F1 Madness

Latest

  • Cape Town All Set for Red Bull Show Run

    Cape Town All Set for Red Bull Show Run

    The Red Bull show run comes to Cape Town on Sunday 2 June 2019 and with it the sights and sounds of an F1 car through the streets of the City Centre.

    The event will start at 12:00 and will go on till 17:00. During that time fans will be able to experience what it’s like to be trackside when the Championship winning Red Bull RB7 Formula 1 car roars past them with the deafening sound of the high revving V8 engine. And who better to pilot the car around the the Grand Parade than non other that David Coulthard.

    After spinning some donuts at Zandvoort, speeding down the streets of Budapest, and giving fans in Hanoi a taste of what’s to come when Formula 1 gets to their city in 2020, it is now Cape Town’s turn to experience the fun.

    Entrance to the event is free and fans are encouraged to get trackside as early as they can to get a good vantage point. The smartest way to get down to the track is to hail a ride, hop on a myCiti bus, catch a train or taxi and head to Darling street.

    It’s not just and F1 car that will be going around. There will be a host of other surprise acts on the track as well.

    Below is a map of the track that will be used. Click to enlarge

    Red Bull Show Run Map

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Photo courtesy Red Bull Content Pool

  • F1 2019: Monaco Gp Review – Hamilton’s Fortitude Ensures Win

    F1 2019: Monaco Gp Review – Hamilton’s Fortitude Ensures Win

    In 1974 it was his performance at the Monaco grand prix that prompted Enzo Ferrari into signing up a Niki Lauda. Not only would he become a three-time world champion but also complete the greatest comeback in sporting history following a near-fatal crash in 1976 at the Nordschleife. As drivers, teams, and fans paid tribute to the great champion who passed away on May 20 one thing became crystal clear Niki Lauda is an unmistakable and an unequaled part of Formula 1 lore who will never be forgotten.

    On the face of it Lewis Hamilton’s pole-to-flag victory may seem like yet another Mercedes domination. But looking a bit closer reveals a far different story and a race performance that Hamilton will remember for some time to come. It started in Saturday qualifying where the Brit had to “dig far deeper than ever” to pip teammate Valtteri Bottas to the coveted pole position by a mere margin of 0.086.

    Hamilton led off the line easily enough as Max Verstappen nearly snatched second from Bottas. Nevertheless, Bottas 2.0 was never going to yield into turn one and held his position around the outside of Sainte Devote (Turn one). Behind the first three Sebastian Vettel made a clean start to maintain fourth on the road. Charles Leclerc, following a strategy blunder in qualifying by Ferrari, didn’t have the same luxury and was forced into taking major risks to advance through the field after starting fifteenth. He pulled off a move on Lando Norris for thirteenth before, on lap seven, sending his car up the inside of Rascasse and past the Haas of Romain Grosjean. It proved one lunge too many though for the Monegasque driver who tagged the wall while attempting to put the same move on Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. While he did get going again a right-rear puncture caused his tyre to delaminate and destroy the floor of the car which eventually put him out of the race. As pieces of Leclerc’s floor littered the circuit it prompted the appearance of the Safety Car on lap eleven.

    The top four, Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, and Vettel, all took the pitlane for fresh tyres but it was Bottas who would pay the biggest price. The Finn was slow into the pitbox to allow service to Hamilton first, which allowed Verstappen to be released perilously close to the Mercedes. So close in fact that he nudged Bottas into the pitwall and caused a puncture. Verstappen netted second on the road but it was clearly an unsafe release for which the stewards awarded an especially light penalty of five seconds. It was especially lenient when considering that it not only compromised Bottas’ race but also caused a collision in the pitlane amongst a plethora of mechanics.

    With 67 more laps to go Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas had fitted the hard compound tyre with the clear intention of making it to the chequered flag without making further trips to the pitlane. Hamilton however was fitted with the medium compound tyre with the same intention of not pitting again. As the race continued Hamilton became more and more worried about the state of his tyres. At one point, on lap 50, he deemed them completely “dead” and said there was no way he could hold of Verstappen who was harassing the rear of the Mercedes.

    But true to Monaco track position is king and despite a late lunge up the inside of the Nouvelle chicane Verstappen was never able to overtake the race leader. Despite the near impossibility of overtaking in Monaco Hamilton’s drive shouldn’t be undervalued. The sheer amount of mental strength required for Hamilton to maintain his position despite driving on treacherously worn down tyres is off the charts. “That was probably the hardest race I’ve had, but nonetheless I really was fighting with the spirit of Niki.”Said Hamilton.

    monacosunday3-210734Verstappen finished second on the road but due to his five-second penalty was demoted to fourth on the timing sheets. Sebastian Vettel salvaged second in yet another difficult weekend for Ferrari while Valtteri Bottas took the final step on the podium.

    Pierre Gasly took fifth and the fastest lap in his Red Bull while Carlos Sainz scored a brilliant sixth place finish for McLaren. Toro Rosso teammates Dannil Kvyat and Alex Albon were seventh and eighth as Daniel Ricciardo was ninth after a penalty for crossing the pit-exit line dropped Romain Grosjean to tenth. It was forgettable day for Alfa Romeo Racing as Kimi Raikkonen finished a lowly 17thin his 300thgrand prix weekend. Though overtaking is at a premium here there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, no pun intended, for Williams as George Russell finished an encouraging fifteenth on merit.

    As it turns out Hamilton confirmed after the race that despite the multitude of radio messages pitting was never on the cards. I wasn’t going to come in – I was either going to crash or finish. Honestly, I was driving around on nothing.” Hamilton’s drive to win the Monaco grand prix was a master-class of precision and mental strength that must be rightfully lauded. And to boot he extend his championship to seventeen points over teammate Bottas heading to the Canadian grand prix in two weeks time.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2019 Monaco Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2019 Monaco Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Zak BROWN (McLaren), Andrew GREEN (Racing Point)

    Q: Following the passing of three-time Formula One World Champion Niki Lauda this week, we asked all of the drivers yesterday for their memories and thoughts of Niki. We’d like to start in the same fashion with you today please. Cyril, is we could start with you: your thoughts and memories of Niki?

     

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: It’s another sad news for the Formula One community. Frankly, I had not a lot of interaction with Niki, but clearly he was one of the role models that form our youth and the reason we are admiring Formula One – for the fantastic animal that you come across in life. He was a model of resilience. He was taking the fighting spirit very, very hard and impressive what he managed to do over his career. Any meeting with him was kind of fun. You never knew what could happen. He will be another person badly missed in Formula One.

     

    Christian?

    Christian HORNER: It’s a huge loss for Formula One – the whole paddock. Obviously for Mercedes where he was so active as well. I think it was a shock for everyone. Obviously he’s not been in great health for the last pretty much 12 months. He was an iconic person. What he achieved in the sport was phenomenal. Just the most remarkable story. You only have to watch the movie, which I think is a pretty decent representation of actually what happened and the fight back that he had, which obviously happened prior to my really understanding of who he was. When I really came across him, he was working as a commentator, quite an outspoken commentator at that time, and he managed to where all these hats, commentating for RTL, running the Mercedes team as their chairman. He was just a larger than life character, obviously as an Austrian, and us an Austrian team, he spent a lot of time with us, particularly Helmut Marko, a very close friend of his, as they pretty much had grown up together. We’ll certainly miss the breakfast where he would come, pretty much every morning and Helmut and he would be like the two old guys in the Muppet Show, Waldorf and Statler I think it was, and they’d basically be commenting on all aspects of life, none of what I’m going to repeat here, that’s for sure – but his openness, his sense of humour, his ability to say “how did you screw that up?” something “was rubbish” – or complement you when you’d done well. He was a great guy, a great personality and he’ll be very, very sadly missed.

     

    Claire, your thoughts?

    Clair WILLIAMS: I obviously had the pleasure of knowing Niki through our relationship with Mercedes. I can’t profess to knowing him extremely well but everything that he’s achieved in motorsport is extraordinary and, as Christian said, watching that film really demonstrates exactly the kind of character that he was. Latterly, working with him in the Strategy Group meetings, he was always the voice of reason. When Niki talked, people listened. Personally, we always had a bit of a joke about my single status. I think I probably wouldn’t have got married as quickly as I have if Niki wasn’t pressuring my husband into proposing – so that will always be a nice memory for me. The sport has lost an icon, hasn’t it. Our thoughts go out to his family.

     

    Zak?

    Zak BROWN: Yes, I echo what everyone has said before me. He was an absolute legend of the sport. A loss for all of us. Never met anyone who didn’t like Niki. He was a real likeable guy, a real racer, had a strong opinion and when you look at what he came back from , that’s a real inspiration. I think not many would have been as brave as he was – not only to come back, but to go on, win World Championships. He won his last World Championship with McLaren. So, a lot of people in our factory, Mansour Ojjeh, one of our owners, were was super-close to Niki, so it feels like we lost a member of our family and, of course, the whole racing community has. Just wish his family the best and just grateful to have the fond memories here in Formula One forever.

     

    Andy?

    Andrew GREEN: Unfortunately I never had the honour to work with Niki. He was the background to my youth when I was watching Formula One. He was a big part of it. Some very big images from back then, and part of why I got into the sport. What he did from then until now is just incredible. He’s a real icon and will be sorely missed.

     

    Q: We’ll now turn our focus to this current season. Christian, we’ll start with you. For Red Bull it’s been a consistent start to the year. Max Verstappen in the top four at every race and this is usually a race that you target victory at. After the way FP1 has gone, is that a realistic target for you again this weekend?

    CH: I think it’s been a strong start to the year after the engine change over the winter. I think we’ve been very consistent, we’ve had two podium positions, we’ve finished in fourth place every other grand prix. Obviously, having introduced some upgrades in Barcelona, you ought to try to optimise those and Monte Carlos has always represented a track that we’ve performed well at. We’ve had an encouraging first practice but I think having seen Mercedes’ performance, particularly in the slow speed sector of Barcelona, they are absolutely the stand-out favourites for this event, so if we can get anywhere near them, and put a little bit of pressure on that, that would certainly be our target going in to the weekend.

     

    Q: Cyril, you’ve got last year’s Monaco Grand Prix winner driving for you this season – but currently sitting eighth in the Constructors’ Championship. Were you expecting to be a little bit higher at this stage of the season?

