INDIA in F1

Tag: Formula One

  • Roseberg tops FP2 at Austin

    Austin, 21 Oct 2016: After Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of opening practice in Austin, championship leader Nico Rosberg fought back in the afternoon to head the timesheet in second practice for the United States Grand Prix, finishing just under two tenths clear of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and a further tenth ahead of third-placed Hamilton.

    Championship leader Rosberg’s performance run in FP2 resulted in a best time of 1:37.358, which was good enough to move 0.291 ahead of Hamilton.

    After a quiet FP1, in which he finished with the seventh fastest time after only using the medium tyre, Ricciardo enjoyed a much more profitable second session when he bolted on the supersoft.

    The Australian powered to a best lap of 1:37.552 which allowed him to split the Mercedes and saw him finish just 0.194 behind Rosberg.

    Fourth place in the session went to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with the 2013 US Grand Prix winner finishing 0.626 behind Ricciardo’s Red Bull, the car Ferrari will most likely be racing for a podium finish this weekend.

    Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished back in 10th position, with his best lap on supersofts being compromised by an off at Turn 19.

    Behind Vettel, Max Verstappen was fifth in the second Red Bull, less than 0.1s slower than the Ferrari driver. After finishing ahead of close rivals Williams in FP1, Force India was again top the fore in the second session with Nico Hulkenberg seventh and Sergio Perez eighth.

    In the opening session Hulkenberg finished fifth less than 0.1s ahead of Williams’ Valterri Bottas but in the afternoon’s performance runs the lead Force India was over six tenths of a second clear of the highest placed Williams of Bottas who finished in 14th place.

    Behind the Force Indias, the final top 10 places were taken by McLaren, with Jenson Button just ahead of Fernando Alonso.

    2014 United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.358 33
    2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:37.552 33
    3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.649 32
    4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:38.178 35
    5 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:38.258 27
    6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.508 32
    7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:38.568 31
    8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:38.713 29
    9 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:38.801 30
    10 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:38.865 31
    11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:38.971 31
    12 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:39.159 23
    13 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:39.189 28
    14 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.197 34
    15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:39.202 36
    16 Felipe Massa Williams 1:39.281 30
    17 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:39.455 34
    18 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:39.554 24
    19 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:40.086 27
    20 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:40.114 26
    21 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:40.219 28
    22 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:41.131.31.

     

    eom/FIA press release

  • Nico Rosberg becomes first to set timed lap using Halo device

    Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of opening practice for the Belgian Grand Prix with the German also becoming the first driver to set a timed lap in a session using the Halo device, which underwent more testing.

    As the session got underway at Spa-Francorchamps, four cars took to the circuit sporting the cockpit head protection device – Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Rosberg.

    All except Rosberg used the device for a single installation lap, but as times began to be registered, Rosberg moved to the top of the order with a lap of 1:49.481 with the Halo attached. It was the first time the device has completed a timed lap in a grand prix session.

    After a brief period in the Mercedes garage Rosberg then returned to the track with the Halo still attached but with supersoft tyres onboard. He quickly set a new benchmark of 1:48.348.

    The time was good enough for Rosberg to head the timesheet for the remainder of the session. Team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished in second place, seven tenths off Rosberg.

    Hamilton also used a new turbocharger and MGU-H in the session, power unit alterations that will earn him a 15-place grid penalty this weekend as the Briton has exceeded the maximum for the season.

    Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari. The Finn set his best time on soft tyres, as did Force India’s Sergio Perez who finished in fourth place, almost a full second behind Rosberg.

    While Raikkonen got to just within eight tenths of a second off P1, Sebastian Vettel ended the 90 minutes in fifth place, 1.5s adrift of Rosberg and over six tenths behind his Ferrari team-mate.

    After removing the Halo, Daniel Ricciardo worked through a low-key session, finishing sixth. The Australian just over a tenth behind Vettel and eight hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Max Verstappen who finished seventh. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth ahead of the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, with Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez completing the top 10.

    Nineteen-year-old French driver Esteban Ocon, who is set to make his Formula One race debut with Manor this weekend, finished in 16th position, a second ahead of team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.

    It was a frustrating start to the weekend for Fernando Alonso, however. Honda have brought a comprehensively updated power unit to this race but problems with the powerplant mean that Alonso completed just three laps in FP1. The Spaniard failed to set a time and finished in 22nd place.

    2016 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:48.348 27
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:49.078 25
    3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:49.147 24
    4 Sergio Perez Force India 1:49.274 23
    5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:49.768 19
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:49.782 24
    7 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:49.865 24
    8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:50.088 21
    9 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:50.394 31
    10 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:50.583 21
    11 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:50.899 18
    12 Felipe Massa Williams 1:51.122 28
    13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:51.125 16
    14 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:51.424 17
    15 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:51.768 19
    16 Esteban Ocon Manor 1:51.787 26
    17 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:52.308 19
    18 Jenson Button McLaren 1:52.407 18
    19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:52.837 23
    20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:53.053 20
    21 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:53.089 20
    22 Fernando Alonso McLaren  3
    eom/FIA press release

  • It’s a great op for me drive at Spa, says Manor’s Esteban Ocon

    It’s a great op for me drive at Spa, says Manor’s Esteban Ocon

    DRIVERS – Esteban OCON (Manor), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Esteban, if we could start with you: many congratulations on your grand prix debut. Just describe your emotions now: how excited are you and indeed how surprised are you to be racing this weekend?

    Esteba Ocon (top row, right) at the FIA press conference. An FIA image
    Esteba Ocon (top row, right) at the FIA press conference. An FIA image

    Esteban OCON: Yeah, thank you, first of all. No, it’s a great opportunity for me to be driving here in Spa. So thanks to Mercedes, Renault and to Manor for that. It’s great to start in Spa as well. It’s a track I know, so it will help [me] to get up to speed. Let’s see how it goes. I’m looking forward to it and I’m ready.

    You’re only 19 and as you say you’ve raced a lot here at Spa. You’ve also got quite a lot of Formula One now, you’ve done FP1 for Renault for the past three races, so do you feel ready and prepared?

    EO: Yeah, I feel like I’ve had the best preparation I could get. It’s been quite a long time since I’m around in the paddock and also driving Formula One cars, so it’s great to finally make the step and I feel like I am ready to take that one.

    And what are your goals for this weekend and the rest of the season?

    EO: It would be good to score some points. That will be the target. I also need to learn the team, learn the way they work. Also to see how Pascal works and to get up to speed together, learning from him. Of course, he is a great driver and he has been quick all season so I will need to learn from him and get up to speed in qualifying.

    Daniil, if we could come on to you please: it’s been a very hard first half of the season following your return to Toro Rosso, and you’ve even been quoted as saying that you’ve fallen out of love with Formula One. What has the summer break done for your mind set?

    Daniil KVYAT: I think it’s done good things for me. It feels like it’s all OK now for me – just come here, do my job, drive as I know how to drive, nothing special really. That’s it.

    What do you think you can achieve this weekend? You finished fourth at Spa last year and Toro Rosso introduced a lot of upgrades to the STR11 last time out in Germany, so what’s a realistic goal this weekend?

    DK: It’s hard to predict the future, obviously. I don’t know how to do it. So, we’ll get out there, we’ll drive, we’ll use our potential as good as we can, and we’ll see where we are. That’s all I can do.

    Romain, coming to you: great memories from here last year of course, you finished third for Lotus? However, it’s been a bit of a dry old summer for yourself and Haas recently. Your last points finish was in Austria. What kind of reset does the team need in the second half of this season?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, I think, yeah, the last few races before the summer break haven’t been as good as we would have loved. We made some steps forward but there are a few things we needs to understand, so we’re going to try different things. I think the whole summer break helped everyone to reset a bit the mind, to think more calmly about what we can do and what we have been doing and hopefully we’ll get back in the car and it feels as good as it was initially in the year and from there we can score much more points. Generally, I still think that as a first year it’s very positive and even though we have had some difficulties recently it’s never far from the points. Eleventh often for Esteban, I had a bit more problems recently but hopefully goes away and we have a good race here.

    How tight is the battle with your immediate rivals in the Constructors’ Championship? Can you catch McLaren, stay ahead of Renault? Where’s the focus?

    RG: I think the focus is to learn and to do our best. I think we are more looking at catching McLaren than protecting from Renault. I think there are quite a long way behind and in terms of performance they are not any better than we are, so McLaren has done some good development recently but it doesn’t mean we cannot go there and try to play with them.

    Max, you have a Belgian mother, you were born just 50km from this race track and lots of fans are coming to see you this weekend, so do you view this as something of a home race?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think so. You know, even though I haven’t driven here a lot, yeah definitely I think this is the closest I can get. I think there are also a lot of fans coming, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

    Red Bull overtook Ferrari in Germany, last time out, do you feel confident of stretching that advantage in the coming races?

    MV: Well, we definitely will try to do that. I think the last few races have been very positive for us. We got the jump on them and now the most important thing is to stay ahead of course and try to close on Mercedes, even though I think that will be very hard, but we keep pushing, we keep developing and so far it has been very positive for us.

    And do you think you have the necessary horsepower to do the business this weekend?

    MV: We hope so. We’ll see. I think first of all we have to get the car working really well in terms of set-up and then we’ll see what happens.

    Thank you. Fernando, Honda boss Yusuke Hasegawa recently described the team’s progress as incredible. Do you agree with that assessment?

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, definitely I do agree. If you look at the team 12 months ago we were in a very different situation. We were starting last here using I think the ninth engine we put in Spa. We’ve been lapped two times here last year and in Germany and Hungary and definitely we make a step of nearly minutes, let’s say, not even seconds in a race total time, so definitely we are in a much better position. We are enjoying and definitely the progress is very optimistic in terms of… I think even for next year as well. We are looking forward to this weekend. We have some updates also on the car. We know that Spa and Monza will be tricky races for us in terms of layout and characteristics of the circuits but definitely we are enjoying our time now, seeing all this progress and hungry for more.

    You say you have upgrades for this race, but going forward where do you want the focus to be now for McLaren? Do you want it to remain on 2016 or would you like to see 100 per cent effort on 2017?

    FA: Well, I think we want to be world champions, so this year is not any more possible.

    Q: Lewis, you’ve had an amazing summer, winner of the last four races, you come to Spa with a 19-point lead in the World Championship. Do you wish the summer break had never come – or did you need to recharge your batteries?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly, good afternoon everybody, it’s good to see everyone. Not too many tanned people – I was expecting to see people with better tans! I’m happy the break came. I think myself and the team needed it. Probably like the rest of the paddock. We had a month with four races in it so it’s definitely been a positive thing for everyone, I think everyone feels refreshed coming back in.

    Q: Are you confident of maintaining the momentum from Germany – or could an engine penalty interfere with that here?

    LH: Naturally we already discussed engine penalties before so that will come into play for sure – but I’ll do everything I can to minimise the impact it will have. Yeah. Otherwise, beyond that penalty I’ll eventually take, I think I’ll be able to continue with the momentum. I plan to continue with the momentum that I had before the break.

    Q: Has it been decided if you’ll take the engine penalty here or at another race?

    LH: As far as I’m aware we’ll be taking the engine penalty this weekend, yes. I have no engines left, so…

    Q: Your next win will be your 50th. That’s quite a milestone. What would that mean to you?

    LH: I have to get there first! Still, today, everyday I have to pinch myself really to think that I’ve… what I’ve achieved so far in my career. It’s a dream for all of us to be doing what we love, and to succeed at it… watching grands prix growing up I never thought I’d be sitting here with nearly 50 grand prix wins under my belt. It’s very surreal – but I plan to win more. Hopefully we continue to.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport & Auto Action) Max, you’re an old hand now at Formula One, an experienced driver in Formula One. What advice would you give to the young man behind you, how to deal with this new world?

    MV: Just jump in the car and go out and drive as fast as you can.

    LH: If he’s old, what are the rest of us?

    FA: At least to me. You are still young!

    Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) Max, there’s obviously talk of Stoffel Vandoorne joining F1 next year. What would it mean for Belgian and Netherlands motorsport, and for yourself to have you two guys fight it out on the track together?

    MV: I think it will be very positive for Belgian motorsport and definitely you will see even more Belgian flags here – they will have to compete with the Dutch flags – so we’ll see what happens. I think if happens it will be great in general for Belgium.

    Q: (Kevin Eason – The Times) Can I ask you, can you win here even from 20 places back – and can I ask you a question that fans ask me: is it fair that a driver has to bear the burden of the penalty for the incompetence of his team?

    LH: In terms of winning, that’s the goal but it’s going to be very, very hard if, obviously everyone’s… if the gap is close between other cars. We’re in the third year of evolution of these cars, so Red Bull have been very quick in some of the races, same with Ferrari particularly and down the whole grid, so it’s going to be harder than it was last year or the year before to climb through the field, for sure – but I’ll do everything I can. It’s really about minimising the damage of taking the penalty. And I think… I mean it is a team sport. We win and we lose together as a team. Whether I make a mistake and the team take the penalty for it, or the team make a mistake, sometimes it’s not actually mistake, it’s just the kind of thing that happens. I don’t look at it as incompetence, I find it a growing experience for us because we’ve learnt a lot from the issues that have happened and hopefully won’t have them again. It’s just unfortunate that I’m the – I guess – the test mice, or whatever you want to call it,  that’s tested all of these issues, because obviously none of the other Mercedes engines has had the problems I’ve had.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport & Auto Action) Romain, we know you’ve had some balance problems with the chassis and the brakes – was that from the beginning of the season or is it something that’s evolved recently?

    RG: It came more recently, for some reason. Probably track layout, tyre usage, grip of the car. Yeah, we’re probably going to revert on some of the settings we’ve made. Hopefully get something that suits me a little bit better.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Fernando, you said in an interview that, if the nature of Formula One next year doesn’t change significantly, you stop – even if you win the championship. Is it really that bad? And Lewis, what is your opinion on that: is driving the car nowadays really that bad?

    FA: Well, I think I said, sometimes already that next year I finish my contract with McLaren, the one that I have now, so I will have to make a decision if I continue in Formula One or not. I think in the last couple of years, especially with this turbo engine era, the car is a little bit different to drive. I don’t say that it’s better or worse, everyone will have his opinion. I’ve been lucky enough to drive 2003 cars, 2004, 2005, even until 2009 the cars were, in my opinion, more extreme, more Formula One cars, so now when I see GP2 running three seconds away, or something like that in FP1 it feels a little bit sad. Cars are heavy. No grip. We save fuel, we save tyres, we save everything from lap one, so it’s a little bit against the instinct of the driver and next year is a big question mark. I think with the new regs everything will change a little bit. I think if the cars are fun to drive, are exciting to drive, I will probably stay longer and I will drive for more years in Formula One. If the cars are still giving me the feeling that I have in the last couple of years, probably I will stop. But it’s not related to whether you are competitive or not. If you are out in Q1 or winning a championship. It’s just you are enjoying driving the cars or you are not enjoying. Right now, in my opinion, the cars are not enjoyable. Probably because I drove other cars. If you arrive now to Formula One, these cars are very fast and very fun to drive – but not for me anymore.

