INDIA in F1

Tag: F1

  • Force India’s Bob Fernley at FIA Friday press conference: Austin US GP

    PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Gene HAAS (Haas), Zak BROWN (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Zak, you’ve confirmed Fernando Alonso for next year. Some suggestion that it’s a multi-year agreement. Can you give us any insights into the scope of this agreement and his ongoing status with McLaren?

    Zak BROWN: Yeah, we’re very happy to have Fernando on board. It was actually done months ago and we just decided to announce it yesterday. Actually that’s not true, we just got it done. But obviously we’ve been speaking with him all season about it. We’ve structured an agreement that allows us to race together for the foreseeable future but everything moves very quickly in Formula One so right now we’re just focused on 2018.

    Now, we asked the same question yesterday to him: the Renault engine has won twice this year and had 10 other podiums, so are those the kind of results you are going to be expecting/demanding from your engineering department for next year?

    ZB: Yeah, we’re here to win races; that’s what McLaren has always achieved. Obviously the last few years have been very difficult. We have the drivers that we want, we have the support from our owners, financially, that we need, and we now have a power unit that has been winning races consistently, and championships, over the last decade, so I think we are well suited to get back on the podium next year.

    Thanks for that. Robert, coming to you, obviously another fantastic season for Force India, consistent points scoring and a clear position in the championship now. But if you stand still in Formula One you go backwards, so as management, what steps are you putting in place for the future development of this team, and how much does it depend on the package that Formula One presents you in the coming weeks?

    Robert FERNLEY: I think there are two elements to it really. One is that our goal, from our point of view, is to obviously maintain fourth and that’s not because we don’t want to move forward but it’s probably going to be very difficult. I think we almost have two leagues of Formula One at the moment, the sort of premier league with the top three teams and then the first division. And those are separated primarily with a significant payment coming in from FOM and until that’s bridged I don’t think you are going to see any difference.

    You had another team orders moment in Japan where Sergio was requesting to be allowed through. He didn’t mind the refusal that came because he said afterwards that it wouldn’t have changed the team result but can you give us a view on that decision-making process and how that team harmony is being managed now?

    RF: Well, it wasn’t really an order as such. Checo was pushing the boundaries a little bit. It was a very easy thing for us to say “just hold position” and Checo was very comfortable with that. It was already organised before we even started the race, if that’s where we were going to be, that would be the positions we were going to hold and as Checo rightly says it wouldn’t have made any difference to the team’s position in the end result.

    Gene, great result last time out in Japan, what does Haas do then for 2018. Robert has said he would like to maintain position and that would be a success in itself, but in what areas can you and your team move further up the grid?

    Gene HAAS: Well, obviously there’s a lot of dancing around in the garage in terms of engines and teams and packages changing, so I think that probably makes me more nervous than anything. Obviously if McLaren gets on the podium that’s probably going to push us down one position. You have Sauber going with a current-spec engine and Toro Rosso going with the Honda engine, which looks string again, so it could be a real challenge next year to even maintain where we’re at now, so I think that’s really what we’re looking for in 2018. Obviously we have to get better. We’ve got to race better, we’ve got to understand the car better and if we can improve that maybe we can maintain our position where we’re at now.

    The idea of setting up the Haas Formula One team was to broaden the reach of your business beyond the domestic market, so has Formula One so far worked for you in that sense?

    GH: It’s actually worked quite well. We had a machine tool show over in Hanover, Germany about a month ago and we had a Formula One car there and I probably spent about half my time explaining to customers what we’re doing in Formula One and I think it has put a little bit of intrigue into our business. People want to know who we are and what we are doing and I think it just leaves an imprint in people’s minds of well, “I know what these guys are going, and maybe I’m going to watch them”. It all works in terms of branding, marketing, even in a small niche business like machine tools.

    OK, thanks for that. Toto, it’s been a pretty impressive campaign from Lewis Hamilton, especially since the summer break – things like that pole position in Malaysia with a car that was clearly very difficult that weekend. Do you feel he’s gone up another level this season and what do you think has brought that about?

    Toto WOLFF: Yes I feel he has gone up a level. It’s the fifth year that we work together and in the car and outside the car he’s just made a big step forward and it’s very pleasing to see that. I think it comes down to the dynamic we have in the team. He gets on with Valtteri and that means there is no controversy at all trackside. We have a really good spirit between the engineering and the drivers, a good collaboration, and it’s lifted the whole team up.

    We’ve seen today that Max Verstappen has committed to Red Bull Racing until 2020. Helmut Marko said the other week that Daniel Ricciardo is on the market, would you rule out Mercedes taking an interest in him for 2019 and beyond?

    TW: We’ve renewed the contract with Valtteri. That means that our whole focus is on Valtteri and Lewis for next year, first of all to finish this year as good as possible, and then next year on the two and we haven’t thought beyond 2018.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport) The FIA is going to announce the new engine rules soon. What do you expect to see and what would like to see as far as engine rules for the future are concerned?

    ZB: Very much looking forward to seeing what the new engine rules are going to be. We’ve all heard snippets of what that might look like. I think everyone is in agreement. We need less expensive engines in general. We need less expensive racing budgets and certainly power units are an element of that. I think manufacturers in the sport are critically important, always have been, but at the same time it would be great to have an independent engine or two, that if you weren’t in a situation where you had a manufacturer or you had other options, would be healthy for the sport, as it has historically been. So hopefully rules will be put in place that will allow both manufacturers to continue to enjoy the success and benefit of Formula One, while allowing some independents to come in and provide some maybe more economical but yet competitive situations for engines for teams to choose engine partners from.

    TW: I think we are in a pretty good position at the moment because we have multiple manufacturers engaged in the sport, committed to the sport, contrary to many racing leagues where manufacturers have exited so we mustn’t forget that this is a solid pillar of Formula One. But I agree with Zak. We’re pretty easy with whatever rules come in. We believe that what the studies have said that technology is important as part of the USP of Formula One, so we shouldn’t make it low-tech, but equally making it possible for an independent manufacturer to come in, such as Aston Martin for example, would be good for the sport. The more brands we can attract, the more interesting it will be. The way we tackle the situation is we are very interested to hear what the FIA and FOM’s position is going to be and then go with whatever they suggest.

    GH: We’ve heard a lot of different technical variations on what the engine will be, so it’s hard to speculate. I think it’s certainly going to be simpler, they’ll probably drop the heat generating unit and I think that’s good but I kind of agree with the other voices here that we need to have a specification that allows a major manufacturer to come in an design an engine – and not only the engine but also the transmission – as just having the engine without the transmission really does limit your choices. So it would be nice to have a specification even for the transmission, so that you could get the entire package from the one vendor. These days the engine and transmission really are integral to one another and it’s difficult to separate them and make them work smoothly.

    RF: I think everything has been said. I would agree with all three.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) A continuation of this topic. I believe that one of the discussion points had actually been all-wheel drive, driving the front axle through some motor-generator KERS situation. Toto, I believe that Mercedes is certainly not anti that. What about the other three? Are you in favour of an all-wheel drive Formula One? Or does that go against, to use a hackneyed phrase, the DNA of Formula One?

    Do you want to start Toto and confirm the situation?

    TW: I think what I said before, technology is important. If there is an emphasis on maybe not having the -H any more, the heat recovery any more, how do we compensate for 60 per cent of electric energy that is being lost. There are various possibilities and front motors is one possibility. It’s not that we are absolutely stuck on implementing front motors but we have to discuss all possible technologies that can compensate for the lack of power.

    Robert, your thoughts on this.

    RF: I think that all technologies are welcome – but I think it’s also the key element of what we’re looking at from the engine point of view is to keep the cost down. So, if going to four-wheel drive or whatever combination we have of that is going to increase cost, then it defeats the object of where we’re going.

    Gene?

    GH: Well, four-wheel drive is entirely doable but like anything else, the details are the math involved. We’re talking to Ferrari a little bit about that and they basically came back and said, well, if we get rid of the heat generator and exchanged that for a front-wheel drive regenerative motor, then there simply wasn’t enough energy to be recovered. So, you know, you have to be careful. It’s the same trap Formula One got itself into when it selected this engine. It seemed like a simple idea but when you started doing the engineering it became very, very complex. Caveat to Mercedes, they got it right. The other teams struggled for a long time. So, I think we have to be very careful before we say “let’s just throw a four-wheel drive car out there,” because it could be another one of those ones where one team will probably hit a home-run and the rest of us will be struggling with trying to catch up with that. I think simple’s better.

    Zak?

    ZB: I don’t think we yet have a strong technical view. I think we’re more focussed on the criteria that we discussed earlier, as far as budget and competitiveness. I think that needs to be addressed. And then what technologies you use within those parameters, I think is to be discussed at a later date but we’re certainly not opposed to four-wheel drive.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) We keep hearing references to Liberty or the F1 Group presenting their vision of the engine formula going forwards next week – but I thought the FIA made the rules, and I know the engine manufacturers have been discussing the future engine formula for some months now – so can you explain that apparent paradox and exactly what’s happening please.

    TW: There is certainly an interesting fact-finding mission between FOM and FIA. We haven’t been involved and we haven’t heard anything. So we are keen to understand what the views are. There are two meetings scheduled in for the coming weeks to hear the opinions. So, I can’t really tell you more.

    Robert?

    RF: We have no involvement in it whatsoever, so we’re as blind as you are.

    Gene?

    GH: I guess there’s a technical delegation that gets together and discusses these things which we’re not part of. It’s up to them to come together. I think it’s usually the owner-builders that come to agreement on what they want to do and then the FIA rules on it. At least that’s somewhat my understanding. That’s probably where the confusion comes from: owners have their agenda, what they want to accomplish, and then the FIA obviously has what it wants – but it’s not really all that technically knowledgeable sometimes. Then the result is that we wind up with a product that doesn’t make anybody happy. I think this, and I didn’t address it earlier, I think the cost is incredibly important and trying to make a package that all the teams – or at least the lower teams – can afford is fundamental to even our survival.

    Zak, if it’s not clear what’s coming down the track, what would you like to have coming down the track? Maybe that’s another way of phrasing the question.

    ZB: I think you have to assume Formula One and the FIA are collaborating and communicating, so while one party may deliver ‘here’s what the plan is’, one has to assume both have been working very closely together, so I doubt it’s been authored exclusively by one party. Yeah, I think it’s been well-spoken about. The challenges and issues in the sport. Let’s hope there’s greater collaboration moving forwards, so when rules are introduced, technologies are introduced, they’ve been well thought through and from what I’ve seen, from being in Strategy Group meetings, being the new kid on the block, is not everything is always looked through, through as many lenses at is should be: technical; how is it for the fans; what commercial ramifications does it have? Things like the engine fin, that now blocks the branding on the rear wing – and I don’t think anyone has thought about that – but when you’re out talking to your partners, the rear wing used to be a very attractive sales position, less so now because of that engine fin. The conversations that I’ve been in, no-one has that conversation, so hopefully by everyone working more together, everyone will ask the right questions and we’ll end up with the right outcome.

    Q: (Olav Mol – Ziggo Sport) Question for Toto. Double question. All your customer teams, you have the best power engine on the grid. All the customer teams are trying but hardly get podiums, let alone wins. You said you’d never give an engine to a competitor who could beat you. Is that likely to change in the final two years of the current engine formula. The other one, because of that, you want to win but if you don’t win, would you prefer to lose to Ferrari or a customer team?

    TW: Tricky question. We are here in order to extract the best possible result and we have to consider obviously who to supply with an engine and one of the considerations is to not end up in a situation where it would further escalate the costs of our chassis division and end up in a spending war between the bigger teams because the engine factor is neutralised. So, that is one of the considerations we had in the past. Number two, who would I like to beat us. I don’t know, it’s very difficult. I think you have to, as a sportsman, honour whoever does a good job. A good enough job to beat you deserves to be there. This is why we all love the sport. It’s brutally honest. The stopwatch never lies. I can cope with whoever does a better job because it’s deserved.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, taking what you’ve just said. Mercedes is in Formula One for three reasons aligning: sporting; commercial and technical. Under which circumstances then would Mercedes leave Formula One? If what didn’t happen?

    TW: When we re-entered Formula One as a team in 2010 it was a not a light-hearted decision. On the contrary, it was well thought through that we wanted to come back with a works team. So, there is no discussion at that stage about leaving the sport. On the contrary, it’s our core business: we build road cars and we build race cars.

    Q: (John Massengale – Speed City) Being an American F1 fan, it’s been exciting to watch what Liberty Media might do, everything from the small changes like adding miles per hour to the world television feed to things, like now, serious radio being announced and now the new over the top television changes. I want to ask, particularly Gene and Zak, about what you guys think about what Liberty Media’s done and anything we can expect?

    GH: It’s all good. I think they’ve taken a very very positive approach of being pro-active to changing things. I think they’ve opened the sport to more fans. I love the weekends. I think the weekends make it more of a family event. It’s interesting what they’re doing. And obviously they’ve done quite a bit. I think they’ve done more in this last year than we’ve seen in the few years I’ve been in Formula One. It’s all good and I know they want to add more races, there’s a lot of things on their agenda. It will be interesting to see when they actually put something down in writing for the teams and how they will respond to it but I think it’s all been very very positive.

    ZB: Yeah, I agree with Gene. We’ve seen a lot of activity this year. They’re trying new things, really engaging with the fans. You can tell there’s a real focus on the fan and I think if we get that right and we have hundreds of millions fans around the world, create new fans, then that creates a healthy eco-system for more sponsors, healthier teams, everyone can sell more products so we would have a great fan base and they are really focused on expanding that and I think it’s very early days, looking forward to the off-season, they’re not 12 months into the job yet, so they’re drinking from the fire hose and I think onwards and upwards and we’re going to have a very healthy sport moving forward.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, you were talking about two upcoming meetings. One I imagine that you referred to as the engine presentation on the 31st but there’s also a strategy group meeting. Given the fact that the four of you represent teams that have got totally different business models, what would each of you like to see come out of that strategy group on November 7th?

