Vijay Mallya on Monza Team Principal, Vijay Mallya, celebrates the strong showing in Spa and targets more points in Monza.
Vijay, one of the best results in the team’s history in Belgium – you must be pleased?
VJM: “Spa has always been a special place for us – we scored our very first points and podium there in 2009, and this year’s race didn’t disappoint us either. We were strong from the first practice session through to Sunday afternoon thanks to an excellent all-round team performance. We could have been on the podium had some circumstances played out differently, but when you earn 22 points in one race weekend there is no reason to complain at all.”
The team has scored 89 points since Monaco and is sitting in fourth in the constructors’ championship. What next for Sahara Force India this season?
VJM: “We need to keep working hard because every race between now and the end of the year will be crucial. To be fourth in the championship is a fantastic feeling for the team, but it will mean nothing unless we are in this position after Abu Dhabi. The battle in the midfield is getting closer: the gaps are getting smaller and the margins of error disappearing. We know some tracks will work really well for us and we will keep pushing hard all the way.”
We now get to the final European race of the season – in Monza’s Temple of Speed…
VJM: “The Italian Grand Prix is one of the best races of the season. It has all the ingredients that make Formula One special. We saw a huge turnout of fans in Belgium last week and I’m sure the tifosi will help create a fantastic atmosphere this weekend too. Monza is a track that rewards top speed and pushes the engine to its limit. Given our competitive form in Spa, I’m confident we can keep up the momentum this weekend.”
Nico on Monza Nico Hulkenberg gets ready for magical Monza following his season-best result in Spa.
Nico: “Monza is a great place to go racing. There are so many different destinations on the calendar and there is something special about each one of them, but Monza is legendary. It’s a unique track, with very high speeds and low downforce. The setting in the park of Monza is beautiful: the moment you drive through the gates, you feel all the history of the place coming at you. The tifosi, the Italian fans, add to this combination and create a fantastic vibe.
“Monza is just on the outskirts of Milan, which is a very interesting place, but during a race weekend you’re just too busy to go and explore. The parties on Sunday night are not too bad, though! We go to Italy at the end of the summer and the weather is usually still quite hot. Great weather, great fans, great food – it all adds up to make a very cool race.
“Few tracks push the car to the limit as Monza does. There is no margin for error in the braking zones and every mistake costs you time. In terms of set-up, you need to strike a balance between high speed on the straights and downforce in the corners, but the focus is firmly on top speed. You also need good traction, to make the most of the long straights. We have been doing well on these sort of tracks, so I expect us to be competitive and fighting for points.”
Sergio on Monza
Sergio Perez looks forward to the high-speed challenge of Monza.
Sergio: “After a month off on holiday, Spa was the best way to get back into action. We had a very positive weekend, an exciting race and we’re now fourth in the championship!
“Italy is one of my favourite places: the people are very warm and welcoming, and they’re absolutely crazy for Formula One. The passion you see from the Italian fans reminds me of the atmosphere we saw in Mexico. There’s so much support; everyone is chanting and waving flags and there are so many people asking us for a photo when we arrive at or leave the track.
“I have great memories from Monza and it’s where I’ve had some of my best races. When I was racing in F3, I had the best weekend of my career there: I started 14th in both races and went on to win both. I scored a podium there in Formula One and I’ve always had a special relationship with the track. It’s not just what happens at the venue – I have a lot of good friends living nearby and it’s just a very enjoyable experience.
“As a fan of our sport, I know Monza has a special place in the history of Formula One. It’s one of the circuits where Formula One should always race. It’s so incredibly fast and the key to a quick lap is to be good under braking and have good traction out of the corners. You brake really hard at the end of the straights and the car moves a lot: you run with very little wing and having a good balance is very important.
“You feel the lightness of the car in every corner because you’ve got so little aero load and it’s even hard to keep the steering wheel level on the straights. The two Lesmo corners are crucial: you need to be stable under braking and control your traction – get wheelspin out of the corner and you’ll destroy your tyres. Then you have the Parabolica: it lost a little of its challenge with the tarmac run-off but you still need to be very precise and use the very last inch of track in this interesting corner.”
Nico Rosberg closed the points gap to title rival Lewis Hamilton with a comfortable Belgian Grand Prix win but the championship-leading Briton limited the damage with a sparkling drive from P21 to third and a podium finish behind Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The race began in dramatic fashion. Rosberg made a good getaway from pole to take the lead but Max Verstappen making his first career front-row start began slowly from P2. He was passed by the fast-starting Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, but Red Bull driver Verstappen attempted to recover by taking the inside line into La Source.
Vettel though was taking a tight line on the outside of Raikkonen and there was contact, with Raikkonen spinning. Verstappen too picked up damage and all three went backwards. Elsewhere Carlos Sainz picked up a puncture and retired from the race and incident that brought out the Virtual Safety Car, with Rosberg leading from Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.
When racing resumed again there was more drama as Renault’s Kevin Magnussen crashed out. The Dane lost the rear end of his car on the run up to Raidillon and spun off track, hitting the barriers hard with the right rear three-quarter of his car.
It was a heavy impact but Magnussen was quickly out of the car and was helped away from the crash site. The smash brought out the Safety Car and when it became clear the barriers would take some time to repair, the race was red-flagged.
As drivers were disadvantaged byt the instances or took the chance to pit under the safety car, some drivers profited greatly. The two most in receipt of good fortune were McLarens Fernando Alonso and Hamilton. Both had started at the back of the field due to penalties for power unit changes but as the cars halted in pit lane following the red flag, Alonso was in fourth place and Hamilon fith. Ahead, Rosberg was still in first place, but Ricciardo had moved past Hulkenberg who had pitted under the Safety Car.
The stoppage was a boon for Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver had started fifth but had hit debris from the first corner incident and damaged his front wing. Under the red flag his team were able to change his front wing and Ricciardo took on new softs.
When the rolling start under the SC took place Rosberg and Ricciardo comfortably held position but Hamilton was on the march, quickly passing Alonso and Hulkenberg to take P3.
As the front three then worked through their strategies, Hamilton eventually closed to within a second of Ricciardo. The Briton needed another stop, however, and took on a final set of medium tyres on lap 32. He attempted to reel Ricciardo in but the 18-second gap to the Australian was too large and Hamilton settled for third place behind the Red Bull man. The Briton’s climb from P21 to P3 still set a new record for places gained at a Belgian Grand Prix.
Ahead Rosberg was comfortable. For the bulk of the race he maintained a healthy gap to Ricciardo and with no mistakes made he crossed the line for his sixth win of the season and his 20th career grand prix victory with 14 seconds in hand.
“It’s been great of course to get the win today on this special track, it’s a legendary track,” said Rosberg. “But Lewis starting from the back made it a lot easier this weekend and I’m sure he’s going to be back in Monza and it’s going to be a big battle as always.”
Behind the top three it was an excellent afternoon for Force India, with Nico Hulkenberg fourth and tea-mate Sergio Perez fifth. The Silverstone-based team scored 22 points to move into fourth place in the Constructors’ standings, ahead of Williams whose drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished eighth and tenths respectively. Force India now have 103 points to Williams’ 101.
Sixth place in the race went to Vettel who recovered well from the lap one incident, passing Verstappen, Bottas and Massa in the closing stages. Alonso, meanwhile, enjoyed an excellent outing, soldiering through to seventh place.
Versatappen who had drawn a sell-out crowd packed with Ducth fans to Spa, had a rollercoaster afternoon. After the start incidents he dropped to P16 before beginning a fight back.