    CA: Yeah, of course, I think you can even say that it’s not the season start that we wanted, that we were ambitioning working for and advertised. It takes clearly a reaction from all of us. In my opinion obviously there has been a collection of issues, not excuse, but issues over the first five races that do not reflect the ambition, the level of our drivers, the level of the team. So it’s up to us to react and come up with clear answers to the different issues. We hope to see those answers starting to kick off with this weekend. Indeed, we have last year’s grand prix winner. It just creates another obligation to come up with the best possible car at this point of our journey.

     

    Q: Claire, the start to the season probably not gone the way Williams would have envisaged either – but since the start of the year you’ve had better qualifying performance in Barcelona and then the test, working on some new ideas. Do you feel like there are shoots of recovery now? Are you starting that rebuilding process?

    CW: Yeah, you say it wasn’t the start to the season that we envisaged – but I think we anticipated what was coming. Yeah, I definitely feel that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel now and I think probably just from the time sheets and the last race in Barcelona, we demonstrated that we are closing that gap. It may be slow but we all know that it takes time to bring performance to your car. There’s definitely a lot of good work going on back at the factory that people may not necessarily be seeing yet. The aero team are doing a great job finding performance in the tunnel and we’re going to be bringing that to races over the coming weeks and months with a package coming mid-way through the season that we will hope will bring some significant performance to us. Yes, there are definitely signs of improvement. I think there’s a certain positivity in the team at the moment. Morale is still pretty good, and that’s all we can ask of everyone: just fighting hard, not giving up and keep on brining performance to the car.

     

    Q: And Zak. I’m sure you’ll be facing questions about last weekend’s events in Indianapolis from the floor but focusing on Formula One right now, McLaren actually extended its advantage in fourth in the Constructors’ Championship in Barcelona. Would you say that’s actually ahead of expectations for this season?

    ZB: It’s early in the season and the midfield is so tight, I think the swing can swing at any one race. We’re pleased that we’re sitting forth in the Championship. We think that’s realistically, on our road to recovery, about as much as we’re going to be able to realistically achieve. So we will fight hard to retain that position, and those behind us are going to fight hard, of course, to knock us out of fourth, and we’ve got a long way to go, so I think anything can happen – but I’m really pleased with all the effort everyone at McLaren has put together. We had a better winter testing, and certainly have built a better race car. Drivers are doing an excellent job, we’re quick on pit stops now, so you can feel the team’s coming together. We have Andreas Seidl now and James Key who’ve joined, so I feel I’ve got all the right players on the field, so to speak and now we just need to put our head down and execute.

     

    Q: Andrew, if we look at Racing Point, that’s one of the teams looking to close down McLaren. You introduced a new upgrade package in Barcelona – but it looked like a tough weekend for you. So, what worked with the update and what still needs to be optimised?

    AG: Yeah, we were sort-of anticipating Barcelona was going to be a tough race for us. It has been, it’s been part of the DNA of the car for while, which is something we’re actively working on back at the factory. From what we see the upgrades did what they were supposed to do. I think we were quite content. We’ve got a route forwards and the car is evolving quite quickly and it will do over the next half a dozen races. We think we’ve got a good direction to go in – it just takes time. Like Clare said: you can’t change cars overnight, these things do take some time to evolve in the factory and come to the track. We’re happy with the route we’re going in. Are we happy with where we are now? No. But we can see that we’re going in the right direction.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Claire, in the build-up to this week you announced Jamie Chadwick as a development driver. You explained that it will involve simulator responsibilities to begin with. Is there a plan – or a hope – to give her on-track opportunities or the opportunity for that partnership to maybe evolve in the future?

    CW: Like you say, we’re delighted that Jamie’s joined the team. She’s obviously part of the W Series Championship this year. She won the first event and then she had a good run in Zolder last weekend. We announced her on Monday, she’s going to be doing simulator work, as you said. Full immersion in the factory, working with the engineers to support her campaign this year and to just help… well it all goes to promoting women in motorsport. Doing this for her is hopefully going to elevate her competitiveness. At the moment it is reserved to simulator work and then coming to a few races with us to see the team trackside and how we operate in F1. There are no plans at the moment to put her in an F1 car at this stage.

     

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Telegraph) Question for Zak. The Indy 500. You gave a fairly remarkable interview to the Associated Press about the full reasons behind Fernando’s failure to qualify. I just wonder, how embarrassing has this episode been and how do you explain how a company of McLaren’s sophistication can make these kinds of errors.

    ZB: I’ve spoken a lot about Indy Car, as you pointed out, and I think this is a Formula One environment, I have my Formula One shirt on, so I prefer to talk about Formula One. To answer your question, we got it wrong and I thought it was important to be transparent and open as much as sometimes the truth hurts. I think the industry isn’t necessarily that open, that often. And we got it wrong and I’m responsible for that. I felt I needed to share with everyone. There’s of course little stories behind each of those individual issues and how they transpired but y’know, we didn’t execute and therefore we didn’t qualify for the Indy 500. It’s happened to the best of them before and we learned a lot. I was watching this morning, a little tribute to Niki and, when he grabbed his Laureus award, talked about how he learned more from losing, which is what made him a winner, so we’ll dust ourselves off. We’re racers. It was a big, public failure. I wanted to communicate what happened. Yeah, it’s embarrassing. It’s not to the McLaren standard. It’s not acceptable – but it happened and we’re going to learn from it and we’ll come back stronger.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines/racefans.net) A question for all of you. Give or take a week we’re a month away from Formula One’s self-imposed deadline on the regulation changes for 2021. Given the magnitude of everything that’s required – governance, commercial, sporting, technical etc – can it actually get done in time?

     

    Q: Shall we work our way along the line with that one, starting with Cyril?

    CA: Thank you! It’s vast question and the usual question. Will we have a signed contract by FIA, Formula One and all 10 teams by end of June or mid-June for the World Motor Council? No, obviously no. But in my opinion there has been a lot of groundwork already covered. I think it’s all about trying to agree what will be the key principles for 2021, from a commercial perspective, financial perspective, the key principles on the technical side and the sporting side. And in my opinion we are probably 80% or 90% from that point, from that milestone, so with enough faith and enough goodwill from all participants and probably a bit of a push from the key stakeholders, FIA and Formula One, there is no reason why something cannot be presented at the World Motor Sport Council that will be advanced enough to give useful guidelines for the remainder of the year, so that we have a complete set of guidelines for the end of the year. That’s my opinion, obviously, but there is still some work to cover.

     

    Q: Christian?

    CH: I didn’t understand any of that.

    CA: We are not partners anymore. You can’t make fun of me anymore. It’s not part of the contract anymore!

    CH: But it’s still enjoyable. Sorry, what was you question about? Regulations coming out. Look I’m sure something is going to be presented. It will probably nowhere near what actually gets signed. I’m sure the regulations will change and evolve. Something will come out in June, it will change in September, October, probably in November, and yeah, there’s plenty of ground to cover, but there is a watershed where something will be put in front of us fairly shortly and then the fun really begins.

     

    Q: Claire, is June realistic?

    CW: I’m going to be really boring now after that, aren’t I? Clearly we’re getting close to ’21. When we first started these negotiations, it was a long time ago and we’re now at that point where we need to have that full set of regulations so that we can plan and prepare out businesses for that season. As Christian says, I’m sure there are going to be some further negotiations after that point. For a team in our position clearly when it comes top the technical regulations we wouldn’t want too much movement after that. People are going to start working on those, people are already working, and we don’t need to be wasting resources with a huge change subsequent to the issuance of the first draft. I don’t think there’s much choice. We have to get those regulations out and so I believe it should be done and I’m sure it can be done.

     

    Q: And Zak?

    ZB: I agree with everything that I’ve head. I don’t believe we’ll get it done in June and it will play out over the second half of the year and we’ll get there and racing will go on.

     

    Q: And Andy?

    AG: I can only speak from a technical aspect, but I know that the FIA and F1 have done a huge amount of work in the background on this. We were exposed to some of it last week in a technical working group meeting. We could see that it’s quite well evolved. It’s going to need some tidying up for sure. We have meetings planned from now until the end of the year, which is where we all anticipate it’s going to go to. It’s a significant set of changes, bit like I said, they have done a huge amount of work in the background and I think we can get there.

     

    Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Predictably, another question on regulations, but this time the 2025 power unit regulations, which we hear will be completely different to what we have now. I’d like to ask the whole panel this, as there are some different opinions on this, what you’d like to see in the new power unit for 2025, what technologies and what things are good and what things are bad?

     

    Q: We’ll reverse the order then and start with technical thoughts first.

    AG: What a question: 2025! I think what we have now is an incredible piece of engineering in the back of the car. But it could just be too incredible. I think what we have is potentially something where the technology bar of the power unit is just way too high and I think I would like to see something that is just slightly simpler. That’s my view. I think I’d never say no to more horsepower. I think the sport can’t have enough horsepower. We need to make the cars harder to drive. I think more power; a simpler power unit. That’s where I would be going.

     

    Q: Zak, your thoughts?

    ZB: More power would be great. Less expensive would be outstanding.

    CA: There is the message!

    ZB: And I don’t know that it’s achievable but if we could have some diversity in the engine itself and not be limited to a certain amount of cylinders, things of that nature, I think would maybe spice up the show. But whether that’s achievable or not… We don’t build engines, so Cyril is best to answer whether a scenario like that would be feasible.

     

    Q: Claire, your thoughts on 2025?

    CW: Again, at Williams we don’t build engines and I’m certainly not an engineer who is educated enough to give you a sensible answer. But from our perspective, as Zak says, something that is cost-efficient, environmentally appropriate and loud. Noisy would be nice.

     

    Q: And Christian?

    CH: Emotionally, a normally-aspirated, high-revving V10 or V12 engine would be a wonderful thing to have back in Formula One, but unfortunately I think they’re rather outdated now. I think as Andy was saying, the technology in these engines is phenomenal. We’ve now got a period of stability with the engines until 2023 I think or 2024, so it’s important that Formula One makes the right decision for the future. Obviously the automotive sector is moving an awful lot at the moment and what technologies are going to relevant then? Because when that engine comes in in 2025 that’s going to have to be for a 5-10- year period, so we’re actually talking up to 2035, which is a long way down the pipelines. The romantic in me says go back – loud, noise, high revs, normally aspirated.

