INDIA in F1

Tag: Formula One

  • Valtteri has been quick all weekend, so he deserves the pole, says Hamilton

    Shanghai, 13 April 2019: Saturday post-qualifying  Press Conference transcript of the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One (F1) World Championship:

    TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Q: Congratulations Valtteri, the 1000th championship event, the world championship leader, and you’re on pole position; you worked for that one?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it’s been a good weekend so far, I mean, starting from the pole. I felt already really comfortable this morning in the practice. In the qualifying, honestly, I struggled a bit in Q3 to get the perfect lap in, but it was good enough.

    Q: It looked like you had it covered, though. You just had an ounce of extra speed. And the lap unfolded nicely?

    VB: Yeah, the lap was OK. Like I said, not completely how I wanted, but luckily it was good enough for pole and the car has been really good this weekend. And Lewis also managed to improve a lot during the qualifying; it was super close.

    Q: Well, your fans seem very happy up there. Lewis: 59th front-row lockout for the team and second place for you today, though. Valtteri certainly showed some speed, but you didn’t give up on it.

    Lewis HAMILTON: No, I didn’t give up. I kept pushing right to the end. Big congratulations to Valtteri, he’s been stellar all weekend. I’ve been struggling and fighting the car all weekend. We’ve been chipping away at it and I’m much, much happier. You know, it was eight tenths at once stage, the gap between us, so to be as close as we are at the end is fantastic. This is an incredible result for the team. There was a little bit more time left on the table there, but that’s cool, I’ll try and get it tomorrow.

    Q: So, race pace – you’ve got the Ferraris in your mirrors, are you comfortable for the race?

    LH: Well, they’re particularly quick in the straights but it’s evident this weekend that we’ve been able to pull some performance from the corners so just great work from the guys at the factory analyzing the test and the last two races, so this is really, really positive for us, really happy.

    Q: Well done. Sebastian, take us through the lap. Mercedes just had a little bit too much for the Ferrari team today?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, unfortunately, it seems to be like that. I think right from Q1 they just seemed to start off from a better place. I think we had a good session. Maybe there was a tiny bit more but I actually was quite happy that I managed the final attempt because I was quite marginal with time, the team told me that we only had 10 seconds margin. So I then hurried up and made sure I crossed the line in time. I think there was maybe a little bit more, but overall not enough to beat these guys today.

    Q: So, satisfied with third, but you’ve got a very fast car in a straight line and you’re sitting pretty for the race?

    SV: Yeah, but they are bloody quick in the corners! So you choose! For us, obviously, when we get close I think we have an advantage in a straight line so maybe we can do something there. But the race is long and we’ll take it from there, but it should be a good day tomorrow.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, congratulations, you’ve been quick all weekend. How were those laps in Q3, both of them good enough for pole position?

    VB: Yeah, the weekend so far has been very good. Obviously, tomorrow is the big day but at least on a single lap it’s been competitive and as a team, we’ve been super strong. I think in the Q3, honestly, during those two runs I never got the perfect lap, there was always something, but that’s how it goes. The pace was good, so yeah, it was enough for pole.

    Q: The one-lap pace is clearly very good, but what’s the long-run pace like?

    VB: That’s something we will honestly find out tomorrow but looking from Friday it’s been pretty close among the top three teams, so there are many question marks but today is encouraging and we’ll go for it.

    Q: Well done Valtteri, good luck tomorrow. Lewis, you said a moment ago that you’ve been fighting the car this weekend but you seemed to make good gains with it during that qualifying session. Where have you improved it?

    LH: The car hasn’t improved from… you can’t change it in qualifying so it was just really… As I said I was struggling with the car throughout the weekend, all day yesterday and even today, even into Q2. But I made a couple of changes to the settings on the wheel and some changes to the line and I managed to bridge the gap. Honestly, I’m quite proud of the job we’ve done considering how far away I was earlier on in the sessions and Valtteri has been quick all weekend, so he deserved the pole.

    Q: And what are your thoughts on the gap to Ferrari this weekend?

    LH: I don’t even know what it is, so…

    Q: Well, given that you were behind them in Bahrain two weeks ago, the pendulum has swung the other way here.

    LH: Yeah, I think that’s how it’s going to be from race to race. Some cars suit some tracks better than others.

    Q: Sebastian, first of all your thoughts on the gap to Mercedes.

    SV: Too big. We’d like it to be the other way around, obviously. I think we had a decent session. Obviously important if we can’t beat them to be right behind them, buying us some options tomorrow, hopefully.

    Q: Talk to us a little bit more about that session. How was it for you? How did the track conditions improve?

    SV: The track, I think, ramped up. I think you can see the lap times, from where we started in Q1 to Q3. Obviously there’s a bit in yourself, a bit in the engine modes and stuff what people are doing but I think that’s fairly normal. On our side we were able to improve the car from where it was yesterday, so I’m reasonably happy with that, but not entirely happy. I think there was a little bit more. It was a bit tricky today to put the laps together.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Queston for you Seb. There was quite a busy out-lap in Q3, the last one, think you overtook several cars; Max wasn’t happy because he didn’t make his lap. Think the other Red Bull didn’t, both Haas. Can you talk us through that – and is it a general problem in F1 now?

    SV: No, I don’t think… I guess everyone timed it around the same, so we all left for the same spot. And if you’re at the end of the train, which I was, then it was quite difficult. And when the team told me we only have ten seconds margin to cross the line in time to make another attempt. I had to think of something. I do not know if others were not told. If everyone would have sped up the way I did, then yeah, we would have all made it. But I obviously prioritised to make the lap. It felt like others were not aware.

    Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) A question for each of you. It is the 1000th grand prix and we know it’s another race for you. Can you enjoy the moment or is it something you’ll have to look back on more further years down the line?

    Lewis?

    LH: For me it’s not really much of a moment. It’s just another race. We’re here to win. It’s great for the sport.

    Valtteri, your thoughts?

    VB: Yeah, here to focus on myself, our team’s job and try to do the best job we can. In the end it’s only numbers but obviously it’s a big one, so congrats to F1.

    Sebastian?

    SV: Well, it’s not up to us, obviously. It’s a bit more colourful than other races but I think inside the car and for the result itself, it makes no difference.

    Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Question for Seb. You said you weren’t very confident with the car in Australia, it seemed to be the same again in Bahrain. Has that changed coming here? Have you started to get what you want? And, if you’re not, how much more is there to get out of this car?

    SV: I think we have a strong platform to work from. Obviously we started very well in Barcelona and the feeling was really good, and really strong. Since then, I think we’ve struggled a little bit to repeat that, so yeah, the past two races, we’ve had little issues here and there. Bahrain didn’t go my way. Saturday was not bad, we had a small problem, otherwise I could have been better, Sunday yeah, struggling in the first stint as much as in Australia the second stint. Here and there not happy. Obviously you try to drive around the problems and try to set up the car differently. I think we are getting more and more there, understanding maybe some things related to different tracks, which Barcelona doesn’t show because it’s different but, as I said, the car is strong, so it’s up to us to extract the performance.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Seb, Bernie Ecclestone was speaking earlier this week suggesting that it could take into consideration that you might want to retire. Do you envisage being in the sport beyond your next contract?

    LH: It’s the moustache!

    SV: He’s got one too now, I don’t know what you call it when it’s all around. Goatee. Well, certainly I’m not going to drive… I’m not going to be in Formula One as long as he was, that’s for sure. Yeah, but I hope I’m going to be as fit and as sharp as he is today when I’m hopefully that old. Yeah, I don’t know, to be honest. At the moment I feel on top of my game, I feel that I know what I’m doing and yeah, I’m very very self-critical, very ambitious and I put a lot of expectation on to myself. I love driving, I love the sensation of the speed, I love fighting with these guys so there’s a lot of things that at the moment I really like and I’ll miss so that’s why it’s not an option to quit tomorrow, I’m quite happy to race. And then, yeah, I’ve got the contract but that’s a piece of paper and then we see what happens.

    Q: (Car Magazine, Greece) Valtteri, you were under a lot of pressure last year and you had an outburst at the beginning of this season with your win. You’re now leading the championship, you have pole position, where are you confidence-wise?

    VB: Confidence-wise I’m good, thanks for asking. It’s been a good start of the year, first of all for me personally and for us as a team. It’s been optimal but it’s all at the beginning of the year I feel confident. Today was a good day and hopefully tomorrow will be again, but it’s a long season ahead.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Lewis, you said in response to Tom’s question you tried different lines and settings to cure the problems you’ve been having. Was that purely a function of trying to get the tyre temperatures balanced across both axles? It kind of looked – certainly in FP3 around turn three – as if you were having particular difficulty getting the car to bite in at the exit of turn three compared with other people.

    LH: I don’t know. Valtteri was particularly quick in the first sector so I was experimenting  throughout the session, finally got the quickest sector in the end but a little bit too late but still, it’s all about making improvements. It wasn’t to do with tyre temperature, it was just really to do a balance and getting the flow, utilising the grip in the right areas. But as I said, I’ve been struggling with the car so I was just battling the thing. It’s obviously a great car but this year I think the first few races are always quite tricky with a new car. You see it shifts a little bit later on in the season when you get a better understanding.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) It looked a bit strange with the soft tyre and the medium tyre; I think Lewis, you went in Q2 on another set of mediums and you were the fastest. Do you think it’s a bit strange here, the behaviour between soft and medium? Do you expect that this could swing around something for tomorrow, because you’re probably not going to drive on the soft as you did today?

    SV: I’m not sure I understood the question. Yeah, Valtteri understood. Go ahead. No, I didn’t really…

    VB: Yeah, I can explain to you and then you answer Well, the thing is here the soft tyre… it’s a very high energy track. There’s long corners which put a lot of load on the tyres and actually the soft degrades more during the lap, even one lap, than the medium so soft might be a lot quicker at the beginning of the lap but by the end of the lap it is slower than the medium tyre, so that’s why there’s no massive time difference. I think tomorrow, as normal, medium’s going to be the better tyre after a few laps as usual, but that’s something we will find out tomorrow.

