Alonso tips Massa to maintain Monaco form

Jun.1 (GMM) Fernando Alonso has tipped his beleaguered teammate Felipe Massa to continue to recover from his career low.

Prior to Monaco, speculation hinted that the Brazilian Massa could be imminently ousted by Ferrari, having struggled so much at the wheel of the F2012.

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari leads Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Photo by: xpb.cc

But in the Principality, where Massa has a home, the 30-year-old seemed to bounce back onto form, quelling for now the calls for him to be dumped.

And Spaniard Alonso, who is unquestionably Ferrari's lead driver, backed his teammate to continue to recover form.

"It's hard to think that Felipe will not get many points, podiums and fight for victories in the second half of the year," he told the EFE news agency at an event in Madrid.

"I have repeated a thousand times that he has the talent to do so.

"It has been an unfortunate start to the year for him for a number of reasons: bad luck, by adapting a little slower than normal to the tyres.

"The results he had were not normal for Felipe," insisted Alonso.

"He has my full support, and the support of the team, to change the situation. Or to change the results, because many times in practice or in qualifying he was very close to me and then something happened.

"Rather than the pure speed or the talent, the change that is needed for Felipe is the results," he insisted.

"In Monaco things seemed to have changed, so hopefully from now on it will be good for him," said Alonso.

In a separate interview with Spanish radio Cadena SER, Alonso was also asked about other drivers.

When asked if it is true that the driver he respects the most is Lewis Hamilton, the Spaniard answered "yes".

Alonso had the same single-word answer when asked if the last two titles were more about Red Bull than they were about Sebastian Vettel.

Finally, when asked if engineers generally have a greater influence than the drivers in today's Formula One, Alonso once again answered simply: "Yes."