Category: Formula 1

Bangalore, 2 April 2012: With the first Spanish F1 outfit, doing a fantastic job at the rain-hit Malaysian GP with Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan showing his skills as a “RainMaster”, the development of F112 car becomes pertinent with the allotted testing time arriving in a month’s time. Before the Formula One World Championship moves to Europe, the team has to bring in developments to sustain their growth and the technical team becomes very important. After struggling to qualify at the inaugural Australian GP under the 107 per cent pace rule, the team said “Mission Accomplished” once they qualified at Sepang the next week on April 24, Saturday. Against all expectations, the car which was never tested in rain did a full run. Both the cars finished the race without any major hiccups despite the race being stopped for 51 minutes due to heavy downpour which made visibility unsafe for driving.

In this direction, the HRT team has made an announcement on Monday that Engineer Toni Cuquerella assumed on April 2, in the role of Technical Director of HRT Formula 1 Team. Cuquerella, besides being at the head of technical development, will continue to exercise his role as the maximum figure of engineering on the track.

Since Geoff Willis left the team in September of 2011, the position of Technical Director has not been occupied. The decision was then made for the development of the F112 to take place at the team’s technical office in Munich, at the hands of Holzer Group and the Chief of Aerodynamics, Stephane Chosse, under the supervision of the, until last February, Technical Coordinator Jacky Eeckelaert.

With the F112 put on the track, it’s now time to work on its development and evolution and so, the naming of a person to lead this project is necessary. And no one better than Toni Cuquerella, with his experience in Formula 1 and his praiseworthy work at the fore of HRT, to take it on.

The appointment of the Spanish engineer at the head of the technical department is a new step in the new management’s desire to centralize and take control of all the activities related to the design and development of the car. This will optimize the coordination of the different departments, helping to meet the set targets, and also rationalize resources.

Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: “The role of Technical Director implies a great amount of responsibility in terms of coordination and decision making. That’s why I’m very proud that the management considers me to be the most adequate person to carry it out. Until now there was a lot of dispersion from within the technical team and that had its repercussions in the concept and quality of the F112. My priority is to solve the current car’s problems to then develop it to its maximum potential, whilst also unifying and expanding the technical department, but I’m confident that we have a good work base and a clear direction to advance and have a good project for the future”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “Toni Cuquerella has been a key figure in the team since its inception and, above all, in this new stage. The transition from the previous project to this one hasn’t been easy and a lot of work has been carried out that without vital figures such as him wouldn’t have been possible. The position of Technical Director was vacant and the development of the F112 was carried out at the technical office in Munich. But now, with the car already on the track, it was important to take control and count on someone influential at the head of the technical office. And because of his experience, judgment and knowledge, Toni’s profile fitted in perfectly”.

Profile

Date of birth: 14th of April 1973

Place of birth: Gandia, Spain

Nationality: Spanish

Antonio Cuquerella was born in Gandía, Spain 38 years ago. He did a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia.

In 1999 he had his first role as a race engineer for Campos GP at the Open Nissan. After this he worked in various national and international motorsport categories before becoming Chief Engineer of the Toledo WTCC and Leon WTCC projects at SEAT Sport.

In 2006 he arrived in Formula 1 as a race engineer for Super Aguri F1, where he spent two years before moving to BMW Sauber F1 Team, acting in the same role with driver Robert Kubica.

Towards the end of 2009 he decided to take a risk and back Adrián Campos in a project to establish a new Spanish team in Formula 1, becoming the Chief Race Engineer for Campos Meta. Since the team’s first season, Toni has been the Chief Race and Test Engineer and has been a key figure both in the early days and this new stage of HRT and now he assumes an even more important role as the Technical Director.

ends/David/HRT release

From F1 Special Correspondent/ Scorp News

Sepang, 25 March 2012: A jubilant Fernando Alonso brought a surprise victory for Ferrari as he managed to keep at bay Sergio Perez of Sauber to win the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix and lead the drivers’ championship of the 2012 Formula One World Championship at the Sepang International Circuit here on Sunday.

It was another disappointing race for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who finished third for the second consecutive race after starting on pole but he feels it was the best result under the circumstances. Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen and Bruno Senna finished in that order before Paul di Resta in the 7^th and Nico Hulkenberg in the 9^th made it a double finish for Force India in points. J Vergne came 8^th while Michael Schumacher took the last point for Mercedes AMG Petronas team.

When asked if it was a surprise, Fernando, who won the third title at Sepang with three different teams said: Definitely it was a big surprise to win today. We were competitive neither here nor in Australia. Our goal for this first race is to score as many points as possible. But today we did 25 so it’s an unbelievable result, so great job from the team. It’s a tough time for us at the moment but this Sunday we will remember.’’

Meanwhile the Sauber team was celebrating a great moment and when Sergio was pushing in the last few laps to go for a victory, the team advised him to not to lose any points. “We are very happy and the team is celebrating after the second place in a very difficult race. He has the potential and is the driver to watch,’’ said Monisha Kaltenborn, the Indian-origin CEO of Sauber team about Sergio, a Ferrari Academy product.

Sergio Perez said:  “It is a great day for me. The team did a very good job and I feel very happy for them. It is a really nice feeling to have been on the podium here, but I think victory was also within reach. Twice in the race I was catching Fernando (Alonso). On the final stint, when I was on the hard tyre compound, my tyres had degraded quite a lot. It wasn’t easy and I went wide and touched a curb. I actually was lucky not to go off. Before that Fernando had just pitted on the perfect lap for dry tyres, just one lap before me, and I lost a bit of ground to him. It was very difficult to make the right calls today and I want to thank my team. They always called me in at the right time, the first stop after lap one was especially important and it was also good to take the hard compound in the end, as the medium compound was not working too well for us. It is only our second race in 2012 and I think we have a great season ahead of us. I knew we had potential to fight today, our car is not far away from the top cars and a good crew and a driver can also make a difference in such conditions.”

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren managed to hide his disappointment and congratulate the winner: “This was a tough but fascinating race. Firstly, I want to offer my congratulations to Fernando [Alonso] and Sergio [Perez]. They both drove great races and did a fantastic job,’’ said Hamilton.

“It was pretty eventful race: it was difficult trying to judge the best time to change from Extreme Wets to Intermediates, and we were probably a little late on that. Today wasn’t perfect – making the call for slicks is always a risk, and the others went a bit earlier than us. In general, we lost some time in the pitstops and I was pushed out of the fight somewhat. But, all in all, it’s been a positive weekend and I’m not too frustrated. My aim for this season was always to be consistent – I did it in 2007 so I’m trying to repeat that,’’ concluded Hamilton.

When queried about the incident with Narain, last week’s winner at Melbourne, Jenson Button said: “Today was a pretty difficult day; pretty much everything that could have gone wrong in the race did go wrong. A lot of my issues were brought on when I wiped my front wing off at the start: I locked up the rears, couldn’t slow the car down and hit Karthikeyan, which was a bit frustrating. So I had to pit for a new nose, and that was pretty much it.’’

Kobayashi of Sauber and Grosjean of Lotus F1 team failed to finish while Kimi Raikkonen did the fastest lap at 1:40.722. The next race will be at Shanghai, China on April 25.

ends

 Sepang (Kuala Lumpur), 23 March 2012: Two of the major issues that came out of the second FIA press conference of the 2012 Formula One World Championship Petronal Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday are the cost-cutting measures and the Force India case against Lotus (presently rechristened Caterham).

The Friday press conference was attended by F1 team principals or their representatives viz

Riad ASMAT (Caterham), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Gerard LOPEZ (Lotus), Martin WHITMARSH (McLaren), Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari) and Christian HORNER (Red Bull).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Riad, if I can start with you, just a quick question about Melbourne to here. I think you were perhaps a bit disappointed with the performance in Melbourne – are things going to be better this weekend?

Riad ASMAT: We’re hoping so, we found reasons why we were disappointed in Melbourne but obviously that’s been sorted. Obviously I still want to second or two definitely, but I think for sure we’ll show some good pace for this weekend. We’re prepared for tomorrow and we’ll see where we go from there.

Does that mean Q2?

RA: We always try, because my head is on the block.

Monisha, first of all the result in Melbourne was what you should have had a year ago I guess. Is that’s the feeling?

Monisha KALTENBORN: No, we don’t want to think about a year ago actually. Indeed we have this time a very good start to the racing season. Our drivers showed an excellent performance during the race, we weren’t that happy with qualifying but we’re glad that overall we could get confirmation on the potential of the C31 and that it’s a good basis for developing further, which will be key this year.

Gerard, you have obviously hired Kimi Räikkönen. When he was perhaps going to Williams, allegedly he was asking for a share in the team. Does he have a share in the team at Lotus? Did he ask for a share of the team?

