Your basket is currently empty!
Tag: FIA Press Conference
-
Ricciardo takes P2 for Red Bull; Hamilton on pole
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
TV UNILATERAL
Lewis, a little bit of history on a number of levels today, not least the first pole position with this new formula and equalling Nigel Mansell’s 32 career poles.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah. It’s been an interesting weekend. Today, it made it so much harder for everyone with the conditions. I’m really happy for the job the team did. You know these new cars are so much harder to drive in the wet and it was the first time for me driving in the wet, as I’m sure it was for a lot of people. A serious task and challenge today, but for both me and Nico to be up here is a great showing for the team and it’s obviously great to see Ricciardo up here for his first grand prix with Red Bull.
Tell us about the conditions, as obviously it rained pretty hard towards the end. There was a split of decision on which way to go on tyres – you went for the wets. Was that the right decision?
LH: Yeah, it was kind of on the limit. It was very difficult to know what the turnover point was. Do you take a risk or not? I decided not to. Ricciardo, Daniel did a really good job on the inters, so obviously it was a very close call between the two. But the conditions made it extremely difficult. There’s so much more power, so you’re short-shifting all the way down into fifth, sixth, seventh before you can get the full throttle. But great fun otherwise and I hope the weather is better tomorrow, mostly for the fans, but also for us.
Daniel, I think the cheer from the crowd said it all really, an incredible first Red Bull qualifying session for you and a lot of Australian pride?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, it was exciting. Definitely the weather added to the mix and the whole session went well. Not everyone was out with options at the beginning but Q1 looked like it was going OK for us. And then when the rain fell, as Lewis said, it’s the first time we’ve all driven these cars on the limit in wet conditions. It was tricky but at the same time, of course, a lot of fun. It was nice to be always up there. The engineer was on the radio saying ‘pace is good, P1, P2, P3’ it was always in that battle for the pole position. So definitely a really nice qualifying session with the team.
Well your team-mate is down in 13th, so what was the difference today?
DR: I don’t know yet what his issues were. I think it was… I saw it was about two seconds or so off my pace at the time. We’ll have to see what went wrong with Seb and his side of the garage. But for now, happy for me to at least be up here and just for the team to have a front-row start, I think it wasn’t looking like this a few weeks ago, so pretty pleased right now.
Very well done, and Nico, was it all about timing in that last part of qualifying? Was that what it was about?
Nico ROSBERG: I’m not really sure what the others were doing. For sure we didn’t get it quite right but you just don’t know what’s going to happen. So, I don’t think we did much wrong. Of course, in hindsight you can always say ‘oh we could have done that better or this better’ but all in all I think it was a good qualifying session. Third is… I’m pleased with that. Could have been better but third is OK. I know we have a quick race car and from there a good race is possible.
It’s been very close between you and Lewis throughout this weekend, so what happens tomorrow?
NR: Of course it’s going to be a completely different story than today. Also again depending on weather and things like that, we don’t really know what’s going to happen, there is a small chance of rain also tomorrow, but I think more likely it’s going to be dry. It will be totally different because this year… especially in Melbourne, it’s the most difficult track for fuel consumption, so it’s going to be difficult to save enough fuel in the race – a big challenge.
You had a reliability scare here Lewis on the first day here, but the pair of you have been very, very quick the rest of the time, so what are you expecting from tomorrow?
LH: Ultimately it’s just down to the incredible job the team has done over the winter and through testing and come here… of course we had a small hiccup on Friday morning – it wasn’t really a scare, just unfortunate that we missed the session. But it was a quick fix, so no need to take the car apart, and just building on a good foundation and hopefully we can continue to do so.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, I wonder if you could say a few words, particularly about the achievement of equalling Nigel Mansell? I’m sure he’s somebody as a kid you grew up watching racing. Obviously a very flamboyant character in Formula One and you’ve equalled him today.
LH: Yeah, absolutely. Another Brit, one of the greatest British drivers we had and to have achieved so much. I’ve been racing since my eighth year so, to be in Formula One has always been my dream but to get to as many poles as him is…yeah, incredible achievement and I owe that to all the great people I’ve worked with through my career at McLaren-Mercedes and now Mercedes and the team, and my family and the good people I have around me. I won’t be able to put in those laps without those people helping me. It was a team effort.
Q: Question for you Daniel. Obviously you have to go up against Sebastian as a team-mate. It’s a tall order but how much confidence are you going to draw just from today’s result?
DR: Definitely it’s a… not looking at him, I’m sure he had problems of some sort today but just for me to start the season with a front row, yeah, it does a lot of good things for the confidence. But yeah, obviously it’s just the start. I obviously have to race tomorrow and obviously finish up the front of the order and then see how the season progresses. The last couple of days have been really positive for us.
Q: Nico, couldn’t help but notice at the beginning of the qualifying you and Lewis side by side, wanting to be the first one out on track. I guess you guys just couldn’t help yourself, you had to race even there.
NR: No, it wasn’t that at all, and there were clear instructions also from the team that Lewis is first. It was agreed like that so that’s fine. It’s just that I wanted to do a practice start and the practice start position is on the right. That’s where we’re used to doing it, so I just put myself there for that. To have consistency.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action and Fairfax Media) Daniel, can you talk a bit about how excited you must be to put in such a strong performance in your debut with the team in your home race?
DR: Yeah, of course, yeah, really excited but at the same time, still staying calm and collected because tomorrow is what counts, definitely, so there’s no point in having a party tonight and not focusing on tomorrow. I guess speaking solely of today, it’s a really good day for us. The car was pretty good to drive in the wet. I think at the start of the year we were all fearing how difficult these new animals would be in wet conditions but it was… it’s always a bit of a handful but at the same time it was quite nice behind the wheel. Controlling the turbo and all that on throttle was good fun. Pretty excited. I heard all the crowd on the cool-down lap so all I can say is hopefully I will hear that tomorrow.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) To all three of you: how do you drive without the noise of the V8, does it change anything, the way you drive and the way you behave in the car?
LH: How do you drive differently or…? Without the noise. It’s the same, it’s the same, it’s just you don’t hear it as much. You kind of hear mostly wind until you get down to fourth/fifth gear… fifth, fourth and third. It might be different for other people but otherwise the rest of the drivers are saying you obviously have to be a lot more gradual with the throttle, stability with your reflexes and all that stuff is quite important.
NR: It’s just that we have less grip and more torque, that’s the main thing, and that just makes it more difficult on the exit of the corners, especially now in the wet and the sound, the difference is that I can hear my brake locking which I never used to hear, like in a road car, when it’s squeaking (squealing?) in the corner? Now you can hear that because there’s not so much engine noise any more and that’s really really strange, but also interesting because now I can also hear my rear locking, even though I don’t feel it that much, it gives me some extra indication.
DR: I think I agree with what Lewis said, you hear the wind a lot more, especially at high speed. I guess you know when the gusts are blowing.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) For all of you: we saw during this qualifying a lot of quick laps one after the other. We understood that in the dry conditions you would do a lap and then a slower lap to recharge the batteries. Does that change in wet conditions?
LH: Well, naturally in the wet your braking distances are a lot longer so compared to a wet (dry?) lap where you get rid of all the energy on that lap, on a wet lap you’re braking for almost twice the distance or a little bit longer, maybe a third longer in the braking zone, so you have more time to regain the battery and charge the battery. But naturally it is easier if you do do a fast lap and a slow lap, fast lap but it is possible for some of us.
DR: Yeah. What Lewis said.
Q: (Jacob Polychronis – F1Plus.com) Daniel, what particular aspect of the racing requires the most attention going into tomorrow? Nico has spoken a lot about fuel consumption and tyre degradation yesterday being the key areas. How about for Red Bull?
DR: Yeah, it’s probably I guess the same for everyone. Fuel is probably the question mark for a lot of teams. We still haven’t done a race distance yet so I think it’s probably going to be one of those things that we’re going to understand… each lap we do in the race, we’re going to understand more and more and how we’re looking. I think behind the wheel not too much will change, I’ll just keep getting information from the pit wall. You know there’s different modes and everything to control consumption on the steering wheel and I will just act accordingly. I think tyre degradation probably won’t be too bad, I think, normally with the rain now, so the washing off and making the track a bit green – as we call it – will probably be quite kind to the rears. I don’t think tyre deg will be a massive issue tomorrow.
Q: (Will Hagon – ABC Radio) Daniel, with all the pressure that’s been on you this week, your home Grand Prix and championship team and all the rest of it, how have you been sleeping and how do you think you’ll sleep tonight?
DR: I’ve been sleeping well. I think I’ve been pretty worn out by the end of the day with all the extra curricula activities I’ve been doing. I’ve been sleeping well. I got to Oz over a week ago. I was in Sydney for that Top Gear festival so had time to get over jet lag and I’m sure I will sleep well tonight. It’s a pretty late start tomorrow so I don’t have to set any alarms. Should be right.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action) Daniel, the car is much better than in testing. Is it a case of just getting more laps on the core performance of the car or are the new bits that came in helping a lot?
DR: I think it’s probably just us circulating more. In testing, unfortunately, a lot of the time we were circulating to learn about reliability and to stop things from overheating so we weren’t really focused on what set-up we were running or any of that. I think after yesterday, it was the first time we probably worked on set-up and understanding the car. I think all the aero guys are gathering more and more information and making the car a bit quicker each time we run. It’s definitely positive for us now and hopefully the upward trend continues and we can start to hassle these guys in dry conditions soon.
Q: (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Daniel, a question close to every Australian’s heart: what are you like at starts?
DR: Let’s see how we go tomorrow! Bit up and down last year. I guess everyone watched the races. I think they were on the up so let’s see how we go tomorrow. I think it’s going to be interesting for everyone now, with the V6 turbos. I think it’s also a bit of a different animal off the line. Hopefully we get off well.
Q: (Phil Branagan – Chevron Publishing) Dan, you must have had a realistic expectation after practice of where you’d qualify. Have you exceeded that? By how far? And what’s your expectation for tomorrow?
DR: I think exceeded it just because if it was a dry qualifying we were expecting Lewis and Nico to take the front row. I think their pace in the dry was pretty impressive so far this week so exceeded that a bit but obviously the wet throws a bit of a curved ball and you’ve just got to take the session how it comes and see how you go from there. There wasn’t too much calculating going on in my head. It was just drive and adapt to the conditions. As I said, it was refreshing to hear my engineer on the radio saying we’re fighting all these for the top three. That was good to hear and obviously gives you a bit of motivation as well.
Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action and Fairfax Media) Lewis and Nico, are you at all surprised to see Daniel sitting up there next to you?
LH: Not at all. He’s showed some great performances in previous years and he’s got a good head on his shoulders, very talented so it’s expected, to be honest, plus Red Bull have been up at the top for some time so you have to assume that this year they will be very close to us. But without a doubt they’ve done an exceptional job.
NR: No, me too, great job, definitely. I hope I manage to pass him tomorrow. For sure. Well done.
Q: (Tony Schibeci – SEN) Daniel, for the last couple of years you’ve been fighting with the big boys. Now you’re one of the big boys. How cool is that?
DR: Yeah, it’s cool. I can’t get ahead of myself. I’ve still got a bit to prove. I’ve still to establish myself at the front. It would obviously be great to be up here for the next few weekends and to cement myself at the front of the grid, so this is definitely a step towards that but yeah, as I said, there still a bit to go but obviously excited for what lies ahead and give it a good crack.
Ends
Hamilton takes Aussie pole. A Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team photo -
Williams is for teams’ unity, which is good for the sport: Claire Williams
Melbourne, 14 March 2014: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Eric BOULLIER (McLaren), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport F1), Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)
PRESS CONFERENCE
A very interesting first day’s running. I’ll start with you Christian, as the defending world champion team. I guess given where you were two weeks ago in the winter testing, you must be fairly pleased with the way this first day of running has turned out. Tell us what has been going on behind the scenes in this intervening period?
Christian HORNER: Well today has been a very string first day for us. It’s been our first proper test day of the season. We’ve had a very difficult pre-season with numerous issues, which have been pretty well documented prior to us arriving in Melbourne. It was refreshing for the drivers to get plenty of laps in and really get a first proper feel for the car. It’s been an encouraging start but we still have an awful lot of work to do we can still see that there is quite a gap to the Mercedes and to Ferrari but we’re starting to realise what that gap is and by the end of this weekend that should hopefully have a bit more clarity. But certainly behind the scenes there’s an enormous amount of effort of going on both back in the Red Bull factory back in Milton Keynes and of course in Viry-Chatillon with the Renault guys as well. With such a big regulation change and such is the complexity of what is nowadays referred to as the power unit rather than the engine it’s not unsurprising that there have been quite a lot of issues to deal with.
Tell us about managing the situation from your point of view. Does being a four-time world champion team recently – focusing on things like teamwork and morale – does it make it easier to rescue yourself from the kind of situation you were in because you’ve had some success or does it make it more difficult?
CH: Neither of those issues has been an issue. Morale is extremely high and we work very effectively as a team. It’s been a challenging winter to design, build and then obviously modify RB10, but the way the team has responded to the challenge has been fantastic. There is a real desire and inner strength within the team. We’ve achieved quite a bit over the past few years and that’s not by accident. As I’ve said there are always engineering solutions to engineering problems.
Thank you for that. Moving to you Stefano. Obviously Christian thinks you’re ahead of his team. Fernando was fastest this morning and third this afternoon. How do you assess the first day of term for Ferrari, and what was the difference in programme between Alonso and Raikkonen.
Stefano DOMENICALI: Today was an interesting day just to see if some of the issues we had during the Bahrain test were solved. We are still not on top of all the things we have to solve and this is something that shows, as Christian says, the complexity of this project. But you know, what we have to do is keep working on the things we know. We need to improve and that’s the way it is. For sure there were different things to test and to try between the drivers but that’s part of the normal programme we do. In my view today maybe you will see that some teams were a little bit hiding or having some issues for the day. Tomorrow the situation will be different again, we don’t know, we will see. If there will also be different weather conditions this will be another thing we never tested with this car so far, so the managing of the car in possibly wet conditions could be another exciting or challenging thing for all of us. But so far, it’s important that we were able to run with the programme we wanted even if we had some little issue to solve. But that’s part of the game, it’s just the first free practice of a long season.
And are you happy with the structure you’ve got in place now? I know there has been a lot work behind the scenes – technical facilities, changes in the management, new people coming in, appointments and what have you. Is this the team you want now?
SD: I think the basic for sure. We’ve done a great job in the last couple of years to restructure the team, restructure the facility, that was absolutely and imperative thing to do and I think that now we are in the way that we should be to do the best we can in these conditions. So, so far I’m pleased about it.
Talking about restructuring, Claire, we’ll come across to you. Obviously very much a new look Williams team in more ways than one. What steps that have gone on behind the scenes with your team are you most proud of at the moment?
Claire WILLIAMS: I think like you said we’ve had a lot of effort that’s gone on behind the scenes to make sure that we entered this season in a completely different place as to how we ended it last year. So I think a lot of work has gone one behind the scenes but I don’t think you can single out one of those efforts. Bringing in the Mercedes engine has had a huge influence on our position this year and our performance. Bringing in Pat Symonds and him heading up a whole new technical team as well has been significant and played its part as has obviously bringing in Felipe Massa to partner Valtteri this season. So there has been a lot of work and we’ve had a good winter but this is only the first race of the year and we haven’t qualified yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how we do tomorrow.
Q: You had the fastest time in the Bahrain test, you did the second-highest kilometres in testing, where are you today? What has today’s running revealed to you?
CW: Today’s been positive. I think the engineers are all relatively happy with what they’ve managed to achieve. It’s been the usual programme of everything you’d expect us to be running on Friday practice. I think Felipe had a bit of an issue this morning which prevented him from going out – but that was to do with his radio software rather than an issue with the car. Valtteri seems comfortable with the car, little bit of understeer that we’ve got to correct overnight but both drivers are saying that they’re happy.
Q: Eric, fifth and ninth this afternoon, plenty of laps on the board. Is it about what you expected from your first day of competitive running?
Eric BOULLIER: I don’t know if we had any expectations today, just obviously we had a lot of plans and a lot of tests to do, to go though. Obviously first to put again some laps and miles and setup for the drivers. I think we can be happy, we went through most of the plan today so I think the team did a good job.
Q: You’ve been at McLaren a few weeks now. What changes do you want to make in the team and how much autonomy are you going to be given to do that by the management group?
EB: The first part of your question, it is still in my head, on my mind, my plan. But it doesn’t have to be public. This is obviously a great team, a lot of history, the best facilities, I think, in the paddock. And obviously a lot of great individuals eager to do well and go back where the team should be. So, that’s going to be… let’s say, most of the work is going to be to get everybody on track on this. For the second part of the question, it’s a team effort as always. The idea behind the split in the team principal role is something which we have… I actually had personal experience in Lotus. I think it’s good today when you have so much travel during the season and so many people to care about at the factory, it’s obvious that you need to focus or get some different roles split over the company. I think it worked well in the past and it should work well in McLaren.
Q: Toto, you came here as favourites, certainly among a lot of pundits, fastest and second fastest on the soft tyre runs, long run looked to be a step ahead of the others. Did it turn out how you expected today?
Toto WOLFF: Yes. If you look after Free Practice Two and analyse that, that was quite satisfying. As you said, on one lap the pace was good and the long run was good as well. But you can see how quickly it goes. In Free Practice One, Lewis went out and after half a lap the car stopped, so you need to be very careful. It’s just enough to have a little problem and the race or the qualifying could be finished.
Q: Obviously you’ve got two top drivers and clearly a competitive package. Have you had conversations behind the scenes in terms of priority, team orders, obviously thinking about what happened last year?
TW: Yes, we had those conversations, and I think it’s important to have those conversations. Both of the drivers know each other for quite a long time, they have been team-mates before – back in karting – and we got caught out by surprise last year in Malaysia and we don’t want this to happen again. It’s just very good discussions we had. They’re not only very talented and fast but also very intelligent. They treat each other in a very fair way. We went through some of scenarios and I think we’re in a good place.
Q: So it depends on circumstances as to what you decide?
TW: It depends on circumstances, yes.
Q: Rob, two teams getting plenty of laps on the board today, two teams in a bit of difficulty. Obviously your problems going into this season have been well catalogued. How do you feel about what we’ve seen today?
Rob WHITE: First race weekend is always a testing time and of course this year feeling particularly anxious because we’re not as well prepared as we would have liked to have been. So, one of the things that Christian rightly alluded to is the fact that in some ways some of the race weekend scenario still needed to be practiced for the first time in P1 and also P2. So, pleased to be able to run through a normal-looking race weekend programme. That’s the big achievement of today.
