Author: David Bodapati

It’s one of the hardest races: Hamilton

DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Pedro de la Rosa)

Q: Lewis, tell us about the race? First of all, bad things, what happened at the start?

Lewis HAMILTON: First of all, I just want to say a big thank you to the crowd that came today, for the warm welcome and for the support. It’s been a long, long time coming to Barcelona [for me] and I can say it didn’t start out the greatest when I first came but it has grown so much and my love and appreciation for the country has grown so much as well, so thank you. The team did an incredible job today… what an amazing… that’s how racing should be. That’s as close as it could be. Sebastian was incredibly close, incredibly fast. The team did a great job with the strategy. The start – I don’t really know what’s gone wrong. I have to see with my guys…

Don’t worry about that…

LH: But it wasn’t good enough, I know! Trust me, I thought I did everything I was supposed to do but I got a bit of wheelspin.

Q: Tell me about the squeeze, let’s call it the squeeze into Turn One? Seb was coming out the pits with the medium tyres. How did you handle that?

LH: I think in the heat of the moment it’s difficult to know from the outside view what it’s like. I felt like I ran out road but I was alongside. It was definitely close but again, as I said, that’s how racing should be and I loved it and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Q: Well done man, your 55^th grand prix victory in my home town. Seb, do you think you should have pushed a little bit further? Was it enough?

Sebastian VETTEL: I was pushing! I had a really good start, best start maybe at the beginning. I think Lewis and myself we both picked up wheelspin straight away, then I pulled the clutch in again and then I could gain on him so I was really happy with that. Then again the run to Turn One was quite long, but I managed to stay ahead. Then I settled into a nice rhythm, everything was fine. Obviously Lewis stayed out longer, did the opposite, mirrored the strategy so I knew in the end it would be crucial. Then he came out, I was a bit surprised when he came out and it was already so close. I tried to brake as late as possible into Turn One, locked up. I don’t know if we touched but I managed to stay ahead so it was really close. The laps after I was doing everything I can to stay in front and I was a bit luck because there was always a car in front giving me a tow, but as soon as I was alone, he just flew past down the straight, which was a shame. We tried to stay in the race but well done to him, he drove a good race and we did everything we could.

Hey man, you’re still leading the championship, so don’t worry, six points in front.

SV: It was a nice race and a great crowd, so it would have been great to win but…

Q: Tell us about the Plan C. Was that a real option towards the end – change your strategy and try to attack?

SV: Yeah, we had a huge gap to Daniel behind, so we could have done anything really. We weren’t sure. Obviously there was a big conversation, trying to do something. We were hoping Lewis would maybe struggle with his tyres at the end but normally in the end of the race the track picks up a lot of rubber and the tyres last long so he didn’t have any problems. We tried to keep pushing, stay close, but it was never close enough.

Q: A fantastic drive my friend. Hey, last but not least, come on man, no shoey, just behave yourself, I’m very elegant today. Your favourite podium of the year, first since Mexico 2016, how does it feel?

Daniel RICCIARDO: Feels good. We had a little bit of fortune today with Valtteri stopping. We were fourth and then he had his… I’m not sure of what his problem was in the end, but for now we take what we can and it’s nice to be up on the podium. Really happy to spray some champagne again. The weather is good. They said maybe a chance of rain. It’s cool, we got some sunshine, so gracias a todos.

Q: Well done amigo. Lewis, was it that hard, because obviously this is possibly the most demanding phsyically?

LH: Yeah, this is one of the hardest races.

Q: How’s your neck after it?

LH: My neck is fine, but physically, yeah, I probably lost two kilos just in that race. It’s draining, the car is fast, to keep up with him… he drove fantastically well and it’s a re4al privilege to race against such an awesome driver so…

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, many congratulations, win number 55 of your career and your second here in Barcelona and I have the feeling from your celebrations that it meant a lot to you. It was one of those races that was getting away from you but you and the team made it happen your way and from your side making the softs work first and final stints critical to turning it round.

LH: Yeah, I really just have to congratulate my team and thank my team for doing such a great job with the strategy and the pit stops and everyone back at the factory with the upgrades enabling us to be as close as we are to Ferrari. It has been a really good weekend, being able to bounce back from Russia is a great thing. But I obviously lost out on the start. I’m not quite sure exactly what it was. The initial phase was good, just got wheelspin later on and saw Sebastian fly by. Then seeing him after that, he was so fast up ahead, it was such a push to try to keep close to him and not let him pull away. I don’t know, I think it was the rawest fight I can remember having for some real time, which I loved. This is what the sport needs to be every single race for sure. This is why I race and this is what got me into racing in the beginning. To have that close battle with him, with a four-time champ, is awesome. The first stint I was able to manage the tyres and stay relatively close. The second stint was a little bit difficult to keep up the pace with him with the medium tyre. At the end came out so close together, very, very close into Turn One. I gave you space, otherwise we would have touched…

SV: I thought I gave you space too…

LH: Not really! Definitely didn’t give me much space! It was close; it was cool…

SV: We’re still here so…

LH: Yeah, just! And then after that was just biding my time, trying to find the right opportunity. There were backmarkers we were coming up against, which made it fun. Trying to get past backmarkers is very, very tough and so clocking the DRS with the use of the battery pack and everything… But as I said, these guys have done a phenomenal job, their car is awesome and the pace that he had… it’s very close between us both. But at the end I was able to manage the soft… wow, I’m talking as long as you normally do when you win!

SV: Go on.

LH: But the last stint: when they told me I had 25 laps I didn’t think… at the end of the stint he would come back, being on the harder tyre, but I was able to manage it.

Q: Well done, it was a fantastic race. Sebastian, I guess you file this one down as the one that got away. You had the lead, you made that early stop when they looked like they were going to make that early stop but they didn’t it. Then they played a tactic where they left Bottas out for an extra eight laps to hold you, you lost four seconds behind him…

SV: Nice, huh!

Q: …It was just one of those days that you were trying to catch something that was like a bar of soap, always getting away from you.

SV: That’s a good way to put it. Well done to him. He won it fair and square, so I can’t take it away from him. Obviously I’m not happy because as you said it was there and… yeah, the start was good. I saw Lewis struggling with wheelspin and so did I, but then I pulled the clutch in immediately and reacted and tried to set off a second launch phase, which worked excellent. Looking in the mirror straight away to see if any of the guys behind got a better start, but I think we probably all overestimated the grip, which wasn’t that good. First stint, I was really in control. Happy with the car, but it wasn’t easy. Just trying to control the gap, the pace was similar. Then we had to obviously go, because otherwise they might go and then you get jumped. I wasn’t sure. I came out right behind Daniel I believe. The second stint I thought was pretty good and then Lewis has the luxury to stay out and then think about what to do, and not being in a rush, gap behind, choosing a different tyre, which might allow him to come back in the end, which unfortunately was the case. Second stint, which you touched on, with Valtteri was… yeah, I was catching him but I knew they wouldn’t pit him. He was all over the place with his tyres so they used him a bit to block me. He still managed to somehow get a decent exit so I didn’t quite make it the first time round so the second time round down the straights I thought “now, I have to find some way, even if it’s over the grass”. He used a bit more of the track. It was really close. I don’t know what is the word, I faked it on the inside, went back on the outside and then on the inside to surprise him, which worked, but I nearly lost the car doing that because I had the DRS open and it was a quite aggressive move on the steering wheel. So I was really happy but then equally I looked down and I’d lost an awful lot of time so I wasn’t that happy becau8se the real fight was with Lewis. Then I don’t know what happened in the last stint because I came out of the pits and I was surprised to see him that close because I thought I had eight seconds in hand. It must have been because you stopped a lap sooner or something. So yeah, obviously that could have bought us a bit of a cushion. Then it was nice he stayed behind and I just managed always the end of the straight, end of the straight, and I thought it would be more difficult for him the longer her tries. But then I had no tow from any car in front and he sailed past. He managed a good exit and he was very quick in the last sector and he went on to win the race. We did everything we could, we tried everything. I think the car was good, nothing to blame there. I think our weekend was a bit scrappy overall. So I think it’s still a very, very good result.

Q: Well, you’re still leading the world championship?

SV: I think I was more focused on the race today. It was very close when we came out. You come out on fresh tyres – I was just guessing. I wanted to stay ahead but I was just guessing on the brake point. It worked, but there was no room for him. He reacted well, because he avoided the contact. I don’t know if we touched? I think we just missed. It was good, because I stayed ahead, so you always take it, but it was really close.

Q: Daniel, welcome back. Podium, nice to have you here but 75s behind despite massive upgrades all around is, I guess, a little bit of a cold shower after the champagne-shower.

DR: Yeah, I’ve definitely got a less exciting story that these two guys. I’m pretty envious sitting here listening to the battle they had. But look, firstly, it’s nice to be back up here. Absolutely. But it’s nice to see that at the front there are some battles and they’re enjoying it. As Lewis touched on, that’s a big part of why we race: we want to have these battles and fights. I’m enviously not to be part of that but we’re going to try to work on it. I think today certainly we just have to be grateful that, y’know, first podium of the year, it’s nice. We got, I guess a bit lucky, not sure what the problem was with Valtteri, looked like he just stopped on the side of the track, I guess something with engine failure or whatever but yeah, it’s nice to be up here nonetheless. As for my race, yeah, not any exciting stories besides watching a bit happen in front of me at the start. Otherwise, just trying to manage it. At the end, I felt I was trying to get the most out of it, pushing but yeah, I heard the lap times they were doing at the end, and yeah, we’ve still got a bit to go but we’ll keep working at it, try and stay positive and keep everyone motivated.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Roksana Cwik – Swiatwyscigow.pl) Sebastian, another situation with Felipe Massa. What can you say about it?

SV: No, I like Felipe. He was given me space so nothing to blame on his side. It’s really slippery and then when you get close to the other car, the car in front, I just locked up both wheels. At some point I wish I had a handbrake to get the rear turned. It was really close; I was lucky to not bump into him and damage my front wing. But it’s difficult for him because he gives the space and he just waits for me to go through. I should look at the lines in Turn Ten. Sometimes you are really at the kerb but most of the time you are 1.5/2 metres off the apex kerb there. It was quite slippery and I obviously underestimated that so if anything it was me to blame – but it a bit of a pity because again it was Felipe. Last race we had a bit of a misunderstanding, this one again but he’s very experienced and he knows how to move in these situations, so nothing to blame for him.

Q: (Mike Doodson – GP+) This is for Lewis. Thank you very much for turning what looked like being a bit of a monotonous parade into a really exciting race – particularly for the incident with Seb. I can see it’s all peace and love between the two of you as usual right now – but I’m pretty sure I heard the word “dangerous” from you over the radio. Would you like to go into a bit more detail about that?

LH: Not really. In the heat of the moment it feels… when I run out of road and particularly where we went off at the exit of Turn One, so it meant by the time I had… I tried to stay straight but I came over the kerb so I lost all steering and he was just ahead of me. Could have been close, could have been some real good contact but fortunately I avoided it. I didn’t say anything bad, just ‘be careful, that was very, very, very close,’ but I enjoyed it and I’m glad that afterwards I was able to have a battle and didn’t damage anything and there’s nothing lost between us. The respect stays the same. I think he was tough and hard just to the edge and no more. I think if he’d hit me that would have been a bit different.

Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) Lewis, congratulations, what were your thoughts when you saw this red guy in front of you at the start and were those thoughts the same after you saw him again after his pitstop?

LH: No, definitely not. At the beginning, you’re on the back foot, thinking ‘damn it, we worked so hard, we got a great pole position’. The starts are just so unpredictable. I prepared, I did everything I needed to do for the start and just got a bit of wheel-spin and he got a better start. Naturally, when you go into Turn One and you’ve lost position, you just know here in Barcelona it’s so hard to follow. As you come out of Turn One into Turn Two, Three it’s often kind of like… the chances of winning this race from now, this position, behind such a fast car is… the percentages are very, very small. I just stayed on it, I tried to keep them… y’know he was so fast in that first stint so I just tried to keep on his tail and I think to the end of the stint I was able to start closing the gap to him, and I’m like ‘Oh my God, we’ve got a real race on now’. But what I don’t know is what the overall picture is looking like, so what the engineers see of what our strategy is going to be, and so I have absolutely no idea, apart for our strategy stops, and what they tell me, I don’t know how it’s going to pan out – so all I can do is give it everything I’ve got. It was amazing when I saw at the end that we were coming out close. I was a bit worried that, by going long in the first stint, everything I’d worked for in the first part of the first stint, I would have lost because I think he was pulling me back in at a huge step. But anyway, I trust my engineers and my strategist and they did an incredible job. And y’know, it was great that we were able to have that battle at the end, and again the tyres stayed… the reason we were able to stay so close is that we were offset on tyres. If I had the same tyre as him, it probably wouldn’t have been that exciting.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian. First of all I would like to know if it was an option to make the second stint not on the soft but on the medium like Lewis, and after the race, how is the situation between you and Mercedes? Do you believe that the situation is like in the first part of that they’ve got an advantage on Ferrari?

SV: There’s always the option, obviously, to go on the medium tyre rather than the soft. We had a new soft and a new medium but yeah, looking back, I was just thinking about it, we obviously lost… I don’t think the decision is to blame. We lost a lot of time fighting Valtteri, we lost four seconds. Then, I don’t know why, we made eight seconds disappear for the second stop. If you add those two things it’s 12 seconds and it would have been a bit better but that’s how it goes. Yeah. I think it could have been the same if we go on the medium tyre. Then obviously they are the second in the row at that point and easy to react, so they could have gone on the other tyre to put pressure and maybe pass us there – so at that point I think there’s nothing to blame. Later on, obviously he had the tyre advantage and he did a good job. It’s not easy to pass but he still made it, so he got close. You saw the race, that’s what happened. So I think for us, to answer your second question, very happy when we have the chance to race Mercedes. They have been proving over and over in the last few years that they are the team to beat. We are given them, so far, a good run for their money. I think we can be very happy – but today we’re not entirely happy because the win was there, the car was quick enough but the way the race happened, it wasn’t meant to be. But the most important thing is that we were there: once again fighting; hanging in there; not much missing at the end. The car is good, the team is in great form and we know that we need to improve. We don’t want to battle with them close, we want to be ahead of them. The idea obviously is nice, to have close battles – but you want to have them in your favour at the end of the race, which today wasn’t the case but that’s, as I said, how it goes sometimes.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Lewis, and also if Sebastian can comment, what is your understanding what we saw this weekend. In the race you have a car completely different than you have been using until now and we have a battle with Sebastian as in the four races before. As exactly the same yesterday. Did the Mercedes change the car in the correct way, or was the step forwards not what you expected, or even Ferrari also developed their car in a way that the difference became more or less similar.

LH: I think we delivered what we thought we were bringing in – it just looks fancy. It does the job, it works well with our car, it’s just that we have… while the rules are the same the cars are fundamentally a lot different and they’ve been bringing upgrades to the last two races whereas we’ve just bought one here. So, if the brought five piece in the previous race and five here, we’ve brought ten here – but yeah, I think we just made a similar step together. We were slightly quicker this weekend, I think, slightly had the edge. And even if it’s only half a tenth, it’s brought us a little bit… particularly in the race pace. Before I don’t think I’ve really had the pace in the race to keep up with Sebastian. I think today is a bit different – so there is an improvement.

Q: (Iolande Skinner – Motosport Monday) For all three of you: what was going through your head as you stood on the podium today?

DR: Relief. And happiness. It’s been a little while. It’s nice, weather was good, the fans were good. So it’s good. Actually I noticed on the in lap, I think it was turn 12, it looked like a dedicated Max sort of fan club, all in orange, and maybe they were doing it for everyone but they seemed to actually give me a lot of love so… they seemed pretty cool so obviously they were still hanging around and showing support. I’m sure they support Max but maybe, as a team, they love Red Bull so that was nice to see.

LH: Just grateful, grateful for… it’s difficult for you all and people watching to comprehend what goes on in the background to enable days like this to happen. Every week, I go back to the factory, I get an opportunity to go and see different departments and catch up with people that I’ve obviously known for the five years now and just see how… there’ s people who have been there for 25 years, 29 years and it’s just remarkable to see what goes on in the background and then we turn up at a Grand Prix and it looks all glitz and glamorous but so much work goes on behind… this is just the tip of the iceberg here, so I think on the podium I was just grateful and I just got to race an incredible race today and I’m very proud of my team and grateful I was able to deliver what I know was in my ability in my heart as well. It was just a combination of all that plus just massive excitement, kind of on the rev limiter.

SV: Well, honest answer, I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t want him to win, I wanted to win myself so it was great, beautiful weather, beautiful crowd but…

LH: I’m glad you didn’t want me to win!

SV: I don’t know. With the start that I had, the view into turn one was pretty nice. No one ahead, so it was great. There was a clear track and the car felt good but yeah, it was just… just couldn’t grip it, you know? Here and there, always a lost a bit. I knew it would be tight at the end, I thought I would still have a chance to hold him off and during the race I thought this was like 2011. I think I had a long stint at the very end of the race, Lewis was quicker but I managed to keep him behind and I thought yes, it will be the same you know, but unfortunately he turned it around so this year wasn’t so happy. Then there was another incident in turn 12 that is like an area with a lot of fans, orange, Dutch, they’re all barefoot to support Max but when I came round they…

DR: Also for you…

SV: They did to me! They gave me a good wave.

LH: On the last lap, coming round, they didn’t move. The crowd next door were moving but they were sat, like this, I thought oh my God, there’s no love there. But then when I came back round, i thought OK, they were cheering so when…

DR: They had these things, sticks. It’s not love for me then, it’s love for everyone. I can spread it.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Daniel, talk us through your start and the first couple of corners. There was quite a bit happening right in front of you there.

DR: To be honest, my start sounded similar to Lewis’s. It felt like the first part of the launch was OK. The guy closest to me was Max. That first part looked competitive, relative to him and probably Kimi in front and then that second phase, picked up some wheelspin and we all kind… it felt like we all slipped behind each other and then tried to get a tow down to turn one. I remember kind of looking at the inside and let’s say committed to that line but then there was I think three abreast in front of me so there wasn’t really much I could do and from memory, I think Max kind of went from inside-ish to the near outside and I think tried to go around them and I think just three into there… they all tried to outbrake each other from what I could see so then there was that contact. I guess Kimi and Max made more contact and then they went off then I slipped into fourth. From that point on, I could see, I think, Kimi… I realised Kimi was out of the race quite early. I wasn’t sure where Max was but obviously I realised my position there was probably going to be a lonely one for the next 66 laps and the fourth turned into third with Valtteri’s – I guess – mechanical. As I said on the in lap, obviously we’ll take what we can for now and that was pretty much it.

Q: (Jacqueline Magnay – The Australian) Lewis and Daniel, the race seemed incredibly physically demanding and Lewis, halfway through the race you sounded exhausted – I don’t know whether you were. I’m just wondering if both of you can comment on the physical demands of this particular track?

DR: Seb doesn’t look tired!? No, the pace was a bit quicker than previous years so you know, you feel a little bit more but I think we’re going to come to races, Singapore, Malaysia, it’s more the hot ones, I would say, the more physical so today was yeah, not too demanding, let’s say. I feel pretty good right now.

LH: I think it’s dependent on what kind of race you have. A lot of the races that we do with the type of racing that we sometimes have to do, where you’re saving fuel, like in the last race for example. I couldn’t push, the car was overheating, whereas today it was.. from turn one to the end it was flat chat and so those races are the most… you’re just using everything you’ve got so for sure, in that first stint, for instance, to keep… to stay on Sebastian was a killer. Also I don’t carry drinks in my car either to save weight so I’m not having a drink through the race. And then at the end, I used everything I had left when I jumped into my team and my heart rate hit the ceiling. I was good when I got out of the car but jumping into… I don’t know if I will do that again. I was a little bit tired after that one.

SV: If I may add, thank you very much for not asking me the question. I take it as a compliment. Maybe we can exchange phone numbers after the press conference and maybe it’s a good match to the car, it doesn’t look so flashy on the outside but it’s really good on the inside. I take it as a compliment, thank you.

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) I just want to get an assessment from you guys, all three of you, of the weekend because there are some new additions to the fan area to enhance the F1 experience for fans. I just wanted to get you guys’ thoughts on these new additions? Do you look forward to more opportunities for fans to engage with you guys? Obviously what we saw after qualifying was something different. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it.

LH: I think this weekend was… what did we do different? We just did the one thing at the end of qualifying, I think it was. What was the other one?

SV: But no alcohol.

LH: I think the interaction with the fans was definitely better. I think there were less fans then I remember being here. I think maybe when Fernando was battling at the front, the place was packed. There was still a lot of seats… I would imagine it was 65-70% full, I would imagine, something like that. So we’ve got to encourage more to come and I’m not quite sure why more don’t come but the ones that were here… when you come through turn seven, it’s completely packed up there. We’ve just got to continue to engage… like what they’ve done with the entry to the paddock, some fans could come and be close in. We’ve just got to keep coming up with ideas to try and bring people in and not seclude them. This is a sport where you just can’t really get very close and the pit lane walkabout was really great but we somehow need to do more.

DR: I think in the paddock, at least they’ve started with the idea of having a bit of a bar area. I thought that was a new addition. I think that’s cool because we all have guests coming to races and whether it’s friends of ours or there are celebrities or whatever they always hang out with the team they’re invited by but if there’s a more social area then you’ll get everyone hanging out in the same place, so I think that’s cool, so it’s a bit more laidback environment which is cool. I question: is it still called a bar if it sells non-alcoholic beer? Does it turn into a cafe?

LH: Is it non-alcoholic?

DR: Yeah, zero percent.

SV: Don’t you ever read the signs on the track? Never alcohol behind the wheel.

LH: Really? I don’t see it.

DR: But they’re heading in the right direction. I definitely feel that, there’s some positives.

SV: Did you see that? There is that Heineken.

LH: I didn’t know that.

SV: Did you notice that they painted the kerbs blue in sector one?

LH: Yes, I noticed that. At turn three.

DR: Only because you were on them when you pushed him there.

