Category: India In F1

Yas Marina, 25 Nov 2016:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Stephen FITZPATRICK (Manor), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Force India), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Monisha, can we start with you? Congratulations on the points in Brazil. Describe the emotions and the reaction within the team?

Monisha KALTENBORN: Well of course it was very relieving considering that it was a long race. You didn’t know are we really going to make it to the end with the points, because you could see how Manor was right behind us and it was so important that the car stays in the race and we could see other cars coming, overtaking us. Yeah, it was a bit of a nightmare. We were all extremely relieved. They are so important for all of us, these points. It’s not only financially, which of course plays a role, but also of course for the morale of the team. We didn’t want to end the season again like we did in 2014. So it was extremely relieving on the track and of course at home as well.

Q: We had your driver Felipe Nasr, who of course delivered those two points, in the press conference yesterday. He says he hopes it’ll swing things his way. If you do confirm that 10^th place in Sunday what does it do for his chances?

MK: Well, there is no direct link there you know. We have our options, we are looking at them and we know Felipe very well. We’re just going to continue our assessment and when we’re ready we’ll announce.

Q: OK, thank you. Stephen, coming to you, welcome to your first FIA Press Conference. You rescued Manor a couple of years ago from administration, what has team ownership been like in the interim?

Stephen FITZPATRICK: I can recommend it to anyone. It’s been a fascinating two years. It has been exhilarating, races like Bahrain this year, obviously Austria and then Brazil. So lots of ups and downs. But also humbling I would say. Coming into this sport as a beginner let’s say, but as a lifelong fan, but new to the inside of the sport, you don’t quite appreciate just how many things you need to get right to bring two cars home at the end of a race and I’ve learned a lot about just how difficult it is to build a car, to race the car, to put the team together. So I would say I’m full of respect for the people around me in the sport, the other teams, the other team principals. It’s been a huge challenge, but also a little bit frustrating. One of the things that makes sport great is the belief that anything can happen and we didn’t come into the sport, or I didn’t come into the sport believing that we would win races or be on the podium in our first couple of years but to be in a sport like F1 you have to believe that incredible can happen and one of the challenges we have at the moment is that that sport has become very predictable. It’s a problem for all of us here, even Toto – who’s winning almost too much – and maybe it’s even becoming a problem for him. I think that’s one of the big frustrations and I think it’s clear that it takes a long time to build a great F1 team. We’ve made a big step forward from 2015 to 2016 but there’s a lot of work still to do clearly.

Q: There are some stories in the press this week about your team being sold and you CEO appears to have confirmed it. What can you tell us about that?

SF: Well, I can’t talk too much about the specifics but we have been in discussions with several investors, well, for the last six months let’s say. One of the things I was quite clear on, right from the start, was that I accepted that in the current F1, money equals performance, so anything that was going to bring more funding to the team and help the team develop and progress I was very open and if that meant bringing another investor, even a majority investor, hat was something I was happy to do. We have agreed terms with an investor at the moment and we are still working through that and I can’t really talk more about the specifics.

Q: Thank you for that. Otmar, coming to you, another championship dogfight going on a bit further up the grid involving you. It’s looking good for beating Claire’s team to P4. How have you done it?

Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, we’re not there yet. We’ve got this weekend to go and we’ll work hard, as we usually do, to perform to the best of our ability and hopefully that will result in fourth place. That’s what we’re shooting for. But the building blocks have been put in place for the last five or six years, it’s not something that happens overnight. We’ve been working towards having a better team and a more performant car for a good six years and there’s a lot that goes in it: good decision-making; having the right tools and the right people, having the right engine partner – thanks for that, Toto – but also understanding the tyres, aerodynamically efficient car. You’ve got to do all those things and then the performance comes. Not to mention two good drivers.

Q: Esteban Ocon joins you next year. It’s been a while since you’ve had a young driver, a relative rookie in fact. What are your expectations and why did you go for him over other candidates?

OS: Well, we deliberated long and hard. We know Esteban and that helps. We ran him in two different tests and we were impressed with both his speed and his ability to learn, and also with his attitude to racing and his attitude towards learning and we thought he was a good fit for us and that’s why we chose him over some of the others.

Q: Thanks for that. Claire, you’ve not been at a race for a while, we understand that you have been with your father. How is Frank?

Claire WILLIAMS: He is good now, thank you. He is on the mend. It’s nice to be back at the track.

Q: As we were just hearing from Otmar, it’s beginning to look like P4 is slipping away from you. How did that happen from your side?

CW: I don’t think we’ve delivered where we needed to deliver this year, across a number of key elements. I’m not going to go into detail on the areas of weakness we have in the team this year, but we know where those weaknesses are and we just need to make sure that we improve upon those areas over the winter. But Force India have done a fantastic job. You asked him where they are where they are and they have just done a better job than we have and we need to look into that. We don’t want to finish fifth in the world championship. It’s a bit of a disappointment having come third in two consecutive seasons, in 2014 and 2015. We just need to do a better job.

Q: With that in mind, tell us about your expectations for Lance Stroll, he’ll be joining you next year, he’ll be 18. After all for Williams to compete for third, fourth place in the championship, he’s going to have score a lot of points?

CW: Yeah, he is. The Constructors’ Championship is really important for us at Williams and we need to have two strong drivers in our car. Obviously off the back of Felipe’s decision to retire we had a number of options available to us. Lance has been part of a development programme that we’ve run since about this time last year and I think that he’s absolutely proved that he has the credentials to come into Formula One next year and we’re delighted that we were able to make that decision. He has dominated in F3 this year and he’s won the F4 championship. He’s absolutely got the talent, we feel. As with any rookie when they come into Formula One you’ve got to give them a bit of slack in the beginning but we are going to have high expectations of him next year, but anyone that has meet Lance knows and understands that he deserves that promotion into Formula One and he’s extremely intelligent, he’s a very quick learner, we’ve learned that through the work that we have done with him in the ‘3-to-1’ programme, and he’s incredibly charming and I think he’s going to be a great addition to the paddock next year. I think it’s nice to see… as much as it’s sad to be losing a couple of the Formula One legend drivers that we have I think it’s going to be really exciting next year to have a number of rookies lining up on the grid.

Q: Ok thank you. Toto, you win too much! For the second time in three years your drivers have a title showdown here in Abu Dhabi. How do you assess their mindset and I’d be interested to know how does it differ from the first time they were in this position back in 2014? How have they matured and matured in relation to each other, in their mindset and what you see this weekend?

Toto WOLFF: Obviously the longer you work with each other the better you get to know each other and it’s the third season that we have had a car that was able to win races and win championships. I said it before, that in the last couple of races we had a great amount of serene… almost a serene environment. Very good for the team because they have worked together to make the car faster. Very productive and then it was very good for the dynamics within the team. Although, I must say that the championship was getting tougher and tougher for both of them. It was clear that they would be the greatest rivals for winning the Drivers’ title and we’ve seen that this weekend is somehow a bit different; you can see that there is pressure coming up, which I guess is pretty normal at this stage of the season.

Q: Red Bull looked fast this afternoon and earlier on in the long runs, but I’m interested, has the gap really closed up at the back end of the season or have you just done enough to keep everybody at arm’s length?

TW: We have seen over the last couple of races that the gaps between us and Red Bull and Ferrari have stayed pretty stable, for the simple reason that everybody must have switched off development of the 2016 car. Not all at the same time, there will have been teams that have done it sooner than others, but what you see now in terms of performances gaps or the difference in performance gap, is that somebody just gets it right on a particular track with a set of tyres, but generally it’s been on a similar level for the last, I would say, four or five races.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta Dello Sport): Toto, you know what Lewis said here in the press conference yesterday about the mechanics, the book and so on. I would like to have your comment and that you don’t have any regret over that decision at the beginning of the season?

