Saturday: Ferrari doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket!
Ferrari aimed for the constructors' championship today by implementing two different strategies with their drivers for the race. Alonso will start on mediums, giving him the opportunity to choose the best moment to switch to soft tires and avoid traffic. Massa, on the other hand, will start on soft tires and take advantage of a better start. In any case, for the team, the goal is to score as many points as possible to maintain second place in the constructors' championship.
Fernando Alonso – 3rd and 8th:
« Before the qualifications, we looked for what could be the best strategy, but it was very difficult to choose one since they all tended towards the same result. By using soft tires in Q3, we might have considered starting higher on the grid, while by using mediums, we hope to race without traffic in front of us because after a few laps, those who started on the soft tires will be forced to stop around the 6th lap. This should allow us to be in a group of cars that would stop around the 30th lap. In any case, we will have to deal with the soft tires at some point. On Friday, I did 15 or 16 laps with these tires and today I could only do three… so it’s impossible to know how they will behave tomorrow. It’s only after the start that we’ll know what the right choice was. »
« The advantage with these possible strategies is that we now have two cars with different strategies, so we can assume that at least one of us (Felipe or myself) can help the team in the battle for the Constructors’ Championship, which is now our priority. »
Felipe Massa – 6th and 5th: « I am relatively happy with my qualifying even though I didn’t manage to do a perfect lap. Indeed, I lost time in the second sector, and maybe that cost me one or two places, but we are qualified, and we will do our best with this starting position. Unlike my teammate and others, I chose to qualify on soft tires because at the Nurburgring I chose the other option, and it didn’t work. It will be interesting to see who opted for the best solution, and we will know from the first stop, I think. »
« The behavior of the tires will greatly influence our performance because even though medium tires have a longer lifespan, soft tires may also work well tomorrow…
Tomorrow the race won’t be easy because with cars on different strategies, anything can happen on track. I’ll try to overtake Mark [Webber] at the start, hoping to take advantage of the fact that he’s on medium tires. I hope I made the right decision, which will allow me to have a great race tomorrow…