SV: And four.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

May 14, 2017
Hami pips Vettel in a thrilling battle: Spanish GP

Hami celebrates after winning the Spanish GP on Sunday. An FIA image

Barcelona, 14 May 2017: Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took his second career Spanish Grand Prix victory after winning a thrilling, tight strategic battle with Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver led for the first half of the race. Third place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian inheriting the podium spot after an engine failure ruled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas out midway through the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the Formula One World Championship here on Sunday.

When the lights went out, it was Vettel who made the best start. The German powered away from P2 on the grid and grabbed the lead as he and Hamilton went through Turn One.

Behind, Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was making a move around the outside of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes. With Red Bull’s Max Verstappen further outside it was a tight squeeze into the first corner and Raikkonen’s rear right got inside of his countryman’s front left. There was contact and the impact bounced Raikkonen into Verstappen. The result was suspension damage and early retirement for both.

There was contact, too, between seventh-placed starter Fernando Alonso and ninth on the grid Felipe Massa. Local Hero Alonso had worked miracles to haul his underperforming McLaren to P7 on the grid on Saturday but it was undone when he was hit in Turn 2 by the Williams man. Alonso dropped to P11 and eventually drifted out to P13 by the end of the race.

By lap 14 Vettel had pulled out an almost three-second gap to Hamilton. The German then pitted for soft tyres, leaving Hamilton in clean air. His engineer was quickly on the radio telling the Briton it was “his opportunity, give it everything you’ve got”. Hamilton responded with a race fastest lap, but Vettel was alive to the threat and fought back with a purple time of his own.

Hamilton made his first stop on lap 22, taking on the medium tyres. He rejoined in third, 7.3s behind Vettel, who was right on the tail of leader Bottas who needed to pit.

Vettel’s frustrations grew as the Finn thwarted his efforts to pass. Vettel eventually got past but Bottas’ baulking lost him more than three seconds to Hamilton. When Bottas, who needed to pit, allowed Hamilton past, Vettel found himself with just three seconds in hand over the Briton, relatively matched on lap time but on different strategies.

Bottas then made his first stop and resumed in third place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian was a lonely fourth for Red Bull Racing, almost nine second behind the Mercedes and almost 14 ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez. The Mexican’s team-mate Esteban Ocon was sixth ahead of Sauber’s Pascal Wehrelin, who had yet to pit, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz.

At the halfway point there was a collision between Massa and Vandoorne as the Brazlian was hit when he tried to pass into Turn One.

The VSC was deployed as Vandoorne ended up beached in the gavel with broken front suspension and while there was a flurry of pit stops in the midfield, Hamilton waited until the VSC was ending to make his stop for soft tyres on lap 36. Vettel immediately responded and took on mediums at the end of the following lap.

He emerged almost alongside the Mercedes man and the pair banged wheels in Turn One. Vettel emerged in the lead but Hamilton had the quicker tyres and pressed for a way past. Vettel made his car as wide as possible and a tit-for-tat battle ensued.

Behind them Bottas’ race came to an end on lap 39 when his power unit failed on the run through Turn 3. The Finn had been forced to revert to an older engine on Friday night after a water leak was detected on his new unit.

At the front Hamilton was still putting pressure on Vettel and eventually, on lap 44, it told. The Briton got a good run out of the final corner and passed the German under DRS into Turn One.

Within a few laps though Hamilton was on the radio complaining that the rear of his set of soft tyres were already overheating. With Vettel on the more durable mediums, the race was not yet over as a contest.

As the laps wound down, it became clear it was a case of whether either of the top two would blink. With lap times similar, would Vettel, who had almost a minute in hand over Ricciardo, attempt a three-stop and take on soft tyres for a late attack on Hamilton as his soft tyres faded? If he pitted would Mercedes respond?

The answer came on lap 58 when Hamilton was told the gap was sufficient to prevent Vettel from trying a strategic gamble and that he should nurse his Mercedes to the flag.

And that was how it remained until the flag. As the front pair threaded their way through traffic the gap widened to over four seconds and after 66 laps Hamilton crossed the line to take a narrow 55^th career win. Vettel was forced to settle for second ahead of Ricciardo who had a lonely run to his first podium finish since the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix.

Force India enjoyed an excellent race, with Perez fourth ahead of team-mate Ocon. Nico Hulkenberg gave Renault something to celebrate by rising from 13^th on the grid to sixth. Carlos Sainz was seventh for Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein with Daniil Kvyat ninth in the second Toro. The final points position went to Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

eom/FIA press release

May 14, 2017
Valtteri had great starts, I will try to follow in his footsteps: Hami

DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis the 64^th pole of your career and your third of this year. Sixty-fourth pole puts you one behind Ayrton Senna, I’m sure you’re well aware of that, but did you feel you had control throughout today or did the red cars give you a bit of a scare?

Lewis HAMILTON: It started out that we were potentially a tenth ahead of the Ferraris, but in P3 it seemed that we were lot closer, so, quite level. So it was really intense for us, making sure we pulled out every millisecond we can. We made some changes as we got into qualifying and the car felt great, so I was very happy with it. The Q1 lap was very, very good. The Q2 lap was so-so, but good enough. Then the first lap of Q3 was very good and the second lap was up, I think almost two tenths. I didn’t finish it that way but still it was good enough to keep me ahead.

Q: That’s interesting. Was that conditions or was that you, because Sebastian also had an issue in the final sector?

LH: It’s difficult to know. I didn’t make a mistake. I didn’t lock up or go wide or anything like that. I did the corner perfectly, but it’s very gusty out there, so from corner to corner… sometimes you arrive in the corner and you brake in the same spot and understeer off because you have a tail wind or a head wind and you stop quicker. Particularly for me, I feel for that moment maybe I didn’t have a tail wind, because the car stopped really well, as opposed to the previous lap where it was more on the limit. I don’t know if that was the same for Sebastian but it was tricky for us all.

Q: A quick final thought on the race pace. It looked very strong yesterday and particularly the degradation on the soft looked really good, so you must be feeling pretty strong going into the race tomorrow?

LH: Yeah, I mean firstly, I have to say the team have done an incredible job; the guys back at the factory, as always really… I don’t know if they get tired of hearing it, but they really have done an incredible job to make small increments, steps forward and bring a great package for this track to keep us in the fight with the Ferraris. Very grateful for everyone’s hard efforts and we want to work as hard as we can to make sure that doesn’t go to waste.

Q: Sebastian, I’ll bet you’re glad when they told you to switch the engine off in Q1, you questioned it for a minute or two and didn’t switch the engine off? Otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here and you’d be looking at losing your championship lead tomorrow afternoon wouldn’t you.

SV: I don’t know. You never know. Obviously much better that way. But I have to say the team did a phenomenal job. By surprise we had an issue this morning and had to change the engine. Normally that’s close to a three-hour job, if you’re rushing. I don’t know how they managed. They did it in sub-two hours. I was basically, at 10-to-2 or five-to-2, I was ready and we were ready to fire up and go out in Q1. So really a big thank you to them. Kimi’s crew helped out too. It was quite funny at one point: one side of the garage there was one or two mechanics and the other one was completely crowded, like bees hovering around the car. A great effort, so big thanks. I think we could have had pole today, so not the ideal end, but when I consider where we were this morning, then obviously with the change we made it out, as you talked about in Q1, a small issue there, so I think it’s a really good recovery. Yesterday I wasn’t happy with the car balance at all and today it was phenomenal. I felt yesterday that it was in the car but I just couldn’t get to it. And today, as I say, was really a pleasure, especially the first two sectors. Conditions were very tricky, with the wind, never easy, never knowing what to expect. And I think I got caught out a bit in the last sector – my favourite place – which Mark Webber teached me many lessons over the years and I still haven’t got it. I don’t know, I need to go back to school maybe and sit down and have a proper look. I have done so many laps but still the last chicane is a bit tricky so I’m sure with the race and with the rhythm tomorrow it will be fine, but for quali today it could be a bit better.

Q: There was a lot of talk about the upgrades everybody was going to have coming here this weekend. Are you very encouraged to be sitting here now after they turned up with all these Starship Enterprise bits on their car and all the rumours and you’re actually so close and, as you say yourself, you could have been on pole in terms of ho the season goes from here?

SV: Yeah, I think from the outside at least it looks like they had a smooth weekend, at least Lewis, I think Valtteri had a surprise engine change as well this morning. Overall, I think they looked a bit more in the rhythm. As I said yesterday, for us it was a bit more up and down. Then I did a long run on the medium compound, which was quite slippery. So, as I said, today I was a lot happier. The car is good. You mentioned Starship Enterprise: I’m not a Starship Enterprise fan, but I guess you can look at it from the outside and from the inside. I’m happy with the bits we brought here. Maybe they’re not as flashy and bling, but they’re working, so our guys back in the factory are pushing really hard. We brought some stuff in Russia, we brought again a lot of stuff here, so yeah, I’m really happy with how it’s going.

Q: Valtteri, we heard you say on the radio “not good enough.” Were you talking about yourself or the general picture? Just that middle sector on your final run that caught you out?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, just myself. I think the team has done an amazing job with the car, managing to still battle so close with Ferrari and for most of the weekend we’ve been quicker, so it’s only really Q3 where they raised-up their game and we were slightly, nearly, trouble with them, especially me. For me, starting the day with the engine change, going back to the old engine, I was always going to be slightly on the back foot, and just really struggled through the qualifying with the rear stability – that was the main issue. It was difficult to find a good rhythm from one quali to another, like I normally do. Just every lap, the car felt a little bit different. It wasn’t one of my best quali but very happy for the job the team has done and Lewis was very strong today, very quick, so yeah, as always the race is tomorrow and I’ve done some good things from P3 before.

Q: As we were saying earlier, the Mercedes race pace is strong, the deg was low – but it’s always about fine margins, isn’t it: you had an extra lap on your start set of tyres and you had a couple of lock-ups, so a couple of flat-spots there – or are you not too worried?

VB: No, the tyres had felt good and the extra lap was just a second out-lap so it was a good feeling with that set, so no issues.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, it looks like The Force has been strong with you all weekend, everything looked good for you. This guy [Vettel] is going to be right next to you tomorrow: do you expect a tight run off to the first corner – and is the Jedi Knight ready for a battle tomorrow?

LH: You’re obviously a big fan of the movie, right? Thank you for always being such a positive person – you’re always positive when you come into this press conference, so thank you for that. Yeah, I think it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, for sure. You see how close it is between us and it’s all milliseconds between us. It’s a long run down to… I think it’s the third longest run down to Turn One so of course it’s going to be important to get a good start but we’ve worked hard on them so I’m going to try to do the best job I can. Valtteri’s had some great starts so I’m going to try and follow in his footsteps there and then yeah, positioning can help a lot here and being on the clean side of the grid is an advantage generally. Usually it’s a little bit of an advantage and hopefully I’ll be able to utilise that – particularly compared to Sebastian – and then in the race it’s just about looking after those tyres. It’s a very, very long, hard race, both physically and mentally and for the car and the tyres – but we’ve prepared in the best way we can and I think hopefully got the car in a much better position than I did in the last race.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how much more difficult is it here to make the same kind of striking start like you did in Sochi?

