Tag: FIA Press Conference

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Guenther STEINER (Haas), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)

PART ONE
 
Q: Toto, can we start with you please. How is the Champion, Lewis Hamilton, was he even watching FP1, do you think?
Toto WOLFF: I don’t know – probably not, he has better things to do than watching an FP1 session. He’s recovering. I think those first few days are always critical once you catch Corona. I think he’s OK. He has symptoms but they are relatively mild.
 
Q: So, bringing it on to FP1 this evening, George Russell, if we could talk about him. Just sum-up his progress, P1.
TW: FP1 was a good session for him. I mean, we need to calm everybody down because it was a first session on a new and short circuit. He delivered a really solid job in what we expected from him on a single lap. The long runs were difficult with our cars anyway, difficult to really establish a benchmark because Valtteri broke his car very early on in the session, wasn’t really able to stop it properly. So I would say I am happy with what George has done. It’s about what we expected him to.
 
Q: Guenther, great to Romain Grosjean back in the paddock. Same question to you: do you think he watched FP1?
Guenther STEINER: No, I don’t think so because he was in the gym, I texted with him during the session. I don’t know if he saw it, he’s in gym, trying to get ready. That’s what he’s doing in the moment, so I think he wasn’t.
 
Q: How does he want to be in the car in Abu Dhabi next week?
GS: I think he goes hour by hour. He wants to be in, he doesn’t want to be in. I let him decide and come up with how much does he want it. He’s training now, hoping to get ready to be in the car.
 
Q: And the man replacing him, Pietro Fittipaldi, P19, just a few words summing up his first session.
GS: The task was to go out there. He wasn’t in an F1 car since a year now, just familiarise yourself with it again, with the car, not even the track, and just try to get the best out. Unfortunately on his second set of tyres, on the Soft ones, he locked up and flat-spotted a tyre and it wasn’t useable any more, so we had to stop the session short for him, which is not idea – but he was thrown in the deep end and you have to live with that.
 
Q: Mario, coming to you, first up, how are you? You’ve had Covid since the Turkish Grand Prix.
Mario ISOLA: I’m now OK – so you can come closer. I’m feeling well, I’m OK. It lasted for a couple of weeks, as is the average, luckily I had no symptoms, just lost taste and sense of smell and I had a couple of days with fever, but now I’m fully recovered. I had four negative tests, so they can stay close to me.
 
Q: You tried the prototype tyres here last week. What conclusions did you draw?
MI: I think that everybody knows the drivers made not very positive comments. I believe the biggest mistake was not to give them the right information on which was the target of the test. Obviously, we are trying to fine-tune the current construction in order to cope with the additional loads of the cars in the future. We decided together to work in two directions: one was on the technical side to reduce the downforce for next year; on the other side to improve the current construction in order to have more resistance to integrity. That is what we did. Consider that we tested only 30 minutes in Portimão. We found a specification that gave us feedback in line with the current tyre but with an resistance to integrity that is a step better, so we decided to homologate it. I think that we have now clarified which is the target of the test, which is the programme for next year, we can test them again in the C4 compound in Abu Dhabi with a different approach, in a different way.
 
VIDEO CONFERENCE
 
Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) Question for Toto please, what’s the likelihood of Lewis being ready for Abu Dhabi, and also, given the symptoms he’s showing and the timelines involved, what are the practicalities of being able to get him there? Basically, when’s the latest he can test negative and still make it to Abu Dhabi and participate?
TW: We have seen tests that were negative within ten days, so I think that is perfectly feasible, in my opinion but it would be a very positive development. Nevertheless, you need to look at the situation anyway because there is many athletes have tested positive for a long time after any symptoms and after they’ve been in any way infectious – but this is something the FIA needs to look into anyway.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mario, you were referencing the 2021 tyres earlier on. Talking to Andreas Seidl this morning, he said all the teams had provided you with projections about the sort of downforce and energy levels etc., for next year that they expect. Have you had all of this information, is it enough and what sort of increase in energies are you actually expecting?
MI: I don’t have a number now because the deadline to provide the upgraded simulation is the tenth of December, so we are collecting now the data. Some teams are convinced that they are going to recover the downforce quite quickly. Maybe at the beginning of the season. That’s why it was decided to work in two parallel directions. I’m not expecting to have loads that are different from this year, probably, at the end of the season, if we have a normal season. As it is planned now, we will have an additional load but we cannot quantify it now.
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) Toto, this is a question for you. Do you see this, as many other people within Formula 1 do, as a showdown test between Valtteri and George for the 2022 seat?
TW: No, not at all. I’ve heard this rumour and obviously you can’t call it a shoot-out when it’s about one or two races. That doesn’t give you any meaningful data whatsoever. If George does well it’s an indication that one day he’s going to be in a good car and hopefully race for victories and World Championships – but that is far away. He knows that. He just needs to do a solid job, not make any mistakes, and continue what he has done. There is no shootout. We have total trust in Valtteri and loyalty as we’ve always had – and that is our position.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Guenther. It was announced by Ferrari just ahead of the practice session that Simone Resta will move from Ferrari to Haas. Can you explain what position he will have at Haas. Do you have to restructure the technical team – and also, is this move connected to Mick Schumacher?
GS: The position we are still defining. For sure, it will be a very senior position, obviously. Simone was at Ferrari for a long time in a very senior position now, so he wouldn’t come without having that one, it would be no point arriving there without a senior position. The connection to Mick is not direct. Obviously we work very close together with Ferrari, so when it was discussed we needed to reinforce our technical team after we went a little bit backwards the last year with the pandemic. So, he was a good choice – but it has nothing to do directly with Mick driving for us.
 
Q: Guenther. How much of a boost is it for your team? Simone’s arrival?
GS: As I said, we are restructuring ourselves on the technical side because we have fallen a little bit behind so for sure it’s a big boost that we get back on our feet again to get to the performance we had in 2018. You need good people and Simone was at Ferrari a long time and that had a short stint at Alfa Romeo. He was available and we took him.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Toto, you said at the last race that you and Lewis were taking baby steps with regard to his new contract and talks in that regard. Does the fact he’s now isolating for ten days, how much does that hold things up in terms of you guys sitting down and hashing things out over a new deal for next year?
TW: Well, the timeline is being pushed back until he recovers. We know that we need to get it done, pretty well aware, both of us but the priority now is him getting back on his feet and being back negative. And then we will meet, or Zoom, in order to put pen to paper.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Question for Toto. George obviously has to adapt to Mercedes processes and also specifics of the car – but how do you expect him to assert his authority in areas that he can? What have you seen from him already in terms of asking for specific information, or asking if things can be done differently – that sort of thing?
TW: I don’t think he has to assert his authority. There is no authority required in the team. We know what we do and he has, of course, a good plan of where he wants the car to be – but being drafted in last minute, like it has happened for him, we need to find compromises. Compromises means he needs to settle in a car that isn’t his in processes that he wasn’t involved in. And we, on the other side, have a totally different personality and character than Lewis. So, it’s an interesting exercise, also for us, how adaptable we are, and also for him to being thrown in the cold water.
 
Toto, on the topic of being adaptable, Lewis is going to be missed obviously, but is there a buzz about the place having a new driver this weekend?
TW: First of all, there is no buzz, because Lewis is ill with Corona and we’d rather him not be ill but here with the team. Of course, we rate George highly and giving him such a possibility is, in a way, interesting – but with hindsight I’d rather have everything normal, as it was, because George anyway one day is going to make it into a good car.
 
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Another question for Toto on the driver change. I know you said it’s not a showdown between the two of them, and all that kind of stuff – but if Valtteri is beaten by George, mentally, that’s going to be quite tough to take, I would have thought. So, how are you reassuring him and is it just a case of ‘tough luck, you’re a racing driver, you’ve got to go up against whoever’s put up next to you’?
TW: Valtteri has never been anybody that needs reassuring. He knows where he stands, he knows his position in the team, how we are supportive of each other and we have to remain realistic. George is a highly-rated young driver, one of the most highly rated, so it’s expected for him to be fast. He knows the team and this is a fifty-second circuit where you need to be in the right place at the right time with the right engine modes. In that respect, this is just going to be alright. We all expected George to be right there, and we see how the weekend ends.
 
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Question for Toto. Lewis was in Dubai before travelling to Bahrain and that’s where it appears he contracted the virus. Did you know he was going to be there? Did he have permission to be there? And as a team principal, how frustrating is it to not have your star driver available for one, possibly two races?
TW: Lewis doesn’t need to have any permission. He rides anything he wants, he jumps out of every aeroplane he wants because he knows best what’s good for him and he’s a grown-up man and it was never an issue. I think contracting Covid-19 is something that we are all not very sure where you get it. If you ask Mario where he got it, he’s probably not going to know where. It’s just unfortunate. He was protecting himself a lot and then you go to Dubai, wear your mask all the time and come back with Corona. These things happen.
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) Toto, I wanted to follow up my question from earlier. You’ve obviously put George in for a reason and one would assume that’s so you can assess how good he is – and therefore that he’s a Mercedes young driver presumably the basis for that information would be whether you wanted to put him in your car in the future. So, while I accept the point that it’s not directly a showdown, surely this will have some influence on whatever influence on whatever decision you make about driver line-ups for 2022?
TW: Andrew, it’s another set of data points. This weekend and maybe next weekend that will be giving us more information in our overall understanding of George’s performances but we know that we race next year with Lewis and Valtteri and where we are in 2022 is all going to depend how our own season in 2022 is going to go, and not by George’s performance on an oval in Bahrain and on a season finale in Abu Dhabi.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, regarding the data points from George etc and that Lewis doesn’t have a contract yet, could some of these data points be used to influence the market value of Lewis?
TW: No, Dieter. We’ve discussed having George in the car. We know what we have with Lewis and he knows what he has with the team. Such a situation would never be utilised as some kind of bargaining power, neither by him, nor by us – it could do both directions. I respect very much who he is, how he drives, his records, and whatever happens this week or next has no influence on our talks.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Toto, just going back to George: he has always had a very mature head on his shoulders, all the way through his junior career, what is it about his mentality that you believe means he is able to jump in and do a good job in what is quite high pressure situation with a lot to take in in a short amount of time?
TW: I think he is somebody that is generally relaxed. He comes across on the radio as very chatty and buzzing but driving the car, in the debriefings, he is very focused and calm. Obviously the race record he has – winning GP3, winning F2, both in the rookie years – and the maturity he has shown from a very early age stands out. I remember him coming to my office when he was 15, 16 years old in a black suit and a black tie with Powerpoint presentation of why Mercedes should support him. So, very mature for his age but probably well suited from his personality to jump in the car in such a high-pressure situation. Burt again, let’s stay both feet on the ground. It’s FP1. These cars haven’t been taken out in anger and we haven’t raced yet.
 
