Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was reflective and calm after the team maximized the result it could get from the Canadian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso did everything to ensure second place was on the cards from sixth on the grid, while Felipe Massa recovered from his qualifying crash to score four points for eighth place.
All things considered, it could have been much worse, Domenicali told Sky Sports in a Q&A.
“But when you have such a strong qualifying, then you can have this situation,” he said of Sebastian Vettel’s domination over the weekend. “Of course this was not the case for us because when you are stuck behind you cannot attack and second was really all we could do.”
Alonso ran the Pirelli tires flat out in Spain, needing to make four pit stops, and left his rivals in the dust. But in Montreal, at least two stops were the norm and Paul di Resta even completed the race on just one, with a switch from the mediums to the supersofts.
“That is the funny thing about Formula 1,” Domenicali noted. “I remember some teams were keen to change something many days ago, but now it seems perfect. You know my style, stay cool and relaxed and not overreact after a session.
“This is part of this game and it is something for our engineers to understand – sometimes we understand it better than the others, sometimes it is the other way round – but this is the challenge we have to face this year.”
Although Domenicali said the Ferrari needs to improve on pure pace – it still trails the Red Bull – he doesn’t wish any ill will on the German, at least publically, for Alonso to close the 36-point gap heading into the summer stretch of races back in Europe.
“For sure if it happened I would not be crying, but because I am a sporting man I would not wish him to have problems. I believe that he has been very consistent up until now, but this year things can change very quickly – if he has a difficult race then things can change again.”