Tag: FIA Press Conference

Silverstone, 7 July 2012:

DRIVERS who qualified in the top three and attended the FIA Press Conference 3 at the British Grand Prix are;

1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)

3 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes)

TV UNILATERAL

Fernando first pole since 2010, very difficult to get it right today, especially with that long delay in Q2. What was the secret though at the end?

Fernando ALONSO: No secret. I think it’s tricky conditions for everyone. You have to be calm in some difficult moments. In Q2, as you mentioned, we were at the red flag, in position 15 and 16, Felipe and me. It was not easy, so we went through Q2 and in Q3 difficult choice between extreme and intermediate tyres. We chose the intermediates and when we saw everyone planning on those tyres we more or less calmed down a little bit. And then we put a lap together, which is not easy. You make a little mistake here or there and to complete a lap without making a huge mistake is not easy in these conditions. Yeah, happy with pole position after nearly two years, for Ferrari that’s a long time and we’ll see. Tomorrow is the race and with these weather conditions the qualifying becomes one of the less important qualifyings of the year because everything will mix up after a few laps tomorrow maybe, but for visibility and things like that it’s always better to start at the front, so very happy.

Mark, a great duel between you and Fernando at the end there. You missed out on pole by five one hundredths of a second – it’s always good to compete against this guy [Alonso] yes?

Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it was a very tight session. Ultimately, you don’t know how you’re going, you’re completely focused on yourself, putting a lap together. As Fernando said it’s very tricky in sections around the lap. Obviously, in a session like this when you’ve got five or 10 seconds sometimes between one session to the next session obviously it’s a huge amount down t

o the driver to get comfortable in the conditions, also with the car. The guys did a great job. Yeah it was nip and tuck with Fernando for the pole. I think ultimately we put a pretty good lap together, our strategy in quali I was pretty happy with it, doing four laps… and race tomorrow.

Michael, another strong qualifying for you. You used to be known as the rain meister, how do you fancy your chances tomorrow in a wet British Grand Prix?

Michael SCHUMACHER: I think we look reasonably competitive in wet conditions – either on intermediate or heavy wet – so therefore rain is welcome tomorrow. It was a bit of an exciting session today, particularly Q2 where I had the wrong visor on, that didn’t have anti-fog. I didn’t have much visibility and found myself sideways in Becketts. That didn’t help either. But we recovered well in the delay and got back in our rhythm. Yeah, very happy to be third; good for the team; good for my boys, so thanks to all of the guys.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Fernando, first of all well done, is it a surprise or did you feel it was a lottery a little bit out there in the conditions?

FA: It’s always a surprise to be on pole position because you know that conditions in qualifying… it’s always difficult to beat some of the guys around and we maybe feel more confident in dry conditions. We did some tests today in FP3 and the car felt quite good in the high-speed corners and we were quite happy with the balance – but in wet conditions you never know. You need to be in the right place in the right moment, with the circuit in the best conditions possible when you do the lap and that lap has to be clean with not huge mistakes because a little bit here and there you always lose or you can improve a little bit because you never know exactly the conditions of the next corner when you arrive on a day like today. It can be a little bit drier than the lap before but we saw some drops of rain on the visors so it can be a little bit wetter so it’s a little bit of… gambling what would be the grip at the next corner. To put the lap together was the only thing we had to do today and when you find yourself in pole position, for sure it’s a little bit surprising but, yeah, good to battle like this.

It was nearly all over in the first part of Q2, wasn’t it – at one point you were facing the wall?

FA: Yes. I had a spin in Turn 13. It was a lot of aquaplaning there. We changed tyres, we went for the extreme tyres and there was a red flag. It was impossible to run, to be honest it was a good decision. And then also it was a good decision waiting for the time the circuit was in condition to run again. So, sometimes we criticise the decisions when we are not happy with them and today they were doing a really good job. The first priority is safety, the track was not in condition to continue qualifying and we wait the necessary time to do it and we’ve been at the limit for Q3, I think P9, so it was not easy. I had a Toro Rosso for two laps in front of me with no visibility, so the Q2 lap was a little bit like a blind lap: you do whatever time the Toro Rosso will do – more or less.

How big a moment was it on the grass when you went off in Q2? You got a round of applause in the press room for sorting it out…

FA: It was very big and you are not in control of the car. You need a bit of luck and we were lucky today. With that moment in Q2, with all the decisions that we make for the tyres that it was the right one – and lucky also that we put the lap together and lucky as well in the distance with Mark because there were some milliseconds. It can be first and second in a very easy way and today it was everything perfect for us. But the race is tomorrow, not today.

Mark, for you pole last year and you won in 2010, you’ve been on the podium for the last three years. A good circuit for you? You seem to have adapted very well to the British weather…

MW: It’s been a good track for me since 1995 when I won my first Formula Ford race here – so it goes back quite a while – don’t want to show my age too much! But yeah, it’s a good track, it’s challenging for the drivers and it’s nice to let the car breathe a little bit in some of the quick stuff. Obviously this morning it was nice to feel the car in dry conditions, obviously we didn’t get that in quali – and as Fernando’s touched on, it was a very tricky session for us when the track’s moving around by five, six seconds a go in terms of conditions. Each session is tricky for us. But the guys made all the right decisions. There were a few calls from the cockpit as well to pull things together and ultimately I think we got the maximum out of what we could have done today. As Fernando says, it’s a long lap to put together; there are rivers, you can improve here and there but also if you try to push a bit harder you can have no corners on the car. So it’s better to try to finish the lap and get yourself up there. Risk management was very important today. I’m very happy with my lap and ultimately we’re in a good position to start the race tomorrow. Visibility will be important if it’s wet, and go from there.

Michael, pole in 2001 of course and three wins here, how difficult was it to get going again after that hour delay? 60 minutes of delay…

MS: I guess first of all we should give applause to all the fans who remained with us in all these conditions. That’s been pretty special and big applause to them. For us, in the position that some cars had been, you would probably have wished just to finish qualifying there. The ones that would have been out, Fernando and myself, we were happy to get this opportunity under drivable conditions because Q2, when it started, almost from the beginning it was already on the limit, if not slightly over the limit, and therefore thanks to the FIA to take the right decision and abort it and put it into a spot that was probably the only one – and a perfect one – that was available today. For us to get going, it’s not that big a deal. It’s worse hanging around and waiting. It’s more tiring than driving and sitting in the car and being in action, that’s pretty straightforward to me.

How difficult was the tyre choice?

MS: I think it was only initially difficult to decide but when you give it a second and watch what others do then it becomes pretty straightforward. By the end it was clear the inter was the tyre to be on. Ideally you would have had more than one lap – because it was the last lap that counted and obviously you’re not allowed to make a mistake so you always somewhere leave some margin, that another lap for sure you could recover and do a much better job. Nevertheless, to then finish third was good for us. I’m pleased with this, it’s a good position to start the race from. It’s a good line and, depending on the condition we have tomorrow, maybe I’m on the lucky side because it might be the slightly drier line compared to the inner side that’s a little bit wet. We’ll find out tomorrow if that’s the case or not the case – but that expedition will be very much appreciated to me.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Michael, some of your most memorable wins have been in the wet. This circuit has a reputation for holding water. It did take a very long time to drain. Do you have any criticisms either of that or of the fact that the circuit is unpredictable from place to place as you go along, perhaps less predictable where you’ve won in the wet before?