    SV: Thank you, Valtteri, for the explanation. It makes complete sense what he was saying so… Yeah, I should listen more in these meetings about tyres. Not much to add. I think it’s always a bit of a surprise to us when we are much closer with the harder compound compared to the softest compound. But Valtteri explained why very well.

  • Bottas edges ahead of Vettel; Hamilton in 4th behind Verstappen: FP2

    Bottas edges ahead of Vettel; Hamilton in 4th behind Verstappen: FP2

    Valtteri tops FP2 on Friday. An FIA image

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: FIA Formula One World Championship title leader Valtteri Bottas took top spot in second practice, narrowly beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the Formula One World Championship.

    Vettel topped the morning session in Shanghai using medium compound Pirelli tyres, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton second and Bottas fifth on soft rubber, but in the FP2 performance runs the Silver Arrows improved, with Bottas eventually edging Vettel by a little under three hundredths of a second and with Hamilton fourth behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

    After the teams’ early runs, which focused on hard and medium tyres, Vettel was the first to bolt on a set of soft tyres and test his Ferrari’s raw pace. The German set a time of 1m33.357s, but Bottas soon moved past that benchmark, a quick middle sector giving him a 0.027s advantage over the Ferrari driver.

    Verstappen slotted into third in an encouraging session for Red Bull. In the morning session the Dutch driver had finished almost half a second off Vettel’s P1 pace but in the afternoon, and on a softer tyre, but in the afternoon he ended the session just 0.221s behind Bottas and almost half-a-second faster than Hamilton, who failed to stitch together a convincing hot lap on softs.

    Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took fifth place just under 0.6s behind Hamilton, while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was sixth fastest, 0.045s behind the works Renault, and 0.017s ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc whose session was ended after 13 laps due to a technical problem.

    Lando Norris gave McLaren hope of a strong weekend with eighth place, with the rookie finish just over a tenth off Leclerc.

    Daniel Ricciardo, in the second Renault, was ninth and a second off the pace, while Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly finished in 10th place.

    Elsewhere, Daniil Kvyat missed much of the session as his team replaced the Honda power unit in his Toro Rosso while Haas’ Romain Grosjean was forced back to the garage briefly when his front wing broke.

    2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
    1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 37 1:33.330
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 33 1:33.357 0.027 0.027
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 29 1:33.551 0.221 0.194
    4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 32 1:34.037 0.707 0.486
    5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 31 1:34.096 0.766 0.059
    6 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 36 1:34.141 0.811 0.045
    7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 13 1:34.158 0.828 0.017
    8 Lando Norris McLaren 38 1:34.296 0.966 0.138
    9 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 32 1:34.336 1.006 0.040
    10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 32 1:34.455 1.125 0.119
    11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 33 1:34.551 1.221 0.096
    12 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 37 1:34.634 1.304 0.083
    13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 20 1:34.694 1.364 0.060
    14 Lance Stroll Racing Point 37 1:34.779 1.449 0.085
    15 Sergio Perez Racing Point 35 1:34.784 1.454 0.005
    16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 34 1:34.788 1.458 0.004
    17 Romain Grosjean Haas 32 1:35.704 2.374 0.916
    18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 40 1:35.914 2.584 0.210
    19 Robert Kubica Williams 38 1:36.121 2.791 0.207
    20 George Russell Williams 35 1:36.229 2.899 0.108

  • The competition is incredibly tight in the midfield this year, says Racing Point’s Andrew Green

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: Team representatives who attended the FIA Friday Press Conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship: – Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda), Andrew GREEN (Racing Point)

    Transcript:

    Gentlemen, welcome. I’d like to start by taking a moment to reflect on this being the 1000th world championship race for Formula 1, and to ask each of you why you got involved in Formula 1? What triggered your passion for this great sport? Andrew, perhaps we could start with you.

    Andrew GREEN: So, this is my, not quite 500th, but close… 1991 I think was my first race and I was not quite out of college, maybe two years out of college and for me it was the Sunday afternoons sitting down watching those guys racing wheel-to-wheel that really gave me the buzz. That’s why I went to college to study engineering; that’s where I wanted to be. At the time my passion was also cricket. One of the guys I used to play cricket with was Rory Byrne. He was the one who inspired me to write off to all the chiefs and offer my services for free. And that’s how I got into F1 and motorsport all those years ago.

    Q: Thank you. Toto?

    Toto WOLFF: Less holistic. I was interested in racing cars when I made my driving licence actually but didn’t follow Formula 1 at all, although Austria had a great history of Formula 1 racing drivers. But I somehow got into the sport by the finance side. The passion for racing cars in general and then the business side of Formula 1, that encapsulates everything that the business covers around motor racing that somehow attracted me, a few years ago only.

    Q: Thank you, Toto. Mattia?

    Mattia BINOTTO: On my side, since I was a child I was watching the races with my grandfather. He was a fantastic, passionate [supporter] of motorsport, but especially of Ferrari. When, as myself, living in Switzerland, you were looking at the red cars, they are something special for Italy, so it was something important for me. So it was since I was a child really a dream, of being part of F1 but even more being part of Ferrari. And to this it might feel even like a mission – try to preserve what is the heritage of this sport and Ferrari.

    Q: Thanks, and Tanabe-san?

    Toyoharu TANABE: Since I was a child I’m very interested in the car. Then, in Japan, we actually didn’t have a lot of racing in that era. But then Honda started Formula 1 as their second era. Then I joined Honda and then after joining Honda I asked my boss: ‘I want to work in Formula 1’. And now I’m working for Formula 1.

    Q: Mission accomplished. Thank you all. A few more questions. Tanabe-san, if we can stay with you: it’s been a very solid start for Honda so far in 2019. How satisfied are you and can you close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes?

    TT: So far, we have started this season with a reasonable performance and reasonable results. But reasonable means not fantastic yet and you see clearly you see there is still a big gap between the top runners and us. So we really need to push to improve our performance, to compete with our competitors here. But we understand it is not to improve our performance immediately but we’ll keep pushing through the year.

    Q: What do you think is the performance gap between yourselves and Ferrari and Mercedes?

    TT: I don’t tell you specific number but you see the gap at the track.

    Q: Thank you. Andrew if I could come to you, please. How do you assess Racing Point’s start to the season and what sort of progress are you making with the car?

    AG: It’s been a difficult start. I think the competition is incredibly tight in the midfield this year – tighter than I’ve known it for a long time. I think we’re just slightly behind. We’re not a long way behind but I think our weaknesses were probably exposed in the first couple of races. We’ve got a plan to obviously bring us back to our target level of performance, it’s going to take some time, but I think we have to remember that the car was originally conceived in the mid to late part of last year, when the team was in serious trouble. We were really struggling at that point. We had to make quite a few decisions about the car and the architecture of the car back then, not really knowing what was going to happen with the team, whether there was even going to be a team. We are still getting out of that. It will still take some time. We’re in a much better place now, but improvements take time. It takes time to build the infrastructure up to where we need it to be. It’s easy now to say that we have the bills paid at the end of each month, which we never used to be able to say, so it’s one less thing to worry about. But there are more things to think about, as far as the performance of the car, where we’re going in the future, which is something we’re thinking about a lot, where the regulations are going and where we’re going to go in the future. There’s a lot to think about now.

    Q: And a quick word on Lance Stroll as well. It’s his first season with the team. How is he bedding in, what are your first impressions?

    AG: First impressions are really good. We saw it at the end of last year when he tested for us post-Abu Dhabi. We could see the talent was there; he’s got some raw talent. We saw it in the simulator as well. He’s done a huge amount of work off-season with us. His dedication is incredible. His enthusiasm is incredible. He’s fitted into the team I think really well, really well, and I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him.

    Q: Mattia, losing the Bahrain Grand Prix must have been very tough on everybody in the team but particularly Charles Leclerc. What did you say to him? How could you comfort him after the race?

    Mattia BINOTTO: Losing was tough but even more probably frustrating but giving us even more boost for the following races and for here in China. To Charles, what I told him, I think he did a great race, he did a great quali a great race but more than that, I think he has been fantastic on the post-race comments, showing that he’s really a mature driver. So, simply telling him good job but we’re more happy with what you did after the race and during the entire weekend. And that’s enough. Because then I think all of us are simply looking ahead at the next challenge.

    Q: Was there any reoccurrence of the problem during the test session in Bahrain after the race?

    MB: No, not during the testing, so that’s a problem that occurs only once during the race. Never at the bench, never during testing, never in practices. Ten laps or 12 laps to the end of the race, whatever it was. I think on reliability, you need to be strong, on quality, you need to be strong, but it may always happen and I think it was really unlucky the way it happened. We changed all our units here in China for precaution, even on the other car, so even on Seb’s. Not because the one of Seb got the issues so far, but I think at the moment it’s the best way to protect ourselves with the issue we have. And then we try somehow to understand and verify the quality of all the units we have installed.

    Q: And just a quick word if we may on Mick Schumacher who was testing one of your cars in that Bahrain test. How do you assess his performance?

    MB: To assess the performance, I think it is very difficult because first, the weather conditions were very bad on that day and because at the end I think that the objective was not really to assess the performance. It was his very first day on an F1 car; more important for him still in the learning phase, day-by-day, is facing a completely new challenge in his F2 season. I think what was certainly positive was the way he approached the exercise, the approach to the day of testing, never pushing to the limit, trying to improve run-by-run, learning the car, learning the team, and I think in that respect he did a very good job: very well focussed, concentrated and tried to do the proper job and learn. I think that’s the most you may expect on such a day.

    Q: Did you see any similar character traits with his father?

    MB: The very first time I saw him after many years in Maranello, when he came back. If you looked at him, I don’t think he’s looking very similar to Michael but the way he’s behaving is very similar, and the way he’s approaches the exercise and the way he’s interested in the car, discussing it with the technicians. So even in Maranello, you are looking after him, but he’s always in the workshop looking at the car, speaking with the mechanics, and I think that’s very similar to his father.

