Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso sounded very downbeat earlier as he criticised Pirelli earlier over the quality of the current tyres, calling them ‘too fragile’ and talking of a 4-year drought of success at Ferrari. Alonso, who was world champion in 2005 and 2006, qualified sixth for tomorrow’s race in Korea, crossing the line 0.836 seconds behind rival Sebastian Vettel. In an interview with BBC F1, he didn’t sound hopeful about his chances of scoring the amount of points he needs to keep his title hopes alive:
“”This weekend we are not particularly strong,” he said. “[Not only in qualifying, but] also in the race pace we saw some problems.
“So I’m a little bit less optimistic in terms of winning the race or podium finish.”
However, he was quick not to blame Ferrari’s lack of performance on the tyres, adding: “If we put a tyre that can do more than 5km, they (the other teams) will be even faster as well.”
What Alonso was getting at was that having tyres which will only stand up to 5km of hard driving is pointless, and I completely agree. Whilst I understand the FIA’s reasons for asking Pirelli to make tyres which degrade faster, they have overlooked the fact that in order to drive a race which is entertaining to watch, a driver needs to be able push hard for at least 5 laps on each set of tyres, as opposed to the 1 lap they can barely manage now.
Despite being keen not to use the tyres as an excuse for Ferrari’s inability to catch the Red Bulls, Alonso invited the inevitable comment from Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembrey of:
“…to hear such comments is disappointing and below the standards you would expect from such a champion. I can only suggest he goes to ask the soon-to-be four-times champion (Vettel) how to get the best from the same tyres.”
But Red Bull aren’t exactly delighted with the tyre situation either. Whilst they have a car which is making the best of the rubber and dominating the grid, Vettel has made it clear he’d rather be able to push for longer on the tyres than he can now. No driver enjoys having to limit his pace throughout a lap because he knows if he doesn’t he’ll be down to the canvas in a mere lap or two, and it doesn’t make good viewing for the fans either.
“If all the cars push 100% from the start of the lap, the tyres will not do 5km. It is not very helpful and not very nice to drive at 95% all the lap”, said Alonso.
More pit stops and varying strategies are all very well, but when no two drivers can properly race against each other because they always have different levels of grip left from the tyres and one can just sail clean past the other then something’s not right. If there was a bigger window of grip available then things might be better, and I definitely hope that it’s something the FIA and Pirelli consider for next year. Closer racing is better racing, so I completely understand Alonso’s doubts over the limits of these tyres. There’s also clear signals that he’s not happy with Ferrari and where they stand right now, but with a new team mate in the garage next year and a brand new V6 engine behind him, the tables could turn.