TW: You know it’s always dangerous because there is one statement that is being picked out from a press conference between the two of them and as I said before I find it very remarkable how they’ve managed the relationship between the two of them for the benefit of the team, taking into consideration that it must be very intense and very high pressure for them. So that one comment was taken out and it is clear that if you change a crew that is directly involved with a drivers, such as mechanics or a number one that a driver constantly looks at when he’s pulling out of the garage, it can have a psychological effect and we acknowledged that and it was part of our thinking when we shuffled it around. But as a matter of fact we are 1,500 people in Brixworth and Brackley and it’s about developing personnel. Somebody who was working on one corner of the car today as a mechanic might be a number one next year, might be a chief mechanic afterwards and maybe has even more potential within the organisation. In a similar way we have done all through the organisation we are not keeping it static. It’s a dynamic structure and the same happens in the garage. This is a fact. I appreciate the effect on the singular driver and it was taken into consideration and maybe I’ll write a book in 10 years and we’ll put some things in there.

Q: (Ysef Harding – Xero Xone News) To follow up on that question Toto. Isn’t it important to keep your number one satisfied and to give him the best of everything he needs to be successful – especially in the beginning of the season when he was aiming for a fourth world championship?

TW: It’s very important. It is, in terms of keeping the performance up in the team, you need to consider what your high-performance need; what kind of environment they need, what kind of framework they need in order to perform best. And we’ve considered that. And there is not just one position like the chief mechanic that is important for the performance of the team and the drivers but we have to take decisions for many, many hundreds of people and develop them. It is our duty and obligation towards these 1500 people and the great brand to take the right decisions and not one single individual – although taking into mind what is important for the driver itself. What you are seeing here on the race track is the tip of the iceberg. And by the sheer nature there is a large block underneath that brings performance and has brought the team to where we are today. And part of that is to have the most effective organisation. Not only today but also tomorrow – and that is just part of the normal procedure.

But if you knew that was going to psychologically affect your number one driver, why would you make that decision?

TW: I’ve explained it to you already once before that weekend. There’s 1500 and we need to take care that these 1500 perform well. Not one. 1500.

Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Question for Toto. You said that the pressure is coming up. Just speaking about Nico, do you think that this season he’s been able to deal with pressure better and perhaps he’s a bit more focussed and blocking things out more than he was in the previous two campaigns?

TW: Yes, he deals with it very well and there is nothing that somehow affects him. This is at least my impression. Whether it’s a difficult weekend, he has learned to assess it in the right way at the right time and move on – or whether it’s a good weekend, to stay humble, both feet on the ground and try to understand why that was. Whether spirits are high or spirits are down it was all pretty stable with him – and certainly, as far as I can see, that is one of the keys why he’s leading the championship today.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Stephen, the Brazilian Grand Prix was obviously from a personal perspective, your own perspective, rather disappointing. Can you try and tell us exactly how you felt when you realised that the cost of this could possibly run to $13 or $15million and potentially even more in the longer term?

SF: Yeah, I think the first reaction wasn’t really a financial one. It would have been a very exciting race and coming to the end of what was an exhilarating season, lots of ups and downs. We had held tenth place for, I think, ten races, Brazil was number ten and at many points during the race there were lots of different scenarios and there was a lot of furious calculations about finishing the race at different points throughout. The first reaction I had was one of real disappointment for the team. I think they’ve worked incredibly hard for the last, let’s say, 18 months since the start of last season without much reward and it looked like we were heading for a tenth-place finish which was a big step forward for us. So one of immediate disappointment for the team who worked so hard all year back at the factory and here on the circuit. But my next reaction was actually one of… I thought of the opposite feeling that must be going on in the Sauber garage and I thought that the guys in the Sauber team had been fantastic competitors for us all year, we’d enjoyed a great battle with them and I knew how much those points meant to the Sauber team and I was trying to imagine the joy they would be having and they worked so hard all season to bring it back in the end. So in the end I think the season doesn’t come down to one race. Obviously the way the points are structured that was a critical race for us. Very unexpected. But that’s racing. On that day it didn’t go our way but I think we all want to see more of that unpredictability, that excitement. So, in the end, it was a difficult night, let’s say, and then back to business.

Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Question for Stephen again, and Monisha. Monisha, potentially for you, you could have tenth place locked in at the end of the season. Both teams, Monisha, you’ve got a new investor on-board already, Stephen you potential have a new investor on-board. Does the swapping of positions have any influence on the business decisions made. Obviously it’s more attractive for you Monisha but Stephen, does that put your deal in any particular jeopardy or is it going to hurt you financially? Things planned that you can’t do?

SF: It doesn’t help financially but the terms of our agreement have been… refinalised, let’s say. It was clear that in tenth place with one point on the board, two races left, that there are lots of scenarios and you plan for those in advance, so, from my point of view it’s disappointing but it’s not unexpected – or at least not a surprise.

Not a deal-breaker?

SF: Not a deal-breaker. And, most importantly, we’re not finished yet. We’re looking good today, at least, on Friday, so we’ve still got one race left.

MK: Well, in our case, the investors came in at a time when we were on P11, so the risks were very well known. So the risks were very well known. And of course we said we are going to do all we can to actually still get to P10. So, it looks better if you end the season, of course,  on P10, that’s clear – but there’s not any other impact.

[off-mic follow-up] adding more staff?

MK: Well no. As I said, with the investors we have, our future is secured. There’s nothing out there that would cause us any dramas like in the past – but you simply look better if you have our business case and if you have that additional funding it’s just easier to achieve what you want in your business case.

Q: (René Hofmann– Süddeutsche Zeitung) I wanted to ask all five of you, concerning the upcoming season: what the rule changes mean for your particular team, what are your hopes, what the challenges you’re facing?

OS: Well, for a team like ours it’s a big challenge, starting over without any carryover parts whatsoever has a massive impact on us – so it’s a big challenge. We also don’t have some of the infrastructure in place of the bigger teams. We source a lot of our parts to suppliers; we don’t make them ourselves – so that adds extra time. So yeah, it’s a big challenge. Our hopes are we’ve done a good job and others have screwed-up!

Claire?

CW: We hope the same! That everyone else has screwed-up as well. No, y’know, for us, fortunately we’re in quite a comfortable financial position at the moment and with the regulations coming out when they did, we were able to start development work on next year’s car pretty early but that’s not to say we know where our performance is. Nobody does until we get to the first test and probably not until we get to the first few races where we know where everybody shakes out. But I think it presents a great opportunity for Formula One to potentially shake up the order. I hope that we’ve found something spectacular over the winter. I know that the guys back at the factory have worked really hard on next year’s car to try and find that performance and improve upon where we finish this year’s championship next year. But I think we just have to wait and see. For the sport, I think it’s pretty exciting.

Monisha?

MK: Well, we share that hope as well. We know that we have to take a very big step ahead so we see these rule changes as an opportunity because we want to be back next year in the midfield and we now also have the means to do that. Overall, we do hope that it’s going to make the sport exciting. I think everyone’s been quite critical about certain things which have been introduced so let’s just hope and see if it really mixes up the grid and we have something different next year.

Stephen?

SF: Well, interestingly in 2016 we had to build a completely new car: Manor didn’t build a 2015 car because of the administration, so we feel that we’ve been through this already. There was such a big gap between where we were in 2014 and the other teams this year, so we’ve had to make that big step already. I gave the team quite clear instructions this year they were to focus as much of their efforts as possibly on the 2016 programme until we were able to put some points on the board and try to secure tenth place. From Austria onwards the team have been working exclusively on the 2017 programme, so there’s been a lot of work gone in. We’ve really built up the resources of the team this year, we’ve moved to a great new facility; the wind tunnel facility at Mercedes and that’s led to a big step forwards in our aerodynamic development. So the team are hopeful. The thing I guess I’m not really hoping for is that everyone else has screwed-up, because like I said, I’ve developed a lot of respect for all the other teams and I think that might be too much to hope for. It’s certainly going to be a very interesting 2017 season.

