Alonso calls for Ferrari all-out attack
Saturday 27th August 2011
Fernando Alonso believes Ferrari can start to take greater risks if they are to win this season's Formula One world title as they have nothing to lose.
Following a sluggish start to the year for both Ferrari and Alonso, the double world champion has since been on the podium five times in the last six grands prix.
Whilst there is no doubt Red Bull and championship leader Sebastian Vettel have been caught by Ferrari and McLaren, it could be a case of too little too late.
With eight races remaining, starting in Belgium on Sunday, Alonso still finds himself trailing championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 89 points.
That is despite Ferrari seemingly adopting aggressive strategies compared to earlier in the season when they appeared to be more cautious.
"We didn't program anything to be conservative at the beginning, or more aggressive now," said Alonso.
"It's just that the way things have worked out in the last couple of races, we've been lucky with strategies and they've worked out okay.
"With this year's tyres and the degradation, you need a bit of luck with strategy because tyre behaviour is very unpredictable from lap to lap.
"With 70 to 80 pit stops in general for the whole grid, you catch people when they go into the pits or they're coming out.
"There is nothing we can lose now if we take risks, like in the last race in Hungary where it was wet and dry, so you can take a bit more risk.
"In the past, if you want to fight for the championship, normally you wait for someone to put on dry tyres when it's wet, or vice versa.
"Now we can be the first because we've nothing to lose."
Alonso appreciates his chances of winning a third title have become "extremely difficult", but with 200 points up for grabs there is a degree of hope.
"Until the maths say otherwise, and if there is a possibility, then we will fight," said Alonso.
"We've seen many times in Formula One strange things happen, and in two, three races with the new points system, anything could happen.
"So we will not give up at this point. We will try to win every race.
"With four or five races to go, if there is still a possibility we will try and go for it.
"At that stage, if it is not possible, then it will be time to give up, but not now with the amount of points still on the table."
Given the title situation, Alonso believes now would be the ideal time to break his victory duck at Spa, with his best result second in 2005.
"There are a couple of circuits in Formula One on which I've never won, and this is one of them," added Alonso.
"We all love Spa, it's a great circuit to drive, so hopefully this year is a good one for me.
"I've great memories from my victory in Formula 3000 (in 2000), but in Formula One I've never been good enough to win, so why not this year?"
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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