INDIA in F1

Tag: Force India

  • I’m not a title contender at the moment: Hamilton

    DRIVERS – Esteban GUTIERREZ (Sauber), Paul DI RESTA (Force India), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus), Pastor MALDONADO (Williams)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Good afternoon. We’ll start with Lewis Hamilton. As a three-time winner here and a two-time pole-sitter, I think the heat is on, literally, here this weekend for you to try to make it four wins. Forty degrees ambient expected on Sunday, how much is that going to be a disadvantage to you and Mercedes?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s good to see everyone again. It’s going to be tough this weekend definitely – the conditions will not help. Plus, we haven’t driven the tyres as everyone else has. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do, but that’s what we do best and we just have to work as hard as we can this weekend to try to understand the tyres and put ourselves in the best position possible. We have a lot of work to do to continue to improve our race pace, but I anticipate it will be a difficult weekend.

    Do you think you are at more of a disadvantage, are you worse off, or is every team in the same boat with the temperatures this weekend?

    LH: I’m sure everyone is going to have to open up their cars, so everyone in in the same boat in terms of car packaging and the heat that the cars are absorbing. Tyre-wise, of course there are teams that will deal with it slightly better than us, just naturally, and there are some people that will deal with it the same as us.

    Nine races into your Mercedes career and we’re almost at the half-way point of the season. Do you see still yourself as a championship contender?

    LH: I don’t really look at myself as a championship contender at the moment. Of course, we’re fourth, we’re second as a team in the Constructors’ Championship, so… just at the beginning of the season everyone was writing me off and then all of a sudden they changed their opinions and we’ve had some really good results. That’s just due to all the hard work the team are putting in and we’re not giving up. We’re going to keep pushing. We hope that we’re going to get some wins in the future races coming. It’s going to be tough but I’m really happy with how the season has gone so far, especially compared to where the team was last year, it’s a massive step.

    Let’s turn to Pastor Maldonado next. Can we start with a comment about Williams’ appointment in the last few days of Pat Symonds, who comes in as technical director. From a driver’s perspective, how welcome is that and how necessary do you think it was that the team have a new technical director and new leadership in that part of the company?

    Pastor MALDONADO: We had a hard beginning to the season with the car, fighting a lot to improve and develop the conditions and the performance. It’s quite tough for us, still. We try to put everything together in the past races. Some races we were a bit better, some others not. Especially the consistency and the race pace is quite good on our car, just missing a lot of performance in quali which is penalising us a lot. Starting from the back is not the best for us. Yeah, I think we need some change. The way, how we’ve been working, trying to improve out performance was not the best and for sure any change in a good way is very welcome.

    What about yourself at the moment? I think ‘silly season’ is very much upon us, a few rumours in the press about your future career. Did you take much notice of that? Can it be a destabilising factor for a driver?

    PM: No, I’m still full focused on the season. I think we can still improve. We are a strong team. Last year we were fighting for good places, sometimes even fighting for the podium and this year, some years you miss the pace. We just need to be together as a team, work harder than before, try to fix the problem and to be there again. I think we have all the tools to become again very competitive.

    Thanks Pastor. Esteban, let’s turn to you next. Looking at the championship table, you’re the leading rookie, how do you assess your performance in the first half of your first Formula One season?

    Esteban GUTIERREZ: It’s been very challenging. Obviously I’m not completely happy with how the first part of the season went. But again, being a rookie I’ve been focusing a lot on gaining a lot of experience to improve every part I can. I think what matters is the second half of the season, Everything will be judged on how the second half goes and I’m full focused on what is happening from now own.

    What areas have you been focusing on most? Where do you think improvements need to be made?

    EG: I think qualifying can be improved a lot. There’s obviously a lot of variable playing into account on performance, sometimes different car set-ups, different things, trying to experiment with new things. Obviously this puts the situation a little bit more difficult. The team’s situation is not the best. We were expecting a lot better performance from the car. But we are close as a team and we are working ourselves to get all these things right.

    Q: Because of that situation you mentioned with the team, do you feel you haven’t had the full opportunity to show exactly what you can do?

    EG: Well, definitely it’s affecting that, but as I said the second part of the season there is a good chance to show what is really our performance, our capabilities and obviously to put everything together, to reflect everything in the results.

    Q: Valtteri, if we could turn to you, the other rookie amongst us this afternoon. Did you feel you’ve had the opportunity to fully show your ability behind the wheel or is the performance of the car not helping you?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I think for sure it’s not helping. Also we expected a much better start for the season. If you would be consistently fighting in the top ten, everyone would see maybe a bit more of what you can do. It’s not easy but I’m trying my best and I think still improving a lot all the time. I think the first half of the season hasn’t been too bad for me. Of course when I look back there’s always things you could have done better. You learn all the time, that’s how it is.

    Q: With Pat Symonds arrival, is it too much to expect results will turn around this year, very quickly? As a driver is that something you will be looking for?

    VB: Of course you would hope so but I think the fact is it’s not a quick fix. It’s still going to take time and we need to keep working on the areas where we need to improve and I think it’s more about the future, not necessarily the end of the year. Of course we try to improve. Any improvement would be nice because it’s so close at the moment. For me it’s a positive thing. It was good to work with Mike before but I think at this stage maybe we just need some new ideas and new opinions.

    Q: Paul, a change to the tyres again this weekend. 2012 construction, 2013 compounds, you had a chance to drive with them at Silverstone. Force India, some say, might be disadvantaged by these tyr

    Paul di Resta of Sahara Force India (left) with an engineer at Nurburgring on Thursday. An FIA photo
    Paul di Resta of Sahara Force India (left) with an engineer at Nurburgring on Thursday. An FIA photo

    e changes. How fearful are you that this could be proved true?

    Paul DI RESTA: It’s a hard one. Obviously we got a little bit of an impression at Silverstone but I think it was directed to enable Pirelli to understand their tyre more, that they’re bringing for the rest of the season. Tomorrow’s going to be busy, it’s the first time that we get to try some setup things and actually understand them but yes, we did have a good idea of where the tyres were working and how to use them over a race distance. That’s not to say that this won’t continue and, on the flip side, it may suit the car better. It’s completely unknown. All we can do is do what we can and the team is working hard to try and score some points because we missed them in the Nürburgring.

    Q: In terms of this season, it’s been a successful season for yourself and for Force India but with resources tight at the team and the concentration having to come on 2014 eventually. As a driver, how difficult is that balancing act going to be? I’m sure you want to fully focus on 2013 and not so much on 2014 at the moment.

    PDR: It’s certainly a harder balance this year, I think, with the new regs for next year. I think everybody at the factory is probably focussed on next year whereas we as a race team are focussed on this year. Just a lot of racing, a lot of points and a lot of laps that we need to be on top of our game. Ultimately where we reward ourselves, this will help the team next year in terms of Constructors’ position. That’s why I think everybody here is trying to stay on top of McLaren if we can. We can’t underestimate what they are and what they do. Up until the last weekend of racing we were having a damn good season and there’s no reason why we can’t get our elbows out and fight even harder.

    Q: Kimi, like Lewis you’ve had plenty of success in Hungary. I think one more podium and you equal the record for the most about of podiums for a driver here. With the high temperatures, does that play into your hands a little bit on Sunday? If we go on the form of Germany, we assume it should do.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I think we’ve always been a bit more happy when it’s more warm. Now it’s a bit difficult to say with the new – or different – tyres than we raced at the beginning of the year but last year helped us and the tyres should be a mix of this year and last year so let’s hope that it works well for us.

    Q: You didn’t go to Silverstone. Did you think twice that maybe you should?

    KR: No. The decision was made with the team that there was not really so much… it was better for the team to put a young driver in it because we were not allowed to do any changes as a race driver, so with that sort of rules you don’t really learn much. We would only have had one set of tyres or so, and so it was overall better for the team to use our test drivers.

    Q: Red Bull? Lotus? Maybe somewhere else? It’s silly season and you seem to be, you appear to be if the stories are true, very much a man in demand.  When you look at next season and where you may or may not be driving, what are the factors that go through your mind in helping you make that decision?

    KR: There’s not really one thing. I think there is going to be an overall package and whatever feels right for me. Whatever the decision will be it might feel stupid to somebody else but then it might feel right for me. I have no idea what will happen. We have to wait and see what will come but hopefully whatever it will be, it will be the right choice.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Gerhard Potochnik – Kleine Zeitung) We are talking about the future; a few days ago Red Bull and Bernie Ecclestone announced that there would be an Austrian Grand Prix next July. Can you tell us your thoughts about this?

    KR: I was there maybe two years ago or something the last time. It looks slightly different. The circuit is exactly the same, I think. It’s a nice place to go, I think. It’s not a very difficult circuit because it hasn’t got many corners, but it usually produces very good racing because of the layout of the straights and the tight corners. I’m more than happy to go back there.

    Q: Paul, a new venue on the calendar, does that excite you?

    PdiR:  A new event, yeah. I’ve never been there so I don’t know what to expect but it looks a very good track from what Kimi said.

    EG: It looks interesting, obviously another track, hard to know what to expect but it’s always interesting to go to a new place.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, if it’s really going to be 40 degrees for the race, is that really going to be too hot for you and your car? Is it a big risk for your record of finishing races?

    KR: It’s the same for everybody, obviously. It will be a bit more tricky for cars and everything, brakes, everything for the drivers, but it’s not the first time that it will be hot when we are racing. If it’s going to be that hot we will see what happens. It was meant to be hot today and it was raining. Things change quickly.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speedsport News) Kimi,  following on from the earlier question about Red Bull; you don’t like to do PR, Red Bull likes its drivers to do a lot of PR. How much PR work would you put up with if it means you have a winning car?

    KR: Obviously you can’t have a guarantee what will happen next year with any team or any cars. There are a lot of rumours about PR days but we have ten and some other teams have a hundred. I’ve been in most of the top teams and I know exactly how it goes and if you count things that you do during the week and during a weekend and you put everything together, everybody has a different way of counting the days. I’m sure it’s not – at least in my knowledge – the difference between the teams is in days and it’s not a deciding factor.

    Q: (Michael Noir Trawniczek – Rally and More) Kimi, when you are chosing the package and the right team, what sort of questions do you ask, how technical is it, do you visit the factory, things like that? How do you make your choice?

    KR: I think it’s like I said earlier, it’s a combination of things and it has to be right on racing and outside of racing. Basically everything just has to feel right and I think in the end it comes down to whatever I think is the right choice and there will be no guarantee that the choice will be the good one in the long run but I’m fine with it, whatever the outcome will be; you live with the choices.

    Q: Is any choice for next year complicated by the fact that the engine regulations, the rule regulations have changed quite drastically? 

    KR: Obviously it would be much easier for everybody to more or less get an idea what will happen next year without those big changes but that’s how it is. It really depends on whether one engine manufacturer gets it right and one wrong, then it might be a long season for some teams and an easier one for others but I don’t know. You hear rumours but that’s all I know about it.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, your team didn’t take part in the Silverstone test; how does it affect your team and you and Nico from a driver’s point of view? 

    LH: To be honest, it doesn’t really faze me. I think it would have definitely helped if we were there and we have an understanding of how to set up the car with the new tyres and to see what kind of characteristics they have and how they behave on long runs and all those kind of things but we will try and find that out this weekend. At the end of the day, it is what it is and we will just try to do the best with what we’ve got. It’s a great team, I have no doubt that we will make up for the lost time.

