Saturday: a missed opportunity at Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 4th:

In qualifying, the car was a bit less good than during the practice sessions, and we need to understand why. This afternoon, the McLaren was very fast, and I believe the favorite for pole was actually Hamilton. I don’t think the Q3 result is truly representative of the forces at play because the red flag disrupted many drivers’ plans. It didn’t go well for Hamilton, whereas Red Bull had everything in their favor. As for us, we were somewhat in the middle of it all: we didn’t manage to exploit the full potential of the car during our two series of timed laps.

Tomorrow, in my opinion, overtaking will be almost impossible, despite the KERS, DRS, or anything else. The start will be very important, and our position is not bad, so I hope to gain a few places and take advantage of any unpredictable situations and strategy. I expect others to try two stops, but maybe someone will take the risk of a single pit stop. The car is performing better than it did a week ago in Spain: the balance is good, and the supersoft tires are behaving well. The incident with Perez? From our car, we knew nothing about the conditions he was in. It is certain that such frightening incidents cause some tension, but we always strive to maintain concentration and give our best.

Felipe Massa – 6th:

There is both a bit of satisfaction and regret for me at the end of this qualifying session. We managed as a team to improve the car’s performance compared to the free practice sessions, reducing oversteer, but a mistake in Q3 at the Rascasse cost me one or two positions. It’s a shame because I was on a good lap. Starting sixth is not the best result in Monaco, but here you have to be smart during the race: we will have to stay focused at all times because anything can happen.

The start will be very important, but it will also be necessary to stay calm lap after lap because a mistake can be very costly. Tire degradation is less than what we’ve seen previously, so I don’t think there will be that many pit stops. I hope Sergio is okay: he had a very spectacular accident and the impact was really strong. This part of the circuit is very tricky, and incidents are frequent there.

Stefano Domenicali:

«First of all, I want to send all my support to Sergio Perez, his family, and the entire Sauber team. We were very scared when his car hit the protective wall, but fortunately, we can now breathe a sigh of relief as his condition is good. Regarding today’s result, we cannot hide that, given our results at the end of Q2, we could have expected a better performance. The red flag at the end of Q3 certainly played a role in the strategy we adopted, putting us in difficulty as we failed to optimally exploit the second set of option tires.

That’s how it is in Monaco: you have to accept the fact that things like this can always happen here. Tomorrow, the race will be very long and filled with traps: we will need to try to exploit every opportunity to the fullest. The start will be very important, but above all, it will be essential not to make mistakes. The one who makes the least mistakes will win.