    And Lewis, your thoughts on the challenge provided by the cars?

    LH: I agree with everything Fernando said really. There’s two aspects. Fernando’s obviously one of the best drivers we have here and yet he’s had an incredibly challenging last  couple of years with a not competitive car, so it’s understandable if that continues that way then it’s no fun for any of us. We live and breathe to win. Knowing in himself that he could fight for a championship if he was sat next to me for example, in our car. In terms of the rules, the cars are going to be the same next year. It’s a different looking car, the same issues are going to be the same and, what Fernando’s saying, we slow down as soon as we’ve done the start and got that out of the way, generally we’re not pushing 100 per cent like perhaps they used to do. It was a more extreme race back in the day, it was a sprint. For us, all starting in go-karts, that’s what it was from the get-go, from the lights out it was a sprint race to the end. Formula One’s not about that anymore. It’s about preserving your tyres, preserving the battery power, preserving the turbo, preserving all these elements which are not what people tune in to see. So, the governing body is continuing to push the car. Next year’s still going to be even more heavy, probably not have great grip. The car will probably be faster but it will have the same characteristics, probably, as what we have now. I might be wrong but most-likely. We’ll drive the same next year, just with a heavier car, and having to save fuel, save tyres, do the same things. Yeah. Probably said more than I needed to say!

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, if you do start from the back, you say you will do all you can to limit the damage of taking a penalty. What would be a realistic finish if you do that?

    LH: Honestly, I have no idea. Honestly, if you look… fourth? He says fourth. Honestly, I really don’t know how far I can get up. It depends, the pace of the other cars. We’ll start tomorrow and we’ll find out. If Red Bull are right close with us, that’s two cars less, that’s three down and then the gap follows behind. If the others are much much slower than the possibilities go up. There’s going to be safety cars, all sorts of things. I started last in Belgium, er, in Hungary a couple of years ago when the gaps were much bigger and came fourth, so Sunday’s definitely going to be harder than that and I just hope that I can get into the points. As long as I’m going forward, that’s what matters.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel 4) It’s just a really simple question for everybody: did you have a lovely summer holiday? What have you been doing? Did you have to take homework with you from the team bosses or were you allowed to forget about F1 completely?

    RG: Well, I spent some time with my family in Corsica. I had no phone signal and no internet and that’s no disruption. I just spent the morning on the bike, afternoon with the kid on the beach so fairly straightforward and easy holiday.

    FA: I’ve had some good time off and no homework from the boss.

    EO: Yeah, I had a good summer break as well. I went surfing with some athletes from Quiksilver so they taught me the balance a bit, so that was interesting and yeah, some times with friends and family. It’s what you need during a summer break.

    MV: Yeah, pretty similar to everyone else, I think, spending some time with family and friends which is always very nice, to relax a bit and then spend some days just at home before you come here.

    DK: Yeah, like you said, it’s was a lovely holiday so it was good. I did a bit of karting but mainly I stayed at home. I didn’t follow what was going on in Formula One or anything so it was OK. Very good.

    LH: Well, mine was a little bit different to everyone else’s but I had a good time. I went to a lot of different countries, I travelled a lot the first two weeks and then the last week stayed in one place by a beach. I think I visited six or seven different countries during the break. I didn’t have homework but I did homework during the last week.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, in this vacation, did you take ten minutes without your mobile?

    LH: The last two weeks I didn’t have… I tried to avoid my phone. Of course, I needed to stay in touch with some friends but generally check in in the morning, put it away and then in the evening… and there were some days I didn’t even check it at all.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Max, you came directly from Formula Three to Formula One, 17 years old, and Ocon, 19 now and he had GP3 experience last year; is that enough for a driver to come to Formula One even if the circumstances show he has the capacity, in your opinion?

    MV: Yeah, I think in the end it doesn’t really matter where you come from as long as you do a good job. Once you’re in Formula One it’s up to yourself to show that you’re ready. I don’t think it has to be in F3 or GP3. Once you go to Formula One you have to show it.

    OE: I agree. Age is just a number in the end, you have to show that you are capable of driving in F1 and to show to the right people. I think that’s the most important thing. When you arrive in F1 then you have to deliver like Max did. That’s the target for me as well, when I come here.

    Q: (Joe Van Burik – De Telegraaf) To all drivers; a new official Formula One racing game has been released. I was wondering which of you plays racing games yourself and how close to the real thing are the simulation racing games these days?

    LH: Why would you think I do?

    MV: I don’t know, maybe you want to keep up to date, I don’t know.

    LH: Ah, no. I don’t play any simulation games, my brother does, but I haven’t played a computer game for a long time. I’m getting old, it’s what happens when you get to my age.

    EO: Yeah, I play in the winter to keep the rhythm a bit, even if it’s not really exactly the same thing, to keep some competition in, I’ve been playing with some other drivers on line but yeah, I’m not in the 2016 so yeah, I didn’t try myself on this one.

    Q: How realistic are they?

    EO: It depends, some are closer than others. F1 2016 it’s not too bad, it’s great. The tracks and the graphics now are much improved. It’s getting closer and closer to reality.

    FA: I am 35 now.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel 4) Just to clarify Lewis, what homework did you do last week?

    LH: It’s secret, top secret stuff. I’d have to kill you if I told you.

    MV: You can tell me.

    LH: I was just making sure that I was up to date with where we’ve been this year and then what I have to do and what I’m doing, moving forwards. After I left in Hockenheim, I was partying eight hours later or whatever it was so just making sure that I was up to date, hopefully before my engineers got back to work as well.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, Spa maybe is the circuit where you can most use the kerbs. Is there any previous orientation from the FIA or will you discuss Friday in the briefing?

    DK: I didn’t get it: can we use the kerbs? Yeah we can, of course, we can use them, no problems. Was that the question? Well, we have to discuss on Friday again I think, like always.

    Q: Lewis, has there been a directive from the FIA about track limits?

    LH: As far as I’m aware not yet. But we anticipate there might be because… I don’t think there’s any more than at any other track. There’s just Eau Rouge and then there’s turn 15 maybe? There’s still those kerbs so that might be something they consider but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.

     

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • Hamilton gets British GP pole

    Lewis Hamilton claimed a fourth career British Grand Prix, taking top spot on the grid with a superb last-ditch effort after his first Q3 flyer was deleted for exceeding the track limits.

    Overnight at Silverstone the race stewards had informed teams that a “zero tolerance” attitude would be taken to drivers utilising more of the track than is legal, particularly at Copse, Stowe and Club corners.

    Several drivers were penalised during the course of the session and after taking provisional pole position with a lap of 1:29.339 Hamilton too felt the stewards’ wrath as he went over the kerbing.

    “The penultimate lap was a very good lap but unfortunately it was taken away,” he said. “I touched the kerb but it pulled me further. It didn’t feel like I was going to be running wide but the car bottomed and kind of bounced just outside the line.”

    That handed P1 to Rosberg with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in P2 ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

    Hamilton was left with a single run in which to stake his claim to top spot and the defending champion delivered in spectacular style, bettering his first run time by five hundredths of a second. Rosberg failed to improve and thus Hamilton his fourth career British Grand Prix pole.

    “A lot of pressure for that last lap. I was just sitting in the garage and I knew that I couldn’t let the guys down as on the first lap I had,” said Hamilton. “The second lap wasn’t as good but I was obviously making sure I was cautious, making sure I got that lap in. I’m grateful that I did and really again thank you to my team who have done an amazing job to have the performance we have this weekend, it’s outstanding.”

    Behind the Mercedes duo, Verstappen held P3. The Dutch driver failed to improve on his first-run time but Ricciardo too could find no more pace and the teenager out-qualified his more experienced team-mate for the first time since joining Red Bull ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. Today’s result is also Verstappen’s best qualifying finish to date.

    Kimi Raikkonen claimed the front slot of row three with a time 0.263 behind Ricciardo. The Finn survived a Q2 scare in which several errant laps saw him in P15 in the final moment of the middle session.

    Raikkonen found a clean lap with his final flyer, however, to make it through to Q3 in P6 and then bettered that by one place in the final session. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel took sixth place but is set to drop down the grid after requiring a replacement gearbox following an issue in FP3.

    Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Williams ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

    The first session saw Jenson Button, in the second McLaren, eliminated in P17 ahead of Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, the Manors of Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein and the sole Sauber of Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian’s team-mate Marcus Ericsson did not take part in the session having been sent to hospital for checks following his heavy crash in FP3.

    There was confusion ahead of Q2 with McLaren believing that Button might make it into Q2 owing to the possibility of Magnussen’s final time being deleted. But it was not the case and Button’s scramble to be ready for the session, having left the garage after Q1, was in vain.

    Raikkonen’s was not the only driver to make a good escape in Q2. Carlos Sainz too put in a superb final flyer to rise from the lower reaches of the order to claim P8 and a Q3 berth.

    Behind tenth-placed Alonso, eliminated in Q2 were Force India’s Sergio Perez, Williams’ Felipe Massa, Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Magnussen.

    2016 British Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.739 1:29.243 1:29.287
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:30.724 1:29.970 1:29.606
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:31.305 1:30.697 1:30.313
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:31.684 1:31.319 1:30.618
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:31.326 1:31.385 1:30.881
    6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:31.606 1:30.711 1:31.490
    7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:31.913 1:31.478 1:31.557
    8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:32.349 1:37.770 1:31.920
    9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:32.115 1:31.708 1:31.989
    10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:32.281 1:31.740 1:32.343
    11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:32.336 1:31.875
    12 Felipe Massa Williams 1:32.146 1:32.002
    13 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:32.283 1:32.050
    14 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:32.237 1:32.241
    15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:32.553 1:32.306
    16 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:32.729 1:37.060
    17 Jenson Button McLaren 1:32.788
    18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:32.905
    19 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:33.098
    20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:33.151
    21 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:33.544
    22 Marcus Ericsson Sauber

    eom/FIA press release

  • Hamilton tops times in both the FP

    Hamilton tops times in both the FP

    Hamilton during second FP. An FIA image
    Hamilton during second FP. An FIA image

    Silverstone, 8 July 2016: After edging team-mate Nico Rosberg by just three hundredths of a second in opening practice for the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made lighter work of the second session, taking top spot by almost four tenths of a second ahead of Daniel Ricciardo after Rosberg failed to take to the track due to car issues.

    Rosberg pushed his chief championship rival hard in the morning session but his second 90 minutes of track was halted before it had begun, with Mercedes detecting a water leak in his car. The German did climb into his car again an hour into the session but when the engine was fired up another issue was found and he sat out the remainder of the session.

    By contrast Hamilton’s session was smooth, with the defending champion setting his best time of 1:31.660 after 35 minutes, using the Soft compound Pirelli tyres. The time was marginally slower than his morning best of 1:31.654, set on the Medium tyre.

    With Rosberg ruled out of the session, Ricciardo took second place 0.4s behind Hamilton, running the Briton closer than in the morning when Ricciardo was fifth and 1.1s behind the Mercedes driver.

    The Australian’s team-mate Max Verstappen also made progress, finishing third after taking P7 in the FP1. The Dutch teenager’s time was almost a second quicker better than his best lap of the morning.

    The Red Bull driver took third almost three tenths of a second clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who repeated his FP1 slot of fourth, nine tenths off Hamilton’s pace. The four-time champion’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, ended the session in fifth, 0.166s ahead of the lead McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso.

    After a quiet start to the weekend for Williams, with 12th and 13th positions respectively for Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in FP1, the team improved in the afternoon with Bottas seventh and Massa 10th. Behind Bottas in eighth was Haas’ Romain Grosjean’s Haas with Jenson Button in the second McLaren ninth, though the Briton was seventh tenths of a second down on team-mate Alonso.

    2016 British Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.660 36
    2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:32.051 30
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.286 36
    4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:32.570 40
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.736 38
    6 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:33.040 31
    7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:33.493 38
    8 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:33.614 32
    9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:33.763 20
    10 Felipe Massa Williams 1:33.801 29
    11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:33.840 27
    12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:34.000 32
    13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:34.139 35
    14 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:34.154 25
    15 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:34.321 35
    16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:34.356 37
    17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:34.549 40
    18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:34.610 41
    19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:34.722 36
    20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:34.959 41
    21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:35.841 36
    22 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0

    eom/FIA press release

  • Yes they are scary deterrents but no team orders, says Hamilton

    Yes they are scary deterrents but no team orders, says Hamilton

    DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Jolyon PALMER (Renault), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Pascal WEHRLEIN (Manor)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Hamilton-centre-front-row-at-the-Thursday-Press-Conference.-An-FIA-image

    Hamilton-centre-front-row-at-the-Thursday-Press-Conference.-An-FIA-image

    Jenson, let’s start with you, 2009 Formula One World Champion? A positive result in Austria showed clear improvement in car pace. Was that circuit and tyre-specific or do you expect that to roll out this weekend and the weekends to come in the best few weeks?
    Jenson BUTTON: First of all, good afternoon. I would say it was weather-dependent rather than tyres. I think the conditions helped us quite a lot. In the wet we were pretty quick and in the drying conditions we made the best of it. Put it P5, and obviously got lifted up to P3 and was running P2 for a bit of the race but were quickly put into our place. But considering that, I don’t think P6 was too bad. The three teams in front of us were a massive amount quicker than us but to beat the cars that we did, we did alright. Coming here I don’t expect to be qualifying fifth, unless we get some really good British weather and have a good downpour, which I’m hoping for, because then I think we do have more of an opportunity. Yeah, we’ll see. Then race is going to be reasonably tricky for us here. The car is very good in low-speed corners. High-speed corners we don’t really know. We do have some upgrades, aero-wise, engine-wise, so it’s moving forward. It’s just never as a quick as you hope is it. But the guys are doing a very good job of bringing something to every race and on the power side it should be a positive step.

    That’s performance, but in nine races McLaren has only managed to get both cars to the finish on three occasions. Is that because you are pushing it so hard in development or is reliability a bit of a concern?
    JB: I don’t think so. If you look at a lot of teams, cars aren’t finishing and yeah, so I don’t think that is an issue. I would rather be pushing things to the limit and getting better results and possibly having some reliability issues. We’re not fighting for a world championship this year, far from it, so it’s important for is to try to maximise what we have, enjoy the weekend and get the best out of what we have on the weekend and I think they are doing a good job of balancing that.

