INDIA in F1

Category: India In F1

  • Perez keeps Massa in check to finish P7: Spanish GP

    Perez keeps Massa in check to finish P7: Spanish GP

    Sahara Force India scored six points in today’s Spanish Grand Prix with Sergio Perez racing to seventh place. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was an early retirement following an oil leak and fire. According to reports, team Principal Vijay Mallya did not visit Spain as was expected.

    Sergio Perez (MEX) Sahara Force India F1 VJM09 makes a pit stop. Spanish Grand Prix, Sunday 17th May 2016. Barcelona, Spain.
    Sergio Perez (MEX) Sahara Force India F1 VJM09 makes a pit stop.
    Spanish Grand Prix, Sunday 17th May 2016. Barcelona, Spain.
    P7        Sergio Perez              VJM09-02
    Strategy: Used Soft (9 laps), New Medium (26 laps), New Medium (31 laps)
    Sergio: “It was a very good race and I think we managed to get the maximum result we could hope to achieve today. We were able to keep some very fast cars behind us and we capitalised on the accident on the first lap [between Hamilton and Rosberg] to bring home a good amount of points. I had to fend off Felipe [Massa] in the last three laps: I was on very old tyres and he was closing in on me, but I managed to defend my position. This was pretty much the only action I had all afternoon; the rest of my race was quite lonely, which helped me look after the tyres and allowed me to defend in the final few laps. We had a good strategy that helped us leapfrog the Haas and brought us this good result on a track that has never been our strongest.”
    DNF     Nico Hülkenberg       VJM09-03
    Strategy: New Soft (10 laps), New Medium (10 laps, DNF)
    Nico: “It’s frustrating not to finish another race. I saw some smoke coming from the back of my car and then it developed into a fire so I had to park quickly at the side of the track. It’s a shame because I missed the chance to fight for points and we also missed out on learning more about the car in race conditions. Sometimes in racing you have periods when things don’t go your way, but you have to keep the faith and believe that sooner or later your luck will change. There are also some positives to take away from this weekend because we’ve made progress with the car and I think the performance will continue to improve. So we will keep working hard and come back stronger at the next one.”
    Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
    “It’s been quite an eventful weekend for us, so it’s fairly satisfying to be leaving Barcelona with six points in our pocket. We made a good step with the car, allowing Sergio to run solidly inside the top ten all afternoon. It’s a track with limited strategy options and few overtaking opportunities so it was quite a lonely and straightforward race for him. On the other side of the garage, Nico was out of luck with an oil leak causing a fire and forcing an early retirement. Thankfully Nico was able to park up and helped the marshals extinguish the fire. So it’s been another mixed weekend, but I think our improved performance bodes well for the remainder of the season. As we learn more about this car we have the potential to continue scoring good points at the upcoming races.”

  • We are also surprised how close Red Bull is: Nico

    DRIVERS
    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Lewis, a bit of pressure on you there in the final run after that mistake in the first run of Q3 but 1 minute 22 flat is some kind of lap time around this place?
    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, very, very happy with getting the lap. Obviously Nico has been very strong all weekend, so it was crucial that… you know bit by bit, stepping stone, one step at a time, I’ve been really trying to bring the pace together. Firstly, I really want to say a big thank you to all the time, all the guys back at the factory, for working so hard over the past two weeks to try to rectify the issues we’ve had. This is three out of three for me. So I’m pretty happy. Obviously I didn’t get to compete in the last two qualifying sessions, so very, very happy with it and very grateful as well. The car was great. Yesterday was a bit of a difficult day, so to be able to start on the right foot today is a real blessing.

    OK, thank you very much indeed. Coming to you Nico, you had the strongest first run in Q3 but are you a little bit disappointed with the outcome at the end of qualifying or are you taking a view at the long game here?
    Nico ROSBERG: No, for sure I’m disappointed to be second, yeah. I wanted to be first today, of course. But Lewis was just quicker in qualifying today and that’s it. Fortunately, it’s the race that counts so there are still a couple of opportunities tomorrow for sure. at the start for example. And then strategy-wise it’s not going to be an easy race tomorrow, so I’ll try and take my chances there.

    Thanks for that. Daniel, you looked delighted at the end there after that qualifying lap. You only had one run to do it in and also a fair bit of pressure from your new young team-mate?
    Daniel RICCIARDO: Firstly, really happy to be back here in this press conference. Try to be here tomorrow. I think happy to be in front of both Ferraris as well, both of us. Max obviously was doing really good. We’re both on the second row, that’s pretty awesome. Yeah, we chipped away it, but it took a bit of time to come. Yeah in Q3 I knew I had one lap and just knew I had the pace and where I could do it and it was just about putting it all together. Up until then I hadn’t really got it all together but Q3 is what counts and yeah, did what I had to do, so I was very happy.

    Very well done indeed. Coming back to our polesitter, Lewis Hamilton. It’s always a close race here in Barcelona, as Nico was referencing a moment ago. Clearly there are more strategy variables this season than there has been in the past, but I guess from your point of view you’ve got to look forward to the race and to coming round at the end of that first lap at the front for the first time this season.
    LH: Yeah, hopefully everything comes together. I’ve been working on starts obviously at the past races and yeah, we’re in the best position to start from. We’ll try to get off on the right foot and you know tomorrow could be a good day.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, coming back to you: one little talking point just before the end, it was quite close in the pit lane as you went out for your final run in Q3, with Kimi Raikkonen coming out of the Ferrari garage. Your thoughts on that?
    LH: Yeah, I found it quite unusual. I mean, I was pulling out and all of a sudden he appeared and I thought he was going to hit. A little bit of an unsafe release from them, but it’s not a race, so whether or not that affects…

    Did you have to jump on the brakes?
    LH: Yeah, I think I did have to brake and just lift, or at least lift. But I think he saw me, so…

    Nico, looking at the difference in your performances in the second part of qualifying, which is obviously the one that dictates the tyres you start the race with, there was quite a big difference between the two of you, I think it was about half a second, six tenths, something like that. Was that performance or was that you taking a tiny bit less out of the tyres with a view to the opening stint of the race?
    NR: No, I was pushing. So it wasn’t saving tyres…

    OK, fine…
    NR: Unfortunately!

    I thought I’d just check! Finally, Daniel, talk a little bit about the atmosphere inside the garage this weekend and the atmosphere inside the cockpit of your car when you were looking at some of those lap times that Max was turning on his first acquaintance with this Red Bull car of yours?
    DR: Sure, it’s been a bit different this weekend. Not so much from what I’ve been doing, obviously my side of the garage hasn’t changed. Sure, there has been a bit more attention surrounding the team and sure, I’ve got another guy directly opposite me, who is doing very well. We’ve both locked out the second row of the grid. Obviously very happy to be here, but for both of us to be in front of Ferrari and on the second row, I thought maybe one of us could sneak in and get a P4 and split the Ferraris but to both be in front is really cool. We know from the start Max is quick and he’s shown that throughout, also yesterday he showed speed as well. It’s been a good start for him and I think for us as a team really good for this weekend.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobildmotorsport) – A question for Nico. Nico, you were one of the experts, you were right warning for the strength of Ferrari, so I guess you’re not surprised they’re so close, only one second?
    NR: Yeah, it makes look like not so much of an expert, huh! Anyways, we’re surprised. We’re surprised to be so far ahead. At the same time we’re also surprised how close Red Bull now is. It’s really changing around quite a lot. The only constant is us, we’re always there and always up front and we always have a gap to whoever is in second at the moment. That’s been impressive to see. Very pleased with that of course, it’s just a great job by the team, that on every track we manage to keep the car working perfectly and that’s really fantastic to see.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) Daniel, when you saw in Q2 that Max was 407 thousandths faster than you, did it bring you any special emotion: ‘I need to beat this guy in Q3’. Something like that?
    DR: Your mentality is you need to beat everyone. Sure, my Q2 definitely didn’t go as good as his. His first lap was on the money. I didn’t feel we had to run again but obviously the team wanted to play it safe, so we ran again and even the second lap I did in Q2 wasn’t great. So sure, I knew there was more to come in Q3 – but also I knew where the time was and I knew just putting it all together would give us a bit of lap time. So, I think the only disadvantage coming into Q3 was that I knew I just had one set of tyres – but been in that position before and, sure, it creates a bit of excitement. Max had already set one time in Q3 with one set, so yeah, obviously you look across at your team-mate but I was also looking at Ferraris. And yeah, to get in front of one of them I thought would be good but to get in front of both, and also for Max to jump them as well… it’s a good day. I never doubted myself but yeah, left it pretty late.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Two questions if I may. First to Lewis: you weren’t very happy with the car yesterday Lewis, I was wondering how much the car has gone to the other end of the spectrum in terms of feel and balance and grip level now, whether it was the circuit perhaps coming in as well? And was the lock-up in that first Q3 run indicative that maybe things still aren’t 100 per cent?
    LH: Nope. I had a problem yesterday with something on the car so it wasn’t the easiest of days and almost a bit of a waste of a day for me. So today was really starting from scratch, the car felt great from the get-go once that was rectified. We made a few changes to the balance – but very few, just a couple of changes. Nico was very comfortable in the car so kind of more in the direction he was going. They weren’t very far apart anyway. But to get out today and feel the car beneath me once again was a great relief. But still, Nico was incredibly strong, as you can see, so there was areas I knew I needed to pick up and that was really what I was trying to do – and in Turn Ten a little bit too much. When I came in I was just laughing, believe it or not, like between that session because the lap was so good. Between those runs I was just giggling. Just thinking ‘it was such a good lap’. It would have been easily pole – but I’m glad I got it with the second one. Whilst it put a bit more pressure on the second lap, I was still able to get it, so happy with that.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Daniel, the traction of the Red Bull is brilliant around here, sector three looks great for you – but I’m wondering – we didn’t see the lap on TV – how much could you push through sectors one and two knowing your lap was really going to come together in sector three?
    DR: Yeah, I think, surprisingly, the track got a bit better for sure as qualifying went on, but it was getting hotter as well a bit so it wasn’t… I thought sector three would have dropped off more to be honest as the track got warmer but it wasn’t too bad and you could still push. I think the lap times – I’m not sure how they were compared to last year – but you could push pretty much the whole lap and not really worry about the tyres too much, so that was good. At least for us. We were able to go for it, the majority of the lap. Sure, the last sector, you get a little bit of overheating, particularly the last corners, traction, you’re fighting a bit. But, as you said, the last sector is still relatively strong compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, so yeah, it’ll be interesting in two weeks’ time in Monaco. Hopefully we can get even closer.

    Q: (Angélique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Two questions to you Daniel. My first is, it’s a long time we didn’t see you here, so how will you manage to be back tomorrow, to carry on the tradition tomorrow? And the second is, we saw an impressive Max today, you are here, there are Ferraris behind so is it a new Red Bull era?
    DR: I think… yes for sure it’s great to be back up here and in dry conditions it’s nice. A bit like China. This is really the first track of the year that we’ve probably, all of us, put on the majority of downforce that we currently have on the car and it’s shown our strengths are coming back. I think for us as a team we’ve shown signs already this year and today that’s shown again. That we do have a good car underneath us and it’ll be interesting come even tighter, twistier circuits. Monaco, as I said, in a few weeks’ time will be interesting: should be fun. And yeah, to be back here tomorrow, I think just do what I guess I’ve been doing. I feel I’ve been driving really well this year and just to keep it up. Yeah. I’d love to say we can fight with them but I’ll just try to hang with them. Hopefully get a slipstream and they can drag me down into Turn One. And yeah, stay close.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport magazine) Lewis, in the unilaterals you thanked the team for working so hard to improve, change the car. What is different about the car now?
    LH: We obviously came with some small upgrades. Obviously the car is constantly improving but I would say, obviously I’ve got an improved turbo for this week, which was coming probably a race or two away, and just to really rectify and understand the issues that we’ve had in the last races. I just know everyone was working hard, whether or not we’ve actually rectified and fixed everything, we will find out. One thing I know is that the guys are working flat out. Everyone was feeling the pain over the last couple of races with the faults, and so just grateful to them for putting the work in because hopefully because this weekend and moving forwards we’ll see the results of that.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Daniel, if the engine upgrade brings what is promised, do you think that’s enough to close the gap to Mercedes, or is there still more needed?
    DR: I think there will still be a little more, but sure on some circuits it could be enough. So if we were to have it here, for example, I think there’s still 0.6s off Lewis today so I don’t think we’re expecting 0.6s from the upgrade so we would probably still not quite be there but it would certainly put us a lot closer. Monaco and Budapest, some of these tighter circuits, I think (it) would give us a real shot so hanging out for the next few races, really.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – AutoBild Motorsport) Lewis, I read some English papers today which say there’s a possibility that you could take a sabbatical next year. What are your plans in this time?
    LH: A sab…  a year out? No way! Yeah, the guy whoever wrote that was smoking something. Probably good stuff.

