Category: India In F1

By F1 Correspondent

 Shanghai, 15 April 2012: A close-fought Chinese Grand Prix saw Paul Di Resta finish in 12th place, while team-mate Nico Hulkenberg ended the race in 15^th as Sahara Force India failed to get any points in the third GP of 2012. In the first F1 race at Australia, Paul managed to get into points while both Paul and Nico Hulkenberg got  into points in the rain-hit Malaysian Grand Prix.

However, it was another day to be proud of for the only Indian driver in Formula One, who managed to finish the race. Both the HRT cars finished the race in 21^st and 22^nd place but are still being bogged down by cooling problems which may be difficult in the hot conditions for next Sunday at the fourth GP in the controvery-ridden Bahrain.

HRT happy with Shanghai show

Pedro de la Rosa     F112-02  #22  21st

Narain Karthikeyan  F112-01  #23  22nd

It was another important step forward for HRT Formula 1 Team today with Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan completing the 56 lap Chinese Grand Prix, as they did in Malaysia a few weeks ago, in 21st and 22nd position respectively. What’s more pleasing for the team is that the distance with regards to the leading pack was reduced notably as De la Rosa came in one lap behind the winner and Narain two laps behind. A good tyre strategy, made up of two pit stops, and a much noted improvement in the team’s pit stops lead the team to finish ahead of Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham. Therefore it’s safe to say that the Spanish team comes away from Shanghai having met its main targets: finishing the race, accumulating miles for the F112, cutting down the gap to the front runners and continuity to optimize teamwork.

And now, with no time to lose, the team flies to Bahrain where the fourth Grand Prix of the season will take place in only a few days.

Pedro de la Rosa: “I’m happy with the race we did. It’s true that the start wasn’t great but I was able to maintain a good rhythm afterwards, especially with the medium tyres. We had an interesting fight with Kovalainen, which is always stimulating, and at the start we had the Marussias in our sights during various laps. Although I wasn’t able to catch them in the race, we’ve got them right there and with a little bit of progress I’m confident we can get ahead of them. We leave here with a feeling that we’ve taken an important stride and that we’re right in the fight. The overall assessment is that we’ve progressed in every aspect, the pit stops are better every time, our rhythm is improving and the team is more of a unit. It will be difficult to see much of a difference in Bahrain because there is no time to introduce upgrades but we can progress in terms of teamwork and set-up”.

Narain Karthikeyan: “My start was also quite poor, so we still have to do some work on the start system because it’s still new. It was quite difficult to drive on the option tyres because we had a problem and the car was moving a lot on the straight, we are yet to identify what the reason was for that so we’ll have to look into it and make sure we overcome it. But on the primes the car balance was much better and it was easy to drive. We set out to finish the race this weekend in China and we’ve achieved it, so we have to be pleased about that. Now we hope to progress a little bit more in Bahrain next week”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “We’re satisfied because we’ve met the targets we set for this Grand Prix. This was mainly to finish the race with both cars but there are many other things that have improved in this race with regards to the last one. The rhythm of both drivers was good and the tyre changes worked well. It was good for us that it wasn’t too hot and there’s no doubt that we still have to polish many things but I’m very happy with the work done by the drivers and the rest of the team. I congratulate them but we mustn’t relax because in only a few days we’ve got the next Grand Prix in Bahrain and it won’t be easy”.

Double finish but no points for Force India

P12      Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)

Tyre strategy: New soft, new medium, new medium

Paul: “It was an extremely close race today and although we were able to keep ourselves in the hunt, we were just missing the pace to catch people and make up any more ground. So it was a bit like the race in Australia where there were lots of cars running very close to each other and a lot of guys nursing their tyres. I think we made some good calls with the tyres and there were lots of different strategies playing out around us. It was also incredibly slippery offline with the marbles making things very tricky. So we go away from here knowing that we are not too far away from the other teams and determined to get the car dialled in nicely for Bahrain next week.”

P15      Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)

Tyre strategy: Used soft, new medium, new medium

Nico: “I didn’t get a great start because there was a lot of wheelspin and I lost a few places straight away. Then I picked up some damage to my front wing on the first lap. I don’t think I hit anybody, but there was a lot of debris flying around going into turn one so maybe that’s when it happened. That made the first stint very difficult because there was massive understeer and I had to change the nose at my first stop. We targeted a two-stop strategy, which I think was the right choice because our pace was strong towards the end of the race and I closed up on the main pack, but I think we lost too much at the start to make a real impact in the race.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal

“We always felt that scoring points in today’s race would need an element of luck or attrition, but as it was we saw almost 100% reliability. Paul was in the mix for most of the race, fighting to get in the top ten and ending up just under eight seconds from seventh place, and just 22 seconds off second place, which shows how competitive the field was today. Nico’s race was compromised by a poor getaway and the front wing damage, but we take encouragement from the pace he showed, especially towards the end of the race. We know that our race pace relative to our midfield rivals is not too far away and hopefully we can continue to close the performance gap quickly. ”

McLaren on top: Both in Constructors’ and Drivers’ points table

Starting from fifth and seventh respectively, Button and Lewis Hamilton were both able to put the excellent long run pace of the McLaren MP4-27 to good use as they took the lower spots on the on the podium. Hamilton’s third successive third place lifts him into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship on 45 points, two points clear of Button who has a second to add to his victory in Australia. Their combination of 88 points lifts the team well clear of Red Bull Racing who are now second in the Constructors’ Championship.

While Button pronounced himself pleased with his podium finish he was left to regret a fumbled final pitstop which destroyed any chance of him chasing down Nico Rosberg and challenging for the victory. Instead he came out in the middle of a battle for the lower places and had to thread his way through the crowd to regain his position.

“Our race pace was good, especially on the harder of the two tyres, I had some really good battles out there,” said Button in the FIA post-race press conference. “And then in my last stop, we had a problem with the rear of the car, so I was stuck there for nine or ten seconds I think it was. It was a pity because when I exited the pits I had four cars in front of me; cars that I wouldn’t have been racing, and I would have had a nice clear track to hopefully hunt down Nico. It was a big gap but you’ve got to give it a go. But, all in all, a fn day. I really enjoyed today. It was a good race, some good overtaking out there and nice to eventually come away with some good points and second place.”

Hamilton had the more difficult challenge. Having qualified second but started seventh after taking a five-place penalty for changing a suspect gearbox, he needed to make a good start and then rely on the pace of the McLaren to pull himself forward in each successive stint. “I’m very happy to have made it up to the podium,” he said. “I wanted to just go forwards and the team did a great job with the pit stops and with strategy. I think it was one of the best races so far this season, just because there was a lot of overtaking. It was incredible.”

