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  • No Renault Engine for Upgrades For Red Bull Until Russian Grand Prix

    No Renault Engine for Upgrades For Red Bull Until Russian Grand Prix

    Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has said that they will have to wait till the Russian Grand Prix in October for their engine upgrades from Renault. Until then, it is something the Milton Keynes based outfit will have to live with.

    This comes after Daniel Ricciardo’s engine failed in the second free practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Speaking at the team representatives press conference on Friday, Horner said that he expects Renault, who have not used any of their twelve development tokens, to roll out their updated engine in October.

    “I don’t think there is anything scheduled now before Sochi,” said Horner.

    “That probably is the earliest that we are going to see any form of development or use of the tokens, so the engines we’ve got at the moment are what we’re having to live with for the time being,” he added.

    Horner confirmed that it was engine No.4 that failed on Ricciardo’s car, and that engine 5, which was first used in Austria will now be used until Sochi.

    “Engines four and five of what the drivers have been using between Friday and Sunday racing, unfortunately Ricciardo has now lost engine four, so he’s only got engine five, that came into service for the first time in Austria, to get him through the next few races.”

    Red Bull are hoping that they will not incur any further engine penalties until Sochi.

    “Only time will tell as to whether we can get to Sochi or not without incurring another penalty before introducing an upgraded unit.”

    Horner conceded that the long lead times in engine development slows down the progress.

    “They are making progress, they are making strides. I think the problem with engines is it’s – unlike the chassis – long lead-time items”

  • 2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES:

    Franz TOST (Toro Rosso)

    Yasuhisa ARAI (Honda)

    Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli)

    Toto WOLFF (Mercedes)

    Graeme LOWDON (Manor)

    Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Clearly a difficult weekend for Formula One as a whole, with the loss of Jules Bianchi, so directing the question to Graeme – as the man most closely associated with him – how have the team members dealt with the weekend so far?

    Graeme LOWDON: Well it’s been, as you say, a very difficult week. To be honest, it’s been a very difficult nine months and this weekend, I won’t lie, it has been more difficult than I thought, actually. But I have to say it has been made a lot easier by the F1 family. As you know Jules was universally liked in the paddock and the support of everybody to the team has been fantastic. I think the reason why everyone has found it so difficult is the sense of loss and looking around the cathedral on Tuesday there were just so many people there and they had all lost something in some way, whether it was a colleague, if it’s a mechanic they’ve lost their driver, even in the media you’ve lost a person that you knew and that you interviewed, people had lost team-mates that they raced against. If you look at the teams – ART, Manor, Force India, Ferrari had lost a team member and it was just this overwhelming sense of loss really and I think what was very clear was that nobody had lost more than the Bianchi family. I have to say I drew enormous strength from Jules’ family. For everyone that knows them, they are an incredibly close and loving family and Philippe and Christine have had to endure something that I can’t really comprehend over the last nine months and my heart really does go out to them. I have to say that in everything we have done with the family, the warmth and compassion, just everything that they have done has been incredibly respectful and loving and it’s been enormously helpful and I’m sure not just to me, we don’t have a monopoly on feeling sad about what’s happened. It’s touched an awful lot of people and I think Jules’ family have really carried themselves in an incredible way, really incredible, in a situation that I couldn’t really comprehend. I think the danger, as ever, is that you focus on what you’ve lost and not what’s been gained by knowing Jules over what’s been an incredible time. And I know a lot of you have talked to drivers and have had their personal experiences of Jules as a person and he was somebody who in my view added so much to so many people’s lives. I know he did with me. One of the things that struck me about Jules was the very first day he came into our garage in Formula One for a seat fit, in Barcelona. He came in as a Ferrari development driver and that already is a sign of all the hard work and skill he had put in and yet he came in with an eagerness in eyes – he could not wait to get into that Formula One car. And yet he displayed an emotion or a trait that you don’t often see these days, sadly, and that was that he was incredibly grateful. He was grateful that he had the chance to be in Formula One and I think that reflected the fact that he was very, very good. He knew he was going to be good at driving the car and that to me was one of the defining points. But somebody did ask ‘of your time with Jules, what do you remember the most’ and I can honestly say, from my point of view, what I remember the most is that from the minute he walked into that garage to the minute we said goodbye it was an absolute pleasure to work with him and I dearly miss him now that he’s not here.

    Thank you. So looking ahead, from the team’s point of view, how have your plans evolved about this year and the next year – the chassis etc – where are you at at the moment?

    GL: I was just saying to Christian on the way in: if the optimum way to run a Formula One team is to do it the way we’ve done it in the last seven months, everyone would be doing it and quite clearly they’re not. We’ve had the strangest set of challenges that you can imagine, but I think what underlies everything is that we have got respect for this championship. We were ninth in the Formula One World Constructors’ Championship last year, in no small part due to Jules’ drive in Monaco, so we have a rightful place to be here but we have not had the benefit of being able to plan how we would correctly like to plan for the 2015 season. We think we’re making the optimum decisions going forward. We haven’t gone quite as well here today as we thought, but that’s just looking at just short-term tactics. I think we’re getting more established now, the team’s getting more up to strength in terms of personnel, we’re getting the premises, the new factory sorted out, so everything’s moving in the right direction and I think once everyone draws breath after having a rest during the summer break, we’ll push as hard as we can in the second half of this season but really have our eyes fixed on 2016.

    OK, thank your for that. Paul, coming to you, another hot weekend, clearly. What did we learn from the way that the soft and medium tyres performed in the free practice sessions. Any thoughts on likely strategy for Sunday’s grand prix?

    Paul HEMBERY: Well, there was a couple of seconds of difference between the two compounds, slightly higher than what we had anticipated. Very little graining on the front left, which sometimes you have here when you’re doing your first Friday runs. With that in mind we’re probably looking at a two-stop race. It depends really on the data from the longer runs, which were slightly interrupted for most teams this afternoon. But with hot weather foreseen for Sunday we envisage, as I said, a two-stop race.

    What progress are you making on finding ways to give the teams more variety in the choice of compounds next year?

    PH: Yeah, we’re having some pretty good ongoing discussions with the teams and the FIA and we seem to be homing in on a solution that gives the variety of choice they’d like to have and gives us an element of security that strange decisions aren’t made, so we’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll be able to convey that to everybody, so that we can start working towards next year.

    Thank you. Christian, coming to you, obviously the headline is the blow-up, but beneath that some very positive signs from free practice two in particular, both on the single qualifying lap simulation and on the long runs as well. Where in the field do you think you’ll be competing?

    Christian HORNER: That’s a very good question. Fridays are somewhat masked by fuel loads and engine modes and so on, so it’s difficult to get a truly clear picture but our expectation coming into the weekend was that this would be a circuit that would hopefully present an opportunity for us and both drivers have been pretty happy with the car on short and long runs, so, yeah, so long as it all holds together then hopefully we should be in a reasonable position to hopefully challenge Williams and Ferrari ahead. I think obviously Mercedes are in a class of their own at the moment but hopefully those two teams ahead of us we should be able to take the challenge to.

    You’ve been waiting for Renault power unit updates and that’s now imminent now, I believe, at the next grand prix. What’s the expected step from that and what’s the plan for the rest of the season?

    CH: I don’t think there is anything scheduled now before Sochi. That probably is the earliest that we are going to see any form of development or use of the tokens, so the engines we’ve got at the moment are what we’re having to live with for the time being. So engines four and five of what the drivers have been using between Friday and Sunday racing, unfortunately Ricciardo has now lost engine four, so he’s only got engine five, that came into service for the first time in Austria, to get him through the next few races, so only time will tell as to whether we can get to Sochi or not without incurring another penalty before introducing an upgraded unit.

    Thanks for that. Franz, coming to you, you’ve obviously built a strong team now, strong infrastructure at Toro Rosso. How do you keep key personnel together when the big teams come calling?