    Q: (Christopher Joseph – Chicane) Daniel, you said you don’t need motivation in general as an F1 driver, but surely a hot new teammate must have had an effect today, so how will you approach the race tomorrow, both strategically for yourself and collectively for the team?
    DR: That’s alright. Again, I said I don’t need any extra motivation because I feel I’m my own motivation. I love the sport, I love the competition so as long as there’s someone to compete against, sure I’ll always have a high level of motivation but I would say sure, it’s another challenge, having Max in. At the moment I guess he’s the hottest young property as the up-and-comers are concerned. At least he’s created the most hype I would say out of the new kids on the block and I think it showed today, he was very quick throughout qualifying. It’s good for me, obviously: more challenges and more people to measure myself against. I do believe he is very quick and today I managed to put in a good lap in Q3 and we will see how the season progresses  but sure, it’s exciting.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Nico, do you see a difference in your life as an F1 driver being the World Championship points leader and after seven wins in a row, you have more pressure or have more attention from fans and media etc?
    NR: No, no difference. We’ve been fighting now for the championship for the last two years now, so it’s no different again this year. The battle with Lewis and the battle trying to stay ahead of all the other teams, nothing has changed. And I did lead the championship already anyway in 2014 for example, so even that  is not the first time.

    Q: (Fabrizio Cognati – diariodelweb.com) Daniel, Max said on Thursday that now he doesn’t see a  reason to leave Red Bull now that he’s been upgraded to the top team. Seeing that Red Bull is so competitive, I think that you as well will stay in the team and see no reason to leave.
    DR: Sure, the position we’re in now is getting stronger and obviously you want to put yourself with the best team or the best position available and for sure, Max moving up now he’s very happy and for me as well, I’m very happy with the progress I’ve seen, especially after last year, there was a bit of a dip in performance and then we started to creep it back up in the second half of the year and we’ve really continued that. I think we’ve done a bigger step forward already than what we expected so sure, if it keeps going like this then I think both of us are very happy here.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, you didn’t have good starts in the first two races and then you had problems in the last two races and tomorrow the start will be very important to win the race. Will you do any special preparations for this race, knowing the importance of the start here?
    LH: Like meditation or something? No! In China I had the best start of the whole grid. The last start actually was so-so. So I’m hoping for another good start. I think whatever issues we had they definitely have been rectified and I think ultimately with starts, I think for all of us in Formula One, it’s always up and down. The starts have been great so far this weekend so I don’t see why they won’t be tomorrow.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Force India has done a great job technically and the upgrades are working: Bob Fernley

    Force India has done a great job technically and the upgrades are working: Bob Fernley

    Fri PC 13may2016 Spain FIA picTEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault Sport), Yusuke HASEGAWA (Honda), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Maurizio ARRIVABENE (Ferrari)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Let’s start with a question to you all. After much debate and discussion the FIA has now confirmed the revised engine regulations for 2017 to 2020. Are you pleased with the final agreement? Maybe we could start with Cyril.
    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Yeah, I mean, it’s an agreement, so we are pleased with this agreement in particular, but I think what’s good now is to have a clear understanding of what’s coming up for the next few years. We all know stability is important, so we have agreed for some stability up to 2020. We have also agreed for price reduction for customer teams, that’s clear, that’s agreed. There is also a clear target to get the performance to converge, because we all believe that it’s important for Formula One. We believe it is happening anyway, but there is this clear target. It cannot be a guarantee, because no one can guarantee performance. You can’t guarantee performance in the wind tunnel, same thing with engine. But we all know what we have to do. It’s good, it’s a relief, because we know what we have to do and we can make plans for the future.

    Maurizio?
    Maurizio ARRIVABENE: I’m very happy about that, because the most important news is that they talk and they move and that has opened the competitiveness for all of us and also the development. In terms of stability it’s absolutely fine, so I have no doubt that this decision is going to help the sport.

    Robert?
    Robert FERNLEY: I think we’ll reserve our position.

    Meaning?
    RF: We’ll reserve our position.

    Hasegawa-san, your thoughts?
    Yusuke HASEGAWA: Yes, not everything is good to the engine manufacturer, but it’s good to fix the rules and I believe the rules continue to 2020, so the rule stability is very good to us as a big company so it is good.

    Christian?
    Christian HORNER: I think what Bob was trying to say is that it is a little underwhelming. It’s a very soft agreement between the manufacturers and the FIA. It tickles the price, deals a little bit with convergence, the obligation to supply doesn’t really apply, so it’s a very weak agreement. Unfortunately it’s a shame more couldn’t be done, but I suppose if you look on the bright side it’s better than nothing.

    A weak agreement Toto?
    Toto WOLFF: I just want to digest what I just heard in the last five minutes. We achieved a major price reduction over two years. We have opened up development scope for others to catch up. We have designed an obligation to supply so no team runs out of an engine contract. We have found a mechanism how performance convergence could be trigged. Lots of good things, many months of hard work in trying to get everybody on the same page, I think it’s a good step forward.

    OK, a few individual questions then, starting with Cyril. We’re waiting to see what the engine upgrade brings. Can you tell us a little bit about the strategy behind the 2016 development programme and what you expect this upgrade to bring in terms of lap time?
    CA: Well, the strategy is fairly straightforward. Quite opposite to what’s happening in the chassis regulation with a major change between ’16 and ’17, nothing changed on the engine regulation between ’16 and ’17, so anything you can bring in ’16 is good for ’16 and ’17, so there is no question mark or debate about how do you… do I split my resources between this year and next year? That’s part of the development strategy, that’s part of the programme. It’s not all that we have in the pipeline; it’s a good chunk of it. It’s a good chunk for this year and we hope that it will be reducing some of the gap to the gentleman sitting in the front row to the benefit of Christian and Red Bull.

    Robert, coming back to you: tough start to the year, eight points on the board after four races. You’ve brought some updates this weekend, but can you sum up where you are in early 2016 and where you’re heading?
    RF: Well, from our point of view it’s disappointing that the results that we have don’t justify the car and it’s the exact opposite of where we were last year, where the results really flattered us to a certain degree. We’ve had two races where both cars got taken out in the first lap and the other two races, where a red flag and the safety car didn’t help out strategies at all. I think we just have to keep doing the right things all the time and it’ll come back to us. I’m very confident. The team is doing a great job technically. This upgrade appears to be working where we want it and we’ll climb our way back to where we want to be.

    Thank you for that. Hasegawa-san, going back to the discussion about engine regulations, obviously part of this new FIA agreement regards manufacturers supplying more than one team. Honda has always maintained it would welcome supplying multiple teams in Formula One, but have you actually begun any negotiations with anybody for 2017.
    YH: As a matter of fact, we don’t have concrete negotiations, although we have some conversations with some teams, but unfortunately we can’t make a conclusion with some teams. Currently our position is that we have to wait until the situation changes.

    But it’s true to say that you still welcome the opportunity to supply a different team?
    YH: Welcome is a different word. I think I have an obligation to contribute to Formula One society, so we are preparing our resource, but still we are not strong enough to provide multiple teams. We are preparing now.

    Toto, back to you. The team wrote and open letter to the fans after all the conspiracy theories circulating around Lewis Hamilton’s technical problems. How did that come about and what was achieved by it?
    Toto WOLFF: Well, since a while already we are trying to have a pretty transparent communication with all the stakeholders. We engage a lot through social media with our fans and this was one more exercise in that direction, which we felt was necessary to say where we are coming from.

    And how do you feel it worked out?
    TW: I don’t know. Clearly with Lewis and Nico in the car they polarise. There’s always going to be controversy around that, but I feel it worked out OK.

    OK, thanks for that. Christian, obviously the big talking point going into this weekend is the switch of Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen. What part did you play in that and how hard do you think it will be for Verstappen to adjust to your car mid-season, given how little Formula One experience he has?
    CH: I think Red Bull are in a unique situation where we’ve got four drivers contracted to the team. Two have always been loaned to Toro Rosso and within their contracts we have the ability to move drivers around and with the benefit of four relatively competitive cockpits we have the ability unlike other teams to move drivers from team to team. There’s been some discussion for a little while, because obviously we monitor and follow the performance of each of the drivers very carefully, not only in the car but outside the car, through the development programme and through the tools we have back at the factory as well and basically we reached a conclusion to say there’s never an ideal time to move things around but if we are going to move it why don’t we get on with it, do it in time for the European season. It puts our best foot forward in Red Bull Racing, it gives Dany Kvyat the chance to continue to develop in the Toro Rosso environment and that was the basis of the decision. In the meantime it also allows us to tidy up options and secure things for the future as well, so all very positive.

    Coming to you Maurizio: the cars are a lot faster this year than in 2015. I think Kimi was three seconds quicker in that FP2 session than he was 12 months ago. In terms of your performance as a team do you feel that until now you haven’t been able to show the real Ferrari performance due to the various issues that you’ve had at the races?
    MA: It’s true, but can you repeat… our car is faster, three seconds to last year?

    FP2 last year, yes.
    MA: Thank you, I like to hear that! The problem is they [Mercedes] are faster than us! No, I mean we have a programme of development. We try very, very hard, taking also a big risk at the start of the season. We have also a bit of bad luck, being honest. But I’ve said many, many times this Mercedes teams is the strongest of the last 10 years. So to beat them you need to take some risks and you need to work very, very hard. I’m talking about this with respect for them but with determination that sooner or later we can catch up.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) We see here representatives of different teams. My question is for all. In Formula One it’s very important to have good driver, good chassis and good engine – how many per cent can you give to the role of driver, the importance engine, of chassis?
    CA: I think you should ask Toto, because he has all of it!

    TW: One doesn’t go without the other. You cannot give percentages. The best driver in a weak chassis will not be competitive and, if he has a weak engine, it will not help either. So you need to align the stars, try to get the best possible driver in the best possible car with a very competitive engine.

    Anyone else like to have a stab at it? Christian, your thoughts.
    CH: Yeah, I think Formula One, the three elements should have equal weight: the driver, the chassis and the engine. So if one of those elements isn’t quite right, the other two can compensate. I think in today’s Formula One, with the recent engine changes I think we’ve offset that balance, and so you’ve probably got – I don’t know – 50 per cent engine, 25 per cent chassis, 25 per cent driver. I think the encouraging thing is the regulations that are in the pipeline for next year should rebalance that: it should make chassis a little bit more of a factor, which is going to challenge the driver more. So, hopefully for 2017 it should balance up a little.

    Do you agree with those ratios Robert?
    RF: I think there’s an old saying that a good driver can always make a poor car look good – but not the other way around. So I think both of them are important.

    Hasegawa-san, any thoughts on this?
    YH: It is a bit difficult to tell the number. To me, every element has a one-third importance I think – to me.

    Maurizio?
    MA: I’m not good with percentages but being logical and straightforward, how can you go there and run around without the driver? And then you need to also have a good driver. At the moment it’s a good balance in between the three. Maybe the engine is more important this year without doing percentages. Next year, I agree with Christian, you could have the chassis that is going to take up a bit more importance, making all the races a bit more interesting and also challenging the drivers’ ability. But I think, looking at this year, it’s very spread out between the driver, chassis and engine – and if I have to talk in percentages, with something more for the engine.

    Cyril, you tossed the question to Toto at the beginning. Do you want to say anything about it?
    CA: I think in theory we would like an equal breakdown between the three elements – but that never happens. The one thing that should not happen is that the engine is taking too much weight for the simple reason that you have fewer engine suppliers than you have teams. So, if suddenly the engine is taking more weight you are giving too much power to one single entity, which is exactly what happened in truth for Mercedes. Nothing wrong with that, just because they did a brilliant job – but it’s never too good for the sport.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Yesterday in this room Lewis Hamilton said something like “Ferrari is hungry to win, of course, but we still have potential to develop our engine.” I would like to ask Mr Arrivabene how optimistic you can be this year trying to beat Mercedes when the driver says something like that? And is Ferrari able to develop still the engine this year?
    MA: Looking at the first four races saying that I’m optimistic… it’s a bit too much. But of course because we know exactly what’s happened there. In Melbourne victory was absolutely possible. In Bahrain maybe yes, and then we have two different circumstances in the other two races. Of course I’m optimistic. If you’re asking me when, most probably we have to share the question in between me and him to understand precisely but I mean of course we are trying to do our best, and we are determined and optimistic.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Question for all. If each one of you can make a single change to the regulations for next year, what would it be?
    CH: Mercedes engines for everybody free of charge.
    And in the real world?
    CH: Well, we have a chassis regulation change. I think anything that gives the driver more predominance… Formula One is about man and machine, or woman and machine at the absolute limit. I think at the moment the drivers have too much of an easy time. We don’t see or get to appreciate their skill levels – which are huge. I think anything that can be encouraged within the regulations that differentiates more between the drivers, so we get to appreciate more the real skill they have, I’d be all for.

    Toto?
    TW: I think if we leave everything as it is now, we have changed the regulations for a new aerodynamic concept for next year and that’s pretty exciting. I’m actually quite happy with the direction we are heading towards.

    Maurizio?
    MA: I’m quite happy too, being honest. Concerning the show, I think from my point of few, as Ferrari, we are building car, engine, gearbox and chassis and not growing driver, so for us it’s good what we have. If you are asking me what you really, really like to change, I threw up on the table maybe ban the simulator. In this way you can go testing to the track, you can promote Formula One, you are not going to spend millions to update the simulator. Why not? You have to think that keeping the exclusivity of Formula One, it doesn’t mean that Formula One has to be viewed only at the race time and disappearing in between the grand prix. I mean to promote Formula One you have to see the car running and to test the tyre you have to do testing. Now we have something that, in my opinion is quite artificial like the simulator. If you are asking me, OK, tell me what you want to change. It is not a proposal for FIA. It is my thought.

