Saturday struggles “nothing new”, says Alonso

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso said he wasn’t surprised by Ferrari’s lack of pace during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Alonso will start from the fourth row of the grid after lapping over a second slower than Sebastian Vettel in qualifying.

“I think we were not competitive in any of the sessions this weekend, unfortunately,” said Alonso. “We’re struggling a little bit with the pace compared with our main competitors.”

“But in a way is nothing new from some other weekends: qualifying struggling a little bit, Sunday improving things and at the end getting always close to the podium or in the podium so tomorrow we will try to do our good Sunday again and hopefully scoring many point and see where our main competitors finish the race.”

Alonso admitted the best strategy for the race was “not so clear” following the practice sessions so far this weekend. “I think strategy is very open at the moment,” he said.

“We need to concentrate step-by-step – the first is the start, the first corner, the first lap – after that make the tyres stay alive for a little bit longer than our rivals, and then we see.

“It’s a tricky circuit in the mechanical point of view, in the physical point of view. So we must finish the race, score as many points as possible and then check what the others did.”

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Saturday struggles “nothing new”, says Alonso”

  1. Deja Vu: brazilian driver crash against the wall, safety car, Alonso wins.

    1. There is just one issue with the plan: Everyone can again go to the pits immediately unlike 2008. :P

    2. And Massa already knows he doesn´t have a seat in Ferrari next year

    3. The joke is getting old…

      1. “But that joke isn’t funny anymore / It’s too close to home / And it’s too near the bone …”

  2. If the Mountain of Zemelo does not realise that Domenicali is the problem, then he himself has become the problem. Buying new drivers is putting plasters on a festering Ferrari sore.

    1. How do you know Domenicali is the problem?

      1. It’s his job to get the factory, engine, chassis and earodynamics, raceday prep teams to work together to produce the best overall package and it is clear to all that parts of the car many time detract rather than add value to the car. Simply looking at how stable the Fun drink car is, tells us that overall coordination, not budget, could be the biggest problem Ferrari problem.

  3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    21st September 2013, 16:45

    Will Massa be able to materialize his “my own” stuff tomorrow? I guess the pit crew can have “some problems” to attach the tyres fast if he really manages to race better than Fernando.

    1. well thats nothing new in F1, we been seeing only webber’s car having “some problems” bunch of times these last 4 years!!

      1. @f1007

        we been seeing only webber’s car having “some problems” bunch of times these last 4 years

        The facts aren’t on your side on that one.

        1. @keithcollantine well the list ignores clutch issues which screwed up his starts n so the weekends. also I would take list as proof towards my claim, if you look at the issues, most webber’s problems were in qualy, which screws up the weekends. if you put those stats into prespective webber suffered more than vettel.

          1. @f1007 (alonso_fan) – There is nothing to suggest that all his starts are attributable to the car. In Germany, he got advice over team radio on what to do at the start, and hey presto, he actually started well. And Vettel suffered a lot of qualifying car issues too, the difference being that he still performs well, China 2009 being a great example.

            Plus, when we look at how often Webber’s issues have actually cost him points, we can easily say that Vettel has suffered more than Webber.

          2. @f1007 Such clutch problems are not necessarily car faults, it may simply be Webber not executing the necessary procedure correctly.

          3. @f1007

            Webber has been having starting issues before he went to Red Bull.
            What is the reason for those? Vettel was nowhere near F1 when he was at Williams and Jaguar.

            Perhaps you should consider that, instead of Red Bull sabotaging him to keep him away from Vettel (which is absolutely ridiculous), Webber is just not that good at starts.

    2. Let’s be honest though, the last time Massa beat Alonso on track when they both finished was China 2011. If he beats Alonso tomorrow it’s not going to suddenly make him more appealing to Lotus/McLaren/Marussia.

      1. That’s not quite fair because there have been a number of races in which Massa was leading and could very well have finished ahead but had to yield the spot. Your second comment is certainly true though

  4. He seems to have given up after seeing Vettel 1:42:9xx in Q2.

  5. Maybe the rumours are true: let’s see if Ferrari benefits Massa in strategy.

  6. Alonso said the quali was kinda bad for him (P8), while Massa said the quali was pretty great for him (P7). How can a driver say it’s great when he qualifies 7th !?!?!

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      21st September 2013, 19:42

      Pretty simple. It’s great because he topped Alonso.

      1. Ya, I too would say qualy was pretty great if I beat my supposed teammate who is apparently the best driver on the grid.

    2. @corrado-dub if you’re struggling but you qualy 7th isn’t it great?

      For Alonso is very bad, but for Massa it’s not that bad…

      1. Yes and No ! Yup, for Massa might be great because he beat Alonso immediately after all that “indirect talk” between him and Ferrari/LdM. I was more thinking about the “racing philosophy”. If you say it’s great to be 6th-7th… you’re definately NO champ material. Look at ALO, RAI etc: when they aren’t 1st… it’s BLEAH !

  7. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    22nd September 2013, 0:52

    I don’t see why the commentators were saying that the Option is the best race tyre.
    With heavy fuel they will have less grip anyway, and they’ll probably only last like 8-12 laps for the first stint.

    I think we’ll see most people who start on the option will get rid of them quickly and use the prime for the rest of the race.

  8. I have to agree with Alonso here – it does look familiar. Like last year, he starts to cave in in the second half of the championship. All weekend he has been 0.5-1 sec faster than Massa, and in Q3, when it really counts, he loses to Felipe, and it’s not like Massa was on fire that day. Isn’t it what we saw last year in the closing stages of the championship, when FA started to lose every qualifying to Massa? True, Ferrari cars do not look particularly stable here and slide quite a lot as compared to other top 3, but Massa managed to find more pace from Q2 to Q3, and he was the first in the group that did the last stint. And here FA cannot even blame the ‘schemi’, since no towing was involved.

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