Adam Cooper F1

Fernando Alonso turned the form book upside down with his brilliant victory in Malaysia – but the Spaniard insists that it doesn’t change the fact that Ferrari is well off the pace in normal conditions this year.

In a car that was only good enough to qualify ninth Alonso put in a storming race in the wet conditions to jump into the lead, and then managed to stay in front even after the track dried.

“This win changes nothing in the approach in the next coming weeks,” said Alonso. “In the next coming races we need to have a very aggressive approach in terms of the development of the car. We need to bring updates to every race because we are a little bit too far behind or more than what we want or what we expect.

 “Now that we are leading the championship we should be quite proud of the job but as I said we need to work. From a psychology point of view, the win will make more motivation to the guys in Maranello. They don’t need motivation because they work for Ferrari and they need to do the maximum for this red car and they know that, but after one win they will go tomorrow at eight o’clock to work with a smile and that maybe will give us some ideas.

“We are in a position that we don’t want, to be fighting to go into Q3 and then fighting to score some points. We want to fight for pole positions, for victories, so definitely in the first two races of the Championship that we find ourselves off the pace. As I said before, the goal was not to lose many points with the leaders.

“We didn’t lose maybe any point to the leaders, so this is the positive news about these first two races but coming to China, Bahrain, Barcelona, there is a lot of stuff coming to improve the car and this is the real job we have to do. I know the team is putting in a lot of effort.

“We trust each other a lot in the team, we are very united at the moment and this win will make us very happy today and maybe the next two days in the factory, but it doesn’t change our determination to improve the car and to keep winning.”

Alonso said the strategy calls had worked out as well as could be expected.

“I think it was perfect. We started with inters, which I think was the main choice for everyone. We switched to extreme tyres because the aquaplaning was very bad and we overtook Vettel in that pit stop because we anticipated [it by] one lap.

“Then we came with Lewis, to change for inters after the restart. I think I came in behind Lewis but I exited in front, so it was just the pit stop itself that was quicker. Maybe Lewis had some kind of problems. I was making positions little by little, with perfect calls from the team, so this victory is definitely for them.”

Alonso used the medium tyre in the last part of the race, and in the end it was just enough to get the job done.

“We were not sure about the medium or the hard tyre. We were leading the race, you don’t need to invent anything, you just to copy what they are doing and with that maybe it’s enough. We put on the medium.

“With the consistency we were comfortable, but obviously not quick enough compared to Sergio, he was putting a lot of pressure. They were quicker than us, no doubt about that but we were lucky enough to maintain the position in the last laps.”

He admitted that there had been some difficult moments: “Only at Korea [2010] do I remember these type of conditions, especially at the beginning when we had inters, the visibility was zero behind Webber and there was a crash in turn four between Grosjean and Michael and I think I passed just one centimetre from Michael’s front wing. There were many factors in the race, especially in the first ten laps, which could put you out of the race very easily.

“I had two or three big moments in turn three and under braking for turn one. You arrive at 280 or 290 kilometers per hour with aquaplaning for 20 meters on the inters and then the car recovers thanks to God, so there were big moments throughout the race, so when you get a victory, it tastes better, for sure, but it’s difficult. I’m very happy.”

Sergio Perez’s brilliant run to second in Malaysia marked him out as a future star – and made a graduation to Ferrari even more likely than it was previously. The question now would seem to be when, rather than if…

A combination of good strategy calls and brilliant driving from the Mexican got him into second place and in a position to challenge Fernando Alonso for the win, but in the end a late call for slicks and then a brief off track excursion both cost him valuable time, and twice he lost the ground he’d made up.

“I think the win today was really possible,” said Perez. “Obviously the team did very good work to call me in at the right times. We lost one lap just at the end to Fernando on the dry tyres, so we lost about two seconds, and then my pit stop didn’t go so well with the clutch. And then I managed to catch him, lap by lap.

“Towards the end I had some understeer into a left-hand corner, the quick one, and I ran wide enough to go into the wet, and then I just lost control of the car and went straight and lost the fight for the victory. But even though, I think it’s been a great effort for the team. They called me at the right times. The conditions were very difficult to keep the car on the track and they have been incredible.

“They were quite focused as well, so they always called me at the right time, which was crucial here and obviously we had a great pace. In my second stint, when we changed to intermediates, we changed a bit late and Fernando was already with warm tyres, so it took me some laps to warm up tyres and at that point it was very difficult to get Fernando, but towards the end of the stint I was very close to him.

