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Ferrari fail to worry Alonso

Although Fernando Alonso concedes Ferrari will be a force to be reckoned with later in the season, Sunday’s Bahrain GP winner says that, for now at least, they aren’t concerning him.
Having won the first two races of the season, Renault forced Ferrari’s hand, making the World Champions introduce their new F2005 to Bahrain for round three.

However, the five-week early debut didn’t go according to plan for the Scuderia with Michael Schumacher retiring from the race and Rubens Barrichello finishing out of the points.

"For sure, I have to be disappointed with not finishing the race,” said Schumacher, who has scored just two points in the opening three races of 2005.

“But on the positive side I can look at the fantastic effort made to bring the new car here and it was absolutely the right decision. Up until I retired, the car was very competitive and I am sure it will be even more so in the coming races."

He added: “We worked hard to get the new car here and now we must continue to do the same to develop it further. Now I am looking forward to Imola.”

And so too is Alonso as the World Championship leader believes – at least for now – Toyota, and not Ferrari, are the only ones who can bring an end to his winning streak. And he doesn’t foresee that happening.

“Ferrari were here with the new car and they showed us they will be able to fight for victories again, as they showed in second qualifying and the first laps of the race,” the Spaniard said.

“But at the moment we have no worries. Toyota is our main competitor so they are in our thoughts at the moment.”

As for the upcoming races, Alonso added: “We are truly competitive but now we arrive in new conditions in Europe, tracks all the teams know quite well. We are about to test quite a lot and we will see how the car is there because so far it has been difficult to beat.”

“We have done very well in the first three races of the season but our toughest races are still to come. But the team is working very hard. Up to now we have done a fantastic job and I do not see any reason why we cannot carry on like that.”