INDIA in F1

Tag: FIA Press Conference

  • Battle intensifies ahead of Korea GP

    FIA Thursday Press Conference – Korea

    File photo of Sebastian Vettel. Courtesy Red Bull content pool

    DRIVERS – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Pastor MALDONADO (Williams), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico, coming first of all to you. It has been mentioned that this is a better circuit for you than Suzuka. What are your feelings about that?

    Nico ROSBERG: Already in the race in Japan things were looking better. Michael put in a consistent pace there. For sure here this track should suit us more. All the conditions, all the circumstances, the long straights and everything. I’m definitely looking forward to it and I’m confident that we can do better again.

    The big problem is keeping Sauber at bay in the Constructors’ Championship, isn’t it?

    NR: Personally, I’m looking forward, so I want to try to maximise the points that we can get and I’m convinced we can do (that)… there are still a lot of points to be had in the next few races and that isn’t going to be a concern.

    So you’re quite happy with the way things are going?

    NR: Yes.

    Romain, there is a new exhaust system on the car. What are you hoping for from that?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Hopefully some good performance. We were one of the only teams not to use it so it may help us to go quicker. We know our weakness this year on the car and this may help us to improve quite well.

    Obviously you had the problem last weekend and went to see Mark after the race. What did you say and are you quite happy that you’ve cleared the air?

    RG: Yes, Mark came to see me and I completely understand that he was unhappy. The only thing I could say was to apologise and that’s what I did. I’m clearly conscious of the risk at the start, I’m working on changing on quite a lot of things but work doesn’t come from one day to the other one. There is a process going on. I said I was very sorry. I’m not stupid and I’m conscious of the risk. And hopefully by now it will be a different and I will not make the mistake of focusing on the wrong targets.

    And Mark, are you happy with that?

    Mark WEBBER: Yeah, absolutely. I went to see Romain, we had a discussion about it and that was that. So, yes.

    Pastor, again a team that feels the car is suited to this circuit. Is that your feeling?

    Pastor MALDONADO: I hope so! I hope to have a competitive car and a part of that is to be quite competitive in quali. We missed a couple of tenths in the last qualifying in Suzuka and we were out of Quali 3. It was quite a good pace during the race but we are really looking forward here to being in Quali 3 and very competitive. But it’s very difficult to know exactly where we’ll be.

    At the moment your future seems to be undecided. Is it your decision and have you been in contact with other teams apart from Williams?

    PM: To be honest I realty want to stay with Williams. It’s a good team and the team is getting better and better every day. We’ve been rebuilding everything in the team and I think now it’s more compact and the car is looking, as I mentioned before, every day better and better. So good confidence with them but at the moment there is not confirmation. So looking forward to seeing that but otherwise looking forward to remaining in Formula One for sure.

    Mark, you’ve had an unfortunate second half to the season, since your win at the British Grand Prix. This is a circuit that has been up and down for you. You pretty much sealed the championship here for Red Bull Racing when you finished third. Can you get it back? Can you turn things around here?

    MW: Yes. That’s the goal, mate. As you’ve said, we’ve had a few ropey runs of late. Lost of different reasons: a few on my side – not driving well enough – a few on some dodgy strategies, and last weekend was out of my hands. In that case, all of a sudden, three or four or five races with definitely not the points you want. I’m really looking forward to this race. It’s… in terms of atmosphere it’s not off the charts, we know that, but in terms of the race track, it’s not a bad little circuit to drive on so I think the car will go well here.

    Fernando, how badly do you need a good result this weekend?

    Fernando ALONSO: Well, I think we all need some good points this weekend but it’s the same situation for everybody, if not worse, so that’s it.

    And with five races how much are Ferrari pushing as well.

    FA: I think we have been pushing from the first test in the winter, so nothing has changed in the last five races. We just need to keep doing the things we’ve been doing so far. I think it has nearly been a perfect championship for us at the moment, with good strategies, good starts, good approach to the races. Everything we had in our hands on Sunday we maximised the points. We had one zero in Spa and one zero in Suzuka but things completely outside of our team, so apart from that we don’t need to change too many things.

    Of course your rival is Sebastian there, winner here last year and winner of the last two races this year. Does that give you confidence? What is the feeling coming to this race:

    Sebastian VETTEL: Of course. We had a good two last races as you mentioned. We obviously come here on a high and we try to produce the momentum to have another very strong result here. We know that this circuit should be quite good for us. Historically we have been competitive here. The two years we have been racing here before I think we always had a very good car, so try again.

    It’s interesting that people say this circuit suits the car or vice versa, as this seems to be a circuit that has a bit of everything: it has a lot of straights, it has the twisty section at the end, it’s got some fast, flowing corners in the middle. Is it just an all-round car that you have?

    SV: In the end I think it’s the nature of the track that maybe we used to like in the last two years. We should be reasonably competitive but then again, this year I think it has been very unpredictable and you don’t know what happens so it could be the case here. We have to try our best to get another strong result. If you look at the layout, for sure you start off with a lot of straights and then you finish off with corners. It looks a little strange compared to other places because usually it’s a bit more of a mix. But here you get the straights first and then the corners.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    (Johnny Herbert – Sky Sports F1) Romain, clearly you have the speed to be a Formula One driver, it’s a first time here in Korea, we’ve got a tricky couple of corners on that first lap, Eric Boullier said it’s really down to you now to sort out your situation. Tell me what you’re going to do different here this weekend.

    RG: Not having any contact on the first lap, that’s clearly one of the objectives. I’d say there’s work in progress and it takes a bit of time but yeah, it’s a cycle as well: things have been going bad, and the more it goes bad… I’m conscious of the risk at the start. The Spa accident was quite impressive and I was the first one to be happy that Fernando had nothing [injured], I’m conscious of the risk; I paid the price as well for my mistake. In the team we spoke quite a lot; they are not happy, I am not happy the way we have been going through the first laps. There is 550 people working at Enstone to give us the best car and if you ruin everything in the first 100m it’s not good. I’m conscious of all of that and will try to take as many precautions as possible to go through the first lap – and then normally in the race we are OK.

    (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, what is Ferrari bringing here as updates, and do you feel confident that you’re going to have the speed to fight with Red Bull?

    FA: Not many updates, obviously it has been only four days from Suzuka to here so we will try to set up the car as best we can for this race, this layout. But, I remain reasonably confident that we will be competitive. We’ve been more or less competitive in the last eight, ten races – maybe not the fastest but always in position to fight for podiums etcetera. I think here will be no different.

    (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, do you believe that Kimi Räikkönen must apologise with you, like Romain with Mark Webber?

    FA: No, I think in the start in Suzuka it was very tight in between all of us, that’s the problem of starting in the middle of the group: I had Jenson on the right, Kimi on the left and you cannot disappear in those moments. It was an unlucky situation with the front wing of Kimi and my rear tyre. After the puncture I could not start the car on the corner – so it was a mix of things that were not in our part – but y’know, in the last seven, six races, when we were in Suzuka, now five races, one or two have gone wrong, and one or two will go wrong for the others.

    (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Mark, you are sixty points behind the leader of the championship. How is your role now? To help Sebastian or try to recover this gap?

    MW: I need to win, so that’s my goal, I’ve come here to push. It was a good little battle between Seb and I in Suzuka, he did a very good job in Q3. We did a very good job, and looking to finish the season as strongly as possible for myself.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, with only four points advantage, obviously your strategy has to change in the last few races. Are you going to attack more?

    FA: I think we’ve been attacking in all the races. We were fighting in all the races the maximum we can, approaching the races to maximise the points we have available. Sometimes we were on the podium, sometimes we were fourth, sometimes we were fifth and this will not change now. I don’t we can over-drive or over-do what is available for us. As I said, now we have lost many points, in the last four races let’s say, because at Spa we had a DNF which we had nothing to do with. In Monza we had a Q3 problem and started in tenth, and in Suzuka we had a puncture at the start, in the first corner. All these last four races, in which we lost a lot points, I think are just some unlucky situations. Things normally change, they go up and down. Hopefully our bad run will finish and we will start a run of good runs until the end.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) Sebastian, in all your complete seasons in Formula One, we have seen an improvement in terms of results in the second part of the season, after the summer break. Is it just a coincidence, or do you feel that you put all the bits together and feel more confident and improve in the second part of the season?

    SV: I have good holidays in the summer, so I should consider doing the same in the winter break! I don’t know. As Fernando has said a couple of times now, I think it has been fairly up and down for a lot of us. We have seen this year that there are a lot of cars that can surprise. Look at the race we had in Barcelona for instance, where the Williams was very competitive. Pastor drove a fantastic race and won. In China Nico was very strong and won the race so there’s more than one or two cars that are able to win. Of course you need to get everything right for every weekend in order to be competitive but I think it has been the story of the championship. It has been up and down. Same for us, we have good races, bad races. I think the last couple of races were good for us but again, only three races ago we didn’t finish the race in Monza. Things can change quickly, so we need to stay focused and concentrated on what we have. Whether there is a trend where we do better in the second half I don’t know, but throughout the season we are pushing very hard, trying to get our maximum.

    Q: (Jonathan Ledgard – BBC Sport) Fernando and Mark, as very keen cyclists and very knowledgeable, I was wondering what you made of the news overnight about Lance Armstrong, who has allegedly been involved in the most systematic, professionalised form of cheating ever, and how much your faith in your beloved sport has been shaken?

    MW: Yeah, disappointing. I was a keen cyclist fan through the early 2000s. But slowly, slowly, slowly, over time lost a little bit of passion for the sport. It has been quite obvious, in the last few years, that this was probably going to come, from people on the inside, but the damn wall has now broken and I think that obviously he was the last tree in the forest they wanted to drop down, and a big tree at that. It’s good that they’re trying to clean the sport up, and even retrospectively, it sends a message to lots of different sports that irrespective of what you’ve achieved and how you’ve done it at the time – first of all, it’s a good message –  the karma, we’ll come and get you.

    FA: The same. Nothing really to add. Obviously I love cycling, I love bicycles and sure Lance was more than another rider, he was some kind of idol for many people and inspiration for many of us and many media people in the world. It’s not easy and I think he will remain an inspiration for many people, whatever happened, whatever the result. Not easy to put together all things.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) To Fernando and Sebastian: Lewis seems to downplay his chances in the championship. What’s your opinion on that?

    FA: I don’t know how many points he’s behind now. Well, I think it’s more difficult (for him) because now there’s not only one driver ahead that you need to take some points off. We are now two with more or less the same points ahead and he’s behind, so for sure the chances for him are a little bit lower. If we see the form of McLaren and Lewis before Suzuka, there’s still plenty of time and plenty of points to do it. I think he still has the possibility…

    SV: I think they are still fighting for the championship. I think that is their target, or has to be their target. I think if you look at the races we had after the summer break, so far, I think if you summed them up, in average, I think McLaren was the most competitive car. They are the ones which will be very competitive, no matter where we go, at least that’s what the last couple of races showed. I think they still have a very good chance.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) To anyone who wants to answer it: we’ve all heard a lot about how the season is up and down. Psychologically, from a driver’s point of view, does that make it easier for you, when you’re gearing yourself up, mentally knowing that it could be anyone’s weekend, or is it more difficult, knowing that it’s more variable, that it’s not necessarily about your car, your talent or about that circuit?

    NR: Well, for us, in our situation, for example, for me it’s an extra motivation, because I come here and I’m not sure that I’m definitely going to be in the same position as in Suzuka. There’s a chance that I will be able to be a lot further up and fighting for much better positions, so it’s quite a nice thing.

    PM: All the races are difficult, not only this year. For sure this year, the championship is more competitive. The strong teams, the medium grip teams get closer and we have more chance to fight for good results, but for sure it’s more challenging for us but we are enjoying that.

    MW: Not really. I think that as a competitor you want it to be more consistent and obviously achieving nice results. I’ve enjoyed the racing, to be honest, that’s been quite good, but ultimately we like to have the taste of success and that’s what we strive for each weekend so I prefer that than the enjoyment of the racing, I suppose. That’s the balance we try to strike, but obviously we work hard as a team. We would like to make it more boring if we can, but we’ve got some tough opposition so that’s the name of the game and let’s see how the season finishes off.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) I’d like to ask anybody who would like to answer it really, but Sauber put out a press release earlier on this morning announcing that Monisha (Kaltenborn) was going to be taking over from Peter (Sauber) as team principal, which will make her the first woman team principal. I know we’ve got used to seeing Monisha around and being chief executive, but it is quite a breakthrough. Maybe you could comment on this?

    MW: Yeah, I think it’s great. Why not? There’s absolutely no reason why… we have very successful businesswomen around the world so there’s absolutely no reason why she cannot run a successful racing team. Some of the qualities that females have in terms of making decisions faster than a room full of men might be a positive thing. I look forward to seeing how she goes.

    SV: I don’t think her job really changes; I think she was already doing what she’s doing now. Obviously I still know some of the guys at Sauber from a couple of years ago, but I think that at this stage they would probably be happier to put out a press release saying that they’ve found a lot of cash for next year.

    Ends

  • FIA Press Conference – Japan

    Suzuka, 7 Oct 2012: Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing team closed the gap as leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari retired early and the championship was thrown wide open at the Japan GP here on Sunday. The top three drivers attended the mandatory FIA Press Conference. Felipe Massa was second followed by a well-deserved victory for home star Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber.

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) celebrate on the podium in Suzuka on Sunday 7 Oct 2012. A Sauber F1 team photo.

    (Conducted by Jean Alesi)

    Sebastian, yesterday pole position, today winner but you pushed very hard until the last laps. Did you know Fernando was not racing again?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I saw the safety car at the beginning. I think first of all we had a very good start which was very important because I think right behind me there was a little bit of a crash and I saw a Ferrari was out. I wasn’t sure, halfway through the race when I was looking at the tower to see where the others are, I saw the car that was still racing was Felipe, so I was assuming Fernando was not racing any more. First of all I would like to thank everyone. The atmosphere here every weekend is unbelievable, we leave the hotel, we get so much support from all of you, the grandstands are full when we go down the main straight, nearly every single corner is full of people and it really makes our job very, very special. Thanks for all of that, domo arigato, and… unfortunately that’s all of my Japanese. I’ll try to pick up some words for next year. Thank you very, very much. Thanks to the team, thanks to Renault, all the guys have pushed so hard the last couple of months and I said on the radio, when you’re dreaming at night, you dream about being able to race a car like that. The balance was fantastic, and I was enjoying every lap. That’s why, I think we were has such a big gap to the guys behind – so I’m very, very happy.

