INDIA in F1

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  • Valtteri made no mistakes and drove a fantastic race, says Hamilton

    Transcript of the Post-race Press Conference at Baku on Sunday:

    DRIVERS

    1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

    Q: Valtteri, an absolutely perfect day you’ve had. Lights out to flag, a bit of pressure from Lewis, but controlled and payback from last year and that win that went away?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, indeed. It was actually a tough race, even though maybe not much happening at the front Obviously Lewis was putting pressure all the time, so I could not do any mistake. But honestly, everything was under control so I’m happy to see the chequered flag and get this first place.

    Q: You’re the calmest person I’ve seen. Back in control of this championship as well. You’ve had a very good start to the year. It’s all about keeping the momentum up. There’s no better guy than Lewis putting the pressure on, but to get that job done, what does that mean going away from this grand prix, back to Europe?

    VB: It obviously means a lot. It’s incredible as a team on which kind of level we are performing now. I already said to the guys I’m so proud to be part of that. We’re all performing really, really well. For me as well, it’s only my fifth win, so of course it feels good and it carries on well.

    Q: I hope you can enjoy your Sunday night; you certainly deserve it after this weekend. Lewis, your team-mate did a solid job all weekend, he just pipped you in qualifying but you never let him out of your sights today and you were fighting all the way to the end.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, congratulations to Valtteri, he drove a fantastic race. He made no mistakes and truly deserved the win. It was all lost in qualifying, so there’s really not much more for me to say. But it’s a great result for the team. Honestly, this is the best start to a season we’ve ever had.

    Q: I want to pick up on the team. Four one-two finishes. How much credit do you owe to these guys year after year after year to give you a car to do a solid job like that?

    LH: It’s a team effort. Everyone back at the factory has been working non-stop every year. Every year they come back more hungry for success and it’s a true testament to strength and depth within the team. So really proud of everyone and really great to be a part of it. It was a really great race. For once we’ve been able to push the whole way. It’s pretty cool.

    Q: Sebastian, P3 at the end after qualifying. It looked like you struggled in the first stint, regained a lot of strength mid-race and you were able to put the pressure on Mercedes.

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know. You’re right. The first stint was really poor. I really struggled to initially get the tyres to work. I think they were too cold and I damaged them, and by the time they were hot they were damaged, so it was never really working. I was really uncomfortable, inconsistent, just couldn’t get a feel and confidence with the car, so that’s not usually so good around here. After that, I was surprised. I was already looking forward to a difficult stint on the medium tyres, but no problem to switch them on and they lasted until the end no problem. So much happier, much more confidence and I think we had some pace to at least go with them, sometimes put a bit of pressure. We obviously had to keep and eye on Max behind. With some of the overtaken, lapped cars he was getting a bit closer but in the end we had enough pace on the medium tyre to react, to keep him behind. It was crucial to keep that third, good for Charles to get that fastest lap at the end, to snatch it away from the Mercedes boys. Still plenty of work for us to do, obviously we are not quite where we want to be. But at this point we just need to maximise what we can.

    Q: And I guess looking forward to a more familiar track, Barcelona, where you had such a strong winter and it looked like you guys were going to be the benchmark this year?

    SV: I hope so. Obviously the last four races, on average, we were not quite there, so I think we are not the favourites going to Barcelona. But the team is in good spirits. We have another couple of stuff getting on the car, so we need to chase them down. We are looking to hopefully a smooth weekend. Our first four weekends haven’t been that smooth. But it will be crucial to catch them and turn things around.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, you said in China that the start of the race cost you the race there, but you looked determined to make sure that didn’t happen today?

    VB: Yeah, honestly I could have done a better job at the start today. I think I was a little bit on the cautious side. I didn’t want to get the wheel spin started, so I was rather smooth on getting on power, not to kind of mess it up. But Lewis had a good start, so that’s why he was on the inside and we were pretty much side by side actually through Turn 1, so I was just carrying the speed on the outside, and same thing in Turn 2, leaving enough space. It was nice and fair and I was obviously pleased to keep the first place.

    Q: That was the start, but then at the end you also came under pressure from Lewis as well. How tough was that pressure and were you two racing right to the flag?

    VB: Yeah, you know, it was a pretty long stint, the second one. So you can sometimes play a little bit, when you push more, when sometimes you try to save the tyres a bit more, because it’s always a bit unknown how the tyres are going to behave when they are coming towards the end of their life. At times I could really notice Lewis trying really hard to catch me and he was really close at times, like in the end. So I had to really respond and push as well. The main thing for I was focusing on was just purely my own driving, not falling for the silly mistakes. I managed to keep it together, so for this I’m really happy.

    Q: Well done today. Lewis, we’ll start at the start as well. Just how close was it between you and Valtteri and how tough is it to judge how hard to push against your team-mate?

    LH: It’s always difficult to judge. But Valtteri did an exceptional job all weekend and today he was very fair in giving space and after that he was faultless. So today he truly deserved the win. It was a great race. It was really cool that we could push as hard as we could all the way to the end. It was great that the team allowed us to do that. Also just the team’s performance throughout the whole weekend, the engineers, everyone back at the factory who are just constantly delivering 100%. This is truly the strongest season we’ve ever started with but really deservingly in the sense of just how hard everyone has worked in the delivery, so really proud to be a part of it and this is a really great result for everyone.

    Q: You mentioned the start to the season. That’s four straight 1-2s. Is this also the best form as a team you’ve produced in the time that you’ve been there?

    LH: I think so, yeah, definitely. Valtteri’s really, clearly stepped up this year and is really happy in the car and really delivering and driving fantastically, so it’s going to take some really great performances from both of us to out-perform each other. And that’s how it should be. Hopefully at some stage Ferrari will be in the mix with us. I think this weekend, I do think they had the performance to be on the front row with both of their cars. From our data we saw that Seb didn’t get a tow, for example, which is worth four or five tenths or something, so he probably would have been on pole had he got that tow and the race would have been maybe more exciting. So, again, it takes one hundred per cent deliver throughout the weekend, which we, I think, were as close to that as possible. They’re going to have to pick it up if they want to fight us.

    Q: Seb, moving on to you, Lewis says that Ferrari will have to pick it up if they want to fight Mercedes. How well did your race go today and how close to the maximum did you get out of your car?

    SV: Well, he’s right. We need to pick it up obviously. We saw in the first stint that we really struggled to follow. I was really quite… yeah it was difficult to find a rhythm, difficult to extract grip from the tyres. After the stop it was a lot better. I expected it to be a tough and long afternoon but after that the car was quite good and I was able to push and I think we stayed with them, and with the blue flags maybe in the end we weren’t particularly lucky, the places around the track, I saw Lewis had some quite good tows with lapped cars here and there – but what goes around, comes around. I think overall the second stint was better for us than the first one. We lost, I think, all the potential to put pressure at the beginning of the race. But they were very strong and did absolutely right be pulling a gap. After that for us I think it was just to try and put them under some sort of pressure and bring it home.

    Q: You’re clearly close to Mercedes, based on the finishing positions here. What do you think is going to be key to breaking this run of form that Mercedes has shown?

    SV: Well, we need stronger pace, simple as that. We need to be faster. I’m convinced we’ve been, partly this weekend, looking very strong but overall not strong enough. So, it seems that for us it’s more of a conscious effort to get the car in the right window, whereas maybe for them it seems to click a little bit easier. Especially a place like around here, you need the confidence in the car. I’m not yet there. I can feel that I’m not driving at my best because simply the car does not answer or does not respond the way I like. And then I think it’s unnatural. I think everybody’s been there. I think all drivers know that sort of feeling: when it’s not there, then your judgement is normally right, to not go there because you end-up losing the car. So, yeah, I seem to be more sensitive at the first races than at the test. The test was really good but that’s a long time ago now. We need to look forward and improve the way we handle things, the way we work to just get faster. That’s it.

    Q: Valtteri, returning to you, Championship leader heading back for the European season – just how much confidence do you take from this start to the season?

    VB: Confidence is good. I’m happy to just carry on. Obviously, yeah, it’s been a good start personally for me for the season, it’s a long season ahead. I do realise that. But something I’m really proud of is the level at which the team is performing. It’s, for me, incredible. We need to be really, really proud of that – but not think about it too much. Just keep doing what we’re doing and the list of things that we can do better as a team is still long. So we need to focus on that. So let’s keep going.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, it was fine margins between you and Valtteri today. I think you lost a bit of time the way the VSC ended and then Valtteri got the tow just as you were closing in on the last lap from the Williams. Do you think it was fine margins that made the difference today? And Valtteri, what was the feeling when you saw you had a slower car up ahead to get DRS from on that last lap?

    LH: Yeah, I think ultimately Valtteri did a better job in qualifying on that last lap, which put him in the position to be able to fight and then fine margin at the start, which… yeah, I’ll have to work on. And then I lost two-and-a-half seconds, or whatever it is, under the VSC, so had to regain that and, with only nine laps to go, that was not so easy. So, that was my fault and something I’ll work on. There’s somethings I can fix on the dash to make sure that doesn’t happen again. But, nonetheless, it was a great result for the team.

    And Valtteri, your thoughts when you got traffic towards the end of the race.

    VB: Yeah, there was some traffic, obviously you lose time mostly – but sometimes actually you can gain from it, like here if you can get a nice tow on the straight and get the DRS. It’s always a very welcome bonus when Lewis is putting pressure behind! It’s not always it works for you. Sometimes he gains from it. So that’s how it goes. Yeah.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Just to the two Mercedes drivers — we saw Toto deliver a radio message in the final laps. I was just wondering what the rules of engagement were for you two in the closing laps of today’s race.

    LH: It wasn’t a message to us. We were allowed to fight to the end.

    VB: Yup.

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Lewis, with hindsight probably that first lap fight with Valtteri was the defining moment of that race. Do you think you could have pushed a bit harder or been a bit more aggressive if it was another driver than Valtteri, your teammate?

