INDIA in F1

Tag: Formula One

  • We still have a lot of potential together with Force India: Hulkenberg

    DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Max VERSTAPPEN (Toro Rosso), Will STEVENS (Manor), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, congratulations for last time out, only a few days since your win in Singapore. Is your performance there something you can translate to this track?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it’s a completely different track here but we’d hope. But I think you have to remain realistic. In a way it was a big surprise to see Mercedes struggling, which I don’t expect to be the case here. Again, it would be a big surprise. But if the chance is there we have to go for it. As I said, the nature of the track is completely different here. We’ll have to wait. The weather could bring a lot of surprises as well. It’s going to be a tough weekend.

    We know that you love Suzuka – you’ve won four times out of six I believe and you also won a championship here in 2011 here. So, what can you expect this weekend?

    SV: Well, based on that quite a lot! Yeah, I love the track; it’s a driver’s circuit. I think we all love the track. It’s one of the old school circuits on the calendar. It’s a lot of fun. If you want to know what a Formula One car can do then the first sector I would say sums it up and says pretty much all. In my point of view [it is] the best track in the world and great fun to be here.

    Thank you very much. On to Valtteri Bottas. Valtteri, you had a good race last time out, finishing fifth. Do you think you’ll be able to make the same challenge again here in Suzuka?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: It was a good weekend for me. We knew Singapore would be a difficult one, probably the most difficult track for the rest of the calendar. Good to be here because we do think we can be more competitive here than we have seen last weekend. Really looking forward to it. Like Sebastian said, it’s a great track to drive. Also, the fans are awesome here, so it’s good to be here and we are expecting strong results.

    Williams are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship, 112 points behind Ferrari and 59 points ahead of Red Bull. With six races of the season left are you, as a team, moving into a testing period for the last six races, with an eye to next year?

     VB: For sure we’ve been developing next year’s car already for a long time and we have already done some tests looking more at the future rather than maybe only this season. Yeah, that is one of the targets for the rest of the year, to look ahead to next year but still we want to have good races and if we can find anything for this year’s car for sure we will try to do it if it doesn’t impact the development of the new car. Still many races to go if we want to gain our position. It would be nicer to be a bit closer to Ferrari also.

    Thanks very much. Will Stevens: new team-mate and a new challenge for you. How do you feel about the rest of the season?

    Will STEVENS: Yeah, I think the year so far has gone pretty good for me. I think Singapore last weekend for sure wasn’t one of my easiest weekends of the year but you need weekends like that to improve and to learn from. So heading into this weekend and the rest of the year I don’t know any of the tracks, apart from Abu Dhabi, so I have a lot of learning to do. But I always like coming to new circuits, especially here. It’s always [been] a circuit I’ve wanted to drive, so looking forward to getting out there. The weather looks pretty mixed for the weekend so I’m sure we’re going to have a very eventful weekend.

    What about your future at Manor? Are you seeing lots of progress? How have things changed over the year in the garage?

    WS: I think as a team for sure the next few years are going to be pretty exciting for them. This year was always going to be tough, using last year’s car with the old Ferrari power unit, so it’s going to be as tough as it can [be]. But looking ahead to next year, for me personally we’re working hard in the background to try to sort out things for next year, which are looking positive, so we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have some things to tell you soon.

    Thank you very much. Max, another really good race and result for you in Singapore but pretty controversial. Do you want to tell us about it from your side?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, I really enjoyed my race. Of course the start was a bit disappointing but from there on I think we had a great pace in the car. Yeah, kept pushing and catching the guys in front of me and at the end to come back in the points was just a great result and, yeah, very happy with that.

    Do you want to tell us a little bit more about what happened between yourself and Carlos Sainz and maybe what has happened since the last grand prix to talk about things within the team?

    MV: Well I can tell you nothing has changed in our relationship or something. I was trying to overtake Checo, I was very close and I was looking in my mirrors as well. It didn’t feel for me that it was close enough to give it a go, so I decided to stay there and at the end we had a conversation about it in the team and everything has been cleared and we are ready to go again here in Japan.

    Thank you very much. Let’s move on to Nico Hulkenberg. Nico, it was clearly a disappointing result for you last time out in Singapore, after the collision for Felipe Massa. You’ve picked up a three-place grid penalty as well. Have you had a chance to look back over the incident and have another view of it?

    NH: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I looked at the video footage and I think I probably should have given him a bit more room, because he was on the inside and I had some space on the right. Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was ahead enough, but I wasn’t clearly, in hindsight, so we take up the penalty here. But it’s behind us, now we move on and make the best of it this weekend.

    This weekend, today in fact, Sergio Pérez has been confirmed at re-signing for the team, so a bit of stability in Force India. Why do you think re-signing was the right thing for you to do?

    NH: Well, I think for both of us. We work well together. I think we are a strong combination and I think we both have faith in the team and we see still a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward, together with Force India, and I think both of us want to continue growing with the team.

    Q: Jenson, you’ve been the centre of a lot of media speculation over the last week. Can you tell us what your plans are?

    Jenson BUTTON: What, today? Or after this…?

    It would be nice to have an insight into your plans for the future…

    JB: OK. Well… I can’t give you anything else. Since the last race there’s no more information to give you. You’re going to have to wait for a little while I’m sorry to say but we’re in good talks, the team and myself so, that’s it. We’re here to concentrate on this weekend. It’s a big weekend for us. McLaren-Honda in front of Honda’s home crowd at their circuit… we hope that we can have a good weekend. Obviously the weather mixes it up a little bit which I think is what we need to be properly competitive so yeah, we’re focussing on this weekend and hoping for a reasonable result.

    Q: Japan’s always been a special place for you. Just tell us, over your time here, you’ve never finished outside of the top ten I believe, you won here back in 2011 when Sebastian was winning his championship – but why is it so special to you?

    JB: I think it’s, as Sebastian touched on earlier, I think it’s a very special circuit for most drivers. It is the best circuit in the world as Sebastian said – not that he’s driven every circuit in the world – but it’s got a nice flow. I was asked the other day which is the best corner here. It’s difficult: you can’t pick just one corner, it’s just the circuit itself. It’s such a fantastic layout. From Turn Two all the way up the Esses, through Dunlop it’s breath-taking. A very special circuit to drive on and even better to win on. I’ve been coming here since ’94 when I raced in karts at the kart circuit just across the road. I remember walking the circuit then just thinking, yeah, it was built for a Formula One car. This was the circuit for a Formula One car – and it is. It’s also very special because a lot of connections to Japan working with Honda for so many years. Obviously my wife is Japanese and yeah, I’m a big fan of the culture as well.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Sorry Jenson, you said “we’ll have to wait a little bit.” How much is a little? You also said you’re in talks with the team. That would seen to suggest you’ll be around next year as well?

    JB: There’s so many possibilities of what could happen next year. So many possibilities but I’ve got nothing else for you I’m sorry to say.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Sorry Jenson I’m going to try and push you a little bit more. You did speak on Sunday about the fact you no longer had any joy in Formula One: the joy of winning, the joy of being on a podium. Is that a kind of indicator as to your mindset, bearing in mind that joy is probably unlikely to return next season if you were to stay with Honda, given the difficulties they’re still likely to face?

    JB: Yeah, I think it was worded slightly differently than that – but I don’t think any driver has joy when they’re not fighting for victories. That’s what we’re here to do, y’know, that’s what we love. It’s the challenge of fighting at the front and the possibility of fighting at the front. So, no. I don’t like finishing 14th. I don’t like finishing tenth. That’s not what gives me joy, that’s not what excites me – but there are so many other things that, if they work in your favour, or if you see a future, there’s the possibility of joy coming back and that’s exciting. That’s a challenge. But no, after the Singapore Grand Prix I wasn’t joyful. No.

    Q (Trent Price – Rewind Media) Sorry Jenson, we’ll get this out of the way now. Despite a particularly difficult 2015 you’ve had some extremely good years with Honda. 2004, latter half of 2006 respectively. Being here at your second home, how would you like to reflect on your time at Honda?

    JB: We’ve definitely had some ups and downs in the past. 2004 was a great year. I got my first podium that year. I think we got ten podiums that season and finished third in the championship. We were second in the Constructors’ so pretty special year. 2006 was when the team actually became Honda and I won my first grand prix with Honda, and still the only grand prix for Honda in this era. So, a special day. The president of Honda was there. He came to two races that year and he was stood on the podium with me, so a great experience and a great memory. But we never achieved what we set out to do, which was fight for the World Championship. We had some good times, we have a lot of fun – but we never quite achieved that. So, I think this time is an important time for Honda. They will give everything, I think, to win the World Championship, a matter of time. I know they’re working flat out. I don’t think anybody can put a time on how long it will take but I know they’re giving everything to do that so hopefully one day we’ll see the president of Honda stood on the podium again.

    Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) Sebastian, when hybrids came in last year, with the Red Bull, you didn’t seem that comfortable with it, certainly at certain points during last year. Last week in Singapore, you put on a display that showed you are absolutely at one with the car. Has anything changed in your driving style with the hybrid cars? And can you just talk through that change a little bit?

    SV: I think obviously the cars changed massively from ’13 to ’14, not just the power unit but also the car itself. So I think for all of us it was the experience that there’s quite a lot less grip available, which as a driver is obviously not the right direction to go in because you want to go faster. So there were some things that I had to get used to and for sure, at the beginning of the year, last year wasn’t great, getting the experience with this generation of cars etc. On top, I had a difficult year for many reasons but yeah, I think much more in control and comfortable with this year’s car compared to last year’s for many reasons, but I don’t think it’s down to the power unit really. I think the power unit, for us drivers – well, it is what it is. I think we’re not probably at the same standings as the fans in  terms of sound etc. Obviously it is a step back but yeah, in terms of the technology behind it, it is incredible. The question still remains open, whether we need it or not, that’s for everyone, individually, to decide, I guess.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, you were talking about the enjoyment of racing. Behind you is Nico who won at Le Mans this year. Is it an option to do the same as him, to do Formula One and some special races in other categories next year?

    JB: I’ve never thought about doing both. I think with a 22-race F1 calendar you’re going to be very limited on weekends and sometimes it’s nice to have a weekend off from motor racing so I can’t see that happening. Maybe Nico’s going to be doing the same thing again next year but I think for every other driver it’s going to be a super busy calendar if that is the case, that we have that many races. I don’t think it will really work – for me, it wouldn’t really work anyway.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, looking at this circuit and the next ones, what are the opportunities for Ferrari in your opinion? And second question: are you used to singing Italian songs or was after qualifying your first time?

    SV: It was not my first time. I think my first time was probably after Malaysia. Yeah, I’m not a good singer so maybe I stop that now, since everyone has heard it.

    JB: I don’t think any of us are!

    SV: Well, maybe Lewis is, I don’t know. It was obviously out of the moment, it was a special day on Saturday and Sunday so I was singing both days but I think it was more equally bad both days.

    To come back to your first question, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the results so far this year, we had a great car on every track, every nature of circuit: street circuits like Monaco, Singapore we’ve been competitive but on other tracks as well like I just mentioned: Malaysia. Probably Silverstone was one of the weekends where we lost a little bit of that but then again you look at so many races in the same year and you know we weren’t completely off the pace so I think we can be reasonably confident but of course we have to remain realistic. I think we’ve learned along the way so hopefully that means that we will be a bit stronger again but the favourites I think still have to remain Mercedes with their two cars.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jenson, you said that you’ve been having constructive talks with your team and also that there are lots of options for next year. This would indicate that you haven’t quite made up your mind about 2016. Is your future really in your own hands or are there certain contractual obligations?

    JB: I can’t go any further with my comments on that. But I’ll be happy next year. That’s the important thing.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Seb, drivers come and go in this sport, some quicker than others as we know, in Formula One it’s the nature of the business but what would it mean if – and still a big if – Jenson did decide to call it a day at the end of this season?

    SV: First of all, I think…

    JB: Try to be nice.

    SV: …we don’t know if that’s the case. I think you’ve tried to ask him but I think he has his reasons – whatsoever – not to go further. It would be a loss, for sure. I remember when I was a little kid and he was considered very very young, joining Formula One. I have to give you that he looked very young when he started with Williams. Nowadays though, you have guys who are 17 who are starting already, so in that case he was already old when he started, or I was quite old. Certainly, he’s a big character. We know that he’s quick, he deserves to be a champion and I’m sure that if there were more years when he had the package to win the big one, he would have had a big say in that. The quality is out of doubt. On top of that he’s a very fair guy on the track. Outside the track, I think we all like him for many reasons so it would be a big loss.

    JB: Thank you mate. I’ll start crying in a minute, it’s so emotional!

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines). Max, I know that the team and you and Carlos have sorted out everything from last weekend but did you also look forward and say ‘maybe if there’s a situation, one teammate will let the other teammate by just for a few laps’ – something like Red Bull did in Monaco this year?

    MV: Yeah, exactly. I think one thing we needed to be a bit more clear on the radio. We spoke about it and hopefully it will not happen again but we will see. If we are a bit more clear then for sure.

    eom/FIA press releaseJapan GP Thurs FIA pc 24Sep2015 FIA pic

  • Vettel takes third win of the season; Hamilton retires; Spectator invades track in a bizarre incident

    Sebastian Vettel took his third victory of the season for Ferrari in an incident-packed race at the Marina Bay Circuit that saw Lewis Hamilton retire with technical problems and a spectator invade the track.

    Vettel took his fourth career Singapore Grand Prix win ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Kimi Räikkönen third in the second Ferrari ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

    When the lights went out at the start of the race Vettel made a good getaway to take the lead ahead of Ricciardo. Räikkönen too held his starting position to sit in third ahead of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, while Hamilton and Rosberg kept their starting positions of fifth and sixth position, ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

    There was trouble for Max Verstappen though. The Toro Rosso driver, who was starting eighth, stalled on the grid and the rest of the field swarmed past him as the grand prix got underway. Verstappen was wheeled back to the pit lane where his car was restarted and he re-joined a lap down.

    Vettel meanwhile was flying. By the end of lap two the Ferrari driver was a 4.4s ahead of Ricciardo and after four laps he’d stretched the advantage to 5.2 seconds.

