Adam Cooper F1

Fernando Alonso says he would have had an easy pole position had he not hit a technical glitch in Q3 at Monza.

The Ferrari driver was fastest in both Q1 and Q2 but suffered an anti-roll bar failure when it mattered in Q3. The car was still driveable but clearly lost speed, and he was left stranded in 10^th place.

“Something was broken on the car in Q3,” said Alonso. “I think we lost the most easy pole position of the year because we did 1m24.1s with an easy lap, and Lewis did 24.0s. We were expecting 23.5s or something like that. So we lost the best opportunity for pole, but that’s the way it is.

“For tomorrow the car will be OK, but for sure starting 10^th will be more difficult. We know the problem, and we went out just to check if we could overtake one or two positions, maybe P8 or P9 or something like that, but it was not enough, and we lost too much performance. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Ferrari has something of a history of being fast on Friday at the Italian GP, so it was perhaps no surprise when Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished the afternoon session in third and fourth places – just behind the two McLarens.

However it was not a perfect day for the team, as Alonso suffered an engine problem in FP1 and a gearbox issue in the afternoon. Both were well used units reserved for Friday use, and there will be no gearbox grid penalty.

The Spaniard said the failures were not a handicap.

“It’s just a little bit of a strange Friday because of mechanical failures,” he said. “Sometimes we push some parts to the limit or have some experimental things on Friday that you need to get some mileage, some experience. I think it’s not any problem at all.

“What we need to concentrate on is the performance for tomorrow. I think McLaren looked very strong again today, so we need to find something extra for tomorrow, and then we’ll see. I think it will be an interesting weekend. The weather should be stable all weekend so that should help us to be very precise and maximise the performance of the car.”

Alonso said that the team learned a lot today after having so few dry Fridays recently.

“I think they were good sessions. Obviously it’s extremely important for example today what we learned from Felipe, when you have a session that you have to stop for any reason you have to trust your team mate and all the information from the other car, so thanks to Felipe today we will not miss any of the laps that we were not able to do.

“We need to improve the car, as I said. I think we are more or less happy with the performance. We don’t need to change the car black to white for tomorrow, which some Fridays we need to do, because we were not happy at all. It’s just small tweaks that we need to do for tomorrow. It was a positive Friday in terms of performance.”

Red Bull struggled for one-lap pace at Monza today, but both drivers insisted that the situation could be resolved with some overnight work.

Mark Webber finished FP2 in 11th place, two spots ahead of Sebastian Vettel. In the first session they were ninth and 11th respectively.

“I think overall we are not as quick as we would like to be, so still some work to do I guess,” said Vettel. “I don’t know what [Mark] did, I don’t know what the others did, but I think we are probably more competitive in race trim.

“But for sure today wasn’t as good in terms of true pace. I think you could see we were not quick enough, so a lot to do. So far we ran through our programme and we didn’t have any problems. There’s a lot of work to do but I think the tyres will be good for a single stop in the race.

“I think it looked pretty tight at the top in general. We’re a little bit away from that, we need to do a little bit of a step tomorrow, and then we’ll see.”

Webber seemed a little more upbeat about today’s progress.

“We are working hard, not quite there yet,” said the Australian. “A little bit more competitive with fuel in on the long run, but we’ve got a bit of work to do with the fuel out. We’re normally not Friday World Champions, so we’ll do a bit of work tomorrow.

“Like I say we generally find a good step on Friday. With fuel it’s pretty good, short runs, we need to look at it.”

Jenson Button doesn’t expect his team mate Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren next season.

However the former champ insists that he doesn’t have any inside information and knows only what he’d seen in the media.

“Obviously we all read newspapers and we all read magazines and we all go on the internet, so you hear things,” he said. “I was surprised to see what I read yesterday. I haven’t got a clue if there’s any truth in it at all. I think I’ll have the same team mate next year – because this is the best choice for him.”

Button did concede that sometimes it’s good to try a new challenge, although he didn’t think it was worth leaving McLaren for that.

“I think for all of us if you’re in the same place for too long it can get a bit stale, but not here. It’s a great team and a team that’s always giving us an opportunity to fight for wins. Whether we’ve had a chance to fight for the World Championship, that’s another question, but they always give you the possibility of winning Grands Prix, and that’s what a driver wants. But also a driver likes excitement and adrenaline and new challenges, and that’s the reason why I came here in the first place.

“I don’t think anything will change in terms of driver line-ups, but I might be wrong.”

Ross Brawn says that Mercedes remains committed to a future in F1, despite its reluctance to sign up for the latest Concorde Agreement.

The team boss expects a solution to be found which will allow Mercedes to join the other established teams in agreeing terms for a new deal.

“There’s no doubt,” said Brawn of the company’s commitment. “We’ve had, as you know, tough discussions. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to close those discussions soon. And obviously that’s a high level of commitment. So I think Mercedes are very committed to F1.

“Bernie’s new deal is until the end of 2020, I think so, he’s asking for a commitment from the team’s for eight years. So the new Concorde or whatever develops is for a substantial period. We’re working with Bernie to find the best solution, and I think we’re very close.”