    LH: Definitely. Most definitely. It’s very very difficult — ultimately you always have to remember when you’re in a team as big as this that you are only one, and there are so many people that depend on us, so selfishly I could have for sure pushed a lot harder and Valtteri would have lost position, maybe I would have gained position, most likely he would have got overtaken by a Ferrari or something like that, so we have to work together. So whilst I wanted to overtake him, I had to be cautious at the same time, to give him space so that we would block the front row and stay there. Ultimately I lost out in that, but that’s a sacrifice you have to sometimes make in order for the team to win. I think if it was a Ferrari there it would have been a lot different. And that will be how it continues for the rest of the year — I think Valtteri and I have always had a lot of respect for each other, and we continue to do so. I think you can see that. That’s how we deal with it — we discuss it before the race, we agree as gentlemen, and we stick to it.

    Q: (Luis Vasconselos – Formula Press) For Valtteri, when you were speaking to di Resta before the podium you said it was tough but you had it under control all the way. Did it get too close for comfort on the two laps that Lewis had DRS?

    VB: Yeah, sure, I didn’t want him to get DRS, that was not planned. He had a very good middle sector that lap and managed to close and here even if you’re like 1.2, 1.3 behind exiting from Turn 16 then you’re gaining time before the DRS detection. I wanted to keep him out from DRS, so it was my bad. But he was pushing hard, so that’s how it goes.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Seb, the feeling for you and Charles earlier in the weekend was that the team had made a step here, that the upgrades were working as you liked, and it just seemed like the circumstances of the weekend just sort of went away from you. Do you still retain that positivity from earlier in the weekend or do you feel like there is a sort of similar amount of work to do as before?

    SV: Well, absolutely I think it was a step forward with our car, but I think more of a dominating factor is just the way we seem to be able to get on top of or into these tyres. I think there’s a lot of performance in that. The struggle we had here in those low speed corners is less of an aero problem, more of a mechanical grip issue. So a lot of homework for us, obviously, in the last couple of weeks, but I’m sure that once we get everything together the car is strong, and then we will be much more in the fight. At this stage, obviously, averaging the first four races we were just not quick enough.

    Q: (Luis Vasconselos – Formula Press) For the two Mercedes drivers — in the last two years your cars were called ‘divas’, but you’ve won on the first four very different tracks. Is this car the most complete one?

    LH: I mean, it’s an evolution of the last couple of years cars, so it should be better, and it is in many ways. I would say it’s more our understanding of the procedures that we have to implement that allow us to deliver more from it. I think we’re able to extract a bit more from the car itself, and that’s just from diligence, due diligence we’ve done so much better through testing in our understanding and analysis. Everyone’s just taken a step forward and it’s great to see.

    VB: It always can be better! For sure it’s maybe not still the easiest car to get to work, but once it works it’s quick, so something similar we’ve seen before and in the end, like Lewis said, it is an evolution from years before. There’s obviously work to do, but I think this year so far, the four races we’ve had, it’s not only the car. It’s all the areas the team is working on, how well we are performing in all the other areas than just the car. I think that’s maybe been the biggest thing so far this year.

     

  • Bottas wins in Baku ahead of Hamilton, Vettel

    Bottas wins in Baku ahead of Hamilton, Vettel

    Hamilton congratulates Bottas who won the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sunday. Credit – Steve Etherington/Mercedes AMG Petronas team

    Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport claim a 1-2 victory in Baku

    • Valtteri took his fifth career victory today – his second of the 2019 season and first at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
    • Lewis came home in P2, completing a 1-2 for the team
    • Today’s result marks the 25th podium for Valtteri with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
    • Valtteri (87 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by one point from Lewis (86 points)
    • Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (173 points) lead Ferrari (103 points) by 70 points in the Constructors’ Championship
    • Stuart Green, number 1 mechanic for car #77, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team

    Baku, 28 April 2019: There was payback in Baku for Valtteri Bottas as the Finn won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix one year on from being denied almost certain victory in the city due to a late-race puncture, as Mercedes finished one-two again, in the fourth round of the Formula One (F1) World Championship here on Sunday.

    There was no repeat of that kind of drama in today’s fourth F1 race at the notoriously tricky street circuit and after resisting pressure off the starting line from team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas delivered a faultless performance in a largely incident-free race to take the fifth F1 win of his career. Second place for Hamilton ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made it four one-two finishes in a row for Mercedes.

    When the lights went out at the start, pole sitter Bottas was immediately put under pressure by Hamilton who made an excellent start. The Finn defended well through the first few corners, however, and managed to hold his lead as the field swept up towards the Baku’s Old Town.

    Sebastian Vettel held his starting third place, but behind him fourth-on-the -grid Max Verstapen was jumped at the start by Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez. Verstappen quickly responded and within a few laps he had closed up behind the racing Point’s gearbox. On the long pit straight, and under DRS, he blasted past the Mexican on entry to Turn 1 to reclaim fourth place.

    Behind them Ferrari’s Leclerc was on a march. At the start, on medium tyres, he had dropped back to P11 but by lap seven he had worked his way back up the order to sit in P5, two seconds behind Verstappen. And on lap 10, the Ferrari driver took advantage of DRS and his now better-performing medium tyres to pass Max on the pit straight.

    Like Leclerc, Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly had also started on medium compound tyres, though from the pit lane, due to penalties from earlier in the weekend. As soft-shod rivals around him pitted, the Frenchman was boosted up the order. He also maximised the opportunity the mediums gave in terms of performance and by lap 13 he had climbed to sixth place.

    Vettel was the first of the frontrunners to make a pit stop, on lap 11, and the German’s move triggered a response from the other soft tyre starters at the front of the pack.

    Verstappen was among those who dived into the pit lane, the Dutchman emerging in P6 behind his team-mate. He quickly closed on Gasly, and with the drivers on different strategies, the Frenchman sensibly moved across to put Verstappen in P5 once more.

    At the halfway point of the 51-lap race, Leclerc, who had yet to stop, now led Bottas by just three seconds. Hamilton was a further 3.5s second back with Vettel three seconds behind the champion.

    By lap 31, Bottas was just 1.1s behind leader Leclerc who was now holding the Mercedes up before his stop. That allowed Vettel to stay in touch with Hamilton and the German sat three seconds behind the champion.

    Bottas finally made his way past Leclerc on lap 32, and was swiftly followed by Hamilton and Vettel. That was the cue for Ferrari to pit the Monegasque driver. He dived into the pit lane on lap 34 to take on soft tyres.

    He rejoined in P6, behind Gasly. The Red Bull driver defended well for a couple of laps but on his ageing medium tyres there was little he could do against the Ferrari man and on lap 36 Leclerc, armed with fresh tyres and DRS got past.

    Gasly was sixth again but with 30 seconds in hand over Pérez, looked safe for another solid points haul. It wasn’t to be however. On lap 39, he suddenly slowed dramatically and coasted off into a run-off area, his race ended by a mechanical issue.

    The Virtual Safety Car was deployed and when the track went green again, Bottas was firmly in control, three seconds clear of Hamilton, who was in turn 2.3 ahead of Vettel. Hamilton closed but with two laps to go he made a mistake and ran wide, handing Bottas his second win of the season.

    Max took his third fourth place finish in a row ahead of Leclerc who grabbed the point for fastest lap after pitting for a new set of soft tyres in the closing stages.

    Perez took sixth place for Racing Point, while McLaren saw both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in the points in P7 and P8 respectively. Racing Point also saw both its drivers score with Lance Stroll in P9. Kimi Räikkönen took the final point, having started from the pit lane.

    Valtteri Bottas 
    This victory feels really good. When you’re starting from pole, you hope for a straightforward race – the less drama, the better it is. I didn’t have the greatest start; after the wheelspin in China I was maybe just a little too cautious. Lewis had a better start so we went side-by-side into Turn 1 and 2; it was good, respectful racing between the two of us and I’m glad I could pull up in front of him. Lewis was very quick today and was able to put on some pressure at the end of the race, so I had to make sure to not make any mistakes. I’ve already said it on the radio after the race: ‘What a team!’ The level at which everyone is performing at the moment is very impressive, both here at the track and back at the factory, and I’m really proud of everyone. We need to make sure we keep delivering at this level.

    Lewis Hamilton 
    This is a great result for the team. I think this team is stronger than it’s ever been and it’s all down to teamwork. Both Valtteri and myself are pushing the boundaries of the car and are delivering, as are the team in the pitstops, the engineers, and everyone back at the factory. I don’t think we have ever performed at this level before and I’m really grateful for all the hard work from everyone. Baku is not my strongest race, it’s always been difficult for me. I came close to the win today, but not close enough. I didn’t get the job done in Qualifying and then I was a bit too cautious at the start. I also had an issue with the VSC and that made it tough to catch him up. But those are all ifs and buts; Valtteri drove a great race and deserved the win. It was great that the team let us race though. I’ll work hard to bounce back and pick up the performance for Spain.

    Toto Wolff 
    I’m really happy, this was another fantastic performance from the entire team. We didn’t make any major mistakes today and that’s what has won us this race; our car was quick, the strategy calls were right, the pit stops were executed flawlessly and the drivers didn’t put a foot wrong. We let the two drivers race today; we told them to take it easy at the beginning of the second stint because we didn’t know how long the tyre would last, but both at the start of the race and in the end they were free to fight each other. Both of them perform really well under pressure and neither of them made any mistakes today, so it was a calculated risk but it was good to see them race each other in a clean, respectful manner. I’m very pleased with the result and happy that Valtteri found some redemption after his bad luck here in Baku last year.

    James Allison 
    It wasn’t the crazy bumper-car rally that Baku can sometimes be, but for us it was a stressful, thrilling pleasure to manage a race on a tricky track with our drivers fighting tooth and nail at the start and then getting very close to one another again at the end. To manage a race like that, to finish first and second again and keep the momentum of our championship rolling – it’s been a dream start to the year and we couldn’t be happier. We just need to make sure we can make it all happen again in two weeks from now in Barcelona where we saw the Ferraris were very fast in winter testing.

    2019 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Race
    1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.524
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 11.739
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 17.493
    5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’09.107
    6 Sergio Perez Racing Point 1’16.416
    7 Carlos Sainz McLaren 1’23.826
    8 Lando Norris McLaren 1’40.268
    9 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1’43.816
    10 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1 Lap
    11 Alex Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso 1 Lap
    12 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1 Lap
    13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1 Lap
    14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1 Lap
    15 George Russell Williams 2 Laps
    16 Robert Kubica Williams 2 Laps
    Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing
    Romain Grosjean Haas
    Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso
    Daniel Ricciardo Renault

  • Bottas on pole in Baku thriller ahead of Hamilton; Leclerc and Kubica crash out

    Bottas on pole in Baku thriller ahead of Hamilton; Leclerc and Kubica crash out

    Valtteri Bottas takes pole in the Baku qualifier on Saturday. An FIA image

    Baku (Azerbaijan), 27 April 2019: Valtteri Bottas took his second pole position of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship at the end of a marathon, incident-packed qualifying session that saw two red flag periods for separate crashes involving Robert Kubica and pole position contender Charles Leclerc at Azerbaijan Grand Prix here on Saturday.

