Alonso wins after starting from 11th place at Valencia on Sunday. FIA File photo of Sat qualifiers.
DRIVERS
1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)
3 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes)
TV UNILATERAL
Three former Ferrari world champions on the podium but Fernando this is a pretty good weekend to be a Spanish sportsman called Alonso. A fabulous victory for yourself.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah. It’s difficult to express in words what is the feeling now. Winning a home grand prix is something unique – a very special feeling. I had the opportunity to do this in Barcelona in 2006 with Renault and I still remember that day perfectly. And now I did the same here in Valencia, with this special team, Ferrari, with all the grandstand full of red colour and Spanish flags. Here now, with the Euro football championship also, there is a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us. Feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions. Nothing maybe compares to this one.
You joined in the celebrations a little early Fernando. Why did you stop your car, just to take part in the party?
FA: No, no. We had a problem with the car and we stopped it. It was the right place maybe because we had two grandstands there. It took a little bit of time for the medical car to arrive and we had eight or 10 minutes of all the people saying things about me, saying congratulations. They want me to jump. You know, fun and games and we enjoy a little bit those minutes.
Kimi, it’s a third podium position of the season for you. Was a victory possible for you today or were the tyres just not there at the end?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: I think everybody had quite old tyres at that point. I just didn’t have enough tyres. I had enough tyres to get past Hamilton on I think it was the second-last or third-last lap. We didn’t really have the speed to challenge for the win. I think on the start already I got a good start but got blocked by Maldonado in the first right-hander and lost quite a few places because of that. I was a bit behind already at that point. We made a good recovery from that position. I had quite a hard fight with people and overtaking and then second place. It’s OK of course, but not what we wanted.
Michael, they say you can’t overtake on this track but your saw your fair share today. Welcome back to the podium. At what stage did you think this podium was a possibility?
Michael SCHUMACHER: I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race. It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw Webber’s pit board and close to the end it showed him eighth and seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that one. And then boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’. I can’t believe that! It’s something I didn’t really expect. You sort of lose count, because I was pretty busy in the last stages of the race, plus Maldonado and Hamilton had their issue. Probably normally one minus one would give us the three but I lose count at that stage.
It’s moments like these that brought you back to the sport I’m sure.
MS: Yeah, it’s those moments that definitely you enjoy deeply. It’s just a wonderful feeling to back after such a long time. We were a couple of times close to it. It happened in a pretty spectacular way on a track where it is difficult to pass but due to various strategies and differences on track it was pretty exciting and that’s obviously the best way, if you manage the way I did today to jump the podium unexpectedly makes you extra happy.
Finally, back to you Fernando. You described this as your best victory. After the disappointment of qualifying to the euphoria or today. How do you explain that, or is it just Formula One in 2012?
FA: That’s Formula One. That’s the best thing we can say. It’s unpredictable. Good results. Still a sport. Sport is about that. Sport is about the ups and downs. Yesterday, we had a tough moment. We were said not being in Q3. But you can never give up because anything can happen in sport in general and maybe more in Formula One. There are many factors inside, there are the cars, brakes, engines – anything can have a failure in the race. There are a lot of things we need to take care: the strategies, the start, the overtaking, manoeuvres. When you put all of these in one thing you have a Formula One grand prix. Today, we had an amazing race, amazing start, some good fights, I think I remember six or seven overtakings where it was very close, we touched each other. I touched Grosjean in the restart. All of those little moments can go on the wrong side and you finish the race in the wall, or you can be the winner at the end. And today, we had all the good factors with us and the luck and we have to enjoy this.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Fernando, well done. Tell us about the pleasure of winning here at home in Spain.
FA: I don’t know what to say really. It’s an amazing feeling. As I said in the other press conference I still can remember Barcelona in 2006, now, so years after the win. So probably I will have better and better memories of today with time. Right now, it’s just too many things on my feelings and too many thanks to give to all the team, all the fans, all the support that I felt all weekend. Especially yesterday after the qualifying, you never think that you can do a good result or that you can fight for the podium or something like that. When you find yourself third in the race after the safety car, I said: ‘hopefully there is the chequered flag now and I enjoy this podium celebration.’ Two laps later I overtake Grosjean on the restart and you think again ‘hopefully the race finishes now’. Then Vettel stopped and it was a very long race until the end and, yeah, I enjoyed so much this moment. But as I said, difficult to out in words what I’m feeling.
Were you worried that the tyres were going to drop off at the end just as they did in Canada?
FA: No, they did. I was not worried. They did. They did, about eight laps from the end. I said to the team ‘the tyres are finished, we need to do something’. They said: ‘wait one more sector because they are not quicker than you at this moment’. The next sector they were the same as me. So they said: ‘wait one more lap to see how much quicker they are’ and the next lap they were the same time as us. Wait another lap and wait another and then it was three laps from the end and they were in the same lap times and we went until the end. But the tyres were as finished as in Canada but it was for everybody this time.
You mentioned a problem with the car at the end. Was that something that was also affecting the closing laps?
FA: No, I don’t think so. The car felt OK and then on the in-lap I had an emergency call to stop the car. So it was feeling OK.
So do you not know what was wrong with the car?
FA: No, I had too many things to enjoy in that moment to ask what happened in the car.
Kimi, quite a busy race for you too, what with battles with Maldonado and Hamilton.
KR: Yeah, I got a pretty good start but then in the first right-hander, the little kink, I got blocked by Maldonado so I had to back off. I lost quite a few places there, so at that point onwards it was a case of trying to catch up and try to get past people. I managed to pass some, but it was difficult to pass today. I got sight of Maldonado a few times but he pushed me wide. I tried and tried and then in the end I managed to get past some people and after the safety car I managed to get past people also. On the restart, I lost a place to Hamilton. I just got too much wheelspin out of the corner. It was quite a busy race actually. Then, when I was in the third place, a few cars retired and I thought I would try to save the tyres a bit and try to get Hamilton at some point. I saw him sliding a bit. So I think it was the second-last lap or something but I got him in the end. OK the result second after all things we went through in the race but of course you’re never happy until you win. And for the team, bad luck. It would have been much nicer to have both cars on the podium.
And your tyres. Were they shot at the end?
KR: Yeah, the rear tyres were pretty bad. Especially in the middle of the circuit. There were three or four corners that were really bad. The rest was not so bad. I think everybody had similar issues.
Michael those last few laps – you took on new tyres 16 laps from the end – must have been amazing, especially with yellow flags and all sorts of things going on. What was it like? Tell us.
MS: Yeah. Certainly I wasn’t aware I was going in the direction of a podium. Even crossing the line I wasn’t aware at that stage. But, being pretty heavily involved for most of the race in some kind of battling and then having Webber all the time on my tail and needing to fight forward but needing to pay attention to the back, that was very exciting. But that’s what I’m here for: to be excited and those guys got me excited, no doubt. And hearing finally the message P3 – yeah, that’s a sweet finish to an unexpected end.
Particularly because you and Nico were outside the points. He finished about sixth, picking up about four places in the last few laps. Extraordinary race for you guys.
MS: Yeah, we obviously had a late decision converting from a one-stop to a two-stop strategy, which meant we had good tyres towards the end of the race, when other people either did a one or an early two-stop strategy and therefore struggled by the end because they had no tyres left.
And all those points must be very welcome.
MS: Yeah, I guess it has changed my count a little bit, from the two points I had so far. They’re more than welcome.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, an amazing victory but yesterday you sort of predicted what could happen today, when asked if you were sad or angry, you said ‘well, the result is no good, there are two people who are challenging me for the leadership. Vettel and Hamilton are in front but we will have to wait until tomorrow.’ You never know what can happen, and that happened.
