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Ericsson Cuts All Ties With Caterham

Former Caterham driver, Marcus Ericsson has announced in a statement that he has cut all ties with the Caterham F1 team.

This comes a few weeks after Ericsson was confirmed as a Sauber driver for 2015. This would mean that if Caterham, who are in a middle of a crowd funding venture, were to make it to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, he will not race for the Leafield outfit.

Ericsson’s statement in full:

“Following recent events re Caterham Sports Limited and 1 MRT Sdn Bhd, my adviser Eje Elgh and I have decided to terminate, with immediate effect, all agreements connecting me to the Caterham F1 team.

This is a sad day as we have greatly enjoyed working with the team through a difficult and tough season.

I wish to thank Colin Kolles, Manfredi Ravetto, Cyril Abiteboul and every other member of the Caterham F1 team for your trust and confidence in me, and for making my first Formula 1 season an educational and unforgettable experience.

In addition, I thank my good friend and teammate Kamui Kobayashi for being an inspiring benchmark throughout the year, and hope to see him back on the track soon.”

November 13, 2014
Alonso McLaren switch to be confirmed next week

Fernando Alonso will make a visit to Woking this week for the first time since 2007, according to authoritative media sources.

Spanish publication El Mundo Deportivo claims that following the conclusion of a what is believed to be a two-year deal for 2015-16 with a one-year option for 2017 should performance objectives be met on both sides, Alonso will travel to the team’s Woking headquarters on Wednesday to put pen to paper.

The deal is believed to be the most lucrative contract in F1 history at an estimated £25 million.

According to Spanish paper AS, “Alonso and McLaren have agreed for the Spaniard to be the star of the British team’s new project with a Honda engine. Alonso will have a considerably higher salary as both McLaren and Honda make a big effort to win again”.

Alonso’s decision to accept the McLaren deal has now forced the team into making the difficult decision on who will remain as his team mate.

Danish rookie, Kevin Magnussen is seen as the favourite to remain with the team since they’ve nurtured him but he may not be the smartest choice. Jenson Button has outscored Magnussen by almost double (106 points vs 55) and the Briton’s experience could be something the team will need if it wants to win a championship. The combined experience of Alonso and Button would give a huge push toward the development of the new Honda V6 engine.

Judging by his own comments and body language in Brazil last week however, Button looks set to be sent packing which will most likely see him leave Formula One. Button is unimpressed with the way the team have handled the Alonso deal and he is clearly not feeling much love from the Woking outfit at the moment.

Press Association Sport have quoted Button as saying, “Naturally I still want to earn money because I feel I have achieved and I feel I should get paid for what I do in an F1 car or a racing car, and for what I bring to a team.

“But I’m not a driver that takes the p***, and I will race somewhere even I’m if not getting the big bucks like a few drivers who are out there.

“You should get what you deserve. I feel I bring a lot to a team, not just in terms of results, but in terms of marketing within a team and working with sponsors, and how I can help develop a car.

“You want to feel like you are wanted within a team and part of the family.

“It’s like if your parents were to turn round and say ‘You know what, we’re not sure if we want you at Christmas this year. But your brother can come, he’s great’. You know what I mean.

“You want to feel like you are part of the family, and they want you to be part of the family, and that’s more important than cash.”

If the decision does come down to finances, Magnussen will be the obvious choice to stay at McLaren since he is by far the cheaper option.

One could understand that Button would be a little disappointed in McLaren for not giving him more notice. BBC commentator and Former McLaren driver David Coulthard agrees that the team has treated Button disrespectfully and have accused the team of seeing drivers as “light bulbs”.

“Maybe it (that comment) has had some reaction from the team, but I stand by my view,” he told the Telegraph.

“The right thing is to treat people well. To have him (Button) hanging on like this is unfair. Going into the last race should be a celebration – if it is to be his last – but we may not know.

“He deserves better,” Coulthard added.

Alonso as it turns out is said to be keen for Button to stay for at least one more season to work alongside him.

“I hope he [Button] stays [in F1],” France’s Le Figaro quotes Alonso as having said at Interlagos.

“He is a very talented driver and a good person. People like him are good for our sport.”

It is likely that whatever McLaren decide, both drivers will be announced simultaneously before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The announcement will clear the way for Ferrari to publicly confirm Sebastian Vettel’s arrival at the Scuderia.

November 11, 2014
Kaltenborn: Bigger teams have an agenda to force small teams out of F1

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has come out guns blazing saying that F1’s bigger teams have an agenda to drive the smaller teams off the grid and ultimately alter the DNA of the Formula One championship.

Marussia has already been forced to shut its doors and Caterham are fighting for their future, resorting to crowd funding to try and get their cars back on the grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Kalteborn claims that certain proposals had been made to the smaller teams which led them to believe that the bigger teams have an end goal in mind to push the smaller teams off the grid. The larger teams quickly refused suggestions they should give up a share of their revenues to aid the smaller teams with the high costs of competing in the sport.

