INDIA in F1

Tag: FIA Press Conference

  • I am here to challenge Sergio for sure: Esteban Ocon at Thursday press meet

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Felipe MASSA (Williams), Lance STROLL (Williams), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Felipe, here we are again, and once again we know this is a swansong. Do you mean it this time?

    Felipe MASSA: Yeah! Actually this is my second retirement race in Brazil, but this time it’s the last one for sure in Formula One, so definitely really looking forward to another amazing feeling to race at home and really enjoying the track that I grew up at here for my last time in a Formula One car. So, really looking forward and really hope that we can have a nice race and a nice result to finish it off.

    What’s been the highlight of this bonus season for you in Formula One and how do you see the Williams team going forward from this point?

    FM: Not amazing highlights to be honest. So the way we started the season it was not the same way we finished the season. Definitely the car was more competitive at the beginning than at the end, so development-wise it was not great, I would say, this year. But I think I definitely enjoyed driving the car after all these rules were changed from last year to this year. I think it’s a lot of fun to drive these cars, a lot more downforce, I definitely enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, I was a little bit unlucky in some races that I would have scored massive points but I couldn’t, not because of my fault but because of some issues we had in the car. I expect maybe a season that would have been a little bit more competitive than how we were. But I definitely enjoy, having fun by driving the car. I’m happy that I’ve been able to take the best out of this car when I didn’t have any problem. So it was a season that I definitely enjoyed. It would be nice to remember this season, I mean the way you drive this car, for my career some years in front, nice to come back and remember this way you are driving this car.

    And the second part of the question about where the Williams team goes forward from here?

    FM: I think it’s definitely important to change a little bit some ideas for the car, but I think that’s the way Williams is doing for next year. So having a car that’s a little bit more different – the way they are developing the car, the way they are working the car – so I really hope they can achieve that from next year to the future.

    Thank you very much, Felipe. Lance, in the points at four of the last six grands prix and now into the top 10 in the drivers’ standings. Some great runs, lots of great starts, but would it be fair to say that qualifying is where you are going to be putting the bulk of your effort in preparing for 2018?

    Lance STROLL: Yeah, it’s been a good run. We’ve scored quite a few points in the last few races. I’m really happy about how that’s gone. For sure, qualifying we still need to adjust a few things. It’s mainly been little mistakes here and there and not being able to capitalise on our full potential. But I think with time and experience and analysing bits and pieces we can improve in that and I believe that with the people I’m working with and the team that we can address some of those issues and definitely improve on them in the future. But definitely when it comes to races and the points we’ve scored, I’m extremely proud of the job we’ve done and we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.

    You will have a new team-mate next season. What profile are you looking for: someone young, someone experienced, or should the team take a gamble?

    LS: It’s up to the team at the end of the day. My job is to drive my car. I mean I was hoping for Hamilton, but he’s not really available these days. I’m just kidding. It’s completely up to the team. Like I say, my job is to drive my car and they’ll take care of the rest.

    Marcus, you’ve outqualified your team-mate at the last three grands prix but you’ve yet to get that breakthrough point. It looked like it could be on in Mexico; you were in positions for many laps until the breakdown. This race worked out pretty well for Sauber last year so have you targeted this weekend for the result?

    Marcus ERICSSSON: Yeah, I mean we always go into a weekend aiming to try and score points. I think Mexico was a really good weekend for us and we’ve had quite a few good weekends now in a row. Very unfortunate I think in Mexico with the Safety Car, it came out with absolutely the worst possible timing for us, before that we were running in the points for the whole first part of the race. It was a good feeling and it was a good opportunity for us but we were just unlucky with the safety car. But then we had the breakdown as well. Hopefully here it’s new opportunity that we can take advantage of. This track should not be worse for us than the last two. We’re looking forward to it. We still need to obviously maximise what we have. It’s still a handicap with the old power unit so it’s going to make it more difficult. But as we’ve shown on the last two weekends, if we get everything right on the car side we can still take the fight to some of the midfield cars, so that’s what we need to do again this weekend and then we see here in Brazil everything can happen with the weather. Usually the races here are very eventful and that’s why we need to take the opportunity.

    Well, you mentioned the weather. It looks like we could have some rain again this weekend. One of the talking points is that the organisers have cut some more groves into the surface. So tell us about this place in the wet and what those grooves might do?

    ME: I think it’s a fun track to drive in the wet. Obviously we saw last year that it does get a lot of standing water, so that’s the only problem really. So if that’s helped a bit this year I think it will improve. Like I said, it’s a fun track to drive both in the dry and the wet. I wouldn’t mind a bit of mixed conditions during the weekend, I think that would spice things up

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Lucas Santochi – Pole Position) Lance, in this your first year, what you do feel that Formula One has different, that you feel like ‘oh, this is difficult, I have to work on this’, and how you felt about this during the year? And Felipe, if you can say some words about his evolution?

    LS: Formula One is very different in many ways from any other category. There is a lot more activity going on off the track and the car itself is very different to drive, so technically, driving the car, working with the engineers, working with the team, the weekends are a lot more loaded than any other category. There is a lot more going on everywhere, so you have to put your attention on so many little details that in other categories you don’t necessarily do as much. And then, like I said, off the track there are so much more going on, so many media activities and commitments that you have to take part in. So I would say just that the weekends are generally very loaded. But it’s becoming easier and easier every single time. The more experience I have and the more weekends I get under my belt it starts to become second nature more and more every single time. It’s just part of the process of learning and settling into Formula One, but those are the main things – the activity off the track and just driving the car and getting used to these kind of cars to drive. They’re quite a handful in a fun way, in a good way. So I would say those are the main things.

    And Felipe, your comment on how Lance has developed? He’s been a bit like you were to Michael Schumacher when you were together.

    FM: Yeah, I think definitely the way he started until now he had a big development, which is pretty normal. In Formula One everything is different to every other category. You need to learn, you need to understand the car, you need to understand the tyres, when you need to make the perfect lap. Even if we have the sessions on Friday and then on Saturday morning, sometimes it’s not enough because you’re not having new tyres all the time, and then you get to qualifying , you have new tyres and straight away you need to do a very good lap time, otherwise Q1, especially the way you are fighting with three or four teams for a couple of tenths, if you don’t do a lap time straight away maybe you can even not pass into Q2. So that shows the intense battle you have in Formula One. But I think the way he started, the way he is now, he’s just learning and getting better and better and improving. Definitely he understood much quicker the way he needs to drive in the race, because he did many good races and the qualifying for sure is coming. He has a good teacher as well, so… maybe next year he can qualify closer to another driver that he’ll race.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportwereld) Question for Felipe, going on the farewell tour, what’s your view on the future of Brazilian Formula One racing – because it looks like we have a year without for the first time since 1969…

    FM: Yeah. I really hope Formula One stays forever in Brazil. So definitely Brazil is a very important country for Formula One. So many titles, so many drivers, so many Brazilian drivers raced for Formula One since the start, so I really hope Interlagos stays for a very long time in Formula One and anything I can give to help, not racing any more, I can do, so definitely it is a very important race. It is true that we are suffering not an easy moment in Brazil, financially, but I think it’s a very important event for São Paulo, it’s a very important event for Brazil Formula One and y’know, for me it’s very difficult to answer – but I really hope Brazil stays for a very long time in Formula One.

    Q: (Andres Lopez – Motorlat.com) Question for Felipe, this will be your last GP at Brazil as an F1 driver. What is your best memory here in this track?

    FM: I think the best memory is my first victory, in 2006. It was like a dream come true for a Brazilian that was always dreaming to be in Formula One, especially in this track, then you get to Formula One and you manage to win. I won two races here, three pole positions, I think it’s the track I’ve been more times in the podium. So… but I definitely… the victory here 2006, it was like a dream come true, that I will never forget. It was definitely the most incredible day that I had in my career, winning the home grand prix for the first time, 2006

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Felipe, I would like to know, in the future do you expect to drive in a different category, to compete in a different category – and which one will it be?

    FM: Yes, definitely, it’s part of my expectation to keep driving, to keep having fun on the track, so that’s what I have been doing since I was eight years old, and that is my job since a long time as well. So, I think when you’re driving and you’re competing, you really feel the emotion of doing your job, or for enjoying yourself, so yes, definitely I really hope I can find the category that I have fun, like I had in Formula One for very long. So yeah, I will have enough time to think about it, to understand which is a good category to go, and then we will see.

    Q: (Stephen Wade – AP) Felipe, how do you rate your career? You were very close to being a World Champion at one point; you come from a country with great tradition, how do you rate your career? An eight? A ten? How do you see it?

    FM: I think when you… ten is when you win a championship or maybe even more than that, y’know? So yeah, I would say I had a very successful career. I have a career I thought I never would achieve, when I was a kid, so first of all, Formula One was a dream, and I managed to get to Formula One, I managed to win many races, I managed to fight for the championship until maybe the last metres, and yeah, maybe I was the driver who gets more close to the championship in the history, so I am very proud of my career. If it’s seven, eight, nine, it doesn’t matter. I am very proud for what I achieved, for what I did and I’m so happy for so many things that I learned, so many people that I met, and also really the most important thing is that people respect me and I think that’s the most important thing: have a great relationship with most of the people that I work, and I pass even a few moments together. Definitely I’m so happy for what I achieved, and yeah, still many things to do in life but really finished with my head up, and I think that’s the most important thing.

    Q: (Fabio Aleixo – Folha de São Paulo) Will you do anything different for the public? Because last year after you finished the race… you didn’t finish the race and walked through the pitlane and you could see the people closer. After the race, if you finish, you have anything to do different, maybe walk around the track? Go to the public to say ‘thank you’? Do you have anything in your mind for after the race?

    FM: Well, actually I really hope I can finish in a great position. That’s that most important thing, that it didn’t happen last year, so it happens, another thing that I will never forget. So I think the feeling that I have on the human side, after the race, last year it was something really I never thought I will feel that, I will have that in my career. So, I think what I had last year was definitely more than enough, and the only thing I’m looking forward to now is having a good race, having a good result and I never really planned everything, so if I do this, everything, y’know this will be natural, so we’ll see what we invent to do after what I really hope is a good result.

    Q: (Pedro Enrique Marum – MSN Esportes) Lance, before pre-season you said Felipe would be a mentor to you and then, after pre-season started you said it wasn’t quite like this. Now a season went by, Felipe has mentored you?

    LS: Well, he’s been a great team-mate to have. He has a bunch of experience, he brings a lot of knowledge to the team. I think we’ve understood a lot about the can and how to improve the car throughout the weekends and, for sure, he’s been a great guy to have in the team. I think everyone’s really enjoyed having him at Williams, and he’s had an unbelievable career: many victories, many times on the podium, one point from winning a world championship, so, y’know, definitely an A+ career, that’s for sure.

    PART TWO: DRIVERS – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), Esteban OCON (Force India), Brendon HARTLEY (Toro Rosso)

    Q: Brendon, congratulations, World Endurance Champion, once again, for the second time with Porsche. How did it feel jumping back into a WEC car after the Formula One, and how are you rationalising this very unusual life experience that you’re going through at the moment.

    Brendon HARTLEY: Yeah, it was actually surprisingly tricky to jump back into the car. I thought I was going to feel right at home – it’s been my home for the last four years – but it took a couple of laps for it to feel comfortable again. The seating position’s quite different from Formula One, having a roof over your head, different perspective – but yeah, after five laps I felt back at home. In terms of rationalising things, I guess I’ve tried to not overthink it and I’ve just… yeah… even winning the championship hasn’t really sunk in. I haven’t really had time to reflect. It probably helps that I’m just going from one weekend to the next. I think this is my sixth race in a row. It won’t be until I get home at the end of the year after all the racing’s over that I’ll be able to reflect and fully understand what’s just happened to me. I’m well aware that making my grand prix debut and Le Mans victory and World Endurance Championship… I mean they’re all amazing things but at the moment I’m just trying to take one step at a time and try to stay focussed and catch up on as much sleep as I can.

    Q: It sounds like you’re set for a full season of Formula One next year, although obviously not official yet, but now you know a bit more about it, will your experience of working with a major motor manufacture like Porsche, do you think it will help Honda developing with Toro Rosso, taking that whole relationship forward?

    BH: I don’t know. What I do know is, from working with Porsche the last years, it made my transition quite smooth to Formula One because it’s a similar amount of people involved; very similar structure in terms of engineering; pressure – I mean driving at Le Mans for Porsche, there’s a big amount of pressure on your shoulders, so I guess all of those things I’ve learnt to deal with, so that was obviously very helpful going to Austin. Obviously there were a lot of other things to learn in Formula One and I’m well-aware that there’s still a lot to learn but yeah, I think the good thing for me is that I’ve been involved in the past also with other Formula One teams and development and the project at Porsche, I was very heavily involved in the development on every level, so at least I have some experience from that point of view, yeah.

    Q: Esteban, Force India confirmed fourth in the constructors’ championship, it’s your first full season but you’ve obviously played a key part in that. What does it mean for you, given the quality of the opposition you’ve faced this year?

    Esteban OCON: It’s been a great season for us. Of course securing the fourth place, it’s an amazing achievement with two races to go. Thanks to the team, I would like to thank everyone. I can’t thank everyone in here but a few key people: Andy Stevenson, Andrew Green, Tom McCullough, Otmar, I would like to thank everyone there for the great season we’ve had. Hopefully we can finish the last two races very well like we did before and start the next one as high.

    Q: Some interesting numbers about you: you’ve out-qualified Pérez at the last four races in a row; you’re the only non-Mercedes driver to start in the top six for the past four races, and you’ve led Pérez for 137 of the last 138 racing laps. So, is that in line with your expectations of yourself at this stage of the season, and how do you move forward from here in 2018?

    EO: Yeah, I’m here to push. I’m here to challenge Sergio for sure, it’s been a very close season with him, fighting with really little margin, that’s what we have been doing so far this season – but arriving a second time on the tracks where I’ve driven before, with the Manor, helps me a lot with my experience, and also finishing all the races has helped me and I feel much more comfortable now than I’ve been feeling at the beginning of the season, so it’s great.

    Q: Kimi, ten years on – we all remember it very very well from that dramatic day when you won the World Championship here in Brazil, probably the widest smile you’ve had as a sportsman at least. Can you share some special memories of that day?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: It’s a long time ago. Obviously it was a great day but it wasn’t just about the day, it was the whole year. Obviously it ended on that day but there were some great moments, some not very nice moments but in the end it worked out OK and I was very happy with it but – I don’t know – I haven’t really thought about it too much; obviously after that, yes, but not for a while because it doesn’t really change my life today, thinking about it. I don’t really try and make a big story out of it.

    Q: This year, you’ve had a very good car and kept developing it very effectively so where does it go from here for Ferrari? You’ve talked a lot this season about a few fine details here and there which have been the things that have stopped you but tell us a bit about that, where the team goes forward next year and what your personal ambition is in 2018?

    KR: Obviously I want to be fighting at the front every weekend, to be able to fight for the championship next year. I think we started pretty badly – we were not really where we should have been – a personal feeling on my side – we’re not really happy where the setup was and it took quite a long time to figure it out and then since then it’s been better but then we had too many DNFs for many different reasons but I think, as a team, we’ve come a long way from year to year and also from last year, made a good step, obviously not enough for what we want but as Ferrari we want to win both championships. But I think we had all the tools this year, we just need to tidy up things and not make mistakes nor have issues on any side, not from our side as drivers or from the team side. These are just small things which in the end played a big part this year, who won the championship and which way it went but I think we have all the people, we have the tools and we have a great car. There are still two races to go and even though the championships are done we try to do the same work we always do and try to win races and then, obviously, we start from zero next year so hopefully we will be up there.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Daniel Fideli – GloboEsporte.com) Brendon, you are used to winning races and championships as an endurance driver and you come to Formula One to race in a car that is not so good and mentally for you, how hard is it for you to come to Formula One and you know that you’re not going to be able to win races and just fight for the midfield?

    BH: I think as a driver you try and get the most out of whatever the situation is and I know for this weekend I have a firm goal of scoring my first point in Formula One. That would be celebrated, so I think so far from my experience in my two Grands Prix I had a lot to learn and a lot of small goals along the way and from my point of view it doesn’t change much on how I approach the weekend and the team. I can guarantee every single person in Toro Rosso is working their utmost to get the most out of the weekend, whatever is possible, so that doesn’t really change too much.

    Q: (Gustavo Faldon – ESPN Brasil) Kimi, Felipe Massa is retiring; you were his teammate for quite a while. What can you say about him? How was your relationship and do you feel like he helped you win your title ten years ago?

    KR: He’s retiring again, so let’s see if it actually happens or we will see him in the first race next year. I always had a good relationship with him, great atmosphere when we were at Ferrari together. We won two championships for the team as teammates and I think it was a great time. Obviously it was very fast, very good but I wish him all the best if he ends up (not) racing in F1 any more. We will see what comes in his life in the future.

    Q: (Andrea Lopez – Motorlat.com) Kimi, there are only two races left this season; what is the summary you can make of your season this year?

    KR: I think it’s very simple that we are in the championship, that’s how good or bad it’s been. That’s how it is this year and obviously we need to learn and make better things next year but we all start from zero next year and it depends on many things over the winter and over the testing at the beginning of the year. We will then get some idea of where we are going to be and then we see in the first races what will happen, but obviously the aim is to do better, to fight for wins and championships – that’s, as a team, what we want to do and as a driver I want to do that. This year, for sure, in many ways could have been better but I guess it can always be worse also.

