Two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Spain made little

attempt at hiding his feelings after a frustrating run of failures during testing.

"There is no reliability and there is no power," he said.

For one of the sport's traditional grandee teams, it is an embarrassing situation that new executive director Zak Brown has inherited. And even before the start of the new season, team chief Eric Boullier had to fend off talk that Alonso is looking to move.

"He wants to be competitive and we need to be competitive to keep him happy... if not, he'll take his own decisions," he said.

Such discord has been a consistent backdrop to the razzamatazz of Liberty's takeover which has seen former Benetton and Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn installed as the sport's new motor sports director, a position created for the multi-championship winning Briton.

His job brief is to make the sport and the racing as attractive as possible despite Mercedes domination -- they have won the last three drivers and constructors' titles and 51 of the last 59 Grands Prix.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner articulated the feelings of many when he said it was "unpalatable" to consider the prospect of three more years of Mercedes supremacy, but stopped short of insisting on any kind of handicap system.

Brawn acknowledged the problem and rejected any kind of synthetic solution. "The fans will see through an artificial solution," he said.

"The real core of it is to look at how you level the playing field in terms of financial resources and so forth and that's why a five-year plan must include the funding of the teams, budget control and distribution of funds.... There is a disparity..." he added.

That remains a problem for the future while F1 bids to make a resounding return with a louder and faster show this weekend.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)