    Thank you. Romain, turning to you, you were back in the points in Austria, your fourth time this year scoring points, the first time since Russia. It was based on a long stint on the tyres. Were you encouraged by what you achieved in Austria?
    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, I thin Austria was a good weekend for us. I think qualifying could have been a bit better but then the car felt great for the long run on tyres. We understood a bit better how to use them, so hopefully we can transform that and keep it going here in Silverstone. Then in the race the car felt good. We managed to get the one-stop strategy that we planned working. It’s a shame we didn’t have enough speed to just overtake the McLaren but generally very happy with the result.

    It’s only the first season for the team but performance seems to have fluctuated all season. Do you feel you now understand the strengths and weaknesses of this car, enough to establish a good baseline for next year’s car, for example?
    RG: I think we started very well and then we had some issues, very different every time, that didn’t allow us to score points. I think Baku and Canada we did have the chance to score points but once we had debris in the radiator and the other time we lost the front wing. That cost us a shot at good results. I think we could have been a bit more consistent but it’s a brand new team, first year and things like that you expect that to happen. Hopefully now things are a bit more settled and we can try to score points as much as possible.

    Pascal, turning to you, your first Formula One points last time and the first for Manor under that name as well. It was based on getting the tyres into the right operating window, which has been a bit of a struggle for you and the team this year. Do you think you have learned the magic formula now?
    Pascal WEHRLEIN: I don’t think so. I think the new surface in Austria helped us a lot. It was quicker and so we put more energy into the tyres and it helped us a lot. We were in the working window for qualifying and for the race and we could extend the run in the race. In qualifying, on the first lap the tyres were there and I could do a very good lap with P12 in Q2 and that’s it.

    You’re coming from a track that you knew very well from your previous racing experience to one here at Silverstone that you have never raced on I believe. What are you looking forward to about Silverstone, what’s exciting you?
    PW: I think there are many nice corners, like… I don’t really know the names, but it’s Copse of Hops…

    RG: Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel…

    PW: A bit strange names but still the corners are really nice, really high-speed corners. I like that challenge, basically. With the Manor car it won’t be easy because we are struggling a bit with downforce. In general, I am really looking forward to drive this track tomorrow. I’m always looking forward to new tracks.

    Thanks. Turning to Valtteri Bottas, a podium finisher here a couple of years ago. Of course you know all the corners, you’ve been through them many times in the past, one of your favourite tracks I believe. It’s been a good track for Williams over the past couple of years. This year do you arrive here feeling optimistic you’ll be able to compete on that same level again, because at other circuits this year it seems to have been a bit more of a struggle for you?
    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, definitely. It’s really cool to be in Silverstone, one of my favourite tracks. It’s a home grand prix for Williams so it’s always great. There is a very special atmosphere racing around these high-speed corners. Of course we have high expectations, but we will need to wait and see how the practice goes, because there have been some circuits where it’s been very close… I mean, just a few races ago we had high expectations but we couldn’t execute that. We just need to do everything we can in the practice, find a good set-up with the car and try to get the tyres to work perfectly. That’s been the main issue in Baku and Austria. So yeah, just waiting for quali and race and hopefully we can be high up there.

    Now, I think that I’m right in saying that you’ve had the opportunity to drive some of the great Williams F1 cars from the past around Silverstone in your time in with the team. Tell us about how that felt, any highlights, what the experience was like?
    VB: Yeah, I’ve driven Keke Rosberg’s wining car from ’82 and Damon Hill’s car from the ‘90s. Yeah, it’s been really cool trying out those cars on the same track that I’m driving in nowadays Formula One. Of course they are very different. Completely different behaviour. The technology has gone so much forward nowadays. But I have to say that with the cars we have now it’s a real enjoyment driving here in these corners, so I wouldn’t change that.

    Turning to Jolyon, first British Grand Prix as a Formula One driver. Some 135,000 people are expected here on race day. Everything has built up to this I guess, so what does this weekend mean to you?
    Jolyon PALMER: Well, it’s huge. My first British Grand Prix, a race I’ve been looking forward to since the start of the year really. So a track I know really, really well, I’ve been racing here for a long time. And I love the track as well. The layout is awesome, lot of fast corners. You need a lot of commitment but I really enjoy it. And then the crowd, which is every year fantastic here. Been coming here myself for many years and now to be racing Formula One here is going to be pretty special. So I’m looking forward to it.,

    Now you out-raced Magnussen in Austria, but you haven’t managed to get into Q2 for a while, in fact I think it’s the first race of the season. So is qualifying the clear for you at the moment?
    JP: Yeah, 100% really. For us we have been quite close – Montreal I was only 15,000ths off Romain to get to Q2. It was really close. Austria as well we were OK but then we had a red flag and we struggled to get the last set of tyres on. I think we’re not far away and hopefully this weekend we can find the last bit. I think the track should suit us more than the last few. And then once you’re in Q2, you’re starting a few places higher, you’ve got the pace to start a few places higher and you have more chance of scoring points. I mean they are the two aims: to get into Q2 and then score some points.

    Turning to Lewis, defending world champion of course, a three-time British Grand Prix winner. Just mention to Jolyon there, 135,000 people expected here on race day, so a lot of expectation, but lets’ talk about the championship. Twelve races to go, 11 points behind your team-mate, nearest rival challenger is 50 behind. Do you see this now as a two-horse race and how excited are you about it?
    Lewis HAMILTON: I don’t think it’s a two-horse race. I should take a page out of your book [Jenson], good afternoon everyone. No, I mean, it’s the same as it’s been since the beginning. It’s still a fight. I think Ferrari are still there. Sebastian has had a couple of unfortunate races but they are still a force to be aware of. Every time I look up the cameras go… watch this!

    JB: We need some silent shutters, can we do that?

    LH: We do, we do. It’s definitely a nicer position to be in. I’ve definitely seen worse days and worse times, obviously I was 43 points behind at one point. It’s still behind but it’s not impossible to come back.

    Mercedes bosses met with you and Nico and the team’s issued a statement in the last couple of hours saying “in the last five races there have been three incidents that have cost us over 50 points in the championship. We have therefore strengthened our rules of engagement to include much greater deterrents to contact between the cars. With these in place we will our drivers to manage the situation. Their destiny is in their own hands.” Now clearly, last time out in Austria, the stewards found that the collision was your team-mate’s fault but what’s your comment on the statement today and how will it affect the battle going forward?
    LH: In all honesty, I think our destiny has always been in our hands, so it doesn’t realty change anything. We are still able to race, no team rules or team orders or whatever it’s called, which I think is great for the fans, so I think everyone should be excited.

    And you’re both completely clear on what it all means and what these “much greater deterrents” are?
    LH: Yeah.

    Are they scary deterrents?
    LH: I should say yes.

    You should?
    LH: I guess I should say yes.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport Magazine) Two questions for Valtteri. Has the team discovered what went wrong in the last race and going into the second half of the season is Red Bull still a target or are you looking over your shoulder at Force India?
    VB: First of all with Austria, it was a really disappointing race for us. Like Pascal and Jenson said they could really use the conditions to their benefit with the tyres and the temperature and the new asphalt but for us it was completely the opposite, so we really struggled massively. I think there are multiple factors. I’m still yet today to have a better look with the engineers about it. I can say we don’t 100% understand our performance yet. We have some kind of ideas but we are still analysing everything. But the good thing is at least we now to a more normal type of tarmac, not new at least, so hopefully it works out better. With the Red Bull, definitely they are strong and they are getting stronger all the time. But we also have some updates lined up. I am trying out the new front wing that Felipe tried out in Austria. I think we both have and also some other updates lined up for the next few races. With that in mind then if we can get better results than Austria and if we start to understand things better and really use those tracks that are good for us, getting string points for our cars, then it is still possible. I think it is a good target for us to try to put pressure on them, try to beat them in the races and if we can’t make it then at least we should finish ahead of Force India.

    Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA) Question for Lewis, you, Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell have all won three races, British Grands Prix at this circuit. If you win on Sunday you’ll be the most successful British driver at Silverstone. Have you thought about that and what would it mean to you if you won?
    LH: Is that true? Nigel has four. [one at Brands Hatch] Ah, I see. No pressure then! I didn’t know that. Ask me if I get there. It doesn’t change anything into the weekend. As Jenson said, it’s a great thing to be able to arrive here and have the incredible support we have. We’ve definitely got the best following of fans here and the Brits turn out regardless of what the weather is, they turn out in their thousands and it’s just a very  proud experience being here and being able to represent all the Brits. I’m still of the mind that… I remember being here when I wasn’t even in Formula One and one day dreaming of driving Formula One, so it’s just crazy to think I’ve had those wins here and I hope that I can continue to, along with the drivers here, raise the flag proudly.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Along the same lines Lewis, as time has gone on, this race has grown bigger and bigger for you and for the British sporting public and I wonder if there is a point where you have to be very disciplined about it not affecting your weekend performance and how you approach the weekend to find that balance between what you normally have to do and this massive audience which you find yourself facing?
    LH: Honestly, I personally draw a lot of energy from the fans. There’s races where you have a few and races where you have a lot. You come to Silverstone and that’s when the energy is in abundance. I just absorb that. Seeing people that have saved up there money to come and spend their money here and put all of their energy towards you getting across the finish line first, that’s… pretty much impossible to describe how amazing that feels. And when there’s so many of them, all drivers will talk about it giving you that extra tenth or two on the weekend and I generally find that is the case. So the more and more there is, hopefully there’s more time in it. Don’t know if that’s the case, I hope so! I’d like to believe so.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Has Toto given you any guidelines about how you can race with Nico, side-by-side now? For example, could you do what you did in Suzuka or Austin last year under whatever new guidelines there might be?
    LH: Unfortunately Andrew, everything that’s been said is private and confidential so I’m not allowed to… it’s a good question. We’re still able to race, and obviously in those races the stewards deemed me racing, so we… I… will still race like that.

    Q: (Qasim Abdul – Renaissance Foundation) Lewis, my question is in two parts: how can young people get into Formula One first of all. Because it’s not broadcast as much as other sports. Second, when we spoke to you, you were very interested in “Peace”, and right now with all the media that’s going on, how can we spread peace [unclear] Would you like to come with us to the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway?
    LH: That sounds pretty cool. I’ve never been invited. Is it a good gig?
    It’s in Oslo, so it’s really cold, but good…
    LH: Maybe we should chat about that off-line. I’m always up for good events. Peace. For us as a team, fortunately we have people higher-up and obviously we’re adults so we, with our bosses, we work very hard, or they work very hard to try and dilute whatever tensions there are between all the people in the team. Whilst it’s not the easiest thing to come across, it’s something that I think, as men and women, we are able to reach an agreement at that point. So, while at one specific moment you might be angry, there’s always peace on the horizon. The first one, it’s really hard. It’s not like the other sports, like football, tennis, basketball. Not taking away from how hard it is to get into those sports but growing up I could go and buy a basketball and play in my driveway. You could play at school, you could play anywhere you want. Go-karts, you have to go and find a kart track, you can hire a kart but it’s expensive. It’s very expensive, and that’s the issue. But there are people, like Carolyn Hoy who does the karting championship in the UK, who really try to make it manageable for all families. Ultimately there’s going to be a wealthier and those families that have less money – but I think Jenson and I, from what I know of Jenson’s background, we both didn’t have money but we both got here which shows it is possible. There is always a way. Where there’s a will there’s a way and our parents somehow found that way. Jenson’s Dad worked so hard – he even did my engines, at a decent rate as well! He didn’t overcharge us! Our job is really to encourage kids. And it’s not just for motor racing. It really is for whatever it is that they’re into. I guess this is a platform for us to real inspire people in whatever genre or sport or form of work or whatever ambition they have, to fight for it and not give up, even though times do get low. I think the races we have that are good and the races that are bad, hopefully through those experiences we show that.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, if you were a team principal – let’s suppose – in the circumstances you are facing now with Nico, what would be your reaction? You would let free completely? You would give some orientation? Because you also would answer to the president of the company, for example.
    LH: Me personally, I think I’d be in a better position because I’m a racing driver, so I know what you would do, and what I would do on a race track and what I would not. Our great engineers and generally individuals who don’t race, it’s difficult to understand the decisions we take when we’re racing at 200mph. So I think I’d be in a better position – but I’m not going to tell you what I would or would not do. I would want them to race, that’s for sure, and I wouldn’t bring in team orders ‘cos racing is why I’m here and why I’d want to be there: to see the guys race. I’d probably be more understanding that, when you have cars that are racing first and second, there are going to be times, out of 60 races together… I don’t know if it’s five collisions we’ve had, I don’t know how many collisions we’ve had, but it’s a small amount compared to the amount of successful races we’ve had and 1-2s we’ve had. So, that’s me.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel Four) Just a really simple question for the British drivers: what’s your favourite thing about coming home to race here in Britain? Whether it’s on track or something you do off-track like seeing your families or watching TV or something…
    JB: Watching TV or something! That’s the best question. I’m not taking the mickey, it was a very good question. The best thing about the British Grand Prix. We can say that we love the circuit because I think every driver likes Silverstone. It’s flowing, there’s so much history here, whether your car works here or not, you still enjoy the circuit. As a British driver, it has to be the fans. It has to be the support that you get here. I camp here, as a few of the drivers do, and when you drive from the campsite – motorhome site I’ll call it, glamping I think it’s called – you drive in, see the people coming in, see the Union Jacks, and obviously the different team kits. They don’t just come here to support the British drivers, they come here to support whoever they like and whatever team they like. But if you drive past someone with a Renault hat on, and you’re a British driver, he’s still going to cheer for you. And he’s still going to say good luck for the weekend – or a Mercedes hat – because they’re so supportive of Formula One as a whole, not just individuals. Which is what makes this race so special. I think for everyone a race that stands out because of that. Also, after the race we get to go to the stand, where they have the live bands, and standing up there, whether you’ve had a good race or not – and most of mine haven’t been good here – you stand up there and there’s just a sea of people, different flags, people that are British, people that are from all over the world that come to watch this race, the atmosphere’s electric. It’s a very special feeling. Then you head back to the motorhome and have a Bar-B with your mates. It’s old-school. Like the karting days.

    LH: I’m trying to think what it is because you’ve now taking my answer, so I’ll pass it to Jolyon for a second.

    JP: Not getting onto a plane to get to a race is a bonus. Just an hour up the M40 is quite nice. It’s the same as Jenson, it’s the fans, I think. Home support, friends and family that can come up as well but just generally the fans are pretty awesome here.

    LH: He’s covered then all!

    JP: I’m just going broad so you’ve got no more options!

