INDIA in F1

Tag: F1

  • This car has the potential to win races: Andrew Green

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Dave GREENWOOD (Marussia), Mike COUGHLAN (Williams), Mark SMITH (Caterham), Andrew GREEN (Force India), Nikolas TOMBAZIS (Ferrari), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Mike Coughlan, if we can start with you. You won here last year but what conclusions are we to draw from your performances so far this season?

    Mike COUGHLAN: Well, we’re disappointed. It’s a fast-moving sport, everybody’s progressing and we haven’t made enough progress. We’re making steps in the right direction. We’re making steps in the right direction but there’s a long way… there’s at least a second to catch up.

    And what did you learn from today?

    MC: We learned that the prototype tyres didn’t work on our car and we found that… we had an aero test last week, some things we learned have worked on the circuit here, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

    Thanks very much. If we can move to Nikolas Tombazis. Obviously, a lot of discussions at the moment about the re-introduction of testing in Formula One. The vote this week didn’t necessarily go in favour of it, but do you feel that’s the end of the story or do you think there is a chance that will be revisited?

    Nikolas TOMBAZIS: To be honest I think it’s something more for the team principals to be discussing with each other. I guess there will be more discussion about it but I don’t think it will be at our level of engineer to be honest that we discuss it.

    And today? Obviously very close between yourselves and Red Bull. What conclusions do you draw from the running we saw this afternoon?

    NT: I think it’s very difficult to draw any conclusions properly from a Friday. I think we are in reasonable shape but it’s impossible to know exactly what fuel levels each team is running. So, I think we’re cautiously optimistic but I couldn’t say more than that. In the morning obviously it was raining so it was not easy to test some of the components we were planning to test. So that’s an ongoing process that will go on for the next race to try and establish whether the new bits are actually faster or not, so it’s not possible to answer all the questions in one single session.

    Obviously your old colleague James Allison is back on the market, do you fancy a reunion with him in Maranello?

    NT: I’m very good friends with James, I think he’s a super bloke both technically and ‘humanly’. I think that any team having him would be making a good buy. Whether he is coming to us or not is a story to ask the team principals.

    Okay, thank you for that. Adrian, your thoughts on today? Obviously, you and Ferrari look very quick but as Nik was saying it’s not always easy to draw conclusions from Friday. However, do you see it being a scrap between the two of you this weekend?

    Adrian NEWEY: Well, If Nik would be kind us enough to tell us what his fuel load was this afternoon we’d have a better idea, but he probably won’t do that so, no, as Nik says then it’s certainly tight with Ferrari. Lotus I’m sure will be good, we’ve seen they have very good tyre degradation, and Mercedes are the outsiders I guess, so it’s the usual story of the last few races.

    Obviously Red Bull was one of the teams calling for a change to the tyre specifications. Pirelli has made one change, to the hard tyre that we have here this weekend. That was the preferred tyre here in the race last season. Can you give us your take on the changes that have been made? Did it go far enough as far as you’re concerned?

    AN: The changes to the tyre relative to last year are two-fold, one has been construction and the other has been compound. As you say they’ve gone back to the compound that we used in some of the races last year but that still leaves a very significant construction change, so it’s still a very different tyre to what we had last year.

    Moving on to Dave Greenwood from Marussia. Obviously Marussia have taken a clear step forward this year in performance. Can you quantify it for us and tell us where the major gains have come from?

    Dave GREENWOOD: Well, it’s difficult to put exact numbers on it but definitely we’re a per cent or so closer to the front. We no longer worry about anything like 107 per cent, those days are long gone, so it’s much more looking towards the midfield, where we want to go. Obviously, as anyone else would say, the main advantage has come in aerodynamics – better correlation in the wind tunnel – and perhaps slightly more creativity in that area. That’s where really most of the lap time has come, coupled with improvements in the mechanical installation of course.

    We spoke earlier about the possibility of in-season testing returning. As one of the teams with a smaller budget how would feel about that?

    DG: It’s a tricky one isn’t it? As an engineer you’d want to go testing but obviously there’s a resource issue there to consider as well. I think as Nikolas said, it’s probably one more for the team principals. But I think for us it would be as long as it was in a measured, controlled way and not an absolute free-for-all then maybe it would be something that would enable us to slightly catch up by having a little bit more testing.

    Moving on to Andrew. Obviously, first of all, we have to start by asking about Paul Di Resta’s left-rear tyre failure. What can you tell us about that from second practice this afternoon?

    Andrew GREEN: Well, completely unexpected, in the middle of a high-fuel run, it was on about lap six or seven. That’s all we know at the moment. It’s currently under investigation by Pirelli and I’m sure they’ll release something as soon as they know but it’s early days yet.

    What’s the protocol when something like this happens, in terms of how you as a team interact with them, in terms of moving forward from here?

    AG: We’re completely with them. We’ll give them everything they need to understand what happened with the tyres. It’s one of the reasons why we stopped the car straight away – to not damage the tyre and give them as big an opportunity as possible to understand what happened.

    Obviously it’s been a competitive start to the season fro Force India; you’re beating teams with larger budgets. How is that done?

    AG: How’s it done?

    Yes.

    AG: We’ve got our own programme. We’ve been on a stepped improvement every year for the last three or four years. We do our own thing. We try to understand the car as much as we can and move forward in areas where we see the performance gains. We are massively resource limited in our team. We haven’t got the big budgets, we’ve got to pick and choose where we develop the car and make sure we develop it in areas that give good rewards and we’ll continue to do that. One of the key things for this year, which we identified last year was race performance on Sunday, tyres life. Understanding the tyres was a big part of this car and has given us a big opportunity to set the car up for all different conditions, all different tyre types. So that’s helped us on the Sunday for sure. But it’s everywhere; it’s a little bit of everything. The wind tunnel guys are busy trying to add performance from their side, and on the tyre side we’re trying to manage the tyres mechanically.

    Moving on to Mark Smith from Caterham. We’ve seen in the past Caterham talking a lot about upgrade packages when they come along, but there seems to have been hardly any talk about this one at all. Can you tell us what you’ve done and why you’ve decided to keep quiet about it this time?

    Mark SMITH: The strategy that we had, for a number of reasons, was to introduce a car for the first four races that was probably 30 per cent of what would ordinarily be the new season’s car. So, yes, it’s an upgrade but in actual fact it takes us to the point that ordinarily this would have been our roll-out car. And that has to do with understanding the way we model things and not committing to things. We felt that had we have done the car in the normal timescale we would have been taking parts to production and to the car that we weren’t particularly ready with in terms of our understanding and modeling and so on. So it’s more a case that this is the new car.

    Can you tell us what the impact the return of Heikki Kovalainen in a development role has had on you in the past month or so?

    MS: It has been very useful. Obviously, Heikki worked with the team previously. We lost driver continuity. So that in itself, when Heikki ran in FP1 in Bahrain, was a positive. There were some minor set-up directions that we were considering and in fact Heikki endorse those independently, so that was useful. So in terms of having some continuity, having some connection to the previous car, which actually the car he drove in Bahrain was only a minor development of, has been useful.
    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR 

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) All of you have upgrades here; could you tell us what the new parts are on your car and please be specific?

    MC: New front wing, some forward floor changes, but that’s it.

    DG: New front wing, new floor, new suspension parts on the front suspension, so not just aerodynamic. Reasonably comprehensive I would say.

    MS: Front and rear wing, floor, some bodywork parts.

    NT: Sorry, but I think I will be a spoilsport and won’t specify. You can look at the photos.

    AN: I think it’s a bit of an unreasonable question really. It’s all part of the sport isn’t it, to find out what we’ve done?

    Q: But presumably there have been plenty of boxes arriving overnight from England.

    AN: Well, we’ve got to keep the boys in sandwiches.

    AG:  Bit of everything, really: aerodynamic and mechanical.

    Q: Is it as significant an update package here at Barcelona as it has been in the past?

    Is it one of the most important milestones?

    AG: Not as big as it has been, but it’s still significant, yeah.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Tombazis, the upgrades that you brought here, are they working reasonably well and do you think they are going to help you to try to catch pole position tomorrow?

    NT: As I said before, because it was raining in the morning, we haven’t had the opportunity to do all the back to backs as we would have liked. It’s quite difficult to get good answers on a Friday even if it’s not raining because of the tyres and the various other things one has to do on a Friday. So we were are still analysing and it’s an on-going process. I would say that some things are working, some things are not but we will have to also re-test some things at the next race, before we decide properly.

    Q: Fernando was saying that qualifying pace was something that he wanted more of from the Ferrari. Did you set that as a first order priority for this upgrade?

    NT: Yes, I think it’s quite clear we want to improve there, but obviously if we improve there we don’t want to give away some of our race pace so the race pace is still more important in some ways for the end result but sometimes when we start further back it makes things a lot more difficult, so yes, qualifying is a priority.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) From time to time, the idea of having a point for pole position comes up. I understand the idea has been discussed recently and rejected. Without putting all of you to any trouble, could I ask perhaps Nick and Adrian if they are first in favour of that or why was the idea rejected?

    AN:  To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t aware that it had been discussed again lately. Certainly, when I was in IndyCars, and that was the standard procedure it always seemed to me to be a good thing. It gives a little bit more emphasis to qualifying, bit more to the show if you like and qualifying’s all part of the TV spectacle. It seemed like a little extra bonus at the end and seemed sensible. That’s my personal opinion.

    NT: Yeah, I must say that I don’t think it’s a bad idea provided it’s clear from the start what the rule is then one can make one’s assessment between performances in qualifying and the race. I’m not against it, personally. I also wasn’t aware of it being discussed. It’s possibly a good thing.