    Q:  (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Gentlemen, you may have seen the story last week that Sauber are due to fast track a young Russian by the name of Sergey Sirotkin into Formula One. If he is on the grid at the start of next season, and he gains the necessary super licence, he will be 18-years old. Is 18 too young to be racing a Formula One car?

    PM: It’s a difficult one because I don’t know the driver very well. It’s difficult to say.  I think it’s more up to the team and not to us.

    VB: Yeah, I don’t really know the background of this driver so it’s difficult to say.

    PdiR: It’s unfair to say anything. I don’t think anybody knows too much about him because he’s not been in racing cars too long.

    Q: But is 18 too young to be a Formula One driver, if you take away the individual concerned?

    PdiR: You can never say never, can you? People surprise you with what they’re doing. If that’s a decision I’m sure there’s a reason behind it.

    LH: I wasn’t ready at 18. I was pretty good at 18, so…

    KR: I’m sure there will be and has also been an 18-year old, I guess. For sure they will take him if they feel it’s the right thing, so I don’t see that age will be the problem. It’s about experience and that. He might be ready, he might not. Time will tell.

    Q: He might need a good teammate to look after him, Esteban.

    EG: Well, very difficult to judge. What Kimi said comes down to experience, results. I think all of that should be taken into account.

    Q: (Jose Maria Moreira – Organizacion Editorial Mexicana) Esteban, will Sergey Sirotkin and the Russian  backers affect your future at Sauber?

    EG: Well, that doesn’t really make a difference to my current season so to be honest, my focus is here, it’s on this season and I know very well what I have with the team, what has been my path with them over the last few years and what we’re looking into in the future.

    Q: (Gergely Denes – F1-Live.hu) Kimi, last week there was some Twitter  chat between Lewis and your team, a photo postcard of you and Roscoe, Lewis’s dog. Are you aware of that and what is your opinion of it?

    KR: It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t have a Twitter account, I don’t have any other things. I don’t really have a comment.

    Q: You weren’t the man putting #where’sRoscoe on the side of the car?

    KR: (Sighs and points to the team’s PR man)

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Népe ) Lewis, what is the difference between Nico Rosberg as a teammate in GP2 and Formula One?

    LH: I wasn’t his teammate in GP2. I was his teammate in go-karts. It was more fun when we were in go-karts,  that’s about it. We’re both older and wiser and yeah, we don’t play as many games and kid games and all the silly things you do as a kid. He’s more competitive now than he was back then.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Lewis, if Kimi goes to Red Bull, would he be an even harder competitor for you than he is now?

    LH:  I think Kimi will always be one of the hardest competitors here. He’s a fantastic driver, he’s got great experience and he’s constantly proving his abilities and I think whatever car you put him in he’s going to be a fighting force in the field and of course he’s doing a great job at Lotus, they’ve done a great job this year and over the last couple of years. I think whatever he decides either way, he will have a strong car and I just hope that we’re competing with them.

    Q: (Joo Gabor – Index) Kimi, we can divide your Formula One career into two; which one have you enjoyed most, the first one to 2009 or the second one now?

    KR: I don’t really count it as two. I did something else that I wanted to do between them and then obviously I wanted to race again. It hasn’t really changed much. Obviously the team’s different but I’ve been in different teams in the past and every team has a good side and some things that you are probably finding not that much fun. Obviously when you have decent results you have more fun that if you have bad years. I would say that is very similar, more or less the same people, same stuff. I have no real difference between earlier teams and how it is now.

    Ends

  • In the first 9 races, Sahara Force India have exceeded expectations: Mallya

    Sahara Force India looks forward to Hungarian Grand Prix, the tenth race of the 2013 season and ahead of the week-end Team Principal Vijay Mallya and drivers Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil spoke of the season so far and the next race:
    Here are the excerpts:
    Vijay Mallya, Team Principal
    At the halfway point of the season how would you sum up the first nine races?
    I think the first nine races have probably exceeded the expectations we set ourselves over the winter. The first mission was to start the year well and that’s what we’ve done. In fact, it’s been our best start to a season ever: we’ve shown good pace and had some excellent races. At the same time we recognise that we haven’t made the most of all the opportunities and we’ve had our fair share of bad luck. But I prefer to focus on the positives and there’s no doubt that the VJM06 is the best car we have ever produced and I’m proud of the hard work from everyone in the team.
    What are the objectives for this weekend?
    The priority remains the same as the Silverstone test: to get better understanding of the new Pirelli tyres. That’s been a key factor in our strong performances so far this year so we need to make sure we continue to deliver good tyre management. As a venue, the Hungaroring has not traditionally been our strongest track. Paul scored points a couple of years ago and it’s important to add some more to our tally this weekend.
    What about your goals for the second half of the year?
    I would expect the remainder of the season to be more competitive than the first half of the year. We’ve seen the progress of McLaren, especially in Germany, and it’s clear we have a big fight on our hands to beat them in the remaining races. Toro Rosso have also looked more competitive recently so I think we will see tight grids and very close racing all the way through until the final race in Brazil.
    Paul di Resta on Budapest
    Paul, Budapest brings us to the halfway point of the season. How are you feeling ahead of the weekend?
    I’m feeling positive. At the start of the year it would have been hard to imagine that we would be fifth in the championship after nine races, but that’s what we’ve achieved. Every part of the team is working well and that’s been the key. There have been some missed opportunities, but we’ve always recovered well and been able to keep the momentum going.
    What memories do you have from your previous visits to Hungary?
    I’ve always enjoyed going to Budapest since I first visited in 2010 when I was the team’s third driver. It’s an historic city and I usually stay very close to the river in the centre. It’s full of interesting places and great restaurants. My racing memories are mixed, but the 2011 race was an exciting one on a damp track. I finished seventh – which was my best finish in Formula One at the time.
    Tell us about the challenge of the track?
    It’s very demanding physically and mentally because you are nearly always in a corner. The layout feels more like a street track and all the corners flow into each other so you need to find the rhythm of the track and build your confidence with each lap. By the time the track is fully rubbered in it feels very satisfying to drive.
    How do you rate your chances for this year’s race?
    There’s no reason why we can’t be competitive. The big unknown is the new Pirelli tyres. It’s a big challenge for all the teams to try and get on top of them quickly. It’s hard to say if they will impact on the performance level of the teams, but we will go into the weekend with the same approach and then target Q3 on Saturdayand points on Sunday.
    Adrian Sutil on Budapest
    Adrian, the Hungarian Grand Prix is your 100th race in Formula One. How does it feel to reach this landmark?
    It’s hard to believe how quickly time goes by! It’s a big milestone, for sure, but in the end it doesn’t really change anything. My goals remain the same as when I started my first event and that’s to win races. I still love the sport and I hope I can continue to drive these amazing cars for a long time.
    What memories do you have from your previous visits to Hungary?
    I’ve always enjoyed this event. It’s the mid-way point of the year just before the holidays and the weather is usually very nice. But it’s one of those places where I’ve not had much success. I’ve never scored points in Budapest so that’s the first objective this year.
    Tell us about the challenge of the track?
    It’s very tight and twisty and there are not many places where you can catch your breath, apart from the pit straight. It’s dusty, too, and the track takes a while to clean up on Fridayduring practice. We usually run with maximum downforce there because after Monaco it’s the slowest circuit on the calendar.
    How do you rate your chances for this year’s race?
    It’s difficult to say because it’s the first race with a new tyre construction. The track is tight and we need to qualify well because there are not many opportunities to overtake.
    ends

    File photo of Vijay Mallya with fans. A Sahara Force India photo
    File photo of Vijay Mallya with fans. A Sahara Force India photo

  • Tyres are a bit easier to handle: Adrian Sutil

    Silverstone, 19 July 2013: Sahara Force India completed a final day of testing at Silverstone as Adrian Sutil and James Calado completed a combined total of 105 laps,  a press release said.

    James Calado tests for Sahara Force India on Friday. An SFI photo
    James Calado tests for Sahara Force India on Friday. An SFI photo
    Chassis: VJM06-02
    Laps: Adrian: 99 laps / James: 6 laps
    Mileage: Adrian: 583 km / James: 35 km
    Fastest lap: Adrian: 1:33.242 / James: 1:36.451
    Classification: Adrian: P2 of 16 / James: P14 of 16.
     
    Adrian Sutil: “It was only tyre testing today, but it was interesting to see how the new tyres react. They are a bit easier to handle so the drop-off won’t be as dramatic as we saw in a few races. Silverstone is a good circuit for testing because it’s tough on the tyres and we’ve been able to get all the information we needed this week. It was quite windy so very different from the conditions at the race a few weeks ago, but it was not a big problem. I am happy with today’s work and I think it has been beneficial for the engineers. We learnt a lot and hopefully we can translate it into a top ten performance in Hungary.”
    Jakob Andreasen, Chief Race Engineer: “It has been an excellent three days of testing for us. Everything went according to plan and was executed perfectly by the team. We’ve generated all the data we needed and given Pirelli a lot of information on their new tyres. As for the drivers, I want to say a big well done to James Calado. He did a superb job for us and settled in very quickly with the team. We’ve been working with him for a few months during our aero tests, but he was on the top of his game this week and gave us some great feedback. As for the weather conditions, we could not have asked for more. In fact, it was actually a bit tougher because of the heat, but the consistent temperatures over the three days were ideal for testing.”
    ends

  • Vettel keeps Kimi at bay to take first win at home

    Nurburgring, 7 July 2013: Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel has extended his championship lead with a hard-fought victory at the German Grand Prix, adopting a three-stop strategy with one stint on the P Zero Yellow tyre at the start of the race followed by three longer stints on the P Zero White medium tyre.

    Thus the German won at home for the first time with Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus pushing him during the last couple of laps. It is Vettel’s 30th GP win.

    Meanwhile, Sahara Force India failed to finish in points and the German GP halted a strong streak of performances by the Indian outfit. Paul Di Resta was overtaken by his former teammate Nico Hulkenberg in the fag end as he could only finish 11th. Sutil finished 13th.

    Paul said: “It’s not been the easiest of weekends for us, but in the final part of the race it looked like we were on course to score some points. In the end we just ran out of tyres during the last couple of laps, but it was always going to be risky with our two-stop strategy, especially as we had to pit under the safety car. There were times in the race when the car was working well, but I really struggled with the first set of mediums and was not happy with the balance. Things improved quite a bit for the final stint, but by then we were out of position. It’s a bit gutting to miss out on points so we need to unleash our potential and get back to our usual form in Hungary.”
    “It turned out to be quite a disappointing race and for whatever reason we’ve just not had the pace this weekend,” said Adrian Suitl. “I struggled a lot with the tyres and had to convert from a two-stop race to a three-stop race, which was not our plan. I also lost some time at my final pit stop and after that the points were just too far away.”
     Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal, was disappointed with the end of the points streak. “It’s disappointing to end our run of points finishes, but Paul came very close to picking up the final point today. Ultimately his two-stop strategy wasn’t quite enough to fend off our competitors in the final few laps, but we came close to pulling it off. Adrian’s race was also decided by tyre wear because we had to switch him to a three-stop strategy mid-way through the race. Overall we were missing some performance and didn’t have the pace to make the strategy work. Both Paul and Adrian were unable to pass the Williams of Maldonado after the safety car, which compromised the strategy. With three weeks until the next race and a young driver test before that, we will work hard to ensure we can recapture the form we’ve shown earlier in the season,” he felt.
    Pirelli adds:

    The championship leader started from second on the grid and made an excellent start to take the lead at the first corner. There were several strategies at work right from the beginning, with both Ferraris starting on the medium compound tyre, as well as the McLaren of Jenson Button and the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg. From 11th, Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) was also one of the seven drivers to start on the medium tyre.

