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Is at least strange the start position gets Alonso. Not only far away from Vettel but behind Massa too.
It's due to a unknow tactic (special setup for race... uhhh) or only a bad driving in qualifying?
This man is know for his strategic mind and just after qualifying made a statement about reduce the gap, but i doubt a bit.
What do you think?

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A man is measured by the size of its rivals.

I honestly think he had an off day today. He even admitted as much afterwards.

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Forza Fernando !

Why would you not quote or link the statement you're talking about?

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Rosberg - Bottas

Need more options. How about, had an off day?

Delete duplicate post

I think he is playing mind games with Vettel that's all. I think pretty much every statement he makes to the media now is for Vettel to hear. Starting a few days ago when he was telling anyone who would listen how "calm" he was, and now this. It's all he can do to try and upset Vettel because it doesn't look like he has a competitive car this weekend. However, I do expect the Ferrari to be much more competitive in the race than it was in qualifying.

Just a bad day, he should be at least 2 tenth quicker thn Massa. Anyway noe he is betting on Grosjean wiping out the way for him.

I think I heard the commentator say on Sky that Alonso had focused on driving with heavy fuel loads during the FPs and that the car looked much worse with low fuel load in the quali. Nevertheless, P8 is still not flattering even if Alonso had placed his bets on getting the race setup right.

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Im praying he has something up his sleeve. compromised qualifying setup for a solid race setup or something along those lines.

I hope he does have something..

And re the second option! When did Alonso even tried to hide the car's weaknesses? He never missed an opportunity to diss his car's performance for as far as I can remember

I hate to say it but I see a DNF with his grid position. I hope not but all eyes on turn 1!!! Hopefully he'll drag the car to the podium and take the fight to Brazil.

Well, a bad day is everyone prerogative, but knowing the season trajectory looks rare that Alonso's times were poorest that the ones of Massa all day.
In other hand, made a statement like that is dumb if tomorrow don´t show any thing.
Mind games? I don't think that starting from pole Vettel will feel any fear. Double dumb.
Summarizing: Is Alonso dumb?

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A man is measured by the size of its rivals.

No. He's not dumb!

I think he sees his only chance is if Vettel cracks under the pressure of being the strong favorite for the championship now. So he is trying to put things in Vettel's mind to increase the likelihood of Vettel making an error, even if only by a tiny fraction. It's all he can do right now, and Fernando will do +everything+ he possibly can to win.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

So is this another failed Ferrari upgrade?

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Forza Fernando !

afterburner technology - this is the secret weapon.
Specially located hoses transfers gas to the exhaust and burning gas at the exhaust create afterburner and increases Coanda effect.

Secret gas - methane
Source - significant amount of pea soup with a lot of rye bread tonight.

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We are worse than animals, we hunger for the kill.
We put our faith in maniacs the triumph of the will,
We kill for money, wealth and lust, for this we should be damned.
We are disease upon the world, brotherhood of man.

Nah they pre-empted the 2013 rules

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

Just a bad day as others have said.

He does not have many of them to be fair, he usually gets the most out of the hand dealt to him.

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All Time Favorite: Ayrton Senna

Others: Damon Hill
Montoya

Current: Lewis Hamilition

Agreed that Fred was out of sorts but it was peculiar to see Ferrari sit out FP3. In the end, him being out of sorts is almost certainly related to car setup and did Ferrari blunder away valuable track time in FP3 that eventually cost Alonso a better setup?

The airflow reattachment problem occurs only when DRS closes, in qualification this has a much larger impact than on race day because DRS can only be used one time per lap (in Austin at least), instead of all the time in qualifying.

So it's possible this new diffuser is worse for qualifying, but could allow him to lap faster come race day.

In any case, he was .2s slower in Q3 compared to Q2, so he definately didn't get everything out of the car in Q3. With his Q2 time he would have ranked P8, which means starting from P7 = clean side of the track = better odds to gain a decent number of places at the start. Now he'll start P8, dirty side, with Grosjean next to him on P9 on the clean side. Grosjean might very well take P8 from him right at the start.

Its probably a combination of all 3.

One think Fred has done this year is exceed expectations the majority of the time. He has to have a off day at some point.

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All Time Favorite: Ayrton Senna

Others: Damon Hill
Montoya

Current: Lewis Hamilition

I read somewhere (not extremely credible) that the Ferrari's did their Q3 times with scrubbed tyres!? Maybe they want to get them to temperature faster for the race?

For his sake I hope there's actually a strategy behind it but it doesn't seem very likely. Not only he's in a very dangerous place with Grosjean and Maldonado right behind him but there are some serious names like Hamilton, Webber, Kimi and Schumacher between him and Vettel. Many people say that he needs to finish at least fourth if Vettel wins to keep his challenge alive but if Vettel gains even 8 points more tomorrow it's game over IMO because Alonso needs to win the last race at any cost and that seems highly unlikely right now.

hopefully he's got some sort of plan, but i doubt it, hes probably just chatting shit

Alonso is so smart and tactful that nothing is impossible for him. He is a numbers guy and has taken this to whole new level with this 7th on the grip qualifying and 9th now and he states he still has an advantage almost over Vettel. How do you figure this?? But he knows his race pace will be strong again, he knows that he will probably pass few cars in the opening laps, and he knows the Vettel's car might go wrong somewhere mechanically or he might make a mistake..and also maybe ferrari has unique strategy with the tyres that alonso has been not saying. But he is staying confident and trying to rattle redbull and Vettel into a mistake, which probably won't happen.