    Felipe, we cannot say the race or the podium of your life… but almost. Two years without a podium, now you’re back. How do you feel about that?

    Felipe MASSA: I think it’s fantastic. To come here in Japan, starting tenth, which I was very happy with the car since the practice and then qualifying was not so good. I’m sure I was able to start in the top five so I was tenth. I was able to do a very good start, very clever on the first corner with the accident and everything that happened, and then the pace was very good from the car. Since the beginning of the race the pace was really good. I was behind Jenson and I was quicker than him, when he stopped to do the pitstop I was straight away half a second quicker per lap, so then I was able to push hard and overtake Jenson but also Kamui which was very quick in the front as well. So, for sure the race was much better than I expected. We did a good job, unfortunately Fernando is not here, fighting for the Championship as well, but I am very happy with my race and let’s keep pushing hard to be on the podium now, more than two years but every race now.

    Kamui, you can also speak in Japanese as well today, congratulations, the first podium of your life on your home racing track. Tell us about that.

    Kamui KOBAYASHI: English or Japanese? I think first of all, thank you very much for everyone. Everybody know this is my first podium, in Japan this is fantastic and unbelievable you know?

    PRESS CONFERENCE.

    Sebastian, that looked like a near-perfect race – a near perfect weekend in fact.

    SV: Yeah, as I just said, it’s unbelievable. Since yesterday in qualifying, nothing I think could be better. You come across these kinds of races or weekends very, very rarely. Unbelievable. We had a very good start, obviously it was important as Mark was running into trouble at Turn One and Two, I didn’t see what happened behind him. I saw I had a better start than him and Kamui was probably already past Mark before the first corner, I was focusing on my car and to get through the first couple of corners. But, yeah, obviously very quickly saw the safety car boards. Wasn’t sure what happened. When we came around the first time, surprisingly there was nothing there, so I think the marshals probably did a very good job cleaning up the track. I don’t know how many cars were involved but obviously, yeah, it was crucial to not be in that kind of pack. And after that I had a very, very good race car. It was behaving very well, so yeah, it’s very difficult to describe why. We didn’t have major upgrades for this race. I think it was just the fact of the car suiting to the track, finding the right setup on Friday and then toward Saturday it was just coming together. The balance was there and it was just working. I think we had a fantastic race and I said to the guys, when you have a dream about how your race car should be, that’s exactly what you’re wishing for, so I’m very, very happy and very proud of the team. They stayed very calm all the race. The pitstops obviously we had a big gap so we had a bit of luxury to the guys behind to drop some time – but they seemed very focused. Also, inside the car I tried not to drop too much time, because obviously with the sun coming down, the sun was quite low in the end and there’s a couple of tricky corners, especially Turn Eight, entrance of 13 where we’ve seen cars spinning over the weekend. And it’s very easy to get carried away and think about the corner after the present corner; you start to think ahead and lose the focus and do a little mistake. I tried to stay in the moment and until the end it was fantastic because I had a car where I could control the race and I could push as hard as I wanted to and take care of the tyres, so – not to make this too long – all in all it was… fantastic.

    It seems extraordinary that it’s only your third win and yet it brings you right into championship contention.

    SV: I’m very careful on this obviously, in terms of championships this race was a big step and it helped us but we see how quickly things can change. Look at the last… I don’t know how many races there were since the summer break but four or five; we had a DNF in Monza, if you look last year we had only one race where we didn’t finish, so obviously this year is entirely different for everyone. It seems that we are more on the limit, trying to find a step in the right direction, and that’s true for everyone, so it’s much closer; every weekend can be different and instead of then having a bad weekend and still finishing fourth or fifth, you might then be only tenth, because of guys like Sauber and Kamui, Sergio and other guys – the Lotus is very strong this year – so they all keep scoring consistently but obviously one of us at some point has to park and watch the race from the outside, which is not nice and something you don’t hope for. That is why I say I want to be very careful because it’s still a long way ahead and there’s a lot of things that can happen. I think it was important for us, obviously we did have some pace this weekend and important for us to make use of that.

    Felipe, obviously the start was very important for you, you picked up a lot of places there. Tell us what you saw at the start and how you picked up those places?

    FM: First of all I think my start was very good, I was able to overtake Lewis and then I get to corner one, I saw that Fernando and Kimi went a little bit outside… not outside of the track but very wide after corner one and then I pull inside both, so I was able to overtake both, and then after I saw Mark spinning around, I think a car push him, which I don’t remember very well but I think a car touch him and it push him and he’s spinning in front of me. Then I saw a space and I was able to go on the throttle and take this space and even take the KERS as it was another two cars going out of the corner a little bit slower. I was able to overtake these two cars by using the KERS and going before on the throttle. I think the start was a little bit complicated in corner one but I think we did a perfect job with all these things happening. After that, I was behind Jenson and Kamui, and Jenson was not so quick, so anyway, it was very important. It’s very difficult to overtake in this track, so as soon as they stop I prefer to stay out just to see. And then I improve half a second straight away and a little bit more in the next lap and I think they were a little bit in traffic, so I managed to pass both and then the pace was very good on the hard as well. So, very consistent, very good. Actually, the pace was very good since the whole weekend – unfortunately I couldn’t do a very good qualifying yesterday but y’know I think I was very happy with the car all weekend and very nice to be on the podium again after a little bit of time. Hopefully this is just the beginning of many podiums now in front.

    How much of a relief is it to be on the podium?

    FM: ah, it’s nice! It’s like a relief, y’know? It was great, and a great race anyway, able to push hard from the beginning to the end and show that we are here to fight for victory and for pole and not just to fight for a few points.

    Kamui, how much did you enjoy being on that podium at home?

    KK: Well, it was a fantastic race. We really working hard to get the podium, and you know my team mate has a couple of podiums already but myself, I had a couple of chance in qualifying, I mean I had good position to start, but always I never had luck. I mean we struggle at the start. But this time, maybe it’s good to start third, it’s no front row but the feeling was good because we had a long run on Friday and that was, I think pretty good pace and we had good confidence for the rest of the week. So, I think, when I gained position to second after the start, I was pretty sure to be on the podium. But then some point I think we really struggle a lot to hold Jenson. Especially the last stint was really tough because I change quite early for hard compound tyres but I think Jenson change, I think, a couple of laps later and I think that’s what’s really challenging for us. But if we want to hold Jenson we have to do it. And finally we need to manage tyres, I mean in the last couple of laps. It was within one second and really challenging for us – but I think finally we finish in the points, on the podium and that’s fantastic. Especially in front of my home grand prix, my first podium, that’s… y’know… amazing. Before the race I was joking: a couple of times I have a chance to get podium but I have bad luck and I couldn’t get it. But maybe I get this race in podium, maybe it’s something in destiny, y’know? So I’m very happy for the fans. There’s so many people supporting us. When we look there is so much crowd around the circuit and that’s amazing. Really, thanks to all the fans. I think we need to keep going for the future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Felipe, you had a great day and Fernando was unlucky but the question is, do you believe that the pace of the Ferrari is enough to match Red Bull now?

    FM: Well, let’s say not on this track. I think that on this track Sebastian has incredible pace compared to all the other cars. We saw that in qualifying and in the race it was the same. Anyway, I think it changes from track to track. Maybe this was a track where they were stronger during the whole championship. I think we need to wait and see track to track. We need to keep pushing very hard, we need to work very hard in the factory too to bring the right pieces for the car as well and try. Nothing is finished for Fernando. He did many many good races until now. What happened today was not nice for him but these things happen in the championship. It’s important that we push hard and concentrate on the next race. He’s still leading the championship and that’s important.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, this was also a pretty important race for you and your future, also for you Kamui. Do think that this podium, for both of you, will help you to secure your seats at Ferrari and Sauber respectively for next season? Yesterday you said that this could be your last Suzuka. Is that true?

    FM: I think so.

    KK: Yeah, I think so too.

    FM: So, we think so.

    KK: We think so together, you know? We will have a good meeting tonight, to speak with our managers.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Soon?

    FM: Yeah. I think so!

    KK: I think so.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Sebastian, your first title was won by you chasing; the second was you being chased. What is your view on what might be the third one?

    SV: I don’t know. I can answer your question when I’m fortunate enough to win for the third time. Whether that’s this year or not I don’t know. Like I said, I’m very careful. I think we had a long journey so far, and it’s been a tough year. Still there are many races to go so today I don’t want to talk about the championship. I know I finished in front of everyone today, I won the race, so I know that I scored more points than anybody else today but you don’t know what happens next weekend. I think we have a very tough remainder of the season with a very new calendar for all of us, with a lot of back-to-back races. Basically next week Korea, then two races, one in India and Abu Dhabi, and then obviously America and Sao Paulo. I think there’s still a long way to go and as I said, we have to focus on every single race and try to do our best and then we will see whether it’s good enough. The target is to do our maximum in those five races, then we calculate our points. If it’s enough, I think it’s fantastic. If it’s not then it’s not the fault of these five or six races that we will do at the end.

    Q: (Nobuaki Tadaki – Tokyo Sankei Shimbun) Kamui-san, in the closing laps, Jenson was catching you and the podium was getting closer too and your many fans were cheering you. Would you please explain how you were feeling in that situation?

    KK: Well, it was a difficult moment. I think my tyre situation was quite tough. We spent more than 20 laps on them, especially in the last three laps my rear tyres were really getting bad. Of course, I needed to push, I could not slow down to save the tyres. Whatever I had, like oversteer, I had to really push. In the end, into the last lap, I was pretty sure I could hold Jenson because normally, I think, after the main straight, there is no chance to overtake on this track. Apart from that, I think getting on the podium but I was focusing on every lap because if I missed one corner, we could easily have lost my position so I think it was a good challenge for myself. And I think Jenson was pretty fast in the last stint. Finally, we survived and let’s say it was a great job from the team, because they gave us great advice while I was driving, and I was pretty sure to hold him and I was very happy. Every fan was shaking their hands at me, especially on the last lap so it was fantastic.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Sebastian, since you first started in F1 you’ve been breaking record after record. Today you equalled Fangio on wins, you now have 25 percent victories from your race starts. Do you find these constant statistics – the reminders of these statistics from the press a pressure at all or do you just forget about them and get on with the racing?

    SV: No, I think they’re very special. Obviously I’m not aware of those kind of numbers but I think that’s a special thing about Formula One. We had great drivers in the past, great champions and great characters, and I think for all of us… when I said earlier the last time I was with Kamui on the podium it was probably in Formula Three and both of us had a dream for Formula One but at the same time, you know you are a young guy, you are racing in Formula Three, you know it’s only one or two steps away but then it’s so far away still. There’s only a handful of us, 24 drivers in Formula One. I think first of all you feel extremely fortunate and proud to be one of them and to race a Formula One car, stand on the grid, winning a race, driving for championships. At the time we were racing in Formula Three this was so far away. Obviously I knew these kind of guys, when you talk about records. When I was young I was following Formula One and Michael most of the time. But you never dreamed… imagined yourself being one of those guys and breaking any kind of record, even if it’s just having the best start or something silly which would already make you extremely proud. I think it’s an honour and as I said yesterday already, a circuit like this, where you really get to feel what the cars can do… unfortunately it’s impossible to explain to you how it feels, so it’s only something we share amongst ourselves and I think it’s something we should not forget at any stage, and it’s something very very special. I think it’s one of the best jobs you can have in the world in my – in our – point of view, but then to be successful it obviously starts to feed on itself and makes it very very enjoyable.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sport) Sebastian, how important has qualifying been for you? You look at earlier on in the European season you’ve sometimes struggled to get even close to the front row. Now you’ve really been doing the job in qualifying. How key is that in the championship run-in, and also do you feel that this is finished business after this time last year when you were made to be conservative and not win for the championship?

    SV: I think it’s very important… at the beginning of the season I think there was a little bit of a trend of saying that qualifying was not that important this year because the races were very upside down. Some of the races changed completely in the last ten laps, but I think it still shows how important it is, to be well positioned after Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s race. If you then take an average of 15 races or whatever we’ve had so far and you see how important qualifying is still, I think it was important for us to make a step forward on Saturday. Still, I think it’s very easy this year to not have the perfect Saturday afternoon – I experienced it last time two weeks ago in Singapore, how quickly it can change. I had a very good car, I was happy and everything seemed to work as per plan in Q1 and Q2. Then you arrive in Q3 and you don’t understand why you can’t go quicker. This morning I read an article about Felipe, or Felipe did an interview and I think he experienced the same thing yesterday. We do so many new sets of tyres, so many qualifyings and it’s then difficult to say OK, I didn’t get the grip on that run and it just didn’t come together and that’s why I was lacking the speed… because you always want an explanation, you want to find the reason why you weren’t quick enough. It seems this year that cars are obviously much closer together and the window seems much narrower this year, to make the tyres work. You especially feel that in qualifying so that’s why things can change quickly. You might get a messy qualifying even after a brilliant start and then it might compromise your whole weekend, so that’s how quickly it can change.

    Q: (Marco Dell’Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, at the end of the race, they said to you to be careful and in spite of it you set the fastest lap. Are you sure that nothing could happen, and secondly did you race with the double DRS today?

    SV: Well, today in the race I wasn’t really using DRS, so it didn’t really matter. Fortunately I didn’t have to use it. I think we’ve made improvements over the last couple of races. As I said earlier, qualifying was a bit our weakness and has seemed a little bit better in the last races.

    At the end, I obviously wasn’t trying to take any unnecessary risks. I was trying to control the gap to Felipe. I think last year I was sometimes in a similar situation with a gap of five or six seconds and trying to control the race too much and it got very close towards the end of the race, so I didn’t want to lift at any stage. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t want to lose the focus and concentration and in the end, obviously I thought to myself maybe it’s not the smartest thing but as I said, I wasn’t trying to do something stupid but you don’t get to race a car like that too often in your life, where you feel in control and the car is balanced and you’re just very happy with what the car does, and how it behaves, so I was able to put some reasonably quick lap times in at the end.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, was this the hardest one of the last six races for Ferrari on paper and what do you really have to do, where do have to concentrate the most to try to come back?