Q: Obviously you hadn’t done too many practice starts coming into this Melbourne weekend. I noticed there were quite a few taking place with Renault-powered cars today. Are you happy where you are on practice starts?
RW: Yeah. There was nothing magical. They were kind of towards the end of the run plan for the testing and we didn’t quite get there in the pre-season testing in several cases. We haven’t got any particular concern about them. Of course we’re now into learning about the setup parameters in order to try to get some performance into the practice starts. It is a very important phase of the race. We’re very conscious and all of our teams are very conscious of that. So, once again, we’re behind where we would have liked to be and the task now is to try and gain ground.
Q: A quick line from you on that Christian, are you comfortable on the starts.
CH: It’s been the least of our problems. We haven’t been out on the track doing laps, let alone starts. We’re hoping to start the race on Sunday so we’ll need a start.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Mark Fogarty – The Age) Claire and gentlemen, the reaction to the sound of the engines has been underwhelming, to say the least. You people have heard these engines during testing, has it occurred to anyone that we’ve got a real problem on our hands, just how horrible they sound, and how the fans are going to react?
CW: Personally I like the sound of the engines, but then I love Formula One and I love watching cars go round a racetrack. I think people will pretty quickly get used to what Formula One engines sound like. We’ve had so many changes over so many decades of motor racing and you very quickly forget what a previous engine sounds like and I think people just want to see a good race on Sunday and I think that as long as we can deliver that then I think that any issues that perhaps… or contentious conversations around that may fade away.
TW: Well, if you like sound of engines, let’s go back to V10 and V12, let’s not do any hybrid. This is modern technology, this is where road cars are going. Downsizing is the motto and I think we just need to accept that the formula has changed. These cars are going to go quicker than the old ones in a couple of races, we’re going to get used to the sounds and I promise next year you will not notice and you will not notice any difference any more.
SD: I think that Claire and Toto summarised the situation very well.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) Stefano, are you worried about the problems that Kimi seems to have had today or are you more satisfied by the performance of Fernando?
SD: I always have to see the negative side of the… or the empty side of the glass, so of course we need to make sure that all the things that are still not solved – not only on Kimi’s side – have to be solved or addressed very quickly because the competition is very strong and the time that we have available is not a lot. So I think that for me the most important thing is to address and to solve the issue very quickly and whatever it is, the driver is not really the problem because I’m sure that both drivers will be able to manage the situation in the best way that they can, but there is still a lot of work to do.
Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Eric, you’ve added a new sponsor to your rear wing without much in the way of fanfare. Could you explain the significance of that and maybe shed some light on your quest for a title sponsor. Are you closer to announcing something? I think Ron said the other week that it would be in the next few events. Are we closer to firming something up there?
EB: We lately signed a new sponsor which is good news and we are happy to welcome Asos which is an on-line fashion retailer. I think it’s in nine languages delivering to 234 countries – I know my figures. It’s obviously very exciting for us. It’s a huge company selling clothes and selling all stuff like fashion stuff.
Regarding the other part of the question, we will soon announce… we will hope to sign soon a title partner. We are not in a rush to announce it until everything is closed and done but it’s going to be done in due time.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action) Stefano, three questions about your power plant: what are the specific issues that need to be fixed? Within the rules of homologation, what can you now do to develop the engine and the third question is how do you rate your engine compared to your rivals?
SD: First of all, we need to wait and see because points are the things that count so the first thing we need to do is to work on the reliability of it, because that is still not clear if it’s enough, it’s never enough compared to the others. In terms of analysis, I think we need to be careful because when you address only the issue on the engine, I think that’s wrong. We need to address if there is the need, of course, to address the things on the entire car, on the efficiency of the car in a global way, not only the engine, on the mechanical side there’s also the balancing of electrical power versus the engine power itself versus the efficiency of the car as the car itself. I think the right answer is that we need to work all around the car, full stop, and we will see where we’re going to be because I already see a lot of classifications done already but I think it is better for everyone not to anticipate too much. I know that words are easy to fly away but I think we need to be very cautious and careful. That’s why I keep this position. I think that we have a good base and we need to develop on that and see when it counts to bring home the points that are the things that are more important for this championship.
Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Christian, your cars with Daniel did more than a race distance today and Sebastian almost did a race distance across the two sessions. Is that the first time you’ve done a whole race distance in a day’s running in the whole of pre-season testing and does that mean that you can do the whole of the race distance on Sunday with a vague confidence that the car will actually do all the laps, especially as we saw a heat bulge on Sebastian’s car in the lower left hand part of the side pod during FP1?
CH: Well, I think Sebastian today has covered a third of the mileage of his total winter and obviously Daniel has done pretty much a race distance today, so that’s extremely encouraging for our guys and the guys back in Paris at Renault. So hopefully it bodes well for the weekend because the most important thing is to see the chequered flag on Sunday and that in itself is an enormous challenge. We’ve learned some valuable lessons today, an awful lot of information to look at and to be honest with you, it’s the first real opportunity that the drivers have had to drive the car properly without it being interrupted at any different part of the lap or the circuit. Really, for both drivers it’s been their first chance to really start to explore the car and for the engineers to start to look at set-up and so in many respects, this is where we would ideally like to have been at the first test but that wasn’t the case. We’ve got some ground to make up.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To all of you including Rob because it could affect your side of the championship, since we last met in Brazil, we’ve introduced double points at the last race which is arguably the least scintillating race of the season. Given that the structure, the entrants and drivers licence fees are basically a tax on performance, how do you feel about these double points races, possibly for the last three races? Now there’s talk about points for qualifying positions, what are your sentiments?
RW: I guess my opinion is more as a relatively independent observer and as a fan of the sport, I think that as long as the points structure is understood in advance, it’s an optimisation target like all of the rest and Formula One is a fantastic machine for getting the best out of a given set of constraints. I personally am not in favour of things that are hard to understand and therefore if it gets too complicated, I won’t like it.
TW: Yuh. Is it good? I think when it was decided we didn’t put too much emphasis on it, we didn’t think it was a big drama. It’s clear that you have to support the commercial rights holder and if the TV audience is dropping, I think we have an obligation to listen. We got the reaction afterwards, it was not what we expected. You have to honour that. Nothing has changed since then, the last race remains double points and let’s see what we’re going to do next year.
CW: Exactly the same as what Toto was saying.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, yesterday your president sent a letter to the fans; could you explain to us the meaning of the letter, particularly the part he wrote about the systems and all the problems that can be grey areas in the rules. Could you explain the spirit of the letter, please?
SD: I’m not the president, first of all. You know that very well. No, I think that our chairman wanted to send a letter to our supporters before the first weekend of another season, as he always does every year, and I think that he was highlighting the challenge that we have this year in terms of new regulations for us and it’s a challenge also for the federation to align with these regulations because also on their side, it’s a big task to make all the controls that are needed to make sure that everything is running properly, so I would say it’s just for him a way to stay close to our tifosi, to our supporters because you know how much he cares about Formula One and that’s the way you always are at the beginning of the season.
Q: (Heikki Kulta –Turun Sanomat) Stefano, if it rains tomorrow, does it help your drivers to challenge the Mercedes boys for the top positions?
SD: Good question – the answer is I don’t know. We will see.
Q: (Will Buxton – NBCSN) For everybody, there’s rumours doing the rounds that there’s a move on to try and get a test in Malaysia next week, before the race. Is that something… by the looks of things, it’s a surprise. I was wondering if that is something you had heard and if so it’s something you would be in favour of.
CH: Well, it’s certainly a surprise. It’s the first I’ve heard of it and if it is happening, we won’t be there. I think it’s fairly unlikely.
EB: I’ve never heard of it too.
Q: (Sylvia Arias – Parabrisas) Monsieur Boullier, I would like to know your opinion about Federico Gastaldi. As team principal, I saw you today saying to him ‘good luck’.
EB: Yes, I wished him good luck, obviously, but I have no opinion at all because it’s not my matter any more.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) What sort of progress would all of you like to see made on the cost cap or budget caps or whatever?
CH: What was the question again? You wanted the cost cap or what progress? Forget the word cost cap for the moment. Let’s just focus on saving money. I think everybody around this group here wants to see all of the teams save money. The necessity to spend money in order to be competitive is what we want to reduce and I think however we achieve that as a group, it’s something we all want to see happen. How to make it happen is obviously something much more complex. Then there’s obviously discussions about caps and this and that. You’ve got to look at the root causes for why are costs the way they are and then in my opinion, address it that way.
EB: I think Ron has maybe said he’s not favour of caps – again, it’s words. Definitely he’s obviously in favour of reducing costs. Obviously competition or trying to be competitive is obviously the nature of any sport, especially Formula One, so we just need to draw the line and make sure that technically we can’t spend too much to be competitive and try to have some targets which could be reasonable and suiting everybody.
TW: Maybe Stefano wants to say something.
SD: I think that Christian and Eric have summarised the situation very clearly, so nothing to add. We are always saying the same thing.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) But there’s no progress and that as the question: what progress would you like to see made?
SD: I think that progress is on the way because we are discussing what to do at the level of the strategy group. I’m sure that you’re aware of the work that is around that. I think that at this moment it’s better to stay quiet and tell you when the thing is done and say we are doing something without going into the details of it.
Q: But it is the case that it’s got to be in place by 2015, isn’t it?
SD: Yeah.
CH: We’ve done an incredible job of reducing the costs for this year with the introduction of a new power train that’s probably 25 percent more so we’re doing a great job so far!
Q: (Chris Lines – AP) Rob, can you tell us a bit about the problems afflicting each of the teams; are they individual to the teams or is it a common problem and do you have a time line when you think this engine will be functioning at its principal level? Will it be KL, Bahrain, China, Europe?
RW: If we take a step back and look at the kind of troubles that have befallen us and our teams, then the first thing to say I think is that we’re behind where we should be in terms of time, in terms of our internal objectives, then independent of one’s level of competitiveness, then it’s completely unacceptable to be coming to a first race as relatively unprepared as we are and without having run through all of the scenarios that we needed to. In terms of where the trouble lies, then we remain confident that the building blocks that we’ve got in place are the right ones, that we know the level of thermal efficiency that we need for the turbocharged engine to be competitive in terms of power. We know that the regulatory constraints on the electrical machines from the battery and that mustn’t be exceeded but in order to be competitive, you’ve got to be able to be up with those limits and we are up with those limits and where it’s tough is delivering turbo to the backside of the drivers to the contact patch between the tyre and the tarmac, the sum of those parts and at the moment we’re not yet able to deliver that in a decent fashion. And this comes right back to the heart of these regulations. In order to get the performance out of the cars, the cars are going to be quicker than the old cars in a minute with substantially less fuel, there’s a lot more stuff and getting all that stuff to peacefully cohabit in the race car and to make it appear to the driver like it’s a different thing to the thing it is is where the troubles are. I guess that’s the stuff that is common to all users of our power unit and I don’t really have anything much to say about the specific differences between one car and another. We’re certainly working hand-in-hand with the teams that we work with in order to fix our problems and if we can participate in solving other ones then that’s good too.
Q: (Will Buxton – NBCSN) FOTA, perhaps in the run-up to this season the perhaps inevitable dissolution of the Formula One Teams Association. How disappointed were those of you that were members of it with the dissolution of FOTA; those of you that weren’t, why didn’t it work for you? And as we move forwards with this sport and the usual talk of the need to reduce costs, how important is the unity of the teams in progressing this sport?
CW: Yes, obviously we were a member of FOTA and it was disappointing that it did dissolve but I think that from when it was originally established – it set out with a very clear mandate – and over the years that mandate has changed for a variety of reasons. I think the most important thing in this sport is that teams come together to work together to address the issues that we face and whatever those may be. We do need some form of structure around the teams so that we have a platform to have conversations so whether that’s FOTA or whether that’s something else, that’s something that Williams would be keen to be a part of in the future but obviously we, as a team, are now part of the F1 strategy group which obviously we’re please about.
EB: Obviously as McLaren and ex-deputy chairman, we were quite involved in FOTA. I think it’s a bit disappointing to see FOTA disappearing but it was expected in the end. First FOTA was created in a different context with a lot of car manufacturers in the paddock and it has survived over the years. There were some defections and it just ended up where unfortunately it should have been. The most important thing is to keep some discussions and some firm places between the teams, as Claire said, to address our issues if we have to.
TW: I think the mandate of FOTA was to represent all teams and that mandate got diluted over the years. Teams stepped back and at the end it was a bit of a struggle for FOTA to keep alive and I think we were either all in or no FOTA.
SD: I think that clearly at the specific moment when FOTA was created it was really a situation that there was really the need to make sure that the teams were all together and if you recall, during that time, there were situations where the championship could have gone through a different part, we were very close to being in that situation but year by year the situation changed and therefore that was the reason why we quit FOTA two years ago, because we felt that that kind of situation was not really needed any more to be effective as an organisation. I think that for sure it is important for teams to agree and speak on a lot of subjects because we are all the actors in this show but we also need to recognise that there are different actors with different weights that also have be considered. All of us do care about this business, do care about this sport and I believe that this is fundament to also look ahead in the new way that we are organised, for example with the strategy group, to make sure that we take the right decisions for the future of Formula One.
CH: I think that Stefano has summed it up perfectly. FOTA, when it was created, had some specific agendas. It was at a time of uncertainty over many issues regarding Formula One and then of course, the crisis came in 2008 and FOTA at that time achieved some good things in reducing costs and teams working harmoniously together within critical circumstances. Then the mandate as FOTA changed, and when it suddenly became involved in how you run your team and run your business and trying to police how a team is run, that’s not the role of the teams and you’re only ever going to end up in conflict when teams are trying to write regulations of how they should spend budgets etc etc. For that reason, we left at an identical time to Ferrari, because we just didn’t believe in the direction that FOTA was going. Then it was no surprise to see – ultimately – that it petered out over the last few years.
Ends
-
We may not be favourites for this race, but it’s different for title-race: Vettel
Melbourne, 13 March 2014: The New season begins with the first FIA Press Conference on Thursday ahead of the Australian Grand Prix Formula One World Championship first race on Sunday.
Transcript from FIA:
File photo of a Red Bull at pre-season testing 2014. FIA photo DRIVERS – Felipe MASSA (Williams), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Sebastian, can we start with you. You’re a four-time world champion, it’s your 121st grand prix and your seventh season in Formula One. Four times a world champion consecutively but would it be fair say that as we sit here today you’re not terribly optimistic about making it a fifth in a row this year?
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t think that’s fair to say. It’s a long year. Our pre-season testing, our preparation, hasn’t been ideal and, yeah, we’re probably not in the best position for this race but I think it’s a different story when we think about the championship. There’s a long way to go. Two years back Fernando was on the grid with 1.5 seconds to pole position but he was very close to beating us to the title at the very last race. Anything can happen. That’s why this race is important, just as any other one. But there are a lot of races this year.
Obviously we’ve all seen from the outside, and you’ve mentioned now the difficulties you had in pre-season testing but what are you doing to try to put that right – you personally?
SV: It’s obviously a tough step for all the teams, all the drivers, a lot of new things to get used to. We know that obviously we’re not in the best shape yet. There are a lot of things we need to solve. Unfortunately, you can’t solve them overnight. We’d love to but we can’t. So you really have to go step by step, together with Daniel, I think just trying to be as precise as we can, trying to give the engineers the best feedback possible about the whole power unit so that we move forward on that and also talking about the car because at this stage it’s a bit unknown where we are. It’s not a secret: you need very, very strong reliability to be a title contender, so we’ll see… I’m looking forward to tomorrow and especially Sunday to get a feel for the new regulations and see where we are.
Thanks for that. Moving on to Fernando: two-time world champion of course, 193rd grand prix this weekend, 14th season he’s beginning in Formula One. Ferrari a little hard to read from the outside in terms of testing, you haven’t really stood out, for good or bad. From your perspective how to do you feel Ferrari is placed with this new technology going into this very different new season?
Fernando ALONSO: I think it’s very difficult to tell how competitive we are at the moment. We’ll get some answers in 24 hours or 48 hours, we will know a little bit more than we know now. The car itself and the technology that Formula One brought this year are a little bit complex to everyone. We are learning and we are developing the car every day that we work on it. As I said, a little bit of an unknown situation for everybody. We just need to put everything together, maximise what we have, and see where we are.
Some changes have just been announced recently to the qualifying format, particularly in relation to the final part of qualifying. I was wondering if we could get a comment from you on those changes and the impact they might have?
FA: I think it will not be a huge difference, from the outside especially. OK there were some cars that didn’t run in Q3 or they only did one run in Q3 and now maybe we’ll see an extra lap from everybody but apart from that I think it’s not a huge change in approach in the qualifying for the teams and the drivers. Anyway, I think this change is welcome, to see more cars on tracks. I arrive many times with no new sets for Q3, so now I’m happy.
Moving on to the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is starting his 130th grand prix. It’s his eighth season now in Formula One at the age of 29. Obviously it looks very promising after testing and both you and Nico Rosberg it seems are in a position to take an advantage of Mercedes’ competitiveness. I wonder will it come down to which one of the two of you wants it more?
Lewis HAMILTON: Possibly. Yeah, it’s very technical this year and we’re all in the same boat. We’re always trying to find where the advantages can be between two drivers. From race to race I think you’ll see… one race he’ll be ahead, one time I’ll be ahead, same as you saw last year. Obviously the goal is to be ahead all the time.
Can you talk about the feeling of driving these 2014 cars, compared to the cars of the last generation: the pleasure you get from driving them, whether they’re more you’re kind of car, what’s coming through the steering wheel to you?
LH: Well, naturally I think.. I probably speak for all of us that last year’s car felt better, it was perhaps a little bit nicer to drive, when we had lots more downforce. But that was a car that was in the fourth year of its evolution. Now we’re in a new phase and it’s just something that just takes some time to get used to. The sound, for example, is not as impressive as what we had in the past but once you get all the cars on the track, on the grid, I’m pretty sure it will be impressive for the fans still.
Q: Felipe, 192nd grand prix this weekend, your 12th season you’re starting in Formula One and certainly from the outside, your decision to move to Williams at this stage of your career is starting to look fairly inspired, judging by the winter testing programme. What do you think can be achieved this year, in terms of results?
