italiaspeed.com: Scuderia Ferrari 2012

The F1 World Championship title will go down to the wire in Brazil after Lewis Hamilton won the penultimate race, beating title favourite Sebastian Vettel, while behind them came Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso’s championship chances are still alive. The first race to be held at the Circuit of the Americas, outside the Texas capital proved to be every bit as exciting as had been predicted. Plenty of drama, lots of overtaking and for the Scuderia Ferrari duo, a third place for Fernando Alonso and a fourth for Felipe Massa, after great drives from both men. After a difficult qualifying on Saturday, this is a fantastic result. Lewis Hamilton has the honour of being the first man to see his name on the trophy for this new event, after he never gave up chasing down Sebastian Vettel, who had to settle for second. There is only one number that matters – 13. Not normally considered lucky, let’s see if it will be in seven days time in Sao Paolo as this is the number of points that now separates the two title contenders, the German having extended his lead by three compared to Sunday night in Abu Dhabi.

Red Bull Racing can be congratulated on clinching the Constructors’ title for 2012. Hamilton’s win and Button’s fifth place means that, in second place, Ferrari’s lead over McLaren is down to 14 points. Fernando was promoted to seventh on the grid, when the team made the tactical decision to break an FIA seal on the gearbox on Felipe’s car prior to the race. This is deemed to be the same as changing a gearbox and carries a five place penalty. The perfectly legal move meant that the Brazilian had generously “taken one for the team” as the saying goes, allowing his team-mate to increase his championship chances by starting one place higher up and from the clean side of the grid, which was bound to be a big advantage on this new and very slippery track surface.

With the difficulties in warming up the tyres pretty much the entire field had opted to start on the softer Medium Pirelli tyre. Choosing the best moment to switch to the Hard would be one of the most important decisions of the afternoon. At the start, Webber came through from third to sit behind pole man Vettel, while Fernando immediately went up three places to fourth and Felipe was up one to tenth. Behind the Spanish Ferrari man came Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean and Di Resta, who’d made up four places in the Force India, ahead of Massa. Lap 3 saw Webber struggling with Hamilton on his gearbox, with Fernando 2.8 behind the McLaren man. However, the Englishman got ahead of the Australian so that Webber was now in Fernando’s sights, while still tenth, Felipe was just 0.4 behind Schumacher. Then Grosjean spun the Lotus and the Brazilian managed to pass him and Schumacher to go eighth on lap 6.

Most of the battles were taking place in the midfield while lap 10 saw Hamilton closing to within 1.6 of the leader Vettel. Webber was 4.5 adrift of the Englishman and had a 3.4 lead over Fernando. Lap 11 saw Felipe pass Di Resta to take seventh spot. The first ever race at the Circuit of the Americas was turning into a real crowd pleaser with wheel to wheel battles, including the one that saw Raikkonen move his Lotus up to fifth behind Fernando after passing Hulkenberg’s Force India. The top four were running within 10.9 seconds but behind Fernando there was a big 11.9 gap to Raikkonen. On lap 17 Webber spun off and retired so that Fernando was third and next time round, Felipe set a fastest race lap. Lap 20 and Hamilton changed tyres followed straight down pit lane by Fernando. Unfortunately, there was a slight delay on the right rear wheel of the F2012 and this dropped the Ferrari man to sixth, moving back to fifth when Di Resta pitted. Vettel pitted on lap 21 and maintained his lead. On the Prime tyre, the Spaniard was not as quick as he would have liked and Button on worn Primes managed to get by. Felipe had a smooth pit stop coming in from third on lap 26, coming out sixth behind Ricciardo, but he fell into the clutches of Raikkonen, who’d had a slow stop on lap 24 and the two men had a wheel to wheel battle which stayed in favour of the Finn.

On lap 30, with 26 to go, Fernando was now fourth, 1.9 behind Button who had yet to pit. Ricciardo changed tyres coming in from fifth at this point, so that Felipe was back in sixth behind Raikkonen. Hamilton was piling the pressure on the leader, getting to within 1.6 of Vettel, with a series of quickest laps. These two had pulled away from the field, Button in the other McLaren 24 seconds behind his team-mate, with Fernando a further 2.9 behind. On lap 34 Hamilton was close enough to use DRS if he wanted, the Red Bull right in his sights, but the leader responded with a fastest lap of his own on lap 35, as Button finally changed tyres, promoting Fernando to third and Felipe to fifth, with Grosjean sixth at over 2 seconds. Lap 38 and Felipe had Button behind him after the McLaren got past Grosjean’s Lotus. However, the Brazilian was looking ahead rather than behind and on the next lap, he pulled a great move on Raikkonen at Turn 1 to take fourth place, to lie 12 seconds behind his team-mate.

With Fernando half a minute behind second placed Hamilton, Ferrari fans were no doubt finding themselves in the strange situation of cheering for a McLaren driver, because if Hamilton relegated Vettel to the 18 points for second instead of the 25 for first, it would really help Fernando’s chances next Sunday in Brazil. And sure enough, on lap 42, Hamilton took the lead. If it ended like this, Vettel would only extend his lead over the Ferrari man by 3 points to 13. The important fight was at the front, but the best entertainment came from the duel for fifth as Button was doing all he could to pass Raikkonen, running wheel to wheel and nose to tail for lap after lap, until 45, when the McLaren finally managed to pass the Lotus.