    FM: Are you talking hard for Ferrari or hard for me? Well, I would say our car was competitive here, not compared with the Red Bulls, but I think we had very good pace in the race. We had very good pace in practice as well. When I did a long run on Friday I was one of the quickest guys on the track, so I think the car was good here. I’m sure Fernando would have done a good job today. But anyway, we need to improve, we need to bring more new pieces, we need to push in that direction, to improve the car. Just going back to the qualifying, I didn’t have a good qualifying. Actually, I had a very good qualifying until the second set in Q2. Before that, I was always in the top five, top seven and I couldn’t use the tyres. As Sebastian said, sometimes you have that opportunity and you cannot use it, and I didn’t have any grip on the front tyres, and I think that was the biggest problem for my qualifying. I’m sure that starting in the top five would have been as the race was today, because I was fourth after corner three. Starting at the front is very important. The race is easier, you can control your tyres better and use the pace in a better direction. For sure, qualifying is very important.

    Q: (Tetsuya Otani – Car Graphic) Kamui, at the restart after the safety car, you had a pretty big gap in front of you, between Sebastian and you. What was the situation for you?

    KK: Actually I was stuck in gear. It was holding in first gear, it was already on the rev limiter and I couldn’t shift up to second and I need to brake, so I was really surprised. Anyway, I couldn’t fight with Sebastian. I didn’t mind, I couldn’t hold my position. He started pretty early, before, quite far away to the safety car line, so I had enough to recover. But it was a bit of a surprise.

    Ends

  • Vettel happy with the car, hopes for a good race

    Suzuka, 6 Oct 2012: Once again Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing proved his worth taking the pole at the Japan GP.

    The top three drivers attended the FIA Press Conference after qualification included: 1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), 2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing) and 3 – Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Sebastian, your fourth consecutive pole here, you must love this place.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it’s not bad. I’m very, very happy with today’s result, I think we had a very, very smooth qualifying session, nearly perfect, so we couldn’t really ask for more. The car felt fantastic from the start. We didn’t really have the best start to the weekend; yesterday morning I wasn’t very happy but then we seemed to get it better every time we go out, so very pleased with the result, very happy, the car feels fantastic around here and I was able to pick up a little bit overnight and it came together nicely and now obviously we hope for a very good race tomorrow.

    It’s the 50th anniversary for Suzuka and it’s a circuit that everyone seems to adore driving around. What’s the best part of the circuit?

    SV: I think you have to say the first sector, up the Esses, obviously we don’t have that kind of combination in Formula One elsewhere. I think it’s unique. I think this place in general is quite special with all the fans around the track. When I was walking into the garage you can obviously see Turn One, Two, Three and the grandstands mostly and you see a lot of people. It’s just, for us, nice to see the excitement people have for Formula One and the support we get. I think they are very crazy – in a positive way – so it’s nice coming here and wonderful to drive the circuit. The rest of the track is very enjoyable: The Degners and then Spoon is very special: you always lose the car a little bit, just when you come off. The lap I had in qualifying in the end was just right in those places, so I was very happy.

    Mark, great result for the team, Red Bull Racing, you seem to have made real progress.

    Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it’s been a good weekend for us so far. Seb and I had a clean run in Q3 when it mattered at the start there. And two pretty big laps from both of us. Obviously Seb got me a bit, so that was a good lap from him. But to be this much further up for us, obviously we’ve had a rough run with qualifying of late, particularly my side with penalties and bits and bobs. It just makes the race much more difficult: you have to start doing wacky strategies and stuff like that. So, I am happy to be on the front row and looking forward to a good result tomorrow. Like you say, for the team it’s just a great tonic for them, at this point in the championship to have the cars towards the front again.

    Jenson, third in qualifying but obviously with a five-place grid penalty.

    Jenson BUTTON: That hurts a little bit. Today was good. This morning in practice I wasn’t that happy but we made some good improvements for qualifying. For me both laps I did in Q3 were good. I was happy with the laps, really enjoyed driving around here, it’s always great with low fuel and new tyres – new soft tyres. It was a lot of fun but we’re just not quick enough. I wouldn’t know what to put my finger on, where that four-tenths is. A good qualifying for us, just a pity we’re starting back in eighth. This place is such a nice place to fight for a win; it’s going to be very difficult for me tomorrow but never say never. There’s always possibilities and I think we’ll have a good race car also.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    So Sebastian, I guess one of the main factors tomorrow is going to be all about tyres, have you got enough sets left? New tyres, new softs?

    SV: Yeah, obviously we didn’t finish the run in Q3, so saved a little bit there, saved a lap, didn’t push to the end. Before that we had a very smooth session in qualifying in general. We saved as many tyres as we can and I think we have a pretty good car, the balance felt very good in qualifying so I was very happy with the laps I had every time and yeah, all in all I think we should have a good race car as well tomorrow. I think we were able to improve the car from yesterday to today which also helps us on the long run and with tyre consumption. But you never know until you find out. I think we’ve seen a lot of races this year where probably we expected something, and people expected something, other teams had expectations but the last ten laps everything turned around. We have to stay focussed and see what we get from start to finish.

    I guess you were OK in traffic, because particularly in Q1 a lot of people were complaining.

    SV: I was very lucky, I saw a couple of incidents on the screen but I think we found a good gap, and I needed only one lap, which obviously helps. So that was good – it doesn’t always go that way. So, it was helping to save tyres, I’m not sure if we’re going to use that one again – but still it’s good to get through without any trouble.

    Mark, on that last lap, did you have yellow flags at Spoon?

    MW: Yeah, I had to back-off for the lights and the flags. There was no car there when I got there, so it was very, very close. Obviously JB was behind me and I saw he was still committed to his lap with the DRS etc., so obviously the lights were just cleared for him. Would have been nice to have a look at the last chicane, would have liked to have got that a little bit better. I was down a sniff into Spoon but… the hairpin was tricky for us today, trying to get the hairpin a little bit better would have been nice but in general the first sector was very strong, and for both of us to have a strong car here, when it really mattered, to put ourselves right towards the front of the grid, on the front row, is something we’re really, really happy with. We can really race from there and have a good grand prix tomorrow.

    Jenson, is it a bit worrying, the progress they’ve made?

    JB: I think we expected them to be quick. Their race pace especially has been quick over the last few races. Qualifying hasn’t gone their way and Seb looked really quick in Singapore but it wasn’t there, it didn’t seem, at the end. But their pace is very good here. The balance for me felt great, I felt really happy with the car but I just… that was it. Y’know, I felt I got everything out of it on both laps but still quite a long way off these two but a long way in front of everyone else. So, third place would have been nice to start the race because I think with this race you really don’t know what’s going to happen with tyre strategies and degradation and what-have-you. A lot of people are struggling with blistering. But I’m starting down in eighth; it’s not the easiest place to start from. But I still think we can really race well from there. There’s an unusual group of cars in front. So hopefully we can not just get good points – you never know, maybe we can still challenge these two.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q:  (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Seb and Mark: do you have any explanation why you succeed so well in Suzuka?

    MW: In years gone by, I think we’ve had cars that have really enjoyed this type of venue, whether RB5 a little bit, RB6 especially was very strong. We had a very tough Grand Prix with Fernando that year – Seb and I, the three of us, a good race in 2010. JB was quick last year, there was a tight field last year but in general Silverstone, Suzuka, these type of circuits, you just have to look at Adrian’s (Newey’s) record on some of these tracks. You go back to the Williamses with Mansell, Hakkinen, McLarens blah blah blah. He’s always been strong on these type of tracks, so that’s good for us but it’s always challenging, and we’ve had to work like hell to get the car in the window where we would like it and now, this weekend, it seems pretty good so we would be very very disappointed if we weren’t competitive here because, as you say, it should be a track where we can charge for very good results. I think, basically, to answer your question it’s in the DNA of our car, it’s in the DNA of the philosophy of our car. That’s it.

    SV: As Mark said, we worked very hard to get it to where it is now. I think we were struggling this year at the beginning of the year in places, in corners where usually, traditionally, we were competitive, so we didn’t really know what to expect here this weekend but sector one seemed very competitive for both of us all weekend so I think that’s an indication whether the car is happy around here or not. I’m happy we are back to our shape that we had over the last couple of years around here.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Michael Schumacher has announced his retirement; could I have your thoughts please?

    SV: I think it’s a loss for Formula One. It’s a shame, obviously, I think it was good fun to have him around, race against him and joke with him, so I think I will miss that but obviously you can understand his decision and, as I said, we will miss him, but obviously wish him all the best for his future, and hope we still have him around somehow in some function.

    MW: I think it’s pretty obvious that there were two different careers: one phenomenal one and then in the next one the car, everything together didn’t get close to what he did in the past, and that’s how sensitive Formula One can be. He knows that, he took a new challenge on – which you have to take your hat off to – because he didn’t want to be back at home just doing the groceries, and he was also very hungry to challenge himself again. We saw some flash points of what he’s capable of, but he also knows himself, he’s seen some flash points which is the right time for him to stop, so move on.

    JB: Yes, wonderfully put by both parties. I think the last three years, we’ve all been wondering and watching to see what happened to his second career and it wasn’t like the first one, but I think it just shows and proves how amazing the first one was because he hasn’t done badly. It is a loss for the sport, having a seven time World Champion and someone that’s achieved more than anyone else and will for a very long time leaving the sport. He feels that it’s the right time to leave, and good luck to him.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Sebastian, now there are only two people in front of you for the number of pole positions: Michael and Ayrton Senna. Do you think you can catch them?

    SV: As Jenson just said, I think Michael has a lot of the records that will probably stay there forever. You don’t really jump into the car thinking about those sort of things. Obviously, when you end up here and end up with people telling you some things it’s nice for all of us but it’s not the number one motivation that makes you jump into the car. I enjoy what I do a lot and on tracks like this, as Jenson said, on soft tyres, low fuel, you really feel what the cars can achieve and I think our job becomes very very special and unique in the world. That’s what I enjoy most. Obviously if you’re successful then it feeds on itself. I think they are quite a long way ahead as well, so we will see. We have to work, obviously, focus step by step, and not think about those kind of things.

    File picture of Sebastian Vettel courtesy Red Bull F1 pool content.

    Ends

  • `Schumy’s retirement will be a big loss to the sport’

    Suzuka, 5 Oct 2012: All the team representatives who attended the FIA Friday Press Conference were unanimous is proclaiming the loss for the sport with the retirement of seven time world champion Michael Schumacher.

    The Team representatives who attended the Press meet are:

    Schumacher photo by Mercedes F1 team.

    John BOOTH (Marussia), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Kim SPEARMAN (Cosworth), Martin WHITMARSH (McLaren), Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari), Ross BRAWN (Mercedes)

    John, the excellent result from Singapore means the team is currently 10th in the Constructors’ Championship? What does that mean to a team, its people and what does in mean in terms of finance as well?

    John BOOTH: As far as the finance is concerned it’s a little unclear at the moment as the Concorde expires at the end of the year so we don’t really know where we are with that at the moment. But certainly it was a great lift for the whole team. There are only 12 places there and 10th place takes some earning. These Formula One cars just don’t break down anymore. You have to earn every position. We had a small celebration afterwards, as you do, but we do realise that we still have a mountain to climb. It’s a small step. It’s the right direction but it’s not where we want to be; we want to be a bit further.

    You’ve recently announced Max Chilton as your third or reserve driver. What are your plans for him and what are your plans for Charles Pic, who has done a good job for the team this year?

    JB: We’re in discussions with Charles. He’s done an outstanding job, as you say. He’s had a wonderful rookie year. We’re in talks with his management and we’d love to keep him for 2013. He’s done a great job, particularly in getting quite close to Timo in race situations; I think he’s done a really good job there. Max is part of our young driver programme and has been for a couple of years. He’s part of the natural progression and maybe we’ll give him a Friday morning before the end of the year.

    Monisha, first of all, you’ve lost Sergio but is Esteban Gutierrez almost an instant replacement for him?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, as we’ve been saying before, we will announce our driver line-up for next year in due course and we’re not in a hurry in doing that.

    Stefano DOMENICALI: We will do the same!

    MK: We still have to sort things out. Regarding Esteban, he’s been with the team a long time, and this goes back to Formula BMW times, and whatever we do with him, and he’s been our reserve and test driver for the past two years, is something totally independent from Sergio’s leaving and we don’t really want to mix them together. We’ll announce whatever we have to in due course.

    In terms of performances over the last few races, they’ve been a bit up and down but there have been some very promising performances as well. Is there a certain frustration within the team that those performances haven’t led to the results they should have?

    MK: Of course there is, because we have been seeing that the car is a very competitive car and when you don’t get the results you expect because of situations which you have no chance to change, you’re just in there without any fault of your own, it is a bit frustrating but more important is that we still continue to believe in this car, which is also the basis for next year’s car. So we just take it race by race and we hope it will turn out better next time.

    Kim, can you tell us where Cosworth is at the moment, in terms of 2012 and 2013?

    Kim SPEARMAN: For 2012, obviously we turn our attention to the next six races and helping out teams to do the best they can. Trying to consolidate John’s team’s situation in 10th place in the Constructors’ (Championship). As you’ve probably read they’ve re-signed and partnered with us for 2013 when they’ll use a KERS-enabled package, which we hope will bring yet another step up in pace for them. We’re very excited about that. And we’re still in negotiation with HRT.

    And in terms of 2014, new engine; what are the plans?

    KS: Love to do it. If we can find a commercially sustainable way to provide a competitive platform for some potential customers, we’d like to do that. We are in useful negotiations with customers and hopefully we’ll find a way to be in. We’ve been in business for 54 years, much of it in Formula One. We’ve got passionate people back at Cosworth who want to stay in Formula One and we’d like to get there.

    Has anything started on paper?

    KS: Oh yes. We’ve been working on the engine for 18 months.

    Martin, very interesting, your driver line-up for next year; they’re two drivers who are known to be very easy on tyres. What effect will that have on the team and the car?

    Martin WHITMARSH: I don’t think it will have a distinct effect. I just think we will be working hard to make the car as quick as we can and of course as kind to the tyres as we can. It’s not easy but obviously if you have a well-balanced car with plenty of downforce then typically they’re kinder on the tyres but I don’t think the drive line-up will influence that, we’ll be doing the best job we can in that regard.

    Drivers always say they’re always learning. Where is Sergio Pérez on that learning curve, in comparison with Lewis Hamilton?

    MW: In fact, Sergio’s about the same age now as Lewis was when he started in Formula One, so he’s some way further down the learning curve, which of course makes it intriguing and exciting to see what we can do and how he can develop. So I think it’s going to be a very interesting spring as we work together, and of course the goal is to have him in a condition where he can go into that first race with the potential to win it.

    Do you think it weakens the team at all in comparison with the current situation?