    Q: (Lucas Santochi – Pole Position) Brendon, you talk about how your work with Porsche helped you to approach the Formula One weekend, but what surprised you like ‘this is very difficult, I have to work on this’ and if Esteban can comment about his experience when he came in too last year?

    BH: Sorry, I’m just trying to think what surprised me the most – probably a lot of things. I’d been in the Formula One paddock before, 2008, 2009 – oh, sorry, 2009, 2010, OK. I didn’t make a Grand Prix start but at least I had been in the paddock so there were a few familiar faces already. I guess at Austin, a big shock was the high speed, just in terms of a driving the car, it was quite amazing, these modern Formula One cars, how quick they are in the first sector in Austin, so that was pretty mind-blowing and it took some time to get confident. For the drivers who are driving weekend in and weekend out, they are probably… you always want more grip, you always want more power but coming straight in… that was quite a shock to the system. And other than that, I don’t think there were any huge surprises in terms of difficulties. I knew it was going to be a challenge, I knew putting a Formula One weekend together is tough and I know that the level in Formula One of drivers and teams and everyone – there are some of the highest you can find so I guess in some ways there were no big surprises as I kind of expected that.

    EO: I was very well prepared before arriving in Formula One. I was around in the paddock since 2014 so that has helped me a lot. I have been driving with many different teams in testing and then I went into DTM with Mercedes and I think like Brendon it’s a bit the same way of working, with engineers, sponsors and then going back into the racing. It’s a bit the same level of professionalism. It’s just the specification of the category. I think you have to learn all the details and then be sure you are there when it’s needed.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Esteban, there are quite some discussions about the future of Formula One, including a budget cap. Do you think a small team like Force India, assuming you work like you did this year, could have an extra shot at the title with such a budget cap?

    EO: I think that’s a very good question but honestly if everyone had the same budget I think some people would be surprised what Force India can achieve. At the moment, with the budget we have, what we are achieving is amazing, the level of work we are putting in is a lot but at the end the level is there and the performance is on track, so yeah, it would be nice.

    eom/FIA press release

  • At the moment, I am just focussed on winning (the title): Hamilton

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari);  3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari).

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Usain Bolt)

    Lewis, so this right here, is your fifth win in Austin, how are you feeling about the championship? 

    Lewis HAMILTON: I feel amazing. Firstly, look at this crowd.

    It’s brilliant.

    LH: These guys have been amazing. Since 2012 this crowd has been growing year on year. We had a beautiful day today; I love this track. I think this track is now my favourite track to be honest. I just… Honestly, I loved the swing of the corners today. Because the wind is blowing that way, it gave us the best platform to work with. Big congratulations to the team. They have worked so hard, everyone back at the factory, the guys here, they really true deserve… they’ve been the best team this year.

    Going to Mexico now, you’re in pole position to win, so how you feeling? 

    LH: I feel great man. How are you feeling after our drive?

    I’m still a bit nervous.

    LH: Honestly, bro, I’m honoured that you’re here. It’s a humbling experience. It’s a dream job and I know that many of you perhaps would love to drive a Formula One car and all I can tell you is it’s the greatest experience and feeling in the world and I wouldn’t be here without my family. My brother’s down here, my mum’s all the way back up there – sending you guys love.

    Thank you Lewis. Sebastian, a pleasure. So, you kept the race alive until the end. It was a real exciting race. You really pushed yourself at the end?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I did. At the start it was looking good, obviously we got past Lewis. But then fairly quickly we had to realise that we couldn’t go his pace today, so well done and congrats to him. Then I think we were a bit in no-man’s land, not quite sure. It was close after the first stop again, but then obviously stuck again and towards the end we decided to pit again and fit a fresh set of tyres, which was a bit more exciting, the last couple of laps especially but overall not the result we wanted.

    Did you feel like Mercedes came here with a good strategy today?

    SV: Well, I mean, there was no real secret other than that they were quicker than us. I think we have to admit that today in the race we couldn’t go their pace. So I don’t think it’s down to strategy, it’s just… You should know, whoever is fastest usually has a good chance of winning.

    Thank you very much. Kimi, congratulations. At the end it was a really dramatic race, but are you happy with the points?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, obviously I was pretty disappointed just after the race when I thought I’d finished fourth, but there was some issue with Max. It was a great race. My car was very good all the way, I just had to fuel save a bit in the end so I had to back off but apart from that the car was working very good.

    Your final thoughts on the race? It’s the 62nd win of your career.

    LH: Well, I’m trying to catch you up, dude. You led the way. It’s been an incredible year so far. Really enjoyed driving the car. I was not expecting to have the pace we had on Sebastian today. The car felt fantastic. We got the right balance at the start… Still three to go, so three more to win. Let’s go guys.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, you sixth win in the United States, your fifth at the Circuit of the Americas. You’ve only missed out once at the Circuit of the Americas in all the time we’ve been coming here. Mercedes clinch the Constructors’ Championship today. You made two very nice passes for the lead during the course of the race, which doesn’t happen every day, so maybe drill down into those and I think, fifth place in Mexico and you’re world champion.

    LH: First of all, I want to say a big congratulations to everyone in the team, all the partners, everyone back at the factory and everyone here. There has been an incredible push for this kind of performance this year. We’ve really pulled together more than I’ve experience or seen over the last five years this year to really pull together and create something quite special. So, really proud for everyone, especially in going from one era of car to another, which has not been done before, just shows strength and depth and I’m really proud to be part of it. The race was great. I have to say probably one of the most fun races that I’ve had for a while. I mean there’s been quite a few fun ones this year. Didn’t get away to a great start, not really sure why, but Sebastian got a great start. But I was kind of chilled about it, just knowing in the past that you can overtake here. Yeah, it was great just having those… I don’t know how many laps it was, but having that battle. Trying to get close; trying to get in the DRS. It was very reminiscent of 2012 here, seeing Sebastian up ahead and wanting to have a wheel-to-wheel battle. I had a lot of fun trying to get closer and obviously it came down to the overtake in Turn 12, which again was the same as 2012. That’s what I love for. That’s what I didn’t enjoy most. I was a little bit surprised Sebastian didn’t defend more, I would have, but still it was fair and then after that I think I had a little bit of a battle with Verstappen, which was like karting days, from one corner to the other. It was good fun. But overall I think today the wind changed around 180 degrees and it really made the track so special to drive being that through the high-speed section… Yesterday, coming out of Turn 1 you had massive wheelspin and today you had great traction and then going the ‘Esses’ with a headwind, it’s fire through there. It’s incredible. You’re throwing the car around and I guess the car is at its optimum performance through there, like it would be in the wind tunnel, so that’s where you get to enjoy it the most. Then you got to different corners and you have a tailwind, so you are having to push and pull. But just really grateful for all the support that I’ve had this weekend. My mum has been here, my brother and a bunch of friends. Usain has come out to support, with Puma, so that’s been great. Woody Harrelson came out in support. My close friend Gayle King, my best friend’s come, so a lot of support here and particularly in the crowd, a big thank you to everyone.

    Q: Sebastian, I guess your side of the story on the overtake. Great start, and also we have to ask you why you reacted when Verstappen made that extra stop, why you felt you had to do that, to react to cover it. And also, that insane move on Bottas through the middle with the lapped traffic, which was reminiscent of Mansell on Senna in Hungary back in the day. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that but it was another one a bit like that anyway. A lot to digest.

    SV: Yeah. Started off well with a great start but then we were just not quick enough. Obviously, I felt the car and the tyres suffering quite a lot after three or four laps only, and Lewis was easily able to stay with us, close the gap and easily get into DRS, which usually is not easy after the fast section, so he was just quicker. And then, yeah, not so easy to see. I tried to block. Maybe I could have done a bit more – but on the other hand I think he was just so much quicker that it didn’t really matter. So, yeah, disappointing to lose the lead when you have it but I think with the difference in pace they had on us today, it wasn’t probably our race to win. After that, yeah, I struggled. Stopped quite early. It got close around the first stop with Lewis again and yeah, after that, managing the race, trying to get to the end – but I felt the tyres on the first stint were quite bad so I wasn’t sure on the second, and we talked about it by radio and decided then obviously to do something different, which at the time, was difficult to predict what was going to happen but I think if you look in terms of where we were three or four laps to the end, it’s probably the right choice. Obviously we had two cars racing for the podium today and we managed to both be up here. Trying to help Kimi in the end a little bit with a tow on the straight which worked but I think then the tyres… Max and my tyres I guess were just so much fresher it was quite easy to get past. The move on Valtteri was quite spontaneous. I wanted to go around the outside, I saw the lapped traffic, hesitated for a second, didn’t know where to go then I thought ‘OK, there’s a little bit of a gap, I just go for it.’ When I was in the middle of them I thought, ‘OK, just try to get out of here.’ It worked. It was very close. It also felt special. I think Valtteri was trying to wait and block the inside, so I had a bit of momentum and yeah, made it stick, so that was quite nice. Obviously overall not the result that I wanted today.

    Q: Coming to you Kimi, obviously, you decided to not cover Verstappen. So, what was the thinking there? Sebastian had, you didn’t. When he made his extra stop I mean. And then, can you give us your side of the story, because obviously it’s a quite a controversial end there with him losing the position on the podium with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage. Can you give us your perspective on that please?

    KR: Well, I have no idea what happened with him. Apart from obviously he got past me in the third-last corner but, to be honest, my car has been all day very good. Not really any issues: the handling was good; the tyres lasted well and really the only thing was that I had to fuel-save in the end really quite heavily. So, I had to back off and, once Seb got behind me I let him past easily in Turn One and then tried to get some tow from him on the straights to try to save a bit more fuel – but that was really the only tricky point today, whey I had to slow down in the end. Apart from that, my car was good. But like I said, I have no idea what happened with Verstappen, why did he get a penalty, I don’t know.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Omar Alvarez – Graining.es) Question for Lewis Hamilton. Now you have the most wins in the US Grand Prix, ahead of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, what makes you different from both?

    LH: Apart from the obvious, I think… I don’t know. I think we all possess unique qualities in ourselves. Obviously I’m massively proud and honoured to be there amongst these incredible elite drivers that I grew up watching, and I would say we all have something very similar within us, in terms of pushing the limit, pushing the boundaries. What makes me a little bit different. I don’t know. As I said, I’m my own person, I’m a little bit outgoing. I guess I dress differently. I have different opinions – but it’s difficult to say how we would fare in a race all together, what differences you would see with us on track together. I wish we had the opportunity for that – but that’s all a dream.

    Q: (Did not declare his name) Lewis, you have 66 points more than Sebastian, the mathematics is totally in your favour. Can you please comment if you yourself maybe half-champion already or not? And to both Ferrari drivers, are you surprised by the fact that in this race Mercedes was more able to manage the tyres than Ferrari?

    LH: Not Mercedes. Lewis! I’m kidding. No, I don’t really let my mind get there. At the moment, I’m just focussed on winning, clearly, and I’m enjoying driving more than ever. I just really… the challenge, the pressure’s intense. Just always want to elevate yourself and shine brighter each time you get in the car. Today I had to make a couple of changes; adjustments with the temperature ramping up as it did. I just got it right on point. I guess all the experience of all the years really came into play because I got the balance just perfect. If I hadn’t made those changes I probably would have gone backwards. Yeah, so, there’s still three races to go. In my mind, I’ve still got three races to win. Still a lot of points available. So I don’t think until it’s ever properly done and sealed you can ever get ahead of yourself.

    And to the Ferrari drivers. Why was Mercedes able to look after the tyres better than Ferrari today?

    SV: Well, I don’t know the complete answer. I think, for my part, I wasn’t expecting to struggle that much, especially in the first stint. I think towards the end it was a bit more normal – but obviously by then the race was lost. I think coming here, looking at the track, it was probably more Mercedes ground but the last couple of races gave us a lot of hope and confidence and I think we’ve been OK. We were fairly close yesterday, closer than we expected. And unfortunately, today we were not gaining compared to normal where on Sunday we seem to be a bit closer – but not today.

    And Kimi? I think you were saying it was more about fuel saving than a problem with tyres.

    KR: I don’t think my tyres were at all in a bad shape. It all felt good and it wasn’t really any problem to push harder but, like I said, I had to fuel-save quite a bit in the end and that was the only limitation. For me, all race, the car was very good, so no complaints.

    Q: (Jorge Mendoza – La Prensa de San Antonio) Question for Sebastian. Sebastian, I know you had a lot of pressure on your shoulders this weekend. How was your approach for this coming race? I know you had to deliver, and you delivered a good second place with the car you had. Did you do something different from the previous races in regards to your mind and your attitude? What was the difference making you to deliver? Because you did a very great move this morning in the first turn. Did you risk at all? You weren’t able to pull it through. What was your approach for this race?

    SV: Thank you very much. Yeah, to be honest, I wanted to win, so not that different to other races, obviously the situation coming here is not what we wanted it to be, which the last couple of races not really on our side. To be honest it was fairly straightforward. I was confident we have the car, we have the speed and yeah, yesterday was important to get the front row. As we saw today, I was quite confident today would be better but it wasn’t the case. I probably realised a couple of laps in, and more or less a lap before the lap that Lewis passed, I was suffering more with the tyres than maybe he was or other people were in the race. So I need to understand why that was – but yeah, for sure it’s bitter. Nevertheless, we tried to fight and in that regard, at least it was a lot better than the other races where we didn’t have a chance to fight. Today we had. We got beaten fair and square so congrats to Lewis – but obviously yeah, there were a couple of things I think we could have done, should have done better. We were missing the Friday this weekend, which probably didn’t help – but the mindset was fairly straightforward. It was an easier weekend in that regard because we knew, and I knew we had to deliver – but I wanted to deliver as well. So yeah, that maybe made it a bit easier.

    Q: (Luis  Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Kimi, the reason Max was penalised was because he was judged to have completely cut the corner when he overtook you. At that moment, did you feel it was a fair moment? And also can you comment on the move that you did on Ocon and later in the race on Bottas?

    KR: Obviously I was half surprised… I saw him in the mirror and I tried to slow down the whole thing before the previous corners just to try to save enough fuel to be honest and then I thought I had enough cover on that corner, and I lifted because for the obvious reason that I said but suddenly I saw a bit of him in the mirror and I was a bit surprised. But obviously at that speed I was more looking forward than rearwards so I was pretty pissed off that he got past me but I didn’t have a chance and I slowed down but let’s say I was utterly surprised that I got to go on the podium but like I said, I haven’t seen it. It was part of the whole story but I don’t really know where he went. I think passing – was it Ocon? – was quite straightforward. I was expecting that it was going to be a lot harder but maybe he didn’t expect me to go inside but it was actually quite OK. I just had to make sure that I had enough speed there, that he was going to notice that I was there before he turned in. It was a bit more of a struggle with Bottas to get close enough and then finally I went and outbraked him and I managed to get past but that took a little bit of a while. I think they were a bit lacking… they were very fast on the back straight so it was very hard to… I was catching him but too late. I could follow him around the rest of the circuit but…

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday, Motorsport week.com) To all three drivers: the start of the race today with the pre-race ceremony was a little different to normal. Usually this is a time when you want to be yourself with your trainer and talking and quiet. This was anything but that. Could we have some comments? What did you think, pluses, minuses?

    LH: I think it was amazing. There was a little bit of waiting in the hallway, waiting for everyone to go out. That part felt a little bit long but I think they just made the SuperBowl here, they made the race, I think the entertainment was the best I think we’ve seen, with the drum line, the whole band. Yeah, I think the whole set-up. It was great to see something different. For many many years, the whole ten years, it’s been the same old boring thing on the grid except for now you have the national anthem but not really too exciting. I think this one was just much more like an NFL game which is exciting, with the fireworks and everything so I think they did a really great job and I think even from this they will learn and grow from that but we also had such a great turnout today. Not quite sure there’s such a great reception here in Austin but the fans, that big grandstand and up into turn one, they really make the atmosphere. When I’m driving down that straight, I can see them, also when you come down to turn 12, massive grandstand, that makes you feel like you’re in the most exciting arena. Then they let them all out on the track… immediately after this I’m going to see everyone.

    SV: I think for the people it might be nice if they like it and obviously it’s a nice idea. For me, yeah, I don’t really care to be honest. I like jumping in the car and racing. I’m not a big showman.

    KR: Yeah. I really don’t mind it as long as it’s done at the right time in the right place but it doesn’t make everything a big hassle because usually we have to run around quite a bit on Sunday and it’s far from ideal but I don’t mind these things as long as they are done well and actually if it works out it’s nice. I think it’s something different but everybody knows my option, what I would take.

    Q (Lennart Wernke – Bild) Follow up on the previous question, is that something you might see in Germany maybe next year? Did you like it that much that you maybe enjoy it at Hockenheim next season?

    SV; No, I don’t think so. I think Germans are very difficult to get excited so…

    LH: I don’t have a problem with it.

    SV: Yeah, I think Americans appreciate that sort of atmosphere and entertainment a lot more. I think Germans are maybe a little slower on that front.

    Q: (Priscilla Von Sorella – Huffington Post) Lewis, over the course of your lifetime or career or even a single race, how do you find it in yourself to overcome certain challenges and how do they make you a better driver?