That saw him chased by Raikkonen though and the pair clashed several times during the course of the race’s first third, leading Raikkonen to brand the youngster’s defence of his position “ridiculous”.
Raikkonen got the better of the Dutchman eventually, however, with strategy playing the Finn’s way. He eventually claimed ninth place behind Bottas and ahead of Massa who took the final point.
2016 Belgian Grand Prix – Race 1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 laps – 1h44m51.058s 2 2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing + 14.113 2 3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 27.634 3 4 Nico Hulkenberg Force India + 35.907 3 5 Sergio Perez Force India + 40.660 3 6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari + 45.394 3 7 Fernando Alonso McLaren + 59.445 2 8 Valtteri Bottas Williams + 60.151 2 9 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari + 61.109 4 10 Felipe Massa Williams + 65.873 3 11 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing + 71.138 4 12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas + 73.877 3 13 Romain Grosjean Haas + 76.474 3 14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso + 87.097 3 15 Jolyon Palmer Renault + 93.165 4 16 Esteban Ocon Manor + 1 lap 3 17 Felipe Nasr Sauber + 1 lap 3 18 Kevin Magnussen Renault DNF 0 19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber DNF 1 20 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso DNF 0 21 Jenson Button McLaren DNF 1 22 Pascal Wehrlein Manor DNF 0
Nashik, 28 August 2016: Team Mahindra Adventure’s Gaurav Gill and long-time co-driver Musa Sherif won the Rally of Maharashtra for the sixth time, winning the Round 2 of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) which concluded at Nashik on Sunday. Gaurav and Musa clocked 52min 8sec for the win.
Gill was fastest in four of the six stages and took a commanding lead of 1min 4sec over Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajgopal. Kolkata driver Amittrajit Ghosh along with navigator Ashwin Naik, who were the winners of the first round at Coimbatore, could only finish third here timing 53min 59sec, almost two minutes adrift of the toppers. Ghosh’s said, he had punctures in SS 1,3 and 4.
In the Indian Rally Championship class (IRC), Abhilash PG and co-driver Srikanth Gowda took the overall win clocking 55min 20sec. Suraj Kute and navigator Shamim Khan came second in 1min 7sec while Amol Satoskar and co-driver Dinesh S were third clocking 1min 13sec.
Dr Bikku Babu won the INRC 2000 class, with Milen George calling the pace notes as the Kerala duo clocked 54min 33sec. Bangalore pair, Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil Pai) finished just a second behind to take the second place.
Switching to a new format under RRPM promoters, the Rally of Maharashtra this year was held in a one-day format with three Special Stages run in two loops. The Special Stage distance was only 70km and along with liaision the entire rally covered almost 400km. SS1 which doubled up as SS4 in the second run, is the new physical stage this year. It took the competitors through a narrow tarmac road with hardly any run-off area and it tested the drivers concentration. According to Musa, it was a very technical stage that helped bring in all the aspects of a rally stage. The consistent drizzle made the roads quite slippery making it more challenging for the drivers.
The next round of the INRC will be held in Gurgaon on September 17 and 18.
Nico, many congratulations. Was that session as smooth on the inside as it looked from where we were sitting?
Nico ROSBERG: No, we had a difficult weekend up to now, especially this morning. We were seriously off the pace on one lap, so it really wasn’t so easy coming into qualifying. But we got the job done in the end. We really made quite a few changes on the car coming into qualifying and we found the right way. It all came together and it was feeling good, so I’m very pleased about that one.
Congratulations. Max, coming on to you, this is you first ever front-row start and you become the youngest every driver to start on the front row of the grid for a grand prix. Just 0.1s behind Nico, do you think pole position was on today?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I mean, you can always do a better job. But also I think also Nico could have done a better lap; it’s always when you put everything together. But I think in the end to be so close to them on a track with some long straights, we can be very pleased with that. The whole weekend has been very smooth, even though I had some little issues this morning. From there on the mechanics did a great job and in qualifying the car was working really well, as you could see in sector two. I’m just very pleased to be second here in front of my fans, it’s just a great motivation when you see them next to the track.
Congratulations to you. Kimi, how is the car performing this morning, it looked like there were some nervous moments in Q2 when you went back out for a second run?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No, it was our plan. There wasn’t really anything odd going on. Obviously in the last qualifying I ran wide in the first try and that wasn’t ideal. But the second run was pretty good, but comparing to my Q2 lap I lost a few tenths in the last chicane, so obviously the pole position was there, so it was a bit disappointing because obviously once we are close by there it would have been nice to get it. But tomorrow is the race and I think if we compare it to the previous few races we have to be satisfied with where we are after qualifying.
Thank you Kimi. Coming back to you Nico: you’re on pole, your main championship rival will be starting from the back tomorrow, just give us your thoughts going into the race?
NR: Well, happy to be on pole but the only thing is it’s going to be a very challenging race, because the tyres are extremely difficult out there this weekend and strategy and everything, it’s going to be very, very interesting. I think we’re going to see a bit of everything, let alone with Max being on supersoft and Kimi on soft. Is that the case? Yeah, Kimi on soft. There are going to be a whole load of things going on. It’s definitely not going to be an easy one.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Nico, you said a moment ago that you had a few set-up problems yesterday. Can you elaborate on what they were and what you did to resolve them?
NR: We just weren’t quick, because it’s very, very hot out there and because the Pirelli pressures are very, very high for this weekend and so it was just a bit of a different world out there and we really had to change a lot of things and adapt but great to see how we managed to turn it around and get there eventually, just in time for qualifying, because even just this morning in FP3 we were quite a bit off the pace still.
Thanks Nico. Max, coming to you, what does it mean to you to break this 55-year record that had belonged to Ricardo Rodriguez, to be the youngest driver to get a front-row start?
MV: To be honest, not that much. I’m just very happy to be on the front row in Spa in front of all my fans. I mean, it’s great to break a record but I want to break other records.
Thank you Max. Kimi, just your thoughts, a few more thoughts please going into tomorrow’s race, because you have opted for more supersoft tyres than any of the other front-running teams, do you think that will compromise you?
KR: No, it shouldn’t. You never know what will happen tomorrow, but ideally we should be just fine. Tomorrow will tell but obviously it’s probably more tricky than anyone expected, because the conditions are not exactly normal Spa conditions. It’s a bit tricky with the tyres, but it’s the same for everybody and I think what we have is enough for what we want to do, so it should be fine.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) For Max, how frustrating was it this morning knowing that there’s tens of thousands of Dutch people and not be able to drive?
MV: I think it was even more frustrating for myself knowing that I couldn’t get the laps in. Of course it’s great to drive in front of your fans, to show yourself – but I couldn’t get my references in for qualifying. But luckily it was not a big issue and we solved it in time. From there on it was just a very good qualifying.
Max, do you think you could have found more pace in qualifying, had you been able to run this morning?
MV: That’s always very difficult to say. I think it just gives you a better reference straight away. On the other hand, we should be on our limits quite easily and I think after one run in qualifying it was there again. So maybe, maybe not.
Q: (Oana Popoiou – F1 Zone) A question for Kimi. Ferrari seems to be back to a better shape this weekend, can you tell us what is different from the previous races?
KR: I have to say, like I said earlier, it’s nice to be so close but obviously we’d rather be on pole position. I thought we had a good chance. I lost some time in the last chicane but… these conditions, it’s very hot, it’s tricky with the tyres for everybody… I don’t know. If we would know, it would be much easier to be at least in this position always. It has changed quite a few times this year, depending on circuits and conditions, so… who knows?
