“It's true that in Europe it is time to show who is going to fight for the title and who isn't,” said Alonso in an interview with the media during a Santander event in Madrid earlier today.
“The first races can be atypical races with changing weather all the time, so now in Europe it's the moment of truth to show who is going to be in the title fight, and also for the teams to prove they can develop faster than their rivals. It's the start of a nice fight,” added the Spaniard, according to Autosport.
After starting the season on a high note – heading Ferrari's 1-2 in Bahrain – a series of unfortunate events have dropped him to 3rd overall in the next 3 races. Among those incidents, we can name a spin in the first corner of the Aussie GP (which made him do a recovery race in Melbourne and eventually finish 4th), a poor qualifying strategy from Ferrari and an engine failure in Malaysia (where he had to start from 19th on the grid) and a penalty for jump start in China.
Alonso is quite confident that, hadn't it been for those things, he would have been much higher in the standings. In spite of all that, he's bullish of his title chances, especially since he thinks he has a great car with Ferrari.
“There's always frustration on Sunday afternoon when you don't achieve all the points you should have scored, but from a more general perspective, after a week home, these four races have been very positive. Being third in the championship, very few points away from the leader, I believe is a very good situation.”
“With the potential that we have, with the super team that I have, this is just the beginning and I have a real chance to fight for the world championship, something I couldn't even think about last year after four races,” added the Ferrari-an.
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