Spaniard aiming to beat both McLarens in the race and admits hitherto constructors' rivals Williams "maybe now too fast"
Tuesday 25 November 2014 17:49, UK
Fernando Alonso has played down his outburst on the radio towards his Ferrari team at the start of Brazilian GP qualifying.
The Spaniard, who is set to leave Ferrari for a switch to McLaren at the end of the season, was heard voicing frustration in unusually animated fashion over the radio during his early laps in the first qualifying session.
“'Ay ay ay ay ay', why do I start in qualifying with low battery? How is this possible? How?” he exclaimed.
Speaking to reporters after going on to qualify eighth, Alonso explained that the battery in his F14 hadn’t been properly charged in the garage ahead of qualifying, meaning he had to compromise his first flying lap. However, the Spaniard made clear that the issue didn’t have any lasting influence on his qualifying session.
“In Q1 we were not ready to do the laps. The first flying lap normally is the best for the tyres and my first lap was a recharge lap because I had no battery going out of the garage. So we were not prepared for Q1 let’s say,” he explained.
“It didn’t affect anything because Q1 is just a matter of going through, then we put things in place and we arrived in Q3 with the best performance of the car with one set of new soft tyres and we put the lap together in the last attempt. So it [the issues in Q1] didn’t affect the qualifying, we were just not ready for that lap.
“But no big thing. When it goes on television it is a big thing but there are a hundred of these things that don’t go to television, so it’s normal.”
Ferrari appeared to be carefully managing the Spaniard’s engine mileage during practice at Interlagos with the Spaniard one of a host of drivers who have reached the limit of penalty-free engine components for the season.
But while he ran a particularly old engine on Friday, when he stopped on track with smoke emanating from the back of the car, Alonso says he had no power issues with his fresher unit on Saturday and Ferrari’s latest low-key qualifying result simply reflected the single-lap pace of the car around Interlagos.
“Yesterday, yes, a little bit [down on power]. My engine was very old and probably not performing at the best, but today the engine is good,” he said.
“If we save again the Friday of Abu Dhabi we should be okay also for Abu Dhabi in terms of qualifying and the race with the engine. The power is good.
“The weekend has been a bit difficult with some bits of the balance and some settings we are trying, but in qualifying anything I think we extracted the maximum. Eight and tenth is more or less expected because we were seventh and eighth this morning in practice. One tenth of a second we could have been fifth, but the important thing tomorrow is to finish ahead of our competitors.”
Alonso admitted Ferrari’s ‘competitors’ were now unlikely to be Williams with the Grove outfit, having already pulled clear of the Scuderia in the Constructors’ Championship in recent races, closer to Mercedes than the chasing pack in Brazil qualifying.
The Spaniard is therefore targeting the two McLaren cars, the team he is set to join next year, as the ones he needs to beat above all others on Sunday. Fourth-placed Ferrari lead their Woking rival by 49 points in the standings.
“We need some help from others to recover some positions. Maybe the rain could be one of these factors which could mix things a little bit. Let’s see," Alonso added.
“As I said in Austin, at the moment the Constructors’ Championship is my main priority. Maybe Williams is now too fast, we have to be realistic and defend from McLaren - as I did in Austin, finishing in front of both McLarens. Tomorrow I will try to do the same.”