“So again he pitted and he pulled away, he pitted on the right lap and it took me a few laps to catch him. When I caught him I knew it would have to be quick to overtake him because I was having a lot of degradation in my front tyres, especially going behind him. So I went looking for the way to get him and then I just ran a bit wide and touched the wet kerb – I was lucky not to go off. In the end, second it’s a great result for the team. Many points and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. It’s only the second race of the season and hopefully we can keep improving our car to fight the big guys.”

Perez insisted that he was not disappointed to lose a shot at the win, and denied that a radio call from Sauber telling him how important it was to retain the result was a distraction.

“Obviously the team was worried. Obviously for us, second place means a lot so they were quite worried, I was going quite fast in difficult conditions. To keep the car on the track during the early stages of the race was quite a challenge, so we did quite well. It was a long race for the team, and I fully understand them. But no, it was not a distraction at all. I think they wanted the points as much as I did. I wanted the win because I saw it was possible. Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but I’m still very happy and very proud of this second place.

“I knew that the car had the potential to fight in these kind of conditions because we were not so far off, so in this type of condition, maybe the driver can make a little bit more difference and if you get the right conditions and you make the right calls then you can be up there fighting as we were today. The victory was quite close, but I think all in all, it’s a great day for me.”

He played down the inevitable suggestions that he’s in line for a Ferrari seat sooner rather than later.

“My full commitment is with my team, with Sauber F1 team. It’s only the second race of the season and there’s still a long way to go so we have to keep improving, especially because we are a small team, so for us, it’s getting closer to development, the others can improve more so it’s important we remain focused. Obviously it’s only rumours but no, I will stay with Sauber for the whole season.”

Bernie Ecclestone’s announcement that a majority of teams had agreed terms for the new 2013-2020 Concorde Agreement stirred up a lot of interest in the Sepang paddock, not least because by naming McLaren Bernie was making it clear that it was not just the leading teams that had exited FOTA – Ferrari and RBR – who were involved.

Nevertheless Mercedes and Williams are among those who have yet to join the party, and it’s clear that on this rather important subject FOTA unity is a thing of the past. There was a very firm “no comment” from the Stuttgart manufacturer.

Team bosses were generally keen to point out that negotiations were still ongoing, and that nothing had been signed.

“It means stability and consistency,” said Christian Horner. “Through the Concorde Agreement it protects and looks after the teams and the long term interests of the sport, so I think it’s really good news.”

“I think Bernie wants to deliver a positive news message for F1,” said Martin Whitmarsh. “And I think the fact that at the moment at least we don’t look like we’re breaking out in war is probably a positive news message, isn’t it?

“I think in fairness Bernie hasn’t said that the majority have signed, I think he’s said something along the lines that he has reached an agreement with the majority of the teams, and a majority must be seven or more, presumably. I don’t know what anyone has signed. McLaren hasn’t signed any document at the moment, but we are in talks with Bernie and the commercial rights holder.

“Until something’s signed, you haven’t got an agreement, but I think we are in constructive discussions, and I think others are saying the same sort of thing. I think the majority of teams are in those discussions at the moment.”

Asked why McLaren had appeared to have done a deal, Whitmarsh said: “I think the majority of the teams are finding an agreement, and I think you can either stick your head in the sand or you can say let’s find a pragmatic solution.

“Ultimately we have to have an agreement which involves the commercial rights holder, the FIA, and all of the teams that are competing. I think Bernie is trying to put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together. I think he’s still got a bit of work to do, but I sense it’s heading in a positive direction.”

Whitmarsh said the bigger picture was cost reduction and ensuring that teams can survive.

“We still today have a lot of teams here that probably don’t have long-term viable business models, so we’ve got to continue to work together to make sure that we’ve got sustainable business models for the majority of teams in F1.”

For the second Saturday in a row Nico Rosberg has compromised his grid position with a scrappy lap in qualifying.

Despite showing impressive speed at times over the weekend, the Mercedes driver will start only seventh in Malaysia – and that after gaining a place from Kimi Raikkonen’s penalty.

Rosberg insisted that there was no particular reason why he had suffered a similar fate in two races.

“No it’s just a coincidence,” he said. “It just wasn’t a great lap today, unfortunately.”

His session was not helped by losing a set of tyres to a yellow flag: “There was Maldonado who went off right in front of me, so there were yellows everywhere. I decided the best thing was going to be to lift off enough, and so that cost me a set.”

