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Tag: Formula 1
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Flash: Daniel Ricciardo takes Mexican Pole
Mexico City, 27 Oct 2018: The smiling assassin, Australian Daniel Ricciardo took the pole position with a last-minute burst that edged out teammate Max Verstappen by 26 thousands of a second in the Mexican GP, the 19th round of the FIA Formula One World Championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez here in Mexico City.“I knew the pace was in the car, Max showed that all weekend. Once I heard I got pole I was – I’ve got to relax now, I’m tripping major nut-sack right now,” said the Red Bull driver, Ricciardo.
In Q2, both Esteban Ocon, and Sergio Perez of Racing Point Force India were eliminated along with Fernando Alonso, B Hartley and Pierce Gasly. Earlier, Grosjean, Vandoorne, Magnussen, Stroll and Sirotkin were eliminated in Q1.
Defending champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes needs to finish 7th or higher this weekend to win the title regardless of where championship rival Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finishes.
It is after five years the two Red Bulls are starting on the first row after their last 1-2 way back in 2013 US Grand Prix. Vettel qualified P4, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen on P6.
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Max Verstappen tops FP2 as Red Bulls dominate again: Mexican GP
Max Verstappen tops FP2 Mexican GP. An FIA image Mexico City, 26 Oct 2018: After topping the morning timesheets in FP1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Red Bull Racing again scored a 1-2 in the second practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen outpacing team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by 1500ths of a second. The Dutchman stopped at the edge of the track late in the session, however, with an apparent engine issue. The 19th round of the 21-round FIA Formula One World Championship will be held on Sunday where defending champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes is expected to seal his fifth championship title with two rounds left. The Brazilian GP is on Nov 11 and the season concludes 15 days later in Abu Dhabi on November 29.
In the morning session the Red Bull duo were comfortably clear of the rest of the field, though Mercedes and Ferrari minimised hypersoft running in FP1, but in the qualifying runs of the second session both Verstappen and Ricciardo finished over a second clear of their chief rivals, Mercedes and Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel leading the way for the Scuderia with a fourth-placed time of 1:17.954. That left him 0.001s behind third-placed Carlos Sainz of Renault, but 1.234s of the pace set by Verstappen.
Both Red Bull drivers were quick early in the session, on ultrasoft tyres, and when Vettel became the first to try a qualifying simulation on hypersofts he only managed to post a time good enough for P2 behind Verstappen.
The Red Bulls then bolted on hypersofts for their performance runs and upped the pace considerably.
Verstappen posted a lap of 1:16.720 that put him ahead of the impressive Sainz, and then Ricciardo found enough pace to slot into P2 with a time 0.153s behind the Dutchman.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Verstappen, however, and towards the end of the session he coasted off track at Turn 3 and pulled over close to an escape road when his engine cut out.
Vettel’s qualifying simulation left him just one hundredth of a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the second, while sixth place was taken by Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley.
Mercedes, meanwhile, had a muted session, with Lewis Hamilton the quicker of its driver pairing. The championship leader ended the session with a best time of 1:18.100, almost 1.4s adrift of Verstappen. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished in P9 behind the second Ferrari of US Grand Prix winner Kimi Räikkönen. Tenth place in the session went to Sergio Pérez of Racing Point Force India.
2018 Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 21 1:16.720
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 32 1:16.873 0.153
3 Carlos Sainz Renault 35 1:17.953 1.233
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 42 1:17.954 1.234
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 36 1:18.046 1.326
6 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 35 1:18.061 1.341
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 40 1:18.100 1.380
8 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 42 1:18.133 1.413
9 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 40 1:18.140 1.420
10 Sergio Perez Racing Point Force India 24 1:18.167 1.447
11 Esteban Ocon Racing Point Force India 24 1:18.485 1.765
12 Romain Grosjean Haas 39 1:18.733 2.013
13 Charles Leclerc Sauber 39 1:19.024 2.304
14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 36 1:19.047 2.327
15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 30 1:19.096 2.376
16 Lance Stroll Williams 25 1:19.219 2.499
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 41 1:19.322 2.602
18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 37 1:19.335 2.615
19 Fernando Alonso McLaren 31 1:19.543 2.823
20 Kevin Magnussen Haas 35 1:19.670 2.950 -
Perez got a big impact on the Racing Point Force India team: Otmar Szafnauer
Friday Press Conference in progress. Force India’s Otmar Szafnauer is 2nd from left. An FIA image Mexico City, 28 Oct 2018: Otmar Szafnauer, of Racing Point Force India, the new team midway this year, was invited to the FIA press conference on Friday along with Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Guenther Steiner (Haas) and Frédéric Vasseur (Sauber). Following is the transcript:
Otmar, first time we’ve seen you since you announced your deal with Sergio Pérez. Why have you chosen to re-sign him and how has he evolved in the year he has been at the team?
Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, we chose to re-sign him because he’s a fantastic driver. He’s great on Sunday, qualifies well, great feedback and he’s been with the team for quite some time. I think it’s appropriate to discuss all this here at his home race and he’s got a big impact on the team and it’s good to have continuity as well, from one year to the next. The regulations are changing quite significantly next year and a fellow like Sergio with all of his experience will help us in driving the development forward next year.
Q: Well, how are preparations for next year going and specifically you’ve now got more financial resource since the takeover. Did that come in time to impact on next year’s car?
OS: Yes, it did, just in time for that. It’s hard to know how our preparations are going, because this game is relative, and unless you know what the others are finding it’s difficult to know where we stand. But we are happy with the progress we are making. We were fortunate enough to run a version of next year’s wing in the Hungary test and from that we have learned a lot and it’s given us good direction.
Q: Thank you Otmar. Guenther, we’ll start by looking back to the race in Austin. Can you clarify what led to Kevin Magnussen exceeding the fuel limit by 170g?
Guenther STEINER: We attacked too much these guys [Force India]. That was the only reason, nothing else. There was no other reason than we tried too hard and until Lewis stopped there was the thought we would get lapped anyway and then we just kept on going and we couldn’t make it up in the last laps anymore. It’s as simple as this, there is not anything else to it. We just tried too hard to get past Ocon.
Q: On a more positive note, you’ve recently announced a title sponsorship deal with Rich Energy. Just tell us a little bit more about the deal and how long you have been working on it?
GS: We haven’t been working long on it. It came together pretty quick. We look forward to working with them as a partner and to bring new people into Formula 1 is always good, instead of just circulating other people around it, we try to find to new partners, sponsors, for the sport, which is always good. We are working now on the details, because it came together so quick. We have a few things still to sort out but they have gone pretty well and we look forwarding to work with them next year.
Q: Will the car look different?
GS: Yes.
Q: No details now?
GS: No, no details yes, exactly Tom, but it will look different. We will change the livery obviously.
Q: Thank you. Franz, coming to you. Let’s talk drivers first of all. Brendon had a good race last weekend in Austin, beating Pierre and earning more points in the process. He’s under a bit of pressure at the moment, so how impressed by his resilience?
Franz TOST: He showed a good race in Austin, but nevertheless if you look to the results, he has four points, Pierre has 28 points. That means he has to improve his performance if he want to stay in the team.
Q: Let’s talk engines then. Pierre’s engine from Austin has been sent back to Sakura for checks, leading to more penalties here. Frustrating for him and the team but indicative perhaps of how hard Honda are pushing. Have you seen them increase their efforts this year as the season has gone on?
FT: Well, first of all, the reason for this power unit change is that after the race in Austin they detected on the power unit of Pierre an assembly issue and therefore they didn’t want to take any risks and decided to come here to Mexico with another new power unit. We did two laps, decided to change the power unit to the old specification, only because of this very special altitude here and these conditions and therefore Honda thinks they a better knowledge and experience with their older specification to set all the parameters correctly and therefore Pierre will do the race weekend with Spec 2. Regarding the work of Honda during the year, they have so far done a fantastic job because they have improved the performance a lot, and also the reliability, and I am really looking forward to the last tow races, in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi, because there hopefully we won’t have any penalties, and for next year, because they are in the right way and they will improve during the winter months and I’m looking forward to seeing Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso next year with Honda.
Q: Have they exceeded your expectations?
FT: They have exceeded expectations with regards to reliability, because we thought we would have much more problems but to be honest we haven’t had any major issues, and also regarding the performance, because with the new specification we are not far away from the top teams.
Q: Thank you, Franz. Fréd, coming to you, thank you for waiting. We had Kimi in here yesterday, answering a lot of questions about his victory last time out. A lot of people wanting to know when we are going to see him drive a Sauber for the first time. Can you shed any light on that? Will he be driving at the Abu Dhabi test for example?
Frédéric VASSEUR: We are still discussing, but I hope that we are able to take a decision during the weekend regarding Abu Dhabi.
Q: During this weekend?
FV: Yeah.
Q: That victory last weekend, how important is it for you to have a 2018 race winner driving for you next year?
FV: At least it will be a reference, that you are sure that you have someone in the car who is able to make it. It’s important for the engineer just to be focused on the car. He’s doing it, he did a pole position in Monza, he won last weekend in Austin and for sure it will be a good reference. I think we are still a young team, because we are also turning the company a lot, and to have this kind of leader it will be very helpful.
Q: You’re a young team, but you have made big strides this year. How has the progress you’ve made changed your ambitions going forward and what changes are you making at Hinwil to meet those ambitions?
FV: I think it’s a long process, step-by-step. We signed a good deal with Ferrari on the supply of engines and then Alfa Romeo joined the company and even if it’s not helpful on track, at least an iconic brand joining the team [means] that we are much more attractive for other sponsors, for recruitment also and step-by-step Simone joined the team and Jan Monchaux joined the team and I think you can’t say that it’s one thing that will completely change the situation but step-by-step we are coming back. We started from Melbourne where we were completely at the back and now we are midfield. It’s always, every single weekend very tight between P8 and P14 but we are in the middle of the range and it’s a huge motivation also for the whole company, because we know perfectly that each time we are bringing something it will pay off on track and it was not the case last year because we were too far away from the last one. But step-by-step we are coming back.
Q: Do you feel you have got some momentum now?
FV: Yeah, yeah, we’ve showed over the last races that the pace is there for quali, that we are always fighting for Q3. The last races were a bit more difficult, we are too close to the drivers from Haas, and even at the press conference that we are side by side. I will stay away this weekend.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Franz, you said that Brendon needs to improve his performances if he wants to remain with the team. How long does he have left to convince you about a seat for 2019 and do you have a deadline on when you want to make a decision for next year?
FT: Of course. First of all, we have to finish the season to get a clear picture and then I assume in December Red Bull will decide the driver line-up of Toro Rosso.
Q: A question for all. With the change of regulation I assume you may have already number on next year’s car. how big is the gap with this year’s car?
FV: It’s difficult to have a clear picture today but for sure I think we will improve on the engine. We have still some doubt about the tyres and on the aero package. If you are speaking about the aero regulations, it’s a huge step back. I think everyone is focused to recover. I don’t know when we will recover and if we will be able to overshoot but it looks tricky.
Q: Guenther, your thoughts?
GS: Mainly on the aero I guess your question is, with the new regulations. Now the work is going on and to commit now to a number or to a comparison to this year is difficult because there is still a lot of work going on until the launch car is produced but I think it will be close to the launch car from last year when we get there to Melbourne.