    Franz TOST: I don’t let them go! No, the value of a team is always the quality of the employees and over the last three to five years we really pushed very hard to recruit high-quality people and James Key, our technical director, was the key person to do this and he surrounded himself with very, very good, high-skilled, capable people and of course all these top engineers have long-term fixed contracts and apart from this, at Toro Rosso, the infrastructure is getting better. Our new building will be finished at the end of this month. That means the working environment is also quite good, because all the engineers are under one roof and we expect better communication, better co-operation and at the end even better performance. Apart from this, Toro Rosso I’m convinced has a good future. We are on the financial side also quite healthy and I expect also some success in the future and therefore I don’t see any reason why one of the top people should leave the team, especially after the hard period to build up everything, then of course the people want to see the results and want to be involved when hopefully we will have some success.

    I’m curious, only seven points scored in the last five races, compared to rivals like Force India, who you’re competing with, who have scored 28 in the same period. Are you getting a bit frustrated that you’re not turning positive grid positions into points-scoring finishes more consistently?

    FT: To score points you must see the chequered flag and our main problem is reliability. We have a really good chassis, we have two high-skilled, young but mature drivers but our reliability is horrible, because from 18 possibilities to see the end of the race we managed only to do it 10 times. That means eight non-finishes and with this high figure you cannot expect to finish in a position like is our goal – fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship, yes, and I hope that in the second half of the season we will improve our reliability and I hope that we will come to the end of the races, because if we are in the race, most of the time, we were in the position to score points.

    Q: Arai-san, you mentioned in a preview to this race that you would make available full ERS to the drivers for the first time this weekend. What impact has that made and what are the development plans from here for the rest of 2015? The drivers have spoken about ‘dramatic upgrades’ coming.

    Yasuhisa ARAI: From the technical point of view the power unit will have a big upgrade targeted to improve the power output from Spa. But of course it is difficult to judge how it will work on the actual track. So, I want to get the answer in Spa.

    Q: After Silverstone, the FIA confirmed that new manufacturers will be allocated an additional power unit without a penalty. Have you got an upgraded engine as a result of that? Are you happy about that?

    YA: Yeah, of course. Honestly, I welcome that decision. But it also means Honda is not where we want to be in terms of the reliability. The FIA decision encourages all the new power unit suppliers to enter Formula One. So, I want to say that I appreciate all of the teams and the power unit suppliers to support that direction, which is good for the team and driver.

    Q: Toto, coming to you. No team in Formula One championship history has ever got two cars on the podium for ten consecutive races. You could do it on Sunday. Does that say more about the car or about your driver pairing?

    Toto WOLFF: First of all, we haven’t done it yet and it’s always dangerous… we had the discussions very often before and then you end up in a situation where it was nine and no record. Those records don’t mean a lot. What it shows is that you have put the team together which is functioning well and it’s just not a question of whether it’s the drivers or the engine or the chassis side. I think it’s a joint effort from many people and certainly if we achieve that, that would be good.

    Q: How have you felt about the token system this year, which has allowed you and your rivals to develop the engines during the season? Would it be a good thing for the sport if it were continued next year?

    TW: Yeah, there is a plan in place to continue with the token system, although in a reduced form. It is a token… a token doesn’t equal performance. Sometimes it’s more complicated. Nevertheless, there are ongoing discussions about how to handle the situation going forwards. Certainly we acknowledge that Honda and Renault found themselves in a difficult position and this is a joint platform, so we are working with the FIA and with the commercial rights holder going forward, whether we adapt that system or not.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Péter Farkas – Autó Motor) It’s just been announced they have just started negotiating with Bernie the contract of the Hungaroring until 2026 and a large revamp of the track is planned with the help of state funding. What would you most like to see changed at the Hungaroring if I may ask all of you please?

    CH: The press room! It’s the biggest thing that needs to change. I think the track, leave it alone, it’s great. It’s a fun circuit, it’s a different type of circuit and I think it always produces, for whatever reason, good races here. So, I think all the drivers enjoy racing here, it’s a great city, a fun city to come to and visit. So, it’s good news if the race is extended ‘til 2026 then yeah, I think it’s a very positive thing for Formula One.

    Paul?

    PH: I agree with Christian actually. It’s an interesting circuit, certainly from our point of view and from a tyre manufacturer’s point of view. It’s got a lot of character, the fans seem to love it, you can get in and out, which is a bonus. The city itself is very welcoming – so there isn’t a lot really wrong. I think if it’s carrying on, most people are going to be very happy.

    Graeme?

    GL: I agree with both those comments. I like the way that the track follows the natural undulations of the countryside here, which I think is good. I’ve never driven this track but I’m sure it’s a fantastic track to drive around. If we can find some way to flatten it when we run around it at night, that would be useful. Aside from that, I wouldn’t touch the circuit.

    Arai-san – anything to add?

    YA: No.

    Franz?

    FT: Maybe to increase the size of the garages because they’re quite small but the track itself should stay like it is because it’s a special track and the city of Budapest is fantastic, that means the infrastructure is very good. And I always like to come here.

    Q: (Péter Vámosi – Vas Nép) Question to all team representatives. FIA first time retired a race number, 17, this year and in the whole history of Formula One. If we removed some numbers in the past, like 27, Gilles, 8, Elio, 2 Senna, 6 Peterson, fans are not united in that, that it was a good decision. What are your opinions?

    GL: I think it’s a difficult one because it’s so personal to different people. I’m extremely biased on this subject. My view is, if it helps Jules’ family in any way at all, then I’m in support of it. I think anything else is secondary. I know fans are very, very important and I understand the gist of the question but it’s a difficult one for me to answer.

    Toto?

    TW: I think it was a particularly tragic incident and a very young boy and if that is the decision, I think that is fair enough.

    Christian?

    CH: I think the only thing you have to remember is that last year numbers were introduced as being allocated to drivers; drivers selected numbers that they race with for the career. So you can understand the FIA’s decision, as this was a number that Jules obviously chose, that meant something to him. Retiring that number, perhaps in time if the Bianchi family want that number to reappear, it would be appropriate to ask them. Or if a driver wants to use that number, for that number to approach that family in future years to come.

    Q: (Tomas Richtr – AMC/Sport 1) I would ask Christian, Toto and Paul maybe to comment, the race length is 305km, except Monaco of course, but the average speed is different, which leads to extremes, Monza race lasting for 1h20m, and Singapore race lasting for two hours – which sometimes might be difficult for our TV viewers. Did you consider or could be such consideration there to adjust the race length to the average speed of the circuit to make it more suitable, maybe for the younger generation of the TV viewers?

    TW: Interesting one. I think we are seeing a phenomenon that the younger the viewer, the less patient. It looks like, at least, whatever you consume on your devices needs to be short, quick and easy – and Formula One is a long race. But this is also what makes it. So whether two hours is too much, or 1h20m or 1h10m is the right time, I think it’s a question for the FIA and the commercial rights holder to sort it out. Obviously the longer the race, the more advertising you can sell, and that is good, income-wise and the question is interesting – but I didn’t think about it yet.

    Christian?

    CH: Well I think if you look at other sports – for example playing tennis on clay is a longer game than playing tennis on grass – so it applies to other categories as well, but they don’t shorten the games or the sets, so, a football match if 45 minutes each way and sometimes you get games that are really exciting from start to finish, sometimes games where one half is better than the other. I think Formula One, part of the challenge, and the historical challenge has been to cover that distance as quickly as you can around that type of circuit. A race like Monza is incredibly quick, just over an hour in length – but sometimes those races can be quite static whereas a race in Singapore can often go to two hours but can sometimes have an awful lot more action in it.

    Paul?