FA: Yeah, it was another example of Fridays and Saturdays in Formula One, which are OK, are fun, are good to make some grid order in terms of performance of the car and it’s good to check where you are exactly, but at the end of the day, Friday practice is one thing, when we all normally test different parts of the car, and then Saturday is OK, it’s much better and easier to start on the first rows of the grid, for sure, to make a clean race, but until the chequered flag, anything can happen and until today at two o’ clock we had quite a bad weekend and now we have had a very good weekend. It’s something that we need to remember, always, that until the last lap in the race, we need to be positive and to trust in ourselves.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez– El Mundo) Fernando, the last time that we saw you cry was in Abu Dhabi 2010. Now you have been crying again. Can you explain the atmosphere and the team’s hard work over the past month?
FA: No, it was more for my own feelings and the people in the grandstands. I know it’s not the best time in Spain at the moment, with the crisis and all the problems that people have. To come to a Grand Prix you have to make something extra to come here, so there are families who have made long trips to come here, they sleep in the car or in a caravan or whatever, they try to enjoy the race and yesterday… it’s not that you feel sad, we didn’t deliver what they were probably expecting, so today I think we paid back a little bit – only a little bit – the support that they gave us and all the problems that they are facing, all the worries that the Spanish people are facing at this time, together with the football team – yesterday we saw all the flags in the windows and on the street etc so there is some kind of pride in being Spanish right now with the sport: with Nadal, with the Spanish football team etc and I felt that I needed to do something and today is a very emotional day.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, now you obviously believe in this title because of two impressive victories and some luck this year which you haven’t had in other years. Do you believe in this title?
FA: I think we always need to be cautious and we always need to be honest with ourselves first and with our supporters, saying that we will fight, will work day and night to be competitive and to fight for the title which is the ultimate goal for Ferrari. Any championship in which we participate, the championship should be the target, regarding the history and the level of the team. But yesterday we were P11 and P13 so we need to work. It’s true that we believe and we will never give up, we will have confidence in ourselves and we will arrive with optimism at every Grand Prix we go to, but at the same time, apart from winning today or finishing sixth today, we know that we are not in the position that we want to be and there are a few cars quicker than us and we cannot be blind to that. We need to work.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Il Corriere Della Sera) Michael, you were back on the podium, the first since you came back with Mercedes. Is the feeling what you imagined or is it something different now?
MS: I don’t know what I mentioned or didn’t mention but the point is that it is a beautiful feeling, not only being on the podium but the way it has happened. It was not at all expected. All weekend, I predicted this to be a difficult one for us and it started to be difficult yesterday in qualifying, mainly because of my own mistakes and to recover from where we are, getting to third position is just awesome. The team and myself have been criticised here and there, particularly lately, and this is the best way to answer criticism, to go back and deliver as we did today, and therefore I’m proud, thankful and very excited.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Michael, you said you will think about your future during the summer. Summer is beginning and you begin the summer with a podium. Does it change something for next year?
MS: I don’t think I ever said any kind of time, neither did I say summer and if you may apologise, I have no further news on that matter, so give me the time that I need and we will see.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Michael, what did you feel when you were jumping on the podium and you saw two guys who were at Ferrari after you and you saw Stella (Andrea Stella, Alonso’s race engineer who represented Ferrari on the podium) who was one of the…
MS: Yeah, well that’s what we were joking about. Andrea is Fernando’s engineer and used to be our engineer in the past and in a way it’s the order. The current driver he works for is first, the second last was Kimi and I was the third last. It’s a funny coincidence and it’s great to see him up there. He’s been doing a great job. I still remember those days and I’m happy for Fernando and the team to have achieved what they did today here and particularly the words that Fernando just said, I think everybody can feel with him and I’m just happy for them.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) The second question was about the difference between now and in the past. You criticised the tyres a little bit on Saturday, saying ‘we can’t exploit our potential.’ Do you feel that your skill is penalised?
MS: Forgive me if we only think about the positive aspects of what happened today.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando it was a complicated race, also for you coming from P11 to P1. When you look back at it, was there one key moment, was there one point where you can say ‘if I hadn’t done that, I would not have won this Grand Prix’?
FA: I think there are four or five moments in that race which changed our result. Probably the start and the first lap were very aggressive, nearly touched in the first corner, turn four I think I overtook two cars braking on the outside. That, for sure, maybe changed because we had Button… we were fighting in turn one, and then Button was like P14 or something like that. If you finish in his position, maybe the race is more difficult so we were lucky at that moment. We were lucky in some of the overtaking, I think, with Maldonado and with Webber and Michael as well, at the moment we went out of the pits. For sure, Grosjean overtaking me was very risky at the restart. We touched in the first two corners. After we touched each other I felt that the car was not very good. When you have a little contact with someone, for whatever reason you feel that the car is wrong for the next two corners, because you are so worried that something happened and that maybe you convince yourself that something has happened. But then one lap later the times were OK and the car was good. Those were the key moments of the race, plus the last stint, as I said, the tyres were finished so we had to control the tyre wear plus the pressure from Grosjean, the pressure from Hamilton, with Kimi at the end – not a single lap to relax, in a way.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, did the team tell you that Hamilton had an incident with Maldonado?
FA: They told me yellow flags in turn 12. There was a car on the outside and then I saw it was a McLaren.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Kimi, is it realistic to believe that if you had overtaken Hamilton before that you could attack Alonso?
KR: I would have overtaken if I could. I was not waiting for the last or second last lap. I just didn’t have the speed. I just had to wait until he ran out of his tyres. Then I got the chance. I tried to get closer and closer but I was not fast enough earlier on, otherwise I would definitely have tried to overtake. But basically I let him past at the restart. After the bridge, I made a mistake and he got past me. It was my own mistake.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Fernando, given the roller-coaster of emotions, the fact that you’ve re-taken the World Championship lead, the tyres having gone off, the Spanish situation – how do you rate this victory in your 29 races that you’ve won to date?
FA: I think from the emotional side this is the best one. The emotions that I felt on the in lap, or during the podium ceremony or right now, I think doesn’t compare to anything before. I confirm that this is the best feeling of victory by far, because the whole situation in Spain, as I said, and the grandstands, the weekend in general, how they support us. In terms of the race itself, or driving, probably they were a little better. We pushed, but as we said, these days races are decided by little factors and today we had retirements from Grosjean then from Vettel. We had the tyres, the safety car when we took the opportunity to stop as probably everybody did but we did a stop. I think there are maybe races like this year in Malaysia that I feel more proud of the driving itself.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi and Michael, about the championship, if you had to bet some money, would you put that money on Fernando or is there still some room for Vettel and Hamilton?
KR: I don’t even know what the points are so it’s a bit difficult to say. We’ve seen how quickly things can change this year. You only need one bad race and the guy wins so I wouldn’t put money, probably use it for something else.
MS: Things change so quickly – maybe I put money on myself.
Valencia, 24 June 2012: Force India will take home 16 points from Valencia after a strong weekend saw Nico Hulkenberg land his best finish of the year with fifth and Paul Di Resta race a one-stop strategy to seventh.
Hulkenberg started eighth, on a two-stop strategy that saw him race used softs until a lap-14 switch to the medium compound. He stopped again on lap 28 for a second set of mediums and then attempted carve his way through the field.
Initially the plan worked, with the German climbing steadily from 12th to fifth, but as his long third stint ground on his tyres began to fade and he began to struggle. He could have been vaulted to third when Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado clashed while battling for the position, but at the same time, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber, on newer soft tyres, were sweeping past to leave the Force India stuck in fifth.
Afterwards through, Hulkenberg hailed the performance as a “great achievement”.
“A great result for everyone in the team today and for me personally,” he said. “Fifth place is a great achievement after a very long and difficult race. The two-stop strategy worked well, but the last stint was very long and it was hard to hold off the cars behind me on fresher tyres in the last few laps.
“So the race was a bit messy at times, but very entertaining and it feels great to come through and score such a good result for the team. We got a bit lucky with some cars dropping out, but we were in the right place to capitalise on things so I’m very happy about today.”
Di Resta, meanwhile, started the race from 10th on the on grid and on used soft tyres. He nursed those through to lap 23 when he took on medium tyres, which he tried to keep alive until the end of the race.