Toto, you pick up where you left off do you, next year?

TW: Yeah, I tend to go with Otmar! Honestly, we weren’t big supporters of a regulation change. Not because we wanted to freeze the current situation. It’s clear that when regulations stay stable that eventually performance is going to converge. But because we weren’t sure that it is the right way for Formula One. But as it is, we are where we are and the cars, certainly in the wind tunnel, look very spectacular, very wide with the big tyres and I am personally very excited to see them on track for the first time. For the drivers it will be much harder; the cars will be pulling more g through the corners. The simulations that we have seen are very exciting. The corners will be flat that are far from flat today – and we will be breaking records in terms of lap time. So, I guess, an exciting season that will be ahead of us. I hope that overtaking is not going to be too difficult because of the width of the car and the dirty air behind it – but let’s see. In hindsight, now that we are where we are, we have to do the best out of it.

Q:  (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Stephen, when this investment deal happens, will you still be involved and/or in charge? Is it a buy-in or a buy-out?

SF: I’m not going to talk anything about the specifics.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To Toto specifically but if the others would like to join in please feel free. Toto, you’ve been on the strategy group since its inception basically. Do you honestly believe that it best serves Formula One’s interests? At the latest one, for example, I believe the teams on either side of you put in certain proposals. These were blocked before they could even reach the Formula One commission so therefore they can’t be voted on properly. Does this really work and is there an alternative to this because there’s been an awful lot of criticism about the group?

TW: You are a number one fan of the strategy group, we’ve found out. It is what it is. In Formula One, the difficulty is that every team has got to have an opinion and it is very much focused of course on your own performance but then we are responsible enough, within the group, to take into consideration what’s good for Formula One and most recently I’ve seen a development that even within the very big rivals on the strategy group and in the F1 commission there is consensus and we’re trying to seek consensus. Some of the things are not being accepted or not voted on. You refer to two specific proposals which, with all due respect to my friend Otmar, were on the agenda half a year ago. They were referred to the technical regulations meeting, so the competent group, not the dangerous group! The competent group decided that it was not the right way forward and for whatever reason these regulations appeared back on the agenda on the strategy group and this is why it was voted against, that is the fact. But that governance is in place until 2020 and if there is a possibility that we can improve it next time around in order to better the approval process, I’m the first one to vote in favour.

SF: I never attended this strategy group. I have no idea what happens in the strategy group but I joked earlier on that Toto and Mercedes were winning too many races and maybe it’s been a problem for him but really I know that the Mercedes team is a fantastic organisation and has earned these victories but the sport is not a level playing field, that’s pretty obvious and the structure of the F1 commission and the F1 strategy group is part of that bigger picture. And I think the sport will be much improved and speaking now, as the eleventh placed team this weekend, I know that it’s obviously what I will be saying but the sport will be much improved with a leveller playing field and how that comes about and all of the necessary components – whether financial, organisational, structurally – I think it’s something that should be looked at for the benefit of everybody on the grid but it’s a very complex picture.

Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Toto, there have been some stressful moments this season. If you were to give your podium of the top three between the first lap incident in Spain, the last lap in Austria and the engine failure for Lewis when he was about to win, which is the one-two-three for you?

TW: You mean number one is the worst one? Shall we start from the back? Third place, for me, of the worst races is certainly Lewis’s engine failure in Malaysia because it heavily influenced his championship.  He was in the lead, solid in the lead in a race – in races –  where it was going back and forth with Nico. Nico had a great race in Singapore which he dominated. Then Malaysia was very much Lewis’s weekend and it continued that way in – what was the next one? – Suzuka, Mexico. So that’s third place – and it came out of nowhere, really, so still a bit of a traumatic race. Number two? Barcelona. It’s rare that you have a complete wipe-out, one and two in the front and you end up with zero points and for the team, obviously not a nice situation. We stood in front of the screens… I remember, I had the CEO of Daimler, Dieter Zetsche, next to me and he says ‘what are we doing now?’ which was a new experience. But it was OK because it didn’t happen for a long time, since Spa 2014. So number one, for me, the worst, was Austria because it came a couple of races after Barcelona. We made it very clear that we saw Barcelona as a one-off and wasn’t acceptable going forward and here we go, we’re on the last lap of that particular race at the Red Bull-ring, home turf for our great rivals and we nearly lose both cars on the last lap, being in one and two. This is where, for me, the mark was over-stepped and we made that clear, but that was my winner. Not.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport)  Monisha, Banco do Brasil announced today they will not sponsor Felipe next year. How much of an impact does that have on you deciding if he remains with the team?

MK: Well that’s correct that the bank informed us as well that they’ve interrupted their 2017 sponsorship programme. Our seat is still open. We aren’t choosing that in our assessments we’re making and that’s all there is to say of it.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) On that vein, Toto, your driver Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes driver, has basically only got one chance left for a seat next year. Could you see him actually racing in a car with a Ferrari engine?

TW: It’s two, two chances.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Yes, but then you’d have to provide a budget, wouldn’t you?

TW: First of all, I must say, really, having had the opportunity with Esteban and Pascal in Manor was great and the development slope of that team is impressive and it’s a great place for both of them and Manor is still very much an opportunity for next year. Well obviously Esteban is going to Force India and we are in discussion with Monisha and in discussion with Stephen and his management group and nothing is decided yet. That’s where we are.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport)  Toto, do you think that at this moment Lewis Hamilton fully trusts your team or if not are you doing something to rebuild the relationship?

TW: Absolutely trusts. We under-estimate the pressure under which these guys are, not only in the spotlight of a global audience. You have to deliver every single weekend, you have to race your teammate, it’s down to the last race to win the championship and it’s all coming up, all the frustrations and all the happy moments. If a microphone is being put under the nose and you’re being asked the right question, sometimes it produces a good headline like it did yesterday. For me, it’s a bit of a boomerang which keeps coming back, this odd story which internally in the team is a closed chapter and we will not come back to this so it doesn’t change anything in my approach to Lewis or an approach towards Lewis because I think it’s well understood that things are sometimes taken out of context, sometimes over-exaggerated and as I said before, sometimes you just need to allow that the drivers can express their feelings and their emotions. We don’t want to streamline them too much.

Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Claire and Monisha, we’ve seen a lot of history for women this year. We saw the second female prime minister elected and we also saw the first female elected for president of the United States. As two pioneers in this sport, what are your hopes for the future for women on the business side and on the track in F1?

CW: That’s a nice question! I think what you see across probably a wide variety of industries in recent years and particularly what you see in the UK with Theresa May coming in as our first female prime minister for – what is it? – three decades I think,  that the landscape is shifting slowly but surely. I think there is a lot of work to do but personally – I don’t know what Monisha does – but I go out and do a lot of talks about women in industry and promoting females in not just leadership roles but throughout different sorts of organisations and I think that’s really important and I think one of the things about Formula One that you don’t necessarily…  yes, you see Monisha and I in the roles that we’re in but there are so many women now who are working across different areas within Formula One, across different disciplines within teams, whether that be in aerodynamics, within engineering, not just the traditional marketing roles and I think that’s a really important shift that we’re seeing in our sport and I think that that can be used as case studies and great story telling, to go out into different businesses because I think if you can be a woman and do well in Formula One.  I think that’s a very powerful message but personally for me, it’s not necessarily about gender and it shouldn’t be about gender I think. But every individual brings different personalities to the roles that they do and particularly in a sport like this, where you have to operate at your peak performance if you’re going to be successful and achieve and that’s what every team is going after, it’s the people who are at the best at their jobs. If they’re going to win in this sport then it shouldn’t necessarily be about gender, it should be about how good you are at your job and how committed and dedicated and what you can do, the team around you. But I would like to see more women come in to Formula One and I would like to see more women come into industry as a whole. I think it’s a really important conversation that we’re having in society as a whole at the moment.

