INDIA in F1

Tag: F1

  • Hamilton moves closer to title with a dominant Sochi win, his 42nd

    Lewis Hamilton moved within touching distance of a third F1 drivers’ title as he took a dominant Russian Grand Prix victory ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, while Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg retired from the race with a mechanical failure soon after the start of the race. Hamilton’s 42nd win also saw him surpass boyhood hero Ayrton Senna’s career wins total.

    With Vettel second, Sergio Perez claimed his and Force India’s first podium finish of the year, the Mexican profiting from a final-lap collision involving Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

    Starting from pole, Rosberg held his advantage when the lights went out to signal the start of the race, despite determined pressure from Hamilton. Behind the front-row pair, Raikkonen made an excellent start from fifth place and made his way past Vettel and Bottas to claim third place.

    Perez slotted into sixth behind Vettel but the Mexican’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was in trouble. Starting from seventh he spun in Turn 2 and as he slid across the track he collided with Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. Verstappen sustained a pincyture and limped back to the pits for repairs but the race was over for Hulkenberg and Ericsson.

    The incident brought out the safety car and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean pitted to check his front wing, as he too had been caught up in the Turn 2 drama, and he also switched from super soft tyres to soft.

    When the race restarted on lap four, Bottas made his way past Raikkonen to reclaim P3. At the front, however, Rosberg was in difficulty, telling his team that he was having problems with the throttle of his car.

    Hamilton closed in and on lap seven Rosberg, clearly struggling with his car, went wide through Turn 2 and Hamilton swept past to take the lead. Rosberg pitted at the end of the lap and eventually retired from the race.

    Hamilton now led by just over two seconds from Bottas, with Raikkonen third ahead of Vettel. Perez was three seconds behind Vettel in fifth place, with Daniil Kvyat sixth ahead of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was eighth, just 0.7s ahead of Felipe Massa who had climbed to ninth from 15th on the grid and 10th-placed Pastor Maldonado.

    The safety car was deployed again on lap 12 as Lotus’ Romain Gropsjean, in P13 lost control on the way through Turn 3. The Frenchman went side on into the barriers destroying his car. He quickly clambered out of the wreckage, however, and was uninjured in the incident.

    During the safety car period Perez and Ricciardo pitted on lap 13, with both shedding their starting supersofts for soft tyres. That left Hamilton in the lead from Bottas, Raikkonen and Vettel, while Kvyat was now up to fifth ahead of Nasr, Massa and Maldonado, who had both started on soft tyres, Perez and Ricciardo.

    The re-start, on lap 17, was action-packed. Bottas was told that Hamilton was struggling with tyre temperatures behind the safety car and sensing an opportunity the Finn attacked in earnest as the safety car left the circuit. Hamilton held firm to stay in the lead, however.

    Behind them, Vettel attempted to muscle past Raikkonen through Turn 2, with the Finn forced off track, but Raikkonen too held his nerve and stayed in second place. Vettel hadn’t given up, however, and a couple of corners later the German passed his team-mate on the inside to take P3.

    Further back Perez passed Maldonado to move into P8 and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, who had been passed clear to race following a heavy crash in FP3 on Saturday, got by Ricciardo to claim P10, though the Red Bull Racing driver would reclaim the spot on the next lap.

    At the front, Hamilton was now striding away and by the start of lap 23 he had 6.3s in hand over Bottas and was running almost a second per lap quicker than the Finn.

    Bottas pitted from P2 on lap 27. He took on soft tyresd and emerged into traffic behind Sainz in P11.

    Veetl was the next of the frontrunners to stop, on lap 31. His stop for soft tyres was 2.2 seconds and he emerged ahead of Bottas. Massa too pitted on the same lap, shedding his opening soft tyres for supersofts. Raikkonen made his stop for soft rubber at the end of the following tour.

    He rejoined alongside Bottas and the Williams driver battled hard to hold position, despite a strong challenger from his fellow Finn

    It was then Hamilton’s turn to pit, which left Kvyat, on lap 33, leading his home race. He didn’t have much time to enjoy the moment, however, or to have his lead officially recorded as he pitted at the end of the lap. He rejoined in P9 ahead of the McLarens.

    Nasr was the last to stop, and once the Brazilian had rejoined the order saw Hamilton leading by 13 seconds from Vettel. Perez had profited from his stop under the second safety car and the Mexican was now third on soft tyres with fellow early stopper Ricciardo in fourth. Bottas was now fifth and engaged in a toe-to-toe battle with Raikkonen, while Sainz was seventh ahead of Kvyat, Massa and Button.

    Both Perez and Ricciardo were now battling to keep their older tyres alive under pressure from the quicker cars of Bottas and Raikkonen. On lap 43, however, Ricciardo fell into DRS range of fifth-placed Bottas, while third-placed Perez was visibly struggling with front tyre wear.

    On lap 45 Ricciardo could hold out no more and Bottas went past the Australian in Turn 2. Ricciardo defended hard against the next assault from Raikkonen but eventually the Finn got past under DRS on the main straight. Ricciardo’s hard work proved in vain as he exited the race just a lap later. The Australian reported that something was “broken on the car, suspension or something” and he stopped his Red Bull at Turn 8.

    Further back Sainz in P9 was in trouble with his brakes and he following one spin he had another more terminal one at Turn 13 where he slid backwards into the barriers and out of the race.

    By lap 50 Bottas was inside DRS range of Perez but was struggling to get past the Mercedes-powered Force India man. Bottas was brave however and on one lap from home he braked late and pushed past the Mexican in Turn 13. Raikkonen seized the opportunity too and now the battle for third was between the Williams and Ferrari drivers.

    Raikkonen closed in and attempted a riskt overtake in Turn 4 of the final lap. The attempt failed and he collided with the Williams, taking Bottas out of the race.

    With his own car damaged Raikkonen was forced to slow. Perez, despite his struggles, swept past and after Hamilton had crossed the line to claim his ninth victory of the season and Vettel took second, the Force India driver grabbed the fifth podium finish of his career and his first since the Bahrain GP of 2014.

    Raikkonen was also passed by Massa and with the Ferrari driver fifth, sixth place went to Kvyat, with Nasr seventh ahead of Maldonado, Button and Alonso.

    2015 Russian Grand Prix – Race
    1 Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes 1:37:11.024
    2 Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari +5.953
    3 Sergio Perez  Force India +28.918
    4 Felipe Massa  Williams +38.831
    5 Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari +42.358
    6 Daniil Kvyat  Red Bull Racing +47.566
    7 Felipe Nasr  Sauber +56.508
    8 Pastor Maldonado  Team Lotus +1:01.088
    9 Jenson Button  McLaren +1:19.467
    10 Fernando Alonso  McLaren +1:26.210
    11 Max Verstappen  Toro Rosso +1:28.424
    12 Valtteri Bottas  Williams +1 lap
    13 Roberto Merhi  Manor +1 lap
    14 Will Stevens  Manor +2 laps
    15 Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull Racing +6 laps
    R Carlos Sainz Jr.  Toro Rosso Brakes
    R Romain Grosjean  Team Lotus Spun off
    R Nico Rosberg  Mercedes Throttle
    R Nico Hulkenberg  Force India Collision
    R Marcus Ericsson  Sauber Collision

    eom/FIA press release

    Hamilton celebrates after Sochi win. An FIA image
    Hamilton celebrates after Sochi win. An FIA image

  • Sergio Perez takes third place for Sahara Force India: Russian Grand Prix

    Sochi, 11 October 2015: Mexican Sergio Perez brought cheers with a highly-deserved podium for Sahara Force India as he overcame last-minute jitters and degrading tyres to take the third place in the 15th round of the Formula One World Championship here on Sunday. For the record Lewis Hamilton took his 42nd win to overtake the number of wins by his childhood hero Ayrton Senna and also equalled the record of Sebastian Vettel, who finished third for Ferrari today.

    “A lot of things were going on in my mind (after the overtake). But I gave it may all. So I am very happy to be here,” Perez said on podium.

    Trailing the Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and the Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari , Perez saw his third place vanish when both Valtteri Bottas of Williams and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari overtook him at the same corner with a lap to go. However, Bottas made contact with Raikkonen after he appeared to come into the line of the Red car and crashed out of the race. Though Raikkonen rejoined to finish the race in fifth place, the incident will be judged by the stewards before the result is confirmed.

    Meanwhile, Perez who managed to save his front right tyre was back in the third place for his first podium this year. His last podium came in the Bahrain race in 2014, a third-place finish. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg retired early in the race with mechanical problems.

    “It’s a fantastic podium for finish from Checo Perez at Sochi. Valuable 15 points to consolidate 5th position in the constructors championship. He deserves it and I am proud of the team,” said Vijay Mallya, team principal, after the race.

    Sergio Perez stands ninth in the championship with 57 points while Force India stays at fifth place with 92 points.