    Cyril
    CA: Well, as said, we know what we have now and it’s too late anyway to change but the one regret that we have is on fuel limitation, on fuel quantity. Because even though we support and appreciate the message that Formula One needs to be fuel efficient, the product is fuel-efficient first and foremost and secondly the fuel quantity limitation is going against the performance convergence which we all think is important. So if you are to ask me that, the one which I would waive, also because we want the driver to be constantly in a situation to attack and not to have to manage too carefully their fuel, so that would be the only one – but it’s a small detail.

    And how much fuel in a perfect world would you want to give them?
    CA: I would take away completely the quantity just for the message. Formula One is not endurance, it is not LMP1, it is a short race, it is about being able to attack constantly. So it’s joining a little bit the point made by Christian a bit earlier. If you ask me what is the fuel quantity that is needed in order to be fuel sustainable at all races, I think we are talking about three to five kilograms of fuel will make it. But again, just for the sake of the message and the simplicity of the message and not have negativity that Formula One is about precious drivers and so on and so forth, I would take away any limitation.

    Hasagawa-san?
    YH: This is also a personal opinion, so not a proposal for the FIA but if we could reduce the penalty of the number of the usage of the engine it would be nice. Of course I respect the longer mileage engine and the durability is a very important challenge for the engine people but the current penalties, I think are too big and complicated to introduce to the fans. I think we should be better to reduce the penalty to the engine change on usage on engines.

    Bob?
    RF: I think there’s a lot of work gone into producing the regulations for next year which I’m quite comfortable with as they are – but I think the underlying problems for Formula One are in what is a very inequitable distribution of income. I think we need to get that right to make sure its sustainable.
    Q: (Sergio Alvarez – One Magazine) Maurizio, this weekend this Spanish Grand Prix is the anniversary of Michael Schumacher’s first win for Ferrari; is there any special feeling inside the team and do you remember what you were doing that Sunday?
    MA: Yes, Michael is in our hearts every single day. He’s part of the history of Ferrari. I was here that day and I remember very well the hug that Michael gave to me later on after the race and what we were drinking in the cup. It was a very very good feeling. I think it was wine or something. I don’t like… being an Italian, I don’t drink wine! It was something that for me was very strange but good.
    TW: I don’t remember unfortunately. I remember those glorious Schumacher years, an era when Ferrari was dominant with Michael there and like he’s very very much part of Ferrari, he’s very much part of Mercedes as well but for that particular Sunday, no recollection.
    CH: Yes, I remember it very well. I was watching it on the TV. I remember being a Williams supporter at the time and David Coulthard and Damon Hill both managed to screw it up and Michael did a great job that day in the rain, in conditions that were pretty appalling. It’s a great equaliser and in a car that was nowhere near the level of a Williams performance, he was in a class of his own that day and it was a very very impressive drive.
    RF: This goes back to what I said before, that a great driver often makes an underperforming chassis look very very good, and that’s what Michael did. He was quite remarkable.
    YH: When was that? Sorry, I don’t remember. I wasn’t in Formula One.
    CA: I think I was working on my exams unfortunately.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Cyril, you said earlier on that performance convergence is a target. Fabrice Lom said earlier on that it will be monitored rather than regulated. Now are the four power units suppliers  represented here confident that convergence can actually be achieved within certain limits, two per cent or 0.3s? And that one or other team won’t possibly be fudging their performance for as long as this monitoring is carrying on and then just shooting off ahead on their own thereafter?
    CA: That’s one hell of a tactic. No I think that’s what we have to aim for, that’s the target, that’s our ambition and I think frankly that’s achievable. When I look at what we have on our dyno, what we have on simulation but also on dyno, so I’m talking about physical product, we really have a good good hope that we can do that, so obviously just looking at what we are doing. What I don’t know is what Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda are doing but there is naturally a law of diminishing returns, as we all know, which, after some time, is starting to kick in. Maybe we need to ask the gentlemen in front what is their plan, but I think it’s achievable and talking about the tactics that will be followed by any team in order to change, to create a reaction in change, frankly I think that’s a bit remote and I think there is an element of change that will not be controlled by such a team that would kick off the process so I don’t really believe that.
    MA: I think in our position we will continue to develop our engine and without stopping that for sure so then if, somehow, the convergence is achieved, it’s something that we need to discuss, but no discussion that the developing and looking for the performance is in the DNA of our team.
    TW: Yeah, I would agree. The regulation stays stable, the development scope is opened up a bit so it is pretty logical that the field is going to converge. We are going to try to do everything to not make this happen.
    YH: Even if we don’t have a rule, we have to catch up, otherwise we can’t be here, I think. Naturally we have to catch up, yes.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, your company: although the team is based in the UK, the head office is based in Germany. Cyril, exactly the same with yours except that it’s France. Christian, yours is Austria and the UK. With this looming Brexit vote coming up, have you looked at the impact on a British organisation with a European head office and what could possibly happen operationally? I’m not asking  for political comment at all, but purely operationally, how you see it could affect your teams in future?
    CH: Well, we had George Osborne come round the other day but he never mentioned Brexit which was quite impressive. Look, we’re a sporting team, we’re based in the UK, we’re not going to get involved in politics. If it happens, it happens. If it stays it doesn’t make a great deal of difference to us, so we’ll deal with it as and when, if it should happen.
    TW: When I took the job in 2013 I was told by my boss, Dieter Zetsche, don’t comment on politics so I’m not commenting on politics. We’re sporting, as Christian says, and we just have to get on with our job.
    CA: Without talking about politics, the only thing we would have to look at carefully is the effect on the currency, because as an organisation we are exposed to a number of foreign exchange rates including dollars because the revenue of FOM is not euros, it’s dollars so we would have some impact there. But apart from that, I don’t see any other implications.

    Q: (Fabrizio Corgnati – diariodelweb.com) For Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Honda: as manufacturers, do you think that modern Formula One still gives a good return of investment to help improving the road car sales?
    YH: Technical side or promotion side? Marketing side. Of course it is very difficult to say, the current Honda position is not a very good effect to the mass production but definitely, the image of Formula One can still have a good image for the mass production side as well, yes.
    CA: Well, obviously I think we reply to that answer with the decision that we made at the end of last year and obviously, as you can imagine, we’ve done a lot of analysis in order to form that decision which was a joint decision within the Renault Group. Clearly Formula  One is relevant, is useful  as long as you win, so that’s the big ‘If’ and obviously since we look where we’re starting from that’s a big ‘If’ and obviously that’s a big ambition but if you are successful, the amount of exposure that you have, even against the cost which is high, is completely balanced so what you need is to do what’s necessary in order to be successful. The problem is really the entry ticket and the extra spend that you need to put in the initial years in order to get to the level of competitiveness that you want. That’s the difficulty of the whole business case of Formula One.
    MA: It’s a bit more simple, my analysis, starting from the past. Enzo Ferrari, when he started his activity, the production side of Ferrari was racing at the same time. Ferrari is not doing advertising and racing is the way of Ferrari to advertise the brand and this is one aspect. The other aspect is of course in racing you can transfer sooner or later certain technology that you are developing on the whole car. Take for example the gearbox on the steering wheel and all this novelty; some things are not applicable yet  because of course they are so high (technology) but as soon you are able to find the process to produce in big numbers and then acceptable quota of technology that you are developing Formula One, this is something that you apply to the car and that was part of the history of Ferrari and it continues to be like this.
    TW: Similar with Mercedes. The first ever Mercedes was a racing car and this is part of our DNA: we build racing cars and we build road cars. It is not a sponsorship platform so we will continue to do just that and in terms of the advertising value equivalent that you generate, it’s a global platform and a very good platform.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Force India looks forward to upgrades; Mallya expected to attend Spanish GP

    Bangalore, 11 May 2016: Vijay Mallya, the beleaguered liquor baron of India and the team Principal of Sahara Force India is expected to attend the Spanish GP this week-end.

    He is currently battling against the Enforcement Directorate, a specialised financial investigation Agency under the Governmnet of India’s Ministry of Finance, which has succeeded in getting his diplomatic passport revoked by the External Affairs Ministry but the latter failed miserably to get him deported as England refused to toe the line. Mallya has a resident permit in UK from 1992 and is a non-resident Indian.

    Mallya is reported to be continuing negotiations with bankers and offered Rs.6,800 crore but the bankers did not respond. They claim that he owes them Rs.9000 crore. Many in sporting circles are divided in their loyalty; while some strongly believe that he should be booked a per the law of the land, other feel that he is being victimised by a media trial and quote that Air India, the state-run Airlines, owes more than Rs.30,000 crore to Indian banks.

    Undaunted, Mallya continues to give quotes to his Press team which puts out releases to the Sports Media around the world. Mallya, who has not attended an F1 race for many months now, is expected to grace the paddock at the Spanish GP next Sunday.

    The release put out by Sahara Force India team:

    Barcelone:
    2016 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Preview
    Sahara Force India looks forward to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
     
    Q & A with Nico Hulkenberg on Barcelona
    Nico Hülkenberg looks forward to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
     
    Nico: “When you get to Barcelona to start the European season, you start to realise just how quickly the year is passing. It’s a chance to get back into a normal routine because you don’t have so many long flights or time zone changes, so it’s a bit easier from that regard.
     
    “I love the city of Barcelona and the Spanish lifestyle in the sunshine. We’ve already spent a couple of weeks there for winter testing, but when you come back for the race everything is different: the cars have evolved, the temperatures are warmer, and you have to work hard to find the right set-up. That’s why it’s a tricky circuit because confidence counts for a lot and, if you’re not totally comfortable, your lap times really suffer.
     
    “I felt pretty disappointed about what happened in Sochi. In fact, things have gone against us for the last few races. We know we should have scored more points, but it’s impossible to plan for the bad luck we’ve experienced. I’m looking forward to a weekend where everything goes to plan so that we can show our true potential.”
     
    Sergio on Barcelona
    Sergio Perez gets ready for Barcelona and hopes to add to the points he scored in Sochi. 
     
    Sergio: “The atmosphere in Barcelona is always special and for me it’s one of the best tracks of the year. I enjoy the layout because it’s a true test of your car with a bit of everything, especially long, quick corners, which all the drivers enjoy. It’s a track where you feel the physical demands, especially on your neck, but overall it’s just a great place to experience a Formula One car. The only downside is that it’s difficult to overtake, but it’s still possible with DRS on the approach to turn one, especially if the car ahead is suffering with high tyre degradation.
     
    “It was important to get back into the points in Russia. The car performed very well all weekend and I can feel the progress we’ve made since the start of the year. It was not a smooth race, but we didn’t give up and scoring two points was a good recovery. It’s been a difficult start to the year, but it feels like the momentum is changing now and the performance in Sochi was a big boost for all of us.
     
    “Barcelona will be the first chance to run our updated car. It’s going to be a huge task to understand everything on Friday, but it’s always exciting to try new parts on the car.”
    Q&A with Vijay Mallya
    Team Principal, Vijay Mallya, hopes to see the VJM09 realise its true potential this weekend
    Vijay, Sergio scored points in Russia, but it was another eventful race for the team…
    VJM: “In Sochi we were the innocent victims of the first lap chaos – as was the case in Bahrain too. It’s frustrating because, even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to see what we could have done differently. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time with both cars, which caused a puncture for Sergio and ended Nico’s race. To see Sergio recover from the back of the pack and score points was a tremendous effort.”
    Surely the team’s fortunes will start to change soon…
    VJM: “I hope we’ve used up all of our bad luck already! We’ve yet to see how we perform in a clean, trouble-free race without safety cars, red flags or accidents. Despite not realising our potential in Sochi, we took encouragement from our qualifying and race pace: the car is improving and we’ve got a good base on which to build. There are 17 races to go and I’m confident the best is yet to come. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
    You’ve spoken before about the Barcelona update package – what’s the latest news?
    VJM: “It’s on schedule to be fitted to both cars ahead of Friday practice. It’s pretty comprehensive and the car will look quite different.”
    eom/Sahara Force India Press Release
  • Over time… there is no such thing as luck: Otmar Szafnauer of Force India

    Over time… there is no such thing as luck: Otmar Szafnauer of Force India

    Sochi, 29 April 2016: Friday FIA Press Conference

    Otmar of Force India at Fri PC 29apr2016 Sochi FIA picTEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Ayao KOMATSU (Haas), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), John McQUILLIAM (Manor), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Force India), James KEY (Toro Rosso), Beat ZEHNDER (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    James, if I can start with you. Toro Rosso have made a good step forward over the winter but perhaps you haven’t maximized potential over these first few races. Is that why John Booth has been brought in? What can you expect from him? What do you hope for him to deliver to the team?
    James KEY: Well, to answer that question in two halves. We have underperformed this year in terms of the points we’ve got. This has been for various reasons I think. There’s no one area that you could say has been a weakness. In Australia we had various issues we probably don’t need to go through again. In Bahrain unfortunately we lost Carlos early because of getting hit by another car. In China it was OK but we got fairly badly affected by the Safety Car, as did some of our competitors, so we had to fight our way back. So all of those circumstances are different but we believe we should have got more points certainly and, you know, we need to recover from that. But that’s not the reason John is here. John is with the team as a consultant, to visit the races over the coming months and help out where he can. It’s a big operation; we have grown very quickly. We’ve got a lot of people doing a huge amount of detailed work and John is there to help us step back a little bit and look at the wider picture and see if we can draw things together a little bit more in the coming races. So it’s purely there to help us. And I think with his good experience and his very clear enthusiasm about joining STR, which is very welcome, I think it can only help and strengthen the team.