    Q: (Alex Oller – Associated Press) Mr Coughlan, regarding Pastor Maldonado’s struggles this season: do you think you might be pressing a little bit, due to a lack of confidence in the car and also, might there be an adjustment due to the change with the personal engineer?

    MC: No, I don’t think so. It’s a fast-moving sport, there’s lots of little things. This time last year we had a good balance here and the driver was very confident on the Saturday but not so good on the Friday, so there’s a lot of work to do. We have a good team, Pastor’s very focused, working hard. It’s just going to come down to hard work and small steps.

    Q: (Sam Collins – RaceCar Engineering) Looking at this car and next year’s car, some of you guys have got a bit of a challenge of resources, some from the RRA and some from your own team’s resources. At what point are you going to switch off development of the 2013 car and switch on to the 2014 fully, and what’s going to be the thing that makes that decision happen?

    MS: I don’t know that there will be an absolute switch off. I think these things… obviously 2014 represents a big change so in terms of resource, everybody’s resource-limited, you’re just given the level that you work at, so to a greater or lesser extent, I think every team will have been looking at 2014 for a while now. The time at which you switch the majority of resources will be different for all teams because all teams will be facing different challenges in the championship. For us, 2014 is a very significant thing and I suspect that the majority of our resources will have moved over after Barcelona.

    DG: Well, in terms of resources, yeah, obviously we are one of the resource-limited teams but that’s not to say we don’t have big ambitions for 2014, so we’ve done quite a big change-over to that already, in terms of specifics of wind tunnel times, detailing and even design time, there’s a lot going on for 2014 already. It’s a tricky one because we still keep where we are in 2013 with one eye on it, more from the point of view of ensuring that if the opportunities are there to move up, then we’ve still got to keep a development  going, so probably similar to what Mark says, it’s about that point now where it’s all or nothing basically.

    AN: It’s a hugely difficult problem. In an ideal world, you kind of try briefly to increase your work force to deal with the resources needed for this and then shrink back down but that’s neither feasible not practical really. I think that certainly for us, we have to put effort into the ’14 car, we can’t just ignore it. We are putting effort into it at the moment. This is actually about how that percentage varies throughout the year. Well, to some extent it depends on how our championship programme is.. Clearly, if you’re in a tight battle for a championship, you don’t want to turn your back on that. Equally… it’s a juggling act, there’s no magic formula to it.

    Q: (Matt Youson – RaceTech) Nick, how does the 2014 power unit dictate the aero of next year’s car?

    NT: It’s a hugely complicated project from a mechanical point of view, the installation of the turbo with all the energy recovery and the completely different looms and also all the other issues my colleagues spoke about – in terms of resource allocation make it very difficult to focus on this project as much as one would like. So one of the challenges is to make sure that apart from the work that the engine people need to do to make sure that they get the most efficiency/power/fuel efficiency etc, is to also make sure that one doesn’t take any wrong turnings in terms of the packaging of this new power unit into the car. It would be a big shame if one discovers, from the start of the next season, that one has missed some trick and has to live with a sub-optimally packaged power unit. So a lot of the early aerodynamic work has to do with answering basic fundamental questions about that installation and obviously the engine being so different, there’s also a lot of other things that are… one loses points of reference compared to the previous year. For example, the cooling could be one of them, or gearbox or whatever. So there’ s a lot of importance in being good at your simulations at this stage so as to be able to not over-design or under-design some particular aspect.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) For all six of you: we’re coming to the end of this set of regulations after five years. For all of you, which was the most satisfying car you had in this period and why, and what was the car which you felt you could have done a better job with, and again, why?

    AG: This car is going to be the most satisfying car, to be honest. It’s got all the potential to be and we’re really looking forward to this season. I think there are some really strong races ahead. I would say this car, for sure. And the one we could have done more with? Every other one, for sure.

    AN: I think to pick out one car is difficult. I think overall I’ve certainly enjoyed the challenge of the regulation change from 2009. I think we didn’t win the championship in 2009 but in some ways I’m most proud of that, as  a team, not me personally, but I think as a team we did a good job with that car. We didn’t have a double diffuser which is still a matter of contention about the legality of that, which is obviously all history and that, without doubt, to some extent, cost us the championship together with the fact that as a team we just weren’t mature enough at the time to know how to operate the car to a championship-winning level really. But I think it’s the catalyst that gave everybody in Milton Keynes the confidence to step forwards and out of the ex-Jaguar ‘always seventh in the championship’ –type position that people felt a bit beaten into and put a spring in their step and launched us into the following cars.

    NT: Well, obviously for Ferrari, this set of the regulations, the last five years have been quite difficult. We’ve had some years that we were very disappointed with and I’m hoping that at the end of the season I will say that this year is one that we are most happy with but clearly we have to wait and see for that.

    MS: I think for a number of reasons which generally revolve around the way we’re working as a team and the way we are going about our business, I would say that it’s the current car.

    MC: Obviously last year’s car returned Williams  to winning ways and we perhaps didn’t make as much use of it as we could have done but certainly here last year and that car.

    DG: Obviously this year’s car for the reasons we’ve come a long way since we entered in 2010 but I would say this is the biggest step we’ve made year on year and the most significant one.

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) We’ve recently had quite a bit of discussion that’s since fallen by the wayside about integrating young driver tests into the race weekend. How do you guys feel about that? Do think it’s good for bringing on talent or are you wary about these young guns damaging your precious new parts?

    NT: It’s not exactly the sort of topic I normally think about much. I think the way of testing makes it very difficult for young drivers to really get started so to find a solution to that would be a good idea. Whether that would work at a race weekend I’m not sure, unless it’s the Monday after a race or something like that.

    AN: I think the first problem actually comes from the lower formulas inasmuch as we seem to be in a situation where now in GP2, for instance, experience counts hugely and quite often it will be drivers in their third or fourth season that win the championship, which seems to me quite an unhealthy way to be. I think also now, with the way the tyres are behaving, then to have junior formulas where the tyres are lasting three or four laps before they’ve gone off heavily, young drivers need mileage, they need seat time and it concerns me that the way the lower formulae are going they’re just not getting that.

    AG: Well, from Force India’s point of view, we’ve got a track record of bringing young drivers through and it’s something that we’re very proud of, something we’d like to have the ability to do more of so we definitely look towards a change in regulations so we can bring young drivers through without compromising the race weekend. We put forward a motion in the meeting yesterday but I’m sure there will be further discussions on it. Hopefully we can come to some agreement because I think it’s probably a little bit short-sighted of the sport not to recognise that these young guys do need time in the car.

    Q: Do you have a Friday driver in the pipeline?

    AG: Yes, there’s one coming through. Hopefully we will announce something shortly.

    DG: This is something we actively participate in, in using young drivers in an FP1 session but I think tyres is key at the moment. Perhaps one set of tyres in FP1 is not quite enough for these guys and maybe we need to look to giving them a few more sets of tyres.

    Mike, Williams is another team that has run Friday-morning drivers, you’re not doing it at the moment, are there plans to do that this year?

    MC: Not at the moment, no. I think our experience, although it’s improved Valtteri tremendously last year, Bruno [Senna] would argue he probably suffered a little bit from it. So it’s a difficult call. I don’t really have an answer.

    …and Mark?

    MS: It’s a general philosophy. When we have the opportunity we’ve given young drivers a chance in FP1. It’s not something… going beyond that in the way you describe is not something I’ve given a lot of thought to – but in principle, as Adrian says, there’s a shortfall in terms of opportunity for guys new to Formula One to get to grips with it. So there could be something positive there, yeah.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) Nik, a question for you: when you’re designing and developing a car, how do you take into account and balance the fact that your drivers might have different driving styles and might want different things from the car?

    NT: The differences are not that massive. The both want more downforce and less drag and so on. So the basic parameters are not too different. But they do have some slightly different characteristics: what they feel makes it more difficult under braking for example, or mid-corner or whatever. But we try to establish an average condition so as to have an overall car that’s best – and then what the drivers prefer is dealt with in car setup.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Question for Mike: Mike, this is the first year you’ve been back in Formula One full time, even though you did do some races last year, first year I should say since the events of 2007. Has it been like a fresh start with Williams?

    MC: I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I did work all last year doing it too. I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a great engineering challenge. If you’re an engineer, Formula One is a great engineering challenge, so I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Even though we’re struggling a little bit now, the challenge is to get back.

    Q: (Nicolas Carpentier – F1i) Back to 2014. Mark Smith talks about the big change, will these cars look very different from this year’s cars in their shape? I guess you already have an idea: a shorter engine cover or something like that…

    DG: The initial rules framing the regulations of where bodywork exists etcetera have been out now and published and a lot of discussions have taken place in the technical working group meetings and I think everyone has now got the confidence to start laying cars out and initial wind tunnel tests and CFD etcetera. The version I’ve seen looks very much like… the cars won’t look immensely different once you get used to them. The first time you see then, you’ll decide they’re a lot different and then by three races in you’ll think they always looked like that. There are some areas that have gone. Like the beam wing, which is probably the most significant but the rest of them, you’ll still think it looks like a current Formula One car.

    Adrian, your thoughts.

    AN: So much of the shape of the car is dictated by the regulations, and that kind of hems you in. Visually, as was said the lack of the beam wing, the low nose which is again forced by regulations and a slightly narrower overall front wing – 75mm a side narrower. Those are the other things you’ll notice. The other thing, depending on how good a job everybody manages to do, is probably slightly bigger sidepods to accommodate the significantly increased cooling requirements.

    Are these regulations that excite you?