Despite his personal frustrations, Rosberg is upbeat about the team’s potential.

“We’re definitely getting better, for sure, but in the race we’re still had some difficulties in Melbourne, so at the moment we really need to focus on that, and focus on moving forward and doing a better job there. Here of course tomorrow is going to be very interesting, because it’s going to be quite tough again on the rear tyres. I have a feeling that we can do better. If it’s enough, I really don’t know yet, but I think we can do definitely a lot better than Melbourne.”

The team has spent a lot of effort on solving the tyre overheating problems that affected him last weekend.

“It’s not an easy thing to help, we’ve done a lot of work for it, we’ve done a lot of changes to improve that situation, so I’m confident that we can do better, but as I say, we don’t know if it’s enough yet, so we need to see tomorrow if everything that we’ve done really has been a big enough step or not.”

The infamous Mercedes F-Duct only works when the DRS is employed, so it could be of great benefit when Rosberg and Michael Schumacher are battling in traffic.

Asked bythis blog whether he was looking forward to seeing how effective it will be in race trim, Nico said: “I look forward to overtaking, definitely tomorrow! I think definitely we have a good speed advantage and I have a good speed advantage over the people in front, for sure. So that should definitely help with overtaking and moving forward a little bit through the field.”

Michael Schumacher’s third place on the grid in Malaysia represents his best qualifying performance since his comeback, but despite being behind just the two McLarens, he insists that he’s not thinking about victory.

Back in Melbourne, where Michael qualified fourth, this writer asked him whether it was the first time since his comeback that he could genuinely sit down on a Saturday night and discuss how to win the race.

He didn’t agree at the time, and when I put the question again to him tonight, he remained cautious.

“Certainly we’re going to sit and think about how we’re going to achieve the best result,” he said. “I don’t think we have to think right now about winning races, that’s a bit too optimistic unless who knows what happens upstairs [he glanced to the heavens].

“But in general terms I think it’s obvious we’ve done a good improvement with the car. Not only in Australia, that sometimes is not let’s say a factor for the future of the year. But here this circuit is a little bit more representative for the rest of the year, and that’s good, to have a car that’s competitive in both those tracks. And naturally we hope we can prove the point tomorrow in the race after the lesson in Australia.”

Asked whether he could foresee getting a pole sometime soon, Michael was equally non-committal.

“I don’t know, but it’s not really important, because the race we know is a lot more important than qualifying these days, and you have to always optimise your weekend, and that is when the flag drops, that is when you want to have the best result. There have been years where qualifying had a much higher percentage to the success, and that was different.”

Sebastian Vettel has qualified sixth for the second consecutive race after taking a gamble that might pay off on Sunday.

Thanks to a penalty for Kimi Raikkonen Vettel moves up to fifth, and he will start the Malaysian GP on the hard tyres after choosing to use them for the crucial final runs. In theory he should be able to run a longer first stint which may play out as a useful strategic advantage. He also has a new set of mediums tucked away.

Vettel made the call because he was unlikely to qualify very much higher with the medium tyre, on which he was struggling.

“It didn’t feel very good on the soft tyre and I decided to go different,” said Vettel. “I went on the hards, and I think it was a step forward. I didn’t feel that happy in qualifying, I was struggling to find the balance. I didn’t get everything out of the car for one flying lap.

“There’s not much strategy behind it, to be honest. I was struggling on the soft tyres, I thought I had a better car on the hard tyres, that’s why I made the choice. I could have gone a tenth, maybe a tenth and a half quicker on the soft tyre. Whether it’s an advantage for tomorrow I don’t know, but as we are the only ones we hope, but let’s see.

“It’s fairly easy to see, we are not there where we want to be in qualifying. There’s a lot of work ahead of us.”

Vettel said he wasn’t surprised to have as hard a time as he did in Australia.

“What do you expect will happen within one week? We had a not so good qualifying in Australia and a not so good qualifying here. We had a good race in Australia, so we’re looking forward to the race. Our race pace should be better, but nevertheless there’s plenty of work to do and we are aware, so we need to push hard.”

Mercedes and Williams are believed to be the two major established teams that have yet to agree to Bernie Ecclestone’s terms for a new 2013 Concorde Agreement.

It’s thought that Mercedes is simply not happy with the commercial arrangements currently on offer.