    Q: Toto, you’re leading both of the World Championships but what do you feel is the reality in terms of performance at the moment?

    Toto WOLFF: It’s nice to lead the two championships, obviously you’d rather lead than not lead, but we have seen two very different grands prix. We had a very high level of performance in Melbourne, compared to Ferrari, and not a great level in the second level in Bahrain – but it was not only compared to Ferrari, also you benchmark yourself to the other teams and I think that was a race where we didn’t perform as we should have done – but we’ve always said there was one race that was the race over the winter: who comes out of the blocks best; and then there will be the development race throughout the season, and this is certainly a challenging situation for us, as it will be for all the other teams and good for the sport, I think, that you can’t really predict who’s going to win the race on Sunday.

    Q: And a quick word on Valtteri Bottas. He’s leading the World Championship. Are you seeing anything different from him this season, compared to previous?

    TW: It’s this mania depression of Formula One that people are being written up and written down and after Melbourne he was the reinvented superstar and World Championship contender and after the next race again it was not the case. I think we just need to let them go on with the Championship. He has started the weekend well today. I think it’s the same Valtteri we have seen in the last years. He has all that he needs to compete on a high level, to fight for race victories and eventually championships. I see the same guy.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Question for Toto. Lewis said yesterday that, if Ferrari have established an advantage on the engine side, it will be much more difficult to catch up than if they’d established an advantage on the aero side. Could you elucidate a little bit on that? Is it a factor of the tightness of the regulatory box or the inherent risks of pushing engine development?

    TW: First of all, what needs to be said – because when I read articles it’s always not accurately reflected – if somebody does a good job, he does a good job, and that’s fact. And whether he has a good engine and out-performs all the others, or he has a decent amount of downforce and goes quicker around the corners, that is irrelevant. It is always about the performance of the package. As we have seen, Ferrari operating in Bahrain, they were superior to all the other teams and there was massive engine power on the straight – but it’s not always engine power. Obviously, drag levels are playing an important role in the calculation. This is something we need to evaluate. This morning there was a frightening lap of Sebastian again, in straight line speed – but it is what it is, we have to stretch ourselves and fight and extract performance out of the chassis and extract performance out of the power unit and certainly see. Having a benchmark like that helps and motivates.

    Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Mattia. At the beginning of the season you said that Sebastian will be given priority status in some situations in the early part of the season. Could that philosophy shirt and change towards Charles if he were to repeat the sort of races we saw from him in Bahrain?

    MB: Certainly as a team we need to give the priority to the team and try to maximise the team’s points at the end of the race. As I said at the start of the season, if there is any 50-50 situation where we need to take a decision, the advantage would have been given to Sebastian simply because Sebastian has got most of the experience with the team in F1. He won four championships and certainly for us he’s the driver who has most probability to challenge for the title. Something we agreed with both drivers is, in a few races’ time, things may change for whatever reason – bad luck or whatever could be the situation – we may change our position, no doubt. But on the track, they’re free to fight, on the track I think if there is one driver who is certainly faster, he will get the advantage. I think that Charles, as a matter of fact, he had an opportunity to be in pole in Bahrain, he had the opportunity to fight for the win and he had position in Bahrain.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Andrew and Toto, your two companies have recently signed an agreement for Racing Point to use the Mercedes wind tunnel. When does this become effective? What are you trying to achieve through it, Andrew? And then finally, why should we not see this as a precursor to a Haas-Ferrari-type deal?

    AG: Later this year we’ll be moving into the Mercedes tunnel in Brackley for purely efficiency reasons. Our aero department happens to be located in Brackley; Mercedes wind tunnel happens to be located in Brackley. It’s a lot easier to go testing in Brackley than it is in Cologne. So, when it was offered as an opportunity for us to go testing there, it was an obvious choice.

    And Toto, a closer affiliation between the two teams?

    TW: Well, first of all, we are not doing a Haas-Ferrari model because Haas was a new entry, a team created from scratch. These guys exist for a long time. I don’t see what’s so bad in a Haas-Ferrari model actually. We have enabled somebody that was keen to enter Formula One in setting up a team, with the cooperation with Ferrari it got out of the blocks really well, and fights solidly in the midfield. I think that’s good for Formula One. Our model is very different. For the reasons stated before, Andy and his team know pretty well what they want to achieve with the car, they have a solid technical group of people and will go in that direction. They will be using some of our infrastructure and we will see where that moves for the 2021 regulations. Once these are carved out, we will decide which of the areas we want to collaborate and where it is possible, regulatory-wise.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Tanabe-san, one year ago you had one team, now you have two teams. How much faster, how much improved is your rate of development?

    TT: Yes, so we can get double data compared to the one team (with) two teams and then there are some differences in the team philosophies or ways of working and we learned a lot. Then, not only twice but also more than twice we can receive information and then we had a different driver – four drivers with different characteristics and driving, slightly. It’s very hard how much in some things but two teams appear to supply and accelerate our development definitely.

    Q: (Alessandra Retico – La Repubblica) Mattia, Montezemolo said in an interview with my newspaper that you are at risk, in his opinion, to be alone inside the Scuderia, because there is no one to talk with because the president, John Elkan is not so experienced in Formula One and CEO Camilleri is a great manager of course but his job is on the financial side of the company. And like it was Ross Brawn with Jean Todt and Montezemolo himself. Do you have any comment on that?

    MB: I didn’t read the article, first, but I think that that’s completely wrong. I got the full support from my chairman and my CEO. I think that both John and Louis are great men, certainly very supportive to the team and I think that I have got plenty of people in Maranello to speak with so I’m well supported by my colleagues and I think that somehow we are quite a big and hungry team with plenty of competence and skills so I think I feel fully supported and hopefully I will have a long life in the team.

    Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) Toto, we are celebrating the launch of the esports series China championship this weekend. I’m wondering if you are able to see much of the e-sports work, considering you have the reigning championship yourself?

    TW: Yes, the virtual world was something I needed to get used to but interestingly, when you watch an esports F1 race there is almost no difference in how you perceive it than on a real on-board so it’s crazy to see how technology develops and the graphics have matured. We obviously enjoy very much. We have set up this programme where we are trying to give young kids a framework around their capabilities, it’s not only the driving and the coaching around but we are giving them a 360 degree support programme. They are little Mercedes works drivers and winning the championship last year was the icing on the cake. You can say somehow that we’ve done it in the real world and we’ve done it in the virtual world and again, as I’ve said before, you’d rather win that one than not. Yeah, I’m happy to see how that develops.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Toto and Matteo, following the Liberty meeting, now that you’ve had time to reflect on what they presented, do your two teams have any red lines about what was presented, particularly with reference to the revenue, the governance and the cost-caps?

    TW: (To MB: He is wearing red, he has many red lines). That is a work in progress. I think the meeting was good because in the meeting we… most of Liberty’s thoughts and proposals were made clear to the teams on the cost-cap, on technical regulations and sporting regulations going forward and that was important for us to really open up a thought process around it and this is still very much happening. And in each of those areas, we seem to have an alignment on what we want to achieve. Formula One needs regulations, Formula One needs to stay high tec but on the other side we recognise that if there are areas where we can save costs because these things are not visible to the fans, then we really need to look at them. On the cost-cap, for the big teams, I think it’s an intelligent step to contain the escalation of costs. We are fighting each other with more and more resource and if we are able to stop that and reduce it, it will be for the benefit of all of us, of our bottom lines and eventually it will decrease the funding gap between the smaller teams and the big teams and I think if we were to achieve that in the first step, that’s already a good step going forward. And because of the nature of things, in terms of the prize fund redistribution, nobody’s ever going to be happy. You would want to obviously maximise and optimise on your situation that everybody’s going to have pretty decent arguments why they should have more and this is a discussion which really has just started in my opinion, but obviously, I would say, a good first step.

    MB: I think that Toto’s answered well. But I think yes, I think this is the start of the discussion and we’ve got some more clarity. I think it’s important to collaborate, be open with each other. As Toto said, we’ve got common objectives, us and F1. Pretty sure that we will find the right compromise if only through discussions, that we may find it, as we did for the power unit. I think we adopted a change, we considered that we were very back, finally we decided for a common good result which everybody was almost happy with the compromise. I think that’s the same for the revenues, we did the same for the governance, the budget cap, all the technical matters; it’s a discussion on-going but collaboration and discussions are all positive so even if there are some distances at the moment, I’m pretty sure we will find the right compromise at the end.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Andrew, just to follow up on Dieter’s question from earlier about the wind tunnel: you take a Mercedes complete power train and now will be using the wind tunnel.  Do you think this is as far as anyone should be allowed to go in terms of team affiliation?

    AG: I hope not, because we take their gearbox and hydraulics as well. I’d like that to stay. I think that’s everything that is being discussed for 2021, I think that’s all on the agenda that Toto was referencing earlier and it is what I was referencing earlier as well. It’s where we go forward as a team, thinking ahead for 2021. We want to build our team to be the most efficient team based around those regulations and when those regulations are finalised we will have a clear idea of what we need to do.

  • Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in FP1

    Shanghai, 12 April 2019: Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of opening practice at China’s Shanghai International Circuit, as Formula 1 began preparations for its 1000thrace.

    The Ferrari driver beat five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second despite using a harder compound tyre than the Mercedes man. Third place in the session went to Vettel’s team-mate Charles Leclerc.

    Four-time champion Vettel set his best time of session, a lap of 1:33.911 on the C3 compound chosen as the medium tyres for this weekend. Hamilton’s best lap of 1:34.118, a little over two tenths of a second off the Ferrari driver’s benchmark was posted while using the C4 compound nominated as this race’s soft tyres.

    Leclerc also used the medium tyres to set his quickest lap of the 90-minute session. The Monegasque driver posted a time of 1:34.167 to finish 0.049s behind soft-shod Hamilton.

    Max Verstappen set the fourth quickest time of the morning, using the soft tyre to finish the session 0.167s behind Leclerc. The Red Bull driver was over four tenths slower than Vettel, however, despite being a step softer on tyres.

