Ferrari fighting for second place in F1 standings, says Alonso

**vcs316** · 13th May 2014, 04:05

Fernando Alonso has conceded Mercedes is out of reach in this year's Formula 1 constructors' championship and that his Ferrari team must focus on trying to finish second.

Alonso and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished a distant sixth and seventh in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, while Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished one-two for the fourth successive race to leave Ferrari trailing the Silver Arrows by 131 points in the title race.

Alonso admitted the upgrade package Ferrari brought to Spain had not closed the gap and said trying to catch Mercedes was an unrealistic target given Ferrari's current performance deficit.

"We need to do better. Mercedes is out of reach, but we have potential to catch the other teams so second position is our target," Alonso said.

"The race was difficult, the weekend has been difficult in general with a lack of grip and balance in the car; there were new parts on the car so we had a difficult weekend."

"We cannot be happy with finishing so far behind the leaders.

"In a way we've had this situation since the first races, because we finished a minute behind the leaders with some safety cars.

"Here we didn't have safety cars so this minute was [actually] a minute and a half."

Alonso's home race marked the first anniversary of his and Ferrari's last victory in Formula 1 and the Spaniard said he could not see that duck being broken any time soon.

"Unfortunately it's been a lot of time; we haven't been able to fight for wins in the last 12 months and we want to do better," he added.

"It will probably not happen soon as we got lapped here, so when we arrive in Monaco we probably won't be in a position to win.

"We need to concentrate and work on every area of the car and make it stronger."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113922

**R Ginart** · 13th May 2014, 04:45

I got news for you Alonso: with the lame horse car you have you are NOT fighting for 2nd place you are fighting for 5th.

**Nova** · 13th May 2014, 04:46

This will be the 1st year in some time without a single Ferrari victory.

What a drag.

**windwaves** · 13th May 2014, 05:06

yep, so it looks like it is going to be.

OMG, our new guy, MM, has some work to do ! He probably needs a 5-year plan to try and fix the damage done by Domenicali.

**eugene22n** · 13th May 2014, 06:39

I'll sum up the years since RAI championship ...

windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel ... times infinity.

We finally get a chance to get an advantage with the engine and miss completely.

Still happy to be a Ferrari fan. We will get our act together eventually, its in Ferrari's DNA.

**Ed Harley** · 13th May 2014, 08:10

IMHO if the team would now concentrate on getting 2nd in championship that effort would be away from 2015 car. As the 2014 is done - it really is - then nothing should jeopardize 2015 car. But on the other hand if nobody knows what exactly is wrong with the current car then why would 2015 car be any better.

**Senna4Ever** · 13th May 2014, 08:16

Originally Posted by Nova

This will be the 1st year in some time without a single Ferrari victory.

What a drag.

True True ... after second race I said I will place a bet after Barcelona (where it is said that Barcelona offers the weakness of a car very directly) ... and here it is: (unfortunately) no Ferrari win this year under normal circumstances ... as we lack everywhere ... and other top teams are as reliable as we ...

the overall bad thing: even if we start working on 2015 (again) ... we won't gain much advantage of focusing on 2015 if Merc is dominating that easy until summer. As they will have the title in their pockets soon whereas they can also concentrate on 2015 very soon too. And not to mention that they have a while better basis to count on. As for our car I don't see any good basis for anything except its colour is red ....

so at even with always hope in the heart ... realistic wise next year doesn't look better ... But maybe Luca finds a topic where he can complain that modern F1 focus too much on areo, green technologies, .... and rules will change again!

**Rishu** · 13th May 2014, 08:26

Monaco will be painful

**vcs316** · 13th May 2014, 08:45

Originally Posted by Rishu

Monaco will be painful

With the lack of traction & mechanical grip, it will be a wonder if our boys don't crash!

