Fernando Alonso hopes Ferrari avoid the reliability problems that have hit them in the last two race weekends.
Hydraulic problems in practice limited his running in Shanghai and Istanbul as the team tried to test new developments on the 150?é?? Italia.
Alonso said: “It will be very important to run continuously in Friday’s two free practice sessions to fine tune the car and check out the behaviour of the new technical components.
“It will also be vital to study the performance and wear of the tyres. In the race simulations we did during testing we saw significant degradation, especially on the front left tyre, which is put under major stress: we will see if, with different temperatures, that situation changes.”
He praised the efforts of the Ferrari team in developing the car but warned he may not be able to challenge for victory at his home track:
“On paper, we do not yet have the potential to be in a straight fight for the win, with one team clearly the favourite in this regard.
“However, we know things can change quickly in our sport and, in Turkey, finally we managed to bring home a podium finish. The road is still long, but I believe we have at least started down it going in the right direction.
“These past few days, the team has worked so hard in Maranello on developing the 150?é?? Italia and in order to be as well prepared as possible for these two back to back races, given that next week will be back on track in Monaco.
“During the days I spent in the factory I could feel that everyone there really wants to fight back: the feeling is so strong you can almost touch it, whether you are speaking with people in meetings or as you walk around the Gestione Sportiva.”
2011 Spanish Grand Prix
Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
RIISE (@riise)
18th May 2011, 21:15
I was really impressed with the way Alonso come back after his Practice breakdown. I just hope the upgrades can allow Fernando to challenge for pole, it will be very important at Catalunya, regardless of DRS.
Fixy (@)
18th May 2011, 21:43
Fernando is very positive about his upgrades.
Rob
18th May 2011, 22:11
We have seen since he joined Ferrari that most of what he has said is directed at his team back in the factory. He seems to be saying things to try motivate them.
verstappen (@verstappen)
19th May 2011, 0:14
He already did that during his first tenure with Renault. It seemed to help him there, but not when he went to McLaren…
BasCB (@bascb)
19th May 2011, 6:26
Yeah, but a lot of that is because McLaren does not want that from its drivers.
Klaas
19th May 2011, 8:14
Yeah, the McLaren philosophy is totally different – it’s all about mentioning Vodafone in every sentence and showing the world how good buddies you and your team-mate are.
Mike
19th May 2011, 5:01
For sure it’s one of his many strong points.
I also suspect that because because of his personality, it just may work.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
19th May 2011, 13:27
It’s a good way to go about things.
Eggry (@eggry)
19th May 2011, 3:18
Ferrari think their upgrade worthes 0.5 sec.
Jay
19th May 2011, 4:14
Not good enough..that would still leave him a few tenths of Vettel based on previous races.
We still dont know how many tenths Mclaren will chip off with their major upgrades coming into the weekend. On top of that…God knows what updates Red Bull are bringing!! It could be the case where the bar is just set higher…so if everyone improves..the would be no effect.
Baring a car failure or crash, Vettel will comfortably take the chequered flag on Sunday.
The title is for Red Bull and Vettel to throw away. Their general conduct this season doesnt suggest that they will.
Todfod (@todfod)
19th May 2011, 6:18
0.5s is good enough for Ferrari. I dont think Red Bull will have an upgrade to give them that a further 0.5s on everyone else, and Mclaren’s package should put them back in the hunt this weekend as well.
You cannot expect Ferrari to just make up for 1 second of quali pace and o.5s of race pace in just one upgrade
BasCB (@bascb)
19th May 2011, 6:28
Imagine if they claimed almost a second, what people would say of Ferrari daydreaming!
I agree with you here, half a second will bring them into the fight for second row starting and get them on the podium regularly. That is their first concern now.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
19th May 2011, 14:56
And they are already only 0.1 or 0.2s down on Red Bull in race pace – so this update sounds promising!
BasCB (@bascb)
18th May 2011, 21:24
You would think Ferrari did so many laps of Barcelona with their 150est car they should know what to expect. Look at how many new bits McLaren is bringing.
And I guess Fernando was doing fine with the added pressure of a lost Friday to spur him to get going in the race and make a podium.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
18th May 2011, 21:25
Didn’t Vettel prove that Friday isn’t really what matters? I would think Alonso should be hoping for a trouble free Sunday…
geo132 (@geo132)
18th May 2011, 23:58
Not if you want to check out newly developed components, you wouldn’t want to test them during the qualifying or the race. And we know Ferrari is looking for improving the car now rather than get wins.
Eggry (@eggry)
19th May 2011, 3:16
Well, He have been suffered from reliablity in fridays but he have to appreciate trouble-free saturday and sunday.
rob from inverness
19th May 2011, 8:18
Not a friday issue, but Ferrari are losing a lot of time at pitstops on sunday this year. I am looking at aggregate pitlane times for KL. Webber’s 4 stops took 1 min 28.8 secs against Alonso’s 1m 38.0s (…!!) The other 4 stop tim was Hamilton @ 1m 33.0s. I haven’t seen the times for Turkey but I got the impression that RBR were 1 sec per stop better than SF – if Alonso had got out from his last stop with an additional 3 secs, he might have been able to stay ahead of Webber despite his tyre deficit. Ironically, I happened to see the cover of Autosport for Monza last year with the headline “perfect pitstop gives Alonso the edge…” Where has it all gone wrong? Is it the sheer physical effort of 8 stops in fast succession compared to two in the middle of the race last year? On this topic, Keith, in this brave new world of three or four fast stops, could you publish these aggregate pitstop times in your excellent analysis and statistics. In France, I get them from l’Equipe on monday morning and from Auto Hebdo so I assume there must be a table in the FIA data.
ed24f1 (@ed24f1)
19th May 2011, 14:58
In Turkey, effectively none of Ferrari’s stops were within one second of Red Bull’s.
And they weren’t even consistent, with three of Massa’s pitstops costing him time.