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F1 returns to US after 5 years
Austin (Texas, US), 15 Nov 2012: It’s been five years since Formula One last raced in the USA but for the 19th and penultimate round of the 2012 season the series is returning to America this weekend for the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
The new Circuit of the Americas is a purpose-built 5.516km (3.4 mile), 20-turn, F1 standard facility located 15 miles outside downtown Austin and promises to provide teams with some interesting challenges, and spectators with some thrilling racing.
Chief among the challenges is, of course, the fact that no team has yet turned a wheel in anger here. Former F1 driver David Coulthard drove a Red Bull Racing showcar here when circuit construction had just begun and more recently Lotus test driver Jérôme D’Ambrosio piloted a 2010 Renault R30 on opening day at the track, but beyond those very different laps teams will only have simulator data upon which to base their weekend preparations.
That should make Friday’s free practice sessions labour-intensive workouts for the teams, though again it will present a challenge as the new track will undoubtedly be largely free of grip in the early stages of the weekend.
It means that the unknown of Austin represents the perfect wildcard for a championship that has become increasingly hard to call in recent weeks. After a dramatic race in Abu Dhabi, defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing leads Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso by just 10 points, with a maximum of 50 on the table over the final two rounds. Kimi Raikkonen’s win in the UAE was a spectacular feat in his comeback year but even with that victory the Finn is now out of the title fight.
So it comes down to a head-to-head battle between the famous red of Ferrari and the blue of Red Bull Racing. And after recent events in the US, locals will know just how intense red versus blue showdowns can be!
Release from Pirelli, the F1 tyre suppliers: US Grand Prix from a tyre point of view
US GP grid photo courtesy Lotus F1 team What’s the story?
Milan, November 12, 2012 – The Formula One teams and Pirelli take a step into the unknown this weekend with the inaugural United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas: a newly-built track that has never been raced on before.
The Italian firm is bringing the P Zero Silver hard and P Zero White medium tyres: a reasonably conservative compound choice for a circuit where there are still a number of unknown factors when it comes to tyre performance. The teams will be given an extra set of the hard tyre for Friday’s two free practice sessions in order to help them learn the all-new track.
One sure thing is that the Texas circuit will be fast and challenging, with warm ambient temperatures adding to the mechanical demands placed on the tyres. The 5.515-kilometre track features varying elevations that alternate slower and more technical sections with other areas that are very quick. Initial information suggests that the track surface will be quite smooth.
The opening sector of the lap is particularly demanding, with a uniquely profiled hairpin turn one and then a rapid sequence of direction changes from turns four through to six: reminiscent of Silverstone or Spa. This puts a lot of energy through the tyre structure, particularly the outside tyre that has to withstand the majority of the cornering forces. Traction is also a vital aspect of tyre performance in America in order to find optimal grip coming out of the slower corners.
With no data from previous years to fall back on, Pirelli has used advanced simulation technology to predict how the tyres might behave on the Austin circuit. The teams will also use similar data when it comes to formulating some initial ideas about race strategy; however the information gained from free practice will be even more vital than usual. Teams will be aiming to collect as much tyre data as possible on both full and empty fuel tanks and the extra set of hard tyres should enable them to maximise their running.
Pirelli’s motorsport director says:
Paul Hembery: “Austin is one of just three new tracks for us in Formula One competition this year, alongside Bahrain – which we’ve tested at previously – and Hockenheim, where we previously raced in GP3. So in many ways America will be the biggest challenge for us of the year, but stepping into the unknown is a situation that we are used to: last season the majority of tracks were completely new to us. We’ve chosen the hard and the medium compounds as we think it will be quite a demanding track, based on the asphalt samples and simulation data we have gathered. Naturally we’ve leaned towards a slightly more conservative choice in order to cover every possibility at a brand new circuit, but the tyre choice in Abu Dhabi was also conservative and yet we saw one of the most exciting races of the year. We’re all absolutely delighted to be returning to America with Formula One: it’s a crucial market for us as well as being the home of many of the most enthusiastic fans out there. We’ve felt a huge buzz about this race, and with the championship so finely poised it couldn’t come at a better time.”
The men behind the steering wheel say:
Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing): “I was in Austin after the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2006, catching up with some friends over there and I remember it as a really cool city. I remember there were lots of great options for food, everyone was pretty laid back and didn’t take themselves too seriously: it was nice to just have that sort of relaxed atmosphere in the city. I’ve heard from my guys out there that everyone is pumped and excited about the race being on. Formula One traditionally has been very dominant in Europe so it’s good that we are going back to the States. We know there’s a huge number of motorsport fans in America, as you have big categories like NASCAR and Indycar; even some of the dirt track stuff is huge. The track looks pretty quick: it’s got some very fast changes of directions, left-rights and fifth/sixth gear stuff, which is not hanging around for us. It looks like they’ve done a really good job and there are lots of undulations, which is important. With a new track there are always things we don’t really know until we get there, such as the subtleties of the cambers of the corners, which we will find out about on Friday.”
Pirelli’s test driver says:
Jaime Alguersuari: “I don’t know anything at all about the Circuit of the Americas – I’ve only ever seen some photographs and videos – but it looks like a great track and a lot of fun to drive. It’s clear that all the teams have good knowledge of all the Pirelli tyres now, so I would say that understandably the hard and the medium tyres are quite a conservative choice, but of course this depends on many other factors such as the macro-abrasion of the surface in Austin. We could be looking at a one-stop race although there are other outside circumstances that can always affect this, such as safety cars and the weather. A new track often shakes things up a bit, so I’m sure it will be interesting.”
Technical tyre notes:
- As Austin is a brand new circuit, the surface is likely to be ‘green’ and slippery, with a high degree of track evolution over the weekend. A totally new track often has a thin film of greasy oil on the surface, which is released by the asphalt as it settles into place. The race length will be 56 laps.
- Turn 11 is also particularly demanding in Texas as the driver starts braking heavily with the car already turning, creating an uneven distribution of forces across the tyres. Good grip from the compound is essential for an effective turn-in.
- The cars are likely to run with low gearing and medium downforce, with the set-up not expected to be dissimilar to that of Istanbul Park in Turkey.
- The weather can be uncertain in Texas at this time of year, with a 31% chance of rain on any given day on average. The month of November is characterised by rapidly falling daily high temperatures, with daily highs decreasing from 25°C to 19°C over the course of the month, exceeding 29°C or dropping below 13°C only one day in 10.
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Cyril takes over as Caterham F1 Team Principal
Leafield (UK), 8 Nov 2012: Caterham F1 Team on Thursday confirmed that Cyril Abiteboul has been promoted to the role of Team Principal with immediate effect. He will combine that role with his current responsibilities as CEO, a post he took up in September 2012, a Press Release said.
Tony Fernandes, Caterham Group Chairman: “Having launched our partnership with Renault in Paris on Monday the plan Kamarudin and I formed over three years ago for our automotive interests has come to fruition. The strategy for the establishment and growth of Caterham Group has now reached the stage where we can step back from the day to day running of the F1 team in favour of Cyril who will be able to dedicate himself full time to the role and work closely with Riad to help take our automotive interests into the next stage of their growth.