Gerard LOPEZ: No he didn’t and no he doesn’t. It’s that clear. I don’t know where that came from. It probably came from his previous negotiations but we would not hire anybody, a driver, by selling shares of the team, that’s kind of a nonsense thing.

You wouldn’t want to give a shareholding to a…

GL: No, I mean he’s a driver, and that’s it, so you pay him as a driver. You don’t make him a co-owner of the team, that’s kind of an odd way of dealing with drivers. It would be for us in any case.

Martin, I mentioned this yesterday to Jenson, it was interesting in the preview to the race Lewis talked about how Jenson had the ability to light up the tyres in Melbourne at the start of the race when he pulled away and also after the safety car. Is that something you’ve noticed? Is that something that’s been manifesting itself in testing?

Martin WHITMARSH: I don’t think we’ve noticed it as a particularly significant phenomena. Clearly it depends where you are with tyre heating but I think in that race both drivers were able to get the tyres going pretty quickly. They’re very different conditions from here, obviously. It was pretty good for both of them, I think.

So that’s not going to be something that’s an issue?

MW: Well I think circumstance here is quite a lot different – I think it’s pretty easy to over-heat the tyres here.

Stefano, give us an update today. Have things changed, has anything changed in comparison to Melbourne?

Stefano DOMENICALI: I don’t think so, to be honest with you. In one week I think it is important at least as we already said we have identified issues on the car and we are working at home to solve it. At the moment we need to maximise what we’re doing on the track and that’s it.

So we don’t expect anything different?

SD: I don’t know. In the race everything can happen, so we need to be focussed then. And of course with no magic stick you can’t do anything.

Christian, it’s a measure of the team’s success last year that we expect you to be at the front all the time. Not today necessarily, and well, you were very close in Melbourne. What about today? Tell us about the results today.

Christian HORNER: Well firstly Melbourne was an exciting race and congratulations to McLaren who put on a great show there. We did our best to try to get amongst it but Jenson drove an excellent race. The McLarens again looked very strong today, I think Mercedes were also looking quick, and it’s a tighter field this year. I think the midfield has bunched up as well. We’ve worked through a programme today. Obviously with the limitation in testing there is, both drivers have worked through different programmes, had a look at the two tyre compounds and tried to do our preparation for the race on Sunday. All the forecasts say it’s going to be dry for the rest of the weekend. Occasionally you look up and you think there’s a big thundershower coming.

Now, a question for you all but starting with Stefano. Obviously the story of the last few days has been the possible flotation of Formula One and I guess you’ve had a look at a draft, I guess you’ve all seen a draft and you know something about it. What are your views on it, looking at Formula One as a whole but also your own particular teams? How is it going to benefit your own particular teams and Formula One? How is it going to affect your own particular teams?

SD: First of all I mean nothing to comment on what are the speculations coming out because you never know what is the reality at the end. What I can see is that there are ongoing discussions that are, as I said, ongoing, going ahead. At the moment the situation seems to be reasonable but nothing more than what I’m seeing now.

Christian…

CH: What are we speculating on? You didn’t say…

The floatation of Formula One.

CH: Oh, floatation. I though you said flirtation… at the end of the day it’s not down to us, it’s down to the shareholders, it’s down to CVC and Bernie. It’s their business at the end of the day, not the teams.

Will you benefit, you as a team, would it benefit Formula One?

CH: Possibly, possibly. We’re not involved in the detail. I heard that there is potential discussion and it’s an interesting concept.

Martin…

MW: I don’t think it will benefit us as a team. I don’t think, but again I have no detail of proposals anyway. But generally floatations and change of ownership aren’t done for the benefit of a sport. I think what us as race teams need to concentrate on is putting a show on here and clearly the owners can decide what they do with the asset.

Gerard, your thoughts on that?

GL: As I said, there are no details out there and floatation can mean many things. If you take to the market a minority share it doesn’t change anything in ownership, it gives more liquidity to the owners, maybe more money to the sport, so as long as there are no details on what might by IPO’d or not, I don’t think there is much to be discussed because it can mean many, many things to many people. It really depends on what you’re going to take to the market.

MK: On the flotation itself, we also do not know more, so anything I guess we’d say is mere speculation. As a team, what’s important to us is that whoever owns Formula One should prepare the sport to face the challenges, which we all will be (facing), and to create parameters whereby running a team can be sustainable for everyone here.

RA: Mere speculation I guess. On my side, we focus on what we do best and what we’re doing right now, and if anything comes along, we’ll review it and see what’s beneficial.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia EFE) A question for Stefano Domenicali. I want to know exactly what the situation is inside your team and I want to know how you feel yourself. Are you concerned, are you worried, are you scared, are you angry? How are you feeling?

SD: For sure, I’m disappointed by the performance of the car, no doubt. But on the other hand what I need to make sure is that at home we need to push on the development of the car because we know what are the problems with this car from the other weekend. Nothing has changed on that. I am confident that our engineers will solve the issues we have as quickly as possible because in such a close field a little step makes a difference, and in such a close battle, when you are in a difficult moment, you need to score points because everything can happen. So that’s something, it is clear. Not happy as I said but not to be happy doesn’t help, and I’ve asked my engineers to be focused on the job because that is what they have to do.

Q: (Naoise Holohan – Manipe F1) Another one to Stefano. Can you give us an update on Felipe’s situation? Has the chassis change solved the problems he had in Melbourne?

We had a programme today with some changes on the car to verify some different configurations and tomorrow we will have let’s say the best package, because in this moment I would say for him it’s important to feel the confidence around him. Not only him because the team has a lot of pressure, so that’s the status of the art we have done today.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Today we saw another big gap in the afternoon between Felipe and Fernando. Is it due to the different work that they did, or is it something more? The second question is about if you can describe… we wrote a lot about you travelling back home. Can you describe what is the situation there, what did you and Pat (Fry) did there?

SD: In terms of what we have seen today we were trying to work with different programmes on two different drivers and tomorrow we will see the situation. Today there is nothing I can say that is going to one direction or the other. The work of today was done in order to make sure that tomorrow Felipe has the best car in the best condition. This is the thing we have to give to him.

On the other hand, what we did was to make sure that the focus on the programme has to be there at home with the engineers, mainly in the aerodynamic department. I’ve asked Pat to be spot on, on the case, in order to make sure that now that there is a lot of meat on the fire, we need to make sure this meat will be delivered as quickly as possible, as there is no time to lose.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) To Gerard Lopez. During your ownership with the team is this the best starting point to a new season with a new car?

GL: Yeah, it really is. In terms of the whole package it’s the most complete one we had. We had a good chance last, but then we obviously lost one of our drivers. I think now we have complete drivers, the car’s good. We pushed the envelope without going crazy on certain things, it had to be within certain borders. So far we’re pretty confident. We said at the beginning of the season that fourth place in the championship is what we’re looking for and I think the package right now is probably able to deliver that, but the season’s just started. It feels quite OK right now.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) A question for Riad. Are you expecting any repercussions from either the governing body or the legal system regarding the court case with Force India, given that the judge found… I’ve got a couple of comments and I read through the judgement last night, that your team did actually copy bits of Force India’s intellectual property and that parts found their way onto your car?

RA: I’ve got no comment on that but I think the judge has already given his judgement. If anything were to happen, I can’t say for FIA or Force India or whoever it is, if anything happens they’ll inform us. But I’m quite clear in terms of where we are with our positioning and we’re fine.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Christian, I just wondered if you’d managed to speak to Charlie (Whiting) since I spoke to you this morning?

CH: No.

Q: So you’ve still got no clarification yet on the Mercedes rear wing?

CH: I haven’t personally spoken to him. I think there has been a bit of debate obviously about the Mercedes rear wing and you know, assuming the car has passed scrutineering, at the moment you have to assume that the FIA are happy with the configuration that the Mercedes car’s in.

Q: So is that the end of the matter for yourself then?

CH: Probably not. I think the biggest thing for all of us – I’m not the only one – I think there are probably other gentlemen that are keen for clarity going forward. Is it something that’s accepted as a clever interpretation, and hats off to Mercedes if it is, or is it something that you know isn’t permissible moving forward. I think that’s the most important thing to resolve and it would be nice to come out of this weekend with that clarity.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) I’ve got a question for all six of you. Could each of you look at the role of the team principal at your particular team? Obviously some teams have a team principal that goes to every race and is very hands on and at other teams he’s happy to let other members of the team do different jobs.

MK: In our team, Peter Sauber is the founder of the team, and the team’s gone through a quite awkward time, especially since 2010. So I think it’s been important for us that since he is the founder he stands for certain stability and continuity, which was important in the last two years. But everyone has seen that over these years he has started to step back a little. He doesn’t particularly enjoy going to all the races, and it’s of course up to him to whether he will want to change anything, but I guess it’s important for us, because of our specific situation, that he is around.