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Max. You start on supersoft tyres and your team-mate with soft tyres. We knew this weekend the supersoft does not permit too many laps. What is the strategy exactly you are planning?
MV: To start on the supersoft and then see where we end up after a few laps. We have some different strategies out there but I think at the end of the day, yeah, I have to box a bit earlier – but after this there are a lot of laps to go and we’ll see what happens.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Max, why in the first place did you not try it on soft in Q2? Didn’t you have trust to do it?
MV: Because I decided, together with the team, that I wanted to run the supersoft. I think that’s the best strategy to go into tomorrow – but we’ll see how it pays off.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, how crucial is the first stint of the race for the result? There seems to be different kinds of compounds for the top drivers.
KR: Obviously the start and the first laps is very important in every race. I don’t think it will decide what happens for the whole race. It will be quite a tricky race for everybody with the tyres and with the conditions. It’s not going to be very easy but hopefully we make the right choices when it comes and get the best out of it – but for sure it’s not going to be very easy.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport / Auto Action) Following up on what Kimi was talking about, for Nico and Kimi, how do you see the start playing out? Very short run down to the beginning but the guy behind you has very sticky tyres.
NR: I’m feeling good about it. Starting first. Usually you can manage to keep first position all the way up the hill but yeah, of course, need to get a good run through Eau Rouge but it will be OK.
Kimi?
KR: I don’t think there is an awful lot of different on the start between the tyres. Theirs is maybe a little bit better with the supersoft but as long as we do a proper start it should be fine.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) We all know about Eau Rouge and how exciting it is but also that circumstances change each year. Which is the hairiest corner on the circuit for you all this year?
NR: The hairiest is maybe turn 10, turn 10 is pretty challenging because if you run a little bit further out and you get onto the Astroturf it can flick you off into the tyre barrier so that’s one of the toughest ones.
MV: I agree.
KR: Every corner can go wrong but Eau Rouge has been less of a challenge for some years but I think in the race it might become a bit more tricky again. Overall, I think there are a lot of nice places – corners – here.
Q: (Walter Koster – Saarbrucken Zeitung) Nico, pole number 28, do you regret that your teammate has not fought with you and therefore is this pole less important? I know, pole is pole.
NR: I’m very happy because it was a battle out there, everybody behind was very very close and I managed to get the lap and get the pole so I’m definitely very pleased with that one. That’s it.
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Kimi and Max; Kimi, you’re again just behind Max Verstappen. It seems like you spend a lot of time this year looking at his back. Do you know how to overtake?
KR: Who knows in the first corner but it’s a normal race and we will see what happens? Try and make a good start and go from there.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Kimi, in the first outing in Q3 you had been on the gravel I think in turn 14; did that compromise your last run in terms of taking risks?
KR: Not really, obviously it would have more easy if I hadn’t run out. The lap was also very good, the first one but really in the last chicane I got a bit of understeer and lost a couple of tenths compared to my Q2 lap. For sure we had a chance to put it on pole and I guess it would have been more easy not going off in the first run and having a decent lap there but that’s how it is.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Nico, it looks like Red Bull and Ferrari are closer on this track. Do you have this impression? Do you think during the 44 laps, considering the tyre question in this Grand Prix, they can even challenge Mercedes more?
NR: Definitely, it’s a very different situation out there with the temperature and the tyre pressures that we have and they are very close, yeah, and so tomorrow it’s going to be a very very demanding race against both of them. I think the best long run for now is from Red Bull on Friday. I think.
Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) Nico, starting from pole in Germany and Hungary as well, you lost the first position quite early. Any negative thoughts or feelings because of that?
NR: It’s even shorter to turn one here so that’s a very good thing.
Rosberg after taking pole at Spa on Saturday. An FIA image
Nico Rosberg took his sixth pole position of the 2016 Formula One season at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Max Verstappen who became the youngest driver to claims a front-row start at a grand prix. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third and will line up on the second row with team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
With championship leader Lewis Hamilton set to start at the back of the grid due to penalties incurred following a host of power unit changes, Rosberg put himself in the perfect position to claw back some of the 19-point deficit that exists between him and his Mercedes team-mate.
It wasn’t as straightforward as Rosberg might have liked, however. After easing through the first two sessions and having seen Hamilton eliminated in Q1 as the Briton made little effort to seal a grid position that would then be erased, Rosberg was pushed hard in Q3 by Verstappen.
The Red Bull Racing teenager finished just 0.1s behind the Mercedes driver and afterwards Rosberg admitted that the session had not been as smooth as it might have appeared.
“We had a difficult weekend up to now, especially this morning,” he said of the fight to seal his 28th career pole position. “We were seriously off the pace on one lap, so it really wasn’t so easy coming into qualifying. But we got the job done in the end. We really made quite a few changes on the car coming into qualifying and we found the right way. It all came together and it was feeling good, so I’m very pleased about that one.”
Verstappen too had a tough time in the run-up to qualifying. A gearbox problem after just two installation laps saw him miss out on any meaningful running in final practice. But the Dutch driver put the setback behind him and after also breezing through the opening two sessions he pressed hard for his first pole position.
He might have narrowly missed out but in finishing just behind Rosberg, Verstappen becomes the youngest driver to start from the front row of a grand prix grid. The Red Bull driver was sanguine about the achievement, however.
“I’m just very happy to be on the front row in Spa in front of all my fans,” he said. I mean, it’s great to break a record but I want to break other records.
“I think to be so close to [Mercedes] on a track with some long straights, we can be very pleased with that,” he added. “The whole weekend has been very smooth, even though I had some little issues this morning. From there on the mechanics did a great job and in qualifying the car was working really well, as you could see in sector two. I’m just very pleased to be second here in front of my fans, it’s just a great motivation when you see them next to the track.”
Ferrari enjoyed a good qualifying, with Raikkonen in third place, his best qualifying performance since the Russian Grand Prix in early May, and Vettel fourth.
Neither Ferrari man was entirely pleased, however. Vettel was unhappy with his final lap, however, complaining of a lack of rear grip in the final corner, while Raikkonen said a shot at pole has been possible.
“I lost a few tenths in the last chicane, so obviously the pole position was there, so it was a bit disappointing because obviously once we are close by there it would have been nice to get it,” said the Finn, a four-time Belgian Grand Prix winner. “But tomorrow is the race and I think if we compare it to the previous few races we have to be satisfied with where we are after qualifying.”
Behind then Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth. The Australian was one of just four drivers to set his fastest time of Q2 on soft tyres and thus he will join Rosberg and both Ferrari drivers in starting on that compound tomorrow.
Behind Ricciardo, Sergio Perez was sixth for Force India, ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas the battle between the two teams for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship continues. Jenson Button was ninth for McLaren, ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa.
Further back Hamilton will start from the rear of the grid thanks to the multiple penalties incurred, as will Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver failed to set a time after he ground to halt at Eau Rouge on his Q1 out lap. The Spaniard suffered an engine change on Friday and will take another one ahead of the race which will incur further penalties.
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Eric BOULLIER (McLaren), Frédéric VASSEUR (Renault), Robert FERNLEY (Force India)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Eric, if we could start with you please. Let’s start by talking about the updated power unit you’re running in both cars this weekend. Where is it better than the old one and do you have any further reliability worries after what happened to Alonso this morning?