    LH: Naturally, I’ve got good people around me, making sure you have… keep the family close is always an important thing. I’m very close to my faith. I rely a lot on God. I think my brother’s always been a kind of real inspiration. My brother was born with cerebral palsy and growing him, seeing him fall, he would always stumble and get back up. He would never even blink an eye or complain. And I know in my lifetime I’ve met a lot of other really inspirational individuals who have either suffered some kind of form of disability or certain setbacks in their lives and taken a lot of inspiration from that, so I think it’s really about… I love the battle against adversity. There are so many people in the world who obviously have that and to find a way within yourself to rise above it, rise above the negativity, remain positive, able to try and keep a positive frame of mind can overcome so much. And again, if you have good people around you, love really conquers all. I’ve got a lot of love this weekend within the close people who are around me, who really lift me up. And again, from the fans who I’ve met here that, from the moment I leave my hotel to the moment that I arrive at the track, they’re standing there with a banner at the gate, that kind of stuff just fills me up so… I’m only human, so there are days that I stumble and I struggle but I never give up, I just always get back up and there’s always a brighter day ahead.

    Q: (Alejandro Bulle – Graining.es) I want to ask the three of you if there’s anything special that you like about the Mexican Grand Prix, thinking that we are very close to it next weekend?

    SV: Usually there’s a lot of people – we haven’t been there too many times but… The track’s a bit so-so but there’s a lot of people, a huge city and yeah, hopefully we will have a lot of support again this year. It’s a fun place, so overall I’ve been enjoying the time there so looking forward to going back. Is there anything in particular? Not really. Tacos, maybe.

    KR: No, it’s a new place, not new this year but a few years back. It’s a different feeling but the people are very passionate about it and it’s not been very strong races for me there so hopefully this year a bit better, but it’s something different, for sure.

    LH: Hey man, I get a lot more excited than these two about it. Mexico, you’ve got sombreros, you’ve got great music, there’s real culture. The people, love their tequila. Every Mexican I’ve met they’re always smiling so it’s always a great time. I actually get to spend… I do a bit of my winter training in Mexico, beautiful place. The city… it’s quite breathtaking just how big the city is and how many people are there. Driving into that arena that has that huge grandstand and it’s always full, from the bottom to the top. And the food is great, tacos but on my plant-based diet, I don’t know how it’s going to go in Mexico. But what I can say is that I feel the best I’ve ever felt. Maybe some people can take that upon them too.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • It is such a fantastic circuit to drive, I love it: Lewis Hamilton at CoTA, Austin

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    Cowboy Lewis, and you rode that car beautifully around there and you even left a couple of ‘11s’ on the lap coming down out of Turn 1. The first sector wasn’t perfect but the lap was good enough to beat everybody today?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, the team have done a great job. The track was very difficult today, guys. With the wind picking up, you’ve got a headwind into Turn 1, a tailwind out of Turn1. Through the fast section, sector one, there’s tailwind and then you’ve got a headwind into Turn 9 and so it’s shifting the whole way through the lap, so you’re kind of gauging how hard you can push and how hard you have to let off. But that’s why I love this track, man. It’s such a fantastic circuit to drive, I love it, especially when you have a car you can really drive, it’s great.

    And the heat as well, on those open parts of the circuit, it is so intense.

    LH: I mean, it’s always hot in the car. I think it’s just the right temperature today. It’s not too hot, the sun’s out, we can at least enjoy it, I mean the guys out here are not getting a sun tan but still… It’s going to be a great race tomorrow, it’s going to be a tough one, because looking after the tyres in these conditions is still tough but I’m the best prepared I can be.

    Sebastian, you needed this front row, man, didn’t you, to take this championship fight, to keep the pressure on him, to keep the heat on him. How much did you have to draw out of yourself for that lap, because it was a brilliant lap?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I was very happy in the end, but I was lacking a bit the rhythm, especially the transition of the first to second sector, it was quite tricky with the wind, so I struggled a bit there. But finally I got it right, in the last run, when it mattered. As you said, important obviously to get front row, because I believe our race pace is really good. I quali all year we’ve been just a little bit behind, so well done to Lewis, obviously, he did two great laps and yeah, looking forward to tomorrow now.

    All the talk this week has been about what Lewis needs to do to win the title this weekend. What you need to do is win this race, do you think you can?

    SV: Not just here, it would be good to win also the others. But we go day by day. We were lacking a bit of running yesterday. Today was a lot better. I was getting up to speed and it was there when it mattered, but the race is tomorrow. It’s a great track, a great place, a lot of people, so it should be a good day tomorrow.

    And a big run up to Turn 1 as well. Well done, many congratulations. Valtteri, not quite the front row today. I guess a little bit disappointed but the pace is there, the car looks great, how confident are you feeling for the race?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Definitely disappointing, you know. It was looking good for us and quite close with Lewis as well at some points, so disappointing, but there is always tomorrow.

    Well done. Lewis, back to you. Nick is here this weekend, adoring fans in the grandstand, which is pretty much your second home here in the States. I know how much you love it, you wrapped up your third title here, is it going to be four tomorrow?

    LH: I think It’s highly unlikely that will be the case. Sebastian did a great job today to bring the Ferrari back up there. Ultimately all I can do is the best I can of my abilities and we have to work as hard as we can to get maximum points. Sebastian is right there, so unless he makes a silly mistake, which is unlikely, he’s a four-time world champion, then we’re going to be seeing it continue on to other races.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, how good was that opening lap [of Q3], the one that followed and generally how are you feeling?

    LH: I feel fantastic. I feel very fresh and happy and naturally always wish that qualifying would go longer because it’s the most fun session of the weekend. In general, very happy with all of qualifying. The last was not spectacular but up until then generally very, very strong. The team have done an exceptional job all weekend in filtering all of the data that we’ve got to really put the car in the right place and enable me, again, have the opportunity to exploit that. This is such a fantastic circuit, because just the layout and the way the wind comes and intertwines with the corners, it really makes it challenging, you know, so when you are going through the ‘Esses’ it’s not all the same through them, then you come out and you’ve got a headwind and then a crosswind and then you’ve got a headwind and a tailwind. So you’re constantly dancing with the wind. That I do love. On the last lap, I got caught out by a bit of a gust but that’s how it goes but yeah really happy to be up here, especially in front of such a great crowd.

    And you had a low 1m33s on that first run, when you went out for that final run did you think that with a perfect lap it might be possible to get a high 1m32s or was that too much to hope for?

    LH: It never even crossed my mind! I don’t even know what time I did if I’m really honest! What was it?

    I think it was a 33.2 or something like that.

    LH: I think I was up on that last one. I think on a perfect lap I could get down into the 32s but it’s very hard out there in those conditions.

    Very well done, great job. Sebastian from your point of view it’s a story of recovery really. We saw your old chassis being wheeled out yesterday, a new chassis being built up overnight. Tell us about that process, how you got back into it, and how you feel to be able to split the Mercedes?

    SV: I think we are very happy with the result. It was obviously crucial to get that final run. Bit of a slow start. We had a couple of problems, I didn’t feel comfortable yesterday with the car, and we did hardly any laps. Obviously I lost the car very early in FP2, which didn’t help and I thought that there’s something not right. Obviously a big job overnight. The team was fantastic, the mechanics now had a couple of weekends in a row with a lot of work, with last-minute engine changes, now a chassis change overnight and they didn’t break the curfew. You know you’re allowed to use a certain time before everybody has to leave the garages and if you do that big job there is always a threat but I think they did another re3cord time to change. Obviously it’s not what we want, but obviously today was a lot better, I was much happier with the car. I’m glad it worked out. And not finding the rhythm straight away in quali, I struggled a bit in a couple of corners but I knew if I get them right I should be able to make a big step in the final run, so I was very happy. I think in the end we were closer than probably we even expected so for today, but for tomorrow I think if the car behaves like today it should be good.

    Valtteri, conditions this weekend for this session the hottest of the weekend so far, how did the car feel and what are you expecting from the race?

    VB: Well, as Lewis said it was quite a tricky session with the wind and every lap was always a little bit different. We have been making quite big set-up changes in the weekend and definitely made the car quicker but quite tricky car for me to drive at least. I just struggled really with the pace and the laps they felt good, I just couldn’t go quicker. Lewis did a good job again.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, you are the fastest guy all weekend. Do you think in race conditions you can keep also. In Malaysia you said you had doubts in the race, is it the same case here. And to Valtteri, you did an incredible first sector, in the strongest points of Lewis in this circuit, but then the lap was not so fast as the first part, why?

    LH: We know we’re often good through practice and qualifying but then the races are always a tricky one for us in terms of balance. We’re not terrible but you would think that we’re generally stronger in qualifying than we are in race, that’s been the case all year. But I think we’re good. I think I’ve got a good set of tyres, I think I’ve got a good balance for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to a good race with Sebastian and Valtteri. This is a track where you can follow a lot closer and even overtake as that race me and Sebastian had back in 2012 here, which was great, but I don’t plan on him getting that close but we shall see. But I think we will be OK tomorrow.

    VB: I didn’t understand the question.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) I said you did a fantastic first part of the lap, you were the fastest guy at that moment, but then the rest of the lap was not so good.

    VB: In Q3. Yeah, I couldn’t improve in the second run. The first run felt OK, but Lewis managed to gain somehow more from Q2 to Q3 and I couldn’t really. I couldn’t find any track improvement. Like I said it was not easy sessions, every lap was a bit different but there were no big mistakes, just small things here and there as I feel for all the drivers but there was just this big gap.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Question for Sebastian. Would you compare the situation you had today in Q3 in the last lap with the one you had in Japan where you saw the gap was quite to the front runners? Or was it completely the opposite – because you knew he had to be a bit more on the safe side to get these two corners right. And which two corners was it?

    SV: Well, I struggled a bit into Turn Eight, so Eight-Nine then it’s a succession up the hill. Obviously, the wind was quite tricky all day really. In the morning, I thought it was fine. In the afternoon, I just started on the wrong foot. It wasn’t really a question of stepping down, or calming down. It was more a question of getting it right. The shots that I had before, I obviously tried. Maybe I did take a little bit more risk but it never really worked – and then yeah, I knew what I had to get right, so I got it right. That was the most important but obviously in Japan I was fairly comfortable, let’s say, front row, no matter what Valtteri was going to do, so I decided to take a bit more risk but it was very different here, obviously. My lap was very poor in Q3 and I knew that I had to deliver otherwise I would have been, I don’t know, not even top six maybe. Therefor the timing was just right.

    Q: (Jeff Gluck – Jeffgluck.com) Lewis, how has your relationship with the American fans evolved over the years? It seems like you’ve soaked up the relationship with the American fans and the adoration that they have for you. How has that evolved for you over the years here?

    LH: Yeah, I think it’s been an interesting journey for me. I think it’s… my love of America started many, many years before I even came to the States, watching movies and seeing these great cities, like New York and all over. My Mum actually saved up to bring me to New York for my 17th birthday and we had an amazing few days. It kind of grew from then. And obviously coming here, racing here, my first… my second grand prix win but first race in the US was Indy and that was an amazing feeling. A great battle that I had with Fernando, and then obviously moving here. I don’t know why it’s always gone so well for me here but there definitely is a… I do feel a lot of positivity here. It is such a great country, it’s got so much to offer. Obviously, you’ve got great mountains, great countryside, great seaside, great food. There’s not really anything it doesn’t have. Plus you’ve got NASA here, which is pretty awesome. Rocket! I like that. So yeah, and I generally feel like, obviously… naturally I think people, Americans really do relate to… they’re crazy into their sports, they relate to winners, and obviously the fact I’ve had the success that I’ve had here I think comes hand-in-hand with that relationship but I really do appreciate the support that I have here and it does feel like a second home for me. It’s a place that I try to spend as much time as I can in my off-time ‘cos it’s where I’m generally happiest.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) A question to Sebastian. You obviously didn’t do many laps yesterday. How much could you recover in P3, in terms of race preparation?

    SV: Not much. Obviously, we had a touch of a small long run, I think two timed laps, so we’re missing a bit. As the season progresses everybody gets better in terms of reading the sessions, understanding the tyres so I don’t think we’re in any weaker position. Would have been nice to do more laps but the little laps that I had this morning were fine. I think we know what we need to do. Now we see what the conditions are like. It’s supposed to be a bit cooler, we’ll see what the wind does. We have to react to those. That’s far more important that maybe what we’ve missed, because that has an impact on how your balance is in the first stint and then how you are able to feel the car push or not and then put pressure on whoever’s in front or disappear if you’re ahead, or whatever.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Questions to Valtteri and Sebastian. For Valtteri, three-quarters of the time you’re losing to Lewis is all in the last sector, he was three-tenths quicker than you. Is there something not to your liking in the car in that kind of corner. And for Sebastian, even though it’s not as bad as in the first two years, there’s still a difference in grip on the two sides of the grid. Does that worry you for the start tomorrow?

    VB: Yes, definitely the last sector in the qualifying I did struggle more. It felt more tricky for some reason than, for example, in some of the practice sessions. There’s been things I’ve been struggling with, with this car, with the brake modulation and front-locking and transferring the weight between the four wheels. It’s fine details but just struggled to get it together. Many times 13 and 15, lost a bit of time. Sometimes I got it right but still I couldn’t match Lewis in terms of cornering speeds, etcetera – but yeah, those are the longest corners, slow speed corners and normally the bigger differences are there.

    And Sebastian, the grip differential.

    SV: I don’t know. We see tomorrow. I saw Formula 4 race but they start on the other side, so the polesitter starts left. Anyway, the guy who started left turned in first into the first corner, so I don’t know. I don’t think there’s a big difference. We just need to make sure the cheerleaders tomorrow stay away from that side and they can get all excited on Lewis’ side.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Lewis, you mentioned the rockets. F1 has a lot of high technology. A lot of it is kept hidden. What did you like about the high technology that you got to see at NASA?

    LH: Well, to be honest, a lot of the technology I saw quite pre-dated. The most impressive thing was the big rocket that was one of the first rockets to go up in the ‘70s, and the engine technology of the most power has not progressed since then, from what they told me. That was like the best they could do with it. I think the most impressive thing for it is that it had like 1.5million pounds of torque in those five engines, and the distance of the blast of the jet was like two or three hundred metres, which was awesome. I think it was just mind-blowing to see what they were able to do. How amazing the technology, and how great the scientists were back in the ‘60s, ‘70s when they were building those space rockets, and then obviously now they’re planning more missions to the Moon, and Mars, and the new space station, I guess they’re going to have to start designing and building the new space station sometime because the life of that thing’s about to run out. I think it was just great. There’s no other country that I’ve ever been… everyone around the world knows about the journey to space. You see the movies and it’s so fascinating, so to be there and actually speak to an astronaut who was the last one to go up to the space station and is going to be the one to pilot the next mission, I was like: “Can I join you? Or we can swap jobs, I don’t mind doing your job.” It’s just mind-blowing when you think of how many intelligent people there are there working. I think there’s something like 10,000 people working at NASA but I think there was a lot more in the earlier days and there are similarities to Formula One. Obviously on a much, much smaller scale but in terms of the science. Honestly, I’m a space geek. I was there and I was asking a million questions and I’d happily go and work at NASA if I had the brains to do so. I could definitely pilot one of those ships. No problem!

    Q: (Les Kaiser – Speed City) Lewis you half way joked when you responded “can I do with you?” How serious would you be if they approached you in another year or two to join them?

    LH: I would go immediately. I would go tomorrow. Generally, the trips are, like, two weeks, so I’d be back in time for the next trip. After the race, jump on the Shuttle, no problem. No, I really, really would love to go. I know someone that has gone up. It was quite expensive so I don’t know how that’s going to happen. If I win the lottery then definitely, I’m going to go.

    Q: (Peter Habicht – The Auto Channel) Question to each of the drivers: Formula One has often been described as a space race in motorsports in comparison to other forms of motorsport. Who or what about the hundreds of people that support your cars, your efforts, impresses you the most or strikes you the strongest?

    SV: Well, if you open the bonnet and you’re allowed to have a good look, which normally people unfortunately are not, they don’t get too close to the cars, then you’ll be impressed by how much stuff there is going on, especially with the new engines that we have, how complex they are. But still, we manage to get (them to be) more and more robust, run for longer with more power so obviously in the last couple of years that has been very crucial and there has been a big step in all areas on the power unit side. But I think really the most impressive bit is how everything comes together. You know you talk about the car in the end but it’s so much more. I know we’ve got the basic stuff: four tyres and yeah, for some people the cars look similar to how they looked ten, twenty, thirty years ago but how much has changed.  And seeing all that coming together, the planning of the project and how much work is going into the project and every year build a new car which is crazy but a completely new car. You try to improve, you try to come up with new ideas, solutions, better packaging, design, materials. You want to save weight. And then to see winter time, in that regard, is very very exciting to see it coming together and then firing up for the first time, driving out on the track for the first time. It’s really the work and brains of more than a thousand people. In the end, two drivers per team who have the chance to describe the feeling to drive the car so I think that’s really one of the most exciting bits. In my opinion, that also makes it a team sport because I can’t do it on my own, I’m not even close. You need every single one and you need to… I don’t know if you can compare it to an orchestra, you need to play in sync, perfect timing and then only then are you able to come up with a competitive package because the other teams that you’re up against are so good as well.

    VB: I have to say it’s how much every single person’s work actually makes a difference. Every single woman and man in a race team, whatever areas they work on, at the factory, in the race team, on the engine side, everyone’s work matters so much. All the credit goes to every single one in the team, there’s no one person who can make the big difference. It is, as a team, it’s really interesting to see, when a team works well, together, how big a difference you can make with the team spirit, and if everyone gives 100 percent instead of 99 percent and when there’s nearly a thousand people, it makes a massive difference and that’s nice to see.