**hogo** · 13th May 2014, 09:20

Originally Posted by Senna4Ever

True True ... after second race I said I will place a bet after Barcelona (where it is said that Barcelona offers the weakness of a car very directly) ... and here it is: (unfortunately) no Ferrari win this year under normal circumstances ... as we lack everywhere ... and other top teams are as reliable as we ...

the overall bad thing: even if we start working on 2015 (again) ... we won't gain much advantage of focusing on 2015 if Merc is dominating that easy until summer. As they will have the title in their pockets soon whereas they can also concentrate on 2015 very soon too. And not to mention that they have a while better basis to count on. As for our car I don't see any good basis for anything except its colour is red ....

so at even with always hope in the heart ... realistic wise next year doesn't look better ... But maybe Luca finds a topic where he can complain that modern F1 focus too much on areo, green technologies, .... and rules will change again!

Exactly. This is why I think Merc will be dominating for the upcoming 2-3 years, unless FIA will decide to introduce some radical changes (yet again).

**zike** · 13th May 2014, 09:25

Any news about testing today?

**shamim179** · 13th May 2014, 09:28

I doubt next year is going to be any better for us. If anything the others will get even better than us. We've also chosen the wrong guy to steer us out of this trouble. It's not like we're in a little trouble - we're in deep trouble. We needed someone extremely experienced and previously worked in some sort of technical capacity like a technical director. All this talk from Luca is suggesting that we are not recruiting somebody else to work closely with Mattiacci. Sorry if I seem negative here but I genuinely get the impression that we are setting up ourselves to fail. It does seem like politics - to further undermine Luca, to yield not so good results and to pave the way for his exit. There is a power struggle going in Ferrari I reckon.

**PadGeT** · 13th May 2014, 09:42

How long to go before testing starts ? Anyone ?

**Hornet** · 13th May 2014, 09:46

Here's one website I know of with some testing pictures and update:
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12...test-in-tweets

It's raining and red flag at the moment though

**PadGeT** · 13th May 2014, 09:51

Damn.....

**hogo** · 13th May 2014, 11:12

Originally Posted by shamim179

I doubt next year is going to be any better for us. If anything the others will get even better than us. We've also chosen the wrong guy to steer us out of this trouble. It's not like we're in a little trouble - we're in deep trouble. We needed someone extremely experienced and previously worked in some sort of technical capacity like a technical director. All this talk from Luca is suggesting that we are not recruiting somebody else to work closely with Mattiacci. Sorry if I seem negative here but I genuinely get the impression that we are setting up ourselves to fail. It does seem like politics - to further undermine Luca, to yield not so good results and to pave the way for his exit. There is a power struggle going in Ferrari I reckon.

I am actually glad that Luca chose someone new, who's never worked in F1 before. This kind of thinking may give us the best results. Up to this point we have been hiring all those experienced old sharks and look where they brought us.

**Rishu** · 13th May 2014, 17:37

Originally Posted by vcs316

With the lack of traction & mechanical grip, it will be a wonder if our boys don't crash!

My fear is it's a short circuit to go with our weakness in traction, we might get lapped twice. But hey, surely they won't be 2s a lap faster than us

**stefa** · 13th May 2014, 18:13

Originally Posted by Nova

This will be the 1st year in some time without a single Ferrari victory.

What a drag.

Actually, 20 years in a row. Since 1994 Germany GP, when Gerhard Berger took win with 412T1, every year till now there has been at least one win per season.... Shame we are going to win this huge record!

**stefa** · 13th May 2014, 18:15

Originally Posted by eugene22n

I'll sum up the years since RAI championship ...

windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel, windtunnel ... times infinity.

We finally get a chance to get an advantage with the engine and miss completely.

Still happy to be a Ferrari fan. We will get our act together eventually, its in Ferrari's DNA.

Last time, it took them 21 years to sort things out...

**Rob** · 13th May 2014, 18:18

Originally Posted by stefa

Actually, 20 years in a row. Since 1994 Germany GP, when Gerhard Berger took win with 412T1, every year till now there has been at least one win per season.... Shame we are going to win this huge record!

Sad, but look at our rivals, Mclaren. Just as bad past couple years. Swings and round abouts, our turn will come again, even a win this year still possible.

**Nova** · 13th May 2014, 18:26

Originally Posted by Rob

Sad, but look at our rivals, Mclaren. Just as bad past couple years. Swings and round abouts, our turn will come again, even a win this year still possible.

