INDIA in F1

Tag: FIA Press Conference

  • We are having a good package and that puts us in good position: Hulkenberg

    Montreal, 5 June 2014: DRIVERS – Adrian SUTIL (Sauber), Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Kamui KOBAYASHI (Caterham), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Jenson, we’ll start with you if we may. A 2011 winner here, of course, memorably, and you’re currently eighth in the championship. This circuit has the famous wall of champions on the outside of the final corner. The back of the cars this year, of these designs, is quite light. I wonder if you could a little bit about how you read the challenge of driving these cars around this track this weekend.

    Jenson BUTTON: OK. Good morning. Yeah, it’s going to be tricky here, It always is, especially with the cold circuit temperatures we’ll probably have on Friday. So yeah, the last corner will be tricky, but we’re sort of used to that I think. We’ve been driving these cars all year and if we can drive these cars around Monaco I think we’ll be alright around here. It should be an interesting circuit. It’s a circuit where you don’t really use downforce so much, it’s a lot more mechanical grip. There are long straights, so we can use the power of the engine – for us that’s great, with the Mercedes engine. And it’s about working with the tyres. I think it’s going to be tricky around here. It’s supposed to be hot on Sunday, so you’re going to have to really look after them. But we’re reasonably good at that.

    Talking about McLaren’s situation: how do you compare this year to last year and the competitiveness and the problems that you have? Are they more fixable than last year’s problems?

    JB: Yeah, I think from the outside it doesn’t look spectacular, our season this year, and you’d say it looks quite similar to last year but it’s very different. In terms of the feel of the car, it’s much better. In terms of the development of the car, it is working and we’re going in the right direction. Yeah, it’s tough. When you’ve been fighting for wins and the team is used to fighting for wins, it’s difficult when you find yourself in this situation. But also there are a lot of positives right now. With Ron back in charge, and Eric, I think they’re doing a great job of really moving the team on and changing certain things so that we will be fighting at the front again. But it just takes time. Things don’t change overnight, even though we’re pushing very hard.

    OK, thank you. Coming to you now Lewis. You’re a three-time winner here, three times on pole here. What is it about you and this Montreal circuit and it’s walls around the outside? Is it the braking? Is about technique? What is it that somehow clicks with you here?

    Lewis HAMILTON: I’m not sure. Good morning everyone. I guess there are certain tracks you like more than others and this is one of those circuits I particularly like. I really like coming out to Canada, I always have a great response from the fans here. It is one of the best grands prix of the year in terms of the turnout, the city, just in general the weekend, it’s a good fun weekend and I guess all of that packed into one makes it fun to drive.

    You’ve said this week that you and your team-mate Nico Rosberg are friends again after Monaco. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

    LH: There’s not really much to say. I said it in my message. We spoke after the race and just like friends we have our ups and down, we’ve known each other a long, long time, so it’s done and dusted and we look forward to working together to try to help this team win the Constructors’ Championship.

    OK, thank you for that. Coming on to Felipe. Three seventh-place finishes so far this season, your best result here in Montreal a fourth. Williams is tied with McLaren at the moment in the Constructors’ Championship with 52 points after six races. Is that in line with your expectations?

    Felipe MASSA: No. Definitely I think I didn’t have great results until now. It should be much better than what I had until now. So I had not very great races, starting with the race, where I didn’t get to corner two and you know in Bahrain I was fighting for third, fourth the whole race and then I lost a lot of positions because of the safety car. So I think it was not very great results but I’m sure we can do much better and I hope this track can be also a bit better for our car compared to Monaco, compared to other tracks. So really looking forward that we can have a lot better results, starting here in Montreal, a lot better than seventh I hope.

    I wonder if you could tell us what Rob Smedley has brought to the team, because you obviously have got a very long working relationship with him. He’s now in a senior role on the engineering side, can you tell a little bit about what he’s brought to the team?

    FM: A lot of experience. A lot of good direction, different things in terms of how to work, you know, in many different areas. I think he’s a very intelligent engineer, has a lot of experience. For sure, things don’t change from one day to the other, so it takes a little bit of time but not just him, we have a lot of great engineers, a lot of good people and things are getting better all the time inside the team and I’m really looking forward that from now until the end of the of the championship things will get better and better all the time.

    Nico, coming to you. Fifth in the Drivers’ Championship and points scored in every round so far but no podium personally yet. Given the confidence that Force India has in the package for this weekend in Montreal, is this your weekend do you think?

    Nico HULKENBERG: I don’t know. Obviously I hope and like every weekend we’re going to try to make the most of our chances here. I think the track should be OK for us. Also, it’s one of my favourite grands prix, so I really look forward to this weekend – the track, the city, everything is pretty cool. So hopefully we can have a strong result again.

    Q: Monaco showed that you can get results by doing a different strategy from the people around you. As a midfield team I wonder, is that something you feel you need to do to get the results or do you feel you can compete with front running teams on equal terms?

    NH: Not really, and I think looking back in hindsight we made it a bit harder for ourselves, starting on the harder tyre – the other way around with how it turned out, Safety Car etcetera may have been easier – but I think it’s always different and you always have to look at each race and each case and decide then but, generally, we’re having a good package, we’re competitive and that puts us in a good position in general.

    Q: Kamui, you’ve twice finished in the points here in Montreal but after Marussia’s result at the last round in Monaco I wonder what the reaction was in the Caterham team? Is it encouragement that it’s possible to score points or concern about the position it leaves you in?

    Kamui KOBAYASHI:

    For us the Monaco result for us was a bit of a pain but at least we know Marussia made a great step from their updates so I have to say, I think, we have to say it’s a well done job. I think for us for sure I think we need to work. I think what happened in Monaco was a little bit… strange but at least we check with the FIA and that’s through so we have nothing to say but at least we have some upgrades for that first point.

    Q: So what is the way forward for the Caterham team this season?

    KK: The thing about a Formula One team is we cannot change day-by-day. We progress. Of course, it’s not an easy life for us, it’s a difficult moment right now but for sure everybody is working really hard and we know, I think, that we will progress. We need a little bit of time and we are looking forward to more later on this season.

    Q: Adrian, two points finishes also for you in your career here in Montreal – but still none this year for you with the Sauber team.  Your thoughts on the start that the team has made and how the upgrades have worked out so far.

    Adrian SUTIL: Well, a difficult start of course. I thought it would be a little bit more easy but that’s how it is. That’s how our situation is. We try, of course, to get out and improve the car, improve general performance – yeah, coming here we try it again. We had a tough weekend in Monaco but I think Monaco was a little bit more on the better side, the car was behaving a little bit better and so it’s not only bad everything. There are a few positive things – but it’s very complicated to make it altogether at the moment. To understand the car is quite difficult for us still, so we have to work on that and we need a bit more time and hopefully it really goes soon in the right direction. It’s quite hard to be in the back there always, lot of problems come together in racing at the back.

    Q: And tell us from your perspective what you think it will be like to race these hybrid turbo cars around this circuit – the specific challenges of this circuit?

    AS: Well I think here we’re going to have quite high top speeds, with the new engines and the low drag the cars have so we should really be quick on the straights, maybe also a quicker overall lap time than last year – maybe – so I don’t know. It should be a circuit that suits the car in general. All the Formula One cars, not only us. And, as everyone said, it’s quite an enjoyable track with a lot of possibilities to overtake. The race should be quite interesting as well. Lot of chicanes… yeah, good weekend and I look forward to it, hopefully with a quite good result in the end.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Jenson, I don’t know if you read the team’s pre-race press release this week but there were some very complimentary words from Eric Boullier with regard to yourself, taking about your quality of input, your experience, your ambassadorial role. It all sounded very positive and almost as if they’re looking to next year, perhaps wanting to keep you. Any further progress on that? As I say, it was all very complimentary towards yourself.

    JB: er…no. No more progress at all. But that’s just the way it is. We’re here, we’ve spent four good years together already. In our fifth year together. And we both want to work together in the future but it’s just not time yet. Not the right time. We have a lot of other issues to solve first before we start thinking about the future too much. We’re in a good place and y’know, I think my experience does help me a lot. I still feel very young at heart, fitter than ever and I have all that experience. I’m in a great position and I feel I’ve got a lot more to give in the future in Formula One. I definitely can’t see an end to my career. This is my life and where I want to be in the future.

    Q: (Bill Beacon – La Presse Canadienne) Because this track is different to most with the braking and long straights and everything, do you think that that in any way will close the gap between Mercedes and the rest of the field?

    LH: I’d be guessing but I don’t feel that will be the case. We’re particularly strong on the straights, Mercedes are but I don’t know, maybe we will be surprised this weekend but long straights do suit us very well. We have a very good power curve on our engine, Mercedes have done the best job with the engines. Renault and Ferrari would have to have done an exceptional job coming into this weekend, in terms of that area, to be  able to keep up with us on the straights..

    FM: Definitely it can be a good track for most of the cars that are using Mercedes (engines) so I think maybe we will see even maybe a big difference compared to Mercedes and the other teams, because as Lewis said, the engine is amazing, it’s been a very good job done by Mercedes and they have a good car under braking and everything, so for sure maybe we can see maybe even a big difference.

    NH: I don’t think it will be very different to the other weeks before.

    Q: (Chris Me

    Nico Hulkenberg file photo by Sahara Force India F1 team.
    Nico Hulkenberg file photo by Sahara Force India F1 team.

    dland – crash.net) Lewis, you said that the air has been cleared between yourself and Nico between races. Did you feel the need to do the same with the team and was anything different with the way the team handled the two of you between Monaco and coming here now?

    LH: There was no difference. Collectively with the team… me and Nico spoke and we individually spoke to the team and saw the team. Nothing’s really changed. We know the team has done a great job in terms of supporting us and the way it’s run with Paddy and Toto. Their support for the both of us has been great. We’re now full steam ahead. We had dinner with the team yesterday and things have never been better. We’re just going from strength to strength. People have ups and downs, as I said, so it’s no different to any other experience me and Nico have had in our whole – God knows how many years we’ve been racing together. We move on, we’re pushing forward. There’s a long long way to go in the season so we’re looking forward to that battle.

    Q: (Gerhard Kuntschik – Salzburger Nachrichten) Jenson, as kind of the older statesman, you raced on the old A1 Ring; we’re coming up to Austria again, Red Bull Ring, in a fortnight; what are your memories of the Austrian Grand Prix?

    JB: Lots of campsites and lots of very merry Austrians over the Grand Prix weekend. It’s one of those races that they really embrace the sort of party scene and the camping scene, which is really cool. It reminds me very much of Spa, British Grand Prix and those sort of races. It’s a true racing fan’s Grand Prix, I feel. The circuit itself… you look at it and you think ‘there’s like seven corners, it can’t be that fun to drive.’ But it is, it’s a really good circuit. I’ve enjoyed racing there in the past, I don’t know what it’s going to be like with these cars. I’ve always had fun racing there. I don’t know how much has changed, either. Turn one, we used to drive off through the gravel because that was the quickest way on the exit. I’m sure it’s not going to be the case any more. I think we’re in for a good Grand Prix.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) To all drivers: the World Cup is coming and your countries are going to be there, playing, so on a personal note, how much are you interested in football? Are you going to follow all the matches or you don’t care much about what’s going on there? And a second brief question: who do you think is going to win the World Cup?

    Q: Kamui, would you like to kick us off?

    KK: Me? On soccer? I don’t really care so I don’t follow anything. All I know is that Japan is not really strong so I don’t…

    NH: Well I hope that Gemany is going to be good but I’m not a football expert but I’m sure I’m going to be behind the TV following the World Cup.

    AS: I’ll be watching, cheering for Uruguay and Germany, because I’m half Uruguayan.

    FM: Yeah, I love football, I watch everything, so I will maybe be watching most of the games. I really hope that Brazil can be there in the final. To win the championship at home would be fantastic so I will be there watching and supporting Brazil.

    LH: I don’t follow it as much (as I used to) but I will probably catch a few games and I want to try and see if we can go out to one of the games at least. The dream will be to go and watch Brazil and England play, that would be pretty awesome.

    JB: Yes, I totally agree. I’m not a massive football fan, I don’t support a team but when it comes to nationalities, countries playing, obviously I will be supporting England and I’m really looking forward to it.

    eom/FIA release of transcript

  • It was a really good day for Mercedes to get 1-2 finish: Hamilton

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Benedict Cumberbatch)

    Nico, congratulations, man – a home win for the home boy. How did it feel? You had Lewis very, very close to you all the race but you held on to your lead. How was it?

    Nico ROSBERG: A very, very special day for sure. Lewis drove really, really well and pushed me massively hard, so the pressure was on all the way. But I kept it cool and, yeah, was able to win, in the end pulling a bit of a gap because I had the fresher tyres. So, fantastic and I’m very, very happy for the whole team, it’s an amazing car they’ve built and given us this year.

    Congratulations, well done to the Monaco boy. Lewis, how are you? Tell us a little bit about what happened on the 56th lap? You got something in your eye?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, just through the visor… but anyway that’s not important. It was a good day and really good for the team to get a one-two.

    You had [Daniel Ricciardo] right close behind. How was it? You started second and finished second and how are things with your team-mate, I think people want to know?

    LH: I had great pace, you know, obviously I felt I was very strong today but it’s a very, very difficult circuit to overtake on…

    It’s incredibly thrilling to watch, you were all incredible out there, the closeness of the cars…

    LH: Thank you. Fortunately we didn’t make any mistakes, so….

    Daniel, well done, man. Nice to meet you; Benedict. Tell us a little bit about your race. You were in third for a while, then the pit stops, tell us a little about your strategy.

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Firstly, it’s really nice to be up here on the podium in Monaco.

    It’s your first podium here isn’t it? Congratulations.

    DR: Yeah, thank you. The start was not great, I dropped back to fifth actually. A bit of frustration but then we saw Vettel had a problem, so we were able to get fourth and then we saw Raikkonen had a puncture on one of the safety cars. So we sort of inherited third after a poor start…

    You got very close to Lewis. You were right on his gearbox at the end?

    DR: At the end we really closed in. I believe he had an issue. We tried to put some pressure on but in the end third was the best we could do.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Congratulations Nico – a two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner, only a handful of drivers have ever done that before. Fifth consecutive one-two finish for the Mercedes team and you are back on top of the Drivers’ standings. Can you sum up what this win means for you today in the context of tyhe4 battle with Lewis for the championship?

    NR: Yeah, it’s a special win, definitely, because Lewis has had the momentum with the results and everything and I really needed to try to break that momentum and somewhat I managed to do that this weekend. Of course taking the leading again in the world championship and winning here in Monaco, yeah, all in all really, really cool.

    Well done. Lewis, obviously the momentum is broken for the moment. We heard you on the radio quite a lot after the safety car and the pit stops, questioning and speaking about the strategy calls. Obviously you pitted together under the safety car. Had there been a thought that you might try to undercut Nico before that? Can you explain to us what the conversation was about?

    LH: I don’t remember to be honest. I don’t. I think they saw a crash and normally under the crash we could have come in and I really should have come in but the team didn’t call us in. We really should have pitted that lap.

    Fair enough. Daniel, your first Monaco podium. Can you describe your feelings about that and looking back across qualifying and the race is there any way you could have got a better result than the one you got today.

    DR: To describe the feeling, it’s really nice to be up here. Could we have done better? I don’t know. I felt yesterday that we left a little bit of lap time on there. Where that would have jumped on the grid, who knows. After that, the race itself – the start was not good, not what I wanted. I actually dropped back to fifth and then Seb had his problems, still not sure what, but pretty evident he had problems when he slowed on the straight. Then Raikkonen I saw got a puncture under the safety car, so I got third and then pretty much was just trying to maintain the gap behind me to Alonso. Then when I thought there was enough or the right amount of laps left before the end to push and not really save tyres anymore, I did and went for it. We got close to at least one of the Mercedes at the end but you know what it’s like around here, it’s quite hard to pass. Tried to put a bit of pressure on but third was the best we could do but not a bad day.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello sport) A question for Nico and Lewis. We have seen that there is a pretty tense situation between the two of you and we also heard comments from Lauda saying you did not want to talk and apologise. Are you going to have a pizza together, a dinner, to sort the problems, talk about it and try to get the situation back to normal.

    NR: It’s fine. We’ve had discussions and the benefit we have is that we’ve known each other for so long. We always sit down and discuss it and then move on and that’s what we’re doing this weekend also.

    Lewis?

    LH: I don’t really have an answer for you there.

    Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1 Zone) I have a question for Lewis. Niki Lauda said that in Barcelona you used an engine mode you were told not to and you had to apologise to Nico for that. Do you think that that mode would have helped you win the race today?

    LH: No… today we were using all the modes. In the last race it was a mode that didn’t really affect the outcome of the race. We were told that we had to stay in a certain mode. Nico did it in Bahrain and I did it in Barcelona. In this race we stuck to the strategies we had to stick.

    NR: I don’t know what Niki is referring to but it’s completely normal that we switch modes together you know, we always do that in the races. It’s nothing unusual.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Lewis, yesterday you told the BBC that you might handle the situation with Nico like Senna would. What did you mean by that?

    LH: I don’t know. I can’t really remember to be honest. I think it was just a joke. Obviously I didn’t.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) I think you said on the radio that you had a problem with your eye in the closing stages. What happened there?

    LH: I’ve never really had it before. I kept making sure my visor was as closed as possible but I had quite a bit of wind coming in. I got close to Nico at one stage and all of a sudden I got a bit of debris in my eye, or some dirt, so I was driving with one eye, which is virtually impossible to do and so through the low-speed corners I was trying to open up my visor to clear it up but it was just making it worse. Fortunately, I think with five laps to go it cleared up so I was able to stay ahead of Daniel.

    Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) in the last days Nico was mentioning that the previous races were not one-to-one races. What do you think Lewis about this race or this race weekend. Was it a one-to-one races.

    LH: I don’t fully understand the question.

    Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) last day Nico Rosberg was mentioning that the previous races were not one-to-one races, relating to the weather, because you were winning the races and this time he’s winning the race and I want to know if you think this weekend is a one-to-one race for you?

    LH: I’m still not fully understanding it, but all the races have been very, very close but this weekend I think I had very good pace. I drove with all my heart and gave it all I could, fairly, and I feel like I drove fairly all weekend. So I leave today quite happy and I can go into the next race with even more energy and determination.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, it seems pretty clear to us that you feel aggrieved with the events that occurred yesterday in qualifying. Is this it now for you? Is it gloves off in your battle with Nico? And secondly, do you feel that you are getting full and fair support from the team?

    LH: Generally, there is a fierce battle between me and Nico and it will continue that way to I’m sure quite late in the season. Nico’s not had a single hiccup through the season so far. Obviously I had a car that didn’t finish in Melbourne but otherwise it’s still quite close, so I’m just going to keep my head up, keep pushing. I know the team are working hard for the both of us. The team can sometimes be in awkward positions, which they were yesterday, and their job is really to protect us both and that’s what they did.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Question for Nico: you were being told to back-off and coast with fuel. How critical was your fuel?

