Formula One news

Ramirez: Alonso and Massa battle

Former McLaren team coordinator Jo Ramirez believes that Fernando Alonso is in pole position to claim his third world championship in 2007. The Anglo-Mexican also has a lot of faith in Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who he thinks will be the Spaniard's biggest challenger.

"Alonso will win," Ramirez told Italian magazine Autosprint.

"Of course no one doubts his driving ability. However, what has changed for the better is McLaren-Mercedes' reliability: things are now going better on the new car. The first time Fernando tested for the team he was uncertain, but now he is enthused."

Ramirez worked for McLaren from 1983 to 2001 and was an integral part of the team's success in helping it beat rivals Ferrari and Williams to championship titles on numerous occasions.

"Ferrari will benefit from the experience of their long partnership with Bridgestone. They will battle with McLaren and it will be a great fight, but I've now said what I think the outcome will be.

"In my opinion the real challenger to McLaren will actually not be (Kimi) Raikkonen, but Massa. Felipe is improving constantly and in the end he can show that he is a better performer than Kimi," he added.

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