Alonso says Ferrari form nothing to be happy about
McLaren driver Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari has no reason to be happy about its performance compared to Formula 1's dominant team Mercedes.
Fernando Alonso, McLaren
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The Spaniard left the Italian squad after five years, joining McLaren-Honda for the start of 2015.
The British team has struggled all year, however, and sits in ninth place in the standings with just 17 points in 11 races.
But Alonso insists his decision to leave Ferrari continues to be justified by the team's form compared to Mercedes, despite his own struggles at the back of the grid.
"Doing well is relative compared to who," said Alonso after qualifying today when asked if it hurt to see Ferrari doing well.
"Compared to us they are doing really well, but compared to what we did during the five years we were together they are not doing anything better.
"We were leading the championship a couple of years here at Monza. Now they are third [sic], 100 points behind Mercedes.
"Congratulations to them, but I think Ferrari should not be happy being third 100 points behind Mercedes."
Lack of power
Alonso qualified in 17th position today, and the Spaniard admitted the performance was exclusively down to a lack of power by the Honda engine.
"There are many things that we are working on, so many areas that we need to improve, but on a circuit that has six corners, and on the GPS we lose two or three tenths on all six corners, the rest of the three seconds you need to find on the straight," Alonso said.
"And on the straight we are all full throttle with the steering wheel straight. There is not much we can do there. There is a lack of power that is important and even more on circuits like this."
He added: "It doesn't matter if we had reached Q2, because we wouldn't have gone out, as we don't have tyres or miles left to do.
"So it was like at Spa: do one lap in Q1, see how the car handles and prepare the race."
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