     

    eom/david

    Sergio Perez on way to a third place in Sochi on Sunday. A Sahara Force India image
    Sergio Perez on way to a third place in Sochi on Sunday. A Sahara Force India image

  • With very little track time, we had to guess a bit and it worked: Nico Rosberg

    DRIVERS
    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Willams)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Nico, you were fastest in Q1 and Q3, fastest after the first run in Q3, on pole by a decent margin. Are you pleased with that?
    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure, I’m very happy. It’s been a difficult weekend actually, because of the little running that we got; we didn’t get much practice. Qualifying worked out really well; found a good balance on my car, thanks to my engineers as well. We had to guess a bit where is it going to be and it all worked out well. I felt comfortable, so got some really good laps in and I’m very happy with that.

    Very well done. Lewis, obviously you were trailing your team-mate after the first part of Q3 and then you didn’t go for the extra lap at the end. Why not? And I saw you looking around the Ferrari afterwards, did you learn anything from it? 
    Lewis HAMILTON: No. I did go for my second lap; I just didn’t finish it. I made a mistake at Turn 13 I think it is. Yeah, a difficult weekend I think for everyone. Nico did a great job on his lap. I wasn’t quite perfectly happy with the balance that I had. But overall really happy. I think it’s great for the team and yeah, as you say last year this is not such a bad race for P2.

    OK, thank you for that. Valtteri, you matched your result of last year, do you feel you have the measure of Ferrari this weekend?
    Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, it seems like it, at least today. We were quite competitive. It’s good to be third; it’s a good place to start here. Obviously it has been a tricky weekend for everyone but I really think we managed to use Practice 3, well, part of it, what we had, pretty well. I managed to get some good laps in qualifying, consistently, and I pleased with the laps and what we did as a team.

    Well done. Coming back to you Nico, obviously you’re going for the Constructors’ Championship tomorrow, trying to clinch it here for the second year in a row, but have you personally got a plan for worked out for Turn One. Lewis referenced it in

    Nico Rosberg flanked by Hamilton (P2) on his right and Valtteri Bottas (P3) on Saturday after taking the pole. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Nico Rosberg flanked by Hamilton (P2) on his right and Valtteri Bottas (P3) on Saturday after taking the pole. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    his answer, after what happened here last year.
    NR: No, not yet. I haven’t thought about that yet. At the moment just enjoying being on pole and I’ll dig into that this evening or tomorrow morning to work out a plan for that. Of course the Constructors’ Championship is a really important target for us this weekend – it would be amazing to clinch it for the second time so early on in the season – so we’re out to do that, but at the same time, of course, I’m out here to try to reduce the gap to Lewis in terms of points.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico, you mentioned in your first answer about the lack of running this weekend, the really unusual situation. We had it in Japan but even worse here because of the curtailed Free Practice 3 after Carlos Sainz’s accident. So what have you been able to find out in terms of long runs with this much softer tyres than last year here in Russia and how much guesswork is going to be involved in strategy and race performance tomorrow?
    NR: Well, we tried to prepare as best we could. So this morning we did do some high fuel running, everybody did. So we do have an idea of how it’s going to be tomorrow, so it’s not completely just guessing. No, we’re quite comfortable that we know what to expect and strategy-wise we think we have got a good strategy, so it should be fine.

    Lewis, I wonder if you could give us your view on what happened this morning – the accident of Sainz and going under the barriers? Your thoughts on that speaking on behalf of the drivers?
    LH: To be honest I don’t know anything about it, so I couldn’t really comment. I’m just glad he’s OK.

    Q: OK, well I’ll throw a question maybe you can answer. You obviously mentioned the fact you are quite happy to start in second place, based on what happened here last year. So, obviously today didn’t work out for you in the single laps but fro the little that you’ve been able to learn from the high-fuel running, do you think you’ll be able to challenge for the win tomorrow.
    LH: I wasn’t saying I was happy, I mean I have no choice of being second right now, obviously Nico did a better job in qualifying but I feel there’s still all to play for, as you’ve seen in many other races where I’ve started second. I think it’s exciting. It makes the race ever more exciting and, as I’ve said, Turn One, it’s a long, long way down to Turn One. Probably one of the longest ones of the whole year so it should create opportunities. But there are other opportunities throughout the race as well.

    Q: Coming to you Valtteri, obviously both these gentlemen managed to get through Q1 without using a set of Supersoft tyres, just showing the performance that they have. A lot of your competitors struggled, it seemed, to get temperature into the tyres today as the temperatures actually came down during the course of the qualifying session. Is that something you struggled with – and can you articulate what it was like to use these tyres here today?
    VB: Yeah. We already saw last year it’s quite tricky to get tyres to work in the first timed lap, and that’s why you could saw many people doing many laps and longer running in qualifying than normal. What we did in the practice and in Q1 also, we just tried to learn more about the tyres so we’re sure we’re making the right decision what we’re going to do in Q3 in terms of tyre temperatures, pressures and how many laps we do. So I think everyone struggled with it today – but we got it right. We got the max out of the car and the tyres.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for all of you about the accident of this morning, car that went through the barrier. Would like to know if you’re worried about it: the dynamic of the accident. The car was inside of the barrier.

    We’ve already asked Lewis that question so we’ll start with Nico.
    NR: I haven’t seen it so difficult to comment. Of course we always need to push to improve things. Apparently it’s not good, not ideal, so let’s see if we can make progress on that.

    Valterri?
    VB: I haven’t seen it either, so can’t really say that much. Like Nico, we always need to keep pushing on the safety.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Nico, in the last race you were very conservative at the start and maybe that was one of the reasons you lost the victory. How do you plan your start tomorrow?
    NR: On the one side I don’t agree with your opinion – but that’s OK. On the second, just work on it tonight and tomorrow. Work on the start, get everything right there, look at last year’s start, learn from that. That’s it.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) To both of the Mercedes drivers: you were very aggressive – Hamilton was very aggressive – here last year and you were very aggressive also in Japan. I would like to continue on this matter, to know that if, as you have this goal tomorrow [the Constructors’ Championship] does it change you approach for the first corner?
    LH: You said I was aggressive here last year? Here? I don’t remember being aggressive. But whatever I did last year it worked so I plan to stay the same really.
    Q: I think the point of the question is that you have had a few starts where you have been quite close, not least the last one in Japan and as you’ve got the Constructors’ possibly tomorrow, is it going to change your thinking going into the first corner. For both of you.
    NR: No. Nothing changes anything. It’s one way and that’s it.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) In Q1, only Lewis and Nico were on soft tyres, all the others were on supersoft tyres. Is this some kind of reference that we can expect in the race?
    NR: Looks like we were especially quick on the soft which is always a good thing of course in the race, because everybody has to use them once so that can only help us.

    Q: You’re expecting this to be a one-stop race tomorrow then?
    NR: I don’t know about the strategy yet. That’s look into that this evening.
    LH: Yeah, very strange coming into the weekend – people were making assumptions that we would have a repeat of Singapore. Obviously I had no idea what it’s going to be like and to think that now we have it the other way round it’s very, very strange. I don’t have answer for it but the car felt good otherwise on the tyres today. I don’t know how it will be for the race. I think from our short long run, the seven laps that we might have got, we have to take information from that, but it didn’t feel bad.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri you were a very consistent third in every session; was this your strongest qualifying hour of the season?
    VB: Well, I think compared to the number of laps I’ve got and everyone has yesterday and today it was not bad from my side. I felt very good. I could have been feeling very good in the car all weekend and managed to do multiple laps in a very consistent way without any mistakes. Yeah, I can be happy for the session but it’s difficult to say if it’s the best or one of the best.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Sahara Force India’s Hulkenberg and Perez to start on P6 and P7 respectively for the Sochi race; Rosberg on pole

    Sochi, 10 Oct 2015: Sahara Force India enjoyed a strong qualifying performance on Saturday afternoon as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez set the sixth and seventh fastest times of the day ahead of the Russian Grand Prix, the 15th round of the 21-round Formula One World Championship. Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes took the pole position.
    Force India looks to score more points and seal its fifth place. Currently the Indian team has 77 points in the Constructors’ Championship. Nico Hulkenberg is one point behind behind Sergio Perez in 11th in the Drivers’ Standings with 38 points.
    Nico Hulkenberg, the 28-year old German, took P6 behind the wheel of VJM08 with a time of 1:38.659 in Q3. He made it to Q2 clocking 1:39.250 in Q1 and then timed 1:38.727 in Q2 to make the top cut.
    “I’m very satisfied with sixth place today and our qualifying performance is a great team result. Even though we’ve had limited running here in practice, I’ve had a good feeling with the car – there is a nice balance and it’s giving me confidence. The result today is probably the maximum we could achieve when you look at the cars ahead of us and it means we’re starting in a great position for tomorrow. The race is going to be interesting because there are still some unknowns about how the tyres will behave over long runs and the strategy calls won’t be easy. I’m looking forward to the race and converting this grid position into some good points,” said Nico Hulkenberg.
    Sergio Perez finished behind him in seventh place with a time of  1:38.691 in Q3. After the qualification Perez said: “It’s always tricky to get the car where you want it to be when you don’t do much running in practice, but it’s a good result for the team and I believe we got the most we could from the session. This is not an easy track to put a good lap together and getting the tyres to the right temperature is a challenge, so I think we can be pleased with this result. I set my best lap on used tyres, which shows that the supersoft tyres take a long time to reach their best. There are still a few question marks about the performance of the tyres during long runs, which will make it very interesting tomorrow, but I don’t expect degradation to be very high. We have a very good chance to be competitive in the race; it will be a tough one but I’m confident we can come away from it with some big points.”
     Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal too was happy and looks to get more points in the Russian Olympic city.
    “It was hard to separate our two drivers this afternoon with just four hundredths of a second between Nico and Sergio at the end of Q3. We knew coming into this weekend that we had the potential to get both cars inside the top ten and our performance today is another demonstration of just how competitive the VJM08 has become as the season has progressed. Getting the tyres in their correct operating window was a challenge today and considering the lack of mileage leading up to qualifying the team and drivers did a great job to optimise things as much as possible. What is important now is that we convert these promising starting positions into good points to strengthen our fifth place in the championship,” said Bob.