    TW: Well, I can only speak for ourselves. The most important thing is that there is clarity on what the vision is from Liberty going forward, on chassis regulations, on engine regulations. We are pretty open to hear their opinion, as long as we have enough time to adapt and adjust and make our opinion be heard. That will be the priority from my point of view.

    ZB: I agree with Toto. My only build would be a timeline in which to implement… we’re never going to get all the teams totally aligned so I think it’s a case of you’ve got to kind of get 80 percent of the way there and then as owners of the sport make some decisions and then we get aligned so I’d like to just see it happen in a fairly quick manner so we can get on with it. And 2021 is around the corner. It would be nice to maybe see some of the things implemented before then. So I think just making sure it doesn’t drag out, which historically has happened in this sport when there’s been regulation changes and that becomes disruptive.

    GH: Well, they definitely need to finalise their ideas on paper because I think it’s going to take the whole of next year to sort those out and then you’re into ’18 and then there’s only a couple of years before ’19, ’20 comes around, so it’s very important for them to put things in writing so the teams can argue about them and back and forth with Formula One and FIA and teams and we can start some kind of a basis of opinion of what we want to do. We’re very interested in cost caps and engine specs and technology limits but it’s almost congress and trying to pass a tax reform or budget or something, it sounds like it could go on forever.

    RF: Probably very similar to everyone else. I think what you’re looking for is to get an in principal agreement on the strategy group which clearly determines the headline items of what we want to achieve and within that, the timing of when it’s got to be achieved by. I think those are the key elements to come out of the strategy group on the seventh. If we don’t achieve that, then it just keeps pushing it out.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) On this strategy group meeting, the presentation of so-called ideas, how much of a fait accompli are these ideas? Is it a take-it or leave-it or is it, as Gene says, a starting point for more discussions?

    RF: I’m hoping there’s been enough discussions over the last six months or more with all the various teams so I’m hoping that they’ve got a good feel for where they want to go and that we’re actually going to be voting on the principles of where we want to go. The headline items and as I say, getting the timescale in place for those to be adopted, so I would hope it would be a little more. I don’t think it’s a fait accompli by any means but it’s certain that we should have a very clear direction.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) From all of you, just to get a maybe more specific idea or what your expectations would be at this strategy group meeting coming up in a few weeks? Anything in the top three things that you would like to talk about, like to hammer out, and as Gene pointed out, that this could be like trying to pass a Senate bill. Are you willing to go long hours into the night to hammer out something, to get something done and not leave it for the next meeting?

    TW: Well, most recently, I don’t think congress has come up with lots of decisions. We need to do a better job there. I think we need to respect, like you said before, all of us have different set-ups and this is what makes Formula One and actually you cannot be stubborn on your own position.

    What was the question? I think it needs a good discussion, on the lining of the vision we have going forward and then find the right compromise.

    ZB: Yeah, I would agree with Toto. I think we’re all very keen to get on with it. I think we’re all very vested in the sport and will stay and always work as many hours as we need to. I think I’ve got a commercial flight booked back so if it goes late I’m going to have to hop a ride with Toto. But no, I think there’s lots to discuss. I think it would be difficult to narrow it down to a top three.

    GH: I don’t think we really have that much of a voice in the strategy meeting. I talked to Guenther quite a bit about it but I think it goes back to what we said earlier, we need to get all these ideas down on paper and from then, I think that will be a tablet or something that you can go forward with. Right now, everything is just up in the air and it’s speculation so until someone actually commits to paper what the ideas are, you really can’t talk about them that much so if they could just come up with a one page summary of what they want to do I think that would be what I would like to see.

    RF: I would like a bit further than that. I would like to see a very clear proposal with ‘this is what we want to do, yes or no’ and we vote on it, maybe only in principle at the beginning with the clear objective of getting there within the timelines but I don’t think it should be a discussion programme. I think we’ve had enough time, over the last six or eight months to discuss it.

    Eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Sahara Force India at the US Grand Prix: Formula One practice report

    Sahara Force India at the US Grand Prix: Formula One practice report

    Esteban Ocon (FRA), left, with teammate Sergio Perez (MEX) at CoTA on Friday. A Sahara Force India F1 Team photo.

    SERGIO PEREZ – VJM10-02

    FP1 1:37.861 P9 20 laps
    FP2 1:36.481 P9 28 laps

    Sergio: “We can be quite happy about today’s work. We gathered a lot of data and we’re in a good place for the rest of the weekend, even if I wasn’t overly convinced about the development tyres we tried this morning. It’s going to be tight to be best of the rest, but I am confident we can do that: the car has been feeling good, especially in hotter conditions, so we have a good base to build on.”

    ESTEBAN OCON – VJM10-04

    FP1 1:37.808 P8 25 laps
    FP2 1:36.490 P10 34 laps

    Esteban: “It was a positive day overall, testing different things on the car and working towards the ideal set-up. Finding the balance hasn’t been as immediate and easy as it was in Malaysia and Suzuka, so we still have a little bit of work to do, but we are getting closer to where I want it to be. I have no doubt it will be much better tomorrow. We still need to find something in the slow-speed corners and that’s where we will concentrate this evening.”

    ROBERT FERNLEY, DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL

    “Despite a damp morning session, we worked our way through the job list and collected information on all three tyre compounds. Track temperatures were quite cool in the morning, but rose in the afternoon to levels that are more representative of what we expect for the rest of the weekend. This is a challenging track on which to strike the right balance between the high and low-speed sections, and that is where we will continue to focus our attention tonight. By the time we were doing long runs at the end of FP2, both drivers were happier, even though there’s still work to do ahead of qualifying. Overall, it was a pretty standard Friday which sets us up well for the rest of the weekend.”

  • Mentally its exactly the same for me as going into the last race: Lewis Hamilton

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Brendon HARTLEY (Toro Rosso), Carlos SAINZ (Renault), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, five-time US Grand Prix winner, three-time F1 world champion, US Grand Prix always a big one for your, personally and for the team, no doubt many commitments in the run-up to the event, but I just wondered how much you enjoyed your hours spent at NASA yesterday?

    Lewis HAMILTON : Good morning everyone, super happy to be here of course and had an incredible day yesterday, having a bit of a comedown today. I was just buzzed all day yesterday because it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. It’s always something I’ve been fascinated about, space and space travel particularly. So to actually go there… and I had a million questions. I’m sure the guy got fed up with me. I asked a lot of questions and I got to see a lot of great things, some of the new technology they are working on and yeah, I want to go back.

    You stand on the threshold of your fourth Driver’s world championship this weekend, but does a part of you regret that the fight has sort of gone out of it now with all the misfortunes that Vettel and Ferrari suffered on the Asian leg in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan?

    LH: No I don’t feel any type of way about it.

    But obviously you’ve got such a massive margin now. There was such a tension throughout the season up to September but there’s much less tension now from your point of view, approaching the races?

    LH: Nothing has changed for me, man. Everything is exactly the same as it was going into the last race, going into the second half of the season; it’s exactly the same mentally for me. Maybe it’s changed from your perspective, but for me it hasn’t.

    Fair enough. Thanks for that. Marcus, the seats are filling up now for 2018. Are you comfortable with the position you are in and do you have any guarantees about next season?

    Marcus ERICSSON: I think in Formula One when you don’t have a contract signed you can never be comfortable, so it’s important for me to push hard now in the last few races to show that I should be on the grid for next year.

    You’ve never been outqualified I believe by a team-mate here at Austin, what do you like particularly about this track?

    ME: I didn’t know that but that’s good. I enjoy this track. I think it’s the best one of the new tracks on the calendar. It has a good mix of very fast corners. The first sector is really good fun to drive and really challenging and I look forward to driving it with these new cars as well. I think it’s going to be quite impressive. It’s a good mix of corners on this track and it’s enjoyable to driver.

    Turning to Brendon Hartley, 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner, welcome to your grand prix debut. Tell us, who called who, what part did Porsche play in it all and where is it all leading?

    Brendon HARTLEY: Good questions. Actually, when it was announced that Porsche would stop endurance racing in LMP1 for next year, I called Helmut Marko and I said: ‘Look, I’m a different driver than I was 10 years ago, I’ve learned a lot, and if there is ever and opportunity I am ready.” He didn’t say much, he just said he got the message, and three months later he made the call. This happened very quickly. I didn’t know about it much sooner than the press did. It’s been quite a whirlwind of a couple of weeks to arrive here. Yeah, I’m pretty relaxed at the moment, all things considered. Really looking forward to getting out on track. Obviously I’ve had quite a bit of time to chat to the engineers, to go through some data, a little bit of time on the sim. But I’m looking forward to free practice one and see how comfortable I feel and working towards the race start on Sunday, which is a big moment for me, so yeah, really excited.

    When you say you are a different driver from 10 years ago, what was wrong with you as a driver 10 years ago that made it go wrong with Helmut and how have you changed?

    BH: I guess I wasn’t ready. I had some success in the early days, I won the Formula Renault championship, I became the reserve driver, had my first F1 test at 18 years old and I guess I just didn’t deal with the pressure. I stopped enjoying it, I wasn’t happy; I was pretty young and away from home. When the Formula One dream, so to speak, stopped in 2010, I picked myself up, I found endurance racing and yeah, I have learned a lot from that experience. Being in the LMP1 programme, a high-profile category, where there is a lot of pressure, probably not that dissimilar to Formula One in some ways, in that respect, in development of the race car, and working with team-mates has been great. I’m a lot stronger than I was back then, basically. I wasn’t ready at 18 years old. I like to think I’m ready now. I’m not very prepared for this weekend, I haven’t the car, I haven’t driven a single-seater since 2012, but I like to think that Porsche LMP1 has hopefully prepared me well.

    Excellent. Thank you very much for that. Carlos, splendid in yellow. You’ve made your move to Renault this weekend. Why? Why is it important to do four races at the end of this season, to get your head around the new team ahead of next year? In what ways will you benefit from this?

    Carlos SAINZ: First of all, I think that 2018 cars will be an evolution of this year’s cars. So every input I can have regarding this year’s car, every feeling I can get from every single area of the car, I’m sure it will help me for next year. On top of that, it’s always better to meet engineers, PR people, team bosses… start working along together with all of them four races earlier that gives us a bit of an advantage for 2018 rather than going straight into winter testing in 2018.

    So I think the thing we all want to know is how close can you expect to be to Hulkenberg’s pace in qualifying, your new team-mate this weekend, given the amount of time you will have with an unfamiliar car on Friday and Saturday in practice? What’s your goal?

    CS: Let’s wait and see, no? I think my main target has to be to go session by session. I’m the first one who wants to be on the pace straight away, but I cannot get too excited about that. I need to cover all the procedures, all the steps that I want to take, little by little, to get to know the car. I need to adapt myself to the car and I need to adapt the car to myself at the same time. That takes a bit of time and I’m going to go step by step and hopefully get there as soon as possible.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Équipe) Lewis, do you have any explanation of your strengths in qualifying, even when your car is not as good as you would like?

    LH: I think it’s just about know the car and knowing where you can push at those areas. Of course there are weaknesses but still you can find a way to exploit those weaknesses and just about get by. It’s been a fun car to drive because it’s not been perfect. So it’s then relied on a lot of your ability to balance it in uncomfortable scenarios or situations, which is something that I’ve always loved doing. It’s how I started in life, with not such a great go-kart when I was young, so that’s about it really.

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Lewis, the fun exchange with Takuma Sato on the podium got a lot of buzz here in the States. Talk about your interest, potentially, in the Indy 500 after getting a chance to have that exchange with him?

    LH: Honestly, it hasn’t inspired me to do the Indy 500. I’ve always respected it and appreciated it and I got to watch part of it when Fernando did it, which was super exciting. I love the idea of drivers being able to do more than one series. Just the other day I happened to get to drive a Formula One car on an oval, which was interesting. I have a huge amount of respect for those drivers; it’s quite scary when you approach those banks at the speed that they do. But I personally don’t have any particular desire to… maybe one day I’ll day I’ll have some fun and go out. Obviously I get lots of opportunities to do those things but I have no plans to go there and do anything serious.

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Brendon, what have the team have said to you about their expectations for this weekend and longer term what may come after this weekend?

    BH: Actually, there have been no expectations set. To be honest, some of the team members I’m just meeting for the first time today, and yesterday during the seat fit. I made the seat yesterday. Nothing has really been said yet. Obviously I want to do the best that I can. I’m trying not to put to many expectations on it. In some ways I’m underprepared but obviously I want to do the best job I can. Nothing has been said by the team, and also, going forward nothing has been said yet.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve talked about being on another level since the summer break. I was just wondering, what’s changed for you within the team, and maybe for you personally, over that break and into these races that’s allowed you to operate on that higher level of consistency?

    LH: I think it’s really just been that confidence of understanding the car a lot better this year, particularly in the second half of the season; knowing it’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, I would say that we are constantly evolving the process in which we work together, myself and my engineers. So we’d often hit the ground running with a balance I’m more comfortable with, which then naturally helps you easily step forward throughout the weekend in the right direction. And otherwise, just on my driving side, I don’t know, I think there are a lot of positive things happening in my life. There are a lot of interesting things forecast over these next 18 months, so I guess that’s an exciting and uplifting thing. So I’m arriving at these races, generally, with an abundance of positivity; it helps keeps your mind in the right place. Obviously, Toto and the team, Mercedes, have been incredibly supportive of all the different things that I’m into and the things I do and the way I move, which enable me to be in that position, and which are much appreciated.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Lewis, there are reports in some of the media that you might be considering taking a knee on Sunday during the US anthem. Can you clarify that? What is your position?

    LH: I don’t really have a position and I don’t have any plans.

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Brendon, looking at this track, in 2013, I go back to your event in the Grand Am endurance race. How fitting is it to have this F1 start here and how critical is it to come here to a place where you have all this track time?

    BH: Yeah, it’s definitely nice coming to my Formula One debut at a track I know very well. Like you say, it dates back to 2013 and I think I’ve driven here almost every year since. Actually, as a racing driver, learning a track, when you have enough experience, it can happen quite quickly. I think learning the car will be the bigger challenge. The big tyres, the big downforce that these Formula One cars have at the moment, obviously they are setting lap records at every track they go to. Yeah, I’m going to have a bit on my hands tomorrow and the track is only a small part of it. But yeah, looking forward to it.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Brendon, what have the team told you about the chances of you continuing for the rest of the season?