    A safety car with 36 laps to go prompted most drivers to make their second stops, with the final stops coming in the closing stages of the race. As different drivers were using varied strategies, the podium was only settled in the final laps. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen completed a long middle stint to lead the race, before pitting for soft tyres with 11 laps to go. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Button also completed the race on the soft tyre. The top five finishers all used a three-stop strategy, with Button the highest-placed two-stopper in sixth.

    Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “This had all the ingredients for a brilliantly strategic race from the beginning, with some drivers starting on the medium tyre in order to go longer in the first stint than the cars on the soft tyre. For many teams, this was almost a qualifying tyre – which gave the tactics an interesting edge. There were different strategies in play, which meant that the finish was extremely close. Overall performance and durability of our tyres were in line with our expectations while thermal degradation was perhaps a little higher than expected today, due to the high track temperatures, but wear was as we predicted. It would certainly have been possible to complete the race with two pit stops, as many of the competitors showed. However, the safety car slightly altered things. Last but certainly not least I would like to thank our staff at the factory in Izmit in Turkey who have worked tirelessly after Silverstone to produce the required amount of new rear tyres, and our logistics team who made sure that the tyres were here on Tuesday. It was a big team effort, for which I would like to thank everyone.”

    ends

    From left: Kimi Raikkonen (2nd), Red Bull engineer, Sebastian Vettel (German GP winner) and third placed Romain Grosjean also of Lotus on podium on Sunday. A Pirelli photo
    From left: Kimi Raikkonen (2nd), Red Bull engineer, Sebastian Vettel (German GP winner) and third placed Romain Grosjean also of Lotus on podium on Sunday. A Pirelli photo

  • 5th in Constructors’ title is very important for us: Sutil

    Nurburgring, 4 July 2013: The following drivers attended the FIA Thursday Press Conference ahead of the German Grand Prix here on Sunday.

    DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Sauber), Sergio PEREZ (McLAREN), Adrian SUTIL (Force India), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Good afternoon to all six of you. Not much time between the last race and this – Silverstone still very much fresh in our minds. I think all six of you had a very eventful race in Britain. So let’s start off with your thoughts on the race in Silverstone and the afternoon you had there. I guess we should start with Nico Rosberg, as you won. 

    Nico ROSBERG: I had a good afternoon! It was a very good race weekend in general and I’m really to come out with that result at the end. To have a fast car in the race as well, which has been our weakness in recent weeks and months. So to have improved there was great. And home grand prix for the team, so to win there was absolutely fantastic.

    Yourself, Sebastian – contrasting experiences.

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think we had a solid weekend. We were able to qualify well right behind the Mercedes, which was I think the best we could do on Saturday. But on Sunday we had good pace in the race. Obviously, it’s difficult to know as Lewis had a tyre failure very early on but I think we could have matched him in terms of race pace. But after that, quite frustrating to lose the lead due to a technical problem, but as I said after the race these things happen. So I think we’ve understood the problem, fixed the problem, so we move on.

    Sergio, what about you, what stands out for you from your race at Silverstone?

    Sergio PEREZ: Tyres I think. I think the race itself was better than expected. We had better race pace and in the race itself it was a good strategy and so on. We were able to do better than expected but then with the safety cars it got us in the wrong place and towards the end I didn’t have good tyres and the people behind were coming a bit quicker and then I had the explosion with the tyre.

    Adrian, your race?

    Adrian SUTIL: Yeah, exciting race, interesting race. I would say the pace was not generally as good as expected, so I had to always look more in the mirror and try to make myself as wide as possible and protect my position. I had a very good start. I was running fourth for a long time and then third after the re-start after the second safety car. It looked close to a podium but still our car was just not fast enough and maybe it was a bit unlucky the second safety car period but nevertheless I think there was a chance, a small little chance, to get on the podium, if after the re-start something else would have happened. We risked it and stayed out and then of course a lot of cars with better tyres were behind and I lost quite a few positions very quickly. But seventh in the end was some good points for the team, we stabilised our position and we’re fifth in the Constructors’ World Championship and that’s very important for us.

    What about you Daniel, just finishing behind Adrian in eighth place after that career-best fifth?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: It seemed for the last half of the race we were tied together for a little bit. The safety at the end was a bit of a lottery I guess. We were in fourth at the time behind the safety car and obviously fourth is a great position at the time, for us, for the team. Whether we pitted or not, I guess it was a bit of a gamble at the time, whatever we chose to do, and obviously we stayed out and lost out because of it. But I think the weekend as a whole went really well, from Friday through to Sunday we were always in the top 10, always strong. I think our race pace was good as well. It’s positive for us. It would have been nice to get a few more points and I’m sure we’ll get another opportunity.

    Finally, Nico Hulkenberg. At the back a chaotic race at times but one that eventually brought you your second points finish of the season.

    Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, happy to get away with a point after quite a long dry period. It was a good feeling for me and the team to have a point. Overall, quite an exciting race with lots of wheel-to-wheel action. So it was a lot of fun from inside the car. Fortunately, I wasn’t one of the guys who had the tyre problems.

    So this weekend here: it’s the first German Grand Prix here at the Nürburgring for you in your third season in F1, which surprised me when I read that. Does it add to the excitement, racing in front of your home fans, a new track in an F1 car?

    NH: Yeah, it does. A lot of excitement. I had done the practice one session in 2011 in a Force India but it is the first proper race attempt. The Nürburgring has always been very kind to me. I’ve had lots of good finishes here, won a lot of races and have done many laps here. I really like the place, obviously a lot of history on this circuit and the Nordschleife, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend.

    Racing in front of your home fans at a track you know well – how much does that help you and how much does it raise the goals that you and Sauber might have for this weekend?

    NH: Maybe there is a bit of extra motivation but you have to be realistic with what we have. But I’ll try everything to make it a good weekend for us and I’ll just look forward and try to enjoy it as much as I can.

    Q: Sebastian happy birthday for this week. Probably the only thing you celebrate in July given that you’ve not won in front of your home fans in Formula One. You haven’t won in July either – which seems a strange one.

    SV: I think it was much more important what we have achieved the last four years and the last three years in particular. So, yeah, I think we’ve have good races in the past here but also in Hockenheim. So in Germany in general. Was always close but not good enough to win yet – but I hope I have a little bit of time left to try again. We definitely try this weekend.

    Q: As the defending World Champion you race with a lot of focus on you week after week. How much does that intensify when you come to a German Grand Prix in front of your home fans?

    SV: Well surely it’s special. As the other drivers… as Nico just touched on, I think we’ve done a lot of racing here before our time in Formula One so we know the circuit well. Obviously it’s great to come back and especially the last couple of years with more and more people supporting the team, supporting myself. It’s great to come back and really get a feeling of a true home grand prix. So, I’m looking forward to this weekend, looking forward to the support from the fans and yeah, hopefully see more and more Red Bull flags around the track.

    Q: Daniel, to you next, happy birthday to you this week as well. Don’t know what you got for a birthday present but I’m sure the one you’re really looking for is to be Sebastian’s team-mate for next year. That would surely be the best present of all – wouldn’t it?

    DR: Yeah, I guess so. Birthday present… that was Monday, that was my birthday, after the race. So, I was just coming down from the weekend really. Had a bit of birthday cake, not too much, of course.  Obviously talk about next year was pretty frequent last weekend. For me, just keep trying to do what I’m doing, keep pushing and… yeah… it’s nice to hear some positive things. Definitely. It would be a great position to be in but I’ve still got a bit of work ahead of me. Silverstone went well. I think that didn’t hinder anything. I’ve got to keep doing that.

    Q: Is that all you can do? Just keep doing what you’re doing? You’ve not set yourself new goals, new targets to attract the attention of those that might make the decision?

    DR: Well, I definitely try… I haven’t won a race yet so definitely I’ve still got some further goals and ambitions so I’ll keep striving for better things. But realistically to do the best I can. I think the qualifying on Saturday was good and the race, as I’ve said, it could have easily been better but we still got points and showed a consistent pace throughout the weekend, the whole three days, so that was important. Definitely some positive things from that and happy to keep it going now.

    Q: Sergio, we come to your ninth race as a McLaren driver. What positives do you take out of the first eight races?

    SP: It’s been a very difficult season for us, for McLaren. Big struggle. Since the start of the season I think we have made some progress. First of all in understanding the car, get the correlation right. But to be honest I don’t expect a major difference this weekend to where we were in Silverstone. I think we will be in a similar position, trying to fight to get into the points. And I hope we can score good points here because in Silverstone we should have scored points, so definitely here I aim for some points as well.

    Q: Do you think you’re driving better now, as a McLaren driver, than in the first couple of races for your new team?

    SP: Yes, of course. The understanding of the car is getting better, the knowledge with the team. Sometimes people don’t realise when you change teams, how difficult it is to adapt to the different style of the car, different ways of approaching setting up the car. It takes a couple of races – it took me a couple of races – but I think right now I’m really in good shape. Together with my team we have done good progress so I definitely thing from now on, for the rest of the season, we can keep taking the maximum out of the car.

    Q: Adrian. Consistency. That seems to be what you and Force India have found. The last three races you’ve scored points, your team-mate Paul di Resta has scored points and you seem to have found that sweet spot.

    AS: Yes, the car is very consistent. It was consistent the whole year. I think I was not so consistent at the beginning and had issues sometimes. But I hope I sorted it out and now, in the last three races, was quite good. The last one was quite smooth. Monaco was a great result and hopefully this kind of result can come. I think the car is always strong enough to be in the top six. It’s all about getting it all right, all together, not making mistakes, whether it’s me or someone else. We are a whole team and sometimes there are little things we can improve but at the moment I think we are on our way and most important to score now points as much as possible – we missed a few in the first few races – and just get better. We get better, we’re on our way. I think together with Lotus we are almost now the fourth quickest team and that’s a very good improvement and a great result for Force India at the moment.

    Q: Nico Rosberg, two wins in the last three races. I can’t think of anything you’d rather enjoy – maybe three wins in three races – but you must be loving the way this season is turning out at the moment.

    NR: Yeah, for sure. It’s a really nice time in my career at the moment. It’s new. I’ve never had a car as quick as it is now, going to every next race, knowing that I go out there in qualifying I can fight for a position right at the front. And then also in the race the car is getting better and better so the chances are higher so that even on Sunday I can keep my qualifying position. And it’s a really, really nice feeling. Very motivating also.

    Q: If that’s the case, do you see yourself and Mercedes as genuine title contenders this season?

    NR: No, it’s too early to say that. We’re really focussing on getting our momentum, keeping it going as we have at the moment and just concentrating one race to the next, trying to get the most out of them, just as we have done now in the last couple of races – which have gone fantastically for me. And then we see, in a few races time.

    Q: So anything could happen. You don’t think you’re the main threat to stopping Red Bull winning another world title?

    NR: I don’t really want to speak about a world title – yet.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) You are now 50 points behind Sebastian, Nico. How many percentage would you give yourself to catch him in the championship?