    One of the areas in which he has a reputation for succeeding is in bringing through driver s. Your drivers are heading into their second season. Is this a season in which you now expect them deliver rather than hope that they will?
    JK: Yes it is, year two for sure. It was a great story last year with Carlos and Max and we warned them and I think they acknowledge that year two is difficult, not only because the expectation is there but it’s not a repeat performance, it’s a step up, and we worked hard in winter testing on trying to ensure that that step up was understood and recognised, so the consistency of tyre management, thinking smartly, using your capacity to think about what’s going on in a race rather than just to drive, as most rookies do in their first year and so on. That’s the benchmark we set and I think since Bahrain they’ve done a pretty reasonable job of that to be honest with you. But certainly the expectation is there; the pressure hasn’t gone for sure.

    Thank you for that. Ayao, if we can come to you. It’s obviously been quite a transition for you over the winter, coming to a new team, following Romain. I wondered how complicated a process that is for an engineer and in your time at Haas have you been able to implement the systems and procedures you wanted to?
    Ayao KOMATSU: It’s not complicated as such, but it’s certainly a new challenge, a completely different challenge. The team is set up in a different way, much smaller, less people but also the parts situation is quite different as well. But it’s a very good challenge. It’s really good to be part of the building up of a new team, so really enjoying it. In terms of implementing and process, of course we are not their yet, we’re miles from that, but we have so many different areas, we can improve every single area. Every event, ever day we are finding some new problems, new areas we need to improve. So it’s just a matter of prioritising them because we haven’t got many people, so we need to be realistic, but whatever is the highest priority, the highest sensitivity we are just tackling it. So really step-by-step, again, our target is still trying to finish the races with both cars. We achieved that for the time in China. We’ll try to repeat that here and hopefully with a slightly better performance. So yeah a good challenge.

    After the results of the opening two races of the season, China was a more difficult exercise, even though you got both cars home. In the past couple of days Romain has been full of praise for the response back at the factory. What has that response been and what did you learn from that race?
    AK: Quite a lot. Obviously I feel there were more questions than answers, so obviously we couldn’t get the tyre to work really well in China and we were really struggling with the balance and consistency and some of the direction we took during that weekend, when we reviewed it, which we weren’t convinced that was the right decision. But again all of us are learning and the good things is that everybody is working on the same vector, facing the same direction, working as a team. So, OK, we only got a few number of people but everybody is working hard with the right attitude, so that sort of analysis… we haven’t finished our analysis and I don’t claim that we understand exactly how to solve it but at least we have started to identify the problem and we are putting in place the way to improve. But we’ve still got miles to go.

    Thank you. Paul, coming to you, Jenson here yesterday was suggesting that because of the change in time of year that we are racing here and a possible increase in temperature we might see some difference in strategy, we might go to a two-stop. Is that what you are expecting, what are you hoping for?
    Paul HEMBERY: I think in reality, having looked at today’s results, unlikely. It’s likely to be a one-stop race still. Unless something dramatically changes before Sunday, that’s what we see so far.

    You obviously have an increase in test days for the 2017 regulations coming up, that’s been acceded to. What’s the plan for that and for the teams involved? What coming up in the future?
    PH: Well you can imagine, a lot of hard work. Very big changes, not only in the physical size of the tyres, but also in the characteristics of the tyres; what we are being asked to deliver. The first phase is working with some V8 cars, up until probably the end of July, where we’ll be working on the current tyre size and developing new concepts in terms of materials, the actual physical shape of the tyres and also the compounding in particular. That’s the first phase, then we move on to a hybrid, we believe, based on the availability of the vehicles, from the end of July. So, yeah, it’s an intensive programme.

    Is that it for this year’s programme on those tyres? What happens over the winter? 
    PH: Well, there isn’t going to be and end-of-season test this year. We were originally planning for it to be available in November, to give the product to the teams. It looks likely now that the first time we’ll run with all the cars will be next year when they define the winter test plan and I know there is a lot of discussion underway at the moment for that, to decide where we go, when it’s going to happen.

    Otmar, if I could come to you, six points from the three races so far. Compared to last year, you had 11 at this point, so the deficit isn’t massive, but like James, there’s maybe a sense of missed opportunity. What’s the key to overcoming those missed opportunities from the drivers’ side and from the pitwall.
    Otmar SZAFNAUER: It’s difficult to predict red flags, for example. That’s hard to do. From the drivers’ perspective, I think in our second race they both had lap one incidents. There is a higher probability when you qualify where we have been qualifying for that to happen. If you qualify up front it’s a little bit easier to get away. So they just have to do what they are good at doing – getting through the first lap or two cleanly, and then after having good strong races and having goo strategy. Over time… there is no such thing as luck. You make your own luck, so if you work hard it should come. I think we’ve got a decent pace in the car and if we just continue working hard we should score some points.

    Last year you also had the positive impact of the B-spec car coming in mid-season. What’s the development plan for this car across the course of the season and are the resources in place to give you a chance of surviving in what’s a really tight midfield battle?
    OS: Yeah, it really is a tight, fierce competition in the midfield. We do have a development plan that also has to be rationalised with what are doing for 2017, so last year we had the fortune of whatever we developed in that year carried over to this year, but next year that won’t be the case. So we’ll have to address that when we come to it. But we have some significant upgrades coming at the next race and some more planned thereafter.

    Great, thank you. John, you’ve been with the team quite a while now. You’ve been through a lot of the upheavals that have come and gone there. How would you characterise the situation at Manor at the moment? Last year it was always about the team rebuilding, has that process been completed?
    John McQUILLIAM: Not fully completed. The team is a lot stronger this year than it was last year. So we’re a lot bigger, we’ve had some recent starters who are very experienced and who are adding to our capabilities. So we are still expanding and the atmosphere is very optimistic. We’ve got two good rookie drivers who are really pushing the car and if we keep a nice steady progression of the car’s performance we think we can challenge the cars immediately around us and start moving up, so there is a great sense of optimism.

    What’s the plan for the near future? Otmar was talking about development; can you give us an insight into what’s happening with your team?
    JM: Yes, we’ve got some developments, actually very similar to Otmar, so we’ve got a fairly big upgrade coming for Barcelona and there are more upgrades planned for throughout the season, so we’re pushing hard throughout this year.

    Thank you. Beat, coming to you; last but not least. I just wanted to get an idea from you about Felipe today, whether he ran that new chassis and what the feeling was? Was he more comfortable?
    Beat ZEHNDER: We did run a new chassis, as you all know. He’s still struggling with brake performance, he’s not too happy. Compared to Marcus he was quicker, but Marcus underperformed today, he was not happy with the car set-up at all. It’s very slippery out there and he struggled a lot.

    For both of them, and for the team in general, it hasn’t been the easiest start to the season and the rumours of financial difficulties at the team continue. Can you give us an idea of what’s happening behind the scenes and how things are at Hinwil?
    BZ: We’ve been in a more comfortable situation already. We have financial difficulties, it’s not a secret, but I think the good thing is we are still around. We’re working hard to solve all the problems but it’s not easy. An annual budget this year is just a massive one and to just cover it by sponsors and the income from Bernie is just not sufficient at the moment.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) A question for Otmar. We’ve seen Vijay Mallya in the press a lot in the last week or two. He’s had his diplomatic passport revoked and now India have asked for him to be extradited back from Britain. I was just wondering, how does that affect the team, having a principal who seemingly can’t attend any races unless they are held at Silverstone?
    OS: Well, we’re all used to seeing Vijay at the circuits, but he has many business interests and at the factory he used to come at Christmas time and also around Silverstone, so from that regard, from an operational standpoint I don’t think it has a big impact on the team. I know he’s working hard with the Indian government to resolve his issues and hopefully soon we’ll see back at the races.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) A question for Otmar, James, John and possible Paul as well, if you’d like to comment? Although the 2017 regulations have been finalised they had actually been talking about them for some time. But do you have sufficient time going forward to develop the cars given the change in the regulations, things like wind tunnel tyres etc? Is there enough time to do the regulations justice by next year?
    JK: Well, you never have enough time. I think you always value more time, particularly with new regulations. But it is in time for 2017. As you say, we have been discussing them for a long time now and the basic principles have been kind of kept, even though they have been refined and changed etc, the way forward effectively was agreed technically earlier this year and that’s what the teams I believe have based their activity on. Some activity, in fact, was going on before then, certainly a lot of simulation activity to try to understand what these tyres and the wider track would do. So I think that there is enough time. It’s going to be busy and as Otmar said you’ve got to compromise this year versus next year a little bit to get it right, especially if you are a smaller team, but I think there is time to do a reasonable job of it.

    John, what does that mean to a team like Manor, which basically has just got itself back on it’s feet and everything changes?
    JM: It’s going to be a challenge for us of course. I guess we would have preferred the regulation change to come a year later. The thing it does mean is that there is no carryover of parts, so it means that there has to be a brand new car with enough spares ready at the first race. Almost every single part will be new for next year and for a small team it’s a big task to redesign effectively every single component on the car and being a small team we have to very much do that in series rather than in parallel. But going back to answer your first question, yes, there is enough time. As James says we have known what the regulations were. There has been a little bit of uncertainty as to whether what agreed early in the year will be carried forward. I believe it will be and we’ve been working on that in CFD and in the wind tunnel, so we have a small development programme running for 2017 and again it’s a balancing act between how much time we spend on ’16 and ’17, but there is enough time to do it.

    Q: Otmar, when does that shift take place?
    OS: It’s a million dollar question. It depends on many factors, including what compromises you have to make on this season’s performances versus next. That all depends on how many points you’ve scored by a certain time. But like James has said, we started looking at what these regulations would do already, mainly through simulations. We will soon start our wind tunnel programme with physical parts and the tyres so it’s happening already. The big question is when do you completely switch from one to the other and we haven’t quite made that decision yet. We’re still pushing for developments  this year; as you said, we’ve only scored six points so we have to ensure that we hit our performance targets this year before we completely switch to 2017.
    BZ: As John said, the financial impact is a massive one and for a small team like Sauber it’s really  difficult. It’s not only the cars and not being able to carry over parts from one year to the other, it’s the list of investments you have to make starting with tyre heating blankets and… and… and… We’re talking about millions and millions here, so for a smaller team it’s really a difficult time.