Kaltenborn said: “Looking at the proposals which have been made you have to believe there is some agenda, don’t you? The agenda seems to be that people are looking at four or five names to stay in here, and when ideas are offered to us of a year-old chassis or engines which are maybe a different spec or series, there must be agenda. As there’s no-one reacting to it in front we don’t know whose agenda it is.

“That’s why it’s important we said what we had to on this point because these things are changing every day, but the fact is it cannot remain like this. It’s no way we want to work and can work and the more these ideas are coming up the more we three get the feeling that maybe some people don’t want us to be around and maybe the sport is supposed to be changed in a very different way.”

Kaltenborn also believes that one of the biggest problems is that the bigger teams no longer think about F1 as just a sport.

“The big teams out there use this as a simple sporting marketing platform. It’s nothing more for them. They talk of it as being a sport, about Benetton, all this stuff where is that now? We are not out here with, as they are saying, begging bowls.

“We also work quite well in times, if you look back, when you had a Toyota with a horrendously high budget, and we had our little budget but we used to be on the podium often. We don’t need to be a threat to them but we are part of the show and it’s very disrespectful to behave like this to teams within the sport and even more disrespectful towards the fans.”

“Basically it is the end of the fascination of F1,” she went on to say. “They are totally disregarding what the fans want. You are just destroying the whole series. It’s short-sighted business thinking.”

Force India’s deputy team boss Bob Fernley echoed Kaltenborn’s sentiments saying, “We were given a clear direction there is no money on the table. There is a very clear programme coming in. The goal is to move to customer-car teams and the three cars will be the interim. That would allow them to keep the numbers while the customer cars are brought in.”

He went on to tell The Guardian, “Again this comes back to short-termism for profit. Simply how much money can we generate for the shareholders of CVC. End of story.

“Sell it off and the consequences they don’t care about. They walk away from it, they’ve got the money in. It’s someone else’s problem. And the fans? Irrelevant.”

Lotus owner Gérard Lopez also weighed in saying, “Gordon Gekko said ‘greed is good’ and look what happened to him. He ended up in jail. I’ve never threatened any kind of protest but this is a £1.6bn business and teams are going to the wall for the sake of a couple of tens of millions.

“Three-car teams will be the death of the championship. People just don’t seem to care enough about the sport to do something.”

It was reported during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that Ferrari and Red Bull will be running three-car teams next season. Both teams have denied these reports.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner, further refuted any claims of an agenda.

“Red Bull’s position is we want to see a full grid of two-car teams,” he said.

Agreements between F1’s commercial rights holders CVC Capital Partners and the teams state that if the number of cars on the grid drops below 20, the bigger teams have an obligation to field a third car.

But Horner insisted that running a third car, which would likely cost around 40 million Euros per year, is not something that Red Bull are considering at this point in time.

“The numbers haven’t dropped significantly low enough, and we haven’t been requested by the promoter to run a third car,” he said.

“It’s not something we’re planning; it’s not something that we’re pushing for. If we’re requested to do it then obviously we’ll have to look at it at that point.

“Our preference is we have at least 10 healthy competing two-car teams.”

Photo Credits:

Monisha Kaltenborn – Sauber F1 Team; Force India team pit stop – Sahara Force India (Facebook); Christian Horner – Red Bull Racing Instagram

November 11, 2014
It’s Hamilton vs Rosberg to the end – here’s how the F1 Drivers’ Championship can be won

Nico Rosberg’s ruthless drive to take the victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix, means that only 17 points now separate him and Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, who currently leads the F1 Drivers’ Championship.

But, Abu Dhabi holds a whole new ball game in store for the two championship rivals. With double points up for grabs at the season finale on 23 November, the winner of the race will add a whopping 50 points to their standings! Hamilton however, needs only finish second, or finish ahead of his team mate in order to secure his second world drivers’ championship title.

Rosberg is hungry to follow in his father’s footsteps by securing his first drivers’ championship title and he knows that victory in Abu Dhabi could secure it for him, despite only winning 5 races so far this season compared to Hamilton’s 10 race wins.

A tie in points would see Hamilton win because he has the larger number of race wins under his belt.

Here’s a look at the different ways in which the F1 Drivers’ Championship title can be won:

Lewis Hamilton can win the Drivers’ Championship title in the following ways:

By winning or finishing in 2nd place.
By finishing 5th or better if Rosberg doesn’t win.
By finishing 6th or better if Rosberg is not in the top two.
By finishing 8th or better if Rosberg is not in the top three.
By finishing 9th or better if Rosberg is 5th.
He’ll win automatically if Rosberg is out of the top five, even if he doesn’t score any points.

Here’s how Nico Rosberg can win the Drivers’ Championship title:

By winning and hoping Hamilton finishes 3rd or lower.
By finishing 2nd, with Hamilton being 6th or lower.
By finishing 3rd and Hamilton is 7th or lower.
By finishing 4th and Hamilton is 9th or lower.
By finishing 5th and Hamilton is 10th or lower.