    PH: I pretty much concur with Christian there. There is a variety of race lengths and Singapore being so hot as well actually brings through some fatiguing aspects which everyone says we need to see a bit more of every now and again. I don’t think there’s too much wrong with it. There’s a good variety.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question specifically for Toto and Christian please but if Franz and Graeme would like to respond as well, that’s great. The commercial rights holder has indicated that, if Renault returns as a full team owner, they could be in line for historic and premium payments. The money can come from one of two sources: either from the commercial rights holder’s slice or from the teams’ pot. Assuming that it comes from the teams’ pot – because history tends to indicate the commercial rights holder holds onto everything he can – would you be prepared to go for redistribution of your income to accommodate Renault’s historic payment?

    CH: Well look, we have a deal with the commercial rights holder as does every other team. Any variant to that, that’s down to him to manage and solve. I read the comments, and I think if you look carefully at the comments that were made, I think it was actually suggesting that, if Renault went on to achieve what other teams have achieved to put themselves into position, then those payments would potentially be available – as they potentially would to any other team. It’s not the responsibility of the teams sitting here to sort out Renault’s re-involvement or re-engagement in Formula One or what their commercial terms are. That’s with the shareholders and the promoters of the sport.

    Toto?

    TW: Yeah, it’s similar to how it was a couple of years ago. The contracts were negotiated and discussed bi-laterally between the commercial rights holder and the respective team and this is certainly the case at the moment without any influence from the teams from outside.

    Anything to add Franz?

    FT: Nothing to add. It’s a decision of the commercial rights holder. Distributes the money and there’s rarely any influence from the teams.

    Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – SB Belarus Today) My question is to everyone. Today we have Renault and a French driver but no French Grand Prix. We have Mercedes and the German drivers but this year we don’t have a German Grand Prix. We have Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Pirelli and maybe in two years we will lose the Italian Grand Prix. What do you think? Should the teams help the organisers to promote their national Grands Prix, maybe with money, maybe with publicity or management or marketing?

    FT: First of all the teams support the organisers wherever we can but the main thing is, do the organisers have the money to make a Grand Prix, yes or no? France doesn’t have the money and therefore we don’t have a Grand Prix there. We must go to countries which can afford Formula One, as simple as that. If they can’t afford it, we don’t go there. I don’t care whether we race in Germany or in Italy or wherever. We have to race where the financial situation allows Formula One to go there.

    PH: Well, Monza is ten kilometres from my office in Milan so I would obviously say that we would like to see continuity of the Monza race, but obviously it’s got to work for the sport as well. We try and support it by bringing a lot of guests to the event. That can vary between 600 and a thousand people so we do try and support our local event as much as possible. Maybe I’m a little bit old fashioned but there are a few events that I’ve always looked at from my time when I started watching Formula One and Monza is one of them, identically Spa and Silverstone, for example, other events that I’ve always historically followed and looked out for. There are economic realities and the events have to work.

    TW: My personal opinion is that those iconic and historic Grands Prix are important for the sport but then it’s a very difficult balance which needs to be achieved and that is securing income for the sport and income for the teams so I guess it’s not always very easy and straightforward in making those decisions. Certainly for us, the German Grand Prix is extremely important as is Monza and as is Spa, so from our perspective it would be good if we can keep those Grands Prix.

    CH: As a case study, I think that if you look at Silverstone that doesn’t have any State funding, any government backing but it put 120,000 people a day into the circuit there, fantastic crowd. OK, there’s a  British driver that’s the current World Champion that’s doing a good job but Silverstone demonstrated that it’s possible to put on a good event without that support and produce a good crowd, so you can only deduce from that that German drivers are not very popular in Germany or maybe it’s the team!

    GL: Dieter’s highlighted that there’s a recognition in the commercial structure of the sport for teams that have added to the value, the history and the fabric and Toto’s touched on that and I subscribe to that. I think not only have certain teams added to the value of Formula One but certain venues have as well. I don’t think it’s right to just dismiss a view as being romantic if you like. The fans like these venues so I wouldn’t necessarily go to the extreme that Franz suggests. I think if anything it’s more a reflection maybe on the fact that there needs to be some kind of rebalance in the whole structure, so in other words, if Monza is at threat and I don’t know what goes on with all of these discussions but if any of these iconic venues are at threat, perhaps that’s more a sign of something that could be done in a more optimum way somewhere else. If we do nothing but chase income, then without any question, the sport will just eat itself up. There’s no two ways about it, that’s inevitable. It won’t work because it will just spiral out of control eventually. So there is a balance, it’s not easy, but there’s a balance and hopefully the right balance would reflect a sport that still has the ability to have iconic teams and iconic venues as well.

    YA: You know that we had a race in Suzuka in the eighties and the most famous drivers were Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. We had over 200,000 people per day in Suzuka so it means that good drivers, good teams, good machines are very important. I don’t care about the nationality… I want to get a Japanese driver but there isn’t the talent. The fans are most important.

    Q: (Luke Murphy – Formula Spy) Paul, one of the main headlines in FP1 was Lotus’s late payments for the tyres for this weekend. My question is, regarding what people have said previously about the costs of Formula One and given that the prize money is given later on in the year, do you have any immediate concerns about other teams’ payments?

    PH: No.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, you said earlier on – correct me if I misunderstood – you wouldn’t have any upgrades at all on your engines until Sochi and that’s actually the first time you would be able to track test the engine reliability and performance. Assuming it hasn’t gone too well and let’s be honest, there have been various stages along the way where you’ve been hopeful of getting an increase in performance, if there is no improvement, can you imagine yourself racing with Renault engines in 2016, and if not, what are your options? And is some form of a Mercedes engine an option for next year?

    CH: Do you want to make that question any longer at all? Look, I think the situation with the Renault engine… you know Renault would be the first to admit that they’re not at all happy with where performance or reliability has been with this engine. They are making progress, they are making strides. I think the problem with engines is it’s – unlike the chassis – long lead-time items. Renault have got strategically some decisions to make over the coming weeks in terms of the direction they want to go along – not just for 2016 but for beyond that.

    Regarding the second part of your question about the future, we have an agreement with Renault to the end of next year and of course as a partner, we’re expecting them to enable us to run in a competitive manner and in order to do that, we need a competitive engine. Of course, Renault need that more than anybody as well for both of their customer teams.

    Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) To the four team principals: Michelin have announced that they’re going to bid for the tyre contract from 2017 onwards but with quite a different approach to Pirelli’s. They’ve said they’d like 18 inch tyres and a tyre that will do one stop per race. Pirelli have pretty much said that they will do anything Formula One wants, so my question is, what would the team principals prefer from the tyre manufacturer?

    TW: I think first of all you need to honour your current partner and we’ve been going through various phases with Pirelli and they have a pretty difficult task to fulfil what’s in vogue. We want to have more stops and a spectacular tyre which loses grip quickly; we’ve had that a couple of years ago, we didn’t like it. Then of course, as a tyre manufacturer, safety is most important so you go more conservative; then it was not enough stops and because we are heading into another year with Pirelli, whatever happens afterwards, we need to concentrate on that partnership and try to resolve ’16, produce and influence a tyre as good as we can in a mutual partnership and collaboration for 2016 and have the best possible product for the best possible show. What happens beyond that is out of our hands because it’s between the FIA and the commercial rights holder to tender and to decide. Commercial terms are going to play a role and therefore I would rather keep concentrated on my current wife.

    FT: Well first of all I must say that Pirelli is doing a really good job, because in the past we didn’t have any problems with the tyres but nevertheless, from the commercial side, the more money you get from a tyre manufacturer the better it is for the teams.

    GL: I agree with Franz. I think the commercial offering is extremely important in that same way that if you look at some of the questions that we’ve had today, they’ve related to… fundamentally related to an underlying potential financial issue so if we end up with a new tyre deal that requires the teams to go and find more money, then we’ll be chasing more money again. It’s the old saying: turnover is vanity and profit is sanity. There needs to be a whole lot of sanity and I think a way to reach that is to ensure that we have the right commercial package in place. And equally I would like to reflect Toto’s comment: I think  it’s very important to honour and respect our current partner at present.

