Fernando Alonso has caused utter mayhem (OK, a minor media-ruckus) after his cheeky little move on team mate Felipe Massa as the two Ferrari drivers entered the pitlane together during Sunday’s Chinese GP.
Alonso has remained almost laughably nonchalant about the whole thing, saying “if it wasn’t my team mate, there wouldn’t be so much talk about it and for me it was a normal move and it definitely won’t compromise our relationship.”
Felipe has taken a slightly more sneaky approach, implying that he alone was thinking about the team – “Alonso put his car next to mine and when I saw it I knew there could be an accident. So I thought of the team and that made me lose 3 more places”. Cue the Marlboro-sponsored violins.
Ferrari, however, have taken their usual hysterical approach and are blaming the media for interfering in their team affairs and accusing “some news outlets” (please, be more vague) of “false polemics” and insisting that all is well with their two fiery drivers. Their latest seething press release states “…obviously someone is trying to create bad blood between the two drivers after Fernando Alonso’s overtaking manoeuvre on his team mate at the pit lane entrance on lap 19…this episode won’t change anything at all regarding the relationship between the two.”
It then went on to unnecessarily tell anyone who was bothering to read that far that the two drivers would be flying home together…with the rest of the Scuderia’s technicians. Probably out of sheer convenience than anything else, but never mind.
Is There Any Truth to the Rumours?
While Ferrari might actually have made the situation worse by completely over-reacting to the media interest in the incident, it seems that they may have a bit of a problem on their hands soon. Hands up if you saw THAT one coming from the moment the Alonso-Ferrari move was announced?
Whenever Alonso ends up behind his team mate – which has been alarmingly often so far this season thanks to jump starts and penalties and first lap spins – there is a certain air of frustration in the way the Spaniard is driving. He is faster, he knows it and Massa knows it thanks to Rob Smedley, but either Alonso can’t get past or he is reluctant to try.
Ferrari may find, later in the season, that this costs them dearly. When to start backing one driver in a team is always a difficult call to make, and I am in no way suggesting that they should be making a decision to back one of their drivers so early on in the season, but should it ever get to that point and they choose Massa (assuming that they have done so because he is ahead on points), if Alonso is ever “stuck” behind him, as opposed to just behind Massa because he – Alonso – is slower, there may be fireworks.
Handling these two drivers was never going to be easy, no matter what the chirpy Ferrari press releases said at the beginning of the season. They’re both talented, both passionate, and both have something to prove. Massa – that he can match and beat Alonso, and that his accident hasn’t made him any slower. Alonso – that Ferrari were right to pay off Kimi Raikkonen and bring him in a season early, and that this long mooted move was the right one for him and for the team.
Just as a last point – does it annoy anyone else that all Ferrari bang on about is how the team is more important than the drivers? You never hear that from any of the other teams. I mean, I’m sure that the drivers in other teams are aware that the brand and the team itself must be protected but the teams don’t publicly belittle their drivers tussles or their results with talk of how much more important the team is than them. I find it a little annoying. But then I am new to this “Being a Ferrari Supporter(ish)” lark, and it will stop the moment Alonso is no longer driving for them, so maybe I’m just not passionate enough about it.