    LH: I will try and keep it short but for me it’s the technology, it’s the design. I think the most impressive part is when you go back to the factory and you see what’s going on back then, a huge group of people with great creative minds coming together and really stretching the boundaries of the rules, legality-wise and advancing technology at a crazy rate. When you look at how they’re building these engines and the amount of test components you see they’ve failed and then they are able to dissect it and improve it for the next time, that for me is just mind-blowing when I go there, and I’ve been in the sport for a long time, obviously, but to see that every year, growing and improving and the process in which they do that, particularly quality control, has come so far forward which is probably why we are able to have the reliability, and that for me is the most mind-blowing thing.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Sebastian and Lewis: at this race we can have the world title decided and we haven’t mentioned it in this press conference. Does it come to your mind at any moment? When will you take it into consideration?

    LH: Well, I mean it’s a bit like a game of chess. Obviously right now it’s check but there’s still a long long way to go. There’s still a hundred points available. Sebastian and his team are going to be working as hard as they can as are we. Who knows? It’s going to go to the wire I still think. In the next four races, I think they are going to give it a great shot and I’m going to do my utmost to try and defend and not only defend but really maximise and win these races. I want to win these races, that’s what I’m working towards and naturally, in winning races, points come and championships are won so that’s what I’m here to do.

    SV: Well, it’s pretty straightforward. I think we have to win and then we see what happens. Obviously we are not in the position that we would like to be but still we have a chance so we go for that and it’s pretty straightforward. We have the car, we had the car to win the last three races, didn’t happen, so I don’t see why the next four races we shouldn’t have the package to win so we start tomorrow.

    LH: Buddy, do you have a question for us? Do you have a question for us? You sure?

    Q: (“Buddy”) Are you excited to race in Austin?

    LH: Am I excited to race in Austin? Well I’m excited to meet you and yeah, I love racing this track, it’s so much fun, I think you’d love it. If I had a two-seater would like to go with me?

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport Magazin.com) Question for all three of you: it was pretty hot today, how much did you have to look at tyre temperatures, especially with ultrasoft in the fast flowing sector one or is the straight afterwards long enough to cool it down? How much was tyre temperature a concern for one lap today?

    LH: I think tyres are definitely… I mean there are a lot of high speed corners here, what’s really unfortunate is that TV’s not really able to show you the forces that are going through not only our bodies but the tyres, the car, how it’s flexing through these corners. I think here more than many of the other circuits through that first section you really can see the car shifting and turning. I don’t think people realise how tight those corners are and how ridiculously fast we’re going through them but it’s fantastic. With these tyres, they’re kind of like living tissue, you know? The temperature’s moving all the time so how you manage them on the out lap, whether you get a small slide or a bit of wheelspin affects the next corner and the corner after that. It’s kind of difficult to explain but it is really important to make sure you manage them in the best way possible to get the optimum performance for a lap and there is a knack to it for sure which obviously we are able to do.

    VB: Nothing to add really. We could actually push relatively hard. Obviously we needed to take care on the out lap but like the first sector, we could really go for it and the long straights, they definitely make it easier to cool them down a bit but like Lewis said, you still need to not go crazy with them.

    SV: Well first of all I don’t like the imagination of living tissue; that just sounds a bit… Yeah, I think we would like to push more but you obviously have to look after the tyres and manage them which to some degree is fine because it’s part of our skill set but still I prefer to be able to push more.

    Eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • 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

     

  • 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

  • Our target for next year too is to stay 4th: Otmar Szafnauer of Force India

    PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Frédéric VASSEUR (Sauber), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Force India).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Christian, let’s begin with you and the announcement of the Aston Martin deal. Tell us the scope of that, the ambition and whether there is an engine dimension to it going forward?

    Christian HORNER: Well, it’s great news for our team. We have been working with Aston over the last 18 months now on a project, starting with the Valkyrie road car, and out of the upturn there has been within the Aston business over the last couple of years, they have decided that Formula 1 is the right platform to invest in and have taken up the title sponsorship of our team for the next three years. That collaboration will not only see an on-track, with the team being named Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, it also sees behind the scenes a collaboration on future products that Aston are working on and then producing some of those cars in Milton Keynes, producing more jobs in Milton Keynes – over 100 new positions are going to be created in the future – to hopefully produce some great looking cars.

    And the engine dimension?

    CH: There is no engine dimension at this point in time but what we await with interest is what will the regulations be, what are Liberty’s plans regarding engines and chassis from 2021 onwards. So in an ideal world it would allow an independent manufacturer such as an Ilmor or a Cosworth to be able to compete with the big guns. But until we can see what the scope of those regulations are, it’s difficult to make any assumptions.

    And on the subject of engines, your sister team Toro Rosso has the Honda engines next season and you collaborate technically with that team, so how closely will you be monitoring the progress of Honda?

    CH: I think it’s a really exciting development for Toro Rosso. It’s an opportunity for them to move forward. It keeps Honda in Formula One, which I think is also a positive and we’ll certainly be keeping an interested eye on how things are developing in Italy.

    Otmar, you’ve kept the same two drivers for next season – a very exciting pairing – how are things working out between them since you had a talking to them in Spa and do you feel you have got on top of their issues without blunting their competitiveness?

    Otmar SZAFNAUER: Yeah, they’ve always gotten on. They have their on-track incidents, like you mentioned in Spa. That event kind of focused both their minds and now they have a good understanding that if they come together you never know who the winner or loser is, but for certain the team loses. We all work for a team, we all pull together, we’re all team members. They understand that and they’ll be working for the team going forward.

    You’re a clear fourth in the Constructors’ Championship now, and likely to stay there. Obviously next year with Renault likely to move forward, with McLaren pairing up with Renault and all the other moves going on, will it be an achievement to just stand still in fourth next year, or are you pushing the team to get third?

    OS: Well, it will be difficult next year. Like you say, Renault have shown great steps forward this year from where they started to where they are now. I think it’s no secret that McLaren have a lot of resources and are also capable. It will be difficult for us to remain fourth, but we always set our sights on achievable goals and we will push hard next year to at least stay fourth and someone makes a mistake ahead of us, you never know what can happen.

    Frédéric, you ran Charles Leclerc in FP1. How did he do? And how do you rate him, given that you’ve had so many great young drivers pass through your hands – the Hamiltons, the Hulkenbergs, the Rosbergs – how do you rate Charles against them?

    Frédéric VASSEUR: I won’t rate Charles, only on the FP1 this morning, and it was a tricky session. He did very well this morning. He had not so many laps to do but he was at a good pace from the start and he did a very good session, even on the technical feedback everything went well. If you look on the global picture, he did very well in the junior series, he is doing very well in Formula 2. So far I think he had to be focused on the last part of the championship, to win the title and then you will see for next year.

    It looks like Sauber could be more closely linked to Ferrari next season. You’re obviously an expert in bringing young drivers on, as we’ve just discussed. Is that the best direction, you believe, for Sauber to take?

    FV: For sure there is a huge gap today between Sauber and the top teams and we need to find a way of collaborating with a top team fi we want to improve and if we want to improve quickly. Because the most important thing is to bring the team back into the field and then to be able to compete. OK, with the Ferrari deal we will improve and we will improve a lot and then we have to build up our own project to be able to fight with the guy in front of us.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To all three of you: there has been a resignation this week from a senior member of the FIA’s technical team. He has three months’ ‘gardening leave’, which would then allow him to go to another team in a technical capacity. Does it concern you that he could be taking some secrets from teams with him?

    CH: Well, we take major issue with that if he does end up with another team. Obviously in these individuals you place an enormous amount of trust. In the role that Marcin has been responsible for he has been in an extremely privileged position and extremely recently he has been in people’s wind tunnels and looking at intimate details of knowledge of next year’s cars and I think three months’ notice period for him to then turn up in a competitor team in Formula One is entirely inappropriate. I certainly hope that isn’t the case and I’m sure it will get discussed quite seriously at the next strategy group meeting. It’s an important and vital role and it’s vital that the teams have trust and faith in the governing body that they can discuss their technical know-how, their technical secrets in many respects, which cost millions and millions of pounds, in confidence that that information doesn’t have the ability to end up in a rival team.

    FV: First, we need to know where Marcin will go but I agree with Christian, it is a big issue, because the FIA is fully aware of all the teams’ project and at the end of the day if we can’t be open with the FIA it’s a tricky situation. But first we need to know where Marcin will go.

    OS: I do agree and it would have been nice to know the notice period. Three months I don’t think is long enough and had we known it was three months earlier, perhaps we would have hired him. But I think three months is nowhere near long enough.

    What is?

    OS: I think a year. I mean, it has to be long enough such that the technology that he is aware of becomes, if not obsolete, then not leading edge. There are some sporting regulations as well that prohibit us from selling current-year cars for exactly the same reason. The cars have to be at least one year before we can dispose of them and it’s for that reason and I think notice periods should follow along the same lines.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport) For the other two gentlemen: what do you think would be an appropriate time, one year or more?

    FV: For sure, one year would fit with the spirit of the regulations but three months is really too short.

    CH: I think industry standard for the type of role that Marcin has been performing would be anywhere between 12 and 18 months. We would look to place senior personnel within our team on at least 12 months.

    Q: (Jake Michaels – ESPN) To all three of you: How can concerning was what we saw at the end of the session, with Romain Grosjean going off?

    FV: For sure it was a huge crash. I am not an expert on the drain cover but I think we have to find a solution for tomorrow because it will be very, very risky, but I think that the FIA is focused on this point and I hope that we will be able to find a solution for tomorrow morning.

    Christian you have experienced this before.

    CH: Yeah, we had an incident quite a while back similar to that. The good thing is that nobody was hurt. Obviously the session was stopped and I’m sure all the covers here will be inspected rigorously before tomorrow’s running. I’m pretty confident and hopefully we won’t see a repeat issue.

    Otmar?

    OS: I think it just teaches that in future we should do it before it happens, have good inspection before something like this happens.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) This question’s for Christian, since your announcement with Aston Martin for 2018, social media has been very creative coming up with some liveries for next year – would you be considering taking some of those ideas from social media, maybe getting the fans involved – because Red Bull’s very good at fan engagement.

    CH: We enjoy the work we do on social media, we have great interaction with the fans and followers of the teams. The livery is pretty much decided for next year but it’s great to see people’s interpretations and ideas and they should keep putting them out there.

    Have you seen anything that’s on the right track?

    CH: No!

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, your team has recently published its financial results – or rather submitted them, filed them with Companies House. When I look at them, first of all, there’s about a £40million contribution from the parent company, but apart from that your budget’s about two and a half times the size of Otmar’s. Do you actually get 250 per cent the value compared to theirs or is this not really proof that there should be some form of budget cap in place?

    CH: Well, I think what you have to look at is what are the cost-drivers in Formula One, and they are absolutely the sporting and technical regulations. We see costs spiralling out of control. We’re not by any means the biggest spender in Formula One as you’re well aware. And I think what’s going to be fascinating to see, hopefully over the next month or so, is what are Liberty’s and FIA’s plans regarding the future – because a budget cap becomes far less emotive if it goes hand-in-hand with sporting and technical regulations that absolutely deal with the costs, because they are the cost drivers. So I think, if the sporting and technical side are dealt with, some form of cap will be easier to bring in but if you put all of the pressure on the cap, then it becomes an accounting world championship and I think that some of the issues we have today with disparity of performance, with the amount of spend that’s going on, with the situation that’s regarding… Red Bull Racing is the only British registered team to be registering a profit, albeit a moderate one, and that shouldn’t be right in this level of sport.

    Otmar?

    OS: We welcome a budget cap or some cost controls within the sport. I mean, even with a cap I don’t think we’ll have the resources to spend up to it but I think it will help reduce some of the disparity in performance and that can only be good for the fans.

    Fred?

    FV: Yeah, we spoke about this in Monza, as I told you, I think the cap won’t be an issue for me.

    CH: Just coming back on Dieter’s point, I think one of the key things within Red Bull’s cost is how much goes into promotion, and promotion of the sport as well, that are contained within that budget. I think Red Bull does more than any other team on the grid with its running show car activities around the world, with the way that we try to promote not just the team and the brand but obviously the sport in general as well.

    PART TWO: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Mario ISOLA (Pirelli), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Guenther STEINER (Haas).

    Q: Mario, let’s start with you. We’re three-quarters of the way through the 2017 season on these new, wider tyres. We can all see what the lap time improvements have been but can you give us an idea of the increase in things like the cornering speeds and any other things you’ve noticed – apart from ‘don’t’ run over drain covers’.

    Mario ISOLA: Yeah, we have seen on the corners that are grip-limited, we had an increasing speed that is 30km/h – 40km/h. We made an analysis on the quickest and most famous turn in Barcelona, in Spa, at Silverstone and it was impressive to see that Copse is now 290km/h and it is 30km/h quicker than last year, or we have Pouhon in Spa that is 40km/h quicker, so it is, in terms of performance, I believe we reached the target. Lap times, as you said, are visible for everybody. We are also analysing the data because this additional grip is generated not only by the wider tyres but also by the increase in downforce and, as an average, we have 100kg of downforce more on each tyre, as an average obviously, it depends on the circuit and layout, type of configuration and setup – but it’s quite a lot.

    Q: What can you share with us about the plans for 2018? What are you going to do with the range? Are you going to go a bit softer? What’s the plan?

    MI: We have defined the construction and we released the data to the teams on the First of September. We have a new construction front and rear, we will give some additional information soon. Obviously we are now working on our compounds – because the target is still to go one step softer compared to this year. We know that this year we have been quite conservative – but last year it was not easy to develop the new sizes with the mule cars so we decided to be on the conservative side. So the current Soft will be the new Medium next year, and we also intend to increase the number of compounds. It is still not defined but we have probably next year more compounds to give us more freedom in the selection during one event, because there are no modifications in the sporting regulations, so it still three compounds per event and the target is to have more flexibility.

    Q: And just a comment from you on the Grosjean incident. We all saw what happened but from your point of view.

    MI: Well, the tyres are not made to resist such a big impact so I cannot add anything else other than what we have seen on the television.

    Q: Guenther, coming to you, talking about Romain’s accident, we all saw what happened, what can you tell us from his point of view, and also the state of the car.

    GS: I think from his point of view, he is OK. Thank God he didn’t get hurt or anything. The car is damaged, in my opinion, things like this in 2017 shouldn’t happen on a permanent circuit, they shouldn’t happen on any circuit. This is, in my opinion, not acceptable. This is not up to the standards. So, I haven’t spoken with anybody. The next thing we need to make sure is how we can prove that it doesn’t happen in the race? Because in the race this would have been a little bit of a bigger disaster. If a few cars go over it, then the cover comes up. I’m still not through… to think completely through what happened to end up in this situation. In a few hours hopefully we know more. The damage is very big on the car. I don’t know exactly what it is because the car just came back five minutes before I had to get here, so they hadn’t taken the parts off to see if the chassis is damaged as well – but once we know that we see what we can do for tomorrow. We need to be sure that all the drain covers stay in place tomorrow.

    Q: You dropped down to eighth in the Constructors’ after the race in Singapore – big result for Renault there, of course, but it’s so tight in the midfield, it’s still possible for you to finish fifth in the Constructors’ this year – even though you’re pulling a face – are you throwing development resource at finishing 2017 as strongly as you possibly can, given the battle you find yourself in?

    GS: No. I think fifth is a little bit ambitious from your side. I think we can not finish fifth but we try to finish seventh. I think at this moment in time we would be happen with that. We stopped developing the ’17 car quite a while ago to concentrate on next year’s car. We have limited resources. We need to focus that we stay stable year-to-year, not just one year up and down because then you create a wave-effect and you never get a grip of what you’re doing. We try to do our best. We will bring a few more developments but they are small. The last one comes in Austin. We hopefully can score some points. I hope also that our worst circuits are behind us, like the slow speed, high downforce ones. Our car doesn’t like them. It’s tough, as you said, in the midfield. We just need to try to do always a perfect job – and not hit drain covers.

    Q: And a final thought. We asked Fred Vasseur in part one about the idea of a closer collaboration with Ferrari on his side, particularly on the driver aspect. Would that have any bearing on your team? How does your Ferrari collaboration develop from here?

    GS: I think our one is stable. We are doing it since now, it’s our third year since we started, and we do what we do. I have no influence what they do with somebody else and I don’t want to have one. We are happy with our contracts and our collaboration. So, if Sauber wants to work with them, I have no opinion and I’m OK with it. I can’t do anything about it any way – so why worry? We get what we want, and we are happy and we continue this.

    Q: Toto, you’re defending a 28 point lead rather than chasing down a deficit but today things looked a little bit difficult for your cars. Is that truly representative of where you were and is there that much work to do?

    Toto WOLFF: The lap time is reality, the stopwatch always tells the truth. The lap time today showed that we are not quick enough. The car seems to be unbalanced and that triggers an awful lot of consequences and it was certainly one of the worst Fridays I can remember.

    Q: Now you renewed Valtteri Bottas’s contract but only for one year rather than longer term; what does he have to do next season to stay on, or is it more about what happens with other teams’ drivers and whether they look to move?

    TW: It’s all in his hands, he just needs to drive fast and score good results. The dynamics between the drivers and the drivers and the engineer team is great so that is positive and it’s about competing on track and being fast.

    Q: It’s the final Malaysian Grand Prix, obviously, but F1 has announced the contract with China has been extended for another three years. Your thoughts on both?

    TW: It’s sad that we’re leaving Malaysia because of our partnership with Petronas it has become like a second home Grand Prix. We spend five or six or seven times a year in Kuala Lumpur and therefore I will be missing the race. On China, China is an important market for us with huge potential and insofar as extending their race there is good, good for Formula One.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To all of you, certainly the two team principals: a senior member of the FIA’s technical department has recently resigned. He’s got three months’ gardening leave, he’s obviously worked pretty closely with the teams during his tenure. How do you feel about the fact that he could possibly be joining an opposition team within the next… certainly by the start of next year?