    NR: Yeah, the fuel was very critical and caught me off-guard a little bit because it was a major change that I had to make and especially with Lewis being so close behind, it was a tough moment because I had to change the driving style completely, use different gears, different lifting and coasting, everything different. But, again, the team managed that well and got me to do what I needed to do. And then, once I got into the groove again, it was OK and everything… it was no problem them. But it was still difficult.

    Q: (Jussi Jäkälä – YLE) Nico, 31 years ago Keke won here, today you are double Monaco winning. Which do you think is prouder at the moment: you or your Dad?

    NR: I don’t know. I hope… of course my father is proud today and that makes me very happy, that I’m able to make my parents proud. Hopefully even my friends, for example, who all were here also this weekend and that makes it all the more special to have family, friends, everybody I know lives here and is at the track watching the race and that’s even nicer.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) One question to Nico and one to Daniel. Nico, you said that you had to break the momentum, since Lewis is coming from four consecutive wins. Is this your most important victory so far? And to you Daniel, from what we have seen today from Red Bull, are you going to have the pace to challenge Mercedes in Montreal in two weeks?

    NR: I don’t know about the most important. For sure it was very, very important, yes, today because Lewis had the result moment and I needed to try and bring that to an end and managed to do that today, so that’s great but, y’know, it’s still early days and for sure it’s going to continue to be a very, very tough battle.

    Daniel?

    DR: I think, yeah, we closed up a bit here in Monaco which we knew would be our best chance up until now. This circuit definitely suits our package a bit better than previous circuits – we still didn’t finish in front so, unfortunately, it’s still not where we want to be. Montreal is still a street circuit but unfortunately the straights go on a little bit longer there so we’re still down a little bit in that area, which I think everyone’s aware of and we’ve made progress. Whether it will be enough by then, honestly, probably not but we are closing the gap so, that’s all we can ask for, for now, and just keep chipping away at it and be patient. I’m sure a bit of perseverance as well and we’ll get there.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Daniel, for sure as a driver you must trust in yourself but in any moment did you believe you could beat Vettel in the way this season you are beating him in qualifying and the race?

    DR: I didn’t really have any visions exactly on how it would go, what the race results would be or what the qualifying score would be – but I knew that I have some talent and obviously got a bit of experience now in Formula One. So, every year, even every six month period I feel I’m still growing and getting better as a driver as well so, I knew coming into the season with the team behind me and sort of a new opportunity, that I would be able to challenge Seb. Did I think it would be going, let’s say, as well as it was now? I don’t know. But I knew if I had everything underneath me I’d be capable of getting the results. So, fortunately the team saw that as well, back in September, I think, last year. So, it’s coming good.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, after your victory in Barcelona, you said that Nico was faster than you in the race. Today he can even beat you. Is it a worry for you? And do you know where you should improve pace-wise.

    LH: erm… not really. I was pretty comfortable with my pace this weekend.

    Q: (Yassmin Abdel-Magied – RichardsF1.com) Daniel, you said yesterday that there was a little bit left on the table in terms of qualifying. Do you think that there was a little bit left on the table still in the race, and was there was there any point – you got pretty close to Lewis at the end there – when you were going to go for it and then maybe not – don’t want to risk it? What was the thinking in those last few laps?

    DR: Everyone was trying to do a one stop today; it’s a bit of a weird one, you don’t really push much of the race because, especially after the first pit stop, we still had a long way to go, so you’re in two minds: do I push or do I just try and hold the guy off and get to the end. By the time we’d got 15/20 laps to go I knew the tyres were going to last so then I could actually start my race, so to speak, and then start to set some quicker times. We caught Lewis, the team said I was going to catch him, the pace was good so I knew I was eventually going to get on to him. Knowing it’s hard to pass around here, I wasn’t… I don’t know. I was just waiting to see what happened but I wasn’t just going to settle for third. Obviously in the end I did but if there was a clean move to be taken then yeah, I would have taken it.

    Q: (Nicola Pohl – Bild) Lewis, what do you think was the reason why the team didn’t call you in immediately after the crash? You complained over the team radio about that.

    LH: I think it’s just what we have a rule that the guy in front gets the first opportunity to pit first so I think that would be why.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) Lewis, how did the debrief of yesterday’s qualifying go because as we understand, you were not in the debrief room, while Rosberg was?

    LH: I was in there. I went to the toilet and Nico did his big debrief before I got there which is unusual. Usually we do it when we’re both in the same room but as I came up I did mine and fortunately the engineers had written down what Nico had said so I read it.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Nico, have you been surprised that the team didn’t call you in right after the crash of Sutil?

    NR: No. Surprised? No, not really, because I don’t think about that too much. I know I can rely on them to make the right call at all times so it’s not something that I’m thinking too much about, the strategy and should I be boxing now or not, because I know that they’re going to make the right call.

    Q: (Christian Hoenicke – Der Tagesspiegel) Nico, do you think it was fair what Lewis said about you not being hungry as him because you were growing with boats and jets and all that stuff?

    NR: I didn’t hear Lewis say that and so I’m not going to comment because it’s easy for you to just invent something and so I’m not going to comment on that, and even if something like that was written – which I don’t know because I don’t read the media – then still, between what Lewis says and what’s written, so much can turn around so it’s better I don’t say anything and I know that Lewis wouldn’t say something like that, especially not to the press, maybe to me if he feels like it but not to the press.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Assocation) Nico, you may give the same answer to this question then, because there were some comments from yourself in one of the German newspapers or certainly a few of the German newspapers and you can correct me if I’m wrong, if the English translation was not correct but you remarked that when Lewis goes through a difficult period that he can crack. Do you think that that’s what happened this weekend, that maybe Lewis did crack under the press yesterday in qualifying, and Lewis, any comment on that yourself? Do feel you’re the kind of guy that doesn’t crack, that you can hold it together in these kind of circumstances?

    NR: Again, that is definitely very very far from anything that I’ve ever said and ever would say. Definitely not and I’ve known Lewis for many many years and he’s always been strong, among other things mentally, so I’m definitely not expecting him to crack any time soon, that’s for sure. It’s going to be a tough battle which is going to be ongoing, but I would never say something like that anyways.

    LH: Do I feel like I crack? No.

    Q: (Ralf Bach  – Sport Bild) Lewis, to clean the situation, did you tell the BBC in this interview where you said these things with the boat or didn’t you say that?

    LH: I was asked who was hungrier. I think if you ask every driver they will say that they’re the hungriest and I said that what gives me the hunger is where I grew up in comparison to where Nico grew up. You know I’ve always been striving to come and live here. I used to travel around with Nico in his Dad’s plane, I used to go to his boat, I used to go to his house, I used to have those experiences and that gave me those experiences and that gave me the desire to want that one day, which gave me the hunger. It was his Dad obviously who inspired me to be where I am today.

    Q: (Ralf Bach  – Sport Bild) So you did say it.

    LH: Yes, but – as Nico said – it was taken out of context a little bit.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) Lewis, do you believe with a normal pit stop – not under safety car conditions – you would have had any chance to overtake Nico and get the lead of the race?

    LH: It’s irrelevant now, but obviously with the start, we got exactly the same start… there’s only two opportunities in the race and the pit stop would have been the other one but the safety car came out at the perfect time for him so I didn’t have the chance there. Otherwise, that was it.

    Q: (Gloria Scola – El Mundo) The race has just finished; I was wondering what racing gives you, is it freedom of expression, a way to express yourself, adrenalin?

    NR: First of all, we’re here to entertain and hopefully give people a great time and a spectacle to watch, and especially in Monaco, it’s very obviously because everybody’s there on boats and houses and everything, and I just hope that we’re able to put on a great show, that our sport is seen as the best sport in the world, the most fun sport in the world, the most exciting sport in the world and so that’s a special feeling as such. And then of course driving my car through the streets of Monaco on the limit, battling everybody else, trying to win and then of course the win itself is the most special moment.

    LH: I’m living my dream so it gives good energy.

    DR: I get… honestly, freedom is definitely one thing. I remember when I first hopped in a go-kart as a kid, just being in control and not having anyone else in your space and then going at speed was a sense of freedom definitely. It’s nice as well, particularly with everything that happens around F1, all the media and everything else – when you hop in the car, it’s just you and the car and occasionally you have an engineer on the radio but it’s just you so definitely a sense of freedom along with a wicked adrenalin.

    eom/FIA press release of the transcript of Monaco Press Conference

    Rosberg flanked by Hamilton on right and Ricciardo after winning the Monaco GP to take the F1 Championship lead again. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Rosberg flanked by Hamilton on right and Ricciardo after winning the Monaco GP to take the F1 Championship lead again. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • We are pretty pleased with P5 in the championship: Claire Williams

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Federico GASTALDI (Lotus), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Eric BOULLIER (McLaren), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Marco MATTIACCI (Ferrari)

    Let’s start with Claire Williams. Claire a strong performance for the team in Barcelona but in some of the earlier races you maybe let a few points fall by the wayside. Where do you feel you are at and are you on the right track?

    Claire WILLIAMS: I think we are in a really good position now. I think we all have to remember where we were last year and to make the performance improvement that we have over finishing P9 in 2013, I think the team have done a fantastic job to turn things around in the way that they have. We entered this season always wanting to get both cars in the top 10 in qualifying and then to score points in the race and we’ve pretty much achieved that, so I think everyone at Williams should be really proud of what they’ve achieved. I think you can always look back and go ‘I wish we could have done a bit better’ and we potentially could have scored a few more points but I think we should all be pretty pleased with P5 in the championship at this time.

    Thank you for that. Moving on to Federico. Quite a progression for you from Melbourne to Barcelona, in just two months, and a promising test after the grand prix, where do you feel your team is at in the development cycle and which teams are you targeting to challenge at this point?

    Federico GASTALDI: Well, we have done, obviously, a progress from the start of the season but we’re still working on it; we’re not where we want to be. We want to be in front of our friends with the red jacket, as we were last year, fighting in that position. So that’s our target pretty much – to go back to where we were last year.

    Thank you for that. Moving to Eric. Obviously you’ve had a few months now at McLaren; what have you discovered, what changes would you like to make and how will you manage the split development programme as the year goes on between the 2014 car and the 2015 Honda car?

    Eric BOULLIER: Yeah, it’s been a few months. Obviously it’s a great team. It’s an institution I should say. I did settle in very well. Obviously we are not performing at all where we should be or where we want to be, so there is obviously a lot of time to spend to go through as a company and find out to what needs to be fine-tuned or changed to make the team better. It’s true that actually it was a last week debate about the transition between 2014 and 2015. It’s a decision we have to do shortly shall we say because obviously as you know most of the teams switch their resources during summer and like usual I should say. This is where we will be but we have started already to work on next year’s car.

    Christian, tell us about the opportunity that this race here in Monaco presents to Red Bull at this stage of the season and also the progress going on behind the scenes to catch Mercedes on a regular basis.

    Christian HORNER: Obviously Monte Carlo is a unique track and it’s layout, the nature of the circuit, doesn’t put such a premium on straight-line performance, which has been our weakness this year. So we’re hoping to give these guys [Mercedes] a run for their money this weekend. For sure they’re going to be strong again here. They’ve always been strong in Monaco. But we’ve had a solid day today, the drivers have been feeling their way into the circuit and working on the set-up and it’s been an encouraging start to the weekend. Obviously when you consider where we were pre-season to where we’ve come to at this stage, we’ve come a pretty long way in a couple of months and hopefully if we can keep that rate of progress up then we will be able to challenge the two Mercedes drivers before hopefully too long in the future.

    Coming to you Toto, it looks like it’s going to be another close one between your two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, this weekend. What does that battle look like from inside the team and how is it to manage?

    Toto WOLFF: It is of course a nice problem to have, to have two cars up in the front battling with each other. They do it fair and square. We haven’t seen any incidents up until now and I hope we can sustain that. Having said that we musn’t be complacent, because Red Bull… Ricciardo was very close today and obviously Monaco is a track where horsepower doesn’t matter so much and straight line speed doesn’t matter so much, you can see that the gaps have narrowed a bit today, at least from what you have seen in free practice one, so interesting times.

    Coming to you Marco. Welcome to your first FIA press conference. A rapid learning curve for you. Do you already have a vision of the kind of Ferrari team you want to lead.

    Marco MATTIACCI: I would be extremely arrogant in saying that we already have a vision. Definitely we are having a picture, a quite accurate picture of the problems we have experience so far. It is clear the gap toward the leader of the championship. So we are clear what are going to be the next steps. I wouldn’t say vision, we know that we need to have a continuous improvement every race and that’s the way we are working. We have a lot of assets, as I have said, very positive people, drivers but definitely there is the need to improve dramatically.

    Okay, a second question to all of you. The current situation is that the teams have agreed to pursue cost control through technical and sporting regulations. How is this process developing? Claire, would you kick us off with that one?

    CW: I think the most important thing with this consideration is that everybody is committed to ensuring that we can drive down costs in Formula One. So there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes with the full group of team principals and then within the Strategy Group as well and as long as we keep working hard then I believe we can drive costs down for the benefit for everybody in our sport.

    Federico?

    FG: Same thing here. We are all working very hard together. It’s good that all the teams are in the same boat. We are all trying to reduce the cost. It would be good for all of us to go into a different direction at this stage and try to make things easier for most of us.

    Eric.

    EB: I think Claire said everything. It’s true that as long as everybody has the same aim to go for cost reduction then we should achieve something which is reasonable.

    Christian.

    CH: I think the key place to reduce the costs is in the Sporting Regs. That’s where the biggest cost drivers are, so there is a lot of focus on that in the different groups. I think there is some constructive discussion. I would think so far we’ve probably saved about €10,000 but we’re going in the right direction and hopefully through the process of the next month, before regulations are fixed for next year, we can come up with some significant savings.

    Toto, anything to add?

    TW: Yeah, I think it’s a very productive process. Obviously getting everybody under the same roof or agreeing to the same principal is very difficult because the teams have very different agendas from the very small privately owned team to teams representing multinational, global companies or a branding exercise. This is quite a difficult, painful process, but I think we are at the stage where we have recognised that we have to do something. And although we are only at €10,000 I’m hopeful that it’s going to be more in the next couple of weeks.

    Marco, your thoughts on this process.

    MM: I have had also so far two meetings and I think that definitely there is a very string intention to reduce costs. Probably we need to be all aligned to make a productive and tangible step. Having said that I think we can do more, having always in mind that Formula One has to provide the best possible technology and entertainment and that’s clear to all the stakeholders here at the table. But definitely we are doing some productive steps in that direction.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) It’s a question for all you? What’s your view about the fact that Barcelona the pole position this year was 4.5 seconds slower than last year and the fact that pole position in GP2 would permit the driver to start in 14thposition on the grid. And specifically to you, Mr Marco, did you invite Adrian Newey to work at Ferrari?

    MM: First of all I think they are doing an excellent job. We need to recognise that Mercedes has the leadership because they have been working in an excellent way. Having said that is it good for the audience? Is it good to entertain the public? I have some doubts about that. But there are different avenues that we are discussing about that issue, as I said, you know to reduce costs and in order to deliver a better product in Formula One.

    And do you have a specific response to the Newey question?

    MM: If I invite Adrian Newey to work at Ferrari? No.

    Let’s get some other responses to the question about the four-and-a-half seconds in Barcelona. Eric, let’s start with you?

    EB: I think if the cars are slower obviously there is some technical reason for that and there is some aim with the technical regulations to make the cars slower. All the cars are shall we say aerodynamically less performing. We lost obviously the blowing at the back of the car. Tyres are more conservative than last year and obviously the new engine, power unit let’s say, is different to manage, so I don’t see any downside to be slower, because historically every time there was a big change of regulation the cars were slower and obviously this is to keep the excitement let’s say within the engineering group to make sure you know that we can recover the speed over the next months years. I don’t know how long it will take but I’m pretty sure we will recover some speed. Then the second question about the GP2 pace. GP2 should maybe go as well for a cost reduction programme, which will maybe make the cars slower as well.

    Claire, anything to add?

    CW: I think everyone’s really answered it, what I would like say. We’re here to put on some great racing and this season has delivered some fantastic races so far, from the front of the grid to the back of the grid.

    Federico?

    FG: Same thing; I agree. It’s new regulations, we all agree to go through this and now we are working to try to give the best show. That’s what we are here for.

    Toto?

    TW: It’s an interesting question and if you look at the timing screens you get a completely false picture. If you cut back the aerodynamics by 25 per cent, if you cut back the blowing, you have different tyres, you can’ expect the cars to go quicker. On the straight in Barcelona, the fastest car was doing 347kph compared to 318 last year. So in Monza I don’t know what we will be seeing, but 380 maybe? So the point is we have lost downforce and this is the main reason the cars are slower.

    Anything to add Christian, finally?

    CH: I don’t think we’ll be seeing 380 from our car in Monza.

    Q: (Walter Koster – Saarbrücker Zeitung) Mr Wolff, Niki Lauda said Mercedes has not the intention to win all the races, this situation is not good for Formula One and the fans. I have this paper here in my hands. Niki feels a season like McLaren in ’88, with 15 wins in 16 races, or Ferrari in 2004, with 15 wins in 18 races, but with all the wins this season Mercedes could have a new record in Formula One history. For me the words of Niki are a little bit strange. I hope he’s not crazy. Do you share his view and agree with him?

    TW: We can try, not to win all the races! I guess it’s much too premature to talk about winning all the races, this would be super-arrogant. We have won five races so far. You can come back to that question or address that question once you have won 15. At the moment our agenda is to win the race three days from now.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) You’ve talked about the need to cut costs, you say you’re determined to try and do that, yet following the meeting on May 1st at Biggin Hill, FIA President Jean Todt described the proposals on the table as “a joke”. Another well-placed source has said to be that those proposals were “pathetic”. Why is it that you’re not doing more to cut the costs? Could it be that one of the agendas that was on the table at the most recent meeting was customer cars and perhaps you’re prepared to see the demise of two of the lesser teams – maybe even more than that – to introduce customer cars from maybe next season or the season after.

    CH: I think the problem with putting competitors in a room to try and find a way to save costs, when different teams have different models, different philosophies about how they go racing is very, very difficult. I think that is part of the challenge. I think everybody is unanimous in the fact they want to reduce costs but then obviously we’re all driving our costs up through competition. So it’s, in many ways… you’re on a hiding to nothing in doing that and that’s where obviously I think the promoter and the regulator need to get together and  say “this is what Formula One is going to be,” and then the teams have the choice of whether they enter the championship or not ultimately. On the subject of customer cars, it’s obviously a thorny subject but if you were to look at… say for example, forget the existing teams, but new teams, to encourage new teams to come into Formula One then a year-old car would surely be the most cheapest, more cost-effective way of introducing a team into Formula One that hasn’t got to have the investment in a design and R&D department, manufacturing, go through all the crash-test process, can just be focussed on being a race team while they build their infrastructure up. One would think that might be a logical way to help the small team and perhaps a new team coming into Formula One.

    Toto?

