Alonso: « A lot of talk and few new developments » at Ferrari

In South Korea, Fernando Alonso has stepped down from his pedestal, surrendering the championship leader position to Sebastian Vettel, a position he had held since the European Grand Prix. Although the German remains within the Spaniard’s reach, it remains a fact that since the summer break, he has scored half as many points as his rival at Red Bull, even trailing behind Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, and Kimi Räikkönen. The native has indeed been the victim of two stand-up knockouts in the first laps at Spa and Suzuka, but he also suffers from Ferrari’s shortcomings in terms of development: “Everyone has ups and downs. McLaren seemed so strong a few races ago and then disappeared. After the victory in Bahrain, Red Bull seemed to have returned to their 2011 level, then they disappeared for a while. Of course, now they are in great shape, and we will see if, after their highs, they will also experience their lows. We seemed to be in good shape after the races in Valencia, Silverstone, and Hockenheim, but for the past five or six races, we haven’t seen anything positive,” Alonso confided in Buddh, according to Autosprint.

Due to new issues encountered by Ferrari with its aging wind tunnel, whose results have not been corroborated on the track. Thus, for several Grand Prix events, Scuderia has introduced many new developments without Fernando Alonso seeing any real gains, which seems to frustrate the native of Oviedo who no longer leads the championship: « Words are useless. We always talk about developments, new things, on Wednesday or Thursday. Then, on Friday, nothing happens. And this has been going on for a few races. »

Thus, while Ferrari is expected to bring a host of new features to the F2012 this weekend, all validated in Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne and on the track a few days ago during straight-line aerodynamic tests, the Spaniard, like Saint Thomas, is waiting to see: “I am not disappointed, but there’s a lot of talk about Ferrari: lots of words and few innovations. With the other teams, it’s few words and so many innovations. We have reports at every race showing the developments of other teams, and there are pages and pages,” the Spaniard seems to lament, who has already been putting pressure on the Scuderia’s shoulders by repeatedly stating for several weeks that it was a miracle to see him leading the championship.

Despite everything, Fernando Alonso firmly believes in his chances: « Here, within the team, we are all convinced we can make it. Red Bull no longer has the advantage they had last year. […] And even if Red Bull maintains the advantage, we have other strengths in the team: starts, the desire not to give up. » It remains to be seen if that will be enough and if the new developments will indeed bring the expected benefits.