Hamilton also paid tribute to Mercedes and his former team-mate Rosberg, the pair having driven together in junior categories. “We knew that all weekend they had been quick and if we let these people get away it would be hard to catch him, so fantastic for him, congratulations. Your first pole and your first win is an incredible feeling.”

Double finish for Williams: Having started 13th and 14th on the grid, the Williams cars both opted for a two-stop strategy, though the South American pair approached it with differing tyre strategies: Maldonado from 13th choosing to go soft, medium, medium and Senna being one of four drivers choosing to start on the medium tyre, which he followed with a short stint on the soft before reverting to the medium compound. “It was a great result for the team to finish with two cars in the points today,” commented Senna. “It was a tough race and tyre wear was high. Our strategy worked for us today but we’re still learning and improving together. We aim to continue to get better throughout the next few races.”

Maldonado had perhaps a more eventful race than his team-mate and was involved in several thrilling tussles for position as he worked his way back up the field having had a poor start. “It was very tough today,” said the Venezuelan. “I lost places at the start and it was difficult to overtake but we had good pace. We were able to fight all the way to the end so I’m happy to get some points. It was a great result for the team.”

The result confirmed the suggestion of the first two races in which Williams demonstrated they were capable of running well up in the top ten. While failing to score in Australia after a late race crash for Maldonado and a first lap collision for Senna, their points today added to Senna’s haul for sixth place in Malaysia means the team has already scored more than three times as many points as it accumulated in the entire 2011 season.

ends

Shanghai, 12 April 2012: Indian F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan of Spanish team HRT and current world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing spoke to each other and patched up in China ahead of the third Grand Prix of the Forumla One World Championship to be held here on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel’s car made contact with Narain Karthikeyan and the former had a tyre puncture when leading in the fourth place with only a few laps to go and both had to pit and Vettel could only finish the Malaysian GP race outside points, on March 25, which infuriated him. The German went to the extent of calling a co-F1 driver an idiot failed to show the gentleman spirit of the game. Narain reacted with a `cry-baby’ comment but later said that he would forget it as a racing incident and move forward as he respects Vettel as a driver for his ability. Narain was given a 20-second penalty for the blue-flag incident but all the top drivers and teams have supported Narain Karthikeyan, and said it was not his fault.

Narain Karthikeyan drove extremely well in the pelting rain and proved that he is as quick as anyone on the grid, if given a good car. All the teams had one competetive lap after the safety car went in and before the race was red flagged and during that lap Narain outclassed celebrated drivers including all the 9 who were in front of him. In that lap, he was fastest in Sector 1 and through-out the 51-minute stoppage, the FIA timings on the TV screens in media box and in the Live Timings beamed all over the world showed that Narain did extremely well in that sector with a best time of 42.4 seconds and closest was another rain-master Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Mercedes team.

The drivers present at the Thursday press conference of FIA in Shanghai for the third GP of the 2012 season are: Bruno Senna of Williams, Vitaly Petrov of Caterham, Paul Di Resta of Force India, Sergio Perez of Sauber, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Bruno, great result in Malaysia. Do you think that was your best ever grand prix?

Bruno SENNA: I think it was a great race. We had strong pace and a pretty good strategy as well, even though we had an accident on the first lap, which could in theory have influenced our race result badly. Anyway, we had a strong race. I didn’t make any mistakes during the race, apart from the first lap, and that’s very encouraging. It shows the car has good performance in the dry and in the wet and we had both conditions in the race. I think it was a pretty good effort, not only from me but from the team as well. I’m not racing on my own.

Do you feel that those are the perfect conditions for you to perform best in the car this year?

BS: I don’t think it’s a case of this year but for sure in the early part of the season it’s best when you have more mixed conditions. I’m still learning the team, learning the car, learning the tyres. I only came into the season quite late last year and quite a few things have changed as well. All this settling period takes a few races, so I hope I can get them out of the way as quickly as possible but for sure a few races like this would increase the chance of a good result for us but later in the season the drier the race the better.

The potential looks a lot better than it did last year for Williams. Are you confident of that and of the development necessary to keep them there?

BS: Yeah, the team has done a great leap forward in terms of performance. The changes that happened definitely made the team focus on the right areas and now it’s up to us, to me and Pastor, and also the engineers to keep the development rate as high, or higher than the guys we’re competing against to try and continue in the position we are. It’s tough. If it was easy everyone would do it but it’s the situation we’re in. We’re pushing very, very hard and for sure scoring points, especially big points as we did last race keeps everyone motivated.

Vitaly, you’ve been in the points here in the last couple of races, what are you feelings coming into this race? You’ve had a couple of races with Caterham, so what are your feelings about the team after a couple of races?

Vitaly PETROV: I think first of all, everyone has a good feeling to come back to a track when you have the first points in F1, so it’s a good memory. I have a god memory to come back here because in 2010 I had a good race here, in the wet. I was quite quick and managed to finish in the points.

What’s going inside the team? I feel quite happy. I feel more free to work. I felt much less pressure on my shoulders. Definitely I still have pressure because I have a very strong team-mate, so I need to work quite hard. But in general I’m a little bit more relaxed than last year.

I think we will be watching that battle with your team-mate with interest. It’s been a focal point of watching your team so far this year?

VP: Last two races we did a good job during the race. I know I need to little bit improve my qualifying performance but we bring some good maps and some good set-up to this race, and we have some good updates coming, so I’ll cross they fingers they work again, as good as we expect. Yeah, but as for the performance during the race we were not too bad. I think I need to work a little bit harder in qualifying and then we will see.

And are you comfortable now inside the car?

VP: Yeah, actually. It’s quite comfortable and we still need to adjust the seat a little but at the moment it’s OK.

Paul, were talking there about the battle between team-mates, which is always of interest. There’s quite an interesting battle between yourself and Nico, you seem to be very closely matched.

Paul DI RESTA: Yeah, I think it was pretty similar last year with Adrian. Obviously with Nico, I have to have a lot of respect for him. At the moment we seem to be the closest drivers, against their team-mates, but it’s always good to have that competitive nature in the team, you push each other along and drag the best out of each other. At the moment it’s work in progress because were trying to develop the car. And to do that fast we have to work together to build our team to try to challenge the likes of Williams and Sauber, who are a bit in front of us at the moment. But, having scored the points that we have in the first two grands prix, we’re certainly looking forward, hopefully until we get some updates on the car, and we can put some more performance on, which we’re quite confident we can achieve.

This is your second Formula One season. Do you think the first one was learning and that this one is about confirming the form you showed last year?

PDR: I think there’s more pressure for you to perform, in terms of being a second-year driver, but I’ve always had the task of just trying to pick the positive and certainly just trying to do the best I can in the sport I love doing. So far our race performance has showed to be stronger than our qualifying and the experience I got last year I think paid a lot to the result I got in Malaysia in tricky conditions and we managed to finish seventh. Everyone achieved the maximum we could from the package we had. We just need to make sure we’re at the top of our game all this season, because to maintain the position, as a driver and as a constructor, that we achieved last year is a mighty challenger. But the vibe in the team is quite high and strong at the moment.