    You mentioned the fans earlier Lewis, but I wonder also racing here, as Jenson said, it’s old-school. Does it basically just bring back a lot of memories. Does it connect you with your childhood and all those races?
    LH: What I love firstly, is landing here the other day, whether it’s going home, seeing family, driving down the countryside where I grew up, seeing friends who I grew up with. I guess just being around something you’re used to. We’ve been to Baku, for example, and it’s all new: you don’t know the streets, you don’t know the restaurants. Here you can go to your usual favourite restaurants, meet up with your friends, it’s an amazing feeling. Last night I caught up with a couple of friends that I grew up with, that I met 21 years ago. It’s that but most importantly, as Jenson said, it’s when we arrive here. It’s the history, it’s knowing that we’re going to be one of only 22 people in the world that get to be here and one of the relatively small amount of British drivers, compared to the amount of people in the world, who get to come here and represent their country. It’s just an amazing feeling when you get on your home turf. I would imagine it’s similar for football fans in their own stadium with their own fans… the majority of fans are there for them. It’s unbelievable. It’s as powerful as, for me, the energy is as powerful as the sea. Like a wave. It’s unreal. It’s so powerful it’s hard to absorb – but you absorb as much as you can. It’s amazing.

    Q: (Angela Bern – SID) Lewis did the reaction of the crowd last Sunday in Spielberg affect you in any way? They were booing during the victory ceremony. Is that something that affects you, that you are thinking about afterwards?
    LH: Fortunately not at all. I don’t know if you saw my Snapchat but I had an amazing time literally… once we got away from the track, leaving, went to a really beautiful place for the last couple of days and had the best two days of the year. And also, someone mentioned to me that potentially that someone… some of the fans didn’t see exactly everything what happened and also a comment from someone that… someone told me that someone said that I had rammed Nico off. I understand that that was the first reaction and whether some of them still feel the same away, it doesn’t really make a big difference. This weekend, the cheers will make those boos so small which is a good thing.

    Q: (Mikolaj Sokol – Rzeczpospolita)  Lewis, when you’re battling on the track, attacking or defending, what’s the balance between rational thinking, preparation and analysis, and just pure racing instinct and reflex? What goes on in your mind in those split seconds when you have to take a decision the track?
    LH: Can you just tell me that again? I’m just struggling to… So when I’m racing for the championship, the balance…
    Q: (Mikolaj Sokol – Rzeczpospolita)  No, when you’re battling on the track, attacking or defending against any other driver, what’s the proportion between thinking, analysing and preparation, when it comes to every move on the track, and pure racing instinct in those split second decision?
    LH: Well, the more of every single one of those, the more instinct, the more preparation and the more… yeah, you want to have it all. Some of us drivers have more instinct, some of us drivers have better preparation, but we’re all working on our skills throughout the years to be the best at overtaking and analysing manoeuvres, so when I’m trying to make a manoeuvre, for sure it’s analysing the weaknesses of the car ahead, analysing your strengths and then planning and executing and in executing it takes a lot of instinct to know… you know, when you go for a manoeuvre, you basically have a calculation, a percentage of your chance of overtaking. Sometimes it’s 100 percent, sometimes it’s less but as racing  drivers, we even go for the small percentages and that’s what makes us racing drivers and if we don’t then we’re not racing.
    Q: Any others? Valtteri, does it come from experience, how much of it is experience, how much of it is instinct?
    VB: I think it is both really and of course it depends completely on the situation. Sometimes you don’t have time to plan things, if something comes in front of you in the race and you suddenly need to go with your instinct rather than planning. But it is funny, sometimes, when you’re really at your best, really focused and sometimes it feels like there’s plenty of time to think about the situation, what to do and how to make the move and then if you see it in the replay for example, it just looks really quick, completely depends on the situation.
    Q: How about you, Romain, because you had to consider how much risk was appropriate? You went through that process and it made you a better driver.
    RG: I knew that would come to me! I messed up a few times. I think the start, for example, is instinct because you cannot prepare for what’s going to happen in front of you and you cannot think ‘well  these guys are going to turn right and they’re going to go left  and so on’. It’s all at the minute and that’s where you really need to take the right decision and aim for the right objective. And then during the race, there are other times as Valtteri says where you can take your time and you can actually follow another guy for a few laps and for a while and then you know that you’re much faster and I can actually go for it and it feels more natural but it’s well prepared. Another case where a car just comes out of the pits in front of you and in the instinct and decides to go right/left.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Romain, arguably last year you had a pick of where you could go. You could have stayed – if the rumours and the gossips are to be believed – you could have stayed at Lotus. You could have gone to other teams but you chose Haas. Nine races into the new season with a new team, what are your thoughts? Are you happy you’ve made that decision? What do you want to do next year and also tell us a bit about NASCAR.
    RG: Well, I’ll tell you one thing. On the 9th of September last year, I made my decision and I didn’t regret it from there. I like to think before, but when I stick to one plan then I don’t like to regret. I think I’m living a very nice experience in a very good team, very proud to be driving for the US, for a US team. Very proud to have scored a first time ever in Formula One, the first points for Haas so all of that together, it’s a very nice experience and I don’t regret one thing that I’m doing and the more we go, the more we learn, the more the people I work with are really following the same trend so that’s great.
    NASCAR, when I was sitting on my sofa watching the Sonoma race, I wished I was there. It looks good fun, I liked the last lap with Tony Stewart winning the race and pushing Martin Truex a little bit wide but it was great fun. I do need to get a few laps, a few days in the car, do some laps, get some good sensation and then I will come to do a race.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobild Motorsport) Lewis, if in future you will get some team orders – you or Nico, you will get some team orders – would you follow them or would you react as angry, two years ago when your team told you to let Nico past but you didn’t?
    LH: Oooh, buddy, you’re feeling in a certain way, hunh? Hey, you’ve just got to let it go buddy, that was a couple of years ago. I would, that’s my job, that’s what I get paid to do. That’s what we agreed today, that’s what’s in our agreement. If you go back to 2014 and if you listen to the manuscript, you understand I didn’t say no. I just said I won’t get in the way. He didn’t get close so…

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Just going to back to instinct versus experience, Valtteri I’m just wondering: turn one at Bahrain with Lewis? Was that instinct or was that experience, maybe get some Lewis input here?
    VB: It was both, I think 50-50. For sure coming into the corner I remember seeing a gap there, I was sure I could get inside and try and keep my position. Not sure Lewis maybe saw me and I was also sliding at the same time, slightly drifting off the apex, not a lot but… Yeah. I don’t know how Lewis saw it. I would say that was a 50-50 situation.
    LH: I can tell you, I didn’t see it, I just felt it. I don’t know, it was a racing incident.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, speaking about you being a team boss. Seeing what Nico did last week, would you understand it as a racing driver?
    LH: Didn’t I just answer that question? I’m pretty sure that I did say that if I was a team boss I would be in a better position to understand the situation because I have driven and know what I would do in that situation. I do believe so. I’m pretty sure I said that before.
    Q: Would you accept from Nico’s point of view, would you be more understanding of Nico’s point of view?
    LH: Any more than I am now? I don’t really understand it, more accepting than what?
    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) As you are a racing driver, seeing it as a racing driver, would you understand what he did?
    LH: Well, I understand it now and I would understand it then. It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong. I would have to take an opinion, I would have an opinion whether it was right or wrong but I would understand it just as I do now.

    Q: (Casseem Campbell – Renaissance Foundation) On a more positive note…
    LH: It’s all about positive energy, yeah.
    Q: (Casseem Campbell – Renaissance Foundation) To Lewis and Jenson. I’m a big believer in the mental part of any sport as I’m a tennis player as well. Well, not a tennis player, I play tennis. I wanted to know, in terms of Formula One specifically, what are the main nuance qualities you feel that a Formula One driver has to have to be successful?
    LH: Good question. I think… is that for all of us?
    Q: To you and Jenson.
    LH: Go first.
    JB: You’ve started mate, go for it.
    LH: Ah s***. I think it’s very similar to other sports. I watch other sports like tennis and I’m amazed  when – and I always refer to Federer as one of my favourite players – when a player’s up and I understand the positive mental space you’re in when you’re up and then when you make a mistake, how you don’t drop it all or lose it all, how they come back from a couple of sets down, for example and those kind of things. You take a lot of energy, I think I try to take a lot from that because for us it’s kind of similar, you know? We have our ups and downs, you have your good days and your bad days but as a racing driver, for us it’s a long long season, it is about focus, it’s about… the training helps massively. You go out for a run, it helps you really… you have a lot to think about. I think for every single person it’s different but for me, if I go and work out whatever it is, it helps me stay focused. It is about keeping the eye on the prize, it’s about learning through every single experience, whether good or bad. Hopefully you have more… hopefully you learn more through the bad times because that’s how you grow. You learn less in the good times I would say. But if you understand to learn and enjoy from the bad times, then you appreciate the better times. I don’t know if that’s really… I don’t think I’m answering it, I’m leaving you space to answer it. The nuances in the performance…
    JB: I think Formula One is a sport but it’s not as physical as most sports so it has to be mental. A lot of it is about feeling but mentally to have to be in the right place, you really do. Off the back of a good race, you have so much more confidence coming into the weekend. I think we’ve all been through tough times  in our careers and some people, they fall into the tough times and never come out again, and you see that with racing drivers which is a shame because you know the raw talent is there. So it’s not just about being strong enough as an individual because you can only learn that with time and it can be too late by the time you’ve learned that, you are already cast aside for another driver. So you need good people around you to support you, family and obviously close friends but also the people you work with. Formula One is a massive team sport and it’s not just about people doing their job correctly, building the front wing or designing the rear wing or what have you. It’s about making sure that you are in the right frame of mind and everyone working together and making sure there’s a positive attitude, because it’s not just the drivers that have difficult days, it’s the mechanics as well and the engineers who have a bad day if they make the wrong call. They’re told they’ve made the wrong call and it hurts, mentally, a lot. And it’s about you all pulling together in those difficult times and making the difference. It’s a massive mental game, Formula One, and a lot of people don’t realise that.
    LH: Ultimately down to the positive mental attitude. I think that’s the key, as Jenson said.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Thursday Press Conference

  • Team leaders talk on Friday: Austrian GP

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Graham WATSON (Toro Rosso), Beat ZEHNDER (Sauber), Luca FURBATTO (Manor), Rob SMEDLEY (Williams), Paul MONAGHAN (Red Bull Racing), Yusuke HASEGAWA (Honda)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Rob, if we could start with you, an unusual kind of day: a very fast morning session, record lap times, but then the early part of the afternoon affected by rain. How much do you feel you were able to learn today and what does the rest of the weekend have in store for us?
    Rob SMEDLEY: Well, you never learn as much as you want to, even in the dry. So when you’ve got the session interrupted by rain like we had, right in the middle of the session, then you learn even less. I think we got out of it what we could have done in the circumstances. There are quite a lot unknowns going into Sunday in particularly. In terms of qualifying learning, as long as it’s dry tomorrow morning then we’re fine in terms of what we need to know for that. In terms of the race there are going to be unknowns but it’s the same for everybody. It’s a case of tracking where the asphalt is going, the rubber/tarmac interaction that will be evolving over the weekend and ensuring that we’re on top of it.

    It’s been quite a turnaround; Williams have become Formula One’s pacesetters in terms of pit stops, recording the fastest stops of any team at the first few races of this season. That’s quite a big change from the last couple of years, how’s it been achieved?
    RS: Hard work. A lot of hard work. A really good collaborative effort I would say from everybody, right across the groups, from everybody who is involved with the pit stop performance, identifying where the weak areas were, then looking at detail design. We haven’t changed anything fundamentally but we have certainly been through a lot of subtle detail to get around the Achilles heel of last year and the year before. And then really good work within the race team itself, in terms of how we co-ordinate ourselves, how much practice we do, the type of practice we do, making that relevant to a Sunday afternoon.

    What was the Achilles heel – wheel nuts, front jack?
    RS: It’s fairly clear. It’s not a secret. You can watch the television and know why we were so slow. We couldn’t get the wheels off. We were taking one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half times longer than anybody else to get the wheels off in the stop. It’s been a really, really good effort in particular by the suspension design group to design our way out of that. I think it’s been absolutely fantastic and you’ve seen the results: it doesn’t hamper us anymore, it leaves us many more strategies, and a lot more tactics are open to us on Sunday afternoon, whereas they weren’t in 2014 and 2015. I think a lot of people don’t realise that it’s a one second loss in a pit stop but that has huge ramifications for your strategy and tactics.

    Thanks for that. Paul, coming to you, obviously Baku was a little bit of an outlier as far as you’re concerned with a lot of problems with the tyres and heavy degradation. Has that been sorted and have you got an explanation for us today?
    Paul MONAGHAN: We’ve developed some theories and they stand scrutiny within our own analysis. The proof of the pudding of course is that we don’t repeat it, and we have no intentions of doing so. As is often the case when something goes wrong, it’s a cascade of events that occur in sequence and each one actually happens. So a number of things went wrong. I think we triggered the degradation ourselves and if our theories hold tight we won’t do it again.

    Is that by running lower downforce?
    PM: No, not in isolation. It’s a whole number of things that come together, as I would expect anybody else would offer you. It’s not one thing that’s going to cause a tyre to do that. Don’t forget that we started with a pretty hot track; we finished the race with a cooler track. So many things changed through the race that weren’t even associated with the car, so I think we know what happened and we won’t do it again don’t worry.

    Now, yesterday here, Daniel Ricciardo confirmed he’s committing his future to the team, as has Max Verstappen. What difference does it make to you and the engineering group to know that you have got the same drivers for a period of years now in terms of development, design etc, and is Daniel right in saying that he feels your team is building for a challenge for next year’s world championship.
    PM: It’s great to have the two of them signed. I think the way Daniel has been driving this year is amazing. Obviously Max has arrived and caused quite a stir and he’s clearly going to be one to watch. In terms of setting the design of the car, clearly it means we know what we’re packaging around. We’ve got them both in this year’s car, so looking forward to 2017 it’s one less challenge to deal with. In terms of their feedback, they are both very good, so it’s not as if we lack anything in terms of driver feedback. They are both articulate, they’re both knowledgeable and their feedback is valid and relevant. It’s not as if they comment on subsets that have little effect on the car. We know that we have two that are good at it. It’s settling as opposed to facing an unknown, I’ll take that every day.

    Thanks for that Paul. Luca, Manor are still looking for the first point but you’ve had at least one Sauber behind you on the grid at the last three grands prix, so are you beginning to get to where you want to?
    Luca FURBATTO: Yes, I think the answer is yes. From memory we out-qualified both Renaults in Baku, both Saubers in Canada, very close to Q2 in the last two events. Everybody has been working very hard. We’ve got a development plan for the rest of the season. We have new parts here in Austria, we’ll have new parts in Silverstone and as I say, we’re pushing very hard. We want to convert the performance gain in qualifying also into race gains.

