INDIA in F1

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  • Leclerc is a long-term commitment and the decision is taken by me: Arrivabene

    Leclerc is a long-term commitment and the decision is taken by me: Arrivabene

    Arrivabene at the FIA Friday press conference. An FIA image

    Singapore, 14 Sept. 2018: Team representatives Maurizio Arrivabene (Ferrari), Frédéric Vasseur (Sauber) Guenther Steiner (Haas), and Gil de Ferran (McLaren) attended the customary Friday press conference of the FIA ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, the 15th round of the FIA Formula One World Championship here on Sunday. Transcript of the Friday press meet:

    Maurizio, please can we start with you? Welcome. There have been lots of announcements coming out of Ferrari this past week. Your 2019 driver line-up is sorted, with Charles Leclerc replacing Kimi Räikkönen. Talk us through how and why that change has taken place?

    Maurizio ARRIVABENE: How and why? It’s not clear? OK, I try to be clear. When you make some choices like this, that are related to the driver, you don’t have to look only at the short-term commitment but also at the long-term commitment. A long-term commitment means it’s not only for next year, it’s for the future of the team – how you are going to grow a young talent, and what you want to expect from him for the future. That’s very simple. It’s not a decision taken by Mr Simpson; it’s a decision taken by me, discuss it also with the top management, that is taking into consideration many, many factors. This has nothing to do with the respect that I have for Kimi, that is great, as a human being and a driver, but if you have to do a choice, thinking about the future of the team, I think we made the right choice, for us and for Kimi. And the way that we wrote the press release was absolutely intentional. We were using a different style, breaking a bit the rules of Ferrari, that is normally going to communicate this in one line, broke the rules, giving also tribute and respect to Kimi for what he has done with us and wishing him the best for the future, and the best for the future it’s here.

    Maurizio, just a second question on that: Charles Leclerc has had a huge impact on Formula 1 this year. Just tell me how excited you are by him, as a driver and what you think he can achieve in the sport?

    MA: The first mistake is to put too much pressure on the shoulders of this guy. It could be, potentially, a huge mistake. I signed with Charles in November 2016 or November 2015 the first contract in the Ferrari Driver Academy. In that contract we already designed and committed and signed and wrote his future in Formula 1, as we have done with Giovinazzi, the same thing. And that means we change a bit also the way that we organise the Ferrari Drive Academy but also how we are going to develop the talent for the future. So Charles Leclerc is not a big surprise, he’s one of the talented drivers that we have in Formula 1. Thank God, it’s a guy that he grew up with us and I hope that he is going to continue his career with us, at least until 2022 for sure. Having said so, if you look at the overall situation in the paddock, it’s an important sign that all the talent they are giving to Formula… look at Mercedes. They make a choice a couple of years ago with Bottas, a young driver, nearby a champion like Hamilton. This guy of McLaren for next year: they have Carlos Sainz with a guy that is considered a rookie. Next year Sauber have Kimi with Mr question mark and if you look at Red Bull they were brave enough to have Verstappen nearby Gasly. There is nothing strange in all of this but I think the good signal to Formula 1 is that we are striving to look for, to create the future champions.

    Q: Thank you, Maurizio. Gil, if we can turn to you, like Ferrari, as Maurizio said, you have opted for youth, particularly in one of your cars. What is it about the performance of 18-year-old Lando Norris that made him a must-have for McLaren?

    Gil de Ferran: Well, a lot of things, you know. I think, first of all, his racing record is impeccable. All the way from karting – he was the youngest world karting champion – throughout his career. And certainly what I have been able to observe every time he is in the car is… he’s a natural. He adapts very, very quickly, even in very unfamiliar conditions, with an unfamiliar car. Many times he is immediately on the pace and I think he’s also displayed a level of maturity during his Formula 2 performances this year that certainly I have been looking at more closely, that has been quite impressive and made us think that this is a talent for the future. I think we certainly believe he’s got tremendous long-term potential and we decided to go with that.

    Q: With Carlos Sainz new to the team as well, there is certain lack of continuity on the driver front. What sort of impact do you think that will have?

    MB: Certainly every time you have two new drivers it’s a more challenging situation because you have to learn how they are, how they operate. Everybody operates in a slightly different way. Certainly, as a team we aim to support the drivers the best we can, taking into account their differences. It certainly will take a little while for us to understand each other, how the team operates, how the drivers operate and tailor that support individually to Carlos and to Lando. Carlos is going into his fifth year of Formula 1 and although he is very young he is quite an experienced driver. Like I said before, he has shown quite well against different team-mates, so I think we’re very confident we have a good pairing.

    Q: Thank you, Gil. Guenther, with Ferrari’s line-up, sorted for next year, where does that leave Haas with regard to your driver choice for 2019?

    Guenther STEINER: I hope that we will announce our drivers in the next two to three weeks, so we will let you know when we are ready to announce it.

    Q: Can you just give us your thoughts… I’m not asking for names but the performances of your current drivers?

    GS: I think they’re doing pretty good! What more do you want to know – yeah, the money, the names, everything! I think we are performing pretty good this year, car-wise and driver-wise. We a few hiccups with one of the drivers in the beginning of the year but lately I think we are performing where we should be performing. Our drivers, at the moment, for us, looking in the future, we are a young team so I don’t think we are ready to develop any young drivers if you want to hear that.

    Thank you for that.

    GS: A pleasure!

    Fréd, thank you for waiting. Yesterday in the press conference, Kimi wasn’t that forthcoming when asked about his move to Sauber, so can you just put a little bit of flesh on the bone for us. How did you persuade Kimi to continue his career with your team?

    Frédéric VASSEUR: I don’t want to say, like my future driver, ‘why not?’ but I think for us coming from where we were last year… I had a look this morning on the FP1 of 2017, I think it is a huge opportunity to have in our car, in the Alfa Romeo Sauber, one of the three world champions who will race next year. It’s a huge opportunity for the team, for the brand, for everybody. We know that we are quite a young team also and we need to have someone leading the team with a huge experience and I think Kimi will fulfil all the parts of this.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Maurizio. How concerned are you by the errors being made by your lead driver in several races this year, and questionable race management decisions by the team – and what are you doing about them?

    MA: Oh my God! Again! OK, I start from the second one and I want to be clear, once and forever. I mean, I would ask some of you, all of you, who is so crazy to give team orders to a driver at the start of the race? I mean, we do our thing with the maximum professional effort. Before the race we are looking at the video of the start of the race, our team manager is giving instruction on the best line to follow to the driver. The only team order you can tell to the driver at the first corner is “guys, I would like to have both of the cars OK.” All the rest, I mean, it’s nonsense. I explain to you the reason why. Kimi, in the case of Monza, was in pole position. Do we agree for once on this? He was in pole position right? Sebastian was 8m from him. How you think that Kimi can look on his side where Sebastian is? In your opinion, the order is “Kimi, please slow down when you start and don’t worry if Hamilton and all the others, they are overtaking you.” What are we discussing about? That is the answer to your question. And then, team order, do you think the team orders, they were invented in Monza last weekend? I don’t think so. It’s 28 years that I’m in Formula One and I always heard team orders. There are many ways to give it to the team: before, during, after. That’s not important. The problem in Monza is that you have no time to give team order to anyone, because at the third corner it’s happened what has happened. So, this is the reality. I mean, don’t expect me to give team orders to the driver at the start of the race, looking forward to the first corner. It’s too dangerous and it’s crazy.

    And your assessment of Vettel’s performances this year?

    MA: You call it mistakes but if you look in Formula One everybody is making mistakes. Bigger or smaller. If we are a team, we fail and we win together so I don’t want to point my finger at Sebastian. I mean, nobody was happy after Monza but think about the rest of the team. If in Monza I was pointing my finger at Sebastian, think about a problem on aero, a problem on the pitstop, a problem on the engine. The guys, they are responsible for the different areas, they could think ‘OK, if he’s pointing the finger at Sebastian, next time it’s my turn.’ It’s not what I want. The only mistake you see in front of you is me. I’m responsible for the team. When the result is not coming, it’s my responsibility. Not the responsibility of Sebastian or the engineer or the responsibility of the mechanics. It’s my responsibility. If you want somebody to blame, he’s in front of you. The job was done already. I tell you, you don’t need to continue, but if you want, I’m still here! But something that is very important, I accept any criticism because in three and a half years I didn’t want anything, OK? So I accept the criticism from everybody, especially from the people who won before me – but in good faith not in bad faith. Because bad faith is not correct. I’m a correct person and I would like to hear comments that are in good faith, and then I’m accepting everything. As I said, I didn’t want anything.

    Q: (Joe Saward – Auto week) Maurizio, now you’re feeling talkative, can you talk about Ferrari’s attitude to the budget cap? Who makes the decision and what is your thinking and has it changed recently?

    MA: I mean, you talk in general about the budget cap. Of course the objective of everybody is to save money, to reduce costs. Then, the question is not the ‘what’, it’s based on the ‘how’. How do we want to do it? How do we want to maintain Formula One at the pinnacle of motorsport as it is? How do we want to continue to develop cars that are beautiful, also for the public. I mean, it’s not an easy equation. Everybody, they go sometimes their way but I think at the end we can find the solution. I was looking at the car presented a couple of days ago by Ross. It’s a good exercise, I was asking our engineers what they thought about this, they said it’s a bit underwhelming in their opinion and it looks like an old champ car. But, you know, it’s an exercise. Sometimes we go up here to have this kind of result. I think this is the game that everybody plays. Concerning the future, you mean the Concorde agreement of course. Starting from the point, I spoke with our CEO and everybody, they want to save money, as I said at the beginning, to reduce the costs, not to save money, they are two different things. It depends how you do it. The decision, it is something that is not mine because it is going to be a strategic decision that is involving the overall group. I mean, if in somehow accepting an agreement that is not taking into consideration where the Ferrari is in the market and the DNA of Ferrari, I repeat, it’s a kind of strategic decision and it’s not under my responsibility. Of course, I give all the information we discuss about this but he is the person that is going to talk with the appropriate people.

    Q: (Gaeton Vigneron – RTBF) Sorry to not be original but another one for you Maurizio. Starting from the point that Giovinazzi could go to Sauber, Kvyat could go to Toro Rosso, you could lose your two simulator drivers. My question is, are you ready for that, have you got an idea to get another one to fulfil this role – and Stoffel Vandoorne could be a driver for that?

    MA: We are always ready for everything. No concern. You will see about the future of Giovinazzi I think in the next few weeks, so I’m not concerned at all.

    Q: (Cheng Jin – Car and Fan) There’s a lot of rumours surrounding the future of Mick Schumacher because if he wins the F3 championship, he will get a super licence, so for Gunther and for Frederic, neither of your teams have announced their driver line-up for next year. Will you be interested in him? And for Maurizio and Gil, will you be considering putting him into your driver academy?

    GS: I think there is quite a hype about Mick Schumacher and he’s doing very well at the moment in Formula Three. We haven’t looked at it, as I’ve said before. We, at the moment, as a young team, we prefer to go with drivers with experience, but I think there is a future for Mick Schumacher in Formula One so let’s see what he’s doing in the next years and what his plans are. Maybe he doesn’t want to go straight to Formula One.

    FV: Yes, so far I don’t know if Mick has the 40 points for the super licence but honestly, I think there is a huge step between F3 and F1 and with the small number of test days we have during the winter, I think it’s – I don’t want to say impossible because we will see – but it’s quite difficult to do the step and it will make sense probably for him to do Formula Two or something like this. But he could have a link with a Formula One team, he could do some FP1… There are many ways to prepare for F1.

    Q: One of those ways could be as a simulator driver, Gil. Would McLaren consider him?

    GdeF: Look, obviously he’s doing very well in Formula Three and certainly he has a shot for the championship and the Formula Three championship is a very difficult one and I think a very good indication of how good you are so clearly he’s very good. We have not had any contact with him but we say as McLaren we are always looking throughout the motor sport arena globally, in a way. I think I would second what Frederic said: in a way I wish we had more opportunities to be able to work with young talent, perhaps more testing and different things like this, to be able to establish a relationship and help in the development of drivers like Mick.

    MA: Concerning Mick Schumacher, the most important thing is to let him grow without giving pressure. The recent results were very very good and I wish to him a great career. With a name like this, that wrote the historical pages of the Ferrari history, I think the door at Maranello is always open of course, but without burning the step, that is, a Schumacher family decision but let the guys have fun. I always repeat this, being focused, concentrated but at the same time have fun and to grow up slowly but certainly. Then we will see about the future. How can you say no, in Maranello, to a name like this?

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Fred, what do you expect Kimi to bring to your team next year that you haven’t got already and can’t get elsewhere?

    FV: Clearly Kimi has huge experience in F1, I think he already told that yesterday. For the team, we are building up every single department and I think he will be very supportive in the process. I think from aero to design office to track engineering, tyre management, I think everybody in the team is more than welcome to have Kimi on board in the future. It’s a step forward for us for sure. This is on the technical side and on the more marketing and commercial side, for sure it’s a huge push and if you have a look at what we had last week in terms of social media, so it was probably the first time in our lives that we have so many connections. On both sides, I think it will be supportive for us.

    Q: Fred, are there still a lot of people at the team who can remember him from 2001?

    FV: Some, yeah. For sure, I was not there but some guys came to my office saying ‘ah, superb that Kimi’s back.’ But I don’t want to consider the fact that Kimi’s coming back that we have to think about the future, not about the past.

    Q: (Joe Saward – Auto week) Fred, talking about Mr Question Mark, can you tell us how many possible Questions Marks there are? Is it just two drivers we’re looking at or are there more drivers to be taken into account?

    FV: Please, the last two weeks for me have been a bit in a rush on the driver market and if I can have some days off from this?  After Singapore we will sit down with all the persons involved in the discussions and we will take a decision quite soon because I think it’s also good for the team to have a clear answer but it will be soon.

    Q: (Jake Michaels – ESPN) Maurizio, you said earlier that Kimi’s move from Ferrari to Sauber next year is the best thing for Ferrari and for Kimi. Can you explain why that’s the case and why the best thing for Kimi isn’t to stay at Ferrari?

    MA: It’s quite simple. I also said that it’s very important to look at the situation of the team in perspective, perspective meaning two or three years. So in my opinion, that is justifying enough our choice to have a young driver for next year, to grow up and that’s it. It’s not a decision that is look on the actual situation or only to next year. My job is to look forward to the future of the team. That was the justification of the choice.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Maurizio, just to follow up on that, Kimi said yesterday it wasn’t his decision and wasn’t his choice. Can you explain how he took the decision and did he try and persuade you to change your mind? How did he feel about it?

    MA: I think Kimi was funny also yesterday during the press conference. I try to be funny too. What did you expect Kimi to tell you, that Homer Simpson took the decision? Of course I took the decision but I have to say that the relationship with Kimi is so good that he understands. It’s not only a question of telling him this is the decision. If you do my job properly, it’s to take him through the process, and I took him through the process of the decision and he didn’t even try to say ‘yeah, I would like you to change your mind’ or something. He’s a professional driver. Then I heard many other things like ‘ah, you know, telling him in Monza was the wrong time.’ Think about if I had told him in Belgium and Sebastian was winning the race? Kimi was in the same position and then it was wrong to tell him in Belgium. So the right time is not written on the paper, but what is written on the paper is that when we sign contracts with a driver, we sign a contract with professional drivers. I always talk with my two drivers as professional drivers and I’m expecting from him the maximum of professional effort and to use all their professional skills and Kimi is one of them. Kimi was so nervous and so unhappy that I told him on Thursday, if I’m not wrong, in Monza but he was so unhappy that he made pole position on Saturday. We’re talking with professional drivers.

    FV: I have to make him unhappy ever single weekend!

    MA: Yeah, in fact that’s what I was thinking afterwards, because when I read some criticism and I said I accept the criticism, I was thinking OK, if it’s like this, I’m going to make him unhappy every weekend so he’s going to give us the pole position. Guys. We are talking about professional drivers not kids that they are driving at the luna park.

  • Championship is still going to be tough: Hamilton

    Championship is still going to be tough: Hamilton

    Thursday Press Conference in progress at Singapore. An FIA image

    Singapore, 13 Sept. 2018: The FIA Thursday Press Conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix of the Formula One World Championship was attended by Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso).

    Transcript of the Press Conference:

    Q: Kimi, if we could start with you please. You’ve been generating a few column inches this past week. Can you just talk us through what happened and why you’re on the move next year?

    Kimi Raikkonen: I guess you know what happened. I don’t know what else you want to know. This is what happened. As we’ve said many times before, it’s not up to me, it’s not my decision in the end. Anything after that is obviously my decision but this is the outcome. At least we have an outcome.

    Q: You say it wasn’t your decision to leave Ferrari, but it was your decision to go back to Sauber, so just talk us through why you’re doing that?

    KR: Why not.

    Q: What is it about the team? On current form there is quite a performance differential between Ferrari and Sauber, so what have you been told…

    KR: Yeah, but then there’s a lot of differences between all the cars, you know. If you take other teams, there are not many cars, if you take this year, that are on the same level. That’s how it has always been. I mean, see what happens in the future so…

    Q: But, Kimi, what have you been told about the performance? Tell us why you want to go back to Sauber?

    KR: Because I want to. Why do you try to make it so complicated? I don’t know anything more than you guys, purely where they have been finishing. Obviously I don’t know what will happen next year, nobody knows what will happen next year when it comes to the speeds of the cars and the teams and obviously, we can always guess but we will see what we can do. Obviously, I have my reasons and that’s enough for me. I don’t really care what others think and as long as I’m happy with my own reasons, it’s enough for me.

    Q: And you’re still passionate about racing? The fire…

    KR: No, I’m not actually. Just by pure head games for you guys, I happened to sign and I’m going to spend two years there just not being happy.

    Well, Kimi, thanks for the insight.

    KR: No worries.

    Q: Let’s move on. Kevin coming to you now: this weekend is your 75th grand prix, a bit of a milestone for you. Do you feel you’re part of the F1 establishment now?

    Kevin Magnussen: I don’t know really. I haven’t thought of it like that. I didn’t even know it was my 75th race, so I’m just enjoying… it’s the best time I’ve had in Formula 1, at the moment. It’s great fun and I’ll see how it goes this weekend and will hopefully have a good race.

    Q: Have you had any further thoughts about what happened between you and Fernando Alonso at Monza and will it affect your approach to qualifying here in Singapore?

    KM: I’ll try to stay away from Fernando as much as I can! I think it was a pretty extraordinary thing that happened and it’s not something that will happen too often I think.

    Q: Thank you. Brendon, coming to you, it’s your first time here in Formula 1, so can you just talk us through the preparations you’ve done for this grand prix. It’s hot, it’s a long race, just talk us through what you’ve done?

    Brendon Hartley: Yeah, so everyone has told me that it’s the most physical race of the year, not only because of the heat but also the focus and stamina it requires is a long race and not many breaks on the tracks. In terms of training, not many changes. I think all of us drivers are very race fit. We’ve had a long season already and many races to warm up to a tough one like this. I’d say most of us drivers did a bit of heat training over the last week or so and for me, it was just adding a couple of extra layers on when I was training on my bike. I came out a couple of days early as well, just to get used to being here. Actually, it doesn’t feel as hot as I expected. I think in previous years it’s been hotter, but nevertheless, it’s going to be a tough old race. On top of that, I spent some time in the simulator, learning the track as best I can before hitting FP1 tomorrow.

    Q: Expecting a few Kiwis in the crowd I guess?

    BH: Yeah I actually me a few already on the streets of Singapore. It’s reasonably close for us, it’s halfway, so I’m kind of halfway home. There should be a few expats around and the Aussies always seem to give me a few cheers, so I think they try to adopt me as their own as well.

    Q: We’ve heard from Kimi about his move to Sauber next year. What can you tell us about your plans for 2019? Have your talks progressed with the team?

    BH: Not really chatting at the moment. I have a contract going forward. Obviously, there are always options and whatnot. I’ve been saying it for a while that the best thing I can do is focus on one race at a time and doing the best job I can. I know, and I’m confident about the job I’ve been doing behind the scenes with the team. I know I’ve got stronger every race during the season. The results don’t exactly show that, but I know that I am strong and I have been strong in the last five races and there have been a few circumstances which meant I wasn’t able to score points. I seem to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot of the time but I’m also looking at myself, and what I can do better there. Honestly, I’m just focusing on doing the best I can one race at a time, and I hope that I’m on the grid next year, which is my goal.

    Thank you, Brendon, good luck this weekend. Lewis, on paper this is meant to be a bit of a bogey track for the team, but you keep winning. You’ve had two victories here with the team. What are your expectations ahead of this weekend?

    Lewis Hamilton: Honestly, I never even have expectations every time I come to a race, I must just tell you that. I guess ultimately our expectation is for us to give it our all and try to perform as well, if not better, than in the past races. Collectively, as a team, we have done a tremendous job in the past races and we want to try and keep that quality of performance.

    Q: Your championship lead is now 10 times greater than it was at this stage last year – 30 points as opposed to three points in 2017. Talk us through that buffer. Is that a factor in your head and how you approach the race weekend?

    LH: Honestly not. It might be subconscious but I’ve not really thought about it. I don’t change the way… at the moment there’s no reason to change. There are a lot of points still available so the approach is exactly the same as it has been all year long. It seems to be working, so we’ll just keep that up for as long as we can. But we do expect there are going to be some difficult races ahead. Obviously, Ferrari have been ahead of us for the past few races, so keeping up with them, if not passing them, is going to be tough.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Abishek Takle – Mid-day) A question for Kimi. At what point did you know that you wouldn’t be driving for Ferrari next season and when did the Sauber talks actually start?

    KR: In Monza I knew, Obviously I know people from there [Sauber] from the past and basically, it started after that.

    Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Kimi, you said you still know people at Sauber and you’ve obviously kept ties with the team. Has it always been a bit of a thing in the back of your mind that it might be a nice thing to do later in your career, to go there, back to where it started?

    KR: No. I don’t think it’s always been there. Obviously, you never know in the end what will happen. This is just how it ends up to be going actually, and yeah, I wouldn’t say there have been plans for a long time that this is going to happen, so…

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have said that you are only interested in winning. Do you have to find a new target for next year when racing with Sauber?

    KR: I don’t know. I don’t think… I mean, obviously, the aim is always that. I mean, is it realistic? Who knows? You can only aim for the best, best positions and see what comes up.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis, since we last saw you in Italy, McLaren have announced that Lando Norris will be driving for them next season. Just want to get your views on having a fellow Brit on the grid – and also, as a youngster, would you seek him out to give him advice at all?

    LH: I wouldn’t give him advice. Obviously, if he asked for it, he could get it if he wanted. If I’m really honest, I don’t really look at nationalities. I don’t look down the order and think; ‘there’s another Brit’, or ‘there’s another German,’ or anything like that. I just… that’s not something that really appeals to me. England’s always producing good drivers. They have them; there’s quite  a lot of them. It’s not like Formula One’s never going to have a British driver, so… yeah, wish him all the best.

    Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat.com) Question to all four drivers. What are your thoughts on the idea of fielding a third car to the grid.

    KM: I think it’s kind of… it sounds quite exciting. I think it would be great to see three Mercedes and three Ferraris, but then from there, I don’t know whether it would be good to have 30 cars on the grid. I think the pitlane would be quite tight as well. It could be good, it could be bad. I don’t really know.

    LH: I quite like the idea of more cars. More teams maybe, rather than three drivers in a team – would be a handful.

    KR: I think if would be nice to have a lot of cars but then, I don’t know. So many things that it will change. It’s pretty difficult to work it out.

    BH: From a drivers’ point of view I think it would be great to have more cars. From a team’s point of view and all the other logistics that would entail, I don’t really know, it’s not my place. It would probably make 2019 contract negotiations a bit easier! But yeah, actually, from a drivers’ point of view it would be cool. I’m also used to having a few more teammates than maybe some of the other drivers on the grid.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Question to Lewis. Obviously, you went to Shanghai for your fashion launch, you went back to New York, you’re now back here in Singapore. The other drivers talking about preparing and getting in shape. Is your ability now to step off the plane and switch from fashion business to F1 business? Do you find the ability to do that easier now in your career? And is that what keeps you fresh, coming into this week?

    LH: It’s not that I find it easy. As soon as I leave the races I’m able to switch off. I’ve got, obviously other things that I’m doing, and in between, trying to fit in the training, for example, in the last week, has not been easy. But that’s not really how every single week goes for me – it’s just a hectic time for me with a lot going on in the outside world for me. But yeah, I mean, I’ve travelled a lot more than I have all year long in these two weeks. But I think yeah, from experience I’ve been able to move around even more than I have these past two weeks and still arrive and be able to switch into race mode. So, there’s not a single moment during those two weeks, whilst I have those other things going on, there’s not a single moment that I’m not thinking about racing, not thinking about the championship, how I want to arrive. Make sure, knowing that we’re coming to a difficult race, that you need to see if you can bring more to. So, there’s not a moment that I don’t think about it.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Just on that Lewis, do you think it’s a bit of a gamble tying the two together? The fashion and the travelling and the Formula One and winning the Championship.

    LH: Not at all. Just referring to the question before, I get a lot of energy from these different things that I do. I find it stimulating and I think you’ll see that my results have shown that for the past several years. As I’ve said, I’ve travelled a lot more than I have this year. This has actually been the year I’ve travelled the least, at least in the last five years, so…

    Q: (Masahiro Owari – Formula Owari Masahiro) Lewis, I’d like to ask about the Japanese Grand Prix, a couple of weeks later. Last year you broke the course record in Suzuka. Are you confident to break it again this year? And how important is winning at Suzuka for you, and for the Championship.

    LH: Naturally, it’s very difficult to say how important that race is going to be from now, because we’ve got this race to go – but every race is obviously as important as the other – but we will, no doubt, if it’s dry, break the record again this year. Our car is two to three seconds faster, whatever it is, than it was last year, so someone will break the record for sure, continuously throughout the weekend. And it’s such a great race, as we all know. It’s such a great circuit that everyone loves driving. It’s going to be pretty crazy through that first sector with the amount of downforce that we do have on our car. So, I think everyone can be excited for that.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Lewis, what do you think about the current Ferrari philosophy to let their drivers fight each other? It makes your life a little bit less difficult in the races. What do you think about it?
    LH:     Ferrari’s philosophy to let their drivers race? I honestly hadn’t even noticed it, if I’m really honest. They’re racing – it’s nothing to do with me. I don’t see how it makes my life… how does it make it less difficult? I still have to fight this guy (Raikkonen). How does it make it less difficult? If you watch the races, it’s more likely the position that they’ve put themselves in as opposed to the position we’ve put ourselves in. Valtteri’s been in the position to help in different scenarios. I don’t think you’ve seen many races where it’s been the same for them.

    Q: (Candra Kurnia Harinanto – Jawa Pos) Kimi, have you already thought that you will end your career at Sauber?

    KR: There’s a big chance, for sure! I’m not interested in any numbers or records, purely what I feel is right for me and that’s it. We’ll see what happens in the future.

    LH: How many seasons will it be?

    KR: No idea. I was two years doing holidays.

    LH: Yeah, but with two more years, how many seasons will that be in Formula One? Sixteen seasons.

    KR: Yeah. Not a lot.

    LH: Still a lot. I think it has to be admired.

    KR: We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll stay healthy and all those things.

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) Kimi, there have been some reports that you could be interested in taking up a management role at Sauber, once you’re done racing, whenever that is. Is this something you have on your mind for the future?

    KR: There’s zero discussion on that. Obviously I’ve signed my contract as a driver and I hope I stay there as a driver. Who knows what happens in the future, in two years or whatever.  When it’s all said and done, I’ve no idea. I don’t know myself. There’s always speculation and everything but I don’t have any contract about that.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today NZ) Brendon, there’s been a bit in the media about what Dr Marko has said about possibly ten drivers looking for a seat at Toro Rosso. Obviously, you’re one of those and that you need to improve. Have you been given any idea by him what he means by improvement or by the team, what they mean by improvement?

    BH: Actually I’ve been improving all year and I haven’t really had a direct discussion about an exact result but it’s clear I haven’t finished in the points enough times, when you compare with my teammate. Some of that was out of my control, some of it part in my control but honestly, like I said before, I’m just focused – one race at a time – on doing my job and I’m very confident of the job I do behind the scenes and also I know that I’ve been improving the whole season. Yeah, just focused on Singapore this weekend. It’s a big opportunity actually for us at Toro Rosso. Historically the team’s done very well here. Last year they took fourth place with Carlos in some tricky conditions but if we take the last two races, we think this would be a strong opportunity for us. Everyone can see that I’ve been strong in certain scenarios but haven’t been able to capitalise so I think if what you’re referring to what he’s saying –  I haven’t been following the press – but probably I need some more results in the points.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today NZ) Some more luck, maybe?

    BH: There’s a bit of that too but I need to try and create as much luck for myself.

    Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?

    KR: I can only drive one car, obviously. There’s always a lot of talk, a lot of things which can be helpful, can not be. It’s always easy to say that this and this will happen but in theory, it’s so difficult to get it right in many ways so we will see what happens in the racing, if we’re close to each other and this and that. Obviously, we know our rules; it’s pretty simple.

    Q: (Jake Michaels – ESPN) Lewis, you’re obviously in a tight battle with Ferrari this season but how wary are you of Red Bull this weekend and do you expect to see them fighting for the win?

    LH: Not really sure… I’ve not spoken to the team as to… they’ll let us know in the meeting we have coming up, whether or not Red Bull will play a role in this weekend’s race but they’ve been there or thereabouts in quite a lot of the races, so you have to assume this is usually a good race for them. I think they’ve stopped developing their car quite a long time ago to focus on next year’s car, from what I’ve heard, so they’re just driving with what they have, that’s what I heard. I think this weekend, it’s a downforce circuit, they’re always good on their rear tyres as well so this should undoubtedly be a strong weekend for them, as it was last year.

    Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Kimi, you’ve made it very clear that you’re racing for Sauber and carrying on racing because you want to but, as was talked about earlier, you’re carrying on to an age where a lot of drivers will have stopped, so what is it that Formula One gives you personally that makes you want to keep going?

    KR: Racing, that’s about it.

    LH: Talking to you guys.

    KR: Yeah. Best time of the weekend, for sure! No, but honestly, I always said that I will stop when I feel it’s right for me. I don’t need to comment on how I feel. Obviously, the racing is the part that I enjoy most and that’s why we are here. Obviously, it’s always been a big part of the race weekend, all the other stuff which is normal for us, but it’s not the reason to come here. The reason is to drive and race. It’s not the big part of the weekend any more as it used to be because obviously everything changes a bit but that’s the only reason, really. The other stuff that comes with it, it’s very normal, it’s always been there. It comes with the package. It’s not often that you get a package where you only have the good things. It’s OK. We all know each other. It’s the same answers, same questions every time so it’s not too difficult.

  • Ferrari as a partner, we benefit clearly from the engine: Ben Agathangelour of Haas

    Monza 31 Aug 2018: The following team representatives attended the FIA Friday press conference during the Formula One World Championship weekend at Monza:  Ben Agathangelour (Haas), Mattia Binotto (Ferrari), Aldo Costa (Mercedes), Simone Resta (Sauber)

    Ben, if we could start with you, great to have you with us. Very rainy and wet this morning. We know you were running your new floor because Romain Grosjean told us yesterday. Were you able to get to grips with it?

    Ben Agathangelour: I think things were clear already by the end of Spa to be honest, so here in the wet we’re not going to gain that much more this morning, so we’re taking it as a given that things are behaving as we saw by the end of Spa on one car.

    Tell us too about the relationship you have with Ferrari. Big upgrades to the power unit this year and you really seem to have benefited in many ways from Ferrari?

    BA: Obviously it’s an enormous strength to have Ferrari as a partner and we benefit clearly from the engine. The engine has made a huge step this year and I think we have been able to use it, maybe not so much so in the past. We’ve done a fair amount of our own development, the company is growing, so we’ve managed to extract from all parts of the budget.

    Q: Thank you Ben. Mattia, moving on to you: great victory for you and the team at Spa last weekend. Where do you think your advantage over Mercedes lay?

    Mattia Binotto: Difficult to answer. I’m always more keen to look at the whole package and not try to split it into different factors. I think the difference to Mercedes overall was very small at the end. They have been on pole in quali, so they have been the fastest car, as a matter of fact, and I think that in the race our pace was very similar. So to try to distinguish if there is a little difference, where it’s coming from, is a very difficult exercise. Our package is working well as a whole, from the aero, from the chassis, mechanicals and the power unit and I think that as well in terms of development we are all focused on all the areas.

    Q: Now it was this stage last year that Mercedes started to stretch its legs in the championship fight. Is Ferrari in a better position now than it was 12 months ago?

    MB: Certainly we are in a better position compared to ourselves, to start with, and if I consider Spa last year, for example, we were not as competitive as we have been this year. I think that since the very start of this season, since the launch of the car, we mentioned and we said that we focused our development in terms of efficiency and to make sure that our car could compete on medium-fast circuit types and I think that somehow we have achieved it. On circuits where efficiency is important, like Silverstone, like Spa, we got good results and I think that is a good base for the rest of the season. So again, compared to last year, I think we can count on a car, which is certainly better in efficiency today. There are still eight races to go, so it’s still long and it will be a long and difficult battle.

    Q: Thank you Mattia and good luck this weekend. Aldo, we’ve heard about the Ferrari challenge, how do you and Mercedes assess what Ferrari have done this year? Do you feel they are much closer to you than in the past?

    Aldo Costa: As Mattia was saying, the two cars are very, very close. Yeah, we would say closer than in the past. You mentioned about the last part of the season last year, where we stretched our legs; obviously we hope to stretch our legs again. But we have to see if Ferrari will allow us to do that. It’s a very close fight. Development on development, each race, and we will carry on introducing new performance elements and we will carry on developing the performance of the car as much as we can up to the last race really.

    Q: You have announced that you are stepping down as engineering director from the team at the end of this season, but you are going to remain as an advisor. What does that role entail, and how involved will you be with the racing team going forward?

    AC: It was, as you can imagine, something that was discussed a long time ago. After having enjoyed an unbelievable amount the experience in Mercedes in the current role – seven years in the UK, really, really fantastic – I did ask the team to start being not in the same position, having a bit more time for myself, for the family, back to Italy and we found together, discussing together, again an opportunity for other people to grow up, to develop the team, so this is what I’m doing, as well as the current role – developing the organisation, developing people, team, mentoring, and by the end of the year my main new function will be, as you said, technical advisor of the team. I will work for James, I will work for my current direct report that will grow up in terms of responsibility and I will carry on mentoring and I will carry on collaborating with the team, developing capability, developing process, but a bit less involved from the timing point of view. In my opinion after 31 years of Formula 1 it is the best compromise for me to carry on being very fully engaged but as well, on the personal, finding better equilibrium.

    And more time, as well, to indulge in your passion for driving Formula 1 cars?

    AC: Yeah, yeah! That’s a growing passion. I’m part of the Mercedes senior driver programme! It’s important to have a group of driver for the third age of the future, because of the world population, the average age is growing. Joking apart, I’m enjoying a lot driving cars. Mercedes gave me a big opportunity and a friend of mine, who you know very well, Paolo Barilla, gave me another opportunity to test a lot of cars, so yeah, it’s a very nice moment, a nice experience.

    Q: You are never too old, Aldo, so good luck with all of that. Simone, so, technical director of Sauber since the beginning of July. How’s it going? How’s life in Hinwil?

    Simone Resta: Well, how’s it going? I think it’s going pretty well. I’m happy with this new journey that just started at the beginning of July. I apologise if I show a lot of emotion, but new job, technical director here in Monza, in our country, is just a lot! With a lot of friends, with Aldo, who was my first boss at Ferrari, with Mattia, who has been a great colleague and a boss recently and also with Ben. It’s a lot, but I feel very happy with that and I think my experience in the Sauber-Alfa Romeo team that started at the beginning of July, I find it very interesting, a new challenge in a different role, there is a lot to learn but it is a good step for me, for my career.

    Q: The team is making a lot of progress this season. How competitive do you think you are going to be in the upcoming races?

    SR: If I was able to read the future probably I would do something different. Joking apart, the trend so far has been good. I think it’s fair to say that we are slowing down our development rate for the time being, and we are concentrating mostly on next year’s car, which is a big challenge but also a big opportunity for us to close even further the gap to the big ones. I hope we will be progressing a little bit in the next races and that we will be closer and closer to Q3 with both cars.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Mattia, earlier this year we had the FIA’s side of things when they were going through the Ferrari engine checks, just to make sure everything was OK. They had all their understanding of the energy recovery system, that sort of thing. Could you just give us your explanation of how complicated it was to satisfy everything the FIA wanted – and are you happy that you have now ticked every box you need to and you’re OK for the rest of the season?

    MB: Obviously, the power unit is a complex element and it has been since 2014. FIA is fully aware of our components and it is our duty as well each time FIA is not fully, let me say, convinced that there is something right or wrong for them to inspect, to understand better. I think it’s simply what happens at the time there is some questions: we answer; we explain and I think that’s what happens. That’s it. FIA certainly is happy, declaring our car legal at every single race, and on our side, honestly, fully happy at seeing the point is completely closed by them.

    Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Another question for Mattia. When you took over your current role, Ferrari was having a difficult season in 2016 – but we’ve seen huge progress since then. Can you just explain, in brief, how Ferrari has managed to turn around from that difficult position into its current position. This upward trajectory. And just explain a bit of your philosophy of how you issue technical leadership to the team to get that result.

    MB: Initially, I think it’s fair to say that our team, in terms of individuals, is very strong. We’ve got very high skills; it’s a fantastic team in that respect, whatever are the areas. And from the power unit to the chassis and to the aero. I think what we’re benefitting the last seasons is certainly stability in terms of the organisation, which in F1 is very important, because through the stability somehow you may start to set down a way of working, improve your procedures, your internal process. I think, relative to myself, I’m certainly not an expert in all the areas. 25 years of experience in F1; great time with Ferrari at the race track in the time of Michael Schumacher but always as a power unit man. When I grew up in that final role I think what for me what was important for me was to set the objectives but to make sure that the people were comfortable in their role, understood the internal process and work better not only as individuals but as a team. And where we’ve focussed all the effort is, I think, to make sure that the team was working properly as a team, and forgetting about the individuals. And that’s why, again, I think we are thinking about the car as a fully package, and not try to split down in terms of different components or units because we are a team and what is running is not a power unit or a wing but a full car. So, again, all the effort was to build the team as a team and set the right objectives, deal with them, try to be ambitious. I think that’s somehow what happened in the last two years.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Gentleman, this morning Michelin confirmed that they will not be tendering for the tyre supplier contract, and they gave as one of the reasons the fact that targeted deterioration goes against their objectives for a sustainable and well-engineers tyre. As engineers, how do you feel about that comment. All of you.

    BA: OK. I think we can see that the nature of the tyre that we currently run, everyone can see the nature in which racing is governed by the characteristics that we inherit. Obviously, it’s been a massive evolution in the sport over the last four or five years with respect to understanding and managing how we make use, and strategic use of the tyre behaviours that we find. I think ultimately I can’t speak for Michelin’s motivations: they’re a great company, I’ve certainly worked with them in the past and they were more than capable of delivering what their set objectives were – more than that I can’t speak on their behalf. Certainly, we’re just in the business of making best use of what we’re given.

    MB: Very difficult to judge and to comment. I know that the FIA is dealing with the tender; they are doing it by themselves and have started the process and are setting the targets. We have not been involved in the matter. So, without being involved, difficult to really to give a judgement, but I think as Ben meant. So, it was just mentioned that if Michelin does, somehow, make their choice, certainly they have gone, for them, what is the best choice.

    AC: My thought is that we are in front of this usual discussion between what is the best for the show and what is the best for the performance. Of course, for the performance, specifically of tyres, and the current situation is not the best, but for the show, according to the work that has been done, the discussions that we have done for many many years, this was the trend that the strategy group and the F1 community wanted to go. So then I think we need to define the objectives, the objectives need to be defined by the government or at the end by the people that are part of the strategy group and if for the good of the show, the good of the sport, we have to take a certain direction, the single tyre manufacturer has to follow. There are no other chances, really.

    SR: We just learn it now. All I can say is that we’ve got a lot of respect for Michelin history, for their story, for their technology and also for their decision. And if their strategy is not (inaudible) with the F1 business model, with the direction we’re trying to develop, I feel sorry for that but it’s one of the times that two roads cannot meet each other at some point.

    Q: (Sam Collins – RaceCar Engineering) There’s been talk in the media about the 2019 technical regulations having an even higher rear wing than was originally proposed in the draft regulations which have been amongst all of you so far. Is it a bit late to make changes like that and how would it affect the balance of your car?

    SR: I think it doesn’t look to be a dramatic change. Of course, having the rules defined as early as possible helps all of us to just lay down the (inaudible)  of the car and work developing it but ultimately I think everyone has got a big engineering group behind us and we can adapt to it and follow it. And especially in a case like that where it’s done for the purpose of safety, so to improve the safety of the driver.

    AC: Yeah, the changes that we are seeing for 2019, I think they were quite last minute changes but we are capable to develop a car in such a time frame so it’s not a big problem per se but the issue may come from the fact that if they will be effectively helping what is the aim, which means improving overtaking and improving the capability of the car to follow, we will have to see if the direction that we wanted to take is exactly what we will reach.

    MB: Relative to your question, is it too late or not for such a change, first we need to be honest: you cannot change the regulations if there is not unanimity from all the teams. Indeed the team have accepted it means that somehow we are able to manage and to (inaudible) the change so it’s not something that is imposed, it’s something that we are discussing through the technical working groups and we are all agreeing through our vote, so it has been accepted so whatever change, accepted or not, means we are accepting, we are able to (inaudible).

    BA: I think that particular example is just one of many in the way that exchanges happen between the teams and the FIA and actually, with respect to the rear wing in particular, although it was quite late, there was a fair amount of discussion that preceded it that indeed investigated alternative ways of increasing visibility, like reducing the rear wing box height. There was a general consensus that because development had been under way, we were dealing with a wing that fit a particular box and the fact that it shoots up by 50mm isn’t a game-changer, so the maturity, if you like, that precedes a decision is fair and we’re all familiar with that, we’re all party to that.

    Q: (Dominik Sharaf – Motorsport-Total.com) Mattia and Aldo: Liberty Media said that the 2021 engine regulations could be delayed because there is not enough interest by new manufacturers but we know that Porsche, for example, is waiting for a final decision and a final version of the regulations, to decide on their Formula One project. So who do you think should commit first: is it Formula One or new engine manufacturers?

    MB: Obviously having new manufacturers is always a good thing so if we are many and more manufacturers there’s more fighting in the championship which is something which is good. By 2020 the Concorde Agreement is finished and by 2021 we have the opportunity to have a new set of regulations on which we are working, together with the FIA and F1 Management. I think that obviously it’s not a matter of delaying or not, it’s a matter of setting something for 2021 which is necessary. Discussions are on-going, we’ve got regular meetings and I think that at the moment we are somehow close to define what we believe is the best compromise or the best solution for 2021.

    AC: So my thought: what we have got at the moment I think is a great power unit, it’s a very very efficient system, very modern in terms of layout, quite innovative. So really making something better, ruling something better is not that easy. There has been quite a lot of conversation about it and going in a direction and then coming back. It will take time to define something better for the sport and unfortunately if new manufacturers want to come, they are very very welcome but there is nothing else than competing with the current rules if the rules will stay the same or still waiting for more time for the new formula. There’s no other possibility.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Aldo, it looked like Mercedes started with the stronger car at the beginning of the season but I think it’s fair to say that the last races, even for the results didn’t always show it, Ferrari had the better car. In which areas do you think Mercedes was out-developed by Ferrari?

    AC: Yeah, between race to race, there is always a variability of performance that is related to many many aspects: type of circuit, tyre management, key performance element of the car itself. So there is for sure… when two cars are very very close in terms of overall package, you will see anyway a variability. So we think we are very very close. We do not think we were particularly faster and we do not think we are particularly slower. As I said, it’s just a matter of variability of races. We see that Ferrari has done big progress in the power unit and we see that we have got two cars that are quite similar, both very competitive and as I said before, it will be a matter of introducing more development, solving more issues and being at the end the best car, not making mistakes, having good reliability will be key because not many results can we lose without impacting the final result, really.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Aldo, talking about your decision about becoming an advisor to the team, I know that you’re wearing a white shirt but when you wore a red shirt, Rory Byrne did something very very similar where he moved out, became an advisor. Is that your blueprint for this, where you will effectively take on a Rory Byrne-type role for Mercedes?

    AC: In terms of formal arrangement, maybe yes, yeah, such a type of arrangement but myself and Rory have two different experiences, we’ve got different areas of influence so we are different but more or less something like that.

     

  • Sergio Perez happy with the outcome for Force India

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Romain, welcome to Monza, but I would like to take back to last weekend in Spa where you scored for the fourth time in the last five races. It seems that you’re getting some momentum now in that Haas car, so I just wanted to ask what has changed and why are you happier with it now?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Good afternoon. I think the car has been quick since Melbourne to be fair. In the first part of the season I made some mistake that I shouldn’t have done and I got some bad luck as well – there were plenty of times where we could have been in the points. Recently the run is going well and I’m hoping that continues, but to be fair the car has been fast since race one. I think the first races were up and down and they shouldn’t have been that way.