Q: Guenther, you announced earlier this week that Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will be racing for you next season. What has impressed you about each of them so far?
GS: Their race results. One is leading F2 and one is third in the F2 championship and results always talk. I didn’t spend a lot of time with them yet as with COVID we cannot interact on a personal level obviously so we spent some time on the telephone and I need to get to know them. But for me results talk. They are both pretty mature guys for their age, obviously we always have to go back to their age, so I think they have a good future. And that is what we are trying to do: we are trying to make a step backwards to make two steps forward for the next seasons.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Toto, a few weeks ago Lewis said that George had the potential to be a future world champion. What was Lewis’ reaction when you told him that you were planning to put George in the car and take his place this weekend?
TW: Lewis knew who the candidates were and who we were talking. I think those very special drivers they see and know who is going to come up and who one day could be up there for victories and championships. I think is priority is now to get healthy. I’m not sure he is going to follow in detail what is happening on track. If you are in bed and not feeling great, racing becomes a second priority.
 
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Toto, we’ve seen in Formula E that BMW and Audi are both pulling out. What does it say about that series as a long-term prospect?
TW: Well, it’s certainly a little bit of a shake-up if two premium OEMs leave the series. But I think it’s good they have done it with a full season to go. But they will have their reasons, which we must respect. At the end, every motor racing series needs to return on investment and if that calculation doesn’t work for you it’s perfectly legit to decide to pull out. On the other side, we stay behind it. We have always been a manufacturer that has stayed loyal to racing series. We have been 30 years in DTM. We have been in Formula 1 for a long time as and engine supplier and as a team since 10 years. I think it’s important to understand that you have to go through the downs to come to the ups. I think the positive of the situation is that Formula E will progress on the learnings: why are these two guys leaving, is there anything we can do? I think the cost cap needs to come rather sooner than later, similar to Formula 1. These little entities need to profitable and only if they are profitable they will generate interest from shareholders, from people buying in, and it becomes a franchise value, like Formula 1 is going to be. I see the future bright in terms of the set-up of Formula E, but of course the series needs to deliver on all our expectations on branding, marketing and exposure. And if these expectations are being met, for us, it makes sense to remain in the series.
 
Q: Guenther, any thoughts on Formula E?
GS: I’m not as educated as Toto on Formula E because he has got a team there. My opinion is that it’s like everything else there was a hype in the beginning, it’s new, everybody goes in and then it just adjusts itself. Some people leave, because they say ‘this is not for us and it’s a little bit trialling’. Looking how it is, it is a shame two big OEMs are leaving, but I think it is there to stay. It reassesses itself and it will continue. Where it ends up, we don’t know.
 
Q: Mario?
MI: I agree with Guenther. We are not really involved in Formula E, but electric series are the future. We are also looking at new opportunities in electric series. It is part of the game. We have seen also in GT in many years many changes with OEMs coming and going away. It’s part of a normal life cycle of a series.
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) Toto, Stoffel Vandoorne is your reserve driver and it’s now been four races this year that he could have taken part in but didn’t. Can you explains what your thought process was in going for George rather than Stoffel and how he is feeling about the situation?
TW: What were the four races?
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) Well, two for Racing Point, another for Racing Point and now this one.
TW: OK. Stoffel is our reserve driver and has done the grunt work, simulator and travelling to the grands prix, and has the capability of driving these cars very well. No doubt about that. Telling him that George was in the car was certainly not something that I took easy and I didn’t expect him to be excited about it. He took it professionally and expressing his, let’s say, reactions that were totally legitimate and he’d rather be in the car than not and that’s understandable. He’s a great guy. He is one of our two works drivers in Formula E. He’s been really good last year, particularly towards the season end, and we count on him in Formula E.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Guenther, I’d like to give you the opportunity please of telling us how you thought Pietro did and what your plans are for him for the future please?
GS: The first session is difficult to judge because he hasn’t been in the car for a year now and on the first set of tyres he did pretty well and on the second set he flat-spotted early into it and that put an end to his session. It was not fantastic but it’s difficult these cars if you have not been in for a year. But he really prepared well for it over the last week since we told him he is going to race instead of Romain. He prepared himself and we just have to let the weekend come to us and try to make progress with him. About the future of him: I don’t know really yet what he is going to do next year, whether he is going back to race in some other series, We haven’t really talked about that one. But Pietro became a friend to the team in the two years he is with us. He travelled around like Toto said Stoffel did. The whole year with this guy sitting there, what I can drinking coffee and eating pasta and then when the opportunity comes up they are really happy. I don’t know if he wants to do that for another year or if he wants to go racing again.

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (AlphaTauri), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Racing Point)
 
PART TWO
 
Q: Can we start by getting as word from each of you about that first practice and what the drivers have been saying about this new track in Bahrain?
Franz TOST: Our drivers so far were quite happy with the track. We tried different configurations on the car. We looked reasonably competitive and did a long run as well with the option tyres, and just to be also prepared for the race, to get a picture of what’s going on in the race simulation and so far I must say everything worked quite well.
Christian HORNER: No specific major issues other than it’s incredibly short, it’s bumpy and traffic is going to be an absolute nightmare. From a driver’s point of view I can see that the track is frustrating in some respects but from a spectator point of view it’s going to produce an exciting qualifying and race because the gaps between… when all the 20 cars are on the circuit there is a huge amount of traffic and I think the chance of jeopardy is increased significantly with this type of layout. I can’t remember ever having a sub-one-minute lap before.
Otmar SZAFNAUER: Same with us. I echo what Franz and Christian said. It will be tight out there in qualifying, especially in Q1. We just did a bit of work on one lap pace and did some race sims on the soft tyres as well, some long runs. We have a little bit to learn, come back in FP2, a little bit more tonight and we’ll see how we go on Saturday
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) A question to Christian. When we have look at the dynamic between Max and Alex Albon. Last week Max seemed to be a bit critical of Alex. What is the relationship between them?
CH: Pretty good. They’ve known each other since they were kids. They’re not much more than that now. Since they have been 12-13 they have been racing against each other. Alex won the Karting World Championship one year, obviously Max won it in subsequent yeas and there’s a healthy respect between the two of them. They were out karting with the rest of the mechanics, even myself on Monday evening. Max can sometimes call things as he sees it. But there is no issue or no atmosphere at all between the drivers.
 
Q: Christian, were you surprised by Max’s comments?
CH: I think Max just calls facts. I think that’s the way he sees it. He said it was obviously a significant gap but he was also stuck behind Sergio who was doing a great job and it’s very difficult to follow closely behind a car ahead of you. I think Alex, he was there to capitalise on Sergio’s misfortune. It was our first double podium since Japan 2017, so that was great to see from a team point of and it was a solid weekend from Alex.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Otmar, Renault is going to test Fernando Alonso in what is ostensibly mean to be a Young Driver’s Test after Abu Dhabi. If the rules had allowed it would you have pursued getting Sebastian Vettel in the car in Abu Dhabi or would that not have been possible?
OS: I’ve got to understand the rules. I was surprised to see Fernando being allowed to test so we have got to have that discussion with the FIA. I think the rules are pretty clear – it’s a Young Driver Test and a two-time World Champion almost in his 40s or in his 40s to me isn’t a young driver. I’ve got to understand what the rules are first and foremost and then see what we do thereafter.
 
Q: Otmar, if the rules permit it, will you put Sebastian Vettel in the car?
OS: If we can and the rules permit it and… there’s a bunch of ifs and we’d have to consider it.
 
Q: Christian, your thoughts on this, please, and if you do end up bringing in a new driver for next year, would you look to run him in Abu Dhabi as well?
CH: It’s an interesting… it’s one day of testing. Is one day really going to change the world. We’re allowed to run two cars there. We had no problem with Fernando driving the Renault as we would really if Carlos wanted to drive a Ferrari or Sebastian a Racing Point. Is one day going to change the world? But as a young driver test, I’m not sure how Fernando… I’m feeling younger already! The fact that he’s classified as a young driver, maybe we could get Nigel… he never retired, we could get Nigel Mansell to come and do the young driver test!
 
Q: And Franz, your thoughts as well please.
FT: We went along with young drivers. This was already planned in a way and there’s no other driver we take into consideration.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Christian, regarding the engine freeze. Have there been any developments in the last few days in terms of where things are standing for that? And given the opposition from Mercedes and Renault at the moment in terms of their convergence mechanism that you and Mattia Binotto suggested, how do you see this situation resolving itself?
CH: Obviously there’s been some healthy discussion. Look, you can understand the respect the different positions of most of the manufacturers. Toto, who enjoys an engine advantage at the moment… of course. Naturally he’d want to freeze the engine for the next 35 years if he could. But is that healthy, ultimately, for the sport, to lock in an advantage, particularly for a period of three years, before we get to the new engine, if that engine is brought forward into 2025. As far Renault is concerned, one would have thought that it would make absolute sense for them to support a freeze but I think there’s got to be further discussion and hopefully a sensible solution will be reached in the next few weeks.
 
Q: Otmar, it was a tough race for your team here last weekend and at such a crucial time in the year as well. How have you guys picked yourselves up over the last few days? What have you been up to? What’s the mood in the camp as we come into this weekend?
OS: Well first and foremost, we had to understand the failure and the nature that we fix the root cause best we can going into this weekend and next. And then secondly there’s a lot of damage that was done on both cars and we had to make sure that we had ample parts to finish this season, like we need to. Those are the two big tasks from last Sunday to now and I think we’re in good shape for the next two races.
 
