|
The
temperature and tension are both rising at the Sepang
circuit outside Kuala Lumpur, as the second round of the
world championship is now only one day away. Today’s
qualifying session had plenty of excitement and more
importantly for Scuderia Ferrari, demonstrated a slight
improvement in the performance of the F2012. When one is
competing against equally resourceful teams, also
striving to move forward then, for that improvement to
be visible proves it is a true step in he right
direction. All things are relative and a slightly better
F2012 translates into ninth and twelfth on the time
sheet as opposed to twelfth and sixteenth in Albert Park
last Saturday. Once again it was Fernando Alonso who was
quickest of the Prancing Horse drivers, but timewise,
Felipe Massa is now closer to his Spanish team-mate.
Yet again, the grid made a refreshing change from the
scenario of 2011. Just as in Melbourne, the front row
was a McLaren lockout with Lewis Hamilton taking his
second consecutive pole, with Jenson Button alongside
him. The second row sees Michael Schumacher record his
best ever grid position since making his F1 comeback at
the start of last year. Alongside him is Mark Webber in
the Red Bull. Fifth fastest was this year’s most famous
returnee, Kimi Raikkonen. However, the Finn’s Lotus
needed a gearbox change which has cost him a five place
drop to tenth. Therefore the reigning world champion,
Sebastian Vettel will start from fifth and it’s worth
noting he opted to contest Q3 on the harder Pirelli tyre.
He has the other Lotus of Romain Grosjean alongside him.
Fernando will therefore find himself on the outside of
Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes. Felipe shares his
row with the Williams of Pastor Maldonaldo.
So early in the season, predicting any sort of outcome
for tomorrow is very difficult. The only certainty is
that the Malaysian Grand Prix is always one of the
toughest challenges of the year: if it’s dry then the
heat is physically and mentally draining for drivers and
team personnel alike, not forgetting the tyres that will
degrade in dramatic fashion. If it rains, then it will
be a case of choosing the right moment to switch from
slicks to rain tyres and make the right call as to
whether intermediates or extremes are required: an eye
on the sky and another on the track are needed to second
guess the rain gods and avoid making too many stops. If
the rain eases off, then there’s the reverse problem of
knowing when to risk the return to dry weather tyres.
All in all it will be a physical game of chess and the
two Ferrari knights on their black stallions will be
hoping to make the right moves and score as many points
as possible.
Stefano Domenicali: “We should regard
this result as a glass half full. We know that we are in
difficulty in this early part of the season, therefore
we have to look at limiting the damage on track, while
working to make the F2012 more competitive in as short a
time as possible. All of us and our fans would like to
see our drivers always in the fight for pole position,
but if we do not have the potential to do so, then we
have to do the best we can. Once again today, Fernando
did a great job and it’s a shame that he had a KERS
problem, the first in a long time, which prevented him
from doing a much better time on a track where this
system delivers a significant benefit. Felipe has made a
step in the right direction: finally the car he had in
qualifying was reasonably balanced and that could also
be seen on the clock. Now we must concentrate on the
race and try to bring home as many points as we can. We
saw in Melbourne that over a long distance the
difference between the front runners is less marked than
in qualifying. Let’s see how tomorrow goes in a race
that looks like being very tough on the cars, drivers
and teams, who have to operate here in rather unique
conditions.”
Fernando Alonso: “It was a good
qualifying, because I think we got everything we could
out of the car. I had a KERS problem on my only run in
Q3, but I don’t think it cost me any places, but it
would definitely have made the gap to pole look more
realistic. If it was to rain, it will take a lot of luck
to pinpoint the right moment to change tyres: it only
takes a little to drop a dozen seconds or so and we will
need total concentration to get everything right. A dry
race will require just as much concentration to maximise
the performance of the car and tyres which, at this
track, degrade a lot. We must try and bring home points
that could be significant for the championship. The
start and the first corner will be complicated, because
so much is at stake then. We know we have a lot of work
to do, especially on the aerodynamics of the car. Here,
the performance is slightly better than in Australia,
which proves we are working in the right direction, but
obviously we must move on in leaps and bounds if we want
to fight for the front rows. A new car in Barcelona? No,
there’s no truth in that. Clearly we are pushing a lot
on car development, which is as it should be, but in a
consistent fashion with no revolutionary changes. At the
moment, this car has many problems, but as a result, it
also has a big margin for improvement.”
Felipe Massa: “Clearly, I can’t be
happy with twelfth place, but we know that, at the
moment, we do not have a very competitive car: getting
through to Q3 is very difficult and today I could only
get close to this target. Yesterday and today in FP3, I
was not satisfied with the balance of the car, but we
managed to improve it for qualifying, which leaves me
feeling confident for the race and for the future. I
think we have begun to get a better understanding of how
this F2012 works and that is positive. Tomorrow will be
a very hard race, where tyre degradation will make
itself felt and there will also be the threat of rain
hanging over it. I hope I can get a better result than
this twelfth place. Pressure? It comes from own will to
always do the maximum and when I don’t manage it, I am
the first to be unhappy.”
Pat Fry: “Honestly it’s hard to see how
we could have secured a different result to this one,
given the potential available to us. We had a KERS
problem right in the final stages of the session, when
Fernando set out for his last timed lap in Q3. That cost
him a few tenths, but I don’t think that without it he
would have got a different position on the grid. As
usual, the Spanish driver squeezed every drop of
performance out of the F2012. Felipe finally had a
better balanced car and made good progress compared to
the previous sessions and that was also down to the work
the entire team tackled with him. We can expect a very
tough race: the aim is to get both drivers home in the
points. The start will be a very important moment, while
tyre degradation will be one of the key factors and will
have a significant effect on strategy. Then there’s the
unknown factor relating to the weather: so far, the rain
has only put in a brief appearance in FP3, but we are
well aware that storms can arrive at any moment: we have
to ensure we are ready to exploit every opportunity that
might present itself.”
|
