'Cursed' Ferrari endures a weekend to forget

• Source: Shanghai Daily
• [08:55 July 14 2010]
• Comments

Ferrari's plans were foiled by a drive-through sanction for the second straight Formula One race, with Fernando Alonso at the center of the dispute again as the team left Sunday's British Grand Prix pointless.

"We seem to be really cursed at the moment, when everything that could go wrong, does," Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.

At Silverstone, Alonso was punished for going off the track as a shortcut to overtake Robert Kubica, although the penalty was only imposed several laps after the Renault driver was slowing.

Before Alonso could hand the place back, Kubica was forced to retire with driveshaft failure.

"We feel that it is very harsh," Domenicali said. "You can have a situation where immediately there is a possibility to give position back to a driver if you feel there is really an advantage to be gained but on our side we felt that was not the case, otherwise we would have done it."

Fueling Ferrari's anger is that this incident came two weeks after the team protested the decision to hand Lewis Hamilton his drive-through sanction for overtaking the safety car only when he had already surged far enough ahead not to lose second place.

Alonso, who was behind Hamilton at the time of the illegal maneuver at the European Grand Prix, lost time and slipped down the field. He finished eighth.

"It is a period where everything is going in the wrong direction," Domenicali said. "In this moment we need to stay cool and we need to react to the facts. I'm sure that after these bad moments, the luck will come back and maybe we will move towards the others. We just need to believe in ourselves."

In another Ferrari calamity on Sunday, Alonso bumped wheels with Felipe Massa, forcing his teammate into the pits for a new set of tires. Having started from seventh, Massa trudged home in 15th.

For the first time this season, Ferrari finished outside the points.

Alonso is now fifth in the overall standings with 98 points, 47 behind championship leader Hamilton on 145, while Massa is eighth with 67.