    eom/Force India inputs

    A good qualification brings cheer to the Sahara Force India camp on Saturday. A Force India image
    A good qualification brings cheer to the Sahara Force India camp on Saturday. A Force India image

  • Sahara Force India tops timesheets in rain-affected Practice session at Sochi

    Sahara Force India topped the timesheets in Sochi this morning during a disrupted practice session ahead of Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix. The rain-affected afternoon session saw all the teams complete limited mileage in anticipation of dry weather over the weekend.
     
    Nico Hülkenberg       VJM08-01
    FP1:     1:44.355            (P1)                  11 laps
    FP2:     No time            (P13)                3 laps
     
    Nico: “It has not been the most adventurous day in the car. It’s always frustrating when you have a big work plan and you can’t go out, but it’s the same set of conditions for everyone. Like in Suzuka two weeks ago, we finish Friday without having done much running, but that generally makes it more interesting and unpredictable for the rest of the weekend. The next two days are likely to be dry, so tomorrow morning’s final practice will be crucial: we will need to learn and adapt quickly ahead of qualifying. We will need to squeeze a long run in during FP3 and do the necessary car and tyre set-up exploration. It will be a busy session, but at the same time it could generate an opportunity for us. It’s going to be a big challenge for everyone.”
    Sergio Perez              VJM08-02
    FP1:     1:45.146            (P4)                  11 laps
    FP2:     No time             (P12)                3 laps
    Sergio: “The work we have done today is limited. The track conditions this morning were very poor so we ran a reduced programme. It wasn’t easy to evaluate the set-up changes so we could not learn very much. Then, the rain arrived this afternoon and we only did a few laps. It means final practice tomorrow morning is going to be the most important practice session of all – just as it was in Japan. I still feel optimistic for the weekend and I think we have the potential to be competitive here.”
    Nico Hulkenberg on Friday at Sochi. A Sahara Force India image
    Nico Hulkenberg on Friday at Sochi. A Sahara Force India image

    Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer

    “The spillage of diesel on the track this morning and the wet afternoon session leave all the teams with limited knowledge ahead of what is expected to be a dry weekend. Despite the lack of mileage, both Nico and Sergio were quite happy with the baseline set-up of their cars, even though track conditions were less than ideal. The main focus now is to make sure we maximise our learning during final practice with a combination of short and longer runs, especially on the supersoft tyres, which we didn’t manage to use today. On days like today we also have to make good use of our simulation tools because it’s a circuit for which we have minimal information with only one previous event here.”

  • Rule-making powers and the privileges to a few, harm the sport: Monisha

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Graeme LOWDON (Manor), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Paul MONAGHAN (Red Bull Racing), Rob SMEDLEY (Williams)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Graeme, if we can start with you, obviously the big news as far as you are concerned is Mercedes engines for next year. What does it mean you can do now and where do you expect to be fighting in 2016?
    Graeme LOWDON: Well, it’s a big step forward for the team. If you look at the last… from 12 months from this weekend last year, there’s an awful lot happened in the team. We’ve been very much rebuilding. This year has very much been very much about getting back to really where we were probably about a year and a half ago. This new agreement with Mercedes AMG HPP and also with Williams, who obviously we have worked with before in the past and had a very successful relationship with Williams in the past, gives us the chance to really get back into the pack and get back to racing, which is what we want to do. It’s also pretty important to recognise the assistance we have had from Scuderia Ferrari as well this year. This year was a very strange year for us and we were in a situation where without their help at the start of the season we simply wouldn’t be here. So without the assistance of Sergio Marchionne and Maurizio Arrrivabene and also in particular at the start of this season James Allison…  there was a huge amount of effort that went into making sure our team was still on the grid and I think we’ll always be extremely grateful for that. But looking to the future I think we’ve got a chance to level the playing field a little bit and try to get back into the pack and really start racing again.

    And driver-wise, would you expect to be running one of the Mercedes development drivers next year or is the field completely open?
    GL: The field is completely open. It’s not easy for any driver to get into Formula One at the minute and there are some quite good drivers looking to do that but also the grid is pretty full at the moment. We have drivers that we need to focus on for this year as well. Decisions on drivers for us will come much later in the season.

    Paul [Hembery], coming to you: a different choice tyre choice this year here in Sochi as far as Pirelli is concerned – supersoft and soft. What difference do you expect that to have on race strategy?
    Paul HEMBERY: Well, not too sure after today in the sense that we didn’t get any dry running of note. The reason for that was based on last year. It was the first year here. We found the surface to be a lot smoother than anticipated. I think it was Nico who basically ran the whole, bar one lap, on the medium, so we felt that we would be in a position to be able to use the two more aggressive compounds for here. If we get some warm temperatures maybe they’ll push us on to a two-stop race.

    And from what you’ve learned from the developments of this year, what kind of tyres do you want to provide next year in Formula One? More strategic variation? Any particular channels you’re thinking of, pathways?
    PH: Well, I think there’s been a lot in the media about maybe changes to the rules for next year in terms of the way that the tyres are selected for each race, giving more freedom to the teams, and that appears to be getting close to a final decision. So hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll be able to explain that to people, how that’s going to work. That’s the main change. We want to make some structural changes, as we try to look at each year, particular with the cars getting quicker. There’s a new supersoft that we’re working on to bring to the races next year. So, there are a few changes, but I think the most significant is going to be centred on the way that the tyres are allocated for each race.

    Q: Paul, coming to you, obviously as we were just hearing, very little running today for a variety of reasons, not least the weather. Talk us through how much there is to do tomorrow in that free practice three session. What does the job sheet look like?
    Paul MONAGHAN: Quite full – but most P3s do fill up. You tend to run nearer the end of the session when the track has evolved a little bit. So, obviously, we trundle out on a green track tomorrow morning. I think it will depend on what each team considers it wants to be its aims from P3. Some might do a little bit more work towards qualifying, others may do a little bit of work for qualifying and then try to have a look at the car’s behaviour on higher fuel loads. I suspect the majority will do a mix and the bias will depend on what the team wishes to pursue more vigorously.

    Q: It’s now early October and you don’t know yet what engine you’ll be using in the back of your car next year. At what point does being forced to miss the pre-season tests become a real risk? Presuming, of course, that Red Bull continues in Formula One next year.
    PM: It’s getting a little bit late. At the moment it will be a squeeze but we’ll do it. I guess if you’re… OK, we can go to the first test and it can be a washout for three or four days, so it’s wrong to say that anybody that runs the first test will automatically have a benefit on us. Yeah, they might, but we could cope – so however the land lies, we’ll deal with it.

    Q: Monisha, coming to you, obviously the development since the last race, you’ve lodged a formal complaint to the EU. Can you tell us why and why now?

    Monisha flays unfair rules at Friday press conference. An FIA image
    Monisha flays unfair rules at Friday press conference. An FIA image

    Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, to start with the second part, this has been an ongoing process so there’s no real specific to it why exactly now. The reason what we’ve done it for, I think we’ve explained earlier on, so what I can tell you so far is we have, together with another team, lodged this formal complaint to the European Commission alleging violation of European competition law and we want to challenge the rule-making powers and the privileges that together, in our view, harm the sport. I think we’ve been saying that for quite a while and now this is the next logical step. We hope from this that the commission will start a proper investigation. We hope they’ll put the sport onto a footing which allows teams teams to compete on the same basis and that they will look into why the unfair terms – which we feel are unfair – were actually imposed.

    Q: And what are you hoping the outcome will be?
    MK: That, essentially, we have a fairer system in the sport, which the bottom line is that we can all compete on the same basis. That’s it.

