Adam Cooper F1

Fernando Alonso says he’s surprised to be fourth on the grid in Korea in amongst his title rivals, having expected to be worse off.

Alonso starts alongside Lewis Hamilton on the second row.

“I think it was fine, at the end of the day we’re in a position that is better than Suzuka, seven days ago, and we have to be more or less happy,” said the Spaniard. “

Obviously our main competitors Red Bull start first and second, which again shows us how strong they are at this moment, so we need to do a perfect race tomorrow and try to maximise our points.

“I was thinking it would be a little bit worse to be honest, because we were sixth and 11^th in Suzuka, we have exactly the same car, and we are fourth and sixth here, so it’s something that’s a little bit better, and we seem to be a little bit more competitive, also on the long run yesterday. A little bit more confidence for tomorrow’s race, but we know that it’s going to be tough.”

Alonso is optimistic about Ferrari’s form in the race: “Sunday is normally a little bit better for us, Saturday is the pure performance of the cars, and obviously we are fighting with a car that did first positions all weekend, first in Q1, first in Q2 and first and second in Q3.

“So they have a strong car, it’s the strongest point from them, but we have a team. In the race there is the start, there is the strategy, the tyre management, etc, and on that aspect, I think we are the strongest.”

Jenson Button is optimistic about McLaren’s prospects for the Korean GP weekend, despite Red Bull’s ominously fast pace in FP2 today.

Button finished the afternoon session in fourth place, but he was almost 0.4s off Sebastian Vettel. However the McLaren race pace looked good.

“We’ve made progress definitely from this morning,” he said. “I wasn’t entirely happy. But also this morning was mostly testing new parts, making sure everything was working correctly, it wasn’t about set-up work. This afternoon on the low fuel and the high fuel we’ve made good progress. Still not quick enough, but I feel that we’re going in the right direction.”

Button was impressed by the pace of the Red Bulls.

“I think they are going to be very difficult to beat in qualifying. They seem to have that strength back. Our race pace today seemed to be competitive, over one lap we’re still lacking, so it’s an area we need to work on. As I said the direction that we’ve gone with the car and the adjustments we made are positive, so there’s still more to come.

“At the moment it doesn’t look like we are as quick as the Red Bulls, but it’s only practice. Our race pace feels good, forgetting the lap times, our consistency is good.”

Jenson admitted he hadn’t found the best compromise for the track’s mixed character: “Not yet, if you have a look we’re very slow in a straight line in sector one, we’re about 8kph down. It’s a tricky one to know which direction to go with that and how much downforce to run for the rest of the circuit.”

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber topped the times in Korea on Friday, suggesting that Red Bull is already well set for a repeat of last weekend in Japan, when they swept the front row.

However long run form was less clear cut, and Vettel cautioned that there was still some work to do.

“I think we can be quite happy,” said Vettel. “It looks extremely tight. I’m not happy with every run we had today, the track was changing quite a lot this morning, so it was better than expected. This afternoon to start with it was quite slippery, but then I think it got a little better. All-in-all the car felt alright. Now we see what can we do for tomorrow. I think we have to improve ourselves to much the others.”

“We had a pretty good programme set out, and most of it managed to get the most out of it,” said Webber. “We have a look at where we can improve tonight, because in areas it’s always a compromise. The track is about top speed in the first sector and the last bit is twisty in terms of rhythm, it’s a little bit like Budapest, and you need downforce there.”

Regarding the typically dusty surface he said: “I was surprised that the track was as good as it was, we’ve had worse. The track will change, but it’s not our first Grand Prix, so we’re ready for that. Hopefully we’ll stay ahead of the game, and have a smooth run again tomorrow. The most important thing is a smooth run on Sunday. We had similar runs in Suzuka, but only one of us got the job done.”

Lewis Hamilton says that his Suzuka weekend was compromised by a damper-related failure that McLaren did not discover until after the race.

Hamilton struggled in qualifying and again in the race, although by the end of it he was a little happier with the balance of the car. Nevertheless by then the damage had been done to his chances.

“Hopefully it will be a better weekend this weekend,” he said today. “We struggled a little bit and didn’t get the result we wanted in both Singapore and also Suzuka. At the end of the race I said I felt something was wrong throughout the weekend.

“We found that we had a couple of mechanical problems in the car from qualifying through to the race in the last race, which is positive for me to know, because I thought I felt something. Hopefully for me this weekend should be better and we should be back on the pace.”