Felipe MASSA: I don’t know. I think it’s new to everybody so maybe we start having some answers this weekend. Not all of the answers but some. I’m really happy to be with Williams. Really enjoying the working with it to now, to feel the car and the working. It’s a lot to do. You can never forget that it was a very difficult time for Williams in the last years and it’s a lot to do, a lot of work, a lot of development going on inside the factory, inside the team. So many new people arriving – including me. But, I’m pretty motivated. For sure we can be there. I don’t know how competitive we’re going to be compared to the other teams. Maybe we will see teams better than us – I don’t know. Maybe we can see ourselves fighting with them and be as competitive as the top teams like these three guys here – but I think it’s just the beginning. It’s a lot to do, a lot to understand and the understanding will be very important for trying to make the car better and better all the time. But, feet on the ground, I think maybe this weekend we start to understand a little bit.
Q: Obviously you’ve got the Mercedes engine which at this point looks to be the one to have, going into the season – but there’s clearly more to the Williams renaissance than just that. Can you tell us some of the things you’ve noticed? Maybe one or two points of things that you’ve noticed that have changed?
FM: Well, I feel the team is really motivated. They want to grow, they want to get better and they want to be back in the good times. So I feel a lot of understanding for the people. I’m really happy with the people I work with, they’re really professional. So many new people are arriving and there are many good ideas inside the team. Me as well. I’m trying to give as much experience, as many ideas as I can from my experience in a different team. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward. I think it can be a nice season for us – but how nice I don’t know. We need to see.
Q: Daniel, it looks like you had one really good day of testing in the car. Observers were saying the car looked pretty good when it was going around. Do you share that view.
Daniel RICCIARDO: I think we had one stand-out day. There weren’t many, as Seb said but at least one for me was pretty good. I think we’re all a bit unsure how good our cars are. Speaking for all the drivers, I think we’re just curious and hanging out to get on the track this weekend and see where everyone stands and get a clearer picture. I’ve had a busy week leading up to the race and I’m probably more excited than anyone else right now to get in the car.
Q: You’ve got your big break, here you are, it’s the big time with the World Champion team. You’ve got a four-time world champion sitting on the other side of the garage from you. What’s your strategy from here? Are you going to just focus on your own job or trying to look at what Sebastian’s doing and try to beat him?
DR: I think for now just focus on what I’ve done the last few years and keep doing what I’ve been doing to get to this point – and then assess it from there and see how it’s going. Obviously I get a good view behind the scenes from the engineers of how Seb works with his guys and understand a little more through that as well – but for now it’s just do my thing and see where I stand off that and we’ll work from there.
Q: Kevin, welcome to Formula One, if you look around you at the drivers sitting here with you this afternoon, who have seven Drivers’ World Championships won between them, 104 grand prix victories between them. Do you feel you have to pinch yourself to believe you’re sitting here today.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah. Definitely. It is a dream come true and every day is fantastic at the moment – I’m sure it will keep staying like that. I’m just really excited to be here. It’s been a long winter, since signing. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend but yeah, feeling good. It’s been a good winter in terms of preparation with the team. They’ve done a really good job in terms of preparing me for this. It’s not easy. It’s a big job, a big challenge but I think I’m pretty much as ready as you can be these days. I’ve done a lot of work over the winter but I’m not underestimating the challenge that I’m facing. It’s a big challenge but I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Shed a little light on it for us. McLaren looked very strong at the start of the testing but perhaps the end looked a bit more difficult. What was going on?
KM: I think the whole testing we pretty much ran the launch car and were behind a little bit on development – but the car feels good. If you didn’t know the lap times of the other guys you would think that it’s pretty fast – and that’s a good sign. If we can just put some downforce on the car and keep developing as we did over the winter with the car, I think we can be in a good position. The team obviously come off a difficult season and they are massively motivated to come back to where they belong and that’s a good feeling.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Kate Walker – Crash.net) To all six of you: I was wondering in development terms if you could tell us the difference between the cars that were packed up in Bahrain and the cars that we’re going to see leaving the pit lane tomorrow?
SV: I think it will be a very different car. Obviously, for us, we had a lot of problems during the test so we didn’t get to test a lot of stuff and we hope we do some more running here and obviously put the parts to the car that we think are better for overall performance. Yeah, it will be a bit different but I think it’s the same for all of us.
Q: Fernando, I was on the same plane as Pat Fry and he was certainly pushing a lot of boxes out through customs when we arrived, so you’ve got quite a lot of new parts I guess.
FA: No, maybe they found some…
SV: Spare parts.
FA: …food or something. The car is exactly the same as it was in Bahrain, not new sponsor, not anything.
LH: It’s very similar to the two next door… probably more so to Fernando. There’ll be a couple of things on the car but generally it’s going to look the same.
FM: The same car.
KM: We’ve got a few bits on the car so hopefully we will be good.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Sebastian, obviously this past pre-season has been very different compared to previous pre-seasons with Red Bull. I was just wondering if you come into this season with a different mind-set, knowing you’ve got a car that could struggle to even cross the finishing line on Sunday, compared to the car you’ve had in previous seasons where you know it’s going to be pushing for the front row of the grid, pushing for race wins. Does your mind-set alter?
SV: I think generally, at this stage for all us it’s difficult to know what to expect, how the racing will look, how it will feel inside the car, how many cars will cross the line. We saw that we had a lot of problems, others had a lot of problems during the tests that we had. It’s difficult to have any sort of expectations for most of us I think, but as I said in the beginning, it’s a long season and so obviously I’m going out here, not trying to just make it round, I’m going out here to push to the maximum and do the best I can and then we will see where we are and we will see how far we get. The target, for sure, is to finish and the target for sure is to finish in the best possible position, so that’s the mind-set, fairly straightforward and for the rest of the year, I think we’re a strong team, we have a lot of good people on board, we have strong resources so I’m confident we should progress as the season goes on.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action) Lewis, you and Nico get along very well, you got along very well last year when you were going for wins. This year, you might be both going for the championship, you’ve been in that kind of a fight before. Do you see that putting a bit of a strain on the relationship with Nico?
LH: I mean when everyone’s talking about the relationship between us, it will be the same at the start as it will be at the end. We’ve been racing together since we were 13, we’ve been in championships competing right to the end, one where he’s won, one where I’ve won and it’s been the same since… It’s a more fierce championship and a lot more is riding on it but at the end, I don’t see any issues.
Q: (Trent Pryce – Richland F1) Kevin, you say that the McLaren feels quick, does that mean it’s responding well to set-up changes? Does it feel like it has a good baseline?
KM: Yeah, both, I would say. It just feels like a Formula One car, it feels like it’s balanced and I don’t have a lot of experience with Formula One cars but definitely the car that we had last year just didn’t have the right feeling about it. This year’s car is responding well in terms of driving the car and also set-up changes and has a good feel about it.
Q: (Shane McInnes – 3AW) Seb, have you offered much advice to Daniel, your new teammate now racing at Red Bull and if you have offered some advice, can you share that wish us?
SV: Not much, we didn’t drive that much this year so there was not much I could talk about. Obviously you do your own thing once you are in the car, but as a team we share everything that we experience and together with the engineers, it’s always… people expect that if you come to a new team or if you have a new teammate or you know a certain driver very well, people expect kind of questions like ‘how hard do you approach turn three in Australia’ or in Monaco. It’s not like that. Obviously everybody’s got his own style and even if I told him to brake here or there, then he would still try and find his own way. There are some things where I’m open so if he has some questions he can ask. It’s the same for me the other way round. I think I can learn a lot from him so obviously he’s a new guy, he has a different driving style to Mark. I didn’t see that much yet in testing because we didn’t run so much, but I’m sure, as the season goes on we’ll both learn from each other.
Q: (Ben McKay – Australian Associated Press) Felipe and others if you wish, there are so many uncertainties leading into this season, is it fair to say that Formula One is under something of a cloud with the continued poor health of Michael Schumacher?
FM: Sure, I always think about him every day, pray for him every day so I really hope that things can go back and be OK for him. For sure it was a shame to see what’s happened but I keep thinking about him, he’s on my helmet and we’ll keep praying and believing that things can be OK for him and he’s coming back.
Q: (Mat Coch – Pitpass.com) Kevin, this year you’re up against Jenson Button who I guess is getting towards the end of his career while you’re at the very start. Do you feel that it’s a little bit of a make or break year for both of you and that if you beat him, your career is made whereas if he beats you, you’re perhaps in a bit of trouble?
KM: Well, we all know that you are measured against your teammate but I don’t see it like that, I try and do my best, try and learn as much as I can in the early part of the season and see where it takes me. There is a lot pressure in being in Formula One, especially when you are with a big team as I am. It’s where I want to be, I’ve always dreamed of being with McLaren and I’m here and I’m going to do my best and try not to worry too much about the negative things.
Q: (Sylvia Arias – Parabrisas) Felipe, I want to know that after so much time with Ferrari, working with a Latin team, how do you feel now with a British team, what differences have you found, your feelings?
FM: For sure, working with the car is the same and everything, similar things. It depends which team you are with but the idea, the working is the same but it’s very different the way… outside, the way they talk, they are much more quiet. The Italians, they cannot talk without shaking their hands. I am like that because I am from Brazil as well, so for sure it’s a big change for me. I’m trying to learn everything quickly, changing some names as well, understanding the way they talk as well, because I never lived in England, so that’s also new for me. But it’s nice, it’s a nice experience as well, but definitely the mentality is pretty different.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) For all six, it’s a simple question: which team is the favourite for the championship?
DR: I think the championship is… as Seb said before, a long way away so… I could probably say for this race, judging from testing but I think we’re going to develop so much throughout the year, all teams with the new cars this year so to answer the question simply, for this race, I would put my money on Mercedes but try not to count anyone else out but to answer your question in one word then it’s them.
KM: I don’t know, it’s very hard to predict. We’ve seen for many years whoever is strong for the first part of the season might not always be the one at the end of the season so it’s hard to predict. I don’t know.
FM: Yeah, I think I would say Mercedes.
LH: I will say Williams.
SV: Yeah, not much to add. I think for this race Mercedes based on winter testing for the season. I think after three or four races we will know a little bit more.
FA: I’ve no idea.
Q: One final question: how many finishers in the race on Sunday?
FA: How many are we? 16.
SV: 12
LH: 15
FM: 14
DR: No one. We’re all going to be running across the line!
KM: 22.
Ends
-
Will miss having myself on the edge in the ultimate machine: Webber
Sao Paulo, 24 Nov 2013: FIA post-race Press Conference at the Season-ending race at Sao Paulo in Brazil on Sunday.
Webber at the FIA press conference in Sao Paulo at the Brazilian GP. An FIA photo DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Glenda Kozlowski, TV Globo)
Sebastian Vettel, you just broke two records.,.
Sebastian VETTEL: No, please start with him. Start with Mark.
Q: OK! Mark Webber, that’s your last race in Formula One, today is a very emotional day for you. You have over 200 races in your career.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it was a very good finish to my career, a good fight with all the guys I’ve enjoyed fighting with for most of my career: Seb, Fernando, Lewis, Nico, all the guys who have been in the window for the last five or six years. I want to thank the team, I enjoyed the last few laps. It was a very nice way to finish. I want to thank everyone in Australia. I wouldn’t be here where I am without the support in the early days. It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable career. A great journey, one of which I’m proud of, and there’s been so many people who have played a special role in my career. They know who they all are – thank you very much if you are watching and…yeah… enjoy watching Formula One next year with these guys, but off to Porsche and looking forward to it.
Q: Sebastian, so, you just made [equalled] two records, the most consecutive wins – nine – and the highest number of wins in a single season: 13. So, what do you feel?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I’m actually quite sad that this season comes to an end. I think the last couple of races, really since the summer break, to win every race is unbelievable. The car has been phenomenal. Just kept getting better. I think today was a very interesting race. I had a poor start but then I was able to come back straight away in the first lap, build a gap which was nice to control then. But in the pitstop, obviously, I was waiting for my tyres again. I think it was a bit of a confusion going on because we had both cars coming in at the same time. Fortunately I got all the tyres in time ready to go. Mark was behind and then, yeah, the last laps, very difficult with the rain because you could see the fog is coming, [then] it’s leaving, so it was very difficult to judge but yeah, for sure, extremely proud. Big, big thank you to the team, big thanks to Renault. I think there’s a couple of guys that stand out. First of all Mark, obviously it’s his last race, we’ve been team-mates for a very, very long time. After all we didn’t have the best relationship but I think we always had tremendous respect for each other. And together I think we’ve been very, very successful for the team. And then there’s one other guy, he’s working on my car. His name is Tom Batch and unfortunately he’s leaving so farewell Tom, all the best for the future, and who knows, maybe we’ll meet each other again in the future.
Q: Fernando, since Singapore this was your first podium. Now the season is over and today was a tough race because like he said, the rain came and gone, came and gone. A light rain all the time. So how was it there?
Fernando ALONSO: Well it was a difficult race for everyone, unfortunately the rain didn’t come: I think we were more competitive in wet conditions but again, it seems as if it’s going to rain in any moment but it didn’t, so it was a shame for us but at least we’re in the podium, so ending the season on a high and hopefully for next year we start with a completely new direction and a positive trend. I’m looking forward.
Q: I know you’re missing Felipe Massa. Today was his last race with Ferrari.
FA: It was a shame, sad that he had this drive-through because I think the podium was very close for Felipe today. When I saw him fourth I said this would be a very good celebration for him. Sad for this race but happy for the last four years: he has been an amazing team-mate – inside the circuit with very competitive skills and also like a person. We build a friendly relationship in the last four years, a lot of time together. We’ll see him in the paddock next year with different colours but always he will remain a very good man.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Sebastian, lots of things really to talk to you about but just tell us about the race – give us some idea. Bit of a voyage into the unknown for all three of you in terms of tyres as well but also the start, the pitstop…
SV: Yeah, obviously we didn’t have any dry running, which was quite exciting when we started: bit of an adventure to find braking points, etcetera. Start was obviously quite bad for me. I had lots of wheel-slip and didn’t get the initial launch off the line as good as I was hoping for. Nico passed me straight away, Fernando was closing in. I was lucky that as soon as I got on the KERS I could recover a little bit and then it’s not a long way to Turn One – which helped today. So, lost the position, saved some KERS for the end of the lap. Was hoping to get him back up the hill which worked well, so I managed to get back in the lead straight away and was basically benefitting I think from Nico probably a little bit slower than the cars behind – Fernando and Mark – so I could open a gap and control that for more or less the rest of the race – until we came in for the second stop, which was a last minute call. I think we were afraid of a safety car at that stage. I came in, hoping everybody was ready. I think I had three wheels on the car but I was waiting for the front right. For some reason, last year and this year, it seemed to be the front right that… yeah, they let me wait for a little bit. I saw that obviously Mark was queuing behind me and I wanted to go and there was a bit of chaos in the pitlane but it was obviously fine to get the right tyres in the end, get out again and I still had a bit of a gap. We obviously lost to Fernando at that stage, both of us, but was still able to have a little bit of a gap and control that until the end which was very helpful to get through traffic and with the rain coming in and going – you could really see it from the car. The fog was coming and the rain clouds. You didn’t know how strong the rain was and, yeah, in the end it was fine all the time to stay on dries but a little harder rain and it could have been a different story so, yeah, lucky to get away with that.
Mark, a great end to your Formula One career. I hope you’re happy with it as well. How did it go?
MW: Yeah, I was happy with today. Tricky grand prix for all of us as you say, straight into dry conditions for a Sunday afternoon race. Maybe it’s what Bernie should do! He should just have Sunday afternoons mate, just turn up for Sundays and just race from there because it was a pretty good start to the grand prix, I think, all of us getting into the groove with no dry running: challenging for the teams and the drivers. So we all got there in the end. Both Seb and I had tough starts, I was happy to lose only to Lewis actually. I had a good little scrap in the first lap: Fernando and Lewis were having a good battle and then we settled into it. It looked like the Mercedes were struggling to hold the tempo of Fernando, myself and Seb, so we had to clear the Mercs as best we could. And then it was coming up to Fernando, so, managed to pass Fernando as well. There was some really nice moves and some good racing and I think for the team to get a one-two today with obviously not their cleanest day in the pitlane – which we can let them off every now and again, because they’ve had a superb season in the pitlane – so we gave the red guys a sniff but we managed to respond each time. Very proud to have raced with these guys at the end. I mean I raced pretty much all four or five of them at some stage in the race today – apart from Seb, obviously who was a little bit down the road – but the pace… it was a good battle for all of us. It’s been a real pleasure for me to finish today’s race like this. Yeah, and also to finish on the podium with arguable the two best guys of the generation we’re in at the moment. I hold them in very high esteem. I’m happy with the finish and I’m happy to go and do something different now. It was a special day for myself, all the people that helped me get here. Australia. And the team, of course, had a nice car to finish. Renault as well, a 1-2 for them, last time with the V8s. Lots of things which are special, so thank you very much.
Fernando, obviously a good result for you. As Glenda said on the podium, first time on the podium since the Singapore Grand Prix. Nice to go out with a podium?
FA: Yeah, definitely. I think to finish the season on a high is always better. We missed this podium finish from many races and today we had a chance. Obviously maybe with rain conditions, a wet race, maybe we had a little more performance than on the dry but at the end to finish behind the two Red Bulls today is the maximum we could achieve and I’m happy for that. The last race for Mark as you touched on now. We will miss him, that’s for sure. A great driver and a great person. Last race also for Felipe in Ferrari, which we wanted to help in whatever way to try to celebrate a podium finish with Felipe or something but he get a drive-through unfortunately. But, y’know, mixed emotions today but happy to finish 2013 which has been an amazing year in terms of fighting and the number of points we achieve, I think. We didn’t win the championship, which is the goal every year and for next year we reset again, start from zero and new motivations.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Mark, what will you miss most and what won’t you miss most?
MW: What will I miss most about Formula One? I think there are some special circuits which we race on: obviously Suzuka, Spa, Monte Carlo, Silverstone, even here to a degree. There are some really nice circuits which, when you have the car in the window, particularly in qualifying, there’s not much that can please a driver more than having the car on the edge and having yourself on the edge in the ultimate machine and that is something which I will miss. But you also have to respect that you want to make sure that you’re getting the best out of yourself in that scenario. If you think you’re a little bit off, then it’s not as rewarding as it once was. I will miss those scenarios. I will miss, I think, also the perfection that goes on in this game, especially with a team like Red Bull, the amount of work that goes in, the details. It’s quite inspiring to watch the relentless approach with the work, that’s something which I’ve learned a lot and I will take it to future challenges around the corner. What I won’t miss: looking to pull the travel back down a little bit, spending a bit more time with my people that helped me to get to where I am. I’m not young but I’m not old, I’m in the window, it’s a good time for me to get that balance, a little bit less intensity in the private life and also in the professional life. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be pushing hard with Porsche, obviously. I will be pushing very hard with those guys but in this game, you need to be on it all the time and I’m finding that more and more difficult. It’s a chance for me to finish strongly, which I’ve done. That’s some of the things I’ll miss. I think I answered that right.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Mark, what is your schedule now, are you going to take some holiday, just like retire or are you working for Porsche as soon as possible?
