Sunday Summary: Ferrari – The Scuderia Still Needs to Improve

Small satisfaction, however, as both Ferrari drivers showed speed during the race and salvaged appearances slightly in a situation that seemed to be going badly.

Fernando Alonso – 4th

« If you look at the standings, it’s not such a bad result. Sure, we lost ground to Vettel and Hamilton, but we did better than Webber and Button. It seems that I have a subscription to the 4th place here, since it’s the third time in four years that I’ve finished the race in this position. Last year, we were coming off our victory in Bahrain, so the same result had a very different taste. Today again, Vettel seemed to be on another planet, while the others got closer, not as much as on Friday, but at least they weren’t as far off as yesterday in qualifying.

I finished behind Petrov again, like in Abu Dhabi? It’s true, but it’s a coincidence, and at this stage, it’s more satisfying to have kept Webber behind me, who I think will be a more serious rival in the race for the title than the Russian.

The SREC worked well, as did the rear wing, even though it didn’t make overtaking that easy. At the start, there was a bit of confusion: I got off to a good start but then Button slipped inside, and I had to go outside to avoid the collision.

The strategy was right and helped me gain positions. Maybe if I hadn’t ended up in traffic, I could have tried to make only two stops, but given the circumstances, we made the best decision.

We are heading in the right direction to win the title, but certainly not if we continue to finish 3rd or 4th. We need to improve, we know that, but it’s still too early to make predictions.

Felipe Massa – 7th (9th before the disqualification of the Saubers)

At the beginning, things started off on the right foot with a good start and a strong defense against attacks from Button. Then we switched to hard tires, but that decision didn’t pay off and we had to make a third pit stop towards the end, which cost us a few positions.

In the second part of the race, I suffered a lot from the degradation of the rear tires and I couldn’t maintain my pace. The new elements, like the rear wing, worked as they should: we certainly saw more overtakes than last year.

The duel with Button? It was very close: when he overtook me, cutting the chicane, I expected him to be penalized. I’m a bit disappointed with the result and the overall performance of the weekend. We need to get back to work to understand what happened, because I think we didn’t show our true potential.

Stefano Domenicali

It is useless to deny that we left Australia with a sense of disappointment. Even today, our performance level did not match that of the best, especially one of the Red Bulls. Nevertheless, we managed to take some valuable points, particularly with Fernando, who ran a great race, making up for his poor first lap. After making an excellent start, Felipe initially defended with real determination against Button’s attacks, but then in the second part of the race, he suffered more than expected from overheating of the rear tires.

Now, we need to study everything carefully to find out what prevented us from being as competitive as we had planned this weekend. Then we must react immediately, starting with the next race in Malaysia. […] One of the few reasons for satisfaction was reliability, particularly on the engine side and with the KERS.