    After six laps, though the lap times began to stabilise, with Ricciardo’s race engineer Simon Rennie telling the Red Bull driver that “Vettel has calmed down a bit”. Ricciardo began to chip away at the gap and took a second out the German over the next handful of laps.

    Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was the first to shed his opening supersoft tyres – the Frenchman switching to soft tyres on lap 10. On the next lap he was followed to the pit lane by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. Sainz lost time in the stop though as he was held in his pit box as Ericsson and Maldonado made their way along the pit lane.

    On lap 13, however, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed as Williams’ Felipe Massa and Force India Nico Hulkenberg made contact. Massa was re-joining after his pit stop and Hulkenberg gave the Brazilian nowhere to go as they went into the following corner. They collided and Hulkenberg was pitched into the wall and out of the race. The Singapore Grand Prix’s 100% safety car record was maintained when the physical safety car was then briefly deployed as marshals cleared the debris from the crash.

    Hulkenberg was later penalised with a three-place grid drop at next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix for causing the collision.

    The period under the SC meant that all cars pitted, though some with more success than other. Jenson Button’s stop in front of the McLaren garage went horribly wrong as a problem with his front right wheel delayed him for some time and he rejoined in P16.

    The order at the top under the SC saw Vettel leading from Ricciardo and Räikkönen, with the top three having taking more supersofts in their stops. Hamilton was fourth on soft tyres as was fifth-placed team-mate Rosberg.

    Kvyat, also on supersofts, lost out under the VSC and had dropped to P6 ahead of Bottas, Force India’s Sergio Perez, Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, who has climbed to P9 from 16th on the grid and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Verstappen, meanwhile, had the chance re-join the lead lap during the safety car period.

    When the action resumed Ricciardo kept pace with Vettel and on lap 22 the Australian was 0.8s behind the lead, with Vettel appearing to hold back a bit. Räikkönen was another 0.9s back but Hamilton was beginning to lose touch with the podium positions, slipping to over 2.0s down on the leaders.

    On lap 27 Hamilton began complaining of a loss of power and the Briton was swiftly passed by Rosberg and Kvyat.

    The team told Hamilton that his throttle was failing to open completely but that there was no electrical problem. Hamilton responded that he could no feel a pedal issue and as the investigation went on Hamilton to P11 by lap 30.

    It was then Felipe Massa’s turn to encounter problems as he radioed his team to say that his car had suddenly jumped into neutral. He made a detour through the pit lane without stopping and then was told to retire the car.

    Hamilton’s frustrations finally came to an end on lap 33. The championship leader had been complaining that the issue was worsening and then informed his team that the brakes were becoming too cold to continue in comfort. The team told him to box and he too retired.

    On lap 35 Kvyat made his second stop from P5 but there was a problem with the rear left wheel and he lost out again as his stop took 6.6s. He dropped to seventh.

    On lap 37 the Safety Car was deployed again, though this time it was because of a spectator invading the track.

    It was the cue for all of the field to make another pit stop and when the order sorted itself out under the SC Vettel still led from Ricciardo and Räikkönen but Rosberg was now fourth ahead of Bottas with Kvyat sixth. Perez was now seventh in the sole remaining Force India, with Grosjean eighth ahead of team-mate Pastor Maldonado. Button, in the sole remaining McLaren following an earlier retirement for Fernando Alonso, was in the final points position, though he too would soon exit the race with a gearbox issue.

    When the action resumed, Vettel this time powered away, with the German rapidly building a two-second gap to Ricciardo. Further back Button tangled with Maldonado as they battled for P9 and the Briton clipped the back of the Lotus, losing his front wing in the prices. He pitted for a new wing and re-joined in P14.

    Toro Rosso’s drivers, meanwhile, were on a march, with Verstappen passing Maldonado for P9 and with Sainz repeating the moved almost immeditaley afterwards. Verstappen then set the fastest lap of the race so far on lap 43 of the 61 scheduled.

    The Dutch teenager then passed Grosjean for P8 on lap 47 with an excellent move into Turn 16. Sainz followed but his move was riskier and both drivers went over the kerbs on the exit, with Grosjean complaining that he had been forced wide and had “no place to go”. The move stood, however, and Sainz held ninth.

    Verstappen’s next target was Perez in seventh but he could find no way past the Mexican. His race ended in somewhat controversial circumstances when his engineer told him to swap places with Sainz in the closing laps. Verstappen refused and held station to claim eighth ahead of his team-mate.

    At the front the order also remained unchanged, with Vettel taking his 42nd career win just 1.4s ahead of Ricciardo, with Räikkönen third. Rosberg closed the gap to title rival Hamilton by 12 points by claiming fourth with Bottas fifth ahead of Kvyat and Perez. With the Toro Rosso pair eighth and ninth, the final points position when to Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.

    2015 Singapore Grand Prix – Race
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 2:01:22.118
    2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +1.478
    3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +17.154
    4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +24.720
    5 Valtteri Bottas Williams +34.204
    6 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing +35.508
    7 Sergio Perez Force India +50.836
    8 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso +51.450
    9 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso +52.860
    10 Felipe Nasr Sauber +1:30.045
    11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber +1:37.507
    12 Pastor Maldonado Team Lotus +1:37.718
    13 Romain Grosjean Team Lotus +2 laps
    14 Alexander Rossi Manor +2 laps
    15 Will Stevens Manor +2 laps
    – Jenson Button McLaren Gearbox
    – Fernando Alonso McLaren Gearbox
    – Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Power Unit
    – Felipe Massa Williams Power Unit
    – Nico Hulkenberg Force India Collision

    eom/FIA press release

  • Vettel praises Raikkonen after winning the Singapore GP: FIA Sunday Press Conference

    Sunday FIA PC Singapore 20sep2015 Vettel wins FIApicDRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

    Sebastian, was this you best ever race, or one of?

    Sebastian VETTEL: It must be one of; I think it was pretty intense. Obviously we had a bit of a breather with the safety car. Still, lots of pressure from behind. I think Daniel had a very good race, looking after his tyres very well, which made it a bit tactical towards the end with the stints. Second stint I was dictating the pace. Obviously around here it’s not so easy to overtake, so I was using that. And from then, at some point, chipping away, trying to control the gap. Fortunately that worked. It’s obviously a great day; we had a really great weekend, thanks to the team.

    So, we want to know also, because on Friday a little bird told me you were quietly confident, you thought you had a lot left over, and then you did that magic qualifying lap yesterday; you kind of showboated a bit didn’t you, you just wanted to rub it in, to see how good you were?

    SV: Not really. Friday was not perfect I would say but we improved the car overnight, which was very important and then we picked up so much pace. The car was fantastic yesterday with one lap. Amazing the feeling I got; so much adrenalin in qualifying. And the same today. I was able to look after my tyres, control the pace, so all in all a perfect weekend so very, very happy.

    I’m coming back to you, don’t you worry. Daniel Ricciardo, ladies and gentleman. Looks like you’re a bit of a local boy here? There are a lot of Aussie flags here. You have a lot of support. Come on let’s hear you. Come on you can tell me, I know he’s your old team-mate but he did back you up didn’t he? He did try to stumble you. He wanted you to let go, so that Kimi could pass you?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I think Seb experimented a bit today. The start of the race he just went, but realised towards the end of the stint I was coming. I think if wasn’t for the safety car it would have got pretty close in terms of the pit stop – maybe an undercut was possible. But, yeah, then the second stint seemed like he had learned for the first, backed us up and then just went after that. I think both safety cars came out at a pretty crucial time. Nonetheless, his pace was good and it was quite representative of qualifying, you know. We seemed to be the two quickest cars today.

    You talk about being the quickest car: were you surprised, because you targeted this race didn’t you? You always thought that Red Bull would be strong here.

    DR: Yeah, it’s really good to back it up. We came in here pretty confident. I’m always careful not to be overconfident but yeah I think the pace we showed all weekend was strong. The race pace was good; I think we matched Seb, so we’ve got to be pretty happy with this weekend. It’s nice again to capitalise; Budapest we had a chance and we’ve done it again here.

    Kimi, hot race. Last time you were on the podium it was in Bahrain and this is the first time this year we’ve seen the two Ferrari drivers on the podium. Is this the sign of the future?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Obviously we hope that. I must say Friday was fine for me and yesterday we struggled for whatever reason and I didn’t expect much better today. I was a bit surprised to finish third yesterday with how difficult the car felt and today was a struggle again but obviously we had enough speed to be in third place but I had no chance to do anything about the first two. I could follow them at the beginning but once my tyres dropped off that just went. It wasn’t that nice to have that kind of difficulties but you know we still finished third and when you have a bad few days and you finish third it’s pretty good and for the team nice and hopefully we can repeat them.

    I just ask you one tiny question: how many starts did you do on the simulator after Monza?

    KR: Two.

    That’s not what I heard. He’s lying to us. Seb, you must love this place, don’t you? Four-time winner here. What is it about Singapore?

    SV: The party on Sunday night I guess.

    Are you going to party tonight?

    SV: I think we will have some drinks, yes, definitely. My drinks bottle failed half-way through the race, so I’m quite thirsty. We need to make sure we….

    What’s the plan now? Six races left. Can Ferrari really take it to Mercedes?

    SV: If we have more weekend like this, yes. But all we have to do is look after ourselves, maximum attack and then what they do is not in our hands. We still have a small chance, maybe we can make the impossible possible; we’ll definitely go for it.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, obviously you controlled the race throughout, from your first Ferrari pole position. First stint you attacked from the outset; beginning of the second stint you did the opposite and were pacing yourself. How did you perceive the threat from Hamilton and Rosberg at that point of race? You then speeded up and how much did losing the lead, on the one hand, to the two safety cars balance out against the fact that in both cases you were able to stop under the safety car? How did that help you?

    SV: First it was fairly simple: you drive a bit into the unknown, so I was trying to put a gap. I was surprised by the opening laps to put five seconds straight away. Then eased off; probably was pushing a bit hard at the beginning, which allowed Daniel to just be that two, three, four tenths quicker at the end. Obviously I had a bit of margin left but the safety car answered all the questions about the first stop. And the same for the second stop. I think it was pretty straightforward when to stop, because you obviously take the advantage of losing less time through the pit lane. I did pretty much the opposite on the second stint. I knew that it’s impossible for Daniel, for anyone, to go 40-odd laps on the prime tyre, it will just fall apart at the end, so I think some 35 or 36 laps to go, I knew we were approaching the pit stop window plus. I knew that one of the Mercedes was on the prime tyre, which obviously allows them to be on the option for the final stint, so I said, ‘OK a couple of laps to go’. When the pit stop window more of less opened for the final stint, allowing to finish on the prime, to go for it, open a gap, put some three or four seconds between me and Daniel, so that we can react in case he dives into the pits and he doesn’t get the undercut. So it worked pretty well. I was controlling the pace in the second stint for a while and then, as I said, went for it. In the last stint I knew that with the prime they were a bit more resilient – obviously the safety car answered all the questions, as I said, and I could maintain the gap. I wanted to put, fairly quickly, two or three seconds between us, to make sure that Daniel doesn’t get too excited, to try and attack in the end. And it worked. I new that the prime tyre would favour us probably a bit – and it did. At the end we faced some traffic but he never really got close, so I could control the end fairly well.

    Very well done. Daniel, your best result of the season so far. After the first stint your engineer said that your pace and degradation were both very good, so was there any optimism at any point that you might get the win today or did both stops coming under the safety car put paid to chance of doing something with strategy that might have helped you?

    DR: I think that sort of dictated the race really. I’m not saying there were any guarantees but I think in the first stint we were coming on quite strong. It was obvious Seb pushed pretty hard at the beginning to break let’s say the DRS and all of that, but then as the laps were ticking down we were starting to come alive, I was able lean on the tyres a bit more and I could see it was working in my hands. So when I saw the safety car come out I was a bit frustrated, but I knew there was one more stop in the race, so I knew there was one more chance to do the same thing, replicate the same, let’s say, procedure. Seb learned a little bit from the first stint – started off a little bit easier in the second stint, then broke away. Then I think again as the laps ticked down I was probably able to make the tyres last a bit better on the option and close in, but then safety car again. So, thanks to the guy on the track, appreciate it. I was tempted to swerve, clip him! That was that and then with the prime, as Seb said, that was pretty much it. It’s hard to overtake here but we tried to do what we could. We just got the fastest lap at the end, so we proved our pace all weekend. I’m proud of that. Good to get another podium. Really happy for the team. As I said yesterday they’ve done a really good job, particularly the last couple of races I think the chassis has really come alive, so thank you to them for that. So, yeah, congrats to Seb, it was a good race.

    Q: Kimi, your 79th career podium. On the radio you were getting messages about the tyres being out of range and bringing them back into range. Is that what prevented you from doing more today?

    KR: No, not really. I think for whatever reason yesterday morning already in the practice we had difficult handling with the car and then through qualifying it was not exactly what we wanted and was a bit surprised to still be third. Obviously it was good, with all the difficulties I felt. It kept happening in the race. Obviously when you have new tyres the car’s more or less OK and then Sebastian was not pushing on the second set and the last set, the stints, it was quite easy but once we started to push I started to struggle straight way with the same issues with the rear end. It obviously was a bit tricky race but in the end with the difficulties we’ve had in the last few days we still finished third. It’s OK. It’s not ideal but I’ll take it and, for the team, it’s a great result. Hopefully we can improve on this and all the areas and try to keep it going for longer and longer and build on this one again. I think we’ve done an amazing job as a team and we keep doing the same things, I’m sure we’re going as a team the right direction and we get where we want to be in the end, for the future. So I think it was OK. Not ideal but I’ll take it.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR 

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph) Seb, just talk us through, from your perspective, what it was like when the man came on the track. What did you see? I guess that kind of thing is pretty worrying from your seat.