    BH: Not much, actually, so I’m trying to just focus on the weekend and see how that goes and see what comes from it.

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Équipe) Brendon, have you asked Sébastien Buemi or Mark Webber for some advice on how to drive a Formula One?

    BH: Yeah, I’ve obviously… all the friends I have in the sport I’ve been asking for a bit of advice. I saw Mark this morning for breakfast. I saw Daniel, who is one of my best buddies as well, Daniel Ricciardo, I saw him two nights ago, I asked him for all the advice I could manage to get out of him regarding tyres. Yeah, some of it is going to come down to, like I say, driving free practice one, seeing how I go and then asking some of those questions. A lot of them aren’t really relevant until I’ve actually experience the car.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just following on from the question about the protest take the knee, I’m just wondering if anything had changed, you’d spoken to anyone, or anyone had spoken to you about not doing it, because you said you have no plans to do it on Sunday?

    LH: Of course there has been a lot of mention of it – not of the kneeling, but just of the whole situation here in America, so I get to speak to a lot of… I know black and white people that live here in America, so I get quite a view of what’s happening here in the States and opinions from Americans here about the movement, which I think is pretty huge, and which you’ve seen that I’ve posted about it, because I respect it highly, and I found that the movement that [Colin] Kaepernick started is awesome and I’m very much in support of it. But I’m here to win and that’s the top of my priorities at the moment and I’m not really focused on anything else at the moment.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Lewis, Ferrari seems to have fallen into a technical crisis in the last few races. Do you expect them to react here? Sebastian could be a strong fighter at the end of the season as well?

    LH: I think he’s been a strong fighter all year and just because he’s obviously had a few issues technically, but I think still the car is as good as it’s always been. For sure they’ll have some sort of upgrade coming into this weekend. They’ve definitely had a couple of hiccups but I anticipate they’ll be very strong this weekend and for the last four races – so that’s why nothing changes for me. I’ve still got to continue to keep the pressure on and there’s no reason to back out, just got to keep pushing forwards.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, you’ve been a sheriff here the last four years. How would it feel to take this win, this Championship, a fourth World Championship here in the United States again, for the second time, in front of many children who look up to you or are inspired by you, by your story and would love to see you win here?

    LH: Honestly I think the talk of the Champion win this weekend I think is silly really. I mean, Sebastian is going to be… you can’t expect them to have a difficult weekend again. They’re going to be quick, they have an opportunity to win. The Championship, as long as it’s done in the next four races, that’s my focus. I honestly couldn’t care less if it’s here on the last race, as long as it’s done. I think winning here is the most important thing for me, particularly in the midst of all that’s going on in the country. I think that is a priority for me. You know what I’m talking about.

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Daily Telegraph) Lewis, you spoke quite tantalisingly just then about exciting things happening in your life over these 18 months. I just wondered if you could flesh that out at all, whether there was anything in particularly helping to lift your spirits for race weekends at the moment?

    LH: I can’t tell you what it is, all top secret stuff but just positive things. When you’re a racing driver often you’re put in a box and there’s talk of you not doing much but being a racing driver and there’s a lot more to me than being a racing driver and I have a lot of great things that are happening. So, it’s just, after a lot of work, a lot of trial and error, a lot of pushback over the years, to see positive things starting to happen, things starting to move in the direction I was hoping it would eventually move – which you’ll see come to fruition in the next 12 to 18 months. That’s allowing me to take the pressure off and enjoy what I’m doing here, more than ever before.

    Q: (Kevin Lyttle – Austin American Statesman) Carlos, I wanted to ask you, your thoughts on COTA as a race track, and also on Austin as a Formula One city.

    CS: I’m actually particularly excited to make the debut with the Renault car in a circuit like Austin because you have every single kind of corner that you enjoy in Formula One in this kind of track. You have a long straight and then a big braking zone, you have a lot of long high-speed corners, high-speed changes of direction, medium-speed, high-speed. Because of that, I think it’s a great circuit for me to get to know the car in all these areas. Apart from that it’s one of my favourite grands prix of the season in the end. You know you have great vibes surrounding the whole grand prix, with the concert, with the fans here are particularly special and I’m going to enjoy the weekend because of that.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) To Lewis, two things to clarify. There was a bit of a smile then, you said winning is the most important thing and you know what I mean. I’m not entirely sure I understood the end of your answer to that question. If you could just explain what you mean. And, forgive me if I’m reading too much into this but you said winning is the most important thing, and when we spoke in Malaysia you said about taking a knee, it wasn’t your anthem, there was plenty to consider. So would you therefore consider maybe staging a protest during your own anthem if you do win?

    LH: Like I said, I wasn’t even looking far away into it. I’ve not given it that much thought. And when I said ‘you know what I mean’, it wasn’t to everyone, it was to the gentleman at the front here. Yeah. As I said, I’m here to win. That’s my focus. I don’t really plan on allowing all the BS that’s surrounding the topic pull me down in my strive to winning this world title. I’ve worked hard to be where I am today and whilst I do have opinions and feelings towards the whole situation, as I’ve said, at the moment, no plans on doing anything.

    Q: (Mariana Jiménez – Récord) Lewis, you’ve said that you don’t have the title in your head right now but wouldn’t it be nice to wait until Mexico and get your first title there in front of the crowd?

    LH: I’m looking forward to going to Mexico, as I always do every year, I have a lot of support out there, I have a lot of love for Mexicans and… yeah… it’s just an awesome event to anyway, so to go there again, particularly after the last couple of years. I think every year it seems to grow in its attendance. I guess the organisers learn so much about how the event goes and improve it for the following year. Winning the World Championship is obviously the goal and of course I think about it every day. I think my drive naturally is to winning that World Championship so every bit of my energy goes towards that mission. Honestly, wherever it happens, I don’t mind if it happens in Mexico, I don’t mind if it happens here, I don’t mind if it happens in Abu Dhabi, as long as it happens. But definitely Mexicans know how to celebrate so, if it does happen there, hopefully I’ll get one of the sombreros and be in a party.

    Q: (Simon Lazenby – Sky Sports) Lewis, if you’re to win this championship, would you say Ferrari have blown it. They’ve handed it to you on a plate.

    LH: If I was to win this Championship I think I would say that I’ve earned it.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Another question for Lewis. You’re going to be the only British driver on the grid this weekend, which is the first time in your career. I was just wondering what you thought about that, the state of play in motor racing in Britain and whether you’re quite surprised you’re the only guy racing from Britain this weekend?

    LH: I don’t know how it is for the other drivers here but when you arrive you don’t think I’m here surrounded by members of… from where I’m from. So it makes no difference to me. I still work to raise the flag, and you do it as an individual, not as a team with other racing drivers, so yeah, that’s how it is.

    Q: (Jim Vertuno – AP) Brendon, there’s been a lot of expectation, speculation, that you were heading to Indy Car next year. Does this weekend change your plans there? What’s your future look like.

    BH: Nothing’s been confirmed for me for next year, so yeah, like I said before, I haven’t asked too many questions and have just been focussed on trying to do the best I can this weekend because I’ve got a fair amount on my plate to figure out and do a good job. So, I’m trying not to think further forward. But yeah, I was looking at Indy Car and I still am. Nothing confirmed for next season yet.

    PART TWO – DRIVERS: Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Nico HÜLKENBERG (Renault)

    Q: Let’s start with Fernando Alonso. Two-time Formula One World Champion who’s just announced a new deal with McLaren that I think will take you to 17 seasons in Formula One. Tell us your feelings, and also what remains for you to achieve here?

    Fernando ALONSO: Well, the feelings are great, obviously. It’s a good day for me, announcing next year, I will be back here with McLaren and obviously happy and proud to continue this relationship. It has been three difficult seasons for us, we are not as competitive as we wanted and now I think it’s time to change this situation and hopefully next year to be back in the positions that McLaren belongs and hopefully give something to our fans that have kept supporting us for the last three years. That will be the main thing for next year. As I’ve said, happy to arrive to this agreement at the end.

    Q: On that topic, obviously you’re switching to the Renault engine for next year which has this season so far won two grands prix and had ten other podiums. Is that the kind of thing you have in mind from McLaren-Renault next season?

    FA: We’ll see. I think every years the projects are a little bit different. You never know what you can achieve with the new cars. Sometimes you go to the first winter test and have a nice surprise and are quicker than you expect; sometimes you have bad surprises and you are a little bit slower and something is not according to plan. Let’s see what we can do next year – but definitely very happy again to have a Renault engine on my car. I have a very strong relationship with Renault from many, many years now. I’ve been working with them since then, even on my karting school etcetera, so extremely proud to also drive for a Renault engine.

    Q: And a final comment on the colour of your cap, all part of the Susan Komen initiative this weekend.

    FA: Yes. Obviously I think the whole of Formula One is given big support to all the women that are fighting constantly with breast cancer. I think we want to pass the message that they are not alone, they have a lot of support. With all the necessary things and controls they can make in advance, I think there are many, many hopes and they are not alone.

    Q: Romain Grosjean, on home soil – kind of – with Haas, off the back of a double-points finish in Japan that moved you up in the Constructors’ Championship as well, what’s the mood like in the team at the moment, going into this weekend.

    Romain GROSJEAN: The mood is pretty good. It has been since the first day, to be fair, even through the highs and lows. It was really good to have a double-points finish in Japan. Japan and Monaco, which are two very difficult tracks. So, it shows the team is doing great progress. We’re coming here of course very motivated as always. Pretty special grand prix because it’s the home race for the team. We just need to keep our feet on the ground and start from zero every weekend and build up from there but you know it’s only the second year of the team and we are fighting with Renault, Toro Rosso, Williams in the Constructors’ Championship – and they are teams that have been here for a very long time, so you can be very proud of that. We know where are our strengths, we know our weakness and we are working on that for the future – but I think there is a lot of potential in the team to move up the ranks.

    Q: On that subject, Fernando’s planning on moving up the grid next year, Nico’s definitely planning on moving up the grid next year. How are Haas and yourself going to move up the grid in the face of that competition?

    RG: Well who isn’t? That’s the real question! For sure McLaren is going to be a competitive team next year. We have less experience than others. I think that year was a really good test for us and knowing that we were coming with a change of regulation, to see what we could do. We’ve done pretty well. I’m thinking that, I’m hoping that next year we go up another level, which everyone obviously does – but I think, as I say, we’ve got more potential to unlock and we’re going to try to do that. We know where we’ve been good, we know where we haven’t been good and obviously now the key is to work on where we’ve been weak.

    Q: Nico, a new teammate in Carlos this weekend and going forward.  Do you expect him to give you a hard time this weekend in Austin, or indeed in the last four races or is that more likely to come next season?

    Nico HULKENBERG: No, definitely a harder time probably than so far this year. Obviously he’s got a few challenges on his plate, changing team at the back end of the season is not the easiest situation. There are a lot of new things that he has to get used to: car, team, people but I’m sure he will be on a decent level straight away. I look forward to working  alongside him. Obviously four important and intense races now ahead of us so yeah, we need to focus and do a good job.

    Q: Do you know him much already?

    NH: I’ve known him obviously from this year and last year, the time that he’s been in Formula One but probably get to know him a lot more in the next couple of weeks.

    Q: Obviously the Renault’s been quite an interesting story, the way it’s developed this year; pretty much since Silverstone it seems to me you’ve generally been the fourth fastest car in qualifying at most venues; where has that come from?

    NH: Well, it’s come from hard work, good development, everybody back at the factory has done a good job during these last couple of months and that’s it pretty much. We’ve brought updates for the car and transformed the car into a much better performing car on all sorts of different tracks so we’re in a good position. As we say, we still obviously have quite a bit to do this year. We want to not finish where we are now, in terms of team championship position, so it’s important for us to do a good job in the last four races.

    Q: So based on the growth that you’ve seen this last few months, obviously you think you’re going to be able to race Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull in 2018? Is that too much to expect?

    NH: I think that’s asking a bit much if you see the gap and the advantages they have at the moment. It’s a pretty difficult task to close that gap. I think if we can halve that gap, we’ve already done a very good job. It’s not that they’re not doing a fantastic job so TBC but obviously we will make up as much as we can.

    Q: Kevin, four points finishes in 2017 with a best of seventh, how would you sum up the season so far in terms of your own satisfaction?

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: I think it’s been an up-and-down season with a lot of potential and perhaps also some missed potential at times this year but we’ve still had some good races and the potential seems to be good in the car. When we’re quick, we’re very quick and competitive but our lows have perhaps been a bit too low. That’s something to work on for next year, consistency, and getting the car more regularly at its best. I think we can move towards that; whether we can be constantly fourth best team, I don’t think so. It’s not realistic at least but we will do what we can and see.

    Q: Now you and Romain are now noticeably more close together more often, starting to become a bit of a Force India scenario. How much are you enjoying that?

    KM: Well, we haven’t crashed into each other this year so it’s not like that but we’re enjoying it and it’s good that we’re both getting the most out of the car and just shows that we’re fighting hard and doing our best.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Fernando, I believe it’s a one year contract extension you’ve signed; is that correct and if so what’s the thinking? Are you looking beyond next year, do you want options open?

    FA: We don’t talk too much about the contracts, the inside but no, it’s not one year.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Fernando, just following that up, I’m told it’s a multi-year contract but presumably that’s got options in it. Do you then foresee potentially at McLaren if things go well next year and then maybe into the future Le Mans, Indy 500? Are these things that you’re talking about with McLaren as well?

    FA: We’ll see, I think it’s just talking too much ahead. We have enough to do for next year, to put McLaren again at the top of the grid and that’s the first priority right now. I think on my personal side there are no other priorities than Formula One at the moment but with a door open for different series and different goals that I always believed that you need to win in other series if you want to be a more complete driver, a better driver, because motorsport is not only Formula One. Even if it’s still the priority, we will see what the future brings.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Romain, you and your wife recently worked on a cookbook together, Cuisine and Confidences. Can you tell us a little bit about the book and what went into it, the journey that you take because it covers two things you love aside from Formula One, cooking and your family?

