Alonso’s diary – An uphill start but no dramas

[Greig]

It wasn’t the start that we all wanted but nor is it anything to get worried about. I already said it yesterday evening at the track: 12 points is not far below the world champion’s average last year and two title contenders finished behind me. So overall the Australian Grand Prix can’t be defined as disastrous. Certainly, in qualifying we were very far from Vettel’s Red Bull and far from Hamilton’s McLaren but in the race the situation improved – perhaps not compared to Sebastian but certainly against the others. The start was a pity: if I hadn’t found myself down in 9th place at the beginning of the first lap I’d have been able to fight to the finish for the two lower steps of the podium.

I’m not one of those who believes a degree of temperature here or there can determine major changes in the performance of the car on the track. So I don’t agree that the fact that yesterday was hotter compared to Saturday necessarily played into our favour. On Friday, when temperatures were similar to those during qualifying, the car went very well. The next day, from the morning, it wasn’t so good and we have to understand why that happened by carefully analysing the data.

For me there weren’t any big surprises this weekend, particularly because I didn’t arrive in Melbourne with a clear idea of how the grid would line up. From the tests, especially this year, it was difficult to have a realistic picture of the situation. The only positive surprise was the behaviour of the Pirelli tyres which, at least at Albert Park, showed less degradation than what we saw at the test. We will see how things go in Malaysia at Sepang, on a track that is very different to the semi-street circuit of Albert Park.

I’ve stayed in Australia and I will remain here until the beginning of next week, when I will head to Malaysia. It’s important to prepare very well for the next two rounds, which are back-to-back. They are both very demanding from the physical point of view, especially Sepang where we drive in very high temperatures.

[Grillo]

It's interesting what he says in the 2nd paragraph about the performance changes.

Can't wait for Sepang!!!

[ferrari4life]

Sabotage?...kidding

[Alonsomaniac]

Lot's of people here panicked already, some even called it a lost season.
What does Alonso do? Nothing, he concludes it could have been somewhat better and trusts Ferrari will do it's job. He stays calm and focusses on the next race.
Maybe we should do that too...............

[Rob]

yep, bring it on. I was gutted yesterday, but first race, so lets build on this. Get on with the job at hand and get winning.

[Greig]

Lot's of people here panicked already, some even called it a lost season.
What does Alonso do? Nothing, he concludes it could have been somewhat better and trusts Ferrari will do it's job. He stays calm and focusses on the next race.
Maybe we should do that too...............

To be honest it's all just pretty PR, I bet he is as worried as we are about Australia and so will Ferrari be

[Rob]

To be honest it's all just pretty PR, I bet he is as worried as we are about Australia and so will Ferrari be

think he and everyone in Maranello are worried about how the race unfolded for us.

[Alonsomaniac]

I don't know. Alonso is almost always pretty straight forward in what he says. Of course he does not like the way it went, but if he says he thinks it is no drama I don't believe that is PR talk.
That's not his way of communicating.

[Tony]

The way I see, the end of this season will mean 1 of 2 things:

1) Ferrari wins one of the two titles
2) Ferrari lose both titles and a significant management reshuffle occurs.

LDM has made it very clear that he expects nothing short of a championship this year.... current management understands this I'm certain, so they will work their asses off to ensure victory or go down fighting at the very least.... either way, it's a win-win situation for us fans that are tired of losing....

[Rishu]

Its good to hear Alonso say all that but TBH, Ferrari will be playing catch up........ again. I know its just one race & still early to be judgemental, but I cant see overnight magic in 10 days & suuddenly start beating Vettel's RB. But having said all this magics can happen, especially if the name of the team is Ferrari . Championship is long & anything can happen.

[RedRebel40]

I hate the winter testing, I followed it very closely by the internet and my team(Ferrari) and driver(Schumacher) were nowhere of their winter testing speed :(