INDIA in F1

Tag: F1

  • It is extremely important to have top brands in Formula 1, says Toto Wolff

    Spielberg, 29 June 2018: The Friday FIA press conference of team representatives, ahead of the 9th round of the FIA Formula One World Championship was attended by Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing), Toto Wolff (Mercedes), Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda) and Franz Tost (Toro Rosso).

    Transcript:

    Tanabe-san, we’ll start with you. Your sitting between your current team partner and your future partner. Just tell us, why Red Bull from next season?

    Toyoharu Tanabe: I’m not involved very much in contractual discussions, so I’m not sure how many options we had for our future PU supply. But in reality, we will be in a good position, because Toro Rosso and Red Bull are already linked, centralised in Red Bull Technology. That works very well for us, I believe because we don’t need to discuss Team A or Team B individually. So we centralize our discussion into the Red Bull group. I hope it will help our task for next year.

    You say it’s a good position for Honda, but Red Bull has been winning races this year, so isn’t it a lot of pressure on Honda next year. ?

    TT: Yes, it is. But we already have a lot of pressure and stress supplying PUs in the Formula 1 series. We are working very closely with Toro Rosso and of course, we have pressure. Then, Red Bull and I respect their success in the Formula 1 series so we have another pressure but we supply the same spec, of course, that is the regulation, and I would like to work very efficiently with these teams.

    Thank you. Christian, it’s a lot of pressure on Honda but is it also pressure on Red Bull, returning to a works partnership deal?

    Christian Horner: It’s a positive. We had the option to change or the option to stay where we were and having looked at the progress that Honda have been making over recent months, having had the benefit of looking at the progress of Toro Rosso and how Toro Rosso have worked with Honda. It’s been really very, very encouraging and for us we see it as extremely low risk and of course the upside is what we’re interested in, in terms of what is the potential and I think the commitment, the resource, the facilities that Honda have available to them is really exciting for us. And to be the focal point of attention with the two teams is a fantastic position for Red Bull to be in. We’re certainly very excited about what the future holds and very much looking forward to working with our colleagues from Honda.

    We saw you last week in the press conference, just after the news had been announced, but what’s next? What’s part of the immediate process of working with Honda?

    CH: Well, as has been explained we’ve got this construction where we have Red Bull Technology, which is the engineering centre effectively and which will have a large amount of interface with Honda. Red Bull Technology already supplies transmission components to Toro Rosso. It’s at an embryonic stage. Obviously discussions are already starting to focus on 2019, but we have been extremely encouraged and impressed by the collaborative nature that we’re finding. That’s certainly refreshing and we’re looking forward to a new era for Red Bull Racing. We’ve had 12 years with our current partner and we’ve enjoyed an awful lot of success. We’ve had highs and lows but the time was right to make this move. I think it’s an exciting time for the team and for Red Bull.

    Thank you very much. Franz, you’ve had works status this year with Toro Rosso and Honda. Is the news of the Red Bull partnership for next year good news or bad news for your team?

    Franz Tost: Fantastic news. We are very much looking forward about this. I think a company like Honda, which is so well known overall, has to win races and with Toro Rosso, that’s difficult as we don’t have the infrastructure for winning races in Formula 1 and therefore Red Bull Racing is absolutely the correct partner. Toro Rosso will profit out of this because the synergies between Red Bull Technology will increase. We will have next year the complete rear end from Red Bull Technology. Therefore, I am convinced about this, we will also improve our performance. Currently, we are very much involved in all the bench tests and everything. Although we are very low, limited with resources and so on, it’s really a lot of work on our side and in future, this is being done by Red Bull Technology, which means we have resources for other performance differentiators, which is quite important for Toro Rosso. In the end, I think all three partners will get the most out of it and will profit from this co-operation.

    Toro Rosso have enjoyed really some strong races this season – namely in Bahrain and Monaco – but you’ve also has some tricky races at times too, so what are your expectations for this weekend’s race here in Austria?

    FT: After some races, which were not so good, especially the last ones where we were involved in crashes and so on, I hope that here in Austria we are coming back to the successful part and I am positive about here in Austria and the next few race. We brought some new upgrades on the aerodynamic side. As it looks it works quite well and as we know Honda brought the new upgrade already in Canada and therefore I think that we have quite a competitive package. And looking to FP1 I think that we are able to be at least with one car in Qualifying 3.

    Thank you. Toto, a similar question to you. Mercedes has really dominated at this circuit in the V6 era. A strong start in FP1 as well, with first and second. Is that form you are expecting to see continue for the rest of the weekend?

    Toto WOLFF: The Friday has been giving little indication as to how the weekend goes in the last few races. It is more a learning process. Team have introduced either new upgrades on the power unit or upgrades on the chassis side and therefore it’s about mileage and understanding and working on various set-ups. I’m happy how it went. Austria was a kind track on us in the past. Lots of power up the hill. But you can see that the new reality is there are three teams capable of putting the car on the front and winning races and just a few hundredths or tenths between us and I have no doubt that tomorrow in qualifying that story will continue.

    Both of your drivers were praising your power unit that you introduced a week ago in the battle among those top three teams and Lewis said yesterday there was an upgrade on the chassis side as well. Can you just explain, aerodynamically, what work you have been doing on the car?

    TW: Yes, we were supposed to introduce the new power unit in Montréal and we weren’t quite sure whether it matched our reliability standards and you could see that once everybody introduced their upgrade we fell behind. A track that suited us, suddenly we weren’t good enough anymore. Then we brought the next step to Le Castellet and directly the drivers felt the difference between an engine that was in there for seven races and a brand new one. The same applies now to the chassis side. We have tried to compress what we had in terms of aero development and bring it at once, so the whole concept… there is this little change in concept in our aero development and so far the drivers seem to be happy with it. It is a necessary step. Red Bull and Ferrari are not going to rest on their laurels. We keep pushing each other from race to race, from upgrade to upgrade and even if you can put on another 50 milliseconds for the race you will do it, because that might be the difference between pole position and P3.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Toto, based on what you have seen from Honda’s recovery from their time with McLaren and the prospect of what they could bring to Formula 1 as a race-winning engine manufacturer, what are your thought on that, and how important is it for Formula 1?

    TW: First of all, as a Formula 1 fan, we all remember the glorious years of Honda in the sport and I have no doubt that they can come back to that situation. For us, as Mercedes, it is extremely important that we have top brands in Formula 1, be it OEMs that have joined the sport as engine suppliers or be it multinational and global brands such as Red Bull, and the more we can attract the better for all of us and the better for the sport. I have also no doubt that they will be competitive. Franz mentioned it before, the collaboration will make another step between Toro Rosso, Honda and Red Bull for next year. And with Red Bull’s technical capabilities and resource they will certainly be of great assistance to make the power unit progress. This is certainly the right step forward, looking from the outside, for all parties. It was important for Red Bull to have a works status. Long term probably the best chance to win a championship. Maybe short term, more work to do. But long terms, from where I sit, absolutely the right decision. Looking forward to tougher fights and tougher battles with Red Bull Honda.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Christian, I believe internally the conundrum at the moment is SOS – Spielberg or Silverstone. When do you Danny’s contract extension? What are the chances here and what are the chances in Silverstone?

    CH: Well, things are progressing well with Daniel. I expect things to be concluded prior to the summer break. But our priority had been firstly to get the engine situation sorted and now things are progressing with Daniel. Our intention is to retain both drivers and I’m sure during the next couple of weeks we’ll be entering into the finishing straight to get things concluded prior to the summer break.

    Q: (Ralf Woodall – l’Equipe) Question for all of you. We’re in the middle of a triple-header. I’d like to know how challenging it is for you to have these three grands prix back-to-back and how are you organising yourselves?

    FT: That’s a real big challenge, because going from the South of France to Austria and then to England is a big challenge, especially from the logistics side, because as we know, we are now in holiday time. That means there is a lot of traffic out there and we have a lot of problems on the borders because of the checks which they make over there. I hope they will not lose too much time, the trucks over there, and I am worried about coming in time to England. I was not worried from France to Austria because here we have everything under control – but once it’s going to Belgium, to England, then it’s a little bit difficult. If, for example a truck strike or something like this. I think this is at the absolute limit and I hope this will not be the case any more in the future because people are really working day and night in this three weeks.

    Christian, your thoughts on the triple-header.

    CH: It’s certainly expensive, for moving cars, parts, people in such short succession. You’ll see here we have a different hospitality facility. The usual Energy Station just simply wouldn’t have been possible for it to complete the triple headers, so, of course, there’s cost associated with that. There’s a drain on resource because obviously an awful lot of components going backwards and forwards to the UK. We’re fortunate that the final race of the triple header for us is where the team is obviously based. Obviously harder for teams not based in the UK – but it’s certainly tough. On the upside, it’s three home races in three weeks. Our engine had its home race last weekend, it’s obviously the team’s home race this weekend and obviously next weekend it’s our local race up the road in Silverstone. So, yeah, it’s pretty insane how busy it is.

    Toto, something you agree with as well? Very difficult for Mercedes?

    TW: Yeah, similar for us. Obviously, it’s our home race here as Austrians, then a home race in Silverstone, then a home race in Hockenheim thereafter. If you a hundred years back, then another one! But you have to understand where Liberty comes from. We have the football world championships that happens at the moment, then obviously when that goes towards the semi-finals and the finals it’s becoming more and more difficult so this year needs to be compressed. It’s not something I guess they particularly enjoy to do and for us, like my colleagues said, it puts stress on the organisation. Many of us won’t be seeing the families a lot in these three weeks. It’s not perfect – but it is what it is.

    And Tanabe-san, what’s it’s like from a power unit manufacturer point of view?

    TT: Yes, so we have a lot of those things between the race and the race. We need to maintain the PU ready. So we removed the PU from the chassis and maintain some of the parts and then ready to go for the next race. So logistics, and then also the workload, is tight. Then, the distance between the races in one week is similar but some difficulty with three races in a row.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Racingline.hu) Toto, last week Susie was promoted to team principal of Venturi team in Formula E. Can you give some advice for her how to make a successful team. And if you both will have a race weekend together somewhere in the world, who will take care of the kid?

    TW: You’re laughing – but it’s a serious problem to figure out the logistics since she has been involved in Venturi we cross each other at home. Obviously, I try to be as modern a dad as I can be in supporting her – but it’s a great challenge for her. She’s found a very good partner to join up with Gildo [Pallanca Pastor] and she always had the aspiration of doing something entrepreneurial after her racing career, and here she goes. Now, when I’m at home talking about Formula E I have to close the door, so she is not able to listen. But it’s good fun, we enjoy the banter between us and… we’ll see how it works, family-wise.

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Christian. There have been some reliability issues with the latest spec of the Honda engine. Is this a source of Red Bull moving forward – or are you using Toro Rosso as a sort of a test bed and pushing for performance?

    CH: I think reliability has improved enormously over the last… certainly this season with Honda. We’re not exactly sitting comfortably in our own situation with our current supplier. So, of course, performance and reliability are both things that have to go hand-in-hand with the regulations that we have. I’m sure it’s an area where that Honda are working together very hard on, together with their performance. We’re confident that things are very much moving in the right direction.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) To the three team principals. In political terms, they normally give an incoming president one hundred days before they start commenting. Liberty has now had 500 days since they completed the purchase of Formula One’s commercial rights. How would you summarise their first 500 days as owners of the commercial rights?

    Toto, why don’t you take that one first?

    TW: That’s very kind of you. Obviously with every new change of regime, the style changes, and we have all been used to Bernie’s way of doing things and lots of credit to him for having built-up the sport. We all wouldn’t be sitting here if he wouldn’t have been as visionary and powerful in the past in building Formula One. Now, with the new ownership, it’s not one person any more than makes the decision but a broader group of people and the transparency that has kicked-in is refreshing and makes things easier to deal with. And then obviously we, as a sport, face tremendously challenging times. Like any other sport, the way sports are being broadcast has changed, and will continue to change and we are all having the challenges of seeking additional income, and that has been equally difficult for Liberty. But they have been trying things: some good, some bad… or some less good but I think overall we’re all in the same boat. We want to see the sport grow, we want to see revenue grow and, bottom line, we can all understand that there is a financial reality that needs to be respected. The top teams are spending too much and we need to get that under control. In so far, summarising, I would say it was positive.

    Christian, your 500-day summary.

