Praising Fernando Alonso for another impressive performance in Abu Dhabi, Luca di Montezemolo has highlighted the fact that Ferrari’s latest car updates did not live up to expectations. Although the Spaniard fought up to second place in Sunday’s race, he had been able to qualify only seventh fastest at Yas Marina 24 hours earlier.
“The weekend was hard to read,” company President di Montezemolo says on the Ferrari website. “That began with Saturday evening, when I watched a situation that was not entirely clear. As far as Ferrari is concerned, I want to understand why the new parts that we brought to the track only partially improved the performance of the F2012, which wasn’t enough to allow Alonso to fight for the very front positions on the grid – despite the contrasting expectations of our engineers.
“Fernando nonetheless produced his umpteenth great race of the season, in which he again gave 120 percent and managed to fight for victory right to the end. But it’s clear that we have to do more for the coming races. That is what I requested of (Team Principal Stefano) Domenicali and his team: we have ten crucial days ahead, during which we must do everything to arrive in Texas with a car that can fight for the victory. Words count for nothing: this must be our target…I remain confident because everything is possible.”
After the race, Alonso did not expect as much.
“Before the problem (qualifying disqualification) for Vettel, we were thinking of leaving Abu Dhabi with a deficit of 20-something points,” the Spaniard commented. “In the end, it’s ten. It was a good weekend. But they will have the fastest car over the last two races. There is no magic part that will come for Austin or Brazil…but, as I said a couple of races ago, they have the fastest car but we have the best team – so we’ll see who wins.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:45:58.667 |
| 2. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +0.852 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +4.163 |
| 4. | J. Button | McLaren | +7.787 |
| 5. | P. Maldonado | Williams | +13.007 |
| 6. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +20.076 |
| 7. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +22.896 |
| 8. | B. Senna | Williams | +23.542 |
| 9. | P. di Resta | Force India | +24.160 |
| 10. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +27.463 |
| Full results | |||
| Fernando Alonso | |||
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| More Fernando Alonso photos | |||
| Luca di Montezemolo | |||
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| More Luca di Montezemolo photos | |||
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