    Bottas made the best of a tight final run in Q3, maximising a good two to edge team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.059s, with Sebastian Vettel third ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

    In Q1, Vettel led the early exchanges, setting a time of 1:42.348. His Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had held sway in every practice session, soon bypassed that and his lap of 1:41.426, established a tough benchmark.

    Verstappen, meanwhile, suffered a lock-up into Turn 7 on his opening run and his first lap left him in down in P12. On an improving track he was left vulnerable and he returned to the pit lane for a fresh set of tyres and prepared for another attempt.

    Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was also having difficulty finding the sweet spot with tyres and after overcooking his entry to Turn 3 he was forced to take the escape road. He too would require more laps to make his way through to Q2, but eventually climbed to third place above Verstappen.

    Pierre Gasly then provided proof of the rapid track evolution. The Frenchman who is facing a pit lane starting after being penalised for a missing a call to the weighbridge in FP2, set the quickest first sector on his second run. Then, benefiting from a tow provided by Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, he crossed the line in just 1:41.335 to claim a top spot he held until the chequered flag.

    With Gasly first ahead of Bottas, Hamilton and Verstappen, and with the chequered flag out, there was drama at the end of the session. Williams’ Robert Kubica crashed heavily on the outside of Turn 8. The Pole clipped the barrier on the inside of the corner and was then pitched across the narrow track at high speed, hitting the opposite wall.

    The session was red-flagged, and out went 16th-placed Stroll, followed by Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, Williams’ George Russell and, in P20, the unfortunate Kubica.

    At the top, with Gasly first ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton and Max, fifth place went McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas sixth ahead of Vettel and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

    Also through to Q2 were Toro Rosso’s Albon Albon in ninth, followed by Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez, the second Toro of Daniil Kvyat, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    After a lengthy delay to repair the barriers, Verstappen went quickest with an opening lap of 1:41.388. Team-mate Gasly, with a pit lane start in prospect, sat out the session.

    Ferrari’s driver, meanwhile, took to the track on medium tyres and the choice bit Leclerc hard.

    On his second run, the Monegasque driver carried too much speed into Turn 8 on tyres not yet in the window. He locked up, straight-lined the corner, and hit the barriers in the same spot as Kubica. The session was again immediately red-flagged.

    Another lengthy delay followed. On the resumption, Vettel, who had dropped to P12 just ahead of the red flag, was first out on track, this time on soft tyres. The German vaulted up the order and a second flyer eventually netted him P5 ahead of Leclerc, Räikkönen, Norris, Kvyat and Giovinazzi. Eliminated at this stage were Sainz, Ricciardo, Albon, Magnussen and Gasly.

    The finale of the marathon session proved to be thrilling. Verstappen was first out on track at the start of the segment and took provisional pole with a lap of 1:41.447. That was quickly bypassed by Hamilton, with the champion posting a lap of 1:40.703 to take provisional pole ahead of Vettel and Bottas.

    As other peeled off track for new tyres and a second run, Verstappen without a fresh set available, stayed on track for a second flying lap and the Dutchman jumped to the front row with an lap of 1:41.069.

    Vettel was first out in the final runs, prioritising good tyre temperature over gambling on a tow, and in the end it cost the Ferrari driver.

    Vettel failed to match Hamilton’s opening run time and after crossing the line in P2 then had to watch as Bottas jumped ahead to claim pole position with a time of 1:40.495, just 0.059s ahead of Hamilton, who made mistakes in the opening two corners of his lap.

    The second runs dropped Verstappen to fourth place. He will start alongside Vettel and ahead of Pérez. Sixth place went to Kyat, with Norris in seventh ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Giovinazzi and Räikkönen. Leclerc qualified in P10 but will move up one place on the grid as Giovinazzi is set for a 10-place grid penalty.
    2019 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Qualifying 
    1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:40.495
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:40.554 0.059
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:40.797 0.302
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:41.069 0.574
    5 Sergio Perez Racing Point 1:41.593 1.098
    6 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:41.681 1.186
    7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.886 1.391
    8 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:42.424 1.929
    9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1:43.068 2.573
    10 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
    11 Carlos Sainz McLaren 1:42.398 1.903
    12 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:42.477 1.982
    13 Alex Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:42.494 1.999
    14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:42.699 2.204
    15 Pierre Gasly Red Bull
    16 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1:42.630 2.135
    17 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:43.407 2.912
    18 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:43.427 2.932
    19 George Russell Williams 1:45.062 4.567
    20 Robert Kubica Williams 1:45.455 4.960

  • Hamilton wins F1’s 1000th race ahead of Bottas

    Hamilton wins F1’s 1000th race ahead of Bottas

    Hamilton wins F1 1000th race in Shanghai on Sunday. A Mercedes image by Wolfgang Wilhelm

    Shanghai, 14 April 2019: Lewis Hamilton won Formula 1’s 1000thworld championship race, getting the jump of pole-sitting team-mate Valtteri Bottas off the line at the start to take a lead he then held for the full race distance. Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the Formula One World Championship here on Sunday.

    Hamilton made a good start from second place on the grid to power past Bottas, who afterward admitted he had been disadvantaged by momentary wheelspin on the start/finish line.

    Starting from the same side of the grid as Hamilton, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also got away well to steal P3 from team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Behind them, Verstappen held fifth off the line, with Red Bull team-mate Pierre Gasly also retaining his starting position of sixth ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    Further back, there was trouble for McLaren as both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris got tagged in a battle with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Norris was pitched into the air briefly and sustained floor damage while Sainz damaged his front wing. Both pitted for repairs at the end of the first lap and rejoined at the back of the field. Kvyat was soon handed a drive-through penalty for causing the collision.

    By lap 10 Hamilton had opened up a solid lead ahead of his team-mate, but fourth-placed Vettel was now pushing to get past Leclerc. Despite the younger driver’s protestations that he was quicker than the German, Leclerc was told to defer to the four-time champion and on lap 11 he pulled across to allow Vettel through to third place.

    At the end of lap 17 Verstappen headed for the pit lane to take on hard tyres. Sensing a threat, Ferrari mirrored the move with Vettel on the next lap and the German rejoined just ahead of the Dutch driver.

    With Vettel on cold tyres, Verstappen smelled blood and the Red Bull driver launched a bold attack down the inside into the hairpin. He got past but locked up slightly and Vettel was able to hold a wide line and retained his position, with Verstappen being forced out onto the grass.

    It was the Dutch driver’s only realistic chance and once Vettel’s tyres were working well, he began to pull away from the Red Bull.

    The race then settled until the second round of stops, again triggered by Verstappen. The Dutchman pitted at the end of lap 34 for medium tyres and Ferrari responded by bringing in Vettel for the same compound a lap later. Mercedes then brought in their drivers for medium compound Pirellis.

    Bottas dropped to third in that round of stops but he soon closed in on Leclerc and despite a brave defence by the Ferrari driver, the Finn was able to get past to reclaim P2.

    Vettel now also began to close on Leclerc and armed with fresher tyres there was little fuss in getting by as Leclerc gave way and swiftly made his own pit stop for mdeiums. The Monegasque’s pit stop allowed Max to power past and reclaim fourth place, with Leclerc eventually rejoining almost 15 seconds behind the Red Bull.

    The order at the top remained unchanged in the final laps, with Hamilton cruising to a 75thcareer win ahead of Bottas, Vettel and Verstappen.

    However, behind fifth-placed Leclerc, Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull was plotting a late charge.

    Vettel had held the race fastest lap, a 1:34.836s, since lap 37, but holding a an almost 30s advantage over Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Gasly took a free pit stop on lap 53 for soft tyres. He duly claimed fastest lap with a time of 1:34.742 to take another point to add the eight earned for sixth place ahead of Ricciardo, Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen and Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon, who delivered an excellent drive to claim a point for 10thplace after starting from the pit lane.

    2019 Formula 1Chinese Grand Prix – Race
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 –
    2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 56 6.552
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 56 13.744
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 56 27.627
    5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 56 31.276
    6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 56 1’29.307
    7 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 55 1 lap
    8 Sergio Perez Racing Point 55 1 lap
    9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 55 1 lap
    10 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 55 1 lap
    11 Romain Grosjean Haas 55 1 lap
    12 Lance Stroll Racing Point 55 1 lap
    13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 55 1 lap
    14 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 55 1 lap
    15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 55 1 lap
    16 George Russell Williams 54 2 laps
    17 Robert Kubica Williams 54 2 laps
    18 Lando Norris McLaren 50
    Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 41
    Nico Hulkenberg Renault 16

  • Bottas takes pole ahead of Hamilton: Chinese GP

    Bottas takes pole ahead of Hamilton: Chinese GP

    Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (centre) takes pole ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton (left) and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari on Saturday. An FIA image

    Shanghai, 13 April 2019: Finland’s Valtteri Bottas will line up for Formula 1’s 1000thgrand prix in pole position after he beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by the narrow margin of 0.023s in the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship here on Saturday. The pole is the seventh of Bottas’ career and the 59thfront-row lockout for Mercedes.

    Behind the Silver Arrows, Ferrari annexed row two with Sebastian Vettel in third place, 0.017s ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

    Bottas was to the fore early in Q1, and the Finn claimed top spot thanks to a lap of 1:32.658. That left him almost half a second clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who ran wide exiting the final corner. Max Verstappen put in a lap 1:33.274 to take P3 ahead of Vettel and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. The top five would sit out the final runs.

    Eliminated at the end of the segment were Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in P16 with the Canadian exiting ahead of the Williams cars of George Russell and Robert Kubica. Also out was Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi who failed to set a time in Q1.

    Bottas held P1 through the final runs, but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who caught traffic on his first run and lay in 10thahead of the final laps, vaulted to P2 with a second effort drop Verstappen to fourth place.