    SV: I don’t know. I had to look again because I wasn’t sure whether I had a problem with my eyesight or I saw somebody crossing the track. I went on the radio and said “some guy’s running across the track!” I think I saw him taking a picture. I don’t know. I hope it was a good one at least. I hope it was in focus! Yeah, pretty crazy, we approach that corner at around 280-290klicks so, I don’t know, I wouldn’t cross the track if I was him. It was crazy, obviously, and we had a Safety Car straight away. Maybe in the next year we need to block the grandstands a bit better. Fortunately nothing happened to us and nothing happened to him – as far as I know. The other guys didn’t see him, so I was the first one to come around.

    [off-mic follow up]

    SV: Not necessarily. I think he did a pretty good job. He was a quick runner, crossing from the right to the left but yeah, pretty odd. Obviously that’s not what you expect when you come around, looking into the next corner.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) I have been waiting for a while to ask this question: to Sebastian and Kimi, does it feel any different to be first time as team-mates in the podium compared to previous times?

    SV: Honest answer: no. I’ve always liked Kimi because from the very first day I joined Formula One he was one of the guys who showed me most respect. There were other guys who lost a little bit the ground under their feet but Kimi was definitely not one of them. At that time I was nobody in F1 and he was a great champion already. It was great to see that he pays that much respect. And since that day he hasn’t changed. I think people love him for the fact that there’s no bullshit – as he often quotes – he’s here for the racing bit and that’s ultimately why we’re all here: we love racing. So, I don’t know, I think we get along well. Obviously I had a better day, compared to him today – but if it’s the other way around I think it’s only fair to be as fair as him today.

    And Kimi, does it feel any different to you to be team-mates for the first time on the podium?

    KR: Maybe a little bit. Obviously you try to beat your team-mates. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win but I think in the end you are happy the team did well. So, I’d rather be with him in the same team and he wins and I’m in a third place than he’s in another team other than Ferrari. So obviously it’s a win-win situation. I didn’t have the best few days but I mean, fair enough, he was faster and I can take the third place and we try next weekend again and I’m sure we will have other good battles in the future and I think, as a team, we work well. And that’s the most important thing. If there would ever come a day when we have issues, then we can talk about it and sort it out. Not a big deal about it but we’re working well. I’m happy for him and for the team first of all that we can have a good result. Obviously we want always better but it’s going in the right direction for all of us.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Daniel, despite a good race you had today, at the moment your team doesn’t have an engine for next year and it doesn’t look like there’s a solution tomorrow on the table. Are you worried? And then, obviously to Seb, what would you say if Red Bull would drive similar engines, the same engines as you next year?

    DR:  I think it’s… now I’m not worried. I think we’ve still got time. It’s not December yet, so if we’re in this position in December then, maybe I’m a bit worried. Maybe I’m facing a year of getting paid to do nothing.

    SV: You renewed your contract?

    DR: Yeah! I don’t know how that would feel but for sure I want to be here, want to be racing. Obviously I’m at a bit of a peak of my career, I’m learning all the time but enjoying it and want to keep racing definitely and keep racing at the front. So, firstly it’s great to be back on the podium and fighting where I want to be fighting. For next year, in time it will get solved. Obviously the sooner the better for everyone to start working and preparing the car for next year. Obviously it depends on what engine you have: you design the car around that, the set of geometry of the engine – but yeah, we’ll see how we go in the next few weeks, hopefully we’ll get an answer.

    And your part of that question Seb?

    SV: Well, it’s not in my hands. Obviously I think Daniel answered that question fairly well. I think as a racing driver you want to race and not worry about these kind of things. I cannot really provide him with an engine, I’m not making the decisions. It’s other people to ask… and probably the champagne hits more than I thought so it’s maybe better for me to shut up at this point!

    DR: Do you want some water?

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and SpeedSport Magazines) Daniel, looking at the shorter term, as you say, the chassis has really come alive. On which of the upcoming tracks do you think you will be able to really exploit that and get a good result?

    DR: I think this was our best chance, so we got close. I think we can still be proud of what we did this weekend. As I said on the podium, I think it’s good that we – in a way – capitalise or make the most of our opportunities. This year, I believe we have had two: Budapest and here and we’ve got podiums in those races. A bit like last year, when we had the chance to win we did. I still think we’re maximising everything we’ve got at the moment. Moving forward, Suzuka is normally a good track for us. I don’t think we can expect as strong a performance as here but we can still look at the top five and maybe better. Then after that, I’m not sure. Mexico is new for everyone, so we will see how that goes but I was there already and they’ve got a pretty long straight, so I’m not sure how that will play in our hands. Yeah, looking forward to the last part of the season. Austin’s pretty good so yes, see how we get on.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, after Bahrain it took eight races for you to get a podium. Does it feel any better now after that kind of long wait?

    KR: No, not really. I have mixed feelings, you know. I am happy to be in third place after how difficult it’s felt in the last two days with some issues that we had. But it’s disappointing in that on Friday we knew that we were faring pretty well and then to get third place is fine but it’s not what we are here for. It’s a bit mixed feelings but I think I take the third place. We’ve had some other chances to be on the podium quite a few times but either I made a mistake or something else happened. It’s been a bit of an up and down year but hopefully we keep building, we learn a lot and obviously we are still some way to go to be exactly where we want to be. It’s getting there and to be happy as a team in what we’re doing I think the team should get a big big thanks from everyone, from us, for what a great job they are doing for us. Obviously the things that we are doing are definitely going in the right direction. For the future it is the good way. We just have to have some patience to build on this.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, this is your third win in your first season with Ferrari as Michael had in 1996 and one more than Senna. Does it mean something special for you?

    SV: One more than? Was Senna ever with Ferrari? No. Ah, overall you mean. I think I could consider myself the luckiest racing driver in the world if there were as many race wins to come as there was with Michael. I don’t think you can really draw that comparison. In all fairness, I think the car he had in 1996 was a lot worse than what we have this year which shows again what a great racing driver he was. I don’t know. I think looking back it has been incredible. You know the way I was growing up, I just enjoyed racing and then to find myself nowadays having a teammate that I looked up to when I was young, racing him and seeing what he does, racing on a similar level to him and racing other guys that are really great like Daniel, like Lewis, like Nico. I can consider myself very very lucky that I got in a position always to have a great team around me, the last couple of years, and keep going that way. As Kimi described in his answer before, I think looking at our current situation with Ferrari, things are definitely improving. I think the spirit is very high in the team. I haven’t been with the team in the last couple of years but as far as I have learned, it’s a lot better so I think the direction is the right one and obviously we are very happy with today’s result, very happy with the car this year in general but not yet where we want to be. We know that there’s still a lot of work to do so expectations are already fairly high but I think they are always, especially in Italy, when you talk about Ferrari. So we have to keep our feet on the ground because there’s still a lot of homework to do.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Just adding to that, Sebastian, 42 wins, you’re third now in the all-time list behind Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. Do you think you will stay around long enough to obviously surpass Prost’s record but what about Schumacher’s record? Is that in your sights or do you not think about it?

    SV: Well, I think, to be honest, Prost’s is in sight somehow. I’m 28 so I’m not the youngest any more especially if the kids start racing at 17 now. But Michael’s is just ridiculous: number of wins, number of poles, number of fastest laps. I think all the statistics you can go for you compare yourself to him or anyone to him, so I think that’s far away. So if you have 23 corners in Singapore, I consider myself being in turn one and Michael in turn 23. I’m not really looking at that. As I said, I’m having a great time. I think I can consider myself very lucky and blessed the way things have turned out. I’ve always had a more or less competitive car, competitive team, so if it keeps going that way then I can consider myself very lucky.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Damon Hill was 35 when he won the championship so you’ve got plenty of time.

    SV: Yeah, and Michael still kept racing some years ago when he was 43. I think Kimi is now 33, 34, 35, 36! OK. I think it’s impossible to predict the future. I think we are now on a good track with the team, Kimi and myself, so I think we’ve got some years ahead of us which we can enjoy. In a way you can forget the statistics, I think the most important thing is the sheer fun in life and get paid for it, that’s a great thing.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) To all of you: do you think that the fact that there is no Mercedes driver on the podium this weekend is only track-related or is it the fact that Ferrari and Red Bull are progressing?

    DR: I think for us it’s very much track-related. With all that being said, we expected to be strong here. I think we’re all surprised that Mercedes – or at least one of them – isn’t up here or not even… OK, I think Rosberg was fourth but we never really saw them all race in the mirrors or in qualifying so definitely an off weekend for them. I expect them to be back in Suzuka but for whatever reason, if it is that we’ve made so much progress – Ferrari and us – then obviously hopefully you will see us up here a few more times this year.

    KR: It’s hard to say obviously. I feel as a team Ferrari did the same thing that we do going into every race weekend. I don’t feel that we really made something magic, it’s not like that we did something really different to other race weekends. We are there. I think we were more surprised at the last race in Monza to be that close to the Mercedes and maybe that shows us that we made a step there and maybe we just kept doing the same things here. But it’s very hard to say what they did. I think everybody’s surprised where they’ve been all weekend and who knows what happens in the next race. We can see from the last race to this race has been completely different. I think it’s better to wait and see what happens in Suzuka.

    SV: Big surprise, so same as Daniel and Kimi. I guess they should be back in Suzuka. If they’re not, in all honesty we don’t mind.

  • Pole is unbelievable! But the main job is coming tomorrow, says Vettal after taking pole at Singapore

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    (From left) David Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen at the FIA press conference on Saturday at Singapore after Vettel took pole position. An FIA image.
    (From left) David Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen at the FIA press conference on Saturday at Singapore after Vettel took pole position. An FIA image.

    TV UNILATERAL

    Sebastian, pole and by quite a margin as well. Your first for Ferrari and Ferrari’s first for 61 races, going back quite a few years. Your feelings?

    Sebastian VETTEL: And a proper one I would say. Unbelievable. I know it’s only Saturday and the main job is coming tomorrow but I had to enjoy the moment when I heard that I made it. It was looking good right from the offset of quali and actually from this morning to be fair. The car was fantastic to drive; it just got better through qualifying. I think we got the maximum today. Surprised by the margin but I think it just came together. I really had a near-perfect lap at the end. I was very, very happy with the laps I had today, especially the last one. Around here it’s such a long, tricky lap; it’s so easy to go just a little in too deep or push a little bit too much but it just seemed to come in the end. I was very happy that I made it to the finish line because it felt like a good lap and it was a good lap in the end. Very happy, it puts us in a great place for tomorrow but, as I said, it’s only Saturday and the main job is coming tomorrow. I’m sure the Mercedes will be quick tomorrow – everything else would be a bit of surprise and it’s already a bit of a surprise. And the Red Bulls of course, so tough job ahead tomorrow.

    Coming to you Daniel: obviously it’s been close this weekend throughout between Red Bull Racing and Ferrari and you have the prospect of a battle with your old team-mate tomorrow,

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, firstly, it’s nice to be back up here. The front row as well… it’s been a while. It’s good. It’s a bit of a coincidence that it’s Seb and I but it should be a good race tomorrow. I think already qualifying was exciting. To have no Mercedes up here is a surprise to everyone, still a bit of a surprise. I thought they were playing a few card games here yesterday but it seems they are obviously not particularly comfortable here this weekend. It’s good to capitalise on that. Tomorrow it would be nice to be back here. I’m really happy. Really happy for the team as well. I think we’ve definitely made a lot of progress, since Silverstone but particularly for me since Budapest the car has really come alive. It’s nice we can show that here. We expected it to work well and it is, so pretty happy and we’ll just try to hang in there in the long runs tomorrow and make a race of it.

    Thank you for that. Coming to you Kimi: your second consecutive top three qualifying this season and how do you like Ferrari’s race pace tomorrow?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Well, we’ll set it tomorrow. Obviously we had some difficulties yesterday on my side. I think Seb has a good run yesterday. Obviously quite a good result for the team today. I was not very happy since this morning for whatever reason, so I’m a bit surprised to be in this position after how difficult it felt all day. But it was good and we have to try to do a good job tomorrow and hopefully get the two cars on the podium.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, Ferrari’s first pole, in fact, since Germany 2012, I’m told. As Daniel was saying just a moment ago, it is against the run of form of the past 18 months really for no Mercedes driver to be up here. Can you put into words, explain why you think this is happening this weekend?

    SV: To be perfectly honest I think we don’t mind for a start; sorry! I don’t know, it’s a surprise. I thought yesterday they were sandbagging and also this morning, because there’s no doubt they have the strongest package this year. They have a very good car, sorry, a very good power unit, which we know. It usually puts them very high up and difficult to beat. I don’t know, they must have some issues not feeling comfortable at all; it’s the only explanation I think. But I wouldn’t rule them out for tomorrow. It’s not the easiest circuit to overtake but if you have the pace eventually you come through, so I expect them to be strong tomorrow.

    The other half of it of course is that you’ve obviously improved?

    SV: Well, obviously we always try to improve. Obviously we hope that we can show the exact same result… maybe a little bit better to have both of us in 1-2, without being too greedy, next Saturday. Then you can say we have improved. We generally feel OK on this track; obviously it’s about feeling confident. I think it was fairly close the whole weekend between Kimi and myself. I the quali the gap seemed to increase. He explained that he wasn’t that comfortable and I think that’s where a lot of lap time is – if you feel confident with the car then you can attack. There is no room for error here and it can easily make a big difference. But nevertheless it’s a great day and it puts us in a very good place for tomorrow so I don’t mid at all.

    Coming to you Daniel, obviously Ferrari have had some wins in 2015, Red Bull have not. You got three last year, you’ve been hanging out for a win in 2015, is tomorrow your best chance?

    DR: It’s definitely our best chance. Coming into the weekend we thought it would be our best chance to back on the podium and obviously today’s result has shown that we’ve backed up the confidence I had in the car and I think the team had coming here. Tomorrow is where… that’s where the points are the champagne is, so you know we put ourselves in the best position today. Obviously Seb was out of reach. I think he did two really good laps from what it looked like. Yeah, second best today but we’ll try to get one more up there tomorrow. It’s always a challenge here: it’s hot, it’s physical, it’s long. Not only is it can the car hold up, it’s a test for the driver and I think that’s fun. Pretty happy with how the weekend has gone. As Seb said as well, you need a lot of confidence in the car here and it’s felt good out of the box from yesterday, so really pleased.