The strategy could have yielded a better result but a safety car in mid-race allowed the front runners a free stop and Di Resta’s chances were compromised. He battled on however, but his performance faded slightly as the tyres degraded in the closing stages and he too was passed by Schumacher and Webber. He did, however, cling on to seventh place.
“We went very aggressive by only stopping once and in fact we were the only car to pull off this strategy,” Of course, when you’re stopping once you really don’t want a safety car period and it certainly hurt my race and cost me some track position.
“But with the way the race unfolded we can’t be too disappointed to finish seventh and it’s great to have another two-car points finish. On the whole our relative pace through the race was strong, but it was hard to keep the tyre performance towards the end and I was really fighting the car in the closing laps. There was some attrition ahead of us, but we were there to pick up the points when it mattered.”
The second day at the European Grand Prix had a much more positive ending than yesterday for HRT Formula 1 Team as its drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan completed the team’s and their personal best qualifying sessions of the season. De la Rosa, whose mechanics worked intensely on repairing his car after his accident in FP2, and Karthikeyan finished the morning’s practice session with a good vibe that persisted through into the definitive qualifying session. Both the strategy and the drivers maintained a good level and Pedro and Narain finished 21st and 22nd respectively in front of the devoted fans.
A HRT car in Valencia qualifying on Saturday. Narain starts on P22. HRT photo.
: “We made some specific set-up changes for qualifying which definitely helped as we completed our best qualifying session of the season so far. We’re ahead of the Marussias, which is very important, and clocking similar times to Pedro so I’m very happy with the result. I hope to carry the momentum over into tomorrow’s race where we’ll have to keep a close eye on the heat. But we’re in better conditions than in Canada and should be able to put in a good performance. I’m heading into the race full of confidence after today and hope to achieve a good result”.
The high temperatures and characteristics of this street circuit will test the car and the driver equally, meaning that the excitement is guaranteed in tomorrow’s 57-lap race.
Pedro de la Rosa: “Today’s qualifying was very good. After yesterday’s incident it took me no time to be quick again, so I applaud my team for their effort last night to fix the car. I’m also happy to have finished ahead of our direct rivals as I wasn’t expecting it. As for tomorrow’s race, we don’t really know what will happen. All the new brake ducts which we brought to this race got damaged in yesterday’s crash and now we won’t be able to use them so we will be going to the limit but, as always, and even more so racing at home, we will give everything so that our fans can be proud”.
Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: “We’re extremely satisfied with the job done by the entire team today. We got things right both in the garage and on the track and we’re improving more every time. At a circuit that could have been complicated we have confirmed that we’ve taken a step forwards since Barcelona and the team is closer to where we want to be. Pedro’s lap was very good; in fact it was the best in the season so far. To be precise his time was 103.4%. Narain also did a fantastic job and made the most of his gaps and tyres to complete his best qualifying session to date. This goes to show that the work being carried out by the team is very good. Tomorrow’s race will be tough, especially for the brakes, and the biggest question mark is how the cooling will perform over a long distance but we’re confident that we’ll get both cars over the finish line in front of our fans”.
Strong show by Sahara Force India
Meanwhile, a release from Sahara Force India says that the team continued to show strong form in Valencia as Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta qualified in eighth and tenth places respectively for Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia.
P8 Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)
Q1: 1:39.009
Q2: 1:38.689
Q3: 1:38.752
Nico: “I think overall it’s a great result for the team to get both cars into Q3, but maybe we were hoping for a little bit more than P8 and P10, especially considering how we have performed so far this weekend. I don’t think the increase in temperatures helped us because the car felt more difficult to drive today and a bit nervous at times. For the race tomorrow we are still near the front and will take the fight to the cars around us to try and come away with some points.”
P10 Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)
Q1: 1:38.858
Q2: 1:38.519
Q3: 1:38.992
Paul: “It was a strong qualifying session but I feel I could have been higher up the grid because I didn’t get the perfect lap together in Q3. We were the quickest car in Q2 and if I could have repeated that lap time in Q3 I would have been a couple of rows higher up the grid. I was trying to squeeze a little bit extra from the car but I locked a wheel and lost time in the final sector. I will try and focus on the positives because we have been strong in all the sessions, the car is well dialled into the circuit, and I think we will have good race pace for tomorrow.”
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
“Another extremely close qualifying hour and I’m pleased that we were able to get two cars into Q3 for the first time this year. The car has been extremely quick throughout practice and we showed that again today with some very competitive times in Q1 and Q2. When it came to Q3 both drivers didn’t quite deliver perfect laps, which costs us a few positions on the grid, but we are still well placed to fight for points finishes with both cars.We expect a tough race tomorrow with very hot temperatures once again, but the car is strong, we have a good understanding of the tyres and our long run pace looks promising.”
Valencia (Spain), 23 June 2012: Sebastian Vettel scored his third consecutive European Grand Prix pole position with a superb last-ditch lap at the Valencia street circuit. Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside the champion on the front row, with Pastor Maldonado third for Williams.
Narain Karthikeyan of HRT will be ahead this on 22nd position behind teammate Pedro de la Rosa whil both the Sahara Force India teams have made it inside the top 10 with Hulkenberg looking good for more points this time around.
Vettel made his way through the first two segments of the hour-long session in safe but unspectacularly fashion, finishing Q1 in 14th position and in fourth place in the second section. In the final top-10 shoot-out, the champion stayed in the garage until the very end of the session to conserve a set of option tyres. But when he did emerge for his single run it was with intent. He set best times for the first two sectors and crossed the line just over three tenths ahead of Hamilton.
Afterwards, Red Bull driver admitted that he had struggled early on.
“We had one shot there at the end which turned out to be a very good lap,” he said. “Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have in practice. It was a good recovery. We had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because I don’t think my first lap was good enough.”
But as the track improved, the defending champion felt that an opportunity existed to battle for the front of the grid.
“In final qualifying, I knew going at the end [of the session], if the track comes in a little more, it should be good enough to have a look at pole,” he said. “I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together and I was very happy it was enough for pole. In the end it was a surprising gap. The boys have been working hard in the garage and at the factory to bring new parts. They seem to work. I’m looking forward to race tomorrow.”
For Hamilton it was a similarly difficult session.
“I expected to be lot further back because we struggled all weekend with the set-up,” said the Briton. “Going from P3 into qualifying, we had to make a guess with the set-up. It seemed to work OK. I was able to get out the lap when I needed it – but obviously not quite as good as Sebastian did. However, the guys did a great job to get me a gap, and the car felt pretty good but I think the gap is quite big here.”
The big news before Q1 was that Marussia’s Timo Glock would not be taking part in the session, Marussia revealing that the German had been “fighting a bug” since Thursday and had felt so unwell after FP3 that he would not be able to compete in qualifying. His fitness to race will be assessed tomorrow morning.
The big news by the end of the session was that Mark Webber was the major front-running loser. The Australian had turned just four laps in the morning session, with work on the front end of his car eating up all but the first few minutes of the final free practice hour.
Disadvantaged by that, he did a run on the prime tyres in Q1 but quickly returned to the garage. Then he opted to switch to the soft tyres in a bid to ensure passage through to the second segment. However, a hydraulic problem hampered his progress and Webber was eventually dropped to a 19th place start.
“We had no DRS, and that’s about 1.3 seconds. It makes it very difficult when you have no DRS,” he said. “The car’s put up a good fight today. We only ran a few laps all day and three of those were in qualifying. One lap on the prime at the start and then we had to box, because it was playing up with the gearbox, the hydraulics. And then the guys did the right thing to put on the option as we were in a desperate situation then, to get through. It was very tight obviously. The lap time wasn’t too bad with the DRS out but it doesn’t help with the situation.”
The second segment would see more front runners struggle – most particularly Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and also Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.
Both Ferrari drivers opted to do an opening run on medium tyres as their rivals mostly went for the soft option and when Ferrai also switched to the soft option both failed to make the most of a single run on the compound. With the times incredibly tight, Alonso’s lap, three tenths off top man Romain Grosjean’s 1:38.489, was only good enough for 11th place. Schumacher finished the session 12th with Massa one place behind.