MS: First of all, a compliment to all the marshals, they managed to get the track in pretty good shape with all the sweeping and drying up. There was almost no standing water when we went back out again. That was a good job, so in case of heavy rain tomorrow, I hope they’re going to be ready, in between the safety car or whatever they have to decide. But I think on some circuits they have that situation and they did the best from what was available today.

Q: (Manuel Franco – AS) Fernando, you said in Spanish that this pole is dedicated to someone special, is it for Maria de Villota?

FA: Yes, obviously she’s having some difficult moments, her family as well and I think all of us, this weekend, we are all racing with a little bit of sadness about the news at the beginning of the week from Marussia and from her. Anything we do this weekend hopefully will bring strength to her and her family, and we wish her a very good recovery.

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1Life) Fernando, first place in qualifying in the rain; was this difficult or not very difficult for you?

FA: Yes, yes, it is very difficult, always very difficult to be on pole position, but on days like today, it’s difficult for everyone. I think from pole position to 24^th, we had a very difficult time in the car, because, as I said, you don’t know how the grip will be in the next corner. We had a lot of rivers on the track, especially in Q2 and it’s not just to find the last tenth or half a tenth of a second; just to complete the lap is difficult. Very stressful qualifying, but it’s the same for everybody and today we have been lucky, as I said.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, for tomorrow, will it be difficult for you on intermediate tyres and what are you afraid of in the race?

FA: Well, I think the car should also be competitive on extreme wet tyres, but as I said, in Q2 I did a lap exactly the same as a Toro Rosso whatever the lap. I started the lap one second behind him and I finished the lap around 0.8s behind him, and I was in and he was out, for virtually nothing. So I think with normal visibility, I think we should also be competitive with the extremes. For sure ideally we would like a dry race because you maximise the pole position a little bit and you have a bit of free air, especially in the first stint if you do a good start. If it’s wet or changeable conditions as we’ve the whole weekend, grid positions are not really important, because on lap eight it could start raining or drying up or whatever and someone at the back may have nothing to lose and could maybe change tyres or whatever and finds himself first or second. It’s more difficult but let’s see. I think we felt competitive on the dry, inters and wet so we will see tomorrow what we can do.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) How do you prepare yourself for a race which could be very wet? Is there a way of thinking differently, or driving differently for the whole of a wet race?

MW: Obviously the concentration is a little bit different to a dry Grand Prix, so you’ve got to have that in mind. Some of the straights here are not very straightforward in terms of… like out of turn seven, going through there with compromised visibility, standing water, so dry Grands Prix still obviously require immense concentration and focus to put everything together but in the wet you have more balls in the air and you need to be ready for that and also be flexible and focused and I said before, controlled aggression and stay composed. You know that the grass doesn’t have much grip so best stay away from that if you can and get to the flag.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, we saw you take the P9 position in Q2 when there were yellow flags for Grosjean. Could you explain what happened at that moment, if you feel that you’re safe(from incurring any penalty)?

FA: Yes. I didn’t set a green sector in that particular lap with the yellow. I backed off in the area where they were taking away the car, so I don’t have any worries.

Q: I’ve been asked to ask you is if any of you will be following Wimbledon after the race tomorrow?

FA: No.

MW: Absolutely. Federer for seven, honestly it’s a great final. Whoever wins it’s a great story. Obviously for Andy, first Grand Slam, first Wimbledon and for Roger, obviously he’s a phenomenal sportsman, to match Pistol Pete (Sampras) on seven. He’s a real inspiration, Federer. He would be good to watch.

MS: What time is it? I would like to watch it if I have time, but I would prefer not to have time!

Q: (Marco dell’Ignocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Could you not imagine that if the weather conditions and track conditions were similar tomorrow to today, would you not fear a very boring race behind the safety car?

MS: In that case we’re going to watch Federer and Murray!

FA: Hopefully not, not only for us, I think, but for the fans. As Michael said, they’ve been amazing all weekend with these weather conditions and they deserve a normal race tomorrow, so even if it’s wet, not stopping the race or nothing like that, hopefully.

MW: Charlie (Whiting, race director) has learned a lot in the last few years and has done a very good job in certain conditions, so he know what wet tyres are capable of, the extreme, also factor in the visibility so they are the two main things: standing water and visibility. If they are under control then we race, if they’re not then we don’t. After that, we work through the tyres and the race is OK. Tomorrow is obviously a big day for Charlie tomorrow to communicate with us like he does a good job over the last few years, no problems.

Q: (Silva Arias – Argentina) Fernando, it’s very nice for you as well to get pole position after two years, as you said before. How important is it for your team as well and for your confidence and everything?

FA: Yeah, yeah, definitely very important. It’s nice to be on pole position. We know that the conditions were not normal. They were very tricky so we are still aiming for pole position one day on a sunny day and no factors around which will prove the level of competitiveness that the car can have and that’s what we want, but until that point arrives, today’s pole position is very welcome and as I said, it’s more for the history of Ferrari etc. Two years is a long time.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Michael, you were looking strong yesterday in the wet today as well. This morning, at least from the lap time it was a different picture. Is it just an impression that the Mercedes is better in the wet and if so why?

MS: The question is how much fuel was in the cars this morning, so I think it is a hypopthetical situation, to judge what you have seen in qualifying with what you have seen this morning.

Ends

DRIVERS – Vitaly PETROV (Caterham), Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus), Bruno SENNA (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Paul DI RESTA (Force India).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Vitaly, your thoughts on the updates that the team brought to Valencia, where you ran very competitively, and I think you have more here as well.

Vitaly PETROV: Actually we bring not so many updates to Valencia, just front wing and, slightly, bodywork. But here, yes, we bring new back bodywork, new exhaust, some front wings and probably the rear wing, so we have quite a big update here.

Where do you think that can bring you? Do you have any idea? Can you be in the points? That, obviously, has to be the major aim.

VP: First of all we need to see how these upgrades will work. This weekend we know the weather will be not fantastic it. It’s a disappointment. Also our straight-line test, we didn’t do much work because of heavy rain. But you know all the 24 cars are quite close to each other and quite competitive, so if we gain something definitely we will be, maybe, more competitive than in the last race. So I hope these upgrades will give us some good feedback and we can fight with the cars in front.

Romain, first of all, congratulations on you marriage, week before last I think. In Valencia, you led the grand prix. People forget sometimes that you haven’t been a front runner for long, that you haven’t done that many grands prix. How exciting was that? And what did you learn from leading the race?

Romain GROSJEAN: Well, same position as Valencia, behind Fernando. It was a very good weekend, a very good grand prix. It’s nice to be able to fight for the front with Lewis, Fernando with Sebastian Vettel, all the big guys. We have a car, which is very competitive, and the factory is doing a fantastic job. It’s good to be here, good to be able to get a lot of experience by fighting with the big teams and the top drivers and hopefully at the next one we get a little bit more luck and I can got to first place.

Do you feel you have made a lot of progress this year? Do you feel you have matured almost?

RG: I think you progress every time you’re in the car. It’s difficult with no testing to improve yourself so every race weekend you learn something new, in terms of set-up, in terms of driving, in terms of tyre management or whatever, and for sure when you fight at the front you learn even more than when you are at the back.

Bruno, in a couple of weeks’ time you’re going to be picking up the Trofeo Bandini. What does it mean to you to have won that trophy?

Bruno SENNA: It’s very special. You know that Lewis has taken it before, Seb and Nico. So there are quite a few drivers that are successful now have won this in the past, so it’s very encouraging for me that they see potential in me – especially from last year as that was such a tough situation to be in. It’s going to be a special event and I’m looking forward to being there.