     

    Q: And Cyril, from a power unit supplier point of view?

    CA: The romantic in me would say the same thing, but obviously in 2025 the world will be different, that’s for sure. Electrification will be a profound trend, so it’s not going to go away. In my opinion we need to look at the next couple of years to form an opinion regarding MGU-H road relevance, because it’s clearly a component that was introduced for that purpose. Right now, we don’t’ see any application on road cars but it may come. It may actually be in the pipeline of some manufacturers, so we need to be careful not to be basically in reverse in that respect. And then diversity of technology would be great but we need to be careful not to open up the field and create some discrepancy. One thing that might be interesting that starts to be discussed is not necessarily not the next generation of engine but the next generation of fuel, because we still believe that Formula One is about hybrid technology, not full electric, for a number of reasons. Clearly we need more power and sustainable power and long races, but there will be new forms of fuel coming up in the next few years, whether you are talking about more bio-fuel, so a different composition, or even synthesis fuel, coming from non-fossil sources, that could be attractive and that would require new development. So, probably the way forwards. Less exciting, obviously, than a very high-revving, normally-aspirated engine, but still probably the way forward if we want to be relevant, not just to car makers, but to society.

     

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) A question for Zak. Just picking up on what you said earlier about the need for transparency and coming forward with the reasons for what happened. Is the motivation behind that because fans are owed those explanations or more the sense that the people who did not do their job properly need to face up to that or is it a combination of both that prompts that?

    ZB: No, I think anyone that maybe didn’t get the job done, you have a private conversation with them. I don’t think that would be ever be appropriate to discuss in an open forum, which is why names in a variety of areas were mentioned, and that was about being transparent with our fans and partners and not glossing over something that was not as minor miss but was a major miss. I felt obligated to explain that to the world and the best way to do that was via the media, to get the message out, and I’m glad we did it.

     

    Q: (Julien Billotte – Auto Hebdo) – A question for whoever would like to answer. There was some hope at the start of the season that the new regulations, the 2019 regulations, could shake things up a bit in terms of the pecking order, and here we are five races in, Mercedes is winning everything and the top three are miles ahead of the midfield. What makes you confident that 2021 can be the game changer that Formula 1 probably needs?

     

    Q: It was whoever wants to answer and you all look delighted to jump in. Christian, why don’t you start?

    CH: Thank you very much. Look, the regulation change this year; the outcome was rather predictable unfortunately and it’s up to us, the teams competing against Mercedes to close that gap down. I think for 2021 it’s a clean sheet of paper, it will be a big regulation change and I think one of the things that we debated is that you need to be a little bit careful, because if you release very early regulations then quite the teams that have more resource quite simply put that resource earlier on than the smaller teams. So it’s about finding that balance of when is the right time for full regulations to be released. And I think the cars will be a lot simpler. Inevitably teams will get it right and teams will get it wrong. But hopefully the concept of what they are looking at should put more inference on the driver to be a bigger variable than he or she currently can be. And that’s what Formula One desperately needs. It needs the drivers very much to be the stars, to be modern day chariot racers and that we have wheel-to-wheel, exciting, and to a degree, unpredictable racing, because serial winning like we have at the moment, the teams in many respects are getting too good at predicting the outcome of a weekend with the updates they introduce. Hats off to Mercedes, they’ve done a better job than anybody to be in the position they are, but hopefully the technical regulations will be the biggest driver to shuffle that around and change that, and hopefully introduce more variance.

     

    Q: Claire, for a team playing catch-up at the moment, does the late release of regulations do you think benefit you and equalise things a little bit across the field?

    CW: Yeah, as Christian said, if we can have those regulations released slightly later then clearly for a team like ours, then we’re not going to be battling as a team like Christian’s or Toto and Ferrari, who can all put so much resource across three programmes. For a team like ours, it’s much harder to do that but it’s just more about having clarity on when those regulations come out for us and to make sure that those regulations are defined as when they come out rather than people tinkering with them in the TWG or whatever and then there’s a second draft to them. We just need them as soon as possible but not too soon so that people can’t put an arms race against them.

     

    Q: Zak?

    ZB: Well, yeah, I would agree with what I’ve heard the additional add I would have is it’s going to come along with the budget cap so not only would the rules be very different, there also won’t hopefully be unlimited budgets to be able to put against developing the new car. As far as timing, coming out, I think later the better but they have such great resources, the teams at the front, that they will just have the ability to push out more boats in more directions over a shorter period of time so I think the technical rules, tied to the budget cap is what’s going to maybe drive some change in the sport.

     

    Q: Andy, from a technical point of view does it feel like a big opportunity?

    AG: Potentially. I think the technical regulations definitely focused on allowing cars to follow more closely, I think that’s quite clear, but I think, with every season there’ll always be teams that do a better job than the others so there’s always going to be a quicker team and a slower team and the problem is, you line those teams up and that’s the  order on Sunday afternoon and I think you’re going to get the same result so I think that somewhere along the line, there needs to be a look at the sporting aspect as well as just the technical side, otherwise we’re just going to end up with cars that can follow each other but they’re going to follow each other in a procession.

     

    Q: And Cyril?

    CA: The only thing I would say is that we basically need to do the opposite of what’s been done this year. I don’t think the intent of this year was really to change the pecking order; it could have been a secondary benefit but this year it was a superficial change, late and we need a drastic change early if we want to change things, in my opinion.

     

    Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Claire, right at the top of the press conference you said you had a big development step coming in the next few months. Now, bearing in mind what you’ve already just said about the 2021 regulations, what is the Williams development road map over the next few months? How far do you take development of the current car? When do you start looking at 2020? Does 2020 in effect become a write-off as you start thinking about 2021?

    CW: No, nothing is a write-off at Williams, ever. It never has been and it never would be, regardless of where we are. It’s just not our mindset a Williams. We don’t write a season off just because we aren’t doing well. For us, at the moment, we’re really looking at ’19 and ’20 very much as almost two seasons, where it’s just evolution and development and we’ve just got to keep bringing performance at each and every race, and as I said earlier, we’ve definitely seen that we’ve done that, we’re closing the gap to the ninth-placed team and we’ve got to keep doing that as the season progresses and we’re looking at obviously what 2020 looks like from a development perspective, what we’re going to be focusing our resources and attention on, to make sure that we certainly do a whole lot better job next year for us. And then again, we’ve got to look at ’21 and make sure we’ve got the right resources in place and the focus in place to take advantage of that situation. Clearly, as everyone knows and have talked about a lot, ’21 could be a really great opportunity for us with the cost cap that’s coming and with whole new technical regulations.

     

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – Racing Line) Zak, Nyck de Vries is no longer part of the McLaren Junior programme. Could you tell us what was behind this decision?

    ZB: Well, we’ve got our junior drivers, junior driver and Sergio and we’ve got two very young – well, one very young Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz who we’re extremely happy with and we don’t see the need, at this point, to stack up some drivers and then run into a situation where you don’t have a home for them, so we felt that it was best – because we felt it would be highly unlikely he would end up in a McLaren, given our current driver situation – that he would be a free agent to be able to drive for other teams because often, when a Junior driver is under a contract that then deters other teams from taking them and then ultimately can end up sometimes hurting their career which we don’t think is the right thing to do.

     

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Christian, do you agree that this is your best chance to beat Mercedes and is Max ready for redemption in Monaco after difficult years?

    CH: Well Max’s track record here has been a tricky one and I think particularly last year, obviously, was a tough weekend for him. We had promising pace in the first session. I think Mercedes is a mighty machine this year but Max has been in the form of his life, he’s driving incredibly well and it probably does represent our best chance since the beginning of the year to at least get close to them and hopefully put them under a little bit of pressure. Yeah, hopefully we can build on the first session and through the rest of the weekend.

     

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Zak, how much did last week’s failure to qualify for Indy impact your relationship with Fernando Alonso with McLaren? And how involved are you in helping outline Fernando’s future racing plans beyond the end of the current WEC season?

    ZB: Our relationship with Fernando has never been stronger. He was obviously very disappointed. We let him down, he deserved to be in the race, he was an absolute star as he always has been when he’s raced with us, and my personal relationship in working with him. What he does post-Le Mans is up to Fernando. We have a contract with him for some McLaren activities. I think when you come off an emotional weekend like that you want to take some time to reflect and see what he wants to do in the future and if that aligns with some of McLaren’s activities then that would be great but just like he’s been driving with Toyota, I think he’s a bit undecided on what he wants to do yet so we will pick up those conversations when I see him in Le Mans.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) The equivalent FIA conference in Spain two weeks ago, Mattia Binotto said that they were negotiating to retain the Ferrari veto, the implication being that this was in order to save the teams or to protect the teams from any sort of dubious rule changes. How do you feel about them retaining the veto and do you think that Ferrari should be the watchdog?

     

    Q: Claire, can we start with you?

    CW: Why do you keep coming to me? No, I think it’s just silly if I can be honest. I have a problem in our sport anyway in the fact that I feel it’s far too democratic. I’ve been quite open about that. I feel that F1 and the FIA should take more ownership of the regulations. We run it too much in a collegiate way, which is detrimental when we all have our own agendas. We need to be looking at this sport and its sustainability into the future and protecting it and protecting the true DNA of that. By doing that by committee I think can be very difficult. And I really don’t feel that one team should have a right, a veto. That makes no sense to me at all.

    CH: It’s pretty outdated now. That veto was put in place – from my understanding – years and years ago to stop regulations changes. Ferrari had V12 engines, they didn’t suddenly want that to be vetoed, those rules to be changed because there were all these British garagista teams that were coming into the sport. But that was in the sixties and things have obviously moved on. I think it’s a right – if I’m not wrong – for the longest standing team, not bespoke just for Ferrari but they are the longest standing team. You can view it two weeks: you can say, OK, it’s a safety net, if they are there representing the teams, but ultimately they are there representing Ferrari. Probably, if we’re going for a clean sheet of paper it makes sense for it not to be there and as Claire says, same rules for everyone.

    CA: I would concur. I think we need Formula One to be progressive rather than defensive and the ability to block due process can be perceived or decided to be a positive for the sport is probably not good. Having said that, we completely recognise the specific value of Ferrari to the sport but which can be reflected probably in the commercial agreement and not in the governance.

