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Team Radio Ban Extends to Pit Boards
After notifying teams that certain radio communications to drivers will be banned. The FIA has now clarified a few issues and have extended the ban to pit boards.

A note sent to the teams on Monday by the FIA made it clear that teams will not be permitted to use pit boards to display information to get around the team radio ban.

The FIA has given teams time till the Japanese Grand Prix to put in place procedures and systems to enable drivers to handle tyre pressure, brake wear and gearbox sync without safety or reliability being compromised.

The full list of what is allowed and not allowed is included below:

Allowed
- Acknowledgement that a driver message has been heard.
- Lap or sector time detail.
- Lap time detail of a competitor.
- Gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race.
- “Push hard”, “push now”, “you will be racing…” or similar.
- Helping with warning of traffic during a practice session or race.
- Giving the gaps between cars in qualifying so as to better position the car for a clear lap.
- Puncture warning.
- Tyre choice at the next pit stop.
- Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
- Tyre specification of a competitor.
- Indication of a potential problem with a competitor’s car during a race.
- Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
- Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions.
Not Allowed
- Acknowledgement that a driver message has been heard.
- Lap or sector time detail.
- Lap time detail of a competitor.
- Gaps to a competitor during a practice session or race.
- “Push hard”, “push now”, “you will be racing xx” or similar.
- Helping with warning of traffic during a practice session or race.
- Giving the gaps between cars in qualifying so as to better position the car for a clear lap.
- Puncture warning.
- Tyre choice at the next pit stop.
- Number of laps a competitor has done on a set of tyres during a race.
- Tyre specification of a competitor.
- Indication of a potential problem with a competitor’s car during a race.
- Information concerning a competitors likely race strategy.
- Yellow flags, blue flags, Safety Car deployment or other cautions.
September 16, 2014
Mercedes confirms Pascal Wehrlein as reserve driver

The Mercedes team have confirmed 19-year-old Pascal Wehrlein as their official reserve driver.

Wehrlein seems to have the resume of a real up and coming Formula One star – even at such a young age. He finished 2nd in the Formula 3 European Championship in 2012 and has been competing in DTM since the start of 2013. He claimed his first Formula 3 win at the Lausitzring on Sunday.

We may not all have noticed him, but Wehrlein has been seen quite a bit in the F1 paddock so far this season. He’s even completed over 30 days of work in Mercedes’ simulator.

Wehrlein also received his first taste of F1 action in Portugal last week when he tested the Mercedes W03 at the Portimao circuit.

“I was delighted when I learned that I would be completing a Formula One test for Mercedes in Portimao,” he said.

“It took me a few laps to get used to the incredible speed, the very hard brakes and the high cornering speeds – it’s in another league compared to the DTM,” he said. “But I adapted quickly and was able to improve in each of my short and long runs. In total, I drove 500 km and didn’t want to head back into the pits!

“The test was simply the greatest experience I have had so far in motorsport. There weren’t any nerves, which surprised me – I just felt ready for it. The feedback from the team and from Toto [Wolff] was very encouraging and I think that I did a good job. It certainly helped that I have been working hard in the simulator since February. For me, it is a nice recognition of my efforts that I have been nominated as reserve driver for Mercedes.

“For me, it’s a dream come true to have completed this test and now to take on my new role. All my life, I have worked hard to get the opportunity to drive an F1 car. And it was always my goal to do it with Mercedes-Benz.”

Pascal Wehrlein Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas

September 15, 2014
Prodromou Back at McLaren

Peter Prodromou was announced as McLaren Racing’s design departments Chief Engineer

Prodromou worked at McLaren between 1991 and 2006. He then left for to work at Red Bull Racing, where he enjoyed much success with the team under Adrian Newey.

He is now back at McLaren after a few contractual disputes between Red Bull and McLaren. This is a key appointment for McLaren as they push ahead with the next years MP4-30.

“It’s fantastic to return to McLaren, and to see a mixture of faces old and new,” said Prodromou

“Of course, I have first-hand experience of just what a passionate, focused and capable race team exists within these walls, and I’ve already seen the enthusiasm and positivity that exists to return McLaren to world championship-winning glory, he added”

“I, too, am determined to work flat-out to do everything I can to help initiate a new chapter of success in McLaren’s history.”