    CH: Yeah, I think there have been some very good things. I think Liberty are very much fan-focussed, so things like access to content for opening up digital media, social media. I think the engagement with fans, creating a better experience trackside. I think the promoters, certainly the teams, have found that there’s a different approach, a different attitude regarding that side of the business. I think what’s by far Liberty’s biggest challenge is how to address the future, how to address 2021. I think the problem, and the risks that I see, is if the FIA and the promoter aren’t fully aligned, we end up with compromises and vanilla-type regulations. I think there needs to be a real clarity going forward as to what the sport is going to be, what are the regulations going to be, that both parties ultimately have to buy into? Liberty have paid $8billion for this sport. They’ve got to turn it into something that’s even more attractive. That’s fantastic racing, obviously there are cost issues, there’s revenue issues that need dealing with. The FIA, obviously as the governing body, they’ve got to be fully-aligned with that, and what concerns us is discussions of where things are going with engines, where things are going with chassis regulations. Everything seems to be getting watered down somewhat from what the initial concept is. So, I think the next 500 days are going to be very telling for life, post-2020.

    Franz, your thoughts on Liberty so far?

    FT: I can only see positive aspects from them, and I’m also convinced that they are going in the right direction for the future of the sport, because it’s important that Formula One will be changed, from the cost side and what they want to do is absolutely the right thing, to come down with the costs. Whether it’s a cost cap or whether it’s regulated by the sporting and technical regulations is another question. Then, to distribute the money in a fair way, not that some teams get everything and others nearly nothing. They will come up with a new technical regulation for the chassis as well of from the engine side – I think from the engine side should be finished soon, and they will also change the sporting regulation and, so far, all the topics which are being discussed are going in the right direction. They brought in a new attitude for the media, they’re concentrating on the social medias are being preferred more and I think all of these aspects together are important, that Formula One will go in the right direction. Because what we need is not a two-class society like we have now: three teams and the rest of the world. No, it needs ten teams that are close together. Or at least four or five teams are fighting for the championship, fighting for race wins, and this must be the goal, otherwise Formula One is not interesting in the future. I think Liberty Media understood this and they are going in the right direction. I can only support them.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Christian, with your engine plans sorted and your driver line-up for next year nearing completion, will the next goal to be resolved be Carlos Sainz Jnr’s future? And can you see him staying in the Red Bull fold if there isn’t a seat available at the top team?

    CH: Well, all of these things are obviously interlinked in some way, shape or form. I think the whole driver market is waiting for Toto’s driver to kick that off. I’m hoping… at Silverstone are you finally going to get your finger out, sign a contract? He’s worth it. Come on, he’s worth every penny. So as soon as Toto signs his contract, yeah, two contracts, that then will cascade throughout and Carlos Sainz will just be a mechanism within that so it’s all down to Toto really.

    Q: Part of the question there was can you see Carlos staying within the Red Bull family if Daniel stays with you?

    CH: I thought I’d successfully managed to swerve that question! Look, Renault have a desire to keep Carlos. It really depends whether we have a requirement for him or not. Our intention is to retain both drivers so once that’s clear then we will sit down with Carlos.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Toto, your car seems to be more subject to the vagaries of any given circuit this season than perhaps potentially in the past. Do you fear that continuing this season and potentially undermining your title challenges or do you feel that at this stage of the season you have a better understanding of it and you will be able to limit the losses at certain tracks where you are generally weaker, shall we say?

    TW: You’re right. We’ve seen in the past oscillations with all of the teams but ours were pretty obvious and visible. The fast tracks were the ones that suited us more and then once we came to Budapest or Singapore or Monaco these were our weak ones and I think we’ve made some progress, we’ve addressed the problem and we’ve identified the issues but obviously every car has a certain DNA and has evolved over the years and you don’t want to undo the positives of the car, just to optimise the car in the slow speed. And insofar as we are looking at things, Monaco was a good step in the right direction. We didn’t fall off the cliff like we last year and now we have… the next proof is going to be Budapest, pretty soon, to see how we go but definitely it has become more of a challenge, because Red Bull traditionally was on the other side of the curve but they have progressed tremendously on the fast tracks and are now a competitor pretty much everywhere and the same for Ferrari.

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – Motorspormania.hu ) Christian, did you have any sleepless nights before making the decision to switch to Honda or was it an easy decision to make, considering their recent gains?

    CH: I think, in the end, obviously we were waiting to see the outcome of the second round of engines which were introduced in Montreal and in the end it was a very straightforward and logical decision for us and one that was very much driven by engineering and certainly there was unanimity within our senior technical group, that this is absolutely the right way to go.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Toto, can you allow Porsche to hold the outright record at the Nordschleife or could you imagine yourselves building a Formula One car to challenge that?

    TW: Funny that you say that, I thought about that this morning when I saw the time. It’s obviously incredible, what they have achieved, 5m 19s is almost a minute faster than Bellof did in a sport car, one and a half minutes faster than what I thought of doing and it ended up in tears. I’ve spoken with the guys this morning and they’ve said it’s just unbelievable, it’s like flying a spaceship around the track. It would be interesting to put a Formula One car on the Nordschleife and see what it does but it’s pretty more my spin than a realistic idea that somebody’s going to finance.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Can’t afford it?

    TW: No.

    Q: (Maria Reyer – Motorsport-Total.com) To Christian and Toto, there won’t be a German race next year, and Austria still has a contract to 2020 I think. What are your views on the future of these particular two races and do you think Austria is maybe the more important than Germany?

    CH: I think Austria is naturally far more important than Germany and very good that we have a Grand Prix here for years to come. It’s always been surprising, the last few years, that there hasn’t been more support at the German Grand Prix, especially with German world champions, German teams and hopefully at Hockenheim this year there will be a good turnout. I remember going there in the Schumacher time when the places were packed. Hopefully the fans get behind the racing, we have a great crowd. If the stadium is full in Hockenheim it’s one of the biggest atmospheres that Formula One can produce. Yeah, it’s a shame that it’s not on the calendar but what’s encouraging is there’s so much competition for races on the calendar these days that races like Germany are struggling to have a continued presence.

    TW: Well obviously from an Austrian standpoint I’m very proud that Red Bull or Mr Mateschitz have created such a fantastic infrastructure around Spielberg. It’s not only on the track, you look can look at everything: the hotels are first class, the options for entertainment are really great and the variability is what makes Formula One and I think if you look at this race and these three races now, the back-to-backs: we’ve been in the south of France in Le Castellet, now we are in the mountainous area in Austria and we go to traditional classic Silverstone and that is great for Formula One. To your question on Hockenheim, obviously for us it’s not an easy situation because we would like to have a German race for our fans in Germany and all the Mercedes staff but you need to draw a line between operating a team and getting involved in race promotion, as far as it comes back to Mercedes as a team and this is what we’ve done. And the reason why we have a little bit of a hangover in Germany is maybe because the Germans have been so successful. We had seven years of Schumacher dominance and pretty soon thereafter four years of Sebastian winning it all and maybe you have to go through a bit of a dip to recover.

    CH: Like the football!

    TW: Like the football.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Toto, just going back to what Christian was saying about the 2021 rules. Do you share his concerns that if the FIA and F1 don’t completely agree on things it could be watered down or vanilla and if there is anything missing, what more would you like to see from them?

    TW: Traditionally, if you look at the objectives, Christian and mine are maybe a little bit different. We would like to have a little bit more emphasis on the power unit and Christian on the chassis but that maybe changes, but I think transparency and a clear path is important.  We need to know what’s happening in 2021, what the regs look like on the power unit side and on the chassis side in order to get things moving and avoid a cost escalation, a cost rush last minute. That is important. I hope that with next week’s meeting, we have a little bit more understanding and input and then we see where it ends up.

  • Ricciardo hopeful about a deal before summer break: FIA Thursday press conference

    Ricciardo hopeful about a deal before summer break: FIA Thursday press conference

    FIA Thursday Press Conference in progress. An FIA image

    Spielberg, 28 June 2018: Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull talk about any deals that are in the offing or plans of contracts for the future at the FIA Thursday Press Conference.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Daniel, it’s Red Bull’s home race and off the back of a number of competitive showings in recent weeks from the team are you expecting another strong performance here?

    Daniel Ricciardo: Yep, yeah, I am. I think we’ve had good pace… I think this year in general we’ve had good pace on pretty much all layouts we’ve been too. I think the races we have finished I think fifth has been the worst on track finish, so we’ve been there, if not on the podium, then close to it. A few bits of damage last week I think, which cost us the chance of a podium, or cost us a podium I believe, but generally we’ve been strong. In ’16 Max got a podium here, ’17 I did, so hopefully for the fans both of us can manage to get on there on Sunday.

    Q: Now that’s this weekend but obviously a big story so far this year has been talk about your future and last week in the Friday press conference, Eric Boullier admitted that there had been some preliminary talks between you and McLaren. Just how serious has the interest been from other teams in you, and does that delay you making a decision about your future or are you close to making one?

    DR: Of course there has been a bit interest. Personally, I want to get something done, ideally before the summer break. More from a personal point of view. I want to go on break with as clear mind, so it feels like a break. I think it was a few years ago when I was making the transition from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, that all happened during the break and it wasn’t a fun August break for me, so just from that I would like to get something done. Obviously with Red Bull they’ve committed to Honda, so they’ve kind of got all the cards on the table, so I know what I’m getting there, and things are starting to get to a point where I know what’s what and hopefully I’ll have something soon for everyone.

    Q: Thank you. It would be unfair just to ask Daniel that question, so Kevin, moving on to you, how does your future look with Haas at the moment?

    Kevin Magnussen: Yeah, no news. They have an option on me and so I don’t think there is much chance of me going anywhere else but we’ll just take it as it comes, there’s no stress at the moment.

    Q: Kimi, a question you get every year, how does your future look right now?

    Kimi Raikkonen: Same as always, every year. We’ll see.

    Q: No news about your future then, but this year you’ve looked comfortable on Sundays and it was your fourth podium of the season last weekend, but you’ve admitted that Saturday didn’t quite go to plan. What have you and the team got to do to make sure Saturdays run a bit more smoothly?

    KR: Just do better. Better results obviously and be more further up. Obviously that makes the Sundays a lot easier, especially most of the races it has been very difficult to overtake. The last race was a lot different on that side, so it was also more fun. I think we have been pretty decent all the way through in qualifying, part from the last part, or the last runs, so just need to tidy up a bit.

    Q: Kevin, we’ll come back to you after the future talks. You have more points now than you had in the last two years combined in Formula 1. Haas has shown some really impressive pace but not always taken all the opportunities, so how high are you aiming this year?

    KM: That’s difficult to say. On a good weekend our car is good enough for fourth best team and I think what we have to do is eliminate those bad weekends. When it’s good, it’s good enough for fourth and yeah, Renault are pretty far ahead in the points, but it’s still a pretty long season, but they seem to be very consistent and perhaps too consistent for us this year. But we will do our best. As we see at the moment, from fifth down to eighth it’s not that spread out, it’s very close, so hopefully we can fight for fifth.

    Q: Thank you. Sergey, thank you for waiting and welcome to the press conference. It’s your rookie season and it probably hasn’t gone quite the way you envisaged at the start of the year. Have you been able to enjoy the way this season has gone so far?

    Sergey Sirotkin: For sure, it didn’t really go in a way we all really hoped in the winter. So, for sure in some terms I could enjoy it a bit more, a bit more fighting for the points, fighting for good results, fighting at least other cars on track, which unfortunately sometimes we are not able to do now. But, you know, it’s a different challenge. The challenge, how I look at that, is the work back at the factory, where I feel like I can play my role. I can play my role in trying to the united with the team, be one of them, work with them, to get over the difficult moments and to get success after it. I still do enjoy this side of the story, but for sure it’s not really how we came into the winter tests and how we tried to approach it. But we are where we are now and I still try to enjoy just the fact of being here. I try to enjoy racing. I think as soon as you start to think too much about where you are, how far you are in the field, that’s the point where it becomes difficult. So far now I just try to focus on something that I really like to do and something where I can play my role in the team and help them to get over. It’s a different enjoyment but it’s still enjoyment.

    Q:  You mention the work back at the factory but right now we’re in the middle of three consecutive races. Is that something that makes it hard to see progress for Williams when it is that relentless?

    SS: Yes and no. Obviously this race is going to be a tough one for us. You saw that on the results that the Williams wasn’t that strong already [here] last year and I would expect that it is not going to much easier for us than Paul Ricard last week. That’s probably like the more negative bit but the good bit is that in the next few weeks we have some good things coming on the car, which we have been working on for quite a while now. I don’t want to be too optimistic but we all have high hopes for those bits.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: Kimi, I know you get plenty of questions about your future, but there was a link earlier in the week suggesting that McLaren might be interested in your services. I know that a while ago you suggested that you would be happy to see out your career with Ferrari or would you entertain the prospect of continuing in F1 with another team?