We can see that the Williams car this year has performance. But are you happy with it? Are there any issues you have with the car?

BS: Of course we’re happy with it. It’s difficult for a team to make such a leap from a difficult season [last year] as Williams has done. So it’s very encouraging for us to have a car that is consistently in the points. On the other hand we always want more. We always want the car to be faster and faster, so we keep pushing the team and the team keeps pushing us to improve. We are always trying to find the magic button to make the car go faster than the other ones.

Lewis, we saw in Valencia that Red Bull seem to be really quick, I don’t think there’s any disputing that, but have McLaren got an answer to that, because we see that they’re bringing update to this race?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, we definitely have some upgrades, so I’m really, really excited to see how they behave on the car and if they actually deliver what we think they’re going to deliver. But whether or not… I don’t know if it’s as big as what they brought at the last race, but who knows. I think our car generally goes a little bit better on high-speed circuits than it does at low-speed circuits, so fingers crossed it will be a little bit stronger this weekend.

You’ve had so many instances where you’ve been so close to scoring big points this season and Valencia to some extent was the same again. Are you still changing your attitude and working towards maximising on those sorts of race?

LH: I haven’t changed anything from the beginning of the season – everything’s still the same. Things don’t always go according to plan, but that’s life. I’m excited now that we have another race and that we have so many races ahead of us and that we still have plenty of opportunities to continue fighting for this championship and that’s what racing is all about.

Fernando, Spain have had a rollercoaster of various things: Nadal going out of Wimbledon, you winning in Valencia, Spain winning the European Championships – how has that effected you, or does it not affect you at all?

Fernando ALONSO: It’s not affecting. You watch TV. Obviously I prefer Nadal wins and the Spain football team wins but it’s not changing your preparation, so your approach for the next race. You are concentrated in your job, speaking with the team, doing some simulator work. You go to bed a little bit more happy or sad but nothing changes.

You were a winner here last year, at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, won the last grand prix at Valencia as well – but two very different circuits I would have thought. How do you see your changes this weekend?

FA: Looking at the characteristics of the circuit, Silverstone should be a little bit better for us and suit our car characteristics a little bit better. As we saw at the beginning of the year in the high-speed corners and also as we saw in Mugello, that the car was performing quite well. Hopefully we see a good Ferrari here this weekend, with me and Felipe. And we see, I think, that it also all depends on the weather. We know that here anything can happen, or more rain than dry at times we will have, looking at the forecast, so we need to be ready for all: we need to be prepared for any track conditions at any time and try to have a smooth qualifying – and that will not be easy when the weather is changing, so you need to be in the right moment on the track to do the lap. And then the race, you know, straight to score as many points as possible – as I said, hopefully the car is performing well here.

Paul, Valencia obviously not such a good qualifying but a reasonable race, I don’t know how you would have looked at that. Really, can you improve on that?

Paul di RESTA: I think Valencia was by far our strongest performance as a team. You have to be relatively confident that hopefully you can carry that into this weekend. We had the potential to be much higher up in qualifying; a mistake in Q3 by me cost that. But we set ourselves quite a risky target in the race and achieved a one-stop strategy, the only car that did that. Obviously the safety car compromised us a lot, so not ideal, but the positive side is that we picked up points. And really that’s key when you’re a midfield team: to capitalise on those small points that are out there to get.

When you do a one-stop strategy like that, what is it like for the driver? Are you holding yourself back all the time, is it frustrating?

PdR: I won’t go into the details of it but it is certainly a different approach. It starts quite early on in the weekend with what your strategy guys come up with and obviously your setup drives you forward that way but I think our car performed well on low and high fuel in Valencia. It was just risky whether that worked. In hindsight, maybe we’d do the race a bit different if we went back – but certainly to come away with a double points finish for the team, we can be very happy. We both ended up doing different things.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Romain Grosjean, you prefer heat, just like your car, what do you expect this weekend with the rain?

RG: Well, we have to see. This track puts a lot of energy into the tyres so the heat shouldn’t be a problem as it was in Canada, for example, but we have to see if it’s raining or if it’s dry – as Fernando says, take the best chance to get on track at the right time and try to analyse the weather forecast. It shouldn’t be as bad as it has been on the cold conditions.

Q: (Simon Cass – Daily Mail) Question for Fernando and for Lewis, you’ve been extremely successful, both of you, in wet races over the last few years: between you I think you’ve won, could be half. Just tell me why you think that is, why you think you’re so successful when conditions are like that and what extra demands it brings to a driver?

FA: I don’t know really. I think it’s a combination of factors, one will be for sure how competitive is your car. I think either Lewis or me, we’ve been normally lucky to drive in our career good cars and winning cars, so in dry and wet conditions, normally it’s a help, for sure. And then I think it’s the experience that you have and how many wet races you do. Probably with Lewis, racing here in the early categories it rains a lot, and it rains a lot in my region, in Spain. It normally rains a lot of the time, so same also with the experience. The first races I did in Formula One in wet conditions, ten years, eleven years ago, I make a lot of mistakes that now I try to avoid. So the more races you do, the better you feel.

LH: I don’t really have anything else to add to that. I think it’s just a mixture of things coming together on those races. I think we’ve been very fortunate, I would say, to drive for good teams and have good cars in those circumstances.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, just following on from that, one of your best memories in Formula One, of course, was winning here in 2008. What was the secret to success that day because everybody else was spinning off but you won that race by over a minute?

LH: I really still don’t know until today why we were so quick that weekend and didn’t really have any problems at all during the race. I think I had one moment when I went straight on at Abbey, maybe, but otherwise it was quite a smooth race, and I really still don’t know, today, why it all came together, but it was obviously a combination of what I was just commenting on: the tyres, the good pit stops, the good call strategies and maximising the grip on a track which I’d learned for a few years before I’d even got to know in Formula One, where that grip was and I was able to put it into play.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) I think, with the exception of one man, all five of you have lived in the UK at some point in your career. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, what it’s like for a young ambitious driver growing up in the UK?

BS: Very wet.

PdiR: I think it is where home is. Obviously Lewis and I are from this country, it wasn’t wet in Scotland, I don’t think. I suppose there’s no place like it. It’s where your family is. I suppose memories: when you’re a child, travelling all over the UK, taking part in many go-kart races. I wouldn’t change it, I don’t see why I should. It’s got me to where I am at the moment.

LH: Generally, I think us Brits should be pretty good in the wet. I think a lot of my success in the wet has come down to a lot of the weather we have here. A lot of my races up in Scotland – Larkhall, Rowrah, all over the country – all the experiences I have had in karting, they have all contributed to the success that I have nowadays, so I’m quite grateful for the changeable conditions throughout my career and also grateful for good weather nowadays.

VP: I agree with what they said.

RG: Never lived here.

FA: My English is not very good, but in 2001 it was zero English. It was not an easy time. The supermarket was not easy.

Q: (Adam Scriven – Racing Post) Fernando, after a difficult winter for the team, you must be delighted with the season so far. How much better is the car now than it was then, and how much more improvement do you think there is to come?

FA: Yeah, we are definitely quite happy with the situation now in terms of points, at least, because in terms of performance we know that there are still a few cars quicker than our car, so we are still not completely happy but the job that the team has done over the last three or four months has been amazing, recovering the maybe 1.5s or something like that that we were off the pace in Australia. So this is good news, not only for this championship or for this moment, but also for the near future of the team, because we faced some difficult times with the wind tunnel correlation etc which was not the best, also for the next projects. Now, definitely, we are in a good direction. There is still a lot to come from the team in the next couple of races and in the next couple of months, in terms of performance in the car, so hopefully they work as they are working now.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere Della Sera) Fernando, what is the value of the advantage that you have in the championship?

