Tag: grand prix

  • It’s great to be on pole again: Rosberg

    Drivers present at the Saturday’s FIA Press Conference after qualification: 

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), 
    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), 
    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Q: Nico, I guess in some ways the result that many people had expected – but it was not straightforward in the way it was achieved today, given the conditions.
    Nico ROSBERG: Oh, definitely, yeah! It could have been a lot easier out there today. The conditions were all over the place and as soon as it started drizzling again the lap times became a lot slower, even on the Inters. So it was really difficult and changing so much, y’know? So you really have to be out there at the right time with the right tyres, especially in Q2, changing over to slicks  – but I’m really happy. Everything went to plan and the last lap was OK. It’s great to be on pole again, especially in Monaco. If at any track then it’s this track where it makes a difference.
    Q: Lewis, you held provisional pole position for a matter of a few seconds…
    Lewis HAMILTON: Thanks!
    Q: …before Nico came through. Did you think you’d done enough on that lap? Did you think that today was the day?
    LH: I didn’t, definitely not. I’ve been struggling all weekend as you can see, my pace was sucking all weekend and just struggling with the car if I’m honest. It’s the first time I’ve ever had that experience here in Monaco, since 2005, every year, I was on it and didn’t have any problems with confidence or anything like that – but this weekend has been difficult. So I’m really happy to be here, be able to lock-out, obviously, the front row for the team and just massive improvement for me, considering all the sessions in qualifying – so I’m still chuffed.
    Q: Sebastian, you were fastest in Q2 but when push came to shove at the very end, were you just missing that final little bit, do you think?
    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I think it was very close. Mercedes was very quick all weekend, we know they are very quick on one lap. But I don’t want that to sound like an excuse. I think it was a bit more than a tenth missing and I think I had that today but it didn’t come together on the last lap. Really, if anyone’s to blame… I think the car was very, very good and if anyone’s to blame then it’s me. So, not entirely happy .with the last lap but quite happy that there isn’t a Ferrari or a Lotus ahead. Tomorrow I think these guys will have to stop at least as much as us – yeah therefore I think sitting in third is still a good result and should be a good opportunity tomorrow to win the race.
    Q: Back to you Nico, it’s 30 years since your father Keke won this grand prix, 30 years to the year You’re bidding to become the first son of a former winner to win the Monaco Grand Prix. Your thoughts on tomorrow’s grand prix.
    NR: Well, it’s always nice to hear these statistics but… yeah, it’s nice but it doesn’t really change much for tomorrow. Just very happy starting first. And you know, in Barcelona we were still struggling a lot in the race. I was 70 seconds behind at the end of the race from the race winner. We’re improving, it’s difficult to understand the tyres and get the most out of it. We’re improving step by step – but there’s still a lot of question marks remaining. And so here, yeah, I’m sure we’ve made a step forward but it’s still going to be difficult for us tomorrow, definitely. It’s still our weakness but we’ll make the best of it and, who knows? You can always have a few surprises.
    PRESS CONFERENCE
    Q: Obviously Nico it’s an all-German final this evening in the Champions’ League, you’ve stuck the car on pole position so a fair bit to shout about there – but there was one moment in Q1 at Mirabeau where you appeared to be about to go straight on – so quite a close moment. Did you have your heart in your mouth at that moment?
    NR: Two moments actually! I did exactly the same thing twice. I was just surprised by the lack of grip going into there and then I didn’t really want to accept the next time around that I had to take so much speed out, and so I went straight again. But anyway, it was the beginning of the session, it was drying out so I knew that there was plenty of time to set a time later on. But of course those moments are not great. Prefer staying on track.
    Q: Lewis, I guess it’s moments like that where you guys really show what you can do, finding grip levels. At no point in the weekend have we had any wet-running and you had to go out there and find the limit almost immediately. Can you just put into words how you do that and what it feels like, what you’re getting back through the car?
    LH: That’s not an easy question to answer. It’s just down to feel and we all have… that’s the skill that we have, to feel the grip when it’s unknown and that’s really one of the most exciting things about this session: you never knew where the grip was. You’d arrive in a corner: sometimes you’ve overdone it; sometimes you’ve undershot. And like Nico said, it’s surprising how little grip there was in some places. And that’s what makes the session so exciting. And like I said, I’m just happy. Congratulations to Nico, he did a great job today – but I’m really happy I could be up here with him.
    Q: Sebastian, your thoughts on that – and also on what we saw on Thursday from Red Bull in terms of long-run performance. Obviously we know what’s happened the last few races with Mercedes after strong qualifying but this is a very different kind of race track in terms of tyre wear, isn’t it?
    SV: Yeah, I think we will have to wait until tomorrow really to be precise – but I think we had an idea on Thursday. Our performance on Thursday – my performance on Thursday was not great. I wasn’t feeling the car and therefore today I was much, much happier. We improved the car a lot so having that extra day yesterday I think helped us. Right from the start this morning the car was much more to my liking. I felt much more confident, got into the rhythm nicer which is the most important around here. If you don’t feel comfortable then you just don’t dare to go faster. So I was very happy with the car and I’m, I think, very confident for tomorrow. Long run pace looked already good on Thursday so I expect it to be again a bit again a stronger on Friday [Sunday]. I think we’re pretty much average in terms of tyre wear, so yeah, the last couple of races Mercedes was worst in that regard but Monaco is a different track. A little bit different what we can expect tomorrow, so I think we still have a great chance from P3, hoping for a good start and then getting into the race nicely, doing the right calls at the right time and hopefully come out ahead. That’s the plan. But surely those guys have something against that. But yeah, our target tomorrow is to win.
    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR.
    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Seb, you were the only one in the last outing who did only one flying lap instead of two. First of all, why did you do it? And second, was it a mistake? Because everybody seems to be faster on the second lap.
    SV: Yeah, would, could, should! I think if I could decide again then I’d probably go for two and two. Two laps every time. I was confident that when the track picks up I’m able to nail the first lap. My first sector wasn’t bad but the first two corners, which is turn one and then the Casino, the fronts weren’t ready and then you play catching up. You feel that you’ve lost something. Overall I was happy with the lap but I think there was a tenth, a tenth-and-a-half for sure somewhere. So therefore initially a little disappointed. But as I said, overall happy because on Thursday it didn’t look as if we were anywhere close to the first two rows, so I’m happy with the result and confident for tomorrow.
    Q: (David Tremayne – The Independent) Two questions to Lewis. Can you expand a little bit more on what you said about this struggle. Is it a matter of just the setup of the car?
    LH: No, the setup of the car is good. It’s been good all weekend but that’s probably… that last lap is probably the first time I’ve switched my tyres on all weekend. And when you don’t generate the heat in your tyres you don’t have the confidence to hit the brakes hard and brake late. Even on that lap, my tyres weren’t ready by turn one, similar to what Seb was experiencing. That means you just have a bit of understeer and you’re playing catch-up for the rest of the lap. But generally the rest of the lap was great. That’s why my middle and my last sector were competitive. It was a big improvement for me because in P1, P2 and P3 it was a disaster. I think it’s just that it’s a new car still. For whatever reason I’m still coming to terms with it.
    Q: (David Tremayne – The Independent) Lewis you’ve been criticised again lately – it’s the lifestyle thing again and that’s why you’re struggling and everything else. What’s your reaction to that?
    LH: Well, I’m not really aware of it. Someone mentioned something about my dog. How the hell can a dog be distracting? I don’t really know how I could live my life any different. I’m enjoying my life, so if people have a got a problem with that then that’s there problem.
    Q: (Frederic Ferret – l’Equipe) A question to Sebastian. Apart from the start, where do you think you can overtake the Mercedes tomorrow?
    SV: I don’t know. There’s a lot of laps here, 78, so… I think on track it will be difficult, we all know that. I think obviously I was fourth last year at the end of the race for quite… many laps. I had the feeling I could go faster, I think Nico was in second, he had the feeling he could go faster but it’s difficult to overtake. In 2009 I didn’t mind that it was difficult because I was in the lead, it always depends where you are. On track it will be difficult but, yeah, if all goes well hopefully the Mercedes will struggle and we’ll sail past in the pit stop. I think we can’t rely on that. As I said tyre wear for will for sure play a role tomorrow but I think we need to look after ourselves first and then we’ll see what happens and hopefully we make the right calls at the right time. I think that will definitely be the chance we have.
    Q: (Vincent Marre – Sport Zeitung) My question is to all three of you. Two weeks ago Fernando Alonso was mentioning the GP2 race, he was mentioning the fact that it helped him because he realised that he could overtake at a specific curve and in some words he was… Tom Dillmann was helping him to overtake at this curve. So my question to all three of you, I would is when you are watching the GP2 races, does it help you. How do you watch it, what do you feel, do you prepare for the race with that?
    NR: I always watch it, and especially I learn from the start. See how it goes, grip left and right, how it goes into the first corner. That’s probably the only thing I personally pick up from them.
    LH: The same really. I have a question, though. What corner was it?
    It was in Barcelona. It was the third corner.
    LH: Round the outside.
    Yes, Tom Dilmann did it. He [Alonso] was saying that he was not thinking he was able to overtake there.
    LH: Yeah, it can definitely help sometimes.
    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) My question is to Sebastian Vettel. Do you have maybe special training exercises for Monaco race? Or maybe for you it’s same race as other races?
    SV: Interesting question. I think it would be ideal to get some extra laps compared to everyone else, but that’s not possible – they would need to block the whole city and you’re not allowed tot do that so it’s a bit difficult. Surely around here it’s a very different track, it’s very bumpy, you need to be very sharp. Timing matters. You need to dare to go close to the rails. It’s difficult to practice. Obviously we have a simulator and you get an idea, but it’s different in reality, especially when you brush the wall. You feel it a little bit more than in the simulator. But it’s good fun. We enjoy coming here. There has been some talk about the track not being safe. There will always be some risk but I think we have for example the best marshals here for the whole year, so it does make you feel safe when you know that if something goes wrong these people know how to take care of you. So compliments for that and generally I quite like street circuits.
    What about you Nico, because you have a whole warm-up routine involving footballs and various things with your trainer. Is it different in any way here in Monaco?
    NR: No same thing. I just like to play some soccer before getting in the car – just to move about it.
    Q: (Malcolm Folley – Mail on Sunday) Nico and Lewis, now that I’ve been reprimanded by the headmaster, you’ll talk through tonight how you’ll approach the start tomorrow. Can you just confirm to us that you’ll be expected to race against one another but clearly the instruction will be to make sure that you don’t take each off early in the race?
    NR: Can you assure us that you’re going to behave from now on? Then we’ll answer the question. Of course, well we respect each other and the start is going to be important for sure and we’ll see who gets to the first corner first. I have the advantage that I’m ahead and on the clean side of the grid so that will definitely be good and then from there we have to see how it goes – who’s quicker in the race and strategy and things like that.
    Your thoughts, Lewis?
    LH: Yeah, I think tonight we’ll speak about it. It’s obviously important that we position ourselves in a smart way that we can keep Sebastian behind and then focus on trying to grab that one-two.
    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico congratulations for the pole. How much easier would it have been in dry conditions?
    NR: It’s never easy, but for sure the conditions out there were more difficult out there than if it had been completely dry. I don’t know it was probably similar because it’s the same for everybody, so yeah similar.
    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To both drivers of Mercedes. Your car has some news here on this track. From the information you got in free practice do you believe you can have a race different from the last ones where you also started from the front and lost a lot of performance?
    NR: It’s only two weeks since then, yeah. We were 70 seconds away then so for sure we still have large problems in the race and it’s definitely still going to be a difficulty yeah. The track is an advantage for us because you can’t overtake so easily. It also eats the tyres less this track, so for sure there are some advantages. We made a few changes to improve things so we are progressing and hopefully looking better than Barcelona but it’s still our weakness you know, so we have to wait. But it can also be a bit better than expected tomorrow. We just have to wait and see.
    Your thoughts on that Lewis and when there is a fix coming for this problem in the race?
    LH: There isn’t a fix. Obviously we’ve been working very hard to understand them, so there will be a slight adjustment. Hoping that they will be a little bit better for us. As Nico said it’s difficult to overtake here but it has only been two weeks so we haven’t made a huge step forward but hopefully with less high-speed corners here we might stand a better chance.
    Q: (Walter Kosta – Saarbrücker Zeitung) Question to Sebastian. Did you expect that the team Lotus, in this qualifying, would be the third power, with your friend, I mean Kimi, before Ferrari, with Alonso?
    SV: I think it was difficult to foresee what is going to happen in qualifying. In practice it looked as if the Lotus is very quick, at least Romain was very, very quick through all the sessions – sometimes a little bit too quick, especially in the first corner, he was struggling a little bit there. I spoke to Kimi on Thursday and he said that he didn’t feel so well yet but I think they managed to improve the car. But as I said before, when you feel confident around here, when you like you car, you can gain quite a lot of time, much more than on a normal track. So it’s very important to feel comfortable. So in that regard it is a surprise that Lotus beat Ferrari because Ferrari looked very competitive already on Thursday.
    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, it’s already three-in-a-row for Nico. How do you cope psychologically that your team-mate is constantly faster than you in the qualifying, because it’s a completely new situation for you?
    LH: It is a new situation for me, one that I seem to be dealing with pretty well. As I said, I’ve had pretty good seasons here in the past in terms of being on the pace. This has definitely been one of the worst so far. So to be second is a bit of a blessing for me considering how slow I was earlier on in practice. Of course I need to correct this. As soon as I’m able to extract the maximum from the car hopefully in the next couple of races, hopefully we’ll see the true pace.
    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, this is the third pole in a row for you. I would like to know how is the situation. You made pole position ion the last two races and don’t make any mistake and you are the real Monegasque guy because you grew up here. I want to know how is the feeling to make this achievement, the pole position, in your really home grand prix.
    NR: Very special for sure. I’ve grown up here. Lived here all my life. Gone to school here. The way through the tunnel is my way to school and now I’m driving through there with a silver arrow. To be on pole today is a great feeling and yeah fantastic, look forward to tomorrow and make the best of it and try to get a good result.
    ends
  • It does not matter how much else you do, you ‘ve to make the tyres work: Bob