    ZB: I think it’s very kind of him to offer to represent the teams’ interests but I think, as has been said before me, we all have varying interests and I think like Claire said, Formula One themselves want to do what’s in the best interests of the sport which I think ultimately is in the best interests of all us and we we’re best having our own individual negotiations when and if that is appropriate and as Cyril said, I think Ferrari bring a tremendous amount to the sport and that can be recognised in other ways.

    AG: I try hard not to get involved in F1 politics.

     

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Christian, you were speaking about Max being in the form of his life. Yesterday he said he’s matured a bit, do you sense that and is that linked to his form and in what ways do you think he has matured if he has?

    CH: I think really if you wind the clock back 12 months it was probably the lowest weekend, last year, of his career, having a car capable of winning and crashing in FP3 and not being able to take part in qualifying. That was very tough for him and I think he went away from that race and he reflected hard on it. Since Montreal last year he’s really just stepped things up a gear and he’s been a phenomenal force whenever he’s been in the car. The way he started this season has been outstanding. He’s overachieved in certain aspects and I think he’s got that roundedness of maturity and is very much leading the team development-wise. I think he’s enjoying and relishing that role as well, so yeah, if you compare Max Verstappen May 23, 2019 to the equivalent time last year he’s evolved a tremendous amount and I think that’s again the benefit of experience as well.

  • 2019 Monaco Grand Prix: Wednesday Press Conference

    2019 Monaco Grand Prix: Wednesday Press Conference

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Robert KUBICA (Williams), Daniel RICCIARDO (Renault)

    This week motorsport lost one of its greats when three-time Formula 1 World Champion Niki Lauda passed away. Valtteri, you worked with Niki at Mercedes over the last few years, what did he mean to you?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Obviously really, really shocking news to start the week. For sure, he meant a lot to me but for every single team member of ours, in the race team and at the factory, and he was a big part of the Mercedes family. He was a massive motivation for everyone, for myself ass well, for sure, as a driver because of everything he achieved and with the difficult career he had, and all the comebacks and everything. But also as a person, it’s been great, and never forget many, many good moments, and for sure it’s not nice in terms of mindset for the weekend but I’m sure as a team we can turn it into a strength and respect Niki by going flat out on track and bringing a good result.

     

    Q: Thank you. Robert, if I could ask you for your memories of Niki Lauda? You’ve been around Formula 1 for a long time.

    Robert KUBICA: As Valtteri said it’s shocking news. He wrote a big chunk of the story of this sport, not only as a driver but as a person. I never had the opportunity to work with him but definitely he was a big racer and all of us will miss him. At least my personal hopes were to meet him back in the paddock but unfortunately this will not happen. That’s unfortunately part of life.

     

    Q: Thanks. Max, we saw a message from you yesterday on social media. Any thoughts to share about Niki?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, of course. Niki was a legend of the sport. He achieved a lot in his career, but also after his career he was also a very generous and funny guy as well. Of course, I’ve never really worked with him, but with the chats we had, he’s been a great guy and for sure it’s a big loss to Formula 1, so all thoughts go out to his family right now.

     

    Q: Thank you. Daniel, Niki was in and out of the Red Bull motorhome a lot when you were there. Any memories of Niki that you have?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Only good ones, for sure. Any interaction I had with him, any brief chats, or just pleasantries, just a kind man. Most of the world that follows motorsport knows him as the racer, for sure, and everything he went through, which was astonishing to say the least. But my personal moments with him were always kind. For a few years we were competitors but, yeah, never a bad thing to say. As the guys just touched on, thinking of his family. The legacy he leaves is pretty amazing and for sure we remember these good things.

     

    Q: Thank you. Charles, two of Niki’s championships came with Ferrari, what does he mean to you?

    Charles LECLERC: Well, I didn’t have too many chances to speak to Niki, but the very few times I have been speaking with him he has been extremely nice to me and was always very disponible… is that the right word?

     

    Q: Available?

    CL: Available, yes, sorry. And also very humble for what he achieved. He’s a great example for the sport in general and he will be missed a lot.

     

    Q: Thank you. If we look ahead to this weekend now, Charles we’ll stay with you. This is your second time racing at home in Formula 1, but the first time racing here with Ferrari, so it must be a very special weekend for you?

    CL: Yeah, a home grand prix is always a special weekend and even more this weekend, obviously, coming here in full red with Ferrari and also with the chance to have a very good result, so we will push. Obviously we’ve had a difficult start to the season. The low-speed corners weren’t great in Barcelona, but normally Monaco is pretty different. We will try to turn things round. It’s not going to be easy but we will give it everything.

     

    Q: Valtteri, you’ve never actually been on the podium, but with the start to the season Mercedes have enjoyed there must be a big opportunity to change that this weekend?

    VB: Yeah, I’ve not had great races here, but targeting to change that. It’s been a very promising beginning of the year for us as a team. But we also have to remember that Monaco is a unique circuit and it needs different kinds of things from the car to be quick and in the past few years we have been struggling a little bit and we have not had the quickest car here, even though we have been quick on other tracks. So, for that we are a little bit cautious but also very motivated to change that and to be performing here as well. For me, for sure it’s maybe a tiny bit similar feeling to Charles, you know, living here, it’s really unique, and it would be an amazing weekend to do well.

     

    Q: Max, Red Bull traditionally have gone well in Monaco. Are you able to threaten both Mercedes and Ferrari this weekend, do you think?

    MV: I think we get into this weekend seeing Mercedes clearly as the favourite. I don’t think we are as good as we were last year. But we will find out. I’m confident that we can fight for a podium, but we have to find out what step of the podium.

     

    Q: Daniel, Max mentioned last year. You won that race and you obviously have great memories of that but what is realistic for you to target this season?

    DR: I don’t know yet. I’m certainly still coming as excited as I always do. When I say coming here, I also live here, but it’s still different coming here for the race or being here for the race. The circuit transforms and there’s a different feeling in the air. I don’t know, the whole atmosphere is pretty unreal. So yeah, I’ll see where we’re at tomorrow… Yeah, tomorrow’s practice. It’s Thursday here; that’s a bit different as well. But yeah, obviously quietly confident and excited and optimistic that we can do something good.

     

    Q: Thank you. Robert, Williams has had quite a tricky car so far this season, but is Monaco still a race you look forward to as a driver?

    Robert KUBICA: Oh yeah. Monaco has always been very special and approaching… coming back here after a long break the feeling in the past was that the track was pretty narrow but with current F1 cars it will be even more narrow than it was in the past, because the cars are much bigger, much wider. So looking forward, it’s always a special feeling going through those streets and driving an F1 car. But definitely our car is struggling and normally here whenever you struggle, you struggle even more. But there’s always something; this track is different; it’s unique, so hopefully it will suit better our car.

     

    Q: Thank you. Just a final topic before we open this to the floor. This weekend is the third FIA Volunteers Weekend, celebrating those who give up their time to support motorsport events. Just wondered if I could get a message from each of you about the importance of volunteers in motorsport. Robert if we can start with you?

    RK: Yeah, definitely. I think most us don’t realize how many people are involved to organize this show, in every single aspect, not only on track but off track to help. Definitely we need those people and I would like to thank them. They are normally very passionate people and we need those people more than anyone else.

     

    Q: Max?

    MV: Yeah, it’s great to see that there are so many people out there who are so passionate about the sport and actually willing to risk their lives as well for us. I think it’s great and I just hope that we all have a great and safe weekend.

     

    Q: And Charles?

    CL: Yeah, as Max said, it’s great to see so many people that are passionate about the sport and what they are doing for the sport. I came to see them, especially the marshals training for this grand prix, which was very impressive. They are putting a lot of time into it and they are doing these things extremely seriously, so it was a great experience to see them preparing the grand prix and hopefully we’ll have a safe and good weekend.

     

    Q: Thank you. And Valtteri?

    VB: Yeah, for sure, without them the event would not be possible. I’m lucky to know a couple of them and they have explained to me what it includes and how much actually they work for it and all the training and everything and they are so passionate about racing, so from my side, hat’s off to them.

     

    Q: Thank you. And finally, Daniel?

    DR: This is a race where I feel they always stand out – how quick they are able to collect a car or move on, so that our session can be as little or less disrupted as possible, if that’s the right English, I don’t know. They’re pretty awesome. They do have pretty good here seats as well, probably the best seats in the house! But all jokes aside, it’s good that they get the recognition as well, because it’s easily dismissed at times, so hat’s off the them and we appreciate it.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Charles, the drivers that live here say when it’s not the race week, they can walk around, nobody stops them. Now you’re a famous Ferrari driver, I see your photo and poster all over time. How is it now, going around town, not on the race weekend?

    CL: To be honest, I think there are drivers more famous than me living in Monaco. For sure, I’m Monegasque, so it’s a little bit different. Also, in Monaco, they are quite used to it, so all year around, they don’t stop you that much in the city. When it comes to grand prix time, it’s a bit harder to go around Monaco because there’s a lot of strangers coming here for the grand prix and obviously they want to have pictures, etc., During the year it’s quite OK. But yeah, it’s great to have a weekend at home. It’s a city that I’ve been growing up in and yeah, it’s a huge honour for me to be driving in these streets. It’s actually pretty weird because these are the same streets – I’ve said this story quite a lot of times – but it’s the same streets I’ve taken on the bus going to school when I was five or six years old. To take them in a Formula One car feels special.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Charles, after five races, Bahrain stands out as the obvious highlight for Ferrari in terms of performance. Now that you’ve had a couple of tests to dig into what’s holding you back at other races, does Bahrain feels like a one-off, or do you have a better understanding of what’s stopping you from hitting those peaks at other tracks as well?

    CL: I think during testing we understood a few things. Not enough, obviously, to be at the level of these guys, or Mercedes – but we understand a few things. I think we gained a little bit of time. Not enough: we need to keep working, we need to try and understand what was the main issue but the engineers are working on that.

     

    Q: (George Boulton – The Sun) Question for Valtteri. We’ve heard how much of a great character Niki was. Could you reveal your funniest story of having worked with him so closely?

    VB: He was always funny. Full of a good sense of humour and so direct. He always said whatever he thinks, how things are. He didn’t take different routes, he always said things directly. So that made for some funny situations sometimes in meetings and stuff – but I will say the best thing that will stand in my mind is that he was always there when I had a good result, to congratulation, and you could always see he was truly happy. But the main thing was, when I had some bad races, and difficult times, he was still always available to speak about anything, and really supportive – because he has the experience himself, as a racer, in life and racing that there will be setbacks and you can really improve from those. In that sense, that’s been massive motivation for me and will stay in my mind.