Q: Franz, Kvyat’s future has been the subject of much speculation for weeks. How tough has that been for him and have you been impressed by his resilience?
FT: Dany is experienced, he knows the game and the rules in Formula 1. He is a fast driver and he showed a good performance in the last races and also today, in FP1. I hope that also on Sunday he will be quite competitive and also the race in Abu Dhabi and then we will see.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsportmagazin.com) Otmar, coming back to the failure you had on Sergio’s car last weekend, can you give us an overview how you’re coping with the engine parts for the rest of the season? Do you have to sacrifice a bit of power to come through the season without a penalty?
OS: No, it was an MGU-K failure and we had a previous MGU-K that we could use for the next two races, so no hit on performance.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Franz, Daniil Kvyat told us yesterday that he was rather shocked when he saw what happened in his mirror etc. We saw you talking to him during the red flag period. Just talking from a team principal perspective, how do you treat or handle a driver after a situation like that?
FT: First of all, I said to him it was absolutely not his fault, that he couldn’t do anything, that he should take this on the side and be concentrated on the second start of the race. And he is professional enough and he did it in a really good way.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Franz or Christian, whoever is more appropriate to answer it. Yuki Tsunoda looked in good form last weekend and looked it again here but you never know what can happen in Formula Two where there are incidence of unreliability so there is a chance that he will slip to sixth in the championship and the best that I can make out, that would leave him slightly short of the points required for a super licence. Do you have a plan B or a contingency plan to ensure that he can get the super licence points? Are there assurances from the FIA that he will get a licence regardless? How do you handle that situation?
FT: We have a plan B, of course. There’s absolutely no doubt that in Melbourne Alpha Tauri will have two cars on the starting grid with two every competitive drivers.
CH: I don’t whether you can see, Scott, but I’m so distracted by his moustache and it’s now, what, the fourth of December so we’re passed Movember. But look at it, it’s magnificent! What was your question? As we went into this conference, I think he was on pole position so he’s doing a good job, so it’s more of a problem for Franz, I think, so he’s obviously glued to seeing how that performs.
 
Q: Christian, if Alex Albon hasn’t done enough to justify his place at Red Bull Racing next year, is there a route back to Alpha Tauri for him? As there was with Pierre, for course.
CH: I don’t believe he forms part of Franz’s plans for next year, so it’s very much a Red Bull seat or a year on the bench. The focus is on giving him that opportunity, he’s got two races, he did a good job last weekend, being on the podium, his second podium in Formula 1. He’s had a good first practice, a good start to the weekend here and two more weekends to demonstrate that he’s absolutely the right guy to be in that car alongside Max next year, and we’re giving him all the support that we possibly can to achieve that goal.
 
Q: Just to follow up on that, Christian, if he’s not in your car, do you think it’s the best solution for him to be on the bench, rather than in Alpha Tauri?
CH: It’s not something that we’re contemplating at the moment so I guess once we get to the end of the year, then we’ll evaluate all of those options.  He’s on a long term agreement, as all Red Bull drivers are when they join the team. Our focus at the moment is on the race seat and giving him the opportunity to demonstrate that he is making significant, building on that podium from last weekend and this early practice form.
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Christian, just to follow up on that, Alex was half a second, on average, slower than Max Verstappen in qualifying over the first half of the season and he’s still half a second…. enough to justify a Red Bull seat the following year. Why is it that this year might be different?
CH: Well I think you’ve got to look at how Max has evolved over the last few years. If you look at his average, Alex’s average is still closer than that of, for example, Pierre’s was last year to Max. We know we’ve had some issues with the car that have made life particularly difficult which I think we’ve worked hard to address and have been addressing, so we’re confident that that situation will hopefully improve for him and for any driver. Max is a tall order to go up against, he’s arguably probably the most in-form driver currently in Formula 1 and I think it would be tough for any driver to go up against Max currently.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Christian, we’ve got a situation at Mercedes this weekend with George Russell stepping into the car for Lewis Hamilton. I think there are some parallels with when Max stepped up to Red Bull back in 2016, obviously coming from what was effectively a junior team, through the academy up to the works outfit. What are your memories from that very first weekend that Max was with Red Bull? Was it quite natural from the word go, how he worked with the team and then obviously winning on debut?
CH: Well he astounded us from the moment he got in the car because there was no shakedown or anything like that, similar to George. The first time he got in the car was in Barcelona. I remember Q1 and Q2 he actually had the upper hand on Daniel and then just not having any experience with the car as the circuit was evolving, Daniel wound more front wing into the car and extracted a great lap and they qualified third and fourth. We then ran different strategies in the race, giving Daniel what we thought was the preferred strategy on what was a two stop and Max went out and made a one stop work as did Kimi on that day and won the race and it was astounding that someone of his experience and age – you have to remember at the time – the maturity and control that he showed, so it was a fairytale debut and of course George is familiar, I guess, with many of the controls. He’s been a test driver there before, he knows many of the people and it’s the best car currently in Formula 1. It’s won the most races this year, it’s an enormous opportunity for him and one that I’m sure that he’s looking to make great use of. It benchmarks him against Valtteri. I’m sure Toto’s looking to use it to perhaps negotiate Lewis’s contract in some way, shape or form. So it will be fascinating to see how it plays out but it’s great to see another youngster getting that chance and opportunity.
 
Q: Otmar, Lance said after qualifying last weekend that there were a few issues and that you were going to talk about it after the session. What conclusions did you come to as to what his issues were during that session and how do you think it’s going to play out tomorrow here in what Christian has already described as being a very intense session?
OS: Yeah, it will definitely be an intense session tomorrow. I think track position will be at a premium. We’ve got to be out at the right time and in the right place tomorrow. The only issues were a bit of a miscommunication as to how many laps Lance had left after the red flag and that’s easily fixed.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question to both of the Red Bull company team principals: why is it that Honda should be prepared to give up the IP and the engines that they worked so hard and spent so much money on and not have any return, or would there be some return for them? What’s the game plan there?
CH: Well, Dieter, I’m sure you can understand that we’re not going to share in a public forum the details of any discussion or negotiation with Honda but nevertheless to say that the relationship between the companies is excellent, continues to be extremely strong and there’s positive discussion. I think Honda are being as helpful as they possibly can be to see that we have a competitive power unit available to us in 2022, should we chose to go that route. Focus in the meantime is very much on 2021 for Honda to leave the sport on a high and huge effort is going into the 2021 campaign in Japan.
FT: Nothing to add.
 
Q: Just on the subject of Honda this weekend, Franz, how important is horsepower around this particular layout?
FT: Horsepower generally is very important in Formula 1 as in any other motor sport category and we all know that Honda improved during the winter months a lot on the performance side but also on the reliability side and I think that the power unit currently is not so far away from Mercedes and nearly the same level as Renault and better than Ferrari. And it depends also on the downforce level the cars are running therefore I think that cars with the Honda power unit have a good chance here to be successful and eventually to win the race.
 
Ends

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES  – Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari – via video link), Otmar Szafnauer (Racing Point), Andreas Seidl (McLaren)
 
PART ONE – First Press Conference
 
Q: Mattia, perhaps we could start with you please. This fight for P3 in the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari are 24 points behind Racing Point who are in third. Do you believe that your team is genuinely in the fight now?
Mattia BINOTTO: I believe it is very difficult. I believe the way we should approach it is race-by-race, try to confirm the progress that we have seen in the last races. I would say that’s our objective. I think our objective has been, as summer time, try to improve, to progress, to make sure that at least we understood the weaknesses on the car and are capable of addressing them for next year. But certainly if we’ve got good results, as it has been at the last race weekend, it’s not impossible – but again I think it will be very difficult. Every single race circuit is different. I think here in Bahrain, I don’t think it will suit, eventually to our car, better than others. So finally it will be certainly an exciting end to the season for the third place but fifth would be more realistic rather than third.
 
Q: I’m going to put the same question to the two guys in the room with us. Andreas, perhaps we could start with you, McLaren currently P4 but just five points behind Racing Point.
Andreas SEIDL: Yes, it’s obviously a very intense battle, three more races to go and you can feel also within the team, the tension building-up but I think it’s simply important that we approach these next three weekends in the same way that we did all season. It’s important to simply focus on ourselves. We have a competitive car, we have a great team and two great drivers, so it’s simply important now to maximise the race weekends again, similar to what we did many times this year, and then I hope we stay in this battle up to the last race. As I have said several times already, of course we want to fight for this P3 as long as we can but at the same time, for me, it’s as important, independent of the outcome of the Championship, to see that we made a step forward again with the team, with the car, with the way how we work together. I’m very happy with what I’m seeing there, and that’s the most important thing for me, in order to achieve our goal in the future, which is simply getting closer again to the front.
 
Q: And Otmar, for you, you’re currently P3. Do you think you’ve got the pace to stay there?
Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, we’ll work hard to make sure we get the car where it needs to be over one lap at the next three races as well as on long-run pace and make sure we have clean races so we can finish both drivers. If we can achieve that, we’ll work hard to maintain third place.
 
Q: Mattia, coming back to you, Carlos Sainz said in the press conference yesterday that one-and-a-half days of testing ahead of next year won’t be enough for him to get familiar with everything at Ferrari. So what preparations have you got planned for him – and might they include a run in a two-year old car?
MB: Yeah, certainly one-and-a-half days is very short, is very little time. Obviously we are planning to organise something for Carlos, to make sure he can speed up somehow his integration with the team, with the engineers, with the car, with our way of working, our procedures. Simulator will be important in that respect. Obviously at the simulator he may work with his race team, his engineers, technicians but yes, as you said, we are currently trying to organise, January time eventually, to run with an old car, just to make sure again, he gets used to the team and our procedures and know the people.
 
Q: Andreas, coming to you. Carlos leaves, Daniel Ricciardo comes in. What are your preparations for him over the winter?
AS: The rules are pretty clear of what we can do, plus we also do not have the possibility at the moment at McLaren to run an old car, which means it’s pretty straightforward in terms of him, Daniel, running the car. We only have the possibility in this single test with the three days but of course we are working hard within the team at the moment, together with Daniel from the first of January onwards, to integrate him into the team as quickly as possible. As Mattia said, there’s a lot of things you can do also outside of the car in terms of preparation, together with the engineers in the simulator and so on. And then, Daniel is an experienced driver, we are an experienced team, so it’s important to take it as it is, also in terms of regulations, and then get on with it, and then I’m sure we will be ready at the first race to have Daniel in a competitive position with us.
 
Q: And Otmar, very much the same question for you. You’re involved in the driver merry-go-round as well, Sebastian Vettel coming in. What are your plans for his preparation?
OS: We too don’t have the ability to run a two-year old car, so we’ll be doing everything we can with Seb to get him integrated into the team, do a lot of sim work with him as well and then use the three days of testing that we have to the best of our ability to get him ready for the first race.
 