“Cyril is going to be an excellent Team Principal. He has extensive experience in F1, he is extremely well respected and he shares our vision for what we want our team to achieve. He takes over during a season when we have not yet fulfilled our potential, but at a time when we have everything in place to help us do so. One day we will earn our seat at the top table of Formula 1 and he is the right person to take us there.
“This decision allows Kamarudin and I to focus on AirAsia and gives Riad the structure he needs to allow the various Caterham Group businesses to flourish under his leadership. Kamarudin and I will continue as Co-Chairman of Caterham Group and we now have the best possible team in place to take our dream into its next phase. Kamarudin and I will still have an active interest in our various Caterham companies, but we have now reached the point in the growth of the business where it makes most sense to step back.
“We have taken Caterham Group from nothing just three years ago to today, where Caterham Cars has the platform with Renault to take it from a niche brand into an innovative participant in the global automotive market. Caterham Technology is also integrally involved in the Renault partnership, working with Renault on the design and development of our road cars, as well as currently working with a number of other blue-chip companies including Airbus, and they are fast being recognised as a leading player in the technology and innovation fields. Caterham Composites is also in rude health, working with CTI on the Airbus project in addition to a variety of other cutting-edge programs that will soon see the light of day. In summary, Riad is now leading a group of businesses that put the Caterham name at the forefront of the technological and innovation fields across a wide range of industries.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal Caterham F1 Team: “I am honoured to take over as Team Principal, now combining that role with the CEO post I took up in September 2012, and I would like to thank Tony and Kamarudin for the chance to lead this team into the next phase of its growth. We have big challenges ahead of us but the shareholders are committed and behind us to help us take significant steps forward over the coming years, and one day challenge for the highest honours in F1. We have an incredible spirit within the team and that has been created by Tony and Kamarudin. This spirit, allied to a strategic vision that gives us a clear path to success, is what will keep driving us forwards and we all look forward to the day we can make the dreams our shareholders had several years ago come true.”
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To know who is Cyril, read Joe Saward’s piece here:
Cyril Abiteboul, who is promoted as Caterham F1 team principal. Caterham photo -
Its a great moment for the fans: Kimi
On taking his 19th Formula 1 Grand Prix victory – and 48th win for an Enstone team – Kimi Räikkönen answers the questions following today’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
How does it feel to take your 19th win ?
I’m very happy for the team – and myself – but mainly for the all the crew here and everyone at Enstone. It’s been a hard season and I feel this win is well deserved for everyone and just what we need. It’s also something great for all the fans who have continued to support me and the team. We’ve not had the easiest time in the last few races. Hopefully this gives everyone more belief, not just for everyone working at the track and at the factory, but for everyone behind the scenes running the team. I hope this can turn around the tables and give us many more good races and wins ; if not this year, then next year.How does this win stack up against the other eighteen ?
To be honest it’s just another win on the list for me. It’s great of course, because it’s been a few years, but the wins prior to this one were very similar ; we didn’t have the best car, but we fought and still won. It’s great to win now, so people will stop asking me if I can win or not, and at least it makes it a bit clearer !Is it good that you’ve answered that ‘when’s the win coming’ question ?
I never cared really what people think – if I don’t finish the next race, then they’ll think that I’m as bad as that race. I’ll just do my thing, and if I’m happy with what I’m doing and it’s the best it can be for the team, then that’s that. So I really don’t care if people are thinking differently of me now, than what they did three hours before the race.Tell us about your emotions as you took the chequered flag ?
I’m happy, but there’s nothing to jump around about. We still have a few races to go, I’ll try to do the same again. For sure, we’re going to have a good party tonight and hopefully tomorrow, when we are feeling bad after a long night, we will remember how we feel. I’m just happy for everybody in the team.Tell us about your start ?
It was key to get behind the faster car and not get stuck behind cars that aren’t as fast as us. We had a good position on the grid and we made it better at the start. I think we’ve had some very good starts before and compared to the others, today was a pretty normal start on our scale. I managed to pass Mark [Webber] and Pastor [Maldonado] before I changed into second gear. I’d had a very good practice start on the warm-up lap so I knew this was going to be good.How long will your celebrations of this win last ?
I have almost two weeks. As long as I manage to get myself to the next race I think the team is happy. Maybe I will try to get home at some point.ends
Kimi Raikkonen at Abu Dhabi on Sunday 4 Nov 2012. A Lotus F1 team photo. -
Ice man wins; Vettel stuns from pits to third
Abu Dhabi, 4 Nov 2012: Kimi Räikkönen took his first Formula One victory of the season with a controlled drive for Lotus in a thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix here on Sunday.
Behind him Fernando Alonso pushed all the way in his Ferrari to finish second but perhaps the happier – or most relieved – driver on the podium was Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel who emerged from a torrid 24 hours with his title aspirations not seriously diminished.
Vettel’s race had been badly compromised before it began: demoted to the rear of the grid on Saturday evening for a breach of the technical regulations during qualifying. The championship leader opted to start the race from pitlane, thus allowing Red Bull mechanics to set up his car specifically for a hard-charging attack from the rear of the field and start him on the medium compound tyre.
He wasted no time: up to 18th by the end of lap two, and to 12th by the close of lap nine. His advancement did not come without a price: He clashed with Bruno Senna at the start, resulting in damage to his front wing. The damage would get worse when the safety car made it’s first appearance, following an incident involved Nico Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan slowed dramatically after a mechanical failure and Rosberg ran into the back of him at high speed. Both drivers walked away unscathed from the crash.
Following Daniel Ricciardo in the safety car train, Vettel had to swerve to the right to avoid the Toro Rosso as Ricciardo aggressively maintained the temperature in his brakes. Vettel collided with a polystyrene barrier, damaging his nose further. Red Bull opted to pit the German for a new nose and a set of soft Pirellis.
Dropped down the field again, Vettel faced another battle through the order but by lap 38 he had risen to fourth, despite another stop for a second set of soft tyres. The gap to the top three of Jenson Button, Alonso and Räikkönen was great, however, and it looked as if Vettel would have to settle for fourth.
Then came a second safety car period, which again closed up the field. Trying to take advantage of a tussle between Romain Grosjean and Paul Di Resta for fifth place, Sergio Pérez attempted to around both. He went off track but carried on a hyperbolic path, rejoining at racing speed, straight into the path of Grosjean. The Lotus driver had few options and strayed inadvertently into the path of Mark Webber’s Red Bull. The clash dumped out both Grosjean and Webber. Pérez received a stop-go penalty.
When racing resumed, Vettel began to pressure Button for third. Initially, the tactic failed as Button defended stoutly, but on lap 52 Vettel shouldered his way past around the outside of Turn 11 and claimed the final podium spot.
“Usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field but we did it twice today,” said Vettel speaking later in the FIA post-race press conference. “I think it was a fantastic race. I had a great fight with Jenson at the end. It was very close with him but I enjoyed the fight a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very fair. You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid.
“After that there were not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but it was still a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today, but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy.”
It was the last real action of the race. With only a few laps remaining, Vettel was unable to set about Alonso or Räikkönen who were having their own duel several seconds ahead. Alonso refused to concede defeat but the Finn had enough pace in his Lotus to maintain a gap of over a second, crucially keeping outside the DRS envelope.