    TW: Do you want an undiplomatic answer or the diplomatic answer?

    GS: They were sandbagging today just to promote comment but anyway… I was not involved in the strategy group meeting this morning but I know that a senior member has left or is leaving the FIA but I’m not sure where he’s going in the end, so I cannot accuse him of something, that he’s going somewhere if I don’t know. I guess somebody’s taking him so it’s as much as who is taking him’s fault as the guy who is going. I think a little bit in between. But first of all, we need to know if he’s going to a team and then where he’s going but I don’t know that yet, Dieter.

    TW: I don’t think it’s correct because he’s had access to a lot of information, especially from Mercedes so he will tell everybody else, so I think for sure they are not happy. It’s like Guenther said, we don’t know where Martin is going. It’s just a rumour. We’ve received an e-mail from Charlie saying that he will be leaving the FIA and he will be on gardening leave for three months. I personally get on well with Martin and we wish him success for his career, that is clear, but we need to look at the timings, we need to be transparent with the FIA and give them access and therefore, in order to have the full trust of the teams, it’s important to have a certain stability and understanding how quick somebody can leave the FIA and join another competitive team.

    MI: I don’t think I’m involved in that. For me, I was working very very well with Martin, we were co-operating on a number of things on tyres, future regulations and so on so it’s a pity that he’s leaving the FIA. I agree with Guenther on the fact that Martin obviously has a lot of knowledge and going to another team creates an issue for them but we don’t know where he is going so…

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, if we put aside the fact that your son was obviously a member of one of the F1 in Schools winning teams on Wednesday night, you were there, very enthusiastic about it. Could you tell us from a pure Formula One team principal perspective what you think of the project, the initiative and how you think it can help Formula One overall?

    TW: I didn’t know anything about Formula in Schools before I was actually surprised to hear that my son was joining it two years ago and it was his own initiative. I find it a really nice competition because young teenagers are creating a mini Formula One team. They have to raise sponsorship, they have to make a garage, create a marketing proposition, develop a little car. They are using tools such as CFD and mini-wind tunnels and then they put it on track and it’s very competitive and the best 52 teams made it to the world final last Wednesday and out of every corner of the world. And seeing them, how capable they are, and how enthusiastic they are for the sport, it’s really nice to see, so I will be cheering for Formula One in Schools, independently of whether my son is involved or not.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Toto, it would be fair to say that it would be one of the worst Fridays in your career. I would like to know if it’s just a question of lacking of grip, it’s just a question of heat or there is some other reason? And Ferrari put a lot of effort with new aerodynamic parts here. It seems that Mercedes is not at the same level at this event. Is that because you are thinking of bringing something more in Japan or in America?

    TW: As I said before, it feels like one of the worst Fridays. We have brought some new parts to the cars as well and now we need to chase back why it didn’t go today, independent whether it was in the wet or in the dry, on the long runs or on a single lap, we just lacked pace today and we have twelve hours to understand and then hopefully have a car tomorrow that is more stable.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport) There will be a triple header next year; Formula One has this tendency that if they get away with it once, they will do it again, so how keen are you to see triple headers and know that if it happens, everything works out once, it will happen again?

    GS: OK, I think it is… if you plan it well, I think the crew for sure are the most stressed out but the triple header is in Europe so at least we have got that advantage. We don’t have to fly from continent to continent. I think let’s see how it is but again, we need to get organised for this stuff and if it doesn’t work or if it is too stressful or if you can change something – you have to learn from it and change something for the year after because… I’m with you there, if we do it once, we will do it again. If we get spectators in front of the TV or some factor out of this, it will happen again. It’s just one of those things that you need to do and then come out and analyse and see if it is worthwhile to do again and how to deal best with it.

    TW: I think Guenther summarised it pretty well. There will be other factors such as important events in other sports or outside of sport that need to be considered and I think making a calendar is not easy so we need to wait and see how we can cope with the three races and then learn the lesson.

    MI: Yeah, we are like a small team so we have the same problems so we are organising our people and we need additional people of course to cover all this because also if it is in Europe, we have trucks moving with the new tyres or bringing back the used tyres. For overseas it will be more complicated and if it happens, we need to make a proper plan in advance. Everything is possible if it is an advantage for the sport obviously we will be ready to do that but it will have an increase in logistics and people we are obliged to use.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Toto, today we saw an Instagram movie – if I can say – something about Trump that was posted by Lewis. Are you worried that there can be some effect coming to the USA Grand Prix for him?

    TW: This is a very controversial and polarising story. I wouldn’t want to get involved in politics. We all have our opinion. Lewis’s feelings about human rights are very strong and I think he wanted to show that and probably Instagram as the communication channel is something that he needs to rethink but I can relate to his feelings.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Are you worried for the United States Grand Prix?

    TW: No, I think one of the most important things in the US is that you have the right to express your opinion and I would want to leave it there and not comment any more. I think we are here as sport teams and sports should unite and I’m not sure it is happening everywhere in the world so I would rather lead by example and not comment on politics.

    End

  • We have a lot of races, so I am not thinking of the 28-point deficit: Vettel

    We have a lot of races, so I am not thinking of the 28-point deficit: Vettel

    Max Verstappen (left), Sebastian Vettel (centre) and Kimi Raikkonen at the Thursday Press Conference. An FIA image

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Start with a question to all of you. Clearly a painful moment in Singapore, three cars eliminated on the first lap of the grand prix, how do all three of you assess it now and how do you move forward?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t think there’s much assessment necessary. Obviously on Sunday all three of us were unhappy, but you move on.

    Max VERSTAPPEN: It happened, you know. You can’t change it any more — it was just a very unfortunate moment. But there’s nothing you can do about it — we just come here and we try again.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Not really anything. Obviously moved on since Sunday, since the weekend.

    Q: Sebastian, you’re a four time winner here. Since the summer break you’ve gone from a 14 point championship lead to a 28 point deficit to Hamilton. You’ve obviously seen quite a fluctuation throughout this year and in your previous title-winning years. Do you still think it’s possible to get back on terms? Or do you rely on him to have problems?

    SV: I don’t know. I think we have a lot of races left. I think we have a strong car. I’m not too fussed about the amount of points. Obviously it’s never good to be behind, I’d like to be in front but we’re not so I’m not thinking about that.

    Q: Max, it’s your 20th birthday on Saturday. You’re committed obviously to Red Bull for next year. What kind of progress does the team need to make next year to satisfy you?

    MV: I think for next year, the team and I, we want to win, so that’s our priority and we’ll see what happens afterwards.

    Q: And Kimi, it’s the 19th and last Malaysian Grand Prix. You’ve raced in most of them, all but three, and you got your first win here. What do you think this event has contributed to the world championship over the years?

    KR: I think to start with it’s a very nice circuit, I think there’s been quite good racing over the years here. I think the layout obviously helps that, and conditions have been always tricky. I think everybody has got more used to it since the early days, but nevertheless I think the racing has been good and that’s the main thing. Obviously all the rest, it doesn’t matter because we are here for racing and if that’s good then that’s fine.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Question to Sebastian. A 28 point gap is tough for sure, but in some ways could it help you because there is maybe less pressure and you don’t have anything to lose?

    SV: I don’t look at it that way. I think it depends on the points you have at the end of the year or not, so yeah. As I said, if you would choose you want always to be ahead. I would rather not be a little bit behind, but overall it doesn’t change anything for how you tackle the last six races from here.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Leaving aside yourselves, who would you each nominate as the most able driver out there, the best?

    MV: I find that one really difficult. I think you can only compare with your teammate, because you don’t know what’s going on in the other teams. Also, the car you know, it can suit you better, so I don’t know to be honest.

    SV: I agree with Max, I don’t want to answer.

    KR: I think it’s pointless to answer this one. It’s up to you guys, you’re very good on it at least over the years, so do it again and we can obviously read it then.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Question for all three of you. Nineteen years of Malaysian Grand Prix, this is the final one. What have been some of your fondest memories of this race?

    SV: Obviously it’s a while ago, but for sure one of the nicest ones was 2015, my first win with Ferrari. It certainly was very special — we came here early in the season, at the very beginning of my time with Ferrari. There’s still a lot of very nice memories coming up, I’m thinking about that day, and how the race happened, what happened after the race. I had a really good time. I think the other races, I’m not sure I remember all of them, but 2013 obviously was a bit of a special one — which came with a bit of noise after the race — but still I think it was a good race.

    MV: Well, I haven’t done that many races but I always enjoy coming here. It’s a good track, and I think last year it was good to be second. I would have preferred to win, of course, but still you know for the team it was a great day. That’s my fondest memory. Hopefully this weekend will be better.

    KR: Obviously I won my first race here, it was a while ago now, but it obviously meant a lot. Then there was the win in 2008 with Ferrari, I mean it was a good fight with Felipe and obviously good memories, some bad memories over the years, but that’s when you go many times in the same place that will happen — you have some good years and some not so good. But it’s been pretty good.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Question for Sebastian. You seem to have got over Singapore quite quickly, quite easily. How do you put that frustration aside so easily?

    SV: Well, I think it would have been more difficult if I had lost the car somewhere in the race and it’s obviously different but with collision at the start like that, I think we all three after the race, that was when we had to go to the stewards. What can you do? The lights went off, obviously, we did our starts, everyone was trying to move at the start and it was the way it happened. It ended up really bad for all three of us and that was it. Obviously I could continue a little bit more, but the damage was so bad that I had to stop anyway. Not much you can do — I think it’s part of racing. It’s also not the first time I’ve been in a situation like this and probably it will not be the last time. Hopefully it won’t happen again, but it’s part of racing. It happened, there’s not much you can do, and therefore not much point in trying to look at it again and again, I think it’s much better if your time and energy is spent looking forward.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) This is more or less in line with the last question to Sebastian and Kimi. Sebastian, you are the leader of the championship since the beginning of the season till Monza, and then you lost it and you saw your one race lead to 20 points. What is the psychological impact of that in you and in the team? Will you discuss it so that it does not interfere in the rest of the season?

    SV: I don’t think it’s necessary to discuss. As I said, with things like this happening, what can you do? We could have had major problems with the car, or I might have made a mistake, and it might be a different story. There’s something you need to change, some way you need to react quickly to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and it might be a different story. Looking at it now, obviously there’s been one race where we didn’t finish. Certainly didn’t help that Lewis scored a lot of points, but that’s the way it goes. Certainly we would all three love to have had a different race, championship yes or no. We just want to race, and that’s what we set out to do in Singapore. All three of us didn’t get very far.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Sebastian. At the beginning of this race, will you go about it in any, will you try to protect your lead, maybe be slightly less rash? How will you, what will be going through your mind on lap one of the race? And b, everyone’s saying — all the experts — that the next five races or so all suit the Merc rather than the Ferrari. How do you respond to that? You obviously I guess believe it’s all still alive?

    SV: Some might say that in order for them to remain experts we have to prove them wrong every now and then, otherwise they will maybe be out of a job if they are never wrong! The second thing is I wanted to say it was flattering that you said ‘when on Sunday you are starting from the lead’ — providing, obviously, that we qualify on pole, so it’s nice to have you on board as a fan! Not really. Every start is different, and the way Singapore happened you can look at it again and again; it doesn’t matter. First of all it’s done, and second I think it was pretty unfortunate for all three of us so we want to move on. Having said that, I can’t promise you now what will be on my mind on Sunday when I leave the grid, but normally I don’t, I never thought about the last race, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be focussed on seeing what I can do on that race start on Sunday.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Question for Max. It was obviously not your first frustration this season. Do you still expectations for this race or is that already something you completely don’t have before a new race because of all the frustration you have?

    MV: I’m here, I always try to do well. It’s not my year in terms of Sunday finishes, but in general you have to try to stay positive, and to look at the positives. I think the speed is there, so we need to try again here in Malaysia, and see how competitive we are. It’s a bit difficult to say. But last year I think was pretty alright, and we’ll just try again.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Question for all three drivers. How do you guys cope with the heat during a race weekend like this? Do you have any tips and tricks during the race? Is the preparation different?

    KR: I don’t think it’s an awful lot different, really. It’s obviously a bit more hot than other races, Singapore is quite hot. At least myself, I don’t feel that we do an awful lot different things and it’s probably drink a bit more, but that’s about it.  It doesn’t feel too bad in the past, at least in the car, you more feel it in the practice when you keep stopping in the box and all the heat comes from there, but during the driving it’s not too bad.

    Q: Sebastian? How much do you need to drink before the race in terms of litres?

    SV: I don’t know, I generally try and hydrate, I think everybody does. You’re always thirsty, and you sweat a lot, but you stay hydrated — there are no big secrets. I think at some point you try and not to drink too much because you don’t want to stop during the race doing another stop if you know what I mean, yeah. Once you go normally you sweat so much that it’s not really a big problem. Normally they say you should drink around two litres a day, at least, here I think it’s at least double on race day, maybe a bit more.

    Max, any special preparations?

    MV: I agree with what Sebastian and Kimi said.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Question for Max. When you say you’re looking at next season, and we’ll see what happens after this, do you have a specific target in mind in terms of race wins? What are you actually aiming for next season?

    MV: I want to be able to fight for the championship. If you win one race and you win the championship, that’s wonderful. It’s a bit difficult to say at the moment, when you’re not in that position. Hopefully we are next year, but it’s a bit too early to say so. We just have to wait and see till we go to Melbourne.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Seb. How would you feel about Max joining you one day at Ferrari. And to Max, how would you feel joining Ferrari with Seb.

    SV: I don’t know. I feel that you need to be prepared to race anyone on the grid, so obviously Max is still quite young and has more years left than we have, but yeah, you never know. Obviously I have a longer contract now than him but Formula One… some things they take time. Other things they tend to change very quickly. So it’s a bit pointless to look too far into the future. For now I think we are pretty calm inside the team: myself; everyone – because we know what’s going on this year, what’s going on next year and then I think it’s more for the team as well…

    Max, your side of that.

    MV: Yeah, I mean, to be honest I don’t want to look too much in the future. I just want to focus on the job I have now and try to finish it off in a good way this season and then for next season, I know where I am and, well, before we finish next season is still such a long time, so, just have to wait.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio  – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian and Kimi, the last results of the team were not so good: Monza and Singapore. Do you think it’s due to circumstances of the competition or maybe again Mercedes did a step forward that Ferrari didn’t and could not follow it, concerning the project of the six rounds to the end of the season?

    SV: It’s normal. It’s the way that people look at the races. If you then highlight the last two, certainly they were not good. We’re not proud, not happy with them. Singapore is fairly quickly explained: didn’t make it very far and then in Monza I think we didn’t do our best, Saturday and Sunday, probably a bit of a combination and, equally, Mercedes was very strong. So yeah, it’s been very tight all season. At Monza we didn’t have a very good weekend and lost a little bit, but still, I think we had a very good recovery from the Saturday that we had. So, yeah, I think it you look at those two races you can argue that they were not great – but I think it’s mostly Singapore where we didn’t race. Monza, I think third was not that bad, given that we were just not competitive to fight for the win.

    Kimi, your perspective.

    KR: Not really different. Singapore, Seb was first in the qualifying, I was fourth. So, if you purely compare to Mercedes, it was better. Obviously the race didn’t go that way but I don’t see why you would look at everything so negative. It’s your question, obviously. It’s up and down: some circuits are better for one guy and others for other guys – but it’s a normal story, every year it’s the same thing: some races go better, others not and there’s so many reasons for those. In the end the whole season is one season and in the end wherever the points are, are the best. It’s pointless to look at one race here, one race there. It’s over the whole year.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for the two Ferrari guys and one for Max. The two Ferrari guys, I would like to know if you talked, after the Ferrari race to the president Marchionne. What did he say to you? And the second question, if you think you have the same chance here as Singapore, and for Max, if you lost the last chance to win a race this year, due to the characteristics of the track there in Singapore – or there is some other track that you can stay in front, and fight for the victory?

    OK, Sebastian, have you spoken to the president?

    SV: No, I haven’t. Not spoke but I’ve been in contact. Obviously not a great day, as you can imagine. Fairly quickly, the response also from the whole team has been very positive. It’s been a bad day, no doubt about it but I think by Monday – Tuesday, everybody moved on and there has been a lot of excitement in the factory. We had family days last weekend which obviously is very special for all the team members and all the Ferrari employees, so there has been a lot of positives, to be honest, and yeah, what’s done is done. You have to look at what’s coming. And that’s what we are excited about. The car is strong this year, we know that, we’ve seen that, so there’s plenty of positives to look forward to. And, yeah, I think that partly answers your second question, if the car will be competitive here. I think there’s so many things on paper and you tend to look and you tend to say one way or the other – but we have to go here, and that’s the good thing about racing, the part that I enjoy. You go here and you find out. That’s what you fight for, you fight for every centimetre, every tenth that you can find somewhere, over a lot of laps in the race or over one lap in quali, to make the difference. So, I’m sure that, as a team, we can make that difference.

    What’s your feeling Kimi? Is this a track that you think the Ferrari, as you feel it, will go well around, compared to Mercedes?

    KR: Very hard to answer. It’s like any weekend when we go we don’t really know our self any more than any of you guys. You are always guessing a bit how it’s going to be and hoping the best – and then we will see tomorrow some ideas. To be honest, some weekends you seem to start a bit better and more straightforward and everything seems to go more easily, and some you have to… you struggle a bit to find the right way and then come Saturday it turns out to be pretty OK, so, it’s impossible to really answer. I’m feeling we should be OK here, but I might be wrong. I might be right. I don’t know.