MW: No, I’m going to have a few weeks out, for sure, doing nothing. I love putting the fire on at home, chopping some wood, putting the fire on and maybe a bit of red wine and chill out with some chocolate. Also my Tasmania Challenge is on which I can’t get to this year, it’s just too busy to get to my charity event, so I hope that goes well for everyone taking part. It starts on Wednesday but I just can’t get to Tasmania from here, it’s just been a relentless year and quite difficult so I’m looking forward to just having a bit of a break. For sure there is some Porsche stuff in the background. Obviously there is a chance I can do some stuff with them before the year is out, which Red Bull have been very good with and then it will be a steady loading into January as it will be for all of us.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action Australia and National Speedsport News) Mark, tell us about taking your helmet off on that last ever lap and savouring it? Your eyes seem to be tearing a bit; maybe that was just the wind in your eyes.
MW: Yeah, it was the wind, Dan, I was tearing at that time. Look, it’s not easy to get the HANS device system away from the helmet so I spent half a lap trying to get the left hand side off, so I finally got it there but the cars are bloody noisy with no helmet on, I know that much, so it was really noisy, all the vibrations and you can hear lots of things that you don’t want to be hearing with the helmet on, that’s for sure. It was good to get it off, obviously the marshals, the fans, to see… in this sport, it’s not always easy to show the person that’s behind the wheel. We can in lots of other sports but in Formula One we’ve always got the helmet on so it was nice to drive back with the helmet off. Only time you’re seen with the helmet off is on the podium if we have a good day which we did both, so nice to get it off. In the last sector, I got it a little bit jammed, so I think the marshals were a little bit worried that I couldn’t turn left but in the end, no it was fine, it was a nice moment to come back, a little bit of a different touch to bring the car back.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian first, when did you tell your team that you wanted to come in? Was it because of a potential safety car, and to Mark, do you think it would have been better for you if the team had left you out for one more lap and then go in, because you obviously had to wait for Seb?
SV: I didn’t decide to pit. Obviously with the weather it was critical, we were trying to go as long as possible because we didn’t know… when it starts to rain and you pit one lap before, you lose a lot of time because you have to come in again to fit inters (intermediate tyres). So basically, I was told, exit of turn 12, box if I can. I had enough time to get ready. Arguably the team was on the limit and obviously they were preparing a stop for both cars so they had to get both set of tyres out, mine and Mark’s, and I think it was just a little bit of a rush, because I think the team was afraid of a safety car. Obviously I didn’t know what was going on around the track; the team is obviously able to monitor much better… to see the whole track, whereas I’m very good at judging what’s going on where I am right now but not five, six corners down the road. I think that was the reason why I got called in but unfortunately it got a bit messy.
MW: I got the pit call quite early in the lap, they were worried about a safety car as well. I think Maldonado had been off or something had happened. When I braked for the pit lane line, I looked on the big screen and I could see that Seb was in the box, saw on the TV that he was pitting and I thought ‘I hope it’s a replay’ but it wasn’t. When I got over the top, he was in the bloody box so I thought ‘shit, we’ve got a bit on here now’. In that case, mainly we were losing time, that’s the biggest thing but then just the rear jack guy remembering to get out of the way. Obviously I’m going to stop but I have to wait for him to move out of the way so I thought it was obviously a complete surprise, uncharacteristic of the team to do something quite tricky and risky, when there wasn’t a huge amount to risk but it turns out obviously that there was an issue at the start of Seb’s stop which snowballed into me and then we had the little Spanish lion on the back of me again, so it was a good recovery but the team… I’m sure they want to do that part again. In the end, we recovered well and cool heads…
Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) Seb and Fernando, Mark is going to take off some weeks for relaxing but you have to race next year and Formula One is changing a lot next year. What are you going to do until Christmas?
SV: Nothing. Obviously there are some things you have to attend to in December which is also nice, but mostly try to relax. Obviously Mark is retiring from Formula One but he’s not retiring from racing so, as he said, he will obviously get ready, probably has a little bit less pressure because the season maybe starts in a different way but I think for us it’s the same thing as the previous years. Obviously a lot of changes for next year but in terms of rhythm it is probably largely the same. Potentially you start a week or two earlier in January, to prepare the tests a little bit more. Equally, you can’t prepare so much because you need to wait for the first day on track, to know and see where we are.
FA: Obviously until Christmas time we are quite busy at Ferrari with some events with the sponsors and there are many activities in Maranello around Christmas time with the people working there at Ferrari, with their families etc and we will use those days while we are already in Italy to spend some time on the simulator and to do some work, looking at next year’s regulations. Christmas time will probably be the first time that we completely stop, so until the 21st of December, I think, we are on, still.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Fernando and Sebastian: Seb, what do you feel having reached Alberto Ascari’s record with nine victories in a row, a driver who comes from the distant past of Formula One, and to Fernando, do you feel more optimistic for 2014 after this result?
SV: Well, I think it is very very difficult for me to realise probably now and in the next couple of weeks what we have achieved again, and in particular this year at the end of the season. I think in terms of a certain record with Alberto Ascari you can’t really compare it, it’s at a completely different time. If you consider the fact that in the fifties the races were much longer and there were a lot of things that were breaking down, much more than nowadays where it’s very professional, reliability is exceptionally good for everybody. I think his record still stands out a lot. So at the end of the day, as I see it now, it’s just a number but hopefully one day, when I’ve got less hair and chubby then it’s probably something nice to look back to.
FA: Nothing changed, to be honest. I’m still optimistic for next year because I trust my team, I trust Ferrari preparation and philosophy for the 2014 car. We will be a contender, always, even this year when we haven’t been competitive and we only won two Grands Prix, we were off the podium for the last six or seven Grands Prix etc, we finished second in the World Championship, so with whatever the car that Ferrari do, normally, better or worse, you are a contender. That’s my optimistic point for next year, not because today we are on the podium or not on the podium.
Ends
-
Getting pole position is a big surprise and I am happy: Vettel
Sau Paulo,23 Nov 2013:
DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)TV UNILATERAL
Congratulations Sebastian, another excellent qualifying for you, your 45th pole, your second here, and your ninth this year. But what a margin as well, that’s incredible.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, big surprise. I was so happy after the quali, obviously, especially Q3, it took a long time for us to get out. There was a lot of rain after Q2, already at the end of Q2. Yeah, we need to wait. If there’s too much water it’s a shame for the people who wait for us to come out, but there’s too much water and the risk of aquaplaning is too high. So it took a long time and then got out. I was surprised by how much of the water had gone. I went straight on intermediates and was able to get a very, very good lap in straight away. Tried again in the second to beat that. It was very close, so with both my laps I was very happy. Surprised by the margin. When I was told I was very happy. I even mixed up Spanish and Portuguese. I was on the radio saying “olé, olé” but olé is Spanish so I don’t know the expression in Portuguese but maybe someone can tell me today and hopefully I’ll have another chance tomorrow. But great in these conditions to get it all right., We had very little practice and still got the car where we wanted it to be in the end so very happy.
Nico, your best qualifying here, ever. You wanted to give the Red Bulls a hard time, well, second is a good effort. What are your feelings?
Nico ROSBERG: It was a good day today. Everything went to plan. It’s always extremely tough in these conditions because it’s just all over the place and you need to make sure you don’t get caught out. But the whole team, we all did a good job and perfect strategy also in the end doing those two consecutive laps with the inter, got a good lap together, so happy with that. Surprised about the gap to Sebastian, that’s very big. Definitely would have been difficult, even getting everything perfect to come close to him. That’s fine. Optimum we’re second place and got that, so it’s OK. It’s a great place to start tomorrow – front row of the grid.
And Fernando, your equal best grid position this year. A bit of a surprise or not?
Fernando ALONSO: Well, we know that in wet conditions normally we improve a little bit our performance. We were waiting for wet races this year but it came only in the last in Brazil. I have mixed feelings to be honest. I’m happy to be so up on the grid, finally, because we start between seventh and tenths in the last five or six grand prix, which is not ideal. So being in the first three is good, but not totally happy with my lap. I lost a lot of time. Not obviously to beat Seb, he’s too far in front of us. But I think for second place it was not difficult. I lost something like seven or eighth or tenths in Turn Four, off the circuit in the paint area, losing a lot of time there. I think second could be possible but obviously I’m not sad with third and all the opportunities in front of us in tomorrow’s race starting up at the front.
File photo of Vettel at the post-race FIA Press Conference in India. A photo by BIC PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Sebastian, facing the race tomorrow with so much wet running but not so much dry running, what sort of conditions do you want? What is ideal for you?
SV: Well, I don’t think we had that many laps in the wet, to be honest, because we were all of us trying to save tyres as much as we can. Especially yesterday, we only had one set, and this morning. But… yeah, very pleased with the result, first of all. Tomorrow, I think Nico touched on it, it could be 50:50. It looks to be the best day that we have out of the last two but, yeah, we don’t know, anything is possible here. We saw in the race last year how quickly things can change. So, yeah, looking forward to the race in general. It’s great to start from pole. Very happy with the laps I had in the end in these tricky conditions. Hopefully we can carry that momentum into the race, no matter what the conditions.
Q: Nico, you’ve been quickest in both sessions yesterday, what sort of conditions would you like for the race itself?
NR: I don’t mind. Whatever. Whatever is OK. It can be dry or wet. Maybe in the wet I have a little bit of a better chance against Sebastian but anyway, it will be tough either way. Maybe a mix will be good for a little bit of an opportunity.
Q: And Fernando, what would you like?
FA: Yeah, I think mixed conditions would be the best thing – and that’s what it’s going to be, probably, with the weather forecast we have and we saw also today how quickly it goes from extreme to nearly dry, so tomorrow will be fun.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, in comparison to Sebastian you lost four tenths in the last sector which is a pretty straightforward one and Fernando, I think you lost six tenths in the middle sector. You said something before, I couldn’t understand it. Can you explain what happened?
NR: I finished my KERS unfortunately, for the last sector. That’s just a compromise because of doing two consecutive laps in these wet conditions and so it was to be expected and we chose to do it that way but for sure, that cost some lap time so it was down to that.
FA: I went off in turn four. I braked very late and I missed the corner and then I was on the extra circuit that is painted and obviously very slippery and I arrived braking more or less with zero on the target in the lap time, compared to the lap before and I exited with eight tenths slower so I lost these eight tenths, which obviously aren’t enough for pole but maybe it was enough for second place. That’s the way it is. The lap was not completely clean today.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Fernando, how do you see the fight for second place, is it good news for the team to have the Lotus behind, because they could try to overtake Ferrari?
FA: Yeah, definitely. I think it’s going to be tough. Obviously the second place in the Constructors’ is getting very difficult and the Mercedes were very strong all weekend so I expect them to be very strong tomorrow as well. But yeah, you are right, we cannot forget Lotus, that they have been scoring a lot of points in the last races and they are also a threat for third in the Constructors’ so it’s good to have them behind. It’s also good to have Felipe performing well today, with both Ferraris in Q3 and hopefully tomorrow both Ferraris can be in good points and I can help, failing anything, to have a very good last race with Ferrari.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, do you think victory is a possibility tomorrow or maybe it’s very difficult?
FA: Well, I think it’s going to be very difficult. Obviously every Grand Prix you go to, inside, even in a small percentage, you have to think of victory, because we are competitors and we like to win every race we go to. But we also need to be realistic and don’t tell our fans, our team, our people that tomorrow we have a high chance to win the race. That is not true, so we will try to do our best, we see whatever the position is at the end, what we have to do is to maximise what is available and for sure, comparing the last five or six events we’ve been through, there was probably zero chance to win the race. Tomorrow there’s maybe a small chance but very small.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all of you: if we have a dry race tomorrow which is possible, what will be the impact of being on the wet conditions all the days and then immediately in the race on dry tyres and dry asphalt?
SV: Well, first of all I think we all have new tyres so that helps but obviously the track is very green because we didn’t have dry conditions before, so I think that will make it tricky. And then I think it’s important that whoever has the best guess coming here, in terms of set-up, to ensure that your car is fine, not just for one lap in the wet conditions but also that the performance is there in the dry, first of all, and you are able to look after the tyres. It’s a long race, seventy laps here. We’ve seen in the past that it’s not that easy to make the tyres last, depending on your strategy so it will be difficult if it’s dry but then again, it will be same for everyone.
NR: There are a lot of other things like balance, like your front wing setting, your seventh gear – you might on the limiter for a hundred meters if you get it wrong – your engine temperatures are difficult to predict, so we might have opened too much and tomorrow we realise, oh damn, we’re running too cold so we lose performance. There’s a lot of things like that.
FA: Nothing more to add, I think.
Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) For all of you, how much did you compromise your set-up for maybe a wet race tomorrow?
SV: Well, I think to be honest with you, the typical wet set-up doesn’t exist any more, at least for us. In the past, the races that we had, there’s not that much difference. For sure we tried to go a little bit in a direction that helps us for wet conditions after the first or second practice yesterday but I wouldn’t call it a wet set-up, because usually in the wet you put more wing on, you lift the car, things like this but to be honest, the last couple of years, it has been pretty frozen when you went from dry to wet set-up, or dry to wet conditions.
NR: Same
FA: Same
Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Sebastian, the Brazilian fans cheered a lot for you in the 2008 race. It was in pretty much the same conditions that we had today and you were at Toro Rosso and if you were ahead of Lewis Hamilton it would help Felipe to be champion, so a lot of people cheered for you in that race. Do you think you have a special relationship with Brazilian fans and also with Interlagos?
SV: Well, I finished in front of Lewis as far as I can remember, so I tried to help the Brazilians but I think it’s a special place. I think all of us have had at least one race that was complete chaos in either direction, especially if I look at last year, the final race, fighting with Fernando for the championship. If you look at the highlights it has been an absolutely crazy race. My car was very damaged, I was facing the other way after turn four on the first lap but for some reason it seems to be a circuit – and together with the conditions – where you are able to create something out of nowhere. Equally, you might be on the safe side and something can happen. Surely, I have a special memory when coming here and yeah, you always believe something can happen here because the chance is there, as I described.
Ends
-
Marussia, Caterham bosses talk about the 10th place
Sao Paulo, 22 Nov 2013: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Eric BOULLIER (Lotus), Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes), John BOOTH (Marussia), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Caterham)
PRESS CONFERENCE
I’ll start with you Cyril. One last chance to try to snatch that 10th place in the Constructors’ table? From Caterham’s perspective, how costly would finishing last in the championship be? Can you afford that to happen?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: As you know, I can’t answer that question. I think it will be essentially costly for the morale of the team. Everybody believes that we deserve it. All due respect, I think we both have done a good job, but the figures tend say we deserve it just a little bit more than those guys. So, I mean that will be a race. I think whatever the result we are committed to the sport, so it’s not going to make a huge difference. I mean that will give a bit of a headache to my financial director but apart from that it’s not going to change our entire strategy to Formula One.
How has the morale been in the team? From what we were hearing yesterday the rain dance was being performed on a regular basis by your drivers.
CA: Yeah, well it has to be performed again on Saturday. It’s been a drier season on Sundays. We’ve had quite a few events with some rain on Friday, sometimes on Saturday as well, and each time we’ve had rain on Saturday in particular we’ve been able to do something, in Spa and in Monaco, where we managed to qualify in Q2. So it’s a good memory. We like rain, so let’s see on Sunday.
We’ll come to you in a moment John for your thoughts on this battle, but the big changes, Cyril, coming up next season with the regulations. How beneficial would it be to have a more experience driver at your team, a Heikki Kovalainen for instance?
CA: For instance! First of all I need to make sure that Lotus is not going to keep him. But apart from that, it will be a good thing to have some experience. But everything is changing next year. So, how much experience matters when everything is changing is one question. Having said that what we really want to have, because development, iteration, will be very fast at the start of next year in particular, you need a driver that all engineers, all the team can rely upon. So you want to have proper feedback, accurate feedback to be able to improve the car on an event-to-event basis. So that’s what we need. We need a driver who is transparent in the way that he is driving the car and providing feedback to everyone.
John, 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship: can you afford to lose that 10thplace this weekend?
John BOOTH: I think I pretty much agree with Cyril on his take on it. There may be a small financial consideration. But it’s the sporting matter that is more important. We are the smallest team, we operate with the smallest budget, but we are racers and we want to improve. Tenth place would be a massive plus for the guys in the factory.
I’m sure you don’t agree with Cyril when he says that Caterham deserve that 10th place more.
JB: It’s been a good scrap this year. There has been a large spell in the middle of the year when Caterham looked much stronger than us. We had a good race last week and we think we’re getting on top of our issues. But it’s been a long, long season. We took that 10th place in Malaysia. The last update we brought to the car of any significance was Barcelona, so it’s been a long old season hanging on to that 10th place and it’s been pretty nerve-wracking to be truthful.
With the updates that haven’t been coming since Barcelona, where do you see the improvements that have been made at the Marussia team?
JB: We’ve brought some small improvements and we’ve worked very hard at optimising what we have. I think we have gone forward but it would have been better to have two or three large upgrades through the season. But we are the smallest team and to build a 2014 car that has to be on the track in Jerez in January was a big feat for us and we’ve had to concentrate on that very hard.
Thanks very much. Eric, if I can come to you. The fight is on for you for second place between yourself, Ferrari and Mercedes. Off the track, the fight continues to try to attract extra investment to the Lotus team. Can you give us all an update on where you stand with that on this Friday afternoon in Brazil?
Eric BOULLIER: Well, there is still some discussion ongoing, especially now between bankers. The process is not fully completed but I think part of it has been done, which is obviously a good sign for the weekend and we hope that everything is closed by early next week.
When you say backers, you refer to Quantum Motorsports?
EB: Yes, sorry. But about the fight for the championship, I think second place, or even third place we need a little bit of help to get there. But maybe thanks to the funny weather we have we can expect the best of it.
Looking ahead to 2014. With the uncertainty over the extra investment to the team, how has that hindered your chances of attracting the right driver to the team, the driver you see as the man you want to partner Romain Grosjean?