    KR: I don’t know really. I said, I think it was 2007 already, that I would finish Ferrari and obviously at some point it didn’t look like that and now it looks like that again. You never know what comes after and this and that, but we will see. As always a lot of talk and I’m not really happy to comment on those. We’ll see at some point what happens, including me. Let’s wait and see.

    Q: Kimi, in France, with Vettel on the back foot, you were free to run your own race. Was that more fun, to be able to race for yourself and not have to play a team strategy?

    KR: I don’t… how you tried to ask it is probably a bit wrong. I think really it comes to how the circuit was and how we could race against each other and actually overtake. If you take a couple of recent races, you haven’t been able to overtake really; everybody has been pretty much following each other. I think in that part, for whatever reason, we were able to race than say a couple of races before. Obviously what happened in the race, we were racing two different between ourselves so it was all normal. I don’t think that really made it certainly different, him being in front of me or behind. I think it was the case of actually being able to overtake and race wheel to wheel with people, that was the most fun for a while.

    Q: Daniel, have you ever thought on a shoey with Prince Albert in Monaco, because Christian Horner told you do this on the team radio?

    DR: Taking it back! It’s good memories. I might start celebrating again actually, it feels good. He was pushing for me to do one with Prince Albert, but the problem is that I live there, in Monaco, and I just thought if he doesn’t like it then maybe I’d have some residential problems, so better that I play the game and be respectful.

    Q: My question is for Kimi. It seems that your wife means to starts to collect your podium caps. She already has a third place and second place caps. Do you want to also give here a first place cap also, in the near future?

    KR: Obviously, I’m happy to give it, if we get it, but the cap is not the reason to try to win or not to win. We keep trying and hopefully we’ll get there.

    Q: Question for Kevin. Kevin, we are almost halfway through the season and it seems like it is your strongest year so far in Formula One. How could you evaluate your season so far?

    KM: Yeah, I think it’s been a pretty good season so far. The car is better this year than last year. I don’t think… well, in Formula One I haven’t had this good and competitive a car since my first year with McLaren. It’s really good. It’s a lot more fun going racing when you know you have a car you know can fight for points and top fives on a good day. So yeah, I’m enjoying it a lot. I think part of the reason… obviously, the car is better but this is my second year with Haas as well, and it’s the first time in my career, my whole career, even before Formula One that I’ve spent a second year in the same team. It’s a big advantage knowing everyone, and more so just having that experience together. So, y’know, every race when you go into the race preparing, you can look back at a race that you did with the same people, and almost the same car. There’s a lot of experience there in the second year that is a big advantage as well.

    Q: Question for Kimi, really simple one Kimi, have you or any of your representatives had a chat with anyone at McLaren regarding the possibility of driving for them next season, whether you’re interested or not.

    KR: I spoke to them, for sure, but in the past a lot obviously when I used to be there. Like I said, I have zero interest to get involved in all the nonsense, in my view.

    Has anyone had a chat regarding next season?

    KR: You would like to know, would you? You can take it as you want. I don’t think you anyhow ask our opinions about a lot of stuff you guys write, so, it goes either way, you can put yes or no. You usually write what you decide yourself, whether it’s true or not!

    Q: Question for Kimi and Daniel. Given where we are at in the season at the moment, it’s already beginning to look like a two-horse race in the drivers’ title. Do you guys feel that’s the case or do you feel you’ve still got a genuine shot at winning this championship with the right car, the right circumstances.

    DR: I feel… I still feel we’re in it, to be honest. For sure, we’re still a little bit a long way from it, if you know what I mean, from a points perspective. But I feel we’re more in it than we have been the last four years I’ve had with the team. Four? Five? Whatever! As I touched on earlier, we’re going to circuits that we didn’t think we’d be on the podium, and we’re getting a podium, or having the pace for it, so I know we’re still going to have to take a penalty in the next few races, and we’re still on the back foot in some areas – but I feel on performance alone, we’re closer than we ever have been. That’s still giving me a bit of hope and confidence. There’s still a long way to go. And obviously, the team’s pretty aggressive with updates. So all we need is a couple more to give us an extra bit here and there and we could probably start to creep back inside it. Like always, you get one win and all of a sudden it’s ‘you’re back in the fight, you’re back in the hunt’. If we got a win and the top guys had a bad weekend all of a sudden, we’re the talk of the town again.  I think it’s still too early to count us out.

    Kimi, do you still feel like you’re in the title race this year?

    KR: If you purely take the points, for sure. If you count how many points there are left, for sure, yes – but obviously we’ve got, not the ideal things happening in a couple of races where we didn’t finish, so that put us in a little bit trickier position – but apart from that, we’ve been pretty OK. So, we keep doing, and try to stay out of any issues and to put things solid, as well as we can. It’s going to be a long way still – but of course with the two small issues have not been ideal but it’s not a disaster.

    Q: Daniel, what do you think about Red Bull’s partnership with Honda, and how does it affect your decision regarding the future?

    DR: I think in short it probably won’t have an effect on what I choose to do. I think just now, as I touched on now, it gives me a bit more clarity of the direction the team’s going. As I said, they’ve pretty much got everything now laid out in front of me and it’s really up to me to understand, I guess, what I think of it. I see the pros with the decision, obviously, the chance to start something new with Honda and yeah, so, I guess it’s now for me to think about. In a way, it’s a good thing that they have made a decision. We’ll see. Hopefully in a few weeks.

    Q: Daniel, if you could pick your own team-mate who would be ideal for you?

    DR: I know the answer you want, right? Kimi! Or Valtteri! Just pay me the €200 later. Shall I answer it seriously? I don’t know. No idea. But you can write that if you like. Sell more papers in Finland!

    Q: To all four drivers. Third DRS has been added here – do you think it will improve overtaking, and will it affect your setups in some way?

    SS: I mean, of course it will give an extra bit of possibility, at least to maintain the gap to the car ahead a bit easier, if we are talking for one, two three laps, or whatever. In other occasions, like in places where you probably wouldn’t be close enough to do the move, like down into Turn Three, Four, whatever it is now. It will probably, with the extra DRS, you get a possibility to get within a reasonable distance to the car ahead and then try a move. Again, I didn’t race with F1 here last year so I don’t know exactly how it was. I take whatever it will be?

    Kevin, the midfield battle is very tight. Do you think an extra DRS zone is going to affect that?

    KM: Yeah, I think it was already… it wasn’t the worst circuit for overtaking already, so I think that whole… the longest straight on the track, which is already a pretty long straight, with DRS is probably going to be fairly easy to overtake here. We’ll see.

    Kimi, your thoughts on an extra DRS zone. As you said in France, we had more overtaking last week.

    KR: Yeah, I mean half of the track is DRS, so it should make it pretty easy. I don’t know if it’s too easy or not. Obviously we want overtaking but there must be a point where it’s kind-of artificial overtaking. But let’s see.

    Daniel, your thoughts.

    DR: Nothing much more to comment. I don’t see a negative with it at the moment. It should be OK , unless, as Kimi touched on, unless it’s really easy. Then it might take a bit out of it. I think, for now, I see it as a positive. I don’t think it will affect the setup. I don’t think so. Not much will change – probably just more overtakes during the race.

    Q: Sergey, you’re stepping out of the car for FP1 and last year you were the one who was stepping in for Friday, for Renault, so could you give me both perspectives: on the one hand, what is the approach of the driver who’s in the car only on Fridays every few months; and the second one, the one you have right now, how do you feel giving the car to Robert tomorrow?

    SS: Yeah. Considering how it is getting in, for sure it’s not easy when you don’t drive the car consistently; every time you jump in, on the one side you know that the team expects a good job from you straightaway. Straightway there are some tests to do, some developments going on and you need to perform as the team wants you to perform, but at the same time, as you’re not in the car that often it still needs a bit of time to get in and find a rhythm. Looking back from the other perspective, obviously Robert will take over tomorrow. I would say… talking to him, I think that’s exactly what he thinks about it and how he looks at that. Again, it’s exactly the position I was in last year so I perfectly know how he feels there but again, it’s still disadvantages and advantages so it depends on how you look at it.

    Q: Part of that was how much does it impact on the rest of your weekend?

    SS: For sure it’s never ideal to lose track time, especially for me in my first year. Even like last year, when I jumped in, even though it’s a short track with not too many corners I think we all found it quite difficult, quite difficult to get the rhythm and to properly understand it so for sure it’s not ideal but I’m in this position so I have to do the best from where I am.

    Q: Kevin, you have been running a great season until now, especially against your teammate, Romain. How can you explain to us this kind of difference during this year and especially if you think you can continue in this way?

    KM: Yeah, as I said before, this year we’ve got a good car and especially in terms of consistency from race to race it’s not only been good at one or two races this year. Last year our car was good here at this race and it was good in Australia and it was OK in a few other races but then it was a very up and down and difficult to understand. This year we’ve got a car that is a little bit easier to work with, little bit easier to get to that top level and yeah, I think that’s the kind of consistency that we needed and we’ve got that this year. In terms of Romain, I think he’s had a pretty tough year so far but he’s a very quick, intelligent driver so I’m sure he’s going to get back.

    Q: Daniel, we have been hearing concerning Max’s contract with your team; especially the financial side, we have never read it, probably it must be true. If you decide to go to Red Bull, to stay there, will you request the same exceptional conditions the team offers to Max in the last contract, considering that you are more efficient in terms of results last year and even this year?

    DR: Obrigado. Obrigado. Means thank you. I guess, to be honest, what I… I appreciate what you’re saying. I guess what I chose to negotiate is confidential, I guess. One thing I will say is that this year, obviously since I’ve been with the team, but this year the results have showed and having a couple of wins and again Monaco makes me smile when I just say that but it was a big achievement for me, especially after what happened a couple of years ago. There’s been some important boxes which I feel I’ve ticked this year which obviously can help me out in discussions and moving forward with my career so yeah, but I guess financial stuff, I’ll keep behind the closed doors. But yeah, I’m happy with where I’m at and with what I feel I can bring to the table.

    Q: Daniel, I know your team likes Budapest, Singapore but could you say the Red Bull Ring fits your car or is it just a circuit like the others, difficult, too many straights?

    DR: I think, from my little bit of understanding about aerodynamics, I think the extra DRS zone will take a little bit of that – I guess, obviously – the drag away but I think that kind of minimises the deficit in some ways so I think I’m right in saying that that probably doesn’t hurt us too much. And then obviously the second, third sector is more corners than power-related. I think the last couple of years we’ve had a pretty good car here and I think this year should be no different, potentially even better, let’s see. Yeah, on paper it’s probably still not as good as a Budapest or a Singapore for us but a win? Who knows but at least aiming for a podium should be somewhat realistic.

    Q: Kevin, you’ve mentioned the improved car that you’ve got for this year. You’ve seen, first hand, the resources that the likes of McLaren and Renault have got available so when you compare that to your team, how proud does that make you of the job that your guys have done, and does it make you a bit surprised to see that McLaren, if anything, is slipping back this season?

    KM: It makes me proud, for sure. It’s an impressive thing for such a small team to be competing against the likes of Renault and McLaren, beating Williams and even Force India is quite a bit bigger than us. So yeah, it’s something to be proud of and it’s a good job from the little team that we’re in. I would say I’m quite surprised, as well, especially with McLaren. I think when I was there it was very clear that it’s a great team, a very big team and yeah, beautiful team when I was there. I’ve lost touch with them, I don’t talk to them any more, I don’t know the problems they’re facing at the moment but it’s a shame, for sure. I’m happy for us that we can compete with them and beat them at times but for sure, it’s not where they belong.

    Q: Do you think this year this lap can be done in 59.9s?

    Q: Daniel, you’re smiling, have you gone under 60s in the simulator?

    DR: No, that seems optimistic. What was pole last year, 1m 02s was it? Maybe if we had a hyper (soft tyre), maybe but no, the DRS will obviously give us a bit but I think to get more than 2s on such a short lap already, that seems cool but a bit optimistic. Yeah.

    KR: I don’t know. I guess everybody looks but is it going to happen? I don’t know. For sure Daniel said the DRS will give you free lap time. I don’t know yet. We’ll see.

    Q: Sergey, have you had time to do this track in the simulator and get a lap time?

    SS: I don’t think we’ll be able to do it under six anyway but it’s good to aim for, for sure.

