DRIVERS – Max CHILTON (Marussia), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari), Pastor MALDONADO (Lotus)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Daniil, can I start with you? Three points finishes, one 11^th place, you must be quite pleased with the way things have started in the first four races?

Daniil KVYAT: Yeah, it’s going quite OK now. A bit of a shame not finishing in the points in Bahrain as well, but anyway you have to learn from something. So far we’ve been a bit on the limit of the points zone, but I hope that we can make some good steps and become even a bit more competitive, so we can take points a bit more easily. It would be a really good step but we are working hard together and soon it will be reachable.

So the story so far is that Jean-Eric Vergne your team-mate is three-one up on you in qualifying but you’re ahead of him in races. He’s had a few reliability issues in races but how do you see the balance between you, and your own progress?

DK: I’m not really looking too deeply into these scores and so on. We’ve been quite close. Don’t forget that Jean-Eric is a very fast driver and he’s in the peak of his shape probably now. Also very experienced. In the wet I have to admit he was very fast so far and in Bahrain it was a dry quali. Of course, he’s also been having a bit of issues. But in China it was a very good balance. I was quite happy in the race. I was quicker than him at that point but in the end we have to see in the future races.

Max, coming to you. The run continues: 23 consecutive finishes in your Formula One career, two 13^th places so far this season, are you proud of what’s been achieved so far?

Max CHILTON: Yeah, I am. Last year it wasn’t a perfect season but lots to take away from it. I remember someone asking me in me in Monza, I think, saying: ‘you’re 10 races in, that’s a good little record you’ve got going there’. And then I broke Tiago [Monteiro’s] record, which was 16 from a rookie start, and we though it would be nice to get to the end of the year, which we did. Credit to the team; that’s pretty good for a small team reliability-wise. And we’re four races in now and we’ve carried that on. It’s not our main goal, but where we are it’s absolutely crucial to finish the race as I’ve shown this year with the two 13ths. We did have good speed but we had to be there at the finish to make sure those results counted. So we will try to keep it going but our main focus is to try to get a bit more speed out of the car and myself.

Apart from Malaysia, in the races where you and Caterham have both finished Marussia has tended to be in front of them. Can you say a little bit about how you see that battle and also about how close you feel you are now to the teams in front of you?

MC: We’ve always had a good battle with Caterham. They kind of hold back sometimes, I think, in practice and qualifying and surprise us in the race. But I think this year, to me, our car is definitely better. We’re developing well. We’ve brought some good updates to here. I’m not sure if they have or not. It would be nice if we could push forward. Sauber hasn’t been too far ahead of us and we’ve been battling with them in at least the first few stints of the race and so… yeah, I guess you’ve got to focus on the cars in front, there’s no point in focusing on your mirrors, so we’ll try to improve our results this weekend.

Thanks for that. Coming to you Pastor. Obviously you’re a former winner here in Barcelona. Lotus in Q3 in qualifying in China, running in the top 10 obviously. How would you describe progress within the team?

Pastor MALDONADO: It’s clear that we have been progressing quite a lot in the last couple of races. Still maybe we were not at 100 per cent but we’ve been working really hard. Hopefully here with a bit more time, putting everything together we can be much more competitive and we can fight for good places. This is our main focus at the moment and I think we can. We have a good car, a good team. We have been not good enough with all the new engine system at the beginning but now it seems to be more clear in terms of technology, you know, controlling all the systems in the car and hopefully from this race to the end of the season it will be much better for us.

We’ve heard about a lot of new parts on the car this weekend and also power unit upgrades from Renault. What are you expecting and what are you expecting from yourself this weekend?

PM: I’m expecting to have no problems, a competitive car, and do my best. I the past I’ve been quite good here, so I think as soon as we manage to solve all the problems we will be back to fight for good places.

Sebastian, Red Bull have announced that you have a new chassis this weekend, so I wonder if you could share with us what’s in it, why do you need it? Obviously, we’ve heard you saying that you don’t feel that the car was talking to you; maybe you’d like to elaborate on that. So, what are you looking for from this car and how close do you think you’re getting to finding it?

