Fantastic season ends in disappointment for Ferrari

Five wins and a total of ten podiums for Fernando Alonso in his first year with Scuderia Ferrari and five podiums for team-mate Felipe Massa: a fantastic and competitive season for the Maranello squad, but all the same, so soon after the final chequered flag in the Abu Dhabi night, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that Fernando Alonso missed out on taking the Drivers’ title by just five points. In the end, the Spaniard finished the 55 lap race in seventh place, with the Brazilian tenth.

How could this have happened, when on Saturday evening, the odds, although not terribly big, did seem stacked in Fernando’s favour? The short answer is that it was mainly down to the Spaniard losing a place at the start and then, by the team’s own admission, a mistake when choosing the strategy regarding when to make the one compulsory pit stop. Having started behind pole man Vettel, from third place, Fernando immediately lost a place to Button. On the very first lap, the Safety Car came out after Schumacher spun and was hit hard by Liuzzi. A few drivers, including Rosberg and Petrov immediately came in for a tyre change, which would prove very significant later. Vettel was out in the lead, pursued by Hamilton, Button and Fernando, with Webber and Felipe in fifth and sixth respectively.

Having made contact with a wall hard enough to throw sparks up from his right rear wheel, Webber in the Red Bull was the first to make a “planned” stop on lap 11. However, this was really not the ideal time, given that the soft tyres were not degrading as much as expected. Nevertheless, the Scuderia took the decision to bring Felipe in on lap 13 and Fernando on lap 15: in other words, Ferrari had decided to cover Fernando’s closest rival for the title, not just with one car but with both its F10s. It was a serious mistake. Overtaking at this track is very difficult and while the two Ferrari men moved up the order passing the much slower cars, they both butted up against cars with good straight line speed – Felipe stuck behind Alguersuari and Fernando behind Petrov. Instead, Fernando’s strategy should have been based on what was going on at the front of the field, given that having also stopped early, Webber was just as badly baulked by the traffic.

There are some pundits in the sport who believe that when a championship is going down to the wire at the final race, then even if you are fighting one of the contenders for the title for a place in the race, you let him by. This was evidently not something that Petrov believed in and, well within the sporting regulations, he defended his position to the end.

As the number of drivers ahead of Fernando who had yet to change tyres got smaller, it was clear that seventh would be the best he could do, three places short of taking the title if Vettel took the win. And that was that: second and sixth in the Drivers’ and third in the Constructors’. It’s time to think about 2011 and that starts on Friday, in Abu Dhabi, when all the F1 teams will try tyres provided by the sport’s new supplier, as Pirelli takes over from Bridgestone, the Japanese company with which Ferrari and indeed all the teams have enjoyed such a successful relationship over the years.

"For all of us it’s a difficult day. The night hasn’t lessened the bitter taste after the sad end to an extraordinary season," Ferrari said on Monday.

"Instead, we’re sorry to see that there are some politicians on the outside who are ready to jump onto the winner’s bandwagon then push for the guillotine when things go badly. And we don’t understand anyone who revels in self-defeatism, who sinks into the culture of ‘everything’s gone wrong, we have to start all over again.’They are vices that are very Italian, that we must learn to shake off.

"We want to thank our fans who have always shown us their support with warmth and passion, and some criticisms but always with affection. On a day as hard as this – we are sure that it will also be the same for you – we must nonetheless be proud of what we have achieved this year. And we must be proud to be part of a company that is and remains the pride of this country. Let today be the beginning of a new season that we will approach – if it were possible – with even more will to win."

Luca di Montezemolo: "When the statesman Calderoli will achieve in his life 1% of what Ferrari has done for this country in terms of industry and sports, then he’ll deserve an answer."

Piero Ferrari: "I’m astonished and saddened by certain statements some politicians and a minister of the Italian Republic made after yesterday’s race. It has never happened in my entire life at Ferrari that politicians intervened during good and bad moments in our life in motorsport, and I want it to stay like this. But if we want to have a look at how much Ferrari has done for Italy’s image around the world, then I can only say that it is definitely much more than certain politics have done."