    KM: I don’t think so.

    Q: Kimi, Daniel said he would like his future sewn up by the summer break. Do you have a deadline in your mind, when you know what you’ll be doing in 2019?

    KR: No, I think I’ve been there so many times so… For sure, before next year I will know. It’s a pretty normal situation on my side

  • Hamilton wins French GP ahead of Verstappen; regains championship lead

    Hamilton wins French GP ahead of Verstappen; regains championship lead

    Hamilton celebrates after winning the French GP on Sunday ahead of Verstappen (not in Pic). An FIA image

    Paul Ricard (France), 24 June 2018: Lewis Hamilton regained top spot in the 2018 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship standings with a faultless drive to victory at the French Grand Prix, as a Turn 1 collision with Valtteri Bottas at the start of the race meant Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fifth place at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Max Verstappen took second place and Kimi Räikkönen rose from sixth on the grid to take the final podium spot.

    The race started in spectacular style, with championship leader Sebastian Vettel colliding with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in Turn 1. The German made a good start but could find no way to attack pole position starter Hamilton. Vettel moved right where Bottas was powering past and as the pair went into the first corner there was contact. Bottas sustained a rear left puncture and Vettel nose damage, which forced both back to the pits for repairs.

    There was another incident in Turn 3 when Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly collided. Both Frenchman were ruled out of their home race and with debris on the track, the Safety Car was deployed.

    Behind the SC Hamilton now led Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz third for Renault after a good start from P7 on the grid. Daniel Ricciardo was fourth in the second Red Bull with Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen fifth. After their stops for repairs, during which they also took on soft tyres, Vettel and Bottas rejoined in 17th and 18th place respectively.

    Racing resumed at the end of lap five and Hamilton controlled the re-start well to hold his lead over an unchanged top five.

    Vettel and Bottas were quickly on the march once racing resumed, however, and by lap 10 the Ferrari driver was up to 10th place, with Bottas in P13. Vettel, though, had been placed under investigation by the stewards, and the German was handed a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with his Mercedes rival.

    Vettel was on a march, however and in short order he dismissed Force India’s Sergio Perez and Haas’ Romain Grosjean to sit eighth behind Sauber’s Charles Leclerc on lap 16 and then he powered past Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Sainz to take fifth place on lap 20. He was now 30s behind race leader Hamilton, having made a pit stop and taken on soft tyres.

    Verstappen was the first of the leaders to make a scheduled pit stop and at the end of lap 25 the Dutchman took on a set of soft tyres before rejoining in fourth place behind Hamilton, Ricciardo and Räikkönen. Vettel was now just 3.7s behind Verstappen in fifth place. Ricciardo then made his stop for softs on lap 28.

    Hamilton pitted on lap 33, again for softs, and ceded the lead briefly to Räikkönen. But the Finn made his own trip to pit lane soon after and Hamilton jumped back to first place ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo who had powered past Vettel when the German made a mistake at the Le Beausset corner.

    Räikkönen’s stop dropped him to fifth place behind his team-mate but the Finn had bolted on supersoft tyres and was now lapping considerably faster than Vettel. The German quickly moved over for his team-mate and Räikkönen rose to fourth.

    Vettel’s race was then compromised further when he made a second stop for tyres at the end of lap 40. There was an issue with the change and the German was stationary for a crippling 9.1s. He lost no places but there were now 35.9s between him and Räikkönen.

    At the front, Hamilton was now seemingly in control. On lap 43 he was 4.8s clear of Verstappen, who was experience a vibration problem on his car, while Ricciardo was a further 9.3 further back. Räikkönen was now 4.5s behind the Australian, with Vettel fifth ahead of Sainz, Magnussen, Bottas (who also had a slow pit stop) Hulkenberg and 10th-placed Leclerc.

    Räikkönen then began to close on Ricciardo as his tyre advantage told and with eight laps left he attacked the Australian. The Red Bull driver tried to defend and managed to keep Räikkönen at bay for half the lap but eventually the Finn snuck past through the chicane to take third place.

    Sixth-placed Sainz was the next man in trouble and a handful of laps from home he reported a loss of power. He was quickly passed by Magnussen and Bottas and dropped to eighth place, eight seconds ahead of team-mate Hulkenberg.

    And that was how it stayed, with Hamilton crossing the line after 53 laps to take his 65th career grand prix victory ahead of Verstappen and Räikkönen. Ricciardo was fourth, with Vettel fifth ahead of Magnussen, Bottas, Sainz, Hulkenberg and Leclerc.

    The result means that Hamilton now heads the drivers’ standings with 145 points, 14 clear of Vettel. Ricciardo moves back to third place with 96 points, four clear of Bottas.

    2018 Formula 1 French Grand Prix – Race
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
    2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 7.090
    3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 25.888
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 34.736
    5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:01.935
    6 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:19.364
    7 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.632
    8 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:27.184
    9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:31.989
    10 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:33.873
    11 Romain Grosjean Haas 1 lap
    12 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1 lap
    13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1 lap
    14 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1 lap
    15 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1 lap
    16 Fernando Alonso McLaren 3 laps
    17 Lance Stroll Williams 5 laps
    18 Sergio Perez Force India 26 laps
    19 Esteban Ocon Force India
    20 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso.

  • Hamilton takes 75th career pole at French GP

    Hamilton takes 75th career pole at French GP

    Hamilton after taking French GP pole on Saturday. An FIA image

    Lewis Hamilton took his 75th career pole position in qualifying at the Circuit Paul Ricard for the first Formula 1 French Grand Prix in a decade. Hamilton edged team-mate Valtteri Bottas by just over a tenth of a second with championship leader Sebastian Vettel third and three tenths down on the Briton.

    At the start of Q1, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was the first of the top three team drivers to set a time and his 1:31.823 was good enough to push Haas’ Romain Grosjean out of P1. The Dutchman was edged out of top spot by Bottas and then dropped to third as Hamilton moved to the top of the order with a lap of 1:31.589.

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen briefly moved to the front before Verstappen again went quickest. His time in P1 was also short, however, as Hamilton put in another good lap to claim Q1’s fastest time with a lap of 1:31.271, over two tenths clear of Verstappen.

    At the bottom of the order, the drivers in the drop zone as the session drew to a close were P16 man Stoffel Vandoorne, followed by Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, followed By Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll.

    There were no problems for the Force India pair in the final runs, with Ocon vaulting to P12 a place ahead of Perez. Their progress mean that McLaren’s Fernando Alonso slid down the order to become the first man eliminated in P16. He went out ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, Vandoorne, Sirotkin and Stroll.

    Light rain began to fall as Q2 got underway but with conditions not being adversely affected the field took to the circuit on dry tyres, with the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers trying to make it through on supersoft tyres.

    Hamilton eventually topped the order with a lap of 1:30.645 on the red-banded rubber. His lap put him just under a tenth of a second clear of the ultrasoft-shod Sebastian Vettel, with Raikkonen, who also used ultrasofts, third with a time of 1:30.772.

    Verstappen took fourth ahead of Bottas, Grosjean and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, as he improved on a second run on supersofts, but Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo settled for P8 as he slowed right down at the end of the third sector while on ultrasoft tyres on his final run.

    Carlos Sainz made it through to Q3 in P9, while Charles Leclerc scored his first Q3 berth and Sauber’s first of the season with P10.

    The first runs of Q3 saw Hamilton establish himself in provisional pole with a time of 1:30.222, just 0.095s ahead of Bottas, with Vettel in P3 on a time of 1:30.400. Verstappen held fourth ahead of Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Sainz.

    Further back on track Grosjean lost control in Turn 4 and slid off into the barriers. The crash brought out the red flags.

    The action resumed six minutes later, with a little under six minutes left on the clock and at the top it was only the Mercedes drivers who managed to find an improvement in the final runs. First Bottas made time in the third sector to take pole position with a time of 1:30.147 but Hamilton then found more, posting a final lap of 1:30.029 to take his 75th career pole position.

    Behind the Mercedes pair Vettel and the Red Bull drivers settled on their first run times, with Raikkonen taking sixth. Sainz qualified well to take seventh on a day when his team-mate could only manage P12, but perhaps the best performance beyond pole position went to Leclerc, who took eighth place, Sauber’s best qualifying performance since Nico Hulkenberg qualified in fourth place for the 2013 US Grand Prix. Ninth place in today’s session went to Magnussen, with the unfortunate Grosjean in 10th place.

    2018 Formula 1 French Grand Prix – Qualifying 
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.271s 1:30.645s 1:30.029s
    2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31.776s 1:31.227s 1:30.147s
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:31.820s 1:30.751s 1:30.400s
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:31.531s 1:30.818s 1:30.705s
    5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:31.910s 1:31.538s 1:30.895s
    6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:31.567s 1:30.772s 1:31.057s
    7 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:32.394s 1:32.016s 1:32.126s
    8 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:32.538s 1:32.055s 1:32.635s
    9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:32.169s 1:31.510s 1:32.930s
    10 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:32.083s 1:31.472s
    11 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:32.786s 1:32.075s
    12 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:32.949s 1:32.115s
    13 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:32.692s 1:32.454s
    14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:32.447s 1:32.460s
    15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:32.804s 1:32.820s
    16 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:32.976s
    17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:33.025s
    18 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:33.162s
    19 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:33.636s
    20 Lance Stroll Williams 1:33.729s.

  • Hamilton sets blistering pace in FP2: French GP

    Hamilton sets blistering pace in FP2: French GP

    Hamilton tops FP2 at French Grand Prix on Friday. An FIA image

    Le Castellet, 22 June 2018: Lewis Hamilton used an upgraded Mercedes power unit to power away from his rivals in second practice for the French Grand Prix, topping the timesheet, seventh tenths of a second clear of nearest rival Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing.

    Earlier in FP1, Hamilton topped the practice timesheet as France returned to the Formula 1 calendar following an absence of a decade, the defending world champion edging Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by a tenth of a second at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The session ended in spectacular fashion, with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson crashing out and his car catching fire.

    The Swedish driver lost control of his Sauber C37 midway through Turn 11 and slid sideways across the run-off area into the barriers. As the car came to rest the rear end burst into flames. As marshals race to extinguish the fire, Ericsson quickly exited the car, just before the session ended.

    There were a number of similar offs during the session as teams experimented with set-up options, with Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne all had off-track excursions early in the session at Turn 6, while Sauber’s Charles Leclerc had a moment at Turn 11.

    Mercedes had been set to introduce an upgrade in Canada but held back the power unit for further tests, but today the Constructors’ champions confirmed that all six Mercedes’ powered cars will run this weekend with the new unit.

    When the session’s qualifying simulations got into gear midway through the session, Ricciardo led the way on ultrasoft tyres. Hamilton, one of the last to bolt on the purple-banded Pirelli tyres, was about to attack that time when his out lap was interrupted by red flags.

    The stoppage was caused by Sergio Perez whose Force India had shed its rear left wheel at Turn 7. The Mexican driver’s car was recovered and he later rejoined the action.

    When the red flag period ended Hamilton went out again on ultrasofts and posted a lap of 1:32.539. That put him firmly ahead of Ricciardo, who held on to second place in the session.

    That might not have been the case had Valtteri Bottas been able to fully exploit the ultrasofts. The Finn did run on the softest compound on offer this weekend prior to the red flag but after the stoppage he was unable to return to the track as Mercedes discovered a water leak on his car. He ended the session in P7.

    Behind Ricciardo, Max Verstappen recovered from a long spell in the garage in the opening session to post the afternoon’s third quickest lap. The Dutchman recorded a lap of 1:33.271  to end the session just under three hundredths of a second behind his team-mate.

    Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen was fourth quickest, setting a time of 1:33.426. He was the last man within a second of Hamilton’s benchmark, with the Finn’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel taking fifth 1.150s off the pace, though the German only did a single lap on ultrasofts before the red flag.

    As with the morning session, outlier excepted, Haas’ Romain Grosjean was the best of the rest beyond the top three teams. The Frenchman finished just 0.010s behind Vettel as he enjoyed a good start to his home grand prix.

    Fernando Alonso was eighth for McLaren 1.8s behind Hamilton, with Kevin Magnussen ninth ahead of home hope Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso.

    Elsewhere, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson did not take part in the session due to damage to his car sustained in a heavy crash in the morning session.

