Fernando Alonso believes clinching second in the Constructors’ Championship for Ferrari this season would be a “personal win” for him considering he has been fighting against faster cars on the grid.
The Spaniard, who finished fifth in Abu Dhabi on Sunday starting from P10, has opened up a gap of 34 points between him and third-placed Kimi Raikkonen in the Drivers’ Championship.
And while he says it’s “very sad” that he can no longer fight for the title, secured by Sebastian Vettel at the India GP, taking the runner-up spot for Ferrari in the constructors’ would be a real triumph.
“If I’m honest with you, second in the constructors’, that would be a reward, knowing that we clearly don’t have the second-fastest car as we see every weekend. If I finish second in the championship it’s a little personal win,” said Alonso.
The 32-year-old is worried however about Mercedes, who lead Ferrari by 11 points in the standings, thanks to a podium finish from Nico Rosberg at Yas Marina Circuit.
– Maradona, Raul & Salgado play beach football in Abu Dhabi
Rosberg finished over 30 seconds faster than Alonso to grab third place while Lewis Hamilton finished in seventh.
Alonso said: “We didn’t have maybe the pace to be in the top four and top five is the maximum. We have one Mercedes in front, one behind. We have one Lotus in front (Romain Grosjean in fourth) and one behind obviously with the DNF of Kimi (Raikkonen).
“So my job is done after a very tough weekend. I think we minimised the damage.”
Alonso says he must execute perfect races in Austin and Interlagos to make sure they catch Mercedes.
He added: “With Mercedes it’s true that we need to do better. We are dropping a little bit too much.
“Obviously the car will be the same in Austin and Brazil so we need to do better with the set-up, optimise circuit by circuit, the drivers doing perfect laps all weekend because we need to beat Mercedes.”
Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa voiced his frustration over a mistake made by the team for using medium tyres instead of soft ones in the final section of the race. The Brazilian was ahead of Alonso for most of the race and was fighting for a top-five finish before he fell behind.
“It’s frustrating, I’m not happy because I was doing a great race, all the time fighting, overtaking cars, good pace then suddenly I didn’t finish in the position I’m supposed to finish,” said Massa.
“I expected to see the soft tyres in the car and I saw the other ones and that was the mistake of my race. Without this problem I would have finished easy in the top five.”
Rosberg was happy to score some valuable points for Mercedes and said: “The most important thing for us is to finish second in the constructors’. It’s not just more money for next year but also motivation.
“If everybody in the factory can see that we built the second-best car this year, that’s a massive boost.”
* For breaking news, follow us on @Sport_360 or find us on Facebook.
