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#858 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

2023-01-08 00:00

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#SecondPart, Fulvio Conti, Translated by Sofia Scrigna,

#858 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

The season didn’t go as originally  planned, actually, to be honest, it was a real failure given the premises of last winter. Believing to be competit

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Fernando Alonso is pumped up ahead of the next World Championship. 

 

"I'm more motivated than ever, it's just a matter of time, hopefully not too long as I'm 30 years old and I don't know how much longer I'll be on track. But at the moment, I am at the peak of my career and I am in the best team. I feel like a much more complete driver than in the past. Maybe on the single lap or in the race not much has changed, but in overtaking manoeuvres, starts and the approach to pit stops I was much weaker in 2005 or 2006. Not to mention the mental preparation for the race, which is fundamental".

 

And Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari's team principal, protagonist of a video chat with fans and Formula 1 enthusiasts on the Maranello team website, also reiterates:

 

"There is a great desire to get back to where we need to be".

 

Many topics are touched upon and explored, starting with the inevitable question: Where are we with the development of the new car?

 

"We are following our plans, we have been working for a couple of months on the new project, and on paper the feedback is definitely positive, but we have to wait for the track. The signs that the car is competitive are all there, but as I repeat, feet on the ground and let's always question ourselves".

 

Not least because Ferrari is coming off an unsatisfactory season like the one that has just passed and so it is legitimate to ask what measures are planned at Maranello to avoid the risk of a disappointing 2012 as well.

 

"On the one hand we react with changes in the organisation, then I asked the engineers not to underestimate any aspect of the car, we have to be realistic and I think the choices we have made are very effective".

 

This is the team principal's answer, before dwelling on a challenging technical and management question like this: Do you think that with the abolition of the blower exhausts and Pat Fry's contribution it is possible to beat the rivals in 2012?

 

"The abolition of the exhausts that generated aerodynamic load is significant, because we were unable to exploit them to create adequate performance in 2011. It is important because it brings aerodynamic development back to a situation we have been working on for months. As for Pat Fry, I don't believe in customisation, the choices are in the direction of maximising the performance of the team: everyone is very motivated to do well, and the objective is very clear".

 

Still talking about Pat Fry, some ask whether he is indeed the right person in the right place and whether the situation before was somehow due to Aldo Costa: 

 

"I believe, as I said, that one should not speak personally in the organisation. I think we have to thank Aldo Costa because thanks to his contribution we have won many titles and he is a great professional. Sometimes you have to shake up the environment to take the positive aspects that this brings to the organisation. Whether the choice was the right one we will see from the results".

 

Then there can be no shortage of questions about the drivers' market, with the possibility of Robert Kubica at Ferrari in 2013 possibly upsetting Felipe Massa for next season. 

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"It is part of the tactics, depending on the interests at stake, that these rumours exist. I expect a season of great recovery and revival from Felipe. We are in a transition period, where talent in young people is less common to find. We have invested in young talent, from karting with Lance Stroll, to Formula 3 with Maisano and Marciello, to Bianchi and Rigon, without forgetting that in the FDA there is a young man like Sergio Perez who did very well in his first year in Formula 1. They need to be able to test as well, that's why we would like more testing".

 

The closing is with a Christmas request. 

 

"We must not forget that there are many things around us that are not just Formula 1: I hope that more serenity will spread and I think Father Christmas knows exactly what I would like him to bring me".

 

Flavio Briatore, for his part, has clear ideas on what Ferrari must focus on most in order to catch up with Red Bull and McLaren next season.

 

"The problem is that they are all very competitive, Fernando Alonso has brought the Ferrari into the game and he has put a lot of his own into it. If he has technical help from the team he can put 2-3 tenths in the race. We have to improve in qualifying and understand the Pirelli tyres well, because Red Bull has spectacular grip and that depends on the aerodynamics. Ferrari has to work on this front, you have to be more creative, take some risks, otherwise it's impossible to recover. To do better you have to go to the limit of the regulations and have some creativity. The championship ended ten days ago and in two months it starts again, so there's not even time to recover. When you're behind, that's how it is. I hope Ferrari will be back in the lead".

 

On Saturday 17 December 2011, as per tradition, the Scuderia Ferrari racing department meets in Maranello, together with representatives of sponsors and suppliers, for a Christmas lunch that takes on even more value this year, the 20th of Montezemolo's presidency. The Ferrari president is the protagonist of a video that recounts these twenty years in red, a thought that moves him:

 

"It is the most beautiful gift I could have received, here is my life, this company is, after my family, the most important thing for me. There are people I want to thank for having helped me all these years. Some are here with us today, like Piero Ferrari, like Amedeo Felisa and like Mario Mairano. Others are no longer with us, such as Avvocato Agnelli: I owe him a great deal, both personally and professionally, and when I see certain images again I can't help but think how close he was to Ferrari in so many difficult years. Others have chosen to do another job: Jean Todt, whose great work with us I will not forget, and Michael Schumacher, who won like no one else in the history of Ferrari, with whom we shared some dramatic moments and many extraordinary ones".

 

The end of the year is, of course, a time for taking stock but also for hope in view of a 2012 that, at Ferrari, we hope will be full of success and satisfaction:

 

"I want to be optimistic, because I see the concentration and attention to detail that characterises the efforts of Domenicali and his men, from Fry to Marmorini, from Lanzone to Tombazis. They are working on all areas, to improve: from the design of the new car to simulation, from pit-stop operations to starting and so on. We can't be happy with how this year went and there is a great desire for redemption, but this doesn't come on its own, the stork doesn't bring it: it has to be the fruit of the work of each one of you, of the ability to be perfect, to be in pole position, because you are the strength of this company. Behind extraordinary products there are extraordinary women and men".