    Q: (Boris Gubkin – Rambler News Service) Paul Hembery, I wonder how much the cheapest tyre costs?
    PH: The cheapest tyre? We only make expensive ones! There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Quality costs. Well, I’m not really sure how to answer that. A Formula One tyre – we don’t really determine a cost because you could have the material cost of the tyre but if you add in the overall costs of research and development and the overall project cost then they run to thousands and thousands. I’m not really sure how else to answer that.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Otmar, James, John, one of the prices you will pay for the increased performance is obviously the fact that the engines are going to consume more fuel. How do you view that from an engineering perspective, will that have any impact on your designs, on your philosophies?
    JMcQ: It does have an impact. At the moment, I believe that the fuel capacity’s going to stay as it is or maybe go up by five kilos so it’s not going to have too big an impact as far as the chassis design. If we get the expectation, the cars will be draggier, they will have the ability to run with wide open throttle more often so we might have to see a little bit more fuel saving in the races which is sporting and tactical. Technically, I don’t believe there’s going to be a big change to the layouts of the cars.
    OS: I think these hybrid power trains were introduced with goal of – or an intent –  of reducing the amount of fuel that we use over time and yes, although the cars will be a bit draggier, if the fuel limit stays the same, then effectively it is like reducing it over time, but I still think we should look at doing just that and over time reducing the amount of fuel we use just to complement the philosophy that we had when all this was introduced.
    JK: I agree with Otmar. In the longer term it’s always a good thing to target ever more efficiency. I think these power units are incredibly efficient now anyway, they are really extraordinary things. For me, really, it’s a case of regulation compatibility. These engines were designed around a given chassis and a given aerodynamic set-up – in fact for that matter, a given tyre design and we’ve now changed that and you’ve got to make sure that your power unit and the way you use it is compatible with your chassis design. So I think if we do need to squeeze a little bit more just to ensure that races don’t become fuel-saving events, then that’s probably the right thing for the sport but certainly in a longer term we need to look for continued efficiencies as we go down the line.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytova – AutoDigest) So back to regulations: F1 regulations are becoming more and more complicated so my question is for all of you: did it have some impact on your work, did it make it harder and how are your expectations for next season? Are they more positive or negative?
    BZ: I don’t think that the regulations are getting more and more complicated; they have been complicated for quite a while and one of the reasons – talking now on the sporting side – is that you have to close every possible loophole and this makes the rulebooks bigger and bigger. Will it be better for the show, the 2017 regulations? I don’t know, I hope so. At the moment I have my doubts, although I hope that I’m wrong.
    Q: James, a complex set of regulations;  regardless of the complexity a changes in regulations always gives a team an opportunity to do something special. Is 2017 that change an opportunity rather than a hindrance?
    JK: Definitely it’s an opportunity – like you say, any big regulation change is an opportunity to go either way, actually. You can also get it very wrong so you have to play it carefully. But it is an opportunity and I think – as we’ve said before – with time, the more time you spend on next year’s regulations therefore the less you spend on this year, you’re kind of making a sacrifice, maybe short term but for a longer term benefit and the longer term is the future ultimately because your baseline car is where you start from, so I think it’s a carefully balancing act. I tend to agree with Beat, I think the rules are complex anyway. The cars are a very complicated unit now, particularly with the power units and we’ve added various operational things like three compounds etc this year, the tyre compounds which have added complexity to a weekend but for good reasons in many cases. So I think the complexity is maybe a little bit increased for 2017 but I don’t think it will be a problem. I think most technical departments will welcome the challenge.
    Q: Ayao, from your side of things, complex regulations, is it just another set of problems that you have to solve over a race weekend? Is it good for a race engineer?
    AK: Well, we’ve only done three races and a half so I’m too busy thinking of this year rather than next year. We’ve got our design department and aero department so I’m largely leaving them to think about it and I’m really concentrating on this year’s operation but yes, certainly if you operate efficiently it’s a good challenge and it’s an opportunity, for sure.
    Q: Otmar, do you just take the rules that you’re given and work with them?
    OS: Well, it’s a good question: will the show be better next year? I think that was the intent of the regulations and I hope that that will be the outcome. If it isn’t, I think we’ve recently seen changing sporting regulations where it didn’t improve and we quickly went back. The difficulty with these regulations is that it’s going to take some time to go to something that doesn’t improve the show quickly, so hopefully we’ve got it right.
    Q: Paul, the shift to three compounds per weekend has obviously been successful this year. That complexity hasn’t harmed the sport particularly.
    PH: It seems to have worked quite well initially; let’s see how it evolves through the season. That was something that we worked with, the FIA and the teams and ourselves to come up with this regulation. That’s going to carry through, as far as we know, to next year. Working with the teams, they’re all quite modest, I think they all like a technical challenge. They might fight one way or the other to move the technical regulations in one direction but ultimately they are brilliant engineers and brilliant engineers like a technical challenge so I think whilst they might be scratching their heads now, they’re all still looking forward to getting an advantage over their competitors. From our point of view, the input we had from the strategy group was very much to improve the pace of the cars, so cornering from our point of view, and to try and increase the overtaking opportunities so we’re making the tyres less thermally sensitive. It’s down to the aero people to know whether the changes to the aero will reduce the disruption when one car’s following another, so that’s the area that’s hard to understand because you talk to different people, they have a different viewpoint on that matter. But the objective is certainly to try and make the sport more compelling and the cars harder to drive and more enjoyable to drive for the drivers. From the spectators’ point of view, to see more overtaking action.
    JMcQ: Technically regulations aren’t really more complicated, they are just different. It’s difficult to gauge how that will affect our team for instance. There’s one school of thought that would say that the bigger teams will benefit from a large rule change in that they’ve got the capacity to investigate more options and try out more ideas. The small team really has to pick and chose, decide the layout very early and stick with it and then develop it and hope it’s got it right. When you look back to 2014 when there was quite a big rule change, I think as a team we did quite well – we certainly didn’t fall back against the competition so I’m optimistic that with a rule change we’ll maintain or improve our  position relative to the others but it is a costly exercise but a great challenge.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Beat, sorry to be negative but going back to the financial difficulties, could you perhaps give some insight as to how manageable they are? We’ve still got 18 races to go; is this threatening the team’s continuation this season, and secondly, how much of these difficulties are caused by being based in Switzerland? Is that adding to the costs and general problems?
    BZ: I think this is a question which Monisha should answer, because I haven’t got the overall picture. A simple figure: in 2007, one dollar was 1.5 Swiss francs. Now we have parity. So what we had income in dollars is now worth 50 per cent less. Switzerland doesn’t make it really easy. The other thing is that obviously F1 personnel, technical, mechanics, you kind of have a pool in the UK, we don’t have it in Switzerland so for motor sport, it’s maybe not the best place to be although we have wonderful living!

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Otmar, if I remember correctly, you came up with the original idea of multiple tyre compounds. Your suggestion has been implemented but perhaps not as radically as you originally came up with. Do you have any comments on how they took your comments and implemented them and do you have any more ideas that you can perhaps share?
    OS: Well, selfishly it would be nice to have it implemented just as I thought. In F1 we do all get together and speak about technical as well as sporting regulations and it is a hybrid of the initial proposal that we had but like Paul said, I think it’s working well, I think it does mix things up in the race. It sure has in the first three and hopefully it will stay for next year because I think it’s better for the fans if you don’t know what the outcome is from the onset.
    I haven’t thought of any more ideas but we’ll get together and think about what we can do for future years and see.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Paul, it was last year in Sochi that you were announced by the commercial rights holder as being the successful tenderer for the three year supply contract going forward. However, I believe that the contract still hasn’t been signed and there were some fairly dramatic comments made recently that you may have to withdraw if you didn’t get your testing regulation etc. Has the contact now been signed? And the second question is: obviously having been announced by the commercial rights holder you must have been rather happy with the commercial package that you were offered which involved bridge and board advertising. If you didn’t spend the amount of money that you do on marketing, would there be any difference to the quality, the construction, the approach that Pirelli take from a competition point of view?
    PH: Well, from a contractual point of view, there were obviously some elements of a link to the recent changes regarding testing, that was essential for us, but the actual terms are all agreed. We’re now in the final phases of signing all the final documentation but that’s a matter of days, I would think, rather than anything else. As I’ve said previously, in (comparison to) previous seasons this has actually proved to be very early in the day to have signed the contracts because historically we’ve actually gone into the first year of the contract before everything’s been signed so there’s been a lot of progress and some excellent collaboration with all the people involved.
    The second part of your question: would it change if we didn’t invest so much commercially? No, there’s two separate aspects of our involvement in Formula One. One aspect is the technical partnership and the second part is the commercial and one doesn’t impact on the other.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference on Friday

  • My 100th race, it is very special as a driver, says Sergio Perez of Force India

    DRIVERS – Felipe NASR (Sauber), Sergio PEREZ (Force India), Esteban GUTIERREZ (Haas), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Daniil, I’ll start with you, as it’s your home race. Twenty-second birthday this week also. You were fifth on the grid here in 2014 and fifth in the race last year but Red Bull’s performance in China must give you hope of improving on that this time out?
    Daniil KVYAT: Yeah, you know, lately we have been competitive on most of the tracks – doesn’t really matter, any kind really, starting with Australia, Bahrain, China we always looked in quite good shape. I think Sochi also in the past for us maybe hasn’t been the easiest track, as a team, but now we are just coming to any track and we are just trying to extract everything the car has got and I believe also here we can fight for quite strong points. We will do our best and I think the car is looking in great.

    Obviously you’ve had time now to look at the video from the last race, of that start. Are you happy enough with everything that went on, with your moves during that race, or at the start?
    DK: Yeah, I’m very happy actually. I think everything confirmed my point of view. I think obviously everyone told their opinions on that incident, also the people involved. I think all in all I did what any competitive racing driver would do. But now I think there has been enough talk about it. Now it’s time to turn the page and move forward and now we are fully focused on the upcoming races.

    Thank you. Nico, if we could come to you. Three wins from three. Formula One love a statistic and there have been plenty bandied about concerning your start to season – best start since 2004 for Michael Schumacher. However, you’re the one who has been sounding a note of caution through all that hyperbole. Lewis you’re obviously expecting to bounce back, but how real a threat over these three races has Ferrari been. Have you seen any evidence of what they are capable of yet?
    Nico ROSBERG: I’m not really sounding any notes of caution, I’m just realistic and Ferrari, amongst others, just haven’t shown what they can do yet. They’ve taken each other out in the last race, for example, in the first corner and from then it was just messy, an an example. A lot of things have been going wrong and for sure they are a lot quicker than they have shown and we think they are very, very close to us.

    Mika Hakkinen made some interesting comments earlier this week, I read, talking about your performance this season and what it takes to be a world class driver. I’ll read them: he said the road is long and painful and it doesn’t whether or not your father is a world champion or not, or whether you have friends and family beside you, ultimate a driver is alone in the process. Is that a fair analysis?
    NR: I didn’t know that.

    Is that how you see it. Is a driver alone in the position that you’re in?
    NR: No. I’m not alone. I have our whole team. It’s a team sport in the end; alone I can’t achieve anything. Then the closer group, which is my family, friends, my management, physio and everything. Everything plays into it, everybody has their role and any success I have on the track they are a part of it.

    Does it feel like there is a mental burden upon you? Last year, as well, when you were going for a championship, and this year, is there a greater mental burden in that. Does it become very tough?
    NR: I generally see it as a very pleasurable experience! Because it’s just an awesome feeling to come to a race track, to know that I have the car to be able to be on pole and win the race. I just look forward to it. So I’m here in Sochi and I can’t wait to get going and see where we are compared to our direct rivals and try to make it happen.

    Thank you. Sergio, you’re celebrating your 100th grand prix presence this weekend and also coming back to the scene of one of your most memorable podiums, last year. That obviously must give you a good feeling for the weekend?
    Sergio PEREZ: Yes, definitely. When I come back here and I remember my great race that I had last year, not that long ago actually. It was a great feeling, a great achievement to the team. And as you say my 100th race [weekend]. It has gone really quickly, I really hope I can have a great race on Sunday to have a full achievement, you know, because my 100th race, it’s something very special as a driver to achieve and hopefully there’s hundreds more to come.

    It hasn’t been the easiest start to the season for you; there have been some incidents during the race that have maybe hampered your progress. Those race incidents – have you been happy with the team’s reaction to those incidents during the race and the strategic decisions that have been made?
    SP: Obviously you always learn a lot after a race, after you have done the decisions. I think we have been affected a bit by strategy sometimes, the track position we’ve been having more than our pace. I think clearly in the last race we did a great race. I think we have improved quite a bit. But still we need a bit more especially in the race pace. I think our quali pace over one lap is good. We have to improve our degradation and I think we have found the issues with the car. I think it’s just a question of time how quickly we can fix them. We are planning to have some upgrades for Barcelona. But I’m pretty confident it will be a good season for us, although right now we have zero points. We should have a couple of points already in the pocket, but the season is very long.

    Felipe, if we could come to you. There’s been some talk in the run-up to this race about you getting a new chassis here. Can you give us the latest on that? Is it happening?
    Felipe NASR: Yes, I can confirm I do get a new chassis here. You have to remember that a Formula One car is made up of many components and it’s just one part of it. I think it’s a sensible step from the team that we are looking further to discover these problems, these handling issues I’m having in the car. Since we put the car on track in Australia we’ve been having this very strange behaviour let’s say, it’s very unpredictable to drive the car. As I said, I can confirm, it’s a sensible step here and let’s see how the weekend goes.

    Was there a definite problem with the chassis, the old one?
    FN: Not that they could identify. But as I said, there’s so many places to look at. For this we need resources, we need time. The cars haven’t been back at the factory. It was really good to have a full let’s say look to every detail if we could, but I’m sure they are doing everything they can on the things we have in our hands now. It’s a good step we take on this, ticking the box now and seeing if there’s anything wrong with the chassis, and let’s see how the weekend goes. It’s been great here last year. I had one of my best races in Formula One. It’s a track that I like, so at least I have this good reference in my mind.

    Esteban, we’ll come to you. You’ve also had a couple of difficult races at the start of the season but you completed a race distance in China. How much of relief was that, how much of a weight off your shoulder?
    Esteban GUTIERREZ: For sure it was a relief to finish the race finally. It’s been a frustrating start for me, a lot of interruptions over the weekends, but I wasn’t satisfied completely just by finishing the race of course, I want much more than that. China overall wasn’t a great track for our car. Hopefully we can recover from now on, in Russia, and that this track gives us better possibilities.

    Last week you said the year you spent out, doing a lot of work in the simulator, had give you the opportunity to develop a range of driving styles that you may not have used before. How has that informed your approach to driving the car you have now?
    EG: It didn’t change the approach; it changed my knowledge. I basically experiment a lot. I used that time for it in the simulator, having different references. I made sure that that time, that year, was a benefit and not only a post time. I made sure of it and I really used everything, so I feel very confident and I feel very prepared right now and everything is in front of me.