Q: Otmar, you said earlier that you ran the new wing at the Hungary test?
OS: We did and it was a significant step backwards. We’ve got aggressive targets, I don’t know if we will be able to hit them. We’re trying to predict the future as to what we can find, but yeah, it was a massive step back for us.
Q: And Franz?
FT: The same for us. But I discussed it with the people in the wind tunnel and as it looks currently they do not believe that overtaking will become much easier, which means there is less dirty air behind the car. Therefore I’m not sure that this regulation change will end up where we expect – that overtaking will become much easier. I think that at the beginning of next season the teams will have reached a similar level on downforce as nowadays.
Q: Franz, a question for you again on drivers. I know you said a decision won’t be made imminently. Could you just tell us where you are with negotiations with Nissan, e.Dams over Alexander Albon? Is he still in the frame for next season with you?
FT: Of course – but you know negotiations are confidential. I can’t give any details about this.
Q: To all of you. Last week we saw two cars excluded for exceeding the fuel limits, namely Haas and Force India. Do you believe this is the right way forward for Formula One – to have drivers restricted by fuel flow and by tyres and whatever? We were talking to drivers yesterday, saying ‘we’ve got to save tyres, we’ve got to save fuel’. Is this really grand prix racing?
FT: That’s within the regulation and it’s not new that in Formula One you have to save fuel. Remember back with Prost, was it, at Hockenheim, when he had to push his car when it ran out of fuel. So, it’s within the regulations and you have to respect it. You will never have enough fuel or tyres that you can race, let me say 60 laps all on the limit. That’s simply not possible, yes? We all know this, and it depends then how clever the driver is, how clever the team operates to stay within the regulations.
Otmar?
OS: Yes. I guess we weren’t so clever to stay within the regulations – but to your point Dieter, it is a regulation and it’s been with us for quite some time. It’s recently changed – or it will change for next year. I think the total fuel that we get will increase again. But even if you don’t have those fuel limits, we will always be making trade-offs between how much fuel we put in the car, such that we get to the end in the shortest amount of time. Even in the past, where you don’t have a fuel limit. You don’t quite fuel it… you fuel it to the point where your total race time is lowest – and that sometimes means fuel saving. And, to the contrary, if we’re fuel-saving, at a different time to when somebody else is, it could help overtaking. You know, I think Haas maybe didn’t do the fuel saving when they were trying to attack us but if there is a time in the race, and it often happens, somebody’s fuel saving when we aren’t, that’s a good time to attack. So, you see, it can help with overtaking. Just the opposite.
Guenther?
GS: I would disagree. I mean, again, we were not clever enough to manage the fuel and I’m not trying to find an excuse for what we did. We fought hard and we deal with the consequences, we are fully OK with that – but I think if we would shorten the race, for example, leave the regulations where they are so we don’t have to spend money to design new fuel cells or whatever, just reduce the race three laps, you would have wide open racing the whole race – and I think there you would have more overtaking than by lift-and-coast. If anybody listens in to radio at the moment, to the drivers, 80 per cent is about lift-and-coast. And again, if somebody then decides to put less fuel in, as Otmar says, it could be part of the strategy, he can decide that – but it’s on his own behalf. If we would fuel to go the whole race, that you can race as the race car is built to do. A race car, in my opinion, is built to race a full race, and not to save fuel. That’s my opinion about racing. And it could be easily achieved. I think nobody would miss if we make the races three laps shorter, where we make a procession anyway because we have to fuel-save. So, again, that’s my opinion on it. I just want to make it clear to everybody I’m not trying to make an excuse for what happened to us last week. We made a mistake and we got the points taken away and we live with that one.
Fred?
FV: I think there are parts in your question. The first one is about the penalty, that is there is a regulation you are in infringement you need to have a penalty. If we are allowed to use a bit more and then the next week a bit more and then the next week a bit more, at one stage you need to get penalised. The second part is about regulation but it was a common decision to have a race based on efficiency. Now, if it’s another matter, you want to race without any limitation of fuel, why not? – but it’s another way that we have to take.
Q: One of my favourite moments this season was watching you discussing with Zak Brown when there was a contact between the car and the McLaren. Give us the idea of the pressure you’re under each race? You four guys are going to be fighting for the fourth place next year. What do you have to do, what do you have to try to develop to try to catch the three teams on the top next season?
GS: What we have to do for next season? To be completely honest, I think we will not catch them with the regulations as they are at the moment. The gap is too big. And therefore discussions are in place for 2021 to level the playing field with the cost cap so everybody gets back a little bit because it’s very difficult for us – or at least for Haas – to compete with budgets the top three are running. It’s impossible. So next year our focus will be again trying to finish as the best of the rest. That is what we are aiming for. But at the moment, as the regulations are now, the other ones are too far ahead and in my opinion, we have no chance – or almost no chance to catch them.
Q: Question for Frédéric. Have you talked to Kimi about his expectations within the team for next year – and if so, has he got any involvement with the car’s development for next year?
FV: A target, it’s difficult to fix because, as Guenther said before, we know perfectly that the situation is that you have the top three, perhaps Renault is in the middle somewhere and they will have much more resources than us, but then it’s very open. And if you can check from one week to another one, you can be P7 on the grid or P18 or P20. From my point of view the real race is more in the second part of the field. But we can expect to be at the top of the field. Not even every single weekend but we did it a couple of times during the season, and we have to put this kind of target for us.
Q: We hear some story yesterday that the drivers want on his cars screens in the place of the mirrors. What’s your opinion about this? Is it possible?
FV: Yeah, for sure it’s possible. I hope it’s not because they want to watch the TV when the race is boring! Yeah, you can have the camera to have a much better view at the back.
GS: I agree. I mean, the technology is out there. It’s already available, the technology, we could do that and I think it’s in discussion with the FIA at the moment. Charlie Whiting is looking into it. If that is a better way to look to the side and backward, so we see when the Saubers are coming, we can see them and we don’t run into them.
OS: Yeah, the technology is definitely there and maybe it will disadvantage those drivers that have good peripheral vision already. I haven’t heard this yet, I haven’t discussed it with our drivers but it’s definitely possible.
FT: The technology is here and it’s possible to sort it out and to solve it and therefore why not. It’s fine.
Q: Question for Otmar and Mr Vasseur because already Steiner has given a little short answer about this. What are your expectations about the regulations in 2021, in the sporting side and commercial side?
OS: There have been a lot of discussions recently with all the team and with the commercial rights holder and the FIA to look at making changes that are better for the fans, both from the sporting side as well as from the technical regulations. We’re still in that process of discussing. There’s some good ideas and some ideas that may depart from what Formula One traditionally has been, so we’ve got to really be careful that we make good decisions and always have the fan in mind. I think a significant difference now is that we’re working with more data and more fan-feedback, such that we can hopefully make both sporting and technical regulations that will improve the show. They’re both targeted at more overtaking, more exciting races, and maybe even more action over a weekend. So I think the direction is right. We just have to make sure we make good detailed decisions in order to be able to fulfill the strategy with the tactics.
FV: The target of the global future is to increase the show basically. The best way to do it is to close the gap between the cars. If you want to have an exciting race you have to have the guy in P10 be, in certain circumstances, able to fight for the podium. It’s not the case at all that, if you look on the last races, even the guys, the top six, if they were lapped, or they two-stop in the first lap, they were able to come back and to finish in the top six again. The fact to introduce the cost cap is one thing, and to have a better spread in terms of the prize fund, will allow the teams in the second half of the grid to catch up a little bit the gap. But I’m still convinced that it will be difficult for us in 2021 to fight with the top teams – but that needs to be closer.
Q: Franz, obviously plan A for Honda would be to introduce upgrades without any penalties or changes but that hasn’t been the case. How confident are you, Franz, about next season being about to do a season on three engines? And for the other guys, obviously Toro Rosso and Honda are being punished for using too many engines but in terms of the spirit of the rules, is that punishment enough when there are so many changes going on?
FT: I’m convinced that Honda will improve during the winter months. They are doing a very good job, they are pushing very hard. How many power units then at the end we will be used next year? I don’t know yet. For me, three power units is wrong from the regulation side. We should have the possibility to get more but that’s currently within the regulations and I hope that this will change from 2021 onwards.
OS: The reason we got the three is for cost-saving reasons. Powertrains are expensive, so we wanted to bring the cost down. Honda started a little bit late but I think they’re catching up fast. I think the regulation is what it is. I would prefer to stay at three because we buy our engines and they’re not cheap so the lower the cost the better.
GS: I agree with Otmar. It was decided to do this because of the costs so I think we stay there or at least, if they want to do more engines, the costs don’t go up and Honda and pays for it.
FV: Yeah, the same but I think the regulation is based on the fact that we have to reduce the costs even if it’s not enough, but at the end of the day that it’s the best way to reduce costs. Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault are now able to deal with it and I think Honda will be able to do it soon. Now they are in a strange situation in the last part of the season, they are probably more preparing the next one rather than anything else. As long as Franz Tost doesn’t pay for his engines I think it’s fine
Q: Otmar, has the team already decided who is going to be the second driver for Force India or is it too obvious? And what does this driver have to be? How has his driving have to be?
OS: Well, his driving has to be excellent, otherwise we wouldn’t consider him and I think it would just be courteous to everybody to allow us to announce in our own time through the normal channels, so if that’s OK with you, we’ll just do it as we always do: decide on the driver and then announce.
Q: Fred, based on what you said earlier on that if we have this re-set in 2021 you won’t be able to catch up immediately, let’s assume that Formula One does achieve it, does introduce cost cap. You’re only two years away and it looks increasingly unlikely that we will achieve it, but how long will it take before we once again have a level playing field in Formula One?
FV: Even if you introduce a cost cap in ’21 or it doesn’t matter, I think that they invested so much on the technical side that it will be quite impossible for us to close the gap immediately but I think in this case we would have some advantages. I think we are used to dealing with this kind of budget and they are not and probably at one stage it could be an advantage. But on the first part of the deal, they will capitalise on the advantages they made.
GS: I think it’s very difficult to say how long it will take to achieve this because we don’t know what is happening next year to achieve that people close up to others. It will be even more difficult, it is a completely new regulation, sporting, financial and technical in ’21, to make a prediction on that one, so I wouldn’t make a prediction on that one. And I agree with Fred that the big three will have an advantage starting… which is just so big. Also, their infrastructure, what they’ve got there, their testing facilities and all that stuff is just so much more developed than what we have got so they will have an advantage but at least… I think the aim is not that we are going to overtake them in ’21, that we are going to win races but that we close the gap and that everybody has a chance of ending up on the podium or at least fighting for it and keeping all the ten teams, that we put a good show on. That is the aim, that we don’t have these two shows and we don’t really know if we are racing together or not.
OS: Well, for sure, performance and development rate are highly correlated to discretionary spend so the more we can cap that discretionary spend I think the closer the field will be. As to how long that’s going to take, I can’t predict that.
FT: Depends very much on the technical regulations because if the technical regulations are not being changed dramatically, then I can tell you that nothing much will change, especially ’21 and ’22. Why? Because the top teams can invest as much as they want during 2020 for developing the car for 2021 and once they have this big advantage it’s difficult for the other teams to catch up. It depends now with which regulation the FIA will come up. If they really minimise the development and if standard parts are being used, then maybe the gap will be closed earlier. Otherwise, it will take until ’23, ’24, something like this, because the real cost cap is coming in ’23. The rest is just a gradient which is coming down. We will see. Depends on the regulations once more
Q: Which one, would you say, is Checo Perez’s biggest asset as a pilot?