You talked earlier about how Sauber and Williams are perhaps a little bit ahead of you, whereas they weren’t at the end of last season. There’s a little bit of ground to be gained there. Are you confident of getting that back?

PDR: Yeah, I think we started this year very strong. They’ve obviously come up with updates and stuff. We’ve been relatively neutral. The tunnel and the factory are working very hard. We are looking forward to the next couple of races when we get back to Europe. We have a good package coming for Mugello. We’ve obviously been working very hard on that. We’ve taken the decision to leave it there to maximise that. Really, at the moment, we’re trying to do the best job we can with the car we have. Certainly in Malaysia we achieved a lot so there’s no reason why we can’t do that again. Last year here our car showed more potential than we thought, so I hope that the philosophies that carried on from that, certainly lead into this year. We got into Q3 here with a car that nearly never got into Q2 in Melbourne.

Sergio, tell us about the reaction in Mexico to your second place in the last grand prix?

Sergio PEREZ: Well, it’s been really great. I had some time there with the family, with friends, to enjoy the result we had. The people there were going crazy. It was a great result for my country. It was 40 years since the last podium we had in Formula One, so it was really nice to feel all the support I’m getting from the fans, from the country.

Do you think there is more pressure on your now? And also, will there be more money for development with, perhaps, more money from Mexico?

SP: That would be a good sign, no? Already, the interest has come up, not only from Mexico, but from other companies around the world that can help us to develop our car, which is important for us. In terms of pressure, I think the pressure remains the same, giving my 100 per cent every race weekend, trying to have success, and just try to the best, that will be the target for the next 18 races.

I think a year ago we were thinking ‘that Sergio Pérez is pretty good with the tyres’ and a year later we’re still thinking the same thing – after the first two grands prix. Have the specifications come to you? Have this year’s specifications helped you?

SP: I don’t think it has helped in terms of last year for me on the roadside. I can play the tyres, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work. I always try to adapt myself to different conditions that you have in Formula One most of the time, which is even more difficult, to be adapting to every single condition. You have different conditions in free practice than in qualifying and it’s very important to be able to adapt yourself to any condition.

But that’s something that you’re going to continue to exploit?

SP: Of course, there is a big potential there and with experience it will get better because when I came to Formula One it was (sound drops out) to keep changing your style. People always ask me ‘what’s your style?’ but I think in Formula One you don’t have one – you are always changing your style and trying to adapt yourself to any condition.

Fernando, what we expecting from you and what are you expecting from yourself and Ferrari this weekend? What’s changed since the last race?

Fernando ALONSO: Nothing changed. I think it’s going to be a tough weekend for us again. I don’t expect any big surprises as we’ve been saying, the team and myself, all week, the car has some small improvements, nothing big for this race and I think it’s the same, more or less, for all the other teams around us in the paddock. So I expect more or less the positions to maintain, or to keep the same as the first two races, which means a difficult to weekend for us. Struggling to be in Q3, I guess, in qualifying and then in the race to score as many points as possible as we did in the first races – trying to do a good strategy, a good management of the tyres and a little bit of luck. It’s always a factor that we always seem to forget is there. I remember in Australia we had a great team effort from everybody there, a good strategy, pit stops etc, but we also had some luck to get the fifth result and in Malaysia we had the same. Starting from the first corner, we avoided any accident. It seems normal but every first corner is always a risk. We had Grosjean and Schumacher crashing in turn four in Malaysia, which we were very close to being in that accident as well. So, it’s always… a race or a grand prix is not only pace, a good strategy or good driving skills. It’s a big package and luck is a big factor. Hopefully the luck is still with us this weekend.

Will a wet track be part of that luck?

FA: I guess so.

So you’re praying for rain?

FA: It can be a very good weekend for you or very bad because it’s a little bit of gamble in the rain. Anything can happen. You can be with the right tyre in the right moment or completely the wrong tyre in the wrong moment, so this is what happens in wet races. As I said, with a normal race we know our possibilities, we know our limitations at the moment, which is not quick enough. So in a wet race, we can lose a couple of points or we can win a lot more. Maybe this risk of a wet race can be good for us at the moment because in normal conditions we are not as fast as we expected.

Fernando, you’ve passed Jackie Stewart’s number of wins with your victory in Malaysia. Only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell have won more races than you. That last win of yours was also compared with Gilles Villeneuve in that it was a win against the odds. What does it mean to you to be talked about in the company of those drivers?

FA: I’m privileged to be in that group of great drivers that I watched on TV as a kid and now I’m having a good career in Formula One and I’ve been extremely privileged to drive for fantastic teams in my career. So, the number of victories will hopefully increase even more and I will be up in this table. Records are not something that you pay a big importance to now, as you concentrated on your next grand prix or you are so focused on your daily preparation that you don’t pay too much attention but I’m sure that in 10 or 15 years time I will appreciate it much more than now. But I’m not paying too much attention now.

Q: Narain, it’s been a difficult start to the season. Just give us some indication as to how difficult it has been for the team, for the drivers and the sort of mountain that there is to climb for the HRT team.

Narain KARTHIKEYAN: Yeah. The start of the year wasn’t very good because we missed all the testing and then we came to Australia with a new car and like all new cars, it had a lot of problems with cooling and hydraulics and few laps. Clearly our car is still lacking a lot of downforce, which is the biggest problem. Pedro de la Rosa is quite good to help the team to go in the right direction, he has a lot of experience with big teams, so we’re trying to improve. It’s still a very small team and we have limited resources but I can see that the structure is a lot stronger than last year. There are some good people in the team and so we will improve quite a lot at the Mugello test hopefully.

Q: It’s obviously left you as a backmarker in the last race which got you involved in a public argument which we won’t go into, but what is life like as a backmarker in Formula One, especially when there are a lot of cars on the circuit due to the reliability of the cars? Are your eyes on the mirrors all time?

NK: Yes, practically after the first 15 laps or so after that it’s very difficult because a lot of blue flags. I think at the last race there were  something like 36 blue flags so it’s quite difficult. The car is obviously five or six seconds off the pace and in tricky conditions like when we switched to dry tyres, with less downforce and it’s so hard to drive and the car is a handful to drive in completely dry conditions, so in mixed conditions it’s really difficult. But it is what it is, this is what I have and I will try to do the best with what I have.

Q: Is the driver ever going to say that the car is too slow in those conditions, at one circuit or another?