Ross Brawn refused to be drawn today on speculation that Lewis Hamilton could be on his way to Mercedes next year.

Brawn said that no decision had been taken on who will drive alongside Nico Rosberg, who has a multi-year contact with the team.

“We don’t comment on speculation, I’m afraid,” said Brawn. “So when we make our driver decision, then you’ll be the first to hear about it. But it’s still some way off.

“Coming to a conclusion on our driver situation will take some time still and when we’re there we’ll be very happy to share it with you. But we’ve still got some way to go.”

Inevitably the idea that Michael will stop at the end of this season is gathering momentum, although Brawn said nothing was clear yet.

“We’re discussing things with Michael and there’s no panic in those discussions. That’s what we’re focussed on at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s his [decision] alone, we’ve got to find a solution together. I can’t honestly go into details, but it’s not Michael’s decision to stay, it’s not our decision for him to stay, it’s a joint decision.

“It could be tomorrow, it could be a month. We’ve got a lot of things we’re discussing with him, and when we reach a conclusion, we’ll be happy to share it with you. I can’t set a timescale, I’m afraid.”

Asked specifically if he would like Michael to stay on, Brawn said: “I think Michael has a huge amount to offer. We saw his driving in Spa – a great performance in Spa that we didn’t back up with as strong a car as we’d want. And he’s had lots of performances like that this year.

“I’m very happy with Michael’s performance. With these technical challenges that we’re going to face particularly in 2014 someone of Michael’s experience and calibre would be great asset to any team, but particularly our team.”

Regarding Hamilton, he said: “Lewis is a very good driver, an excellent driver.”

Brawn made the point that Mercedes should be a team that’s capable of attracting the best drivers, whoever they might be.

“We want to be a team that every driver wants to drive for. We’ve got a tremendous history that we’d like to live up to. We haven’t quite got there yet. I think the plans we’re making, and the structure we’re putting in pace, particularly with the changes in regulations that are coming over the next couple of years, we  are very ambitious in what we want to achieve.

“If we achieve what we want to achieve then we want to put ourselves in a position where every driver in F1 would consider driving for us. The last couple of years Red Bull has been a team that’s been very competitive, and most drivers want to have a red Bull under them. We want to be in a situation where most drivers want to have a Mercedes under them, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Former Force India and Sauber technical director James Key has joined Toro Rosso in the same role, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli.

Key officially started work on Monday after the appointment had been rumoured for some time.

“With James Key in the role of Technical Director, we start a new chapter in the history of Toro Rosso and I hope it’s an interesting one,” said team boss Franz Tost.
“James comes to us with a strong reputation and has proved he can help smaller teams punch above their weight. We cannot expect miracles in the next few races, but James has joined early enough to have an influence on our car for 2013, when we hope to have a better season than this one, even if last weekend’s result in Belgium, with both cars in the points, was encouraging.”

Key added: “It’s a great opportunity for me to join a team that strikes me as extremely ambitious with a workforce that is very motivated. Even after just a few days, I have sensed, from everyone I have dealt with, an enthusiasm to move the team forward. There are clear opportunities coming up through regulation changes and we intend to look not only at the long term, but the short term too.

“We will be studying the team’s working practices, throughout all the departments, while looking to see which areas need strengthening further. Our aim has to be to move the team up a level in terms of its position within the F1 hierarchy. Next year’s car project is already well underway and it seems to be going in the right direction and now we have a few months left to ensure it is a step forward from this year’s car.

“Looking closer to home, there is still some development to come on this year’s STR7 and we will be doing our best to make the most of the remaining eight races with the developments already in the pipeline, all of it coming off the back of a good weekend in Spa.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso has finally confirmed the departure of erstwhile technical director Giorgio Ascanelli, who has been ‘on holiday’ for some weeks.

The team says that the former McLaren and Ferrari man has resigned his post.

Ascanelli said in an STR statement: “I’ve enjoyed the past years working at Scuderia Toro Rosso. It has been a very intense and interesting time, in which we had to manage the transition from a small team to a much larger one, and everybody has put a lot of effort to bring us where we are today. We have sown the seeds for a successful future and I think the team challenge is now to gain a stable presence in the upper mid-field and I wish all at Toro Rosso the very best for the future.”

Meanwhile team boss Franz Tost said: “Over a period of almost five years, Giorgio has contributed positively to the development of our team. Especially in the difficult transition period from a simple racing team to a fully-fledged constructor he made an important contribution and his undoubted experience was very valuable to us. We would like to thank him for his efforts and wish him all the best for the future.”

Lotus technical director James Allison has confirmed that the Double DRS ‘Device’ now won’t be raced until Suzuka at the earliest.

The team had planned to race it at Spa, but the wet Friday meant that it took the conservative choice of running in standard spec from Saturday onwards. However he says it was never intended to use it at Monza.

“Although we would like to have it at Monza – because it is the type of circuit that rewards such a thing – we don’t have the DRS device configured to cope with the Monza level of downforce,” said Allison. “So it is not even on the table. In Singapore you won’t see it either, because it’s too high a downforce circuit with insufficient straights for it to be worthwhile. The earliest you might see it now is Suzuka.”