    AN: They’re different and I think it’s always good to have something different. I think the whole philosophy of the engine and the KERS unit and energy storage is altogether another matter – but that’s more for the engine group.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Mike, talking on the technical side about Williams. Since Mark Gillan left, how much has the team suffered from that and are there any plans for you to bring in another heavy-hitter to help you out and bounce ideas off?

    MC: No, I don’t think so. As soon as somebody moves on there’s always somebody younger and fresher who wants to take that place. Obviously change is something we try to avoid – especially with somebody of Mark’s calibre – but at the moment, no, we don’t plan to bring anybody else in.

     

    Ends

  • Vodafone McLaren Mercedes launches new Twitter handle

    WOKING, SURREY (UK), 10 May 2013: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has unveiled the next chapter of its digital engagement strategy with the launch of a new Twitter handle.

    The move, which has seen the industry-acclaimed @TheFifthDriver modified to @McLarenF1, will be marked at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix with the new handle appearing on the front wing endplate of Jenson Button and Checo Perez’s MP4-28.

    The change will make it easier for McLaren’s global fanbase to identify and engage with the team on Twitter and reflects the wider digital engagement strategy to make the team as accessible as possible to a greater number of people – in turn providing them with a unique insight into the heart of a living and breathing Formula 1 team.

    Over the last 12 months Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has seen strong growth in follower numbers and engagement across its social media channels, owing to a revised approach to content strategy, social media campaigns and entering new and emerging digital platforms:

    • ·         During the last 12 months, the number of followers on the official Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Facebook page has increased by 40% to over 700,000.
    • ·         In the same period, Twitter numbers have grown by 80% to almost 350,000.
    • ·         Since entering Google+ in December 2012, follower numbers have surpassed the 100,000 mark.

    As part of a holistic digital engagement strategy, the official Vodafone McLaren Mercedes website was also re-launched at the start of the 2013 season. Developed in a responsive format, the new website further empowers fans to stay up to date with the latest from the team across multiple devices. As part of the relaunch, the team’s long-standing adaptation of a second-screen viewing experience – now rebranded McLaren LIVE – continues to add to the race-day experience for fans.

    McLaren.com/Formula1 will also be launching in Spanish, reflecting McLaren’s increasingly global fan base, which has been boosted by the signing of the latest Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver, Sergio Perez.

    These developments are the latest in a series of achievements for a team that has developed a reputation for its forward-thinking approach to digital and social media – a fact that has been proven over the past four years. McLaren were the first Formula 1 team to offer fans the opportunity to view live telemetry during races and practice sessions, the first front-running team to start using Twitter, and more recently the team has embraced the full breadth of its social media platforms to spectacularly live-stream the MP4-28 car reveal.

    Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes said: “Our fans are at the heart of our digital strategy. We’ve strived hard to develop world-leading digital platforms that our fans can enjoy, while creating compellingly insightful content that draws them in and makes them feel part of our team.

    “@TheFifthDriver has not retired. Through the new handle of @McLarenF1, the mysterious micro-blogger will continue to give our fans unique access to the inner workings of one of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1, the pinnacle of global motorsport.”

    Ends

  • Home race is a special week-end: Alonso

    DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Esteban GUTIERREZ (Sauber), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Sergio PEREZ (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE 

    Sergio, sixth in Bahrain, was that a breakthrough result for you with McLaren? 

    Sergio PEREZ: Considering where we started from, I think it was pretty much the maximum we could get. We came very close at the end, [fighting] with Lewis [Hamilton] for fifth place. We did a good strategy, good race pace – better than expected – so it was definitely a very positive race, especially after all the tough start to the season we had.

    And what’s happened in terms of discussions between you and Jenson [Button] after the disagreements over your battle in Bahrain. Where do you stand going into this race?

    SP: It’s very clear between us, between the team. We had a very good chat, Jenson and myself, but also with Martin [Whitmarsh] and Sam [Michael]. We sat down after the race and, yeah, I think we were a bit too aggressive, both of us, between us, and we risked quite a lot to the team… to damage to the result of the weekend. Especially, we needed so much those points. We both apologized to the team and it was cleared. It was a nice chat to have.

    Thanks very much. Esteban, Monisha Kaltenborn said after Bahrain ‘he’s struggling at the moment’. Can you put your finger on why and what positives have you drawn from your experiences so far?

    Esteban GUTIERREZ: Well, generally it has not been the ideal start to the season. Especially for myself, I would have liked to have a more consistent four races. When you’re competing you’re taking risks. Especially at the beginning it’s important to find the right equilibrium between being conservative and taking risks. I have made some mistakes and definitely it has not been very positive but I’m determined and focused to work, myself and also as a team. It [Bahrain] was not a great track for us and hopefully it will be better for Barcelona.

    Obviously qualifying seems to be the particular problem, you’re a few slots behind your team-mate on average this season. What are you experiencing now on Saturday afternoons?

    EG: Of course on Saturday morning, in Bahrain for example, we decided to do a race simulation and this is not an ideal preparation for qualifying. We thought we could get some information for race performance. And of course also my driving, there are some little bits I need to improve, be more confident in the corners with the car that I have and get the most of the car.

    Fernando, you challenged for the win here last year and you’ve won twice on home soil. After all these years of racing in Spain, does the emotion that you feel help you, or is it something that you have to master first and keep under control in order to do well?

    Fernando ALONSO: I think it motivates you to race at home and you give an extra 10 per cent on what you normally do, to take care of every detail of the weekend, starting from tomorrow’s practice, qualifying, race. You try to do everything well because you know that a nice result here, a nice podium finish or whatever will make you happy, will make the team happy, make many people in the grandstand happy. So, it’s a special weekend but after all those years I think you’re OK with that extra motivation and it’s not anymore a pressure or the emotions you maybe felt in the first year, that you really worry to do well here, for everybody that comes to support you. Now you’ve proved for many years that there’s not a pressure or anything that will stop you doing well. After doing very good results at home, so now you want to keep doing like that to really make everyone enjoy Sunday afternoon.

    From 22 Grand Prix here only two have been won from outside the front row, the stats say it all. Have Ferrari prioritised that in the approach to this weekend?

    FA: Not really. I think this year we see how important are the races, the race pace. The tyres are a key factor, more than previous. Obviously it’s good to start at the front and if you start on the first row you know that your chances are high and the podium, you can really touch with your hands if you start on the first row.

    But I think we need to have a very, very normal weekend like we did in the first four races and try to find the right balance between qualifying and the race. Maybe the first really important qualifying will arrive in two weeks’ time in Monaco, when we know that qualifying is extremely important. I think here is still more or less a normal circuit and you need to find a compromise.

    Sebastian, championship leader with 77 points, three front-row starts, three podiums out of four starts, including obviously two wins, and yet one senses that you and the team have not been completely happy with the level of competitiveness so far?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Disagree. I think if you look at the results that we got, we can be extremely happy in terms of how competitive we were. I think we can be equally as happy because we had a car that was good enough to finish on the podium and fight for victory, not in all four races, but yeah we won two out of four so it’s not that bad and even the third place in Australia was very strong and the fourth place in China. Obviously we didn’t have that many races yet but I think from a result point of view we can be happy but surely you’re not looking at the raw result and you’re looking at the way you achieved the result and here and there I think we had some room for improvements and that’s what we are targeting. But I wouldn’t say that we are unhappy with what we got so far.

    Pirelli has obviously changed the harder compound tyre to something more like last years. As a team that was calling for changes, how do you feel about what’s happened?

    SV: Who did we call? I think there was more talk than action from our side – as in I think we said what happened to us as a team, what we felt happened to us as drivers, just like everybody else. But surely there’s a lot of attention and then people try to make their own stories but I think you could for the whole grid that people were struggling with the tyres, it’s not a secret, it’s not just us. I think we also learned to deal with the tyres, with the situation. Sometimes you succeed a little bit more, sometimes less, but then again it’s the same for other people, so yeah, up to a certain point where you feel, as a driver, it’s obviously different racing. It’s the same for everyone but you know, I don’t know, for example in the race in China where we struggled with tyres. I had the occasion that Fernando approaches from behind. I was on a different strategy to him and so on, so I was on different tyres. But there was no point fighting with him because in the end I only slow down my own race. So, I don’t wave him past but I’m not really resisting and it’s a different style of racing and I think that’s what we, if anything, criticised in the past.

    Q: Valtteri, you got your big break this year but I’m sure you didn’t expect it to be quite the struggle it’s been. What has held Williams back so far, would you say?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it’s not been a start we wanted – that’s for sure – but I think we all the time understand more and more the problems we’ve had. It’s just some of the paths in the development of the car we took in the winter proved to be a bit of a dead end and we understand it much better. We had a good aero test last week and I really feel we are on the right path now.

    Q: And what about your own performances against your team-mate? It’s 2-2 in qualifying, you both have a best result of 11th, does that satisfy you?

    VB: I think from my side it’s not been a bad start. It’s still my first season racing F1 and there’s a lot to learn. It’s been quite a smooth start, of course there’s always things you could do better and willing to improve a lot during the next few races and during the whole season.

    Q: Daniel, a breakthrough result for you personally in China, qualifying and finishing seventh. Is that the limit though for Toro Rosso at the moment, or can you do more?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I’d like to be able to do more. I think seventh was the best we could have done in China. Obviously the week after wasn’t anywhere near what we showed a week earlier in China but I think yeah, that’s probably where we were at that time. We brought some updates this weekend – along with probably every other team – so we have to see now which direction it favours. Hopefully it can push us further up the front. We’ll have to see but I think for us to just try to get some more top tens more consistently. It was great to have a one-off good result but we want to finish in the points more often. So, we’ll see what we’ve got this weekend, really. We’re all excited to see how much of a gain we make and hopefully the others haven’t made any big gains.

