Alonso: Bahrain, the worst circuit of the season for Ferrari

The 9th and 10th places achieved by Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen last weekend in Bahrain did not satisfy Ferrari. Under the watchful eyes of the brand’s president, Luca di Montezemolo, the red cars showed a glaring lack of speed, finishing more than 30 seconds behind the Mercedes cars after the safety car interruption at the end of the race. This gap could have been much larger.

But the men in red remain realistic and know they have their work cut out to return to an acceptable level and compete for the podium. However, Fernando Alonso points out that the characteristics of the Sakhir track are very poorly suited to the F14-T, and this late top 10 grouping could well be an anomaly in the season: « This track is one of the worst. We’re missing some of the characteristics that this track demands, but I think we will be more competitive in China, Barcelona, or Monaco. There are some upcoming tracks where we can compete for the podium, hopefully. It’s not good. We would like to have better speed and be able to compete with anyone, but at the moment we lack progress from this point of view. But we have strengths, which some circuits will demonstrate. »

The Spanish driver therefore wants to make use of the two days of testing in Bahrain to find solutions to reduce the gap with the competition: « Everything depends on the circuits. But we need to improve in all areas: the chassis, aerodynamic performance, power… there are a lot of things to do. »

But it is mainly on the power unit side that Ferrari seems to have the most progress to make, as confirmed by the double world champion: To be honest, in Bahrain, we were missing a bit of performance everywhere and especially in top speed. We are not in a good position, but we are doing everything we can. The team is great, but in terms of performance, we are not where we would like to be. We just need to work.