Alonso: Renault need to up their game

News

Monday 27th April 2009

Fernando Alonso admits Renault need to improve their pace if they want to get into a position where they can fight for race wins.

The Spaniard, whose best result of the season is his fifth-placed finish in Australia, could only P8 on Sunday in Bahrain as he struggled to hold onto the back of those in front of him.

It was a disappointing day for the double World Champion, who has called on his team to improve the car in time for his home grand prix in Spain.

"We did our maximum," Alonso said.

"The start of the race was not perfect and we lost a position which put me down to eighth. After that nothing unusual happened during the race and there were no retirements so we were eighth fastest and we finished eighth.

"We always aim to score points, but we only scored one point and so we need to improve at the next grand prix."

Alonso's woes, though, didn't end when the race did as the Spaniard later collapsed due to dehydration, the result of spending 57 laps in scorching hot conditions without fluids after his drink pump failed during the race.

A Renault statement said, "He subsequently suffered from dehydration as he got out of the car. He has now fully recovered."

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Your Comments

atec_racer

"Go to Ferrari Alonso, if their drinks pump fails at least you will get an ice cream and a coke at the end of the race."

Veck

"Davratta, if you look at the times it was only from lap 33 on that Alonso was slower than Piquet. In the first 32 he was ahead of Piquet in 25 of them, i.e. 78% of the laps. From lap 33 onwards his performance went down dramatically, as Alonso was only better than Piquet in 5 laps. Now do you think that maybe this had something to do more with dehydration than that he suddenly didn't know how to drive?