VIDEO CONFERENCE
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) This one’s for Mattia. Mattia, on the one hand, Charles did a fantastic recovery drive in Turkey, picking up something like 35 seconds on Sebastian in 25 laps and overtaking him, and then made a mistake on the final lap and was very hard on himself. How do you talk to him about that situation – and in general how do you assess Charles’ season?
MB: Probably, focusing on the race itself, as far as the quali, it has not been his best quali of the season. He made a mistake at the start, he made very, very few mistakes in driving in difficult conditions, only on the last corner. I think generally-speaking it has been an outstanding race because he has been very fast and, as you said, he has recovered a lot of time in the race itself. The race has not been perfect because of the small mistake but considering the conditions, which were very, very difficult, he made a fantastic race and I think he has proved how strong he is in driving in difficult situations and difficult conditions, and how fast he can be. I think that Charles does not need to prove how fast he is; I think everyone knows how good he is, driving, quali, race, difficult conditions. I think in that respect again, very well done. Obviously, he was disappointed at the end of the race. We discussed, somehow, the radio comments but generally speaking, again, on the overall season, I think it has been an important season for him, very difficult from the competitiveness point of view of our car but I think that in terms of the leader of the team, he is developing himself. He is very supportive, he understands when it’s time to support the team when it’s time to push when it’s time to somehow really improve. He’s aware that the results of the future are somehow depending as well on his contribution. I think in that, he’s really a leader. Not only a driver, but he also developed himself quite a lot this season. On top of that, he learned a lot as well in terms of driving, managing the tyres, race pace, and I think that in terms of, certainly his ability to drive, he improved again, during the season itself. So, I’m pretty sure Charles will be a strong driver in the future. He’s already very strong but he will be even stronger – and certainly next year as well.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Another question for Mattia. Red Bull have said they really want to make a decision about their future engine supply by the end of November. Obviously a lot of that is dependent on an agreement to an engine freeze and a freeze and development. Ferrari have said in the past that it would not be in favour of this. I was just wondering, has that position changed at all? Where do you see things moving from there –and do you think there can be any way an engine freeze can be agreed for the future?
MB: I think what we said is there are already regulations in place where somehow Red Bull got a solution. They may be supplied by other manufacturers, that’s no doubt. We understand there intention as well to keep using their Honda engine for the future. We had meetings in the last days with F1 and the FIA. I think as Ferrari, we understand the situation. We are somehow supportive in trying to anticipate by one season, one year, the freezing of the engines. That will mean as well trying to anticipate to 2025 the new regulations for the power unit. So, knowing the situation and understanding somehow the situations, it is not the first time that I think Ferrari is acting responsibility, in a responsible way, in that respect. So, we will support freezing by anticipating by one year the engines and the power unit.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question for Mattia – I’m sorry, you seem to be getting them all in a row – but obviously with the budget cap coming in it’s known that Ferrari would need to make some sort of personnel adjustments. You do have the soft landing, as we call it. In addition to that, I believe the Italian Government has recently introduced a freeze, or moratorium, on any retrenchment – so what sort of progress have you made in this regard please?
MB: Thanks for the question. I think the question is a good one, because very important at that stage, the soft landing has been decided, approved with all the teams, F1, FIA at the time. Knowing that the COVID situation, the fact that it has been very difficult to dismiss people, to lay off people in that period. Knowing that as well in terms of message, it would be completely wrong, I think, to lay off people when we are in such a COVID pandemic situation, and I think the fact that the pandemic is not finished and we are still have now, let me say, an emergency matter. The mechanism of the six months needs to be reviewed, and eventually we should try to postpone that mechanism, eventually by the end of the year. I think that, again, as social responsibility, it would be again, very bad to businesspeople during the COVID, and knowing that we need to do it very soon, we don’t believe that would be the right approach – so it’s something on which I’m very keen and I would like and I will discuss with FIA to understand, and with the other teams, is there any possibility to accommodate what is still an emergency situation? That’s on one side. On the other side, as you said, how are we organising ourselves. Obviously we were trying to restructure our whole team. We’ve got somehow… we are trying to reallocate people on the road cars because we are still a very big company. These are some opportunities we’ve got – but it’s a difficult exercise, on which we have started. The solution is not obvious.
 
Q: Andreas, you’ve got more car changes to make than most for next year with the switch to a Mercedes power unit. Can you give us an update as to how that 2021 car is coming along?
AS: Yeah, as you said, it’s obviously a big task, switching to the Mercedes power unit for next year – but I have to say I’m very happy with the progress we’re seeing there so, I would say car build is going along very well. The relationship, together with the guys from Brixworth, from Mercedes, has started also on a very good basis. There’s a very good dialogue and technical exchange, so I’m very happy with that. This is obviously happening in parallel with aero development we have to do next year with the changes we have to do, especially to the rear of the car, to help Pirelli. I would say on target, no red lights there at the moment but thanks to a lot of power unit changes also recently at McLaren we have quite some experience also within the team to do that. How good we manage to do that, we will only see next year once we go testing.
 
Q: Otmar, a question about Checo. He’s signing off in style this year, isn’t’ he? Over the last seven races, he’s out-scored everyone except for Bottas and Hamilton. You’ve known him for seven years now. Is he driving better than ever?
OS: Yeah, Checo’s always been a great racer on a Sunday, he’s very calculated and, if he’s got a competitive car he’s difficult to overtake. He defends well and I think he makes very calculated manoeuvres on overtaking. So, if you’re a smart racer on a Sunday, look after your tyres, you’re going to score some good points. He’s done a good job.
 
Q: A good job – but is this the best you’ve ever seen him?
OS: That’s a good question. I’ve seen him for many races and many years. It’s probably up there but he’s had some fantastic races in the past too.
 
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport.com) Mattia, in 2012-2013, Mercedes was in quite a unique position because we had the Resource Restriction Agreement in place and a completely new formula in terms of the powertrain. Do you think Ferrari may have a similar chance at the moment? We have the budget cap kicking in next year and new rules coming in in 2022. Do you think there are similarities in the situation?
MB: I don’t think it’s a similar situation. I think at the time Mercedes were smart enough certainly to start developing long time before the other the power unit, so they had somehow and advantage in terms of timing by when they started developing the power unit itself. If you look at 2022 on the aero, which is the most important, we will all start by the 1^st of January next year and I think that’s the main difference. Certainly it’s a big discontinuity in the regulations and I think that the stronger team in that respect will somehow be the strongest in terms of doing the best car. I think if there is any similarity it is only that there is a big change of regulations, but timing, quite different.
 
Q: Otmar, do you see any parallels between the new regs coming in and 2014?
OS: I think what Mattia just pointed out is absolutely right. Because of the situation we are in now we have all agreed that we are not going to start working on 2022 until January 1 and that allows everybody to start at the same time
 
Q: Andreas?
AS: Yeah, I have nothing really to add. In the end, I think, it’s good in terms of timing that we shifted to the start of the allowance to work on the aerodynamics of the ’22 car from the 1^st of January onwards in parallel with the budget cap kicking in. At the same time it’s also clear the new regulations also are an opportunity to a certain degree but you need to be realistic, especially with the three big teams, with all the infrastructure they have in place, the methods they have place, they have a big advantage at the moment compared to everyone. They will keep having this advantage also in the future and it will take time until all these new regulations, including the budget cap, will somehow wash out and actually then create a level playing field. But again, it’s a positive direction and we’re looking forward to this new chapter of Formula 1.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Mattia, regarding the prospect of an early engine freeze and bringing forward the next generation of F1 engine. How complicated is all of this, particularly when you have the FIA’s desire to bring in fully sustainable fuels and technology like that? It doesn’t seem to be an easy situation to manage?
MB: Certainly it’s not an easy one. First, to have a brand new format of power unit in 2025, we would need to have by the middle of next year clarity on the regulations. I think it will be quite a different power unit to today, because there, at least from a Ferrari point of view, there are important objectives that need to be set, as for example quite a different cost. It has to be more sustainable from a cost point of view, so I think the power unit itself should cost 50% more of less of what we are affording today and in order to achieve that I think it will be in order to decide what will be the technical format it is somehow a very difficult exercise. To see it from the sustainability, from a carbon footprint point of view, we need to set out objective which has to be very ambitious and I think that objective will somehow decide what will be the technologies or the technical format we will then decide. As I said, we need to have clear objectives to share and then we need to decide the technical format and I think in the mid of next year it should be clear and I think in that respect it will be very difficult and ambitious. The fuel will be very important, certainly in order to achieve carbon footprint neutral the fuel itself is a key element and a key component of the format, on which I think at the moment there is a completely open discussion and there is no clear evidence on where we should go. We need to be I suppose very proactive but very collaborative between manufacturers, F1 and FIA in order to progress very soon on the regulations, because again that will somehow define what’s the future of F1 from 2025 to 2030 which is important to make sure that we are doing the right exercise. As you said, it is very ambitious, very tight but I think we are prepared to have that discussion, as I said, in a collaborative manner and I’m pretty sure we will do the right job all together. On freezing in 2022, I don’t think that will be difficult. It is only a matter of deciding what we intend to do. We have some discussion at the moment with the FIA and F1, should we consider a mechanism of engine convergence, if there is any situation where eventually a manufacturer is really down on performance compared to the others, because then its freezing three years somehow as well the performance, the relative performance between manufacturers. I think those details will be important. We should not forget that in 2022 we are introducing the E10 fuel, 10%, so it’s quite a significant change in the regulations and a significant change in the engine development so by the time we are introducing that fuel we are freezing and I think in that respect some risks are in place and so the risks will need to be managed and making sure that we are doing the proper job as manufacturers.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Mattia, on the engine convergence, as you call it, some others call it balance of performance, or whatever, how do you see that happening? Will you have just another chance to develop the engine further when it’s actually frozen or do you get more fuel. How do you see it working?
MB: First, I don’t think it is balance of performance as I don’t think that the aim or objective is to somehow bring all the manufacturers to the same level of performance. That’s not the case. That’s why I call it engine convergence or power unit convergence as it’s only a way of trying to help a manufacturer, which is really down in terms of performance compared to the others. But I don’t think if we are helping that manufacturer we should bring him to the be the best manufacturer at all, so he should somehow try to catch up at a lower level compared to the others but somehow not too distant. How can we do that? I think that’s part of the open discussion we have got today. I don’t there is a solution. Certainly the easiest one is by managing or adapting the fuel flow but I don’t think that there is a conclusion yet, it is all part of the discussion we are having.
 