    Q: Coming to you Rob, Felipe was in the press conference yesterday and said that the focus of the team is now on 2016, although there are still come development parts scheduled to come onto the car before the end of this season. What can you tell us about your 2016 car and the targets you’re setting for it?
    Rob SMEDLEY: Well, obviously we’ve been working on the 2016 car as most of the teams probably, up this end of the grid have been doing for a reasonable amount of time now. Certainly the focus has been fully switched to that car for a good few months. There are still things coming through for the FW37, so the 2015 car, but they’re more corollary development of next year’s car. The targets are ever-improving. I can’t really go into the specifics but we’re looking at all the areas: vehicle dynamics, vehicle science, aerodynamics obviously. Tyre science is of great importance to us and we’re constantly striving to improve that. So, there’s no one, single target that we have; there’s no one magic bullet in Formula One. It’s more just about trying to improve every little bit.

    Q: There’s a lot of talk obviously at the moment, about engine suppliers in Formula One. Do you feel that you have reached the limit of what’s possible as a customer engine team in this sport?
    RS: No, not at all. You could perhaps argue that if we were the second quickest team but no, I don’t think that we’ve reached the limit. I think that there’s still more for us to do. I think that as a company Williams, over the past 18 months, has been improving. Some of that you see is directly affecting what we do at the track or our results at the track and some of it’s a little bit more subtle but certainly there’s still a lot more that we need to do if the team wants to make good on its ambition, if the team wants to eventually win races and then World Championships, then there’s a great deal of background work both subtle and fundamental structures of the business which we still need to look at. I don’t think that we’ve reached… we haven’t fulfilled the full potential. We’re still being a customer team.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) Rob, just a quick question on today, specifically. You did a bit more wet running than some of the other guys. That’s been a weakness of the team over the last 18 months or so. Do you feel as though you’re making some progress, was what you saw today a bit more promising today?
    RS: Yeah. It’s always very difficult to say because it’s practice and you very rarely know what other people are doing but on pure face value, I think that we are probably moving forward in that area. We have spent quite a lot of time as a group and that involves all the groups back at base, trying to understand where the issues lie with our car in lower speed corners, in certain trajectory of corners and in the wet. That work now, I would say, is starting to come to fruition, we’re starting to get some leads on where we need to take the car and that’s why… you probably saw in Singapore we were keen to get lots of set-up work in, lots of practice work in and the same here. We wanted to run. We were a little bit scuppered by the track conditions that we had today which were neither one thing nor the other. It was a weird situation where half the track was a lot wetter than the other half and of course the teams who were confident in their wet running didn’t need to run but we were out there, we were just trying to understand a little bit more about the tyres. We had to wait until other people were running so we could pitch ourselves against them but I think that more than just the lap times, which can be a little bit misleading in practice, I think the drivers were just happy with the balance of the car. We know we’ve got a specific problem in the wet and certainly today that was a lot better.

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) Monisha, regarding the EU investigation of the lodging of the complaint, there are more than two disenfranchised teams, both in terms of rule making and CCB payments. What efforts did you guys make to get everybody in on the complaint and would having more signatories have strengthened your case do you think?
    MK: Well, these talks amongst the non-privileged teams – if you can put it like that – have been going on for quite a while so they were always informed about it but it’s their decision not to sign it or not to support it, at least at the moment – I don’t think there’s anybody out there who would not support it but they probably have to take a public position on that as well. We’ve always been transparent, from our side. We’ve always told them where we stand and it’s entirely up to them  and they’ll decide, I guess, when they want to join it or not and they will have their reasons for that.

    Q: (Daniel Ortelli – Agence France Presse) Question about these privileges; Sauber has been in Formula One for 20 years but it gets no money from the premium fund, do you think it’s normal and is it part of your complaint?
    MK: Well, we’ve been (involved for) 23 years actually. I can’t tell you details about the complaint because now it’s an ongoing procedure and we have to adhere to all the steps there. What we have basically requested or asked the commission to do is to investigate why these – in our view – unfair terms regarding the voting rights, the rule-making on one side and on the other side the distribution of revenues have been imposed. We have asked the commission to – as we see – abuse of dominance arising from the way these privileges have been granted in these two areas. So we have our position on that, we don’t consider it to be fair and based on that, we have submitted our complaint which is to be also clear about it against the commercial rights holder.

  • My job is to try to drive the car that I have as fast as I can…: Kvyat, the most successful Russian F1 driver

    DRIVERS – Clockwise from Top left: Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes) 

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Daniil, can we start with you. Your home race, obviously. Last year you had a great qualifying performance in fifth and this year you’ve finished six of the last seven races in a higher position than you started, so with the soft and supersoft combination of tyres we saw in Singapore, do you feel this should be another chance for a podium?
    Daniil KVYAT: Well, first of all, I think it’s nice to be home in Russia and it’s great to have a home grand prix I think, so we can feel the support from the local fans. Talking about our chances, I think obviously it’s not the easiest track for us, probably it’s not suiting us as good as Singapore or Hungary, but I still think that as has been proven you always have to keep pushing and things can come towards us. There are a few long straights here, which probably don’t suit us so well, however we will keep pushing; we will try to maximise our potential, find the right compromise and who knows what can happen in the race.

    You’re now the most successful Russian driver in Formula One history but the future of Red Bull’s teams is hanging in the balance. Have you been given any assurances for 2016?
    DK: Well, you know, I think there have been some rumours in the media and stuff like that. Obviously not the nicest things to hear about your own team, but you know,

    FIA Thursday press conference in Sochi. An FIA image
    FIA Thursday press conference in Sochi. An FIA image

    and that’s what I want to focus on first of all and the other things that are hanging in the air, as you said, I think they are up to other people in our team and I trust them 100 per cent, on what they are doing and I rely on them for these kind of questions, 100 per cent.

    Thank you very much. Fernando, coming to you: celebrating your 250th grand prix entry this weekend, congratulations for that. You started 12th in the last two races, the team’s best of the season. What are you going to be working on this weekend and at the remaining events this season?
    Fernando ALONSO: Well, I think it’s going to be more or less the same at the remaining races: trying to get some more information about the car and more philosophies on the car to set up for next year as well. So, some interesting things that we would like to test in these races and keep helping also Honda in terms developing the power unit: the driveability, reliability as well, that we had some up and downs during the season. But as you said the last two races were probably the most competitive ones for us, Singapore and Japan, so hopefully keep going in the same direction, just better. It’s not too difficult as we start quite low, but it seems we are making some good progress, so we need to keep going like that.

    Obviously the big talking point were the radio messages during the race in Japan. Did you think they were going to remain private and what kind of reaction have you had from Honda?
    FA: Yeah, of course. Obviously we have been all season very positive, about the team and about the car, we faced some difficult times, some tough times, all the team and what you talk on the radio should remain private because you are talking with your team not publically. I think publically, as I said, we have been very, very positive all the time. You know sometimes it’s normal and understandable, talking to the team, you know the level of frustration and the level of commitment that I have for racing and Jenson has for racing as well, when you are battling and you cannot hold anyone behind and you are losing positions is normal. But as I said, this is a very unique sport, that we have a microphone in our helmet and it goes live on television. Imagine in NBA or football players or something like that what we can find. This is normal and it’s just talking to the team, it’s understandable the frustration with the car.

    Thanks very much. Coming to you Nico: Constructors’ Championship within Mercedes’ grasp here. Second year in a row you can clinch the Constructors’ this weekend here in Sochi. What are your thoughts on that?
    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it is one of the aims of this weekend, to try to clinch that. Special to be able to do it again in such a manner, such a dominating manner. Really awesome job by the team. And again to have the chance to close it down so early. But, of course Ferrari has been strong recently, very, very strong even, so we need to be cautious, we still need to work hard, get the best out of it but of course we’re optimistic.

    Now, last year this race on a new track didn’t turn out as people expected in terms of how the way the track performed with the tyres etc – you did almost the whole race on one set of tyres. With the tyres that have brought along this year what kind of race weekend can we expect? Can you give us your analysis of what lies ahead?
    NR: Yeah, it is quite particular, because the asphalt is very special here. It is quite different. Therefore there are some new challenges you need to handle. Also the tyres being softer is going to different again to last year, because last year there was hardly any degradation, I did the whole race without any pit stop, or with one on the first lap, and it’s going to be quite different. Again we need to adapt to the new situation, so it could be an interesting one.

    Q: Romain, coming to you, obviously since Suzuka you’ve been announced as a Haas driver for 2016. What does the next three years look like for you?
    Romain GROSJEAN: Hopefully pretty successful! It was a great opportunity I had to join Haas. As I’ve said, leaving Enstone is going to be, from an emotional point of view, quite hard because I’ve spent ten years there. I think Fernando knows how it is in this team: very, very strong group of people. On the other hand, from a sporting point of view, I think the way Haas is coming to Formula One is very, very clever. He’s been successful in his business, he’s been successful in NASCAR. Coming alongside Ferrari – which is probably the biggest team in Formula One – makes sense, and for me to have a new experience with an American team can be very, very nice.