    Bottas once again stamped his authority on the session setting a benchmark of 1:31.728 in the first runs of Q2. Vettel got closest to him, though the German was half a second back ahead of Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton, who once again made a mistake on his lap.

    Mercedes opted to run again at the end of the session with Bottas bolting on a set of soft tyres, but Hamilton opted instead for mediums and it was he who topped the session, the Briton posting a time of 1:31.637 to finish a tenth ahead of Bottas lap.

    Bottas returned to the top of the order in the first runs of Q3, but only just. The Finn edged team-mate Hamilton by just 0.007 to take provisional pole, with Vettel third.

    Verstappen put in a good lap of 1:32.089 to sit in fourth ahead of Leclerc, and the second Red Bull of Pierre Gasly.

    There was disappointment for the Red Bulls in the final runs though. Held up through the final corners during their out laps, neither Max nor Pierre was able to get across the line in time to complete a final flying lap, a situation that infuriated the Dutchman.

    The traffic problems allowed Leclerc to jump to P4 with his final run to sit alongside Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who narrowly squeezed past Verstappen at the end of the out laps and managed to get across the line in time to complete a final lap.

    Leclerc’s move up the order handed Ferrari ownership of row two with Red Bull set to start from row three tomorrow, ahead of the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg and the Haas cars of Magnussen and Grosjean.

    At the top of the order Hamilton couldn’t find the pace to oust Bottas from P1 and thanks to a marginal improvement the Finn took his seventh career pole by 0.023s.

    2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31.547
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.570 0.023
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:31.848 0.301
    4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:31.865 0.318
    5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.089 0.542
    6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 1:32.930 1.383
    7 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:32.958 1.411
    8 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.962 1.415
    9 Kevin Magnussen Haas
    10 Romain Grosjean Haas
    11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:33.236 1.689
    12 Sergio Perez Racing Point 1:33.299 1.752
    13 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1:33.419 1.872
    14 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 1:33.523 1.976
    15 Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.967 2.420
    16 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1:34.292 2.745
    17 George Russell Williams 1:35.253 3.706
    18 Robert Kubica Williams 1:35.281 3.734
    19 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo
    20 Alex Albon Toro Rosso

  • Valtteri has been quick all weekend, so he deserves the pole, says Hamilton

    Shanghai, 13 April 2019: Saturday post-qualifying  Press Conference transcript of the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One (F1) World Championship:

    TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Q: Congratulations Valtteri, the 1000th championship event, the world championship leader, and you’re on pole position; you worked for that one?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it’s been a good weekend so far, I mean, starting from the pole. I felt already really comfortable this morning in the practice. In the qualifying, honestly, I struggled a bit in Q3 to get the perfect lap in, but it was good enough.

    Q: It looked like you had it covered, though. You just had an ounce of extra speed. And the lap unfolded nicely?

    VB: Yeah, the lap was OK. Like I said, not completely how I wanted, but luckily it was good enough for pole and the car has been really good this weekend. And Lewis also managed to improve a lot during the qualifying; it was super close.

    Q: Well, your fans seem very happy up there. Lewis: 59th front-row lockout for the team and second place for you today, though. Valtteri certainly showed some speed, but you didn’t give up on it.

    Lewis HAMILTON: No, I didn’t give up. I kept pushing right to the end. Big congratulations to Valtteri, he’s been stellar all weekend. I’ve been struggling and fighting the car all weekend. We’ve been chipping away at it and I’m much, much happier. You know, it was eight tenths at once stage, the gap between us, so to be as close as we are at the end is fantastic. This is an incredible result for the team. There was a little bit more time left on the table there, but that’s cool, I’ll try and get it tomorrow.

    Q: So, race pace – you’ve got the Ferraris in your mirrors, are you comfortable for the race?

    LH: Well, they’re particularly quick in the straights but it’s evident this weekend that we’ve been able to pull some performance from the corners so just great work from the guys at the factory analyzing the test and the last two races, so this is really, really positive for us, really happy.

    Q: Well done. Sebastian, take us through the lap. Mercedes just had a little bit too much for the Ferrari team today?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, unfortunately, it seems to be like that. I think right from Q1 they just seemed to start off from a better place. I think we had a good session. Maybe there was a tiny bit more but I actually was quite happy that I managed the final attempt because I was quite marginal with time, the team told me that we only had 10 seconds margin. So I then hurried up and made sure I crossed the line in time. I think there was maybe a little bit more, but overall not enough to beat these guys today.

    Q: So, satisfied with third, but you’ve got a very fast car in a straight line and you’re sitting pretty for the race?

    SV: Yeah, but they are bloody quick in the corners! So you choose! For us, obviously, when we get close I think we have an advantage in a straight line so maybe we can do something there. But the race is long and we’ll take it from there, but it should be a good day tomorrow.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, congratulations, you’ve been quick all weekend. How were those laps in Q3, both of them good enough for pole position?

    VB: Yeah, the weekend so far has been very good. Obviously, tomorrow is the big day but at least on a single lap it’s been competitive and as a team, we’ve been super strong. I think in the Q3, honestly, during those two runs I never got the perfect lap, there was always something, but that’s how it goes. The pace was good, so yeah, it was enough for pole.

    Q: The one-lap pace is clearly very good, but what’s the long-run pace like?

    VB: That’s something we will honestly find out tomorrow but looking from Friday it’s been pretty close among the top three teams, so there are many question marks but today is encouraging and we’ll go for it.

    Q: Well done Valtteri, good luck tomorrow. Lewis, you said a moment ago that you’ve been fighting the car this weekend but you seemed to make good gains with it during that qualifying session. Where have you improved it?

    LH: The car hasn’t improved from… you can’t change it in qualifying so it was just really… As I said I was struggling with the car throughout the weekend, all day yesterday and even today, even into Q2. But I made a couple of changes to the settings on the wheel and some changes to the line and I managed to bridge the gap. Honestly, I’m quite proud of the job we’ve done considering how far away I was earlier on in the sessions and Valtteri has been quick all weekend, so he deserved the pole.

    Q: And what are your thoughts on the gap to Ferrari this weekend?

    LH: I don’t even know what it is, so…

    Q: Well, given that you were behind them in Bahrain two weeks ago, the pendulum has swung the other way here.

    LH: Yeah, I think that’s how it’s going to be from race to race. Some cars suit some tracks better than others.

    Q: Sebastian, first of all your thoughts on the gap to Mercedes.

    SV: Too big. We’d like it to be the other way around, obviously. I think we had a decent session. Obviously important if we can’t beat them to be right behind them, buying us some options tomorrow, hopefully.

    Q: Talk to us a little bit more about that session. How was it for you? How did the track conditions improve?

    SV: The track, I think, ramped up. I think you can see the lap times, from where we started in Q1 to Q3. Obviously there’s a bit in yourself, a bit in the engine modes and stuff what people are doing but I think that’s fairly normal. On our side we were able to improve the car from where it was yesterday, so I’m reasonably happy with that, but not entirely happy. I think there was a little bit more. It was a bit tricky today to put the laps together.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Queston for you Seb. There was quite a busy out-lap in Q3, the last one, think you overtook several cars; Max wasn’t happy because he didn’t make his lap. Think the other Red Bull didn’t, both Haas. Can you talk us through that – and is it a general problem in F1 now?

    SV: No, I don’t think… I guess everyone timed it around the same, so we all left for the same spot. And if you’re at the end of the train, which I was, then it was quite difficult. And when the team told me we only have ten seconds margin to cross the line in time to make another attempt. I had to think of something. I do not know if others were not told. If everyone would have sped up the way I did, then yeah, we would have all made it. But I obviously prioritised to make the lap. It felt like others were not aware.

    Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) A question for each of you. It is the 1000th grand prix and we know it’s another race for you. Can you enjoy the moment or is it something you’ll have to look back on more further years down the line?

    Lewis?

    LH: For me it’s not really much of a moment. It’s just another race. We’re here to win. It’s great for the sport.

    Valtteri, your thoughts?

    VB: Yeah, here to focus on myself, our team’s job and try to do the best job we can. In the end it’s only numbers but obviously it’s a big one, so congrats to F1.

    Sebastian?

    SV: Well, it’s not up to us, obviously. It’s a bit more colourful than other races but I think inside the car and for the result itself, it makes no difference.

    Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Question for Seb. You said you weren’t very confident with the car in Australia, it seemed to be the same again in Bahrain. Has that changed coming here? Have you started to get what you want? And, if you’re not, how much more is there to get out of this car?

    SV: I think we have a strong platform to work from. Obviously we started very well in Barcelona and the feeling was really good, and really strong. Since then, I think we’ve struggled a little bit to repeat that, so yeah, the past two races, we’ve had little issues here and there. Bahrain didn’t go my way. Saturday was not bad, we had a small problem, otherwise I could have been better, Sunday yeah, struggling in the first stint as much as in Australia the second stint. Here and there not happy. Obviously you try to drive around the problems and try to set up the car differently. I think we are getting more and more there, understanding maybe some things related to different tracks, which Barcelona doesn’t show because it’s different but, as I said, the car is strong, so it’s up to us to extract the performance.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Seb, Bernie Ecclestone was speaking earlier this week suggesting that it could take into consideration that you might want to retire. Do you envisage being in the sport beyond your next contract?

    LH: It’s the moustache!

    SV: He’s got one too now, I don’t know what you call it when it’s all around. Goatee. Well, certainly I’m not going to drive… I’m not going to be in Formula One as long as he was, that’s for sure. Yeah, but I hope I’m going to be as fit and as sharp as he is today when I’m hopefully that old. Yeah, I don’t know, to be honest. At the moment I feel on top of my game, I feel that I know what I’m doing and yeah, I’m very very self-critical, very ambitious and I put a lot of expectation on to myself. I love driving, I love the sensation of the speed, I love fighting with these guys so there’s a lot of things that at the moment I really like and I’ll miss so that’s why it’s not an option to quit tomorrow, I’m quite happy to race. And then, yeah, I’ve got the contract but that’s a piece of paper and then we see what happens.

    Q: (Car Magazine, Greece) Valtteri, you were under a lot of pressure last year and you had an outburst at the beginning of this season with your win. You’re now leading the championship, you have pole position, where are you confidence-wise?