Q: (Julianne Cerasoli – UOL Esporte, via email) It’s been five months since F1 launched the We Race as One campaign. Hsve you been able to identify areas that need to be looked at more carefully in order to stimulate your teams to be more diverse? What are the next steps?
AS: First of all I think it was very important to launch this campaign at the beginning of going racing again. The topic of diversity, equality and inclusion is an important topic for the world and at the same time also for us at McLaren. We have launched different initiatives in previous months together with our employees in order to improve the situation also at McLaren. We simply want to make sure that everyone at McLaren has the same opportunities in order to show what he or she is able to do and at the same time it is also very important that simply getting into McLaren, everyone, independent of gender, religion etc, has the same chance to get into our company. That is something we spend a lot of time on at the moment as a team and I clearly see that we will make steps in the next months and years compared to the current situation.
OS: I tend to agree with Andreas. We at Racing Point have never discriminated on anything except for ability to do the job – race or gender or religion. Having said that, we too have put together a task force within our HR department to ensure that going forward we are even more inclusive and we give everyone an equal opportunity to come work at what is now Racing Point and what will be Aston Martin in the future.
MB: Yeah, certainly it is an important subject on which Ferrari is paying a lot of attention and I’m pretty sure we can do even more in the future. This year there are a couple of programmes I would like to mention. The first is salary equality between genders and Ferrari has been certified and is the very first company in Italy to have been certified on that matter. The second is the programme we got, Girls on Track, in partnership with the FIA, which again, I think is an important one, looking at the future, but, as I said, there is even more we can do and Ferrari will pay a lot of attention in the future to make sure that we can do better.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Otmar, your factory projects. Is that still on ice because of COVID or are you making progress there?
OS: Yeah, it is online, but the line and the timing has changed because of COVID. We are making progress. We are in the design phase now and all the departments are getting there input in to make sure it’s the most efficient it can be and it’s online and on target to be opened and launched in August of 2022.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Is this the full, original plan or have you cut back because of budget caps and wind tunnel freezes and all sorts of things?
OS: It’s still the original plan. We have to make sure we right-size it. I’m sure with the budget cap now we are all learning what trade-offs we make to be able to stay under the budget. The plan for the factory is that if for some reason in the future the budget cap changes, the factory is scalable, but it hasn’t changed much due to the budget cap.

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES  – Simon ROBERTS (Williams), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda)

PART TWO – Second Press Conference

Q: Guenther, how about an update on your 2021 driver line-up? What can you tell us?

Guenther STEINER: I haven’t heard that question for a long time so thanks for asking! We plan to announce it before the season is ending but we don’t know the exact date yet, but it’s not long to wait. It’s a maximum of two weeks, so please be patient.

Q: Is it results dependent?

GS: No. You mean Formula 2 results dependent? No. It’s not results dependent. I need to disappoint you on that one.

Q: Now Romain and Kevin were in here yesterday and they said that your car is relatively easy to drive but if you bring in two rookies next year can you rely on their feedback to develop the car further, and how tough will it be for them at tracks like Baku?

GS: If we bring in rookies, if… I think next year if we bring in rookies therefore it’s a good time to bring in rookies because the car next year will not be developed a lot because the freeze on the car, the homologation of the car, so you cannot make big changes, obviously we can make aero changes but the car will not change in the fundamentals, so it is a development and not as new development and next year our focus will be on 2022 anyway, so I think it’s a transition year for us, so it would be a good year for rookies to come in, to learn being in Formula 1, getting to know the people that are around, how to go to press conferences and things like this, so I think it will be a good year, but the development will be very small next year.

Q: Tanabe-san, Turkey was a difficult weekend for Honda, made more difficult by Pierre having to start from the pit lane. Can you explain why you stopped work on his engine change?

Toyoharu TANABE: Actually it was a very difficult weekend for us and following the failure on Pierre’s PU at the Portuguese we discussed and then decided to change the PU if he did not qualify well. We submitted the change request to the FIA and then it was approved. And then later his starting grid was improved by the others’ penalties. We changed our mind and then reported to the FIA. Unfortunately we already touched some of the parts to change the PU so in the end we got the penalty.

Q: And Tanabe-san, what is the latest on Red Bull’s engine plans going forward? Helmut Marko recently visited Honda in Japan; was a decision about the future reached?

TT: I know the discussion is on-going between Honda and Red Bull but I believe at the moment no decision has been made yet. And also, I’m in charge of the technical management trackside so I don’t know the very details of the discussions.

Q: Simon, first up, you missed Turkey after testing positive for COVID-19. How are you feeling?

Simon ROBERTS: Yeah, I feel very well thank you. I was very lucky, I only had mild symptom of losing a sense of taste. Apart from that, I felt absolutely fine so I feel that I kind of missed a bullet there but yeah, had to miss the race obviously, testing positive, so it was a bit disappointing but I’m here now so all good.

Q: Good, and tell us about the mood in the team? Is there a sense of frustration now that you’re constantly finishing just outside the points?

SR: Yeah, I guess there is. It just focuses us even more to try harder and we’re just trying to make sure we can get everything possible out of the car for these last three races. We don’t want to walk away disappointed, thinking we didn’t try everything we possibly could or left some stone unturned so the mood is… we’re glad everyone’s back, we’re back to full strength now. The guys in Turkey did an amazing job. We had lots of people step in at short notice to support from the factory and that caused the guys in the factory, as well, to have to kind of shuffle around a little bit so that was a great team effort and it set us up quite nicely actually. As I say, we’re at full strength now, for these last three so we’ve just got to get everything we can out of the car.

VIDEO CONFERENCE

Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport.com) Guenther, do you expect the driver announcement this weekend?

GS: No. I don’t expect it this weekend, Christian.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Tanabe-san, what would Honda actually achieve through allowing Red Bull to acquire the IP for the engine? Would you still be getting the technical information? Would you still be running some form of research and development programme or would it just literally be give them the engines and let them get on with it and we’re out of here?

TT: As I told you, I don’t know the details of this project, so I don’t know the project or not, but I believe we don’t tell the details to the public so yeah, maybe some information will be distributed but at the moment no information for the public.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport magazine) Two questions for Tanabe-san, both related to the race in Turkey. First of all, we’ve seen many drivers starting in second gear on the wet track but the Honda drivers all started with first gear. Is there a technical reason for that? And on the other side, some people said that the Honda teams had some problems with traction because of the vibrations of the engine. Is that true or is that just a myth?

TT: About the start, it was caused by many factors. So the system and procedure not only PU but also the chassis side and then our start strategy was not good for that condition, though we learned a lot from that slow start and we will improve that weak area for the future.

Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) Tanabe-san, Mattia Binotto has suggested that the next generation F1 engines should be much cheaper, maybe as much as 50% cheaper. How much do you think would have to change? What would have to be done to have F1 engines for the next generation, which are so cheap, such a big step? Is it possible?

TT: The discussion for the next generation Formula 1 engine has just started and then the people in the Formula 1, FIA and also the PU manufacturers are considering what is the best for this sport. Of course, we need to improve the efficiency of the PU which means that we have an ICE and the ERS system. At the moment, we have no clear direction yet but of course this is important, efficiency, also the cost of the PU for the entire PU manufacturers, also the teams. That’s important, I think.

Q: Can I open this up to the other two guys please? How important is it that the engines get cheaper for the customer teams?

GS: I wouldn’t call it cheaper. I think we need to make it more efficient, not as an engine but cost-wise. I think part of the new regulation, there needs to be a financial regulation, how much they can cost and that is not for me to decide how much it is because we don’t make engines so it’s more for the manufacturers who know how much it costs to develop this engine but for us, as a customer, it is important to be sustainable. If we can get the engine costs down, that makes sure that all the teams stay around because the engine cost is a big part of our budget at the moment. I understand the manufacturers cannot subsidise but I think they do already by swallowing all the development costs for the engines but they cannot subsidise the production of the engines and that’s why they need to give us the cost of it, so very important.

Q: Guenther, what percentage of your budget is the power unit?

GS: I think it’s about 10%.

Q: Simon, can we have your thoughts on this as well, please?

SR: I think the current PUs are so complex – they’re amazing pieces of technology but that complexity drives costs and I think the future – as Guenther said – we have to look at  sustainable power units, we have to think about the relevance to road car technology but we have to do it in a way that makes sense for everybody; makes sense for the teams, so we can afford to buy it and also makes sense for manufacturers that they can afford to develop those engines and battery packs but do it in a way that actually makes sense for them too. So as has been said already, it’s very early days, looking at what’s next, but I think it’s a really important step for the sport. We need to consider it carefully.

Q: Simon staying with you and while we’re talking about money, George spoke yesterday about the possibilities opening up for Williams under Dorilton’s ownership. Has the cash injection arrived in time for the 2021 programme?

SR: So we are investing, right now, in the factory in a small way. We’ve got the opportunity now to kind of fix things that have been broken or things that we’d love to have done but just haven’t been able to afford to in the past so nothing revolutionary but all good steps and all good progress. I think what George is really referring to is part of a long-term strategy, where we will invest in things and Dorilton will invest in things that will increase our performance, make us more competitive and help the team move forward.

Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport.com) Simon, do you expect to remain in place as team principal going into next season, and in case you don’t, how’s the headhunting going?

SR: Good question! I’d like to stay in place as team principal next season but yeah, we haven’t had those discussions yet so who knows? Right now we’re just focusing on getting through to the end of the season, trying to get some points and then we’ll take it from there.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Guenther, I wonder if you could clarify what you’ve just said when you said that you thought your engine cost was about ten percent of your budget. According to my information, the FIA guidelines is about 20 million for a two car single season supply. Are you then saying your budget is 200 million which would be over the budget cap for next year?

GS: I think the FIA number is a little bit different and those are approximate, Dieter, so approximate doesn’t mean exactly the number.

Q: Tanabe-san, we haven’t had you in this press conference since Yuki Tsunoda tested for Alpha Tauri at Imola. Your impressions of how he got on? How impressed were you?

TT: I believe it was a good test. Only the purpose was Tsunoda learned the Formula 1 car. And the track condition was wet in the morning. He started with wet tyres and then the track condition was gradually getting drier and then he finally switched to the dry tyres. That condition gave him a lot of opportunity to learn the car’s behaviour and then during the day he learned a lot, the steering (wheel) switch operation, also the radio communication. Additionally, for Honda and Japanese fans, it was good to see a Japanese driver driving a Formula 1. We haven’t seen a Formula 1 driver recently so of course a decision is the team’s responsibility, we don’t know, but I hope we would like to see a Japanese driver in the near future.