    Championship leader Valtteri Bottas finished fifth with a time of 1:34.653 that left him almost eight tenths of a second off the pace but the Mercedes man then had more than half a second in hand over sixth-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

    The Renault driver was followed by Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull. The French driver was 1.5s down on Vettel’s benchmark but more painfully perhaps Gasly was almost 1.1s adrift off Red Bull team-mate Verstappen.

    Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat finished in eighth place ahead of Lance Stroll of Racing Point and Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

     

     

    2019 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 19 1:33.911
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 21 1:34.118 0.207
    3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 21 1:34.167 0.256
    4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 20 1:34.334 0.423
    5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 23 1:34.653 0.742
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 23 1:35.239 1.328
    7 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 23 1:35.428 1.517
    8 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 24 1:35.447 1.536
    9 Lance Stroll Racing Point 25 1:35.466 1.555
    10 Romain Grosjean Haas 24 1:35.507 1.596
    11Kevin Magnussen Haas 25 1:35.517 1.606
    12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 22 1:35.591 1.680
    13 Lando Norris McLaren 24 1:35.631 1.720
    14 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 26 1:35.695 1.784
    15 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 23 1:35.729 1.818
    16 Spain Carlos Sainz McLaren 24 1:35.756 1.845
    17 Sergio Perez Racing Point 24 1:35.820 1.909
    18 Robert Kubica Williams 27 1:36.847 2.936
    19 George Russell Williams 29 1:37.619 3.708
    20 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 2

  • Drivers reflect as F1’s 1000th race begins: Chinese GP Thursday press meet

    Drivers who took part in the Thursday press conference ahead of the Chinese GP, the 1000th F1 race:

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Alfa Romeo), Alexander ALBON (Toro Rosso), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Sergio PÉREZ (Racing Point)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Gentlemen, I’d like to start with a moment of reflection, given that this is Formula 1’s 1000th race. Growing up and watching the sport, what made you want to become a Formula 1 driver? Romain, if we could start with you, please?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Good afternoon. I started watching with my dad, a long time ago. It was the time of the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost fights and that was pretty exciting to watch. My dad was always passionate about cars and one day he brought me to a race track – not a Formula 1 race – and I saw the cars going and I thought ‘you know what, that’s what I would like to do’. Then, eventually, I was lucky enough to go to the Monaco Grand Prix to watch the Thursday practice and I saw the car and heard the noise of the engine and it was just something very unique and special, a good memory of my life. I remember going to the toilet and DC was there and he said, ‘oh, you go first son’. He still called me son by then! And I said ‘no, no, you go’. Pretty amazing.

    Q: Thank you. Sergio?

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, for me similar, a similar story. I remember the first race I watched with my dad was ’94 actually when Aytron had his accident. That was the first race I ever saw. A shocking moment, more for my dad than for me. At the time I didn’t understand well what was happening. Obviously, from Mexico, Formula 1 is not very big so it always seemed too far, too difficult. It’s been a while since we had a driver, so the history back home wasn’t big. But as a family, we always loved the sport and I always wanted to become a Formula 1 driver. At a very young I went to Europe to fight for it. I remember watching so many races, always waking up very early in the morning, because in Mexico the races are very early, six or seven o’clock in the morning. So always on a weekend, when you don’t want to wake up early, I had to, to watch Formula 1. I actually remember watching Kimi back then, at a very young age too.

    Q: Thank you Sergio. Kimi?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I don’t know what year it was, but it was a long time ago, the ‘80s, that’s for sure. I think the first memories were somewhere where Keke was racing when he blew up his tyre or something, maybe Adelaide or something, with the long straight, maybe the last races that he did. So anyhow, obviously I was cheering for the Finnish guys, but I didn’t think that I… maybe you dream when you’re a kid, but once you start doing go-karts and everything I didn’t really believe that it was going to happen, because obviously, you need a certain amount of money to get from go-karts to racing. Maybe I believed a bit more when I got my managers helping and then actually got to race in Formula cars and then obviously it went very quickly. I guess it was a dream but not very realistic at that point, but it went fast once it started to go there.

    Q: Thank you Kimi. And Alex?

    Alexander ALBON: My hero was Michael Schumacher. That was the guy I always looked up to. I was Ferrari mad actually – even if I should say that or not, I don’t know. But I loved Schumacher. I think I was about six. I was a bit like Romain. I was at Silverstone and there was a competition. You had to fill out the top three drivers that you thought would win the race, or finish in that order, so I just put Michael, Rubens and Montoya. For some reason at that race that’s what happened. I think Barrichello was finishing last or something. So no one wrote what I wrote down. I think it was in hospitality at Ferrari. So I won the prize and got to meet Michael and got to meet Rubens. It stuck with me that. I was always a hardcore fan.

    Q: Thanks to all four of you. Alex, if we could stay with you. Going well so far, you’ve out-qualified your team-mate in Australia and Bahrain. Can you describe the learning curve you’ve been on so far in Formula 1?

    AA: Yeah, it’s been steep. Getting in the car in Barcelona, getting up to speed. The speed bit… the cars are so refined now that you do feel quite comfortable with the cars straight away. It’s more the interaction with the team and kind of just extracting performance outside the car, which definitely is a lot about experience. So just being Dany, listening to him really, listening to his feedback, how he communicates with people, it really does help me. But yeah, it’s been going well. Simulator driving, that’s helped a lot as well. But it’s going well so far.

    Q: And are you doing anything different with your helmet this weekend?

    AA: Yeah, so I’ve got a Prince Bira tribute. I thought it would be cool to go back and bring out some of the Thai history in Formula 1. I have a couple of photos, I have his number, well, my number but in his style, because he had the blue and yellow racing scheme. So that’s about it.

    Q: Thanks. Romain, you’re a man in need of some good fortune this weekend in China. Just how was last week’s test session in Bahrain? Did you understand why the car’s pace dropped off in the race?

    RG: Well, it started with three wheels, which didn’t help, after the contact in the first corners. No, we had some good testing. It was a bit disrupted by the rain, which was a surprise to all us in Bahrain on Tuesday, but we did manage, on Wednesday afternoon, to get some good data and info, some interesting set-ups that we should have been running during the race. I think the car is fast and it’s good. You don’t qualify twice in the top 10 if you don’t have a fast car. I think we just missed something in Bahrain that we found at testing, which is good. I think what we need right now is a bit of luck on our side, and to make sure we go through the race with no incident or no issue and we should be able to have a good weekend.

    Q: And anything different with your helmet?

    RG: I’ve changed the design, using the F1 1000 logo – that looks really cool – just the full white helmet. Nothing really from the past of Formula 1 but I was not very… I used to throw all my equipment to the bins of the season, but luckily my wife pushed me to keep at least one thing from every year. I know I’ve got one overall per year, from all my racing career, from go-karts to 2019 season, and actually when I look at them now I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve got some helmets back home that mean more than others. My 100th grand prix helmet and obviously being part of race 1000 in Formula 1 is going to be something big, so that helmet is going to go on the shelf and I really like the design that we have produced. It looks pretty classy and really cool to be driven in China.

    Q: Sergio, it hasn’t been the easiest of starts for the team in 2019, though you did finish in the points last time out. Are there any underlying issues with the car and if there are, what are they?

    SP: I think the upgrade that we brought to the start of the season, given that we didn’t have enough to test or to work on it, I think that put us on the back foot at the moment in the midfield group. We scored points in Melbourne and now in Bahrain. At the moment we are not fast enough, we are not where we want to be, but I think we have proven in the past that it’s a very long season. It doesn’t matter where you are now, it’s where you get to by Abu Dhabi. We are understanding our issues, we have a lot of work to do and I’m pretty sure we will meet all of our targets for this season.

    Q: And your helmet design for this weekend?

    SP: My helmet design didn’t change much. I just wanted to put the 1000 race logo on my helmet just to… it’s obviously very special as a driver to race here, at such a special venue for Formula 1, it’s a very special weekend also. I want, as Romain said, to remember this weekend in many years, to look at this helmet and remember that I was part of the 1000th race in Formula 1.

    Q: Kimi, great start to the season for you and Alfa Romeo, points in both of the opening two races. Can you tell us, what are the strengths of this year’s car and has the performance so far changed your goals for the season?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No, it hasn’t. I didn’t really have any goals, so it’s pretty hard to change them. I can’t really talk about last year’s car. Obviously I did a test but it’s one track so from my side it’s hard to say what is better on this car than the one they had last year but for sure they did a good job over the winter from the car that I drove in Abu Dhabi in the tyre test to the one we have now. Obviously there’s a lot of things to improve still and it’s a never-ending story and an ongoing thing to try to make it better, holding more downforce and stuff like that – but yeah, I think in general it’s quite a good, solid package and we understand it pretty OK and they seem to have good guys on all areas to bring new stuff. It never comes fast enough but that’s a normal issue in any team you go to. Yeah, I think the basis there is to make it faster all the time, so keep it up and see what we’ve got when we get to the end of the year.

    Q: Anything different on the helmet design to celebrate 1000 races?

    KR: No. I wanted to have an open-face helmet but there were some regulation issues…!

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Checo, you say your helmet design hasn’t changed much but I’m hearing from an insider that your helmet has actually changed. Do you have a different brand for this race?

    SP: Yeah, in that regard yes. I’ve moved to Bell. I’ve been in a long term partnership with Schuberth which I’m very thankful for, I think it’s a fantastic helmet. Now I had the opportunity to change and I think Bell is also a fantastic helmet. I’ve tried it, and it’s my first race with them now. I started my career in Formula One with them and now I’m going back to Bell.

    Q: (Steven Wade – AP) Kimi, we see that this summer you’re going to break an F1 record for the most races contested, how do you stay motivated? You’ve had tremendous success already, how do you stay motivated and stay on top of your game?

