Fernando Alonso gave no excuses for his qualifying performance in Japan, saying he hasn’t been able to get the most out of his car at Suzuka.
“I didn’t have a good weekend so far,” Alonso told Sky after qualifying. “I’ve been eighth, ninth all weekend and didn’t find the pace.”
“In qualifying I’m eighth again so I’m not doing good enough so far and I try to recover some positions tomorrow.”
Alonso said his aim for the race was to take as many points off Mercedes as possible.
“I think top five may be something realistic for us,” said Alonso. “We need to overtake a few cars but we need to also race a little bit.”
“I think in the constructors’ championship we have Mercedes only one point behind. They are both in front of me. I need to finish at least in front of them.”
2013 Japanese Grand Prix
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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo
Candice
12th October 2013, 8:27
Alonso is human afterall. People expect him to be god.
Its good to hear, never shy away from mistake and try to learn from it.
Just hope the others fans could calm down before slating him.
TheBass (@)
12th October 2013, 9:36
I don’t expect him to be god. I do, however, expect him to beat Massa in Quali more often.
rambler
12th October 2013, 12:29
I do not. I do, however, expect him to believe he is. This is a breath of fresh air.
Jason (@jason12)
12th October 2013, 14:45
He’s been beaten so many times, those would have to be some really stubborn people.
tmax (@tmax)
12th October 2013, 16:49
I am sure Domenicalli and Montzemolo are relishing the fact their drivers for next year are both out-qualified by their team mates on the equal equipment and are starting 8th and 9th.
Well I must admit that they must be relived that both generally do better off in the race trim…..
Burat
12th October 2013, 17:50
plus one
Michael (@powrie123)
13th October 2013, 4:17
Ferrari should get their act together and listen to somebody,Red Bull is geared around VETTEL and are winning everything. Ferrari have gone back to the good old days and stuck their heads in the sand and trumpeted about the team is greater than the drivers. The last time they listened to a driver they won 5 World Championships in a row.
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
12th October 2013, 8:30
But of course, even this statement was a political mind-game. Isn’t it?
Jon G
12th October 2013, 8:39
Simply put, Fernando Alonso has lost his mojo as and perhaps even the will to compete for win races. Ferrari are more than 0.5s off the pace, he’s the closest one to Vettel and yet still 77 points short. There’s only (3) drivers in the chase for the crown FA, KR, and LH. They are down 77, 105, and 111 respectively. With exception of FA whose down by full 3 race wins with the others down 4 races wins the chances of winning championship are bleak. FA has been with Ferrari for 3 years and for 3 years they’ve had to play catchup at the beginning of every season…. missing out on 2 of those years (’10 & ’12) with this one starting resemble 2011. Anyone, who is down more than 100 points after Japan is mathematically out the championship.
FA qualified 8th on the grid. Whereas, Massa whose got nothing to lose and everything to gain stormed all the way to 4th on the grid out qualifying his team mate for the 2nd weekend in a row …….and be significant margin. I shall pray he pulls 2012 racing style of Roman Grojean to take out the front runners , but thats not goign to happen.
ALonso you have officially thrown in the towel or you’re trying to over drive a piece of **** ferrari like you usually do, but its working against you at this track cause you have to be ease on the tires.
Punchy (@punchy)
12th October 2013, 8:47
I wouldn’t be too concerned about what the ‘others’ may say. The only person in front of him in the Drivers points table has a superior car. Overall he is doing a stellar job in that Ferrari truck. Besides, he is always stronger on Sunday. Unfortunately your Saturday results can play a factor in Sundays final position.
SeaHorse (@seahorse)
12th October 2013, 9:01
Please stop criticizing the Ferrari as a truck. Agreed it has not been as quick as the Red Bull, Mercedes and even Lotus. But, at the same time it is not as slow as the backmarkers Caterham and Marussia. Massa has parked his car in P5. So it’s not as if the car is as bad as a Force India or a McLaren. If Hulk is ahead of Alonso, it’s a combined result of better effort from the Hulk and below par performance from Fernando.