To hide his failure? What failure?

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I can't figure out what the hell he has been talking about.

Maybe Bernie has told Alonso that he's going to hit the big red button labeled "Vettel's Alternator" again.

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"I am a believer, but I start each Grand Prix with 195 liters of fuel behind me," he explains. "I don't rely entirely on God, I rely on Prost."

Its true, they used scrubbed ones. It's on Autosport too

If he finishes the race, it is almost guaranteed that he will drag that Ferrari to top 3-4 positions. That is what you can count on. I have a feeling this track will throw us some surprises today in the race. I would not be quick to dismiss Alonso. I dont know if its a silver tongue or what, but whatever he has said before the race this season about his own results, he has managed to bring that to reality. Call it luck, determination, skill or ability to judge the situation come race day or anything you like. But if you recall, he has yet to miss his predictions this year. He called actual target positions multiple times before race this year and went on to achieve or better those.
He said he is confident to finish ahead of Vettel yesterday. We will see what happens

In that case his pit stops could be a lot longer.

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Vettel / Raikkonen / Button

I haven't voted because I think that "He has a plan" but I am not sure "that" it "will give advantage on Sunday". It may give a small advantage but not the one he is expecting.

In practice he was faster than his team mate throughout although suddenly slower in qualifying. I believe he has a lower downforce setup hoping to get an even better than normal top speed down the straights in the hope that he can do some overtaking and then once he gets in front of guys they will not be able to get past on the twisty bits.

The only possible flaw is the bits before the DRS straight are very twisty and will he be able to keep within 1 sec of the faster guys to make use of his top speed, also even if they cannot get past on the twisty bits they should be able to stay within 1 sec and then would have the DRS advantage.

I hope that his plan is an epic fail

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Murray Walker says this of Vettel "He could well become the greatest of all time".
Sebastian V3ttel - 3 x WDC
2010, 2011, 2012 ....

Even Alonso must know the game is almost up, Button is only a couple of places behind him and he is quoted as saying turn one could be really tricky in the midfield and chaos could prevail. If Alonso can stay out of trouble and lives up to his usual aggressive strategy at the start he should move forward rapidly, but outscoring Vettel sounds crazy unless he knows something we don’t, possibly relying on mechanical failure for Seb?
Alonso reminds me of that Iraqi guy who was a minister of information under Saddam Hussein who was on telly saying the Americans hadn’t reached Baghdad but you could see US tanks on TV!!!

My thoughts, not necessarily coherent, were- What is the benefit of Massa being infront?
1 to win instead of Seb and keep the championship open for Alonso.
2 to be infront of Seb and delay him somehow.

Is Massa set up with a rocket ship that is supposed to get straight to the lead and control things? This may even be at the expense of not having enough on board to finish the race. If he ran off and built a gap, where would he come out after tyres?

If Ferrari know exactly when, would it be between Alonso and Seb?

I also had thoughts involving a safety cars timing, but then, Nah, its Alonso. He wont accept that.
Ferrari would not accept that either.


The track is stil evolving. is Alonso taking a pop that it will come to him by tyre change time?

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I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Marx (Groucho)

he is hoping vettels car will blow up thats his only hope ! how is one suppose to fight vettel with a car only capable of qualifying in bottom of top ten !

pretty much Alonso was a goner once he was first hit by Grosjean then Kimi reducing his strongest point in this championship his reliability in scoring good points in every race ! and the fact that red bull had a resurgence just at that time pretty much killed it.

Alonso must be beside himself as nearly every decision he has made since leaving renault in 06 has been wrong wrong wrong !

His biggest mistake was going back to renault in 08 and then staying a further year in 09 in order to get the ferrari drive in 2010 so yep it must truly hurt that vettel will be 3 time world champion instead of him .

shame really Alonso deserved better than what Ferrari offered him a shitbox at the start of the year that still only is capable of qualifying 5-6-7 !

what he should have done is get himself into the team where newy was ! that would and shoulda been his priority but instead he thaught he could emulate shuey at ferrari wich naturally was in a state of decline after the shuey years !

yep as an Alonso fan admirer I think he is clutching at straws now and thats understandable as this will be the second time he was leading vettel into the last races and again if all goes as one expects he will lose it to him again ! now that will hurt for sure !

I'm thinking he's focussed his setup on race pace. I think he'll have gone for high straight line speed to pick cars off in the race. We've seen through practice that its almost impossible to get past slower cars through the wiggley bits of the track so I think he's sacrificed cornering speed for straight line speed. With a heavy car I think that wont matter so much at the start of the race....

If really alonso gets out a rabbit out the hat, in a risky start position, with a car one sec plus slower in a new and slippery circuit, and it's the result of a tactic planning...
No words. (See to believe).

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A man is measured by the size of its rivals.

i think Alonso's strategy could have something to do with Vettels performance at yas marina, he started from pit and finished 3rd. could it be that Alonso's car is setup exclusively for the race pace? on those S curves it seems almost impossible to overtake even a back marker, i wont be surprised if alonso's car rockets past others on the straight like in India.
of course he has to survive the starting chaos first. one thing is for sure if he pulls a rabbit out of the hat and somehow manages to win the WDC he will cement his place as one of the all time greatest.

Webber will take Vettel out in turn one, on the first lap Alonso will gain 3 places putting him 3rd, then Hamilton will have a fuel pump failer, and Alonso will cruse home to 2nd behind kimi and leave there with 8 point lead

Sounds good to me!

^^

9 hours to go till Vettel gets crowned and Alonso fans are feverishly working up fantasies