    RG: Yeah, it’s been great fun. It was just through meeting people and we met a guy called Patrick Rougereau and he’s been voted best culinary photographer in the world last year and he actually made my plate look pretty nice which it wasn’t always, so it was a good job. And it was basically… it was basically just a way to share my passion for cooking and every recipe has a story behind it for which my wife writes the text, so it’s all cooking that we do back home, either with the kids, with friends and so on. It was just a great thing to do and I thought it could be fun to see that a Formula One driver can actually do something a bit different than an autobiography and having a cookbook that can give a bit of an inside of our lives through recipes.

    Q: Do any of the other drivers have a passion for cooking? Nico, do you enjoy cooking?

    NH: No.

    FA: No

    KM: Just eating.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Fernando, as somebody who now has experience in Indycar and also Formula One, how do you think F1 can win over American fans? Is the passion for racing different around here?

    FA: I think here it’s a little bit more relaxed; you know the atmosphere in the race, in the weekend… The races here are much more unpredictable, what the result can be on Sundays so that is quite attractive from a fan point of view. In Formula One, we know the starting grid on Sunday, we can write a paper now and sign and we will maybe miss one or two positions, maximum, and that’s the worst thing that we have and hopefully we can change that.

    Q: (Geoff Gluck – Geoff Gluck.com) Fernando, you’ve seen a lot of teams come in over the years but Haas F1 team has had pretty good success in their first couple of seasons. Have you been surprised at how well they’ve been able to do as a start-up team?

    FA: Yeah, definitely, it definitely has been a very good thing for the sport. I think what Haas has managed to do in the last two years is quite impressive. I think the first year we could argue that with the help of Ferrari or the agreements that they had, we will see a competitive team already from race one but I think with the changes of regulations this year etc I think they did an amazing job again, so two consecutive years in a very demanding sport like F1, competing at a good level is a great achievement  so hopefully we will see more teams coming with this commitment and with this kind of result and also with Haas with better results in the future will be great as well.

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Fernando, five months ago, you running in the Indy 500 got a lot of people’s attention obviously. When you reflect back at that time, what are the biggest moments you take with you and are you looking to potentially doing something like that again in the future?

    FA: Well the moment was… it’s difficult to pick up one moment of that month. If I had to chose one, it would be Sunday: the drivers’ presentation, the drivers’ parade ten minutes before the race. That was an amazing moment: 250-300,000 people in one venue was very impressive, the atmosphere there. But I think the whole months was very unique and opened the eyes a little bit of what I said before: Formula One is just one more series in motorsport, probably the most mediatic one, it’s a fantastic show and we all are very proud to be Formula One drivers and we dream from a very early age to become Formula One drivers but there are other motorsport series that are as good as that and you know I’m a fan of this one, so that was a good discovery for me. Obviously now, with the new McLaren deal for next year I can confirm that I will not be at the Indy 500 next year because there is Monaco Grand Prix on the same weekend and priority next year will be to perform well in Formula One but at the same time I can confirm that I will be in the Indy 500 in the future. I don’t if it will be ’19 or 2020 or whenever but it’s a race that I definitely will experience again.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) For all drivers: Austin will stay on the Formula One calendar probably but if there will be a second Grand Prix in the US, what circuit or what city would you like?

    NH: I’ll say Miami, because I think it’s a fun, cool town and to host the Grand Prix there woul be quite cool and spectacular I think.

    RG: Well, I think there would be many many places to get a great Grand Prix. Laguna Seca is a pretty cool track, I love Long Beach, Miami would be nice. Why not Las Vegas, so I think it’s such a big country that there are opportunities in a lot of cities.

    FA: Yes, the same. There are many places that could host a race. Even Indianapolis on the old circuit.

    KM: Yeah, Laguna Seca would be awesome, Watkins Glen, a city race in Miami or New York would be cool as well, so more races would be good.

    Q: (Jim Virtuno – Associated Press) Romain, you’ve driven for Haas now for two years; what’s your sense of Gene’s patience or impatience of the development of the team and do you sense that he’s in this for the long haul?

    RG: I think he’s the best team owner I’ve ever had. He’s passionate about racing and really loves it to a high extent and that makes the whole team just very enjoyable to work with. I think Gene was initially surprised how competitive and how complicated Formula One is but he’s now got it and he knows that what we’re doing is pretty good. Of course we always want more and if Gene is in Formula One it’s not too… I believe in the long term fight for eighth or sixth in the Constructors’ Championship but try to go for podiums or one win. We know the gap is big right now but that’s where the patience is. But again, as I say, he’s super passionate about the team, the racing, the whole Formula One and that love that he’s got for the race just goes through the whole team and makes it, as I say, a very very good team to work with and I believe a very successful team in the future.

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Nico, you’ve obviously got used to having Jo in the car next to you throughout the season and knowing your own strengths and weaknesses against his. Does it refocus you at all when you get a new teammate, that sort of fear of the unknown change your approach at all?

    NH: You probably would have thought a little bit but then I think then on the other side I’ve done pretty well this season so far so I think I just need to keep doing what I’ve so far this year, that worked pretty well for me and I’m in a good spot, I’m confident, I like where I am so I won’t get distracted too much. I just need to focus, to get the best out of myself and my car and my crew and I think then I will be fine.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

     

  • Tales from the Mercedes AMG Petronas camp

    Battle continues with Round 17 of the 2017 season from the Circuit of the Americas
    Toto Talks USA
    Featured this Week: The Team behind the Glamour
    Stat Attack: USA and Beyond

    Toto Talks USA

    Still four races to go and 100 points to score: we can take nothing for granted as we fly to Austin this week. We approach every race with a healthy dose of scepticism rather than wishful thinking, and our focus must be on making sure we score every point within our reach this weekend in Austin.

    Since we began the final flyaway leg of the season, we have seen a strong points swing in our favour in both championships. Good fortune has played its part, of course – and we have put ourselves in the right position to make the most of the opportunities that have come our way. But nobody within the team is allowing those good results to disguise the challenges we have faced.

    We returned from those races with a lot more understanding of our car and of the reasons for the performance swings we have experienced this season. Some of that understanding is already being applied to the final races, some of it will flow into next year’s project. But the bitter taste of our defeat in Malaysia once again confirmed that the tough days are the ones when you learn most – and when you lay the foundations for future success.

    Likewise, we have maintained clear sight of the reasons for our success this year. The team is operating at an incredibly high level in every area and continuing to develop; we have applied an obsessive attention to detail to how we go racing over the past three seasons; and we have continued to develop our car at a competitive rate through the season. Our mindset has always been one of constant improvement, regardless of the results we were enjoying, and this is now paying off.

    We must also add our drivers to our list of strengths. Lewis has driven brilliantly this year – and since the summer break in particular, he has been on another level. It has been impressive to watch him extracting everything from the car and working with the team to solve problems and improve even further. Valtteri has had a tougher time in recent races – but he demonstrated his work ethic and character to deliver a strong weekend in Suzuka, and he will be aiming to build on this performance in the final four rounds.

    As a venue, Austin offers our sport a fantastic home in the United States, combining a state-of-the-art race track with an exciting destination city. The organisers have worked hard to build the event character of the weekend and there are some exciting moments planned for this weekend, too. We will be aiming to play our part by delivering an exciting and successful performance on the track.

    Featured this Week: The Team behind the Glamour

    Since arriving on the Formula One calendar as home to the United States Grand Prix in 2012, the Circuit of The Americas has established itself as a firm favourite amongst teams, drivers and fans alike. On the surface, the lively party city of Austin might not quite rival the more obvious glamour of races like Monaco and Singapore – but no race on the calendar is a tougher test in terms of marketing operations for the teams.

    This week’s race is a sell-out for our hospitality operations. And to give just a snapshot of the scale, the team will host more than 1,000 guests over the course of the three-day race weekend. 210 VIPs will enjoy the luxury of the Silver Arrows Lounge – the team’s Paddock Club Suite, which looks out over the Silver Arrows garage – from Friday to Sunday, while another 40 guests will be entertained in the team’s paddock hospitality unit on each of those days.

    International media are also welcomed, pushing the number of people passing through the team’s doors up to 150 per day – and all this without the benefit of the spacious motorhome seen at the European races!

    Over the course of a busy U.S. Grand Prix week, the team can expect to serve around 1,700 meals. That’s 500 per day from Friday to Saturday as the crew cater for the media, Paddock Club guests and other team VIPs.

    It really is a schedule to rival the engineering programme. And to manage it, the team requires 14 marketing personnel on site, ranging from partner services executives to hospitality managers. Assisting them are 13 of the very best, hand-picked hospitality staff, speaking six languages between them to ensure each and every guest from around the world enjoys the full Silver Arrows experience.

    A typical day for a Paddock Club attendee starts with an introduction in the Silver Arrows Lounge. Guests are then entertained with commentary and insight from the team’s expert moderators, followed by the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at life inside the team – an in-depth tour of the garage.

    A lucky few will then get to experience a session live from inside the garage from the team’s viewing gallery. With space for 10 guests, this exclusive area is tucked neatly at the back of the garage, offering an unrivalled insight into the hub of the team’s on-track operations. And that’s not all… these guests also get the chance to meet the drivers before settling down for drinks and dinner – the true VIP experience!

    Initial planning for the United States Prix actually started before the W08 rolled out for the first time on a windy day at Silverstone in February, with reservations rolling in since March. Two weeks before the race itself, the hospitality team will package and distribute all 210 guest tickets in individually designed boxes, customised per partner, in addition to preparing minute-by-minute schedules for each of those partner groups.

    Work on the Silver Arrows Lounge itself begins the Sunday before the race, with the stunning suite – of the team’s own unique design, matching the motorhome – built from the floor up. Covering 360 square metres in Austin, the impressive suite takes a crew of seven people almost five days to build from start to finish, working for approximately 10 to 12 hours per day. And perhaps even more incredibly, it takes a whopping 74 freight cases to transport all the necessary kit from race to race.

    While all eyes are on the track, there’s plenty more going on behind-the-scenes as the team coordinates a guest programme to rival the very biggest and best in world sport. And the guest programme holds extra significance on this particular weekend too, with some exciting news to follow from across our partner portfolio… watch this space!

    Stat Attack: USA and Beyond

    2017 United States Grand Prix Timetable

    Session Local Time (CDT) Brackley (BST) Stuttgart (CEST)
    Practice 1 (Friday) 10:00 – 11:30 16:00 – 17:30 17:00 – 18:30
    Practice 2 (Friday) 14:00 – 15:30 20:00 – 21:30 21:00 – 22:30
    Practice 3 (Saturday) 11:00 – 12:00 17:00 – 18:00 18:00 – 19:00
    Qualifying (Saturday) 16:00 – 17:00 22:00 – 23:00 23:00 – 00:00
    Race (Sunday) 14:00 – 16:00 20:00 – 22:00 21:00 – 23:00

    Circuit Records – Silver Arrows at the Circuit of the Americas

    Starts Wins Podium Places Poles Front Row Fastest Laps DNF
    Silver Arrows 5 3 6 3 6 1 0
    L. Hamilton 5 4 4 1 4 0 0
    V. Bottas 4 0 0 0 0 0 1
    MB Power 5 4 7 3 7 1 8

    Technical Stats – Season to Date (Barcelona Pre-Season Test 1 to Present)

    Laps Completed Distance Covered (km) Corners Taken Gear Changes PETRONAS Fuel Injections
    Silver Arrows 6,386 32,076 102,597 307,397 255,440,000
    L. Hamilton 2,896 14,678 46,903 140,190 115,840,000
    V. Bottas 3,281 16,482 52,768 158,011 131,240,000
    MB Power 18,049 90,953 289,554 869,352 721,960,000

    All-Time Records – Silver Arrows in Formula One

    Starts Wins Podium Places Poles Front Row Fastest Laps 1-2 Wins Front Row Lockouts
    Silver Arrows 164 74 149 85 152 55 39 49
    Lewis Hamilton 204 61 115 71 116 38 N/A N/A
    Valtteri Bottas 93 2 19 2 6 2 N/A N/A
    MB Power 434 160 416 168 332 150 64 85

  • Sahara Force India looks to consolidate fourth place: Austin GP

    Sahara Force India gets ready for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin.

    Vijay Mallya: “The last few races have seen us take some significant steps forward with the performance of the VJM10. In Malaysia and Japan, we were the fourth fastest team and I’m confident we can remain there for the upcoming races. In Japan, for example, we finished over 20 seconds clear of the eighth-placed car, which is a big statement on such a technical track. It’s thanks to all the hard work in the wind tunnel, the factory, and trackside that we are sitting in a very strong fourth place in the championship with 81 points advantage to fifth place. The next race in Austin will be another opportunity to score well and consolidate our position.”

    Sergio Perez: “The race in Austin is one of my favourite weekends of the year. There are so many Mexican fans in the grandstands and the support I feel is just amazing. My family and friends always come to spend time with me at the circuit, which is an added bonus.

    “It’s an interesting circuit with some very exciting corners. I think the esses in sector one will feel amazing with this year’s cars. I also enjoy turn one: it’s very hard to get your braking just right and you can easily miss the blind apex. You can’t really see where you are going until you are at the top of the hill and it’s easy to turn in late and run wide.

    “I’m feeling happy with how things have gone during the last few races. I’m proud of the job we have done and the results we have achieved. It’s great that we are still bringing new parts to the car and making progress. The car is working well and Austin should be another chance to score good points.”

    Esteban Ocon: “I was really pleased with our performance in Suzuka. It was definitely one of my best races this year and it’s always enjoyable when you come away on the Sunday night feeling that you achieved the maximum that was possible. The car was quick from the very start of practice and the same was true in Malaysia. It feels as though we’ve taken a big step forward recently and I believe we will be strong in all of the remaining races.

    “I think everybody enjoys visiting Austin. It’s a fun city and I enjoyed myself there last year. Even though we have to focus on the racing, you stay in the city and you get to soak up the atmosphere. There’s a lot of live music going on during the race week and some great restaurants in the city.