    Q: Thank you. Sergio, if we could come to you now, please. You were instrumental in saving Force India, so tell us what the result at Spa last weekend meant to you and how it will likely impact on your future with the team?

    Sergio PÉREZ: It was great to see everyone so happy after the tension that we had, not knowing what was going on with all the jobs, including mine and so on. So it was great to get that kind of result for the team. It just shows the potential my team has and I was very proud of that performance. In terms of my position it doesn’t change. I’ve got a contract and I keep performing and I keep delivering at my best. I try to score as many points as possible for the team, to try to get us further up on the grid. It doesn’t change from that perspective.

    Q: Thank you and good luck for the weekend. Kimi, coming to you, a man who is seeking his 100th podium in Formula 1 this weekend. A lot of the tifosi here at Monza will be wondering what you’re doing next year, so the inevitable question: when will know more about your future?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I don’t know. At some point, that’s for sure. Probably you can expect anything in here, that’s what I’ve learned over the past, so yeah, we’ll see, I don’t know.

    Q: Do you want to come back for more, Kimi? Are you still enjoying the challenge of Formula 1?

    KR: I enjoy the racing; I don’t think that’s a secret. The rest not, but that’s part of the job. Do I want to race? Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today. I don’t see that’s suddenly going to disappear. Who know, it might be, but I doubt it. Like I said, I don’t know, so we’ll see what happens.

    Q: Thank you Kimi, good luck this weekend. Sebastian, thanks for waiting, coming to you now. Spa was a dominant performance by you and Ferrari last weekend. Do you think that pace will translate to Monza this weekend, given the high-speed nature of the track?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know. I think in the end it was less dominant than you might think. In the end, we did well, and it’s good to see that we are able to improve our car. We had some bits and a new engine. So we’ll see. Monza in many ways is a bit similar to Spa, but then again obviously if you look at the track and the actual corners, not just the straights, it’s quite a bit different. We see in the past, I remember some good races here with great podiums but for sure we want more than a podium, but I think we will see what we get starting tomorrow and getting into the rhythm for the weekend.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – l’Equipe) A question for Kimi and Sebastian. Can you tell us the feeling to be a Ferrari driver at Monza. And another question for Seb, what is the feeling when you win in Monza, even not for Ferrari?

    KR: Obviously the driving doesn’t change. It’s our home grand prix, so it’s more busy. We have a lot, a lot of support, a lot of tifosi here, so that obviously makes it a lot different. But if you purely talk pure driving, racing, it’s the same job than any other place. It just happens to be our home race. Obviously it’s an important race for us, for the team, as any race, but it’s for sure special. You feel it straight away when you come here, today or yesterday, in the show in Milan, it’s great. Hopefully we get a strong result from the team not just for us but for all the fans and tifosi.

    Sebastian winning here at Monza? Of course it’s 10 years since your first ever F1 victory?

    SV: Yeah, it depends which colour, or which engine you have in the back. I mean the first win was overwhelming in many regards. I didn’t realise at the time that I was obviously racing for an Italian team and had a Ferrari engine in the back, so I guess it was sort of OK for the crowd and they were happy too. I thought they were happy because it was me and it was a good race. But then two or three years after I won again in a different colour, they weren’t very happy, so I was wondering a bit what’s going on, because I hadn’t done anything wrong, quite the opposite. The story of Monza is in the heart of Italy and where all the tifosi are. I think the last podiums I had, in the right colour, were quite amazing and obviously it’s definitely something I want to achieve, to win here with Ferrari. Others have done it before me and I want to join them.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Romain, Guenther told us earlier that both you guys will have the new floor, after changing last weekend. Can you just explain what the difference was last weekend between then and how you came to the decision to have it on your car here?

    RG: Yeah, so last weekend we both had the update on the car and we were not very competitive on Friday, so on Friday night we decided to revert one car to the old spec, just to see the difference and to try to understand and gather a lot of data, which we did. The guys went to the factory and discussed with the aerodynamic department and it was clear that the new package is a good step in a good direction and that we should run it. It does require a bit of adjusting in the set-up, which Kevin did over the weekend using it and which now we know, so I think now we are going to use that new package which should be more competitive.

    Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia EFE) A question for Checo. After all this emotional rollercoaster, what do you expect this weekend here?

    SP: Yeah, I think we have a competitive car, we proved that in Belgium. We are coming to a similar track in terms of what you run around here, so I think we should be quite competitive, and the aim is still the same – to try to be the best of the rest and I think we have a good chance of doing that again.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, your greatest feeling here, is it pole in 2006, as you have not won here?

    KR: Hard to say. I don’t think it’s been very good over the years, but I always enjoy coming here. First of all, it’s a nice, great circuit, it has a lot of history. It’s close by from home, so easy to come. I had some good races here for sure, not perfect. I’ve been on the podium with Ferrari once or twice. That’s been good. Not exactly what we wanted but important, so yeah…

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Kimi, you’ve always struck us, over the last 18 years or whatever you’ve been in F1, as a very private individual, yet you recently authorized a biography. I’ve read some excerpts that have been translated and it seems to be fairly open about your lifestyle etc. Why are you willing to open yourself to the world like that?

    KR: Probably you had a wrong translation. What about that? No, how is it secret, because I lived through it and there have been an awful lot of stories about it, a lot of things. I don’t know how you think it’s such a secret. I don’t think… it’s something that I decided to do. It’s just a short story until now, it’s not such a big thing in my view. Like I said, I lived through it and it just happens to be now it’s in a book. Probably most of the things a lot of people know, maybe not all, but I don’t feel that there is something different in my view, but obviously probably for you guys it is different

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – Racingline.hu) Kimi, as the oldest driver on the grid, what’s your personal feeling, how long can you perform at this level?

    KR: Hard to know. I don’t feel that I drive any differently than 10 years ago. I think I drive pretty well, in my books at least, and that’s enough for me. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel I can drive as well as I feel that I should. That my tool to measure and decide when it’s enough. Who knows. I don’t know. Maybe I wake up one morning and I just don’t know how to go fast any more. I don’t think there is a time. It’s more feelings and how do you feel yourself doing it – good or bad. People always say that the speed will disappear but until this day I feel that it hasn’t disappeared for me. But maybe there is a morning you wake up and it’s just not there anymore. It could be like that but I don’t think you just put a date, you just turn this old or that and it’s just not there. If you have it, you have it and if not… that’s it.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Seb, do you feel any greater pressure performing in front of the Ferrari fans and how important do you think a win here would be in terms of your championship chances and the momentum that a victory in front of the Ferrari fans would bring?

    SV: I don’t know. If you win you score more points than others, that always helps. You don’t have to be a genius to make that out. Obviously here for us it’s a different story, so I think it’s a bit isolated from the rest of the year in terms of how special it is for the whole team. There are a lot of friends, a lot of family from all the guys here. We are in Italy, in the home country of Ferrari and I think everybody, not just us drivers, not only the Ferrari drivers, everybody can feel and sense that there is something special going on and I think we have probably the two most special seats this weekend but there are a lot of seats and there will be a lot of people, so to be honesty, looking forward to it. Yesterday was a great way to start the weekend, with the event we had in the city and there were a lot of people and to see how excited they are is definitely different than any other race where I thought people were already excited, but they’re more excited here. So looking forward to getting out in the car and just to look for the same sort of satisfaction and feeling we had last weekend. The car is performing so we hope it stays that way and to make it even better.

    Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) A question for Sebastian. Why after your victory in Belgian nobody in your team, neither you nor anybody else, remembers so big a figure like Sergio Marchionne?

    SV: I don’t think that’s fair from you to say. One is the comments we give in the press but we are aware just how big he has been, not just for our team, but for the whole group behind and obviously knowing him he was a big supporter of Ferrari, of racing, and he was interested in going ahead and at some point you have to let things rest and look forward and I think that’s probably the way he wanted it to be and it’s probably a sign of respect, that you’re not trying to dig something up and especially in times like now, let things rest.

    Q: (Alessandro Sala – Tercer Equipo) Question for the men in red, the first one to Sebastian. If this year you should be World Champion, we should read next year ‘my five titles’ biography? And for Kimi, both Ferraris first row, at the beginning of the first variante, which should be your move if you are side-by-side with Sebastian?
    SV:     I’m not planning to write a book. I’m not sure I can compete with Kimi. I haven’t read it because it’s in Finnish but… yeah… I mean. If that would be an idea for the headline, obviously that would be great if it happens to be like that but there’s a lot of would and should and could. So, not interested at that point. Yeah, as I said, I don’t think my book is as exciting. Maybe need to wait more years.
    KR: I don’t know. We’ll see. Obviously our aim is to be with both cars in the front and then see how it plays out – but obviously we know what we can do. We can race each other and we always try to beat each other but to be fair at the same time. I don’t see anything different on that

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Sebastian, given the advantage you enjoyed at Spa, is it something you think Mercedes can come back from – or do you think you’re going to hold that power advantage to the end of the season?
    SV:     Well, first of all, I find it quite nice that we get put in this position. I think people forget that maybe for the last five years, Mercedes has been absolutely dominant, especially in terms of power unit, and obviously, it’s nice from them to put us in that position because it means they believe they are not the strongest any more. So, it’s good to be up there with them and be a match but I don’t think we can take anything for granted. I don’t think we are anywhere near in the place they have been in the last years. So, I think we have to work hard to make things happen, and we are determined to work hard this weekend to put ourselves in the same position again, that we have a great pace in the weekend and especially in the race on Sunday.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Sebastian and Kimi, it’s more or less in the line of your last answer, Maurizio Arrivabene said that it’s very important for Ferrari to push Mercedes, they are not used to it over the last four years at least – but it’s also true that many people believe you have the best car, and many Italians say Ferrari has a great chance of being World Champion this year. If you go outside you hear this from many Italians. You feel this pressure that will exist?

    SV: Not really. We know our car best and I think we have a lot of people on board telling us how good our car is on which point of the track, at which point of the year, similar to other teams. I think we know what’s going on. We know we have a great car. I think we have a good car that seems to have worked so far on more or less every track. Some better, some a little but worse but I think we are aware we have a good package but we cannot rest on that. I think we need to make it happen. Kimi and myself in the car, all the engineering crew at the track, everybody back in Maranello to try to put everything together. So, I don’t think you can compare to maybe the position other people have been in years ago. It doesn’t matter, I’m also not keen to compare because we’re looking forwards and we want to do our thing. As I said, looking forward to getting in the car. It’s a great feeling when you step inside the car and you know that you can fight for first position, for the podium, for victory on Sunday. That’s what you want as a driver but for the rest I think it’s healthy not to overthink.

    KR: I don’t think there’s any more pressure. I think all the pressure is that we want to do well: ourselves; our team. So that’s normal pressure that we put unto ourselves and something that we want to achieve. So, I don’t know. Is our package best? One weekend yes, next might not be. It’s that close that small differences will dictate who’s fastest over that weekend or the race on Sundays. If you don’t get everything right, you might not win. So, it’s very close. Certain conditions; certain circuits, one is a bit better for one team and the next one for the other team. We’re talking small differences in the end result. So, we can only do our best and see what happens, where we end up on Sunday.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question for the two Ferrari drivers. Everyone’s talking about the engine improvement this year but it has been a collective growth from the team. Maybe not necessarily from last year but especially if you look back to 2016 when there wasn’t the progression from ’15 to ’16. So if you look at the work from 2016, how much has the team changed? Is it as much down to the way the team has reworked its structure as well as obviously improvements on the engine side.

    SV: Well, I think 2016 was a key year for us. Obviously it wasn’t great in terms of performance, especially after ’15, we finished second in the Constructors’, you naturally want to be closer, a lot closer and we were not. We lost a place. But I think in terms of setting ourselves up for the future ’16 was the most important year so far – at least since I’m with the team. Obviously ’17 we had a rule change that helped us to use that restructuring in general that’s been going on. I think we, since then, have been able to improve on all fronts. Whether it’s the car, the development throughout the season to keep the pace up; whether it’s engine power and its components. So, I think things are going in the right direction but I think the opponent that we had years ago was very , very strong, still is very, very strong but y’know it’s good to see we are getting stronger and, in some areas, maybe caught up. In some other areas maybe have a little bit of an edge. In the end that’s where we want to be – and beyond that. I think that’s our ambition: to be up there and to be at least on the level so we can fight for it and to keep that level throughout the year, and if there’s a gap then to increase that gap. I think that things are looking in the right way but saying that, we still have a lot of things that we can improve, and still have potential that can be unleashed, a lot of processes that I think can be improved, so we have to work and focus on those and go step-by-step.

    Kimi anything to add?

    KR: No.

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Seb. Lewis made some remarks after the last race about that he couldn’t explain how fast your … how fast you were. Would you… I mean presumably you take this opportunity to say that everything in the Ferrari is above board and legal and b) does that give us a glimpse into Lewis’ mindset that he’s not quite sure how to deal with the Ferrari and the strength of it at the moment?

    SV: I don’t know. I think you need to ask him but I think he said in the press conference something with tricks – but then I think he said quite many times as well that he doesn’t want it to be interpreted in the wrong way and I think – maybe he did – I’m not so sure but  for all us, in terms of is the car legal or not, there’s the FIA responsible for it and I think we have several checks throughout the weekend to prove that. So as long as I don’t hear anything from that front then I believe it’s fine. Same for the others. So, as I said, maybe it’s more a question for him. And for us, it’s to keep out head down. If there’s something like momentum, then to use that momentum to make sure we go forwards.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Question to Seb and Kimi. Given the performance in Belgium from Ferrari, and given the comments that emanated from both Mercedes and Lewis post-race, do you think you have Mercedes worried for the first time in five seasons, for the rest of this season. And, if so, how can you play on that and make it to your advantage.

    SV: To be very honest with you, I don’t feel anything related to Mercedes. I feel Ferrari, and especially this weekend – and that’s what I want to enjoy. I don’t know in which state or mind they are. I think, y’know, we are obviously up against the best if you fight for the front positions. And Mercedes have proven to be the best over the last years. I think they have been for many reasons. What we want to do, obviously, is to beat them – so we need to be better than them. I think that’s what we need to focus on. In which shape they are, and so on, I think it’s more for them to answer. As I said, this weekend, I don’t feel anything with Mercedes. I feel Ferrari – so looking forwards to that.

    Kimi, anything to add?

    KR: No.

    Do you feel you’ve got Mercedes rattled?

    KR: I don’t know. You need to talk to them. Obviously, I don’t know. I’m not really interested in what their thoughts are. We do our stuff and try to do the best that we can and obviously improve and go forwards.

    Q: (Alessandro Bucci – ItaliaRacing.net) A question for each driver. Which is, or which are, your favourite Italian Grands Prix during your career.

    RG: I haven’t had really any good ones here! I try to remind… 2009: no. Where did we end up in ’12 and ’13? ’12 I didn’t race. ’13 I can’t remember. We were not very fast on low downforce. ’14 I’m not talking about… no, nothing outstanding here.

    SP: For me it was a great race 2012. Making it into the podium. Into the last laps, beating both Ferraris to the podium was a great race that I definitely remember well. Obviously the podium here is very special. It’s a nice experience. The atmosphere from the tifosi was very special, definitely. My biggest memory was 2012.

    KR: I enjoyed going to Imola also. Good racing. I don’t know. I’ve never had very good races at either places but that was a really nice circuit to race. It’s close by. I call it an Italian Grand Prix. Here, not one that would probably be better than the others. Some decent, let’s say.

    Seb, how about you?

    SV: Personal one, obviously 2008. I don’t think that… well, we’ll see, maybe there is a chance that something better comes up but when it comes to my racing here, I think 2008, the first win ever, it always stands out to be something special. The way it happened as well. Then in memory, or what I’ve heard about I think the ’88 Grand Prix will never be beaten in terms of importance for this country, for the tifosi, for racing here. And I remember, was there a race with three cars finishing close to each other? Was it the tightest finish? Five cars? That must have been a great race. I wasn’t there, obviously. By a long way! None of us what – but I think that must have been a great race to watch and follow. And then, as I said, the ’88, what it meant, obviously for Ferrari.

    Q: (Barbara Premoli – Motorinolimits.com) Question for Kimi. I know you won’t answer me –but I need only to see your expression. In Monza, we have always had a big announcement. So, we have to expect something? Lift the cap! Look at me.

    KR: Better glasses maybe? You need to talk to the team. It’s not up to me. That’s about it. Not my decision in the end.

    PART TWO: DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Renault) , Charles LECLERC (Alfa Romeo Sauber), Esteban OCON (Racing Point Force India), Sergey SIROTKIN (Williams)

    Q: Nico, can we start with you please and take a look back at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix and what happened at the start, specifically talking about the halo because opinion was divided about that prior to the start of the season, even among the drivers? Has your accident with Charles Leclerc changed your mind about the halo?

    Nico HULKENBERG: For sure. I think it’s proven pretty useful and a good device. Obviously we can only speculate what would have happened without it but it looked pretty clear from the point that the tyre marks were obviously all over the halo and from that point of view it’s done a very good job, to keep the head safe.

    Q: And looking ahead to this weekend, Nico, you’re carrying a ten place grid penalty but what do you think you can do in the Renault?

    NH: Yeah, it’s obviously not going to be an easy weekend, carrying that penalty. Monza, perhaps a difficult track for us but it is what it is. We approach this weekend open-minded and want to deliver a good weekend and specially have a good race on Sunday, regardless of where we start or how difficult it seems. It’s always fun to race around here so just look forward to getting back in the car tomorrow and start this weekend.

    Q: Charles, what was your over-riding emotion after the race on Sunday?

    Charles LECLERC: The frustration to have not finished the race, to be honest. I was just very frustrated because obviously in the last few races we have been quite unlucky. Then looking back at the images (of the accident) we can’t know what will have happened without it (the halo) but obviously I was quite happy to have it over my head and as Nico said, I think it deserves to be in Formula One now, whether it looks good or bad, I don’t think that matters any more.

    Q: And we’re at Monza, last European race of the year. There’s quite a lot of talk about next season. Just wondering if there’s any movement on what you’ll be doing in 2019?

    CL: For now, not really. For now, I didn’t have any information so I’m just waiting and hopefully I’ll be able to say soon.

    Q: Esteban, a lot of chat about 2019 this afternoon, so Spa last weekend was a spectacular result for you. Just talk us through your emotions after the race and how you feel it’s going to impact on your job prospects going forward?

    Esteban OCON: Well, thank you very much, first of all. Of course it was a fantastic weekend and a fantastic qualifying, obviously. After tough time, we are back in a great way. It brings joy to everyone in the team, the mechanics, the engineers, everybody was pushing hard and had tough times but that’s totally behind, everyone’s happy now and of course then the cherry on the cake, the fifth and sixth in the race. A good start from me as well and a good result in the end with 18 points and we couldn’t come back in a better way and start in a better way.

    Q: Sergey, if there are changes at Force India in 2019, there’s a chance they might affect Williams as well so what can you tell us about your job prospects going forward?

    Sergey SIROTKIN: Obviously I can follow on the changes that could probably happen. I’m afraid I don’t know much more than what I can read on the websites but in terms of myself, I think – I’ve said this a couple of times already – I think I quite clearly really know my position in the team. I think I’m quite happy with the job I’m doing for them. They know my position, they know what they can get from me so if you want a concrete answer I’m afraid not right now,  right here, but if I have any worries, I’m afraid (inaudible)

    Q: But it felt good to run in the points for the first time last weekend though?

    SS: It’s been good to run in the points but the best thing is that finally we have the pace to be fighting, not just me running there because of whatever happened, but because we had the pace for it. It has been a very good weekend. I think we can take a lot of positives from there.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, RaceFans.net) Nico, if we go back to Spa last year you are quoted as saying that you are totally anti the halo, not only because it looks stupid but the likelihood is minimal that an accident will happen in which a halo is actually helpful. Do you still agree with that statement?

    NH: I think… whilst I am still not a big fan of halo and the device, I have to see the facts and admit that it does bring something to Formula One, especially the safety that we appreciate in the car. Yeah, divided, mixed feelings about it still but it’s not down to me anyway. It is what it is.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Esteban, the result last weekend, the performance in qualifying and the race, did that do anything for you in terms of settling you down for your short term future or are you now more confident about what’s going to happen to you between now and the end of this season, let alone 2019?

    EO: Well, I hope it does definitely help. As a driver, the only talk you can do is on the track anyway, so that’s what I’m trying to do at the moment but yeah, still no news, only rumours and talk so as soon as I know more, I will let you know.

    Q: (Daniel Majer – Origo.hu) Obviously Monza is all about speed and you were not racing under the V10 regulations but at that time, speed records were broken here. If you would chose just for this particular Grand Prix to switch to cars that are much faster in a straightline, would you do that or are the current ones OK?

    SS: Honestly, I didn’t know the cars and how they’ve been in those times but I think this year’s cars are quite quick in a straightline. Obviously they’re missing a lot of engine sound but from the pure speed-wise I don’t think they’re any slower than what they’ve been in whatever year you say with the V10s. So yeah, I wish I could try them a couple of times, but if I would swap them for the weekend I’m not sure.

    EO: For sure, the sound was amazing back in the days of the V10s, V12s, also V8s were very nice but the cars we are running now, they are breaking all the track records so I think they’re quick enough, 1000 horsepower, amazing speed, so yeah, it’s quite enough.

    CL: I think in the same way as Esteban. I think a bit more sound would be nice but again, I’m extremely happy about driving these cars. As you said, we’ve broken quite a lot of records this year; I think it’s one of the fastest cars – probably the fastest car – in F1’s history so very happy to be in this.

    NH: Yeah, nothing more to add. Mid-2000s, V10s?

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Charles, as an Alfa Romeo driver and member of the Ferrari Academy, what is your feeling driving in Monza this weekend?

    CL: It’s absolutely amazing. Also in the past few years, Monza has always been a track where I’ve always had a lot of support, first being part of the Ferrari Academy  of course and yeah, also this year arriving at the track this morning, you can really see that with the return of Alfa Romeo, an Italian brand, that there’s a lot of interest in us and a lot of people are here for us which is great to see. I actually had more support this morning here than I had the Thursday in Monaco so it feels a little bit like a home race and it definitely gives a big boost to the whole team.

    Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriera dello Sport) Charles, you have a strong Italian side and spent so much time in this country. So which are your best and your worst memories of your Italian period?

    CL: My best memory, it’s probably my first ever car win that I’ve had in Italy, in Monza actually, here, in 2014. I can remember I had quite tough first races in car racing and finally I could manage to win my first race here in Monza, so that’s probably my best memory. My worst memory? I don’t have much, to be honest. Probably when my tyre went flat on the motorway next to Maranello, that wasn’t a great memory.

    Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar NL) Charles, following the halo debate that’s gone on after Spa, I was wondering to get your thoughts if you’re more aware of driver safety in F1 following the accident of your friend Jules Bianchi?

    CL: Obviously it has been a big shock when I… when we all lost Jules. It was very sudden. I don’t really get the question. Can you repeat it? What do you want me to…?

    Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar NL) Just wondering if you’re more aware of safety maybe added by the halo device, following that accident?

    CL: Speaking for Jules, it wouldn’t have helped anything because the cause was not… it was just a shock and the shock was too big. Then I believe that in certain circumstances it can help. If it helped or not at Spa I have no idea but in some circumstances it can help so I think it’s a good thing to have.

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – Racingline.hu) Charles, what about your future, when can we expect some news?

    CL: I have no news for now. As I said earlier I’m just waiting for some information and as soon as I know, I will let you know but for now I don’t know.

    Q: (Alex Roos – L’Equipe) Esteban, can you explain why Monza is a special GP and how it’s different from the other ones?

    EO: I think for a few reasons it’s the temple of speed so the speeds we are achieving are massive. Racing is good because of the long straight, the slipstream. We run low downforce and yeah, it makes great racing overall so that’s the technical part. And then the atmosphere is just very much different to anywhere and the tifosi are amazing fans and they give us a lot of support and they are here, then they are massively here, waiting for us when we arrive at the entrance. It’s such a happy and joyous… everyone’s happy to be here and you don’t live those moments at a Grand Prix everywhere like that and it’s very special.

    Q: (Barbara Premoli – Motorinolimits.com) Charles, can you explain to normal people like us how your body and mind reacts to a big shunt like the one we saw in Spa last week?

    CL: To be honest, I think it looked a lot bigger on TV than it actually was. I felt, obviously, Fernando going over me but it was not like it was a big big shock. So yeah, the only thing I had in my mind is that I was just hoping for some miracle that the car was not damaged enough to go back to the pits but obviously when I looked in the mirrors again I saw that everything was gone so I couldn’t… I just found a way to stop the car and that’s it. But yeah, the images look very spectacular but from inside the car it was not such a big shunt.

  • New team retains Force India name as Chassis name cannot be changed mid-way: Szafnauer

    Part II – Press Conference

    Team Representatives – Otmar SZAFNAUER (Racing Point Force India), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams)

    Q: Otmar, not much of a summer break for you, I’m sure it was very busy. But now you are the Team Principal of Racing Point Force India. Can you just talk us through the past few weeks from your perspective?

    Otmar SZAFNAUER: It was a busy few weeks for myself and mainly for the administrator who was trying to find a solution for our administration. I was busy basically informing all of our team members who were on holiday of the goings on and trying to communicate what was happening. It’s not an everyday thing, administration, and a lot of people didn’t understand the process and when you don’t have a good understanding of the process it creates anxiety, so I was just trying to keep everyone together and informed. But well worth it in the end.

    Q: And then more specifically, this past week and especially the last 48 hours since arriving at Spa, what’s been going on behind the scenes?

    OS: I think, from what I understand, it started of as a share sale that then transferred into an asset sale, for reasons I don’t quite understand. But once that happened we needed a new entry into Formula 1 and to gain a new entry in a short period of time takes a lot of work, so the last 48 hours was working towards Racing Point Formula 1 Team gain its new entry, and that was a lot of work to do that. But fortunately with the support of the FIA, FOM, our fellow competitors and colleagues within our community, we got it done. I’ve got to thank the teams as well for supporting us.

    Q: Speaking of the other teams, we’ll move on to Claire. Force India’s future has been closely intertwined with yours based on Lawrence Stroll’s involvement. Can you let us know where this leaves Williams going forward?

    Claire WILLIAMS: First of all, I think this is obviously a great story for Formula 1. Prior to the shutdown we were all slightly concerned as to Force India’s fate, and I think Lawrence stepping in and securing the team’s future is a great thing, not just for our sport but obviously for the employees, so at Williams we are delighted. I think probably the biggest knock-on effect for us will be the lack of Lawrence’s presence in our motorhome. I know that he has spent a bit of time in the Force India motorhome this weekend already. But for us at the moment, it’s business as usual. Lance still has a contract to drive for us until the end of the season, he’s racing for us here in Spa and Lawrence is still in our motorhome.

    Q: You mention Lance. He was sitting in that seat in yesterday’s press conference and said that he’ll wait to see what his dad wants him to do in the future and hopes he’ll take him to Force India. Can you just clarify: will Lance race the rest of the season for you? Is that what you expect?

    CW: There are a lot of twists and turns on Formula 1 aren’t there? I think we’ve seen that over the past few weeks alone. I think it might be slightly odd if Lawrence owns one team and his son is another, but hey, this is Formula 1! At the moment, as I said, Lance is contracted to drive for us, he’s driving here this weekend and as soon as we have more information, when we know, then we will share that.

    Q: Thank you. Franz, a confirmed move in the driver market is that Pierre Gasly will leave yourselves next season and move up to Red Bull. Just what is Red Bull getting in terms of a driver in Pierre?

    Franz TOST: They will get a high-skilled, very fast, experienced driver, because Gasly is a good example of how to build up a driver. He was very successful in all the lower categories, where he won races, where he won championships, and when he came to Toro Rosso at the beginning of the season, he was already quite experienced. He is fast, he has a good technical understand, he has a good understanding for the tyre management and therefore I am convinced that he will do a very good at Red Bull Racing.

    Q: With Pierre moving up that means there is at least one space available at Toro Rosso next season, but there is not a huge amount of drivers ready at the moment within the Red Bull Junior Programme, so what do you do for 2019?

    FT: We will see. Red Bull is discussing different names and I am convinced in the close future they will come up with a name.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Otmar, the situation around the team means that there are quite a few consequences for you guys. So could you just explain what the resolution is on things like championship prize money and where you stand with engine allocations and that sort of thing, and what it means for the team as well?

    OS: Well, the biggest consequence is the fact that we start from zero points, so we forego the 59 points, because those belong to Sahara Force India, which is not an entrant anymore. We are a new entrant and we start from zero. We’ll do the best we can to score as many points as we can in the remaining race and we’ll see where we end up at the end of the season, and that will determine some of the prize funds for the following year. As far as engine allocation goes, we had confirmation today from Charlie that we will continue with the engine allocation and gearbox allocation as if we never ceased racing. I think in his eyes he thought that was the fairest thing to do vis-à-vis the other teams, so that’s how we’re going to go forward.

    Can we just clarify, Otmar, that if you are foregoing the championship points that you had already earned this season, you are having to forego the prize money earned in previous years by Force India?

    OS: No. The remaining nine teams have signed, so to speak, a document that enables us to keep the money that Sahara Force India had earned in years past.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Otmar, we know that Force India was considering a name change both for this season and looking ahead to 2019 as well. As a new entrant, now would have seemed like a perfect time to get rid of the Force India name. What were the reasons for keeping that in the new team name?

    OS: Isn’t that ironic: we wanted to change it, we didn’t, then we could have changed it and we didn’t? The reason is we started the year with Force India as our chassis name. Formula One, the FIA, they don’t like chassis name changes and I understand why, because it confuses the fans. And we thought it was prudent to keep Force India for the fans. The cars’ are still pink, we still have the same sponsors, we still have the same drivers, we have the same motorhome, we have the same employees. You look at us, we’re exactly the same. I think it would have been confusing to remove Force India. Racing Point was added in front of Force India instead of Sahara – we were Sahara Force India before – that was just so we can distinguish between the old and the new and Racing Point just happens to be the name of the company in the United Kingdom that owns the assets to that’s the only reason for Racing Point being there, but the chassis name still remains Force India and I think from a fan point perspective that’s the right thing to do.

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Telegraph) For both Otmar and Claire: a lot of people in F1 like to talk about this sport being a meritocracy and yet the conjecture which now links Lance with Force India arises purely from the fact that his father is part of the consortium that controls the team. This doesn’t have to be referencing Lance specifically as I know it’s sensitive but how much do you feel that F1 genuinely is governed by ability or is it still governed by who you know?

    CW: I’ve talked about this point a lot over the past 18 months. I think the crux of it for us is that as a team, as you would expect, we wouldn’t put a driver in our car for a variety of different reasons if we didn’t feel that they had the ability to race a Formula One car. These machines are not easy to drive, they’re dangerous, you want to make sure you’ve got somebody who’s competent enough to be in that race car and Lance has proved that. I also believe that over the time that he’s spent with us at Williams, that he’s demonstrated that he’s got talent and that he deserves to be in this sport. He had a season last year in his rookie year where he took the first row of the grid in Monza, I think it was. He took a podium, one of the only drivers to do so last year outside of the top three teams. So I don’t think that you can say that Lance is only in this sport because of his father.

    OS: I tend to agree with Claire. Lance, for sure, especially in the lower formulas, has proven to be a race winner, a winner of championships. We’ve been watching him too because he’s a competitor of ours and the one thing Claire didn’t add is that every time it rains it seems like his talent shines and that’s usually the sign of a driver that has great car control so we don’t know him intimately but for sure he deserves to be in this sport, not just because of his Dad.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Otmar, the situation of yourself is that you’ve gone from COO to CEO and also team principal. Could you also confirm that you were given a shareholding up to 25% of the revised company, please?

    OS: Wow. Wouldn’t that be great? Haha. Yeah, I can confirm that that isn’t the case but I like your suggestion. I’m going to go… before the ink’s dry, I’d better go talk to Lawrence and the consortium. That’s a good idea, that’s a good idea!

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – Autohebdo) Otmar, will you keep the same driver line-up for the remainder of the season or could we see changes at Racing Point Force India from Monza onwards?

    OS: Yes, for the short term, it’s the same two. What happens thereafter it’s not impossible to change, that’s for sure, but a lot of agreements would have to happen so I don’t know, it’s hard for me to predict that in the future.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Franz, I know that you mentioned that Red Bull are speaking to some drivers about next season and hopefully there will be an announcement soon. What do you think of the prospect of a driver from outside the Red Bull pool currently coming into the team next season? Obviously the likes of someone like Stoffel Vandoorne might be available next year if McLaren doesn’t chose to stick with him

    FT: As I mentioned before there are different names which are being discussed but up to now no decision has been made so therefore we just wait and Red Bull will announce it.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Franz, are you able to give any updates on James Key’s status? McLaren said they had a plan to get him out of his contract early if possible. Do you see that happening any time soon?

    FT: I don’t care about the plans from McLaren. Fact is that he has a Toro Rosso contract.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Franz, with the main team, Red Bull Racing, taking on Honda engines next year, are there any plans for yourselves to have a far closer technical operation in terms of listed parts etc or how do you see that evolving?

    FT: We will have a very close cooperation with Red Bull Technology next year because we will have the same rear part, which means the power unit, gearbox and the suspension, everything within the regulations because we want to use this much.

    Yeah, the front suspension as well, the inner parts, not the outer parts, that’s all, but that’s a lot, because you know the complete rear part means also the hydraulics, the electronics, all this kind of stuff.

    Q: (Pierre van Vliet – F1i.com) Otmar, about the name thing, is it going to stay the same? The team name? The chassis name for 2019?

    OS: Yeah, we’ve got some time to decide that but I believe now that we are a new entrant with Force India as a chassis name. For us to change, we will have to get approval from the Formula One Commission, so we’ve got to come up with a name that will be lasting and appropriate and also be approved by the Formula One Commission so I don’t know what that is, this is brand new, but the good news is that we’ve got a few months to think about it before we have to enter next year or for next year.

    Part I – Press Conference

    Q: Cyril, we had Daniel Ricciardo in here yesterday explaining his decision to join Renault. When did you start talks with Daniel and just how did that deal come about from a Renault point of view.

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Obviously, we have known Daniel since a while for the collaboration we naturally have on the engine side with Red Bull since 12 years. We’ve had random discussions – jokes – with Daniel since a while. It would be hard to put an exact date on the first joke about this type of switch. But I’d say that’s it’s a while since we’ve expressed our interest in him, the fact that we liked him, his style, his skills, his talent, his leadership and the fact that there could be an opportunity for him at Renault. We’ve always been clear with what we are, what we are not yet, that we are still in the making. That if he was interested in a turnkey organisation, in a turnkey team with a turnkey car that would not be with us – but if he was interested in a project in construction where he could play a role, we would be interested. So, you know, that’s where we left it and we accepted also since day one it would take him a bit of time to digest and to consider because it was an important decision, you know such a switch is complex. It’s complex in life and in the career of a driver, which is short – but it’s also complex in the life of a team, both for all organisations involved. So, we accepted that. We accepted he would be sort-of making and controlling the timing and obviously we had to look at alternative options in parallel in case it would not happen. And yeah, I think he sort of digested the proposal and eventually made his decision.

    Q: It seemed to come quite late. Daniel said it was over a 48-hour period that he finally made his call. Did it come as a surprise to you as well when he finally gave you the news?

    CA: Yeah, it came both as a surprise but also as a relief because it’s positive news. It’s great news for Renault, for the team – but it’s also news that carrying not just lots of… not just emotions but also responsibility and some obligation to deliver. To deliver cars that are in-line with his expectations, with his talent. We were already obliged to our shareholders, to our sponsors, to our fans, towards the legacy of Renault. Now we are also obliged towards him, and we want this charismatic driver finds what he’s come to find and to look for with our organisation. So, we just have a bit more pressure – but it’s healthy pressure.

    Q: Christian, it’s basically the same question to you. When Daniel turned around and said he was leaving Red Bull, he said that that came over a short period, that he made the final decision. Did it catch you out?

    Christian HORNER: I suppose the whole process with Daniel has dragged on this year. Y’know, we started talking really in February, initially aiming to have something done by Australia and then obviously, that got postponed until after Monaco, and then Monaco got postponed. The whole process has been fairly drawn out. Obviously in recent weeks, Dietrich Mateschitz was involved in the discussions with him in the discussions from Barcelona, in Austria and all indications were that he was going to stay. Certainly, that was the intent from the team’s point of view. Obviously, Daniel, when he called on the Thursday, when he landed in the US, having had everything in front of him that he wanted and had required, financially, technically, duration etcetera, etcetera, there was something in him that he still felt he wanted a change. Certainly, that’s how he’s explained it to us and that he felt the timing was right to do something different. So, of course it was a surprise. We’d expected if he were to leave it would be a for a Mercedes or a Ferrari – but that’s obviously his decision and we fully respect that. We’ve had ten great years. Red Bull invested in him as a junior in Formula Renault. He then went on to win the [British] Formula 3 Championship. I remember going watch him at Silverstone in Formula 3 and seeing even at that stage his talent was very clear. He then obviously graduated through the Renault World Series into Formula One with HRT and from there into Toro Rosso and then from there was selected to partner Sebastian Vettel when Mark Webber retired. We’ve seen him grow during that time, evolve as a personality and as a driver. He’s been a pleasure to have in the team at Red Bull Racing the last five years. He’s driven some great races. He’s a big character. We’ve given him a platform to express that and we wish him well for the next journey in his career.

    Q: Gil, welcome to the press conference. Fernando was sitting next to Daniel yesterday and spoke a lot about his decision to move on, so we’re going to look to the future. You ran Lando Norris in your car this morning. It’s unusual for McLaren to run a different driver in FP1, so why that decision?

    Gil DE FERRAN: We’ve I think been investing in Lando for a fair few years now. We’re trying to give him as much exposure as possible. This was an opportunity for him to drive the car at a grand prix weekend, which is a different situation, more people on the track and a lot of track evolution and also a completely different level of downforce – so I think we keep walking the development road.

    Q: Looking to the future from a personal point of view, you’ve now been in the role for couple of months. What are your priorities at McLaren?

    GdF: Look, to your point, I’ve been here two or three months. It feels like a lifetime already! It’s been many long hours and I took the first phase of this appointment to really assess what goes on in the team and try to get to know the people better and understand what everybody else does in the team. And one of the things that is clear to me is that there’s a lot of talent within the team, up and down the organisation, so I guess my main priority is really to unlock that talent and hopefully turn that into better results.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) There’s been a lot of confusion about Fernando. He said that he had an offer from Red Bull Racing to race for you next season. Can you clarify that please?

    Christian HORNER: Just to be totally clear, there was no offer to Fernando Alonso for next year. Fernando is a fantastic driver, he’s a great talent in Formula One. He’s obviously chosen his path. We had an enquiry from Flavio Briatore, and from Liberty Media, but the position within Red Bull has always been very clear that we invest in youth and have a talent pool through the Red Bull Junior Programme. And as has been the case with Sebastian Vettel, Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, we’re always going to draw upon the talent pool that we have. We have offered Fernando a contract in the past, but that was back in 2007.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Christian, what was the criteria to choose Gasly instead of Carlos Sainz Jr? And also, the same question I did yesterday to Max – if you see the numbers of both Toro Rosso drivers concerning the engine combustion internal MGU-K, MGU-H, they are over the limit for long and we still have nine races to go. Are you confident that Honda will solve all of these problems from the middle of the season to the next one, and also provide performance?

    CH: To deal with the fist part of your question, we selected Pierre Gasly based on what we see performance-wise the job he’s doing within Toro Rosso. Obviously we’d selected Max Verstappen prior to that having had the choice of either Carlos or Max at the time. To allow Carlos’ career to continue to develop we effectively leased him out to Renault to continue that career development. We had the option to bring him back, but faced with the options that we had and looking at relative performances that we chose, Pierre Gasly was the right guy to fill the seat and graduate into Red Bull Racing. Therefore we released Carlos immediately to pursue other options in Formula One. He had an offer on the table from McLaren that we didn’t want to in any way impede, make sure that he was free to be able to take that up, and it’s great to see that he’s now in a good team like McLaren. Regarding Honda, obviously the changes that you talk about – some of which are tactical, not purely based on reliability, in a development phase – they are pushing hard; we have confidence in what we see, in the investment that we see going into the programme, in the quality of personnel that are involved in the programme. Things are very much moving in the right direction; only time will tell, but I think that you’ll see inevitably more changes again this year, but it’s all part of a development process for 2019 and beyond.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Cyril, after Hungary with the Force India situation you expressed concern that its salvation could turn it into a Mercedes B-team or satellite team type situation, yet I believe that you signed your approval for the team to get its money, et cetera. So what changed your mind? Have you had assurances that this won’t happen, or what was the situation?

    CA: No, to be extremely clear we did not change our mind in the sense that we never wanted to cause any more difficulty for Force India. We are already at ten teams, which I think is the minimum for a sustainable Formula One. If you look at also, by the way, opportunities for young drivers obviously more teams would be better than less teams – or at least more cars – so clearly we would not want to have caused anything bad for Force India. Having said that, it is true that we have seeked reassurance from the commercial rights holder that in future it will not be a requirement to be part of a group of teams in order to be able to fight for championships or to fight for wins. That’s definitely our ambition, to be in that position, but we don’t have right now the capacity or the strategy to form any particular alliance such that we would have a junior team or a partner team. We have a partnership with the gentleman on my left on the engine side, which could be expanded with more technology, but that’s not really something that we want should be imposed on us as a model in order to be successful. So that’s the sort of clarity that we are seeking from the commercial rights holder, that could not be obviously obtained through some new regulations in the interim of time necessary for Force India way forward and survival, but particularly in the context of the work on the budget cap and the restriction on resources, that debate, that discussion, is going to become even more important. We’ve had discussions, I believe that we share the same vision as Ross Brawn, as Chase Carey, for the future of the sport, we don’t have any guarantee, but we understand that we see the world in the same way.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Christian, you said that Liberty approached you after Daniel’s decision was made known. Are you suggesting that Liberty were somehow trying to place Fernando with you, or were taking an active role in trying to change his mind to stay in the sport?

    CH: There was just an enquiry as to whether we would consider Fernando. Which you can understand from a promoter’s point of view: Fernando Alonso is a great asset to Formula One; if he could be in a competitive car I’m sure they would prefer him staying than pursuing his triple crown. I wouldn’t expect them to do anything different.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question for Christian and Gil after Cyril’s comments about the Force India situation and the prospect of teams buddying up. Could I just get your comments on the prospect of the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari having that potential increased political power within F1?

    GdF: Look, I think that for us at McLaren the highest priority is to have Formula One that is entertaining, that is healthy, that is competitive, and sustainable — where all the competitors are on a level playing field. I think throughout this whole negotiation that has been our main priority. Beyond that I’m probably not the right guy to comment. You should pass that question to Zak, I guess.

    CH: I think there’s obvious economic benefits, particularly for the smaller teams. We have Toro Rosso under the same ownership as Red Bull Racing, there are obvious economies of scale, but one has to be careful. Certainly something that we’ve never pursued is utilising wind tunnel time, other technical tools, to the benefit of one team. I think if there can be financial gain through the exchange of technology, that’s absolutely fine and something that should be looked at and included moving forward. But what we don’t want is that potentially Ferrari have two customer teams, that their capacity is effectively funding research and development of the lead team. That’s something I’m sure will get tidied up as we move forward with the regulations, and particularly I think the golden opportunity to deal with that is the new Concorde Agreement or whatever it chooses to be called after 2020.

    Q: (Walter Koster – Saabrücker Zeitung) Mr Horner, you said in a German magazine some weeks ago that ‘drivers must be more important. Engines are too significant, they represent 70 percent of performance. That means that 30 percent remains for the chassis, tyres, and pilot. Do you have the impression that constructors and engineers moved the pilots into the background and that Formula One is particularly a championship of constructors and engineers?

    CH: I think Formula One today is a little out of balance. My personal view is that the engine within these current regulations plays too prominent a role. I think Formula One needs to be a combination of three factors in equal measure — driver, team/chassis, and engine. If you have two of three of those elements that you can still be in a competitive position, and I think that at the moment we’re a little bit out of kilter because the engine is such a dominating factor that you can’t compensate if you have two of the other elements. Hopefully, within regulations that are being under discussion and appraisal for 2021, there is the perfect opportunity to try and redress some of that balance, At the end of the day, Formula One — of course it’s a team sport, but the most prolific thing is the drivers, and we want to see the best drivers competing against each other more frequently.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Christian and Cyril, picking up on that particular point, and I think it’s timely because it was my plan to ask about the engines. Since you were last there, it seems as though the plans to introduce some form of different technology for engines from 2021, that there’s been a bit of a U-turn, and in fact in this week’s race programme Ross Brawn is saying that possibly the timing of 2021 should be looked at in any event, and that we may in fact keep the current units beyond that. How do you two feel about that, you as a customer and Cyril, you as one of the engine companies?

