Fernando Alonso says Ferrari fell short of their planned workload on the final day of testing in Bahrain.
He added the team are not yet on par with the front-running teams ahead of the first race of the season in Australia in two weeks’ time.
“The team did its utmost to carry out changes on the car as quickly as possible, but again today, we had planned to do more laps than we managed,” said Alonso.
“There are a lot of things to learn with the use of the power unit to improve the performance of the car and we are not yet where we want to be.”
Alonso’s best time brought the team within a second of the quickest lap seen in Bahrain over the past two weeks, set by Felipe Massa’s Williams yesterday.
“Everyone in the team is very competitive and we are working day and night in order to get all the potential out of the F14 T as soon as possible,” Alonso added.
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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo
Corrado (@)
2nd March 2014, 16:41
Tests times confirm what he’s saying… unfortunately.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
2nd March 2014, 16:44
When did he said that ?
patriots_fan (@f1007)
2nd March 2014, 17:28
right ? …. strange the rumor about vettel’s so called “hissy fit” which is all over the news doesn’t get a mention here, but when it comes to alonso, Keith makes assumptions based on some statements … i am pretty sure hes going to say .. he meant in terms of laps … lol ..
Joshua Mesh (@joshua-mesh)
2nd March 2014, 18:56
Give kieth a chance to paste the quote before accusing him of making the assumption.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd March 2014, 19:09
@tifoso1989 Where he said “we are not yet where we want to be”.
@f1007
Both the rumour and Red Bull’s rebuttal were mentioned in the round-up yesterday.
patriots_fan (@f1007)
2nd March 2014, 19:28
@keithcollantine and that translates to him saying not yet on par with the front-running teams… how ?? .. @tifoso1989 misleading headlines have been part of this site for longtime.. nothing new i guess.
Baron (@baron)
2nd March 2014, 21:24
I assure you that if English is not your first language, it is a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the Ferrari situation and Fernando’s comments, in case you were worried.
patriots_fan (@f1007)
2nd March 2014, 23:05
you don’t have to be genius to figure that out, my point is you cannot make up headlines based on “reasonable” interpretations.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
3rd March 2014, 12:11
@f1007 I don’t understand what you’re getting so upset about. It’s a perfectly reasonable piece of paraphrasing. Of course Ferrari’s objective to be (at least) on par with the front-running teams. So when Alonso says they aren’t where they want to be, that’s exactly what he means.
Unless you think that when Alonso talks about “where we want to be” he means scraping through Q2 and hanging around the lower reaches of the points. Which he obviously doesn’t.
And I take it from your silence that you are now satisfied that the Vettel story which you said “doesn’t get a mention here” was in fact mentioned twice?
patriots_fan (@f1007)
3rd March 2014, 19:26
@keithcollantine well there is no way to know for sure what he meant exactly, cause all he said was they managed to do less laps than they planned to. But he never said they are not yet on par with front running teams, is what i was pointing out.
Yes, i take back what i said about vettel rumors, i missed that story.
On separate note, AMus is reporting that ferrari might surprise everyone, they are saying ferrari is deliberately running slow on start/finish straight. Guess, we will know correct order only after aus gp.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd March 2014, 17:29
A really fascinating aspect of the cars so far, and the (un)reliability we are seeing so far is how complicated it seems to be to change parts in the cars internals. This, more than reliability of components, is what I see as the biggest upset for the first 3-4 race weekends.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
2nd March 2014, 17:30
I must say I was afraid with that 2 seconds gap between them and the Mercedes-powered teams. It’s now half that time, and there is still so many unknown factors (fixed gears ratios, tyre management, fuel consumption, and above all reliability) that I want to believe they will be able to improve even more.
Mercedes is clearly favourite, but I would not be surprised to see a lot of drama at Melbourne and the next handful of races.
I really hope Renault will fix their problems quickly too or we may see a depleted field at race starts.
Nonetheless, those serious challenges will lead to a very unusual and interesting season.
For the first time, I followed all the tests, which I normally never do, but even at work there was always a live stats page to keep an eye on it, I can’t wait more for it to begin.
andae23 (@andae23)
2nd March 2014, 18:17
Hmm, I must say Alonso is a man who focuses a lot on shortcomings, and reading between the lines I guess Ferrari still has a pretty decent car.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd March 2014, 18:18
I am not really worried about their lack of pace. If they can get their reliability right, I think they will keep scoring important points to stay in the race while working to improve their pace. Unless someone has cracked the code and got both their pace/reliability to be working as intended, every top team has got chance at the title at least until the spring break.
The main thing here is if their wind tunnel issues are sorted. They cannot afford another season of problems with this much variables on hand.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
2nd March 2014, 18:27
Alonso’s been saying that for about 4 years now…
InSilico_ (@insilico)
2nd March 2014, 18:42
Yeah, which is why I reckon he could be on his way out of there next year.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
2nd March 2014, 19:24
Time is a flat circle when it comes to Ferrari it seems. Year after year they promise a competitive car, blame their struggles on wind-tunnels or the aero-regs and yet when given a clean slate and plenty of time to prepare it seems we still can’t get a front running car.
Christopher (@twiinzspeed)
3rd March 2014, 21:20
I have seen a few places that say Ferrari may be holding back a little. They set a fast sector and then ease off on the next one or two. I would like to have access to the timing to put their 3 best sector times together for each team and see where they are. But, I guess we will all know in a couple of weeks.
I am a huge Alonso /Ferrari fan, but I sure would like to hear them say something positive for a change.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd March 2014, 22:18
I’m sure no team is yet where they want to be. It’s a work in progress. In 3 races Ferrari could be saying they have exceeded expectations given the time of year. They all have so much to learn yet. The season just has to start running it’s course. What is true today may not apply tomorrow, such is the stage F1 is at right now. Ferrari might learn they are better than most in a certain aspect that hasn’t revealed itself in testing. Could be in the aspect of reliability, fuel economy, performance from setup work, treatment of the tires, or a combination. We’ll soon know.