Räikkönen’s race had been made at the start, when a superb getaway saw him jump from fourth to second, passing Pastor Maldonado and Webber. He slotted in behind pole position man Lewis Hamilton, briefly challenged for the lead on lap two and then consolidated his position in second when Hamilton proved too strong.
Hamilton was the fastest man on track throughout the first stint. He set his latest in a string of fastest laps on lap 20 – but then coasted to a halt on lap 21 as his McLaren lost all power. Räikkönen swept through to take the lead and thereafter began to forge his own gap to the chasing pack. His advantage was erased by the safety car period in the aftermath of the Pérez-Grosjean clash but Räikkönen held on for his 19th F1 victory and his first since the Belgian Grand Prix of 2009.
“I’m very happy for the team,” said Räikkönen. “At least we’ve got one win now, so we’ll keep trying to push still and see what we can do in the next race.”
Alonso was also a climber at the start, moving up from sixth to fifth off the line, passing Webber for fourth with straight line pace and then making a brave move on Maldonado to take third. He advanced into second following Hamilton’s retirement. “I’m very happy, I think we were not super competitive this weekend,” said the Ferrari driver. “We started seventh, sixth with Sebastian’s penalty, so we had to fight all the way through the race.
“A very good strategy gave us the ability to fight at the end for the victory,” he added. “In the last couple of laps Kimi was a little bit slower, so we attacked. But second, I think, was the maximum today, so a perfect Sunday again for us and we kept fighting until the end.”
The result means that Vettel keeps control in the championship battle but now with a slimmer advantage over Alonso. He leads 255-245 going to the penultimate round.
Button finished fourth and fifth went to Maldonado. Kamui Kobayashi took sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna. The final points positions went to Paul Di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo. Massa’s six points were crucial to deny Red Bull the Constructors’ Championship: they now lead Ferrari 422-340, and need a maximum of four points in Austin to secure a third consecutive constructors’ title.
ends
Kimi Raikkonen on podium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday 4 Nov 2012. A Lotus F1 team photo. -
Abu Dhabi GP: Final FIA Press Conference
Abu Dhabi, 4 Nov 2012: The following top three drivers attended the final FIA press conference here on Sunday: 1. Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Lotus); 2. Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari) and 3. Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing).
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Kimi – your first victory since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Tell us about your emotions at this time.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Not much really.
People want to know how amazing it is to win a grand prix. Tell us.
KR: Last time you guys was giving me shit because I didn’t really smile enough, so maybe this time again but I mean I’m very happy for the team – and myself – but mainly for the team. It’s really a hard season for the team and not an easy time. Hopefully this gives them more belief, not just for the guys making all the work but also for the guys who run the team. I hope this can turn around the tables and give us many more good races and wins. If not this year then next year.
Fernando, you never gave up, you were chasing Kimi down in the closing stages of the Grand Prix. You must be surprised to see your world title… well all three of you were technically in the world championship battle until this moment. Tell us about your race and how you felt it was going.
Fernando ALONSO: I’m very happy, I think we were not super competitive this weekend. We started seventh, sixth at the end with Sebastian’s penalty so we have to fight all through the race, the first laps to do some good overtakings and then a very good strategy that gave us the ability to fight at the end for the victory. In the last couple of laps Kimi was a little bit slower, so we attack. But second, I think, was the maximum today, starting sixth, so a perfect Sunday again for us and we kept fighting until the end.
Sebastian, did you honestly believe you could be standing here today, starting from the end of the pitlane?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, I did, to be honest with you. After the first couple of laps obviously that target was drifting a little bit away. I had a messy start to the race, which is quite difficult at the back, to get through the cars as quickly as I could, damaged my front wing. And then to the safety car, yeah I had a little bit of a big mistake with Daniel [Ricciardo] I think, who was stopping his car on the straights and I was very surprised. Turned to the right and… if it would have been 50m earlier, 50m later I wouldn’t have done damage to my front wing further but after that, I said to myself ‘yeah, either we go full attack or nothing’. So that’s what we did and I had a fantastic race. I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously the safety cars here and there was helping, the second one, and after that, at the end it was a nice fight with Jenson. He was difficult to pass. I expected to have a little bit easier time because obviously I was passing the slower cars before and with him I was a bit struggling. Then I just squeezed my way past into Turn 11 which was nice, it was very fair but for sure, it was a thrilling grand prix, up and down all the time. Yeah. Obviously it’s very nice to stand here now, pick up a trophy and drink some champagne. It’s not actually champagne, I don’t know what it is but it tastes good.
Your name is up there as a double world champion. Do you now feel that you’ve got your hands on one side of the cup for a third world title?
SV: I think it’s still two races to go so obviously we see how quickly things can change. Yesterday was a surprise for us, I think would we have started from third it would have been a different race. But yeah, it was obviously a chance to fuck it up and we didn’t do that. So I think we can be very proud today: we got the maximum. We lost only a very little bit, I think we have the momentum still, the car is bloody quick, so looking forward to the next two races. We are definitely believing in it and that’s the target.
Kimi, you’ve won before, you’ve won the title before and standing here you sent a message to the team about how you hope this will motivate future success, but when it is moment going to sink in? That you’ve won a grand prix in your comeback year.
KR: I mean like I said, I’m happy, but there’s nothing to jump around about. Really we still have a few races to go, I’ll try to do the same again, and for sure we’re going to have a good party today and hopefully tomorrow, when we are feeling bad after a long night, we will remember how we feel so… I’m just happy for everybody in the team.
PRESS CONFERENCE.
Kimi, well done, congratulations. Fantastic win for you, you’ve really been waiting for this win, I think, all season and now it’s happened. What are your feelings?
KR: Like I said before, I’m very happy for the team. We have had hard times lately and hopefully it gives some belief for the people, even more that… I mean they’ve been working very hard the whole year but with the hard times there’s a bit unknown in the whole situation and hopefully for the people who runs the team, who owns the team, the people who works for… for everybody, hopefully it gives a bit more support and hope that things will turn around and be even better than it’s been this year. So, great thing for the team itself, for the guys and, I mean of course I’m happy myself, but if I win it’s great, if I don’t I will try again and it’s not the end of the life. We’ve been close few times but now I said that even the last race I think we had the speed to even win the race but if you don’t start in the front we see what can happen. We knew the start would be a really big key and I got a really good start so I think with the McLaren we didn’t have the speed, at least in the beginning of the race – but then we have to finish the race to win so… I mean after that we were pretty good. Just the safety cars made us a little bit more tricky today.
The start really was… gave you the second place straight away, it was a really excellent start.
KR: Like I said yesterday, this going to be key, to get behind the faster car and not start behind the cars that cannot go as fast as us. And I mean we have a fast car for lap time in the race but if we stuck behind there’s no way we’re going to get past so, that’s what we could do this weekend: put yesterday in a good position and then made a good start and then just go from there.
And how much is the development that has been taking place on the car with the exhaust etc, how much has that been bringing pace to the car?
KR: It brings some pace, helps our straight line speed. So in average we gain some advantage but it’s exactly the same car we have in Korea. So we see how much even this year in all the races some circuits suits better for one team and the next one is not so good for you. We had good speed last race as I’ve already said. We made some mistakes in qualifying and paid the price in the race. So now we put all together like we should have done quite a few times this year but for one reason or another we haven’t. But at least we’ve got one win so we’ll keep try to push still and see what we can do in the next race.