Sebastian VETTEL: I think we concluded after China, where we were quite a little bit behind to change the chassis, so actually it’s not a new chassis, it’s an old one that we used in testing in the winter, and we have some experience with it. It’s more a sanity check rather than a real problem with the other chassis. So it’s just to try everything we can and basically reset and start again. Obviously there is still a lot of work ahead of us, as I mentioned after the first couple of races, maybe I’m not as happy as I want to be but it’s a long process, a lot of things have changed and I think we need to be patient.

Kevin, two-all versus Jenson, you personally have been three times in Q3, so Saturdays are going OK, but it’s been a rough couple of grands prix, the last two for you. Tell us about that?

Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Well, I think I’ve learned a lot. It’s been good in many ways as well. Obviously we’re not where we want to be and we need to keep working really hard to get there. But I think I have learned a lot and there have been many positive points to take away from the last two races. It’s no secret that we are not where we want to be; it’s not that we’re happy or that I’m happy. We just need to work hard, keep working hard. The team is doing a great job. They are staying positive, although they are not happy with the position. They are staying strong and keeping the fighting spirit up. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy with how things are going in terms of the progress we’re making.

It’s unusual for McLaren to have two races where you score no points with either car. How has the team reacted to that internally?

KM: Well, in Bahrain I think we would have scored points. China was not good for us. It was a bit of a shock how far off the pace we were but again I think we learned a lot. We know China is probably the worst circuit for us at the moment, but we’ll just see how it goes here.

Fernando, a two-time winner here, winner last year in a Ferrari. Tough start to the season clearly but third place last time out in China. How much encouragement has that given you and the team, and how big a step have you brought with you here this weekend in terms if updates?

Fernando ALONSO: The China result is a boost for all the team – extra motivation to keep working hard. As you said we are not in a position we are happy with. We start with some deficit to the top teams, especially Mercedes who won the first four races and is dominating now with good margins, so we try to decrease that gap and we try to get closer and closer. To do that we need to make bigger steps than what the other teams will do. For here, to be honest, we need to wait and see. I think the characteristics of the circuit will help us a little bit, with not too big straights – only one here on the finish line. About the new parts, we bring some new parts but nothing out of this world. I don’t think we will be different compared to any other top team in terms on what we bring here, or even less. We need to see. As I said, track characteristics are the biggest help we have here.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: (Mathias Brunner – Speedweek.com) Sebastian, not to use the same chassis again, how much of a ‘black cat’ decision was that?

SV: Not really. I think it’s not unusual to change chassis, generally. Obviously if you change, you change to a new one, but we decided, as I said before, to change back to an older chassis just to make sure nothing is wrong. Just to see, or basically change the things that you can, to have a reset and try again. We don’t think that there was anything wrong with the old chassis but nevertheless we decided to change, so if so we should get an answer this weekend.

Q: (Jackob Melgaaro – Metro express Denmark) For Kevin, how do compare the car after the break to the car you drove at the last grand prix and how do feel about this track in Barcelona?

KM: We don’t know how the car feels, we haven’t driven it yet since the last race, so we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t expect it to feel a lot different. We are bringing a few new parts but nothing that is going to change the world. This track is the first track on the calendar this year that I’ve been to before, so that’s nice. It’s nice to be in Europe again, so feeling a bit more at home. So I’m looking forward to it.

Q: (Manuel Franco Peral – Diario AS) Fernando, podium is a real goal for you here in Spain?

FA: No, I don’t think so. We cannot start the weekend thinking to be on the podium. Or thinking to win the race. That will be creating… y’know, false targets to everyone who will come here. We finished ninth and tenth in Bahrain, we did podium in China because we had some things putting together on that Sunday but it’s not that we are in a position now to say we will fight for the podium here. We will do our best but we know it is going to be a tough weekend and it’s not going to be easy. But, you never know, this is sport and anything can happen but today, sitting here, if I tell you that I will fight for the podium, probably I will lie to you and I don’t want to do so for all the people coming.

Q: (Renan Do Couto – Warm Up) Question for Fernando. Fernando, after four races this season Kimi has only 11 points. At the same point last season Felipe Massa had 30 points. Does it show that Ferrari need much more than a driver-change to get back on the title fight?