     

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) To Max. You’ve taken part in four editions of this grand prix and your best result is fifth in 2017. Now, with many people saying you are in the best moment as a driver, does it disturb you, to think to enjoy your moment, to change your history in this grand prix?

    MV: I’ve done four, hopefully I’ll do another 20, so I have a lot of chances to do a good result.

     

    Q: (Andrew Frankel – Forza) Max, some of us are old enough to have been to Zandvoort many, many years ago and obviously we’re terribly excited we’re going back to Zandvoort. Will the new track be very different from the existing one?

    MV: I think in general the layout will be pretty similar but some corners might be a bit banked, a bit shorter, a bit more space. The track itself won’t be changed a lot. It’s good to see that the track is coming back on the calendar after so many years. It’s very close to the beach, so you can also chill at the beach after the races if you would like – but as a driver it’s a really cool track to drive. I just hope we can also have a really good fight instead of just following each other throughout the race – but we’ll find out.

     

    Q: (inaudible) Question to Robert. You’re coming here in a difficult situation but you’ve been here many times before – you won the Monaco Kart Cup twice, you’ve been on the podium in Formula One twice, you’ve been leading the Monte Carlo Rally. You won some super stages – so what are your best memories from Monte Carlo?

    RK: As you say, Monaco has been always pretty good for me from a very young ago, so yeah. Actually probably the first time I have been racing here was 1998, in karting, and probably this was one of the great days. But definitely finishing on the podium in an F1 car in the F1 race also stands up. I would say those two – but at the same time, also Rally is something special – but we shouldn’t be speaking about rally here, I think. There are more F1 fans and more F1 journalists than rally.

     

    Q: (Lennart Boemhof – Volksrant) Question to all drivers. Last year Daniel set a lap record here. With the cars getting faster each year, is it getting harder to race here in Monaco? Is the circuit getting harder?

    DR: Last year was pretty easy!

    But is it getting harder?

    DR: For some! Ah, it’s all good. We also grow with the cars. I think any car, if you’re pushing any car on the limit, it feels fast, whether it’s a 1m10 or a 1m20s. So, I look back at the onboard lap of last year and I see places where I think ‘ah, could be quicker here’ – so it’s never fast enough.

     

    VB: Yeah, every year with the cars getting faster, it gets even more intense – but like Daniel said, we get used to the cars, and the speed and, in the end, we would prefer to go still a lot quicker – but for sure it’s quick, and it’s going to be fun.

     

    CL: I’ve only driven once here in Formula One, so from Formula 2 it was a huge step up and it really felt extremely quick. To be honest, in no other places do I have a similar feeling that I have here in qualifying. I think to be so close to the walls and also, it’s a bit like a karting track, you have no rest, and this just feels amazing. Then in the race, of course it’s quite difficult to overtake. Overall, the quali lap is just the best moment of the weekend for me, as a driver.

     

    Max, has it got more difficult as the cars have got quicker?

    MV: I would say easier – because you have more grip, compared to 2015-16 where the car was just sliding around a lot more. The only thing is, if you want to overtake with these wide cars, it’s almost impossible – because if the guy just stays in the middle, you can’t really do a lot – but I guess that’s why you have to make sure you do well in quali.

     

    Robert, are you expecting a very different challenge this weekend?

    RK: I’m expecting a unique experience. Definitely it will not be easy but it is never easy when you are trying to bring whatever car you drive to the limit. As everybody mentioned, the more grip you have, the faster you go – but also it makes things more simple in some ways. But still, it’s always a very challenge track.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Valtteri, you’re obviously replacing Lewis today for this press conference. How is he, have you had a chance to have a chat with him today?

    VB: Yeah, I saw him today. Everything was normal. I just got a request from our marketing team to be in the press conference. So that’s all I know really. He seemed OK.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Daniel, when you were here last year, obviously it was a pretty strong performance from you all weekend. You made your mark and I guess this is a slightly different situation coming here twelve months later. Renault’s been very honest about the performance so far. When you joined the team, you were very realistic and said that you weren’t expecting to fight for wins this year but five races in, how would you assess… or your feelings with the move so far and what are the changes in the background to try and improve the team’s fortunes?

    DR: Yeah, it’s been a… there’s still certainly a process. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised by anything. Obviously we would have hoped for better results than what we’ve currently got and we all want that and we’re all honest enough to admit that but as you’ve said, I didn’t really… it would have been nice to get a few more seventh places as opposed to struggling for the top tens. Yeah, we didn’t expect to be in podium contention or anything, certainly not at this stage, but I still see what I saw when I signed as far as the input that everyone’s having and the infrastructure is still going up. Motivation certainly hasn’t dipped, by any means. It’s going to take a bit more time but I’m certainly trying as well and doing everything I can. I feel that also, everything that I’ve put in has really been taken on board and the team is certainly willing to grow and learn. I’m not saying it’s all me but at least my input has been quite positive, I think. I’m enjoying it, I really am. Obviously I would love to get better results but as an environment I am enjoying it so hopefully a special weekend here and that will kick things off nicely.

     

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) A couple of years ago, when Alonso made his Indy debut, F1 was extremely impressed with how well he did. Obviously you will know that he failed to qualify for this year. How much of a surprise is that to you and perhaps it shows that the difficulty was a bit underestimated? Two or three drivers? Perhaps Daniel, Valtteri and Robert?

    DR: Personally, because I’ve never done it – driven an IndyCar or been on an oval – I never really had an expectation for Alonso. I didn’t know how easy or difficult it would be. Obviously I had confidence that he would be able to hop in and be relatively competitive, because I think he’s obviously a very very good driver and very capable and still very motivated and driven, so I think that showed in 2017, was it? But I guess, as well, this year it looks like obviously you need… you’ve got to be a good driver but set-up and all those things at those margins is so important. I don’t know the ins and outs but everything needs to work right and that’s the thing with race cars, it’s a love-hate relationship. Obviously this year for him was more of a hate one. It’s sad to see; obviously, as part of the F1 family, we want to see him do well but yeah, for reasons I honestly couldn’t understand or explain… I’m not in that world.

    VB: I can’t say that much because I didn’t really follow… for sure I heard that they didn’t qualify and there was some issue with some of the test days and stuff like this but to be honest, before that I didn’t even know it was happening.

    RK: Not a lot to add, I would say. I would never comment on something that I don’t know enough information. Looking at the classification it’s too easy to arrive at the wrong assumptions or conclusions. Fernando, we know what a great driver he is and he showed two years ago that he was fighting there and even winning on debut. This year it didn’t work but there is not a lot to say.

     

    Q: (Maximilian Werdl – Mannheimer Morgen) Mr Leclerc, after the hard start for Ferrari, how would you describe the atmosphere in the team?

    CL: Quite calm, I think. We are all working extremely hard. Obviously the engineers are trying to understand and trying to push the team forward but overall I think we are all quite calm which is needed. We obviously want to improve so everyone is pushing very hard, as I’ve said but I think the most important thing is that the serenity in the team doesn’t change which it doesn’t for now.

     

    Q: (Pierre van Vliet – F1i) Charles, do you think that rain can maybe help you in fighting Mercedes and Red Bull this weekend and if so, how big are your chances to win your very first Grand Prix at home?

    CL: Obviously Monaco is already quite a lottery in the dry so I think in the rain it will add a little bit more of that so it can go in either way but it should be exciting if it rains. Whether it will help us or not I don’t really know but yeah, I would like it to rain, actually, for qualifying to change things a little bit. In Monaco we don’t see rain very often, so it would be nice.

     

    Q: (Daniel Ortelli – F1 Only) Max, how surprised are you by the level of performance of your Honda engine since the beginning of the season, and do you think it’s a good engine for this track – although it’s not an engine track?

    MV: I’m not really surprised, because it was all just targeted and they delivered what they promised so just a continuous process which is going really well and I really enjoy working with them. They really take it all very seriously and they are very professional so I’m always working with a big smile on my face and of course, we know that we still have to improve but from both sides, not just the engine side. We are working very closely together to try and do that and of course this track is normally a little bit more competitive for us.

     

    Q: (George Boulton – The Sun) Charles, growing up in these streets, what were your memories of watching it with your friends and probably being the most popular man in Monaco this weekend? How are your feelings and pressures coming into this?

    CL: My first memory of the Grand Prix – I was probably about four, something like this. I always kept this image in my head: I was at a friend’s apartment, out of turn one, playing with the small cars, watching the Grand Prix at the same time – I think Michael was at Ferrari – obviously watching the red cars more than the others and yeah, just enjoying and dreaming of being there one day. Yeah, as I’ve said before, it feels great to be at home.

     

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) Max, a year ago, here in Monaco, I think it was the location – and correct me if I’m wrong – of your last personal mistake. With everybody speaking about you, they always say ‘after that, he became more mature.’ How do you see that yourself?

    MV: Well, I think not only after that, I think in general, it’s life. I’m getting older, general life experience but yes, sometimes you have to make mistakes to become a better driver and so this was one of them.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri, you lost, at the start, the last two pole positions and here it’s clearly a place where nobody wants to a lose a place at the start. Have you got to the bottom of what went wrong in Barcelona and well, and what has been done to prevent a repetition of that?

    VB: Yeah, for sure, we went through all the details and things to improve from my side and the team’s side as usual and yeah, we can see the cause of it. For sure, that clutch physically is out from the pool but also there were things on the control side in that unfortunate moment which being on the grip limit allowed some hesitation and variation on the clutch torque. We’ve done changes to prevent that. Hopefully it will not happen again and we move on

  • F1 2019: Monaco Gp Preview – Win or Bust for Ferrari

    F1 2019: Monaco Gp Preview – Win or Bust for Ferrari

    Formula 1 cars have raced through the sun-kissed streets of Monte Carlo every year since 1950. Decade after decade it the Monaco grand prix stood proud as the jewel in F1’s crown. All the legends have won here from Juan-Manuel Fangio to Sir Jackie Stewart to Ayrton Senna to the great Michael Schumacher. And it is unquestionably the grand prix victory that drivers want in their CV.