Fernando, tremendous pace at the end there, where did that come from and was it just a little bit too late?
FA: Well, I think we just saw on the board eight laps to go, there was no more concerns about the tyres because obviously doing one stop you never know how the tyres will finish the race, and also after the last safety car we saw Sebastian with the soft and the first three of us, we were with the prime, so we didn’t know how much a threat was Sebastian for fight until the last lap. So after they lost a little bit of time, Jenson and Sebastian, and we didn’t care any more about the tyres, I push 150 per cent for eight laps and I tried to catch Kimi but it was never enough to be within one second for the DRS to be even closer. So at the end we didn’t have the pace to win but fantastic race anyway. We didn’t have the pace this weekend in any practice, in qualifying seventh and ninth and then today we were fighting for a victory – surprising again. This is thanks to a perfect car for the race, a perfect start, perfect strategy, perfect pitstops so everything perfect Sunday for us, maximising what we have in hands.
Do you think the modifications brought to the Ferrari helped during the race today?
FA: I think it helped for sure because when we tested it on Friday, they gave us some performance but we are talking very few hundredths of advantage that for sure when you have a gap to close that is a couple of tenths, when you bring hundredths and your opponents bring also some new parts, I think more or less you are in the same position. So, we need to keep working and in Maranello they work day and night very hard to bring new parts. Here in the track, mechanics work 24 hours and we are doing our maximum and we sure that hopefully it will be enough.
Are you a bit disappointed that you didn’t have more of an advantage over Sebastian, you only pulled out three points?
FA: To be honest we were concentrating on our race. Our simulations we had gave us the possibility to finish fifth or sixth, so we were not very optimistic with today’s race and despite what Sebastian was doing in the race we were taking eight, ten points maximum in our simulations. So we concentrated on our race. He did a very good race and he was able to use the performance in some of the parts of the race when he was in clean air plus the safety cars that I think put the group all together. So at the end I think this is nothing we can do, we just need to concentrate on our race and if we finish in front of Sebastian in the next two races then maybe we have a chance. So that’s our concentration now.
Sebastian a pretty lively race for you one way or another. It’s quite lively back there isn’t it – there’s a lot going on?
SV: Yeah, usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field but we did it twice today so… Yeah, obviously not the first couple of laps we were hoping for. We damaged the front wing early, which didn’t seem to be a big problem but it was probably the worst possible time with the safety car. I think we were already quite high up, close to the top 10, around 13, 14, 15 or something like that. And then I had a moment with the Toro Rosso. I don’t know what he did. He was braking his car down and I was surprised, caught out. Maybe I should have paid more attention, but yeah, I went to the right and I wasn’t very lucky, there was the DRS board, which I took head on and then I thought ‘well, now the front is fucked at least, so we’ve got to change it,’… (sorry). We did it in the worst possible moment, during the safety car, when all the cars were already queued up and yeah we lost everything. We were dead last. At least we had a fresh wing and from then went through the field. It was a lot of fun. Quite difficult with some guys, a little bit easier with other guys, but the most important thing was that the pace was there and we were in a very strong position – already halfway through the race, 20 laps to the end and also on the soft tyres in the last stint. Obviously the safety car helped a little bit. Nevertheless, I think it was a fantastic race: a great fight with Jenson in the end, who was the most difficult to pass, obviously he was the quickest I passed in the whole race. We know that… I think it’s quite difficult for us to get past a Mercedes-engined car. It was very, very close with him. I enjoyed the fight a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very, very fair. You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid. And after that not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but the pace was there. Obviously we had an interesting race, up and down all the time and a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today, but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy. The guys are pushing 100 per cent. I feel very happy they’re all behind me and I try to do my best for them. I think we have two more races ahead of us, we’re in the best possible position so I think we’re looking forward to the next race – a new grand prix, a new challenge. It’s difficult to know who is going to be quick but I think it was another race today where we see that it’s over as soon as we see the chequered flag and not before.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, was that your best start in a Lotus and after that, which one was the hardest competitor, the second safety car or Fernando?
KR: I think we’ve had some very good starts before, but compared to the others, today was a pretty normal start on our scale. I managed to pass Mark and Maldonado before I changed into second gear. I’d had a very good start on the warm-up lap so I knew this was going to be good. That was our aim, to try to make a good start and we managed to do it, so it was key for our win today.
For sure, the safety car hurt us much more than the others. We had a good lead and then nothing, and then twice. The first time was when Hamilton was in front of us but it definitely didn’t help us today.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Live) Kimi Raikkonen, how and with whom and how many days will you celebrate this win?
KR: I have almost two weeks. As long as I manage to get myself to the next race I think the team is happy. I try to get home at some point.
Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Kimi, one of the highlights of the race was your radio messages, the ones that you were giving to the team. How distracting is it when you’re fighting behind the safety car or whatever, to have them reminding you to warm-up your wheels?
KR: It’s a normal thing. It’s the same with all the teams. For sure, they are just trying to help but if you keep saying the same things two times a minute, I’m not so stupid that I cannot remember what I’m doing. It’s a normal thing, they are just trying to help. I know what I’m doing. I will ask for help if I need it. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time. It’s been many times with other teams also but they are all there to help you and try to put you in the best position. Different people like different things.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, was it a bit of racing into the unknown at the beginning; you changed the gearbox, the ratios? Were you pretty sure you could do this kind of race or were there some obscure points that you had to sort out during the first laps, to find out what you could do?
SV: No, I don’t think it was racing into the unknown. Obviously what we didn’t know was how quickly we would get through the field. We knew that we were quite a lot quicker than the first couple of cars that we were approaching; obviously we have a different pace to Marussia, HRT, Caterham, so it was important to get through those. We took the chance to take ratios which helped down the straights, made life a little bit easier but obviously when you’re not in the pack, you pay the price as well, so I think it did help us for overtaking but when we were in clean air, it was surely not optimum but it’s always a trade. I think from Friday to Saturday we changed the car, not necessarily made a step forwards. We were changing quite a few things and getting closer to what we had on Friday which I think was a faster car so it was as simple as that.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Fernando and Sebastian, Michael has had 56 races without a win after his comeback; are you surprised that Kimi won his 18th after his comeback?
SV: No, I think it doesn’t matter how many races it takes you. The most important thing is that you get the results you can achieve. I think Kimi drove a fantastic race today. For the first time the car was probably able to win and he did it. I don’t know how their race was at the front, I was busy myself but I think we’ve seen this year that generally if you compare this year, the Mercedes was not as competitive as the Lotus, so it’s as simple as that, not in every race but in the majority of races. I think Michael showed his talent more than once in the last three years, even though he probably wasn’t as successful as he was before, I don’t think it makes him any worse.
FA: I agree.
Q: (Khodr Rawi – F1 Arab) Kimi, how special is it to be the first driver to win for Lotus since Ayrton Senna in 1987
KR: It’s a long time for them, I guess. I don’t think there are any (of the same) people in the team any more. It’s a name. It’s the same team and it has been since Fernando was there, just a different name. It’s a great name for us, good past but you know I race for the team whatever the name is, I don’t really care so it’s just for the guys who do all the work. Maybe it looks good in somebody’s eyes but for me it really makes no difference.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) To each of you: who is going to win the World Championship?
