Tag Archives: Alonso

September 8, 2013 · 8:26 pm

Stefano Domenicali: “We need to be there like the wolf…”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says that second was the best that the team could have hoped for on a weekend when Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel were so dominant.

He also conceded that the Italian outfit has to rely on problems for Vettel to have any chance of winning the title.

“I think for sure today we clearly saw a Red Bull that was stronger,” said Domenicali. “We tried to do the maximum. We achieved I think a fantastic race with the position we had with Fernando, and it was a shame because I wanted also to have Felipe on the podium, but when you’re fighting with a stronger car you play with strategies, but it’s not always easy.

“It is clear that with the fact that also here Red Bull has shown a great pace in these conditions that the fight for the championship is very difficult, but it doesn’t change our approach. We need to stay there and as I said we need to take the opportunities if these opportunities will come. The experience of last year is still burning for us. In a sporting way if something happens with them, we need to be there like the wolf, to attack them, and to stay tuned and connected.

“With regard to the decision of how and when we are going to swap all the resource to the new car, I think we are very close to a final decision. We are already shifting progressively the resources as was planned by us before the summer break.”

Domenicali said that the decision to keep Alonso out for four extra laps after Vettel stopped – and which resulted in the gap growing from around 5s to 10s – was mainly to give the Spaniard fresher tyres for the latter part of the race, in the hope that it might be an advantage.

“At that stage the tyres were basically still in a good condition, and we wanted to minimise the use of the hard tyres. The second side was really to see if their tyres were having a drop on the last lap maybe we were able to close the gap at the end. The point is that when you have realistically speaking a car that is a big quicker you try to invent something, but today was not enough.”

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September 8, 2013 · 5:19 pm

Fernando Alonso: “We don’t have enough races…”

Fernando Alonso kept himself in the frame for the World Championship by finishing second in Monza, and while he lost another seven points to race winner Sebastian Vettel, he has at least now pulled clear of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

“I think the weekend we took the maximum from the car,” said Alonso. “Practice was OK, and we learnt some good information Friday. Saturday it was very good, both cars in the top five. I think the last time was Malaysia this year, so a very, very long time, so we were very, very happy.

“Today, being in the podium again, it’s a fantastic feeling here in Monza. The fourth year that I drove for Ferrari, four times that I was in the podium, and every year is something amazing, something unique again, to be there in that moment.

“And we did the maximum and nearly a perfect weekend. We didn’t close the gap in the championship, which is obviously the goal every weekend but when Sebastian and Red Bull dominate Friday, Saturday and Sunday and they win the race we have to congratulate them. They were the best all through the weekend, and we need to do hopefully a better job next time, but from what we had this weekend I think we did the maximum. So we are extremely happy.”

Nevertheless, Alonso accepts that his title hopes are getting slimmer.

“Well, I think we need to be realistic about the championship now there’s a very big gap. We don’t have enough races and probably we don’t have the speed right now to win some consecutive races and hope to reduce the gap just by pace. We need to be lucky and we need to have some DNFs from Sebastian or something to win the championship. With the races left and the points disadvantage, it’s hard, but in a way, it was exactly the same last year.

“We could only lose the championship, with 41 points advantage in front of Sebastian after the Monza race. It was difficult for him to catch up and so it was maybe up to us. We didn’t complete the job and we had a DNF in Suzuka, and some other problems. There’s still a long way to go; we will try until the last race to be as good as we can and score as many points as possible, and then in Brazil we will see how many points we have compared to him.”

Alonso says he’s open-minded about the car’s potential form in the next race in Singapore.

“Obviously we were expecting a lot from Monza, and it was a very good Monza. It’s true that we didn’t win the race, because Red Bull and Sebastian did an even better job and they were very, very good but in our level of competitiveness that we had this year, Monza is one of the best weekends, as we expected before.

“We came from Silverstone, from Nurburgring, from Hungary where we had Red Bull in front of us, Lotus in front of us, Mercedes in front of us and some other cars sometimes, so here in Monza we were able to beat all those cars and fight for the wins, so if we can repeat this good performance in Singapore, we hope so but this will be the real test for us. We made some changes in the car, they seemed to be positive in Spa, seem to be good and positive in Monza, but when we reach the maximum level of downforce in Singapore, like we had in Hungary, we need to check.

“If we still have Mercedes in front, Lotus in front and some other teams, we will be more or less the same as in Hungary and we don’t want to be. I think we prepare the car and we prepare everything to make a step forward and in Singapore hopefully we can see it.”