    MW: Well, I think the current driver line-up is a very strong driver line-up and we’ll see next year just how strong Sergio can be and we’ll whether it’s weakened us or not. But I think whatever happens, we’ve got a super experienced guy in Jenson and we’ve got an exciting, fresh young talent in Sergio so we’re looking forward to it.

    Stefano, you’ve already denied that you’re going to tell us who you’re drivers are going to be next year, so a very easy question for you: do you know who’s going to drive for you next year?

    Stefano DOMENICALI: I should.

    You should know? Do you?

    I think to go ahead with this kind of speculation I don’t think it’s so relevant or interesting. As we said: very soon we will tell you what is the situation and up until the moment I have news on that I will stay quiet. Also because I would start to be very boring in giving the same answer to the same question.

    In terms of the wind tunnel, interesting news there. What can be done to the wind tunnel in the short term? Is there a problem with it, do you think? What is the problem with the wind tunnel at the moment?

    SD: I think for sure our structure is not the best one in that respect, it is quite old, so as always – and I think it’s happened to all of us – for sure in different situations, we’re trying to improve the quality of the tools that we have. And this is something that we are trying to do mainly to improve the correlation issue that we had and this is the plan: that we should be able to do in the next season.

    So, when will it be open again?

    First of all it’s still open and we’re working in our wind tunnel. As you know we are using another facility and in the next couple of weeks we will define what is the problem to be more specific than that, in order to see what’s really the time we have to spend by shutting it down and trying to improve the things that are not at the maximum level at the moment.

    Ross, obviously new driver, what sort of promises did you make to him? Obviously all drivers want a winning car, what sort of promises did you have to make in terms of your team, the team which will be building next year’s car?

    Ross BRAWN: I’m not sure you’d describe them as promises but we set out the path that the team is on, what we’re trying to do, the people we have in place to try and achieve that, the facilities we’ve built up over the last couple of years and, as you do with any driver, you present that vision and the objectives you have for the next few years and that’s what we did.

    What sort of pressure are you under from a driver like Lewis, but also from the board as well?

    RB: I think all of us here are under substantial pressure but a lot of it is pressure you generate yourself because you want to take part in a very competitive sport. I think none of us have handcuffs holding us to this business, we do it because we enjoy it and it’s our ambition to succeed in this business, so there is pressure at every level. There’s pressure at John’s [Booth] level, he’s trying to achieve tenth place, a massive task; we’re trying to go forward. Most of that pressure for me personally is the pressure from within, not the pressure from a driver or the pressure from a board.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:

    (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta Dello Sport ) Martin, did you feel betrayed by Lewis’ decision?

    MW: No.

    (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Question for Stefano, you mentioned there’s been a correlation issue with your wind tunnel, how has that affect the development of this year’s car so far?

    SD: I think that… well, I’m sure that is happening also to other things. I’ve seen above all in the second part of the season when we were trying to bring new updates on the car, that not all the updates were working on the track. So, we start to investigate a little bit better and we’ve found that was this issue, that going into the deep analysis of the reason, we understood, we considered it was coming from the tool that is… not obsolete but not really up to the speed of the new technologies that are available on the market. So, that was the reason why we are thinking to do that, to make sure that at the least the percentage of the things that we bring at the track is higher than what we have now.

    (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Monisha, you have three or four Mexican sponsors, without Sergio can you keep them? What’s the prospect for next season?

    MK: Well, to start with, the prospect for next season is good. We are very confident we will be around, for hopefully more years. As for the sponsors, we know that Telmex, that is Mr [Carlos] Slim Domit has also publically stated that his project with Sauber, regarding the Escuderia Telmex, is a long-term project, so it will not be affected by Sergio’s leaving the team.

    (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Are the other sponsors linked to that project, or are they separate with Sergio?

    MK: It’s a natural link there, obviously, because they are from the same country, but it is not just all that simple that because one driver leaves us all these sponsors will leave. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean that.

    (Thibaut Villemant – Auto Hendo) Question to Monisha, we saw that you wanted to try Robin Frijns for the rookie test – can you confirm the information?

    MK: We have not as yet announced our drivers for the Young Driver days – we will also do that very shortly.

    (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Martin, yesterday when we sat here, Lewis joked to Sergio that he knows exactly what’s going on with Sergio’s car for next year. To what extent is that true, and how much of a concern is it for McLaren?

    MW: No, I think Lewis has been part of the team for a long time, I think he knows the people and what we’re trying to do but I don’t think there’s any great secrets in that, so I don’t think it’s a concern. I think if I was pursuing intellectual property from other teams, I’d probably go for engineers not drivers. But I think again, Lewis is respectful of the team and what it’s doing, and I think he knows we’re doing to do everything we can in the remaining six races to try and win, and try and win some championships and I think the best way to do that is to work together, be open and carry on as you ordinarily would.

    (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta Dello Sport) Stefano, Fernando has said in the last few races that he’s waiting for Ferrari to counter-attack and not always be on the defensive. Looking also at the problem you have with wind tunnel, how can you guarantee that you’re going to be able to give him the things he needs to attack and not always defend and wait for what the others are doing? Is there a plan with that? Have you discussed it?

    SD: The plan is to try to push as much as we can, bring new developments every race but it isn’t easy. So the guarantee is the effect on the effort on the team to work very hard. More than that is just pure words, and that doesn’t help the situation. So, for sure, I think the situation in the championship is very clear: if you are not able to improve the car then it is more difficult  to fight for the championship because we cannot rely on the problem of the others. That’s the fact but it doesn’t mean that we will not push as hard as possible. But is a consideration that we cannot rely only on being third, fourth, whatever it is, we need to make sure that at least we win a race and then we will see what will be the situation with the others.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Martin, among Lewis’s other comments was the possibility of him going back to McLaren in the future. I don’t know when the last McLaren driver was who came back to McLaren after leaving but is that possible? Would you say that’s a possibility in the future?

    MW: Yes, certainly, yes, I think it is. But I think he’s joining a strong team in Mercedes, I don’t think he’ll be coming back any time soon. I’m sure they’ve got a good contract and they will want to work with him. I don’t think Lewis’s intention is to hop from team to team on an annual basis. I’m sure that’s not Ross’s intention either but never say never, as they say, and we’ll see what happens in the future. Again, people want to talk about it a lot, obviously, and we’re trying to focus on doing the job that we’re here to do, but I think the relationship between the team and Lewis is a good one, I think it’s a respectful relationship between Mercedes and McLaren as well. We’re out there competing and we don’t have a problem with anything that’s happened, with Lewis’s decision or anything else. In the future, I don’t think it will be in the very near term but who knows?

    Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Question to the engine suppliers: you have, from the sound of it, V6 engine designs, on the test bench or on the CAD system. Are you looking at full energy recovery systems or are you outsourcing those?

    SD: Yes, as we are doing this now in the current situation, so developing our system together with our suppliers and this is part of the challenge of the 2014 powertrain project, to confirm the fact that we are already on full boost in our department, to make sure that we are ready in proper time for this new huge challenge, because for us, it means that we had to start and to update all the infrastructure, to make sure that these new engines and this new system are ready to run, first in the facility and then we need to be ready with a new engine, trying to find the customers for the future and trying to make sure that we are competitive, because one of the things for 2014 is the fact that for all of us, both from the chassis point of view, due to the regulations and also for the engine and powertrain regulations point of view, we are starting from target references that are purely – how can I say? – self-made without having any kind of information or relation with the other competitors. So it will be an incredible task, at least for us which is a small team in terms of dimension to make sure that we are able, both, as I said, from the chassis project but also from the engine, to match strong teams like Mercedes, like Renault and all the other teams that are working very hard already on this new 2014 project.

    RB: This past couple of seasons we’ve done our own energy recovery system in-house. We felt we wanted to take that under our control and so the battery technology is bought in but most of the other technology is developed within Mercedes and we will plan to continue to do so for 2014.

    KS: Yeah, we’ll be developing a bespoke Cosworth system with an outsource supplier and by necessity, different chassis will need variants of that, so we will be doing our own with somebody else, if you like.

    Q: (Gaetan Vigneron – RTBF) Ross, were you surprised by the announcement of the retirement of Michael Schumacher yesterday, or was it something that you suspected for a few weeks or months?  And for all of you, would you give your opinion about his retirement, which is a big loss for F1?

    RB: We’ve had a lot of discussions with Michael over the past months, six weeks or so and whilst Michael hadn’t made his decision in those early discussions, he came to that conclusion in the past few days. In many ways, it’s a sad moment, when someone of the calibre and achievements of Michael stops racing but he’s happy with that decision, he’s at peace with that decision, and I think that’s the important thing. He’s happy with the decision that he’s made and I think we’ve all got to have huge respect for him making that decision. I think Formula One will be losing someone very important, especially as this second time that Michael came back he had a slightly different approach and I think I saw many fans who were perhaps not quite so enthusiastic during Michael’s first era coming back and really supporting him. When he got a podium in Valencia, it was nice to see how much support he had from the paddock. But he’s done a very very good job for us and we’ve repeated many times that if we’d provided him with a better car then he would have won races. There are some races where he was certainly quick enough to win – this year alone, Monaco – so it’s the passing of an era and one which is hard to imagine anyone repeating the achievements that he’s managed in his driving career.

    SD: What I can add to what Ross has just said is that I think Michael has showed that he is still a very very fast driver He’s a seven time World Champion but he’s still one of the top drivers in the field and as a friend of his, I’m very happy for the decision that he takes because I think that in his experience he’s come to this conclusion because I think that considering the situation it’s the best for him. We all wish – not only from my personal side, but from all the Ferrari family – the best for his future. He’s still young, so he will do a lot of things for sure.

    MW: Firstly, I’m not as qualified as the two gentlemen on my left (Domenicali and Brawn) who know him much better than I do, but his achievements are difficult to imagine, certainly in our lifetime, being improved on so inevitably it’s a loss. He’s a name, a brand within the sport, his achievements have been great whatever he does. I personally think this year has been his strongest since he returned and as Ross said, with a bit more luck he could have won some races this year, but clearly it’s his decision and it’s a loss to the sport but I guess any great athlete has to decide when it’s time to go.

    KS: He’s obviously one of the greats and I’m sure he will be a fantastic ambassador both for Mercedes and the sport going forwards. I think we’ll still see him around a lot.

    MK: Michael Schumacher is by far the most successful driver in Formula One’s history, and when he returned to the sport, it was undoubtedly good for Formula One and his leaving now will for sure be a loss for the sport.

    JB: I’ve only been fortunate enough to experience Michael’s last few years in Formula One but I think he’s been a wonderful ambassador. Obviously his performances speak for themselves. The way he handles himself in the paddock, particularly in adversity, he is the absolute professional and a real example to young drivers.

    Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Martin, Lewis told us in Tokyo that there was nothing you could have put on the table that would have kept him at McLaren at the end of the day, although maybe a £100m cheque would have done it. But he seems to have been lured him by the attraction of what Mercedes can offer him in 2014 when engine changes are made. Is it frustrating for you that you couldn’t hang on to him with something concrete, and do you feel that you will be at a disadvantage in 2014?

    MW: Not just 2013. Lewis is a great driver and Mercedes, I’m sure, are very happy to have him and therefore losing a driver like that is something that, as a team principal, you don’t set out to do. But if you tell me that there’s nothing we could have put on the table which would have kept him then it makes me feel a whole lot better. Lewis made a decision, I respect that and believe me, we’re working very closely and very hard together to see if we can win these remaining races and that’s what we’re focused on. Looking forward to 2013/2014, then we’ve got a fantastic partnership with Mercedes Benz and we’re going to be heading into both of those seasons trying to win.

    Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Ross, do you feel that you will have an advantage?

    RB: Well, our agreement with McLaren is to supply engines to the same specification. None of us really know how it’s going to be in 2014 in terms of engine performance, engine reliability. There won’t be huge differences. We have a one team policy, a one team principle. Our staff at Brixworth and Brackley work together as one entity and that does bring them closer than can be achieved with a customer, but McLaren are an extremely professional customer. Our ambition is to have the best engine in 2014 as is Stefano’s and McLaren will have that engine as well.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, you have to try to win at least a race in these last six races Today, Ferrari seems to be struggling a little bit compared to McLaren and Red Bull. How do you see things this weekend?

    SD: As always on Fridays it’s very difficult to have a clear picture because you never know what the others are doing. For sure we know what we’ve done. It’s a little bit too premature to see, after today, that we will struggle this weekend. For sure what we have seen is that as normal we have competitors that are very strong but this is nothing new. This is the picture just one hour after the end of free practice two, so we need to analyse, try to understand what the others were doing. So I don’t want to say anything that will be different tomorrow so I’m a little bit cautious.

    Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Radio) Stefano, one of the possible views on the McLaren/Perez deal is that Ferrari lost a talented young driver since Perez was from the academy, so what does the team have to say about it, what’s your view on that?

    SD: Nothing. I mean he had this opportunity, and I think that what we wish to him is the best for his future. I think that he received this offer or he discussed this offer with a very important team and I think that first of all we didn’t have any right to block him or to say something in that respect, because he was a driver who is working for the Sauber team. As I said, I think that Ferrari gave him a bit of experience by helping him in understanding something and that’s the way it is. We need to accept that and we will see. We are working with other young drivers that we hope we will be able to bring in our team as they will be considered ready, so that’s what I can say.

    Q: (Bryon Young – The Daily Mirror) Could I just ask Monisha whether any talks were held with Michael Schumacher about him potentially driving for you in the future?

    MK: We were never in negotiations with him.

    Q: (Andrew Gwilym – Press Association) Ross, Michael mentioned yesterday that he has plenty of options what to do with his future. Is one of those options for him to be retained within your team in a different role?

    RB: We’ve not discussed that. It’s not something that we’ve explored yet. Michael’s got huge experience and everyone’s got massive respect for him. It’s not possible to say. I think Michael’s going to spend a few months just reflecting on – let’s say – this new opportunity he has and I’m sure he will think very seriously about whatever he’ll do, he will do extremely professionally and effectively, but at the moment, no idea what that will be.

    Ends

  • I rate Lewis as one of the best, I have to do a lot to fill his shoes: Perez

    Suzuka, 4 Oct 2012: New McLaren signing Sergio Pérez has admitted he has a lot to do if he is to match the achievements of Mercedes-bound Lewis Hamilton at the Woking-based team.

    New McLaren signing Sergio Pérez has admitted he has a lot to do if he is to match the achievements of Mercedes-bound Lewis Hamilton at the Woking-based team.

