Newey in gesprek met Gino Rosato — Photo: © LAT Images

Mediawatch: Ferrari can't beat Newey, Alonso the hero, Ocon the zero

Italy bemoans the genius of Red Bull technical guru, as Spain mocks Ocon

Stuart Hodge

Tuesday 7 March 2023 09:45

Ferrari's failure to lure the technical genius that is Adrian Newey to Italy came back to haunt them again on Sunday.

The Scuderia's long pursuit of the Red Bull guru has always come up short, and once again it is about to cost them dear.

In the aftermath of a drubbing for the red cars at the hands of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on Sunday, Gazzetta Dello Sport devoted significant space and words to the Newey factor. One which continues to cause pain at Maranello.

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The Italian daily gives a large percentage of the credit for the dominance of the RB19 to the 64-year-old Newey, and bemoans the fact that this season is already over.

Alonso the hero, Ocon and Alpine the zero

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were Alpine team-mates in 2022, but boy did they experience contrasting fortunes in Bahrain on Sunday.

Alonso roared to a spectacular podium in his Aston Martin debut, while Ocon was widely mocked on social media after picking up not one, not two but THREE penalties in one race.

Spanish daily Marca went to town in its ratings after the race, awarding Alonso a perfect 10 for his epic drive into third place in the AMR23.

Ocon and his team Alpine though were given an embarrassing ZERO for keeping the stewards very busy on Sunday evening.

The honeymoon is over for Fred Vasseur

The vibes coming out of Ferrari in pre-season were overwhelmingly positive. A fantastic launch of the SF-23 and the hope that it was a car to finally challenge Red Bull and Verstappen. Oh and a new team principal in Fred Vasseur.

Fast forward a few short weeks and those vibes are now very different. A DNF for Charles Leclerc on Sunday and a distant fourth for Carlos Sainz made sure of that.

The response from the Italian media was predictably frenzied, with Turin daily Tuttosport screaming 'Ferrari, Vasseur's honeymoon is over'. Welp.

Verstappen already untouchable

In France the vibe around Red Bull's dominance on Sunday was very familiar. L'Equipe says reigning world champ Max Verstappen is 'already untouchable' after just one race of a 23-race season.

The leading Paris publication also pays homage to that man Alonso for his delicious drive into third, describing him as 'an old rogue' for the way he outsmarted seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

F1 opener a TV flop for Sky Germany

These are grim times for F1 in Germany, and leading daily Bild emphasised the fact in its post-Bahrain commentary.

This is a once mighty motorsport market, which now has no driver capable of challenging for wins and no team capable of challenging for a title. It also has no home Grand Prix any more, and no free-to-air TV coverage with Sky now having exclusive rights.

Well that exclusivity brought with it a ratings slump over the weekend, with the audience for the opening race dropping 160,000 from 2022. Some 1.29million tuned in for the first race of the season last year - but this time it was down to 1.13m.

The figures for qualifying on Saturday were even worse - with only 320,000 viewers tuning in - only just over half of last year's 543,000.