    2018 Formula 1 French Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 27 1:32.539
    2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 31 1:33.243 0.704
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 24 1:33.271 0.732
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 29 1:33.426 0.887
    5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 35 1:33.689 1.150
    6 Romain Grosjean Haas 30 1:33.699 1.160
    7 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 7 1:34.156 1.617
    8 Fernando Alonso McLaren 24 1:34.400 1.861
    9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 33 1:34.457 1.918
    10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 35 1:34.535 1.996
    11 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 30 1:35.067 2.528
    12 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 33 1:35.086 2.547
    13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 28 1:35.172 2.633
    14 Charles Leclerc Sauber 33 1:35.583 3.044
    15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 31 1:35.697 3.158
    16 Esteban Ocon Force India 25 1:35.705
    17 Lance Stroll Williams 34 1:35.936
    18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 35 1:35.970

  • It is great to have a stage to see in action a number of French players in F1: Abiteboul

    It is great to have a stage to see in action a number of French players in F1: Abiteboul

    Friday Press Conference at the French Grand Prix in progress. Image by FIA

    La Castellet, 22 June 2018: The team representatives who attended the Friday FIA press conference are Eric Boullier (McLaren), Cyril Abiteboul (Renault), Frédéric Vasseyr (Sauber) and  Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Eric, you played a big role in the return of this race here to Paul Ricard. Just tell us the story of how it came to pass?

    Eric BOULLIER: Well, I have not played that big role, as it is described, just bringing a little help and you know, being on the other side of the channel, so just making the connection between Christian Estrosi and Bernie Ecclestone, at the time, to make sure that the project that has been started a few years before, concrete.

    Thank you, we’ll come back to you in a bit. Fréd, you’ve obviously been here before in junior categories but what do you think of Paul Ricard as a grand prix venue?

    Frédéric VASSEUR: For me it’s a lot of memories for sure. I think it will be a good event. The layout of the track, for me, is fine and everyone will enjoy the weekend.

    We just saw in FP1 there some encouraging pace in the car but then an accident for Marcus. What are your hopes for Sauber this weekend and is there an update on the car?

    FV: We have a small update on the car, it was difficult to see this morning, but step by step we are improving. The first target was to catch up the field and I think we did it. Now we have to improve step by step. For sure for Marcus it was a tough session this morning and he won’t do FP2 this afternoon, but let’s see tomorrow.

    Thank you for that update. Cyril, Renault’s home race, as well as one for yourself. How much pressure is there on the team and how big an event is it for Renault?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, we are trying to be a bit insensitive from pressure, because we know that the pressure is not going to improve the result on Sunday, so we are just trying to take a similar approach to the approach we have been taking so far, which is trying to be in the top 10 on Saturday and Sunday, which we think the car is capable of, including this weekend. And great to have a home race, it’s an extra boost for everyone. There are a number of French players in Formula 1. What I mean by players is drivers, engineers, managers, teams, so it’s great now to have a stage to see all those players in action.

    Christian, another topic that has been in the news this week is that you are going to have a new power unit partner from next year onwards. Can you just explain the thinking behind that decision?

    Christian HORNER: Yeah, it’s exciting news for us. We’ve been in a relationship for what will be 12 seasons, so it’s a hugely long time. But basically, we’ve reached a juncture where we have decided to take a different path for next year. We have been following the progress of Honda’s development very closely, having obviously been in the back of our sister team so far this season. Driven by an engineering-led decision, we’ve elected to take a different route for the future. We’ll look back on our time with Renault, obviously there have been many highs, some lows, but overall it has been a very successful partnership – 150 podiums, 57 grand prix victories, eight world championships during those 12 seasons. We’re hoping to add to that between now and the end of the year, but obviously from 2019 it’s a new journey for us and one that we’re looking forward to.

    And as for Renault’s home race, you just touched on it there, what are your hopes for the rest of this season with this partnership, what can it still achieve this year?

    CH: Renault, ever since we have been supplied a power unit by them… they’ve had a works team, they left the sport, they came back in, but what they have been very good at with us is giving us parity and equality in terms of the state-of-the-art equipment they have and we have no reason to believe that won’t continue until the end of the year. We’re outsiders in both championships, in both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ championships and we believe that we’ve still got opportunities to close the gap to the cars ahead and we are going to need Renault’s support to achieve and do that between now and the end of the year, which I’m confident that we’ll have.

    Cyril, can we get Renault’s feelings on the news from this week?

    CA: Well, as said by Christian, it’s an important news, an important development both for Red Bull and for Renault, and obviously for Honda. We put a little bit of pressure because it was important to get that clarified sooner rather than later for a number of reasons, starting from a logistics perspective with procurement and supply of part and also IP and confidentiality, because even the way we are working with Red Bull, which is completely integrated, without any sort of Chinese wall or barriers. It was important to get that clarified sooner rather than later so that we can make plans and also can focus our efforts on 2019, knowing exactly where things are at in terms of customer base. So that’s done, thanks to Red Bull for making that clear. And that’s a clarification of really the plan of last year when we agreed to terminate Toro Rosso at the end of ’17 and Red Bull at the end of ’18. Frankly, as said by Christian it has been a wonderful journey. I’m extremely thankful of Red Bull, which has been a good partner team – very challenging, demanding, but also by being challenging and demanding in that sport which is a competitive sport and a competitive environment that we progressed. And we have progressed as a team, as a group. It’s certainly something then when we will look back we will see that we have achieved and learned a lot together. So for the future, again as said by Christian, we have a package all together that is capable of winning races, maybe championships, why not, so we will continue to do what we have always done, nothing less, nothing more, to try to help in that respect. That will show that what we are providing is of quality, both in reliability and performance and for the rest, I full appreciate that there was a strategic decision that was involving a number of parameters to be done by Red Bull.

    Finally, Eric, what does this news mean for McLaren, as it becomes the only Renault customer from next season?

    EB: We are starting a new journey with Renault and getting used to working together there are a lot of things to discover and to build on and having obviously a little bit more focus, less distraction for Renault, having one team less to supply and to care about it’s obviously good news for us and we wish Christian the best.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Daniel Ricciardo is on the market for next season, he’s named your respective teams as possible options for next year. I just wanted to get your thoughts on how interesting an option he is for you and what you can offer him, given that the competitiveness currently lags behind Red Bull?

    EB: It’s obviously this time of year that you start to think about your driver line-up for the following year or following years. Obviously we love Daniel, I personally have known him for many, many years. He is doing a good job with Red Bull. As long as a driver of that calibre is on the market you look if there is any discussion possible but at this time of year it’s still too early to talk about our driver line-up for the future, so just a normal, gentle discussion.

    CA: We have in Nico and Carlos a very strong line-up. I am extremely pleased with the way that they are developing together. They are performing and they are also driving the team and building the team. For the time being it’s a bit early to talk about the future. Obviously we have a particular situation with Carlos, in the sense that he on a loan to us from Christian and Red Bull. So we have to see. We can say that it is unconnected to engine decisions but it’s not. Frankly Carlos was loaned to us because of all the musical chairs that happened last year, so it was part of that agreement. So I expect that there will be some collateral consequences and that’s something that frankly we are here to discuss with Red Bull and I’m pretty sure that we will discuss that in the next few weeks. We need to watch out for any driver development from Red Bull’s side first and the collateral consequences that it may have on us. For the time being our focus is on developing the best car possible. If we show that we can progress, if we show that we can build a good car, drivers will get interested in joining us. We have to focus on that first and foremost.

    Christian, anything to add, these are your drivers we are talking about?

    CH: Yes, they’re both our drivers actually. Look, the situation with Daniel, I think that there is an intent from both sides to move forward. The first thing was to close the situation with the engine. That has now been done. Daniel understands the rationale, the engineering rationale, behind that. Let’s not forget that he has been in a car that in the last couple of grands prix has been lapping the cars to our left. So it would be a fairly bold decision to step out of a car that he has won two grands prix in this year as a championship contender. I would be surprised if he was to leave, because it’s a good fit between himself and Red Bull, but it is Formula 1.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Christian, although you have alluded to the performance-led decision about the engine swap to Honda, there are obviously certain commercial benefits in terms of engine supply, possible branding on the car etc. Given that Red Bull contributes about 25% of your budget per annum, will these commercial benefits be used to offset that or will you be ramping up your engineering spend in the face of budget caps and costs?

    CH: Well, of course I’m not going to get into the depths of the financial arrangements of contracts but it’s safe to say that we are going to see benefit in that we won’t be paying the amounts we have been paying to Renault, but there are costs involved where you are feeding dynos and gearboxes and other hardware. The net result is obviously a positive one but it is one we are investing within the team to ensure the continued performance is absolutely there. I think that it’s important for us strategically… the rationale behind this partnership was very much with an eye towards what’s past 2020 as well, of having the right partner for the future. Aston Martin have also been very involved in our decision-making, they are fully supportive and let’s not forget, they don’t make engines, so it was a natural fit.

    Q: (Laurie Vermeersch – F1only.fr) Question for Eric Boullier. We know that Fernando Alonso might leave this season. Do you have any alternative for next season?

    EB: Like I said before, drivers are under consideration and it’s just a matter of when you start to thing and build and maybe discuss. As far as we are concerned for Fernando, we would like obviously for him to stay in the McLaren family and I’m not sure yet he has taken his decision, so we will see at the right time.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Eric, will McLaren seek to identify and potentially discipline the individual member of staff who spoke out against the team today?

    EB: This is obviously an internal matter, so we need to discuss what we need to see internally, what’s going… why that individual is unhappy. When you have, obviously 800 people… we have a lot of support from the workforce and from the engineering. I think it’s just a matter of a couple of people who are grumpy. Actually, in some way it’s maybe good for us because we have a lot of feedback and good feedback.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Eric, do you accept any responsibility for the failings of this car. And will you resign?

    EB: That’s a good question. Obviously, we are all responsible for the car performance. No, I will not resign, to answer your question. I know you have written some articles. I’ve got my twentieth year now in racing, I’ve won races and championships with every team I’ve managed before, including Formula One, so this is some record that you cannot take away from me. So I think we’re on a journey. We are not where we want to be, we are not happy with where we are – but with the journey, with the new Renault engine partner, and obviously we have a good team of people, we just need to make sure we are finding the issues with the car and correct them. We know where the issues with the car are, and make sure… when you build a car, when you believe in a concept, you have to develop the concept and make sure you correct if for the next one.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Eric, all though you currently run about halfway up the grid in terms of your championship performance, a year ago you were right at the back, so there has been an improvement – however it’s still halfway to where you really need to be as McLaren, as a championship-winning team. Is it realistic to project some form of progress this year, or do you think fifth is roughly where you are? And what are the actual stated objectives and how realistic are they?

    EB: Well, it’s true that this time last year we had no points at all, so obviously we are now in the fight for fourth with Renault and once again, we would prefer to be comfortably fourth, which was one of the targets we had assigned to ourselves. The car this year is obviously not working exactly like how we expect to be but we are still using this as an experimental experience, especially like this morning, for example, a lot of new parts on the car. We want to learn from this car and learn as well working with Renault – because it’s a different partner from last year who we worked with for some years. We have something new to learn; some of the technical options we have not explored yet.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Another question for Eric, going back to the media reports today. Is there a toxic atmosphere at McLaren? Are you untouchable and are you fighting to save your job?

    EB: No, I think at this level of responsibility we are all obviously working for the company, we are all making sure we take our responsibilities. There have been a couple of stories about some chocolate-gate, I think in the media today which was a bit funny to read – and again, it was good because actually we have tonnes of email from people saying ‘this is a joke’ – so maybe it’s a couple of people grumpy, which in any organisation you have some people who agree or disagree when there has been maybe miscommunication. I don’t know what is the problem of these people and I think we have invited them to come and see us to understand what their problems are, other than obviously talking through the back doors, y’know?

    Q: (Benjamin Vinel – Motorsport.com) Question to Christian Horner. Red Bull currently doesn’t have any junior drivers holding a superlicence and none of them seem to be in a position to get one next year – so are you looking at more experienced junior drivers, and secondly, what would happen if one of the four Red Bull drivers got injured and Sébastien Buemi was held back by commitments in WEC or Formula E?

    CH: Well, obviously, as you pointed out, we do have Sébastien Buemi. Within the junior programme we have Dan Ticktum in Formula 3 that is winning races and will have, for sure, a licence later this season. So it’s not something we’re particularly concerned about. We also have Jake Dennis that complies with a licence criteria, that we’ve been using on our simulator programme. So, it’s not something that we at Red Bull have a concern about.

    Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar.nl) Question to Christian. Which targets have you set with Honda for the next two seasons for you to consider working with them beyond 2020?

