Fernando Alonso says Ferrari are genuine contenders to be champions in F1 2017 – and has described McLaren-Honda’s latest problems as “difficult to understand”.
The Spaniard’s assessment is significant because he left Ferrari at the end of 2014 after losing faith in the team’s ability to build a title-winning car. “I saw nothing change for five years,” Alonso said at the time.
But in the wake of Sebastian Vettel’s victory at the season-opening Australian GP, and Ferrari’s table-topping pace in pre-season testing which Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton described as “spectacular”, Alonso believes Ferrari are finally capable of ending their decade-long title drought.