    Well all three of your managed to save a set of supersoft tyres in Q1 but Kimi it was a little bit marginal for you, very brave. Were you sweating a little bit towards that end of that Q1 session with the decision to not go out on a supersoft set.

    KR: Not really, because obviously the lap, you know if it’s a good lap or not. I think even with that lap we probably could have gone through, just wanted to with the first set. So it was quite OK. There’s always a chance that people start guessing and it can get more hectic but it was fine and just for whatever reason it’s been a difficult day, just lacking in grip and struggling a bit on braking and turn-in, so not in an ideal position but in the end the result is OK for how difficult it’s been today, so I’m sure we found something for tomorrow so it should be OK. It’s good for the team. Obviously we’ll try to have a strong race to finish 1-2 tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, how much pressure there is after what happened in Monza in the start and is it better to start from the cleaner side of the street? How much that helps?

    KR: If it makes a difference we don’t know. There is no pressure from what happened. It doesn’t change for tomorrow.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Daniel, your team-mate was quicker than you in FP2 and FP3. What happened in qualifying? Did things maybe just click a little bit better for you?

    DR: Ask him [Vettel] why I was slower than Dany in FP2! Yeah, we encountered some traffic, otherwise I think, yeah, we would have been pretty quick in FP2. This morning, we made a few changes overnight and I wasn’t as comfortable with them. I think my lap wasn’t great, as well, from my side. We went back to what we know from yesterday and yeah, obviously qualifying is where you need to really make it happen so was… yeah, felt more comfortable in quali.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Sebastian, forgive this hypothetical question, bear with me. Beautiful pole lap. If you could go back 12 months and drive last year’s RB11 as you are now, do you think you’re a better, slightly faster, more experienced driver. Do you think you’d be quicker in the RB11 now, if you could get back into the car as it was.

    SV: It’s a very difficult question to answer because there’s no way I can do that. Look, it’s very simple: last year for sure I didn’t have a great year and all in all Daniel had a very good year and beat me fair and square, many times. Other times I was in front but overall it was not the best year for myself.  A lot of stuff that I learned… yeah, obviously didn’t have a good start to the season. Didn’t drive the car very often. I think I did about one day of testing, one proper day of testing, before the season, and then we had lots of issues – but still, I think I’m experienced enough to know what to do to go quick but yeah, simply wasn’t good enough. Daniel showed that he could go quicker with the car on occasions. So, to try and answer your question… I don’t know – but I think I’ve learned a couple of bits about this generation of cars, let’s say and yeah, probably the way the season went last year has helped me for this year.

    Q: (Lim Say Heng – The New Paper) This question is for Sebastian. You must be quite familiar, comfortable and confident here since you’ve won here three times. How much of that comfort and confidence helped you in getting pole today?

    SV: I think it’s crucial if you’re confident around the track. You need to be confident in your car. It is a street circuit and the better you feel, the closer you can get to the walls. It is a circuit where the driver can make a difference. If he feels comfortable… I don’t know, I’ve always loved this track since I came here. I had a very good result in 2008, I think 2009 was OK as well. It’s a tough one, a tough lap. It’s an extreme challenge but it’s the sort of race where you’re kind of excited. Not scared but nervous as well, before you start. There’s a lot of things happening, it’s intense, you need to keep your focus up. So, looking forwards to tomorrow.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Seb, two things if I may. First of all, it’s been a while for you and the team since you started on pole, is there anything you have to refresh tonight? Any studying you need to do to remember all what you have to do. The second bit is, are you expecting this to be a blip with Mercedes so far behind or do you think this could be the pattern for the rest of the year?

    SV: Expect it to be a pattern. They’ve been way too comfortable and too strong for a long time so, I don’t know what happened today, probably we’ll here after quali what they have to say. As I’ve said, I think they will be quick tomorrow and then, the first part of your question, I don’t think so. I think it’s actually easier if you have nobody in front on the formation lap to look out for. You can do your own thing. It’s nice. Obviously hard work on Saturday but we succeeded and looking forward to have a clean run to Turn One.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, last time Ferrari was having a front row was France 2008 when Kimi was in pole. Can you see that realistic this season to happen also? To get a front row for Ferrari?

    SV: I think yes. We are trying, both as hard as possible. I think obviously today could have been possible but in the end obviously I was a bit lucky that I felt really comfortable, Kimi wasn’t. It’s easy to lose some time there but for the rest of the season we go maximum attack. Anything can happen, it can rain on Saturday. There’s always the chance to do well – so we have to attack latest next Saturday if you talk about qualifying.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Question for Daniel. I think you were quickest in Sector Three. I wondered whether your tyre warm-up process was affected in any way by Bottas coming out just in front of you?

    DR: It’s not ideal. You always want to have a clean out-lap and obviously it’s not his fault at all. It’s just the pattern and the way we came out was close but yeah, it’s always nicer to have your own out-lap to do your own thing. Everyone’s got their own way of warming up the tyres. You never know how much the car in front is going to back up to try and do whatever they want to do, so yeah, it probably explains why my tyres were better at the end of the lap rather than the beginning. I haven’t seen the sectors but the third one felt pretty good. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Who knows? But yeah, it’s always nice having a clean out-lap and doing your thing. It was close. Wanted to push him in the pitlane! Yeah, it’s just part of it.

    eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference on Saturday

  • We would not support anything that leads to a two-tier system: Kaltenborn on engines at Friday press meet

    Friday Press Conference image by FIA.
    Friday Press Conference image by FIA.

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – John BOOTH (Manor), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes)PRESS CONFERENCE

    Toto, maybe we can start with you. You had Pharrell Williams in your garage this evening but are you happy with the performance of your car – fourth for one of your drivers and seventh for the other and apparently giving something away in the long runs to maybe Red Bull and Ferrari?

    Toto WOLFF: Yeah that was a pretty spot on analysis. We are not with the performance today. We haven’t really made the tyre work in the way we should on the one-lap performance and on the long runs either. We have seen some spectacular laps from the Red Bulls. Yeah, just need to get our heads together and assess what’s happening.

    It is of course the time of year when we start looking forward to next year and the future. Do you envisage making any changes in your roster of customer teams from the ones you have today?

    TW: This is also a situation, which is a dynamic situation and we are looking at what is happening with curiosity. Of course we have always supported independent teams, so depending on what’s also happening with Lotus and Renault we will be looking at the situation of supply for next year.

    OK, thanks for that. Claire, coming to you: 188 points on the board at the moment, this time last year, after 12 rounds, 150 on the board; third in the Constructors’ looking reasonably solid. So, are you proud of your progress or frustrated by your missed opportunities this year?

    Claire WILLIAMS: Always proud of the progress our team makes. I think that we have obviously made a couple of mistakes, certainly in the past couple of races, around our pit stops. But we know the issues, we identified them and we are always very open and honest about what they are and as long as when we next come to a race track we don’t make the same mistakes then I’m happy with the work the team does. As you said, we are ahead on the number of points we’ve scored so far this season versus last year. We were fourth in the Constructors last year versus third at this point now and we believe that we can close that gap to Ferrari and that is our agenda and our objective for this weekend. We’ve got to get some more points and extend that gap to Red Bull as well.

    In terms of moving forward for 2016, you’ve obviously got the same drivers, that’s been confirmed, what are you demanding from your technical personnel to make that step change you need to challenge?

    CW: A quicker race car. Pat and his team do a really great job with the resources that they have available to them. We obviously have to do a better job commercially to bring in some more revenue for them, to give them a stronger budget. But they know the job in hand and obviously we have another year, a final year of stable technical regulations ahead of the changes that are coming in ’17 and we need to capitalise on that stability in order to make sure that we bring the best car to the track when we start racing again next year. This is a good opportunity for us to galvanise where we are now and the position and the competitiveness that we have and to drive it forward.

    Thank you for that. Coming to you Monisha: great start to the season with those points in Australia. Then you got caught up by some of your competitors. Recently you’ve been back in the points and here in Singapore you have a big upgrade. Tell us about why your season has gone the way it has?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, if you as a team have certain limitations on resources, it might be finances or personnel, you have to make sure you spend it on the right things that are viable for you to implement. So we knew that we put emphasis on the start of the season, knowing very well that in the course of the season when we tried to being a package in later, [which is] what we did, the competitors are going to catch up and probably we will be passed down the ladder, which we were, so it was expected in a way. But we focused on our route and brought this package now to Singapore and what we’re seeing, as a basis, we’re happy with but we understand that we still have to work a bit more on the set-up, analyse the data better and maybe not exactly at this race but maybe at the next races we will see the full potential.

    There is a lot of discussion at the moment on power units, costs and the best way forward for all teams in Formula One. What are your personal thoughts?

    MK: Well, we’ve always had the view that you had to bring to the costs down. We had reached already the point with the Resource Restriction Agreement that we felt was a good basis. We’ve seen that with the new powertrain costs have hiked up that much, so we’ve always supported the idea that you try to bring a kind of cost cap on the engine prices, so we think that is a move in the right direction.

    Franz, talking about engines, where are you on engine supply for next year. It’s now late September; are your engineers anticipating a change of power unit in their 2016 design?

    Franz TOST: As Renault decided not to supply us anymore with engines of course we have to take into consideration to change the engine.

    Can you tell us anymore?

    FT: Confidential talks are continuing, therefore I don’t know at the moment which engine we will have in the car next year. I hope that we will get a result soon but currently we have confidential negotiations and as I mentioned before I hope we come to a result as soon as possible.

    Your drivers have started in the top 10 on the grid on 10 occasions this season but you’ve still got just 35 points on the board. What do you have to do in the final races to improve the situation? Is it just reliability?

    FT: It’s reliability, because we didn’t finish many races where we could have scored a lot of points because of reliability issues and I hope that we as a team and our partners will have it under control for the rest of the season and that we can catch up and finish races. For sure it’s not in the hands of the drivers. If we give them a reliable car they will score points.

    Thank you. Coming to you John. First of all, the Alexander Rossi and Roberto Merhi decision was described as being ‘in the long-term interests of the team’, so that does imply a 2016 seat for the American, what are the considerations on that, and how was day one?

    John BOOTH: Day one started out extremely well. Alex had a really good first session up until a small mistake with a big penalty unfortunately. I think Alex has proved to us over recent years that he is an exciting young talent and we are very happy to give him the chance to show that talent.

    And what do you mean by long-term interest of the team?

    JB: I think that’s Roberto’s words rather than my words I think. It will help us assess as we come to the end of the year and start thinking about driver line-ups for next year. Any information will help us.

    Tell us about the work on the 2016 chassis. What engine is it based around and how much resource have you been able to throw at it?

    JB: Well, the engine situation is very similar to how Franz described it. I think there is a bit of an engine merry-go-round at the moment and it’ll be interesting to see how it settles. We are in discussions with manufacturers and we hope to have that resolved fairly soon. Work on the 2016 car is progressing well. We are not quite back to where we were with staffing levels, but we have a very strong design team; we’ve made some good signings over recent months, and we’re moving into our new factory as we speak. So the team is back under one roof for the first time in nearly 12 months.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) A question on engines to all five please but first of all to the independent teams. There’s obviously talk about the cost-caps or price-caps on engines – but there’s also talk about two different tiers; in other words a current engine and a last year’s engine. How do you feel about that and is the discussed or proposed differential of only €4million between the two steps sufficient to make it attractive to take last year’s engine. And to Toto, what does this do to your business model? Because obviously if you’ve got three customer teams and you could recover €25million per team it was €75million per year. If it’s now down to €12million it’s only €36million. Is it an incentive for Mercedes to continue supplying engines at that sort of rate?

    CW: There were a lot of questions in that! First, in general as an overview, I think what the Strategy Group have come up with is a good way of trying to control costs around what is a very expensive power unit that we now have in Formula One. I think that each team needs to make an independent decision as to what variant they go for – and obviously at Williams we have options available to us and we need to take every argument under consideration before we determine which avenue we want to go down. Obviously as Williams we want to make sure we have the most competitive power unit in our car. I think with regards to your question  about whether the delta between the numbers are great, I actually think that those numbers are significant for teams. For a team like Williams, with the budget we have, a cost-saving of €4million is always going to help because it means we can divert that spend in another area: it can go on aero or it can go elsewhere – so I think those numbers are important. You can’t get these engines down to… they’re expensive engines for the manufacturers to have to build. They’ve got to recover their costs, we’ve got to pay for them. We can’t be unrealistic about those expectations. I think your other question would be best directed to Toto.

    Franz?

    FT: I think it started in the wrong way from the beginning onwards because when it was decided to come up with this new regulation, FIA or whoever should have told the manufacturers, “look, you have Formula One, you can use this as a marketing tool – but you have to invest the money to develop the engine and to provide some teams with engines to a fixed price.” Then it should have been negotiated and the manufacturers could have said yes or no. Now, after this new power unit is running for the second year already, to say to the manufacturers “you must come down with the cost” is a little bit late because the development is quite expensive and it has to be. The different manufacturers have to develop the engines and the power units because otherwise they will never close the gap to Mercedes. Therefore it’s difficult. I’m totally against the usage of a one year old engine because then we have a two class team on the grid and this will not close the gap. This will even increase the gap. Then we have, I don’t know, five, six, seven cars which are running away. They will have after ten laps 30 seconds open the gap and races will become totally boring. It’s difficult but I think it’s too late. The power unit from the beginning onwards is very, very expensive. What we’re bringing here, it’s high technology, the development and the research costs a lot of money and now, of course, we have to pay the price.

    John, you have a bit of experience of running older generation engines. Do you have a point on that and answering Dieter’s question.

    JB: To answer Dieter’s question, we’re in favour of any type of cost control in Formula One, whether it’s engine or other forms of regulation that keep costs under control. We’re in favour of any steps in that direction – but I don’t think F1’s the correct arena to have two tiers of performance.

    Monisha, you half-answered this question with your previous answer but do you have anything more to add to the specific points raised in this question?