FA: I don’t know really. We are not in a position at the moment that we expect. We thought to be more competitive and we struggle, as everyone sees, at the start of the season. I think it is the same for all the teams that we are facing some problems, apart from Mercedes, they had an easy four races, four wins. But, you know, we will work hard. We will work hard to come back in a better position and the start of Felipe or the start of Kimi was not the best in terms of points but I think hopefully soon they will be close to the podium or to the victories and we, both Ferraris, can score many points for the team.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport-Bild) Question to Fernando. When I listen to your, let me say, remembrance from China, between the lines I could hear that maybe the driver was better than the car in this weekend – or on the Sunday?

FA: I think the car is always what it is. The car never changes. The driver, also, sometimes you have better luck, sometimes you have worse luck. In China, for example, I have a crash at the start and nothing happened to my car and I could finish the race. I think the Red Bulls, they were fighting a little bit, they lost a little bit of time and I could be there. My pitstops were very quick. In the first stop I overtook Sebastian in that lap, so there were many factors together that put us on the podium. But, y’know, we need to do very special weekends to be on the podium and China was one of those. Lucky. And some other factors. So arriving here, sitting on Thursday on the next press conference. To repeat that podium will be unbelievable. But it’s not, at the moment, our main target.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) My question is for Sebastian and Fernando. You are the champions. How long can you work without first place in the podium?

SV: Well, I think – and Fernando will probably say the same – we’re here to win. I’m not coming here to finish second or fifth – but you have to be realistic and the target is always to get the maximum out of yourself, out of the car, out of the package that you have. And you can get a lot of satisfaction if you achieve that. So, it means basically if a podium is in reach or P5 is the best you can do then you need to ensure to become fifth. If you then become seventh it is not satisfying. But surely, ultimately we are here to win. That’s the target but obviously you know much better what’s going on inside your team and how competitive you are. So yeah, there’s a lot of things that need to come together. Right now, obviously, we have Mercedes in a very, very strong position. Difficult to beat but never impossible.

FA: Unfortunately I have a lot more experience! So, yeah, there is nothing really you can do apart from try to do the best job you can and try to find different goals. Obviously we are here all to win. My last win was last year, here. So it’s one year without victories. I would like not to have that long period. On the other hand, we are 22 drivers on the grid and maybe 20 are in a worse position than me. So, I cannot also be… y’know, blaming my luck for that. I’m extremely lucky and a very privileged guy, so, you need to keep working and if your boss is happy with you, that’s something very important.

Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Sebastian, Christian said in Autosport today that you are extremely sensitive to rear stability on corner entry. But that was… last year you were using the rear instability to turn the car into the corners. Can you explain what it is about this year’s car that you don’t like and why you’ve not been able to adapt to it so far?

SV: Well, I think generally we all have our own style to how we like to drive the car, how to set up the car. I think in general I don’t mind when the rear’s moving so I don’t mind suffering or having oversteer in the car. But if it is too much obviously if it starts to bother you when the car slides too much, then you find yourself correcting more than actually being able to push or get the maximum out of the car. And, yeah, it slows you down. I think that has been part of the problem so far. There’s lots of reasons behind it so it would be nice to have just one problem and one fix for that but obviously it got a lot more complex this year. There’s a lot more factors than just the car setup. So yeah, we’re still learning a lot. We did already a lot of improvement but there’s still obviously a lot to do. But I think generally you never change your… the way you like to drive a car or your style I think doesn’t change.

Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) Question for Sebastian. You’re changing now chassis. You have spent four races with problems behind Daniel Ricciardo. Do you feel this time you have lost is a bad thing for you for your own progress during the season and could affect the rest of the season for you?