    CA: No, I would agree that I think what Formula One is trying to do for 2021 is extremely ambitious. It may be required, but it’s extremely ambitious, and what I mean by that is basically it will be the first time in F1 history I believe that we would at the same time change chassis regulations, engine regulations, Concorde Agreement, governance structure, new budget cap. That’s a lot. That’s a lot. There might be the risk of trying to embrace too much and not produce and deliver anything. Our view would be to try and be a bit more pragmatic and focus on what is the main emergency for Formula One, and I’m thinking really of the show, of the disparity between the teams, the disparity in the revenue. We think that this is really the main priority. I think some clarity on the budget cap or not because the costs are certainly too high. We don’t think that the engine regulations are at that level of priority. Am I satisfied with the engine situation? No. The answer is no, and we need to improve that, but that’s mainly by working and by working harder. I think that we’ve done investment and organisation change, and there is more to come so that we can overcome our deficit, but that’s our problem – that’s a Renault problem; it shouldn’t be a problem for the sport. That’s why I believe that we should reduce maybe the weight of that topic, of that issue, within all the list of priorities of Formula One. Stability should be, by definition and by default, the prevailing scenario in this circumstance.

    Q: Christian, your thoughts on those changes?

    CH: I think I understood what Cyril said! There are broad similarities. I think at the moment our situation is different to where it was two or three months ago. Stability is important. There are no new manufacturers coming in, these regulations are impossible for a new manufacturer, should they come in. I think that rather than making a half-hearted change and getting it half right, I think it’s better to take a little bit more time to really consider what is the right engine for Formula One moving forward. If that needs a bit more time, or a couple more years to achieve that, then that’s the sensible approach.

    Q: How long do you think it would take to plan that out?

    CH: I think at the moment now I can’t see anything changing before the 2023 season, to be honest with you.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Gil, are you able to give any updates on McLaren’s Indycar plans for next season. Zak previously said that a decision would need to be made over the summer and we’re getting towards the end of the summer and obviously that factors in with Fernando’s future as well?

    GdF: As you know, IndyCar is still under serious consideration, but we have not made any decisions of yet and I think when we have, we will let you know.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sport) – A question for Cyril and Christian. We talked a lot about the future and next season, but the fact is this season is not finished yet. You already signed the divorce papers, but there are nine races to go. I don’t think that’s a very simple position to perform. How do you two look at the last races of this season?

    CA: With Red Bull? Frankly, things don’t change. We’ve had 11 years and a half of collaboration and we are not going to run that down for the last six months. I think Red Bull is still in the position to have good results, to secure some podiums, maybe some wins – they have done that already this season, so why not more. We need to have a discussion this weekend regarding the introduction of a new-spec engine, an upgraded spec of engine, which could come as soon as Monza, but we need to have that conversation based on their assessment of reliability risk versus extra performance. That’s the type of discussion we are prepared to have, to me in an air of the great of collaboration that we’ve had, so absolutely no change of philosophy or position on our side.

    Q: And Christian, your thoughts on that relationship and also the fact that Daniel is leaving? Is it a tricky situation for you between now and the end of the year?
    CH: It’s very much business as normal. We’ve got nine races to go. We go for it every weekend, we try to get the best results we can between now and the end of the year and that obviously includes with Daniel. I sat down with him earlier in the week, after he came back from his holiday and said ‘look, we’re not going to talk to you about what’s going on in 2019, but our objective is to do the best we can between now and the end of the year. The same rules apply as for the past four-and-a-half years. You’ll get equal opportunity and we just want them to give their very best until the end of the year, which I’ve got absolutely no doubt that he will do, but obviously things like simulator time and so on will now become much more restricted.

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Telegraph) Max said yesterday, when asked about Daniel’s move, quite pointedly, that it’s a change of scenery, but he doesn’t think it’s the best scenery. You were obviuously, during the heat of battle in Hungary, very critical, saying Renault were supplying you with a sub-standard engine. Given the loss of Daniel is very significant, is there any added frustration in losing him to an organisation of which you have been very publicly critical?

    CH: I think the decision is Daniel’s choice, and as long as he’s comfortable looking at himself in the mirror with the choices that he’s made, you have to respect that. He is a free spirit. It’s the first time in his Formula 1 career that he has been out of contract. He doesn’t have a management group around him or anything like that; He comes to his own decisions, and this is a decision he’s come to on his own, and you have to respect that at the end of the day. I’m grateful for what he has done for us and for the team. He’s driven some phenomenal races. There have been some iconic moments where he’s been making people drink out of shoes or whatever else on the podium. The decision to make that change, that life change, is purely his decision, and he has his own reasoning behind that. All he can explain is that he feels he needs a change. It wasn’t, as I say, due to any fiscal reason, or contractual reason, or feeling the team was treating him any differently to the other driver, so this is purely his decision, that he feels it is time to try something different.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) On the subject of the sport: Eau Rouge is flat, has been for a while now, Blanchimont’s flat, and this morning two of the cars, one of them being yours Christian, appeared to be flat through Pouhon as well. These are iconic corners that aren’t corners anymore. Is the grip power ratio wrong in Formula 1?

    GDF: My personal belief is that the faster the car, typically the more difficult it is to drive, because you have to perform all the same things in a shorter period of time. That makes it more difficult for you to accomplish that in a very precise way. Having said that, to your point, there are a few corners that were very difficult corners. When I was here, God knows, 20 years ago, Eau Rouge was a very difficult corner and it doesn’t appear to be that way any more, so I think the balance between tyre grip, car weight, downforce, and power are really the big knobs you can turn to affect that and maybe they should be looked.

    CA: No, I fully agree that power to weight and power to drag are probably not what we need in order to have spectacular races. Not necessarily races, but to have aspirational drivers, because we need to be able to see the drivers fighting against their car, fighting as they enter into every single corner, and we don’t see much o that any more. I think this is distorting our image of the drivers, who are still doing a remarkable job, but we don’t get the same sensation, emotion, as spectators. So I think that should be one of the priorities of future chassis and engine regulation, because you could increase the power also.

    Q: Anything to add, Christian? And were you flat at Pouhon?

    CH: If you look at our car and the amount of downforce wer are running on the car, some of those corners are pretty exciting for the driver. Some of the corners here, if you look at Eau Rouge, with kerbs being moved around a bit, run-offs being included nowm there is no penalty, ultimately, for getting it wrong now, You’ve got safety versus performance discussions there. Some of the corners are perhaps made a little bit too easy as well and it’s when you get a variable condition here that then things become really exciting. You get a little bit of rain, and suddenly Eau Rouge becomes a big corner, Blanchimont becomes a big corner. So it’s that balance.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Christian, can you give an indication about the competitiveness Red Bull have on this circuit, knowing you problems with speed etc?

    CH: We understand that Mercedes and Ferrari are introducing upgrades this weekend on the power unit, and I think this weekend and next weekend are going to be difficult races for us. But you know there inclement weather around at this circuit, so anything can happen but I think you have to say that Ferrari and Mercedes very much have the upper hand at these two venues. Hopefully when we get to the likes of Singapore and Mexico we’ll be able to give them a harder time.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Cyril, Christian has just said and it has also been reported that they were willing to accede to all Daniel’s demand. That would have included some sort of substantial fiscal demands. Obviously, to get him you must have matched it or come very close, whichever way. It’s no secret that Renault doesn’t exactly have the biggest budget in the paddock, so from a commercial perspective, have you had an increase in budget to cover it next year, do you get more money from Renault, are you going to cut back on some of your expenditures or how do you commercially afford him?

    CA: Two comments: First, in my opinion, Renault can afford pretty much anything. Renault is the largest car maker involved in Formula 1 – full stop. So we can afford anything as long as it makes sense. Then it’s just a question of value for money and whether it makes sense to spend that given where we are in the development of our team. Second, I don’t think we were the highest bidder in obtaining Daniel, without going into details. He bought into the project not necessarily because of the money. I don’t think it would be great to put this sort of light on Daniel. And lastly, it would not make any sense to bring a driver by having to make some concession on our capacity to finance the development of the engine or the chassis. So, in shorthand, obviously it means an increase of our budget.

     

  • No time to rest, we have to come back strong after summer break, feels Hamilton

    Budapest, 29 July 2018: Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who won the Hungarian GP, the 12th round of the Formula One World Championship, says he has no time to rest during the summer break at the post-event Press Conference he attended along with second-placed Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday.

    Interviews: (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

    Q: Lewis, an absolutely spectacular job. Completely done today. Fifty per cent of the job done yesterday and the finishing touches into that. 

    Lewis HAMILTON: What a beautiful day. What a great crowd we’ve had and really an amazing job from the team. We came here knowing that the Ferraris would be real quick this weekend but to come out with these points we’ll definitely take as a bonus for us, so we deserve the holiday that’s coming.

    Q: I can see how drained you are. How physical was it out there under the sun?

    LH: I was sweating. You know. It was so hot. Physical but I was obviously able to manage the pace. I think it’s the last part here that really kills me, when I go and celebrate with my team, but a big thank you to everyone back at the factory.

    Q: How do you look back on the first part of the season as we go into the summer break and you get some time to lie on the beach on the back of these last five grands prix on six weekends.

    LH: I’m not really the lay down on the beach kind of type, I’ll be doing activities, training and getting ready for the second half, but really happy with how strong it’s come the last couple of races and as I said, so grateful for all the hard work and the continued efforts of the team, so they all deserve the break and I hope they keep pushing, we;’ve got to come strong in the next half.

    Q: Sebastian, I think that’s the best you could have hoped for today wasn’t it, getting up to P2. You almost jumped Bottas in the pit stop but I think Carlos Sainz held you up a little and a bit of a tricky pit stop?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I don’t know, I think something was stuck at the rear but it was tough race. We were a little bit out of position for the speed that we had. I think we could go with Lewis today in terms of race pace. I had a good start on the harder tyre, which was good, and I was in third. Then I think we did well. I think then it was a bit tricky knowing when to come in. And then obviously we had a little bit of an issue at the pit stop, as you mentioned, and we came out behind Valtteri and then I realised right away I couldn’t get him because his tyres were still too fresh, so I was sitting back and waiting and trying to line everything up for the last 10 laps and it worked. His tyres were getting worse and worse and I knew obviously how long those yellow tyres last from the first stint that I had, so I was quite confident I could get him at the end. Obviously P2 is not what we really wanted this weekend but I think it’s the maximum we could get today.

    Q: Did you think you were clear after you had made that contact down at Turn 2 at the end?

    SV: I was surprised to be honest. I was already ahead and I was just trying to brake so that I covered the inside line and not running too deep. Then I got a hit from behind, so I wasn’t sure what was going on. Then I was looking in the mirrors and I saw that Valtteri was there with Kimi and obviously after that I was clear and I was lucky nothing was broken and we could carry on.

    Q: Kimi, a very strong end to that grand prix. I think you tried a different strategy and I guess you can be quite happy for Ferrari to get two cars on the podium?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I think it was the best that we could hope today. Far from ideal start. I think we need to improve those a bit to give us a bit more easier. We catch up with Bottas after the first stop but there was not chance to overtake at that point, so our option was to stop again and try again and at least we got one place back. Far from ideal. I think we had pretty good speed today but what can you do? Sometimes it’s like that, but we take the points and go for the next one.

    Q: And great to have this little man standing behind you. He looks happy?

    KR: Yeah, he’s always happy, so that’s nice.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Péter Vámosi – Racingline.hu) A question for Lewis. Two years ago you mentioned Budapest as your top three cities that you like in the world – Tokyo and New York were maybe also there. What exactly is the order? And will you stay here a little bit and maybe doing another bicycle trip again in Budapest and check out some architecture and some buildings?

    LH: You want to know what the order of my favourite cities are? I think it was New York, Tokyo, here, London, I think that’s about really. I don’t plan on staying. The weather is great and the city just seems to get nicer and nicer every time I come. But now it’s holiday, I’m going to meet my mum and my sister and niece and nephew tonight and I’ll spend the next four or five days with them. It’s not too often I get to do family holidays so that’s something I’m looking forward to. But I’ll always have a chance to come back to Budapest. I’ve got some friends here. I spent some time already in the city away from the race. It’s very cool, because it’s still very young as well. They’ve got a lot of new buildings going up with the great old architecture they have there. It feels like it’s growing as well in terms of how young it is, so very cool.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) A question for Lewis. You said that Friday is normally different to Sunday. But on Friday you didn’t use the blankets on your rear tyres. You get out from the pits very slowly, I believe not to heat the rear tyres…

    LH: I didn’t use what?

    The electrical blanket on your rear tyres.

    LH: When

    Friday. We saw it on the TV.

    LH: We always use blankets.

    Also leaving the pits very slow…

    LH: You can’t drive these tyres from stone cold. Just so you know. So they are always in the blankets but they might take them out earlier than..

    Where I want to arrive is that you have many problems with the ultrasoft tyres. The first stint you were on ultrasoft, the track was 59 degrees, 35 the air, and you had incredible performance, everything exactly the opposite to Friday. Can you make a comment; you changed the car, you understood what was going wrong?

    LH: Well, from Friday to Saturday I made a big car change. The balance that I steered towards, I made a big change in P1, because I was uncomfortable with the balance. It’s difficult to make change in P1 because you have to wait for the track to come to you rather than chase the set-up. I straight away made a big change and I tried to pursue that direction but by the time I got to the end of P2 I realised it wasn’t the right direction so I had to pull back and go another way. We had a bit of running in P3 but the car still wasn’t perfect. And then it rained. I didn’t make any changes but I knew that Valtteri had had good P2 running and we weren’t too far off in the direction that we ended. All the learning you do on a Friday, it wasn’t perfect, the way you drive, the way you use the tyres, then you come back on Sunday and you have to bring you’re ‘a-game’. Friday is not usually the day I bring my ‘a-game’. In terms of the tyres, the ultrasoft lasted a lot better than I thought today. I did struggle in P2 but, as I said, I was on a different set-up. The long run was quite good and then we went to the soft and I struggled, as where in P2 I was really good on the soft. So it was completely different. I struggled at the beginning and then we got through some traffic and then I moved a lot of switches around and eventually was able to balance the car and then it was OK. After that I was able to do some decent times and pull the gap. I knew that at some point I’d need to pull the gap to these while they were still behind Valtteri. I knew the strategy that Valtteri was on it was highly unlikely that he was going to make it last and when I pulled away from the grid I knew that Sebastian had been on the soft tyre. We knew that it would also make it very difficult to win, even for me, so that’s why the gap was really important. I definitely don’t think the team expected me to be able to eke out my first stint to lap 30 or whatever it was. I think they were a little bit too optimistic I would say on the other side to make those tyres go that far. Even for me towards the end of my stint my tyres were on the way out. I probably could have done another 10 laps or 15 laps on them before they were completely dead. Their pace was obviously good but fortunately I’d done enough by then.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) For Lewis and Sebastian. At the beginning of the race on alternative tyre strategies, it looked like at one point the race might be swinging more towards Seb, especially when Valtteri pitted and Seb looked like he was going to jump him. So obviously the race went in a different direction. Could I get your comment on how the race changed and also how it impacts the momentum of your respective championship campaigns.

    LH: The tyres converge. If you draw a line of the tyre life you’ve got the ultrasoft which starts quickest and it drops off at a certain point and there’s a crossover between the soft and the ultrasoft and then there’s the medium which is way off, it’s a terrible tyre. So past, kind of like, I think somewhere around lap eight, the soft tyres going to be faster than the ultrasoft – but I was able to… I was taking it quite easy on my tyres at the beginning. I was able to get that gap to Valtteri. I think it was to something like eight seconds. By the time he had pitted, and Sebastian had got clean air, then I was able to react to the times that he was putting in. So we were matching times, which, as I said, the team and we definitely didn’t expect. Because, as I said, there’s usually that crossover – but I was able to match his times for a good period of time and that’s really what made the race. In terms of how it affects our championship, I mean, last year, I don’t know if we were leading at this point of last year, but last year I think we had… maybe we felt like we were a little bit stronger than we were compared to this year. This year we all know that Ferrari really do have the upper hand pace-wise but I think all around, performance-wise, in terms of strategy and… y’know, because to win a championship is not just about speed, it’s about how you manage things, the strategy calls you make, mistakes, all these different things all weigh up. I think, as a whole, we have hopefully done a slightly better job up until now. So, we’ve got work to do, we’ve got things to improve, we’ve got performance to bring moving forwards. We’ve got to try and catch them – but we’ve got to continue to keep rising with all the other elements, which allows us to beat the Ferraris when they don’t bring their A game.

    Sebastian?

    SV: Yeah. In the first stint, I had a good start, obviously. We knew we had to try to do something different today. I think, as it turned out, probably Valtteri was taking it too easy and obviously, Lewis was able to pull away comfortably. Then, I think, looking back, despite the hot temperatures and so on, I think the ultrasoft worked probably better than we all expected. Obviously we tried to do something different with the soft and yeah, the fact that the ultrasoft lasted very well in the beginning, like Lewis’ pace showed, and also at the end for me, the tyres felt like new once I was ahead of Valtteri, even though I spent so many laps in traffic, showed that I think the ultrasoft worked better. So, that didn’t help to close the gap but I think we did what we could. We effectively passed Valtteri for P2 but then I think I got a bit unlucky with the traffic and lost a couple of seconds, and then obviously we had that little issue at the pitstop, so we ended up coming out behind – and then it was a different race. For sure we knew from the start that qualifying, where we qualified, we tried to do something different, I was happy to do that and I think the pace showed today that we were good. I think if you compare the stint on the soft to the other cars, obviously we were different fuel loads and mirrored strategy but was very good. So, I don’t know. As we’ve seen this year the pendulum seems to swing once this side, once that side, obviously y’know if it’s like this, consistency is the key. Scoring points. I didn’t do myself a favour last week but I think it’s part of racing. Stuff happens. Compared to last year, we lost the championship I think because our car wasn’t quick enough to be a match in the final part of the season, despite what happened with the DNFs. So I hope that this year, and I think this year has shown so far that our car is more efficient, our car is stronger and still has a lot of potential to unleash – so I’m quite confident with what’s sitting in the pipeline that we can improve . So, we’ll see. Should be an exciting second part of the year.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, this is your ninth podium in Hungary. That’s more than you have anywhere else. Does that mean that you have more good races here than anywhere else?

    KR: I don’t know. It doesn’t really feel like a very good race here, being in third place. I think we had very good speed but obviously what happened yesterday and after the start, we never really were able to use our speed when we were on our own, catching-up. But, y’know, apart from that, you are kind of offset in the position and you know you are going to get stuck once you catch up with them. Obviously it worked out kind of OK because we were both… at the beginning I was giving a bit of a hard time for Valtteri and then Seb obviously, so they never had freedom to slow down and take care of their tyres. And there have been some issues and it paid off, so we both gained one place. But yeah, apart from that it was fun to push because the tyres, at least on my side because I stopped twice, they lasted well and I was able to go full speed. So that was fun. But the end result, doesn’t really feel like a happy finish but y’know, as a team we scored decent points and I think we have a few things to improve and I’m sure we have all the speed to be higher up – but we need to tidy up a few things. I think which way you look it depends if it’s good or bad. I don’t think it’s a disaster but it could be better, for sure.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Sebastian, you had well over a pitstop’s advantage over Valtteri for the best part of ten laps – but you delayed the pitstop, presumably because you were worried about the ultras. Did you wait too long? Was that a mistake. And for Lewis, how to you feel about going into the gap with more than a win’s advantage?

    SV: Well, obviously something didn’t go as we planned. It was good that we were faster on an older tyre than Valtteri and pulled a gap. Then I think it’s a bit difficult to foresee the traffic and – knowing how well you go through traffic or not – and in that case I lost quite a lot. So that was one. Then the pitstop, as I explained, but yeah, I think looking back at the race, Lewis’ stint in the first part of the race with the ultrasofts, as I said, Lewis mentioned a crossover close to ten laps. I think the ultrasoft was a lot stronger in the race than it was on Friday, and then what we expected going on. You soft-of know but you don’t know. Obviously Lewis’ information, they don’t call us and say ‘our tyres still look good – you can come in earlier.’ That’s not how it works. And obviously the worst that can happen is that you come in earlier, you gain the position and then you fall apart at the end. You don’t want to do that. I think what we did was OK. But then, as it turned out, with the circumstances and so on, we obviously lost out and we came out behind. Surely, that didn’t help. I think without that it would have been a much more relaxed last part of the race, probably hunting down Lewis, but with the gap that he had, I think it would have been difficult to catch – and then it’s a completely different story, especially around here to overtake. So I think we could have done the catching bit but not really the overtake, so, in the end it doesn’t change much to the final result. Just that it was a bit more work than coming out ahead.

    LH: Well, as I said, I really could only have dreamed that we would be in the position that we are in right now, considering all factors and based on our pure performance, where we stand compared to the Ferraris. Really happy, going into the break, particularly with back-to-back wins. I think that boost will last a long time for our team and it’s encouraging for everyone so I’m excited for the break. I think everyone has worked so hard; even for you guys, travelling around the world, it’s tough on everyone so it’s probably going to be good to be able to spend time with family and friends and back off and then the second half is always exciting, it’s always intense, particularly when we go to the long long hauls. Second half is usually… it gets a bit better on our side so we will go and prepare and make sure we come back even stronger.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) What are your plans for the summer break? Will it be a break, will you be working, will it be holiday?

    KR: I go home with family, come back for Wednesday for testing, after that, go back home again so I pretty much spend the first week flying back and forwards between Hungary and Switzerland and then after that obviously we have some time to spend with the family so that’s nice. I don’t know. In the end, it’s not very long to be honest, it’s couple of weeks at most and unfortunately it doesn’t feel like a holiday when we have things coming up so it’s not like it’s just relaxing completely. It’s nice to have a break but I think also for the teams and for all the mechanics it’s been a pretty tough last month, month and half so it’s nice for them and important for them to get some free time and relax.

    SV: If you were a man, I would have said none of your business but you’re a lady so I will be polite.

    LH: Did you say an old lady?

    SV: No, I said if you were a man I would said it was none of your business but since you’re a lady I will answer your question. Not very spectacular, I will just be home to be honest. Obviously I think we do enough of travelling in planes so I can’t be arsed to go on a plane, I’m pretty much happy to sit in one place and just enjoy. I think we’ve had an amazing summer so far, I hope it doesn’t swing yet because now’s the time for us when we have a bit of time off. I think other than day trips on the bicycle or – I don’t know – doing something boring like fishing or.. I don’t know, it will be quite boring and I’m happy with that.

    LH: Same kind of thing as every year. Obviously my life’s a little bit different, I don’t have a wife and kids and that so I’m still in a fun period! I will spend time with my… I am an uncle so I will spend some time with my Mum, my sister and kids which is always great. Then my best friend’s got a stag so that’s going to be interesting and then yeah, I haven’t decided where I’m going for the last part of it. Then my cousin’s getting married so I’ve got a couple of people getting married and stuff so I’m sure there’ll be some partying, I’m sure there will be some relaxing but most importantly I think it’s about re-energizing yourself but the way I do that is activities so I will be trying to be active, training and just gathering a lot of energy. I probably will travel a bit because I like travelling, while I can, until I’m anchored down.