    CH: Well, I think what we’re basically saying is that whoever pays the most cash will sit here and say we love and think they should be the right supplier for Formula One. But I think it does go a bit beyond that. An 18 inch rim and a one stop is going to do nothing for the spectacle of a Grand Prix and I think actually we need to be looking at doing the opposite: getting two- to three-stop races, controlled degradation, maybe more choice for the teams in terms of the tyres that they can take to Grands Prix, all the things that we’re talking about. I think Pirelli have done a good job since they’ve been involved in the sport, they’ve been supportive of Formula One through hard times as well as the good times. And hopefully with the cars that are coming for 2017, that are going to be quite a bit different, quite a bit quicker, with tyres that are significantly different to what we have now as well, then that represents a great challenge and hopefully Pirelli will be successful with that.

    Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens – Honorary) I would like to go back to the question of where we are going racing. On the calendar for next year is Azerbaijan, a new race, a country where there’s no freedom of the press, opposition (members) are arrested, people are disappeared and still we go racing there. Do you think that is correct?

    FT: Absolutely correct because Formula One is sport. We go there to entertain. We do not go there for any political reasons. It’s the same issue we had a couple of years ago with Bahrain. We can’t be involved in the political topics which, in those countries or in any country, which are on the list. The main target for Formula One as a sport is to go there, to entertain the people, to bring a good show and to have hopefully a good race. If we will be put into the corner to say, OK, we should not go into a country where maybe the press freedom is not at a certain level or any other issues, then I don’t know where we go racing. Then we have problems with China, then we have problems with Russia, then maybe we have problems with Brazil, then any country, some negatives which you can bring up, we just go there, make our show, present our sport and that’s it and therefore we should go. We should not be involved in any political discussions.

    Q: (Fredrik Af Petersens – Honorary) I would just like to follow up that question. What Formula One is doing is supporting a dictatorship. We just had the so-called European games in Baku a couple of weeks ago where European journalists from England and Germany were not given visas to visit the country. How would you react if any of us here was denied a visa?

    CH: It would make our press conferences a lot shorter anyway, so maybe not a bad thing!

    FT: There must be a reason why the visa was denied. I don’t know the background. To be honest, I don’t care about this. So we go there, we race there and that’s it. It’s your problem how you get the visa.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Franz, you talked about your big problem, reliability. Do you see a solution or is the solution called 2016?

    FT: No, 2016 is too late. We want to have immediately solutions at Toro Rosso. We do not wait a long time. It’s a short term topic and I hope that we get it under control with our partners and this we will see in the second half of the season. But I am not… or hopefully we are not in a position to wait for 2016 because that’s too long.

  • Weather Report for the 2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix

    Weather Report for the 2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix

    We head over to the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary with heavy hearts ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

    Drivers up and down the grid have payed tribute to Jules Bianchi and will honor him in the best way they know how. To race all out on Sunday.

    The Hungaroring is situated in a valley in Mogyorod, Hungary just north of Budapest. Construction on the circuit began in Octer 1985 and was completed in just 8 months. The inaugural race was held on 24 march 1986 and has since hosted the Hungarian Grand Prix. Over the years the circuit has undergone a few changes and modifications. The biggest change was made at Turn 1. Previously Turn 1 was a mirror of Turn 14. This was modified in 2003. The radius of Turn 1 was made a bit tighter to encourage overtaking.

    The circuit is characterised by medium and low speed corners that requires mechanical as well as aerodynamic grip which is why teams tend to run high downforce on their cars. With only one line through the slow parts of the circuit overtaking comes at a premium around the Hungaroring but it is not totally nonexistent. Turns 1, 2 and 12 are popular overtaking spots. There have been passes at other areas of the circuit but those are the exception.

    With temperatures expected to be on the high side this weekend Pirelli have brought the white medium(prime) compound tyre and yellow soft(option) compound tyre. The one long straight on the circuit means that the tyres do not have significant time to cool which leads to thermal degradation on the tyres. Following another driver close by will lead to much quicker degradation on the tyres with the lack of front grip. Pit stop strategy will play an important role during the race.

    The weather for the Hungarian Grand Prix can be described in one word. Hot. Temperatures are expected to hover in the mid 30’s for the Friday and Saturday sessions. The mercury is expected to peak at 34 Degrees Celsius on Friday and 36 Degrees Celsius on Saturday. A 40-50% chance of thundershowers are expected for the end of Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2. There is no rain forecast for Saturday. A 40% chance of showers is forecast for the start of the race on Sunday with temperatures dropping to a cooler 28 Degrees Celsius. Keep an eye on the changing conditions with our live weather forecast below.

    Hungary 2015_Weather

     



  • Drivers Pay Tribute To Jules Bianchi Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix Weekend

    Drivers Pay Tribute To Jules Bianchi Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix Weekend

    The Formula 1 circus heads into Hungary with heavy hearts this weekend with drivers paying tribute to the Frenchman ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

    Felipe Nasr: “I met Jules on one occasion only but we shared the track in this go-kart race that Felipe [Massa] does, or used to do, every year. It was really the first time I got in a conversation with him and you could see the guy was special.

    “Not only as a person – for sure he had a good heart inside of him – but all his techniques, all the junior categories he had been through. As everybody mentioned he was a real reference to all of us.

    “Especially for me, I was always a few years behind him because we didn’t have the same age. But you could definitely see he had all the ingredients to be a very good driver and to fight for something bigger in the future. I have all the respect for him, even though I didn’t know him so well and I wish the best for his family as well.”

    Sergio Perez: “I met him when we were both in GP2. When I really spent more time with him was in the Ferrari Academy, when we were both doing the Ferrari Academy.

    “You could see Jules was a very special driver but also a very special person that everyone seemed to like. He was just very humble and very human as well and he really left a big impact on the world. I think we all share the same opinion.

    “I think Jules was a very special driver that didn’t have the opportunity to show what he could do in Formula One in his short period. It was just enough to realise that he was a potential champion for the future. He was just a very, very special driver.

    “It’s very sad, you know. As drivers we share many moments – every Sunday, every Friday afternoon in the drivers’ briefing. We’re not the best friends but we always share moments. We do the same, all of us. We see each other every 15 days or so during the whole year, so we spend a lot things together and not to see him ever again, it really shocks you. It’s very, very hard for all of us – I’m sure not only for the drivers, but for everyone involved in the sport – to lose someone, because you know you could be there, it could be your family.

    “I was talking the other day to his father and it’s just very, very difficult for the whole family. But his family is our family now and we really want to support them in any way because Jules will stay with us forever. I think what Jules did for the sport… he was just a great ambassador for us and he will always be in our hearts.”

    Romain Grosjean: “Well, as you can imagine, I’ve got questioned a few times. I cannot pick up a favourite memory because I’ve got too much with Jules.

    “I think the first time I heard his name was back in 2003. He was a much better driver in go-karts than I was; he was a bit younger.

    “Then he did follow up in all categories what I did and he won everywhere.

    “I think we shared a lot with Jules. It was a very nice ceremony. It was very emotional. His parents were, I think, happy to see us. Of course, this week all our thoughts go with him but personally I will never forget that we race and we race for Jules as well.”

    Nico Hulkenberg: “He’s been my team-mate twice, in 2008 in Formula 3 and 2012 in Formula One here.

    “I remember in 2008, I was in my second in Formula 3, supposed to win the championship and he came in as a rookie, his first year. I remember his race in Mugello, I was starting from pole and he was starting second or third. Anyway, we take off, I’m leading, he’s second and I’m seeing him in my mirrors, pushing really hard, really chasing me down, trying to get me. He was burning his tyres at the time, I was saving them, but it just showed how competitive he was and he was so hungry for success.