Eric BOULLIER: As whole it’s very easy to understand. The first is engine power from the ICE and obviously the power recovery you can get from the turbo and the MGU-H. So on that [Honda] did a brilliant job to improve both compounds, let’s say, on both systems. In terms of reliability, no, we don’t have any concerns. It was a small issue, which cost us a full power unit this morning and the session but you could see in practice two both cars ran faultlessly, so I think it’s far?
Can you put a number on the lap time gain you’ve found with this power unit?
EB: Yes I can, but I will not share it with you!
We’ve seen former motorsport director of Volkswagen Jost Capito with McLaren this weekend. When does he start with the team and can you explain to us where he’ll fit into the current management structure?
EB: Yeah, it’s very easy. He’s going to start very soon; it’s a question of days. He is here this weekend as an observer, that’s why he’s not wearing any team uniform. He’s going to be CEO of McLaren Racing, so chief executive officer.
Thank you, Eric. Claire if we could move onto you. I’d like to start by talking about drivers. Your technical boss Pat Symonds was quoted recently as saying that Williams is ready to sign a top driver. Now, one of the interpretations of that is that you don’t currently have a top driver, do you agree with him?
Claire WILLIAMS: I think actually Pat’s comments in that article that came out over shutdown were comments that were made in January, so it’s quite odd that they are now brought out. But Pat, when he was making those comments, was making a reference to one particular driver. It was not in reference to our current two. I think as we have said very clearly we are very happy with the job Felipe and Valtteri have done for us. I know everybody is waiting for our announcement now that lots of other teams have made theirs, but we are not ready to announce our line-up for ‘17 yet but we are working through all our options but I hope we will be able to make that announcement shortly.
When do you think we will get an announcement from you?
CW: By the end of the year.
OK. Moving on to Spa: this is a track where you have traditionally been very strong, although you seemed to have a few issues this afternoon, just 16th and 17th fastest. How confident are you of a good result this weekend?
CW: I think after our performance in the past few races where we expected the circuits to suit our car, it wasn’t the case for a number of reasons. We’ve obviously been working hard to try to analyse where we are going wrong and it is really frustrating fro the team and we do have a really tough battle with Force India at the moment – we don’t want them to take our fourth in the championship. It’s going to be another tough weekend, as much as this circuit does suit our care, but there are also elements of it that don’t. So I don’t know. After today’s performance, where we’re finishing 16th and 17th, we obviously had some issues, I’m not entirely sure where we are going to finish on Sunday but I certainly hope it’s in the points.
OK thank you Claire. Bob, Force India is another team that has a very good record here and things clearly going very well for you so far – third and fifth quickest this afternoon. You’re quick here today, do you have Williams in your sights, do you think you can beat them this weekend and what about the Constructors’ Championship?
Robert FERNLEY: Well, I think we’d like to beat them, but I think you have to look at it that probably Spa and Monza are going to be quite critical races, because as you rightly said earlier, they do tend to favour Williams. So, at the end of Monza we need to look at where the situation is and whether we’ve got ‘game on’ for a hard fight until the end of the season. I think these two races are quite critical because historically and on normal expectations you’d expect Williams to be stronger.
Let’s talk about drivers as well. Vijay Mallya said at the British Grand Prix that both Nico and Checo are under contract for 2017 but Checo has said that he’d make a decision after the summer break. Has he done that?
RF: Well first of all both Checo and Nico are both under contract and that’s the normal way you would work as obviously we need continuity in the drivers, we’d very much like to keep the two together, but with Checo come highly sophisticated and complex commercial negotiations and those obviously have got to play their part as well. But that can only come after we’ve secured the two drivers in the first place. That’s the process we’re under now and I would be very surprised if we’re not staying with the two drivers in 2017.
Fred, coming to you, your driver situation is equally fluid, so when do you expect to make a decision for next year?
Frédéric VASSEUR: Quite similar to Claire, before the end of the year. We are not under pressure to take a decision. We will take a decision in the next few weeks or months.
Are drivers for 2017 a priority for you or is it more important to get the technical structure of the team sorted?
FV: Drivers is the priority for everybody, you can’t race without being concerned by the drivers. [Remainder of answer inaudible]
What is the likelihood of Esteban Ocon coming back to you for next year as a race driver, because he’s done some FP1 sessions for you this year, he’s now gone to Manor. Is he a possible for next season for you?
FV: It is possible. Don’t worry we will take a decision soon.
Q: Monisha, like Renault, Sauber are rebuilding. Now that you’ve had new investment, what is the plan for the rebuilding? Is there a timeline?
Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, you want to do things as quickly as you can because we still have to achieve a few things this year and there are not than many races left. At the same time, we have such a big change coming up for next year where you also really don’t want to lose time, and get on straight away to that year. We are already in that process but now, with the new ownership we have, the trust we’ve been given, we are of course on a very different basis. Simultaneously and very quickly we have to look at the technical structures, people, drivers, the financial status. All of that has to be done actually in parallel, and is already happening.
Q: You said you still have things you want to achieve this year. Is one of those scoring points? You’re the only team on the grid that hasn’t done that this year, so we’ve got upgrades on the car this weekend, are we going to see more as you keep pushing to get that point?
MK: We’ll see a few bits and pieces still coming but nothing really extremely big because we are already on to the new car – but staying where we are is certainly no option. Now, we’ve had a season before where we didn’t score points. It had many reasons but it’s not enough to say that we’ll just manage it somehow again. We have to score at least a point, if not more and make sure that we’re getting back into the usual routine, the way we’re used to working.
Q: Christian, the team moved ahead of Ferrari at Hockenheim, last time out, on the evidence of today, you’ve stayed ahead. What are the prospects for the coming races. Do you see yourselves as staying ahead of Ferrari? Can you challenge Mercedes?
CH: They’re two very different things. One, staying ahead of Ferrari, obviously that’s our target and goal. I think the next two races represent our biggest challenges of the nine races remaining. Very power-dominated circuits, here at Spa and Monza in a week’s time. I think Mercedes, we know there’s a significant gap to. We’ve been closer at some races than others. Hopefully there will be opportunities in some of the race venues coming up – circuits spring to mind like Singapore – that we can give them a harder time. And, of course, they’ve got some issues to deal with this weekend with one of their cars. So that represents other opportunities.
Q: How important is second place in the Constructors’ Championship to you – or is it all about 2017. Is that the only thing that matters?
CH: It’s worth a few million pounds, obviously, like all these positions do, so it has a significant value to us. So there is a big push to carry the momentum that we’ve built over the last few races, right to the last race in Abu Dhabi. And then, of course, behind the scenes, as with all the teams, there’s a big development programme under way on the 2017 car with a big regulation change coming. So it’s a busy time, certainly in the factory at the moment.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Marc Surer – Sky Germany) A question for Fred Vasseur. Today, I think it was a premier that a car started on the track. Can you explain, first of all how it stopped and secondly how you got it restarted?
FV: During the session we had a sensor failure and we stopped the car, we decided to stop the car. Then we restarted the car with the MGU-K and the battery. It’s not the first time we did it. I think all the other teams did it in the past.
Q: (Oana Popoiou – F1 Zone) Question for Mr Fernley. Force India has a good chance this year to finish fourth. Is there a compromise to be made by focussing on the battle this year and developing the next year’s car?