RA: Well, I do have a team principal but he’s sort of broken down all rules. Obviously I go to most of the races and I run hands-on with the team that I have and it seems to work. He does it with all his other entities and it seems to be working quite well.

GL: In our case, Eric manages the team as a team principal should, as far as we’re concerned, and also for the fact that unfortunately or fortunately, I have other things to do, so I can’t devote my time to Formula One, as much as I probably sometimes would. He plays the role and acts as a team principal, which is the way we understand it.

MW: I think in our team the team principal enjoys going to all the races. Whether the race team enjoy him going to all the races I don’t know, but I go because I quite enjoy it. We like to think we’re hands-on but I suspect they just humour us most of the time.

SD: Of course, it depends on different teams but on my side for sure I’m not really involved in the technical side of it, because I delegate these things to the people that should follow that. The team is an entity where there are a lot of things that have to go on in terms of organisation, in terms of sponsorship, in terms of commercial activity, in terms of administration, so it’s really a company – because we are part of a group that is bigger – and that’s the way it is. The best situation would be to have a team principal who is not coming to the races because it means that he really has a very very good number two that can delegate everything so that would be the ideal scenario for the future.

CH: We run a pretty old-fashioned structure, I guess, in that I attend all the races. As Stefano says, there are many faculties with a Formula One team these days and you have the responsibility for them on a day-to-day basis, reporting to the shareholders and managing the team on a daily basis. So there’s certainly never a quiet moment, and that’s part of the involvement and challenge of the role. Every day, you drive to work, you’re not quite sure what to expect. It’s both a sport and a business and I think the role during a Grand Prix weekend is certainly quite different to during the week back in the factory, so it’s a multi-faceted role, certainly in our case.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Question to all six of you: Mr Ecclestone has, this past week, confirmed that he has suggested or proposed to CVC that they do list Formula One on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Would you, as team principals, be interested in acquiring equity in the listing individually?

MW: Better ask Gerald, he’s the only one who can afford it.

CH: Certainly from Red Bull’s perspective, we’re an entrant, we’re a team, we’re very happy to be both an entrant and a team and we don’t see a necessity or requirement to have a shareholding.

SD: I can copy what Christian said.

MW: I can’t afford it. I don’t think it’s our business. Our business is that we’re a race team primarily – we’ve got a few other businesses as well now – but being owners of Formula One isn’t something that’s in our plans.

GL: As far as Formula One goes, it might have made sense if all the Formula One teams could afford it, if they all became shareholders in some form or fashion but that’s not going to happen, so as far as investing in Formula One, I think it then becomes purely a financial position and then it falls out of the sport. It’s like if someone wants to invest or not. It’s like any other stuff.

MK: No, I join the gentlemen in front. No.

RA: Definitely not. We’ve got enough challenges in being a Formula One team. We will focus on that.

Q: (Arianna Ravelli – Corriere della Sera) Mr Whitmarsh, McLaren remains involved in FOTA. Are you afraid that this could cause some disadvantages in the negotiations for the new Concorde Agreement?

MW: No, I’m not afraid. Whether it’s through FOTA or by whatever mechanism, I think it’s important that the teams work together to really develop our sport, to make sure that we’re fit for purpose, make sure that we rise to the challenge that Formula One has. We’re a sport, we’re an entertainment, there’s many challenges in front of us and I think there’s been some great examples of co-operation between the teams. There are other challenges that we’ve struggled with but I think we should continue to try and work together.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Christian, last week in the press conference, the team principals that were present confirmed that ten of the twelve had signed a copy of the letter to the FIA regarding cost-cutting and policing of the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA). I believe that your team and your sister team didn’t sign; is there a particular reason for that?

CH: Yeah. We didn’t see the letter. Simple. I can’t sign something I didn’t see. Whether or not we agree with the content is something else. Firstly, I think what I would like to make clear is that Red Bull is absolutely fully behind cost control in Formula One. Whether the RRA is the right route to achieve that is what we question. I believe that letter, from what I read, requested for the FIA to police the RRA which, in our opinion would be the wrong route. We believe full-heartedly in controlling costs in Formula One and not frivolous spending, but we think that there are better ways of doing that and containing that through sporting and technical regulations as opposed to a resource restriction that relies on equivalence and apportionment of time and personnel, which is always tricky in subsidiary companies, particularly of automotive manufacturers. So we would be totally open to any discussion that involves cost control that pursued those avenues.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Continuing on that thread, why would you not want to be policed when ten other teams would agree to that? That would suggest you’ve got something to hide in your accounts or the way you manage your finances?

CH: Or it would suggest that we’re structured in a different way, as a single entity as a race team, and I think that there are things that, when FOTA was first created, did that: clear and tangible restrictions in personnel, restrictions in the amount of engines, restrictions in the amount of gearboxes, restrictions in the amount of testing that has been permitted. All things that you can see policed and genuinely save costs and we think they’re the type of things that should be focused on rather than apportionment of people’s time and equivalence which is, in any formula, in any mechanism, is fraught with problems and difficulties. I think it was well intended at the time but I think – as with all these things – when you drill into the detail, it’s something much harder to police, especially when there are companies or teams which are subsidiaries of other organisations.  So for us we would prefer to keep it simple and go on tangible, measurable items.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Following that up with Martin and Stefano, can you appreciate what Christian is saying?

MW: I think the challenge of controlling costs in Formula One is something that we’ve all had a go at and if you can do it by a simple singular number that you can count, see, feel, touch then it’s quite a nice simple thing to do. So I can relate to everything that Christian has said. We’ve done some of those things, we need to do more, and I think you’ve to carry on. The fact is at the moment we in this room all know that there are Formula One teams that are struggling to survive which tells us that we’re not doing enough and that’s why we’ve got to keep pushing.

SD: What I can add is that for sure that is something that we were discussing. We said – well, we were putting on the table certain conditions for us to be considered part of the general picture, because as we said, this could be a fragment of what is really controlled through the sporting and technical regulations, because that, at the end of the day, is the biggest thing that you can consider tangible and you can see would be some effort in saving money, so I think that overall this is the target we should aim at and I would say that if I have to look at Ferrari’s interests, thank God that our financial situation is really good in terms of general financial position for the future. But we know that the situation of Formula One is not so stable. We know that there are a lot of struggles around so we need to put aside our self-interest a little bit, to make sure that we can look ahead in order to make sure that we are a lot competing in Formula One, because this is a very critical period, where everyone is smiling but we know that it’s very tough.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Brazil) So back to Ferrari’s situation; Stefano, you just said that you know what the Ferrari’s problems are, but at the same time, you’ve brought different chassis and a new car for Felipe…

SD: No, I didn’t say that. I said that in order to make Felipe comfortable in this particular moment, we took different parts of what we have, and so we changed to the spare chassis for Felipe and we changed all the pieces, in order to make sure there was nothing wrong with the car that he used in Melbourne. And with regard to the problems; we know what are the problems and we now we need to tackle them and make sure that these problems that are fundamental, I would say level priority two, will be solved, as quickly as possible, as I said.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Brazil) Could you clarify what these problems are, because you bring in another chassis which delivers another message.

SD: No, no, the chassis is a part of the car. The problems with the car are what I said on Sunday evening after the race in Melbourne, so maybe traction in slow speed corners and speed. These are the two fundamental issues which need to solve.

Q: (Ralf Bach – R&B) To all you six; I have learned that the problem of the Mercedes F-duct is that it’s not that it breaks any regulation but it was only that Ross Brawn, as chief of the technical working group, had more or less broken a gentlemen’s agreement. My question is, how can you break a gentlemen’s agreement? I think you need gentlemen in Formula One for this.

SD: Pubblicita!

MW: Next question.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Christian, back to the letter: does it worry you that ten people had actually left the two Red Bull teams off the list of invitees, and secondly, being one who has never really been slow at coming forward, did you not consider getting a copy of the letter and seeing if you would like to append your signature?

CH: Maybe it will be printed on the internet, you never know. Maybe you’ve got a copy that I can look at later, Dieter. As I’ve said, cost control is something that is important, it’s something that Red Bull fully supports but we don’t agree with the current RRA. Within the RRA you’ve got restricted and non-restricted areas. How on earth can KERS be non-restricted, a gearbox be non-restricted? So open resources and spend allowed on those areas. So that’s why we think a more workable solution… and indeed, we’ve sat down and tried, certainly prior to Christmas, and I don’t think our teams are so different in structure that we can’t find a solution and hopefully, with some productive discussion, moving forward, a solution can be found, to make Formula One cost control for the top teams, but also, importantly, as Martin says, make it affordable for the teams in the middle of the grid and at the back of the grid. The cost to be competitive in Formula One at present is too high. I don’t think anybody will dispute that. The debate is how we achieve it.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Did you not try and get yourself a copy of the letter?