“I’m not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me – I didn’t get my lap together,” said Schumacher. “On my first run, I was too aggressive in turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap and pit because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve. After that, I was a bit too conservative on the second run and that cost us, because the times were so close today.”
That left the final word to Vettel, whose blistering Q3 lap was enough to hand him a second pole in a row, following his front-of-grid start in Canada. Looking ahead to the race the Red Bull Racing driver admitted that in a season as unpredictable as this, pole was no guarantee of anything.
“I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict,” he said. “We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than [the race result] tomorrow. I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not as important.”
Congratulations Sebastian, a third pole in a row at this race and only one flying lap in Q3 to try to do it.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, one shot there in the end, which turned out to turned out to be a very good lap. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have early on this weekend, yesterday and this morning during practice. Yeah, good recovery throughout qualifying. Unfortunately, we had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because it was very tight. I think my time would not have been good enough, I set with the first set. So it was good to go again. But then in the last qualifying I knew that going at the end if the track comes in a little bit more and tying the lap together it should be good enough maybe to look at pole. In the end it was a surprising gap but all in all I felt very well this weekend. The boys have been working incredibly hard in the garage, all the people in the factory as well to make sure that we bring a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.
Lewis, a front row for you. Sebastian says it was a surprising gap at the end. Did you expect it to be much closer in Q3?
Lewis HAMILTON: To be honest, I expected to be a lot further back. We’ve struggled all weekend, just with set-up and you know going from P3 to qualifying we had to make some guesses as to what kind of set-up we wanted to change. It seemed to work OK and I’m really, really surprised. The guys obviously did a great job, as always, to get me a good gap and while the car still felt pretty good, I think the gap is still pretty big here and it will be a tough race tomorrow for sure, as always.
Is that just the way it is in 2012 then? You go from winning one race weekend and on the next one you struggle and you’re not quite sure where you are?
LH: I think so. At least it appeared so when we first started practicing here yesterday. But generally, I think, you look at the grid, because it’s so hot, the Lotus cars look massively competitive. I think they’re going to be the ones to watch out for tomorrow. I’m sure the Ferraris will be very quick on their long runs as well. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, we just have to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions.
Yes, 2012 is unpredictable, but Pastor, one is for certain, you quite like Spain don’t you?
Pastor MALDONADO: I think we’ve been working so hard. The car has been quite quick from yesterday. We were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were confused because I didn’t feel the same feeling with the prime tyres but then we’ve working so hard trying to understand what was happening with the car this morning, still struggling, especially with the option tyres. But for quali we understand a little bit the way, and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job. Williams is getting better and better every time. I’m pretty happy for the team, pretty happy for my country and it’s going to be a great opportunity to get on the podium and fight for a good result.
You did, though, use seven sets of tyres during the course of that qualifying hour. How much of a disadvantage does that put you at for tomorrow’s race?
PM: I think for the long run, for us, the prime tyres were a bit better. We had more range and they were even quicker after a couple of laps. We have tyres enough to race and get very competitive. I’m not worried about that. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll see from the start what happens with the strategy, that will be very important, essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and very difficult for everybody. So looking forward, let’s see.
Finally, back to you Sebastian. Lewis has outlined some of the potential battles for tomorrow’s race. Where do you see the big threat coming from, or have you, by saving a set of tyres, ensured that you’ll make it a hat-trick of victories as well?
SV: Well, it would be nice, no doubt. I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict. We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than tomorrow. It’s less hard than predicting the ranking tomorrow. I think it’s going to be tough, as Pastor touched on. It’s going to be hot tomorrow – a bit hotter than today even. So yeah, there will be obviously a lot of cars to look out for tomorrow. I think Ferrari has been very competitive. Williams have been quick yesterday on their long runs. Lotus, I think they’ve proven in Bahrain, the first time we had hot conditions, that they’re up there. So, I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not a
Sebastian, well done, your third consecutive pole, does that mean it’s going to be followed by your third consecutive win? Or does that not mean anything any longer in 2012?
SV: Well it does, so it would be nice, I think… I’m very happy to be here now because, to be honest, we had a very good weekend. Yesterday was very good, I felt comfortable in the car, this morning I felt very good, even though we didn’t get to finish the run on the soft tyre but this afternoon we started and I think we were a little bit off, compared to where we were the whole weekend. And we played a little bit of catch-up through Q1 and Q2: you don’t have that many runs. And we had to go out again in Q2. It was very tight. We saw I think Fernando was just not quick enough for Q3 and I think I was a little bit slower than that, so if we could have stayed in the garage then, yeah, we would not be here now – so it was a good call from the guys on the pitwall, and yeah, obviously we knew then we only had one set of options left, and tried to give it the best shot in the end. I knew that if I get the lap together, plus whatever we tried in qualifying with the car… I mean you can’t really do much, you can’t really change the setup but you can play a little bit with the settings you have inside the car: differential, front wing, and yeah, I think we caught up. And I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together in the three sectors – which was good enough for pole. So, I’m very happy, especially after the effort that has gone in, as I touched on, from the guys here but also from the guys in the factory. We’ve got a couple of new bits here, they seem to be a step forward, which is very good.
I’m told it’s more than a couple of new bits. I’m told it’s quite a large number of bit…
SV: Well it depends. We’ve tried a lot, we’ve been pushing very hard, to be honest. I think it’s difficult this year. I think we see everyone is very close to each other and everyone is pushing. If you at McLaren, if you look at Ferrari, if you look at Mercedes. The big teams have more resources, probably, to bring new parts than other teams and they have been bringing more than a couple. A couple is two, so maybe we have also bought more than two – but nevertheless, other teams are up there. Force India was incredibly quick all weekend: yesterday I thought it was just a surprise but even on very low fuel it would have been a very competitive lap time and they confirmed it today. I think in the end they ran out of tyres but in terms of lap times, they weren’t far off in Q2. It’s tight, it’s difficult to make the right step and that’s why I’m quite happy to be honest.
I’m not sure what your team-mate’s problems were but presumably you had no similar problems.
SV: It’s a bit of a shame, because the potential is there. I think Mark would have had a solid qualifying, no doubt and we would have qualified in the same area with a normal qualifying for him. But he had a problem, with the brakes I think this morning and I’m not sure what happened this afternoon – so it’s really a shame because you always hope for the team as well to get the best possible result – but nevertheless, yeah, I think the race is long tomorrow, the pace was there on Friday for him as well, so confident he will come back.
But you’ve had no similar problems.
SV: No, as I said, the only problem he had was the brakes this morning and this afternoon I don’t know. But I didn’t have any problems fortunately.
Lewis, on pole here in 2009 and three second places over the years. Given the problems you had yesterday, you sound as though you’re pretty happy about today’s performance.
LH: Yeah. As I was saying, I’ve really struggled all weekend with setup. During the year I’ve not really struggled too much to get the right balance but particularly today, and yesterday was a real struggle. But you have those weekends sometimes. You can’t always get it perfect. Made some changes going into qualifying that I was just praying would work. And they seemed to have worked, so I was quite happy with the balance that I had. And I was able to… and to be able to get out the lap when you need it, just like Sebastian did. But obviously not as quick as his. But to be able to go out and do those single laps and make sure you maximise the potential of what you have – that really does satisfy me, so I’m happy with where we are.
It’s just been so close at this circuit. Even though it’s a long lap it’s been so close and literally thousandths of a second have made a big difference.
LH: Absolutely. It’s very, very surprising. Well, not surprising but it’s very interesting to see so many of the teams improving and continuing to bring updates and to see the pack close up. I think it’s great to see all the teams so competitive. It makes it even more challenging for us as individuals and also for the teams to up their game. And also for us drivers to make sure we’re on top of our game when we’re out there.
How much of a different is it going to be with one DRS zone here? I think there were two last year and this year one.
