Saturday: development must continue at Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 4th

I don’t think it’s a disappointing qualification because even if people outside the team may have had higher expectations, as far as we are concerned, we were well aware of the situation. The goal was to fight with the McLarens, and we did that. Maybe we could have hoped to be ahead of them, but ultimately we are in between. I didn’t expect the very slight regulatory change to alter the established order, and that was the case: Red Bull was and still is the favorite. We will see at Silverstone, where more significant changes will occur, if something happens, but we must keep in mind that almost everyone will experience a drop in performance. On my second stint in Q3, I gave it my all to improve, but after realizing my time was slower than the previous one, I chose to come back to the pits and save a set of soft tires as much as possible. I think tomorrow we might see different strategies in terms of pit stops. Our goal is to finish on the podium, and we have a chance. The development work on the car is progressing well, but we are light-years behind in terms of aerodynamics, which represents 2 to 3 months of work. It won’t be easy to catch up, but we will do everything we can to succeed.

Felipe Massa – 5th

« It was not an easy qualification, even if 4th and 5th positions are not a bad result. Maybe others, like McLaren, managed to find a little something between practice and qualification. Red Bull continues to be very strong, as expected. We have been more competitive for the last three races, and our goal is to keep going in this direction. We must push the development of the car, especially since next year’s regulations will be more or less the same, therefore, any work we do today could be beneficial for us in the long term. With the new medium compound today, we were more in difficulty than yesterday: maybe there is more rubber on the track and with the higher temperature, it did not work in our favor. It will be interesting to see which strategies will be chosen for the race: I don’t think a single stop is possible, as it was last year. »

Pat Fry

« It was a very interesting and very tight qualifying session. The gap with the fastest cars is more or less what we expected for this weekend, given that this track has slightly different characteristics from Montreal where we were closer to the front. In the last sector, in particular, we lost time to the Red Bull and also to the McLaren. It’s in this part of the circuit where the aerodynamic efficiency of the car is most important, and that’s where we need to improve. Now, we need to focus on the race, being aware that it will be challenging and uncertain, as usual on an urban circuit. There is still an unknown factor compared to usual, which is how the medium compound will react in the long term. I honestly believe that no one has obtained enough data to say how these tires will behave during the race tomorrow ».