Report Saturday: Ferrari – General dissatisfaction

Little disappointment at Ferrari after the qualifying. The results achieved by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are not sufficient, even though the Spaniard can legitimately aim for the podium in tomorrow’s race.

The Scuderia is relying on its race pace and strategy to climb up the hierarchy and score big points. Reliability will also be an important factor, as Stefano Domenicali points out. But Ferrari didn’t seem to have any issues on that front over the winter.

Fernando Alonso – 6th and 5th:

« We clearly cannot be satisfied with this result, but we should not dramatize it either. We failed to make the most of the car, and we need to understand why.

Compared to what we saw during the tests, here we are closer to cars that were further away in Spain. We were fine yesterday and had a good feeling with the car, but this morning the situation changed.

Now let’s see how the race will unfold. In practice and yesterday, our performance on long stints was good and we were closer to those in front today.

Fifth on the grid isn’t so bad, and it means that I’m in a good position to fight for the podium in a race that will be very open, if you think back to what happened last year with Kubica starting 6th or 7th and finishing 2nd.

«McLaren seems to have made a step forward but you must not discount Mercedes, which was impressive during the last tests in Barcelona.»

Felipe Massa – 12th and 8th:

We are less competitive than we were entitled to expect, there is no doubt about it. I didn’t think I would be fighting for pole, especially when you look at Sebastian’s time, but I was hoping to be higher on the grid.

We had grip issues with both the hard and soft tires on a track where they wear out less than what we saw during the winter, and they have less grip on the first lap, at least that’s the case with our car. Now, we must prepare for tomorrow’s race as best as possible. Pure speed won’t be the only thing that counts.

My spin in Q3? When I exited the pits, I accelerated and the tires were obviously too cold. They’re not damaged for the race but it didn’t help in my flying lap.

Stefano Domenicali – Team Principal:

«We cannot be happy with the way things went in this first qualifying session. We need to work to understand why we were not able to maximize our potential in terms of pure performance.»

From what we have seen during winter testing and yesterday in free practice, our race pace isn’t bad and we will try to do our best tomorrow. This year, more than ever in the past, strategy will be the key while reliability remains the number one priority.