EB: Obviously you need to have the right package to get the right driver. But obviously sometimes the right driver is with the right package. So we will do our best to keep our force all together. That for me is the main point. Make sure the team is sticking all together. Keep, let’s say, the best expertise we have onboard and make sure we can deliver the right cars and the right package on track, that’s the most important point.
Still confident you will get the man you want in that seat?
EB: I’m still confident I will get one of the guys I want, yes.
Q: Stefano, you bid farewell to Felipe Massa this weekend, eight years that you’ve worked together with him at Ferrari. How would you sum up Felipe and what have been your highlights of the last eight years with him?
Stefano DOMENICALI: Well, first of all let me say one thing before going to the question, that is to express my solidarity to the Italian population of Sardinia that has been hit very deeply by flooding and the hurricane. Our thoughts are with those families and this population that is suffering a lot in this moment.
Going to Felipe, I think Felipe is leaving with an incredible weekend here, today in this city because, you know, we have the tendency to pass through everything without thinking. I think that what Felipe did with Ferrari has an incredible history. We had incredibly moments together. Difficult too, of course – but he is an incredible guy who deserved what he had and even if it seems a little bit too personal, I consider him a world champion 2008 because he deserved that title here in São Paulo. So, I think what I can say is that he has always shown his dedication to the team, to the Ferrari family and we wish to him all the best success for his future because he’s young – but for sure he will bring Ferrari in his heart forever.
Q: In terms of that second-placed fight, what would it mean to take that second place in the championship, to make up the 15 points to Mercedes and what would it say about your season if you didn’t end up as runners-up?
SD: Well, first of all, we are fighting with a very strong team and we will not cheer like hell if we be second and we will not be depressed if we will not be in second position because of course in sport you try to do the maximum that you can. Unfortunately this year it was not possible to fight for first position as we were last year. This year, we have the duty to try to do the maximum, knowing that it is not easy. But in this condition everything is possible. So nothing will change in our approach and we will stay focussed up until the end. And of course, we will try to do that up to last lap – but it will unfortunately change so much the consideration on a very difficult season that has been the case for us this year.
Q: Finally Ross, it’s not often in your career that you’d celebrate second place in the Constructors’ Championship but I’d suggest if you finish runners-up there would be a wry smile on your face. Are you happy with what you’ve achieved at Mercedes?
Ross BRAWN: I think happy with the progress. Obviously I hope this is not the end. I hope there’s more progress in the next few years because certainly our ambition is to win the championship, win the Drivers’ and Constructors’, so second place would be a boost for everyone in the team, particularly as we came from fifth last year and I think the improvement in the performance of the car has been quite significant this year. We’ve scored over 300 points so far this season; we scored 140-something last year, so it’s a substantial improvement over where we were and I think everyone can be pleased – or reasonably pleased – with that. Of course it’s not where we ultimately want to be, so we need to have a measured response if we’re able to finish second.
Q: You’ve assembled quite a team at Mercedes, on and off the track. With consistency over the winter, is it possible to challenge for the championship and be on a par with Red Bull?
RB: We believe so. They’re very, very strong competitors. They don’t forget. You can’t forget the things you know. They were very impressive in the second half of this year. The progress they’ve made in the second half of this season has been very impressive but it is shaken up a bit next year and I think the fact we made a commitment almost two years ago now to start the 2014 programme… we are a team similar to Ferrari where we do an engine and a chassis and I think that’s a significant benefit for next season. The engine has been very much designed alongside the chassis to get the best integrated package. I think the engine is going to be one of the differentiators next year. I don’t think it’s going to be the only one but I think it’s much more significant than the engines have been the last few years. So, there is scope to be mildly optimistic that we can have a run next year.
Q: Finally, with regard to 2014 and specifically the tyres, you didn’t really get a chance to try out the prototype tyres today because of the rain. With Pirelli requesting a December tyre test with at least one of the teams, is that feasible for a team like Mercedes or for any team on the grid? And is it vital, before the first proper pre-season test?
RB: I think whatever flows now has to be fair for all the teams. I think we’re in a very delicate position. I think we all want to help Pirelli provide the best tyre they can next year but it would be unfortunate if one team had the benefit of running a tyre to the exclusion of all the other teams. Today would have been the ideal situation for everyone to get a first look at the 2014 tyre, take the data away, and that would have been reasonably fair. I think if we end up with only one team running the 2014 tyres before next year, with no provision today or no ability today to run the tyre, that could end up a pretty unfair situation, that someone’s going to have an insight into what the tyre does and how it works. So, I think we have to look at that very carefully, how we can do something that is fair and proper for all the teams.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, regarding exactly the last question, tyres, Pirelli is claiming more tests before the start of the season. This year tyres had an effect on the game and you were affected by that. Are you worried that kind of situation can be reproduced in the future?
SD: Well, for sure the tyre situation has had an effect on this championship because with the change of specification, for sure something that never happened came in place this year. I think that we always give our will to help Pirelli in order to find the best solutions, in order to find very competitive tyres that can be used in all the conditions, where the drivers can push and show their driving skills, so on our side we have given our will to help them in all the conditions that they can. I agree with what Ross said about being able to be balanced and having the equality within the teams but it will reach a point where for sure if there’s no kind of test, the negative hit of not having a test will be really important, so I think that in the next days we need to decide what to do for the future in this very hot topic.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Eric, Kimi was third in the Drivers’ championship and this year he’s not in the top three; how would you rate his season: was it worse or better?
EB: Well, sportingly I think it has been better obviously. Last year he was just re-joining the F1 field so maybe he needed a little bit of fine tuning at the beginning of the season, even if he was scoring good points. I think this year he started with a win, so obviously he had a much better start and I think overall it was better.
Q: (Tariq Panja – Bloomberg News) I’m not really a Formula One reporter but I’m a sports reporter based in Brazil. This country will have two of the major sporting events, the World Cup coming next year and the summer Olympics in 2016. Ross and Stefano, you’ve been coming here for many years, what do you think of Brazil’s preparedness for these mega events? Has it been improving over time as you’ve been coming to this track, for instance?
RB: I think there’s a number of things we enjoy about Brazil. There’s always a great passion here for sport. The crowd is always incredibly enthusiastic and that feeds through to the teams. We enjoy racing here. It’s fair to say that these are not the best facilities we enjoy during the season but I think the enthusiasm and passion for the sport compensates for that and we do enjoy coming here. We don’t have any problems in terms of organisation and preparation here, everything turns up, all goes through customs OK, we don’t have any dramas that are unusual, so we have a good race here and we don’t have any unique problems.
SD: I couldn’t agree more with what Ross has said. On our situation, it’s really great, we enjoy being here and I can understand the situation of the Olympics and World Cup is different because you may have people coming from abroad, you have different locations, different logistical problems but on that, honestly, I’m not in a position to comment because I don’t really know the situation. What I can say is that what we are experiencing is a unique atmosphere, when the passion is one of the key factors and I’m sure that will also happen in the events that will come in the future here in Brazil.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Question to John and Cyril: speaking to Christian Horner yesterday, he remarked that even for a team of their resource and their standing given they’re four times World Champions, that trying to find the additional cost for next year, which he estimated to be around £20m was proving incredibly difficult. He did also note that if it’s difficult for them, it must be exceptionally hard for you guys. So can you give us an idea as to the troubles you’ve been going through, trying to find those kind of resources for next year?
JB: I’d love to be struggling as much as Christian is struggling at the moment, that’s for sure. We have known about the cost of the powertrain for many months now, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise for anybody and everybody I assume has planned accordingly. As far as we’re concerned, we knew about the cost and we think we have a manageable business for next year and going forward.
CA: Not much to add; obviously it’s something we anticipated and that has even affected our strategy of spend for this year because we knew that there would be so much to invest both from a factory perspective in terms of engine costs, contractual costs but also in terms of car build, so that we have a cash flow that is structured in order to absorb all of that. We are going through that now. But there is a reason why, to do a degree, we have started development quite early; it was precisely to absorb those costs.
Q: So basically cut down this year and leave yourselves room for next year?
CA & JB: Yup.
RB: I think it is challenging next year, but we all have to remember that if we cut the budgets in half we would still go racing. It’s the standards of which we want to go racing that causes the pressure on the budget. It’s not that there’s insufficient money, it’s the fact that we all want to compete at the highest possible standard, and that means that we push the budgets as hard as we can. If everybody’s budget tomorrow was reduced by 50 percent, it wouldn’t make any difference.
Q: Can you see that ever happening?
RB: No. But that’s a fact. It wasn’t so many years ago that we were able to come to every race at every track with reliable cars for half of what we are spending now. That’s the nature of Formula One.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – RacingLines) Gentlemen, customer cars have been a contentious issue recently. Given what you’re just discussing about budgets and costs and whatever, there are constant rumours about teams going out of business or possibly going out of business. I believe that Formula One is possibly looking at three car teams, eight three car teams for a 24 car grid as opposed to five As and five Bs. How do you people feel about that, because it will affect you all differently?
EB: Well, obviously nobody has a crystal ball. I think everybody agrees that for the future, as ratio costs for the new costs or inverse revenue costs has to change, and it’s true that customer cars was brought in to the discussion. I personally don’t think it’s the right path to go, it’s against the DNA of F1 I think and it may create some other issues which to find the funds to run customer cars, to run modern or current cars, I think if F1 needs to go one path, it is to guarantee a number of cars on the grid and obviously a number of teams running three cars would be, for me, a better solution.
JB: I think I’m correct in saying that under current regulations if the numbers of cars on the grid falls below a certain number then certain teams are required to run three cars but as far as I know there’s been no discussion about three car teams in the near future. Certainly I’ve not been part of the discussions and I assume it would need a big change in regulations to achieve that.
Q: Is that something you would welcome, though, or not?
JB: We’re finding two cars tough enough without running three.
CA: Well, personally, I’m just like Eric and most of the teams, I believe. I’m not in favour of customer cars. Having said that, I think the situation we have is not necessarily sustainable. Clearly an analysis must be made regarding what to do and make sure that we anticipate that correctly and there is also a gliding path to whatever solution is retained, whether it’s a budget cap, RRA. I take the point, of course. If we’re all at fifty or one hundred million budget, the show will be no different at all so I think that we need to be sensible about that, make sure that we are doing the right thing. If a third car is one thing to do, why not, but in your example there were only eight teams so I would like to hope that we are not one of the three teams that will be out of the game.
Q: And this will be the problem, Ross, if you have eight teams of three cars, then three teams would have to make way.
RB: Well, I don’t think it would be that way round. I think it would be if we had some teams drop out and the number of entrants, the number of cars entered dropped below a certain level, then we do have to support extra entries. We’re not a supporter of customer cars, we think the identity of the teams is important, the fact that the teams design and build their own cars is important but however if Formula One faced a situation where we didn’t have sufficient cars on the grid, then of course a three car team is a possibility, but only in those circumstances.
SD: I agree. First of all we need to see what we want for the future of Formula One. We are in a situation where for sure we are different in philosophies with the teams that are in the championship, there are different situations, so I think that solution, that situation can be driven really if some teams will not be there in the future. Because also now, when we discuss about cost-cutting measures, of course the goals that we have in mind are different and maybe with the goals that we have in mind, we don’t expect… we don’t even reach the half of what the expenditure of a small team, so we really need to understand what is the future of Formula One, what are the objectives that can be discussed in a common way because otherwise you can cherry-pick different measures but you will not really have a clear focus on what should be the focus of Formula One and this is really a point of discussion that we have on the table since many many years. I’m sure that very soon this will be the most important topic of discussion.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Eric, my question regards your potential investor, Mansoor Ijaz. A cursory Google-search of his background shows a few problematic business dealings including the use of value-less companies as collateral for loans. I was wondering what proof you’ve been given of the existence of his money and whether or not any due diligence had been done.
EB: Fortunately we don’t have to base our judgement only on Google, with all respect to Google for what they are doing. To answer the question, yes, we have very serious proof of funds and good compliance of what is Quantum Motorsport.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Ross, given what you said, the fact that you could race on half the money and the show wouldn’t change, if the FIA were ever to potentially look down the route of a budget cap again, is it something that potentially could be considered somewhere down the line, or has the RRA proven that it’s something that could never ever work, given certain other teams’ objections to the way teams work?
RB: Well, I think the conclusions for me for the RRA is that there was a structure of a system that could work but quite clearly wasn’t a system that could work with self-regulation from the teams themselves. It was a system that had to be policed, we believe by the FIA but it seemed that we couldn’t get enough agreement within the teams that that should happen, so it failed on that basis. I don’t think it failed because it wouldn’t work, in my view it failed because we couldn’t engage the governing body in policing the system. I think whatever system we have is going to affect the competitiveness of teams and therefore it has to be controlled by the sporting body. It can’t be controlled by the teams themselves and I think any attempt to have self-regulation of something so important as budget and resource is futile, because of the nature of the teams. We’re very competitive and will always be looking to push the boundaries. If you look at the technical regulations, we push the boundaries all the time, quite rightly, and then we have a governing body that taps us back into place, and also a governing body that we can get a reference from. If we have a query, we can go to them, we can ask them, we can argue and we can get an opinion on whether something is legal or not. Unless you have that process with the financial control, it can never succeed because one team’s interpretation of a regulation with be different to another team’s interpretation of a regulation so you have to have this process going on where you introduce a constraint, a control and then a mechanism to police it and a mechanism to answer queries and regulate queries and questions on the regulations to refine the regulations because no set of regulations will be a hundred percent perfect from day one, they need refining. We draw the analogy with the technical regulations; it works pretty well, we occasionally have a big blow up about something but most of the time it’s good and if we had the same with the financial regulations, I think that would be the only way forward, because I can’t see any other way. Attempts to change the technical regulations to reduce the costs have historically failed. They can push it back a bit for a while and then the teams find something else to spend the money on so the budgets never really change.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) I wanted to refer back to Dieter’s earlier question about the potential of three car teams, because it seemed to me that the three of you in the back row were aware of the concept whereas it was new to the two of you in the front row, I believe, I got from John’s answer. Could you please tell me, John and Cyril, what level of communication you’ve had from the teams in the strategy commission and how much you are aware of the formal and informal discussions they’ve been having?
CA: I think we have had the same minutes as they have had.
Q: So you have received the information?
CA: We have received as much information as they have received after the meeting.
Q: Same for you, John?
JB: Yup.
Q: So no complaints about that, then?
JB: No, that’s not wholly true. I think Cyril’s statement is absolutely correct but to say that there is no complaints wouldn’t be accurate.
CA: To be a bit more… to develop that just a bit, we have an F1 commission actually in a few days and we are also circulated the agenda of the next F1 strategy meeting so I wouldn’t be concerned too much about that because ultimately we have a seat, we have a voice. Obviously we are outnumbered, we are one or two, just a couple but still, Formula One knows very well that it cannot really live without everyone, so maybe the process is a bit less inclusive than it’s been in the past. There is also a meeting of the F1 strategy group so for me it’s more the goodwill and the agenda in general of the F1 strategy group rather than who is sitting in it that will make a difference.
Q: (Pablo Juanarena – Marca) It’s a question for Stefano but could be for Ross or Eric: today, Red Bull has used the 2014 tyres, one lap for Sebastian. It seems that they are always a step ahead. Do you think it’s that way?
SD: What I can say is that they are in a situation that if they had crashed today nothing would have changed for them, so I think that they took… not a risk because that’s maybe not the right word but they want to take some measurement in that condition. If they were happy to do it in that way I don’t think it’s a matter of being a step ahead. It’s a matter of decision or a possibility considering the conditions that they have… they are in this specific weekend.
Q: Was there a possibility that you would run a car on the slick tyres, even just for one lap this morning?
SD: No.
RB: We always work on the principle that bad information is worse than no information. With all due to respect, Red Bull may well have found something out that we don’t anticipate but we couldn’t understand what you could learn in those conditions, even though it looked like they were trying to take profiles of the tyres and so on, it was difficult to see how it could be useful and certainly our conclusion was there was no use for us with what we wanted to do to run the tyre this morning.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – RacingLines) The two things one can never have enough of: power and sponsors yet if I have a look at your shirts, if I’d gone back a year, your shirts would look identical with the exception of one or two stickers or logos on your shirts. Formula One hasn’t really attracted any major sponsors for the last three or four years. Is there a fundamental problem in Formula One, because other sports are certainly attracting them?
EB: We have attracted some blue chip brands, Microsoft and Burn, which is the Coca Cola group. But it’s true that the biggest deals have been done with FOM recently which is quite an achievement. I think the question is that everybody knows the world economic situation is not as brilliant as ten years ago so I don’t there is some big comparison or let’s say some conclusion to be drawn today.
SD: From our side, I have to say that we have attracted a new sponsor, a big one like UPS for example this year. We have basically renewed with all our major sponsors, major partners so we have quite a solid base of partners that are really investing with us and of course they are with us because there is a win-win situation. So far, I would say that I don’t see that directly because maybe Ferrari has different options to exploit with the partners for sure but I think that in general, in a situation where there is this economic crisis it is important not to devalue too much the sale of what you have, if you can, of course. Otherwise then when the economy will start again, it will be more difficult to keep the level of investment that is valid for the Formula One World Championship.
JB: I think there’s been a trend in motor sport in general, particularly Formula One over the years that it’s two or three years behind the world economy and the initial crash of the economy didn’t seem to affect Formula One whereas three years later it is starting to bite. As the economy recovers, I’m sure we will be two or three years behind, picking up again. And maybe we should ask ourselves if we’re offering the right exciting package to the viewers as well.
CA: On our side, we are quite lucky to have some nice brands associated to us because I think in general the Caterham project is something that is quite exciting and attractive for sponsors and investors, but I think now we have a duty to deliver because they have not let us down, we should not let them down so performance is what can buy interest in that sport so that’s what we need to focus on. More generally on Formula One, I believe that it also goes back to the question of performance. We need to make sure that the grid in general is in the right window and that also the TV coverage which obviously focuses on people that perform, is distributed in not a fair manner because there must be a winner, there must be a loser and we are losers right now but we must make sure that we are part of the show and we’ve been missing to be part of the show because of the facts, so it’s one thing to be getting back to the economic model and the regulation structured, we need to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be in the show.
RB: Well, we’ve been quite fortunate; perhaps or our people have worked very well and the number of our partners have improved or we have improved our deals with them. Blackberry was new for us, we know Blackberry faces some challenges at the moment, but that’s a major sponsor that came to the team this year. But no, we’ve seen some reasonable upsides with most of our partners but it is very tough and as John said, there is a lag in the system that is impacting motor sport and Formula One, but hopefully with the improved economic environment that some countries are experiencing we can pick it up and get it going again.