LH: To be honest I have no recollection of what happened last year. But, I don’t know, Overtaking here is always difficult. It’s always difficult to follow as it is in Monaco. Particularly going through Turn 10 maybe, is it? Going onto the back straight. It’s not that easy to follow through out there. But the DRS, I guess, will definitely come into play throughout the race. Hopefully I’ll have some chance. Who knows, we’ll see what.
We’ve seen a number of drivers going off at the end of the straight Pastor, and today we saw you go off as well. Is this going to be a major problem during the race, do you think?
PM: I don’t’ think so. I was just not ready for the lap. It was so difficult. As you saw, many drivers were struggling on braking, especially with the front. But I think today was a really good day for the team. We did pretty good, especially because this morning it was very difficult for us – but we understand a bit the way how to make quite well the tyres. And here we are.
Was it a little bit of guesswork, do you think? Lewis touched on guesswork. Normally it’s pure theory.
PM: Right now, everything is too tight. Everything is too tight and it’s very difficult to make the difference. I saw Q2, and just off one-tenth I was in P7. You can imagine everything counts now. It’s very difficult. Even for tomorrow, it’s going to be a difficult race. We need to be… we need to stay on the safe side, trying to stay competitive and to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday. We need to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday and then we’ll see.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Pastor, would you be happy to finish on the podium tomorrow, or are you hoping for more?
PM: For sure, the points are very important for the team. It will be good to be on the podium but for sure if we can go for more, I will try my best like always, then we will see. Tomorrow the strategy is going to be very important. The team is ready, so looking forward to that.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis and Sebastian: you are the best of those going for pole. Is there any secret to the last lap that you do, and what are your thoughts before going out for that final lap?
LH to SV: What is your secret?
SV: Can’t tell you. I’m not sure whether there is a secret. Qualifying, we know, is all about one lap and to be honest, today it was very difficult, very tricky because the wind plays a huge role here, sometimes blowing more than at other times, with gusts and generally it seems to be very slippery. Obviously the grip is lower than last year because the cars have less downforce and it makes it quite tricky, as we touched on. A lot of drivers lock up easily under braking, especially in qualifying when you want to brake as late as you can, but knowing that if you lock up you miss the apex and then you lose time. It’s quite difficult but ideally you just try to go through the lap before it happens – at least I had a little bit of time in Q3 – and try to focus on the key points, go through what I have to do and what I have to look out for and then it seems that I did so in the last run. So happy that I got everything together, just on the limit, and got the best out of the car, so I was very happy with the last run.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado deSao Paulo) Sebastian, you have a lot of new parts on your car and the first time you’re going to use them in race conditions will be tomorrow, in these very hard conditions. Are you worried about the reliability of your car, considering there are so many new things?
SV: No. You’re right, obviously it’s the first time because the first time they were on the car was on Friday and since Friday there was no Grand Prix. It makes it difficult but there’s always a first time for everything. Obviously we try to build the parts so that they are reliable so as I said, I’m not worried. I think it will be tough, it will be hot but it’s not the worst race of the year for the car in terms of the ambient conditions, so I’m quite confident.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian and Lewis: do you realise that you have a big opportunity tomorrow to keep a huge advantage to the third guy who we suppose is a contender in the championship, Fernando Alonso. Are you working on a strategy to save points?
LH: No. I anticipate that they will come through very strongly throughout the race, so whilst qualifying for some cars is not important, you look at the Lotuses and you look at… even Mark will be very competitive tomorrow. They have great long run pace and they can look after the tyres better than others, due to low speed downforce. I also know that Ferrari had upgrades this week – at least so Fernando told me – so I anticipate that they are going to be very competitive. Again, as I said, I’m very surprised for us because we didn’t have any upgrades this weekend and so to be where we are is a big bonus for us.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) From what you have learned about the tyres here, can it be another race like Montreal where people in the race come out of nowhere with different strategies or different tyre management?
SV: I think Montreal was different; the tyre choice was different in Montreal. We had the supersoft and soft and I think we already saw on Friday in Montreal that the tyres last pretty well. On Sunday then, some people were able to prove that doing a one stop and obviously when it’s close between one and two stops then there can be a difference and people come out of nowhere. Lewis did the right thing, two weeks ago, by going with two stops. We did the wrong thing but I think it should be different here. The race is not so many laps and the tyres are a little bit different. It’s going to be hot again but I think it’s a different race, different track, different conditions.
Q: (Panayiotis Seitandis – Alpha TV) I would like to ask all three drivers: given the fact that this is a street circuit, next year we have New Jersey, we now have an effort in Greece to have a similar race in Athens. What do you think is the perfect mixture between street circuits and proper (permanent) circuits and of course what’s your opinion about coming to race in Formula One in Greece?
LH:I don’t know how many street circuits compared to other circuits we should have, but I love street circuits. They always provide entertaining races, perhaps not always the tracks that enable you to overtake as often as other places like Spa but still, as a driver, they are the most fun because on street circuits you have less room for error. I’ve only ever been to Greece once. I went years and year and years ago with Nico Rosberg. We went on holiday there, when I was about 13 and I’ve been dying to go back ever since. I was going to go earlier on this year but the weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I imagine at some stage in the future, once the world and Greece is past the stage they’re in now, I think we would welcome a race – at least I would.
SV: As Lewis touched on, I think street circuits are always good fun. It’s a different challenge because you haven’t got room for error, but one thing you can’t have on a street circuit is fast corners, really, because there’s no run-off and no space. I think the street circuits that we have are pretty quick but it’s maybe the exception. If you would build a new track again or look for a new layout you probably wouldn’t go that close to the limit, knowing what could happen, so therefore we need to make sure it’s not going to be all street circuits in the future but surely, it’s very good fun, a lot of bumps and that makes it very technical, very difficult, challenging for us and if we could have a race in Athens it would be great. It’s a beautiful country, I was there last year so yeah, obviously there’s a lot going on right now and it’s not looking too good but being German, we are doing our best to help – not yesterday, that’s sport! As I say, it would be great and a great opportunity for Formula One as well, but I don’t know if there are any plans so we’ll have to wait.
PM: I agree with Lewis and Seb. I think it’s not only fun for us as drivers, I think it’s fun for the fans and I think we need both conditions just to try to put Formula One in the top position. Spain, here, is a great one, especially because of the city and a lot of facilities but the future is like that. We follow the future and for sure we enjoy these kind of tracks.
Q: (Sylvia Renée Arias – Revista Parabrisas Argentina) Pastor, I would like to know if there is extra power for you to have all these people coming from Venezuela, more than 100 people? Do you feel it’s nearly like a home Grand Prix?
PM: It’s not a proper home race but here in Spain we have a big community of Venezuelans and as well, it’s quite easy (to get here) from Venezuela, we have many flights. It’s a really good feeling to see them, especially in the stands, full of flags. It’s good. I hope to give them back some good news tomorrow, so we will see.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) We had 0.291 from Grosjean first to Massa in Q2. Does this tiny difference make you drive accurately; does it change your approach with the team’s set-up? What does it change in your regular work?
SV: I think it makes it extremely difficult. I know exactly what happened to Fernando because I had the same in China. There were three tenths; Mark was first in Q2 and I was eleventh. It’s not nice, because you probably always know that if you’re looking for five hundredths which would be enough, a little bit here and there, but that’s the risk you have to take to set the time in the first place, but it’s tight and there’s very little room for error, especially like here where it’s very slippery, very easy to lose a little bit, lock up the wheel towards the apex, don’t get it perfectly right, maybe the exit is not 100 percent either, so it’s tricky but you have to attack otherwise you’re not there in the first place.
LH: No, it doesn’t really change the approach in qualifying, you’re always attacking and if anything it just means you need to be more precise.
PM: I think now, with these gaps, you just need to put everything together just to be there. It’s difficult for everybody, especially for the tyres, to get the maximum out of the tyres is not easy and when you get it, you are here.
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Riad ASMAT (Caterham), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Luis PEREZ SALA (HRT), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus).
Franz, as it’s your first time in the press conference this year, can you give us an assessment of your two new drivers? They’ve had time to settle down. Two drivers for whom there are a lot of new circuit too.