    You mention developing the car still. How much pressure does it put on a small team like yours to have to come up with a car to a completely new set of regulations such as for 2017 and what expectations do you have for next year?
    LF: I think the regulation change is a massive one for everyone and obviously it’s a tough one for a small team. Every team is dealing with pressure. Every team will have its own pressure. We had a lot of pressure in 2015. We had to rebuild the team; we had the late signing of a new power unit. I think last year we did an amazing job to turn up on time with a new car that was significantly quicker than the last year. We have pretty much doubled in size and I’m very optimistic that we can do a very good job for next year as well.

    Hasegawa-san, turning to you, the new turbo seems to have helped at the last couple of races. How far would you say you are off now being able to extract the maximum from the power unit and can you confirm that this current power unit design is the right one now and you won’t need to do a redesign for 2017?
    Yusuke HASEGAWA: Regarding the turbo, we introduced a new turbo in Canada. Of course we are never satisfied with the performance, there is always room to improve. Regarding an ERS system point of view, we have some limitations in the regulations, the maximum power is 120 Kw and also the energy is limited, so from that point of view I think we have achieved almost a decent, satisfying level from the turbine. Last year here the power was cut off in half of the straight, so it was a disaster last year. So from that point of view we are proud of that. But on the other hand, the internal combustion point of view still we need to improve the engine performance and we are currently trying the very hard job to redesign, not redesign but to improve the engine for next year, so that is ongoing.

    So it’s not a redesign for 2017?
    YH: Not completely redesigned. Of course there are a lot of places we need to redesign.

    So tell us what is the development plan for the next few months and the rest of the year?
    YH: We are hopeful that we can introduce some of the upgrades in a couple of races. I have already confirmed we see some good elements, so as soon as we are ready we will introduce it.

    Graham, coming to you, Toro Rosso retaining Carlos Sainz for another year, which will be his third year. It’s quite unusual for the team to do that with a young driver. What’s the thinking about holding on to him at this stage?
    Graham WATSON: Yeah, you’re right, generally over the last couple of years we’ve had a fairly fluid driver line-up, so to have Carlos at the team for a third year is fantastic for us. Obviously Red Bull are the people who hold the contracts for the drivers, so we pretty much live with what they like us to use. We are very happy to have Carlos, he’s a very quick driver, very focused. He’s got a strong desire to be a world champion in the future, so that’s his big drive. For a team, continuity breeds good results and to have him for a third year allows us to build on what we’ve been building on for the last season and this season and hopefully we can deliver some of the targets we’ve been setting ourselves with his experience backing him up.

    Picking up on what we discussed earlier on with Rob Smedley, pit stops are occasionally a problem for Toro Rosso. Are you looking to make a Williams-style improvement for next season?
    GW: Yeah, pit stops are a constant irritation. We’re probably somewhere where Williams were and listening to Rob we probably have got a very similar problem of getting the wheel off fast enough and back on generally. We are obviously looking at all areas of the car for 2017 with the new regulations but clearly we have a big focus on trying to improve the situation with pit stops, giving the guys the equipment they need to achieve what are now fairly phenomenal pit stops from Williams and Ferrari. We are on average about a second behind and as Rob says that has a massive impact on strategy and how you can call your race as you go.
    Q: Beat, coming to you, Felipe Nasr was here yesterday and said there is a much more positive atmosphere around the team, salaries have been paid, tell us what’s changed, and what the outlook is like.
    Beat ZEHNDER: Paying salaries definitely helps for the atmosphere in the team! Paying the salaries, the outstanding salaries, is part of a comprehensive solution we were still working on but for any details you have to ask Monisha. Obviously there is a change in atmosphere because now everyone believes again that there is a future. The crucial thing so far was not to give up and I think we can be very proud of our team here on the track and at home that kept on pushing in our very limited areas. There was always light at the end of the tunnel – but as you know Switzerland has just opened the longest railway tunnel in the world – the light was always there, the tunnel was just massively long. The tunnel is getting shorter now.

    Q: Obviously you do a whole bunch of different roles at the team. In such circumstances how difficult is it to keep the team all together, to hold on to your key people and just keep everybody moving forwards?
    BZ: It’s not always easy, it’s for sure easier on the track because everyone who is here loves to do what they are doing, they love racing and so the motivation part on the race track is a simpler one than back home in the office. For the technical department, for the design office, sometimes it is quite frustrating, knowing you have things in the pipeline but you cannot bring it to the track because of financial reasons. But, as I say, there should be a brighter future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) We understand there is a new protocol regarding tyre pressures from this weekend. What’s your view on that? Does it make any sense? Is it a step in the right direction? Will it change anything at all?
    PM: Accepting that I have some competitors in the room, it’s… I suppose if you’re presented with a set of regulations, it’s for the competitor to demonstrate compliance, so in this circumstance we’ll demonstrate compliance. It makes our life a little bit easier; it changes the challenge a small amount but at the end of the day we’re judged relative to our competitors, therefore we’ll observe the technical directive and it’s then up to us to extract the most out of the package for the rest of the weekend. In amongst everything else that can change on the car – and you saw in P2 a slight interruption from the weather – it’s something that we’ll take in our stride and deal with.

    Rob, from a Williams point of view, anything to add?
    RS: I think that I pretty much agree with what Paul said. It’s up to us to adhere to it. It’s a technical directive. I don’t think that it’s going to offer a great deal in terms of any great differences to what people are doing now. Possibly in practice it changes things a little bit but I really don’t see it as being particularly significant.

    BZ: If the result of the new procedures are lowering the starting pressure then we are very happy with it.

    GW: Same

    LF: Just a little bit easier operationally, particularly for the free practices but, as the others said, not a big difference.

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Question to all of you about Brexit. Can you talk about the implications for your team economically? Because there are different countries represented here. It would be interesting to get the opinions.

    BZ: I can give you some guidelines on working with customs papers if you are not belonging to the EU!

    What about the teams based in the UK first of all. Rob?
    RS: I don’t know. It’s too early to say, isn’t it. When you’ve got the two leading parties slightly in turmoil and we haven’t decided what to do yet, the people of Great Britain voted, they took a decision. If democracy stands then we’ve got to stand by that decision and it’s up to the politicians really. It’s not going to be something that will be solved in the short-term. I think it’s probably going to run on and there’s going to be lots of smaller, down to almost-insignificant elements that are still going to need sorting out and organizing still in years to come. As far as the impact on Formula One is concerned, I’m sure everybody here would join in by saying that hopefully it’s negligible. Whether it will be, whether it changes the way we travel or who we’re allowed to employ, I don’t know, let’s see. I’m sure in the short term there’s not going to be anything significant.

    How about you Luca, as an Italian working in England, any concern there?
    LF: I’m not an expert on the subject, I never cracked the Italian politics, let alone the British ones, so unfortunately I think it’s a bit too early to say.

    Paul, presumably all the staff that you employ, the ones who come from Europe, you can argue they’re highly specialized, I guess that would help in the future.
    PM: I don’t think we know at the moment. To answer the gentleman’s question, in the short term it’s had no impact on us. As Rob said, we await the long-term impact and I’m sure everybody will face the same guidelines and interpretations of it and we’ll comply as a company, obviously, and we’ll seek to strengthen and hold our position within the sport, whatever that incurs.

    Hasagawa-san, obviously Honda investing in the UK – any concerns there?
    YH: Actually I’m not in a position to actively join this conversation. I hope the UK people will manage this situation smartly. I respect every decision you made, I think.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) To Paul but also all of you: we saw what happened to Max with those Abu Dhabi kerbs. They have been installed at several corners. Are you comfortable with those or do you want to have a change?
    PM: Comfortable? No. Our car didn’t ride them terribly well and I personally think it would be a shame if other cars incurred similar problems so how that’s resolved I don’t know. That’s hopefully for later today. In terms of the integrity of the car, I have no concerns with the integrity of it. We’re quite happy to field it. Daniel continued to run. If they’re there, we will miss them.
    BZ: No thoughts, really. I’m waiting for five o’ clock, the drivers’ briefing. I’m pretty sure drivers will have something to say. Pretty sure drivers are not too happy but they’re… normally the kerbs are there for a reason so Charlie would normally say ‘just don’t go there.’
    Q: That’s what you expect the outcome to be, is it?
    BZ: Yeah. Maybe we’re going to remove one or two.
    GW: Same as Beat really. I’m sure at five o’ clock it will be a hot topic to be discussed so we will wait and see how the drivers and Charlie  get on about it.
    LF: Yeah, we went over a couple of them in FP1 and 2. We didn’t have any problems but I’m sure they will be discussed with Charlie and the drivers.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Regarding the radio rules, we always hear many complaints from the drivers that the cars are too complicated to operate but actually Felipe told us yesterday that it was the task of the engineers to make the cars as easy to operate as possible so the drivers don’t have a problem with it as Lewis did in Baku. Do you agree with that? Is it possible to make the cars easier to operate, so they don’t have to bother with the switches so much, and is it possible to implement a kind of audio guide into the car which tells them which switch is doing what? It seems to be logical from the outside.
    RS: Well, to answer the part about the audio guide then no, that’s not possible for various reasons. And to a certain extent he’s right, Felipe’s right when he says that it is up to the engineers to make the cars as simple as possible, not only to drive but to operate as well. That’s something that we’re always very keen on pushing, that ethic if you like, at Williams. I think there’s lots of times that we have an idea but the complexity of that idea when you turn it into reality far outweighs any benefit you can get from it, and I think trying to simplify… it’s the job of an engineer really to be able to chose systems or methods that keep you on the peak of simplicity and performance. So yeah, to a certain extent I definitely agree with him that it’s up to us. What happens in other teams, I can’t really tell you. The regulation as it stands at the minute we adhere to it, we comply with it. It makes our lives a little bit more difficult at times, especially when there’s more critical messages to pass but it’s the same for everybody. Again, it’s one of those things that people talk about a lot and apart from with Mercedes last Sunday afternoon, it doesn’t really make a big difference.
    Q: These power units are very complex, Hasegawa-san. Do you try and make it as simple as possible for the drivers to operate and manage?
    YH: Yeah. The issue is that the regulation is to ambiguous. I don’t know what is banned and what is OK so sometimes –  like in Baku –  we had the oil temperature was very hot so can we tell the driver that the temperature was very hot? Even that is… so we evade the issue. With some regulation we can tell that but some of the engineers say that it is not OK. It is very complex and I would like to understand; does it make the race really exciting or..?

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – MotorsportTotal.com) You have all approached a period where you are starting work on the 2017 cars and I’m sure most of you have progressed a lot already. Particularly for the smaller teams, there’s going to be a point in time very soon where you will have to stop working on the 2016 to manage your resources. Can you tell us what updates you have planned for the rest of the season and when is that point coming when you are going to completely stop working on the 2016 car?
    GW: We clearly see 2017 as a big challenge and 2016 is obviously still very important because we have our lofty height of trying to be fifth in the championship which is an aggressive target and probably quite tough to achieve but we don’t want to give up on that so I’m sure that there are some upgrades coming for the future over the next two or three events. But the focus in terms of 2017 has already moved towards that car and has been for a little while now so what we are going to bring to the track over the next few events is already being developed and designed and put in the pipeline. So in terms of your question, I suppose yes, 2016… we’re nearly there and 2017 is in full flight.
    BZ: Yeah, same for us. We have some bits and pieces coming for Silverstone and then Hockenheim possibly but then the concentration is fully on 2017. We still have the aim to be in front of the Manors and possibly beat the Renaults but realistically, we have to concentrate, as a small team, fully for 2017.
    LF: As I mentioned, we have upgrades here and we’re going to have one in Silverstone, Hungary and Belgium and Monza so we’re still pushing for the 2016 car, obviously, but most of the guys here, a small team that started a few months ago on the 2017 car and it’s just a progressive transition during the season, and more and more people will shift to the 2017 project. For a small team like us, obviously we can’t start to think about 2018. Some of the top teams have already started looking a year in advance, ahead of 2017 but we have started and that’s the important point.
    RS: Yeah, I probably touch more on what Luca just mentioned really. I think that the focus of the front-running teams now has already switched to ’17. There’s certainly updates coming for us. We’ve got updates coming for every race from now almost until Singapore but they were already programmed, they were all ready to come on line. It’s really a case of… the focus isn’t between ’16 and ’17, it’s between ’17 and ’18 because there’s certain things that we are already thinking about for… that we would put in towards the back end of ’17, the middle of ’17 let’s say, and even ’18. I think the focus is slightly different now. We were answering the ‘16/’17 question in Australia and Bahrain. We’ve possibly moved on a bit.
    PM: In essence, I would echo that. Part of our team is ’17, part of it will still look at ’16. I would imagine that every representative in the pit lane will have some sort of revision for some circuits. If you take Monza, for example, I bet everybody turns up with skinny wings so it’s not as though we can ignore ’16 and that’s true of everybody. The amount of effort we put in will be determined by our aims, progress, wishes, ultimately our own judgement.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • We work as a team, one group as Ferrari: Kimi

    We work as a team, one group as Ferrari: Kimi

    Thursday Press Conference in progress. An FIA image
    Thursday Press Conference in progress. An FIA image

    DRIVERS – Esteban GUTIÉRREZ (Haas), Felipe NASR (Sauber), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Renault), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)
    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Daniil, can we start with you. Good qualifying last time out in Baku but results are proving hard to come by at the moment. Are you now fully settled back in with the team and what are your goals for the rest of the season?
    Daniil KVYAT: Yeah, I think step by step it was coming better and better. We had a few competitive, in terms of pace, weekends and Baku was certainly one of them, starting from the third row. That was already a good achievement, even though of course the points are given on Sunday, that’s why we didn’t manage to finish let’s say. But I think there are plenty of races left, things are coming better and better and I’m feeling more settled in the team. They are giving me lots of support because obviously coming in like this wasn’t very simple but now things are more clear and I’m just enjoying racing. I’m enjoying myself and to be honest I’m having a really good time.

    This is another power circuit obviously. Are we starting to see the effects of your one-year old power unit versus all the current units?
    DK: Yeah, we do. To be honest, already Baku was one of those tracks where it wasn’t meant to be easy for us but nevertheless we found good compromises and managed to make a good Saturday. I think here is going to be another very difficult weekend for us. Obviously it is a power-limited track and most of the time on the straight it’s not the biggest friend of us. Still, you know, we have to keep fighting and play the best game with the cars we have in hand, so we will just do our best and then we will see where we are.