    Q: What has the Red Bull management said it expects from you – and do you and they feel you’re on target at the moment?

    DR: I was waiting for one of these questions! For them what they expect is, I think, what they’ve always expected from us juniors since I started in the junior team a few years ago now. Just to maximise our equipment, to show some signs of being a potential winner, a potential champion and just to make the most out of what we’ve got really. I definitely felt China, that was achieved, but doing it once isn’t really going to stick for 19 races. It’s got to happen more often. I think it’s along those lines really, just to maximise it and get some good results like I did there. Want more now, that definitely…  not only for them but for me, that’s what I want.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Valterri and Esteban, you’re both rookie drivers; Valterri you came  with a number of Friday drives under your belt whereas Esteban you had GP2 experience. What have you both learned in the first four races which has been different from your previous roles last year, and how are you going to take that on to improve further over the course of the rest of the season?

    EG: Well, basically one of the biggest differences from GP2 is the complexity of your work with the team. There’s a lot more development, there’s a lot more communication and you have to be more precise as a driver on that side. Also, from the atmosphere, there’s media attention, there’s more followers and everyone is looking more into detail and into everything so it’s quite an interesting experience and something that is inclusive of being a Formula One driver.

    VB: I think Formula One racing is something different to anything I’ve ever experienced before. The longest races I did before was F3 in thirty minutes or something and now it’s one hour 30 minutes minimum, so it’s a different style of driving, different style of adjusting the car’s set-up and you really need to focus throughout  the weekend to maximise the car both for qualifying and for the race to find a compromise. There’s so much more other technical stuff; you can adjust the car and you need to be very focused on every single little detail if you want to improve your driving and make the car better. I’ve really learned a lot; I can’t say just one thing but I’m sure I will be learning more and more all the time and at every race I feel I’m getting better and better.

    Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) It’s about the back straight, between turns nine and ten. It’s quite short so can you really overtake into turn ten (with DRS)?

    SV: It definitely helps. I think in the race it will be possible to overtake, not only on the straights, and not only on the two straights where we have DRS, especially when, similar to the last races, when we’re in trouble with tyres etc, I think you will find more than one or two places on the track to pass. It can only help if you have DRS available there. But surely, if you look for one lap on fresh tyres it’s not going to be easy because turn nine is quite fast, so it’s difficult to follow, as usual.

    FA: Same.

    SP: Same.

    Q: (Alex Popov – RTR) Sebastian, would you comment on the rumours of you and Mercedes? What’s the story?

    SV: I was surprised when I read it as well. I don’t read that much, usually just the headlines. It’s pretty funny.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) To the three in the front row, because they are the most experienced: what effect can it have on a team when it loses its technical director in the middle of the season and what do you expect this to do to Kimi Raikkonen’s challenge for the championship?

    SP: Well, I think they (his neighbours) are fighting for the championship, they should be the ones to answer this one. I think it depends on certain teams. It isn’t the same in every team. In some other teams the technical director is more important than in the others. Obviously he’s a very key person in that team, so I don’t really know what effect it’s going to have on Kimi’s team to lose the technical director. But I don’t think it’s a big thing if they have very capable people who can do a good job.

    FA: I don’t know really.

    SV: I heard it yesterday. I think there’s always a reason and probably reasons that we don’t know, so it’s difficult for us to judge. I don’t think it’s our business. It can be negative, but it can also be positive. As I said, I don’t know the background.

    Q: (Toni Lopez – La Vanguardia) Fernando, one year ago I think you were ten points behind the leader. Now I think the gap is thirty but you look more confident, more optimistic. Can you explain your different feelings now?

    FA: Well, last year we were one to one-point-five seconds behind the top cars. Whether we might have won the Malaysian race with luck this year but this year we have finished two races without problems. We finished second in Australia and we won in China so it’s a very different feeling and a very different package that we have this year which brings us optimism  and some confidence that we can have a good championship. We need to deliver, we need to do some consistent results now and gain some consistent points for the next Sundays but we are more optimistic now that we have some points behind us, but the championship is long and there are many many examples, as we said many times last year – I think the most recent was Sebastian’s recovery last year. He was 43 points behind us after the summer break and was leading at Austin in Texas, so in five or six races you can recover 45-50 points if you get some consistent results. Same with us in 2006 when I was 33 points in front of Michael, which means 75 or 80 points with the current points system, and he was leading the championship in Suzuka with two races to the end. Until we are 75 or 80 points behind, we should be optimistic, until that point.

    Q: (Valenti Fradera – Il Nuovo Sportivo) To both Sebastian and Fernando: how do you think the new hard compound tyre will suit your car?

    SV: I’ve no idea. We will see tomorrow. I think we know what to expect a little bit, given the information we received from Pirelli so after all, I don’t expect a miracle. I think we will still have to work a lot around the tyre and make the tyre last so whether it helps us or not and whether this is the compound that we carry on using – talking about the hard tyre – I think we will know a little bit more after Sunday.

    FA: Yeah, same, more or less. A learning Friday for us tomorrow, we will put that tyre on the car and try to have as much information tomorrow in practice, to analyse data and to have some good points, good information for the race and then after Sunday afternoon’s race we will have more information on the hard tyre that we will use in the future and we will see. I don’t think it will have a big impact on the car’s performance. It’s just up to the teams, up to each of us to make the most of the tyre and I think to get the benefit you need to work around them. We know how important the tyres are this year and we need to find the most information we can tomorrow.

    Q: (Felix Gorner– RTL TV) Sebastian and Fernando, have you watched the champion’s league games and who is your favourite for the final?

    SV: I’m not going to start.

    FA: I’ve watched (the games) and it was sad for the two Spanish teams – especially for Real which is my team – but they didn’t play so well in Germany and in Madrid they played better but the gap was too much in the first game, unfortunately, and now in the final, who knows? I think it will be close. They’ve played in the national league and they were close so I’m expecting a close final as well.

    SV: So, I’m Sebastian from Red Bull Racing. Yeah, I think it was obviously, from a German point of view, very successful. Quite surprised to have two German teams in the final now. I think, on paper, Bayern Munich should win, they have an extremely strong team this year but I cross my fingers for Dortmund. Let’s see what happens in the final. Nevertheless, I think it will be decided on the day and not on paper so depending on how well they play on that day.

    Q: (Jens Walther – ARD Radio) Fernando, with football and Formula One in mind, how would you describe the sports relationship between Spain and Germany?

    FA: Good. I think we don’t have too many games together. It was this semi-final this week that was Germany – Spain for two games but in some other sports we don’t play much together, because the sports that are good for Spain like basketball or tennis, the Germans are not so good. The sports that the Germans are very good at on snow, in skiing, where there aren’t Spaniards, so we don’t play much and in Formula One, I think we are in the minority because there are always four or five Germans in Formula One and one team or two, I don’t know how many German teams: Mercedes and… I think Mercedes only. I’m happy for Germans to keep winning in football.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire– AP) Sergio, you said it was important to have a talk with Jenson and with your management and you said it was a nice talk. Can you talk a bit more about what was said in that talk?

    SP: Jenson and myself talked firstly to apologise to the team because we were quite aggressive, we were close to having an accident. The chat was mainly to clear the air, to say everything that we thought between us and to clear the relationship, because at the moment, especially, we need to be together to come out of the position that we are in where we are not quick enough at the moment, and we have to keep working very closely, Jenson and myself, and I think the chat that we had with Sam (Michael) and Martin (Whitmarsh) helped to keep the relationship strong and to keep the team together and get out of the difficult moment. The chat was mainly for that.

    Q: If you had the same situation again, what would you do differently?

    SP: The same, but risk less with your teammate. We were far too aggressive with each other, we lost time and I think that has to be a little bit different between us. Don’t waste too much tyre, especially as this stage of the season where the tyre is so critical. We are wasting too much tyre if we fight that hard, so I think we have to be more flexible in the fight. We are thankful that we are in a team like McLaren which lets you fight as teammates, so in that respect we have to respect each other a bit more.

    Q: (Livio Orrichio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) All teams brought components, new parts for this race. Do you think that we will now see a different picture than what we saw in the first four races this season?

    DR: Yeah, normally once the European seasons starts, it’s the start of the F1 calendar. It normally creates a bit of a picture, the top teams are normally established here so I think now, for a few races probably, you will see the top teams and they’ll stay there for a bit of time. Then maybe around Silverstone, there’ll be a second set of updates from a lot of teams, but normally what happens this weekend will draw a picture for the next couple of months, let’s say. Hopefully we’re in that picture, from my point of view, but I think that’s more or less the situation and as it has been the last few years.

    VB: I really hope that we can really fight for better positions that we did at the beginning of the season. I really hope places will change and it will be better for us but as for everyone else, it’s just unknown. We will see how it goes. I’m sure we’re moving forward step by step, but it’s in a week or something so we’re bringing updates to every race now.

    SP: I think it’s the same. It’s important for us to keep improving. I think we have improved quite a lot since the first race, so I think we’re going in the right direction. We don’t expect a big gain here. I think when you are so far away from everybody in front you have to bridge the gap and to start closing the gap is a priority. I think this race will be very important for us to learn a lot more about the car as well.

    FA: I don’t think the picture at the front will change much this weekend.

    SV: I don’t think there will be a big surprise. I think ideally everybody makes a step forward and they’re in the same boat.

    Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazetta dello Sport) Fernando, do you feel that for the first time since driving for Ferrari that you come to this race as one of the favourites and ready to attack rather than being the underdog and trying to profit from the misfortunes of the others?