RF: No. They’re two completely separate programmes. The battle obviously is for us to take to Williams. Williams are in the lead, they’re an extremely competitive and competent team and we’ve just got to battle hard to try to overtake them. As far as the ’17 car is concerned, that’s a factory issue and we’re flat-out in the factory, as I’m sure all the other teams are as well. So they’re two separate programmes entirely.
Q: (Thomas Lund Hansen – Morgenavissen Jyllands Posten) I have two questions for Mr Vasseur. You’ve said that Renault needs a leader. What characterises a leader and does Kevin Magnussen have these qualifications?
FV: We have to build up the project on a driver because I think it’s also a catalyst for the project, for the team. He needs to motivate the team. If you have a look at the success stories of the past, Sebastian with Red Bull or Michael Schumacher with Ferrari, all the good story and long success stories was built up also on the drivers. We have to do the same for the next six or seven years. Kevin is doing the job. I won’t come back on the fact that I have to take a decision on the drivers. I will do it quite soon, be sure, he is doing the job. We know that we have to improve too on the structure and it’s not a question just on the drivers be sure. I’m happy with my guys.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) The current engine regulations took over five years to agree and they currently have about four and a bit years left to run before they expire at the end of 2020. We have an interesting spread here in that we have four customer teams, an exclusive partner team and a manufacturer. When do you believe that we should start looking at the new regulations for 2021 onwards and also what would you like to see included and enshrined in those regulations?
CH: Well, it’s very simple really: cheap, loud, fast engines. I think what we have now… obviously to abandon that fully would be irresponsible, an awful lot of development and R&D has gone into these engines but I think cost is a significant element, particularly for the teams that are paying for the engines. I think that we’re addressing the chassis side of things already for next year, making the car more aggressive, faster and so on, I think one of the elements that is missing from Formula One at the moment is the sound and I think that’s a key aspect that needs to be addressed in engine regulations moving forward. But probably not moving too far away from the architecture that we currently have. I think to rip it up in its entirety this far into the game would probably be the wrong thing to do.
EB: I think that if youwant to address the cost and obviously the convergence of performance we believe that the regulations should be extended after 2020 with the current ones. As Christian said, part of the show is maybe we miss better sound or better quality sound for the engines so that’s something that needs to be addressed technically but clearly if you have stability in the regulations and some longer term projects, obviously the convergence of performance will happen quicker and the cost will go down.
CW: I would echo what Christian and Eric have said. Obviously from an independent team’s perspective whereby we are a customer, having those regulations outlined beyond 2020 and stabilised inevitably will help us if we are to go out and look for our own engine partner past 2020 when our Mercedes relationship will come to an end will be really important. I obviously believe that the hybrid element of the current power unit is part of the architecture that we should maintain. I think it’s a very important message that Formula One can send out but yeah, I would echo everything that Christian and Eric have said.
FV: It’s quite similar to everybody else in that if you want to have more exciting racing then to close the gap between everybody, we need to get the convergence on the engine also and by the way, we would be able to reduce the cost for the future, but if you drastically change the regulations you will increase the costs because you will have to do research and development and at the other end you will increase the potential gap between everybody. But I think we have to stick to the current ones and for sure we have to adapt some points because it makes sense but not to change the regulations drastically.
MK: As an independent team that pays for its engines, for us of course the costs are extremely important and one thing is with stability to bring the cost down but equally important is the changes. Ancillary costs can get very high and this is something which independent teams equally suffer from because in addition to the costs with the engine itself brought in which were much higher than the previous engine, the costs you had around building that engine in the chassis side were extremely high for us so stability is very important. Of course as Christian said, you have to keep in mind that the show has to be a good one and we have seen this time a lot went wrong in introducing the engine. At the same time, you also have to make sure that the interests of the manufacturers are looke at because they have vital interests in introducing certain technologies. So I think looking at all these very different positions, it’s very important to start talks now, because we’ve seen in the past that engines were cancelled overnight, whilst different concepts were introduced, we really need a long time to be able to agree something sensible and not again be in a situation where in six months time you have to decide something.
BF: I think I would endorse what Christian said. We need to have something that’s very competitively priced, addresses the issues in terms of noise but I think we’re fooling ourselves if we think that as independent teams we have any say in these things. At the end of the day the manufacturers will decide what they’re going to do and we will be given a take-it or leave-it situation.
Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) For M. Bouillier, yesterday Fernando Alonso said he is not enjoying this Formula One. I would love to know what are your feelings about that, what it means to have a driver who is not enjoying driving?
EB: Well, I think we have been working on changing the regulations for next year and as McLaren was concerned we were pushing a little bit harder. It’s true that the regulations today… drivers enjoy qualifying today because we are now breaking records so I think it’s fast enough. Drivers enjoying driving a physical car to drive and clearly Fernando is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid so he remembers the cars in 2005 and 2006 where they were much more lateral Gs than cornering speed and this is what the drivers like. I think next year’s regulations will fix part of or most of the issues actually. They may have today by not enjoying the cars, the tyres get fatter, the cars… now you have to save fuel, save tyres to be competitive during the race and I think by changing the regulations they will enjoy it more. So we have discussed this matter many times, it’s understandable and I think F1 anyway should have this wow aspect. When a young driver comes in and realises that F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and even including driving the car is the most difficult car to drive.
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Christian, it’s been a long time since Red Bull had a one-two in a race. Imagine there’s a possibility on Sunday in the closing stages, Ricciardo leading the race, Verstappen very quick, wants to win his home race. How do you prevent Mercedes-like problems in the closing stages?
CH: Well, we talk about these things beforehand, you discuss tactics, you try and come up with set rules in certain situations and then the race starts and everything gets forgotten. The guys are racers at the end of the day and if we were in a fortunate enough position to be racing for a victory and you’ve got a driver racing in front of – well, I think half of Holland is coming here this weekend by the looks of things – I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t go for it. I think it would be wrong for us to interfere with a race like that. All we ask of the drivers is give each other enough space to work with. If you’re going to race each other, race fairly and remember you’re carrying the aspirations of the 750-odd people that you represent when you’re driving those cars. It’s not just about the drivers.
Max Verstappen went quickest in the second practice session ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, as Red Bull Racing turned a low key morning session into a headline-making afternoon outing with Daniel Ricciardo taking second spot.
In the first session Verstappen finished in seventh position, behind Ricciardo. Part of the reason for that was Mercedes’ decision to run the supersoft tyre in FP1, while their rivals chose to stick with tradition and leave their performance runs until the afternoon.
With Mercedes leaving the red-banded tyre alone in session two, the way was clear for Verstappen to push for P1 and the Dutch driver, cheered on by a sizeable contingent of his countrymen in the grandstands, duly set the pace with a time of 1:48.085, 0.263s quicker than Nico Rosberg’s morning timesheet topper. It was also good enough to see Verstappen finish 0.25s clear of team-mate Ricciardo, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg half a second further back in third place.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest 0.938s behind Verstappen. The four-time champion split the Force Indias with Sergio Perez in fifth place just over seven hundredths of a seconds behind the German.
After topping the morning timesheet with a lap set while using the Halo head protection device, Rosberg finished the afternoon session in sixth place. His best lap of 1:49.161 was set on the soft compound tyre. Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was seventh quickest with a lap of 1:49.244 and the Finn finished ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean, McLaren’s Jenson Button and the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez. Button’s time, using Honda’s new power unit, was encouraging for McLaren after a troubled morning session in which Fernando Alonso managed just three laps.