    Thank you for that. Felipe, coming to you, you won the GP2 feature race here back in 2014 and you made the most of the package in Baku, getting into Q2 and then racing up to P12. How satisfied were you with that result, which I think was your best of the season so far?
    Felipe NASR: Oh, it was pretty good, you know. I think it was one of the very first trouble-free weekends I had and I was able extract the maximum from the car, from the strategy. We actually had pretty good pace in the race, able to fight the McLarens and I was pretty close to the top 10. I mean, not enough but it was a decent weekend, you know. If we can have something similar here and if we c a n have a bit of fortune on our side then maybe we can score our points of the season.

    It’s your second year in Formula One. Looking at the rest of the field and prospects for your team, where do you go from here, do you think, looking forward?
    FN: Where do I go from here? [Laughs]. Well, we still have 13 races to go, there’s so much to go on yet, so many things to roll and happen. I’m still fully committed to the team I’m pretty sure. The situation seems to have got better from what I hear – getting all the employees and the salaries paid it juts gives a boost to everyone back at the factory, at the track. I’m sure we can soon start updating the car. All we want is the results on the track, which I think we can have pretty soon. So we just got to keep on doing what we can for now.

    Thanks for that. Esteban, Haas has fallen from fifth in the Constructors’ recently to eighth, but you personally have been on a bit of an upward curve, you out-qualified your team-mate in Monaco and Canada. What’s been making the difference for you?
    Esteban GUTIÉRREZ: Well, I’ve been pretty unfortunate in the first part of the season. It hasn’t been easy to have a lot of technical issues. It wasn’t very straightforward. Therefore, I believe it wouldn’t be fair to rate my season based on the points, because I’ve been in a lot of positions to score the points in many races and not been able to finish the race because of different reasons that were not in my control, so now it’s been improving a bit. It hasn’t been easy in the last three grands prix because of my health, but now I feel much better so now I’m looking forward to the next four grands prix, which are pretty close together.

    The F1 paddock is now starting to think and talk about next year, new contracts and such. Have you started that process yet with Haas?
    EG: Yeah. I know pretty much where I’m going, so…

    OK, sounds good. Kevin, coming to you, there have been some notes of optimism coming through from the team’s pre-race preview materials. What is it about your car that’s really not worked recently and that gives them some optimism about this race track?
    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: I think we have tried some very different things to learn about the car, to get a better understanding of the car we have and basically we are going back now to something we know and that gives a little bit of optimism. I don’t think it’s going to a lot better than previous races but hopefully we will be able to know what we have and to get a better weekend.

    Looking at it from the outside it would make sense to stop developing this car and focus 100% on 2017, but what are you, as a driver, asking for and what’s on the horizon?
    KM: As a driver what you care about at the end of the day is winning and we are so far off that that in my mind I would be fine to switch focus completely, because we are clearly not going to win with this car. The sooner we can start winning the happier I am and that’s what I want to focus on, so shifting focus as quick as possible I think is the best thing. But I am not team principal and there is a reason for that. Maybe more qualified people take these decisions but I trust whatever the team is doing.
    Thanks for that. Kimi, coming to you, 99th race start for Ferrari this weekend, puts you fourth on the all-time list for the Ferrari team. There has been quite a lot of discussion externally, ie within the media and among other teams as well, about Ferrari’s strategy decision-making in the last few grands prix. I know you have been on the wrong side of it a couple of times. Have you reviewed it internally and will you be approaching it any differently as a team?
    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No I think we did the best that we could. Obviously people outside the team can talk as much as they want. We cannot control them and it’s not our business. We work as a team, one group as Ferrari and obviously we always look at what we done over the weekends afterwards and we try to learn on everything, good and bad things. I think it hasn’t been easy weekends for us lately but I think we managed to turn them around quite well as a team. There are some decisions that have to be made over the races and we had no issues with them. We tried to make the best out of it as a team. Obviously certain situations have changed a few things in the last race, but it’s a normal thing.

    We’re now coming into that traditional part of the season where the Formula One paddock speculates about your seat at Ferrari for the following year. Do you have any clarity on whether you will carry on next year?
    KR: I don’t know. I know that I have a contract for this year and I don’t know what will happen next year. A lot of talk. A lot of talk every year I would say since I’ve been in F1. It’s nothing new. Same story really – people can say what they want and discuss but they have very, very little understanding of what’s happening and then this I’m not signing the contract. Well, if I was making the decisions then it would be very easy to tell what will happen, but I don’t. We’ll see. We’ll try to do our best and for sure the team knows my side of the story. That’s enough from me. The rest I have no interest to talk about it in here or anywhere else, apart from with the team.

    Thank you for that. Daniel, your 27th birthday tomorrow I believe, entering your prime I guess. Just a pair of seventh places in the last two grands prix though, whereas you had a chance to win the two before that. Is it all about the engine or have you personally lost a little bit of momentum?
    Daniel RICCIARDO: I haven’t lost anything. We had Canada, yeah, I think we could have done better than seventh. The second set of tyres flat-spotted and would have tried to maybe do a one-stop race if that wasn’t the case and that could have been a different story. Baku – I think it is a power circuit but also we knew we had gone a bit wrong after three laps in the race. We struggled a lot with tyres. We probably just haven’t executed the perfect weekend I’d say since… probably not for a while, but I think performance-wise there’s still more in there. We’re better than seventh, that’s probably what I’m getting at. This circuit will test us this weekend. Historically, the last couple of years it hasn’t been a strong one for us, but we’ll see. We’ll try to do what we can, hopefully better than seventh.

    There’s been quite a bit said recently about your contractual position over the next couple of seasons – discussions about Ferrari, but also discussions about options been taken up for the next couple of years. Can you confirm today that you are staying with Red Bull until at least the end of 2018?
    DR: Yeah. Yeah.

    A little more detail, a little more flesh on the bones.
    DR: Every word I say… one word turns into 10, and then 30 and 50. So, I’ll just leave it at that.

    But obviously a big part of that is it is your own decision to do that rather than take any other options or look at other options?
    DR: Absolutely. It goes both sides for sure. It’s a bit like what Kevin touched on. We want to win. This year is going to be tough for a world title but obviously where we are this year is where we are. You can’t do anything about that now. But looking ahead to next year and spending time with the team and seeing what’s ahead I think it’s the best place to be to try to challenge Mercedes, so that’s where it stems from.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Question to all of you. Obviously at the last race a couple of drivers, including Kimi, had some problems with the radio restrictions. We are now into the ninth race of the season and the new radio rules. What are your stances on this one? Lewis Hamilton said it’s impossible to memorise all the settings that you have on the steering wheel. Do you agree with that, or is it manageable? Is it fine like that?
    KR: I think it’s fine. Obviously always some certain situations you might have some issues that you want to talk but rules are rules and they’re the same for everybody. It wasn’t really any big issue. I kind of knew what it is but tried to get some confirmed things from it – but it didn’t change anything. It wasn’t anything that we had to know 100 per cent or we would have had some issues. I think it’s fine, y’know? It is what it is.

    Daniel, did you have any sympathy for Lewis?
    DR: um… not really. Obviously not directed at Lewis, I think anyone in that position… on race day you care about yourself, so certainly you don’t feel any sympathy for anyone else in those two hours on a Sunday. Yeah, I think Kimi touched on it: it is what it is; it’s the rules and, sure we can’t… I think everything we can do is in front of us, so some things, if there’s a failure during the race, the team’s allowed to tell us a certain procedure perhaps to fix the failure – for example an electronic thing or whatever it is – but in terms of engine modes and things like that, sure there’s a lot to do but we do know – or we should know at least where it all is. So, I think yeah, we’ve just had to adapt to it but it’s been OK.

    How about you Daniil? Are you good at this stuff? Are you quite techie? Do you enjoy it?
    DK: Yeah. It hasn’t been an issue for me. You might say the new generation… I haven’t played Playstation or anything like that, but it hasn’t been an issue for me so far. You have to prepare yourself for many scenarios. I try to predict these things and see what might happen. Of course it’s impossible to see everything – but it hasn’t’ been an issue for me.

    Felipe?
    FN: I think similar to the other guys. You either try to know the most you can on what you have to do in the race. There’s some things we can cover and some other things it depends on the team communication. Some of them, they’re not allowed to say – but I haven’t faced anything yet to be in such a situation. It is what it is.

    Esteban?
    EG: I have absolutely no problem. I like the idea because it will motivate engineers to get rid of a lot of buttons on the steering wheel. We just need two pedals and one steering wheel to drive.
    Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) To all drivers. We saw here the organizers amplify the run-off areas, increase the safety. And we come from one circuit where, most of the bends, you approach at 300kph, you didn’t have run-off areas. Which options you prefer? High risk or less risk?
    KM: I think it’s a difficult one because when you have do something to improve safety you do it. It has to be done. You can’t not do something for safety because it’s more exciting or whatever. If there is something that you can do to improve safety, you have to do it. But there’s no reason to deny that the more risky circuits are more fun. At least for myself I think so and I’m sure most of the drivers will say the same – but we can’t make the tracks more dangerous on purpose to make it more fun. But yeah, I guess that is a factor: for most drivers, it’s more fun when the track is more risky.

    DK: We’re coming from Baku and I got a lot of adrenaline, I was really on the edge all the time. I was always thinking ‘ this corner, if I make a mistake, it’s going to punish you’. I’m a bit old-fashioned on this question – but of course you cannot just put a concrete wall everywhere to make it exciting. You have to find a good compromise between paying the price for your mistake and not hurting yourself, obviously, because Formula One has been investing so much in safety and it is incredible what has been achieved. Let’s say here also, Turn Five, Turn Six, there are gravel escape roads so you pay a higher price if you go off, let’s say. I think this kind of track, they have a bit more value. In my view, personally.

    Esteban?
    EG: I have the same opinion as Kevin and Daniil.

    Felipe?
    FN: I would say so. I think Baku was something… you would pay the price for it if you did a mistake or something but we’ve been working so much on safety that we don’t need to give up all of it to just say we should risk more on tracks that is, more… if you want to call it dangerous. Like the other guys said as well. It’s also true to say that some tracks, you lock-up, you go off and you come back on the race… I feel for me it’s sometimes so easy to give up time there and you are back on the race. If it was like before you wouldn’t have been able… if you have a gravel trap or something, you would have lost a lot more time to come back. Drivers that do less mistakes, somehow they get benefited.

    How about you Kimi? Precision’s always been a big part of your game.
    KR: Well, comparing last race and this, they’re completely different because one is a street circuit so it will never have the run-off areas than in a normal circuit. In the end the FIA has the group that works on measurements of how much run-off area you need in each place and, y’know, it’s safe everywhere. They would never make the circuit where there is not enough run-off area in how they calculate the chances. It may look different but the end result, it can’t be an awful lot different. Obviously it will because it’s a street circuit and there’s no space like we have here at a normal circuit. I think it looks a lot of different but in the end it’s a different place. Every circuit is different. Some are a bit older circuits, obviously then there are different run-off areas. New ones usually are tarmac but what it good, what is not… you always try to stay on the circuit because that’s the fastest way around.

