INDIA in F1

Tag: formula 1

  • Force India updates only small aero changes: Fearnley

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Bob FEARNLEY (Force India), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport), Mark GILLAN (Williams), Pat FRY (Ferrari), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull Racing), James ALLISON (Lotus).

    A question for you all first. Tell us about what sort of upgrades you’ve brought here? Have you been able to test them? Have you had anything conclusive from them? Are you going to carrying on using them for the rest of the weekend or have you not been able to evaluate them? Bob, if you’d like to start.

    Bob FEARNLEY: Ours are just mainly small aero changes, nothing significant. We haven’t been able to fully track evaluate them but we will continue to run with them.

    Rob, does this apply to you or not?

    Rob WHITE: We’re not in upgrade mode at the moment. We’re more in short-term countermeasures, following the incidents we had in Valencia, so it doesn’t really apply to us.

    Mark?

    Mark GILLAN: Similar to Bob. Basically, with the weather conditions we’ve not been able to look at the updates but we will do tomorrow, weather permitting.

    I was told that they weren’t on Bruno’s car today.

    MG: No, they weren’t.

    How very wise. Presumably just because of the conditions?

    MG: Yes, purely because of the heavy wet conditions we thought it prudent to leave them off.

    Pat?

    Pat FRY: I think we, like most people, have a few little updates all over the car but with these conditions it’s impossible to do any sensible evaluation of it. We need to see what we can do tomorrow, if anything, and then try to make the right choice for qualifying and the race.

    Adrian, more for you after Valencia?

    Adrian NEWEY: Yes, a big upgrade in Valencia, here very small stuff, but as everybody else says impossible to evaluate them in these conditions.

    James?

    James ALLISON: We’ve got two or three things that are all fitted. We didn’t back-to-back them but they don’t seem to be misbehaving. The only bit we were able to test sensibly was some changes to our pit stop equipment and they seemed to go OK.

    Rob, we know it was an alternator problem in Valencia, can you say what the problem was? Have you managed to cure it?

    RW: A bit of background if you will. The first thing to say was that there wasn’t any change underway that went pear-shaped. The spec was something that has been stable for quite a long time – some years – apart from little details in the piece that actually broke. Both Sebastian’s car and Romain’s car stopped on the track following the alternator failure. Clearly the alternator generates all the electricity on the car. Without electric power the car stops very quickly. Some small differences in the exact sequence of events after the failure and before the cars stopped were incidental. The failure was due to overheating. Overheating from within the piece, not from outside the piece. I guess we didn’t at the time know all of that. We wanted to find out if we were outside our experience. It turned out that we weren’t. We wanted to find out whether there was anything unusual relative to our recommended operating conditions. The truth of the matter is that both of the teams were completely within the recommendations we had previously made. We had to look deeper. We had to challenge ourselves on whether the recommendations we made were the right ones. We were able to find places where, with hindsight, we were at risk. We found some conditions where we felt we might have pushed the piece beyond its comfort zone and that’s where we’ve had to focus our attention for this week. A very small amount of time to react. Without any great surprise, we don’t have a magic wand to wave that will make all the trouble go away, so we’ve had to deal with it in a fairly classic way. We tried to make the conditions less severe for the piece, so we’ve tried to reduce the electrical load on the car, settings on the car, on the engine. We’ve tried to improve the electrical generation in the most marginal conditions, which are typically at low engine speed and then we’ve tried to select within the population of existing pieces the ones that will give us the best chance of succeeding. Thos selection criteria are based on electrical behaviour and then for the avoidance of doubt, classic quality [control] type criteria to eliminate the batch numbers we had a problem with. All of that goes in the right direction. It would be unjust to say that I’m 100 per cent confident we have done enough. We’ve had great support from Red Bull and Lotus who suffered the failures and from Williams and Caterham who didn’t but have identical pieces on the car. Also from all the suppliers in the supply chain. We’ve got what is obviously a short-term plan for this weekend and in parallel we’ve got a longer-term look to see if we can do a more robust job for the future.

    Continuing on with that, what have the two teams been able to do to help Renault with the cooling? James?

    JA: We just work with Renault Sport. Most of the action is happening in Viry. But we try to provide help and support with the tests that happen in Viry. There were certain bits of our car kit that were necessary to go to Viry to form part of that testing chain. So we all just muck in together and try to get it fixed.

    Are you able to provide more cooling to that part, to that area?

    JA: Yeah, you can blow air on it.

    Adrian?

    AN: Same really. It’s a component failure that we’ll work together to get on top of.

