Alonso: “We must be better in qualifying”
Fernando Alonso believes that the team must improve its performance during qualifying to have a better chance of winning races.
The Scuderia driver seems unhappy with his qualifying pace. Indeed, by qualifying 6th on the starting grid for the Korean Grand Prix, more than a second behind poleman Lewis Hamilton, last Sunday, he couldn’t fight for a podium place.
Moreover, this is the second time in two races that his teammate Felipe Massa has outperformed him in this exercise. For Fernando, Ferrari must perform better on Saturdays: «We need to improve pure performance on Saturday to try to start a little higher on the grid. On Sunday, we know for some reason, that our pace is similar to the best. We reach the checkered flag with the fastest, with four or five cars grouped within two seconds. This confirms our difficulties on Saturday and the fact that our performances improve a bit on Sunday.»
The Korean Grand Prix is the perfect example of this situation according to Fernando: « We were in rhythm at the end of the race and, it’s true, with the soft tires, we were quite fast. But at the beginning, I was almost at the maximum, I couldn’t do better. This is the result of a poor qualifying. Generally, we have a better pace on Sunday than on Saturday, but because of our poor qualifying, we find ourselves at the front a little too late at the end of the race. »