    MK: I agree with what’s been said, that we would not support anything that leads to a two-tier system – and I think there’s a danger in it as well, that it sets a precedent for other areas. If you do this on the engine now, what if then you come up on the chassis or parts that you could also save costs there? A team can very well be in a situation where you take up this option before you have to close your team – but nevertheless it’s a dangerous route and we should make sure it’s not a precedent for other areas.

    And the final word to Toto, on the question raised by Dieter first of all, and then the second part which is specific to you about how this affects your business model as a manufacturer.

    TW: First of all, as Mercedes we take costs very seriously. We understand that it’s difficult times for most of the teams and that we should, all together, try to get the cost level down – that is clear. As to the specific question Dieter, I would like to throw a question back: where do you have your information from? Because I have never seen any sport or any business where price-sensitive information or competitive information is being discussed in public. So I wouldn’t want to comment on any of the discussions. What I’d like to comment is that the Strategy Group discussed possible avenues of reducing the costs for customers and making the model feasible. That will go into the F1 Commission, it’s going to be voted on. So whatever’s out there in the public is pure speculation. Borderline nonsense.

    And the subject of the business model, is that covered by your answer?

    TW: That’s covered, yeah.

    Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) This is for Toto only. Car manufacturers across the world are spending US$20million a day on research and development into various things. Why are you charging anybody in Formula One? You don’t need to, this is R&D work, you should actually be doing it for nothing, shouldn’t you?

    TW: Yeah, we’re all here for nothing, because we love the sport and we enjoy ourselves. Joe, there is a commercial reality out there. Whoever is in the sport does it because he hopes to have a sustainable business model. The same for car manufacturers. We are operating – and it is along the lines of what Franz says –on a set of rules. We have developed an engine and we have developed a car looking at regulations and trying to do the best possible job. If we find out a couple of years later that, oops, we’ve forgotten to set the framework right, this is not how you operate today. So, like any other business, you will try to work on your P&L and optimise where it is feasible but again, as I said in my answer to Dieter, this is our joint platform, and we need to have that discussion, and it important to not be hard line and close yourself up and say “well, I need to optimise on the profit.” On the contrary, you need to look at it in a sensible way but these discussions need to be reasonable and need an outcome which is feasible for everybody.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, your question gets answered by the financial statements that you publish every year at Company’s House in the UK, £120m odd. It’s very easy to have a look at it. I know you do R&D work for other people – for the group –  but a lot of that – 80 percent  of your work roughly – is Formula One, so it doesn’t take rocket science to work out exactly what you’re charging per customer team. Plus people do talk in this business, as you know. But my question is that if it’s nonsense, as you termed it, are you saying then that the price cap would be exactly what you’re charging at the moment and if so, how seriously are you taking cost-cutting then?

    TW: So, I haven’t questioned your information about our official accounts which you’ve researched and it’s absolutely right but there are numbers flying around with two tier engines of eight million or 12 million and what the gap would be on our bottom line and I think this is just wrong. We shouldn’t discuss prices. I have my opinion on fixing any price and there’s a pretty simple legal view but that’s going much too far for a press conference after Formula One free practice. Nevertheless, the governance is like it is, there have been discussions around that and you should take them seriously, that’s absolutely clear. We are serious about cost-cutting but let’s take it to another level, let’s take it to the F1 commission and let’s discuss possible outcomes.

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) Toto again on engines, I’m afraid. If the F1 commission and WMSC do end up approving a year old, second tier engine scenario as has been discussed, would that enable you to open up greater supply routes to other teams that were only interested in the older engines?

    TW: Personally, I’m not a fan, I think, like anybody in that room, of two different engines because you don’t want to have two classes of competitors and that’s one thing, but if you can supply an engine for a much cheaper price because you can run it longer on less harder power levels, and the difference in price is considerable, you can give somebody a choice. You can give a team a choice in saying that I would like to be in there just to ramp up my organisation, for example. You’ve seen like Manor came out of the ashes and it was reasonable to opt for a reasonable price model on the engine, without wanting to speak for John. But I think if you have that second option, why not? I don’t think that many teams are going to take that up but we just wanted to throw another possibility into the game, not expecting that it would generate lots of interest.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and SpeedSport Magazines) A question to all of you about the ban on wind tunnels: if it is going to happen, will it save money and why throw away something that is used in the automotive and aeronautical industries and could be related to F1 as well?

    MK: Well, since I’m not a member of the F1 strategy group there’s not really very much I can say on that. I’ve heard different views. Some say they have been banned, some say they haven’t. I personally think we should not be banning anything like this, not because we have a wind tunnel which we think works very well. I don’t think it’s the right way. Whatever we’ve banned in the past has always come back and it’s always been more expensive, so I think you rather have to find a sensitive balance between the different tools you have or create some kind of another borderline and be free actually to do things within that cap or borderline and why should we ban wind tunnels?

    Q: John, your team when it first started didn’t have a wind tunnel, just used cfd back in the day, if you remember. Is it time to go back to that model?

    JB: Probably not. Reference the gentleman’s reference to the use of wind tunnels in automotive and aerospace, I think you will find that aerospace in particular is using wind tunnels less and less and relying more and more on cfd. I can see a time in the future when wind tunnels are banned totally but maybe not for the next two or three years.

    FT: I’m against banning wind tunnel usage because there’s always a reason behind it. Some teams are pushing to ban anything, whatever it is, because maybe they don’t have the proper infrastructure or maybe they have an advantage with another tool. No, we should keep a balance. I think if we reduce the wind tunnel running time, also reduce cfd like we do currently, maybe to go a step forward, then this is the right way, but not to ban anything because there is another way to compensate for it which is much more expensive in the end.

    CW: I think everyone is fully aware of Williams’s position on wind tunnels. We’ve made huge investments over our time in Formula One in our… we have two tunnels at Grove and we place considerable importance on them as a tool for developing our race cars, verifying the parts that we develop at the factory before bringing them to the track. We believe that there’s a safety element in there as well and we absolutely do not and will never vote for the banning of wind tunnels in Formula One. We’re very clear on that. And I think they’re relevant. How can you operate at the pinnacle of motor sport and not use one of the finest tools in aerodynamics. It doesn’t make any sense to us.

    TW: Absolutely, I can only agree with what Claire said. We are a road car manufacturer and we have just commissioned a brand new wind tunnel in Stuttgart because a wind tunnel is needed today to put a car on the street, verify what’s being done in cfd and to get correlation. It’s a safety aspect and certainly Formula One shouldn’t be the playground for funny experiments for opportunistic reasons and following Claire’s argument, whatever is being said or is being heard from any vote in the strategy group about wind tunnels is just… I don’t want to use that word again but…

    Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Wind tunnels: can anyone up there tell me what Formula One wind tunnels give to the world apart from making the cars go faster and secondly, those who have wind tunnels, can you rent them out and make more money? Is not cfd a much better way to go forward?

    CW: I’ll answer your second point first about the costs involved, which I forgot to mention earlier. We’ve actually done a deep analysis of the costs involved in running our tunnel and how much it would actually save if we closed it and the numbers are not… they don’t correlate with the numbers that are currently in circulation at the moment. It is minimal, the amount that you would save. Again, the compensatory elements… you would just save that money elsewhere as F1 teams, any cash that you would save somewhere, you would go and spend somewhere else.

    The relevance of wind tunnels? I think Toto answered the questions of relevance. In the world that we operate in, to be able to verify what you’re developing at the factory in the tunnel is hugely important before you get it to the track and we’ve streamlined what we do development-wise at the factory and the fact that we can bring the upgraded parts of the car that we do now and that they work straight away when we get to the track is because of the work that we undertake in the tunnel. If we didn’t have that tunnel capability we would be bringing thousands of parts to the race track at huge expense, wasting a huge amount of money when we realised when we came to Friday practice that they weren’t effective and that they didn’t work.

    FT: The correlation between the race track and cfd – at least at Toro Rosso – has not reached the level that you get valid results; you need the back-to-back tests with the wind tunnel, to know which direction to go, therefore I think they are necessary.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To the back: Franz, if I recall your words correctly, you said next year Renault will not supply us with engines. Is that official?

    FT: I can only say what I read in the newspaper, what Ghosn said in Frankfurt and I think this is serious. I haven’t got it in a written form from Renault so far. I’m quoting rumours, yes.

    Q: (Graham Caygill – The National Newspaper) Franz, as James mentioned earlier in the press conference, Max and Carlos have shown some great pace this season. Do you and the team feel vindicated because there were a few eyebrows raised at the start of the season on going for a such a young line-up and do you think maybe the FIA, in hindsight moved a little bit too quickly changing the superlicence rules so that people like Max in future can come through?

    FT: Yes, as we know, the FIA changed this regulation. You must now be 18 years old to come into Formula One. I personally don’t think this makes sense because if young drivers can start to race in single seaters aged 15 or 16 years old, then earlier or later it was quite clear that one of these drivers will be in a position to come into Formula One and once more, it’s not a decision how old someone is, it’s a decision how fast and skilled someone is. I know a lot of old drivers who are simply too slow but I know as young drivers they are much faster therefore I take the younger drivers. Anyway, that’s the decision that was made by the FIA, in future that it’s no longer possible who is younger than 18 years and I’m more than happy that Red Bull decided to bring Max into Formula One, because, as we all can see, he is showing a fantastic performance and up to now, he has made less mistakes than other much more experienced drivers.

    eom/FIA transcript of Friday Press Conference

  • Force India’s Perez optimistic to continue the good run in Singapore

    DRIVERS – Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Sergio Pérez (Force India), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Roberto Merhi (Manor), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), Felipe Nasr (Sauber).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Let’s start with you Romain, back on the podium this year. Do you see many opportunities for getting up there again in the remaining races of 2015.

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, let’s put it this way: we didn’t think any podium was possible this year – we did it. So, yeah, I think we’re always eager for more, always trying to do our best. Spa was a beautiful opportunity for us and hopefully there will be much more coming. The best we can do is try to work hard and do the same.

    Q: Looking ahead to 2016, your thoughts on that? Obviously you’re wanting to see what’s going to happen with Renault and the Lotus deal that’s been discussed a lot – but if that didn’t happen, would you consider… your name has been linked with the Haas team, for example, is that something you would consider.

    RG: I think the other thing I can tell you is that my decision is… I’ve made my decision, everything is clear in my head and I know what’s going to happen for me in the future – but if you don’t mind I won’t tell you any more.

    Q: Sergio, coming to you, on the same topic of 2016, Robert Fernley in the press conference in Monza alluded to the fact he was hoping to conclude things with you for next year by Singapore. Have you got any progress report?

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, definitely progress has been made but we are not yet in a position to announce anything.

    Q: Two consecutive top six finishes for you, for the first time in your career, at the moment on a good role, in a good way, coming to a track where you’ve always been in the points in the past. So you must be feeling fairly good about life I would think…

    SP: Yeah, definitely. I’m really optimistic. As you say, we’ve had a really good run up until now and hopefully we can continue. The car is improving. We just getting better and better so hopefully we can have a strong finish again. As you say, every race I have done here I’ve been into the points. I hope I make it again and in a better position.

    Q: Valtteri, your 50th grand prix start this weekend. The result in Italy was your best for some time. I guess from the outside one might say that this season has been something of a missed opportunity for Williams in one sense: a struggle for consistency. Is that your assessment as well, or are you please with what’s been done?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Well I have to say I’m not really that pleased for the results. Of course we aim to make a step forward. I think we’ve improved from last year but, compared to others, not really. So, as a team, I think everyone in the team is expecting more and we are aiming to do better in the future and obviously I’m staying with the team so it’s very nice to start building from this because I still think we’re not yet at a peak and we can definitely do better. From my side also, it’s been a very mixed season. A lot of things have not been going to my side, so unlucky races, unlucky results. That’s how it is sometimes. Always need to look forward.

    Q: You mentioned you are confirmed already for 2016 so what are you telling the team you want for next season to kick on from where you are now.

    VB: Downforce! And power! That’s what keeps you going. I think as a team we really need to improve in all areas like we’ve seen we’ve had quite a few issues still with pitstops and some mistakes from us, as a team. We’re still just getting stronger in all areas. Unfortunately, sometimes the way to improve is to do that mistake and then learn from it. I’m sure that soon there will be no more mistakes we can do. We can always just make sure we learn from those and improve. Like I said before, I think we definitely can be stronger than this year.

    Q: Roberto, the news that you’re driving two more races for the rest of 2015, shared with Alexander Rossi. Can you explain the situation to us.

    Roberto MERHI: At the beginning of the year when I came to Melbourne with Manor, they gave me a great chance to be part of the team and to be a driver of the team but for sure I didn’t know how long it was going to end up. At least I did 12 races, that is really good, I think, for a driver in Formula One that is quite difficult. And they gave me a good chance to be there in the car for 12 races and I want to say thank you for them but obviously I think they have taken a decision that is better for the team in a long-term result. We hope that I am still competitive for the last two races I have this year and I will try to prepare now all the weekends that I go together with the team, from now to the end of the year, and try to improve and learn as much as I can, to get ready for the race in Sochi and in Abu Dhabi.

    Q: The team’s been doing some wind tunnel development work. Is this with an eye on 2016 as much as on 2015 do you think?

    RM: The main focus already is on the new car in ’16 because now it’s quite the end of the year and for sure the target for the team is next year to be a competitive team fighting for a good result, for points and I’ve sure they’re going to achieve. And yes, sure, I think they’re trying to put all of their effort into 2016. It’s the best thing to do for them and is the thing they are doing.

    Q: Pastor, happy memories of qualifying second here back in 2012 but this year, astonishing record, you’ve retired from eight out of the 12 races and on many occasions you’ve been the first car to go out. How much bad luck can one man have? What’s been going on?

    Pastor MALDONADO: We’ve been having a bit of problems and yeah, it was not, maybe from the really beginning of the season, the best start for us even if we improve the car compared to last year.  It is how it is. We cannot change the past, we just need to work harder for the future and try to get better and better every race.

    Q: As discussed with Romain a minute ago, there’s obviously a lot of discussion around your team for next season, possible Renault takeover. How are you approaching discussions on next season? Do you think you’ll still be racing with this team in 2016?

    PM: I hope so. We’ll see.