    Bob, we’ve seen quite a change for you from Canada to Valencia. What in fact has changed for the team?

    BF: Nothing has really changed. We just made a mistake in Canada really with our settings and went the wrong way, so it was an error from our side, on the engineering side. We corrected that for Valencia. We should have had the same result in Canada as we did in Valencia really.

    Are you quite confident for this weekend then, in the right conditions?

    BF: This is a different test. We have moved to more of an aero circuit. Hopefully, the answer is yes but until we get a bit of dry running we won’t know.

    Mark, you’ve got a good car and we’re seeing it in the points quite frequently. At what stage do you stop developing it and move on to next year’s car? Is there a tipping point at some stage?

    MG: I think the competition this year is so fierce and everything is extremely tight, as we saw in Valencia, as a team we need to continue to push. There is a point, as you say, where you have to balance next year’s car’s development and obviously with an eye even further into the future with the 2014 car, which is a big departure. But we are really keen to maximise the performance of this year’s car and make the most of this opportunity.

    And actually you’re already looking at the 2014 car?

    MG: Yeah, it’s a big departure and working alongside partners in terms of development of the car and obviously that’s something that sits quite aside from next year’s car which is really a continuation of the theme from this year.

    Pat, yesterday we mentioned to Fernando Alonso, how he won here last year, how he won in Valencia. Two very different circuits. Is that how you see it from an engineering point of view?

    PF: I think they are completely different circuits. Here there are more high-speed corners, more aero I guess. It will be interesting if it’s dry to see how the performance is. I think we’re fairly realistic. We still have a lot of work to do to catch up. We’re trying to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can, exactly the same as any other team.

    We’ve seen Felipe bounce back in the last few races. What have you done to help him, what more can you do?

    PF: Certainly from Monaco onwards he’s done a great job. We changed the car a little bit and we found something that suits him slightly better and that’s brought the best out of him. Today he was looking pretty reasonable until the red flag.

    Adrian, we saw what seemed to be a phenomenal effort with the upgrade in Valencia. Interesting that you brought it there rather than here as everybody else has. Give us some idea of the thinking behind such a big upgrade all at once and what sort of effort it took from the factory to bring that upgrade?

    AN: Well, the upgrade was a new sidepod and exhaust, so I think it’s been a bit exaggerated how big the change really is. It’s a fairly big visual change but a less big engineering change. I would regard it as part of the routine development. In terms of the performance it brings, well because it’s a big cosmetic change everybody focuses on it. You could perhaps make a small change to a diffuser or a front wing endplate that might be just as big a performance difference but nobody will spot it. Well, the teams will spot it but the press won’t so much let’s say. The problem is this season it’s difficult to see much form, as much as we had a similar benefit or advantage in Bahrain as we had in Bahrain but then that can swing to the other way round at other circuits. It’s a very difficult season to read so far.

    Because the pace in Valencia was phenomenal. You were certainly going to win that race.

    AN: Yes, we would have wont he race for sure, but that’s the ifs and buts of motor racing.

    James, just going back to the alternator. How was it you had a problem with one car and not the other?

    JA: I think it’s probably just that the alternator was very near to the limit of what it could do. There’s always a scattering components and one fell just the wrong side of the line. Rob’s probably got more of an insight into that than I have but we weren’t operating any differently.

    Looking at Romain Grosjean: how has his performance changed so far. You’ve had nine races now with him so far, we’re almost at mid-season. Have you seen him mature over the year?

    JA: I think he’s gathered confidence as the season has gone on but if you go right back to the first running in pre-season he was quite quick right from the off. He probably took a couple of long runs in pre-season to get a handle on how to look after the tyres over a stint, but he’s been pretty useful right from the outset. He’s just had a bit of misfortune at the starts in a few races. But that seems to be going more his way now. He’s very pleased with how his season is going and we’re pleased for him and with him.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Sam Collins – RaceCar Engineering) I’ve mentioned this to one of you guys before this weekend already; at the moment the weight distribution of the cars is fixed in quite a small window. Is that something you’d like to see changed, going forward in 2013 into 2014 as well?

    AN: First of all, it puts an emphasis on light drivers, which is, as long as we’re in a situation where we don’t have ballasted seats… for instance, with Mark Webber, we have a driver who’s on the heavier end, compared to Sebastian. That means he has less freedom on weight distribution. The obvious solution to that would be that drivers have to carry ballast on the side of their seat but that’s something that has been discussed and it hasn’t happened so far. It really means that if you make the wrong move, you’re locked into it for a while, so I don’t have a firm opinion on this. It’s one less variable in a way but on the same for everybody type basis, I’m not too worried about it, one way or the other.

