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Tag: FIA Press Conference
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It is my best race ever, I need to enjoy today says, Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bootas (centre) and Lewis Hamilton (left) at the Press Conference along with Max Verstappen on Sunday. An FIA image Melbourne, 17 March 2019: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes AMG Petronas team who won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday along with teammate Lewis Hamilton who finished second ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing attended the FIA post-race Press Conference.
The track interviews are done by former F1 driver Martin Brundle. Transcript:
Q: Valtteri, the race of your life?
Valtteri BOTTAS: I think so! I don’t know what just happened.
Q: What a perfect start, to get away.
VB: I don’t know what to say. It was definitely my best race ever. I don’t know what happened. I felt so good and everything was under control. The car was so good today. So truly enjoyable. I need to enjoy today.
Q: You made it a one-horse race. Twenty-six world championship points with the fastest lap. You were determined to have that fastest lap.
VB: Yeah, definitely. It’s a new rule for this year. As I had really strong pace I wanted to go for that in the end and it’s always a bit risky with worn tyres but it was worth it. I’m just so happy and I can’t wait for the next race.
Q: A one-two for the team, congratulations Lewis, second place, but maybe a bit of a frustrating day for you?
Lewis HAMILTON: No it’s been a good weekend for the team, so I have to be happy for everyone and a really fantastic job from everyone. Valtteri drove an incredible race today, so he truly deserved it. We’ve just got some work to do. Still, it’s a great, great start to the year, more than we could have hoped as a team.
Q: Max launched an attack on you at the end. Did you have it covered?
LH: Yeah, no problem at all.
Q: Any idea where the pace may have gone to?
LH: I do have some ideas, but I’ll wait until I sit with my engineers to go over it. Naturally, position at the start was a little bit frustrating, especially when you have a good weekend up to that point but that’s how the game goes and I’ll just train and work hard to try and improve the next time.
Podium place for Max Verstappen. You had an interesting afternoon.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I had to overtake Seb to get onto the podium, which is not easy around here, so I was happy to pull that move off, and also challenging Lewis for second, so, yeah, pretty pleased with that.
You had the Ferraris covered. You had a little trip across the grass, probably took you back from behind Lewis. But you were still coming at him.
MV: Yeah, it was unfortunate but I don’t think it would have changed the end result.
So, reasonably happy with today?
MV: Of course. To start the season on the podium, challenging the Mercedes car ahead, I think that’s a very positive start for us. Also a big well done to the team, after the difficult Friday we had. And also big thanks to Honda, also their first podium in the V6 era, so very happy for them.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Well Valtteri you said on the podium that you had porridge for breakfast but was there any indication in practice that you were going to be able to unlock that sort of performance from the car?
VB: Well, first of all, as a team, in practice we saw that we were strong, both in short runs and long runs, but obviously it’s impossible to draw a proper conclusion but we saw the raw pace yesterday in qualifying, as a team, with a good margin to Ferrari, and today race pace was strong – much stronger than we expected coming into this weekend. That’s obviously good news. It shows that we have definitely done all the right things between the testing in terms of direction with the car. Also, for myself, it was definitely the best race I’ve had in my life. Obviously, the key thing for me was the race start, to get to the lead and then being at the front I could show strong pace and I could pull a gap. I think in the first stop I could also…. I stopped a bit later so I was a good tyre in the end. Just the car was feeling so good today, it was truly enjoyable.
Q: Well, many congratulations. Lewis, it all seemed to slip away from you at the start. Tell us about that moment?
LH: I don’t really remember much of it, honestly, it was quite a long time ago really. I don’t know, maybe I got wheelspin. It doesn’t really matter, Valtteri got a better start. Once we got to the first corner, we held position, we had the front row still. And Valtteri did an exceptional job throughout the race, so congratulations to him and after that it was just about bringing the car home.
Q: You talked on the radio about maybe some tyres issues. Did that play out?
LH: No, not really. I wasn’t entirely happy with the balance I had but it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t a problem for me to finish second.
Q: Thanks. Coming to you Max: If we had said to you before this race that you would finish 35 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari, what would you have said?
MV: I would tell you ‘we will find out on Sunday’. Winter testing doesn’t really show the true picture, as you can see this weekend. We had a good car. In the start, stayed out of trouble. It was just very hard to stay close to Seb, as my tyres were overheating very quickly. I just did my own pace, a manageable pace, and we could extend our stint a little bit and then when we did the pit stop afterwards we had a bit fresher tyres than Lewis and Seb ahead. I managed to get by Seb, which is not easy around this track, because it’s just so hard to follow. But very happy to get to third. Trying to challenge for second was a very positive feeling, especially after my Friday. At the end we couldn’t pull it off, but in general I’m juts very happy to be on the podium. I think we managed to turn it around in a very positive way after Friday and for Honda to have their first podium in the V6 era is a great start, so big congrats to them.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Question for Max. How did you find the Honda engine after your first race with it – and do you think you’ll be capable enough to compete for top spot?
MV: Well, I think in terms of speed we had throughout the race, it was again a very good step forward to last year. If I just compare top speeds against the other two top teams, so I’m very pleased for that. Also, in general, the engine has been performing really well, without any issues. So, that is also very important. I guess time will tell if we can fight for top spot.
Q: Max, obviously the performance of the Red Bull Honda package, evidenced by the fact you finished third – but how encouraging was it that you were not only able to finish third on the road but were able to push Lewis and show performance all the way to the end. It didn’t look like you were having to manage the package at all towards the end.
MV: No, we didn’t. Well… you always have to manage the tyres because as soon as you get close to the car ahead they overheat, the tyres. In general, just very pleased, because I could at least have a go at it, in terms of top speed. Good progress, and there are a lot of positive things coming as well, and so far we have been working really well together. Very pleased with that. I think Valtteri was very far ahead still. It was a good result today, but we have to work hard to, of course, improve.
Q: Congratulations Valtteri. For the first time in six years, a Finnish driver is leading the championship. How does it feel to be first time there as a leader?
VB: Congrats to you as well! Thank you. Obviously, I don’t think I was ever leading a championship. Obviously I know it’s only the first race of the year. I’m not so good with the numbers of the days and statistics but all I can say is that I’m really pleased with the way the season has started. First of all for us as a team, we have such a strong package going forwards and then, for myself, after quite a tricky last year, to have started the season like this. It’s very good and I look forward to the next race.
Q: For everyone, how was it with the new aero package, following cars this weekend? In a race you find out more…
MV: Ask Valtteri how it was following!
LH: No different.
No different to previous seasons?
LH: No.
You were pretty close to Lewis at the end there Max…
MV: Yeah, I had no chance to get by. It is still very hard. The only positive thing what we improved is the DRS effect. So, as soon as it opens, it’s a lot more powerful than last year but following is still a lot of turbulence.
Anything to add Valtteri, when you were coming through traffic…
VB: It was quite… I didn’t get close enough to traffic ahead to really see a difference.
Q: Valtteri, you drove the perfect race and your pitcrew was perfect as well. How does that make you feel when you know how much everyone in the team is giving?
VB: It means a lot. It is teamwork and nothing comes for free. Or by one person’s efforts. We’ve all worked for this result we’ve got now as a team together, over the past years and over the winter, and over the weekend. I’m very proud of every single person here in the team at this race weekend but also at the factory. There’s many hidden heroes in Brackley and in Brixworth. Just want to say a massive thanks to them and I really know how much they work and how much it means.
Q: Valtteri, was there any moment during the race that you had a flashback to Russia last year and you thought maybe someone might come on the radio and say ‘slow down’?
VB: No, I didn’t think of that, actually, and there would be no reason to think about that. We are all starting a new season with zero points, we are here to fight, both me and Lewis will want to fight this season, for sure, against each other and against everyone and we are still one team so no point in thinking about those kind of things.
Q: Valtteri, you said yesterday that you approached the weekend differently, started from zero. Can you explain how your preparation was different from last year, for instance?
VB: Yeah, for sure every year you learn as a person, you learn about yourself, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you in terms of preparation and what preparation includes: how you rest, how you spend your free time, how you do the training, how much training, what kind, all those kind of things, travel plans, all sorts. So just trying to optimise everything for this year, try to maximise every single thing that is possible. I don’t know, it’s quite difficult to explain what’s been going on here last winter, inside of my head and definitely something changed in terms of the way I feel about things in life in general and in racing, but that’s all in my thoughts. I felt good in the car today and yesterday. That’s all that matters.
Q: Max, I want to ask about your mindset and the first race without Daniel. Does it change not having to look sidewards and being able to focus on yourself and not focus as much on internals and have a weekend purely about your performance? Did it feel different today without Daniel?
MV: Well, I always focused on myself so it’s not like something changes, from my side. No.
Q: Lewis, can you tell us something about (how much) wheelspin you had, wheelspin at the start?
LH: Yeah, probably too engaged with the clutch, probably, but I don’t really know because I won’t know ‘til I go back, but ultimately I didn’t do a good enough job.
Q: Lewis, the build-up to this race has been very much about your team versus Ferrari, and many people in the room have written about that. Did we have it wrong? And you just fought off a Red Bull; is this now a three way fight for the championship between those three teams?
LH: I don’t know if you wrote it wrong. It was supposed to be a three-way fight… I thought it was going to be a three-way fight so maybe you did write it wrong.
Q: You really seemed to care about the fastest lap point at the end of the race. Would you say it will be a big deal during the season and will you be ready to take a lot of risks to get it?
VB: Yeah, obviously it’s a point and if you get three of those or more it’s going to make a big difference at the end of the year. You never know. One point can make a difference in the end. For sure we’re willing to risk but still knowing that if you’re about to get 20 or 18 points or 15, whatever, they are still more important than getting one extra so you need to calculate the risk but today was worth it, within a stop for an extra set of tyres for it, but with the worn tyres I went for a quick lap and it was worth it.
I just want to say, again, thank-you Charlie and I want to say that this win is for Charlie and all his work for Formula One. He’s done a massive amount and it means a lot to all of us drivers.
LH: It’s 21 points so we’re going to fight for them.
MV: There are 21 possible points you can get so it can help but like Valtteri said, at the end of the day it’s most important to score 25 or 18, 15, 10. Try to go for one more and then it goes wrong, it can happen sometimes but anyway, I think in some situations like today, I was pushing anyway to try and get Lewis so it happened that I was doing, at that time, the fastest lap. It’s nice if it happens.
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Top-16 within one second is an improvement in regulations, so it will be an exciting season: Hami
Melbourne, 16 March 2019: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who took the pole for the season opener here attended the post-Qualifying FIA press conference along with teammate Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
The Track interviews are conducted by Paul Di Resta.
Transcripts:
Q: Lewis, every winter you go away, every winter you come back, driver-team combination, you come out, you get pole position here and you deliver a performance that’s just incredible.
Lewis HAMILTON: Oh man, I’m shaking, it was so close out there. We’ve got this incredible crowd here today; thank you everyone for coming out and creating this atmosphere. What a beautiful day. Coming from testing, from winter, we had no idea where we would be. We were hoping of course to be where we are, we’ve been working towards that; the guys back at the factory have been working so hard. And on the weekend also they have just been working to perfection. Valtteri did an exceptional job out there; it was very close. It’s great to see the top 16 or 17 are within a second; I think that’s an improvement in the regulations, so it should be an exciting season.
Q: Sixth consecutive pole position here in Melbourne. Eight times you’ve been on pole, matching Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna for pole positions at a track, what does that record mean?
LH: I didn’t even know about that. That’s news to me. All I can say is that my family are here and I wouldn’t be doing what I do without my dad, who taught me everything, and he’s here with me. So big thank you to him but I couldn’t have done it without this great team.
Q: Well done, all the best for tomorrow. Valtteri, P2 on the grid, front row start. I think more importantly a very strong day for the team. You almost did it but just missing out on that last run with a little bit of performance.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, we really made some good progress. I had a difficult practice three and we could turn things around for the qualifying. All the session was feeling good. The quali three, lap one, was really nice, I enjoyed that. Unfortunately not quite enough for pole, but Lewis had a good lap in the end and I struggled a bit in the first sector in the last run. Anyways, it was fun and I look forward to tomorrow.
Q: You’ve been away, you said you were going to have a different winter reset. You’ve come back fighting and you’ve made him work for it, haven’t you?
VB: Yeah. Of course I’d prefer to be on pole, but the race is tomorrow and I’m starting on the front row. But I have to say that, as a team, after a quite tricky winter testing they have done an amazing job to turn the car around and be in this good shape.
Q: All the best for tomorrow. Sebastian, second row of the grid, third [place]. I think everyone thought after what we saw at Barcelona that Ferrari were going to start strong. Where do you feel [the team is] after the last couple of days?
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know. Congrats to Lewis and Valtteri, they had, by the looks of it, a very today qualifying. For us it was OK. I had an off in Q2, which wasn’t planned but I tried. I don’t know. The car feels alright, it’s not that there is anything wrong (inaudible) but today I thought it was OK. I think compared to those guys we were just not quick enough. The race is tomorrow, though. I think we have a good car nonetheless. This track is very specific so not worried too much, but for sure it’s not great. I would have loved for it to be the other way round.
Q: To play the long game is a big thing this year. You’ve won this race more than a few times. Can you win this grand prix tomorrow?
SV: Of course. I think we can. You never know what’s happening. Last year we got a bit lucky but the race is over when there’s the chequered flag. I think we have a good car, we have a good race car and we are in good form. Obviously Mercedes are the clear favourites after the result today and the pace they have shown so far. But we are here to race. Otherwise it would be quite dull. I think all the people would agree. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I think our starts are pretty handy, so we’ll go from there.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis that was a huge second lap in Q3. How satisfying is that?
LH: The second lap was definitely a lot better than the first, which is not always the case. It’s always quite difficult on the second lap to pull that amount of time out. But on the first lap I made a mistake, which is unusual for me. It was OK, I just brushed it off and kept moving. We just kept working away, chipping away at our pace and our balance throughout the weekend. As I said, coming from Barcelona, we made some really big steps forward in the last couple of days with set-up and we brought that here and it seems to have worked. There was also a little bit of work done after that two weeks, were we analysed everything and made some small corrections. I really was not expecting to see the performance difference that we have here. It had been so close throughout the whole weekend between us all. It’s amazing to see how close the top 16 are, I think there was a second between us all at one point. That’s a real positive for rule regulations. It’s a bit difficult when you have a session like that to grasp exactly what just happened but I’m very proud to be up here and very grateful for everyone who has worked so hard throughout the winter and this couldn’t be a better way to start the year. But Valtteri was doing some incredible laps out there, so I really had to pull something special out at the end to stay ahead of him.
Q: High praise from your team-mate Valtteri. Just talk us through the session and that second lap in Q3 in particularly.
VB: First of all, I think, a bit like Lewis I’m a little bit blown away about the performance we had today. Obviously yesterday was looking good but it’s always practice. It was the first session this year that really counts, in terms of lap times, and I don’t think anyone in the team could have imagined we’d be in this position after the testing we had but everyone’s been working so hard and that made this possible. But it’s only one session: tomorrow is the main day. From my side, I really enjoyed the qualifying. I had a difficult FP3. Wasn’t really happy with the car. We made some changes and really felt more confident in the qualifying and got some nice, clean laps. The first lap in Q3 was pretty good. I was quite happy with that. I knew that there was still something to improve in the second run but for some reason just lost some time in the first couple of corners. I think Turn One and Turns Three and Four. I did a little bit slower out-lap due to traffic, so maybe the tyres weren’t quite ready – but Lewis did a great lap in the end, so well done for that but, I mean, we’re just all happy in the team to be in this position.
Q: Sebastian, we saw a little off for you in Q2. How did that affect the performance of the car going into Q3?
SV: It didn’t. During winter testing I was joking with Valtteri that I was quite jealous he did some rallying in the winter. Maybe it was in the back of my mind and I wanted to try some myself – but not the right time. I tried, obviously, to find the limits in Q2, and went a little bit over the limit. Fortunately the car was fine. Q3, run one, or generally Q3 was fine. Overall, that fortunately did not impact our qualifying.
Q: And how surprised are you by the gap to the Mercedes drivers?
SV: Certainly surprised. I think everybody is – probably even themselves. I think yesterday we didn’t have a good day. Today felt better but in terms of gap and pace, it was very similar. For sure there’s some homework for us to do to understand. I still think we have a great car and we should be better than this – so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll see over… I don’t know how many laps… 56? 58? 58 laps we have some time to get a proper read of where we are – but certainly Mercedes are the clear favourite if you have such a big gap and comfort throughout qualifying. All the sessions. We’ve got to live with it today but tomorrow is a new day. We’ve done it before, around here especially, so, we’ll see.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Sebastian, you talked about you still think you’ve got a great car. Did you feel that here, you’re missing something that you felt you had at Barcelona, or is it just that Mercedes have made a surprising leap up the order, basically?
SV: Well, it’s difficult to compare. We have something like 10, 15 degrees more ambient, hotter track, different circuit, so overall different conditions – but the car felt really good at testing and probably around here, so far this weekend it didn’t feel as good – yet. As I said, yesterday was a difficult day for us. It was tricky. Today felt a bit better – but there’s not an awful lot of time to try different things. Obviously you have to get on with it and the sessions come fast: especially in qualifying, you can’t really change much. If anything, you get a better understanding of maybe where you’re losing out or where it feels uncomfortable. So for us, I think, there is still a bit of margin but certainly the gap is there today, and it was a surprise. We didn’t expect it coming here but now it is that way. And, as I said, we focus on tomorrow and don’t worry about the gap now.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, first time you are in the front row here. How big a difference does it make in a circuit like this – especially compared to last year when you were nowhere after qualifying.
VB: I was in the wall after qualifying! I was somewhere! Historically, it’s not been the best track for me, honestly. I’ve never felt like I’ve had a great qualifying or race here for some reason. But, I mean, I think I managed to build it up well this weekend. Really started from zero this weekend, trying to learn session by session, and was pretty pleased with the car and driving and the main thing, in the qualifying, especially the first lap in Quali 3, I was really enjoying the driving and that’s when the lap-times were good. So, yeah, obviously there were still things I could have done better, as Lewis showed in the last lap, but it was close enough – so much better, for example, than the year before.
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Seb. Would you say it’s fair to say you have a bit more problem to extract maximum performance out of the soft tyre – because yesterday the long run looked a bit better compared to the others and today in Q1, when you had the medium tyre on, you were not that far away?
SV: Well, it’s difficult to read Q1. I think people are playing around with how much, first of all, how much they push, how much they push the engine especially. I think everybody was surprised how much the track picked up as well in Q1. So, Q1 is not a great session to read into. I wouldn’t say we have a problem extracting the grip from the tyres. Obviously there is a lack somewhere, because we are too slow – but didn’t feel like it. I was very happy with the laps that I had in Q1 on the medium compound – but hard to have a reference because nobody else was really on that tyre at that time, so yeah, for tomorrow, we’ll see. Tyres so far this weekend were no headache and should be quite straightforward tomorrow. I expect a solid race from the tyres.
Q: (Laurence Edmonson – ESPN) Seb, could you just explain exactly what it is that you’re lacking because you mentioned yesterday that you didn’t have the confidence in the car? Could you just go into some detail on what is missing, and is it the same on heavy fuel?
