MOTOR SPORT GERMAN GRAND PRIX:TWO WEEKS ago at Silverstone, as the British Grand Prix entered its final third, Fernando Alonso radioed through to the Ferrari pit wall and tersely instructed his engineers not to speak to him for the remainder of the race.
The final 15 laps passed in stony silence, the team staring mutely at the screens which showed Alonso punching in a late but demonstrative fastest lap as he furiously pushed his way to 14th position by the finish.
At Hockenheim, ahead of tomorrow’s German Grand Prix, the two-time world champion looked utterly non-plussed when the incident is mooted as a sign of his growing sense of frustration with a season that started with the bang of victory in Bahrain and has since whimpered to a series of mishaps, misdemeanours and blown chances.
“I wasn’t angry,” he said blithely. “I simply thought that the race was over. I was in P18 with 15 laps to go. There was nothing left, no possibility to recover and take points. I just switched off from that race and was looking forward to Germany, simply looking after the gearbox, the engine.”
It’s a good attempt at an excuse but the brief Silverstone instruction said much about the progress of a driver and team partnership that in pre-season was one of the most keenly-anticipated in Formula One.
The grand dame of F1 with, arguably, the most grandly gifted driver in the sport promised much, and victory at this season’s Bahrain opener for Alonso seemed to signal a genuine revival was on the cards.
That, though, was largely that. Since then Ferrari have been utterly eclipsed by Red Bull Racing and McLaren, to the extent that Alonso’s season has by comparison with the amount of coverage generated by his rivals, appeared largely anonymous, the superstar team and driver being mentioned in dispatches only when things have gone wrong.
“There have been some frustrating moments,” he said, referencing the safety-car period which dropped him from a podium place to the midfield at the European GP and the drive-through penalty which similarly scuppered his race in Silverstone. “We did a good weekend in Valencia but we left there with four points. We had a very good weekend in Silverstone, just behind the Red Bulls and putting some pressure on them finally but we left with zero points.
“We just need to do consistent races. If we had had normal races in Valencia and Silverstone I’d have maybe taken those 47 points that I’m behind now and I’d be sitting here leading the championship,” he added. “Taking very few points from those races was (an) unrealistic representation. We are, I think, in a lot better shape than the championship position shows. We simply haven’t capitalised on Sundays.”
With the first four positions nominally being the preserve of the four Red Bull and McLaren drivers Alonso has performed beyond his car’s capabilities in qualifying, finishing in the top five at seven of the 10 races so far. Race days, though, tell a different story, the Ferrari driver dropping back to score an average finish of sixth, often being beaten by the supposedly inferior Mercedes of Nico Rosberg or the Renault of Robert Kubica.
It has left him frustrated and fifth in the drivers’ standings, 47 points adrift of championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Alonso believes, though, the team is finally turning the corner.
“I’m very happy with the car now, very motivated, and I do think now it’s possible to fight for the championship,” he said. “Before Valencia we had two Red Bulls in front of us, two McLarens and sometimes one Mercedes and one Renault. We were fighting with them, (Mercedes and Renault) and now I think we are stronger than that. Very strong.”
The upturn has shown in those qualifying results. After being 24th on the grid in Monaco after an accident, and starting 12th in Turkey, Alonso was third on the grid in Canada, fourth in Valencia and the only driver to match the Red Bulls on pace at Silverstone.
Germany, where more upgrades have been delivered, should confirm the position. After heavy rain disrupted the first practice session Alonso ran quickest in the afternoon, albeit just a couple of hundredths of a second ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but enough to leave the Spaniard confident he can at last compete on level terms – if he can translate form to finish.
“You just have to try to finish ahead of the (championship) leader so the gap doesn’t increase,” he said. “Right now it’s a McLaren so we try to finish ahead of them to be less than 47 points away. If, in the next race, it’s a Red Bull, then we’ll have to try to finish ahead of that Red Bull and so on. That’s it. But, we’ve done good Fridays before. Now we need to do a perfect Saturday and a perfect Sunday.”
