Chances of new tyre strategy succeeding is fifty-fifty, admits Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has said that the chances of his new tyre strategy succeeding in the Indian Grand Prix is fifty-fifty after he gave up the grid position to start on medium tyres.

Alonso opted for slower tyres and ended up qualifying eight for the race while teammate Felipe Massa earned the fifth places after using different tyres.

“You need to decide and to commit to one strategy from Q1 because you need to use the first set of tyres in Q1, Q2 etc. to have the possibility in Q3 to choose the best one,” Alonso said.

“Here it’s tough to make a decision: it depends on how many laps the soft will last tomorrow. So it’s 50/50. The best thing for the team was to put one car in one strategy the other car in the other strategy, to maximize the points for the team and I think Felipe and me to help the maximum this different strategy an tomorrow hopefully score more points than Mercedes,” he added.

Alonso will be relying on the high degradation rates of the soft tyres on the race while Red Bull’s Mark Webber also employed similar tactics and is placed fourth in the grid. The Spaniard added that he will be fighting with Webber for the win if things go according to plan.

“If we have the pace, if the car is responding well like it did in qualifying with a good performance and if the soft have some problems and the people start pitting and going into heavy traffic maybe the race win will be between Webber and me,” he said.