Alonso believes Ferrari F1 team underperforming in 'many areas'

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso says the Ferrari Formula 1 team's new car has been underperforming in "many areas" in the early part of the 2014 season.

Ferrari was well off the pace in the first three races, but appeared to make a step forward in the recent Chinese Grand Prix, where Alonso scored the Scuderia's first podium since the Brazilian finale of 2013.

Alonso remained cautious about hailing the Shanghai race, in which he ran as high as second and beat both Red Bulls, as a breakthrough for his team.

He reckons Ferrari will have to work harder than ever to make significant steps forward with the F14 T compared to its rivals.

"The car was under-performing in many areas - it was not just one problem," Alonso explained.

"We need to be more efficient, have better aerodynamics, better traction, better power. We lack some big performance in the first races.

"[in China the improvement] was nothing really big in one area, just small steps here, small steps there - better power delivery, better software, putting everything in place, all the settings, and giving a little bit more aero efficiency and a little bit more power.

"We have bigger margins, because we started in a lower performance, but we cannot dream too much because people will not be watching TV from here to Barcelona.

"The other teams will bring a couple of tenths to Barcelona, [so] we need to bring a couple of tenths, plus something, if we want to catch up.

"That's the challenge we are facing now. It's not that we need to develop the car at a normal rate; we need to do the normal development, plus something."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113691?

[zike]

Fernando Alonso says the Ferrari Formula 1 team's new car has been underperforming in "many areas" in the early part of the 2014 season.

Ferrari was well off the pace in the first three races, but appeared to make a step forward in the recent Chinese Grand Prix, where Alonso scored the Scuderia's first podium since the Brazilian finale of 2013.

Alonso remained cautious about hailing the Shanghai race, in which he ran as high as second and beat both Red Bulls, as a breakthrough for his team.

He reckons Ferrari will have to work harder than ever to make significant steps forward with the F14 T compared to its rivals.

"The car was under-performing in many areas - it was not just one problem," Alonso explained.

"We need to be more efficient, have better aerodynamics, better traction, better power. We lack some big performance in the first races.

"[in China the improvement] was nothing really big in one area, just small steps here, small steps there - better power delivery, better software, putting everything in place, all the settings, and giving a little bit more aero efficiency and a little bit more power.

"We have bigger margins, because we started in a lower performance, but we cannot dream too much because people will not be watching TV from here to Barcelona.

"The other teams will bring a couple of tenths to Barcelona, [so] we need to bring a couple of tenths, plus something, if we want to catch up.

"That's the challenge we are facing now. It's not that we need to develop the car at a normal rate; we need to do the normal development, plus something."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113691?

He doesn't seem to confident about the updates

[Rishu]

Headline: Ferrari F1 team under performing
Main article: Car under performing

Nice

[Senna4Ever]

Headline: Ferrari F1 team under performing

... which will stick in their heads

[Hornet]

Headline: Ferrari F1 team under performing
Main article: Car under performing

Nice

lol exactly. Alonso was talking about the car, but somehow the title changed that to the team

[stefa]

lol exactly. Alonso was talking about the car, but somehow the title changed that to the team

Al thou title is misleading, but truth team has built that under performing car....

[Nero Horse]

Headline: Ferrari F1 team under performing
Main article: Car under performing

Nice

This is exactly how the media always twists and turns every word around as they wish, in order to make the story mean something more than it actually means. Nothing new or surprising about that.

[Kiwi Nick]

Isn't that exactly what Kimi has been saying?

[Rishu]

lol exactly. Alonso was talking about the car, but somehow the title changed that to the team

Imagine Luca just reads the headline. Alonso would get another ear-tweaking

[windwaves]

Headline: Ferrari F1 team under performing
Main article: Car under performing

Nice

gee, you guys cannot read: it is the Ferrari F1 team CAR and not the "Ferrari team". OMG.

And nothing is news here, drivers and everyone in and outside of Ferrari have been saying this since pre-season testing. The car is behind everywhere.

Now the OP thinks FA renewed observation about the multiple areas of weakness is a sign of lack of confidence. May be. That is a fair comment. I would not quite guess why FA should say such things for the n-th time at this stage. From all we know, Ferrari is "working hard" to bring some updates to Barca. Is he may be trying to further motivate the team ?

[Rishu]

gee, you guys cannot read: it is the Ferrari F1 team CAR and not the "Ferrari team". OMG.

Yeah, clearly I can see you read very well

[Kingdom Hearts]

Fernando is today in Maranello, he better wear a helmet to protect his ears

[anacleto]

Alonso and Kimi must be meeting and sharing thoughts on car development and so on. I hope Alonso can get a word in edgewise seeing how Kimi loves to dominate the conversations.

[abbottcostello]

Incredible, everyone at Ferrari from Luca right on down the line is saying the same thing.

I'm so shocked

They all know they are behind in all areas & they repeat this with some little twist every time a reporter tries to prise some earth shaking new tidbit out of one of them.
All I see is a team that knows it has a lot of work to become competitive & has a seemingly unified will to do what is needed. I doubt we'll hear something different in their statements between now & the race in Spain.