    “Even outside the track he was a great guy, a lot fun, a lot of great moments together and we’ll all miss him.”

    Roberto Merhi: “The first time I met Jules was in 2002 in a karting race. It was a race in Spain and he was coming from France and normally when you are that young to come to a track that you don’t know, in Spain, that you have never raced, it’s very hard to be quick and I remember I was really surprised to see that guy that was really quick immediately on that track.

    “He really impressed everybody. After that I followed him really closely. He was always the driver – the reference. He was all the time the quickest and doing really great things.

    “Obviously, when I jumped into Formula Renault in 2007 we did a few races together because he also jumped in 2007 to Formula Renault and again he won straight away; his first year in the championship. It was pretty incredible, no?

    “For me he was the biggest talent I saw in motorsport. Also, when I raced, back in 2009, with an F3, we were fighting against him because he was the man to beat that year and he won the championship with so many good drivers on the track and he won it really easy; just winning so many races. I think that shows how good he was and for me it’s, to be honest, really a shame that he was not able to really show in an F1 car what he was able to do, because I think he was the best driver that I raced against and it’s a bit of a shame what happened in Suzuka, but hopefully he’s in a good place and enjoying.”

  • 2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Roberto MERHI (Manor)

    Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)

    Felipe NASR (Sauber)

    Sergio PEREZ (Force India)

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Well gentlemen, clearly all our thoughts this Hungarian Grand Prix weekend are with Jules Bianchi and his family. Many of you were at the funeral this week. Perhaps we should start with a word or perhaps a favourite memory from the drivers about their colleague. Romain, would you start?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, as you can imagine, I’ve got questioned a few times. I cannot pick up a favourite memory because I’ve got too much with Jules. I think the first time I heard his name was back in 2003. He was a much better driver in go-karts than I was; he was a bit younger. Then he did follow up in all categories what I did and he won everywhere. I think we shared a lot with Jules. It was a very nice ceremony. It was very emotional. His parents were, I think, happy to see us. Of course, this week all our thoughts go with him but personally I will never forget that we race and we race for Jules as well.

    Felipe?

    Felipe MASSA: Jules, first of all, I mean, he was a great friend. [When] I met him he was still racing in go-karts, because we have the same manager. [When] Nicolas [Todt] started to work with Jules he was still at the end of his go-kart career and I met him in that time. For me he was a fantastic boy, very nice, very humble and an amazing driver. Unfortunately in Formula One he didn’t have the opportunity to race in a competitive car; to show his talent. He showed us anyway by finishing in the points in Monaco with a car he was driving which everybody knows was like… it was an amazing thing he did in that race. But for me the experience I had with Jules was also that we did a lot of go-kart together, even in Brazil, and in my experience he was the best go-kart driver I saw. It was amazing the way he was driving go-karts. It was maybe the opportunity we had to race together in a similar kart. It’s not nice to see has happened. It was so difficult to be there in the church, to understand what’s happened, it was so sad. But I’m sure he is in a good place, racing, enjoying and definitely looking here to all of us, from whatever place he is, I don’t know, but I think he was an amazing boy and a fantastic driver that I really hope the best for his family as well. It was a very difficult day to be there.

    Roberto?

    Roberto MERHI: The first time I met Jules was in 2002 in a karting race. It was a race in Spain and he was coming from France and normally when you are that young to come to a track that you don’t know, in Spain, that you have never raced, it’s very hard to be quick and I remember I was really surprised to see that guy that was really quick immediately on that track. He really impressed everybody. After that I followed him really closely. He was always the driver – the reference. He was all the time the quickest and doing really great things. Obviously, when I jumped into Formula Renault in 2007 we did a few races together because he also jumped in 2007 to Formula Renault and again he won straight away; his first year in the championship. It was pretty incredible, no? For me he was the biggest talent I saw in motorsport. Also, when I raced, back in 2009, with an F3, we were fighting against him because he was the man to beat that year and he won the championship with so many good drivers on the track and he won it really easy; just winning so many races. I think that shows how good he was and for me it’s, to be honest, really a shame that he was not able to really show in an F1 car what he was able to do, because I think he was the best driver that I raced against and it’s a bit of a shame what happened in Suzuka, but hopefully he’s in a good place and enjoying.

    Felipe (Nasr)?

    Felipe NASR: I met Jules on one occasion only but we shared the track in this go-kart race that Felipe [Massa] does, or used to do, every year. It was really the first time I got in a conversation with him and you could see the guy was special. Not only as a person – for sure he had a good heart inside of him – but all his techniques, all the junior categories he had been through. As everybody mentioned he was a real reference to all of us. Especially for me, I was always a few years behind him because we didn’t have the same age. But you could definitely see he had all the ingredients to be a very good driver and to fight for something bigger in the future. I have all the respect for him, even though I didn’t know him so well and I wish the best for his family as well.

    Sergio?

    Sergio PEREZ: Yeah, I met him when we were both in GP2. When I really spent more time with him was in the Ferrari Academy, when we were both doing the Ferrari Academy. You could see Jules was a very special driver but also a very special person that everyone seemed to like. He was just very humble and very human as well and he really left a big impact on the world. I think we all share the same opinion. I think Jules was a very special driver that didn’t have the opportunity to show what he could do in Formula One in his short period. It was just enough to realise that he was a potential champion for the future. He was just a very, very special driver. It’s very sad, you know. As drivers we share many moments – every Sunday, every Friday afternoon in the drivers’ briefing. We’re not the best friends but we always share moments. We do the same, all of us. We see each other every 15 days or so during the whole year, so we spend a lot things together and not to see him ever again, it really shocks you. It’s very, very hard for all of us – I’m sure not only for the drivers, but for everyone involved in the sport – to lose someone, because you know you could be there, it could be your family. I was talking the other day to his father and it’s just very, very difficult for the whole family. But his family is our family now and we really want to support them in any way because Jules will stay with us forever. I think what Jules did for the sport… he was just a great ambassador for us and he will always be in our hearts.

    And finally, Nico.

    Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, he’s been my team-mate twice, in 2008 in Formula 3 and 2012 in Formula One here. I remember in 2008, I was in my second in Formula 3, supposed to win the championship and he came in as a rookie, his first year. I remember his race in Mugello, I was starting from pole and he was starting second or third. Anyway, we take off, I’m leading, he’s second and I’m seeing him in my mirrors, pushing really hard, really chasing me down, trying to get me. He was burning his tyres at the time, I was saving them, but it just showed how competitive he was and he was so hungry for success. Even outside the track he was a great guy, a lot fun, a lot of great moments together and we’ll all miss him.

    Thank you. Back to you Romain: the first lap at Silverstone was extraordinary, with both Lotus cars out. It seems as thought the team is still leaving a lot of points uncollected. What are your feelings at this stage of the season and where you go in the second half?

    RG: Yeah, after last year it was important for us to get a good baseline when we started the winter testing, which was the case and then we had missed opportunities, especially in the first few race where actually Felipe [Nasr] did very well, he finished P5 in Melbourne, where we could have finished and it was the same in Malaysia. Then we got in the points, things were looking better but unfortunately we were a bit less lucky in the next races. I made a mistake in Canada, cost us a good chunk of points and in the last race we couldn’t do much – we retired both cars at the beginning. I think we still have a very good baseline. We still have a few updates we would like to put on the car and then we could chase a little but more Force India, which just got in front of us in the championship.

    Thank you. Felipe Massa, coming to you: you had 19 in the lead at Silverstone, including the opening lap. How did it feel to be in control at the front again and how does the team avoid a repeat of what happened at the other end of the race, where the podium got away from you?