    “Austin is a satisfying track to drive because there are so many different types of corner. The high-speed section is similar to Silverstone; there are long straights like Monza, and there is the tight and twisty section at the end of the lap. The unusual turn one is also a special feature of the lap. Because it’s uphill, you can brake really late and there are a few different lines you can take through the corner. It’s not easy to overtake, but turn one can give you a decent opportunity.”

    Sahara Force India’s Chief Race Engineer, Tom McCullough, looks ahead to the race at the Circuit of the Americas.

    “The Circuit of the Americas is one of the few anti-clockwise circuits and is a real test for the car: with its mix of low, medium and high-speed corners, finding the perfect set-up is a challenge. There is a significant gradient in several parts of the circuit and especially in the steep uphill run-up to the braking zone in turn one. The first sector winds through multiple changes of direction at high speed, in a way that is reminiscent of Suzuka’s first sector: it’s a part of the track the drivers love and it will be particularly interesting to see this year’s cars on it. With each passing year, the track has become more of a challenge when it comes to ride, so it will be interesting to see how bumpy the track surface is going to be this year.”

    Make a difference with Sahara Force India this Breast Cancer Awareness Month
    This October, Sahara Force India is shining a light on the vital need to raise more money to support the 612,000 people currently living with breast cancer in the UK, by printing the names of two inspiring women, Emma Thompson and Elaine Fuller, on our VJM10 cars.  Both women have had a breast cancer diagnosis and we want to share their stories as a mark of strength, hope and unity for all those affected by breast cancer this Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

    Together with Memento Exclusives, Sahara Force India will also be running an online auction from 16th – 25th October to help raise vital funds for Breast Cancer Care, featuring unique experiences and items designed to inspire any Formula One fan.

    Take a look at the fantastic auction lots here or show your support this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by donating here.

    eom/Sahara Force India press release

  • Brendon Hartley to race with Scuderia Toro Rosso in Austin

    New Zealander Brendon Hartley will race for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the next round of the Formula 1 World Championship, the USA Grand Prix in Austin, as Pierre Gasly will be racing in Japan for the last race of the Super Formula Championship in Suzuka.

    Brendon last tested with the team back in 2009. Eight years later, he will be taking part in his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, at the Circuit of the Americas, alongside Daniil Kvyat.

    Since his last outing with Scuderia Toro Rosso, Brendon has gained experience in many different categories, including the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, GP2 Series and sports car Series. In the last three years he successfully raced the LMP1 Porsche in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

    In 2015 he was crowned WEC Champion alongside his teammates Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard. In June this year he won the prestigious 24h of Le Mans race and he’s currently leading the 2017 WEC Championship, with three rounds to go – the next one being the 6 Hours of Fuji, in Japan. After that, he’ll travel to Texas for his first F1 race weekend… A well-deserved reward that has been eight years in the making: never say never!

     Brendon Hartley
    “What an amazing feeling! This opportunity came as somewhat of a surprise, but I never did give up on my ambition and childhood dream to reach F1. I have grown and learnt so much since the days when I was the Red Bull and Toro Rosso reserve driver, and the tough years I went through made me stronger and even more determined. I want to say a huge thanks to Red Bull for making this a reality, and to Porsche for allowing me to do this alongside the World Endurance Championship. COTA is a track I really enjoy and one I have raced at recently. I’m trying not to put too many expectations on my F1 debut, but I feel ready for it.”

    Franz Tost
    “Scuderia Toro Rosso is very pleased to announce that Brendon Hartley, who has been part of the Red Bull family for a long time in different classes, as well as the test and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will now be back racing for us in Austin. Brendon is coming as the reigning 24h Le Mans winner and he’s also leading the current FIA LMP1 World Endurance Championship, which he won in 2015 as well. We are really happy to have him back in our team. With all the racing experience accumulated over the years, we are convinced that he will do a fantastic job for us.”

    eom/Toro Rosso release

  • Vettel crashes out; Hamilton wins, a big boost to the F1 title chase;

    Suzuka: Lewis Hamilton edged closer to a fourth Formula One world championship title as he kept Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at bay to take a third career Japanese Grand Prix win. It was a disastrous day for Sebastian Vettel, however, as a spark plug problem forced Hamilton’s only real title contender to retire from the race on lap five. Hamilton now has a 59-point lead over Vettel with four races remaining.

    At the start Hamilton got away well to hold his lead. Initially Vettel too looked to be in good shape but early in the lap he was pounced upon by a hard charging Verstappen. The Dutchman has made an excellent start from P4 to pass team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and then at the hairpin he powered past Vettel.

    It was the beginning of a swift slide for the Ferrari man. At the beginning of lap two the German was passed by Force India’s Esteban Ocon, who had passed Ricciardo on the previous lap, as well as the Red Bull man.

    There followed a brief safety car period as Carlos Sainz’s Toro Rosso remained beached in the gravel trap at Turn 7 after a lap one off and when the action resumed again Vettel was again under attack sliding to eighth place behind the second Force India of Sergio Perez and the Williams of Felipe Massa.

    The was clearly something wrong with Vettel’s Ferrari and within moments the German’s race engineer was on the radio saying “box, Sebastian, box, we retire the car”.

    At the front Hamilton was beginning to build a lead over Verstappen and by the time the Virtual Safety Car was deployed when Marcus Ericsson crashed out at Degner 2 on lap 8 the Mercedes driver was more than four seconds clear of the Red Bull man.

    Ocon’s grip on third place only lasted until lap 10, when the VSC was removed. Ricciardo closed on the pit straight under DRS and powered past the Force India on the left-hand side on the approach to Turn 1. Valtteri Bottas, too, managed to get past the Frenchman and by lap 13 Hamilton lead from the Red Bulls, Bottas, the Force Indias of Ocon and Perez and seventh-placed Massa. Kimi Räikkönen was in P8 in the remaining Ferrari, ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.

    Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to pit, with the Red Bull driver taking on soft tyres at the lap of lap 21. Mercedes reacted and brought Hamilton in at the end of the next tour. When they both crossed the line the next time around, the gap between them had shrunk to just 1.8s and Verstappen was setting purple lap times.

    Ricciardo then made his stop at the end of lap 25, though his stop for soft tyres looked a little slow. He rejoined behind Raikkonen who, like new leader Bottas, was still circulating on his starting soft tyres.

    Bottas, however, was now running slowly, in the 1m37s bracket, and as a consequence he began to back Hamilton towards Verstappen and on lap 28 the deficit was just 1.1s. Hamilton was quickly on the radio to voice his concern and a few corners later Bottas allowed the Briton to sweep past.

    The Finn then dropped back to frustrate Verstappen for the next few laps until Mercedes called him to the pits at the end of lap 30. Bottas emerged from his pit stop with fresh supersofts, in fourth place and 10s behind Ricciardo. At the front Hamilton was now three seconds clear of Verstappen but already the Mercedes driver was saying he was struggling with rear tyre grip.

    Verstappen closed to within 2.5s and there the race for the lead stalled with Hamilton apparently able to control the gap comfortably.

    Behind the top two Ricciardo’s pace began to flag and slightly and Bottas, on supersoft tyres compared with Ricciardo’s softs, began to close on the Australian.

    On lap 48 the Finn had shortened a 10 second gap to just 2.8s, but then Lance Stroll  suffered what looked like a front-right suspension failure. The Virtual Safety Car was again deployed and the speed limit in force bought Ricciardo valuable time.

    However when the action resumed Bottas applied the pressure with a race fastest lap to almost get within DRS range of the Red Bull driver.

    Further ahead Hamilton was hitting traffic and that allowed Bottas to close in on the lead. However, the Dutchman was denied any opportunity to attack the Briton as McLaren’s Fernando Alonso came between the leaders on the penultimate lap. The Spaniard was put under investigation for ignoring blue flags, but Verstappen’s chance was gone and he had to settle for a second consecutive P2 in Japan.

    Behind them Ricciardo managed to hold third ahead of Bottas, while fifth place when to Räikkönen in the sole remaining Ferrari. Esteban Ocon was sixth for Force India ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez, while Haas enjoyed a double points finish, with Kevin Magnussen eighth ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean. The final point on offer went to Williams’ Felipe Massa.

    2017 Japanese Grand Prix – Race
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 53 1hr27:31.193
    2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 53 1.211
    3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 53 9.679
    4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 53 10.580
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 53 32.622
    6 Esteban Ocon Force India 53 1:07.788
    7 Sergio Perez Force India 53 1:11.424
    8 Kevin Magnussen Haas 53 1:28.953
    9 Romain Grosjean Haas 53 1:29.883
    10 Felipe Massa Williams 52 1 lap
    11 Fernando Alonso McLaren 52 1 lap
    12 Jolyon Palmer Renault 52 1 lap
    13 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 52 1 lap
    14 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 52 1 lap
    15 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 51 2 laps
    Ret Lance Stroll Williams 45
    Ret Nico Hulkenberg Renault 40
    Ret Marcus Ericsson Sauber 7
    Ret Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 4
    Ret Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 0.

    eom/FIA press release

  • Hamilton takes 71st career pole: Japanese GP

    Lewis Hamilton took his 71st career pole position and his first at Japan’s Suzuka Circuit as he beat Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by three tenths of a second with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third. However, title contender Vettel will start alongside championship leader Hamilton on the front row as Bottas is set for a grid penalty due to an unscheduled gearbox change.

    Hamilton set the pace in Q1, rising to the top of the timesheet around 10 minutes into the session with a lap of 1:29.047 on soft tyres. He was followed by Kimi Räikkönen, the Finn recovering from an FP3 crash to post a time of 1:29.163. Raikkonen’s earlier crash had, however, necessitated a change of gearbox so he will face a five-place drop down the grid for tomorrow’s race. Max Verstappen took third place in Q1 ahead of Bottas, Vettel and sixth-placed Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull.

    The opening session was brought to an early end after just under 17 minutes when Haas’ Romain Grosjean crashed heavily at the end of the Esses section of the track. The red flags were immediately shown.

    With just 1m18s left on the clock there was not enough time available for any drivers to complete a warm-up lap and cross the start/finish line before the chequered flag fell, so the decision was taken to not restart the session. Thus, eliminated at the end of Q1 were 16th-placed Grosjean, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Lance Stroll and the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein.

    Stroll was somewhat unfortunate as he claimed to have been blocked by Force India’s Sergio Perez earlier in the session, a complaint that resulted in stewards investigating the incident. However, after viewing footage from multiple angles, the stewards ruled that no further action was necessary.

    Hamilton seized an early advantage in Q2, claiming P1 with a time of 1:27.819. He was followed by Vettel, though the German was over six tenths adrift of his title rival. Bottas took third place on his opening run with a lap of 1:28.543 set on soft tyres, with Verstappen fourth ahead of Ricciardo. Sixth place went to Raikkonen, who  opted to complete his first run on soft tyres and he will start on that set.

    The Red Bull drivers elected to stay in their garage for the final runs and though Hamilton took to the track, he eventually abandoned his run despite being quickest through the first two sectors. Vettel improved to a time of 1:28.225, while Bottas took third on soft tyres, which means that like Räikkönen, he will start on the soft compound.

    In the drop zone ahead of the final runs was 11th-placed Fernando Alonso who had been edged out of the top 10 by just five hundredths of a second by McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne. Also in danger ahead of the final runs were P12 man Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, followed by team-mate Jolyon Palmer, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

    Alonso was the only driver to escape the danger zone, with the Spaniard displacing Vandoorne to take 10th place, but it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as Alonso is set to take a 35-place grid penalty for changed engine elements. Vandoorne will therefore get a choice of starting tyre but will move up into the top 10.

    At the end of the first runs of Q3, Hamilton sat in provisional pole position with a time of 1:27.345. That put him a comfortable 0.452s ahead of second-placed Vettel, with Bottas third ahead of the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Verstappen.

    And the Briton proved to be untouchable in the final runs. He made a marginal improvement to 1:27.319 but it wasn’t necessary. Vettel could only find six thousandths of a second over his opening time and that allowed Bottas to claim P2 with a lap of 1:27.651.

    Bottas, though, will drop five places and Vettel will therefore start on the front row ahead of Ricciardo and Verstappen who qualified fourth and fifth respectively.

    Raikkonen was sixth in qualifying ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez. Felipe Massa was ninth for Williams while Fernando Alonso was tenth.

    eom/FIA press conference

  • Marcin Budkowski issue rocks FIA press conference

    PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), James ALLISON (Mercedes), Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Cyril, there’s been a lot of speculation regarding the future of Marcin Budkowski. Now, you have announced today that he is joining Renault. Could you elaborate a little bit on what he is going to be going for the team and how you came to get hold of him in the first place?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, indeed, as you say the speculation and the rumour is part of the explanation of why we decided to make it official. We didn’t feel it was good actually to have any sort of ambiguity for any of the parties involved. It’s clear, and we appreciate, that it’s a sensitive topic for lots of parties, but it was important I think to present our side of the story. Marcin is coming in a non-technical capacity. He’s coming in a senior position into the team. I think it is a great career development for him. It’s something that he is doing because it makes sense in his career. As far as we are concerned, since we came back we are still building our team, building our structure. We tried something with Frédéric Vasseur last year, which, I mean it’s no secret, unfortunately did not work out, but Fred has now found a fantastic position with Sauber but there was still a gap and a position to be filled. Simply there is a lot to be done. Renault Sport Racing is involved in many different categories, Formula One but also Formula E, we are based on two sites, one in the UK and one in France, responsible for chassis and engine, supplying engines to lots of great teams with big expectations. So simply lots to do and I just needed some help and someone I can trust and that can work alongside me particularly on the development of the Enstone team.

    Can you just remind us, when will he be starting with the team?

    CA: Again, there has been lots of talk about that, not from us. We always made it clear that we would not want to be aggressive in relation to that. From a contractual perspective he could be available from early next year, but we have had a constructive discussion with the FIA and I believe that we are close to reaching an agreement on a start date that would I say make everyone comfortable. I think that is a date of early April, which is basically twice his gardening leave provision has been discussed, has been invoked. Nothing has been confirmed yet but that is something we are completely prepared to entertain as far as we are concerned.