    FA: Yes. Maybe yes, first time that we arrive with a competitive car but that doesn’t mean that you will fight for top places, even if you do everything right and if you don’t put together a good weekend. It’s also true that we need to check how the car responds with some new parts that we brought here. Same with the other teams. Our competitors make the biggest step that they do and after that we see. As I said, in the first four races we felt competitive, we felt that we were able to fight for the top places if the race was without problems and what we will try here is to have a clean race with no problems Friday, Saturday, Sunday and if that will be enough to put us in contention for victory it will be nice. If it’s not possible, we will try to be as high as possible, but it’s a weekend that we approach with a positive mentality and maybe not as a defensive mentality as my first three years with Ferraris.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Fernando, you worked very closely with James Allison when you were at Renault. He was deputy then technical director. How highly do you rate him? Is he the sort of man you would like to work with again and could you tempt him to come to Ferrari?

    FA: I don’t really have an opinion on that. He will chose what he prefers. He may chose to stay at home. I don’t know. We just know the news from yesterday and we don’t have any more news. For sure, I worked very closely with him and was World Champion with him two times. Then I came back to Renault in 2008/9; in 2009 he was already technical director and we were not so successful with that car, but we saw the Lotus car in the last two years and no secret that he’s one of the top men here and we will see what future he has.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Would you like to work with him?

    FA: I would like to work with all the technical directors. It would be nice to have all of them in our team and see how our competitors create their cars because this is impossible. We are working well and this year things are going much better so we are happy with what we have but it’s always welcome, any extra help.

    Ends

  • Sahara Force India feels podium-finish is not far away

    Bangalore, 7 May 2013: Sahara Force India, the only Indian team in the Formula One World Championship, began the 2013 season on a bright note with a double finish at the season opener in Australia but despite bad outings in Malaysia and luck deserting Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta matched  his career-best fourth-place finish in Bahrain for one of the best starts to the season for the Silverstone-based team.
    In a press release received here ahead the fourth round of the FIA F 1  World championship to be held at Barcelona next Sunday, team Principal Vijay Mallya was in upbeat mood and hopes that the team will do much better this year. At home in India, Vijay Mallya was in financial troubles with his popular airlines, Kingfisher grounded for many months and even Sahara in trouble with SEBI, the securities exchange board of the country. With the application for revival rejected and employees of the airlines yet to be paid their arrears, there were rumours that the F1 team might be in trouble, but the `King of Good Times’ repeatedly denied that the F1 team would be affected financially.
    The team is currently in 5th position, 3 points ahead of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes but will have to switch gears to keep the slot as McLaren is expected to zoom past as the F1 bandwagon arrives to its favourite desitination of Europe after four fly-away races. Paul di Rest scored 12 points in Bahrain after being in contention for a podium finish for better part of the race but had to manage his tyres with a two-stop strategy. He now has 20 points in the Drivers’ Championship and is in 8th place while teammate Adrian Sutil with the six points he earned in Australian GP is in 12 place.
    Team Principal and Managing Director, Vijay Mallya, reflects on the team’s best-ever start to a season saying: “The return to Europe after the first few flyaway races is an excellent moment to catch our breath and evaluate where we stand. Overall the balance is extremely positive for Sahara Force India with our best ever start to a season. In terms of points scored we are nine points up compared to last year and we’ve been up at the sharp end fighting with the big teams.
     
    “After the pit stop problems in Malaysia, points finishes in China and Bahrain have set us back on the right path, but nobody in the team is taking it for granted and we will not rest on our laurels. At both the factory and at the track, everyone is working hard to ensure we can build on these good results. We intend to hold our ground and remain in the hunt for points and podiums.
     
    “Looking at our drivers, the performances of Paul Di Resta confirm just how much he has matured as a driver. He’s delivering consistently every week and we are reaping the rewards of all his hard work. He suffered a difficult end to the 2012 season, but he’s shown great mental strength and determination to regroup over the winter and recapture his best form. He’s pushing the team on and demanding the best from everyone, which is what we need.
     
    “Adrian Sutil has also shown his speed so far but the luck has not gone his way. The last two races have been very frustrating because he’s been the victim of other drivers’ mistakes. Without these incidents he would surely have scored well in both China and Bahrain. His race pace in Bahrain was remarkable because he was one of the fastest cars on track,” he added.
     
    “Having come so tantalisingly close to the podium with Paul last time out, we head to Barcelona full of optimism. The hard work everyone is putting in is paying off and we hope to see the rewards this coming weekend,” Dr Mallya concluded.
     
    Paul Di Resta responds on Barcelona GP:
    Paul, you’ve enjoyed your strongest start to a season – what’s your feeling after four races…
    We’ve got to feel very happy with how things are going and I want to congratulate everybody in the team. We took a very sensible approach to the winter and focussed on understanding the key areas that drive performance, which seems to have paid off. It’s important to pick up good points early in the season against our competitors and to be ahead of McLaren after four races is a credit to the team and a nice feeling. Of course we want to be on the podium and it was very close in Bahrain, but I’m sure it will come soon enough.
     
    Do you feel you have a car that will be competitive on any type of circuit?
    The car is performing well, especially in the heat, and we were also strong in the cooler conditions of China – so that’s a good sign. The key is making sure you find the right operating window whatever the conditions because that’s what makes the difference. We need to keep doing what we’re doing, but at the same time we know the return to Europe always sees every team bring more upgrades. Hopefully we can stay fighting with the big teams and keep picking up the points.
     
    With two tests already completed in Barcelona do you feel well prepared ahead of this weekend’s race?
    I guess we have more data around Barcelona than anywhere else, but at the same time the temperatures will be much higher at this time of year. So I’d expect that to change things quite a lot and impact on the tyres. Also, it’s one of those tracks where you’re constantly chasing the right aero balance to cope with the long, high-speed corners, especially turn three. But when you come to the end of the lap you need the mechanical grip for the hairpins and chicanes.
    Adrian on Barcelona
    Adrian, four races in, how do you sum up the start of 2013?
    The start of the season was good, especially if you consider I had only two or three test days to prepare. Australia was a strong race and the best way to come back to Formula One. Since then I’ve been unlucky with being hit in China and the puncture in Bahrain, and I definitely missed out on a few good points. On the other hand there are lots of positives, especially the performance of the car and the experience of the races. It is still early in the season so there is more to come and the car is really fast. I’m sure we can recover the points we lost in the last few races.
     
    How hard is it to accept the disappointment when you’re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time – as was the case in China and Bahrain?
    These things happen all the time in Formula One – sometimes you benefit from them and sometimes it goes against you instead. They all balance by the end of the year. I try not to spend too much time thinking about the negatives, I try to move on and focus on how to do better. If something happens, I think whether I did anything wrong, learn from it and avoid doing it again.
     
    What do you expect from the upcoming race in Barcelona?
    I know Barcelona really well from all the testing we’ve done there over the years. It is important, after three difficult races without points, to finish the race without any incidents. If I do that, I should have the pace to be among the front-runners. I have to do my job, avoid mistakes and hopefully my luck will change. Wherever we have gone so far, the car has been competitive, so the next few races should see us scoring points and close to the podium.
    To watch the  latest video interview with Adrian Sutil use the following link: http://youtu.be/4a_2_drbK1I
    ends

  • Kimi Räikkönen: “Let’s hope I’m happier in Spain”

    Drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean share their thoughts on the Circuit de Catalunya, while Team Principal Eric Boullier and Technical Director James Allison look ahead to the start of the European season.

    After taking his third podium finish of the year in Bahrain, our Iceman looks forward to racing closer to 
    home with the start of the European season

    Yourself and the team currently occupy P2 in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships;  are you pleased with how things are going?
    For sure it’s an okay start and we’re in a better position that this time last year, but there’s a long season
    ahead and it’s too early to say if we can fight for the Championships right to the end. It’s going to be hard to
    catch Sebastian [Vettel] if he keeps taking good results so we need to start taking more points from him,
    but you never know what can happen. We’ll keep pushing to improve the car and see where we end up.

    What’s required to bridge that gap to P1?

    Some more wins! To catch the leaders, we have to work twice as hard as they are. It’s no secret that we
    want more speed from the car in qualifying; it’s so tight up there at the front and we really need to be on the
    first two rows to fight for victories every time. It’s good to be able to start the European season where we
    are as this is when you see teams starting to push on with lots of new parts for the cars. It’s still early days,
    but to have scored strong points since the start of the year is obviously better than not having them. We
    need to keep scoring points in the same way; even if it’s a bad weekend for us, we need to keep finishing
    as well as we can. That’s how we will fight to the end of the season.

    How is the Circuit of Catalunya for you?
    I have won twice in Barcelona and I was on the podium there last year too, so I really look forward to going
    there again; hopefully to end the weekend with another good result. It’s a circuit where you have to get
    everything exactly right to be at the top. All the teams have tested many times at this circuit, so to get an
    advantage there is not very easy. The set-up is crucial as the track changes with the wind and temperature
    so there’s plenty of work for the engineers too.

    Is it good to be racing in Europe again?
    I really like racing in Europe. We don’t have to travel that far so all your energy is saved for the weekend
    itself. Traditionally the real season starts when coming back to Europe. For me, it’s great.

    The Circuit de Catalunya is the only circuit at which you’ve tested the E21 so far; does that help matters?

    That’s true, but you have to remember that was at the end of February and the beginning of March so

    conditions were very different compared to what we hope to see in May. It was very difficult to get the tyres  working properly when we were last there, but it was the same for everybody. We all start from zero again
    in FP1.