SV: I thought the sectors might still be there. I think a little bit of everything. I don’t think the straightline is a problem so I think we are quite competitive down the straights but I think we’re just losing in the corners. There are 16 corners around here and I think it’s a fairly even spread so probably by the looks of it… and so far it was more in the medium and lower speed stuff rather than the high speed stuff which, I would say, also speaks for a strong car in general. I haven’t got the balance yet which maybe I would like to have, especially in lower speed, and not the confidence and trust which again, around here, can make a big difference because it’s a bumpy track and I hope they don’t resurface it because it’s part of the character of this track. It’s fairly evenly spread around the track but I would say more towards the lower speed corners and it’s easier, I would say, to lose time there. But given the gap is so big, we must lose time in more than one place, for sure.
Tomorrow? I don’t know, I think in the race it could be closer but also the long runs that both of them had yesterday looked very strong and ours looked OK but not as special as theirs so we will see. I think today the car was better and I expect it to be better also tomorrow so we should be a bit closer.
Q: (Daniel Paez – Caracol National Agency) Lewis, do you agree with Sebastian, do you think the track should not be resurfaced? Do you like it that it’s a little bit bumpy in Melbourne, that’s it’s part of the character? How do you feel about that?
LH: Yeah, I like the track the way it is. I think it’s a great circuit because there are not particularly massive run-off areas. If you put a wheel wrong, it generally does bite you which is great and how it should be. The bumps are part of the character of what Melbourne is so if you were to iron those out it would lose a lot of… you know, it does make it trickier for us but that’s a part of it, you need that. I don’t like these circuits which are super flat and super smooth, don’t cause us troubles. For us this weekend we have to raise the car because it’s too much into the ground under braking, that’s what you should have to do and you have to live with a certain amount of vibration and your fillings coming out but that’s motor racing, hard core motor racing.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, it seemed that before your last run on your out lap you almost came to standstill twice in the last sector. Valtteri said before that he thought he had a too slow out lap but in the end it didn’t seem to affect you. What happened there?
LH: I think I came out of my garage behind at least two cars so I was really conscious of trying to keep a gap to them. I think one of them was Grosjean or something like that, maybe Magnussen ahead or something like that, and I was really trying to make sure that I got the right gap to them and they were backing up also. They came round the last corner and I just wanted to slow up and make sure I maximised it because I think on a couple of laps I didn’t have the perfect lap and particularly in Q1 and Q2 I had some messy laps with traffic so I just really wanted to make sure it was perfect and ultimately it was a good gap in the end, no issues. The tyres have been really good this weekend so no complaints. I know I’ve complained a lot about the tyres but they’ve been really good so it will be interesting to see how they perform tomorrow.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, Valtteri mentioned that he was a little bit blown away by the performance today. I know you’d said in the build-up you didn’t consider yourself favourite. Do you share that assessment? Has this come a bit out of the blue for you, the size of your advantage today
LH: Absolutely. There was absolutely no… since practice from the day one to the last day when we left, when we went back to the factory, we knew we had work to do, I felt like we were… I felt good that we had a decent package to work with but we were wary that we might be slightly behind, that’s what we honestly thought, when they showed us the summary of how testing went. We were behind Ferraris from our analysis, we truly believed we were behind. And from then until now, we haven’t changed the car, we’ve understood the car more, we know what we have to do to move the car forwards but we haven’t brought any upgrades or anything like that but as I said, the last couple of days felt really good at the track. Yesterday, Ferrari were just with us I think. It looked like they were a little bit heavy on fuel initially and then they dropped their fuel and then we were quite on par in performance and we thought we were closer than we thought we would be after testing. And then all of a sudden they lost a bit of performance in running, I think this afternoon or this morning, which we were not expecting and so it is a real shock. When we look at the GPS, it’s a lot of the mid-speed corners. When you look at his lap from Barcelona the car looked planted so I was just saying to him were you on fumes or something? It is a difficult circuit and it’s quite gusty here as well so it could be a number of things but I’m really really grateful for where our car is and where it enabled us to be today. I know that Ferrari are going to be pushing hard and progressing over the coming days and tomorrow I’m sure they will be putting up a good fight as they are always strong in the races.
ends
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Team representatives pay tributes to Charlie Whiting in FIA Friday Press Conference
Melbourne, 15 March 2019: FIA Press Conference of the Team Representatives on Friday was attended by Mattia Binotto (Ferrari), Toto Wolff (Mercedes), Cyril Abiteboul (Renault) and Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing)
Transcript:
The world of Formula One is still reeling from the news that FIA Director of Formula One Charlie Whiting passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning. Some of the drivers gave us their thoughts yesterday, and I’d like to get your memories of Charlie as well, starting with you Toto?
Toto WOLFF: It was a total shock when we received the news yesterday. You see somebody every day and the day before and then he’s gone, and it reminds us what is important in life. We are all going at an incredible pace from race to race and then it can get you like this. But Charlie was an unbelievable person. If you are in that position over so many years and then year and years and you still don’t make a lot of enemies that shows your character. He was always well balanced. You could seek him for guidance. He would always, when it was difficult within the regulation to really get down to the bottom and interpret certain things, he would give you a common-sense answer that you could work with and he was just a reference point that will be dearly missed. There is a huge whole at the moment that needs to be filled but for us the person, Charlie, who strolls in for a coffee and was just a decent man and I’m really sorry for his family in these terrible times.
Q: Thank you. And Mattia?
Mattia BINOTTO: For my side, I can only join the words of Toto. Charlie was an incredible person, very great. It’s a huge loss for the entire sport and a huge loss to Formula 1. I think we should thanks him for the entire contribution he did to the safety in F1. I think it’s something we will remember. Certainly, he was such a great person, as Toto said it’s quite incredible from one day to another and I think it’s how precious is the life. But all great memories; a fantastic guy.
Q: Thank you. Christian?
Christian HORNER: It’s a huge shock for everybody. Obviously I’ve been working with him for 20 years now and to get the news yesterday, first of all it’s disbelief. Charlie was one of the good guys. He was a racer. That was his background. When you spoke to him about his days at Brabham, working for Bernie, there was always a smile on his face. He knew all the tricks in the book and that made him the ideal guy to become poacher turned gamekeeper when he took on the role with the FIA. And he handled that role, a tremendously difficult role, with great balance and diplomacy in some incredibly difficult situations. He was one of those guys who went under the radar but what he contributed was enormous, from a safety point of view, from what the sport is today. I think there is a huge debt of gratitude owed to Charlie for what Formula One is today, the safety, the lives that his actions actually saved, you know the way these cars are now and the safety record that they now have. It’s a huge loss to Formula One, a tragic loss to his family and friends and for his young children as well. All our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.
Q: Thank you. And Cyril?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: It’s difficult to add. It’s clearly a shock. I think the paddock went silent yesterday when the news started to spread. It’s a strange thing to learn such a thing to learn such a thing at that moment, in the paddock, where unfortunately or fortunately the show needs to go on. It’s just amazing what he has been able to experience, the 20 years of evolution of Formula One. Just remember what Formula One was 20 years ago and yet he has been capable of staying on top of the all tricks, loopholes, hideys, constructive interpretation of the regulations with a balanced judgement and integrity and being capable of frankly avoiding… or making sure that all the ships would stay in Formula One, despite all the risks associated with interpretation of the regulations and showing that you can conciliate being quiet and balance and authoritative. And no one would challenge his authority. It’s a huge loss but indeed the show must go on.
Q: Thank you. If I could stay with Cyril, we’ve had winter testing, we’ve just had the first free practice session of 2019. Just give us a progress report on Renault and in particular how Daniel Ricciardo is bedding in?
CA: There’s been the winter, there’s been pre-season testing and there is FP1 and first I’d like to remove FP1 from the answer because it was a bit of a scrappy session with some reprogramming that took away precious lap time, as we had to test a number of items, so obviously our lap time was not really representative. Anyway, there won’t be any lying or explanation on Saturday, so let’s wait for Saturday and Sunday. The progress report is that we know we have a huge gap ahead in our attempt to reach the top three, which has to be the mid-term target and in 2021 fight for wins. We are on that journey. So much has been done; so much needs to be done. Good progress in particular on the engine side and Enstone is still completing its transformation and is striving to build a chassis that can win some races in the years to come. Daniel – fantastic addition to the team. In summary, he’s inside what he looks from the outside and he’s already making a fantastic contribution to the team.
Q: Thank you. Christian, same question to you really. How’s progress with the Red Bull Racing Honda package?
Christian HORNER: Yeah, it’s been a promising winter. It’s been interesting working with Honda. It’s been extremely collaborative. Obviously performance is difficult to read in pre-season testing, but reliability has been strong. I think we turn up here in Melbourne hopeful of a competitive season ahead of us. But it’s only really when everybody pulls their pants down tomorrow in qualifying that you see where we’re at.
Q: And a few words on Pierre Gasly?
CH: Yeah, he’s another product of the Red Bull Junior Programme, as Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz. He’s another exciting young product that we’ve invested in as a junior driver and he’s in the seat because of the promise that he has shown. Obviously he’s settling in. He’s going to needs a little bit of time to get up to speed but he’s a very quick racing driver and we have high expectations of him in the future.
Q: Thank you Christian. Mattia, you were the pacesetters in winter testing. How confident are you coming to this first race?
Mattia BINOTTO: Not confident at all. I think that winter testing is not qualifying, it’s not a racing environment, you never know what the others arte running. Very difficult to assess the performance. I think we simply focused on ourselves, we had eight intense days, very little time to prepare for Melbourne. By the time you finish the testing the cars are ready to be shipped directly to Melbourne, so I think it’s really by here that we start understanding who is the fastest. I think our challengers are very strong. These guys on my left have won the last championships and they are still somehow the team to beat. So honestly I think on our side we can only focus on ourselves, step by step try to improve and try to be as fast as we can.
Q: Mattia, can you tell us a little bit about your new role, you’ve been promoted to team principal over the winter. How much time do you dedicate to technical matters now?
MB: I think technical matters are still probably the highest priority. The car needs to be fast and the rest will follow somehow. Obviously it’s still my main focus. It’s still let me say anyway, it’s the main focus of a team. I think the technical is where you’ve got the main of your activities and where you are putting your efforts. It’s true that there are a few more things to be done and to deal with but technical is still the main priority.
Q: Thanks. Toto, it was pretty difficult to read Mercedes’ programme in winter testing. What’s your summary?
Toto WOLFF: Yeah, also difficult to read for us. We hit the road and it wasn’t great. Then we brought a substantial upgrade package to the second test and slowly but surely started to understand and learn and put the dots together and at the end it was a quite decent end of testing. But like Mattia says, the teams were, lap time wise, very close together, but very few kilograms of fuel can make you look very good or less good. That’s why, pants down on Saturday, that’s the first real benchmarking this year.
Q: Well Lewis was in very confident mood in the press conference yesterday and fastest in FP1 as well. What about Valtteri? What sort of form do you see in him?
TW: Valtteri had a decent first session today. We tried a few things on his car and the absolute lap time would have been quicker if he had pushed for a quicker lap time. He came back very strong from the winter, did some rallying, rediscovered the joy of driving. I heard that yesterday he said that he got drunk a few times, to forget, so it’s a good start. And I expect Valtteri to be the strongest this year, the strongest Valtteri we have seen.
Questions from the Floor
Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Toto, Lewis does various things, has various distractions, as some call them, or hobbies that he’s involved in. Sky diving and things like that, does that put the wind up you? Do you have any rules and regulations? Do you need to speak to him, or do you just say: “Lewis, just get on with it.”
TW: Well, of course, I’m always worried, and we had a laugh last year because I couldn’t get hold of him and couldn’t get hold of my chief strategist and one of the race engineers – and found out they were racing motorbikes in Jerez and nobody would pick up the phone. And then they were a bit apologetic. But Lewis is not an 18 or 19 year old young man any more. He’s a five-time World Champion. He knows exactly what works for him and what doesn’t. All these activities, in my experience, are not a negative distraction but on the other hand something that he enjoys that he enjoys doing. Some things are just a hobby: like sports; others are more of a passion, like the fashion business and every time he’s able to decompress from motor racing, he comes back stronger. We mustn’t be judgemental. Some people go on a meditation seminar to India. Others do Sky-diving. Others are out for the ladies. Let’s accept how everybody is. He is justified and has shown that he is one of the best out there.
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Mattia. Did you investigate the rim failure from the Barcelona testing any further? Last time you spoke, you weren’t one hundred per cent sure what happened.
MB: Certainly we investigated. We still do not have a full picture, full picture or certainty on what happened. But we put a lot of actions in place and we are pretty sure that, with the actions we put in place, somehow we have cover there, we are safe for the next running. So, we are still doing some checks. We are making sure that we have the full picture of what may have happened – but let me say that we feel safe.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) The affiliation between some of the bigger teams and the smaller teams has been in focus the last couple of years. We’ve seen the likes of Haas use the regulations to good effect. Red Bull and Toro Rosso are obviously closer aligned this year. With F1 moving towards possible resource restrictions and things like that, is there a danger it was going to become essential for big teams to have these affiliations with smaller teams?
CH: I think mainly the benefit is for that of the smaller teams. There wouldn’t be a Haas if that model wasn’t available. I think the affordability of Formula One is extremely expensive. So, Toro Rosso, they’re using an awful lot of components from RB14. So, it’s effective for them within the non-listed parts they’re permitted to do. They don’t have to have the design resource, the R&D infrastructure – so therefore the cost for them to go racing is affected by that. I think that there’s ultimately a sensible offset between needing to be a full-blown constructor team and being able to acquire those non-listed parts. So, personally, we don’t have an issue with it, and feel that, for the smaller teams, it’s been demonstrated that it’s cost-effective and works.
MB: Fully aligned with Christian. The Haas model has shown how good it is for such a team, and I think at the end it’s a good thing for F1. As we’re looking ahead, I think if there are any concerns, it’s up to us to understand what are the concerns and make sure that we are mitigating, or avoiding them – but I think that the model in itself is the right model.
Toto?
TW: Nothing to add to what the two said.
Cyril?
CA: Obviously in a bit of a different position here. I have mentioned that on a number of occasions. We could be spending hours to discuss that topic but it’s already a challenge for a team like us to compete against that top three teams who have thirty to forty per cent more resources than us. But if they are now capable of combining their resources with other teams, or getting the benefit of synergies within the scope of a budget cap, that’s a problem. That’s a problem for us. That’s a problem for at-least two other teams in the field. And I don’t want to talk for them – but that could also be a problem for a new entrant, willing to enter Formula One and willing to be competitive. So, that’s a serious topic because it’s maybe that we are now saying “OK, we have three top teams and that will be it. And anyone joining with have to accept they will not be in a positive to be competitive. I’m not here to complain or moan: we know the regulation but obviously we are extremely careful about what’s going to happen in 2021. For now, we are not convinced about the safeguards or the containment measures that have been put forward, despite the fact that you can trade some parts in the context of a budget cap – but we will continue to work with governing bodies to hopefully get to a more satisfying outcome.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) A follow-up on the question about Lewis sky-diving. Not for Toto but for the other team bosses. For clarify really, do you have clauses in your drivers’ contracts which prevent them from doing extreme sports?
CA: I’ve just been through that very recently. We have a different type of contract. It’s mainly, I guess an insurance and a financial topic because there is a way that you are managing the relationship with your drivers and there is a ‘what if’ scenario in case something bad occurs. So, without disclosing any confidential arrangements, I think as far as we are concerned, it’s a bit like Toto: we have two mature drivers who know what they should be doing and should not be doing. So it’s pretty much their call to decide. Obviously the financial consequences can be on their side if they commit something that causes them to not be in a position to honour their obligation any more. So, I would say that the generic, for younger drivers, you would want to have more control on what he does – that’s what I’ve seen in previous life. That’s the situation.
MB: What’s more important is to have the right relationship with your drivers, making sure they understand, that they are sensible – but these guys are professionals. There is nothing that you need to tell them. They understand pretty well what’s the danger, what’s the risk and they are behaving well.
CH: We’re Red Bull at the end of the day and y’know, no risk: no fun! We don’t actively encourage our drivers to go and take a lot of risks but they’ve got to live their lives and have some fun along the way. It’s great to see that our drivers take that seriously. We sent them surfing the other day. Max Verstappen demonstrated restraint where he was nervous to get on a surfboard for fear of being eaten be a shark. Despite nobody being eaten by a shark on that beach since 1963 or something. So, obviously, I think it’s an important thing that they take care of themselves but it’s good for them to enjoy and experience other activities.
Q: (Richard Bailey – motorsportm8.com) Today, around the world, we’re seeing millions of school students walking out, staging a protest against government inaction to tackle the threat of climate change. Formula One sits at the pinnacle being able to demonstrate through its technical advances the positive impact that this can have in terms of fuel burn and energy regeneration, yet the message doesn’t seem to be coming through as effectively as it could. What more can the sport’s key players do to drive this message to the next generation?
CH: I think, actually, the efficiency of these engines is so understated. The fuel economy that these engines are achieving is mind-boggling so actually what Formula One is managing to do, in terms of furthering this technology, is truly impressive and I think it’s a message we need to get across more. We’ve all come here on aeroplanes – or most of us – from across the world and been burning fuel at 38,000 feet which is obviously a far bigger carbon footprint than anything that’s going on in Melbourne this weekend but I think in terms of the messaging that Formula One is achieving, I think it should be actually praised. The technology that the manufacturers have brought in through these engines and the economy that’s now being achieved is quite phenomenal.
MB: I think there’s really not much to add. We need to communicate it better. What is good is when you see that such technology will be transferred into the automotive (industry) and certainly our, let me say, turbo technology at the moment is of interest to the entire automotive (industry) so that again F1 is showing on the edge of technology and in this case really pushing the message so it’s down to us really to explain it and make sure it’s happening.
TW: I think it’s more the macro picture than the micro picture for us. My teenage children are on the street today, walking out of school and I find it really strong that this young generation wants to actively take care of what the future is and there is this overwhelming problem burning fuel in the airplanes. I’ve read, most recently, that the 15 largest container ships burn or have as much emission as 760 million cars and the plastic that ends up in the seas is a phenomenon that we can even see in Europe every summer and I think these things need to be tackled and when we look into our micro-cosmos it’s like Christian and Mattia said, those engines have all the energy recovery that you can find in the most modern road cars. We have battery technology, we have energy recovery through various systems and they have become more and more efficient and they are very much at the forefront of technology that eventually ends up in road cars and each of us has the duty, be it in our little small world, of not using plastic bottles any more or looking after our own environment and in the same way as the guys being involved in Formula One, making sure the right message is transported into the world, that these engines are the most efficient and the most green engines that have ever existed.
CA: Well, I guess it will be up to the new generation to demonstrate whether or not it’s still relevant to race in cars and go around in circles around the world but more than that it’s important that Formula One remains at the edge of what technology has to offer and also those engines are just fantastic as Christian and the others were saying. The average efficiency of an internal combustion engine is in the region of 30 per cent to 35 per cent. We are above fifty per cent in Formula One; that’s massive. If this type of efficiency was affordable for all mass markets products that would be a massive contribution to CO2 emission. So that’s something we need to keep at the edge of in future. We are talking about e-Fuel, fuel that will not be composed of fossil energy. This type will be a game-changer, I think. We need to make sure that Formula One remains a demonstration for game-changers.
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Do you agree that twelve teams is a necessity for Formula One, or do you say that the recent past proves that it might be a bad plan?
CA: I think that what’s important is the number of teams that are competitive and can really directly contribute to the show and can pretend that they are expecting to win. But if there is a business model which is sustainable for 12 competitive teams, I think that that should be what is looked at.