    Max, did you feel that was the last, best chance to win a race – or is there another one that you can see that Red Bull might win before the end of the year?

    MV:  It was definitely a good opportunity of course in Singapore. But never say never. A lot of things can happen. As you can see, the lights go out in Singapore and there are immediately three cars out. So, yeah, you have to stay positive and we’ll see what happens.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Question for Sebastian. I just wanted to get your thoughts on Charles Leclerc who’s going to drive in first practice for Sauber. Quite a promising driver, lot of expectation surrounding him.

    SV: Well, I mean, in terms of expectations, I think he has proven enough so I don’t think you need to have high expectations. Obviously he’s helped us a lot developing this year’s car, done a lot of work on the simulator and had a fantastic season so far in GP2, bit up and down at times but the speed I think has been quite incredible. I’m sure he’ll do well. I don’t think he needs a word of advice, or yeah, any sort of expectations. He looks like he loves racing, enjoys that, and that, I think, for me is the key recipe.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) for all drivers, what will you miss from Malaysia next year when we are not returning?

    MV: I think the track in general. I always enjoyed driving the track, so I think that’s the biggest part we’ll miss. The heat, to be honest, maybe not so much.

    SV: I don’t know, I don’t think there’s one specific thing. It’s the mixture of the circuit, the conditions, the element of rain at any time during the day being possible. Yeah, I think it’s provided very good racing. I’m not obviously involved in why we’re not racing here any more but, who knows, maybe we’re back after a year break or two. I don’t know.

    KR: To be honest, I don’t know if we’re going to miss it. It’s a nice circuit but the only thing you see is the airport, the hotel next to the airport and the circuit, so you can choose from that what you’re going to miss.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD) Question for Max again. You already mentioned your birthday. Is there time in a busy race weekend to spend some attention on a birthday, to do something for a birthday – or not?

    MV: Well, it’s so humid here and warm, you make a cake but who wants to eat cake on such a warm day?

    SV: I do!

    MV: I’ll bring it to the garage before quali.

    SV: ten to three…

    MV: It’s fine. Do I need to serve you as well in the car?

    SV: Yeah, five to three.

    MV: OK, I’ll wait a bit in Q1 and then go out…

    SV: No! Actually the quali’s at five…

    MV: OK, that’s a plan then

  • Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power, a tongue-in-cheek comment by Hamilton

    Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power, a tongue-in-cheek comment by Hamilton

    Hamilton takes a selfie with the Monza crowd after the podium celebrations on Sunday. An FIA image

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes); 3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari).

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Martin Brundle and Jean Alesi)

    Martin BRUNDLE: Lewis, you’re now leading the world championship again.

    Lewis HAMILTON: You know what…. You know what…

    MB: You might just have to punch through this [noise]

    LH: Yeah, you know what, I love it here in Italy and I love the passion of the fans, particularly the Ferrari fans, they’re fantastic. This energy is like nowhere else we ever really get to see, apart from maybe Silverstone, so I respect it, I appreciate it. But I’m happy. We did a great job. The team did an exceptional job this weekend and me and Valtteri – Valtteri also did a great job – I think we owe it all to them.

    MB: I didn’t of too many problems, one lap you said you felt the power was going down a little bit, but you were coasting for much of it, saving the engine I guess.

    LH: Yeah, firstly Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power, so it worked well this weekend.

    MB: Whoah, volcanic! You were up with Lance into the first corner and Esteban Ocon behind you. A little bit nervous of the new kids in town?

    LH: The start was a little bit difficult for sure, because the grip was quite low, but it was a great day, a great result for us. We’ve got a lot of British supporters here as well, so I’m really grateful for that.

    I’ll leave you with your friends and go and talk with Valtteri. Valtteri, a couple of great moves from you. You had to make up some ground early on.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, like with Lewis the start was tricky, but just needed to keep my head down, get the places step by step. The car was so strong today. Like I said on the team radio, it was amazing today how quick we were and it was pure joy to drive. The pace was good, I enjoyed it and a perfect result for us as a team.

    MB: Any dramas at all?

    VB: No drama.

    MB: Very reminiscent of 2015 and 2016. Now, I’ll hand over to Jean to talk to Sebastian.

    Jean ALESI: Sebastian, a few words in Italian for the Ferraristas.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Allora, grazie a tutti. Tifosi, io sento di essere la megliore publico al mundo, davvero. Questa guerra é difficile – lo so que arriviamo, arriviamo! Forza Ferrari, grazie!

    Sebastian it was quite difficult at the beginning to catch up straightaway, you had to make some overtaking. How it was at the beginning?

    SV: It was entertaining. It was quite good fun. Obviously my start was not so good, I had a lot of wheelspin. It took a while before I could really trust the car and then I made some progress. We got some good overtaking there. Then we were a bit isolated. We didn’t have the pace of the leading two drivers today. Nevertheless, going round, seeing the people gives a lot of hop. Even if this race has been difficult I know that we have a very, very strong car and we will have a very, very strong end to the season, I’m sure of that.

    MB: Congratulations Sebastian. Lewis, you beat Ferrari today by over half a minute. With Spa last weekend have we seen a key turning point in the season, and the championship?

    LH: I think it’s all just to do with the team pulling together and trying to maximizing everything on the car and Valtteri and myself really trying to do the best job we can with the car. But today the car was fantastic and really a dream to drive. But a big thank you to all the fans who came out today, grazie a tutti, and I look forward to coming back next year.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, you’ve obviously taken the championship lead for the first time, one key talking point; the pace of the Mercedes compared with the Ferraris, on the supersofts particularly, I think you were 22 seconds ahead at the end of the first stint, another important talking point. And also interesting, this is the first time this season we have had a back-to-back race winner and I wondered about your thoughts on what that says about how open and competitive this championship is?

    LH: Well, it’s obviously an incredibly exciting season and the last two races have been incredibly strong for us as a team. We’ve gone from strength from strength and really shown real strength and depth and I think it’s the way we have come together in this second half so far is exceptional. I’m not really sure why the pace of the Ferraris was not close as it usually is, particularly as it was in practice, but today the car felt fantastic, particularly in that first stint. I guess because we had a bit of breathing space behind us initially it was easier to extend the life of the tyre. I suppose if in the past we would have had a Ferrari behind we would have been pushed more to the limit. And Valtteri did a fantastic job just to get through and get a one-two here. I know it’s not easy for the Italian fans to accept but I think ultimately we did the better job this weekend, collectively, as a team. But it’s still close and there’s still a long, long way to go. We’re going to another track next that the Ferrari should be quite quick at, with the extra downforce they generally are able to add one, so the fight will continue. But it is amazing to come and have the back-to-back wins. It’s been a long, long time that Sebastian has been leading the championship, so with all the ups and down to now be just slightly ahead is a great feeling.

    Valtteri, your ninth podium of 2017, you had two cars to pass in the opening stint and you did that in a straightforward way. But maybe you could talk about the margin with Ferrari and your thoughts on why this race evolved the way it did?

    VB: Yeah, actually three cars to pass in the beginning. The start was quite poor for me, just a lot of wheelspin. One of the Ferraris got ahead and I had to get him first, which was normally going to be the difficult part and the most important part for us today. But also then pretty quickly got to P2, which was good, and the car was so well balanced today and so strong. For sure we were quick in a straight line, but this weekend also we were really quick in every corner of the track. I think we just found a different kind of stability this weekend that we haven’t found before. But this is a really unique track. We can’t rely on that ‘OK, now we are quickest’. That’s not the case. It’s going to be a completely different story in Singapore, next weekend. Yes, we were quickest here. We had a perfect result, Lewis won, so well done for that, me second is great for us, but now it’s whether we can learn from this weekend what we need to and be strong again in Singapore.

    Sebastian you described it on the slow-down lap as a difficult day. I wonder if you could just drill down into that what aspects in particular were difficult for you and answer the question why you feel that the pace wasn’t closer, either on the supersoft or the soft?

    SV: Well, to be honest, I’m still pretty overwhelmed from the lap back to the pits and the podium ceremony. I think it’s been amazing, the power of the people, to see so many fans for Ferrari is unbelievable. Yeah it was a difficult day, a difficult start. I didn’t straightaway feel the car; I couldn’t go with Kimi and Valtteri, so I had to wait to make progress. Then my race was fairly isolated. We tried to keep as close as possible but we simply didn’t have the pace. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons, but I don’t want to get too technical today. The last 20 laps I was struggling. I went off in Turn 1 and I think something broke in the car. The left-hand side of the steering was a bit down and I couldn’t trust the car, especially on braking and it’s a braking track. So the last laps I don’t think they showed the pace we could have gone. Overall you could say it was a bad day, but I know the team is on the right way and there is a lot of stuff that is going to improve. Overall, it has been amazing so far to see where we are but I know that we only get stronger, so I’m in a very, very positive mood, despite the number and all that. I am not worried about these… overall, it was a difficult weekend but I know that there is still a long way to go and we have got the people behind us so it is a great feeling.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, how much of a role to you think it has played in your struggles that there was no dry P3 where you could have optimised the car setup after it was not really perfect on Friday. Is it a relief, in a way, that this is such a unique track and there will be no others like this until the end of the season?

    SV: Well, Monza is specific. I’ve had races here… simply the fact how confident you feel in the car can make a big difference. I wouldn’t say I don’t trust my car or don’t trust our car but I think this weekend has been a bit up-and-down. Practice, for sure there were a couple of things on the list that we would like to try but didn’t get the chance but I’m sure that’s the same for everyone. I had a good feeling on Friday. The long run was a bit scrappy because of traffic but in terms of raw pace, the Mercedes looked very strong. They confirmed that. I think it got a bit closer with worn tyres towards the end, second stint, I think you cannot judge. We were running on our own, they were probably just cruising – because no pressure from behind. So you can’t read the whole race but overall you need to be fair and say that they did the better job and they deserved to win – no doubt about that – but I think considering the day yesterday and where we started from, I think it was the optimum result.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Question for Lewis, Another Beast Mode performance, back to back wins, this moment you’ve been building up in the second half of the season, we’re now going to Singapore, it’s going to be more of a challenging race for you. Is this momentum now, and you going into Beast Mode like this, is that going to carry on for the next half of the season.

    LH: That’s definitely the plan! Definitely the plan. Giving it absolutely everything we’ve got but, as I’ve said, Ferrari might be a little bit quicker, maybe, when we get to a couple of the tracks where it’s maximum downforce, where you can add a little bit more, I think there. They’ve generally been quite good, Hungary they were exceptionally quick on the qualifying laps so we might see that happen in the next races. I think nonetheless it’s going to continue to be really close between us all, but yeah, absolutely. Beast Mode all the way to the last chequered flag.

    Q: (Nicolangelo Cioppi – La Voce degli Italiani del Canada e USA) For Lewis and Sebastian. How do you feel beating Michael Schumacher’s pole position yesterday, 68, now you have 69 pole position and how you feel to beat Ferrari in his house in Monza. Is different I think from any other race track. And for Sebastian. Is it possible to win again or the Mercedes is too strong for Ferrari – because it was 30s difference between first and third.

    LH: As I was saying yesterday, it’s an unbelievable feeling. Having grown up playing computer games on the same day as the grand prix when Michael was racing and going through all the practice sessions on my computer while watching the grand prix and playing as Michael, and now I’m ahead in the qualifying standings, which feels crazy. I feel very grateful for all the great people that have helped me achieve that. To win here in Monza, it is such a historic grand prix. There are very, very few, if any like it. The track is so unique in its own way, in this beautiful park, beautiful part of the world and the fans… you could hear the roar. I would love to know how loud they are on the scale. The energy there is incredible. The passion that the Ferrari fans – or the Italian fans have around the world.  When I go to LA, for example and go to an Italian restaurant and the fans are there for Ferrari. They’re all over the world and it’s great to see. There’s also some of those Ferrari fans that have, while maybe at heart perhaps are Ferrari fans, and being Italian, they’ve also spilled over to be Mercedes fans, which is much appreciated.

    SV: Being technical you can say, I don’t know what it adds up, the gap, the amount of race laps. I think we probably lacked something like half a second per lap today but there’s not all the parts of the race you can judge. I’m not worried too much about the gap. As I said before, Monza is a specific place. If you have that extra bit and confidence then it makes a big difference. So, I’m not too stressed about that. We probably knew it would be a difficult race. Probably expected as well that we would be closer but all in all, it’s not nice to see them two winning but I think with the third position, at least we gave everything we had and that’s the most important. We gave everything for the people out there. The support has been amazing and, despite the numbers, the gap, you can name the negatives but I’m very, very positive right now, to be honest. I know that people are going into the office tomorrow more committed than before. The spirit is there, we just need to keep it up. It’s a journey, we see where it takes us. It’s been a long way that the team has come from three years ago but we are nowhere near satisfied despite maybe having had a good season so far, it’s not good enough. Ferrari needs to be at the front and Ferrari needs to be on top of everything. So that’s where we want to go. For sure, they are giving us a very, very hard time, especially at the moment, but we’ll see. It’s a long journey still and, as I said, I’m… yeah… still full of adrenaline from the podium, the atmosphere was amazing. You can ask whatever you want now, I don’t care! You will always get a positive answer.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you are the fourth Finnish driver who finished second here. In any stage of the race did you have in your mind a feeling that you could be the first one to win here?

    VB: Yeah, it is true no Finn has ever won in Monza. I think it’s just unlucky. Obviously running all the race second not so far from Lewis you never know what can happen, so obviously you never give up on the dream of a possible win during the race – but I wasn’t thinking about it too much, honestly. Just was focussed on executing our plan and being on it on every single corner. It was not the day for the Finns today but maybe next year, who knows?

    Q: (Leigh O’Gorman – Walker Watson) For Sebastian. Considering your position in the championship at the moment, at the start of the race, are you more or less conscious about having to get through relatively inexperienced drivers like Esteban and Lance – or do you just take them as if they’re any other competitors?

    SV: I guess more the second part of your question. I mean, I think you judge when you follow, both of them did a good job. We were faster, that’s clear and y’know, I knew that I had to get past quickly because with the DRS you can build a sort of a train and then it’s quite difficult to get past. Plus they were very quick down the straights, both of them, but… no, I think Lance knew we had stronger pace, so he was quite fair. Esteban tried to cover a bit more but I had a very good run out of the last corner so for me it was clear I would get past and I just had to choose left or right and I just wanted to make sure, so that’s why I dived down the inside. But, no, to be honest, there might be the odd one standing out but overall drivers in Formula One have had a long history of racing and they know what to do.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1Vilag.hu) Lewis, congratulations. The next race is in Singapore; do you have any worries that the problems you had in the past could come back this year?

    LH: Currently that’s not my mind-state, no, and I will do all the due diligence it’s possible to make sure that we arrive there best prepared. We have no idea until we get there what the picture’s going to look like but I think we learned a lot from the past but on a hot track, Ferrari are often better in hot places. I think we’ll be able to give them a good race. I think the car is continuing to improve and as I said, our understanding of the car is beginning to… it’s constantly improving. Perhaps if we went back to Hungary for example, maybe we would be in a better position today with the knowledge of being there already. I go and approach it with a real positive mind-set that we are going to be fighting for a win but if that’s not the case when we get there we’ll just take it at face value and try to get damage limitation, I guess.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Lewis and one for Bottas. Bottas, do you think that now, with this second victory in a row for Hamilton, your chance has gone and you’re doing a job for him, you can do (indistinct) for the rest of the season? And for Lewis, how psychological was it… it’s important to come back leading the championship?

    VB: Well, you know, it is up to me also really, if I perform well, if I manage to qualify well, have strong pace, for sure I can still fight for the wins, but if it is going to be the case that for some reason I’m missing pace, if Lewis is doing a better job, me running in P2, and clearly behind then it’s obviously better to help than try something silly. I’m always going to be a team player and it is up to the team to decide these kind of things, so we’ll see. We’ll go race by race and by every situation, but like I said it is also a lot up to me. I need to perform if I still want to fight for the title.

    LH: Yeah, obviously I feel good, my mind feels exactly the same as it has the last two races and now coming here, I don’t feel like I’ve got one up today, just continue to solidify the preparations and the execution of the last two races. Of course that solidifies your confidence and in the car and in the direction you’re going but there’s still a long way to go and lots can happen still, so just try to remain in the same frame of mind as I have been.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, do believe it can be hard for you to continue the fight in this final part of the championship because of the tracks: Sepang, Suzuka, Abu Dhabi, maybe Austin circuits that on paper look like they favour Mercedes?

    SV: Well, I know how to read but I don’t really care what’s written on the paper. They’re all tracks that I like, to be honest, so I’m very much looking forward to them. I think we are here to race, so if it’s hard it’s good. Easy is boring. I think that’s what we all want and I’m definitely looking forward to it. At the moment you can say that Mercedes has an edge. Saturdays they’re very strong which obviously has its contribution to Sundays, it’s not a big secret but I think we are strong, we don’t need to hide and there’s plenty of positives. Things are coming, I’m sure they are developing their car. We are developing ours so I’m not so fussed about what they doing. I’m more focused on what’s going on inside us, inside Ferrari and it makes me quite positive, what’s coming, so we just need to see and then there’s always the extra element of racing that you can’t predict, that you can’t put down on paper and that’s usually the most exciting bit so I’m very much a fan of that and a fan of the moment and see what we can do.