Racing Director at McLaren, Eric Boullier welcomed Prodromou’s appointment, saying he arrived at just the right time.

“On behalf of everyone at McLaren, I’d like to welcome Peter to the team,” said Boullier

“He joins us at an auspicious time; we’ve spent much of 2014 working to develop and organise our design department, and his arrival neatly coincides with the conclusion of that restructuring.

“Peter has proved beyond doubt that he’s one of the most capable and intelligent engineers in Formula 1, and everyone at McLaren is looking forward to the contribution he’ll make as we push ahead with our ambitious plans for the future.”

September 15, 2014
FIA Announces 2015 Calendar

The FIA have announced a 20-race calendar for 2015.

This will be the longest race calendar in history. The 2015 calendar will include the Mexican Grand Prix that will take place on 1 November 2015.

Apart from the Mexican Grand Prix, there were no additional races added to the calendar.

The Championship will start in Australia on the 15 March 2015 and end on the 29 November 2015 in Abu Dhabi

Below is the full race calendar for 2015:
March 15 – Australia
March 29 – Malaysia
April 5 – Bahrain
April 19 – China
May 10 – Spain
May 24 – Monaco
June 7 – Canada
June 21 – Austria
July 5 – Great Britain
July 19 – Germany
July 26 – Hungary
August 23 – Belgium
September 6 – Italy
September 20 – Singapore
September 27 – Japan
October 11 – Russia (Sochi)
October 25 – USA (Austin)
November 1 – Mexico
November 15 – Brazil
November 29 – Abu Dhabi

September 12, 2014
Pirelli Reveals Tyre Choices for Japan and Russia

Formula 1 tyre supplier, Pirelli has revealed its tyre choices for the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka Circuit and for the Russian Grand Prix that will take place at the Socho Autodrom.

The two hardest compounds, the white medium and the orange hard, were selected by Pirelli for the Japanese grand Prix. Due to the circuits high lateral energy demands, high speeds and the high abrasion of the surface, Pirelli feel their tyre choice is ideally suited for Suzuka

The choice for the Sochi circuit was a bit more complex for Pirelli. Because the track has only just been built, there is no previous data to rely on. Pirelli’s engineers used simulation data and concluded that the best two tyre choices for the Russian Grand Prix are the Pirelli soft yellow compound and the white medium compound.

The tyre choices for the final three races of the season will be made by Pirelli after the Russian Grand Prix.

Picture by courtesy Pirelli

September 11, 2014
FIA bans F1 radio instructions to drivers with immediate effect

Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has banned F1 radio communication between drivers and their race engineers that relates to the performance of the car.

As part of their effort to improve F1, the FIA has decided to ban any F1 radio communications that may appear to make driving in Formula One seem too easy as a result of drivers getting instructions on how to drive their cars.

The fight for the 2014 Formula One Drivers’s World Championiship title between Mercedes team mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, in particular, has seen a number of examples of both drivers being coached with information from the pit wall about how they are performing against their team mate and where and how they can improve.

F1 radio messages are also often seen to advise drivers on where they can make changes in order to aid the performace of their cars but F1 race director Charlie Whiting has issued a statement to all teams informing them that these messages are banned with immediate effect.

Article 20.1 of the FIA’s F1 Sporting Regulations is being cited. The article states, “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.

Whiting’s message to teams regarding the ban on F1 radio communications read, “”In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”

The ban on F1 radio communications has been prompted by fears that the amount of communication between drivers and their race engineers during races has increased to the point where drivers now seem like “puppets” steering the wheel.

The radio ban will include information about tyres, the condition of the brakes, fuel consumption, engine maps, ERS modes, fuel mix and differential settings. Formation lap instructions such as burnouts, gearbox sync, clutch bit point and brake and tyre temps are also banned. It seems like the only thing the race engineers will be able to relay to the drivers over the radio are messages about traffic, pit stop timing and, if the need arises, team orders. It seems that drivers will be looking at their pit boards more often now.

A recent example of such F1 radio communication which gained a lot of media and social media attention was when Nico Rosberg asked his race engineer for “driving advice” during the German Grand Prix.

Following the ban on F1 radio communications, teams still have the freedom to advise drivers on pit stop strategies and also on safety issues.