KR: I wouldn’t put money on me! They are quite close; I don’t know what the points difference is. Ten? One bad race could decide the championship if they keep doing what they’ve been doing. It’s hard for Fernando but we saw yesterday and in races before that anything can happen. If it’s a normal situation I don’t think much can happen but one small mistake can decide everything.
FA: Yes, I’m confident. We will fight until the end. We are not fast enough, this is true and we are honest with ourselves, we know this. We need to accept this. It’s a weak point, the performance that we have at the moment in our package, and we have some strong points which we will try to use.
SV: I think we were not always fast enough this year but for the last couple of races we were, so looking forward to the next two races.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, this has been a pretty troubled weekend for the team. On Friday Mark had the issue with the KERS, you yesterday in the morning, then the problem with the fuel. How much of a relief is it for you to come out of such a weekend and be on the podium losing only three points to Fernando?
SV: Honestly, I would have loved to have got past Jenson quicker and past Fernando as well. I think the speed was there but it turned out to be quite tricky to pass Jenson, and took a lot of time. But yeah, I think we can be very happy with today. I think it’s one of those races where it’s difficult to predict the outcome. We have simulation tools etc telling you one thing but I was convinced that you have plenty of chances and I said yesterday, obviously it was a big hit for us because if you can chose between starting third and last you don’t need to be a genius to make that one out. It was a big hit but I said yesterday that every chance is an opportunity and there were lots of chances today for us. I think we had a very good race, I enjoyed it a lot and I’m very happy with today’s result.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you said before that yesterday was a mistake. How angry are you that this mistake happened? You don’t have to be Einstein to calculate how much fuel has to go in for three laps, especially after it had already happened to Hamilton in Barcelona. Do you think the team should have been more careful?
SV: There are so many things that could have worked differently. I made a mistake on the last run, I aborted the lap, nobody ever finds out, nobody realises there was a problem. As I said earlier, it was a mistake, there was no intention to go stupidly close to the limit for a gain of nearly nothing. I think it’s different to what happened to Lewis in Barcelona at the beginning of the season, obviously they deliberately put less fuel in the car and stopped on the in lap, but for us, we had enough fuel but somehow we had enough fuel on paper but not in the car. Obviously we stopped the car for emergency reasons, not to damage anything and then obviously it was quite a long procedure yesterday and unfortunately we couldn’t drain the fuel that we wanted and it was not enough to provide the sample so it was as simple as that. Rules are clear. I think the penalty was very harsh but we had to take it. Rules are clear. If it happens to you in race three and you are in a similar position at the end of the year, nobody is asking and it’s not a big fuss but if it happens to you three races from the end, obviously there’s more attention etc. We had to live with that.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, your last win was at Hockenheim in July, more than three months ago. Do you think you absolutely need to win one or both of the last two races to gain the title and do you think it’s possible to do it?
FA: That will help, for sure, but I don’t think so.
Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Radio) Sebastian, so in the end, after all the difficulties, do you guys consider your result a surprise or not?
SV: I don’t think you can talk of a surprise. I think we knew we were quick. I think if you look at the race, there were a lot of things that happened that you couldn’t foresee. I don’t know what happened to the HRT which caused the first safety car and I don’t know what happened to Romain who caused the second safety car, but obviously these things are difficult to predict. I think we knew that we had a chance to get into the top five, even with a normal race. Given the pace was there, as I said earlier, what we did from Friday to Saturday, obviously we tried to improve the car, not necessarily achieved that but we are hungry, we want to try things to make the car faster. I don’t blame anyone for that. I was one of the biggest drivers to make the changes, behind that on Friday, and they didn’t work, but yeah, obviously we’re not talking seconds per lap but small things and today we lost a position on the grid but we got the chance to change the car which we did and we knew that it will be a very competitive car. The speed was there, as I said, and obviously here and there we were a little bit lucky, but I think we created our own luck in that regard.
Q: (Shubha Chandran – Chequered Flag, India) Sebastian, what kind of focus, commitment and mental strength does it really take to start from where you did, and eventually end up where you have, from a purely individual perspective?
SV: The race is long. I said to the guys before the race that I trust them 100 percent and they can trust me. I will try everything. There’s no reason to give up. Of course, if you look where we started, it was the worst possible spot but we gave everything we had and I think when you do that, you cannot fail so it was a perfect example of that today. Everyone was focused on the moment and enjoying it as well. Don’t forget that, I think we are here, obviously, to fight for wins and stuff like that but we are also here to have a good time, enjoy and have fun and I think all the guys in the team at the moment, they don’t want to be anywhere else. Obviously it’s tough on Sundays. The tension is there, obviously you’re nervous, excited, any race such as this one, especially with the difficulty of starting last but it’s also the challenge that you like, to race every single lap. Obviously it’s nice to sit here and look back. Some days it will be difficult again, when we sit – not here – and look back and look at the mistakes that we’ve made, but hopefully we will learn from those as we did in the past to maximise the times that we sit here.
Q: (Heikki Kulta -Turun Sanomat) Kimi, does it take anything from your joy that when you win you kill your last hope of the championship?
KR: No, I think we knew already, a few races ago, that we didn’t have the speed to challenge at the front. We always said that we would keep fighting and trying to do the best that we can. We got the win, we might have lost the championship on the same day but I don’t really care. We didn’t really expect to be fighting with them anyhow. We’ve always been a bit behind and not really had the speed to challenge them in normal races and now in the last few races we’ve had very good speed and finally we put all the things together and won. We will try again next year.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Sebastian, sorry to come back to yesterday’s incident but we didn’t really understand why you stopped the car, because a loss of fuel doesn’t really damage the engine, normally?
SV: Obviously it was a precaution. We saw some numbers going down and in order to save the engine at last, save the pumps in between etc, we decided to stop the car, convinced that we had enough fuel in the car to provide a sample but, as I said, for some reason we didn’t have enough fuel so I don’t know what happened. There must have been a mistake somewhere which was a big hit, like I said, but I’m sure we will learn from that and it won’t happen again. I think we have done the exercise a lot of times, we know the rules. As I said, we are talking two hundred millilitres that were missing. If you go to the loo before qualifying or something like that it can make the same kind of difference. I think it’s very difficult to measure. It was a mistake for which we had to pay a very hard price but c’est la vie.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, in two weeks we’re going to Austin, you have the first chance to win the third title and it’s going to be your 100th Grand Prix.
SV: Yeah, it sounds a lot. Obviously time goes by quickly. I’m sure when you ask Fernando and Kimi they remember their first couple of races and probably don’t feel that it’s so long ago. I think that more than anything, if you do something that you love, that you enjoy the time goes by quickly. Now, when I’m talking about 2006, 2007, when I started to drive a Formula One car for the first time, I still know most of the guys and can recall the places I’ve been. If you then tell me it’s six years ago, it sounds like a big number. I’m sure, when someone tells you the first time that you came into a Formula One paddock, it’s however many years ago, it might be shocking as well. Time goes by and obviously with age, you get a little bit smarter – hopefully. You learn certain things and you get a little more relaxed probably but also it’s important to stay childish, stay hungry and do mistakes, otherwise how can you go forward. All in all, looking forward to going home, get some rest, charge some energy to be full charged in America to attack and obviously try to win.