    JA: I think the rules are the way they are because we, the teams, keep voting them that way, so we can’t do much other than say ‘well, that’s what we asked for’. We’ve voted for this several years running now and each time we’ve done it, I think it’s more or less been on the basis that Adrian just alluded to, that it’s one fewer thing to worry about. You know if the weight’s all in one little window that you’re not going to get completely screwed by someone getting it right just by good fortune or by good judgement. So we keep voting for it, I guess, because it’s a safer thing for an individual team to have.

    PF: It’s just one less variable, isn’t it? I don’t mind if we’ve got it or not. It’s just one thing less to worry about.

    MG: It’s obviously a relatively small window compared to historically what we’ve been able to do but as James said, we all voted for it and we continue to vote for it so everybody’s got the same limitations.

    Q: (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) There was a big effort in this year’s regulations to eliminate exhaust-blown diffusers, but I think it’s pretty widely known that that technology has returned this year already. How big a development area is it compared to last year and are we heading for the same uncertainty as we had last year in terms of its legality or not?

    AN: I don’t think so. I think that the fact is that the cars have to have exhausts and they will always have an aerodynamic influence so what we are really talking about is is that a small aerodynamic influence or is it a very large one? Compared to last year, we have a fraction of the effect that we had so I think it’s not an area of zero development, they still make a difference, but in terms of the gains we’re able to make compared to what we had last year then it’s a fraction, so I think it’s a fairly sensible place to be perfectly honest.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To Bob Fernley, as team principal, today you did very little running this morning in particular, certainly nothing in anger. I would assume that’s because of the limitation of wet weather tyres for the weekend; you don’t know how much running you’ll do. If one looks at the cost that spectators have paid plus some of them spent five hours in traffic trying to get here, is it really fair on them and is there any solution that you can think of to improve the spectacle under such circumstances?

    BF: Not really, Dieter. As a team, we obviously feel very very guilty that we’re not out there running for the spectators but on the other hand, we don’t gain anything from it. With all due respect, even if we’d had the tyres we wouldn’t have run, because the risk to reward is the wrong ratio for us, and it was more of a precautious programme than it is by taking unnecessary risks.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) On the subject of the limited running that we saw today, do you guys have any messages of sympathy and support for the fans, some of whom weren’t actually able to get to the circuit before the last F1 car left it?

    BF: The answer’s yes, we have terrible guilt for the fans in not running, but what happened in terms of them being able to get into the circuit, obviously I’m not aware of, because I didn’t even know there was a problem to be honest with you. We’ve just been working ourselves. If they have had problems, obviously we sympathise with them and I’m sure that’s something to do with traffic management of the circuit or something like that that needs to be resolved. It’s not something from the teams, the teams can only try and put the cars out on the circuit and give the spectacle and I regret today that we couldn’t do that. As I say, it’s more to do with our side of it in terms of the risk and the benefit and are we going to learn anything? Until the last half an hour of today, there wasn’t any benefit in running.

    JA: I think it’s a shame that the fans don’t see as much as they hoped to come and see but that’s British weather for you. I was actually (thinking that) considering how crap the weather was today, there was actually a reasonable amount of running on the track, more than maybe we might have anticipated looking at the forecast this morning, but it would have been nicer if there had been more had the weather been better, but it wasn’t.

    Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Adrian, looking at the way that Red Bull Racing has developed over the years from a midfield-towards-the-back team to a front-running team, since the initial recruitment drive when you brought in a lot of people, how important has the continuity and the stability of the team in all areas been in both achieving the level of success and sustaining race-winning performances over the last few years and presumably, you’d hope, over the coming years?

    AN: Yeah, continuity is hugely important. Really, Red Bull Racing is a team that first raced in 2005 and in truth that was a Jaguar painted blue. Then it had a steep learning curve of developing the culture; as you say, quite a lot of new people joining, some people from the Jaguar days choosing to leave, so it was a period of quite rapid change and that took time to settle down, if you like, and to develop a way of working, a culture, an ethos, to develop some of the bigger tools, be it developing the wind tunnel, developing simulation… things that you can’t just go to Argos and buy. It takes some time to develop those from scratch which is what we were doing and to learn how to use them, how to work with them. Once you got to that stage, as you say, continuity becomes very important. People have learned to work with each other and it’s then making that an ever tighter-knit group and trying to maintain that, as the team continues to grow – it’s been flat for the last couple of years in numbers, as a result of the RRA which I think is a very good thing. But it’s an evolutionary thing which, I think, took us three or four years to settle down into and really the big regulation change in 2009 was good timing for us, because that coincided with the point where we had started to gel together.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To the technical directors: I believe that there are still a lot of elements open on the 2014 regulations, particular those that appertain to the chassis. At which stage would you need to have a firm set of regulations for your 2014 cars?