NK: No, I think qualifying within the 107 percent is no longer a problem, but we need to improve for sure. We need to reduce the gap. If you take our lap times from last year, we have not improved so much. From the numbers we had, we were hoping that the car would take a significant step forward but that is not the case right now. We know the reasons, there is a wind tunnel programme and we’re trying to improve it.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Il Corriere della Sera ) Fernando, are you surprised that the Red Bulls haven’t been as competitive as they were last year and that they will come back very soon?

FA: Not surprised because I know the complex world of Formula One and developing a car in Formula One is not the easiest thing in the world but for us and for the team, we were surprised that when we put the car on the track in winter testing that we didn’t have the results we were hoping for and that was the biggest surprise. From that point, you start working on the car, you start working on the improvements and you know that there’s not a magic button that you touch, or a magic part of the track that you can change and the car immediately becomes competitive. You start work that has to be done properly, step-by-step and hopefully new parts will come very soon that will make the car quicker but this is something that we need to be calm about, let the people in Italy work and here when we are on trackside and at the Grand Prix try to maximise the potential we have in our hands; it’s what we did in the first two races and what we will try to do in the next two.

Q: (Steve Dawson – ESPN Star Sports) Does any member of the panel acknowledge that they might have a moral difficulty in going to Bahrain next week?

There is no reply.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, in this race are you waiting for big improvements or is everything going according to plan? Or are you waiting until Barcelona for a big improvement?

FA: As I said, no big improvements for this race and I don’t think… No big improvements for this race and as I said, we’re working, we’re working on the car and I think we cannot say that for Barcelona there will be a big improvement because we don’t know. We are working day and night to do the work and to improve the car and I think we have some new parts for the car which we need to test tomorrow – maybe they are working fine, maybe they are not working and we need to come back with those parts. In Barcelona there will be more new parts which I’m hoping for. We need to test to see if they are working fine. For Canada there will do more, Monaco, so it’s nothing… as I said, Formula One these days doesn’t have a magic button where we change something, we arrive in China, we arrive in Barcelona, in Canada and you change one part on the car and you improve by one second. This will be constant work from the team, improving one tenth, two tenths, three tenths every step that we do and we need to do it quicker than the others because all the other teams will bring a couple tenths (advantage) to every race so we need to bring some more.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sergio, how is your approach to this Grand Prix, considering that everybody is maybe expecting something similar from you in comparison to the last two races? It looks very hard not to be affected by the interest everybody has in you.

SP: I think we are really realistic as a team. We know that the Malaysian race was not a normal race, the conditions were extremely difficult for everybody. We got them right, we stopped at the right time more or less and we were able to fight for victory, but I think in normal conditions this is not where we belong, we have to be very realistic and our target is still to score as many points as possible. If we can score another podium during the year it will be great, but we are very realistic that it can really only happen in different conditions.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Narain, tomorrow in the drivers’ briefing what’s your position with Vettel?

NK: For me it was a racing incident and we’ve spoken to each other so it should be OK.

Ends

Madrid, 9 April 2012: A stunning show in Malaysian Grand Prix notwithstanding, HRT driver Narain Karthikeyan feels that the demanding Shanghai circuit will be technically tough on braking stability as cooling issues are yet to be fully sorted out by the Spanish outfit. The team is expected to bring in more developments after the testing in May. The 56-lap, 5.451km race will be held at the Shanghai International circuit from Friday to Sunday, the 15th April, a HRT release from Madrid said.

Having met the team’s target and celebrating with a “Mission accomplished” statement shows how important it is for the HRT Formula 1 Team to keep meeting the targets. Narain’s driving in Malaysia caught the eye of the world and thanks to the silly spat with world champion Sebastian Vettel, the entire fraternity and other current F1 drivers including Schumacher have supported Narain, who dismissed it as a racing incident. But the world saw the Rain Master, a Padma Shree from India, enjoy some thrilling minutes at Sepang before the race was red flagged.

On that day on March 25, both the HRT cars qualified and completed their first race of the season after a hard start. They failed to qualify in Melbourne for the season opener. The F112 accumulated many kilometres and data on the track and the engineers had a lot of information to work on during the two week period between the race in Sepang and China. Having met the team’s targets last time out, HRT now aims to progress from where it left things in Malaysia and continue improving.

Talking about the third race of the season which will be held in the Chinese city of Shanghai, Narain Karthikeyan was confident despite all odds. He said: “We took a step forward in Malaysia and our aim is definitely to carry the momentum into China and rest of the season. Although we managed to finish the race, cooling was still an issue at Sepang and once we have it sorted out completely we’ll be able to unlock some more performance from the car. The back straight at the Shanghai circuit is of course one of the longest on the calendar and the tightening first corner is uniquely challenging since the corner entry is in top gear and by the time you exit you’re in second. Plus there are a fair amount of technical slow-speed corners as well, and the high-speed direction change of turns 7/8. Given these mixed characteristics, it is a demanding circuit for traction, aero and braking stability in equal measures”.

The Shanghai International Circuit is made up of sixteen turns, with nine being right-handers and seven left-handers. Cars reach maximum speeds on the 1.2km straight between corners 13 and 14, where they try and take advantage of the length of the straight to overtake. In China, the team will have a new member on board, Ma Qing Hua, who will be joining the outfit for the first time as a member of the driver development programme at his local Grand Prix.

Pirelli have elected their soft and medium tyres for this grand prix.

Pedro de la Rosa, #22: “After these first two Grands Prix we arrive in China much better prepared, with more mileage and having learned a lot, especially after the Malaysian GP. All the data gathered in the last race is very important for us, as we mustn’t forget that we didn’t have a preseason. Now we have a better insight on the areas where we must improve, but the most important thing in this initial stage is to finish races. That is the prime objective in order to learn and improve race by race. The hardest part comes now but we are better prepared. China is a circuit where I have always done well and a place I know well, both in dry and wet conditions. It’s not a particularly hard track for the car or the driver, but aerodynamics are fundamental”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “The start to the season was very complicated because we were behind schedule with regards to the other teams. We had to put in a colossal effort to be able to get on track in Australia and improve our performance just one week later in Malaysia. There’s still plenty to do and many areas to improve on to be where we should be but at least in these two weeks we’ve had a bit more time to analyse data, prepare and recharge batteries, therefore I’m confident that we’re arriving in China in a much better situation. We mustn’t forget that the F112 is only taking its first steps and, as of today, what we must do is progress without stopping. In Shanghai we’ll have some small updates to optimize cooling and aerodynamics, and the target for this weekend is to check that these adjustments work. To sum up, we have to get more out of the car but must als o improve on teamwork and coordination”.

ends

Melbourne, 18 March 2012: Sahara Force India picked up a point in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as Paul Di Resta grabbed the final point in a dramatic last-corner squabble. Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was an innocent victim of the first lap carnage as he was hit from behind, which damaged the rear suspension and led to an early retirement. Hulkenberg started from 9^th.