    Q: You’ve qualified in the top ten at the last five races. Obviously we know of the problems going on in the background with your team at the same time all the other teams are still developing etcetera, etcetera. How have you and the team managed to do that, given the relative circumstances?
    RG: I think, as I say, Enstone is quite a particular team in a way, the people stayed united and very strong together. I think the funniest part was not having any hospitality in Japan. It didn’t matter at the end because what we want to do at the end is to do our performance, we want to race, we want to race hard and go for it and that’s what we do. Just focussing on what you can do, what you can change and forgetting the outside part of it is the key. We have done it pretty well, with some fun and hopefully, with five races remaining, we can do some good stuff.

    Q: Felipe, last year here in Sochi, a very good race for Williams if not for you personally – but I guess this ought to be another strong one, and clearly the target for you personally this weekend would be another podium, right?
    Felipe MASSA: Yeah. I think it’s a good track for us so I really believe our car can be competitive on this track, which it was last year. I had a problem on the engine in the qualifying, so I had to start last but we’re looking forward for the race – so I really hope we can be competitive, strong and finish with both cars in very, very good positions here.

    Q: And where are you at with the thinking as a team? Are you still developing this car right through to the final race in Abu Dhabi, or are you focussing now very firmly on 2016, trying to bridge that gap to Ferrari and Mercedes?
    FM: We had some new parts of the car in the last races. Even this race we have some little bits but I think we are already thinking about next year since a little bit of time. We understand it’s very important to finish at least where we are in the Constructors’ Championship but we really understand that next year is really, really important and, as soon as you start, the better it is, so definitely we’re really concentrating on next year.

    Q: Carlos, Suzuka another race where the result didn’t match up to the qualifying and the performance that preceded it. What are you working on to try and reverse this pattern?
    Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, it’s been a difficult weekend in Suzuka with a lot of positives to take – but the P10 I think didn’t show the good weekend that we had done until then. Obviously we had this problem in qualifying and then I did the mistake in the race after doing some good free practices in the wet. So, we just need a clean weekend without any mistake from my side, without any reliability problems on the team side and I’m sure we can put a very good result together because we saw that the performance is really there.

    Q: And the same question I guess to you as I put to Daniil at the beginning. Dietrich Mateschitz has said a decision will be made on his teams by the end of this month. What assurances – and, indeed, alternatives – do you have?
    CS: To be honest, I don’t know and I’m not really taking care of that matter too much. As Dany said, I think we’re here to drive and our job is to extract the maximum performance of our car. I just know that the team obviously  is working hard, and now more than ever, to find something for next year. Obviously it starts to be a bit late and we need to design all the rear part of the car. When you don’t have something at the rear at this stage of the year, it’s a bit tricky – but I have full trust that they will come to a solution. To an agreement. I think Red Bull more than anyone deserves… they have done a lot for this sport, a lot for Formula One and they will end up having a decent engine, a decent package for next year.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Fernando, you put out a few tweets after the last race which weren’t 100 per cent clear. So, just for the sake of clarity, to make it much easier, yes or no, will you be racing for McLaren in 2016?
    FA: You didn’t read the tweets.

    I read them but they weren’t totally clear…
    FA: Of course I’m not English, my mother language is Spanish. In Spanish they were a little bit clear.

    How about now, from my question, yes or no?
    FA: The same. Yes. Of course.

    100 per cent you’ll be with McLaren, 2016 on the grid?
    FA: And ’17.

    And 17
    FA: Yes.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport): Question for Nico, after the grand prix in Suzuka, Lauda said “we came back but we have to be cautious that the next race could be different again because it’s different asphalt.” Is it a worry – because last year Mercedes dominated the grand prix with five cars in the top six positions? It’s really a problem with the soft and supersoft and the characteristics of the layout – or not?
    NR: No, it’s very unique this race, with the asphalt, with supersoft, soft compared to last year, soft, medium. So, it will be a particular challenge and we did show weaknesses on the soft, supersoft in Singapore. Big weaknesses. We have learned from that but, again, here is not Singapore so we need to do a really good job and it’s not going to be as simple as maybe Suzuka was in terms of preparation.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, while the results have not been as good as you have been expecting, how much does that take away from the maximum enjoyment you could get from racing?
    NR: It’s always an enjoyment but of course winning races increases that enjoyment further. It would be great to get back to winning ways very soon.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Fernando, you’ve been asked about the radio messages. Obviously you are aware that some radio messages do get played out and I’m sure that behind the scenes the team is also aware of your frustrations regarding the lack of power, with Honda’s reliability etc. So what are your intentions when you go onto the radio and you’re saying ‘this is a GP2 engine’? What’s the end game there for you when you’re saying that?
    FA: I told you before, it’s the frustration of battling hard and being a competitive sportsman. When you are in a car, in a race and you try to give it all and you are fighting lap after lap and you keep losing positions easily on the straight, even before the braking point, you get some frustration out there on the radio. I’m happy it was only broadcast in Suzuka because if you hear all the races, all the radio messages from me or from Jenson or whatever, you will be even more surprised.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Sorry to go back to those radio messages again, Fernando, but whether they were heard by the fans and broadcasters alike or whether they were just heard internally, Honda were always going to hear that message. Do you think that maybe, given the struggles you’ve had with McLaren and Honda this year, your messages were a little bit ill-timed, ill-conceived and not exactly helpful for the future of the partnership?
    FA: Well, I think the most important part of the Suzuka weekend was on Wednesday when I visited the Sakura factory and I saw the engine programme for next year, when we had very long meetings and we went through all the difficulties that we are facing right now and all the possible solutions that we want for next year, so that was the most important part of the weekend and the messages that I think were important in the weekend, and those were very very clear and were much more clear than Sunday. On Sunday, it was just the frustration of – as I said – racing and just the competition against the others. Nothing new, because we know where we are lacking and we then define what are the problems. The important thing is to go forward and to be positive for next year and as I said, the meetings in the week before Suzuka were the ones that for the Honda guys is if it’s the question or if you concern what the Honda people thought in Suzuka on Sunday, I think on Wednesday it was much more important than Sunday.

    Q: (James Ellingworth – Associated Press) Nico, we’re now at the point in the championship where – as I understand it – even if you were to win the remaining five races, that wouldn’t necessarily guarantee the championship, you’d have to rely – in that case – on some mistakes from Lewis. How does that affect your approach to the remaining races? Is there any part of you that is maybe looking forward to a possible mistake from Lewis?
    NR: I don’t really think about it in that much detail. I see the gap, I see that it’s quite big considering there’s just a couple of races left and just go for it, go for it. I need to try to win the races, that’s what I’m focussing on, winning the races and then the rest… I’ll just see how it goes.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Daniil and Carlos: I appreciate that you’ve already been asked about the future of Red Bull and Toro Rosso, but sitting here right now, knowing the situation and how very close Red Bull are to going out of the sport as they lack an engine for next year, first of all do you have any concerns whatsoever that you will not be in Formula One in 2016 and secondly, knowing that, appreciating that, have you been exploring other options outside of F1?
    DK: Well, like I said before, it’s not great to hear these rumours and stuff like that of course but on the other side, if you look at it, what can I change? I can drive the car, I can try to put ourselves as high as possible at the finish of a race and then you have to be patient. Formula One is a rough world, you have to be patient, you have to consider it’s a honeymoon at some point. The beginning of the year was very tough for us and then we started to climb, slowly but surely and we’ve been quite competitive in the last races, I think, so I think everyone has to be patient in the team and I think the right decisions will be taken in the future from our bosses. I’m sure… like I said I rely on them fully.
    CS: Yeah, not much to add to be honest. We just need to wait, be patient as Dany is saying and trust that Red Bull is going to take the right decision and they’re going to do the best, obviously, for the brand, for the team, for both teams and there is nothing that we can do. We are just sitting here, waiting but having 100 percent confidence in them and as I said before, Red Bull has done a lot for F1 and I’m sure F1 will end up giving them back a bit of what they have done for them. With all this, I’m pretty sure, hopefully that next year we can be here.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Thursday Press Conference

  • Mercedes sets the pace for a 10th front-row lockout; Rosberg takes pole ahead of Hamilton: Suzuka GP

    Suzuka, 26 Sept., 2015: Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has taken pole position from his team mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.076s, with both using the Pirelli P Zero White medium to set their fastest times. Rosberg secured pole after the red flag came out with just 36 seconds of Q3 to go, meaning that neither driver could complete their second run.

    apanese fans at Suzuka on Saturday even as Rosberg takes pole. An AMG Mercedes Petronas image
    apanese fans at Suzuka on Saturday even as Rosberg takes pole. An AMG Mercedes Petronas image

    Mercedes set the pace throughout qualifying, being the only team to get straight into the 1m33s window in Q1, and then straight into the 1m32s window in Q2. Hamilton was fastest in Q1 with Rosberg going quickest in Q2. The German was fastest on the first run, which turned out to be also the final one after the session was stopped.

