Italy hails Vettel-Alonso exchange ‘masterpiece’

[vcs316]

Sep.22 (GMM/Inautonews.com) 13 races and 3 victories into Sebastian Vettel’s first year in red, the passionate, fickle and partisan Italian press could not be happier.

“When you consider that he earns less,” La Repubblica said after the Singapore grand prix, “the exchange of Alonso for Vettel was a masterpiece.”

The gushing praise comes after Vettel’s dominant and unexpected third win of the season in Singapore.

“If fate and symbols mean something,” said La Gazzetta dello Sport, “it has to be said now that Vettel has won three times just like his idol Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in 1996.”

And La Stampa said: “Now Ferrari can dream of the impossible.

“Vettel never loses his head, and his victory is a personal masterpiece as well as a success of the entire team.”

Former Ferrari team boss Cesare Fiorio, however, is urging for calm and realism.

“It is always permissible to dream,” he told Rai Radio 1, “but also to keep feet on the ground.

“Singapore was the most favourable circuit for Ferrari of all the ones to come, but perhaps as Japan follows so quickly it means Mercedes has little time to solve its problems.”

But Fiorio, who led Ferrari in the pre-Jean Todt era, also has high praise for the resurgent Maranello team.

“The engineers and designers have developed the car at an incredible speed, recovering a gap that seemed hopeless and putting Ferrari at a level close to Mercedes,” he added.

http://www.inautonews.com/italy-hail...e-masterpiece?

[exeau]

YEAHHHH FORZA FERRARI!!

[Giallo 550]

As much as I didn't like Mattiacci at the time, he deserves a good chunk of the credit for securing Vettel, even though Vettel didn't really need any forcing. I'm substantially happier than I ever thought I would be with him driving for Ferrari, but I firmly believe Alonso would have achieved similar results this season. The difference is that Vettel seems to be enjoying his time with SF, and that makes all the difference. I still don't like hearing anybody trash Alonso, because he gave it his all during his best years, even if he did ultimately want to leave.

[nani_s23]

As much as I didn't like Mattiacci at the time, he deserves a good chunk of the credit for securing Vettel, even though Vettel didn't really need any forcing. I'm substantially happier than I ever thought I would be with him driving for Ferrari, but I firmly believe Alonso would have achieved similar results this season. The difference is that Vettel seems to be enjoying his time with SF, and that makes all the difference. I still don't like hearing anybody trash Alonso, because he gave it his all during his best years, even if he did ultimately want to leave.

Totally agree with u....!!

[Brembo]

Totally agree with u....!!

Me too!

[Silent Bob]

As much as I didn't like Mattiacci at the time, he deserves a good chunk of the credit for securing Vettel, even though Vettel didn't really need any forcing. I'm substantially happier than I ever thought I would be with him driving for Ferrari, but I firmly believe Alonso would have achieved similar results this season. The difference is that Vettel seems to be enjoying his time with SF, and that makes all the difference. I still don't like hearing anybody trash Alonso, because he gave it his all during his best years, even if he did ultimately want to leave.

I think Vettel is a breath of fresh air. He's like a kid that's had a dream come true. I liked Alonso, but I'm happier now... Alonso gave it his all but was it for the team or for himself? The team is a lot better place now and if we start putting together some of the interview clips from Kimi and Massa and others it seems that Alonso was a difficult person to work with.

[erinha]

James Allen
September 23th, 2015

Mercedes F1 team chairman Niki Lauda has called Sebastian Vettel “extraordinary, a driver with two qualities that few others possess – brains and speed,” and has expressed his concerns that Ferrari is now “the strongest it has been for years.”

Ferrari outqualified and outraced Mercedes in Singapore, having been close on pace at all the recent races this season where the supersoft and soft tyres were chosen (Canada/Austria). Although this weekend in Suzuka is likely to see Mercedes’ advantage restored on the hard and medium compound tyres, Lauda says what happened in Singapore must serve as a wake up call to his team.

Speaking to Italian sports paper Gazzetta dello Sport Lauda said: “You know what worries me the most about what happened? Leaving Singapore without really understanding what slowed us down. At the same time as I saw a Ferrari that is the strongest it has been for years.”