CH: If I don’t agree with the content of the letter then why do I need a copy? Thank you.

Ends

Sepang (Kuala Lumpur), 22 March 2012: Rain greeted the visitors as they entered the Sepang circuit Thursday afternoon but the usual hype about the much-anticipated F1 race is not visible in KL this year.

The team’s could not collect enough data on dry tyres in Melbourne but are hoping to do here in the next two days. It was a packed hall for the first FIA Press Conference of the second Grand Prix of the 2012 Formula One World Championship today.  Answering a query, Schumacher allayed fears and said he is relaxed about racing in Bahrain as F1 returns to the Gulf after the cancellation of last year’s race because of anti-government protests.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Pastor, after your performance in Melbourne, are you optimistic you can manage that at all circuits or do you think it was Melbourne-specific?

Pastor Maldonado: I hope so. I think we did a great start to the season, we’ve been working so hard from the winter just improving our performance in the car. I feel very confident with the team, so it’s looking forward. We can still be competitive though it is early to say but it’s a good start to the season and we’re looking forward, all of us in the team are pushing so hard, so we feel confident.

You must have been devastated by what happened on the last lap, what exactly did happen?

PM: It was a difficult moment for me because I was fighting with Fernando, it was a great fight and very clean and then the last lap I get too close, I was on the kerb on the wrong side of the track and I just lost the car. I’m disappointed for that because of the team result but nothing to do. I’m looking forward, y’know? It’s a new place and a new challenge.

Jean-Eric, first of all tell us about the last lap, but also the first lap, because you had a bit of drama on both the first and last lap – and welcome to your first press conference.

Jean-Eric Vergne: Thank you. First lap, I thought I had quite a good start. I was next to Mark and I don’t really know what happened in the first corner but somebody hit my rear wheel and I went straight in the gravel. I think I lost a lot of positions and I finished the first lap in 17^th. And then I made my way up through the field and I had good pace for the rest of the race. And the last lap was a little confusing. Everybody was in the same pack and I guess I tried a little bit too hard to pass a few people. Kimi was in front of me and… I don’t even know who was in front of him but I lost position again to Daniel, my team-mate and in the last corner I slid a little bit and didn’t have any KERS left and Paul di Resta passed me only by one-tenth.

Obviously looking forward to this race, what have you been doing since Melbourne and how have you prepared for this race?

J-EV: I heard this race was quite tough just because of the conditions, really hot, so I came here quite early, I arrived on Monday night and did some sport with my trainer, visited a little bit Kuala Lumpur and yeah, just getting used to the heat. I’m looking forward to this race. I think we have a good car, the team has me working quite hard and we’re looking quite confident.

Sergio, obviously a repeat of last year for you in Melbourne, making the tyre last all the way through with just one stop. How did you make it work and nobody else try the same strategy?

Sergio Perez: To be honest I had no other option after the safety car. It came in the wrong moment for me. It was going really well ‘til the safety car came. Then we had no option, because if I pit then I was going to lose many positions, so we decided to stay out and I managed the last 20 laps with really old tyres and it was a shame in the end on the last lap I lost two positions due to clash of Pastor. The track was impossible to go through because of yellow flags, I lift quite a bit and then I had contact with Nico and to the end of the lap I lost two positions with my team-mate and Räikkönen.

Looking at that midfield battle it looks incredibly close, everyone’s made a step forward. Have you made a little bit more of a step forward, how do you feel?

SP: I feel really fine now in my second year. I know what to expect a bit more as well, everybody is very close also. The mid teams to the top teams, we are close so in some conditions maybe we can have some surprises from the mid-teams. Hopefully we can have a stable weekend this time, not like Melbourne. It was very difficult to prepare, especially the race. We went out there without knowing what to expect and it was of course difficult conditions.

Michael, the gearbox failure in Melbourne, obviously it wasn’t something you expected but do the team think it’s just a one-off, or is there a design problem? What’s the diagnosis?

Michael Schumacher: Well, it is a one-off. We did quite a few thousand kilometres in winter testing and never had this issue. We understood it though, and fixed it.

And there’s no penalty is there?

MS: No, I took the penalty in the race.

Obviously there are a lot of positives from last weekend – what positives did you take from it?

MS: The basic positive is that we definitely have a much-improved car compared to last year. Still we have to learn it and understand it in all circumstances to take the benefit and the full performance from it, as we have seen in the race with Nico, so there is still something to learn, but we’re positive that we can improve quite a bit, in race pace in particular.

Jenson, you’ve won here in the past, you were a winner last weekend, your team-mate interestingly enough said you managed to switch the tyres on, that you seemed to understand the tyres better. Do you think that was your advantage last weekend?

Jenson Button: I really don’t know. I think we all try to do the best job we can with the tyres but personally I don’t feel the tyres were a big issue for anyone in Melbourne. They seemed to be very consistent and we didn’t have degradation like we do at other circuits, like here, so I feel that I had a good balance with the car, I had a lot of confidence in the car and yeah, I think the consistency was pretty good throughout the race. Obviously we had the scare with the safety car for us – it’s always tough when you’re leading by ten or eleven seconds, to suddenly find a car right up behind you again. But I think we made good use of the safety car in the end and were able to come home and get a very important victory for the whole team.

You’ve won here from pole and also had your first podium here. It’s a circuit you quite like isn’t it?

JB: It is. It’s so different to last weekend, it’s very fast and flowing, very smooth compared to a street circuit and the tyres. It’s always more difficult for the tyres around here. But obviously we have the hard and the medium compound and they’re both pretty hard compounds, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I think it’s just the temperature and the humidity that will be the biggest issue for them. And it’s one of those places where you really don’t know what the weather’s going to do. When I previously won here it was cut short, the race, because of a red flag. That’s the thing here, normally it doesn’t just rain, it chucks it down. So, if it does rain this weekend we hope we can continue racing because it’s a great circuit.

Fernando, is that going to make a difference to Ferrari this weekend? Obviously a street circuit last weekend and you qualified some way down but a great race up to fifth. Hopefully the change of circuit will make a difference to you?

Fernando Alonso: I’m not sure. Hopefully yes but I don’t think so, to be honest. We have been testing at different circuits: Jerez, Barcelona and then in Australia with more or less the same car with the same problems on it. The cars are nearly identical for everybody compared with Australia, I guess, so I don’t think there will be big surprises here. Let’s wait and see, and try to adapt the car to the circuit, the conditions, the heat. Then, yes, as you said, the qualifying. We saw the true performance, we are not as competitive as we want, probably, but then in the race anything can happen. In Australia with a good start and the stops and the strategy you can put yourself in a decent place. We will try to do a similar race here and try to defend as many points as possible.

And this is a circuit where you got your first pole position, your first podium in 2003, you have two pole positions and two wins as well, a circuit you enjoy?

FA: Yeah, definitely. It will be one of my favourite circuits always because your first pole position in Formula One you always remember, the first podium you always remember, and both things happened here in 2003. So, it’s a circuit I love to drive. It’s quite technical and quite interesting. At the same time, after the accident of Marco [Simoncelli] last year racing here will be always sad, a little bit, knowing that one of our colleagues died here. It will be always difficult to race.

Questions from the floor

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Two questions for Michael. The first one is about this year, about the new ‘W-Duct’. Some people are already saying that due to the very long straights here you already have a pole position, do you agree?

MS: Certainly not. There is no doubt that we have an innovation that gives us some performance but I don’t think that it is a huge performance and that we only live from this. We’ll find out. I can’t really quantify this.

Q: But it will be better than Melbourne?

MS: Well, you’re probably talking in terms of nature of the track that it will another slight advantage but I think some get a little bit too excited about this compared to reality but that’s the usual story.

Q: And the second question is the story: do you remember well the first grand prix here in 1999?

MS: I do yes. I still have good memories of that.

Q: Are you in touch, from time to time, with Eddie Irvine?

MS: No, not really. I see his sister every so often and I see him maybe once a year and that’s about it.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, how can you manage the situation at Ferrari? It’s the third year for you at Ferrari and the third year you are catching up somebody in front of you. How can you stay calm and relaxed and composed in such a situation?

FA: This is Formula One. There is not an easy time for anybody. We need to work hard every day and night to normally catch up people in these three years. But anyway, you know, the experience has been fantastic. As you all know, fighting for the world championship in the first year and then last year with one win and ten podiums. Obviously, the target is always to win the world championship but it was not possible the last two years. This year we are convinced that we will fight for it. We need to stay focused and work more than the others knowing that we are a little bit behind now. But the championship is long. We stay calm, we stay focused, because we see a lot of determination in the team. We see the team with a very good atmosphere, (we) trust each other in the team, we are very united, so the time will come to us very soon.

Q (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, what is your state of mind right now? Are you nervous , are you angry, are you anxious. How do you feel yourself?