Ends
-
Ferrari is a dream for all drivers: Massa
File photo of Felipe Massa at the Indian GP this year. A BIC photo 21Nov2013: DRIVERS – Charles PIC (Caterham), Max CHILTON (Marussia), Giedo VAN DER GARDE (Caterham), Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
PRESS CONFERENCE
I’ll start with you Mark: 215th and final grand prix start this weekend. I know you’ve had time to come to terms with your retirement from Formula One but when you climb into that Red Bull for one last time, it’s going to emotional isn’t it?
Mark WEBBER: I think on Sunday it will be a little bit different but it still feels like a normal race at the moment, so looking forward to Sunday in many ways, in terms of obviously pushing for a good result, but also I’m ready to stop and looking forward to the extended winter that I’ll have and the new challenges around the corner. Getting out of the car Sunday there will be a few things that will be for the last obviously in terms of Formula One, but I’m pretty relaxed at the moment and looking forward to the race.
What do you think you might miss most of all?
MW: There are certain situations in Formula One that are super rewarding. Obviously driving the car on the limit at certain venues is still very satisfying, no question about it. You’ve got Suzuka, Spa, Monte Carlo, come qualifying day and even racing, at certain circuits it’s very challenging and rewarding. So I’ll miss some of that. But I’m on a little bit of a slippery slope now, in terms of… you’ve got to be careful not to test it too much in terms of performance and what you used to be able to do. I still think I’m driving well but I don’t want to be around not driving well. So it’s inevitable that you’re going to miss certain parts, for sure the adrenaline and working with people like Adrian Newey. Stuff like that you don’t get to do that often obviously. That’ll be something I’ll miss a bit. But there comes a time when you’ve got to let go and I’ll still have good adrenaline next year obviously with Porsche and that’ll be a good balance.
So many highs and lows from your association with Formula One. Which period have you enjoyed driving the least and which period have you enjoyed driving the most.
MW: I think the hardest and most difficult cars to driver were in the mid-2000s, when we had all the refueling and the tyre war. Those cars were tricky and you had to push every time you went out. There was no such thing as pacing at any point really, in qualifying, practice or Sunday afternoon. So it really was a tight envelope for a grand prix driver in those eras to operate but that’s what we trained [for] and we aspire to do. They were good times. Obviously a lot of power too, the V10s had plenty of horsepower. So the lap times floating around then were pretty impressive, and in the early 2000s as well to a degree. We’ve had a lot of changes in the last three or four years. The racing has gone through some boring phases, so we’ve introduced some DRS, things like that, things that have been of benefit to the sport. It’s taken a little bit of the tradition out of it I suppose, some of the passing moves and things like that, which probably which are not as difficult to achieve as in years gone by. They are achievable now. That’s a little bit fabricated but good for the neutral at home. Tyres – we’ve had some challenging times on those as drivers, and as teams, trying to understand particularly the new brand of heavily modified pace during races is probably not as rewarding as it was. But you can’t always have it. I’ve driven in so many different regulations… one championship but with so many different scenarios but generally you just have to enjoy it, it’s your job.
I’m sure you’ll be greatly missed by everyone here in the paddock. Good luck for the future. For you, Felipe, it’s the end of an era too. Your association with Ferrari, which begun in 2006, comes to an end and what a place for it to come to an end – your home race, at Interlagos.
Felipe MASSA: Yeah, definitely. It’s a fantastic place to race and to finish an incredible time with Ferrari. It’s a very long time. It’s our eighth championship but I’ve been inside Ferrari even before Formula One, so it’s a long time and I need to say thank you to all of them – everyone who worked together in Ferrari. Stefano as well. You know that he is a big friend and he did a lot for me as well, Domenicali. Everybody, everybody I worked with together. I hope we can enjoy the last race here in Ferrari and having a lot of fun and having a good result as well to have even more emotion at the end.
Do you pinch yourself when you think back that you spent eight years with Ferrari, the team that every boy racer dreams of racing for?
FM: Yeah, I mean I think Ferrari is a dream for all the drivers. I remember, one of the first go-karts I had was red. My first overall was red, so I was always supporting Ferrari as a kid. So racing eight years for Ferrari is definitely a dream come true. So, getting old as well! But also it’s another re-start for my career. I’m really happy and looking forward to my future in Williams, a different team. So really, a lot to do still in Formula One.
Q: How important for your morale was it that Williams had the faith in you to extend your Formula One career, to take you on and try and restart a period of success that they’ll be hoping for from next season? And also, how important is it for the sport that a Brazilian driver still stays in Formula One.
FM: First of all, I really believe I can do a lot with Williams. Everything is changing, brand new rules for the championship so I think it’s also a good time that we start something new, different. You never know, you’re doing a good job in a team that has also all the infrastructure to do – like Williams has – everything inside the company to do a good car. So everything is possible. They believe in me so I’m really happy and motivated to drive for them, to work and to do everything I can to help the team to be competitive again, which I’m sure everything is possible.
And how important for a Brazilian to stay in Formula One?
FM: It’s very important. We know how important is Brazil in Formula One: the history for so many drivers, so many championships, so many victories. For Brazil, Formula One is very important. We have motor racing in the blood. So, it’s very, very important to keep Brazilian drivers in Formula One, and also, we’re not having a great time in Brazil for the small categories, so I think it’s important to give a push and help for our future – because for the moment it doesn’t look very nice. I’m trying to help and give some good ideas for the Federation to help and pushing for our future.
Jean-Eric, your second full season in Formula One. How difficult has this year been for you? Off the track when Mark announced he was retiring there was the hope of a Red Bull seat, tantalisingly close but it never ultimately came your way.
Jean-Eric VERGNE: It was a difficult season. I have to say that I’ve been quite unlucky in many races, not finishing when I should have been in the points. We had a really good car to start off the season with but then I guess with the introduction of the new tyres, everything went a little bit more difficult for us and, yeah, we were out of the points for a long time. It has been really tough. Obviously there was the Red Bull seat opportunity. They went for Daniel. It was, of course, a big disappointment for me as a racing driver. You want to win races, be one day a world champion and obviously it’s the team to be in to do this, to succeed. But, you know, I try to look at the positive. I guess if Red Bull choose Daniel that means there are things I haven’t done good. I have to look at myself in the mirror, try to understand the reasons and try to get better. The challenge with Toro Rosso next year will be massive. I’m really happy to stay in that team and everything is possible. Even staying in this team, it’s not a back-up plan or whatever. I really believe in this team and I want to grow as a racing driver with this team that is growing a lot too.
Q: When you miss out on a big seat is it difficult to keep your head high, is it difficult to keep your morale and your focus.
J-EV: For a few races it has been difficult because I think I was doing really good races and I was on a good run from Monaco, Canada and Silverstone was going to be really good as well but obviously I had the big tyre explosion and then there was the call of Red Bull to put Daniel in the Red Bull for the young driver test and straight away I understood that this seat was not going to be for me even though I tried to do my best. And then there were a couple of really difficult races in terms of pace, everything, so it was quite difficult to manage it, I guess.
Q: Giedo and Max. Question for you both. We know where Mark’s going to be next year, we know where Felipe and Jean-Eric are going to be – but you two, we’re not sure at the moment. Max first, what can you tell us about the future?
Max CHILTON: I’m not going to speculate any more than people already have. We’ve had some good discussions over the last couple of weeks and I’m happy with those conversations, they’ve gone quite well so I’m just looking forward to hopefully being back next year and having a bit of a better chance.
Q: No doubt in your mind that ideally you would like to stay with Marussia.
MC: Yeah. Marussia have been great to me. They gave me the chance to get into Formula One and it’s not easy for us where we are but this year I think we’ve done a pretty stunning job with what we’ve got. It’s not over yet – we learnt that last year here with five laps to go – so we’re kind of… we’re fingers-crossed hoping that it can finish well but the car’s looking strong for next year. When big rule changes tend to come into Formula One it gives the smaller teams a bit of a chance. So looking forward to Australia hopefully next year.
Q: Giedo, what does the future hold for you?
Giedo VAN DER GARDE: Well, I can tell you nothing yet. The management is very busy at the moment. Hopefully they can do a good job. I think I’ve proven myself during the last part of the season and I think I’ve been doing a very good job so hopefully I will be there next year.
Q: Is it easier to have those negotiations after a season of Formula One do you think – or is it easier to make more of an impression with your results from the junior categories, trying to get in for the first time?
GVDG: I think after a season it’s better to negotiate – because then you’ve shown already what you can do. I think we’ve shown already this year what I did. Let’s see.
Q: So, tell us about the battle this weekend. 13th place will be good enough to Caterham in the Constructors’ Championship if there’s no Marussia car ahead of them. At the moment Marussia have that tenth place and with it the financial benefits of tenth. How are both camps feeling? Let’s start with Max first. It’s a massive weekend for both teams.
MC: Yeah, for sure. We know how important this weekend is, coming into it. The worst thing is to start panicking because you start not concentrating on the right things. The best thing to do is treat it like a normal race weekend and try to get the most out of the car. If we can do that, and we can race well, then there’s nothing that we can be sad about because we gave it the best shot we can. We’ve done that every race this year and it’s worked. But with the weather in Brazil it’s never over until that chequered flag.
Q: Does that mean then, Giedo, that Caterham are praying for rain?
GVDG: Absolutely! Because by pure speed it’s going to be tough in dry conditions and we need some luck. We need some other cars maybe to have a collision or maybe to have a mechanical failure – but rain will help a lot. And our car seems to work quite well in the rain. And also our car is quite competitive here also in the dry. We have to give it a big push, the last chance, and hopefully we can do the same as last year.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Felipe, which was your happiest moment at Ferrari and which was the toughest one? Can we say the toughest one was after losing the championship here, or the period after the accident in Budapest?
FM: I would say the happiest moment was, I think, the first time I won in Brazil, 2006, with the green and yellow overalls. I think that was definitely the best moment for me. You know how important it is for a Brazilian to win at home. If you remember well, Senna was more happy to win in Brazil than to win a championship so you can see how important it is for a Brazilian to win here. It was a very special moment, not just that time but even 2008 was a special moment. I won the race here, it was Sao Paulo, quickest lap. It was other championships, not here in Brazil, you know, before. I think the toughest moment was… definitely the accident was not a great moment and maybe the race in Hockenheim, 2010.
Q: (Marc Surer – Sky Germany) Mark, you must be very pleased next year that there are no standing starts any more for you. I hardly remember a perfect start from you. Can you explain us what is so difficult about starting a modern Formula One car?
MW: Austin was very good. Austin was a great start. Austin was a good start.
Q: Sadly the Frenchman behind you got a better start.
MW: That’s right. I think that my reaction… first of all, we are not completely in a position like Ferrari with their clutches. We know they have a very very good start system so they’re stronger than us on the initial…
FM: If you want we can change the downforce…
MW: So yeah, our initial starts, the initial part has not always been consistent and then I think my reaction to this inconsistency is not as good as it could be. So when you go for the second lever, when you go for the KERS, when you go for the slip control, especially on the Pirellis… with the Bridgestones, you could slip the tyre a little bit more and you get no penalty. With the Pirellis, you slip the tyre a little bit and you lose time so I think that… We’ve never seen Sebastian go through the row in front either. We’re either holding position or losing and Seb has got the starts just OK because I think he can manage some of the problems but for me, it has not, particularly in the last few years. The Bridgestone years we were fine, 2010 was actually pretty good but in the last few years it has not been our strength and it has not been a strength of mine. But I enjoy the starts. I’m relaxed on the grid, I could sing a song to the guys, it’s not something which… when the lights are on, it’s a great part of the Grand Prix but of course, it’s a part of the weekend that, if you look at Austin, it’s a big part of the weekend that needs to… Maybe I should have done ‘bike racing because in ‘bike racing you can overtake but in Formula One now, it’s less easy to recover because in traffic with the tyres, blah blah blah it’s a big part.
Q: Before we continue with our questions from our journalists here, I’m pleased to report that Charles Pic has managed to join us this morning. Thanks for coming along. We asked Max and we asked Giedo about their futures in Formula One; it would be wrong not to ask you about next season and how negotiations are going?
Charles PIC: Yeah, sorry, first, for the delay. I was doing the trackwalk because we had a mistake with the scheduled programme. For next year, I think the logical thing for me would be to stay at Caterham but it’s not sure. I think there are still many seats available for next year so nothing is sure for the moment so we will see.
Q: How difficult is it for a driver and a driver as young as yourself to be thinking, ‘do you know what, if it doesn’t go right with the negotiations, that might be my time in Formula One and it might have come and gone so, so quickly?’
CP: Yeah but you say that every year, no? So, at the end, I don’t think it’s changing a lot. We try to be focused on the races we are on, so it’s Brazil this weekend and give our best this weekend, try to get good results for the team and then we will see what happens for next year.
Q: Thirteenth or better on the track might help those negotiations along for this weekend and helping Caterham maybe to tenth in the Constructors’ championship. Giedo was saying that the team is praying for rain. Do you believe that the shock result is possible, even without the rain?
CP: I don’t know if it will help the negotiations but for sure it would help the team and it’s the target so we will go for it and see.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Mark, would you like to send a message to Australia and a thank-you to the legions of Australian fans that have supported you ever since that first race with Minardi?
MW: Yeah, well obviously Formula One down there is not the easiest sport to follow, or wasn’t particularly when I was growing up. It’s always on in the middle of the night, there was no internet, blah blah blah. These days it’s a little bit more easy to follow. Obviously we’ve been very very lucky to have an Australian Grand Prix since ’85 in Adelaide and then at Melbourne, so that’s a real tonic for our country to follow the best single-seater category in the world – obviously the pinnacle is Formula One so they are always happy to have the best drivers and the best teams in the world to come down there to compete in Australia and that’s evident with one of the best organised events of the year. So, when they have an Australian racing, that’s a super bonus and when they have an Australian challenging for good results, for them it’s been a good period in the last few years so it’s been phenomenal the amount of support that I’ve had from there, not always easy for them to understand the sport at times but they do what they can and they are very passionate behind their sporting people. I believe that I’ve competed in a way which they would be proud of and I just want to thank them, obviously, for all their amazing messages that I’ve had over the last few weeks and specially this week, it’s been incredible. I look forward to spending a little bit more time down in Oz in the future, I haven’t seen a huge amount of my country since I left there as a young lad so I’m looking forward to spending a bit more time down there, have a look around and I always represented and was proud to race for Australia throughout my career, so the Australian national anthem and the flag for me was very important because I always knew it was not often… there’s only been three race winners so it’s not exactly easy for us to compete at this level and get over to Europe. It’s very special to race for Australia.
Q: (Patricia Sanchez – Motorpasion F1) Mark, already we ask you what are going to miss now you’re leaving, is there something you’re happy to leave behind, maybe us journalists?
MW: Well, I wouldn’t be leaving if there wasn’t things that I’m not happy to leave behind. Obviously if there’s more positives than negatives then obviously I would stay, so there’s more negatives than positives so for me, it’s something that I want a fresh change, a new chapter in my life. Basically I’m ready for that, personally and professionally. Obviously the journos have to do their job, obviously I have a good relationship with quite a few of them, also the photographers for me have been very good for me over the years. Some of the snappers in the room here have been with me for my first test, for example in Estoril in 2001. You strike up good friendships with a lot of people, not just the drivers but other people. Obviously there’s some shit magazines that have to do shit journalism and that’s normal but in the end, you’ve got to deal with those as well but in general it’s a good professional tennis match and that’s how we always like to play it. The journos, I don’t feel negative about the journos at all, they’re doing their job but sometimes they test you of course.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, considering all, do you think that Ferrari will miss you in future?
FM: I hope so. For sure, it’s not part of my thinking. I’ve tried to do the best in my career so I really hope Ferrari can have a good future as well, so I have nothing really to complain about, to say. We have had a very good time together and I hope I can have a fantastic future in a different team and I hope it’s the same for Ferrari. I have had zero frustration in my life and I think that’s the way it is.
Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC Sport) Max, your thoughts going into this race, a chance of finishing every single Grand Prix of your rookie season, is that something you’re already thinking about?
MC: Yeah, for sure it’s something I’m proud of, a good achievement so far to finish 18 races. I think it’s broken Tiago’s (Monteiro) record already of 16 but I’m trying not to look into… I’m a little bit superstitious. If you start looking around I feel that I will tempt fate. It’s something I would quite like to keep up. Obviously if I’m put in a position where I have to really fight as hard as I can to keep that 13th and screw the keeping it on the track I will do whatever I can to keep that tenth. It would be nice if I could finish the race on Sunday but it’s not the end of the world if not.
Ends
-
Austin is one of the best races we had all season: Vettel
DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)
3 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Mario Andretti)
Sebastian, I’m still out of breath. How in the world do you do it: eight straight, I mean you’re rewriting the record books. Tell us about it. Second last year, top podium step this year. Tell us.
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know, honestly! It’s impossible to know what to say. First of all, I would like to say thanks to the crowd. It’s unbelievable. It’s only our second race here. Second race here and we’ve got more than 100,000 people coming on Sunday. I think this is one of the best races we have all season. The whole city is going crazy, so it’s phenomenal to race here in front of the crowd. The car was fantastic. It was a bit tight at the start; Romain had a good start initially, I didn’t know whether it would be enough. It’s tough judgement up the hill and then I just tried to focus on myself. We had incredible pace again in the car and could control the gaps. I don’t know, eight in a row is… you are a legend, you know….
Your first win on American soil. Your debut was on American soil as well?
SV: Yes, 2007 in Indianapolis. To come back [to the US] last year and finish on the podium and today to win the race is incredible. I don’t know what to say.
Fabulous, congratulations. I guess you’re going for nine next week?
SV: We’ll try.
Romain, congratulations, your best effort of the season – sixth podium. You have represented Lotus in a very proud way. I guess number one in the team next year, right? Let’s make it official. So congratulations. Tell us about your race today?
Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, good race. Good start, I could pass Mark and almost got Sebastian. The car was working very well today. I’m very proud to represent Lotus and my guys that are working in Enstone. It’s a fantastic team. Being between those two cars is our best – everyone did a 100 per cent job. It means a lot to do a podium here in the United States. I like this country. It’s always good to come here, so glad, and looking forward to come back on that beautiful track and hopefully next year we’ll be one step ahead.