There ya go Rob..Never give up. Ok!!

**20000rpm** · 13th May 2014, 18:28

Originally Posted by shamim179

I doubt next year is going to be any better for us. If anything the others will get even better than us. We've also chosen the wrong guy to steer us out of this trouble. It's not like we're in a little trouble - we're in deep trouble. We needed someone extremely experienced and previously worked in some sort of technical capacity like a technical director. All this talk from Luca is suggesting that we are not recruiting somebody else to work closely with Mattiacci. Sorry if I seem negative here but I genuinely get the impression that we are setting up ourselves to fail. It does seem like politics - to further undermine Luca, to yield not so good results and to pave the way for his exit. There is a power struggle going in Ferrari I reckon.

This is what happens when a person with less knowledge about how to run F-1 is chosen as TP. The fact that we have hired MM as our new TP, its a huge gamble. If it works then awesome but if it doesn't then the time period to undo the damage in the aftermath of SD and MM would be very painful. The pressure on Ldm to select an Italian is understandable, but at a time when the team is in deep trouble really leaves me speechless.

**Nova** · 13th May 2014, 18:31

Thing that gets me is that when Brawn was at Ferrari, he won..Ferrari shouldve kept that template for running the team. It worked.

**Kyss4k** · 13th May 2014, 19:23

Originally Posted by Rob

Sad, but look at our rivals, Mclaren. Just as bad past couple years. Swings and round abouts, our turn will come again, even a win this year still possible.

I like the optimism. But! In all previous years, our car was always great in at least one area.

2009 win in Spa - KERS and with that better performance
2011 win in Silverstone - our car was good but we were unable to use blown diffusers, so that ban was in our advantage
2012 - our car was a beast in wet
2013 - we were great with 2013 spec tyres

This year, we lack in every way, so no circuit will play into our advantage. Without serious overhoul of our car, I don't think we can challenge Mercs anywhere.

**stefa** · 13th May 2014, 19:29

Originally Posted by Kyss4k

I like the optimism. But! In all previous years, our car was always great in at least one area.

2009 win in Spa - KERS and with that better performance
2011 win in Silverstone - our car was good but we were unable to use blown diffusers, so that ban was in our advantage
2012 - our car was a beast in wet
2013 - we were great with 2013 spec tyres

This year, we lack in every way, so no circuit will play into our advantage. Without serious overhoul of our car, I don't think we can challenge Mercs anywhere.

Maybe on one when both Mercedes suffer DNF

**Nero Horse** · 13th May 2014, 20:21

Looking at the deep hole we're in right now, I'd be really happy with 2nd place in WCC and if only we could somehow get at least one win during the season, then I'd be satisfied. Even though I still quietly hope for somekind of a miracle to happen, I know that considering our current form, realistically even getting 2nd place in WCC would be a huge achievement. But I have a feeling that if we can't make a significant step forward in the Canadian GP then we'll start concentrating on next season anyway. To sum up...things look pretty grim atm, and all we can do is hope that it will get better soon. Forza Ferrari!

**LivingHitokiri** · 13th May 2014, 21:01

Well said Nero Horse

**shamim179** · 14th May 2014, 00:29

Originally Posted by Rob

Sad, but look at our rivals, Mclaren. Just as bad past couple years. Swings and round abouts, our turn will come again, even a win this year still possible.

McLaren were only poor last year but they improved steadily during that season. For this year there is still a long way to go but they did start well. I'm basing my views since 2010. So if you compare them with us since 2010 they've done a much better job at designing a fast car.

**shamim179** · 14th May 2014, 00:35

Originally Posted by Nova

Thing that gets me is that when Brawn was at Ferrari, he won..Ferrari shouldve kept that template for running the team. It worked.

True. It is generally a good idea not to change when it works or has delivered the results. Adopt change when you anticipate changes coming. Stefano hanging on for as long as he did should never have happened. This is the kind of thing that happens when one of your fellow key workers becomes your buddy! Luca has defended Stefano to the very end.