Montezemolo: “We have achieved a lot, but now we want to win”

[Rob]

Maranello, 19 November – At the start of the week in which this year’s Formula 1 World Championship will be decided, Luca di Montezemolo wanted to send out a personal message to all the men and women who work for Ferrari.

“We can be proud of what we have achieved so far,” wrote the President. “For the past sixteen years, with very few exceptions, we have got used to reaching the final stage of the championship in this situation and here we are again this season, so that whatever the outcome, we have been contenders.

“However, pride is not enough: we want to win,” continued Montezemolo. “Yesterday in Austin the team once again did a perfect job as indeed did both drivers; Fernando made it to the podium yet again and Felipe drove a fantastic race, apart from also demonstrating once again that he is a team player. Now we go to Sao Paolo, Brazil with the will to win, knowing that we will fight for it right to the last kilometre of the last lap of the race at Interlagos. I know it will be very tough, but I and all of us believe we can do it!”

http://www.ferrari.com/english/formu...nt-to-win.aspx

[Rob]

Three times thirteen

Austin, 19 November - Thirteen is the number of the week: it’s the number of points that separate Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers’ classification, the number of podium finishes so far in 2012, but above all it is also the number of championships in which Scuderia Ferrari has arrived at the last race of the season, having either already won the title or titles, or been in a position to fight for them. It’s an achievement which, as President Montezemolo has stated is something that everyone at Ferrari can be proud of.

The team, along with Felipe, have taken off this morning on a charter flight which will arrive in Sao Paolo late in the night. The only ones to have headed back to Europe were Stefano Domenicali and Pat Fry, returning to Maranello to coordinate the work during these final key hours leading up to the twentieth race of the longest season in the history of Formula 1.

As for Fernando Alonso, he’s stopping off in New York, where tomorrow evening he will take part in a couple of promotional events for partners of the Scuderia. Among other things, the Ferrari man will take part in closing the day at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, ringing the famous bell that ends the day at the world’s most famous trading floor. It’s an event organised by the Santander Group as part of a fund raising initiative for the American Red Cross, with proceeds going to victims of the recent Hurricane Sandy.

http://www.ferrari.com/english/formu...-thirteen.aspx

[wisepie]

On pace, no we can't, unless a miracle happens and the tyre temp issue can be overcome, because we just haven't got the car to challenge RB and Mclaren, even Lotus and Williams sometimes. BUT, yes we can still do this, it may take the weather or someone else's misfortune to achieve it, and we're in as good a position as we were a week ago so let's go for it. Fernando and Felipe must be well fired up now, so why not?

[ferrari4life]

at least its not going to be a massive let down like in 2010. we go into the race with the pressure on Vettel rather than on us

[R Ginart]

Opinion needed: could Alonson's bad pit stop (6 plus seconds) cost him a shot at catching Vettel yesterday?

[Rob]

Opinion needed: could Alonson's bad pit stop (6 plus seconds) cost him a shot at catching Vettel yesterday?

We will never know. Fernando did seem to turn it down once he was in a safe 3rd, maybe if he pushed more we could of.

[R Ginart]

How far back from Vettel was he when he pitted? After that pit stop he was about 28 seconds behind. The pit stop was 4 seconds too long, so Im guseeing that translates to about 20 seconds on the track?

[Hornet]

I really doubt so. An average stop is 3sec, 6 sec means we only lost 3 sec (quite impressive considering the problem we had, the crew managed to handle the problem perfectly)

We lost the race in the first stint due to our inability to warm the tires up. By the time it got up to temperature, the tire's pretty much done for (they do wear off whether your temp is right or not). In fact, they wears off even worse because without the right operating temp, you tend to slide around more.

How far back from Vettel was he when he pitted? After that pit stop he was about 28 seconds behind. The pit stop was 4 seconds too long, so Im guseeing that translates to about 20 seconds on the track?

Huh? 4 sec means 4 sec. We are only in the pit for 4 sec longer. It can't translate to 20 second.

[Tifoso84]

Tbh, I expected us to struggle a lot more with those tyres than we actually did in the end. Fernando and Felipe were pulling away very nicely from everybody behind them and the pace was surprisingly good. We struggled only for a couple of laps after the pit stops, as we couldn't get any grip, but as soon as we got the tyres heated up our race pace was great.
It is just so amazing how big the difference is between our quali pace and our race pace. It's like our drivers are driving completely different cars on Sunday.

As for the race in Brazil, well all the pressure is on finger boy and we have nothing to lose, so let's just go on an all out attack and make finger boy sweat and hope for the best.

[Dino]

Opinion needed: could Alonson's bad pit stop (6 plus seconds) cost him a shot at catching Vettel yesterday?

The bad pit stop had hardly anything to do with Alonso being 39 seconds adrift.
Ferrari's big problem was the first few laps and just after the pit stop.
While Red Bull and Mclaren needed a lap to become competitive again, Ferrari was taking far too long.Especially Alonso's.