SV: Surely if I had won the first four races it would be better for my season that what I did! Yeah, it is what it is. There’s two ways. You can always look back and try to find something to complain about – or you can look forward. And I think in general we are trying to look forward to the next race. There’s a lot more races this year to come and for sure we didn’t score as many points as we hoped. But then again after winter testing I think we were in a very bad position. I think right from the first race it was probably better than what we initially expected.  Lots of positives with Daniel’s podium in Australia – which obviously got taken away – but then the podium in Malaysia showed that we are on the right track but knew, just reading the feeling inside the car that it’s not yet where we want to be. And you also see that in the results. As I said, there is a lot of work but I think we are generally quite good in getting the maximum out of the car. At the moment there’s a couple of things that we need to get on top of and then it should be a different story.

Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph): Seb, looking forward it’s no secret that your car’s good in the corners but not so good at the straight bits in between. How much are you and the team – particularly considering it’s the start of the European season – relying on Renault to make a big step forward for you to mount some kind of a championship challenge?

SV: As you mentioned, it’s not a big secret. If you look at the sector times or comparisons that we have available, we currently lose out too much on the straights – but there’s always hope, obviously. Again, you have to look at it from the start. Where we started in winter testing was unfortunately way, way off compared to where we wanted to, in all means. Talking about the car, we set fire to the car nearly every run. Talking about the engine, obviously we were not on the same page that we expected to be, both in terms of reliability and performance. So, since that, I think we had a very, very strong comeback but obviously you miss that time of development. But I think there’s always hope. Just look at Ferrari, for example, the last race, the step that they did was mostly in straight line. I think they got a better fuel and picked up around 7kph on the straights. So… we know that our disadvantage is more than 7kph to the Mercedes which are currently the benchmark down the straights but things can change quickly. We need to make sure we push 100 per cent on the car and also on the engine side. In the end we are a team: Renault and Red Bull Racing, so both parties know that we need to push very hard to make sure that we beat these guys and also the currently strongest team with Mercedes.

Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Sebastian, you’re changing chassis at this race, why not a new chassis? And the second part: does the chassis have a name?

SV: Same as before. It’s not that much of a black cat, I hope.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, this morning Toto Wolff said that you are a real race monster. He said that Ferrari is the biggest enemy in the championship; what do you think of these words?

FA: About the monster, it depends how you take it. At least he’s a man. If it was a woman who said that I was a monster it would be even worse. We need to do it step by step. As I said, we need to be realistic with the position that we have. We will not give up, there’s a big gap and a big gap in points and in performance with Mercedes but there’s still a long way to go in the championship so we will try to do our best. As a team, and with the potential that Ferrari has, we must do anything we can to close that gap and to become competitive. That will not happen between one race to the next one, that will be a slow recovery and hopefully not too late when we become competitive in terms of points to fight for the championship but let’s do it race by race. China, as I said, was a combination of things and very good luck to get that podium. Here in Barcelona, it’s a good point to check how competitive we are, because it’s a circuit with different characteristics again and a circuit that will give us an answer in some of the parameters and some of the areas that we need to find some answers. Monaco is the next one, then Canada – again a completely different circuit so we are in a moment of the championship that will tell us many many things  in terms of how competitive we can be and how much of a threat we can be for Mercedes. If they count on us for the championship fight, it’s good news because they respect us but we need to deliver if we want to really become a threat, so we are on that, that work.

Q: (Silvia Reneé Arias – Parabrisas) Fernando, I want to know if you find any change in the Ferrari team after Stefano Domenicali left?

FA: Not really. At the moment, everything is more or less the same. I have been in Maranello last week. Everything is calm and no big changes, nothing really that you’re going to spot that is different at the moment. As I said in China, Marco (Mattiaci) arrived – as we said – with little experience in motor racing, a lot of experience on the managerial side but he’s listening, he’s learning as quickly as he can in everything. I don’t think Marco wants to become an engineer because that’s not his priority at the moment but he will need some time to settle down and to make some changes, some decisions if he thinks they are needed. As I said, in the two or three weeks that he’s in the job, nothing has really changed at the moment. He needs more time.

Q: How much are you guiding him; how much are you contributing to that?

