It is all about driving now – Stefano Domenicali
Ferrari’s team Principal Stefano Domenicali stated that this year’s Formula 1 championship has now come to a point where the title will be decided by the psychological battle that takes place between the drivers and a reliability contest between the teams
as the teams will slow down their development of the cars and shift their focus on the 2011 cars.
Fernando Alonso is now in second place in the drivers’ standings after winning the Singapore Grand Prix and is just 11 points short of the leader Mark Webber. Just 25 points separate the top five and the title chase is becoming even more exciting as the
season progresses.
Red Bull still appears to have the best overall performance and they now have a marginal advantage in both drivers and constructors’ standings. The championship is now also dependant on the circuit type and Ferrari is at a disadvantage since Alonso has used
his final eighth engine for the season and will have to use two used engines until the end of the season.
After experiments with the new gearbox parts in Singapore, Felipe Massa’s car stop on the track in the first session of qualifying worried Ferrari. Therefore, Domenicali has urged his team to focus on reliability more than pace as Alonso’s pole and win proved
that the team has reached its goal in terms of performance.
“I said to my guys, to work very hard on reliability and we paid a big price this weekend as a team. The car seems to be better in terms of general performance, also on this kind of track”, he told reporters after the race.
He claims that Ferrari would just make minor tweaks to their F10 but it would not make much of a difference as the burden is now on the drivers and they would have to carry the weight in order to secure the titles.
“We will have some little updates, but nothing major. Now I think a lot will be in the head of the drivers, in the heads of the people who have to work, and the reliability, rather than an incredible improvement in performance”, Domenicali said.
The 2010 season is at its climax currently and it will not be long before the drivers realize their cars capability for the final four circuits. Both, constructors and drivers’ titles are uncertain and it seems that it will stay that way until the very last
race. None of the top 5 drivers are going to quit anytime soon and the teams will keep pushing to ensure that they provide their drivers with the best package suitable for the respective venue.
However, one must agree with Stefano on the fact that this is a driving and reliability battle rather than a technological race. The engineers have reached the limit of the current system of the car and no major improvements can be made. However, they will
of course try some minor experiments, as they will now focus on next year’s cars as the 2010 season is drawing to its end. With Fernando’s recent improvement, Ferrari seems more confident than McLaren now and the team hopes to maintain the momentum in coming
races. The legendary Japanese grand prix at Suzuka circuit is next on the Formula 1 calendar and is a mixture of speed and technical corners. According to this season’s performances, it is expected that McLaren will be the best team there.
However, Stefano was confident that Red Bull and McLaren would also focus on the 2011 cars more than they would on the development of their 2010 cars.
“We know that all the teams now are in a period where they have to switch to put all the resources into the new car, otherwise they will be very late in the end. I think it will be a very interesting end to the season for sure”, he added.
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