    The top four in Q1 all used the hard tyre to get through the session, with Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo not needing to use a set of mediums. All the drivers used mediums from Q2 onwards, which are approximately 0.8s per lap faster than the hard tyres around the 18 challenging corners that make up Suzuka.

    Most cars are expected to make two pit stops tomorrow if it stays dry. However, there is still a possibility of rain during the race, which starts at 2pm local time: an hour before today’s qualifying.

    Rosberg was also fastest from his team mate in the hectic final free practice session this morning, using the medium tyre. With no dry running on Friday, many teams were straight onto long runs with heavy fuel.

    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “The drivers were able to get the maximum performance out of both compounds at Suzuka, exploiting the performance advantage of the medium tyre around this fantastic circuit. Tomorrow we’re expecting a two-stop strategy from most competitors provided it stays dry – which is a long way from absolutely guaranteed. With the rain that fell yesterday, the drivers had a lot of work to do during the final free practice session this morning. Suzuka always provides several opportunities for strategy, so the teams will be carefully analysing their data this evening to see how they can use their tyres and pit stops to gain a competitive advantage.” 

    The Pirelli strategy predictor: With the only dry running prior to qualifying being FP3, the teams are lacking in data for their strategy calculations compared to a totally dry weekend: this may affect each team’s full understanding of the complete picture. Two stops are expected for the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix. We predict the fastest strategy to be: start on the medium, change to the medium from laps 16-18, hard from laps 33-35. A three-stop strategy is also possible, but this isn’t as quick. There is still a risk of rain, in which case the strategy will have to be very reactive.

    Fastest compounds in FP3:
    1 Rosberg 1m33.995s  Medium new
    2 Hamilton 1m34.292s  Medium new
    3 Ricciardo 1m34.167s Medium new

     

    Top 10 tyre use:
    Rosberg 1m32.584s Medium new
    Hamilton 1m32.660s Medium new
    Bottas 1m33.024s Medium new
    Vettel 1m33.245s Medium new
    Massa 1m33.337s Medium new
    Raikkonen 1m33.347s Medium new
    Ricciardo 1m33.497s Medium new
    Grosjean 1m33.967s Medium new
    Perez no time set Medium new
    Kvyat no time set Medium new

    eom/Pirelli press release

  • A double DNF was massive frustration: Neale on McLaren’s Singapore flop

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Jonathan NEALE (McLaren), Yasuhisa ARAI (Honda), Luigi FRABONI (Ferrari), Paddy LOWE (Mercedes), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCEJapan GP Fri FIA pc 25Sep2015 FIA pic

    Arai-san, Suzuka is Honda’s home grand prix. How do you feel to be back home here and are you getting pressure from within the company and from fans?

    Yasuhisa ARAI: So, it is great to be back home, our home. Suzuka is such a special place for us and for Honda’s 200,000 employees and associates and many fans. They supported us and they want success [from] our team. So it is a little bit big pressure I have got. But there is a very good feeling, not only for Honda but McLaren-Honda.

    You’ve had two very difficult weekends, in Spa and Monza, with updated power units, and even in Singapore you had issues when you were expecting points. Realistically, what do you expect from the race here in Suzuka?

    YA: You know I think Suzuka is the most difficult circuit in the world – for the driver and also the machine, power unit, so it is not so easy to get a good place but we will do our best as a team.

    OK, thanks you very much. Let’s move on to Jonathan Neale. Jonathan it’s been a difficult year for McLaren, with most of the focus on Honda and the power unit but how happy are you with your side of the team’s performance?

    Jonathan NEALE: I think we’ve difficult made steps to improved the McLaren racing organisation over the last 18 months. We’re not where we want to be but we can see progress. We see progress on the chassis; we see progress in aerodynamics. It was frustrating that we didn’t score the points that we should have done in Singapore; at this game you don’t expect a double DNF, so that was massively frustrating, But we’re definitely moving forward; we have a lot of work to do as a team and a very busy winter [ahead].

    OK, let’s move to what happened yesterday, when Jenson Button was in this press conference. He said he was exploring “plenty of opportunities”; those were his words I think. Is one of those with you and if so how are the talks going?

    JN: With me personally?

    It’s up to you – if you are starting a team that’s fine!

    JN: I get the sense from the media there was a big anti-climax yesterday and there was a lot of discussion about where Jenson was at. Jenson is a fantastic guy, a world champion and a big part of the family at Honda and McLaren – he’s been with us for six seasons – and we’re contracted with him, we want him to stay, we like him very much. But if your driver doesn’t really want to be in the seat we have to respect that. I really hope that we have done enough between us to continue those discussions with him and have the confidence to have him with us, and that’s what we’d like.

    Thank you for that. Let’s come down to the front row and move on to Luigi Fraboni from Ferrari. Ferrari had a really good result in Singapore but in very different conditions to here in Suzuka. What do you expect from the race this weekend?

    Luigi FRABONI: Yea, of course, here is completely different. Let me say that we were very pleased with the great weekend in Singapore. We are looking forward to what is going to happen here. Today, of course, it was wet so it is difficult to say. We know that things are a little bit different but on the other side we are waiting to see what is going because for sure on our side we have improved and we are confident we can do a good job here.

    How happy are you with the engine performance and do you think there are other tracks this season at which Ferrari can challenge?

    LG: Well, of course, on engine performance, because I did all the last year’s season and I know what it mean. This year we did a big improvement and I think I have the opportunity to say thanks to all the guys at home because it was really a fantastic job. I had today in Maranello… after Singapore I was pleased to see the face of all the guys that are working in the department because it is a good motivation for us. During the season we have some improvement and we are happy about what we are doing and I think we can do even more and we are also completely focused on the project for next year. About the other tracks, I think that we think that in every track that we will play our cards and do our best, because I think that the pack is competitive.

    Q: Paddy, have you worked out what happened last time out in Singapore – and maybe more importantly, are you confident it won’t happen again?

    Paddy LOWE: I keep getting asked that actually. It’s not a simple answer at the end of the day. One of the things we’re very clear on is that, even if we got everything right in Singapore, that doesn’t necessarily mean we would have been at the front. We’ve got some strong competitors, the two gentleman on my sides here [Horner, Fraboni] came to Singapore with very strong packages. So, there are things we didn’t optimise for that circuit. It’s a very unusual circuit and, in fact, it was our weakest one last year as well in qualifying. So we’ve definitely learnt some lessons from that. We still have a lot more to learn but our focus now is on this race, which is a very different track so some different things to apply and get right – and we don’t take for granted, again, that we will be strong here but we’ll do our best.

    Q: As the season progresses you switch more of your resource towards the 2016 season. How far advanced are you in that process given that you’re leading both the Constructors’ and the Drivers’ Championship by some points.

    PL: It’s fairly normal. All the teams have to migrate their resource through the year, more and more to the next year. Slightly different this year because we have an extra month – apparently – next March with the current provisional calendar but I think probably we’re not unusual. Everybody will have moved pretty much to next year by now, so we’re almost all there but still a few more things to do.

    Q: Christian, where are you with Ferrari and with Renault?

    Christian HORNER: In Japan actually! Where are we with Ferrari and with Renault? Well, our situation with Renault, there’s obviously a lot of column-inches that’s filled. All I can really tell you is that there’s some positive discussions going on behind the scenes with Renault. I think both Red Bull’s position and Renault’s position is fairly clear in what we want to achieve and hopefully that should be concluded within the coming days. As far as anything else, it’s purely speculative but of course we’re having various different conversations.

    Q: How real is the threat to quit?

    CH: Well, Dietrich Mateschitz, he doesn’t talk very often but when he does you have to sit up and take notice – and I think he’s somewhat disillusioned with Formula One at the moment. He’s been very consistent in that statement. It’s my job to try and find a solution. We have a big commitment to Formula One, a big workforce, a very talented team and I’m doing my best to try and ensure that we find a competitive engine to power the team next year – but of course if that’s not the case there is a risk because Red Bull’s position is different to teams such as McLaren or Williams or Ferrari. Formula One has to provide a return. A marketing return globally. And, in order to do that, you need to be able to not be restricted in terms of the tools at your disposal.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – Motorsport.com) I’ve got a question for Christian, Paddy and Jonathan please. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of speculation about the future of wind tunnels in Formula One. I was wondering: can any of you three see a future without wind tunnels? And, if you can, what safety concerns do you have about that hypothetical future?

    JN: I think the answer is: I think it’s possible. The progressive march forward of supercomputing and the software and CFD and the ability to run sensors on the car use the car more as a full scale wind tunnel is definitely a direction that’s happening. I wouldn’t like to predict a pace or timescale on that. I know there have been discussions recently about the proposal to eliminate wind tunnels from the process. We are fairly neutral about that. I personally don’t have concerns from a safety point of view. I think there are plenty of other ways of validating that what you have works.