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Gerard LOPEZ (Lotus), Robert FEARNLEY (Force India), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Alain PROST (Renault Sport)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Alain, it’s been a while since we last saw you in an FIA press conference, welcome. Explain a little bit about your role with Renault Sport?

    Alain PROST: Well, my role is mainly is an ambassador for Renault, the brand Renault, since last year. Even if I have done many things with Renault in the last few years, for different things. Also this year I’m advisor for the strategy, being part of the executive committee.

    In terms of 2014, how far advanced is Renault’s programme?

    AP: Everything goes well. The engine should run in June on the dyno, the final version. But everything is belonging to the programme.

    And when do you think that Renault Sport will be finalising its teams for 2014?

    AP: I’m not myself negotiating with the teams but we all know that it’s going to be accelerating during this weekend. I don’t know. I cannot say all the dates for all the teams but I hope very quickly.

    Paul, if I could turn to you next. An awful lot of debate and opinion in Formula One at the moment regarding the Pirelli tyres this year, some pro, some anti. What is your opinion on the way that the Pirelli tyres are influencing the racing, and also what changes will we see to the tyres from Canada onwards?

    Paul HEMBERY: Well, obviously there’s a lot of different opinion, quite divided, among fans, commentators, teams and you’re never going to please everyone. That’s one of the challenges you have but from our point of view it’s the same for everybody, they have exactly the same tyres to work with and somebody’s going to end up winning on a Sunday. From Canada? Well, we’re still finalising the ultimate details for Canada. We’re trying to minimise the changes, for sporting equity reasons of course. We want to resolve the delaminations that we’ve seen, that have occurred when we’ve picked up debris. That, from a tyre maker of course is something that we’ve wanted to solve. It doesn’t look good. The tyres have stayed inflated but it still doesn’t look good from an image point of view. So that’s where we’re at. We’re trying to finalise that, working with the teams. We’ve had good collaboration. Of course, some people might want something different and again you’re not going to please everybody but we have to do what’s correct for the sport and what’s correct for Pirelli.

    While we’re talking tyres I think it would be nice to get the reaction of the team principals and chairmen here on the panel. Christian, can I start with you. What’s your opinion on the Pirelli tyres and the racing this year?

    Christian HORNER: I think we’ve been pretty consistent throughout the year really. The tyres, on occasion, have been a bit too marginal. That includes races we’ve won at in Malaysia and Bahrain. I think it’s good that Pirelli are looking at it. I think the most important and most fundamental thing is from a safety perspective, if you do have a delamination, if you have a big chunk of rubber, you don’t want that to hit a car component or worst case a driver. So, there are safety issues that I know some of the drivers are concerned about. Hopefully, Pirelli are a very capable company. I think they know what they need to do and hopefully that can be resolved very quickly.

    Gerard, is that an opinion your share – that the tyres have been too marginal this year?

    Gerard LOPEZ: Yeah, we’ve echoed the safety issues and said that whatever needs to be done on safety grounds is obviously fine with us, we’re not going to go against that. As far as the tyres being marginal goes, we’ve found them to be quite consistent. But then again – different cars, different drivers, different styles… they work for us. So we’re actually quite happy with the way they are.

    Franz, what about you and Toro Rosso?

    Franz TOST: I think the problems started in testing, because in February it was very cold when we were out the first time this year and if I remember only Jerez was an acceptable test but otherwise in Barcelona it was quite cold. There we couldn’t do a proper test for the tyres. I think if we had tested in a warmer country some of the problems we observe now could have been sorted out. Therefore, I hope that in future we will do these tests under other conditions, under conditions under which we are racing and then I think Pirelli immediately will react and will come up with a proper solution. So far we at Toro Rosso haven’t faced bigger problems.

    Finally to you Bob. From a deputy team principal’s perspective: safety, racing, what’s your opinion:

    Bob FEARNLEY: I think Pirelli have done a good job. Fundamentally we’re looking to try to average out at two to three stops per race and I think if you take the extremes in any 20-race series you’re going to have some that might do four and some that might do one. But overall were going to achieve the objective. I agree with Paul, it’s the same for everybody. I think some of the teams will have put in resource perhaps this time year to start looking at how they’re going to develop their car, what suspension programme they’re going to put in to optimise the tyres, other teams will continued to work on aero. That’s the choice of the teams at the end of the day and you’ve got to deliver what you think is the most competitive package. But there are four points of contact on a track, it doesn’t matter how much else you do, you’ve got to make the tyres work.

    Alain, I’m sure you’ve been watching the racing quite intently. Has the sport got the right balance at the moment between exciting racing or tyres dominating too much?

    AP: I think in the past and very recently it’s been very [much] criticised for not having a show or indecision. We should [feel] very lucky that we have these kind of races. In the last few years, we have the decision only in the last grand prix. Obviously, also think about next year when we have the new engine coming we will talk maybe a little bit more about the engine, the technology, about being much closer to the product of the automotive industry. But we still need to keep the show also. We need to keep the indecision so it’s going to be even better balanced but at the moment I wouldn’t criticize what we have today.

    If I could move on and turn to you, Franz. Both of your drivers in their second year with Toro Rosso this season. What improvements are you seeing from Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo and as drivers who have been part of the Red Bull driver programme, do you see something in either of them that suggests that they could move up to the senior team?

    FT: Yeah I must say that both of the drivers have increased their performance and their understanding of the car of the technik, of everything, much during the last two years and they are still learning a lot. But I must say that so far they have done a reasonably good job and if we provide them with a good car, a good package, they are always able to score points. Of course, Daniel Ricciardo has a little bit more experience as he did already 11 races with HRT and you can see this. Jean-Eric Vergne is coming up with good technical feedback. He is learning also a lot. I expect from both of the drivers a very competitive second half of the season, once more if we provide them with a good car and then we will see how the future will be.

    Christian, I’m sure as Red Bull team principal you keep an eye on all the young drivers in the young development programme?

    CH: Yeah, absolutely. Both youngsters have been members of the Red Bull Junior team for quite a few years now and or course we watch their progress with great interest. They’re both young, talented drivers, both developing very well. It’s good to see. They’re both racing here on merit. For sure they’re two guys we have a watchful eye over.

    Q: We’re getting to that stage of the season where traditionally you sit down, Red Bull, with Mark Webber and negotiate a new contract for next year, it’s normally towards the early part of the summer. Has anything been the case or has happened this season that might influence those negotiations? Will you be sitting down with Mark soon? What’s your thinking for the future?

    CH: Well, we’re sitting here at race six, so y’know there’s still quite a few to go. But at the relevant time we’ll sit down with Mark and see what he wants to do, what his plans are for the future. Our interest is quite simple: we want the best two drivers in our cars going forward. Mark and Sebastian has been a tremendously successful partnership. It’s won three consecutive Constructors’ World Championships for us and obviously Mark’s made a significant contribution to that. At the relevant time – which isn’t now – we will sit down and talk about the future.

    Q: Gerard, can we talk drivers with yourself too? Kimi Räikkönen has hinted recently that there are maybe a couple of options open to him for next season. He’s certainly being asked an awful lot about his future. I assume Lotus would like to keep him but realistically how likely is that?

    GL: Well I think Kimi’s quite happy where he is right now. Knowing Kimi well, outside of the track too, he could just as well announce that he’s stopping altogether. So, I wouldn’t take any bets whatsoever. I think we’re looking pretty good in terms of keeping him, as long as he gets what he wants, including a performing car, which is what he really wants. For the rest, we’ll see. He for sure will tell you there’s no such thing as a pre-contract, only real contract, and we’ll sit down at some point in time and discuss the future with him. But everything is wide open on the one hand but on the other hand everything is looking pretty good for us to stay with us. So we’ll see.

    Q: Do you feel external and internal pressure then? A) to develop a car that Kimi – and Romain – can perform in and b) is there external pressure from other teams who would be interested?

    GL: I don’t think we need to put on any additional pressure, I think I put enough pressure on them to perform – but I think it’s good if you have a driver that really wants to have the best possible package and actually can make use of it – and Kimi certainly can. The other thing with Kimi is that he needs an environment in which he can function, and he certainly has that with us.

    Q: Bob, turning to you, it’s been a very positive start for Force India this season. I wonder if the start changes the target and your goals for this year? Is fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship a realistic target given what’s happened so far?

    BF: I think it’s one that we certainly should aspire to. It would be very, very hard to continuously compete with McLaren through the year but they’re also going to have some issues in terms of when they switch over to the 2014 car and, like all of us, when do we move those resources? I think a lot will depend on how far they’ve got with this car when they actually do that. But for sure, we’ve already amended our programs and our team principal is very keen for us to ensure we stay fifth.

    Q: Finally on the subject of drivers, Alain, for French drivers in Formula One this season, we’re here in the South of France for the Monaco Grand Prix, do you see anything in those drivers that might indicate to you that one day they could be the next French World Champion?

    AP: Difficult question! Because the last 20 years there have been announced many, many times a new French champion. Just let them work, y’know? There are four, we are very lucky to have four, different competitiveness in teams. Romain for sure is in the best position to win at least maybe the first race very soon. And just wait and see. Don’t put them under too much pressure, they have enough.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Question for everyone except Monsieur Prost. Going on the subject of the tyres, one of the things, one of the theories that we’ve had in the press room is that the part of the difficulty has been the lack of a more modern test car. You know we haven’t got the DRS, the KERS, the… everything’s a bit different. Have the teams considered investing in a Dallara machine – or similar – that Pirelli might be able to use that you can all agree on? Then that way no one team would have an advantage.

    Christian?

    CH: I guess the fundamental thing is we can never agree. Everybody agreed for Lotus to do the testing when they weren’t so competitive. Now they’re competitive and probably there’s a few teams that aren’t so happy that they’re not doing the testing. So, it’s a difficult one. It’s a difficult one for Pirelli, it’s a difficult one for the teams but at the end of the day we don’t need to make it too complicated. I think the way things are at the moment is too complicated for the fans. It’s too difficult to follow races where you’ve got four stops, going on. It’s hard enough when you’re in the race. I think we need to just wind that back a little bit and more than anything make sure we eliminate any safety issues.

