We have a better team - Alonso
By Jay
October 14 2012
Fernando Alonso believes that his Ferrari F1 team, compared to Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull F1 team, is better.
Speaking to the media after his qualifying session at Yeongam circuit in S. Korea, Fernando Alonso was positive on the improvement in pace made by the car.
“I’d say we’ve made a step forward compared to Japan, just a week ago, both in terms of grid position and also the gap to the front.
You can see that our car is better suited to this track, given that it is basically the same one we raced in Japan. We must improve it and I expect to see some updates coming, right from the next race in India.
It’s no surprise to see the two Red Bulls on the front row: indeed it’s not by chance they were fastest in Q1 and Q2 also. My second run in Q1? I was being very careful not to wear out the tyres too much because I knew I’d be using them later in Q2.
I think tomorrow we can have a good race: maybe I might lose a few places immediately after the start, as I’m on the dirty side of the track, but we have shown we have a good pace over a long run and so we should be able to stay with the lead group.
Our aim tomorrow? It’s very simple: to finish ahead of Vettel. From now on, how many points one has overall will not count for much, it will be scoring one more than my closest rival that matters.
It could happen that I lose the lead in the championship and maybe arrive at the last race 24 points down, but what matters is to be first in the classification at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix. What edge does the Red Bull have? A quicker car, but we have the better team.”
His teammate, Felipe Massa too sounded optimist for the race, "Over a long run, we have seen in the past that we are more competitive than on a single flying lap and we hope that history will repeat itself tomorrow, so that we can fight with those who start ahead of us.
In qualifying there are at least two cars quicker than us, but then in the race the situation is different. We have to come up with a good strategy, trying to get the best out of the tyres that don’t appear to wear out much here," he said.