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September 7, 2013 · 2:25 pm

Fernando Alonso: “I will be able to see the Red Bull rear wings on the grid…”

Fernando Alonso insists that he’s happy with how qualifying unfolded in Monza, despite being beaten by team mate Felipe Massa.

The two Ferraris tried to co-ordinate a tow to help the Spaniard, and while he complained initially on the radio that the Brazilian was too far ahead, he said that in the end it had worked out. Alonso will start fifth, right behind Massa.

Fernando was clearly annoyed that a negative message that showed him criticising the team, when the plan for a tow appeared to be unravelling, had been played on TV.

“In Q3 we had Vergne in the middle out of Turn 4,” he said. “And then I was ready to take the slipstream of Vergne, because he seemed to want to follow Felipe at that stage. So I prepared the tyres a little bit, and then he let me by, and I had no one in front.

“So I said on the radio Felipe is too far away now if we want to do this, so they slowed down him and he was waiting a little bit in Parabolica, so we started the last attempt more or less the same distance as always.

“I just have to say thank you to the team and thank you to Felipe again for this tenth that helped me to do the last attempt in Q3. They didn’t put the last radio message when I said thank you to the team, thank you to Felipe, it was perfect at the end.

“It’s the first time in many, many races that I will be able to see the Red Bull rear wings on the grid, and on the first lap I can attack. It’s been an extremely, extremely good qualifying for us.”

Alonso believes that he can at least keep in touch with the Red Bulls.

“I think so. Normally in a race the worst point for us is the Saturdays, there are always three or four cars between us and the Red Bulls, so we start, we pass those cars, and we see the Red Bulls 10s ahead of us, and more or less we keep that distance or that gap throughout the race.

“We are very happy today because hopefully tomorrow after the start and the first corner we don’t have these three or four cars in the middle of us, we don’t have Hamilton, we don’t have Kimi, we don’t have Grosjean, we don’t have all these people who slow us a little bit in the first part of the races, because we have a great pace normally on Sundays. If tomorrow we have this great pace that normally we show on Sundays I don’t see any reason why not to follow the Red Bulls.”

However he concedes that Vettel will be hard to beat.

“He was fast all weekend, in all practices, in qualifying, in the race pace. It’s going to be tough. I think we need some changeable conditions tomorrow, maybe the rain, a mixed race, if not we know that it’s going to be tough, because they are very, very strong this weekend.”

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August 27, 2013 · 3:02 pm

Allison a great asset for Ferrari, says Fry

Ferrari engineering director Pat Fry says that the arrival of James Allison at Maranello will allow him to focus more on improving the performance of the F138.

Former Lotus man Allison, who officially starts work next week, will have Fry’s former job title of technical director (chassis). This will be his second spell at the team after he worked under Ross Brawn from 2000 to 2005.

“I think getting James on board will be a great asset for us really, I mean he’s a top bloke, isn’t he?,” said Fry when asked by this writer about the change in his workload. “In reality there’s been a huge amount of work for me to do. It’s almost like changing the organisation and the running of the company, as well as trying to look at the car.

“For me it’s good because I’ll have more time to be able to concentrate on really what’s going to make the car quick. Between the two of us we’ll divide the work up. There will be more minds thinking about things, so it can only help.”

Meanwhile Fry made an interesting comment about balancing preparations for 2014 with developing the current car.

“We’re still pushing as hard as we can. We’ve got updates coming through from the tunnel, a few more for Monza and another set for Singapore. So we’ll keep on pushing until Singapore, and then see where we are and revise things then.”

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August 26, 2013 · 9:37 am

Analysis: Is Alonso still in the frame at RBR?

The consensus in the paddock at Spa was that Daniel Ricciardo had already got the nod for the second Red Bull seat, and Mark Webber added fuel to the fire by telling Australian TV that it was a done deal.

However Christian Horner continues to insist that the team has yet to decide who will get the drive.

Ricciardo is signed to Red Bull Racing anyway, and in effect the team could call on his services at any time up to the start of next season. Even if the Aussie doesn’t get the RBR job he will be in a Toro Rosso with an identical powertrain/gearbox package to the RB10, and thus potentially in a competitive seat.

There appears to be no logical reason why Red Bull would not have announced Ricciardo if he had already been guaranteed the drive. Indeed from a PR standpoint an early announcement would be a show of faith in the junior programme at a time when other options were available.

The bottom line is that Horner wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t continue to explore other interesting options, given that Ricciardo isn’t going anywhere. Two World Champions are currently without a 2014 contract – Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button – while sources continue to suggest that Fernando Alonso is still not 100% committed to Ferrari.