    The team didn’t get so much mileage at Barcelona during testing, but reliability doesn’t seem to be so much of a concern now the season is underway?
    I didn’t have that many laps there in testing as there were problems with the car and I also missed a day as
    I was unwell. That said, me and the team know the track pretty well so I don’t think we’ll be too surprised
    about which way the track goes or what setup to use on the car. Even though I didn’t get a lot of mileage in
    pre-season, the main thing was I felt good in the car the whole time. Our car seems to be good at every
    circuit so far…

    You were quite reserved after the podium finish in Bahrain; were you happy with the result?
    You’re never really happy if you don’t win, but I suppose second place is as close as you can get. We could
    maybe have been a few places higher in in qualifying which would have made things easier, but I drove to
    the maximum and luckily we found the pace in the car that was missing in qualifying. Let’s hope I’m happier
    in Spain.Romain Grosjean: “I have the tools at my disposal”

    After his first podium appearance of the season in Bahrain, our man in car #8 sees no reason why top
    points finishes can’t become a familiar state of play

    After a start to the season which fell short of your high expectations, why did everything come
    good in Bahrain?
    It’s no secret that before Bahrain my feeling hasn’t been right with the car. It wasn’t the chassis, the aero or
    anything like that, but we took a while to get everything to my liking and that’s been frustrating. We
    managed to put our finger on the issue and I feel much more comfortable now. I really had a good
    sensation behind the wheel on Sunday in Bahrain, and a podium position at the end of the race was the
    result. I could put the car more or less where I wanted which is all you want as a driver. Third place was a
    deserved reward for everyone after all our hard work.

    How good was it to get that podium after your tough start to the year?
    The race was really enjoyable with a lot of overtaking. There were a couple of tense moments where
    maybe things got a little too close, but it was a lot of fun! To come from P11 through to the podium is really
    satisfying. I saw P4 on the board and Paul [Di Resta] was not too far ahead, so I thought “come on, this is
    the podium, let’s go!” I knew I had fresher tyres but it wasn’t easy as I had to push but at the same time
    look after them, which is hard for a driver when you have another car in your sights. Luckily we managed to
    get past near the end, pull out a small gap and maintain it until the flag!

    How do you feel the E21 is evolving?
    We’ve been able to see progress with the lap times so we know that the upgrades being brought in are
    working. Last year’s car was already very competitive – we achieved a total of 10 podiums in 2012 – so it’s
    good to see the team has retained and developed the best performing areas of the 2012 car for the E21.
    For me, after Bahrain, I’m feeling much more at home with the car and I hope that there will be many
    successes to come in 2013.

    What are your thoughts on the topic of tyre management?
    Tyre management has always been part of the qualifying and race strategy. I don’t know about others, I
    just know that I always push as much as I can to obtain the best result possible. Of course, if you drive a
    certain way or adapt yourself you can get more out of the tyres than if you don’t, but that’s just part of being
    a racing driver; you always have to adapt to extract maximum performance.

    What will be the key to a good weekend in Spain?
    In Barcelona it will be important to qualify well as it will be much harder to overtake than in Bahrain. As a
    team, this is an area where we can still improve a little bit, but we have some ideas of how to do that and
    hopefully we’ll be able to make the front row.

    What are your thoughts on the Circuit de Catalunya?
    Everyone knows Barcelona very well from testing. The first four corners which make up the first sector are
    pretty fast, then there’s the slow final sector with between turns 10-15. Out of turn 15 you need a good rear
    end of the car with strong traction. It’s important not to overheat your rear tyres and managing degradation
    will be important – even with the harder tyres which are now allocated – as when you reach high
    degradation levels on your tyres you are nowhere on lap time. Tyre management will still be the key area
    for a good performance in the race.

    What do you need to keep getting podium results?
    To keep finishing in front of the competition! We’ve had consistency already, finishing every race in the
    points, but now it’s the big results we’re chasing and getting the car as I want it has been a vital ingredient.
    Now I have the tools that I want at my disposal I can really push. In some ways you can say my season
    starts now! My podium in Bahrain was a very good start to that challenge. If we keep working the way we
    have been so far this season as a team I’m sure we can achieve great things.

    endsF1 / SPAIN GRAND PRIX 2010

  • Tata Communications to connect Mercedes F1 team

    Brackley, 24 April 2013: MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS is pleased to confirm a new partnership with Tata Communications which will see the delivery of world-class trackside connectivity for the team at all Formula One race locations using the Tata Communications global network. With the new partnership, Tata Communications becomes the ‘Official Managed Connectivity Supplier’ to the team, a release said on Wednesday.

    Tata Communications, a leading global provider of ‘a new world of communications’, will work closely with MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS to deliver high-speed, high quality and secure trackside connectivity, enabling the team to transfer vital real-time data from the Silver Arrow cars at any Grand Prix location to its headquarters in the UK, three times faster than at present. The improved trackside connectivity will enable the team to react more quickly to developments at the track and help to increase car performance.

    Part of the worldwide Tata group, Tata Communications owns and maintains a complete ring of cables around the world including the world’s first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring to circle the globe. The Tata Communications global network comprises over 500,000 km of subsea cable and over 200,000 km of terrestrial network fibre, allowing a data transfer capacity of one terabit per second, high bandwidth availability and seamless scalability. In February 2012, Tata Communications announced a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement with Formula One Management to deliver world-class connectivity to all Formula One race locations over its world-first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring. It also provides global hosting and content delivery services to the official Formula One website Formula1.com

    Ross Brawn, Team Principal at MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS commented: “We are delighted to have agreed our new team partnership with Tata Communications. Formula One relies on data and the ability to transfer our data from the track back to our factories in Brackley and Brixworth quickly and securely. The Tata Communications global network will play a key role in the team’s performance and our ability to react over the race weekends. That we will now be able to achieve our data transfer requirements three times faster is fantastic. Having Tata Communications on-site at the race track to work with the team will be a big asset in our demanding and fast-paced environment, and we look forward to developing a close working relationship with them as we strive to achieve our ambitions in Formula One.”

    Mehul Kapadia, Managing Director, F1 Business, Tata Communications said: “The modification and improvement of car set-up and handling is a constant during the race season, and being able to share richer data and to report issues back from trackside to the factory in real-time provides a competitive edge in car performance, both in speed and also in handling and stability. Providing three times faster connectivity for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS via Tata Communications’ global network means that the team has access to secure and agile trackside connectivity regardless of race location – it showcases our expertise and speed to lead when it comes to global connectivity, and reinforces our ongoing commitment to technology innovation within Formula One.”

    Part of the worldwide Tata group, Tata Communications owns and maintains a complete ring of cables around the world including the world’s first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring to circle the globe. The Tata Communications global network comprises over 500,000 km of subsea cable and over 200,000 km of terrestrial network fibre, allowing a data transfer capacity of one terabit per second, high bandwidth availability and seamless scalability. In February 2012, Tata Communications announced a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement with Formula One Management to deliver world-class connectivity to all Formula One® race locations over its world-first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring. It also provides global hosting and content delivery services to the official Formula One® website www.Formula1.com
    About Tata Communications 

    Tata Communications Limited along with its subsidiaries (Tata Communications) is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

    The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries and territories across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.

    Tata Communications’ depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited) and Nepal (United Telecom Limited). Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TCL).

  • It’s too early to get carried away: Paul di Resta

    Bangalore, 23 April 2013: With the completion of the fly-away races, the F1 circus moves to Europe for its first race in Spain on May 12. Sahara Force India drivers Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil were in Bangalore for a promotion and watched the Royal Challengers’ cricket match and also briefly interacted with the reporters. A blog released on Monday showed the team in an upbeat mood. But Paul cautioned, it is too early to get carried away and warned that things could quickly change in F1.

    The mood from a blog in the team website:

    Celebrating a great result is one of the sweetest parts of being in a Formula One team. The tension, the adrenaline and all the emotions get discharged and you can just relax and enjoy the fruit of your work. It’s a moment for pats on the back, for telling each other well done and fly to the next race in an upbeat mood.

    As we head back to Europe for the start of crucial series of races closer to home, these are the feelings in the Sahara Force India camp. The race in Bahrain showed some brilliant indication of the potential of our car: in Paul’s case, a perfect performance so close to rewarding him with his first ever podium! To see our driver lead the race and battle with World Champions, leaving behind some huge rivals to bring home 12 points is a fantastic feeling, and one we hope to feel over and over again this season.

    Paul drove a faultless race on a track he loves: he was smooth when he needed to be, aggressive when required. He finished the race on a two-stop strategy when other teams required four, a testament to both the VJM06 balance and Paul’s fine tyre management skills. In the end, our ace could not stop Räikkönen and Grosjean from finishing on the podium: but in a Championship with so many bright stars, a fourth place does a lot for a team’s position in the standings.

    There is optimism also in Adrian’s camp. He was extremely fast on the Sakhir track, but the first lap collision with Massa left him with a long and hard way up the rankings. Still, recovering to 13th position was an impressive feat: especially so when you consider that from lap 3 he was five seconds faster than eventual race winner Vettel over the race distance! While we know a rival’s mistake cost him the chance to get some big points, the confidence that the VJM06 and Adrian are a powerful combination make us look eagerly on to the next few rounds.

    We may have missed out on a podium yesterday, but the feeling within the team is that we are growing stronger each race. We are facing mighty rivals and we are increasingly doing so on a level footing; and when luck will be on our side (and our opponents will stay away from crashing into our cars!) we will strike for an even better result.

