British GP - Alonso: “Hope and motivation to win every race”
Silverstone, 7 July – Stereotypical cloudy and cool English summer weather was the backdrop for Fernando Alonso’s first press meeting of the British Grand Prix weekend, in the relocated and brand new Silverstone paddock complex. The first question thrown at the Spaniard was a very simple one: how can Sebastian Vettel be beaten this season. “We need to wait and see if either Ferrari or McLaren has made a big improvement which would allow us to fight with Red Bull this weekend,” began the Scuderia Ferrari driver. “At the moment, their car has been too dominant and, if it had not been for his mistakes in Canada and China, we would be talking about eight Sebastian wins in eight races. We have not seen this sort of dominance since maybe Michael’s (Schumacher) time in 2004. Hopefully, here in Silverstone we can see a turn around in this situation. There is always hope and there is the motivation to win every race, but we need to make a step forward in terms of performance. All we can do is concentrate on our own job, do the best we can, try and win every race, but in terms of the championship, we need some help from those ahead of us in terms of them making mistakes.”
This is the first race where cars cannot use the exhaust to add downforce to the car when braking and Fernando is keen to see what this will mean in practical terms. “I think it will affect everybody more or less the same,” said the Spaniard. “We have done our simulation programmes to look at the effect and clearly it will cost us some downforce under braking, which means it will also cost us in terms of lap times. We probably won’t have a real picture until Saturday and Sunday, as I do not expect the situation to be so clear in Friday practice.”
The Silverstone circuit is popular with drivers, who generally prefer high speed circuits as confirmed by Fernando. “Normally, the whole circuit is quite fun to drive, with high speed corners everywhere and I think all drivers enjoy driving here. The only thing that is not fun is possibly when it rains, because even if it is beautiful in the dry and it’s nice to experience all the G-force, in the rain, you miss the grip and speed into the corners and, because it rains often here, you are always hunting for that nice dry lap!” The moving of the pits to a completely different part of the track will have an influence on how the racing evolves, particularly on the opening lap and the Ferrari man reckons it’s a change for the better: “The first corner is quite flat and I don’t think we will see much overtaking into Turn 1 after the start. There will be more at the third corner, the first one with big braking. I am sure there will be more action which I am happy about as I think the new position for the start-finish line will make for more exciting racing.”
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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