MK: Yeah, like Claire said, you see that there are far more women in Formula One. It’s been happening over the last few years, actually, where you simply see more on the track. I think the most important responsibility we have here is to actually encourage people to give women the opportunity, because that’s what it’s about. You have enough women out there who have the education, who have the competence and the confidence to actually get the job done at least equally as good and usually they have to be a little bit better to maybe get the same kind of recognition, so what you really need is to give women a fair chance and opportunity.

Q: And it was a woman in charge of strategy in your team who played a part in bringing you the points in Brazil, right?

MK: Absolutely. We gave one a chance.

eom/FIA press release

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Dave RYAN (Manor), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Eric BOULLIER (McLaren), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Mike O’DRISCOLL (Williams)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Bob, if we could start with you, the news broke recently that Nico Hulkenberg is off to Renault. Does his departure weaken the team going forward?

Robert FERNLEY: No, not necessarily. Nico will certainly be missed because he’s been a great part of Force India and the growing of Force India over the last few years, but we’ll just have to make sure that we replace him with as good as we possibly can.

Well, a lot of drivers have been linked to your team for 2017, how close are you to making that final choice?

RF: First of all, I’m not close at all. It’s Vijay’s decision and we’ll start those discussions probably when we get back next week.

So have you got a deadline in mind as to when you want to have it nailed down?

RF: No, I don’t think so. I think we’ll take our time, have a look at what offers are on the table, Vijay will make his decision and then we’ll announce it.

Sergio said in the press conference yesterday that he’s staying at Force India because of the opportunity that the new cars next year will bring. Has the team got the resources and the capability to deliver on those expectations?

RF: Yes, I think so. What is exciting for us for 2017 is that it’s the first time we are on a reasonably level playing field. We’re not quite the same as the big teams, the big manufacturing teams, but you’ve got restricted aero programmes, it’s the first new generation car that we will do using a 60% model and I think we’ve shown already this year what we can do once we moved up to 60%, so I’m very optimistic that the team will be very competitive in 2017.

Thank you. Dave, you’ve been in your job for a year now, what were your goals then and have you realised them?

Dave RYAN: Well, when I arrived it was obviously a team in a bit of a holding pattern but with big ambitions. It became fairly clear to me early on that we needed to attract some different skill sets and some good people, which I’m pleased to say we have. So yeah, we are definitely heading in the right direction. We do need to improve in all areas still, but I think we have come a long way in the past year.

So looking at the longer term, what can the Manor team become?

DR: Oh for sure we want to become a strong midfield team. If you look at where we were last year and where we now sit, we’ve made a huge improvement. We need to keep making improvements and our goal is to be a serious and strong midfield team.

How integral are your current drivers to that ambition?

DR: Well, the drivers we’ve got we’re very, very happy with, they’re a great couple of lads, but going forward who knows.

Thanks, Dave. Coming to you Mike: this is the first time you’ve been in an FIA press conference as it’s usually a role filled by Claire Williams for the team. She hasn’t been at any races recently. Why is that and are we likely to see her before the end of the season?

Mike O’DRISCOLL: I certainly hope so. Frank, as you know, was taken ill at the Monza race. He’s been a fixture in the paddock for so many decades now it’s strange not to have him with us. He’s had a tough time in hospital. He has contracted pneumonia. He is making a recovery, a slow steady recovery. We hope to see him back at Grove very soon. We all know how determined he is. We expect Claire to be back at a race… she has wanted to stay close to home, close to Frank, but in this modern world you are only ever a phone call away, so we stay connected and she’s part of everything that happens on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis. We hope to see her by the end of the year and hopefully that will be Abu Dhabi and this will be maybe my first [press conference] but it might be my last as well, so thanks for having me!

Pleasure to have you! Williams have had a difficult season in which you’ve slipped backwards. From your perspective, as CEO, why is that?

MO’D: Yeah, two very good seasons in ’14 and ’15 and this year has been more difficult. First of all I’d like to give a lot of credit to Force India. I think they have done a superb job this year in bringing the fight to us and making the battle for fourth place more interesting than we would have liked, maybe. I think it’s also fair to say that the development of this year’s car hasn’t gone as well as we would have like – all of the upgrades we brought haven’t been as effective as we would have wished. I also think it’s fair to say that we made an early decision in the season to focus on the 2017 development. We can play Monday morning quarterback and decide now to double guess – was it too early, too late – but we stand by the decision we made and we haven’t given up the fight for fourth place and we intend to get it back in the remaining three races.

And just a final question from me: we haven’t had your thoughts on the takeover over Formula One by Liberty Media. I would be interesting to get your thoughts on that?

MO’D: Yeah, first of all, I think Formula One is just a terrific global sport and it’s no surprise that it has attracted interest from bidders around the world, from some of the large companies and it’s a tribute to the work that Bernie and his team have done over the years in building Formula One to the sport it is. Liberty are a global heavyweight in entertainment, digital, media and telecoms and I’ve no doubt they can grow it and take it to new heights and that two working together are a very effective combination.

Franz, you announced last weekend that Dany Kvyat has signed again for 2017. How does he make your team stronger?

Franz TOST: First of all, Danill Kvyat is a very high-skilled driver. As we know from the past, he won the GP3 European championship; he was this year in China on the podium. Therefore, we are convinced of his talent. Secondly, his experience because next year will be his [fourth] season in Formula One and especially with the new regulations his experience will help us. And third, each party knows each other now very well. That means the co-operation also regarding next year’s new car will help us hopefully to operate quite successfully.

While we’re on the subject of next year, you’ve got two relatively experienced drivers in Kvyat and Sainz, you’re going to have an up-to-date engine from Renault, you’ve managed to retain all the key technical staff in the team during the course of this year. Given all that stability how does that change your ambitions for 2017?

FT: First of all we must know how good the car will be, how good the complete package will be, because it’s difficult to estimate nowadays where we will be, I think no team can do this. But I think we have all the ingredients together to come up with a very competitive package, because the technical staff, under the lead of James Key, have in the last years done a fantastic good job. As you mentioned, with Renault we have a new engine partner and their power unit is quite strong and I hope this will also be the case next year. We have two experienced drivers, which was never the case before at Toro Rosso, and also the team itself is improving. I expect a lot from the team and I hope that everything works into the direction what we think will be the case.

Thank you Franz. Eric, thanks for waiting, I’d like to continue exploring the theme of next year with you as well, because it looks likely that McLaren will finish sixth this year and given the amount of work that’s going on in both Woking and in Japan at the moment, what is the minimum that acceptable for McLaren in 2017?

Eric BOULLIER: Doing better than ’16. Obviously we don’t have any numbers in terms of ranking in the championship, or targets like this. There is, like you said, still a huge amount of work to be done in Woking and in Japan, so we’ll see next year what we have as a package. We’ll see how fast or quick we can develop the car next year and then we will draw a line about where we want to be. But we just want to be on the move now. We were ninth last year in the championship, sixth is very likely this year obviously. We just want to better next year.

So ninth, sixth, third in 2017?

EB: No comment!