November 10, 2014
Q & A with Nico Rosberg: I never let Lewis get within striking distance

After a mistake on the first lap saw Nico Rosberg lose out to team mate Lewis Hamilton in the United States Grand Prix, Rosberg knew that he needed to win in Brazil, and he did just that. In doing so, he cut his championship rival’s lead down to 17 points and still stands a chance of taking the title at the season ending double-points finale in Abu Dhabi.

Following the Brazilian Grand Prix, Rosberg chatted to reporters about how he kept Hamilton at bay and what his win means moving into the final race of the season.

This exclusive Q&A with Nico Rosberg was published on the official Formula One website:

Q: Nico, it was an enthralling race and not one for the faint-hearted. How much could you feel Lewis (Hamilton) breathing down your neck?
Nico Rosberg: Yes, it was sizzling. But it was not the race alone: I have felt very comfortable the whole weekend and I’ve had a great deal of self-confidence. I was convinced that I had learned from what I didn’t do so well in Austin – the little weakness that I had. And it makes me very happy to see that I have made real steps forward in that short time since the US Grand Prix. So when I reflect on the race, the start was super, and in the first stint I already saw that I was able to control the gap to Lewis. It was important to never let him get close enough to try a real attack. Then he made his mistake – and I used that situation as we were both very much at the limit with the tyres all the time. We really had to watch out to make it with three stops, so when he made his mistake and fell behind by something like six seconds that was also the moment when I could take it a bit easier to make sure that my tyres lasted until the last lap of my stint.

Q: What does victory here mean in terms of your title chances?
Nico Rosberg: Unfortunately it is one race too late to have it in my hands – only by four points. Sad but true! But now I need a little bit of help from somebody else as Lewis must not finish in P2 in Abu Dhabi – the maximum to keep my chances realistic is him finishing no higher than P3. Maybe (that will be) a Williams that you cannot pass on the straight!

Q: What went through your head when you heard over team radio that your team mate – and the leader in the standings – had made a mistake?
Nico Rosberg: I enjoyed it! (laughs) That was the moment when I knew that I could play it a bit easier and not have to push the tyres to the ultimate limit.

Q: After his mistake Lewis was able to close the gap again significantly – in the end it was only 1.4 seconds. How much were you in control?
Nico Rosberg: I felt good today and was pretty sure that I would not make a mistake today – that I had learned from Austin. So I tried to keep my rhythm and had a watchful eye never to let him get to within striking distance. And it worked – contrary to Austin. I draw much hope from today’s race for the shootout in Abu Dhabi.

Q: Mathematically, Lewis only has to finish in the same position that he did today in Abu Dhabi to take the title. But do you think he is chewing on today’s race and that you are probably in a better position than he is?
Nico Rosberg: Believe me, I would definitely prefer to be the hunted than the hunter. But these are the facts and Abu Dhabi will be a thriller – and a blockbuster for the fans. I have to win – at least that is the plan!

Q: How difficult is it to push all the championship permutations to one side and focus on pure racing? Abu Dhabi might be the biggest weekend of your career…
Nico Rosberg: Of course it is difficult. But since Austin I’ve known that I have to win the last two races – today I did that, and the plan is to do the same in Abu Dhabi. After today I feel that it will also work in Abu Dhabi.

Q: What are you going to do in the week between here and Abu Dhabi?
Nico Rosberg: Ha, I need to motivate Felipe Massa to have a very relaxing time and then to have a stunning weekend in Abu Dhabi so he comes in second and I win the race!

November 10, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Petrobras Brazilian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2nd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (William)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Nelson Piquet)

Nico, what a fantastic race you did. I was really impressed with all your performance. Your father must be very proud of you. But I want to ask you one thing. Of course you are driving there, with Hamilton behind you and with DRS. Do you think this is fair?

Nico ROSBERG: First of all, thank you very, great to see you. No, I’m very happy with the whole weekend. The whole weekend I’ve been feeling comfortable in the car, I was able to attack and control the gap also to Lewis in the race. So that worked out great and I’m very, very happy. Especially in Brazil. The atmosphere is fantastic and also great to see the support that you’re giving Felipe here, that’s awesome, and also for me. So obrigado.

Hamilton, I have been for a long time very jealous of you – not only of your driving but also of your old girlfriend. Where is Nicole?

Lewis Hamilton: …She’s at home.

OK, say hello to her and you did fantastic. I think everything will stay in the last race. It’s very good.

Felipe, fantastic. I have to say in English first. He did a very good race. I want to ask him. What is he going to do to prepare himself to always keep Button behind him?

Felipe MASSA: First of all, I’m so happy for my race. So many mistakes also in my race. I had the drive through, the five seconds for the penalty for the sped limiter. Also I stop in the McLaren [pit box] because it was a similar and it just was prepared before my garage. But the car was fantastic, I’m so grateful for the pace.

Back to Lewis. Tell me about the race? I think it was a very, very difficult race, and I think everything will finish in one race at the end of the year.

LH: It was an amazing race; I had a great time. Obviously I had a big mistake in the mid part of the race but otherwise the car was fantastic, the team did an amazing job and it was a great race with Nico. And great to see Felipe up here. We had the best crowd today. I enjoyed it.