    Q: (Peter Varkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, could you please give us your perspective of the crash with Valtteri? Did you think you have left him enough room, was he too aggressive in the braking and afterwards did you feel something wrong with the car because it seems you lost some parts?

    SV: Yeah, I wasn’t sure.  Obviously I felt all of a sudden that I got hit from behind. I think for him there wasn’t really anywhere to go, I was ahead and then when you are so close to another car, I think he… I don’t blame him, I think he had no grip, obviously when you’re so close it’s very difficult to stop the car and I think he locked up and we made contact. For me, I realised straight away that I had a much better run, my rears were in better shape, I got the inside track out of turn one and I had DRS so I was quite comfortable into turn two and knowing that I’d got him and I wanted to make sure that I don’t overshoot the braking but as I said, as soon as I hit the brakes and a little bit later, about when I turned in, I felt the contact from behind. I checked in the mirrors, I saw he was there and then obviously I was lucky that I could catch the car and also lucky with the contact that I didn’t get a puncture, so the team told me straight away that the tyres look fine. Then I had a feel but the car was fine until the end.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, given that this is a Ferrari track and traditionally you’re pretty strong in the second half of the season, do you feel like you’ve got a couple of fingers on this World Championship?

    LH: Absolutely not. No, I think it’s far too early and you’ve seen the ups and downs we’ve had from this year, you’ve been ahead by some points and behind some points, ahead by a… But we have learned a lot. I don’t believe there’s ever a moment that you’ve got your hands on the title or the trophy. We’ve got a long long way still to go and there’s still nine or ten races… is it nine races? So a lot can happen moving forwards but what’s really important is that we continue to keep up the pressure and keep working as we have done until now. There’s nothing we really need to alter. I think our work ethic has been very strong and the  team morale is better than ever and the spirit is better than ever. We’ve just got to keep it up because as I said, we came here, we came to the last race, they kind of blew us away a little bit in qualifying, they would have done here had it been dry so we welcome the wet races, that’s for sure. But yeah, I’m not really certain what to expect. We’ve got Singapore coming up; Singapore’s another weak circuit for us so there are a few good ones and a few not so good ones ahead. It’s important to capitalise on those difficult weekends such as this and I think that’s really been a key strength of ours this year, we generally have come away with really good points at circuits which have generally been our weaker races but then we really need to capitalise on the races that we’re really strong at like Silverstone for example which we did.

    Q: (Heikki  Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, did it make it special for you that Robin was able to see the race and the podium from such a close range?

    KR: Obviously it was nice for him. You need to ask from him! Obviously we didn’t have the full family here, the little one, the smallest one is at home but we will go back there and he’s at an age that he will remember so it’s nice obviously for him, but let’s hope he doesn’t get too excited and wants to go go-karting. It’s not the best idea right now!

    Ends/db

  • I think the season started very slow, but we are making good progress: Sergio Perez of Force India

    19 July 2018: Ahead of the 11 round of the Formula One World Championship, the German GP began with the usual FIA press conference on Thursday.

    Q: Brendon, go back to two weeks ago at Silverstone. That was a horrible-looking crash. How are you now? No lasting effects, I hope.

    Brendon Hartley: Actually, waking up on Sunday, I was ready to go. Almost no knock-on effects, which was a surprise after watching the replay myself and seeing how spectacular that looked. In fact, the impact was smaller than what I had in both Canada and Barcelona. I think I’ve probably taken the top three crashes of the season all by myself! Hoping something like that doesn’t happen again. But no, I was physically ready already on Sunday and felt perfectly fine.

    Q: Let’s talk to you now about the relationship between Toro Rosso and Honda, if we can. How do you feel that has developed as the season has gone on? Do you feel the development rate has increased as the year has progressed?

    BH: It was a really positive start from the first laps in Barcelona testing where I think a lot of people had written us off before the season had even started. I think collecting nice laps on that first test was a really positive start and I think everyone at Toro Rosso saw it as a good opportunity having Honda on board. We’ve had an update already in Canada and yeah, the progress keeps moving forward every weekend. I think it’s only positive, I would say, the relationship between Toro Rosso and Honda.

    Q: Do you sense there’s pressure to introduce engine upgrades this year, to help prepare Honda for next year when they’re going to be with Red Bull Racing as well.

    BH: I think there were always updates planned, one of which has already come and I know there’s some other stuff in the pipeline – but at least from what I’ve seen. I haven’t seen any added pressure. Of course, we’ll welcome all the performance gains that we can – but honestly the way the team’s working together and systematically going through it, collectively as a team, Toro Rosso and Honda together. I mean, it’s all going in the right direction.

    Q: Brendon, this is your first time here since 2009 when you raced in Formula 3. What are your expectations of Hockenheim in a Formula One car?

    BH: Yeah, looking forward to it. It’s a proper track, it’s got history. Obviously not the same one that was raced many years ago through the forest. Yeah, I like it, I’m remaining optimistic. Surprisingly optimistic after the last few races I’ve had. Most of these bad results over the last few months have been out of my control, and I still feel strong and in good spirits and ready to take on this weekend. As we’ve all seen from P7, the last of the top three teams, to the very back, it’s an extremely tight battle. If we manage to eke two more tenths out of the car, from any area of development, that could mean securing quite a few points – or not securing. It’s extremely tight and we just have to bring our A game and get everything together over the next two days.

    Q: Nico, Brendon’s just giving his thoughts on the German Grand Prix. There was no German Grand Prix last year – just how special is it for you to be racing on home soil this weekend?

    Nico HÜLKENBERG: Yeah, it’s definitely good to be back. Hockenheim, which is a place with a lot of memory for me. My first ever race in single-seater racing, Formula BMW in 2005 was here; lots of racing in Formula 3, so, I’ve always had good moments here, the circuits always been treating me well. Good results, even in Formula One, two times seventh. So, it’s good to be here, I like the place, like the area. I hear it’s pretty sold out for this weekend, which is great news so looking forward to starting the weekend here.

    Q: We’re pretty much at the halfway point of the season. Just wanted to get your assessment of yours and Renault’s progress in 2018.

    NH: I think it’s been OK. Of course, we missed out a few opportunities and results here and there. Sometimes technical issues, sometimes just with having a few difficult weekends. I feel the last two, three, four weekends have not been brilliant for us, we’ve always had a little hiccup somewhere and we’ve given away a little bit – but I think that’s just how it goes. Over 21 races it’s really hard to be perfect all the time. I think in the bigger picture, we’re fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, which is pretty decent. We have more developments in the pipeline over the next few weeks, which hopefully puts us in a good direction for the rest of the season. Obviously, we want to be more competitive and stay where we are.

    Q: Neither car was in Q3 at Silverstone. Did that track reveal the car’s shortcoming?

    NH: Not necessarily. I think it’s a little bit track dependent. We feel Silverstone wasn’t great for our car. It was just a little bit difficult. We were boxed in a bit, we felt. Before that we’ve been to Q3 many times. Not all the time. It’s not always the most important in the midfield battle. Sometimes it’s actually good to be outside and on a different strategy, to upset a little bit. Of course, we’re pushing at Renault, everybody, to make the car more competitive, faster, trying to keep a gap in the midfield battle. But it’s really tight and it is track-specific. So one tracksuits better Haas or Force India, the next weekend the Toro Rosso is faster. I think, on balance, us as Renault, we have been pretty consistent.

    Q: You say the team is working hard to put a performance on the car – so how much quicker is the car than it was in Melbourne?

    NH: It’s hard to quantify in terms of lap-time – but for sure we’ve developed the car since. There have been quite a few new parts since. Here and there, some little things. It’s hard to measure – but if you see the gap to the top three teams, then you still think ‘that’s too big’. We don’t like that, but they’re doing at the same time, an amazing job and it’s really hard to catch-up. Yeah, especially as race drivers you always feel you want more. You want it quicker, you’re impatient. This weekend we had some stuff which I’m excited to try tomorrow and see how it goes.

    Q: Sergio, coming to you. We’re doing a bit of a half-term report. So, tell us, what’s your assessment of yours and Force India’s season so far?

    Sergio PÉREZ: It’s been a bit up and down in the first half of the season. We were expecting more, up until now but we’re certainly improving; getting closer to the top of the midfield battle. I think we’re definitely getting closer and improving there. Still a long way to go and we should be in a good position. We’re certainly making good progress. I think the season has started quite slow for us but then we made some good progress and I think right now we are in a good position to start fighting for good points.

    Q: So, who do you feel you’re battling with at the minute. Can you go, on performance terms, toe-to-toe, with the guy on your left, for example?

    SP: I certainly think so. I think there is a good chance. Definitely, the midfield battle, as Nico described, is so much track dependent, track-to-track, small margins so everything down to the Sunday you know? To the Sunday afternoon. There’s a lot to gain, even if you don’t have a great qualifying, there are still plenty of points that are valuable there. So, I think we should be in a good position. I still think fourth place is possible for us in the Constructors’, so that’s the main target.

    Sebastian, first thoughts, concerning this new spec, 2017-spec cars really. It’s the first time we’ve used them here at Hockenheim. How much of a different experience will it be, compared to 2016 with the old-spec cars?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think it should be more fun. Cars are faster, faster mostly, or mainly in the corners, so I think it’s always great if the cars are faster. I think here you have some corners, high-speed corners – Turn One and also the entry to the stadium, which, yeah, they should be a lot more fun – but also the medium-speed sections around the track. I think generally the cars are better, more fun to drive, so it should be better, more enjoyable than two years ago. And hopefully we are more competitive – that’s also more enjoyable!

    Q: Pole position in 2016 was 1m14.3s. How much do you believe you might be able to shave off that this weekend?

    SV: We’ll see. I think it’s not always straightforward to compare. I think the cars are faster, as we mentioned, but we also obviously but a lot of downforce on, so we lose a bit of speed down the straights – but I think we should be faster. We also have the ultrasoft this weekend for qualifying, so yeah, how much I don’t know but by quite a bit. As I said, the faster you go, the more fun it is.

    Q: You’re leading the Drivers’ Championship; Ferrari leading the Constructors’ Championship. The development curve at Ferrari this year has been very impressive. Have you noticed a step up in that area compared to last year?

    SV: Well, the team is still improving, still growing. Obviously, the team has been around for a long time and I have been now part of the team for three and a half years – but I think we are getting stronger, we have a very, very good group of people, a good mix of people on board. Yeah, you’re trying all the time. Sometimes obviously, there’s also the element of the stuff working better than expected, sometimes it works less than expected but I think overall, I think you can say over the last two years maybe, since the last time we were here, that, yeah, I think by the end of 2016 we had a sort of lock opened, and since then I think there was a certain momentum starting to keep going and to develop. Since then I think we kept it going. Obviously the ’17 regs gave us the chance as a team to catch up, because before we were a bit behind – but since then, also last year, I think we had a great pace, a great car and we were able to develop it. Missed a little bit of performance at the end of the year. I think we learned from that and hopefully we can do it better – which still have to be seen but I think the car has potential.

    Q: You’ve won at the Nürburgring but not here. Would winning here on Sunday mean more to you than simply 25 points?

    SV: Yeah. Absolutely. I think the fact that racing in Germany, I’m afraid that probably this is the last time for a while, as far as I understand – which would be a shame to lose one of the classic races, and the fact that I’m literally from here – it’s just half an hour away were I was born and grew up – so yeah, the area means a lot to me and it would be great to have a good weekend.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Sonja Kreye – Speed News) Question for Sebastian. As far as I remember, Nico Rosberg, when he became World Champion in 2016, he dedicated some of his success to some mental work that he does, like meditation and hypnosis – don’t know what he does – but do you also follow something like this? Do you have a mental routine? Do you do some mental work?

    SV: I think it’s a very broad subject: I don’t know what Nico was doing or not but I think we all have our routines. Some of it is conscious, some of it – a lot of it – is probably sub-conscious. I think everybody knows from their own experience that you have some things that you run through before the start, or before a test, or whenever it gets important, we all have some sort of routine that we follow. Something that we do differently to other people around us. It’s the same for us. Obviously, when it comes to qualifying on Saturday or preparing the race, I think yes, I have certain things that I try to go through, I try to visualise and go through the track and so on. I’m not practising meditation or doing some of things that people maybe think of when they talk about mental preparation. So, as I said, most of it I think is a certain routine. We have the qualifying, it’s always the same things happening, so you know what’s coming and it’s important to be there, to be sharp, to prepare – but yeah, I think we know what to do.

    Q: (Wolfgang Monsehr – Rennsportpresse-Agency ) Two questions for Brendon Hartley. Number one: is there a regular exchange of info or experience with your sister team, either you and your Red Bull driver colleagues or engineers. And question number two: you come from a relatively small country, New Zealand, but with a very rich motorsport background, starting a long time ago with Bruce McLaren, Mike Thackwell, Chris Amon etc. You’re representing Formula 1 as a New Zealander, over in America it’s your countryman Scott Dixon. Both are totally different championships but nevertheless do you have with him a regular contact and exchange of experience – Formula 1 to IndyCar and IndyCar to Formula 1?

    BH: OK, so the first question was regarding Toro Rosso and Red Bull. They are two very separate teams. Obviously we share the same catering, so there is some crossover and I’m also good friends with Max and Daniel, as I am with some other drivers in the paddock. The crossover in information is relatively small but probably not my area to discuss but I’m not well informed on exactly how much information is passed, but I should mention that they are two different teams and everything on the Toro Rosso is manufactured by Toro Rosso in Faenza and in Bicester, where the winds tunnel. The next question: I am very aware of the rich history and I knew Chris Amon very well. Especially when I travelled away from New Zealand I realised how rich the history is and you mentioned Scott Dixon and yeah we do keep in contact. I think that’s the nature of being from a small country and flying the flag and we’re all very proud of that. I think we’re not the only two. It’s fair to say there are many other New Zealand drivers representing on a very level and yeah, I’m proud to be one of many.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Seb, Lewis’ deal with Mercedes as a two-year extension was announced today. He’s locked in for two years, you’re at Ferrari for two years and Max is at Red Bull for two years. Your thoughts on how the future is lining up?

    SV: Well, congrats. I don’t know why it took so long. I think it was pretty clear. Yeah, no reactions. For me it’s clear, that’s what matters to me and what the others are doing doesn’t really matter. I have my place and my mission and what I want to achieve and in all honesty, that’s all that matters.

    Q: (Udo Döring – Darmstädter Echo) As you mentioned, Sebastian, it could be the last German GP maybe, so another question to both of you who are from Germany, what are you thinking about this and why do you think it’s so difficult to keep the grand prix in Germany in these times?

    NH: Yeah, of course it would be a big shame, Germany being the car nation that we are, and to not have a grand prix would be disappointing and sad. I guess it comes down to commercial questions, simple as that. Germany has a big history in racing and in Formula 1 in particular. Maybe the nation is a little bit full or tired or racing, I don’t know, but we’ve always been around for decades, with Michael, with Mercedes, with Seb, with Nico before. Germans are a bit spoiled when it comes to that, because we’ve always been successful, we’ve always been around and I don’t know if it’s an effect of that, but I think ultimately it’s the commercial aspects that play the biggest part.

    Sebastian, have you got anything to add?

    SV: I think it would be a shame to lose the German Grand Prix because it has so much history. As Nico said, for car manufacturers Germany is well known. We are a car nation. I think probably it’s to do with the fact that generally you have to pay money to get a grand prix. Other nations are prepared to pay money. Other countries are prepared to fund the grand prix and I think that’s where the main problem is; Germany is not ready to spend money on having the grand prix, to advertise Formula 1, to advertise racing, to advertise Germany, to attract people coming here. So I think the view on that is different to other countries and that’s where probably the problem is. I mean, I know the track well here, I know the people that work for it and they are working very hard for the event to get people coming here and it’s tough for them to actually make some money, because simply they have no funds backing them up from the county or state or I don’t know the country, supporting them financially.

    Q: (Jo van Burik – Autocar.nl) To follow up on Alan’s question regarding Lewis’ contract, a question to Seb. The battle between you and Lewis’ has seemed to bring a lot to Formula 1 over the past few years and this season most notably. Do you look forward to maybe continuing that for another two years?

    SV: Yeah, with the result the other way round, yeah, I look forward to that. I think any battle is good. Obviously it’s always great if it’s tight at the top, it’s always great if you have a lot of cars fighting for podiums, for wins. Now this year already we have six cars, which is already a lot better, also being part of it, than the previous years I think some years ago we had even more cars on the podium, fighting for race wins and so on, so that would be great to see the gap closing. Normally that’s something that happens naturally if you just let things be. I don’t know what… obviously for ’19 we have a small change and ’20 should be fairly stable and then we see what happens in ’21, but that’s quite far away. But in general it’s always exciting as a driver if you can fight for points and fight for podiums and then fight for wins and you want to fight the best and Lewis has been one of the best since he entered Formula 1, so it’s good to be there.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Seb, how different would it be for you if Charles would be your team-mate instead of Kimi?

    SV: I don’t know. I don’t know Charles much. I know him a little bit through the programme. Kimi is Finnish, Charles is French; I think they are quite different… or Monegasque. Sorry, sorry… sorry. I like Kimi. I think we get along. We have never any issue. Sometimes on track. I remember I drove into him, crashed into him. But I think the way we handle things is very similar, very straightforward, so I think it’s great to work with and great for the team, but it’s not my decision so we’ll see what happens.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Seb, we saw after the last race some comments from Lewis and from Mercedes about the events that happened on the first lap. I know Lewis has since retracted those comments but do you think, in a way, that you and Ferrari are getting under Lewis’ and Mercedes’ skin this season?

    SV: I’m not a big fan of getting more out of it than there seems to be. I think it’s fine, you know. Obviously it was silly to say it but we are racing and we’ve all been there, it’s never great if you get hit without doing anything wrong, then it’s also fine to express your opinion, even it’s not right or reasonable, but it’s human. I think it’s fine, so we shouldn’t… it’s two weeks ago, we move on.

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – l’Equipe) Seb, if you win on Sunday, do you think it could change the future of the German Grand Prix? And do you feel more pressure than usual?

    SV: No, more excitement. I hope since we had a bad World Cup that people didn’t put their flags away and they turn up at the weekend and wave them for Nico and myself. We get a lot of support. From what I hear it should be packed, so I’m looking forward to that. Obviously if there is a chance to win, I want to win and if that helps to keep the grand prix, that’s a bonus. As I say, it would be a shame to lose it. It would be great to come back next year, or the year after.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Sebastian, following up on Heikki’s question: do you have a strong preference for Ferrari to keep Kimi for next year or are you more open-minded than in previous years about your team-mate?

    SV: What do you mean ‘previous years’? Well, I like Kimi. As I said, I’d be happy to continue like that, but it’s not for me to mention, to decide. Charles, one way or the other, will have a great career. He’s a great guy, he’s fast, he’s got everything, so yeah, definitely, he has no rush. He’s young, but if you’re young you’re always in a rush with everything. I don’t know. I don’t know when, what and ultimately who but as I said it really doesn’t matter to me. For me it’s clear where I am next but I think both of them would suit into the team.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Seb, on paper, at least two of the three last races of the triple header we’ve had were a bit more in favour of the Mercedes. Mercedes said they had the strongest car the last three races. Do you have the feeling you survived the worst part of the season now?

    SV: No, generally I would agree. I think they had the fastest car in the last couple of races. I think in Silverstone we were a match. Obviously in quali we just missed out by a little bit. If it’s within the same tenths I don’t think you can say one is stronger than the other. I think in the race also we had good pace, which was great for us, because Silverstone has been a place where we were weak. The places before they were a bit stronger. We’ll see how things evolve here. We brought some stuff to Silverstone, which should also work here. I think it’s a constant chase to find the advantage and then one track suit you more than others but I think we have a great car and we still have great potential to make it better.

    Q: (Alvero Rodriguez-Martin – Momento GP) Nico, sometimes it seems Carlos and you struggle more than the other teams with degradation. How do you work on that and do you expect that to be a problem here?

    NH: Maybe at some races that’s true, not every race. Again, I think it depends a little bit on the track and temperatures. Yes, we had some problems, I think. It comes down to how your car is using the tyres and I think there are some cases where our car is quite hard on the tyres and then we pay a price with degradation. We know about it, we try to address it, we work on it, it’s a constant subject. I think this weekend here with the temperatures being very hot is going to be a good test for us to see if we’ve made some improvements there.

    Q: (Walter Koster – Saabrucker Zeitung) Seb, during the last race at Silverstone your teammate Kimi asked for more power but his engineer refused his wish. Kimi answered indignantly ‘It’s not permitted for me to think for myself?’ To what extent can you make your own decisions on track and how much is decided remotely on your behalf by the team? I can tell you all that I know a lot of people who don’t watch Formula One because the technology is too complicated and they feel the races are manipulated. Formula One seems to be more removed from the fans than before. Do you agree with this, and please remember my first question?

    SV: I don’t remember the question! Yeah, I do remember the question. What was the question now? I think that what happened in Kimi’s race as far as I remember was more about strategy, not about engine power or energy so it was more about strategy. In that situation I think it’s fairly simple, you drive your car and you have a feeling about your tyres, of where you are in the race. You’re racing the others around you but you can’t see everything that’s going on around you which obviously the team on the pit wall can see, all the cars, all the lap times and if you were going to pit, then they know where you’re going to come out, which is something which we can’t see because we can’t see 20 seconds behind us. So I think that was the argument or misunderstanding at the time. I think yes, I agree with your view that people get the impression from outside that a lot of it is remotely controlled but that’s not fair. The cars are very complex, the technology inside the cars is very complex and it needs more than one or two, three mechanics which maybe Formula One had 40/50 years ago to run a car. You need a lot of people. Obviously in terms of technology it’s also very impressive but my view is also that from outside the engine… most of the car is covered anyway so you can’t see. Some people… if you’re a tech nerd it’s great but not everybody is and from the outside you want to see cars fighting, you want to see cars race and are driven by us to the limit and that’s what matters. I think there’s always been an interaction between technology and racecraft, driving the cars, in the past. I think the driver is the key element to driving the car, even though the technology behind it is complicated to run but equally it’s not our fault and for the future, I would love to simplify things so that people get a better impression. But I can understand why they get the impression. Do I think it’s fair? No it’s not, because I know I’m driving the car and I know these guys are driving the cars.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) To all of you: if you owned a Formula One team, would you spend £40m a year on a driver?

    SP: Yeah, I would hire myself!

    NH: I agree with you, it’s a good way out! I think an individual driver can make the difference and be worth that. It’s possible, yeah.

    Q: Brendon, how important is the driver these days?