The ban will be discussed further in Singapore, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, in order to clarify exactly what is and is not permitted.

September 11, 2014
Di Montezemolo to Step Down From His Role as Ferrari Chairman

Luca Di Montezemolo announced on Wednesday morning that he will be stepping down from his position as Ferrari Chairman ending days of speculation about his future.

We reported a few weeks ago that there were plans for Di Montezemolo to leave Ferrari and take up a position at Alitalia. But this was rejected outright by the Italian. Speculation intensified at the Italian Grand Prix about his future but he insisted that he was not going anywhere. Doubts about his future were again put into focus when Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne deemed the Ferrari Formula 1 teams’ performance as “unacceptable”.

His announcement was made the day before a Ferrari board meeting on Thursday.

“Ferrari will have an important role to play within the FCA Group in the upcoming flotation on Wall Street. This will open up a new and different phase which I feel should be spearheaded by the CEO of the Group,” said Di Montezemolo

“This is the end of an era and so I have decided to leave my position as Chairman after almost 23 marvellous and unforgettable years in addition to those spent at Enzo Ferrari’s side in the 1970s, he added”

“My thanks, first and foremost, to the exceptional Ferrari women and men from the factory, the offices, the race tracks and the markets across the world. They were the real architects of the company’s spectacular growth, its many unforgettable victories and its transformation into one of the world’s strongest brands.

A warm farewell and my thanks also to all of our technical and commercial partners, our dealers across the globe and, most particularly, the clients and collectors whose passion I so wholeheartedly share.

But my thoughts go also to our fans who have always supported us with great enthusiasm especially through the Scuderia’s most difficult moments.

Ferrari is the most wonderful company in the world. It has been a great privilege and honour to have been its leader. I devoted all of my enthusiasm and commitment to it over the years. Together with my family, it was, and continues to be, the most important thing in my life.

I wish the shareholders, particularly Piero Ferrari who has always been by my side, and everyone in the Company the many more years of success that Ferrari deserves.”

Marchionne will take up the role as Ferrari Chairman. In the mean time, Di Montezemolo will stay on as chairman until the new Fiat Chrysler Automobiles company floatation on the New York Stock exchange which takes place on 13 October 2014.

September 10, 2014
Schumacher Continues Recovery At Home

Michael Schumacher will return home to continue his recovery and rehabilitation process at home following his skiing accident last December.

Schumacher spent 6 months in a medically induced coma at a hospital in Grenoble after sustaining severe brain injuries. He was later transferred to Lausanne’s University Hospital in June to continue his recovery.

A statement released by Schumacher’s manager read as follows:

“Henceforth, Michael’s rehabilitation will take place at his home.

Considering the severe injuries he suffered, progress has been made in the past weeks and months.

There is still, however, a long and difficult road ahead.

We would like extend our gratitude to the entire team at CHUV Lausanne for their thorough and competent work.

We ask that the privacy of Michael’s family continue to be respected, and that speculations about his state of health are avoided.”

There were no further details regarding the 7-time world champions condition

September 9, 2014
F1 2014: Italian GP Review- Hamilton Rises To The Challenge

After all is said and done it is still on track where the real talking is done. Two weeks on from enormous disappointment Lewis Hamilton turned up in Italy ready to do the talking. A comfortable pole position started the ball rolling.

It wasn’t all picture perfect though as a poor start dropped Hamilton down to fourth at the start of the race. But there wasn’t very much that was going to douse the fiery determination of the Brit. He fought back first with an overtake on Kevin Magnussen and later a fearless move around the outside of Felipe Massa into the first chicane. Rosberg tried to maintain the four second gap he’d built up but a mistake caused him to straight-line the first chicane which halved the gap over Hamilton.

In the first laps after the one round of pit stops Hamilton unleashed his superior pace and reduced the gap to Rosberg to 1.2 seconds. A bit of pressure to the mix and Rosberg soon out-braked himself and missed the first chicane. This mistake was enough to hand Hamilton the lead of the race who went on to win his sixth race of the season.

