NUERBURGRING, Germany: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso put his faith in Formula One’s governing body and Pirelli ensuring safety at the German Grand Prix yesterday after multiple tyre blowouts at last weekend’s British race.
The Spaniard, second in the standings behind Red Bull’s triple champion Sebastian Vettel, was almost hit on the head by a strip of tread flying off a car in front of him at Silverstone.
After the intervention of the governing FIA amid talk of a driver boycott, Pirelli have brought different rear tyres to the Nuerburgring - Vettel’s home race - with an inner belt made of the synthetic fibre Kevlar a rather than steel.
“After what we saw in Silverstone, we now go to the Nuerburgring, confident we can see an improvement,” the Ferrari website (www.ferrari.com) quoted Alonso as saying.
“I know that various modifications have been applied and let’s hope that means all of us drivers can race in safe conditions.
“At the moment, we can’t make any predictions, because no one has tried them and we don’t know what and how many benefits they can bring, apart from trusting in the fact that it won’t be dangerous to race,” added the double champion.
Alonso won last year’s German Grand Prix, which was held at Hockenheim under an alternation agreement, from pole position.
That was the last time the double world champion, a winner in China and Spain this season, has appeared on the front row of the grid.
Sauber are in ‘difficult situation’, say Hulkenberg
NUERBURGRING: The Sauber Formula One team - one of the smallest in the paddock and without a main title sponsor - are working on a solution to their financial problems, driver Nico Hulkenberg said yesterday.
Problems at Sauber were highlighted last week when McLaren announced that the Swiss outfit’s chief designer Matt Morris would be leaving to join the more high-profile British team as engineering director.
“I think it’s a difficult situation,” the German driver told a news conference ahead of his home Grand Prix.
“She (team principal Monisha Kaltenborn) and the team management are trying to work on a solution. She’s assured me she’s working on that and there’s not much more I can say,” he added, refusing to deny allegations he has not been fully paid.
Sauber have had to soldier on as an independent team after BMW pulled out as partners and from F1 completely at the end of 2009.
Owner Peter Sauber has gradually stepped back from the day-to-day running of the team, leaving Kaltenborn in charge as the only female principal in the sport.
They have never won a Grand Prix as an independent team having joined F1 in 1993, with BMW-Sauber only taking the chequered flag once in 2008 in Canada with Robert Kubica. Financial problems during the global economic crisis have dominated F1 in recent years with the HRT team disappearing before this season. REUTERS