    PF: I think that for 2014 we need to start deciding the exact engine operating conditions or power unit or braking conditions. There’s a lot of work involved there, and some of the chassis rules will have a big bearing on that. We need to have that firmed up fairly soon, really, for the engine side of things. The chassis can follow later.

    Q: (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) Rob, what’s the stage of the Renault development for 2014? How far along are you in terms of dyno testing or have you put it on the dyno yet?

    RW: Clearly, the 2014 power unit is important to Renault and the project planning is well under way. The project plan was initially constructed for a 2013 arrival date, and so the kick-off point was formally way back in September 2010, with a  fairly classic approach… you’re trying to work out how to make the best use of available time in order to do all of the learning necessary before committing to a design and then setting about making some pieces, developing testing, so on and so forth. We had a big, obviously significant re-set when we switched to a 2014 arrival and a V6 architecture. That arrived during the course of last summer so in practical terms that meant that we had to re-set the programme planning. So what does that programme planning look like for us, and then of course we’re aiming to arrive as competitively as we can possibly be, in time for the first race and the first season of racing in 2014. We have now been running development engines of various types since the latter part of last year. First of all we had single cylinder engines running. There are some extremely significant bits of learning needed in order to be ready. We also had a multi-cylinder engine for the previous architecture that was running and has run more recently. We have now run a V6 and the programme is more or less in line with our planning.

    It’s an immensely complex power unit – it’s important to understand that it’s a big big change for all of us with some fundamental drivers that are very very different to powerful ones for the way in which the races will shake out is of course the fuel allowance for the race and the fuel flow limit and the various tunes that can be played in order to make use of all of that, subject to a great deal of fairly fundamental thinking, fairly new to us R&D-type work. We’ve got new learning to do: everything to do with direct injection, everything to do with turbocharging in these new conditions, a substantially bigger energy recovery system design and development challenge, bigger – because the system is more complicated with two sources of energy recovery, bigger in terms of the contribution to the car performance, bigger in terms of the parts count and all that makes it a more substantial work load hence the programmes which are designed now to, hopefully, converge on a solution. Our intention is to have a race intent power unit on the bed as late as we possibly can, while still having the time to validate it in time for the first race, so our intent is to be race intent in the course of 2013 and everything that we do between when we started, over a year ago now, and now and into the future, when we have a race intent piece on the test bed, is proof of concept, development testing in order to gather the experience needed.

    Q: (Naoise Holohan – ManipeF1) I’m just wondering, with the totally new engine formula, how do you set a target in terms of engine power? Do you extrapolate from the V8 that we have at the moment, or how do you pick a figure out of the air?

    RW: There are obviously some elements of finger-in-the-wind but there are clearly performance objectives in order to achieve the car performance that we’re aiming for, and we have to be ambitious yet realistic with the fuel flow limit that we’re talking about. The answer to your question comes down to goal-setting in terms of thermal efficiency and I guess each of the engine constructors will have his own idea of where the competitive answer will be but as in any competitive arena, then the task is to get as far ahead as we can in the time we have with the resources that we have. But you’re right, it’s a real challenge to know where to set the internal goals in order to be competitive at the arrival.

    Ends

  • One year for Ricciardo since replacing Karthikeyan

    Silverstone, 5 July 2012: Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo marks his anniversary as an F1 racing driver this weekend.

    After beginning the 2011 season as a Friday morning driver for Toro Rosso, the Australian graduated to a seat with HRT for the second half of the year, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. Now returning to circuits where he has prior F1 experience will, says Daniel, provide a boost to his season. +

    “Driving on Friday mornings for Toro Rosso in the first half of 2011 was useful but more is generally better. I think racing for HRT and doing all of those laps means from now on I can hit the ground running on Friday morning: instead of trying to learn the circuit I might be getting on top of balance issues or developing the car right from the off. I think it speeds up your weekend. Maybe it doesn’t make you quicker over one lap but you’ll go into the important parts of the weekend with a better setup and therefore more opportunities in the race.”

