By role
June 23 2003

Renault F1 driver Fernando Alonso has declared in an interview with the Spanish Newspaper "Marca" that he does not expect to finish 3rd at the end of the season. Alonso is getting ready for the upcoming European GP at Nurburgring that will take place this weekend. When questioned if the track suited well his car he said:

"To be honest you never know. There have been some tracks where we thought it suited well and then we did not go as fast as expected. In other tracks that we were expecting being slower we got good results. It's pointless to think if it will suit or not. The best is to go, set-up the car and finish the race in the points".

Alonso knows that it will be quite hard, if not impossible, to retain the 3rd position on the standings at the end of the season:

"Unfortunately, for sure I will not finish 3rd." He said. "All the big drivers are getting closer and I have 3 or 4 drivers two to three points behind, and I guess they'll overtake me during the year. I guess some of them will win races this season. I am talking about the Williams or the Ferrari of Barrichello. Anyhow, my objective was not to finish that high. I will try to give the best without setting up a goal position, what we have done so far it's quite good."

Some Brazilian journalist were suggesting after the Canadian GP that Renault could have refueled the car without permission between the qualification and the race. Alonso laughed at the comments:

"To be honest all this is quite funny. TO refuel the car between the qual and the race is like something out of a cartoon. I answer to them that we are studying to refuel the car while running, without a pit stop, on the main straight."