Saturday: Massa accumulates problems with his Ferrari
If Fernando Alonso has been delivering very consistent performances since the start of the season, being 5th on the starting grid for the fourth consecutive time, his teammate, on the other hand, experienced a complicated qualifying session. Reliability was lacking today, and Massa, in an effort to save his tires, found himself stuck in the pits during Q3. Without a time, the Brazilian is last in Q3, in 10th place.
Fernando Alonso – 8th and 5th:
« Being fifth is not really a result one can be satisfied with, but today I’m somewhat smiling again because the car seems competitive once more, probably more so than in the first three qualifying sessions of the year. Being in Q2 without using soft tires proves that we’ve made progress in terms of performance. It’s not enough, however, and we need to react quickly. It feels like the end of the tunnel; we can see a bit of light again. Nevertheless, starting from fifth place means being on the dirty side of the track, which will be a handicap. »
It’s hard to know what the best race strategy will be because we don’t know how the tires will behave. We must be ready for all eventualities.
Felipe Massa – 9th and 10th:
« It was not a good qualifying for me: I couldn’t have a clear lap in Q3 after making a mistake at turn 9 by slightly going off onto the grass. After that, we tried to save the tires as much as possible for the start and the race, so I didn’t go back out. In Q1, I couldn’t do a great lap, and to avoid taking risks, we opted for soft tires in Q2. So, I only had one set of new tires left for Q3 and the race… »
Additionally, this morning during tests, the engineers had some doubts about engine parameters and changed my block. So I went back with the engine I had in China and Malaysia. It’s okay, according to the schedule it should still participate in three races [At least three sessions].
Stefano Domenicali – Team Principal:
It seems that Fernando Alonso has become accustomed to securing 5th places on the grid. He delivered a good performance and gave our competitors a hard time. Felipe Massa, on the other hand, didn’t take a lap at the end of the sessions because he saw that it wouldn’t be advantageous. He decided to come in to save the tires. Clearly, this isn’t what we expect, but we’ve seen progress over several races. We’re moving in the right direction because it’s never enough. Now, we need to focus on the race and ensure good reliability. As we’ve seen since the beginning of the year, the races are often unpredictable, so we need to be extremely vigilant!