Q: 2021?

TT: I don’t know.

Q: (Phil Horton – Motorsportweek.com) Tanabe-san, you will introduce a new power unit for 2021. Given Mercedes’s current superiority, is it realistic to believe a title challenge is possible?

TT: It’s quite difficult to answer. Of course, we are developing our new PU for 2021, not only for performance but also reliability and then we know our position is still behind the Mercedes and then the other competitors don’t sleep during the off-season so we have a very short off-season this year but everyone involved in Formula 1 makes maximum effort to win races, also the championship, so it’s not quite easy to tell you we will win. On the other hand, we would be delighted to win more races and then try to be a challenger for the championship in 2021. So we keep working very hard on our PU for next year.

Q: Guenther and Simon, what did we learn during FP1 today and can you just give us an outline of what your expectations are for the rest of the weekend?

GS: I think I will start with the prototype tyres we ran first time here, the tyres for next year so we went out on them and we just learned… we still need to go into the data what they are doing, what they are not doing but otherwise we learned the normal stuff from FP1. You try a little bit the tyres you think you are not going to use so you can give them back and to do a short long run but nothing too exciting today except the prototype tyres which you don’t test often but otherwise just another Friday on the track.

Q: Guenther, what feedback did you get from the drivers about the prototype tyres?

GS: I just left the debrief and they said… there was a little bit of discussion, how they feel. They were not very comfortable in the beginning. They are different, definitely different to the tyres now but I think running them the first time, we need to find a bit of a balance in the car going through the data and adapt the car more to the tyres. I think it would be too early to jump to conclusions after one run on a track which is improving by the minute, obviously, because it’s green so we’re running a second set this afternoon.  Hopefully we learn a little bit more but in general it is like every time something new is coming, people don’t like change, drivers don’t like change so at the moment it’s like ‘oh I don’t know if this is a good development or not’ so we don’t know basically.

SR: Yeah, so obviously we had Roy in the car this morning so we’ve had a pretty extensive test programme on both cars. You’ll have seen us running various rakes and just basically gathering as much data as could. We ran the prototype tyres as well, obviously. I left the debrief before we actually got the drivers’ comments so I can’t really mention that but the main thing we focused on was getting all the right data and we did. It was not easy, it was pretty busy out there. The track was evolving but yeah, we stuck with it and got everything we wanted from the session.

Ends

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toyoharu TANABE (Honda), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo)
 
Q: Question to all three of you: we’ve had calendar announcements this morning with races confirmed at Mugello and Sochi in September. I would love to get your thoughts on that first of all. Fred, perhaps we could start with you?
Frédéric VASSEUR: I think it is good news. We are going in the right direction, to add more and more races. Thanks to Formula 1 to take care of this. I think it’s a great job and, step-by-step, we are building-up a nice calendar.
 
Q: Guenther?
Guenther STEINER: Yeah, the same as Fred. It’s fantastic the job is done because it must be very difficult to get events organised at the moment. I think they do a great job, so at least we get a substantial calendar together, what it seems to be like. Now they’ve got a few more and then we should have a nice season. It’s very good for us. It’s very good for the fans and for Formula 1 in general. So, very good and I hope they keep on pushing to have a few more and then we should be good.
 
Q: Tanabe-san?
Toyoharu TANABE: Yes, I agree with them. Yes it’s good for all Formula 1 fans and then manufacturers and teams. I would like to say thank you for the people working very hard to establish this schedule and I hope we can go there to have a Formula 1 race.
 
VIDEO CONFERENCE
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Question for Tanabe-san. We saw both Red Bull cars were hit with power unit problems during the race last weekend. Could you expand a bit of what the issue was? Was it an issue on the Red Bull side or the Honda side. Are there any concerns of it emerging again this weekend? We know Austria’s quite a difficult race for the cars in terms of cooling in particular.
TT: The two incidents were not related. On the Max car we had a mechanical trouble problem which led to an electronic problem on the PU but that’s not related to the PU in the end. On Alex’s car we saw some unusual data after he ran over the gravel and then it accelerated and then exceeded our limit, so we stopped the car. We had a very short period between the last race and today. We applied very simple and basic, primitive counter-measure. We changed all related electronic parts on the car, on the PU. We are still investigating the very detail but it looks, the various reasons, related to this problem. From the P1 running, the car runs OK. We will keep watching and then monitor. During the long run and also the race.
 
Q: (Erik van Haren – De Telegraaf) Do you think Honda is able to match the power of the Mercedes engine this year? And what’s the difference between the upgraded Honda engine in Austria and the first one in testing?
TT: I think it’s a little bit difficult to tell the difference between PU power in the four PU manufacturers. Many functions related to the speed and lap time. We think we need to work a little bit more hard to catch up the top runner. The difference between Australia and here, the first race this year, mainly we cannot work on the big change because of the shutdown. Mainly reliability and minor changes. We had time to apply some things, even limited time. So, how can I say? Kind of housekeeping work. That’s it.
 
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Another power unit question but to Guenther and Fred. We saw that all the Ferrari-powered cars seemed to be a little bit slower on the straight than their rivals. Is that something that you noticed, and have you had an explanation from Ferrari as to why the power has gone down compared to last year?
GS: Obviously it became apparent that there is a speed-deficit on the straights and we are slower than last year. All Ferrari-powered cars, I think we can say that openly. I think people are working hard to find out what it is, as Tanabe-san said, it’s very difficult to judge other people’s performance of the engine, you know? Because you don’t have any data, you’ve got just speed data but the speed of the car eventually, a drag level and so on. For sure we’re working hard to find out why, in qualifying, here in Austria, we were faster, and for sure the same as Fred is doing – not that I need to speak for Fred because he can do that himself. In the race I think it was less prominent, the difference. We didn’t have a good race, obviously, but I think there still needs to be work going into it and do see what is what here actually. And then we can find a conclusion and move on and sort out if there is a problem.
 
Q: Fred, let’s get your thoughts?
FV: I’m OK with Guenther. The situation is known and now we have to work on all sides. I trust Ferrari to be able to be able to recover as much as possible. My job – and it’s not in my hands, our job is to push on the chassis side and on the driver and to do a good job. The race pace was decent but we were able to match the cars in front of us. The deficit was a bit more important in quali.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Question for Tanabe-san. Can you just talk through exactly what you’re able to do between races to identify faults like you had least weekend? There isn’t much time, so how do you action staff in the UK and Japan to perform your analysis?
TT: As soon as we got the logging data, we analysed the data at the track, and then later we checked the car, and then, especially for Alex’s car, we removed the parts from the PU and there’s some shipped to Sakura R&D in Japan and some shipped to Milton Keynes and then we run those parts from the suspect PU, run on dyno and recreate very similar conditions as race. Then we analyse that data again.
 
Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid-Day) Question to all three, mostly to Guenther and Fred. There’s been a lot of talk about the biosphere and the bubble and Charles having gone back to Monaco and Valtteri having gone back also to Monaco. Do you know exactly what you are and aren’t allowed to do in maintaining this biosphere? And Tanabe-san, you’ve got, as an engine supplier, you’ve got staff working across different teams. How do you make sure you keep the bubble and biosphere intact?
FV: The rule is clear, we were allowed to go back to the factory for serious reasons. I don’t want to comment for the Charles story or Valtteri but the rule is clear that you have to perform the test again before going back to the track. I did one, two days ago, and another one this morning. I think it’s the safest place in the world. Everybody did tonnes of tests and I think that the rule is respected by everybody.
 
Q: Guenther, your take on it?
GS: Yeah, as Fred said, it’s a very safe place here, you know? There is clear rules that when you come in here, you need to be tested, so I don’t know what happened with Charles and Valtteri but maybe it’s a story on social media – but if they get checked in the beginning I think that’s OK and it’s quite clear what you have to do and what not to do here. So, we all know that and what I’ve seen, all the people working in F1 are very disciplined. I think we try our best. For sure mistakes happen – always – but nobody’s trying to undermine the issue intentionally or try to be smart about it. I feel very safe here. If any of us get it here, I will be very surprised.
 
Q: Tanabe-san, is it complicated by you supplying multiple teams?
TT: Yes. It is a little bit difficult for us to work separately but for our members to be safe, also teams safe, we completely follow the FIA direction, also team direction. Maybe the same as this conference, we use web meeting as much as we can and then we communicate between the two teams’ members. So far it’s worked well but definitely we keep working on our safety. That’s very important for us and then Formula 1.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Question for Fred. I just wanted to know if there are any future plans for Robert Kubica in terms of his practice outings this year? We saw him make his first appearance of the season today. What more is he going to be doing in terms of FP1 sessions through this season?
FV: We plan to do four or five sessions during the season but the issue with the new calendar is that we have also to reschedule everything. He is racing in DTM also, it means we have to find solutions but we will do it. I think it’s a great added value for the team in terms of understanding of the car and he’s bringing a nice contribution.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Good-day Gentleman. Obviously the budget cap has been reduced substantially now to $145million but given that a driver is a performance differentiator, or is accepted as being one, would you like to see driver salaries, either capped and/or included in the budget cap? That’s to the two team principals.
GS: I have nothing against a driver cap or a driver salary cap, whatever you want to call it. I don’t see a problem for us in it because we are so far off it, whatever it will be. So, I’m not pushing it or anything but I think at some stage it will be a good idea to put it in the budget cap, because, as you said, it’s a performance differentiator. So for sure if you spend a lot of money on a driver then you cannot do other things. That should level the playing field even more and I think the salaries would adjust by themselves and they would end up lower than they are now. So, I think, I’m not faced with the problem, to be high in salaries because we are not even at the budget cap, so in the end, any of these proposals, I will be OK with it, so long as the amount is within some reason.
FV: I’m OK with Guenther. The only point is that it would be a bit strange to exclude the highest salary of the team and not to include the drivers. If we are taking this direction we have to include everybody into the cost cap.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) To all three please, but mainly the two team principals. We’re straight back into a ‘normal’ grand prix weekend schedule. We didn’t have the opportunity in the end to try a reverse grid qualifying race for the second part of the double header. I just wanted to know what you make of it being an identical format the second week in a row. Do you think this was a missed opportunity to try to do something different?
FV: Spielberg would have been difficult because to base the classification on the result of race one would have been a bit difficult because you can have the temptation to stop the race if you are not into the points. But I think I was positive for this for the rest of the season, for Silverstone and if we have to do another development later into the season I think it was a good opportunity. It’s also part of the skill of the drivers to be able to overtake but let’s see for the future. But we have tons of things to sort out this season.
 