FA: I think that regarding the points, it’s for sure not a situation that maybe we were expecting because leading the championship is good news for us, but we are also very honest with ourselves and as I said, now there are a few cars that are quicker than us at the moment and we need to close that gap in the next couple of races if we want to fight for the championship. If not, we know that sooner or later they will be in front, if we don’t work better than the others. We are in race eight or nine of twenty, so at the moment championship positions or points are important but it’s not our main priority. As I said, first thing is to improve the car.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Paul, what is the situation with your manager now, because I see reports about Lewis’s Dad no longer working with you. Is that correct?

PdiR: I think everything’s been said that has to be said. I confirm that we’re not working together. I think it’s been reported that we’re no longer working together, so that is the matter at the moment.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Romain, your first period in Formula One, a couple of years ago, didn’t go too well, and only a few drivers actually get a second chance at Formula One but you did and now you’re a strong candidate to become yet another winner this year. My question is: looking back, was it a mistake to come into Formula One at that time and take the risk of failing or did it help you this second time around?

RG: Let’s turn it a different way: can you say no one gets a chance in Formula One. The answer is no so it was not a mistake, it was as it was and it was a good experience being with Fernando in the team, it taught me a lot and all the experience I got in 2009 is now in my pocket. I think then it was a little bit of a difficult time but I’m back today, very happy to be and very proud to be part of Lotus and everything I’ve learned is very important today.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul,  I appreciate you don’t want to talk about the reasons behind your split with Anthony but can you at least explain what it means to you going forward now, whether you’re looking at other options: a new manager and in particular bearing in mind that this is the time of year when a driver will look towards negotiating a new contract  with other teams etc? How is that going to affect you now without a manager?

PdiR: At the moment I’m just fully focused on my racing. At the end of the day, it’s the results that count for me and what’s going to drive me forward. We’ve had a good year up until now. We need to continue that progress. The focus this weekend is to have a good race. It’s obviously a big weekend for me to have a lot of friends and family around, a lot of support. Being one of the three Brits, I got a feeling for what it is like to have a country behind you at this venue, and the atmosphere is electric. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them and certainly encourage them to get out in their rain jackets because it looks like they’re going to get wet.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN ) Romain, what are the latest updates you and the team have received about the engine failure (in Valencia) and also how does that affect the sense of reliability, because you had a big loss, you and Vettel, you were fighting relevant things like winning a race? And also, do you already know if the car had something to do with it, other parts of the car maybe, the way the car works? What is the news on that?

RG: Well, I think the best person to explain that will be the engineer at Renault Sport F1 but no, we have been trying to analyse what has happened. There are a few ideas on things that have been changed since the last race and hopefully it was a one shot experience that we are not going to have again. But on the other hand, it’s the first time that we’ve had a reliability issue. It was a ‘stupid’ issue, not a big deal, so it should be sorted out by now, and we shouldn’t have any more.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain, you said that you were fighting with big guys, with three World Champions. How far are you from them, what are you missing, what don’t you have to be a winner?

RG: At least one World Championship. The more you race, the more you have experience. It’s only my first complete season. I’m in a good team so I’m lucky to have a good car. I’m very pleased to fight at the front but in terms of results, I’m missing at least one World Championship.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Bit of a sensitive question but to anyone who would like to answer: obviously we had the accident suffered by Maria de Villota on Tuesday, I’m sure you’re all aware of that. Just your thoughts on that, first of all, if anyone would like to pass on any thoughts and secondly, obviously it was a straightline aero test. I’m sure you’ve all probably done that at some time in the past. Is there anything that can be learned from what Maria went through, going forward in terms of safety and that kind of thing?

FA: Obviously we are very worried for this situation because we are still waiting for some more news. We only know what you all know and there are still some difficult days until the situation is completely clear. The operation has passed completely etc. Sad days, for sure, completely shock when you hear the news and how what happened is possible. Obviously we don’t know all the information it’s difficult to talk about the reasons etc until we know the official version but at the moment, it’s so difficult to imagine how this can happen.

LH: I don’t know her personally, but when I read about it I was absolutely devastated for her and for her family. I think it’s very very tragic and myself and my team, we send on our warmest wishes her way and hope that she has a speedy recovery, hope that things get better.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) On a lighter note, when I look through the preview press releases, a lot of the drivers spoke about the fans in the UK being very knowledgeable. I was wondering if any of you can think of any interaction you’ve had with a fan here that made you really step back and think ‘wow, this person really  knows what they’re talking about’?

PdiR: I think something that is quite unique here is that a lot of the Formula One teams are based around this part of the country and based in Britain, the majority of them, and obviously you get a lot of factory staff, people that are involved in the manufacturing side, smaller companies that are involved, and it’s nice to see the support and see that people are as dedicated to Formula One as they can be. It’s a shame that obviously they can’t get a bit closer to see the design work that they do but the support is well-respected by us.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN) Bruno, we heard that Williams are bringing a lot of updates. Pastor was saying earlier that he feels a lot of pressure because it’s Williams’s home race and there are the updates, and a lot of expectation also because he has already won a Grand Prix, so I wonder how you feel about it, and also if you could explain exactly what you’re bringing here, because you’ve been testing it since Mugello, if I’m right?

BS: I feel really happy that we’re bring updates because everybody else is also moving forward. We have a few bits and pieces. We have wings and pieces of the bodywork that will be different, so it’s always hard to quantify how much that will improve the car, but every little helps as we’ve seen in Barcelona when Pastor won. There was a bit of an update there. So, for sure, it’s going to be the case of trying to maximise the package but again, as Paul said before, the weather is very changeable here and that can mean everything or it can mean nothing. But for sure, it’s the team’s home race, we want to do well, it would be great to finish with both cars in good points-scoring positions. I think that listening to everybody here, everybody is very optimistic about their chances on this track because everybody seems to think that their cars should be well suited to this type of track so I guess we’re going to see another tough weekend, very close battles. Hopefully we can score some good points from there. There is always pressure on a driver, pressure is there every single time we’re in the car.

Ends

FIA Post-race Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

3 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes)

TV UNILATERAL

Three former Ferrari world champions on the podium but Fernando this is a pretty good weekend to be a Spanish sportsman called Alonso. A fabulous victory for yourself.

Fernando ALONSO: Yeah. It’s difficult to express in words what is the feeling now. Winning a home grand prix is something unique – a very special feeling. I had the opportunity to do this in Barcelona in 2006 with Renault and I still remember that day perfectly. And now I did the same here in Valencia, with this special team, Ferrari, with all the grandstand full of red colour and Spanish flags. Here now, with the Euro football championship also, there is a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us. Feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions. Nothing maybe compares to this one.

You joined in the celebrations a little early Fernando. Why did you stop your car, just to take part in the party?

FA: No, no. We had a problem with the car and we stopped it. It was the right place maybe because we had two grandstands there. It took a little bit of time for the medical car to arrive and we had eight or 10 minutes of all the people saying things about me, saying congratulations. They want me to jump. You know, fun and games and we enjoy a little bit those minutes.