OS: His team! Just a joke. Maybe I can go last because I think I know him better than these fellows. It would be nice to hear what they’ve got to say.
FT: His natural speed, his race cleverness, especially regarding the tyre treatment, tyre management. That’s it.
GS: I would just say that he’s just a good driver. I don’t know… Otmar for sure knows more to say about him but I think he’s well respected in Formula One and he’s part of it and he deserves a place in Formula One. That’s my opinion of him.
FV: You know it’s difficult to have a clear picture of your driver, of my drivers, to know exactly where they are doing well, where they are doing wrong and I won’t have the capacity to make any judgment on Checo. Even if you have a look at the last five years or ten years that he’s racing and he’s very consistent, he’s always there. For sure he’s a very good one but it’s very difficult from outside to have a clear picture.
OS: Well, apart from his team, he has a multitude of great attributes as a racing car driver but if I had to choose one it’s his racecraft on Sunday, it’s outstanding.
Ends
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Max Verstappen heads Red Bull Racing’s one-two
Mexico City, 26 Oct 2018: Max Verstappen headed a Red Bull Racing one-two in the opening practice session for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, with the 2017 race winner here beating out team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by almost half a second in the 19th round to the Formula One World Championship here on Friday.
Verstappen and Ricciardo set their quickest times on Pirelli’s hypersoft tyres and while both Mercedes and Ferrari ran on the pink-banded tyre during the 90-minute session, they posted their best laps on the ultrasoft tyres as they minimised running on the softest tyre in Pirelli’s range.
As such, championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who can seal the title with a seventh-placed finish on Sunday, ended the session in fifth place, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas sixth ahead of the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen.
Verstappen seized control of the session with a lap of 1:18.588, with Ricciardo just a tenth behind his team-mate. Hamilton then moved into top spot with this best lap on hypesoft tyres, three tenths ahead of the Red Bull drivers’ early pace, but in the second half of running Red Bull again bolted on the pink-banded tyres and after exchanging improvements, Verstappen eventually stepped up the pace and set a time of 1:16.596. Ricciardo also found more improivement but in the end couldn’t get close to his team-mate’s pace and ended the session 0.483 behind the Dutchman.
Third place in the session went to Renault’s Carlos Sainz with a lap of 1:17.926, some 1.2s behind Verstappen. The Spaniard’s team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was next on the timesheet, a tenth off Sainz.
With fifth to eighth occupied by Mercedes and Ferrari, ninth place went to Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley. The New Zealander, who was running with the upgraded front wing and floor trialled last weekend on team-mate Pierre Gasly’s car, set a best time of 1:19.024 to finish 2.368s off Verstappen’s pace.
Force India tester Nicholas Latifi, standing in for Racing Point Force India regular Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten, finishing four hundredths of a second ahead of local hero Sergio Pérez in the second Racing Point Force India.
Twelfth place was taken by future Sauber driver Antonio Giovinazzi who was in Charles Leclerc’s car for the session. The Italian driver finished 2.478s off P1 but 1500ths of a second ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean.
The final stand-in driver of the day was Lando Norris who took P15 in Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, behind Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson but ahead of McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne.
At the bottom of the order, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly did not set a time. His car required an engine change, with Honda reverting to a pre-Russia spec which the manufacturer deem better for the conditions in Mexico City.
2018 Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 19 1:16.656
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 19 1:17.139 0.483
3 Carlos Sainz Renault 20 1:17.926 1.270
4 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 21 1:18.028 1.372
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 23 1:18.075 1.419
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 27 1:18.322 1.666
7 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 17 1:18.746 2.090
8 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 22 1:18.936 2.280
9 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 29 1:19.024 2.368
10 Nicholas Latifi Force India 23 1:19.078 2.422
11 Sergio Perez Force India 29 1:19.124 2.468
12 Antonion Giovinazzi Sauber 25 1:19.134 2.478
13 Romain Grosjean Haas 26 1:19.276 2.620
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 28 1:19.312 2.656
15 Lando Norris McLaren 23 1:19.646 2.990
16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 29 1:19.716 3.060
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 28 1:19.853 3.197
18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 30 1:19.899 3.243
19 Lance Stroll Williams 26 1:20.142 3.486
20 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 2 -
Raikkonen redeems himself with a brilliant win after 5 years; Hamilton wait for title stretched
Kimi Raikkonen after winning the US GP ahead of Max Verstappen at Austin on Sunday. An FIA image Austin, 21 Oct 2018: A stunning opening move catapulted Kimi Räikkönen to his brilliant first win in five years as he carefully managed his drive to the flag ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, as Sebastian Vettel clawed his way back from a first lap spin to take fourth place in the United State Grand Prix, the 18th round of the Formula One World Championship at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) on Sunday. Defending champion who was well-placed to seal the championship here, became a victim of not only his mistake but a strategy that ended up inferior and had to wait for at least the next GP at Mexico next Sunday. He is now 69 points ahead of title rival Sebastian Vettal of Ferrari with 75 points available in the last three GP of the 2018 season.
Starting from second on the grid Ferrari’s Räikkönen stole the lead from pole sitter Hamilton into Turn 1 at the start and thereafter balanced pace and race management over a one-stop strategy to hold a narrow lead over Verstappen and Hamilton on the final third of the race. Both attempted to pressurise the Finn but Räikkönen was faultless in the closing stages as he marched to his first victory since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix 113 races ago.
At the start, Räikkönen got the jump on Hamilton and stole the lead as the field made its way through Turn 1. Behind them Daniel Ricciardo held P4 behind Valtteri Bottas but later in the lap was attacked by fifth-on-the-grid Sebastian Vettel. The German got a run on the Red Bull driver into Turn 12 and took the position, but his exit was poor and Ricciardo got a shot at reclaiming fourth as they went into Turn 13. Vettel took a wide line, pushing Ricciardo to the outside of the asphalt. The Australian tried to remain inside the track limits but they banged wheels and Vettel was sent into a spin. The Ferrari driver dropped to P15, but Ricciardo was able to hold fourth place.
Further back, Verstappen was on a charge. After starting from P18 he was 14th by the end of the opening lap, and over the following eight laps rose to fifth place, just under seven seconds behind Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo.
That would become fourth on lap nine. As Ricciardo exited Turn 1 at the start of the lap, he suddenly slowed. The Australian pulled over at the side of the track and stopped, a suspected battery issue ending his race.
The stoppage, at the edge of the track, led to the Virtual Safety Car being deployed and Mercedes took the opportunity to pit Hamilton from P2 on lap 11. The Briton took on soft tyres and emerged just ahead of Verstappen. Hamilton then moved back into second place when Bottas let him past on lap 13.
Vettel, meanwhile, had clawed his way back into contention and by lap 15 had made his way to fifth place, 21.5s behind his race-leading team-mate and 9.0s behind Verstappen.
Ahead and armed with new soft tyres, Hamilton began to quickly close on Räikkönen and on lap 17 he was just 2.4s behind the Finn. However, over the next half dozen laps, Räikkönen defended brilliantly to keep Hamilton at bay, but more importantly he slowed Hamilton’s progress and allowed Vettel to close on the leading pack. When Räikkönen finally surrendered on lap 21 and dived for the pits to shed his starting ultrasofts, Vettel was 12s off new P1 man Hamilton, though he required a pit stop.
Verstappen was next into the pits, taking on soft tyres on lap 22. That put Vettel into second place, but the German was beginning to struggle on his starting supersofts. As such, Räikkönen quickly moved past his team-mate to regain second place and a lap later Verstappen swept past Vettel as the Ferrari man was called to the pits for new tyres. The German took on soft tyres in his stop and rejoined in fifth place. Hamilton now led ahead of Räikkönen, Verstappen, Bottas and Vettel.
Räikkönen’s race then switched to attack mode as he began to edge towards Hamilton and between lap 30 and 33 he turned a 16.3s deficit to the title leader into a 13.7s gap. Verstappen also began to close in on Räikkönen and on lap 35 he was just 3.9s behind the Finn.
Hamilton’s times continued to drop and at the end of lap 37 he dived towards the pits and took on another set of soft tyres. Räikkönen now led again, with Verstappen now in P2 ahead of Bottas. Hamilton rejoined in fourth place ahead of Vettel.
Hamilton was soon setting fastest laps and on lap 41 Bottas slowed and moved aside to allow the Briton to sweep past into third place. He was now just under nine seconds behind Verstappen, who was now just 2.3s behind Räikkönen.
At the front Räikkönen was now attempting to control the gaps, saving tyres and fuel. With five laps remaining, though, the gaps were tight. The Finn was just 1.1s ahead of Verstappen, but the Dutchman was having to keep a close eye on his mirrors, as Hamilton was now inside DRS range. Behind them Vettel was still fifth and could not find a way past Bottas. Hamilton now knew that if he passed Verstappen to take P2 then he would be champion.
He saw a chance to do that on the penultimate lap. Verstappen made a mistake and went wide into Turn 12. Hamilton pounced and the pair battled furiously through the following corners. Verstappen held firm and when Hamilton ran out of grip in Turn 18 and went wide, Verstappen was assured of second. Behind them, on the same lap, Vettel made his move on Bottas, passing the Finn under DRS as the lap started.
Räikkönen then duly took his first win in 113 races, ahead of Verstappen, hamilton and Vettel. Bottas finished fifth ahead of the Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz. However, while eighth and ninth places were initially taken by Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, both were later disqualified, Ocon for a fuel flow irregularity on the opening lap of the race and Magnussen for using more than the permitted 105kg of fuel across the duration of the race.
The disqualifications meant that Sergio Pérez in the second Force India was promoted to P8, Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley moved to P9 and the final points position was inherited by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
Hamilton’s third place, allied to Vettel’s fourth, means that the title battle continues to the next round in Mexico, with Hamilton taking a 70-point lead to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in a week’s time.
2018 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix – Race
1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari –
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1.281
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2.342
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 18.222
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 24.744
6 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:27.210
7 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:34.994
8 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:39.288
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:40.657
10 Sergio Perez Force India 1:41.080
11 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1L
12 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1L
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1L
14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1L
15 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1L
16 Lance Stroll Williams 2L
Charles Leclerc Sauber
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing
France Romain Grosjean Haas
Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren -
The Esses are just incredible; it’s a little bit like Maggots and Becketts, says poleman Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton (centre), along with Sebastian Vettel (left) and Kimi Raikkonen at the press conference after qualifying on Saturday. An FIA image Austin, 20 Oct 2018: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won the pole position with the Ferraris behind him on Saturday. He was joined by dismayed title rival Sebastian Vettel in P2 and Kimi Raikkonen in P3 for the 18th round of the 21-round FIA Formula One (F1) World Championship here for the Press Conference.
TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Q: Congratulations Lewis, another pole position. Take us through the lap. That was an important one wasn’t it?
Lewis HAMILTON: That was very important. How are you guys doing? You good? That was close. These guys have… I didn’t know how close it was going to be once we got to qualifying, but once we got to the last run I knew it was quite edgy between us and that it was going to require solid laps. The first one was decent, but not good enough, and the second one was just that little better and enabled me to pull that out. You know there have been some races where I’ve not actually done a better time and I’ve had to bail out of the second lap, so I was very, very adamant that today I was going to do a better second lap, so I’m very happy with that.