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) That isn’t really what I asked. I was wondering what sort of things you guys as a group could do going forward to try and make sure the y’know, the focus of the… wasn’t necessary criticisms of the tyres but how you could actually improve them as a group so that everybody was happy with what they were running on?

    CH: Well, I don’t think you’re ever going to get everybody happy. Y’know, that’s the fundamental issue and unless you open testing up again, where everybody tests, it’s probably very difficult because people’s cars behave in different ways. So I can’t see a situation where the teams will say ‘yes, we’ll jointly fund and run a car for a tyre supplier.’ I’d be surprised.

    Franz?

    FT: No, we should use Friday morning, the first session or the first half-hour for testing new tyres – not sitting around like today, doing nothing. People in the grandstands, no cars out there. We just could use this – it was half an hour or 35 minutes as usually – to test new tyres. This is what I suggest since two years.

    Gerard, your thoughts?

    GL: My thoughts are… I would agree with Christian on the fact that it’s really difficult to get everybody to agree on anything in Formula One – be it tyres or be it anything else. And I think it’s going to stay that way just because it’s competitive both on and off the track and so on. I remember when, indeed, when we were asked to propose a car – and by the way, that car has nothing in common with what we’re running now – everybody agreed and now suddenly everybody thinks that’s the mystery to knowing how to use those tyres. And as I said, both cars are completely unrelated. So it’s very difficult to get anything done that everybody accepts. Maybe a solution like running Friday tests, I don’t know – but even that requires everybody to agree and some will and some won’t. And so I think that’s always going to be part of Formula One: The fact that this is agreement and disagreement and that’s the way forward I guess.

    Bob?

    BF: I think Franz’s idea’s got a certain amount of merit. I’d love to endorse that with the element of having young drivers in there as well, just so that it ticks two boxes. But I think that Pirelli have a great deal of resource, as we all do outside of actually track testing. And for instance, even with the incidents that we’ve had with the delamination, a lot of it can be done on rigs and everything else – and I think that’s where most of it will be done in the long term.

    So Paul, how difficult is the job that Pirelli have without the facilities to test in the way that was traditional in Formula One?

    PH: Well, it’s one of those cases where you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You’re clearly not going to get everyone to agree, and with a tyre, certainly if you design it around a certain application you can make a certain vehicle go quicker  – and that’s clearly why we’re wanting to make changes now. Some people want more changes, some people don’t want any changes for example. The Friday is useful where you’re coming to a point of wanting to actually introduce a change – but you can’t go testing with 11 teams on a Friday with various specifications because it simply doesn’t work that way. I think a good step forward would be winter testing actually in hot conditions. Y’know, if we were able to get to Abu Dhabi or Bahrain before we get to Australia, at least you’d have an advanced indication. You’ve also got to remember, if we do find surprises, and I’m quite sure next season there could be – assuming we have a contract which we don’t have at the moment – but assuming we’re going forward, you could get to a situation with the new powertrain, which from the indications of the teams will have a lot of torque, and will increase wheelspin, tyre wear, overheating, you could end up in a situation with a surprise again. So there needs to be a balance. Teams have clearly got restrictions on resources. The test teams were got rid of for good reasons from their point of view – but some sort of mid-range solution would be useful to us, even if it means staying on after a few events during the season, then that would be extremely valuable from our point of view.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Alain, as Renault Sport brand ambassador, how do you feel about the fact that the public perception is that in fact Infiniti won the championship last year as the engine supplier because if one looks at the team principal’s shirt, there are five Infiniti badges and two Renault badges, yet Renault seems to be paying it all. How do you feel about that?

    AP: I know it’s very difficult… it’s always difficult to answer this kind of question for me. The perception you can have here is obviously the right one, could be the right one. The involvement of Renault in Formula One, is very clear over the last few years. As you can see, the market in Europe is not very good and they’re already aiming for having a new image, new visibility in new markets: Russia, Brazil, India and a little bit less in China, those are the big markets for Renault. Obviously everybody would like to maybe have a different situation for Renault inside Formula One, for example, again, a new team, a Renault team,  but the strategy of the president and of Renault is very clear. They want to stay the way they are at the moment and I must say that in this country they were talking about how it’s working very well and they’re increasing the image of the brand and they’re selling more and more cars and they want to continue like this. As I said, the perception you can have here maybe is a bit different to what they achieve instead of having a proper team, more aggravation. Again, talking about strategy, if you see what Renault has done in the last 37 years, they went from the French national team to being a partner with Williams and Benetton and then another team and then now they are supporting a team with whom we have won the World Champion for the last three years. So they could change, they could maybe change in the future, but at the moment we need to keep to this strategy decided by the president.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speedsport News) A question for Alain: there’s a lot of talk these days that the drivers cannot drive 100 percent flat out for the whole race Let’s take a year when you had a good car, say 1985. How much of the race could you drive 100 percent flat out? When you weren’t driving one hundred percent, what percent were you at and what parts of the car did you have to conserve, to make sure they lasted the race?

    AP: I think it’s difficult to compare, obviously, because today the cars are so advanced;  normally the driver can push 100 percent in normal conditions. The tyres this year are very soft which makes it a little bit different. In our time, if you want to compare, we had to take care of the brakes and gearbox and fuel consumption and obviously also tyres because sometimes we had to be careful of the tyres, but the regulations were also very different and at one stage we had three types of rubber and we could make changes and I very often ran hard tyres on the left and soft tyres on the front. I even raced in Las Vegas in ’81 with qualifying tyres on the front, but that means we cannot compare, but that also proves that you need to adapt yourself, as a driver, as an engineer, to the regulations and obviously we’re experiencing complaints this year… in fact it’s not that different compared to last year, except that you maybe don’t want to see some rubber on the track and having accidents. But apart from that, you just have to adapt to the situation, drivers or engineers. It’s typically Formula One.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Christian, I may have misconstrued your comment earlier but do you seriously believe that Lotus have somehow benefitted from the fact that Pirelli are using a 2010 Renault for testing, and maybe Paul could answer whether privileged information has somehow been given to one team?

    CH: No, I don’t think privileged information or anything in any way has been done underhand. At the end of the day, Pirelli needed a car to test, they originally came to Red Bull. At that time, it was almost unanimously agreed that Red Bull shouldn’t provide a car and then it was a matter of finding who could provide a car. Lotus was an obvious choice. Running had to be done by Pirelli with drivers that weren’t current race drivers. You can understand that that work has had to be done. I wasn’t trying to point out that there was any specific advantage from that, I was trying to point out that you’re always going to struggle to achieve compromise and agreement.

    Q: Given the changes between 2010 and now, Paul, how different is your test car to what we would see on the track?

    PH: They’re probably, in terms of performance, closer to the 2011 cars with the blown diffusers. They’re going, certainly, a little bit harder than we anticipated this season. We’re probably lapping our 2010 car three to four seconds slower, for example. That gives you an indication that we’re not stressing the tyres during our testing as much as the cars are today. But there’s not a perfect solution to that. We’re not going to get unanimous agreement from  everybody. Next year, the cars are so different that there’s really nothing available today, even including today’s cars, that would allow us to simulate the effect of the new powertrain. I think if we just take a sensible approach, in terms as I’ve already mentioned, of the winter testing and the potential to make adjustments during the season, but bear in mind you need agreement, you need eleven teams to agree to adjustments so if we’ve something that’s affecting eleven teams, then that’s really often easy to do.  If you’re making something that might affect some teams and not all teams or perceived benefit to others then you can imagine that’s difficult. So that’s a very strange balancing act that we’re trying to do. We agree, we set out this year for two to three pit stops over the season, we probably will average that still, we will get some races like Barcelona which was won this time with four stops. It was won two years ago by Red Bull with four stops so it’s not exceptional but I guess as commentators it’s harder to follow, it keeps you awake, you don’t have your afternoon snooze any more, and that’s one of the difficulties. It will be easier here for you.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire  – Associated Press) Alain Prost, it’s not been since Olivier Panis in 1996 for a French driver. What advice would you give Romain Grosjean, for example or the other French drivers… the frustration about that long spell, what advice would you give to them?

    AP: I don’t think you can give advice to the drivers to be honest. They know what they do, I’m out of Formula One as a driver for the last 20 years exactly and why should I give advice to… we all see what is happening, we see that Romain, for example, has a very good car, he should be able to win a race very soon as I said. But no advice from myself. If they want to have advice they can ask a question and I’m happy to answer but not giving advice like this, no. Mental is a very strong thing for sure, but also we give them a lot of pressure very often, but this is a cycle. As soon as one is going to be winning, it could snowball and I hope it works like this.

    Q: (Bob McKenzie – Daily Express) Alain, every year someone says that Monaco is too dangerous. This week’s hero was Ralf Schumacher. I wonder, it hasn’t really changed much since your day. Do you think it is too dangerous? Do you think it’s still a relevant place for a Formula One to be held?

    AP: I wouldn’t say that. It’s as dangerous as another race track can be dangerous. It’s different, for sure. You have to be a little bit careful, especially in the traffic with all the cars. Being alone is not being more dangerous than with another car. I must also say that the passive safety, what they do with the marshals and all the work they have done in the last thirty/forty years, is exceptional and yeah, there are some conditions… when it’s wet in some places where it could be a bit tough but it’s such a fantastic race for everybody, especially for the drivers obviously.  That is part of the tradition and you should accept it, even if it was a little bit dangerous, obviously. You should accept that.

    Q: On the pit wall, is that a bit of a worry when you send the cars out?

    BF: I think that Monaco represents the ultimate of the man and machine around a very difficult circuit and if I was a driver, I would relish the thought of it and I’m sure most drivers do. From a team point of view, it’s wonderful to see the cars on the limit so close to the barriers. It’s what we should be doing.

    GL: Yeah, Romain came close to the barriers too. On another race track we would have gotten away with it, just overbraked and instead of trying to go straight on, decided he could take the corner and just took off a little bit of the left front of the car. I think the drivers love it. It’s a  different track, they love it for the atmosphere, they love it for the excitement. If you talk to the drivers it’s quite an amazing experience. I’ve driven it myself actually, it’s quite an amazing experience if you get really close. I remember one of Robert’s laps, he probably thought it was one of the best laps he ever did and it was here in Monaco, so I think drivers love it.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Speaking of 2014, what do you think about the improvement of the Formula One show and also, what is the biggest challenge for the teams and Pirelli for the new regulations of the V6?

    FT: First of all, the new regulation is a big challenge from the technical side, because it’s a new engine, new air system, the complete car will be new and then it’s a challenge also from the financial side because everything is much more expensive. Whether the show will be improved or not I can’t say yet because it depends how good the different engine manufacturers work. If there’s one of them finding a special solution then we will not have such interesting races as we have now because these cars will be in front. If they are all nearly equal as is the case in the current races then I’m sure we will also have very interesting races in the future. Nevertheless, this is a new regulation and we have to get the best out of it.

    Q: Challenge for Pirelli?

    PH: A contract? A contract is probably the first one. If you follow the regulations, on the first of September we’re meant to define the specification for next year but as yet we don’t really have a full picture of what the cars are going to be like, so you can imagine there’s a certain element of shooting in the dark. Having said that, it’s a probably a year where we will probably step back, be cautious. There’s going to be enough going on for the teams next year as you just heard from Franz, all those changes. So I think it’s a year where we’ll be stepping back: zero degradation, no pit stops and they can do all the talking.

    CH: It’s difficult to say. It’s a massive change, probably the biggest change Formula One’s seen for probably the last 25 years, I would have thought. It’s hellishly expensive, especially with trying to develop a car this year and design and produce a car for next year with the changes that have been introduced, the timing of which probably isn’t ideal for some of the teams further down the grid. It’s a big regulation change. I think you’ll probably see significant differences between the teams early on but that will then converge and engineers will undoubtedly be very creative with the solutions that they come up with. It’s going to represent a different challenge, a different type of racing as fuel economy will suddenly become a premium point. We’re yet to see what affect that will have on the racing. At the moment, we’ve very much got an open mind.