    There has been a perception much-voiced in recent weeks that the younger drivers in the F1 field struggle against their slightly older rivals by virtue of not having had access to the thousands of kilometres of testing that were standard practice before the testing ban came into force. Ricciardo acknowledges the difference – but argues technological advances have taken up some of the slack.

    “It’s probably not as easy as having all of that testing but I think we’re coping alright. The simulator has taken over a lot of what we can’t do testing; it has helped us understand a bit more about the car, about what effects a setup change has. It isn’t as good but it’s been good enough and the evidence is guys like di Resta, Kobayashi, Pérez all seem to have coped pretty well.

    “The junior formulae are very competitive too in the modern era, and the cars are very advanced – probably closer to F1, which makes the step shallower. It’s still a big step – just maybe not as big as it was five or ten years ago.”

    Moving back to Toro Rosso for the 2012 season, Ricciardo scored points immediately, finishing ninth in the Australian Grand Prix. Since then Toro Rosso have had a fallow period and have not scored since Malaysia.

    ends

  • Very difficult to predict anything: Bruno Senna

    Silverstone, 5 July 2012: Williams come to their home grand prix with an update package and ambition to improve – but at the same time their drivers are looking at the sky.

    While the update has been described as including some big changes Bruno Senna, speaking in the FIA press conference, chose to describe it as “bits and pieces.”

    “I feel really happy that we’re bring updates because everybody else is also moving forward,” said Senna. “We have a few bits and pieces; we have wings and pieces of the bodywork that will be different, so it’s always hard to quantify how much that will improve the car, but every little helps as we’ve seen in Barcelona when Pastor won. There was a bit of an update there. So, for sure, it’s going to be the case of trying to maximise the package but the weather is very changeable here and that can mean everything or it can mean nothing.”

    Senna argued that racing at his team’s home grand prix will not have any effect, and that the fierce competitiveness that exists on the F1 grid at the moment makes it very difficult to predict any outcomes. “Listening to everybody here, everybody is very optimistic about their chances on this track because everybody seems to think that their cars should be well suited to this type of track so I guess we’re going to see another tough weekend with very close battles,” he said.

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

    ends

  • Red Bull pace not guaranteed: Vettel

    Silverstone (UK)

    Sebastian Vettel after Thursday practice in Silverstone. FIA photo

    , 5 July 2012: Sebastian Vettel has said that there is no guarantee that the superior pace Red Bull Racing showed at the European Grand Prix in Valencia will translate to Silverstone.

    In Valencia a fortnight ago, Vettel landed pole position with a lap almost half a second quicker than anyone else, and in the race was quick enough to open a 10-second gap over the chasing pack in the first stint of the grand prix.

    Vettel’s dominance ended with an alternator failure after 33 laps, but the fear for Red Bull Racing’s rivals is that the team will be even quicker at high-speed Silverstone, especially in light of the fact that it is expected to bring more updates this weekend. Vettel, though, warned against such an expectation.

    “I would be very careful with that [thinking],” he said today. “We had a good race in Valencia and we seemed to be able to make a difference straight away. This is a new track, a different track and has different characteristics. We will have to confirm the feeling we had in Valencia, the pace. Also rain is on the way. It should be a challenging weekend for everybody.

    “I think we did a step forward [in Valencia], we were very competitive,” he admitted. “Everything just seemed to work. We felt comfortable form the first session onwards, up to the point where we had the failure and had to stop. That can make a big difference to the whole weekend if you find an extra tenth or two. If you take those tenths away then it might look completely different again. We had a very strong weekend but we need to confirm it here.”

    Vettel said, however, that he is looking forward to the British Grand Prix and said it is a circuit he enjoys.

    “I won in 2009 and it was very emotional,” he said. “So hopefully we can get back to that level. The crowd here is extremely fair. Obviously they’re cheering for the British drivers, which everyone can understand, but they are very fair and they respect and appreciate if someone else has a good race. So, all in all, I’m looking forward to the weekend despite the weather forecast.”

  • Sometimes single-stop strategies are risky: Paul

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

    PRESS CONFERENCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    BS: Very wet.

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

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

    VP: I agree with what they said.