My words, not yours! Now, Jenson Button in Monza announced that he is going to take a sabbatical next year but he is going to retain very close links to the team. In your position as Race Director can you tell us how he will work with the race team next year?

EB: Well, there are many ways for him to bring, let’s say, his experience and feedback and guidance as well. It’s good when they are in car, but outside the car as well, especially a driver with a lot of experience, can bring some good advice. He will obviously be a part of the simulator team, which is important to correlate with the car. He will be attending a few grands prix as well, so his vision or let’s say his understanding about the racing next year from outside the car will be interesting for the team. In many ways, his great experience will be a good contribution for us next year.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Joe Saward – Auto X) You’re all from different backgrounds as team principals, or racing directors, whatever your official title is. They don’t have a school for team principals: what is it you need to be a Formula One team principal?

Bob, let’s start with you.

RF: A reasonably thick skin, I think. I don’t know actually Joe, you’re very right in saying there’s no school for it. It’s something you have to build with experience. I don’t think anything comes easily. You have to have a knowledge of all elements of racing – so it’s commercial, technical, hospitality, every aspect of it. I think unless you have that overall awareness of what’s going on in Formula One at all times, it’s a job that will elude you.

Franz?

FT: First of all, you should know and be aware about the most important pillars in motorsport in general, and especially in Formula One because to run a Formula One team, you cannot compare with a normal company. Formula One has their own rules. Especially it takes time to build-up a team, to find the correct people, that they work together. As you know, you hardly have technical problems, you have only problems with people who are working together or not working together. You have to find a way that this is the case. Then, on the economic side, to find sponsors, to convince companies that Formula One is the best possible platform for marketing reasons. And to bring in, let me say, the satisfaction in the team: that the people are motivated; that they like this job and to convince them that this is a very special work – because there are not so many Formula One teams, that they are lucky to go to 21 races for example, to see different countries and so on.

Mike, interesting to get your take on this as you have experience of the wider car industry

MO’D: I wouldn’t disagree with the comments you’ve already heard but I’d say that, as with any organisation, it’s about people and it’s about leadership and it’s about motivation. It’s about the ability to organise. And great instincts. And if all of that’s founded on really good knowledge of Formula One and motorsport, I think you’ll succeed.

Eric, do you have anything to add?

EB: Most of what they say I would agree to – but I think first you need to like racing. If you don’t like racing I would never turn up in the paddock in my life, y’know? Obviously if you like racing then it depends on where your pass is going. I guess to be a racing director or a team principal you need then yes, you need to lead, you need to understand who you’re working with, you need some commercial skills, some political skills, some… I don’t know, most of it you try to get.

Dave?

DR: First of all, if you talk about team principals, if you go back to Frank Williams and Ken Tyrrell, people like that, Ron Dennis, those team principals, they owned the team, they did everything. It’s changed now. Not one of us here owns the team; we all work for other people and, for me, it’s all about understanding your role within the organisation. We had different people with different skillsets and we work to those skillsets. In terms of a team principal, I think it’s very different today to how it used to be and it’s really just putting the right people in the right places to do the best job they can.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Monsieur Boullier, with Jost Capito arriving next year, what will be your position in the team?

EB: Well, if I may correct, first he already arrived because he started on the 1^st of September. My position exactly the same, racing director, his position is to be CEO, which is to different roles within the company. One is obviously being in charge of the business and more factory-based and the other is in charge of the racing. So no change. There is a racing director and a CEO in Manor, the same in Williams, there was the same in Lotus where I was before, so…

Q: (Seff Harding – Zero Zone News) This question is for Dave Ryan. You have a very talented pool of drivers at Manor. Does having such a talented pool of drivers make it difficult to choose from. And the second question, you have one that has won the Indy 500 this season, and has that caught the eye of the higher-ups at Manor?

DR: Well, first of all, we do have a pool of very good drivers at Manor. Pascal and Esteban are fantastic talents, we’re very lucky to have them, they’ve been great for the team, they’ve pushed each other along and pushed us along as well. Together I think we’re doing a pretty good job. Alex, winning the Indy 500 was fantastic for him and he’s great to have on board as well.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To all of you. Next year will be the third year in a row where a team has run last year’s spec engines. Originally it was to help Manor-Marussia in their situation and this year with Toro Rosso because they were engine-less. But next year Sauber will be running this year’s Ferrari engines. In view of the engine agreement that was struck in May, is it really necessary to have a regulation permitting this or should that regulation be closed, that we only have one tier of engines?

Bob, why don’t you start?

RF: I think I’d like to see one tier of engines mainly because it keeps everybody very competitive – but you have to probably look at the reasons individual teams have had to go down those routes. Only those teams can give you the answers on there. We have issues in Formula One in terms of obviously the distribution of payments and things like that. Some of it can be financial, some of it’s performance-based, some of it’s availability-based. I think you have to look at the whole thing – but if we could move forward on a better programme it would be much better if all the engines were current.

Franz, what’s your take on this?

FT: I don’t know all the reasons and background stories why Sauber decided to go with this year’s engine. I wouldn’t like to be in this situation because it’s a big disadvantage on the performance side to run with last year’s engine. From the regulation side, I think it should be kept open because a one year old engine is most-often cheaper than the newest specification. Therefore the regulation should allow it. From the performance side the team anyway is disadvantaged.

Eric, how about you, Honda doesn’t yet supply another team, what’s your take on this?

EB: There will be a time, I guess, when they will supply another team in the future but I guess, ideally we all want to have a new spec engine. Obviously performance very similar – but I think like everybody said before me, there is some various conditions like availability, finance or this kind of thing which will make a difference today. I guess in the future we are going to tend to have all the same spec.

Dave?

DR: I would imagine any team would like to have the latest-spec engine. So if you take that into account and the team chooses to use an older-spec engine then there’s obviously commercial aspects you’ve got to take into account. So, leaving it open at the moment I think is fine.

Mike?

MO’D: I’m not against a team using a prior-spec engine, they would have their good reasons, commercial reasons, for doing so – but it’s symptomatic of a much bigger problem which is revenue distribution in the sport. There needs to be much greater equality.

Q: (Thomas Gorton – Dazed) This is for all of you. Who do you think will be running the sport next year – and who would you like to be running the sport next year?

Eric, would you start us please?

EB: Good question, because we are not in charge of the sport, we are obviously not behind the doors in the boardrooms and obviously we are all, from the comments I’ve read in the press, happy that Liberty is onboard. Bernie is still in charge and still running the show, so I guess it’s going to be a mix or all of them all.

Mike, we’ve had your thoughts on Liberty, so Franz, how about you?

FT: I think the taking-over process takes time. It’s not from one day to the next day. I assume the next year and also the year after it will be a combination of Bernie and Liberty together and afterwards then we will do.

Dave?

DR: We’re just happy to be here. So that’s the first thing. I think with Liberty coming on board it obviously opens the door for discussions on how to change things for the better or just to be different perhaps. We’re just happy to be here, whoever’s running it.

And Bob.

RF: I think obviously we’re excited to see Liberty come on board. They have a tremendous expertise in sports marketing which is quite unique to America, and having obviously lived and raced in America for a number of years, I recognise that as some of the best in the world. What we also must remember is Formula One is a unique product. It has been created as a unique product by Bernie. We need Bernie to help that transition into the new ownership and I think it’s very, very important for the new owners to look very carefully at this unique product that is F1 and maybe integrate the sports marketing into F1 and not try to integrate Formula One into an American sports marketing programme.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Franz, next year you’ll have the same engines as the main Red Bull team, obviously the same tyres, you’ve got two very very strong drivers and that leads us to believe that particularly with your strong technical team that you could actually be a challenge to the main team. Will there be anything such as Red Bull team orders internally? Will you have to give way to the Red Bull team if you should be running them close?

