship for two points. I'll answer at the end of the year...