Fernando Alonso will play hardball at the Korean Grand Prix
The two time world champion Fernando Alonso said that he must attack in order to stop the championship leader Mark Webber from increasing his lead further ahead in the race for the championship.
Fernando Alonso trails by 14 points now after finishing behind the two Red Bulls in 3rd place at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. With just 3 races remaining in the 2010 season, Fernando believes that the inaugural Yeongam race set to take
place in Korea could be the championship deciding race.
“In Korea we will have to attack because now we must close the gap to Webber. To lose any more ground would make the situation more complicated,” said Alonso, after acknowledging Ferrari had little hope of beating Red Bull in Japan.
The two McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button saw their title challenges deteriorate somewhat after the Japanese grand prix however, Fernando Alonso believes it is too early to rule anyone out of the championship run. He admits that the focus
must now shift to keeping a check on Webber, something in which his teammate Felipe Massa could play a vital role.
“Too many times this year we’ve seen someone come back into the game after they’d seemed out of it - and that could easily happen again. Having said that, perhaps the only one who can afford a bad weekend is Webber: for all the others it would perhaps mean
giving up any chance, especially the ones who are a bit behind today,” added Alonso.
Fernando Alonso was talking about the McLaren drivers when he said “the ones who are a bit behind” as both of the McLaren drivers will need two very good results in order to recover in this year’s championship. It seems that until the Korean Grand Prix,
McLaren will have to come up with something efficient and make some vital decisions if they want anyone of their drivers to stay in the championship.
There were many rumours that McLaren might favour one of their drivers as well but the team bluntly rejected such accusations. Ferrari on the other hand openly stated that Massa will have to play as a “wingman” for Fernando Alonso this season and one cannot
blame Ferrari for this decision. Felipe Massa is already out of the championship chase and since Fernando has a very good chance of winning the title, there is no reason why he should not help his teammate.
“The Korean Grand Prix could therefore start to be decisive for some - and for me it will be important also to be able to count on my team mate Felipe. I know that he will be really hoping to make up for two negative results and he has all the capacities required
to return to the podium,” said the two time world champion.
Alonso is looking forward to driving at the Korea International Circuit after relying on the simulation programs for guidance up till now. The venue was granted after approval by the FIA earlier this week and it seems that the race is going to be intense.
According to the Spaniard, the team has been working on the new track since the past couple of days on the simulator. The first two sectors are pretty quick with long straights while the last sector is quite similar to the last part of the Abu Dhabi track.
The tarmac is wide and that would be a possible overtaking section of the track. Fernando has always been keen to discover new tracks from both a personal and professional point of view. Starting from next Wednesday, Ferrari will try to discover if the simulations
have been accurate enough and then the team is going to run for a couple of more kilometres on Friday to compare the simulation with the real track.
It is going to be an exciting new race full of surprises and thrilling moments due to its high speed nature.
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