FA: We had some meetings, obviously, to try to help him in all the areas. He’s quite interested to listen to everyone. He called all the engineers and all the engine side,  electronics, the drivers, we are going to his office and try to explain all our points of view and all our requirements. As I said, he’s taking note of everything and he will make the necessary changes, what he thinks is best for the team. Hopefully that’s a good thing for Ferrari to move forward and to improve some things, some historical mistakes that we’ve made in the past and we will see if this fresh approach… and not influence about any technical things because, as I said, he’s not an engineer. Hopefully that will help Ferrari.

Q: (Valenti Fradera – L’Esportiu) To all of you: the circuit Barcelona Catalunya used to be the venue of choice for pre-season testing but this year you haven’t run here yet. Will that change how you approach the weekend, and will we get to see more laps than usual tomorrow during free practice?

PM: Even without any tests, it will be same approach as the other tracks, for sure. I was quite interested to run before this season, because it’s a good track, a good combination of corners, good weather but it’s what we have so it will be the same.

MC: Yeah, it will be pretty similar. Obviously when we’ve come here in the past we’d pretty much know the ideal set-up for the circuit. Obviously the cars have changed drastically since last year so there will be a lot more to find out now we haven’t done any pre-season (testing) here. And we’ve now got the extra set(of tyres) in the first thirty minutes of free practice which we can use so there will definitely be more laps completed but if you compare it to China, for example, it won’t be any different.

Q: Kevin and Dan are obviously rookies (in F1) but you’ve got personal experience of this circuit, even if it’s not necessarily in Formula One.

KM: I don’t think it’s going to be a lot different – the approach to this weekend than the other weekends. Personally, I like this track, I think it’s a good track, the mix of corners. As I’ve said before, it’s a track that I’ve been to a lot of times, so it’s nice to feel at home here but other than that, it’s just a normal weekend.

DK: For me as a driver I don’t think it’s going to change a lot compared to other years we’ve been coming here. It’s my first time here in Formula One as well so let’s see how it will start going tomorrow.

SV: I don’t think it makes a difference. We didn’t run in Bahrain. I think that even if we had had the test here in the winter it would make a difference. But usually it’s quite cold in winter time, so when you come here in May it’s quite a big difference, so you need to use the time that you have available in free practice, but I don’t think we can run as much as we’d like to because we’ve all got the safety… the engines. We will see, but for sure the running tomorrow will be important.

FA: Nothing to add, really.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On Line) To all of you: when you have one driver from a team that has a car that is winning everything – like Mercedes – and your team needs to win three times in a row (to catch them up), how does it work for teammates? For example, the guy who is behind, does it stimulate him to try to win or does it work in the opposite direction?

FA: Yeah, I said waiting for Rosberg. I don’t know really. For this, when it happens, it was a question for Mark last year, when Sebastian won nine times. For Rosberg now. It’s not so difficult to know what you’re experiencing. Probably I will answer because I will have the experience, but now… of course, I think Rosberg would like to win, that’s for sure.

SV: I would hate Lewis now, if I was Nico.

PM: I would hate Lewis as well. It’s a difficult answer. For sure, you always want to beat your teammate, you always want to do your best and to be ahead of your most close contender. For sure, it’s not ideal to always be at the back but in my opinion, they are both competitive, sometimes one is quicker than the other and sometimes it’s vice versa. It’s a difficult answer because it depends about any driver.

MC: It would be nice to be in that position, obviously. It’s hard to beat someone who never gives up and Rosberg, I’m sure, will never give up. I’m sure he will get his fair share of wins back. Sometimes if you’re constantly winning you sometimes let things slip so if you just make sure you just keep giving 100 percent, he will definitely get other race wins.

KM: I don’t have anything to add.

DK: I don’t want to talk for others but if I have to talk for myself there’s never a huge friendship between teammates so I think you always want to be in front of everyone and there are some circumstances, sometimes if you’re teammate is in front of you, it means that there is something that you can maybe do better but once again, there are different circumstances.

ends/FIA release

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Pat FRY (Ferrari), Charlie WHITING (FIA), Yasuhisa ARAI (Honda), Andy COWELL (Mercedes AMG HPP), Rob WHITE (Renault Sport F1)

 PRESS CONFERENCE

If we can start with you Charlie? The new power units have excited a lot of debate since the beginning of the year. Will you once again briefly take us through the philosophy behind this technology and why F1 believes it was the right time to introduce it?