FA: I’m calm. Obviously, knowing we need to work, we need to catch up the guys in front. We are not in the situation we wanted to start the 2012 championship but after 11 years in Formula One I think you understand how long the championship is, what you need when you have the best and what you need when you don’t have the best car – which is sometimes more points or less points. But as far as our targets and our goals (are concerned) we need to score as many points as possible in these couple of races and in a very short period of time try to be on the podium and win races. If we manage to do that we have plenty of races to recover the gap. If we don’t manage to do that it’s because someone else did a better job than us. We just need to wait and see but I have 100 per cent trust in the team.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) A question for Jenson. I presume with these two races between you weren’t able to let your down too much these last few days.

JB: What do you mean by that?

Q: Having a good night out.

JB: No, I didn’t. I think we’re pretty focused on this weekend. It was pretty important to relax after the race because it was a great victory for us. I had a nice evening with friends and family as we all know that’s the best way to celebrate a great event. And then Monday/Tuesday I spent a couple of days in Melbourne just relaxing and then arrived here yesterday. It’s actually been quite a nice few days. Got here yesterday and thought it was quite important to get used to the humidity, because it’s quite different to Melbourne. Yeah, it’s been nice, it always is after winning a grand prix and you’re always very excited about the next grand prix and obviously your aim is to do exactly the same again.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) A quick question for Fernando. You touched earlier on Marco Simoncelli here. Do you have any special tribute planned, anything, a black armband, on your helmet, anything?

FA: Nothing planned. We did one picture this afternoon, Felipe and me and members of the team in Turn 11, where the accident happened and I think that will be the memory for him, and the whole Ferrari family and the Italian people will remember him always and that’s the most important thing.

Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, is it true that you have a visibility problem from your cockpit?

FA: No.

Q: (Abishek Takle – Reuters) Michael, we’ve seen that the Mercedes has pretty strong qualifying pace. Do you think you have the race pace to finish on the podium, given that you and your car seem to be a bit heavy on the tyres?

MS: We certainly understood in Melbourne that we have to do a better job in terms of race pace. I don’t think we would have been able to achieve a podium in Melbourne, despite going all the way through. Probably a fifth place would have been the max that we could have had. Nevertheless, we have good ideas how to improve on what we learned from Melbourne. Whether that means we’re going to be on the podium or not, that’s another story because you obviously have at least four cars which are very strong, with two McLarens, two Red Bulls and then you have quite a big group of cars which are very close to each other. So it’s going to be a challenge for all of us.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Question for the front row: not sure how closely you follow football but you may be aware that there was a player who had a cardiac arrest on the pitch. I’m just wondering if one of you could outline the health and medical tests you do throughout the year?

JB: Well, we all have a medical test for our licences, that is the only thing that we’re obligated to do. Yeah, most of us do a lot of fitness, we keep ourselves in pretty good shape as it is quite a physical sport. That’s as far as it goes for me.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Obviously professional footballers are very fit as well, but you can’t see these things coming. Would that be something that would concern you?

JB: It’s very different for a footballer. For us we’re obviously racing for quite a long period of time, and it’s more endurance. For them, there’s a lot of sprinting involved, it’s very peaky in terms of heart rate and what have you. It’s very different  to what we do. I read about it in the newspaper as well. It’s pretty scary to see and it’s happened quite a few times with footballers. I don’t know what the reason for it is. There’s no point in even trying to speculate but it’s obviously a very physical sport and they’re pushing themselves to the limit and I’m guessing that’s possibly the reason why.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A pair of questions for Michael: you drove a lot for Ferrari. How do you explain the situation they are in now? You are very close to Felipe; what do you suggest to him at this very critical moment for him?

MS: First of all, concerning Felipe, if I look at all the winter testing I think it was very clear that the two drivers were very close together. If you look at the optimum lap time achieved in the Barcelona tests, it’s again very close. So to see the big difference that we saw in Melbourne, I can only assume there must have been something not right for him. He’s been around for so long. He’s been fighting for the championship in 2009, he’s always been up front so I don’t see any reason why he should not be capable of doing so in the future. I trust he will do so, and that the team will do their utmost to give him the support that he needs.

The first of your questions: there’s no reason to speculate because I’m not inside so I don’t know the details and there’s no reason for me to comment.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sergio, there have been a few rumours these days of your name linked to Ferrari should Ferrari decide to replace Felipe. How do you take these rumours, and what do you think about them?

SP: Well, it’s only the first race of the season so it’s very early to speculate. I’m really focused with my team, with Sauber. I think we have a great car and there’s nothing more that I can say, just focused on my team, to try to make as many points as possible because we have a very competitive car and I was to trying to make the most out of the car we have. Melbourne was a difficult weekend for me because I had the gearbox issue so I couldn’t do a lap in qualifying so I qualified last and finished eighth. So it was a good race, and hopefully this weekend we can manage a good weekend. And as for the rumours… they are only rumours.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, when you say that Ferrari and you are going to defend yourselves in this race, are you aiming for fifth or sixth position, as in Melbourne, or do you think you could do something better or are you looking at Lotus who had a pretty difficult race, and it could be problematic for Ferrari to finish in front of them?

FA: We’ll see. I think we need to wait and see at the start of free practice. We don’t have a crystal ball to envisage our position. I think we need to see how competitive we can be here on this different circuit. As I said, we don’t expect any big miracles from Australia to Malaysia because the cars are identical but who knows? In Australia, no one thought that we could finish fifth. I think there were two McLarens, two Red Bulls, McLarens (he may mean Mercedes), Saubers, Toro Rossos so there were a lot of people quicker than us. In the race, for different reasons, with some mechanical problems as Michael had, Grosjean crashed on lap three/lap four, Kimi was out in Q1 so there were some incidents in the race that helped us finish fifth. Here, with a normal race, maybe we will finish further behind, maybe with a more crazy race or rain or something, we can finish in front, so we have to play before we see what we can do.

Q: (Carlos Miguel Gomez – La Gaceta) Michael, one of the last times you were here with Fernando was in 2003; as you may remember Fernando was a young guy and put his finger up to the rest on pole. Did you believe then that that guy could become a World Champion?

MS: I don’t know when I started to think that Fernando might be World Champion, but I think his talent has proved that from early stages onwards… I still remember a very good race that you did with Minardi – I think it may even be the first race in Australia. I think he proved his point straight away.

Q: (Carlos Miguel Gomez – La Gaceta) And the second question is for the poleman of 2003 (Alonso): in which race do you expect Ferrari’s big step forward?

FA: I don’t think it will be one race in which we change the car. This is up to you that you write that there will be a new car coming. I think at every race we will try to make improvements as we did over the last few years and it won’t be just for us; I think everyone will make updates at every race. We just need to make ours work a little bit more. Obviously we have a little advantage from that because our car needs more speed and maybe it’s easier for us to find than for some others whose cars are maybe more developed than ours. New parts will slowly come at every race and hopefully they work, but there’s not one magic race or one magic moment when we think things can change. I think we will work day and night and as I said before; the team is very focused on that and I see great reaction from everybody, so I expect a strong Ferrari soon.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR)  Pastor, it was a brilliant drive in Melbourne but in the early stage of the race you made contact with Grosjean and people at Lotus are very unhappy about this. Romain said you didn’t leave space for him in the corner. Can you describe your point of view of this incident?

PM: I think that I was completely in front. The overtaking manoeuvre was at the entry of the corner and I was quite surprised because the Lotus suspension seemed really fragile because the contact was minimal and it was not intentional. It was a clear movement, so it was a bit disappointing for Romain because he did a very good job, especially in qualifying. The car even looks pretty strong but this is racing.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Pastor, you said earlier in the press conference that you’re over your last lap accident; has it actually been easy to put that behind you these past few days, because I ask that more from the team perspective because you were on course to take more points in that one race than Williams managed throughout the entire season last year?

PM: Yeah, for sure. For sure all the team – even myself – were a bit disappointed because we missed a great opportunity to score some important points but this is racing. I think it was my mistake and now we need to look forward, turn the page. I think our car is competitive at the moment, we need to keep pushing like that, keep concentrated, keep working, focused. This is going to be a new challenge for us because the track is completely different, but we need to believe in our performance and hopefully we will again be in the top ten and fighting for good places.

Q: (Anno Hecker – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) This is a political one for the front row: last year’s race in Bahrain was cancelled. We all know the reasons why; the government is still in place, in five weeks’ time Formula One will race there. What are your thoughts about that?

JB: I think for us, as you know, this is a very difficult subject and personally, from my point of view, we need to look to the FIA – for all of us – for common sense. We will go with what they have to say.