Mark, I guess this is going to be your last stop here in Formula One at the Circuit of the Americas, so not a bad effort today, third, a podium.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah. Obviously pole position was very important yesterday, so I knew it was going to be important and that it would cost me a lot better result today. A little bit disappointed not to qualify better. We knew it was not going to be the easiest to get into turn one from there. We had a good launch, a good start, but then obviously we all wanted to be on the outside. I got a little bit boxed in and then I had to pass Lewis. Then it’s not easy to pass Romain. He drove very well. He was very clean on the exit of eight, nine. The DRS in the end was a little bit short on the ratios but in the end that’s how you get the ratios for the whole race. So, good job for the whole team and I’m happy to finish on the podium in front of the American fans for the last time, in Formula One anyway. I’ll see you next year with the Porsche.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Sebastian, your 12 win this season, seventh from pole, 38th of your career but probably the most important number is that it’s the eighth in a row. Never been done before in Formula One. You got a bit fed up answering questions about it in anticipation but now that it’s actually happened and you’ve actually done it, how does it feel?
SV: It’s incredible. I think it’s one of those things that you never expect to… one of those records that you never expect to be beaten so it’s very difficult to find the right words. I didn’t really answer the questions the last couple of days because at the end of the day what makes me jump into the car is not a certain number. But certainly today, when you realise that you’ve done it, it makes you very proud in that moment and, yeah, I think it’s very difficult for all of us to realise what it actually means. If you look back, and if you look those names who had similar records or outstanding performances in the past, I think it’s impossible to understand. People look back and they talk about that time and about certain drivers and one day people might look back and talk about our time and what we’ve done as a team. I said it on the team radio, the spirit is fantastic. Everybody’s just happy to turn up, give it everything he has and I think – if there is one – that’s the secret. Yes, we have a phenomenal car; yes, the car has been mostly very, very reliable but I think it’s the mindset we have going in, really trying to give it everything we have, not miss a single step… yeah… How to, after the race, not to turn around and think that there was a little bit left here, a little bit left there. Another very, very, very strong weekend. I think people tend to forget that every single weekend is a challenge on its own. It’s not eight weekends as a whole. It’s every single weekend. And to have such an incredible run, it’s very difficult to realise.
Q: Romain, your sixth podium of the season. I think you just said in your own language that it’s one year ago that you became a father. It’s been an amazing turn around from last year to this year but obviously this was a race all about your start and particularly then about soaking up the pressure from Mark in the closing stages. Tell us about it.
RG: Yes, exactly. We knew that the start would be crucial for us and then the race, if they were going ahead, they had too much speed for us, basically. They’re doing a fantastic job with a phenomenal car, as Seb says. But we can… he spoke about the spirit in his team and I think we have the same: every guy is happy to come in the morning and happy to work and check things. Y’know, drivers will always complain about this and this and this. They change it and it brings us to second at the end of the day. So, a very good start, a very good strategy, same as everyone else – I think I was just a little bit better on the option. I said in my own language that one year ago my wife sent me a picture of a pregnancy test saying that ‘well done Champion, you’re going to be a Dad!’ So America brings me a lot of bliss and pleasure and looking forward to come back here.
Q: Mark from your point of view. Obviously starting second. The initial getaway looked fine but it then was going up the hill that you lost the initiative. I guess your race really was dictated by qualifying yesterday to a large extent but particularly by the getaway today.
MW: Yeah, pole position yesterday was where the fight was. Going to be very difficult from there. I think we were… I was very happy with how I drove today. Got a very good start. You want to be on the outside for Turn One but Romain was already there. I think I made a very good start from the left hand side, which is not the easiest here, so we did what we could. Lewis also was on the outside for clean braking so I had to be a little bit careful with Seb on the inside. And then you’ve got to clear people and you know when you’ve got to clear people you use tyres, you use everything up. Romain drove a very good race, he was very strong in the last part of the first sector which you need to be to get out of there. It’s super-super difficult to stay close. I did what I could for most of the time but also the tyres are screaming at you for lap after lap and you have to drop back, give them a breather, go again. So, yeah, I did a pretty clean race. I think the performance and pace were very strong from my side but yesterday was when victory was made easier for Seb.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain, what was the strategy to resist to Mark, and Mark, what were the different things you tried with the KERS?
RG: Well, I think the strategy was pretty clear. We were copying what Mark was doing. When he was pitting for hard tyres, we pitted for hard tyres, if he was pitting for prime or option. Then in the race I was just trying to make as much gap as I could before the DRS zone, so turns eight and nine are pretty hard to follow another car. I think we had a pretty good balance around there and then use all the power we could on the back straight, trying to avoid the DRS and then I know that by turns 17,18, 19 it was very difficult to follow me, so he was very close every time into turn one, but never had a go. I think the closest he was into turn 12 was probably ten meters. He pushed me wide once because I outbraked myself but as long as he didn’t seem to be too big in the mirror that was fine.
MW: As usual, the Lotus is not too bad on the softer end of the range, if you like, with this tyre we qualified on. Had to do the race start, obviously I had to use the tyre to pass Lewis, so when it was time to build up towards the stop, to be patient, to go as long as possible but also knowing that Romain was covering us off, covering the move and waiting for us to pit because the Enstone guys are not rookies when it comes to strategy either. We knew we would look to have an attack on the prime but also, as you say, moving the KERS round a lot is part of my job, to try and create more pressure. The back straight was OK to use all of it, but the key areas are eight, nine and then the hairpin. It’s not the easiest track on which to follow people, I think we saw last year, obviously Seb was in traffic with Lewis, Lewis was very quick but following all the time and couldn’t pass. It’s a challenging venue still to pass because of turn eight and nine, I think, so in the end we did what we could do. There’s not many regrets as to
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing team after winning the US GP in Austin on Sunday. An FIA photo what we could have done differently to get the job done on Romain after that.
Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing magazine) Mark, we have a Brazilian Grand Prix in one week, so what’s your feeling as you go into your final F1 Grand Prix?
MW: I’m looking forward to it, driving round in the middle of the race thinking ‘yes, I’m really looking forward to it because it’s time’, the enjoyment factor is there but it’s not like it was when I was at Jaguar or when I first started at Red Bull. That’s natural, that’s why the decision gets made obviously. The category has changed quite a bit in the last few years, I’ve done what I can, done my best but when you realise there comes a point where it’s not what it once was and that’s what happens to all sportsmen and women, there’s a point when it’s a little bit different. I’ve got one week to go, I will leave the paddock very satisfied. I’ve been dealt a very good hand, very proud of what I’ve achieved. I never thought I would do that when I left Queanbeyan in Australia, to have had the results I’ve had, to have worked with the amazing people I’ve worked with, to race against amazing drivers on the best tracks in the world. I’ve learned a huge amount about myself, about everything. One week to go and go from there. It’s the next chapter when I step out of the car for the last time I will be fine with it. Back to UK Sunday night, walk the dogs on Tuesday morning.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Seb, not such a massive victory margin as we’ve seen in recent races but still, can you tell us what it’s been like to effectively race yourself in the last few races and what’s been going through your mind in the car?
SV: It’s not as if I’ve been getting bored. Obviously I’ve quite a lot to do, looking at the gaps. First of all, I have to match their pace. Obviously when they do come closer it’s not the best feeling because you want the gap to increase always, but you don’t want the gap to become smaller. I think it was clear this weekend that again we had a very strong package. Friday already looked very good, especially on the long run pace. I think in terms of set-up we might have compromised the pace a little bit yesterday. Also it was very tricky with the windy conditions in qualifying for everyone to get everything right in just one lap. It was very easy to lose out a little bit here and there but today I was happier with the balance. Already on the laps to the grid I could feel the car was more similar to Friday so I was very happy once I was in the lead after turn one. Obviously I had to wait a little bit with the safety car before I could unleash the pace but certainly it’s a great feeling when you do pull away, and then it’s about pacing yourself, pacing yourself to get the range, to look after the tyres etc. Certainly there are a lot of things going on but also it’s a nice feeling to have a little bit of a gap because you can take it a little bit easier in some crucial places, to look after the tyres and benefit from that, especially later on in the stint. Overall, you do tend to have quite a bit of work in the car, it’s not necessarily… it is a Sunday afternoon drive but not in that regard.
Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Just following on from Sarah’s question: Seb, a lot of great drivers say they’ve never actually driven the perfect lap, and I guess therefore the perfect race has never been driven. How was your race today, we didn’t see every corner of every lap. In your own standards, did you make any mistakes at all?
SV: Well, it’s different these days. If I compare when I came into Formula One, it was more like sprint racing for twenty laps, get a new set of tyres, refuel and go out and do another sprint. Today, obviously, is different because you don’t refuel, the car is very heavy at the beginning and naturally, just because of the way that you have to look after tyres. Now we’ve seen in the past couple of years that these tyres do need some management as well, also in terms of driving style and looking after them and making sure you don’t go crazy too soon, because it might hurt you later on, so therefore, if you look at the perfect lap, you can’t repeat a 100 percent lap every time, because you need to look after the car and tyres. In the end, I think what you want to achieve is the fastest race to the finish line. I think we had a very very strong race today. The last couple of laps on the softs I was struggling because I running into traffic and the tyres were falling off so we were actually the first to come in this time, despite the big gap, but then the hards seem to last very very well in the end. We had very strong pace. I think I went a little bit wide once or twice into turn 12 under braking but other than that, I obviously tried as well to keep it on the line. It is a little bit easier if you have a ten second gap to the car behind to not necessarily use all the kerbs here and there, to manage the tyres a little bit better.
Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) The concentric doughnuts you did afterwards looked beautiful. Do you have any set-up that you put into the car before the race in terms of diff or brake balance, to make that happen?
SV: No, no, definitely not. Obviously there’s a couple of tricks, we had some… we do have some show runs every year and this is usually when you get to practise your skills when it comes to doughnuts and burn-outs. It just seemed like a good spot. You know, you have to do it in a smooth way otherwise I get a big bollocking from my engineers for not looking after gearbox, engine and so on, so I try to be smooth but equally you want to create some smoke and just have fun. But not any maps, particular set-ups that go in the car just because of that.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, what do you think that Michael will tell you about this broken record?
SV: Well, in a way I think I have the same approach as him, as probably every sportsman. I don’t think we are jumping into the car to beat certain records. At his time, he was braking a lot of records and many of them will last forever, I think. To come even close and today to beat one of those is exceptional. I think, as a sportsman, you don’t jump into the car to break records and equally you don’t expect them to last forever. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and generally, I think he’s very happy with what he has achieved and seemed fairly relaxed. I think he’s riding a lot of horses lately so he’s quite happy to go karting with his kids and enjoying his life after Formula One. There’s a huge part of our lives if you consider that there’s a lot of years left once we retire. It’s good to enjoy those as well.
Q: (John Sturbin – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) Sebastian, on Friday, the technical directors were in here including Adrian Newey talking about next year’s changes and how that might upset the balance of power. Is that something you were maybe referring to in your post-race message, you were talking about ‘this is something we need to remember?’ Are you worried about next year and how it might upset everything?
SV: No, to be honest… Yeah, I remember Adrian said the same thing. I think we have all been there. Yesterday evening I took a shower and I had some thoughts about the day, finishing on pole. It’s a little bit of a shame that obviously because of the run we’ve had lately, people take it as guaranteed that you deliver the result on a Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon because I think people tend to in a way respect the result and what it means, the effort behind it and I think it’s natural that as an athlete you have ups and downs. Right now, you could say that it’s rather more up and then down but you never know what’s going to happen, next year is an unknown. I’m sure we will push very very hard and I’m sure we will fight a lot to maintain our position but there’s no guarantee that next year will be like this year. With the new regulations coming in, I think nobody really knows where he will stand. You will have the big teams in front but the question is who and the question is also in terms of gaps. Yesterday was one tenth between Mark and myself which is very very small, it’s a small gap and certainly there’s a reason to believe that next year the gaps will be bigger and the season will be less consistent for everyone. It’s unknown at this stage but generally I think we need to remember and therefore enjoy the moment and the days we’re having.
Ends
-
I just managed to stay ahead, and yeah happy birthday to Christian: Vettel
DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)
Unilateral
Q: Sebastian, you saved the best ‘til last there. A satisfying pole I imagine here in America, in very difficult conditions it looked like today, and also on a special day for your team boss Christian Horner, his 40th birthday.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, happy birthday to Christian. Obviously a good result to have both cars in the front row for tomorrow. It was a tricky session because the wind, I think, picked up quite a lot from this morning and… yeah, it does influence the behaviour of the cars so, not that easy, especially around the high-speed corners. I wasn’t that happy with my first run in Q3 but I think I had a solid run at the end which I think was enough to put the car on pole. I think it was very close with Mark, he seemed to get closer and closer the longer the weekend went on. Fortunately I could just manage to stay ahead. I think he might have had a mistake in his final shot but yeah, obviously very happy with pole position today. I really like this place, I like the circuit and looking forward to tomorrow. I think it’s important as well to start on the clean side, so we’ll see what we can do.
Q: Mark, did you think you’d done enough after that first run? A tenth and a half over Sebastian in Q3, doesn’t happen all that often. Where did it go wrong in that final run?
Mark WEBBER: No, I didn’t think I’d done enough, you need to improve. Obviously there are two shots, we both had two sets of options. The first part of the lap was very good, I was happy with that. Didn’t quite get 19 and 20 as I wanted. If I just repeated what I did initially in Q3 probably it was going to be enough but tried to squeeze a bit more out. It’s easy to unload the car a little bit in these conditions, so yeah, sometimes you’re happy that you’ve given your best and you’re on the front row but today one slipped through the fingers. But anyway we’re up there and well done to Seb, obviously. He put the three sectors together so… I put two-and-half together and just dropped it in the last sector, so, yeah, it’s not satisfying when you do that. It’s not your job to do that. Pushing the boundaries and overall, yeah, pretty happy to be there.
Q: Romain, pretty consistent form from you, your third top-three qualifying in the last six grands prix, already five podiums in this season. Some good momentum behind you at the moment.
Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, I think we are doing a good job. It wasn’t an easy weekend for us. We struggled a little bit yesterday and this morning. I think conditions are not so easy starting early in the morning – and I don’t like to wake-up early as well so it doesn’t make it easy. And then I think quali went pretty good. We did manage to go through Q1 on prime. That wasn’t the plan but we were quick enough and then, quickest of the rest but it seems that those blue guys are very, very quick. We have to still try to catch them, the race is long and, y’know we will see what we can do with the strategy and everything but it’s good to be here and good to show that we are still in the front row.
Q: Sebastian, looking towards tomorrow’s race. Are you someone who feels a sense of unfinished business, given what happened in the way you lost the race here last year? Is it important for you to tick this one off?
SV: Ah, well, I think no regrets to last year. Obviously it was a tight battle with Lewis. I think in the end he was just a little bit quicker so we were having a hard time to stay ahead of him. Obviously the way he then passed was not the nicest way with traffic but, y’know, it’s a long time ago, so looking forward to tomorrow and, as I said, I like the circuit. Yeah, definitely, if you have the chance to win then you want to go for it. At the moment things are looking good. We did the job right today, focus on tomorrow but we go step-by-step. It’s a long race, tyres could be tricky. I think the strategy should be more or less clear but then again with these tyres you never know.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: So Sebastian, obviously you made it through Q1 only using the harder tyres, a tactic that all three of you adopted. I’m interested though in your final run in Q3. It’s not the first time that we’ve seen you do this where you perhaps hold back a fraction in the first sector in order to have more performance in the final sector which is where you seem to make the difference today. Is that a conscious tactic or just the way things worked out?
SV: Well, I think first of all Mark is quick in the high-speed stuff, so I knew it will always be close. I think he was a little bit quicker in sector one. But you’re right, obviously, it’s a long lap. Especially the first run in Q3. I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable with the rears at the end of the second sector and then in the last sector, so… yeah, I think I got it a little bit better the last time around but also tried to… well, you can’t look after the tyres that much on one lap but just tried to keep it clean, get a clean lap. I knew I had more pace than the first run, so managed to do that and fortunately managed to get pole.
Q: Mark, twice pole, once second in the last four races. A very competitive run of form at the very end of your Formula One career. Not having second thoughts about retiring, given how well you’re going?
MW: No, that’s why it was so frustrating to not get pole today. Would have been good to get another one off Seb at the end with a few grey hairs – but didn’t happen, he did the lap. Anyway, I’m having no second thoughts. Good timing for me. Hand over to quicker guys.
Q: You seem to be driving with a lot of confidence. Is it because you’re feeling very relaxed, heading for the exit door?
MW: I don’t think so. I think the tyres, when they’re fresh-ish I can still turn not a bad lap. So, confident we can have a good race tomorrow. It’s a pretty nice circuit with some nice, fast sections at the start. All in all my form this year in terms of pace hasn’t been ridiculous. Obviously Seb’s been still pretty strong in quali overall but we know we’ve performed pretty strong in terms of pace in general. Obviously we’ve lost a huge amount of points for other reasons but want to finish the year strongly and hopefully we can do that again tomorrow.
Romain, you too got through Q1 using only the harder tyres. It’s not the first time that you’ve done that. It’s a fairly confident thing to do, given that the cut-off is quite marginal sometimes. It’s caught you out at other times. Can you talk a little about the confidence you’ve felt going into this session – and did you always feel throughout Q1 that you were going to get away with it again?
RG: To be honest, it wasn’t the plan today. After India I think we had to take a little bit of caution, the team constructors’ is very important to us so it wasn’t the plan to go… we were prime and option but basically the car felt very good on prime, lap time was good enough and when I came back they told me “that may be good enough”, and then it was. So an easier time that what we knew previously.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, what does it mean for you, this pole position, after such a tough fight against Mark?
SV: Well, I think both of us would like to have the upper hand. I think two weeks ago I felt like Mark probably feels now and I feel like he felt two weeks ago, so obviously very happy for myself. I had a good run in the end. I think it’s always tricky to go with the track on Saturday afternoon, as the track is changing, I think you are able to extract more and more from the tyres, given that you set up the car in the right way. It’s not that simple but I think it’s the same for all of us, so happy that we did the job today and as I touched on earlier, I think it’s important for the race, so now focusing on the start.
Q: (Peter Hubbard – COTA PR) Mark, during qualifying and practice three there were several spins on turn 19; was it wet down there? What seemed to be the problem, several drivers went off at that point?
MW: Turn 19 is quite blind, you can’t quite see the apex, you have to imagine that our eyes are very low in the cockpit so when you go there in a Formula One car it’s not easy to see the apex so you have a little bit of a leap of faith in terms of how accurate you can be in the first part. Sometimes you run out of road, sometimes you don’t. I was in that club in the last part of Q3. It’s easy to not get that right just because of the blind nature of the corner.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Seb, can you explain the shake ’n’ bake reference that we heard over the radio messages at the end of qualifying between you and your engineer?