    If we look back to the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend. It was a great victory for your engine. What does that win say about your power unit, and can you tell us a little about the development plans for next year? Is there going to be a qualifying mode, for example?

    CA: Yes, I think it says that we are catching up progressively. We are not quite there at the level of the two gentlemen on my left and right, in particular. I think the Renault powerplant is actually becoming very decent in race operation, but indeed we are definitely missing something in qualifying. Obviously it’s always a balance running safe and being aggressive and obviously the more potential performance we have then the more capacity we will have to be aggressive on Saturdays. This is typically what’s on plan for next year, even though we believe also that the regulation will help us in bridging any sort of deficit in relation to that on Saturday. So it’s positive and I think it’s something that McLaren could also see and part of the decision of working with us for the next three years.

    James, the last couple of races haven’t been the easiest for the team. I was just wondering if you could shed some light on those performances and how confident are you of running a little bit better this weekend at Suzuka?

    James ALLISON: Well, they’re two weekends that showed that it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good. Nevertheless, if you look at the season as a whole, it has been divided into three types of experience. There have been a few races where we have come out and crushed everything in front of us. There have been a few where we’ve had the other end of that deal, where we have definitely come off second best. And then a whole lot in the middle where it has been pretty much a 50/50 slugging match. The last two were in the category where we got beaten for pace. We’re hopeful from what we’ve seen so far this weekend that this one will not fall into that category, and that we will be putting up a decent fight of it, and I suspect that it will fall into the slugging match category that most of this season has been so thrilling to be part of for.

    Where is the focus at the factory at the moment. The Constructors’ Championship looks pretty nailed on, so are you allowing yourself the luxury of focusing on next year back in Brackley?

    JA: Well, I wouldn’t agree with you about the nailing business, but the truth of it is that every single team, every single year faces the dilemma of how they ramp down their efforts on the car that races and how they ramp up their efforts on the car that will race next year. Every single one of us, the teams that is, will be transferring a substantial amount of resource onto next year’s car, because they couldn’t fail but to do that. But there is still an amount of residual resource, more than residual, going into this one to make sure that those developments keep coming until later in the season.

    Thank you James. Mattia, the last few races for Ferrari have been something of what if. I was just wondering, with reference to Malaysia in particular, if you could shed any light on the reliability problems you had there and how confident you are that you have solved those coming into the Japanese Grand Prix?

    Mattia BINOTTO: You can never be fully confident of solving the problems you have got. It’s true that the problems we had were completely unexpected; there are problems that we did not experience both at the dyno or at the race track during the entire season. There were some quality issues with the parts. We failed an inlet manifold of the engine, from the compressor to the cylinder heads, and it happened twice, because we had the same problem with Sebastian in qualifying and Kimi in the race. Obviously it happened twice in Malaysia, in an entire season, so certainly some boundary conditions have affected the overall reliability. This is something that we are analysing. Obviously in parallel we reinforce the components, but it’s something which we still need to better understand.

    The last couple of race we haven’t been able to see what your cars have been capable of, but fastest in practice in Suzuka this morning. How do you assess the pecking order now in Formula One? Do you think you have the fastest car?

    MB: I think qualifying is the best way, somehow, to evaluate it. We had the pole in Singapore, true, but we were not on pole in Malaysia. So I think we have progressed, we progressed through the season. I think for us battling for the pole, or being on pole was more difficult at the start of the season compared to today. Overall our package has improved but it’s never enough. Being fast is not sufficient. What counts is finally winning the race.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Cyril, regarding Marcin Budkowksi, do we understand that he will reporting directly to you and then people like Bob Bell and Rob White will be reporting to Marcin. Is that the structure that you envisage?

    CA: Yeah, that’s correct. The official position as announced today is Executive Director, so he will be sort of my right-hand man in Enstone, a place where I am not enough, given all the travelling and in particular the long seasons. So Marcin will be factory-based and Bob Bell, Nick Chester and Rob White will all together report to him.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mattia, Sergio Marchionne was quoted on Monday as saying that it was unacceptable what had happened in the previous two races and that changes would have to be made. When this was put to Sebastian yesterday, he said he thought that there were some changes coming but they had nothing to do with that. Could you elaborate on that? What sorts of changes are envisaged that if a driver knows about them, they must have been announced internally already?

    MB: I think that to improve your performance you need to improve your car and your package but as well you need to improve your organisation. What we are considering is something, already planned, is to improve our quality department. Our quality department will be and somehow is already reinforced and those are the changes that our chairman was meaning.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) James, Lewis referred to the car as being a bit like him – great potential, but doesn’t always do what it has to do. Is the car a kind of a diva or is it, in the end, understandable, what it does?

    JA: It is difficult but it doesn’t disobey the laws of physics. It is clearly understandable but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to get the best from it. It’s been a challenge this year to achieve the results we have with, but nevertheless we have achieved some pretty decent outcomes with it, so it’s not been a bad machine for us. However, we would like a car that is easier to throw at the race track and easier to guarantee that every time we come racing we get every last little bit from it. Such changes as we have been able to make this year we have and we hope that next year we make something with a slightly sweeter temperament.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) To all three of you: going into this year there were a lot of unknowns, so it was difficult to design the cars. Going into next year, with all the new information, is it going to be easier to design them or even harder because you have so much information about the new regulations?

    MB: F1 is always a challenge, the difficulty is always there, whatever you are facing. We face a certain because of new regulations and now we’ll face a different difficulty because we need to improve our car. I don’t think there is ever a moment where you can relax. The difficult is simply that one. It is true that there will be a continuity of regulations but it’s also true that we need to improve as much as we can.

    CA: It’s always a challenge. It’s a competition, so you need to be better than the others, and to develop quicker, in particular if you are sitting behind, so that’s a challenge. Plus, you have also, even though there is not such big changes as this year in regulations, you still have a couple of changes. There will be the introduction of the Halo, some variation to the suspension regulation, which will make things slightly difficult. The sensitivity of car to weight will be much greater next year than this year so it’s going to be a different type of challenge, but still a challenge.

    JA: I think I’d just say that while last year was more a blank sheet of paper and therefore you had more design choices to make, that was true for everybody. And we go, all of us teams, with a lot more information about how these cars behave and therefore with clearer ideas of what we would like to do for the next season. But that’s true for everybody and therefore everyone will be better guided and the overall level of difficulty in making sure that you’re the quickest will remain the same. The new challenge of refining your current weapon will be the same for everyone.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Cyril, returning to the Marcin Budkowski question, could you elaborate, just for the avoidance of any doubt, could you elaborate please on whether he resigned because you’d recruited him or whether you recruited him because he’d resigned from the governing body?

    CA: I don’t want to enter into a… I don’t think we have any obligation to disclose that type of process that is an individual process. You may have encountered in your career some persons, so you know it’s always an opportunity that is coming from both ways. I think there was some feeling that Marcin wanted to do a career progression, moving also away from a pure technical role in which he is currently, for something which is a wider management responsibility, which is something we had on offer. So, it’s, as always, when demand and offer is meeting somewhere, and that has simply happened in the last couple of weeks and something that we have now made clear.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Question to Monsieur Abiteboul, the Budkowski deal, did you understand the discussion coming up about the deal or do you say ‘OK, everybody have the chance to make an approach to him’?

    CA: I’m not totally sure of the question. If the question is whether we wanted to be extremely aggressive on notice period, on gardening leave provision, is that correct?

    Can you understand that some of your competitors said it’s not correct?

    CA: No. Well, first, it’s word that has been reported. I’m not sure that everyone is actually thinking that. Approaching people is unfortunately a part of Formula One, it’s also part of why Formula One is competitive and you have a level playing field and you have an interesting show and races. We always talk about the distortion created by disparity of resources – but you also need to have some freedom of people within the organisations such that the racing is interesting. That’s the first comment I would make. The second comment is yes, I understand – but again, when you recruit someone it is not a short-term opportunity. All the designs of next year’s car are already frozen. We are in the process of manufacturing moulds, suspension geometry, all of that is already decided since months. It is not something that is going to influence, and things will again start from scratch for 2019. These gentleman on my left and my right will know that there is limited influence someone like that can make to a car, and because of the obsolescence of information in Formula One, it’s not going to make a huge difference. We are taking that person because he has the skills, he has the experience of Formula One this is required for our programme and our project, which is to become a top team by 2020, full stop. It’s not for what he knows today.

    Q: (Marco Mensurati – La Repubblica) To Mattia and James. I just would like to know what you think about that? What is your opinion? Are you fine with that or not?

    JA: Erm… well… the relationship the teams have with the FIA is always… it relies on certain things. It relies on the teams being able to be candid with the FIA and have absolute confidence that anything that is discussed with the FIA remains completely confidential. Those things have always been true about the relationship we have with the FIA and always will be. The main foundations of our relationship, the teams’ relationship to the FIA, are built on that, and those things are strong, and always will be. If an FIA employee leaves and re-joins a team, then you would wish, I think, to have somewhat longer notice period than three months. I think everyone, on FIA side and teams’ side would say that but… this isn’t the situation today and I guess we’ll all just swallow and get on with it. But the actual building blocks of what makes the relationship between teams and FIA good is what I described – and that always has been strong, always will be strong.

    Mattia?

    MB: There is not much I can add. Certainly, it’s a delicate matter. Certainly, all the people involved in that situation feels uncomfortable, and I’m sure it will be discussed at a different level still.

    Cyril has said that it’s a start date of April next year. Are you satisfied with that, James? Mattia?

    JA: Well, it is whatever it contractually is. So, there’s not much point in talking about it.

    Q: (Gaëtan Vigneron – RTBF) Question for James. You have worked with Fernando, with Sebastian, with Lewis. If you had to point out the big difference between them or who was the most impressive one for you?

    JA: I get asked this question a lot and it’s a frustrating question because, first of all, there’s an impossibility of answering it because there’s only one way to know for sure and it’s to line them all up in exactly the same equipment on the same days and have a championship where you find out exactly. All I can tell you is that all three of them have got the victories and the achievements that they have, not by good fortune but by being brilliantly skilful racing drivers. I would add to that, that it has been a considerable pleasure joining Mercedes this year for many, many reasons but one of those was that it was my first opportunity to start working alongside Lewis. I think I’d only ever said hello to him once in all the years prior to that and the experience of working with him is very different to what I imagined it would be and I’ve found a racing driver or the sort of excellence that all of us can see from his statistics and the way he goes about his job but what has been particularly good is that I’ve found a guy that conducts himself as a man in a way that makes you happy to work alongside him. And that’s been an enjoyable and good thing about joining Mercedes.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Cyril, still on the question of recruitment but this time about Carlos Sainz. Could you try and elaborate on the reasons why you have chosen to recruit a driver in the knowledge that you’ll lose him after a year. Or certainly the indications in the statements indicate that you lose him after a single year. What sort of benefit is that to the team?

    CA: First and foremost, we have to accept the fact we are, y’know, arriving a bit late to the part as Renault. We only entered back into Formula One as a manufacture team 18 months ago and we are arriving at a point where a lot of drivers are in the middle of their contracts. There are basically cycles for a number of contracts. You know that was something we had to acknowledge and take into account into our planning for drivers. It looks like there will be lots of things that will be up for renewal in the course of next year, for 2019. We sort-of feel that we should be part of those discussions next year and therefore having a driver for one year is a concession, in particular on a loan is a concession, but we feel it is an acceptable concession. It’s going to allow us to make a step forward, just like Nico Hülkenberg allowed us to do one step forward this year. It’s going to be another step forward for next year before many making maybe another step in 2019.

    PART TWO: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Yusuke HASEGAWA (Honda), Ayao KOMATSU (Haas), Paddy LOWE (Williams)

    Q: Hasegawa-san, if we could start with you please. It’s been a good couple of races for McLaren-Honda, particularly Stoffel Vandoorne, seventh in both of the last two races. Just wondering how much satisfaction have those results given you and how confident are you of another good result on home turf this weekend?

    Yusuke HASEGAWA: Obviously in Singapore and Malaysia we got points which were very good but of course we are not satisfied. We are aiming higher all the time but we feel kind-of relieved to get a decent step. So, of course we try to keep the same performance for here, in Suzuka.

    Q: What can you hope for this weekend?

    YH: So far, that we get some points.

    Q: And with regard to next year, let’s just talk a little bit about the relationship with Toro Rosso. How do you think that relationship might differ to the one that you’ve had with McLaren?

    YH: I don’t think it’s a huge difference. We have already started the preparation for next year. They are very kind and they are very excited to have a new partnership, which we, of course, are feeling the same thing. No, there’s not a big difference, just a new partner.

    Q: Is the commercial relationship going to be the same as it was with McLaren?

    YH: Of course, the McLaren-Honda, the name of the McLaren-Honda is very famous – in Japan at least, maybe in other countries. From that point of view it could be that the expectation from the audience is a bit less, so we need to show that we can make it better. From that point of view, maybe I will feel a bit less pressure from the outside but from the inside there is no difference. We need to prove that we can do a better job for next year.

    Q: Ayao, second season of the Haas Formula One team, what is your perspective on how it’s gone? How would you sum up the last 18 months with Haas? How’s it gone?

    Ayao KOMATSU: It’s going well. Of course it could be better but from last year to this year we made a very big improvement and even though it may not be obvious to everyone but consistency is better than last year and our understanding is better, but I think now that we made a step from last year we now know again how much we need to improve for next year so really concentrating on the next step.

    Q: Now you’ve worked with Romain for a long time, drivers like to progress every year, just how have you seen him grow in a small team like that, because we hear him a lot on the radio and it’s not always complimentary?

    AK: Sure, I know Romain since 2009. I’ve done every single race he’s done in Formula One together so we understand each other pretty well, but yeah, he’s quite an emotional guy but then what comes out as negative on the radio is what actually makes him quick as well so you can’t have it both ways. We both understand the downside of that so we’ve just got to manage it, try to channel it in the right way so that everybody works in a positive direction.

    Q: Now I guess this is the time of year when you work through the good points and the bad points of the current car. You obviously want to translate the good points into next year. Could you elaborate a little bit on the good and the bad of the VF17?

