His season finishes have cost him two Formula One championships in the past three years.
But Ferrari star Fernando Alonso believes his season start will be the key to finally dethroning Red Bull’s triple champion Sebastian Vettel.
Alonso, 31, could almost taste a third drivers’ title before Vettel claimed the 2012 championship in the season finale, pipping the Spaniard by a measly three points.
In 2010, Vettel broke Alonso’s heart with a last gasp four-point championship win.
The bitter experience helped Alonso focus – and he believes he knows exactly what must be done to stop Vettel’s reign.
“It comes down to the start,” he said in Melbourne on Thursday.
“We need to start on the right foot and hopefully score some good results for the championship.”
Alonso insisted he had not lost any sleep over his two championship near misses.
“I feel privileged to fight for the world championship two times in three years – very few people have the opportunity to fight for a world championship,” he said.
“We lost two times in the three years in the last race and we want to have the opportunity to fight again for the world championship, hopefully again this year and hopefully to change the result.
“This is maybe some extra motivation for me and the team.”
Experts believed it was remarkable Alonso had even put himself within striking distance of Vettel last year in what many considered an inferior Ferrari.
He confirmed his reputation as the category’s best driver by negotiating his troublesome Ferrari to a 40-point championship lead by the mid-season break.
And no driver appeared on the podium more than the Spaniard’s 13 sightings.
Now backed with encouraging pre-season testing in Spain, Alonso – a two-time world champion with Renault – is convinced his fourth year in the Ferrari garage will be a memorable one.
“We finished second two times, this year we can fight for the championship again and fight for the result,” he said.
“We respect that Red Bull and McLaren are very strong … but also Ferrari we have improved the car a lot … it will be interesting I think.
“Every year you start with the best motivation, it doesn’t matter what happened or how you finished in the championship.
“We really need to chase this result and this year we have a better car to start the championship.”
The omens are good for Alonso at Melbourne – he has finished in the top five at Albert Park the last nine years and showed his class last year when he finished fifth after starting 12 on the grid after spinning in qualifying.