Formula One: Singapore Grand Prix – 1 race, 24 different reactions! (Part 1)
The night at Singapore was expected to be like no other. All 24 drivers from 12 different teams came, saw and raced. However, while the sport merely sees them as handlers of 300 km/h cars, we at bettor.com recognize them as complete individuals and bring
to you, their subjective take on the Grand Prix that conspired last Sunday.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, after taking consecutive poles believed that the race was very significant in their title hunt for the season. The Spaniard added that the team wanted to confirm their success at Monza and prove to the world that the Ferrari was competitive
away from home as well. Following up the success in Italy was vital for the scarlet team’s credentials and on a track that was extremely stressful for driver and car alike, coming away with 25 points felt like a huge achievement. It was vital to make a good,
decent start and that was exactly what happened. Alonso conceded that despite the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel slightly quicker off the blocks, the Marina Bay track’s short run to the first corner enabled him to cover the racing line to keep the lead. The
Spaniard remarked that the Ferrari was evidently superior on the softer compound tyres. However, after the pitting for harder set of tyres, the Red Bull looked much quicker which made Vettel a constant presence in the Ferrari’s rear view mirrors. On addressing
the Ferrari pit crew, the driver commented that the pit stop went off perfectly; tactically and in the fashion it was carried out in pit lane.
Alonso touched upon having to wary his style of driving for the extent of the 61 laps. While it was important to keep pushing, build some breathing space between himself and second placed Sebastian Vettel, it was also important to play it safe a couple of
times. In the latter half of the race, he had to be extremely careful while lapping the back markers at a time when the yellow flags were out. Looking further, Alonso recounted that with four races yet to be ticked off the formula one calendar, the championship
was anybody’s for the taking. The Spaniard reflected upon how fate got all potential runners this far; at the Belgian Grand Prix, Vettel, Button and himself returned empty handed, the trip to Monza saw Lewis Hamilton ending the weekend prematurely; without
adding to his points tally. Alonso pointed out that he would not want to rely on results elsewhere to cement his title hopes and rather, concentrate on his own job. The Ferrari driver concluded by commending the work put in by the Ferrari engineers and how
well the current model was coping with diverse conditions and consistently performing at par - if not more - with the rest of the top end challengers. While Ferrari aren’t considered favourites for the four races that lay ahead, it would be rather naïve to
put in their best and simply hope that things would turn out well in the end.
Felipe Massa, unlike his teammate, had an extremely difficult race as he started the Grand Prix at the back of the grid after encountering technical problems with his Ferrari during qualifying. The Brazilian believed that the safety car came out rather early
which meant that he wasn’t able to overtake many cars under the enforced conditions. The Brazilian expressed his frustrations at being stuck in the queue behind Sutil and Hulkenberg. The Ferrari driver admired the performance of his car as it was extremely
efficient with the sole set of hard tyres he was scheduled to run the entire race distance on. However, Massa conceded that the degradation of the Bridgestone’s at the latter stages of the race was the reason the Renault of Kubica was able to get past rather
easily. Having started the race on a fresh engine, the Ferrari driver knew that he could ill afford to drive recklessly as he had 3 engines which have each done one race to circulate over the remaining four races. Massa hoped that he’d have more luck in races
to come and wanted to look past the Singapore fiasco.
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