    AK: I think our baseline is pretty good but the operating window is not very wide, so when we can get the tyres to work OK, you can see the potential, we can be in Q3 but there are some events where we really cannot switch the tyres on then we are fighting to get out of Q1. In Malaysia, Saturday was our lowest point, both cars out in Q1 so that’s the bad point. Next year, we really need to keep this good base but then trying to have the wider window so that we can work with… obviously next year you can have more different compounds as well so that will be the key, trying to work with different compounds, trying to get consistency out of it.

    Q: Paddy, let’s start by talking about drivers: there’s a lot of speculation in the press about who is going to partner Lance Stroll in the team next year. Can you just tell us a little bit about what you want from that driver and indeed, who is in the running?

    Paddy LOWE: It seems like we’re one of the last chairs available for next year. Of course Felipe is very much in the frame, very very high on our list of possibilities but we owe it to ourselves to take a look around and see what could be the best option for the team going forwards. As you say, that will be a partner to Lance. Lance has made great progress through the year, we’re seeing him performing consistently, particularly in the races so we need a driver to complement Lance on that side of the garage. But all options are under consideration, to be honest. You’ve probably seen a number of names that are floating around that we’re looking at but honestly the range is almost unlimited. We will consider all ideas. We’re not in a super hurry to do so and we’ll just make sure we land the best line-up we can.

    Q: But is the idea to have an experienced driver alongside Lance?

    PL: I think there are many attributes you could attach to different drivers and experience could be one of them, but we may weigh that against other things. We’re not fixed on any particular aspect.

    Q: Because where is Williams’s natural habitat in this pit lane at the moment? You’re lying fifth in the Constructors’ championship; are you looking for a driver who can help leapfrog you up to third? Is that the ambition for next season?

    PL: Yeah, we’re always ambitious to move forwards as all teams are and I think we recognise that the driver or drivers are a very key element in the team. Clearly you need a quick car as well, but the driver is probably the single most important factor in the end to take the package forward and score the points and indeed win races. I’ve seen that in the past, what a difference drivers can make to the race proposition, so it’s a very important decision.

    Q: And just tell us a little bit about next year’s car, what’s going on back in Grove? Are you encouraged by the signs you’re seeing in the windtunnel, for example?

    PL: Lots of good work going on. Yeah, we’re making quite a few changes. We see lots of opportunities out there that we’re determined to exploit and the project’s going well, yeah. At the same time, you know, we recognise we’ve got some very tough competition out there, some teams that we respect greatly who are also fighting to move forward so it’s going to be a tough space next year. We all want to have cars that can get safely into Q3, that’s a kind of mark of respectability really in Formula One, but there are quite a few teams that will be trying to squeeze into that quite small box.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Hasegawa-san, you’ve just heard what Paddy said, that the driver is a crucial element in the overall package. With McLaren, you had various World Champions driving for you. With Toro Rosso, although they haven’t confirmed their line-up, the chances of them having a Grand Prix winner let alone a World Champion are fairly remote at this stage. Do you believe that a driver is not important to drive a project forward, at the state that Honda finds itself in at the moment?

    YH: For the next year, you mean?  Of course the driver project is very important and of course we’d like to encourage the Japanese motor racing character we well so that to do that a Japanese driver is also very important. But currently we have nothing we can tell you about the drivers for Toro Rosso and we don’t have any contract about that. Actually, we don’t have any position to tell. Of course, we may negotiate with them so maybe we would like to discuss about that but it is not a contract matter, so that maybe they are just as a partner, as a friendship matter.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Paddy, there have been reports that you were going to test Robert Kubica and Paul di Resta in a 2014 car. Can you enlighten us as to what is going to happen?

    PL: Yeah, you’re correct, we will test those two drivers. We won’t give away any information around what we do within those tests, that’s a private matter for us and I would stress that that doesn’t mean that they’re the only drivers under consideration. As I said earlier, we’re considering quite a large range of which they are only two possibilities.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Paddy, can you at least tell us when this test will happen?

    PL: In the next few weeks.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Hasegawa-san, I’d like to just clarify my question earlier on about the fact that it wasn’t so much aimed at Japanese drivers, but just generally whether you believe or not that a proven or an established driver line-up is important to develop your Honda engine project going forward because you had had World Champions, whereas at Toro Rosso you are unlikely to even have a Grand Prix winner. Do you believe that an established driver line-up is important?

    YH: Yeah, sorry, I don’t answer the question. Yep, of course, the driver’s feedback is very important to evaluate the engine itself and to find any issue from the engine and also to stop the engine as soon as something happens. From that point of view, Fernando, Jenson and Stoffel were perfect for that development driver and evaluator so yeah, it is very important. So far, as I mentioned, we cannot tell (about next year). I am very happy to have Pierre Gasly, he is a very talented driver, but actually I didn’t work with him directly but I expect him very much. So I don’t know for next year but we expect to have good drivers, of course.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Paddy Lowe, how intense has your contact to Nico Rosberg been in the last weeks? And did the subjects you talk about change since he is managing Robert?

    PL: I didn’t fully understand the question but was it you were saying what contact had I had with Nico? Actually, honestly I’ve just had a couple of phone conversations with him, but as you point out, yeah, he’s now doing some work with Robert Kubica, so he has an interest in promoting that idea to us so I’ve had some conversations with him on that subject. As you say, a bit different from the previous conversations that I had with him the last few years.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Paddy, you may have missed it earlier on when Cyril was here because you were outside doing the TVs but he said that the chances were pretty good that Marcin Budkowski would be starting early April in the role of executive director. Does it concern you that the gardening leave, for want of a better description or expression is not sufficient, given the relationship that he’s had with teams? What do you believe is the ideal time and what do you think of the situation?

    PL: First point is to congratulate Marcin. It looks like he’s got an excellent job, very senior role at Renault. I worked with Marcin in the past at McLaren so you know he’s a strong engineer and that’s great that he has that opportunity. But I think you’re correct; the concern amongst all the teams has been the very short period of isolation between a role as an officer of the FIA, very senior officer, and working with a team. And it’s very critical that the teams have a strong degree of trust in their work with the FIA; that really underpins the ability of the FIA to police the sport from a technical point of view. It’s an important subject, the teams will be discussing that with the FIA to understand what should happen in this case or cases in the future. So I don’t have any pre-set ideas around what solution should exist or even could exist. Amongst the teams, with senior engineers, we have very long notice periods, as you know, for the same sort of reasons.

    Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Question for Paddy Lowe and Komatsu-san: we’ve had almost a season of running with these new generation cars now and almost every team I’ve spoken to has mentioned the narrow operational window of these cars and getting the tyres to work. What is it about the current rule-set that makes that operational window so hard to exploit?

    PL: I think it’s just mainly down to tyres. The tyre defines, to a great extent, the operating window of the car because it’s fundamentally the temperature window of the tyre, sometimes the pressure window, where the tyre delivers the best performance. So depending on how narrow or wide or peaky that window is determines then how difficult it is to make the car work at the fastest level. I think that’s the subject. I don’t think it’s necessarily that much more difficult than last year, the levels of grip are higher, the lap times are quicker but I think it feels just about as difficult as it was last year, to me.

    AK: It’s exactly as I… I don’t think it’s the cars, it’s more to do with the tyres, and some tyres can work in any conditions, some tyres need specific conditions so yeah, it’s mainly down to tyres.

    Q: (Ken Kawakita – Weekly Playboy) Hasegawa-san, Komatsu-san: this is very domestic question but having someone like you in the FIA press conference as a key member of a Formula One team, giving a lot of hope for young Japanese boys who are dreaming of being in Formula One to work as engineers, is it possible to have any advice to make the dream happen for those young Japanese boys or girls? Any word?

    AK: Yeah, I was interested in Formula One since I was a junior high school student and I wanted to do Formula One so then I thought, OK, it’s better to come to England so I decided to leave Japan after doing high school so I guess the advice is don’t limit yourself, if you like, don’t ever think you can’t do it, just assume that you can do it and then try your best and then when you’ve tried your best, even if you failed, then I think you learn a great deal from it, so there’s no downside so just try and believe you can do it. If I can give advice, that’s the advice.

    YH: Yeah, I think I’m completely different from him, so that he was aiming to be a Formula One engineer but I was joining Honda and I was just working as a mass production development and I never expected to be a Formula One engineer, but I always concentrated on doing my job, all the time and to improve myself, so the chance will come from outside, so I didn’t expect… so just do your job and just do it and improve by himself or herself is the important thing, I think.

    Q: Paddy, can you just tell us a little bit about how international the teams are, how many different nationalities might you have at Williams?

    PL: I haven’t got a number but it is a very international sport, not just in terms of drivers but also in terms of engineers and all the staff within the teams. I think that’s what makes it such an exciting and rich industry, and I’d echo the comments of my colleagues here, that if you have the determination, actually it’s not as difficult as you may imagine to make the progress and achieve the position that you may want, working in a team or some other part of the industry, so never think it’s out of your reach, go after it.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • Ricciardo talks about sushi at Jiro: Japanese Thursday’s FIA press meet

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Felipe MASSA (Williams), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Lance STROLL (Williams)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Felipe, let’s start by talking about your future. This time last year you knew what you were going to be doing, or not doing, in 2017….

    Felipe MASSA: No, I didn’t know anything last. What I decided didn’t happen.

    Well you weren’t going to be racing in Formula One, that was the plan, but there seems to be some uncertainty now. Where are you at in your head, how much do you want to stay in Formula One and how much do you want to stay at Williams?

    FM: To be honest in my head I’m pretty relaxed, so I’m enjoying and trying to do the best I can in the last races this year and I don’t know what’s going to happen next year. But I’m quite relaxed. I’m quite keen to do maybe another season. I think I can do it in a great way. I can give a lot to the team, like I did already and I think maybe I can do another year. But I don’t decide; the team decides. Yeah, I’m pretty relaxed, trying to enjoy the races, trying to do the best I can in the car, trying to the give the best to the team, and that’s the most important thing. I’m talking with the team definitely for next year and we are in discussion. So everything has some directions around, so I have my direction as well to follow, like a professional driver, like I was always in my career in Formula One and I am very happy for that. That’s the way it is and definitely I can do a good effort for the team but we need to find a good solution to carry on in the right way, that everybody is happy. But anyway, I’m quite relaxed and definitely gave a lot to the team, to Formula One as well. If people are happy that I stay, I stay, and I will do everything I can to stay at the top level. But I’m quite relaxed and I’m trying to do my job in the right way in the last races and we’ll see what’s going to happen.

    When do you need to know by? Have you given the team a deadline?

    FM: Well, we don’t have a deadline. Definitely I think it would be good for the team and also for myself that we know what’s going to happen before the race in Brazil. We’ll see if this will be possible but I really hope so.

    Turning to matters on track now, you hold the pole position record here at Suzuka, for your Q3 time in 2006. Tell us a little about what’s the secret of stitching together a good lap here and indeed is there any advice you can give a rookie, like your team-mate Lance Stroll?

    FM: Yeah, I remember it was 2006, it was around 29.5 lap time. That was pretty amazing. A long time ago, many things change from that time to now. If you see also that the car we race now is one hundred and something kilos heavier than how it was the car in 2006. But maybe this year it can change. Maybe this year we can see some records around this track and I’m sure it will be great to drive the car we have this year on this track, which is definitely one of the best tracks in Formula One. I’m sure Sector 1 will be quite fun, but also quite difficult for all of us in terms of our neck and in the race and also to do one lap in qualifying will be pretty interesting, to see that feeling. Lance knows already the track, but definitely it is a different car so I think it will be nice for him to drive the car this year.

    Thank you. There is clearly a good dynamic between yourself and Felipe, and there’s a lot of speculation around who is going to be your team-mate next year. Do you have a preference?

    LS: We’ve had a really good relationship this year and we’ve done a good job to help the team score as many points as possible, between the both of us. But, at the end of the day, it comes down to the team, who are the drivers. I’ve just got to focus on what I’m doing, but definitely we have a good relationship this year.

    Is there one particular thing that you have learned from Felipe this year?

    FM: Many!

    LS: That’s it.

    FM: We should say, no?

    LS: No. It’s between the two of us. All in all, he brings a lot of experience to the team and I’ve been able to use him as a benchmark throughout my rookie season. He’s really helped to develop the car in many ways, with these regulations, and as well I think I’ve been able to pick up a few details along the way that I could apply into my work at the track, so all in all there have definitely been a lot of things I’ve picked up throughout the year.

    And you’ve now scored points in six of the last nine races. You’re looking very assured in the car. How much more confident are you now compared to Melbourne at the start of the year?

    LS: I’m a different driver to where I was in Melbourne at the beginning of the year. It’s just experience that you soak up through the year and every race there is always something that I think I could do better. I just feel that I’m getting better every single race and that’s just experience and time in the car.

    Thank you Lance. Daniel, can we start by talking about what you’ve been up to since the Malaysian Grand Prix last weekend, have you been having fun in the Land of the Rising Sun?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: It can be a dark place… the sun doesn’t always rise (laughs). It can get emotional in Tokyo. But no, it’s been OK. A more positive experience in the last few days, was actually with this man here [Felipe Massa]. We went to the famous sushi… I’m going to get it wrong now, Sukiyabashi Jiro, and it kind of became more on the map to let’s say the western world after there was a documentary ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ and I was told about it a couple years ago and I was like ‘oh, we’ll just call and get a reservation for tomorrow night’, but you’ve got to book like a year in advance, so two years later we finally made it. It was a good experience. Yeah but… well, anyway…

    FM: It was good to see his face, when some fish that he is not really keen to have…

    DR: I only started eating seafood a few years ago, like properly, like raw fish. I like some of it, but some is still new to me, but you don’t want to disrespect.

    FM: There was no salmon.

    DR: There was some different stuff, but anyway, it was a good experience for sure. And you’re in and out in 30 minutes, so it’s bang, bang, bang, but it was good. I did some Kendo as well, a Japanese martial art. That was quite cool and I enjoyed that. So two good experiences this week.

    You’ve been having a good time! Thanks for that. Well, let’s just cast our minds to the race last Sunday. Can you describe your emotions on Sunday night, because on the one hand you had scored your eighth podium of the year, but was there a sense of what if? What if, for example, you had got past Bottas sooner, what might have been possible?

