Fernando chat today on Ferrari.com

[Kingdom Hearts]

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formula1/Fan/Pages/chat.aspx

[Tifosi]

if he calms down in time... ;-)

[Suzie]

Just waiting for this to start now :-)

[Kingdom Hearts]

Yep, but it's a shame that only premium members can ask, very few questions so far.

[Hermann]

I don't understand why they only allowed questions to members who pay for the privilege. I don't like being made a 'Nr.2 fan'.

And Fernando is looking depressed to me. He should really try to cheer up a bit, he was so happy when he joined Ferrari, did he expect the season to be a walk in the park? Come on man...

[Suzie]

Obviously I couldn't type everything out, but I've written down a few things from the chat that Fernando said as best I could, if anyone's interested. Sorry for any typos or errors, I was trying to keep up!

- How is Ferrari different from his last teams: All teams in F1 work in similar way, but everyone at Ferrari loves competition & racing, it makes them united. It's a family all working for one goal - to win. Makes Ferrari feel more special from a racer's point of view.

- On the testing ban: It's not perfect when you're behind and there's a gap to the top teams. It's worse for Ferrari due to their superb facilities eg. Fiorano. It's sad but that's the way it is, as the teams agreed to it. Ferrari have all the tools and facilities to be the best team even without testing.

- R'ship with race engineer: Very special, he's the member of the team you spend most time with. From day 1 he was v. comfortable. Andrea is great, with a good character. He's kind. During stressful times, he always tries to calm the driver and stay positive. It's a huge help to have a friendly relationship with the driver.

- Why did he ask for no radio: Yesterday difficult. Disappointment after penalty. Was 4th and then 18th after. Andrea was telling him the gaps. He asked for no more radio so he could just enjoy it and try to make up as many places as possible, but it was disappointing.

- Inconsistencies at start: generally starts have been very good. Only remembers 1 bad start, in Oz when he touched Button. All the rest were better than others. Have to understand the Silverstone problem. Had clutch problems so we need to analyse. Think we know the reason but we need to do better starts for rest of season.


- 2011 regulations: Not thinking of 2011 yet, need to concentrate on 2010. KERS is a good thing to have because it's something new in F1, green technology needs to arrive in F1. In 2011 if all teams have KERS, we will enjoy it.


- Hamilton, Vettel or Schumacher: Schumacher.

- Road cars: Difficult question on what he prefers. The 458 is more a car to enjoy in a normal day, beautiful and powerful car. Stylish line. GTO more special as it's limited edition. More to enjoy on a track.

- Red Bull's downforce advantage: Red Bull very strong in 1st part of season. Silverstone has special corners and they dominated in 2009 too. We are very close to them in terms of performance, hopefully well see that in Germany and Hungary.

[Kingdom Hearts]

Is over, he was calm, I don't think he was depressed, obiously he is not the happiest man in the world either.

[Hornet]

Thanks Suzie :thumb really appreciate it

I'm not a member there, heh

[Tommy_F]

Nice videochat, good seeing the drivers live when there are not at Events.

Thanks for the transcript Suzie.


- Inconsistencies at start: generally starts have been very good. Only remembers 1 bad start, in Oz when he touched Button. All the rest were better than others. Have to understand the Silverstone problem. Had clutch problems so we need to analyse. Think we know the reason but we need to do better starts for rest of season.

So the Chinese GP start was very good? :-E

[Suzie]

Is over, he was calm, I don't think he was depressed, obiously he is not the happiest man in the world either.

He was laughing at points but that was during the Italian speaking parts so no idea what was being said. Probably about the World Cup as I heard him say Iniesta.

[Hermann]

At least mad_ani got an explanation for his 'arrogance' to ask for no more team radio.

And thank you very much Suzie!

[vcs316]

Thanks Suzie :-)

[slither]

All that Fernando has to do is staying calm. If the team manages strategies well, he will be on top soon, but not sure about WDC as RBRs are so fast. But we'll beat mcs anyway ;)

[Tommy_F]

More from the chat:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/07/12/alonso-well-catch-red-bull-in-germany-and-hungary/

[Agron]

At least mad_ani got an explanation for his 'arrogance' to ask for no more team radio.Thanks God for ignore lists :-D

[toprngr]

Really am glad hearing that Alonso is doing fine. I guess that the FIA doesn’t really like Alonso. He always gets over punished for things that he didn’t intentionally did. I really hope that everything goes well with Alonso. He looks depressed to me. I guess the team is putting a huge pressure on him. If he was concentrating better, I guess he would have won. There’s not much of a time seeing him being at the podium. And I really hope that he could at least make it to the podium.