TW: I think it’s important that the starting grid looks complete and that for the live spectators that you see lots of cars going around the track, but I think we are in a decent place right now for Formula One and the value of the teams is more important, to keep those franchises limited to attract the best brands to enter or participate in existing teams. I think that is the most important thing going forward.
MB: Not much to add. I think what they said is good enough.
CH: Yeah, I always go quality over quantity. I think we’ve got ten teams that are in pretty decent health at the moment compared to previous years and I think that as we are seeing, when the grid is expanded, none of those teams that came in a few years ago are still here today. Formula One, the cost of entry is so high it’s virtually impossible unless you’re an OEM or multi- multi-billionaire and sometime not even that’s enough. I think we’ve got a good balance at the moment. I would prefer that we look after what we’ve got and have good quality and a closer grid than just inviting more entries for the sake of filling the grid shot and being more cars to lap.
Q: (Roger Bryon – Beyond Racing Line) Have any of you seen the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ yet? And if so, what are your thoughts on it? And furthermore, what are your thoughts on a closer look for fans of more on the inside of the workings of Formula One?
Q: Well, who has seen the Netflix film?
CH: I’m really looking forward to season two. I think there may be a fight, maybe between Cyril and Toto this season. The Netflix thing, it was an interesting project. I think it shows a glimpse behind the scenes of Formula One. I think it’s had huge interest, from what I understand, because it’s not just obviously about what’s going on on track so it shows glimpses of behind the scenes action. I think it’s reaching a new market which is important, I think particularly in the US as well. I think it’s a different side of Formula One, certainly interesting.
CA: I think the bottom line is that it’s a good thing for Formula One. A number of people have talked to me about Formula One for the first time having never talked about Formula One so it’s definitely reaching a different type of consumer or fan group, which is good. Did I like everything that I saw in it? No, so I think it’s important to have some formal disclaimer that it’s a bit… although it’s unscripted, it’s a bit of fiction also. It’s important also, given what’s at stake in terms of brand reputation, that we don’t completely confuse what’s in between information and entertainment.
TW: We obviously didn’t participate for some reasons. I watched three episodes on the plane. I think I missed the most important one, the fourth. I thought Cyril and Christian were actually friends! There are some people who never watch Formula One who have given good feedback. There is a lot of fiction. People say that Guenther Steiner’s a decent guy so he benefitted from the series!
CH: I think what it demonstrated is that Formula One has a huge tourettes problem! The amount of blue language in that series, particularly… I mean Guenther, every other word… He’s scary!
TW: I think it’s a good promotion for Formula One, it’s well done, it’s obviously very intrusive in a certain way but the promotion is good.
MB: Not seen it yet, will do, but at least today I understand why these two guys are on the extremities of the table! I’m looking forward.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) I’m British which I mention because my country has resolved to liberate itself from the European Union. Some of you have already commented on the difficulties that this process is going to create for you. I wonder if things have got better or worse since then and if you could mention some of the things which are going to present the greatest difficulties after March 29.
CH: Well, trying to follow what on earth is going on in British politics at the moment is rather difficult for all of us and it’s slightly embarrassing from outside looking in at the way that politicians are acting within this whole process. The country obviously voted to leave and there seems to be too much self-agenda that’s being tabled at the moment so there’s almost a vote every day. Nobody’s quite sure what the votes are for. We don’t know whether we’re delaying, we don’t know whether we’re staying, we don’t know where we’re going so if somebody could explain to me what actually Brexit did mean that would be quite helpful because at the moment there’s an awful lot of confusion over it so for us, the reality is it’s business as normal, we’ll wait and see what and if and when Brexit does happen and when it happens then we’ll deal with it but of course you try and put as many what ifs scenarios in place as you can to protect the operation of your business.
MB: Pretty happy that Maranello’s in Italy and obviously I can see that these guys are pretty worried. Concerned obviously that Brexit is a concern not only for F1 and I think that we should look at the bigger picture rather than only F1 but I understand that they are worried at the moment.
TW: For some time, I found it really tragic but that tragic has somehow changed to really good entertainment. It’s better than the Netflix thing, actually. Every evening I watched BBC.com and what they showed from the House of Commons and you’re not quite sure whether it’s Monty Python or whether it’s really happening. I will get in trouble there. I shouldn’t talk about politics. But for us, we have 26 nations in our company and it is a matter of concern. We are living from the just-in-time principle of getting goods in and goods and people out and if this were to be disrupted that would be a problem but I don’t think that can happen. Formula One is the silicon valley of the UK but there are many larger industries… the automotive industry would be massively impacted if there would be the so-called no deal – I don’t know what no deal would actually mean. But I think at a certain stage, common sense needs prevail. I would hope so.
CA: I’ve nothing to add really. Indeed, we looked at the options, we tried to make plans. Apparently it’s at least pushed back, so March 29, I understand, is not the deadline any more. What really matter is that particular people we could see massively lots of nationalities, we want to make sure those people can stay where they are and we can continue to invest in them.
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Top drivers pay tributes to Charlie Whiting at the first press conference of the season: F1
Melbourne, 14 March 2019: The first press conference of the season took place in Melbourne ahead of the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix Formula One World championship with drivers Lewis Hamilton, (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), Daniel Ricciardo (Renault), Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), Robert Kubica (Williams) in attendance.
Press Conference transcript:
We’re gathered under very sad circumstances, following the news that Charlie Whiting, the FIA’s Director of Formula One died during the early hours of this morning. I’d like to start this press conference by asking each of the drivers present for their thoughts and memories of Charlie. Lewis, could we start with you, please?
Lewis HAMILTON: I’ve known Charlie since I started in 2007. I made some comments this morning on my Instagram. It may have not worked, as I think it’s down but obviously incredibly shocked this morning to hear the sad news and my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. What he did for this sport, I mean, his commitment… he really was a pillar, as Toto said, such an iconic figure in the sporting world and he contributed so much for us, so may he rest in peace.
Q: Sebastian?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well I guess I was as shocked as we all are still now, when I head the news this morning, especially because I spoke to him yesterday and walked the track for the first couple of corners together with him. Difficult to grasp when somebody is just not there anymore. To add to what Lewis said. I’ve known him for a long time and he’s sort of been our man, the driver’s man. Obviously there are regulations and all that and then there is us and he was the middleman. He was someone you could ask anything of, anytime. He was open to everyone at any time. His door was always open. He was a racer. He was just a very nice guy. Shocked. I don’t think there’s that much to add. I think all our thoughts, the whole paddock, the whole circus, the whole family of Formula One; all our thoughts are with him and especially with his family in these difficult circumstances.
Q: And Robert?
Robert KUBICA: Well, as Seb says, and Lewis, it’s a hard moment. I saw Sebastian walking with Charlie yesterday and I thought I would not interrupt them because I would see him on Friday at the Drivers’ Briefing. Unfortunately this will not be the case. It’s very sad. He was kind of an icon of Formula One. He was, as Sebastian said, a racer, but also keeping up everything in the regulations. He was really the kind of a person you could always trust and commit. A very sad moment. My thoughts are with his family, but that’s how it is unfortunately.
Q: And Max, please?
Max Verstappen: I think as everybody said, I think it was a big shock, also because I spent the day with him in Geneva a few weeks ago and we had a good chat, just about a lot of things. When I left at the time, I was like “see you in Australia for another season of racing” and when you hear this news it‘s just unbelievable – just 66 years old. I guess we just have to appreciate every day and every morning you wake up and that you enjoy life, and that it’s not only about Formula One but there are a lot of other things in life and this is just one part of it. And yeah, I think at the moment what is most important is that the thoughts are going to his family and friend and close ones.
Q: And Daniel?
Daniel RICCIARDO: I echo everything. Not the nicest news to walk into. Taken aback by it, for sure. I’ll try to make it slightly more positive. As Seb said, he was there for us, and we gave him a hard time. We would really press him and push him and make him work, but he was always really receptive and you always felt like he was on our side. I guess we were like a broken record with a lot of the things we would complain about but he never really shut it down. He was always ears open. I think he did a lot for the sport. We’ll have some very nice and positive memories of him. I remember my first Aussie GP, in 2012, going up. I remember we were with Franz and he goes “go and introduce yourself to Charlie; it’s the start of a new season” and start the relationship on a good news. Time goes fast, but as Max touched on, it’s important just to appreciate it, each moment. You do take it for granted. I’m sure we’ll all race with a lot of passion this weekend and it’s just a reminder as well that we are all very lucky to be in this position.
Q: Thank you all five of you. A couple more questions now to each of you, and Daniel, we’ll stay with you. Your home race, it’s always a busy build-up but how have the last few days been for you?
DR: Busy! But it’s alright; I’m actually used to it now. It’s expected. But, you know, busy is good; it means people car and that they’re excited about the start of the season. A lot of things have changed. I’ve changed team and that’s created a lot of other change within the F1 paddock and other drivers moving teams. It’s been a pretty cool and pretty busy off-season for sure. Done some activities – drove a V8 Supercar yesterday; Max was saying he was a passenger today in one, so just chatting a little bit about that. It’s fun. It’s fun when you can balance some of the not so fun media commitments with a little bit of enjoyment. But now we’re getting close. We’re within 24 hours of driving the car, so excited to get on track, but also excited to see the pecking order. I think we could draw some conclusions from testing but not much, so we’ll see where we stands.
Q: I was going to ask you about the conclusions from testing. How close are Renault to the top three teams now?
DR: Not sure… Not sure, so we’ll see how we go. The second week, the last couple of days, we had a few new parts on the car and they seem more promising for our development, so that was encouraging. I think we left the test more encouraged. We’ll see. Judging the top three cars, I don’t even know where they stand at the moment, but yeah, a few more days and you’ll know.
Q: Thank you, Daniel. Robert, coming to you: it’s your first race since 2010, can you describe your emotions heading into this weekend?
RK: Yeah, it has been a long time, a long time away from the sport. Emotions… to be honest there is not really a lot of time to think about them, you are focused on the job, focused on the things to do. Try to learn as much as you can about new F1. Things have changed quite a lot since I was racing here last time. Just trying to prepare; trying to be ready. We didn’t have a the perfect start to winter testing, so there are a lot of things to be checked, to see how they will be and yeah, let’s see.
Q: As you said, it was a difficult period for the team in winter testing – the car arrived late in Barcelona. What’s a realistic goal for you and the team?
RK: Unfortunately we were late for the winter testing and it’s not like you recover this delay in one week, so there are still things being sorted out. The guys are pushing really hard, especially on track but also in factory. It is a difficult period but we have to make sure we are doing everything we can in the current situation. We cannot change it, so we have to make we concentrate on what we have. There is no point in wasting energy or time and then thinking of a difficult job. We just need to do our job and this is the approach of each member of the team we are having. We have to make sure we maximize our opportunities from what we have.
Q: Max, coming to you, the management at Red Bull Racing has been very bullish about the new package, what are your thoughts?
MV: I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? I think so far, we had a good winter test, not too many issues, and I was just very happy about how everybody was working together, which I think is very important, and a good start. Of course, integrating the new engine into the chassis but it didn’t seem like it was giving us problems, so very happy about that. I could do most of my running, so that was very positive but in terms of performance, I think it’s a bit difficult to judge at the moment where we exactly are. I didn’t have any time to do performance runs, or whatever but yeah, we’re happy with what we did. Of course, I think it can always be better, I think everybody has that thoughts. I guess here – but not only here in Melbourne – we’ll find out throughout the beginning of the season where we will stand.
Q: What’s the atmosphere like in the team at the moment, with the new partnership with Honda. Do you feel it’s a bit more bullish that it was in the recent past?
MV: I think everybody’s just very motivated, very positive and very focused on the job as well.
Q: Sebastian, coming to you, fastest in winter testing. Do you feel you’re in a better position now than you were at this time last year?
SV: Yeah. Quite frankly because I think last year’s winter testing didn’t go well for us and we actually had some issues with the car to fix and obviously we got a bit lucky during the race weekend with the safety car to grab the win – but yeah, I think in this regard we are more prepared. Our car seems to work fine: no problems at this stage. Having said that, obviously we can’t do better than last year’s result. So, it’s a tough weekend ahead of us. Always the start, you’re a bit nervous, you don’t know exactly where you are. You don’t know what’s going to happen but yeah, I think we are… y’know… the spirit is good, the atmosphere is good, we’re happy to be here and start racing.
Q: And just a quick word on the technical regulation changes that have happened over the winter. Do you feel that it’ll be possible to follow another car closer this year than last year?
SV: Well, testing isn’t about following other cars and overtaking. So I didn’t get much of that – but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Hopefully it turns out to be better and easier this year. We will see. Obviously the DRS is a bit different. It’s a bit bigger delta – so let’s see. I didn’t have that much experience in testing to make a full conclusion.
Q: Lewis, difficult to read Mercedes’ testing form. What’s your take on it?
LH: I don’t think there’s much to… it’s not difficult to read it. I think it was quite clear, however it’s difficult to know what everyone’s doing, so naturally we won’t fully know until we get out in the car tomorrow and, come qualifying you get a better picture, and usually, over the first few races is when you really start to get an idea of where everyone stands – but we said that we have work to do and we weren’t talking BS. We have work to do.
Q: From an internal point of view, how important has continuity been – both stability on the driving front and the technical front?
LH: On the driving front, continuity is what works. We have a great pairing and I think the contribution Valtteri and I together, it’s worked well for years and there’s no reason to change it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In terms of the team, we’ve got so many incredible people within the team, and the energy… it’s inspiring to see so many people so pumped, pulling together. The communication is better than ever. Just after the test I went back, and Toto rallied the troops and we all sat together and it’s really impressive to see so many people so passionate about their jobs and so passionate about racing and wanting to do a better job and always wanting to improve. And knowing where they can improve – it’s really, really cool to see. Really encouraging. I just know they’re the soldiers. They’re the real, true fighters within the team, and I know they’re going to be giving absolutely everything to make sure that we continue to progress.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you talked about the need to improve after testing. Valtteri said he’s already seen improvements from you guys. Do you share that confidence, do you think that they’ve already found gains? And for Seb, you talked about being more prepared this year. Does it feel different coming here, arguably as the hunted rather than the hunter?
LH: Well, naturally after a test, you always improve the next day as the car gets older and older throughout the test. It wears and then you go away, you analyse where you’ve been. New information gets put in the wind tunnel, the engineers have new information and they work upon it. So, everyone takes a step after testing. The car will be fresher here, we’ll have a much better understanding of it – but I think it’s the same for everyone. We didn’t bring upgrades. It will be interesting to see how the Red Bull upgrade works, and I know some other people, Ferrari usually bring an upgrade for the first race, so it’ll be interesting to see.
SV: Well, at this point, I think we are all hunters and all hunted. We have zero points. At this point I don’t feel like either. But hopefully going away from here we’ll be in the position of the hunted. That’s the target.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Sebastian. Your team boss has said that, in particular situations, you’ll be favoured. What do those particular situations mean? In what way will you be favoured at the start of the season?
SV: I don’t think there’s much point in going into certain situations. I think it’s very clear, and I think Mattia also made it very clear, we are free to race, free to race each other. I think Charles will do his best to help himself and help the team and that’s the same for me. I will do my best to help myself and to help the team. So, in the end we’re racing for Ferrari and that means we try to get Ferrari back to where we’ve been trying to get it back to for the last couple of years. That’s the main priority and the rest, it’s a long, long season and I think it’s a bit pointless at this point to start pointing out certain scenarios.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) If I could ask all of your briefly, what do you think of the new rule of a point for fastest lap?
MV: I don’t know. I think it can be nice but it can also work against you maybe when you’re fighting for a title – but I guess time will tell how it’s all going to work out – but for sure you can play a bit with it, as a team.
LH: It’s 21 extra points, so I think it’ll be interesting to see how people try to get those points, so it should be interesting.
DR: Yeah. At first, when I just heard, I thought it was the whole… it’s good that they’ve restricted it to the top ten. So you do have something potentially to lose if you go in to pit for a fresh set of tyres to get the fastest lap. Yeah, we’ll see. Haven’t really thought that much about it. See how it plays out. I don’t think it will decide a championship – could do, but I don’t think it will.
SV: I don’t know. I don’t expect much change. We’ll see after a couple of races if there is actually a change.
RK: I think unfortunately it doesn’t affect us a lot. At least for now. But yeah, extra point. It can unlock some strange scenarios at the end of the race with some cars pitting and it will open up. We’ll see three, four cars suddenly coming in. It will depend. It will be a kind of domino. But as I said, I was not really interested about it.
Q: (Alessandro Sala – tercerequipo.com) Talking about the hunter equation for Mr Crocodile Daniel. 1980, Alan Jones, the last Aussie to win in Australia. After 40 years, it’s time to try, with the permission of some of the other guys, to win. We hope to see a good dive in the Albert Park lake. Do you?
DR: With myself, not with my car right? I might need some help from some others, probably, this early in the season – but yeah, there’s a chance of some overtakes. I think early on there won’t be too many front row starts. So they’ll certainly be some cars in front. The win might be optimistic in a few days’ time but yeah, being the hunter, that’s still going to be a lot of fun this year. Try to keep that up. More than ever with, I guess, probably the midfield battles we’ll be in initially. That’ll be cool. Does that answer your question? I’ll try to win, of course.
They’re already kind of crazy, Australians but yeah, if we could pull that off, lock your doors.
Q: (Joost Nederpelt – NU.NL) Max, you said some things could have been better. What could have been better?
MV: Some things. I cannot go into detail, can I? No, I can’t.
SV: Otherwise what? Daniel comes after you with his knife!
Q: (Giles Richards – Guardian) Lewis and Sebastian, how important to each of you is it to stamp your authority for the championship early on this season, in these opening four races?
LH: It’s a long season, so I don’t particularly feel it’s the most important thing. I think it’s really about finishing races and analysing and making sure you are getting as many points as you can, of course, but I’m not really one for needing to stamp authority.
SV: Yeah, pretty much the same. I don’t think we will win it here, I don’t think we will lose it here. It’s a long way. Hopefully we have a strong package, a strong team that carries us into a position at the end of the year to fight for it.
Q: (Stylianos Alepidis – F1fan.gr) Sebastian, the last couple of championships you did not reach your target. You had the weight on your shoulders from the Italian media about the expectations of the tifosi. Now under the new leadership of Mr Binotto, do you think that with the new attitude of the communications department towards the media that the more intense later stages of the championship will pan out somehow differently?
SV: I’m not sure the media is going to make a big difference unless you can somehow transfer points to my account. I think it’s a new year, obviously (there have been) some changes. Of course we will be focused trying to do our job as good as we can. I think there’s a lot of passion inside this team that’s willing to get out and expressing ourselves, I think, through winning, is the best we can do so that’s the target but as I said, there’s so many races, such a long way, so many things we are depending on but as much as we can control things we try to take them in our hand and get our job done. As I said, so far the atmosphere is good, the spirit is right inside the team and yeah, we try to carry that into the season. In terms of expectations, I think it’s normal when you finished second the year before that the way to look at it is that it is a disaster because you finished second so in that way, finishing second, third or fourth is all the same disaster. The winner takes it all, so in that case Lewis has been in that position the last years and we try to turn it around.
Q: (Rene Oudman – Racing News 365) The first Grand Prix of the season means the end of the winter break, a time in which you have more spare time. What was the nicest, funniest or weirdest thing you’ve done in the winter of 2018/2019?
RK: Complicated.
SV: You had a longer winter break though.