    TW: How do you close the gap between a privately owned team, owned by a millionaire who enjoys going racing and a multinational global brand that tries to promote its products? It’s impossible. So the question is: do we want to close the gap, narrow the gap of the cars and make the racing more tight, or do we want to really cut costs. I think it’s super-difficult, you know? At first sight it looks very simple but then how do you want to police it? How do you want to look into Honda in Japan? How do you want to look into the various models of organisation? Why should Ferrari ever accept anybody looking into their operation when F1 is part of the road car business. It’s just unpoliceable. At the moment it’s unpoliceable. It doesn’t function. So there are many agendas, many different models and we need to bring all that under one umbrella, and it’s so complicated.

    Marco, anything to add?

    MM: I agree with the gentlemen, it’s a very difficult task. Because if we think to reduce dramatically the gap between a top team and an entry team… I think it’s a moonshot. It is going to be a big price again from the racing, from the product of Formula One. I agree with Christian, the problem is supporting more the customer cars, is an entry level definitely but basically give then the possibility to have two, three years experience and to gain the knowledge and then to become competitive. So, this is a practical way, realpolitik, to move ahead – but definitely to imagine that all the teams can have the same budget, a budget cap, I don’t think is a direction that we want to take.

    Claire, how do you feel about that?

    CW: I couldn’t really hear what Marco was saying, sorry, I’ve got background noise in here. But just from a Williams perspective, I think Christian summed it up well in that, you’re in a room and you’ve got a whole load of very competitive people running their teams in very different ways around a table, trying to align around cost control. And this isn’t a new conversation in Formula One but we’ve all got to remain committed to trying to reduce those costs, which we are. I think it’s still early days in the process and a lot of people… we know what we’re discussing but those conversations pretty much stay in the room. I just hope that we can, at the end of the day, whenever these conversations finish, we have driven down costs in Formula One. Everyone knows Williams’ position on customer cars – we think it goes completely against the DNA of our sport. We’re not signed up to it and we think there are other ways to drive costs down in Formula One before we have to have that conversation.

    Anything to add Eric?

    EB: Not much.

    Federico?

    FG: Not much, not really. Same thing. Teams related to the car manufacturers, they have a different engine to us but as Toto said we are here to make this happen. Yes, we have different agendas but the good thing the good thing again is that we’re in the same boat. We just need to make sure we’re on the same page.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) We’ve heard a lot today about closing up the gaps in competition, Toto, you were quoted a couple of weeks ago saying part of the reason for two teams winning the 14 last races is due to the spending war. If we do really want to close the gap between front and rear, is it actually possible when four of you teams represented here today share an incremental $250million per annum?

    TW: Do you think Dieter it’s on our agenda to close the gap between the teams? I think it is not on my agenda. On my agenda is to win races and win the World Championship and each of these lady and gentleman’s agenda it to be the most competitive. That’s the first thing. To address the second question, it is also an income question. Obviously we know income is spread in different ways. Just or not right I do not want to comment but the fact is some of the bigger teams have an almost break-even operation due to sponsorship income, due to FOM income, rights income, so the question is: do you want to spend your money and in which way do you want to spend your money? I guess it’s down to the team and this is why it’s so complicated.

    Federico?

    FG: Again, it’s about being competitive, y’know? We obviously need to work on our budgets, each of us have different budgets to run the programme with but it’s also about how the money is given to each team. So, were still working on it, it’s not easy.

    Eric?

    EB: It’s always the same story. Let’s say for the fans, for the show, for the show on the track, you would like to have, obviously, a different winner every weekend. As the team principal of McLaren I would like McLaren to win the 19 races. From that point, you understand we all have the same opinion, I guess, and this is where obviously you have to work, let’s say, on the regulation again to make sure that you can achieve what we have, actually, in the last years. But to start a new era, a new cycle. I’m happy in some way that Mercedes spends that money because it makes obviously the car not too slow compared with last year.

    Claire, anything to add?

    CW: I think it’s up to… I don’t want to comment on the division of money in Formula One. It is what it is, it’s been that way in our sport for years and who knows if it will change or not? But then it’s up to every team to go out and get their budget after they’ve been allocated their prize fund money, which is obviously what Williams has done for years. I think we’ve been a team that have proven you don’t necessarily need a huge amount of money to win a World Championship in Formula One and I hope that we can do that in the future. It’s about how you allocate your resources and getting the best talent for the budget you have. But I think Mercedes have done a great job this year and its up to everybody else down the back of the grid to try and bring the competition to them.

    Christian?

    CH: I think it’s too easy to say ‘you’ve got the most money so you’re going to win the races’, whether that’s Mercedes this year or Red Bull or whatever. If you look at it, yes, two teams have won all the races in the last 12 months but Ferrari and McLaren have no less a budget. So it’s down to the people, down to the skill and how you apply those budgets. It’s the skill of a team, it’s the skill of the drivers, it’s the skill of a company how it’s applying those resources to achieve the results that are there. I think that’s the element of competition. That’s the way it’s always been in Formula One from the 50s all the way through to the present day. It’s a brutal competition and it’s survival of the fittest. Which is why so many teams – I think more than 200 teams – have passed through Formula One since the Formula One World Championship started.

    Marco, your perspective on this as a newcomer to the sport.

    MM: Again I repeat myself. Formula One stands for the best competition, the best in class technology, best drivers, best organisation. The people, the team that can put together all these elements win. I think to dilute these values of Formula One, looking for some kind of equality I think could be something that could harm dramatically the product of Formula One. So, I think that absolutely we need to be careful to go down that path. As I said, we need to be cautious controlling the cost but we need to deliver that product that’s made Formula One successful. So to be the best of motorsport.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) A question to Christian. You always have some great numbers on your engine performance. You say you’re losing eight-tenths on the back straight of Shanghai. Here, there are some of those zones after Turn One there is a big uphill and also the tunnel. Do you have some numbers for this race?

    CH: Not yet, no, it’s certainly closer and of course Renault are working very hard with Total as well to reduce the gap to Mercedes. We made a bit of a step in Barcelona and we feel that we’re a little bit closer again this weekend but I think that our biggest test is going to be in two weeks in Montreal as opposed to around the streets in Monte Carlo.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Mattiacci. Are you confident you can close the gap to Mercedes during the season and when will be the moment to switch your efforts for next season’s car?

    MM: I think that we are confident as Ferrari that we are striving to improve every race and to be competitive. That’s the thing that I’m absolutely sure. We can see little by little that we are going in the right direction. As I said, Mercedes has done an impressive job and an impressive leadership but I think, what are we doing? We have two great drivers and a team that is really, really focussed on closing the gap.

    When will be the moment to switch your efforts to next season?

    MM: It’s too early to make this call.

    Q: (Sven Haidinger – Sport Woche) Question for Toto. Of course we all know that Mercedes is in Formula One for marketing reasons and for coverage, so do you prefer a one-two finish, a boring race or do you prefer your drivers to race wheel-to-wheel. What do you prefer?

    TW: Well, if it would be a Christmas wishlist, I would like to repeat Bahrain, having close wheel-to-wheel racing for all fans, for Formula One and nevertheless be very competitive up at the front.

    Q: (Oliver Brown – Daily Telegraph) Question for Toto and Christian. It’s been a season dominated by the duel between Nico and Lewis up front. It seems a few years since Formula One has had a great team rivalry. I just wondered if you felt that Formula One needs a consistent and compelling rivalry to provide the best possible entertainment.

    CH: I think if you look back in recent past, if you look at the rivalry that we’ve had with Ferrari, the World Championship going to the wire in 2010 and in 2012, it wasn’t settled until the final race. I think that’s a utopia situation. I think that Mercedes are doing a super job at the moment and they have a rivalry within their own team and it’s down to the rest of us to do a good job to try and catch them up and put them under pressure. But I think it is healthy for the sport, there does need to be rivalry. Sometimes we live in a too politically correct world and the rivalry is healthy in sport, whether that be between teams or between sportsmen.

    Toto?

    TW: Christian covered it all.

    Q: (Silvia Renée Arias – Parabrisas) Question for Mr Federico Gastaldi: I would love to know what  are your personal feelings after these few races in your new role in the team?

    FG: Help! My personal feelings; I’ve been around enough. Obviously the start of the season has not been easy for our team but we need to work and understand how to progress so we have already shown some improvements in Barcelona which has been quite positive for all the team  – for the drivers to understand where we are going, so we have to keep working.

    Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) Mr Mattiacci: in the last years, Ferrari was often close to winning the championship. Now it looks like this aim has returned on a medium to long term. Can you say how long is this term in your plans?

    MM: There is a lot of work to be done. I don’t want to give any deadline, definitely it’s a medium term but we are going to come back competitive. This is for sure. We are working 24/7, were going to come back competitive, that’s for sure.

    Q: (Renan Do Couto – Warm Up) Question for Mattiacci: Marco, I would like you to put yourself in the position of Luca di Montezemolo with Stefano just having resigned. Marco Mattiacci: would you look at yourself and hire you to be the new Ferrari team principal and why would you, or why wouldn’t you?

    MM: The only place where I want to focus my energy at the moment is in Marco Mattiacci, so far away from me to put in the heads on the shoulders of someone else, so I’m not going to answer that.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) I’d like to come back to the other question; Christian, first of all, it’s about a hundred teams that have gone under in the last 70 years, not two hundred. But apart from that, whilst Formula One has always been a meritocracy and yes, the top teams have always earned more, never in the past have four teams shared an incremental amount of this value, even if they finished last in the championship, which effectively what happens now and that’s the point that I was trying to make. Can we ever have a fair competition as long as four teams share such exorbitant amounts of money?

    CH: I knew I was going to get that question, because Dieter only asks difficult questions. Look, I think that’s more of a question for Bernie. Our job, as individuals who represent our teams is to do the best job we can to represent the companies that we work for, so of course you’re going to cut the most aggressive deal that you can, and it’s down to the promoter to decide who he values and who he’s going to distribute his money to and how he’s going to distribute that. He’s chosen to distribute it the way it is, the shareholders have all agreed with that and that’s the way it is, but if you take into account the team finishing tenth in the World Championship is actually earning more than Red Bull were when they came into the sport in 2005, finishing seventh or sixth in the World Championship. So the revenues have gone up, the share is of a bigger pie and has obviously been developed over the years, but it’s very difficult to put us on the spot to answer those kind of questions because our interest is obviously to represent the teams and companies that we do as best we can.

    Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) You were just speaking about the importance of Formula One to be a show. In the second practice, before the 31st minute, we haven’t seen a car driving, so do you think maybe the FIA could impose a rule, maybe imposing the cars to do three laps in 15 minutes or something like this? It would be the same for everybody. Are you for or against that idea?

    EB: Nice to start. Well, it’s true that it’s not nice for the fans. I disagree with your comment –  F1 is not a show,   F1 is first of all a sport and a team sport. That’s very important. Yes, at the end there is a show on track but this is a difference for me and this is why as well: because it’s a sport, because we want to be competitive, when you know – because today we have technology which tells us the weather forecast for the weekend – we have more or less a dry weekend, you don’t want to take the risk to crash your car during the session, so in the end we had to make a choice.

    CW: I think Eric probably answered it. I don’t have anything to add.

    TW: We need to be careful not to go from depression to manic and back into depression and have a shortened view. Yes, we’ve had a boring session but does it mean that Formula One is boring over the season? I’ve heard different comments after Bahrain so I think you need to look at the whole and say is there anything we can optimise in wet sessions when the whole weekend is predicted to be dry? How was it in the past? I guess it was the same.

    CH: We were cost-saving in the second session!

    Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1 Zone) Eric, with a change to Honda next year, how much can McLaren still afford to keep fighting to improve?

    EB: I think the regulations have actually been done in a great manner because the pick-up points you have on the chassis and the back of the engine for the gearbox are the same, whatever engine you want to fit in your cars so I accept that maybe a re-packaging of cooling – it’s not a big big job, let’s say, to go for another engine manufacturer. So I think the transition between this year and next year is very similar to other years.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Christian and Claire have already given quite opposing views with regard to customer cars. Could I get the thoughts of the other four gentlemen around you, what you feel about it and in particular to Marco, I’m led to believe that Ferrari are in discussions with Gene Haas about potentially supplying a customer car for them to get on the grid from next season, which I think is what Christian was alluding to at the start.

    MM: As I said, a few minutes ago, we strongly believe in customer cars. I think that if there is a way to guarantee an entry level that is less expensive than probably a top team budget it is a customer car, to give more support, probably, that’s another way to go, to go different supporting integration with customer cars but we believe in it.

    EB: Well, it’s true that it’s a way to go today for a company or team to join F1 and I tend to agree with what Christian said before. The danger in that, as well it’s true that even if you need a massive investment now to create your team from scratch, you also need to protect the teams which have been investing for many years and all the teams have obviously been doing the same so I think there is a solution which could be – as I said – customer cars under certain circumstances and obviously giving some protection to the Constructors.

    FG: Nothing to add really. We are in a different league; obviously we are not car manufacturers so we have to think in a different direction.

    TW: Well, I have a clear view: it’s the Formula One Constructors’ championship but not the Formula One Customer championship. The entry level is high because this is the pinnacle of motor sport; we don’t want to do GP2 and make it very easy to come into Formula One. This has value if you are participating in Formula One, that has value, you need to have infrastructure and it’s like in any other business where the entry level is high because the field is so competitive  – or the companies are so competitive so we believe in being a constructor. Having said that, the rules for the future nevertheless could be loosened up a bit so in order to… what you need to provide to compete in Formula One is probably left to bodywork and other parts and it’s a direction we’ve been heading to for a couple of years. I think this is a sensible step in order to guarantee a competitive field with enough cars. If we really run into a situation  where the number of cars on the grid drops to a critical level – whatever that critical level is, 20 or 18 cars – I think then measures need to be taken, whether it is a third car, whether it is a customer car. Again, you open up a bunch of questions: what is a customer car, do you want to run cars to last year’s regulations, do you want to run them on balance of performance, like in GT racing? I don’t think this is Formula One so the devil lies in the detail.

    Q: (Jacquelin Magnay – The Australian) I’m interested in your strategy about sponsorship and where do you draw the line. I’ve noticed here that Marlboro has a very strong association with Ferrari through Philip Morris being a sponsor. Is it appropriate for your sport to have such strong links with tobacco advertising in 2014? I’m interested from a strategy point of view from the organisation, if that’s something you’ve discussed as well.

    MM: Yes, at the moment we have an excellent relationship with Philip Morris. They are doing an excellent job in terms of social responsibility. It is a partnership that has lasted for many years. It is crucial, it is fundamental to attract sponsors in Formula One because this definitely means more financial support for all the teams, at the same time getting integrated and connected with different areas and different audiences that probably Formula One doesn’t reach today so it’s more than welcome to work more deeply on that level.

    EB: As McLaren, we obviously establish ourselves as a brand first and obviously we have a similar business model to my ‘red’ colleague who is also selling cars. Sponsorship today has obviously drastically improved and obviously you’re selling a brand and depending on the prestige of the brand, you can obviously adjust the price and today we are obviously a high value or highly regarded brand. Also we are developing some technology and technology business which improves the returns of the sponsorship.

    CW: I think sponsorship is really difficult. It’s getting harder and harder to go out there and bring sponsors into any sport. There’s so much competition for marketing dollars these days but Williams is an independent team, the majority of our income has to derive from sponsorship so we’re working really hard in the market at the moment. There are definitely some sectors that we wouldn’t necessarily want to be partnered with – I won’t say what they would be – but we’ve done a great job commercially over the winter: as everyone knows, we’ve brought in Martini to the sport which is fantastic, not just for Williams but also for Formula One as a whole but it is a difficult business, but we’re continually out there trying to bring in new sponsors to keep Williams alive.

    CH: I think the regulations on tobacco are very clear now, what can and can’t be done – and it’s mostly what can’t be done. I think Formula One obviously has moved on and if you look at Red Bull alone… Red Bull is not only a shareholder, it’s a sponsor of the team but we’ve also brought in 12 other major partners. There’s obviously a title partner in Infiniti so we go from the automotive sector through the clothing sector with the partners that we have across to communications partners such as AT&T. There is still a huge amount of interest in Formula One. If you look at the viewing figures outside of the World Cup and the Olympic Games, Formula One is the most globally covered sport in the world, so it does offer a tremendous return and that’s why we’ve justified the amount of partners that we have.

    TW: I would agree. I can’t really comment on tobacco sponsorship.

    FG: I think sponsors are very very important these days for the team, for the sport so are tobacco companies welcome? Apparently they are, obviously, so why not other companies from either tobacco or alcohol, joining the other teams?

    ends/FIA press release of the transcript

  • It’s my home race and the most-challenging to win: Nico Rosberg

    Monaco, 21 May 2014: DRIVERS – Jules BIANCHI (Marussia), Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Jules, can I start with you? Obviously it’s been quite a tough start to the season for you. What do you put that down to? Is it adapting to the car, is it bad luck or a combination of those things?

    Jules BIANCHI: Yeah, obviously it’s been a very difficult start. The first few races have been pretty tough for me and the team but actually the last one especially was pretty good for me, so I am happy with that. So I will think about this only now and be focused for the next races coming now.

    Tell us about your experience and thoughts about this unique race track here in Monaco. You had a good result here back in Renault 3.5 a few years ago, does that junior experience help in the first few years in Formula One?

    JB: Yeah it helps a lot for sure to race in Monaco before your first year in Formula One. Last year has been really difficult for me. I had some issues in qualifying, I had engine failure and then in the race again some issue with the engine to start with and a brake failure to finish with, so it was not the best race I could have but I’m pretty confident now that I can do a good race this year.

    Coming to you Valtteri, you’re seventh now in the Drivers’ Championship and well ahead of your team-mate. You had another good result in Spain. Do you feel that you and the team have moved up a gear now?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, since the start of the season everything’s been positive if we compare it to the year before. All the time during this year we’ve been able to make progress, we’ve been bringing some updates, which always gave us a little bit. That’s what we aim for, for that to continue for the whole season. We are definitely keeping up at least with the development. We just need to keep pushing really, because everyone is going to improve so much.

    You said in the build-up to this race that you feel confident this year at Monaco. I wonder how much of a handicap it was last year for you that you’d never driven anything around this circuit? Can you tell us a bit what it’s like to drive this place with absolutely zero database when you’re driving a Formula One car.

    VB: Yeah, definitely it was really tough last year, first time, immediately with a Formula One car but, you know, you just need to adapt to it, you need to build the speed up step-by-step in the practice and definitely going for the race this season I know the track now well, so it’s much easier to approach the weekend and build from practice one onwards. I definitely feel very confident for this weekend and I really think we can fight as a team for some really good points.

    Nico, winner from pole here last year. Can you tell us what a win around this race track means to a Formula One drive, what it did for you personally and for your confidence?

    NIco ROSBERG: For me personally it was a very, very special experience, because it’s my home, it’s where I’ve grown up. My whole life has been centred around Monaco. So to win here, yeah it was great. And not only that but also it’s the race to win. It’s the most challenging race to win and the most prestigious race to win, so really that was awesome.

    With what happened in Spain, losing the initiative in the championship to your team-mate, how are you feeling at this point, going into this race? Do you feel the strain or do you feel an impatience to get that lead back again?