    RG: Never lived here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Ends

  • Dani Clos to replace Karthikeyan for first practice

    Madrid, 29 June 2012: Formula 1 is coming back home as Silverstone is where it all began in 1950 when the first race in the history of the World Championship took place. This circuit has hosted every British Grand Prix since 1950, barring periods between 1964 and 1986 when it took place at Brands Hatch and 1955 to 1962 when it was raced at Aintree. Silverstone is a fast, flowing track which combines very quick turns at the start with a number of slow ones towards the end of the lap. Maggots, Becketts and Chapel stand out as one of the most demanding combination of corners in the championship.
    HRT Formula 1 Team arrives in Silverstone showing clear signs of improvement and aims to continue in this line at the legendary British track. Spanish driver Dani Clos will step into the F112 for the second time this season to take part in the first practice session. Clos will replace Narain Karthikeyan and accompany Pedro de la Rosa for the first 90 minutes of practice at the British Grand Prix. Pirelli have elected their soft and hard tyres for this Grand Prix.
    Pedro de la Rosa: “Silverstone is a beautiful and classic circuit; it’s a place I really like. I’ve raced in many categories there: Formula Ford, Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 1. It’s a quick, high downforce track with a lot of quick corners linked together. It’s very demanding on the tyres, so the logical thing is to go for three stops. Strategies will play a big part. It’s not the most favourable circuit for us so we’re going to have to grind our teeth because, apart from that, it’s also one of the toughest tracks for a driver. We’re going to try and continue the good work from the last grands prix, finish this race and improve on our result in Valencia. That is our objective”.
    Talking about the circuit Narain Karthikeyan said: “I’ve got very good memories of Silverstone as I’ve raced a lot there in the past in junior categories, it’s one of my favourite tracks on the calendar and a place I expect to do well. Copse and the Becketts complex are special corners and are up there with the most exciting ones in the championship but I don’t know the new part of the circuit as I didn’t race at Silverstone last year so it will take me a few laps to adapt. After a positive weekend in Valencia, with a good performance in qualifying, I’m hoping to continue from there and build on it in Great Britain”.
    Meanwhile, Test driver Dani Clos said: “I’m very happy to step into the F112 once again in Silverstone, a place where I’ve got good memories since I’ve made the podium every time I’ve been in GP2. After Barcelona I’ve really been looking forward to this new opportunity. The work we’re carrying out with the team is positive and I think that I can make a good contribution. I will be able to run in better conditions than in Barcelona because the car was new back then and I had to carry out various aero tests. Now I’ve got a new opportunity, not to prove anything but to work with the team and evolve as much as we can”.
    Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Principal: “In Valencia we had a positive weekend and were able to confirm the good sensations we’d felt in the last few races. Silverstone is one of the most emblematic and historic circuits in the Championship and racing there is always something special. We want to see how our car performs at the British track with the latest upgrades because it’s a track that contains various quick turns and that’s where we suffer most. On another note, I’m happy that Dani will have a new opportunity to sit behind the wheel of the car for the first free practice session. This time he’ll be able to get more out of the session because in Barcelona there were many things to test and he had to focus on them, but now he’ll be able to get the most out of the experience. Besides, it will be the second time he drives the F112 this season so he won’t be stepping into the unknown and won’t need a period to adapt”.

    eom

  • Schumy back on podium after 6 years

    Valencia, 25 June 2012: A driver is as good as a car, might not be true always. But definitely the car influences the results and it is an accepted fact in Formula One, the pinnacle of motorsport. Seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher finished third in an incident filled race on Sunday but was called by the stewards. However, the Vodafone Mercedes McLaren driver kept his first podium finish since 2006, despite a post-race investigation into the possibility that he had not slowed down for yellow flags during the European Grand Prix in Valencia, adds an FIA release.

    The veteran racer had driven superbly from 12th on the grid to third and had hailed his best result since first in Shanghai in 2006 as a “deeply enjoyable” moment. However, the celebrations had to be put on hold as the Mercedes driver was summoned before the race stewards over a possible infringement.

    After meeting with the seven-time champion and Mercedes’ representatives, though, the stewards were satisfied that data from the car showed the German had slowed significantly in the instance in question and his third place stands.

    Schumacher only rose to the podium position in the latter stages of the race after he made a late stop on lap 41 for new soft tyres. Afterwards, as the leaders’ older prime tyres began to lose performance, Schumacher carved his way through the pack.

    And when Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado clashed two laps from home, Schumacher suddenly found himself third, though afterwards the Mercedes driver had no idea of his position.

    “I didn’t actually think about a podium at all at the end of the race,” he said. “It was crossing the line that I asked my guys ‘where did we finish?’ I saw [Mark] Webber’s pit board, and close to the end it showed him eighth and [then] seventh and I knew I was one place ahead of that. And then boys told me ‘that’s third, that’s podium’.

