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Here we are in Shanghai for the start of the third race weekend of the year. For sure, arriving here in China as the leader of the Championship is something I would never have expected, at least given the way winter testing went. It means we have done a good job, managing to make use of all the potential at our disposal and making the most of every opportunity. Since I first arrived in Maranello, at the start of 2010, I have seen the team grow a lot in all areas relating to track activity, from strategy to the work in the garage and at the pit stops.
I know I can count on a very strong group, which is very important and there is a great sense of purpose shared by all. We know our car is not at the level we had wanted going into this season, but everyone is reacting very well, everyone is very united, which is what you get with a real team that wants to reach its objectives.
I’m not expecting any surprises in this race, compared to what we saw in Australia and Malaysia. It’s true almost three weeks have gone by, but that does not mean there was enough time to completely turn the car around in such a short time: we will have a few small updates, but nothing particularly significant and on top of that, we can expect that the other teams will also bring some new parts.
Therefore, we won’t change our approach to this Grand Prix: to get a good result, we will need to concentrate on ourselves, trying to be perfect and to exploit every possibility that might come our way over the weekend.
I don’t want to come out with statements that our aim is to finish in this or that position, as these discussions are not worth the time spent on them. We will have to do the maximum and bring home as many points as possible: a bit like ants who start something one day, knowing it will produce something worthwhile in the future.
I’m expecting tomorrow to be a rather busy day, with various promotional and media activities, both at the track and outside it. China is a very important country for Ferrari and for its technical and commercial partners and the Formula 1 Grand Prix represents a unique opportunity, not to be missed.
Finally, if I had to draw a conclusion from what I’ve seen in the last 24 hours, I would say there is a great enthusiasm from the local people, especially the young ones. As you have been able to see on @alo_oficial, yesterday afternoon there was a huge crowd of boys and girls waiting for me at the airport and even outside the hotel. It’s always nice to experience the enthusiasm of the fans, especially so in a country where Formula 1 is not part of its history. It means the spectacle and excitement that our sport provides is still very attractive.Source: Ferrari.com
Posted by Fernando Alonso
Finally I'm back at home! I left on 8 March for Bahrain and was on the road until last night, for what was probably the longest journey of the season. I'm glad being back in Europe, especially because the result of this season's start if definitely positive. Despite the negative outcome of the race in Sepang it's a dream to be on the second place in the standings just two points behind the leader, who is also my teammate and that Ferrari is leading the Constructors' standings.We had a very difficult weekend in Malaysia. It's a pity, because we had very high expectations and as far as our performance level was concerned we had the confirmation that our expectations are justified. We made a bad evaluation mistake in the qualifying and we paid for it in the race, where we also had reliability problems. Something like this can happen to anyone and we have to learn our lesson so we don't repeat certain mistakes.I'm not worried about the reliability. I think that what provoked the engine failure was a one-off and the team told me that there is no connection to the problems Sauber had and none to the anomalies we had before we changed the engines on Sunday in Bahrain. As far as the performance is concerned, we were also competitive in Malaysia. Sepang was a track with different characteristics compared to the previous two and the F10 showed that it could adapt itself very well. We still have to improve benefiting from the tyres on the first timed lap, but the pace in the race is very good.We now have a week of preparations for the Chinese GP ahead of us. This is a good occasion for us drivers to charge the batteries, while the team will work on some new elements, which might be brought to China, making the car faster. I think that the F10 adapts itself very well to the Shanghai circuit's characteristics and we can be optimistic. During the next races we have to try to get on the podium: being constantly amongst the top three means to be in a good position for the fight for the title. Source: Alonso's Blog - Ferrari.com
Finnish star did not have any peace in the Pudong Airport. Räikkönen was attacked by a huge number of locals, who wished to take a picture of F1 driver.
