Alonso Supports New Teams for 2011

Following the Canadian Grand Prix two weekends ago, one could have expected Fernando Alonso to be a little more angry at the slow cars in Formula One, considering the fact that his potential win in Montreal was ruined by slow drivers. However, the 2-time world champion surprised everyone when holding back from criticizing the slow teams, which is not something we can say about his boss Luca di Montezemolo.

The Ferrari chairman hit out publicly at the new teams once again a few days after the Canadian race, saying that the 6 slow cars of 2010 should race on Sunday morning, together with the GP2 pack. Alonso, on the other hand, detached himself from his boss' comments, backing the Lotus F1, Virgin Racing and HRT F1 to become faster as time goes by.

“Next year I don't think we will see the difference that we've seen this year. I think the three new teams arrived very late this year and I think next year they will be better prepared and the gap will be closer,” said Alonso ahead of this weekend's race.

Additionally, the Spaniard confirmed that he had nothing bad to say about the slow teams during the Friday briefing with FIA's Charlie Whiting.

Although there had been a lot of criticism lately on the slow pace of the new teams – actually, it started from the last few tests of the winter period – Heikki Kovalainen's performance in the Canadian GP speaks a lot about their potential to catch up. At least in terms of qualifying pace, the two Lotuses have come a few hundreds of a second behind long-established BMW Sauber Ferrari team, after being more than 2 seconds off at the start of the season.

From the three new teams of F1, HRT F1 is the least probable to progress in 2010, as the base chassis developed by Dallara over the course of last year barely matched the performance of a GP2 car. Consequently, it is believed the Spanish team has already started developing their 2011 single-seater, so they have a head start for the next year's campaign.