    NR: How many percent chance? Short term, I just want to annoy Sebastian and Red Bull a little bit race by race, by being ahead of them and that’s the most important thing, really, to be ahead of not only them but other teams and try and win more races. That’s what I’m focused on at the moment and that’s what the whole team is focused on.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel: the new Pirelli will change things; what kind of things will change for Red Bull and Mercedes this weekend?

    NR: Early days. We ran them in Montreal, didn’t have the opportunity to learn much there because of the weather, so really there are some question marks and we have to really try and run them as much as possible in relevant circumstances this weekend, to try and learn as much as possible. But it will be interesting and it’s likely to shuffle things around a little bit.

    Q: We’re going to get lots of running in FP1, is that the case?

    NR: Possibly, yeah.

    Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sports) For all of the drivers: Pirelli are bringing in new construction of tyres for the race weekend. From a safety aspect, how comfortable do you feel racing with these tyres?

    SP: Well, I think it’s definitely important to change something for safety, no longer for the performance. I think it’s very important that we as drivers feel safe, something that could really happen, a big accident in the last race weekend, so I think that definitely it’s a good thing that Pirelli is reacting to make a change.

    NH: Yeah, I agree with Sergio. I think it is for safety now and there must be some action and there is some action, there are changes and I think generally this track here is not as high speed, not as many high speed corners so the tyres don’t get as hard a time as they did at Silverstone. So I’m confident that this will be safe now.

    AS: Yeah, as long as it’s for safety, I think they have to improve it, yes, but it hasn’t been a hundred percent that it was a rear tyre issue, so one says it’s a tyre issue what caused the punctures at Silverstone, some people say it’s maybe kerbing or something like that, so it’s always hard to see where the problem is, but four punctures in a race is too much, so they have to get behind it. I feel safe on these tyres and had no problems with them. I had some two stop races, I did a two stop strategy in Silverstone so for me the concern is not so much.

    DR: Not much more to add. All I can say is that you’re driving as hard as you can and you don’t really put it… it’s definitely at the back of your mind. As we saw at the weekend, the tyres that went… it was pretty instant… I don’t think any of the drivers felt much before it happened, so all we can do is drive hard and hang on, but I’m definitely… yeah, I’m sure the changes that they’ve made are going to be for the best. But it’s definitely at the back of our mind whilst we’re in the car.

    SV: I think first of all that it’s good that within not even a week’s time, how we were able to get a different tyre for this race which hopefully is safer for all of us. Obviously the last race was not what we want and not satisfactory so I think it’s good that we have a new tyre here. How much better and how different it will be is difficult to judge at this stage but I’m confident that it’s a step forward.

    NR: Well, I trust the FIA is going to make the right calls, as they are, they’re working on it flat out together with Pirelli, so I’m sure there’s going to be progress and it shouldn’t be a concern this weekend.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Nico, how much is your advantage, do you think, because I learned that you tested these tyres at Barcelona?

    NR: To me? Oh yeah. Obviously! Yeah, so there’s no advantage and we don’t know if we ran this tyre in Barcelona. You have to ask Pirelli.

    Q: (Rene Hoffmann – Suddeutsche Zeitung) To Nico Hulkenberg, how do you rate the overall condition of your team? We hear stories that you haven’t been paid your wage or the full wage. How do you rate the situation of the team right now?

    NH: How do I rate the situation of the team? I think it’s a difficult situation, like Monisha (Kaltenborn, team principal) told the press yesterday but I think she and the team and the management are working on a solution and trying to work a way out of it, to get better things. She’s assured me that she’s busy working on that and there’s not much more I can say, other than that.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian and Nico: do you believe that the change in the tyres will let a new championship start from now and above all, in Hungary when more changes are expected?

    NR: For sure it’s very likely that it’s going to have an impact, on performances, differences, qualifying/race, so it will be interesting. It’s possible that it’s going to mix things up a little bit but it’s also an opportunity, yeah, for us as a team to try and understand it better and earlier than other people and try and make the most of it.

    SV: I think it’s difficult to foresee what’s going to happen, as Nico said, but I think Pirelli has absolutely no interest in trying to shuffle things around. They obviously try to supply every team with a tyre, whether you like it or not, it’s completely up to you but I think as we learned last weekend, it has to be safe.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Sebastian, would you like to have Daniel Ricciardo as your teammate next season?

    SV: Well, I don’t mind. As I said at Silverstone, after Mark announced his retirement, obviously I think it’s early days to talk about that and even if it’s not my decision, he sits here, right now so if I could I would give him the seat but equally if Kimi was there, I would give him the seat. It’s not my intention to do any good or any bad to people. I think it’s something decided by the team and so far we haven’t really spoken about it. At the moment, we have other concerns. As you saw last race we retired, that was the number one concern, so to fix that problem for this race to make sure that we don’t retire for the same reason again and maybe a little bit later we talk about drivers as well, but again it’s not my decision. As far as I know, I think Daniel is doing a very good job and all the rest is not in my hands. Sorry mate…

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Sebastian, it’s already been mentioned that you haven’t won your home Grand Prix here. Do you feel extra pressure coming here, knowing that, or is the overall picture more important to you, in terms of the championship?

    SV: Well, in terms of the championship points you can score here, it’s just the same as every other place so obviously it’s something special to race in front of your home crowd and I feel quite happy to have the possibility to be honest. There’s other nations in Formula One and other guys that don’t have the possibility to race in their home country. For example, there’s no race in Mexico and Sergio would probably love to race there but it’s not possible. I think it’s a privilege, it’s not really extra pressure. I think it’s nice to see the support we get and their fascination for Formula One. Motor sport has a big standing in Germany, I think, so it’s good to come here, good to come to the Nurburgring. I like the track and we will see what we get.

    Ends

    File photo of Adrian Sutil with an Engineer. Photo by Sahara Force India F1 team
    File photo of Adrian Sutil with an Engineer. Photo by Sahara Force India F1 team

  • Nico Rosberg takes second win of the season

    Rosberg with Silverstone trophy. FIA picSilverstone, 30 June 2013: Nico Rosberg took his second win of the season at a British Grand Prix defined by a catalogue of tyre failures, a late-race gearbox problem that dumped championship leader Sebastian Vettel off the race while leading comfortably.

    Sahara Force India was in sight of a podium with Sutil in third place with a few laps to go but the rivals with fresh tyres made good pushing the Force India to 7th place. Paul di Resta who made it to 9th from the last row made it a double finish for Force India who are in the fifth place in the championship placings for Constructors’ title.

    At the start Rosberg, who had qualified on the front row behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, lost position to Vettel and dropped to third place.

    The order at the front remained that way until lap seven when leader Hamilton’s rear left tyre suddenly exploded, leaving the home favourite limping back to the pits. It looked like an unfortunate accident but three laps later Ferrari’s Felipe Massa suffered an identical problem at Turn 5. He too crawled back to pit lane for repairs.

    The race then settled down as the drivers worked their way through their first stops. On lap 24, however, the drama began again as another rear left failure struck, with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Verge the victim, this time on the straight after Stowe. The Safety Car was deployed to clear debris and engineers up and down the pit lane radioed through to their drivers warning them to stay off the kerbs in turns four and five.

    The Safety Car period was a huge boost for Mark Webber. The Red Bull Racing driver made a poor start from fourth on the grid and then collided with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in Turn One. The incidents dropped the Aussie back to 14th.

    From there he began to stage a typically pugnacious fight back and by the time of Vergne’s puncture he was ninth. And when the intervention of the Safety Car erased the gaps to rivals ahead, Webber could begin to contemplate an assault on the higher positions.

    The Safety Car left the track at the end of lap 21 and at the front Vettel resumed his lead of the race, with Rosberg chasing. Vettel stretched the gap to three seconds but Rosberg managed to halt the damage there and soon the margin began to stabilise.

    Then, after Vettel’s second pit stop, the gap suddenly disappeared. Vettel’s RB9 cruised to a halt on the pit straight on lap 42, with the title leader telling his pit wall there was “no drive”. Rosberg swept through to take the lead.

    Webber, meanwhile, was surging through the field. Having battled past Grosjean and then stolen P6 from compatriot Daniel Ricciardo, he skipped ahead in the second stops and by the time of Vettel’s retirement the Australian was up to fourth behind Kimi Raikkonen.

    With Vettel’s car stopped on the pit straight the Safety Car was again deployed and the Red Bull pit wall reacted by pitting Webber for new medium tyres. Rosberg stopped for fresh hard tyres.

    Rosberg maintained his lead but Webber dropped to fifth. However, when the safety car left the track, Webber, armed with new tyres, made a charge. Ricciardo, Sutil and Raikkonen, all on worn tyres, were dismissed in short order and he set about reeling in Rosberg.

    Webber got to within a second of the German on the final lap but Rosberg was able to keep the Red Bull driver at bay to take his second win of the season.

    “It’s a very, very special day and I think what makes it more special is that our factory is so close, and our team has done such a fantastic job to come through during the season,” said Rosberg on the podium. “We have such momentum going at the moment, [we’re] progressing all the time. We were massively quick in qualifying [and we’re] also getting faster and faster in the race. I think today we had equally the fastest race car as well. So, it’s a very special day for me.”

    Webber meanwhile, admitted that his start had been a disaster, though he could fathom non reason for his poor getaway.

    “I didn’t have a clue what happened off the line,” he said. “We’ve had two or three good starts in the last few races and then the lights went out and we’re back to our normal tactics. We need to have a look at why they pop up every now and again. That was frustrating.

    “Then I had, I think it was Grosjean take the front wing in the first corner, so the first stint was compromised by that,” he added. “The boys did a great job to put a fresh front wing on at the stop and then we started to get the race underway from there. Obviously there were a lot of people with issues with the tyres, which helped a bit, but we were lucky not to have any issues. It was a clean race, good strategy. I think that, yeah I would have liked a few more laps at Nico but he deserved the win. He was quick all day.”

    Fernando Alonso’s race was a similar tale of recovery to Webber’s. The Spaniard’s Ferrari driver had been off the pace all weekend and on Saturday he qualified a desultory 10th.

    With Ferrari’s race pace better than it’s qualifying form, there was hope of progress through the pack in the race but at the start the team would have hardly dared dream of the third place Alonso eventually secured.

    “It was a good race for us,” said Alonso. “With the last safety car we lost six positions because of the safety car. But overall I think it has been a very lucky race for us. Looking at the problems with the tyres of some of the drivers, we fact we didn’t any problem we have to consider lucky. And then with Sebastian’s problem, as Nico touched on before, we’ve been also lucky to recover some points.”

    Behind Alonso, Hamilton also staged a superb recovery to take fourth place for Mercedes, while Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for Lotus. Felipe Massa also profited from good race pace and a late run on new tyres to climb to sixth after finding himself 22nd after his puncture. Adrian Sutil was seventh for Force India, while Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth. The final points positions were occupied by Force India’s Paul Di Resta and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

    As for the championship leader himself, Vettel was philosophical about his failure. “We had a gearbox issue, lost fifth, and when I shifted up to sixth, fifth said goodbye and damaged the rest of the gearbox,” Vettel said. “These things unfortunately happen but fortunately we’ve got the next race coming up next week so we can try again.”