And what do you think about Abu Dhabi?

LH: I’m going to drive pretty much the same. Hopefully I’ll improve. Today, obviously, I lost a little bit of time but otherwise it’s everything to play for in the last race.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: So Nico, many congratulations, you’ve taken it down to the wire then. Pole position trophy won yesterday and then an important win today. Is this one of your best? How good does it feel to have delivered today under pressure?

NR: Yeah, it was a great weekend all in all. Austin was a tough day for me on Sunday, so yeah, it was important for me to just improve, because just didn’t do a good enough job in the race in Austin. Today I managed to do that, so that I’m happy about. I learned from Austin and did better so that’s a big step in the right direction. One race too late but, y’know, there’s still all to play for. Now I’m just hoping for [Abu Dhabi] and need to try and keep this going now. Really feeling good in the car and everything. And it was a great race with Lewis. He had a great race too, just behind me all the time. I always needed to make sure that the gap was always such that there was no chance for him to go for the overtake – unlike Austin. And managed to do that, so that was good.

Q: Lewis, with a 17-point lead the numbers still favour you going into that title showdown – but at the end there we heard your team say to you on the radio “sorry for the stop”. You tried to do two hot laps coming into your second stop, you were fastest lap of the race on the first one but then you spun on the second one, dropped seven seconds to Nico. You managed to close it up – but do you think that spin cost you chance of a victory today?

LH: I think ultimately it cost me the win, yeah. I mean, I was much quicker up until that point and on that lap I’d gone a second quicker whilst Nico pitted and I thought I was going to pit at the end of that lap so I used everything of the tyres. The next lap, I had nothing left. Either way, at the end of the day, I made a mistake, I locked the rears into Turn Four and with the under-rotation, just spun me around. Second time it’s happened this weekend. So, no-one’s fault but mine. Still, great result for the team. Nico drove really well, great, defensive, no mistakes and ultimately we got a one-two. I really was pushing right to the chequered flag, which is what motor racing’s all about. So I really enjoyed it.

Q: It is a record, 11 one-two finishes, beaten the record of Senna and Prost from 1988 – just a quick word from the two of you on another one-two.

NR: It’s fantastic. The team is doing such an awesome job, all-in-all. Just keeping on pushing, development rate through the year also. It’s so great to be a part of that movement. And you can feel it in the team. Everybody is really, really pumped and just fully head-down focussed all the way. Because it’s also… it’s a change now. We used to be always hunting and now we’re the hunted, and that’s a big change. It’s great to see how the team has adapted and not slackened off because that is always difficult, when you get to the front to then stay there. It seems at the moment that we’re really going strong and that’s fantastic.

Lewis, nice bit of history?

LH: Absolutely incredible. This year as a team we’ve broken a couple of records and it’s just an unbelievable job by the team, obviously for us to be able to finish one-two, great reliability and ultimately the car has been the best car I’ve ever driven so big thank you to all the guys at the factory.

Q: Felipe, great response from the crowd here to you today. It’s like a win. Obviously you managed to survive quite a lot of things in that race: a penalty you had to serve for speeding in the pitlane; you went and paid a visit to another pitbox on your way to your own – but you managed to recover from that and get the podium you so badly wanted here this weekend. What made the difference for you today?

FM: I think the race was amazing. Everything that happened in my race today. So, I think the most important thing was that the pace was there, the car was quick. I’ve been so happy with the car during the whole all weekend. The car was so competitive – unfortunately not enough to beat these guys here, which is winning all the races. I’m so happy with the race, not happy with my mistakes today. Just got a problem when I braked for the pitstop, I pressed the pit-limiter but for whatever reason the pit-limiter was not inside, and then just past the speed I brake, I press again and it was a problem I had today. And then I managed to catch the guys trying to put the gap again. The car was fantastic. I managed to overtake many cars, catch Button as well, that he was in front. Then I stop. I was opening the gap compared to Jenson for about five, six seconds, maybe even more. Then I stop in the wrong garage. I stop in the McLaren because they change our garage this race and we are a lot more in the middle and McLaren with the similar colour – not white but y’know – I thought it was our garage. They were ready. Then I just stopped there and lost a lot of time because of that. But anyway, it was not enough to… pushing again, doing quick laps all the time and managing the tyres and just opening again compared to Jenson. It was really a fantastic race, and these people… they’re still here, singing and screaming. It’s amazing. The whole energy that I had this weekend, it’s difficult to explain. Difficult to explain the emotion – so thank you very much for all of our Torcida [fan club] that was pushing the whole weekend, every day. It was amazing.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Question to Nico and Lewis: of course, there are double points for Abu Dhabi, the chase for the title. Would you guys, if you had the chance to change it for a single race, not double points, would you do that and why?