    CH: Well, we obviously don’t want to go backwards, we want to go forwards, and that’s the whole purpose of the change that we’ve made. We believe it’s the best route for us to make the steps required to consistently challenge Mercedes and Ferrari – so y’know, this is a very different situation than McLaren found themselves in. I think Honda have matured. They’ve got a good structure in place, they’re on a good development path. We’re confident on the decision we’ve made, which wasn’t taken lightly, that this is absolutely the right route for the team, for 2019 and 2020 seasons, and then we’ll see what happens beyond that.

    Q: (Gaëtan Vigneron – RTBF) Question for Eric. Starting from point that you could be interested by Daniel Ricciardo if Fernando leaves, does that mean Stoffel would be too light to be your number one, and what does he need to recover his full potential as we saw before?

    EB: Well, I think firstly he has a full potential and he has a good learning curve. His team-mate is obviously one of the maybe the most difficult one to have, with Fernando. You can draft any story, y’know? Today we have Fernando and Stoffel, we are happy with them. We have not yet a discussion about the future. So, at the right time, again, at the due time we will discuss about it.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Eric, just another one of Freddo-gate, is it right that you’ve ordered loads of Freddos in for your team this week as a show of support and you hope that perhaps you could get some strength from this situation?

    EB: No, it’s not true! We are not working with some Freddos

    Perhaps you should…

    EB: Well yes, it’s a lot of energy anyway, so thanks for considering this.

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) A question to Fred. Fred, is Ferrari trying to recruit Charles Leclerc for 2019? And how keen are you to keep him at Sauber next year?

    FV: I think that we have to take it a bit easy and that two months ago, some of your colleagues came to me after China and asked me if he will be fired in the next few days. It’s not because you are getting results two or three weekends in a row that you will be World Champion in six months. He has to be focussed first on FP2 and then on the race this weekend, to do the job, step-by-step. I think it’s by far the most important thing for him today, and I’m pushing like hell to keep him motivated on the next events – and he will be.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Eric. Just to go back to the Freddo thing, will you be reviewing how you hand out Freddos at the factory? Will you stick with the Freddo rewards – or do they stop?

    EB: I think if you did a course in management we can organise this for you. And if you’re really desperate to test the Freddo chocolate, we can send a box to you, don’t worry.

    Thank you. Thank you for that offer. Could I just say…

    EB: That’s enough of it. You’re looking after something, we will give you any answers later but I think it’s enough.

    No, no, it’s not enough. Do you expect to still be in your job at Silverstone?

    EB: Yes. Of course. It’s a journey. It’s not a plug and play story. It’s a journey when you have to work too. You’re after me, apparently…

    But you’re being briefed against, by your own staff, by your management…

    EB: I think you are lying now.

    Matteo BONCIANI: Sorry (Eric) Jonathan, we do not want to have a one to one. I’m trying to give a word to everybody. Eric, if you need so say something else?

    EB: No, I am fine.

    Jonathan MCEVOY: I’m not lying.

    MB: Jon, please. (Next question).

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Cyril, what do you think the commercial and performance implications of the Red Bull decision are on your team and Fred, we can assure you that Freddo-gate doesn’t refer to you at all? But do you look at this Honda deal, which Christian obviously sees potential in, and sort of wonder what they see that you didn’t see a year ago when you decided to cancel the pending Honda deal?

    CA: OK, implications of the termination of the deal on our budget is really marginal. Yes, there was a substantial revenue associated to that supply but there were also substantial costs associated so frankly, from an economic perspective, if you look at the bottom line, it’s fairly neutral and clearly marginal in comparison to the overall budget of our organisation as we speak. What we are losing, frankly – you were not asking – but what we are losing is a benchmark because clearly I have to say that it was great to have Red Bull as a benchmark for the last two years, to evidence the progress of both the engine and the chassis, but I feel that we are at a point in our construction and our progression where we can afford to lose that benchmark and everyone must focus on where there is performance to be found, which frankly, as we speak, is really on the chassis so that we can match – to hopefully compete one day – against those guys.

    FV: Yeah, on our side, we need at this stage to have a benchmark and it was quite tough for us to start with Honda alone. And the second point in my decision was also that we were not able to do our own gearbox last year and I had the feeling that at one stage McLaren will leave Honda and I didn’t want to be in the position that I have to go to Eric to ask for the gearbox and if he’s focused on the Renault project, it was more than uncomfortable.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Eric, you’ve spoken about the journey quite a few times throughout this press conference, that you were taking McLaren on. Is it harder for your vision to be felt by the team with the management structure that’s got multiple chiefs, and are you still confident that you’re the right man to lead the team and make your vision felt?

    EB: Well, obviously when I joined McLaren they were obviously the people in place and obviously you have to build an organisation that you believe in and I think that during the Honda era it was not obviously planned to be where we were. Again, no points, a lot of reliability issues and we had to deal with this, so you have to manage the company a little bit differently when have brought few people in, coming from a World Champion team. You obviously don’t want to lose them. I think now with Renault as well, we can score points now, at least we try to be fighting for Q3, this is not where we want to be, but again it’s a journey. We still discover… for example in the last race one of the pipes broke during the race and this is something we have investigated and this was a new problem we had to face and this is part of the journey. Again, we are learning to work with Renault and our new partners.

    Q: (Bart Von Doijewert – Nu.nl) Christian, how far are you prepared to go to keep Daniel in your team and if he leaves, would you rather have a young talent next to Max Verstappen or a more experienced driver?

    CH: Well, obviously our priority is to see if we can find a way to keep Daniel. I think things are going in the right direction. We have talent already on the books on loan to Cyril, we have not a shortage of requests from outside of our own contracted drivers. Obviously the cars are performing extremely well, so there’s no shortage of demand from drivers that want to be in the car for next year but our priority is to retain the same driver line-up for the next couple of years.

    Q: And the second part of that was if it was to change, would you want an experienced or a younger driver alongside Max?

    CH: I think we definitely want fast and cheap! The two don’t always go together but the Red Bull philosophy has always promoted young talent and given talent, opportunities and hence the guys who have graduated through Toro Rosso, it’s been a proven path.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Christian, given that you and Toro Rosso will again be sharing the same sort of power unit, will you be moving more and more towards a Haas-Ferrari-type deal between yourselves and Toro Rosso?

    CH: Well, not quite the Haas-Ferrari because obviously Toro Rosso have their own infrastructure but there’s obvious synergies that a common power unit supplier provides within what’s permitted within the regulations – transmission, drivetrain etc – that creates those obvious synergies that will apply there, so I think it just makes life a bit easier all round.

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) To all of you: in today’s Formula One, can you win titles as a customer team and if not, how can you change that beyond 2020?

    EB: Good question. Well, I think Christian is the showing that you can win races as a customer. I think winning a championship is another level, you need to have a works team status.

    CA: Yes, there are very different types of customers, obviously, but I think it’s important that in future we retain the capacity for any team to win races and a championship and I think that this is the direction that things are taking under the new ownership of Liberty.

    CH: We’ve demonstrated, with 150 podiums and 57 Grand Prix victories, we’ve paid for every single engine along the way, varying amounts.

    CA: Varying performance.

    CH: We’ve gone through four different groups of management during our time with Renault. It started with the well-known Flavio Briatore, when we first took the engine. We ended with, as part of the deal, having a box at Queens Park Rangers and sponsoring the Billionaire Club for a season, so it’s been an unconventional route but a successful one. Conflicts of interest didn’t exist in those days. It’s demonstrated that you can win with a customer power unit, I think. Our view on the future is that the situation is slightly different now with Cyril having his own team. Obviously the engines are a bit more complex these days so integration is very much focused around his team whereas we are all selfish in this business, we all want it to be focused on what’s right for your own team and so therefore this relationship with Honda allows us to have that marriage that is focused and unique to Red Bull, rather than having to share.

    FV: Yeah, but honestly so far I don’t think that the fact to be customer team is the biggest issue if the target is to be World Champion for me. We will have some other topics before.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Fred, Christian and Cyril, possibly, maybe, last word about Freddo. Do you give your staff chocolate bars as rewards for hard work?

    FV: Cyril first!

    CH: We obviously have a totally freeflowing supply of Red Bull that people indulge in every day. We even send it to Cyril and his guys after a good result, so we’re not really into Freddos, we’re more into Red Bulls.

    CA: We do receive them and we’ve drunk every single one of them. No chocolate, no. But if I may just jump in, I was hesitating. One thing I think about McLaren’s situation: I was talking about benchmarks and the fact that we have Red Bull as a benchmark is also working for engine manufacturers and I think something that has been badly missing for both Honda and McLaren in the past has been the lack of benchmarks. I think that they have a clear understanding of the issues, I think we need also to appreciate that the time needs to focus on those issues. I have absolutely no f**king clue about the chocolate bar that you’re talking about. I don’t want to comment on that, but I just wanted to make that point regarding benchmarks which is very important in a competitive environment.

    Q: Thank you very much and apologies for any colourful language in that answer.

    FV: Sorry, for me I have to stop the chocolate bar also.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Christian, can I ask you a non-confectionary-based question: you said just a few moments ago that your golden days with Renault were before there were conflicts of interest. Is it the case that Renault’s return as a works force has made your relationship untenable and that’s set you on the journey to where you are now?

    CH: I wouldn’t say it’s made it untenable; it’s changed the dynamic, particularly with this era of power unit. Renault’s priorities are obviously their own team and they should be that and I think that our feeling was that the time is right in this… you know, after 12 years, and it’s one of the longest standing engine supply relationships in Formula One. The decision’s not been taken lightly. A huge amount of analysis, a great deal of research has gone into this and we’ve decided that this is the right route at this juncture for the team and the business to go in this direction.

     

  • I can’t wait to be racing in front of my home crowd, says Esteban Ocon

    DRIVERS – Pierre GASLY (Toro Rosso,) Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Esteban OCON (Force India), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: We’re going to start with the French drivers. It’s the first French Grand Prix for 10 years and there is a real buzz in the paddock about being here in the south of France. So how special is it for you as drivers to be here at your home race? Romain? 
    Romain GROSJEAN: It’s very special. I came into Formula 1 in 2009, the year after the French Grand Prix finished. Then in all the years I was doing [Formula 1] I didn’t hear much about the French Grand Prix and eventually all the rumours started to kick up and then last year we knew we were going to have a French Grand Prix and here we are and it’s amazing to rediscover Paul Ricard with the grandstand and all those statues, which I think make it… It feels like a great atmosphere. The south of France is probably one of the best places in the world as well. The weather is very kind to us and I think it’s just a beautiful place to have a race and very, very much looking forward to going out on track.

    Q: Thank you very much. Esteban, your thoughts coming here because you’ve raced here before but obviously not in Formula 1? 
    Esteban OCON: Yeah, I have raced here before. Last time I was seated here there was a lot fewer people. I won in Formula Renault 2.0, back in the day, it was my first victory in single seaters. Just fantastic memories, to come back here feels special. Of course, we see the atmosphere there is already on the first day, which is awesome, lots of fans coming around and I can’t wait to be racing for the first time in front of my home crowd.

    Q: Thank you. And Pierre, your thoughts on your home race and how impressed are you with this venue? 
    Pierre GASLY: Yeah, honestly super impressed. The last time I came here was in 2014 and there are now so many grandstands, much more people than I used to see here. I think we raced with Esteban in 2013 and I raced here in 2014, I won Formula 4 and also in Formula Renault, so a lot of good memories. It’s just unbelievable to come back here for my first home race. We are pretty lucky because all of the French drivers in the last 10 years didn’t have this privilege. It’s my first season and I get the chance to race my country, so an amazing opportunity. A lot of people already for Thursday, so really looking forward to seeing how it is over the next few days.

    Q: Romain, if we return to you to look at the competitive aspect of the weekend. You’ve got two young French talents alongside you today, but the Haas looked more to your liking with the upgrade in Canada. So what are your chances of beating these two guys this weekend? 
    RG: I think they’re pretty high. The car has been working very well recently – since the beginning of the year to be fair. We’ve had an upgrade in Canada and I had a good feeling in the car. Unfortunately we didn’t do quali and then we made our race harder. But I think we are going in a good step. So for the four of us, P7 is like winning the race for us. That’s clearly our target for the weekend and then if anything happens in front then we take the opportunity.