    GL: I would agree, the timing is… I don’t know if it’s well chosen. It’s certainly odd. We can understand the engine manufacturers who are trying to have a product that is closer to what people are buying out on the streets. At the same time, there comes a point where Formula One was doing really well in terms of excitement, in terms of cars being matched, in terms of races being open, so let’s hope that it doesn’t reshuffle the cards in a way that is… unexpected would be good but unexpected with huge gaps would be really bad. I don’t think any of us can really say today what the effect is going to be, so that’s it, a little bit of an unknown for everybody.

    BF: Yeah, I think that we won’t be having discussions about tyres next year, it will be a completely different programme.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul, you’ve talked about changing or tweaking the tyres from a safety perspective yet when we discussed the matter in Barcelona, you said that there had been no more failures this year than in previous seasons, so are you genuinely changing the tyres for safety aspects or are external pressures being brought to bear from other more powerful teams?

    PH: No, I think the team pressure is something that is really in the media rather than a reality. I think that if you’re a tyre maker and the mode of failure this year is more dramatic because the tyres aren’t deflating they’re actually cutting into what we have now is a high tensile steel belt, that creates an opening that overheats and then creates what you’ve seen with the delamination. That’s something that’s not very good from a tyre maker’s point of view and we wish to get rid of so we need to do it for good reason. I think every team would agree with that. So you’ve got to try and do it though with a minimum amount of change because there’s a number of teams that have taken an approach this year that’s different. They decided early on what the challenges of the tyres would be this year and quite rightly they’re saying OK, change but don’t make it so dramatic, so that’s the situation we’re in and we’re closer to finalising the changes for Canada and that should be the end of it.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Alain, when we spoke a year ago here you said that what ultimately pushed your team, Prost Grand Prix, out of business was the engine costs. We’ve heard quite a few people here talk about engine costs next year. Renault, in particular has come out and said that their price will be between 20 and 25 million which is a 250 percent increase over the current price. What do you say to that? Is there a chance, do you think that teams could go out of business because of engine prices next year?

    AP: It is a problem, it’s first of all part of negotiation and the price you’ve said is much higher than it is in reality, but again, I’m not the one negotiating. Your reference with my team is obviously a good reference. I was paying 28 million dollars for the Ferrari engine in the first year and I was supposed to give 32 million the year after. I had to pay this money but I had to give a guarantee and pay almost cash before. That was in September, October or November, I don’t know. Why I say that because it’s always a way of trying to get the best for the general interest and we will see what is going to happen in negotiation but also you need to know that the budget of Renault Sport F1 is 150 million euros per year, and you can imagine… if you just make a very quick calculation about the price you can imagine divided by four teams, for example, and you will realise that Renault is paying a big contribution.

    Ends

  • Monaco on course for a two-stop race: Pirelli

    And one from Pirelli….

    Monaco, 23 May 2013: Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has gone fastest in both the free practice sessions at Monaco today, setting fastest time in the morning on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre, and then going fastest again in the afternoon, this time using the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft. His fastest time of 1m14.759s in FP2 was nearly one second faster than the equivalent time last year, a Pirelli press release said.

    Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “With Monaco always being one of the circuits that has the most noticeable degree of track evolution during the weekend throughout the year, it’s hard to draw many firm conclusions from the first two free practice sessions, although there is already some idea of the pecking order. So far we’re seeing a difference of up to a second per lap between the two compounds, which is in line with our expectations at this point, but we would expect that gap to come down as the weekend goes on. More rubber going onto the track over the weekend also means that the cars will slide less: that in turn slows down the rate of wear and degradation even more – which is never especially high at Monaco anyway. So far, we’d say that the teams are on course to make two stops during the race – one seems very possible too – but we’ll have a much better picture after qualifying on Saturday, which is when we can make a more accurate forecast in representative track conditions. We saw today that as usual, traffic will play a key role in setting a quick time at Monaco, but the rapid warm-up time of the supersoft compound allows the cars to get up to speed very quickly and maximise their one-lap pace.”

    Fastest tyre of the day:

    FP1: FP2:
    1. Rosberg  1m16.195s  Soft Used 1. Rosberg  1m14.759s  Supersoft New
    2. Alonso  1m16.282s  Soft Used 2. Hamilton  1m15.077s  Supersoft New
    3. Grosjean  1m16.380s  Soft Used 3. Alonso  1m15.196s  Supersoft Used

    Tyre statistics of the day:

    Soft Supersoft Intermediate Wet
    kms driven *  3,152  1,566  N/A  N/A
    sets used overall **  51  25  N/A  N/A
    highest number of laps **  33  30  N/A  N/A

    * The above number gives the total amount of kilometres driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
    ** Per compound, all drivers combined.

    May the Force be with you:

    Max. g-force braking (longitudinal force):                -4.26 @ T1
    Max. g-force cornering (lateral force):                       4.55 @ T3

    Pirelli fact of the day:

    The race has only been won from outside the top three in qualifying on 10 occasions since 1950. On most of these occasions, wet weather intervened to mix up the order. The forecast for Saturday is currently dry. The lowest grid position the Monaco Grand Prix has ever been won from is 14th.

  • Monaco holds a special place in our hearts: Mallya

    Sahara Force India looks forward to round six of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix. 
    Team Principal, Vijay Mallya, looks forward to the Monaco Grand Prix.
    “Monaco holds a special place in the heart of every Formula One fan. Its history, the unforgiving circuit and the unique atmosphere of the place make it a highlight of the season. As a venue, it’s one of my favourites and a track where our car has always worked well. We’ve scored points there for the last three seasons and will be aiming to do the same this year,” said Vijay Mallya.
    “In our first European race, two weeks ago in Barcelona, the team once again showed its form. A strong points finish by Paul Di Resta ensured we held on to fifth position in the World Championship, and we look capable of fighting at this level in the races to come. With a little help from Lady Luck, who hasn’t been much on Adrian Sutil’s side lately, we will be able to score points with both cars and firmly establish our position in the championship. So far our weakness has been failing to get both cars home in the points and it’s something we need to remedy,” he added.
    “As for Adrian’s race in Spain, he would have been on course for scoring some big points had it not been for the pit stop problem. His race pace was superb, but things are not going his way at the moment. The good news is that Adrian is mentally very strong and he will deal with it. In the cockpit he’s doing exactly what we expect and that’s why we put him in the car. With 14 races remaining there is plenty of opportunity for Adrian to get the results he deserves,” he concluded.
    Paul on Monaco
     
    More points for you in Barcelona, and it is now time for Monaco. What do you expect from this race?
    We are fairly happy with the end result in Spain: with the limited time we had in the car and the DRS problems later in the race, seventh was a good position to come away with. As for the next race, having more time to optimise the car with the upgrades should allow us to extract even more performance from it. Monaco was a rewarding race for us last year and we will try to go there and continue our run of points finishes.
    You live in Monaco, so this is a home race for you. How does it make it different?
    It’s really interesting to see how busy the place gets when the race is in town and the atmosphere builds up throughout the week. Racing close to home is really nice because I can go back to my place every night. I sleep in my bed and enjoy my own space. It’s also a chance for my family and friends to come and stay with me, and when the weather is nice, there’s nowhere better.
    Both you and the team had a very strong start of the season. Is fifth place in the Constructors’ a realistic target?
    McLaren is a strong team and they will keep improving, but in the races so far we have been fighting them and we’ve often been quicker. Realistically, though, we are doing a great job regularly beating our direct rivals – Sauber, Williams and Toro Rosso. Our strength has been our consistency – we have been performing well in each of the races so far, and we are now looking forward to the Sundays with confidence.
     
    Adrian on Monaco
    Adrian, you’ve been one of the quickest drivers of 2013, but also one of the unluckiest. How are you feeling after five races?
    Despite everything that has happened during the last four races, I remain positive. Most of the things that happened were out of my control, but still I believe we can improve certain things to avoid mistakes in the future. We as a team have to stay confident and work on solving these small problems. The car is fast and if we have a perfect weekend, which is our aim all the time, I’m sure the podium will come soon. 
     
    Is the VJM06 the best car you’ve ever driven?
    I think so, yes. Wherever we have gone so far the car has looked competitive – and that includes some very different tracks. It’s a good sign for the rest of the season. Of course, Monaco will be the first real street circuit, but I think we will be quick there. The car is very strong in the front with a very neutral balance so it’s very driveable.
     
    Tell us what Monaco means to you…
    It’s a special place for sure. I’ve always liked street races and Monaco is the best street circuit of them all. There’s no room for even the smallest mistake and that’s why it’s different to other tracks. You have to give the walls so much respect and build up your speed. More than anything it’s a test of your mental strength because you keep your concentration for nearly two hours during the race.
    ends
  • Winning at home is very special: Alonso

    DRIVERS

    1 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Lotus)

    3 – Felipe MASSA (Ferrari)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

    Fernando, how much did this crowd… we saw you go off to see the crowd… How much did the embrace of the crowd help you today?

    Fernando ALONSO: Well, hello everybody. Definitely it was a fantastic emotion and it really helped. You feel the support from everybody, every single member of the team taking care of every detail because we want to do well here, in front of our fans, so many people supporting Ferrari. So, we did it, we’re happy for that but we don’t want to stop here obviously.

    How much today mean for your confidence that you can go on to win this championship?

    FA: Nothing really changed. We know that we have five races only, some up and downs. Some races we had a good race with no problems and we more or less finished on the podium in all of them. Some races we had some mistakes, some mechanical problems as well that we don’t want to repeat. We know that we have a car to fight with the top and if we do well we can fight for the championship. If we don’t do good enough maybe we don’t fight but we want to do so.

    Kimi, four points off the championship lead at this stage and you’re coming in under the radar so to speak, because nobody is really giving you enough credit for what you’re doing at the moment. How do you respond to that?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: I don’t mind. I’m here only to do as good races as we can and always you want to win and it’s disappointing to finish second but sometimes we have to take what we can get. Like I said, I don’t mind if people don’t notice us. We do our work, be happy what we do and obviously try to achieve in Enstone.

    Is the lack of attention possibly helping you?

    KR: It makes no difference really to me. We know in the team, and all the sponsors, what we try to achieve and what we are doing and that’s the main thing.

    Felipe, what a great drive, from ninth place on the grid [to third]. Felipe, are you back to your very best?

    Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I think so. For sure I was a little bit disappointed yesterday after the qualifying losing three places but anyway the race was very good for us, our car was fantastic. Very aggressive straight away. I gained back the positions. I think maybe in the first lap I was already sixth. Then overtaking cars. Struggling a bit with the tyres, to make it survive every stint in a good way but I think the race was very good for us.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Fernando, as you were saying, the first time the race has been won from that far back on the grid. Obviously your third win on home soil. Can you describe the emotion you’re feeling right now?

    FA: Very good again. It’s very special winning at home. It doesn’t matter how many times you can do it, how many you repeat it, it’s always like starting from zero and you have again very emotional last laps, very long last laps because you want to finish obviously as soon as possible. Extremely happy for the team to have both cars on the podium after a difficult qualifying that maybe we were not too fast yesterday. But we knew we had the pace on the long runs and we wanted to have some clear air to exploit this potential in the car. We did it. Everything worked perfect. Happy for the team, for the fans and hopefully this is not a one-off.

    Obviously you took a lot of points today out Sebastian Vettel as well. The start was clearly crucial, as was the timing of the first stop – you undercut Vettel at that point but at what stage of this grand prix did you feel you had it under control.

    FA: Let’s see, after the last stop. Until that point you never know what can happen. We had more or less an easy race in terms of traffic etc but we know Kimi was on a different strategy but you never know how the tyres are going to behave. When we pit two or three laps later than Kimi and we were first, at that point.

    Kimi, we heard you say on the podium there you were disappointed you didn’t win. You had a different strategy to Fernando, doing one stop less than the Ferrari today. Was there a point at which you thought you might have an opportunity to challenge Fernando for the win today?