    FM: It feels amazing to be in the front! It’s really a great feeling. Unfortunately it didn’t stay until the chequered flag, but it was a great feeling to be back at the front, to be back fighting for the victory at least, you know. We couldn’t manage to win at the end, not just for the first moment we lost the first and I went to second but also for the rain; we were struggling a lot in the rain and it’s definitely part of our working to improve the car in the rain. But I think we need to take also the positive things, that the car was competitive, maybe we were very close to Mercedes. Even if they were a little bit quicker, we were not far. I think we were very close in that race. I think this positive aspect needs to stay in our brain and we need to try to understand how we can do that again but also stay in the front and finish and try to win the race. We will keep pushing.

    Q: Nico, coming to you, over the last few races we’ve seen Force India take a step forwards – even before the new chassis arrived – points finishes etcetera. That was on power circuits. What difference will the new chassis make here on this type of circuit, do you think?

    NH: Yeah, I think it’s going to be good and positive. The B-spec car has really, so far, talking about Silverstone, lived up to the expectations what we wanted from it. So that’s very positive and encouraging. I think, obviously having collected a lot of data from both cars in the race, we’re able in those two weeks to go through it and optimise even more. Plus there is some more tweaks to the car here. I’m excited to see how we’re going to get on here.

    Q: Felipe, coming to you, congratulations on your contract extension announced today. Why was staying at Sauber the right thing for you?

    FN: Well, I think it only builds up the trust between myself and the team. Although I think it was always the plan when we came to Sauber, for the first time the opportunity came and I thought it was the right moment to take it. It’s nice to see the team, they put in a lot of confidence on myself and I think, looking back at the year we’ve had already, in this seven months we’ve learned a lot together, we did achieve a lot, I think we did achieve most of what we’ve expected, especially in the beginning of the year when we had some great results. As mentioned, the Australia fifth place was fantastic and, after that, we saw things becoming a lot more difficult and from the drivers’ point of view it’s always easier for us to say where the car needs to work and the team is seeing all the limitations that we have at the moment. I think everybody is leaning towards the direction of improving things out there. We saw Mark Smith coming in, joining the team. It’s already the beginning of that. And by having the two drivers, the same line-up, I think it only brings more of this information together, and we can be committed together for 2016 and build up something a lot more promising.

    Q: Roberto, you’re a bit unusual in that you’re running a parallel Formula One and World Series programme this year, you were on the podium, I believe, at this track earlier in the season – how comfortable do you feel in Formula One now, and what happened with that accident at the end of the last race in Austria.

    RM: The feeling in Formula One, every time is going better through the races. At the start of the year I was struggling a little bit – but I, after Monaco, everything went better, the race pace, after the quali in Montreal and the race pace in Montreal, Austria, and then the race in Silverstone was really good. And yeah, obviously I am going another championship, so far the World Series season, we had so many issues at the start of the year with so many engine problems. In this track we were missing two seconds on Friday, we changed 70 per cent of the car, just pieces, and the next day I was P5 or P6 in quali, something like that, and I finished second in the race. Was a strong result, let’s say. Then last weekend in Austria, at the start of the race I had a failure with the steering wheel. All of the race I was driving with the steering wheel bent completely, like 50° to the left, and after the race I wanted to do just a slow lap. I moved to the right, just to avoid the people coming to the left and the next time I check the mirror, the guy behind me was three seconds behind and the next time I checked the mirror he was like five metres behind me, coming much quicker and, yeah, colliding to my back. I don’t know, it was a bit strange to be honest, the situation I think was really unlucky. Thanks God nothing happened to both drivers, we are both OK. He could race the race afterwards and nothing else happened.

    Q: Sergio, coming to you, obviously point in three of the last four races but in the in-house battle Nico recently has the edge over you on qualifying. How’s the match-up going with Nico? How do you feel about it?

    SP: Obviously it’s been, the last three races, he obviously has scored more points that what I’ve done. I think with the B-spec and the upgrades I haven’t got on as well has he did in the last race. Still plenty of championship to go and I think it’s important that we keep improving. I’m very optimistic coming into this track. I think what we’ve shown in Silverstone was just the proof that the car has improved massively. So I think in a track like this it will be really interesting to see how we go because obviously here the engine is not so important. I think our car has improved a lot and we have plenty of data to analyse from the weekend before, so I think we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic into this weekend.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To all drivers, I’m sorry to come back to the subject of Jules Bianchi. This was the first time your generation has faced a death in Formula One. We saw many of you very touched at the funeral, couldn’t be different. Do you think even maybe unconsciously you start avoiding some high-risk manoeuvres from now – or maybe even different approach to the races?

    Will it change the way you drive. Nico, do you want to take that one first?

    NH: I mean it opens your eyes and tells us what we’re doing, the sport we’re doing, there’s still some risk involved. I think you just have to be aware of that and make your own choices at times in the car, how much risk you’re willing to take, and be comfortable with it. Yeah, I think for me, personally, it won’t change much.

    Felipe?

    FM: I don’t think it changes. When you close your visor, you want the best, you want to finish in front, and you want to do the best you can and manoeuvre overtaking, the way you drive, your thinking, I don’t think it will change. When I had my accident here, when I start driving again here in Hungary, always when I pass that place I don’t remember that I had the accident there. So, you don’t think about it, it stays in the past. Maybe when you go out of the car you remember about Jules or about other things which is… now I remember about my accident but when I’m driving, I don’t know, y’know? So I don’t even think I have a mother, father, my son, my wife or whatever, you don’t think about it. You just think about your job, your work.  I don’t think that will change. But now, I have Jules all the time on my mind.

    Sergio, go along with that?

    SP: Yeah, definitely. Obviously when something like this happens you know that there is a big level of risk. It’s what we love to do and when something like this happens to our colleague, we all know it could have been ourselves in that car – but it doesn’t really change anything. I’ve had some accidents in the past and you know that the risk is there. We all know. It can happen in any practice, any day, as soon as you jump into the car, you know that the risk is very high but it doesn’t really change anything. As Felipe says, we want to give our best, we want to succeed, we want to take every tenth out of the car. So we just give it all. I don’t think it will change. We all have to make Jules very proud.

    Roberto?

    RM: I don’t think it changes much but for sure you think more about it. For example, I was racing here with the World Series, as I mentioned and out of the fastest corner on the track was a car crash and a tractor came in to recover the car and they didn’t put a Safety Car and, to be honest, when I saw that situation and a yellow flag I really slowed down. So maybe in the past I would not have slowed down so much because, after that, you think more about it. You’re more afraid that you know things can happen. To be honest I didn’t feel so comfortable in that situation and I really lift from that corner and maybe losing three tenths per lap because I think it’s a dangerous corner and a dangerous situation, as we can see. But obviously, I think for a single lap of for a start – a normal situation – I think will not change. But, for sure, this time, when I left my house, was not the same the way I say goodbye to family and that – because you know things can happen, and maybe before we never even stop a minute to think about that.

    Romain?

    RG: I think thought our career it’s in our nature to take risk and think, when you drive, especially a Formula One car going that quickly around the corner, you need to be 100 per cent in the car and not thinking about what could happen if and if. We know it’s a dangerous sport but I think that was a hard way to remember that. But when helmet is on and visor is closed, it’s racing 100 per cent. That’s what we’ve always been doing and that’s what racing drivers will always do.

    Felipe?

    FN: I agree with what everyone else said. We are racing. That’s what we come here for. We do face some risks sometimes but I think since then, the Virtual Safety Car thing was a good positive point to have in a way to avoid the kind of circumstances like it happened with Jules. But it’s also linked to us drivers to know this kind of situation and to be aware of it. In dangerous conditions out there or whatever it’s something you… we all have to know what is good for us. What we have to do, what is safe for us to do. As all the others do, like I do as well, when we are racing, we are not thinking about this thing.