On lap 48, Vettel was one second down on the leader and therefore his chances of using DRS were growing, but Hamilton seemed to be able to control it, pulling the gap to 1.3 next time round. From then on, the remaining eight laps saw the status quo maintained as the gaps settled. A great pre-race strategy, another one in the race and two strong drives from Fernando and Felipe mean Ferrari goes to the latter’s home race still fighting to get the Spaniard the Drivers’ crown.

Stefano Domenicali: “Given how things looked yesterday afternoon after qualifying, this result can be seen as positive. Sure, Fernando has lost a few points to the championship leader, but the important thing was to limit the damage so as to arrive at the last race with everything to play for and that is now the case. First and foremost, I want to congratulate Felipe, not just for his great drive in the race, but above for all for the way he went along with our decision to knowingly take a penalty so as to maximize our potential at the start, especially for his team-mate. It was definitely a tough decision, but he took it with the same spirit he has always demonstrated, in that the interests of the team come before those of the individual. Not only did events show it was the right decision, but furthermore we had further confirmation, if it was ever needed, that Felipe is a team player, sincere and honest, who fully shares our values and for that, I want to thank him publicly. Fernando did the most with what he had today, in other words a car that was not capable of fighting for the win. Once again, he produced a stunning opening lap which lined him up for a podium finish. Now we go to Brazil, knowing that everything is still possible. We get there in a completely opposite situation to the one we were in on arrival in Abu Dhabi two years ago…! When you end up fighting for the title at the last race, you have already achieved something important: it has happened to Ferrari many times before – with only three exceptions – since 1997 and no other team can boast of a similar regularity at the top of Formula 1. Today, we congratulate Red Bull on winning the Constructors’ title. Now we will try and stop them doing the double in a week’s time in Interlagos!”

Fernando Alonso: “It was an unexpected podium which came at the end of a particularly difficult weekend. We did not have the pace to match Red Bull and McLaren, so to only lose three points to Vettel is in fact a nice present. It could have been much worse, but now we will arrive in Sao Paolo in Brazil in with a chance right to the last. Maybe on paper that chance is not so big, maybe 25%, but deep down, I feel it’s much more than that. Anything can happen at Interlagos and we saw again how important reliability can be, didn’t we? Then, there’s the chance of rain and a race in the wet can be very risky and we definitely have nothing to lose. Clearly, if it’s dry and we have a normal race, one can expect Red Bull to be in front of everyone and us on the third or fourth row, so the more unknown factors there are, the better it is for us. The decision regarding Felipe’s gearbox? It was a team decision of which I am proud, especially as it proved to be the right one: I don’t think everyone in this environment can say the same thing… The start was very good as was the first corner: in this second part of the season, we have made up a lot of places actually in the first few hundred metres. Then I had a good enough pace to get on the podium but not to fight with the two in front. The pit stop wasn’t perfect, maybe for the first time this season: which means we’ll be looking for perfection in the pit stops next Sunday, and in fact for the whole race! Felipe was fantastic all weekend, quicker than me in all three qualifying sessions: we need him to be on this good form in Interlagos too, because we will be up against very strong opposition. We need to be a united team if we want to win!”

Felipe Massa: “For me, this result is a bit like a win, definitely the best race of my season: now I can say I’m happy to have started eleventh! This morning, when I was told I was dropping five places, I can’t say I was jumping for joy, but I accepted it to help the team and my team-mate: I don’t think many drivers would have done the same, but I am an honest person and will always do my utmost for my team. At the start, I made up three places, but then I ran wide and lost a few. After that, I had a strong pace and also pulled off some passing moves at various points on the track: once I even got two cars at the same time. We did the best we could have done today: I don’t think I could have fought Vettel or Hamilton. I really enjoyed driving on this track: it is great fun and the atmosphere is very nice. It’s probably not going to be my favourite circuit of all, but it is one of the ones I like. Now we go to Interlagos, my home race. It would be nice to end the season on the podium, or even with a win. What’s certain is that I will do everything I can to help the team reach its targets: today, maybe I could have finished ahead of Fernando, but I’m well aware of the championship situation and I do what is right for Ferrari, as I’ve done throughout my career.”

Pat Fry: “We achieved our objective, which means keeping the Drivers’ championship alive to the end. This morning we decided to take a penalty that goes with changing a gearbox, which resulted in Felipe dropping five places on the grid, but meant both drivers started from the clean side of the track, an important factor, given Fernando is fighting for the Drivers’ title. We expected this to produce an advantage for the Spaniard and a more or less similar outcome for the Brazilian and as things turned out, if you look at the order after the first corner, we were right. Once again, Fernando covered the first few hundred metres of the race in extraordinary fashion and from then on, he produced a great performance, profiting from Webber’s retirement to make it to the podium for the umpteenth time in this amazing season. He did not have a car capable of fighting for the win, so to be third is the most we could aspire to in these conditions. Once again, Felipe showed great team spirit when it came to the decision that penalised him. He then drove a great race, climbing up from eleventh to fourth, pulling off some nice passing moves on the way. The main problem this weekend was definitely managing the tyre temperatures: once again today we suffered in the early laps after the pit stop much more than our competitors. We must study the data carefully to understand exactly what are the reasons for this, also because in Brazil, in less than a week, we will once again be running these compounds. It’s true the Interlagos circuit is very different and that so too will be the ambient temperatures, but we must arrive in Sao Paolo as well prepared as possible. The Drivers’ title and second place in the Constructors’ classification will be fought out to the very last corner that’s for sure.”