The storm of controversy wouldn’t be nearly as juicy if someone wasn’t there continually stirring the pot. Some suggest that Rosberg’s mistake at turn one was actually not a mishap at all. The conspiracy theorists reckon that Rosberg was serving his punishment from the goings on at Spa. Since sanity does tend to dominate our consciousness for most of the day this theory is easily dismissed as utter rubbish. Ask yourself how weak a driver, a person for that matter, Rosberg would have to be to agree to something so blatantly spineless.

Elsewhere, newly re-signed Williams driver Felipe Massa recorded his first podium for the British team ahead of his recovering teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn had to fight his way back from tenth after a dreadful start to the race. He was able overtake several drivers, via slipstreaming, with the help of his super-slippery-in-a-straight-line Williams. Daniel Ricciardo yet again put on display his staggering race craft with several extravagant overtakes which ultimately netted him a fifth place finish ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren carried over their improved pace from Belgium to Italy which enabled Kevin Magnussen to finish seventh on the road. However, the rookie was demoted to tenth after he’d been given a five second penalty for forcing Bottas off the track earlier in the race. Force India’s Sergio Perez inherited seventh as he held off former teammate Jenson Button in a tantalizing wheel-to-wheel battle.

Ferrari fans turned up in droves to cheer on their beloved team but the two prancing horses could never muster much more than a simple trot across the line. To add insult to a serious lack of pace Fernando Alonso suffered an ERS (Energy Recovery System) failure on his car. The Spaniard succumbed to his first mechanical retirement since 2009. Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen dragged the lacklustre Ferrari around the Monza circuit and eventually finished ninth overall.

The short cool down before the podium was rather telling of the relationship between the Merc drivers. There was no congratulatory handshake and in fact for most of the time Lewis Hamilton had his back to his teammate chatting away to Felipe Massa. The podium interview, conducted by Jean Alesi, was as awkward. The former Ferrari driver wanted to know if Hamilton and Rosberg were still friends to which the Brit reflexively answered: “yes, we’re teammates.” So that’s a no then.

Lewis Hamilton may only have pulled back seven points on the championship lead but the psychological victory was far greater. For one, Hamilton will be delighted with the knowledge that he could pressure Rosberg into a mistake. What’s more, Hamilton will savour the realization that he has exposed some cracks in the Rosberg armour.

September 8, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Jean Alesi)

Lewis, so we would like to know, do you like to complicate your life?

Lewis HAMILTON: What a great crowd we have here. This is amazing to see. The whole finish line straight is completely filled with fans. You guys make this race, so thank you so much for the support.

Nico, I spoke with our friends from Monza, they said: “maybe for Nico we change Turn One.” Can you tell us what happened in Turn One?

Nico ROSBERG: It was a pity. It didn’t work out today but Lewis drove a great race and he deserves it. So it’s OK.

Lewis and Nico, I have to speak but I cannot speak very loud because it’s a secret. Are you friends again?

LH: Of course, we are team-mates and we always will be so…

That’s the best picture we can see is when you are friends, because all your life you race together and we like the way you drive, we like the way you fight, so we are happy to hear that.

Felipe, you have made you first podium [this season] but it’s a place you know very well, Monza, so you have to say something in English as well.

FM: Yeah, sure. I’m quite happy for the first podium of the season. I was not very lucky in some of the races, but the luck is on our side I’m sure now, from now to the last race we’re going to be there fighting, so I’m so happy to be on the podium here and there’s a lot more to come. So thank you very much and you are the best. Beautiful, you are the best.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, many congratulations, another victory here in Italy; the first time in your Formula One career, I believe, that you’ve won six races in a single season, so a positively good omen there for you I’m sure. In the second stint… obviously the start wasn’t great and I’m sure you’ll touch on that, but also at the beginning of the second stint your engineer suggested to you that you might like to drop back 2-2.5s behind Nico and maybe attack him at the end, but you didn’t do that. You put the pressure on him and obviously ultimately he went straight on at Turn One and you took the lead. Give us your mindset at winning the race, the start, and that phase there.