    Q: Felipe, Sauber has been slightly more competitive in the last few races, qualifying just outside the top ten, consecutive points results. What’s been going on, on the technical side, that’s facilitated this?

    Felipe NASR: Well actually I think the last few races it was clearly some circuits that was coming more to our, let’s say, advantage, looking to our car and how it performs. I think those races, they clearly helped us in some ways – the likes of Spa and Monza – by having the long straights. Unfortunately I had bad luck in these last three events. If you look back at Monza, I started just outside the top ten, was running into the top ten into the early laps and then I got a puncture. It’s one of the missed opportunities but this is racing. Sometimes it goes like this, so I wasn’t able to get the points out there but this weekend we’ve got something to look forward. It’s our first proper update in the year, since Australia, so we’re getting the car all around being updated. It’s one to look forward.

    Q: Same question I put to Valtteri a moment ago, you’re already confirmed for next season. What are you telling the team? Your objectives for next year – what are you asking for?

    FN: Well basically what we’re having now, this update, it will important to validate these numbers on track and this will guide us for the 2016 car. We know the areas we have to improve. It’s all-around improvement, mainly on downforce I would say but it’s not like a specific point, it’s a general overview of the package. This weekend and how we take it onwards to the end of the season will be important to understand how the car is reacting.

    eom/Press Conference transcript/FIA press release

    Thursday FIA press conference in progress. An FIA image
    Thursday FIA press conference in progress. An FIA image

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Manuel Franco – Diario AS) Questions for Roberto: the first one is how Manor told you that you will not drive in this race and the second question is what options you have for next season?

    RM: Obviously I came here… I flew on Monday and when I arrived the team give me the news that I would not be driving and Rossi would be in my place for the four or five races of the remaining seven. For next season, we still don’t know yet. We are looking for a Formula One seat and we will try to find the best option possible but obviously these days I think a budget is really important and at the moment it’s hard to find.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, never points for you in Monaco or in Singapore; are street circuits some kind of weak point for your team?

    VB: No, we’re going to fix it this weekend. Definitely. Monaco was a big struggle last year and this year and Singapore – I think we’re going for points, we were trying for a mega-long stint to keep the position last year and then in the end my tyres were finished and I think it was on the last lap I dropped out of the points. It is possible to get points and for sure maybe the luck has not been on our side but we need to improve the car so that it’s also quick in these kind of places. Actually we do have some updates on the car here for the front wing and for the rear brake ducts so it’s there and hopefully those create a bit more downforce.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and SpeedSport Magazines) Sergio, in Monza you told us you were getting quite close to a deal with Force India. Are you any closer to finalising things?

    DK: Yeah, I think we are just in the final bit. I hope very soon we can finalise everything. The team is happy to keep me and I’m happy to stay so I see no reason why it shouldn’t happen soon.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Pastor, James mentioned your run of bad luck this season. Given that there isn’t a huge amount of run-off at Singapore and I don’t imagine there’s a huge amount of spares at the Lotus team this weekend either, is this a weekend for caution to be exercised or will you be giving it full beans as you often do on street circuits and often to great effect as well? How do you approach this weekend? You’re a very good street circuit racer but do you need to back off a little bit?

    PM: I think we need to approach the weekend as normal. We are looking forward to doing our best and to get what we deserve is to push very hard and to try to put the car in the best position we can.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and SpeedSport Magazines) Romain, we go to two very different circuits: Monza, high speed, almost no downforce; here, a lot of downforce. How do you switch gears as a driver and is one track more difficult to the other or is it just a different challenge?

    RG: I think it’s a different challenge. Most of the people think Monza is fairly simple, it’s a straight line and chicanes and another straightline and then a chicane, but it’s quite hard to keep the rhythm in the car and braking in the right place and then taking the corner well. You kind of lose concentration in a straight line and then you come back whereas here is more intense. The first sector is quite long and fine but then you get to sector three where it’s corner after corner, where you need to think about your rear tyres, your braking point, the throttle is a big issue and you slip and so on so they are both very challenging in different ways but I don’t think there are any tracks which are easy nowadays in Formula One.

    Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) This could be a question for anyone, but Valtteri, maybe I could ask you: is there any further understanding from your point of view about Pirelli tyre pressure checks? Have you talked to the team about what might be different in terms of procedure this weekend and is there anything there?

    VB: Not really fully aware of what’s been decided. I heard something had been decided but I’m not sure.

    Q: Have any of the other drivers already had a briefing ahead of that, can you add anything on the tyre pressures? Sergio?

    SP: All I know is that the FIA is thinking of changing the procedure but we will have more information as a team about that.

    Q: (S’. Dipak Ragav – The Hindu) Sergio, you are now 13 points ahead of Lotus and I believe you have an update package for here and one more at Mexico. Do you think this is Force India’s best chance of finishing fifth in the Constructors’ title, considering McLaren’s troubles this year? How confident are you?

    SP: Yes, definitely. I think we are already fifth. I mean 13 points is nothing, really. It can change from one weekend to another. It’s not like we have a huge advantage. I think we are obviously going to fight really closely with Lotus. Toro Rosso are also in contention. The next one is 50 points ahead which is Red Bull and as well, if we have two good weekends and they go back then there’s every opportunity for us to do even better so right now, what we can do is just maximise everything with both cars and try to score as many points as possible with both cars.

  • American GP2 Series title contender, Alexander Rossi, set to debut for Manor F1 Racing team

    Singapore, 16 Sept 2015: The Manor Marussia F1 Team is pleased to announce that it has signed Alexander Rossi as Race Driver for five of the seven remaining rounds of the 2015 season, competing alongside Will Stevens. He will make his Grand Prix debut at this weekend’s 2015 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix.

    Alexander is the first American Formula 1 driver since Scott Speed competed in 2007. The 23 year old, from Nevada City in California, is currently lying in second place in the 2015 GP2 Series, with three rounds of the championship remaining. The team is happy to support him in that battle, therefore Alexander will race in Singapore, Japan, the US, Mexico and Brazil, but he will not take part in the Russian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. Roberto Merhi will join Fabio Leimer as an Official Reserve Driver but he will drive in Sochi and at Yas Marina.

    Alexander is a familiar face for many of the Manor Marussia F1 Team, having been Reserve Driver for the latter part of the 2014 season. During that time, he took part in a Free Practice 1 session, at Spa-Francorchamps during the Belgian Grand Prix. This weekend will see him ‘racing’ a Formula 1 car for the first time.

    John Booth │ Team Principal

    “We are delighted to sign Alexander as Race Driver. He is widely-regarded as a driver who is on the cusp of an exciting F1 career and his current form in the GP2 Series has done much to reinforce his clear potential. With that in mind, we are pleased to support his current GP2 commitments while he continues to battle for the championship win, therefore he will race in five of the seven remaining Grands Prix this season, with Roberto contesting Russia and Abu Dhabi for us.

    “Signing Alexander is a continuation of our proud record of providing young drivers with the opportunity to showcase their talents. We believe he will do a great job and look forward to seeing him race for the first time this weekend in Singapore. It is also fantastic news for the sport that it will have an American driver again, particularly with the United States Grand Prix on our horizon and now two races in South America, in Mexico and Brazil. I know Alexander is very excited about that and we look forward to providing him with the opportunity to show the American public what he can do.

    “While Roberto is obviously disappointed, he understands that this decision is in the long-term interests of the team and we thank him for his professionalism. No decision has been made regarding our 2016 driver line-up and we will continue to evaluate our options during the remainder of the season.”

    Alexander Rossi

    “I’m very thankful to race for the Manor Marussia F1 team and for their continued belief in me. I’ve been prepared for this opportunity for quite a while now. Many will know from 2014 that the team and I already have a strong relationship and there’s a bit of unfinished business for me here.

    “This is a small F1 team that has been through so much. They exemplify passion and true strength of character, and their comeback this season is extraordinary. I’m honored to be part of this legacy and their continued growth and success.

    “I want to thank the management at Manor Marussia F1 Team and my team in the GP2 Series, Racing Engineering, for supporting both my F1 duties and the completion of an already strong GP2 campaign. Since Monza, my return to F1 came together rather quickly and seamlessly. The collective support of both Manor and Racing Engineering was instrumental in making this opportunity possible.”

    “Singapore is a circuit I really enjoy and the timing of my debut could not be more perfect. There’s a lot of work ahead and I’m looking forward to a busy end to the 2015 season.”

    eom/Manor F1 news

  • Monza circuit is a special one, it gives you incredible pride: Hamilton

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Felipe MASSA (Williams)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by George Lucas)

    This is amazing, simply amazing. Congratulations Lewis, you did a great job. You told me earlier when I was kidding you about these close call races of one or two seconds, I said ‘why don’t you win by 20 seconds?’ and you said ‘I could do that, I think’. Well, you did it in spades; I bow to you, you did a great job.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Today… look at this crowd, it’s incredible. Unbelievable fans here. I couldn’t have done it without my team. I couldn’t have done it without my team. I don’t know if anyone can hear us. This team is just remarkable and what we have achieved together is so special, so I’m incredibly grateful to them for really working so hard through the weekend, through the last weeks, through the whole year to give me the car I had today. These guys also did a great job.

    Sebastian, I’ve been to the factory a few times and everybody has been talking about the new engine. Did the new engine live up to your expectations?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well look at this. I think this says it all. Grazie a voi! Grazie tifosi! Questo anno è incredible… Grazie, a tutta la squadra dico ancora grazie.

    Felipe, how did it feel when you were coming up to the finish line there and your team-mate was only inches away from you?

    Felipe MASSA: It feels very tough! I’m getting old for that! I even said to the team I’m getting old! The last three laps of the race I was fighting with my team-mate. It was very difficult but we managed to be here. Grazie mille a tutti. Sono molto contento di essere qui con voi. Questo podio é meraviglioso. Questo rettilineo è fantastico. Grazie davvero. Siete tutti nel mio cuore.

    So Lewis, one last question: Do blonds have more fun?

    LH: I hope so! Thank you everyone. Thank you to all the fans. You are the greatest fans here. Grazie a tutti.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, the technical delegate has referred the team to the stewards saying that “the minimum measured tyre starting pressure of the left-hand side rear tyre of car number 44 was 0.3 PSI below the specified minimum tyre starting pressure” and a representative of the team is asked to go to the stewards. Do you have any comment to make on that?

    LH: Not really no.

    You’re not aware of it?

    LH: I wasn’t aware of it, so…

    The team was asking you at the end of the grand prix to build a gap. You weren’t sure what that was for, presumably that was linked to this issue?

    LH: Maybe.

    They still haven’t told you?

    LH: No.

    Lewis, your 50th grand prix start for Mercedes, your third win here in Monza, seventh of the season, 40th of your career, now one short of Ayrton Senna, who I know was an idol of yours growing up. Really, obviously, the start was always going to be decisive. You took a defensive line, Sebastian had to go round the outside and from there on you seemed to be completely in control of the afternoon. Tell us about that and also the emotions of the afternoon from start to now?

    LH: Yeah, this weekend has been just fantastic. It has been a perfect weekend for me. I don’t know if I have ever had a weekend like this. This circuit is such a special one for… I think it’s the same for all the drivers. When you stand on top of that podium you feel incredible pride and incredibly proud to be amongst the greats that have stood up there and when you see a sea of fans – a lot of them in red – but the sea of fans is just unlike anything I’ve seen. It’s very emotional when you are up there. The race was fantastic. I got a good start. I think we all probably got a difficult start and managed to hold ground. Sebastian was really fair into turn one and after that it was really just chipping away, looking after the tyres, trying to look after the tyres whilst chipping away… trying to take time away, increase the time, the gap behind. I was generally able to control it really after that. I felt comfortable. The car balance I really got perfect for the race. Perhaps not so much for qualifying but perfect for the race. It was actually one of my favourite balances I’ve had through the year, in the actual race. The last few laps I was told to push and I’m thinking I’ve got quite a big gap already, so, for me, I was a little taken aback by it, but nonetheless I still managed to pull it out and do what they asked me to do. Big congrats to Sebastian and Felipe. I know these two have been pushing hard for a long, long time, so I feel proud to be up here with them as well.

    Q: And you were 29 points behind coming here last year. You’re 50 points ahead going away, over 50 points ahead going away this year.

    LH: I don’t understand…

    Rosberg retired

    LH: I wasn’t aware of that. Oh. Wow. I think our performance, my performance today, I have to really take my hat off to my team: they’ve done a remarkable job the last two years and I can’t thank them enough. The constant attention to detail. Improvements they’ve been doing back at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth is just… I’ve never seen it before. Incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done.

    Q: So Sebastian, you “were very fair in Turn One,” says Lewis. You gave it a go. Did you think it might be on?

    SV: I had to! Obviously I was on the outside so it was going to be difficult. I was a bit deeper on the brakes but yeah, I mean I have to give way, he’s on the inside, the first corner goes to the right. It’s a tricky one. We’ve seen across the various years you can get it wrong so I was quite happy. Tried to focus on the exit. He got a magnificent exit out of Turn Two so I couldn’t really get a run on him. I was trying – but I couldn’t get a run on him into Turn Four. After that I though, after the first couple of laps, I think at some points we were similar in lap time, he was only a tenth quicker for one or two laps, I thought that maybe now we get a chance to close the gap but then he just seemed to… in football you call it the second lung. I don’t know – that’s a German saying, it makes no sense in English – but he just seemed to find an extra switch and he was pulling away. I think myself, Felipe and the cars behind, we seemed to struggle with tyres, so we’re losing pace whereas Lewis just kept doing what he was doing in the first couple of laps. So it was quite incredible to see and no chance to stay close to him. After that our race was pretty isolated but I knew I had to keep pushing. Seeing the pace that Lewis had, I knew that Nico eventually will have the same pace. He did in the end, he was closing the gap, it was getting quite tight but I think we could have managed and get the place even with Nico not retiring. So, in the end, to sum it up, it’s fairly simple, it’s the best second place I ever had. The emotions on the podium is incredible. If we take this away from the calendar for any shitty money reasons I think you are basically ripping our hearts out. We are here, we are racing and this makes it so much more worthwhile. It’s what we’re here for. You stand on the grid, you look to the left, you look to the right, people are just happy to be part of it and it makes our day. So, simple as that. It’s incredible. So, thanks for this emotion on behalf of all the Ferrari team. Thank you.