    VB: Confidence-wise I’m good, thanks for asking. It’s been a good start of the year, first of all for me personally and for us as a team. It’s been optimal but it’s all at the beginning of the year I feel confident. Today was a good day and hopefully tomorrow will be again, but it’s a long season ahead.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Lewis, you said in response to Tom’s question you tried different lines and settings to cure the problems you’ve been having. Was that purely a function of trying to get the tyre temperatures balanced across both axles? It kind of looked – certainly in FP3 around turn three – as if you were having particular difficulty getting the car to bite in at the exit of turn three compared with other people.

    LH: I don’t know. Valtteri was particularly quick in the first sector so I was experimenting  throughout the session, finally got the quickest sector in the end but a little bit too late but still, it’s all about making improvements. It wasn’t to do with tyre temperature, it was just really to do a balance and getting the flow, utilising the grip in the right areas. But as I said, I’ve been struggling with the car so I was just battling the thing. It’s obviously a great car but this year I think the first few races are always quite tricky with a new car. You see it shifts a little bit later on in the season when you get a better understanding.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) It looked a bit strange with the soft tyre and the medium tyre; I think Lewis, you went in Q2 on another set of mediums and you were the fastest. Do you think it’s a bit strange here, the behaviour between soft and medium? Do you expect that this could swing around something for tomorrow, because you’re probably not going to drive on the soft as you did today?

    SV: I’m not sure I understood the question. Yeah, Valtteri understood. Go ahead. No, I didn’t really…

    VB: Yeah, I can explain to you and then you answer Well, the thing is here the soft tyre… it’s a very high energy track. There’s long corners which put a lot of load on the tyres and actually the soft degrades more during the lap, even one lap, than the medium so soft might be a lot quicker at the beginning of the lap but by the end of the lap it is slower than the medium tyre, so that’s why there’s no massive time difference. I think tomorrow, as normal, medium’s going to be the better tyre after a few laps as usual, but that’s something we will find out tomorrow.

    SV: Thank you, Valtteri, for the explanation. It makes complete sense what he was saying so… Yeah, I should listen more in these meetings about tyres. Not much to add. I think it’s always a bit of a surprise to us when we are much closer with the harder compound compared to the softest compound. But Valtteri explained why very well.

  • Bottas edges ahead of Vettel; Hamilton in 4th behind Verstappen: FP2

    Bottas edges ahead of Vettel; Hamilton in 4th behind Verstappen: FP2

    Valtteri tops FP2 on Friday. An FIA image

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: FIA Formula One World Championship title leader Valtteri Bottas took top spot in second practice, narrowly beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the Formula One World Championship.

    Vettel topped the morning session in Shanghai using medium compound Pirelli tyres, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton second and Bottas fifth on soft rubber, but in the FP2 performance runs the Silver Arrows improved, with Bottas eventually edging Vettel by a little under three hundredths of a second and with Hamilton fourth behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

    After the teams’ early runs, which focused on hard and medium tyres, Vettel was the first to bolt on a set of soft tyres and test his Ferrari’s raw pace. The German set a time of 1m33.357s, but Bottas soon moved past that benchmark, a quick middle sector giving him a 0.027s advantage over the Ferrari driver.

    Verstappen slotted into third in an encouraging session for Red Bull. In the morning session the Dutch driver had finished almost half a second off Vettel’s P1 pace but in the afternoon, and on a softer tyre, but in the afternoon he ended the session just 0.221s behind Bottas and almost half-a-second faster than Hamilton, who failed to stitch together a convincing hot lap on softs.

    Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took fifth place just under 0.6s behind Hamilton, while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was sixth fastest, 0.045s behind the works Renault, and 0.017s ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc whose session was ended after 13 laps due to a technical problem.

    Lando Norris gave McLaren hope of a strong weekend with eighth place, with the rookie finish just over a tenth off Leclerc.

    Daniel Ricciardo, in the second Renault, was ninth and a second off the pace, while Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly finished in 10th place.

    Elsewhere, Daniil Kvyat missed much of the session as his team replaced the Honda power unit in his Toro Rosso while Haas’ Romain Grosjean was forced back to the garage briefly when his front wing broke.

    2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
    1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 37 1:33.330
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 33 1:33.357 0.027 0.027
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 29 1:33.551 0.221 0.194
    4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 32 1:34.037 0.707 0.486
    5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 31 1:34.096 0.766 0.059
    6 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 36 1:34.141 0.811 0.045
    7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 13 1:34.158 0.828 0.017
    8 Lando Norris McLaren 38 1:34.296 0.966 0.138
    9 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 32 1:34.336 1.006 0.040
    10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 32 1:34.455 1.125 0.119
    11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 33 1:34.551 1.221 0.096
    12 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 37 1:34.634 1.304 0.083
    13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 20 1:34.694 1.364 0.060
    14 Lance Stroll Racing Point 37 1:34.779 1.449 0.085
    15 Sergio Perez Racing Point 35 1:34.784 1.454 0.005
    16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 34 1:34.788 1.458 0.004
    17 Romain Grosjean Haas 32 1:35.704 2.374 0.916
    18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 40 1:35.914 2.584 0.210
    19 Robert Kubica Williams 38 1:36.121 2.791 0.207
    20 George Russell Williams 35 1:36.229 2.899 0.108

  • The competition is incredibly tight in the midfield this year, says Racing Point’s Andrew Green

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: Team representatives who attended the FIA Friday Press Conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship: – Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda), Andrew GREEN (Racing Point)

    Transcript:

    Gentlemen, welcome. I’d like to start by taking a moment to reflect on this being the 1000th world championship race for Formula 1, and to ask each of you why you got involved in Formula 1? What triggered your passion for this great sport? Andrew, perhaps we could start with you.

    Andrew GREEN: So, this is my, not quite 500th, but close… 1991 I think was my first race and I was not quite out of college, maybe two years out of college and for me it was the Sunday afternoons sitting down watching those guys racing wheel-to-wheel that really gave me the buzz. That’s why I went to college to study engineering; that’s where I wanted to be. At the time my passion was also cricket. One of the guys I used to play cricket with was Rory Byrne. He was the one who inspired me to write off to all the chiefs and offer my services for free. And that’s how I got into F1 and motorsport all those years ago.

    Q: Thank you. Toto?

    Toto WOLFF: Less holistic. I was interested in racing cars when I made my driving licence actually but didn’t follow Formula 1 at all, although Austria had a great history of Formula 1 racing drivers. But I somehow got into the sport by the finance side. The passion for racing cars in general and then the business side of Formula 1, that encapsulates everything that the business covers around motor racing that somehow attracted me, a few years ago only.

    Q: Thank you, Toto. Mattia?

    Mattia BINOTTO: On my side, since I was a child I was watching the races with my grandfather. He was a fantastic, passionate [supporter] of motorsport, but especially of Ferrari. When, as myself, living in Switzerland, you were looking at the red cars, they are something special for Italy, so it was something important for me. So it was since I was a child really a dream, of being part of F1 but even more being part of Ferrari. And to this it might feel even like a mission – try to preserve what is the heritage of this sport and Ferrari.

    Q: Thanks, and Tanabe-san?

    Toyoharu TANABE: Since I was a child I’m very interested in the car. Then, in Japan, we actually didn’t have a lot of racing in that era. But then Honda started Formula 1 as their second era. Then I joined Honda and then after joining Honda I asked my boss: ‘I want to work in Formula 1’. And now I’m working for Formula 1.

    Q: Mission accomplished. Thank you all. A few more questions. Tanabe-san, if we can stay with you: it’s been a very solid start for Honda so far in 2019. How satisfied are you and can you close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes?

    TT: So far, we have started this season with a reasonable performance and reasonable results. But reasonable means not fantastic yet and you see clearly you see there is still a big gap between the top runners and us. So we really need to push to improve our performance, to compete with our competitors here. But we understand it is not to improve our performance immediately but we’ll keep pushing through the year.

    Q: What do you think is the performance gap between yourselves and Ferrari and Mercedes?

    TT: I don’t tell you specific number but you see the gap at the track.

    Q: Thank you. Andrew if I could come to you, please. How do you assess Racing Point’s start to the season and what sort of progress are you making with the car?

    AG: It’s been a difficult start. I think the competition is incredibly tight in the midfield this year – tighter than I’ve known it for a long time. I think we’re just slightly behind. We’re not a long way behind but I think our weaknesses were probably exposed in the first couple of races. We’ve got a plan to obviously bring us back to our target level of performance, it’s going to take some time, but I think we have to remember that the car was originally conceived in the mid to late part of last year, when the team was in serious trouble. We were really struggling at that point. We had to make quite a few decisions about the car and the architecture of the car back then, not really knowing what was going to happen with the team, whether there was even going to be a team. We are still getting out of that. It will still take some time. We’re in a much better place now, but improvements take time. It takes time to build the infrastructure up to where we need it to be. It’s easy now to say that we have the bills paid at the end of each month, which we never used to be able to say, so it’s one less thing to worry about. But there are more things to think about, as far as the performance of the car, where we’re going in the future, which is something we’re thinking about a lot, where the regulations are going and where we’re going to go in the future. There’s a lot to think about now.

    Q: And a quick word on Lance Stroll as well. It’s his first season with the team. How is he bedding in, what are your first impressions?

    AG: First impressions are really good. We saw it at the end of last year when he tested for us post-Abu Dhabi. We could see the talent was there; he’s got some raw talent. We saw it in the simulator as well. He’s done a huge amount of work off-season with us. His dedication is incredible. His enthusiasm is incredible. He’s fitted into the team I think really well, really well, and I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.

    Q: Mattia, losing the Bahrain Grand Prix must have been very tough on everybody in the team but particularly Charles Leclerc. What did you say to him? How could you comfort him after the race?

    Mattia BINOTTO: Losing was tough but even more probably frustrating but giving us even more boost for the following races and for here in China. To Charles, what I told him, I think he did a great race, he did a great quali a great race but more than that, I think he has been fantastic on the post-race comments, showing that he’s really a mature driver. So, simply telling him good job but we’re more happy with what you did after the race and during the entire weekend. And that’s enough. Because then I think all of us are simply looking ahead at the next challenge.

    Q: Was there any reoccurrence of the problem during the test session in Bahrain after the race?