Q: Just spitting rain a little bit, but any troubles out on track?
LH: No, the track has been incredible. It started out very, very green and slippery in practice three and then once we got into qualifying it was just rubbering in and it was getting faster and faster every session. The wind direction: there is a beautiful headwind going into the Esses. The Esses are just incredible; it’s a little bit like Maggots and Becketts. And also, there’s such a big crowd here. We did a fan signing earlier and I’ve never seen the fans so hyped before, so it’s great, but big thank you to the team and everyone here.
Q: Just very briefly: the supersofts – you had to do an extra lap, so your start tyres, are they OK?
LH: We’ll see tomorrow. But the Ferraris are obviously really quick so… I just hope for better weather for everyone that’s in the grandstands watching and I hope that it’s an exciting race tomorrow.
Q: Thank you. Where is Sebastian? Sebastian, great lap, P2, through your Friday pain you’ll start P5 of course. Take us through your qualifying session?
Sebastian VETTEL: It was pretty close obviously. It’s always a bit of a shame when you miss out on just that little time. I think with six hundredths you can always debate you had them somewhere in you. But I was pretty happy with the laps I had. I think it was quite tricky to get everything together. Obviously, it’s been dry today and better for us, but the wind was quite tricky for us but it’s the same for everyone. Yeah, pretty happy. I think given the last couple of weeks that we had, pretty happy that we are back in range.
Q: Yeah, Ferrari are back on form aren’t they it seems; you’ve found your pace again?
SV: Yeah, it seems that we are, obviously not in the wet but in the dry it seems that we are better off and I think today has been surprisingly close. I don’t think we expected it to be that close, so that’s good.
Q: So, some work to do in the race from P5?
SV: Yeah, I’m used to it, so I know how to do it now.
Q: Kimi, happy 39th birthday during the week, still plenty of speed there isn’t there?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, a little bit too slow, but I can deal with it. No, it’s been a pretty positive day and for sure I think we got pretty close. It’s far from ideal but I feel good with the car. We’ll try tomorrow; it’s going to be a long race, and nobody really knows how the tyre will survive, because of yesterday’s rain, so it will be interesting.
Q: And of course you will start on the ultrasofts, unlike people around you?
KR: Yeah, not much to lose, so we’ll try to make a good start and go from there and see what we can do. I think it should be OK.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, your third pole position here at COTA – but an extremely tight battle with all three of you covered by less than a tenth of a second. Just how intense was that fight out there for you today?
LH: Clearly very intense. Naturally, going into qualifying, really wasn’t sure what to expect – because basically, obviously, we were driving in the wet yesterday. And today, in practice, the Ferraris looked like they’d made some improvements, obviously. They’ve brought an upgrade of some sort and looks like they may have taken it off. But otherwise, anyways, we were very, very close. So, I knew it was going to take perfection and very, very neat laps to outpace them. I think James had told me, our strategist had told us it was very, very close between us all so give it everything. And I think Q1 and Q2 was fairly straightforward for us – but then once we got to Q3 it was just really about maximising, making sure on the track at the right time and not leaving a millisecond on the track. The first lap was good but obviously quite close between us all. I knew, being that I was less than a tenth, I think it was, ahead, I knew that the next lap, these guys would improve also. So, there was no room for error. And considering there’s been some qualifying Q3s in the past races where I’ve had to bail out of the second one because it wasn’t good enough, so I was very, very strict with myself today. I was like ‘today, you have to make sure you pull through on that second lap’, which I’m so grateful I did. Nonetheless, the team have done a really great job this weekend. I think the approach for us has been very sturdy and we’ve not been getting ahead of ourselves. We knew that this weekend it was going to be close and that we have to do the same due diligence and same work effort and workload as before, and yeah, this a great result. I’m so happy. It was a different feeling today, coming in. I don’t know why. I don’t know if I slept longer or not. I was in a different headspace going into qualifying, which is weird but it was a good one.
Q: Sebastian, Lewis is talking about how fine the margins were today. Do you feel that gap was out there anywhere, or can you not pinpoint where the gap is between the two of you?
SV: I think if it’s less than a tenth, you always think probably there was a little bit left but I was pretty happy with the laps I had, to be honest, and I think overall it’s been a positive surprise, I guess for both of us, to see how competitive we’ve been today, given how far we’ve been behind the last events. So, I think there’s probably more positives – but yeah, if you’re that close, you want to be ahead, not behind.
Q: Kimi, similar question to Sebastian really, with the gaps so close. Were you happy with your run, or do you feel you left anything out there?
KR: I think if you do a few more tries then for sure that amount you can improve. It’s just a very small difference somewhere, and you could be suddenly that much quicker – but this is what we got today. I think the last run was pretty good but the previous had very little grip, so then I was surprised how much on the last run I had, so obviously, when you have a bit more consistent grip it’s easier to know how much you can actually push – but yeah, it was OK.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Question for Sebastian. You talked about it being a positive surprise after the last few races. Why do you think you’ve been able to make that step? Is it an understanding of what happened before? Do you think maybe the cooler conditions helped? And is there in any way an element of frustration to be so close to pole and obviously know that you’ve got the three-place penalty applied?
SV: Well, I can’t change that now. Obviously, it is what it is. We went back with our car quite a long way, and it seems to work better that way.
Q: Lewis, congratulations. You used the word ‘perfection’ there. I’m interesting to know from your perspective whether that was the perfect lap? I don’t think you were purple in [sector] one but I wonder if that was a function of perfectly using the tyres for the lap?
LH: No, it wasn’t a perfect lap. You know I never talk about perfect laps. Naturally, I think that’s what we’re all striving to achieve but it’s just… there’s so many parameters out there. You get out there and there’s different gusts of wind every time you hit a corner. Tyre temperature differences. You know. A different heartbeat on the different bumps. There’s so many different variables and you’re really just on your tippy-toes the whole way, trying to catch it and grab it and utilise the grip. But anyway, for me, no, I think the first section, for some reason they’re particularly quick there. I think some of that was probably in Turn One, mostly. They generally have a car that’s better in corners like that. But then the rest of the lap was good. There was no mistakes. The first lap was quite good – but there was a little bit of time loss I think maybe, in the exit of… in a couple of corners. Turn 11, Turn 12. Maybe 13 and a little bit in 20 – but that second one, I was obviously able to capitalise and make sure I didn’t drop the ball. So, I mean, it was a good lap but for me the highest one I have still is Singapore. But, I tell you, this track is incredible this year. It’s taken another step for us. That first section, we’re flat-out through Turn Two – which is easy – then Three, Four, Five, all the way into Six, and you’re pretty much flat all the way into Six and halfway through Six. So the G-Force that you’re pulling through there is incredible. And then you don’t really have much of a lift, or much of a lift for Seven. And then you’re braking down, and because there’s a headwind coming from Turn 11, which hits you dead on into Eight, the cars hooked-up through there and it’s really fantastic to drive. So I really enjoyed today’s lap.
Q: Looked like in Q2 with the Supersoft tyres, Ferrari had the upper hand. Lewis, are you concerned by that and Sebastian and Kimi, do you see your biggest chance in that?
LH: I’m not really sure where all the time was. They were obviously very quick. I don’t think it was as big as that. What did Kimi have? It was just Sebastian, wasn’t it, so it was about four tenths? Well, I just think it shows… I mean this weekend, we’re pretty much on a par performance-wise, I think. As you can see in qualifying, that was the max for all of us and as Kimi said, we could go around and do some improvements, more improvements everywhere but we’re pretty much dicing around the same kind of performance which, as Seb said, they’ve gone back on some of their potential updates and the car is better in the sweet spot and for us, we’ve not brought updates here so we’re on max downforce level here. I think that’s how it is for us all. I think that’s great to see us so close and still I’m hopeful for the future to have more teams, more qualifyings like that, that are closer, but with more cars involved, that’s got to be the ultimate goal for Formula One.
Q: Sebastian, do you think you’ve got an advantage on the supersoft tyre?
SV: No, I think he probably had a bad lap, I don’t know.
LH: Me? No, it was a good lap. I don’t really do bad laps too often.
SV: Yeah, so if that’s the case, I will take it and we are half a second faster tomorrow on the supersofts. Thank you.
Q: And Kimi, you’ll be starting on the ultrasoft. Do you think the supersoft holds an advantage or are you confident?
KR: I have what I have and I’m happy about it so we will see how it works out tomorrow. It’s a bit impossible to say.
Q: Lewis, when Max had his problem, did you then have to change the way you used any kerbs at all, did it affect the way you were thinking in terms of kerb strike after Verstappen’s problem? You were told on the radio that he’d hit a kerb…
LH: The team were a little bit more nervous about it. I hadn’t hit the kerb where he had his… Max likes to use a lot of the track as you know from history here so… but there are those big sausage kerbs at the back which… yeah, I don’t know how he damaged the car there but I wasn’t going over that area. I think there was another corner out of the exit of the last corner where there are those bumps also which I might have just clipped the edge of them but it wasn’t really a problem but no, naturally the team were just alerting me to an issue that someone else has had so you can avoid it. But it didn’t really come into my driver thoughts because I wasn’t driving on those areas anyway.
Q: Sebastian, were you told of Max’s problem and did that affect anything, the way you attacked the lap?
SV: Not really, but I saw it on TV and then… yeah, of course, you take action, you don’t want to damage the car so I tried not to go there too much.
Ends
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Vettel quickest in FP3 but hit by 3-place grid penalty for Sunday
Vettel on way to the fastest time in FP 3 at Austin on Saturday afternoon (midnight India time). An FIA image Austin, 20 Oct 2018: Sebastian Vettel set the quickest time of the final practice session for the United States Grand Prix, outpacing Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen by less than a tenth of a second as championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished third in the FP3 of the US GP, the 18th round of the FIA Formula One World Championship.
On Friday, Vettel’s hopes of maintaining a fragile title challenge were hit when he incurred a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently during a red flag period, but he bounced back this morning as F1’s teams finally got some dry running at the Circuit of the Americas.
Ferrari focused its attention on the ultrasoft tyre during the one-hour session and after the early pace was set by Räikkönen with a time of 1:34.419, Vettel took over at the top of the timesheet with a time of 1:33.797, displacing Räikkönen who dropped to P2 with a lap of 1:33.843.
Of the likely front runners, Ferrari were alone in running the ultrasofts in the early part of the session, with both Mercedes and Red Bull concentrating on longer runs on the supersoft compound.
It meant that Hamilton was a late adopter of the ultrasoft tyres and after a scruffy opening flyer on the purple-banded tyre, the Briton later jumped to third place with the best time of 1:33.870. The lap left him just 0.073 behind Vettel.
Valtteri Bottas was fourth overall with a time of 1:34.556, some 0.759s off Vettel’s pace. The Finn avoided the ultrasofts throughout the session however and set his best time on the red-banded supersoft tyre.
Behind Bottas were the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. The pair both focused on supersoft running early in the session but moved to ultrasofts with a little over 20 minutes remaining. Verstappen’s best time on the compound was 1:34.703, 0.906 adrift of Vettel’s P1 time.