    The Bahrain Grand Prix confirmed us in fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship standings. As we head back to Europe for races in Spain and Monaco, this is a great situation to build on. Everyone in the team is buzzing with excitement, and we can’t wait to go racing again. Stick with us – the best is yet to come!

    ends

  • Vettel, DC visit Sochi circuit

    Sochi (Russia), 22 April 2013: Triple world champion Sebastian Vettel made history again on Monday by becoming the first Formula One driver to experience the Sochi Olympic Park Circuit in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, an Infiniti Press Release said.
    Vettel, recently announced as Infiniti’s Director of Performance, was joined by former Formula One driver David Coulthard in driving part of the track, which is still under construction, in an FX Vettel Edition amongst other Infiniti products.

    He then toured the sports venue with officials from the Russian Government and Formula Sochi, the organising body, before offering his thoughts of the venue in a press conference held in the Olympic Ice Skating arena.

    Once complete, the 3.7 mile Sochi Olympic Park Circuit, scene of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, will be the third longest circuit on the Formula One calendar behind Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Silverstone in Britain.

    Today’s visit is the second time Infiniti and Vettel have been the first to sample a planned new Grand Prix venue. In June 2012, The Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver took the wheel of an Infiniti IPL G Coupe and drove the first ever lap of the planned New Jersey circuit in the United States.

    Commenting on his experience in Russia, Sebastian Vettel said: “It is a great privilege to be the first Formula One driver to visit the new Sochi venue. After trying a section of the track in the FX Vettel Edition, I can already see it will be a fun circuit to drive in a Formula One car and the rest of the venue is very impressive. I’m really looking forward to coming back here for the Grand Prix next year.”

    Oleg Zabara, Deputy General Director of OJSC “Center “OMEGA”, responsible for preparations and organisation of the Russian Grand Prix said: “The racing circuit in Sochi is part of the post-Olympic heritage program, designed to utilise the infrastructure built for the Winter Olympic Games.  Construction of the track and the main facilities is on schedule, and in 2014 the world will see the new world-class circuit. Hosting a Formula One Grand Prix is a key project for this country, highlighting the status and the image of modern Russia.”

    Russia’s inaugural Formula One race is scheduled for 2014, after the Winter Olympics. The circuit’s integration into Olympic Park infrastructure is the key feature of the Russian venue.

    Formula One circuit in figures:
    Circuit length: 5854 km
    Maximum speed: 320 km/h
    Circuit width: 13-15 m
    Number of turns: 18
    Total area of the circuit construction site and its infrastructure: 36 ha
    Developer and operator of the circuit is OJSC “Center “OMEGA” 
    Designer of the circuit: Tilke GmbH & Co.KG
    ends
    Caption:
    Andreas Sigl, Global Director, Infiniti Formula One, David Coulthard, Nikolay Buturlakin Vice-Governor Krasnodar Region, Sebastian Vettel 22Apr2013. Photo courtesy Infiniti 

  • Our pace was better than expected: Seb Vettel

    Sakhir, 21 April 2013: The Post-race FIA Press Conference that concludes the Bahrain GP, the fourth round of the Formula One World Championship here on Sunday.

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

    3 – Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Sebastian, fantastic victory. You’re laughing and I haven’t asked you a question already!

    Sebastian VETTEL: No, it’s good to see you. First of all, thank you very much, fantastic race. Big, big thank you to the team. A flawless, seamless race from start to finish. I knew it was crucial straight away after the start to get into the lead if I could and then go from there and look after the tyres. The pace was phenomenal. The car was very quick and it just started to get better and better towards the end. Really, a beautiful race where you could push every single lap. We took care of the tyres, so overall very happy. Also to have a woman on the podium [is good], I think it’s not happening every day. Gill Jones, she takes care of our electronics in the team, she looks after the boys, so great to have her up here as well.

    There certainly was great wheel-to-wheel action on those early laps. Can you recall much of it? Was that just instinctive racing or can you give us a standout point from those early laps before you went on to your dominant victory?

    SV: There’s no alcohol in this, so I can recall, yes. It was obviously very tight already in the first corner with Fernando on the outside. Unfortunately I had to give way. I wanted to line it up to get Nico probably on the next straight but then Fernando squeezed in. But then I got him back which was crucial. I saved some KERS and could out-accelerate him into Turn 6. And then Nico was a tough one. I really had to think for a while because he was quite quick down the straights. Obviously the headwind today helped all the cars behind but still it wasn’t as straightforward as I was hoping for and then again quite tight and out of Turn 4 I again managed to save a little bit of KERS up and got him on the inside and the track was clear and we could unfold the true pace of the car.

    It was a great race. If I could come to our second-placed finisher here: they call him the Iceman but they should really call you Mr Consistency. Another podium. Tell us about your strategy today. On reflection do you think that was the right one? Was second place the best you could hope for?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, I think yesterday wasn’t ideal. We planned to… I wanted to already, Friday, try to do a two-stop because it felt OK and today it worked well so we gained a lot of places. I didn’t have a very strong first or second lap, so I lost two places. After that the car started to come to me and I could start pushing more and more, and in the end it was OK.

    If I could move around to your team-mate Romain Grosjean. If anyone is getting a feeling of déja vu, this is exactly the same podium we had last year. Romain, great race. You must feel a little bit of pressure off the shoulders because although this is only race four, the first three races didn’t really give you the results you were looking for. How do you feel?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, that’s completely true. The first three races have been consistent but not what where we wanted. We worked hard, the whole team. It wasn’t easy to find out what was missing to get the feeling back into the car but basically we got it. Started the race with a strategy a bit different from everybody. We started on the hard tyre, thinking that we go long on the first stint, but got the debris on the car, so the race was a bit harder and we had to do some good fights on track but this is why we’re racing and what we enjoy. So, very pleased to be here, same as last year. Now just keep this consistency and get the results.

    Well, we’re very happy to see you up here. If I could just come back one more time to our race winner: I’m just spotting, you’ve got some lucky charms outside your boots, I’ve never noticed that before. Do you want to tell us about that before giving us your feelings about where you are in the championship right now?

    SV: I don’t know, probably in a good position regarding the championship…

    DC: Can you show the fans around the world or is it top secret?

    SV: Not top secret but I don’t get my legs so high because I’m not a woman… I’ve had them for a long time and they seem to work. One is actually from my grandmother, actually the other one as well. Again, very, very straightforward race and incredible the pace we have today. We surely did not expect that.  In the end it was quite controlled. We managed the gaps and we still had enough tyres to push towards the end. The other thing I would finally point out is congratulations to Renault. It’s the same order as last year so basically the first three cars on Renault engines. The guys back in Viry in France are pushing very, very hard and sometimes get criticised for not having the strongest engine but in the end we stand up here, three Renault-powered cars, so merci beaucoup, well done to them and looking forward to the next races.

    Q: Sebastian, was that the sort of race you expected? Long periods when you just seemed out on your own, driving against a delta – or did you just expect it to be much more closely competitive than that?

    SV: Surely I did not expect that. I think, yeah, was pretty dominant today, as I said, certainly not the expectation. Yeah, in the beginning, obviously quite tight, wheel-to-wheel racing. I knew it would be crucial to get in the lead if I can because then you have a little bit of an advantage, looking after your tyres and managing the race from there. I could feel that I was able to pull away and the medium compound felt pretty strong but then obviously we had three sets of new hards and for us the car seemed to work very well on those tyres. Obviously I realised in the second stint that I was able to open a gap so I thought, ‘right, I’ll take my chance as much as I can to pull away.’ Because you know it can only help at the end of the race, you don’t know what is going to happen. It probably buys us some flexibility. Fortunately we never got into a pressure situation again. But a very strong race. We were able to look after the tyres and really manage every stint the best way we could. I have to say, big compliments to the guys at home, to the guys here, on the strategy side. Yesterday wasn’t probably that straight forward but we decided to save the tyres that I mentioned and they seemed to work very good today and we had a very strong race, it all worked in our direction, so very pleased.

    Q: Speaking of strategy, Kimi, you said you wanted to make a two-stop strategy work. You felt that was the right way forward. But did you need to be five, six places further up on the grid? Was it qualifying that cost you a chance of the win today?

    KR: I think it didn’t help but I think overall we would not have had the speed for beating Red Bull in here this weekend. And even if yesterday we could have been a few places better but still we couldn’t have challenged on speed whatever we would have done to the front. So, I mean, I don’t think on the speedwise we could really have challenged for the win. But I would say then second was the best that we could achieve and also third for the team so a good result.

    Q: Romain, at the end you seemed awfully pleased with that third place, congratulations to be back on the podium. You say ‘this is where we should be’. Do you also believe this is where you should be?

    RG: We’ve got a difficult start to the season. I think we’ve put in a lot of work and effort to understand what was exactly going on – and it wasn’t easy to find out but basically I think we came back where we should be. Yesterday qualifying was a bit disappointing but never mind, we had a lot of new sets of tyres for today, which was good. At the start of the race… well after the first few laps there wasn’t optimism because we have a lot of big debris coming into the radiator and the rear brakes and we had to pit it very early because the temperature was going up. So I knew that the two first stints would be normally quite long on hard tyres and then do short on mediums but we had to pit and change the tyres. But then the car was good. And I think it was one of the races where I had the most overtaking manoeuvres and fights on track. Easy, not so easy, and the last ten laps was pretty good because I had a Force India in front of me. I knew I was much quicker but for how many laps is the medium because they start to lose pace? So I was trying to take care of them but at the same time pushing hard and finally back on the podium. The same podium as last year, so it’s pretty good to be here.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Abhisheck Takle – Midday) Sebastian, as you said, dominant performance today but how crucial was it to get that place back from Fernando early on and do you think you would have been able to win with the advantage you eventually you had without getting him back at the start?