RK: Yeah, I did have a bit longer than the others. Actually this winter was quite busy so… I think starting working with the team, knowing that you will be a race driver definitely makes a big difference to the past seven winters. The nicest one, probably, was a week of cycling, which was nice, combining a bit of hobby training with pleasure.
SV: I don’t know. I guess just spending time at home, making my own breakfast which I quite enjoy. Yeah, pretty boring maybe but I enjoyed it. Went skiing a couple of times, the weather was good, the snow was good.
DR: Similar, just being home and it’s summer for me so… yeah, Australia. Actually what was really nice as well was I didn’t go to an airport for six weeks and that was… I think that was the longest in ten years that I’ve been off a plane, so that was actually really pleasant. I enjoyed being outdoors. I got the bikes and mountains bikes. I feel like doing things that move fast, just that sort of stuff, hanging out with friends, maybe snapping the neck off a couple of beers but that’s about it. Makes more sense when you drink it… But yeah, just literally switching off especially after last year, that was important for me to wind down.
Can I just lighten things up as well? Robert mentioned that he’s had a pretty long winter break. I don’t think we all know to the extent of what he’s been through to get back here, so I just think it’s awesome to see him back. I’ve known him from when I moved to Europe back in 2007 which feels like a long time but yeah, just a testament to his character and I won’t ask for everyone to applaud but I really think it’s awesome for him to be here. We can applaud, yeah.
LH: I don’t really remember a lot of it. I mean the winter break finished quite a while ago, since we got… February, once you’re back in the factory and working with the team, focused on making sure that you’re fit and ready for the first race ended a while ago so it feels like a long long time ago but there’s skydiving. Done some surfing. I wanted to do it here but I couldn’t find a netted area to go to. I just can’t go where there are sharks, man, and every Australian I meet they’re like ‘nah, nah, you’ll be alright. If a shark comes up to you, punch it in the face.’ Australians are really kind of crazy, huh?
DR: I’d like to say I’d do the same but no, they scare me too.
LH: But yeah, otherwise pretty much the same as everyone else. The break is a really precious time you get to spend with family and friends and it’s the time you don’t get to think about racing and then once the season starts you’re on tour the whole year and you never really lose sight of your targets.
MV: I guess I like mid- to end-of December is a bit of time off and you can spend time with family and friends but from like January onwards it’s just training so I don’t feel like it’s a break any more because you’re just busy. Some more exciting things happened, some less exciting things happened but should I share them? I don’t think so.
Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis, as has been mentioned, Ferrari have said they will favour Sebastian at certain times. Have there been any similar conversations at Mercedes or are you guys just free to race?
LH: We’re free to race like every single year so that was even said at the beginning of… back at the factory and it’s repeated today and that’s how I like it. It means we both have a fair shot but it’s been the same every single year and it’s only to a point where one driver doesn’t have the chance to win the champion any more if we’re lucky enough to be in that position and things shift but generally we’re always free to race so I think that’s great
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Friendly banter marks the season’s last press conference: FIA Formula 1
Hamilton (centre) at the final press conference of the F1 season. An FIA image Abu Dhabi, 25 Nov 2018: The final press conference of the F1 season saw some friendly banter between strong rivals on the track and good friends off it, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, as they joined together after their entertaining tyre smoking donuts in honour of retiring former world champion Fernando Alonso, to answer questions by another former F1 great David Coulthard on the track side.
DC: Q: Lewis, incredible end to the season.
Lewis HAMILTON: I’m so happy right now. Thank you guys so much for all the support this year.
Q: Actually, Seb, stay here, stay here. You guys have made this season epic. So, a little word; we don’t often get to hear you talking together. How much has it meant to be battling out there wheel-to-wheel?
LH : It’s been a real honour and a privilege racing against Sebastian. I’ve known him since Formula 3 days and he’s always been an honest, hard-working racing driver and he has always raced his heart out. He did a fantastic job this whole season. There’s so much pressure on us all, so don’t every look at our shortcomings as anything less than us giving our best and Sebastian did. I know next year he’s going to come back strong, so I’ve got to make sure I come back with him, but I’m really grateful for the time.
Q: Seb, for you, racing wheel-to-wheel with Lewis?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well he’s the champion and he deserves to be the champion. Yeah, it’s been a tough year. I tried everything until the last lap, also today, I really enjoyed. Catching a little bit, a little bit, but I think he controlled the pace at the front. I would have liked it to be a little more wheel-to-wheel but yeah, a long year, a lot of races. Congrats, and as he said I will try, we will try, I think our whole team will try to come back stronger to make sure we give him a harder run into next year. But the final word: I think also well done to Fernando. I think the last years have been very tough for him, we’ve been missing him and we will miss him, so well done on his career.
Q: Maybe the three of you all together, because this is multiple world championships between Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando. Fernando, we wish you well in your retirement. You’ll be coming back to visit Formula 1 though?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, as long as I’m not commentating, you know like some of the ex-Formula 1 drivers! But yeah, it has been a pleasure racing with these champions. I feel very privileged, with you too obviously. Thanks for everything. Thanks, Formula 1. I will always be a fan of this show.
Q: OK, Fernando, you’ve been a true legend, enjoy the journey home. Lewis, you won the race, it’s been an incredible season, but there was a slightly uncomfortable moment there where you pitted on lap six, you came out in traffic. We heard you on the radio saying ‘hey guys, did you know I was going to come out behind this traffic’?
LH: Well, firstly just let me… as you already spoken of Fernando, he’s a true legend. It’s been a real honour and a privilege to race in a period of time where he has been racing. Before I even got to Formula 1 I was already watching him and admiring what he had achieved. I was asked all weekend ‘will you miss him’ and naturally I don’t really quite feel like I miss another driver ever, but the sport will miss him, we will miss him and I will definitely miss him being in the sport. Today, well, my engineers always talk about stopping super early. They’re way too chilled behind the wall! And I was like “yeah, I’ve got a long way to and this doesn’t feel too good right now”. But it lasted long, once again they were calculated and correct and that’s why we have to put so much trust in those guys. A big, big thank you to Mercedes and all of the team, all of the sporting partners. We wouldn’t have had this championship without them. The championship wouldn’t be the same without the fans, these guys that are travelling around the world, thank you so much for coming, appreciate it.
Q: Lewis, congratulations. Finally, Max, you said you would be on the podium, your fifth straight podium result. Some good hard racing there with Valtteri Bottas, good day for you.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, not an easy race. I had a problem with the start. Actually, the launch was good but then the engine went into like a safety programme and I had it again on the re-start afterward. It was not easy but we managed to go back into a good position, putting pressure on the guys ahead. I think I stopped quite early but I had to because I was on the hypers. Then we managed to keep the supersoft alive and I had the good pace. But the last few laps were not that easy as there was a Toro Rosso leaking oil onto my helmet, so I couldn’t really see where I was going, but at the end of course very happy to be third.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Sebastian and Lewis, you both have plenty of experience winning world titles. We’ve seen Max up alongside you now quite a bit at the end of this season. Do you think he’s ready for a world title push next year – and Max, how much have learned this year – and do you think you’re ready to fight for the world title next year?
LH: How many years you been going now? Is this your third year?
MV: Fourth!
LH: Jeez, you’re getting old!
SV: Veteran. You have some wrinkles.
MV: It’s quite demanding and stressful.
SV: Botox?
MV: I might start with that, yeah.
LH: Max has been driving very well throughout the year and has shown his consistency and has been up here many, many times with us, so if his team does the job and delivers a platform with which he can compete even closer with us, then, of course, he’ll be in the fight. I think he’s finished third in the championship, right?
MV: No, two points behind – but at least I don’t have to go to the Gala!
LH: Lucky you!
MV: We calculated that. I’m sorry. Unless I can do it as a community service day, and then I will go.
LH: No, you can’t do that as a community service day.
MV: I’ll do some PR stuff before? How great the whole venue is, I’ll do a special speech in the evening…
Seb…?
SV: No, no keep going. This is good fun from the outside. Yeah. On the track, I don’t think he needs any advice. I think he’s got all the ingredients. I think there’s a couple of guys out there who have these qualities and Max is certainly one of them. Yeah, I think we’ve seen that. I also remember from my time, it’s important to have a competitive package throughout the season and Red Bull are certainly very, very strong and I think they put more performance to their car than any other team across the year, so obviously that allowed them to be very competitive, especially looking after tyres, etc., but yeah, I think both to be honest, Max and Daniel have proven that they can be very, very quick and very consistent so I’m sure more of him, he’ll be up here.
And Max. Do you feel ready for a title push?
MV: I always find that a really difficult question, because you’re so dependent on the package in Formula One. I mean, when I was watching back in the day to Formula One, it seemed like Lewis was ready for the title in his first year. Seemed like you were pretty quick. Of course, I think in a year you can always do things better but I think that’s every year. Even if, at the end of the day, you win the title, there are always things which you can do better. So, yeah, even if we have a winning package, for sure there will be weekends where maybe you make a mistake, or it can be a better weekend overall. Hopefully, first we’ll have that package.
Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Question to all three drivers. Just 112 days until we’re in Australia. What are your plans now? What are you going to be doing over the winter break?
SV: What are your plans? You seem to be counting the days. Can’t wait?
Seb, why don’t you start? What are your plans?
LH: Another baby?
SV: I don’t know. Quickly done! If you need advice, I know how to do it.
MV: Keep pushing!
SV: I don’t know how long you two want to be in free practice…
MV: I like free practice.
SV: If you want to go to qualifying and take things to the next level, you’ve got my number! It’s the usual drill. We’ve got some events coming but, things that I look forward to, after this year, to be very honest, is to turn everything off. I think I need some time for myself. I think it has been a quite difficult and exhausting year for me. I definitely need a bit of a gap. I’m pretty sure, based on the last winters, that very soon, usually after 111 days, I’m very, very hungry again for the next race. As I said, getting away for a little bit and then focus. Obviously, we still have the test coming up, so not yet time to rest – but yeah, I think this will be an important one with the tyres for the next year and then, I don’t know. Just enjoy the home. Enjoy my family, enjoy friends. Do stuff that you don’t usually have much time for. Some DIY. Do some fixing at home. Small jobs.
LH: DIY?
SV: Do It Yourself.
LH: You do that stuff?
SV: Yeah. A little bit.
LH: Good job.
SV: Working on my bikes. Very slow process.
MV: It’s like old-timers, right?
SV: It’s my very first bike, from when I was 15. Still restoring it.
MV: Tuning it as well, or just restoring?
SV: Just back to the original.
LH: Does it start still?
SV: Not at the moment. It’s just a frame with all the bits next to it, waiting for reassembly, so…!
Lewis, your plans?
LH: I haven’t made any plans yet – but looking forward to family time. I unfortunately still have a lot of work to do until mid-December sometime – but excited for the winter, winter break and just getting time to spend with my sister and the kids and my Mum and my Dad. The whole switch-off thing. The seasons are getting longer and longer, so the importance of that period is getting more and more important. But, I’m going to stay in free practice for a little bit longer! Works best for me.
No DIY?
LH: No, I do DIY. I do like doing that. I’m usually breaking something because everything’s fixed already, so I have to break it first and then I redo it.
And Max, what are your plans?
MV: I really want to be at home. I really like to spend time there and do stuff with my friends as well. I haven’t really met up with them in the last two months, so yeah, it’s good to catch up during December and early January, and then we’ll start preparing again.
LH: Free practice?
MV: A lot of free practice, yeah.
LH: You’re staying in free practice?
MV: I’ll definitely stay in free practice.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, we saw you take your overalls off on the podium. Was that an advert for further free practice or is it just a new celebration?
LH: No, I just wanted to show ‘Still I rise’ on my back.
SV: There’s a lot going on so…
LH: But it definitely didn’t go as I thought it would go but anyways, it was OK. But we’ll see if it helps with practice! Not that I need any!
Q: (Christian Menarth – MotorsportMagazin.com) Seb, you said you know where you have to change within the team, until next season. What did you mean exactly, did you mean on the technical side or the team side or operational side?
SV: Well, in the end, it’s a big operation, so a lot of small things that need to come together but I think everybody’s there. We’ve mentioned it many times. Obviously, we lost our path a little bit halfway through the year. Things didn’t come together so obviously, we did a step back towards the end of the year which enabled us to be more competitive again but I think we’ve understood what went wrong, we obviously tried to do a better job in the future, that was one key thing. On the other hand, I think we had a lot of lessons, it was a tough year in general. I think the team is strong and the team has potential but surely it was a lot of things that happened inside the team. The passing of our chairman, Mr Marchionne obviously had an impact and was tough so I think it’s up to us to look into every single detail and make sure we come out as a stronger group, enabling us to build a stronger package for next year and for the future.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Just to follow up on that, Sebastian, do you think there’s anything that you need to change personally, in your approach to driving, to take the next step next season?
SV: I think, naturally, the year I’ve had, I don’t think I ever any problems raising my hand if I made a mistake. I think, knowing as well, as a racing driver, how quickly things can go wrong, how quickly things could have gone differently this year, I think, yeah, I have to review a couple of things but there are other things that I think went wrong and don’t need a lot of reviewing and not over-complicating things too much. I think I know what I need to do. Certainly, here and there, looking back I haven’t been at the top of my game so… I look at myself first, I think I can be better than I was at times this year. Having said that though, I think we also had a lot of races where we got everything out of the car and the package and I felt that I did everything I could. I was happy with that. But yeah, that’s how it goes, that’s sometimes why you love racing and sometimes why you hate racing. Yeah, as I said, for now, I need a bit of time just to shut things down and then I think usually…I don’t know, it’s a bit like skiing: maybe you learn something overnight before you go on the slopes again the next day. Obviously our night, it would help to hibernate, it would be stretching the night a lot longer than it is but I think we have a little bit of time to digest and analyse and yeah, I’ve always tried to improve things. I don’t think I need to change things upside down but certainly, in there I can adjust and get stronger.
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It’s quite an emotional qualifying because it’s the last time in this car, says poleman Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (centre) addressing the press conference after taking pole. An FIA image Abu Dhabi: The top-three drivers including poleman attended the FIA post-qualifying press conference on Saturday at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Transcript:
(Track Interviews conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Lewis, absolutely fantastic. Epic qualifying session, you’ve topped and tailed the season with pole positions. The fans are happy, you’re happy…
Lewis HAMILTON: I’m so grateful for all the support that we have here. It’s quite an emotional qualifying for me because it’s the last time I’m going to be qualifying in this car. I know you guys watch it, but the emotional rollercoaster I’ve gone through with this car… I’m probably the closest to this car than I’ve been in any car, you know, emotionally attached. It’s not always been easy; it’s been a struggle with here. But it has been a real privilege to work with her this year and I’m just so grateful to the team, to everyone for putting it together, to my guys, these mechanics who have been me for what is it, the last three years or whatever it may be, for their diligence, the guys back at the factory, I’m really just so grateful for everyone. And today it was just so much fun. To go out there and be able to express yourself and to push the car the way you want, there’s no better feeling. And to come back and see the reception from the fans – I really of appreciate it.
Q: You obviously have an affinity with this car. Will you get to keep one at the end of the season or do they go into the museum? Do you keep a collection?
LH: That’s confidential. I’d have to kill you if I told you. You know what, I’m just happy… I think this car will be in the history museum of Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart on the road of evolution where they will have all the greats that have driven with them in the past. I’ll get to see this whenever I want when I go to Germany. I haven’t got enough space for this in my house, anyway, it wouldn’t fit in my apartment.
Q: Very quickly, of all the poles this year, how did that rate? We saw you, on the second last run, you had a little bit of movement from the car, but on that final lap were you happy, or do you feel you left a little bit behind?
LH: No, honestly there was… I never say there is a perfect lap. The first lap wasn’t spectacular. There were some excursions and a bit of movement on the rear end. That last one, it started off quite calm and then just got more and more aggressive as I went through. And the last sector, as you see, the last sector was the killer for me. That’s where I really was able to make a difference. So I actually came around, I think, four tenths up. That’s not easy to do from one lap to another, so I’m pretty grateful for that. Valtteri did a great job and I know Seb was pushing really hard, so it’s been a real privilege working with, and racing against, these guys this year.
Q: Congratulations on your pole position? Valtteri, you pushed him hard, only a couple of tenths in the end in it. Frustrated or happy to start the last grand prix of the season from the front row?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, for sure I was aiming for the pole. I had a good result here last year but couldn’t repeat that. Personally, P2 wasn’t what I was expecting but for us, even though we have secured the Constructors’ title, we can still perform at a very high level as a team. Being one-two for the final race is good.
Q: You know you were actually up on Lewis at the end of the second sector, so it was that final sector. Where was the time lost in that?
VB: Yeah, I think I lost a little bit of time in Turn 17-18, it’s just very difficult to get it perfectly right. But he was performing well. It was tough to beat his time. There was a possibility for that but he did a better job on the lap.
Q: Well done. Sebastian, you’re still smiling, so that’s good. In the end the Mercedes was just too strong a package on this race track. Did you expect it to be a little bit closer or did you have the signs already in free practice?
Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know, to be honest. I enjoyed the session. In Q1 I thought it was rally tight, so I thought maybe we would have a word to say. In Q2 I thought Lewis put a really strong lap in on the harder tyres, and I thought ‘whoa, this is going to be difficult’. But then the first run in Q3 I rally had a good lap and it was very close again, but they must have had still some push in for the last run. I did improve, I think the track ramped up, but not enough to be a threat. But for tomorrow I’m quite confident and I think it is going to be a long race, so yeah, it’s going to be a fun race.
Q: It was great when I was talking with Valtteri, I could see you were talking with Lewis, Lewis has just gone and shaken hands with your mechanics – it’s been a tough rivalry but there has been respect throughout?
SV: Yeah, obviously one thing happens on track but off track I don’t see the reason why you can’t talk to each other or joke with each other. I enjoyed it, obviously it didn’t go my way; I guess he enjoyed it a little but more. Looking forward to getting in the car for the last time this year and challenging these guys and yeah, we’ll give it everything we have.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Starting on pole position for the fourth time here in Abu Dhabi, the 11th pole of 2018, the 83rd pole of his career and his 52nd pole in the last 100 races, Lewis Hamilton. Many congratulations Lewis, how did that one stack up with that long list I’ve just read out?
LH: Wow! It was a great qualifying session. It was a lot of fun. Obviously, going into it, feeling relatively emotional being that I was going to be stepping into this car for qualifying. It’s just been such a journey this year. So many things have happened, so many trials and tribulations along the way and it’s been a real privilege working with these guys. The actually qualifying session went quite smoothly. I think, collectively, as a team, we’ve done a really good job this weekend in getting the car into the right window – and obviously, it was still quite close at the end – but the difficult thing was trying to improve on… it’s always difficult to improve on your last lap, particularly because your first lap, your banker lap, is pretty good but I managed to increase the gap on that section, knowing these guys would also do the same. I saw Valtteri was obviously quite close. He was improving throughout the qualifying session, so he did a great job – but what a great way to end the season, with a one-two qualifying session. So really proud of everyone at Mercedes and, those numbers that you mentioned, I couldn’t have done that without everyone at Mercedes. The support, since I was 13, has been incredible. So, just proud to be a part of the machine.
Q: Valtteri, coming on to you. Just quite simply, where do you feel it slipped away, the time?