Q: Guenther, missed opportunity?
GS: Yes, I agree. In my opinion we should have done it and as Fred said it would have been difficult as it was the first race but we could have used the standing from last year’s World Championship to start the qualifying race, or something like this. There would be other opportunities to do that, how to start that one. Hopefully it comes back on the agenda that we do this. And as I’ve always said, if it doesn’t work we need to brave enough to say it didn’t work and go back to what we know from, before. Sometimes trying helps because there is not a lot we can lose. Again, I hope it comes back and we try it and then we know and we are not sitting here speculating whether it is a missed opportunity or not. It worked or it didn’t and we move one and come up with the next good idea if this didn’t work.
 
Q: Tanabe-san?
TT: I have no comment.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines/racefans.net) A question for Tanabe-san. The way that I understand it at the moment, Honda is committed to Formula 1 until the end of 2021. Is there any talk about extending that commitment? Has any decision been taken in Japan about possibly remaining in Formula 1 after that period?
TT: I’m not involved in the contract scene very much but I just heard that the discussion is underway. I haven’t heard any result yet. That’s the current status.
 
Q: Tanabe-san, how does the freezing of the power unit development affect you and your plans for 2021 and beyond?
TT: The freezing is not what we want. But that decision is, I think, the right reaction and the right decision for all of the manufacturers and teams considering this social situation. I think people need to work very hard on how to optimize, how to use the PU with kind of the same spec. We need to spend more time on that kind of simulation or analysing.
 
Q: Guenther, coming to you. Frustrating weekend for the team last weekend. Has team owner Gene Haas set the team any goals for this season?
GS: No. it’s very difficult to set goals in a season like this. I think that went out of the window at the start of the season, when we didn’t know if we were starting. With the shutdown it’s just that the financial situation has changed. We obviously have less income and so on. You cannot put a goal on a season like this – he knows that. I think we try to do our best and make him happy. It’s very difficult in the moment, as we saw last weekend, a frustrating weekend. But you never give up. You keep on working and everybody is working hard to make the situation better within our means.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines/racefans.net) A question for the two team principals. Jean Todt said last week that there were Concorde Agreement discussions happening. A) Were you two involved and invited, and B) How do you see the progress on the Concorde Agreement please?
FV: Yeah, the discussions are ongoing. For sure, we stop a little bit the discussions during the COVID system and the new regulation answer, but now we are back to the topic and I hope we will have be able to finalise an agreement in the next few weeks.
GS: As Fred says, the discussions have started again. To answer one of Dieter’s questions, we were involved in the beginning on the Concorde Agreement, obviously a lesser amount than the big teams as they have more things to sort out but otherwise FOM was trying to be as fair as possible with all 10 teams.
 
Q: One last question from me to Fred. More points for Antonio last weekend. Little bit disappointed not to see you cutting his hair after the race, as you did last year. What’s the bet with him for 2020?
FV: He did it for me.
GS: He wants it for him the hair; that’s what he wants!
FV: I think he did a good second part of the season last year and he didn’t race the two years before and we have to keep it in mind. He did a strong second part of the season and it was a good start to 2020. Now, we have to keep the same pace and the same path for the next few races but it’s not just a matter to score points on the first one, but we have to be consistent and it will be the target for everybody in the team, including Antonio.

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Otmar SZAFNAUER (Racing Point), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams)

Q: A quick question from me to start. We’ve had calendar announcements from Formula 1 with confirmation of races at Mugello and Sochi. I’d love to get your reaction on that please?
Claire WILLIAMS: Firstly, I think Formula 1, the FIA, everybody has done an extraordinary job to bring us all back racing and to do it so safely. I imagine it’s incredibly hard work trying to co-ordinate where we are going racing after these initial eight races that have been confirmed, so to hear that more races have been put on the calendar is great news. Clearly we want to go racing as much as possible in the safest possible way. Russia we know. Mugello is an unknown – I think we used to go testing there many, many moons ago. Yeah, we’re looking forward it. I think it will give the engineers a challenge. But I think it’s fantastic that F1 is putting all these new races on the calendar.
Mario ISOLA: Yeah, I fully agree with Claire. It’s great to be back, it’s great to have a calendar now made of 10 races. Mugello is a circuit that we know, because we raced there with other series. It’s quite hard on tyres, so we need to be well prepared for this circuit. In mid-September it’s also possible to have high temperatures. Last time we went there with a Formula 1 car was 2012, so a long time ago. But happy to have a second race in Italy. We are Italians so we like the idea to have a second race in Italy. I hope it will be a great race and a great celebration of this very nice circuit.
 
Q: First time since 2006 that we’ll have two races in Italy. And Otmar, please?
Otmar SZAFNAUER: There isn’t much else to say. I agree with Claire and Mario. It’s wonderful to see two more races added and I think that’s testament to the hard work that was done to make sure that we can race safely. We’ve shown that in the first weekend and with the second weekend coming up now and if we stick to the protocols that have been put in place then it looks like we can race safely and that will mean many more races after Russia as well.
 
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport.com) A question to Otmar. You have Checo under contract until 2022 and presumably Lance is on a long-term commitment as well. So, are you at this point in a position to provide a firm no towards being able to offer Sebastian Vettel a drive for 2021?
OS: Well, like I’ve said before, it’s flattering that everyone this that a four-time world champion would come to our team, but maybe that’s because the car is a bit quicker now. You’re absolutely right, we have long contracts with both our drivers, so it would only be logical that we don’t have space.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines/racefans.net) A driver is generally accepted as being a performance differentiator. Given that we differentiate performance via the budget cap on aero etc, how do you feel about including driver salaries within the budget cap or alternatively having a capo on a driver’s salary? And do you believe that any form of cap would possibly chase away the superstars from the sport?
OS: I’m definitely in favour of including the driver salaries within the cap because it forces teams to make those decisions. Do you spend your money on a driver or do you take one that doesn’t cost you so much and spend it elsewhere on performance. To answer your first questions, Dieter, I’m in favour of having the salaries within the budget cap. Your second one is a hypothetical one as to if that happens will the superstars go do something else? I believe that even having the driver salaries within the cap their salaries would still be higher than what they would get at other racing series.
CW: I would tend to agree with Otmar. As you say, Dieter, drivers are performance differentiators and in order to get a much more equitable playing field in this sport, as the financial regulations are there to do, then I think it’s absolutely critical that anyone who is performance related should be part of that cost cap. I wholeheartedly agree with it. And again, as Otmar said, I think that the likelihood of drivers being discouraged from participating in our sport would probably be minimal, just simply because this is the highest echelon of motorsport and it’s a destination where drivers want to be racing.
 
Q: On the subject of drivers, George said yesterday that his future is in your hands. What are your plans for him?
CW: I feel quite a lot of pressure, George’s future being in my hands. George is on a three-year contract with the team, he’s in his second year and he’s done a fantastic job for Williams. Everybody knows how difficult it was for all of us last year, not least for George, and he always held his head up high and he always went out there with an incredibly positive outlook, even in moments that were difficult for him and we’re incredibly appreciative of that at Williams. George is a great talent. He’s clearly got huge ambitions and we want to be able to give him the machinery that he can get out there and score points with, but at the moment we’ve got two driver contracted to the team for 2021 and I’m reluctant to say anything else on the matter.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Claire, I just wondered if you could give an update on the team’s look for a possible investor or buyer. You said in the announcement a couple of months ago there was a three to four-month window you were looking at. Are there any updates you can give at this point?
CW: Only to say that we are happy with the process and how it is going so far. We have received a number of interesting potential investors and we are talking to those at the moment and they are of a high quality, which we are delighted about and we continue to go through that process at the moment. As you said, at the start of it we anticipated that it would taker three to four months and we’re still on that timeline at the moment.
 
Q: (Abishek Takle – Mid-day) Question to Claire and Otmar. As team principals, in terms of maintaining this biosphere, what exactly are you allowed and not allowed to do between races when it comes to travel and things like that, and activities away from the track? And for Mario, as a supplier, how difficult is it for you with people working across multiple teams to maintain the biosphere?
OS: We’ve been pretty strict and discipline is what you need in order to maintain the biosphere. For example, we’re all in the same hotel and when we get back to the hotel our team are not allowed to go out in the town fort dinner for example, we have to eat dinner together within the hotel. We travel in little groups as well and those groups stay together at the track too. When we’re here in the paddock we make sure we stay within our team and we don’t have interaction with others. I think it’s important to have that vigilance and if we do that and follow the protocol then I’m very confident that we’ll all stay safe.
CW: We’ve followed the same protocols that Otmar has outlined. We haven’t been able to all be in the same hotel as one team but the team has remained in its bubble and we have been very careful to ensure that those guidelines are being adhered to by all our team personnel. It’s not easy, when everyone is away. It’s hard and you want to be able to go out, but we want to be able to do the right thing by our sport. A lot of people have put a lot of hard work in behind the scenes to make sure that is safe to go racing again and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardise that. So we have stayed within our bubble away from the race track, not going out, and obviously we have followed all the guidelines that have been put in place while we’re here. I think that Formula 1 has done a fantastic job in the first week that we have been away. I know that there have been north of 4,000 tests that have taken place and not one has returned back as a positive. That is testimony to all the hard work that everybody is putting in in order to make sure that we respect the protocols that have been put in place.
MI: We instituted similar protocols to the teams, the difference is that we have people everywhere across the teams. That is why we… at the beginning we decided to keep a Pirelli bubble rather than allocating engineers inside a team bubble and thanks to the co-operation of the teams we now have an area that is dedicated to Pirelli. It is not easy to work like that because obviously without any access to the garage our engineers have no possibility to check the tyres and to take data and measurements but it is necessary so we are happy to continue with this approach for as long as it is necessary to do that. We have to give a clear indication to our personnel but also to rely on individual responsibility because obviously that is the main point, strict protocols and procedures but explaining how important it is to follow these procedures, not just telling them you have to stay in your room at the hotel and that’s all, but to make them aware of the risks and consequences if they behave in not the way we want.
 