FT: As you know, this is not the philosophy of Red Bull. Nevertheless, Red Bull Technology is one of the strongest technical teams in Formula One. It would be nice if we could be close to them but I don’t think that we will be in front of them or that we will fight against them. It would be nice  but Red Bull will not call us back, for sure not.

Q: (Seff Harding – Xero Xone News) To follow up on the earlier question, in terms of marketing for Liberty Media, in the United States do you feel that a larger platform in terms of packaging to devices, to social media would be necessary to help expand the visibility of Formula One, because it doesn’t work in certain markets outside of the US?

MO’D: I think for sure, if I understand the question correctly, that there’s a great opportunity to expand the sport in the Americas, in North America and the USA specifically. I think it would need a greater critical mass of races, either on the East and West Coast as well. The digital component is key for reaching a younger audience globally. I don’t think that’s North America specific.

FT: Yeah, we all know that Liberty Media is the best company to bring in all these tools which Formula One needs in future, the digital media, the social media and I’m convinced that their marketing strategy will find a way to bring Formula One forward, because we have some deficiencies and how they will do it we will then see, which strategy they will come up with.

DR: I think there’s general agreement that we need to appeal to a bigger audience, perhaps a different audience as well. However we do that, it will apply to America, everywhere.

BF: I think the digital and the social media market is going to be very important but we’ve also got to make sure that we can monetise that, and that’s going to be one of the challenges that Liberty will face.

EB: As far as Formula One is concerned, we agree that the US market is still very young, to be honest. We can do much more in America and North America. But Formula One is a global series and maybe the only global platform in the world as a sport, so we need to stay global. That means that we have plenty of room to develop the sport side, the business side and consequently, social media is key in any marketing tool box and before we can monetise, we maybe need to use this tool just to promote Formula One for the youngsters if we can do it in term of rights and then see the future. But again it’s global, it’s not only US.

Q: (Victor Macin – ESPN.com) Bob, what kind of driver are you looking for to replace Nico Hulkenberg ? Is he German, is he Mexican maybe?

BF: As I mentioned earlier, I think the decision for that will come next week or the week after or even the week after that. It will be Vijay’s decision and I think it would be wrong for us to pre-empt anything along the driver line at this time.

Q: (Victor Macin – ESPN.com) And to Dave, are you worried about the rumours that Pascal Wehrlein will leave the team?

DR: Well, as I said earlier, Pascal’s a great talent and we’d love to keep him, but it’s Mercedes’ decision as to where he ends up.

Q: (Silva Arias – Parabrisas) Can you please tell me, from one to ten, how you score your team regarding their performance this year, concerning what you expected at the beginning of this season and what is going on now, at the end of the season?

BF: Well, I think given the fact that we’re challenging for the highest position that the team has ever had, I think I have to give them a ten. I don’t think there’s anything less than that.

EB: Well, I think, if I remember, Ron Dennis said five out of ten, so I have to stick to my boss.

MO’D: Report card for the year? I think it would be a five or a six out of ten, quite honestly.

FT: Six.

DR: Difficult one. I’d say about four or five for us. We set ourselves some pretty big targets and by and large we’ve achieved them but we’ve got to make a big improvement again for next year to be where we need to be. We’ve done a good job but going forward we need to do more so to put a number on it for me is pretty difficult but maybe that’s about it.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mr Ecclestone recently said he would like to see Formula One more exciting which some took to mean more dangerous. He was talking about walls around the circuits and whatever else. Your drivers were fairly dismissive about this yesterday. Being the people who pay the bills if they hit the walls, how do you feel about it?

FT: There must not be walls around, because it’s expensive if the cars crash in there. No. But we should get rid of all these penalties and all this nonsense, if a driver touches another driver, that he gets done up or whatever. But we need interesting races and if they crash into each other, they crash into each other,  this is what people always want to see. Formula One is also entertainment. And currently, we take too much care about all the safety issues and so on. Formula One is dangerous, we know this, but currently at the race track, if you look, nothing happens any more. Some friends said to me ‘I don’t watch Formula One any more because there are the two Mercedes in front. If they don’t crash on the first lap, the race is gone. I can sleep somewhere else, not in front of the TV.’ This is absolutely wrong. First of all, we need to come up with a parity between the different teams. The ideal case would be two or three teams would fight for the championship until the last race, Constructors’ championship as well as Drivers’, not as the last years when everything is decided with a couple of races to go, before the end. Then if drivers fight against each other and if they crash against each other and something happens, then they should not go to the stewards and get a penalty for this. People want to see real racing, people want to see that something is happening. This is not the case any more, currently.

EB: I agree with Franz on at least one point: we want to have close racing which is why the fans like… which is why we like racing as well, and I think it’s going to come after every change of regulations, especially the last one with the power units. Obviously there is a lot of disparity between the cars and the performance but if you’re back to 2012 and 2013, I think if I remember, in the first ten races there were nine different winners. And then everybody was complaining that it was not good enough. So I obviously don’t think a wall will bring a solution and it’s expensive to build as well. I think it’s just making sure we can bring the regulations to a point where we can give a chance to every team to be competitive and if you have all the cars, all the drivers competitive, then you can have very good and close racing.

BF: In all the things that Bernie says there is a message there and I think that message is that we need to get a little bit more excitement into the racing itself. I think there are ways that we can deal with cars going off, track limits and things like that and give opportunities for drivers behind by de-rating or whatever. That technology is available. I think we could do a lot more to get it more exciting without endangering the drivers in any way, or without making the tracks so they are F1-specific because we’ve also got think that a lot of these tracks are also doing MotoGP as well, so whatever we do has to fit in with those as well. So I think yes, there are things we can do but I think Bernie’s message is let’s get it a little bit more exciting.

MO’D: Yeah, the big point’s really excitement, isn’t it? We need good, close racing, compelling racing. As you’ve heard from everyone here, we all want to see that.

DR: Well we do need close racing, for sure, but if we had a fairer distribution of funds, our cars would be closer together, that would be a start. But I think what Franz says is absolutely right. The drivers are over regulated on the track, some of the recent decisions and points and reprimands and so… personally, I think they are just too far. The drivers are discouraged from actively racing and some of the incidents that have been penalised I just don’t get, it’s just racing and you’re just not allowed to do it now. The blue flag situation is also frustrating and I’m not so sure that the blue flag adds much to the racing. For sure it aids the lead cars but it really disrupts the racing for the guys at the back and we’re all part of it. So I think, for me, we need to look carefully at how the sport is regulated when it comes to racing, would be a  great help, and if the drivers were allowed to be themselves. There’s not many drivers who aren’t more than the corporate figurehead of the company. They’re not allowed to express opinions, or they are discouraged from it. I can understand that side of it but it would be nice if we had a few more personalities. Lewis gets criticised for what he does. Well, why? He’s just out there doing his thing and if we had a few more drivers doing that sort of thing I think it would add to the sport.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

DRIVERS – Sergio PEREZ (Force India), Esteban GUTIERREZ (Haas), Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso), Esteban OCON (Manor), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

PRESS CONFERENCE

There is an incredible sense of excitement ahead of this Mexican Grand Prix. Checo, last year, those scenes of you being swamped on the drivers’ parade by the fans, just describe what that sense of adulation is like coming into this race.

Sergio PEREZ: Yeah, first of all, I’m so happy, I’ve been waiting the whole season for this race and finally to be here with all my people, arriving to Mexico City – as soon as I arrived here on Tuesday for an event, I can see all the energy from all the people is getting bigger. Formula One is getting bigger, it’s growing. It’s something that makes me very proud and I’m so much looking forward to give them a lot of happiness on Sunday. Hopefully I can give then a strong race, a strong performance. They always say that racing at home is an extra two tenths that you have on you. There really is, because the energy that I feel throughout the weekend is just phenomenal and I’m sure that this weekend will be a lot of that and I will be there to give them my best. The weekend goes to fast to me because I’m full of events and full of commitments that I just want to enjoy every single moment and give my best to them.