Franz TOST: Yes. Daniel Ricciardo, our driver from Australia, he is a little bit more experienced, he did already 11 races last year. So far he is doing a good job. He is a highly skilled driver. He is committed, with a positive attitude and so far I must say he is really doing a good job. Jean-Eric Vergne, his new, a French driver. Last year he did Formula Renault 3.5 litre and of course all the tracks are new for him. It’s not so easy, Friday morning, in the first session is to learn the tracks. But also he is a highly-skilled driver. I rate him very high. He is doing a good job and improving from race to race and if we provide the drivers with a good car they show a good performance.
The car itself: Is the team able to ensure that the car is maintaining a good position, even catching the teams in front?
FT: We started the season quite successfully with ninth place in Melbourne for Daniel Ricciardo and then eighth place in Sepang with Jean-Eric Vergne. Then afterward, I don’t know, we struggled a little bit. Our direct competitors improved their performance, Williams as well as Force India. They are clear in front of us. We brought some new parts here. We have to analyse the data and everything and hopefully set-up the car in a good way tomorrow for the qualifying and then for Sunday for the race. But there is a lot of work in front of us because currently the gap increased instead of decreasing.
Riad, first of all, I think you’ve got some developments here, but how much more can you do. How much closer can you get to the teams in front this year?
Riad ASMAT: I think what we’ve done is obviously going to be a progression but there is a huge push back home obviously with the team we have currently. We have some parts here, hopefully again we evaluated them today and if we get the set-up right for tomorrow then maybe we will pull a lucky one. But I’m more looking forward towards to Silverstone and onwards where more developments are being done for the car and hopefully by year’s end we’ll be able to prove our worth, where we actually aim to be this year.
And you’ve got changes to the team. The team is moving and you have John Iley now as well.
RA: Yes, it’s been positive. We had a real look over the past three years in terms of what we’ve done in terms of investment and in terms of people. More importantly people – the latest being John. He’s been with us a couple of months now and he’s actually very influential now with the performance levels we’re aiming for. Again, we’ll be moving to Leafield in August. I think that’s a definite plus for us. It’s a bit tight for us now in Hingham but with the ambitions we have currently I think Leafield is the right place for us.
Norbert, a certain amount has been made of the fact that you’ve had four mechanical failures on one car and the other one has done every single racing lap. How easy is it to explain that?
Norbert HAUG: Well, things like that happen. This is not our plan and we are not satisfied with these results for sure. I really feel sorry for Michael. This should not be the case, these are not our standards; the team can do a better job. But we need to have a calm and concentrated approach and I think all my colleagues here have been through phases like that. That happens in Formula One if you’re pushing and on the limit. But still, it is not our plan to be like that for sure. We will fix that. A lot of people are working in a concentrated and focused manner. Michael is a perfect team player and I would have every understanding if he would be critical but he never is outside the team, so he fully supports the team and we support him. I think he is an example for each and every driver. His behaviour is just first class and so authentic. I rate that very, very highly. Going through thick and thin he could complain and say ‘I should have as many points as Nico’ or stuff like that, but you never hear that. He’s a professional and he deserves good results. I hope they will come sooner rather than later. And again, he deserves that. We need to give him a fully competitive and fully reliable car and we’re working hard to achieve that.
We’re only a third of the way through the season, do you think Nico can win the world championship. Do you think Mercedes can be a world championship-winning team?
NH: Well, I think that whatever we did in the past, we have had at the last race the 300th race together with our partner McLaren-Mercedes and they won 73 grands prix. So we have been here for quite a while but what I think we never did is make any predictions or announcement saying ‘we are going to win the next race or fight for this or that’. We do our best job and we are doing it in a focused and concentrated manner. I think if you see that we have had two difficult at the beginning, Nico being on the last lap in Australia eighth and then he had a coming together with another car and lost points eight points and was 35 points down to the leader and now he’s 21 points down, so this is certainly the right direction. But we need to score points on a regular basis, we need to hopefully win more races and we are working, again… very focused on the direction. I think if you look at today, Nico did the fastest time on the prime tyre and then he was on the option. But he had this handicap of a yellow flag. Whatever Friday times mean, he would have been in a position to probably post the quickest time. And then the long runs look quite good. I don not know what that means compared to the others because you obviously do not know the fuel loads but our lap times were consistent. I think they have been in Canada. We have been very competitive in Monaco and we won in China. So the last five races I think we had three times good and convincing speed to be at the top or to mix with the top guys. Hopefully we can continue that trend. I would never go so far as to say we are definitely fighting for the world championship but of course it has to be the ultimate target. If we can achieve it, it would be fantastic and it would our ultimate goal for sure.
Luis, first of all, brake problems in Canada. Have you got them beat here, do you feel – as this is quite a tough circuit on brakes as well.
Luis PÉREZ-SALA: Yes, we knew from the beginning, from Melbourne, that our brake ducts were not perfect. We knew that Montreal was the biggest, maybe most difficult track for the brakes and here is one as well, one of the tracks were you can have problems with the brakes. But the data that we have this morning suggests we are going to be close to the limit but inside the limit.
Yesterday Pedro [de la Rosa] said how much he was enjoying bringing the team up, advancing the team. How much are you enjoying it?
LPS: Ha-ha! Really, I’m struggling a lot! But what is for me the worst thing of Formula One is that you have to travel a lot and be abroad from your house and far from the family. But this is a world that I like and I’m happy to be here and I try to push, to keep pushing, to try to get the team better and better each day.
Eric, many times we’ve been told that Lotus is ready to win. The question is which driver? Who would you put your money on?
Eric BOULLIER: I never put money on anything or anybody. I just wish one of my two drivers is going to be the eighth man, maybe this weekend. But rather than focussing on who will be the eighth man winning, I think it’s in our philosophy just to improve ourselves, to work hard, to clearly look at ourselves, to be better, to improve our weaknesses to make sure that we keep this consistency first – and if we can score podiums as well it is very important for the championship. And if we can have a win obviously I will be the most delighted guy.
Are you able to keep on top of development? Are you happy with the rate of development?
EB: Yeah, definitely. In 2010 we had a very strong rate of development, last year we had a strong rate but not as successful as we would have expected. This year is still good development: we have some good parts and good improvement in performance package that we bring not every race but nearly.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
(Wei An Mao – la Vie Creative) To all the gentlemen. As for the economic situation in Europe, do you think it will influence Formula One? Especially to all tracks in Europe in the future?
LPS: We have economic problems in my house – in my team! I think it is for everybody, economic problems, I think not only in Europe. Europe now is focussing on the situation but it’s something that we have and of course it’s going to touch us in some way. But this is still… I think this is not from this year: it’s come in from the last three or four years.
And is it going to affect Formula One?
LPS: Of course it’s touching us in some way. We are getting less money from sponsors; you have less money to spend on the cars, on the team.
Do you see the effect as well Norbert?
NH: Well, I mean the general issue is that we have to have this – however you call it – resource restrictions, limits, whatever – who does not see that? Who does not see what’s going on? We have to have limits, you know the figures of the medium and high class teams as good as I do. There should be limits of how to achieve it: that needs to be discussed but I think there are quite constructive and good ideas but we need to make sure that this comes through. This is an important step coming to the economic situation. I think that is part of the challenge. We have had bigger challenges in the past and I’m sure we will have even bigger ones in the future. You have some ups and downs and I think these times are very good for learning. You will always learn. You will learn how to be more efficient – so there are also positives. We just need to deal with the facts.
Franz?
FT: For sure it’s not good, the economic crisis in Europe and we are also working in Formula One to come down with the costs but thanks to Bernie we are not only racing in Europe, we are racing in areas where there is some money and no economic crisis: like India, like Australia, like Canada, like Brazil and like Saudi Arabia, with Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. We go to Russia, we are in China and I think that’s very, very important for Formula One, especially for the sponsors to be present all over the world. And this also prevents a major influence from the economic side on Formula One. Because all over the world, hopefully there is no crisis.