    NR: I’m not too focused on that. Of course I would prefer to be ahead than behind but it’s very, very close and there still a long way to go. So I’m just focused on this weekend here, looking forward to it, because I know that I have a fantastic car at the moment and I expect the car to be very, very quick also here in Monaco. The gap – they might be a lot closer to us this weekend and we need to wait and see if we are the fastest and the chances are we will be, so I look forward it and hope to have a fantastic weekend again.

    Jean-Eric, like Jules you’ve had a difficult start to the season. You got four points in the opening round but since then you’ve been in a position to score more points but then you’ve had non-finishes. What’s been going on?

    Jean-Eric VERGNE: Yeah I think I’ve been pretty unlucky since the beginning of the season, started well in Melbourne and then always in a position to score some good points. But that’s how it is; it’s part of the sport. I’ll just keep on smiling and hopefully the bad luck will go away and get tired of me. I’m just hoping to finish the race and have a good car and that’s all I’m hoping for. So it will come.

    You won here in your junior career I believe and last year this race was the start of a real turnaround in your season. What are your thoughts on the venue, your prospects for the weekend, and also I noted that you said that a driver must arrive in a humble state of mind at the beginning of a weekend in Monaco. What do you mean by that and what happens from there?

    J-EV: Well, I think this track is really difficult for sure. You want to stay far away from the walls and at the beginning the walls always look really close, a lot close than in the end of the weekend. This is a particular track where even the first session, the first P1, is really important for the confidence over the whole weekend, so you really have to build up your weekend in a good way.

    Q: Romain, coming to you, first points of the season obviously in Spain and also fifth on the grid, followed up by what looked like a very encouraging test for Maldonado and Pic in Barcelona. Can you sum up where Lotus are now and what level of optimism there is for this next phase of the Championship?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, if you look at the trend from Melbourne, we’ve been improving every time, going to Q3 for the first time in China, going to Q3 and being fifth on the grid in Barcelona. I think we were looking good in the race to keep the Ferrari behind but I had a small problem. It’s good that all the work has been done, and the fact we understand more and more our car, it’s going in the right direction and, of course, if you are fifth on the grid in Monaco, the race is even kind of easier to defend your position. You never know what you are going to get when you come to Monaco. It’s such a specific track. But I do hope we get the same kind of car we had in Barcelona. Then we can be well placed in Q3 and score some more points.

    Q: Looking at your record here over the years, Monaco has not been a very happy hunting ground for you, has it? In Formula One or the junior categories. Why is that, do you think?

    RG: I think that’s not fair to say. I’ve been on pole position here in GP2, won the race in GP2  – but on the other side if you have a look at crashes, I have a good record and few corners I know too well. To be fair, last year I completely missed my weekend and wherever I would have been, it would have been the same story. So, just try to not do that again. You have to respect the track. Every mistake is more obvious than everywhere else – but I’ve always been quick so I’ll try to keep that in my pocket but stay away from the rails.

    Q: Kimi, another Monaco winner, do you consider a win here to be more important than other races? What did you feel when you ticked that Monaco win off your bucket list?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Obviously it’s been pretty OK many times for me the race but then it’s not always from your side that the things go wrong here. There’s so many things that can affect your result in the end. Previous years haven’t been the most best again but hopefully this year can be a bit better and hopefully we get some good points but obviously it’s too early to say how the car will be. Everything is different from last year so we have to just go open-minded and try to do the best that we can.

    Q: Was Spain something of a turning point for you in terms of being able to extract closer to the maximum potential from the Ferrari? What made the difference there for you? And also, can you say anything about your analysis of the strategy in that race afterwards?

    KR: We’ve been pretty good in other races also but obviously had some problems in the race or in practice and always messed up the complete big picture a bit. But obviously it was a bit better last time around. To be honest, if we finished where we finished, I think sixth and seventh, it’s not at all where we want to be as a team, so we still have an awful lot of work to do. We improve things little-by-little but the other teams are also going forward so it’s not a simple thing to fix and be in front suddenly. We know how it works and we know how much things have to improve but we keep working hard and for sure one day we will get there.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Aron Day – FormulaSpy.com) Kimi, you’ve driven the V10s, the V8s around Monaco. Do you think the new cars will be more difficult to drive?

    KR: It’s difficult to say before we drive. I think if your car is normally good, it doesn’t really matter where you go. You know how it behaves and it will be OK. Obviously a bit less grip this year and maybe some cars are a bit more hard to handle but we have to see how it goes on the first practice and see what it is. But I think we’ve improved a lot since the winter and it should be OK.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, Lewis says he should be dominating you more. Does it mean the time of smiles is getting over slowly? Are we going to see a harder battle between you and him?

    NR: I don’t know what he said so I’m not going to… I didn’t hear it myself so I’m not going to comment on such things. But, in general, it’s been a tough battle up until now and I expect it to continue like that. Of course now he’s had the result rhythm in a couple of races but it’s been very close. I just need a tiny bit to turn it around. I’ll start with trying to do that here in Monaco.

    Q: (Vladamir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodnya) To all of you: what is your favourite braking zone in Monaco?

    JB: Well, I think after the tunnel, that’s good, I like that.

    J-EV: Last corner, there is nearly no braking. I don’t know.

    VB: Yeah, I think the tunnel as well, because that’s one of the places it could be possible to overtake, so let’s say that. Yeah.

    RG: Casino. It goes quickly up hill and when you get to the top you just have to brake. It’s quite a nice feeling.

    NR: Same, up the hill, it’s very very difficult because it’s a very very fast corner and you’re trying to carry the speed in and if you get it wrong and you’re going too fast, it’s very easy to lose the line.

    KR: No, I don’t really have one favourite one. Any of them. You can chose

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, are you going to carry on with the James Hunt-style design of your helmet here?

    KR: No.

    Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) To all six of you: if there is one day race that we have now in this calendar that you would like to change into a night race, assuming there is no technical issue, which one would it be? There must be one.

    VB: This one would be cool, I think. It would look nice.

    J-EV: Yeah, I think this one as well under lights.

    JB: Same, same thing. It would be really nice to race in Monaco at night.

    RG: I don’t know; why not Melbourne?

    NR: Japan, so there’s no jetlag.

    KR: I cannot hear the question. I understood by their answers but I’m happy how they are, we can always dream about things but we don’t make the rules, so there’s no point.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) Nico, last year you controlled the race all the way until the last few laps because of the fear of tyre degradation. This year’s tyres have more endurance, and also your car is quite good on tyre management. Are you going to be able to push more in the race, according to your simulation?

    NR: Well, last year, before Monaco, it was really really bad, our car with the tyres so in Monaco it was all about just trying to make the tyres last for the race but this year the tyres are more durable and also we have a better control on tyres, as a team, so it should be a faster race if I’m at the front.

    Q: (Pierre van Vliet – F1i.com) Nico, four pole positions for Lewis so far; do you plan to change your approach to qualifying? Here, you know that you dominated him last year; what do you plan to maybe change something in qualifying?

    NR: No. Of course three of those qualifyings were in the wet; in the dry it’s 1-1 and it’s supposed to be dry on Saturday so I’m confident I can make it happen so I’m not changing my approach or anything.

    Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC) Nico and Kimi; we lost a legend of Formula One, Sir Jack Brabham,  this last week. Obviously his exploits were before you guys were born but can I just ask if you had any contact with Sir Jack Brabham, if you have any thoughts about his career and also if you’d been born in a different era, would you have ever considered going down that kind of route that he did, of building his own car? Kimi, you’ve set up teams; Nico you have an interest in engineering. If you’d been born in that era, could you have seen yourselves go down that route?

    KR: Obviously I read and I was so sad to hear that he had passed away. Obviously these days are different than the days that they used to race and they could do different categories, different races. It would be very nice if they would be able to do different things at the same time and different races and try different things more. But the problem is everything gets so much more expensive these days and obviously people are more scared that you get hurt that they try to limit everything that you do. It’s a shame because I think it would be more fun for everybody and all sports would also benefit from it, and F1. It would be nice to do stuff like they did.

    NR: It’s an amazing achievement that he did at the time, to win in another team but also in his own team, in his own car that he built. It’s extremely unlikely to ever happen again but you never know, but it’s a record that is definitely going to last a long time.

    eom/FIA release fo the transcripts

  • A big thank you to my team, they’ve done an incredible job: Hamilton

    Hamilton at podium interview after winning the Spanish GP on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton at podium interview after winning the Spanish GP on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    Barcelona, 11 May 2014:

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

    What a great race, what a great finish – Lewis Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen, four race wins in a row; let’s hear it from him.

    Lewis HAMILTON: A big thank you to my team, they’ve just done an incredible job this year. I’m really happy with the support I’ve had here in Spain, it’s the best I’ve ever had, so thank you to everyone in the grandstands, it means the world to me. My first win here in Spain, it means everything to me.

    We heard you grumbling, or not quite happy with your team about the graining and also about the time loss in the pits. Tell me, were you upset? 

    LH: No, not for the pits. I wasn’t fast enough really today; Nico was quicker. I struggled a lot with the balance and really had to rely on my engineers a lot more to give me the gaps and to try to find where I could find time. And also with all my settings, I was moving them up and down, up and down really trying to find extra time. But Nico was just generally quicker this weekend but fortunately I was able to keep him behind.

    Well, I needn’t tell everybody out there but you’ve now taken over the lead in the championship. Nico, what a fantastic fight, just like Bahrain, right up there at the end. How many more laps do you think you needed to pass him?

    Nico ROSBERG: I think one more to be honest, one more I could have given it a good go. I wasn’t close enough to give it a go there but next lap I would have. But unfortunately that was it. So, a bit gutted but still, second place, still close to the championship and many more races to go anyway.

    I needn’t remind you or anybody else, but you’ve been on this podium every race of this season so far. Going now to your home race, Monaco, where you won last year, surely you can make a massive effort for there?

    Nico ROSBERG: Definitely. I’ll be going there to do it one better and try to come first there and repeat the win from last year. That’s the aim and we’ll see if it works out. And for those of you who don’t know Eddie is my number one favourite neighbor in Monaco.

    I don’t they needed to know that! They want to know all about you. Ladies and gentlemen we’ll leave my neighbourly friend here and move to young Australian superstar, the man who has lit up the season so far from a rookie point of view, Daniel Ricciardo. I don’t want to be doom and gloom here, but you were 50 seconds behind, what are you going to do to catch these guys up?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Thanks

    I just thought I’d bring you back down to reality a bit.

    DR: No, you’re right. They were a long way ahead. I think coming into the race today we knew a boring race would be a pretty good one for us. We knew we didn’t really have the paced for Mercedes. We looked like a third-place car and in the end that’s what it was, we had a pretty comfortable third- place and we just had to focus on getting the tyres to last two stops ands that was it. Really nice to be on the podium and I’m sure I’ll be able to keep it this time.

    Lewis, are you surprised with the dominance, because a lot of people called into question your idea of coming to Mercedes maybe 18 months ago. Had you got this in the back of your mind that this was all the potential that was being told to you?

    LH: Yeah, sitting down with Ross at my mum’s house at the kitchen table, yeah this is the idea that I was given. I really, truly believed it was going to happen, but I could never have imagined us to have a 50-second gap to Red Bull in a race. So it’s just an exceptional job from the team and I feel truly blessed to firstly be a part of this team, to be contributing, getting the results. This is our fourth 1-2 together, it’s just unreal.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    So, Lewis, where do we start? Four wins in a row, fourth Mercedes 1-2 in a row, which is fairly hard to achieve. First win for you in Spain and you’re leading the Driver’s World Championship for the first time since, I think, 2012. Which of those things means the most to you?

    LH: Of course getting my first grand prix win here after trying for eight years. It’s very difficult to really put into words the feeling when you come to a race and have a result like this. Never have I had a car like this and obviously we’ve never had a gap like this to anyone before. Nico did a fantastic job today, it was a struggle to keep him behind, but I’m grateful that I was able to. I just feel that it is such a huge blessing, for not only me but for all the guys in the team, because of all the hard work they’ve done for many years now, but finally they are starting to see the fruits of their labour. So, for me, yeah, just enjoying every moment, every step of the way. And it’s really great today we have our board members, our bosses from Mercedes, so it was really good to… every time Dr Zetsche came last year, we generally had a bad race, so it was really important to get a good result for him to get rid of that negative bug, or bad luck that I guess he thought he was bringing, so I’m really grateful for the team being able to do that today.

    Q: Nico, the start didn’t give you the platform or opportunity that maybe you’d hoped for. From there, like Bahrain, you tried something different on the strategy. Like Bahrain, Lewis said you were quicker today – but unlike Bahrain you didn’t really have a chance to attack, particularly at the end. Why was that? Why did it work out the way it did?

    NR: The start unfortunately was poor. It’s a bit of a weakness that we have at the moment, just inconsistent and now I’ve had a couple of bad starts in a row – actually three bad starts in the races. And that’s costly, you know? Because, always losing out at the start, that’s not good, need to work on that. Other than that, the race, yeah, I felt comfortable, race pace was good. Best thing to do was to switch strategies. That was planned before the race. Worked out well, worked out perfectly – but this is a really, really difficult track to get close to the guy in front. I still got close, y’know Turn 10, the last lap. Could have got gone for a kamikaze move but it wouldn’t have worked. Lewis did a great job the whole weekend and just that little bit ahead. But there’s a lot of positives for me to take out of it. I’m fully motivated to just try to get that little bit extra and to edge him out next time – and it’s doable.

    Q: Daniel, hopefully the first trophy you’ll be able to keep. Obviously the story of your race, a difficult start, losing the ground to Bottas but then getting him with the undercut first round of stops, then you were Billy-No-Mates, on your own driving around on your own – tell us how it worked out for you.

    DR: Yeah. Not exactly the start I wanted. I think initially the launch felt OK but we lost a bit of traction after that. Bottas got past me. The first stint I tried to hang in there, had, let’s say, a pseudo-attempt into Turn One. I got underneath him but it wasn’t deep enough to pull the move off and then, yeah, it was just about doing an undercut and just trying to still make a two-stop work. So from then on a pretty lonely race. Unfortunately we’re not going to catch Mercedes. At least this weekend we weren’t going to, so a lonely third was not a bad result in the end.

    Q: Final question to both Lewis and Nico, just looking ahead to the next couple of races that are coming up, Monaco is a track that’s been strong in the past for both of you and strong in the past for Mercedes, and then we go on to Montreal which has always been one of Lewis’s favourites. How do you go there, Nico? And your thoughts, both of you, on those two upcoming races.

    NR: Monaco: fantastic. It’s my favourite race of the year. Great memories there from last year. Looking forward to it, with the car that we have also this year, it’s going to be great. For sure the opposition is going to be closer. Especially I expect Red Bull to be a lot closer, so it’s going to be tougher for us but still, we have a strong package, engine and car. So, should go fine around Monaco and going to try and make the most of it, repeat the win from last year.

    Your thoughts Lewis…

    LH: I think I have a bit of work to do in the next couple of weeks but of course I love those two races. Struggled last year in Monaco and struggled with this race, so need to figure out where I’m losing the time and apply it to the next race.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Nico and Lewis. What was the main difficulty during the race: managing the hard tyre or doing quick laps at the end to fight to get Lewis with the medium?

    NR: No, the big challenge was tyre degradation. Very, very big tyre degradation. That was really difficult to manage that. But I found my way and was quite comfortable with it, and then graining on the hard tyre which is the opposite of what we expected. We expected to have graining on the soft tyre. So it was very strange. Graining on the hard tyre and no graining on the soft tyre, it was really weird and unexpected.

    Q: (Adrian Rodriguez – Agencia EFE) Question for Lewis, congratulations for your first win here in Spain. Makes it 26, one more than Jim Clark and one more than Niki Lauda, one of the big guys on your team – are you planning any jokes on him tonight and how many victories can you make it this year?

    LH: At the rate the team’s going, we’re looking strong for at least a few more races. It’s by no means easy for me because I’ve still got a massive challenge with Nico. But, I mean, I could never had imagined winning these four races but it’s still so close, long, long way to go and, just as I was saying earlier, I’ve got a bit more time to find in this car, so going to work on it.

    Q: Michael Schmidt (Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, in the race, did you experience similar problems to those you had yesterday and how did you try to dial them out? There was a lot of conversation between you and the engineers.

    LH: I did have the same problems as I had yesterday, yes. It was very strange because Friday P2 was excellent. The car was really good, degradation… I mean I was very very fast and I stopped my run with 18 laps or something like that, but if I just brought my pace down a little bit I probably could have eked it out even longer. Those changes just transformed the car and today, just not able to attack the corners due to snap oversteer, and that’s generally where Nico was catching me, through those entries of corners.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) To the Mercedes drivers: you have won every race this year. What secret did you find and where?

    LH: I haven’t found any secrets but I think Mercedes – there is no secret really, it’s just been hard work and really constructive work. Often when you’re working towards something, sometimes you stumble and fall and then you have to build it again and the team has just been building and building, building and not really having many times when they’re falling. It’s quite remarkable, the actual car itself, the downforce is very good, I’m sure very very close with the Red Bulls and then with the engine, it’s the best engine Mercedes have made.

    NR: It’s been five years, it’s been since 2010 this process started and so much has changed, it’s been such a long long way, the personnel restructuring, everything. Big big changes and now we’ve come to a point where, thanks to all the work from the past, we’re really just able… we’re becoming the best team in F1. That’s the way it is. I would still say Red Bull is the benchmark at the moment but we’re definitely shaking their chair at the moment and I think there’s the possibility that soon we will be the absolute best team, in terms of team  organisation, capabilities, we’re getting there and hopefully it will be a long domination.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Daniel, Sebastian Vettel went from 15th to fourth, is that encouraging that the car – while not as good as a Mercedes – can slice through the opposition, or a bit worrying because it looks like he might be back up to speed and coming to challenge you?

    DR: Obviously it’s the first thing you said. Yeah, really good. I just sort of heard on the radio that he was making progress through the field and when he was in fourth – I think he made a move in the last few laps so really good. I definitely see it as a positive for the team, third and fourth, particularly after his starting position. Obviously Mercedes are the top dogs at the moment but we seem to be settling ourselves nicely in that next spot and I think we’ve just got to now try and somehow creep our way closer. All the talk about Seb, I’m sure that was going to pass very soon and he’ll get to his World Champion form.

    Q: (Tony Dodgins – Motorsport News) Nico, just before the first stops, on the radio we heard the team say ‘primes planned for the next stint’ and you said ‘the options are fine.’ Did that mean you wanted another set of options for the second stint or were you happy with the way it went?

    NR: There was a misunderstanding from my side because we were going to go prime second stint – there were two variables. There was one where we go prime second stint if we have graining in the first stint or I go prime second stint to try and beat Lewis, if I feel that pace-wise I can be quicker and have a shot at it. I thought they were going prime because they thought I had graining but I didn’t have graining so that’s why I was confused but then I understood: it was to offset my strategy so that I would have a chance to fight Lewis at the end so it was fine – and just what I wanted.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, at the end of the 2012 season when you announced that you would switch to Mercedes, there were some really harsh criticisms against you, stating that you are destroying your career without the guidance of your Dad. Now that you’re winning and leading the championship and have the very best car of the whole pack, is it important for you that you could really prove that you can make good decisions on your own?