Elaborating on the problem he added: “It was something in the rear dampers, and basically it knocked out the balance in a certain way. The set-up change I made should have been the right one, but the effect, it didn’t actually work. It’s difficult to see that until they’ve figured it in the data.”

Meanwhile Hamilton says he’s far from out of the championship battle, and has high hopes for this weekend, having been on pole in 2011.

“It’s still up for grabs, it’s obviously a little bit tougher for us, a little bit closer for Sebastian and Fernando. But still 125 points available, so I’m going to try to grab every single one. I’m still in it to win it. It’s theoretically still possible, so I’ll keep pushing. Even when it’s not theoretically possible, I’ll still keep pushing, to get up as high as possible.

“The Red Bulls have been pretty quick here in the past so I anticipate that they will be very quick here this weekend. I think the Lotus would be quick here I would have thought, they’ve been pretty good in a lot of places, but still yet to win a race. Hopefully we’ll be very strong this year, as we were last year – we got pole last year, and I’m hoping that can be repeated.”

Fernando Alonso says he has no plans have change his approach now that the title battle has closed up because he has been pushing hard all season.

The Spaniard’s lead in the championship has dwindled to just four points after his early retirement in Japan.

“I think we have been pushing from the first test in the winter, so nothing has changed in the last five races,” he said in Korea today. “We just need to keep doing the things we’ve been doing so far. I think it has nearly been a perfect championship for us at the moment, with good strategies, good starts, good approach to the races.

“Everything we had in our hands on Sunday, we maximised the points. We had one zero in Spa and one zero in Suzuka, but things completely outside of our team, so apart from that we don’t need to change too many things.

“We were fighting in all the races the maximum we can, approaching the races to maximise the points we have available. Sometimes we were on the podium, sometimes we were fourth, sometimes we were fifth and this will not change now. I don’t think we can over-drive or over-do what is available for us.”

Alonso said that he’d had his fair share of bad luck lately: “Now we have lost many points, in the last four races let’s say, because at Spa we had a DNF which we had nothing to do with. In Monza we had a Q3 problem, and started in tenth, and in Suzuka we had a puncture at the start, in the first corner.

“All these last four races, in which we lost a lot points, I think are just some unlucky situations. Things normally change, they go up and down. Hopefully our bad run will finish and we will start a run of good runs until the end.”
He added that there wasn’t much new on the F2012 for this weekend.
“Not many updates, obviously it has been only four days from Suzuka to here so we will try to set up the car as best we can for this race, this layout. But, I remain reasonably confident that we will be competitive.

“We’ve been more or less competitive in the last eight, 10 races – maybe not the fastest but always in position to fight for podiums etcetera. I think here will be no different.”

Sebastian Vettel is hoping to carry the momentum he gained from winning the past two races into Korea, where he triumphed last year after passing Lewis Hamilton on the first lap.

Vettel has achieved two wins and a second in the four races since the summer break.

“We obviously come here on a high and we try to produce the momentum to have another very strong result here,” he said. “We know that this circuit should be quite good for us. Historically we have been competitive here. The two years we have been racing here before, I think we always had a very good car, so try again.

“In the end I think it’s the nature of the track that maybe we used to like in the last two years. We should be reasonably competitive but then again, this year I think it has been very unpredictable and you don’t know what happens so it could be the case here.

“We have to try our best to get another strong result. If you look at the layout, for sure you start off with a lot of straights and then you finish off with corners. It looks a little strange compared to other places because usually it’s a bit more of a mix. But here you get the straights first and then the corners.”

Vettel added that he didn’t discount Hamilton, despite the McLaren man falling behind in the title battle over the past couple of races.

“I think they are still fighting for the championship. I think that is their target, or has to be their target. I think if you look at the races we had after the summer break, so far, I think if you summed them up, in average, I think McLaren was the most competitive car.

“They are the ones which will be very competitive, no matter where we go, at least that’s what the last couple of races showed. I think they still have a very good chance.”

Romain Grosjean said today that he’s doing his best to avoid the sort of controversial incident that has blighted his season with Lotus.

After being banned from the Italian GP after the Belgian GP crash he was once again in the wars in Japan, landing a 10 second stop and go after a clash with Mark Webber at the first corner.

“Mark came to see me and I completely understand that he was unhappy,” said the Franco-Swiss driver. “The only thing I could say was to apologise and that’s what I did. I’m clearly conscious of the risk at the start, I’m working on changing on quite a lot of things but work doesn’t come from one day to the other one.