    The Mexican racer will mov

    Sergio Perez of Sauber (right) along with Lewis Hamilton at the FIA Thursday Press Meeting. Perez will be replacing Hamilton at McLaren next year. Sauber photo.

    e from Sauber to McLaren in place of the 2008 champion for 2013 and speaking in today’s official FIA press conference ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Pérez confessed he has “big shoes to fill”.

    “I rate Lewis as one of the fastest drivers on the grid, so it won’t be easy at all,” he said. “I know I have very big shoes to fill, so it will be difficult, but I will give everything I can. I will work as hard as possible to give the best result and to win championships with this great team.”

    And he added that he is already feeling the pressure of the move to a winning team.

    “I think with McLaren there is no other option (than to win),” he admitted. “You have to win every race. You have a car with which you can win every race. It’s a guarantee: McLaren is always a guarantee. So I have to work very hard. I have to give everything to my team and I’m ready to do that, once I have finished this season.”

    New team-mate Jenson Button, however, said Pérez had nothing to fear in joining McLaren and that the Mexican’s performances for his current outfit, for whom he has scored three podium finishes this year, have proved his worth.

    “He’s let his driving do the talking and he’s had some very good performances over the last couple of years,” said Button. “That’s the reason he’s got the drive he has at the moment and why he’s got the drive he has for next year.”

    Asked for his opinion about becoming Button’s team-mate, the new McLaren recruit said he was looking forward to the challenge but that he still had work to do for Sauber.

    “It will be great to have a very good champion (as a team-mate)” he said. “It will be a pleasure to work with him, to reach the same target for the team, which is winning and making the best car possible. So I’m looking forward to working together with the whole team.

    “I’m so motivated and enthusiastic to start working with my new team, but first I want to finish the next six races on a high for my (current) team and give everything I can for the team that gave me the opportunity to become a Formula One driver.”

    ends

  • Suzuka will be a testing track for us: Paul

    Suzuka, 4 Oct 2012: With the announcement of Lewis Hamilton replacing Michael Schumacher at Mercedes for the coming season and Sergio Perez joining McLaren for next year, the Thursday FIA press conference assumed importance with both the drivers present. Meanwhile, Schumacher announced his retirement.

    The following drivers were present: Paul DI RESTA (Force India), Kamui KOBAYASHI (Sauber), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Sergio PÉREZ (Sauber), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Paul, first of all, you’re coming here off the back of your best-ever result in Singapore, your hopes for this race.

    Paul DI RESTA: I suppose to lead off where we finished in Singapore. It was obviously a great result, I think, given Monza qualifying and then taking the penalty, having a reasonable race but then going to Singapore and doing a bit better. Certainly it was a very strong fourth towards the latter stages of the race. A lot of points needed, obviously, to try to catch the Saubers, you know, and thankfully they didn’t score. But this will

    Paul di Resta at Suzuka on Thursday. Sahara Force India photo.

    be a testing track for us and we know it’s going to be a lot of hard work to try to achieve some good points for us.

    Kamui, obviously the home favourite: is that a distraction or an encouragement for you when you come here to Suzuka?

    Kamui KOBAYASHI: I think it’s more an encouragement, that means it’s great to be here, back to Suzuka, which is  a really great circuit and my favourite as well. And definitely our car could be competitive here as well. After Singapore, which is a little bit difficult circuit for us, back to Suzuka which is our best track, I think it will be great. Really, there will be a big amount of power from a lot of fans and the Japanese people at the race.

    Felipe, on pole and a second place here in the past. What are your hopes for this weekend?

    Felipe MASSA: Similar result to what you just said! The track is really fantastic here, it’s a great place, very challenging to drive here, y’know? One of the best tracks, so, looking forward for a good result at the end, a good race for us.

    Lewis, you had success at Fuji but third place here, a podium obviously, in 2009. What are your thoughts about coming to this race?

    Lewis HAMILTON: I generally love coming here, the whole trip’s been fantastic so far and the track is one of the best in the world. It’s one that I haven’t won at before but we’ve got a car that I think can win – so let’s hope it’s a better weekend.

    Sergio, 17th on the grid to eighth place last year, which is a pretty good drive and an interesting tyre strategy as well. Kamui says it’s a circuit that really suits the car, what are your hopes?

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yes, I think it’s a really good circuit for our car. Last year we didn’t have such a good car as this year and still we managed to come from the back of the grid – we had a failure, a problem in qualifying in Q1, so we start really from 17th and managed to do a good race, a good strategy as you just said, so I’m looking forward a lot of fight for the victory here. I think we’ve got a very strong car at this circuit.

    Jenson, 12 out of 12 races you’ve finished here. That’s a pretty good record, you’ve never retired, never had to walk home. Last year’s winner as well, what are your expectations?

    Jenson BUTTON: Well obviously I’ve got a little penalty which doesn’t help, especially around here because it’s not the easiest place to overtake – but I’m really excited. I think this is one of the most special races on the calendar for all of us. We love – well I personally love – driving this circuit, it’s a real challenge and a circuit you love to win on. Especially with the crowd here, the spectators are very supportive of us all so it’s a special place to win. A good result is something I’m obviously looking for. The win is more difficult than it would have been without the penalty but it’s still definitely a possibility and we’re doing everything we can to make it possible.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    (Jim Armstrong – AP) Lewis, if I could just ask you about your move to Mercedes, given the results of the two teams over the years, do you feel there’s a bit of a risk in going to that team?

    LH: No. I’m not really here to talk about that this weekend. I’m here to talk about trying to win this World Championship still. So we’ve got six races ahead in a great team that I’ve had a great, an incredible journey with and I’m working on trying to finish that on a high.

    (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Sergio, just recently we asked you if you were talking to other top teams and you said ‘no’. If that was the case, how quickly did this whole thing come about?

    SP: No, there has been some talks before but I didn’t want to give too much information about my opportunities, my options. So the question doesn’t come that often because if I say at that time ‘yes’, then I will be full of questions. So it’s better to… I wanted to keep it in low profile, focussing always in my team, giving my hundred per cent to my team that I’m very thankfully they give me this opportunity. We have six races with a strong car to go and I want to leave on a very high from this team.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport ) Lewis, what was the thing that made you change the team where you’ve grown up through your career? Was it just challenge or…?

    LH: To be honest, I had a big press conference or meeting with the Brits the other day, so the story is already out and I’ve already spoken about that stuff. Like I said, I’m here to focus on this weekend.

    Q: (Marco degli Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport ) Jenson, among the six drivers here, you are the only one not involved in these moves. How do you judge, from your point of view, what’s happened and what might happen next year?

    JB: It’s nice to be the one not in that position – it normally is me. We all move about. That’s the way Formula One is. You’re either trying to find a better possibility, a better team that you think can give you an opportunity to win races or you’re looking for another challenge. There’s always going be people moving around in Formula One. It’s the same with team personnel; it’s not just the drivers. It just seems that it’s all come at once.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) If I could ask the three drivers on the back row: the three drivers in front of you are all sorted for next year. What’s your individual position for next year? Could you just let us know, one by one, what’s happening?

    PDR: Nothing at the moment. Our team’s policy is always not to talk about driver contracts and there’s not much more I can say. Things have progressed quite a lot since Singapore and I’m sure the reactions to that will obviously be sorted soon.

    KK: Same as Paul. I have no idea. I think we still have six races left to race and Suzuka for me is pretty important, so I just try to focus and think later. These two drivers are the first movement (in the driver market) so this is quite exciting for the rest of the time.

    FM: Nothing at the moment but I’m pretty confident things will be OK.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) A question for Felipe: with Sergio signed for McLaren, that’s one of your rumoured replacements at Ferrari out of the picture. Does that give you additional confidence that your contract will be renewed for next year?

    FM: Well, I think maybe. I don’t know. As I said, I’m pretty confident things are going in the right direction. Also, I think Sergio is doing a good job this year and he showed his performance and I’m happy that he can sign for a big team as well. But anyway, I need to concentrate on doing the best and that’s the way it is.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sergio, was Ferrari ever an issue for you? Were you talking to them?

    SP: Yeah, we were talking to them but it was never an option. I’ve been talking with them because I was part of the academy. I have a good contact with them and good communication, but obviously the place I got is the best place I can be and I’m so, so happy and thankful also for them (Ferrari) because at the time they helped me a lot to come into Formula One, but now I’m moving forward and I want to thank McLaren for taking me on board and trusting in me.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Lewis or Jenson: what’s the best piece of advice you could give to the new McLaren driver in the middle there, for next season?

    JB: I don’t really think Sergio needs any advice. He’s let his driving do the talking and he’s had some very good performances over the last couple of years and that’s the reason he’s got the drive he has at the moment and why he’s got the drive he has next year.

    LH: He’ll be fine.

    Q: (Marco degl’Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sergio, when Luca di Montezemolo said some weeks that you were not yet mature enough for a big team, had you already made an agreement with McLaren?

    SP: No. Not yet.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, you had a good race in Singapore and perhaps your expectations of staying at Ferrari increased. Do you think that another strong race here would be enough to secure your place for next season, or will we still have to wait a little while?

    FM: Let’s concentrate on having a good result and then we will see. As I said, things are not signed so it’s better not to talk so much and concentrate on the job. We’re going in the right direction so let’s hope we can have a good race here, a good race in Korea and a good end to the championship. That’s very important for me, for the team, for everybody.

    Q: (Andrew Gwilym – Press Association) Lewis, this is obviously the first race since your move was confirmed. Have you spoken to your mechanics at all since you’ve been in Suzuka, talking through your reasons. I could imagine that they might have been quite disappointed that you are leaving.

    LH: I haven’t… I’ve been to see them but no, I haven’t spoken about things. It’s business as usual which, here this weekend, is focusing on trying to win. That’s how professional they are and vice versa.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Lewis, you may have covered this with the Brits(British press), but we weren’t privy to be there. In life, when you make a big decision, many of us, once it’s made, you can relax because good, bad or indifferent, it’s done so do you feel calmer now, that the decision is made?

    LH: Absolutely, yeah, I feel fantastic. Very very happy and excited and grateful that I can now just focus on these next six races. I know there’s a lot of work ahead of me. I know I’m leaving a very very good car for this guy (Perez) to step into…

    SP: Thank you.

    LH: Yeah. Trust me, it will be a good car next year as well, I know. I know exactly what’s going on next year with your car.

    Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Radio) Sergio, you just said that Ferrari was never an option. What did you mean, exactly, that it was never an option – for you or why it was never an option for Ferrari? Why?

    SP: It was never actually with them… if they wanted me or no, they wanted me to go… it was never actually, basically… it was difficult for them, Ferrari, to make that decision. I think they are happy with Felipe. He’s a very good driver, a proven driver as well. I’m not a proven driver, I’m not a guarantee as Felipe is so probably that’s why I was never an option for them. The opportunity for me never came so I never saw them as an option for me.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Jenson, can you talk about the special relationship that you have with Japan and the things you did last week?

    JB: Ah, yes. Obviously I was working with a Japanese team for many years. The biggest connection is obviously my girlfriend, Jessie. And yeah, I love the country, I love the culture, I love the people, I love the food. Last week, last Thursday, yes, I was in Japan, I’ve been in Japan all week, and I headed up to the Sendai region and visited what used to be a town very close to Natori. It’s where the tsunami hit. So basically (I was) still raising awareness for what happened last year and also for what is still on-going here in Japan, especially in that region and the difficulties that they still have. So it was a very emotional day but I think a very good day, and hopefully we can help the people that have suffered from the disaster, the people who don’t have homes at the moment, so that was the main reason for doing it. Also in the afternoon I went to a local kart circuit, a place called Sugo. It’s got a big history of motor sport. I think it’s the place where Michael Schumacher raced in an F3000 car, I think the only race he did in an F3000 car. And then I watched 15 or 16 kids  driving around the local kart circuit there, all people who were affected by the tsunami in that region, which is a really good experience, to see them in the different categories of karting. It’s such a pure sport, karting, it’s just pure driving and that’s why I think we all still love it so much. Hopefully, one day we will see one of those kids on the Formula One grid, because there’s a lot of talent here in Japan and it would nice to hopefully help one of those kids one day.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Another question for you, Lewis: when you were working your way up through the ranks, Michael Schumacher was the man to beat. Now you’re replacing him. Can you tell us what that feels like for a driver; are they big racing boots to fill, is it an ego boost to replace the legend? What’s it like inside your head in that context?

    LH: I don’t see myself as replacing Michael. I don’t think anyone can replace Michael, he’s a legend in the sport, has achieved so much already. I feel privileged to have been in Formula One in the time where… I watched him winning all his World Championships at home in my living room so to have been on the track with him in 2006 and then for him to come back and for me to get to race with him has been a real privilege so I hope that one day, I can achieve some of the things he has done.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Paul, we know that your name has also been close to Ferrari for next year. Would a year at Ferrari be something that you would agree to do or, looking at your career, are you looking for something longer term with another team?

    PdiR:  I’ve always said, coming through my career and into Formula One, the important thing is winning races and winning championships, and whenever the opportunity is given, that’s the position I want to be in but just now, obviously, with Force India, my mentality is different and results like we got in Singapore are big. That’s the position I’m in. I’ve got six races up and coming to try and maximise, to do a job under the contract that I’m in.

    Q: (Mineoki Yoneya – La Vie Creative) Kamui, you definitely need a good result here this weekend, so are you a bit nervous and how is Suzuka different from the last two years, from the mental point of view?

    KK: I don’t feel so much pressure, quite relaxed, so many people around me want to be close but I’m just here for racing. In comparison to the last two years, we’ve got more experience. In 2010, I came to Suzuka… I drove only one race in Suzuka (before) so I didn’t have so much experience actually other than now, but now it’s my third time in Suzuka and I have more experience, and I definitely have the confidence to do well this weekend.

    Q: (Andrew Gwilym – Press Association) Kamui, with Michael leaving Mercedes, he’s been linked with a seat at Sauber next year. If you were both to be at Sauber next year, would you welcome the chance to work with Michael?

    KK: It’s difficult to say. I don’t think that’s realistic. I can definitely work (with him) but I don’t know, we have to ask Michael. I don’t know if he really wants to come to Sauber. This is a different story. Easy to make a really difficult connection, but I don’t think he really wants to come to Sauber.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) I just wanted to ask Sergio his thoughts on moving to McLaren and filling Lewis Hamilton’s seat there. That’s fairly big shoes to fill; is he confident that he can fill them adequately?