    KR: Maybe half way through. Obviously, we were leading but when we were on old tyres and he had newer tyres, it’s too easy to overtake. There’s no point to really fight against [him] because you cannot hold him behind. I knew if I could somehow stay a bit more closer, even with old tyres, maybe I have some chance, even if I’m already behind and will be with old tyres in the end but you never know. But they were just too fast. He had a good start around the outside of me. I don’t think the end result really was decided there but we just did a different way of doing the race. It wasn’t a winning way today but… We’re never happy if we’re not winning. We’re only here to try to win. But we kind of caught up with Vettel few points and obviously Fernando caught me up [by] some points but we’re still in the hunt and we’ll keep ourselves there and hopefully in the future just try to win a bit more.

    Consistency is the key though, isn’t it? It’s the fourth time in five races you’ve stood on the podium, including that win in Australia and as you say you’ve got it down to just five points to Vettel. How do you feel about your championship situation and what comes from here?

    KR: Obviously it’s better than before the race now. It will not be easy. We cannot fight against… it’s the same for everybody. Everybody wants to win it, but sometimes you have a bad day. You try to minimise those and make the most out of them and give yourself a chance to be up there and fight for wins. I think if you can do that often it will give a good chance in the end to fight for the championship. It’s only a five race-old season, so there’s an awful lot to be raced. We’ll see what happens. We’ll try to do well and see where we are in the end.

    Felipe, your first podium of 2013. You recovered from your penalty in starting ninth to finish in third today. What does this result say about you and Ferrari this season?

    Felipe MASSA: Well, I think a bit disappointed for what’s happening yesterday. These things happen many times and no penalties happen so I’m disappointed with that. I didn’t cause him any issues for him in the qualifying, so I’m disappointed for that. The race was good. Very good start; very good beginning of the race; overtaking cars; trying to be aggressive, you know and passing people, which was the case. I tried to undercut people as well, stopping before. Maybe it was a little bit early as well. Looking at the end of the race I thought I maybe had the opportunity to fight with Kimi. But I think it was a great race, we did a good job. Our car was really superb for this track.  The degradation on the tyres was not Lotus but I think we did the best as we’re supposed to do and we showed a good performance that I expected to have from Friday. I think we are [heading] in a good direction so I hope from now on we are fighting for the podium every race, especially in the race, which is where it counts. Qualifying we know is not easy for us. We are pushing very hard to improve the car, to make the car quicker in qualifying. But we know we have a good car for the race so I hope me and Fernando are having great races from now and until the end of the year.

    And looking at your performance across this weekend, from what you felt in the car, do you feel that you could be winning races soon?

    FM: Yeah, definitely.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Adrian R. Huber – Agencia EFE) In China you equalised Mansell’s victories now you have overtaken him, 32 victories. Senna has 41, do you think that’s possible? How about Prost, 51 and Schumacher, 91?

    FA: No. I don’t know. I just be happy if I finish second all the races and I win more championships.

    Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) This is your fourth year in Ferrari, is there in this moment, have you got the best chance to win the Championship this year, do you feel like that?

    FA: Probably yes, in terms of performance of the car. We should have won the championship, I believe, in 2010. We arrived in Abu Dhabi with seven points, or nine points ahead of Sebastian [15]. We lost there but nothing we can change now. Last year maybe we didn’t deserve it because we were one second off the pace but even with that we manage to fight until Brazil race. So, this year we have in our hands a package that maybe is not the fastest, still not the fastest but we are working on that. But definitely on Sundays it’s a very competitive team package, let’s say. We are not the quickest over one lap, maybe we don’t set the fastest time in the race but we have fantastic strategy people, fantastic pitstops, the starts, tyre degradation. We have many ingredients to have a competitive car to fight for the championship. In the four years in Ferrari maybe it’s true that this is the one we feel more confident with but we are not happy still with the performance of the car and we want to have a good and aggressive developing programme for the next races.

    Q: (Toni Lopez – La Vanguardia) Two questions for Fernando. Congratulations. In 2006 you said, when you had your first winning at home that it had been your best race in Formula One. What can you say now? And when have you realised that you can win this race?

    FA: Well the first, I didn’t remember to say this in 2006. And if I say that, obviously from 2008 to 2013 I did better races. Maybe, as I said before, after the last pitstop when I found myself in front of Kimi, eight or nine seconds, and our tyres were two or three laps newer than Kimi, I realised that the race was in our pocket if we don’t do mistakes.

    Q: (Carlos Miquel Gomez – La Gaceta) A question for Fernando: what about the overtake, two guys, Hamilton and Räikkönen in the third corner. Was your belief in the last moment that you can pass Hamilton because you stay very, very near of the line.

    FA: Yes, I think we knew that to win the race we needed to pass people at the start. The start was very good but then it was very narrow and we didn’t have the space to move a little bit. So, I wait for a better opportunity. It came straight after turn one. I saw Kimi and Lewis running a little bit wide in turn one so I changed trajectory and I had a clean exit in turn two. I passed Kimi and I said ‘why not also Hamilton?’ I had a little bit of KERS that I saved from the start for turn three, so I used that to pass Hamilton and I think that was a lot in the race and I think also when exiting the first pitstop, we undercut and we overtook Vettel, in the strategy in lap 11 but not Rosberg. So Rosberg, we have to overtake him at the end of the straight. And that was also very close.

    Q: [Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, historically this has always been a track where it was pretty difficult to overtake but today we have seen that there were many manoeuvres. You made history because nobody every won starting fifth, so how do you feel about it? And also, to all of you, don’t you think it’s too much with these tyres having too many pitstops and there is too much confusion?

    FA: I don’t know. I’m happy to win from whatever position to start. Here, I think this historically has been difficult to overtake and starting off the front row was hard for the race but now with this year’s degradation and this year’s tyres we see the races keep changing all the time. Whatever car keeps the tyre alive normally is on the podium at least – or winning the race. So, happy for this. If it’s too much confusion for the spectators? There is no doubt. I think it is impossible to follow one race now. Here it’s good because you have the tower and I think you follow the race on the tower with the numbers and you see who is first, who is second. But in some other circuits, if I’m sitting in the grandstand, without any information: radio, telephone or something, you only see cars passing.

    Kimi, your thoughts on that?

    KR: I don’t really think it’s any different to last year. Obviously I wasn’t there the year before but they had a lot of pitstops also. So that’s the way it is and it’s the same for everybody. For sure sometimes it’s a bit tricky, even for us, who is where and what is going on if you haven’t seen it as the guy in front, what’s going on. But that’s what Formula One is today. It might change, it might not.

    And Felipe. Do you know where you are in the race at all times?

    FM: Yes. You can see on the…[points]

    Q: (Pierre Van Vliet – F1i.com) Kimi, in the early part of the race when you had your first pitstop, you came back with new soft tyres and you spent… you lost a few laps behind Vettel. Without that time lost do you think you could have been in front of Fernando on the last stint?

    KR: It wasn’t a new, it was used from qualifying. So, I mean obviously I have to overtake and I took maybe a few laps more than I expected but I got past him and I really could pull away but in the end I really don’t think those were the decisions that were the deciding story of the race. I think we had the speed but we should have done it different. Maybe more pitstops, then you can push all the time – but I think this was our best way of doing the race. That’s what we planned and that’s what we did and I think we deserved to be second and not really winning today. It’s OK for the team, the guys did a good job and we go for the next race to try to do better and get the best out of it.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1Life) Kimi, what do you think about the pit stop strategy in Monaco?

    KR: I have no idea. I know what we did here and yesterday. There’s a few weeks to go. We will see what happens, what tyres they bring and how everything plans out. I think it’s usually quite straightforward there. Usually, if you’re not in the front, you start behind somebody else and it’s really difficult to overtake. We will see.

    Q: Fernando, what are your thoughts on Monaco, because obviously the Mercedes is very quick in qualifying, they were quick in Monaco last year, do you think the problem that they have at the moment with tyres in the race is less of an issue there? Are they going to be more difficult to beat in Monaco?

    FA: Yes, definitely. They will arrive as favourites for Monaco. They’ve been on pole position for the last three races, they were on pole last year with Michael’s lap, so it would be a surprise if they weren’t on pole position in Monaco. And as you said, it’s more difficult to overtake in Monaco, so maybe they can keep good positions for longer. It’s something we need to understand and we need to do a better job on Saturday, Felipe and I, and Monaco is one of those places where we must do it.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta  – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have three successive second places and now you’ve managed to catch up Sebastian by six points; was this the most rewarding of these three races, and how do you see your chances to do better in Monaco?

    KR: First of all, Monaco is a different place compared to this, so it’s a bit hard to say. Last year I wasn’t very good there. For sure, it should be a bit better but I’ve had some good races there – it’s a dangerous thing to say – but as Fernando said, I think Mercedes will unfortunately be pretty quick there and after that it’s difficult to overtake. The only difference that they have made against most of us is in the last sector where it’s tight so you can really expect, from what they did last year and what they did here, that they should be pretty fast there. We will see what happens there, but gaining the points on Sebastian was nice. If he would have lost more points and still be second it would have been even more annoying, but OK, you also want to win but we cannot still put ourselves in a better position for the championship  so at least something good came out of it.

    Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport) Fernando, are you concerned that this fantastic situation with this marvellous pace of Ferrari in the race can be changed in Monte Carlo?

    FA: I’m confident for Monte Carlo. Looking at the last three years, even when we were not competitive in Monte Carlo, we always managed to be on the podium, more or less, in a consistent way so that’s the aim for this year as well. We had a problem in Malaysia, the retirement, the problem with the rear wing in Bahrain and we lost some of the consistency that we need to fight for the championship. In the three troublefree races we’ve had this year we finished second in Australia, we won in China and in Spain so what we want to do is put together four or five consistent races with no problems and try to get some podiums in our pocket and score some good points, and I think in Monaco we can continue this trend. I remember in 2011 we were lapped here by the McLarens and Red Bull and we arrived in Monaco and we nearly won the race, we finished second behind Sebastian with a red flag on the last lap. We were fighting for victory so I don’t see any reason – with this car which is also competitive everywhere – not to fight for top positions in Monaco. Let’s hope so.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Fernando, an impressive drive. I’m wondering if you felt under pressure this weekend after two difficult races and you’re at home. Did you feel pressure that you had to perform this weekend? Maybe you like pressure. I wonder.

    FA: Not extra pressure but it’s true that, as I said just now, we need some good races and I will feel more or less the same in Monaco. We must take extra care for the next races, in terms of possible mechanical issues, driver errors, strategy mistakes, whatever. All these things happen sometimes in races. I think all the team and myself are extra focused now on this part of the championship, because we felt we lost too many points with some things that we didn’t do right and we must put everything together and avoid any more mistakes. Here, there was this extra pressure to do everything well but I don’t think it will be any different in Monaco or in Canada where we will go and approach the race to really avoid any mistakes that can arise. So good to race at home, extra motivation, little bit more pressure but I didn’t do 100 percent in the car sometimes. You are fifth, sometimes third or first, the happiness of the grandstands changes, it depends on the position but inside yourself, you are normally quite happy with the performance if you give 100percent of the time.

    Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) Fernando, have you been surprised not having Sebastian breathing down your neck today?

    FA: Sebastian, not really. I think that when we started the race we knew that Kimi was probably the fastest on race pace of the leading guys. The Mercedes were a question mark. We thought that maybe they would have problems in the race but you never know until it happens really. And Sebastian… they didn’t have an easy weekend on Friday and in qualifying they were not on pole which is normal for them and then in the race, they struggle a little bit more, so, as I said, Lotus was the team that we looked at a little bit more.

    Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver)  And Fernando, could you please compare your feelings when you seem to be very relaxed in comparison to the European Grand Prix last year?

    FA: Emotions compared to last year? Valencia was very different because it’s not that we expected to win today but we were completely surprised last year when we won the race. We knew that today, if everything goes well and we do a fantastic race, we can win the race but in Valencia last year, we thought optimistic strategies pays etc, maybe our final results in the simulation were sixth, seventh, fifth and when we won that race starting eleventh and in front of everybody, it was a little bit more joy or a little bit more of an emotional win.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Fernando, you had to catch up the time for one extra pit stop against Kimi. How difficult was it to balance the speed or the pace against tyre saving?