SeaHorse (@seahorse)
12th October 2013, 9:02
In reply to @punchy
tmax (@tmax)
12th October 2013, 16:55
@seahorse it is great news that a Ferrari is not as slow as Caterham and Marussia !!!!!
Whatever happened to the 3 great teams of last century Ferrari, McLaren and Williams ….
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th October 2013, 9:15
“Truck” really is a quantitive term: relative to the Red Bull (on average) you might have a point (even though truck is still a gross exaggeration – it’s more like Djokovic vs Murray). In the context of the general competitive order though, the Ferrari has been arguably the second best car all season.
Michael Brown (@)
12th October 2013, 13:48
It’s not as much of a truck as the 2011 F150
M Dickens (@sgt-pepper)
12th October 2013, 14:24
(@vettel1)
Reliable it has been, fast it has not, hovering around 3rd/4th fastest for the majority of 2013. Since the tyre compound change, the RB has been back to 2011 levels of dominance.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th October 2013, 18:10
@sgt-pepper in qualifying, yes. Overall though I think it’s been a rival for the Mercedes.
David not Coulthard (@)
12th October 2013, 17:30
MMurray…walker? :p
@HoHum (@hohum)
12th October 2013, 21:50
M.Bugatti once complemented Mr. Bentley on building the worlds fastest trucks.
tmax (@tmax)
12th October 2013, 22:35
@punchy Lets be fair on Ferrari a little bit. Fernando has never been a great qualifier in his entire career. Even in 2007 when he paired with Lewis, Fernando had 2 Pole Position and While Lewis had 6 Pole Positions in his rookie year. He has 22 Pole Positions in the entire career and only 7 in the last 7 years starting 2007. Even in 2005 and 2006 when he was the champion he had more wins than Pole positions.
While I am not putting Alonso in negative light, Qualifying / single lap speed is not his strongest area. But he does a great job over all the Sundays to get himself a strong result.
SeaHorse (@seahorse)
12th October 2013, 8:49
It’s true that Ferrari are not bringing much updates to their cars now. But it’s unfathomable as to why he was unable to extract the most out of his car! However, I must admit it’s a genuine assessment from Alonso.
Eggry (@eggry)
12th October 2013, 9:05
His Q2 pace was good enough for the car but he failed to manage it again in Q3 which is disappointing.
Todfod (@todfod)
12th October 2013, 9:41
Agree. I thought he put in really stellar laps in Q1 and Q2, but when it came to Q3, he dropped the ball again. Not putting the performance together in Q3 has kind of become a trend this season for him..
THis year ALonso hasn’t been himself on Saturdays. Its good that he’s admitting it though
TheBass (@)
12th October 2013, 9:26
In general terms, his season hasn’t been as good as last year, especially in Qualifying, being out-qualified by Massa 6/9, and some poor performances like Monaco and Malasya. Raikkonen hasn’t been on top of his game, either.
It’s true that the tyre change hurt the Ferrari in comparison to Red Bull, but it’s also true that Alonso hasn’t been on his best.
Vettel on the other side has done a superb job, constantly.
Sheila (@st91)
12th October 2013, 10:01
This is very different to what he said to the Spanish press. He said that he did the best he could and that it was the others that had put a turbo or something like that. It’s not the first time he does this, I wonder why :/
TheBass (@)
12th October 2013, 10:16
While I can’t speak about this particular case, the Spanish press (especially the AS and Marca) tend to overstate Alonso’s performances everytime they can.
Sheila (@st91)
12th October 2013, 10:37
I know that (and not only As and Marca xD) but what I mean is what he says to the press just after the qualy or the race. Maybe it’s because he speaks always first with the Spanish press and he’s still too fresh out of the car and when he speaks with the others he has calmed down a bit. It’s not the first time he says he did all that was possible to the Spanish press and then admited an error to the others.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
12th October 2013, 10:25
I admire his openness in sticking his hands up and admitting fault. Di Resta in particular could learn from that – he was at it again with “the car is a handful” comments he’s become fond of constantly re-iterating!
