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Since winter testing ended, all the talk has been about
how the first race of the season would be a step into
the unknown because of all the rule changes introduced
for this year. However, it’s fair to say that for
Scuderia Ferrari, the surprises arrived one day earlier
than expected, in this afternoon’s qualifying and they
were not particularly pleasant ones, with Fernando
Alonso setting the fifth fastest time and Felipe Massa
only eighth, both performances failing to live up to
expectations.
The actual positions are not that bad, especially when
one considers Fernando’s earlier prediction that this
year, an excellent grid position would be less important
than in the past, given the expected need for more pit
stops. However, what is astonishing is the fact that
pole position was set in a time of 1.23.529, while the
Spanish driver’s best lap was a 1. 24.974, almost one
and a half seconds slower, which in Formula 1 terms is a
very substantial gap. Less surprising is the fact that
pole went to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel,
given that the Red Bulls have shown great pace
throughout the winter tests. The German shares the front
row with Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, while Mark Webber
starts behind his team-mate in third and Jenson Button
is behind his team-mate in fourth. Fernando shares the
third row with sixth place Vitaly Petrov for Renault and
Felipe finds himself on the outside of Nico Rosberg,
seventh for Mercedes.
The Australian Grand Prix always produces plenty of
excitement and, assuming you keep out of trouble in the
mad dash that is the opening lap at Albert Park, a
driver’s next priority is getting his car to the finish,
which means having good reliability. Will the new rules
make a big difference tomorrow? Maybe less so than
expected: KERS was already used and perfected in 2009,
the moveable rear wing, which is used constantly in free
practice and qualifying, can only be used in certain
situations and once a lap in the race and the Pirelli
tyres appear to be showing lower levels of degradation
than had been expected. As team principal Stefano
Domenicali said this evening in Melbourne, there is no
point getting in a state about the result of qualifying.
Tomorrow is what counts and fifth and eighth places
should allow Fernando and Felipe to bring home points,
which is the key to success in what is going to be yet
another very long season.
Stefano Domenicali: “We definitely
cannot be happy with the way things went in this first
qualifying session of the season and there is no denying
it. However, there is no point in immediately getting
into a state about it. We have to work out why we were
unable to get all the potential out of our car at the
track, at least in terms of pure performance. From what
we saw in winter testing and in yesterday’s free
practice, our race pace is not bad and we will try and
make the most of that in tomorrow’s race. This year,
more than at any time in the recent past, strategy will
hold the key, while reliability, as ever, remains the
number one priority.”
Fernando Alonso: “Clearly, we cannot be
happy with this result, but we must not immediately make
a drama out of it. We definitely did not get the most
out of the car and we have to understand the reasons for
that. Compared to what we saw at the tests, here we
ended up much closer to cars that had been a long way
off in Spain. We went well yesterday and we had a good
feeling for the car, while right from this morning the
situation changed, obviously for the worse. Now let’s
see how the race turns out. In testing and in
yesterday’s free practice, our performance over a long
run was good and we were definitely closer to those who
today seem to be a long way off. Fifth place on the grid
is not too bad and it means I am in a position to fight
for a podium finish in a race which is still wide open,
if you only think what happened last year, with Kubica
starting from sixth or seventh and finishing second.
McLaren seems to have made a good step forward, but you
should not dismiss Mercedes either, who were impressive
at the last Barcelona test.”
Felipe Massa: “We were less competitive
than we could rightly have expected and there’s no doubt
about that. Sure, I did not think I would be fighting
for pole, especially when you look at the very quick
time that Vettel did, but I had hoped to be higher up
the order. We had problems with grip on both the hard
and the soft tyres on a surface where the tyres wear a
lot less than we have seen in winter testing and they
provide less grip on the first lap, or at least they do
with our car. Now we have to prepare as well as possible
for tomorrow’s race, when pure speed will not be the
only thing that counts, with reliability and team work
being especially important. My spin in Q3? When I came
out of pit lane, I accelerated and the tyres were
evidently still too cold: the set was not damaged for
the race, but it was definitely not a help on my only
flying lap.”
Pat Fry: “We were not on the pace at
the end of the first qualifying of the season and we
have to take that on board. We knew Red Bull was very
quick, but they were even faster than expected and also
McLaren were better than us. We had to already use the
first set of soft tyres in Q1 in order to ensure we got
through to the next stage and we paid the price for that
a bit in Q3, when we only one had one new set of
Options. We have to study the data very carefully to
understand what led to this situation. Having said that,
we still have the race ahead of us and that’s where the
points are given out. Reliability remains the key
factor: we have worked a lot on this front over the
winter and we hope to reap the rewards of that now.
Compared to last year, we will tackle the race with a
different strategic approach and there could be some
surprises.”
Weather: air 17°C, track 20/21 °C;
overcast. Chassis: Alonso 288, Massa
289.
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