Ferrari must compete with Red Bull and McLaren in qualifying
Stefano Domenicali, director of the Ferrari team, highlights the major problem of his team, strong in race pace but inconsistent in qualifying performance.
With only one front row start this season, at the Canadian Grand Prix, a circuit particularly suited to the 150° Italia, Ferrari is lagging in an exercise overwhelmingly dominated by Red Bull, who are themselves slightly challenged by McLaren, regularly lining up alongside Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber. The team from Maranello, on the other hand, accustomed to 4th and 5th places, has only managed to break out of these positions three times.
A deficiency pointed out by Stefano Domenicali: From now on, we are in a situation where race performance is roughly the same for everyone. But I think we are not getting the best out of our performance [in the final part of qualifying], compared to others. The Ferrari team manager then uses the championship leaders as a reference: For example, Red Bull may be more conservative in terms of power or KERS in Q1 and Q2 and only use them in the qualifying lap. There is certainly always something extra compared to Q1 or Q2.
This weekend, regarding the raw result, there are many things that could have changed it, but in terms of pure performance, in qualifying, we need to improve in Q3 because we are missing something small, urges Domenicali, before noting: The race pace is not too bad. In Hungary, the weather conditions were perfect for McLaren and their drivers. But if you look at the last four races, in different, always difficult conditions, Fernando has scored more points than anyone.
The championship is obviously very difficult, but the only thing we can try to do is win the next two races, and then we’ll see. As a reminder, Fernando Alonso, with 145 points, is 89 points behind Sebastian Vettel, which equates to three wins and a third place. As for Ferrari, it is 168 points behind Red Bull and 65 behind McLaren.
Domenicali doesn’t forget to put slight pressure on the leader and reigning Champion, Sebastian Vettel: « Maybe he will start to doubt… It’s difficult I know, but I have hope, and if we manage to compete on equal terms, it will still be mathematically possible. Our goal is really to believe and fight until the end of the year ».
