Alonso limits the damage for Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari leaves Melbourne with ten points to its name, thanks to a fifth place for Fernando Alonso. However, Felipe Massa had to retire after a collision with Senna on lap 47, when he was lying thirteenth.
Fernando ran a two stop race, using the Pirelli Softs at the start and then the Mediums in the two remaining stints. Felipe also started on the Softs and did one more pit stop, both because he suffered more with tyre degradation than his team-mate and also because he made the most of the Safety Car period to change tyres.
Stefano Domenicali:
“Clearly we cannot be happy with a fifth place but, given how things went yesterday, Fernando’s result is a positive one, the result mainly of yet another super performance from the Spaniard. Felipe’s bad Sunday is the result of the Saturday that preceded it: the balance of his car was not right and he paid the price, especially in terms of tyre degradation: a shame because thanks to a really good start, he’d managed to move up straight into the top ten. We knew that this weekend, the car we had was not the one we wanted going into this season, but today we also saw a situation that was a bit different to yesterday, especially as far as Fernando was concerned, because, in the first stint, his pace was not that far off that of the leaders. The Safety Car did not help him any and after the end of the neutralised period, Fernando’s pace was no longer as competitive and he struggled to keep Maldonaldo’s Williams behind him. I want to highlight the performance of the crew during the pit stops: looking at the figures, we were the fastest both in terms of outright performance and on average. I am keen to mention this, because we have worked a great deal on this front: already in the second part of 2011, the situation was better and today we have taken another step forward. We know we must raise the performance level of our car: from what we have seen here in Australia, there are several teams not so far off one another and one does not need to make enormous progress to make up several places. We know the main areas we need to work on – traction and top speed first and foremost – and we must accelerate as much as possible the development work to reach the level of the best as soon as possible.”
Fernando Alonso, P5:
“We knew it would be a very complicated race and I am happy I managed to bring home a useful number of points. I got a great start and managed a few passing moves in the early stages and later, after the Safety Car, there was a tough fight with Maldonaldo: when I saw he’d gone off the track I breathed a sigh, because he had been really close to me for quite a few laps up until then. I was slower than him and all I could do was defend my position, using the KERS at a few specific points. I am sorry for him, because it’s a real shame to finish a race like that. As for the positive points to come out of today, they would be the start, the pit stops and the strategy. Today the car was better than yesterday and we were closer to the leaders. However, we still have a lot of work to do to reach those who are ahead of us in terms of performance; not just McLaren and Red Bull, but also Mercedes and Lotus. We are probably a second off pole and there are seven or eight teams who are all very close to one another. In one sense, that’s good news because if we can improve by a few tenths, then we can make up a few places. Next week in Malaysia will be a trial by fire, because Sepang is a very demanding circuit, for the cars and the tyres.”
Felipe Massa, DNF:
“This has been a really poor weekend for me. Already yesterday I suffered because the car was badly balanced and today, it was probably even worse, because after a few laps I was struggling with the tyres. I had got a great start and had managed to make up a few places and I was hoping to finish in the points. We tried to bring forward the first stop, but also on the second set of Soft tyres we had the same problems: the car was sliding and the degradation was much greater than for the others. I would not say I was driving aggressively and I was actually trying not to be hard on the tyres, but there was nothing I could do. Even on the Mediums, the situation did not change. We must work to understand why we could not reproduce the right balance on the car, as we had for example at the Barcelona tests. As for the contact with Senna, I think we can consider it a racing incident. A Toro Rosso tried to pass me on the outside of Turn 3 and Bruno had better traction on the inside, so we went into Turn 4 side by side: that where we tangled and it ended as you saw it did.”
Pat Fry:
“From what we have seen this weekend, our race pace is a bit better than in qualifying. Today, Fernando drove a very good race and managed to bring home some valuable points. A shame for Felipe: we must try and understand why his car was not right from yesterday as today, we saw even more of the consequences of that. Both drivers got a good start and managed the situation well through the first corner, thus immediately making up the ground lost yesterday afternoon: without that first lap, it would have been tough because there are so many quick cars and it would have been quite a task to get past them. The Safety Car came out at the worst possible time for Fernando, but even so, he would not have managed to fend off Webber in the final part of the race. However, we are behind when compared to the best, even if not as much as could be seen yesterday. We must work very hard, that’s for sure. Next week in Malaysia, we will have another difficult race: we must try and adapt as well as possible to the characteristics of the Sepang circuit.”