VB: I think, first of all, Lewis had quite a nice lap, so congrats for that. My first run, I could feel that there was plenty I could improve, and the gap was smaller between us in the first run. The second run, I think there was definitely some track improvement. We both managed to find some time but he just got a more complete lap in the end. I think what maybe hurt me a little bit was that there was a couple of runs in the qualifying that I didn’t really get a good lap out of the ultra tyre in Q2, some other runs, I really struggled with some things on the car. But then, yeah, happy to have decent runs in Q3. That way we could secure a well-earned one-two for the team.
Q: Sebastian, how surprised are you by the pace of the Mercedes around here?
SV: Not surprised. I think they looked very competitive all weekend, so, I don’t know, qualifying, it’s been a bit up and down. Q1 looked very good for us. Q2 then probably was realistic. I think Lewis had a very strong lap on the ultrasoft. So, I think we tried everything and gave it everything we had. After the first run didn’t look stupid at all. Was very close, half-a-tenth, I thought, was in reach but then the second run, obviously, I crossed the line and… yeah… I was quite happy with the lap but it wasn’t enough and obviously dropped back to third. I guess there first run was probably not as strong as ours. The track did improve but it’s a long lap, so there’s a lot of lap-time to be found if everything works out. As I said, I was happy with our session. I think happy that we were able to get a strong lap in Q2, which is important for tomorrow’s race. Would have liked to have been in the front row. It’s not the case but yeah, I said to the guys after the qualifying that we will fight as hard as we can tomorrow. I think, come race day, anything can happen. We’ve got good speeds in the straights. We are lacking a little bit of downforce in the last sector, I guess, so let’s see what we can do – but surely it’s going to be a long race.
Questions from the floor:
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, with pole and victory and Brazil and pole here, it’s very good form after wrapping up the title. When you won the title early in 2015 and 2017 you didn’t have that afterward. Was it important for you at all to maintain that level after winning the title this year? And is anything different, compared to previous seasons to allow you to stay at that level?
LH: Not really.
SV: You’re older. Wiser.
LH: Older. Wiser! I don’t know. I don’t think it ‘cos I couldn’t do it in the past, just didn’t do the job. I think this year it was being in a different place in my life. I do want to continue to push the limits, push the boundaries and I wanted to finish the season on a solid high if I can. So that I can really continue to keep that foundation as strong as it has been this year so I can use that to start on next year. I think in the past it was still good. It was no biggie that I didn’t win after I won the Championship but I’m definitely happy with how it’s going this year and there’s still a long race tomorrow., so still got a lot of work to do but really happy with today.
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Two questions for you Seb. In Q2, you did the second run on the ultrasoft as well, so did you know you can improve somewhere, was it a big risk for you at that time? And the second one, yesterday, you weren’t that confident for the race pace. Today, you look a bit happier with race pace. Is it just the top speed advantage that makes you more confident for tomorrow?
SV: There’s a lot of questions in there! I think the car felt a bit better today. Probably the track came towards us as well. Usually throughout qualifying the track improves and you start to feel happier with the car. So I think we estimated the right direction and were able to follow the trend. I think yesterday we tried everything and obviously for us the hypersoft didn’t last so long, so we were quite confident that it’s not the race tyre, not the tyre we want to start the race on. Other people obviously had the same opinion and I knew in the second run that I had some lap-time to gain. I was held-up a little bit in traffic on the first lap and I knew it will be tight but I really wanted to start on that tyre. That’s why I was able, or was happy to take that risk.
Q: (Rene Oudman – RacingNews365.com) Question to all three. The Red Bulls will only start in the third row – but we’ve seen in recent races that their race pace is pretty good. How would you guys rate their chances for tomorrow?
LH: Yeah, they’ll be strong tomorrow. They always are in the race. We’ve seen a pattern show over the year where they’re quick in early practice and then, when we get to qualifying, they can’t keep up, or they struggle to keep up with the pace that we end up delivering, and then in the race, they come back. So it’s evident that they’re probably better than all of us at looking after their tyres and operating where they don’t have to manage the same as everyone else, whatever that’s down to, downforce, whatever it may be. So I’m sure they’ll be strong tomorrow – but it’s not that easy a circuit to overtake. And you know the Ferraris are very strong on the straight, so for them to propel past a Ferrari, I’m sure will not be easy but yeah, you’ve seen them up until now, so I hope they have a strong finish to the year and I hope it’s relatively close between us all.
Valtteri, anything to add?
VB: Nothing to add, no.
Sebastian? They’ll be starting closest to you…
SV: Yeah. Obviously!
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Couple of questions; first one’s to Lewis: what is it, 52 poles now in a hundred races; you’ve won 50 races out of 99; phenomenal achievement, what do you put that success down to? Where do you think it’s going to stop and question to the other two, how do you stop him? How do you stop Lewis from steamrollering through these statistics?
LH: I put it down to teamwork. I think it’s definitely a little bit difficult for all you and everyone watching to see everything that’s going on in the background but just the other day I was sitting in the office here, I think on Friday, sitting just talking to a couple of individuals who are not usually here but are up-to-date with next year’s car. So we sit and have this in-depth conversation and it’s inspiring… they are so smart, incredibly intelligent and they think on a completely different wavelength to the normal person. And the things that they have to take into account when building a car and I think over the years I’ve been getting more and more involved in that as I understand it more and try to… You know ultimately I want to make sure, through our debriefs, they’ve not misinterpreted something. For example, I know what I need in this car to make it faster and I’ve got to make sure that I communicate that with them so that they go and build and find that performance. And for next year’s car, I have an idea, for example, where the weak spot will be with these new rule changes as do they, so just working closely, communication and we’re all of us constantly working so closely together, really elevating each other and I think this year, if you look at the team’s performance on the race weekend, that our mechanics, our engineers, strategists, we’ve all raised our game. We’ve been better than… you know it’s never ever been perfect, neither of us as drivers, but collectively, as a team, I think we’ve really continued to elevate ourselves which is again, inspiring for me and that encourages me to go out there and not want to let them down. So I’m confident; as long as Mercedes don’t change their approach, don’t change their desire to win… some teams decide to veer off and do some other business venture and lose a bit of focus on the main ultimate goal; as long as they don’t do that, I believe that we’ll be able to stay on this path and continue to fight at the top. But Ferrari have been doing an amazing job this year so we cannot take anything for granted, we’ve got to keep the hammer down, keep pushing as they will be. See how close they are right now and look at Valtteri, he’s been driving exceptionally well all year. I know next year again, the third year with the team, he will be even quicker so we will have to rediscover new skills for next year.
Q: And Valtteri, how are you going to stop him?
VB: Obviously Lewis has had great numbers in his career. It is really impressive. I think that happens when you’re enjoying it and you always find new skills from yourself and you’re still hungry to develop. It’s for every sport, individual, it’s the same. For me, my target next year is to be better. My target next week is to be better than this week so I will continue my work with the team together and try to be a better driver. Of course I want to be ahead of him many more times than I’ve been in the last two years but it’s going to be hard work, I know but I’m willing to work hard and as Lewis said, we have a great team around us and the team spirit is amazing so the amount of strength I’m getting from the team has been amazing and that’s going to help me also next year.
SV: Well, I think Lewis summed it up fairly well, I think mentioning the word teamwork, I think that’s what it’s about. Obviously what you look at in terms of when you look in qualifying or the race, then obviously we are the ones driving the car and we are alone driving the car and when we cross the line you look at us first but there’s a lot of people behind to make sure that you do cross the line and if they do their job really really well and work together then you have a high chance of finishing higher up. So I think it’s needless to say that Lewis had an incredible run in the last five years but I think since the day he joined Formula One until now, to be honest… you mentioned that it’s the fifth consecutive front-row lock-out for Mercedes here – did you say that? – so it also proves that they’re doing a really good job as a team. I think for us, it’s not that easy because the challenge to beat such a strong team is difficult but that’s our target. I think we know where we want to go. A lot of work ahead of us, I think a lot of lessons to be learned again this year. Ultimately, I think we have 21 races, with the 21st coming tomorrow and in summary, we haven’t been strong enough this year to take the challenge until the last race, the last lap, so I think we need to look at ourselves. I think we have the people, we have the resources so it’s more getting the maximum out of our package, improving the work inside our team and making sure that we come up with a stronger package, a stronger team for the future.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, what do you think? Is tomorrow the last chance to have the first ever Finnish one-two as you two are still in the top teams?
VB: Yeah, for sure it’s… you never know, Sauber might be the best next year. Who knows? I don’t know, time will show, obviously. We’ve seen many many mixed races, conditions in the last few years and it can always happen but I just focus on my race and it can always happen but I just focus on my race, try to win it and then we see.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Sebastian, you talked this year about the benefit that Ferrari has found Friday to Saturday with the work that the guys have done on the simulator, working through things back at base. Obviously, for next year, both of those main guys, Kvyat and Giovinazzi, step into F1 race seats so need replacing. How important is it to have the right guys on the simulator and do you think that Ferrari have made more of that sort of benefit this season?
SV: Personally, I’m not a fan of the simulator because it’s just not fun. But you get the point, it is very important, it is an important tool. Based on our findings last night, we changed the car for today, both of us did and it was better and we were happier. It’s not the first time that this has happened so we’re extremely thankful for the guys, taking in the time because it’s not the nicest job on Friday night, especially when you’re young, but it’s important, it all adds up and again, Lewis summed it up fairly well when he mentioned the word teamwork and that’s what it is. Everybody plays his part and in the end we have the honour to have the steering wheel in our hands and drive the machine that we all try to create and reach out with performance. For next year, it’s true, we take a step but I think we will find people that fit in very well and very quickly so I’m confident we will have a strong team on that front as well next year.
Ends
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Force India will be the 4th quickest: Otmar Szafnauer
Abu Dhabi, 23 Nov 2018: Following is th transcript of the FIA Fridya pess conference:
Cyril, if I could start with you please: major news surrounding Carlos Ghosn. As one of the architects of the F1 programme, what impact is this going to have on Renault’s F1 project?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, I think it’s fair to say that, indeed, Carlos Ghosn was instrumental in the decision to return in late 2015, but obviously it’s not just one man’s decision. It was debated at length in executive committee, at board level, and that was the decision of the company. We have been racing in Formula 1 since more than 40 years. We are part-way on the journey of a long-term plan – six years. Six years to build the team, six years to hopefully challenge these guys. That’s where the focus is at the minute. There is a clear continuity of all the operations with Thierry Bolloré, who is no stranger to Formula 1, as he has been a director of the board of the team since 2016, so obviously this is where we need to focus and support Renault in that overall continuity.
Q: So, in conclusion, are you saying there will be no impact?
CA: We have no information that there will be any impact. We don’t see any reason why there would be more impact on this programme than on anything else. For the time being: continuity, focus on what we have to do, which is complete the championship in the best possible way this weekend and then focus on the second phase of our plan in Formula 1, and this is the success that will matter, the success or lack of success, and this is where I need to deliver.
Q: Thank you. Maurizio, coming to you: Ferrari came close this year, statistically your best season since 2008. What additional resources do you need to bring to the programme to beat the guy sitting next to you in 2019?
Maurizio ARRIVABENE: The habit to win.
Q: Is there anything you need to change within Maranello to help you do that?
MA: Not really, maybe kind of reinforcement but, as I said, but we need to swap our mind and to work a bit more on the habit to win.
Q: And is there anything you can do to instill that winning mentality?
MA: I already gave you the answer, OK? Thank you.
Q: OK, thank you. Christian, if we could come to you please. You’re losing two things after this weekend – Renault and Daniel Ricciardo. Can you reflect on the contributions both of those have made to Red Bull?
Christian HORNER: Yeah, it’s slightly awkward, because I’m sitting next to Cyril who is taking both elements back after the weekend. I’ll start with Renault. It’s been 12 years… Cyril was making the tea when we first started with Flavio…
CA: He’s always nice!
CH: It’s obviously had its ups and down but overall, if you look at the record and what we have been able to achieve – eight constructors’ and drivers’ world championships, 59 victories so far, well in excess of 100 podiums, 60 pole positions – they’ve all come with Renault power. Obviously that chapter comes to a close this weekend and we open a new chapter with Honda in 2019. But despite the turbulence that there has been in recent years, we hope to sign off on a positive note, and as I say, close the chapter on the Renault story. With Daniel, he’s been with us for 100 races, won seven of them. He’s grown up with Red Bull. He was an unknown kid from Australia who arrived in Europe when Red Bull first picked him up, taking him through the junior formulas, into Formula 1 through Toro Rosso and into Red Bull Raving. It’s been great to see his development, his growth, and he’s been a big part of our team for the past five season. All his seven victories, all the points he scored in Formula 1 have come in Red Bull cars. Hopefully we can give him a good sign-off in his final grand prix this weekend and wish him obviously the very best of luck for the future. But again, as one chapter closes another opens, with Pierre Gasly.
Q: Thank you Christian, hope that goes well. Otmar, your team has been protested by Haas on the eve of this race. How many of a surprise was that?
Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, after the protest was lodged it wasn’t a surprise at all. But just before that we weren’t expecting it really, so a bit of a surprise, but in a way it’s good that all of the information can be presented to the stewards and in due course I think they’ll make a very informed decision.
Q: Just throwing it forward to this weekend, how competitive do you think Force India are going to be?
OS: Well, looking at our times from FP1, if they are representative, and I think they are, we did a little bit of long running with Esteban at the end and over a lap Esteban looked pretty competitive. We always go well here anyway, so I expect us to be the fourth quickest team.
Q: Thanks. Toto, first time we’ve seen you in this forum since you won both of your world championships, so congratulations on that, but I wanted to talk to you about drivers and a driver that Otmar has just mentioned. Esteban Ocon was in here yesterday saying that he is going to be working very closely with Mercedes next year, so what are you plans for him?
Toto WOLFF: The plans are pretty clear. He’s going to be very close to the works team, to Mercedes, he’s going to be our reserve driver, our third driver. We hope to maybe do the odd test with him also. We’re looking at pre-season and in-season, but that is not sorted out yet. He will spend a lot of time in the simulator and be ready for a seat in 2020.
CH: If you could show him what the flags mean, as well, that would help.
Q: Tot, just before moving on, talking about Ferrari earlier, can you juts tell us about how you have viewed the threat from Ferrari in 2018?
TW: Ferrari has ramped up their game over the last years tremendously and I think the performance levels were pretty close to each other. We had a few races where we were doing well and then Ferrari came back and they had the upper hand. I think this fluctuated over the season. In the end we came up with a small advantage, but they have become a formidable competitor. Definitely, if Honda goes with Red Bull next year it might be another team joining the party but with the new regulations anyway it’s up in the air if somebody else could be competitive, but we very much embrace the challenge, we enjoy the fight. It’s why we’re here.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question to all five please. F1’s politics usually exists in its own little world but back in Britain we have a political situation with Brexit and the exit from EU, unravelling, a bit of a mess and no-one knows what the consequences are going to be. All five of your respective teams and companies have links to Britain in some way, shape, or form. How closely are you monitoring the Brexit situation and what do you think the consequences could be at this stage?
TW: We are monitoring it very closely because as Mercedes we have a large operation in the UK. Our motorsport division, call it 1800 people, with a large percentage of EU citizens working for the team. Personally, I try to stay out of politics but this topic is very close to my heart because we forget why we ended up with the European, 70 years ago there was a war and the European thinking was to prevent that in the future. In times where everything changes in the last two years, nationalism coming up in various countries, new alliances forming, others breaking up. My personal opinion – I’m not speaking for Mercedes – is here that we should be looking very carefully at the situation and not risk the economy of a country. So, it is a factor for us, as I mentioned the EU citizens working for us, we are importing lots of goods from the EU, we have taken steps to make sure they are not stuck on the border. Overall, not a very pleasant development.
Cyril, have you got anything to add?
CA: Not much to add. I think we share the same concerns, we share similar footprint, or so from an industrial perspective, Renault and Nissan in particular has important factories in the UK, which is an opportunity for us to have a discussion at a proper level with the public authorities from Great Britain to understand what will be the treatment, in particular for movement of goods and people. Obviously we don’t want logistics or freight to be delayed in any shape or form, as well as people. We’ve gone very quickly in the recent years and it’s been done in particular thanks to the possibilities offered by the UK, bringing in youngsters, people are coming out from school, we don’t want that to change. That would be dramatic for Formula One – but I have full trust in the authorities of Great Britian to understand this is not in their interest to lose what is one of the pillars of British Industry, which is motorsport and Formula One.
Christian?
CH: Living in the UK, we’re living and breathing it like some of the rest of you guys and you get a little bit bored with, every time you turn on the news, hearing about Brexit: what the deal is; what it isn’t. Theresa May, she’s obviously doing the best she can with not a great hand – little bit like Chase Carey really! – and it’s a complex situation but I think over the next couple of weeks there should start to become some clarity and I think the bottom line is that people will continue to do business with the UK if we’re competitive and remain good at what we do. Formula One is something that the UK has excelled at in recent years and it’s no coincidence that four of the teams sitting here are based all in the UK. Yeah, there’s obviously some turbulence around at the moment but hopefully, in the coming weeks and months, they’ll be a solution found. There has to be one, ultimately, and it won’t affect how we go about our daily business.
Otmar?
OS: We too watch with keen interest because we also hire… we have many employees from the EU and we’re based in Britain and have to cross borders quite a bit into the EU to go racing. So, we’re watching with keen interest but I have faith that the UK and EU governments will come to an equitable solution that’ll be good for all of us.
And Maurizio, as someone who represents a team not based in the UK, your thoughts on Brexit?
MA: Of course, the situation is not ideal for Formula One so I have that they will be able, the proper authority, they will be able to find a solution. I mean, looking at the situation into the future, I’m thinking about the solution for the overall Formula One. If I’m looking at the situation from the Ferrari perspective, if everything is going in the direction that is announced at the moment, I suspect that in the near future we will find a lot of people that they’re knocking on the door of Maranello – but it’s not really the best scenario, talking about the overall Formula One, so I hope they find a solution, not only for Formula One in general that could accommodate any kind of historical cooperation, and is going to look forward for the future and think about the best development for all of us.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) To all five. After this race it’s exactly two years before the expiration of the present bilateral agreements, known as the Concord Agreement. Do we have sufficient time to sort out sufficient technical, commercial, sporting etc. matters before it expires?
MA: The time, it’s quite tight, you know better than me. So we need to move quickly – but in the meantime we need to avoid any move that could damage our company. I’m talking about Ferrari as I think my colleagues, they are talking about the company that they are representing. So, the time is quite tight – but we don’t have any hurry to move forward and maybe to create a mess. Talking about something that is in front of us now. We have regulation for next year, they were supposed to give more possibility to the overtaking, at the moment the first feedback that I got from our driver is that most probably that objective is not achieved. The result is that we are spending a huge amount of money next year to change our car, then we need also to sit together and to understand how could be the situation for the engine cost for 2021 and maybe thinking about that – because we are continuously talking about cost cap but at the moment, I’m going to see the costs, that they are increasing instead of decreasing. So, we need to stop a bit and, instead of rushing, we need to think on what we are doing now, because what we are doing now, it could potentially influence future decisions.
Toto?
TW: Maurizio said it all. I would share his opinion.
Cyril?
CA: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say that it’s tight. That’s why it’s important that we stay steady and try to be supportive of what FOM’s new management is trying to achieve – because we need visibility. I mean, when you talk to sponsors, new sponsors not in Formula One, they want to have visibility. They need to have at least three years visibility and we can’t offer three years any more. Because, as Dieter was saying, it’s only two years that’s left on the current Concord – so clearly we are really pushing but also helping stakeholders to try to come up with a clear plan, if or what, on each of those aspects which are important aspects.