    DR: I guess there was a small what if. If I had got Bottas or he hadn’t got me on the start I guess then my chances of having a battle with Lewis would have been higher. But I still didn’t look back on the race like ‘aw, it was a missed opportunity’. After the race I thought the start, I was like ‘if only I went to the outside I could have braked later and held my position’, but I think if I had pulled out early of Max’s slipstream to the outside, I think Bottas would have probably just gone through the middle of us. So in hindsight it would have been difficult probably to do anything better on the start. I was still happy, another podium. Although I won there last year it’s actually never really been a track I’ve… I wouldn’t say enjoyed, but had much success on, so to finish on the podium there in the last year I was going to take that, so it’s OK.

    Well, the car has been competitive on three very different tracks now, Monza, Singapore, Malaysia. Would you agree with Helmut Marko that it’s now the best chassis in Formula One?

    DR: We have to be close. If it’s not then we’re certainly close, and a lot closer than we were in the first handful of races this year. Like Monza, you surprise yourself on Sunday but then in Singapore, Seb puts a few tenths on us in quali. So you’re like ‘we do and we don’t, we do and we don’t’. Obviously, in Malaysia we were quick. If Ferrari has started at the front they would have been tough to beat. But we’re certainly close. If we’re not the best, we’re certainly close and I think this circuit is another chance for us to show that and I’m looking forward to it very much.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Daniel, Dr Marko has been quoted this week as saying that you are already on the market. Could you elaborate on that, are you aware of that, have you discussed anything with them and what does your future look like within the Red Bull family?

    DR: I mean the only thing I’m aware of is that my contract with them is at an end next year. I guess he’s referencing that. He’s not referencing next year, I guess.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) You hope!

    DR: Ha, ha! I’m 100%, well 99.999% sure I’ve got a seat with Red Bull Racing next year. But I guess he’s talking about beyond that, but nothing’s been said between us beyond next, so I guess he’s more stating facts than… I don’t think he has a plan yet beyond ’18. But yeah, I should be racing next year! He wasn’t too disappointed after Malaysia; I think he was OK, so I think I’m still OK.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Daniel, in the beginning of the season you were not that close to Valtteri’s pace but in the last four races you have overtaken him twice and beaten him three times. Are you surprised at this change?

    DR: I think it’s been… we’ve been getting stronger. So, we have been able to compete more regularly now with Mercedes and yeah, since the summer break he hasn’t had as many – I guess – good performances compared to Lewis at least. I think it’s a combination maybe: he hasn’t performed at his best the last few races and we have got better, so it’s given us a chance to steal some points from him. Obviously my chance of winning the title is very, very, very little but there’s still a small chance at least to get top three again. Valtteri still has a good gap but if I can keep closing on this, then I’ll be pretty satisfied.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Daniel, Red Bull are really good at developing through a season and getting better and better, as you’ve just said. From your perspective isn’t it about time they stopped developing through the season and started developing in the winter and gave you a car to win a championship from the outset. If that doesn’t happen next year, is that make or break for you with the team?

    DR: It’s certainly our plan. It has been obviously… I still don’t know why the last few years we’ve had slow starts and then found a way to come back. So I guess the idea is again what we learn, because there’s not many changes next year, what we learn hopefully from this year hopefully we take to next year and we start stronger. So yeah, that’s obviously the plan, that’s everyone’s wish and yeah, I guess we go from there. Look, if next year’s not a very competitive season at all then, of course, that will then, y’know, be addressed. At least… I feel I’ve said it every time this year but where we are now this year, you’d think next year we should be competitive. Hopefully as competitive as y’know, I would like to see. So, yeah. Mercedes has been winning for too long. We’ll try to change that.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid-Day) To Felipe. It’s been reported that Williams are going to be evaluating Robert Kubica and Paul di Resta for next year. Knowing that, how does that factor into your plans for the future?

    FM: I think it doesn’t change anything for me. So… it doesn’t change anything for me. Williams know 100 per cent what I can give to the team and, even if you do a test with a car that is four years before, completely different. You cannot evaluate too much, as well. So, doesn’t change anything for me, to be honest.

    Felipe, will you attend that test?

    FM: No! I don’t know. I don’t know even if it’s true, that test, or not. I don’t know. To be honest… I don’t know.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Lance, on the topic that Felipe’s just mentioned about a four-year-old car, you’ve done a lot of testing with a four-year-old car and you’re obviously driving the current car. What comparison is there between the two? Do you believe that one could really evaluate a driver that way?

    LS: Well, the cars we drive today are really quick. Back then, in ’14, the cars were, I believe, the first year with the new regulations, so there has been a lot of development, obviously the rules have changed this year, so lot more down downforce, different tyres and all that. So, they are very different, yeah, we’ll see what the team thinks about it. It’s not up to me to decide whether it’s a good evaluation or not.

    PART TWO: DRIVERS – Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren), Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes), Pascal WEHRLEIN (Sauber)

    Q: Valtteri, if we could start with you, it hasn’t been the easiest for you since the summer break and you said on Sunday evening in Malaysia that this might now be the most difficult moment of your career. Can you elaborate on that? Why is that?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, I think the main thing is just because, the only thing I want to do is to perform and to try and meet my goals what I set for me personally. I definitely haven’t been achieving those lately, so that’s why the feeling wasn’t so positive after the race. So, for sure it’s tricky because now, y’know, having such a good car and with potential for such good results, I just want to perform. So, that’s why.

    Q: Has the car become harder to drive than it was earlier in the year when you were winning races, getting pole positions?

    VB: I think the compromises we’ve been needing to do in some circuits to get it into the right window has been quite a challenge sometimes to drive around. I think Lewis has been able to extract a little bit more sometimes with a more tricky setup. Some things with the driving style always makes a difference and to understand those, you always kind of need that bad weekend to learn from it – otherwise you don’t know these differences. It’s not massive things, it’s small things but this sport is all about details and changing some things in your own driving, then it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge and then that way the driving maybe doesn’t feel quite natural at times – but that’s how it is. I see things positive because I think from all those difficult weekends we’ve had there’s been so much to learn from, so much to get better from. Like the race in Malaysia. I’ve had so many answers to my questions from that race. We’ve been trying to work out every single detail with the engineers and trying to understand, so I’ve learned massively again from last weekend. That’s why there’s always a positive.

    And talking about those details, is there anything when you look at the data that you can learn from a guy like Lewis Hamilton?

    VB: Yes, of course. From every team mate you can always learn something. From every single one. From every circuit there’s always a thing or two you can pick up, especially from an experienced, extremely quick driver.

    Q: Stoffel, tough times for Valtteri at the moment but you’ve had a cracking couple of races, seventh in Singapore, seventh last weekend in Malaysia. You must be feeling pretty good about things.

    Stoffel VANDOORNE: Yeah, lately everything has been going very well for me. I think it shows all the work I’ve been doing with the team – with the engineers, back at the factory as well – is paying off. And yeah, obviously feeling more and more comfortable with the car. It was great to have those two seventh places in Singapore and Malaysia – I don’t want to get used to being happy with seventh but I think considering the package we have it was definitely the best result possible, so very pleased with that and, yeah, five races left this year, which is hopefully five opportunities to make something good of it, so shows we have to keep pushing, keep working as hard as we can and who knows what is possible for the last couple of races.

    Q: You’re now ahead of Fernando Alonso in the World Championship. Can you share with us just some of that work you’ve just referred to. What have you been doing? What areas of your job have you had to focus on to turn things around?

    SV: It’s only my first season in Formula One so there were a lot of things I had to get to grips with, learn. I think definitely the troubled start to the season didn’t help with that in terms of the amount of track time we missed and, yeah, lately everything has had a much better run. The relationship between my engineers has developed massively as well and yeah, I think we go into every weekend very positive, very comfortable as well, knowing the areas we have to focus on. It’s very nice to see the results are paying off as well.

    Q: You won a Super Formula race here at Suzuka last year. How important is local knowledge? Is there something you gain from your year in Japan last year that might help you this weekend? Is there a trick to this track that you might know that the others don’t?

    SV: I think it’s always very good to know a circuit. Like you said, I have a lot of experience around this circuit. Done a lot of testing, a lot of racing in Super Formula here, and obviously have a win around here as well – which was a special moment. So looking forward to this weekend again, to discover this circuit in Formula One. I think with these cars especially it will be a very exciting track for everyone to drive around.

    Q: Pascal, now unlike these other guys, you don’t yet know what you’re going to be doing in 2018 yet you’ve outqualified your teammate, Marcus Ericsson, nine times, you’ve scored all of Sauber’s points this year. Are you confident that that will be enough to keep you in Formula One next season?

    Pascal WEHRLEIN: I hope so. My focus is on driving. This weekend – or every weekend – is another opportunity to show something. The previous races have been quite difficult for us and Malaysia was a bit better so hopefully we learned something from there and can have a better weekend this weekend.

    Q: How dependent on Mercedes are you to place you somewhere next season?

    PW: I am a Mercedes Young Driver so of course Mercedes is doing all the talks for me.

    Q: And looking ahead to next season, specifically with Sauber, obviously it’s been a tough time for the team this year but judging by what you’ve seen of next year’s car, how do you rate their prospects going forward?

    PW: For Sauber, you mean? So definitely a step forward is the engine, that they are running the current engine next year because now, especially, in the second half of the season we are struggling a bit with the performance there and definitely this is going to be better next year and then also hopefully with the car they are doing some steps forward.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Tatsuya Otani – Car Graphic) I have two questions for Stoffel. How do you look back at the development of the car during the season, for the chassis and the power unit respectively? And question two is: you raced for Honda last year here in Japan in the Super Formula championship; after your experience in Formula One Grands Prix, your image or your feeling of Honda has been changed or not?

    SV: As a team, I think we’ve progressed a lot since the start of the season. Obviously everyone knows the situation, how it was back in Barcelona during winter testing, when it was obviously a very tough time for everyone, even getting the car out on track was difficult. The first few races were complicated as well and I think every weekend there were positives to take; every week has been going better and better. We’re still not at the point where we are happy about our performance. We still know it’s a very long way to go but I think lately we’ve been able to score a couple of points which are definitely very valuable for the team. But like I said, there’s still a long way to go to compete with the top guys so plenty of margin.

    Q: And Stoffel, the second question, can you relate the two experiences of Honda last year and this year?

    SV: Well definitely my year in Super Formula helped me to work with Japanese people. I think the culture especially was very different so to come out here and discover something new, to work in a completely Japanese environment was not the easiest in the beginning, but I think it was a big challenge for me as well to kind of transform a team around me, to teach them some European lessons as well and to guide the team in a certain direction and then seeing the results of that was a nice challenge for me to do.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Hallo Valtteri; you have been very open and honest, talking about your current problem. Aren’t you afraid that at that the same time you have been playing yourself down in public?

    VB: I don’t really… I’m not really interested about what people say in public. I know, like I said before, I know just my own targets, my own goals and if I don’t meet those, if I’m far away from those I’m not happy and then it’s tricky. I’m always very honest with myself and if there’s any single little bit I can improve myself and if I can look in the mirror and I can say I can improve something, normally I will improve it, one way or another. It’s been a very difficult few races that I need to learn massively from and especially from Malaysia but that’s now history. I’m now here and I’m looking forward. There’s been weekends when I’ve learned massively so looking forward to the next one.

    Q: Valtteri, to go public on those thoughts as Heikki just referred to is a surprise to some people.

    VB: Normally I just say things how they are and how things were. I was not happy, that’s it.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Pascal, this weekend will mark the ninth race since the big management changes earlier on in the year, so effectively almost half a season ago in terms of race count. How much has the team changed in that time and in what areas and does it now have a proper foundation for the future, do you believe?

    PW: About the foundation, I don’t really know. But definitely it has changed in the team, with Fred coming we have a very experienced guy and also some other guys joining the team so for next year’s car everyone can expect a good step. Then one of the first things he did of course was to re-sign the Ferrari deal and to put the current engine in the car which will be better.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Valtteri, you’ve talked about what’s happened since the summer break but whilst your teammate’s been on the podium, you haven’t got within half a second of him in qualifying, it’s been a bit difficult. You said the compromises you’ve made but is it time to ask for a new chassis? Would that actually help some of your problems?

    VB: Well, if the team would find a problem with the chassis, with nowadays technology, before going just changing the chassis, you can find out if everything is alright and I trust the team as always, doing everything to make sure the car is in a good condition and well set-up. I trust the guys on that and who knows, maybe I’ve already asked before.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) I’ll take that as a yes, you have.

    VB: Erm, no, not really, directly. I think… what was the first one after the summer break? It was Belgium. I had a poor performance in the beginning of the race and also the qualifying wasn’t great so I asked a lot of questions, you know, I just wanted to kind of take off any  things that could affect… I always want to make sure the machinery is good as well. So, like I said, I completely trust that the team is giving me a good car.

    Q: (Shigenori Ogura – Tokyo Sport) Stoffel, welcome back to Suzuka. I would like to know how do you feel now to be back in Suzuka and racing in front of your supporters in Japan?

    SV: Yeah, obviously very excited to be back in Japan in general, back in Suzuka. Obviously some very good memories from last year, racing here. I always had a lot of support from the Japanese fans and this weekend will be no different. If anything, it will be more. They always turn up with great surprises, great presents for all of us and it’s just great to see the atmosphere so I’m looking forward to this weekend. It’s a great circuit and just a great event for all of us.

    Q: (Gaetan Vigneron – RTBF) Stoffel, could we say that your improved results in so few races could be related to the fact that at one point you could chose your own set-up with your engineers?

    SV: Yeah, I think –  like I said before –  I think it’s just the way I’m working with the team, working with my engineers has developed a lot. I think having had the opportunity to have a bit more track time enabled us to kind of see what I needed from the car, for the engineers as well to understand exactly what I needed from the car. At this point we’re perfectly up to speed with that. There are no doubts any more. I’m very very comfortable as well. Every time I go into a weekend I’m just confident that things will work out, things will go and that’s a nice feeling to have when you jump in the car, to feel comfortable and the car will do what you want it to do.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference