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Tag: Pirelli
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Tyre changes caused Force India’s dip in fortunes: Bob Fearnley
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Bob FEARNLEY (Sahara
Bob Fearnley. Photo by Sahara Force India Force India), Tony FERNANDES (Caterham), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Let’s start with today’s two practice sessions. Bob, if I could turn to you first. Progress made or was it a bit of a struggle for the team?
Bob FEARNLEY: It was a little bit of a struggle but I think we saw a little bit of progress in FP2, so optimistic.
Same optimism for you Franz?
Franz TOST: Yes, if we find seven to eight tenths then I’m optimistic for tomorrow.
Any chance?
FT: I hope so. The engineers have some time now. It’s a wonderful night and I’m convinced that they can study all the data and they will find a solution for tomorrow’s set-up.
For yourself, Eric, one of your drivers spent more time on the track than the other. Romain Grosjean had problems.
Eric BOULLIER: Yeah, it’s a concern in these early days but it should be fixed for tomorrow. Some issues yes on Romain Grosjean’s steering, power steering and hydraulics but still fast, and obviously happy with the second session when we could see on the high fuel pace Kimi was matching the so fast Red Bull cars, so we’ll see tomorrow,
At Williams, Valtteri Bottas, driving here for the first time, was slightly faster than his team-mate Pastor Maldonado.
Claire WILLIAMS: He was but I think we’re still where we are and I don’t think that was a surprise. We had a few changes to the car this weekend that we have evaluated so we have a lot of data to go through and we’ll see where we are tomorrow.
And Tony and Caterham?
Tony FERNANDES: As Claire said: we are where we are. Young drivers who get used to the track every practice session and we improve every session, so we’re expecting a bit more out of FP3 but we are where we are.
Eric, if I could turn to you next. Not for the first time in Formula One history we’ve seen drivers and engineers leave Enstone recently to head off to Ferrari. How concerned are you about the impact the departures of Kimi Raikkonen, James Allison and Dirk de Beer will have on Lotus regarding your future competitiveness.
EB: Not so high as you could maybe surprisingly imagine. It’s true that it’s a new chapter for Enstone, we lose valuable people and obviously a very charismatic driver. But as you said it happened twice already in the Enstone and every time the team has been world champion right after. So actually I’m quite motivated saying let’s start a new chapter and do as well or as good as happened before.
Claire, you’ve strengthened your staff at Williams. Pat Symonds, just over a month ago, started as Chief Technical Officer. Have you started to notice differences yet? What areas has Pat identified that you need to make improvements in. And also, will you be looking to bring others in in the future?
CW: I think Pat started just before Spa, so he hasn’t been with the team for a huge amount of time, but already we’re seeing the impact he’s having. He’s a guy that’s worked in Formula One for a huge amount of time and he has a huge amount of experience. He’s won numerous world championships and of course that’s going to bring with it a level of experience we really need at Williams. So he’s definitely looking… or spending a lot of time at Grove. He’s not here with us this weekend, he’s got critical meetings to attend to back at the factory, making sure we are where we want to be next season. But we all know that he’s not the magic bullet but he’s doing a great job for us so far and we will take his advice and see what we need to do once he’s had time to evaluate the business as a whole.
Franz, at the end of the season you and Toro Rosso say goodbye to Daniel Ricciardo, his replacement expected to be another Red Bull young development driver. As team principal, what are you looking for from whoever gets that seat. What qualities do you think a young driver to bring to be an asset to Toro Rosso.
FT: The best one is always when he finds the right-hand pedal and pushes it – that’s quite good. Generally speaking he has to be skilled; he has to have talent. For example, currently the Red Bull drivers, all the drivers from the Red Bull driver pool, have won a championship when they were racing in a lower class. Vettel, for example, in BMW junior. Daniel Ricciardo as well as [Daniil] Kvyat and [Carlos] Sainz won in the Renault 2.0 litre championship. Jean-Eric Vergne won the English championship as far as I know, with the highest number of victories. That means this is a good basis where they showed their talent. This is the first point. The second point: they must be patient. That means if a driver is coming to Toro Rosso he has to live Formula One 365 days a year. There should be nothing around that disturbs him and he has to be 100% concentrated on this job. The next important point is discipline. Discipline does not only mean he arrives in time for the meetings, discipline means also that he, for example, in qualifying does not overdrive the car; that he respects the schedule for his physical training; that he respects all the important facts of nutrition and that he respects what the engineers tell him. The next important point is innovation. He should think first how he can beat, at first his team-mate and for second all the other competitors. That he must think in advance; that he must be well prepared. All these factors together decide together whether a driver becomes successful and wins races and championships or not, and we are looking for this.
On a similar note to Franz, if I could turn to you Tony, is that the same at Caterham? Are they the qualities you’re looking at or do you have to look more at the budget that a driver can bring as well given the situation that the Caterham team is in?
TF: I think this year was the first year that we took the budget into consideration. We were trying to save as much for 2014. This is the state of Formula One right now where unfortunately sometimes the budget plays a large part in your decision making. We’ve got two fairy inexperienced drivers driving for us in the hope that we can put more resource into the 2014 car.
Q: Bob, we were talking to Adrian Sutil here yesterday. It was his opinion the recent dip in Force India’s form was related to the change in the construction of the tyres that we saw halfway through the season. Is that a view you share? And if so, what as a team can you do to combat the downturn in results before the end of the season?
BF: I think Adrian’s absolutely right: it’s not coincidental that the dip in form obviously ties in with the change in tyres. It’s very difficult because we’re past the time in the season where we’ve already committed through to the 2014 car. We ideally would need to put the 2013 car back into the system. I think what we’ve got to do – and it might not be very exciting – but I think we’ve got to just eke the best of the performance we can out of it, we’ve got a great team of engineers and I feel sure that they will overcome the problem but we’ve got to do it on the track and we’ve only got Fridays to do that. So it’s challenging and it’s going to be a little bit tough and it’s disappointing after what was an incredible start to the season – but we are where we are and we can’t change things.
Q: Question to you all next regarding costs in Formula One. We heard from Christian Horner in the FIA press conference in Monza, his thoughts that although teams have been working to reduce costs, 2014 looks like being a very, very expensive year with the regulation changes. In his words, “collectively,” he said, “the mistake the teams made was not saying ‘no’ to the new engines.” I just wonder, do you share his view? Have costs escalated beyond what’s ideally realistic for your teams to deal with the larger outfits on the grid? Start with you Tony.
TF: I’ve been consistent since day one I’ve been in Formula One that costs are too high and every… when I came into Formula One, people talked to me about costs coming down but I don’t think there’s been a single year it’s come down. I think next year will be probably the highest year – so I think there’s something fundamentally wrong. I don’t think it’s just the engine, by the way, I think the teams lost out an opportunity to get costs under control. I think self-interest overrode the sport and we are as much to blame for this problem as an engine.
Franz, is that a fair assessment?
FT: Yes, as I said, next year’s power unit package costs are double the price of this years and we are always talking of reducing the costs. Regarding now that power unit, on the one hand we must say Formula One is the peak of motorsport and we should come with new innovations. I think the new package from another point of view is quite economical and is quite interesting – but it costs us a huge amount of money. But the teams are stupid enough to decide to do tests during the season. This is totally a waste of money because we have eight test days and as soon as the car goes out on the track it costs money. But the teams want to do it. On the one hand they’re complaining they don’t have money, on the other hand, they throw it through the window. It’s a little bit difficult to understand for me but we were voted down because we were against the tests. And who wants the tests? The rich teams. As usual.
I’d be interested in your thoughts now Eric.
EB: It’s true that Formula One is costing too much money and regarding the next year engine, I do agree with Franz, F1 needs technology, this is the pinnacle of motorsport. I think just rather than blaming engine or not, it’s more about the process, about how this technology has been developed and sold to the team, which should have been controlled more. F1 needs technology, we need car manufacturers, we need obviously sponsors but we cannot afford to spend more and more every year. I was not there personally but last decade car manufacturers were in this place and the lowest budget in F1 was around $250m and the highest about $400m. Today it’s not the case any more and the smallest budget is around $60m and the highest is around $250m. But still, it’s… you multiply by four. If you want to be competitive you need to spend unfortunately some money, because you cannot afford if not, and you cannot be competitive then… This is a circle: you are not attractive, you do not bring in any new sponsors… so where is the balance? I think it’s a complicated debate. Obviously all the teams should stick together first, which is obviously something very difficult to do, and also sit down with Bernie and the FIA and make sure the regulations are stable at least for the next few years. I think in the new strategy committee we have a chance to voice what we would like to do. That’s going to be the first step, to make sure we go to a sustainable Formula One.
Claire, to you next.
CW: I don’t think I really have much more to add. Everyone’s covered the arguments. Williams, you know, we’re an independent team and we rely on sponsorships to go racing so the escalation in costs for next year across various different elements of what is involved in going racing, aren’t great for us and we have to just push and push to try to get the budget in for next year. But we have high ambitions as to where we want to position the team and to get the team back up the grid – but to do that is going to take more money. So to have more costs piled on top of each other, it’s going to be a challenge for us.
Bob, where do Force India stand on the current debate?
BF: I think the teams have demonstrated that they are not capable of being able to agree a cost control, so I think the answer is to take it outside of the team’s control. I think it’s up to the FIA to decide a formula, bring that in and implement it.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Chris Lyons – AP) Eric, Kimi said yesterday that one of the reasons he left was that he wasn’t being paid his salary. Can you clarify the details of that and does the fact that this has come out damage the brand of the team?
EB: I don’t think it’s damaging the brand of the team to be honest. The truth is that yes, we owe him money so that’s true. He’s going to be paid, that’s true too and if you want to have a little bit more of the story, last year in the same period it was the same story: we were owing him some money but at the end of the year he was fully paid. It’s just the way we manage our cash flow. Unfortunately we are not as rich as some other teams on the grid. You can also understand that a team capable of winning this year and fighting for some podiums may not be as sustainable as it should be. We have obviously favoured our people working in Enstone which is understandable I think, obviously the car development because this is the essence of Formula One if you want to keep competing. So there is nothing else behind this story.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Just to lighten it up a bit, in two or words or in the case of Franz, three, can you say who’s going to be driving for you next year or who do you think will be driving for you next year? Tony?
TF: No idea.
CW: I have two: no comment.
EB: No.
FT: We will see. The season’s not finished yet. There are some races to go and then Red Bull will sit together and then we will decide.
BF: It’s Vijay’s decision.
Q: If I could re-phrase the question, do you all have in your own mind an idea of who you would like to be driving for you, or is your mind still wide open as to what your final pairing would be?
TF: I would have one pretty clear and one open.
CW: Yes, in one word.
EB: Yes.
FT: Of course the Red Bull drivers – da Costa, Sainz and Kvyat – and then we will see where we end up.
BF: No, ours is a process, we can’t make those decisions at this point. It’s something we do after the Indian Grand Prix.
Q: (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Eric, with Kimi leaving and the state of the team at the moment, are you after a driver to come in on a salary or are you looking for someone to bring funding?
EB: We keep the same strategy that we’ve had for many months. Geni helped us to bring the team to where it is today. We now want to have more finance, more sponsors because we need to step up and guarantee some stability over a few years. That’s part of the strategy, this is what we are still working on and we need to deliver on that point. We see the timing was not the right one for Kimi but we still have to deliver this. That would then allow us to chose drivers on merit which is obviously the first choice.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Claire, you mentioned earlier about the difficulties of ensuring that you have enough budget, the way that it’s an annual process. We’ve been reading in the papers recently about troubles with the Venezuelan economy. I was wondering if that was going to have an impact on your operating budget next year.
CW: We have a long term relationship with our friends in Venezuela so no, I don’t really have a concern about that at the moment.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Lady and gentlemen, you’re constantly going on about cost-cutting in Formula One, how costs must be reduced but as any housewife knows, there are two ways of keeping the household going: one is to reduce costs and the other one is to maximise income. Claire, you said earlier on that your source of income is sponsorship but I would have thought that the commercial rights holder also pays you something, and the commercial rights holder is obviously recording record profits. Is it not easier for the teams to club together to go and get more money out of the commercial rights holder than it is to constantly bang on about reducing costs and not reach agreement?
TF: I think the team didn’t get together. The teams had a wonderful opportunity to try and create a fair, equitable split so that the sport is sustainable. I’m obviously in another sport where I think the difference between the top and the bottom is not as great as between the top and the bottom in Formula One. If you look at the Premier League, the winner of the Premier League share of prize versus the team at the bottom is not as spread out. I think teams had an opportunity but I go back to my very first point: that teams looked at things on an individual basis as opposed to working together in FOTA and trying to find a win-win situation for everyone and create a very healthy environment in a sustainable sport. We screwed it up, it’s as simple as that.
BF: I tend to agree with Tony. I think we’ve had wonderful opportunities and we’ve collectively failed to be able to bring the deals together. There’s a certain amount of greed comes in from the top teams as well and I think they have to take some of the responsibility for that but it is Formula One, it’s not something that’s new, there’s never been any equality in Formula One so you have to go out there and make sure it happens for yourself.
FT: Each team has got the Concorde Agreement, at least from a financial side and if teams do not accept it, they don’t need to sign it. It’s as easy as that. And if they sign it, they have to accept it. There’s nothing to complain of from this side. I think first of all the teams should try to come down with the costs. It’s easy to say yes, we should get more money but give the engineers one million and they ask for two. Give them four million and they ask for eight million. It’s something about the discipline within the teams and as I mentioned before, we decide by ourselves to spend the money for nothing as I explain with the testing. If the teams get more money, they go testing even more and in my opinion that’s wrong.
CW: I think everyone’s said it all really. In my experience, this is the way Formula One has always been so unless you have a seismic change in the future, then I imagine it will remain this way but as people have said, the teams may have had an opportunity but unfortunately they didn’t take it.
EB: Well, I think it’s been debated and it’s true that I share the view of the other team principals that we may have missed an opportunity to just sit down with the commercial rights holder and re-negotiate something which could have been more in favour of the teams but we failed. I think on top of this it’s not one more or less costs, I think it should be both of them to be honest, because, as Franz said, the more money you get, the more money we will spend if you don’t have any safeguards around you. Your engineers will always try to find out the best way to be competitive and this is why we are paying them to be like this, but at the same time, the more open the regulations are, the more we will spend money and waste money. So it’s true that we need both.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) On the question of testing, can anyone of you think of a good argument this time next year when Bernie says ‘look, you’ve gone to four tests, you haven’t earned any money, why don’t we have four more races in 2015?’
EB: Four is not enough. Ten more is better.
Q: Could you race more, is that possible?
FT: This is what I always request. I prefer to have more races where we gain money instead of spending money for nothing, therefore I would prefer to maybe have two races more or three or four races more – I don’t care – instead of going testing for eight days where we go out to do some laps for nothing in the end, because reliability – as we can see – is no longer an issue. Ten, 15, 20 years ago we could say OK, we need to do some tests so that the cars become more reliable. That’s no longer the case. What we are doing now is to create a new test team, because the theory that the race team will do the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday is absolutely wrong because they have to go home to prepare the cars for the next race. That means that on Sunday, the test team will fly in, then we do the test on Tuesday, Wednesday, then they go back. It’s not only testing, it means bringing new parts, because the development will be increase and these are the costs.
CW: I think there are so many considerations. Like Franz said, the major one for bringing testing in is that you’ve got to create a new support team. A few years ago, Williams disbanded – whatever the word would be – our designated test team so now we’re looking at additional costs to create a new test team because you can’t have your race mechanics and engineers working that amount of time but then there are other considerations. Could you use those days for a young driver development programme, for example, that could bring in revenue for the teams? So it’s definitely conversations that we’re having internally at the moment to see which would be better whereas I don’t know whether… you bring in four more races a year or… Eric wanting ten more races. You’re going to have to bring in more personnel to support that as well, so I think again, it’s all about costs isn’t it?
EB: Just to comment on this, when I said ten more races, I know we face the same problem that today we have a team sized for twenty races, so if we go one or two more races, I think we would struggle if we could do it, but if you had ten more we would have to have a second team. This is why I said ten actually, because four races would be difficult but it’s better to race than test.
BF: I think Eric’s got a very good point there in terms of the amount of races, but the advantage you have of testing as opposed to having two or three races imposed on you is if you could make the choice of whether you wanted to go testing. You don’t have to do that, you do have to do races.
Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sports) Eric, since Ferrari’s announcement, the two names that have been linked to the seat (at Lotus) have been Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa. Where does this leave Romain Grosjean in this situation; is his future with the team secure or could you completely change your line-up for next season?
EB: His future is secure so far because he has a contract with us. Last year was a bit difficult for him; this year he’s doing a great job. In the last four races, we have nothing to complain about. He was one hundred per cent up to speed, especially compared to his famous teammate. We just see now and monitor what he is doing and if everything is going as planned, he will have a great future with us.
Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens – Honorary) One question: I might have missed something but you are all talking about a missed opportunity regarding next year. Why did you miss it?
EB: We couldn’t sit down together and clearly we missed the opportunity by not taking the chance to conclude the process.
Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens – Honorary) Aren’t you grown-up enough to do that?
CW: We’re all too competitive.
FT: We do not only compete on the race track, also behind the scenes, around the green table.
Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens – Honorary) Just a comment, and I agree with Franz when it comes to testing, but your father, Claire, once said, a few years ago when there was a lot of testing, that ‘the first race of the year, my car is about half a second slower than the quickest one. Then we go testing. At the end of the year, my car is quicker but still half a second slower than the quickest one.’ So why go testing and, as Franz says, spend a lot of money?
CW: That’s true. Yeah. I do think that there is an argument that over the course of a year, if you start the season… to use an example, where we were at the start of this year, if we had had the opportunity to do some test days after the first few races, after Bahrain or Barcelona, it may have helped us, we don’t know, so I think there’s an argument for both sides.
Q: To pick up on Freddie’s original question, Tony is there a feeling among the teams that are represented today that you haven’t got the voice that is heard, that missed opportunity that you’re talking about. I assume that your opinion was given at various meetings. Was your voice not heard? Was that the problem?
TF: No, I don’t think so. I think there were numerous meetings, loads and loads of meetings, loads and loads of proposals but at the end of the day, some teams decided to split and when that happens, it’s a divide and rule situation and the whole thing falls apart. I don’t think it was anything else but that. There was lots of unity at the beginning but one by one, people decided to do their own thing.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) I would like to continue this particular debate about cost-cutting and maximising income. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that the teams screwed up in not maximising the income they could get from the commercial rights holder. The general consensus of opinion also appears to be that the FIA should control cost cuts. Am I correct in assuming then, that you people are asking the FIA to control something because you people screwed up?
BF: I think that was my comment, actually Dieter. I don’t think anybody else made that. My view is that the teams can’t agree what day it is, never mind be able to agree cost-cutting measures…
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Tony used the words ‘screwed up…’
TF: Yeah, I do. I don’t honestly think that if someone mentioned grown-ups etc around here, if we all sat together and agreed something, we wouldn’t need anyone to police it. The reality is we can’t. In my short period in Formula One it’s very clear, so I think someone here suggested the FIA controls that but the reality is that if 12 people in a room can’t agree something, then that sounds fairly ridiculous, but going back to Claire’s point, the competitive element of it leads us to this position and historically that’s always been the case I suppose.
CW: I don’t necessarily actually have anything more to add to it.
FT: For me, the FIA should not be involved in financial topics, but the FIA can come up with a regulation which helps the teams to cut the costs but then it’s obviously up to the teams to spend the money.
EB: Nothing else to add, to be honest.
Ends
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I’m pleased and relieved; I look forward to racing with Red Bull: Ricciardo
5 Sept 2013:
An F1 Steering wheel. Photo from FIA photo gallery DRIVERS – Max CHILTON (Marussia), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Felipe MASSA (Ferrari), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Let’s start with the man of the moment, who I don’t expect has stopped smiling since the announcement was made a few days ago that he is going to be joining Red Bull Racing next year. A fantastic moment for you Daniel, but how easy is it going to be for you to concentrate for the remainder of the season? How will you keep that focus?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Good afternoon everyone, how’re you going? I think it’s a bit of a relief now that there’s no more speculation and no more dodging questions and all the rest of it. Everyone knows what’s happening, including me. It’s nice. It’s something to look forward to and obviously I’m very pleased with the news but I have eight more races this year and looking forward to giving Toro Rosso a nice farewell I hope and I’ll put all my energy into that. I think this weekend will of course be a bit hectic because the news is fresh but I think from this point on it should start to settle down and get back to normal stuff.
Mark, I guess you’re very pleased it’s gone to your compatriot, but also it must be quite difficult for you with these remaining races. This one for example hasn’t always been kind to you. Talk about your end of season in some ways.
Mark WEBBER: The writing was on the wall for me. I knew once I made the decision that the season was going to come to a close eventually. The clock doesn’t stop in Formula One and I’m actually happy about that, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the decision. Looking forward to getting as much silverware and the best results I can before the year’s out and Brazil Sunday night, the next chapter. Yeah, it’s all good.
Pleased for Dan?
MW: Of course, yeah. It’s very, very rare to have any Australians in Formula One but to have us I suppose handing the baton over in a very, very successful team… it’s great for Dan obviously, he thoroughly deserves it. The junior categories for him in Europe initially is a great test. Not easy for us to come from that part of the world, which he’s done brilliantly with. It’s the perfect scenario I think for the team, it all fits very, very well. After DC and myself they’ve finally got another driver from the junior programme, which is what it’s all about. So that fits in very, very well. Perfect age. It’s all in his corner. So he can do a tremendous job and yeah, it works out well for him.
Jenson, what’s your situation contract wise?
Jenson BUTTON: Good afternoon everyone. As all contracts are, confidential.
Have you signed?
JB: Not yet.
Are you happy to stay with McLaren?
JB: Yes, I’m very happy to stay where I am. I think it’s very easy, when times are difficult, to look elsewhere but when you’re in a team like McLaren that has been fighting at the front for so many years it’s definitely the wrong move to move elsewhere. I feel I have a very good family in the team and at the end of last year we had the quickest car on the grid. We don’t now but it could easily come our way again next season. I feel we are making good progress so this is the right place to be.
Max, similar question to you. You just had your best qualifying and best result as well, what’s your situation with the team at this stage?
Max CHILTON: Good afternoon everyone, I hope you’re having a good day. My situation is the same as it’s been all year. I’ve got a one-year contract. Obviously I’m a rookie and so is Jules and we’re here to learn as much as we can. You learn a lot before you get to Formula One but there’s an awful lot when you do get to Formula One as well. So the main thing I’m trying to do is focus on my skills, get the most out of the car and do the best job for the team. I think for the last couple of races it has been difficult for us but we still have got that 10th place in the championship, so it’s key for us to get the most out of the car when we have the opportunity to get a good race result and if we can get another 12th or 13th that would really help us in the overall championship.
And is there a deadline?
MC: For contract?
Yes.
MC: Not that I know. All I know is the team are happy to keep both of us and I’ll just keep trying to do the best job I can.
Felipe, I guess a similar question to you: what have you got to do to continue with Ferrari?
Felipe MASSA: Good results are always important, so I’ll just concentrate on that. There is a big opportunity to carry on with Ferrari, so I just need to concentrate, trying to do the best we can over the car and that’s what I’m looking for.
We’ll move on to Fernando. This is the next step in your fight-back for the championship. Is the car getting better? Are you optimistic? What’s the feeling as you come to this Italian Grand Prix? You’re a two-time winner here?
Fernando ALONSO: I’m optimistic. For sure I think in Spa we saw some step forward from us and we hope to continue that direction and keep improving here in Monza. The characteristics of the track should help our performance as well. We have everything in place to do a good weekend. We need to deliver when comes the time in Sunday in the race but we arrive with some good confidence and ready to fight. I think for us it will be a stronger test at the Singapore race when we come back to the maximum level of downforce etc and there we will see how much of a step forward we did but let’s concentrate on this weekend. Let’s try to do the maximum and let’s try to finish in front of our main rivals.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speed Sport News) A question for Daniel. At Spa the team told us they had not officially signed anybody. Between Spa and now when did you learn you had the seat?
DR: To be honest, in Spa, as I said, I still didn’t know – that was the truth. I found out, I think it was Wednesday that following week, so a few days before the announcement took place. I can confirm I still didn’t know at Spa, so no lies being told there. Yeah, that’s it.
Q: (Miguel Angel Sainz Bernardino – Marca) Question for Fernando. What result do you need here and in Singapore to avoid Ferrari stopping the development of the car this year? Two wins?
FA: I don’t think two wins is something that we can put up like a target, y’know? We’ve won two grand prix until now in the championship so we will be a little bit too optimistic if we really think that we can win the next two races. We will try to do so and we will hope for the best but more realistic targets are to finish in front of Sebastian. I think it is a target that we want to do in the last couple of grands prix, we didn’t arrive to a situation to close the gap, we only close the gap in Silverstone when he retired. So, we need to change this situation. We will be happy finishing in front of him, I think, here in Monza and in Singapore. Finishing in front of Sebastian means being on the podium. Minimum. Because we know how strong he is and how competitive Red Bull will be. So, two podiums and finishing in front of Sebastian is, I think, the target for these next two grands prix. If we cannot do so, if we keep losing points, obviously we need to start thinking about the 2014 project because we’ll be only six or seven races remaining with massive points [deficit] so important weeks coming for sure.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Fernando, you just bought a cycling team. Considering the amount of work you have to do as a racing driver, how can you imagine to commit yourself into this team?
FA: Well, it was one week with a lot of work, to be honest. Two or three batteries, telephone every day and it was some things to do. Now, more or less, that’s everything complete. All the decisions and all the work that we need to do for the cycling team will be passed to other people, some managers and some sportive directors that we need to find. We need to find sponsors, we need to do a lot of things in the next month, let’s say, because the first race is in the middle of January in Australia. It’s not something that we can delay much more. It’s a very ambitious project with a lot of hopes on it. I will not, as I said, put too much percentage of my days on the bicycle team, especially now that we are fighting for the championship. But when I arrive in wintertime, or something like that, hopefully we can create a solid project. Not so much for 2014 because I don’t think there are many riders now with possibilities to sign but for 2015 onwards we need to create something big. So we will work a little bit.
MW: I think Adrian will design the bikes…
FA: …he’s too busy
Q: (Pablo Grau – F1Aldia.com) Jenson, you did a good job in Spa, what do you expect in Monza, a very fast track?
JB: Yeah, Spa was alright. It’s quite difficult to get excited about sixth place but in terms of the pace of the car it was pretty good. Fourth after turn one and finishing sixth isn’t so bad. So yeah, we’re hoping for a bit more of an improvement. I think we’ve unlocked a little bit of performance with the car and we’re pretty close to challenging the cars in front. Whether we can do that here or not I don’t know. It’s a very low downforce circuit here and I think we have a pretty good low downforce package, so we will see. I think after three or four laps tomorrow we’ll know where we stand in terms of how the downforce is working and the efficiency of it.
Q: (Adrian Huber Rodriguez – Agencia EFE) Fernando, it’s certainly not match-point right now but how would you describe the situation? Could it be like a set-point? How do you feel yourself, psychologically? Are you worried, are you anxious, are you angry, are you optimistic, how are you?
FA: For what?
Q: The situation in the World Championship
FA: I’m relaxed. I think when you do the maximum and you maximise normally the potential of the car and of yourself, finding the limits every time you are behind the wheel, you feel relaxed yourself and happy with the work. Of course we want to fight for the championship like we did last year until the last race, and this year we see that slowly the gap in the championship is increasing every weekend, so we want to stop that. We need to change that situation and hopefully this weekend is the starting point. It’s still plenty of races, plenty of opportunities, plenty of points to play. We believe that we can do it. So let’s start from this weekend.
Q: (Silvia Renée Arias – Revista Parabrisas) Felipe, this is a very, very important race for you, you said before, that these two races were important for you, Spa and Monza. How do you feel in terms of the performance of your car? Is it important to have a car good enough to prove and do something well?
FM: I feel that the car was more competitive in Spa than in Hungary. I think it was important for us. I believe we can have a good car here. In the last years, even last year maybe, the car was not so competitive in the season but we had a good race in Monza. We find a good direction for this race, so I hope we can have a good car here so that we can fight and have a great race. Not just here but the second part of the season much better than the first part.
Q: (Michael Neudecker – Süddeutsche Zeitung) Fernando, again a cycling question, can you talk about your new team, if you have a name already? And can you talk about your passion for cycling and your relationship to Alberto Contador?
FA: Not name yet. As I said, we are waiting for sponsors – you want to write that – what we want is to have a team that can fight for the best things. My passion for cycling has been from a very young age and I do cycling as part of my training and also as part of my life. I’m always in front of the TV or checking the results. Very good friends in the cycling world. We talk of relationship with riders. Alberto is a good friend of mine. This project tried to best things of the two sports. I want to bring to Formula One the best things that cycling can teach me in terms of sacrifice, determination, discipline, training. And I want to bring to my cycling team the best things of Formula One. There are many and hopefully in the team next year, in the cycling, we can see some of the great things of Formula One, in terms of organization, image marketing, professionalism. Let’s try to put the best for the best.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Daniel, what can one realistically expect from you at the beginning of next year? Do you expect to start the season very close to Sebastian or do you have any plan to be there in the second part of the season?
DR: Obviously, I would love to be as competitive as I can as quickly as possible, so for me, I’ll obviously finish the season as strongly as possible with Toro Rosso, but as soon as it’s finished, switch my focus to 2014, try and put in a really good off-season, at least do as much as I can to prepare myself to be there for the first race. I know it’s obviously not going to be as easy as it seems but the best thing I can do is push myself as much as I can. I have one of the best teammates in the world now to measure myself against so no better man to have but him and push myself as hard as I can.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, next Saturday in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Tokyo, Madrid fight for the Olympic Games in 2020. What are you feelings about Madrid, a city that you know very well and why do you think Madrid deserves the Olympic Games?
FA: Well, let’s hope so. I think Madrid deserves finally to host the Olympic Games. This is the third time that they try to host it and this time, hopefully, it will be the good one. I think the effort that the city and the country is making is quite good, there is a lot of success in Spanish sport in the last eight or ten years, that hopefully can convince the people. There is the enthusiasm from the whole country to host it, maximum support and we really want it. I know that it will be close. In Spain, we think that the Spanish possibilities are very high. I know that outside of Spain they are relatively less and maybe the favourite is Tokyo but we keep our fingers crossed until Saturday.
Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Felipe, last year you struggled in the first part of the season but you could identify what was wrong and after the summer break you were very competitive. This year you started very well, but after Monaco, your results haven’t been up to the same standard as before. Can you pinpoint what’s gone wrong in this second part of the season?
FM: I think that what is important to say is that this year the performance was good at every race. We couldn’t put together the results at the end of the race. I was not very lucky in so many things. I had two races where I had problems with the tyres. I spun at the Nurburgring, problem with the suspension in Monaco. For sure so many things happened that I couldn’t finish where I was supposed to but the performance was there. I think that’s important. I just need to put everything together and finish races where I’m supposed to and then I think the performance will be there and the results will be there as well.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, how long do you want to wait for Ferrari’s decision about your future?
FM: I think you need to ask this question of Stefano (Domenicali).
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, you’ve bought this ‘bike team; I would like to know if there is any possibility that you might take a year off, concentrate on the bicycle team and then maybe take the opportunity for the future when the turbo era builds up and we know how the situation is between teams? Is this crazy or is there a realistic chance of this?
FA: Never an option. I’m in the best moment of my career, I’m with the best experience and performing at the best time. I will not miss any opportunity now. I know that I’m still in very good shape for maybe four, five more years so for sure I will give 100 percent of my passion that is motor sport and my career. After these four or five years, I will see what condition I am in and if I’m performing well. If I’m not feeling good any more, maybe I will think but as I said, I will be 100 percent committed for the next four or five years.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Daniel, changing teams always involves a bit of transition and adjustment. Moving to a team like Red Bull involves that transition under an awful lot of pressure. Are there are any steps you can take this year to ease the transition, given the relationship between the two teams, working more with the engineers, learning more about how to operate inside the big Red Bull team?
DR: I think I’m pretty fortunate to spend some time with Red Bull Racing in the past as a reserve driver. At Toro Rosso, we still go to Milton Keynes to use the simulator so I see a fair chunk of the team, also away from race weekends. Obviously, now that the news is out I will try and if I get some extra time to start to mould a relationship with the crew for next year, yeah, so I’ll ease into it and by December when we really start, I will already try and establish a good relationship with the guys and understand the way they work. As I say, I’m quite fortunate, I already understand a little bit about it, so a little bit of a head start.
Q: (Mineoki Yoneya – La Vie Creative) Question to both of the Ferrari drivers: talking about Suzuka, how can you make the difference from the other drivers in terms of driving, and do you have any plans to visit somewhere in Japan?
FA: Well, Suzuka is probably the most enjoyable race track of the year so it’s always very special to go there but as I said, for the fantastic layout of the track, also for the fans, also for the passion that we always live when we are in Suzuka. We race after Korea so we will spend from Monday to Thursday probably in Tokyo, relaxing a little bit and preparing for the race and then in Suzuka, just concentrating on the weekend. No special plans to do crazy things but every thing there is a little bit special so we will try to enjoy it as always.
FM: Yeah, I think it’s the same. Suzuka is a fantastic place, fantastic track to race on, one of the best, so it’s very nice to be in Japan. I love to go to Japan. As Fernando said, we’re going to spend a few days during the week after the Korean race in Tokyo, a great place to be as well, so really looking forward to racing in Suzuka and having a great race there for the fans as they are some of the best fans in Formula One.
Q: (Giorgio Pasini – Tuttosport) Mark, do you have any suggestions for Daniel in order to manage the relationship with Sebastian; maybe the knife from Crocodile Dundee?
MW: Daniel will handle it fine. He knows how to handle himself so he’ll be OK.
DR: I think that’s obviously for me to figure out. As Mark said, I’ll be right.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, what do you think about teams with two top drivers? Also looking at the past, what is your opinion? What are the positive things and negative things in this kind of situation?
FA: I think it’s a good thing. There is always, in the top teams, the need to have two very good drivers because they fight for World Championships, they fight for Constructors points and they fight for winning every race they go to, so you cannot have only one driver. This has always been the case in the top teams, always the case in Ferrari, in McLaren, Red Bull now. At the end, or in the middle of the year, there is always one driver who has scored more points than the others and maybe a year later it’s the opposite, the other driver has scored more points. This is the way it is and you need to start or reset to zero every winter and start in the same conditions again and try to build up the points a little bit. So I think this is quite normal in our sport.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, what kind of result do you need here in Monza to hope to stay with Ferrari next season?
FM: Well, I think I definitely need a good race. That’s always important. I think it’s important to try to use the car in the maximum way it is possible. I think that’s what gives you pleasure, even if you don’t win the race but you did the best you could. I think that’s always the most important thing. The team can see that, race by race, all the time. You cannot forget that Ferrari knows me very well. It’s the team that knows me most. About experience, we know how important next year is as well. Everything starts from zero: different car, different rules, everything, so the driver’s experience is important as well. Sometimes you just look at the results of this race; that’s not what counts the most. I think it’s everything together. But anyway, it’s always important to do the maximum we can in this race and try to use the best of the car that we’re going to have this weekend.
Q: (Bob McKenzie – Daily Express) Fernando, your name was mentioned a few times in the Red Bull situation. Were you at all interested in the Red Bull seat? Would you have gone up against Vettel or do you think you’ll finish at Ferrari? Would you be interested in going to Red Bull at any time in the future?
FA: It was only rumours, a lot of rumours. There were rumours about Red Bull, there were rumours in Italy about a sabbatical year, there were so many rumours. I still have three and a half more years with Ferrari which I intend to respect and hopefully to increase a little bit, and as I said, finish my career in the best team in the world which is Ferrari. We are not at the moment achieving the results that we want but we are working very hard and next year will be completely new rules which obviously open the door for many teams to stop the domination that Red Bull seems to have had in the last couple of years so we have high hopes also for next year’s challenge. About the news that now Red Bull have two drivers, it’s very good news that Daniel has signed, also for our country because it has opened up a good possibility for Carlos Sainz to join Toro Rosso, so that was the best news for us.
Q: (Sergio Lillio Martinez – Revista Scratch) Max, it’s a hard season for you because it’s your first in F1; where do you think you deserve to be in 2014 and how do you face the next races?
MC: The next few races are going to be pretty challenging. I think we’ve got seven after here and I think I’ve only driven one of them, and that was Singapore so it’s going to be a little bit challenging. Actually, sorry, we’ve got Abu Dhabi as well so there’s five I haven’t driven of the final seven so it will be challenging but it is my first year. As I said earlier, I’m still learning but I’ve done half a year in Formula One, you can’t expect much longer to up your pace and learn and for the last few races the pace has been a lot better, especially qualifying. We did a great team effort in Spa so my focus is just to keep doing what I’m doing and learning and I think for the second half of the year my speed will come through more and hopefully we can keep that tenth place (in the Constructors).
Ends
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Pirelli choses Hard and Medium tyres for Spa-Francorchamps
Milan, 19 August 2013: Before the mid-season break, the Formula One teams visited the slowest permanent track on the calendar: the Hungaroring. Now they head to one of the quickest of all: Spa-Francorchamps, in the foothills of the Ardennes. Pirelli is bringing the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium tyres: the two hardest compounds in the range. These are perfectly suited to the high-energy demands of the circuit, with its rapid corners and fast compressions such as the legendary Eau Rouge. One of the key characteristics of Spa is its variable weather conditions, which means that the Cinturato Green intermediate tyres and Cinturato Blue full wet tyres are also likely to be called into play over the course of the weekend.Paul Hembery: “Spa is not only an epic circuit, but also one of the biggest challenges for our tyres all year. Mostly this is because of the very high-energy loads that go all the way through the tyres, both vertically – due to the big compressions such as Eau Rouge – and also laterally at fast corners like Blanchimont. Often, the tyres are subjected to forces acting in different directions at the same time, which increases the work still further. So looking after the tyres is very important, particularly as it’s such a long lap. This means that there are a very wide variety of possible strategies available at Spa as well, with plenty of time to be won and lost if the right tactics are chosen. However, any strategy has to be very flexible, because it’s the changing weather that often makes Spa such a fascinating race. The conditions can change extremely quickly, which then makes how the teams use the intermediate and wet tyres the key to success – as we have seen so often in the past. Both our wet-weather tyres have proved their performance over previous races; with the intermediate tyre in particular showing how well suited it is even to inconsistent and drying conditions. There are plenty of overtaking opportunities, and the blend of performance and durability offered by our nominated tyres should maximise those chances this weekend.”
Jean Alesi: “Spa is a circuit that everyone talks about and over the years I’ve not heard anybody say anything apart from the fact that it is awesome. It’s so fast and so challenging, but one of the key characteristics is the fact that it’s very long. So it’s never monotonous, as you do very few laps compared to other tracks. Managing the tyres takes a special skill: there are lots of fast corners and the length of the track as well as the variable temperatures mean that your tyres can actually cool down after the first part of the circuit. But in qualifying, if you start off with your tyres too warm, then you won’t get the maximum performance from them throughout the entire length of the lap. There’s a huge amount of variation possible in terms of set-up as well: some teams add downforce to get more grip in the mid part of the lap, and that will also have an effect on how the tyres work. Probably the most important characteristic is the high possibility of rainfall. You can have a completely dry corner and then a fully wet track a few corners later. Underneath the water though, the surface is quite abrasive and offers good grip, so you can still drive. The bigger problem is the sudden rivers of water that run across the track in a zigzag shape: you’ve got to know where they are, so that the aquaplaning doesn’t catch you out. There’s also a lot of spray at Spa when it rains, which makes visibility very difficult in wet conditions.”
The circuit from a tyre point of view:
Spa is one of the circuits that has featured on the Formula One world championship since it got underway in 1950. While the track has altered radically over the years (the current layout dates from 1979) it maintains its fast and flowing nature, with an average lap speed in the region of 230kph.
The circuit is just over seven kilometres in length, making this comfortably the longest lap of the year. Cars are on full throttle for around 80% of the lap, sometimes for more than 20 seconds at a time. The variation in the lap means that starting from pole is not as important as it can be on other circuits.
At high speeds, aggressive camber angles can cause blistering as heat builds up around the edges of the tyres. However, teams are expected to comply with Pirelli’s maximum recommended camber angles, which should help prevent this phenomenon.
Further information about Spa and the demands it places on tyres, as well as more information about how tyres are tested in the laboratory, can be found on a 3D animated video starring Pirelli’s Racing Manager Mario Isola. This is copyright-free for media use on Pirelli’s Formula One website: www.pirelli.com/f1pressarea
Technical tyre notes:
The big compression at Eau Rouge subjects the front tyres to the highest vertical load of the season: 1000 kilograms.
The top two last year (Button and Vettel) used a one-stop strategy, while the third-placed finisher (Raikkonen) stopped twice. There was also plenty of variation in the start tyres selected: while most drivers started on the medium tyre, Hulkenberg started on the hard tyre and finished fourth with a two-stop strategy.
The performance gap between the hard and medium tyre is likely to be more than a second per lap.
The tyre choices so far:
PZero Red PZero Yellow PZero White PZero Orange Australia Supersoft Medium Malaysia Medium Hard China Soft Medium Bahrain Medium Hard Spain Medium Hard Monaco Supersoft Soft Canada Supersoft Medium Great Britain Medium Hard Germany Soft Medium Hungary Soft Medium Belgium Medium Hard Meet the Pirelli F1 Team: Jaime Alguersuari and Lucas di Grassi, F1 test drivers
Once more, Pirelli is able to rely on two high-calibre test drivers this year: Jaime Alguersuari and Lucas di Grassi, from Spain and Brazil respectively. Jaime has done the first two tests this season, while Lucas is scheduled to take over later this year.
Their work consists of assessing the latest experimental compounds from Pirelli during private tests, driving a 2010 Renault that has been modified to replicate the latest regulations. Once they have driven on the prototype tyres, they give their feedback to Pirelli’s engineers about each compound’s characteristics and how the tyres could be improved for the future. The use of two test drivers ensures that the engineers get two different perspectives and opinions: essential when tyres are being developed for a grid of 22 drivers.
Jaime became the youngest driver to start a Formula One race when he made his debut in 2009, then he completed two further full season with Toro Rosso before becoming a Pirelli test driver, with a best result of seventh in Italy and Korea in 2011. As well as a skilled racing driver, he is also a talented DJ, topping the charts in Spain.
Lucas drove for the Virgin Formula One team during its debut season in 2010, taking the car to 14th in Malaysia. He joined Pirelli in 2011 and is also a factory Audi driver in endurance racing, finishing on the podium at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
Other news from Pirelli:
Pirelli recently announced its return to the World Rally Championship next year, making a comeback following its last spell in the WRC as single tyre supplier from 2008 to 2010. This time, three other tyre suppliers have also been appointed to supply the WRC.
Pirelli’s last outing in Spa was at the Spa 24 Hours last month. This was one of Pirelli’s biggest-ever logistical operations, with 8552 tyres available on site, transported by a convoy of 19 trucks. The fitting service delivered a tyre every 26 seconds on average (over a 22-hour period).
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen tested a GP3 car on Pirelli tyres last week. The Finn tried out the car in Barcelona during an official development test. “The GP3/13 is a very good tool for young drivers, especially when you have to learn about tyre management like we have in F1,” he said.
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Vettel fastest in both Free Practice sessions
Hungaroring, 26 July 2013: Having been fastest in FP1, Red Bull Racing continued that form into the afternoon with Sebastian Vettel again going quickest, though this time by a much smaller margin over team-mate Mark Webber ahead of the 10th race of the season at the Hungaroring circuit here on Friday.
Romain Grosjean was third fastest for Lotus, ahead of the Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Behind them the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were sixth and seventh, Kimi Räikkönen was eighth quickest in the second Lotus. Jenson Button was ninth for McLaren and Adrian Sutil rounded out the top-ten for Force India, an FIA release said.
Vettel’s time of 1:21.264 was set at the half-hour mark. He was already P1 at that point, having been the quickest man in the opening exchanges on the medium tyre. Having changed to the soft compound he improved by 1.2 seconds, setting his fastest time on his first flying lap with the yellow-banded tyre. Webber slotted into P2 a lap later.
The final hour of Friday practice was dominated by long runs, with drivers conducting race simulations. With track temperatures above 40°C tyre performance fell off quickly and no one threatened to match Vettel’s headline time. The circuit remained slippery and, as had been the case in the morning, many drivers struggled with grip, sliding over the kerbs and into the run-off areas.
Hungarian Grand Prix Free Practice 2 results
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:21.264
2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:21.308 +0.044
3 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:21.417 +0.153
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.426 +0.162
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:21.544 +0.280
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:21.802 +0.538
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:21.991 +0.727
8 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 1:22.011 +0.747
9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:22.180 +0.916
10 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:22.304 +1.040
11 Paul di Resta Force India 1:22.526 +1.262
12 Sergio Pérez McLaren 1:22.529 +1.265
13 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:22.781 +1.517
14 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber 1:22.837 +1.573
15 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 1:22.841 +1.577
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:23.369 +2.105
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:23.411 +2.147
18 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:23.646 +2.382
19 Charles Pic Caterham 1:24.325 +3.061
20 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:25.065 +3.801
21 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:25.143 +3.879
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:26.647 +5.383ends
File photo of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. Photo courtesy FIA. -
Teams test new range of tyres: A review by Pirelli
Silverstone, 19 July
A Pirelli file photo of the current range of tyres. 2013: The Formula One teams tested the range of Pirelli tyres that will be used from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards during a three-day test at Silverstone. As well as giving teams a chance to run young drivers – as the test was officially designated a young driver test – the regular race drivers were also allowed to take part, provided they completed a tyre test according to a run plan specified by Pirelli. By the end of the three-day test, the teams had collected plenty of data that will be useful for the rest of the season. However, with the new tyre specification consisting of the 2012 construction matched to the 2013 compounds, the teams already have a lot of information about the constituent elements of the new tyres – so there were no big surprises.
Testing Quote:
Paul Hembery (Pirelli motorsport director): “We think that everybody achieved their objectives from these three days of running at Silverstone. From our point of view, we made the most of this opportunity to gather data that will help us best meet the needs of the Formula One teams in the future. While modern-day simulation is extremely advanced, there are some things that you can still only find out from running on a track with a representative car, so we would like to thanks all the teams and the governing body for their cooperation in helping us to achieve this. The tyres all ran reliably throughout the three days of the test, although of course you cannot compare the times to those seen in the British Grand Prix because the track conditions and other car parameters were different. The established performance of the 2012 structure, consolidated with the speed of the current compounds, is set to provide an interesting mix of strategies for the races ahead. The teams already have a lot of information about the shape and deformation of this tyre from the previous season, and the three days at Silverstone was useful to assess the effect that this will have on the 2013 cars, with positive results.”
Testing Facts:
- The teams are usually allocated 100 sets of tyres per year for testing purposes (although an additional 12 sets were granted for Silverstone) with all the compounds in the range available to test. It is up to the teams to choose the number of sets and compounds they would like to evaluate per test.
- In addition to this, a new prototype hard compound was available for testing in Silverstone, for use by the current race drivers only. This harder version of the hard compound was tried out during free practice for the Spanish and British Grands Prix.
Testing numbers:
- Total number of sets brought to Silverstone: 344 sets which equals 1,376 tyres
– of which soft tyres: 29 sets
– of which medium tyres: 105 sets
– of which hard tyres: 139 sets
– of which prototype hard tyres: 25 sets
– of which intermediate tyres: 30 sets
– of which wet tyres: 16 sets- Total amount of sets used: 224
– of which soft tyres: 18 sets
– of which medium tyres: 84 sets
– of which hard tyres: 107 sets
– of which prototype hard tyres: 15 sets
– of which intermediate tyres: 0 sets
– of which wet tyres: 0 sets- Longest run:
17 laps on the hard compound
18 laps of the prototype hard compound
16 laps on the medium compound
11 laps on the soft compound- Lowest / highest ambient temperature over three days: 19 °C (Day 2)/ 28 °C (Day 1)
- Lowest / highest track temperature over three days: 27 °C (Day 2/3) / 45 °C (Day 1/3)
Testing Times:
Day 1
1. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) 1m33.602s Medium New 2. Paul Di Resta (Force India) 1m33.774s Prototype Hard New 3. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Red Bull) 1m33.821s Hard New Day 2
1. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m32.972s Medium Used 2. Carlos Sainz Jr. (Toro Rosso) 1m33.016s Soft New 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1m33.187s Hard New Day 3
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m32.894s Medium New 2. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m33.242s Medium New 3. Nicolas Prost (Lotus) 1m33.256s Medium New -
Young driver training tests can use only 2012 tyres: FIA
Silverstone, 9 July 2013: The FIA today informed Formula One’s teams of the conditions that will apply at the Young Driver Training Test scheduled to take place at Silverstone as of July 17.
The announcement follows a meeting of F1’s Sporting Committee on Wednesday, July 3 at the Nürburgring, prior the German Grand Prix.
The conditions set out are in accordance with Article 22.4(h)(i) of the F1 Sporting Regulations, as recently amended by the World Motor Sport Council, and are as follows:
The Young Driver Training Test will remain a three-day test, from July 17-19.
Only the 2012 construction will be used for the test but with the hard, medium and soft 2013 compounds.
The test will now allow teams to field drivers who have competed in more than two F1 World Championship events provided that the purpose of them doing this is to test tyres for Pirelli.
In order to meet this requirement, all teams shall ensure that any changes made to a car at these times are exclusively related to the tyre tests set out in the run plan provided by Pi
relli.An FIA observer will be appointed to ensure the regulations are being followed.
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Pirelli team has performed a few miracles: Hembery
Nurburgring, 5 July 2013: Following team Personnel attended the Friday Press Conference of FIA ahead of the German GP:
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Sam Michael (McLaren), Tom McCULLOUGH (Sauber), Pat FRY (Ferrari), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Paddy LOWE (Mercedes)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Paul, can I start with you, and welcome back. Can we recap? We saw what happened at Silverstone, we know the changes that have been introduced with the tyres. Logistically, how big a challenge has that been for Pirelli? Also, tell us the reasoning behind the changes here and at future races this season?
Paul HEMBERY: Just to recap, at Silverstone we’d underestimated the impact of swapping the tyres. The cars were two, maybe three seconds quicker this year. Whilst we’d allowed the teams to do that, we’d underestimated the impact on the tyre. When you swap them around that creates a point with the metallic belt that we have on it, on the left-hand side, the camber side, and that created the weakness. We got that wrong and we needed to get it right going forward. So making changes, coming here the metallic belt has changed to an aramid belt, which is something the teams tested briefly in Canada. And going forward further again, we’ll introduce the 2012 structure with this year’s compounds for subsequent races. Logistically, yes, very, very tough. Obviously back-to-back races and our team in Izmit in Turkey have performed a few miracles, working flat out, as you can imagine, to get here, ready to race this weekend.
Can you put a figure on the amount of tyres you’ve had to produce in the 48 hours?
PH: I think it was about 1000, something like that. We had a few maybe in stock but we had to produce them. But they work very well and we have to give a lot of credit to them.
Pat, a difficult morning for you and one half of the garage at Ferrari. What was the problem with Fernando’s car and how much did you lose by the lack running?
Pat FRY: Well, I think every time your car doesn’t get out on the track you lose out really. We had a reasonably full aero programme that we effectively had to give up on. We did a little in the afternoon but nowhere near as much as we wanted to. It’s just one of those silly little electrical problems. It takes you a while to work what’s wrong and by the time you do it just takes too long to sort out.
Do you feel Ferrari have lost performance with recent developments and upgrades and if so how easy it to fix that decline?
PF: It is a development race all through the year isn’t it. We’ve brought some good upgrades and there’s some that have been a little bit more temperamental that we’re trying to understand. So again you would have seen there were different specs of car running here again in each side of the garage in the morning and in the afternoon.