The Spaniard recovered in the afternoon turning 30 laps with a new power unit to set the 12th fastest time behind the impressive Pascal Wehrlein who set a time of 1:49.716. Alonso’s need for a new power unit means he will take a large grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton ended the session 13th quickest as he only used a prototype soft Pirelli compound tyre.
2016 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:48.085 27 2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:48.341 27 3 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:48.657 30 4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:49.023 28 5 Sergio Perez Force India 1:49.100 27 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:49.161 33 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:49.244 30 8 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:49.419 20 9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:49.419 23 10 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:49.648 23 11 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:49.716 31 12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:49.772 30 13 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:49.782 33 14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:49.916 25 15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:50.083 27 16 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:50.151 19 17 Felipe Massa Williams 1:50.157 29 18 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:50.194 25 19 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:50.375 34 20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:50.562 32 21 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:50.659 25 22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:50.719 24
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of opening practice for the Belgian Grand Prix with the German also becoming the first driver to set a timed lap in a session using the Halo device, which underwent more testing.
As the session got underway at Spa-Francorchamps, four cars took to the circuit sporting the cockpit head protection device – Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Rosberg.
All except Rosberg used the device for a single installation lap, but as times began to be registered, Rosberg moved to the top of the order with a lap of 1:49.481 with the Halo attached. It was the first time the device has completed a timed lap in a grand prix session.
After a brief period in the Mercedes garage Rosberg then returned to the track with the Halo still attached but with supersoft tyres onboard. He quickly set a new benchmark of 1:48.348.
The time was good enough for Rosberg to head the timesheet for the remainder of the session. Team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished in second place, seven tenths off Rosberg.
Hamilton also used a new turbocharger and MGU-H in the session, power unit alterations that will earn him a 15-place grid penalty this weekend as the Briton has exceeded the maximum for the season.
Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari. The Finn set his best time on soft tyres, as did Force India’s Sergio Perez who finished in fourth place, almost a full second behind Rosberg.
While Raikkonen got to just within eight tenths of a second off P1, Sebastian Vettel ended the 90 minutes in fifth place, 1.5s adrift of Rosberg and over six tenths behind his Ferrari team-mate.
After removing the Halo, Daniel Ricciardo worked through a low-key session, finishing sixth. The Australian just over a tenth behind Vettel and eight hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Max Verstappen who finished seventh. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, with Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez completing the top 10.
Nineteen-year-old French driver Esteban Ocon, who is set to make his Formula One race debut with Manor this weekend, finished in 16th position, a second ahead of team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.
It was a frustrating start to the weekend for Fernando Alonso, however. Honda have brought a comprehensively updated power unit to this race but problems with the powerplant mean that Alonso completed just three laps in FP1. The Spaniard failed to set a time and finished in 22nd place.
2016 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:48.348 27
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:49.078 25
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:49.147 24
4 Sergio Perez Force India 1:49.274 23
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:49.768 19
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:49.782 24
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:49.865 24
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:50.088 21
9 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:50.394 31
10 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:50.583 21
11 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:50.899 18
12 Felipe Massa Williams 1:51.122 28
13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:51.125 16
14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:51.424 17
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:51.768 19
16 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:51.787 26
17 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:52.308 19
18 Jenson Button McLaren 1:52.407 18
19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:52.837 23
20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:53.053 20
21 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:53.089 20
22 Fernando Alonso McLaren 3
eom/FIA press release
DRIVERS – Esteban OCON (Manor), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Esteban, if we could start with you: many congratulations on your grand prix debut. Just describe your emotions now: how excited are you and indeed how surprised are you to be racing this weekend?
Esteba Ocon (top row, right) at the FIA press conference. An FIA image
Esteban OCON: Yeah, thank you, first of all. No, it’s a great opportunity for me to be driving here in Spa. So thanks to Mercedes, Renault and to Manor for that. It’s great to start in Spa as well. It’s a track I know, so it will help [me] to get up to speed. Let’s see how it goes. I’m looking forward to it and I’m ready.
You’re only 19 and as you say you’ve raced a lot here at Spa. You’ve also got quite a lot of Formula One now, you’ve done FP1 for Renault for the past three races, so do you feel ready and prepared?
EO: Yeah, I feel like I’ve had the best preparation I could get. It’s been quite a long time since I’m around in the paddock and also driving Formula One cars, so it’s great to finally make the step and I feel like I am ready to take that one.
And what are your goals for this weekend and the rest of the season?
EO: It would be good to score some points. That will be the target. I also need to learn the team, learn the way they work. Also to see how Pascal works and to get up to speed together, learning from him. Of course, he is a great driver and he has been quick all season so I will need to learn from him and get up to speed in qualifying.
Daniil, if we could come on to you please: it’s been a very hard first half of the season following your return to Toro Rosso, and you’ve even been quoted as saying that you’ve fallen out of love with Formula One. What has the summer break done for your mind set?
Daniil KVYAT: I think it’s done good things for me. It feels like it’s all OK now for me – just come here, do my job, drive as I know how to drive, nothing special really. That’s it.
What do you think you can achieve this weekend? You finished fourth at Spa last year and Toro Rosso introduced a lot of upgrades to the STR11 last time out in Germany, so what’s a realistic goal this weekend?
DK: It’s hard to predict the future, obviously. I don’t know how to do it. So, we’ll get out there, we’ll drive, we’ll use our potential as good as we can, and we’ll see where we are. That’s all I can do.
Romain, coming to you: great memories from here last year of course, you finished third for Lotus? However, it’s been a bit of a dry old summer for yourself and Haas recently. Your last points finish was in Austria. What kind of reset does the team need in the second half of this season?
Romain GROSJEAN: Well, I think, yeah, the last few races before the summer break haven’t been as good as we would have loved. We made some steps forward but there are a few things we needs to understand, so we’re going to try different things. I think the whole summer break helped everyone to reset a bit the mind, to think more calmly about what we can do and what we have been doing and hopefully we’ll get back in the car and it feels as good as it was initially in the year and from there we can score much more points. Generally, I still think that as a first year it’s very positive and even though we have had some difficulties recently it’s never far from the points. Eleventh often for Esteban, I had a bit more problems recently but hopefully goes away and we have a good race here.
How tight is the battle with your immediate rivals in the Constructors’ Championship? Can you catch McLaren, stay ahead of Renault? Where’s the focus?
RG: I think the focus is to learn and to do our best. I think we are more looking at catching McLaren than protecting from Renault. I think there are quite a long way behind and in terms of performance they are not any better than we are, so McLaren has done some good development recently but it doesn’t mean we cannot go there and try to play with them.
Max, you have a Belgian mother, you were born just 50km from this race track and lots of fans are coming to see you this weekend, so do you view this as something of a home race?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think so. You know, even though I haven’t driven here a lot, yeah definitely I think this is the closest I can get. I think there are also a lot of fans coming, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.
Red Bull overtook Ferrari in Germany, last time out, do you feel confident of stretching that advantage in the coming races?
MV: Well, we definitely will try to do that. I think the last few races have been very positive for us. We got the jump on them and now the most important thing is to stay ahead of course and try to close on Mercedes, even though I think that will be very hard, but we keep pushing, we keep developing and so far it has been very positive for us.
And do you think you have the necessary horsepower to do the business this weekend?
MV: We hope so. We’ll see. I think first of all we have to get the car working really well in terms of set-up and then we’ll see what happens.