    More recently it hasn’t done must to endear itself to modern-day F1 fans. And it isn’t because these fans are a lot of whingers either. It isn’t even that in an over-saturated world that they are easily bored, as some would have you believe. Most, if not all, of these fans appreciate and laud the sport’s venerated history and speak in awe of decades gone by.

    The utter precision and bravery that it demands to fling these marvels of design and engineering through the barrier-lined streets is a feat so outrageous it shouldn’t be possible. But it is. And year after year Formula 1 shows up and proves it possible. As gloriously insane a spectacle as that is it simply isn’t conducive anymore to what modern F1 fans yearn for. There is a great hunger for wheel-to-wheel racing, for overtaking, for edge-of-the-seat racing that leaves you, simultaneously, stunned and exhilarated. And this is nothing something that the Monaco grand prix can deliver anymore.

    Monaco F1 Grand Prix - RaceSeveral decades ago the story was different but with modern F1 cars it just isn’t feasible. The width of the cars alone makes overtaking in Monaco, already at a premium, nearly impossible. This means that Saturday qualifying dictates Sunday’s race, barring unreliability. In the recent past, 2016 to be precise, leader Nico Rosberg drove deliberately slowly and still no one was able to overtake the then Mercedes driver. Off the track, for which the action starts on Thursday, it is the place to be seen. Here you can rub shoulders with the rich and famous provided you have the right invite or the ability to cough up an exorbitant amount of money to make it into the paddock or onto one of the luxury yachts.

    The reality is though that most F1 save for months, even years, to make it to a racetrack somewhere in the world and hardly entertain the thought of being able to attend a grand prix on the French Riviera. It seems nearly unthinkable to imagine an F1 calendar with the Monaco grand prix. But what it even more inconceivable is that those who tend to the sport do not take into account what the fans want and can afford.

    Monaco Grand Prix 2014 Safety CarFor the foreseeable future there is a Monaco grand prix and this weekend someone will again loft the famous first place trophy into the air as the winner. In recent years Mercedes have struggled with equal tyre warm-up across both axles of their car. However, recent form in Singapore, also a street-track, suggests that they have begun to get on top of the issue. Valtteri Bottas will be interesting to watch here, as Monaco has never been a strong circuit for the Finn. It’s a good place then to show that new-for-2019 Bottas is not only a force to be reckoned with but also a bonafide championship contender.

    Red Bull won here in 2018 with Daniel Ricciardo despite a loss of power. It could well be Max Verstappen’s chance to shine on the famous streets provided he can keep his Red Bull out of the barrier – a feat he didn’t accomplish in 2018.

    For Ferrari, as in Spain, it’s win or bust. Anything other than the top step of the podium will be devastating to their championship aspirations that are already hanging by a catastrophically thin thread.

  • F1 World Mourns the Loss of Legend Niki Lauda

    F1 World Mourns the Loss of Legend Niki Lauda

    The F1 world was cast into mourning on the morning of 20 May 2019 when it was announced that 3-time world champion and F1 Legend Niki Lauda had passed on aged 70.

    Lauda, who won three world drivers titles in 1975, 1977 and 1984 passed away in his sleep surrounded by family.

    “With deep sadness, we announce that our beloved Niki has peacefully passed away with his family on Monday,” his family said in a statement.

    “His unique achievements as an athlete and entrepreneur are and will remain unforgettable, his tireless zest for action, his straightforwardness and his courage remain a role model and a benchmark for all of us.”

    F1 has lost a true hero of the sport and the void left behind will be irreplaceable.

    All throughout the day, tributes poured in from all around the world. Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff was quoted as saying that Mercedes has lost a guiding light in the team.

    “Niki will always remain one of the greatest legends of our sport – he combined heroism, humanity and honesty inside and outside the cockpit,” said Wolff

    “His passing leaves a void in Formula One. We haven’t just lost a hero who staged the most remarkable comeback ever seen, but also a man who brought precious clarity and candour to modern Formula One. He will be greatly missed as our voice of common sense.

    “Our Mercedes team has also lost a guiding light. As a team-mate over the past six and a half years, Niki was always brutally honest – and utterly loyal. It was a privilege to count him among our team and moving to witness just how much it meant to him to be part of the team’s success. Whenever he walked the floor in Brackley and Brixworth, or delivered one of his famous motivational speeches, he brought an energy that nobody else could replicate.

    “Niki, you are quite simple irreplaceable, there will never be another like you.

    “It was our honour to call you our Chairman – and my privilege to call you my friend.”

     

    F1 Teams down the grid sent in their tributes. Ferrari, with who Lauda wont two world titles, remembered Lauda with a touching video.

     

    Mercedes

     

    Drivers also remember Niki in their own ways

  • F1 2019: Dutch Gp Confirmed for 2020

    F1 2019: Dutch Gp Confirmed for 2020

    It has been confirmed that the Dutch grand prix will make a return to the Formula 1 calendar for the first time in 35 years.

    While Heineken has been confirmed as the title sponsor for the race the return of the Zaandvoort circuit undoubtedly coincides with Max Verstappen’s meteoric rise to super-stardom within the world’s premier racing series.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC1lYtXEJQ

    Though a Dutch grand prix and the Zaandvoort circuit is not a new venue to F1 it can certainly be counted as ‘new’ in the modern era of the sport. This marks the second ‘new’ addition to the 2020 calendar following the announcement of a first ever grand prix in Vietnam. The Vietnamese grand prix is slated to be held on a street circuit in the capital city of Hanoi.

    Several additional races are rumoured to be in the sights of Liberty Media for addition to the calendar in the next couple of years. Including a second race in the USA is it believed that the F1 commercial right’s holders are also eyeing a return to South Africa and the famed Kyalami circuit.

     

  • F1 2019: Spanish Gp Review – Mercedes Untouchable

    F1 2019: Spanish Gp Review – Mercedes Untouchable

    To say the Spanish grand prix was a damp squib would be generous. The circuit de Catalunya produced a dreary affair that didn’t do much for the image of Formula 1.

    But first, the rightly deserved plaudits. Just ten weeks ago Mercedes left pre-season testing with the firm belief that they would have to work overtime to catch up to a seemingly imperious Ferrari. Far and wide the expectation were that this would be the year the Italian team hit the ground running. In fact, they were tipped to dominate, at least, the opening rounds of the 2019 season. How quickly reality has decimated those predictions.

    Up and down the paddock the teams arrived at the first European race of the season with various updates they’d hope would increase the pace of their car. Not least of all, Ferrari arrived with a raft of upgrades from rear-wing endplates to the front-wing, to a completely new internal combustion engine. But still it fell significantly short of Mercedes.

    Valtteri Bottas spectacularly scored a third consecutive pole position by trouncing his teammate Lewis Hamilton by six tenths of a second. It was a big statement by the Finn but it wouldn’t go unanswered for too long. Elsewhere, Seb Vettel managed third on the grid while another error in quali meant Charles Leclerc was fifth quickest behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

    barcelonasunday13-815749Hamilton’s answer to Bottas came quickly as he scythed into the lead of the race as soon as the lights went out. Though Vettel had a decent getaway from the line he soon found himself on the outside of turn one with nowhere to go which allowed Verstappen into third. Bar a few moments in the race when Bottas closed the gap slightly there was little for Hamilton to be concerned about as he strolled to a third win in Spain.

    Verstappen who easily had the measure of Ferrari on the day joined the Mercedes teammates on the podium. For Ferrari it wasn’t only yet another day to forget in terms of their lack of pace but also for yet more dubious strategy calls. Early on in the race it was clear that Leclerc had pace in hand over Vettel who had flat-spotted his left-front tyre into turn one. With the top three disappearing up the road it seemed the obvious choice to release Leclerc. But the pitwall spent several laps apparently discussing the switch. Eventually, Vettel himself offered to let Leclerc by.

    By the first round of pitstops Hamilton emerged with a nearly ten second lead over Bottas while Verstappen effortlessly held onto third. Both Vettel and Leclerc suffered a rear-left issue in their respective stops. Although the delay in the pitbox didn’t necessarily affect either Ferrari driver’s ultimate position it is yet another sign of a team in trouble. At this stage Ferrari split the drivers’ strategy with Leclerc on the hard tyre and Vettel on the medium.

    However, for several laps Vettel, on the much quicker compound, was stuck behind Leclerc. Chaos reigned at Ferrari as neither side of the garage seemed to know that the other was on the opposite strategy. By the time Ferrari pitwall caught up, and Vettel was let by Leclerc, the slim chance at the final step on the podium was gone.

    The comedy of errors from Ferrari is yet again an indication of a team that it miles away from being able to challenge Mercedes much less beat them. Ferrari may yet win a few races in 2019 but from their display in Spain it seems highly unlikely that they will make a legitimate charge on either championship this season.

    2019 Spanish GPA late race Safety-car, deployed for a turn one clash between Lando Norris and Lance Stroll, threatened to inject some excitement into the otherwise monotonous race with a fifteen-lap sprint to the chequered flag but it never happened. It was a rather docile end to what is expected to be the last Spanish grand prix before Zandvoort takes over the mid-May slot in 2020.

    With Vettel and Leclerc in fourth and fifth Pierre Gasly was sixth for Red Bull. Kevin Magnussen was seventh for Haas ahead of home-favourite Carlos Sainz in eighth. After pulling of several impressive overtakes Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Toro Rosso as Romain Grosjean took the final point on offer in tenth.

    At least for now it appears that there is no end to Mercedes’ domination in sight. Even at the height of Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s and Red Bull’s stellar run in the mid 2010s they couldn’t deliver a staggering five consecutive one-two victories as Mercedes have done in 2019. Though there are several months and a lot of racing to go this season some would say that the writing is on the wall.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Q: Lewis Hamilton, you’re the winner. It didn’t look so good yesterday; it looked amazing today.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly I just have to put it down to this incredible team. This is history in the making to have five one-twos, so I’m very, very proud to be a part of that and very proud of everyone’s hard work here at the track and back at the factory. It’s definitely been a bit of a hard first four races. Naturally this is a great car but we don’t always get along. So I’m grateful that in the race we managed to settle our differences and get away well. Long, long run down to Turn 1 and I’m grateful for it, really happy for the whole.

     

    Q: Put us in the cockpit. We heard you in Baku say maybe you gave a little bit more space than you would normally do for a competitor out of respect for Valtteri. You really went for it there. He was the meat in a sandwich at one point. He had Vettel on the other side and you really managed to force yourself to take the lead.