    BH: I guess the question was is if you’d pay 40 million but I guess it depends on the budget and which currency. Total budget and currency It’s a good answer by Sergio, look after ourselves if we’re still driving.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volksrant) Sebastian, you’re the World Championship leader driving a Ferrari, still the future of German Grands Prix is unclear. Getting back to the remark of Nico, I’m curious: are the Germans too spoilt regarding F1 wins, especially during the Schumacher era? What is your opinion on that?

    SV: Well, by the sounds of it you’re Dutch so… I think Nico has a very valid point, I think it’s normal that if something happens for the first time there’s a lot of excitement and I think in Germany Michael was the one that kicked off Formula One and made Formula One popular. Now it’s different in different countries. I think in the UK for example, for some reason… they invented racing maybe, they always had great racing drivers, no matter what era. Now in the Netherlands, if you look, obviously Max… there’s a certain boom is created for us, all of us, all the drivers because there’s a lot of fans coming. Obviously for him it’s fantastic but also for all of us and also for Formula One, we all benefit from it because people are very excited about Formula One. We can see that in a lot of places in Europe mostly but yeah, in Spa but also Austria it was great to see. For Germany, I think it’s true that Michael was the one that probably had that boom initially and since then, obviously, it’s great for Germany to have German drivers. We had a time, I think, when we had five or six Germans. Eight? A lot of German drivers on the grid, now it’s only Nico and myself. I think that’s something that’s going up and down but yeah, it’s probably true. Then in general, Germans are a little bit difficult to get excited. I think other nations are a bit easier to trigger in that regard so maybe that’s also one of the things but as a I said, I hope that because of the fact that we failed in football this year that people saved a little bit of money on barbecues and so on and they can come here and go camping this weekend. Weather’s supposed to be great.

    Q: (Jo Klausmann – Racingline.hu) Nico, you surely followed the record runs of Porsche with the 919 Evolution car in Spa and the Nordschleife. Question: would you have liked to have driven that car and would you like to do something similar with an evolution Formula One Renault?

    NH: Yeah, I would have liked to drive that car but I would have been way off the record or the pace, you know. You really need an expert for the Norschleife there. Timo was perfectly qualified for that, I’m not. I’ve done a few laps there but it’s a crazy circuit and you probably watched the on-board and you see how bumpy it is, how dynamic. It’s a hell of thing and the speed he goes, it’s pretty insane, positively insane and a cool thing to do by Porsche to go and crack a few track records and do some funky stuff. Yeah, very tempting. I know that car, obviously, but in that conversion it must be so much fun and cool. The thing with a Formula One, we would be struggling with ride heights and damper travel and stuff.

    SV: We can resurface the track. It’s the fashion these days, so re-surface the Nordschleife. Let’s go there.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.nl) For all drivers: if you would change something in Formula One or you could say let’s keep it more or less the same, what would you do? Would you be open to reverse grids? Two races in one weekend for instance?

    SP: I think we have a great sport. My main target would be to make it more competitive. At the moment we seem to have got used to talking about two groups in Formula One, whether they are a midfield group and the front runners. I would like to make it a lot closer so that everyone can have the chance to fight for victories or podiums and I think that would make the sport a lot bigger.

    BH: The reverse grid would have helped me the last few races. I think it’s a good point from Sergio that the top three teams are obviously out of reach but actually the midfield battle is really really good but if we could be a bit closer that would be a way. I don’t know about the technology point that was raised before. I personally like the fact that Formula One has always pushed the limits of technology and I like being involved in that but I guess just making it in a way where the fans can understand it a bit more. I know, for example, the engine regulations are very tricky to understand, even for the team members sometimes so maybe a bit more simplicity in certain areas.

    NH: I think we want to have more racing, more wheel-to-wheel action, guys battling all over the field for corners and I think the aero has become very dominant; it always has been but especially now maybe more and that obviously doesn’t create the best racing so if there is a way to desensitize, keep the performance but lose that characteristic of the cars to allow a car to be close. Make a move now, it’s really frustrating sometimes, you make an effort you know you can get behind the car but as soon as you get there it’s like somebody’s pulling the plug and you’re left with not much then, your tyres overheat and it’s a downward spiral. So anything to fight that would help to make a better show, more racing and it would close the field like Checo says.

    SV: I think they’re all valid points. Probably the first action: double the cylinders, take the batteries out, maybe we need one to start the car, that’s enough usually.

    Q: Sebastian, your reaction to two races in a weekend?

    SV: No, no, I think the format is fine. I think it’s wrong to look at changing the format. It’s not my decision so it’s a bit pointless to talk about it but I wouldn’t be a fan. I think it has been like that for a long time for a reason. I think the 300 kilometer Grand Prix is a Grand Prix. If you should make it half, then maybe for some people then a boring race is only half as boring but that’s not the way I look it. I think it’s a challenge, it’s a Grand Prix distance and it’s something that… you do your first race and you’re surprised by how long the race can be and that’s a physical and mental challenge for that duration and I think it would be… yeah, if it becomes a sprint race, I think it would be a different sport in a way and I wouldn’t mess with the format. I think we need to find other ways to get excited and get the grid together and whatever but not the format.

    eom/db

     

  • These Ferraris pulled something out in Q3, says poleman Hamilton

    Silverstone, 7 July 2018:  Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes who took the pole at the British Grand Prix, the 10th round of the Formula One World Championship attended the post-qualifying Press Conference along with Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel who took P2 and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who will start from P3 on Sunday.

    Track Interviews: (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Q: Lewis, congratulations, fantastic. Your fourth consecutive pole position here, a record sixth pole position at the British Grand Prix, your adoring fans looking on. That was a very special lap you had to find there?

    Lewis HAMILTON: These guys are the best.

    Q: You’re shaking with emotion, literally!

    LH: Oh man, I needed… I gave it everything I could. It was so close between these Ferraris. The Ferraris pulled something out when we got to Q3. I was just praying I could do it for you guys, and I’m so grateful for the support, because without you guys I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

    Q: Where do you think you made the difference on that last lap?

    LH: I don’t even remember it! I honestly don’t remember it, man. Maybe Turn 13… love you too guys!

    Q: Congratulations again. Let’s have a quick chat with Sebastian Vettel. Second place, Sebastian, you look like you’re walking wounded here, on your neck. 

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I had a bit of an issue in practice, but it was fine in Quali.

    Q: Did you think you could take that pole position?

    SV: To be honest, this morning, no. I wasn’t sure if I could do Quali. It was very close. I don’t know, the last lap I was very happy with it, but I seem to lose a lot of time in the straights, so I think I’m missing some… missing a bit of tow, but I think it was very close, so I’m happy with second and it gives us a good chance for tomorrow.

    Q: Well done. Kimi Räikkönen, it’s the seventh day of the seventh month and you put car number seven in third place. Are you satisfied with that?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Not really. I think I had all the tools today to be faster but I locked the front wheel into 16 a bit on the last lap and for sure gave away enough time to be in front but that’s how it goes.

    You told me two days ago that you’re driving as well as ever, do you still think you have a chance of victory tomorrow?

    KR: Yeah, I think I’ve got a good car and my car should be good tomorrow. Obviously it’s hot and it will not be an easy race with the tyres, so I think we might see a few different things happening there, but we’re aiming for the top for sure.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, it was an incredibly tight qualifying session and ended up with your fourth consecutive pole position here at Silverstone. How does it compare to the ones that came before?

    LH: It feels night and day different. These guys really pulled something special into Q3. I don’t know what they did yesterday, but they’ve come so strong today. I knew we were up against it but to really put together the laps was the hardest I can remember it being. It’s such a technical circuit and such a tricky circuit and to really position the car in the right place and get the maximum from the tyres it took everything from me to get it. But the fans were there and I could see them. And I knew they were here so I really, really wanted to do it, and if anything, with the pole, give a boost to England maybe. They won’t be watching obviously, because they’ll be playing, but you know what I mean – maybe start the wave and let them continue it. Huge amount of pressure on today, but so grateful for my team working so hard. Ferrari obviously have picked up a lot of pace this weekend, but we’re in the best position we can be and our long run pace was good yesterday, so I’m excited for a close race tomorrow.

    Q: Thank you, Lewis, well done. Sebastian, simply, what was the difference between you and Lewis today?

    SV: Half a tenth.

    Q: Four hundredths.

    SV: Less than half a tenth!

    Q: Can you just elaborate a bit more? How did that gap manifest itself on the racetrack today?

    SV: I don’t know. It’s so little time, it’s practically the same lap. I was pretty happy with the first run in Q3 and I knew had a little bit more in Sector 3, and bits around the track, which I think I got right on the second attempt, but I seemed to lose a little bit down the straights, I’m not sure why. But more or less I had two laps that were identical. Half a tenth you can always argue you find somewhere. I think he was just a little bit better in the final run, but for tomorrow I think we should be fine.

    Q: Kimi, you set the fastest first sector there in Q3. Can you just talk us through the rest of your lap, because you were less than one tenth of a second behind Lewis as well?

    KR: Yeah, I think we had first and last sector but in the middle obviously I think I had a small moment on the first try, the first set, into Turn 7, so I took it a bit easier. I was still gaining but I’m sure there were places to gain a tenth easily but obviously it didn’t happen today, so this is what we got. It was close but third is not too bad.

    Q: Sebastian, could you just explain the problem you had with your neck after FP3 and the problem it gave you going into qualifying.

    SV: It wasn’t the most enjoyable session but it’s not… nothing. I did the session, so I was fine. We had to call it a bit earlier this morning that I wanted but yeah, it was fine in quali.

    Q: Another question for Seb on the neck. How confident are you that tomorrow it’s going to be OK – and can you describe how it all started? Was it a bump the circuit or lateral forces? What was it?

    SV: No, I don’t know what happened but it went a little bit stiff. We loosened it up and for tomorrow I think the night will help. I’m not worried. Also, the speed tomorrow is less than in quali, because you have more fuel and you’ll be a bit slower so it’s going to be OK.

    Q: A question for Lewis. Lewis, can you tell us a little about your poll position lap please? Where are you flat out around this superfast Silverstone circuit now? What does it feel like? And also, the gap to your team-mate Valtteri is quite big today, and a very small gap to the two gentlemen either side of you. How much of this is down to the car and how much is down to the driver?

    LH: This is, as I was saying before, it’s such a technical circuit and it’s about car placement and you’ve got to have, obviously, the package. Our downforce level, I think, has been good but, I mean, you see how close it is between us. This has been a strong circuit for me for years, as you can see and my job is try to make… it is to make the difference. So, I think there was… I didn’t leave anything on the table today. The lap was… I mean it was just intense. I left the pit lane, I think the first lap was OK, it was pretty good, and then I saw that I’d dropped to second. Obviously, that naturally just adds a little bit more pressure. Because you know that he’s going to improve again, so I’ve got to improve the same and a bit more. So, to push over the limit just a little bit more, without losing it is one of the toughest positions to put the car. And this is the fastest track in the world, this is. We’re flat-out through Turn One, we’re flat-out through Copse, it’s insane, to turn in there at 300-and-whatever-it-is-kilometres we’re doing. It’s flat-out into Maggotts and Becketts, all the way to 11, 12…

    SV: The last one’s called Chapel…

    LH: I don’t know all the names but you’re flat-out all the way into it. You have a small lift, then you have a full lift, then you’re back on the gas again. Also, Stowe is just… with the headwind that we have there, it’s incredible how fast it is. I think on the TV it doesn’t look like we’re lifting – but we are. I got to the end of the lap, I think I was up 0.17s, and I came around that last corner and it started to diminish a little bit. I think I came across the line 0.90 better than my previous lap, and you’re just praying that’s enough – that little bit… because you’re gaining and losing throughout the lap. So, yeah, I can’t tell you how happy I am, happy for the fans, and I hope that I can deliver for them tomorrow.

    Q: Congratulations Lewis on your lap. You looked like you were on the ragged edge throughout the lap, and obviously when you got out of the car, you were pretty pumped. Where does it rank in terms for you, that pole lap?

    LH: I think it’s, for me, with the whole build up, with the whole intensity, with the whole spur-of-the-moment thing, knowing how close we were, for me it feels like one of the best laps that I’ve been able to produce. I would say it felt like the most pressurised lap that I’ve ever had. And then afterwards I was just… I can’t tell you how… I was shaking through the emotion, through the adrenaline rush was way above the limit that I had experienced before, which is kind of crazy for my 76th. But the 76th is so special. I’m so, so happy, and, as I said, the team have just been doing a great job and I’m really happy I have been able to deliver for them as well.

    Q: We have a bumpy track, hot weather, extra downforce this year; will this maybe be one of the toughest or the toughest British Grand Prix ever for you guys?

    KR: In which way? I don’t think it’s any different. Obviously there’s a big difference in the speed in the race, especially at the beginning of the race to qualifying. I think in the past the circuit layout was different but you could do qualifying laps every lap because you had refuelling and all these things. I think it’s less bumpy, it’s just smaller bumps; last year there were bigger bumps here and there.

    LH: I think it is, yes, with the heat the track is the hottest I think we’ve driven on for a long time. The speed that we’re going through the corners, it is up and even on the long runs yesterday, the G-force we’re pulling… the car is faster than last year. I definitely think it’s going to be physically tougher and more intense, being that we’re so close as well. It’s not going to be a case of either of us pulling a big gap, it’s going to be close all the way, so I personally think it’s going to be one of the toughest, yes.

    Q: Sebastian, do you side with your teammate or Lewis with this one?

    SV: In the middle. I hope it will be, not sure. I think those are the fastest cars we’ve ever had and I hope it will be because next year, I guess, the cars will be a bit slower. I think it depends largely on the tyres to be honest. If they are holding up well, and consistent enough then I think we can push. If not, then obviously it takes a lot of intensity out of it.

    Q: To both Ferrari drivers: you had a very impressive simulation race Friday, especially you Sebastian, on medium tyres. You said you were confident for tomorrow. Can you give more details, explain more? It really looks like you have a really fast car in the best conditions.

    SV: Yeah, it was yesterday, it was a good Friday for us and I’m confident we can be faster tomorrow. Usually… we  see today that we are able to pick up pace on Sunday as well. The race has always been better for us the last couple of races so I’m confident with everything that we have here this year, it seems we are stronger and I believe we can be faster.

    Q: Kimi, do you expect to be more competitive tomorrow?

    KR: Than today? Impossible to say, hopefully it’s a close fight, not easy to overtake as always but we will see what we can do and so far it’s been OK.

    Q: Kimi, in Austria you had the best start among the front runners, it’s quite a difficult track to overtake here. Are you prepared to take a bit more risk than you did in Zeltweg to try and get to the front at the start?

    KR: For me? If I didn’t take risks last time then maybe. I don’t plan to do anything different. Obviously we try to make a good start as well as we can but there are things that you will never be able to plan, you do it what you think the right outcome might be different that you expect but that’s how it goes sometimes. Try to make a good start and go from there, see what we can come up with.

    Q: Lewis, is it because it’s Silverstone that Mercedes and Lewis are in front of Ferrari? The circuit made the difference or what else? Was it because there is a superiority of driver and car or in your performance…

    LH: Both

    Q:  … or was Silverstone the secret?

    LH: All three, I hope. I think for sure, when you come to Silverstone it’s a home Grand Prix so just like when we go to Monza, Ferrari get a boost. It’s the same for us as a team. The team has all their families around, the support we have from the fans is there so we get lifted up from that. There’s obviously an extra push in effort above and beyond to try and make sure that we can pull everything out. Same for me as a driver. I think it’s all those as a whole come together for this race.

    eom/db

  • It was a little bit of an unexpected victory, says Max Verstappen

    It was a little bit of an unexpected victory, says Max Verstappen

    The FIA Thursday press conference in progress with Hamilton (centre), Verstappen and Leclerc in attendance. An FIA image

    Silverstone, 5 July 2018: The Thursday press conference ahead of the British Grand Prix, the 10th round of the Formula One World Championship was attended by Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. 

    Transcript:

    Q: Charles, what a season it’s turning out to be. You’ve scored in five of the last six races, Q2 in the last six races. Clearly you’ve found a sweet-spot with the car. How much confidence do you have coming into this weekend?

    Charles LECLERC: Well, as I’ve said before, the confidence is not so high because I’m always looking at the negatives after each grand prix and yeah, there’s still plenty of negatives. I did some mistakes in Paul Ricard, and again in Austria but yeah, we’ve been in the points consistently, which is great. We definitely did not expect it. Q2, six times in a row now I think, which is, again, quite crazy. I expect a bit more of a difficult weekend here, especially with high speed corners but we’ll try to push and hopefully we’ll have a very positive weekend again.

    Q: You’ve told us about the negatives but let’s just reflect on the positives of the last few races. You’re clearly getting on very well with the car. Have you surprised yourself at how quickly you’ve got up to speed?

    CL: To be honest I had very difficult first three weekends this season but then we really did a step in Baku with the approach of the setup especially. I was asking something completely wrong to the engineers in these first three weekends, and then it went a lot better. So, yeah, for now it is going very, very well, and we just need to keep working like that.

    Q: It’s not easy to be in a team that’s rebuilding, as is the case with Sauber, yet you seem to be dealing with it very well. How much are you enjoying that process and what are you learning?

    CL: It’s great to see the hard work of the team and that it pays off on the track. It’s not like we’re having a revolutionary change  and upgrades – but any time we’ve put something on the car it went in the right direction. And yeah, we’ve seen that on track and it’s not always a given in Formula One. Sometimes you bring something and it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do on track. So, yeah, the team’s doing a great job on that, and they are giving me a car that is easy to drive also. So, everything is going good.

    Q: Max, a quick moment’s reflection on four days ago, that victory for the team’s home race in Austria and those crazy scenes with those Dutch fans after the race. How do you reflect on it all, four days on?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: I think it was a little bit of an unexpected victory but, of course, I think they’re very nice to take, especially after Friday and Saturday where we didn’t look fantastic. Then, going into the race, I immediately felt I had a bit better balance in the car, I could at least push it a bit more in the fast corners where we were losing out before. And then yeah, of course, the Mercedes cars in front of me, with Valtteri having a problem, disappearing and then, with the Virtual Safety Car, I think the team did a good job to anticipate that and make the pitstop. And then from there onwards it was all about tyre management and I think we were on top of that. Or course, at the end the Ferrari’s same close but we managed it well, with the whole team and yeah, of course we’re happy to win.

    Q: One of your best victories?

    MV: Yeah. I keep saying that. I think they’re all nice if you win. This one was very unexpected and I think that makes it a little bit more special.

    Q: You’ve had three consecutive podiums now, you’re building some momentum – so where do you feel Red Bull Racing sit in the pecking order among those top teams?

    MV: Difficult to say. I think it depends on the track. If the straights are pretty long, then we are third. If they’re not too many straights, I think we have the best chassis, so we are very competitive. But yeah, to make a win in Austria is good because normally we’d expect to lose points on the others – and we didn’t, so that’s good. Let’s see what we can do here.

    Q: Let’s talk a little bit more about that. There are some long straights here at Silverstone but there are some fast corners as well. How do you see it panning out this weekend?

    MV: I think the problem is that some corners now, they became flat-out and then it basically becomes a double straight, and that’s just very painful. Like Turn One, you’ve got Copse which is flat. It’s a bit of a shame for us. I’m not expecting us to be, like, super-competitive but we’ll there. More or less. So, let’s see what’s going to happen during the race.

    Q: Lewis, you’re going for record win number six here at Silverstone; your fifth in a row. You know coming into this weekend there’s going to be a huge amount of support in the grandstands for you. Can you give us your thoughts coming into your home grand prix?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s the same as every year really: the British Grand Prix is obviously the most special, in the sense of all the races that we get to do – for me. It’s a real privilege. I was just watching some of the replays of last year, and if you look at the end, and it shows you all of the positions and obviously to see the Union Flag up there is always a great feeling. The fans here are just incredible and the weather is the best it’s ever been. We’re fighting for a World Cup, so I think it’s just a really great time for sport.

    Q: Why is this race different for you?

    LH: Just because of the fans.

    Q: We talked about last weekend with Max, just to reflect on your race in Austria. What follow-ups have there been in the factory? Is there anything you can tell us about why you retired – and are you confident you’re not going to have any problems this weekend?

    LH: Obviously, we know it was a difficult weekend and of course we have all wished it wasn’t the way it was but what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Honestly, the spirit within the team is stronger than it’s ever been. These experiences we’ve been having and how we’ve been handling them, have really united us more than any other year. There’s a great energy within team. So, while it was a painful experience, it actually brought us closer. I think it made us stronger. I think coming here there’s been some fixes already, immediately after the race, as soon as they got the car back, I think that evening there was a fix that was designed and put into test mode. So, the team was super on it and I’m confident we’ve done everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Hans Straus – Media Group Limburg) Max, how do you feel about the triple-header? Is it business  as usual or is it extra-difficult for you?

    MV: It’s a little bit busier but I think as a driver, yeah, we don’t really feel the issues. I think it’s mainly just the mechanics with families and stuff. It’s getting quite busy, for them especially.

    Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat.com) Question to Charles: given the fact Sauber has been on the way up technically and also in terms of competitiveness, would you like to continue being part of this project next year?

    CL: Well, it’s obviously very interesting to be part of this project, as I was saying. We are growing races after races. They are bringing packages and we keep going more and more to the front, so that’s good to see. Then yeah, we’ll have to see for next year. We’ll have to see what other opportunities I get. And then we’ll see. For now, I’m really focussing on this year. Trying to develop the car, like we did. I think we are… yeah, it’s above expectations, what we are doing for now. As a team I don’t think we thought we would develop as good as we are now. So, that’s great to see, and then we’ll see next year.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Lewis, do you believe in this circuit, the new spec of your car, used first time in Austria, can appear more? It’s a more real circuit than in Spielberg?

    LH: I think the two tracks actually hold some similarities in corner speed and corner pace. Like if you look at the middle and last sector of the last race, as opposed to here. But this is a more demanding circuit, particularly with the temperatures we have here. All the high-speed corners. Copse is most-likely going to be flat; Turn One is going to be flat. It’s going to be one of the hardest races on the tyres, I would imagine. But in terms of car performance, yeah, for sure, we’ll be able to extend… spread the legs of the car more here – but that’s the same for everyone. And high-speed is not really a problem in the cars for us nowadays. We’ve got these big wings, massive tyres, so it should be… it’ll be the fastest we’ve ever driver here so it’s going to be pretty good fun.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action & Speed Sport) Charles, as you say, the team is improving the car, bringing upgrades. How much better are you, compared to the beginning of the season? You yourself, at just getting more speed out of the car?