Kimi, it’s a third podium position of the season for you. Was a victory possible for you today or were the tyres just not there at the end?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: I think everybody had quite old tyres at that point. I just didn’t have enough tyres. I had enough tyres to get past Hamilton on I think it was the second-last or third-last lap. We didn’t really have the speed to challenge for the win. I think on the start already I got a good start but got blocked by Maldonado in the first right-hander and lost quite a few places because of that. I was a bit behind already at that point. We made a good recovery from that position. I had quite a hard fight with people and overtaking and then second place. It’s OK of course, but not what we wanted.

Michael, they say you can’t overtake on this track but your saw your fair share today. Welcome back to the podium. At what stage did you think this podium was a possibility?

Michael SCHUMACHER: I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race. It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw Webber’s pit board and close to the end it showed him eighth and seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that one. And then boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’. I can’t believe that! It’s something I didn’t really expect. You sort of lose count, because I was pretty busy in the last stages of the race, plus Maldonado and Hamilton had their issue. Probably normally one minus one would give us the three but I lose count at that stage.

It’s moments like these that brought you back to the sport I’m sure.

MS: Yeah, it’s those moments that definitely you enjoy deeply. It’s just a wonderful feeling to back after such a long time. We were a couple of times close to it. It happened in a pretty spectacular way on a track where it is difficult to pass but due to various strategies and differences on track it was pretty exciting and that’s obviously the best way, if you manage the way I did today to jump the podium unexpectedly makes you extra happy.

Finally, back to you Fernando. You described this as your best victory. After the disappointment of qualifying to the euphoria or today. How do you explain that, or is it just Formula One in 2012?

FA: That’s Formula One. That’s the best thing we can say. It’s unpredictable. Good results. Still a sport. Sport is about that. Sport is about the ups and downs. Yesterday, we had a tough moment. We were said not being in Q3. But you can never give up because anything can happen in sport in general and maybe more in Formula One. There are many factors inside, there are the cars, brakes, engines – anything can have a failure in the race. There are a lot of things we need to take care: the strategies, the start, the overtaking, manoeuvres. When you put all of these in one thing you have a Formula One grand prix. Today, we had an amazing race, amazing start, some good fights, I think I remember six or seven overtakings where it was very close, we touched each other. I touched Grosjean in the restart. All of those little moments can go on the wrong side and you finish the race in the wall, or you can be the winner at the end. And today, we had all the good factors with us and the luck and we have to enjoy this.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Fernando, well done. Tell us about the pleasure of winning here at home in Spain.

FA: I don’t know what to say really. It’s an amazing feeling. As I said in the other press conference I still can remember Barcelona in 2006, now, so years after the win. So probably I will have better and better memories of today with time. Right now, it’s just too many things on my feelings and too many thanks to give to all the team, all the fans, all the support that I felt all weekend. Especially yesterday after the qualifying, you never think that you can do a good result or that you can fight for the podium or something like that. When you find yourself third in the race after the safety car, I said: ‘hopefully there is the chequered flag now and I enjoy this podium celebration.’ Two laps later I overtake Grosjean on the restart and you think again ‘hopefully the race finishes now’. Then Vettel stopped and it was a very long race until the end and, yeah, I enjoyed so much this moment. But as I said, difficult to out in words what I’m feeling.

Were you worried that the tyres were going to drop off at the end just as they did in Canada?

FA: No, they did. I was not worried. They did. They did, about eight laps from the end. I said to the team ‘the tyres are finished, we need to do something’. They said: ‘wait one more sector because they are not quicker than you at this moment’. The next sector they were the same as me. So they said: ‘wait one more lap to see how much quicker they are’ and the next lap they were the same time as us. Wait another lap and wait another and then it was three laps from the end and they were in the same lap times and we went until the end. But the tyres were as finished as in Canada but it was for everybody this time.

You mentioned a problem with the car at the end. Was that something that was also affecting the closing laps?

FA: No, I don’t think so. The car felt OK and then on the in-lap I had an emergency call to stop the car. So it was feeling OK.

So do you not know what was wrong with the car?

FA: No, I had too many things to enjoy in that moment to ask what happened in the car.

Kimi, quite a busy race for you too, what with battles with Maldonado and Hamilton.

KR: Yeah, I got a pretty good start but then in the first right-hander, the little kink, I got blocked by Maldonado so I had to back off. I lost quite a few places there, so at that point onwards it was a case of trying to catch up and try to get past people. I managed to pass some, but it was difficult to pass today. I got sight of Maldonado a few times but he pushed me wide. I tried and tried and then in the end I managed to get past some people and after the safety car I managed to get past people also. On the restart, I lost a place to Hamilton. I just got too much wheelspin out of the corner. It was quite a busy race actually. Then, when I was in the third place, a few cars retired and I thought I would try to save the tyres a bit and try to get Hamilton at some point. I saw him sliding a bit. So I think it was the second-last lap or something but I got him in the end. OK the result second after all things we went through in the race but of course you’re never happy until you win. And for the team, bad luck. It would have been much nicer to have both cars on the podium.

And your tyres. Were they shot at the end?

KR: Yeah, the rear tyres were pretty bad. Especially in the middle of the circuit. There were three or four corners that were really bad. The rest was not so bad. I think everybody had similar issues.

Michael those last few laps – you took on new tyres 16 laps from the end – must have been amazing, especially with yellow flags and all sorts of things going on. What was it like? Tell us.

MS: Yeah. Certainly I wasn’t aware I was going in the direction of a podium. Even crossing the line I wasn’t aware at that stage. But, being pretty heavily involved for most of the race in some kind of battling and then having Webber all the time on my tail and needing to fight forward but needing to pay attention to the back, that was very exciting. But that’s what I’m here for: to be excited and those guys got me excited, no doubt. And hearing finally the message P3 – yeah, that’s a sweet finish to an unexpected end.

Particularly because you and Nico were outside the points. He finished about sixth, picking up about four places in the last few laps. Extraordinary race for you guys.

MS: Yeah, we obviously had a late decision converting from a one-stop to a two-stop strategy, which meant we had good tyres towards the end of the race, when other people either did a one or an early two-stop strategy and therefore struggled by the end because they had no tyres left.

And all those points must be very welcome.

MS: Yeah, I guess it has changed my count a little bit, from the two points I had so far. They’re more than welcome.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, an amazing victory but yesterday you sort of predicted what could happen today, when asked if you were sad or angry, you said ‘well, the result is no good, there are two people who are challenging me for the leadership. Vettel and Hamilton are in front but we will have to wait until tomorrow.’ You never know what can happen, and that happened.

FA: Yeah, it was another example of Fridays and Saturdays in Formula One, which are OK, are fun, are good to make some grid order in terms of  performance of the car and it’s good to check where you are exactly, but at the end of the day, Friday practice is one thing, when we all normally test different parts of the car, and then Saturday is OK, it’s much better and easier to start on the first rows of the grid, for sure, to make a clean race, but until the chequered flag, anything can happen and until today at two o’ clock we had quite a bad weekend and now we have had a very good weekend. It’s something that we need to remember, always, that until the last lap in the race, we need to be positive and to trust in ourselves.

Q: (Jaime Rodriguez– El Mundo) Fernando, the last time that we saw you cry was in Abu Dhabi 2010. Now you have been crying again. Can you explain the atmosphere and the team’s hard work over the past month?