VB: For sure it’s a much shorter run into Turn One than to Turn Two in Sochi. So, it’s always more tricky – but it’s still, if you have a good start you can gain places. We’ve seen in the past many times here people starting from the second, even the third row, have made many positions so anything is always possible –– but I can’t always rely on a good start, y’know? For sure the other guys are going to have good ones as well at some point. But yeah, good starting point, everything is still wide open and we feel our race pace is good and still upbeat for tomorrow.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Still on this question of the start tomorrow, this circuit is very difficult to overtake historically, even now more here this year. And Sebastian, you are in the dirty part of the track – and you have a long straight into the first bend and, in this case it’s normally a small advantage to who’s behind, in this case Valtteri. Is there anything that you can defend yourself against the possible attack from your opponent?

SV: Yeah, there’s a lot of things. I need a perfect start, simple as that. There’s a long way but I think the grip will be the same. I don’t think it will be much different. There’s a lot of racing series this weekend: you have the Porsche Cup, GP3, F2. Usually they put a lot of rubber down everywhere so I don’t think that’s a real disadvantage – and then as I said, I just need to do everything right and that’s the best way to attack and defend.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, are you happy to see that despite all the new stuff that Mercedes put on the car that Ferrari was able to reply with other stuff and you are at the same level of performance like some races before?

SV: Well, we will see tomorrow but I think so far for us this weekend has been a bit more up and down. Yesterday was a bit wobbly, I wasn’t really feeling the rhythm yet. Today was a lot better. I think in terms of performance it’s really close. We will see in the race. I think looking after the tyres with the conditions will be key. Strategy, there should be some options so we will see. The plan for now it to go back and say thanks to all the guys because thanks to them I made it to qualifying and then we focus on the start, the beginning of the race and I think then we will see. I think it will be close. As I said, maybe they brought more visual stuff but I’m happy with what we brought and it seemed to work well and bring us very close. We could have been ahead today, that’s down to me, but I had lost enough to miss pole, like a tenth or something. But that didn’t happen, now we start P2 and take it from there but I’m confident for tomorrow.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you were asked to stop the car on the track, was it always clear for you to carry on? These engines are so complicated, you never know, you could have risked the engine as well by continuing.

SV: We had an issue, it turned out to be a programming issue but for sure I’m blind in that moment, I don’t know what to do. I was quite far away from the garage and I was sort of cruising down already so I just wanted to double check that I got the message right. I think I got it but that’s the last thing you want to do. Still, if I had the confirmation I would have stopped in the next convenient place. I just missed the opening on the track so that’s why I also had time to ask are we sure because I had time to go round turn four and then look for another opening.

Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) I think you’re all aware of the difficult situation of McLaren-Honda, but still Fernando managed to get seventh position, beating his teammate by 1.5s. I’m just wondering how you rate his performance?

LH: Yeah, looks fantastic. I think that’s amazing for McLaren and Honda to get in the top ten. Shows progress.

You (Sebastian) were with him in the press conference on Thursday and joked about seeing him in the final corner – you might!

SV: Yeah, you never know, so that’s why we’re here, we’re here to race. Looks like he had a good session. I think Stoffel went out in Q1 so obviously the track improves a lot. If you look at our times between Q1 and Q3 it’s not fair but it looks like he had a good session. I think the car’s really good. This track’s not so sensitive on power so see what happens tomorrow.

VB: I think he had a good session personally and the team is making progress.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, we saw massive changes in the cars for this race but the picture of qualifying didn’t change much, even the gap is more or less the same. In race conditions, do you think we can see these changes or are you predicting that we will see more or less what has been seen yesterday and today?

LH: I’ve not really looked at the long run pace but I would imagine so, yeah. It is crazy that we keep… Sebastian said that they’d brought an upgrade to Sochi and we’ve only brought an upgrade here so… I think it’s going to remain a close battle of development through the whole of the rest of the season. Clearly Ferrari are pushing very very hard as are we. I think for us it’s more about quality rather than quantity or upgrades so we’re just working hard to make sure that the ones we do stick on the car… but it is strange when you bolt all this stuff on and you remain within half a tenth of each other. I think that’s great for racing.

VB: I think maybe our upgrades were a bit more visible. You know we make progress all the time, we had a more visible package but it seems like it’s been a similar improvement with both teams so I think tomorrow’s going to be close.

eom/FIA press conference

May 13, 2017

Maiden win for Fukuzumi; Maini finishes 7th: GP3

Japanese driver victorious in Barcelona

Nirei Fukuzumi has dominated his rivals for his first GP3 Series win this afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, leading a close fight with ART teammate Jack Aitken before the Briton suffered a mechanical gremlin which eased the pressure on the Japanese driver, who then flew to a 7 second victory over Leonardo Pulcini and Alessio Lorandi.

The race took place under scorching conditions, with front row starters Aitken and Fukuzumi storming off when the lights went out towards turn one: the Honda development driver had the outside line as they ran three abreast with Dorian Boccolacci and nabbed the lead into turn two, with the Frenchman running wide at turn two and allowing Pulcini a run through to P3.

Aitken and Fukuzumi were swapping fastest laps as they looked for any advantage over the other, pulling away from the rest of the field as they did, while further back Lorandi was on a charge: moving up a spot to P6 off the line, the Italian mugged Arjun Maini for 5th on lap 9 and ran through Boccolacci 4 laps later as the battle for the lead intensified.

But the fight came to an end on lap 16 as Aitken stuttered on track before being slowly swallowed up by his pursuers as he limped back to the pits and retirement: with the pressure now off Fukuzumi soared to the flag, while the battle shifted to the two Italian rivals behind him. Lorandi was all over the rear wing of his countryman for the closing laps, but to no avail: Pulcini was impervious to attack and punched the air as he crossed the line in P2.

Behind them George Russell had stayed out of trouble and preserved his tyres to push up to 4th place at the flag, just holding off teammate Anthoine Hubert as he did so, while Boccolacci will have picked up a lot of lessons on his way to P6, denying Maini at the end of the race. Further back Campos pair Raoul Hyman and Marcos Siebert had a huge fight over the closing laps for team bragging rights, with the South African just holding on for 8th and reverse pole when Santino Ferrucci got in the mix, nicking P9 from Siebert at the final corner.

Race 1 Provisional Classification

	Driver	Team	Gap
1.	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix
2.	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	7.433
3.	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	7.889
4.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	11.807
5.	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	12.159
6.	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	14.364
7.	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	14.906
8.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	30.986
9.	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	31.314
10.	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	31.357
11.	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	31.912
12.	Ryan Tveter	Trident	32.228
13.	Kevin Jörg	Trident	32.916
14.	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	33.288
15.	Niko Kari	Arden International	35.996
16.	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	37.783
17.	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	38.240
18.	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	39.412

	Not classified
	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix

May 13, 2017

Hamilton takes pole; Vettel on P2 ahead of Bottas

Barcelona, 13 May 2017: Lewis Hamilton edged Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just five hundredths of a second to claim the 64^th pole position of his career at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.

Q1 saw Hamilton go quickest with a lap of 1:20.511, two tenths of a second ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. There was a scare for Vettel, however.

After detecting a potential problem during FP3, Ferrari opted to change the German’s power unit ahead of the session. Taking to the track in Q1, Vettel thanked his team for the quick turnaround but after setting an opening time good enough to secure passage through to Q2, his race engineer quickly radioed through to tell him to “stop the car”. That was then revised to Vettel being asked to nurse the car to the pit lane, which he managed to do. The German was eventually able to rejoin the session.

Behind Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, who also had an engine change, though his was done overnight, was fourth ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

At the back it was a dismal outing for Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. While team-mate Carlos Sainz managed to end the session in the top 10, Kvyat remained rooted to the foot of the order and was ruled out of further competition in P20. Also eliminated at this stage were Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Williams’ Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

Hamilton was again to the fore after the first runs in Q2, leading on a time of 1:20.210 ahead of Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen. As the teams prepped for their final runs, the man occupying the final Q3 berth was Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver was sitting on a time of 1:21.510, but that was just 0.007 ahead of Haas’s Romain Grosjean.

Local hero Alonso put in a superb final flyer to find three tenths of a second and as his rivals’ final times came in those fractions became crucial as he rose to P8 and then slid back to P10. In the end, though, he held the place, with just under eight hundredths of a second in hand over Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. Eliminated behind the Dane were Sainz, Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein.

And Hamilton maintained his grip on P1 after the first runs of Q3. Bottas was first across the line but a big slide through the final corner left the Finn with a P1 time of 1:19.390. That was swiftly bypassed by Hamilton with a lap of 1:19.149.

Behind the Mercedes pair Raikkonen was third, five hundredths behind Bottas, with Vettel fourth a tenth further back. The third row of the grid was provisionally made up of the two Red Bulls, with Verstappen to the fore, almost half a second clear of team-mate Ricciardo.

With three tenths in hand over his team-mate it looked like Hamilton was in the clear. Vettel, though, was determined to have his say and the Ferrari driver was the only one of the top four to find significant time on the final run.

It wasn’t enough, however. While he improved to 1:19.200 and Hamilton failed to gain time, the Mercedes driver still managed to cling on for his 64^th career pole, finishing just 0.051s ahead of the title leader.

Bottas took third ahead of Raikkonen who made a mistake in the final sector after setting the fastest first sector of the session. Fifth place went to Verstappen, while team-mate Ricciardo had a strangely muted Q3, finishing half a second behind the Dutchman in P6. Alonso put in a huge performance to qualify his McLaren in seventh place ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, Massa, and the second Force India of Esteban Ocon.

eom/FIA press release

May 13, 2017

Aitken flies to Barcelona pole; Arjun Maini P6

Barcelona, 13 May 2017: Jack Aitken emerged on top of this morning’s season-opening qualifying session at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, finding a gap in traffic and soaring to pole in the closing minutes of the session to deny teammate Nirei Fukuzumi and Dorian Boccolacci by just over a tenth.

The Briton squeezed onto the top of the timesheets with a stunning lap of 1:34.187, nailing his lap at just the right time to claim the first GP3 pole position of 2017 in a qualifying session that saw the times tumble throughout the 30 minute period, right up until the chequered flag.

The session opened to dry and sunny conditions, with all of the grid heading straight out on track to make the most of them. Giuliano Alesi set the first competitive time, with his rivals soon on the attack: Santino Ferrucci, Boccolacci, Aitken and Fukuzumi all spent time on the top spot before Boccolacci laid down a challenge just before everyone returned to the pits for fresh tyres, giving his rivals one last time to target.

The field re-emerged for the final 10 minutes and built up enough heat in the tyres for a final push: in the final 2 minutes George Russell struck before ART teammate Aitken displaced him in P1, with first Boccolacci and then Fukuzumi slotting in just behind him as the clock rolled down to zero.

Russell, Leonardo Pulcini, Arjun Maini, Alesi and Alessio Lorandi all improved on their final lap to fill out the top 8, with 15 drivers finishing the session within a second of the pole time: the battle recommences in this afternoon’s race 1.