    CL: As I said earlier. I think it’s a combination of what I was asking of the car, that was completely wrong in the first three races, and then you are in quite a negative spiral where the car is very difficult to drive, so you try to push more, and you do more errors, and everything is going quite badly. Then, when I understood which balance I wanted in this car, when I arrived in Baku and went with a much more stable balance, especially for the city track, and then we kept that for the rest of the season. And that went in a good direction, also for me, because I could push the limit. It was easier to feel the limit. And then we worked on that and it made a big step for me also because it was just easier to drive.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve had an up and down season so far. You’ve had some great weekends and some weekends where you have struggled a bit more. How would you describe the way it’s been for you, yourself, and do you have any indication that it might be like last year, where you developed an incredible momentum in the second half of the season, after you had spent time getting used to everything? 

    LH:I think it’s impossible to say how the rest of the season is going to go. What I can say, as I said just a minute ago, from experiences like we had yesterday, the team are very, very reactive. We’re trying to be proactive, but it’s great to be able to be reactive as well. We have been making a lot of improvements in the car, my feeling for the car, my understanding – that just naturally grows for a driver throughout the year and for a team as you become more aware of the tyres, the strengths and weaknesses of the package you have. I think everyone is going to continue to shift and get a bit better, but ultimately we want to be improving faster than the others if possible. But it has been an up and down season and I can’t really explain it. Part of it is tyres, part of it is that it is a much more competitive year than last year, that we’re fighting two teams. It’s a lot closer, there is a lot more pressure on. It’s how the sport should be, in the sense that you’re squeezing more out of the cars and out of the drivers as well. I think it’s not a bad thing.

    Lewis, I asked Max to give his thoughts on the pecking order at the front of Formula 1 at the moment, what’s your take on that? 

    LH: The pecking order among teams?

    Yes. 

    LH: I don’t really know. [Max] what did you say?

    MV:That sometimes I guess we have a good chance and sometimes we’re still third. It depends on the track, for us at least.

    Who has the fastest car at the moment? 

    LH: Like Max says, it’s up and down from track to track, but I still feel we are the best team, and I truly believe that we will remain that for the rest of the year.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, we’ve seen your Mercedes team make a few strategy mistakes this year. What do you put that down to and do you think it could end up costing you points and ultimately the title? 

    LH: I think if you look at the season, it’s been like that for other teams, I think all teams. If you look at Ferrari, they’ve lost points, I’m pretty sure the Red Bulls have lost points. The amount of pressure, the amount of simulations that go on, the information… there are a lot of tough calls for each team to make. Some of them for sure are easier than others. Maybe the easier one sometimes… it could be one weekend the easier one is the wrong decision and vice versa. That’s just how it is. I hope it’s not a title decider, but, as I said, I can’t predict what’s going to happen going forwards. All I know is that we are constantly getting better and improving. What I can say is that I really do feel like I have the best strategist team behind me. I mean look at how many wins I’ve had within this team. We’ve had far, far more success than we’ve had failures and nobody is perfect. It’s just the way the sport is. There is no way to be perfect. It would probably be boring if that was the case.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you talked about having fixes in place for the problems last weekend. Is there any concern at all that these reliability concerns happened on the second weekend with an upgraded engine, particularly after it had been delayed for reliability reasons in the first place? 

    LH:We’re human, so naturally every single individual in the team will have that a little bit at the back of their mind, that nervousness. But as a driver, as an athlete and as a competitor I personally cannot allow that to interfere with my weekend. You go in with the same mentality as the last weekend – hoping for the car to be reliable. You can never predict what’s going to happen but that’s not getting in my way and I’m pretty certain that for the majority of people in the team they’re not letting that get in their way either.

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Lewis, you’re one point behind Seb in the world championship. Would it be particularly satisfying if you could retake the lead in front of your home crowd? 

    LH: Yes, it would be great. Just taking the lead in general, it doesn’t matter where it is, would be good. I think coming into this weekend there’s obviously talk of historic number of wins and all those kind of things. If I’m honest it’s been a really incredible journey since 2007, coming here and just to be riding this positive wave every time you come to this grand prix. I’m really grateful to be in the position to fight for a win here at Silverstone for the sixth time… not many drivers get to do that. So I’m very privileged in that respect. And the support is unlike anywhere else. No driver… you could say that Max is probably getting close, but we don’t have a Dutch Grand Prix. If we did it might get close. But the atmosphere here is just incredible throughout this weekend, particularly when the weather is good. The hope is always that you can deliver, arrive in good form and perform and that’s what I’m going to try and do.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis, it’s only been four days since Austria. The race wasn’t, I think it’s fair to say, wasn’t a great one for Mercedes. Is four days enough? Is the car reliable again? Have the problems been fixed? For yourself, it sounded like on the radio you were becoming increasingly frustrated. Have you moved on and you just reset and you go again for your home race? 

    LH: Yeah, I felt OK after the race. I think you probably could see that after. I think ultimately I look at is as a positive. It reminds me how passionate I am. Everyone in the team felt the same thing. We really do win and lose as a team. As I said, what’s really happened over the last few days, with the team reuniting, and seeing the guys here, just how energized everyone is, we’re like ‘we’re back’. Just that confidence, that will to win is still there. There are fixes for everything and the guys have worked really hard over these past days and what’s mind-blowing for me is how quick people can react and produce things and I’m just excited to get in the car tomorrow.

    Q: (George Bolton – The Sun) Lewis, you mentioned the World Cup. Are you hoping to give more celebrations to your home nation by having a good weekend too? 

    LH: Yeah, we always come into this grand prix with some kind of epic sport surrounding it, be it Wimbledon or whatever, so… I was actually going to ask what is the penalty for missing he press conference on Saturday? Is it negotiable? I want to be watching the game so… I had to watch on my phone the other day but at least I got to see it.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin  – Reuters) Lewis, there’s been an assumption that you and Valtteri are fighting a Ferrari team whose main focus is Seb. In Austria we saw Kimi finish ahead of Seb, with everyone else lapped. Were you surprised that Seb has in effect missed the chance of getting an extra three points in the battle? I know you gave a place back to Valtteri in the past, but you wouldn’t expect Ferrari to have done that.

    LH: Am I surprised? There have been scenarios this year, at least one or two, where I though they would have reversed the cars, because that’s the philosophy they’ve had. If I’m really honest I’ve not really put any thought into it. I don’t really care. They do what they do. I literally put all of my focus on what we do and make sure that we remain correct and we deliver 100%. And I truly believe that if we do that we will outperform the others. So that’s what I put my energy towards.

    Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports News) One last one on the World Cup for you, Lewis. Is it coming home, do you think? A big psychological barrier crossed by winning a penalty shoot-out; you know how much psychology plays a part in top level sport? 

    LH: I can only imagine the boys are definitely on a high at the moment, and they just need to continue to try to… I hope they’re sleeping well, I hope they’re eating well because that’s a large part of it and ultimately just going out there and they’ve got to go and enjoy themselves. There’s so much pressure on them, obviously, being that it is the World Cup but there’s so much support for them. England is just known as… they’re such excited fans. There’s so much passion in England for sport, that’s why you’ve experienced it here, you see it at the stadiums, particularly in football and even myself, watching just the other day, I don’t watch enough football. I played it as a kid and I was massively passionate as a kid and I used to collect all the stickers and stamps, magazines, books that they used to do etc and I used to remember playing with Ashley [Young] at school but just watching on the edge of your seat, the passion is crazy for everyone that’s watching their country play. It’s like it’s in your DNA, it’s crazy and it’s so exciting. I’ve booked my day off… is it next Sunday? I think it’s next Sunday. Yeah, I’ve booked that day off, like keep it free because I wanna be in Russia for that day, supporting them.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) The subject now is tyres: hard, medium and soft and the new kind of tyre with less rubber. Did the director of your team accept this kind of tyre, suits more Mercedes? In a circle where the track is very hard on the tyre, can you all make a comment on the high temperature they also expect here? 

    CL: I think in Barcelona when we first had them then for the test after the race we tried them and for us it was definitely a good move because we had some problems with the other ones, the normal ones. I believe Pirelli knows what they are doing and if they put these tyres for here, it’s because they believe that it might bring issues with the normal ones. For me, it’s fine for me with these ones.

    MV: Yeah, I tried both but I didn’t feel a lot of difference. I’m not too bothered.

    Q: Do you think they suit Mercedes more than anyone else? 

    MV: I don’t know. I think if I drive a Mercedes car I can tell you but I don’t so it’s always a big question mark. We’ll find out.

    Q: And Lewis, do you feel the car performs better on these tyres than the other ones? 

    LH: I honestly don’t. I don’t really notice the difference, they feel pretty much the exactly same except they are not as easily prone to blistering but we don’t suffer from blistering. I think the last race we had that… if you look at last year, other teams, I think you (MV) had a failure on tyres blistering, right?

    MV: On a few tracks.

    LH: I don’t think we had any tyre… we don’t have tyre problems in general. The last race, obviously, I was pushing the tyre way over the limit, trying to recover position and that was just down to me, not down to our car being worse on that tyre or anything like that. Ultimately that’s an excuse that an engineer would look to if you’re not doing well enough, they’ve got to find something to point at and so in my mind they’re just using that as an excuse.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) Max and Lewis, just to know your opinion: when you’re 53 points down, halfway through the season, do you still have a chance to win the world title, are you still a serious title contender? 

    LH: If you’re 53 points down? I’ve been 40-something down in the past. I’m pretty sure in Barcelona at one stage I was 40-something down. Did I come back that year, was it that year that I came back? It is possible, it can swing around.

    MV: We don’t have the package to fight on every track. For example in Monza it’s just going to be difficult so it depends in what position you are. If it’s compared to your teammate then I think you still have a chance to come back but I don’t think we are in a position to do that. For sure, there are some tracks where we will be really competitive and we can definitely challenge for victory but not on every single track so to come back like that, you need to be winning almost every weekend.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) You’ve got the opportunity this weekend to have the DRS open through turn one. What are your thoughts on that and do you think it’s going to be possible in qualifying? 

    LH: I doubt it but probably everyone will try. Max will be the first to try, I’m sure! We’ll all follow Max and see what happens with him! But it’s usually quite bumpy into turn one. I think it’s highly unlikely. But it’s going to be even quicker anyway so these tyres… you just slide… it’s quite a quick corner and a lot of pressure and a lot of energy goes into the tyres so I don’t even know if it’s going to be better anyways but we will find out.

    Q: So Max, flat through turn one, DRS open? 

    MV: I think not every team. I will definitely try it but we’ll find out. I don’t think you will gain massively after that corner and like Lewis said, probably you will use the rear tyres a bit more as well but we will find out, I think. And also it depends a bit on what kind of wing level you are using.

    CL: From what I’ve heard, it was already quite difficult last year without DRS so yeah, we will try to make it flat out first and then we will see but I don’t think it will be flat out with DRS.

    LH: Actually I have a question for you guys. How am I doing? I notice I’ve got two 20-year olds next to me. The oldest driver here by a long way. I’m nearly one of the older drivers here. 

    MV: I think it’s alright. You’re doing fine.

    LH: Thanks, man. Appreciate it!

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Max and one for Charles. For Max, I would like to ask you if now you are sometimes fighting for victory, I would like to know if with the performance all is showing now, if you are confident for next season to fight for the victories, or do you believe that next year you have to have a harder life? 

    MV: It’s difficult to say at the moment. It’s quite a long way away and they are in a good way, they are progressing. I’m honestly not thinking about that yet. Of course, it gives a lot of motivation for the team for next year but we have to wait and see how it’s going to be until pre-season testing.

    Q: Did the team consult you prior to making the decision to go with Honda? 

    MV: It’s something for my career as well, the steps, so we definitely talked about it but at the end of the day I’m not deciding that. I think it’s a positive move.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And for Charles, if you aware that this is the track where Alfa Romeo won the first ever Grand Prix, so what does it mean for a guy like you, that you have the brand of Alfa Romeo on your overalls? 

    Q: Charles, Alfa Romeo won the first Grand Prix here at Silverstone, May 13, 1950. Are you a man who appreciates the history of the sport? How does that make you feel given your association with Alfa? 

    CL: Yeah, definitely. I learned this news from the team this morning, I didn’t know it from myself only but it’s a special Grand Prix for the team, then on the other hand we are not in a space at the moment to fight for the win yet but yeah, I hope to bring a very good result to the team, hopefully again in the points. But we will not bring a win this weekend.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, we’ve seen you crowd surf after your victories over the last couple of years. Have you got anything up your sleeve this year which may triumph that or go even better? 

    LH: Honestly, those are all kind of spur of the moment things. I definitely think if…for anybody to pre-plan something, you’re allowing karma to… not karma but negative things to potentially happen. It’s like if England starts celebrating before they get to the actual game it’s probably not a good idea. No, those experiences were just incredible and I was just watching some footage of the experience in the past. I think the best picture I’ve ever seen was when Kimi and I think… was it Kimi? A couple of drivers were sitting here and I was outside. I need to re-post that, because that was pretty cool. Just engaging with the fans here is just electric. So I hope to get to do that all weekend and naturally you want to make everyone proud, you want to complete the weekend. They’re going to have a great weekend regardless. It will be the cherry on the top of the cake if you’re able to pull something special out of the bag.

    Q: Lewis, how much do you feel your support here at Silverstone has grown since 2007 or has it been huge since the outset? 

    LH: No, I think it’s continued to grow. I think it’s… and as years go on, you appreciate it more and more but 2007 was already pretty cool, I think from that qualifying lap. And then 2008 was just… I really will never forget that day. And then it’s just been growing ever since really. I hope that continues. Who’s the next Brit that’s coming? After me? I won’t be here for ever.

    CL: Russell probably.

    LH: Yeah, well. I hope I can wave the flag for a little bit longer.

    eom.db

  • It is amazing to win here with a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring: Verstappen

    It is amazing to win here with a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring: Verstappen

    Max Verstappen (Black suit) along with Kimi Raikkonen (left) and Sebastian Vettel on the podium at the Red Bull ring on Sunday. An FIA image

    Spielberg, 1 July 2018: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing notched up his fourth Formula One win and after the race, the top three drivers attended the mandatory post-race press conference here on Sunday. Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel made it a double podium for Ferrari.

     

    Track Interviews (Conducted by Mark Webber)

    Q: Max Verstappen, your fourth Grand Prix victory. It felt like your first win, with Kimi Räikkönen closing you down, maximum pressure. A Red Bull victory here on the Red Bull Ring. Massive amounts of Dutch fans, it must feel amazing?

    Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was amazing. It was very hard to manage the tyres as well. We really had to look after them, a little blistering, but we managed to hang on until the end. Of course, it’s amazing to win here with a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring and also so many Dutch fans around here. It’s incredible.

    Q: So what does this mean for the future, mate. You’ve got Silverstone around the corner, in terms of it being a back-to-back, we’ve got this tripleheader, you’ve had this great run of results off the back of a tough Monte Carlo, so now you’re on fire buddy?

    MV: Yeah, I needed to catch up with the points. Today was definitely a very good day for me and I just hope we can continue like this.

    Q: Well done Max. Kimi, very solid second place there, buddy. It was a very interesting Grand Prix with tyres, I think there were a few unknowns, a lot of people weren’t sure what was happening. Double Mercedes retirement which was very interesting. Unbelievable start – if it had been Barcelona or Monza you would have led into Turn 1, right?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I had to back off a little bit because we were squeezed together and my decision was already gone there – I was scared that we hit. After that, a bit running wide and that and lost some places. But the car came good but we just run out of the laps and I think we took it easily too long. It’s a shame. We had a great car today and in some points it was a little bit difficult but I think it was a good result for the team.

    Q: Well done, Kimi. Sebastian, together with Max here. He did a pretty good job didn’t he? 

    Sebastian VETTEL: I told him, very good race, very consistent, no mistakes. We were chasing him down at the end but couldn’t quite make it.

    Q: So tell us about your race Sebastian? It was a difficult qualifying, after a good start. Tough first corner, got pushed out and then you had to come back from there. One point in the championship, a very interesting day for the silver cars, so not a bad day at the office for you?

    SV: No. Obviously it would have been nice to start further up. I tried to get some back at the start, in Turn 1, but it didn’t quite work. I was left with no place to go and then lost momentum. And then it was the same thing a little bit in Turn 3. I had to fight with the Renaults and the Haas in the beginning of the race and I lost a little bit of ground. Obviously we lost a little bit of time at the stop. So for us it was pretty much damage limitation but I think the pace was very good, the tyre management was good, so a positive day, it could have been better but a well deserved win for Max.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Seb. I think you said on the pit radio, when you came behind Lewis, after his stop, that they should have informed you a bit earlier that he’s stopping because you had something in your pocket still. Can you describe the situation?

    SV: I was aware that we were fighting him but I was of the opinion that we were ahead, and I didn’t expect it to be that close and to be on the back-foot, so I think, if I look back, and I was thinking about it in the race as well, I was told enough. So, I can’t blame the team. Yeah. I thought I was taking it a little bit easy in the beginning because I was anyways a bit further back. There was no point. I didn’t understand in the beginning obviously the necessity to close as soon as possible. So maybe it’s also a bit my fault. But I think I had a bit of pace in hand – but, you know, I looked down, I saw the pitboard as well and there was 55 laps from the time the VSC… well, it doesn’t really come it, but was turned off… so yeah, I tried to save tyres and make sure we make it to the end, not knowing what happens because the first stint was not easy – but yeah, I thought we could have done, I could have done a bit better with a bit more information – but nothing dramatic. I think overall the pace was really good. I mean, I was obviously losing a lot with the pitstop, the double-stop that we did, which was the right call – but I probably had to come back from the longest way. I think the speed was good so I’m happy with the race but obviously it could have been better today. So I’m not entirely happy.

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – Motorspormania.hu) Max, congratulations, you’ve got almost 20,000 Dutch supporters here in Austria. Do you have any special message to your fans who stayed in the Max Verstappen village during the weekend?

    MV: Yes, of course…

    SV: You have a village here?

    MV: Yeah! On the other side…

    SV: You need to pay tax here then…

    MV: No, we skip that bit. Yeah, it’s great to see. I mean of course we’re not playing in the World Cup so it’s a bit easier for them to come over here, but in general, great support. I mean the whole weekend. It was amazing to see so much orange. And then if you win the race and see all the fans lining up there. Yeah, it’s incredible. And this is in Austria, which is still 10, 11 hours away from Holland. So, yeah, amazing that they all came over here.

    Q: (Jaap de Groot – De Telegraaf) Max, before the Max it looked like you had to overtake a lot of odds but during the race, the advantages occurred and you took them to the maximum. According to that, do you feel that this was your perfect race. And also explain how you underwent the process I just explained, getting all the advantages.

    MV: Yeah, so I think it was a bit unexpected, especially after our Friday pace and in the long runs. I think in the first stint we could actually keep up quite well – and then yeah, I just tried to do my own race. I saw Valtteri disappearing with a problem, and then I think we made the right call when the virtual safety car came out, that we pitted. The team, again, great call on that, and then yeah, virtually I was in the lead, and I just tried to do my own pace. Initially from behind there was no pressure. I think I could build up a gap, and yeah, at one point, when Lewis pitted and Kimi started to put Daniel under pressure, and he started to struggle with his tyres, and then once I think Kimi was in second, and I tried to manage the gap – but at one point, yeah, I could see my tyres also opening up a bit on the rears and the fronts, so, yeah, I just had to drive around the issue and luckily I could manage it until the end of the race.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max and Kimi; although the race was 71 laps long, it was effectively decided by the move at turn seven on a frenetic opening lap. Can I just get your respective thoughts on the move – we don’t normally see overtaking there? It looked like a little bit of wheel-banging as well.

    KR: I think there was a lot happening on the first lap. I think a little bit sideways into… or lost the line a little bit into six and then Max… obviously we were pretty close to each other, I think the car in front of me, the Mercedes, disturbed a bit… like the downforce and then obviously it got the run and I tried to hang on on the outside but I got a little bit sideways because I guess we touched a little bit and lost a place but I think we got the best out of it and not taking each out and still fighting in that kind of corner that is fast speed and not very easy to stay next to each other when you try. That’s what happens sometimes. Not ideal for me but it was still fair enough.

    MV: Yeah, it was hard racing but good racing. I think Kimi is experienced enough to handle the situation well. We had a little touch but I think it’s also good for the sport.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, it seems to me that this one race every week really suits you fine. Can you improve as much as you did from France to Silverstone in one week also?

    KR: I don’t know. Obviously Silverstone is a lot different circuit, layout and I think if you purely take it it wouldn’t probably be the best place last year so maybe there for us but I think I’m looking forward and I think we have certain things that we are trying and probably will help there. Obviously it depends a lot on the conditions there but I think the last two weekends have been quite similar so I will keep pushing and trying and try to do better all the time and obviously try to do better than today in the next races but there could be a slightly better end result but I think as a team we got solid points and we go to the next race.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Max, you had the first six races of this season very difficult and then from Canada it started to change…

    MV: No, Barcelona already.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) … so tell us about how it works inside you, coming from one extreme to the other one, what you are living now?

    MV: I think it’s just racing, you know? Sometimes you have difficult moments and then you try to work hard and you keep working hard even when it’s difficult and you overcome the situation. Yeah, it’s as simple as that. It’s racing.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Racingline.hu) Sebastian, you are the only driver on the internet who has not a social media account, Twitter, Facebook, whatever. Even Kimi has Instagram now this year and he’s doing very well. Why are you not present on the internet?

    SV: I rather spend my time on something useful. It’s a shame that I lost Kimi. It was nice to be alongside. I don’t know what happened. I don’t blame anybody, people are free to do what they want. It’s just not my thing, I don’t have the need to share. If there’s anybody who has a question, obviously ask but I don’t find great motivation in telling people where I go, what I do. I find it’s quite boring so yeah, it’s not my thing.

    Q: (Rik Spekenbrink – AD Sportwereld) Max, could you hear the Dutch fans on the final lap and secondly, how would you rate this win among the others?

    MV: No, I couldn’t hear them, I think I was…

    SV: Say yes.

    MV: Nah. You always have to be honest.

    SV: You have to say yes though.

    MV: No. OK, Sebastian says yes.

    SV: I heard them!

    MV: But I could see some orange smoke, I could see them cheering so I think that’s good enough. Special moment. And I think this was one of the nicest victories but I keep saying that so I think at the moment they are all nice. But maybe hopefully, at one point, you just say yeah, it’s just another one. But at the moment I’m really happy with it.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, we heard how emotional your celebrations were with the team over the radio after the race. Can you just explain when you thought that it was actually possible for you to win the race, when you felt under control, and how much does this win mean to you?

    MV: Yeah, it was difficult to tell because Kimi was catching, Sebastian was catching and you were not sure maybe they had another half a second in them at the end of the race, so it was just difficult to say. I think with three or four laps to go I was more comfortable and it was not going to happen but still, maybe from one to the other lap my blister opens up even more and then you’re really in trouble. Probably three laps. My fourth victory, I think it’s a good one, very unexpected one so I think they are always good.

    ends