FA: No, it was more for my own feelings and the people in the grandstands. I know it’s not the best time in Spain at the moment, with the crisis and all the problems that people have. To come to a Grand Prix you have to make something extra to come here, so there are families who have made long trips to come here, they sleep in the car or in a caravan or whatever, they try to enjoy the race and yesterday… it’s not that you feel sad, we didn’t deliver what they were probably expecting, so today I think we paid back a little bit – only a little bit – the support that they gave us and all the problems that they are facing, all the  worries that the Spanish people are facing at this time, together with the football team – yesterday we saw all the flags in the windows and on the street etc so there is some kind of pride in being Spanish right now with the sport: with Nadal, with the Spanish football team etc and I felt that I needed to do something and today is a very emotional day.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, now you obviously believe in this title because of two impressive victories and some luck this year which you haven’t had in other years. Do you believe in this title?

FA: I think we always need to be cautious and we always need to be honest with ourselves first and with our supporters, saying that we will fight, will work day and night to be competitive and to fight for the title which is the ultimate goal for Ferrari. Any championship in which we participate, the championship should be the target, regarding the history and the level of the team. But yesterday we were P11 and P13 so we need to work. It’s true that we believe and we will never give up, we will have confidence in ourselves and we will arrive with optimism at every Grand Prix we go to, but at the same time, apart from winning today or finishing sixth today, we know that we are not in the position that we want to be and there are a few cars quicker than us and we cannot be blind to that. We need to work.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Il Corriere Della Sera) Michael, you were back on the podium, the first since you came back with Mercedes. Is the feeling what you imagined or is it something different now?

MS: I don’t know what I mentioned or didn’t mention but the point is that it is a beautiful feeling, not only being on the podium but the way it has happened. It was not at all expected. All weekend, I predicted this to be a difficult one for us and it started to be difficult yesterday in qualifying, mainly because of my own mistakes and to recover from where we are, getting to third position is just awesome. The team and myself have been criticised here and there, particularly lately, and this is the best way to answer criticism, to go back and deliver as we did today, and therefore I’m proud, thankful and very excited.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Michael, you said you will think about your future during the summer. Summer is beginning and you begin the summer with a podium. Does it change something for next year?

MS: I don’t think I ever said any kind of time, neither did I say summer and if you may apologise, I have no further news on that matter, so give me the time that I need and we will see.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Michael, what did you feel when you were jumping on the podium and you saw two guys who were at Ferrari after you and you saw Stella (Andrea Stella, Alonso’s race engineer who represented Ferrari on the podium) who was one of the…

MS: Yeah, well that’s what we were joking about. Andrea is Fernando’s engineer and used to be our engineer in the past and in a way it’s the order. The current driver he works for is first, the second last was Kimi and I was the third last. It’s a funny coincidence and it’s great to see him up there. He’s been doing a great job. I still remember those days and I’m happy for Fernando and the team to have achieved what they did today here and particularly the words that Fernando just said, I think everybody can feel with him and I’m just happy for them.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) The second question was about the difference between now and in the past. You criticised the tyres a little bit on Saturday, saying ‘we can’t exploit our potential.’ Do you feel that your skill is penalised?

MS: Forgive me if we only think about the positive aspects of what happened today.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando it was a complicated race, also for you coming from P11 to P1. When you look back at it, was there one key moment, was there one point where you can say ‘if I hadn’t done that, I would not have won this Grand Prix’?

FA: I think there are four or five moments in that race which changed our result. Probably the start and the first lap were very aggressive, nearly touched in the first corner, turn four I think I overtook two cars braking on the outside. That, for sure, maybe changed because we had Button… we were fighting in turn one, and then Button was like P14 or something like that. If you finish in his position, maybe the race is more difficult so we were lucky at that moment. We were lucky in some of the overtaking, I think, with Maldonado and with Webber and Michael as well, at the moment we went out of the pits. For sure, Grosjean overtaking me was very risky at the restart. We touched in the first two corners. After we touched each other I felt that the car was not very good. When you have a little contact with someone, for whatever reason you feel that the car is wrong for the next two corners, because you are so worried that something happened and that maybe you convince yourself that something has happened. But then one lap later the times were OK and the car was good. Those were the key moments of the race, plus the last stint, as I said, the tyres were finished so we had to control the tyre wear plus the pressure from Grosjean, the pressure from Hamilton, with Kimi at the end – not a single lap to relax, in a way.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, did the team tell you that Hamilton had an incident with Maldonado?

FA: They told me yellow flags in turn 12. There was a car on the outside and then I saw it was a McLaren.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Kimi, is it realistic to believe that if you had overtaken Hamilton before that you could attack Alonso?

KR: I would have overtaken if I could. I was not waiting for the last or second last lap. I just didn’t have the speed. I just had to wait until he ran out of his tyres. Then I got the chance. I tried to get closer and closer but I was not fast enough earlier on, otherwise I would definitely have tried to overtake. But basically I let him past at the restart. After the bridge, I made a mistake and he got past me. It was my own mistake.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Fernando, given the roller-coaster of emotions, the fact that you’ve re-taken the World Championship lead, the tyres having gone off, the Spanish situation – how do you rate this victory in your 29 races that you’ve won to date?

FA: I think from the emotional side this is the best one. The emotions that I felt on the in lap, or during the podium ceremony or right now, I think doesn’t compare to anything before. I confirm that this is the best feeling of victory by far, because the whole situation in Spain, as I said, and the grandstands, the weekend in general, how they support us. In terms of the race itself, or driving, probably they were a little better. We pushed, but as we said, these days races are decided by little factors and today we had retirements from Grosjean then from Vettel. We had the tyres, the safety car when we took the opportunity to stop as probably everybody did but we did a stop. I think there are maybe races like this year in Malaysia that I feel more proud of the driving itself.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi and Michael, about the championship, if you had to bet some money, would you put that money on Fernando or is there still some room for Vettel and Hamilton?

KR: I don’t even know what the points are so it’s a bit difficult to say. We’ve seen how quickly things can change this year. You only need one bad race and the guy wins so I wouldn’t put money, probably use it for something else.

MS: Things change so quickly – maybe I put money on myself.

Ends

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Riad ASMAT (Caterham), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Luis PEREZ SALA (HRT), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus).

Franz, as it’s your first time in the press conference this year, can you give us an assessment of your two new drivers? They’ve had time to settle down. Two drivers for whom there are a lot of new circuit too.
Franz TOST: Yes. Daniel Ricciardo, our driver from Australia, he is a little bit more experienced, he did already 11 races last year. So far he is doing a good job. He is a highly skilled driver. He is committed, with a positive attitude and so far I must say he is really doing a good job. Jean-Eric Vergne, his new, a French driver. Last year he did Formula Renault 3.5 litre and of course all the tracks are new for him. It’s not so easy, Friday morning, in the first session is to learn the tracks. But also he is a highly-skilled driver. I rate him very high. He is doing a good job and improving from race to race and if we provide the drivers with a good car they show a good performance.

The car itself: Is the team able to ensure that the car is maintaining a good position, even catching the teams in front?
FT: We started the season quite successfully with ninth place in Melbourne for Daniel Ricciardo and then eighth place in Sepang with Jean-Eric Vergne. Then afterward, I don’t know, we struggled a little bit. Our direct competitors improved their performance, Williams as well as Force India. They are clear in front of us. We brought some new parts here. We have to analyse the data and everything and hopefully set-up the car in a good way tomorrow for the qualifying and then for Sunday for the race. But there is a lot of work in front of us because currently the gap increased instead of decreasing.