    Great, thank you. Jenson, finally coming to you. Would it be fair to say that this season so far McLaren has slightly flattered to deceive? There has been good performance on Friday and Saturday you’re on the cusp of Q3 but the races haven’t quite gone according to plan. What’s that down to, why are the races not panning out as you’d like to them to?
    Jenson BUTTON: Not doing a good enough job possibly. I think the last race, if you look at it – it’s very difficult for a driver, because you come home 12th and 13th and it’s not where you want to be – but if you look at it compared to last year, every car finished in China. So it’s a big step forward to last year in China. In terms of where I think we are, yeah, our qualifying pace has been reasonable but I still don’t think we have shown our true potential in qualifying either. We have been close to Q3. Circuits like this don’t really help us either, but I think when we get back to Europe it should be easier to show our pace in qualifying and hopefully in the race. Yeah, it’s moving forward but you always want more, you always want more. Formula One is so competitive right now. For us I feel that having something new coming every race, aerodynamically and also with the power unit, it’s moving in the right direction, but we always want more. I think when we start scoring points on a regular basis we’ll be a lot happier, but that hasn’t happened.

    Honda have said the power unit is ‘”nearly there”. Is that a fair analysis, is that what your experience has been?
    JB: It’s very difficult to know what ‘nearly’ means. I think we’re very happy with the way the deployment is this year, compared to last year. We’re a lot close to the other manufacturers, which is great. In terms of outright power, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows, but we know there is still a lot of work to do and that’s the aim.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Auto Digest) You drive in Formula One since more than 15 years and that means you have driven a lot of cars. Which style of car do you prefer? Today more complicated at a technical level or as you had in the past requiring more stylish driving or something like that?
    JB: I think it’s a very easy answer. I think the drivers that were racing back in 2004 will say the V10s, lots of downforce, a tyre war – but this isn’t were we are. We’re not there right now. It’s easy to look back and say the racing was better – and it probably was. And more fun to drive – but things have evolved and things have changed. Technology is a big thing with Formula One and manufacturers are very interested in Formula One because of the technology and I know that Honda is – so we’re moving in a certain direction. I think Formula One can be as good as 2004 and hopefully that is soon.

    Q: (Andrey Kortasha – TASS News Agency) Question to Daniil Kvyat. How much is it important for you to finish ahead of your team-mate at your home grand prix? Is it important for you?
    DK: I think it would be logical to say that it is always important to finish in front of as many people as possible and, since your team-mate is one of those other drivers of course you try to do your best and finish in front of him. Of course, you know I’ve got quite a tough team-mate to beat. Very talented, very strong driver, very good reference since then. To beat him you have to do an absolutely perfect job in qualifying and in the race. And every time that happens I know it has been a really good day. Of course it’s only three races this season so far and it hasn’t been looking too bad. I think it can only get better as the season goes by. Let’s see where the end of the season is going to be.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboSport.com) To all drivers. We had in the last race more than 150 overtakes and here we have just one pitstop predicted, considering the history of the grand prix. What scenario do you project for the weekend. Similar to the last one or something completely different: a more stable race let’s say.

    EG: Well, I think it is a very different type of track. Russia offers… yeah, let’s say a medium range of overtaking so it’s not very straightforward but hopefully the strategy can be a bit more viable, that we can have more pitstops. As you say, the prediction is not the case, but hopefully we have a fun race for the people outside to watch, and have fun.

    Nico, is there much you can do on strategy at this race? It’s been a regulation one-stop in the past.
    NR: Yeah, strategy-wise that’s not going to make it as exciting probably as China, for example, in terms of overtaking. More straightforwards there. But, y’know, Turn One, for example, is still a good place to overtake on this track and we’ve seen some exciting stuff in past years. Not as much, of course, as China but some individual exciting moves so hopefully it will still be good. Let’s see.

    Felipe, does the tyre choice you get now, will it make any difference here?
    FN: I think it’s very straightforward as well. Looking back to last year, we got basically the same compound and I think it’s the kind of track you can push pretty much every lap. I agree with Nico, it’s not going to have as much excitement as it was in Shanghai but it’s still a race. The time when to box, to know which tyres to start the race – sometimes a car is better on one compound, another is better on the other – so it’s still playing to whatever tyre adapts better to which car and how you take it into the race. But from what I remember, last year was good that we could push throughout the whole race.

    Sergio, is it a good track for overtaking?
    SP: When you compare it to China, of course not because degradation, as Felipe says, is a lot lower here. It’s not as high as China. But I think if we have a straightforward race we’re going to see different strategies. We have an extra compound, having the medium this year, it might create something towards the end of the race, something different, especially if you are having people on the medium and others on the supersoft, that’s a two-step softer tyre so there might be the opportunity to overtake. I don’t think we’ll see as much overtaking as China but it will be an interesting race in terms of strategy. This characteristic of Pirelli bringing three compounds might create a little bit of different strategies and at the same time more excitement in the race. I think last year the race was very exciting – but given the conditions and what happened all through the race. I think if we have a straightforward race we might see a more interesting race than in the past years. I don’t think we’re going to see many cars on one stop this weekend.

    Jenson, your thoughts on it. Fernando did 40 laps I think on a supersoft last year. Is there much you can do? Is there any strategic variation?
    JB: None of us are muppets here, we know what the race is going to throw at us! It’s not going to be like last year, with the time of the year and the circuit temperature, it’s 20°C hotter than last year, so it’s not going to be as easy to do a one stop, I don’t think. It’s going to mix it up, which is great. I don’t think every race is going to be like Shanghai. I wish it was – but I don’t think it will be. But still I think this race will be an interesting race.

    Dany, your thoughts on your home track. Red Bull have gone quite aggressive with tyre set choice here with ten supersofts for both you and Daniel
    DK: Yeah, I think obviously looking at last year, similar compounds to what it was last year and most of the people managed one stop I guess last year. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad track actually for the debut of the Ultrasoft, I don’t know. But anyway, I think it is what it is, the same for everyone, and I still think the track offers some good opportunities for racing because there are long straights, so it can be quite exciting.

    Q: (Krill Zaytsev – 66.ru) Question for Daniil. Please tell us more about relationships with your team-mate and, one more question, do you have number one and number two pilot in your team or you are equal with Ricciardo?
    DK: I think it’s a normal working relationship, we know each other for a while, we can share a joke outside the track like everyone, like normal,  I guess like everyone. But once it comes to the work I think we’re both focussed on our work because we’re both professionals and we have plenty of things to do over the race weekend. Regarding your second question, it’s not a very popular question to be honest. What defines Formula One is how fast you drive, how hard you work and then this brings you the result in the end. It’s the only thing.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, after six wins in a row, can we say that this is the best Nico ever and is it possible for you to describe when the spark ignited, maybe because of the birth of your daughter or maybe they changed the modifications on the car?
    NR: First of all yeah, I’m the most experienced Nico since I gained experience last year and the last two years from battling for the championship. Definitely I’m pleased with the way I’ve been driving now in the first three races. For me, it’s not six in a row because the three last year were last year and they don’t count for anything in this year’s championship so for me it’s winning the first three which I’m really happy about but as I said, it’s because… yes, I’ve been driving really well but my opposition had a really messy start. That’s the reality of it. I definitely expect them all to bounce back, especially Lewis and it’s going to be a great battle against them as always and it will be tough, even if I have some points lead now but it’s still such a long season: three races is a seventh or something of the whole thing. There’s like 450 points to take still and now I have 30-something  in front or whatever. There’s still a massively long way to go so it’s not really changing the situation much.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kvyat, I would like to know how different this car is to last year’s that allows you to do better performances? What is the strongest part of the car this year?
    DK: I think generally at the end of last year I think our car was behaving itself pretty well. Over the winter there hasn’t been any revolution, let’s say, in terms of the car. There were just a few ‘tidies up’ here and there on the chassis side. I think also the engine side also improved, there was a step forward and it was very pleasing to see and hopefully there will be another step forward coming at some point soon when we will be able to give a bigger fight to the competitors which are still ahead of us. It would be very nice, especially in the last year we have been able to develop through the season quite nicely and I think that if we will have a similar rate of improvement we will become hopefully a headache for some people.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) We are reaching a moment where we are seeing nice races this year but everything will change dramatically for next season. There will be a more downforce in the cars, wider tyres and everything. This solution, from the drivers’ point of view, is the solution to make the show even better, to see more competition, to attract the public more?
    NR: Our opinion was that it’s not the right direction to go and we were hoping that they would definitely re-look into it and just make sure from a technical point of view to double check. Now this is the way it is, so now all we can do is accept it and make the most of it and hope that there are going to be some surprises.  Maybe we’re going to love the cars and enjoy driving them even more than we are now. Maybe all the grip is going to feel great or whatever. Now it’s just accept it and make the most of it.
    Q: Jenson, was it worth waiting for some degree of convergence?
    JB: I concur.
    DK: Well, I’m not completely clear where we’re going to head but maybe it’s going to make it interesting because obviously for 2014 the regulations, everyone knew quite well in advance how the regulations were going to be, so some people could be better prepared for it, but now I think, as time to prepare is a bit limited, I think everyone might start in a very similar condition, which could lead to closer racing perhaps. All the teams might be much closer and yeah, I think downforce, generated in the right way and mechanical grip from the tyres could be an interesting combination, also for racing, for us drivers to really reach some incredible speeds would really be quite cool.
    Q: Sergio, is it a case that you accept what regulations are given to you? Do you drive the car that you’re given?
    SP: Yeah, I meant there’s nothing else you can do. I really hope that the sport goes in the right direction, that we can see more competition, closer teams as we’ve seen in the past. We’ve seen big gaps between the teams in the past. I really hope that we can have a much closer field and that the regulations and the direction we’re going in cannot create those sort of gaps, that we can close up the gaps. In my opinion it’s what Formula One needs, it needs more competition rather than more downforce, it needs more competition across the teams.
    Q: Esteban, is this regulation change something that could disadvantage a team like Haas, just coming in at the point it has come in?
    EG: Not disadvantage. My opinion is that the changes of having wider cars, wider tyres  is the right one because what we need is to increase the mechanical grip of the cars. In my opinion that will give us a better feeling when we are driving on the limit. What I’m not fully convinced about is obviously the increase in downforce which will naturally make overtaking more difficult or let’s say following a car more difficult. The changes are there so as a driver, we don’t have an option, we just make the best of it. I think the cars will look spectacular so from that side of things it’s positive.
    Q: Felipe, is it important to have a change like this in order to improve the show or did it need improving?
    FN: Well, I guess it is. I do believe changes can always bring different kinds of mixes and surprises, depending on how teams face it but all I can say is that in a team like Sauber at the moment it’s  difficult for them in the actual situation they are facing plus to have such a change to face next year is complicated. You need to have the right resources and time, fighting against other things that they are facing now, so it is difficult but on the other hand, I think that from a driver’s point of view, I think the mechanical grip will be such a good thing for us drivers to have it back, as I think we are all pretty much leaning in that… trying to get this back in the car but I agree with the others, what they are saying about the downforce, is it exactly what is going to improve the show? We don’t know but let’s hope for the best. Everybody’s here to try and do the best with what we have and what we can do as drivers but I think that’s pretty much it.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) For all of you; Nico you were just saying that we just have to accept and do the best with it. Do you all agree with the fact that you have no word to say about what you’re doing on the track? You are making the race so why not have a part of the decision-making?
    NR: Actually we’ve been trying to get more involved and actually it’s moving in the right direction because the FIA is asking us more things now. They want to hear our opinion, asking us for get-togethers and so the process is going well, I think, and with time, let’s see where it goes. We will try to be more and more involved because I think we can really give something additional to the direction of the sport, because we know a lot of things about what should be good for the sport, because we’re driving the cars in the end.
    Q: Jenson, you concur again?
    JB: Yes.
    SP: I share the view of Nico.
    Q: What I did wanted to ask was: drivers, the input that you have, when you’re driving the car, do you really know what is the best for the sport from the outside, because a driver will always want what’s best for a driver but can you make that valued judgement on what occurs?
    JB: You could say that for anyone that makes a decision, couldn’t you?
    NR: What I meant  was  we love the sport, all of us and I don’t say that we’re just going to say what we think is best for us driving in the car. We do think beyond that and think about everybody who’s in front of a TV screen,  supporting us and excited about this sport. That’s what we’re think about and we think that as a group we are wise enough to definitely give some added value for the future direction.

     

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Hamilton edges out Rosberg to take pole; Hulkenberg P8 for Force India

    Sakhir, 2 April 2016: Lewis Hamilton set the fastest ever lap of the Bahrain International Circuit to take pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

    The champion was pushed hard by team-mate Nico Rosberg, however, and with the competition tight at the front of the grid, the second instalment of the sport’s elimination-style qualifying format saw the top drivers take to the circuit for a second run, which saw Hamilton post a blistering lap of 1:29.493 to beat his team-mate.

    It was an impressive lap from the champion, as on the first run in Q3 he had run wide and found himself in fourth place as Rosberg put in a faultless sub-1:30s lap to seize the initiative. Hamilton dug deep, however, and as the clock counted out Ferrari’s fourth-placed Kimi Raikkonen, the three-time champion found enough pace to edge Rosberg by just under eight hundredths of a second.

    “The car felt great. It’s quite incredible to think that we are quicker now to the V10 days. It just shows how far technology has come,” said Hamilton of the lap. “It’s obviously not been a smooth-sailing weekend in terms of pace. Nico’s been right on it all weekend and I was just generally struggling to put laps together,” he added. “Luckily the one lap I did put together was the last lap. That was actually the only lap probably the whole weekend so far. I hope that’s the first of many.”