    “I can’t believe it! It’s something I didn’t really expect,” he added. “Being pretty heavily involved for most of the race in some kind of battling and then having Webber all the time on my tail and needing to fight forward but needing to pay attention to the back, that was very exciting. But that’s what I’m here for: to be excited and those guys got me excited, no doubt. And hearing finally the message P3 – yeah, that’s a sweet finish.”

    Schumacher admitted, too, that he result had only been made possible by a late-race strategy change.

    “We obviously had a late decision converting from a one-stop to a two-stop strategy, which meant we had good tyres towards the end of the race,” he said. “Other people either did a one or an early two-stop strategy and therefore struggled by the end because they had no tyres left.

    “All weekend, I predicted this to be a difficult one for us and it started to be difficult yesterday in qualifying, mainly because of my own mistakes and to recover from where we are, getting to third position is just awesome,” he concluded. “The team and myself have been criticised here and there, particularly lately, and this is the best way to answer criticism, to go back and deliver as we did today, and therefore I’m proud, thankful and very excited.”

    Team-mate Nico Rosberg also profited from the strategy and, remarkably, rose from 11th to sixth in the final two laps.

    “That was a really exciting race,” he said. “After the restart, I thought I would end up finishing out of the points, because I had the oldest tyres and therefore no grip, which made it very hard to defend. We had planned to try a one-stop strategy but had to convert to two stops, and thanks to the strategy guys, we were on fresh tyres when everybody else was struggling.

    “I was in P12 on lap 48 and P6 at the end, so it clearly worked and we are very happy with a good team result after such a chaotic race, with two cars in the top six. A great result for Michael with his podium and I am happy to score some more nice points.”

    ends

  • It’s a very special feeling: Alonso

    FIA Post-race Press Conference

    Alonso wins after starting from 11th place at Valencia on Sunday. FIA File photo of Sat qualifiers.

    DRIVERS

    1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

    3 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes)

    TV UNILATERAL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    PRESS CONFERENCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    And your tyres. Were they shot at the end?

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

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

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

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

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

    And all those points must be very welcome.

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

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Ends

  • Hulkenberg 5th, for best finish of the year

    Valencia, 24 June 2012: Force India will take home 16 points from Valencia after a strong weekend saw Nico Hulkenberg land his best finish of the year with fifth and Paul Di Resta race a one-stop strategy to seventh.

    Hulkenberg started eighth, on a two-stop strategy that saw him race used softs until a lap-14 switch to the medium compound. He stopped again on lap 28 for a second set of mediums and then attempted carve his way through the field.

    Initially the plan worked, with the German climbing steadily from 12th to fifth, but as his long third stint ground on his tyres began to fade and he began to struggle. He could have been vaulted to third when Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado clashed while battling for the position, but at the same time, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber, on newer soft tyres, were sweeping past to leave the Force India stuck in fifth.

    Afterwards through, Hulkenberg hailed the performance as a “great achievement”.

    “A great result for everyone in the team today and for me personally,” he said.  “Fifth place is a great achievement after a very long and difficult race. The two-stop strategy worked well, but the last stint was very long and it was hard to hold off the cars behind me on fresher tyres in the last few laps.

    “So the race was a bit messy at times, but very entertaining and it feels great to come through and score such a good result for the team. We got a bit lucky with some cars dropping out, but we were in the right place to capitalise on things so I’m very happy about today.”

    Di Resta, meanwhile, started the race from 10th on the on grid and on used soft tyres. He nursed those through to lap 23 when he took on medium tyres, which he tried to keep alive until the end of the race.

    The strategy could have yielded a better result but a safety car in mid-race allowed the front runners a free stop and Di Resta’s chances were compromised. He battled on however, but his performance faded slightly as the tyres degraded in the closing stages and he too was passed by Schumacher and Webber. He did, however, cling on to seventh place.

    “We went very aggressive by only stopping once and in fact we were the only car to pull off this strategy,” Of course, when you’re stopping once you really don’t want a safety car period and it certainly hurt my race and cost me some track position.