    Q: (Jussi Jäkälä – YLE) Valtteri, as this was your first visit on the Monza podium, could you describe it a bit? Did you feel more like a race driver or a rock star?

    LH: There’s more than one Finn out there? There’s only Heikki here.

    VB: Yeah, there’s one extra guy.

    LH: Excellent. Welcome.

    VB: So I’ve got two questions today. Two Finns, two questions.

    SV: There will be nothing else in the papers tomorrow. Two questions, I mean…

    VB: Yes, actually it’s my second time on the podium here. First time was in GP3 in 2011, it was a little bit different atmosphere. I have to say it is incredible, being so many people, obviously most of them shouting Sebastian’s name but I was still enjoying it.

    SV: That’s because Valtteri is so difficult to say.

    VB: That could be it! Thanks. Incredible, didn’t feel like a rock star, honestly, felt more like a race driver but I enjoyed it.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Lewis…

    LH: Hey! What’s going on?

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Do you feel you need more of these one-twos to beat Sebastian and win your campaign for the championship?

    LH: More of these what? Ah, one-twos. Yeah, I think, definitely, having the one-two today has obviously helped bridge more of a gap and the more we can perform like this the more we can really concrete that Constructors’ title which the team are pushing… that’s the priority. Of course that helps bridge the gap between myself and Sebastian. He’s generally had a relatively comfortable lead most of the year, I think sometimes at 20-something points. I’d imagine that I’m.. what is it, three points ahead? I’d imagine that… I’ll take that and I’m happy with that. I guess the plan for the next races is to try and extend that. As Valtteri was saying, he’s done a fantastic job today and we’re going to continue to push together. Valtteri’s got the opportunity – if he does the job – to win more races as well this year so the battle is still strong between us all.

    Q (Daria Panova – F1Only) First of all, I want to congratulate Sebastian for this fantastic podium in a special Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari. Question to you: in Spa, Mick Schumacher drove his father’s car, the Benetton. If you had a chance to drive an old Formula One Ferrari car, which car would it be and on which track?

    SV: Funny you mentioned that because Ferrari has a programme where clients can run historic Formula One cars and if ever I get the opportunity, I will definitely pick 2004. I think that must have been a dream car to drive. Circuit? I would pick my favourite track, not that easy logistic-wise but Japan, Suzuka. I think the car had a lot of downforce, very light and extremely quick, so that would be a unique experience. Yeah, something that maybe one day, if I do well in the next couple of years, could be a nice thing to do.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Sebastian, do you think that the title could be won or lost with your teammate and Kimi not taking so many points from Lewis?

    SV: No. I think, you look back, there’s always ways to look at points and stuff. I’m not so much interested. Above everything, you race for the team and then obviously you race for yourself, you try to do the best yourself and I think you saw the battle today. I don’t think he waved me past but I didn’t expect him to and it was tight. I was quick at that time and could make progress, so it was good to get past but he had a better start, he got past Valtteri so we’re both fighting for the best and the optimum result today. For sure the pace was a bit down so it’s always a bit more tricky but no, I mean, as I say, we’re both racing. If you are racing in the same car then naturally, in a way, you’re racing for the same bit of track. Look at those two, they were running very quickly and not a lot of gap between them. Also then, if you’re so close to each other it’s obviously crucial to be ahead in qualifying, opening laps, after that they will always be difficult. Rules are fairly clear that the teams have in terms of who gets priority and stuff like that so… Yeah, it’s the name of the game so I’m not… I think much more important than look at a championship with teammates, points, whatever is the chemistry inside the team and I think Kimi’s well known for the fact that he doesn’t talk so much. Inside the team he talks quite a lot and yeah, we get along well, his feedback is valuable and I think we get on with each other and there’s zero stress for the team which is a good thing.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • It is a special day but it’s very surreal and humbling: Hamilton on Schumi record

    It is a special day but it’s very surreal and humbling: Hamilton on Schumi record

    Hamilton mixes with Vettel (right) and Bottas (left) after taking the pole on Saturday. An FIA image

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    GRID INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Will Buxton)

    Q: Lewis, Ross Brawn just wants to have a couple of words with you to congratulate you on this achievement.

    Ross BRAWN: I’m here to deliver a very special message from Corinna Schumacher and the Schumacher family, who want to congratulate you on equalling Michael’s record and as they said, Michael always said records are there to be beaten, so they want to send their very special thanks. Congratulations, Lewis, well done.

    Q: So, Lewis, that was some lap. It was mighty. Tell all the fans, tell everyone at home, how good does it feel to hook one up like that around here?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, first of all, I want to give a big shout out to all the fans here, they’re always amazing here every year we come here. There are a lot of Brits, a lot of people from the Netherlands, from all over, so thank you so much for coming out. I can’t believe it. First of all, a big thank you to my tea, Ross [Brawn] was a big part of me being here at this team, so the success we have had he is much a part of that as well. But the team have done an amazing job. Valtteri did a great job to be up here ahead of the Ferraris, an amazing feeling. This is one of my favourite circuits, so to come here and put a lap together like that, it’s a dream. I’ve got the best job in the world, so I’m just grateful to be here.

    Q: And to equal Michael Schumacher’s record on the track where he made his debut, the track where he took his first grand prix victory is something special too.

    LH: It is and to hear the message that Ross just gave, I just have to say a big thank you and pray for Michael and his family all the time. I’ve had the privilege of racing with him, from karting days in Kerpen to on the track and always admired him, and still do today, so I’m just honoured to be up there with him now in the poles, but he will still be one of the greatest of all time.

    Q: Congratulations. Seb, that was some lap at the end to get on the front row, you needed that didn’t you?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it was the right time. I had a very good feeling in Q1, the get go was really go but then I lost that feeling a little bit, I had a bit light front end, especially then through sector two with the medium-, high-speed corners. I was lacking a little bit of response. But the last lap the car was a little bit more alive, immediately I could feel it turning into Turn 1. And then I have to also admit that I was a bit lucky with Kimi, he had to abort his lap but he gave me a very, very nice tow, which I think made it a bit more comfortable with Valtteri. Obviously it’s very important. Good position today, great job from the team, very happy, so looking forward to the race.

    Q: We know these guys are worries about your long-run pace. Are you confident in it?

    SV: They should be! So far it has been looking pretty good, so I hope we can keep it up. The car, on one lap, I thought all weekend it was a bit trickier to get it together. Consecutive laps with high fuel I felt really good, so let’s see what we can do with the strategy tomorrow as well, but for sure Mercedes will be quick. But, we don’t have to hide. We are on the front row for a reason. We have the speed and we should have it in the race.

    Q: Congratulations. Valtteri, are you annoyed that he just pipped you at the end there? As he said, he got a tow from Kimi coming up the back and without that it might have been an all-Mercedes front row.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, of course it would have been nice to be one-two tomorrow, but it’s not a bad starting place. I was aiming for pole today, but to be honest Lewis has been doing and absolutely perfect job all weekend and for some reason I’ve been struggling and I just haven’t been able to get close enough, so we’ll need to investigate why. That’s something we’ll need to understand but already my thoughts are for tomorrow.

    Q: Everyone is focusing on those two guys for the title, bit you are in the hunt for the title as much as both of them. How much do you want the win tomorrow to prove to everybody, as much as to them, that you’re here, you’re fighting and it’s as much yours as it is theirs?

    VB: Getting my first couple of wins this year you just want more, so of course that is going to be the mission for me tomorrow and main thing as a team is that we get a strong result. But I’ll do everything I can and I don’t mind if they are being looked at more than me, I’ll just keep doing my job and trying to get better and better.

    Q: Can’t wait for tomorrow. Lewis, you’ve got the championship leader on the front row with you, you’ve got your team-mate inches behind you and he’s very much in the hunt for this title as well, really the second half of the season couldn’t be starting any better for Formula One could it?

    LH: Well, we had a great holiday and we’ve come back feeling fresh and this is the perfect way to start the weekend. The second half is going to be tough for all of us, the team, the people back at the factory, but we’re geared up for the second half, so I hope that we can bring it.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, many congratulations, a day I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to for some time. The magic number – 68 – you’ve equalled the all-time record of Michael Schumacher. And what a place to do it – a track that is so synonymous with Schumacher, and with a record fastest ever lap of track. Your feelings?

    LH: Yeah, it’s a special day, definitely. To be honest, I knew it was on the horizon and I knew at some stage I’d be getting that 68th pole but I really hadn’t thought about it very much. I didn’t apply pressure, I was like “it could come soon, it could take a long time”, but now being there, it’s an unusual place to be. I remember coming here in 1996, my first grand prix, and watching Michael come by out of Turn 1 and the engine just shook my rib cage – it was incredible. And that was when my love for the sport took another step. And to think that God knows how long later I’m now equal to him on poles, it’s very surreal and very much a humbling experience, particularly knowing that Michael is such a legend. It’s an incredible feat that he achieved and I feel very proud to be up there with him.

    Q: It’s a special day generally in numbers – 4.2 seconds faster this year’s pole compared to last years. The average generally this year has been around 2-2.5s, can you break it down for us why this weekend is so far much faster around this track with these cars?

    LH: It’s a medium-high downforce circuit so it’s to do this engine being more powerful than it was last year, for all of us. We’ve got a lot more downforce, so the speed that we are going through the corners, it’s so much faster than it was last year. It’s a longer circuit, there’s more time at full throttle, so DRS counts for more than it perhaps has done at other places. A combination of those I would assume. Yeah, it feels amazing around this track. It always does, but to have a car as we have here and the set-up I was able to work with my engineers, to achieve the balance was great, and to really be able to lean on the car around this circuit, I’ve never had such a feeling. Pouhon, Turn 10, was nearly flat, which is insane, I’ve definitely never experienced that in my time whilst in Formula One. We’re just like Ricky Bobby – we want to go faster, and it is a great feeling when you do.

    Q: Congratulations, very special day. Sebastian, it was important for Mercedes today that they get two cars on the front row and it was very important for you that they didn’t. It took you a while to get there, so under the circumstances would you class that a very special lap on your behalf?

    SV: Not just on my behalf. I think I had a little bit of help from a friend. Kimi had to abort his lap and he was very generous in giving me a tow in the last sector and that got me about two tenths so that helped and it made it a bit more comfortable with Valtteri looking at the result. Q1 I was really happy, the car was amazing. Q2 the main job was to get through, and then Q3 first lap I was missing a little bit the feel for the front. The second run in Q3 was better in that regard. So I was very happy with the last lap and as I said obviously with a little bit of a help it was quite nice. It was then tricky getting into the last corner, because knowing that you arrive so much faster with the tow and braking is never easy, it’s easy to miss it for the last corner. But I managed to get it right and to get it across the line so that was useful. The pace has been good this weekend. I think less for one lap, more so for long runs, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

    Q: Your long-run pace yesterday looked very promising compared to the Mercedes so does that give you some hope for tomorrow. There is a strange start to this race as well, because you don’t necessarily always want to be the first car down the straight in the opening stages as there is an opportunity for P2 to get ahead?

    SV: Yeah that’s right. Well, we’ll see when we get to that. I think the start is still very important and you try to do your best there and try to take it from there. I think the long run pace looked good yesterday, also this morning. Obviously we didn’t do a lot of laps overall this weekend, it’s a long lap, so the amount of laps you get is not that much compared to other tracks. But, as I said, the car was really good, especially for the race, so now we hope to confirm that. Tomorrow will be a tough day though, I mean start, first laps, as you said big straights, tows and in general strategy around here so we will see what happens.

    Q: Coming to you Valtteri, you had second place, again it took you a while to get to that point, and then obviously Sebastian took it away from you. He’s explained that the tow had a part to play in it – but did you feel you were on your A-game today?

    VB: Yeah, first of all congrats to Lewis for the pole and for the 69th [68th] it’s a mega-achievement. I’ve only got two so some way to go. This whole weekend for some reason I’ve been not really close enough to be able to challenge for that pole. For sure Lewis has been really on it but I’m slightly confused why I’ve not been able to get quite close enough. Still need to find some answers for me. The balance of the car has been feeling really good. Been just really lacking overall grip and that way, losing a lot of time in the high-speed corners in Sector Two. So, yeah, was always going to be a bit tricky to challenge for the pole, unfortunately. Would have been nice to at least be second but Sebastian got ahead. But still, second row and I’m sure as a team we can do good tomorrow.

    Q: As we were just saying, the Ferrari, the long run pace on the ultrasoft yesterday and again the long run pace this morning looked pretty handy, but what was striking about you guys is that your soft tyre pace is pretty strong. Presumably, strategy-wise, you’re counting on that tomorrow to get in front of Sebastian before the chequered flag.

    VB: Yeah, it is going to be a long race and here we know always anything can happen and you never know with the weather as well. It’s going to be a day full of opportunities for me as well, starting third. Probably going to see different behaviour with the different cars, with the different tyre compounds. So, should be interesting.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) First of all, congratulations Lewis for this special day, special record too, so question to all three of you, could you please share with us a special memorable moment shared with Michael please?

    SV: It’s not fair to pick one moment. I think the fact we’re both from the same country makes it easier to in a way get closer to him. I know him for a very, very long time, the age of six or seven I met him for the very first time, he was handing over the trophies to the kids at the go-kart track in Kerpen, his home track, not far away from here. Yeah, it was massive. We were more than a hundred kids and he took the time to shake all our hands, hand over the trophies, so as a child I think that was indescribable. Obviously he was my hero. I had his posters everywhere in my room and he was pretty much the only guy I followed when I was young. So, yeah, big inspiration and we then I think we had a lot of good moments, a lot of fun moments. As a child it’s different, you’re star-struck in a way. It’s my hero, what do I say? I don’t know. And then later on I got to know him and yeah, we really got a long. He’s a great guy, good fun and I think the admiration for his skills is the same as day one. We shared a lot of good moments at the Race of Champions together and even if you can argue about the format and so on, still you have to drive different cars, adapt and the way he drives a go-kart is… I don’t know… it’s just so different to everybody else I’ve ever seen. So, I don’t know how I look from the outside but I guess I don’t look that, so yeah, many moments. Sober and not sober. It’s hard to pick one.

    Lewis?

    LH: I think I already mentioned earlier on my find and probably favourite memory of seeing Michael come by but just like Sebastian, I grew up watching him and I would play him, I would always be… particularly when he was in a Ferrari, when I was racing in computer games I was Michael a lot, the majority of the time. Having the privilege, I raced with him in Kerpen many, many years ago and yeah, just trying to think of the best moment. I’ve always had good, fond memories of him. Another really good one was Abu Dhabi, just before he left. I plucked up the courage to go ask if he would swap helmets with me. He was welcoming and did, so yeah, that’s definitely one of the coolest things in my house.

    Valtteri?

    VB: I remember watching on TV all the battles he used to have in the 1990s with Häkkinen. That was really good to watch and remember how excited I was every Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, waking up and knowing it’s going to be another proper battle on track. And I also remember, it’s not even so far ago, 2012, when I did Friday practice for Williams and, for the first time I was the same time on track with Michael. For me, that was quite special.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Sebastian, you mentioned Kimi’s generous gesture to you. We didn’t see it on TV and I was wondering if it happened spontaneously or if you had to position yourself on the track or did that just happen by good chance?

    SV: As far as I understand, he had a mistake on his last flying lap, his last attempt, so it wasn’t planned; he wanted obviously to finish that lap but when he, I guess when he did the mistake and just because of where we were positions, he obviously cruised back to the pits. I guess the team didn’t even tell him anything. I think he just saw a red car in the mirror and thought ‘I’ll hand him a tow,” which was quite nice. It was obviously quite useful for me – but it wasn’t planned. I saw some other teams playing around with tows previously in qualifying – but usually it’s one of those things you can’t really plan so we tend to stay away from it. To answer your question, I think it was very spontaneous.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) First off, congratulations Lewis. You went into Beast Mode in Q3, you talked about that moment with Michael. How does it feel that now, you creating this moment and building this legacy of yours, that you’re inspiring that next generation, who will sit here say the same thing, that they were inspired by what you did here today?

    LH: Well, thank you. I think it’s a good question. I’ve not really sat and thought too much about it because obviously I’m here right now – but it is the case, y’know. Many, many years from now they’ll be some kid, some grown-up sitting here… maybe it’s not many, many years from now – Sebastian’s not far behind on the poles, could catch-up, but yeah, I think it’s amazing, it’s a real privilege for all of us to be up here, knowing that even currently that there are kids, even adults that are looking up to us for inspiration in their daily lives but also setting goals. For me, I always try to put out positive energy. I think success comes a lot with a real positive frame of mind. It’s very easy for all of us to be negative on occasions – but the most important thing is to wake-up in the morning and try to find that positive energy, wherever you get it from, and apply that to whatever it is that you’re trying to work or achieve. I think we’re all born as stars with the opportunity to do something special. It’s all about finding and using  that positive energy.

    Q: (Livio Orrichio – globoesporte.com) Lewis, in your last set of tyres, you didn’t get the best in the T1, the first part of the track, but you did a wonderful T2. Did you change the car in the final part of the qualifying, the Q3?

    LH: You mean the last lap? No. Well, you can’t change the car, the only thing I could do is wing but that doesn’t affect the first sector. I was up as far as I’m aware. My dashboard, it said I was up 0.8 of a tenth, or something like that, nearly a tenth in sector one, so I’m not really sure what you’re relating to. Maybe it was down but my delta said it was up. But I didn’t change anything. I did pretty much the same sector – but the second sector particularly and a little bit in the last sector was really where I made the gains. That middle sector, Turn Ten, it’s nearly flat, as I mentioned. That was pretty awesome.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how crucial is it tomorrow to beat at least one of these guys behind… I mean in front of you, for your championship hopes?