    Sebastian Vettel took third place for Ferrari, just under half a second off Rosberg’s pace.

    Behind Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo took a solid fifth place for Red Bull Racing. His lap of 1:30.854 put him ahead of both Williams drivers and confirms that the Milton Keynes squad currently have the upper hand over the Grove outfit, at least with one car.

    Ricciardo’s team-mate Daniil Kvyat scraped through to Q2 but couldn’t improve and was the first man out in second session that proved the most lacklustre of the three, with few drivers managing to get in ‘survival’ runs. Neither McLaren drove managed a second run, though Stoffel Vandoorne though, managed to edge McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, and Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez was also ruled out while sitting in the garage.

    Nico Hulkenberg did manage to get in another hot lap, however, and with his team having timed his track time right, the German driver did his part by vaulting into P8 to secure the last place in Q3.

    His success meant Romain Grosjean was ruled in P9 ahead of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

    In the opening phase of the session, the big casualty was Force India’s Sergio Perez, who qualified in 18thposition. The best performance of the opening segment came from Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, who final hot lap in the session saw him climb from the bottom of the order to a very respectable P16. His time of 1:32.806 was 1.3s better than that of his 21st-placed team-mate Rio Haryanto.

    Behind Wehrlein were Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, the hapless Perez, Kevin Masgnussen of Renault – who completed just one run as a penalty means he will start from the pit lane tomorrow – team-mate Jolyon Palmer, Haryanto and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.

    2016 Bahrain Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.391 1:30.039 1.29.493
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.325 1:30.535 1:29.570
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:31.636 1:30.409 1:30.012
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:31.685 1:30.559 1:30.244
    5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:31.403 1:31.122 1:30.854
    6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:31.672 1:30.931 1:31.153
    7 Felipe Massa Williams 1:32.045 1:31.374 1:31.155
    8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:31.987 1:31.604 1:31.620
    9 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:32.005 1:31.756
    10 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:31.888 1:31.772
    11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:31.716 1:31.816
    12 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:32.472 1:31.934
    13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:32.118 1:31.945
    14 Jenson Button McLaren 1:31.976 1:31.998
    15 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:32.559 1:32.241
    16 Pascal Wehrlein Manor Racing 1:32.806 
    17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:32.840 
    18 Sergio Perez Force India 1:32.911 
    19 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:33.181 
    20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:33.438 
    21 Rio Haryanto Manor Racing 1:34.190 
    22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:34.388

    eom/FIA press release

  • Competition from 3rd to 6th place is very challenging: Bob Fernley of Force India

    Competition from 3rd to 6th place is very challenging: Bob Fernley of Force India

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Dave RYAN (Manor Racing), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams)
    Not in attendance: Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Bob, the car showed some flashes of real speed in pre-season in testing and in Melbourne you had a good result with seventh. How confident are you that you’ll be able to take a step on from the fifth place overall the team achieved last year? ?
    Robert FERNLEY: I wouldn’t say that I was overly confident but optimistic. I think that Toro Rosso have done a good job. Williams are always strong. Red Bull are coming back and the engine’s proving well there. So I think the competition for that third to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship is going to be very, very challenging this year and very tough and we’ve just got to prove that we’re up for it.

    Talking about Toro Rosso and other teams, in the second half of the race in Melbourne, Romain Grosjean in particular was able to stay ahead of the Force India. Were you surprised at the pace of the Haas and do you think that everybody has closed up behind you, quite tightly?
    RF: I don’t think that necessarily the Melbourne pace was something worrying. Melbourne’s just a very difficult circuit to overtake on and I think the red flag played in the favour very much of Haas. In our case I think it went against us slightly. So I don’t think it was a pace issue particularly, just a circuit-related issue.

    Thanks for that. Franz, coming to you, you got off to a good start in Australia, with a double points finish, and the car clearly has some pace. That obviously puts the team in the spotlight, in many different ways. Does the improvement in the team’s pace make you attractive again for outside investors?
    Franz TOST: I hope so. At Toro Rosso the doors are always open for people who bring money, because we have many ideas how to invest it in a proper way. Of course it’s easier to negotiate with partners if you are successful at the race track. This year, so far, we have a very competitive package. The STR11 shows a good performance; also both drivers are very skilled and very fast. The engine is also good and the team has improved as well and therefore I expect to have a successful season and I hope that we can find additional money.

    That improvement in pace was evident in Melbourne but you might not have got the race result you wanted. Obviously, we all saw what happened with Carlos and with Max in the pit stops. Have you spoken to the drivers in between and how has that been resolved?
    FT: Yeah, we had a very good first part of the race until the red flag. After the red flag we lost the pace. The reason why we called in Carlos was that he had a lot of vibration on the front axle and for safety reasons we wanted to change the tyres. Max then came into the pits and the team didn’t know this and we were too late with the tyre change. Therefore, he came out behind the group of Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Palmer and behind Carlos and then of course there was a little bit of a fight between them. But that’s normal. That’s competition. We discussed everything after the race, we analysed everything and we explained to the drivers what happened. Everything is sorted out and I expect from them a good and competitive race here as well.

    The battle between the drivers looks like it might shape up to be one of the season’s most intense. How do you, in the team’s best interest, manage them, given that they a relatively young partnership?
    FT: You must not forget that both of them are very young. Both of them want to make a career in Formula One and therefore they are fighting for every millimetre. This is what we want to see and therefore why we also have them in the team. At Toro Rosso the philosophy is not to come out with a team order, to say ‘you have to let the other past’. Only if we change the strategy, of the drivers are on a different strategy and if we think it will be an advantage for the team, then of course, but otherwise there are no team orders. We expect discipline from the drivers. What do I mean by discipline? That they respect each other, that they let the other driver the space to survive, that they don’t crash on each other and that they compete on the race track like people want to see it and then we will see who will be the better.

    Dave, welcome back, a couple of questions for you. Your car seemed fairly comfortable running in the lower midfield in Melbourne. What kind of result of results do you expect from the rest of the season, what’s achievable? 
    Dave RYAN: I’d like to think we can run with the pack. We haven’t been able to do that in previous years. If we can do that then we can be in a good position to seize opportunities that come our way. I believe we can score points and we need to score points, and that’s the goal.

    You’re almost six months into your tenure at Manor. When you arrived what did you feel were the things that most urgently needed addressing and now where do you feel the team is at now in terms of personnel, resource and operational stability?
    DR: The team was clearly, or had been, in a very difficult place. They did a fantastic job last year. They were in a bit of a holding pattern really. Most of last year was spent looking forward to getting a package together for this year. Stephen Fitzpatrick, our team owner, did a great job on that front: he secured a terrific engine deal, a great transmission arrangement. After that, it was just a question of putting a good car together, which our guys have done. So, last was a bit of a holding pattern and it was all about getting ready for this year. We’ve got a pretty good package. There are no excuses on the engine front, the driveline, and it’s down to us to show we belong here – and we do. And we’ve managed to change the team considerably. We’ve got a lot of new people. There were a lot of good people anyway. Even from Melbourne to this race it’s developed, it’s changed a lot and we’re going forward and that’s what we need to see.

    And what about your drivers? They are both quite inexperienced. What do you see is the potential from both of them?
    DR: I see huge potential. First of all they’re both young guy, a bit like Franz was saying. I enjoy their enthusiasm. Having youngsters around is very invigorating. They’re both very, very switched on young guys. Quite different personalities but fierce determination in both of them to succeed and I’m sure we’ll see two very good drivers develop during the year.

    OK, thanks. Claire, coming to you, lonely at the front there…
    Claire WILLIAMS: I have no friends!

    Williams have finished third in the past two seasons. This year, do you see it as the same battle again, against Red Bull for that third position, or has there been that step over the winter that will allow you to take the fight to Ferrari and Mercedes?
    CW: I’d like to think so. As you say, we’ve come third in two consecutive seasons now, which is a fantastic achievement for Williams. But we did come into this year knowing and understanding that it was going to be much harder to try to maintain that position, let alone push forward and try to catch the Ferraris and Mercedes, but of course that was the target for the guys back at Grove over the winter period. I think in Melbourne it was far too early to tell really where anybody is on the grid this year, so we’re going to have to give it a few races to see where we are, but of course the target for us as a team is always to make improvements. We’d love to be able to close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes, but I think we’ve seen in Melbourne that the competition has closed around us. The Force Indias, the Reds Bulls, the Toro Rossos, they are all there. We had a great fight in Melbourne and I expect the rest of the season will be like that, so we have our work cut out if we are to maintain third, let alone push forward.

    One of things you have been working on is the new short nose that is supposed to be arriving. Are we going to see that tested tomorrow? Has it arrived? Is it arriving?
    CW: It is winging its way here as we speak, so I very much hope it will be on the car, it’s going on Felipe’s car tomorrow in P3, and we’ll just have to understand where it is, what performance it’s giving us and then decide whether we run it in qualifying or not.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) A question for everybody please. We’ve had an awful lot of doom and gloom – and I’ve very over that. Could everybody please tell me one thing that you’re looking forward to about the 2016 season. Something that excites you, that makes you passionate.

    RF: If you look at it from the point of view that probably the first… the manufacturing teams in terms of Mercedes and Ferrari are clearly ahead of the game, I think what’s exciting for me is what Claire’s just hit upon: I think we’ve got four or five teams that are really fighting hard for those third to sixth places. I think that’s going to be an incredible battle through the year. If that was the front of the Formula One field, think how wonderful it would be for the fans.

    Franz?
    FT: We have a very competitive midfield where all the competitors are very close together, we go to Azerbaijan and see a new race, and we have 21 races.

    Claire?
    CW: The same as what everyone else has said: I think the competition this year is going to be phenomenal. I think we’ve had a couple of good years of racing. As I said, Melbourne really demonstrated that it’s going to be a really close fight for everybody this year, up and down the order, which is really exciting. I’m really pleased with what you said about the doom and gloom, because I’m totally over it as well and I think it would be really nice if we recognised the positives of our sport, of which there are so many. I think actually now Formula One, from a strategic perspective, and looking at where we’re moving forwards to into the future to into the future, now coming close to signing off the new power unit regulations – hopefully – in addition to the new 2017 regulations, I think there’s a lot to hopefully look forwards to. I think the driver aids situation, as much as there’s been a lot of talk around that, positive and negative, I think that’s really exciting: the drivers have what they wanted, and that’s to be drivers in the car again and to take control of their cars. For me, to see drivers going out there, having a fight, I think it will be a really exciting season. That’s what I’m looking forward to.

    David, it’s a new role for you…
    DR: Yes, I endorse that. Melbourne showed, or gave every indication of the season to come. For me personally it’s going to be… I’m really looking forward to the season and I’m going to enjoy seeing Manor Racing progress. That’s what I’m looking forward to most.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) A question to Robert Fernley. Bob, there’s been a fair amount of negative coverage about your team owner, team principal Vijay Mallya recently. He’s not here so I need to ask you. Is the team endangered in any way? We hear some stories of $400million dollars being offered in repayment. How does that affect the team?
    RF: You know Dieter, I didn’t see you behind the camera – I thought I’d got away with it for this meeting! Vijay’s issues are well publicised but, like all things, I think there’s been a bit of media over-reaction, especially from India on all of that. It’s something, just to give you an idea of India itself, I’ve been in and out of India for well over 30 years and the only thing I’ve learnt in 30 years is how little I know about India, so I think you’ve just got to let that flow and for Vijay to deal with it. Force India is blessed with a very good technical team and that technical team has progressively moved Force India up the Constructors’ table and I think today we are realising some of the best returns the team has ever had from the payments side of things, even though we complain about the disparity – which is a separate issue. And we also have a very good commercial team. And I think the commercial team is allowing Force India pretty well now to stand on its own feet and, whilst the shareholders are always there to help us – and Vijay’s been the main person in doing that over the last nine years. It’s not a short term, nine years, to be keeping a Formula One team going. I don’t think there’s any concerns for Force India.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Claire, very brief one to you. You’ve just said you’re signing off the 2017 powertrain regulations and ‘hopefully’ the 2017 aero regulations. Can you elaborate on why you use the word ‘hopefully’? I doubt you normally use words willy-nilly.
    CW: I think I should have applied ‘hopefully’ to both. We have a Strategy Group meeting that’s just been scheduled coming up, and as we all know in Formula One, things are fluid. I said ‘hopefully’ just to temper it. I don’t think you should put too much emphasis on that word.

    …so there is a chance that they may not go through, based on that?
    CW: I doubt it. I think it’s becoming far too late in the day. I think we pushed the date anyway and we need to get these signed off if we’re all to be ready for 2017.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) My second question to all of you. There’s been a lot of noise coming from the GPDA recently and one of their points of concern is that they’re not being heard, particularly when it comes to the governance structure, regulations changing etc. given that two of you people are on the Strategy Group and the other two on the Formula One Commission, have the drivers aired their concerns to you at all as team principals on the various commissions and groups?