NR: Well, I find it artificial and I don’t like it in general. Of course, now, with the way it is, it’s great for me now, at the moment, but you know that’s just because of the situation but in general… There are other sports which have tried the same sort of thing, like NASCAR and they’ve done this very successfully. The fans love it and everything, so we need to keep on reviewing it. It’s good to try something and we’ll see how it goes this year. The important thing is that the fans are happy, that’s the most important thing, and we need to see if we keep on doing it or change or whatever.

LH: The same as Nico.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, you must win in Abu Dhabi but Lewis has to finish third for you to win the championship. Who could help you? Do you think somebody…

NR: He’s the man (indicating Felipe). I need some Felipe Massa help.

FM: I hope I win!

NR: No, that’s not so much help. Not so fast, in between.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – SB – Belarus Segodnya) Felipe, here you were really quick today. You were first after the champions, Mercedes. You are now 36 years old, for example, Max Verstappen will be 17 for his first Grand Prix. How long will you be staying a Formula One driver?

FM: Me? I don’t know. I will stay while I have this type of results, while I am competitive and while I enjoy it, what I’m doing so I’m really enjoying my moment, even if I want to have better results like we’re having today. So I want to keep this moment until I am enjoying myself. I don’t see the point to stop. I’m driving for a fantastic team, they really like me, they really support me, respect me, so I’m here and I think Verstappen is doing a good job. He’s young but he’s quick, he’s won everything he could until now so he has a talent. We cannot forget that we got our opportunity to get into Formula One, we show our talent and we need to understand… It’s true that he’s a little bit too young. If I need to chose, I would prefer to wait a little more, but you have maybe one opportunity in Formula One so you need to be ready. I would say that maybe now it’s a little bit easier with the car, with driving now, how it is with all this technology. Maybe it’s a little bit easier compared to when I started for example. The car was a little bit more difficult to drive, so it was a little more physical as well compared to now. Now it’s so easy to race. I think that in this aspect, it’s a little bit easier for a young driver to start but it’s important to have the talent and to have everything inside his brain so he can do a good job.

Q: (Felipe Siquera – globoesporte.com) Massa, when you came into the McLaren pits, when you pushed the wrong button, did you think you could lose the podium at that moment?

FM: Yeah. I think I could lose the podium because of the first mistake with the five second penalty, speeding in the pit lane. I think I could have lost the podium there. So disappointed that that thing happened and then I was pushing even harder. The problem is that you cannot push so hard because otherwise you use the tyres too much. I managed to take care of the tyres and I managed to put a good pace straightaway, but I was worried by the first mistake. Not the second because Jenson was behind me and it was not enough to lose the position, but the first one, yes.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, when you locked the rears in turn four, was it because of the graining on the rears? We also saw you had a blistered right front; did that have anything to do with it?

LH: No, literally because I took too much… when they told me to push, I was under the impression that I had only one lap to do, so I used all the tyres that I had left, that I had saved and when they told me to go by, I kept pushing but I think the rears were grained, the rears were dead and I just lost a little bit of the grip, but up until then it was looking great. Overall, I’m really happy. I came back, I clearly had a lot more pace than Nico today. I know that he would have seen that, obviously, by closing down the seven seconds (gap) but he did a good job to not make any mistakes while I was there, so I’m looking forward to the next race.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Nico, it’s been an immaculate weekend for you. Were you confident that you would have been able to keep Lewis behind you even if he had not had that spin? And you didn’t look particularly happy coming off the podium, what was that about?

NR: No, I am happy, very happy. I don’t know; that was a wrong impression. No, I was confident, yes, definitely, because already in the first stint I could see that I could control the gap and could just make sure that Lewis didn’t come into the region where he could launch an attack, so from that point of view, once I saw that, I was very confident that I could keep on controlling the gap for the whole race. Also, when Lewis had the spin and was further behind, I saved more tyres than I normally would have done and so that I could just make sure that at the end of the stint I had enough, because it was so critical on tyres today and that worked out really well too.

Q: (Leandro Alvares – Auto Esporte) Lewis, Senna was the last champion with a turbo engine; now you have the chance in this new era. As an Ayrton fan, does it mean anything to you?

LH: That he won? I mean winning this championship at the moment has no relation to Senna. No, this is something me and my family have worked very hard to do but of course, for me, Ayrton was my favourite driver of all time. Whenever my name is mentioned in the same sentence, I feel very honoured, very proud and naturally, he was a genius and a perfectionist at what he did and that’s what I aspire to be like.

Q: (Claudio Nogueira – O Globo) For both Lewis and Nico, is it more difficult to fight against your teammate or against a driver from another team, driving for the title?

NR: That’s a difficult one. I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s… I think it’s the same you know. Lewis is a really strong competitor, and OK, he has the same car as me, that has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the car is the same, so that, for example, today I know that he didn’t have more top speed than me so I know exactly what he has. I don’t know, it’s difficult to answer, but of course it is a great challenge, it’s a great battle, fantastic also that the team is always letting us race, letting us battle, and also treating us 100 percent equally at all times. That’s really important. We’re both very lucky to be in that situation and that’s awesome.

