Adam Cooper F1

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.”

Charles Pic has received his second reprimand of the season from the FIA stewards, and is thus under threat of a 10-place penalty should he receive another.

The Caterham driver was reported for missing a weight check during FP2. He told the stewards that he had seen a red light and an FIA official pointing, but thought it was for the driver behind.

His previous reprimand was earned during FP2 at Spa, where he was deemed to have rejoined the track in an unsafe manner.

While a 10-place penalty isn’t quite as disastrous for Pic as it might be for drivers closer to the front of the grid it might yet give a little edge to Marussia as the battle for 10th place in the championship hots up.

Sauber has finally confirmed that it will continue with Ferrari into 2014 and beyond.

The team has signed a ‘multi-year’ deal for supply of engine, ERS and gearbox. Although the deal was always going to happen it had been held up while details were ironed out.

When asked about the delay team boss Monisha Kaltenborn told this writer: “We had some small issues which also took their time because we all have been travelling so much. I myself even the weeks when we have not been racing have been out of the country quite often. Last week we had Sochi [an F1 demonstration] where we also left on Wednesday, so it just took a while. There were one or two small points, and they’ve been sorted out now.”

The Marussia F1 team made a staggering loss of £57.6m for the 2012 calendar year – having lost some £44.9m in the previous season.

The team, officially registered as Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, had a turnover of just £28.2m, which was up from £27.3m in 2011.

In its annual report the team says that the increased loss reflected “further significant investment in people, technology and infrastructure.”

To date the huge losses have been covered by loans from the shareholders. The report notes that as of April 13 this year “loans, accrued interest and fees of £138,939,000 were capitalised. This has improved the group’s balance sheet considerably and makes the company a more attractive prospect to potential investors and sponsors.”

The report adds that “the directors are… confident that the combination of formal shareholder support together with further investment and sponsorship will enable the company to meet its debts for a period of at least 12 months from the date of signing these financial statements.”

The team remains confident that the future is brighter.

“Because of the way we structured the business in the year ending 2012 a lot of money from our major shareholder and sponsor Marussia went in as loans,” team CEO Graeme Lowdon told this writer. “Post balance sheet date nearly £140m of those loans were subsequently capitalised – which means that instead of that sitting on your balance sheet as a debt owed back to Marussia, it’s turned into share capital.

“It looks as if we have a lot of debt, but a significant proportion of that debt has now been removed. Money that is now coming in from Marussia is coming is as sponsorship instead of loans.

“If you look at Red Bull nearly £100m a year comes in from their parent company by means of sponsorship instead of loans. If you were to remove that element from their accounts they would go from a nominal profit to an enormous loss.”

Meanwhile Lowdon says that the team is hoping to finally secure a Concorde deal with Bernie Ecclestone: “You could argue that it’s been highly detrimental to our business. We would hope that we would reach some form of agreement so that we’re on a level playing field with the other participants.”

Fernando Alonso reiterated today that he will need a lot of luck to get back into the World Championship fight – but added that both he and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo have drawn inspiration from the comeback of the victorious USA team in the America’s Cup.

“The president and me, we still think that anything can happen,” said Alonso. “We saw the America’s Cup, with the Oracle team, it was 1-8 and then 9-8 at the end. We know it’s difficult, but you have two lucky races or whatever and things can change very quickly. We need a lot of luck, we know that.

“We have to be realistic knowing that we don’t have the pace to beat them in normal conditions. We need to have some luck, not only here, but all six races probably. If we have the luck I think everybody has to be sure that we will be there to take it, because we will not give up until mathematically it’s impossible.”

Asked if wet weather could help this weekend, he said: “We’ll see. You never know in wet races who will be the lucky one in that situation. If they are very fast as they should be and we have a normal weekend maybe they will be in pole position and they will win the race, if there are some mixed conditions maybe we are lucky, maybe we are unlucky, and we say bye-bye to the championship. It’s hard to predict, but we will see.”

Meanwhile Alonso admitted the last six races will be tough, especially if he does fall out of championship contention.

“It will be stressful, it will be not easy to handle, I think. The time difference, the travelling… Hopefully the motivation will be high. In case you have not any more possibilities to fight for the championship it will be even harder, because there is not a huge motivation to do so many travels and things. So we have to be relaxed, we have to prepare really well the weeks that we have in between the Grands Prix to relax to the maximum, adapt to the time zones, and approach these Grands Prix at 100% physically and mentally. At the moment we are OK, but we know that every race the batteries will be lower and lower, and we need to avoid that.”

Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn has confirmed that Rubens Barrichello is a candidate for a 2014 seat.

Th 41-year-old reportedly has some sponsorship, and has indicated his desire to return to the cockpit.

“I always have to give you the same answer on that, we will announce in due course,” said Kaltenborn when asked about his chances. “There are a couple of options out there. We know what he has, his experience, we know that he’d like to come back, so let’s see.”

However she added that there was no chance that Barrichello might drive in the 2013 season closing race in Brazil, as has been suggested.

“I don’t see any possibility there, because we have no reason to change our two drivers for that race.”

Kimi Raikkonen doesn’t expect his back to be an issue in Korea this weekend, although he admits that he won’t know for sure until he drives in FP1.

“I wouldn’t be here if I wouldn’t be racing,” he said on Thursday. “It would be a bit pointless to come here if I wouldn’t think I would race. But obviously tomorrow we’ll see. Right now it’s always difficult to say until we drive and try how it is. But I think it should be OK.

“Once we try tomorrow, we’ll know more. Like I said in the last race it’s not the first time, and I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time. It’s something that I’ve dealt with for a long, long time. Sometimes it gets bad and sometimes not so.”

Asked if he would have to address the problem in the winter, he said: “I’ve been OK every year I’ve been racing. Sometimes I have to deal with the pain, but every year you get older and you come up with more issues. I’m sure we can deal with those things.”