Ricciardo might have eclipsed his team-mate’s time and the Australian was a couple of tenths up on his team-mate after the first two sectors of his run, but he was forced to back out of the lap when yellow flags were shown when Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley spun in Turn 19.
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc finished as best-of-the-rest in P7 with a time of 1:35.365, 1.568s off Vettel, while Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez was eighth with a time of 1:35.411. Ninth place went to Renault’s Carlos Sainz, while Haas’ Romain Grosjean was tenth with a time of 1:35.468, 1.671 off the pace.
2018 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix– Free Practice 3
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:33.797 20
2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.843 0.046 21
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.870 0.073 23
4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:34.556 0.759 21
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:34.703 0.906 21
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:34.910 1.113 20
7 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:35.365 1.568 21
8 Sergio Perez Racing Point Force India 1:35.411 1.614 21
9 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:35.450 1.653 21
10 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:35.468 1.671 19
11 Esteban Ocon Racing Point Force India 1:35.562 1.765 22
12 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso1:35.713 1.916 27
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:35.770 1.973 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:35.882 2.085 19
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:36.000 2.203 21
16 Lance Stroll Williams 1:36.188 2.391 21
17 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:36.193 2.396 20
18 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:36.302 2.505 23
19 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:36.330 2.533 26
20 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:36.332 2.535 20 -
Hamilton dominates wet opening practice session
Hamilton in action in the wet opening session in Austin on Friday. An FIA image Austin, 19 Oct 2018: On a United States Grand Prix weekend on which he can seal his fifth Formula 1 world championship title, Lewis Hamilton began his preparations in style, dominating a wet opening practice session at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas to finish 1.3 seconds clear of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the First Practice session of the 18th round of the FIA Formula One World Championship here on Friday.
Behind the Mercedes pair, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were the Silver Arrows’ closest challengers, while Hamilton’s only real title rival, Sebastian Vettel ended the session in fifth place, almost two seconds off the championship leader’s pace.
Heavy rain in the morning led to a cautious start to the session, with most drivers restricting themselves to reconnaissance laps to test the conditions and thus an absence of lap times in the opening third of the session.
Track conditions eventually improved to the point that intermediate tyres became an option and in those circumstances Red Bull initially led the way, with Ricciardo leading Verstappen with a lap of 1:50.642s.
Ricciardo improved on that but then Mercedes driver Bottas took to the track and he swiftly took over at the top of the timesheet when he posted a time of 1:48.806.
Soon after the action ground to a halt when Sauber’s Charles Leclerc brought out the red flag.
The Monegasque driver went off track at Turn 9 but in rejoining from the gravel trap he spread inadvertently spread a large number of stones on the track, and with the debris requiring removal the session was stopped for 10 minutes.
When the green lights were once again shown, Hamilton vaulted to the top of the timesheet with his eventual session-best lap of 1:47.502. That put him 1.3s clear of Bottas and Verstappen and 1.8s ahead of fourth-placed Ricciardo.
Ferrari, meanwhile, appeared to target long runs, with both Vettel and team-mate Kimi Räikkönen posting more than double the amount of laps turned by the Mercedes and Red Bull driver. As such neither Ferrari driver made any real impact at the top of the timesheet. Vettel finished with a best lap of 1:49.489 that put him just over four tenths of a second clear of Räikkönen.
Best of the rest status in the opening session was claimed by Renault’s Carlos Sainz, with Haas’s Romain Grosjean in eighth place ahead of the Saubers of Leclerc, who recovered from his early spin, and Marcus Ericsson.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso ended the session in 11th place, just under two tenths of a second clear of his 2019 replacement, Lando Norris. Both drivers were more than 3.5s off the pace.
2018 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 6 1:47.502
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 7 1:48.806 1.304
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 9 1:48.847 1.345
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 9 1:49.326 1.824
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 18 1:49.489 1.987
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 20 1:49.928 2.426
7 Carlos Sainz Renault 8 1:50.665 3.163
8 Romain Grosjean Haas 10 1:50.821 3.319
9 Charles Leclerc Sauber 14 1:50.961 3.459
10 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 14 1:51.016 3.514
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren 9 1:51.036 3.534
12 Lando Norris McLaren 9 1:51.232 3.730
13 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 19 1:51.234 3.732
14 Sergio Perez Force India 18 1:51.459 3.957
15 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 14 1:51.589 4.087
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 15 1:51.614 4.112
17 Esteban Ocon Force India 17 1:51.655 4.153
18 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 7 1:51.717 4.215
19 Lance Stroll Williams 14 1:51.896 4.394
20 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso 21 1:52.625 5.123 -
Haas not happy with special status for Racing Point Force India: Friday press meet
Friday press meet in progress. An FIA image Austin, 19 Oct 2018: The FIA Press Conference for team representatives on Friday had Maurizio Arrivabene of Ferrari, Claire Williams of Williams, Gene Haas of Haas and Zak BROWN of McLaren as the 18th (of the 21) round of Formula One World Championship saw the free practice here on Friday.
Transcript:
Maurizio, please can we start with you? After Japan you said that Ferrari needs to challenge the impossible in terms of the title race. Is an unpredictable one like this one, with this weather, an opportunity to hit back?
Maurizio ARRIVABENE: You mean with the weather? I suppose. If you have a good car, the weather conditions, they are no influencing the performance of the car. With the sun, with the rain, you must always be into the situation where you are leading. So for us the rain is not really a factor that is going to determine the result. Of course it’s going to mix it up a bit more but it’s not the main concern.
Yesterday, in the press conference, Lewis sat where you are sitting now and reiterated his support for Sebastian, saying he had been perhaps unfairly criticised at times this season. What is your opinion of that?
MA: My opinion is that Lewis and Sebastian started in 2007 together, they are professional drivers and colleagues. I don’t want to get into the conversation in between the two drivers. It’s normal that being a Formula 1 professional that they are supporting each other, despite what they do at the track. In the track they fight like hell and out of the track they are colleagues and they are supporting each other. Having said so, you mention criticism. For sure the criticism to Sebastian they are not coming from the team, because I have said many, many times, we are winning and losing together. It’s not new news, but I would like reiterate that we win and we lose together – end.
Q: Thank you Maurizio. Claire, you recently announced George Russell as one of your race drivers for next season. Just what will George bring to Williams and why did you sign him?
Claire WILLIAMS: Yes, so we announced George last week and we’re very excited to do so. I think everybody regards George as an exciting talent. We have a few new rookies coming into the sport next year, which obviously is a great thing for the teams and for the fans. I think George’s racing pedigree really speaks for itself. He’s won the F4 championship, the GP3 championship and hopefully later this season he’ll win the F2 championship in Abu Dhabi. So I think his on-track prowess speaks for itself, but overall George, as a person, he’s a very impressive individual. He’s got a great personality. He really is truly determined. He knew exactly what he wanted going into 2019 and he’s got it, and we’re really excited to start working with him.
Q: George will be one of the drivers, but what about your second seat? Is there any news, and who is on your shortlist?
CW: No, unfortunately, we haven’t made that decision yet, we’re taking our time with it. We’re not in any mad rush. We have a few drivers on the list; clearly, I wouldn’t confirm who they are. But we are excited about that decision too, we have some exciting prospects that we are evaluating now. We’ve got a number of considerations to factor into that decision and we’ll make an announcement in due course; I’m hoping by the end of the season.
Q: Thank you very much. Zak, speaking of announcements, yesterday you announced that Coca-Cola will partner with McLaren until the end of this season. Just what are your hopes for that partnership?
Zak BROWN: We’re very excited to have Coca-Cola. They are one of the world’s most famous brands. I think they are a great entry into the sport. They will help bring a younger audience and great for McLaren. We’re going to be activating with them in the remaining markets and hopefully it will be a successful partnership that will go on into the future.
Q: Something else that McLaren has been doing a lot of this season is restructuring behind the scenes. You’ve made some big technical changes. Are all of those changes complete? Is everyone in the position that would like in position before 2019?
ZB: I’m very happy with the progress and the changes that we have made. I wouldn’t say it was complete. I think a Formula 1 is always reviewing and modifying on almost a race-by-race basis – not necessarily the team in the same way you would a race car – so we are where we wanted to be as far as who we’ve brought in and who we’ve promoted and excited for our future and hard at work on next year’s car, while trying to get the most out of this one here for the last few races.
Thank you. Gene, I think this is the first time we’ve had you in the press conference this season, so if we could just look back over the year, how do you reflect on Haas’ third season in F1 and has it exceeded expectations?
Gene HAAS: Well, this season I think we are stable. I think we’re more stable than we’ve been in the past. The faces are becoming familiar and I think that lends itself to communication, better results. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the results that we should have but the potential is there. I feel good about that. The partnerships we have are important but it’s becoming a little bit more transparent as to what our responsibilities are and what we have to do and the learning process has gone well. Unfortunately, we just haven’t gotten the results we should have had, even though we’re fifth in the championship. That by itself looks good. It kind of reflects on how much luck has do with it among all the teams when they are racing. It seems that especially in the mid-pack, who makes the least amount of mistakes is the one that comes out ahead.
You mention being fifth in the championship, but the fourth place does look like a realistic proposition over these last four rounds. If you were to achieve that, how do you then go about bridging the gap to the top three teams?
GH: Well, I kind of feel like we’re not really racing in Formula 1, we’re racing in Formula 1.5, so if we were to finish fourth then that would be a win in our series.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Zak, you’re American, we’re in America and the big race in America is Indianapolis and McLaren would like to do Indianapolis and the Indycar series with Fernando. Any progress?
ZB: For the Indycar series, we’ve taken the decision to not compete on a full-time basis in 2019. We’re simply not ready yet and very focused on Formula 1. So we won’t be doing that in 2019. We do have a desire to do it, as I’ve mentioned before, in the near future. As far as the Indy 500 is concerned, it’s something that remains of interest to us. That will be a decision that ultimately we take in the off-season. I think it’s something that Fernando would like to do as well, but right now we’re still focused on Formula 1 and until we get a little bit of fresh air we’ll remain focused on that.
Q: For Mr Arrivabene. You always of course race to win. Now from Sunday to the last… the next three grands prix, you are kind of forced to win in order to keep alive the hope of winning the championship. In which way would change your, if any way, strategy or how you race these grands prix.
MA: It’s not a question of strategy. The question is to find the right balance in a car that in the last two to three races was not easy to manage – especially in relation to the slow-speed corners. I know that the numbers are all against us in terms of the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships, but our job is to go there, to go to the track, without giving up. We have done analysis in Maranello about the issue that we need to sort to be competitive in the next few races, including this one. We have most probably a certain answer and we will see in the next few days if instead of being a simple answer they are a solution.
Q: For Gene, Claire and Zak: a little earlier this season, over the summer, one of your midfield rivals, Force India, went through its process of falling into administration and then being rescued. When that happened there was obviously the slightly confusing situation about prize money – what they would and would not be eligible for. I just wanted to know, do you have a resolution on that. Is it a satisfactory resolution and if not what are you hoping will be the outcome from that?
GH: I think from the standpoint of being a participant in Formula 1, we’re just looking for an even enforcement of the rules. Like the stewards in a race they have to be non-judgmental and they have to enforce the rules in front of them and every team expects those to be evenly enforced, and our argument with Force India is: is it a new team or a continuation of an existing team, and that’s really where the stumbling block is. We went through the process of becoming a new team. We abided by the rules. The big one is the two-out-of-three-year rule and our argument is that if we had to go through that process we feel that with Racing Point if it’s a new team then it really should have to go through the same process we went through. So the question for FOM is: is it a new team or the continuation of an existing team. We think it’s pretty obvious to us it’s a new team and therefore should have the rules applied as per the Concorde Agreement.
