Fernando Alonso is thankful that Ferrari have received a couple of "presents" so far this season, but raised concern about the performance of the car.
Not much was expected from Alonso and Ferrari during the first few races of the 2012 after a pre-season campaign of doom and gloom. However, the Spaniard finds himself just 10 points behind Championship leader Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers' standings after four races.
Although Alonso, who started P9 in Bahrain and finished P7, is delighted to be within touching distance of the leaders, he knows Ferrari can't always depend on gifts from their rivals.
"After four races, with 100 points to win, being eight or 10 points behind the leader is completely unthinkable," he is quoted as saying by Autosport.
"It's a bit like a present what we've had in these first four races. We appreciate it and we take it, but leaving the points aside, what worries the team is the performance of the car, and that we have to improve it right away for Barcelona."
There were positives and negatives for Ferrari in Bahrain as Alonso managed to finish ahead of both McLarens, but on the down side they were well off the pace of race winner Vettel.
"I think we have mixed feelings, because on the one hand we were in front of both the McLarens at the end of the race, which is something we didn't expect after quali," he said.
"On the other side we are 57 seconds away from the winner, so this is bigger than any other race in 2012. So we need to look at why we were so far from the podium positions."
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