Alonso's Blog: Thanks again to everyone at the Gestione Sportiva

I have gone through some really exciting moments during these last days in Italy. Feeling so close to the tifosi that I had the impression I could touch their enthusiasm with my hand was really something special. There is a passion for Ferrari all over the world, but here it is stronger still and I was fortunate enough to be at the wheel of an Italian car winning the Italian Grand Prix. Today I was able to personally thank everyone at the Gestione Sportiva, when they all gathered in the logistics building. It was nice to once again lift the winner’s trophy in front of the people who had made the victory possible, starting with the guys who did the pit stop. I had arrived in Maranello on Sunday 5 September, confident that we could reignite our championship chances, even if I felt it would be very tough. Now, two days on from that really happy moment in Monza, we can claim to have made a good step forward. At Spa, things had not gone well, so it was hard to say beforehand what we might really be capable of. However, we knew that, as long as we did our best, we would be in with a chance and that’s how things turned out. Now our aim must be to try and do the same in the final five races of the championship.



Despite failing to score in Spa, where the accident on the first lap weighed heavily like a stone, Ferrari and I have scored more points than anyone else in these last four races. That makes us even more confident and the fact these results came on tracks with very different characteristics to one another, confirms that our car is pretty versatile. Yesterday and today, I did some work on the simulator – I was able to get a first taste of the Korean Yeongam circuit – and I also spent time with our engineers to find out about the updates we will have in Singapore.



This afternoon, I left for Madrid, where this evening I am taking part in a Spanish television programme called “El Hormiguero,” which means anteater: it should be a fun evening!



Source: Alonso's Blog - Ferrari.com

FERRARI IN CRISIS - THE TIFOSI ALREADY MISS RÄIKKÖNEN

Ferrari-fans aka tifosi are disappointed in their team's drivers performances this season. According to Autosprint's bloggist Alberto Sabbatini, they have already started to scream for bringing Kimi Räikkönen back to Ferrari.

- Many have written to us telling that they miss Räikkönen but in reality the lack of strategy is missing from the pitwall. You can figure out his name yourself, Sabbatini writes and refers to Ross Brawn.

Sabbatini slashes hard at Ferrari's current race strategist.

- Chris Dyer has for a long time shown his limits: he has no imagination, he can't improvise or read situations and he always screws up the strategies.

He thinks that Ferrari blamed FIA unecessarily after Silverstone. Sabbatini reminds that Fernando Alonso could have avoided a penalty by letting Robert Kubica ahead of him again.

- The main responsibility is Alonso's and Alonso's only and the one giving him wrong advice from the pitwall. Everyone has to carry their responsibility for their mistakes, starting from the driver. He started like a rookie, ruined his team mate's race by causing a tyre puncture in the first corner and couldn't time his first pitstop with the pitwall correctly, Sabbatini critisised.

Even Italiaracing-magazine critisised Räikkönen's replacement in this week's issue. "Alonso screws up everything", was the head title and this was harsh to read for the Spaniard's fans.

- Alonso was supposed to be the superman who doesn't make mistakes. A man who's motivation was going to get everybody to forget the unwilling Räikkönen and who was supposed to give the right technical advice. They said that McLaren came back as a winner thanks to his advice in 2007 until the evil Hamilton ruined everything. Thanks to him Ferrari was supposed to start smiling again in each GP just like during Schumacher's era.

- Everybody said this during the winter. We have seen this smile only in Bahrain's opening race. After that all kinds of things have happened: failure in timing during qualification, jumpstart, bad starts, rude overtake of team mate when going to the pitstop, crashing team mate in the first corner, qualification never taking place because of crash in practice, ignorance about rules...

Italy's biggest sport magazine Gazzetta dello Sport asked on their website who's fault Ferrari's current crisis is. Of almost 11 000 voters 36,6 % blamed the pitwall's actions, 27,2 % FIA's bad decisions, 18,3 % the drivers mistakes and 17,9 % was unsure about the F10-car's development.

Source: MTV3 - Lauri Ouvinen
Courtesy: Nicole