As the F1 teams prepare for the first race of the new season this weekend, former world champion Fernando Alonso reckons that the winner of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is impossible to call after a winter of surprises.
Alonso, who won the event himself back in 2006, enters the second season of his second stint with Renault as some people's favourite to take the chequered flag at Sunday's event. But with the new rule changes for the new season and the mixed-up testing reports from the off-season, the Spaniard can't make his mind up who is the favourite for the top step.
"I think the order of the teams will probably be different from the last few years," Alonso screamed at the press recently, "We have got used to Ferrari and McLaren dominating, but with the new rules I think there will be lots of cars fighting for the win. Hopefully we will be in that fight."
With regards to his own chances, he came over all coy. "From what we have seen in testing it seems all the teams are very close, and so we will certainly have a fight on our hands. But, in the past, Albert Park has been a good track for Renault, and so I hope we can have a strong weekend."
The Renault team are one of the teams that will forego using their newly developed KERS device in Melbourne, despite Alonso giving generally positive reports about the unit during testing.
"With the Kers and moveable wings, the drivers now have more work to do inside the cockpit," Alonso went on to say about the challenges of the new year, "I'm not sure if it will make overtaking easier, but it will certainly improve lap times."
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