    How about you Daniel, how do you feel about paying a high price for mistakes on those sorts of tracks and this sort of track?
    DR: Yeah, I think we’ve all got a similar view. It’s a hard one. You obviously want to balance the safety always but Baku, I can obviously speak because I had a… it wasn’t a big accident but it was at least an accident and, yeah, I thought it, in a way, had a good balance because it destroyed my car, so if that was the race it was clear I was out – but the impact didn’t feel like anything. So I thought all the… you paid a price but looking at the track you were going to pay it in a safe way. Sure the walls, sometimes don’t tickle, but wherever there was the high speed there was generally a SAFER barrier or something. So, I think that’s the main one. As Felipe touched on, if you do make a mistake, at least pay a bit of a price for it. Whether it puts you completely out of the race or not, at least lose time – because sometimes it is too easy to just run wide, come back on and lose a second as opposed to losing ten or whatever. Yeah, tough one. I’ve always liked street circuits. It does give you the biggest rush, and I think now they’ve got a good balance. All the street circuits we go to are pretty good. Sure, you crash but I think you can crash safely.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, there are 100 points to gain in July. How many of those hundred would you need to still be in the fight for the championship in the second part of the season?
    KR: Obviously we try to get as many as we can. I don’t think one month will decide the whole story. It’s still a long way to go and the end of season a lot of things can happen. The point is always, when we come racing is to do the best and try to score as many points as we can. No need to make any plans. We go to every race like normal and hopefully get out the good result.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport magazine) Daniel, your team-mate Max Verstappen has also been confirmed through 2018. How do you see that relationship evolving or is it too early to tell?
    DR: It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen in the long run. I can obviously speak for the first few races and it’s been good. Max came in and set a bit of a tone in Barcelona. That was obviously a pretty crazy weekend and I think since then it’s been good. Obviously Monaco didn’t work as well for him and he openly admitted it and took it on the chin. In a way we’ve thrived off the new challenge, the new rivalry, so hopefully it can keep pushing the team in the right direction. Hopefully there is some rivalry. A rivalry would probably mean we’re fighting for victories more often. Sure you can still have a healthy one. I think if you’re mature about it and if you can basically just admit if one guys better on the day and be open about it, then you’ll have good respect for each other. It’s probably when you start making excuses out of nothing, is when it doesn’t work out so well. Keep going hard and, so far, so good.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) Bernie had the idea, fifteen or maybe 20 years ago, that there should be a race at the Olympic Games, every four years – a non-championship race? Basically, what do you think about this idea and of course, Felipe, will you be at the Olympic Games in Rio this year?
    FN: You want me to go to Rio? You want me to race? We have our break so if I’m in town, I probably will be, so a flight to Rio is not far away, give a bit of support to my Brazilian athletes wouldn’t be a bad idea. Yeah, but you said, to have a race every four years then I don’t know. I don’t know. I think we have got enough races going on already.
    EG: Yeah, it would not be a bad idea actually, why not?
    KM: Yeah, I wouldn’t mind another race.
    DK: We would maybe build a same car, probably, for the Olympic sport and all 22 drivers, same car, same tyres everything the same. Maybe it could be interesting, like a world final, if you like.
    DR: I was about to say, I like medals so yeah.
    KR: What can I say? There’s always ideas, let’s see what happens in the future but it’s hard to see that it’s going to happen so…
    DR: No points, but a lot of prize-money, I guess. Yeah?
    Q: A quick question: apart from Felipe, is anybody here planning to go to any of the Olympic Games, just as a spectator or is anyone hanging out there? No? No.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) Danny, as your 27th birthday is approaching, how do you look back at your career so far and are you where you expected to be, 10 or 15 years ago?
    DR: Getting deep, getting deep. Let me bring out my notebook and see what notes I made when I was ten. I don’t know. I didn’t really look back on it, so far, to be honest. I think it all happened so quickly that you just sort of get into a bit of a… you sort of roll with it and just keep going but sure, as a kid, I dreamed to be racing Formula One, it’s one of those things, you know. In 2011 I got my chance and it was like a dream come true but then you do a few races and then it’s like, OK, now I want to be with a better team and I want points and then I want podiums, I want wins. Fortunately I’ve been able to get some wins now which is a big box ticked for me but now it’s like, OK, I want the next best thing which is the World Championship. In a way, you’re never satisfied but I think obviously that’s good because I’m obviously still very young and hungry so I think that fuels my hunger but sure, I’m happy and I’m obviously very grateful to be in this position. I think of all us appreciate the… it’s 22 of us that are here. It is awesome but you can’t help but want more, you know? I think Seb at my age, already his 24… not 24, his four titles so I go look at Seb and I go aaahhh. Obviously I would love to achieve more at this age but fortunately I’ve got some time on my side, I think.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Esteban and to Felipe: Mr Ecclestone said that at the end of the new Concorde Agreement, he will fight to share the money in Formula One in a more equal way. You from Sauber, you from Haas, what’s your point of view about it?
    EG: Well, luckily I’m a racing driver, I don’t have to think about… Yeah, exactly. Well, it’s not happening now, not necessarily going to affect me. There are many propositions which are probably going around, many ideas but I’m sure they are going to chose the most convenient for Formula One. We have to think in all other sports and try to bring the sport higher and higher and if that is the right way then for sure everybody will be happy with that.
    FN: Well, I think it would for sure balance out things better for teams that are dependent on other resources. For example, Sauber is a private team, it just gives you a better chance to start the year developing the car, developing things. Sometimes you’re just so spread apart that we cannot even get close to other teams, just on how much we can do with Sauber, financially or resources. It wouldn’t be  a bad idea. For sure, it’s something to consider but it has to balance out for everyone as well, not only thinking about us so let’s see.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Coming back to the danger topic; obviously many fans and even some drivers say that danger is part of the attraction but if we look at the race in Baku, it was actually quite dull and every one of you seemed to be quite cautious, maybe because of what happened in the GP2 race, and we always moan about these big run-off areas and the tracks being not dangerous enough, or some people do anyway. But can you argue that actually a risky track doesn’t produce really good racing? If you look at Monaco or Baku, because you are obviously being more cautious and these tracks that are more safe and have these big run-offs actually are able to produce better racing, because you take more risks?
    DK: Well, it’s a good point because we saw in GP2 that it was quite a big mess, there was a lot going on so obviously everyone knew that on this track a lot might happen but actually didn’t happen, but these kind of races just happen and it was just a one-off. I think the track, when you look it, could provide a lot of entertainment and I think in the future that will happen, a lot of races on the track which I think will enter history because I think this kind of track, in my opinion, will provide some great racing. I think everyone was good because in the end we are professional drivers, no one hit the wall during the race. There was no safety car to reshuffle the strategies so everyone more or less knew what they were doing. The faster cars just went ahead, the slower cars just settled there in the middle so there was no big action going on, I think. I still think that this kind of track should be… of course not every track should be a street circuit. It didn’t affect me at least.
    Q: How about you, Kevin. As you came through the field, were you holding anything in reserve or were you giving it everything?
    KM: No, I think we were giving it everything but for sure, after watching the GP2 race I thought this is going to be a good one to finish because I thought there would be quite a few crashes and safety cars and stuff. For sure, I took a little bit more care not to crash but not a huge amount. I think it was just coincidence that no one did.
    KR: That’s probably why it’s GP2 and F1 is a different story. We’ve seen many other weekends when we watch their race…
    EG: I thought Baku was pretty exciting.
    DR: I was going to go more towards the open circuits, like the modern ones and that. I think some have done it well and some not as well. Yeah, that’s the thing. If you have a modern circuit then sure there’s some risk which is taken away because of the safer run-offs but if they shape the circuit well, then it can produce good racing. For me, Austin is a great example. Austin’s a pretty safe track, there is a lot of run-off but I think the way they’ve tried to design it… like turn one, it’s such a wide apex. You can take so many different lines into that corner, that creates great passing and you’ve got other corners on that track which are a bit unique. I think a lot of the time with our sport, a lot of it is one line. There’s an ideal racing line. I follow… also this guy next to me… we follow motocross a lot and there’s so many different lines in motocross and I think there’s some room in F1 to create something like that. Obviously not extreme but you’ve got some… you know the ideal line is perhaps… like in motocross you go the long way round because the corner’s like a bowl, it’s banked, you carry momentum but then if you’re close you sort of do a block pass. I don’t know, so maybe there’s some room for these modern circuits to be more exciting. So they’d be safe, sure, but the racing could be more exciting. I think there’s still some things which circuit designers can implement and maybe we can learn from other motorsports.
    KR: Obviously you always want to see more overtaking but it’s not easy, there has been a lot of different rules and stuff been done in F1 to create overtaking but has it really changed a lot? Over the years, not really in my view but you know you’re going to blame the circuits that they built, they will not spend I don’t know how many millions of dollars or euros, money, to make a new circuit like in US and expect them to make it without run-off areas. In MotoGP, they have to have run-off areas for when they fall down. They’re being used for a lot more than just F1, they are not building circuits just for us so they have to make everybody happy.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Kimi, I would like to know how difficult it is for Ferrari to get the right temperature in the tyres and what do you expect in this race?
    KR: For sure, it’s not been easiest job in the last few years but it varies a lot depending on how the circuit is, conditions, weather, all those things, what tyres we will have over the weekend and I think in the last few races it’s been quite difficult but we managed to find something and turn it around for qualifying, for the race. It depends how the weather will be here, obviously. It’s a bit unknown. There’s a new surface on the circuit so how will that affect things we will have to see but I think it should be OK.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) There are some rumours that the old Osterreichring will be restored, the big layout for endurance racing. As Formula One drivers, what do you think? Would it be better to use that one or is it OK right now?
    Q: Double thumbs up from Dan Ricciardo, you’re obviously aware of the history, Dan.
    DR: A little bit.
    Q: Seen the old vids on YouTube?
    DR: Ah, no, but I’m aware of it. For a few reasons. I think it would be cool to have a bit more distance on the track. I think next year, as well, if the cars are going to be as quick as they say they are then the lap times are going to be close to a minute which is a very short lap and I think it would create a bit more to the circuit. I think that there is the space so yeah, I’ve heard a few people talk about it and I think it could be pretty interesting for us.
    DK: I tried to open a video last night but wifi was slow so I had to give up. But I agree with Daniel…
    DR: He was too busy looking at other things!
    DK: No, sorry Dan!
    DR: Don’t be sorry!
    DK: So I agree with Dan, yeah, on track.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference
  • I hope we can carry on the form from Monaco, says Perez of Force India

    I hope we can carry on the form from Monaco, says Perez of Force India

    Sergio Perez (bottom row centre) at the FIA press conference on Thursday. An FIA image
    Sergio Perez (bottom row centre) at the FIA press conference on Thursday. An FIA image

    DRIVERS – Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber), Sergio PEREZ (Force India), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Daniel, let’s start with you, our 2014 Canadian Grand Prix winner of course. You didn’t want to hear what the team had to say after the last race in Monaco, so how have the conversations gone since, around strategy decisions, the pit stop issue and how have you personally got over the disappointment?
    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, I gave it a few days to cool off. I definitely felt after the race that I wasn’t in a place, probably no one was in a place to try to resolve what happened. For me it just get away for a few days and then address what happened once we’d cooled and settled. So I spoke to various people in the team and they basically explained what happened at the time and the situation. It was obviously important to hear the explanation but I think more important how to move on from it and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. They’d done a lot of things since then back at the factory and they have set up some new parameters and things that will happen during pit stops and before pit stops to make sure that these things don’t happen again and to make sure that tyres are ready and that various compounds are ready at once. So, yeah, obviously from my said now I’ve moved on. It’s obviously good that they’ve… I knew they were going to take it seriously because it was obviously a big disappointment for all of us, but I’ve been assured that if we’re in that position again then it won’t happen, so that was obviously what I needed and what I wanted to hear.

    With the Renault engine upgrade, which seems to be pretty valid there, as well as the nature of the Red Bull chassis and of this circuit layout here in Montreal, is there a realistic expectation that you can bounce back with this weekend with a win?
    DR: In my mind there is. That would obviously be a lovely way to bounce back. Let’s see, I think realistically Mercedes are still going to be, as expected, the ones to beat. I expect that we can be the next best, or I hope we can be the next best. But it’s hard, you know, Ferrari have been there and surprised us sometime and then been less surprising on other occasions. You never know, but I do believe we’ll be the next ones in line behind Mercedes and how far we’re behind Mercedes I’m not sure but hopefully close enough to again put some pressure on them and grab a win.

    Marcus, coming to you, a little bit of ice hockey this week with Valtteri Bottas. Who’s the more aggressive on the ice, you or him?
    Marcus ERICSSON: Most aggressive? I don’t know, but obviously Sweden and Finland have a big rivalry in ice hockey and it was a fun event and he was very good on the ice I have to say.

    Speaking of aggression, there was a self-destructive situation between you two Sauber drivers in Monaco. Do you and the team just have to accept that as Sauber isn’t really racing any other team you’re going to be racing each other like this week in week out?
    ME: No, it shouldn’t be like that of course. Now it happened in Monaco and we all spoke about it and discussed it and we cleared the air about it. We had different opinions but it’s all done and settled now and we are looking forward to Montreal together as a team.

    Thanks. Felipe coming to you, you’re scored points in four of the last five Canadian Grands Prix, you’re the only driver this season to have scored points in every round and you’ve been ahead of your team-mate 60% of the time. How satisfied can you be with that?
    Felipe MASSA: Well, satisfied, when you score one point, is not really the right answer. I really hope we can score more than what we’re doing. You always want more. It’s on the consistent side in terms of scoring points but we need to work to get a little bit more than one point like we did in Monaco and getting closer to the top five at every race, that’s what we want to do, that’s what we’re working for and I really hope that we can carry on scoring a good amount of points at every race.

    Williams has owned third place for the past few seasons but that looks to have slipped to fourth this season, and Force India in the last month or so have been coming for you as well. What’s holding you back?
    FM: Well, I think that Red Bull is definitely the team that has grown most and as everybody could see, they even won races this year and they were fighting to win even the last race, so I think with the other teams we are fighting a good way. Definitely Monaco was not the best track for us but I’m really looking forward to being competitive back here and even in the next races and be back on this important fight to maybe even fight for the third, which would be not so easy, but to keep our fourth position also I think we can do and we’re fighting for that.

    Thank you for that. Kimi, coming to you, three podiums from the opening six rounds is your best start to the season since 2013, but do you and the team feel that you have fallen behind Red Bull rather than closed on Mercedes?
    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I wouldn’t say it like that. We know what we’ve done, we’re definitely more strong in the car and other areas than we were last year. Maybe the results haven’t showed it exactly, but it’s not been the easiest start for us as a team, but we know that as long as we do our stuff and keep working it will pay off. As I say, it’s not been what we’re looking for exactly, but the package has improved and we’re working on that all the time. We know our weaknesses and where we have to improve. Obviously you always look for better results and wins, putting the two cars up there, but so far it’s been a bit tricky this start of the year, but we are more or less there, so we keep doing the same things.

    A significant update to the car is a pretty traditional thing for Ferrari in Montreal, so the turbo update you have this weekend has been long awaited. Will this now allow you to fully exploit the power unit?
    KR: We fully exploit it all the time. This is a step forward. How much, time will tell. It’s a new part and we would never put any new parts on the car if we didn’t think it improves, but is it going to be what kind of step? I don’t expect any miracles suddenly but it’s the right direction and it’s something that’s been for a while that we’ve been waiting to have it. It’s more like any other new parts we bring, it’s not suddenly something magic, so it’s a very normal work in progress for us as a team, as Ferrari, and it’s going in the right direction all the time.

    Thank you for that. Jenson, coming to you, a former winner of this race, the epic wet race of 2011, two other podiums here in Montreal in 15 appearances at this track. Tell us what makes this place special for you, and what’s the best way to drive it?
    Jenson BUTTON: Wow, what makes it special? I think it’s always your history that makes a place special, isn’t it. First time to every circuit, it’s nice, but it’s the history and your experiences there that makes a place special. 2011 was very special. You know me, I’m a trouper, and it’s about fighting through and never giving up. So, it’s always those special experiences that make an event for me.

    And the best way to drive it? The best way to be quick here?
    JB: To be fair, you need a car that is efficient. You need a car that’s good on braking. I suppose every circuit is the same, but those are specifically important areas/. It’s having confidence to use the kerbs here, carry speed and when the weather is like this, making the right calls.

    A bit like Felipe, it’s not been big points, but you have scored in the last three races, from a fairly consistent P12, P13 on the grid. Where is the step coming from to get into Q3 and challenge for he bigger points?
    JB: For big points, I think it’s going to be a while before we’re actually going competitive enough to fight for big points, but we are making good progress. People would think that this isn’t a circuit that would suit our car, but it’s going to be alright. We’ve come here with some upgrades, which should help us. It’s not big but it should help us. We are very efficient in terms of our car. I know that Exxon Mobil had been working very hard with Honda with fuel. We have an upgrade here, which should help in that areas, so, yeah, we’re positive.

    Q: Sergio, coming to you, fantastic podium last time out in Monaco. Your sixth in Formula One. You scored one here back in 2012. Is there a sense of optimism that you can continue this strong run?
    Sergio PÉREZ: Well, Monaco was a very special race under certain conditions and to get into the points , everything worked perfectly for us: with the strategy; with all the calls that we did in Monaco. So it was a race under very special conditions. We are expecting something similar here for Sunday but you never know. I really hope we can carry the form, y’know? Probably podiums is not the realistic word for us at the moment but certainly continue the progress and keep scoring points and aim to beat Williams, which is the team ahead of us, which is going to be difficult but I think we are making good progress and we are getting better and better every race.