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Claire, if I can just follow up Luke’s earlier question. You mentioned you were talking to a number of potential investors. When you initially announced this, you talked about anything was on the table including the potential sale of the team. I wondered if any of the parameters have changed, whether you’re now talking more about an investment than an outright sale?
CW: No, the parameters haven’t changed, Alan, and obviously, as everybody knows, Williams is a listed company, we have to operate as per the takeover code and panel and their guidelines, that they dictate and that’s why the strategic review process is as it is. We are looking for either investment into the team, the disbursement of a minority or a majority shareholder or core sales. We’re still thinking along any of those lines. The options are available to us and it will be the board’s decision as to the best option that’s put on the table.
 
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) To all three of you, but starting with the two team principals: we’ve obviously not got a reverse grid qualifying race this weekend. Just wanted to know if you feel that this has been a missed opportunity and what do you think the reasons are for having an identical second weekend at the same track?
OS: Well, we discussed the reverse grid qualifying. As you saw, even last weekend, this track can be really hard on brakes. We saw, perhaps, some brake failures and unfortunately, to have a reverse grid and then go into parc fermé and then have another race, our car, for example, wouldn’t have been able to do that, to have a short race and then with the same car finish a race. I think those types of decisions have to be made early enough, before the design process starts, such that you can design the car for those parameters. And as far as was it a missed opportunity? I think the weather will show us that although the same track, we’re going to have two different races here.
CW: For somebody who for many years has always been espousing the real DNA of our sport, funnily enough I was fairly in favour of the reverse grid, but maybe that would come as no surprise. I would have loved to have seen a Williams line up on pole. But you know, it does go against, I think, the true DNA of our sport and I’m not a person that actually thinks that Formula 1 needs these kind of gimmicky things, I suppose, if I can call them that, to make the sport more exciting. I think that the sport is incredibly exciting. I think invariably, pretty much every race we go to delivers some incredibly exciting racing and I think Austria, the first race that we’ve been to last weekend, did exactly that and I’m sure, as Otmar just said, with the weather conditions that we’re anticipating over the next 24 hours, I think it could be a very different race that we’ll have on Sunday as well. I’m sure the fans at home are just delighted that we’re all back racing and that we’re giving them something to watch, some sport to watch on a Saturday and Sunday afternoons and we just need to put on a good show, and I’m sure that we will.
MI: Yes, I think it’s not very easy to take the right decision or to consider that a missed opportunity. I remember when we were in lockdown a number of proposals had been discussed on how to make the second race at the same circuit more interesting, or creating some unpredictability. That was one of the proposals on the table. Another one is what we are going to implement at Silverstone, for example, with the different compound choices. So any idea is good. Then we have to consider the pros and cons and come to a final decision, so I don’t think it’s a missed opportunity, it’s just a decision that was taken, involving the majority of the people.
 
Q: Mario, staying with you, it’s the first races for the 18 inch Formula 2 tyres last weekend. What feedback did you get from the teams and the drivers?
MI: It was a very positive weekend, talking about Formula 2. We had great racing. Comments from drivers were positive. The 18 inch tyres are different compared to what they are used to drive but I believe that was a great start. Last year we had some indication during the development that was a very good product so happy to have these 18-inch tyres in Formula 2. We have the possibility to collect useful data also for F1 in 2022. Obviously we are talking about two completely different championships and cars but it’s nice to see this product in a real race environment and not during a test, it’s totally different so it’s good information for us.
 
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Another question to Claire: since the start of the year, we’ve seen ROKIT disappear as your title sponsorship. Can you give any more details on exactly how that relationship broke down and has it left any shortfall in income that will actually impact the performance and any updates coming to the car this year?
CW: As you would probably imagine, for legal reasons I can’t go into any further detail around the termination of our ROKIT sponsorship except to say that we terminated it and yet we fulfilled all of our contractual obligations with ROKIT. Unfortunately, it was a fantastic partnership for us at the beginning and we’re incredibly disappointed that we’re in this situation but it is what it is and we have to move on. We have some very clever people at Williams that manage our money and we’ve managed to secure the funding in order to keep us racing this year so that doesn’t change. So it has no impact on what we are able to do this season, whether that be with regards to the upgrades that we had planned etc. But apart from that, I’m afraid I can’t say a whole lot more.
 
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Question for both team principals: we’ve had some more races on the calendar added today but we don’t have a full schedule confirmed yet. Obviously that’s where it’s got to be at the moment but is there anything from a sporting perspective that you find difficult or challenging from the basis that you started the season not knowing how many points you’re actually racing for?
OS: Yeah, for sure it’s difficult to plan. I’ll give you an example: we’re working hard on upgrading this car and it would be really nice to know the entire schedule so you can plan your upgrades, as one example. But I think, also, having triple headers… I remember a couple of years back we had one and I think all the teams complained at that point. It was too difficult and now it seems like they’re coming thick and fast. We have to get through this period, I think it’s great that we’re adding races even if it is a triple header we’ll figure out how to do it and like Claire said earlier, I think the racing was fantastic in the first one that we had and I believe that we’ll have some great racing throughout the year, even at the newer circuits that we haven’t been to for a while.
CW: Yeah, I would just be echoing everything that Otmar said, I suppose. The only thing that I would add is that clearly we’ve got challenges with the new schedule. We’ve got racetracks that we don’t know, that we haven’t been to. We can’t necessarily plan because we don’t know what races are coming down the line later on in the season. We’ve got a rough estimate that we’re working to but that obviously could change. But I suppose for us, the most important thing, and certainly when we had come back from Australia and we didn’t know what a potential season could look like, the very fact that we are going racing, the very fact that F1 are working so hard to put as many races on the calendar as possible, is really all the focus, certainly at Williams, for a team like ours that is so wholly reliant on that prize fund money, we need as many races on the calendar as possible, to just make sure that that prize fund pot doesn’t get depressed even further than it has already been over having lost the first – however many – eight races at the beginning of this year, yes, there are challenges but we’re prepared to meet them and do our best to work against those challenges in order to ensure that we have as many races on the schedule as possible this season.
 
Q: Mario, on this topic, how much notice does Pirelli need prior to an event?
MI: We made a schedule to agree with the FIA and FOM the time we need in terms of weeks. It is not easy for us to produce and deliver the tyres in time but obviously with this idea to have a fixed allocation, we are a bit more flexible. We can start the production even if we don’t know the calendar exactly so having a stock of tyres that is available we speed up also the delivery of the tyres, we try to give our contribution to make it possible, but as you can imagine, it’s a challenge.
 
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racefans/racefans.net) To the two team principals: last week Jean Todt said that they were visiting the Concorde Agreement discussions last weekend. How involved have the two of you been in terms of the Concorde Agreement recently and how hopeful are you that it will all be signed fairly soon, so that Formula 1 has a direction for next year?
CW: I think prior to Australia and corona taking over, I think that we had reached a fairly – certainly at Williams, anyway – a fairly good point with the Concorde negotiations but corona has obviously put a pause on those discussions, but I know that F1 are looking to put those up now sooner rather than later and clearly to get that signed would be beneficial for the sport as a whole but certainly for our team, particularly, based on the situation that Williams is in at the moment, so we’re looking forward to picking it up and moving it forward and closing it out sooner rather than later, as I said.
OS: Recently there hasn’t been much activity around Concorde, not a lot of work, but I anticipate that will change in the near future.
 
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport.com) Claire, there were reports recently that Toto Wolff has a five per cent shareholder in Williams, which is a bit confusing because in 2016 it was communicated that he sold off all his remaining shares and he has cut his final ties to Williams. Can you clarify if those reports are correct and if yes, where does this shareholding originate from?
CW: So the reports weren’t correct. Toto, as everybody knows, bought a shareholding a long time back now, back in 2010 from Frank and Patrick. He then, obviously, subsequently joined Mercedes and as part of that move he obviously had to divest his shareholding. Brad Hollinger, who is one of our minority shareholders at Williams and a non-exec director, bought the majority of those shares from Toto but has not completed on that remaining five per cent so they have returned to Toto’s hands. Toto has not bought new shares in the business in the recent past or the near past. It was just an issue with a transaction.
 
Q: (Philip Horton – Motorsportweek.com, via email) Claire, how pleasing was it to be back racing again last weekend. Can you be confident that this isn’t specific to one track and when are you planning to bringing your next updates?
CW: I’m smiling under my mask at that question! Last weekend was a lovely turning point for the team and I know I mustn’t get carried away, I know it was race one, but we have talked for so many months now about the work that we have been doing at the team, behind the scenes, to bring about that change in performance. It’s been an incredibly difficult two years for everybody at Williams, to keep turning up, I have to congratulated the team both here and at the factory, because everybody has put in so much effort and everybody particularly coming racing, it’s been incredibly difficult to keep turning up, knowing that we wouldn’t get out of Q1, that there was no chance of scoring points etc and so it was really wonderful to show the world that we have delivered on our promises of bringing progress to our team and to be able to close that gap to P8/P9. We have a long way to go still but it certainly felt like exoneration on Sunday, that we had shown that we had made a step forward. We’ve got work still to do, as I said, but it just feels wonderful to go racing again. That’s why Williams is in this sport, to race and to do that on Sunday was wonderful, as I said, and I hope that we continue to do that over the balance of this season.
 
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) For the two team principals on the COVID protocol: we know how important these races are for both Formula 1 and the teams financially, to get the season done. We’ve seen what appeared to have been some breaches of the COVID protocol. I wondered how concerned either of you are that this bubble may not hold up because of the actions of individuals?
OS: That is a concern of mine. I make sure our team and we have other team members as well – we brought our health and safety officer, for example, to the first race to make sure that there are no breaches at all in our team. It’s a difficult thing to do when you have 80 people to look after and you just have to make sure that we communicate with them, they understand the risks, they understand the reason for the protocols and once you have a good understanding yourself it’s a lot easier to adhere to the protocols. First and foremost, I try to do that with our team but secondly, I think the FIA should look further and make sure that everybody is doing it. We saw, for example, in some of the support race paddocks, they’re not quite as vigilant as we are and then come into our paddock and… We all have to stay vigilant because, like you say, if there is an outbreak here and we have to miss races, that would be disastrous.
CW: Yeah, I don’t want to necessarily comment on any particular breaches. I don’t think it’s my place to do so. All I can say is that in what Otmar has said, we are doing the best that we can in our team to ensure that everybody within Williams adheres to the protocols that have been put in place and respects the guidelines.
 
Ends