MS: I’m honestly pretty relaxed to go there. From our perspective, one is obviously that we’re going to be very well looked after, because they might foresee whatever and will be prepared. I’ve quite a few good friends over there and I’m pretty sure that for them it’s a very important event and they just want to make everybody happy. If you look around the world, you probably find other places where there might be the possibility that we could have the same reasons to think about and we don’t. So at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that they’re going to do their utmost and we’re going to be OK.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, I saw a picture in the newspaper – I don’t know if you saw in Australia your girlfriend had a special T-shirt for you which said ‘Jenson press all my buttons.’ Did you see that after the race?

JB: I actually saw the T-shirt before the race to be fair. It was just after. Yeah, it was a gift from a fan. I think someone was trying to do some publicity for their T-shirt company. She was given it as a gift as we entered the circuit. It’s not mine which is quite annoying. Do I push her buttons? I think that one’s a little bit too private.

Ends

Melbourne, 18 March 2012: Team McLaren began the year with a bang as former World Champion Jenson Button outwitted his own teammate Lewis Hamilton, who started on Pole and Red Bull rival Sebastian Vettel, to take the first victory of the season and his third here in Melbourne at the Albert Park on Sunday.

The Formula One World Championship first race, the Australian Grand Prix threw an unexpected line-up for points with the unlucky exit to Pastor Maldanado in the very last lap and Force India picked up its first point with Paul Di Resta taking the tenth place. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg who started on 9^th became a victim of the first corner pile-up as he was hit from back.

The only Indian, Narain Karthikeyan did not start as his team HRT was debarred from the starting grid as both their cars failed to pass the 107 per cent rule.

The fourth and final FIA press conference was attended by race winner Jenson Button, second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who came third. The FIA Release:

 TV UNILATERALS

Jenson you took the lead at the start, controlled the race, sum up your emotions?

Jenson Button: I think, as we all know sat here, every win means a lot to you, and for us as a team it really shows how important the winter is. We’ve had a strong winter – yesterday’s qualifying really showed that – so it’s nice to come away with a victory today (at the) first race of the new season. The guys back at Woking have done an amazing job this winter. This will definitely help them to push harder into the extra hours in the morning when they’re making that extra little part. So, big thank you to everyone at Woking and the whole of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team for this victory here in Melbourne.

Sebastian, sixth on the grid, unaccustomed for you, but second at the end, which is a bit more normal. The Safety Car did the trick for you to get past Lewis with 20 laps to go.

Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, nevertheless I think we would have had a good shot at him because it was very close and I was quite quick and I decided to stay out and he went to the pits so I think we would have had a crack even without the Safety Car, it would have been very close but surely it did help a little bit. Nevertheless, I think it was a great race. Quite a lot of fun. A good start initially but then I was surprised by Nico. He had a very good start. I got a bit stuck at the inside, I didn’t really have an option on where to go and he got past and then I had two Mercedes ahead. I got past Nico very quickly – which was a great manouevre, on edge. And then I was behind Michael where I had a mistake, went off in the first corner and then he decided to do exactly the same the next time I got close to him. That was good. And then, obviously, catching up the McLarens. I think all in all, congratulations to McLaren and to Jenson, he drove a fantastic race and was unbeatable today but I’m very happy to come away with second, it’s a lot of points. I think a lot of people would not have expected that after the result of yesterday. I think we had a better car in the race and the car seems to have a lot of potential and it’s up to us to get to it. Then we should be very close to these guys but I think it was a great day and thanks to everyone for pushing so hard and making the race result today possible.

Lewis, you look dejected. It wasn’t your day today, was it?

Lewis Hamilton: No. First of all, congratulation to Jenson he did a fantastic job and congratulations to the team for doing a great job over the winter. Yeah it as just a bit of a tough day but we have plenty of races ahead so I just have to keep my head down.

Back to you Jenson: how did you feel when the Safety Car came out? You had built up a 10-second cushion. Did you think ‘uh-oh, I’m in trouble here’?

JB: Yeah, you always do, especially when it’s so cold. It’s late in the afternoon, the sun’s dropping, it’s difficult to keep heat in the tyres. That’s the last thing you want leading the pack round to the restart. I was a little bit on edge but I was able to keep heat in the tyres, save a lot of fuel, which I think was quite important for us, and get a good restart. The team said push as hard as you can for two laps after the restart to get a gap. I was able to do that which I was very happy about

And then it was about controlling the pace until the end of the race. Yeah, it was a pretty amazing day.

Sebastian, from your side when the Safety Car came out? Your feelings and how quickly were you made to make that decision?

SV: We decided to stay out when Lewis came in, then the Safety Car came out. I’m not sure, maybe it helped us a little bit to get past Lewis. We had a great stop so I think that was the most important thing. And then when the Safety Car came, yeah, I thought I would be in a good place or a good position to have a go at Jenson… but I didn’t! He was just too quick. Two corners and he seemed to be gone and I was struggling to get up to speed. I think I held up Lewis, he was a couple of laps very close with the DRS enabled, so it wasn’t very easy to get away from him but Jenson was out of sight. So there was no way we could have stayed with him. He completely deserved to win today.

Lewis, your feelings when you saw the back of that Red Bull in front of you having taken your second place? You had a go to try and get it back again in the final stages?

LH: Yeah, very similar to the position I was in last year. It was quite a tough race but it was still quite positive for the team to come here with good pace and so hopefully we can take that on to the next race.

Jenson, we go next to Malaysia. You’ll be looking for another win there I’m sure. Stiff competition though, we in for a competitive season clearly. How are you feeling after this first race?

JB: We all think this year is a very special year in Formula One. Last year was also, having five world champions but having six world champions and so many competitive teams – it’s good to see Formula One is in a great place right now. It’s a great sport to be a part of right now. Very excited heading to Malaysia but I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m going to enjoy myself with the team this afternoon/evening, with my friends and family. Then tomorrow I’ll turn my attention to Malaysia.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Jenson, your third win here, this place must be getting a bit special for you?

JB: Yeah. And I’ve actually stayed in the same bedroom those three years. We arrived this year and my missus said ‘we’re actually in the same bedroom when you won those two previous years’ – so maybe that’s the reason why.

SV: Next year you get a different one…

JB: yeah, whatever… but every race you win, as we all know here, is very special but I think starting the year strong for this team is really important and the last two years for us have been tricky coming into the first race, so to come away with Lewis’ pole yesterday and the victory today, I think puts us in a great position for the next few races and on the right foot. Big thank you to everyone within the team who’s worked so hard. I saw our mechanics this morning who said ‘this curfew’s great – it’s the first rest we’ve had since the start of the year’, so big thanks to all of them and everyone at Woking that’s worked those extra hours to get these extra parts out and… yeah. Fantastic day.

You seemed to pull away progressively at the start of the race, then got a margin and then that margin seemed to stabilise. What was it like at the start of the race?

JB: The first few laps I knew I had to push hard. I knew that Lewis would be right on my tail and I obviously had to try to get away because of the DRS after lap two, so that was important. But I think we’re all going into a bit of the unknown in the race. The longest run I did was about eight laps on Friday – and obviously the conditions were very different. So, going into the race, trying to understand what wing angle to use, tyre pressure and everything was very tricky. I think we got it close but it wasn’t quite right but the second and third runs for me were much better. We had more of an understanding of what the car felt like in the first stint and the second and third ones were much stronger. All in all I’m happy with the car, there were a few areas where I think it could have been a little bit better – but I think we did a pretty damn good job this weekend.

And the difference in tyres for you

JB: Yeah, there is a difference and it’s a difference in balance more than anything else. The biggest worry was the safety car. When you’ve pulled a ten second gap, or you’ve got a ten second gap it’s a great place to be. You can control it to some extent but as soon as the safety car comes out and it’s six o’clock in the evening, it’s difficult to keep temperature in those tyres and we found that last year and the year before, so that was a big worry for me. We all try to keep as much temperature in the tyres but when you actually push, it’s a very different feeling and it’s very easy to lock-up and grab a tyre. That didn’t happen, I was able to pull a good gap again in order to get out of the DRS zone and then try to control the pace – but Seb put in some pretty quick laps in the end and I had to just put a couple in just to keep the gap – but we did it in the end.

Sebastian, for you, you had quite a few battles, not just with Lewis at the end but also with Michael. It was quite a lively race for you.