    LH: Yeah, it was obviously an interesting start. It was obviously very, very close. I saw the red car go round the back of both of us and so I had no idea whether they were further ahead – I assumed they might be. And I knew that Valtteri would be braking super deep, but it wasn’t a replay of Baku at least.

     

    Q: Just finally, you get that extra point for fastest lap. Your re-start after the Safety Car, it was a quali lap. You were almost two seconds quicker than anyone. That was in your mind to set the fastest lap at that point or was it just to break the DRS?

    LH: Yeah, it was. We had obviously just done the pit stop, so I was just trying to keep the tyres warm and I knew those first couple of laps on these new tyres or fresher tyres would be the moment that we had the chance to get that, and I’ve not had a fastest lap all season, so it was about time.

     

    Q: Congratulations, great victory. Valtteri, it got oh, so close into the first corner and we saw you have a little correction on your steering to avoid contact with Lewis, to avoid contact with Sebastian. They really squeezed you into that first turn?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it was pretty tight, but I lost it at the start. There was some strange behaviour on the clutch. It was biting, releasing, biting, releasing, which I never felt before, so I lost it there.

     

    Q: Obviously you’re not in the happy place you were yesterday after that stunning pole position, but you’re still in the hunt for the championship, you’re going to some tracks that you enjoy, what do you take away from this weekend apart from that second-place result?

    VB: Well, as a team it’s incredible. A fifth one-two in a run is really good. I got some good points. Every single point is going to count this year so that’s good for sure but I’m just keen to find out why the start was so bad and why the issue happened.

     

    Q: Max, admiring the competition. You were given Driver of the Day, you’re up to third place in the championship. Pretty good. You’re a bit of a fly in the ointment to the Ferrari team though.

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a hectic first corner, so I just backed out of it, and actually it gave me a good position out of the first three corners and then from there on, of course the Mercedes cars were too quick today but I could do my pace and we were competitive, so happy to be on the podium.

     

    Q: Just tell us what you were looking at here? What can you learn when you look at your competition this close

    MV: I don’t know, just looking around to see what’s different to mine.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Congratulations Lewis, another wonderful race from you. Job done at the start. You didn’t seem to suffer from being on the dirty side of the race track.

    LH: No, I had looked at the support races and it appeared that both sides were quite equal. So when the lights went out, the initial start was good and then after that we were quite close all the way down to Turn 1 and the Ferrari might have even been alongside us again. It was a great battle and naturally a decisive moment. This is such a great circuit but it’s very, very hard to follow once you get through Turn 1. I’m not really sure if they’ll ever make amendments to make it a race where we would be closer. But nonetheless once we got around Turn 1 I just had to get my head down and focus on just trying to deliver each lap. But just an incredible day for the team. We brought an upgrade here obviously and everyone worked so hard to make sure they brought a decent upgrade, something that delivered on every aspect and very, very proud of everyone back at the factory for their hard work. And the guys here at the track? They’re just always faultless. But still a huge thank you to them for their continued efforts. Also, we’ve got Dr Zetsche here. It’s ‘Zetsche’ not ‘Zeetsche’, as they said on the podium, twice. He’s been a massive supporter of mine since I was 13. Ultimately, he was there in the decision-making process of whether they would take me on as a kid. When I went to McLaren he was part of the decision-making process of whether I got the Formula 1 driver in 2007, and joining this team again. And every year on from then when we had to re-sign. This is his last race with us and I just want to say a big thank you to him.

     

    Q: You seemed much happier with your car today than you were yesterday?

    LH: Yeah, the balance yesterday was a bit of a nightmare. But race pace has generally been quite good for me, I’ve been really happy and comfortable generally in the races. When we went out to do the laps to grid I wasn’t very happy with the balance still, so I had to make some changes. I had a to alter my driving style a little bit. But it worked well in the race scenario. Going to look into detail why it doesn’t work well on a single lap. That may take some time. Normally with tyres I’m pretty good but I think that’s the weak area. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just need to discover it and that’s what I’ll put some effort towards.

     

    Q: OK, well good luck with that. Well done, Lewis. Valtteri, it was won and lost at the start. You’ve spoken already about some problems with the clutch, was there any warning or any problem on the formation lap?

    VB: No, absolutely, no. It was the first time I’ve felt anything like that, like a vibration in the clutch and that’s why the initial getaway was very poor. It was kind of biting and releasing in a very quick frequency. So it’s really annoying. All the hard work this weekend for me went down the depths but obviously I’m not blaming any individual in the team, and as we are a strong team, we are going to investigate how it happened and how we can avoid it ever happening again in the future. That’s the strength of the team. But obviously for me as a person, it is annoying to have it this way but that’s how it goes. But I also want to say, there could be worse days in the office and as a team we are performing at an incredible level, and also from my side hats off to every single member at the both factories and here at the race team to be performing like we are now, and also congrats to Lewis for the win here, he had good race pace and a good result for us.

     

    Q: It wasn’t your day today but the slow-corner performance of the W10 has been so impressive here in Barcelona, does that give you a lot of confidence going to Monaco in a couple of weeks’ time?

    VB: It is nice to see the strength we have, especially with the new bits in the car we had for this weekend. But Monaco is such a unique track. A big part of it is getting the tyres to work and it’s extremely difficult. There are a lot of new parts with completely new asphalt and it’s a difficult track to put a lot of energy through the tyres. It’s a special track in terms of mechanical set-up – there are a lot of bumps and warps and off-cambers in the track, so for me it’s completely unknown how we are going to perform there but obviously I hope very well because I myself have been living there for five years now. I live just next to the start-finish line, so it would be nice to have a good car there.

     

    Q: Well done Valtteri. Max, second podium on the year. How confident were you of finishing on the podium today?

    MV: Well, you’re never sure, but I knew that we could take the fight to Ferrari. In qualifying we were already very close. I think my race was also decided in lap one, to overtake Seb around the outside in Turn 3. Yeah, that was good and from there onwards I could just do my own pace. Well, I was trying to follow the Mercedes cars but they were clearly a bit too quick. Very happy to be on the podium and also back in third in the championship, so that’s pretty positive.

     

    Q: As you say we’ve seen some tremendous pace from Mercedes this weekend. What can you tell us about the progress being made by Red Bull?

    MV: Well, it’s good, but not as good as Mercedes did. We clearly still need to work harder and bring better things to the car. But it’s good to see that I think we closed the gap to Ferrari and I’m happy about that.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, the performance here and also in Baku as well, I think both you and Pierre had very good race pace there. Two things for you: do you think Ferrari is now vulnerable to you guys on most tracks, and going to Monaco, where Red Bull is usual strong, do you think you’re going to be quick enough thee to catch these guys?

    MV: Yeah, race pace in Baku I think was pretty strong, but of course here people come here with upgrades and clearly we lost out a bit to Mercedes, but it seems that we did catch up to Ferrari. For Monaco, I think at the moment, looking at the low-speed performance in the last sector, we are clearly not the favourite and I also don’t expect it to be like last year when we were super strong in Monaco.

     

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Lewis, do yiou think you won the race at the start and Valtteri do you think you lost the race at the start?

    LH: I don’t even know what to say to that. I mean, you watchjed the race, right? You watched the race? I wouldn’t say it was lost anywhere else or won anywhere else particularly. But I had good pace today. Obviously I had a 12-second gap at one point, so I had natural pace today, but I think overtaking would have been… even if Valtteri was behind me, he would struggled to have overtaken me, and vice versa, so the start was the key.

    VB: Obviously the race is 66 laps and we need to focus on every single corner and with the cars nowadays, pushing to the limit, it is easy to make a mistake. It’s never lost or won in the first corner, there will be always opportunities, possibly, and you have to believe in it. Today, there wasn’t, really. Lewis was faultless after the start. There was safety car but there was no opportunity for me. When you look at it back, yes, I lost it at the start, but you never think that in the car.

     

    Q: Valtteri, just talk us through the re-start after the safety car, because that might have been another opportunity?

    VB: Yeah, I tried to get close to Lewis at the re-start. I think I was maybe a bit less than 50m by Turn 1 behind him, so no possibly to overtake him. Then Turn 1, 2, 3, they’re extremely quick corners, it’s impossible to follow that close, so you create a gap. Then I went into charging mode with the engine. I tried to charge my battery and I tried the quickest lap a couple of laps later. I maybe should have tried it one lap earlier. I think Lewis got it. But anyways, that was it.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, congratulations on your victory. I think after Baku you said you were a bit too generous perhaps on the first lap. So that did you extra determination today going tinto Turn 1 that you were going to be the first man through that corner?

    LH: Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the last race. It is a new race. I think today was really trying to redeem myself after a poor performance yesterday. Just back into a strong battle that we’ve had for years now. It was respectful and balanced – as we always are. The team has spoken of it, and Valtteri and I have spoken of it, and I think we have the best pairing that any team has, especially with the balance that we have in terms of how respectful we are. A lot of the drivers don’t do that, they don’t have that respect between themselves. I think today I was obviously well and truly on the inside. Today, I was more just super-inspired by this young kid who sent me a message, Harry. He was kind of my spirit angel today.

     

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Lewis, forgive me if you’ve explained this before. Harry – what was the background to that and the inspiration it gave you?

    LH: Well, I posted it, I don’t know if you’ve seen it? You’ve got to stay up to date with social media, man. I just had a really nice message from a young kid who is suffering with an illness. We had sent him a card and a cap and I saw that today before going into the race. I was chilled but I was looking for something for inspiration, something to grab onto, so I dedicated today’s race to him. You try to go out there and do something for someone and it doesn’t always turn out as well as it has, but nonetheless it has, so I hope he’s watching and I’ll be sending him a message shortly after this, that he’ll get, and we’re going to try to do something special for him.

     

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Lewis, you mentioned the gap that you were able to build-up but then was then wiped away during the Safety Car period. Were there any concerns or frustrations when you saw the Safety Car come out? And could you talk us through your restart as well – because you built quite a big gap to Valtteri very quickly.