    VB: Hopefully at least one behind, so I’m not last. Yeah, for sure we’re all fighting for the title. Obviously it is nine races to do so there are a massive amount of points still available. So this is only one race but every race counts. For sure try to gain any positions possible. For us as a team, we know that it is a strong circuit for us. So we really need to capitalise. We want, as a team, to be one-two. That’s going to be the mission.

    Q: (Bas Holtkamp – Raceexpress.com) Question to Lewis. Now you’ve achieved this goal for the most pole positions ever – almost, you’ve equalled Michael – what is your next goal. Do you have a magic number in mind? Like, are you going for the 80 or 100 or whatever?

    LH:  No, I haven’t… I generally take my days one days at a time so I haven’t planned for anything further than for what I already have – but I plan on being here for some time so I will work towards whatever number it could possibly be. When I came across the line on that slow-down lap, it was a real moment to reflect on my team, who did such a great job, who have worked so hard through the year to enable me, to give me the car of my dreams. That’s the car that we all… that’s the car that us three up here have dreamed of racing. There’s so many people back at the factory, and people watching TV just don’t even have the even the faintest idea. There’s so much work that goes on back home, there’s so many people. Every day I go to the factory I find a new little workshop that’s underneath the stairs, and I’ve been walking past that for five years and didn’t even know it was there – and five people come out of that little space and they’d have been there for 20 years. So, yeah, I’ve been really fortunate to work with some really great people and I’m just really just a small link in the chain but I’m proud of my link in the chain and I plan to continue to propel this car and this team forward. I believe that we can get many more – so that’s the goal. Sky’s the limit really.

    Q:(Flavio Vanetti – Corriera della Sera) Sebastian, we know that you signed a long term contract and I would like to know if in some way it’s the same trust that Michael had towards the team?  And secondly, if you had any moment in which you had doubts about Ferrari and maybe you thought to quit the team?

    SV: I don’t know what trust Michael had. I never actually spoke with him about that. Yeah, unfortunately, as you all know I didn’t have the opportunity. I think he would have been one of the first people to ask back in 2014 and probably have to consult also you know, now in terms of… I don’t know, through the course of this year for the future, whatever. I love this team, I love the people who are working for this brand. Obviously Lewis touched on the effort that is going into building a Formula One car. I think for most of the teams it’s probably the same but still I believe Ferrari has something unique, something that other teams don’t have. People talk about a legend, to me it appears that this legend is still alive because of the people who work for it, day in, day out. I’m sure you have been to Maranello, probably most of you haven’t but if you walk down the streets in Maranello, the presence of Ferrari is huge but if you see the people working at Ferrari and meet them, then it’s even bigger, what they carry inside them, the passion for the brand and that’s I think and I’m convinced, allowing every single one of them to go an extra step compared to other people, other teams. That’s my conviction and extremely grateful to be part of that family. In a way, it was a no-brainer to continue. We haven’t yet achieved what we what we wanted to achieve but things are looking pretty good and obviously we have a long road ahead of us.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, if you take pole position at Monza, you’ll break Michael’s record. Would that be the ultimate tribute to him, the ultimate place to do it in front of all the Ferrari fans to pay tribute to his greatness?

    LH: I’m not really sure whether that, how… my next step, how that applies to anyone else. If I dedicate it to him, yeah, could be the best tribute being that he had so much success at Ferrari and in Italy. Yeah, I’ve not really thought of it to be honest. Don’t have an answer for you there.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday, Motorsport Week.com) Sebastian, speculation before you signed was that you were going to possibly sign a one year deal with Ferrari. Now they’ve come out and announced that you’ve signed at least three years. Do you see yourself ending your career at Maranello?

    SV: Well, I don’t know, since we learned last year that these things can happen fairly quickly and spontaneously you never know. But yeah, obviously now I don’t need to think and spend time about thinking about the future so that’s clear and then I think we cross that bridge when we get to it. It’s a long time, a lot of things can happen so we will see. Also then you can never say never. You retire and then, I don’t I know, might get bored, come back. We may see Nico back in a couple of years, who knows? Michael obviously decided to come back at some point because he loved racing but that’s all far far away so not really a topic.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Sebastian, yesterday you said that there would be no news on your contract for two weeks. I just wanted to know what changed in 24 hours for you?

    SV: Nothing personal, I don’t like the Sun. I saw a clip yesterday of a funny interview with Jurgen Klopp and he doesn’t like the Sun either so maybe I will jump on the bandwagon. Maybe I give you a last answer. Yeah, I didn’t think that it’s probably the right time so I didn’t rush or push but things were coming along together fairly quickly in the end and we decided to go for it and make the call. So yeah, I know it wasn’t the best in terms of one day and then the other but that’s how it was.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Perhaps you will like the BBC, Sebastian. Did you actually sign it this weekend? How did you decide to sign for three years? And did you have any talks with or thoughts about joining Mercedes?

    SV: Well, I mean I have been around in the paddock for a while so I know people and it’s natural that you talk but it’s never been more than chatting, mostly about other stuff, to be honest but yeah, I’ve been talking for a while with Ferrari. As I said, my intention was to stay. We haven’t succeeded so the mission is still ongoing. I want to win in red. We talked about inspiration earlier about Michael, he was mostly dressed in red. He won most of his races in red and his championships. I don’t want to step in his footsteps. I think the whole generation of the Ferrari team today wants to leave their own footsteps but certainly there’s a huge inspiration so something for me is now the biggest challenge, the biggest dream that I have and what I want to achieve. I think, to answer your question at the beginning, since I like the BBC, is yes, I actually signed it this weekend.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Do you think tomorrow will be a Ferrari-Mercedes battle again or do you fear Red Bull might interfere?

    LH: Yeah, he just said where are they? I don’t… where did they qualify?

    SV: Five and six.

    LH: I’ve not seen their pace, so as far as I’m aware they’ve been a bit down on power, they’ve tried different… lower and higher range of wings. I think they’ve been a little bit off the pace as far as I’m aware but you never know. Whatever conditions we’re faced with tomorrow, I think the pace of us at the moment, both Ferrari and Mercedes, is pretty strong so…

    SV: Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that we see significant increase in race pace for Red Bull so obviously in qualifying, also round here, it might not be their strongest track but tomorrow, come race, lot of laps, looking after the tyres, I think they’ve proven in the past that they’re very strong so you should never under-estimate and forget about them.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Valtteri, is it frustrating seeing everybody else signing new contracts?

    VB: No. Good for them.

    LH: Who’s everybody else, anyways? This one dude here.

    Q: Kimi, Vandoorne.

    LH: Not everyone else.

    VB: No, I’m just really focusing on my own things. I know where we are with everything. I don’t need to worry if other people are doing contracts. I’m only interested in what I’m going to do and what the team is going to do and that’s what matters. Like I said, there’s no rush really because for this season I joined in January, so there’s still plenty of time.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To both Mercedes drivers: no problems with tyre temperatures considering the ultrasoft tyres on the flying laps and also long runs, and Sebastian, Lauda said today that he stopped talking to you two months ago. What went wrong that the conversations didn’t go ahead?

    LH: Can he answer first? I’m interested to hear his…

    SV: Nothing. Nothing went wrong. I think I’m very happy. I think Niki is generally a happy guy so… nothing went wrong.

    LH: For us, we didn’t have any problems with the tyres. I haven’t struggled with tyre temps so far this weekend and I think it wasn’t a problem throughout qualifying as well. It was very easy to get temperatures. The tyres have been giving quite a lot of grip. I think it feels like, particularly for qualifying, that the one step softer was a good direction but it will be interesting to see how it works out tomorrow.

    VB: Yeah, definitely, I think right choices from Pirelli for this weekend, to go with the softest compounds. Even with the ultrasofts no big problems, little bit of overheating during the lap but it’s not massive, it’s pretty normal so it was good.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • As long as I feel I can win races, I will be here: Raikkonen

    PART TWO: Drivers – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Q: Valtteri, you’re the top scorer in the last six grands prix on 106 points. Eight more than Vettel, 16 more than Hamilton and the only man to finish on the podium on the last five in succession – the best streak of your career: how much more confidently do you start the second half of the season, compared to the first?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Definitely it is nicer, the start of the second half than the first half because I started this season with a new team, new environment, there was so many things for me to get used to and to learn, so now I can just get on with it. So, I’m looking forwards to the second half and nice to be back here in Spa.

    Q: We’re seeing a lot of renewal announcements coming through for Stoffel, we just had him here, Kimi obviously. When can we expect yours?

    VB: Well yeah. First of all, congrats to Kimi and Stoffel for that. For me, there’s no news yet, and we will tell you the news when there is some.

    Q: Kimi, congratulations on your new Ferrari deal. Why is it the right thing for you and your career?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Well, I wouldn’t do it if I wouldn’t want to, and be happy with it and obviously the team feels the same way so, y’know…

    Q: You’ve qualified third or higher on the grid at the last four races and you’re tied three-all with Vettel in the last six qualifying sessions and obviously we all saw you had the pace to win in Hungary. Are we seeing the highest level of challenge from your since your return to Ferrari, do you think?

    KR: I don’t know. It’s so difficult to… everybody has their own view of things and obviously we want to do well, we want to improve and I guess you always find things to do better and, that way, find more speed. Lately it’s been a bit better, we’ve been feeling a bit more comfortable and been able to drive as want and obviously the result suddenly looks a bit better. I’m confident we are doing the right things and getting where we want to be.

    Q: Felipe, how are you feeling, what was the diagnosis that kept you out of the car in Hungary and are you confident it’s all over now?

    FM: Yeah, I feel good, I feel ready to get back in the car. I had a… I was feeling a little bit dizzy on that weekend. Vertigo is the name of what I had and unfortunately it’s the first time I had this. It was a little bit of a strange feeling and unfortunately it happens in a race weekend and keeps me out of the car but I feel good now, ready to get back to the second part of the season and really hopeful we can do good races.

    Q: It’s been a bonus year in your career in some ways. It was around this time last year that you announced your decision to retire. Has this season given you a second wind. Do you think you’ll be staying on again for 2018.

    FM: Well, I was quite happy to be honest, in the way I was driving the car. The first part of the season, unfortunately I was a little bit unlucky with the result but I was quite happy with the way I am driving the car. And when I see that, I don’t see the point not to carry on. So if I have an opportunity to stay in the position I believe is correct for me to stay, yes I believe maybe I can stay for another season. Otherwise not. I’m quite relaxed about my future in one way or the other, to be honest. So I think maybe just thinking about the races and we’ll see what happens.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Kimi, do you think the Ferrari looks more at the experience you can grant, or that you are able to bring harmony inside the team?

    KR: You’ll have to ask them. Honestly, the only thing is I was interested to be here next year. I didn’t really care what the rest is thinking. Obviously the team feels the same way. What is the reasons… you’ll have to go and ask them. I don’t know what else I could say.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Valtteri, everybody says that the circuit seems to be more adapted to your car than the Ferrari but on the other hand, Pirelli surprised everybody by using the ultrasoft tyres here. In this competition, what do you project for your weekend here?

    VB: I think we are more confident coming to this race than, for example, a track like Budapest. I think we have seen that on the very high downforce tracks Ferrari is very strong. They’ve been not bad at any circuit so we don’t feel that we are favourites or anything but we feel we can be reasonably strong here and I’m sure it’s going to be another tight battle and with the tyre compounds, luckily it’s not quite as hot as last year so the soft compounds can actually be very good but it’s (inaudible) to predict really so we will see once we have started practice and see how the tyres work. But I personally always rather go softer than too hard with the tyres so I’m happy for the decision.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) To Valtteri and Kimi: two Finns on the podium in two successive races for the first time ever. Would it mean anything to you to make a new kind of history with a hat trick?

    KR: Obviously we must try to win races. If you don’t get that then you get the next positions and would it really make us happier? I don’t think I know. I think you’re happy if you win but less if you come second or third but obviously it’s been great for Finns, for us, but I don’t think it’s something that you aim to purposely do or you get more satisfaction from that I think is purely if you do better than worse.

    VB: Yeah, I think definitely to finish one-two would be better than two-three so but yeah, we are always there to try and win the race and not really focus on who is third or second. Of course, it would be nice.

    Q: (Marco Privitera – LiveGP.it) Kimi, in Austria Sebastian said that Kimi is my favourite teammate for the next season. Do you have the same opinion? Do you think that Sebastian is your favourite teammate for the future?

    KR: Yeah, I’m sure he is. I think we work very well together, as the whole team, a good way of working, but obviously I’m not the guy who decides who does what and obviously I have no idea what will happen in his case but hopefully all that stays how it is now and it would be perfect.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday, Motorsport Weekly) Kimi and Valtteri, one of you has been confirmed for next year, one of you is still waiting to be confirmed. You are both at the sharp end of the grid. Do you think, Kimi, the fact that you’ve got next year out of the way and we won’t be asking you these questions any more eases the pressure on you? And Valtteri, do you think that because you haven’t been confirmed and you don’t know what is actually happening next year this puts added pressure on you in addition to winning races?

    VB: No, for me it doesn’t make a difference. Coming to this weekend, not thinking about it. Like I’ve said before, I’m used to these situations over the last few years, always the same thing that there’s no confirmation about next year so now that we start the race weekend with a practice tomorrow, it’s not going to be in my mind, for sure, so I’m just going to focus on the driving and the weekend, getting the most out of the weekend so no pressure from there.

    KR: I don’t think it’s serious, you know. Maybe this weekend again you guys will not ask at the next race but start again, so that wouldn’t be a big surprise for me. Obviously it’s more easy to deal with that side of the stuff and we can put all our effort into pure racing. It just doesn’t change the end result, it doesn’t guarantee better results or worse results. It doesn’t work like that but it’s a good thing to be done.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Felipe, where are the key areas the car needs to be improved to be a regular challenger for the podium?

    FM: Well, I think we need to improve the car, especially from the downforce point of view so if you see that when you go to tracks like Budapest or maybe like city tracks, we are struggling a lot. And we saw that some of the teams, like maybe Renault… depends on the track,  developing the car a little bit better than us, so definitely developing is very important from the first race until the last race so I think maybe developing is very important so we are pushing hard to make the car better, race by race. It hasn’t been perfect, to be honest but we’re just pushing harder to see if we can improve and make the right results that we need to do also on tracks where the car should be better like here maybe or maybe Monza. So yeah, we have so many things where we’re fighting for one or two tenths. I know that it’s really important not to lose any opportunity in terms of improving the car.

    Q: (Grabriel Lima – Motorsport.com) Felipe Massa, I would like to know what you had, your illness exactly and how it was when you found out you could not race and how was it for you to watch the race on TV?

    FM: Well, actually I had… it was like vertigo so I was feeling dizzy, not only in the car but also when I was laying down on the bed. For sure it happened in the race weekend, so I was also feeling it in the car, especially with so many G-forces. So then I stopped and I said exactly how I was feeling and it was not a good feeling to race so for sure I just decided… me together with some other… the doctors there, I decided that I was not feeling good to race. Then I went to Monaco on the Saturday evening and I watched the race there, at home. It was a bit strange to be honest but yeah, it was interesting also to watch the race there, just to see when I decided to stop, how it was going to be. I think I definitely preferred to be in the car, it’s where you enjoy yourself.  I feel good, I feel ready to get back in the car, that’s the most important thing.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, fitness-wise, which is more demanding: a duathlon or a Formula One race?

    VB: It’s completely different so you just can’t compare. Driving, how you feel it physically, it’s way different to running or cycling. Obviously both sports are demanding but in so different ways that it’s difficult to compare.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers: how do you imagine will be your flying lap on Saturday with cars that have a minimum 30 percent more downforce, tyres 25 percent wider and ultrasoft tyres?

    KR: We’ve driven these cars all year so far; some circuits you feel that for sure you will go faster everywhere and obviously it’s quite a high speed circuit so we expect to be feeling a bit faster but I think it’s good for this place to have the grip and the speed through the corners and it makes it more exciting so I would guess that it’s quite a nice feeling.

    Q: Felipe, any corners that you’re particularly looking forward to in these cars, any sequences?

    FM: Well, I think it will feel similar to Silverstone. Silverstone is a track that is not different to how it is going to be in Spa so a lot of high speed corners, a lot of quick changes of direction so you will feel maybe similar to Silverstone. I think Eau Rouge will not be a corner that is very interesting because it will be too easy for all of the drivers, all of the cars, more or less like a straight but then, when you get to the second sector it will be quite interesting, a lot of high speed corners, quick changes of direction. Then it will be quite interesting and a good feeling for the drivers as well, like it was at Silverstone.

    VB: I don’t think there’s much to add. It’s definitely going to be fun like it always is here in Spa and like we saw at Silverstone with just more downforce, more grip, it is even more fun basically.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, what is making you carry on racing, considering that you said that you would retire at the end of your contract with Ferrari 2015? It’s because you have the same excitement as you had at the beginning or just because you have the right car to compete?

    KR: It’s purely the racing. The rest not but I enjoy racing  and obviously I want to do well. If I did not feel that I can go fast I wouldn’t be happy in myself. If I wasn’t driving, I wouldn’t be here. I have zero interest to waste my time or the team’s time to be a part of it, it’s not the most nicest place to just hang around. So the racing is the main thing. Yes, there’s a lot of other sides of F1 but as long as the racing is the biggest part, then that’s it and as long as I feel myself that I can win races and fight for championships then that’s fine. When I don’t feel like that I will be the first guy to do something else.

    eom/FIA press release