Christian?
CH: As we were talking earlier, it’s a bit like Brexit. We’ve got to find a deal, we’ve got to find a solution. There’s 24 months. There’s a hard stop, which is at the end of 2020 and there’s only the simple factors of money, regulations and commercial plans for the future to sort out. So what could possibly hold that up!
Otmar?
OS: Yes. I think we’re running out of time and the sooner, the better, and the later we leave it, the higher the cost to react to whatever changes or differences there are going to be. Hopefully by the end of this year we’ll have some clarity on regulations, governance and financial distribution.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Cyril, the press release about the new president of Renault Sport talked about your ambition to win races by 2021 but you’re spending less than the two guys to your right and the one guy to your left. And the budget cap is being pushed back. Are you faced with the question of either spending more money or accepting you can’t win or pulling out?
CA: It’s a bit early to say that we’ll pull out because we will not manage to succeed. Frankly, I don’t want to be moaning about the situation because when we joined Formula One we knew the situation. What’s quite remarkable is the arms race and the relentless spend in order to win which I fully respect and I think it has afforded a great racing season this year so we just need to see how we can emulate on those guys at some point. At some point there will be a different deal on money distribution, at some point there will have to be a limitation of spend because in our opinion it’s just not sustainable and I believe – correct me if I’m wrong – but I believe this is a shared feeling from everyone. So then it’s just a timing issue but if the plan is delayed by one year then it’s delayed by one year but I think what matters is the principle and the principle that we must be in a position to win races at reasonable cost, given the value of Formula One. This is the equation that we want to be seen returning to reality in the next few months.
Q: (Alaric Gomes – Gulf News) Toto, this is something off the beaten trail: Toto you are so much involved in philanthropy and especially the Mary Bendet Foundation and giving to society. Do you feel that you, as a body, as a sport, should get together and have a cause wherein you can all come together and contribute to society or community?
TW: I believe that philanthropy is something that is very personal. We are here to compete in Formula One. We are representing great brands and each of us will have his thoughts of how to give back to the society. Whatever I do, I don’t do it in public because it’s close to my heart and I wouldn’t want to share any of the reasons why I’m doing it, but I feel in the time where everything is about yourself and the ego is running away with everybody and it’s about self demonstration on social media – how great you are – we have an obligation, each of us, to give back a bit, but obviously we have to decide for ourselves how and when.
Q: (Matt James – Sport 360) Cyril, we’ve already talked about bridging the gap to the other three big teams. You’ve got Daniel coming on board next season, what are your expectations, your hopes for him?
CA: It’s a bit early to exactly mention or disclose our exact target for next year because first we would like to finish this season in the best possible way but obviously we need to keep on progressing: P9, P6, P4 in the championship in two years, in three years so we would like to see that progression continuing. We know that obviously the further you go the bigger the steps and the more demanding they will be. We would like to see, for instance, bridging the gap closer to the top teams in qualifying, in races, not being lapped, in terms of points scoring, so this is the type of target that we will announce at the start of next season but you need to expect from us that we keep on progressing and completing the construction of the team and we expect Daniel to play a key role in that, just like he played a key role in Red Bull’s drive, in our opinion, on track but also off-track because we also feel that we need someone to embody that charge. Nico’s doing extremely well as a driver so I also look forward to that line-up to really properly represent the efforts and the ambitions of Renault in that new cycle.
Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat.com) Maurizio, could you tell us a bit more about the role of Laurent Mekies who we saw in the paddock? Is he going to work closely with Binotto?
MA: No, Laurent Mekies is going to be sporting director.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, RaceFans.net) Cyril, earlier on you sounded surprisingly optimistic that the Carlos Ghosn affair won’t affect the Formula One operation. But if we have a look at the all the unknown factors, for example, at the moment it’s not even clear he will return to Europe and also the fact that corporate scandals, the effect they’ve had on people like Volkswagen who left WEC, they left rallying etc. Is it really realistic to be so optimistic that it won’t affect the Formula One programme?
CA: In fairness, I don’t think I was willing to sound optimistic because it’s a substantial piece of development for the whole group. I think my message is simply that there is a continuity plan for all the operations of the Renault Group as well as Nissan and Mitsubishi. Formula One is part of this operation. It’s an object and an activity which is well known, very visible and receiving lots of exposure with clear expectations of return on investment and contribution to the business. I think that the reason why we joined Formula One in the way that we joined Formula One back in late 2015 are still here today: for exposure, for technology development. There is no reason why those factors are suddenly going away in case of any development, for which I don’t want to speculate at this point in time. So if Formula One is still a good value proposition in the past, it has no reason not to be also in the future. But I’m just saying that it will, in my opinion, be in our hands and this is where I will be focusing my efforts rather than in speculation. It’s in our hands to deliver the best possible result also for the best given cost to the company that will then continue to monitor this activity as an any other activity. I have absolutely no indication that for instance, Thierry Bollore is not keen on Formula One. Again, he’s a director of our company, has very good knowledge of what we are doing, so optimism, no scepticism, just focusing on facts and what we need to deliver.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Maurizio, you talk about needing a winning habit but Sebastian’s won 52 Grands Prix, you’ve won six this year, and you won five last year. How much more of a winning habit do you need and what exactly does that mean?
MA: We need to win enough to win the championship, of course. Then it depends on the performance of the other teams, how many. Having said so, the habit to win, it’s very simple. If you are doing one-two it doesn’t have to be an exceptional event. It must be a habit, as I said. In that way you are changing and you swap your mentality from a fighter to a winner. That’s it.
Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – De Volkskrant) Toto, getting back to Brexit, earlier this year you said you weren’t sure if it would be possible to work in the UK in the near future because of all the uncertainties. Has that feeling changed and does Mercedes already have an emergency plan when it comes to hard Brexit?
TW: I think the free movement of EU stuff should be pretty sorted, so I’m not worried in the short term that this is going to affect us but obviously division could have effects that we can’t see yet, beyond free movement of people and goods. And we can’t the see effect yet. As a matter of fact there is nothing on the table yet, we don’t know what the outcome is for the next couple of days, whether there will be a deal or no deal or hard Brexit. Hard Brexit would be terrible for everybody involved, I think. So it’s a moving target at the moment, I would say. But I’m less worried for personnel, to come back to your question, than I was a while ago.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Maurizio, just to follow up very quickly what you said about Laurent Mekies. You’ve obviously hired him because you see him being an asset to Ferrari; what do you see as his strengths, where do you think he’ll improve what Ferrari does?
MA: It’s perfectly… Laurent is perfectly matched in all the strengths that are requested in a sporting director. That is the reason why we hired him, this is the reason why he’s going to take this for next year.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Maurizio, to follow up on your answer, with respect, you didn’t not take the championship to the wire because you didn’t get enough one-twos, you didn’t take the championship to the wire because the driver in the team made too many mistakes, too many times during the season.
MA: This is your opinion…
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) No, it’s fact, you can look at the championship and see how it happened. I can go through the races with you afterwards if you want, but, the point…
MA: What you want me to do?
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) I want you to answer the question as to how you are going to make that not happen.
MA: I give you an answer, I give you an answer, having said that what you said is not correct because we started the season in very good shape and then as Sebastian said yesterday, he made mistake, then from Monza onwards we were not there with the car and this is a fact, too, if you’re talking about facts. I don’t want to point the finger at the team or on the driver. If we are losing, we are losing together. If we are winning, we are winning together. And that’s it.
Ends
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It’s been a privilege to be in an era where Fernando Alonso was racing: Hamilton
Abu Dabhi: Thursday Press Conference saw two batches of drivers. Transcript follows:
PART ONE: DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Lando NORRIS (2019 McLaren Driver), George RUSSELL (2019 Williams Drivers)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Fernando, it’s your final grand prix, can you describe your emotions coming into the weekend, please?
Fernando ALONSO: So far I think it’s a normal weekend. I think on Sunday it’s going to be different, when it gets a little bit more emotions. But right now, I landed like 10 hours ago from Japan. I’ve been racing last weekend in Shanghai and I’m not probably into the mood yet of this final race. It feels OK right now. As I said, it’s going to be special, emotional, and hopefully a good one.
Q: Lewis, on the subject of this being Fernando’s final grand prix. You’ve raced alongside him and against him. What kind of a rival has he been for you?
Lewis HAMILTON: He’s been OK. We’ve had good times and bad times. I don’t really know what else to say. We’ve grown… he was obviously here before I was and achieved incredible things before I got here and also partly why I was here. It’s been a privilege to be in an era where he was racing
Q: Will you miss him?
LH: Will I miss him? Yeah, I think the sport will miss him.
Q: Lando, you are going to be driving for McLaren in 2019 and you’ve been working with Fernando this year. What has he taught you?
Lando NORRIS: He’s taught me quite a few things. One of the biggest things was working with him in Daytona, because I got to see a different side of him, I guess, working together. It’s not just some things. There are quite a few; a lot of stuff I can take through to my first year in Formula 1. And already, things I’ve taken into practice, into FP1s. There have been a lot of things I’ve been able to learn. We’ve had some good times. We get along really well and hopefully can continue in the future.
Q: And George, just a question for you about Fernando. You haven’t worked with him but was he a driver you followed closely when you were growing up?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, 100%. Growing up as a young karter you always look towards Formula 1 and Fernando was in his prime at that time and always fighting for championships, so as Lewis said, the sport is going to miss him, but he is a fantastic driver.
Q: Fernando, you’ve said you’re not in the mood for reflections but what do you feel is your legacy?
FA: I don’t know really. I think it’s difficult to say in the first person. I think I’ve been trying to do my best all the time here, fighting against anything or circumstance that may put some stress or put other people down. I was trying always to give my best and somehow working with the kids and the karting school, the museum, trying to do a lot of things with the fans and the young generation, trying to help them, if I can, with the knowledge I’ve had all these years and with facilities or something that I probably didn’t have at my time and if they have the dreams and the talent, try to help them.
Q: Thank you Fernando, good luck this weekend. Lewis, you’ve been a five-time champion for nigh on four weeks now. In terms of the championships you’ve won, where does 2018 rank?
LH: I don’t know, hopefully somewhere around the top. I’ve not really thought about it too much, to be honest. I’ve been focusing on trying to finish off the season strong. But it does feel… you know me, I don’t have a great memory, but it does feel like one of the best years that I can remember, competition-wise and competitive-wise, in terms of performances.
Q: Thank you, good luck for the weekend ahead. Lando, coming back to you. As we’ve already said, a McLaren driver in 2019. Can you just paint a little picture for us about the preparations that are going to go on between now and Melbourne in March?
LN: A lot! I think I’ve got a lot for myself to look forward. A lot of things that I haven’t done yet to prepare for that first race… the first test of course. Things I’m sure the team will be able to help me through, and guide me in many ways. So I look forward to it. I think there are a lot of things for me to be working on, which I’m very excited about. I’m sure I’m going to be busy. It’s not going to be the easiest of winters. But whatever I can do to prepare myself for Australia, the first race… I’ve never been to Australia yet, so there are a lot of things for myself to do.
Q: And a lot of jetlag. Thank you Lando. George, coming to you, of course you’re going to be racing for Williams next year but you’ve got a championship to win first this weekend, the Formula 2 championship. You’ve got a big lead; just tell us about your approach coming into the weekend.
GR: I don’t think my approach is going to change, to be honest. We’ve had a fantastic season, so there is no real reason to change the approach. Like you said, we have a very healthy margin, but anything can still happen and I think we’ve seen that throughout the whole season.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Tremayne – The Independent, Grand Prix Plus) Fernando, can you share some of you best memories from your time in Formula 1 with us.
FA: Yeah, the season with Lewis, 2007. I don’t know, I think more than races or memories or victories, the best thing I have from the F1 time is the people that I worked with, the people that I shared half of my life with. I’m 37 and I raced here 18 years, it’s half of my life with a lot of talented engineers, designers, mechanics, you guys, the media, everyone. We shared a lot of days over the seasons and I think that’s the best thing that I will always remember about Formula 1. How you approached this kind of races, the philosophy behind a grand prix, the preparation, and the discipline in all areas of the team. Now, racing in other disciplines, other series, you realise that Formula 1 is a step higher and it’s just trying to find perfection in everything, every weekend, every two weeks, all around the world. This was probably the best memories I will get from here.
Q: (David Tremayne – The Independent, Grand Prix Plus) Is there one race where you found that ultimate perfection that stands out for you?
FA: A few of them I think they were probably a little bit higher than others in terms of performing and executing the race. If one, I would say Valencia 2012, a race that probably in a normal world we would never be able to win again. If we repeated it 100 times, 99 of them we would not have ended up first. It was a good execution of a strategy, good overtakings, a lot of risk, bit everything worked well. The car was not particularly fast that weekend, we were not even in Q3. I think I lapped Felipe 10 laps to the end. It was not that we were in a dominant position that day but we still won it, so probably that race.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Fernando, everybody speaks about Sunday’s race being your last grand prix, but you haven’t categorically ruled out returning to Formula 1. What would it take to bring you back, like champions such as Prost and Lauda did, they returned after retiring?
FA: Right now it’s difficult to think about coming back but the door is not closed. The first reason is I don’t know how I will feel next year. I’ve been doing this for my whole life. Maybe next year, by April or May, I am desperate, on the sofa, so you know, maybe I find a way to somehow come back. But it’s not the initial idea. It’s more about myself. If I come back it’s not for any particularly or the line or something that has to happen, it’s more how I feel in the middle of next year.
Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, how proud does it make you, not only what you accomplished in this sport, but what you accomplished for Spain and for Asturias?
FA: Definitely very proud. I think you only realise with time, when you see how many people follow the sport now in Spain, in my region in Asturias, how many people travel to Oviedo to visit the museum, to have the first go in go-karts. A lot of people started following Formula 1 and not Formula 1, motorsports in general, in my country, which definitely was not a tradition. We were not broadcasting the races in 2001, 2002, I think it started in the middle of 2003. Something that is unthinkable now, when Formula 1 is the second or third sport in Spain. That’s something that I feel really proud of, and the same with some of the things I had in Spain, the Premio Príncipe de Asturias is probably the biggest thing I achieved, even more than any Formula 1 championship, because that kind of award is about changing people’s lives and introducing a lot of people into one sport. So, those kinds of things are much bigger than any trophy.
Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) There are going to be a lot for Fernando, so Lewis I’ll give you one. I know you’ve said you don’t like talking too much about the past, but we’re doing something about the German Grand Prix from this year. You’ve said a lot about the conditions and the fortune, and how things came together for you that weekend. What was it you did that weekend that wrestled the initiative back after what happened that Saturday?
LH: Jeez… Hockenheim… oh, where we had the issue of the failure in qualifying. I think it was really together, as a team… obviously we had the steering column failure on the Saturday, meaning that we would be starting from last, and I think we just pulled together and tried to make sure we could make the best of the Sunday, and all remained focused on getting a good result. I think it was just ultimately a true showing of the strength within the team. Even though we’d had a difficult day like that we pull together and look for other solutions to get us back up the front. That’s really what we worked for. As a driver, it was moving past the stumble, or the fall, and getting straight back up and fighting next day as if I was starting at the front. Obviously certain things came along the way in terms of weather and that was just an opportunity for me to capitalise rather than make mistakes. I just think as a driver, I was able to really maximise on that day, not making any mistakes I was able to pull myself further forward than perhaps I would on another weekend.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) A question to Lewis and Fernando. After eight years away Robert Kubica is back on the grid next year. You’ve both raced against Robert, I just wondered what your thoughts were on his return to the sport as a racing driver?
LH: Is Robert younger or older than me.
(General response): He’s older than you.
LH: Oh, perfect! So, I’m so happy he’s coming back, because Fernando is leaving and I was going to be the second-oldest driver but now I still remain the third. I can’t tell you how happy I am about that. No, I think it’s great. I raced him from karting days so I’ve known him for a long, long time and he was always one of the most talented drivers that I had the pleasure of racing against. I know he has had a really difficult time over the last God knows how many years now, and it’s just great to see he’s got the opportunity back and I hope he works hard on his strength and getting his mind back into gear like he was in the past and I think it’s exciting for the sport to see him back in action.
Q: Fernando?
FA: Yeah, not much to add. I think, as Lewis said, he is one the great talents the sport has had and it’s great to see him back to race. It remains to be seen what will be the performance of the car, and his own performance, because we only saw a couple of test days. But if he is at 100% he will be amazing to watch, so happy with him.
Q: And George, he’s going to be your team-mate next year. Your thoughts on Robert Kubica?
GR: Yeah, I’m extremely excited to be team-mates with Robert. Obviously Lewis and Fernando have said how talented and fast he is, and there’s absolutely no doubt about that. But on top of that he is extremely intelligent, he’s got so much experience and I think he’s going to be a great addition to Williams and he’ll really help push Williams back to where they deserve and should be.
Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid-Day) Question to Fernando. Fernando, in your time in Formula One, you’ve gone up against many great drivers. Who would you say was your greatest rival – and what made them so challenging to beat? Thank you.
FA: It’s difficult to choose one. Obviously, if I have to say one, it will be Michael. Not because any particular reason it was just because, when I got to Formula One, Michael was dominating the sport and you are in go-karts and you see Michael winning, you are different categories, you see Michael winning, and then eventually you find yourself fighting wheel-to-wheel. So, those battles were definitely special, or more emotional at that time – but yes, as you said, I think we had, and probably have right now, the most talented generation. Because all drivers now, they are more prepared. They get more time in the simulator, in different young driver programmes, so they go to Formula One with a level that was unthinkable a decade, or two decades ago. So, yeah, it was a good journey and I have to choose one, maybe Michael – but just for emotional reasons, not for any technical aspects.
Q: (René Oudman – Racingnews365.NL) Question to Lewis and Fernando. It was recently announced that George and Lando will make their debut in Formula One next season. Can you recall the levels of excitement you felt – and it seems like ages ago – back when you made your debuts. And do you have certain advice for these guys?
Lewis let’s start with you.
LH: Shouldn’t it be elders first?
FA: Probably my advice wouldn’t be very useful because my start was very different. My debut was in Minardi, 2001, we could not test the car before Australia. The team was disappearing at one point, it was bankrupt, so Paul Stoddart came in at the last moment and flew the car to Australia and we studied the steering wheel on Wednesday and Thursday of Australia, and I remember going out of the pitlane in FP1 and there was a queue of cars at the end of the pitlane, because there was still a red light, and I nearly crashed with them, because I could not find the neutral button. That was not the perfect start! The perfect debut! I think they will have more experience, they will have more preparation. They will be excited, yes – but they will be very well prepared when Australia comes. It’s just a matter of executing the race and follow all the engineering help that we have these days.
Lewis?
LH: Yeah, I think I’d second what Fernando said. I think Fernando’s was a time before mine – but also my preparation would have been better than Fernando’s – but their preparation is even further ahead from where I was, you know, simulations. George has been with us in all debriefs – pre-briefs and debriefs – and he’s been on the simulator, so the preparation is a lot better than it was, I guess back in our time. Even mine was already great. So yeah, I think they just have to arrive and enjoy, which I’m sure… there’s a different confidence level now, I think, from the younger side, being that there is that preparation. I think it’ll be an exciting experience for them. I can’t remember how it was for me, to be honest, in my first race. I was racing against this dude, who was a two-time World Champion, so I think I was very nervous.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, your relationship with Fernando got off to a bit of a rocky, shaky start in 2007. Can you just say how you felt about Fernando then, and how your relationship’s improved, for the better obviously, over the years?