    KR: I don’t know really. I don’t have any special things that I try to motivate myself. It’s become more of a hobby for me lately than anything else and probably that’s why it’s more fun again, so, yeah, I always try to do the best that I can. Some days it goes a bit better than others – but that’s how it goes when you do a lot of racing. Some days it’s a bit more tricky than others. It’s never really been an issue. A lot of people think so but, y’know, everybody has the right to say what they think. I just try to do what I can and hopefully… when I feel myself that it’s not what I expect from myself then obviously I try to find a new hobby after that.

    Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhua News Agency) To all four drivers, keen to know your thoughts on the Shanghai circuit and if there are any particular features or characteristics that make it especially challenging or unique?

    AA: Well, it’s my first time here, so a little bit hard to say but just coming from watching videos and being on the simulator it just seems like there’s about a thousand lines you can do here. A lot of corners leading onto other corners so it seems like there’s a lot of different styles, pushing entries or pushing exits. So yeah, it seems to be a really technical track. So, it’s interesting for the drivers, that’s for sure.

    KR: I think it’s a nice track. It’s been the same since I came here the first time but some good overtaking opportunities and quite good fun to drive.

    SP: It’s quite a long circuit: long straights, very long corners, like Turn One which is quite hard when you first get here. First lap it’s always very hard to reach the apex because it’s so late in the corner that it kind of gets you. Also, the wind is very difficult here. So it’s quite a unique place, I’d say. Normally good racing and a nice feeling on one lap – it’s definitely a circuit I enjoy.

    RG: It’s a good circuit. One of the challenges is to get here on time in the morning. Racing it quite fun, as Kimi said. Qualifying laps are always good and then in the race the challenge is to look after your tyres, especially the fronts with those long corners: Turn One, Turn Seven-Eight, 13. That can really make a huge difference if you’ve used your tyres too much or not. Then you can have some really good racing. It’s a pretty good place to come.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Question for Alex. The 2021  technical regulations are currently taking shape and are under discussion. The desired outcomes are for a more level playing field, for there to be more overtaking opportunities. Do you think that reducing the amount of data capture would provide that – or would it actively be a problem for drivers, such as you, who are just coming into the sport? Would it be a disadvantage?

    AA: To promote overtaking? I wouldn’t say reducing data would effect overtaking. On my side at least, data is just for getting lap-time, it wouldn’t be a tool to affect passes, no.

    Would if make your job harder if there were no data?

    AA: In general, yeah, I would say so. I think data now in Formula One is huge. Especially for me, it’s a fast-track to get getting up to speed and even just about getting performance. It’s definitely something I use a lot, I compare with Dany quite a lot. I think some drivers look at data more than others. I’m a driver that looks at data quite a lot. Just to get up to speed. I’m using it a lot right now. For passing or overtaking, no.

    Q: (Velimir Jukic Avto-Focus) Question for Kimi. They say you are slower for each kid by about one second. How are you compensating for this now that you have two seconds slower conditions to drive?

    KR: Maybe I somehow go faster at the same time to compensate it! I don’t think that kids make any difference. There are an awful lot of stories based on nothing in F1. I didn’t ever feel that there’s something happening on my driving when our family got bigger – but I don’t know. I guess it depends from people to people also. Sometimes it might have an effect but at least on our side, on my side, I don’t feel it. Obviously the life changes a lot outside of racing but yeah, pure driving they didn’t really effect on my side.

    I might just through that to Checo and Romain…

    SP: Similar to Kimi I think it doesn’t…. Formula One drivers are all normal, when we’re driving we don’t think we have family, we have kids, we just want to go as fast as we possibly can. I think outside of racing it changes, you sleep a lot less looking after your kids! All of a sudden a Formula One race weekend becomes a holiday, because you’re able to sleep longer, and so on – but it’s a lot of fun and it doesn’t really affect at all. If it takes one second it means in the past we were really quick! Because we have a couple of seconds in th pocket, it means a lot.

    Romain, anything to add?

    RG: No, no. I think what the boys said is the truth. It changes you as a man back home. It changes your whole life and perspective and probably helps you more than it slows you down. When you’ve had a tough weekend and you come back home, it doesn’t matter, they love you and you love them more than anything, so it puts things in perspective. But yeah, with three kids now, three seconds off the pace, my goodness… quite happy to be qualifying in the top ten!

    Alex, any children we don’t know about?

    AA: No!

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) How do you think Formula One will look for race number 2000 in forty or fifty years’ time? Will car racing still exist and what kind of cars could we see on track? Or would you like to see on track?

    RG: Actually I already answered that question. It’s a tough one. I’ve got no idea what the cars are going to be like in forty, fifty years. The only thing I would say is that I hope there is still going to be a driver driving the car because that’s where the emotion goes. If you hold a football game with just robots it’s not going to be much fun so I hope there are going to be drivers.  Technology will be very different, I’m sure, but the sense of racing has been here since 1950, the first F1 race where the guys driving at their best, trying to overtake the guy in front of them and going as fast as they could with what they had and oversteer was oversteer back then and understeer is back today so I think the feeling was the same so I hope the guys would have as much fun as we do have today.

    SP: Yeah, same. Technology these days is developing scarily so I really hope that in the future we still have the drivers and that they are able to have as much fun as we do or because I think things are going to change massively. I really hope that things change the same, at least. Obviously they were will be very different, I think, probably they might be electric in a couple of years –  I hope in many more years. For the drivers, they will still be important. I don’t know if it was in the past but these days the driver is less important, the driver can make less of a difference and it’s now all related to the team so I think for the future and for the time that I’m here I can see a different Formula One where the driver can make the difference instead of the team.

    KR: Yeah, it’s impossible to know what will happen. Probably there will be racing, some sort of racing, who knows what? It’s been 1000 races so I don’t think it’s going to disappear suddenly somehow but who knows? We’ll find out.

    AA: Yeah, same as them. As long as we have a job or the future racing drivers have a job then I’m happy.

    Q: (Zoran Zivkov – Top Speed Magazine) When you look at the past and history, if you’d had a time machine, in which period, in which era, would you like to come back?

    AA: I haven’t really thought about that. I’d say old school, 1950s. I want to see how the sport was back then. I know it’s dangerous so maybe I will bring my HANS device with me and we will see but I think that kind of racing is cool and I’d like to try it out.

    KR: I’ve gone back for the second one any more. I guess in the past, I would look at seventies, sixties, late sixties, seventies. For sure it would have been more fun, more relaxed, more pure racing but obviously much more dangerous but that’s normal at that time.

    Q: We saw you with a James Hunt helmet a few years ago, didn’t we?

    KR: Bit more than a few years but yeah.

    SP: Yeah, I think that 1960s, 70s, those times were good fun. The driving looked very dangerous of course; for the driver, it depended on the risk you took that maybe made the difference. I think it’s something that all my career I have missed. Always the difference is made by the cars and not so much by the drivers. I think back then it was good fun. It looked really good. Also the atmosphere was really relaxed. I think these days Formula One is too posed. I wish it was a bit more relaxed and people enjoying themselves more.

    RG: Yeah, not going that far (back). I’m really in love with ’93, ’94 and then 2005 and 2006. I wish that Kimi was back then: yeah, you were racing. I love the cars around that time and they looked amazing and there was a tyre war as well which was quite fun to watch from outside, I thought, and refuelling and the cars looked really really cool in mid-2000. I drove a 2007 car, it was quite good then.

    Q: (Duan Yiyi – Titan Sports) Kimi, no matter which team you are in you always seem to be the fans’ favourite here in China, so from your perspective what characteristics do you have to attract so many fans in China?

    KR: I have no idea. You should go and ask them. I think generally in Japan, China we Finnish people seem to have a lot of fans. It’s great, especially here. I cannot go anywhere but that’s a part of… the other side of the fans. I’ve always had a lot of fans here, since the first time we came here so I’m happy about it. I don’t know the reason. I guess you would probably get the answer if you go and ask some in front of our hotel, you can ask them there. Or at the airport.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, RaceFans.net) You may have noticed that in Bahrain McLaren was sponsored by an e-cigarette brand, Vipe. Particularly the three fathers there, how do you feel about this? Do you feel it sets the right sort of example for your children?

    RG: Oh dear. I’m going to dig my own oar. Right. I think you want to watch on Netflix, because they are our friends now, whatever content you can. I am the first one to tell my friends to stop smoking and I’ve actually achieved that a few times and I’m quite proud of that. I think e-cigarettes are maybe less bad. I think if they want to sponsor Formula One why not. I’ve been with Total for many many years which is an oil company in France or worldwide and we’ve actually done some amazing experiences together and you could say that oil is actually not good for the environment and so on but I think companies like Total are trying to do a lot for the environment and just producing oil. So I think, in the end, I don’t know much about e-cigarettes to be fair, but if it’s better for health reasons, if it’s less smelly as well… You know, we just came up the stairs and it smelled of cigarettes like hell. Same when you leave an airport. First thing you do when you go out of an airport, everyone is smoking his first cigarette and it stinks.  If this year it can be better somehow then great. If it’s better then why not and if it helps our sport then great.

    SP: Yeah, Romain did a good job with that one.

    KR: No, I have no issue. I don’t see the connection that if my son sees advertising on any of the… doesn’t matter if it’s alcohol or cigarettes, something, I don’t believe that that affects his choices whatsoever. That’s my belief on that. Did it affect my choices when I have seen them in the past? Rules are rules, whether you can do it or not, that’s not my business but I have no worries.

    RG: … point that Kimi’s bringing in, because we watched Formula One when there was a lot of cigarette advertising on the cars: Williams, Jordan, Ferrari, McLaren. I’ve never smoked all my life but I’ve been watching a lot of races so I don’t think there’s any connection there.

  • This is a devastating result for Charles, as he did such a great job, says Hamilton

    Sakhir, 31 March 2019: The top-three drivers attended the traditional post-race FIA press conference here on Sunday: Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) 2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) 3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Q: Lewis, congratulations. You had to work so hard for that one.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, today was a really, really hard job. This weekend the Ferraris have been incredible and I just had to see Charles because he did such a great job. I’m sure this is a devastating result for him as he had done the job to win the race. We were definitely lucky today but you have to take it as it comes. Ultimately, I still gave it everything in the race and I pushed as hard as I could, and obviously, the fight I had with Vettel was great fun for me.