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Montezemolo continued:

 

"All the ingredients are there to get back to winning ways. There is great anticipation for next season in the faces of our drivers. Felipe knows that a very important season awaits him, but it's up to us to provide him with a competitive car. If we can do that, then I'm sure we will see the Felipe who has given us so much satisfaction and who was faster than Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando had an extraordinary season, even though he didn't have a competitive car, and he gave us great joy at Silverstone, an emblematic success because it came at the same circuit and in the same month in which, sixty years earlier, Ferrari's first Formula 1 victory was won. Of our drivers I like the ability to work together with the team: of Felipe I knew it, of Fernando it was a nice surprise. I don't like those drivers who arrive at the track with their briefcase and don't live the daily life of the team: they are not Ferrari people".

 

He concludes by saying:

 

"My job is to put you in the best conditions to do your job: I expect a great reaction from you and a great desire to do well. Winning depends on us and not on others. We have everything, starting with exceptional suppliers and partners such as Philip Morris, Santander and Shell, to name but the most important. I can't wait to come back and share some great satisfaction together".

 

The Christmas celebrations do not end here, at Maranello: Sunday will be the day of the usual party for all the employees' families: the children of the Ferrari men, from technicians to workers, will receive, eight days in advance, the first presents. To deliver them, as always, will be two exceptional Santas, namely the two drivers, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Despite a troubled year at the wheel of Ferrari, Fernando Alonso still wants to fight and prove himself the best on the track: to further confirm this, the Spaniard launches a long-distance challenge to Sebastian Vettel, freshly confirmed at the top of Formula 1 with Red Bull: 

 

"Vettel has won two world titles, I another two, but we will see in ten years. The German has been very lucky to have a competitive car so quickly, but I wouldn't change mine for any. I am in the team I want".

 

In Alonso's words there is all his desire for revenge, but also that of Ferrari, which is counting on climbing the ladder again in 2012:

 

"When I arrived at Ferrari there was a feeling of unbearability, but this is dangerous. What Ferrari wants is to recover the good feeling and savour the taste of victories again. Improving this very good car will not be easy, but they will do it, even if they have smaller margins than us. It will never be the same car, despite the many rule changes. It doesn't matter what rules they come up with, because the engineers are smarter than they are".

 

Luca Montezemolo celebrates 20 years as president of Ferrari and on Wednesday 21 December 2011, during a dinner with the sports press, the president again takes stock of the season that has just ended:

 

"Economically we close an extremely positive 2011 in terms of numbers, cash flow, very strong investments fully financed. In F1 it was a negative season. That can happen. But three things were positive. The great season of Alonso, the strongest driver in F1, and not as of today. The team has made great progress, both on strategies and the ability not to make mistakes. And then the special win at Silverstone. After that I expected growth, which unfortunately wasn't there. I want it for 2012, a competitive car that heats up the tyres right away. The team is very focused, Stefano Domenicali's organisational interventions are going in the right direction".

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A lot has changed over the years: 

 

"The coronaries have suffered a lot in these 20 years: like the redundancy fund in '93. We used to sell 2300 cars, now it's more than 7000. We used to export to 20 countries, now to 58, the turnover is 10 times bigger. There is a theme park in Abu Dhabi, and we are negotiating with two countries, one is Korea, to make another one in due course, but nothing is decided".

 

Victory at Silverstone came sixty years after Ferrari's first success, the one on the same track with Josè Froilan Gonzalez: 

 

"Fate made us win a GP where for the first time I saw the rules change three times in one weekend. To triumph 60 years later in the same month and on the same circuit was a great satisfaction".

 

Montezemolo also talks about Felipe Massa's season: 

 

"We were not happy, and neither was he, for one, with his season. I hope and believe that with a car that warms up the tyres more we will have a much more competitive Felipe. I remember he was often faster than Schumacher and Raikkonen, who helped Kimi win a world championship, and he himself had won a title, he was World Champion in Brazil for 38 seconds, then the unbelievable happened. If we give him the right car he will be competitive again. And in this condition ours is the strongest pair in the World Championship".

 

As for post-Massa: 

 

"I'm not so inexperienced to think about putting Hamilton, or another driver in direct competition, with Alonso. Vettel is very good, but he is young and he has had an incredible car".

 

The Ferrari president also talks about the exit from FOTA: 

 

"We were tired of downward agreements. For us F1 is extreme sporting and technological competition, advanced research, and overtaking. Aerodynamics counts for too much, with almost no return on production. We have to go back to testing, otherwise how do we evaluate new drivers? Limiting them is absurd, like asking Barcelona not to train. I would like the third car not so much for us, but for the smaller teams".

 

The new Ferrari will be presented in early February, although the date will be made official at the Madonna di Campiglio meeting between 9 and 14 January 2012.

 

"This 2011 has been something very special. I will need some time to fully understand what I managed to do". 

 

Words and music from Sebastian Vettel, the youngest two-time World Champion in Formula 1 history. The German driver can only draw a positive balance of his season.

 

"History means a lot to me and to be part of it is a fantastic feeling. In 2011 everything was practically perfect, from start to finish".

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Despite the records and successes, Vettel continues to live with the Schumacher comparison.

 

"I am still a long way from him, and when you talk about Michael you have to show respect, what he managed to achieve in Formula 1 is incredible. I have to take one step at a time. This year, on the podium in Japan, I realised that my life could not be better than this".

 

It is inevitable to designate the German Red Bull driver as the main favourite for the 2012 World Championship: even Bernie Ecclestone has no doubts about that. 

 

"I see no reason why an era like Schumacher at Ferrari from 2000 to 2004 cannot begin. To win the title next season you will have to overtake Vettel. And that will also be the case in 2013 and 2014".


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