    SP: Well, of course, I rate Lewis as one of the fastest drivers on the grid, so it won’t be easy at all. I know I have very big shoes to fill so it will be difficult but I will give everything I can, I will work as hard as possible to give the best result and to win championships with this great team.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) And can I get your opinion please on your new teammate, Jenson Button, who is an equally tough competitor?

    SP: Yeah, of course, it will be great to have a very good champion. He’s a World Champion and it will be a pleasure to work with him together, to reach the same target for the team which is winning and make the best car possible, so I’m looking forward to working together with the whole team and so motivated, enthusiastic to start working with my new team, but first, as I say, I want to finish the next six races on a very high for my team and give everything I can for my team that gave me the opportunity to become a Formula One driver.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Daily Mirror) Surely the expectation from the word go has got to be to win races, hasn’t it?

    SP: Of course. I think with McLaren there is no other option. You have to win every race, you have a car that you can win every race. It’s a  guarantee. McLaren is always a guarantee, so I have to work very hard. I have to give everything to my team and I’m ready to do that, once I have finished this season.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) What were you thinking when Montezemolo was saying about you that you are too young, not mature enough for such a team?

    SP: Yeah. Of course I respect… he’s a person that I respect a lot. Maybe to drive for Ferrari you need more experience. I think he has his arguments, it’s better you ask him what he meant by that. Maybe I’m too young to join a team like Ferrari. I don’t know. I feel ready to drive for a top team and to fight for the championship. If this answers your question.

    Ends

  • We benefited from Lewis’ failure: Vettel

    Singapore, 23 Sept 2012:

    Following drivers who won the first three places in the Singapore GP attended the fourth and final press conference of FIA at the Marina Bay circuit on sunday.

    1 – Sebastian Vettel

    Vettel's file photo of Saturday in Singapore 2012. Red Bull photo

    (Red Bull Racing); 2 – Jenson Button (McLaren); 3 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

    Sebastian you’re a back-to-back winner here. What’s the secret?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think it’s one of the toughest races of the year to be honest. It’s very long; the full two hours. The circuit is a killer. There’s so many bumps, there’s no space for mistakes and the race just seems to go on forever. Obviously we benefited from Lewis’ failure. A couple of laps before that he lost some oil and then after that I think we generally we had very, very strong pace all weekend. I had a good start, which got us into second and in the hunt. The pace was there so… I’m just incredibly happy and proud because this is a such a tough race. I would like to dedicate it to one very, very special man, Professor Sid Watkins who passed away and we remember him for sure. I think he is one of the biggest reasons we can go out on a circuit like this and enjoy ourselves and be reasonably safe. He pushed the boundaries in terms of safety for all of us, so a big thank you to him.

    Can you see something reminiscent of 2010; how you came from this position and just sneaked that win of the championship in 2010?

    SV: I don’t think Fernando would be too happy if it happened again in the last race. But it’s an incredible season for all of us (inaudible) we have a lot of races left, the car seems to be competitive and we just have to use the momentum and keep pushing for these last races and see what happens.

    Jenson, what happened at the re-start?

    Jenson BUTTON: First of all, good evening everyone. Was that fun? Good. It was a pretty tough two hours for us. The re-start? Sebastian accelerated and braked for the right-hander and I just didn’t expect that, such a speed difference. So I hit the brakes, locked up and just missed the rear of his car, because that would have been quite embarrassing. But we got through it and yeah it’s a good second place. I’m reasonably happy with that. We all want to win, but you can’t win them all.

    Does that second place make up in some small way for Monza?

    JB: Yeah it does, but for us as a team to have another failure this weekend is disappointing. The important thing for us is we have a very good car. I think the team are doing a fantastic job and it seems that every race we go to we really do have a chance of winning so that’s important to us.

    Fernando, you also have won twice here and now on the podium again. It must be one of your favourite tracks?

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, good evening everybody. Of course, is one of the best tracks to drive, to enjoy. The weekend in general is out of our normal routine, let’s say, of times etcetera. We enjoy driving here, the atmosphere is fantastic, the layout is quite interesting and it was a fun race again.

    You still have a 29 point lead in the Championship but yet you haven’t won since Germany. Are all of your opponents, are they all falling away or tripping over themselves?

    FA: Well, in Monza is was Lewis winning the race and Sebastian retired. Here it’s Sebastian winning, Lewis retiring, so for me it’s OK is they keep doing it like this.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, really should we have expected that result after practice – but perhaps not after qualifying?

    SV: Yeah, it just underlines that we obviously struggled a bit yesterday, especially in the last section of qualifying. Up to then I think it was fine and the pace was there. The confirmation was straight away there in the grand prix when we found ourselves behind Lewis and were able to push him quite hard. I think he was obviously trying to save his tyres, we were trying to save the tyres. It’s a bit of a different race, it’s very tactical but I think the pace was there in the race throughout. Also, towards the end versus Jenson I think we could have an answer every time he was going quick and it was a good finish of the Grand Prix. Obviously it’s a long race, a lot of laps – we did the full two hours again – but it’s fun in a way, you are excited, a bit nervous before the race starts, knowing there is a little bit of a marathon coming, but I think that’s what makes this race so special: not just racing at night, it’s also the circuit with a lot of corners, a lot of bumps, making it extremely difficult. It’s a great challenge for us. Very happy with the result, obviously. I think the team deserves a big thank you. In fact working in these conditions is very, very hot and in the garage it is another 10, 15 degrees hotter than outside. So not the nicest office to work it but obviously it’s nice to give a little bit of champagne back and bring a trophy home – so I’m very happy.

    And good for the Championship chances as well…

    SV: Yeah, it looks better than before. Fernando finished third. I am not a genius but I think it’s looking ten points better than it was before. There’s a lot of races left and it’s a bit difficult to predict what’s going to happen. We have to make sure that we finish the races first of all. I think the pace is there, even if we are not quick enough to win then it is good enough to collect a lot of points. And we have to make sure we do that. It’s a tough championship so far but we’re still in it. We’re still looking forward to the next couple of races, and obviously the target at the moment is to beat Fernando.

    Jenson, the pace seemed to be there at the start but not necessarily at the end.

    JB: Yeah, the pace on the supersoft was good. I could look after the tyres pretty well – not that it did me any good anyway because after the pitstops they had a gap because they went to new tyres earlier than me, so it didn’t really work out. And on the harder of the two tyres, the balance wasn’t as good and I couldn’t really look after the tyres and degradation was reasonably high so, yeah, not too bad. Would have been nicer to have pushed Sebastian a bit harder: you never know around a street circuit when you push someone hard, so there was always the possibility that we could do one step better but it wasn’t to be; Sebastian didn’t make any mistakes and we came away with a second. Reasonably good points and it’s nice to get some good points back on the board after the DNF in Monza.

    After Lewis’ retirement was there any concern in terms of reliability, or did they not tell you that?

    JB: No, they didn’t say anything. I obviously knew that it was a… I still don’t know… but I’m guessing it was a gearbox problem.  For about three or four laps it was spraying gearbox oil. I thought it was the backmarker at the time, and then I saw Lewis pull over so I knew that was from his car. It’s disappointing for the team to have another DNF – two weekends on the trot. It’s something that we need to sort out because as a team over the race weekends we’re doing a great job and the pace is there with the car. Over the last few races the results we’ve had have been very good but it’s just we can’t seem to do that with both cars. It’s something for sure we need to work on for the rest of the season.

    Fernando, for you was this pretty much the best you could hope for?

    FA: Yes, definitely. I think we were not very competitive this weekend so we struggled a little with the pace of the car and yesterday we managed to put a good lap in Q3 and that was a little bit the best part of the weekend. Because if you start at the rear I think you are having problems all the race, so starting in fifth, it was OK. Then the start was so-so. We lost position with di Resta and then we recovered in first and second corner, and then we fight a little bit with Maldonado so I think the safety car arrive in the worst moment for us because we have stopped and changed the tyres five laps before the safety car, so we didn’t have the pitstop for free like the others did. So, it was, I think with all these difficulties, if we put altogether, arriving third in our difficult weekend is for sure a fantastic result in terms of points.

    And in terms of your rivals obviously with Lewis not finishing…

    FA: Yes, again I think it’s a very positive weekend. A very good weekend. Of the four or five contenders, we lost points with one, with the other three we increased our advantage, so obviously, as I said, when we are not quick enough to win more points against three of our opponents, I think it’s positive.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ubaid Parker – F1 Pulse) Sebastian, when you were chasing Hamilton, you were losing three to four tenths on several laps in sector two alone, although you were recovering it a little bit in sector one and sector three. Was there any particular reason for that, because you did mention that turn ten was a difficulty yesterday?

    SV: No, not really. I saw that I was gaining a little bit in the first sector, not sure in the second sector but I could see that I probably lost a bit but I think Lewis has been very quick in sector two all weekend. Also, I think I was fairly close to him, so obviously the closer you get, it’s a bit of a disadvantage but I try to keep the gap fairly much the same, lap by lap. I didn’t really mean to close the gap, because I know that the closer I get, the more grip I lose, and obviously I will lose tyres just by running close to him and losing downforce so I think it was a tactical race in the beginning, especially the beginning of the second stint after the first pit stop. If you go all out in one lap you probably go a second faster but then you do this exercise for three laps and Jenson is coming. It’s the races that we have these days but I think, as I said, Lewis was already quick in sector two so it was probably not a surprise to lose a little bit against him.

    Q: (Ian de Cotta – Today) Sebastian, you say this is a tough circuit. What does it feel like to win twice in a row?

    SV: Very good. I’m very happy. I think this is one of the best races to win in terms of atmosphere. Everything is a little bit special here. It’s a surprise in a way, because we haven’t been racing here for fifty years – Formula One hasn’t been racing here for fifty years but it still feels like a real classic already. It’s nice. I think everyone likes coming here. It’s a bit funny to be in the European time zone and a little bit against everything else in this city. It’s great to get the opportunity. It’s a great city, more than five million people living here and the circuit is right in the middle. When you do the drivers’ parade and you see a lot of people around the track it’s nice just to be part of it, obviously even greater to win, which was great last year, but is even greater this year to repeat it. I’m very happy, especially with this year’s championship. It’s very tight. We probably didn’t have the fastest package this weekend but we still won the race. I’m very happy.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, in the second stint you were consistently catching up to the leaders; what was different in that stint compared to qualifying and the other parts of the race?

    FA: I don’t know. I think we were pushing a little bit harder and we were in free air. In the first stint we were fighting a little bit with Pastor and then we were probably a little bit more competitive with the soft tyre compared to the super soft, so maybe that was the reason.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) To all three of you: what are your expectations for Suzuka and your specific car, each of you?

    SV: I think we have to improve. I think there is still a little bit that we need to gain. I think that at the moment McLaren is the fastest car and the Ferrari is a little bit of an allrounder. It’s always quick and always there so we need to make sure that we see the chequered flag.  Reliability will be important but it’s a fun track so I’m looking forward to it. The Sauber will be quick, unlike this weekend and we will go from there.

    JB: It’s always very difficult to know because it’s such a different circuit to this one but if you compare it to Spa, and it’s reasonably similar to Spa – but without the run-off areas – it’s a circuit that should suit us pretty well. I still think that the Red Bulls will be strong as they were in Spa. Qualifying was great for us and the race was as well, but in the race our pace was no better than the Red Bulls. It’s going to be a competitive race, I think. We really don’t know where the Ferrari will stand on that type of circuit. It’s going to be a competitive race, and one I’m very much looking forward to.

    FA: Yeah, a little bit difficult to predict. I think all this year we’ve been up and down for all the teams and it’s the same for us. For sure, we need to improve the performance we saw here. We struggled all weekend. Positions five and 13 for our cars is not what we were hoping for so we need to be in a better position in Suzuka. Maybe Silverstone is also quite similar to Suzuka and we were quite OK there so hopefully we can repeat that kind of performance.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, maybe your first stop was a little bit early; one or two laps more, for the traffic, I think – or no?

    FA: I don’t know. We more or less stopped when we felt that the tyres were dropping off too much and we didn’t want to lose too much time. So we stopped. We found some traffic there and we struggled to overtake. After that, we had good pace so maybe… I don’t know. It’s difficult to… or it’s easy to see after the race. I was happy with the pit stop call.

    Ends

  • My team has done a fantastic job: Hamilton

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

    2 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    UNILATERAL

    Lewis, a phenomenal margin, very, very quick indeed, well done.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. The guys have done a fantastic job all week and to come here with some small things that have improved from the last race. Obviously we have high downforce here so we weren’t sure where we would turn out against the others but obviously Sebastian was incredibly fast through most of the sessions, I’m not really sure what happened in the end. Nonetheless I’m very happy that I was able to pull that time out. A great lap, I’m very happy with it.

    It must be a very, very difficult circuit indeed. We saw you make a couple of mistakes in Q1, very tricky around here?

    LH: Oh, it is. It is absolutely. Just trying to find the gaps is quite difficult, particularly in Q1. And making sure your tyres are up to temperature, making sure your brakes are up to temperature without using them before you start your lap. And yeah, the first few laps I did on the prime was quite poor and I feel very fortunate that I was able to get at least one lap on them, so I didn’t have to go again.

    Pastor, where did that lap come from? Well done.

    Pastor MALDONADO: We were working very hard because at the beginning of the weekend and during the practice we were a little bit lost with the setup and yeah, we were improving, especially during the quali, y’know, during the qualifying just trying to adapt the car to my style. We find naturally very well balanced, especially in Q2 and then Q3. I’m really looking forward to the race because yesterday we showed very good pace, very consistent so I think it’s going to be a good one for us this time.

    Sebastian, fastest in all three practice sessions. A little bit disappointed with third on the grid?

    Sebastian VETTEL. Yeah, a little disappointed. Especially Q3. I don’t know why we couldn’t do the step. Nevertheless, third is a good position to start from. There is a long race tomorrow, a lot of things that can happen. I think the pace is there, we’ve proven throughout the weekend – but surely if you don’t do the last step in qualifying it’s a shame, because I think the speed was there. So, yeah, it didn’t come together in the end.

    Lewis, a final thought on tomorrow’s race. What are the main factors?

    LH: It’s an incredibly tough circuit for tyre degradation, as we have at pretty much every track but especially as it’s hot and humid here. So I think everyone is going to struggle with that, and I think we just have to try and get away cleanly at the start and stick to the strategy that we have planned and be prepared if it doesn’t work.

    PRESS CONFERENCE.