    Q: Take us through that. You went around the outside of Turn 4 a couple of times and Seb spun off behind you.

    LH: Yeah, if you look at that big flag on top of that tower there is a massive headwind into Turn 4, so I just gave it everything and braked later than usual and dived down the outside. I don’t think we touched or anything like that, but this is a great result for the team considering how hard the race was. This guy here [Leclerc] has lots more wins coming in the future so congratulations to him.

    Q: Charles, I’ll come back to you. I’ll just have a quick word with Valtteri. Valtteri, P2, pretty satisfying, the pace was difficult, but you were there when it mattered.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I think as a team we got a bit lucky today but we kept it together, we did no mistake as a team and the car was very reliable – and that’s the win today. The hard work at the factory is paying off like this, so that is good. Otherwise a difficult race for me. The balance of the car was a bit everywhere and I ended up doing a lot of mistakes and so on.

    Q: A great start and you weren’t giving Lewis any extra space there in the early laps?

    VB: No, I never will. The first lap was good. I had a bit of a lock-up into Turn 1, so I lost a place but then I had a good battle with Lewis and congrats to him.

    Q: OK, congratulations on second place. Oh, Charles, I think your car should be parked there [in P1] today?

    Charles LECLERC: It happens. It’s part of motor sport. Unfortunately today it was not our day. But I am confident. The team has done an amazing job to recover the lack of pace we had in Australia. And yeah, what to say? Of course, I’m extremely disappointed, as the whole team, but it happens in the seasons. I think we made the best out of it. We have been lucky in a very unlucky situation. Hopefully, we had the safety car at the end, otherwise we would have finished even more rearward and also I don’t think with the fuel we would have been OK. Vey hard one to take but thanks to the team for the amazing car all weekend long and I’m pretty sure we’ll come back stronger.

    Q: Well, you got the point for fastest lap. The first few corners seemed a bit difficult, low grip, but then you took the lead beautifully.

    CL: Yeah, I didn’t do a good start. Then we were very strong all race long. It’s a shame to only finish third but as I said, it’s part of racing, and we will come back stronger.

    Q: It’s your first podium, let’s look on the bright side.

    CL: Yeah, exactly. But, as I’ve said a lot in the past, I’m never really looking at the result, I’m more looking at the potential there was to do better. Today, third was not our place, but yeah, very happy anyway. Congratulations to Lewis and Valtteri and as I’ve said many times, we’ll come back stronger.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, an incredible race from start to finish for everybody but another really good performance from you. As you lined up on the grid today what were your expectations? 

    LH: I think the expectation was it was going to be a very, very tough race. Clearly, the Ferraris had been quick all weekend. Charles had been incredibly rapid all weekend and was quickest in all sessions, and truly deserved the win. I think at the start I was hopeful to leapfrog at least one of the cars and in my opportunistic mind, I was thinking to jump both of them at the start. But I got a terrible start once again, which is a bit disappointing, as I’ve put a lot of work to try and improve those. You fall down and you just keep going and get back up and I’ll keep trying. After that, I think it was up and down clearly throughout the race. It looked like I could keep up with at least one of the Ferraris. And then that second stint was horrible, on the soft tyre. Then we fell back behind the Ferraris and it looked like we were out of contention for a second or even the wind. I was just battling this snappy, oversteery car in these winds, which were very tricky out there. And then with the undercut, that was a very exciting moment for me. I definitely didn’t see all that happening when we pulled up to the grid, but I’m grateful for it. As I’ve said, clearly we were very lucky today to get the 1-2 as a team. I think collectively we’d done a solid job through the weekend and Ferrari had out-performed us from the get-go. We’ve got to continue to work, as everyone is, it’s very, very hard. We’ll analyse where we have gone wrong this weekend. And as I was saying downstairs, for Charles… do they call you Charles or Charles?

    CL: I don’t mind. Whatever is easier for you.

    LH: I’m struggling every time I say the name. He did an incredible job this weekend and he’s got a beautiful, bright future ahead of him, so this will only make him stronger.

    Q: Valtteri, 32nd podium of your career, we saw you make a great start. You’re still leading the Championship after race two. How do you sum it all up?

    VB: Yeah, actually there were many points that were very interesting and exciting in that race and good fun – but then there were points in that race where I felt quite lonely! I didn’t see anyone. So, yeah, I had a great start to the race, I managed to get into P2 but then on Lap One into Turn One I think the wind caught me up a bit, I braked a bit too late into Turn One, trying to keep my position, and I lost two places – so back to fourth place. I think Ferrari, ultimately, was very, very strong again today, like yesterday – but yeah, during the times with the wind I ended-up doing some mistakes, like I think some other drivers did as well, and it was extremely difficult to keep the rhythm – but yeah, there were some good battles and so on. I managed to save the engine at some point when there was no threat from behind and a big gap in front. Also, I had a plastic bag stuck on my front wing at some point, which was costing performance, so not the perfect race but in the end, luck was on our side and we’ll definitely take it – especially me, after all the bad luck last year. So, obviously hard luck for Charles, he was very strong – but you know, it will come for him. I had to wait for more than 80 races for my first win, so I’m sure it’s going to be OK.

    Q: Charles, coming on to you, your first podium in Formula One, but obviously tinged with disappointment. I just wanted to ask you what positives you can take from today?

    CL: I think from the whole weekend there are a lot of positives to take. After Australia we were quite a lot far off. I think we found some answers – not all of them – but we found some. We came here, front row lock-out, which was very positive for the team, and we showed that they have done an amazing job. That doesn’t mean we’ll stay there for the rest of the season but that just shows off how good of a job they’ve done between the two races. And then I think we’ve shown also that we had a very strong pace during the race. Probably we were the strongest today. Unfortunately, the issues stopped us winning – but, on the other hand, issues always happen in a season and, if any time I have an issue, I finish third, then I think we could be quite happy. Today was not our day. It’s sad because obviously, I was so close of realising a dream that you have since childhood, which is your first win in Formula One – but hopefully, this day will come one day in the future. I’ll work for that, and I’m pretty sure the team will work for this but they should be proud of what they’ve done this weekend, and we’ll come back stronger.

    Q: How comfortable did you feel out front?

    CL: Well, very comfortable. The car felt amazing. There was quite a lot of wind, which was extremely tricky, especially out of [Turn] Four. So yeah, it was a very difficult race. i had to stay on it absolutely every lap. So yeah, it was very enjoyable, especially in the first part of the race when I had to catch back the position lost at the start.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Charles. Can you describe how you felt the problem for the first time – and then what happened afterward. Did you try to reset the car? Was there an intention to stop the car at all? Can you just talk us through it.

    CL: To be honest, how I felt in the car, I really thought everything would blow up a few laps later. Happily, it has not been the case and we still finished third, so yeah, just a loss of power, completely, very sudden. It got a tiny bit better after but the problem stayed there. And there were no signs before it to feel that anything was going wrong.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, how does it feel when you pass someone who is having some problems for a win. And a question for Charles, how difficult was it to pass Seb on Lap Five?

    LH: Ultimately you want to pass someone because you’re quicker than them and through a fight. I went past Charles down the back straight and I raised my hand to him because there’s nothing I could do, obviously, I didn’t have any problems, so it definitely feels weird and, honestly, you can’t believe your luck in those scenarios, but what can you do? You can’t deny yourself it. You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and pushing ahead. As I was saying, I’ve been in positions like that: we’ve been in the lead many a time when the car has stopped and I know how it feels. But it’s always good to look at the glass half full because today he still got some great points even though he had that problem and he was an outlier all weekend – even to his team-mate, he was so much faster than his team-mate all weekend so he has so many positives to take from it and we have a lot of work to do to try and keep up with him!

    CL: Yes, well, it’s always a tricky situation when you get to fight your team-mate because the risks are very high and, as in every team, I think, they warn you before the race: OK, you can try things on different people, but with your team-mate, please be careful – which is something normal. So it’s always obviously, that something more. But yeah, I had the opportunity on lap five and I didn’t hesitate, I just sent for it. I was happy it was successful the first time I tried, especially after the bad start. So yeah, happy with how it ended up.

    Q: (Ben Anderson – F1 Racing) Charles, you mentioned just after the race that you were lucky in an unlucky situation because of concerns over fuel. Was that a result of the problem you had with the MGU-H or were you struggling with fuel before the problem struck?

    CL: No, no. It was just the result because of obviously being very slow on the straight, we were spending a lot more time on the straight so you are using a lot more fuel than normal so it was just a normal consequence of the lack of power on the straights.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Charles, at the start you lost the lead, obviously. How did you feel about that at the time, what was your approach after that and then we heard you come on the radio and say to the team ‘guys, I’m quicker’? Were you worried at that point that you weren’t going to be allowed to race and try to pass Sebastian?

    CL: No, I was just letting them know. Then I think I had an answer, saying to me ‘OK, stay like this for two laps’ but then on the next straight I had the opportunity to go for it, so I went for it and it was a successful pass and then I was just quicker, so then I did my race. Then obviously, to lose the lead in this way it’s always a shame and always a disappointment but I also had a lot of things to do and there were still points to grab so I very quickly got back to focus on my race. Obviously, the win was out of reach because of the problem but there were still very important points to gain. I just tried to focus as much as possible, meet the disappointment on one side and… yeah.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, it seems to me that those extra points for fastest laps are working because you are now leading because of that. Do you agree?

    VB: Fully agree. They are points that will count at the end of the championship. Obviously, now, at this point, it doesn’t matter much but what matters is at the end of the championship and we’ve seen many championships finishing with very small margins. Today it was a bit out of reach with the strong pace of Ferrari, they got it, but yeah, for sure while there is this opportunity it’s going to be important but anyways, even though it felt a super-difficult race I’m happy to be getting this amount of points because in the end, consistency is going to be the key.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) We go to China and Baku, circuits with completely different characteristics to this one. Do you think the picture we have here we can transport to other rounds of the season?