LH: I don’t really recall it too much, to be honest. I don’t feel like I ever had a personal issue with Fernando. I think it was more how the team was run, or the situation we were put in, and how that was managed. Maybe. Probably:
FA: Definitely.
LH: I don’t think we ever necessarily had an issue between us, except we were trying to beat each other and murder each other’s laps on the track. Outside, we used to play NBA 2K, or whatever it was together, ever now and then. It was always really quite harmonious outside. I definitely think naturally, we’re older, old men now and the respect between us, I’d like to think, is higher than it’s ever been and I don’t think that’s ever going to change, and I do hope that Fernando’s at least around, or at least I get to see him in the future, as someone I’ve always respected highly as a driver, as I’ve always commented on, and so, I really do wish him all the best for his future endeavours.
Q: (Walter Koster – Saarbruecker Zeitung) Lewis, I want to remind you politely of your promise you have given two years ago, same place, here in the FIA press conference in Abu Dhabi. Quote: ‘In ten years, you will have to buy my book and can read the explanation for the change of mine and Nico’s mechanics crew.’ It was a good question, it will be an interesting read. Now, I want to know, have you already started writing your book? I am now 69 and have the intention to buy and read it. I hope I will still have the chance in my life. Is it OK so far?
LH: That’s a good one! I said ten year, two years ago? I’ve got a while now. You’re going to have to wait a little longer. Eight more years to go.
FA: Don’t make him wait, say it now!
LH: Eight more years. So I’ve got a little bit of time to prepare. But I haven’t planned to do anything anytime soon. I really don’t have any intentions to do a book. Are you going to do a book?
FA: yeah, I will, next year. But look at him, you should say something. He deserves it, after the long question.
LH: I said in ten years right?
But now, only eight years.
LH: Yeah! Eight years to go. OK. Every year from now on you have to remind me. Countdown. Sounds good.
Q: (Zoran Zikov – Topspeed Magazine) Fernando…
FA: You will need to wait eight years – but ask me whatever you want!
Simple question. In your Formula One career, journalists always put many questions to you. Is there any question you’ve never been asked by a journalist but you want to give an answer to?
FA: No. I think I’ve received all the questions in the world. It’s impossible that there’s one missing. So… I’m not missing any questions. Enough.
Q: (Alexander Tobakowski – Derbi.mk) Fernando, besides the triple crown, what could bring you back in Formula One – maybe becoming the father of a future world champion in F1, like Rosberg and Hill?
FA: I don’t know. I don’t know what the future will bring. Definitely now I’m concentrating on the personal challenges, the triple crown and some other races that I will add next year. For 2020 I don’t know exactly what I will do, or what will be the plan. Further away, it’s impossible to think – but yeah, who knows? Life is long and beautiful. I like Formula One. I will always love Formula One, so if I will be here in the future as a driver, as a father, as an FIA boss or whatever. I will think.
LH: You’re not the FIA boss! At least when I retire.
FA: Maximum penalties.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Fernando, what are you going to miss most about Formula One next year? If anything?
FA: Press conferences.
Tell me the truth!
FA: I think driving the cars. The cars are something special. It doesn’t matter if you’re fourteenth, fifth or fighting for victory. Obviously if you can be on the podium and win, definitely it’s an extra celebration and joy – but when you go out of there for qualifying, or even tomorrow for free practice, and you’re drive these cars, they are very special, y’know? The amount of technology behind these cars would be difficult to replicate in any other series – but on the other side there are negative aspects of Formula One, especially if you are 18 years here. You dedicate your entire life to Formula One. You have no friends, no family, no free time, no privacy, no wife, no kids, no nothing. It’s just full dedication if you want to succeed. So, I think, I have other priorities right not.
Q: (Carlo Miquel Gomez – AutoHebdo Sport) Fernando, what’s your goal for the race? It’s your last race. Q3 and finish the race and make a big party?
FA: I have to be in Bahrain on Monday morning – so the party is not going to be too long but yes, enjoy the race. I think that will be the first priority. I know we are not competitive enough to fight for big things but, nevertheless, I think we are fighting with Force India for the Constructors’ Championship, so that will be nice to succeed on that and finish in front of them. And in qualifying, even if Q3 is also a dream maybe, too optimistic, we try to do some good laps, some good runs and feel happy with the laps, whatever the position it is. And yeah, that’s the goal.
Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat.com) Lando, what kind of approach are you going to take, considering that McLaren has had a very challenging season?
LN: Hard to say. I think considering it’s my first season in Formula One, and of course I would like it to be a long career in Formula One, there’s a lot of work to be done from myself and obviously from the team. They are working very hard for next season. A lot of change in the team, to try and progress next season and get further up the grid from where we are now. But I know it’s not going to be easy. Obviously, my whole career I’ve worked hard but I’ve always had good results – so it’s going to be my first season where I’m going in and I’m know I’m not going to be winning races – probably – but yeah, hopefully it’s a longer game. And we can just make improvements. I think that’s the biggest thing I want to be able to do, and the team as well, is improve over time and eventually, maybe mid-season, end of season, two years, whatever, see all of this hard work getting paid off. Getting more points, getting a podium and, eventually, try to win. I think that’s my goal and the whole team’s goal. So, I’ll be just working with them as hard as possible to get that aim done.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) George, you’ve worked very closely with Lewis, and Lando, you with Fernando. What’s the single most important aspect you each learned from the World Champion sitting next to you that helped you get into Formula One.
GR: I think from my side, seeing how Lewis deals with the team behind the scenes, and everything, I think. No matter who you are, you can see how that driver works on track, and at the end of the day, if Lewis gave me any driving advice, what works for him might not work for me, and vice versa, so I think, from my side, the biggest thing I learnt, in the debriefs, how he discusses, and talks with the engineers, and deals with that aspect.
Lando?
LN: I don’t think it’s been one thing in particular. There’s been a lot of things that I’ve learnt from Fernando. I guess the biggest thing is to enjoy it. I think that’s one of the biggest and best things I’ve seen from Fernando is how, although it’s his job and he has to work hard and everything, he still has fun at the same time. I think that’s something very important. We probably wouldn’t be here – any of us – if we didn’t enjoy what we’re doing. But yeah, it’s on a kind of different level. Apart from the obvious things, working hard, how he talks to his engineers, how they progress, enjoying it and having fun is probably one of the best things I’ve seen.
PART TWO: DRIVERS – Esteban OCON (Racing Point Force India), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
Q: Esteban and Max, it’s been two weeks since you guys were involved in a collision at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Max, let’s start with you: is that now water under the bridge?
Max VERSTAPPEN: You guys like the drama, don’t you? Like two weeks after. Yeah, no, all good, in the sense that you can’t change the result. It’s of course unfortunate. It’s always a bit weird to crash with a backmarker but that’s how it goes.
Q: Would you do anything differently if the same situation arose?
MV: No, I wouldn’t, because from my point of view, how I look back on it is that I just passed Lewis for the lead and this season, it has been a lot about tyre management so as soon as I got into the lead, I was basically just cruising to save the tyres and somebody comes out of the pits and has fresh supersoft tyres, I think it was at the time… In general, I think this season Force India has been at least a second to a second and a half behind us. For two laps, maybe, you feel like you have decent pace but the guys in the lead are most of the time not pushing flat out to get somewhere, because once you in the lead, what do you want to do? So maybe you want to try and get past and then try and pull away but within two laps your tyres are gone, or at least, the peak has gone and you end up letting us by again so at the end of that whole process, to try and get by you’re anyway also destroying your tyres in a way so I think it’s always better to just stay behind and follow. Clearly that was not the case.
Q: Thank you Max, and Esteban, how do you reflect on it?
Esteban OCON: Yeah, it’s not a great thing, you know, to be involved with a crash with the leader, of course. It’s not a thing you want to see and I’m sorry for Max. It was his race to win, he did a fantastic job during the whole race but yeah, on the other side, I had a slow pit stop so I came out in between Lewis and Max. got the blue flag after a couple of corners. I got away from the blue flag and I was quite fast and behind Max so I was stuck and then the team came onto the radio saying ‘you can unlap yourself if you want and if you are faster’ and as Max said, he was managing the tyres so yeah, I just went for it. It was important for us to get close to the top ten pack. If something happens, you know, a penalty or anything, I could have got in the points. Things that happen, you can’t come back from what has happened but yeah, that’s how it is, we have to move forward.
Q: Max, coming back to you, this is the team’s final race with Renault engines. Just how excited are you about the future with Honda?
MV: I’m very excited but the whole team is. You can really feel it. I think it’s good that the whole team is super-motivated for next year. We know that we can build a great car. Of course we are just waiting to have the whole package together but I definitely feel a difference compared to the last years where… the motivation was there, everybody was always trying to do their best but now they’re just so looking forward to next year that I think next year, to have that extra motivation will definitely help us to be more successful next year.
Q: Esteban, coming back to you; we now know for certain that you won’t be racing in Formula One next season. What does 2019 hold for you?
EO: Yeah, we’ll see what it holds for me. Definitely I will be around in the F1 paddock and trying to get as much mileage as possible in a Formula One car next year. Me and Mercedes, we see great opportunities for me to come back in 2020 so hopefully that will be the case and hopefully I will be back even stronger than I am now.
Q: Have you had any assurances from Mercedes about 2020?
EO: No, assurances, no. You never have but as I said, we seen great opportunities so hopefully there will be.
Q: Coming to the Ferrari drivers now, you both have good memories of racing here in Yas Marina. Sebastian, if we could start with you, how important is it for you and the team to end 2018 on a high?
Sebastian VETTEL: I think it’s what everybody tries to do but certainly after a season with highs but also with lows I think it would great to finish on a high.
Q: And then looking further ahead, what has Ferrari go to do to present a consistent title challenge in 2019?
SV: I think we need a stronger package. We certainly have had our moments this year when we had strong races but we also had races which weren’t very strong, we weren’t quick enough, so I think overall it’s the speed that decides and I think more often than not I think we’re lacking a little bit of speed. I think we’re working very hard and I think the motivation is there to do that final step that is still outstanding.
Q: Kimi, after eight seasons, this is your final race with Ferrari. What does this team mean to you and what will you miss most about it?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: I don’t know. Obviously I had this leaving them once already so it’s not a new thing. I’m not sad because I don’t see why we need to be sad. We will stay as friends. We’re going to see a lot of us anyhow in the paddock so not an awful lot changes. We’ll both go for new things and I think it’s exciting but we’ve had good times with the team, great people. We’ve had some difficult times, but that’s part of business and I think that’s how it should go: sometimes it needs to be a bit hard. No, obviously I won the championship with them, as a driver. We twice won the team (championship) so I’m very happy to be part of it because there’s not many people who have done it. We will happily go different ways. We’re not that far away from each other and we will keep doing what we do.
Q: And just looking at this weekend, you’re in a tight battle with Bottas, just 14 points separating you in the championship. How important is that third place for you?
KR: I don’t think it’s changing my world any way. If I end up third, I think we need to go wherever the prize giving is so it’s a negative thing in the end, you know, more travelling but we’ll see.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Esteban and Max, we all know there’s a bit of history between you two. How do you feel about each other as drivers and as men, and about the prospect of racing together potentially for a long time in Formula One?
MV: OK, with all the other young drivers? Oh. We’ve done that in go-karting so that’s life.
EO: Formula Three.
MV: Formula Three.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) All I’m asking is how do you feel about each other as drivers and as men?
SV: Boys.
MV: Yeah! Well, I don’t know. It’s like a neutral feeling.
EO: I will respond, if he cannot, I do. We’ve been racing since a long time and it’s been close racing on track. Sometimes there were touches but you know if you’re fighting for championships or stuff it’s always the case. Anyway, it gets close at some points but the important thing is that it stays good racing and good fun for the fans but doesn’t go over it and that’s the important thing, yeah, but it’s been a long time that we know each other and it’s been good so I don’t see why it could change.
MV: I have the same feeling racing Esteban or Seb or Kimi. It’s not because he’s a lot younger than them that changes my feeling or anything.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.Net) Max, Will Buxton, the F1 TV reporter has just tweeted: ‘tell you what, Max ain’t over it. Not one bit. Doubled down on it being intentional on Ocon’s part. Blimey.’ Did you do a TV interview with him where you possibly suggested that Esteban did it intentionally?
MV: No.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.Net) This was tweeted in the last ten, fifteen min…
MV: I don’t care about what’s written on twitter so… no.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Max, at the start, you said you guys like the drama but obviously the drama is heightened by what happened after the race where you pushed Esteban three times. If you could go back again, would you have the same response? Do you regret your response?
MV: No, not really because I was after an apology and I got a bit of a different response. We are all emotional, just at the time that I had lost a victory, so I think from my side I was really calm. It could have been much worse. I think pushing, in any sport, it happens. I actually saw it a few days ago in football again. So from my side, I thought it was quite a calm response. What do you expect me to do, like shake his hand, like thank you very much for being second instead of first? I think it’s quite a normal response. OK, I got my two days with the FIA which we will find out what we’re going to do but no, from my side… You guys don’t really hear what’s actually being said at the scales. You just see me pushing. But if you understand the whole conversation, I think it’s a bit different.
Q: Can I just throw this to the Ferrari drivers? Sebastian and Kimi, what are your thoughts on what happened between these two drivers in Brazil?
SV: We can go? Now? I don’t know. I have an opinion. I’m not sure I should say what I think.
KR: Not really. I saw it afterwards. Boys and boys and that’s how it goes. I don’t think anything bad happened in the end it’s probably in many eyes, if you take the whole picture, maybe it’s not the greatest thing in many aspects but it’s not the end of the world. That’s how it goes.
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Two questions, first to Max: you said you would do the same again, you’ve done nothing wrong. I think most of us agree but if you would be in that championship battle, would you do something differently, even if it wasn’t wrong, but drive a bit more safely in this situation? And Seb, just to follow up on what you said: can you give us your opinion?
MV: I don’t think it really changes if you’re fighting for a championship. It’s easy to say, from other people, yeah, you should have done something differently but I don’t expect to crash with a backmarker. Like I said, if you’re fighting for first or second and you crash like that it’s a different story but if you get hit like that… I honestly don’t understand what I should do differently so, no. For most of the people, also with the emotional side of it, you have not been a racing driver or you have not been in this position where there’s a lot to play for and we are all here to win and then you are in that position and it gets taken from you. It’s not nice and I think emotions can then take over and I think it’s really normal. Like I said, it’s just a normal thing.
SV: I think in the end, it’s very simple. I think we have emotions, we are human beings and emotions go both ways. They go full of joy when something great happens and you’re happy and they probably swing the other way if you’re not happy or upset. I think it’s clear that we’re here to fight something that means the world to us – I don’t know how much it means to you because for you, most of you… you know, for people watching it’s a show they’re watching. For people reporting about the show it’s a job. For us it’s a job but it’s our lives. I think we all started racing when we were small kids in go-karts and to be in a Formula One car is the dream that we all had, to race a Formula One car and then to fight for a win, so there’s something big at stake. It’s not like… you know, you get a piece of cake when you’ve done well and you don’t when you didn’t. So there’s a lot at stake and I think that explains the emotions and as I said, I think emotions are part of sport. I think they always will be. Obviously you have certain situations that give you the opportunity to talk about it a lot afterwards. I’ve been in that situation as well but I think for us it’s very clear that the pendulum swings both ways.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Max and Esteban, I think all of us here would like to report the facts so Max, help us out here: what was said on the weighing scales after the race in Brazil?
MV: Something I didn’t expect to hear. No, it doesn’t matter what it was at the end of the day, because it clearly pissed me off instead of let’s say, straightway an apology but maybe after the race, you’re still with the adrenaline kicki… it’s still in your body, you maybe don’t get the right answer but like I said, we’re not robots. We have emotions. And like Seb said as well, we will always be, unless you puts robots in the car but I don’t think we want that.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) No, none of us want that. Esteban do you feel like you played your part in what happened as well, then?
EO: Yeah, I think we have to move forwards in what happened. We can’t change the past. I’m sure, even if Max said the opposite, he would like to come back on what he did after the race. Yeah, I think it’s done, we can’t change it and now we have to move forward.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Max, over the last four races, in terms of points, you’ve been neck-and-neck with Lewis Hamilton. There’s one point in it and obviously if the race had gone differently in Brazil you would be ahead by a few points. Does that make you confident that next year you could challenge, we could see a three driver or perhaps more, competition for the title?
MV: Well, I think I had that last year as well. I don’t think it really matters a lot, we just need to make sure that from the start, from next year, that we are a little bit closer so we can actually start fighting with them a bit sooner, because it seems like that throughout the season our car just keeps progressing in a good way. That definitely helped us out at the end of the season again this year and also last year. We just need to be a little bit sooner than at the end of the season.
Q: (Marco Privitera – LiveGP.it) Kimi, after your long experience with Ferrari, what will be the next target for next year and the rest of your career?
KR: I haven’t really thought (about it). We’ll see once we start driving the new cars next year where we are roughly, purely by feeling and then we go from there. Obviously it’s a different challenge but I enjoy also, that’s why I (inaudible). We’ll see. If you ask many people there are lots of different opinions how it’s going to go but we’ll find out next year and we’ll do our best. I think we have a good change to do some great things. Where that’s going to take us, who knows? We’ll find out but we’ll see what happens once we start next year and then after that, I haven’t even thought about it.
Q: (Alexsandar Tobakowski – Derbi.mk) Sebastian, we tend to believe that you have a very friendly relationship with Kimi during these years at Ferrari, so do you expect to have some more pressure from Charles during next season? If yes, the same level of pressure if it was Max joining Ferrari?
SV: I think they’re two different things. I think I tried to beat Kimi. Kimi tried to beat me. I think it doesn’t matter who you are racing in the team, you always try to win and that means you also beat whoever is driving with you in the same team, so I don’t think that changes. Obviously Charles is different to Kimi so we will see how it goes but I think he’s a good kid. One thing for sure that I enjoyed a lot in the last years is the mutual respect that we have to each other. I think we never had to deal with any bullshit between ourselves so that made it easier for me, easier for him I guess and easier for the team. But I’m not expecting anything in that direction from Charles. I think he’s a good kid. Obviously the team knows him very well for a while now, since he’s grown in the Ferrari Drivers Academy and yeah, happy for him and then we’ll see how it works out.
Q: Sebastian, can you name something that you will miss about Kimi next year?
SV: Silence!
KR: Short meetings from my side.
SV: Exactly!
Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid-Day) Kimi, just to follow up from what you said earlier: like you said, it will be a new challenge next year at Sauber. What do you think you will enjoy most about driving for Sauber next year?
KR: Obviously I don’t know yet because… I’m pretty sure it’s a much smaller team than where I’ve been now, at Ferrari, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be different in many ways but the aim is still the same, do well in the races. I think it’s more pure racing and less the other stuff in there. Hopefully it will turn out to be good for both of us and that’s our aim. I think it’s what we can do, but obviously I might be completely wrong but we’ll find out. I have a good feeling about it and I’m excited to go there. But it’s close to my home which is obviously a bonus.
SV: Didn’t you tell me that you’re really looking forward to the simulator.
KR: Yeah, but I have it at home. I told them don’t spend the money on it because I have on at home.
MV: So you will do the set-up work for them for the Friday, for the first practice?
KR: Yeah. That’s easy. No worries. Do it once well and it should be fine.
Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportwereld) Max, you said nothing is clear yet about your public service punishment. What do you expect for punishment? Do you agree with it and do you see it as a real penalty or more something of a warning not to do it again?
MV: I honestly really don’t know. We’ll discuss, between the team and the FIA, what we’re going to do. If I agree with it, it doesn’t really matter, does it? What can you do about it? I find it a bit harsh but yeah… We’ll find a solution.
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Max is that go-getter guy and every now and then it bites you: Hamilton
Hamilton at the Press Conference on Sunday. An FIA image Sao Paulo, 11 Nov 2018: Hamilton said that Max Verstappen is a go-getter and sometimes incidents happen that affect you. He was talking at the post-race FIA Press Conference at Interlagos on Sunday. Verstappen who ended up second after he was pulled down by Ocon, who is lapped, also was at the press meet with Kimi Raikkonen, who came third on Sunday.
The track interviews were conducted by the former F1 driver of Force India, Paul Di Resta.
Q: Max, can you tell us what happened?
Max Verstappen: I don’t know what to say, I mean, you do everything well, you go through the field, we had a great car, and then by such an idiot you get taken out while he is being lapped. I have no words.
Q: What a fight it was. I don’t think anyone quite expected that after yesterday. I mean, the moves you were making early on, very bold into Turn 1, pushing your way through and using everything you had.
MV: I think it was better than expected today. The car was working brilliantly today. The team also gave me the right strategy, we could be going quite well on the supersoft, so we did quite a long stint. But, yeah, I don’t know what to say. Still I’m happy with second, but we should have won today.
Q: Yeah, as you say, it was almost back-to-back victories, does it give you confidence going into next year that something is going to come of this machine?
MV: Well, we should have more power, so we’ll be even better.
Q: All the best. Kimi, late pressure from Daniel coming in, but a good race from you?
Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, it was good. Not easy, but there was some battling, so it was fun. Obviously, we hoped for better but not the easiest.
Q: Ferrari’s tyres choice didn’t look like it worked out in the end, these guys looked very strong at the beginning, certainly Max on the supersoft. Do you think that was wrong?
KR: I don’t know. My tyre was good, but it was difficult to pass and it took too long to pass. You cannot replay on other tyres, so we don’t know.
Q: Lewis, that’s 2018 Constructors’ champion as well. And you can see what that means to Toto Wolff – the barriers have fallen over twice here in Parc Ferme, which is unusual. Lewis, what does that mean to the team?
Lewis Hamilton: Honestly, these guys have worked so hard the last six years and it’s been an incredible journey for them. This is what everyone works for the whole year, you know. Everyone wakes up and goes to work every day and tries to bring the best out of themselves and they really pull together as a unit. I’ve always told you how much of an honour it is to drive for them, and this was the best style we could do it, because we were struggling. We had problems with the engine. Also he passed us like we were a sitting duck at one stage, but obviously they made a mistake and that brought us back into contention. I’m just so proud of everyone. Everyone back home, thank you so much for your continued efforts. For all our partners, for all our sponsors, who without we would not be here, powering along to a win in Brazil. So, God bless you, thank you.
Q: What goes through your mind when you see Verstappen spin? Did you know he was going to be back on a charge and coming strong?
LH: I saw it happen and it wasn’t something that… I wasn’t surprised by it or anything like that. I saw them racing but they weren’t racing for the same position. In my mind, I would have been in a different frame of mind. Fortunately, he was able to keep going, no one got hurt, and they kept going, it’s a racing incident I guess. Max is that go-getter guy and every now and then it bites you. But I’m really, really proud; I don’t care about anyone else.
Q: I’ve got one last question for you. Big credit to you, that’s 49 wins in the turbo-hybrid era of Formula 1. That’s 50% of all the races. A lot of that’s owed to you, isn’t it?
LH: I keep telling you, I’m just a chink in the chain. They give me the tools and I try to do the best I can with it. I’m proud that I’m able to sometimes bring a little bit more than is needed or that it’s capable of, but that’s what I live for.
Press Conference: Questions from the floor:
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, I can only imagine the frustration, the emotions at the end of the race for you. Can you just explain what happened between you and Esteban after the race? We saw your altercation. Did he do anything to antagonise you and will you try and speak to him at once when emotions have settled down later on?
MV: I don’t really have a lot to comment on that, except that he was being a pussy.
Q: (Rodrigo Franca – Revista VIP) From a drivers’ point of view, how do you see the future of Formula One to attract a young audience as self-driving cars and electric cars are being developed so quickly? And if you see a future better between Formula E and Formula One?
LH: It’s a difficult one because I’m conflicted. The gasses that we emit with our cars are not particularly helpful for the climate and for the world, so on one side that’s a concern for me but on the other side, as a racing fan, I’m a petrol head and I will always be a petrol head. There will never be a time when I’m an electric head. I hope, at least, in my period of time, it’s always going to be a fuelled car with at least some sort of V-shaped engine, with some sort of sound. I think it’s great what Formula E are doing and it’s a great start, it’s great to see all the top brands – Audi, BMW, Mercedes – are all getting heavily invested because, particularly on the roads – just coming here, for example – you see the traffic every single day, there are thousands and thousands of cars on the road. There’s the same in every country you go to so the sooner we can get rid of the majority of those cars and then turn them into hybrids, then I think that would be a massive difference, but there are a lot of other things we can do around the world with businesses to help with those emissions. But I don’t think you are ever going to compare Formula One and Formula E. Maybe in five, ten years maybe, but the technology that we have, it’s quite far advanced compared to what they would be having and they’re slower than Formula Ford at the moment so they’ve got a long way to catch the speed of a Formula One car. I don’t know if that’s their target but I think it’s really impressive. I’ve been watching their cars on social media and they look pretty cool, so I wish them all the best and looking forward to seeing it progress.
MV: I think the boss clearly said of Formula E already that they don’t want to compete or be seen competing against Formula One so I guess that says enough. It’s just a different category. It seems like it’s getting more interesting, of course, with all the big car manufacturers joining in but at the moment I’m happy where I am and I will probably be one of the last people in the world to try and buy the last barrels of oil.
KR: Nothing to add, really. Formula E looks nice but…
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Max, you have more of an opportunity to talk about the incident with Ocon in a more extended way. Do you think that just one stop and go of ten seconds, against the work of 900 people in your team, that this punishment is enough?
MV: I think at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what penalty he gets. I already have the penalty of not winning the race so even if you disqualify him, give him two drive-throughs or whatever, it’s not going to make a difference to our race. I don’t know what the right penalty would be but, like I said, of course they have the right to unlap themselves but you have to be careful. I think that has always been the case.
Q: Max, can you just tell us how badly damaged your car was after the incident with Ocon?
MV: So, you know all the cut-outs you have on the side of the floor, that whole area, so I guess that’s this wide(about 15-20cms) that was completely gone so it was pretty bad. I lost a lot of downforce. I had to lock a lot of tools on the steering wheel but that was still not enough. But still the car was quick. We could have been much faster, for sure.
Q: (Dario Coronel – Gran Premioweb) Lewis, today your celebration was very emotional. Why?
LH: I think it was probably an explosion of the last race in Mexico winning the World Championship… I didn’t really feel the celebration there because I knew that we still had another championship to win and I really needed to remain focused for the team and I really came here, to build up to here, just really focused on making sure that I could deliver for them. Naturally the will to want to win is so high for everyone and the stakes are high. Ultimately, you could make mistakes and all these different things but we didn’t or I didn’t on the track, for example, so to come in and see my guys who I’ve come along this great journey with and we’ve had a lot of success but we’ve still remained fierce and competitive and I think our relationship is better than it’s ever been so just that bond, it was just a great great moment, plus it was a really hard race. I was constantly, like, talking to the car: ‘come on, keep going, keep going’ because we had this engine problem and I knew I could see Max just in my mirrors so I was doing qualifying laps every lap to keep him behind, which is how racing should be really anyway. Unfortunately that’s not the case a lot of the time this year but… We’ve just won the World Championship for the fifth time so that’s real history in the making for the team and if I was to stop today, for example, Mercedes would always remember this day and that I was a part of it, and that’s cool.
Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD) Max, over the last days, you’ve told us a lot of times that this is not a circuit for Red Bull, winning was not an option. Ending 1.6s from the winner, with a spin, what does that say about your chances in Abu Dhabi in two weeks?
MV: I don’t know, because this was much better than expected to be honest. I expected to be good in the race but not this good. We will have to wait and see.
Q: (Mattheus Sacramento – ESPN Brazil) Max, there was a similar incident – not exactly the same – but in 2001 in Brazil with Jos Verstappen and Montoya. You’re too young, I’m not sure if you ever heard of it. Montoya was in first place and Jos was 16th I guess and they had a crash. I just wanted to know if you knew that or if that came back to your mind in some ways, that impacts the way you saw Ocon?
MV: Well, I think that was completely different but yeah, that happens. I don’t know what you want me to say, it’s always bad when you get taken out from the lead.
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I have got Senna’s design on the back of my helmet and I am happy to be here, says Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton (centre) at the Saturday Press Conference. An FIA image Sao Paulo, 10 Nov 2018: Lewis Hamilton who won the 100th pole for Mercedes AMG Petronas team edging Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari and third-placed teammate Valtteri Bottas attended the Saturday FIA press conference after the qualification. The Track Interviews were conducted by former Force India F1 driver Paul Di Resta.
Q: Lewis, another pole position, your 10th pole position of the year. What have you got to say?
Lewis Hamilton: That was a tough qualifying session. Obviously, the weather was going up and down and we didn’t really know what to expect. Obviously, Ferrari are incredibly quick this weekend a lot of work went on in the background with my engineers to make sure we got the car to be in the best place we could. I’m just really happy to be here in Brazil, you know, knowing I’ve got Senna’s design on the back of my helmet, so I mean… I didn’t know I had the pole, the last lap wasn’t that great if I’m honest, I had a bit of understeer in a few places but I was so grateful when I heard I got pole.
Q: This place means so much to you. You can see the tribute you do to Ayrton every year and the Brazilian fans love you as well?
LH: I just appreciate so much the love that I get here. It’s been a crazy journey with the Brazilian fans. Obviously, the first year I came here I was fighting against Felipe and I was almost the enemy when I left but over the years it’s really grown to I think adore each other. There’s a huge amount of respect I have for them and I love the country so it works hand in hand.
Q: What can we expect tomorrow. Obviously, Ferrari are doing a different tyres strategy. I think you guys were going to do it but the rain compromised Q2, can you still dominate this race?
LH: I don’t know, we’ll see. You’ve seen how quick the Ferrari’s are. I mean, they had a lot more blistering yesterday than we did on the supersoft tyre. I don’t know if it’s correct but we wanted to be on the soft and things kind of swung us the wrong way. Right or wrong we will see tomorrow but hopefully still, with the choice we have, I’ll make the best of it.
Q: Enjoy tonight, at least you’ve got that four-metre head start tomorrow. Sebastian, coming very close there – P2. A different tyre strategy as we just discussed with Lewis. Are you happy with today?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I think it was good fun. In the end I had a tiny lock-up in Turn 8. I got a good start to the second attempt in Q3 and I thought I’d go for it, but it was a little bit too much, so I lost some time and didn’t improve. It was very close, so it was a fun session.
Q: I don’t know if you are aware but you have been called to the stewards for the scale incident. What do you have to say about that?
SV: I think it’s better if I don’t say anything… They shouldn’t call us, because when the conditions are changing like that I think it’s unfair if somebody gets called in and yeah, I wanted them to hurry up.
Q: How difficult is it for a driver and an engineer to read the conditions when it’s coming like that. Is it more the driver’s feel or do you have to stick to the weather systems on the computer?
SV: It’s a difficult one. Inside the garage we don’t really see much, you can’t see out. You have to trust the laps you did before. You have to trust the communication you are having with the pit wall on the conditions, what you see other cars are doing. But when it’s like this it can be anything, so I think in the end we all got lucky that we got more or less the same conditions for everyone, so as long as that’s the case then it’s fine.
Q: Well, I hope you put on a good show like you did in Mexico, show that fighting spirit. Valtteri, third today, not far away, but I guess you can’t be happy with that?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, not far away but here the margins are small. I knew this weekend I did have the pace to be on pole. I think it was there for me to grab but I couldn’t take it today. I was more than two tenths up in the second run but lost everything in the last corner on the back straight without any tow, so it was quite disappointing.
Q: When you see the rain falling what do you feel as a driver? Do you keep pushing or is there a bit of trepidation?
VB: Yeah, it really depends on the situation but once the rain really started to come down luckily we already had a good lap on the board, so there was no need to take risks. But sometimes you need to go for it and try.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, that looked like an exciting session in tricky conditions. Just what were the conditions like?
LH: Well, the track was actually really good. There’s a lot of grip here and it’s a fantastic circuit. They don’t generally make circuits like this anymore. You’ve got the different… it’s quite hilly, but it’s a real challenge, even though it’s quite short. It’s very technical – but the grip felt quite good and obviously, the rain was popping in every now and then – but it was just spitting. It was difficult to really tell whether it was going to be slippery in the next corner or not – because when you’re travelling at the speeds we go at, on your visor, because you’re driving through all the rain, it looks like it’s raining more than it is. So, that was definitely tricky – but I think everyone did quite a good job with it – and luckily it held off so we could push at the end when the track was good.
Q: You mentioned the speeds you’re doing here at Interlagos. Valtteri’s pole position last year was a new track record – you have taken more than a second off that time. Just how quick does it feel around here now?
LH: With the new tyres, with the soft tyres, supersoft tyres and the updates that we have to our car… it’s a smaller circuit, shorter circuit, so therefore the difference usually… for example our car is a lot quicker than it was last year at this point – but it doesn’t show as much. At other circuits it’s three seconds-plus. Around here a second is still quite a lot. So, it does feel great though, around here. Into Six and Seven it’s a little lift through there basically and flat though… there’s no other corners where you’re flat out, or anything like that but you definitely do feel… the grip is what you feel, it’s just amazing. It’s better than ever.
Q: Sebastian, coming onto you, less than a tenth of a second behind pole position. How are you feeling after that session?
SV: Pretty good. I think it was fun. I think the track was good, as Lewis said, and obviously very close. I had a good start to my final attempt but yeah, tried a little bit too hard probably, going into Turn Eight in the middle sector and locked the front and then lost a little bit the rhythm. Tried something special in the last corner, didn’t work so… yeah. All in all pretty happy. I think we got the car where it is happiest, and the balance was good in qualifying throughout, so we’ll see. We’ll start with a different tyre tomorrow. Maybe that can make a difference.
Q: Just to elaborate on that point about the tyres, do you think that’ll be the crucial point in the race?
SV: Hmmm… might be. I mean, I think it’s the tyre that probably most of us probably wanted to start on but then with the conditions it was a bit tricky. Yeah, in the end it wasn’t really wet but there was some rain around the track, so yeah, happy that we got it done and now we start with a different tyre, so let’s see.
Q: Valtteri, fastest in Q2, you’re less than a tenth off pole position but starting third tomorrow. Just sum-up the session for us.
VB: I think the gap is a bit more than one-tenth but obviously, it’s a bit disappointing one red car got in-between us and the pace I had this weekend so far felt like I could definitely fight for the pole position, and I think it was there for me to grab it. But in the second run I was more than two-tenths up on my best lap but somehow Turn 12, just lost a little bit and then I think I was the first car out in the last run so I had no tow on the back straight and just kept losing time on the uphill. And I saw that it was not going to be an improvement, so for sure that’s disappointing but yeah, it was a strong qualifying for us as a team and another great pole for Lewis – but yeah, I think for tomorrow, we’ll see how our decision to go with the supersoft is going to… what’s going to happen.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Seb, could you just talk through the weighbridge incident please, just from your perspective – and are you now worried about getting a grid penalty for tomorrow’s race?
SV: No, I don’t want to talk through. I think it’s pretty clear what happened, so. I think we do qualifying, we should talk about qualifying.
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Lewis, there was a situation between you and Sergey in Q2, I think. Can you talk us through that situation? It looked pretty scary from outside.
LH: Yeah, basically everyone was on an ‘out’ lap – me, Sergey and everyone in front of me – and when you’re on your ‘out’ lap, towards the end of the lap Valtteri was up ahead of me so he was backing off to get his gap so I had to make sure I kept a gap with him. As far as I was aware, no one behind was on a lap so I was making sure I had the gap but then all of a sudden, out of the last corner – sorry, out of turn 11 – I saw a car coming at high speed so I was like ‘oh my God, is that someone on a lap?’ so I went to move to the left and that’s where he decided to go but he wasn’t on a lap, so I don’t really know what his thinking was really, with it, because respectfully, between all the drivers, we all do respect… you know, I could have easily tried to overtake Valtteri or Valtteri whoever was in front of him. We all know to keep our space by that point so it was generally quite a disrespectful move in the sense of where it was dangerous between us both because I was not expecting it to happen that way, and so I was actually trying to get out of his way but he ended up going inside but then he got to the corner and then slowed up to utilise the gap but then also I don’t know whether to slow my lap up or not. It was kind of strange. It was completely unnecessary because we had a space behind, behind him there was a bit of a space so ultimately his lap and my lap weren’t great from that so hopefully he can learn from it.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri, you talked about having a moment at turn 12, what happened on the lap? The car snap away or was it just not as quick?
VB: No, I didn’t really have a moment, I just lost a few hundredths there, I think. I think at the beginning of the lap it was getting very good, then the middle of the lap was average and lost a tiny bit in the last corner, but the main time loss, I think it was more than a tenth, was just up the hill, just losing time on the straight. No drama, but definitely not a perfect lap but I think with a perfect lap pole would have been possible.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Seb, in Q2 you were almost as fast as the Mercedes on the soft tyre, so the harder tyre, have you been surprised that there wasn’t a bigger gap with the supersoft?
MS: Yes, the lap felt really good, the tyre felt really good. You go into the weekend, you have an estimation of what’s the difference between the tyres and then you do your Friday running and you might correct it but I was definitely surprised, the tyre felt really good. I don’t think it was much slower. Yeah, but it didn’t feel… usually we were expecting something like three or four tenths but it felt really good. I was surprised when I crossed the line in Q2 because I also kept some margin for the rain so could have gone faster on that tyre easily. So if it’s that good tomorrow, then happy days!
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) You’re starting on different tyre compounds. Lewis has been quite outspoken in Austin, I think, when you started on the harder compound, that it was quite a disadvantage there. What do you expect just from starting on different tyre compounds?
LH: I was told that there’s not a huge difference, but there’s always a difference of some sort. It will definitely be a little bit interesting. It’s not a massive run down to turn one but Ferrari are very good at their starts in general normally. However, we are actually quite even in terms of the overall year performance with Ferrari. We’re actually quite equal with them, so we’ve both had a similar amount of good starts so I’m excited to just have a battle, you know. But making that tyre last I think is going to be the interesting scenario but it is what it is. We’ll give it all we can tomorrow.
SV: Again, we have an estimation of what the penalty might be with the harder compound at the start but it’s a very short way to turn one so we’ll see. I have quite good memories from P2, starting P2 here so we will see. I think it depends a lot more on the job that you do at the start, to get everything right then a little bit of difference on the tyres.
Q: Are there similar grip levels on both sides of the track?
SV: I think so. The last years it was pretty even so, yeah. Usually the right side or the odd side here is a bit cleaner but I’m sure that with the other races across the weekend it should be fine, there should be plenty of rubber.
VB: Nothing to add.
Ends