LH: Well, first of all, a big congratulations to the team. They said that they would want a one-two and they got it today. It was a difficult race. For whatever reason… at the start there’s a button that you press which engages the launch sequence and for the formation lap it didn’t work. I thought “no problem, I’ll just put it on for the race” and then when I got to the grid I put it on and again it didn’t work. It’s very, very strange, I’ve never really had that happen before. There was a different sequence of lights that were on, that were unusually… that weren’t on ever before. Anyway, I tried to pull away as fast as possible. The RPM was all over the place and fortunately I managed to not lose too many places. We never practice a start like that where you don’t have the launch sequence in; we always practice in a launch sequence to optimise it. So I had no idea really what I was supposed to do, so I just floored it and hoped for the best. Then after that I had a good battle with Felipe, obviously. That was very fair through the corner. Then the engineer said that I should stay back, but knowing from experiences and also particularly this year I knew that that wasn’t the way forward, so I chose another route.

Can you say a bit more about that?

LH: The car felt good and it was the closest I had been at that point and just really during the previous stint I knew when I was behind others, when I was behind Nico, when I got closer to him on the older tyres it was very hard to stay with him. So I knew that the only chance would be at the start and so I took it.

Nico, you got a perfect getaway, you were leading in the first stint, but obviously the talking point regarding you is the two straight on moments into Turn One. One I think on lap nine and then obviously the decisive one, which led to Lewis taking the lead. Was it your mistake? What can you tell us about it?

NR: No, it wasn’t my mistake, it was the other guys’ fault… I’m just kidding! It was just Lewis was quick, coming from behind. I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and that lost me the lead in the end. Definitely very disappointing from that point of view. But then at the end of the day, also, first of all it’s a great day for the team, because after the recent difficulties it’s the first one-two for the team in a long time, I believe, if I’m not mistaken. And so that’s back to where we need to be, so that’s awesome. And then for me: of course I’m disappointed now right afterwards but in the end of it, still second place, still a lot of points, so it’s not a complete disaster.

I think it’s the first one-two since Austria.

NR: Yeah, so that’s great. And the team deserves that, to put all the recent things behind us now and move forward.

Very well done. Felipe, congratulations on another podium here in Italy and an important one – your first one for Williams and more importantly it takes you ahead of Ferrari now. Williams are third in the Constructors’ Championship.

FM: Yeah, definitely. It’s a great day for us. It was a great race, a great start. Also the pace, I think, was very good. So, not enough to fight with Mercedes but I think we had a very good pace, a very good car. The team did a perfect job. I’m really, really happy to be on the podium today. We missed a little bit during the season to be on the podium but so it’s special to be on the podium here in front of these amazing people. Also, a very positive result for us that we passed Ferrari here as well, which is very important for us, very good for us, so I think it’s amazing to see how Williams were last year and we are fighting with big teams. Definitely it’s really good for the whole team and we will keep fighting until the last race and I hope really we can get this third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It would be fantastic for the whole team. I’m so happy to be on the podium here in this amazing place that I really love.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Lewis and Nico. When you put Nico under pressure, were you expecting a mistake of Nico? Where you trying to get close and overtake him? Question to Nico, can you tell us more about the difficulty of braking at the first chicane?

LH: I was pushing to overtake him. That meant it opens up doors for everything. So, I mean… I don’t really know what to say.

Nico?

NR: Monza, yeah, it’s one of the most difficult tracks for braking because of low downforce and the highest speed of the year. That isn’t any excuse or anything, that’s just the way it is. It is one of the challenges, y’know, of this weekend here. Unfortunately I got it wrong. Two times in the race.

Q: (Péter Farkas – Autó-Motor) Nico, it’s maybe a bit surprising that you don’t look particularly downbeat despite coming second to Lewis. It’s almost as if you have expected that second place to him. Is it fair to say that you have not completely regained your balance from Spa? Or do you think it has nothing to do with it?

NR: Spa is behind me. I put it behind me before the weekend. No. In today’s race, just came to the mistake because Lewis was fast from behind. That’s it. There’s nothing unusual or anything. And me not being downbeat, I am very, very disappointed inside. But there’s no point now to go hanging mouth down and things like that. It’s still a one-two for the team and that’s a great day. And it’s not a disaster, that is a fact. I need to quickly look at the reality: second place, it’s OK. There’s a lot worse than that. I lost seven points to Lewis, so, y’know, that’s the frame of mind that I’m trying to take.

Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, first of all, congratulations. When you had that incident at the start there, given the many incidents you’ve gone through in recent races, was there a thought in your mind of ‘oh no, not again’? And to Nico, unfortunately for you there were some more boos on the podium. Was that disappointing again to hear? And how do you try to move on from that?

