Alonso brimming with confidence in Australia

Veteran Fernando Alonso said yesterday he was brimming with confidence heading into the Australian Grand Prix, but was cautious about whether Aston Martin could maintain their red-hot early season form.The Spanish star, who won in Melbourne 17 years ago piloting a Renault, has secured stirring podiums at both races so far this year, with only the dominant Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez quicker.For the 41-year-old two-time world champion, the most experienced Formula One driver in history, it has been a welcome change of fortune after a series of fruitless years. "At the moment, we are extremely happy with the performance of the car obviously,” he said."We were better than expected, especially in Jeddah – I think it was a nice surprise, so we arrive here with a good level of confidence.”His third place in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago was Alonso’s 100th podium and put him in rarified company as only the sixth driver to achieve the feat.Alonso, who is still searching for a first win since Spain 10 years ago, admitted it was an honour, but said personal milestones were not on his mind."It feels good, it feels nice to reach that number, but obviously when you are in the championship you are not really concentrating on that, you are just thinking of the next weekend,” he said. While he heads into Sunday’s race with his spirits high in a car that has made giant strides, Alonso said it was too early to say whether they could sustain their competitive edge throughout the season."Not yet. I think we have to wait and see,” he said."Also I think very soon, from Baku or Imola, we will see the teams changing a few parts on the cars and maybe that changes also how competitive you feel.”Drivers welcome wider grid slots after penaltiesFormula One drivers welcomed wider grid slots from Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix after Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso were penalised for missing their marks in the season’s first two races. A spokesman for the governing FIA said yesterday that the boxes would be 20cm wider for the race at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit.A central guideline will also be trialled on Friday to see whether that helps drivers align their cars correctly on the starting grid.The grid positions were already enlarged by 20cm at the start of the season compared to last, with drivers struggling to see the markings after the sport switched to larger 18-inch wheels in 2022.Both Alpine driver Ocon and Aston Martin’s Alonso, the most experienced driver in Formula One history with a record 357 starts, were handed five second penalties for the breaches in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively. Double world champion Alonso doubted the central line would make much of a difference."You approach the box looking sideways, so you’re not looking forward, so that’s the biggest difficulty,” he told reporters. "But the 20cm will help I guess."There’s going to be some circuits, maybe Monaco, or Imola that you start a little bit sideways anyway. Because if not you crash if you start there straight. So, we’ll have to see how we apply the penalties and things like that in those races.”"But no one wants to get a penalty for the start. Also, I think the FIA doesn’t want to have any problem with that, because there is no performance advantage, as long as you don’t go too forward. Hopefully we avoid anything from now on.”