    Q: (Péter Vámosi – Vas Népe) Question to Romain. In 2010 you had the opportunity to drive a Ford GT car in Le Mans. Next year Ford is coming back – are you interested in that, driving again in Le Mans? And are you allowed to do that?

    RG: Well, of course that experience was a great experience. If I do it again Le Mans it would be LMP1 because I got tired of watching the mirrors in the night, and the day. I was quite jealous of Nico winning the race, I think all of us, but, to be fair, I haven’t thought about it.

    Would you recommend it Nico?

    NH: Yes!

    RG: Just for the watch or…?

    Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1 Zone.net) Felipe, do you believe you can benefit from the new starting procedure? If we look at Silverstone, you had a very good start there but it wasn’t enough to stay ahead of Mercedes.

    FM: On the start, yes, it was enough but afterwards not. I believe I can still be competitive at the start. To be honest, I’ve always had a great start. Even last year I had a trophy for the best start of the season and this year I did many many good starts as well. I believe I will still be competitive at the start and I don’t think it should really change a lot. The procedure is more of less similar. Maybe you have less information but I don’t think the procedure will change completely, so I’m really not worrying about that.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Felipe, I just wonder about two things especially after your accident here: first of all, what view do you take on the whole open/closed cockpit debate and touching on something Roberto said about the recovery tractors, are you and the rest of the drivers comfortable with them still being in use as they are?

    FM: Well, I think if you go back to what’s happened to Jules, many things changed after that so unfortunately, we need to see that type of accident to understand what’s happened. I really agree that Formula One has changed a lot, especially after Ayrton Senna’s accident. I believe the car is very safe now. We always need to keep working to improve the safety, you know –  not just the cars but the tracks and everything is very safe now – so what happened in Japan was a different situation. What happened in Japan is something that we cannot… I cannot accept, because a car crashed into a tractor. It was a race that… it was a very strange weekend so we had the typhoon, we had people asking to run the race at a different time, we had the red flag already at the beginning of the race. It was already a different event and I am sure after that accident that so many things changed and people understand that what’s happened there was something that was not supposed to happen. We had some different rules after that, for the virtual safety car, for more safety cars especially if the car goes off the track and everything. Unfortunately we  need to see that type of accident to change something. The most important thing is not to see that again. Unfortunately Jules is not here any more. So many things changed in the past because of accidents, it’s unfortunate, but it’s important that we don’t see that any more.

    I’m not completely against it (open/closed cockpits). I think it’s something that needs to be… if it’s better for everybody and it doesn’t change the aspect of Formula One – or maybe not closing the cockpit but doing something that they always did since years, to improve the safety on that area – I’m not against it.

    Q: (Gabor Joo – Index online) Felipe, basically could you clarify for us your contract situation with Williams, for next year especially? Will you stay there?

    FM: I hope so. Nothing’s changed at the moment, I don’t see why I should not be there. I’m really enjoying working with the team. The team is really respecting me 100 percent and I think enjoying the way I work with the team as well. I see that the team is growing, growing and getting stronger most of the time, but what people wrote a few days ago or maybe a week ago, I don’t think really this guy has the right information. I think he just put (it) in the paper… I believe I will drive for Williams next year but I think maybe the chance that this guy is correct is bigger than… he’s risking the way that he can be correct.

    Q: (Istvan Simon – Auto Magazin) To Felipe again: Nelson Piquet has admitted just recently or a couple of years ago that he’s had serious problems with his vision after he had the big accident in 1987 at Imola. You’ve had the big one here, in Hungary, a couple of years ago; is everything alright 100 percent with your vision now?

    FM: Oh my God, it was in 2009. I’m still racing after years and if I cannot see, you understand, before that… you understand maybe the race after or two races after so I can see very well.

    Q: (Tomas Richtr – AMC/Sport1) Question to the drivers regarding the 21 race calendar next year, so it looks like it’s ever increasing. How difficult is it to adapt to your already busy schedules and do you think there is actually some kind of limit of number of races per year which is feasible for you as Formula One drivers?

    RG: I think the limit would be the divorce!

    FN: As I say, racing is more time away, for sure. All of us, all of us drivers but every one here, I’m sure they have other parts – apart from Formula One – everyone has a life behind that. But in a way I’m young, I’m in the opposite direction to him (Romain) so I’m fully open to as many races as they can do and let’s go for it.

    RG: You see, they want to get rid of the old ones, more so even those with kids!

    NH: Nothing more to add, really. I think it’s fine, it’s a job, you know. We’ll do as many as they tell us.

    SP: We already have 19 now, so two more doesn’t really change a lot, I think.

    RM: Yeah, obviously I’m doing 19 F1 races plus nine World Series races and so to do only 21 races next year will be less races than this year. I am the same as Felipe (Nasr), I am not married so I can go for it.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – Best of Radio) Roberto, your team is very young in Formula One but it has had two tragic accidents in the past few years. How difficult is it to manage this within the team?

    RM: Obviously I think they are really… to be honest, you cannot really complain about the team for these situations. It can happen to everyone. The team doesn’t have anything to do with that. The people from the team are really nice people, the best team bosses you can have and they are really open to speak with the drivers and the treatment they give you is really good and I am sure that they always do, since I met them in 2009, and I feel really comfortable to work with them. It’s just a kind of a bad luck that they had in the team. It’s nothing to do with them what happened. For sure they are the first ones that are really down with this situation.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Felipe Nasr, your new contract, does it mean that the future of Sauber is solid now? And are you 100 percent sure that you’re only two drivers under contract?

    FN: We’ve seen this before, but I believe the situation is a lot better than it was a few months ago and all we’re trying to do is to improve, to develop the car as much as we can and as I said, I’ve been driving a pretty much similar car to the one I had in Australia, so as I said, we achieved the goals we had from the beginning of the year. Now of course it’s getting more difficult because all the teams are improving their cars, the development rate is much better in other teams but by having this confirmation early on, starting from now we can think about 2016 and I can tell you there are a lot of more positive things coming.

  • F1 2015: Nasr and Ericsson Signed Up

    F1 2015: Nasr and Ericsson Signed Up

    The Sauber Formula 1 team has confirmed that Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson will remain as its race drivers for 2016.

    Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson joined the Swiss Sauber team from Caterham at the end of 2014 and scored a career-best eighth place with the team in Australia.

    “I’m very happy that Sauber has put its trust in my potential for another year. Up to now I have some good memories of my first year with the long-standing Swiss team,” Ericsson told Motorsport.com

    Brazilian rookie Felipe Nasr made the move up to Formula 1 from the GP2 series with solid performances in his 2015 season. “The extension to the contract with Sauber is an important step in my career,” Nasr confirmed to Motorsport.com

     

  • Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix

    Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix

    Round 10 of the Formula 1 World Championship heads to Hungaroring in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

    The week had begun on a rather somber note with the passing of Jules Bianchi. Bianchi finally succumbed to his injuries after a 9 month fight since his crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. An unbelievable talent taken away from us too soon.

    The Hungaroring has been hosting F1 races since its inaugural race in March 1986. There have been a few modifications and upgrades made to the track but it has largely remained the same.

    The track is is a medium-to-low speed circuit which needs a high downforce setup on the cars. The flowing nature of the track in the middle sector makes overtaking difficult as there is just one line drivers can follow through it. The most popular overtaking spot is down the pit straight with DRS into Turn 1. Some drivers have made some spectacular moves around the outside at the long left handed Turn 2.

    Ahead of the race weekend a number of teams are expecting strong performances before the official F1 summer break. Ferrari have been saying that the warm temperatures favor the SF15-T and are expecting a strong performance from both of their drivers.

    Williams are expecting a tough weekend as their car is more suited to high speed circuits. They have, however, taken steps to minimise the impact for the weekend.

    McLaren’s Fernando Alonso expects a much better second half to the season after a very difficult first half to the season. The team are planning big updates after the summer break.