    British Grand Prix Race Result
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 52
    2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 52 +0.7 secs
    3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 52 +7.1 secs
    4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 52 +7.7 secs
    5 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 52 +11.2 secs
    6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 52 +14.5 secs
    7 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 52 +16.3 secs
    8 Daniel Ricciardo  STR-Ferrari 52 +16.5 secs
    9 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 52 +17.9 secs
    10 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 52 +19.7 secs
    11 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 52 +21.1 secs
    12 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 52 +25.0 secs
    13 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 52 +25.9 secs
    14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 52 +26.2 secs
    15 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 52 +31.6 secs
    16 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 52 +36.0 secs
    17 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 52 +67.6 secs
    18 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 52 +67.7 secs
    19 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 51 +1 Lap
    20 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 46 +6 Laps
    Ret Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 41 +11 Laps
    Ret Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 35 +17 Laps

     

  • Its a very special day: Rosberg

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
    2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
    3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    PODIUM INTERVIEW  (Conducted by Damon Hill)

    Q: Nico, you’ve kept your cool when all around you were losing theirs. There were tyres going off, there were cars breaking down. Tell me, how do you feel to have won the British Grand Prix?

    Nico ROSBERG: Fantastic! It’s a very, very special day and I think what makes it more special is that our factory is so close, and our team has done such a fantastic job to come through during the season. We have such momentum going at the moment, progressing all the time. Really, really massively quick in qualifying, also getting faster and faster in the race. I think today we had equally the fastest race car as well. So, it’s a very special day for me. And this goes out… this is for all of my team colleagues working in the factory. I hope many of them have been in the grandstands watching. This one is for all of you out there. Thank you very much.

    Q: It was a dramatic race. You had two guys in the front who you had to beat. We lost Lewis Hamilton early in the race, that was a big disappointment to the British fans and then you were charging, you were chasing after Sebastian and then the leader of the World Championship, his car failed right here. What did you feel when that happened?

    NR: With Lewis, definitely I feel sorry for all the British fans. It would have been a great race for Lewis here in front of his home crowd – that’s always a massive disappointment, but that’s racing sometimes. When Sebastian stopped, to be honest, I won’t lie, I wasn’t disappointed by that one. And then from then it was a great race to win.

    Q: Mark, what a storming drive. You must have thought it was all over, the start didn’t go so well, tell us about it.

    Mark WEBBER: I didn’t have a clue what happened off the line. We’ve had two or three good starts in the last few races and then the lights went out and we’re back to our normal tactics. So, I’m not sure. We need to have a look at why they pop up every now and again. That was frustrating. Then I had, I think it was Grosjean, take the front wing in the first corner, so the first stint was compromised by that. The boys did a great job to put a fresh front wing on at the stop and then we started to get the race underway from there. Obviously there was a lot of people with issues with the tyres which helped a bit but we were lucky not to have any issues. It was a clean race, good strategy. I think that, yeah I would have liked a few more laps at Nico but he deserved the win. He was quick all day, obviously. Little bit of fortune but anyway you’ve got to be there to capitalise. I’m very happy with second, team have done a good job and thanks – last time here in Formula One in front of the British fans – thank you very much.

    Fernando, you again drove a storming race. You really got caught out by the second safety car – you were down and had to charge back up through the field. Fantastic drive back into the podium.

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it was a good race for us. With the last safety car we lost six positions because of the safety car. But overall I think it has been a very lucky race for us. Looking at the problems with the tyres of some of the drivers, we fact we didn’t any problem we have to consider lucky. And then with Sebastian’s problem, as Nico touched on before, we’ve been also lucky to recover some points. At the end it was a very good Sunday and hopefully we put on a good show for the great, great fans. They’ve been here from Thursday to today, supporting all the teams, respecting all the teams. Thank you very much.

    Q: The championship, is it blown open now? Here you have a points gain on Sebastian.

    FA: Mixed feelings to be honest. Happy for the points, we’ve reduced the gap a little bit in this race but the pace we saw this weekend is not good enough. There were some other Sundays that we lost some points and maybe I was more optimistic. Today we recovered some points but we know there is a lot of work to do. But I trust the team, we are united, we have a difficult weekend, we put the cross and now we think of the next one.

    Q: What did you think before Sergio Pérez when his tyre blew? What was going through your mind there?

    FA: I’ve had two moments, that one with Sergio I was so scared and so lucky because I missed the contact by one centimetre. And also at the start into turn one. I locked the tyres and nearly lost the front wheel. As I said, some risky moments. All of them were fine for me today, so I just need to enjoy the result but from tomorrow working in Germany race because we need to raise our game.

    Q: Nico, now you’re heading to Germany. Second grand prix victory this season and you have a German manufacturer in Mercedes. It’s going to be a fantastic event in Germany isn’t it, next week?

    NR: Yeah, for sure. Going from the team’s home grand prix here to my second home grand prix – I already had one – fortunately for me I have two home grands prix, I managed to win that in Monaco. Second one coming up at Nürburgring. And it’s very special. I’m very proud to be German, driving a Silver Arrow, going to the Nürburgring, the history there, and having that great car that I have at the moment, really looking forward to that.

    Q: The tide’s going to change a little bit, isn’t it? You seem to have a car that’s competitive during the race. The tyre degradation wasn’t nearly as bad. Is there any chance, do you think, that this championship could be turning a tide here against Red Bull?

    NR: Well, I wouldn’t talk about that just yet but definitely the team has done such a good job during the season. Already in the winter, to come up with such a quick car, which we’ve had all year in qualifying, and now also progressing with tyre management and getting that better and better to allow us to win races now, that’s fantastic to see and really gives me… yeah, just very exciting.

    Q: Where you happy to continue racing when you were told about the tyre issue?

    NR: It’s definitely something that needs to be looked into, yeah? Because too much of that today, that’s for sure. I had one too – but got a bit lucky there with the safety car so that worked out great.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Nico, congratulations, great win for Mercedes, based just a few kilometres down the road from this Silverstone circuit. What does this win mean to you, and to them?

    NR: Yeah, fantastic day definitely, and it’s very special because it’s the home grand prix of the team and the factory is ten minutes away. A lot of people, a lot of my fellow team members and colleagues are in the grandstands, watching today and it’s very, very nice that I was able to give them such a great race and such a great result. They really deserve it – you really deserve it because you’ve worked so well all season. It’s great to see the momentum we have in the team at the moment.

    Q: There was obviously some brilliant driving, some brilliant overtaking but no doubt the big story coming out of this obviously is the situation with the tyres. Your thoughts on what we’ve seen today.

    NR: Definitely that’s a problem. Too many tyre failures and they must look into that and see what can be done.

    Q: Mark, you almost got him at the end. 0.7 seconds as you crossed the finish line of a race you’ve won twice – you obviously enjoy it very much here. Great recovery though, after a poor start. Just listening to the tone of your radio messages, is it tempting to say that you feel a win got away from you today?

    MW: Oh yes, it’s easy to say that. With ten laps to go when you can see the win in sight. It is mixed feelings when you finish seven-tenths behind Nico for the win. But he’s also out there doing his things, so he deserved the win. We did recover. I think we had a bit of luck after that but we’ve got to be there to capitalise on it. We had a good strategy, obviously I pushed very hard on the laps I had to do the business. The start… I don’t know. I have no idea how we can get so good some weekends and then not at others. That was a big negative for us. And then Grosjean – someone, I think it was him – touched my front wing at turn one. I had to get that changes at the first stop. And then the race really reset from there. The safety cars obviously helped – although I didn’t want them because of the reasons why they were happening. Obviously it’s very nervous for all the drivers to see that happening. In the end, very, very good result for myself, for the team, still go something out of it, what was… looked like a pretty random weekend for everyone on race day. I want to thank all the English and British fans for the support that I’ve had over the years racing here – it’s been a real highlight for me to race at this circuit. So, very much looking forward to the next race and hoping to challenge again. I was happy with my performance today.

    Q: You mentioned it’s a nervous time for the drivers. Four left-rear tyre failures, one front-left tyre failure. Your thoughts on that – and what it feels like to know you’ve got to carry on and press in that situation.

    RB: Well the team are trying to keep us up to date as best they can. Obviously it’s a little bit of a moving target for them as well. They are doing their job to inform us as much as they can. It’s not a slow circuit, it’s very quick, we’re committed to the high-speed stuff here, 100 per cent most of the time. It’s not December yet, so I’ll stay quiet.

    Q: Fernando, a very quick call when Vettel retired there, to come in and make a stop. Dropped you down to eighth. I was wondering whether the team had made a mistake there but you managed to fight your way through some amazing overtakes. Did you think you might have blown it at that point? And your thoughts on the race.

    FA: No, obviously it was an unlucky situation. They called me in around Turn Five. So, Vettel was not having the problem yet at that point they call me. We were in this lap and we try to pass Webber and Kimi, they were slowing down a little bit in front of us, so we committed to stop before Sebastian’s problem. And then yes, I go out of the pits and I see ‘Safety Car Deployed.’ Obviously it was the worst time possible to have a safety car, when you have just pitted, and we lost an extra five positions. I don’t know how many overtakings I did all the whole race. The start was probably the worst start of years. Probably. I was fighting with Hülkenberg in Turn Three, Turn Four, and I remember he was not in the first positions on the grid so I realised I was quite far down there. After the start we recovered some positions, some safety car moments as we touch on, and then the last big push at the end as we try to get a podium. We did it, it’s a fantastic result for our very difficult weekend.  Sometimes we have very good pace, we have a car that is able to fight for the wins and we are out of the podium. This weekend everything went a little bit on the wrong side for us, we get the podium and Sebastian doesn’t finish the race. It’s one of these weekends where the result is very good but the feeling is that we must improve for next weekend.

    Q: Obviously on the day when your main title rival retires, you want to try to take 25 points and not 15 but the qualifying situation really wouldn’t allow you to do that today. What do you go away from this weekend and back to Maranello telling the team?

    FA: Well it was not the qualifying, it was the weekend in general. We were normally very fast on Fridays, on the long run pace. It was not the case here. We were not fast on qualifying and not fast on the race – so definitely was the overall weekend we didn’t manage to make the tyres work. We’ve been very lucky – unlucky with the safety car moment that came out but very lucky with the first corner, that it was very close with Mark and Grosjean I think. In the first stop, lap nine, I had a tyre problem also. My tyre was finished and disintegrate in the last corner. For me it was the right rear that I think was new compared to all the other failures and if this happened like Felipe – that I think was in Turn Five when it happened – then I lose the race. For me it happened in the last corner and I pit. At the end it was a very lucky race and I just need to be very thankful for the team, for the luck and try to improve for next weekend.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Graham Keilloh –  F1 Plus) Early in the race, after the first three rear tyre failures, there was some radio contact on the television advising drivers to stay off the kerbs, but it seems subsequently that wasn’t really heeded; just talk us through the thought process of that, why you subsequently decided to take the risk?

    NR: Are you saying we were still taking the risks of going on the kerbs? Well, for myself I wasn’t, I was staying off the kerbs and I got a tyre problem myself, but it worked out well, I was able to pit before it broke apart because the safety car came out. I was a bit lucky there. And then after that, when Mark was chasing me, it was a compromise between how fast is he coming at me and how much am I going to take out of the tyres, so I was staying off the kerbs, taking it easy in the high speed where the most damage is done. Then I had to pick up the pace a little bit towards the end as he was getting quite close so that was really difficult to judge.

    Q: Mark, they broadcast at least four or five messages from Rocky (Guillaume Rocquelin) to Sebastian telling him to stay off the kerbs; were you getting a similar amount of that kind of message?

