What Can Alonso Achieve Next Year?

Continuing my recent tradition of saying that everyone will win the 2009 championship, I have decided to turn my attention to Mr. Fernando Alonso, and work out whether he has a shot of this year's championship.

Alonso is a bloody good driver, no matter what anyone thinks of him. In a sense, he's a bit like Christiano Ronaldo, in that there are many people who would happily punch him in the face (including myself!), but cannot deny that they are good at what they do.

In my opinion, Alonso's biggest hurdle is that of Renault. He may be a good driver, but he can only challenge for the championship if he is provided with the right machinery to do so. This was proved in the back end of last year, where a late surge moved him ahead of Heidfeld and Kovalainen in the final standings.

Although a tad lucky, he also managed to achieve two race victories in Singapore and Japan. This is more than what his Mclaren replacement Kovalainen could manage in the second best car on the grid, which just goes to prove he has the talent to be in contention.

Oh, and don't forget he is a double world champion.

Then again, Alonso can only achieve this if he has the best car. At the beginning of 2008 the Renault was nowhere, with Alonso only able to pick up a handful of points from each race.

He also struggles when he is up against a competitive teammate. He may only have had Lewis Hamilton who was able to consistently challenge him, but it had an effect on his performance, and I'm sure he could have won the championship quite comfortably with a different teammate.

But with Nelson Piquet, there are no worries about that for this season.

The truth is, with the significant rule changes for this season, there are more drivers than ever who have a shot at this years championship. So far, I've decided that Vettel will be champion, Kubica will be champion, and Alonso will be champion if he has a good enough car.

But of course I'm wrong, because Felipe Massa is going to win.