Thank you. Fernando, Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa recently described the team’s progress as incredible. Do you agree with that assessment?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, definitely I do agree. If you look at the team 12 months ago we were in a very different situation. We were starting last here using I think the ninth engine we put in Spa. We’ve been lapped two times here last year and in Germany and Hungary and definitely we make a step of nearly minutes, let’s say, not even seconds in a race total time, so definitely we are in a much better position. We are enjoying and definitely the progress is very optimistic in terms of… I think even for next year as well. We are looking forward to this weekend. We have some updates also on the car. We know that Spa and Monza will be tricky races for us in terms of layout and characteristics of the circuits but definitely we are enjoying our time now, seeing all this progress and hungry for more.
You say you have upgrades for this race, but going forward where do you want the focus to be now for McLaren? Do you want it to remain on 2016 or would you like to see 100 per cent effort on 2017?
FA: Well, I think we want to be world champions, so this year is not any more possible.
Q: Lewis, you’ve had an amazing summer, winner of the last four races, you come to Spa with a 19-point lead in the World Championship. Do you wish the summer break had never come – or did you need to recharge your batteries?
Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly, good afternoon everybody, it’s good to see everyone. Not too many tanned people – I was expecting to see people with better tans! I’m happy the break came. I think myself and the team needed it. Probably like the rest of the paddock. We had a month with four races in it so it’s definitely been a positive thing for everyone, I think everyone feels refreshed coming back in.
Q: Are you confident of maintaining the momentum from Germany – or could an engine penalty interfere with that here?
LH: Naturally we already discussed engine penalties before so that will come into play for sure – but I’ll do everything I can to minimise the impact it will have. Yeah. Otherwise, beyond that penalty I’ll eventually take, I think I’ll be able to continue with the momentum. I plan to continue with the momentum that I had before the break.
Q: Has it been decided if you’ll take the engine penalty here or at another race?
LH: As far as I’m aware we’ll be taking the engine penalty this weekend, yes. I have no engines left, so…
Q: Your next win will be your 50th. That’s quite a milestone. What would that mean to you?
LH: I have to get there first! Still, today, everyday I have to pinch myself really to think that I’ve… what I’ve achieved so far in my career. It’s a dream for all of us to be doing what we love, and to succeed at it… watching grands prix growing up I never thought I’d be sitting here with nearly 50 grand prix wins under my belt. It’s very surreal – but I plan to win more. Hopefully we continue to.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport & Auto Action) Max, you’re an old hand now at Formula One, an experienced driver in Formula One. What advice would you give to the young man behind you, how to deal with this new world?
MV: Just jump in the car and go out and drive as fast as you can.
LH: If he’s old, what are the rest of us?
FA: At least to me. You are still young!
Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) Max, there’s obviously talk of Stoffel Vandoorne joining F1 next year. What would it mean for Belgian and Netherlands motorsport, and for yourself to have you two guys fight it out on the track together?
MV: I think it will be very positive for Belgian motorsport and definitely you will see even more Belgian flags here – they will have to compete with the Dutch flags – so we’ll see what happens. I think if happens it will be great in general for Belgium.
Q: (Kevin Eason – The Times) Can I ask you, can you win here even from 20 places back – and can I ask you a question that fans ask me: is it fair that a driver has to bear the burden of the penalty for the incompetence of his team?
LH: In terms of winning, that’s the goal but it’s going to be very, very hard if, obviously everyone’s… if the gap is close between other cars. We’re in the third year of evolution of these cars, so Red Bull have been very quick in some of the races, same with Ferrari particularly and down the whole grid, so it’s going to be harder than it was last year or the year before to climb through the field, for sure – but I’ll do everything I can. It’s really about minimising the damage of taking the penalty. And I think… I mean it is a team sport. We win and we lose together as a team. Whether I make a mistake and the team take the penalty for it, or the team make a mistake, sometimes it’s not actually mistake, it’s just the kind of thing that happens. I don’t look at it as incompetence, I find it a growing experience for us because we’ve learnt a lot from the issues that have happened and hopefully won’t have them again. It’s just unfortunate that I’m the – I guess – the test mice, or whatever you want to call it, that’s tested all of these issues, because obviously none of the other Mercedes engines has had the problems I’ve had.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport & Auto Action) Romain, we know you’ve had some balance problems with the chassis and the brakes – was that from the beginning of the season or is it something that’s evolved recently?
RG: It came more recently, for some reason. Probably track layout, tyre usage, grip of the car. Yeah, we’re probably going to revert on some of the settings we’ve made. Hopefully get something that suits me a little bit better.
Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Fernando, you said in an interview that, if the nature of Formula One next year doesn’t change significantly, you stop – even if you win the championship. Is it really that bad? And Lewis, what is your opinion on that: is driving the car nowadays really that bad?
FA: Well, I think I said, sometimes already that next year I finish my contract with McLaren, the one that I have now, so I will have to make a decision if I continue in Formula One or not. I think in the last couple of years, especially with this turbo engine era, the car is a little bit different to drive. I don’t say that it’s better or worse, everyone will have his opinion. I’ve been lucky enough to drive 2003 cars, 2004, 2005, even until 2009 the cars were, in my opinion, more extreme, more Formula One cars, so now when I see GP2 running three seconds away, or something like that in FP1 it feels a little bit sad. Cars are heavy. No grip. We save fuel, we save tyres, we save everything from lap one, so it’s a little bit against the instinct of the driver and next year is a big question mark. I think with the new regs everything will change a little bit. I think if the cars are fun to drive, are exciting to drive, I will probably stay longer and I will drive for more years in Formula One. If the cars are still giving me the feeling that I have in the last couple of years, probably I will stop. But it’s not related to whether you are competitive or not. If you are out in Q1 or winning a championship. It’s just you are enjoying driving the cars or you are not enjoying. Right now, in my opinion, the cars are not enjoyable. Probably because I drove other cars. If you arrive now to Formula One, these cars are very fast and very fun to drive – but not for me anymore.
And Lewis, your thoughts on the challenge provided by the cars?
LH: I agree with everything Fernando said really. There’s two aspects. Fernando’s obviously one of the best drivers we have here and yet he’s had an incredibly challenging last couple of years with a not competitive car, so it’s understandable if that continues that way then it’s no fun for any of us. We live and breathe to win. Knowing in himself that he could fight for a championship if he was sat next to me for example, in our car. In terms of the rules, the cars are going to be the same next year. It’s a different looking car, the same issues are going to be the same and, what Fernando’s saying, we slow down as soon as we’ve done the start and got that out of the way, generally we’re not pushing 100 per cent like perhaps they used to do. It was a more extreme race back in the day, it was a sprint. For us, all starting in go-karts, that’s what it was from the get-go, from the lights out it was a sprint race to the end. Formula One’s not about that anymore. It’s about preserving your tyres, preserving the battery power, preserving the turbo, preserving all these elements which are not what people tune in to see. So, the governing body is continuing to push the car. Next year’s still going to be even more heavy, probably not have great grip. The car will probably be faster but it will have the same characteristics, probably, as what we have now. I might be wrong but most-likely. We’ll drive the same next year, just with a heavier car, and having to save fuel, save tyres, do the same things. Yeah. Probably said more than I needed to say!
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, if you do start from the back, you say you will do all you can to limit the damage of taking a penalty. What would be a realistic finish if you do that?
LH: Honestly, I have no idea. Honestly, if you look… fourth? He says fourth. Honestly, I really don’t know how far I can get up. It depends, the pace of the other cars. We’ll start tomorrow and we’ll find out. If Red Bull are right close with us, that’s two cars less, that’s three down and then the gap follows behind. If the others are much much slower than the possibilities go up. There’s going to be safety cars, all sorts of things. I started last in Belgium, er, in Hungary a couple of years ago when the gaps were much bigger and came fourth, so Sunday’s definitely going to be harder than that and I just hope that I can get into the points. As long as I’m going forward, that’s what matters.
Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel 4) It’s just a really simple question for everybody: did you have a lovely summer holiday? What have you been doing? Did you have to take homework with you from the team bosses or were you allowed to forget about F1 completely?
RG: Well, I spent some time with my family in Corsica. I had no phone signal and no internet and that’s no disruption. I just spent the morning on the bike, afternoon with the kid on the beach so fairly straightforward and easy holiday.
FA: I’ve had some good time off and no homework from the boss.
EO: Yeah, I had a good summer break as well. I went surfing with some athletes from Quiksilver so they taught me the balance a bit, so that was interesting and yeah, some times with friends and family. It’s what you need during a summer break.
MV: Yeah, pretty similar to everyone else, I think, spending some time with family and friends which is always very nice, to relax a bit and then spend some days just at home before you come here.
DK: Yeah, like you said, it’s was a lovely holiday so it was good. I did a bit of karting but mainly I stayed at home. I didn’t follow what was going on in Formula One or anything so it was OK. Very good.
LH: Well, mine was a little bit different to everyone else’s but I had a good time. I went to a lot of different countries, I travelled a lot the first two weeks and then the last week stayed in one place by a beach. I think I visited six or seven different countries during the break. I didn’t have homework but I did homework during the last week.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, in this vacation, did you take ten minutes without your mobile?
LH: The last two weeks I didn’t have… I tried to avoid my phone. Of course, I needed to stay in touch with some friends but generally check in in the morning, put it away and then in the evening… and there were some days I didn’t even check it at all.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Max, you came directly from Formula Three to Formula One, 17 years old, and Ocon, 19 now and he had GP3 experience last year; is that enough for a driver to come to Formula One even if the circumstances show he has the capacity, in your opinion?
MV: Yeah, I think in the end it doesn’t really matter where you come from as long as you do a good job. Once you’re in Formula One it’s up to yourself to show that you’re ready. I don’t think it has to be in F3 or GP3. Once you go to Formula One you have to show it.
OE: I agree. Age is just a number in the end, you have to show that you are capable of driving in F1 and to show to the right people. I think that’s the most important thing. When you arrive in F1 then you have to deliver like Max did. That’s the target for me as well, when I come here.
Q: (Joe Van Burik – De Telegraaf) To all drivers; a new official Formula One racing game has been released. I was wondering which of you plays racing games yourself and how close to the real thing are the simulation racing games these days?
LH: Why would you think I do?
MV: I don’t know, maybe you want to keep up to date, I don’t know.
LH: Ah, no. I don’t play any simulation games, my brother does, but I haven’t played a computer game for a long time. I’m getting old, it’s what happens when you get to my age.
EO: Yeah, I play in the winter to keep the rhythm a bit, even if it’s not really exactly the same thing, to keep some competition in, I’ve been playing with some other drivers on line but yeah, I’m not in the 2016 so yeah, I didn’t try myself on this one.
Q: How realistic are they?
EO: It depends, some are closer than others. F1 2016 it’s not too bad, it’s great. The tracks and the graphics now are much improved. It’s getting closer and closer to reality.
FA: I am 35 now.
Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel 4) Just to clarify Lewis, what homework did you do last week?
LH: It’s secret, top secret stuff. I’d have to kill you if I told you.
MV: You can tell me.
LH: I was just making sure that I was up to date with where we’ve been this year and then what I have to do and what I’m doing, moving forwards. After I left in Hockenheim, I was partying eight hours later or whatever it was so just making sure that I was up to date, hopefully before my engineers got back to work as well.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, Spa maybe is the circuit where you can most use the kerbs. Is there any previous orientation from the FIA or will you discuss Friday in the briefing?
DK: I didn’t get it: can we use the kerbs? Yeah we can, of course, we can use them, no problems. Was that the question? Well, we have to discuss on Friday again I think, like always.
Q: Lewis, has there been a directive from the FIA about track limits?
LH: As far as I’m aware not yet. But we anticipate there might be because… I don’t think there’s any more than at any other track. There’s just Eau Rouge and then there’s turn 15 maybe? There’s still those kerbs so that might be something they consider but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.
Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR), Anders Jæger (NOR) Volkswagen Polo R WRC (2016) WRC Rally Germany 2016 Foto: Daniel Roeseler
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia powered to a second consecutive victory in Rallye Deutschland, Volkswagen’s home round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
The French duo was able to control their advantage over the closing stages to notch up their third victory of the season. The battle for second went down to the wire with a three-way fight between Hyundai team-mates Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville and Volkswagen’s Andreas Mikkelsen. In the end, Sordo and co-driver Marc Marti clinched the position by a mere one-tenth of a second over Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul, Mikkelsen missing out when he lost the brakes and ran wide twice in the deciding Power Stage.
In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Ogier extends his lead to 59 points over Mikkelsen with Neuville and Hayden Paddon on equal points in third position. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Volkswagen Motorsport has a 55 point advantage over Hyundai Motorsport with four rounds remaining.
Today’s route was the shortest and covered two repeated stages and 59.26 competitive kilometres. With more than 30 seconds in hand overnight, Ogier was able to pace himself over the final stages and, without putting a foot wrong, the reigning World Champion celebrated his 35th WRC career victory by a winning margin of 20.3 seconds. It was however the battle behind him that caught the attention. Going into the day, Mikkelsen, Sordo and Neuville were separated by just four seconds but with a great run through the opening stage, Sordo was able to move into second with the fastest time as Mikkelsen lost the feeling with the brakes and Neuville ran wide in the final corner. Neuville won the following stage to overhaul Mikkelsen and despite the Norwegian pushing to the limit, he dropped back to fourth. The second run through the first stage was then cancelled for safety reasons, leaving the battling trio to fight for honours in the final Power Stage. Again, Neuville posted the fastest time but it was just one-tenth of a second too slow after 306.08 competitive kilometres to deny team-mate Sordo the second place.
Behind fourth-placed Mikkelsen, who led the event at the end of the first day, Hayden Paddon finished fifth nearly a minute ahead of Mads Østberg. Unable to improve his position, Paddon spent most of the day testing different settings for the next asphalt round of the Championship in Corsica.
Esapekka Lappi finished a fine seventh overall in his Škoda Fabia R5 and won the FIA WRC 2 Championship category. The Finn, fourth in the series, needed to capitalise in Germany being that none of his closest rivals were registered for points on the event. Škoda R5 machinery filled the remaining positions in the top 10; Pontus Tidemand, not registered here, was eighth, and Jan Kopecky and Armin Kremer were ninth and 10th respectively, both taking podium positions in the WRC 2 category.
In the FIA Junior WRC Championship, Simone Tempestini is one step closer to taking the title with two rounds remaining. The Italian won two of the day’s three stages and takes the maximum Junior points for the third time this season from four events. Martin Koci, in an earlier fight with Tempestini, finished second after a spin in the first stage this morning, and Terry Folb claimed third in the category, the Frenchman winning the final stage.
Following the cancellation of Rally China, the next outing for the FIA World Rally Championship contenders will be on the island of Corsica for Rallye de France (29 September-2 October).
Rallye Deutschland – Unofficial Final Classification