    FA: Not so difficult today. We had the pace in the car, we had clean air, no traffic, only a little bit in the first stint behind Sebastian and Rosberg. Then we undercut and we passed Sebastian in the pits and Rosberg two laps later at the first corner, from that point we just pushed 90 percent, more or less. You have enough pace to open the necessary gap and you know that if you push 100percent maybe you kill the tyres, so it’s more or less normal driving, let’s say, in 2013 races. You try to control the pace and the tyres and you put in balance these two things.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Felipe, when you left the pit at the last stop, you were ten seconds behind Kimi on new hard tyres, and Kimi had already pitted before you. Did you think it could be possible to overtake him?

    FM: Well, first of all I was 15.5s behind Kimi, not 10s, so anyway, I was pushing hard to see if I could manage to catch him. I was catching him until lap six or seven by more than one second per lap but then maybe I was pushing too hard, I lost the tyres at the end, so I saw that maybe it was not possible to catch him so I started to save the rears more and the pace didn’t carry on like that. The only way to catch him was to push so I tried to push but it was not possible.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Alonso, did you anticipate a third pit stop, because you set very good laps and then suddenly you came into the pits?

    FA: I don’t have any answer, really. They called me in; I don’t know if it was too early or too late, because our fight was with Kimi at that point, because we were out of sync with Kimi for five laps always. It didn’t look anything special, short or long. I don’t know really.

    Q: (Jussi Jakala – YLE) Kimi, all top drivers are kind of supermen; did you have time to enjoy the battle that you had with Sebastian?

    KR: Yeah, it didn’t last very long. It took a few laps. I maybe had a chance earlier but I didn’t think that I would take him at the end of the straight but actually they were very fast at the start of the straight so I couldn’t catch him there, so it took a bit longer than I expected but then it was quite nice, fair but quite tough fight, but it worked out OK.

    Ends

  • This car has the potential to win races: Andrew Green

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Dave GREENWOOD (Marussia), Mike COUGHLAN (Williams), Mark SMITH (Caterham), Andrew GREEN (Force India), Nikolas TOMBAZIS (Ferrari), Adrian NEWEY (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Mike Coughlan, if we can start with you. You won here last year but what conclusions are we to draw from your performances so far this season?

    Mike COUGHLAN: Well, we’re disappointed. It’s a fast-moving sport, everybody’s progressing and we haven’t made enough progress. We’re making steps in the right direction. We’re making steps in the right direction but there’s a long way… there’s at least a second to catch up.

    And what did you learn from today?

    MC: We learned that the prototype tyres didn’t work on our car and we found that… we had an aero test last week, some things we learned have worked on the circuit here, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

    Thanks very much. If we can move to Nikolas Tombazis. Obviously, a lot of discussions at the moment about the re-introduction of testing in Formula One. The vote this week didn’t necessarily go in favour of it, but do you feel that’s the end of the story or do you think there is a chance that will be revisited?

    Nikolas TOMBAZIS: To be honest I think it’s something more for the team principals to be discussing with each other. I guess there will be more discussion about it but I don’t think it will be at our level of engineer to be honest that we discuss it.

    And today? Obviously very close between yourselves and Red Bull. What conclusions do you draw from the running we saw this afternoon?

    NT: I think it’s very difficult to draw any conclusions properly from a Friday. I think we are in reasonable shape but it’s impossible to know exactly what fuel levels each team is running. So, I think we’re cautiously optimistic but I couldn’t say more than that. In the morning obviously it was raining so it was not easy to test some of the components we were planning to test. So that’s an ongoing process that will go on for the next race to try and establish whether the new bits are actually faster or not, so it’s not possible to answer all the questions in one single session.

    Obviously your old colleague James Allison is back on the market, do you fancy a reunion with him in Maranello?

    NT: I’m very good friends with James, I think he’s a super bloke both technically and ‘humanly’. I think that any team having him would be making a good buy. Whether he is coming to us or not is a story to ask the team principals.

    Okay, thank you for that. Adrian, your thoughts on today? Obviously, you and Ferrari look very quick but as Nik was saying it’s not always easy to draw conclusions from Friday. However, do you see it being a scrap between the two of you this weekend?

    Adrian NEWEY: Well, If Nik would be kind us enough to tell us what his fuel load was this afternoon we’d have a better idea, but he probably won’t do that so, no, as Nik says then it’s certainly tight with Ferrari. Lotus I’m sure will be good, we’ve seen they have very good tyre degradation, and Mercedes are the outsiders I guess, so it’s the usual story of the last few races.

    Obviously Red Bull was one of the teams calling for a change to the tyre specifications. Pirelli has made one change, to the hard tyre that we have here this weekend. That was the preferred tyre here in the race last season. Can you give us your take on the changes that have been made? Did it go far enough as far as you’re concerned?

    AN: The changes to the tyre relative to last year are two-fold, one has been construction and the other has been compound. As you say they’ve gone back to the compound that we used in some of the races last year but that still leaves a very significant construction change, so it’s still a very different tyre to what we had last year.

    Moving on to Dave Greenwood from Marussia. Obviously Marussia have taken a clear step forward this year in performance. Can you quantify it for us and tell us where the major gains have come from?

    Dave GREENWOOD: Well, it’s difficult to put exact numbers on it but definitely we’re a per cent or so closer to the front. We no longer worry about anything like 107 per cent, those days are long gone, so it’s much more looking towards the midfield, where we want to go. Obviously, as anyone else would say, the main advantage has come in aerodynamics – better correlation in the wind tunnel – and perhaps slightly more creativity in that area. That’s where really most of the lap time has come, coupled with improvements in the mechanical installation of course.

    We spoke earlier about the possibility of in-season testing returning. As one of the teams with a smaller budget how would feel about that?

    DG: It’s a tricky one isn’t it? As an engineer you’d want to go testing but obviously there’s a resource issue there to consider as well. I think as Nikolas said, it’s probably one more for the team principals. But I think for us it would be as long as it was in a measured, controlled way and not an absolute free-for-all then maybe it would be something that would enable us to slightly catch up by having a little bit more testing.

    Moving on to Andrew. Obviously, first of all, we have to start by asking about Paul Di Resta’s left-rear tyre failure. What can you tell us about that from second practice this afternoon?

    Andrew GREEN: Well, completely unexpected, in the middle of a high-fuel run, it was on about lap six or seven. That’s all we know at the moment. It’s currently under investigation by Pirelli and I’m sure they’ll release something as soon as they know but it’s early days yet.

    What’s the protocol when something like this happens, in terms of how you as a team interact with them, in terms of moving forward from here?

    AG: We’re completely with them. We’ll give them everything they need to understand what happened with the tyres. It’s one of the reasons why we stopped the car straight away – to not damage the tyre and give them as big an opportunity as possible to understand what happened.

    Obviously it’s been a competitive start to the season fro Force India; you’re beating teams with larger budgets. How is that done?

    AG: How’s it done?

    Yes.

    AG: We’ve got our own programme. We’ve been on a stepped improvement every year for the last three or four years. We do our own thing. We try to understand the car as much as we can and move forward in areas where we see the performance gains. We are massively resource limited in our team. We haven’t got the big budgets, we’ve got to pick and choose where we develop the car and make sure we develop it in areas that give good rewards and we’ll continue to do that. One of the key things for this year, which we identified last year was race performance on Sunday, tyres life. Understanding the tyres was a big part of this car and has given us a big opportunity to set the car up for all different conditions, all different tyre types. So that’s helped us on the Sunday for sure. But it’s everywhere; it’s a little bit of everything. The wind tunnel guys are busy trying to add performance from their side, and on the tyre side we’re trying to manage the tyres mechanically.

    Moving on to Mark Smith from Caterham. We’ve seen in the past Caterham talking a lot about upgrade packages when they come along, but there seems to have been hardly any talk about this one at all. Can you tell us what you’ve done and why you’ve decided to keep quiet about it this time?

    Mark SMITH: The strategy that we had, for a number of reasons, was to introduce a car for the first four races that was probably 30 per cent of what would ordinarily be the new season’s car. So, yes, it’s an upgrade but in actual fact it takes us to the point that ordinarily this would have been our roll-out car. And that has to do with understanding the way we model things and not committing to things. We felt that had we have done the car in the normal timescale we would have been taking parts to production and to the car that we weren’t particularly ready with in terms of our understanding and modeling and so on. So it’s more a case that this is the new car.

    Can you tell us what the impact the return of Heikki Kovalainen in a development role has had on you in the past month or so?

    MS: It has been very useful. Obviously, Heikki worked with the team previously. We lost driver continuity. So that in itself, when Heikki ran in FP1 in Bahrain, was a positive. There were some minor set-up directions that we were considering and in fact Heikki endorse those independently, so that was useful. So in terms of having some continuity, having some connection to the previous car, which actually the car he drove in Bahrain was only a minor development of, has been useful.
    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR 

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) All of you have upgrades here; could you tell us what the new parts are on your car and please be specific?

    MC: New front wing, some forward floor changes, but that’s it.

    DG: New front wing, new floor, new suspension parts on the front suspension, so not just aerodynamic. Reasonably comprehensive I would say.

    MS: Front and rear wing, floor, some bodywork parts.

    NT: Sorry, but I think I will be a spoilsport and won’t specify. You can look at the photos.

    AN: I think it’s a bit of an unreasonable question really. It’s all part of the sport isn’t it, to find out what we’ve done?

    Q: But presumably there have been plenty of boxes arriving overnight from England.

    AN: Well, we’ve got to keep the boys in sandwiches.

    AG:  Bit of everything, really: aerodynamic and mechanical.

    Q: Is it as significant an update package here at Barcelona as it has been in the past?

    Is it one of the most important milestones?

    AG: Not as big as it has been, but it’s still significant, yeah.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Tombazis, the upgrades that you brought here, are they working reasonably well and do you think they are going to help you to try to catch pole position tomorrow?

    NT: As I said before, because it was raining in the morning, we haven’t had the opportunity to do all the back to backs as we would have liked. It’s quite difficult to get good answers on a Friday even if it’s not raining because of the tyres and the various other things one has to do on a Friday. So we were are still analysing and it’s an on-going process. I would say that some things are working, some things are not but we will have to also re-test some things at the next race, before we decide properly.

    Q: Fernando was saying that qualifying pace was something that he wanted more of from the Ferrari. Did you set that as a first order priority for this upgrade?

    NT: Yes, I think it’s quite clear we want to improve there, but obviously if we improve there we don’t want to give away some of our race pace so the race pace is still more important in some ways for the end result but sometimes when we start further back it makes things a lot more difficult, so yes, qualifying is a priority.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) From time to time, the idea of having a point for pole position comes up. I understand the idea has been discussed recently and rejected. Without putting all of you to any trouble, could I ask perhaps Nick and Adrian if they are first in favour of that or why was the idea rejected?

    AN:  To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t aware that it had been discussed again lately. Certainly, when I was in IndyCars, and that was the standard procedure it always seemed to me to be a good thing. It gives a little bit more emphasis to qualifying, bit more to the show if you like and qualifying’s all part of the TV spectacle. It seemed like a little extra bonus at the end and seemed sensible. That’s my personal opinion.

    NT: Yeah, I must say that I don’t think it’s a bad idea provided it’s clear from the start what the rule is then one can make one’s assessment between performances in qualifying and the race. I’m not against it, personally. I also wasn’t aware of it being discussed. It’s possibly a good thing.

    Q: (Alex Oller – Associated Press) Mr Coughlan, regarding Pastor Maldonado’s struggles this season: do you think you might be pressing a little bit, due to a lack of confidence in the car and also, might there be an adjustment due to the change with the personal engineer?

    MC: No, I don’t think so. It’s a fast-moving sport, there’s lots of little things. This time last year we had a good balance here and the driver was very confident on the Saturday but not so good on the Friday, so there’s a lot of work to do. We have a good team, Pastor’s very focused, working hard. It’s just going to come down to hard work and small steps.