Force India who finished sixth last year, have retained Paul Di Resta as the driver and recruited rookie Nico Hulkenberg in place of Adrian Sutil.

Paul said: “It’s always nice to start the season with a point, but it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me. Fortunately I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner, which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line for tenth. So it was a pretty exciting final lap. It’s a good way to start the season, but it’s clear we have a lot of work to do because we were struggling for pace at the start of each stint, which hurt my overall race pace. Even so, considering where I started and the weekend we’ve had, I don’t think I can be disappointed to have come away with a point.”

Nico who was on soft tyres was disappointed after his early exit: “I don’t seem to have much luck at Albert Park. My first race here in 2010 was less than a lap and today was a repeat of that. I’m still not really sure what happened, but I got hit when I turned into the first corner on lap one. It’s such a shame because I had made a great start, moved up a couple of positions and then I just felt somebody tap me from behind. There was a puncture and the suspension was damaged so my race was over and I had to park up. These things happen when 22 cars are battling going into a tight first corner, but it’s really frustrating to miss out after such a good qualifying session. The good thing is that I will be back in the car in five days’ time, which is the best way to bounce back and get over the disappointment.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal

“We always felt that today’s race was likely to be full of drama and it didn’t disappoint – particularly the closing lap of the race when Paul did an excellent job to grab the final point in the dash to the line. He drove a very clean race, stayed out of trouble and made the most of the strategy, but ultimately he struggled for absolute pace over the duration of the stints, which is something we need to address. As for Nico, he was simply the innocent victim of the turn one chaos. He got hit quite hard from behind going into turn one, which caused some serious damage to the left rear suspension and he immediately came on the radio to say that he needed to park the car. We have to take this on the chin because it’s part of racing, but it’s disappointing for Nico who needs all the race miles he can get at the moment. Still, he’s shown what he is capable of and he can be proud of the job he has done this weekend.”

Pirelli provides a chance for variety of strategies

Pirelli’s 2012-specification tyres delivered on their promise to provide a greater variety of race strategies by decreasing the performance gaps between the compounds this year. The new versions of the P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero White medium were nominated for the Australian Grand Prix, but the drivers had very little dry running with them before the start, as Friday’s free practice sessions in Albert Park were characterised by rain.

The top finishers adopted a two-stop strategy for the race, as was the case last year, but with the pace of the medium and the soft compound only differing by around 0.5 seconds per lap, the way in which they used the tyres was different – with some drivers favouring two stints on the soft tyre and others preferring two stints on the medium. Sauber driver Sergio Perez once more was the only person to adopt a one-stop strategy, starting on the medium tyre and changing to the soft on lap 24, to claim eighth place.

One of the turning points of the race was a safety car on lap 36, which bunched up the field and allowed Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel to claim second place by passing McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton in the pits. Up to that point McLaren’s tyre strategy had been working perfectly, with the team choosing to pit both cars on the same lap for their second stops just before the safety car. When the safety car came in with only 16 laps to go, all the drivers apart from the Toro Rossos were on the P Zero White medium tyres. At the restart, race leader Jenson Button demonstrated the rapid warm-up time of the medium compound even in the cool conditions of the afternoon by pulling out a second within the first sector, to eventually claim his third victory in Australia. Vettel, who finished runner-up, had adopted a completely different strategy by using the soft tyre during his medium stint. Last year, Vettel’s winning margin was 22 seconds; this year Button won by just over two seconds.

Throughout the final 10 laps, the top four drivers were covered by just over five seconds, with the final podium  places remaining undecided right up to the final lap. A long first stint – which took him all the way up to second place at one point – was a vital ingredient in boosting former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen from 18th place on the grid to a points-scoring seventh, which he claimed for Lotus on the final lap. The fastest lap of the race was set on the P Zero White medium tyre, by Jenson Button, who took the 13th victory of his career. The longest stint on the soft tyre came from Perez, who completed 33 laps, and the longest stint on the medium tyre was 26 laps from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “The Australian Grand Prix certainly lived up to expectations, and we fulfilled our objective of providing scope for more strategies by reducing the performance gaps between the compounds and extending the window of peak performance. An interesting element was that there were many pit stops that were not for wear level but instead for degradation, confirming what we wanted to achieve strategy-wise. We also saw more use of the medium tyre than the soft tyre, contrary to last year. Despite this range of strategies there were some very tight battles all the way down the field right up to a dramatic final lap, with one driver crashing out and eighth, ninth and 10th places crossing the finish line practically together! The wear and degradation of the tyres was around 0.1 seconds per lap on the soft tyre – with the frontrunners choosing to pit twice, despite the rapid pace at the front of the field. Jenson Button and McLaren deserve kudos for a stylish victory and also Mark Webber, who scored his best-ever finish on home territory.

ends

Weather: Rainy – air 25°C, track 21°C

Pedro de la Rosa F112 – 02 #22 24th

Narain Karthikeyan F112 – 01 #23 23rd

By F1 Special Correspondent

16 March 2012: Spanish F1 outfit, HRT seems to have hit a roadblock again and are doubtful starters for the Formula 1 World Championship season opening Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday unless they come out with something dramatic on Saturday. With HRT around 13 second off the pace of Schumacher’s time today, it is very difficult for the team to get the qualification.

Fastest Indian in the world and the only Indian F1 driver on the grid this year, perhaps had to wait till Malaysia to race the new car on Race Day. Exactly one year back, Narain making an F1  comeback with the HRT team failed to be on the starting grid as both the cars failed to pass the 107 per cent rule as they were off the pace. . “It will be difficult for us. I’m not thinking now about the speed of the cars,” Lus Perez Sala, HRT F1 Team Principal. said in the FIA Friday press conference. “We are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make it FP3 tomorrow,” he added.

Today, Narain Karthikeyan did three laps in the first Free Practice session and another 16 in the second by had to halt due to hydraulic problems but teammate Pedro de la Rosa could do only an installation lap. Narain was better off this year as the team which failed to get the car ready for the pre-season tests managed to get him 9 laps during the promotional filming opportunity a few days back. So it was a mixed day for HRT, as F1’s back-markers took to the track Friday.

Narain played down saying: “Today we ran with a new car in mixed conditions, so tomorrow will be like starting all over again because it looks like conditions will be dry. With few laps and a new car, we were unable to assess the balance of the car. But it was important to do some mileage and we completed 19 laps which isn’t too bad, but we still have a long way to go. As for the new car, these problems are common, they tend to happen in preseason testing and this is our testing”.

HRT came to Melbourne having completed a shakedown with only one chassis. That went to Narian Karthikeyan, who completed three laps during morning practice before rising engine temperatures caused him to coast to halt. In the afternoon the Indian managed a further 16 laps before a hydraulic problem forced him to sit out the rest of the session.