SV: Yeah, the start was surely pretty interesting, so I enjoyed that. I think I had a good start first off, getting off the line was important. Then it’s a bit tricky here because Turn One is quite difficult to find the right point to hit the brakes. But I was quite surprised when Nico all of a sudden arrived from the outside. I think I got a bit stuck. Surely you don’t, y’know, want to leave the door open at the inside, he used the opportunity and, yeah, great start for him. Nevertheless I think I was happy with how the first two corners went and from there I felt pretty quickly that yeah, McLarens are pulling away, bye-bye, and I had to make sure that we are not losing too much ground. I felt that we were quicker than the Mercedes. I got past Nico fairly early, which was important, and then with Michael I did a mistake going into the first corner. I was a bit surprised, obviously I was in the DRS and I arrived a fair bit quicker than the lap before which caught me out. Fortunately I kept the position against Nico, and then had another go at Michael and, yeah, he was very kind, he did exactly the same mistake I did a couple of laps earlier, so that was good. Then it was quite surprising to see how we were able to catch Lewis in a way. I think the second stints were fairly, yeah we had the same pace: Lewis was a bit quicker in the beginning; I seemed to be a bit quicker at the end just when we lined up for the last round of stops and I decided to stay out when he pitted which I think was the right decision. I think we would have had a little bit of a go anyway, but then the safety car came out. I’m not sure, I think it might have helped us a little bit, anyway we got him at the stop, so great job from the guys at the pitbox, and after that, yeah, obviously I thought I’d have another go at Jenson but yeah, the first two or three corners after the restart he was already quite far away. I was struggling, at that time I was holding Lewis up a little bit and he [Jenson] was pulling away too much. I think once I got settled the lap times weren’t too bad, the speed wasn’t too bad but I think overall he was too quick today for the whole race. So, out-of-sight. Nevertheless, I think it was a very positive race for us, we knew it would be a difficult one, so to come away with second and a lot of points is very important and I think the car has a lot of potential. Obviously we would have loved to have been in a better position yesterday but as I said, we did a lot of laps and I think we understood more about the car and, yeah, now we need to address the problems and make sure that we give them a harder time next week.

Q: Were you happy with the gear ratios because at one time we thought you were hitting the rev limiter?

SV: Yeah, I don’t think it’s a secret – we were quite aggressive and I was happy with the ratios. Obviously overtaking around here is quite difficult, we know it’s difficult even if you have perfect gears for overtaking, so we decided on the best compromise. I think it worked out, to be honest. I think we had good pace in the race and we still got past people so that was good. The only manoeuvre which I think was a bit borderline was when Lewis was just getting past Perez in turn one and then I lined up for turn three and I’m not sure if he saw me.. It was very close to the outside there, so I need to have a word with him, but other than that it was fine.

Q: Lewis, what happened at the start, because it was almost as though when you changed into second or third gear the car seemed to hesitate or bog down?

LH:  I’m not really sure what happened but I lost at least too many positions.

Q: And during that first round of pit stops you seemed to lose around five or six seconds? I didn’t see how you lost it.

LH: Me neither.

Q: How about the tyres?

LH: I had some degradation on my first set although probably similar to others.

Q: And how hard was Webber pushing at the end?

LH: Yeah, he was very quick. I damaged my tyres behind Sebastian, then I decided to drop back a little bit so I had some clear air but Mark was definitely putting pressure on.

Q: And with DRS and KERS you were unable to get past Sebastian.

LH: Yeah, they were very quick down the straight, so there was no chance of getting past.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Lewis, in the unilateral, Sebastian said if you hadn’t lost that place under the safety car he thought he would have been able to have a go at you. Do you agree with that, was your car running perfectly or were your problems going to slow you down at that stage?

LH: I didn’t generally have great pace, so he may or may not have got passed me, who knows? It doesn’t really matter. He did in the end.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, three victories in four years, you will probably apply for Australian citizenship, but how different were these victories compared to the two others that you had here in Melbourne?

JB: It’s very different to 2010 when there were obviously strange conditions, a wet start and then drying out. Yeah, very different to 2010. Compared to 2009, I was on pole that time but the race…

SV: … it was too easy for you in 2009

JB: ‘Too easy’, let’s not talk about that, eh? 2009 was good, yeah, but still in the last stint I was struggling in 2009, because the tyres were obviously working very differently but this time, all the way through the stints the car felt good. I think there was a good balance between pace at the start of the stint and pace at the end of the stint. I think I came away feeling that in terms of the balance we had over this weekend and for this race, and the way that we handled the tyres was probably better than any year I’ve raced here.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, we rarely have the chance to see you fighting in the race. Tell us your experience, what did you learn, is it so different than being at the front from the start of the race?

SV: I think generally… to be honest, I don’t really understand the question. People already asked yesterday, ‘how do you deal with the disaster of sixth place on the grid?’ I don’t think it was a disaster. They said we were in the shit, then other people behind us, they were at the back of the shit. We didn’t have the best day yesterday, maybe that’s true, but nevertheless, I think I was quite confident going into the race. I felt I can do better, my eyes were on the front, not looking into the mirrors too much. I think the racing has already been like this last year when you had pit stops and to make the strategy work you had to pass a couple of guys quickly. It was a little bit the same today, obviously, all the time for position, at the beginning of the race, right after the lights went out, so in that regard, it was a bit different maybe to the majority of last year, but it’s not as if it’s a completely new situation. Most importantly last year, we didn’t allow ourselves to get used to it and therefore it was nothing out of the ordinary, today, to start from P6 and we know that, as I said, there’s a long race ahead of us and opportunities to fight. My target was to win the race and now I came second, I think the winner totally deserves to win that race, and therefore it was our maximum, and I’m very happy with that.

Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Jenson, I missed your victory salute; was it the W or was it a V for victory or what?

JB: I tried to think of something new but I just can’t beat Seb’s finger. We need to talk afterwards.

Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Do you think Seb might get as sick of seeing that as you were of the crooked finger last year?

JB: Hopefully he will.

SV: What did you do?

JB: I actually did the W with a water bottle in my hand, which didn’t really work very well. Yeah, I’m sure we will sometimes see the crooked finger but hopefully not very often this year and we’re going to fight as hard as we can to stop that from happening. Always love your questions.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Jenson, if I saw it correctly, you had soft, medium, medium whereas the Red Bull had soft, soft, medium. Does it mean that degradation on a McLaren would have been a little bit higher?

JB: To tell you the truth, I really don’t know. Most of the race I was concentrating on Lewis behind me. He was pretty close so I didn’t really know what was going on behind in terms of the Red Bulls. I really don’t know. That’s just the strategy we went for. I don’t think it was an issue of degradation, just the idea that we had and the strategy that we thought was best. But again, with very limited running, it’s very difficult to come up with the correct strategy. I think it just depends on which tyre you run on Friday, and I ran the soft tyre and thought that was the right way to go.

Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Sebastian, does this make the McLarens the favourites for this year’s championship, or would you say that you guys are neck-and-neck with them?

SV: No, we are not. I think they were stronger this weekend so look at the result yesterday, look at the result today. As I said, Jenson deserved to win, he was out of reach for us. I’m very happy with second, especially after the difficult day we might have had yesterday but nevertheless, this was race one. I think it was good to finally get back to racing and stop all the talk, to see some results. We always said in winter testing that McLaren looks very strong. They had a very solid winter, no issues with the car. They did a lot of laps every day so we expected them to be strong. Yesterday they did surprise everyone a little bit with their pace in qualifying. Today in the race I think it was looking a bit better for us, but nevertheless, they are the ones to beat at the moment. Yeah, we will see what we get next weekend. If I remember last year, we were pretty dominant here and then qualifying was just a couple of hundredths between Lewis and myself, so we will see what happens next week.

Melbaourne, 17 March 2012:  “Yes, it’s an incredible feeling,’’ began Lewis Hamilton of McLaren F1 team at the FIA Press Conference after qualifying on pole for the season opening F1 World championship, Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park circuit here on Saturday.

It’s interesting to note that the last five drivers who took the pole position at Albert Park went on to become the World Champions. Hamilton set the pole position using Pirelli’s P Zero Yellow soft tyre and clocked a time of 1m24.922s. Hamilton beat his team mate Jenson Button to claim the 21st pole position of his career and the first all-McLaren front row since the 2009 European Grand Prix. Hamilton’s last pole position with Pirelli came at the 2011 Korean

The three drivers at the post-qualification Press Conference today are  Lewis Hamilton (McLaren); Jenson Button (McLaren) and a surprise Romain Grosjean (Lotus).

TV UNILATERALS

Lewis, a fantastic lap, clearly, and what a great way to start a new season.

Lewis HAMILTON: Yes, it’s an incredible feeling to be back here and to get off to such a good start. I think this is mine and Jenson’s first one-two – I believe at least – in qualifying, so it’s fantastic to start the season this way. I’m massively proud of the team, working incredibly hard as every year they do, but just to see that it’s never-give-up and this is the result of that.

Jenson, very close between the two of you, just over a tenth of a second, but this tells us it’s going to be quite a competitive season.

Jenson BUTTON: It does. I think, first of all, congratulations to Lewis and the whole team. I think we have done a very good job this winter and I think we have proved that today. It is only the beginning and obviously the lights haven’t gone out yet but this is a great first result for us on a Saturday and yeah, it’s looking like it’s going to be a very exciting season. We were so close through all the qualifying sessions but Lewis had the upper hand. I tried my best but it wasn’t quite enough.