    MB: No, not during the testing, so that’s a problem that occurs only once during the race. Never at the bench, never during testing, never in practices. Ten laps or 12 laps to the end of the race, whatever it was. I think on reliability, you need to be strong, on quality, you need to be strong, but it may always happen and I think it was really unlucky the way it happened. We changed all our units here in China for precaution, even on the other car, so even on Seb’s. Not because the one of Seb got the issues so far, but I think at the moment it’s the best way to protect ourselves with the issue we have. And then we try somehow to understand and verify the quality of all the units we have installed.

    Q: And just a quick word if we may on Mick Schumacher who was testing one of your cars in that Bahrain test. How do you assess his performance?

    MB: To assess the performance, I think it is very difficult because first, the weather conditions were very bad on that day and because at the end I think that the objective was not really to assess the performance. It was his very first day on an F1 car; more important for him still in the learning phase, day-by-day, is facing a completely new challenge in his F2 season. I think what was certainly positive was the way he approached the exercise, the approach to the day of testing, never pushing to the limit, trying to improve run-by-run, learning the car, learning the team, and I think in that respect he did a very good job: very well focussed, concentrated and tried to do the proper job and learn. I think that’s the most you may expect on such a day.

    Q: Did you see any similar character traits with his father?

    MB: The very first time I saw him after many years in Maranello, when he came back. If you looked at him, I don’t think he’s looking very similar to Michael but the way he’s behaving is very similar, and the way he’s approaches the exercise and the way he’s interested in the car, discussing it with the technicians. So even in Maranello, you are looking after him, but he’s always in the workshop looking at the car, speaking with the mechanics, and I think that’s very similar to his father.

    Q: Toto, you’re leading both of the World Championships but what do you feel is the reality in terms of performance at the moment?

    Toto WOLFF: It’s nice to lead the two championships, obviously you’d rather lead than not lead, but we have seen two very different grands prix. We had a very high level of performance in Melbourne, compared to Ferrari, and not a great level in the second level in Bahrain – but it was not only compared to Ferrari, also you benchmark yourself to the other teams and I think that was a race where we didn’t perform as we should have done – but we’ve always said there was one race that was the race over the winter: who comes out of the blocks best; and then there will be the development race throughout the season, and this is certainly a challenging situation for us, as it will be for all the other teams and good for the sport, I think, that you can’t really predict who’s going to win the race on Sunday.

    Q: And a quick word on Valtteri Bottas. He’s leading the World Championship. Are you seeing anything different from him this season, compared to previous?

    TW: It’s this mania depression of Formula One that people are being written up and written down and after Melbourne he was the reinvented superstar and World Championship contender and after the next race again it was not the case. I think we just need to let them go on with the Championship. He has started the weekend well today. I think it’s the same Valtteri we have seen in the last years. He has all that he needs to compete on a high level, to fight for race victories and eventually championships. I see the same guy.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Question for Toto. Lewis said yesterday that, if Ferrari have established an advantage on the engine side, it will be much more difficult to catch up than if they’d established an advantage on the aero side. Could you elucidate a little bit on that? Is it a factor of the tightness of the regulatory box or the inherent risks of pushing engine development?

    TW: First of all, what needs to be said – because when I read articles it’s always not accurately reflected – if somebody does a good job, he does a good job, and that’s fact. And whether he has a good engine and out-performs all the others, or he has a decent amount of downforce and goes quicker around the corners, that is irrelevant. It is always about the performance of the package. As we have seen, Ferrari operating in Bahrain, they were superior to all the other teams and there was massive engine power on the straight – but it’s not always engine power. Obviously, drag levels are playing an important role in the calculation. This is something we need to evaluate. This morning there was a frightening lap of Sebastian again, in straight line speed – but it is what it is, we have to stretch ourselves and fight and extract performance out of the chassis and extract performance out of the power unit and certainly see. Having a benchmark like that helps and motivates.

    Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Mattia. At the beginning of the season you said that Sebastian will be given priority status in some situations in the early part of the season. Could that philosophy shirt and change towards Charles if he were to repeat the sort of races we saw from him in Bahrain?

    MB: Certainly as a team we need to give the priority to the team and try to maximise the team’s points at the end of the race. As I said at the start of the season, if there is any 50-50 situation where we need to take a decision, the advantage would have been given to Sebastian simply because Sebastian has got most of the experience with the team in F1. He won four championships and certainly for us he’s the driver who has most probability to challenge for the title. Something we agreed with both drivers is, in a few races’ time, things may change for whatever reason – bad luck or whatever could be the situation – we may change our position, no doubt. But on the track, they’re free to fight, on the track I think if there is one driver who is certainly faster, he will get the advantage. I think that Charles, as a matter of fact, he had an opportunity to be in pole in Bahrain, he had the opportunity to fight for the win and he had position in Bahrain.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Andrew and Toto, your two companies have recently signed an agreement for Racing Point to use the Mercedes wind tunnel. When does this become effective? What are you trying to achieve through it, Andrew? And then finally, why should we not see this as a precursor to a Haas-Ferrari-type deal?

    AG: Later this year we’ll be moving into the Mercedes tunnel in Brackley for purely efficiency reasons. Our aero department happens to be located in Brackley; Mercedes wind tunnel happens to be located in Brackley. It’s a lot easier to go testing in Brackley than it is in Cologne. So, when it was offered as an opportunity for us to go testing there, it was an obvious choice.

    And Toto, a closer affiliation between the two teams?

    TW: Well, first of all, we are not doing a Haas-Ferrari model because Haas was a new entry, a team created from scratch. These guys exist for a long time. I don’t see what’s so bad in a Haas-Ferrari model actually. We have enabled somebody that was keen to enter Formula One in setting up a team, with the cooperation with Ferrari it got out of the blocks really well, and fights solidly in the midfield. I think that’s good for Formula One. Our model is very different. For the reasons stated before, Andy and his team know pretty well what they want to achieve with the car, they have a solid technical group of people and will go in that direction. They will be using some of our infrastructure and we will see where that moves for the 2021 regulations. Once these are carved out, we will decide which of the areas we want to collaborate and where it is possible, regulatory-wise.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Tanabe-san, one year ago you had one team, now you have two teams. How much faster, how much improved is your rate of development?

    TT: Yes, so we can get double data compared to the one team (with) two teams and then there are some differences in the team philosophies or ways of working and we learned a lot. Then, not only twice but also more than twice we can receive information and then we had a different driver – four drivers with different characteristics and driving, slightly. It’s very hard how much in some things but two teams appear to supply and accelerate our development definitely.

    Q: (Alessandra Retico – La Repubblica) Mattia, Montezemolo said in an interview with my newspaper that you are at risk, in his opinion, to be alone inside the Scuderia, because there is no one to talk with because the president, John Elkan is not so experienced in Formula One and CEO Camilleri is a great manager of course but his job is on the financial side of the company. And like it was Ross Brawn with Jean Todt and Montezemolo himself. Do you have any comment on that?

    MB: I didn’t read the article, first, but I think that that’s completely wrong. I got the full support from my chairman and my CEO. I think that both John and Louis are great men, certainly very supportive to the team and I think that I have got plenty of people in Maranello to speak with so I’m well supported by my colleagues and I think that somehow we are quite a big and hungry team with plenty of competence and skills so I think I feel fully supported and hopefully I will have a long life in the team.

    Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) Toto, we are celebrating the launch of the esports series China championship this weekend. I’m wondering if you are able to see much of the e-sports work, considering you have the reigning championship yourself?

    TW: Yes, the virtual world was something I needed to get used to but interestingly, when you watch an esports F1 race there is almost no difference in how you perceive it than on a real on-board so it’s crazy to see how technology develops and the graphics have matured. We obviously enjoy very much. We have set up this programme where we are trying to give young kids a framework around their capabilities, it’s not only the driving and the coaching around but we are giving them a 360 degree support programme. They are little Mercedes works drivers and winning the championship last year was the icing on the cake. You can say somehow that we’ve done it in the real world and we’ve done it in the virtual world and again, as I’ve said before, you’d rather win that one than not. Yeah, I’m happy to see how that develops.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Toto and Matteo, following the Liberty meeting, now that you’ve had time to reflect on what they presented, do your two teams have any red lines about what was presented, particularly with reference to the revenue, the governance and the cost-caps?

    TW: (To MB: He is wearing red, he has many red lines). That is a work in progress. I think the meeting was good because in the meeting we… most of Liberty’s thoughts and proposals were made clear to the teams on the cost-cap, on technical regulations and sporting regulations going forward and that was important for us to really open up a thought process around it and this is still very much happening. And in each of those areas, we seem to have an alignment on what we want to achieve. Formula One needs regulations, Formula One needs to stay high tec but on the other side we recognise that if there are areas where we can save costs because these things are not visible to the fans, then we really need to look at them. On the cost-cap, for the big teams, I think it’s an intelligent step to contain the escalation of costs. We are fighting each other with more and more resource and if we are able to stop that and reduce it, it will be for the benefit of all of us, of our bottom lines and eventually it will decrease the funding gap between the smaller teams and the big teams and I think if we were to achieve that in the first step, that’s already a good step going forward. And because of the nature of things, in terms of the prize fund redistribution, nobody’s ever going to be happy. You would want to obviously maximise and optimise on your situation that everybody’s going to have pretty decent arguments why they should have more and this is a discussion which really has just started in my opinion, but obviously, I would say, a good first step.

    MB: I think that Toto’s answered well. But I think yes, I think this is the start of the discussion and we’ve got some more clarity. I think it’s important to collaborate, be open with each other. As Toto said, we’ve got common objectives, us and F1. Pretty sure that we will find the right compromise if only through discussions, that we may find it, as we did for the power unit. I think we adopted a change, we considered that we were very back, finally we decided for a common good result which everybody was almost happy with the compromise. I think that’s the same for the revenues, we did the same for the governance, the budget cap, all the technical matters; it’s a discussion on-going but collaboration and discussions are all positive so even if there are some distances at the moment, I’m pretty sure we will find the right compromise at the end.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Andrew, just to follow up on Dieter’s question from earlier about the wind tunnel: you take a Mercedes complete power train and now will be using the wind tunnel.  Do you think this is as far as anyone should be allowed to go in terms of team affiliation?

    AG: I hope not, because we take their gearbox and hydraulics as well. I’d like that to stay. I think that’s everything that is being discussed for 2021, I think that’s all on the agenda that Toto was referencing earlier and it is what I was referencing earlier as well. It’s where we go forward as a team, thinking ahead for 2021. We want to build our team to be the most efficient team based around those regulations and when those regulations are finalised we will have a clear idea of what we need to do.

  • Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in FP1

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of opening practice at China’s Shanghai International Circuit, as Formula 1 began preparations for its 1000thrace.

    The Ferrari driver beat five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second despite using a harder compound tyre than the Mercedes man. Third place in the session went to Vettel’s team-mate Charles Leclerc.

    Four-time champion Vettel set his best time of session, a lap of 1:33.911 on the C3 compound chosen as the medium tyres for this weekend. Hamilton’s best lap of 1:34.118, a little over two tenths of a second off the Ferrari driver’s benchmark was posted while using the C4 compound nominated as this race’s soft tyres.

    Leclerc also used the medium tyres to set his quickest lap of the 90-minute session. The Monegasque driver posted a time of 1:34.167 to finish 0.049s behind soft-shod Hamilton.

    Max Verstappen set the fourth quickest time of the morning, using the soft tyre to finish the session 0.167s behind Leclerc. The Red Bull driver was over four tenths slower than Vettel, however, despite being a step softer on tyres.

    Championship leader Valtteri Bottas finished fifth with a time of 1:34.653 that left him almost eight tenths of a second off the pace but the Mercedes man then had more than half a second in hand over sixth-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

    The Renault driver was followed by Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull. The French driver was 1.5s down on Vettel’s benchmark but more painfully perhaps Gasly was almost 1.1s adrift off Red Bull team-mate Verstappen.

    Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat finished in eighth place ahead of Lance Stroll of Racing Point and Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

     

     

    2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 19 1:33.911
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 21 1:34.118 0.207
    3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 21 1:34.167 0.256
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 20 1:34.334 0.423
    5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 23 1:34.653 0.742
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 23 1:35.239 1.328
    7 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 23 1:35.428 1.517
    8 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 24 1:35.447 1.536
    9 Lance Stroll Racing Point 25 1:35.466 1.555
    10 Romain Grosjean Haas 24 1:35.507 1.596
    11Kevin Magnussen Haas 25 1:35.517 1.606
    12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 22 1:35.591 1.680
    13 Lando Norris McLaren 24 1:35.631 1.720
    14 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 26 1:35.695 1.784
    15 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 23 1:35.729 1.818
    16 Spain Carlos Sainz McLaren 24 1:35.756 1.845
    17 Sergio Perez Racing Point 24 1:35.820 1.909
    18 Robert Kubica Williams 27 1:36.847 2.936
    19 George Russell Williams 29 1:37.619 3.708
    20 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 2

  • Drivers reflect as F1’s 1000th race begins: Chinese GP Thursday press meet

    Drivers who took part in the Thursday press conference ahead of the Chinese GP, the 1000th F1 race:

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Alfa Romeo), Alexander ALBON (Toro Rosso), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Sergio PÉREZ (Racing Point)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Gentlemen, I’d like to start with a moment of reflection, given that this is Formula 1’s 1000th race. Growing up and watching the sport, what made you want to become a Formula 1 driver? Romain, if we could start with you, please?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Good afternoon. I started watching with my dad, a long time ago. It was the time of the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost fights and that was pretty exciting to watch. My dad was always passionate about cars and one day he brought me to a race track – not a Formula 1 race – and I saw the cars going and I thought ‘you know what, that’s what I would like to do’. Then, eventually, I was lucky enough to go to the Monaco Grand Prix to watch the Thursday practice and I saw the car and heard the noise of the engine and it was just something very unique and special, a good memory of my life. I remember going to the toilet and DC was there and he said, ‘oh, you go first son’. He still called me son by then! And I said ‘no, no, you go’. Pretty amazing.

    Q: Thank you. Sergio?

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, for me similar, a similar story. I remember the first race I watched with my dad was ’94 actually when Aytron had his accident. That was the first race I ever saw. A shocking moment, more for my dad than for me. At the time I didn’t understand well what was happening. Obviously, from Mexico, Formula 1 is not very big so it always seemed too far, too difficult. It’s been a while since we had a driver, so the history back home wasn’t big. But as a family, we always loved the sport and I always wanted to become a Formula 1 driver. At a very young I went to Europe to fight for it. I remember watching so many races, always waking up very early in the morning, because in Mexico the races are very early, six or seven o’clock in the morning. So always on a weekend, when you don’t want to wake up early, I had to, to watch Formula 1. I actually remember watching Kimi back then, at a very young age too.

    Q: Thank you Sergio. Kimi?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I don’t know what year it was, but it was a long time ago, the ‘80s, that’s for sure. I think the first memories were somewhere where Keke was racing when he blew up his tyre or something, maybe Adelaide or something, with the long straight, maybe the last races that he did. So anyhow, obviously I was cheering for the Finnish guys, but I didn’t think that I… maybe you dream when you’re a kid, but once you start doing go-karts and everything I didn’t really believe that it was going to happen, because obviously, you need a certain amount of money to get from go-karts to racing. Maybe I believed a bit more when I got my managers helping and then actually got to race in Formula cars and then obviously it went very quickly. I guess it was a dream but not very realistic at that point, but it went fast once it started to go there.

    Q: Thank you Kimi. And Alex?

    Alexander ALBON: My hero was Michael Schumacher. That was the guy I always looked up to. I was Ferrari mad actually – even if I should say that or not, I don’t know. But I loved Schumacher. I think I was about six. I was a bit like Romain. I was at Silverstone and there was a competition. You had to fill out the top three drivers that you thought would win the race, or finish in that order, so I just put Michael, Rubens and Montoya. For some reason at that race that’s what happened. I think Barrichello was finishing last or something. So no one wrote what I wrote down. I think it was in hospitality at Ferrari. So I won the prize and got to meet Michael and got to meet Rubens. It stuck with me that. I was always a hardcore fan.

    Q: Thanks to all four of you. Alex, if we could stay with you. Going well so far, you’ve out-qualified your team-mate in Australia and Bahrain. Can you describe the learning curve you’ve been on so far in Formula 1?

    AA: Yeah, it’s been steep. Getting in the car in Barcelona, getting up to speed. The speed bit… the cars are so refined now that you do feel quite comfortable with the cars straight away. It’s more the interaction with the team and kind of just extracting performance outside the car, which definitely is a lot about experience. So just being Dany, listening to him really, listening to his feedback, how he communicates with people, it really does help me. But yeah, it’s been going well. Simulator driving, that’s helped a lot as well. But it’s going well so far.

    Q: And are you doing anything different with your helmet this weekend?

    AA: Yeah, so I’ve got a Prince Bira tribute. I thought it would be cool to go back and bring out some of the Thai history in Formula 1. I have a couple of photos, I have his number, well, my number but in his style, because he had the blue and yellow racing scheme. So that’s about it.

    Q: Thanks. Romain, you’re a man in need of some good fortune this weekend in China. Just how was last week’s test session in Bahrain? Did you understand why the car’s pace dropped off in the race?

    RG: Well, it started with three wheels, which didn’t help, after the contact in the first corners. No, we had some good testing. It was a bit disrupted by the rain, which was a surprise to all us in Bahrain on Tuesday, but we did manage, on Wednesday afternoon, to get some good data and info, some interesting set-ups that we should have been running during the race. I think the car is fast and it’s good. You don’t qualify twice in the top 10 if you don’t have a fast car. I think we just missed something in Bahrain that we found at testing, which is good. I think what we need right now is a bit of luck on our side, and to make sure we go through the race with no incident or no issue and we should be able to have a good weekend.

    Q: And anything different with your helmet?

    RG: I’ve changed the design, using the F1 1000 logo – that looks really cool – just the full white helmet. Nothing really from the past of Formula 1 but I was not very… I used to throw all my equipment to the bins of the season, but luckily my wife pushed me to keep at least one thing from every year. I know I’ve got one overall per year, from all my racing career, from go-karts to 2019 season, and actually when I look at them now I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve got some helmets back home that mean more than others. My 100th grand prix helmet and obviously being part of race 1000 in Formula 1 is going to be something big, so that helmet is going to go on the shelf and I really like the design that we have produced. It looks pretty classy and really cool to be driven in China.

    Q: Sergio, it hasn’t been the easiest of starts for the team in 2019, though you did finish in the points last time out. Are there any underlying issues with the car and if there are, what are they?

    SP: I think the upgrade that we brought to the start of the season, given that we didn’t have enough to test or to work on it, I think that put us on the back foot at the moment in the midfield group. We scored points in Melbourne and now in Bahrain. At the moment we are not fast enough, we are not where we want to be, but I think we have proven in the past that it’s a very long season. It doesn’t matter where you are now, it’s where you get to by Abu Dhabi. We are understanding our issues, we have a lot of work to do and I’m pretty sure we will meet all of our targets for this season.

    Q: And your helmet design for this weekend?

    SP: My helmet design didn’t change much. I just wanted to put the 1000 race logo on my helmet just to… it’s obviously very special as a driver to race here, at such a special venue for Formula 1, it’s a very special weekend also. I want, as Romain said, to remember this weekend in many years, to look at this helmet and remember that I was part of the 1000th race in Formula 1.

    Q: Kimi, great start to the season for you and Alfa Romeo, points in both of the opening two races. Can you tell us, what are the strengths of this year’s car and has the performance so far changed your goals for the season?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No, it hasn’t. I didn’t really have any goals, so it’s pretty hard to change them. I can’t really talk about last year’s car. Obviously I did a test but it’s one track so from my side it’s hard to say what is better on this car than the one they had last year but for sure they did a good job over the winter from the car that I drove in Abu Dhabi in the tyre test to the one we have now. Obviously there’s a lot of things to improve still and it’s a never-ending story and an ongoing thing to try to make it better, holding more downforce and stuff like that – but yeah, I think in general it’s quite a good, solid package and we understand it pretty OK and they seem to have good guys on all areas to bring new stuff. It never comes fast enough but that’s a normal issue in any team you go to. Yeah, I think the basis there is to make it faster all the time, so keep it up and see what we’ve got when we get to the end of the year.

    Q: Anything different on the helmet design to celebrate 1000 races?

    KR: No. I wanted to have an open-face helmet but there were some regulation issues…!

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Checo, you say your helmet design hasn’t changed much but I’m hearing from an insider that your helmet has actually changed. Do you have a different brand for this race?