Charlie WHITING: I think it was fairly clear, we’re going back a little while now, that Formula One, being the foremost single seat category, should be at the forefront of technology. I think bit was also clear at the time that the motor manufacturers were also looking towards conservation. So we felt we had to go that way. I think to ignore that would have been rather silly. I think we would have possibly lost some manufacturers and certainly deterred others from coming in.

I guess efficiency plays a part in that as well?

CW: Of course that was the major goal. We started four years ago with the engine manufacturers. We had quite big meeting with lots of them assembled in Paris. It was the 27^th of April, in fact, in 2010. We assembled them all together and the initial goal was to have a 50 per cent increase in efficiency but over a period of time that became diluted somewhat because it appeared that was rather ambitious for the start of this new engine era. So we ended up with what we have now and that is an engine that everyone can see is about 35 per cent more efficient than the previous engines.

So, Andy Cowell, does that represent a small step in the right direction or a giant leap?

Andy COWELL: It represents a giant leap – going from internal combustion engines, naturally aspirated at about 30 per cent thermal efficiency up to engines where we’re all targeting 40 per cent thermal efficiency is a huge step, a huge introduction of new technology both on the internal combustion engine for efficiency and also on the two energy recovery systems that we’ve got on the power unit.

What do Mercedes expect to get from this project in terms of technology that can be eventually transferred to the road? Is that a long way in the future or is it already happening?

AC: It’s already happening. The regulations were specifically written to take some of the ideas are already in the road car world, so downsizing, downspeeding and turbocharging but adding some new, interesting technologies in there such as the electric turbocharger as a specific example and those sort of projects are already being worked on.

Can I ask the same question of Rob White. What does Renault expect to get from this project in terms of road cars.

Rob WHITE: It’s a big leap, as Andy says. I share the remarks that transfers are already happening. The transfers are not only specific technologies, the e-turbo being one of them, but also the fundamental alignment of the mission we have. Our challenge now is to race, to go as fast as we can with the given fuel allocation, which is a very, very similar mission to our road car colleagues who have to use the smallest amount of fuel to get a given mission done and that’s extremely close.

There’s been quite a lot of talk about how the power units are contributing to racing and we’ve heard some unusual suggestions for things might be changed. Firstly, do you think there are problems with the racing this year? Secondly, what do you think of ideas such as shortening races, raising fuel limits etc. Do those suggestions miss the point?

RW: The main problem I see so far is that Andy has won rather more than I’d like and we have win less than I’d like. The specific suggestions are just shifting the goalposts rather than doing anything fundamental and I think as Charlie indicated the basic parameters that we’re now racing with were decided well upstream in sufficient time that we knew what to do with them. I honestly feel that the numbers were well judged and I think the 100kg/h fuel limit and the 100kg for the race, as well as having the benefit of being nice round numbers, also play out more or less as predicted in terms of the level of performance and the level of fuel saving needed to get to the end of the race. I think we’ve seen in the early races that there hasn’t been an excessive amount of fuel saving that would perhaps have damaged the show. I think we’ve seen more recently, particularly in Bahrain… We all enjoyed the race there, it was the first one I saw from the comfort of my living room and it was certainly an exciting one to watch.

Now we’ve heard from two of the manufacturers currently involved in F1 but let’s get the thoughts of a manufacturer that will next year return to the sport after six seasons away? Thank you very much Mr Arai for coming to our press conference. What is it in the new regulations that has encouraged Honda to come back into Formula One at this time?

Yasuhisa ARAI: Thank you very much. I am delighted to be here and to be given this opportunity by the FIA to speak at this conference. As you mentioned we will return in the year 2015 for the Formula One. One of the major reasons for our decision was the new regulation introduced this year and that the various environment… I mean green technologies in the new Formula One power unit, as well as the total energy management are both very challenging and significant. The new regulation encourages each power unit supplier to pursue the ultimate combustions efficiency and high pressure direct injections, such as many, many new technology. Thus the challenge is to convert each unit of gasoline into energy and this is expected to be reflected on the huge production mode. That’s the reason why.