    “But with the way the race unfolded we can’t be too disappointed to finish seventh and it’s great to have another two-car points finish. On the whole our relative pace through the race was strong, but it was hard to keep the tyre performance towards the end and I was really fighting the car in the closing laps. There was some attrition ahead of us, but we were there to pick up the points when it mattered.”

    ends

  • Karthikeyan upbeat after qualifying in 22nd

    Valencia Street Circuit, Valencia

    Saturday, 23rd of June 2012

    Weather: Sunny – Air 26ºC, Track 47ºC

    11.00-12.00 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 3

    Pedro de la RosaF112-02 #22 21st (14 laps) 1:42.758

    Narain Karthikeyan F112-03 #2323rd (14 laps) 1:42.943

    14.00-15.00 FORMULA 1 QUALIFYING SESSION

    Pedro de la Rosa F112-02 #22 21st (7 laps)1:42.171

    Narain Karthikeyan F112-03 #23 22nd (8 laps)1:42.527

    The second day at the European Grand Prix had a much more positive ending than yesterday for HRT Formula 1 Team as its drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan completed the team’s and their personal best qualifying sessions of the season. De la Rosa, whose mechanics worked intensely on repairing his car after his accident in FP2, and Karthikeyan finished the morning’s practice session with a good vibe that persisted through into the definitive qualifying session. Both the strategy and the drivers maintained a good level and Pedro and Narain finished 21st and 22nd respectively in front of the devoted fans.

    A HRT car in Valencia qualifying on Saturday. Narain starts on P22. HRT photo.

    : “We made some specific set-up changes for qualifying which definitely helped as we completed our best qualifying session of the season so far. We’re ahead of the Marussias, which is very important, and clocking similar times to Pedro so I’m very happy with the result. I hope to carry the momentum over into tomorrow’s race where we’ll have to keep a close eye on the heat. But we’re in better conditions than in Canada and should be able to put in a good performance. I’m heading into the race full of confidence after today and hope to achieve a good result”.

    The high temperatures and characteristics of this street circuit will test the car and the driver equally, meaning that the excitement is guaranteed in tomorrow’s 57-lap race.

    Pedro de la Rosa: “Today’s qualifying was very good. After yesterday’s incident it took me no time to be quick again, so I applaud my team for their effort last night to fix the car. I’m also happy to have finished ahead of our direct rivals as I wasn’t expecting it. As for tomorrow’s race, we don’t really know what will happen. All the new brake ducts which we brought to this race got damaged in yesterday’s crash and now we won’t be able to use them so we will be going to the limit but, as always, and even more so racing at home, we will give everything so that our fans can be proud”.

    Toni Cuquerella, Technical Director: “We’re extremely satisfied with the job done by the entire team today. We got things right both in the garage and on the track and we’re improving more every time. At a circuit that could have been complicated we have confirmed that we’ve taken a step forwards since Barcelona and the team is closer to where we want to be. Pedro’s lap was very good; in fact it was the best in the season so far. To be precise his time was 103.4%. Narain also did a fantastic job and made the most of his gaps and tyres to complete his best qualifying session to date. This goes to show that the work being carried out by the team is very good. Tomorrow’s race will be tough, especially for the brakes, and the biggest question mark is how the cooling will perform over a long distance but we’re confident that we’ll get both cars over the finish line in front of our fans”.

    Strong show by Sahara Force India

    Meanwhile, a release from Sahara Force India says that the team continued to show strong form in Valencia as Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta qualified in eighth and tenth places respectively for Sunday’s European Grand Prix in Valencia.
    P8        Nico Hulkenberg (VJM05/03)
    Q1:       1:39.009
    Q2:       1:38.689
    Q3:       1:38.752
    Nico: “I think overall it’s a great result for the team to get both cars into Q3, but maybe we were hoping for a little bit more than P8 and P10, especially considering how we have performed so far this weekend. I don’t think the increase in temperatures helped us because the car felt more difficult to drive today and a bit nervous at times. For the race tomorrow we are still near the front and will take the fight to the cars around us to try and come away with some points.”
    P10      Paul Di Resta (VJM05/02)
    Q1:       1:38.858
    Q2:       1:38.519
    Q3:       1:38.992
    Paul: “It was a strong qualifying session but I feel I could have been higher up the grid because I didn’t get the perfect lap together in Q3. We were the quickest car in Q2 and if I could have repeated that lap time in Q3 I would have been a couple of rows higher up the grid. I was trying to squeeze a little bit extra from the car but I locked a wheel and lost time in the final sector. I will try and focus on the positives because we have been strong in all the sessions, the car is well dialled into the circuit, and I think we will have good race pace for tomorrow.”
    Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
    “Another extremely close qualifying hour and I’m pleased that we were able to get two cars into Q3 for the first time this year. The car has been extremely quick throughout practice and we showed that again today with some very competitive times in Q1 and Q2. When it came to Q3 both drivers didn’t quite deliver perfect laps, which costs us a few positions on the grid, but we are still well placed to fight for points finishes with both cars.We expect a tough race tomorrow with very hot temperatures once again, but the car is strong, we have a good understanding of the tyres and our long run pace looks promising.”