“There is a process going on. I said I was very sorry. I’m not stupid and I’m conscious of the risk. And hopefully by now it will be a different and I will not make the mistake of focusing on the wrong targets.”

Grosjean said he would try to keep out of trouble this weekend.

“Not having any contact on the first lap, that’s clearly one of the objectives. I’d say there’s work in progress and it takes a bit of time but yeah, it’s a cycle as well: things have been going bad, and the more it goes bad… I’m conscious of the risk at the start. The Spa accident was quite impressive and I was the first one to be happy that Fernando had nothing [ie was not injured].

“I paid the price as well for my mistake. In the team we spoke quite a lot; they are not happy, I am not happy the way we have been going through the first laps. There are 550 people working at Enstone to give us the best car and if you ruin everything in the first 100m it’s not good. I’m conscious of all of that and will try to take as many precautions as possible to go through the first lap – and then normally in the race we are OK.”

Webber meanwhile said the matter was closed: “Yeah, absolutely. I went to see Romain, we had a discussion about it and that was that.”

Peter Sauber will hand the reins of the team that bears his name to Monisha Kaltenborn on Saturday- his 69th birthday.

Kaltenborn, having held the role of CEO since 2010, will now officially become team principal. Sauber said some time ago that he did not want to still be in charge at the age of 70.

The team says that its founder “will continue in his capacity as President of the Board of Directors of all Sauber Group companies and remain responsible for the Group’s strategic direction.”

“We decided a long time ago that Monisha would take over from me,” said Sauber. “But we left the timing open. Now is a good time for both of us, so this is the right moment to pass on the baton. After all, there have been a number of races I’ve been unable to attend – most recently the Japanese Grand Prix, where the team put in an excellent performance.

“I’m in no doubt that Monisha has all the necessary skills to be an outstanding team principal, and I’m equally certain she will ensure that the values underpinning the company live on. That is very important to me.”

“Naturally I’m very aware of the major responsibility I have for Peter Sauber’s racing team,” said Kaltenborn. “He founded the team over 40 years ago, and in the spring it will be 20 years since Sauber lined up for its debut Formula One Grand Prix. We are the fourth-oldest team in Formula One. To build up a project like this and keep it alive in a difficult environment is a tremendous achievement. I have set my sights high and am committed to taking the team forward as Peter Sauber would want and leading it on to success.”

Fernando Alonso suffered a rear puncture. Photo: Adam Cooper

Luca di Montezemolo has given his Ferrari team a pep talk after the disappointment of Fernando Alonso’s first corner retirement at Suzuka.

Montezemolo says Alonso can still win the title if the team holds its nerve.

“It’s at times like these that I want to see the Ferrari I know,” said the company president. “A team that is focused and that holds its nerve. I will speak to Fernando by phone soon to give him even more motivation with which to tackle these last five races, with the bit between his teeth, as indeed I expect all the team to do.

“Yesterday’s second place for Felipe was very important in this final part of the season when his contribution is even more vital. I expect a huge effort from our engineers who have already shown they are capable of that and we are perfectly aware that this championship is still in our hands.”

Montezemolo pointed out that the two recent disasters in Spa and Suzuka were not the fault of the team or driver.

“We know we can count on the strongest driver around at the moment and it’s only mistakes from others at Spa and again at Suzuka, that have prevented him from having a more comfortable lead over his rivals. Let’s not forget that, but for those two collisions, today Fernando would have had at least 30 points more and that’s a conservative estimate. In sport, as in life, the wheel turns and we must not forget that: recently, it has not done so in a positive way for us, but it does not take much for it to change direction.”

Christian Horner says Red Bull does not underestimate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, despite Sebastian Vettel making big inroads into the Spaniard’s championship lead after two consecutive wins.

Vettel is now four points – or an eighth place – behind Alonso with just five races still to come.

“I think before the summer break Fernando had a significant lead,” said Horner after the Suzuka race. “And since then we were second in Spa, were unlucky in Monza but should have scored reasonable points, we won in Singapore, we won here. We’ve managed to eat into that gap, and hopefully we’ve got some circuits coming up that should suit the characteristics of our package in the remaining races.

“Fernando is a very shrewd and formidable opponent. Over a season luck tends to balance itself out, and Sebastian’s had two DNFs because of reliability, Fernando’s been unlucky with Grosjean, who seems to be a common factor in some of the incidents, and the puncture that he picked up today.

“It will be down to what the two of them do on track now, and the relative performances of the cars over the remaining five races.”