Scuderia Ferrari In The Points In Melbourne

Scuderia Ferrari In The Points In Melbourne

Both Scuderia Ferrari drivers finished in the points – fourth place for Fernando Alonso and, after the Saubers were disqualified for a technical issue, seventh for Felipe Massa - in the Australian Grand Prix at the weekend (27 March 2011).

However, it’s fair to say the team had hoped for better at the time they packed up the equipment in Barcelona after the last test of the winter.

“There is no point in denying that we leave Australia with a sense of disappointment,” says Stefano Domenicali, Team Director. “Again, our performance level was not a match for that of the best, especially one of the Red Bulls. Nevertheless, we managed to pick up some valuable points, especially with Fernando, who drove a great race, recovering from what happened to him on the first lap. Having made a strong start, Felipe first defended himself with real determination against attacks from Button, but then in the second part of the race he suffered more than expected with overheating rear tyres. Now we will have to study everything carefully to work out what prevented us from being as competitive as we had expected this weekend. Then we will have to react immediately, starting with the next race in Malaysia. One of the main themes is the level of downforce at the front: we must find out why we did not get on track what was predicted by the data. One of the few bright points was reliability, especially on the engine side and with the KERS.”

Effectively, Saturday’s disappointment in qualifying, with the Spaniard securing fifth place on the grid and the Brazilian eighth, meant that today’s 58 lap race was always going to be tough. The two men had contrasting fortunes: while Massa made a great start, moving up to fifth on the opening lap, before later slipping down the order, Alonso had a poor start, pushed wide at the first turn and dropping to ninth, before staging a great climb back up the order.

“If you just look at the classification, this is not such a bad result; yes we have lost ground to Vettel and Hamilton, although we have done better than Webber and Button,” says Alonso “Here at Albert Park, it seems that I have a season ticket for fourth place, as it’s the third time in four years that I’ve finished the race in this position. Last year, we came here off the back of the win in Bahrain, which means that the same result then had a very different feel to it. Once again today, Vettel seemed to be on another planet, while the others were a bit closer, not to the extent they were on Friday, but at least not as far off as in qualifying yesterday. Finishing behind Petrov again like in Abu Dhabi? True, but it’s a coincidence and then, at this stage it is more satisfying to have managed to keep Webber behind me, who I reckon will be a more serious rival in the title fight than the Russian. KERS worked well as did the moveable rear wing, although it did not make the overtaking moves that easy. At the start there was a bit of confusion: I got away well, but then Button headed for me and I had to go wide to avoid a collision. The strategy was just right and it helped me to make up some places. Maybe if I hadn’t ended up immediately in traffic, I could have tried to go for two stops but given how things went, we made the best decision. We are in the right zone for us to be able to win a title, but definitely not if we keep finishing third or fourth. We have to improve, we know that, but it’s still too early to make any predictions.”

Felipe had the consolation of setting the fastest lap of the race.

“At the start things got off on the right foot with a nice start and good defending from Button’s attacking moves,” said Massa after the race. “Then we tried to bring forward the use of the hard tyres, but that move did not pay off and we had to make the third stop towards the end, which lost me a few places. In the second part, I suffered a lot with degradation on the rear tyres and I could not keep up a good pace. New elements such as the rear wing worked as they should: we definitely saw more overtaking than last year. The duel with Button? It was very tight: when he passed me, cutting the chicane, I expected him to be penalised. I am a bit disappointed with the result and the overall performance this weekend. We have to get down to work to understand fully what happened, because I think we have not shown our true potential.”

The Scuderia picked up a total of 14 points which could prove very valuable later in the season, even if at the moment it is only enough to put Ferrari in fourth place in the Constructors’ championship.

Sebastian Vettel won in the dominant Red Bull, starting from pole and he was never troubled. He was joined on the podium by Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and Vitaly Petrov, who got his first ever top three finish by moving from sixth to third with a super start in the Lotus Renault. The other winners today were Formula 1 fans around the world because it seems that all the much talked about changes to the rules have indeed contrived to produce plenty of excitement on track. In fact, Massa was at the heart of the action, having a truly thrilling duel for fifth place, holding off Jenson Button in what was effectively the first Downforce Reduction System battle ever seen in F1, not forgetting the KERS of course. Alonso moved up to seventh and was closing on his team-mate and the McLaren man and on lap 11, both the Spaniard and the Englishman got past the Brazilian, but the McLaren driver was given a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner to achieve the move.

Webber started the first run of pit stops on lap 11, with Fernando coming in one lap later, with Massa changing tyres on lap 13. As others pitted they moved up to fifth and sixth places, with Vettel still leading from Hamilton, Webber and Petrov. Webber made a second stop on lap 26, Fernando coming in on 27 and Felipe on 31. With the leading trio yet to make a second stop, clearly Button and the two Ferrari men were going to have their possibilities blunted by the need to make a third tyre change, in the case of Fernando on lap 42, with Felipe coming in ten laps from the end.

Fernando closed on fourth placed Webber, but could not find a way past the Red Bull until the Australian pitted one lap earlier than the Ferrari. With his tyres suffering, Felipe could not hold off Button who took sixth place from him on lap 48 and the Brazilian dropped to tenth when he had to take on a third set of tyres. With new rubber, Felipe was flying, passing Buemi to go ninth after another thrilling battle and setting the fastest lap of the race just three laps from the flag.

Behind the podium trio, the remaining points went to Fernando, Webber and Button sixth. An impressive Sergio Perez finished seventh in his Formula 1 debut, all the more amazing as he made just a single pit stop, while his team-mate Kobayashi was eighth in the Ferrari powered Sauber, Felipe was ninth and Buemi tenth, also running a Ferrari engine in his Toro Rosso, making it five Prancing Horse engines in the top ten.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, that’s for sure,” said Pat Sharp, Team Manager. “This weekend, the 150° Italia was not as competitive as we would have liked and that’s a fact: both in the race and in qualifying, Red Bull and McLaren were quicker than us. In terms of how we managed our strategy, I think that with Fernando we made the right choices, given what happened on the opening lap, when he found himself back in ninth place. Thanks to the pit stops and some good passing moves, the Spaniard managed to move up the order to fourth and he was fighting for a podium finish right up to the final lap. However, with Felipe we probably made a mistake towards the end, which cost him maybe one place. Now we all have to roll our sleeves up, at the track and back home, to try and arrive in Malaysia in better shape.”

ENDS

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