    MW: Yeah, Simon was keeping me up to date with the… That’s all they could give us was staying off the kerbs because they were saying that they probably didn’t really know why the tyres were failing at the rate they were. So yeah, I did what I could in all the right hand corners to have… turn one, exit of seven, also Copse and Becketts and Stowe, all the fast corners, trying to stay away from there. It’s not always easy but in general I tried to adhere to the advice, because yes, you want to gain a little bit here and there, but as Nico touched on, it’s not much fun driving a Formula One car on three tyres so you have to make sure that you do what you can to listen to the team; they’re on the pit wall with the most information so you have to do what they say.

    FA: Same, always the same. They kept telling me to avoid the kerbs but obviously if you’re in position twelve you need to attack, you need to change the racing line, you need to use the DRS. This is a circuit where we’ve been racing for 12 years in my case and I’ve never had these problems. I think the kerbs were perfectly OK.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Mark, you’re not the kind of guy who normally blames his equipment, less so perhaps than other people, but this story of your starts goes back a long way. No doubt you’ve analysed it over and over again. Looking back today, was it possibly a human failure on your side or was it an equipment shortcoming of some kind?

    MW: I need to look. We know it’s not the strength of our situation up until Monaco. I think Monaco and Canada, same procedure and we’re running into the back of these guys. Same in Canada, I went round Bottas and we were very very strong off the line. Today, reverse was in gear. I was obviously ready for the start, everything was set, but I didn’t go anywhere, obviously. I think it was quite slippery off the line but we had a lot of issues getting away. It is frustrating, mate, but I need to go through it and we’re working on things to make it more consistent in the future, but it’s just such an important part of the weekend and it’s a no-brainer that you have to get it right, all the effort that goes in. There’s no question about it, it’s cost a lot of good points over the time but yeah, it shouldn’t be that difficult but it turns out that we’ve got to improve on that area and I’m happy to be part of that.

    Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, in the last races, every Sunday you seem to have to overtake five, six positions from the start to the end; I wonder if you would explain what you feel, both physically and psychologically?

    FA: I’ve been doing this for the last five years, unfortunately. It would be nice to start on the front row of the grid but we are not good enough on Saturdays and it’s something we try to work on as a team: the package, car performance, tyre preparations, driver maximising the lap. Whatever we are missing on Saturdays, we haven’t been on pole position for a long time but we fight, we gain some good experiences in my career, especially in 2008 and 2009 were maybe not so bad seasons in the end, with no good results but very good experience and you try to play safe, obviously when you are fighting very hard with some rookie drivers etc it requires a little bit of extra care but we managed today to do some good moves and some good points, but as I said, it’s something that we don’t like to do and we would like to improve Saturday’s situation.

    Q: (Christobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) To all of you: I know Nurburgring is not like Silverstone in terms of fast corners and all of that, but if somebody tells you that the same thing is going to happen, that the tyres could explode there, would you race or would you tell the people that’s enough?

    NR: Well, we shouldn’t get into that situation. We need to do what needs to be done to sort it out and make the tyres last.

    MW: I think we’ve been trying to have input for the last three years and it’s deaf ears. Anyway, we’re part of the package, part of the show. The show goes on by the looks of it.

    FA: Yes. Same. Theoretically the cars are the same all year. They were OK on most circuits so it should be OK, but for sure it’s something that what we saw today is not good but we drive the cars so we understand nothing about what is the real problem or what it is the real solution so it’s a question for them, for sure.

    Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sports) Nico, before Sebastian’s stoppage, the gap between Sebastian and you had remained quite constant. Do you think you would have been able to catch him if he hadn’t have had the retirement?

    NR: I was trying, I was pushing hard trying to stay with him but it wouldn’t have been possible.  No, I would have been close all race but to catch him and pass, I didn’t have enough speed unfortunately. But I think pace-wise, possibly I was a little bit quicker, yeah, because very often I was able to come back to him once I started pushing again before the pit stops and when you’re in the dirty air from the guy in front, your tyres wear a little bit more and you lose out. I think I had good pace in the race today.

    Q: (Stewart Bell – Herald Sun) Mark, you were on fire from that last safety car period to the end; what was that like for you, that last stint, especially given it was your last British Grand Prix?

    MW: Yeah, it felt pretty good mate, I knew that I was going to make pretty light work of the guys ahead of me because they were on old tyres. I wanted information on Nico, I wanted to know what compound he was on and how his pace was before the safety car because I hadn’t seen him before in the race at any stage. They said that he was pretty quick so I was pretty keen to get past those guys early and then go from there, but both of us managed to get to the end of course on the limit but also managing the scenario with the tyres. So yeah, it was a nice finish to race. It would have been about a hundred cherries on top if I’d managed to get past him but I didn’t. He deserved the win and we made him work for it which was good and rewarding, but we could have got much more out of the car in the race today to be honest.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) I think all of you were asked by your race engineers after the tyre failures to stay off the kerbs; how much did it affect your racing, in particular Mark and Fernando who had been in fights or battles with other drivers?

    MW: Well, it’s a compromise. You want to still push as hard as possible but you have to check your line a bit, change your trajectory, the radius is tighter, obviously, in certain corners, i.e. the quick stuff, Copse, Stowe, turn one, staying away from there. It turns out maybe it wasn’t really the kerbs, who knows but it’s just better to factor in everything that you possibly can. Some laps, when you’re in disturbed air and you get behind a car and you get a little bit wide then that’s life, you’ve got to… you can’t be super accurate when you’re tucked up behind the guy in the quick stuff so that’s just the decisions you have to make and yeah, we managed that as best we could.

    FA: I didn’t change, I didn’t change lines. I didn’t change lines. I was fighting with twelve cars all the race through so you go in the dirty air, let’s say, and you lose downforce and you go straight out over the exit kerb. As I said, it’s hard to believe that the kerbs were the problem because we’ve been racing here for 12 years with those kerbs.

    Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Nico, do you think that without the Montmelo test Mercedes could be winning races like now?

    NR: For sure, yeah. Definitely.

    Ends

  • Hamilton thrilled to see huge crowd; Paul penalised

    Silverstone, 29 June 2013: In a late-day decision after scrutiny, Sahara Force India driver Paul Di Resta who qualified in P5 was forced to start at the back of the grid after stewards penalised the team for the Force India car failed to maintain the weight of its car to the required standard and fell short by 1.5 kg. Sutil will start on P6.

    Saturday FIA Press Conference:

    Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas flanked by teammate Nico Rosberg (to his left) and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull after taking the Silverstone pole on Saturday. An FIA photo
    Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas flanked by teammate Nico Rosberg (to his left) and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull after taking the Silverstone pole on Saturday. An FIA photo

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Q: Lewis, a great lap there at the end to take pole position at your home grand prix. How does that feel?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s incredible! It feels just like it did in 2007.  Just to see the crowd here today is fantastic – such a great turnout from everyone. So that was a lap for them. I hope that tomorrow we can do something special for them but this is really down to the team. They’ve been doing a phenomenal job, improving the car constantly. I haven’t been feeling 100 per cent comfortable all weekend – so I was really happy to finally get a lap.

    Q: Nico, your thoughts on qualifying. That’s the fifth time in six races that Mercedes has been on pole position – and disputing it between you two as well. So, your thoughts on today.

    Nico ROSBERG: It’s definitely a really, really great feeling, to go into qualifying and having such a car. To definitely have the fastest car… it’s really, really cool. It’s a great job that the team has done to get us to where we are now. And we’re also improving on Sundays – hopefully. I’m confident we have improved so tomorrow should be a bit better. I’m sure that still there are going to be other teams that are a little bit stronger than us but maybe starting on front for sure is going to help and maybe it’s going to still be possible to get a great result.

    Q: Sebastian, there seemed to be some different tactics at play with regard to tomorrow’s race in terms of your saving one tyre of tyre, Mercedes saving another type of tyre. You see this as a very tactical type of weekend clearly.

    Sebastian VETTEL: We’ll obvious see what happens tomorrow. It’s a long race but honestly very happy today. I don’t know, either Lewis found a short cut or he has something special around here. A phenomenal lap. I think it wasn’t in reach today. I was very happy with the lap I had at the end. And I think it was very close with Mark as well. I think we did what we could for the team and, yeah, it’s always nice to position well in qualifying. Especially around here qualifying is good fun, enjoying the high-speed corners and looking forward to tomorrow, for the race. We’ll see how well we are with tyres, looking after them. But as I said, for now very happy for the team. Hard to put the car in third place, Mark right behind, so I think it’s a good position to start from. Obviously our factory is very close to this track. Milton Keynes is not far away and yeah, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

    Q: Lewis, we’ve seen obviously this year quite a few times that qualifying is one thing but the race is another. What about tomorrow? How do you feel Mercedes will fare against the Red Bulls in the British Grand Prix?

    LH: I think undoubtedly it’s going to be tough for us to keep Sebastian behind but our long run pace wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen in the past, so I’m hoping with the temperatures and a bit of care, we can nurture the tyres to get a good result. I’m going to be pushing, giving it my all tomorrow, as I’m sure Nico will as well, to finish up ahead.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, difficult day for you yesterday, as you were saying in your comments after the free practice. You weren’t happy with the balance of the car. It’s quite a turn around from you and the team. Can you talk a little bit about that – and also the crowd power aspect of things: did you feel that today?

    LH: The car is… obviously as Nico was saying, we’ve got a great car and to fine-tune it seems to be a little bit harder than what I’ve been experiencing in the past. So really trying to get the car underneath me and feeling comfortable and having an equal balance. With a Formula One car you’re always trying to balance it on a knife-edge. Just for some reason with this car I’m struggling to do that. In the past I would aim do that all the time. But got closer. We made the right steps, made a change going into qualifying which helped – still not perfect but it helped. And then the crowd to make a huge difference. After seeing them turn up in their thousands and seeing all the flags waving. Of course this weekend I come here with an extra boost of energy and just want to pay them back. Every year I come… this is the first time since 2008 that I’ve had a car that I’ve really been able to compete with so I’m really, really proud of what the team have done and I hope the fans can have a good evening and bring us some good luck tomorrow.

    Q: Nico, we mentioned earlier on that the last six races have really been all about this, particularly in qualifying, between the two of you. You’ve had the upper hand a few times, Lewis has had the upper hand a few times. Can you talk a little bit about how you’re enjoying this in-house battle with someone you’ve known and raced against for such a long time?

    NR: Yeah, it’s a big battle we have, and usually it’s very close – not today – Lewis did a great lap in the end. It’s also a really, really big push, also for the whole team, that we’re pushing each other all the time, and that’s really good. We’re really lucky because we have a great atmosphere at the moment in the team, everybody’s going in the same direction and sticking together, so it’s fantastic momentum that we have at the moment.

    Q: Sebastian, do you feel that you’ve got the most complete package for this weekend? Obviously you’ve given a bit away in qualifying but you’re here, some of your rivals for the championship are behind you tomorrow, how’s your approach?

