Fernando Alonso met the media in a very sunny paddock here on the outskirts of Mokpo this afternoon and admitted that, rain or shine, this was going to be a tough weekend for Scuderia Ferrari. “Fifteen days ago we were fourth fastest behind Red Bull, Lotus and Mercedes and there are very few new things on the car this weekend,” said the Spaniard. “However, if we have a good Saturday, then usually in the race we can recover a bit, with a good start and strategy, so we will be hoping to maximize our points haul.”
There is talk of rain for Saturday and Sunday and although the collective wisdom is that rain reduces performance gaps between cars, the Ferrari man doesn’t see a wet track as necessarily providing a route to the podium. “You never know who will be the lucky one in that situation,” reckoned Fernando. “It’s hard to predict, but even in the wet, Red Bull should be maximum favorites because of the high downforce levels their cars have.”
What was needed to beat Vettel and Red Bull? “We have to be realistic that we don’t have the pace to beat them in normal conditions and if we do get any luck, you can be sure we will take it!,” said Fernando. “We will not give up the fight until it’s mathematically impossible to take the title.” Alonso has fought for the title down to the wire on several occasions, sometimes winning sometimes not, so he is well qualified to assess what this final rush of six races will be like. In one word, “stressful. It will not be easy to handle all the travelling and different time zones, but our motivation will be high. We must concentrate on preparing really well in the weeks in between each grand prix so that we tackle them in 100% condition both physically and mentally.”
Earlier this week, it was reported that Alonso met with Ferrari President, Luca di Montezemolo. “We have quite a few update meetings during the year,” explained Fernando. “He asks me about areas where I think we need to improve and I ask him about plans for the future. Obviously, one of the main topics at the moment is our wind tunnel which we will now be able to use again after all the work done on it.” Even if the revised wind tunnel will be of more use for next year and beyond, Fernando made it clear that neither he nor Montezemolo have given up on this year. “The President and me think anything can happen. Like the Americas Cup, we saw the American team was 1-8 down and they won 9-8. We know it would be difficult, but if you have two lucky races, things can change very quickly. But we need a lot of luck; we know that.”
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