The glass is three quarters full

**vcs316** · 12th June 2012, 04:23

Maranello, 11 June – When you are leading with seven laps to go and you end up fifth, it would seem inevitable that you would be disappointed. However, that was not the mood in Montreal last night in the hospitality area and in the garage, where the mechanics were finishing packing up all the equipment to send it back to Maranello. Nor was it the feeling this morning in the offices on the Via Ascari. “Look, if we had not tried all the way to the very end, today when we had a car capable of winning, then we would have felt bad,” confided one of the most experienced engineers in the team. “But we gave it our all, the team and the driver, to try and win. Take it from someone who’s been here a long time, this is the right attitude…” Even Stefano Domenicali is certain that the Canadian weekend should be seen in a positive light. “We have made an important step forward in terms of performance, which is a sign that all the hard work of the past few months is beginning to really pay off and for that, I want to thank everyone in Maranello who put their heart and soul into it,” the Scuderia’s Team Principal told www.ferrarif1.com. “We must continue like this: more updates will arrive in Valencia and then again in Silverstone. The key to the season is to continue to push on the development of the car and, at the same time, understand how best to manage tyre behaviour.”

The Canadian Grand Prix podium featured two cars, Grosjean’s Lotus and Perez’s Sauber, that had opted for the same strategy as Fernando, a fact that makes it clear that the Maranello team’s decision was definitely not just plucked out of nowhere. The difference came from the tyre degradation, which evidently varies not just as a function of the atmospheric conditions, but also and especially is dependent on the way they are managed. Looking at the times from the final stages of the race, one can see that it is only when there are fewer than 15 laps remaining that Fernando’s and Vettel’s performance becomes clearly inferior to that of Grosjean.

However, at that point, making a further pit stop would not have been enough to save the place. Then, looking at it in the cold light of day, it’s easy to say that it would have been better to pit, just as it’s easy to say that on Sunday afternoon in the Monaco Grand Prix, Fernando should have stayed out on track longer to take the lead, rather than settling for overtaking Hamilton. And the fact it was worth trying can also be seen from the many messages of support from Ferrari fans that have reached us via various means, from Facebook and Twitter to fax and email.

The real reason for satisfaction with how the trip across the Atlantic turned out is the overall competitiveness of the car and of the team, who yet again yesterday were impeccable at the pit stops for example, and the drivers. Yes, both of them, because Felipe’s mistake on lap 6 cost him dear and maybe it’s worth assessing the difference in consequences of the various driver errors, thinking of those who hit the wall and yet stayed calmly out on track. But that aside, he was quick in qualifying and the race, confirming that he has renewed confidence in the car which has allowed him to display his indisputable talent. As for Fernando, it is getting hard to find the right adjectives to describe him. Maybe this time, we can use a number, number 19 in fact, which is how many consecutive races the Spaniard has finished in the top ten. The last time he failed to score actually goes back to last year’s race in Canada and since then, Fernando has won two races, finished second five times, third four times, fourth three times, fifth three times and seventh and ninth once, picking up a total of 274 points. Since he came to Maranello, Fernando has only failed to finish in the points four times from 45 starts and has scored an average of 13.22 points per race. There is no doubt that a driver like that brings added value.