    PL: I think there will come a day when we will stop using wind tunnels all on our own – because new technology becomes superior. I think the timing of that is a long way off. Many, many years. At the moment CFD is a great compliment to the wind tunnel process – but only when it has the ability to be calibrated against the tunnel on a regular basis. I think I’d have to disagree with Jonanathan there to some extent, that there is an overriding safety demand. We’ve seen other formulae in which cars become unstable at high speed. We must make sure the cars are fully validated from that point of view and the wind tunnel, at the moment, is the only reliable way of doing that.

    Christian?

    CH: I guess what you’ve got to remember is that they’re both simulation tools ultimately and a wind tunnel to feed and to run is extremely expensive compared to, in comparison, CFD. I think the strategic discussion to have is at some point CFD will become strong enough and powerful enough to replace the wind tunnel. At what point is that? I think the Strategy Group are having responsible discussions about what the time frame, if that scenario happens, is. Because we all have big investments. Every team in the pitlane has multi-million pound investments in this technology and to unravel yourself from that isn’t an overnight scenario. So, I think we all need to get on the same page about it, take away competitive advantage or differences. And if we do that by looking far enough down the road, then a road map hopefully can be achieved.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jonathan, by my calculations in 2013 McLaren Racing lost about £12m. You haven’t yet published 2014’s results but I would estimate it to be probably double that because you lost your title sponsor, plus your results went south. This year’s even worse. If we add all these together, we are probably looking at a figure of fifty or sixty million pounds over three years. How much longer can a team actually sustain this sort of loss?

    JN: Well you’re right. I don’t want to make light of that financial situation, Dieter, but the reality is McLaren Racing is part of the McLaren Technologies Group and to some extent that’s a source of strength for us, it’s not something to be taken lightly or be complacent about. Of course, if we finish way down in the Constructors championship, that has an impact on prize money for next year and of course that will be part of our focus, as I say, but we are fortunate in having a technology group on which we can at least shelter for some of these difficult times. But it’s not something that we can sustain indefinitely.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Luigi Fraboni, I would like to ask you about the fifth engine that you are supposed to be using in Austin. How will be the characteristics of the engine, I suppose it will be the engine that you will use next year?

    LF: Well, at the moment we are happy with the power unit that we have. We are continuing to develop the engine on the dyno. We have four tokens to play so if there is the opportunity, and we saw that this was to do then can introduce a fifth power unit but at the moment there is nothing defined especially for Austin.

    Q: (Koji Taguchi – Grand Prix Tokusyu) Arai-san, if next year any other power unit company doesn’t have enough capacity to deliver a power unit, does Honda have any chance to give their power unit to other teams?

    YA: I have had lots of the same question. We don’t have any offers right now. I think that for Honda and for the other power unit suppliers it is a very difficult time to prepare for next year, to supply other partners. And also, Honda has a strong relationship as a works team, McLaren-Honda. We don’t have any plans.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, you spoke earlier on about your big commitment to Formula One and when I say your commitment, I mean your team’s commitment to Formula One. But there is obviously talk about possibly withdrawing from Formula One. Over the last two years or so, you’ve actually justified Red Bull’s position on the strategy group and as a CCB team etc on the basis that it had given a commitment through to 2020. So how does this square with the threats to withdraw? Are there financial penalties which you are prepared to carry or will Red Bull just walk?

    CH: Well, as Bernie Ecclestone would say, circumstances change and circumstances now are very different, obviously, to when we entered into that agreement. Our intention is to find a solution and there’s an awful lot of work going on in the background to try and find a solution. Some of that is out of our hands but rest assured that every effort is going in to ensure that Red Bull will be here until 2020 and hopefully beyond, but there’s some big questions that obviously need answering.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Another question for Luigi about the technical possibility to support two more teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, for next year?

    LF: Well, honestly I’m not involved in all this stuff so the only thing that… this kind of decision is taken by our president and by our team management, so at the moment I cannot tell you anything of this. For sure they have all the information that they need in order to have the right collaboration for next year.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Is it technically possible?

    LF: I think it could be, yes.

    Q: (Kazuki Kasahara – Car Watch) I would like to ask Jonathan and Arai-san: in the 1990s and 1980s, McLaren-Honda had a special feature, a Suzuka version. Do you have any special features for this Suzuka?

    JN: Special feature, that’s a tough question. The short answer is no, other than it’s a great opportunity for us to spend some time here at a fantastic race circuit but also behind the scenes together, getting our engineers and people together, looking at what we have to do to put ourselves in a competitive position. We have the guys from Exxon Mobil here as well so for the Esso and the Mobil 1 brands there’s a good chance for us to get together with the guys at Honda and really give that a push. Everybody’s working very hard, but we don’t have any unique feature on the car that’s special for here yet. We will wait until we’re winning before that starts.

    YA: As I answered before that this is a very special circuit for Honda but unfortunately the current regulations cannot apply such kind of special feature. But my heart and Jonathan’s heart has a passion, very very special for Suzuka.

    eom/FIA press release

  • We still have a lot of potential together with Force India: Hulkenberg

    DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Max VERSTAPPEN (Toro Rosso), Will STEVENS (Manor), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, congratulations for last time out, only a few days since your win in Singapore. Is your performance there something you can translate to this track?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it’s a completely different track here but we’d hope. But I think you have to remain realistic. In a way it was a big surprise to see Mercedes struggling, which I don’t expect to be the case here. Again, it would be a big surprise. But if the chance is there we have to go for it. As I said, the nature of the track is completely different here. We’ll have to wait. The weather could bring a lot of surprises as well. It’s going to be a tough weekend.

    We know that you love Suzuka – you’ve won four times out of six I believe and you also won a championship here in 2011 here. So, what can you expect this weekend?

    SV: Well, based on that quite a lot! Yeah, I love the track; it’s a driver’s circuit. I think we all love the track. It’s one of the old school circuits on the calendar. It’s a lot of fun. If you want to know what a Formula One car can do then the first sector I would say sums it up and says pretty much all. In my point of view [it is] the best track in the world and great fun to be here.

    Thank you very much. On to Valtteri Bottas. Valtteri, you had a good race last time out, finishing fifth. Do you think you’ll be able to make the same challenge again here in Suzuka?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: It was a good weekend for me. We knew Singapore would be a difficult one, probably the most difficult track for the rest of the calendar. Good to be here because we do think we can be more competitive here than we have seen last weekend. Really looking forward to it. Like Sebastian said, it’s a great track to drive. Also, the fans are awesome here, so it’s good to be here and we are expecting strong results.

    Williams are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship, 112 points behind Ferrari and 59 points ahead of Red Bull. With six races of the season left are you, as a team, moving into a testing period for the last six races, with an eye to next year?

     VB: For sure we’ve been developing next year’s car already for a long time and we have already done some tests looking more at the future rather than maybe only this season. Yeah, that is one of the targets for the rest of the year, to look ahead to next year but still we want to have good races and if we can find anything for this year’s car for sure we will try to do it if it doesn’t impact the development of the new car. Still many races to go if we want to gain our position. It would be nicer to be a bit closer to Ferrari also.

    Thanks very much. Will Stevens: new team-mate and a new challenge for you. How do you feel about the rest of the season?

    Will STEVENS: Yeah, I think the year so far has gone pretty good for me. I think Singapore last weekend for sure wasn’t one of my easiest weekends of the year but you need weekends like that to improve and to learn from. So heading into this weekend and the rest of the year I don’t know any of the tracks, apart from Abu Dhabi, so I have a lot of learning to do. But I always like coming to new circuits, especially here. It’s always [been] a circuit I’ve wanted to drive, so looking forward to getting out there. The weather looks pretty mixed for the weekend so I’m sure we’re going to have a very eventful weekend.

    What about your future at Manor? Are you seeing lots of progress? How have things changed over the year in the garage?

    WS: I think as a team for sure the next few years are going to be pretty exciting for them. This year was always going to be tough, using last year’s car with the old Ferrari power unit, so it’s going to be as tough as it can [be]. But looking ahead to next year, for me personally we’re working hard in the background to try to sort out things for next year, which are looking positive, so we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have some things to tell you soon.

    Thank you very much. Max, another really good race and result for you in Singapore but pretty controversial. Do you want to tell us about it from your side?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, I really enjoyed my race. Of course the start was a bit disappointing but from there on I think we had a great pace in the car. Yeah, kept pushing and catching the guys in front of me and at the end to come back in the points was just a great result and, yeah, very happy with that.

    Do you want to tell us a little bit more about what happened between yourself and Carlos Sainz and maybe what has happened since the last grand prix to talk about things within the team?

    MV: Well I can tell you nothing has changed in our relationship or something. I was trying to overtake Checo, I was very close and I was looking in my mirrors as well. It didn’t feel for me that it was close enough to give it a go, so I decided to stay there and at the end we had a conversation about it in the team and everything has been cleared and we are ready to go again here in Japan.

    Thank you very much. Let’s move on to Nico Hulkenberg. Nico, it was clearly a disappointing result for you last time out in Singapore, after the collision for Felipe Massa. You’ve picked up a three-place grid penalty as well. Have you had a chance to look back over the incident and have another view of it?