Romain, welcome back to Formula One and a fantastic performance for you. Third on the grid: what does this say about you and the Lotus F1 team?

Romain GROSJEAN: Well, fantastic job from everybody. It’s really nice to be back in Formula One and I enjoyed the time. Winter testing went pretty well and today I’m very proud to be part of this experience with Lotus. I think a few people believed in me the first time and today I’m back, well, almost to the top, and I’m very proud to be with those guys here and hope we can keep going that way all season long and then it will be a very nice story.

Back to you Lewis, a tough race obviously always here at Albert Park. What are going to be the keys to tomorrow’s race and do you expect more of a threat in the race, from Mercedes and Red Bull in particular?

LH: I think it’s going to be incredibly tough, a very intense race. Obviously, looking after the tyres is going to be key as it always is and getting off to a good start, seeing what the strategies are like, and obviously the safety car is at all times a thing. The team need to be on point and so do me and Jenson, so we’ll make sure we do that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, that’s got to be a good start?

LH: Yeah, it’s a fantastic feeling. It’s great to back here and it’s just an incredible start to the season. But of course, tomorrow’s the important day and we have a lot to look forward to. But just a tremendous job from the team to get us to this point. We’ve had a couple of tough years but just never seemed to give up. It’s just good to be here, as I said.

And yesterday you said how you were focused on dry running, knowing that the weather was going to be better for the next two days and that’s paid off I guess?

LH: To some extent, yeah. There was no disadvantage or advantage for me going into the wet yesterday but it was just to focus on the dry set up and get that as close to perfection as I could. My lap was a good lap, obviously. The second time I tried to brake 10 metres later at turn one, but it didn’t work. But fortunately, my first lap was good enough.

It was particularly good in sector three: you were half a second faster than anyone else apart from Mark Webber there. Was that something you were concentrating on?

LH: Yeah, that’s something I focused on for a lot of the run. On one of the runs I got held up by Michael, but otherwise I was just trying to improve in that sector because all the others were OK. But there’s always time you can find everywhere. Jenson did a fantastic job, he was very, very closely behind me. As always, keeping me on my toes.

Jenson, a two-time winner here. What are your thoughts about tomorrow?

JB: First of all, I’m going to echo what Lewis said: the team have done a fantastic job this winter. We knew that we had to have a good winter. It was something we were lacking the previous two years and we definitely did have that. Very happy to be here, in top three or the top two, on the front row, and hopefully we can race well from here tomorrow. I was actually a bit surprised by the gap back to the Red Bulls and some of the other teams but, yeah, we’ll definitely take that. The last two days have been good for us, just chipping away at the car and finding little bits here and there and it’s been a good couple of days and good start to the season.

What have your learned about the tyres here that is going to make a big difference in the race itself – concentrating on the softer tyre perhaps?

JB: I ran on the soft tyres yesterday. I think a lot of people ran the harder tyre, the medium, but I ran on the soft and it worked pretty well. I was quite surprised by the consistency of the tyre. I think we found that when we came here last year after winter testing, the tyres weren’t lasting very long but we came here and it was a circuit where we had very good degradation – some cars even one-stopped. I don’t think it’s going to be one of those tough races where degradation is a massive issue. I think that’ll be more next weekend.

Romain, it’s not a dream. You’re OK. You don’t have to pinch yourself. A fantastic debut here. Absolutely extraordinary. What are your thoughts?

RG: Well, I think: never give up. That’s the lesson. Today, I’m very happy to be here, very proud as well to be here. A few people believed in me at the toughest time and today I think they were with me in the car. I’m proud to be part of the Lotus team and the atmosphere and the experience can be very good and I think. We have been working pretty well during the winter, trying to do our best. As I said, I’m very happy to be with this team and I think they are working very hard for us and we are trying to make the best of everything we can. It’s not a dream; we did it. We can be proud of it and tomorrow we’ll keep working to improve ourselves, trying to get the best result as possible during the race and then in the next races as well.

Where do you think the car has been particularly good around here?

RG: I think it’s a little bit everywhere. I think sector three. I think a little bit myself coming as well. I’m discovering the track, this morning in completely dry conditions. I think the car is pretty good everywhere. We are trying to improve it every time and if we can manage to bring some more pieces every race maybe we can in between these two guys or maybe at the front. That would be the goal.

A lot of people would say that you’ve had a pretty tough learning curve here at this circuit. It was wet yesterday and yet here you are third on the grid. Do you always learn circuits really quickly?

RG: Normally yes, I do learn quickly but I think when we get everything at the factory I think it’s even easier. My engineer did a fantastic job for me, he’s trying to help me as much as he can and Formula One is tough, I have many things to think about and to do, during a qualifying lap and in the race and everything – but it went pretty well and I think there is some more to come.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

 Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to all of you: have you been surprised by the lack of pace of the Red Bull? And a special one for Lewis: your first start in 2007 was a little bit tricky. Do you have advice for Romain?

LH: Tough one. I think we’re all probably surprised… I myself always thought that the Lotus was going to be quick this weekend which they are and of course, I’m surprised that we are so fast. I knew that we would be competitive this weekend but I didn’t really know what to expect, in terms of how close people would be, but I’m pleasantly surprised. As for Grosjean, he knows what to do. He’s got great experience and I’m sure tomorrow he will do his utmost best.

JB: I think everybody’s answered that one already. I think we did a very good job of getting the best out of ourselves this weekend. I think we haven’t really made any mistakes. I don’t know what Red Bull have been up to. Sebastian obviously took a trip into the gravel this morning, which wouldn’t have helped their preparations. But Red Bull haven’t lost it. They’re still going to be competitive and we can never forget that but at the moment, we’re going to enjoy this moment and go out tomorrow and hopefully have a great race.

RG: It’s great but I’m sure Red Bull will work very hard and come back quickly, but we have to improve ourselves every time and we have seen that some teams are better than others. We didn’t know too much what to expect about the winter testing and after this morning. I was more confident than my engineer before qualifying. ‘Ah, it should be fine,’ but at the end, we are here and they will back for sure. We have to keep fighting and not resting.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Lewis, you just said that you expected the Renault to be quick. I wondered if either you or Jenson had got close enough to Romain and the Lotus, either in testing or here, to know where it is strong?

LH: There wasn’t a time during testing that I was ever behind either of them, so I have no idea where they are quick, but they are clearly very very fast and have great downforce. Were you?

JB: Maybe, but I don’t know. My memory is not that good.

RG: Everybody is trying to avoid everybody in testing.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, 20^th pole of your career, I don’t know if you remember them all, but how does this one compare to some of the others, in particular, given the turbulent 2011 you endured last season?

LH: Yeah, I still can’t believe that I’ve had so many pole positions. For me, every one has been special and particularly this one. To come straight into the season and start off so well through qualifying – we’ve still got a day ahead of us – but it’s a fantastic feeling and of course, with the tough couple of years past, it’s definitely good a way to start off on the right foot.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis and Jenson, you’ve both won this race in the year when you won the championship, are such statistics important or not important? What do you have to do tomorrow to win the race?

JB: Beat these guys. I don’t know what to expect. We can go through as many simulations as we want and the opinions of the race that we want. All I know is that we have made the race a little bit easier for ourselves compared to the Red Bulls. Last year it was the other way around and it was more of a difficult race because they were starting on the front row, but this year it’s the other way around. I’m happy with where we are, but tomorrow is again a very different day. We will stay positive. Obviously we’re doing everything and doing everything right and making sure that we don’t make mistakes overnight and get the right balance for tomorrow in the race.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you: we saw a beautiful battle between McLaren, Lotus, Mercedes and Red Bull here in qualifying. Do you think this is the picture of the championship or is it a particularity of the track?

JB: I think those are the four teams that after testing… you didn’t know which order they were in but those were the four teams that you would say were putting in good laps in testing, so yes, I think we expected those four teams but you never know the gap between those teams and as you said, through qualifying, in Q1, Q2, Q3, it was all mixed up. It’s good to see; good that we ended up near the front in the important one.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) The first race is normally the one with the most question marks. Yesterday you had little running the dry, today it was just one practice session. Was it enough to answer all the questions  for the race, Lewis or Jenson?

LH: We could always do with more time on the track and more running, but I think everyone is in the same boat generally. So we have to really rely on the data and the information that we got on the tyres in our long runs in the winter testing and at Barcelona in particular. Hopefully that will put us in good stead for tomorrow, but it’s going to be an interesting race for sure. Don’t know what these tyres are going to do but they don’t seem too bad.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Romain, how does it feel to lead 1-0 against Kimi after the first qualifying (session)?

RG: Well, you know when you start qualifying you’re fighting against 23 other guys and everybody starts qualifying thinking he will fight for pole position and to achieve that you have to beat everybody.

Ends