Q: Claire, Williams’ position on this?
CW: Williams has signed the waiver that everybody knows about that would see Force India receive their prize money payments. We’re happy with that. I think from our perspective, the team is operating as it did prior to Lawrence buying it, acquiring it, and so we don’t necessarily consider it to be a new team, as such. I believe, as Gene just said, there are still some issues that need to be ironed out behind the scenes with FOM and the FIA. We’ll wait to see what happens.
Q: And Zak, your comments?
ZB: I agree with what Gene has said. Take a step back: obviously very happy that a Formula 1 team continues in business, that’s good for the sport, but what it did highlight were some of the governance issues and inconsistencies in the sport that need to be tackled moving forward. So I hope that what we do is we learn by this event and other events and not have things be chaotic, as it kind of was. There were different waivers flying around and it was in and it was out, it’s a new team, it’s not, and I think more than anything the sport needs to learn by some of these holes and get a better governance system in place.
Q: Maurizio, you’ve had a few strategic and operational snafus of late. Can you tell us, have you taken steps to try and solve those problems for this race and the remainder of the season? And do you also envisage having a much more intensive investigation into your structure for those kind of things over the winter?
MA: I mean, I already answered the question. I said, of course, if we are here, we were not sleeping the last few weeks. We were making an analysis, as I said before, to certain weaknesses that we notice in the last few races. We are taking here solutions – but it is the track that is judging if the solution is really a solution – or is not, for sure. We are here to compete, with a mission impossible, but working in this kind of environment, it’s our job.
Q: Claire, George obviously has a long-term Mercedes contract. Is that a factor for him arriving? Basically, shorthand for ‘are you getting a cheaper deal on the engines’? And secondly, the second drive, what are the financial considerations involved in that? Do you need someone to bring financial support with them – and would you be open to having two Mercedes-backed drivers in your line-up.
CW: George has obviously come up through the Mercedes young driver programme but that was not a factor in our decision-making. We purely saw a young talent coming up through the junior championships, as I think we all have. We’ve all recognised the talent that George has, and are probably all pretty excited about the talent that he has coming into this sport. So no, the Mercedes relationship wasn’t a factor. George has a multi-year arrangement with us moving forward and he will be a Williams driver during that period and will focus on being a Williams driver. There were no factors around financial considerations with Mercedes on making that decision. It was purely a decision made on the talent that George has. When it comes to the second seat, clearly as an independent team, and clearly, as everybody knows, independent teams in this sport haven’t had an easy ride over the past few years, the sponsorship landscape is pretty tough out there. The way that the prize fund distribution is at the moment in Formula One doesn’t make it easy, and not least coming tenth in the championship this year puts the squeeze on things a little bit – but we’re managing our finances pretty well, we’ll have a good budget going into 2019, it will be on par with the one that we have raced with this year – but there are a lot of considerations when it comes to choosing the driver for the second seat – but predominantly the main one has to be on talent.
Q: Gene, I’ve got to ask you, and tell you a little bit, there was a media representative about a year and a half ago, two years more like that, when we mentioned an American team coming to F1, she chuckled, as if it were a joke. You definitely demonstrated the prowess to be on the grid. This team has responded well. You started off with a single name on the car as Haas. We’re seeing it grow. Do you think that is also a reflection of the fan base that is growing in the United States?
GH: Well, it’s all be very positive, as far as the reception of the team and the name Haas Automation on the car. I’ve seen probably the most recognition over in the European markets. There’s a lot of brand name recognition. I was over in Tunisia, I was getting off a plane to go to one of our factory outlets and the person asked: ‘are you with the F1 team?’ which is pretty interesting in North Africa, so we’re getting good brand recognition there. Obviously there’s a huge fan base here in the United States. So, I think as far as my company’s concerned, it’s all been very, very good. Now we have brand recognition. People don’t necessarily know what we do – but at least they know the name. So from that standpoint, I think the enthusiasm of at least American Formula One fans, it’s really done well, really done well. I appreciate all the fans that support us and tell us that. If we can just get them to send us some money, it’d even be better!
Q: Maurizio, the last time Ferrari had an extended spell without championships was from 1979 to 2000 – 21 years. You’re heading for half that now, having won the last championship in 2008. With a budget cap coming, one of your major advantages, namely the team’s size, is likely to be reduced a fair amount. Can you see Ferrari not winning a championship for 21 years again?
MA: I’m here only since three-and-a-half years, I can respond for my period. I think the budget cap has nothing to do with the performance of the team because the performance is due to the quality of the work that you are doing, due to the professionalism and many other things. The budget cap, it could help to enhance the creativity of the guys: if you have talented guys in the team – and I’m talking about all the various areas, from the chassis, to to aero to the engine – for sure it’s a good thing to do because in the last five, six years, the amount of money teams are spending, it’s really important. These are important numbers. For a car manufacturer like we are, it’s also an investment, especially on the engine part, which can be transferred in terms of research and development and technology to the GT side. But we need to think also about the so-called small teams. I mean, the budget cap, it could be beneficial for us, and also for the teams, can reduce, a bit the gap but hoping
that means we keep the DNA of Ferrari and our focus is reducing cap but keeping up the performance and continue the research and development to be transferred into the GT side.
Q: In Trento a couple of weeks ago you said you were still not sure if you were going to stay at the helm of Ferrari next season. I was wondering if two weeks later there is any change in this decision? If you know already, or when eventually you would announce the decision?
MA: Every day I hear a different version of what I said in Trento! The latest one, that somebody, the public, said “yeah, you have to say”, I asked to the public, you want me say yes, you have to say it. Then I read, everybody said yes – but you must win. That was not true – because before I asked the question, half an hour before, somebody, talking about another subject said: “guys, when are you going to win?” Then they mix up the two. OK. This is a new version. Of course, when I answered the questions related to Juventus, so we are opening up another topic, I said that my future is in Ferrari – but it was the top management that have to give to me the final blessing. This is the answer.
Q: Mr Arrivabene, what will be the reaction of the team if Charles Leclerc can give Vettel a run for position next year? And Mr Zak Brown, letting go a two-times World Champion as Fernando, how will it change the team dynamics?
MA: I mean, I always said Charles is a very, very talented driver. It’s the reason we took him in Ferrari. I think, for the first time in the history, because you have to go back to the Rodríguez brothers that is similar to the one of Leclerc. I said he’s very talented, we took a decision, it’s more or less in line with the decision that all the other teams took. If you look at Mercedes, they took two years ago Bottas, that he was a kind of rookie coming from Claire’s team, Williams. If you look at the other teams, they have Verstappen, a young driver, McLaren the same, Renault the same, so we are more or less aligned. There is no novelty. I mean, it depends what you mean. These two guys, fighting together. Enzo Ferrari always said the first competitor of the driver is his team-mate. Until they are competitors, to try to gain the first and the second position is fine. If they are competitors who crash into each, this is not fine. But, in all honestly and seriously, I think Leclerc, he needs to gain experience to do the job. He needs to try to win races – but the main objective for him is to gain experience and always do his best. We are at the early stage to think that in the future they will fight head-to-head together. Hopefully yes – but I think it’s a bit early.
Zak?
ZB: Yeah, obviously Fernando’s an immense talent with a tremendous amount of experience. Of course, we’ll miss him in the garage but we have two outstanding talents, Carlos Sainz, who has some good experience in Formula One, so while young, he has good experience, and Lando Norris who we think is a great talent who is going to need to get experience – which is what we’ve been giving him in free practice one these last few races – and he has done an excellent job, so we’re very excited for our driver line-up for next year.
Q: The new budget cap’s coming in. Do you really think this is the magic bullet which is going to put you all on the same plane? Zak’s talking about competing in F1.5. Do you think it’s going to bring a level playing field to the teams, because you should all be able to make the budget caps, or is there something else missing from the seven smaller teams?
GH: Well, when I watch some of the races and I see how fast the top three teams just blow by us on the racetrack, you’re just somewhat aghast: wow, how do you we miss that? I don’t know how those cars are so much faster but if I talk to Ayao (Komatsu) and he’ll tell you ‘you’ve got a couple of tenths on your tyres, you’ve got a couple of tenths on your aero, your chassis is off a couple of tenths and there’s your second or two’. I know that we’ve put a huge effort into trying to address all those parameters but I just don’t see how we’re ever going to make up a second and a half, two seconds off of these guys. They are just so much faster than we are and it’s evident in the race. Will budget cap help? Probably if it reduces the size of their R&D department. I guess for every person we have they have five people. Personally, I would think that five people would make it more confusing but it does seem to work. If there’s anything that can reduce that gap between the technology they have and what we don’t have, that would probably be very helpful. How you go about doing that without the bigger teams somehow have workarounds I don’t know. There’s something wrong that… I don’t think we can ever make up that gap.
CW: Yeah, I would tend to echo what Gene has said, that there’s unfortunately no way that teams like mine, anyway, that are operating on a budget of around 120m could even consider competing to win races or World Championships against the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, that are spend at least two if not three or four times the budget that we are. For me, that’s not a level playing field and for me, at any rate, that’s not how competitive sport should be. It shouldn’t be about the money that you have, it should be about the talent but talent only takes you so far when teams are outspending you three-to-one. So I am very much looking to the budget cap coming in but I also believe that there’s a whole lot of other work that we need to do in order to make sure that this sport has a sustainable future and one that probably matches the DNA that this sport has grown up with over the past fifty years, that we tend to be veering from at the moment, in my opinion.
ZB: I pretty much echo the same thoughts. I don’t think there’s a silver bullet in anything but I do think the budget cap can play a significant role in balancing the playing field. You also need to do that by having the right regulations moving forward which is something that we’re all very active on but if you do look at the sports, most of them have some sort of budget cap, salary cap and probably one of the most successful being the NFL where everyone’s pretty much on a level playing field and that’s where you see the upsets and the surprise champions and I think that would be healthy for the sport. I still think, at the end of the day, the best teams will rise to the top but it would be good to have some more unpredictability in the sport and have a chance to get back on the top step of the podium.
