LONDON — Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is confident he still has a strong chance of winning the Formula One (F1) title despite seeing his championship lead reduced. The Spaniard retired from the Japanese Grand Prix and race winner Sebastian Vettel is now only four points behind with a faster car. Alonso’s lead has been cut by 37 points in the last four races, in which period the Ferrari driver has retired twice.
In the Belgian and Japanese Grands Prix, Alonso was involved in first-corner accidents — in Spa-Francorchamps he was hit by Romain Grosjean’s flying Lotus and in Suzuka on Sunday he got a puncture after a rear wheel was tagged by the front wing of Grosjean’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
But Alonso believes Ferrari are capable of re-establishing their advantage in the final five races, starting with the Korean Grand Prix this weekend.
“The people who are working on the car are the same who have done the job so far and there’s no reason to think they can’t do a good job again now,” he said.
“Let’s not forget that, if I am still leading the championship, it’s because we have been capable of improving the car significantly compared to the start of the season and also because we are capable of always getting the most out of what we have to work with.” —BBC Sport