Tom, if we can turn to you. Silverstone was your third points finish of the season. It’s a vastly different situation at Sauber to last year. What exactly is the problem?
Tom McCULLOUGH: Well obviously last year we started the year very strongly, scored a lot of points at the start of the season and moving to the end of the year we weren’t quite as competitive on a regular basis. The start of this season has moved us a couple of positions in the team ranking from a competitiveness point of view and that very quickly drops you out of the points. So as opposed to fighting in the points, you’re just dropping out of the points. We’re working very hard with the car to improve it to try to get back into the points-scoring positions on a more regular basis.
As a member of the engineering department, how restricted are you by resources as you try to develop the car to make it go faster?
TM: You always have to work within your budgets, from a technical point of view, where you’re pushing very hard on the correlation side to understand the car as well as we can do. We have an update package coming for the next race, which we’ll be evaluating at the next test. So we’re still pushing very hard and obviously the more you can push the better.
Sam, McLaren’s problems have been well documented this season. As it stands at the moment, how much of your resources are focused on the 2013 car compared with next year’s 2014 project?
Sam MICHAEL: Well the 2014 car has been in development for a good nine or 12 months now. As with all teams, you’re just balancing up how much resource you put on that versus this year. We’re still developing this year’s car; we still have parts coming for it. We’ll definitely do that until the shutdown – which is only three weeks away. I think once we get back we’ll see what the competitiveness is like around sort of Monza, Spa, Singapore and then make a call on how long we keep pushing on that. At the moment we’re working on both cars. There’s still of lot of things… although the actual components wouldn’t directly carry over, the understanding of the flow mechanisms around the car is still valuable.
So if results improve, it’s worth persisting with this year’s car. If they don’t, by the time we get to Singapore, is that where you say ‘no, we’re going to switch the focus to 2014’, a season Martin Whitmarsh, your team principal, has already said is a very important season.
SM: Probably, you would… it’s probably going to be based on those factors. You’ll be looking at correlation, seeing if the parts you bring, over those two or three races post-shutdown work, and work strongly, and start giving you results you might continue. But it depends how much carries over. Probably the piece that carries over the least is the exhaust because it’s so different to next year and not relevant. Most of the other parts, as I said, even if they’re… of course they won’t be the same bits of carbon but the actual academic studies that you’re doing in the company are still valid.
Finally, Paddy, your first Friday press conference as Mercedes’ Executive Director Technical.
Paddy LOWE: Thank you very much.
Good to see you here.
PL: It’s good to be back.
Lovely to see you in the paddock. How do you fit into the existing structure, into the technical director structure at Mercedes? What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
PL: Well, I’ve only just arrived, as you know. At the moment I’m just trying to find my feet and get to know the company. A lot of people to get to know – get to know how they work. I’ll be supporting Ross and Toto and also the technical team – Bob, Aldo and Geoff. At the moment I’m looking all around, seeing how I can help.
Q: Have you cast a fresh pair of eyes over the 2013 car and identified areas where improvements can be made?
PL: Yeah. I’m looking at the very short term as well as into next year and how the organisation is structured as well. So, wherever I can help immediately, I am. But there’s no particular focus.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) To the four team guys, was there ever a point during the race at Silverstone when you considered withdrawing your cars – and reasons for leaving them in.
TM: From our side we monitored the data very closely during the race. We knew the operating limits we were working within, and how we were using the tyres. We speak quite closely with our Pirelli engineer and he was giving us some feedback as well. So, from our side, everything was good.
Sam?
SM: Yes, it was discussed on our pitwall. It was more a discussion focussed around what we thought the FIA may do or may not do, rather than us actually making a decision to pull McLaren cars out by themselves. It was more a discussion about what we should do in between that time. Just in case that happened.
What was the discussion at Ferrari Pat?
PF: I think in that type of situation it’s always tricky and you’ve got to try to work out the best way to contain it. Silverstone is now the highest loaded circuit that we go to – it obviously used to be Indianapolis – and the type of failure, if you see it, was likely to be structural fatigue failure. So the first thing you do is look at where people were getting to. I think Lewis broke on lap nine or eight, we failed on lap 10, someone got to lap 14. So instantly we were thinking ‘well, you’ve got to minimise stint length.’ We were advised by Pirelli to increase the pressures, which we did, and you try as much as you can to contain that situation. So I think from around the first round of tyre failures, we were always going to three-stop because that was a less risky way. To try and two-stop from there you would be well past the mileage that the tyres were obviously failing at. We tried to contain it that way. And then obviously, after the second failures, there was another request to go up on the pressures again – and you can see our pace drop off as we increased the tyre pressures.
But not a thought of pulling out?
PF: I think we were thinking of how we could contain it and make it as safe as we could rather than pulling out. There was some conversation with the FIA on the intercom about the tyre pressures we were running behind the safety car but in the end we just have to manage it.
And finally Paddy?
PL: Very similar to Pat’s reply. We were keeping a close eye on what the FIA might do in terms of a decision but for our point of view it was more a matter of management. Whether through pressure or instructions to the driver about certain corners and kerbs and so on.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) We learnt last night that the GPDA members have considered withdrawing from this race. I was wondering what discussions you’d had from your drivers about potential withdrawals and how you felt about that?
PL: It’s not something we go involved in, no.
Pat?
PF: I haven’t discussed it with either of the drivers. We’ve obviously gone through the changes here, why we think things will be an improvement but we’ve left it at that.
Sam?
SM: No, it’s not something we discussed with the drivers. They came back from the GPDA meeting and said that they’d made that decision. We respect that. Both of our drivers, and I’m sure the rest, are fully aware of the changes and investigations that Pirelli have done over the last four or five days. It has been a pretty monumental effort to get the tyres that they’ve got here. I fully appreciate that. Had a lot of conversations with Pirelli directly and we’re happy with the direction and changes that they’re making. Both of our drivers are fully aware of that and understand it. At the same time you can kind of understand their concern: they just don’t want a repeat of the last race. So we respect them because of that.
Tom?
TM: Similar really to what Sam was saying. We went through all the technical changes that have been done and the operating limits that have been recommended by Pirelli and the drivers were pretty confident that things would be OK.
Q: (Pierre Van Vliet – F1i.com) Question for Paul. I understand that on top of the young driver days in Silverstone, Pirelli is planning some more tests – a private test in Paul Ricard next week or Barcelona at the end of the month. Is that true – and which teams are going to be involved?
PH: The young drivers’ test, we’re taking along some of the tyres that are going to… the structure of the tyre that will be used going forward this season. Five sets. The Paul Ricard and Barcelona tests are with the 2010 Renault and it’s our own testing that’s looking forward for a few things for next season. Obviously it’s a little bit slow now compared to the way the cars are moving.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Paul, your press release on Tuesday stated that there was no safety issue if the tyres were used as intended. You also clarified that turning them around… the effect of that, the lower pressures – all that’s been corrected. As a result of that, on what basis have the specifications actually been changed on the grounds of safety, because that’s the only way the rule change could be pushed through? Could you clarify that, please?
PH: Well, you’ve seen at Silverstone a very dramatic increase in performance, compared to previous years and for some teams, they described it as a three fold increase in loading on the tyres, so going forward, you learn from those situations, obviously, and you want to give a greater margin, so it’s purely that.
Q: So it’s a precautionary tactic, as it were, a precautionary measure that you need to take.
PH: Well, yeah. The rate of development in Formula One is vast. You’ve also got a moving target. You don’t need two signals like that, do you?
Q: (Walter Koster – Saabrucker Zeitung) Mr Hembery, after all these tyre dramas at the beginning of the season, are you still able to sleep well, or do you have nightmares? And do you fear that Mr Jean Todt could perhaps have the intention to bring his French friends back into Formula One with Michelin?
PH: Well, I don’t have nightmares fortunately. We do work a lot. I think everyone in Formula One, these people here, will tell you that no matter what job you have in Formula One it’s very intensive so that’s not an issue. I have to say that Jean Todt and the FIA were extremely supportive. Actually we were talking, before Sunday, about a number of issues going forward and I could only say that we thank the FIA for their great support, including Charlie Whiting as well, over the last week. I think that all I can say is what I see and that’s a very co-operative and very supportive FIA.
Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.net) Sam, Jenson said yesterday that it’s the development of this car that will help you next year. If McLaren don’t manage to fix this car, how will that negatively affect next year’s car?
SM: I think it goes back to the intro question that David asked. All the work we do on this year’s car and any investigative work, whether it gets good correlation or not, is still valid for the 2014 car because you’re trying different things to understand… you can clearly measure where you have deficiencies and when you try and do changes for the track, whether you measure them here during Friday testing that we do or any future Grand Prix Fridays. When you get those components and then you feed that information back to the design office and wind tunnel, that loop that you close generates information, whether the test was positive or negative, so that’s how it will feed into next year.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Pat and maybe Paul, the minimum tyre pressures have gone up, I believe, when leaving the pits by only one pound. How can one pound make that much difference? When we look at a road car it doesn’t make much difference at all.
PF: In terms of car balance, we obviously do play around with pressures, change of balance from qualifying to the race. It’s a standard tool that everyone uses. And also the higher pressures… you can worsen your long run by increasing your rear pressures. It’s a tool; as long as everyone is working to the same limits it’s fine. There is a tendency, if you’ve got an oversteering car, to try and run the pressures as low as you can at the rear or higher at the front. That’s just a normal way you chase a car balance.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) From a safety point of view, why is it much better to have…?
PF: Well, I think maybe that’s a question for Paul.
PH: Well, you’ve got to have a starting point and it’s what happens as well as the pressures grow which is also important. Another thing we were conscious of as well after Silverstone is the safety car period which was extended. Normally that’s not a great issue because you don’t drop too low but when you’re at a circuit like Silverstone, if you restart and you’ve dropped down below almost the starting pressures, then that can create other issues, so that’s something else that we’re studying at the moment. Road cars, well I don’t think people check their pressures too much on road cars, sadly, which is why the European Union I believe have introduced new digital measurements on new cars going forward for pressures. It’s still very important; whichever car you’re driving, you need to check your pressures.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Primarily for Pat and Paddy; the 2012 spec tyres have got a different shape to the 2013 tyres. That shape is being introduced from Hungary. What aerodynamic effect do you believe this will have on your cars?
PF: Obviously the shape of the tyre is critical to the aerodynamics around the front wing and around the diffuser. We just need to re-optimise in those two areas. Obviously we have the wind tunnel tyres for both so we need to get in and start comparing and seeing what adjustments are needed. It’s impossible to say if it’s going to benefit one car more than another. I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out in Hungary.