    SV: Well, certainly we’re not giving away anything consciously or on purpose. They are bloody quick in qualifying, I think that’s what it is. I think we are not too bad but obviously they seem to be in a different world on Saturday afternoons. I think something, yeah, they manage pretty well around the tyres which allows them to get a very, very strong lap in. Plus Nico and Lewis are doing a great job. Doesn’t help if you want to qualify on pole. But points are scored on Sunday and the last couple of races have been pretty good for us.  I think, to sum it up in both – in qualifying and in race – so for sure today I think P3 was our maximum but for tomorrow y’know, who knows? They are also getting better. It helps the more time we spend on the tyres – let’s leave it there – and yeah, I think we all try to understand more and more and as the season goes on we do get better and there’s less and less room for improvement. For the moment it seems that we have a strong car in the race, maybe a little bit better than the Mercedes. Whether it will be like that tomorrow? Well, we’ll find out. But that’s the fun part. I’m looking forward to finding out.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Lewis, obviously none of us experience putting together a pole lap like the one we just watched and it really was a phenomenal performance. Could you explain what it’s like actually sitting in the cockpit; do you sit there completing your sectors going ‘ wow, I’m really on it’ or is it only afterwards that you realise how well you’ve done?

    LH: No. You have a delta time on your dashboard so you can tell as soon as you cross the line into turn one and when you start the lap whether you’re up or not and so you kind of keep checking it, halfway through, after each corner, after each sector so already by turn nine I could see that I was two and a half tenths up and you just don’t want to lose that, so you have to take extra care after that, but also you want to improve. But yeah, you also feel that it’s a feeling having the tyres up to temperature, the brakes up to temperature and the car just beneath you and not trying to get away from you. Sometimes it is like a wild bull, you’re trying to tame it which is very very difficult to do. But when you do, and you pull out a lap like that, it really felt like 2007. I couldn’t hear anyone still, because the car’s too loud, hopefully I got a good roar today.

    Q: It looked like the track improved a lot, two or three tenths improvement from session to session this afternoon.

    LH: Yeah, each time we go out we seemed to… which is kind of normal but it’s quite a good surface here at Silverstone so the grip does continue to go down (on the circuit) and hopefully that will be good for us tomorrow.

    Q: (Julian Harris – City AM) My question is for Lewis as well: are you still learning this car, are you still finding out more each week and do you think you’re getting better in each race, or do you think you’ve pretty much got it sussed now?

    LH: I definitely haven’t got it sussed. This weekend’s been a tough weekend. Every weekend is tough, even if you are used to a car it’s tough but I really have been struggling with the car, trying to tune it, trying to get it to behave the way I want it to, and then drive it and extract what I want from it. Out of all the cars I’ve driven, it’s one of the hardest cars to drive. So when you pull it together, it’s a great car and obviously very quick. Each weekend I’m working as hard as I can, each weekend it does feel like it’s improving a little bit. We made another improvement on the brakes this weekend which is another step in the right direction so I hope we can continue going forwards.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor, Hungary) Lewis, obviously Paddy Lowe is now at Mercedes and he is here, working with you. Is it a boost for you personally to have him in the team since you have known him for a long time, and did you influence the decision that he would join the team in any way?

    LH: I don’t believe I had any influence on him coming here. I think that was a decision of his and Ross and Toto. Is it a boost? It’s a boost to the team. We already have some incredibly talented people in the team, doing fantastic things and coming up with great designs but the stronger the package, the better it is for everyone. He’s a good addition to the team and hopefully he will only help us moving forwards.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, you started Q2 with hard tyres. It looks like you are very comfortable with tyre wear… No?

    SV: You said I started Q2 on the hard tyres?

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Yes.

    SV: No. I did only one run in Q2 with the soft tyres, well, medium.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Well, it looks like you are very comfortable with tyre wear for the race. Is that correct?

    SV: Well, it depends. I think comfortable or not depends on where the others are. I think we were happy with the runs that we had yesterday. I had another one this morning, so I think we are pretty happy with that but it’s difficult to judge, because you don’t know what fuel loads other people are running, the usual stuff, so we will find out tomorrow plus in the race it’s always a little bit different. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter which is nice for the crowd after the last couple of years, I think it was always quite miserable on Friday, so now we’ve had a good Saturday and tomorrow, as I said, again a little bit warmer so it could change the balance of the car and how the tyres work. I think we’ve saved as many tyres as we could and the ones that we liked so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, Alonso is only tenth today. It’s good news, thinking about the championship?

    SV: Well, I didn’t really think about that. I think it’s not good news for him. For sure he wanted to be a little bit higher up as well as Ferrari. It’s a bit of a surprise. I think they’ve been very competitive here the last couple of years but this is also a circuit – let’s not forget – where the balance is very important so even if you have a good car, if it’s not coming together it can make a big difference, especially over one lap. And the other thing, that’s why I’m not too interested to look at the results today. In the race we’ve seen that a lot of things can happen and people starting from further back can still score a lot of points and come through the field, so I think in terms of race pace and tyre wear they will be strong tomorrow and surely, should everything go as per plan for them, they will finish higher up than tenth. Everything else, I think, would be a surprise.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Lewis, before you got in the car before qualifying, we saw you wave to the crowd. Did you feel, having lost pole to Nico over the last few races, that you needed to psyche yourself up and find something extra today?

    LH: Not really. It’s not about psyching myself up because I’m always mad for it, I’m always on the limit, I’m always on the edge. I always have the determination and the will but it’s just trying to get my car to where I want it to be so when I went out there, I was hoping that my car was where I wanted it to be and it’s also… The fans sit there for a long long time during the day and don’t really get to see our faces so it’s the one opportunity that I do get to see them and try to extract what I can from them, because the support means a lot.

    Q: (Derek Bish – Anglia Newspapers) Lewis, you’ve obviously been here in junior formulas as well; what sets apart the Lewis Hamilton that puts together a lap like that today from the one who was here in GP2 and before that?

    LH: Yeah, my age, getting older, older and wiser, I think. I’m still very much like the GP2 driver I was. I just have more knowledge now. Of course, we all change over time but yeah, I think I’m a little bit more sensible and a little bit better at making decisions than I was back then. And hopefully that approach helps me win in the car.

    Q: (Phil Agius – Racing Post) Sebastian, Toro Rosso have been going well  this weekend and I think Daniel Ricciardo is sixth on the grid. Would you be comfortable with another Australian teammate next season?

    SV: I think first you should see the individual rather than the country where he comes from but surely I haven’t got a problem with Australia. I like going there, it’s a nice track, we go every year too, so I’m looking forward to going back next year. Congratulations to Daniel. It seems that both of them, the whole weekend… I don’t know what happened to Jean-Eric in qualifying but both of them had a car that was good enough to show their potential so happy for them and hopefully they can keep it up throughout the race and score some good points for the team. In a way, obviously, we’re all fighting for ourselves; secondly we are fighting for our team but obviously we have more connection to Toro Rosso than Mercedes for example so not a surprise is it? So yeah, all the best to Daniel and Jean-Eric tomorrow.

    Ends

  • Hamilton takes pole; Paul to start on P5, Sutil P7

    Silverstone, 29 June 2013: Mercedes AMG Petronas’ Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the British Grand Prix with a stunning lap at Silverstone this afternoon to push his teammate Nico Rosberg to second place as Mercedes locked the front row again here on Saturday.

    Meanwhile, Sahara Force India came up with a stunning show with Paul Di Resta taking the fifth place and Adrian Sutil starting on P 7 with Daniel Ricciardo in between. Red Bulls were right behind the leaders with Sebastian Vettel beating Mark Webber for P3. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was ahead of his teammate in P8 and Ferrari completed the top 10 with Fernando Alonso on P10.

    • Lewis achieved the team’s fifth pole position in six races and the 28th pole of his career today
    • Nico’s second place secured the team’s third front-row lockout in the past four races
    • Both drivers used three sets of option tyres in qualifying, saving new hard tyres fortomorrow’s race.

    Quotes: Lewis Hamilton 
    It feels incredible to be on pole, just like it did back in 2007. We have the greatest Formula One fans in the world here in Britain and there was a great turnout today, which makes the atmosphere so special. My lap in Q3 was a lap for the fans out there around the circuit. I haven’t been feeling comfortable in the car all weekend, so I was really happy to find a good lap and this feels fantastic. The team has done a phenomenal job and it’s a great reward for the guys here at the track but also back at base, especially as our two factories are so close to the track. But we know that tomorrow is another day and our Sunday performance isn’t quite as strong right now. Our long run pace looked ok yesterday and we were able to manage the tyres quite well. It’s going to be tough to keep Seb behind but we will give it everything we’ve got. 

    Nico Rosberg 
    A fantastic team result today and it’s great to see how much progress we have made together since last year. The feeling of confidence that our car will be quick in qualifying is fantastic and I love going to a race knowing that we have a shot of a strong grid position. The team are doing a great job and we are keeping up the development so a big thank you to everyone at the factories, many of whom are here today watching. My lap was good and starting from the front row is great but Lewis did a fantastic job today. I hope we have improved our race pace; it will be all about tyre management tomorrow and keeping the others behind us. I’m confident that we can get a good result.

    Ross Brawn 
    The team has worked incredibly well over the past few months to achieve a result like today’s. We have been chipping away at the performance, quietly bringing new updates and continuing to push, while also focusing our efforts on how we could improve our tyre management issues, and it seems to be paying off. The engineers and drivers got the cars into the perfect place for qualifying and, as the wind dropped towards the end of the session, both Lewis and Nico were able to deliver strong performances. Lewis put in a stunning lap at the end of the session and it’s great to see him and Nico pushing each other so hard in every session. It will be more of a challenge to remain as competitive in the race but we gathered good information yesterday and hope to be able to build on that tomorrow.

    Toto Wolff 
    A fantastic result for the entire team to take our third front row lockout this year. Fair, sporting competition is what Mercedes stands for and, while a lot has been said and written this weekend, the only thing that really matters is what happens out on track. The focus this afternoon should be on our drivers, Lewis and Nico, and on this fantastic team who have pushed so hard to keep developing the car in tough times and solve our problems. Lewis put in a mega lap: I don’t know if it’s the Silverstone factor or something else, but that was an incredible performance. Nico has been strong all weekend and second position gives us a great platform for the race tomorrow. Tomorrow should be warmer and we have struggled with race pace at some circuits so far this year. But the trend is going in the right direction, and I hope we can continue that tomorrow.

    Sahara Force India delivered a strong showing at its local track as Paul Di Resta qualified in fifth place for the British Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil in seventh.
     
    P5        Paul Di Resta   VJM06-04
    Q1:       1:32.062
    Q2:       1:31.291
    Q3:       1:30.736
    Paul: “I’m over the moon with the qualifying result and I think the whole team can feel very satisfied with fifth on the grid. The morning practice session was quite difficult so it feels great to come through and end up just behind two Mercedes and two Red Bulls. This track takes a lot of commitment and you need to build up your speed, but I think we saved our best till last – and that’s when it mattered. For tomorrow our tyre wear looks healthy and we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to get in some clean air during the race. I will sleep well tonight and hope that we can have a straightforward race, and come away with lots of points.”
    P7        Adrian Sutil      VJM06-03
    Q1:       1:32.002
    Q2:       1:31.079
    Q3:       1:30.908
    Adrian: “Seventh place is a great result today. The car was not easy to drive this morning, but we made some improvements before qualifying and found more speed with each session. If we can do our homework tonight then we have the potential to have a great race. There are still some unknowns with the tyres over long runs because I haven’t really done more than ten laps on a set of tyres, but I feel comfortable on both compounds. So we can be happy with the result, but we need to concentrate on tomorrow because that’s what counts. In terms of strategy we need to keep an open mind and have several options going into the race so that we can react as the race develops.”
    Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
    “I am delighted with today’s qualifying result. The sun was shining, the grandstands were full, and we put on a fantastic show. Fifth place for Paul at his home Grand Prix is a tremendous effort, especially on this high-speed track, which has not been our strongest race in previous years. Adrian’s seventh place confirms just how competitive we are this weekend and we know that we have good race pace. For tomorrow it’s important that we maximise these starting positions and hopefully give our supporters and partners something to celebrate at our local race.”

    ends

  • Concorde agreement not in sight; Drivers’ penalty system approved

    London, 28 June 2013: The Goodwood Motor Circuit, part of the 12,000 acre Goodwood Estate, originally opened its gates to the public in September 1948 to host Britain’s first post-war motor race meeting at a permanent venue, said an FIA press release.