Q: You’re setting up a new base at Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. What will that facility be responsible for in the coming years?

YA: That, we will open June this year. Now still under construction but that factory is to do the engine maintenance for the races and rebuilding the Formula One engine and also to go to the race-track for the trackside service. That’s Milton Keynes.

Q: Pat, as someone more responsible for the chassis side of things at Ferrari, let’s talk about how you integrate these new power units with the cars. Have you found that the chassis and engine departments have needed to work closer together this year or is the relationship pretty much the same as always?

Pat FRY: I think with the changes to the power unit this year, there’s obviously a huge amount more technology to understand and that has definitely pulled the chassis department and the engine department closer together. That starts everywhere from the simple, basic simulations that you do before an event to tuning the car. Everything is now inter-related. So where you used to play with a diff and brake balance and whatever, you’ve now got all the various ERS levels of charging and deciding what to do with waste gates and turbos. So there’s a huge amount more interaction between the two groups.

Q: Has the engine department given you a power unit on the minimum weight or are you having to shed weight from the car?

PF: We’re fairly close to the weight limit. I’m sure everyone is struggling. The combination of an engine on the weight limit and just all the bits and pieces we want on a standard car, it’s quite a challenge to get down to the weight limit anyway. But yeah, we’re just on that limit.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question to Andy and Rob and Mr Arai if you would like to contribute as well please: Andy, you were talking about 40 per cent efficiency. Now, we’ve got relatively immature technology at the moment. What sort of progress in terms of efficiency do you engine manufacturers foresee over the seven-year lifecycle of these engines?

AC: It’s a difficult one to predict. We’re working hard to improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine, make sure that every single drop of fuel that goes in… and that’s where working with Petronas helps tremendously to get us to the point we’re at today and to move forwards race by race with fuel developments. And then it’s just mastering the conversion efficiencies – so every single step where we’re converting the energy, just improving little by little and then with a new power unit homologated next year. I guess I’m not coming up with a prediction for exactly how much we’re going to improve year by year – but I imagine it’s going to be very similar to when we were in the naturally-aspirated era, where there were times when we thought 13,000rpm was impressive and we all ended up well over 20,000rpm. So it’ll be a similar level of development.

Rob?

RW: I think Andy was cautious when saying 40 per cent. I think to be competitive you need to be a bit better than 40 per cent already. I think we shouldn’t underestimate just how important that is in terms of automotive technology. I think these power units are fantastic pieces of kit in terms of the raw, thermal efficiency that is achieved. Better than any road car engine by a margin. And I think it’s also important to draw attention to the fact that the energy management challenge is also part of the real efficiency of the race car which is in addition to the thermal efficiency of the power unit. There will be rapid progress even during the course of this year. We’ve seen progress in the early races without any change to the underlying hardware. That’s something that will continue during the season. That’s something that will take another step forward over the winter – as Andy as suggested – when we homologate a new version of the power unit for 2015. This is another mirror-image of what happens in the big, wide world outside, where every iteration of our road car product brings with it a significant step forward in fuel consumption, which of course is the same thing for us: a step forward in performance for the same fuel flow or fuel limit.

Mr Arai, would you like to comment or is it a bit too early for you to make any predictions.

YA: There is a strange feeling because our door for 2015 is still not open yet. So I can make just a small comment. How to make the good efficiency is just a three major fields. Technology fields. One is combustion itself – combustion chamber design, another one is how to recover the energy, that’s very important for these new regulations and finally the torque management. Positive and negative torque management is very important to make a good, fast car. That’s my comment.

Q: (Gary Anderson – Autosport) As you were saying Andy, revs, that’s always been the push, everybody wanted to get more revs, more revs, more revs. This year the regulation maximum is 15,000 but on a good day you might see twelve. Do you see that changing, and if it did change do you see that helping the noise?

AC: You’re correct with regard to the revs that we’re running on the track. I don’t see that changing, I don’t see the need for the revs to change to change the noise of the power unit. The principal reason why the engine is quieter is the turbine wheel and the muffling effect that you get from that. That’s one of the key technologies for recycling the waste energy that would normally go down the tailpipe so it’s a key aspect of the technology that we’ve got. There are other things we can do though with the tailpipe, perhaps, to change the noise.