LH: They’re both completely different. I would imagine it’s probably harder with the same car because only you can make the difference whereas when you’re racing another team, they will be races where one is quicker, the other is quicker as you saw in the championship with me and Felipe. There were tracks where he was quicker and there were tracks that I was quicker at. It’s a different championship, for sure.

Q: (Renan Couto – Warm-Up) Felipe, are you confident that you keep this pace at the next race in Abu Dhabi?

FM: Yeah, I am. I’ve been confident that we will have the car to fight for the podium in most of the races, as we saw in the last race where we were fighting for the podium. Unfortunately I lost the podium in the last race but we’ve had many podiums in the last races as a team and I really believe we can fight and we can have the possibility to be on the podium again in the next race. The car is good, competitive and I don’t think anybody will have different pieces so whatever things that will make the car quicker than this track, so I really hope we can be very strong on that track as well.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo OnLine) Lewis, the last two times you arrived at the last race of the season with the chance of being World Champion, here at this circuit in 2007 and 2008, you were starting Formula One and you made small mistakes. How do you feel yourself for the next race in the same condition? You are very close to being World Champion; do you feel more prepared, the chance of making small mistakes are maybe reduced? If you remember, you also made a mistake today.

LH: Not really. I think today…. I think it was a lot different back then and obviously today I recovered from it, much better than perhaps I did in the past. Today wasn’t racing to win the World Championship as I was obviously trying to get points. The next one is a different one and as I’m approaching it, I guess I would decide how I approach it.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you were very fast in the first and last sector but you were always losing quite a lot to Nico in the middle one. Was it because there was a little bit of a difference in the set-up? And do you think you had a chance at some point to attack or in the last few laps you were happy with it?

LH: When I was close to him or in general? In the middle sector it’s all downforce. Due to being right behind him, I couldn’t get the exit of turn nine so I would lose out through that middle sector and I couldn’t stay close in the last sector. Obviously if I was in clean air it would be different.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And to both of you, after Abu Dhabi, when the championship is over, do you think that you’re going to sit together somewhere, go over the season, discuss what happened, about the hard times you had and get over it?

FM: I think they will move to the same apartment.

LH: Well, we live in the same building so…

FM: You’d spend a lot less money living together so it’s easy.

LH: I don’t think so.

NR: Well, we’ll see. At the moment it’s very neutral, the relationship, and that’s where it always comes back to. Of course we’ve had difficult times and then better times. I think it’s always going to be like that. It’s just very competitive, you know? It’s a great competition, exactly the same as it was 15 years ago all over again. Now I just hope that we have a fantastic last race. It’s going to be exciting, that’s for sure and we’ll see who wins.

November 10, 2014
F1 2014: Brazilian GP – Sao Paulo Success For Rosberg

The one thing Nico Rosberg needed to be this weekend was perfect and he came as close to it as any Formula 1 driver could ever dream of.

Nico Rosberg converted his tenth pole position of the season into victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix under serious pressure from teammate Lewis Hamilton. The two Silver Arrows led cleanly off the front-row of the grid and ran line astern for the shortened first stint of the race. As the soft Pirelli tyres were giving up the ghost on the newly re-surfaced Interlagos circuit it was Rosberg who blinked first and dived into the pitlane for a set of the medium compound tyres.

Shrewdly, Hamilton had been biding his time and unleashed an almighty fast lap as Rosberg pitted. It would’ve been enough to give Hamilton the lead of the race and perhaps even the race victory.

A half spin into turn four undid all the Brit’s progress and handed Rosberg a 7.5 second lead after the round of pitstops.

Hamilton brilliantly reduced the gap to little more than half a second but this time not even his unrelenting tenacity was enough to beat Rosberg.

The F1 Gods seemed to be conspiring against local favourite Felipe Massa as the Brazilian had to overcome several dicey moments during his race.

First, the Williams driver was forced to serve a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Later, and quite comically, Massa nearly stopped in the McLaren pitbox, whose mechanics are similarly decked out in white overalls, as he came in for a fresh set of boots.

Nevertheless, much to the pleasure of the crowd Massa secured his first podium of the 2014 season.

The man who clinched his own world title here in 2009, Jenson Button, underlined McLaren’s recent progress with an impressive fourth place at the end of the 71 laps.

Sebastian Vettel completed a quiet run into fifth in a relatively solid afternoon of racing for the four-time champion. Who would have thought, as Vettel went on a nine race winning streak in 2013, that he would ever be racing in quite such anonymity as he did in this Brazilian Grand Prix. But so the wheel of Formula 1 turns, mercilessly and with emphatic certainty.

Ferrari, to some extent, put together a better performance with a sixth and seventh place finish for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen respectively. The two teammates battled late on in the race as Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver to successfully complete a two-stop strategy.

Eventually, fresher tyres allowed Fernando Alonso past Raikkonen who could’ve had a slightly better afternoon if not for some finger-trouble on the front-jack in the pits which cost the Finn roughly six seconds.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth overall a scant two tenths off Raikkonen while Kevin Magnussen ended a distant ninth in the second McLaren.