    Q: Felipe, on the podium here in Monza, second year in a row. Start obviously decisive for you as well because Kimi just didn’t get away, you were very, very quick on to that and at the end you had a little bit of a tussle with your younger team mate once again, which you seem to be enjoying.

    FM: Yeah, it’s really emotional to be here. It’s a fantastic race, very difficult from the beginning to the end, just trying to make the gap and then, the start was OK. It was not really that fantastic a start I had but it was really good to overtake cars and to manage to be in the position compared to the guys behind, so happy for that. But also, just the pace. Trying to open the gap against Valtteri. I went to the pitstop a little bit early and he stays on the track for a few other laps which helps a lot his tyres for the end of the race. Maybe I opened the gap anyway and we were doing good lap times to maintain the gap but at the end I started to lose performance on the rear tyres and he was catching me with better tyres as well. So, in the last three laps it was pretty difficult. He was catching me a lot, he was quicker than me. The only problem was the traction: he has better traction. So, I managed to fight, and getting to the podium was tough, three laps but I’m so happy for the position, so happy for the team. I think we managed to score great and fantastic points today. And also in this amazing place. Being on the podium here, with the whole straight of people so we cannot even see any asphalt, y’know. Even in Corner Three, from the podium. So it’s really, I mean, definitely the best podium and very human. A very hot, human feeling when you see all these people.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, as you have said, there was a phase early in the race when you were just a couple of tenths slower than Lewis but then it has increased quite a bit. Why do you think this was? Was it just that your tyres didn’t hold up so well because it was the end of the stint or was it because you weren’t able to use the same engine modes as yesterday in qualifying?

    SV: No, I think it’s pretty simple. I was falling asleep! No, I was pushing as hard as possible and Lewis, I think, to some extent, did the same and yeah, I think you could see on my lap times also Felipe’s – I got updated by radio that the lap times kept dropping so I guess we were struggling more with the tyres than Lewis was because he was able to do the same lap time on lap 22 as he did on lap four which is quite impressive. Obviously we had run down some fuel but tyres are 20 laps older. I think he said he felt well with the balance of the car which makes a huge difference so that’s that. They were quick on race pace, quicker than us but potentially they had a bit better tyre wear or tyre degradation, let’s put it this way, so I think that made the difference. On the first three laps I had a bit of hope and then, to be honest with you, I saw them going away, so yeah, that was that.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, have you already received an explanation, either before or after the podium, because you had to push, because there was a problem with the investigation of the tyres. Had they already explained to you or was it something else?

    LH: As I just said, I don’t even know about it.

    Q: What was the second question? There wasn’t one.

    FM: He’s amazing, he never asks one question, always two! I think he has a fever.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis and Sebastian, what kind of help could you get with lower tyres pressures?

    LH: 0.3 lower? Not really a huge amount on one rear tyre.

    SV: Well, it’s difficult to judge now because  I don’t know what was going on. I think it’s not fair to hand that question to Lewis because he doesn’t know what’s going on, so that’s that. In principle, the tyres last a bit longer, but as I said, I don’t think… In a lot of respect and fairness he did a very good job today and you have to accept that.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) To all of you, after such an emotional podium ceremony, what are your feelings when you hear that the future of Monza on the calendar is uncertain?

    Q: Well, Sebastian has already made his feelings very clear on that one…

    LH: I think we all have really. As I said on the podium, I said at the beginning here, this is one of the best tracks in the world. This has to stay here for moral reasons. As Felipe is saying, all those fans out there who come every single year. Are you going to take this Grand Prix away from us and put on another one, that would not have the same feeling, or would not have the special impact so we definitely have to keep this.

    FM: I don’t think they can take it out. The history of Formula One, this is history here, here is part of what is Formula One… everything that Formula One grows is a lot thanks to these races as well, to these people. We race for the people and when you see the podium with a lot of people like that and they’re screaming and crying, I don’t think we can lose that. This is part of our blood and we cannot lose this type of races. I really like to go to new countries, we go to amazing countries, countries that I even didn’t know what they meant before and then I love to go there, many different countries and I’m really in favour to go there but you cannot lose something which is inside the blood as well.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, I think it’s highly unlikely because Lewis finished more than 25 seconds ahead of you so even if he gets a penalty I don’t think it will change the order but if he would lose the victory and you would win the Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari like that, what would be your emotions?

    SV: Well, it doesn’t change anything, emotions. I was second on the podium and that’s the emotions I got and I’m grateful for them. I had a great car today, not good enough to win but good enough to just finish second.

    Hamilton (centre) address the press at the FIA Press Conference after winning the race on Sunday. An FIA image
    Hamilton (centre) address the press at the FIA Press Conference after winning the race on Sunday. An FIA image

  • Hamilton takes dominant Monza pole ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel; Rosberg finishes fourth

    Lewis Hamilton took his 11th pole position of the season, the 49th of his career and his fourth at Monza as he beat Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen to top spot on the grid for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix.

    Third place in the session went to Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari while Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was fourth after being forced to revert to an older specification Mercedes engine when a problem was detected with the latest version power unit fitted to his car for this weekend’s race following the morning’s final practice session.

    After early morning rain had led to wet and intermediate tyre use in a drying final practice session, Q1 got underway in dry and bright conditions. The early pace was predictably set by the Mercedes duo, with Hamilton annexing top spot with a time of 1m24.251s, more than half a second clear of Rosberg, who was running with the power unit used in Spa.

    As the 18-minute session wore on and the final runs approached the drivers in danger of the cut were 15th-placed Fernando Alonso of McLaren, team-mate Jenson Button, the Manors of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi, while Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo had yet to set a time.

    McLaren, Toro Rosso and Red Bull are facing grid penalties due to power unit changes but despite the impending sanctions, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz attempted to secure as positive a grid position as possible and was in P8 before the final runs.

    There was drama for Verstappen as he began his only run, however. The Dutch driver’s engine cover flew off at the Curva Grande, scattering debris across the track and he was forced back to the pits without setting a time.

    Also out after the first session were Stevens and Merhi in P18 and P19 respectively, with the Manor drivers finishing behind the McLarens of Button in P16 and Alonso.

    At the top of the timesheet, Hamilton was quickest with a time of 1:24.251, just over three tenths ahead of Rosberg. Kimi Räikkönen was third fastest for Ferrari on 1:24.662, with the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg fourth and fifth respectively. Sainz, meanwhile, made it through as the highest-placed Renault-powered driver, in 12th place.

    The Mercedes and Ferrari drivers were the only qualifiers to make it through the session without using the option soft compound Pirelli tyres.

    Hamilton again set the early benchmark in Q2, with the championship making his way to a best time of 1:23.383 ahead of the final runs. He was followed by Räikkönen who was just under four tenths adrift, Vettel and Rosberg.

    At the other end of the order were Sainz, Ricciardo and Kvyat, none of whom had not set a time, while Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was in P12 behind the Sauber of Felipe Nasr.

    Ricciardo opted to sit out the session and without a time on the board he qualified in P15. Kvyat and Sainz, meanwhile, chose to battle for position and while Kvyat took provisional P13 with a time of 1:25.796 he was quickly pushed back by Sainz who beat the senior Red Bull driver by almost two tenths of a second. Also eliminated at this point were Nasr in P12 and Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado who was pipped to a Q3 berth by Hulkenberg, whose lap of 1:25.510 was 0.015s quicker than that of the Venezuelan.

    At the front, Hamilton who sat out the session finished in P1 ahead of Vettel. Raikkonen, who also stayed in the garage for the final runs was fourth ahead of Rosberg and the Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

    After the first runs of Q3 Hamilton, with an opening lap of 1:23.397, was a relatively comfortable three tenths of a second clear of Vettel at the top of the order with Raikkonen third, just seven thousandths of a second behind the German. Rosberg, using the Spa engine, was struggling, however, and after the first runs he was in P5 behind Massa.

    He remedied that situation in the final runs, vaulting ahead of the Williams driver by improving to a time of 1:23.703, but it was still only good enough for fourth as both Raikkonen and Vettel found more time. Of the Ferrari drivers it was Räikkönen who succeeded in finding the most time and with a time of 1:23.631 he pipped Vettl to the front row by five hundredths of a second.

    Hamilton, meanwhile, failed to improve on his opening lap and closed out his 49th career pole position with just over two tenths of a second in hand over Vettel.

    With Massa fifth, Bottas was sixth for Williams ahead of Perez and Grosjean while row five is set to be filled by Hulkenberg and Ericsson in ninth and tenth respectively.

    2015 Italian Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:23.397
    2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23.631
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:23.685
    4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:23.703
    5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:23.940
    6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:24.127
    7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:24.626
    8 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:25.054
    9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:25.317
    10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:26.214
    11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:24.525
    12 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:24.898
    13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:25.618
    14 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:25.796
    15 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing –
    16 Jenson Button McLaren 1:26.058
    17 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:26.154
    18 Will Stevens Manor 1:27.731
    19 Roberto Merhi Manor 1:27.912
    20 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso –

    eom/FIA press release

  • The cars are safer than they have been 30 years ago but there is still room for making them safer: Sebastian Vettel

    DRIVERS – Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Nic

    FIA press conference at the Italian GP on Thursday. An FIA image
    FIA press conference at the Italian GP on Thursday. An FIA image

    o ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico maybe we could begin with you, congratulations, I understand you became a father. How will it change you and have you decided on a name yet?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure it’s been very exciting, very intense of course. Big respect for all the mothers of this world – unbelievable. No, very emotional and super happy. Very excited.

    You’ll obviously be losing a little bit of sleep then in the coming weeks but you’ve also been losing a few places off the start line lately, with both the old and the new rules on starts, so it’s now three races in a row, making race day a bit more complicated for you. What thoughts have you and the team had on that and how you are going to address it, as particularly here in Monza it’s a long run to turn one so any loss off the line would be amplified by turn one?

    NR: Yeah, it’s true that starts have not been our strength lately, so we’ve been working on it a lot, making progress and then of course the rule change also came in right in the middle of, or off the back of two starts that hadn’t been fantastic. So it’s a work in progress and we need to improve for sure, we know that, and we’re all getting into it.

    Thank you. Sebastian, when you started with Ferrari you said you were living the dream and here you are, at Monza, a Ferrari driver, in front of the tifosi. Can you put into words the sense of pride, responsibility, expectation, dare we say even emotion that comes with the job?

    Sebastian VETTEL: No! Well, I’m about to find out. Obviously I’ve heard lots of good things. I’ve been here before so obviously [I have seen] the passion for Ferrari, so obviously very much looking forward to becoming part of that. If we do well, which is our target, and we manage to be on the podium on Sunday I’m looking forward to not receiving booing for a long time. So, yeah, plenty of stuff to look forward to. So far we have had a great season. This is our home grand prix as a team and since I didn’t have a home grand prix this year I adopt this one as well and hopefully we can make it a good one.

    Now, you made you feelings very clear to the media in Spa about Pirelli and the tyre failure. Having now seen the results of the investigation, what are your considered thoughts on the matter?

    SV: Well, first of all I think there was a lot of stuff explained or written that I think was not correct, the way it was expressed. I think it was very clear what I said. I think the most important point is that obviously we have been looking into the issue we had very clearly and Pirelli has been supportive and very open in the discussions, so I think that’s the most important thing and we need to make sure that we learn from that. Other than that we are in Monza now and, as I said, there is plenty of other stuff to look forward to.

    Thank you for that. Felipe, coming to you, obviously confirmed for 2016 [at Williams]. On the podium here last year, third for Williams and you’re always popular here with the fans thanks to your years with Ferrari. Given Williams’ chassis and engine characteristics can you dream of maybe moving to a higher step on the podium on Sunday of this weekend?

    Felipe MASSA: Yes, for sure. Dreaming is for free. You always dream about the best, about winning the race. Here is one of the best places to be on the podium, to see the whole people, the whole straight [full] of people, especially. Last year that everybody was also happy that I was there on the podium, screaming my name, I think it was so nice, so I’m really looking forward for another one and definitely we dream even to get a better position than third. When you go to the grid you’re thinking about doing the best and thinking about the victory. That’s what I’m doing every race and it’s another one where I will try everything I can to be there.

    If we you look at your recent record, you out-qualified Bottas six-five this season, finished ahead of him in the last four races and moved ahead of him in the championship. What’s driven this strong run of form for you?

    FM: I think last year I was very competitive as well with my team-mate. We were fighting the whole season I would say. The only thing is that the results of the race are a lot more consistent this year. Last year I had a lot of problems, many races where so many things happened and I couldn’t finish in the position I was supposed to. I think this year the situation is a lot more consistent and I managed to score points and finish more or less where I was supposed to in most of the races. I think that’s really good, but we have many races to go and you always want more.

    OK, thank you for that. Daniel, coming to you, you obviously come from an Italian family that emigrated to Australia. When you come here how Italian do you feel and how have the Italians welcomed you in the last few days during all the various promotional activities you’ve been doing?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I start talking with my hands a bit more! It’s automatic: you arrive in Italy and you start using your hands. What was the question?

    Apart from how Italian you feel, how have the Italians welcomed you in the past few days in the various different things you’ve been up to?

    DR: It’s always a warm welcome here, for sure. The fans are… I’ve always said it, they’re passionate; they’re full on but they’re great. They love the sport, they love getting close and having their moment and stuff. It’s pretty cool walking into the paddock. It creates a bit of a road block but… I think it’s the craziest paddock entrance we go to all year in terms of the fans spreading their love, but it’s nice. I remember the warm-up lap here last year, I think I crossed the second Lesmo and there was a flare blowing across the track… it’s unique, so it’s cool.

    Red Bull has yet to lead a lap in 2015 and you’ve spent a fair chunk of the races somewhere between P5 and P7. Tell us about how you’ve set targets for the remainder of the season and also about the decision on power units for you and your team-mate this weekend?