Q: (Gary Anderson – Autosport) Could I just add a second part: why is it 12,000 rpm instead of 15,000rpm?

AC: The fundamental reason is the fuel flow rate formula so you get the 100 kilograms per hour once you’re at 10,500 rpm. If you rev an engine faster, you generate more friction and friction is the enemy of an engine and the enemy of a race car because you have to reject it to the radiators and there’s then an aerodynamic deficit from doing that. None of us want to be below 10,500 rpm but none of us want to be at high revs because all you do is create heat.

RW: There’s not much to add. The fuel flow curve, the fuel law is the thing that fixes the engine speed as Andy indicated. We hear a little bit less about the slope below 10,500 than the maximum which is 100 kilos but it is that knee point that fixes the rpm at which the engines make the best power and best efficiency and the engine speed above that is to do with the spread needed to pass the gear ratios.

Q: (Marc Surer – Sky Germany) It’s in a similar direction, my question for the motor engineers: what can you do to increase the noise? There’s a lot of talk about it but I haven’t heard a solution yet.

RW: First thing to say is that the noise of the current engine is a consequence of the overall layout, the architecture and so forth. I think in terms of the possible adjustments to change the noise it makes, I think we’re at the beginning of a consultative process that will kick off in about an hour’s time. Andy’s alluded to tail pipe changes – that’s something that could be a way to go. I think the scope to fundamentally and profoundly alter the noise of the engines is extremely limited by the type of technology that we have deployed and therefore I think we need to be realistic about the scope of any action that we might take but of course we’re sensitive to the subject and we’ll certainly participate in any of the studies that might lead to actions being taken.

PF: I think the engine people in the room know the problem a lot more than I do. I think what Andy said about… you’ve got the turbo there to try and take all the energy that we can out, so it’s always going to be quieter. There’s a round of meetings starting today, in fact, that will discuss and try and work out how to improve the situation.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mr Arai, if we have a look at Mercedes, they’re supplying their own team and three customers. Renault are doing four customers; Ferrari are doing one plus two. Next year, you’ve got McLaren. Could you give us some insight into your plans for both 2015 and thereafter in terms of customer teams, whether your relationship with McLaren actually permits that, please?

YA: So, for year 2015, McLaren is our only customer. I don’t think about the future, because we want to concentrate on next season.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) I understand your philosophy there but surely you must have done costing and recovery against the units and that must surely include some sort of sale or customer-type project or do you not have any plans for customers at all?

YA: Of course we want to have good results next season and see the results from other manufacturers. Please chose our power unit for next season. If teams want to use our engine or power unit, we can deliver after year 2016 but right now there are no plans.

Q: (Gary Anderson – FOM) Rob, it’s been fairly well documented that you obviously haven’t started the season the way you intended to. Do Renault need any concessions from other manufacturers or the FIA, to do the improvements that you need or are you happy to work within the regulations and do what you’re allowed at the moment to catch up?

RW: I think the first thing to say is that the technical and sporting regulations are the same for all the engine suppliers. We knew what we were getting into and we’re in it now. We’re not lobbying for any regulatory change. I think that for the time being our priority is to continue the recovery actions that we’ve put in place and I expect to pursue that over the course of this season.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Question to Charlie: the rules allow changes to the engines if it is for reliability, cost-saving and safety. But let’s say if you do a change for reliability reasons and you make a certain component stronger, isn’t that – let’s say – automatically gaining horsepower through the back door?

CW: I think that the system that we have now is the same as it’s been since 2006. If an engine manufacturer asks for changes for reliability, we always assess that, we always try to see if there is a possible – as you put it – back door route to get more performance but we are absolutely confident that the changes that we’ve allowed so far this season are purely for reliability and we also have the fall-back of consulting all the other engine manufacturers so if we agree to some changes for reliability and we then circulate it among the other engine manufacturers, they have the opportunity to highlight any potential back door treatment, as you put it.

eom/FIA transcript of Friday Press Conference