    Q: (Sam Collins – RaceCar Engineering) Looking at this car and next year’s car, some of you guys have got a bit of a challenge of resources, some from the RRA and some from your own team’s resources. At what point are you going to switch off development of the 2013 car and switch on to the 2014 fully, and what’s going to be the thing that makes that decision happen?

    MS: I don’t know that there will be an absolute switch off. I think these things… obviously 2014 represents a big change so in terms of resource, everybody’s resource-limited, you’re just given the level that you work at, so to a greater or lesser extent, I think every team will have been looking at 2014 for a while now. The time at which you switch the majority of resources will be different for all teams because all teams will be facing different challenges in the championship. For us, 2014 is a very significant thing and I suspect that the majority of our resources will have moved over after Barcelona.

    DG: Well, in terms of resources, yeah, obviously we are one of the resource-limited teams but that’s not to say we don’t have big ambitions for 2014, so we’ve done quite a big change-over to that already, in terms of specifics of wind tunnel times, detailing and even design time, there’s a lot going on for 2014 already. It’s a tricky one because we still keep where we are in 2013 with one eye on it, more from the point of view of ensuring that if the opportunities are there to move up, then we’ve still got to keep a development  going, so probably similar to what Mark says, it’s about that point now where it’s all or nothing basically.

    AN: It’s a hugely difficult problem. In an ideal world, you kind of try briefly to increase your work force to deal with the resources needed for this and then shrink back down but that’s neither feasible not practical really. I think that certainly for us, we have to put effort into the ’14 car, we can’t just ignore it. We are putting effort into it at the moment. This is actually about how that percentage varies throughout the year. Well, to some extent it depends on how our championship programme is.. Clearly, if you’re in a tight battle for a championship, you don’t want to turn your back on that. Equally… it’s a juggling act, there’s no magic formula to it.

    Q: (Matt Youson – RaceTech) Nick, how does the 2014 power unit dictate the aero of next year’s car?

    NT: It’s a hugely complicated project from a mechanical point of view, the installation of the turbo with all the energy recovery and the completely different looms and also all the other issues my colleagues spoke about – in terms of resource allocation make it very difficult to focus on this project as much as one would like. So one of the challenges is to make sure that apart from the work that the engine people need to do to make sure that they get the most efficiency/power/fuel efficiency etc, is to also make sure that one doesn’t take any wrong turnings in terms of the packaging of this new power unit into the car. It would be a big shame if one discovers, from the start of the next season, that one has missed some trick and has to live with a sub-optimally packaged power unit. So a lot of the early aerodynamic work has to do with answering basic fundamental questions about that installation and obviously the engine being so different, there’s also a lot of other things that are… one loses points of reference compared to the previous year. For example, the cooling could be one of them, or gearbox or whatever. So there’ s a lot of importance in being good at your simulations at this stage so as to be able to not over-design or under-design some particular aspect.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) For all six of you: we’re coming to the end of this set of regulations after five years. For all of you, which was the most satisfying car you had in this period and why, and what was the car which you felt you could have done a better job with, and again, why?

    AG: This car is going to be the most satisfying car, to be honest. It’s got all the potential to be and we’re really looking forward to this season. I think there are some really strong races ahead. I would say this car, for sure. And the one we could have done more with? Every other one, for sure.

    AN: I think to pick out one car is difficult. I think overall I’ve certainly enjoyed the challenge of the regulation change from 2009. I think we didn’t win the championship in 2009 but in some ways I’m most proud of that, as  a team, not me personally, but I think as a team we did a good job with that car. We didn’t have a double diffuser which is still a matter of contention about the legality of that, which is obviously all history and that, without doubt, to some extent, cost us the championship together with the fact that as a team we just weren’t mature enough at the time to know how to operate the car to a championship-winning level really. But I think it’s the catalyst that gave everybody in Milton Keynes the confidence to step forwards and out of the ex-Jaguar ‘always seventh in the championship’ –type position that people felt a bit beaten into and put a spring in their step and launched us into the following cars.

    NT: Well, obviously for Ferrari, this set of the regulations, the last five years have been quite difficult. We’ve had some years that we were very disappointed with and I’m hoping that at the end of the season I will say that this year is one that we are most happy with but clearly we have to wait and see for that.

    MS: I think for a number of reasons which generally revolve around the way we’re working as a team and the way we are going about our business, I would say that it’s the current car.

    MC: Obviously last year’s car returned Williams  to winning ways and we perhaps didn’t make as much use of it as we could have done but certainly here last year and that car.

    DG: Obviously this year’s car for the reasons we’ve come a long way since we entered in 2010 but I would say this is the biggest step we’ve made year on year and the most significant one.

    Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) We’ve recently had quite a bit of discussion that’s since fallen by the wayside about integrating young driver tests into the race weekend. How do you guys feel about that? Do think it’s good for bringing on talent or are you wary about these young guns damaging your precious new parts?

    NT: It’s not exactly the sort of topic I normally think about much. I think the way of testing makes it very difficult for young drivers to really get started so to find a solution to that would be a good idea. Whether that would work at a race weekend I’m not sure, unless it’s the Monday after a race or something like that.

    AN: I think the first problem actually comes from the lower formulas inasmuch as we seem to be in a situation where now in GP2, for instance, experience counts hugely and quite often it will be drivers in their third or fourth season that win the championship, which seems to me quite an unhealthy way to be. I think also now, with the way the tyres are behaving, then to have junior formulas where the tyres are lasting three or four laps before they’ve gone off heavily, young drivers need mileage, they need seat time and it concerns me that the way the lower formulae are going they’re just not getting that.

    AG: Well, from Force India’s point of view, we’ve got a track record of bringing young drivers through and it’s something that we’re very proud of, something we’d like to have the ability to do more of so we definitely look towards a change in regulations so we can bring young drivers through without compromising the race weekend. We put forward a motion in the meeting yesterday but I’m sure there will be further discussions on it. Hopefully we can come to some agreement because I think it’s probably a little bit short-sighted of the sport not to recognise that these young guys do need time in the car.

    Q: Do you have a Friday driver in the pipeline?

    AG: Yes, there’s one coming through. Hopefully we will announce something shortly.

    DG: This is something we actively participate in, in using young drivers in an FP1 session but I think tyres is key at the moment. Perhaps one set of tyres in FP1 is not quite enough for these guys and maybe we need to look to giving them a few more sets of tyres.

    Mike, Williams is another team that has run Friday-morning drivers, you’re not doing it at the moment, are there plans to do that this year?

    MC: Not at the moment, no. I think our experience, although it’s improved Valtteri tremendously last year, Bruno [Senna] would argue he probably suffered a little bit from it. So it’s a difficult call. I don’t really have an answer.

    …and Mark?

    MS: It’s a general philosophy. When we have the opportunity we’ve given young drivers a chance in FP1. It’s not something… going beyond that in the way you describe is not something I’ve given a lot of thought to – but in principle, as Adrian says, there’s a shortfall in terms of opportunity for guys new to Formula One to get to grips with it. So there could be something positive there, yeah.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) Nik, a question for you: when you’re designing and developing a car, how do you take into account and balance the fact that your drivers might have different driving styles and might want different things from the car?

    NT: The differences are not that massive. The both want more downforce and less drag and so on. So the basic parameters are not too different. But they do have some slightly different characteristics: what they feel makes it more difficult under braking for example, or mid-corner or whatever. But we try to establish an average condition so as to have an overall car that’s best – and then what the drivers prefer is dealt with in car setup.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Question for Mike: Mike, this is the first year you’ve been back in Formula One full time, even though you did do some races last year, first year I should say since the events of 2007. Has it been like a fresh start with Williams?

    MC: I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I did work all last year doing it too. I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a great engineering challenge. If you’re an engineer, Formula One is a great engineering challenge, so I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Even though we’re struggling a little bit now, the challenge is to get back.

    Q: (Nicolas Carpentier – F1i) Back to 2014. Mark Smith talks about the big change, will these cars look very different from this year’s cars in their shape? I guess you already have an idea: a shorter engine cover or something like that…

    DG: The initial rules framing the regulations of where bodywork exists etcetera have been out now and published and a lot of discussions have taken place in the technical working group meetings and I think everyone has now got the confidence to start laying cars out and initial wind tunnel tests and CFD etcetera. The version I’ve seen looks very much like… the cars won’t look immensely different once you get used to them. The first time you see then, you’ll decide they’re a lot different and then by three races in you’ll think they always looked like that. There are some areas that have gone. Like the beam wing, which is probably the most significant but the rest of them, you’ll still think it looks like a current Formula One car.

    Adrian, your thoughts.

    AN: So much of the shape of the car is dictated by the regulations, and that kind of hems you in. Visually, as was said the lack of the beam wing, the low nose which is again forced by regulations and a slightly narrower overall front wing – 75mm a side narrower. Those are the other things you’ll notice. The other thing, depending on how good a job everybody manages to do, is probably slightly bigger sidepods to accommodate the significantly increased cooling requirements.

    Are these regulations that excite you?

    AN: They’re different and I think it’s always good to have something different. I think the whole philosophy of the engine and the KERS unit and energy storage is altogether another matter – but that’s more for the engine group.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Mike, talking on the technical side about Williams. Since Mark Gillan left, how much has the team suffered from that and are there any plans for you to bring in another heavy-hitter to help you out and bounce ideas off?

    MC: No, I don’t think so. As soon as somebody moves on there’s always somebody younger and fresher who wants to take that place. Obviously change is something we try to avoid – especially with somebody of Mark’s calibre – but at the moment, no, we don’t plan to bring anybody else in.

     

    Ends

  • Sahara Force India feels podium-finish is not far away

    Bangalore, 7 May 2013: Sahara Force India, the only Indian team in the Formula One World Championship, began the 2013 season on a bright note with a double finish at the season opener in Australia but despite bad outings in Malaysia and luck deserting Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta matched  his career-best fourth-place finish in Bahrain for one of the best starts to the season for the Silverstone-based team.
    In a press release received here ahead the fourth round of the FIA F 1  World championship to be held at Barcelona next Sunday, team Principal Vijay Mallya was in upbeat mood and hopes that the team will do much better this year. At home in India, Vijay Mallya was in financial troubles with his popular airlines, Kingfisher grounded for many months and even Sahara in trouble with SEBI, the securities exchange board of the country. With the application for revival rejected and employees of the airlines yet to be paid their arrears, there were rumours that the F1 team might be in trouble, but the `King of Good Times’ repeatedly denied that the F1 team would be affected financially.
    The team is currently in 5th position, 3 points ahead of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes but will have to switch gears to keep the slot as McLaren is expected to zoom past as the F1 bandwagon arrives to its favourite desitination of Europe after four fly-away races. Paul di Rest scored 12 points in Bahrain after being in contention for a podium finish for better part of the race but had to manage his tyres with a two-stop strategy. He now has 20 points in the Drivers’ Championship and is in 8th place while teammate Adrian Sutil with the six points he earned in Australian GP is in 12 place.
    Team Principal and Managing Director, Vijay Mallya, reflects on the team’s best-ever start to a season saying: “The return to Europe after the first few flyaway races is an excellent moment to catch our breath and evaluate where we stand. Overall the balance is extremely positive for Sahara Force India with our best ever start to a season. In terms of points scored we are nine points up compared to last year and we’ve been up at the sharp end fighting with the big teams.
     
    “After the pit stop problems in Malaysia, points finishes in China and Bahrain have set us back on the right path, but nobody in the team is taking it for granted and we will not rest on our laurels. At both the factory and at the track, everyone is working hard to ensure we can build on these good results. We intend to hold our ground and remain in the hunt for points and podiums.
     
    “Looking at our drivers, the performances of Paul Di Resta confirm just how much he has matured as a driver. He’s delivering consistently every week and we are reaping the rewards of all his hard work. He suffered a difficult end to the 2012 season, but he’s shown great mental strength and determination to regroup over the winter and recapture his best form. He’s pushing the team on and demanding the best from everyone, which is what we need.
     
    “Adrian Sutil has also shown his speed so far but the luck has not gone his way. The last two races have been very frustrating because he’s been the victim of other drivers’ mistakes. Without these incidents he would surely have scored well in both China and Bahrain. His race pace in Bahrain was remarkable because he was one of the fastest cars on track,” he added.
     