    LH: Naturally, when you when you work upon building a nice cushion, a nice buffer… we had that quite long stint to do, I think it was… I can’t remember how big it was but it was obviously nice enough, and obviously after we did the stop, it was still quite good, and then I’d realised we were going to a two-stop rather than a one-stop, which meant you could then utilise the tyres. And then the Safety Car came out. And naturally you prefer a VSC. It was pretty drastic how slow the Safety Car was going so it was hard for all of us to keep the temperature in the tyres – but yeah, you just stay cool and focus on the restart. It’s pretty straightforward here, generally, the restart, so that wasn’t’ an issue. I think after one or two laps I was already up at five seconds, and then I backed off to cool the tyres down a little bit, then to give myself an opportunity to fight for the fastest lap. I still had time left but was grateful I had the fastest lap at the time and didn’t need to push again. The team told me to turn the engine down and that both cars would do it, so it was good after that.

     

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Congratulations Lewis. Yesterday Toto mentioned that you and he had discussed you potentially going to Ferrari at some point in your career. After the start you’ve had to this season, and the start Mercedes have had, is there any reason… do you foresee ever leaving Mercedes, given how strong they are now and how dominant they are over Ferrari?

    LH: I don’t really remember what he’s referring to. I think when you’re in negotiations you always have to drop in the Ferrari name.

     

    MV: You come out better!

     

    LH: You come out better. No, naturally in negotiations… Toto’s a very intelligent man so we have great negotiations and great conversations and naturally I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, so it’s very difficult to see myself anywhere else. I have never made it a secret that I’ve been a Ferrari fan, particularly Ferrari cars, and that’s no secret. Do I plan on going elsewhere? I haven’t made any plans for my future. At the moment I’m just enjoying driving with this team. I’m enjoying continuous growing with this team and, I mean, it’s incredible what we’re achieving together, what we have achieved in these six years, seven years or whatever it is, and I plan on working with this team to help it become the most successful team of all time. That’s my current goal and my sole focus.

     

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you have now 35 podiums, as many as Juan Manuel Fangio, how does that feel?

    VB: Not much feelings, honestly, from that. 35? Hopefully 36 in two weeks and one more win.

     

    Q: (Joe van Burik – racingnews365.nl) Question to all drivers. On which tracks coming up this season do you expect Red Bull to be strong?

    MV: Monaco, Singapore, Mexico… yep. They should normally be a little bit better for us.

     

    Max, before we put that question to Lewis and Valtteri, what are the strengths of your car, do you feel?

    MV: Compared to?

     

    What are the strengths? What are the good characteristics?

    MV: I think at the moment we’re not really better in any corner than Mercedes, so… I don’t know. It’s good! It’s not that it’s a bad car – but at the moment Mercedes is just a bit quicker than us everywhere. Medium speed, high speed is pretty similar I would say, but again, that depends on downforce levels you’re running every single weekend so it’s a bit difficult to say, but clearly on this track, they were very strong in the low-speed corners and that it normally pretty good for Monaco as well.

     

    Lewis, when do you expect him to challenge you for a victory?

    LH: Honestly, I don’t know. I think this year they’ve made a big leap with Honda doing a great job with the engine. If you look at their laps, their speed on the straights are much, much closer to ours, if not sometimes a little bit quicker than ours at the end. It’s probably the first year their focus has to be on the car. It’s quite interesting in Formula One where engineers are so intelligent but they often stay with one philosophy and never want to shift the way they design a car. Even when others have shown a different direction works. I’m sure the car’s going to continue to improve. As he mentioned, places like Monaco, they’re always quick in Monaco, they’re always quick on those street circuits particularly. The races he mentioned, I’m sure it’s going to be very strong. Let’s hope that there’s more than they’re closer because we welcome more battles throughout the year. It would be great to have a Ferrari and a Red Bull there, fighting with us in a natural race.

     

    Anything to add Valtteri?

    VB: No.

     

    Q: A question for Lewis. Firstly congratulations for your win. In the moment that the Safety Car came to the track, we have seen problems for the drivers in general to keep the tyres on temperature. Now we are heading to Monaco, do you think the middle period of this year, are getting difficult to get it on the window to work properly. Do you think Monaco will be challenging for the temperatures of the tyres?

    LH: Something I haven’t thought of but, I mean, the tyres are very hard this year. Harder than it was last year. Probably a smaller working window so I do anticipate it’s probably going to be… I think it was already hard last year to get the temperature in the tyres. I think it was something that Red Bull were really good at last year, so that probably be the same this year going to Monaco. It’ll be really interesting to see. We don’t have the hyper this year, I don’t think, do we? It’s like the supersoft but harder again. So in my opinion we need to have more pitstops; we need a tyre that doesn’t overheat. That’s a complaint that we’ve had for many, many years. We had a meeting in Brazil last year and we weren’t aware of that – do you remember – and everyone had been saying it for years and years and years. Hopefully that should be the target for the future. We want a tyre that we can really push to the limit and stay up with someone without it overcooking itself and you having to back-off, because that enables racing. Monaco should be interesting – but again, it’s not a race where you can particularly follow. You can’t follow that well, and it’s not a race you can particularly overtake in. Particularly with the cars being bigger: now it’s even harder. But the tyre restart would be interesting on Safety Cars and those kind of things.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions for Valtteri. Up to Lap 15 you were sort-of within striking distance of Lewis, through a maximum of 3-3.5 seconds. Then you lost a lot of time over the next ten laps. Was that some tyre issue or had you accepted that you were not going to get him? And, did you have any concerns with your power unit after the oil leak you had on Friday.

    VB: Yeah, in the beginning of the stint I was pretty close to Lewis all the time. Obviously just waiting if there would be an opportunity. On this type of track you only need to be within four seconds and you’re sliding quite a bit around. So, I’ve been ahead and I know the difference, how much it makes when you can really focus on saving the tyres where you want to and, in the free air, it’s quite a bit better. So why the gap became bigger? I had to go through some of the slower cars and, at the same time, my tyres started to drop off. With less surface on the tyre I lost a bit of temperature. So yeah, my tyres were finished much earlier than Lewis’. That’s why the gap became better. So, probably I was sliding the car more during the first stint and he made a gap there. From my side, from the team’s side, there was no concerns after the oil leak. It was nothing to do with the engine itself. It was just a simple thing like a pipe and one bolt came loose, or something like this. So, no concerns.

     

    Q: (Gunnar Leheste – Eesti Päevaleht) Question to Max. There were three Red Bull Juniors driving this weekend in Formula Three. Did you get the chance to see the races and what are your impressions of the guys?

    MV: I did see a bit of the racing, it was pretty good but it can be better – but they just start, so I think Helmut with have a call with them after ever race weekend, so yeah, they will work hard for it. It’s good.

     

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) Question for Max, some more about the race, what was key in the first part, in the first corner, stay out of chaos and profit in the corners after that? And what were your thoughts about the Safety Car?

    MV: They were going three wide into the corner and I don’t think four cars fit! Yeah, just taking it easy and that was good, because in the end I was in the right position for Turn Three. So, that definitely gave me a better opportunity, of course, to be on the podium. And with the Safety Car, I think it was right to call out the Safety Car because there were a lot of stones on the track and two cars, but I think we could have raced one or two laps earlier. That would have helped with tyre temperatures as well.

     

    Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – Paddock Magazine) Question for Lewis and Valtteri. Lewis, you have mentioned that it is good to have Red Bull also in the fight – but is it a relief for you to not have Ferrari right behind you, breathing down your neck? Does that make you guys feels a little bit more relaxed, thinking about the Championship, of course?

    LH: Honestly it doesn’t, you know? We’re still very, very focussed on trying to make sure we deliver each weekend. We don’t come to the race knowing that we’re going to have a gap, like today. And also, we’re aware of… we only have a small amount of engines through the year, reliability could be an issue, anything could happen at any point, so you’re super-focussed on trying to make sure you deliver. My personal feeling is that I prefer it when they are in the mix with us. I prefer the races, where, for example Bahrain where they were on the front row. I love that. That’s… especially when we’re intertwined, where there’s a Ferrari and a Mercedes, or a Mercedes and a Ferrari, The last couple of years, that’s what we’ve had, and from a drivers’ point of view and a team’s point of view, it’s much better when you’re competing with another team. When it becomes more internal, it’s less exciting, I would say – but it’s still massively challenging for the drivers. We still have to deliver. It’s not a case of just rocking up and going out. We still have to work very, very hard to extract everything from the car, just as every other driver is extracting everything from their car.

  • 2019 Spanish GP: Bottas Makes it Three In A Row

    2019 Spanish GP: Bottas Makes it Three In A Row

    Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas made it three pole positions in a row by taking pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.

    Bottas looked untouchable during qualifying around the Circuit de Catalunya and took pole position with a scintillating lap of 1:15.406 on his first run in Q3. Bottas’ time was 0.634s faster than Mercedes team mate Lewi Hamilton who ended qualifying 2nd fastest and in doing so locked out the front row yet again this season.

    “This feels really good. In every run in Qualifying I found room for improvement, little bits here and there, and I managed to get everything together in Q3 and had a very strong first lap,” said Bottas after qualifying.

    Lining up on the second row of the grid is Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in P3 with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull in P4. Vettel with a 1:16.272 was 0.866s off Bottas’ time. Verstappen was just about a tenth off Vettel. The Dutchman giving Ferrari something to think about in the coming races.

    Charles Le Clerc could only manage P5 after suffering some floor damage on his car in Q2 by running wide at T9. In order to get through to Q3 Leclerc had to run twice in Q2 and only had one set of tyres available in Q3. He ran twice with the one set in Q3 but could not improve his time after his first run.

    In P6 is the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly who just got ahead of the Haas of Romain Grosjean in P7. Gasly finished two tenths ahead of the Haas. P8 was Grosjean’s team mate Kevin Magnussen who was not that far off the pace of the Frenchman.

    Ninth fastest was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo will have to serve his three place grid drop penalty for reversing into Kvyat at the previous race.

    The two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon – who qualified 11th, 13th and 12th respectively will all move up one position thanks to Ricciardo’s penalty drop.

    Nico Hulkenberg in the other Renault was one of the surprises to be eliminated at the end of Q1. Hulkenberg, while on a timed run, locked up into T4 and while trying to catch the rear of his car, pinged across the gravel and nearly made contact with the wall. Minus a front wing which was being dragged along under his car, Hulkenberg made it back to the pits for repairs but it was a little too late as the German could not make it through to Q2 on subsequent runs.