Riad, first of all, I think you’ve got some developments here, but how much more can you do. How much closer can you get to the teams in front this year?
Riad ASMAT: I think what we’ve done is obviously going to be a progression but there is a huge push back home obviously with the team we have currently. We have some parts here, hopefully again we evaluated them today and if we get the set-up right for tomorrow then maybe we will pull a lucky one. But I’m more looking forward towards to Silverstone and onwards where more developments are being done for the car and hopefully by year’s end we’ll be able to prove our worth, where we actually aim to be this year.

And you’ve got changes to the team. The team is moving and you have John Iley now as well.
RA: Yes, it’s been positive. We had a real look over the past three years in terms of what we’ve done in terms of investment and in terms of people. More importantly people – the latest being John. He’s been with us a couple of months now and he’s actually very influential now with the performance levels we’re aiming for. Again, we’ll be moving to Leafield in August. I think that’s a definite plus for us. It’s a bit tight for us now in Hingham but with the ambitions we have currently I think Leafield is the right place for us.

Norbert, a certain amount has been made of the fact that you’ve had four mechanical failures on one car and the other one has done every single racing lap. How easy is it to explain that?
Norbert HAUG: Well, things like that happen. This is not our plan and we are not satisfied with these results for sure. I really feel sorry for Michael. This should not be the case, these are not our standards; the team can do a better job. But we need to have a calm and concentrated approach and I think all my colleagues here have been through phases like that. That happens in Formula One if you’re pushing and on the limit. But still, it is not our plan to be like that for sure. We will fix that. A lot of people are working in a concentrated and focused manner. Michael is a perfect team player and I would have every understanding if he would be critical but he never is outside the team, so he fully supports the team and we support him. I think he is an example for each and every driver. His behaviour is just first class and so authentic. I rate that very, very highly. Going through thick and thin he could complain and say ‘I should have as many points as Nico’ or stuff like that, but you never hear that. He’s a professional and he deserves good results. I hope they will come sooner rather than later. And again, he deserves that. We need to give him a fully competitive and fully reliable car and we’re working hard to achieve that.

We’re only a third of the way through the season, do you think Nico can win the world championship. Do you think Mercedes can be a world championship-winning team?
NH: Well, I think that whatever we did in the past, we have had at the last race the 300th race together with our partner McLaren-Mercedes and they won 73 grands prix. So we have been here for quite a while but what I think we never did is make any predictions or announcement saying ‘we are going to win the next race or fight for this or that’. We do our best job and we are doing it in a focused and concentrated manner. I think if you see that we have had two difficult at the beginning, Nico being on the last lap in Australia eighth and then he had a coming together with another car and lost points eight points and was 35 points down to the leader and now he’s 21 points down, so this is certainly the right direction. But we need to score points on a regular basis, we need to hopefully win more races and we are working, again… very focused on the direction. I think if you look at today, Nico did the fastest time on the prime tyre and then he was on the option. But he had this handicap of a yellow flag. Whatever Friday times mean, he would have been in a position to probably post the quickest time. And then the long runs look quite good. I don not know what that means compared to the others because you obviously do not know the fuel loads but our lap times were consistent. I think they have been in Canada. We have been very competitive in Monaco and we won in China. So the last five races I think we had three times good and convincing speed to be at the top or to mix with the top guys. Hopefully we can continue that trend. I would never go so far as to say we are definitely fighting for the world championship but of course it has to be the ultimate target. If we can achieve it, it would be fantastic and it would our ultimate goal for sure.

Luis, first of all, brake problems in Canada. Have you got them beat here, do you feel – as this is quite a tough circuit on brakes as well.
Luis PÉREZ-SALA: Yes, we knew from the beginning, from Melbourne, that our brake ducts were not perfect. We knew that Montreal was the biggest, maybe most difficult track for the brakes and here is one as well, one of the tracks were you can have problems with the brakes. But the data that we have this morning suggests we are going to be close to the limit but inside the limit.

Yesterday Pedro [de la Rosa] said how much he was enjoying bringing the team up, advancing the team. How much are you enjoying it?
LPS: Ha-ha! Really, I’m struggling a lot! But what is for me the worst thing of Formula One is that you have to travel a lot and be abroad from your house and far from the family. But this is a world that I like and I’m happy to be here and I try to push, to keep pushing, to try to get the team better and better each day.

Eric, many times we’ve been told that Lotus is ready to win. The question is which driver? Who would you put your money on?
Eric BOULLIER: I never put money on anything or anybody. I just wish one of my two drivers is going to be the eighth man, maybe this weekend. But rather than focussing on who will be the eighth man winning, I think it’s in our philosophy just to improve ourselves, to work hard, to clearly look at ourselves, to be better, to improve our weaknesses to make sure that we keep this consistency first – and if we can score podiums as well it is very important for the championship. And if we can have a win obviously I will be the most delighted guy.

Are you able to keep on top of development? Are you happy with the rate of development?
EB: Yeah, definitely. In 2010 we had a very strong rate of development, last year we had a strong rate but not as successful as we would have expected. This year is still good development: we have some good parts and good improvement in performance package that we bring not every race but nearly.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

(Wei An Mao – la Vie Creative) To all the gentlemen. As for the economic situation in Europe, do you think it will influence Formula One? Especially to all tracks in Europe in the future?
LPS: We have economic problems in my house – in my team! I think it is for everybody, economic problems, I think not only in Europe. Europe now is focussing on the situation but it’s something that we have and of course it’s going to touch us in some way. But this is still… I think this is not from this year: it’s come in from the last three or four years.

And is it going to affect Formula One?
LPS: Of course it’s touching us in some way. We are getting less money from sponsors; you have less money to spend on the cars, on the team.

Do you see the effect as well Norbert?
NH: Well, I mean the general issue is that we have to have this – however you call it – resource restrictions, limits, whatever – who does not see that? Who does not see what’s going on? We have to have limits, you know the figures of the medium and high class teams as good as I do. There should be limits of how to achieve it: that needs to be discussed but I think there are quite constructive and good ideas but we need to make sure that this comes through. This is an important step coming to the economic situation. I think that is part of the challenge. We have had bigger challenges in the past and I’m sure we will have even bigger ones in the future. You have some ups and downs and I think these times are very good for learning. You will always learn. You will learn how to be more efficient – so there are also positives. We just need to deal with the facts.

Franz?
FT: For sure it’s not good, the economic crisis in Europe and we are also working in Formula One to come down with the costs but thanks to Bernie we are not only racing in Europe, we are racing in areas where there is some money and no economic crisis: like India, like Australia, like Canada, like Brazil and like Saudi Arabia, with Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. We go to Russia, we are in China and I think that’s very, very important for Formula One, especially for the sponsors to be present all over the world. And this also prevents a major influence from the economic side on Formula One. Because all over the world, hopefully there is no crisis.

Riad, perhaps a comment from you?
RA: I think, I mean it’s a given, the economic crisis is not just this year, I have to agree, it’s been around for the last two years. But the fact is that it affects everyone around the world and business-wise obviously Formula One. As a team commercially you will be affected because the companies that want to be part of it will have to reduce their marketing budgets, so on and so forth. That being said, I agree with Norbert: we do need to look at what we’re doing internally and be more precise and be more resource restricted to a degree. It’s a matter of the business that we’re running at the end of the day: I have to make it as efficient as possible in the hope that we can sustain our being here. But it’s a given, we can’t avoid it, it’s there. We just have to be smarter – and one of the areas is to manage our own resources, and hopefully with us working together maybe we’ll find a solution.

