Stefano Domenicali: Red Bull, McLaren not the only contenders in 2012 season – Formula 1 news
Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali says that the Red Bull Racing and McLaren are not the only contenders in this year’s championship. He expressed it after an amazingly surprising victory of the Spaniard, Fernando Alonso at 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix
held at Sepang International Circuit on Sunday.
The technical director, Pat Fry ruled out the podium fight for the first race at the end of the last day of the final test held at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. However, after a struggling pre-season, Alonso’s win at Sepang has given an encouraging
feel to the Scarlet team as they are trying their best to make the essential improvements in the car F2012 for the races ahead.
Domenicali said that they had experienced problems with the understanding of the car during the start of the season which remained quite off pace as compared to other teams in dry conditions, more particularly during the qualifying.
“An incredible win, absolutely unexpected, but that does not make it any less wonderful and emotional,” Domenicali said. “Once again, Fernando was amazing, driving with a cool head and determination, managing to get the very best out of this car and of the
very changeable weather conditions.”
Furthermore, he said that the victory at second GP has not changed their stance as they knew very well where they stand while he said that their car was not competent enough to race in the normal conditions and required improvements.
Besides, he asserted that the gap to the teams in front was not that big as it seems, regardless of Alonso’s failure to qualify for the pole in the season until now.
“A slight improvement in performance can result in a good step forward compared to other teams,” he added. “Now we will enjoy this moment for a few hours, but tomorrow [Monday] we must be back in the factory again pushing on the development of this F2012.”
Moreover, Fry stated that the car’s performance had changed quite radically in changing race situations. He also said that Alonso had shown a great performance in the challenging conditions at the second GP.
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