Fernando Alonso has insisted that Ferrari can fight for the world championship in 2014.

Alonso urged his Ferrari team to improve after the Australian Grand Prix, when the Spaniard finished in fourth place, 35 seconds down on race winner Nico Rosberg.

Alonso reckons that the F14T has potential, even if he dismissed his prospects of repeating his 2012 performance, when he rose from ninth on the grid to win in difficult conditions.

“That’s something you only see once in life,” he said of his 2012 victory. “In our case, we need to see how the next races go in terms of our own performance to learn how we can quickly develop the car to be in better shape. In Australia we were not happy with the performance we showed and we need to improve as quickly as possible.”

“I believe we can fight for the championship. We have more potential than we showed in Australia. We need to put everything in place and then we will have a better weekend.

“The team has the facilities and the talent to do a very good job. We can be strong and we will do better, I’m sure. It’s not been a perfect start. It seems like a repetition of the last couple of years, but these are different rules and a different rate of development applies. Our hopes are perfectly intact.”

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