Fernando Alonso has insisted that he won’t be upset this year if he fails to win the F1 drivers’ title for a third time.

Alonso will make his debut for Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend and while the Scuderia have been on the pace in pre-season testing – and are considered by some to be one of the favourites, the Spaniard has tried to quell expectations ahead of the season opener.

“I understand that people can be disappointed if I’m not champion [this year] but I personally won’t be,” he told Spanish radio Cadena Ser. “It’s a sport, (Real) Madrid and Barcelona are the best (football) clubs in the world but they can lose the Champions League or a match.

“Not winning the championship is completely logical – and it would not be a disappointment.”

Alonso, who failed to win a single race last year with Renault, is though still very upbeat about his prospects with the new Ferrari F10. Indeed speaking to Ferrari’s official website he was a lot more ‘on message’.

“I want to thank you all for what you have done for this new F1 Ferrari. I already told it to the newspapers but I want to tell you personally: this is the best car I’ve ever driven,” he said this week in an address to the mechanics and engineers responsible for building the Ferrari F10.

“This doesn’t mean that it will be enough to win every single race, but I’m happy about how the tests went and I think that we’re at 100 per cent for the first race in Bahrain. We are Ferrari and we know from our history that we have only one goal: winning the Championship. And I know that thanks to your work we can do it.

“We know that the first race is like the first stage at the Tour de France: what counts is winning. Felipe [Massa] and I are extremely motivated and we’ll give it our all to show that we merit the opportunity to drive a car like Ferrari.”