    Q: Thank you very much. Esteban you have scored points in each of the last two races? But you had more points at this stage last year and the team has been in the headlines both off the track and on it this year. So what has it been like internally? 
    EO: Internally, it’s all fine. We are working quite well to be honest. The first few races were difficult but we have been improving the car, bringing updates to it, and race by race improving and in Monaco I think we really did the step up. We’ve qualified P6 and in Canada we qualified into the top 10 in Q3 and I think we have the car now to be qualifying well and to be fighting the top midfield teams. So far we are pretty happy with the development and how everything went. Especially this weekend, we have a fresh engine in the car, so hopefully it’s going to give us some performance.

    Q: Speaking of fresh engines, Pierre you took a power unit penalty in Canada to ensure you didn’t take one here , but you climbed through the field impressively in Canada so how big a step is the new Honda and what are you hoping from it this weekend? 
    PG: Yeah, it’s a really good step. I think in terms of performance it’s clearly a good help. We saw in Canada that we were able to overtake other cars – Force India, Haas. So, I think it’s looking pretty good. I think it’s super tight in the midfield, so at the moment we still need to progress but I think we are improving in terms of consistency and we know if we put everything together we can fight in the top 10, but if we don’t it’s a bit more difficult. It’s a good opportunity here, because all the teams have only realty small experience of this track, so it’s our job to really work during free practices to make the best out of it and I think clearly with the upgraded engine we have a better chance to score points.

    Q: Thank you. Fernando, thank you for waiting. This is a Formula 1 press conference but it’s also an FIA press conference and last weekend you won one of the biggest races in another FIA championship, so just tell us about your Le Mans experience and what it feels like to be a Le Mans 24-Hour winner?
    Fernando ALONSO: It feels great. Obviously it has been a long-time dream for me to be there and to experience Le Mans and it was great to have the first opportunity and to be in as competitive a team as Toyota and to dominate the free practice, the qualifying and the race. It was a competition between the two of our cars in the garage and in the end we got a little bit more lucky and a little bit probably set-up. It feels great but now back to F1 – a triple race in three weekends – and quite busy between Monaco, Canada, Le Mans and now these three.

    Q: As Romain alluded to; seventh place seems to be the highest realistic target for most of the teams here today. Just tell us, from a competitor’s point of view, how do you make that switch from winning such a big race last weekend to having different targets this weekend? 
    FA: Well, I think you know how Formula 1 works and what are your targets and your maximum positions and you approach the weekend just trying to reach those targets and try to improve the car every single race and try to develop the car as much as your competitors. As all of our friends here, we are optimistic with the upgrades on the cars, the engine upgrades and things like that, and then you find out that every team is developing the car at the same rate more or less and everything remains the same. We did score points in every single race, more or less, this year. We miss in Monaco with a gearbox issue and in Canada with an engine issue but we were in the points also in those races and we want to come back to that place here.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Fernando, you’ve got two down and one to go in your pursuit for motorsport’s triple crown. So in terms of winning the Indianapolis 500, how big a priority is that for you now? Do you want to tackle it as soon as possible – i.e. next season? And can you do that while still racing in Formula 1? 
    FA: I didn’t think too much yet on this. As I said last year when I entered the Indy 500, that was a very attractive target, to achieve the triple crown and to be a little bit, let’s say, a more complete driver, not only driving Formula 1 cars. Yeah, obviously the Le Mans victory it puts a little bit closer that target, but I will think and I will see what I do next year.

    Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question for Pierre. Pierre, did you push for the Honda move with Red Bull and do you think it improves, it boosts your chances to move to the senior team if Daniel Ricciardo does leave the team?
    PG: I didn’t push for it because I’m not the one who takes the decision – but of course they asked me for feedback since the beginning of the year about the engine. I’ve tried to give them as precise as possible to help them in their decisions but I think, yes, there were much bigger talks behind it. And then, yeah, about Daniel’s situation, I think it’s still pretty early in the season to talk about it, of course. Everyone is making speculation but at the moment there is nothing really serious. Of course, clearly, you know, in Formula One, you want to be fighting for the top positions and that’s what I want to be fighting for in my career and clearly my target as a Red Bull driver is to be the Red Bull seat as quickly as possible – but at the moment I’m only in my first season in Formula One, so I just try to focus on my job. I know that, if I do good races, opportunities will come up – and that’s the only thing I try to focus on at the moment. So, we will see what Daniel does, and… yeah… bit too early, I just try to focus on my performances and on myself to give my best.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Fernando. Fernando, you experiment to compete in a different situation to Formula One at Le Mans. Here you have at least three teams in front of you and there you have just one team. Can you describe more the sensation of being a driver of a team that, unless you have some problems, you probably win the race?
    FA: Well, I think in Le Mans it was different because the race is so hard and so demanding that whatever package you have, you need to still fight throughout the race and you need to still deliver the perfect execution of the race. In terms of driving, in terms of mechanical failures, in terms of pitstops, the whole team has to work together and execute the race. We see in other categories, in LMP2 or GT, even the favourite ones, at the end of the race it’s not so clear. It’s not predictable. The team of our boss Zak Brown was third at the end of the race and in qualifying it was 14th. So, that’s how hard Le Mans is, and how unpredictable it is. In Formula One we are definitely missing that. We are all sitting here and we know that maybe we could fight for seventh in qualifying and for seventh in the race. That’s the biggest problem of Formula One.

    Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar NL) Fernando, two questions to you: first, can you describe the feeling as you were making up time on the sister Toyota during your night stint at Le Mans? And secondly, do you feel the win would have much more value if other major manufacturers would still have competed in LMP1? 
    FA: At night, obviously you are so focused and concentrating on traffic and all the other stuff that you are not totally aware of the gap between the two cars so if you are faster or slower…  you are just trying to put some laps together and some clean stints without any mistakes. When I finished my fourth stint and I asked what the gap was, obviously we had reduced it by one minute and a half or one minute 45s and that was great but during the stint, to be honest, I was not aware of the pace or anything.
    And how it feels? It feels great. Last year there were only four cars, this year there were ten so I think there was much more opposition this year. We had the only hybrid system with, I think, 49 percent more efficient than any other car and it was a great challenge. I put this victory in a higher level than any other victory in Le Mans.

    Q: (Inaudible) Romain, you seem much older than Pierre and Esteban sitting next to you… 
    RG: Thanks

    Q: (Inaudible) Sorry about that. Did you watch them coming up the ranks and when was the first time that, watching them racing, you thought about them: wow, that kid is really impressive and could make it to the top? 
    RG: To be fair, I didn’t watch much. I met Esteban once at the Monaco Gold Kart Cup ages ago and then I knew he was doing Formula Renault but I didn’t get much time to watch closely. I know Pierre went through the French Federation Academy but it’s very hard to know if a driver’s going to make it or not until they are competing in Formula Two, which I guess is one of the best preparations, so that’s where you can see whether they’re going to make it or not and that’s quite easy to follow because it’s the same race weekends as we do.

    Q: (Jerome Bourret – L’Equipe) From past experiences you’ve had here in other categories, and from the job you have done in the simulator, what is your opinion of the layout of the track and what can we expect from the race, boring or an exciting one? 
    EO: You know, there have been some changes compared to the past so first of all, the track has been resurfaced, compared to the previous year so we will see how it performs with those tyres in practice. Second thing is the shape of the corners have been redesigned in turns one and two and five and 15, to help overtaking and also, I think, it can only help, you know. It’s a wider entry to the corner, it’s a slower entry to turn one but quicker exit. All those things can only help overtaking. We will see if it helps in practice; already we will have a better idea but as a venue, I think Paul Ricard can only be the best venue in France at the moment to host the French Grand Prix.
    PG: Yeah, similar comments really. We raced it before it has been resurfaced so we need to wait a bit in practice. There is a question mark about the chicane, if it’s good or if they should have left the straight. I think in the end we don’t have much experience from it so we need to see how it goes this year. But there are a couple of overtaking spots. The only problem is still the same: it’s really close to follow other cars so I think it’s a bit difficult to predict but if degradation is pretty high, for sure we know it’s pretty hard on the tyres, we need to see how it behaves with the Pirellis and it will make it quite exciting. I don’t want to be pessimistic, I’m usually really optimistic about things so I think we should wait and see on Sunday but hopefully it’s going to be an exciting one.

    Q: Fernando, am I right in saying you tested here before but not raced? 
    FA: No.

    Q: Have you had time in a simulator to get an understanding of it? 
    FA: I didn’t drive the simulator either so let’s see tomorrow. I think I’ve been here in 2003 at the launch of the R23, the Renault one but we were using a short kart circuit, just for some pictures and some shakedown but I honestly don’t remember anything and let’s see, the good thing is that the French Grand Prix is coming back to the calendar and probably all the excitement is there, you know, with the fans and the expectations and the race itself. I think that’s the very positive news of the weekend. If the show will be good or not, we will wait and see on Sunday. Sometimes it’s better than expected, sometimes it’s a little a bit more boring than expected but I think I’m also optimistic because it’s an historic race coming to the calendar and we are all happy.
    RG: I’m pretty much the same. I think we always like to think ahead of things and not let time tell us what’s going on. First race of the season was very boring but the next few were amazing and there was a big crisis after Australia and actually the races afterwards were quite fun so here we will see. On paper, it’s clearly not the easiest track in the world on which to overtake but there are long DRS sections. If the tyre energy is high, so the tyres could go off and if that’s the case overtaking is going to become an option. I think recently the one stop races have been a bit boring for everyone, so hopefully we will get a bit more stops and then the race is always going to be a bit more exciting.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Fernando, you won in Monaco, you won in Le Mans and you also raced at the Indy 500. From a driver’s point of view, which one is the most difficult to win and if you can please compare some of the challenges between these three very different races? 
    FA: I think they are difficult to compare. They are all special events and they are all difficult to win, in a way. Probably the easiest will be Monaco because if you are in the best package possible that season and you put in a lap on Saturday, 99 percent of the win is there so that’s probably out of your hands. You probably have to have the best car that weekend. On the other hand, I think the show is bigger because they do it once a year so I think the driver presentation, the build-up to the weekend, the race itself, everything is bigger because, as I said, they do it once a year. The drivers parade is in town, Indianapolis, Le Mans, there are a lot of preparations into the race so you feel a different atmosphere but from a drivers’ point of view, as I said, they all feel very special, very unique and each one requires different styles.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Fernando, are you surprised Red Bull can think of a World title using Honda engines? 
    FA: Me? If I’m surprised? No. To be honest, what the other teams do, I think it’s difficult to analyse from the outside. We don’t have all the data, all the things they have so I’m happy for them if they take this decision, and happy for Honda to show their commitment to F1 and for the future and at the same time, it’s not a surprise. There were some talks, some rumours for a couple of months already about this relationship and now it’s official.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Fernando, would you seriously consider racing in IndyCar for a full season next year, and would you consider taking a sabbatical perhaps until McLaren show any signs of improvement? 
    FA: Well, I think one thing is we need to wait and see a couple of months now is really the commitment of all the parties into F1 projects, into the future, what will be the seats that next year they move on and which will be driver line-ups in some of the top teams as well. And after that, just see what the future brings, also what the produce on the Indy 500, on the triple crown and whatever feels attractive. Right now, as I said, still digesting a little bit the Le Mans win and trying to enjoy every minute and not taking too much into account the next year’s project.

    Q: (Ludovic Ferro – La Provence) One for Fernando, one for Esteban. Fernando, is it special to drive in France after your victory in Le Mans and your two titles with Renault? 
    FA: I always feel happy to race in France because, as I said before, it’s an historic race in the calendar and I grew up watching the French Grand Prix on television and then I went to an F1 race in Magny Cours and as you said, racing for a French team, and now winning Le Mans in France. The last four weeks, between the Le Mans test, Montreal, Le Mans and here is four weeks French speaking people in the hotels so it’s a nice feeling now and yeah, really happy to be back here and a lot of support in France always and happy to race (here).