PL: Yeah, there are differences but we’re aware of those differences because it’s a tyre, obviously, that we used and developed around last year, so we can look at that when that’s been finally confirmed and optimise the car around that.
Q: Could it be a benefit to either McLaren or Sauber?
SM: I don’t think so but I don’t know to be honest. I don’t think anyone really knows. Probably the best comparison is that we’ve all done that test in Brazil, Friday, last year when we compared 2012 casing to 2013 and the changes were not significant so that’s the only piece of data we’ve got. As Pat said, we’ve also got all the wind tunnel tyres and things like that. The main thing is that the changes are being done for safety so it’s second order what effect it has on the performance.
TMcC: Nothing really much more to add. As Sam was saying, safety’s really the most important thing, whether it increases or reduces the performance of our car we shall see once we get out on the track.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul, there are no guarantees in anything but what degree of certainty can you say that the tyres you have here and the tyres that you will have from Hungary onwards are safe?
PH: Well, we wouldn’t be racing if we didn’t feel they were safe. You go into every race with the best information that you have and you wouldn’t come to any race if you had any doubts.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) We’ve heard this week that the possibility of a late season tyre test after Interlagos for 2014 has been mooted. How do you feel about that, will that be beneficial, given all of the spec changes we’ve got between the next year?
TMcC: I understood that test was now not even going to happen. Potentially we will testing some tyres during the free practice session at Brazil but maybe Paul knows more about that.
PH: Practice isn’t viable because it’s so limited in running. You can maybe run one spec. The intention was to run a far more detailed, proper tyre test programme. We need to have a re-think on that one and find another way. Brazil would be ideal because it would be a good circuit for us to run some testing, because of the nature of the circuit, end of season as well, we’ll be getting closer to what we want to be using for next season.
Q: Sam, would that be what you would be looking for as well, a tyre test in Brazil?
SM: One thing I do agree with with Paul is that Brazil is a good track for outing problems on the opposite side, obviously, to what we had at Silverstone. So McLaren will support whatever Pirelli wants to do. I do believe you can do quite a lot on Fridays as well but obviously not as much as if you concentrate fully on a one or two day test afterwards.
PL: For us the most important thing is safety and the integrity of the tyre so we’re working as closely as we can with Pirelli and their engineers and the FIA to help guide the process to deliver that result. Whether that needs a test at a particular place is another matter to be determined but I think the important thing at the moment is for the engineers to work behind the scenes and make sure that the right analysis is done to feed the process.
Q: Beneficial to Ferrari to have the test?
PF: Well, I think the test was discussed yesterday in the SWG and I thought that the conclusion was not Brazil but they were going to try and find another solution. That’s as much as I know.
Q: So Paul, if it’s not Brazil and it’s not FP1 in Brazil, is there time for another solution?
PH: We need to have another chat, a more serious chat. We need to find, in more detail, what we need to do. For us, tyre testing is 14/18 specifications, 600 kilometers a day. You obviously can’t do that on a Friday. We need to find a way of running this season with something more representative than the 2010 car. Equally, going forward, what happens when the new cars are actually going out? There’s certainly a need to go wet testing in our opinion, we believe. Probably the teams might be interested in doing that as well seeing that half the year we seem to be racing in the rain. The new power plants, we understand, will have a dramatic impact next year and certainly wet conditions is something that we need to think about running an all team test before we actually get to Malaysia.
Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.net) Pat, how many times during a weekend do you change the strategy? And how much of that relies on your car’s performance and how much on your competitors?
PF: Well, you go in with a rough plan of where you are. There’s been quite a few races this year which have been on the borderline of either three to four or two to three (pit stops). I think you have a plan but then it’s a case of looking at everyone’s relatively pace, tyre degradation, how our tyres are doing. It’s constantly being updated really. It’s all done live and in simulation-land.
Q: Do you prefer it that way. Is it a bit more exciting where you’re having to change plans every few laps?
PF: I think it is down to knowing exactly what the tyres are doing and how you are relative to your competitors. You will be a very clever person if you manage to sort that all out in your first simulation, to be honest.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Paul, you’ve touched on the difficulties of testing going into next season; how deep is the concern inside Pirelli that you won’t have enough testing going into 2014 and will encounter problems like we’ve seen this year?
PH: Well, the good thing is that we’re now talking in a lot more detail and that will carry on over the next few weeks. We feel that there is a need to do some level of testing with representative cars. You can imagine that there could be some surprises again next season and maybe there will need to be some check on balance done then as well. But at the moment, there isn’t a clear indication of what we should do and we hope and judging by the discussions we’ve had there is a willingness to look at solutions that work for everybody, for the sport and for Pirelli.
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Tyres being prepared in the fitting area. A Pirelli photo -
Pirelli brings Kevlar-belted rear tyres to Nurburgring
Milan, July 3, 2013:
Alexandra, Head of F1 Communications of Pirelli. A Pirelli photo Just one week after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Pirelli heads to another legendary venue in motorsport: the Nurburgring in Germany. The tyre nomination is the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft: a combination not seen since the Chinese Grand Prix in April. However, Pirelli will bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres for both the medium and soft compound to Germany, which have already been tested at the Friday practice sessions in Canada. This moves comes after a series of tyre failures at last week’s British Grand Prix which, as Pirelli has now been able to establish, were caused by a combination of factors like the rear tyres mounted the wrong way around, low tyre pressures, extreme cambers and high kerbs. Even though the 2013 specification of the Pirelli Formula One tyres are completely safe when used in the correct way, the company prefers to bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres to the Nurburgring, as it is a tyre easier to manage.
Paul Hembery: “Surprisingly, the Nurburgring is one of the circuits that we have the least experience of, having only raced there once before in Formula One, but we’re certain that we have chosen the correct compromise between performance and durability by bringing the medium and soft compounds. These were actually the same compounds that we chose for this track in 2011, but since then the tyres have got softer and faster, so we would expect a quicker race time with an average of three pit stops for most drivers. The Nurburgring is not on the whole an especially demanding circuit for tyres but there are still some distinctive aspects to look out for when it comes to tyre management, such as the kerbing on the chicanes. We are expecting a performance gap of 0.8-1.0 second between the two nominated compounds, which should make the strategy options versatile. For this race only, we will bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres, following the incidents at the British Grand Prix. Even though the 2013 high-performance steel-belted version is completely safe when used correctly, the Kevlar-belted version is easier to manage and as long as there is no system in place which allows us to enforce tyre related specifications, like tyre pressures or camber, the incorrect use of which were contributing factors of the tyre failures in Silverstone, we prefer to bring a less sophisticated tyre. From the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards there will be a completely new range of tyres, combining the characteristics of our 2012 tyres with the increased performance of the 2013 specification.”
Jean Alesi: “The Nurburgring is a legendary name but personally I never found the modern circuit particularly involving, although it has changed a lot during the years. It’s a circuit that tends to be quite kind to tyres, so the question of tyre management isn’t a big one: you just drive as hard as you like. There’s always been a good atmosphere though as the fans are very enthusiastic, and I am sure that is just the same now. You have quite a variety of different corners in the lap so it’s mostly a question of finding a good rhythm and stringing them together in the most efficient way. I always thought of Nurburgring as a reasonably straightforward race: it’s not so much a big challenge but more a test of precision and not making any mistakes. If you start in a good grid position and have a clean race you should come away with a good result: you don’t often see big surprises. That’s unless it rains of course: then anything can happen…”
The circuit from a tyre point of view:
Built next door to the legendary Nordschleife, the modern Nurburgring is a fast and flowing circuit that is mostly made up of medium speed corners, with a technical infield section as well. One of the big variables in the region will once more be the weather, so a versatile tyre selection is essential in order to cope with a potential wide range of temperatures.
There are a number of reasonably fast direction changes at the Nurburgring. This increases the amount of lateral energy going through the tyres and therefore heat build-up. That is the biggest reason for wear and degradation on the tyres at the Nurburgring rather traction and braking events, which are on the whole limited.
Frequent rain in the area means that the track is often more ‘green’ than other circuits, particularly at the start of the weekend, as the moisture washes away any rubber that has been deposited on the track. With more rubber laid down, grip increases and wear decreases.
With no tyre data from last year on this circuit, the work of the teams during free practice will be particularly important when it comes to assessing how the latest 2013 tyres react in different temperatures and with different fuel loads. The information gathered on Friday, which is confirmed in the final free practice sessionon Saturday morning, essentially decides the strategy for qualifying and the race.
Further information about the Nurburgring and the demands it places on tyres, as well as more information about how circuits rubber in at each race, can be found on a 3D animated video starring Pirelli’s Racing Manager Mario Isola. This is copyright-free for media use on Pirelli’s Formula One website: www.pirelli.com/f1pressarea
Technical tyre notes:
The first corner is particularly challenging at the Nurburgring, particularly after the start where it is often the scene of accidents. Under acceleration out of it, the back of the car can step out, placing heavy demands on the rear tyres – as they need to guarantee a combination of grip and traction on one of the most technical parts of the circuit that is key to a fast lap time.
Turn seven is also particularly tricky: there is a deceleration of 5g heading into it and the front-left tyre has to do a lot of work here to compensate for the unusual camber of the circuit.
One of the keys to a quick lap is negotiating the kerbing correctly at the NGK Chicane. The drivers hit the kerbs hard, which puts a force equivalent to 800 kilogrammes through the tyre.
The tyre choices so far:
PZero Red PZero Yellow PZero White PZero Orange Australia Supersoft Medium Malaysia Medium Hard China Soft Medium Bahrain Medium Hard Spain Medium Hard Monaco Supersoft Soft Canada Supersoft Medium Great Britain Medium Hard Germany Soft Medium Meet the Pirelli F1 Team: Alexandra Schieren, Head of F1 Communications
Alexandra was born and raised in a small town 25 kilometres from Cologne in Western Germany. She studied languages and gained a diploma in translation, but her first job with a connection to motorsport was as an assistant in the media and PR department of Toyota Team Europe in Cologne: which at the time was a major force in the World Rally Championship. Her role came to an abrupt end when Toyota was disqualified from the series for cheating (she had nothing to do with that) and she then moved to London with a job in a communications agency where she tasted a wide variety of motorsport, from International Touring Cars to GT to Formula One. After a few years in London she moved to Paris and was later recruited by the FIA – world motorsport’s governing body – as Media Delegate for Formula One. When Pirelli returned to Formula One in 2011, Alexandra was asked to look after all Formula One-related communication. This involves answering general media requests, organising interviews and media events, overseeing external communications, and working with other departments within Pirelli and the various Pirelli markets. Alexandra lives in the countryside just outside Paris – a pleasant contrast to the often hectic lifestyle of Formula One – and enjoys reading books in different languages to expand her knowledge, with Italian being top of the list at the moment. She loves being in different places, just hates flying to have to get there…
Other news from Pirelli:
Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera picked up the ‘2013 Social Responsibility Award’ on behalf of Pirelli from the Foreign Policy Association in New York last week. The award reflects Pirelli’s consistent leadership of the Dow Jones sustainability index in the auto parts and tyre sector.