Abu Dhabi podium on Sunday 4 Nov 2012. Lotus F1 team Photo Ends
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One stop could be the strategy: Pirelli
Abu Dhabi, 3 Nov 2012: McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has ended Red Bull’s recent run of three one-two qualifying results, thanks to a pole position lap of 1m40.630s in Abu Dhabi using the P Zero Yellow soft. The soft tyre, making its final appearance of the year this weekend, has been nominated together with the P Zero White medium tyre for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton was three-tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull driver Mark Webber in final qualifying: historically the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has only ever been won from the front row of the grid, according to a Pirelli release.
Qualifying got underway at 5pm local time, which is the same time that the race will start tomorrow. With track and air temperatures falling, many competitors were out at the very start of Q1 on the medium tyres, in order to make the most of the warmer conditions. Only the HRT and Marussia cars began the session on the soft tyres. The session started off with 29 degrees centigrade ambient temperature and 31 degrees track temperature, with the track temperature also dropping to 29 degrees over the qualifying hour. Only Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Red Bull and the Sauber of Sergio Perez used just the medium tyre in Q1: all the others also used a set of softs. Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher set his fastest Q1 time on the medium tyre and did not improve when he moved onto a set of softs.
The remaining 17 drivers started Q2 on the soft tyre, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton topping the time sheets as he did in Q1. The final part of qualifying, Q3, was also run using the soft tyres only. Most drivers opted for two runs in Q3, but Hamilton’s time on his first run was enough to seal his 25th career pole position and his second in Abu Dhabi. Webber clinched second place on his third and final run with the soft tyres. Hamilton has been quickest in every session so far apart from FP2 at Yas Marina, where Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel went fastest.
Hamilton was also fastest during the third and final free practice session today at Abu Dhabi with a time of 1m42.130s on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre. Vettel lost time with a mechanical problem during the session, which was again characterised by high track temperatures in the region of 45 degrees centigrade, but was third-fastest behind his team mate in final qualifying.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “We believe that we’re now looking at a one-stop strategy for many competitors. The pace of development in Formula One is unrivalled, and we can see this in the way that all the teams have really got on top of our tyres now: which was the same pattern we saw last year. Degradation is low with both compounds – and there’s also not a lot of thermal degradation – but one cause of this is also the track surface, which is particularly smooth in Abu Dhabi as was the case as well in India. From what we can see so far the long run race pace is quite closely matched, which will put the emphasis on strategy to make the difference. We saw a great lap not only from Lewis Hamilton but also from Pastor Maldonado in the Williams, who will start from fourth on the grid.”
Tyres used by the top ten qualifiers
Hamilton 1:40.630s Soft
Webber 1:40.978s Soft
Vettel 1:41.073s Soft
Maldonado 1:41.226s Soft
Raikkonen 1:41.260s SoftLewis Hamilton on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes photo. Button 1:41.290s Soft
Alonso 1:41.582s Soft
Rosberg 1:41.603s Soft
Massa 1:41.723s Soft
Grosjean 1:41.778s Softends
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Stewards force Vettel to start at the back of the grid
Abu Dhabi, 3 Nov 2012: Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing who is cruising towards his probable third World title with four straight wins till India, suffered a severe blow here after qualifying in P2 as he was sent back to the grid with a Stewards’ penalty.
Sebastian Vettel has been sent to the back of the grid after stewards excluded him from the results of qualifying. Vettel had stopped on track at the end of the session, having qualified in a provisional third place. However, the Red Bull team has confirmed that Vettel would start from the pit lane which gives the team a chance to work on the car set-up.
The stewards agreed that his actions were acceptable under the rules of force majeure, however the post-session scrutineering report stated that an insufficient amount of fuel remained in the car for sampling.
After an afternoon practice session disrupted by brake problems, Vettel had rallied strongly during qualifying and was consistently near the top of the order during the session. However, as the chequered flag came out, under instruction from his team the World Champion pulled over to the side of the track and got out of his Red Bull RB8.
After several hours of deliberation during which telemetry was studied and Red Bull Racing stated their case, the official decision was handed down. Vettel was deemed to have infringed article 6.6.2 of the 2012 technical regulations which states: Competitors must ensure that a one litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time during the event. Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards of the meeting), if a sample of fuel is required after a practice session the car concerned must have first been driven back to the pits under its own power.
Vettel will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 24th and last on the grid.
The decision echoes the punishment handed to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona. Hamilton had taken provisional pole, though a fuelling mistake saw the Briton not complete his in-lap, instead pulling to the side of the Circuit de Catalunya. Starting last, Hamilton battled back to finish the race in eighth position.
ends
Vettel at Abu Dhabi on Saturday. A Red Bull Racing photo -
Abu Dhabi GP: FIA Saturday Press Meet
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)
2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
TV UNILATERAL
What are your feelings for tomorrow?
Lewis HAMILTON: Very excited, very excited. It’s the first time for a long time to be ahead of the Red Bulls, and not to be seeing the tail of them at the start of the race but I know it’s going to be, as always, very, very tough in the race because they’ve got great race pace. But we are strong enough to fight them, the team’s done a fantastic job all weekend. The car’s felt beautiful all weekend. I don’t know why the car works so well here. We’ve not really made any improvements to the car since the last race, so I guess it just suits. The guys are still massively focused so I hope that tomorrow’s a good day for us.
How have the long runs been looking?
LH: We did a couple of long runs and they seemed to be OK. On one of my long runs I had a lot of traffic, but Jenson had a fairly decent long run, which shows… a bit like last race, we should be quite competitive. But for me it’s trying to improve the start of the race because these guys are so quick over the first couple of laps.
Mark, well done, second fastest in qualifying. You’ve out-qualified your team-mate as well. But there have been some worrying moments, for example last week you had the loss of KERS and you had the problem yesterday. Are you slightly on the back foot?
Mark WEBBER: Well, first of all credit to Lewis, he’s obviously got a quick car this weekend and he bumped us off the front row, that’s the first time in a while, maybe since six or eight weeks ago when we had a good run, so now they’ve done a good job today. Credit where it’s due and we did the best we could. I think it was a pretty smooth qualifying session for both Seb and I and we did what we could. I think it went well but as you say we’ve got a little bit of a fire going which we need to tidy up and the quality of the team is exceptional, we know what we need to improve on, to help our championships along. Obviously Seb’s still involved in the Drivers’ [title] and the Constructors’ is still important to us, so we’ll focus on tomorrow’s race. The car generally works pretty well on Sundays but Lewis and JB did some pretty strong long runs as well, so yeah, a little trouble this weekend but overall we’re positive and looking for a good strong run.
Sebastian, obviously you had a problem with the brakes this morning and we’ve just seen you stop on circuit this afternoon, but you’re third on the grid, at least you salvaged that. What are your feelings about that?