Team boss Eric Boullier added: “Quite a few interesting developments are still in the pipeline and they’ll be implemented later in the year. At this time of the year, the team usually starts focusing almost only on its next car. This is not the case this year, as we’ll develop the E20 until the very last race. And that won’t compromise the design of the E21.”

Meanwhile Allison is confident that the team will bounce back in Italy after a disappointing weekend in Belgium that saw Kimi Raikkonen finish a distant third.

“It’s always tricky to go into Monza with any certainty about how the world is going to work out, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the track always produces very, very close grids and this is a season where the grids are close anyway. We could be in a situation like Valencia, where if you were two or three tenths too slow you could miss getting into Q3.

“Not only does Monza already attract a close grid – in a season of close grids – but it is also a very distinct circuit. In some ways it’s a bit like Canada: Straight into a corner, straight into a corner, without any big ‘S’ sections. The closest you’ve got is Ascari and Parabolica. This means that the straight-to-corner ratio is such that you run a wing level that is way too small for the corners.

“So the drivers will be doing their best to scrabble around the corners in a car that is optimised for the straights. All this means it’s difficult to know how we’ll perform. And, having made predictions about the last race that were not exactly on the mark, it’s even harder to do so here!

“That said, if you took the season as a whole, we’ve got a fair hit rate of arriving at tracks and performing reasonably. So the balance of probability is that we’ll do the same in Monza as well. In all probability it will be pretty warm and we’ve tended to go well when it’s warm, Valencia being a case in point and another point-and-squirt circuit where we’ve done very well. So we ought to be able to get our show back on the road in Monza after a slight misfire in Spa.”

Allison admitted that it’s not going to be an easy weekend for Jerome D’Ambrosio, who is deputising for Romain Grosjean.

“He has driven the car – very capably – at the Mugello test, but that’s a very different type of circuit. There’s very little braking in Mugello and almost nothing but braking for the driver to think about in Monza. However, he is a reasonably seasoned campaigner and certainly a very level-headed sort of chap.

“It’s a big opportunity for him to show us and the rest of the world what he’s got. I know he’ll really want to make the most of it and hopefully he will be able to cement some good championship points for us.”

Lotus reserve driver Jerome D’Ambrosio has an opportunity to prove himself this weekend as he steps into the car temporaily vacated by the suspended Romain Grosjean.

It’s a big ask, as he’s only done 40 laps in the E20 at Mugello back in May, but on the other hand, he has nothing to lose. Here’s what he had to say in a Q&A issued by the team.

Q: How does it feel to be called on to drive in the Italian Grand Prix?

“I understand the circumstances in which the drive has come about, but for me it’s a great opportunity and great challenge. I first want to thank the team for having faith in me and allowing me to step in the car for this race at Monza. I will do everything I can to do the best possible job. I’ve worked hard outside the car this year and tried to prepare as best I can just in case something like this happened. I want to make the most of this weekend.”

Q: How is your past form at Monza?

“I had my last podium in GP2 there, so I have good memories of Monza. It is a very challenging track because of the low downforce. It’s also going to be a special event in general, because it is the last race in Europe and Monza always has a very special atmosphere. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Q: What are the challenges of being thrown in at the deep end for a race like this?

“It’s a massive challenge, especially because I’ve not driven much this year and Monza is a unique low downforce track. But I don’t want to focus on what will be hard or difficult. I just want to focus on what I can achieve. It will be challenging but I am already part of the team, I know everyone and I will have great support from them to do the best I can. I will be focussed 100% to make full use of free practice because that could be the key for me this weekend.”

Q: What have you been doing in preparation for your race?

“As soon as I got the call on Sunday night I drove back to Spa to speak with Ayao Komatsu who will be my race engineer. We checked my seat and talked through everything I need to know. I will be spending time in the simulator, fine tuning myself with all the procedures. And I’ll be speaking a lot with the engineers so I’m as prepared as I can be heading into first practice on Friday.”

Q: Monza’s quite a unique track, where will your focus be?

“I can’t wait to be in the car! Monza is high speed and low downforce. Parabolica is a very important and a great corner. Ascari is also not an easy corner. There are some good challenges. It’s a different track from most these days and there will be plenty to do. I’m looking forward to being there and looking over all the data, but most of all I’m looking forward to being there and driving.”

Q: Are you ready for extra attention you’re going to receive this weekend?

“My focus is on the race. I had a complete season in F1 last year. This is a good thing because I know how an F1 weekend runs and also I’ve been with the team this year. I know it’s really busy at a Grand Prix, but in a good way because it’s a lot of work with engineers which I like.”

Q: You did drive at last year’s Italian Grand Prix – is that good preparation?

“It wasn’t too good as preparation as my car broke down on the warm-up lap! I’m definitely hoping for something better this year. My last real memory of Monza is from GP2 when I was on the podium. I’m going to be 100% focused to get a good result this year and am really looking forward to being on the grid watching the start lights.”