MA: I think from the financial point of view, of course reducing the cost is always more than welcome. It’s not related to the what, it’s related to the how. If reducing costs means equalisation it’s not for us. Standardisation is one thing, equalisation is another so equalisation is not in the DNA of car manufacturers. Reducing costs? Of course it is, that’s normal but I’m not telling you something new. We always stick to this point, to this direction. The problem is a bit more than the simple question related to the budget cap, that as I said, is very important. The question is related to the overall F1. What we want to do, to increase the interest in the sport, we need to analyse the mistakes of the past, to look forward for solutions in the future and this is also very important and to be honest, with ourselves: how is the level of interest to Formula One versus yesterday? What do we need to do? It’s not the budget cap, it’s one of the solutions but it’s the solution. We need to go back and to re-launch the sport. Launching the sport is kind of complicated and a complex equation but it’s something that we absolutely need to do and analysing also the audience that we have. If at a certain point you have an audience that is becoming older, older, older and you work to retain what you have and (Inaudible) to acquire – I’m talking about the past – and your attention is less focused on acquiring the young generation, this means that you have a problem. If you have a problem, you need to find a solution and the solution is not only related to the budget cap that I underline is important, it’s very very important, but it’s not the only one solution. In terms of competitiveness within the teams, OK, we mentioned NFL but I am European, I mention football. For example, how can you tell to Real Madrid ‘sorry, if you play with – I don’t want to mention a small team – don’t play with your best team, play with your middle team.’ Come on, it’s ridiculous. The sport is done also by the big teams which are participating in the sport and it’s part of the fascination of the sport. In the last few years in Formula One, we saw Ferrari at the time of Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher that they were winning for years. Afterwards, we had the period where Red Bull was winning for years and nobody complained. In the meantime we never focused our attention on the audience and the audience, little by little, became older. This is the exercise that we need to look at. Our competitor today, in my opinion, it’s my personal opinion, they are the Playstations. If you look at Gran Turismo, most probably we need to switch our minds and focus our attention on our competitors. Today we have a broad offer of entertainment and we need to look at everything, not only certain sports and try to equalise everything. Is Playstation a competitor? In my opinion yes. What do you have to do to beat the PlayStation? You have to do something that is more interesting, most probably. It’s not a detailed answer to the question but we need to the direction our attention to the entertainment industry and today what they offer is bigger than many many years ago. And then you need to ask why other sports – and let me underline football – they are still big numbers – even if they sometimes face the crisis – versus us. It’s an enormous and transparent exercise and then you apply the Ryder Cup, you apply whatever you want because if you save money it’s always perfect, everybody is happy. But as I said before, standardisation doesn’t mean equalisation for us.
Ends
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The Indy 500 is still very attractive, says Alonso
Thursday Press Conference in progress at Austin. An FIA image Austin, 18 Oct 2018: Formula 1 2018 returns to the USA for the 18th round of the FIA World Championship and with only three races to left after the US GP here on Sunday Mercedes driver and defending champion Lewis Hamilton is sitting pretty with a chance to seal the championship here. Along with other drivers, he spoke at the Thursday press conference.
Transcript:
Q: We’re going to start with you. You’ve been hugely successful here in the past and it looks like they’ve had you busy here as well this week, so just talk us through what you’ve been up to in New York this week?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s just been the normal promotion stuff. I was there with IWC and with the team at the NASDAQ conference that we had… and then a bunch of other TV stuff I just did.
Q: Well, America seems to be a place you have quite an affinity with, and you’ve won the last four races here, as well as the Drivers’ title in 2015. Does it feel like it’s all coming together again for a repeat this weekend?
LH: Not particularly, no. It just feels like another race weekend we have, and we want to win, so it’s a simple goal for us, we just arrive to try and do the same thing. The weather is up and down and our goal is really just to perform as we have in previous races, we’re not thinking about it in any other way.
Q: Thank you. Fernando, you’ve got a huge following here in America after your Indycar exploits, but how special will this final US race in Formula 1 be for you this weekend?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it’s always special racing here, with all the fans. Hopefully, we’ll have a good show on the weekend. As Lewis said, the weather is a bit up and down on Friday and Saturday especially, hopefully, that will mix things a little bit and we’ll see a good race on Sunday. In our case, I think we different targets, to try to score points after two races out of the points. It’s going to be challenging but we’ll try.
Q: You’ve spent a fair bit of time in America this year. Will you be spending even more time here next year? Can you tell us anything about your 2019 plans?
FA: Yeah, I don’t have 21 races in F1 to travel around to, so with more free time I will come to the States… for a holiday. A little bit more.
Q: How about from a racing perspective?
FA: Let’s see. As I said many times, the Indy 500 is still very attractive, as it was last year, and after winning Le Mans this year, it’s even more attractive to try to achieve it in the short term. Still working on plans for next year and as soon as they are finalised you will know.
Q: Daniel, you also seem to really enjoy it over here. We’ve seen you’ve been at a Longhorns game this weekend. Is this one of your favourite events of the season?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, it is. I love it. I don’t know, I’ve always enjoyed coming here. The football was a really cool experience. It’s amazing how many people go to a college game, how the capacity is that alone. It’s cool to experience new things and yeah, I’ve had a good week!
Q: Well, this season you’ve had two race victories but no podiums alongside that. Is it realistic to expect you to change that record here this weekend.
DR: Yeah, I think so. I think we’ll have a decent car around here. It’s weird, yeah I know, that I haven’t had any actual podiums. So yeah, we’ll try to make it happen. Last year I was going pretty strong in the race but then we had to stop with some mechanicals. It’s definitely a fun track to race on. I enjoy Austin alone, but the circuit as well is really good for racing. You can overtake and it’s pretty unique, so I’m happy if it’s kind of wet for Friday and Saturday but I kind of feel if the race is dry Sunday it will still be pretty exciting.
Q: Thank you. Romain, we’ve talked about the affinity these guys have with America, but it’s a home race for Haas, and you’ve got just four races left to try to overhaul Renault in the Constructors’ Championship. So us there a lot of pressure on this weekend?
Romain GROSJEAN: I think the pressure is always on, to be fair. Different levels, obviously for the top guys to win the championship, and for us to go and try to get Renault in the Constructors’. It’s a great weekend, it’s going to be very busy, a lot of marketing commitments, but I think it’s a good that we’re here, racing here for an American team and coming this year with a competitive car compared to the first two years us great.
Q: If I could just ask you about your own form. You had a tough start to the season, but then I think you scored 31 points in the last nine races. Just how did you go about turning that around?
RG: Thirty-nine. I got eight stolen in Monza.
DR: He’s not still bitter!
RG: No, I think everything is going great since Germany. It was a rough start to the season and things didn’t go my way. A bit of bad luck and bit of mistakes and all together it makes like a snowball effect. At one point I managed to stop that and come back to where I wanted to be. I’m really enjoying driving the car. I think we’ve had some really good races and I’m looking forward to the four last ones and here especially.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: Lewis, I know you’re not looking at the championship all the time, but if we would do an overlay from last years championship to this year’s championship it was pretty tight all season but then after the summer break the car and you personally, you really kicked off. Is this just a coincidence or is there anything – that you are understanding the tyres better, the team is understanding the car better? What is your explanation for that?
LH: Yeah, it’s probably just a coincidence that it’s exactly the same but we are improving the car the whole year long. We are improving our knowledge of the car and how to get the most out of it. If we knew what we knew in the second half we would do a lot better at the beginning. That’s just how it is in the sport. That’s how it always is. It’s been the same since I started in 2007. I think it’s probably the same for everyone. Not really much more else to say.
Q: For all of you, though Fernando I know this doesn’t really affect you for next year. The 2019 regulations state that the drivers weighing under 80 kilos will be ballasted up to 80 kilos, that ballast to be carried within the sort of cockpit area. How do you feel about that? Is that correct or should drivers be allowed to take advantage of their physique, as they can in other sporting activities?
DR: I personally feel that they are just getting us prepared for more races in America.
LH: NASCAR.
DR: All of us will enjoy our food a little more! I’m not complaining about it. It’s not like we’re going to, let’s say, take the piss, it’s more just a lot of us now tend to starve ourselves on race weekends and even training we can’t really do much strength training because we would just put on mass. I think it will just allow us to train harder, eat harder… Eat harder? Eat more. But it’s not like we’re going to have beer bellies or anything, we’re just going to be stronger and I think that’s only a good thing.
LH: I disagree. I think there are going to be some people with bigger bellies.
DR: Well, the small guys can afford to do everything!
Q: Romain, your thoughts on the weight?
RG: I think it’s a great thing. I’ve been the same as… Daniel and Lewis are quite tall. I think it hasn’t been great to starve ourselves and not eat as want to, so a few kilos of margin is going to be great. It will be a challenge for the team, because getting to the minimum weight for the regulation with the 80 kilos for seat and driver together is going to be tricky, but on the other hand it’s going to make our lives an awful lot better.
Lewis, any further thoughts?
LH: I think it’s great. It’s definitely going to open the doors up for people like Will Ferrell and all those who weigh a lot more to come in! It’s always been something we’ve all worked hard to keep in shape and it has been something we’ve worked really hard at; to make sure we’re not overweight. I guess we can eat more pancakes. I think we will prepare more and we can all be a little bit stronger next year. I guess for the people who are struggling to come under the weight; for example there are some of the taller drivers who struggle to be less than 80 kilos. I guess it doesn’t really make much difference for them otherwise.
Q: Fernando, you won’t be racing here next year, but you have raced in other categories where weight balances are different. Do you think this is a good move for Formula 1?
FA: Yeah, I think it is. In Formula 1, I’m obviously not one of the tallest, so it’s more a question for the tall guys and I think it’s fair for everyone, so I think it’s good. In other series, in WEC in particular, where the weight is free, that normally gives and advantage to the lighter and smaller guys, and probably that is unfair in a way, so I think Formula 1 is doing great on that.
DR: Ricky Bobby.
LH: Ricky Bobby.
DR: I caught it, it’s alright.
LH: I noticed. No one else watched Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby. No? Overweight NASCAR driver. NASCAR drivers can now come over to Formula 1, which is cool.
Q: Daniel, we know you’ve not had the smoothest season, you’ve talked about that before. Your 2019 team, Renault, hasn’t had the smoothest end to the year either: they’ve been quite honest about falling behind on the engine side and the car side. That situation’s changed, obviously, since you agreed to join them. How much of a concern has it been watching their performance, and how encouraging is it to hear they’re planning an all-new engine for next year?
DR: It’s encouraging, obviously. When I signed, I knew that there was work ahead but I know that they’re putting a lot of effort into making things better and expanding a lot of departments and trying to make ’19 stronger and ’20 and whatever. Yeah, the way the last few races have been this year, obviously, it would be nice to see them improve every race and whatever but I honestly don’t look into it too much yet. I think ’19 is a new car and it’s going to be a fresh start again, so I’m not spending too much energy on that at the moment. Obviously, all I can do is, once my year’s done is try to be fully immersed into it all and try to help as much as I can and see how things go from there.
Q: We’ve got a lot of American fans excited about the Haas F1 team, the momentum they have coming into Austin for good points – but all four of you up there talk about excited to race in the United States. I want to ask, what can we do to continue the momentum to grow the sport here in the United States?
RG: Well, I think, to me, the obvious answer is to get more races in the US. I think most of the time it’s really hard for the audience to watch the Grands Prix, it’s the middle of the night. It’s not easy to grow the fan base. I think more races in the US. I think races a bit more exciting as well. If you look at NASCAR, you never know who’s going to win the race. In Formula One I can tell you it’s going to be the Mercedes or Ferrari winning on Sunday. I think that could be improved – but definitely more races in the US to get closer to the fans would be the first thing.
Lewis, your thoughts on how we can grow it here?
LH: I agree with what he said. We do have the one race and this is a big, big country with a lot of sporting heritage. They love intensely-fought games but also have something to look forward to – because there’s a build-up to multiple games. We only have that one race here, so the people, for example in this city or people in the close States that fly over for this one grand prix, which happens once a year, it’s like a festival. You can’t really get too excited about one festival in a season. So, that’s probably something that Liberty will be working on for the future.
Fernando, your thoughts?
FA: More or less the same. Try to get more races here, hopefully, one American driver into F1 soon, and that will help. I think it will take a little bit of interest into the sport and have a little bit more unpredictable races is more or less what they have here. To have people expecting the unexpected until the end.
