Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali believes it’s a do or die situation
Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali proclaimed that the team is looking forward to nothing but another race-win in Abu Dhabi next week. He was very determined as he said that the team driver, Fernando Alonso aspires to bag another victory ‘from the front’ rather than following his title competitors and waiting for them to be hit by misfortune.
Presently, the team driver stands at the top of the points’ tally having bagged 246 points so far. The other strongest contender of the season, Mark Webber of Red Bull, who had conquered the top of the tally for a large part all through the season, follows him for second place with his 238 points - 8 points adrift the topper. On the other hand, the third place in the championship is secured by the other Red Bull driver, Sebastian Vettel who is 15-point off Alonso at present. The other very strong competitor of the season, Lewis Hamilton has now dropped down to fifth place in the charts and stays 24 points behind the apex with his 222 points.
At present, as the Formula one caravan heads for the last and the final round in Abu Dhabi next week, the chances of Hamilton are almost next to impossible. This is not only because he stays 24 points adrift the charts’ topper, but mainly because his MP4-25 is not as fast as Red Bull or Ferrari’s car. With this, the main title battle remains between the top three drivers now.
If the results of the Brazilian Grand Prix were repeated again with Vettel bagging victory and Webber following him while Alonso settled at third place, the championship will still go to Alonso. On the other hand, if the order of the Red Bull drivers reciprocates and Webber stands at first while Vettel at second the title will go to the Australian driver.
However, the season has seen very strange results from the Red Bull team and there have been many instances when, despite having the fastest car, the team failed to get the maximum points. It was proclaimed by the Ferrari team boss, earlier this month, that if Ferrari had the pace of the Red Bull cars, the championship would have been decided long ago.
However, now as the team heads for the last and the final round, Domenicali states that he does not want to count on the rivals’ failure to get victory. Rather, he wishes Alonso to be the decider of the event.
While talking to the media about Alonso’s chances of winning the next weekend's race, Domenicali said, "We will try, because for sure it's something that we need to do. If we win, it's easy - no calculations! We know that the Red Bull is strong, it was very strong last year, but last year we were in a different scenario, we had stopped development."
While replying to the reports about the Italian team’s car, the team boss said that he hopes to see the car in better shape in Abu Dhabi than it was in Brazil. He admits that the pace at Interlagos was not as good as compared to that of the Red Bull’s and accepts that the 3rd place finish by Alonso was the best that he could have done.
Domenicali concluded saying, "For sure the result is very good considering the position that we had in qualifying. Considering the situation, it was the best result that we could have taken, after all the things that happened on the first lap, and with Hulkenberg. For me it's great that we are there [in the title fight] at the last race, that's fantastic."
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