When this writer asked Bernie Ecclestone if he thought that Felipe Massa would be staying at Maranello, he replied: “They should be more worried about hanging on to Alonso…”

The value of having two experienced, proven winners on board for what will be a complicated season for all the teams is obvious, and at the same time if RBR takes a second top driver it will in turn damage a rival.

“There’s plenty of speculation about, but nothing has been signed yet,” said Horner at Spa. “So the situation is still as I said before the race, we’ve got time to contemplate who we’re going to put in the other seat, and there will be no announcement certainly before Monza.

“Mark obviously isn’t privy to all of the discussions with drivers. When there’s something to announce, we’ll certainly announce it. It will probably go on beyond Monza.”

Elaborating on Ricciardo’s situation, he said: “Both Toro Rosso drivers are on Red Bull Racing contracts. They’re on loan to Toro Rosso, so at any point they are available for us to call upon. So we don’t have to worry about those two, because they’re products of the Red Bull junior team, and the reason we’re taking the time is to look at what other options are about.

“Obviously they are very big shoes to fill next year. We want to field the strongest possible team that we can, so therefore it’s absolutely prudent to look at all the options that are available. It’s actually surprised us the options that are available that perhaps we didn’t think were.”

It’s widely assumed that it would be impossible for Sebastian Vettel to operate alongside a proven superstar, but Horner says that’s not an issue.

“To be honest with you Sebastian has no input or veto or requirement for any blessing over that second seat. He wants obviously to have a competitive team mate, because he wants to be pushed, as Mark has pushed him. He hasn’t voiced any opinions, strongly or otherwise, in any way. He sees it very much as a team position, and that’s very much the way it is.”

While many observers struggle to understand why Alonso might want to leave Ferrari, it may well be that he simply has fears about the competitiveness of the 2014 powertrain package.

It remains unclear in what circumstances Alonso might be able to walk away from what appears to be a solid Ferrari contract, unless it contains a generous performance clause that works in his favour – for example something that relates to driver and team having failed to win a World Championship over their four years together.

Of course as ever there are some potentially some games in the background, and it’s easy to suggest that Alonso is simply finding ways to motivate his current team, while Horner is destabilising the likes of Ferrari and Lotus by keeping the driver debate open.

However, it’s worth remembering that it’s dangerous to second guess what Alonso might do. Not many people expected him to leave his home at Renault for McLaren, or indeed walk away from an ultra competitive McLaren at the end of 2007 – even allowing for the rather awkward way that season unfolded, and the breakdown of his relationship with the team management.

As someone close to Fernando said at Spa, “At McLaren he finished a point behind the champion, and he still quit…”

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August 24, 2013 · 2:16 pm

Fernando Alonso: “We need to be lucky tomorrow…”

Fernando Alonso was quick in the early stages of qualifying in Spa, but the Spaniard didn’t get it right when it mattered in Q3, and thus will start only ninth.

However, he believes he can still emerge from the weekend with a good result.

“Obviously when these conditions come you need to be a little bit lucky as well,” he said. “At the end of the Q3 some people chose to run fuel for the whole session, some people not, some people did extra lap at the end, and suddenly it stopped raining and it was getting very dry. You need to have a mix of things.

“I think we were not in a lucky position today, but we need the luck tomorrow – on Sunday, that’s when the points are given. We expect also a very chaotic race tomorrow with the weather. We need to be lucky tomorrow, and I’m confident we will be.”

Alonso made the point that even if his grid position didn’t reflect it, the Ferrari had looked good in all conditions.

“The car showed today a good performance. In Q1 in wet conditions we were first, in Q2 in dry conditions we were second. So the car seems to perform more or less OK in all conditions, so we are ready for tomorrow, challenging from ninth position.”

Alonso looked back to 2012 for a little inspiration.

“It’s true that we need to pass some people, but also last year Vettel started 10th, finished second, so anything can happen. We need to keep believing that the podium at least is possible, but we need to do a good race and get some luck.

“I remember last year, we were leading the championship, we did a good qualifying, and Vettel was out of Q3. So it was fantastic for our championship hopes. In Turn One he was P5, and I was out of the race.

“It’s not that I hope that he goes out in Turn One, but I mean Sunday for us is always the final result of the weekend, not Saturday, so we need to keep the hopes high because this particular race, this particular circuit, with the overtaking opportunities that you have anything can happen if you have the pace, so we need to prepare for tomorrow perfectly.”