LH: I think when you’re preparing for the race you generally do everything near enough the same but you have to be prepared for the unexpected. I’m quite grateful today that I didn’t lose it, I didn’t end up crashing in the first corner, I didn’t end up touching anyone, I didn’t end up locking or anything like that. So, managed to keep my composure even though this thing… what it is, is a button that engages a system which controls the RPM, helps you control the RPM, and when that doesn’t engage, the RPM just goes all over the place, so you’re not able to get normal starts, so a correct launch. I don’t know what the problem was, I guess the guys will investigate it and we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m just grateful that I was able to not lose too many places and the also recover from that.

Nico?

NR: It’s obviously not nice but what can I say? I hope that with time they forgive and forget. That would be great. I have apologised, I can’t really do anything more than that. Yep, that’s it.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus Segondnya) Felipe, 2007 you was second driver in Ferrari with Kimi champion. Last year you was second driver in Ferrari with Fernando, double champion. Today you are on the podium Monza, Italia, without Ferrari, without Kimi, without Alonso. Is it your message to Ferrari, first question? And second question: what do you feel in the podium here without Ferrari?

FM: First of all I think is not a message to anyone, I think it’s just… y’now… you saying that I was second driver, I was trying everything to be the first driver all the time in my career. So, whatever team I was, had difficult times but it is part of our lives. Sometimes you have times that are a little bit more difficult than you expected but you need to fight against it, you need to go forwards. I always fight. It’s not a message. We are fighting with Ferrari as well, that’s not a message. We need to do everything we can to be in front of them. I’m not driving to Ferrari any more. I have an incredibly heart for Ferrari, they are really inside my heart and they will always be because I had an incredible time there, a great time there. But now I am in another team and we need to fight with everybody, not just Ferrari but Red Bull, Mercedes, everybody. We need to try to be in front of everybody and, y’know, today we did a fantastic job so we were in the podium. I think it’s a message that we’re competitive. It’s a message that we are there, that we are fighting. It’s not something that I need to… I have nothing against anybody. I just want to be in front of these people, which they really like me. I had an incredibly time with them for many years. It’s not that I’m not in red anymore that I don’t have the same pleasure and happiness to be there in front of these incredible people.

Q: (Andrea Cremonese, La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Lewis and one for Nico. For Lewis, do you think recovering seven points is a bigger relief after what’s happened in the last few races, and if you feel yourself have plenty of confidence for the Championship? For Nico, if after the second mistake, if you was a little bit affected in the instruction that you received from the team because you lost in two laps two seconds from him, from 4.6 to 2.6 seconds in two laps.

LH: Well, I’ve generally felt like I’ve always been in good shape. But I came here with a positive attitude. Hoping just for no issues. I guess the cool thing about today is that I had another serious one and I managed to pull through it. Again, all those experiences I’ve had kind of have prepared me for it today and I’m still looking for one of those weekends where we don’t have any troubles. Clearly today I had the pace on everyone and on Nico and I felt that way all weekend. So, I’m going to make sure that’s the case moving forwards.

Nico?

NR: I don’t remember what happened. I think it was… traffic? Lapping somebody or something like that. That was the biggest problem but I’m not quite sure. But either way, Lewis in that phase was quick, so it didn’t really change that much but yes, maybe that shortened the process a little bit. But nothing in particular.

Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Lewis, we talked about Monza being about mental toughness as well as about what you can do on the track, and today we saw you fight your way through the field.You ignored the team’s advice about holding back a bit and then you had to listen to all the Italian in the weighing room, the podium and no one was speaking English to you. Do you feel like you showed today that you’re mentally tough enough to win the title? Is that important?