    Q: With 100 grands prix on the board in what’s been essentially a career of two parts, where do you go from here? Do you sense that there is a chance to move back to a top team?
    SP: You never know. To be honest I’m not really obsessed with that. If that happened that would be a great opportunity to me and I really hope in the near future I can have the opportunity to be in a car that can give me the opportunity to win. But right now all I can do is to focus on this weekend, do my best for this one and then after this one think about Baku and whatever. The most important thing for me is to focus on the present and try to keep doing the job that I’ve been doing so far.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Daniel, I’m interested to know in the debrief whether or not, in the context of other dramas we’ve had at Monaco over the years, drivers missing the red light for scrutineering, Lewis’ obvious problem last year with the call, whether or not Monaco itself is a function of the issue that happened, because of the tightness of the garage, the general confusion of Monte Carlo, or if it was something that could have happened anywhere?
    DR: I think… yeah, the nature of the pits and everything in Monaco, it does make it harder to move around. The garage is small. Whether it would have been a different story at another track, I’m not sure. I think it came down to a late call, a late change of heart. Basically after the team saw what tyres Lewis had put on, they decided to change their decision. Let’s say we were always intending on using one compound and once they saw Lewis change, or go to the UltraSoft – I think the team probably expected him to use a SuperSoft – then it got them thinking and then it was all a bit last-minute. So, whether a last-minute call, say at Barcelona, would have allowed that to happen a bit more fluently, I’m not sure. Yeah, I think the call was just a bit rushed and with Monaco being what it is, it was probably just a bit chaotic for the circumstances. I think it all probably added up: small garage; the intensity of the whole weekend and that track and what it does probably didn’t help. Yeah.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonese – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Daniel and one for Kimi. For Daniel, is about the ambition of this season. After the win of your team-mate in Barcelona, the pole position and nearly victory in Monaco, if you wish that the car is going well here, you can think even to fight for the Championship this year? And for Kimi, we would like to know about your future, if you have a deadline with Ferrari to decide what happens next year?
    DR: Yeah, coming into the season, didn’t expect to be… probably didn’t expect to be third in the Championship but after so many races in, and yeah, we’ve seen no points in Russia and could have got more in China without the puncture, and the last two races, we could be very close to probably… yeah… we’d be very close to the front of the Championship right now. So, you know, I’m still not looking at that yet. I would love to be in a position in a few races time and say yeah, we can fight for a title this year. I think that would be a pretty nice, unexpected fight and story for F1. I think this race will be pretty telling. If we can be competitive here, you never know. It’s still a long-shot, for sure, but if we can be competitive then sure I believe in myself that I can fight and do what I’ve got to do to put myself in a position come the end of the year. So, fingers crossed we can… Barcelona and Monaco isn’t… wasn’t a one-off. I hope we can fight again for the rest of the season. And I believe we can: whether it’s a win or a podium… to be continued.

    Kimi, second question was to you, is there is a deadline in terms of your future with Ferrari?
    KR: I don’t know anything more. You guys seem to be knowing a lot every week, this and that. It’s not in my decision in the end. I always said I’m happy to be here, I hope I will be here for helping Ferrari get where we want to get as a team. What happens in the future, we will see.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Daniel, first Spain then Monaco. How much have these two events damaged your relationship with the team – have you forgiven the team absolutely and totally for these two incidents?
    DR: Yeah, obviously, as I said after Monaco I was happy to keep some distance for a few days. For myself as well, it probably wasn’t healthy to just address it straight away. But yeah, for sure, for a few days I was upset I guess, and obviously ruing some missed opportunities – but it’s one of those things: it happens; it’s unfortunate it happened back-to-back. That, how do I say, expanded the feelings and the emotion a lot more. But yeah, I’ve moved on. I’ve still obviously got a lot of faith in the team and I don’t doubt things with them moving forwards. For me it’s obviously really important this weekend to execute a perfect weekend from my side and from the team’s side and get back on track. Because obviously we’ve shown we have a good car, we’ve got good material. It’s just trying really to maximize it. The last four weekends I’ve left Sunday feeling I should have got more. So yeah, this weekend it’s just to try leaving on Sunday knowing that we’ve maximized everything from both sides.

    Q: (Jérôme Bourret – L’Equipe) Braking is of course something crucial here. Could you please tell us something about how difficult it is to find the right braking lap after lap during the race – and how demanding it is from a physical point of view?
    JB: I think the race is fine in terms of braking. I think with the way that the cars are these days it does make it a little bit trickier with the deployment that we have that is obviously different to qualifying – well it is for us, I don’t know if it is for everybody else – and also there will be fuel saving here so – and again I don’t know if it is for everyone else – but that does change your braking. It changes the brake temperatures, obviously. So you have to be very careful of that and it’s studied throughout the race. But for me the more difficult time to get your braking right is qualifying. Because you’re right on the edge: it’s bumpy; easy to lock wheels – but you’ve got to have that confidence in the car to brake as late as you can because there’s a lot of lap-time there.

    Felipe, what’s your perspective on this? You’re obviously running a Mercedes engine, will you be fuel-saving on Sunday? And your thoughts on the braking.
    FM: For sure it’s a track that you need to have a good… brakes need to work well so it’s easy to get… we saw in the past many teams struggling with overheating problems in the braking. We need to be careful, try to use everything in the proper way to have no problems. Actually in all these two and a half years that I’m here with Williams, we never had a problem on the brakes so I don’t really see we can have any problem during the race. I think the fuel consumption can be an issue for everybody here, so we need to wait and see how it’s going to be tomorrow and the numbers and prepare the race in the proper way.

    Sergio, anything to add?
    SP: Yeah, I think Montréal is very hard on braking, especially in the race if you are in the traffic and it’s hot on Sunday – which doesn’t look like. It can be really demanding on the brakes with the brakes overheating. And, as Jenson said, we’re going to be fuel-saving, all of us, on Sunday if it’s a straightforward race. That makes it a bit easier in a way, on the brakes, but it can always be quite tricky. I think the most challenging day for the brakes is Saturday. Saturday in qualifying you really have to be on the edge and there’s a lot of time to be gained under braking. So you have to have the confidence to approach it well.

    Q: (Alexander Govorov – Championnat.com) Felipe, the last couple of years in Montreal Williams was very strong, but you’re struggling on slow tracks. Do you see the race in Montreal as an opportunity to be back in the top six and maybe fight for the podium?
    FM: Yeah, definitely. I really hope we can be competitive on this track, not just this track but maybe Baku can be a positive track for us, Austria, so I’m really looking forward that this next race can be a circuit that we can be strong on, maybe fighting for the top five, maybe a podium because that’s what we want and we will try.

    Q: (Leigh Diffey – NBC Sports) Jenson, there’s an abundance of information for us all to look at to see how things have improved, whether that’s lap time or your qualifying spots or race results, but what are the immeasurable things that have changed within the team? Has there been a shift in morale or a change of tone in conversation? Just take us inside the team.
    JB: Yeah, from the outside, you always ask the questions: where is it, when are you going to be competitive? And then you get… every time I speak to the press it’s how about now? How about now? How about now? How about now? It’s unbelievable, the pressure from the outside but from the inside we know where we are, we know we’re improving and I think the atmosphere in the team is very good. Fernando and myself are both very experienced, I think we bring a lot to the team in terms of our experience and direction and there is a lot in the pipeline. It’s always very difficult because we’re in a season where we want to get the result we can, as everyone does, and I think it’s the same for everyone. With a regulation change next year, it changes everything, in terms of how much effort is put into that single season. But I’m happy with the progress that’s being made there is a good feeling. We feel that a lot of the time we are getting the maximum out of the car which is the main thing right now and yeah, we’re still quite a way off the pace but it will come, it is just a matter of time but it always takes a lot longer than you want.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Daniel, sorry to harp on about this but how did the reconciliation come about? Did you make the ‘phone call, did they call you, did you just arrive at the factory or how did that happen?
    DR: It was all over the ‘phone. I let it cool a couple of days and then I spoke to Christian, I spoke to my engineer and obviously Christian just explained… obviously apologised on everyone’s behalf and just explained what went down and the reasons why there was confusion and why obviously the tyres weren’t ready and this and that. So that was really the ‘phone call with Christian and then I spoke to Simon, my engineer, that was later in the week, after they’d got a chance to spend some days in the factory and basically just to hear what they’d put in place. And also I questioned… because everyone highlighted the second pit stop which was where effectively we lost the race but I questioned the first pit stop as well because that was the one… already when I came out behind Lewis, I was like ‘well, we’ve put ourselves in a race now with Lewis which we didn’t have to be in so…’ I just wanted to make sure that the first pit stop was being addressed as heavily as the second one and then Simon obviously explained that they were not looking into that but acknowledging that that was also, I would say, a mistake. So yeah, it was just to get some clarity on everything. Yes, there’s going to be some new software they’ve now put in for strategy and some live stuff during the race that can obviously make us more prepared, and if there are some late calls again, to make sure that everything’s put in place. Yes, obviously I had plenty of questions to ask but they answered them with confidence and that’s all I needed to hear.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Sergio, it wasn’t that long ago that you were certainly heading for a podium if not a win here. Big shunt with Felipe but I noticed you and Felipe are now big mates at the back there, chatting away, having a laugh. I wonder when you come back here whether you think about that and how that incident in your mind has been resolved, whether you think it was 50-50 now?
    SP: I still think it was his fault. But I got the penalty though. Well, it was a long story after that.
    FM: Very long.
    SP: But yeah, that day I was so close to win the race, actually. I remember Rosberg had an issue in the last laps and I was getting really close to him but then I had an issue as well with the brakes actually, my brakes were quite overheated, I had a problem with the BBW(brake by wire) so that was hurting my brake balance a lot, I was losing a lot of lap time with the brakes and I lost the place to Daniel and he went on and won the race. But in general that day was an extremely good race for me and we found ourselves in a position that we were not expecting to. Unfortunately, on the last lap, it all went to bad with a crash but it was a really good race and we were close to win that day.
    FM: My thoughts? So we crashed, it was really bad for both of us and I hope this thing doesn’t happen any more. But I was not penalised!

    Q: (Robby Pacicco – Popular Hispanics) Felipe, last year you had a little intruder on the track while you were racing. Did you adjust your race strategy for another groundhog this year?
    FM: Here is a place that you can maybe see that. I hope they stay safe in their place. It can maybe happen but it must be really dangerous what happens to us or to the race. It was fun actually.

    Q: (Leigh Diffey – NBC Sports) Kimi, there’s been a lot of discussion about braking today. For the last two years in a row, going up into the hairpin, exiting the hairpin, you’ve spun in exactly the same manner and you even said on the radio to the team last year ‘that was the same as last year.’ Have you guys got to the bottom of what that was and how that happened two years in a row at the same corner?
    KR: I’m pretty sure we have but hopefully I’m not wrong on Sunday but it’s quite frustrating in a way the last couple of years but we knew the issues and we took care of it in our mind but actually it never happened in any other thing. The first year it happened in practice but last year, because we knew what the problems( were) then kind of tried to even force it in practice and nothing happened but then in the race (it happened) again. I will make sure this year it’s not going to happen hopefully. I think we’ve learned now since that.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

  • Force India looks forward to upgrades; Mallya expected to attend Spanish GP

    Bangalore, 11 May 2016: Vijay Mallya, the beleaguered liquor baron of India and the team Principal of Sahara Force India is expected to attend the Spanish GP this week-end.

    He is currently battling against the Enforcement Directorate, a specialised financial investigation Agency under the Governmnet of India’s Ministry of Finance, which has succeeded in getting his diplomatic passport revoked by the External Affairs Ministry but the latter failed miserably to get him deported as England refused to toe the line. Mallya has a resident permit in UK from 1992 and is a non-resident Indian.

    Mallya is reported to be continuing negotiations with bankers and offered Rs.6,800 crore but the bankers did not respond. They claim that he owes them Rs.9000 crore. Many in sporting circles are divided in their loyalty; while some strongly believe that he should be booked a per the law of the land, other feel that he is being victimised by a media trial and quote that Air India, the state-run Airlines, owes more than Rs.30,000 crore to Indian banks.

    Undaunted, Mallya continues to give quotes to his Press team which puts out releases to the Sports Media around the world. Mallya, who has not attended an F1 race for many months now, is expected to grace the paddock at the Spanish GP next Sunday.

    The release put out by Sahara Force India team:

    Barcelone:
    2016 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Preview
    Sahara Force India looks forward to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
     
    Q & A with Nico Hulkenberg on Barcelona
    Nico Hülkenberg looks forward to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
     
    Nico: “When you get to Barcelona to start the European season, you start to realise just how quickly the year is passing. It’s a chance to get back into a normal routine because you don’t have so many long flights or time zone changes, so it’s a bit easier from that regard.
     
    “I love the city of Barcelona and the Spanish lifestyle in the sunshine. We’ve already spent a couple of weeks there for winter testing, but when you come back for the race everything is different: the cars have evolved, the temperatures are warmer, and you have to work hard to find the right set-up. That’s why it’s a tricky circuit because confidence counts for a lot and, if you’re not totally comfortable, your lap times really suffer.
     
    “I felt pretty disappointed about what happened in Sochi. In fact, things have gone against us for the last few races. We know we should have scored more points, but it’s impossible to plan for the bad luck we’ve experienced. I’m looking forward to a weekend where everything goes to plan so that we can show our true potential.”
     
    Sergio on Barcelona
    Sergio Perez gets ready for Barcelona and hopes to add to the points he scored in Sochi. 
     
    Sergio: “The atmosphere in Barcelona is always special and for me it’s one of the best tracks of the year. I enjoy the layout because it’s a true test of your car with a bit of everything, especially long, quick corners, which all the drivers enjoy. It’s a track where you feel the physical demands, especially on your neck, but overall it’s just a great place to experience a Formula One car. The only downside is that it’s difficult to overtake, but it’s still possible with DRS on the approach to turn one, especially if the car ahead is suffering with high tyre degradation.
     
    “It was important to get back into the points in Russia. The car performed very well all weekend and I can feel the progress we’ve made since the start of the year. It was not a smooth race, but we didn’t give up and scoring two points was a good recovery. It’s been a difficult start to the year, but it feels like the momentum is changing now and the performance in Sochi was a big boost for all of us.
     
    “Barcelona will be the first chance to run our updated car. It’s going to be a huge task to understand everything on Friday, but it’s always exciting to try new parts on the car.”
    Q&A with Vijay Mallya
    Team Principal, Vijay Mallya, hopes to see the VJM09 realise its true potential this weekend
    Vijay, Sergio scored points in Russia, but it was another eventful race for the team…
    VJM: “In Sochi we were the innocent victims of the first lap chaos – as was the case in Bahrain too. It’s frustrating because, even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to see what we could have done differently. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time with both cars, which caused a puncture for Sergio and ended Nico’s race. To see Sergio recover from the back of the pack and score points was a tremendous effort.”
    Surely the team’s fortunes will start to change soon…
    VJM: “I hope we’ve used up all of our bad luck already! We’ve yet to see how we perform in a clean, trouble-free race without safety cars, red flags or accidents. Despite not realising our potential in Sochi, we took encouragement from our qualifying and race pace: the car is improving and we’ve got a good base on which to build. There are 17 races to go and I’m confident the best is yet to come. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
    You’ve spoken before about the Barcelona update package – what’s the latest news?
    VJM: “It’s on schedule to be fitted to both cars ahead of Friday practice. It’s pretty comprehensive and the car will look quite different.”
    eom/Sahara Force India Press Release