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t why I was asked to stop. I think probably some problem. It shouldn’t be something major. Obviously this morning wasn’t ideal, not being able to run. So we didn’t get probably the answers that we were hoping for. Nevertheless, this afternoon we were settling in quite well and the pace was there, but I think as Mark touched on, McLaren, in particular Lewis, are pretty quick. So they were out of reach today. I’m not entirely happy with my qualifying, the last part of qualifying was quite tricky for me. I think I should have been a little bit quicker, whether it would have been enough to beat Mark… obviously he’s on a different sheet of paper, but all in all I think we can be quite happy. Race pace should be good tomorrow. As we know it’s a long race here and there’s a lot of things that can happen, so looking forward to tomorrow.
But there must be a certain relief in being three places ahead of your main championship rival?
SV: Is he sixth or…?
Seventh.
SV: Ah, so… yeah, I think we’ve seen so many races this year that have been up and down, so from where we start it’s obviously quite good, close to the front, so we go from there. As I said, it’s going to be a long race; a lot of things to look out for. I think strategy-wise it’s probably not 100 per cent clear yet, a similar position to last race in India, so yea, I think we have to look after ourselves, try to race this guy and then we should be in quite a good place tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
So Lewis, you can’t really explain why you’re so quick here this weekend?
LH: No, I don’t know. The car’s been feeling fantastic all weekend, like I said we haven’t come with upgrade packages, we haven’t got any… y’know we’re always modifying small, little wings but it does very, very little – but the car’s felt great from the get-go this weekend and done some fine tuning and every now and then you’re fortunate enough to make the right change and it feels even better, which it did. So, I didn’t really have to change too much going into qualifying. Actually I didn’t change anything going into qualifying from P3. That lap felt fantastic. The next lap I was up a little bit, I think I was up a tenth or so, and then I lost it. I had no idea I’d done a good lap, so it was just about going completely over the line and seeing if you can get something – but it didn’t work.
We have seen a lot of drivers doing that this weekend and I guess it’s just exploring the limit.
LH: Yeah. Well, I know what the limit is because I was on it when I did my first lap but I was trying to go way past the limit and see if it was possible. It worked for half the lap but then it didn’t work the rest of it.
Mark, the reliability thing, has that set you back a little bit in terms of race preparation, yesterday for example.
MW: Yeah, you would like to do that work for sure but obviously we have a huge amount of historical data, this year and also at this venue and Seb did some work. I did one lap, so I’ve got a little bit to look at. But it should be OK, the Friday’s running is never a bible anyway, it’s just a good reference. So we’re in pretty good shape in terms of data going into the race. So obviously we’ll have a bit of a look through in the morning to see how we’re going to prepare. But yeah, we realised we’ve got to work on our reliability. We’ve had a few issues of late and that’s something the group is on. There’s nothing Sebastian and I can do about it. It’s not our job, it’s their job and they know they’ve got to improve.
And you’ll be starting ahead of Sebastian, so what chances in the first corner?
MW: Well, good. You never know. Lewis’ starts lately haven’t been phenomenal so let’s see if he has a good one tomorrow. Generally it’s down to how the clutch is and things like that – it’s not really down to Lewis. We’ll see how they go off the line but I’m looking to go forward, for sure. Then we’ll get settled into the race and see where everyone is after that.
Sebastian, the brake problem today, is that something that has been cured and you’re confident you won’t see again?
SV: Yes, I think so. Obviously it wasn’t expected, it wasn’t the plan because the plan is to run in free practice – but I think we fixed the problem, I had a fantastic brake in qualifying, so I think we got on top of the problem at the end. I had a little bit of a run, two laps in the practice this afternoon, so should be fine.
Overtaking has been difficult here in the past. Admittedly you haven’t had to do very much but it’s been difficult, there’s a double DRS, how vital is pole position and a good qualifying position?
SV: Well, I think Lewis is pretty happy where he’s going to start tomorrow. Obviously we are not on pole but yeah, I think, y’know, third is not far off and it should be a good race. Obviously, as you touched on, it’s difficult to pass here, even though you’ve got long straights, we’ve got the double DRS so we’ll see if that helps. I’m sure it’s not impossible. It’s definitely possible to pass people, even though it’s not easy but, y’know, race pace should be good. Should be in a good position.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, yesterday you said after second practice that you didn’t believe you could get pole, it would be extremely hard. What changed? Was it you and your car that did more or was it perhaps Red Bull which haven’t performed as you expected?
LH: They were slower than I expected but we were faster than I expected as well. Mark did a great lap as well – what’s the margin, it is three tenths? I knew that they were very very quick but I would never have imagined being this far ahead of them. But I did do a really really good lap, very happy with the lap. I thought that we would be a match or slightly slower than them this weekend and it’s a blessing in disguise to be ahead of them.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Sebastian, on a different subject, Michael Schumacher has just three races left in his F1 career. How do you view his last three years in Formula One?
SV: We have commented on this a couple of times. I think Mark summed it up pretty well a couple of races ago, that obviously those three years are very different to the years he had before that, but it doesn’t make him a worse driver. I think the last three years he was hoping to have a better car than he probably had. When the car was there, I think he was able to use the potential so I think we’ve seen that he’s still very quick, for example in Monaco, when the car was there. Obviously very different to the years with Ferrari when they were dominating a lot, but it also shows that you need to have the right car beneath you, and the right team in order to fight for wins and championships.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, in Q1 you touched the wall a little bit, did that have any effect on your mind during the rest of qualifying?
SV: It was the first lap, I was a little bit greedy on the exit of turn 19 and I just brushed the wall a little bit so not really hard contact. There was no problem for the car.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you were hardly able to run in the morning; had you been able to do that, would you have found out something which would have helped you in qualifying?
SV: I think so. Obviously Saturday morning – or Saturday afternoon in this case – is the last chance before qualifying and also the first chance after practice on Friday to have a read on the car and I think we tried a couple of things. Obviously I would have loved to get a proper answer so I think that what we had in qualifying was still pretty good and very competitive but obviously some boxes will never be ticked so we won’t get an answer on the things that we wanted to but I’m quite confident we found a good compromise, nevertheless.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, is it a kind of relief having Fernando seventh, given that it’s not so easy to overtake here. Will that change something in your strategy going into the race, or are you going to race, attack and try to win?
SV: I think we have to try to race. I don’t think you can go round looking at one guy in particular, so, as I said, you don’t have to be Einstein to make out that it’s good if you’re ahead and bad if you’re behind but today there’s no points, it’s a long race tomorrow. I think some of the guys were very quick in qualifying, arguably they are slower in the race so we are going to find out tomorrow. I think if you are quicker, then it’s also possible to overtake. Obviously it might be tricky, we’ve seen that in previous years but as I touched on earlier, it’s not impossible and for us, also in terms of strategy, we go for the fastest race, that’s what we have to focus on and at the moment, Lewis is ahead of us so we are trying to hunt him down.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Live) Lewis Hamilton, do you give a chance to the Red Bull drivers at the start tomorrow?
LH: Do I give them a chance? Definitely not, de-finitely not. As Mark was saying, I’ve had some very very bad starts but that’s down to clutch performance but I will be onto my guys tonight to make sure that that doesn’t happen tomorrow.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Mark, when we talked to Christian Horner on Thursday, he never used the word team orders. He did say you’re a strong team player, an important part of the team, and you would know what to do. Are you comfortable with that for tomorrow?
MW: Drive flat out.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, yesterday you were struggling more with the option tyres and this is why you were also explaining your difficult session. Do you think you have solved the problem?
