Fernando Alonso thinks he is better than in 2012
At the end of the private tests where the F138 showed good form without necessarily appearing to be the most competitive on the grid, Fernando Alonso feels better prepared than in 2012 and already believes he will be much better in 2013.

Unlucky contender for the title in 2012, Fernando Alonso had a full season behind the wheel of a poorly-born Ferrari F2012. Named by team directors as the best driver of the year, Fernando Alonso, however, does not rest on his laurels on the eve of starting his twelfth campaign in Formula 1: « I always think we can improve, and I am ready to do it. Last year was the best year of my career, and I was very happy with my performance, but I think this year will be better. We have a better starting position [with the car], and I have learned from some of the mistakes of last year. As a driver, you can always improve in tire management and in terms of preparation approaching the Grand Prix. […] I have prepared myself better; I am better than last year. »
Obviously, the behavior displayed by the F138 during private testing is not unrelated to the sense of confidence expressed by the Spaniard who expects a less complicated start to the season than last year: « In 2012, I was obviously motivated and wanted to win, but I arrived in Australia and Malaysia without being very confident about what we could do, and I didn’t really trust the car. […] We had not planned or even thought about fighting for the world championship last year because we were too far behind. We were 1.6 seconds [behind the best] in Australia, so the team achieved an incredible comeback. I am more motivated than last year but, of course, it is true that I need a better car because last year we were too far from the leaders. I expect the team to have a better car: we are not asking to be half a second ahead of everyone, but two-tenths behind would be fine with me. »
The title will thus be Fernando Alonso’s goal this year: « I see no reason not to believe in it because last year, we had a very difficult winter, we were completely lost […] and we did not know what the car was doing. We did not understand what was happening between the wind tunnel and the track and with this car, we fought until Brazil. Now, we have a car that responds well to everything we change. We have a car that does what we expected. We know we may not be the fastest yet but the potential is there. Now, we can tweak the car: last year, it was a dream to make the car work [but] this year, making it work will be much easier, that’s for sure. »
Indeed, the stated goal of the Maranello team is now to bring constant improvements to the F138: “We didn’t have all the parts [in Barcelona]. There are others that will arrive for Melbourne, a bit more in Malaysia, and there will be a major update for China: so we have a good development program underway,” confides Pat Fry, the technical director of the Scuderia, to Autosport. For this, Ferrari plans to rely on newfound confidence in its simulation and design tools: “Last year, we made fundamental mistakes from which we have learned. I think these tests were good for us: we have made progress with CFD and the wind tunnel: it’s reflected on the track. You never get a 100% correlation, but we’re doing quite well. It helps us have more confidence in the developments we bring to the races, which will hopefully allow us to get ahead.”