    LH: I think it’s really difficult to say, honestly. We’ve only had two races and they’ve been a flipside, you know, both sides. One where we were rapid and far ahead and this weekend where they were.  So as always, every season, it takes a good few races before you kind of get a gist of where it all is but I anticipate it’s going to be back and forth between the two of us. If they have this straight speed in the next race then we’ll be watching them disappear but obviously we’re going to be working hard to try and understand where we went wrong this weekend and if we can improve the car but as you can see, reliability is also a very very key important part, so we’ve just got to keep working on all areas.

    VB: Agree.

    CL: No, as Lewis said, I think we struggled quite a lot in Australia. Here the car felt a lot better overall. Now we just need to work and make it feel that way every race weekend, but obviously, the track characteristics are also taken into account. It has been a good weekend for us but that doesn’t mean it will be like this for the rest of the season, so we need to work and try to keep the position that we’ve had this weekend but it’s obviously not going to be easy.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Charles, you mentioned earlier that you were so close to fulfilling a childhood dream. Does today feel like the cruelest race you’ve had in your career?

    CL: I will not go to that extreme because I think Formula Two in Monaco was probably the worst I’ve ever had but yeah, because it’s still a podium and it’s my first podium in Formula One so in a way I feel I should enjoy it, the way I felt like there was a lot more to take this weekend but yeah, overall, of course, it’s not the ideal race we wanted but we shall be happy about our third place despite problems.

     

  • Charles Leclerc becomes 2nd youngest to get a pole; Ferrari lock-out front row; Hami p3

    Charles Leclerc becomes 2nd youngest to get a pole; Ferrari lock-out front row; Hami p3

    Leclerc takes pole on Saturday. An FIA image

    Sakhir, 30 March 2019: Charles Leclerc took the first pole position of his career, beating Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel by almost three tenths of a second as the Italian squad locked out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the second round of the FIA Formula One World Championship.

    Defending champion Lewis Hamilton was forced to settle for P3, 0.030 behind Vettel, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

    At the start of the session Ferrari quickly seized control, with Leclerc taking P1 thanks to a lap of 1:28.495. Vettel slotted into P2, 0.238s behind his team-mate, while Valtteri Bottas took third place, a full second adrift of the pacesetting Monegasque. Hamilton’s final Q1 lap of 1:29.262 then moved him to third place

    In a tight battle, in which P6 to P15 were covered by just half a second, there was no escape at the end of the segment for Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was the first man eliminated in P16.

    The Italian was bounced out ahead of surprise casualty Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and the Williams cars of George Russell and Robert Kubica.

    At the top of the table Leclerc’s opening time kept him in P1 ahead of Vettel with Hamilton third ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren who put in a superb lap to split the Mercedes drivers. Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon took sixth ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Max. Romain Grosjean was 10thfor Haas.

    Leclerc again led the way in the first runs of Q2, setting a time of 1:28.046. That put him more than four tenths of a second clear of Hamilton, with Bottas in third.

    Verstappen slotted into fifth place with a lap of 1:29.143, ahead of Vettel who made a mistake in Turn 10 and was forced to run again as the top two stayed in the garage for the final runs.

    Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull was in trouble though, down in P12, with a lap of 1:29.526 after the first runs.

    And in the final runs the Frenchman couldn’t find the pace to break out of the Q2 drop zone. He failed to improve on his first-run time and was bypassed by Toro Rosso’s Alex Albon who finished behind the first driver eliminated, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. Behind Gasly, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was ruled out in P14 ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.

    Vettel’s error in Q2 and the need for an extra run meant he was restricted to the garage for the first run in Q3. That left the door open for Leclerc and the Monegasque driver took top spot with a time identical to that with which Vettel claimed pole position in 2018.

    The gauntlet was laid down, therefore, and Vettel was the first of the Ferraris on track for the final runs.

    Despite getting running his team-mate close through S1, the lap went away from the German over the two remaining sectors and he could only claim P2 with a time of 1:28.160.

    Hamilton edged close to the front row with his final run, but in the end he had to settle for third place, three hundredths of a second behind Vettel.

    Leclerc, though, was going even quicker than on his opener and he eventually claimed his maiden pole, and the first in for a driver from Monaco, with a new track record of 1:27.866.

    With Bottas fourth ahead of Verstappen, who was also restricted to a single run, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen finished in P6 ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and the second Haas of Romain Grosjean. Kimi Räikkönen was ninth for Alfa Romeo and the top 10 was rounded out by Norris.

    2019 FIA Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.866
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:28.160 0.294
    3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:28.190 0.324
    4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:28.256 0.390
    5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:28.752 0.886
    6 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:28.757 0.891
    7 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 1:28.813 0.947
    8 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:29.015 1.149
    9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1:29.022 1.156
    10 Lando Norris McLaren 1:29.043 1.177
    11 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:29.488 1.622
    12 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 1:29.513 1.647
    13 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 1:29.526 1.660
    14 Sergio Perez Racing Point 1:29.756 1.890
    15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:29.854 1.988
    16 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:30.026 2.160
    17 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:30.034 2.168
    18 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1:30.217 2.351
    19 George Russell Williams 1:31.759 3.893
    20 Robert Kubica Williams 1:31.799

  • Flash: Charles Leclerc takes pole, 2nd youngest to achieve the feat: Bahrain GP

    Sakhir, 30 March 2019: The young new face, Charles Leclerc is the second youngest to take the pole position of all time at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday clocking 1: 27. 866 to beat his teammate and the youngest pole sitter of all time, Sebastian Vettel to secure a front-row lock-out for Ferrari at the qualifying here on Saturday ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

    It was also a new track record as the only dirver from Monaco who  took the pole,. Leclerc set the record on his final lap for good measure, going around the Bahrain International Circuit in 1m 27.866s, 0.294s up on Vettel’s time.

    Behind the Ferrari duo came the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The two silver arrows did a good job to close the gap, having to Ferrari, Hamilton ending up 0.324s off Leclerc’s pole time.

    Threatening them from fifth on the grid will be Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. His teammate Pierre Gasly has dropped out in Q2. The Dutchman is ahead of the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the McLaren of Carlos Sainz.

    Kimi Raikkonen did a great job to qualify P9.

  • Seb is an amazing driver and I’ve learned a lot from him, says Charles Leclerc

    TRACK INTERVIEWS
    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)
    Q: Charles, it’s your first ever pole position in Formula One, your second grand prix with Ferrari, you’ve looked in control all weekend, and you’ve got the job done.
    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I’m extremely happy. Obviously, in the last race, I was not very happy with my qualifying – I did some mistakes in Q3 – and I really worked hard to try to not do the same mistakes here. It seems we did quite a good job, a front-row lockout and yeah, extremely happy.
    Q: How hard is it to come to grand prix tracks and be up against a four-time world champion in the same car and try and get that task and take that [pole]? 
    CL: It’s obviously extremely hard because Seb is an amazing driver and I’ve learned a lot from him and I will probably learn all year long with him. But today I am very happy to be in front of him, so yeah, it’s a good day for me.
    Q: And the plan tonight.
    CL: Oh, going to sleep and work hard for the race tomorrow.
    Q: Sebastian, you line up on the first row of the grid. You had to use an extra set of tyres in Q2. Did that compromise your last run and leave a bit of safety there? 
    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, of course. You have to, first of all, make it to the end. Maybe I was a bit shy in the second sector but in the end, I think Charles did a very good job today and he deserves to be on pole, so happy with the one run I had at the end to get second and it puts us in a good place for tomorrow.
    Q: And I guess happy to think that pace in Barcelona and what happened in Melbourne, to come here and dominate so far this weekend with Ferrari? 
    SV: Yeah, definitely. As I said that’s the main thing. I also said to the team that the main thing is that we got the job done, so this weekend the car felt a lot better all throughout the weekend, and it’s only getting better. Hopefully, we can carry that into the race tomorrow.
    Q: Good luck tomorrow. Lewis, you had a job this weekend; Ferrari have been on a different level. I guess you can be happy that you got closer but the hard work starts tomorrow again? 
    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, definitely. I really enjoyed qualifying and it was great to see the progression for us over the weekend. The Ferraris have been incredibly quick. Charles did an incredible job, so congratulations to him. It was very close between me and Sebastian. The last lap, there was a little bit of time there, but that’s the fun of the whole game. Tomorrow’s the important day and it will be interesting to see how we do but we’re going to give them a good fight that’s for sure.
    Q: Do you still believe you can win this race after the pace they’ve shown this weekend? 
    LH: They’ve shown incredible pace but it doesn’t mean that they can’t be beaten. We’re going to work at it; we’ll just keep our heads down and see what happens.

    PRESS CONFERENCE
    Q: Charles, many congratulations, a huge day for you. Can you just describe your emotions right now?
    CL: Well, a lot of emotions. I’m trying to stay as cool as possible because, unfortunately, there are no points awarded for the pole position and all points will be awarded tomorrow. So, of course I’ll enjoy the moment, it has been a great day and a great weekend overall until now for us, and I hope it will continue tomorrow. The target now is to focus on the race and try to do the best race possible – but obviously it’s amazing to be here.

    Q: You were fastest in all three segments of qualifying. You set a new track record. Leave anything on the table or was that last lap in Q3 perfect?
    CL: Yeah, I think you can always do better. I am overall very happy with my lap in Q3. I think that was my weakness in the first race and yeah, I was disappointed after qualifying because of this. Today I am very satisfied. I think I put all three of my best sectors together, which is what I wanted. Then, of course, you can always do better but I’m extremely happy.