Valterri Bottas was never able to recover from a delay in his own pitstop which was owing to a loose safety-belt. Bottas confirmed post-race that severe graining on his tyres significantly affected his pace as well. The only two retirements were in the form of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean who pulled off in a smoking heap and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who suffered a front-left suspension failure.

Perfection is what was called for from Rosberg and what was needed to beat Lewis Hamilton.

He nearly succumbed to the relentless pressure from his teammate but this time unlike in Italy, Russia and the United States, Rosberg’s mental fortitude was resolute.

This victory has repaired some of the psychological damage inflicted by Hamilton and proved that come Abu Dhabi Nico Rosberg will be there fighting tooth and nail until the very last possible second.

November 10, 2014
Video: Bernie Ecclestone Talks About F1’s Finances

Formula 1 ringmaster, Bernie Ecclestone talks about the finances in F1, about three car teams, and a bit about budget caps.

November 9, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Petrobras Brazilian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2nd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

TV UNILATERAL

Nico, fastest in all practice sessions, fastest in all qualifying sessions, I guess you would call that a perfect job? How are you feeling?

Nico ROSBERG: Perfect job only if it works out tomorrow, you know, unfortunately. Up to now, of course, it’s been going well and it’s the best place to be in tomorrow but of course I need to make it happen in the race, unlike Austin for example.

Well, very well done. Lewis, a very small margin in the end, a matter of a few hundredths of a second. It looks like you’ve been chasing Nico a little bit all weekend but it seemed to come together; a little mistake possibly in Turn 10 on that final run, but how important for you is it to win tomorrow’s race, how important to just collect points?

Lewis HAMILTON: Just to comment on qualifying: it was great fun, Nico did a great lap and I lost a little bit of time in Turn 10 and perhaps a tiny bit in Turn One. But it was great – just having to keep on going out and fighting. That’s what qualifying is all about and it should always be that kind of gap, that close. So, really exciting and I hope people enjoyed that. And then, of course pole position is the best place to start here but it’s a long race tomorrow. It should be quite exciting with all the pit stops and the weather we don’t really know, so I’m here, I want to win, just as much as anyone else here, so I’m going to work as hard as I can tomorrow and hope we get have a race at least.

Very well done and coming to you Felipe: third place for you and tremendously well received by the Brazilian crowd here. Emotional for you?

Felipe MASSA: Yeah, very emotional. Very emotional to be here in Brazil and to have a competitive car, to start in the top three. I didn’t use everything I could from the car because I just got a lot of traffic, a lot of problems on my last set, that my car wasn’t… we couldn’t leave the engine on, so it was a lot of problems to leave the garage, so I left in the last moment with a lot of traffic around, with Magnussen. So I couldn’t improve my lap time and everybody was improving a little bit on the second set and I was not going to improve maybe enough to beat them but maybe to get very close. So it was very tight between the team-mates. It was very tight between them and very tight between me and Valtteri. But I think that’s a good thing. I’m so happy and I hope that it’s just the beginning and the start for tomorrow, a good result for us as well.

Very well done. Back to you Nico: the points situation obviously means you need to win both the last two races…

NR: Not true.

Well, possibly, shall we say! You’ve been very calm all weekend. I wonder if the pressure is different now you’re in the position you’re in, compared with earlier in the season?

NR: Pressure: it’s pretty much similar. The adrenaline is there, the tension, the excitement, it’s not been changing that much. I’m just here; I’m going for it. I’m pushing myself to stay optimistic all the time. Naturally I am optimistic also. Learn from Austin; I know what I need to do better. So, from that point of view, good to go for tomorrow.

Q: Nico, as we said before, perfect run up to now. Tomorrow is what counts and, of course, this is a particularly tricky first corner, isn’t it? I guess it’s not ideal to have your team-mate alongside you because an awful lot can go wrong in that first Senna S, can’t it? Talk us through your thoughts.

NR: I’m sure the start is going to be great to watch but being on the clean side of the grid, and it’s not such a long run down to Turn One, so that should definitely be helpful.

Q: Lewis, your perspective on Turn One as an opportunity for you to get back on terms, and also whether what happened here six years ago, winning your title here, whether you’re going to be able to channel that into your performance tomorrow.

LH: I’ve not really thought too much about the past here but, as I said, I’m here to win. Going to try to get off the line as quick as possible tomorrow and if I have a shot into Turn One tomorrow, I’ll take it. Otherwise, it’s a long race, 71 laps here so there’s lots of… should be several, two or three stops, so lots can go on during the race. So I’m generally excited and it’s not the only opportunity off the start. Yeah, we just, as I’ve said at all races, I just hope that we can race at least.

Q: Felipe, obviously that’s your best qualifying since Germany – but particularly exciting for you, I guess, is the margin. How close you were to these Mercedes around this track. Your thought on that and also on what you can do in the race. Can you challenge them?