    NH: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I looked at the video footage and I think I probably should have given him a bit more room, because he was on the inside and I had some space on the right. Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was ahead enough, but I wasn’t clearly, in hindsight, so we take up the penalty here. But it’s behind us, now we move on and make the best of it this weekend.

    This weekend, today in fact, Sergio Pérez has been confirmed at re-signing for the team, so a bit of stability in Force India. Why do you think re-signing was the right thing for you to do?

    NH: Well, I think for both of us. We work well together. I think we are a strong combination and I think we both have faith in the team and we see still a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward, together with Force India, and I think both of us want to continue growing with the team.

    Q: Jenson, you’ve been the centre of a lot of media speculation over the last week. Can you tell us what your plans are?

    Jenson BUTTON: What, today? Or after this…?

    It would be nice to have an insight into your plans for the future…

    JB: OK. Well… I can’t give you anything else. Since the last race there’s no more information to give you. You’re going to have to wait for a little while I’m sorry to say but we’re in good talks, the team and myself so, that’s it. We’re here to concentrate on this weekend. It’s a big weekend for us. McLaren-Honda in front of Honda’s home crowd at their circuit… we hope that we can have a good weekend. Obviously the weather mixes it up a little bit which I think is what we need to be properly competitive so yeah, we’re focussing on this weekend and hoping for a reasonable result.

    Q: Japan’s always been a special place for you. Just tell us, over your time here, you’ve never finished outside of the top ten I believe, you won here back in 2011 when Sebastian was winning his championship – but why is it so special to you?

    JB: I think it’s, as Sebastian touched on earlier, I think it’s a very special circuit for most drivers. It is the best circuit in the world as Sebastian said – not that he’s driven every circuit in the world – but it’s got a nice flow. I was asked the other day which is the best corner here. It’s difficult: you can’t pick just one corner, it’s just the circuit itself. It’s such a fantastic layout. From Turn Two all the way up the Esses, through Dunlop it’s breath-taking. A very special circuit to drive on and even better to win on. I’ve been coming here since ’94 when I raced in karts at the kart circuit just across the road. I remember walking the circuit then just thinking, yeah, it was built for a Formula One car. This was the circuit for a Formula One car – and it is. It’s also very special because a lot of connections to Japan working with Honda for so many years. Obviously my wife is Japanese and yeah, I’m a big fan of the culture as well.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Sorry Jenson, you said “we’ll have to wait a little bit.” How much is a little? You also said you’re in talks with the team. That would seen to suggest you’ll be around next year as well?

    JB: There’s so many possibilities of what could happen next year. So many possibilities but I’ve got nothing else for you I’m sorry to say.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Sorry Jenson I’m going to try and push you a little bit more. You did speak on Sunday about the fact you no longer had any joy in Formula One: the joy of winning, the joy of being on a podium. Is that a kind of indicator as to your mindset, bearing in mind that joy is probably unlikely to return next season if you were to stay with Honda, given the difficulties they’re still likely to face?

    JB: Yeah, I think it was worded slightly differently than that – but I don’t think any driver has joy when they’re not fighting for victories. That’s what we’re here to do, y’know, that’s what we love. It’s the challenge of fighting at the front and the possibility of fighting at the front. So, no. I don’t like finishing 14th. I don’t like finishing tenth. That’s not what gives me joy, that’s not what excites me – but there are so many other things that, if they work in your favour, or if you see a future, there’s the possibility of joy coming back and that’s exciting. That’s a challenge. But no, after the Singapore Grand Prix I wasn’t joyful. No.

    Q (Trent Price – Rewind Media) Sorry Jenson, we’ll get this out of the way now. Despite a particularly difficult 2015 you’ve had some extremely good years with Honda. 2004, latter half of 2006 respectively. Being here at your second home, how would you like to reflect on your time at Honda?

    JB: We’ve definitely had some ups and downs in the past. 2004 was a great year. I got my first podium that year. I think we got ten podiums that season and finished third in the championship. We were second in the Constructors’ so pretty special year. 2006 was when the team actually became Honda and I won my first grand prix with Honda, and still the only grand prix for Honda in this era. So, a special day. The president of Honda was there. He came to two races that year and he was stood on the podium with me, so a great experience and a great memory. But we never achieved what we set out to do, which was fight for the World Championship. We had some good times, we have a lot of fun – but we never quite achieved that. So, I think this time is an important time for Honda. They will give everything, I think, to win the World Championship, a matter of time. I know they’re working flat out. I don’t think anybody can put a time on how long it will take but I know they’re giving everything to do that so hopefully one day we’ll see the president of Honda stood on the podium again.

    Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) Sebastian, when hybrids came in last year, with the Red Bull, you didn’t seem that comfortable with it, certainly at certain points during last year. Last week in Singapore, you put on a display that showed you are absolutely at one with the car. Has anything changed in your driving style with the hybrid cars? And can you just talk through that change a little bit?

    SV: I think obviously the cars changed massively from ’13 to ’14, not just the power unit but also the car itself. So I think for all of us it was the experience that there’s quite a lot less grip available, which as a driver is obviously not the right direction to go in because you want to go faster. So there were some things that I had to get used to and for sure, at the beginning of the year, last year wasn’t great, getting the experience with this generation of cars etc. On top, I had a difficult year for many reasons but yeah, I think much more in control and comfortable with this year’s car compared to last year’s for many reasons, but I don’t think it’s down to the power unit really. I think the power unit, for us drivers – well, it is what it is. I think we’re not probably at the same standings as the fans in  terms of sound etc. Obviously it is a step back but yeah, in terms of the technology behind it, it is incredible. The question still remains open, whether we need it or not, that’s for everyone, individually, to decide, I guess.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, you were talking about the enjoyment of racing. Behind you is Nico who won at Le Mans this year. Is it an option to do the same as him, to do Formula One and some special races in other categories next year?

    JB: I’ve never thought about doing both. I think with a 22-race F1 calendar you’re going to be very limited on weekends and sometimes it’s nice to have a weekend off from motor racing so I can’t see that happening. Maybe Nico’s going to be doing the same thing again next year but I think for every other driver it’s going to be a super busy calendar if that is the case, that we have that many races. I don’t think it will really work – for me, it wouldn’t really work anyway.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, looking at this circuit and the next ones, what are the opportunities for Ferrari in your opinion? And second question: are you used to singing Italian songs or was after qualifying your first time?

    SV: It was not my first time. I think my first time was probably after Malaysia. Yeah, I’m not a good singer so maybe I stop that now, since everyone has heard it.

    JB: I don’t think any of us are!

    SV: Well, maybe Lewis is, I don’t know. It was obviously out of the moment, it was a special day on Saturday and Sunday so I was singing both days but I think it was more equally bad both days.

    To come back to your first question, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the results so far this year, we had a great car on every track, every nature of circuit: street circuits like Monaco, Singapore we’ve been competitive but on other tracks as well like I just mentioned: Malaysia. Probably Silverstone was one of the weekends where we lost a little bit of that but then again you look at so many races in the same year and you know we weren’t completely off the pace so I think we can be reasonably confident but of course we have to remain realistic. I think we’ve learned along the way so hopefully that means that we will be a bit stronger again but the favourites I think still have to remain Mercedes with their two cars.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jenson, you said that you’ve been having constructive talks with your team and also that there are lots of options for next year. This would indicate that you haven’t quite made up your mind about 2016. Is your future really in your own hands or are there certain contractual obligations?

    JB: I can’t go any further with my comments on that. But I’ll be happy next year. That’s the important thing.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Seb, drivers come and go in this sport, some quicker than others as we know, in Formula One it’s the nature of the business but what would it mean if – and still a big if – Jenson did decide to call it a day at the end of this season?

    SV: First of all, I think…

    JB: Try to be nice.

    SV: …we don’t know if that’s the case. I think you’ve tried to ask him but I think he has his reasons – whatsoever – not to go further. It would be a loss, for sure. I remember when I was a little kid and he was considered very very young, joining Formula One. I have to give you that he looked very young when he started with Williams. Nowadays though, you have guys who are 17 who are starting already, so in that case he was already old when he started, or I was quite old. Certainly, he’s a big character. We know that he’s quick, he deserves to be a champion and I’m sure that if there were more years when he had the package to win the big one, he would have had a big say in that. The quality is out of doubt. On top of that he’s a very fair guy on the track. Outside the track, I think we all like him for many reasons so it would be a big loss.

    JB: Thank you mate. I’ll start crying in a minute, it’s so emotional!

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines). Max, I know that the team and you and Carlos have sorted out everything from last weekend but did you also look forward and say ‘maybe if there’s a situation, one teammate will let the other teammate by just for a few laps’ – something like Red Bull did in Monaco this year?

    MV: Yeah, exactly. I think one thing we needed to be a bit more clear on the radio. We spoke about it and hopefully it will not happen again but we will see. If we are a bit more clear then for sure.

    eom/FIA press releaseJapan GP Thurs FIA pc 24Sep2015 FIA pic