    BF: No, I’ve not spoken to any of the drivers on that Dieter. I think the drivers have got a role to play. They do have a meeting every race weekend with Charlie so they do represent their views at that meeting and those are transmitted to us through Charlie, which is the correct way of doing it. I think it’s very difficult to have a member of the GPDA on the F1 Commission. It’s very difficult to represent 22 people with one opinion. We have enough difficulty doing it with six on the Strategy Group, so I’m not sure where that would go. Clearly the voice of the drivers is very, very important and we should be listening to them.

    Claire?
    CW: Yeah, I echo what Bob has said. The drivers are one of the key stakeholders of our sport, as are the teams, the media and our fans and we have to listen to all those stakeholders if we’re to create a sport that’s going to sustain in the long term. I’m pleased that they’ve come out and talked about their concerns. I think now we have to go away and think about them and address them and to see how we can engage them. Personally, in the team we have a constant and open dialogue with both our drivers and they always feedback information. On the converse, I think drivers have been listened to, probably more than they have in recent times, talking about the driver aids and the cars we are producing for them for next year – but as Bob said, it’s difficult to represent such a wide group. And then, how does that potentially fit in to the current governance structure that we have at the moment.

    Dave, your thoughts on this.
    DR: I think the drivers are the great personalities of this sport. I think they should be listened to. I think their opinion is really valued and we should heed what they say. We should certainly take notice, that’s for sure.

    Finally, Franz.
    FT: Our drivers are fortunately young, they are not so involved in all of this political issues. Generally the drivers are here for driving and, regarding the Formula One rules, there are so many parties being involved, it’s unnecessary to bring in another party. Nevertheless, the drivers can come up with ideas – but not after regulations are being defined. Like now, the 2017 regulations. To come now and say ‘this is not good’, it’s too late: because this has been defined. They should do it before. Generally, they should be concentrated to drive. That’s their job.

    Q: (Sanjeev Palar – Fox Sports Asia) The fans are holding their breath to try and understand and then figure out what’s happening with qualifying, so perhaps someone can tell us how is it going to be resolved, are there going to be any more changes that we see this season, and what is the process and opportunity to implement such changes?
    DR: We’re holding our breath as well.
    FT: We’ve discussed this qualifying procedure many times and the reason why this new qualifying came into play is because the organisers wanted to increase the show. Now, we saw in Melbourne that qualifying three ended up in a mess, because during the last four or five minutes  no car was out there, but this was already mentioned before, because the calculation of all the teams showed that at the end, maybe one or two cars would have tyres to go out twice in qualifying three. The new qualifying model itself is not so bad but in qualifying three, the eight cars need to have two sets of tyres so that all the cars are out there. Why? Because qualifying three is the most important part of the qualifying, it’s when pole position is being decided and therefore the cars need to be out on the track and neither the old qualifying… all this would be good, in combination with the new one because then the drivers would be out only at the last one or two minutes and with the new qualifying we know that the last four or five minutes no one is out any more. Therefore, in my opinion, we should go back to the old qualifying when we know that the cars will be on the track and will race for pole position.
    CW: In qualifying, the revised form in Australia came out and we said we would give it a go and if it didn’t work we would revert and come back to the drawing board, and obviously that meeting happened on Sunday and everybody agreed that we would revert back to the 2015 format until we could all come together and decide and actually try and come up with a well considered revised process for qualifying. Unfortunately that obviously has happened in the interim, we’ve had a new vote among strategy group members which then went to the commission. Now we have this hybrid system which we’re running tomorrow. Personally, from a Williams perspective, we would have rather to have gone back to the 2015 format as a holding pattern, to give us time to meet again as a group and to actually have time to go through what a new system could look like rather than kind of go to a hybrid system which might not work again. I think we have to wait anyway and see whether that will work or not tomorrow and then take the time to actually think about it. I think otherwise our fans are just going to look at our sport and go ‘what are they doing?’ You can’t do this in the second race of a championship so it’s really important to us that we get this resolved as quickly as possible but to do it in a well-thought through manner.
    Q: Dave, your drivers were probably disadvantaged in Q1 last time out, it didn’t probably go according to plan. What’s your feeling about it?
    DR: No, it didn’t go according to plan for us in Melbourne. I think the important thing is that the regulations were changed for Melbourne, we did give it a try and it clearly didn’t work for many reasons. But the fans have overwhelming said ‘we didn’t like it’. We did have the meeting on the Sunday morning and we did agree to change it. However, since then circumstances have intervened and we’re now back to what we had in Melbourne, so I guess we’re going to go through it again and just see how it pans out. Maybe we’ll all be a bit better prepared for it this time round and maybe it will be a bit different. So let’s see what happens in qualifying tomorrow and we’ll review it again on Sunday morning.
    Q: Bob, do you think teams will be a bit more comfortable with the process tomorrow and it might go a bit more smoothly than it did in Australia?
    BF: For sure I think teams will be better prepared. There still could be issues with it. From a personal point of view, I would like to have seen the compromise programme come in because I think that actually Q1 and Q2 were quite exciting. Clearly we got it wrong for Q3. I would have liked to have seen a little bit of an adjustment before we stopped everything but we have to go, at the end of the day, with the way the governance system works and we are where we are and let’s see how it goes tomorrow.

    Q: (Sanjeev Palar – Fox Sports Asia) Everyone has expressed their opinion on what they prefer but I think what we’re trying to understand and what we’re trying to convey to the fans is what process happens to decide what the final qualifying system will be for 2016, because it doesn’t seem like we have one. We had one in Australia, then we thought it’s gone all over the place, so what is the actual process to finalise the qualifying system that we’re going to have for this season?
    BF: It has to go through the strategy group and then from the strategy group it has to go through the F1 commission. You need 100 percent of the votes from the teams, the F1 commission, and then if it gets the majority that’s necessary, it will go back to the world council to be put into sanction, so that’s the process. There is no other process.
    DR: I think it’s true to say that once it passes through the strategy group for the Formula One commission, it can’t be changed so it can only be approved or disapproved from that point on, both at the Formula One commission and beyond. We only get what comes through from the strategy group, so that’s the process and then we vote on it and it’s a yes or a no, not a maybe we can do this instead, so that’s the process, it is very clear cut in fact.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

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  • Rosberg wins season opener; Alonso safe after heavy crash

    Rosberg wins season opener; Alonso safe after heavy crash

    Rosberg wins Aussie GP 20mar2016 Merc picMelbourne, 20 March 2016: Mercedes bounced back from a poor race start to open its 2016 Formula One championship account with a one-two finish with Nico Rosberg victorious ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel, who led for a long spell after the start was third for Ferrari.

    After an aborted start caused by Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull Racing car failing on the grid as the cars lined up, both Mercedes drivers made a poor getaway from the lights. The slow starts from pole position man Hamilton and front-row starter Rosberg, allowed third-on-the-grid Vettel to power through between the Mercedes men to steal the lead.

    The duo were also passed by the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and as Hamilton struggled to get back into contention he was also passed by Rosberg, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and Williams’ Felipe Massa. Behind Hamilton, Carlos Sainz was seventh in the second Toro Rosso ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    Sainz kickstarted the first round of pitstops, with the top 10 qualified gradually making their way towards pit lane to shed their used supersoft tyres.

    That moved Ricciardo up to P7 and with clear air ahead he soon closed on Massa and passed the Brazilian for P6 on lap 10.

    Hamilton, meanwhile, was struggling. He found himself stuck behind Verstappen and was soon on the radio telling his team to consider a strategic adjustment as he could find no way past the Dutchman.

    Ahead, the leaders were pitting. Rosberg dived for the pits on lap 13 and took on soft tyre. Vettel followed soon after but stuck with the supersoft rubber. He emerged from his stop just in front of Rosberg but managed to fight off a determined assault from his fellow German to hold the lead.

    The complexion of the race was about to change drastically, however. On lap 17, Fernando Alonso, pressuring Esteban Gutierrez in the battle for P12, looked to overtake the Mexican on the run towards Turn 3. The Mexican’s trajectory shifted slightly and he appeared to dramatically lose speed, causing the hard-charging Alonso to smash into the rear left of the Haas.

    Alonso was bounced into the wall at the side of the track and them after digging into the grass his car flipped and became airborne, flying through the gravel trap and beaching once before coming to rest upside down against the barriers.

    It was a massive accident, but within seconds Alonso was crawling out from the beneath the record, apparently unharmed. He then waved to the crowd as he and Gutierrez climbed into the medical car.

    With debris scattered across the track the race was red flagged and the drivers made their way back to the pit lane.

    A flurry of activity ensued as teams reviewed strategies and plotted the next phase of the grand prix.

    When the race resumed on lap 20, after lap behind the safety car, both Mercedes cars, in second and seventh, were on medium tyres, while the Ferraris, in first and third were on supersofts. Ricciardo who had risen to fourth was also on supersofts, ahead of Verstappen and Sainz. Behind seventh-placed Hamilton and Felipe Massa, Haas’ Romain Grosjean was the biggest beneficiary of the red flag, the Frenchman gaining a free stop and climbing to ninth.

    There was little time to see if third-placed Raikkonen could once again challenge for second, however. On lap 22 the Finn arrowed towardsa the pit lane telling his team “I broke something”. He parked in front of the team’s pit and with smoke billowing from the back of the car and flames spouting from the air box, his race was run.

    The race was now a question of whether Vettel could pull out a big enough gap over the medium-shod Mercedes to hold his lead or use better pace in the closing stages to catch them, as their medium tyres indicated they would race to the flag, whereas Vettel needed another stop.

    Try as he might Vettel could not shake off Rosberg and when the Ferrari man made his final pit stop on lap 35 he dropped to third.

    Hamilton meanwhile had battled back to second and though Vettel pressed the champion hard in the final stages, getting to within a second as Hamilton’s tyres went off and he slid wide, the German’s challenge for P2 ended when he made a mistake himself, sliding wide late on the penultimate lap. He was forced to settle for P3.

    Rosberg, then, crossed the line to take his 15th career win and his Australian Grand Prix victory.

    With Hamilton second ahead of Vettel, fourth place went to Ricciardo, an excellent finish from eighth on the grid and a hiugely popular result with his home crowd. Massa was fifth for Williams, while Grosjean scored a remarkable sixth place for the US-based Haas team on its F1 debut.

    Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Force India ahead of Valterri Bottas, while the final points places went to the Toro Rosso pairing of ninth-placed Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in P10. The duo provided a huge amount of entertainment as they conducted their own private battle for position throughout the race. Sainz succeeded in frustrating his team-mate at every turn to the extent that Verstappen’s temperature eventually boiled over and he launched a wild move late in the race which resulted in the pair colliding and Verstappen spinning. They continued on, however, to earn the team its first points of the season.

     

    2016 Australian Grand Prix – Race
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 57 laps – 1h48m15.565s
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +8.060
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +9.643
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +24.330
    5 Felipe Massa Williams +58.989
    6 Romain Grosjean Haas +72.081
    7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India +74.199
    8 Valtteri Bottas Williams +75.153
    9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +75.680
    10 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso +76.833
    11 Jolyon Palmier Renault +83.399
    12 Kevin Magnussen Renault +85.606
    13 Sergio Perez Force India +91.699
    14 Jenson Button McLaren +1 lap
    15 Felipe Nasr Sauber +1 lap
    16 Pascal Wehrlein Manor +1 lap
    17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber DNF
    18 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari DNF
    19 Rio Haryanto Manor DNF
    20 Esteban Gutierrez Haas DNF
    21 Fernando Alonso McLaren DNF
    22 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing DNS

    eom/FIA press release

  • Perez goes testing for Force India; A positive day, says chief engineer

    Perez goes testing for Force India; A positive day, says chief engineer

    Sahara Force India continued its testing programme in Barcelona as Sergio Perez completed 128 laps with a best time of 1:25.593. Nico Hülkenberg returns to the car tomorrow.
    Chassis: VJM09-02
    Laps: 128 laps
    Mileage: 596 km
    Best lap: 1:25.593 (P8)
    Sergio Perez: “It was a very good day and it was great to go well over 100 laps, even if the conditions, especially at the end, were not ideal with a lot of wind. It was a good effort from everyone in the team to go this far without any issues and to complete our programme. I think we learnt a lot from today and we have plenty of things to analyse tonight. The long runs we did in the afternoon were very important to help us learn about the tyres and how to manage them. The next couple of days will be important to make more gains and I am looking forward to getting back in the car on Friday. There is still a lot of work to be done to be as prepared as possible for Melbourne.
                             
    Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer
    “It has been another positive day in which we were able to cover extensive mileage and tick off all the items in our test plan. Sergio got back in the car after his first experience last week and it was important to be able to evaluate his feedback compared to Nico’s from yesterday. Like Nico, he was able to count on the car’s reliability, covering 128 laps without issues. This morning, we continued our work on aero data correlation, fitting sensors to the car to collect more information for our engineers. In the afternoon, the focus shifted to long runs, working on the set-up and on understanding the new tyres even further. The increasingly windy conditions didn’t make for the best setting but in general it was a good day, which helped us increase our overall understanding of the VJM09. We have two more days ahead in which we will continue our work in a similar fashion, with Nico getting back in the car tomorrow.”
    eom/SFI release