    “Having come so tantalisingly close to the podium with Paul last time out, we head to Barcelona full of optimism. The hard work everyone is putting in is paying off and we hope to see the rewards this coming weekend,” Dr Mallya concluded.
     
    Paul Di Resta responds on Barcelona GP:
    Paul, you’ve enjoyed your strongest start to a season – what’s your feeling after four races…
    We’ve got to feel very happy with how things are going and I want to congratulate everybody in the team. We took a very sensible approach to the winter and focussed on understanding the key areas that drive performance, which seems to have paid off. It’s important to pick up good points early in the season against our competitors and to be ahead of McLaren after four races is a credit to the team and a nice feeling. Of course we want to be on the podium and it was very close in Bahrain, but I’m sure it will come soon enough.
     
    Do you feel you have a car that will be competitive on any type of circuit?
    The car is performing well, especially in the heat, and we were also strong in the cooler conditions of China – so that’s a good sign. The key is making sure you find the right operating window whatever the conditions because that’s what makes the difference. We need to keep doing what we’re doing, but at the same time we know the return to Europe always sees every team bring more upgrades. Hopefully we can stay fighting with the big teams and keep picking up the points.
     
    With two tests already completed in Barcelona do you feel well prepared ahead of this weekend’s race?
    I guess we have more data around Barcelona than anywhere else, but at the same time the temperatures will be much higher at this time of year. So I’d expect that to change things quite a lot and impact on the tyres. Also, it’s one of those tracks where you’re constantly chasing the right aero balance to cope with the long, high-speed corners, especially turn three. But when you come to the end of the lap you need the mechanical grip for the hairpins and chicanes.
    Adrian on Barcelona
    Adrian, four races in, how do you sum up the start of 2013?
    The start of the season was good, especially if you consider I had only two or three test days to prepare. Australia was a strong race and the best way to come back to Formula One. Since then I’ve been unlucky with being hit in China and the puncture in Bahrain, and I definitely missed out on a few good points. On the other hand there are lots of positives, especially the performance of the car and the experience of the races. It is still early in the season so there is more to come and the car is really fast. I’m sure we can recover the points we lost in the last few races.
     
    How hard is it to accept the disappointment when you’re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time – as was the case in China and Bahrain?
    These things happen all the time in Formula One – sometimes you benefit from them and sometimes it goes against you instead. They all balance by the end of the year. I try not to spend too much time thinking about the negatives, I try to move on and focus on how to do better. If something happens, I think whether I did anything wrong, learn from it and avoid doing it again.
     
    What do you expect from the upcoming race in Barcelona?
    I know Barcelona really well from all the testing we’ve done there over the years. It is important, after three difficult races without points, to finish the race without any incidents. If I do that, I should have the pace to be among the front-runners. I have to do my job, avoid mistakes and hopefully my luck will change. Wherever we have gone so far, the car has been competitive, so the next few races should see us scoring points and close to the podium.
    To watch the  latest video interview with Adrian Sutil use the following link: http://youtu.be/4a_2_drbK1I
    ends
  • Sarath eager to begin campaign in Catalunya

    Bangalore, 27 April 2013: Sarath Kumar, the first MotoGP rider from India, will take a giant step in his efforts to come back into the big league, by competing in the double-header on Sunday in the 2013 Moto3 CEV Repsol Spanish Championship with reigning champions Monlau Competicion at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona. Supported by SK-Sarath69 Sports, the Chennai-bassed 22 year old rider will take part in the qualifying sessions on Saturday before the twin races on Sunday.

    Sarath who made his MotoGP 125cc class debut in 2011 and went on to win a podium at the 2012 Italian championship at Monza, will become the first Indian to participate in the Moto3 Spanish Championship this weekend. The first round this week-end received a stunning 56 entries, who will race in two groups `A and B’ after 12 riders are eliminated in the qualifiers later tonight.

    For the 2013 season, he will be seen riding the Suter-Honda Moto3, a 250cc 4-stroke prototype race bike developed for the Spanish Moto3 world championship. This championship has nurtured many champions like reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and also upcoming star Marc Marquez. Sarath is eager to use this opportunity to realise his dreams of being on the MotoGP grid once again.

    Mohan Nagarajan, CMD, Sidvin Coretech, said: “SIDVIN has always been in the forefront of promoting motorsports, be it 4-wheelers or 2-wheelers. Our involvement with Sarath Kumar as a support sponsor is only an extension of our commitment to developing and promoting world class riders from India.”

    “After his golden ride in the MotoGP, he had to drive a taxi to make a living and we wanted to do our bit to give him a chance to ride again in a competitive international racing event, always a dream for Sarath. Let’s hope Sarath will try his best for the Indian Tri-colour to fly high on Spanish soil,’’ added Nagarajan,

    Sarath has been preparing for this season intensively in Barcelona, Spain with his team both physically and mentally and is very confident of his upcoming performance in the debut race.

    Riding a Suter Honda Moto3 from Monlau Competicíon, Sarath is supported by SK-Sarath69 Sports Pvt Ltd an initiative by Actor/Politician R. Sarath Kumar. He will be India’s first representation in the prestigious and toughest Championship.

    For the first time a few Indian sponsors have signed up with Sarath to support him in the Spanish Championship.  Hello FM, Sidvin & British Nutritions are the key sponsors for this season.

    Sarath69: “ I would like to thank Mr R Sarath Kumar for making this day possible as this is a great step for me to learn and progress in my career. My team Monlau Competicíon has been working with me through the off-season and their efforts are showing results in the form of competitive lap times.’’

    Team Manager, Jose Carrion said: “We are very happy with Sarath’s progress over the last two months. He has been a fast learner and has improved step-by-step to provide competitive and consistent lap times during the testing. Now it is important to see his performance during the race and we are confident Sarath will gain enough experience and grow steadily.”

    R Sarath Kumar: “I am very proud that Sarath will become the first Indian to participate in the CEV Spanish Championship. It’s a very prestigious and tough race and I am confident that Sarath will learn and progress to bring laurels to our country. I am hoping that this initiative of mine will create many such opportunities for young sportspersons like Sarath from India and give them a opportunity to live their dream.”

    ends

  • Paul di Resta finishes a strong 4th in Bahrain GP

    Bahrain, 21 April 2013:It was a successful day for Sahara Force India in Bahrain as Paul Di Resta raced to a strong fourth place. Teammate Adrian Sutil’s hopes of points ended with a first lap puncture in the Bahrain GP, the fourth round of the FIA Formula One World Championship which was won by Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen in second and Romain Grosjean, who overtook Paul in the last few laps, made it a strong 2-3 finish for Lotus team. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel used a three-stop strategy to extend his drivers championship lead to 10 points. Vettel started from second on the grid on the P Zero White medium tyre and then completed two stints on the P Zero Orange hard tyre to seal his 28th career win by over nine seconds.Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen using a two-stop strategy and his team-mate Romain Grosjean coming third with a three-stop strategy. Grosjean passed Force India’s Paul di Resta, who was also on a two-stop strategy, in the closing stages to ensure that the 2013 Bahrain podium was identical to the podium line-up last year.

    Quotes from Sahara Force India stable:

    P4        Paul Di Resta VJM06-04
    Tyre strategy: Medium, Hard, Hard
    Paul: “It’s great to round off the fly-away races with a fourth place and a race that was probably my strongest Grand Prix. The podium was very close, but with our strategy we were always going to be vulnerable at the end of the race – especially to Grosjean who had two new sets of medium tyres. I had a good start to the race, a strong opening stint and we showed our true speed today, but ultimately fourth place was the maximum that was possible. We will get on the podium one day, hopefully soon, but for now we can be very happy with the points we’ve scored today. A big thanks to the whole team because it’s been an excellent weekend and I feel we managed to get 100% out of the car.”
    P13      Adrian Sutil    VJM06-03
    Tyre strategy: Medium, Hard, Hard, Medium
    Adrian: “It’s disappointing to get a puncture in a race that looked so promising. My start was clean and I was racing Massa going into turn four. I was on the outside; I gave him a lot of space but he was off-line and made contact with my front right tyre. I don’t know what he did exactly but I had a puncture immediately. I had to pit and lost a lot of time, which ended my chance of scoring points. I had amazing pace in the race and I just kept my head down to try and recover something from the race, but I had lost too much with the puncture. But I’m happy for the team and fourth place for Paul gives us more points. There are many more races to come so we will keep focused and next time score points with both cars.”
     
    Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director
    “A tremendous job by the team and a wonderful drive by Paul saw us come within a whisker of the podium today. Although we missed out on third, the twelve points scored keep us up in fifth place in the Championship and give us every reason to be optimistic for the coming races. Of course, we could have achieved so much more had Adrian not picked up a puncture on lap one. The contact with Massa proved very costly because Adrian’s race pace was on a par with Paul’s and we should have brought both cars home in the points. We will focus on the positives and enjoy this fourth place, which has confirmed the pace of the car and shown once again that we can race up at the front and beat some of the top teams.”
    ends

     

  • Hamilton gets first pole for Mercedes AMG Petronas

    Shanghai, 13 April 2013: Lewis Hamilton secured his first pole position for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS at the Shanghai International Circuit on Saturday for the UBS Chinese Grand Prix, the third round of the FIA Formula One World Championship. Team-mate Nico Rosberg qualified in fourth place and will start from the second row of the grid.

    • Both drivers completed just one run on the soft compound option tyre in each of three qualifying sessions
    • Lewis finished top of the timesheets in every session and secured pole by just over two and a half tenths
    • Nico qualified in fourth place, despite losing time in P3 this morning with a hydraulics problem
    Lewis Hamilton 
    Pole position is a great result for us today and to achieve it in my third race for the team is such a good feeling. I had to make sure the radio was off after my engineer told me I had pole because I was so excited! None of us expected this level of performance at this stage of the season and it’s a real bonus. The guys have just been working away, pushing really hard, and I’m so pleased for everyone back at the factories and here at the track that I’ve been able to deliver my first pole in a Silver Arrow. It would be great to convert the position in the race tomorrow but it’s going to be a challenge and we’re realistic about how tough the race will be. The soft tyres don’t last for very long, and with a couple of quick guys starting on the mediums, it’ll be interesting to see how the race plays out. I’m looking forward to it and will give it my all.

    Nico Rosberg 
    A very good team result today and P4 is a decent grid position for me. I wasn’t able to do my qualifying simulation this morning due to the hydraulic problem which was a bit unfortunate. So I needed to catch up through the qualifying sessions and find my way. I took some settings from Lewis for the initial set-up which worked out well. I made a small mistake at the last corner on my lap in Q3 which cost maybe a tenth and a couple of places. But I’m in a good position for the race and we’ve worked a lot on the race performance this weekend so I hope we can gain some places tomorrow. It’s going to be an interesting race with some of the guys starting on the medium tyres so let’s see what happens.

    Ross Brawn 
    A great qualifying session for us today and all credit to Lewis, Nico and the team for a strong performance. It’s a nice reward for all the hard work both here at the track and back at our factories in Brackley and Brixworth over the winter and in the last few weeks as we continue to develop the car. However there are no points gained on a Saturday as they say and there is a tough job ahead of us tomorrow to convert our qualifying positions. It’s going to be a fascinating race from a strategy and tyre perspective so we will wait and see how it plays out. Congratulations to Lewis today on his first pole position in a Silver Arrow, and to Nico for achieving fourth place and the second row despite losing his qualifying simulation this morning.

    Toto Wolff 
    Congratulations to Lewis and Nico. We’re really happy about our pole position today at the Chinese Grand Prix, which the team achieved for the second year in a row. Lewis’s performance was excellent and Nico also did a great job to qualify in fourth place following a hydraulic problem which prevented him from completing his qualifying run in practice this morning. Today’s results are a nice reward for everybody at the team who have worked so hard during the winter to develop the F1 W04 into a competitive car. However we will not get ahead of ourselves with this result as we expect an interesting race which will be decided by the different tyre strategies. A few competitors have chosen to qualify on prime tyres to run a longer first stint instead of the options which we and most of the runners used in Q3.

    ends