The team, meanwhile, had put in full day and a night hurrying to get de la Rosa’s car assembled. He eventually appeared during FP2, though after an installation lap another hydraulic problem forced him to climb out of the car with no further running possible.

“We managed to complete our installation lap in order to check the systems, but afterwards we detected a problem with the hydraulic system which forced us to stop,” explained the Catalan. “This is all part of the learning process, we’ve arrived here with a new car and just to have been able to get out for the second session was a feat, but we would have liked to have done more and learnt more. The last parts of the car arrived late and thanks to the brutal effort put in by the whole team, we were at least able to complete the installation lap and, thanks to this, we know where the problem is for tomorrow and can fix it.

“We start tomorrow with one problem less, and will surely run into another one, but that is part of the learning process. We knew that this Grand Prix would be difficult so we need to be patient”.

“We are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make it FP3 tomorrow. Then we will see in qualifying. For us Melbourne is a place where we are going to take certain information from the cars and go forwards for the next races.”

In Pedro de la Rosa’s case, today was his first contact with the F112. The team worked the entire night yesterday to ensure that the car was ready on time and, although the last adjustments took place this morning and he couldn’t take part in FP1, in the end Pedro made it out on to the track in the afternoon. After the installation lap, the team detected a hydraulic problem which impeded him from continuing to run. The problems have been identified and the team is already working in order to be ready from the off tomorrow.

Pedro de la Rosa: “We managed to complete our installation lap in order to check the systems, but afterwards we detected a problem with the hydraulic system which forced us to stop. This is all part of the learning process, we’ve arrived here with a new car and just to have been able to get out for the second session was a feat, but we would have liked to have done more and learnt more. The last parts of the car arrived late and thanks to the brutal effort put in by the whole team, we were at least able to complete the installation lap and, thanks to this, we know where the problem is for tomorrow and can fix it. We start tomorrow with one problem less, and will surely run into another one, but that is part of the learning process. We knew that this Grand Prix would be difficult so we need to be patient”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “It’s been a complicated day but we knew what we were in for. The fact that we haven’t done pre-season testing means that we must get things right, not get ahead of ourselves and detect problems in order to fix them. What the majority of teams have done during winter, we have to do here. Narain was able to complete 19 laps and accumulate certain information. Pedro could only get through one lap, but it was an important one because the team has worked non-stop to make sure the car was finished on time for today, and they achieved it. Tomorrow we will continue to progress.”

ends

As the 2012 season begins, the Team Representatives who were present at the FIA Friday Press Conference were – Luis PÉREZ-SALA (HRT), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes) and Adam PARR (Williams).

Here goes the Press Conference report

Luis, it must have been an extraordinary experience coming here, you had so much work to do. Just give us some indication of what it’s been like?

Luis PÉREZ-SALA: For us it has been almost a success just to be here in Melbourne because it has been very tough. We missed the crash test at the beginning of February and then almost until the end of February we were working to try and pass the crash test. Then, once we have done that, we went to a filming day at Barcelona, this helped us a bit, and here we have been working last night, the whole night, to have ready at least the second car. And in P1 we were running only with one car, several laps, three or four laps, and then in P2 we could afford to run at least the installation lap with Pedro’s [de la Rosa] car.

How worried are you about qualifying, do you think you can get both cars in [to the race]?

LP-S: It will be difficult for us. I’m not thinking now about the speed of the cars, now we are trying to fit all of things to make do as best as possible to make P3 tomorrow, doing several laps and then we will see on the qualifying. For us Melbourne is like a place where we are going to take certain information from the cars and go forwards for the next races.

Your championship really starts in Malaysia.

LP-S: We hope! I will see. For us the most important thing is to be here as we are and then to try to learn as much as possible. Of course the team is a bit tired as well, they have been working hard for the last month and I would like them to relax a bit and take information and we will see if it’s Shanghai or Malaysia-Shanghai, whenever we start to do our real pace and then trying to improve and to get better and better through the season.

Good luck

LP-S: We need it!

Paul, obviously this is the start of your second season. How different is it this year to one year ago?

Paul HEMBERY: I would probably have made similar comments to Luis last year at this time, having to get ready in a short space of time. Obviously experience is great, you understand, even from the small things like logistics, which help a lot in this world because it’s a complex world from a logistical side and there’s a lot of things that go on in the sport that I guess are invisible to the outside world. So, yeah, it’s a much better position to be in.

The teams are saying that the tyres don’t seem to be degrading as much, is that the case? What’s been the reaction to the new tyres?

PH: I think it’s early days to see that. They’re certainly degrading – whether it’s enough or not I don’t know – if the comments are too positive Bernie calls me up and gives me an earful! I think the general balance of the car, judging from the comments of the drivers and the teams is that they’re happy with the balance. Part of that is a few of the small changes that we’ve made. Also I think the teams have had more time to design the cars around the tyres this season. So, I think it’s a combination of the two things.

Looking at the amount of running they’ve had today, very little dry running – where would you say the teams are in preparation for this race?

PH: I think you have to ask them that. When they did do a run in the dry I guess they’re all using different fuel loads and they’ve all got different programmes in mind, what they’re trying to achieve in the sessions. But I think the general comment that everyone’s seen so far in testing is that the cars seem to be much closer together in terms of performance this year than last year – and hopefully that’s going to mean we’re going to have a great season.

Adam, first of all, to what extent are we seeing a new Williams team? A number of things have changed, tell us about the team as it stands now.

Adam PARR: We have made a lot of changes but hopefully nothing of any importance because Williams, part of the secret is trying to keep what we have as a team – but we’ve made a number of changes, we’ve got a new technical leadership who’ve been able to deliver this car but we have another 500 people who haven’t changed. I’m really pleased we’ve been able to completely redesign the car top to bottom, change engines, and without missing a trick. We did a lot of mileage in testing, so that’s all gone very nicely. On the board side Claire [Williams] is stepping up to join our board as director of marketing and communications in early April and we’re very excited about that. I think she’s going to be a fantastic asset for this team – and the great thing is no-one can poach her!

Another point is that you’ve got two relatively inexperienced drivers, whereas you had Rubens [Barrichello] with a massive amount of experience. How has that gone and how, in turn, has Alex Wurz been able to contribute?

AP: I think it’s very early to say, isn’t it? But what I do feel is both Bruno and Pastor are… they’re not in their first seasons in Formula One, they are very competitive and I think they can have a lot of fun between the two of them and with the team. Alex is playing the role of a wise head and mentoring them as necessary, and so far, so good.

How much are you asking him to do? Giving him a free rein to talk to the drivers?

AP: Yes, he has an absolutely free rein and he attends the debriefs etc, and how he does it is up to him. He should know better than anyone what he has to do.

Ross, first of all it couldn’t be a better start to the season could it – than to be top on the first day?

