Former FI champion Alonso cautions rival teams not to take Ferrari lightly

London, Mar 16(ANI): Two time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso has warned rivals to be wary of Ferrari, despite of it being dogged by problems during the winter testing sessions in Jerez and Barcelona.

Ferrari have struggled to match lap times set down by rivals McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Lotus, but still Alonso is confident of starting the season with a bang.

The team's technical chief, Pat Fry, even admitted they were 'disappointed by the performances' in testing, and said a podium finish here in the season opener in Melbourne during the Australian Grand Prix was out of question.

But Alonso believes the car would come along together, and Ferrari is certainly going to be a factor this season in the F1 championship.

"From an engineering point of view they always look at numbers. And maybe what Pat wanted to say is that we possibly didn't reach our targets. It doesn't mean the actual numbers we see are not enough to fight for the podium," The Sun quoted Alonso, as saying.

"That is something we need to find out this weekend. We need to keep understanding the car. We are not at 100 per cent yet. There is more to come from this car and it will hopefully come soon," he said.

"There were some targets from the team and very optimistic ones for this race and maybe we are not in that position. But hopefully the position we are in is better than the others when we find out," he added. (ANI)