Provisional Qualifying Results

	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1:34.187	12
2.	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1:34.358	12
3.	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1:34.380	13
4.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1:34.468	13
5.	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1:34.602	13
6.	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:34.685	13
7.	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:34.708	13
8.	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1:34.720	13
9.	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1:34.788	14
10.	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1:34.866	12
11.	Niko Kari	Arden International	1:34.964	13
12.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:35.031	14
13.	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1:35.041	13
14.	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1:35.070	12
15.	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1:35.088	12
16.	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1:35.224	14
17.	Kevin Jörg	Trident	1:35.423	12
18.	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1:35.613	13
19.	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1:35.851	12

May 13, 2017

Make sure that the teams can be run in a sustainable way: Kalteborn

Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber team principal at the FIA press conference on Friday. An FIA image

PART TWO: TEAM REPRESENTATIVE – Maurizio Arrivabene (Ferrari), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Christian, there was talk of the Red Bull for this Spanish Grand Prix being a substantial step ahead of the car that started the season. How different is it in the end, and how satisfied are you with the performance on day one?

Christian HORNER: I think it’s probably been overstated slightly in various media outlets but it’s a pretty significant upgrade, it’s an aerodynamic upgrade, most of which is pretty visible. It’s the knock-on from those elements and probably the bits that you can’t see that obviously involve a great deal of work, a great deal of time and effort from back in the factory. They’ve done an incredible job to get it all turned around and on the car in time for today’s running.

Q: Cyril Abiteboul was with us a few moments ago in part one and told us that the full potential of the Renault 2017 engine would really come with the third iteration of the season. What’s your view?

CH: Well I was trying to ask him the question at the back that you wouldn’t give me the microphone for in the previous version, because I was very keen to learn when that third edition will come. Obviously for us, the sooner the better. It seems that Renault has chosen a path that is showing true potential but I think they’ve got some complications in terms of being able to extract the power unit’s full potential. Hopefully they’ll be able to release that sooner rather than later.

Q: Yesterday, here in the press conference, we talked with the top drivers about the driver market and possible moves for next year. Is it the case that you know already that both of your drivers are locked into your team for 2018?

CH: Yes, absolutely.

Q: Monisha, moving on you. Obviously you announced the Honda deal which means that eight months from now you’ll be bolting a Honda into your 2018 car to go testing. How far up the road from where they are today do you expect them to be at that point?

Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, we certainly expect that they’ll have sorted out all the issues they have been facing so far and we expect that to also happen still in this season. Looking at the talks we’ve had with Honda and having seen their facilities, knowing how determined they are, we have no reason to doubt that.

Q: Are these conversations that you’ve had with them for some time? In Honda just generally about participation together with you?

MK: It’s been going on for some time but, you know, we looked at all the options we had. We had a couple of talks going on for a long time.

Q: What does the Honda partnership allow you to do from the point of view of sponsorship, driver choices etcetera, does it open things up for you?

MK: Well, regarding drivers, I’ve said before, at the end of the day it’s the team’s decision, and also the team’s responsibility to have good drivers. And like we’ve done in the past, even with our current engine supplier, Ferrari, that we’ve discussed these kind of issues with the key partner. And we have also taken drivers from our engine supplier because it was the right thing to do there. It’s something that we’re open to and we’ll see how it pans out. In terms of sponsorship I think it’s far too early to look at these things. We’ve just announced the deal. So we’ll see how that develops as well.

Q: Maurizio, could you have imagined that, after four races, your driver would be two wins to the good and 13 points in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, much of that, I guess, you would say, by being bold, which is what you called for the team to be, you and Sergio Marchionne.

Maurizio ARRIVABENE: OK, we are happy, of course, we were not expecting to be here but I’ll add that the hard work is paying back, so, I mean I’m very, very pleased for the overall team, for the guys that are here, the guys in Maranello, that they are working very, very hard. Having said so, I saw how Red Bull was growing here in Barcelona and how they are competitive. Mercedes have to defend the title of the World Champion, and we are still focussed on the race after race work and we try to do all our best to make the race interesting.

Q: We spoke with Toto a few minutes ago in part one of this press conference about the dramatic-looking car that Mercedes have brought here this weekend and asked him if he was satisfied with the performance of it. What are your thoughts on how of the balance of competitiveness between you and them, where that lies now going forwards through this weekend and the next few races ahead of us?

MA: One of the lessons that we learned last year is to look at all of our competitors. Visually the Mercedes is very impressive because yesterday we were looking at the Mercedes but we were looking also at the Red Bull and you have two schools: one that is the one of Mercedes that is quite interesting, creative and surprising, the other one is the Red Bull school where maybe something is not really evident but it’s extremely efficient. We need to take in consideration what they do, to be able to compete with them and to continue our development. One of the mantra this year is that we are looking, if there is something interesting, we are investigating, but we follow our way, we have our programme and we want to continue to follow our programme without distraction.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Kate Walker – Motorsport network) I’m sure you’re aware that the FIA are currently celebrating all of the volunteers who allow motor sport to happen in every category. I was wondering if you could give us your thoughts on the importance of celebrating these men and women and any sort of positive experiences you’ve had with circuit officials around the world?

CH: It’s quite incredible the job that they do, not just at Formula One events but racing events and categories around the world, from club racing upwards and quite an awful lot of them are doing it out of the love of their hearts, their passion for the sport. Again, all the medical assistance, the doctors etc etc, I’m only full of admiration for them and without them we quite simply wouldn’t be able to operate. They make it look easy but do a wonderful wonderful job.

MA: I’ve a good case that is when I was young and crazy for Formula One that I tried to apply to be a voluntary marshal but my objective was only – the money was not a lot in my case – just to be near by the car and to see the race. Then they asked a couple of questions, they discovered that I was just a Formula One supporter and they threw me out. This is really… I have to say Chapeau to the Federation because that means that the guys are not only passionate for Formula One, they are here working for free but they are also experts in the world that they are doing for all of us who have a great respect for all of them.

MK: Well, I think it’s very important that you have a day like this because this is really the moment that you can focus on all the volunteers who are doing such a great job. They are doing it really out of passion and without them, like Christian said… such difficult situations can be sorted out and just have such a smooth way things go so we should try to really show, like this, so many more examples where people are in the sport at whatever their level, whatever category , that it takes so much more than just what you maybe see during the race, the teams or the drivers, it takes so many more people to bring across all this.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Maurizio, we saw in P1 big time differences between the Ferraris and the Mercedes. Did you have any issue and how was it so big? And the second question: do you believe that Mercedes still have an advantage on a single lap and it’s tough to catch them now?

MA: I received the same question in Australia on Friday, I remember, and the gap in FP1 was the same, it was one second between us and Mercedes. On that occasion, I answered the question as I answer today. Chapeau to Mercedes for what they have done but we are not going to change our programme. We have a programme for this weekend, starting from Friday, improving Saturday and looking also for Sunday. This is what we want to do and what we are focused to do. Having said that, as I’ve said many many times, they are the World Champions and they have to defend their title of course. They are stronger, they are the reference for all of us and what we have to do is just try to create them some problems.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Maurizio, nice to see you here on a Friday. We’re seeing more of your drivers on a Sunday but a lot less of you; Liberty Media want the teams to do more for the fans, more media. I think I’m right in saying your team is probably the one that does less media this year than last year. Could you perhaps explain some of that and is that because it was a distraction last year, is it stress reduction or… what is the thinking behind it?

MA: I’m surprised, honestly, because we were doing social media for two races on Thursday with one driver and then we continue to do what we were doing last year, so what are we talking about? This is my simple answer. Liberty, of course, they would like to have more and more and more interviews but they are also talking about digital so we try to balance the first two races and now we are back to what we were doing in the past so my opinion… all of you have the newspaper (version) but they also have a digital version of the newspaper so I don’t see where the problem is. We are really focused on what we are doing, that’s true.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Maurizio, just to follow up on that, but I thought you would usually speak after the race…

MA: Yes, if you received the press release, I’m putting a statement on paper what we are going to think. It’s also true – your colleague mentioned Liberty before. One of the things we are pushing for is to have the driver that somehow they are the heroes of the show. The role of the team principal is to manage the team, to put the driver up, to do their job. At the moment, we are really really focused and I am focused with all the team to do their job and I tell you, it’s quite hard to fight with a monster like Mercedes and to look at what these guys are doing, so that’s a question of concentration, to give statements to the media when we have to do it, on Sunday after the race. That’s it, there is no other intention.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Sure, I was slightly distracted. What I was going to ask you – though it’s useful in a sense than just a statement, that we can ask you things and you can respond to them rather than it’s just a blank statement that we can’t really get back to. But that’s slightly by the by. I was actually going to ask you, before that, was would you rule out having Fernando Alonso back as a driver at Ferrari or not?

MA: Ah, this is the real question! Is there a reason why you want me to talk… It’s not different to the answer that I gave to you before. You need to understand the spirit of our team this year. We are really working as a team and the two guys, the two drivers, they are part – an integral part – of this team. We are so concentrated on what we are doing, we are working so hard, all together that the conversation about contracts is not a priority. I don’t want to be… I tell you the truth. We are working well together, we are feeling very very well together so we want to do our best, to work on the performance of the car and for us it’s… the contract is not a priority. The atmosphere is great, why we have to start talking about something that is distracting us? We look each other in the eyes and we understand that we are a team.

Q: (Martin Vriezema – NOS) Christian, we just had an interview with Max and he said in a very realistic way ‘we are still the third team.’ And there was also a bit of frustration, maybe he was a little bit sad even. How do you deal with this ambitious driver who realises he’s not the number one yet… which also counts for Ricciardo of course, and do they ask for a different approach from your side?

CH: Well, first of all, he’s probably right in his observation that yes, today we are still currently the third team but I think it has concertina-ed, I think we are closer to Ferrari and Mercedes than we’ve been at any points so far this season. I think we’ve bought some performance to the car. There’s still some fine tuning that needs to be done and understanding of what we’ve introduced but I don’t sense any frustration with him. He’s focused, he’s motivated, he goes for it on every lap that he’s out on the track. He’s enjoying being a Grand Prix driver. Of course he’s hungry and ambitious but that applies to Daniel as well. I don’t sense any frustration; he’s certainly not requesting any change to our approach. He can see the effort that’s going on behind the scenes, the hours that people are working, because it is a sport at the end of the day and department after department are competing against some enormous adversaries in the likes of Ferrari here and obviously Mercedes.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, about six or seven years ago you seemed to be totally opposed to any form of cost-control, cost caps etc, yet recently you’ve been reported as coming out as saying that you’re in favour of some sort of budget cap. Why do you think it could now be controlled when a couple of years ago it couldn’t be and also some input from the other two if they would like to comment on that as well?

CH: Well, firstly, just to clarify, I’m not at all in favour of cost caps. I think they’re unworkable, un-policeable and our biggest concern throughout that whole discussion four or five years ago was how on earth do you equate what’s going on within a subsidiary company of an automotive manufacturer within research and development? So I’m not in favour of a cost cap, what I am in favour of and I would expect probably every Grand Prix team to be in favour of is to try and control the amount that we’re currently spending through perhaps simplicity of the regulations, perhaps de-cluttering the regulations because Formula One moves at such a pace that every area is under scrutiny and that means spend and that drives spend and I think there’s an opportunity with a new commercial rights holder in conjunction with the FIA to really look at what are the key cost drivers and go upstream and deal with those and then that will naturally have an effect on the outcome of how much you can and can’t spend, and there’s certain aspects that, you know, people sitting in the grandstand today have no idea about and probably know interest about in terms of some of the technology that we’re all spending a fortune on, so I think simplification would definitely be an effective way forward.