Pirelli hosted its home round of the Superbike World Championship at Imola last weekend, round seven of the series that is exclusively supplied by the Italian firm. Tom Sykes won both races, catapulting the British driver to the top of the standings.
The latest round of the Pirelli-equipped British Rally Championship, the all-gravel Scottish Rally, took place last weekend. Alastair Fisher won in a Citroen DS3 R3T: a car that he also drives on the Pirelli-backed Citroen Top Driver Series on the World Rally Championship.
The third round of the Pirelli-backed Blancpain Endurance Series took place at Paul Ricard in France. Marc VDS Racing Team’s Maxime Martin, Bas Leinders and Yelmer Buurman took their first win of the season in a Pirelli-supported BMW Z4.
Pirelli also competed in the world’s highest race: the famed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado (USA) that finishes at an altitude of 4,300 metres. The Pirelli-shod Porsche 911 of Californian Jeff Zwart finished third in its class and 10thoverall.
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FIA seeks urgent solution to Tyre failures
Paris, 1 July 2013: In light of a number of significant tyre failures at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, Jean Todt today said that the FIA is determined to seek an urgent solution to the problem and as such the FIA will change the format of this month’s Formula One Young Driver Test, said a Press Release.
File photo of Pirelli 2013 tyres. Photo by Pirelli “Our priority is to ensure safety for all in Formula One and we believe the incidents at Silverstone represent a genuine safety concern for the drivers,” said President Todt. “We have thus taken the decision to alter the Young Driver Test to allow teams to use drivers they deem fit to carry out tyre development work in a bid to solve the problems we saw at the British Grand Prix. I believe it is fitting to carry out this work at the circuit upon which the issues were manifested.”
The test, scheduled for July 17-19 at Silverstone, will now allow teams to field drivers who have competed in more than two F1 World Championship events provided it is clear that the purpose of them doing this is to test tyres for Pirelli. The test may also be extended by one day.
To provide for this, the FIA today informed Formula One’s teams that the approval of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) will be immediately sought for a change to article 22.4h (i)* of the 2013 Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Approval will also be sought for a change to the wording of article 12.6.3 of the 2013 Formula One Technical Regulations** to allow for a modification of the specification of the tyres during the Championship season without the unanimous agreement of all competing teams.
This will allow the FIA to take all necessary actions to ensure safety.
Notwithstanding the revised conditions as set out above, in the interests of the sport the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team has accepted to not participate in this test, as per the recent decision of the International Tribunal.
In the meantime, the FIA has asked Pirelli for an assurance that there will be no repetition of the tyre problems at this weekend’s German Grand Prix or at subsequent grand prix.
*Formula One Sporting Regulations 2013, Article 22.4h (i) states: No track testing may take place between the start of a ten-day period which precedes the start of the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year with the following exceptions: i) One three day young driver training test carried out on a date and site approved by the FIA following consultation with all teams. No driver who has competed in more than two F1 World Championship races may take part in this test and all drivers must be in possession of an International A Licence.
** Formula One Technical Regulations 2013 Article 12.6.3 states: Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the Championship season without the agreement of all competing teams.
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Pirelli preview for Silverstone: Hard, Medium tyres for race
Milan, 24 June 2013: Pirelli will bring the P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium tyres to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix: effectively a second home race for the Italian squad, whose UK logistics hub at Didcot is less than an hour away from the Northamptonshire circuit.
There will also be two sets per car of the same prototype hard tyres seen in Spain, available for use in Friday’s two free practice sessions only.
Silverstone is one of the oldest and fastest circuits on the Formula One calendar, having benefitted from extensive revisions over recent years. The rapid circuit layout means that plenty of energy is put through the tyres, with a consequent effect on wear and degradation. In the past, teams have used strategy to their advantage on this track, resulting in some close finishes even with different tactics being employed.
Paul Hembery: “Silverstone, with its very high average speeds and flowing series of corners, presents an extreme contrast to Canada three weeks ago – which was much more stop and start. Like Canada, it’s a circuit that takes a lot out of the tyres, but for very different reasons. We’ve brought the two hardest compounds to the British Grand Prix because of that, with a new bonding process connecting the tread to the steel belt, which is designed to eliminate the isolated delamination issues to reach a unanimous agreement about this: however, we do still have that possibility on stand-by should it be required in future. During free practice at Silverstone we will have the same prototype hard seen earlier this season. The actual construction of the tyre won’t change, as the teams weren’t able tyre available that we tried out on Friday in Spain, aimed at even greater durability than our current hard. This is in order to give the teams the chance to test this new compound on a different track to collect more data. Of course another important factor at Silverstone is the notoriously variable British weather: it would be no big surprise to see the Cinturato Green intermediate and Cinturato Blue full wet brought into play at some point. For that reason, it’s quite hard to predict the number of pit stops on race day. Last year we saw a two-stop strategy in dry conditions after two wet days but this year the compounds are softer, so if it stays dry we could have between three and four stops. We should be in a position to make a more precise forecast after free practice. Finally, and most importantly, we would like to pass on our sincere condolences to Allan Simonsen’s family and friends following the terrible accident at Le Mans last weekend. We were Aston Martin Racing’s partners for many years, and we can only imagine what they must be going through now.”
Jean Alesi: “The real thing to watch out for in Silverstone is always the weather: absolutely anything can happen, and it’s often both wet and dry. You need to think on your feet. It’s a demanding circuit on the tyres, not so much because of traction and braking, but more because of the high levels of downforce that are always pushing down on the car, as a result of the very high speeds. This is what creates the tyre wear at Silverstone and so the hard and the medium tyres are a good choice. As a driver, I’ve been on the podium at Silverstone many times and always enjoyed it, in various configurations. The latest alteration with the new pit complex is a very impressive investment, but for me it’s a shame they took away Bridge corner: that used to be a fantastic challenge. In any case, Silverstone will always be a real drivers’ circuit, so I think we can look forward to a good race, less politics, and some interesting strategies. It’s always a pleasure to come here because the British fans are so knowledgeable and passionate about Formula One. There’s a real culture of motorsport in Great Britain, which I think everybody appreciates.”
The circuit from a tyre point of view:
While big speeds and high levels of lateral energy are the key characteristics of Silverstone, there are also some slower and more technical parts of the circuit where it has been modified in recent years. In those areas combined acceleration is particularly important. This happens when the driver is steering and accelerating at the same time on the exit of a corner: the work of the tyre is crucial here.
Many parts of the asphalt at Silverstone are new, with the new asphalt less bumpy and abrasive than the older sections. Abrasive asphalt increases grip, but also adds to levels of wear and degradation.
Last year a variety of strategies were seen following a wet qualifying session, which meant that the drivers could start on whichever slick compound they chose. Red Bull’s Mark Webber won the race from second on the grid, having started on the soft tyre before completing two stints on the hard tyre. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was on pole but finished second after doing the opposite: two initial stints on the hard tyre, then one on the soft tyre.
Further information about Silverstone and the demands it places on tyres, as well as more information about how tyres are allocated for each race, can be found on a 3D animated video starring Pirelli’s Racing Manager Mario Isola. This is copyright-free for media use on Pirelli’s Formula One website: www.pirelli.com/f1pressarea
Technical tyre notes:
High-speed stability is particularly important at Silverstone, with braking energy extremely low. Downforce levels are medium: a compromise between ensuring enough aerodynamic grip to negotiate the fast corners as quickly as possible and eliminating drag on the straights.
Lateral accelerations on the tyres are among the highest of the season, peaking at 5g. This means that the surface temperature of the tyre can exceed 110 degrees centigrade, towards the very top of its working range.
Silverstone is not one of the easiest circuits to overtake on, meaning that qualifying high up the grid and selecting a strategy that can help gain track position is vital. The new infield arena section after Abbey curve was inaugurated in 2011 to help promote overtaking.
The tyre choices so far:
PZero Red PZero Yellow PZero White PZero Orange Australia Supersoft Medium Malaysia Medium Hard China Soft Medium Bahrain Medium Hard Spain Medium Hard Monaco Supersoft Soft Canada Supersoft Medium Great Britain Medium Hard Meet the Pirelli F1 Team: Matteo Albucci, F1 Travel Co-ordinator
Matteo is Pirelli’s Formula One travel co-ordinator, responsible for moving Pirelli’s team of 50 or so people all the way around the world. He’s an Italian who was born and studied in Florence – the city of Leonardo da Vinci – but he currently lives in Oxford, close to Pirelli’s UK logistics hub in Didcot. His background has always been in travel and tourism but now he has taken up a full-time role within the Italian firm. Like da Vinci, Matteo has to be a true Renaissance man: his wide-ranging role involves organising flights, hotels, hire cars and transfers for all Pirelli F1 personnel, as well as travel for GP2 and GP3 tests and races, not to mention the FIA GT Championship and Brazilian stock cars too. Outside of work, he perhaps surprisingly enjoys travel, but he also likes meeting friends and going to the gym. He describes himself as a pretty normal type of person – just don’t look for him on Facebook, as you won’t find him there…
Other news from Pirelli:
The Pirelli-backed GP3 Series had a stand-alone race in Valencia two weeks before the British Grand Prix. America’s Conor Daly won the opening race to lead home an ART Grand Prix one-two, while Robert Visoiu took his maiden win for MW Arden in race two. The medium GP3 compound was used, at the Ricardo Tormo permanent circuit.
The latest round of the Italian Rally Championship, the all-gravel Costa Smeralda Rally, took place on the island of Sardinia last weekend. Pirelli’s multiple champion Paolo Andreucci made a one-off appearance in a Peugeot 207 S2000, switching from his usual Peugeot 208 R2, and won the event by nearly a whole minute.
The Pirelli-backed Lamborghini Blancpain SuperTrofeo, billed as the world’s fastest one-make series, is heading to North America. The five round championship, for the race version of the Gallardo, gets underway from July 5-6 at Lime Rock, during the American Le Mans Series meeting there.
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