SV: Well, he started it! Yeah, I think there was a movie a couple of years ago which was about racing and I think it was more a piss-take than an actual movie. It was a nice quote, I think it suits. Obviously we’re in America… especially my engineer has a lot of history here, knows a lot of people, he did a lot of racing (here) early in his career. You need to ask him whether it’s what he used to say when he secured pole position in the US.
Q: (John Sturbin – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) Sebastian, if you win tomorrow, will you continue the doughnut celebration thing, very American?
SV: Well, to worry about that is a nice problem to have but first of all we have to focus on tomorrow’s race. I’m sure Mark will try everything to get past as well as the people behind – Romain and so on – so it will be a long race, there are a lot of things that can happen. I think we always push the car to the limit so you never know what might happen, therefore I don’t think it’s the highest priority to be honest to worry about that right now. I think it has to happen very spontaneously.
Q: Because you are going for your eighth consecutive win tomorrow which would be a new record if you pull it off? Do the numbers matter to you at this point?
SV: Well, I think maybe I’m not that clever so I’m not trying to think that much about these things. Lately I seem to have succeeded so I think it’s not the right mindset to go into the race thinking about a higher target than just the race. So I think we’ve done pretty well with that kind of approach so far, the last couple of years, so I don’t see a reason to change.
Ends
Vettel at the US GP. An FIA photo -
There is no magic bullet; the Red Bull car development is the same: Newey
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Sam MICHAEL (McLaren), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport F1), Nick CHESTER (Lotus), Paddy LOWE (Mercedes), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull Racing), James ALLISON (Ferrari)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Three of the gentlemen here are, of course, in new roles, one within the same team, in Nick’s case, but in Paddy and James within different teams, so plenty to talk about. James, can I start with you? How big is the job you’ve taken on at Ferrari and what’s it going to take to get back to winning ways?
James ALLISON: I think technical director at any Formula One team is a very big job, it certainly doesn’t leave room for much else than the job in your life, Ferrari is an extremely prestigious Formula One team with a lot of resource and an extremely high level of expectation. There is really no result other than winning that is good enough at Ferrari. So there is a lot of pressure to make sure I play my part in achieving that, but it is a wholly realistic ambition. It’s a team with the kit, with the resource, with the people and with the drivers to get the job done, so looking forward to being there when it happens.
You’ve been in the post for a few months now, what’s your assessment of what you’ve seen so far? Have you seen where changes need to be made and have you already started making those changes?
JA: I’ve, first of all, been very fortunate to arrive at Ferrari at a point in their cycle when a lot of the changes necessary to return to the front rank – I mean right at the front rank, i.e. winning championships – a lot of the changes necessary to do that have been put in place by Pat Fry. I think I’m particularly lucky to have arrived and been able to benefit from those investments rather than having to start them from scratch. There is much more to be done but I’m a lucky chap to be picking up where I am.
Thanks for the moment. Coming to you Nick. Obviously we have to start with Heikki Kovalainen and his performance this afternoon – fifth fastest in the free practice session. Was that as impressive within the team as it looked from the outside?
Nick CHESTER: Yes, it was. We feel he’s done a brilliant job today, particularly with all the procedures and getting used to driving a new car. We felt it might take a little bit of time. But actually straight away in P1 he was already looking after the car very well and in P2 he was fifth quickest and good long runs, I think he’s done a great job today.
Like James, you’ve been in your role for a little bit of time now, taking over from James at the Lotus team. What’s your route forward? Are you going to continue the path he had set or have you got some changes you want to make in the technical structure?
NC: There are a few changes. There are a couple of areas where we felt things could be moved on. Those are going into place now. Most of it’s a good baseline. It’s a very good team and there are a lot of good guys there. But there are always chances to look at things you could do better and you have to move those things on when you can.
Thank you for that. Paddy, coming to you. Like these other two gentlemen, you’re a few months into your position at Mercedes. What excites you about the role you have and how do you see it evolving over the next period of time?
Paddy LOWE: It’s fantastic to come to a team like Mercedes, they’ve got a very positive momentum. We’ve seen the progress made since last year through to this season. So it’s just fantastic to come into that team. Had a great welcome from Ross and all the other people there. It’s just very exciting to build on that. I really feel I can make a difference, but they’re already in a great place, with momentum going the same way.
Obviously, you’re locked in a fight for second place in the Constructors’ Championship with James’ team and Nick’s team. You’ve got it at the moment. If you were to finish there on Sunday in Sao Paulo – second in the championship – would you consider that a success for Mercedes this year, particularly given the distance behind Red Bull. And also, would it build a sense of expectation within the Mercedes board in terms of 2014?
PL: Absolutely. Formula One is a very tough business and you can’t build to championships from nowhere. Our target this year was actually to come third, so if we can get third or exceed third that would be meeting our ambitions. We very much hope we can get second and that would be a fantastic platform from which to mount an attack for the championship next year. But we have tough rivals around us, so we’re not underestimating how difficult that would be.
And expectations from the board if you were to do that [finish second]? Would that be a positive thing or would that put extra pressure on you?
PL: We get tremendous support from the board. Daimler is a very big company, with a huge, long pedigree of motor racing success. They’re full of support for us but they want us to win, clearly, and that what we want to do.
Coming to you Sam. Obviously we have to start by talking about the decision this week to replace Sergio Perez with Kevin Magnussen. Simple question: why was this the right thing to do?
Sam MICHAEL: I think it doesn’t overshadow the fact that we haven’t had a good enough car this year, I think that’s been pretty well documented, so it’s one of those decisions that every team takes every year. You look and assess where your capabilities are where you think you can improve and the view internally is that we could improve by going with Magnussen. As I said, Checo’s doing a fantastic job at the moment considering the pressure that he’s under. He’s keeping his head level and being very professional about it. So, very commendable his approach over the recent races, and as recently as this one. It’s obviously a discussion that’s been going on for quiet some time. It’s always going to be difficult when you make a call like that. But I think we’re in a very fortunate position at the moment with our young driver programme, in that it’s very rich with talent and Kevin’s just the first of the guys in that pool. I’ve come across lots of drivers in my time in Formula One and when you see drivers like that come along, it’s very important that you react and make the most of those opportunities. So really, it’s always a twofold thing. It’s what you currently have and what you can do to improve yourself. To be honest, it’s not that much different with engineers and designers and all your people. You’re always looking to add and improve the team. Clearly, the driver is much more in the public eye, because there’s only two of them and they’re in the race cars at any one time. Anyway, it’s a decision the team has taken and we’re looking forward from here.
Q: Jenson Button was saying yesterday that there’s a lot of work to do with the new technology for 2014 with these cars and obviously it’s an extra challenge having a rookie driving one of the two cars. To what extent have you factored that into your plans and is there an element of risk there?
SM: I think we’ve factored all of those sort of things into what we’re doing, including the testing he’s done for us already, all the simulator work, his performance in the lower categories and any sort of work that we can do between now and the start of next season. I think with the rule change – and it is a huge rule change, on the powertrain and aerodynamics – the way you drive the cars is going to be quite different. We’ve already done quite a lot of work in the simulator on that at this point and, if anything, it probably lends itself some good opportunities for change. To be honest you can argue that either way: you can argue and say experience is going to count; you can also argue the benchmark is being reset. But ultimately it’s four tyres on the ground that you drive as quick as you can around a circuit. We’ve got a good balance of Jenson, who’s a world champion, plenty of experience, and if you’re going to have the risk that you take of putting a young guy in – because there inevitably is – then it’s a good time to do it.
Q: Adrian, obviously the standout story of this season is the way that you have developed this Red Bull car and also, Sebastian’s way of driving it. Now that the title is decided and obviously the technology is obsolete for next year, can you tell us how you did it?
Adrian NEWEY: There’s no magic bullet, it’s the usual development story I think. This year’s car was a very close cousin of last year’s. Relatively small evolutions over the winter with essentially stable regulations. So really started this year where we left off last year from a car point of view and it was just about developing it, understanding it. I think the change in tyres back to the 2012 tyres was also obviously something that had an effect on the car and possibly suited us – it’s difficult to know exactly. So general development, no magic.
Q: Obviously continuity is an important part of your success, as it was with Ferrari’s ten years ago. You’re losing one of your closest lieutenants in Peter Prodromou who’s moving on at some point in the next couple of years. What’s your feeling on that? How disappointed are you in that and how difficult is it to keep a winning group together?
AN: Movement is the nature of Formula One – and you only have to look at the people sitting at this table. I think it’s healthy in many ways that there is a bit of movement otherwise it would all go stale. I am sad that Peter’s leaving because I’ve worked with him for many years but I guess he has his reasons for wanting to move on. I think we’ve got good strength in depth in Red Bull so we will carry on as well.
Q: Rob, as Adrian was saying, there has been a fair bit of movement between teams of engineers and obviously the same thing’s been going on to some extent within engine builders as well. As a result of that do you feel you have a better understanding now of where you stand relative to Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of 2014 technology – and where do you think that is?
Rob WHITE: I think the first thing to say is that traditionally – and it’s still the case – there’s perhaps a less volatile environment amongst the engine people and that remains the case and there hasn’t been substantial movement around. Answering the question about does that give us incite into where we stand relative to the other guys in 2014, we have very little way of knowing where we shall be in 2014 relative to the others. At the moment, it’s absolutely about getting the best out of our own programme, making the best of the resources that we have. I feel that we have everything that we need to do a good job but we’re now in a phase where actually delivering is absolutely the top of everybody’s job list.
Q: And how much will driving styles have to change next year, do you think and how much slower or how much faster will the cars be do you believe than they are this year?
RW: I think driving style… I’m not sure I can give a good answer to that but one of the things that I think will be important and perhaps a differentiating factor is just the capacity to get the most out of these new and complex power units and the way in which they’ll be operated over the course of the race weekend. Clearly we’ve had some idea of what this would entail for some long time but we’re getting up close and personal now with the necessary tools and procedures necessary to do that. Some of the underlying engineering work is still under way. Some of the code-writing in order to execute the necessary control systems on the cars is still under way and the tools that the engineers and technicians in the garage will use to look after it all is still work in progress. I think the drivers adapting to the new environment will be something that will be interesting to watch.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) For the five chassis guys, how do you see next season unfolding and what is the target for your team?
NC: Our target is to carry on where we’ve been now, so try and be around the top three in the constructors. It’s a bit hard to say how it’s going to develop right from this point. The changes are so big, it’s the biggest change in regulations that I’ve seen in 20 years in the sport and there’s going to be a lot of different solutions. It will be very interesting to see what everyone takes to the first race. There will be different solutions for aerodynamics and some cars will be better packaged than others.
SM: I think that Nick’s right about the magnitude of change. I think it’s going to be a development war all the way through the season and probably into the next year as well, it’s such a big change to not just the powertrain but the aerodynamics and knowing that the slope that we currently have in the wind tunnel… when you have a slope so steep, then it normally means that you’re far away from the optimum when you first make these type of changes. The powertrain is probably bigger in reality and probably more visible because you have such a brand new gearbox, brand new engine, completely new ERS system and don’t underestimate how developed these current powertrains are on all fronts because they’ve been… especially the engine, obviously, but also the gearbox so those changes are significant as well. I’m sure you will see different levels of reliability, even though teams are much better now than what they used to be 10/15 years ago with dynos and simulations etc, there’s nothing that has anywhere near… you can’t replicate the almost decade of powertrain mileage on the track across different teams so I think that’s going to be a big player in the next year and potentially a bit longer.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) And the team’s target?
SM: To win.
JA: Ferrari’s target is always to win. As far as how next year will work out, I think that the size of the rule change means that there will be some unanticipated reshuffling of the pack in terms of where all the teams will find themselves in the pecking order. However, I think – notwithstanding the size of the changes – over the years it’s been fairly clear that the teams, although they’re hundreds of people in different places end up producing cars independent of one another that come together and are very competitive with one another and I would expect that to be true next year as well. I would also imagine that the first half of next year is likely to be heavily affected by reliability. Next year’s rule changes are big enough, just in terms of the configuration of the car but they also place a much much higher burden of reliability on us as well.
Q: Adrian, Mark Webber was saying that he sees Red Bull as the clear favourites for next year. Do you see it that way?
AN: Don’t know to be perfectly honest. I think that first of all, as James said, the cars are hugely complex compared to the cars that we’ve been used to. The level of reliability that everybody’s achieving now is the result of a lot of evolution on what actually looks a relatively simple product compared to what we’re facing next year so I think reliability’s going to be quite an issue for the teams, could well be a deciding factor in the championship, who knows? And then, as everybody’s said, then effectively you can divide it into the very large powertrain regulation changes which is obviously in the powertrain itself down to the three manufacturers for next year, but then from the team’s point of view, how you install the engines and the power train… I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of different solutions to start with to what is a very complicated problem.
PL: Our target is to win and I think the exciting aspect about next year is that we return to competition amongst engines. The last seven or eight years, the engine has been a frozen product. Of course there are differences between the engines but not in the way they used to be, so we return to an issue of a campaign not just with the chassis but with the power unit as well and I think that’s really exciting and a good thing for Formula One.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) James, having worked with Kimi for a while at Lotus, how important do you feel your familiar face will be to him at the start of next season to ensure that he hits the ground running?
JA: I don’t think it will make much difference to Kimi at all! Beautiful though I am, I don’t think I have a massive impact on his life. Kimi’s relationship with the team is predominantly with the people that are at the track, racing the car, with him, with his race engineer and with the chief race engineer and the people that campaign round the world with him. My job is mainly a factory-based one and while I would try to lead a factory team that is sensitive to what the drivers are saying about the car and hopefully making the most of the feedback that they give us, my day-to-day interaction with the drivers is not overly extensive.
Q: (Karen Crouse – New York Times) Adrian, what are the one or two qualities Sebastian possesses that you think separates him from all the other drivers right now?
AN: Crikey. I think he, like all the true greats, then he has the ability to drive the car and at the same time have enough mental reserve to be able to understand how he’s driving the car and be able to play that back and understand when to push and when not to, how the race is unfolding. I think he has very good recall which means that when he gets out of the car he’s able to play back in his own mind what he’s experienced, digest that. He works hard in the evenings with the race engineers and the result of all that is that when he steps in the car again the next day he’s learned that little bit more. You apply that over many races then he keeps improving.
Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Question for the three in the front row: obviously, from a performance point of view the answer is not at all, but how important is it that Formula One cars look really good, look spectacular and therefore how important is it that the regulations that dictate what the cars look like are conceived with that in mind?
PL: Yes, it’s an interesting question. I think, in the end, cars tend to look good when they’re quick, so we take a while to get used to change but it’s surprising how you look back at old cars and they suddenly don’t look so attractive when you didn’t like the change that came. But I think any car that actually is quick tends to start looking good, that’s my view.
Q: James, do you agree with that?
JA: Yeah. I think if you look back over the years there are some prettier years than other years. When 2009 came along, I didn’t like the look of those cars at all but I’m wholly used to it now and I think they look pretty sexy. The stepped nose… again, I didn’t like that to start with but I’m OK with it now. So I think as a technical team, we really have a duty to try and make the thing quick rather than make it beautiful. Hopefully the beauty is got for free along the way.
Q: Adrian, are aesthetics important to you when you put a car together?
AN: They are important but they are kind of dictated by the rules inasmuch as technically obviously our job is to try and make the car as quick as possible rather than to win any styling awards so we are at the mercy of the regulations in that regard. I must admit that I think the regulations have caused some ugly areas… in terms of the stepped nose I think aren’t as attractive as they used to be. Probably, in truth, the narrow track cars I don’t think have ever looked quite as attractive as… they’ve always looked a bit out of proportion compared to the pre-’98 cars. The low nose that we have next year, I think there could be some fairly awkward looking aesthetics, nose arising. So it’s something that in my view should be given a bit more consideration when the regulations are drawn up.
Q: (Craig Scarborough – Scarbs F1) You’ve all spoken – looking towards next year – about unreliability being a big issue; with winter testing being quite a limited amount of time… you can obviously spend a lot of time with red flags with your cars in the garage, how’s that going to affect your winter testing approach, and equally, is there a case for two car test teams now?
NC: Well obviously it puts a lot impetus to make sure we get to the first test with a car that can run as much as possible, so that means you put a lot more effort into the dyno work and you try and get there with something that’s going to get you out on track as much as possible but I think everyone’s expecting they’re going to find a few problems. I think the development through the first three tests and up to the first race will be very very strong.
RW: In real life, the opportunity to substantially change the specification as a result of what happens in testing independent of the timing, give or take a week or two, is quite limited but it’s absolutely a key part of the final phase of preparation to go racing. Yeah, reliability is a tough call. We have to aim for the same place, which is of course not to break down, not to stop the car. It’s more difficult to achieve because the systems are more complicated, more numerate on the car. It’s more difficult to achieve because the durability requirement is higher. Coming back to the question: how would it affect the way we approach testing, I think paradoxically then we have a responsibility to be more ready and to be aiming to role-play the race weekend right from the very start of private testing. I’m sure that there’s so much new stuff to come in all of the procedures in every stage of the weekend that we’ll going to be trying to practise those right from the get-go.
SM: I think it’s the same as what those guys said, it’s going to be pretty tight in that time. If you have major problems they are difficult to solve, not impossible, that’s what F1 teams are quite capable of proving, impossible things are possible in that short period of time as with all the experience round here. So I think it’s an entirely necessary area. If you get into fundamental redesign such as bearing issues or cooling problems, they can be quite damaging but I don’t think it really changes… I think in terms of… one of your questions was about two car testing, I think one of the reasons for going with a single car was cost and containment. I think in terms of parts and things like that, it would be a pretty tall order to go and produce two cars at this stage of the day.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paddy, we’ve had a lot of speculation about Ross’s position over the past month or so. Are you able to shed any more light on that, going forward, your prospects of taking over as team principal? Is it being mentioned at all in any meetings with Daimler etc?
PL: There’s been a lot of talk about this in the last few months, you’re right. The fact is that Ross will step back at some point. It’s not clear what the timing is for that or whether he will step back completely or remain in a different role within the team. At the moment we’re waiting for Ross’s call on that. In the meantime, I’m working very well with Ross and with Toto, there’s no issue there, we work very well together. I would like to say there’s no impatience on that aspect, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
Ends
Wheel checks on Pirelli tyres at the US GP in Austin on Friday. A Pirelli photo
