Fernando Alonso admits that he’s not sure if Ferrari will have enough pace with which to make progress in Sunday’s Korean GP.
Alonso starts fifth at Yeongam, and while he has gained a lot of places in recent races, he believes that it might not be so easy this time.
“We know we have this weak point in the team,” he said. “And we know we have some other strong points, normally on Sunday we do everything perfectly to maximise points. With this kind of performance in four years we fought for the World Championship three times, so it’s something good we do. But it’s true that we’re too slow.
“The race will be long, and apart from the start, whoever has the pace tomorrow, it will be not to difficult to overtake with the two DRS points. The start will not be as crucial as maybe Singapore or whatever, where the positions are more stable. We need to do a good start, that’s for sure, and then we need to keep a pace that today we didn’t have, and yesterday we didn’t have also. Normally on Friday we saw some optimistic pace for Sundays. So, we need to improve things for tomorrow.
“We need to see what pace everybody has. I think also in terms of degradation we need to see. There are some cars that are behind us that are a threat, like Webber, there are the two Saubers that from the time we put the 2012 Pirelli tyres they were out of Q1, and now they are both in Q3. So they were a big switch and a big penalty for Ferrari, and Lotus, and there was a big benefit for some teams. Sauber probably is one big example.
“And we need to see tomorrow, because it’s still very open. We can be in the podium or we can be out of the points, depending on how is the pace in the race. For this we need to prepare really carefully for tomorrow’s race. It’s not so straightforward that on Sunday Ferrari will improve and we will have a good degradation and pass people. It’s not so clear this time, and we need to work very hard.”
Alonso says that at least overtaking is possible here: “If you have the pace it’s not too difficult to overtake, you catch the car in front of you in the first one, and then you attack in the second, it should be not too difficult to pass. It’s good to see some action tomorrow in the race. As I said if you have a quick car tomorrow in the race you can perform really well, and this is one of the things we have to look at. For example Webber starting at the back with the possibilities of overtaking more or less easy here he will be strong in the race.”
However he admits that the first lap could be his best chance.
“It will be one big opportunity for us. The start normally is good. It’s true that here the first corner there is not enough space to really attack, we pass one by one in Turn One, so we will try to attack in Turn Three and Turn Four, there is always some action in the past here. So we’ll see what we can do.”
Adam Cooper F1 