Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in contrasting moods afer Chinese Grand Prix 2011
Although Ferrari’s driver Fernando Alonso was unhappy with the pace of his car in the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, his teammate Felipe Massa was overjoyed with his sixth place finish. The Brazilian has struggled a lot to perform consistently for the past couple
of seasons, but had a better race at Shanghai.
A delighted Massa stated, “It was the best race for me this year - one of the best compared to last year as well. It's a shame because we could have finished in the top, and it was not possible. We finished the race. I did my best but, it was not enough
to make everybody happy, not just me.”
Ferrari opted for a two-stop strategy in the race today, but the decision didn’t work out quite well for them. Massa claimed that he could have finished in a better position if the team had stopped thrice for a tyre change.
The Brazilian claimed, “At the end of the day they chose the right strategy [the cars ahead of him]. Not just Lewis [Hamilton] - four cars together. All these cars passed me very easily. Even the guy who dominated the race, which was Sebastian [Vettel],
didn't win because of his strategy, which was the same as mine.”
Massa said that he was very fast on the softer tyres and his lap times matched Vettel, who had a much quicker car. The veteran driver was running in second place for a long time in the race, but was overtaken by a number of cars towards the end.
On the other hand, Alonso had a totally different perspective than his teammate. The Spaniard claimed that the strategy didn’t make any difference in the race. He was unhappy with the pace of his car and claimed that the result would have been the same even
if Ferrari stopped thrice. Ferrari have been unable to score a podium in the ongoing season until now.
The two-time Formula 1 champion also commented on Red Bull’s driver Mark Webber, who started the race way down the grid from 18th. He said that it was the pace of Webber’s car, which earned him a podium rather than the strategy in the race.
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