    The second World Motor Sport Council meeting of 2013 concluded the inaugural FIA Sport Conference Week, a new event on the Federation’s calendar developed to provide a global platform of networking and business exchange for the motor sport community.

    Jean Todt thanked Lord March and the staff at Goodwood for their hospitality in the magnificent surroundings of the Goodwood Estate, which provided an excellent venue for the first Sport Conference Week. With Delegates from more than 70 countries in attendance, the event was universally hailed by the motor sport community as a huge success.

    The following decisions were taken by the World Motor Sport Council:

    FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

    The FIA President and the Commercial Rights Holder advised that negotiations regarding the Concorde Agreement were close to conclusion with the intention the contract between the FIA and FOM will be signed in the near future.

    The following summarises the changes made to the 2014 Sporting Regulations:

    Further to a request from Mercedes, it will be permitted to supply engines to a maximum of four Formula One teams in 2014.

    A penalty point system for drivers will be introduced. If a driver accumulates more than 12 points he will be banned from the next race. Points will stay on the driver’s licence for 12 months. The amount of points a driver may be given for infringements will vary from one to three depending upon the severity of the offence.

    The procedure for a driver to be given the chance to give back any advantage he may have gained by leaving the track has been adopted.

    A significant reduction in the amount of wind tunnel testing and CFD work has been imposed to help reduce costs and potentially allow two teams to share one wind tunnel.

    Four two-day track tests will be allowed in season in place of the current eight one-day promotional days and the three-day young driver test. These will take place at tracks in Europe on the Tuesday and Wednesday after a race in order to ensure minimal additional resources are necessary.

    Track testing will now also be permitted in January 2014 in order to allow earlier testing of the new power units.

    For safety reasons all team personnel working on a car in a race pit stop will be required to wear head protection.

    Each driver will be provided with one extra set of tyres for use only during the first 30 minutes of the first practice session on Friday, to encourage teams to take to the track at that time without having to worry about using valuable tyre wear.

    A number of new regulations have been confirmed to govern the new, far more complex power units. It is agreed that only five power units may be used by each driver for the whole season. Any use of an additional complete power unit will result in that driver having to start the race from the pit lane. Any changes of individual elements above the permitted five, such as turbocharger, MGU or Energy Store, will result in a 10 grid place penalty.

    No manufacturer will be allowed to homologate more than one power unit during the homologation period from 2014-2020. Changes to the homologated unit will continue to be permitted for installation, reliability or cost saving reasons.

    Drivers must now use a gearbox for six consecutive events, an increase from the current five.

    No car may use more than 100kg of fuel for the race, from the time the lights go out at the start of the race to the chequered flag. This will be monitored by the use of an FIA approved fuel flow meter.

    The pit lane speed limit, which is currently set at 60km/h for the free practice sessions and 100km/h for the qualifying practice and race (60km/h for the whole event in Melbourne, Monaco and Singapore), has been amended so it is set at 80km/h for the whole event (except the three races mentioned which would stay at 60km/h for the whole event). This is for safety reasons, as most accidents happen during the race when the speed limit is higher; drivers also have very little chance to practice stopping from 100km/h until the race.

    The following summarises the changes made to the 2014 Technical Regulations:

    Measures have been put in place to ensure that the cars do not incorporate a step in the chassis behind the nose. These changes will also ensure that a genuine low nose, introduced for safety reasons, is always used.

    The minimum weight limit has been raised by 5kg, as the power unit is now likely to weigh more than originally expected. The weight distribution has also been changed accordingly.

    Electronic control of the rear brake circuit is permitted in order to ensure consistent braking whilst energy is being recovered.

    In order to ensure that side impact structures are more useful in an oblique impact and more consistent, they will become standard items made to a strictly laid out manufacturing process and fitted to the cars identically. The impact tests currently carried out will be replaced by static load push-off tests and squeeze tests. This will also help reduce costs as no team will need to develop their own structures.

    In order to ensure that the cockpit rims either side of the driver’s head are stronger, the amount of deflection during the static load tests has been reduced from 20mm to 5mm.

    FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP AND RALLYING

    With immediate effect and for budget reasons, WRC Team and WRC 2 entrants are not obliged to use the latest ‘joker’ parts when competing in WRC events.

    In order to promote the entry of R-GT cars in FIA rallies, with immediate effect tuners will be permitted to develop cars, in accordance with the criteria defining eligible cars. The FIA will issue a technical passport, allowing the car to be eligible for events accepting R-GT cars.

    With effect from 1 January 2014:

    As a general rule, organisers of WRC events must ensure a minimum of 25% competitive special stage distance in relation to the overall distance of the event.

    Manufacturer and WRC Team cars from the same entrant will be permitted to enter Flexi-Service at the same time, having their service times counted independently.

    In order to give more flexibility, WRC Teams will no longer be obliged to nominate a tyre manufacturer for the season.

    In order to extend the life of World Rally Cars, manufacturers will be permitted to re-homologate 2011, 2012 and 2013 cars without any modification, except one single chassis and engine joker for 2014. In order to facilitate the replacement of S2000 Rally cars with Group R5, S2000 regulations will not be continued after 2013 and will be replaced by new R5 homologation regulations. Existing S2000 homologations will be frozen and may no longer receive an extension for the rest of their homologation period, except for one single engine and chassis joker.

    The minimum weight of R5 cars has been increased from 1200 to 1230 kg to avoid the use of expensive options and keep the cost of the complete car within the stated limit.

    From 2015, classes R1, R2 and R3 will be permitted to use super-charged engines, in line with the evolution of series engines.

    With immediate effect, the number of permitted tyres for events in the FIA European Rally Championship has been set at 20, plus an additional four if shakedown is included in the itinerary, for cars in Classes 2 and 3. In addition, hand cutting will not be permitted, unless authorised in very special circumstances by the Stewards for safety reasons.

    From 2014, the number of coefficients allocated to the events in the European Rally Cup has been reduced to three, namely 20, 15 and 10.

    FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

    In order to preserve the historic date of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which this year celebrated its 90th edition, the date of 14/15 June 2014 has been retained to ensure that a Formula One Grand Prix is not hosted the same weekend.

    FIA WORLD TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

    Following the cancellation of a race on 28 July, it is confirmed another race will take place on 4 August at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina (subject to the confirmation of the circuit homologation).

    The technical regulations for the Super 2000 cars for 2014 were confirmed. The new cars will look more spectacular with bigger aerodynamic devices and will have greater performance through the power to weight ratio. In order to ease the introduction of the new cars, the homologation procedure will be similar to the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship, but with an additional two jokers. 2013 cars will also be accepted in 2014.

    FIA FORMULA 3 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

    The event scheduled for 25-27 October at Paul Ricard has been cancelled and replaced by an event on 11-13 October at Vallelunga, Italy.

    The Technical Regulations for the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship have been updated and amended, specifically in relation to engines and chassis, in order to further reduce costs for the teams and drivers.

    The Sporting Regulations relating to the 2013 FIA Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup in Macau (13-17 November) allow for the use of engines according to the 2012 specification only.

    A FORMULA 4

    A registration process has been established for engine and chassis manufacturers in order to supply the ASNs with a potential list of suppliers in the championships. Approved manufacturers will be permitted to have cars participating in a championship from 1 January of the following year.

    The FIA has committed strong support to ASNs launching national championships, in order to provide for a standard technical and sporting framework for single-seater championships in each territory. Subject to compliance with a policy based on four main pillars – securing organisational consistency, technical fairness, sporting relevance and the stability of the championship – an “FIA Certified” label will be granted to the ASN for its national Formula 4 Championship.

    FIA FORMULA E CHAMPIONSHIP

    Technical and Sporting Regulations for the FIA Formula E Championship were agreed in principle, and it was confirmed that the Championship season will run from September 2014 to June 2015. The regulations, along with the calendar comprising a maximum of 12 races, will be presented to the WMSC at its September meeting.

    A new registration period for car manufacturers applying for the 2015-2016 Championship season will be open from 1 July 2014 to 1 February 2015.

    HISTORIC MOTOR SPORT

    A number of Sporting Regulations for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship and the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship have been clarified for application with immediate effect.

    FIA WORLD AND EUROPEAN RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS

    The WMSC has taken note of the intention of the promoter of the FIA European Rallycross Championship to develop the competition to World Championship level from 2014. Subject to the promoter’s proposals, the final decision on the project submitted will be decided at the September meeting of the WMSC.

    With immediate effect, the starting grid composition for the first two races of the series of Qualifying Heats has been amended in order to aid spectators’ understanding of the progression of the event. In addition, a strict limit on tyre quantities per driver per event has been clarified for cost-saving reasons.

    An invitation to tender for a three-year single tyre and fuel supplier to the Championship has been launched by the FIA.

    FIA HILL-CLIMB MASTERS

    As part of the strategy to develop the hill-climb discipline, a new FIA Hill-Climb Masters event has been ratified by the WMSC. This annual one-off event, commencing in 2014, is intended to close and celebrate the hill-climb season. The Masters event will be a high-profile tournament for the national and FIA hill-climb Champions, many of whom do not normally compete against each other. There will be a Nations Cup awarded, as well as medals for individual drivers.

    KARTING

    In order to enhance the electric kart class and to provide a perfect entry point for young drivers wishing to progress to the FIA Formula E Championship, the technical regulations for this class have been updated to take into account the latest standards set by the CIK.

    FIA DRIVERS’ COMMISSION

    The first meeting of the FIA Drivers’ Commission took place in June under the Presidency of Emerson Fittipaldi and Vice Presidency of Sébastien Loeb. On this historic occasion, which represents the first time drivers have had their own forum within the FIA, a number of recommendations in the areas of communication, safety, anti-doping, standard driving procedures and stewarding were discussed and proposals will be submitted to the WMSC in September.

    FIA EUROPEAN DRAG RACING CHAMPIONSHIP

    A selection process will be considered to source a promoter for the FIA European Drag Racing Championship.

    FIA ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY

    Following the initial work undertaken by a dedicated Working Group mandated to develop a Sustainability Programme, the WMSC approved in principle the implementation of the FIA’s ‘Action for Environment’ programme. The FIA’s goal, within a decade, is that motor sport will be recognised as an exemplar of best practice in environmental sustainability and a world leader for environmental innovation creating a positive impact on both the track and road. Its strategy will focus on measuring and improving innovation and promotion.

    MOTOR SPORT DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE

    The first action concluding the Sport Conference Week has been the creation of the Motor Sport Development Task Force under the Chairmanship of Mohamed Ben Sulayem. The Task Force will be presented at the next WMSC in Dubrovnik on 27 September.

    SPORTACCORD

    Following its provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee, the FIA is pleased to announce it has now been elected as a Member of SportAccord in St Petersburg, Russia, in May.

    ends