Riad, perhaps a comment from you?
RA: I think, I mean it’s a given, the economic crisis is not just this year, I have to agree, it’s been around for the last two years. But the fact is that it affects everyone around the world and business-wise obviously Formula One. As a team commercially you will be affected because the companies that want to be part of it will have to reduce their marketing budgets, so on and so forth. That being said, I agree with Norbert: we do need to look at what we’re doing internally and be more precise and be more resource restricted to a degree. It’s a matter of the business that we’re running at the end of the day: I have to make it as efficient as possible in the hope that we can sustain our being here. But it’s a given, we can’t avoid it, it’s there. We just have to be smarter – and one of the areas is to manage our own resources, and hopefully with us working together maybe we’ll find a solution.
Eric?
EB: I will do a résumé, I guess, of what has been said. We have to be sensitive to this economic crisis especially in Europe. And we have to monitor also us being based in Europe. We have the chance, as Franz says, that Bernie’s business model for Formula One is global. Our sport is the only global sport in the world, so thanks to this global platform, we, as a team, for example, have been able to bring some big names and new sponsors, like Microsoft, who were never in the Championship in Formula One. Obviously we don’t have to hide behind this, we have to be very careful about the impact of the economy in Europe but we are lucky that our sport is global.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To all five of you: a lot has been made recently about the cost-cutting, cost-saving measures in Formula One. Enshrining them in the regulations was discussed after Monaco on the Monday, it was discussed last week on Friday in the WMSC meeting. I believe you people had a follow-up meeting yesterday. Has anybody got any reservations about enshrining the cost-saving measures or cost-cutting measures, budget caps – whatever you want to call it – in the Formula One regulations?
EB: It’s true that actually it’s a good follow-up after the previous question. If you monitor the economical situation in some parts of the world, you obviously have to consider yourself and think not only that you’re plus one, you’re plus two but also you’re plus five. And it’s true that there are some very constructive discussions between the FIA, Bernie and teams today, to try to take conscience and to try to clearly understand what is Formula One and what will Formula One be in the future and what we want to do with Formula One. Formula One has already downsized its costs a lot but we believe there is some more work to be done and this is why there are all these discussions, but the more people around the table, the less easy it is to take radical decisions.
FT: We are discussing the resource restriction agreement. Currently we are mainly only discussing about the resource restriction agreement regarding the chassis. In my opinion, the chassis resource restriction agreement is one point but the costs – especially from 2014 onwards, which will come up and which will increase dramatically – is the powertrain, and therefore the resource restriction agreement for the powertrain would be for me or let me say for Toro Rosso even more important than for the chassis. It must be a complete package. I am really worried that we are discussing on one side the costs decrease, but from 2014 onwards, with this new powertrain and the new engine, with the new ERS system, pick-up batteries, the cost will dramatically increase and this is what we also have to discuss, which is quite important, the development and the research costs which will rise to develop this package.
NH: You need to deal with the facts. The engine lease years ago was twice as much as it is right now, that’s due to manufacturers bringing that down. I think that was a big help for all the teams. It’s very clear that if you develop a new engine that it costs money and I think Formula One has never had an engine formula like today, where basically everybody gets a competitive engine, ten teams at least. That needs to be mentioned. Then there was a process in the past deciding that a new engine has to be developed and of course that costs money. We worked very hard, together with the FIA, and we have the same opinion with the other manufacturers to bring costs down but this is over a period of five years, so the target has to be minus twenty, minus thirty percent over five years and I’m sure the engine lease will, over five years, be comparable to what we have right now, but we need to see that we will have a new engine, an engine that you can market in a very good way, if it comes to sustainable ??? and so on. We just need to have changes. I hear some voices saying ‘ delay the engine.’ One thing is for sure; if you delay the engine, you run two programmes in parallel one year longer and your customers will pay for that. We cannot have fully subsidised engines, this is not possible. I think the engine manufacturers especially have been very very fair and I would be pleased to hear that at one stage as well, because the engine lease was in excess of 25/30 million years ago and we brought it down, and I think that fact has to be mentioned. We can discuss aerodynamics and so on and so on. There are lots of areas where we can save money, but deciding and building and developing a new engine costs money – much less money than the last one, the V8, but we need to see where we are. I’m the first guy to support restrictions but then we need to do it in a coherent way: chassis, engine, whatever. Mercedes has always been one of the driving forces. I’m sure the Renault guys do not see it differently, the Ferrari guys do not see it differently. If we all work together we will achieve our targets but one thing is for sure: just listening to voices saying the engine is more expensive than it used to be. Let’s deal with the facts and then we know where it’s coming from.
RA: We’ve had numerous meetings on this matter but one thing is for sure is that everyone agrees that we need to reduce costs. I’ve been in this for two and a half years and I can see the level of exorbitant areas that could be managed better. The points are taken, we have discussed it. There are some ideas bandied around. The groups that are related to those areas will be talking to each other and hopefully soon enough we do come to a conclusion, but we have a position, obviously, and we will support anything with regard to resource restriction, we will support that all the while. I think there has been some improvement over the last two years from previous times, but there is a lot more we can do, I think, going forward. From our side, we will support anything that’s positive.
LPS: It’s clear that for the biggest teams there are going to be clear rules. They are going to reduce their budgets but I’m a bit worried about the small teams like us. To reduce our budget is not easy but even to stay with the same budget, I would say, will be difficult, because maybe next year it will be at the same level but we will need to understand how the situation will be in 2014, as Norbert says, what will be the cost of the KERS, the engine, to have a clear view of the future for us, maybe in five years’ time. I’m quite happy with Norbert that the engines have reduced a lot. I was not involved in Formula One as I am now but I remember the cost was large, maybe four or five times what it is now but I would like to maintain this level of costs for the future. It seems that it is going to be difficult, or we have to understand what the situation will be.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Sorry, the question was – thanks for all the detail – but the question was does anybody have any reservations about including the cost-saving measures in the Formula One regulations?
LPS: I don’t think so. Does anybody?
(General shaking of heads and ‘No’)
Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Autosport today is reporting that customer cars are back on the table – second hand cars from the previous year. Is that something that’s right for Formula One which is supposed to be the technological pinnacle of motorsport? And is it something that any of your teams would be looking at either supplying or purchasing?
NH: I think that’s very easy to answer. If you ran this year with last year’s car then just guess what happens.
LPS: Maybe for a small team it’s going to be at the beginning this year, some years, like in 2014. There are a lot of changes, it’s not easy because they’re changing the engines, it’s not an easy thing to do.
EB: The question is easy but the debate is more complex. Today’s Formula One is based on constructor regulations. If we have to go to customer cars to serve Formula One and be the Formula One of the future, why not? I think the discussion is open now. I know some teams would like to stay as constructors, some teams would maybe need to be customers to save their budget or their company, but it’s a more complex debate and actually together with the previous question about cost-saving, it’s obviously crucial in this discussion.
FT: It depends how much money a team has. The customer teams can buy the car and can run the car. We at Toro Rosso have started to build up the infrastructure and will build the car by ourselves.
RA: From our point of view, again, we’re a constructor. We came in with that particular objective and we’ve been doing it for the past two and a half years. But again, an idea is an idea. We’re always open to ideas and obviously we will have to review things if it does come to fruition then go from there. But we are proud of where we are, what we’ve built. We came in as a constructor, as Eric mentioned, and we hope to stay that way for now.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We are talking about cutting costs, reducing costs and so on, and there is the rumour that the number of Grand Prix could increase. The number on the calendar could be larger. I can understand that more Grand Prix means more money for everybody but in your opinion, what is the ideal calendar for the future: twenty, 24? How many Grand Prix in Europe, because the crisis is deeper here in Europe?
FT: The year has 52 weeks. We should have 26 Grand Prix! Some in Europe, yeah!