    Q: (Ludovic Ferro – La Provence) Esteban, have you the ambition to finish first French driver of this GP and if not, what is your ambition for this weekend? 
    EO: There is no classification about top French, so it’s not very interesting to be the top French. No, what we want to do it to do the best job we can. In the end, that’s to arrive seventh if there is nothing happening in front, so that’s what we will go for this weekend.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Fernando, how good do you think the Honda engines are? 
    FA: I don’t know. What I know is that the Renault engine we have in our car is quite good. Last year, at this point, we had zero points and this year we are seventh in the drivers’ championship and fifth in the constructors’ championship and the relationship is better and healthier than ever. That’s the only thing I know, the present. The past, I don’t know.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) How did you cope with the 24 hour race, are you still tired, did you manage to sleep a long time and how do you feel now? 
    FA: I’m more or less OK now, 90 percent, still recovering. Definitely it was demanding, physically. Every time you jump in the car you do two and a half Formula One Grands Prix and then you don’t have two weeks to recover, you have four hours to recover and then you go back to the car so it was demanding but it was fun at the same time and the adrenalin keeps you awake. Basically, all night, I think I slept one hour and a half, more or less, half asleep because I was controlling the times all the way through the night. Yeah, it was a nice experience and obviously I did the Daytona 24 hours in January, also to get experience and practise on how 24 hour races were in terms of physical demands and mental demands as well and yeah, everything was under control.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) For all of you, can you tell me something about the impact of the triple header, I could even say five Grands Prix in six weeks? Is it overkill or do you like it? 
    RG: I think I like it.
    EO: Yeah, it’s good. When I was a kid I wanted to race every day so now it’s coming alive, that dream. I think on the other hand, I’m thinking about the mechanics, all the people travelling around Europe, the truckies, everybody in the teams, you know, building up those beautiful hospitalities and tents and all that. This is going to be very hard for them so we need to make life as easy for them as we can because at the end, we are a team so we need to support everybody.
    PG: Yeah, I think I’m going to love it. We’re race car drivers and we just want to race and I think it’s going to awesome.
    FA: I have nine so these last three’s OK.

     

  • It’s a dream to race in front of my home crowd: Esteban Ocon of Sahara Force India

    It’s a dream to race in front of my home crowd: Esteban Ocon of Sahara Force India

    Esteban Ocon file photo by Sahara Force India

    Marseille (France), 19 June 2018: Sahara Force India have 28 points and are in sixth place, after seven races and look forward to the home of race of their driver Estaban Ocon as Formula One returns after 18 years to the French circuit Paul Ricard. Ocon says that it is his dream to race in front the Home Crowd.

    Currently, the team may have like to have more points in its kitty to retain its standing in the Championship, but Team Principal Vijay Mallya feels that the Indian outfit is on right track. Sergio Perez who failed to score points in the last two races after a promising podium in Russia, is 12th in the Drivers’ Standings with 17 points while Ocon has 11 points to his name and is in 13th place.

    Sergio: “It was disappointing not to score points in the last two races. We had the speed but I’ve just been unlucky. With three races over the next three weeks there should be a chance to make up for the missed opportunities. I want to turn our speed into solid points. I think we now have a car that can race for points at most circuits. We’ve made some progress recently and I’ve always said this team is very good at developing a car during the season.

    “There is always something special about going to a new Grand Prix. It’s a nice change because it’s a different challenge and you don’t know what to expect. I have been to Paul Ricard before for testing back in my F3 and GP2 days, but I’ve never raced there. I remember it was a fantastic venue and it’s very wide open with lots of run-off areas. I’ve been watching some videos of the track recently to remind myself of the layout. It’s certainly going to be a quick lap where top speed will be important. I think we will be competitive.”

    Esteban: “It’s been my dream for years to be racing in front of my home crowd and now I will finally experience the fantastic feeling of a home Grand Prix. When the race was announced, it was the best news from the whole of last year and I’m really looking forward to it. I am very proud of the work of all the people involved in bringing the French Grand Prix back and I hope the event will be a success.

    “I did race at Paul Ricard early in my career – it was actually where I had my first victory in single seaters in 2013 so I have some fantastic memories of the place. I hope we can add some more success this weekend. Having been there in the junior categories makes getting used to a new track in a Formula One car much easier. I think I will find my rhythm quite quickly.

    “In the last few races in Monaco and Canada we’ve been showing good pace so I hope we can be strong in France as well. On paper, the track should suit us, with a long straight and some slow corners where we can use our car’s mechanical grip really well. It’s a track which will be new for everyone and we’re usually good at finding a set-up quickly, so I’m not too worried.

    “It’s going to be a busy week for me but once I get in the car, it’s like any other race weekend and the focus needs to be on the track.”

    Speaking from his base near London, Team Principal Vijay Mallya said through a release: “After a third of the 2018 season, it’s encouraging to see the progress we have made since Melbourne. We are reaching Q3 regularly with both cars and picking up good points. There have been lost opportunities and we should have scored many more points, but it feels like our season is properly up and running. It’s great to see Formula One returning to France. The sport needs its traditional European races and it’s going to be a big weekend for Esteban racing on home ground for the first time.”

  • Vettel wins from lights to flag: Canadian Grand Prix

    Vettel wins from lights to flag: Canadian Grand Prix

    Vettel afterCanadian GP winc. An FIA image

    Montreal, 10 June 2018: Sebastian Vettel drove a textbook Canadian Grand Prix, leading every lap of the race to secure his 50th career grand prix win ahead of Mercedes Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

    When the lights went out polesitter Vettel held his advantage into Turn 1. Behind, Verstappen made a good start and attacked Bottas, pulling alongside the Mercedes. Bottas held firm, however, and managed to stay in second position ahead of the Red Bull driver. Hamilton kept fourth but Daniel Ricciardo made his way past Kimi Räikkönen to take fifth place.

    Further back, Williams’ Lance Stroll lost control in Turn 5 and slid into Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley pushing the New Zealander into the wall. The collision was a big one and debris was scattered across the track as they slid towards the run-off area at Turn 6. The Safety Car was immediately deployed. Both drivers were taken to the medical centre, with Hartley then being sent to hospital for further checks.

    When action resumed at the end of lap four, the order at the front remained the same as Vettel controlled the situation well, but further back there was content between Force India’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Carlos Sainz.

    Perez slid across the run-off are and back on track but there was no further contact, though the Mexican quickly dropped to P14.

    Vettel then began to put in fastest laps and the gap to Bottas widened to four seconds by lap 13. Behind him a number of drivers who had started on hypersoft tyres began to pit, moving to supersoft tyres as the pink-banded compound quickly faded. The Red Bulls, though, stayed on the softest of the weekend’s compounds as they nursed their starting rubber.

    By lap 16 Ricciardo was catching Hamilton and the gap between the two had dropped to 0.7s. With Hamilton visibly struggling for pace, Mercedes took the option to pit the Briton on lap 16. Red Bull pitted Verstappen simultaneously, with both taking supersofts.

    Ricciardo stayed out, however, and after a superbly quick in-lap pitted at the end of lap 17, taking on supersofts in overcut to emerge ahead of Hamilton.

    Vettel continued on and by lap 23 he was 4.8s ahead of Bottas. Räikkönen was now third, though he too needed to pit, 12.9s behind his fellow Finn and 13.8 clear of Verstappen.

    The race then settled until Räikkönen made his pit stop, emerging in P6 behind Hamilton. Bottas pitted soon after, holding P2 ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo. Ferrari then covered the Mercedes stop and rejoined some 8s clear of the Finn.

    The race settled again, with the gaps spreading at the front of the pack. On lap 50 Vettel had 6.0s in hand over Bottas, while the Mercedes man was 5.9s ahead of Verstappen. Ricciardo was fourth, seven seconds behind his team-mate and the Australian had just over a second in hand over Hamilton.

    And so it remained until the closing laps when Hamilton began to hunt down Ricciardo as the pair met traffic. The Briton closed to within DRS as Ricciardo cleared Force India’s Esteban Ocon. However he lost out slightly when Ricciardo easily got past Sainz and Hamilton lost grip momentarily.

    The battle ebbed and flowed as the pair threaded their way through the traffic but then three laps from the end Ricciardo found clear air and stretched his legs. Verstappen, meanwhile, was pushing for a final attack on Bottas who was having to fuel save in the closing stages.

    There was a moment’s confusion as the chequered flag was waved a lap early but seconds later the German crossed the line to take his 50th career F1 victory and Ferrari’s first win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 14 years ahead of Bottas who nursed his Mercedes home ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo. Hamilton finished fifth, with Raikkonen sixth ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz and Force India’s Esteban Ocon. The final point went to Sauber’s Charles Leclerc.

    2018 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Race 
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari –
    2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 6.496
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 7.702
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 19.625
    5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 21.408
    6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 27.308
    7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1 lap
    8 Carlos Sainz Renault 1 lap
    9 Esteban Ocon Force India 1 lap
    10 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1 lap
    11 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1 lap
    12 Romain Grosjean Haas 1 lap
    13 Sergio Perez Force India 1 lap
    14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1 lap
    15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 2 laps
    16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 2 laps
    17 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 2 laps
    Fernando Alonso McLaren
    Lance Stroll Williams
    Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso

  • Sebastian Vettel takes pole: Canadian Grand Prix

    Sebastian Vettel takes pole: Canadian Grand Prix

    Vettel takes pole at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday. An FIA image

    Montreal, 9 June 2018: Sebastian Vettel took his 54th career pole position, beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in a tight qualifying session the Canadian Grand Prix that saw the top three drivers separated by less than two tenths of a second.

    Ferrari set the pace in the opening session with Vettel going quickest. The German swapped times with team-mate Kimi Räikkönen before he settled into P1 with a lap of 1:11.710. Hamilton slotted into third despite a nervous moment at, with the Briton finishing just over a tenth of a second behind Vettel. His Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished the session fourth ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

    At the bottom of the order, only four drivers from the session would drop out after Haas’ Romain Grosjean exited the session right at the start. The Frenchman left his team’s garage soon after the green light had gone on to signal the start of Q1. But as he applied some power in pit lane, a huge plume of smoke erupted from the rear of his car and he was immediately told to stop his car. He would play no further part in the session.

    Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson hit trouble as well early on, with the Swede smacking the wall on the exit of Turn 9 and damaging the car. He thus sank to the bottom of the order as the session developed.

    Ahead of the final runs Fernando Alonso slipped into the drop zone in P16 but the McLaren driver found more pace in his final run and jumped to P14 ahead of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne. That meant that Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was eliminated in P16 ahead of Williams’ Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, with Ericsson in P19. Gasly’s prospects had been hurt by having to revert to an older spec Honda engine ahead of the session after a problem was detected on his upgrade power unit in FP3.

    At the start of Q2 both Mercedes and Ferrari opted to run with ultrasoft tyres at the start and Valtteri Bottas set the initial pace with a time of 1:11.514. The put him ahead of Vettel and Räikkönen. Hamilton sat behind after locking up on his lap. Verstappen though took hypersofts and set the quickest time of the first runs with a lap of 1:11.472.

    In the second runs the Mercedes and Ferraris went back out on hypersofts. Vettel, though, abandoned his lap, but not due to wanting to settle on ultrasofts. The German felt he was severely hampered by drivers on slower laps and so steered back to the garage. In the end all the Ferrari and Mercedes settled on their ultrasoft times.

    Ricciardo, who had been off the pace of his team-mate throughout practice, suddenly seemed to find a sweet spot with his RB14 and on his second run he jumped ahead of Verstappen to claim top spot with a lap of 1:11.434. Verstappen settled on his opening time and took P2.

    Eliminated at this stage were Haas’ Kevin Magnussen who finished in P11 ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and the McLarens of Alonso and Vandoorne.

    In the first runs of Q3 Hamilton was first onto the timesheet with a time of 1:11.227, but team-mate BOT blasted past that with a good lap of 1:10.857. Räikkönen then slotted into P2 with a lap of 1:11.095.

    Vettel, though, went even quicker and he took provision pole with a time of 1:10.776. Verstappen then jumped ahead of Hamilton to sit fourth at the end of the first runs, just 0.001s behind Räikkönen.

    And there was no halting the German in the final runs. Räikkönen was the first to crack, running wide in the first sector and ruining his chances. Hamilton then made a mistake at the hairpin to exclude himself from the battle for pole. And when Bottas failed to improve Vettel’s 54th pole position was secure.

    Max Verstappen might have had a say in it after setting the quickest first sector time of the session on his final run. But the Red Bull driver lost time in the following two sector and ended the third ahead of Hamilton, Räikkönen and Ricciardo. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was seventh ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon, the second Renault of Carlos Sainz and the second Force India of Sergio Pérez.

    2018 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:10.764
    2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:10.857 0.093
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:10.937 0.173
    4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.996 0.232
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:11.095 0.331
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:11.116 0.352
    7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:11.973 1.209
    8 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:12.084 1.320
    9 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:12.168 1.404
    10 Sergio Perez Force India 1:12.671 1.907
    11 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.606 1.842
    12 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:12.635 1.871
    13 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:12.661 1.897
    14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:12.856 2.092
    15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:12.865 2.101
    16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:13.047 2.283
    17 Lance Stroll Williams 1:13.590 2.826
    18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:13.643 2.879
    19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:14.593 3.829|
    20 Romain Grosjean Haas.