    SP: Yeah, in that regard yes. I’ve moved to Bell. I’ve been in a long term partnership with Schuberth which I’m very thankful for, I think it’s a fantastic helmet. Now I had the opportunity to change and I think Bell is also a fantastic helmet. I’ve tried it, and it’s my first race with them now. I started my career in Formula One with them and now I’m going back to Bell.

    Q: (Steven Wade – AP) Kimi, we see that this summer you’re going to break an F1 record for the most races contested, how do you stay motivated? You’ve had tremendous success already, how do you stay motivated and stay on top of your game?

    KR: I don’t know really. I don’t have any special things that I try to motivate myself. It’s become more of a hobby for me lately than anything else and probably that’s why it’s more fun again, so, yeah, I always try to do the best that I can. Some days it goes a bit better than others – but that’s how it goes when you do a lot of racing. Some days it’s a bit more tricky than others. It’s never really been an issue. A lot of people think so but, y’know, everybody has the right to say what they think. I just try to do what I can and hopefully… when I feel myself that it’s not what I expect from myself then obviously I try to find a new hobby after that.

    Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhua News Agency) To all four drivers, keen to know your thoughts on the Shanghai circuit and if there are any particular features or characteristics that make it especially challenging or unique?

    AA: Well, it’s my first time here, so a little bit hard to say but just coming from watching videos and being on the simulator it just seems like there’s about a thousand lines you can do here. A lot of corners leading onto other corners so it seems like there’s a lot of different styles, pushing entries or pushing exits. So yeah, it seems to be a really technical track. So, it’s interesting for the drivers, that’s for sure.

    KR: I think it’s a nice track. It’s been the same since I came here the first time but some good overtaking opportunities and quite good fun to drive.

    SP: It’s quite a long circuit: long straights, very long corners, like Turn One which is quite hard when you first get here. First lap it’s always very hard to reach the apex because it’s so late in the corner that it kind of gets you. Also, the wind is very difficult here. So it’s quite a unique place, I’d say. Normally good racing and a nice feeling on one lap – it’s definitely a circuit I enjoy.

    RG: It’s a good circuit. One of the challenges is to get here on time in the morning. Racing it quite fun, as Kimi said. Qualifying laps are always good and then in the race the challenge is to look after your tyres, especially the fronts with those long corners: Turn One, Turn Seven-Eight, 13. That can really make a huge difference if you’ve used your tyres too much or not. Then you can have some really good racing. It’s a pretty good place to come.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Question for Alex. The 2021  technical regulations are currently taking shape and are under discussion. The desired outcomes are for a more level playing field, for there to be more overtaking opportunities. Do you think that reducing the amount of data capture would provide that – or would it actively be a problem for drivers, such as you, who are just coming into the sport? Would it be a disadvantage?

    AA: To promote overtaking? I wouldn’t say reducing data would effect overtaking. On my side at least, data is just for getting lap-time, it wouldn’t be a tool to affect passes, no.

    Would if make your job harder if there were no data?

    AA: In general, yeah, I would say so. I think data now in Formula One is huge. Especially for me, it’s a fast-track to get getting up to speed and even just about getting performance. It’s definitely something I use a lot, I compare with Dany quite a lot. I think some drivers look at data more than others. I’m a driver that looks at data quite a lot. Just to get up to speed. I’m using it a lot right now. For passing or overtaking, no.

    Q: (Velimir Jukic Avto-Focus) Question for Kimi. They say you are slower for each kid by about one second. How are you compensating for this now that you have two seconds slower conditions to drive?

    KR: Maybe I somehow go faster at the same time to compensate it! I don’t think that kids make any difference. There are an awful lot of stories based on nothing in F1. I didn’t ever feel that there’s something happening on my driving when our family got bigger – but I don’t know. I guess it depends from people to people also. Sometimes it might have an effect but at least on our side, on my side, I don’t feel it. Obviously the life changes a lot outside of racing but yeah, pure driving they didn’t really effect on my side.

    I might just through that to Checo and Romain…

    SP: Similar to Kimi I think it doesn’t…. Formula One drivers are all normal, when we’re driving we don’t think we have family, we have kids, we just want to go as fast as we possibly can. I think outside of racing it changes, you sleep a lot less looking after your kids! All of a sudden a Formula One race weekend becomes a holiday, because you’re able to sleep longer, and so on – but it’s a lot of fun and it doesn’t really affect at all. If it takes one second it means in the past we were really quick! Because we have a couple of seconds in th pocket, it means a lot.

    Romain, anything to add?

    RG: No, no. I think what the boys said is the truth. It changes you as a man back home. It changes your whole life and perspective and probably helps you more than it slows you down. When you’ve had a tough weekend and you come back home, it doesn’t matter, they love you and you love them more than anything, so it puts things in perspective. But yeah, with three kids now, three seconds off the pace, my goodness… quite happy to be qualifying in the top ten!

    Alex, any children we don’t know about?

    AA: No!

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) How do you think Formula One will look for race number 2000 in forty or fifty years’ time? Will car racing still exist and what kind of cars could we see on track? Or would you like to see on track?

    RG: Actually I already answered that question. It’s a tough one. I’ve got no idea what the cars are going to be like in forty, fifty years. The only thing I would say is that I hope there is still going to be a driver driving the car because that’s where the emotion goes. If you hold a football game with just robots it’s not going to be much fun so I hope there are going to be drivers.  Technology will be very different, I’m sure, but the sense of racing has been here since 1950, the first F1 race where the guys driving at their best, trying to overtake the guy in front of them and going as fast as they could with what they had and oversteer was oversteer back then and understeer is back today so I think the feeling was the same so I hope the guys would have as much fun as we do have today.

    SP: Yeah, same. Technology these days is developing scarily so I really hope that in the future we still have the drivers and that they are able to have as much fun as we do or because I think things are going to change massively. I really hope that things change the same, at least. Obviously they were will be very different, I think, probably they might be electric in a couple of years –  I hope in many more years. For the drivers, they will still be important. I don’t know if it was in the past but these days the driver is less important, the driver can make less of a difference and it’s now all related to the team so I think for the future and for the time that I’m here I can see a different Formula One where the driver can make the difference instead of the team.

    KR: Yeah, it’s impossible to know what will happen. Probably there will be racing, some sort of racing, who knows what? It’s been 1000 races so I don’t think it’s going to disappear suddenly somehow but who knows? We’ll find out.

    AA: Yeah, same as them. As long as we have a job or the future racing drivers have a job then I’m happy.

    Q: (Zoran Zivkov – Top Speed Magazine) When you look at the past and history, if you’d had a time machine, in which period, in which era, would you like to come back?

    AA: I haven’t really thought about that. I’d say old school, 1950s. I want to see how the sport was back then. I know it’s dangerous so maybe I will bring my HANS device with me and we will see but I think that kind of racing is cool and I’d like to try it out.

    KR: I’ve gone back for the second one any more. I guess in the past, I would look at seventies, sixties, late sixties, seventies. For sure it would have been more fun, more relaxed, more pure racing but obviously much more dangerous but that’s normal at that time.

    Q: We saw you with a James Hunt helmet a few years ago, didn’t we?

    KR: Bit more than a few years but yeah.

    SP: Yeah, I think that 1960s, 70s, those times were good fun. The driving looked very dangerous of course; for the driver, it depended on the risk you took that maybe made the difference. I think it’s something that all my career I have missed. Always the difference is made by the cars and not so much by the drivers. I think back then it was good fun. It looked really good. Also the atmosphere was really relaxed. I think these days Formula One is too posed. I wish it was a bit more relaxed and people enjoying themselves more.

    RG: Yeah, not going that far (back). I’m really in love with ’93, ’94 and then 2005 and 2006. I wish that Kimi was back then: yeah, you were racing. I love the cars around that time and they looked amazing and there was a tyre war as well which was quite fun to watch from outside, I thought, and refuelling and the cars looked really really cool in mid-2000. I drove a 2007 car, it was quite good then.

    Q: (Duan Yiyi – Titan Sports) Kimi, no matter which team you are in you always seem to be the fans’ favourite here in China, so from your perspective what characteristics do you have to attract so many fans in China?

    KR: I have no idea. You should go and ask them. I think generally in Japan, China we Finnish people seem to have a lot of fans. It’s great, especially here. I cannot go anywhere but that’s a part of… the other side of the fans. I’ve always had a lot of fans here, since the first time we came here so I’m happy about it. I don’t know the reason. I guess you would probably get the answer if you go and ask some in front of our hotel, you can ask them there. Or at the airport.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, RaceFans.net) You may have noticed that in Bahrain McLaren was sponsored by an e-cigarette brand, Vipe. Particularly the three fathers there, how do you feel about this? Do you feel it sets the right sort of example for your children?

    RG: Oh dear. I’m going to dig my own oar. Right. I think you want to watch on Netflix, because they are our friends now, whatever content you can. I am the first one to tell my friends to stop smoking and I’ve actually achieved that a few times and I’m quite proud of that. I think e-cigarettes are maybe less bad. I think if they want to sponsor Formula One why not. I’ve been with Total for many many years which is an oil company in France or worldwide and we’ve actually done some amazing experiences together and you could say that oil is actually not good for the environment and so on but I think companies like Total are trying to do a lot for the environment and just producing oil. So I think, in the end, I don’t know much about e-cigarettes to be fair, but if it’s better for health reasons, if it’s less smelly as well… You know, we just came up the stairs and it smelled of cigarettes like hell. Same when you leave an airport. First thing you do when you go out of an airport, everyone is smoking his first cigarette and it stinks.  If this year it can be better somehow then great. If it’s better then why not and if it helps our sport then great.

    SP: Yeah, Romain did a good job with that one.

    KR: No, I have no issue. I don’t see the connection that if my son sees advertising on any of the… doesn’t matter if it’s alcohol or cigarettes, something, I don’t believe that that affects his choices whatsoever. That’s my belief on that. Did it affect my choices when I have seen them in the past? Rules are rules, whether you can do it or not, that’s not my business but I have no worries.

    RG: … point that Kimi’s bringing in, because we watched Formula One when there was a lot of cigarette advertising on the cars: Williams, Jordan, Ferrari, McLaren. I’ve never smoked all my life but I’ve been watching a lot of races so I don’t think there’s any connection there.