MK: Well, it’s good to hear that from Red Bull because we, together particularly with Force India, have been exactly saying this, that we need to get the costs down and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to us if you have a budget cap or you have other tools of cost control, they should look at prescriptive parts if you makes the rules simpler. The important thing is to bring these costs down and actually make sure that the teams can be run in a sustainable way and then focus on the show and I think now, listening to the new owners of the sport, we certainly see that they share this view and they will actively work on this, I hope very soon, and present their proposals.

MA: I think before talking about a cost cap we need to understand how in the future the actual commercial owner wants to grow the business of Formula One, to create more interest and also to work on the split-up of the relationships of Formula One and how we are in the hands of everything we are doing, especially (inaudible). I remember that we were talking about digital – I mean Liberty, not us – they were talking about digital that is representing only the one per cent of the potential commercial business for the future, so this is an area that we need to work on. Concerning the cap, I always said that we are in favour of cost reduction, then there is not a perfect formula to do it but for sure we are ready to take into consideration any kind of sporting regulation that they could help to reduce the costs without touching the performance, because if you reduce the costs and the performance is going down then you have no spectacularisation somehow. So I think this is what I said in the past and what I continue to remark for the future. It’s also important to understand how is the commitment of the so-called small teams because compared to other sports they are not small at all. I think we also need people who are really committed to this sport. They want to work in the profession and they are also well-equipped financially. I think the worst image that Formula One could have is people who are building up a team, they are coming in for two or three years and then they are going out. Those are question that we need to ask of ourselves together with, as Christian said very very well, together with regulations that are helping all of us to reduce the costs.

Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Christian, you have had a couple of brake issues this year which have hurt your race performance. You seem to be on the same brake material as Ferrari; I’m assuming therefore it’s not related to that. I wonder if you could just talk us through that. It’s a bit strange.

CH: We’ve had two issues, one in Bahrain and then one obviously at the re-start in Sochi. Whilst the outcome was the same, the failure was different. In the failure that Max had in Bahrain… it was actually a crack that allowed hot air to blow over a seal on the caliper which then failed and then he lost hydraulic fluid in the caliper itself, so that was an incident within the brake drum. The incident with Daniel was far harder to understand because it was after a safety car so the car had been going slowly, the brake temperatures were all under control and then he obviously had what was an instantaneous failure pretty much at the restart and there’s been an awful lot of work and analysis going into that and we believe we have a solution that we’ve tried and tested hopefully today.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

May 13, 2017
Disparities in FOM payouts, not acceptable but we will wait for liberty…: Bob Fernley

Bob Fernley at FIA press conference on Friday. A Sahara Force India image

PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Today is the FIA Volunteers’ Day and there will be a ceremony later this afternoon on the pit straight to honour their contribution to motor sport. Perhaps a word from you all on the work of the volunteers?

Toto WOLFF: Well, we wouldn’t be able to go racing without the volunteers and it’s something that isn’t so visible to the public that with the many devoted and engaged people, all around the world on the racetracks, they enable us to put on a show, so it’s definitely a good little exercise to do and honour them.

Cyril ABITEBOUL: Nothing much to add. Motor sport is a bit strange in that it’s just a few that get elected to race or even be in the garage but it’s a sport that involves a lot of people, whether in the garage, mechanics, at the factory, but also around the track and taking part with the federations around the world. Yeah, it’s a great opportunity to honour their ongoing commitment.

Robert FERNLEY: Yeah, without doubt they are the unsung heroes of motor racing across the board, not just for Formula One. We must remember that they do great work outside Formula One, which we’re very focused on. I think people forget that weekend-in, weekend-out they’re there, so great honour.

Q: Thank you. Moving back to you Cyril. Good qualifying pace so far this season, but perhaps not unlocking all the race results you might have hoped for. Why is that?

CA: Well, part of that is it’s still a year where we are still in a construction phase. So in talking about construction it’s easier to qualify and extract maximum performance off a given package on one lap, on a short run, which is what we are doing consistently since the start of the season. We know also that we have fragile reliability and that’s really our area of focus. It is hitting us regularly, during races and also during Fridays, in the preparation of the race typically. Usually we have a good group of people who is managing or setting up the car properly for qualifying but when it comes to really managing the car and fixing the issues for a longer run, that’s really down to how reliable we have been over the weekend. So that’s really something that is hitting, which is biting on regular occasions, so that is the area of focus for the time being. We also have a great qualifier in Nico. He’s also clearly leading the way on race pace. Jo has not been very favourite in the conditions… he’s had on many occasions adverse conditions in his weekend. The only weekend he had a clean weekend, which was in Bahrain, he managed to be in Q3. So that is what we are trying to repeat because we think that the car also has a better pace on Sundays, so that’s the target for this weekend.

Q: From which race onwards are you hoping to unlock the full potential of this 2017 Renault engine?

CA: The full potential of the engine is something that will take a number of races with the existing hardware. You know that constant development, that constant improvement… based on the existing hardware there is more to come in performance and that’s really down to how quickly we can fix the reliability issues. I guess that will be down to the introduction of power unit number three. We may or may not change the hardware to extract more power but irrespective of the hardware there will be more power coming that’s for sure. So it’s all down to the engine introduction plan.

Q: You mentioned Jolyon Palmer there, obviously he has had a few difficulties. What are you saying to him behind the scenes and what do you foresee for him for the rest of the season?

CA: Well, the main thing we have done is that we’ve been through what has happened since the start of the season, including the winter test, when we were in Barcelona and he already had difficult conditions to deal with. So, limited mileage over the winter, a number of reliability issues in preparation for the first four races, which has not been helpful, and clearly he has a very talented team-mate, which is clearly showing what the car is capable of. But having said, Nico is not a magician, and that’s what I’m telling him. He has shown that on occasion he has definitely the pace to match his team-mate, so it is on that we are focusing. And we are making sure that he now has a clean weekend so that he can build his confidence, that we can rebuild his confidence in himself.

Q: Robert, double points in every race so far, you’ve got to be happy with the way your 2017 season has started and with both of your drivers appearing to be well and truly on it?

RF: Yeah, from our point of view, after the testing in Barcelona we knew we had a slight performance deficit and it was always going to be down to making sure that we extracted the optimum from the races and the team, the drivers, fantastic job, absolutely superb.

Q: So the big question is can you keep it going? You’re up against some fairly tough opposition in this midfield, not least Cyril. Of course you’ve got Williams to think about, Toro Rosso as well. How important is the update pack you’ve brought here this weekend and what has it given you so far?

RF: I think like all teams we’re looking for direction more than physically upgrading at the moment. It’s the direction that we need to be able to develop for the rest of the season. I think what we have seen so far is very promising and we’ll take it through going forward for the next races. Hopefully Renault’s problems will remain large ones and we can keep going!

Q: Toto, first of all a word on this dramatic looking, updated car that you’ve brought here this weekend. Did it perform according to expectations during the practice sessions?

TW: Yes, so far we are happy with the correlation and the results of the two Friday sessions and the car certainly looks very sophisticated. But it’s the interaction of all those bits that overall should make us achieve a performance gain. But Friday is pretty early days in the weekend. Tomorrow afternoon you’re going to see whether there is a real effect.

Q: Valtteri Bottas won his first race last time out. You’ve had an interest in him for many years, what did you feel personally to see him winning a Formula One grand prix?

TW: I’ve known Valtteri for 10 years so it’s clear that achieving his target to win a race is something special but in my position it’s about the team’s interests and having a Mercedes winner is great. Having a Mercedes challenger for the world championship or even winning a world championship and I’m behind both of them and we’ll be cheering whoever wins.

Q: It was important that he won, with an all-Ferrari front row for that race in Russia. It could have been costly for you in the world championship, when Lewis was clearly having an off day. What did the debrief reveal?

TW: Valtteri had a very good day because he was able to exploit P3, which is probably the best starting position in Sochi and used the slipstream down to Turn One and from thereon controlled the race. Considering that a four-time world champion was close behind him in those last laps, he did a very good job. As for Lewis, he was in traffic. We were a bit marginal with the cooling and that’s why he had a car that was not able to deliver maximum performance at all times. We could see that there were glimpses of performance but if you run into hot air and the car is heating up too much there’s not a lot you can do. From there it’s a difficult situation for the driver and the team and there wasn’t a lot we could do.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Peter Windsor– Motorsport Network) Toto, what about Lewis’ problems in sector three? We heard talk of diff, traction that wasn’t that happy with. What were you able to look at after Russia? I presume there was nothing broken on the car or anything like that, but can you give us more insight into what the problem was for him?

TW: The interaction between the chassis, the suspension and the tyres is new ground for every team. And you need to understand how you make each of those various tyre compounds function. We tried to fix out, we tried to cure a problem that was created in the interaction of those two components by giving different diff settings or by trying to switch the brake balance back and forth. Just to give it a go or give it a try. It is a more fundamental issue. You need to have a car that is stable in the window, that has the basic performance and then translate that into qualifying performance and race performance and if you add to the equation a new compound or various new compounds it becomes a difficult exercise and that is one of the key topics we are looking at the moment.

Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) The FIA has mandated that all driver numbers and driver names are clearly displayed on cars from this race onwards. Looking at it this morning it seems that some teams have embraced it wholly and included it in their new colour schemes and that others have perhaps paid lip service to it. Could all three of you give your opinion on it and whatever you think it’s a good move?

RF: I think it’s a good move from the FIA, probably overdue in all fairness. I think that perhaps some time out, when all the commercial agreements that we currently have, that’s across all the teams, come to an end they should standardize where the numbers go and make sure everything is clear for everybody going forward. At this point I think you have to do the best you can with whatever you have from a commercial agreement and I think all of the teams have tried their very best to embrace it.

TW: Bob just summarized it pretty well. It’s trial and error. We played around with various designs. Some of us like the look of it, some of us don’t. We took a little bit off after P1 and just have the number now. But with all aesthetics, it’s mixed feelings.

CA: Exactly the same. It’s a good move from the FIA. It’s something that maybe should have happened earlier and hopefully they will make sure to standardize. Just like in any other sport, where you know where to find the name and number of any player on the soccer field or anything. That’s the sort of thing where you want to have a standard position, so as mentioned as soon as the sponsorship contracts are falling out you want to make sure to seize the opportunity, that window, to impose what it is should be. Formula One. Formula One should be at the top of the sport in terms of presentation, the standard of presentation, so that’s what should happen sooner rather than later.

RF: Just to add to that, I think it’s the number that is more important element, because now that the drivers have got numbers throughout their career I think the promoters would ideally like to see the number prominent rather than worrying too much about the same, so I think that would be the right move going forward.

Q: (Sven Haidinger – motorsport-total.com) Toto, the Mercedes car is a little bit difficult in terms of the set-up to get it into the right window. Are you missing Nico Rosberg a little bit in terms of that, because Lewis has taken the set-up a couple of time from him and he’s one of the most experienced guys in the team or has been?

TW: Certainly if you have the experience of Nico who has been in the team for a long time it is always helpful, but Valtteri has filled those shoes pretty well. He’s similar to Nico, an engineering-minded driver, and it’s more in those early stages of the season to understand the basic product, the car, the architecture of the car, suspension, kinematics, so I wouldn’t see it as a deficit.

Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) It looks like the UK is heading towards a so-called hard Brexit and that could have serious implications for the Formula One teams based in the UK, especially for the ones with engine suppliers who are based outside the UK, such as Cyril and his customers. With no single and no freedom of movement of EU citizens into and out of the UK, what implications do you forecast it having for you, what contingency plans have you put in place – that in respect of customs reflecting the lead times and recruitment going forward for the 2019 season?

CA: Thank you for the question! We will have to see, because there were already a number of forecasts when Brexit happened that a number of things would happen which have not happened so I don’t think it’s for me to comment on what’s going to happen or not. The main elements will be currency and it has had frankly a positive impact on all of the UK-based teams so in that respect that’s good news for us strangely. We have to see long-term how that evolves because that is not a situation that is sustainable. Then we will have to look at the movement of staff, because clearly we need to attract talent from everywhere around the world and we need to make that the UK remains a place that is welcoming talents from wherever they are. We have lots of movement of staff between France and the UK. That’s something we will look at carefully. When it comes to transfer or goods that is something that is not bothering us, in the sense that the engine, if that’s what you are referring to, are actually leased, the ownership is not passed on to the UK entity and that’s the same with all our customers, so VAT should be neutral in that respect. Obviously we have to be careful but when it comes to be contingency plans, no, we don’t really have a plan as we are building new buildings in Enstone in the UK, we don’t really have a plan to move that we are currently building somewhere else. We are still assuming that people will be reasonable and we trust the UK to protect their industry and motorsport is an important industry for the UK.

TW: Cyril has given us a 360˚ view. There’s nothing to add to that. We are monitoring it. Hopefully it will turn out well. I like to work in the UK and I’d like to continue to work there.

RF: Unfortunately I’m probably a little bit older than these two and I remember when we used to do it before we had the EU, so it’s not an issues and we still do an awful lot of races today where we still go through an awful lot of compliance issues so I don’t really see it as an issue at all.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) A question for Bob really. Some projected figures came out during the week about FOM payouts to teams for 2017. There are no great surprises but yet again your team, despite finishing fourth, seems to be getting less than half than the top three and less than McLaren even. Just some comments on how you see things panning out with the new owners and whether you see any progress being made on redistribution in the future?

RF: I think my position on this is pretty clear. I have been very much a strong voice against these type of things for the last couple of years. But I think what we have to do now is support Liberty and the new owners as they are making noises and definitely looking into trying to address both costs and income distribution. Let’s give them an opportunity, the key thing is to support them going forward. The disparities are not acceptable as far as we are concerned, but as I say I think time will tell.

Q: (Sergio Alvarez – One Magazine) Question for Toto: do you believe the changes in your technical direction may have hindered your understanding of the car? How are you managing the transition in the technical department from Paddy to James Allison?

TW: There are figureheads that are present in the media: some more, some less, that represent the team – but it’s an organisation of 1,000 people – almost 1,000 people – that run a team and especially in the area of tyres, race delivery, race track engineering, the situation is unchanged. We have a great team that is there, that has been in place for many years, that is looking after these components – and I’m extremely happy with how they’ve tackled the situation until now.

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) This is for all three of you, since Fernando Alonso’s announcement to go to the Indy 500 there’s now a debate created between IndyCar and the comparison to F1 and the differences in terms of show, presentation, and as you Mr Fernley said earlier, the presentation, would you be willing to work in depth with the new owners to make a better show for the viewing audience as well as the fans in attendance that come from all over the world to watch the sport in terms of opening up the paddocks more, making it more accessible for the drivers, making it more accessible for the pits. We saw that they bought down a two-seater car and are giving tours now. Would you be willing to do the same for viewing fans that are coming to the race?

RF: Having done both IndyCars and Formula One I can speak from a reasonable amount of experience on that. IndyCars is a fantastic show, especially the Indy 500, there’s no question of that. Can we get more access? I think we can. I think we can learn a little bit from IndyCars but overall we are Formula One and we’ve got to keep that identity as well. I think that Liberty understand that. I think they’re working to getting it more inclusive but, on the other hand, keeping it where it needs to be – which is slightly exclusive as well. So it’s a balancing act and I’m sure they’ll do a great job. They have all the expertise to be able to look at that.

Toto?

TW: Yes, the Indy 500 is one of the great races and the concept is completely different to what we have. The oval, per se, gives different access and it’s a one-a-year event. If you look at the IndyCar series overall, they’re far away from where we are. Having said that, I think Fernando going to Indy is a great opportunity for him, it’s an opportunity to create some good news around the team again, and they need that, and it has given Formula One more exposure in the US, so overall I think it is a good exercise.

Cyril?

CA: Yeah, I would agree that there is definitely lots to learn from other sports. To a certain degree we tend to, y’know, we’re not necessarily all very old but we still spend quite a lot of time in Formula One, so having some people showing us what can done outside – whether it’s new owners, new management but also F1 drivers getting experience outside F1 and returning to Formula One, I think it’s great. We need to constantly benchmark. We are in a competition – not just in Formula One but Formula One is in a competition against other sports properties – whether motorsports or other forms of sports – because that’s where all sponsors, all carmakers, all fans will look. They are benchmarking us, even if they don’t realise they benchmark: they always have multiple choices when it comes to looking at a programme, buying tickets… they cannot follow all the sports so we have to make sure to remain at the top of the offer. And that’s great, to finally have the opportunity of a fresh breathe of new air coming and influencing us – but as mentioned by Bob, we need to keep our identity. I think this exercise will kick off under the influence of all these new sorts of people: what is the core identity of Formula One? That will be an exciting exercise to do, starting with, for instance, engine topics.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Primary question to Toto and then a follow-up question to the other two. Toto, there’s a very strong rumour, or suggestions, that Mercedes-Benz is going to offer some form of technical assistance to Honda. Would you care to comment on that please. And then to the other two, should such a concept of one winning engine manufacturer helping another one, should that be allowed in Formula One.

TW: At that stage I wouldn’t want to comment.

You’re not excluding it then?

TW: I’m not commenting.

Cyril?

CA: I cannot comment on a no comment.

Bob?

RF: I’ll comment! As a team that’s not only paid for its engines but contributed to the development of them I would certainly be very negative towards sharing that technology with another team that it a competitor of ours.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobild Motorsport) A question to Toto. Is there a possibility or, let me say, how big is the possibility that next year drivers, by example Fernando Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne, driving a Mercedes engine without moving to your team?

TW: What are the options? They are driving a Honda engine like it is today and it looks like this is the current situation or different engines. I think it’s important for Formula One… Honda is important for Formula One. It’s a massive and very successful company and I have no doubt they will eventually be where they expect themselves to be. So, I don’t think they are going to drive a Mercedes engine.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) This is for Toto. Bit more lighthearted. You and your fellow Austrian Niki Lauda seem to be the TV face of Mercedes AMG. You’ve known each other a long time. I wonder if ever you’ve ever had any disagreements with him on strategy or whatever – if you could let us in on any of the little disagreements you might have had in the course of your association.

TW: Well, we’ve been doing that for quite a while. We had a certain period at the beginning of our relationship where we were both thrown into the team, where we needed to find a way of making decisions in a committee and not alone like we’ve both done our whole lives. But since then our relationship has contributed in a good way, I believe. He’s a completely different personality. For me, he’s the personification of pressure – and pressure’s good sometimes. He certainly has a lot of experience and has been around for many years and I enjoy working with him. Niki says he has no friends – but when we won one of the last races, we were on a flight together and in the plane he had an emotional moment and said he hasn’t got any friends – but he has a half-friend now. So I consider myself our-performing some others. He’s somebody that I value and enjoy being around. Disagreements? Permanent disagreements for the benefits of the company. We are able to come into discussions with two different standpoints and walk out with one – and that’s good.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Toto, just building on what Dieter said, in this new open world of disclosing things to the media, which Liberty Media say that they’re in favour of. Can you really not elaborate, in the name of openness, about what you’re doing with Honda? The work that I’m sure many thousands or millions of fans in Formula One would wish to know, which in a sense, strikes me as quite straightforward, to be upfront about the work that you guys might be doing with them in developing their engines.

TW: I understand your standpoint. We are not doing anything for Honda. That is the current status quo. So, unless that situation changes, I don’t want to contribute to rumours out there, that are false and I think are damaging for Honda and create hardened standpoints from teams or from other stakeholders. We’ll see what happens.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

May 12, 2017

Arjun Maini second fastest in Free Practice: GP3

Barcelona 12 May 2017: Nirei Fukuzumi has nabbed the top spot in the opening free practice session of the 2017 GP3 Series this afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, leading the way for almost the entire session with a lap of 1:35.933 despite a last minute challenge from Arjun Maini and Marcos Seibert.

With the session opening under scorching conditions the lessons learned at the recent 2 day test, held in much colder conditions, were not going to help as much as was hoped, leading the entire grid to head out onto the circuit as soon as the lights went green. Ryan Tveter and Maini set the initial pace before Fukuzumi grabbed the top spot just 8 minutes into the session, holding on all the way to the flag.

With the top 4 places held by the Honda development driver and his ART Grand Prix teammates, attention turned to race simulations in preparation for tomorrow’s Race 1 for the majority of the session. It was only in the final 5 minutes that the drivers were let off the leash, with Tveter and Niko Kari pushing hard but struggling in the final sector.

With Fukuzumi more than four tenths ahead of George Russell the rest of the field was effectively fighting for P2, with the competition heating up as the clock wound down: Leonardo Pulcini grabbed 2nd with 2 minutes remaining, only to be usurped as the chequered flag dropped by first Seibert and then Maini on the last lap of the day.

Despite the Japanese driver’s strong push there were 13 drivers within a second of his best time, suggesting the fight for pole position in tomorrow morning’s qualifying session will be as fierce as ever.

Free Practice Classification

	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1:35.933	17
2.	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:36.286	20
3.	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1:36.293	18
4.	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1:36.352	17
5.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1:36.382	17
6.	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1:36.386	17
7.	Niko Kari	Arden International	1:36.431	17
8.	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1:36.441	14
9.	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1:36.455	17
10.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:36.517	20
11.	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1:36.521	18
12.	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1:36.619	18
13.	Kevin Jörg	Trident	1:36.669	16
14.	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1:37.047	17
15.	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:37.254	14
16.	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1:37.488	18
17.	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1:37.570	20
18.	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1:37.606	19
19.	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1:38.227	16

eom/GP3 release

May 12, 2017

Just a bunch of small things, all added up: Hamilton on what went wrong at Sochi

PART TWO: DRIVERS – Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Marcus, Sauber’s announced an engine partnership with Honda, are you pleased with the Honda deal and does it push you towards a long-term commitment with the team?

Marcus ERICSSON: I think looking at it right now, it’s obviously not maybe the best decision because Honda is struggling quite a lot at the moment but I think in the longer term for the team, I think it can be a very clever decision because I’m sure Honda sooner or later will get it together – but yeah, let’s wait and see. At the moment, it’s maybe not the best one.

Q: And what impact does it have on this season in terms of preparation for next year. Does it impact the way you approach things? Does it impact you as drivers?

ME: No, not really, I wouldn’t say. We have the engine we have at the moment and we need to maximise our season and focus on that. And then, as every team, at some point you need to start looking at the next season and focus the development for next year but at the moment all our focus is on this season and trying to catch up that midfield group.

