Fernando, you are the only driver on this panel who has raced a Formula One around this circuit before. What do you think about the circuit, what are your memories of your races here from the early 2000s? Fernando ALONSO: I think the circuit, as Esteban said before, is a very short circuit, so there are only five or six corners around here where you can make the time, so I expect all the cars to be very close. One or two tenths you can make a lot of places, so you just need to make a perfect lap on Saturday. If not it’s a big penalty in terms of positions on the grid here. And to be honest I don’t remember anything. We raced in 2001 and 2003 and I have no memories. Too long! We spoke in Montreal, obviously Ferrari brought quite a lot of upgrades to the car, which worked quite well in practice, but you weren’t able to use all of them for the whole weekend. What’s the plan for this weekend and what sort of shape do you think you’re going to be in? FA: We have some new parts also coming here, as every race, and we will try to evaluate them tomorrow in the practice, trying to understand which ones we can put on the car on Saturday and which ones will require more time to bring to the cars. So tomorrow will be as usual a test Friday and hopefully we’ll pick out the good ones for the rest of the weekend. QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe Kiadoi KFT) Question to all drivers. Did you make any bets on the football championships? FA: I didn’t. I didn’t. I don’t know who’s going to win, it’s open and…yeah… I will not bet, it’s too difficult. Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) Looking ahead to the German Grand Prix, could you tell us what you’re looking forward to about racing at Hockenheim please. FA: It’s just another weekend I guess. Is there something special there? No? Normal. Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Couple of questions to Fernando. In these days we had some quotes by Luca di Montezemolo about the necessity for big changes in Formula One. How do you judge them? Second question: yesterday it was decided to reduce the in-season tests. What’s your opinion about this decision about Formula One? FA: I think the president is right, in a way. The show that probably we’ve put in this year is not good enough in some of the races. Also, when one team is dominating so much as Mercedes, probably the spectators prefer some more action, as probably they like Canada Grand Prix that everyone seems to enjoy. Yeah, we will try to put on a better show in the next races and if the teams or the fans or whatever, they have any ideas, they will be welcome to have a better show. Obviously this is the way the sport has been going in the last couple of years, y’know? Now for many years, reducing the tests more and more. They have some good things and some bad things. Probably the cost is the good thing. The teams can save a lot of money and we have more teams that can survive year after year and we can keep having a good grid. On the other hand it’s the only sport in the world that you cannot train. So, for us probably it’s not a big thing but for a young driver coming from Formula 3 or GP2 or whatever, the first time they go to the circuit if FP1. There is no possibility to test at any time and that’s probably a unique thing in our sport unfortunately. But at the same time, as I said, I understand the cost problem and if they decide this it’s because it’s the best decision. Q: (David Croft – Sky F1) There are two big issues that have been discussed: there’s the cost cutting and then there’s the improvement of the show. Gentlemen, as you’re the guys that are out there racing, do you think the show needs improving, and if so, what can the sport do to put on a better show on a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon? What’s the one thing you’d like to see to promote better racing, if we need it in Formula One? Fernando, any thoughts what you’d like to see FA: Well, probably, as we’ve all said , the cost is the biggest thing here. All the ideas you have are closely related to the cost as well. So that’s not an easy thing. In my opinion the KERS should come back to our cars. We have now the electric helping us on the straight but we cannot decide, or we don’t have the extra boost we had last year to help with overtaking because you can use it in different places compared to other cars. Now we all use more or less the same energy in the same places, so that’s impossible to overtake. And then tyres are a big thing. Bringing in a tyre competition or whatever will mix the teams. We could help the small teams like they do in MotoGP, giving them a different spec of tyres or different fuel quantity or whatever to use in the race. So there are some ideas we could take from other sports – but as I said, all needs to take care of the cost as well and that’s the main priority. Q: (Adam Hay-Nicholls – Metro) Fernando, another football question. How surprised and depressed are you about last night’s result? FA: I’m surprised, I’m not depressed. I think that (sooner) or later we had to lose. We’ve been winning for some years now and we knew that sooner or later the day would come that we were back home, we were back home a little bit earlier than we expected, probably. They will enjoy a little bit more holiday break now but that’s the way it is. We didn’t play well enough to qualify, the others played better - sadly because the country has a lot of expectations when the World Cup comes around, so it’s good to give some happiness to everybody but we just need to say thanks for all that this generation gave us in the last couple of years and hopefully come back stronger in four years’ time. Q: (Christobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) To all of you: Fernando introduced the topic of the tyres and it seems that Pirelli is going to keep the blankets next year. Did they ask you for your opinion to take that decision, and what’s your opinion? FA: (You agree? OK). Q: (Marco Canseco Fuentes – Marca) Fernando, can you understand the difficulties that Sebastian Vettel has found to adapt to the new powertrain, new way of driving compared to the high level of Daniel Ricciardo? FA: I don’t know. We have enough problems in our garage that we are not competitive at all at the moment, that you don’t look so much in the garages around you. You just take the opportunity. I think Daniel is doing a fantastic job and Sebastian was also doing a good job in some races with some bad luck but I’m sure that at the end of the year is when you need to see how the championship went and I’m sure that Sebastian will come back very strong sooner or later so we will see. Q: (Vladamir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodnya) To all the drivers: the Red Bull Ring is a new track to young drivers. In your opinion, which point in this track can be the most exciting? FA: I don’t know really, probably the last corner, downhill and you’re over the exit kerb many times so you get excited that it’s the last corner, you want to finish the lap perfectly if you haven’t made any mistakes so it’s a tricky corner. (fonte: Fia)
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:46:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015