    LH: Yeah, for sure, it was obviously a great call and there was never a moment that I ever doubted it but of course never could have imagined that we would be having this kind of success. I’m not one to rub it in people’s faces. I knew that I was in a good place, I knew that I was making the right decision for me and now it should be becoming more evident to people… I’m sure the people that wrote those things had an opinion at the beginning and I’m sure it’s changed now.

    Q: (Adrian Rodriguez – Agencia EFE) To Nico and Lewis: you guys seem to get along pretty well right now but the problem is that just one of you can win if it keeps going this way. Do you guys believe that your relationship is going to be the same by the end of the year?

    LH: We’ve been racing together for a long time so I don’t see why not.

    Q: Does that help, Nico, that you’ve been racing together for a long time?

    NR: Definitely yes, because we’ve been through this before. It’s not a first time and even back then we had discussions, debate but always… life goes on, discuss it and life goes on so that helps, yeah.

    Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) Lewis, you’ve said quite a few times this year about how perfect this car is, how well suited it feels. Could you explain just a little bit about how you’ve guided the development of it so that it suits your style?

    LH: It’s a lengthy process. Obviously last year… when you request something to be changed, it takes some time because obviously you don’t want to take away their focus from the most important things which is getting downforce. I think it’s just taken some time. I think Michael required a little bit of a… he had a different driving style to me. He required different things, different seating position, different set-up and as I’ve come along, I’ve really tried to… and I guess Nico probably and Michael both kind of gelled and went in one direction with the balance and then as I’ve come along, mine is slightly different  and I guess we’ve then created a hybrid: Nico’s come halfway, I’ve come halfway so we now require the same things from the car, but last year it was maybe a little bit different and so over the time just really, for the engineers to get to know what I require from a car and I think really working on being comfortable with the engineers as well, new engineers, it takes a while to build those relationships and that’s probably been a key strength to this year.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) Nico, you are second in the championship now. Will you change your approach for the weekend, make strategies with more risks; even during the race, do you think you will change what you have been doing until now?

    NR: There’s not much to change. The race was really lost in qualifying and at the start. Those were the two opportunities I had. Qualifying was very very close, I even had a bit of a problem which we found in hindsight, where I was a little bit down on power on the straight, but the difference was not enough to get pole, but still it was actually even closer than it looked. And then just had a poor start, so those were the two shots that I had at it and it didn’t work out. And then in the race, I nearly got another opportunity at the very end but again, just not enough. One more lap and I could have given it a go, I think, but I would have done everything the same again at the start of the weekend. Of course, I also missed FP1 which doesn’t help either. Many small thing which add up and there are only very small gaps so next time.

    eom/FIA Release of the transcript

  • “Small things, like a half a millimetre here and there.” But they can mar or make the car!

    Drivers

    1– Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Lewis, your fourth pole of the season and this time you had to save the best until last.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it’s been a tough day and Nico has been driving really well, through P3 and also through qualifying and so I didn’t know if I’d be able to get it, but right at the end I had to eke out absolutely everything and more from the car. But coming here this weekend, we didn’t know where everyone was going to be, so to see the develop that has gone on and the hard work that has gone into getting our car ready for this week – it inspires me. So a really big thank you to the team. To have the kind of performance we have, I’ve never really known that before. Still, it’s very difficult out there,. the track conditions are pretty poor, but I’, overwhelmed I’m so happy to have had that.

    Nico, obviously Lewis was looking strong yesterday but you were fastest in Q1 and Q2, so you obviously found something overnight? Given how it’s all; ended up are you a little disappointed?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, definitely very disappointed. I don’t particularly enjoy coming second to Lewis. I am of course disappointed but in the end it was a good lap from me, so Lewis just did a better job and that’s just the way it is. Anyway, it’s still all to play for tomorrow. Second place is only a little bit away from optimum because all it takes is a good start tomorrow and then I’m in the lead again. That’s the good thing about it and that’s why it’s still all to play for.

    Daniel, another top three, a good day for you personally, obviously problems for you team-mate, Sebastian, in Q3 there, and a fairly big margin between Lewis and yourself there on the grid.

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, I think we’re again sort of best of the rest but that’s not quite good enough, we’re still a second off and the lap, I thought my lap was not too bad, so I was expecting a smaller gap than that. I think we’ve made some improvement but they – they being Mercedes – have as well. So we would have liked to have closed that but we have some work ahead of us. On a positive note we’re a clear third today. I think we had a pretty to P4, so that’s not too bad, but for sure we want to get closer to the front two.

    Well done. Coming back to you Lewis. You’ve never won here: why is that and how much would it mean to you to put that right tomorrow?

    LH: There are lots of different circumstances, situations I’ve been in but generally, it’s not being fast enough. Even going into today I lost a bit of pace today, so I’m really even happier knowing that I dropped a bit of pace but was able to get back at the front. In the past I guess it’s just not been my time, so I’ll do everything I can to bring some really good points for the team and let’s hope that means something positive.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: So, Lewis, during Q1 we heard a radio message from you saying “I don’t know how but we’ve made this car worse.” What were you feeling at the time and how did that translate into what happened at the end when you managed to get pole?

    LH: Well, yesterday I had such a great day and was really happy with the car and then, often when things are that good, you generally don’t want to change much but we changed a couple of things overnight in the hope of making it a little better. Small things, like a half a millimetre here and there. The smallest of tweaks. But today the track grip, I think went down and today my car’s been a real handful for me. Just lots of oversteer, very inconsistent corner to corner. So it was kind of back to square one, where I was in P1. And once you’re in qualifying there’s nothing you can do. We made some changes going into qualifying but I was generally struggling. So that’s why in Q1 you saw I was half a second off Nico, just struggling to put a lap together. But at the end I just did it by the skin of my teeth.

    Q: So, you found it yourself, you say?

    LH: Well a little. I couldn’t change anything so I really had to tweak a little bit the diff settings, otherwise just drive a little bit differently to just get the car around the lap. Obviously we were very quick but it doesn’t matter how fast your car is, we take it to the limit. That’s what all of us drivers do, we take our package to the limit. We’re on the edge of our limit.

    Q: Nico, you’re still leading the Drivers’ World Championship, tomorrow’s an important day, some thoughts on that. But also, everyone’s come here with updates, and as Daniel said, you perhaps expected the gap to you guys to be smaller. Do you feel that, if anything, Mercedes have slightly pulled ahead of the opposition?

    NR: No, I wouldn’t say that but it looks like we’ve managed to keep the gap consistent – and that’s an achievement already. That’s fantastic and I’m very happy about that – great job from the team and everybody because our ambition is to make the gap bigger, not try and be shaky and hope they don’t close the gap too much. No, we want to grow the gap. Nearly managed to grow the gap, I think we kept it consistent and that’s fantastic to see.

    Q: And your own personal thoughts on the race…

    NR: Personal thoughts are, of course, not ideal today but still all to play for tomorrow. It’s going to be a long race so it’s all possible. Tyre degradation is going to be a key point, need to get a handle on that.

    Daniel, what about your personal thoughts? You mentioned the margin behind them you are in qualifying – a second – your own goals for this weekend and also, what are the team’s objectives now that you’ve seen where you stand at this stage relative to Mercedes?

    DR: I think, y’know, for us it’s just to keep closing that gap to them. On a positive, we’re the best of the rest but we’ve still got to keep the others, keep the guys we have behind us behind us,  but to close to them. A second is too much. Even with a different strategy in the race it’s going to be very hard to make up a second per lap. We’ve got to just keep chipping away. Obviously they’re doing a great job and, yeah, I’m sure I can still learn a bit. As I am, I think, each race. We’ll put up a fight tomorrow and at least try to get on the podium. And if we can’t do anything about them, then keep the rest behind us.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Adrian Rodriguez  – Agencia EFE) Lewis, is the main guy to watch sitting on your right? What are your feelings about your other rivals for tomorrow?

    LH: Well, we always keep our eyes open for everyone. Of course Nico’s the closest but Daniel’s been driving very well in the first part of the season so anything can happen tomorrow. We’ve just got to really try to work hard to stay out in front and as Nico said, it’s a long race so really try and look after the tyres, they’re still going to be a huge player tomorrow depending on what strategy people do and tyre degradation.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Daniel, at the end of the session, the team sent you a message on the radio saying something about ‘remember what Charlie said about the photo.’ What was that about?

    DR: He didn’t want us running away, the top three guys, after qualifying, he didn’t want us running away out of the scene, to do the group photo. I think last time I was hiding for a little bit too long, so just a reminder from the team, nothing technical, just outside dramas.

    Q: ( Pablo Grau – F1aldia) Daniel, your pace in long runs yesterday was very good; what do you expect for tomorrow, maybe an aggressive start?

    DR: Yeah, I mean the plan is always to try and get a good start. Yeah, if we can do something about Lewis and Nico we will try our best and then yes, the pace yesterday was good, still not as good as a Mercedes but I think in relative terms we made the tyres last a long way. I think if there’s any issues with making a two stop possible, if the race ends up being more of a three stop, then we might be in that window to do a two but we will see how we go. We have to assess everything after lap one and then push from there, but it’s a tricky one  here. You push but you’re in conservative mode for the tyres as well. It’s one of those tracks where tyre wear is a big one.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, you said you had to cope in qualifying with some issues on the car. Is that a worry for tomorrow because you can’t change very much or do you think that with more fuel, all these issues will be gone?

    LH: I’m not worried for tomorrow but of course it’s a concern for today with the balance being a little bit tricky. My long run yesterday was good but the track kind of went away from us a little bit, I think it went away from everyone a little bit today.  Perhaps tomorrow will be different, you just don’t know. This track can go up and down so we will just wait and see how tomorrow goes. You can adjust some things – your diff settings and your front wings – so hopefully I’ll get that just right for the race.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) A question for all three: normally you drive around Monaco with a millimetre or two to spare. This year the cars are a lot more tail happy. How are you going to deal with that?

    NR: Yeah, it will be a little bit more of a challenge this year because we have less grip and traction than we had last year and harder tyres so it will be even more exciting but that’s all good.

    LH: Yeah, we’ll just have to be a lot more cautious, I think, because today, massive oversteer moments. I don’t really know what to expect when we get there.

    Q: Daniel your thoughts, and is it a circuit that gives Red Bull some optimism?

    DR: I think, yeah – Lewis just asked me, actually, if we will be quick there and I said I hope so. We’ll see how we go. It’s a track that I think all of us drivers enjoy driving around. We’re always on the limit there. We get a few corners where we brush the barriers and I think this year it’s going to be even more of a challenge. We may not  have to get too carried away with getting close to the walls, because if the rear snaps, then as we saw with Bottas in Melbourne, a similar scenario, where he had that incident and yes, things like this are probably more likely to happen but that’s what we get paid the big bucks for, yeah? So I’m sure we will be right.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) Daniel, your team always puts a lot of responsibility for the lack of performance this year on Renault, and Renault have announced that they have a new version of engine here. Can you tell us if the engine is really better than the previous one?

    DR: Looking at the speed traps this week, we seem to be closer than we were the last few races at least. Obviously the straight here is not as long as Shanghai but I think realistically we have closed the gap there, so I think they’ve done a good job Renault is helping us all the time. We know we’ve still got more ground to make up but to answer your question, I think yeah, we have made some progress.

    eom/FIA release of the transcript

    Hamilton takes pole at Spanish GP. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton takes pole at Spanish GP. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • In Geneva, we agreed a protocol in terms of unanimous agreement on cost cap: Bob Fernley

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Cyril ABITEBOUL (Caterham), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), John BOOTH (Marussia), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso)

     PRESS CONFERENCE

    A question to all of you to start with. What updates did you try on the car today? Obviously it’s always a talking point at the first European round. How did they perform and will they stay on the car for the rest of the weekend?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Yeah, well, like every year and like most of the teams we brought an aerodynamic package, a typical race five, Barcelona package: front and rear, front wing, rear wing, floor and so on and so forth. Will we keep them? It’s sad to say that through the lap time it’s not working great. Will we keep them – I hope, because we don’t really have an alternative. So the plan is really to make them work at that point in time.

    Franz?

    Franz TOST: A new rear wing, new rear wing endplates, a new diffuser and they will stay on the car during the race weekend.

    OK. Robert?

    Robert FERNLEY: Mainly floor but it’s complementing a little bit what we did in China to finish off the package and they’ll be staying on the car.

    Monisha?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: We have a new front wing, we have new sidepod deflectors, we have a new cooling system, all that aimed at reducing the weight of the car a little.

    Will they stay on the car?

    MK: They will stay for the weekend, yes.

    And John?

    John BOOTH: Yeah, we have a few small trims and gurneys but nothing major this weekend, but we’re very pleased with what we’ve added and for sure they will be staying on.

    Another question for all of you: obviously there were meetings last week on cost control – all the teams met and also the F1 Strategy Group met, so I’d like to ask all of you what you think of the progress so far, thoughts on next steps and the likelihood of a workable plan for 2015 as we stand here. Cyril?

    CA: It was a good meeting; it’s always good to meet, in particular when there is an opportunity for all teams to be represented. It was certainly that opportunity. So, yeah, we put on the table our position. When I say ‘our’, it’s the position of the teams that are not in the Strategy Group and they are afforded less opportunity to make their position. So yeah, pretty much pleased to have that opportunity. Obviously an awful lot of work remains but pleased with that.

    Franz?

    FT: Yeah it was a good meeting, as Cyril already mentioned. The most important thing now is to find solutions how to reduce the costs. I think we are in a good way. I hope that at the end we will find possibilities to come down with the costs and to help the smaller teams to survive.

    Robert?

    RF: Yeah, I think it was a very good meeting; very positive. I think we shouldn’t lose sight though of the fact that in Geneva we agreed a certain protocol in terms of unanimous agreement to look at cost cap and we believe that still applies today and that the FIA should continue that process.

    Monisha?

    MK: I pretty much agree with what Bob said. We could sense that there is an overall feeling to reduce costs significantly but now it’s time that we really had concrete steps and of course there are different positions on the table but it’s important that we find a solution now and implement it.

    And John?

    JB: Yeah, we support any moves that lead towards the ultimate goal of getting the costs under control. Last week’s meeting was really a carry-on from Geneva in January. I think all teams are working hard to find the best way forward.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: (Kate Walker – Crash.net) It’s a question for all you. Since the 1st of May meeting we’ve heard that you guys have been asked to table your own propositions with regards to cost-cutting without a cap, such as scrapping FP1. Could you tell us what sort of proposals you have made and what ones you’ve discussed possibly in the meeting this morning?

    MK: I’d like to clarify that we’ve not been asked to put up a proposal without a cost cap, we’ve simply been asked to put forward a proposal, which we will be doing shortly. What we want to do really is achieve something that everyone can agree to, and that’s what the FIA President asked for. So we are very gladly going to pick up the ideas, which were brought up but the Strategy Group. We’re working on that, yet we still have the position that particularly in view of this Geneva meeting, where we have a unanimous decision to a cost cap in principle, we can put these add-ons to it and that’s the basis we’re going to continue to work on.

    A couple of other perspectives on this: Franz?

    FT: Regarding the cost cap, there are different views on this. The Strategy Group at the end, one month ago, refused the cost cap for various reasons and as the cost cap will not be any more in place, as the top teams from the beginning onwards said that it is difficult to police it and if something cannot be controlled it doesn’t make sense to bring it in. I think we should find now a way with the Technical Regulations and the Sporting Regulations to cut the costs. If I look for example, next week we have a test here in Barcelona and in my eyes it’s a totally useless spend of money, because what do we bring in? We bring a car, an extra car, we bring in extra people. We are running here for two days and each kilometre in Formula One costs you three or four hundred euros or even more and if you calculate all this at the end we have spent a lot of money. That means we have to sit together, we have to find ways, with real examples, how to come down with the costs. This is for me not to do tests during the season, to limit upgrades, all this kind of stuff, which at the end will help us to come down with the dramatic costs which we have at the current time.

    Robert?

    RF: I don’t have a great deal more to add what Monisha said. I think she said it very eloquently. I think the question we have is that the FIA are comfortable that a cost cap can be administered and we respect their opinion and we question, as we always have done, the legitimacy of the Strategy Group to overturn the Geneva decision.

    John, anything to add?

    JB: No, not really. I would question the idea that we can control costs substantially by technical and sporting regulations. History shows the banning of testing and even of wind tunnel and we’re spending more on Formula One than ever before. So I question whether it is possible to control costs with technical or sporting regulations.

    And a final view on this, Cyril?

    CA: No, no further comment.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) One of the phrases that’s kept on cropping up is Strategy Group. As the disenfranchised, do you believe that the Strategy Group actually has a constructive role to play at all in the future of Formula One and should it exist at all?

    RF: Yes, I do. I think the Strategy Group does have a role to play. I think as it’s name says it’s for developing strategies and I genuinely believe that’s very positive but I don’t believe it substitutes, obviously, for unanimous decisions.

    JB: I fully endorse what Bob says. I would just add that they have a real difficult task in the Strategy Group – developing strategies and ideas that are good for the sport as a whole, not just for the six people in the Strategy Group. So they have a really hard task achieving that.

    CA: Yeah, I think the same thing. I think it is difficult to elaborate a strategy in particular in a sport which is as complex as Formula One, because each time you change something it has implications that you no necessarily foresee and therefore the feeling that you can elaborate a strategy without the opportunity to discuss thoroughly with all the teams first and secondly also with technical and sporting experts is maybe a bit short-sighted. The second thing I would say, though, is that it’s good to have some opportunities to think long-term. Therefore, in a proper group and adding some sort of top-down approach rather than only a bottom-up approach I think is good and I find in that respect strategy is good, but I don’t see why half of the grid, or most, should be kept away from the discussion – at least from the discussion. Then, in terms of voting, you know I can respect, from my perspective, the voice of Caterham does not count as much as the voice of Ferrari but it doesn’t mean that we cannot be part of the discussion, at least for the sake of transparency. We have the same obligation as Ferrari, for instance towards regulation: we need to enter two cars, we need to comply with the regulations and we are just as exposed from a cost perspective and therefore I think it would be fair that we have at least the opportunity to know what is being talked about and also the opportunity to express opposition. Then again, the voting mechanism can be a different issue.

    Thanks. Franz?

    FT: I think the system is OK, which we have currently. We have the Strategy Group, which works out strategies, and then we have the Formula One Commission and we are all sitting in there voting. It’s anyway coming to the World Motor Sport Council and for me the system is fine.

    Monisha?

    MK: With the regard to the jobs, I’d say the duty of the Strategy Group, Bob’s put it all in there as we see it. What gives rise to a lot of concern is what’s happened now with regards to the cost decision, because a Strategy Group can look at certain things and make proposals but if there is a unanimous decision, and like Franz says, we have the Commission, we have our forums I’d say where all teams actually have the same voice and they all agree on something, we do not accept that another group can come up there and just overrule that decision.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) A question for all of you: to make a long story short, is the cost cap now dead or not?

    RF: I don’t believe… from our point of view, I don’t believe the cost cap is dead. I think as far as we’re concerned it’s still in the hands of the FIA to progress what was unanimously approved and we will do our very best to support other measures that can go in line, but I think you need the two.