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August 22, 2013 · 4:20 pm

Fernando Alonso: “We need to keep believing that we can do it…”

Fernando Alonso is adamant that Ferrari is still in the title fight, but stresses that everything will turn on the next few races.

Alonso has lost momentum in recent weeks, and the gap to leader Vettel has grown.

“The title will be decided by what the performance of the cars in next four races, in my opinion,” he said today. “We have Spa, medium downforce, Monza, light downforce and Singapore, maximum downforce. These three circuits, with three completely different setups and configurations of the cars, will tell us which is the main contender for Vettel. He is the big favourite. Who will catch him or put him in some difficulties, we will see.

“After the form of Lewis in Hungary, he at the moment can chase for the title. Raikkonen will always be there, because Lotus with the tyre degradation that they have will always be a contender on Sundays. We hope and we believe that Ferrari will win that group, we work for that with some changes that we have made in the car for this race.

“More will come in Monza, more will come finally in Singapore, and in these three races we need to have the answers on our side. From the other side, we are not so interested, but Mercedes looks good and Raikkonen will also be good.”

Always keen to do the numbers, Alonso pointed out that recent history showed that the gap to his rival could be closed.

“It’s difficult, but we need to keep believing that we can do it. I was 42 points behind in 2010 and I arrived leading in Abu Dhabi, Vettel was 41 points behind me last year, and arrived leading in Texas. So the last two or three seasons we have some good examples of what we can do, what we can hope for if we do things right.

“For this, we need to improve the car, we need to make some parts work and the first step in that programme is here in Spa, to try to see some performance gain and try to deliver what people expect from us.”

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July 2, 2013 · 11:56 am

Ferrari on schedule with 2014 turbo project

Ferrari engine and electronics boss Luca Marmorini says that the Italian team is on schedule with development of its 2014 powertrain – although he admits that it’s going to be tight.

“We already had a prototype running on the test bench towards the end of last year, while we are completing the one that will run in the actual car at the moment,” said Marmorini on the Ferrari website.

“We have a very challenging plan to be ready in March. We can’t afford any hiccough today and I am confident that we will be ready. We have been working for some time to have this car ready but it’s a challenging task. Only at the first race next year will we see if we have done a good job.”

Regarding the job ahead he said: “There is no one single aspect of the new project that is more critical than the next. I’d say it’s difficult in all 360 degrees. For example, the turbo is a new type which runs to 25,000rpm and is definitely something absolutely new. Also the very complex electronics and management systems are a very big step forward, which means that engine management will be a very difficult challenge.”

“We have to develop the power train in a short space of time and this means that reliability will be the factor that will decide the races in the early part of the season. In most cases people will locate their turbos in the central rear part of the engine and therefore near the electronics and the temperatures can reach a thousand degrees and that won’t be an easy matter to deal with. Managing temperatures will be one of the main areas we will have to work on.”

Intriguingly he said that Ferrari is concerned about races becoming economy runs, although Renault has told this writer that won’t happen: “Ferrari feels this could be a danger. We like Formula 1 to consider efficiency, but we don’t like Formula 1 to be a sport where you are cruising for 50% of the laps.”

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June 11, 2013 · 2:35 pm

Montezemolo on Mercedes: “We have faith in the FIA…”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has made it clear that he wants to see Mercedes found guilty in the wake of the testing controversy.

Choosing his words carefully, he put the onus on the FIA to resolve the situation.

“We have faith in the FIA,” said Montezemolo. “I do not wish to comment, but I note with satisfaction that the Federation is following this incident well. Let’s hope Formula 1 can maintain its professionalism, and we have faith that those who attempt to circumvent the regulations are pursued and prosecuted, or rather more prosecuted than pursued.”

Meanwhile he said no effort will be spared to maintain Fernando Alonso’s title challenge.

“As for us, we know exactly what we must do to win. Between today and tomorrow, I will hold a long and detailed meeting with Domenicali and all the engineers. They know what we must do to improve, and I am convinced that right to the very last race, Ferrari will be competitive and a contender, that we will not give up and that we have all the elements in place to improve.”

He acknowleged that better qualifying positions are essential: “A super-Saturday? Yes, but even just a normal one would do: it would be enough to see a car capable of getting comfortably onto the first two rows of the grid, not necessarily on pole, because from there, we can win the race. On Sunday, we saw Alonso produce another amazing race, with Ferrari running as a contender. We can but hope that in future, it might be a bit hotter on the race weekends.”

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