    So Lewis, well done, obviously as you say, tyre degradation the big thing but the walls… so many different factors, so many difficult things, and the heat as well, and at an anti-clockwise circuit. It must be a really tough circuit, this?

    LH: It is, and I think everyone here will see that tomorrow. I think we all felt that with our long runs. Hopefully we’ve done the work we need to do to hopefully put together a good package tomorrow. We’ve put ourselves in the best position so I hope that we will be able to capitalise on that tomorrow.

    Pastor, again it’s fantastic that you’re once again so close. Is this because it’s a similar circuit, do you feel, to Barcelona?

    PM: It’s completely different than Barcelona. Especially because the lack of grip. We were struggling a little bit to put the car together but, including the qualifying, we managed to find a very good balance and we are really looking forward to tomorrow. Yesterday we did a couple of long runs and it’s looking pretty good for us. The tyre degradation I mean. So I’m really looking forward.

    Sebastian, any further worries about alternators or is that firmly behind you?

    SV: There’s no guarantee. It’s hard to get a guarantee on anything in life, so we’ll see. So far we didn’t have any problems, no signs. Monza was a different story. Obviously we had a failure on Saturday and Sunday. Today no failures and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be fine as well. So no concerns.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, what happened in Q3, you seemed to have lost the speed a little bit?

    SV: Yeah, I don’t know to be honest. I think the speed was there but we weren’t able to really improve, whereas in Q2 I got the lap in reasonably safely and I was a little bit off Lewis, I think, one and a half tenths. I was confident that we can go quicker somewhere, lower in the 46s region. I think Lewis’s time in Q3 was very quick so… if, could, would, should… we don’t know but I think the pace was there to do better than what we did in Q2 but in Q3 we just couldn’t pick and in the end I was even struggling to repeat the lap I did in the beginning, so yeah, obviously a bit disappointing but I think the speed is there. We have been competitive throughout the weekend. The race is very long here, a lot of things can happen – safety cars – so it’s important to be in the right place at the right time and then we go from there.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) For all three of you: every race that we’ve had here has featured some safety cars, so to what extent do you guys take that into account for your own strategies in the race?

    LH: Well, I think for us as drivers we just have to be ready to react, hope that it’s neither of us and then we just leave it to the team to work on what we have to do. They will direct us what we have to do with fuel-wise and all those kind of things.

    PM: I agree. I think either we need to be fully focused in this race on the conditions very very hot, very warm and we need to put everything together to get a good performance. It’s not only from our side, the team has to work together.

    SV: It’s difficult to know what happens. You can’t drive round waiting for the safety car, to have a break but obviously there’s little run-off here and we saw in free practice that if a car stops on the circuit then it’s already enough to have yellow flags at least and a potential safety car in the race. It’s difficult to know what happens but we’ll see tomorrow I guess. So far we’ve always had one as far as I can remember.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) To all three of you: how confident are you that you can overtake tomorrow during the race?

    PM: I think it’s possible to overtake here, especially because of the big tyre degradation that we will have tomorrow. I think everybody will be struggling with the tyres at some time, but the strategy-wise must be really good for everyone, just to try to be consistent but I think here it’s possible to overtake. We have a long straight, good DRS, it’s not going to be very easy but we have a couple of places.

    LH: Yeah, I think he’s said it pretty good. You can overtake here.

    SV: Yeah, it’s not the easiest circuit but it’s not impossible.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, looking at the TV in slow motion, we saw that you touched the wall a little bit on the last lap. What happened? Did you feel something in the car or is it OK?

    LH: I did?

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) …touched the wall a little bit.

    LH: Yessss. That means I’m using all the road. I didn’t mean to and I didn’t feel it so it hopefully hasn’t done any damage but I honestly didn’t feel it.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, we’ve not seen too much emotion from you when you’ve got out of the car, either here today or following the victory in Italy. I’m just wondering if there’s any particular reason for that.

    LH: No, I’m pretty happy.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Really? Because you don’t seem to be.

    LH: I am.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Was it tough out there today, because obviously you’re sitting there fanning yourself with a sleeve of your overalls? Was it a really tough one for you?

    LH: It’s easy for you to sit in your shorts – if you’re wearing shorts – and T-shirt but I’ve got like three or so layers on and I’ve got this extra jacket on which doesn’t help. It’s pretty warm.

    Q: (Matt Coch – pitpass.com) To all three of you: Pastor mentioned tyre degradation. The supersofts don’t last a great length of time. The guys behind you, the Mercedes guys, didn’t set a time so they’ve got a choice of tyres. How worried are you about the start of the race and what the guys behind you are doing for when you come out of the stops?

    SV: I think that hopefully by the time we pit we have a big gap to the guys who are maybe on a different strategy. I think it’s difficult to know now how long we will be able to stay out. Obviously we have a rough idea. I think we’re all on the same tyre and the same amount of laps so we will see when the lights go off but I think it will be a difficult race for tyre degradation and I think the difficulty is that we probably don’t know what to expect so we will see tomorrow, I think.

    LH: I think this weekend there seems to be a bigger gap between all the drivers and teams so perhaps that will allow… that will mean that there are bigger gaps throughout the race. Maybe.

    PM: I think that especially at the beginning of the race we are in very similar conditions, especially with the tyres, so it’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen, because this is an unusual race, an unusual track but I think it’s going to be very tight for everyone, especially at the beginning.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Another question for all three of you: we heard today that the race contract has been extended for five years and that the organisers are open to the possibility of configuration changes. Are there any changes to the layout that you guys would like to see: hairpins, faster corners, anything like that?

    SV: I think we’ve discussed it many times, every year actually, to find a better solution in turn ten which probably requires to take a little bit of land from the cricket club for those couple of days or maybe remove the pavement for three/four days. I don’t know, but if you consider the costs for this whole event, I think taking a pavement away and putting it back on shouldn’t be a big problem, but in terms of safety, yeah, I think that’s one of the worst corners we have on the calendar, because you’ve got these big kerbs, big bumps and it’s a bit tricky to find a better solution right now with the space we have, but I think that’s something we need to work on.

    LH: The same.

    PM: The same.

    file picture of Lewis Hamilton who set the pole in Singapore on 22 Sept 2012. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes photo

    Ends

  • Bob Fearnley all praise for Bianchi

    Singapore, 21 Sept 2012: For the second FIA press conference held on Friday, usually the team peronnel are invited. For the Singapore GP, the following team representatives attended:

    James Key  (Toro Rosso), Toto WOLFF (Williams), Bob Fearnley (Force India), Jean-Francois CAUBET (Renault Sport F1), Martin WHITMARSH (McLaren) Tony FERNANDES (Caterham).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    James, welcome back, new shirt, you’ve had your feet under the desk for a week or two now, what have found at Scuderia Toro Rosso? What are the strengths and weaknesses?

    James KEY: Thanks for the welcome Bob, I think – it’s early days obviously – but I think one of the big strengths I noticed very quickly in the team is the enthusiasm everyone has and the ambition to make it succeed. Everyone is desperate for it to work, there’s a real passion there, as you can imagine

    File photo of Sahara Force India reserve driver Jules Bianchi. Sahara Force India photo.

    , being Italian in the team’s origin. Primarily it’s a very good atmosphere to work in, something a little bit familiar to me in a way, there’s a bit of family atmosphere because it’s a small team that’s grown very rapidly. As a result of that with the rapid growth it means that it needs a little bit more gluing together in a way. There’s still separate departments doing a very good job but it needs to come together – and everyone recognises that. It’s just a case of going through that process. So, the strength, I think, is the will and the ambition of everyone. On the weakness side, I think it’s just still a team that’s growing. There’s no lack of effort from everyone, it just needs to be given direction. There’s certainly some work to do on the aero side, which is very clear and mechanical, for that matter, from a technical point of view. There’s some pretty clear steps. Some of it takes time, some of it’s fairly obvious for next year.

    And what can you do for this year’s car? What can you do for next year’s car? Can you still put your stamp on next year’s car?

    JK: I think for this year, obviously time is short, and this is a time of year when you’ve really got to prioritise and so we’re doing what we can with this year’s car. What we can do now is obviously carried over to next year too. I think for next year, the architecture and a lot of the suspension geometry was already defined before I arrived, so it’s a case of picking up what I can, together with the guys in Faenza and at our wind tunnel in Bicester from this point forward. I’d say there’s probably 40 per cent of the car still to go, so certainly we can work on that. But I have to say a lot of very sensible decisions have already been made for next year’s car, exactly what I would have done. Which is good. So, we’re all aligned in our direction and we’ll do everything we can in between now and Melbourne.

    Toto, obviously a very competitive car this year: we’ve seen it in the top ten in qualifying quite a lot and of course it’s won a race as well. How easy is that to preserve and to keep on, and improve on for next year?

    Toto WOLFF: I think that most of the teams are going to have a carry-on car for next year. It’s not going to be a massive development because everybody is looking forward to 2014, which is a big change. So, I hope we can carry the momentum and keep the good base of the car and then carry it over for next year.

    And looking at your drivers but particularly one you have an interest in, what is Valtteri Bottas’ future?

    TW: I think Valtteri Bottas’ future is Formula One. We have not decided yet where we are going to head to because we go on to give maximum support to the two current drivers. He has been with us for a couple of years now, so he is definitely part of our thoughts – but no decision has been made until now.

    Bob, first of all, I think you’ve moved on already to next year’s but already you car looks very competitive here. Last year here we saw Paul Di Resta do a phenomenal run of 31 laps on the soft tyre. Is this looking like a good result for you here? What are your thoughts? It’s very early days I guess.

    Bob FEARNLEY: It is early days. You don’t know what fuel levels everybody else has been running on today. But it is reasonably encouraging for the first two sessions.

    Looking at Jules Bianchi, his performance in the Magny Cours test. What’s his future with the team?

    BF: We’re looking for stability for 2013 with all drivers, that’s our first goal. But I think from the young driver test, it just goes to show how beneficial running the FP1 programme was, because Jules was very quick all three days, particularly in the Force India car. So I think it’s a testament to the team’s effort to having a reserve driver who is really up and running and competitive all the time.

    Jean-Francois, I’m sure you’re expecting a question about alternators. What is it about Sebastian Vettel that it seems to happen to him and nobody else?

    Jean-Francois CAUBET: First of all we started to have a problem in Valencia with two drivers Sebastian Vettel and Romain (Grosjean). It was not easy to detect or find because both alternators were completely melted and destroyed. So we were thinking it was an electric problem and probably the levels of power in the car, so we decided to change a bit the levels of power in each car. Spa was OK but again in Monza we have a problem with Sebastian two times and another driver also. We had a bit of fortune because we stopped the Lotus car just maybe some problem with the alternator and at the end it was not an electrical problem, it was a mechanical problem, a bearing probably. So, we are trying to change something. It is not easy because we detect that a few days but I think we are quite optimistic. The problem we have is that we are running the new solution in the dyno but only the race will give us an answer.

    Do you think the heat is going to be a factor here?

    J-FC: I don’t know. P1 was OK, P2 was OK. We cross our fingers for P3, qualifying and the race.

    Recently, you lost Monsieur Arbiteboul to Tony over here. How important a loss is that and what can he expect from his new CEO?

    J-FC: I think it is good news for Tony. I was working with Cyril for eight years. He was working with Flavio in the team. We sold the team. We built a new strategy on the engine side. I think after eight years at Renault I think this is a fantastic opportunity for him to do something probably more concrete, more challenging but why not he will be back one day in Renault no?

    Q: Martin, there’s been a lot of speculation about the team, how much of a distraction has it been?

    Martin WHITMARSH: No, I don’t think it has been. I think over the last three races we’ve got stronger and more focused. I assume that the distraction you refer to is Lewis but I think anyone who knows Lewis and witnessed Lewis last weekend (in Italy) and actually also this weekend would say he’s very very focused on doing the job. I think he realises that this year we have a strong opportunity to win a World Championship and I think we all realise that the right thing to do is focus and improve the car, don’t make mistakes and maximise the points you can get from each race. I think that’s what we’re very much focused on. I know that there are stories and speculation that swirl around and I guess that’s Formula One and I think we’re content to get on with the job quietly.

    Q: Excellent performances in the last three races; you must be favourites to win a World Championship even though there is that huge gap, and there are seven races to go.

    MW: I think you’ve got to be cautious. I think we were firm favourites going into the season, we were firm favourites coming out of Australia and it can change. I think we’re very pleased that the last three events have been on very different circuits and we’ve been competitive at all of them. I think we’re cautious here. Hopefully we can be competitive. What we haven’t done is just pile in the points that we should have done, given the competitiveness of our car. I think after 12 or 13 races, I think we’ve been on the front row eleven times. We’ve clearly got a strong package and therefore we should be disappointed in the number of points that we don’t have rather than the points that we do have. But you don’t look back, you look forward. I think we’ve got quite a good development momentum so we’re making the car quicker. I think we’ve got two great racing drivers who are very much focused on trying to win races and other things, so we’re hopeful that we can get a result here and keep the pressure on. You’ve got to say that Fernando’s done a great job to be where he is and that’s going to take some effort to overhaul but it’s certainly do-able and we’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can.

    Q: Tony, you’ve got a new CEO in Cyril Abiteboul, what was the thinking behind hiring a CEO when you seem to have a lot of chiefs already?

    Tony FERNANDES: Well, I think we’re evolving into a little bit of an auto group with the cars division and technology division that we’ve put together which Riad (Asmet) is looking at, and I am not as involved so the team needs leadershi. Cyril has been someone that I’ve courted for a while and we’ve finally persuaded him – with Renault’s blessing – to come over to Caterham. It provides us with a (inaudible) for the F1 team going forward.

    Q: So will he be the team principal?

    TF: Not at the moment, no. I will still remain in that job for a while. Eventually, maybe.

    Q: And your thoughts on your drivers for next year; is Heikki staying? What’s the situation with Vitaly?

    TF: Well, it’s… I don’t know. We will have to have a discussion at some point and we also have options on that front. I would like Heikki to stay, very much. He’s been great for us over the last three and a half years. We’ll have to sit down and decide where we go from here.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Paul Weaver – The Guardian) Martin, you described as fantasy reports that Lewis might be joining Mercedes. Do you still describe that as fantasy or did you seriously under-estimate the situation?

    MW: I don’t remember that but…

    Q: (Paul Weaver – The Guardian) I do.

    MW: …good! I think if you told me that he had signed the deal as you said that was fantasy so in answer to the same question I would give the same response to that.

    Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Martin, do you accept that Lewis has had an offer from Mercedes?

