Ferrari towards a possible blank year
The Scuderia Ferrari might not win a Grand Prix during the 2014 season, a first since 1993. A situation that prompts Fernando Alonso to look toward 2015.
Stefano Domenicali had promised a revolution, but the results on track did not come, leading to his resignation. Marco Mattiacci succeeded his Italian counterpart as team director at Maranello, but the new strongman of Ferrari is skeptical about the development of the F14 T: it was supposed to gain competitiveness compared to its rivals, yet the German GP revealed that it was still not able to compete regularly with Mercedes, Williams, or even Red Bull.
The last victory for the reds dates back to May 12, 2013, when Fernando Alonso won his national Grand Prix at the Barcelona circuit, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, who would become his future teammate, and Felipe Massa, his teammate at the time. You have to go back to 1993 to find a season without any success.
Fernando Alonso seems to have come to terms with it. With only one podium this season, at the Chinese GP, the record is slim. In the German race, the Spaniard finished 5th, a result deemed “lucky” by the man himself, given the start that eliminated Felipe Massa and pushed Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo back into the pack.
Surpassed by Williams in the constructors’ championship, Scuderia relies heavily on the results of driver number 14, but for how long? « Being fourth in the world drivers’ championship is a position we can lose. This year we are not doing anything very well, » he admitted after the German Grand Prix to our Iberian colleagues from *El Mundo Deportivo*.
Alonso has 97 points, 6 ahead of an in-form Valtteri Bottas driving a particularly lively Williams FW36, and 15 ahead of Sebastian Vettel whose Red Bull seems intrinsically superior to the F14-T, while a circuit that could suit the qualities of the RB10 is on the horizon: the Hungaroring.
The situation should be better in 2015, at least that’s what the technical director of the Scuderia, James Allison, wanted to convey. But Fernando Alonso remains cautious: « I’ve been in F1 for 14 years and I’ve always heard this kind of talk. In July and August, all teams say they’ll be stronger. In November, we say we’re optimistic, in January that we’re dominant. But in February, we come back to reality. There’s room for progress and the differences between the cars of /f1/actualite/18163-alonso-chanceux-de-finir-5eme-du-gp-dallemagne.html and 2015 will be bigger than before. That’s our hope. »