Ross BRAWN: Well, it’s certainly better than being at the back! The only reason I qualify it is that we have no idea what people are running on fuel. We’ve had little windows of running on the dry. Our cars were doing different things to try to understand and get some information for tomorrow because we’ve got one hour of timed practice before we have to go into qualifying and, as Paul commented, we don’t really know these tyres very well yet, because testing in the winter in Barcelona with a heavily rubbered track is not giving us all the information we need to know how to use the tyres, what strategy to choose and so on and so forth. So we’re trying to get snapshots in these weather conditions of what’s going on. It’s been a reasonably encouraging start but we’re not getting carried away because different people were doing different things today.

In terms of preparation you missed out the first test with the new car, you obviously hit the ground running with it for the two Barcelona tests – how different has it been starting this season to last season?

RB: We’re much better prepared than we were last year. Last year we were not in good shape at this stage of the season. We’d tried to leave it as late as possible to run the final aerodynamic package and that hadn’t gone that well, and we had some cooling issues, some other functionality issues of the car and that takes a lot of resource out of the organisation fixing those things. So, we made a big effort to strengthen the team, do things more effectively, and to arrive at the beginning of this season in a much better state of preparation. I must commend the people who’ve been involved with that. As Adam was saying, we’re keen to strengthen the team without losing the strengths that we already have. So, Bob Bell has been a great asset to the team, Bob’s been involved in this car from the beginning. He’s done a great job of the organisation, keeping everyone to schedule, getting the right decisions made, so we’re not where we want to be yet in many ways but we’re a lot better than we were 12 months ago. And if we can keep that rate of progress going, then I’m extremely optimistic for the future. We’re in a place now where the car functions well, it cools well, it does all the basic things properly. And all of our resource can be focussed on trying to find performance for the next part of the season.

Everybody’s talking about your supposed front-wing stalling system, is there anything you can tell us?

RB: Well, I can tell you it’s great for Formula One, because for me the magic of Formula One is not just the drivers, it’s the technology, the engineering, the innovation, the stories that fill the web pages and the media. It’s something that I think is a great thing for Formula One. When I hear these people talking about how we need to have standard cars and just let the drivers…  they miss the whole point of Formula One, which is the magic of everything that happens in Formula One. You know, we’ve got drivers out there, world champions, who are perhaps not in the best car at the moment and that’s a story. That’s a great aspect of Formula One. We have world champions in much better cars and the teams without the better cars have got to fix that and improve. So it’s great people are talking about different things. Today it’s us, tomorrow it will be somebody else. That’s why Formula One is so fascinating, why it’s so appealing to our fans and enthusiasts.

Eric, sorry to keep you waiting first of all. How much of a setback was losing the first Barcelona test?

Eric BOULLIER: Obviously we missed some track time, some development time of the systems and some track time for the drivers as well, as obviously they were not racing last year in Formula One. But I have to say that number one, we have a reliable car and we were able to do a lot of mileage in Jerez and at the second Barcelona test.

Kimi had some problems with comfort in the car in Barcelona. Is he still having those problems now or was it something different today?

EB: It’s very similar, let’s say. But also it’s a new chassis and you have to adjust a little bit his position in the car.

Are you curing that?

EB: Of course, definitely.

And Romain today? How quickly did he learn the circuit and do you feel confident in him now?

EB: Yes, I think he showed in the second session that he was now ready to drive and he knew the track. This morning you could see that the conditions were a bit tricky and this is why we waited for the best conditions for him to go out and learn the track, as we think… the forecast is for it to be dry on Sunday.

Are they working well together, those two? One would say they might be slightly different personalities?

EB: Yes, I have to say it’s matching quite well. I mean they are team-mates, they are professional drivers and they work well. We have no issues with this.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Alberto Antonini – Autosprint) May I ask all of you your feelings about racing in Bahrain in four weeks’ time?

RB: We want to go there. It’s been a great place to race in the past. It has its troubles, we hope those troubles are largely behind them and if racing can help bring things together then we should try and do it. We need to monitor the situation, try and make a judgement. People who’ve been there are telling us the situation’s much, much better than it was 12 months ago. So, as I say, if Formula One can help to improve the situation then that would be a great thing for us to do.  But it’s certainly clearly a lot calmer situation than it was 12 months ago.

Q: (Dieter Rencken  – The Citizen) I believe that a letter was addressed and sent to the Federation regarding the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) being enshrined in the regulations. If so, which teams signed, which teams didn’t sign and also, what do you hope to achieve and how, please?

RB: I answered the last one.

AP: I think you should do this one as well.

EB: We have many correspondences with the FIA on many many subjects and yes, one of the subjects was the RRA and trying to find a way to maybe make the FIA involved in the process of reinforcing the RRA through an idea like sporting regs. So we just contacted the FIA and Jean Todt to try to set up a group together to discuss the matter.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) My question was also who signed and who didn’t sign the letter. Was it unanimous?

EB: Yes, it was unanimous. Most of the teams have signed it.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Most. Who not?

EB: Doesn’t matter.

AP: I thoroughly agree with what Eric just said, with everything he said.

Q: (Kate Walker – GirlRacer) Eric, we saw that Kimi didn’t get very many laps in either session today. Was that just comfort or were there problems with his steering column and you changed it?

EB: Second session was just planned. Because of the rain, we didn’t want to run in the wet conditions so we just waited for a dry situation.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) I was interested by Ross’s comments about the excitement of the technical challenge of Formula One, which is obviously an ongoing thing. But it still costs all of you millions. Some of you have more than a hundred people in your aero department. I wonder if there are any savings that could be made which would be acceptable to the technician in you, for example, a standard under-car aerodynamic profile?

RB: I’m a little bit reluctant to have standard parts on the car. I’m a great supporter of the concept of the Resource Restriction Agreement, that we have a certain amount of money, a certain number of people we can use and we try and get the cleverest people to do the best job and we win because those people are doing a better job than other people in other teams, not because we’ve spent twice as much as somebody else. Certainly Mercedes’ principle is not to steamroller Formula One with unlimited resource and win on the power of what we’ve spent. We’re very prudent, we want Formula One to be a good example and we believe that the Resource Restriction and some sensible technical regulations and sporting regulations is the best way. There is an argument that perhaps we need to make sure that as we tighten the resource restriction that we don’t end up moving all the activity into the aerodynamic field because that’s perhaps the area of greatest return for investment, and we do need regulations to make sure that we keep a spread. So I think there can be quite strong constraints to make sure that we don’t have cars which are just purely focused on aerodynamics but I’m not a great fan of standardising parts but perhaps in keeping parts within a closer constraint.