    MW: I suspect that Tony here has made him an offer as well, he’s a very good racing driver.

    TF: I haven’t!

    MW: He’s not ambitious enough, you see.

    Q: (Benjamin Hunt – The Sun) Martin, you risk losing a driver, potentially; have you started even thinking  about a replacement yet?

    MW: No, as I said earlier, I think we’re very focused on trying to do a good job here.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To Bob and to Tony: there’s a possibility that the regulations from next year onwards will be decided by the six top teams as opposed to the Formula One Commission. How do you people, as team principals of teams that don’t fall within those six, feel about that possibility?

    BF: I think that we would like the stability to stay where it is, with all teams being represented at the F1 Commission, Dieter, so I don’t think there’s any doubt about where we would like to be. Tony will have to speak for himself, but I think it’s a much better balance when the teams are fully represented.

    TF: I share the same view obviously. The one thing is though… the key is that all of us have to find a way of standardising regulations and having less changes and less irregularities but I think there is a danger that the six teams are hyper-competitive and sometimes things go on and on and on, so I do think that there could be an imbalance here but the key to me is not whether there are six teams or twelve teams or two teams, the key is to have simple regulations that won’t have a tremendous amount of debate and we just will go racing.

    Q: (Byron Young – Daily Mirror) Martin, why has it taken so long to solve Lewis’s situation? Even by Formula One standards it seems to have taken an age.

    MW: I think it seems a long time because of the speculation that people have made, but when you sit down and seriously put your mind to entering into a new contract it doesn’t take too long. I think it’s a question of priorities and other things we’ve been doing.

    Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Martin, are you actually trying to pay him less money for his new contract?

    MW: I’m sure he will want more money and I’m sure we will want to pay less – that’s how business normally works.

    Q: (Matt Coch – pitpass.com) Tony, you’ve moved into the new Leafield facility, an immense complex. It’s much bigger than what Caterham as a Formula One team is. What’s the long term plan with the spare capacity there?

    TF: I think over the next few months details will evolve as to what we’re planning. It’s not a hidden secret that I got into Formula One to manufacture cars and Lotus was my initial objective which went spectacularly wrong in many ways, shape or forms but the ambition and the vision is still the same and Leafield will play a part in that vision. The brand may have changed but the vision and the idea of what we’re trying to put together still exists. I think we are putting all the infrastructure in place to have a reasonable Formula One team. We have a reasonable car now, we just have to optimise it as much as possible. I think we’ve got some good people together, we’re in a facility in a location which attracts other people into it, plus with our other two divisions it will all come together. I think in the next few months you will see some clarity as to what we’re trying to achieve.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Jean-Francois, certain people continue talking about retaining the current V8s for an additional year or two after 2014. In addition to that, you’d said that you people wanted to possibly supply six teams with your 2014 technology. Where do you stand on these two points please?

    J-FC: I think the V6 will be on the track for all the teams in two years. I think Mercedes, Ferrari and us are all changing our dynos from V8s to V6s so now it’s impossible to make a change. For the teams, the strategy is to keep four teams and I don’t know if it’s possible to do more. I think that if you want to have good reliability, good performance you need to keep four teams, but if there will be a need for more, we don’t want to close the door.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Martin, I can understand why you would want to laugh through some of the questions facing Lewis and put on a bit of a brave face but is part of you seriously appreciating the fact that there could be life without Lewis from 2013 onwards?

    MW: As I said earlier, it’s not a question of putting on a brave face, it’s a question of focusing on doing our job, and we’re concentrating on this year’s championship. I think speculation on next year is something that we don’t need to entertain or respond to so we’re focusing on the here and now.

    Q: (Bryon Young – Daily Mirror) So does that mean there won’t be an announcement until after the end of the season, because you’ve got to focus on all the races haven’t you?

    MW: We might wait until then, you never know.

    Ends

  • Marina Bay suits us: Hulkenberg

    Singapore, 20 Sept 2012: The following drivers attended the Thursday press conference of FIA at Marina Bay today.

    Nico Hulkenberg attended the FIA Thursday Press Conference at Marina Bay on 20 SEpt 2012. Sahara Force India F1 team photo

    DRIVERS – Timo GLOCK (Marussia), Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Bruno SENNA (Williams), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Sergio PEREZ (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Timo, obviously you finished second here in 2009. Is that one of the reasons why you say this is your favourite race?

    Timo GLOCK: No, in general it’s just the event here, the show. The first time we were here in 2008 I just the track and the event and for sure being on the podium was a great experience and good to be back to it and enjoy the time here.

    So what is it about the track itself?

    TG: The European races have enough run-off areas and here it’s a bit different, the same like Monaco. If you do a mistake you end up in the wall and that’s the challenging part here.

    I believe you only arrived this morning however. Are you a little bit worried about getting acclimatised?

    TG: No. I do that every year because we stay on European time. I just arrived this morning, went to the hotel and slept until 1pm or 1.30pm and I’m in the rhythm, so no problem. I’m not the only one who arrived so late.

    Nico, great potential in Monza but less so here. They’re very different circuits. How do you feel about this track?

    Nico HULKENBERG: To be honest, quite positive. I think If anything this kind of circuit should suit us a bit more – quite a lot of slow-speed corners. There’s not really one high-speed corner here. That is in our favour a little bit more than at Spa and Monza, the two last races, so I think we should be all right. As usual I think we’ll be around the top 10 and hopefully inside.

    But also one of the toughest races as well.

    NH: It is. It is for everybody, you know. Always a race which touches the two-hour mark. It’s pretty hot and humid. We know the circuit is physically demanding, a lot of nasty bumps and kerbs and if you get them wrong they’ll launch you into the wall. It’s a physical race, it’s tough, but we’re fit and up for it.

    Lots of talk about your future. Is the contract with Force India done yet?

    NH: Well, there’s a good chance I’ll be with Force India next year but as you know nothing has been announced yet.

    Bruno, you feel that this circuit should suit your car. Is that correct?

    Bruno SENNA: Yeah, definitely. Our car has been very happy on high downforce tracks and here we’re running everything we have so it’s good news for us. I think coming from a couple of difficult races where sometimes strategy played a bit of a part in our results we’re hoping to come back and score some solid points for the team.

    Looking at qualifying in comparison to your team-mate, it’s heavily weighed in his favour. What’s your problem in qualifying?

    BS: It’s not an easy situation. I think Pastor has a driving style that is better suited to the tyres. Last year I had a better run in qualifying than this year, which is abnormal, but the tyres have changed and so far it hasn’t come down to my side too much. Last race the qualifying was close enough but I think there is always something to learn. My race pace has been very good and my consistency in the race has been good, so if I get qualifying right I know that I can score some big points for the team and that’s the aim.

    Well you’re just behind your team-mate and he’s had a win. Can you be a winner as well?

    BS: I’m sure we can. We’ve seen a few weekends where we’ve seen someone has just suddenly jumped to the front and won the race and had a dominant weekend. If you get everything in the right window, with the way the cars work and the way the cars work then we are more than capable of having a good result.

    Kimi, we’ve been talking about you being a winner this season for quite a long time now, so what chances here? Do you compare this circuit with Valencia perhaps, you’re the lap record holder here as well?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: We’ll try. It’s not going to be easy. We have to see if we are in a better position than we have been in the last few races but it’s a different place than Valencia and we have to wait and see.

    What sort of circuit at you looking at, though. Is it the sort place that could favour you?

    KR: I don’t know. I haven’t been here with the team before. We don’t now. I think last year they had a very difficult time but then it’s a completely different story now. We will know much more tomorrow, usually it’s been pretty OK this kind of circuit, so hopefully that’s the case, but like I said the last two races haven’t been easy for us but that was at different layouts than here so you never know.

    You’re close to second in the championship now. Do you think you could win the championship without winning a race?

    KR: I don’t know. We’ll keep trying and try to score more points every race and hopefully improve. If we end up winning it will be great. But whoever has the most points at the end of the year deserves to win the championship. If that happens it’s a good thing for us, but if it comes with a win or without I don’t care.

    In terms of your comeback are you going to have another season in Formula One?

    KR: You never know. There are a lot of nice things to do other than Formula One. Right now we have options and we’ll see what happens.

    Q: Sebastian, obviously a winner here last year. Do you feel that the championship is just slipping away a little bit at the moment?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think that after the weekend in Belgium it looked much better, after last weekend in Monza it didn’t look as good, so I think things can change quickly, so I don’t see any reason why it should change now.

    Q: Do you feel the car is a little inconsistent in terms of circuit to circuit?

    SV: Not really. I think that if you look at all the races that we’ve had so far I think consistency is the most important thing and I think we always have a car that was good enough to finish in the top five. I think that’s pretty consistent, if you look at the championship so far. I think that’s what you need and that’s what you’ll need until the end of the year. Obviously the more points you score the better it is but surely we were not in a position to win every race this year but I think we had a good car and I don’t see why it should change in the next couple of races.

    Q: What about technical failures; are you still worried about that?

    SV: Obviously it’s not a nice thing to happen. It usually helps quite a lot if you are able to finish the race, to get some points so I’m confident it will improve but obviously two times this year we’ve had a problem with the alternator. We’re working hard on it. It’s a bit difficult because after the failure, you don’t know exactly what was wrong, otherwise we would have fixed it after the first time and it would not happen again a couple of months later. But I think we’ve got a couple of ideas and it should be better in the future.

    Q: Sergio, second in Monza, very good potential result in Spa as well, but two circuits that are very different to here. What are your feelings about this race?

    Sergio PEREZ: I definitely have a very strong feeling. As you say, it’s not similar to Spa or Monza but I think we should be quite good here. It’s very difficult to know what to expect but I think we can also be competitive here and this is our target, to fight for the podium again.

    Q: How important is the tyre strategy going to be here, because it was interesting to see your teammate doing a long stint last year at this circuit?

    SP: The thing is, it’s always very important, very crucial, the way you manage the tyres, the way you manage your strategy, so it will be quite crucial. I think it’s quite important here as well, because you do have some big tyre degradation, especially coming from overheating the rears so it will be important to manage the tyres and it will be crucial as well for the strategy.

    Q: So can that give you a good result?

    SP: I hope so. I hope we can be on the good side with the tyre degradation. We don’t have any guarantees, so we have to see how we are tomorrow in terms of car balance for the long runs.

    Q: We’ve been hearing various rumours about your future for many months now; can you tell us if approaches have been made by major teams to you, which teams?

    SP: As I say, in the position that I am, when I have a good result because I’m fighting for points and sometimes I’m able to get some good points so it’s always the time when the rumours start but then you have another race and there are no more rumours and they are chasing the driver who has a good race. In that respect, I’m not really worried. I know that I have a very strong car for the next seven races so I hope I can deliver very strong performances.

    Q: But have approaches been made?

    SP: No.

    Q: From major teams, no approaches?

    SP: No.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, you won eleven races last year; what is your opinion, is it possible to win the championship without winning a single Grand Prix?

    SV: I don’t know. It depends. I think it’s easier if you win a lot of races. But it’s not impossible. I don’t know if there has ever been someone… I think Keke (Rosberg) won one race (when he won the championship in 1982). It depends what the others do. I think that’s the most important… if you want to win without winning (a race).

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Sergio, just following on from the earlier question. Luca di Montezemolo has repeated his assertion that again, you lack experience to join Ferrari. Could I just get your thoughts on that first of all, and secondly, over the past week, you have been linked with the possibility of joining McLaren should Lewis leave. Could I just get your thoughts on that as well?

    SP: In respect of what Montezemolo said about experience, I fully respect his opinion. I have to know my position, probably, he means, to become a Ferrari driver you probably need more… I don’t know, because it’s only my second year in Formula One. I feel ready to do a good job, to be in a top team, to be able to fight for the title, for the championship, so in that  respect I feel ready but I fully respect his opinion.

    Regarding the McLaren rumour, as I said, there are so many rumours around. Before it was Ferrari, and now it’s McLaren. Always, when I have a good race, they put me in a different team. The most important thing is to keep doing a good job and try to maximise the car potential for the next races.

    Q: (Ubaid Parkar – F1 Pulse) Bruno, what do you have to do in the next few races to ensure that you secure your seat at Williams next year? Do you think you need a podium perhaps, or maybe a win?

    BS: I think the focus is to continue scoring points consistently. There’s no target for anything. The target for me has always been, since the beginning of the season, to qualify and do the best job I can in the races and I’m sure that, coming to the next few races, I had a pretty decent run last year in a few of them, and I think that with added experience, I can improve and do a good job. Of course every time I get in the car I aim to get a podium or a win, but this is not always possible and if we can do something like that then great news for me.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) For anyone really, no matter who; my taxi driver said yesterday that he thought it was going to rain on Sunday – local opinion – and I just wondered that assuming you’re not behind  a safety car and assuming that it is actually raining as distinct from damp, I just wondered what it might be like driving here under lights with falling rain at racing speeds, if anybody’s got any thoughts on that? It’s different from any other situation we’ve found ourselves in.

    BS: I reckon the glare from the lights on the spray from the car in front can be quite difficult to cope with but we’ve never had that situation before so it’s going to be a bit of a learning curve. We’ve driven in damp conditions (here) which is already fairly difficult on this track but with spray, I reckon it’s going to be a very big challenge and we’ll see if it’s going to be possible or not. Hopefully it’s going to be just like any other day in the wet.

    SV: Difficult to know, we’ve never driven in wet conditions here so we don’t know how it will be with the lights. I think no one ever really drove a Formula One car at night during the rain with lights. I think it will be very slippery, because this circuit is not very grippy. I think it was a little bit damp at the beginning of practice last year so yeah, it will be slippery.

    Q: (Tom Cary – Daily Telegraph) Sergio, given the rumour with McLaren, is there anything in your association with Ferrari that you think would not help you there, that could prevent such a move from happening?

    SG: No, not really. I have a nice connection to Ferrari through the Ferrari Academy, but I am just part of the Ferrari Academy, not part of the Ferrari team, so it doesn’t affect… As I said, still a long way to go in the season and I’m fully focused on the next races.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Kimi, you mentioned that there are plenty of nice things to do beyond Formula One if you weren’t racing next year. If we exclude trucks and rallying, I just wonder if you could give us some examples of nice things you could be doing?

    KR: I always said that I’m not desperate for Formula One and when I feel like doing something else I will. Now I’m enjoying it, I’m in a good team with nice people to work with. We’ll see what happens. There is a lot of different racing and doing just normal things in your life outside of Formula One. I will wait and see.

    Ends