    DR: Looking now towards the last part of the season, the last couple of races have been our strongest, as of late, Budapest and Spa have gone well for us. I think in terms of understanding the car we’re much more on top of it now than we were earlier in the season. I think the chassis is back to a really strong level. Monza’s not obviously a circuit that suits us particularly. We’ve got the penalties as well, so you know that’s obviously a strategic things as well – take the penalty here rather than in Singapore where we expect to be very competitive. Then, yeah, have some fun here on Sunday, come through the field as far forward as we can and then Singapore, we can really fight for a podium there.

    Coming to you Marcus, 25th birthday celebrated yesterday, happy birthday. Scored points in the last two races consecutively and beaten your team-mate in the last four, do you feel it’s all starting to come together?

    Marcus ERICSSON: Yeah, I think my form, like you say, has been strong now lately and it’s nice to see. I’ve been working a lot with myself, trying to change my approach during a race weekend, focusing more on myself and not other people, what they are doing. It’s nice to see that it’s giving results on the track. I just need to continue that form, not relax but continue to work really hard to continue that way.

    New start regulations in Spa; it wasn’t the smoothest start for you. What happened there and what do you generally think of the new rules?

    ME: I think I did quite a good start. I gained a position, so for me it was pretty good. For me, it doesn’t make a big difference. It’s a bit more feeling for us drivers than there has been before. It’s very similar to how it was in GP2 and I was always a strong starter in GP2, so for me it’s not a problem.

    Thank you. Coming to you Carlos, another birthday celebrated, 21 years old now. If we look at your performances, you’ve reached Q3 six times and out-qualified Verstappen 7-4, yet the results show four consecutive retirements from the races and a best result of eighth. Are you getting concerned that the performances are being overshadowed by the results and the retirements?

    Carlos SAINZ: No, not really. It’s not my main concern at the moment, because at the end, what is under my control everything is going so far quite well. The retirements are obviously totally out of my control, but four consecutive ones is a tiny bit too much. But I’m confident that this well end soon and I’m confident that it will start playing a bit to my side now and we can have a smooth second half of the season and start finishing races and going back to where we were at the beginning of the year in terms of points and position.

    We mentioned that you’ve out-qualified Verstappen to this point, have you been surprised by the speed you’ve been able to find in qualifying?

    CS: Well, you never know what to expect when you come to Formula One. I just know that last year in World Series I made a very big step forward with myself in qualifying and in the race and I just brought it to Formula One this year. You never know how you are going to be, you never know how you’re speed is going to be in Formula One. What I am quite sure is that Saturdays this year have gone very well for me and I am performing at a very decent level. I just need to make sure now on Sundays I perform at the same level and we finish races and I’m sure we’ll be in a good position.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Agris Lauznieks – Kapitals Lativia) This is last race in Europe this season. What are your thoughts about the opportunity to add extra races in Europe, especially northern Europe – to do Riga Grand Prix in Latvia. How would you feel about it?

    NR: I’ve heard great things about Riga, I’ve got a good friend from there also so that would be fantastic but I don’t know. Races in Europe are great, wherever they are to be honest, so it’s always good to have more of those.

    Sebastian, anything to add?

    SV: Not many things I know about Latvia. But yeah, would be, I think, a nice place to go to. I think in general it’s a bit of a shame that we don’t have a grand prix in northern Europe, also Scandinavia because people are quite passionate and crazy about racing. I’ve been to Rally Finland some years ago and I was wondering why we don’t have a Formula One grand prix but I guess that, especially next year, we have quite a lot on the calendar so it looks sort-of busy now – but maybe in the future.

    Marcus, maybe you can tell us why we don’t…

    ME: I think we should have a snow race in Sweden – that would be something! I don’t know. Like Sebastian was saying, we have a lot of passionate fans in all of Scandinavia and northern Europe so it would be very nice to have a race somewhere in these countries, for sure.

    Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) My question is to Felipe Massa. Today here you are between the very young drivers and in the race you are very quick and very competitive. My question, where is your personal secret to be very young and very quick?

    FM: I still feel young, honestly. Definitely when you here with 21 years old, 17… it’s really young, definitely. I think you just need to… I always do my best. I feel quick, I feel competitive and definitely the experience helps in so many areas. I’m happy for what I’ve learned with these days and, definitely also when I see you are competing with young drivers and you show good speed in the qualifying, in the race good performance is always nice – nice feeling, so we always compete for the best result you can. That is what gives you pleasure. I can say I have many pleasures in racing and by the result I finish in races – sometimes not, something yes, this is part of our feeling. I still feel good motivation and I’m not finishing the race tired or whatever, so I think that’s what counts at the end.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Nico Rosberg. Nico, before you talked about the birth of your daughter. I would like to know if you can compare the happiness of that to some other things in our job, like victory and nervousness. If you can compared nervousness in that moment? And a technical question about the gap with Lewis. The gap has increased a lot in the last two races, do you think this is one of the last chances to recover? To change the direction of the championship?

    NR: Emotions extremely intense, more intense than any racing success or anything like that. And also, yeah, because there’s factors… love and health and all these things playing a part. That’s definitely more than a race victory. Then the gap to Lewis, yeah, points of course it’s gone in the wrong direction but it’s just over one race difference so I’m very optimistic and pushing and definitely want to try and close that  back down now.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) To Sebastian, Felipe, Daniel and Nico. Are you satisfied with Pirelli’s explanation for the tyre failures in Belgium – especially as a couple of you described them as unacceptable over that weekend? And to Sebastian personally and additionally, have you raised your concerns, as expressed after Spa, with Bernie, who’s deciding the new tyre supplier?

    SV: I think in all honestly I had a bit more insight because I was obviously one of the two cars that had a failure during the weekend in Belgium – a bit more insight on what was going on after the race in terms of the analysis and so on, than probably Felipe and Daniel. I’m not sure about Nico. But yeah, from what I mentioned also before, it has been very professional, the way it was handled. It was taken very seriously. And obviously our target is to improve the situation. I think it’s natural that you always try to improve your product. I think if you look at the cars, if you talk about the cars today, the cars are quick and so on, and the cars are safe. They’re surely safer than they have been 30 years ago but there is still room for making them safer: we still have accidents and so on and still some things can happen. It’s a one-way street: you want to make progress and keep making progress. So I think that’s more important than any sort of press release, the feeling that I got when I spoke to the engineers and spoke to Pirelli.

    Nico?

    NR: It’s being handled with extreme precision and a lot of energy is going into it, which I’m happy to see, of course. It requires that also. I’m confident that we’ll be here and driving safely.

    Felipe, what were your reflections on Spa?

    FM: I think maybe they know better than me. They were there, they were inside. All these problems the two cars had in Spa with the tyres. For me it’s a little bit more difficult to explain. We want to be safe. What we want is to not have this problem happen – or maybe to understand 100 per cent why it happens and change whatever needs to be changed to give us the most safe tyres and the most safe opportunities to race and to risk ourselves in a safe way – which is what we want. Don’t know what they changed from there to here, but for sure if they change somethings from Spa to Monza, maybe with the tyre pressure and everything. So we need to understand if really they understand what’s happened or not – which is the most important thing. We always want the most safe car or tyres to race.

    Daniel?

    DR: That’s right. It’s all been covered.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) With all due respect, Daniel, I don’t think it has all been covered. I’m still at a loss, guys; are you satisfied with Pirelli’s explanation? They say as well, in the press release, there were 63 cuts to tyres over the course of the weekend. We know two of them, for Sebastian and Nico, did any of you other guys experience cuts on your tyres? Did your teammates experience cuts? Is this statement right? Were there that many cuts? Was the track that dirty because of all the debris?

    DR: There was blistering. I don’t really know the difference in a way, the details: what’s a blister, what’s a cut? Yeah, we experienced some blistering. Certainly not the first time we’ve had it in Spa. It’s pretty common around there. Yeah, so we did see some activity, I guess but there again, not the first time. It’s probably hard to be as attached to it as Nico or Seb. Obviously I wasn’t in the car but I still saw it and I feel their concerns or their disappointment with the situation. I think what Pirelli’s put out has been as much as they can for now. That’s all they can say really is that we’re working on it. Obviously they’ve given us some answers so, yeah, that’s just where it is for now. It’s hard to predict what will happen now in the future.

    Q: Carlos, any cuts in your team?

    CS: No, not really. I think they’ve given us an explanation, the reasons. I hope they’ve done their job properly. I’m convinced they have because they are the first ones that don’t want to put us drivers at risk so they are giving us those explanations and I’m convinced that at least it will not happen again and we can race safely here in Monza. And if it does happen again, then maybe we need some more investigation.

    Q: Marcus, did you have any cuts in the Sauber team?

    ME: Yes, we had some issues with some cuts on some tyres but I think they came from debris on the track. That was the explanation that we got. I didn’t experience anything else, not any problems with my driving.

    Q: Felipe, Daniel just said it’s quite a common problem at Spa. Could you explain to us why Spa, why it’s particularly common that you pick up debris there?

    FM: No, I don’t believe it should be common. Debris we have every race. Some races we have more debris than others. For sure, the tyres should be strong enough to accept the debris or what we have beside the track. I don’t think it’s common. We had cuts as well during the weekend.

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) More about the tyres, I’m afraid. We know that you guys all have Pirelli engineers embedded in your garage, giving you advice on cambers and pressures and whatever else. To what extent, in each of your teams, is that advice listened to? Do they have real input in the strategy? How can things go wrong when you’re supposed to have an expert with you, telling you what to do safely?

    NR: Well, sometimes there are strict things that you must follow and other times there are just suggestions on everything. I’m not sure… we handled everything accordingly in Spa and made modifications also throughout the weekend to make sure we were running the tyres as safely as possible, according to guidelines given by Pirelli. I don’t know about them, what their situation was. I can just say that we did manage things, yeah.

    SV: I think it’s fairly simple. There’s a lot of things that you have to stick to because it’s part of the rules. Also the FIA is checking so you can decide not to listen but then obviously you risk to be disqualified, so I don’t think there’s any team taking that risk. And then there’s other things that you talk about and use the expertise of the Pirelli engineer inside your garage and I think it would be stupid not to listen to him, for all of us, for all the teams, because obviously they have knowledge that we can’t get about their tyres etc, so of course we take it very very seriously.

    FM: Yeah, I think the same, not really more to add.

    ME: Same, same stuff, yeah.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Seb, sorry to labour the point slightly. After the race in Spa, among many other things you said was that the current situation was unacceptable. If I can put it this way, is the situation now acceptable to you and any of the drivers who want to chip in?

    SV: Well, I think it is not acceptable to have a blow-out at that sort of speed, out of the blue and I think that’s what I said also after the race, so there’s nothing really to add. But, as I said before, I think the investigations that have been going on, the stuff that obviously has been analysed and talked about, explains some of it, maybe not all of it yet but it’s still ongoing and obviously, as I said, the most important thing is that we make sure that we make progress. At the moment, from Pirelli’s side, it looks very very professional, they handle it with extreme care, and I think things are going the right way.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) So has enough changed from Spa to here? Is the situation more acceptable?

    SV: Well, I think there are some short term changes, as I learned, if we talk about tyre pressures, for example. We obviously see how it feels but if that’s a short term reaction within those couple of days or weeks that we’ve had, that’s one thing. Then obviously long term I think we need to understand properly what happened. I think it’s very clear that everybody is trying to do their best. I think we had a situation a couple of years ago which wasn’t acceptable and there was immediate change and we didn’t have problems afterwards so you can see that the professional approach does work and usually leads to the right result.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Felipe, I would like to know if something has changed in the team after the mistake they made with Bottas’s car when they put on the wrong compound, please?

    FM: Well, it should, definitely. We always work for trying to do everything in the correct way, in the best way we can. Sometimes mistakes can happen in our working but for sure mistakes happen which we cannot repeat, so definitely we are always trying to improve things when we see they are not working in the way we want, so we want to be perfect, we want to do everything correctly. This is part of the working we are doing from race to race, the changes we are doing from race to race and whichever mistakes or things that can happen we are always working not to repeat and that’s what we’re doing as a team.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Daniel, you’ve mentioned that you are starting to understand the car better, and it was obviously in Spa, the efficiency is there, you were very quick in the second sector in spite of running a very skinny rear wing but the top speed was not there. Do you think that Red Bull again has one of the best cars on the grid and again, is it obvious that now the engine is the biggest hindrance for you?

    DR: I think we’re now back at a level we were at last year. We knew the chassis was strong, we felt most of our deficit was the power and then yeah, I think earlier this season it looked like we obviously had issues on both sides, the chassis… obviously I had experience from last year and I didn’t feel like it was where it was last year so I thought we had similar deficiencies on both sides but yeah, we’ve had quite a few updates since. All year we have updates but I’d say since Silverstone it’s really come on strong and we seem to be in the window a lot easier now with getting the car there so I’m definitely a lot happier with where the chassis is now. I feel it’s like we were last year and then yeah, the power we know, we’re trying to make up what we can but we know we started too far back and it’s… I don’t like the word impossible but it nearly is impossible to make all that gap back in one season so I think that’s what it is for now. We’re always going to be somewhat down for the rest of the season, that’s why we look at Singapore and some of these circuits which are obviously a lot less power-dependent, a lot more chassis and we look at those as potential podiums for us.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Sebastian, can you take us back to a couple of years ago, your first victory here and also explain why it is harder this year to win here for Ferrari than back then for Toro Rosso?

    SV: I don’t know yet. I don’t know if it’s harder yet. Obviously it was a miracle that was happening in 2008 so only positive memories of the whole weekend really. But yeah, some years later, obviously another highlight and I’m looking forward to it and obviously can’t promise anything but for sure I can promise that we will give our maximum, trying to have a very very successful home race. I think that I know a lot more than I knew in 2008 so in this regard it should be easier but obviously it’s never easier. If you look on paper, it looks like a simple track with low downforce but still it’s also very technical so for us drivers it feels that the car is moving a lot, it feels very light under braking so it’s still a big challenge around here. You need to get the braking points right etc so it’s not that straightforward and obviously I’m sure that people expect a lot from us, but I think the one thing that we can promise now is that we will give everything we have.

    eom/FIA press release