2013 Spanish Grand Prix – Post-Race Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

3 – Felipe MASSA (Ferrari)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

Fernando, how much did this crowd… we saw you go off to see the crowd… How much did the embrace of the crowd help you today?

Fernando ALONSO: Well, hello everybody. Definitely it was a fantastic emotion and it really helped. You feel the support from everybody, every single member of the team taking care of every detail because we want to do well here, in front of our fans, so many people supporting Ferrari. So, we did it, we’re happy for that but we don’t want to stop here obviously.

How much today mean for your confidence that you can go on to win this championship?

FA: Nothing really changed. We know that we have five races only, some up and downs. Some races we had a good race with no problems and we more or less finished on the podium in all of them. Some races we had some mistakes, some mechanical problems as well that we don’t want to repeat. We know that we have a car to fight with the top and if we do well we can fight for the championship. If we don’t do good enough maybe we don’t fight but we want to do so.

Kimi, four points off the championship lead at this stage and you’re coming in under the radar so to speak, because nobody is really giving you enough credit for what you’re doing at the moment. How do you respond to that?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: I don’t mind. I’m here only to do as good races as we can and always you want to win and it’s disappointing to finish second but sometimes we have to take what we can get. Like I said, I don’t mind if people don’t notice us. We do our work, be happy what we do and obviously try to achieve in Enstone.

Is the lack of attention possibly helping you?

KR: It makes no difference really to me. We know in the team, and all the sponsors, what we try to achieve and what we are doing and that’s the main thing.

Felipe, what a great drive, from ninth place on the grid [to third]. Felipe, are you back to your very best?

Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I think so. For sure I was a little bit disappointed yesterday after the qualifying losing three places but anyway the race was very good for us, our car was fantastic. Very aggressive straight away. I gained back the positions. I think maybe in the first lap I was already sixth. Then overtaking cars. Struggling a bit with the tyres, to make it survive every stint in a good way but I think the race was very good for us.

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It Wasn’t Racing

OK so I’ve been thinking a lot about writing this post. Being a Fernando fan it’s hard to not feel like a hypocrite but please read the whole of this article before judging me!

So first off:

What Sebastian did was not RACING! How can it be if both were told to turn down their engines!?? I’m fed up of Vettel fans saying that! PLEASE it would have been racing if he overtook Mark since he was slower in the first instant but taking advantage of a team-mate when he knew what his team had told him to isn’t fair play isn’t fair racing and to be honest I don’t think he even had to win to be top of the championship! F1 isn’t always about being the winner of the races but sometimes being a team player! It was only the second race of the season I don’t think Sebastian had anything to prove to anyone and all it did was show how big his ego has become! At the end of the day Mark Webber if given the same car as Sebastian he then should be able to race against his team-mate no matter how many championship that person may have won!

And this leads me on to my second point

I really hate this bullshit attitude that team mates have! When Ferrari pulled off that Fernando is faster than you crap the other year I honestly hated it ! If a car is slower in front of you then that driver has and should have every right to defend his place and race with his team-mate after all as a F1 fan I watch the sport to watch cars racing each other not to just be let pass because he’s slower than the car in front! Where is the skill in that? and yes Mark and Sebastian did take each other out doing this but isn’t that slightly the risk and the fun of F1? We all moan about how boring it gets but then how can it be anything but boring if teams are making it easier for the drivers??

Yeah I know nothing will change! I remember when Rubens Barrichello was second man to Schumacher. But as a F1 fan do I have to agree with what teams do and call it racing even when it isn’t? Champion or not I want to see racing between team-mates.

Anyway that’s my opinion what is yours? Leave a comment if you come across this!

 

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Fernando Alonso confident Ferrari can compete with Lotus’s pace

Fernando Alonso says he is confident his Ferrari team can compete with Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus, the winners of the season’s first race.

The Spaniard was beaten by Raikkonen into second place on Sunday in Australia but he expects to be more competitive in Malaysia this weekend.

“Lotus’s pace was very good but nothing that we could not do,” Alonso said.

“They had a clean race and a good strategy but the pace was not out of reach. Here we can fight a bit closer.”

Alonso, who has narrowly missed out on the world championship to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in two of the last three years, said his strong start to the season had convinced him he could compete for the title again.

“We have a more or less competitive car. In Australia everything worked quite fine for us and we show a good potential,” he said.

“But it is true that Australia’s circuit is a very strange and very unusual circuit.

“This weekend is for us a little bit of a confirmation. We need to confirm the car is performing well after some positive feelings in winter and some positive feelings in Australia.

“This is a very real test for us. We want a clear weekend and a very good result and again a podium will be a very good target to achieve. If we do so we can be very happy.”

Raikkonen denied that his win in the first race made him the man to beat or would change anything in his approach.

“There’s no target [on our back],” he said. “We don’t do anything different this weekend than we did in the previous race or last year.

“If people think that we are leaders, it makes no difference to our work, what we did or what we’re going to do this weekend or any other weekend. Like I said, we try to do our best and hopefully we can score some good points.”

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2013 Australian Grand Prix – Post Race Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)
2 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing )

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Australian GP Qually Results

Under read more are qually results! (YES I posted them again)

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2013 Australian Grand Prix – Thursday Press Conference

DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

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We are back kinda! F1 Noobs and hopes for the 2013 season

Well the website is back kinda got a few pages to do and yes the gallery is dead! SORRY my fault I had a total durp moment! Plus I know where my old photos are but can’t get to them as can’t find the plug.

But we have a FORUM NOW! You have to join to access it and I think I will be posting images in there from now on. God knows I will have time while trying to find a sky F1 feed at 6am wondering why I am awake a stupid hour on a weekend lol OK OK I’m messing on that but honestly it hasn’t been the greatest of weathers this week! We had SNOW! and was -3°C the other night!

But I digress

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