    Race times will be at the “normal” time for everyone in Europe and Africa. All times are GMT+2

    Free Practice 1: Friday 10:00

    Free Practice 2: Friday 14:00

    Free Practice 3: Saturday 11:00

    Qualifying: Saturday 14:00

    Race: Sunday 14:00

  • Jules Bianchi, 1989-2015

    Jules Bianchi, 1989-2015

    French Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi has died at the young age of 25 after succumbing to his injuries sustained 9 months ago at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

    Bianchi crashed into a recovery vehicle that was recovering Adrian Sutil’s Force India which crashed a lap before. He was rushed off to the Mie General Hospital where it was revealed that he had sustained a diffuse axonal injury. Bianchi was treated for his injury in Japan for a few weeks after which he was then moved to Le Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice in the south of France where he lived out the rest of his days.

    Bianchi is the first driver in 21 years to die from his racing injuries since Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola in 1994

    “Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end,” said the Bianchi family.

    Jules started his racing career in karting and in 2007 joined the SG Formula team in French Formula Renault 2.0. He finished the series as the champion with 5 wins to his name.

    Late in 2007 he signed with ART Grand Prix and competed in the Formula 1 Euro Series. He stayed in Formula 3 in 2008 where he won the Masters of Formula 3.

    Bianchi_Bahrain 2014.Throughout 2010 and 2011 he participated in GP2 with ART. While participating in GP2, the Ferrari announced him as their test and reserve driver for 2011. Bianchi became the first successful recruit of the Ferrari Driver Academy.  He tested for the team at the young driver test in Abu Dhabi. Bianchi also tested for Force India during 2012.

    His big break in F1 came in 2013 when the Marussia F1 team – now Manor F1 – announced that he would replace Luiz Razia. In his first race for the team he finished in 15th place ahead of his team mate Max Chilton in 17th.

    In 2014 he stamped his authority at the Marussia team as their No.1 driver after out qualifying and out pacing his team mate.

    With just 34 races under his belt in Formula 1, Bianchi had shown that he was an extraordinary talent with Marussia. On many occasions he has out raced his team mate, Max Chilton, and was able to get more out of the car. His most impressive drive came in Monaco 2014 where he brought his Marussia home in 9th place earning the team their first points in F1.

    It was never easy for Jules as he suffered many retirements during races but he had been noticed and and proved his worth in F1. Towards the end of the 2014 season there was talk about third drivers in F1 and it was then announced by former Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemolo that Bianchi was tipped to be the third driver for Ferrari.

    Since his death was announced there has been an outpouring of tributes from the F1 community all over the world with teams, drivers and fans expressing their sadness at Jules’ death. Bianchi_Monaco 2014

    “We are devastated to lose Jules after such a hard-fought battle. It was a privilege to have him race for our team,” tweeted the Manor F1 Team

    Max Chilton tweeted: “No words can describe what his family & the sport have lost. All I can say it was a pleasure knowing & racing you.”

    “I have no words… We will miss you my old friend…,” tweet Jean-Eric Vergne who is a close friend of Jules.

    McLaren Driver, Jenson Button tweeted: “Last night we lost a truly great guy and a real fighter #RIPJules my sincerest Condolences to his family and friends.”

    Sky Sports F1 Commentator David Croft tweeted: “Rest In Peace Jules. Words can’t describe the sadness this morning. It was a pleasure to have known you, even more to have watched you race.”

     

  • F1 2015: Hungarian GP Preview – Racing At The ‘Ring

    F1 2015: Hungarian GP Preview – Racing At The ‘Ring

    Formula 1 returns after a three week break to the Hungarian grand prix. However, the excitement has been significantly dulled. The passing of Jules Bianchi has been a surreal and deeply unfortunate reality.

    While the mood is solemn the best way to honour the life of Jules Bianchi is by putting on a great show around Hungary’s Hungaroring circuit.

    It’s a special place for both McLaren drivers as it is the venue of their first wins in the sport. In 2003 a fresh faced Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag in his blue and yellow liveried Renault and in 2006 Jenson Button turned on the magic on a damp circuit in his BAR Honda to take the top step of the podium.

    Times have changed since then for these two who now find themselves teammates at a struggling McLaren Honda team. The 2015 season has been arduous for all involved but Fernando Alonso believes that the Hungaroring and the second half of the season will hold some opportunities for McLaren to show the gains it has made. “I think the second part of the year will show a completely different McLaren, much more competitive,” says the Spaniard. “The steps that are coming are quite big. This is not too difficult when you are at the back of the grid and two seconds off the pace – every step then is half a second or eight-tenths. When you are fighting for a podium you [only] gain 0.1s every two weeks. I think we will get much closer to the top guys in the second part of the championship.”

    hungariangp-merc-twitterThe Hungaroring’s layout is a flowing mixture of low to medium speed corners with a few elevation changes. This coupled with the lack of any significant straights decreases the demand on the power unit. Due to its flowing nature the circuit offers, in most areas, offers only one ideal line which will limit the chances for overtaking. Consequently, a good qualifying position becomes a major strategic advantage.

    Pirelli have selected the medium and soft compounds for the weekend and expect the combination should provide a good balance between performance and reliability. “This selection is soft enough to provide the mechanical grip needed to negotiate all the corners, yet hard enough to withstand the punishing weather conditions and track layout of the Hungaroring. This is not always the easiest circuit to overtake on, so tyre strategy can make a real difference,” says Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

    Ferrari experienced a difficult British grand prix but Kimi Raikkonen thinks that this was a once-off. “We’ve seen at other circuits it depends a lot on the layout of the circuit and what tyres we run,” said the Finn.”I expect it to be a different story in the next race and at different circuits again. Hungary I’m sure it will [be better]. Silverstone was not the ideal weekend. The others were a bit faster. I’m sure it will be a bit more easy there but we will see.”

    Motor Racing - Formula One Testing - Test Three - Day 3 - Barcelona, SpainWilliams delivered a considerably better performance at Silverstone which led Rob Smedley to believe that the team is capable of beating Ferrari to second place in the constructor’s championship. The team believes that a steady stream of small upgrades at every race will make the difference but remain realistic about their potential this weekend. “We know we are still missing a bit in the low speed and we are big enough to hold hands up and say that is the case,” says Smedley.”We’re looking at all sorts of ways of recuperating that.”

    For nine months all motorsport fans had hoped to receive the news that Jules Bianchi had woken up and was well on his way to recovery. Sadly, this news will never come and his enormous potential will remain unfulfilled. It is the worst possible outcome but it is not the end of Jules’ legacy. It has reaffirmed the commitment to safety above all else and that is a gift of which the impact and importance cannot be measured. Ciao Jules and thank you.

  • Bianchi Family Statement

    Bianchi Family Statement

    The Bianchi family has released a statement to confirm that Jules Bianchi has passed away.

    “It is with deep sadness that the parents of Jules Bianchi, Philippe and Christine, his brother Tom and sister Mélanie, wish to make it known that Jules passed away last night at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) in Nice, (France) where he was admitted following the accident of 5th October 2014 at Suzuka Circuit during the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix.

    “Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end,” said the Bianchi family. “The pain we feel is immense and indescribable. We wish to thank the medical staff at Nice’s CHU who looked after him with love and dedication. We also thank the staff of the General Medical Center in the Mie Prefecture (Japan) who looked after Jules immediately after the accident, as well as all the other doctors who have been involved with his care over the past months.

    “Furthermore, we thank Jules’ colleagues, friends, fans and everyone who has demonstrated their affection for him over these past months, which gave us great strength and helped us deal with such difficult times. Listening to and reading the many messages made us realise just how much Jules had touched the hearts and minds of so many people all over the world.

    “We would like to ask that our privacy is respected during this difficult time, while we try to come to terms with the loss of Jules.”

    Rest in peace Jules. You will be missed.