Alonso: What can I say, other than get angry about being unlucky?
6 October, 2012
Fernando Alonso not happy after qualifying
Oct.6 (Reuters) Ferrari’s Formula One championship leader Fernando Alonso cursed his luck on Saturday after qualifying only sixth for the Japanese Grand Prix while his closest title rival, Sebastian Vettel, put his Red Bull on pole.
The Spaniard’s final quick lap was ruined after Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus spun off in the final seconds of qualifying to bring out the yellow warning flags. That forced everyone to slow and left Vettel the unchallenged polesitter.
“What can I say, other than get angry about being unlucky?” said Alonso.
“The yellow flags came at the worst possible moment …up until then my lap was great and there was every chance of setting the fourth fastest time of the day, which would have then seen me start from third on the grid.”
McLaren’s Jenson Button, the third fastest in qualifying, had a five-place grid penalty.
Alonso leads Vettel by 29 points, with six races remaining, which means he will still lead the championship, whatever happens on Sunday.
Despite that, the Ferrari man can remember only too painfully how a third championship slipped through his fingers in 2010 when Vettel came from behind to snatch the overall lead and the title in the final race in Abu Dhabi.
Double champion Vettel and Red Bull are picking up pace ominously, winning the previous race in Singapore and dominating practice and qualifying at Suzuka with both their cars on the front row.
“We need to improve. In 2010 they were maybe more than one second faster than us and we were leading the championship until Abu Dhabi,” warned Alonso.
“Now they are eight tenths, one second faster than us. We are leading the championship. Let’s say we are used to this situation, being one second slower than our competitors and fighting for the championship.”
Alonso has been more consistent than Vettel and has won three races to the German’s two but he was confident that Ferrari would be able to fight back rather than just ‘rely on reliability’.
“I think in the next races we will improve the car considerably,” he said. “We did not improve too much in the last two or three grands prix but there are some good plans for the next races.”
Alonso, who went back to his Friday settings after being unconvinced by changes tried out in Saturday’s final practice, also drew confidence from the fact that he has been more competitive on Sundays than in qualifying.
“Normally we improve our pace, the strategies normally are very good, the pitstops and starts. The points are given on Sunday and on Sunday we don’t feel less strong than other teams,” he said.
“Maybe we lack a bit of performance on the single lap but on Sunday our team has no fear of anyone.”
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Suzuka Qualifying: Vettel untouchable as Red Bull scoop front row
- Vettel needs to turn on the heat at Suzuka to beat Alonso
- Japanese Grand Prix: Can Alonso be reeled in at Suzuka?
- Street fighter Vettel squares up to brawler Alonso in title race
- Montreal Practice 3: Vettel only just faster than Alonso
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OK Butterfly thats cool
Ferrari has had such bad cars for four years now that they have demoralized Felipe to such an extent he may start thinking it’s his fault. They guy is as fast as anybody, provided the car is good.
Here he is, Felipe Massa that was a match for Schumacher, getting onto the Suzuka podium and looking awkward. I think he tripped over the champagne bottle.
Stefano Domenicali’s reign at the Scuderia has got to be the darkest chapter in that racing team’s history.
The best driver pairing on the grid is struggling big time just to make it onto the podium. The Ferrari boys would smoke any other pair in F1 if they just had a decent car at their disposal, not some piece of crap that spins out of the pitlane at the first race during Q1 (like it happened to Felipe a couple of times).
But don’t worry, Luca di Montezemolo will brand the new F70 road-car something like Ferrari 150 Italia to commemorate that event from last year.
LdM and SD are f**cking the Scuderia like a h*ooker right now. They both want a piece of that a*se, each of them has some interest in this – LdM wants to be a politician, whereas SD probably wants the money and the big role within Ferrari, the company.
Beyond belief.
@pitwall:
I was being sarcastic, that’s all. I was marely saying that the blame for this missed opportunity (again) lies with the design office at Maranello, run by Nicholas Tombazis.
I think Fernando is neither silly nor short, but I do think the Scuderia is f*ucking up Fernando’s career. These bastards may end up saying two years from now: “Uh, Fernando, so you’re fired for not winning any titles, your place will be taken by Vettel.”
To me it’s unthinkable that THE greatest F1 driver of all time can lose out on some many situations due to some part of the team being incompetent beyond belief. McLaren07, Ferrari10, Ferrari12. That’s three shots at the title wasted, three easy titles – gone!
Look at Red Bull, they started the year with a good car (not fantastic as Vettel likes his cars, just good). As the months passed, they incorporated good ideas from others into their package, and now Vettel has a fantastic car again. And winning race after race.
That is a healthy team.
This situation cannot go on forever. The chief designer has no clue what to do but Domenicali doesn’t find someone better. The wind-tunnel is old and gives out wrong results, but only now they will shut it down for calibration, after three years.
These guys are just not getting it. And where the f**ck is that SOB LDM when you need him? Why is he not firing SD? He’s good at spewing BS left and right, pretending he’s this great politician, Italy’s salvation, yet he can’t do sh*it for the racing team.
I may give up on F1 and watch MotoGP instead. This is BS.
@Butterfly I have always enjoyed your posts but ‘Silly little Spaniard’ is both innaccurate (he is neither unintelligent or small in stature) and racially insensitive. Someones nationality should never be in the same sentence as ‘silly’ and ‘little’. Please don’t reply unless its a public retraction.
Shame poor alonso!cry us a river!luck is always on your side, more compared to other drivers atleast
“I think in the next races we will improve the car considerably”
Oh, Fernando, you over-estimate the Ferrari Chief Designer! No way is Tombazis going to design something that works on that car.
Silly little Spaniard.
Fernando “lucky” Alonso