The three time world champion also singled out Vettel’s performance, “He drove a masterful race, as only great champions can do. Did you see that first lap when he pulled three seconds gap on the field? And the skill at restarts? He has two qualities that very few drivers possess: brains and speed.”

Lauda explained that Mercedes knew from Friday practice in Singapore that it was in trouble, the car sliding too much, lacking grip in comparison with its rivals.

Both drivers said the car felt balanced, but lacked grip and were mystified as to how the Ferrari and Red Bull cars were able to find so much grip on the same tyres. It was almost as if they were using medium tyres when the rivals were on supersoft.

“They tried everything on the set up, experiments of all kinds,” said Lauda. But neither they (drivers) nor their engineers could work out what was happening.”

He added, “On the positive side this will serve as a wake up call, a really good wake up call. Theoretically (the world championship) does not open up here because we still have a big (points) advantage over Ferrari.

“But we only need another race to go badly and Ferrari is there, ready to capitalise with Vettel. Hamilton has 49 points on Sebastian with six races to go. It’s a nice margin, but we cannot lose focus.

“I still think the Mercedes is the strongest car so I’m optimistic.

“But the championship is open.”

Lauda’s comments can be taken at face value, but there is also a political dimension to this, with the goings on behind the scenes around Mercedes’ refusal to give Red Bull an engine and Red Bull’s ongoing appeals to Ferrari to supply one.

Ferrari should be strong and believe in themselves, is the subtext here.

Mercedes’ Red Bull snub has not been a popular decision at the highest levels of the sport and this ‘first mover advantage’ leaves Ferrari in an awkward position as the only possible engine supplier to Red Bull. Ferrari’s reservations about supplying Red Bull are the same as Mercedes’, although there was another dimension for the Stuttgart marque as they feared a Red Bull partnership with VW/Audi in 2018 and did not want to be supplying Red Bull during the build up phase to that, risking IP on its technology leaking to one of its main commercial rivals.

The latest scandals around VW in the USA on emissions cheating have come out of the blue and may threaten the position of VW boss Martin Winterkorn and certainly will be hugely expensive for VW. The company yesterday made clear it’s set aside $7 billion for making good, fines and reparations over the affair. It could run deeper than that.

Committing to an F1 campaign has suddenly become a very low priority in that context. However as the affair also highlights the likely long term disruption of the diesel automotive market, VW and Audi may be forced to shift towards petrol hybrid turbo engines and what better place to promote that than F1, which is the pinnacle of this technology?

Talking up Ferrari at this time is a smart move by Lauda in terms of the long term interests of the sport.

But the reality is, he’s a plain speaker and he clearly believes what he is saying about Vettel and the team with which he won two of his world titles. He was the pioneer of that special alchemy between Germanic driver and Italian style and technology. Michael Schumacher repeated the formula with devastating effect and Vettel looks set to write a new chapter.

Lauda knows it when he sees it.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/0...at-to-mercedes

[Tony]

Lauda is very political, every word he speaks is meant to deceive... I put no stock in what he says, his goal is simply to deflect attention away from Mercedes refusing to supply Red Bull with an engine, pump Ferrari's tyres so that it looks like they have a comparable engine and therefore the decision between Ferrari and Mercedes is negligible to Red Bull... it's nothing more than a clever ploy on his part...

[Infi24r]

Lauda is very political, every word he speaks is meant to deceive... I put no stock in what he says, his goal is simply to deflect attention away from Mercedes refusing to supply Red Bull with an engine, pump Ferrari's tyres so that it looks like they have a comparable engine and therefore the decision between Ferrari and Mercedes is negligible to Red Bull... it's nothing more than a clever ploy on his part...

I agree that they're playing games. Both drivers looked rather content despite the poor weekend.

[abbottcostello]

Lauda is very political, every word he speaks is meant to deceive... I put no stock in what he says, his goal is simply to deflect attention away from Mercedes refusing to supply Red Bull with an engine, pump Ferrari's tyres so that it looks like they have a comparable engine and therefore the decision between Ferrari and Mercedes is negligible to Red Bull... it's nothing more than a clever ploy on his part...

Absolutely brilliant use of the "tyre pumping" analogy
Lauda is not one to talk just to hear himself, always a political agenda when he speaks