    Q: Sebastian, compromised in Q3 by getting just that one run. I was just wondering if we could get a few thoughts from you about the turnaround by Ferrari from Melbourne two weeks ago. You’re now first and second on the grid and it wasn’t the same back there.
    SV: No, I mean obviously we’re both much happier with the car this weekend. I think, the credit really goes to the team because it’s a team effort. I mean, in the end, we didn’t feel very happy with the car in Melbourne and the team has done very, very hard work trying to understand why, and I think we had some answers coming here, proving today that we are running at the front and fighting for pole. Locking out the front row for Ferrari is, yeah, a great testament of their work, first of all. Happy, obviously, not exactly my day but that’s how it goes, so I look forward to tomorrow.

    Q: And a quick word about the man on your left?
    SV: Well congratulations, I said to him earlier to suck it in, enjoy it. It’s his day in the end of the day. Certainly, my day was not ideal but even, I think, with an ideal day, it would have been very difficult to beat him today. So, well done. My first pole is a while ago but certainly, it’s a day you never forget.

    Q: Lewis, pole position in Melbourne two weeks ago, third today. A few thoughts from you about how that session went and the performance of the Mercedes.
    LH: Firstly, congratulations to Charles. He did an incredible job, really really happy for him. The first pole is a dream that you set for yourself when you’re young. It only comes once, so he truly deserves. it. I had a pretty good session in general. Yesterday was a real struggle. All weekend we’ve seen incredible pace from the Ferraris. Honestly, I didn’t know if we’d be as close as we were at the end because they were pulling some serious speeds on the straights, which is generally where we lost a lot of the time today. It was just in the straight line. Great turnaround for them. I think my sessions went relatively smoothly. I’ve got the extra tyre for tomorrow, which I’m happy about and… yeah… I’m just excited because it was a close battle and that’s really how it should be. Three-thousandths, or whatever it was between myself and Sebastian. I definitely had it in that lap, the excitement of being on the edge and kind of having it and not having it is what makes it exciting. I couldn’t have done the same time as Charles, so we’ve got work to do but tomorrow is where the points are bagged. So, we will just focus, keep our heads down, try to maximise our strategy and our tyres tomorrow.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Lewis and Sebastian: when you had your first pole, you won. What are your expectations for Charles tomorrow?
    SV: I think we both hope he doesn’t win! Straightforward! Obviously, we’re racing for the same team, so I think for both of us, we’re hoping to have a strong race tomorrow. If you start one-two, you want to finish one-two, so yeah, that’s the objective for tomorrow. Nevertheless, it’s a long race. I think taking care of the tyres will be crucial. I think on one-lap pace we looked very, very strong this weekend so far, so yeah, quali was all about confirming that and for the race I think it will be a very, very close battle with Mercedes – and also Red Bull.

    Lewis, anything to add?
    LH: I commented earlier on his laps. He was quickest in every session so its very clear he had the pace and did a great job.

    Q: Do you think you have the pace to beat them tomorrow?
    LH: From my pace yesterday, no – but I made changes to the car overnight and during the day today so I’m hopeful the car is in a better position. This is honestly a weak circuit for me. That’s why I’m a little more upbeat – because I had a deficit of three-tenths at least all day yesterday to Valtteri and managed to turn that around a little bit. The race here last year was quite strong. Ultimately, I had a gearbox penalty but now we’re in a much better fighting position. It’s very, very hard this race. It’s very tough on the tyres and it’s a physically-challenging circuit It is incredibly challenging for the car as well, so I just hope that there’s some excitement tomorrow – one way or another.

    Q: (Ben Anderson – F1 Racing) To both Ferrari drivers: Mattia Binotto clarified yesterday that it’s very important that the two drivers are not fighting, taking risks and battling each other. So in that context, how will you approach the start and turn one in tomorrow’s race, considering that you’re on the front row? 
    CL: Well, to be completely honest, we haven’t done the pre-race meeting yet so at the moment I don’t know. If you ask me, I will do absolutely everything to keep my first place but obviously, as you said, we are a team also, we need to work together and this will work, for sure.

    SV: I think it’s pretty clear that from the team’s point of view we got the front row today and we obviously have a very very tough race ahead of us tomorrow so I think we need to work as a team and try to make sure we stay first and second. I think the order is irrelevant for the team so I think it’s pretty clear. Obviously, Charles starts ahead so he has the advantage of pole position and then we will see how it goes.

    Q: (Christian Menarth – motorsportmagazin.com) Sebastian, can you explain what happened in the first run in Q2, that you have to do the second run, and did you feel that you lost the tyre set already yesterday because you took a set of softs less than the others? 
    SV: No, nothing to do with the strategy yesterday and this afternoon. Obviously it was a bit hectic in Q2 and I was just in an unfortunate slot which sometimes is very difficult to control so I got unlucky and didn’t have an option other than following Daniel for the lap and it was very marginal so we had to go again and then we lost a set that we were planning to run in Q3. Not ideal, preparing for qualifying and I committed to one run at the end and it was crucial to get that lap to the finish. Second, I think, is alright. Obviously, I was hoping for more but I think that is how the day went. I’m quite happy so for tomorrow I think it should be a new day and a different start.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Seb, can you tell us what problems you had? You seemed to have a few lock-ups in Q1 and Q2. 
    SV: Yeah, I think overall the car was very strong so far this weekend. I’ve been a little bit more vocal about the rear not being exactly where I wanted it to be. Maybe Charles felt a little bit more confident all weekend but I think our qualifying slipped away a little bit with what happened in Q2 so you lose the rhythm a little bit. It wasn’t ideal but it’s not about, at this point, sitting here now, being P2, is not about arguing here and arguing there. I think you have to give credit to the pole-sitter, especially as it’s his first pole, so again, congrats and the focus should be on Charles today.

    Q: (Jacques Deschenaux – Grand Prix Guide) Charles, you are the second youngest pole man in the history of Formula One after Sebastian and the first from Monaco. Did you imagine one month ago that your career with Ferrari would begin and be launched so quickly? 
    CL: Not really. I didn’t have any particular expectations from it. I was completely aware of how much of a big step there is, obviously team-wise and also competition-wise because obviously the drivers I’m fighting with now are the best so yeah, I didn’t have any expectations. I’m extremely happy that it has started like this but again, as I said, it’s only qualifying. I hope I will end up and have strong points tomorrow which is the most important (thing) so yeah, we will see, but I am extremely happy to start like this.

    Q: (Ben Anderson – F1 Racing) Lewis, you mentioned the struggles yesterday and this track not being a particularly strong one for you. What is it about this circuit that you find difficult and that the team has found difficult this weekend? 
    LH: I don’t really know where the performance has gone. As I said, a lot of it is on the straights, if not all of it. So somehow they’ve managed to find a lot more speed on the straights but I think for us, the car has felt OK. It’s just… I’m just thinking that over the years it’s not been a circuit that particularly suited our car, for whatever reason, but I think we got into quite a nice place today and as I said, I think it’s the straight (line) speed was really where we lost a lot of time. In sector one, we’re losing three tenths, two tenths, whatever it is, just on the straightline speed, so that’s a significant amount. We’ve got work to do but I think the race pace was better for Valtteri yesterday, he had a really good long run. I think he had the best on the soft, I believe, so I’m hopeful that we have that performance tomorrow.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Are you confident with your race pace, in the case of Ferrari on soft tyres and in the case of Mercedes on the medium tyres and what does the strategy depend on, a one or a two stop strategy? What does it depend on? 
    CL: Yeah, I am satisfied with the race run we have done yesterday, also with the softs. I think it was pretty close between… Valtteri, I think, did a long run on soft and myself… so yeah, I think we are pretty strong on that and then on the one stop or two stops again, we will review that tomorrow morning before the race so for now, I don’t know.
    SV: Nothing to add.
    LH: You will find out in the morning!

    Ends

  • Charles Leclerc quickest in FP3 as Ferrari dominance continues

    Sakhir, 30 March 2019: Ferrari completed a clean sweep of practice session one-twos at the Sakhir Circuit, with Charles Leclerc running quickest in the final hour of practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

    The Monegasque driver set a best time of 1:29.569 on the soft compound Pirelli tyres with a little under 20 minutes left in the session. He was immediately followed on track by team-mate Sebastian Vettel who slotted into P2 0.169s behind.

    The pace left all of their rivals in the shade, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton eventually becoming the Scuderia’s closest rival with a late qualifying sim that boosted him above team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The defending champion’s time of 1:30.334 still left him 0.765s adrift of Leclerc.

    Australian Grand Prix winner Bottas was left with fourth place and his best lap of 1:30.389 left as the last man to get within a second of the Ferraris.

    Haas’ Romain Grosjean took fifth place in the session, 1.249s behind Leclerc with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg sixth thanks to a lap of 1:30.910.

    McLaren rookie Lando Norris continued to impress setting a lap of 1:30.955 to claim seventh plac ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

    Red Bull have looked decidedly out of sorts at the Bahrain circuit, with both Verstappen and team-mate Pierre Gasly complaining of poor grip on the C3 soft compound Pirelli  on offer this weekend.

    Verstappen ended the final practice session 1.390s off Leclerc but it was an even more disappointing session for Gasly who finished in P12 almost half a second behind his team-mate.

    Norris McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz took ninth place in the session ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

    2019 FIA Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
    1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 15 1:29.569
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 16 1:29.738 0.169
    3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 10 1:30.334 0.765
    4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 12 1:30.389 0.820
    5 Romain Grosjean Haas 14 1:30.818 1.249
    6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 12 1:30.910 1.341
    7 Lando Norris McLaren 15 1:30.955 1.386
    8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 10 1:30.959 1.390
    9 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 14 1:30.965 1.396
    10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 17 1:31.173 1.604
    11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 21 1:31.333 1.764
    12 Pierre Gasly Red Bull 13 1:31.392 1.823
    13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 13 1:31.540 1.971
    14 Lance Stroll Racing Point 16 1:31.618 2.049
    15 Sergio Perez Racing Point 9 1:31.638 2.069
    16 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 11 1:31.643 2.074
    17 Alex Albon Toro Rosso 17 1:31.679 2.110
    18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 21 1:32.132 2.563
    19 George Russell Williams 14 1:33.387 3.818
    20 Robert Kubica Williams 13 1:33.525 3.956