2013 Canadian GP: Ferrari review

Team Ferrari had a great race last Sunday at Montreal, with both the drivers recovering from a pretty ordinary Qualifying session to score 22 points together, taking the total tally to 145 points, 56 adrift of arch rivals Red Bull.

The wet conditions during qualifying were extremely challenging, with the teams struggling to find out an effective tyre strategy. Felipe Massa was a victim of the wet track, when his car crashed into a wall at turn 3, thereby pushing him behind to P16. Meanwhile, Alonso too struggled with the wet conditions, managing only a 6th place grid position.

On race day, Alonso made better use of the dry track. Starting on the supersofts and changing to mediums on laps 16 and 47, he kept good pace throughout the race, challenging both Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Hamilton.

“The overtaking moves on the two Mercedes had an almost identical dynamics, although maybe the pass on Hamilton was more intense because we were running at the same pace, while with Rosberg, I knew it was only a matter of the laps going by, thanks to the advantage of having the Medium tyres, while he was on the Supersoft,” said Alonso.

Alonso finished the race in 2nd position, thereby taking his tally to 96 points, 8 ahead of Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen and 36 behind table topper Sebastian Vettel.

Meanwhile, Felipe Massa started the race from 16th grid position and had managed a place within the top ten. The Brazilian ran on supersofts for 41 laps before going to mediums. He struggled with graining problem as the track’s temperature went up, which he believed could have cost him 1 or 2 positions.

“Because of a problem with graining, I lost precious time behind Sutil in the Force India: that’s why I think a strategy based on using two sets of Medium tyres would have seen me gain at least one or two places,”

He is currently placed 7th in the driver’s championship, with 49 points to his name. The Brazilian is eagerly waiting for Silverstone, as he believes the track will suit best for his car.

“Now I’m looking ahead to the next race with a lot of confidence, because Silverstone is very similar to Shanghai and Barcelona, where our car worked very well.” said Alonso

Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali, was of the opinion that the race would have entirely been different if Alonso had qualified at the front row.

“I believe if Fernando had been on the first row like Sebastian then it would have been a different story,” he said.

“The main difference was that everyone, I believe, thought that the super soft was the tyre for the race, but because the temperature was higher, then it was the other way around.” He added further.

Sebastian Vettel showed his dominance at Montreal, with a 14.4 seconds lead over Alonso. Lewis Hamilton secured third spot, whereas Australia’s Mark Webber finished ahead of Monaco’s winner Nico Rosberg. Torro Rosso’s Vergne finished with a career best sixth position ahead of Force India’s Paul Di Resta. With a drive through penalty, Adrian Sutil managed 10th spot behind Felipe Massa and Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.