Good change from the Samurai “inspirational” quotes Nando ;)
TMF (@)
12th October 2013, 10:48
That’s why I don’t see Di Resta in a top team and barely in F1. He trashes the team at every opportunity on the other hand he isn’t even outperforming his teammates like you’d expect from his comments. He’s a competent driver but stagnated ever since he’s in F1 because it’s always somebody else in his mind.
Today Alonso and Vettel showed why they are top-drivers – Alonso admitting that he wasn’t performing well enough and Vettel not losing a bad word about the KERS issue – they are big picture guys and don’t lament on single incidents but push all year long and lead.
Force Maikel (@force-maikel)
12th October 2013, 10:54
Well it’s nice to see he knows were the problem lies. He needs to have a great start tomorow if he wants to salvage anything respectable from this race. It would seem 2014 can’t come quick enough for Fernado. It is slowly becoming the story of his life at Ferrari, hoping for a better car the next year…
TheBass (@)
12th October 2013, 11:23
It did happen at the first half of this season, before the tyre change. Though this time it was he the one who could have done a bit better.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
12th October 2013, 13:50
12 months ago you were an idiot if you didn’t think Alonso was the best driver in world, but now he is everyone’s favourite victim. I admit, he deserves it and has been woeful in qualifying of late which has comprised his ever mesmerising race performances. I however think it is important not to be sucked in by the current context; namely of Vettel domination running parallel with Alonso mediocrity. When Ferrari have had a car capable of pole, Alonso has delivered it, and in the case of Singapore ’10, when the Red Bull is faster too. In 2006 no one was questioning Alonso’s Saturday pace, and I personally don’t think we can now. All I think there is to said is this; in the race Alonso can drag performance out if any car but in qualifying he needs a particular balance; a balance he does not have at the moment.
aquataz
12th October 2013, 14:43
+1
Deej92 (@deej92)
12th October 2013, 19:39
Obviously Ferrari have struggled with qualifying since 2008, but I think Alonso’s qualifying performances can be questioned as this season Massa has often shown him up. It’s good that he realises it needs improving though.
Deej92 (@deej92)
12th October 2013, 19:42
*2009
@HoHum (@hohum)
12th October 2013, 22:00
I agree with Will and also I think tyre management is so critical that for most cars single lap pace has to be sacrificed to ensure tyre life during the race, Fernando is making the most of the car/tyre combo he has for Sunday points.
Slava (@)
12th October 2013, 15:27
It seems that Alonso doesn’t like these new tyres, which suit his teammate.
Moreover, Alonso as a leader is destroyed by his own team, by their inability to build and improve their car. They gifted Red Bull 9 races out of 20. Half of the championship! Terrible, terrible. Next year is the last hope for him becoming the WDC.
HK (@me4me)
12th October 2013, 17:58
I like his honesty. Respect for that. In a way, the fact that Masso outqualified will only make him better. Now it’s not the car, it’s his own performance, and with that proven he will surely work on it. We all know he’ll still out-race Massa on sunday, so nothing to worry about.
COrrado (@)
12th October 2013, 19:35
It’s great that he reckons he has some fault in his Quali performances, and not just the car/tyres/team. Anyway, I think there’s not much blaming on his shoulders. He qualified better than Massa more times, he finished the race in a better position than Quali pos in almost all races, on pure speed the car is more like the 4th car on the grid (at the moment), he’s 2nd in the WDC, Ferrari (still) 2nd in the WCC….. and last, Massa is waaaaaaaay behind in the standings and his contribution to the WCC is minimal. So, nothing to worry too much for him given the equipment, he’s still a better assessment than Massa for any team, while Ferrari should not be sorry for dropping Massa. Ferrari’s main problem by far is the need of a better car !
JS (@js)
12th October 2013, 20:34
Hi,
Regarding:
“I think in the constructors’ championship we have Mercedes only one point behind. They are both in front of me. I need to finish at least in front of them.”
I think I heard him say “…in front of ONE of them”. Did I get it wrong?
Cheers
erix
13th October 2013, 2:05
Look who is going to retired. Bring the Hulk in!