LH: Firstly, I didn’t ignore the team’s orders. I have a great relationship with my engineer and he’s constantly in touch with me throughout the race and really guiding me. If I’m losing a bit of time here or there, he’s telling me so that I know how to correct it. They want to win just as much as me so they’re just trying to guide me to what they think but at the end of the day, I was the one out there and they had to really decide: OK, I can back off here and keep the tyres but the calculation might be better the other way. I knew that if I applied the pressure, an opportunity would eventually come. I didn’t get the chance to say it really out there but the fans have been amazing here. Even I’ve gone through difficult times here – 2007 probably, when I was racing against Fernando and obviously we were racing with Kimi and the Ferraris but I’ve really felt a real growth of the support that I’ve had here over the years. It’s such a beautiful nation. When you come here, the weather’s always good, the track’s incredible and there’s nowhere you go and you see the whole straight, which is one of the longest straights in the whole season, completely full of fans, mostly with red caps and flags but they really create the atmosphere. In terms of me, I came here to do a job and I did it so I’m happy with that.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, there are six races to go and you lead by 22 points. When do you think that it’s time to start to consider only the championship instead of winning races?

NR: I don’t know. For me the approach that works best at the moment is just trying to win the race that I’m at, that’s the way I feel most comfortable at the moment. We will see. Maybe I will tell you when I change my thinking.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Nico, the team told us at the end of the race that you were managing brake temperatures. Was that the problem at the first corner as well? Were the brakes the problem throughout the race?

NR: No, the brakes were no problem at all, up towards the end when you first heard it on the radio, that’s when it started to become… and it wasn’t a massive problem, just something that you have to manage a little bit. That’s always going to happen, because opening up the front brake ducts you lose quite a lot of aerodynamic performance. You always try to bring that to a certain limit and that may then put you slightly over in the race so it’s not the first time and last time that something like that is going to happen and I think it was just pretty much optimised for here.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor) To all three of you: all three of you had reasonably long first stints on the mediums. How marginal were the tyres to do a one-stop? Did any of you have any problems? Lewis mentioned that it was hard to follow Nico on used tyres at the end of the first stint.

FM: Well, I think a one stop was the strategy for everybody before the race. I think the tyres worked pretty well, maybe a little bit more degradation on the medium which I was suffering a little bit more at the end of the stint on the medium but no problem at all with the hard tyres. I think it was really pretty much OK to one-stop, at least for us.

Q: Lewis, we heard a message to Nico from his engineers saying that you’d reported that the tyres were beginning to go off before lap ten, I think it was. Did you have any issues? Did it clear itself?

LH: No, basically I was in traffic, I was behind a couple of cars. The grip didn’t feel good at the time. To be honest, the tyres have been really good this weekend. It was generally really easy in terms of doing a one-stop. There was only one risk and that’s really if you lock up, that’s generally why you’ll see drivers going (straight) on at the first corner, because they don’t want to try and make the corner, lock up because then they have to convert to a two-stop which is much slower, so the thought is that if you get a lock, you let off the brake and go straight and that’s what Nico would have done twice and that’s what other people would potentially have done today. But I think it’s such a cool track – I don’t know if it was fun to watch the race – but to give more racing, more pit stops would have been good here, bit of a softer tyre which was a bit more of a challenge because the tyre was really easy to generally look after. I didn’t have any problems really…. I was behind Nico, losing downforce through the high speed but then as soon as he pitted the car was quick again, so I think the tyre could have gone even further.

Q: Was it any way marginal for a one-stop for you, Nico?

NR: Not really, no. Of course there was quite a lot of degradation on the soft one but no, it was fine. And I agree, it would be better to have two stops for more exciting racing, but then again, for the fans and you watching on TV for sure the one-stop is much easier to understand because it’s very straightforward and simple, whereas as soon as you get into two-stop, it becomes different tyre strategies and this and that and it becomes near impossible to understand often in front of the TV, but also has some advantages.

Q: (Ottavio Davide – Tuttosport) Felipe, do you think that on a completely different track such as Singapore it’s possible to beat both Mercedes?

FM: Mercedes? Very difficult. In Singapore, especially, I think it will be very very difficult, but Singapore is a race at which many things happen so we need to believe that we can do a good job there as well so I would say maybe from now to the last race, Singapore is maybe the track that is going to be more negative than the others for us. But at Singapore, you never know, many things happen there so I hope we can do a good job there as well. If we can beat Mercedes it will be a surprise but we will try everything we can.

Q: (Leigh O’Gorman – Walker Watson) For all three: concerning how Monza is such a fast circuit, so much of it is full throttle, were there any issues with regards to fuel usage during the race?

LH: It’s not an issue. This track was very easy to…

NR: No problem.

FM: No.

NR: Mercedes engine, I suppose.

September 7, 2014