And Daniel, your thoughts on growing the sport here.
DR: I have to agree with all that. Currently they don’t have an American driver. We can do our best to put on an accent and fill those boots. [Approximation of Texan accent] I can try all I can – I don’t know how these boys can do it but I’ll give it a red-hot crack and see how we go.
We wondered how long it would be before you did that…
DR: It was only a matter of time!
Q: Lewis, what’s your explanation for how you’ve taken off, collectively, since the summer break. Is it just stepping forward with the car? Is it personally? Is it mistakes from the opposition? What is it? What’s the biggest factor do you think?
LH: I haven’t really thought about it much. It’s a combination of so many things. Naturally, as a driver, you do improve. Or, at least, I’ve noticed in myself, I can’t speak for everyone – but I’ve noticed I improve throughout the year. How you conduct yourself, how you perform within the team, how you’re able to maximise in the car. If you go back through all the years, you know I always say that by the second half of the season I should be better, and most of the time that’s usually the case. I think also, as a team, we’ve collectively done a better job in every area. And then, the other side, for sure, has not done as good a job in that respect, coming into the second phase. So, I don’t really have a massive explanation for it. My knowledge is as good as yours in that sense.
Q: Lewis, you said you’re concentrating one race at a time – but you do stand on the brink of winning a fifth World Championship. What does that mean to you, were you to do that this weekend here in Austin?
LH: Again, really as a team, none of us are saying how cool it would be if it happened this weekend or the next, we’re not focussing on ifs. We’re focussing on making sure that we deliver. There’s still 100 points available. We can just never be complacent in life, and in a Championship as intense as this. We expect Ferrari to punch back hard here this weekend, so we can’t be relaxed in any way, shape or form. We’ve got to make sure we come here and raise the bar again. So, I’m definitely not thinking this weekend, how’s it going to feel if we do the job. Because I’ve got to do the job and that just adds more pressure and you just don’t need more pressure. So, focussing on making sure that I drive the best that I’ve driven all year long and we get the car where we need to get it. It’s going to be wet, I think, all day tomorrow, as far as I’ve heard, and potentially on Saturday, so it’s going to be a tricky weekend. So, nothing is a given.
Q: Lewis, given that this season has been a chase for a fifth championship, what does the name Fangio mean to you, his place in history and can you imagine yourself trying to drive the cars he muscled around the track back in his era?
LH: Imaging myself driving some of those cars back then? I have driven some of those cars. Stirling Moss’s car I’ve had a go in, some of the Silver Arrows they had, around the old Monza circuit, for example, with Sir Stirling, which is pretty intense. It’s always really strange to hear the drivers’ mental philosophy back then. Sir Stirling would say you’d want to fall out if the car’s going to crash: you hope that you get thrown out the car. It’s a much more confined space for us. It’s all about being stuck in and being safe. I would have… I don’t know if the 50s was a particularly good time, wasn’t a great time for black people either, so probably wouldn’t have been racing back then, but I’m grateful to be in this era and with the technology that we have and seeing the cars advance. I’m so grateful to be part of this era. Fangio is always… he’s like the godfather of the drivers’ sport for us. He’s the godfather for us, one of the greats from the beginning and will always be admired in the sport. It is crazy to think that I’m embarking on a similar number of championships that he had.
Q: Fernando, just on Lewis, when you first met him in 2007, did you think this guy would have the credentials to go on and match Fangio, win five titles and all the races? And Lewis, we saw you issued a post in Instagram, just defending Sebastian. Do you think his criticism has been a bit unjust this year?
FA: Well, probably at that time it was difficult to image what the future could bring for Lewis, and for any of the guys on the grid. But yeah, definitely, he had showed the talent from day one, and fighting for the Championship in his rookie year, winning in 2008. Probably at that time, we all agree that five or seven World Championships will be possible. Then, obviously, was a little bit down due to the performance of the car for a couple of years. And then, yeah, switching to Mercedes at that time, we all were thinking that maybe was not positive – because at that time Mercedes was struggling in 2013, and things like that. So, it’s up and down, the feelings. I’m happy for him because he showed the talent from day one. He was able to win races when the car was there to win it but he was able to win races in some of the seasons when the car was not in the top of the form, like 2009 and things like that, he’s still winning a couple of grand prix a year. It’s impressive – and now it’s time to enjoy for him, so I’m happy.
And Lewis, your comments defending Sebastian after Japan?
LH: I think if I was in the same position they would probably do the same thing so it’s more as drivers we are all members of the GPDA and I think we all just need to stick together and I think the respect that we have for one another I think is probably the greatest that it’s been for many years. At least in the years that I’ve been in Formula One. I think ultimately as a four-time World Champion, it is the most intense year that we’ve had. So every hiccup is magnified, naturally, as it is perhaps in any sport at the top. But there have been many – or several – times that I’ve been in the firing range and Seb’s always been really respectful and supported me, so I thought it was only just to do the same.
Q: Two questions, the first for Lewis. Can you explain to us why you do love America so much? And the second one for Fernando; can you give us your top five of the World Champions and what does it mean for you to have one driver equalling Fangio with five titles?
LH: I don’t know if I love it more than everyone else loves it. So many people come out here and… I grew up watching… movies are something I’m massively into… grew up watching these great movies which were filmed here in the States and then dreaming, as a kid, of one day coming to the States: I think it wasn’t until I was 17 and I finally went to New York and loved it and the more and more time I spend out here the more I enjoy it. I love the big roads they have, they do everything generally bigger and better in most cases. They’ve just got some great cities, good energy, good people, music is the centre of the universe for entertainment here so there’s many many reasons. The food is great, they’ve got the best pancakes out here.
FA: I guess it’s difficult to do the top five.
LH: Yourself?
FA: Not really! Probably Michael, Fangio, Senna, Prost, Lewis, probably this will be the top five, probably, that come to my mind but it’s difficult to compare different times and different ways to win those championships. Lewis winning five now and being the same as Fangio, as I said before, it’s a great achievement and if one had to do that in our generation, I’m happy that it’s Lewis because he showed the talent and he showed the commitment, as I said before, when the car was dominating he delivers and won the championship. When the car was not good enough to win the championship, he still put in some performances to show his talent and that’s difficult to see in our days.
Q: Fernando’s already been to Indianapolis but when we as a motor sport of community think of the US we generally think of the Indianapolis 500. A lot of Formula One World Champions, race winners etc have actually raced at Indianapolis. Could you imagine yourselves ever racing there?
DR: Yes and no. The thought of it sounds good. Ovals creep me out a little bit. I won’t lie. It would be cool. I don’t know. I would at least like to have a go, like maybe just a test. Let’s see how things go but yeah, it was cool watching Fernando do it, don’t get me wrong and part of me was like trying to picture myself being there and doing it but yeah, maybe one day. At the moment I don’t say it’s something I’m looking to do in the near future. I don’t know. Probably the older I get, the more scared I’ll become, so if it doesn’t happen now maybe it won’t ever happen. I don’t know.
RG: I’ll join Daniel. It sounds cool, looks cool, it’s a great race. Ovals, yeah…
DR: Who thought turning left could be so hard?
LH: I kind of feel in a similar way. I would definitely like to try it as I’ve never really driven an oval before and the cars are incredibly fast and (I) always want to go faster. I probably will get a chance to have a go. I’m sure if I wanted to have a go I could but it’s never been a series – naturally, growing up in Europe, it’s never been a series that you grew up aspiring to be in, it was always Formula One being it was the highest technology and has always been – at least growing up – the thought was that it was the highest grade of drivers that you wanted to compete against but they’ve got some great drivers there as well. I think I would prefer to try NASCAR. Watkins Glen, I’ve always wanted to have a go up there, beer cans in the side. I have driven a NASCAR years ago at Watkins Glen which was awesome so that’s something I could do potentially. I honestly have no desire to do any other racing beyond Formula One if I’m really honest but maybe that will change when you do stop, because you do it your whole life and temptation is always going to be there, I’m always going to be a racing driver at heart.
FA: Well, they need to commit to the race. I think if they just want to do a test they will never do the race after testing the car, because it feels quite bad. It feels quite difficult. The car is self-steering to the left, you go on the straights and you are turning right and it feels very weird to drive the car, but then in the race it is just a different thing. You wake up your competitive instinct and you forget about all these weird things that those cars have and it’s a lot of fun. It’s part of history. I think the biggest thing is to go out of your comfort zone and drive something that you don’t feel ready to handle, ready to control and that adrenaline is magic.
Q: To the two World Champions, Lewis and Fernando: there’s been a lot of attention on Mick Schumacher winning his Formula Three series. I wonder how you feel about him progressing into F1, one being whether the Schumacher name will be an asset or a burden to him?
LH: I don’t think it will be a burden. I think naturally for any of the champions when they have youngsters come through, naturally Michael is named the greatest driver of all time, he’s got the most titles, so there will one hundred percent be a Schumacher back in Formula One, partly because of the name, but secondly because he’s doing a great job. He’s obviously got a lot of talent as his Dad had, just like Keke and Nico, just like when Fernando has kids I’m sure an Alonso will be here again. Even if I have a kid who wants to race and even if he’s no good he can make it Formula One because of the name. But no, he’s doing a really great job and he’s a really great kid as well. He’s come to… and been a part of our team a couple of weekends, I think it was last year, very attentive. He’s got a great talent as his Dad had so I don’t think it will be a burden in my personal opinion. I think it could be great for the sport.
FA: Not much to add. I don’t know him. Obviously I never met him, probably. You only see the results from the outside and he has a great talent and he will be good for the sport, to have the Schumacher name again in F1. Let’s see what the future brings, not putting extra pressure on him which I’m sure he has enough already. Let time decide.
Q: Lewis, you’ve had so much success here and really your name has become synonymous with this track. Is there anything in particular, over the years, besides winning that you’ve enjoyed about coming here and also you were talking about the food, pancakes, is there anything that you like to eat while you’re here?
LH: They don’t make tracks really like they did in the olden days. The older circuits that you’d go to, you’d dream of going to, watching the legends drive there, so some of the new tracks aren’t really that good but this is one of those that is, it’s got great character and from day one when we arrived here, there was a massive crowd that came who I’m sure, at least half of them, probably were new to the sport which was great so it had the impact it was meant to have and I think every year it’s kind of been growing but just driving the track is a massive challenge and also you can actually race here, you can follow which is one of the downfalls of some of the circuits: it’s harder to follow. So I think that’s really why I’ve enjoyed it a lot because I’ve had the chance to have races here, real races and obviously there is that great sporting heritage here and people are genuinely super enthusiastic about sports, no matter which sport it is. And the last race here that we had, the whole spectacle, I think, was probably the best of the whole year, the whole build-up and everything I thought was great. It’s great to celebrate the culture wherever you go. I think there was negativity I think I heard after the race about how American it was but I was like ‘we’re in America, we’ve got celebrate America at this Grand Prix particularly’ and I think that should happen in all the countries we go to.
Food-wise, I grew up… for a period of time I lived on an American airbase in England and chicken wings… this guy my Mum was dating did the best chicken wings ever and I used to come out here and have that but I don’t eat chicken any more, being as I’m on a plant-base diet so I don’t know how that’s going to go while I’m here, I might be living on pancakes all weekend but I don’t mind that.
