Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso unhappy with pace of his car – Formula 1 news
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was not pleased with the performance of his car in the Formula 1 2011 Chinese Grand Prix held on Sunday, 17 April.
He claimed that a three-stop strategy would have also resulted in a similar race which he had while stopping twice.
The Spaniard stated, “We need to improve the car above everything. We'll see now which one (strategy) was the best. It's very easy to choose the strategy when you have the fastest car and it's very hard when you are slow. Webber today showed qualifying is
not very important.”
Alonso further claimed, “The most important thing is to have a good tyre degradation and a good strategy, and this year we can overtake. As I say, the easiest thing is to have a quick car, like Red Bull, you pit three, two, one times and you end up on the
podium.”
The two-time Formula 1 champion admitted that the scarlet car was very slow on Sunday compared to the front-runners. He said that there was no particular problem with the car, but it did not have the speed to finish on the podium.
Both Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Alonso ended the race in 6th and 7th positions respectively. They opted to stop twice in the race for the tyre change, but this appeared to be a wrong strategy, as the tyres degraded a lot towards
the end.
The outcome of Sunday’s race will be very disappointing for the Italian team, as they have failed to score a podium in all three races of the season so far.
Although Massa had a chance to finish in the top three, the Brazilian was caught by Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg in the final few laps. Both drivers were on a three-stop strategy and had fresher tyres compared to the Ferrari of Massa.
On the other hand, Alonso was also under a threat of losing his place to Michael Schumacher. The veteran Mercedes driver was on fresher tyres and closed the gap significantly on the Spaniard in the last ten laps. However, the seven-time Formula 1 champion
ran out of time in the end, finishing the race 8th overall.
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