Ecclestone announced today that the majority of the teams had already agreed, and named Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. To that list can be added Toro Rosso and Sauber, who also made an early exit from FOTA.

The majority of seven is believed to be made up by Lotus and Force India. Aside from Mercedes and Williams the three youngest teams are yet to agree, but obviously they are not regarded as a priority by Ecclestone, who traditionally has to get the big players in line first.

Bernie Ecclestone has announced that the majority of the teams have agreed the terms of a future Concorde Agreement to run from 2013-2020.

Last week in Australia it became apparent that Ferrari and Red Bull had or were about to sign up to a new deal having left FOTA, but significantly Bernie has named McLaren in addition to those two.

Ecclestone issued a single sentence on the F1 website: “I am very pleased to announce that we have reached commercial agreements with the majority of the current Formula One teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing, about the terms on which they will continue competing in Formula One after the current Concorde Agreement expires at the end of this year.”

It remains to be seen which teams have not yet agreed, but whatever the case the news would seem to be positive if it means that there won’t be a prolonged debate that pits Ferrari and Red Bull against the key FOTA members.

“It’s great news,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky’s Ted Kravitz. “Hopefully it secures the long term future of the sport with the teams involved. It’s important I think for there to be a Concorde Agreement because it protects the teams through that agreement as well. Hopefully it will all be formalised pretty shortly.”

Felipe Massa was happy with progress in Sepang today – despite being only 16^thand a lot slower than Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso in the afternoon session.

In the morning he had been quicker than the Spaniard with a car rebuilt around the spare chassis, but changes in the afternoon made it worse – and Massa saw that as good news, as it gave the team a lot more information about what not to do.

“I started the morning with a different car, and it was very positive,” said Massa. “And then in the afternoon we tried different pieces, and even pieces we tried in Australia, and everything went in a worse direction, so I think that was very positive to understand the direction.

“The car I started in the morning was completely different to the car I ran in the second session, and I think that can be very positive at least to find why things were difficult in Australia, so I think tomorrow it’s a big step that the car can be much more competitive in terms of what you guys saw in terms of lap time this afternoon.

“Here we’re suffering with instability at the rear, especially in the slow corners, in the high speed there’s a big understeer at the front, so let’s say it’s a mix. But I think it should improve a lot, talking about my side, for tomorrow.

“For sure it was positive, now I want to go in the car with everything right, everything ready, the best we have. And this will be tomorrow.”

Massa remains confident that he can have a much better race this weekend.

“We need to concentrate on scoring points, scoring as many points as possible. How much, we’ll see how the car is going to be in qualifying, and how it’s going to be in the race as well. For sure we don’t have a very competitive car, but I hope we are able to fight to score as many points as possible.”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali remains hopeful that Ferrari can get to the bottom of its problems with F2012, and says that his engineers know what they need to address.

“For sure, I’m disappointed by the performance of the car, no doubt,” Domenicali said today. “But on the other hand what I need to make sure is that at home we need to push on the development of the car, because we know what are the problems with this car from the other weekend.

“Nothing has changed on that. I am confident that our engineers will solve the issues we have as quickly as possible because in such a close field a little step makes a difference, and in such a close battle, when you are in a difficult moment, you need to score points because everything can happen.

“So that’s something, it is clear. Not happy as I said, but not to be happy doesn’t help, and I’ve asked my engineers to be focussed on the job because that is what they have to do.”

Regarding the unexpected return to Italy of Ferrari’s top management between Australia and Malaysia, Domenicali said: “What we did was to make sure that the focus on the programme has to be there at home with the engineers, mainly in the aerodynamic department. I’ve asked Pat [Fry] to be spot on, on the case, in order to make sure that now that there is a lot of meat on the fire, we need to make sure this meat will be delivered as quickly as possible, as there is no time to lose.”

Felipe Massa was much happier with his car today – built around the spare chassis – although the timing screens showed Fernando Alonso some way ahead in the second session, in which Massa was only 16^th.

“We had a programme today with some changes on the car to verify some different configurations and tomorrow we will have let’s say the best package, because in this moment I would say for him it’s important to feel the confidence around him. Not only him because the team has a lot of pressure, so that’s the status of the art we have done today.

“In terms of what we have seen today we were trying to work with different programmes on two different drivers, and tomorrow we will see the situation. Today there is nothing I can say that is going to one direction or the other. The work of today was done in order to make sure that tomorrow Felipe has the best car in the best condition. This is the thing we have to give to him.”