    John?

    JB: Marussia very much share that view.

    Cyril?

    CA: Nothing to add.

    Franz?

    FT: For me the cost cap is dead because the top teams don’t accept it. It’s also complicated for them and as long as auditors are not allowed to look into the books it’s useless to make a cost cap.

    Monisha?

    MK: I don’t think it’s dead because first of all, as it’s been said already, there is a unanimous decision and I think it is very much possible to police it. Because it’s something can be policed, it’s figures – because they are pretty clear. It depends on the people that put down the figures if they are right or wrong. We do that all with our companies. I think there’s no country where our teams are situated where we don’t have book-keeping so I don’t think it should be an issue.

    We, at Sauber, definitely could live with a system where you first of all come into with trust, and not the lack of trust, and say if the teams put in the figures and you have a certain actual policing system. It can work, we’ve been saying that for long and I think it is very much doable.

    Q: Are there any timetables or deadlines on this?

    MK: Well, we have the natural deadline by the rules that you have to agree to it by the 30th of June. So, I still hope we can agree to it. Of course you can achieve certain cost reductions through rules, maybe sporting or technical but I think you will not achieve that kind of drastic cost saving you want to. And at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how you get there because you’re looking at a figure. You have to ask yourself, do you want one figure at the end or do you want to have 20 different figures which just calculate again to one figure, so you always come to the same.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) I have a question about the viability of the Russian Grand Prix only a weekend after the Japanese. I put the question to Bob and John possibly first: there are serious concerns about the political situation in Sochi. The Superbike Championship round there has already been cancelled. My question is: do you think that Formula One should do the same? And on a practical note, have you yet confirmed your travel arrangements to go to that race.

    JB: First of all, travel arrangements have been confirmed. There’s a charter going straight from Japan to Sochi. As to whether we go to Sochi or not, as with Bahrain over the last couple of years, we’ll follow our Government guidelines on whether its safe to travel or not, or whether we should go or not.

    Q: British Government guidelines you mean?

    JB: Yes

    Robert?

    RF: Yeah, I agree with that. I think there were certain criticisms that came to the teams and the organisation going to Bahrain but we were clearly in line and in accordance with British Government guidelines. I think unless the British Government advise otherwise and then from that obviously the FIA and FOM, then we are obliged to go, we are contracted to go.

    Does anybody else have a view to put across on this?

    FT: I personally just hope that we can go there because the Russian market is quite important for us. I hope that we will have this race. Until October there is a long time and I hope they can sort out all the troubles that they have currently.

    Q: (Vladamir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segondnya ) For all participants: I started my season yesterday. Today, I heard Formula One engines for the first time and I’m really disappointed. It’s not Formula One, it sounds more like GP2 and GP3. What do you think can be done, in reality, to change this situation and restore it for the journalists and public?

    MK: Actually I don’t agree with this that this is not Formula One. This is actually a good era of Formula One. We’ve got into this very exciting new era with very complex, sophisticated hybrid engines which are exactly doing what they were expected to do, that is showcase the highest level of technology. We’re always meant to be bringing it to a certain edge which we are doing and some people might like the sound or not but there’s too much of importance in this matter that you just reduce it to the sound; it would be a bit sad if we just look at that. Otherwise, I think the show has, on a couple of occasions, been exciting and it’s just the start of the season. I think it’s still an excellent platform, one of the best in the world, it’s one of the biggest. You look at the fans, you look at the global reach we have, how we are spread throughout the year so I think it is going in the right direction.

    CA: I would agree with Monisha but it’s a bit too much left brain or right brain for me and Formula One is very much a compliment of emotion and intellectual exercise, so I think from a technology perspective we are set up now. We have been saying for a while that Formula One needed to do something with its engine formula and that’s ???? I think we should not forget also that it’s a show business so it’s a show and it has to satisfy the end customer who at the end of the day are not only the car makers but also the fans and if, in order to address that and continue to tick that box, we need to address something with the noise. There are ways to do it, and if indeed there is a test that is planned for next week, and I understand that it’s almost doubling the sound that you can feel when you are near the track and therefore I think that’s something that should be done, that can be done easily. Obviously there will be some cost implications and there we go again about cost cuts but we should do it. The last point is that obviously Formula One is also moving towards other media where sound is almost irrelevant. If I ask you what is the sound of Twitter, we see that we have to think a little bit differently to a certain degree. But the sound has to be right.

    RF: I think you should always remember that the increase in sound is just loss of power and I think that when you’re harnessing all the power and it means that the engines are quieter then you’re actually doing a more efficient job and as I’ve said before, the show has been quite fantastic and I think that it would be very disappointing if we’re just judging Formula One purely on the fact that it makes a lot of noise.

    JB: I think Formula One should really be applauded for managing to bring this modern technology to Formula One. As Monisha said, we showcase the cutting edge technology and the reliability that’s been achieved with these power plants in such a short time, I think is an incredible achievement.

    FT: First of all, I think the most important part is that people write… the fans, Formula One fans with interesting races, with fights, with overtaking manoeuvres and Formula One is the peak of motor sports. That means the music that you hear now from Formula One, is what they will also hear in the future, because I think also the other categories will, sooner or later, come out with the same technology. A turbo engine doesn’t have the same sound as a 12 cylinder which was twenty years ago. We’re in another period of time and we have to adapt also what the automotive industry wants to see.

    Q: (Renan do Couto – Warm-Up) To all of you; we’ve had new names coming into the direction of teams, like Marco Mattiacci, Eric Boullier leaving Lotus to go to McLaren and other ones. How does the arrival of new names on the pit wall affect the racing and the business in Formula One?

    MK: I don’t really see any direct effect now. Some of the names that have been mentioned have been in other teams before and they are from the automotive business, so it’s always good if you have a certain new mix coming in there, maybe some new ideas come but I think Formula One teams are pretty independent. If you look at now the positions from new people coming in I think would have been a bit different if you look at team owners coming in, establishing their own team. That could still have maybe more effect  how the team is run and what the team stands for. But I think it’s now really of no relevance.

    FT: It’s a normal process. I don’t see anything special in this. Formula One is a very fast business, people are coming in, people are going and this is how it is.

    JB: Some of the people who are no longer on the pit wall were very big characters, always sorely missed, but I don’t think it will change the show at all.

    RF: I agree with John, there. From a personal point of view, I will dearly miss the people who are no longer here but Formula One will continue without even us and everyone else who matters. The sport is always bigger than any individual.

    CA: Yeah, unfortunately I don’t there are many different ways to operate Formula One. I think there is a model. Maybe it can be perceived by people outside the sport that it is a bit old-fashioned but actually even the people making the comment that it is old-fashioned which would change it once they are within the sport, they go back to the old model.

    Q: (Ian Parks – Press Assocation) Cyril and Franz; Jean-Michel Jalinier has revealed today that at least one of Renault’s customers has not paid its bill this season for the power unit supply and if that bill is not paid, has threatened to withdraw the power units for future races. Can you reveal whether you have or haven’t paid the bill and if not, what you make of Jean-Michel’s threat?

    FT: As far as I’m aware we have paid everything.

    CA: It’s a confidential issue but I’m happy since I’m on time to say that we are settled with invoices with Renault Sport F1.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) One of the fall-outs of this cost-cap versus improvements plans or whatever have been threats maybe that this will end up at the EU. Do you people – particularly Robert because you’ve been one of the most outspoken about this – do you believe that it will or should end up with the EU? Should there be EU intervention in these matters?

    RF: I don’t think that’s for Force India, Dieter. Force India doesn’t receive any subsidy payments, so it’s not in any possible contravention of any rules. I think that people who receive subsidy payments should be asking the questions themselves.

    I think you know, generally, between the teams that are receiving additional payments or subsidy payments as opposed to the teams that are receiving the standard column one, column two payments, so the teams that are receiving those extra payments need to look into it themselves. It’s not a case for us. Even there was contravention, we’re not doing it because we’re not receiving anything, but they need to look at it through their legal teams.

    MK: I think this topic regarding the European Union is not something that has just come up today. I think it goes back to a couple of Concorde Agreements before, it always just keeps coming up. At least I can say that the teams that have written to the ??? are certainly not threatened, excluding Franz here, he was not part of that, they’ve not threatened anyone. It’s just something which is very much there, as Bob has said. We don’t see ourselves in any danger. It’s more for the others to know what they’re doing or not and to assess the legal effects of that.

    FT: I think there’s enough politics in Formula One, we don’t need an additional party.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) I wanted to touch again on the F1 Strategy Group haves and have-nots kind of situation. Late last year when we discovered that this Strategy Group was coming into play, several of you made comments about the need for trust in a relationship where five of you weren’t going to be represented so for everyone except for Franz – because you are sort of represented – has the abandonment of the cost cap violated your trust in the Strategy Group moving forward?

    CA: It depends what comes next. As we say, we still believe that there was an unanimous agreement that would explore the possibility of a cost-cap. We understand that some experts from the FIA believe that it’s entirely possible, so on that basis we feel that we need to look at the issue properly and not stop in the middle of the bridge, so on that basis, we continue to trust the F1 Strategy Group. Obviously the first thing that we saw from the F1 Strategy Group was double points-scoring at the last race, so we would like to think that they can do better than that.

    MK: I agree with that. I think that as the name, and it’s been said already, as the name says, you do need always a smaller group and that’s very common for any bigger corporation which sits down and looks at strategy. We can understand certain memberships given in there because certainly they are bigger teams and can come up with the right ideas but as I said before, we have concerns now since we’ve seen what has happened with the cost cap.

    RF: I think that one has to question that when you have a group that it is clearly, from our point of view, bringing in recommendations that are favouring the people that are involved in that group then one has to question it and that is where we are at the moment.

    JB: First of all, we don’t accept that the cost cap is dead. We’re still working very much towards achieving that. I think it’s too early to say how successful the Strategy Group will or won’t be.

    FT: I trust the Strategy Group!

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph) Question first to Monisha and then Franz and then John; back to the crisis in Ukraine, have you seen any effects? You have relationships with companies inside Russia. Have you seen any effect on any potential partners or sponsors from the crisis and how will that affect you going forward?

    MK: We’ve definitely seen an effect because a lot of talks which are very advanced have virtually come to standstill because people are waiting and seeing what’s going to happen and nobody really knows the entire impact it can have because the sanctions that have now been imposed are really biting some of them, so they’re very careful which again means that we simply have to wait and there’s nothing we can do about it, so we really hope that the situation can be clarified soon and all our deals can be sorted out.

    FT: Yeah, of course the political situation affects our negotiations with companies in Russia because no one knows exactly which way it goes and I just hope that it will end up in a positive way and we will go to Sochi because that’s very very important and then I’m convinced within a short term period of time that everything comes back to normality.

    JB: At the moment, there’s no immediate impact but if it continues to escalate no one knows what will happen in the future.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) There’s obviously been a lot of questions directed today about cost-control, finances, etc., As five of the smaller teams on the grid, as we stand here today, what would you assess are the chances of the 11 teams that are currently in Formula One being on the grid for the first race of next season?

    MK: I really wouldn’t even want to give a percentage on that. Because clearly our target here is that all teams which are here today need to survive. Formula One needs this kind of diversity. This is what makes the show exciting and this is what allows sometimes a smaller team – as they call it – to even touch the front and get maybe a podium or two and that’s exciting for the whole show. So, I firmly want to believe that we will all make it and we certainly see it as our job, wherever we can do something, to make that happen.

    Robert?

    RF: I would hate to lose the diversity that we have. You should never underestimate the resolve of Formula One teams to survive. Historically it’s been proven it’s an amazing effort and I hope that with efforts than can be made, we can make it easier for people to survive by bringing in the cost controls and any other measures that are possible.

    Franz?

    FT: Difficult to say now. I can’t talk for the other teams. I just know that Toro Rosso will be on the starting grid. So far we are financed thanks to Red Bull, thanks to CEPSA, Nova Chemicals and Sapinda. For the next years we are on the financial side on good pillars.

    John?

    JB: We’ve battled every year through our short F1 lives for the last five years. We’ve been written off several times and we’re still here. I’m sure we’ll still be here at the start of 2015.

    Cyril?

    CA: Pretty much the same thing as John. I think we do, and will continue to do, every single thing that we can in order to be sustainable – not just next year but the following years. The one comment I would make is that we should not take anything for granted. Formula One is the pinnacle of  motorsport. We need to deserve our position on track and making reference to lap times. It’s not like once you are in there you should sit down and relax. That’s the sort of thing I will not accept as the CEO of this team. And therefore we need to do a better job on track because we need a lot of noise about the finance but at the end of the day it’s also lap times that matter – although that’s also connected to finance and the overall model – but we need to make sure to deserve our position on the grid.

    Q: (Thomas Maher – FormulaSpy.com) Question for Franz. Franz, Daniil Kvyat has had a pretty good start to his career – I think it’s three points finishes out of four – has he surprised you or exceeded the expectations of the team?

    FT: No. He is in plan. This is what we expected. He is a very high-skilled driver. He is working very committed and disciplined and therefore I expect that he will continue also in the future to be within the first ten.

    Q: (Sergio Lillo – Revista Scratch) Question to Franz. You have said this day that Daniil Kvyat will be a champion. I want to what kind of skills have he got to achieve this and what’s the difference between him and Vergne?

    FT: First of all, whether he will become a champion or not, we will see. I think that he has the abilities to do this but the complete environment must also be in place to become a champion. He is a very, very high-skilled driver, that means he is a huge talent. He is very committed to motorsports, he is passionate to motorsports, he is disciplined  and he is a very hard worker – and these are all the factors which are decisive, whether a driver wins races, and at the end championships, or not. Also Jean-Eric Vergne is a high-skilled driver and he is doing a very good job. If both drivers are being provided from the team with a proper car, then both of them can be successful.

    eom/FIA transcript

    Robert Fernley at the FIA press conference on Friday. A Sahara Force India image
    Robert Fernley at the FIA press conference on Friday. A Sahara Force India image

  • We need to take bigger steps than what other teams do: Alonso

    DRIVERS – Max CHILTON (Marussia), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Pastor MALDONADO (Lotus)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Daniil, can I start with you? Three points finishes, one 11th place, you must be quite pleased with the way things have started in the first four races?

    Daniil KVYAT: Yeah, it’s going quite OK now. A bit of a shame not finishing in the points in Bahrain as well, but anyway you have to learn from something. So far we’ve been a bit on the limit of the points zone, but I hope that we can make some good steps and become even a bit more competitive, so we can take points a bit more easily. It would be a really good step but we are working hard together and soon it will be reachable.

    So the story so far is that Jean-Eric Vergne your team-mate is three-one up on you in qualifying but you’re ahead of him in races. He’s had a few reliability issues in races but how do you see the balance between you, and your own progress?

    DK: I’m not really looking too deeply into these scores and so on. We’ve been quite close. Don’t forget that Jean-Eric is a very fast driver and he’s in the peak of his shape probably now. Also very experienced. In the wet I have to admit he was very fast so far and in Bahrain it was a dry quali. Of course, he’s also been having a bit of issues. But in China it was a very good balance. I was quite happy in the race. I was quicker than him at that point but in the end we have to see in the future races.

    Max, coming to you. The run continues: 23 consecutive finishes in your Formula One career, two 13th places so far this season, are you proud of what’s been achieved so far?

    Max CHILTON: Yeah, I am. Last year it wasn’t a perfect season but lots to take away from it. I remember someone asking me in me in Monza, I think, saying: ‘you’re 10 races in, that’s a good little record you’ve got going there’. And then I broke Tiago [Monteiro’s] record, which was 16 from a rookie start, and we though it would be nice to get to the end of the year, which we did. Credit to the team; that’s pretty good for a small team reliability-wise. And we’re four races in now and we’ve carried that on. It’s not our main goal, but where we are it’s absolutely crucial to finish the race as I’ve shown this year with the two 13ths. We did have good speed but we had to be there at the finish to make sure those results counted. So we will try to keep it going but our main focus is to try to get a bit more speed out of the car and myself.

    Apart from Malaysia, in the races where you and Caterham have both finished Marussia has tended to be in front of them. Can you say a little bit about how you see that battle and also about how close you feel you are now to the teams in front of you?

    MC: We’ve always had a good battle with Caterham. They kind of hold back sometimes, I think, in practice and qualifying and surprise us in the race. But I think this year, to me, our car is definitely better. We’re developing well. We’ve brought some good updates to here. I’m not sure if they have or not. It would be nice if we could push forward. Sauber hasn’t been too far ahead of us and we’ve been battling with them in at least the first few stints of the race and so… yeah, I guess you’ve got to focus on the cars in front, there’s no point in focusing on your mirrors, so we’ll try to improve our results this weekend.

    Thanks for that. Coming to you Pastor. Obviously you’re a former winner here in Barcelona. Lotus in Q3 in qualifying in China, running in the top 10 obviously. How would you describe progress within the team?

    Pastor MALDONADO: It’s clear that we have been progressing quite a lot in the last couple of races. Still maybe we were not at 100 per cent but we’ve been working really hard. Hopefully here with a bit more time, putting everything together we can be much more competitive and we can fight for good places. This is our main focus at the moment and I think we can. We have a good car, a good team. We have been not good enough with all the new engine system at the beginning but now it seems to be more clear in terms of technology, you know, controlling all the systems in the car and hopefully from this race to the end of the season it will be much better for us.

    We’ve heard about a lot of new parts on the car this weekend and also power unit upgrades from Renault. What are you expecting and what are you expecting from yourself this weekend?

    PM: I’m expecting to have no problems, a competitive car, and do my best. I the past I’ve been quite good here, so I think as soon as we manage to solve all the problems we will be back to fight for good places.

    Sebastian, Red Bull have announced that you have a new chassis this weekend, so I wonder if you could share with us what’s in it, why do you need it? Obviously, we’ve heard you saying that you don’t feel that the car was talking to you; maybe you’d like to elaborate on that. So, what are you looking for from this car and how close do you think you’re getting to finding it?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think we concluded after China, where we were quite a little bit behind to change the chassis, so actually it’s not a new chassis, it’s an old one that we used in testing in the winter, and we have some experience with it. It’s more a sanity check rather than a real problem with the other chassis. So it’s just to try everything we can and basically reset and start again. Obviously there is still a lot of work ahead of us, as I mentioned after the first couple of races, maybe I’m not as happy as I want to be but it’s a long process, a lot of things have changed and I think we need to be patient.

    Kevin, two-all versus Jenson, you personally have been three times in Q3, so Saturdays are going OK, but it’s been a rough couple of grands prix, the last two for you. Tell us about that?

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Well, I think I’ve learned a lot. It’s been good in many ways as well. Obviously we’re not where we want to be and we need to keep working really hard to get there. But I think I have learned a lot and there have been many positive points to take away from the last two races. It’s no secret that we are not where we want to be; it’s not that we’re happy or that I’m happy. We just need to work hard, keep working hard. The team is doing a great job. They are staying positive, although they are not happy with the position. They are staying strong and keeping the fighting spirit up. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy with how things are going in terms of the progress we’re making.

