Chinese Grand Prix: Alonso looks in tune with his Ferrari team

11Apr 2013

The Red Bulls locked out the rest in Malaysia, but Ralph Ellis has seen signs that Fernando Alonso and Ferrari could come back into the Formula One picture in the Chinese Grand Prix...

It hasn't taken long for Sebastian Vettel to show his true colours. He might have been full of saying sorry for ignoring team orders to go ahead of Mark Webber in Malaysia, but jump forward a couple of weeks and it's a different story. "I don't apologise for winning," he's said now.

And, actually, good for him. If you'd backed Vettel for the race you would have done it expecting the young German's competitive instincts to be one of the deciding factors, so you wouldn't be at all sorry if that's how it turned out.

But it does mean that as the Grand Prix circus arrives in China this weekend the spotlight will again glare down on Vettel and his fellow Red Bull driver Webber to analyse the fall-out from their Malaysian feud.

I was just as fascinated by a row in the last race that didn't happen. When Fernando Alonso careered off the track I expected the volatile Spaniard to come in raging about the team's decision to delay a pit stop. He had run into the back of Vettel when the race was a few seconds old, it was clear the front wing of his car had been severely damaged, and it seemed obvious he had to stop and get it sorted.

Instead the pit engineers chose to keep him racing in a damaged car with the idea of changing tyres a lap or two later, at the same time as they fixed the wing.

It turned out a disastrous decision as, just a few hundred yards after passing the pits, the wing fell off altogether and his Ferrari careered out of control into a gravel trap.

Alonso was asked about it this week in a Twitter Q and A on Ferrari's website, and this was his reaction: "In hindsight it is easy to say it would have been better to come in, but we thought I could hold on for another lap to make the most of the pit-stop. The race simulations state if I stopped to change the nose I would have finished ninth or tenth so we didn't lose anything. The problem wasn't not coming in; the damage was done in the collision."

Roughly translated that means Alonso admits it was his fault and not the team's. It puts an interesting insight into his state of mind about his car this year. Last season he dragged himself into contention for the title despite a dog of a car, and was moaning all year about being handicapped. This time he seems happy with his wheels and that suggests there is more to come from him.

It's why I think that while Vettel at 3.35 favourite is the obvious bet to win the Chinese Grand Prix, the value is in backing Alonso at 4.8. Ferrari's development work in the three week break since the last race has been centred around their qualifying pace, which was already good. Felipe Massa, after all, was second on the grid in Singapore.

The Shanghai track with its 1.2 km straight and varying corner types is a fairly unique circuit that puts additional demands on the cars - especially with the effects of dust from the nearby factories. That makes odds against in the safety car market - currently spread between 2.24 and 5.4 - the other piece of value this weekend.

Recommended Bet

Back Fernando Alonso to win @ 4.8