FM: Yeah. Definitely good qualifying today, very tight between us in our team, me and Valtteri. Nico and Lewis as well. They were very, very close to each other so it was not an easy qualifying. I managed to do a good lap straight away but I just had a problem on the second set. Traffic, problem with the engine that it was not firing up. The car is good. I would say the car is competitive and we need to understand how the tyres will behave tomorrow in the race. The weather as well – but I think… I will try everything I can for my best race. I really hope that it can be possible to have some opportunity, even with these two guys. I will try.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Nico, this weekend looks a lot like the Austin weekend. But after your pit stop (in Austin) you suddenly lost performance and Lewis overtook you. What happened exactly and do you think the story will be different here?

NR: You say this looks similar to Austin. I don’t know why. Just pole position. I understand what I needed to improve in Austin: I didn’t find my rhythm in the race and I understand that, we looked at it and so I’m confident that I can improve that for tomorrow. Anyways, it’s a different situation: different track, here we’ve done more long runs, we even did a long run this morning which will help, in exactly the same conditions as we expect tomorrow. So all those things should be very helpful.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Lewis, would second place already be a good result for you here, even with Nico winning the race? Will you be more conservative or will you go for it, trying to get your sixth victory in a row?

LH: I’m just repeating again: I’ve come here to win so the priority target as always to try and win the race. Of course, on top of that, I want the team to have another one-two which is going to be our target. We know the Williams are very close. Hopefully we’ll have a good battle tomorrow.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, we have seen a Williams which is very very fast in the last sector. Do you think that tomorrow you could have the chance to beat Mercedes if you can manage to stay close to them at the beginning of the race?

FM: I think we were very fast last sector but even also in the first sector. We were just losing in the second sector which is where you need more downforce, and it’s pretty clear what we’re missing a little bit during the championship but it’s also true that we have a good car. We have a competitive car and I don’t know if we will have the chance to be more competitive than Mercedes tomorrow but I hope we will have the chance to be in front of at least one of these guys and I will do everything I can. We know that this race is very important for us and for me, as a Brazilian, and therefore these people as well who are watching and supporting me, so I will try everything I can.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you mentioned the wrong settings; did that happen by accident or didn’t you know or did you find out during driving that other settings would have been better?

NR: No, it was not by accident. It’s a progression, from one run to the next and you learn, with every run. But then the decision is, OK, I know my settings are wrong but if I change them now, the car will be different and that can be quite risky because in qualifying I’m really going flat out on the absolute edge and when I’m on the edge and the car is different, it’s not necessarily going to be quicker and it’s more risky so I just took the decision to stay as it was and that was the right decision, so that worked out well

November 8, 2014
Brazilian GP Qualifying – Rosberg beats Hamilton to pole

Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton to the Brazilian GP pole position by a mere 0.033s. Rosberg’s 10th pole of the year ensures that he has secured the inaugural F1 Pole Trophy.

The German was driver topped all three practice sessions over the course of the weekend but was not about to start celebrating just yet. “Perfect job only if it works out tomorrow. I need to make it happen in the race unlike Austin,” he said in the post-qualifying press conference.

Of course, with the two drivers matching times so closely, he’s perfectly right. Lewis lost the Brazilian GP pole position by fractions of a second after carrying too much speed into Turn 10 on his flying lap, which caused the rear to step out and send him drifting around through the turn.

The Williams drivers put up an exceptionally impressive battle and at one point even threatening to separate the two Mercedes drivers. “We really thought he [Felipe Massa] could have separated the Mercedes drivers,” Clare Williams said in post-qualifying interviews. Massa however locked up at T1 on his final flying attempt and faced traffic in the final sector which forced him to abort his final lap and qualify in third place. His home crowd cheered like crazy as he arrived back in Parc Ferme shouting, “Massa! Massa! Massa!” to let him know they were fully behind him.

Williams team mate Valterri Bottas was also forced to abort his final lap and qualifying in fourth place on the Brazilian GP grid. Jenson Button was fifth for McLaren, ahead of outgoing world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Button is hoping that his team can take the challenge to Ferrari tomorrow and qualifying ahead of them today is a good start, “It’s a massive gap to Ferrari in the constructors. But we have to make them feel like we’re challenging them,” he said.

Kevin Magnussen finished ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the Top 10 qualifiers.

Both Sauber drivers made it into Q2 with Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil split by Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India. Sutil may have finished a little better but ran wide at Juncao on his first hot lap costing him valuable time.

Daniil Kvyat didn’t set a lap time in Q2 and finished in 14th place but will drop down to back of the grid as he serves the remainder of an engine penalty carried over from Austin.

Romain Grosjean finished only 15th fastest, while Jean-Eric Vergne placed 16th for Toro Rosso after making an error at Mergulho.

Sergio Perez finished in 17th place but will drop back behind Maldonado who qualified in last place. Perez drops back due to his grid penalty for causing a collision with Sutil, which the FIA branded as “reckless”, in Austin.

The stage is set for plenty of drama tomorrow’s Brazilian GP and we’re again faced with a chance of rain. Join us tomorrow on Twitter @F1_Madness for live commentary and chat with fellow F1 Mad fans!

November 8, 2014