    It’s unusual for McLaren to have two races where you score no points with either car. How has the team reacted to that internally?

    KM: Well, in Bahrain I think we would have scored points. China was not good for us. It was a bit of a shock how far off the pace we were but again I think we learned a lot. We know China is probably the worst circuit for us at the moment, but we’ll just see how it goes here.

    Fernando, a two-time winner here, winner last year in a Ferrari. Tough start to the season clearly but third place last time out in China. How much encouragement has that given you and the team, and how big a step have you brought with you here this weekend in terms if updates?

    Fernando ALONSO: The China result is a boost for all the team – extra motivation to keep working hard. As you said we are not in a position we are happy with. We start with some deficit to the top teams, especially Mercedes who won the first four races and is dominating now with good margins, so we try to decrease that gap and we try to get closer and closer. To do that we need to make bigger steps than what the other teams will do. For here, to be honest, we need to wait and see. I think the characteristics of the circuit will help us a little bit, with not too big straights – only one here on the finish line. About the new parts, we bring some new parts but nothing out of this world. I don’t think we will be different compared to any other top team in terms on what we bring here, or even less. We need to see. As I said, track characteristics are the biggest help we have here.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: (Mathias Brunner – Speedweek.com) Sebastian, not to use the same chassis again, how much of a ‘black cat’ decision was that?

    SV: Not really. I think it’s not unusual to change chassis, generally. Obviously if you change, you change to a new one, but we decided, as I said before, to change back to an older chassis just to make sure nothing is wrong. Just to see, or basically change the things that you can, to have a reset and try again. We don’t think that there was anything wrong with the old chassis but nevertheless we decided to change, so if so we should get an answer this weekend.

    Q: (Jackob Melgaaro – Metro express Denmark) For Kevin, how do compare the car after the break to the car you drove at the last grand prix and how do feel about this track in Barcelona?

    KM: We don’t know how the car feels, we haven’t driven it yet since the last race, so we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t expect it to feel a lot different. We are bringing a few new parts but nothing that is going to change the world. This track is the first track on the calendar this year that I’ve been to before, so that’s nice. It’s nice to be in Europe again, so feeling a bit more at home. So I’m looking forward to it.

    Q: (Manuel Franco Peral – Diario AS) Fernando, podium is a real goal for you here in Spain?

    FA: No, I don’t think so. We cannot start the weekend thinking to be on the podium. Or thinking to win the race. That will be creating… y’know, false targets to everyone who will come here. We finished ninth and tenth in Bahrain, we did podium in China because we had some things putting together on that Sunday but it’s not that we are in a position now to say we will fight for the podium here. We will do our best but we know it is going to be a tough weekend and it’s not going to be easy. But, you never know, this is sport and anything can happen but today, sitting here, if I tell you that I will fight for the podium, probably I will lie to you and I don’t want to do so for all the people coming.

    Q: (Renan Do Couto – Warm Up) Question for Fernando. Fernando, after four races this season Kimi has only 11 points. At the same point last season Felipe Massa had 30 points. Does it show that Ferrari need much more than a driver-change to get back on the title fight?

    FA: I don’t know really. We are not in a position at the moment that we expect. We thought to be more competitive and we struggle, as everyone sees, at the start of the season. I think it is the same for all the teams that we are facing some problems, apart from Mercedes, they had an easy four races, four wins. But, you know, we will work hard. We will work hard to come back in a better position and the start of Felipe or the start of Kimi was not the best in terms of points but I think hopefully soon they will be close to the podium or to the victories and we, both Ferraris, can score many points for the team.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport-Bild) Question to Fernando. When I listen to your, let me say, remembrance from China, between the lines I could hear that maybe the driver was better than the car in this weekend – or on the Sunday?

    FA: I think the car is always what it is. The car never changes. The driver, also, sometimes you have better luck, sometimes you have worse luck. In China, for example, I have a crash at the start and nothing happened to my car and I could finish the race. I think the Red Bulls, they were fighting a little bit, they lost a little bit of time and I could be there. My pitstops were very quick. In the first stop I overtook Sebastian in that lap, so there were many factors together that put us on the podium. But, y’know, we need to do very special weekends to be on the podium and China was one of those. Lucky. And some other factors. So arriving here, sitting on Thursday on the next press conference. To repeat that podium will be unbelievable. But it’s not, at the moment, our main target.

    Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) My question is for Sebastian and Fernando. You are the champions. How long can you work without first place in the podium?

    SV: Well, I think – and Fernando will probably say the same – we’re here to win. I’m not coming here to finish second or fifth – but you have to be realistic and the target is always to get the maximum out of yourself, out of the car, out of the package that you have. And you can get a lot of satisfaction if you achieve that. So, it means basically if a podium is in reach or P5 is the best you can do then you need to ensure to become fifth. If you then become seventh it is not satisfying. But surely, ultimately we are here to win. That’s the target but obviously you know much better what’s going on inside your team and how competitive you are. So yeah, there’s a lot of things that need to come together. Right now, obviously, we have Mercedes in a very, very strong position. Difficult to beat but never impossible.

    FA: Unfortunately I have a lot more experience! So, yeah, there is nothing really you can do apart from try to do the best job you can and try to find different goals. Obviously we are here all to win. My last win was last year, here. So it’s one year without victories. I would like not to have that long period. On the other hand, we are 22 drivers on the grid and maybe 20 are in a worse position than me. So, I cannot also be… y’know, blaming my luck for that. I’m extremely lucky and a very privileged guy, so, you need to keep working and if your boss is happy with you, that’s something very important.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Sebastian, Christian said in Autosport today that you are extremely sensitive to rear stability on corner entry. But that was… last year you were using the rear instability to turn the car into the corners. Can you explain what it is about this year’s car that you don’t like and why you’ve not been able to adapt to it so far?

    SV: Well, I think generally we all have our own style to how we like to drive the car, how to set up the car. I think in general I don’t mind when the rear’s moving so I don’t mind suffering or having oversteer in the car. But if it is too much obviously if it starts to bother you when the car slides too much, then you find yourself correcting more than actually being able to push or get the maximum out of the car. And, yeah, it slows you down. I think that has been part of the problem so far. There’s lots of reasons behind it so it would be nice to have just one problem and one fix for that but obviously it got a lot more complex this year. There’s a lot more factors than just the car setup. So yeah, we’re still learning a lot. We did already a lot of improvement but there’s still obviously a lot to do. But I think generally you never change your… the way you like to drive a car or your style I think doesn’t change.

    Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) Question for Sebastian. You’re changing now chassis. You have spent four races with problems behind Daniel Ricciardo. Do you feel this time you have lost is a bad thing for you for your own progress during the season and could affect the rest of the season for you?

    SV: Surely if I had won the first four races it would be better for my season that what I did! Yeah, it is what it is. There’s two ways. You can always look back and try to find something to complain about – or you can look forward. And I think in general we are trying to look forward to the next race. There’s a lot more races this year to come and for sure we didn’t score as many points as we hoped. But then again after winter testing I think we were in a very bad position. I think right from the first race it was probably better than what we initially expected.  Lots of positives with Daniel’s podium in Australia – which obviously got taken away – but then the podium in Malaysia showed that we are on the right track but knew, just reading the feeling inside the car that it’s not yet where we want to be. And you also see that in the results. As I said, there is a lot of work but I think we are generally quite good in getting the maximum out of the car. At the moment there’s a couple of things that we need to get on top of and then it should be a different story.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph): Seb, looking forward it’s no secret that your car’s good in the corners but not so good at the straight bits in between. How much are you and the team – particularly considering it’s the start of the European season – relying on Renault to make a big step forward for you to mount some kind of a championship challenge?

    SV: As you mentioned, it’s not a big secret. If you look at the sector times or comparisons that we have available, we currently lose out too much on the straights – but there’s always hope, obviously. Again, you have to look at it from the start. Where we started in winter testing was unfortunately way, way off compared to where we wanted to, in all means. Talking about the car, we set fire to the car nearly every run. Talking about the engine, obviously we were not on the same page that we expected to be, both in terms of reliability and performance. So, since that, I think we had a very, very strong comeback but obviously you miss that time of development. But I think there’s always hope. Just look at Ferrari, for example, the last race, the step that they did was mostly in straight line. I think they got a better fuel and picked up around 7kph on the straights. So… we know that our disadvantage is more than 7kph to the Mercedes which are currently the benchmark down the straights but things can change quickly. We need to make sure we push 100 per cent on the car and also on the engine side. In the end we are a team: Renault and Red Bull Racing, so both parties know that we need to push very hard to make sure that we beat these guys and also the currently strongest team with Mercedes.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Sebastian, you’re changing chassis at this race, why not a new chassis? And the second part: does the chassis have a name?

    SV: Same as before. It’s not that much of a black cat, I hope.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, this morning Toto Wolff said that you are a real race monster. He said that Ferrari is the biggest enemy in the championship; what do you think of these words?

    FA: About the monster, it depends how you take it. At least he’s a man. If it was a woman who said that I was a monster it would be even worse. We need to do it step by step. As I said, we need to be realistic with the position that we have. We will not give up, there’s a big gap and a big gap in points and in performance with Mercedes but there’s still a long way to go in the championship so we will try to do our best. As a team, and with the potential that Ferrari has, we must do anything we can to close that gap and to become competitive. That will not happen between one race to the next one, that will be a slow recovery and hopefully not too late when we become competitive in terms of points to fight for the championship but let’s do it race by race. China, as I said, was a combination of things and very good luck to get that podium. Here in Barcelona, it’s a good point to check how competitive we are, because it’s a circuit with different characteristics again and a circuit that will give us an answer in some of the parameters and some of the areas that we need to find some answers. Monaco is the next one, then Canada – again a completely different circuit so we are in a moment of the championship that will tell us many many things  in terms of how competitive we can be and how much of a threat we can be for Mercedes. If they count on us for the championship fight, it’s good news because they respect us but we need to deliver if we want to really become a threat, so we are on that, that work.

    Q: (Silvia Reneé Arias – Parabrisas) Fernando, I want to know if you find any change in the Ferrari team after Stefano Domenicali left?

    FA: Not really. At the moment, everything is more or less the same. I have been in Maranello last week. Everything is calm and no big changes, nothing really that you’re going to spot that is different at the moment. As I said in China, Marco (Mattiaci) arrived – as we said – with little experience in motor racing, a lot of experience on the managerial side but he’s listening, he’s learning as quickly as he can in everything. I don’t think Marco wants to become an engineer because that’s not his priority at the moment but he will need some time to settle down and to make some changes, some decisions if he thinks they are needed. As I said, in the two or three weeks that he’s in the job, nothing has really changed at the moment. He needs more time.

    Q: How much are you guiding him; how much are you contributing to that?

    FA: We had some meetings, obviously, to try to help him in all the areas. He’s quite interested to listen to everyone. He called all the engineers and all the engine side,  electronics, the drivers, we are going to his office and try to explain all our points of view and all our requirements. As I said, he’s taking note of everything and he will make the necessary changes, what he thinks is best for the team. Hopefully that’s a good thing for Ferrari to move forward and to improve some things, some historical mistakes that we’ve made in the past and we will see if this fresh approach… and not influence about any technical things because, as I said, he’s not an engineer. Hopefully that will help Ferrari.

    Q: (Valenti Fradera – L’Esportiu) To all of you: the circuit Barcelona Catalunya used to be the venue of choice for pre-season testing but this year you haven’t run here yet. Will that change how you approach the weekend, and will we get to see more laps than usual tomorrow during free practice?

    PM: Even without any tests, it will be same approach as the other tracks, for sure. I was quite interested to run before this season, because it’s a good track, a good combination of corners, good weather but it’s what we have so it will be the same.

    MC: Yeah, it will be pretty similar. Obviously when we’ve come here in the past we’d pretty much know the ideal set-up for the circuit. Obviously the cars have changed drastically since last year so there will be a lot more to find out now we haven’t done any pre-season (testing) here. And we’ve now got the extra set(of tyres) in the first thirty minutes of free practice which we can use so there will definitely be more laps completed but if you compare it to China, for example, it won’t be any different.

    Q: Kevin and Dan are obviously rookies (in F1) but you’ve got personal experience of this circuit, even if it’s not necessarily in Formula One.

    KM: I don’t think it’s going to be a lot different – the approach to this weekend than the other weekends. Personally, I like this track, I think it’s a good track, the mix of corners. As I’ve said before, it’s a track that I’ve been to a lot of times, so it’s nice to feel at home here but other than that, it’s just a normal weekend.

    DK: For me as a driver I don’t think it’s going to change a lot compared to other years we’ve been coming here. It’s my first time here in Formula One as well so let’s see how it will start going tomorrow.

    SV: I don’t think it makes a difference. We didn’t run in Bahrain. I think that even if we had had the test here in the winter it would make a difference. But usually it’s quite cold in winter time, so when you come here in May it’s quite a big difference, so you need to use the time that you have available in free practice, but I don’t think we can run as much as we’d like to because we’ve all got the safety… the engines. We will see, but for sure the running tomorrow will be important.

    FA: Nothing to add, really.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) To all of you: when you have one driver from a team that has a car that is winning everything – like Mercedes – and your team needs to win three times in a row (to catch them up), how does it work for teammates? For example, the guy who is behind, does it stimulate him to try to win or does it work in the opposite direction?

    FA: Yeah, I said waiting for Rosberg. I don’t know really. For this, when it happens, it was a question for Mark last year, when Sebastian won nine times. For Rosberg now. It’s not so difficult to know what you’re experiencing. Probably I will answer because I will have the experience, but now… of course, I think Rosberg would like to win, that’s for sure.

    SV: I would hate Lewis now, if I was Nico.

    PM: I would hate Lewis as well. It’s a difficult answer. For sure, you always want to beat your teammate, you always want to do your best and to be ahead of your most close contender. For sure, it’s not ideal to always be at the back but in my opinion, they are both competitive, sometimes one is quicker than the other and sometimes it’s vice versa. It’s a difficult answer because it depends about any driver.

    MC: It would be nice to be in that position, obviously. It’s hard to beat someone who never gives up and Rosberg, I’m sure, will never give up. I’m sure he will get his fair share of wins back. Sometimes if you’re constantly winning you sometimes let things slip so if you just make sure you just keep giving 100 percent, he will definitely get other race wins.

    KM: I don’t have anything to add.

    DK: I don’t want to talk for others but if I have to talk for myself there’s never a huge friendship between teammates so I think you always want to be in front of everyone and there are some circumstances, sometimes if you’re teammate is in front of you, it means that there is something that you can maybe do better but once again, there are different circumstances.

    ends/FIA release

  • The fans have been incredible this week: Lewis Hamilton after his hat-trick

    Hamilton with the cup after winning the Chinese GP. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton with the cup after winning the Chinese GP. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Three consecutive for Lewis Hamilton – how about that? Great stuff, Lewis. That looked, from where we were sitting, incredibly easy. How was it for you?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Ni hao. The fans have been incredible this week, so I really felt a lot of energy but I really couldn’t do this without all the hard work from the team, it’s incredible. Honestly, I just can’t believe how amazing the car is, and how hard everyone has worked. The results we’re getting is a real true showing of all the hard work.

    Absolutely incredible. You were radioing in and saying ‘my tyres feel good’ and everybody else was screaming to come into the pits. The first stint was just beautiful for you.

    LH: Yeah. Surprisingly, again, as I said, after P2 I had to make a lot of changes in anticipation of today, even though yesterday was wet, but it worked perfectly and I was able to look after the tyres. After that I was just really racing myself. I did lose a lot of time after the first stop but still it was great. I am really happy that Nico is up here with us, it’s great points for the team and they really deserve it.

    You had one little trip off the circuit, obviously when the front tyres were finally going away. A little fright there for you?

    LH: No, no, fortunately there’s lots of run-off area. Basically the left front is the one that’s graining and wearing and I’d gone quite a lot longer than I’d planned and eventually the tyre was dead so I locked it, but it was OK and I recovered.

    Nico, you still lead the Formula One World Championship so some consolation in that respect?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, definitely. That’s there. I’m not going to use the word still because I plan to keep it that way. Definitely in the lead and that’s good. Especially considering that the whole weekend was really, really bad for me. It went completely wrong in so many different respects. Also, in the race we had no telemetry so there was no communication between the car and the pits, so they had no idea what was going on on track and that’s why the start was also so bad and a lot of things came together. So I’m pleased with second and I just look forward to a normal weekend again in Barcelona, full attack again.

    Yeah it was a bad start. Take us through that first corner when you had contact with Valtteri Bottas in the Williams.

    NR: It was just very close, there were cars all over the place. Just had a bit of contract there and it was great that my car held on.

    Then you had to make your way back through the field. You had a little bit of fun coming through?

    NR: It’s really a pleasure to drive this car at the moment. It’s incredible the car that the team has built – fantastic. So thanks to the whole team. And Mercedes. This thing is so quick. It really increases the enjoyment level even further.

    Let’s talk to Fernando Alonso, third for Ferrari. I know there are a lot of Ferrari fans out there and of course Fernando Alonso fans. Fernando, you beat the Red Bulls and you’re third only behind the Mercedes Benz cars. You must be really satisfied with that.

    Fernando ALONSO: Hello everybody, first of all. It was a good weekend. We did improve the car a little bit compared to the first three races, so we felt more competitive and now in the race being here on the podium is some kind of surprise for us, a nice surprise finally. Happy with a podium finish today. I think I’m third in the Drivers’ Championship behind these two guys. So we didn’t have the start of the season that we would like but at the end of the day we’re still in the fight.

    Just briefly you had a big contact with Felipe Massa going into the first corner. You were lucky [there] with no suspension damage.

    FA: Yeah, it was a big contact. I asked on the radio ‘can you check the car’, because it felt OK but I don’t know how it looks from the outside, but it was OK and we managed very lucky to finish the race and hopefully next one it will be a clean start.

    Lewis, we’re back to tracks you know well, obviously Barcelona, you’ve got some testing coming up. Surely you can’t keep improving this car?

    LH: Well, this team is a on a roll that’s for sure. The team have done a great job, as I said. We’re going to keep pushing; we’re going to keep moving forwards. That’s what Mercedes Benz want to do. They want to keep moving forward, developing, hopefully improving the engine, also the car. But as I said, I’m going to be working hard, we’re going to keep working hard because obviously the others are pushing to catch us up. So I hope it continues.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, congratulations, a three-time winner here. How does that feel?

    LH: It feels incredible. I just have to shout out a big thank you, thank you so much to the team, firstly for embracing me into the team last year and for all the hard work and for them continuously pushing forward. I really hope that the guys back at the factory are enjoying this and really have a great week. I’m so, so happy. I had such a great race, really enjoyed it, particularly the last few laps, y’know? Really trying to keep temperature in the tyres, pushing a little bit more, just to keep temperature up and the car was great.

    Q: You spoke about the work being done in FP2 and then of course the car was good enough for pole in the wet and then good enough to win in the dry. How perfect was it?

    LH: The car was really good. As I said, made lots of changes overnight on Friday night and obviously it was wet for qualifying. So I didn’t get to feel… I didn’t know what it was going to be like today. And really just that hard work sitting down with the engineers, really choosing… we didn’t guess, we really made those steps in anticipation for today and it worked perfectly. I couldn’t really have asked for more.