Q: Lewis, you’ve been very consistent for so long, it seemed odd that Sochi went the way it did – have you figured out what happened?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was just a bunch of small things all added up in one pot. Nothing in particular, no single one thing that was bigger than another, that just led us in slightly the wrong direction. Should be better this weekend.

Q: The team was talking about the difficulty of getting these tyres into a particular window. Is that a contributing factor? Is it less likely to be a factor this weekend, for example?

LH: It’s a tyre issue in the sense that the tyre’s working range is quite small, so yeah, the whole weekend I generally wasn’t in the right window with it.

Q: Obviously if you couldn’t win, it was a good job that your team-mate Valtteri Bottas managed to finish ahead of Vettel. How pleased were you personally for Valtteri and what do you expect from him now that he’s got that first win under his belt?

LH: Well, I’ve said from the beginning of the season that he was in competition, so it’s no surprise that he would eventually get a win. But I was actually very happy. You saw at the end of the race I could at least be happy and share in the glory of the team beating the Ferraris still and keeping us in the lead of the Constructors’ Championship. I was proud of what we had achieved – I just wish that I could have backed him up, in the sense of getting a 1-2, but we can work on that maybe this weekend.

Q: Max, it’s 12 months since you sat in this room, having just made the switch to the Red Bull team and what a weekend that turned out to be for you. Your learning curve has been more or less vertical since then, but I wonder in what areas do you feel that you’ve made real improvement, from 12 months ago to now?

Max VERSTAPPEN: Difficult to say…

LH: You’ve got your driving licence now!

MV: I already had that back then.

LH: No you didn’t!

MV: Five months already.

LH: I was saying he’s got his driving licence now. It’s a big step.

MV: Yeah, I think it’s just general experience, both in life and in racing but nothing major, I would say, in terms of driving the car faster or anything. It all adds up to little things and if you feel better in the car, you understand the car better.

Q: What about the way you deal with these guys and particularly the ones at the front?

MV: Well yeah, you’re driving more amongst them compared to what I was doing before but that was always the aim and the target once I moved into Formula One. Natural process, I guess.

Q: So we know you have a heavily updated car here. Can you put in context for us just how different it is and what were the key areas for you that needed to be addressed in how it handles?

MV: I think, first of all, everybody is bringing quite a few updates. Hopefully our updates will bring us a little bit more to the front but I think in every area we can always improve so I think that’s what we are aiming to do with the car. Yeah, you see a few differences on the car and hopefully we can close the gap a little bit here already and then go on from there.

Q: And in terms of what you wanted to fix and how it handles?

MV: Every area, it needs to be faster everywhere.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, you’ve often been referred to as the Jedi Knight of F1 and it is Star Wars – I refer to you as the Jedi Knight of F1 – and this is the month that we celebrate Star Wars so the question to you is what colour Lifesaver would you chose? This is a very important question because it’s going to go on social media because it determines what side of the force you are on?

LH: Well, firstly it’s kind of exciting to have a lot of different questions, much nicer different questions! I want to be purple but I’m a huge fan of Star Wars, obviously good friends with George [Lucas] and a huge admirer or what he created, Star Wars. I think it’s frigging amazing, excited for the… seen every one. I’m excited to see what comes next.

Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.net) To all of you: Kimi Raikkonen drove half of the Russian Grand Prix knowing he had Valtteri Bottas behind and not Lewis Hamilton. How important is it for you to know what driver is behind you? Do you drive differently, knowing it’s one or another?

ME: No. Usually you know who is behind you if you’re in a close fight with them. If there’s someone who is not that close then it doesn’t really matter but I would say there are some drivers who are maybe more aggressive than others but then in the end we all respect each other and race in a good way.

LH: I always know who’s behind me but it doesn’t really make any difference.

MV: Yeah, I think it shouldn’t make a difference and if you don’t know, look at your pit board. It’s standing on the pit board.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, this is obviously the first year you’ve come back to Spain since your crash last year with Nico. I was just wondering firstly what you drew from that experience as a driver and as a person and secondly of the subsequent reports that you threatened to… or you offered to quit Mercedes after the crash? So did you offer to quit Mercedes after the crash with Nico last year in Spain?

LH: I did not.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) And secondly what did you learn as a person and as a driver from that experience?

LH: Not much really, it was a racing incident. I’ve had lots of crashes during my career and that was just another one. We got through it pretty smoothly or as smooth as it could be, I would say, and yeah, went on and won many more races after that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, starting with you Lewis, you said that the main problem you had in the last race was to take the tyre in the window temperature and here you have the hardest tyres that Pirelli supplies in Formula One. Do you think it can be an issue here?

LH: The tyres are definitely… there seems to be quite a small working window and it’s a new tyre for us also. I think we are all learning as we go from race to race and I think for some cars perhaps it works immediately than for others. There’s different preparations. If you look at Bahrain, for example, the Red Bulls drove as slow as they could on the laps to prepare for qualifying but still had the tyres ready whereas the Ferraris were flat out through the warm-up laps so there’s a different approach for everyone. It’s a new tyre which is exciting. They are very very hard tyres so a hard, safe tyre basically. It’s going to be interesting this weekend to see how they work.

MV: I think in general in Sochi it’s not a lot of grip and then combined with a tricky warm-up, it just makes it a bit more difficult. It was quite difficult to get the tyres in the window and you could see a lot of build laps or second timed laps which were faster so I think that will be a little bit different here where the tarmac is a bit more rough so harder on the tyres. But yeah, we have quite hard compounds so we’ll see. I think in general you always try to go for the softer compounds, also here but yeah, I think the warm-up is still critical.

ME: I agree with the guys but the only thing really apart from that I could say is that I think this weekend we could probably live with another step softer. I think the hard tyre is not really useable. I think a supersoft for qualifying would be quite nice.

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Max, there was a question about there was some disappointment in Sochi about the race and there wasn’t much overtaking. Do you disagree with that, do you feel that there is better racing, at least in the last four races, that there has been a better show for everyone to watch now?

MV: Compared to…?

Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Compared to Sochi.

MV: You mean last year? This year’s better racing compared to… Yeah, I was a bit surprised that there was only one overtaking (manoeuvre) in Sochi. Yeah, it’s just harder to follow with the cars. And then with tyres which have a long life, only one pit stop and I think you could have done no pit stops actually in Sochi. It makes it all a bit harder. I think in Bahrain where you’re struggling a bit more with the tyres you could see there were five cars behind each other, challenging a bit more so yeah, I think we need to be at least a bit softer on the tyres or something to get a bit more exciting racing again but then on the other hand the cars are wider so they create a bigger wake around them, once you are behind one another you lose a lot of downforce especially with the higher cornering speeds we had. It all makes it a bit more tricky.

Q: (Mark Tisshaw – Autocar) Lewis, what do you think of the progress Max has made over the past 12 months?

LH: Pretty bad, to be honest! He burst into Formula One, obviously did an amazing job and I remember last year the great race that he had when he moved to Red Bull and he’s remained a strong component. He’s obviously grown, he’s got a long way to go, still 18 still?

MV: 19

LH: So he’s got an incredible career up ahead of him.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, last year (here) obviously was a massive talking point. Have you spoken to Nico since he’s retired? I know that you share the same Monaco apartment (block) but I just wondered if you’ve bumped into each other just to have a chat or anything like that?

LH: We have not. I think that’s the… actually the one time I’ve seen him I was running through the streets in London. It’s kind of a strange… running from Covent Garden all the way down to the Thames and the Thames down to Battersea kind of area and back up near Parliament and I was just running on a random street and someone started running behind me and then there was a crowded sidewalk but someone started running behind me and I looked back and it’s… Nico’s obviously seen me on the road as he’s going through somewhere in London and he’s jumped out (of the car) and run alongside me so we stopped and had a chat for a bit there. That’s the first time that I’ve seen him since…

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Who was quicker?

LH: Well, he was trying to catch up so…

Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – The Paddock Magazine) Max, Lewis said in China that he and other drivers still learn from you and the way you drive in wet conditions, but what can you learn from Lewis in normal conditions?

MV: I think it’s a bit tricky when you’re not in the exact same team because then you have a lot more information, but still if you see some races, some overtakes, some starts, some shit races, what happened during the race, whatever, tyre management, you always look to your competitors as well, what they are doing, what they are doing differently in terms of lines throughout the whole weekend. You always try to learn something, every single weekend.

Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportwerld) Max, could you tell me something about your feelings, coming to this Grand Prix after a year? There’s a lot of Dutch people at the side of the track, thousands I think. Does that affect you in any way, tensionwise, that sort of thing?

MV: I don’t think it did last year. I think last year was more intense. It’s always good to come back here but it’s 2017 now, 2016 has gone. Of course it was a very positive weekend but now I just want to look ahead and do my race.

Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Max, last year you earned the title of race winner in F1, that’s a title for life. Can you say something about that and did it change your status in F1?

MV: It was nice but I want to win more races than just that one. It’s nice but that’s not what I’m here for, for one single victory. I want more.

Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis you said in Russia that it was a few things that came together, nothing in particular. Do you have confidence this weekend that you won’t have those same problems and just secondly, is it nice having Roscoe here and is Coco here as well and does it kind of keep you grounded and do you enjoy having them around during race weekends?

LH: I think coming in to this weekend I think we definitely have a better understanding… a good understanding of what went wrong on our side of the garage and there’s been a huge amount of analysis as there always is from race to race. I think we’ve definitely grown from the experience, both having a win, having a fast car and obviously having a car that struggled in so many areas. I definitely think we are better equipped now but I can’t really say it’s going to be better this weekend. I assume it will be but there are lots of different challenges this weekend with new upgrades for everyone. But we’ll be doing a lot of work tomorrow to get the car in the right place. I’m always on the move so it’s great to be able to have your animal, pet with you and I’m sure… this one here is stressing a little bit about the fact that I’ve got the dog in here but…

MV: He’s sleeping.

LH: Yes, he’s sleeping but I thought that… I don’t think anyone in the whole of history has probably brought their dog to the press conference so I thought I’d try and do something new.

Q: (Giles Richards – Guardian) Lewis, can you tell us whether you think Valtteri is a credible threat to you in the battle for the World Championship this year and secondly, whether you’ve had any discussion with the team about when they might back one or the other of you to go for the Drivers’ championship?

LH: I’ve not had a chat about the backing off because there’s no need to. And of course he’s a credible competitor, he was when he joined. I think it was many of you and perhaps people who are fans, whatever, came with preconceived ideas of how he was going to perform and he’s proved everyone wrong so fair play to him and he’s going to remain a competitor through the rest of the year so the fight will go on and we’ve stated our relationship with a really great foundation I think, a respectful foundation and I think that will continue.

Q: (Iolande Skinner – Motorsport Monday) Marcus has the change to the Honda engine for next year… how’s that affected you mentally? Are you feeling more motivated or less motivated? What effect has that had on you?

ME: First of all, I only have a contract for this year so I have to wait and see for that but like I said before, for the team, I think in the longer term it’s a good decision. Shorter term, I think we have to wait and see how Honda performs for the rest of the year, to be certain what Sauber gets for the beginning of next year. But yeah, for me, all my focus now is on this season. We have the Ferrari power unit that we need to make the most of and yeah, develop our car as good as we can and try and make as good results as possible.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

May 11, 2017