AP: I agree with Ross. The prime area of means of controlling costs should be controlling expenditure and that’s what the Resource Restriction Agreement… in part the Singapore agreement which was signed by all teams 18 months or so ago. That’s the primary way of controlling costs because in the past, attempts to cure them purely by technical rules just squeezed the balloon into another shape. However, I think there is also a desire to look at areas of the car that have become ludicrously over-complicated. An example is used of the corners of the car. I think we have over 130 moulds for one brake duct now. And I’m not sure that that does genuinely add to the show. What does add to the show is when people come up with clever ideas, and you can only really have that if you control overall spending, because otherwise it is the more money you’ve got, the more clever ideas you should be able to come up with. So I think it’s a combination of both, as Ross said, and I also feel… I read just a few days ago that Mr Ecclestone was commenting that we should introduce budget cuts into Formula One, so I think you could say that there’s quite a consensus now about doing something further.

EB: I do share the same visions as my colleagues. Using the restriction on the resources and expenditure is one of the best ways, obviously, and we need to adjust a little bit the technical and maybe the sporting regulations to cut some costs and that’s going to be much better. We need to keep the Formula One philosophy.

LPS: For us, we are maybe the team that has the lowest budget on the grid. It’s not going to be easy for us to reduce the budget, no? Even we are trying to reduce our budget more and it’s not easy. I’m not sure what we can afford. Maybe we say regulations dictate the budget cut. I don’t know.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, before, you were talking of the magic of Formula One. In the last few days, Flavio Briatore has said that for him, this is a Formula One where only cars are now counting. Drivers are not making the difference as they did in the past. They don’t have that big a personality. Do you agree with that?

RB: I think there is a good equilibrium to try and achieve. If the car starts to become a totally prevalent factor then we don’t want that. Equally, as I say, we want a situation where if there’s a great driver in not such a great car then he will struggle a bit. You’ve always got two drivers in the same team, so there’s a competition going on there as well, so if there is a very good car, then you’ve still got two drivers within that team. There’s very few poor drivers that have won World Championships so I think that tells us that the great drivers win the World Championships. Getting an equilibrium is something that we should be mindful of. But I think that at the other end of the scale is let’s have GP1: standard cars, all that sort of stuff – and I think we would be shocked how quickly we would lose interest in Formula One if we did that.

Q: (Dieter Rencken  – The Citizen) I would like to return very briefly to the letter. The four team principles here, did you sign the letter please? It’s a very simple question.

RB: Yes, we signed the letter.

AP: Do you think I wouldn’t sign a letter to do with cost control?

RB: The teams asked the FIA to continue the process of looking at cost control. It’s something which the FIA are very keen to do as well, so it was a letter of support to the FIA to say that we want to continue the process of reducing costs and look at fair ways of introducing the regulations or procedures to keep the costs under control and further reduce the costs. If we had a Formula One where teams like the smaller teams at the back of the grid could be commercially viable – more commercially viable – then I think that’s a healthier Formula One, so have to find ways of trying to achieve that.

Q: (Kate Walker – GirlRacer) It emerged last week that the Lehman Brothers’ stake in Delta Topco has to be sold by the middle of 2014. Could you confirm whether or not you are interested either individually or as a group in purchasing that 15.3% stake,  per team or by FOTA or however you can guys can get a better slice of the F1 pie?

RB: Individually as in me personally or…? It’s certainly not something we’ve considered.

EB: It’s not something that has been considered.

Q: (Wei An Mao – La Vie Creative) Yesterday, I asked the drivers – now you – that since 1996 Melbourne has been on the calendar, do you think it is important to keep it in F1 and should it be changed to a night race after 2015?

EB: I think this year the schedule is a little bit later than in previous years, and there are still around 300,000 people attending the weekend so I would say why not?

RB: We very much enjoy being here. It’s a great race, the huge enthusiasm from the city and from the fans. It’s a really enjoyable race, so we have to find a way of moving forward and trying to keep the race and finding solutions. If the solution is a night race, then we have to find a way of achieving that but personally – and I think as a team – we would be very disappointed if we couldn’t continue racing in Australia. It’s a great place to start the season.

AP: I was in Western Australia over the last few days and interestingly, WA suffered a 20percent decline in tourism in 2011 whereas Victoria’s tourism has grown, and I think the state has a tremendous record of attracting great events and there’s no doubt that that puts Melbourne on the map around the world. If having a night race meant more excitement, more publicity, a bigger global audience for the race here, then I think it’s something that the state should very seriously consider. As Ross said, whatever happens, we really want to come back, because it is a fantastic weekend, really fantastic.

PH: I agree with the comments made. They’ve put a lot effort into creating an event for the fans. If you walk around the infield, there’s a lot of activity going on and if anybody follows motor sport in Australia, that’s something that they do very well. There are other events like the Clipsall which is an amazing event, if you ever get the chance to go there over in Adelaide I recommend that you do so. So I think yeah, as long as it’s viable for the promoter and they can make it work and it seems that the fans seem to like it then I think everyone’s very happy to be here.

LPS: I’ve been driving in Adelaide which was a nice track and now here where I drove in the Lamborghini Trophy in 1999, fantastic track, the fans and everything, for us to come here is a nice place to come.

Q: (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) Adam touched on Bernie’s comments on the budget cap a few minutes ago. I’m just wondering how much consensus there is among the teams to bring it in. Is it a viable option at the moment, and what has changed from a couple of years ago when the vast majority of the teams refused to go with the budget cap option?

AP: I think, to be specific, Mr Ecclestone’s comments were about budget capping. The teams have agreed a different process: the Resource Restriction Agreement and the Singapore Agreement. I’m not suggesting that we should change the overall structure at this point. I think there is, however, a very high degree of consensus amongst everybody – the FIA, Formula One and the teams – that we should continue to reduce costs.

Q: (Matt Coch – pitpass.com) Luis, how confident are you that you’ve got the money to reach the end of the season?

LPS: I’m confident to reach the end of the season, I’m confident of the money. It’s secure.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, with the  FIA saying that your F-duct system is legal, how long do you think it will take the other teams to copy the same solutions and do you think that this could be an advantage that you could carry on for a while as was the case of the Brawn with the double diffuser?

RB: Innovation is the lifeblood of Formula One racing, I’ve oversold that point already. Obviously I’m not going to go into detail of what people are calling the F-duct. I’m surprised they are calling it that, because I don’t quite know what that means. We have an interesting system on the car and it’s not complicated at all, so I’m sure other teams are looking at it and they need to decide if it’s worthwhile or not. But it’s not in the same magnitude as the diffuser concept that we had or even the exhaust concepts the cars ran the last few years. It’s obviously helpful, that’s why we’re doing it but it’s not a massive performance gain.

AP: That’s a relief to hear, so we can stop developing ours.

RB: I would like you to spend all your money on it, Adam, and then we can get on with other stuff.

AP: It wouldn’t take long!

Ends