    SV: Well, certainly we had more pace than we expected today, which I think is related to the way that we worked with the tyres. We know that the car is quick, we saw that yesterday that we were able to pull a strong qualifying lap together. Sure, it was crucial because another car in front and especially once you start to settle into a rhythm it’s difficult to overtake. I think today it was probably helped a little bit by the fact that there was quite a strong headwind down the main straight, so the advantage for DRS or for overtake was probably a little bit bigger than usual. At the beginning, I thought that if there was a small chance to get into the lead I have to take it because then I can take care of the tyres the way I like and hopefully divert the race the way that we planned beforehand, whereas if you sit behind someone and get stuck then you struggle, you lose grip, you start to slide and the tyres start to go off and you might have a different race, but surely with the pace that we had, I think we could have had a strong race, even not being in the lead immediately but I preferred it that way for sure.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have been on the podium six times here in Bahrain; which has been the best of these six races?

    KR: I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. Second is obviously better than third place but we haven’t won and that’s what we try to do. Today we got good points, we didn’t lose too many to Sebastian but obviously it doesn’t help to finish second if he’s winning all the time. So we try to find something but all of them have been improved, in a way.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Sebastian, we’ve heard quite a few negative comments about Pirelli’s rubber so far this year but the loudest voices that have complained have come from your team. Now you’re actually leading the Drivers’, leading the Constructors’ (championships); we’re seeing you do very well. Does this mean that we’re going to see an end to the complaints from Milton Keynes about the Pirelli tyres?

    SV: Well, I think that certainly the fact that we won the Constructors’ championship the last three years makes people listen so probably more than other people. At least, from my point of view, I did talk about the tyres, I did complain but I always said that as long as there are other people doing a better job then we have no right to complain, we need to catch up. I don’t think you have to be a genius to see that from race to race some people suffer with the tyres – maybe someone more and some people less – and cannot go the true pace of their cars. It’s obviously very strategic these days but then again, it’s the same for all of us. Out of four races, I think we’ve had two good ones and two maybe average ones but then if you look at the results, the average is not really disastrous either. To come third and fourth is a very strong result and I’m sure not complaining about the results. Comparing Formula One to a couple of years ago, you probably have to ask Kimi more than me but it’s surely different, the fact that you can’t push as hard as you like every lap, you have to work with the tyres and sit at a certain pace and go from there. So I think that’s what we – at least the drivers that I have talked to – that’s what we think is very different and to some extent less enjoyable than in the past.

    Q: Kimi, how much different is it to seven, maybe eight years ago?

    KR: First of all, I don’t think Pirelli could please everybody, whatever they would do. There’s always somebody who will complain, even if they changed and made them happy then I’m sure there will be people who want something different and not happy so I don’t think it’s their job to try to always change things if somebody’s complaining or doesn’t like it. Even in the past, if we would have put the same amount of fuel in the cars, we couldn’t have run at full speed all the time, because the tyres would have gone off so I don’t really think it’s all that different now. We just made more stops and ran less fuel in those days. I would say that’s really the biggest difference. I’m sure the tyres wouldn’t have lasted long in those days.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, how different is this win to Malaysia, where there was a lot of criticism, and do you think that without Fernando’s DRS problem it might have been a little bit harder today?

    SV: Regarding the second question, I don’t know or I can’t judge the Ferrari’s pace. I think the last couple of races they have been very strong, so everything else but a strong performance today would have been a surprise to be honest. But how strong, I don’t know. I think we felt pretty happy today and in very good shape. I don’t know where Felipe finished but we can’t really judge Fernando’s race with the problem that he had with the DRS that I was told, so difficult to say.

    The first question was? Ah yes, if you race for victory, you try to pass whoever is in front of you so I think Malaysia is a long time ago now, I think we’ve moved on and I think that in terms of crossing the line first there’s no difference. But obviously we were in a better position at the beginning of the race already, so a very very different race in that regard.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Romain, we read that Alain Prost said that your problem at the beginning of the season was self-confidence. Do you think that a result like this – if that is the problem – can help you?

    RG: I think that the fact that you’re able to come back from a very difficult situation proves that I think he was wrong. I haven’t seen him this year, I have a deep respect for what he did but I think it’s easy to speak when you are not here.

    Q: Did the new chassis help at all?

    RG: No. It was different matters. We got a bit lost last year. Our struggle mid-season – Hockenheim, Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps – and then we came back. There is so much technology with those cars and it’s true that Pirelli tyres are not easy to drive and every time we have a small problem somewhere it makes it worst but when you manage to get it right then it’s OK. It was just something with the feeling of the car; when you’re not confident with your car it’s not self-confidence, it confidence in your car, there’s nothing you can do.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, with these tyres, who would you rate as your strongest competitor for the championship?

    SV: Well, I don’t know. It’s a long long championship. I think if you look at the first four races Lotus is very quick, they manage the tyres pretty well in the race. Ferrari is very quick, the cars haven’t changed too much compared to last year. If you look, pure performance is very tight. On a Sunday it can be different because of the way you take care of the tyres; sometimes you’re in a better shape, sometimes not. But I think the Ferrari is an all-round car as in they’re always quick and they’ve been very competitive in the race. Mercedes is surely very quick over a lap but probably a little bit too aggressive with the tyres. Yeah, a little bit surprised by McLaren but I think they will come back at some stage this year, probably already in Barcelona and that’s how it is but to point out the main rivals, I think we need to look after ourselves, make sure we score points and everything else is difficult to predict.

    Q: (Khodr Rawi – F1Arab.com) Romain, was it possible to do a two stop strategy like Kimi today? And do you expect the same kind of performances in the next races?

    RG: Well, it would have been possible if we hadn’t had to stop on lap six or seven, due to the temperature problem and the front wing from a McLaren that flew and completely blocked the radiators. We had to stop because we were having water issues and the rear brake drum was completely closed, the brakes were not working any more. Kimi was in front of me, so it was better to stop rather than losing the brakes. Then tyre management was OK, I think it’s getting better and I don’t see any point where shouldn’t be able to repeat the performance.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, we know that Christian Horner is pushing Pirelli for harder tyres and we saw that it looks like today your car behaves a bit better on hard tyres. You had three sets of new hard tyres. Can you comment on that?

    SV: Well, I’m not sure I understood everything but I think on the tyre strategy we were more or less committed to that yesterday, using all the softs in qualifying and able to position ourselves on the front row nicely for the race, and then trying to make the first stint as long as possible and go from there with three sets of new hard tyres. In the end, I think there was not that much difference between the medium and the hard, we already saw that yesterday on high fuel performance. We felt a little bit happier on long runs, probably on the hard, that’s why we decided to go that way and it seemed to work. It’s difficult to say how good or bad the medium would have been because we didn’t have a new set of medium tyres. I didn’t see what other people did but I think that the fact that we sit here is pointing out that we did a good job today on that front.

     

    Ends

  • Paul di Resta finishes a strong 4th in Bahrain GP

    Bahrain, 21 April 2013:It was a successful day for Sahara Force India in Bahrain as Paul Di Resta raced to a strong fourth place. Teammate Adrian Sutil’s hopes of points ended with a first lap puncture in the Bahrain GP, the fourth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship which was won by Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen in second and Romain Grosjean, who overtook Paul in the last few laps, made it a strong 2-3 finish for Lotus team. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel used a three-stop strategy to extend his drivers championship lead to 10 points. Vettel started from second on the grid on the P Zero White medium tyre and then completed two stints on the P Zero Orange hard tyre to seal his 28th career win by over nine seconds.Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen using a two-stop strategy and his team-mate Romain Grosjean coming third with a three-stop strategy. Grosjean passed Force India’s Paul di Resta, who was also on a two-stop strategy, in the closing stages to ensure that the 2013 Bahrain podium was identical to the podium line-up last year.

    Quotes from Sahara Force India stable:

    P4        Paul Di Resta VJM06-04
    Tyre strategy: Medium, Hard, Hard
    Paul: “It’s great to round off the fly-away races with a fourth place and a race that was probably my strongest Grand Prix. The podium was very close, but with our strategy we were always going to be vulnerable at the end of the race – especially to Grosjean who had two new sets of medium tyres. I had a good start to the race, a strong opening stint and we showed our true speed today, but ultimately fourth place was the maximum that was possible. We will get on the podium one day, hopefully soon, but for now we can be very happy with the points we’ve scored today. A big thanks to the whole team because it’s been an excellent weekend and I feel we managed to get 100% out of the car.”
    P13      Adrian Sutil    VJM06-03
    Tyre strategy: Medium, Hard, Hard, Medium
    Adrian: “It’s disappointing to get a puncture in a race that looked so promising. My start was clean and I was racing Massa going into turn four. I was on the outside; I gave him a lot of space but he was off-line and made contact with my front right tyre. I don’t know what he did exactly but I had a puncture immediately. I had to pit and lost a lot of time, which ended my chance of scoring points. I had amazing pace in the race and I just kept my head down to try and recover something from the race, but I had lost too much with the puncture. But I’m happy for the team and fourth place for Paul gives us more points. There are many more races to come so we will keep focused and next time score points with both cars.”
     
    Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director
    “A tremendous job by the team and a wonderful drive by Paul saw us come within a whisker of the podium today. Although we missed out on third, the twelve points scored keep us up in fifth place in the Championship and give us every reason to be optimistic for the coming races. Of course, we could have achieved so much more had Adrian not picked up a puncture on lap one. The contact with Massa proved very costly because Adrian’s race pace was on a par with Paul’s and we should have brought both cars home in the points. We will focus on the positives and enjoy this fourth place, which has confirmed the pace of the car and shown once again that we can race up at the front and beat some of the top teams.”
    ends