Eric?
EB: I will do a résumé, I guess, of what has been said. We have to be sensitive to this economic crisis especially in Europe. And we have to monitor also us being based in Europe. We have the chance, as Franz says, that Bernie’s business model for Formula One is global. Our sport is the only global sport in the world, so thanks to this global platform, we, as a team, for example, have been able to bring some big names and new sponsors, like Microsoft, who were never in the Championship in Formula One. Obviously we don’t have to hide behind this, we have to be very careful about the impact of the economy in Europe but we are lucky that our sport is global.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To all five of you: a lot has been made recently about the cost-cutting, cost-saving measures in Formula One. Enshrining them in the regulations was discussed after Monaco on the Monday, it was discussed last week on Friday in the WMSC meeting. I believe you people had a follow-up meeting yesterday. Has anybody got any reservations about enshrining the cost-saving measures or cost-cutting measures, budget caps – whatever you want to call it – in the Formula One regulations?
EB: It’s true that actually it’s a good follow-up after the previous question. If you monitor the economical situation in some parts of the world, you obviously have to consider yourself and think not only that you’re plus one, you’re plus two but also you’re plus five. And it’s true that there are some very constructive discussions between the FIA, Bernie and teams today, to try to take conscience and to try to clearly understand what is Formula One and what will Formula One be in the future and what we want to do with Formula One. Formula One has already downsized its costs a lot but we believe there is some more work to be done and this is why there are all these discussions, but the more people around the table, the less easy it is to take radical decisions.
FT: We are discussing the resource restriction agreement. Currently we are mainly only discussing about the resource restriction agreement regarding the chassis. In my opinion, the chassis resource restriction agreement is one point but the costs – especially from 2014 onwards, which will come up and which will increase dramatically – is the powertrain, and therefore the resource restriction agreement for the powertrain would be for me or let me say for Toro Rosso even more important than for the chassis. It must be a complete package. I am really worried that we are discussing on one side the costs decrease, but from 2014 onwards, with this new powertrain and the new engine, with the new ERS system, pick-up batteries, the cost will dramatically increase and this is what we also have to discuss, which is quite important, the development and the research costs which will rise to develop this package.
NH: You need to deal with the facts. The engine lease years ago was twice as much as it is right now, that’s due to manufacturers bringing that down. I think that was a big help for all the teams. It’s very clear that if you develop a new engine that it costs money and I think Formula One has never had an engine formula like today, where basically everybody gets a competitive engine, ten teams at least. That needs to be mentioned. Then there was a process in the past deciding that a new engine has to be developed and of course that costs money. We worked very hard, together with the FIA, and we have the same opinion with the other manufacturers to bring costs down but this is over a period of five years, so the target has to be minus twenty, minus thirty percent over five years and I’m sure the engine lease will, over five years, be comparable to what we have right now, but we need to see that we will have a new engine, an engine that you can market in a very good way, if it comes to sustainable ??? and so on. We just need to have changes. I hear some voices saying ‘ delay the engine.’ One thing is for sure; if you delay the engine, you run two programmes in parallel one year longer and your customers will pay for that. We cannot have fully subsidised engines, this is not possible. I think the engine manufacturers especially have been very very fair and I would be pleased to hear that at one stage as well, because the engine lease was in excess of 25/30 million years ago and we brought it down, and I think that fact has to be mentioned. We can discuss aerodynamics and so on and so on. There are lots of areas where we can save money, but deciding and building and developing a new engine costs money – much less money than the last one, the V8, but we need to see where we are. I’m the first guy to support restrictions but then we need to do it in a coherent way: chassis, engine, whatever. Mercedes has always been one of the driving forces. I’m sure the Renault guys do not see it differently, the Ferrari guys do not see it differently. If we all work together we will achieve our targets but one thing is for sure: just listening to voices saying the engine is more expensive than it used to be. Let’s deal with the facts and then we know where it’s coming from.
RA: We’ve had numerous meetings on this matter but one thing is for sure is that everyone agrees that we need to reduce costs. I’ve been in this for two and a half years and I can see the level of exorbitant areas that could be managed better. The points are taken, we have discussed it. There are some ideas bandied around. The groups that are related to those areas will be talking to each other and hopefully soon enough we do come to a conclusion, but we have a position, obviously, and we will support anything with regard to resource restriction, we will support that all the while. I think there has been some improvement over the last two years from previous times, but there is a lot more we can do, I think, going forward. From our side, we will support anything that’s positive.
LPS: It’s clear that for the biggest teams there are going to be clear rules. They are going to reduce their budgets but I’m a bit worried about the small teams like us. To reduce our budget is not easy but even to stay with the same budget, I would say, will be difficult, because maybe next year it will be at the same level but we will need to understand how the situation will be in 2014, as Norbert says, what will be the cost of the KERS, the engine, to have a clear view of the future for us, maybe in five years’ time. I’m quite happy with Norbert that the engines have reduced a lot. I was not involved in Formula One as I am now but I remember the cost was large, maybe four or five times what it is now but I would like to maintain this level of costs for the future. It seems that it is going to be difficult, or we have to understand what the situation will be.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Sorry, the question was – thanks for all the detail – but the question was does anybody have any reservations about including the cost-saving measures in the Formula One regulations?
LPS: I don’t think so. Does anybody?
(General shaking of heads and ‘No’)

Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Autosport today is reporting that customer cars are back on the table – second hand cars from the previous year. Is that something that’s right for Formula One which is supposed to be the technological pinnacle of motorsport? And is it something that any of your teams would be looking at either supplying or purchasing?
NH: I think that’s very easy to answer. If you ran this year with last year’s car then just guess what happens.
LPS: Maybe for a small team it’s going to be at the beginning this year, some years, like in 2014. There are a lot of changes, it’s not easy because they’re changing the engines, it’s not an easy thing to do.
EB: The question is easy but the debate is more complex. Today’s Formula One is based on constructor regulations. If we have to go to customer cars to serve Formula One and be the Formula One of the future, why not? I think the discussion is open now. I know some teams would like to stay as constructors, some teams would maybe need to be customers to save their budget or their company, but it’s a more complex debate and actually together with the previous question about cost-saving, it’s obviously crucial in this discussion.
FT: It depends how much money a team has. The customer teams can buy the car and can run the car. We at Toro Rosso have started to build up the infrastructure and will build the car by ourselves.
RA: From our point of view, again, we’re a constructor. We came in with that particular objective and we’ve been doing it for the past two and a half years. But again, an idea is an idea. We’re always open to ideas and obviously we will have to review things if it does come to fruition then go from there. But we are proud of where we are, what we’ve built. We came in as a constructor, as Eric mentioned, and we hope to stay that way for now.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We are talking about cutting costs, reducing costs and so on, and there is the rumour that the number of Grand Prix could increase. The number on the calendar could be larger. I can understand that more Grand Prix means more money for everybody but in your opinion, what is the ideal calendar for the future: twenty, 24? How many Grand Prix in Europe, because the crisis is deeper here in Europe?
FT: The year has 52 weeks. We should have 26 Grand Prix! Some in Europe, yeah!
EB: I think you have two philosophies. Is it going to be like NASCAR with 38 weekends, if I’m not wrong, or staying around twenty. The true question is over 20 Grand Prix we have to reconsider our structure, because we obviously have a team personnel issue, travelling and logistical issue. As you say, we can speak about cost-saving but more Grand Prix means more revenue for Formula One and the more countries we can visit is the more countries we can bring Formula One to fans. There is no exact number, no magic number I guess, but I’m rather like Franz – more races, why not?

Ends