    Q: The only really big surprise I guess was getting the chequered flag a lap early – which could have tripped you up.

    LH: That was very strange! I was thinking ‘am I seeing things?’ I looked up, I was coming across the line expecting to do another lap and all of a sudden I looked for a split second and I saw the flag, I lifted for a second and I saw there was no-one on the wall, so then I just kept going. I did lose a second or so. I asked the team, they said no, so I just kept going. Very, very strange. It was good to do another lap.

    Q: Nico, you said so many things went wrong. What was your set-up like from Friday FP2 though to the race itself?

    NR: It was all OK. Set-up-wise it was a good team effort this weekend. Because it’s a very unique track here with the understeer being the main problem and the front-left tyre, so you really have to change everything, adapt to the needs of the track and we did well as a team. It wasn’t perfect in the race but it was definitely… pretty good.

    Q: As you played catch-up from the start you could really see what your strengths were in comparison to other cars.

    NR: Yeah, definitely. We have the best car, y’know, and that makes it more enjoyable then to do catch-up, even though of course don’t want to do any catch-up – but I was back there so then catching up was nice with this fast car. It’s a good weapon.

    Q: Then we heard you not entirely happy giving a fuel report every lap.

    NR: No! My telemetry failed, yeah? So I was completely on my own out there. The team then never… doesn’t see any information from the car, so they have nothing to do. Er… well not… they do have things to do! So I had to do all the things on my own out there and, for example, it was then telling the team what my fuel level is so that they could judge if I was using too much fuel or if I’m safe – and I had to do that in Turn One y’know and Turn One is a difficult corner anyways, so yeah, didn’t enjoy that point.

    Q: Fernando, first of all, first podium this year for Ferrari, how satisfying is that?

    FA: It is. Obviously we had a difficult start of the season with some lack of performance in the first races and, y’know it’s good to be on the podium here on the fourth race after a not-easy weekend with changeable weather conditions and a difficult race as well, as Nico touched on. I think with the tyres, being a unique track with the front graining that you need to take care, plus some actions because we were not alone on the race. We managed, I think, quite well to get this podium and this is hopefully some boost of the team and some extra motivation y’know, to keep improving and to do even better in the next couple of races.

    Q: And again, the set-up from FP2 to the race, how good was that?

    FA: I think we make very few changes to be honest, from FP1 to now in the race. We brought some new parts here, a small step that probably we are a little bit more competitive now and we concentrate on Friday testing those parts and not much set-up work to be honest. Yesterday on the wet conditions, now in these days it’s not much to do, wet to dry anyway, so, as I said, the setup, my feeling was quite OK from Friday to now.

    Q: The podium here, what can you promise your home fans at the next grand prix at home?

    FA: We need to see. We need to remain very calm. It has been a very unique race, we make a step forward. We were ninth and tenth fifteen days ago and that was hard, pain a little bit. So, yeah, we need to remain calm. We are happy, we need to enjoy the result today but still a long way to go and we cannot promise anything for Barcelona. We will give 100 per cent again and we will fight – but in terms of result we need to remain very calm and see how development is these three weeks if we can bring some extra new parts for Barcelona.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, when you said that you had to report your fuel consumption or fuel level to the pit lane every lap, why is that? Wouldn’t it be easier that you saw on the dashboard a plus or minus and then you could drive on your own rather than talking to your pits?

    NR: Yeah, you’re right. Just that I didn’t have that function, probably because we don’t really need that normally. It’s fine like that, it’s just reporting once in a while to the paddock. It wasn’t every lap, you know, it was just once in a while so they can put a few dots and see where it’s going. That’s it. So that wasn’t a problem at all, it was just that I didn’t like where I had to do it because it was in turn one and that was not good.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Fernando, you said several times that Ferrari needs a global improvement but is there a priority in this situation, to try to get closer to Mercedes?

    FA: Well, of course it is a priority, we need to close, we need to catch them as soon as possible before the championship is over, so we need to keep scoring points, as many as we can now that we are not super-competitive, try not to lose too much ground on points in the championship, and if in one race we become as competitive as them, try to catch up in terms of points. At the moment, it seems very far away because they have a big advantage and we need to work really hard if we want to have that possibility. There is nothing really special we can do, just don’t give up; we’re in the fourth race in the championship, there ‘s still a long way go but being super-realistic, knowing that the gap is very very big it’s going to be very tough.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) Fernando, how can you understand this race? In the last one, you finished a long way behind the Mercedes; this time you were seven seconds behind Nico. Is it the characteristics of the track or the new parts that you brought that has made the car so fast?

    FA: I think it was a combination. As I said, we brought new parts that feel a little more competitive – the car feels a little bit faster – we also tested in Bahrain, they felt OK and we confirmed that here. On the other hand, I personally have had an extremely good weekend, probably at the level of 2012 in terms of driving and feeling comfortable with the car, qualifying, Friday, today. In Bahrain, we were one minute behind the leaders, ninth and tenth and today we are on the podium, seven seconds behind Nico as I said, but Kimi’s one minute behind the leaders. I think it’s a combination. Hopefully I can keep going like this. I felt more comfortable with the car and we will not give up.

    Q: (Alexander Aucott – China Radio International) Lewis, you mentioned the support of the Chinese fans on the podium. Have you seen an increase in support over the years here and is it something that makes them unique here at Shanghai?

    LH: Every year I come here, I feel that the fan base – at least my fan base – feels like it’s growing every year here. Growing up in Stevenage, I never ever thought that I would fly halfway round the world and have so many people who chose to wear my cap, to wear my top, to have my flag and really support me. It’s absolutely phenomenal, and here it’s maybe my second year, I think, that from the moment I’m at the airport – I don’t know how they know I’m there but they know I’m there – it’s almost like they radio to the guys at the hoteland when I get to the hotel – I don’t know how they know I’m at that hotel – but they’re there every morning, every evening, day and night and that’s why I always say we win and we lose together. This morning and on the way, one of my fans she gave me like a digital photo frame and on it, they did a special video for me from all the fan base here and for me, it’s touched my heart so much so I want to say a big thank you to all of them.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) Nico, all the other teams have set their sights on the Barcelona race as their best chance to improve their performance with the novelties on their cars, so how confident is Mercedes that the things you’re going to bring to Barcelona will keep the gap or maybe even extend the gap you have to the other teams?

    NR: Hopefully, more than all the other teams; we want to go to Barcelona with the biggest step, that’s our ambition. Barcelona is a chance for us to extend the advantage that we have and that’s the approach that we have going to Barcelona, 100 percen

     

    eom

  • F1, the foremost single-seat racing, should be in the forefront of technology, says Charlie Whiting

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Pat FRY (Ferrari), Charlie WHITING (FIA), Yasuhisa ARAI (Honda), Andy COWELL (Mercedes AMG HPP), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport F1)

     PRESS CONFERENCE

    If we can start with you Charlie? The new power units have excited a lot of debate since the beginning of the year. Will you once again briefly take us through the philosophy behind this technology and why F1 believes it was the right time to introduce it?

    Charlie WHITING: I think it was fairly clear, we’re going back a little while now, that Formula One, being the foremost single seat category, should be at the forefront of technology. I think bit was also clear at the time that the motor manufacturers were also looking towards conservation. So we felt we had to go that way. I think to ignore that would have been rather silly. I think we would have possibly lost some manufacturers and certainly deterred others from coming in.

    I guess efficiency plays a part in that as well?

    CW: Of course that was the major goal. We started four years ago with the engine manufacturers. We had quite big meeting with lots of them assembled in Paris. It was the 27th of April, in fact, in 2010. We assembled them all together and the initial goal was to have a 50 per cent increase in efficiency but over a period of time that became diluted somewhat because it appeared that was rather ambitious for the start of this new engine era. So we ended up with what we have now and that is an engine that everyone can see is about 35 per cent more efficient than the previous engines.

    So, Andy Cowell, does that represent a small step in the right direction or a giant leap?

    Hamilton tops timesheet in FP2 at Shanghai on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton tops timesheet in FP2 at Shanghai on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    Andy COWELL: It represents a giant leap – going from internal combustion engines, naturally aspirated at about 30 per cent thermal efficiency up to engines where we’re all targeting 40 per cent thermal efficiency is a huge step, a huge introduction of new technology both on the internal combustion engine for efficiency and also on the two energy recovery systems that we’ve got on the power unit.

    What do Mercedes expect to get from this project in terms of technology that can be eventually transferred to the road? Is that a long way in the future or is it already happening?

    AC: It’s already happening. The regulations were specifically written to take some of the ideas are already in the road car world, so downsizing, downspeeding and turbocharging but adding some new, interesting technologies in there such as the electric turbocharger as a specific example and those sort of projects are already being worked on.

    Can I ask the same question of Rob White. What does Renault expect to get from this project in terms of road cars.

    Rob WHITE: It’s a big leap, as Andy says. I share the remarks that transfers are already happening. The transfers are not only specific technologies, the e-turbo being one of them, but also the fundamental alignment of the mission we have. Our challenge now is to race, to go as fast as we can with the given fuel allocation, which is a very, very similar mission to our road car colleagues who have to use the smallest amount of fuel to get a given mission done and that’s extremely close.

    There’s been quite a lot of talk about how the power units are contributing to racing and we’ve heard some unusual suggestions for things might be changed. Firstly, do you think there are problems with the racing this year? Secondly, what do you think of ideas such as shortening races, raising fuel limits etc. Do those suggestions miss the point?

    RW: The main problem I see so far is that Andy has won rather more than I’d like and we have win less than I’d like. The specific suggestions are just shifting the goalposts rather than doing anything fundamental and I think as Charlie indicated the basic parameters that we’re now racing with were decided well upstream in sufficient time that we knew what to do with them. I honestly feel that the numbers were well judged and I think the 100kg/h fuel limit and the 100kg for the race, as well as having the benefit of being nice round numbers, also play out more or less as predicted in terms of the level of performance and the level of fuel saving needed to get to the end of the race. I think we’ve seen in the early races that there hasn’t been an excessive amount of fuel saving that would perhaps have damaged the show. I think we’ve seen more recently, particularly in Bahrain… We all enjoyed the race there, it was the first one I saw from the comfort of my living room and it was certainly an exciting one to watch.

    Now we’ve heard from two of the manufacturers currently involved in F1 but let’s get the thoughts of a manufacturer that will next year return to the sport after six seasons away? Thank you very much Mr Arai for coming to our press conference. What is it in the new regulations that has encouraged Honda to come back into Formula One at this time?

    Yasuhisa ARAI: Thank you very much. I am delighted to be here and to be given this opportunity by the FIA to speak at this conference. As you mentioned we will return in the year 2015 for the Formula One. One of the major reasons for our decision was the new regulation introduced this year and that the various environment… I mean green technologies in the new Formula One power unit, as well as the total energy management are both very challenging and significant. The new regulation encourages each power unit supplier to pursue the ultimate combustions efficiency and high pressure direct injections, such as many, many new technology. Thus the challenge is to convert each unit of gasoline into energy and this is expected to be reflected on the huge production mode. That’s the reason why.

    Q: You’re setting up a new base at Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. What will that facility be responsible for in the coming years?

    YA: That, we will open June this year. Now still under construction but that factory is to do the engine maintenance for the races and rebuilding the Formula One engine and also to go to the race-track for the trackside service. That’s Milton Keynes.

    Q: Pat, as someone more responsible for the chassis side of things at Ferrari, let’s talk about how you integrate these new power units with the cars. Have you found that the chassis and engine departments have needed to work closer together this year or is the relationship pretty much the same as always?

    Pat FRY: I think with the changes to the power unit this year, there’s obviously a huge amount more technology to understand and that has definitely pulled the chassis department and the engine department closer together. That starts everywhere from the simple, basic simulations that you do before an event to tuning the car. Everything is now inter-related. So where you used to play with a diff and brake balance and whatever, you’ve now got all the various ERS levels of charging and deciding what to do with waste gates and turbos. So there’s a huge amount more interaction between the two groups.

    Q: Has the engine department given you a power unit on the minimum weight or are you having to shed weight from the car?

    PF: We’re fairly close to the weight limit. I’m sure everyone is struggling. The combination of an engine on the weight limit and just all the bits and pieces we want on a standard car, it’s quite a challenge to get down to the weight limit anyway. But yeah, we’re just on that limit.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question to Andy and Rob and Mr Arai if you would like to contribute as well please: Andy, you were talking about 40 per cent efficiency. Now, we’ve got relatively immature technology at the moment. What sort of progress in terms of efficiency do you engine manufacturers foresee over the seven-year lifecycle of these engines?

    AC: It’s a difficult one to predict. We’re working hard to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, make sure that every single drop of fuel that goes in… and that’s where working with Petronas helps tremendously to get us to the point we’re at today and to move forwards race by race with fuel developments. And then it’s just mastering the conversion efficiencies – so every single step where we’re converting the energy, just improving little by little and then with a new power unit homologated next year. I guess I’m not coming up with a prediction for exactly how much we’re going to improve year by year – but I imagine it’s going to be very similar to when we were in the naturally-aspirated era, where there were times when we thought 13,000rpm was impressive and we all ended up well over 20,000rpm. So it’ll be a similar level of development.

    Rob?

    RW: I think Andy was cautious when saying 40 per cent. I think to be competitive you need to be a bit better than 40 per cent already. I think we shouldn’t underestimate just how important that is in terms of automotive technology. I think these power units are fantastic pieces of kit in terms of the raw, thermal efficiency that is achieved. Better than any road car engine by a margin. And I think it’s also important to draw attention to the fact that the energy management challenge is also part of the real efficiency of the race car which is in addition to the thermal efficiency of the power unit. There will be rapid progress even during the course of this year. We’ve seen progress in the early races without any change to the underlying hardware. That’s something that will continue during the season. That’s something that will take another step forward over the winter – as Andy as suggested – when we homologate a new version of the power unit for 2015. This is another mirror-image of what happens in the big, wide world outside, where every iteration of our road car product brings with it a significant step forward in fuel consumption, which of course is the same thing for us: a step forward in performance for the same fuel flow or fuel limit.

    Mr Arai, would you like to comment or is it a bit too early for you to make any predictions.

    YA: There is a strange feeling because our door for 2015 is still not open yet. So I can make just a small comment. How to make the good efficiency is just a three major fields. Technology fields. One is combustion itself – combustion chamber design, another one is how to recover the energy, that’s very important for these new regulations and finally the torque management. Positive and negative torque management is very important to make a good, fast car. That’s my comment.

    Q: (Gary Anderson – Autosport) As you were saying Andy, revs, that’s always been the push, everybody wanted to get more revs, more revs, more revs. This year the regulation maximum is 15,000 but on a good day you might see twelve. Do you see that changing, and if it did change do you see that helping the noise?

    AC: You’re correct with regard to the revs that we’re running on the track. I don’t see that changing, I don’t see the need for the revs to change to change the noise of the power unit. The principal reason why the engine is quieter is the turbine wheel and the muffling effect that you get from that. That’s one of the key technologies for recycling the waste energy that would normally go down the tailpipe so it’s a key aspect of the technology that we’ve got. There are other things we can do though with the tailpipe, perhaps, to change the noise.

    Q: (Gary Anderson – Autosport) Could I just add a second part: why is it 12,000 rpm instead of 15,000rpm?

    AC: The fundamental reason is the fuel flow rate formula so you get the 100 kilograms per hour once you’re at 10,500 rpm. If you rev an engine faster, you generate more friction and friction is the enemy of an engine and the enemy of a race car because you have to reject it to the radiators and there’s then an aerodynamic deficit from doing that. None of us want to be below 10,500 rpm but none of us want to be at high revs because all you do is create heat.

    RW: There’s not much to add. The fuel flow curve, the fuel law is the thing that fixes the engine speed as Andy indicated. We hear a little bit less about the slope below 10,500 than the maximum which is 100 kilos but it is that knee point that fixes the rpm at which the engines make the best power and best efficiency and the engine speed above that is to do with the spread needed to pass the gear ratios.

    Q: (Marc Surer – Sky Germany) It’s in a similar direction, my question for the motor engineers: what can you do to increase the noise? There’s a lot of talk about it but I haven’t heard a solution yet.

    RW: First thing to say is that the noise of the current engine is a consequence of the overall layout, the architecture and so forth. I think in terms of the possible adjustments to change the noise it makes, I think we’re at the beginning of a consultative process that will kick off in about an hour’s time. Andy’s alluded to tail pipe changes – that’s something that could be a way to go. I think the scope to fundamentally and profoundly alter the noise of the engines is extremely limited by the type of technology that we have deployed and therefore I think we need to be realistic about the scope of any action that we might take but of course we’re sensitive to the subject and we’ll certainly participate in any of the studies that might lead to actions being taken.

    PF: I think the engine people in the room know the problem a lot more than I do. I think what Andy said about… you’ve got the turbo there to try and take all the energy that we can out, so it’s always going to be quieter. There’s a round of meetings starting today, in fact, that will discuss and try and work out how to improve the situation.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mr Arai, if we have a look at Mercedes, they’re supplying their own team and three customers. Renault are doing four customers; Ferrari are doing one plus two. Next year, you’ve got McLaren. Could you give us some insight into your plans for both 2015 and thereafter in terms of customer teams, whether your relationship with McLaren actually permits that, please?

    YA: So, for year 2015, McLaren is our only customer. I don’t think about the future, because we want to concentrate on next season.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) I understand your philosophy there but surely you must have done costing and recovery against the units and that must surely include some sort of sale or customer-type project or do you not have any plans for customers at all?

    YA: Of course we want to have good results next season and see the results from other manufacturers. Please chose our power unit for next season. If teams want to use our engine or power unit, we can deliver after year 2016 but right now there are no plans.

    Q: (Gary Anderson – FOM) Rob, it’s been fairly well documented that you obviously haven’t started the season the way you intended to. Do Renault need any concessions from other manufacturers or the FIA, to do the improvements that you need or are you happy to work within the regulations and do what you’re allowed at the moment to catch up?

    RW: I think the first thing to say is that the technical and sporting regulations are the same for all the engine suppliers. We knew what we were getting into and we’re in it now. We’re not lobbying for any regulatory change. I think that for the time being our priority is to continue the recovery actions that we’ve put in place and I expect to pursue that over the course of this season.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Question to Charlie: the rules allow changes to the engines if it is for reliability, cost-saving and safety. But let’s say if you do a change for reliability reasons and you make a certain component stronger, isn’t that – let’s say – automatically gaining horsepower through the back door?

    CW: I think that the system that we have now is the same as it’s been since 2006. If an engine manufacturer asks for changes for reliability, we always assess that, we always try to see if there is a possible – as you put it – back door route to get more performance but we are absolutely confident that the changes that we’ve allowed so far this season are purely for reliability and we also have the fall-back of consulting all the other engine manufacturers so if we agree to some changes for reliability and we then circulate it among the other engine manufacturers, they have the opportunity to highlight any potential back door treatment, as you put it.

    eom/FIA transcript of Friday Press Conference