And Esteban, same for you really: are you going to find those two tenths in what is your first Mexican Grand Prix?

Esteban GUTIERREZ: Well, it’s an incredible feeling to be here and see how all the people are excited. I feel honoured to be able to share this great weekend, this great moment, with all the people that are going to be here supporting us – family, friends, fans – it’s just an incredible feeling. It feels like a whole big party through the whole weekend. So, yeah, everybody is excited. I’m very grateful for the support and I’m going to give my best to give the best result possible this weekend and I’m lucky to be here, with another opportunity, thinking that it’s going to be in Mexico, in my home country and enjoying all together.

Esteban, staying with you, one year ago you were announced as a Haas Formula One driver, how are your plans shaping up for 2017?

EG: I think Gene has been very clear in the media, they want to wait a few races. Fortunately, we have other options, which we are now considering strongly, and I think it will be important to close something soon, because we cannot risk to just wait a few more races until the end of the season and risk to fall in between two chairs. So we are doing our best and things are looking very good for next season.

Have you put a deadline for those negotiations to end?

EG: Yeah, that deadline should be in the next two weeks.

Checo, back to you, your current team-mate is moving to a works team in 2017, so what do you see in Force India that convinced you to stay there?

SP: I see a good potential. If you see, since I arrived up to now, every season we have been moving forwards. It hasn’t been easy. Right now we are fourth in the Constructors’ and to go up the next top teams are locked out, they don’t have any vacancy, so really I felt like my next move was going to be sideways or probably backwards. I see going to a new generation of cars that my best future is staying where I am, knowing the people that I am working working, having the stability, and as well Force India has done so much for my career I want to be loyal to them.

Moving on to Esteban Ocon, you’ve made huge progress in the six races you’ve driven in Formula One and you’re being linked with pretty much every available seat on the grid. How are those negotiations going and who will ultimately decided your future? Is it your decision or is it Mercedes’ decision?

Esteban OCON: Well first of all I’m already really happy to make the progress we made with the team. Together we have done a really strong job. It hasn’t been an easy thing to arrive half way through the season but I’m happy with the progress. Mercedes is managing my career, so at the moment I’m trying to focus on the remaining races and, yeah, we will see from there on how it goes.

Do you feel ready for a bigger team or do you think you’d benefit from another season with Manor?

EO: I don’t know, you know, as I say I’m focusing as much as I can on the remaining races. If you do a strong job there will always be talks and opportunities.

Marcus, you ran as high as 11^th in Austin last weekend. Do you feel that Sauber are now starting to make real progress for the first time since the buyout?

Marcus ERICSSON: Yeah, I think so. The last few races we’ve really been taking steps in the right direction, starting from Singapore really. Every race we are getting closer to the top ten, both in qualifying and in the races, and as you say, in Austin we had another really good weekend. In Q1 I was P14 on pure pace and that was really positive and then in the race I was running in P11 for a long time and I think it was with less than 10 laps to go I was still 11^th but then obviously we struggled with the tyres and I dropped back a couple of positions. But as a team we have been pushing really hard and moved in the right directions. Also, the updates we brought to the car we got to work now better and better, so we realty see we are going in the right direction. But we just need to continue that now, really push our maximum these last three weekends. It’s no secret, we need to aim for that point to jump Manor in the championship and that’s what we are aiming for, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

Well, you’re absolutely right, the team really does need that point. Where do you think is your best chance at the remaining three races?

ME: I think every one of them will be a good chance, but obviously on pure pace it’s going to be difficult because we still miss a couple of tenths it feels like to really take the fight for the top 10. It should be some races where there are some retirements or something like that and that should be a chance for us to benefit. We need to be there and do our maximum and be as high as possible in the races that we can take advantage of these surprising things that can happen. If this race is more chance than other races it’s difficult to say but we just need to be there to take the opportunities when they present themselves.

Carlos, a tremendous race from you Austin and a great battle with Fernando Alonso. You’ve often said that he is your inspiration. Do you get an extra sense of satisfaction when you are racing him as opposed to the rest of your peers?

Carlos SAINZ: Well, it’s already a big satisfaction to be a Formula One driver, because you are racing against the 21 best drivers in the world, but yeah, maybe that battle with Fernando was that tiny bit more special. I’ve been growing up looking up at him since he’s in Formula One in 2003. I’ve seen all his races and suddenly I saw myself in a position to fight on the last lap against him in Austin for a P5. It was special, but at that point you don’t really realise the thing you are doing. Maybe when you go to bed and you think a bit more about it, it’s that tiny bit more special, but it was an exciting one I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t have all the grip available to put up a stronger fight, but I definitely enjoyed it a lot.

Toro Rosso confirmed last weekend that Daniil Kvyat will be your team-mate next season. It’s going to be one of the most experienced driver line-ups Toro Rosso have ever had and when you combine that with the Renault engine coming your way, how does that affect your ambitions for next year, what do you think you can achieve?

CS: I think Toro Rosso is in constant progress at the moment. Obviously this year we have been a bit hampered by this power deficit that you all know by now. But if you look at the car and how it was performing in Austin, it’s a pretty decent car I must say. I really enjoy driving it. So as James Key and his team they do a very similar job to this last couple of years and the Renault engine works well, I think Toro Rosso has a good line-up next year to exploit this full potential of the car with Dany and myself and I really think we can move a bit forward in the Constructors’ Championship. We have the right people on board and we just need a bit of straight line speed, a bit more things coming together to put together some stronger results.

Q: Nico, it’s been a great season for you so far and the upshot of that is that you can clinch the world championship here in Mexico this weekend. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t think about that. How does it change your mindset?

Nico ROSBERG: I’m well aware of that, and yeah, it’s been a great season so far, which has put me into this position, y’know? It’s exciting to be in this championship battle now with Lewis towards the end of the season. We’ve been there before but anyways, it’s very cool. And that’s it. As I’ve said before, that for me, my way at the moment of achieving the best possible performance is really just to focus on the things that are within my control – and that’s, here in Mexico, try and win the race, and that’s it.

Q: Given the intensity of your battle with Lewis, how is the atmosphere in the team at the minute? Are there echoes of 2014 or is this different somehow?

NR: The atmosphere is really, really good. As an example we had a great party on Sunday night after Austin. All the mechanics, engineers together, it’s great. The team has come a long way and, in every area, we’re just so strong now. Even just this team feeling. Pulling in one direction, having a good time together. Everything. The atmosphere is awesome. I think everybody is thrilled by this battle which we’re finding ourselves in.

Q: What about the dynamic between you and Lewis?

NR: Not something I think about too much really. I try and do my thing and get the best possible result. That’s it. Of course it’s intense – but at the same time there’s an easy-going side lately.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Nico Rosberg, in Austin we heard some quotes from Bernie Ecclestone. Can you reply to what he said? He said if you win it could be good for you and for the Mercedes team but not necessarily for the sport because there’s nothing to write about you. What do you say about it?

NR: I spoke to him personally and he said that’s not exactly the way he said it. And anyways, for me it’s not something that’s important to me. For me, I focus on my thing and that’s it.

Q: (El Grafico – Enrique Gutierrez) Checo, what is your great fears in your life?

SP: To be honest it’s snakes, probably! Apart from that I don’t fear anything. To me, I don’t have a lot of fears, to be honest.

Second question, what do you think about the death?