LH: Yeah, I just changed my technique a bit, in terms of warming them up and then from the previous race when we struggled in Q3 on the option tyres particularly in P3 in India, I think it was, we used the method that we improved there, which seemed to have helped this weekend, which I am sure other people are doing. It’s nothing special, it’s just with tyre temperatures and pressures and other things, but it worked, they worked really well.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) You have pretty broad sporting interests, Mark. the Melbourne Cup is coming up on Tuesday, the (horse) race that stops the nation (Australia), they say. Are you interested? Will you watch it, do you have a tip?
MW: I love sport but horse racing is not far off the bottom of my list. Gambling, in my house, my father didn’t tolerate it. Actually, I’m not a big fan of how much it’s rammed down your throat in Australia, in terms of how you can bet on who farts at what stage in a football match. It’s incredible how obsessed we’ve become with gambling and betting but each to their own. If you love gambling it’s a good buzz but it does nothing for me. I would rather ride my mountain bike.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) That’ll be No then.
MW: That’s a No. I got busted once. I was in the principal’s office at school for playing up and the race was on, so she couldn’t see me so she had to wait until the race was over. I did, when I was very very very young, my grandparents let us put a little sneaky fiver on sometimes, which wasn’t always allowed and the horse was called Tawrrific and it actually won the race, so I told her that I was very happy and she wasn’t very impressed, because her horse didn’t win.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) Did you watch the Aussie V8s today?
MW: Not enough, the time schedule is not very helpful and they’re parked down the other side of the track. I want to go and see some of the guys for sure. It was just great that they managed to drive on the same track as us, a slick operation as usual, it’s a good category. No, I haven’t got to see any of the action yet but I’ve seen the results, but I haven’t seen a single lap.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) You could take Lewis and Sebastian with you. You guys would go and see the V8s, wouldn’t you?
LH: Sure. When we have time.
Lewis Hamilton poses with Road Safety backdrop after gaining pole at Abu Dhabi on Saturday 4 Nov 2012. Photo by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team. Ends
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Hamilton takes pole, ahead of Webber: Abu Dhabi GP
Abu Dhabi, 3 Nov 2012: Mark Webber was edged out to second place and Sebastian Vettel third as Lewis Hamilton dominated the battle for pole position at Yas Marina here on Saturday. However, Vettel was excluded from qualification later by stewards for not having enough fuel in his car and he will start at the back of the grid.
Lewis Hamilton has been the pace-setter through most of the weekend, running quickest in the first and last free practice sessions, and the McLaren driver confirmed his pole position credentials in the opening segments of the qualifying hour by claiming top spot in both Q1 and Q2. He then took provisional pole early in Q3 with a lap of 1:40.630, four-tenths clear of his closest competitor. And as his rivals failed to significantly dent the gap, Hamilton has the luxury of backed-out of his final run.
“It’s the first time for a long time we’ve been ahead of the Red Bulls rather than seeing the tail of them at the start of the race. However, I know it’s going to be very tough in the race because they’ve got great race pace,” said Hamilton. “We are strong enough to fight them: the car’s felt beautiful all weekend. I don’t know why the car works so well here. We’ve not really made any improvements to the car since the last race, so I guess it just suits.”
Mark Webber came the closest to upsetting the Briton, for whom it is a sixth pole position of the season. After comfortably making his way through the opening segments, the Red Bull Racing driver found himself six-tenths adrift of Hamilton after his first run. Webber dug deep and found more pace on his final run, halving the deficit but unable to do any more.
“Credit to Lewis, he’s obviously got a quick car this weekend and he bumped us off the front row, that’s the first time in a while,” said Webber. “It was a pretty smooth qualifying session for both Seb and I, and we did what we could.”
Despite settling for second-best in qualifying, Webber expressed hope of beating Hamilton off the line tomorrow. “You never know. Lewis’ starts lately haven’t been phenomenal, so let’s see if he has a good one tomorrow,” he said. “Generally it’s down to how the clutch is and things like that – it’s not really down to Lewis. We’ll see how they go off the line but I’m looking to go forward, for sure. Then we’ll get settled into the race and see where everyone is after that.”
Having won the last four races, Sebastian Vettel struggled on Saturday when a brake problem heavily compromising his running in the final free practice session. His travails of the afternoon continued into the evening. He clipped a wall on his first run in Q1, and was fortunate to suffer no damage. Then, at the end of the session, after securing third spot on the grid, the German was told by his team to stop the car on track. “I don’t know why I had to stop,” he said afterwards. “I was asked to stop, I guess there was some problem. It should not be something major.”
“It’s difficult to pass here, even though you’ve got long straights,” he added. “We’ve got the double DRS, so we’ll see if that helps. I’m sure it’s not impossible.
If Vettel had a mechanically-troubled day, title rival Fernando Alonso was simply troubled by rivals. The Ferrari driver looked strong in the early part of Q3 and slotted into fourth. However, he was eclipsed by William’s Pastor Maldonado (fourth), Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen (fifth) and McLaren’s Jenson Button (sixth) in the final runs. The flurry of quick laps dropped him to seventh, his worst starting position since the Italian Grand Prix, when a broken anti-roll bar saw him trail around at the back of the Q3 order.
“I did almost the same time on three occasions between Q2 and Q3, which means there was nothing more to come,” said Alonso of his performance. “The updates we brought here have improved our performance but the others have not been relaxing on the sofa watching television while twiddling their thumbs…
“Usually, Saturday is the day we suffer the most, while on Sunday things always go better: let’s hope that will also be the case this time. It’s also true that with so little tyre degradation, the strategic choices are much more limited and so too the opportunities to make up places.”
Behind Alonso the top ten was completed by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes in eighth, ahead of Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean for Ferrari and Lotus respectively.
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From left: Vettel (3rd), Hamilton (1st) and Webber (2nd) after qualification on Saturday. Vettel was later penalised to the back of the grid. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes photo. -
Webber suffers KERS problems again
Abu Dhabi, 2 Nov 2012: Mark Webber ended Friday’s practice sessions for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the day’s fourth fastest time but it was a day of frustration for the Red Bull Racing driver as he suffered KERS problems.
The Australian’s race in India last weekend was hampered by an intermittent KERS fault and his afternoon running at the Yas Marina was curtailed today as he suffered more problems with the system, though he was quick to add that the difficulties were different to those suffered at the Buddh Circuit.
“We had a KERS issue, which wasn’t the same as last week,” he said of the problem, which left him sidelined for the final ten minutes of the session. “It never helps to miss some running on the track during practice, but it’s not a big deal. The track will move around a little bit from where it is now, but not a huge amount; it’s in pretty good shape straightaway. We’ll get it fixed tonight and come back tomorrow.
Webber ended his days’ work with a time of 1:42.466, seven tenths adrift of table-topping team-mate Sebastian Vettel but he said he was generally happy with his how his RB8 felt across the two sessions.
“It’s OK. Normally I struggle around car park sort of race tracks, but I’ll do my best to push as hard as possible around all the second gear corners here this week. I’ll do what I can tomorrow and qualify as high up as I can and enjoy the race on Sunday.”
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Mark Webber was fourth fastest on Friday after suffering KERS problems again. A Red Bull Racing photo