EB: I think you have two philosophies. Is it going to be like NASCAR with 38 weekends, if I’m not wrong, or staying around twenty. The true question is over 20 Grand Prix we have to reconsider our structure, because we obviously have a team personnel issue, travelling and logistical issue. As you say, we can speak about cost-saving but more Grand Prix means more revenue for Formula One and the more countries we can visit is the more countries we can bring Formula One to fans. There is no exact number, no magic number I guess, but I’m rather like Franz – more races, why not?
Valencia: Vettel managed a time of 1: 39.334 with half an hour of the session remaining, having just switched to running on the softer of the two available tyre compounds. Vettel’s fastest lap came shortly after the debris of an earlier crash had been cleared: Pedro de la Rosa ended up in the barriers at Turn 14 – his HRT appeared to understeer on the exit and drive straight into the wall.
Behind Vettel, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was a tenth off the pace, followed by Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg completing the top ten. In a busy session with most drivers doing long runs on both tyre compounds, Heikki Kovalainen completed the most mileage with 38 laps, and de la Rosa aside, Kobayashi the least with 20 laps.
Earlier in the session Jenson Button had been the first man to set a time below 1m40s this weekend. Putting on a set of soft tyres early in proceedings, his lap of 1:39.990 briefly held top spot before being beaten by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Significantly, Rosberg was able to do his time on the harder compound. After Rosberg, Alonso led briefly before Vettel set his quick lap.
Several drivers had spins or off-track moments, most notably Sergio Pérez who finished up facing the wrong way in his Sauber at Turn 17.
endsRed Bull's Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in Free Practice 2 on Friday. FIA photo
Maldonado has a reputation as a street track specialist and has won on the Valencia Street Circuit in GP2. He looked very assured in this morning’s first practice session and went to the top of the timesheet at around the 50 minute mark.
Friday morning saw track temperatures around 14°C lower than their peak yesterday afternoon as heavy cloud cover descended on the Western Mediterranean, presenting conditions similar to those experienced in Montreal two weeks ago. There was no great rush to take to the circuit, with most drivers content to do only installation laps in the first third of the session. Only the Toro Rosso pair recorded times, while performing the public surface of cleaning the racing line on what is a very dirty, low-grip street course.
With an hour to go track action began to pick up, with first the Lotuses and then Rosberg’s Mercedes each briefly holding top spot. Then Maldonado appeared and was the first driver into the 1m40s bracket. His best time of 1:40.890 would stand for the rest of the session. Behind him Fernando Alonso went second for Ferrari before being eclipsed by the late-arriving Red Bulls. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were running with near-identical times. Webber initially took P2, within a tenth of Maldonado’s time, only to be supplanted in the last ten minutes by Vettel who lapped a hundredth of a second quicker than his Australian team-mate.
Behind them Jenson Button appeared to put his recent struggles behind him, taking fourth place, a tenth of a second behind Maldonado. He led Alonso, Paul Di Resta, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten.
The session was largely trouble-free with most drivers completing around 20 laps. Daniel Ricciardo managed 28 laps as Toro Rosso worked to optimise their new exhaust system, while Timo Glock was only able to complete seven laps for Marussia.
ends
Valencia, 20 June 2012: The Valencia Street Circuit will host the eighth round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship. Valencia has been home to the European Grand Prix since 2008. Following rounds in Monaco and Montreal, it is the third race in a row to be held on a ‘street’ circuit. It is going to be interesting to see an eighth winner here, as the first seven Grands Prix have been won by seven different drivers, a new record and the Pirelli tyres are being cited as the reason but it augurs well as anyone can win the title this year with the race wide open and no visible leader.
This track features four long straights but also more corners than any other current F1 venue, ten of which are taken in low gears. It requires teams to strike a difficult balance between high straight-line speed on the four 300kph-plus sections, and excellent low-speed grip and traction. It’s a circuit that rewards a good all-round car: every year the winning team in Valencia has gone on to lift the Constructors’ Championship according to an FIA release, but let us see if this will hold good this year tooValencia circuit. FIA graphic..
As is often the case for street circuits, qualifying position will be at a premium: three times from the four races here the man qualifying in pole position has gone on to win the race. Pitstops have a role to play also. Pirelli are bringing Medium and Soft compound tyres, the same combination that featured last year. Unlike in Canada, where a one-stop strategy provided two podium finishes, the slippery surface in Valencia and the high-load corners tend to induce much greater tyre wear. Last year the strategy used exclusively by the front-runners was three equal-length stints on the soft tyre followed by a switch to the medium rubber at the end of the race. However, alternative strategies were successful lower down the order: Sergio Pérez managed a one-stop race that elevated him from 16th on the grid to 11th at the chequered flag, while Jaime Alguersuari was catapulted from 18th to eighth with a two-stopper.
The 2012 season has rewritten records so far, with the first seven races of the year producing seven different winners from five different teams and two very competitive championship tables. It is being hailed in some quarters as the most unpredictable season in the history of the sport.
ends
Valencia, 19 June 2012: Sahara Force India looks forward to round eight of the season, the European Grand Prix in Valencia.
Sahara Force India has come up with a track guide by Paul Di Resta. To view a video of Di Resta’s Valencia track guide, click on the following link: http://bit.ly/KYc1S9
After a disappointing Canadian GP, team Principal Vijay Mallya said: “Looking back on Canada it’s fair to say that we have mixed emotions. We were disappointed with the overall outcome, but take the positives from knowing that we did have a quick car for most of the weekend. After a promising start to the race when Paul ran as high as fifth, everything dropped off and we underachieved. We have looked into the issues we had in the race and believe we understand why we lost out.”
“I think Canada showed once again that Formula One is hard to predict at the moment. It’s seriously competitive with seven different winners in seven races, all of which is great for the sport – I would certainly go along with that. But while it’s hard to predict, we still need to lift our game, especially if we want to target fifth or sixth in the constructors’ championship. Yes, we’ve had one of our best starts to a season ever in terms of points scored, but the teams around us have also performed exceptionally well,” the liquour baron continued.
“The teams that we have been comparable with in the past few years like Sauber and Williams have been on the podium, and I’m sure our time will come, as long as we get things right. It’s something we need to do sooner rather than later because we are quickly approaching the midway point of the season. I hope we can recapture our form in Valencia, return to the points and demonstrate our potential,” concluded Mallya, who is also the Managing Director of Sahara Force India F1 team.
Paul on Valencia
Paul Di Resta looks ahead to his second European Grand Prix.
Paul, tell us about the challenge of racing on the Valencia street circuit?
It’s a mix between a street circuit and a normal track and it’s got a lot of corners to go with it – maybe the most corners of any circuit on the calendar. The track is very smooth but it’s tricky to get on top of the set-up and if you don’t find the sweet spot it can make quite a big difference to your laptime across such a long lap.
Is it difficult to set the car up because of the variety of corners?
The main challenge is to be strong in the low-speed chicanes and also through the high-speed end of the lap. There are some big braking zones too followed by big traction zones, so the degradation rate is quite high, which is why it’s hard to manage the rear tyres through the race.
And what about Valencia as a venue?
It’s a fun place to visit. The city has nice architecture, some great restaurants and we stay next to the beach so I sometimes go for a jog in the morning. City races usually provide a good atmosphere on race day and there are always lots of British fans who come along and show their support.
Nico on Valencia
Nico Hulkenberg reflects on Montreal and looks forward to racing in Valencia.
What are your thoughts as you look back on the Canadian Grand Prix?
I was disappointed with the weekend as a whole because things looked promising on Friday. I was unlucky during qualifying and I think that stopped us from getting a better result from the race. The important thing is that we understand the issues we had in the race and we can solve them. I think if we were to race there again today we would get a lot more from the race.
Are you looking forward to racing in Valencia? What do you remember about your first race there in 2010?
My race there in 2010 was not a particularly happy one. There was some bodywork burning away and I eventually had to retire. I’m looking forward to going back to Valencia because I like the track, even though we’ve seen how difficult it is to overtake there. The track has are a few special corners in the final sector of the lap and it’s enjoyable to drive. It’s also quite a long lap with 25 corners so it can be quite difficult to get a perfect lap together.