SP: Nice questions. It’s a point in life that you don’t want to reach but everyone will reach death in their life. Sooner or later everyone will reach it but it’s a point of life no-one wants to reach.

NR: I wish all Mexicans a great celebration of the dead.

SP: He asks the question because we have this celebration this Sunday, I think.

Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Question for Nico, you’ve been racing your entire life: you’ve been in Formula One for ten years, been fighting for the championship for the last three, what would winning the World Championship mean to you?

NR: It’s a childhood dream. But that’s where it ends for me. As I said, what’s important for me this weekend is winning the Mexican Grand Prix.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Nico. How do you work with Lewis with the battle? Do you copy his settings, do you watch his telemetry or do you work all alone, apart from him?

NR: It’s as-usual. Everything is open, everything is shared and that’s it. So nothing has changed.

Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Here we’re a long way up in the air. What’s it like to drive at altitude or is there anything that you feel when you’re driving and is there anything extra that you need to do to be ready for that?

NR: Have you noticed that on your run this morning? What do you do 21k? No, for sure you notice it. So it’s one of those races where the fitness is important and it’s one of those I’ve worked towards. But it’s OK because there are long straights also to relax – so it’s not the toughest race of the year.

Checo, do you have anything to add about racing at altitude?

SP: You obviously feel it. Whatever you do, not only racing, running, whatever activity you do, you feel it a lot more. As Nico said, the circuit probably helps us with the layout. It has one of the longest straights in the calendar so physically it’s not one of the toughest: we’ve been through those already: Singapore, Malaysia – but it’s quite demanding as well, the race here.

NR: But it’s just as difficult for car. Not just for us drivers, because the car having less air volume density makes a big difference. For cooling.

Q: (Lazaro  Montano – Record) Nico, how special will it be to get the championship here in Mexico, considering that last year your good streak started here? After Austin, you began to win here in Mexico? How special would it be to complete the year with a championship here?

NR: I have great memories from here last year. Winning here was awesome, and also to get so much support from the Mexican people, even after that, through the whole year, social media, it’s really nice to see, so I look forward to meeting everyone again this weekend. The podium is one of the best in the year, in the baseball stadium, it was absolutely phenomenal and in terms of the championship, it’s not within my control if I get it this weekend, so for me it’s all about just winning the race and then we see what happens.

Q: (Luis Alberto Aguirre – Reform) To Marcus, do you see any chance for yourself to go to Force India next year? Is there any possibility; do you see that seat as a possibility for you?

ME: I think all the drivers who don’t have a contract for next year are looking at the seat. Obviously Force India is the second best available car at the moment, so it’s definitely an option but also Sauber is exciting for me looking at next year, because they have a very strong project building. So yeah, for me and my management, they are keeping their options open and talking to different teams that have seats left and hopefully sooner rather than later I will know what will happen for next year for me.

Q: (Ben Hunt –The Sun) Nico, two questions to you: do you think it’s unfair when people say that you’re only leading the championship due to Lewis’s failures? And also, just to bring you up on Bernie’s point, 2016 he said it would not be good for the sport if you were to win. Last year he had another pop at you and said it would be bad for business if you won the title. He seems to be doing you a bit of a disservice, don’t you feel?

NR: Well, you’re talking a lot about what other think and their opinions. I’m here to win races and not to please everybody that’s out there. There’s always going to be people that have opinions that will be going against me in some way or other. Those are two examples that you’ve given me and that’s the nature of the business, it’s always going to be like that so I like to focus on the people who really support me. And that’s it.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Bernie’s come out and said that he’d like to see walls put around circuits. Now I know that you’re quite keen on driver safety; what do you make of that? He would like to see walls to stop people going off track, increase the drama, to increase the danger. It sounds a bit bonkers to me but I just wanted to get your opinions.

NR: Well, my opinion is that there are ten other areas which we should look at before… if we want to make the sport even better than it is before we start looking at turning back time on safety. That would be my view on that.

SP: I certainly agree with Nico. There are so many more areas where we can improve the sport before starting to put safety at risk. I think we can definitely make the circuits a bit more challenging for the drivers, not necessarily with walls but making the driver pay for mistakes if you go off, having a gravel trap and losing time, that kind of thing I think is good for the sport because that forces the drivers not to make any mistakes.

CS: I fully agree with Checo on that one. For me, obviously safety comes first but also challenges for drivers. I just did a track walk this morning and you know when you see so much tarmac run-off where you can go wide like in Austin, it’s good for safety but I’m convinced we could use some devices to make it a bit more challenging, to make sure you use a bit more of the track. At least you pay something, you don’t gain an advantage. At the moment it’s too risky for us to just miss the braking point a bit, nothing happens, continue and you don’t even lock up the tyres. I fully agree on that one with Checo.

Q: (Thomas Goubin – AutoHebdo) Sergio, about next season, for you, at what point will it be difficult to replace a competitive driver like Nico and what kind of a driver would you like for next season as a teammate?

SP: Obviously having someone at the level of Nico is going to be difficult but I just want someone who comes with the right attitude to help the team, that gives good feedback and understands what’s going on with the car and hopefully if he can be fast as well, who pushes me, that would be great. I think that has worked really well with Nico because we push… (Esteban interjects) A Mexican as well, maybe would be good. Someone who pushes you, I think that’s for the benefit of the team and I think a lot of the success that the team has had has been because Nico and I have been pushing each other really hard. Since practice one up to the race, it’s always within half a tenth and that’s always good for the team.

Q: (Luis Alberto Aguirre – Reform) Regarding that subject, would you like to become Checo’s teammate; would you like to be Esteban’s teammate, Checo?

EG: Yeah, why not? It would be fantastic. Any teammate is good. Sure.

Q: Is there any chance we can see you guys wrestling out there later on?

SP: Why not?

Q: (Juan Pablo Sanchez – Millenio) Nico, what do you think are the keys to repeat (your victory) here in Mexico on Sunday?

NR: Well, we’ve seen this year that the results from last year don’t really make a difference to this year except for a positive memory, so we’re all starting from zero and the keys… I think to have a good rhythm through the weekend, starting from FP1, building it up and then the usual things: good qualifying, good start, race pace, those things.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Carlos, we’re in the land of the chilli and your nickname is Chilli. A reader called attribalF1 would like to know who gave you the nickname, when and whether you think it’s descriptive?

CS: Yeah, this name comes probably from my friends, maybe on nights out or something, they get a bit too drunk and they come up from Carlos to Charlie from Charlie to Chilli and that’s how it ended up being… I don’t like chillis, this the interesting part, that I hate spicy stuff. Yesterday I went to have some tacos and I couldn’t have them because they were too spicy. Chilli is not my favourite.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Again to Nico, it seems that your mindset is very much each race and your mind isn’t on the broader story. Is that a decision that you’ve reached, the way that it works for you  or is it as a result of you having had a word with an expert in the area of mind management? I was just wondering how you stumbled on or decided that the idea that it was one race at a time and that was it.

NR: It just feels right, it feels right to focus on the things I can influence to keep it simple, be in the moment and it’s been working so just stick with it.

Q: (Diego Mejia – F1 Canal Latin America) To maybe Nico and if Checo can answer it as well: how would you expect the track to have evolved twelve months on, how will it be different or not from last year and how would you expect the supersoft tyre to be a factor after last year’s experience?

NR: Normally the track surface gets a bit rougher and that will make it a bit different on the tyres, so that’s the main thing we need to learn and discover and see how that’s gone.

SP: Same as Nico. I think the track will be rougher and that will have an impact on the degradation and now that we have a compound a step softer that might help the degradation so we might see different strategies. I think last year a lot of people went for one stop and now probably that’s not going to be that easy to be on a one story.

eom/FIA transcript of the press conference