F1 Madness

Latest

  • Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Review: Vettel back to his best in Bahrain

    Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Review: Vettel back to his best in Bahrain

    As great a day as Saturday qualifying can sometimes be it never quite is a predictor of what’s to come in Sunday’s race. There are still some exceptions that make pole the imperative but Formula 1 2013 is whole lot more complex than the position you start in.

    The expectation was for Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus to duke it out for the first few rows of the grid but they hadn’t counted on Nico Rosberg to upset the status quo. The Mercedes driver stunned the F1 paddock as he swept his way to the second pole position of his career.

    Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three but it was Force India that caused the further surprise on Saturday with Di Resta and Sutil lining up fifth and sixth behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton managed fourth but a gearbox penalty pushed him down to ninth.

    Rosberg led the first two laps of the race but after falling prey to Vettel and Alonso wasn’t ever in contention for either step of the podium. Nevertheless, an extraordinary wheel-to-wheel fight between the top three ensued. Within mere inches of his each, at 200km/h the racing between Alonso, Vettel and Rosberg is as close as three F1 cars will ever get. There is no question why these drivers are considered the best in the world.

    Ultimately, Vettel seized the lead of the race and never looked back. His three stop strategy worked to perfection and it was obvious the German had some pace in hand should it be needed. The reigning champion proved unbeatable and controlled his run to the chequered flag effortlessly.

    Down the road drivers opted for differing strategies and it would eventually be Kimi Raikkonen, on a two stopper, who finished second. Raikkonen, compromised by an eighth place starting position, found himself stuck in traffic in the early part of the race. But even without these issues it seems unlikely that the Lotus driver would have been able to challenge Vettel at the front.

    Clad with a brand new chassis for the Bahrain GP Romain Grosjean delivered his best race of 2013. An alternative strategy starting him on the harder compound tyres, wheel to wheel racing and clean overtaking had the Frenchman on the third step of the podium for only the fourth time in his Formula 1 career. It is rumoured that Lotus are running Grosjean’s contract on a three-race basis and the result in Bahrain will have loosened the leash slightly. The podium was a good step for Grosjean and should be celebrated but his focus should immediately turn to repeating if not bettering this result.

    Force India faded slightly from their starting positions but Paul Di Resta kept the Indian team in the hunt for the podium until the closing stages of the race; but with his two-stop strategy was always going to be tough to hold off Grosjean on a fresh set of tyres.

    Mark Webber and the two McLarens were involved in a duel throughout the race with the two teammates coming to blows on more than one occasion. Sergio Perez found his feet in the Bahrain GP and aggressively hustled teammate Button but the Brit gave as good as he got.

    His eighth place finish may not look remarkable on paper but Fernando Alonso again drove a stunning race to salvage three points. The Spaniard stopped for new tyres on lap 7 but had to dive back into the pits on lap 9 when his DRS wing flap fixed in the open position. It left him way down the field, having to fight back without DRS. It can only be through sheer class and determination that Alonso salvaged anything at all.

    Formula 1 in 2013 is all about strategy, about managing tyre degradation. But the reality is that F1 has always had a strategic element to it. Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped Red Bull from being Pirelli’s most vocal detractor. They maintain, as frontrunners, that they are being unfairly punished. However, with two wins from four races and both the leads of the drivers’ and constructors’ championship it seems that their argument has been shot to pieces.

  • F1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Martin Whitmarsh, Jenson Button Interview

    F1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Martin Whitmarsh, Jenson Button Interview

  • 2013 Bahrain GP – Ted’s Notebook

    2013 Bahrain GP – Ted’s Notebook

  • F1 Bahrain 2013 – Post Race Press Conference

    F1 Bahrain 2013 – Post Race Press Conference

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Q: Sebastian, fantastic victory. You’re laughing and I haven’t asked you a question already!

    Sebastian VETTEL: No, it’s good to see you. First of all, thank you very much, fantastic race. Big, big thank you to the team. A flawless, seamless race from start to finish. I knew it was crucial straight away after the start to get into the lead if I could and then go from there and look after the tyres. The pace was phenomenal. The car was very quick and it just started to get better and better towards the end. Really, a beautiful race where you could push every single lap. We took care of the tyres, so overall very happy. Also to have a woman on the podium [is good], I think it’s not happening every day. Gill Jones, she takes care of our electronics in the team, she looks after the boys, so great to have her up here as well.

    Q: There certainly was great wheel-to-wheel action on those early laps. Can you recall much of it? Was that just instinctive racing or can you give us a standout point from those early laps before you went on to your dominant victory?

    Vettel: There’s no alcohol in this, so I can recall, yes. It was obviously very tight already in the first corner with Fernando on the outside. Unfortunately I had to give way. I wanted to line it up to get Nico probably on the next straight but then Fernando squeezed in. But then I got him back which was crucial. I saved some KERS and could out-accelerate him into Turn 6. And then Nico was a tough one. I really had to think for a while because he was quite quick down the straights. Obviously the headwind today helped all the cars behind but still it wasn’t as straightforward as I was hoping for and then again quite tight and out of Turn 4 I again managed to save a little bit of KERS up and got him on the inside and the track was clear and we could unfold the true pace of the car.

    Q: It was a great race. If I could come to our second-placed finisher here: they call him the Iceman but they should really call you Mr Consistency. Another podium. Tell us about your strategy today. On reflection do you think that was the right one? Was second place the best you could hope for?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, I think yesterday wasn’t ideal. We planned to… I wanted to already, Friday, try to do a two-stop because it felt OK and today it worked well so we gained a lot of places. I didn’t have a very strong first or second lap, so I lost two places. After that the car started to come to me and I could start pushing more and more, and in the end it was OK.

    Q: If I could move around to your team-mate Romain Grosjean. If anyone is getting a feeling of deja vu, this is exactly the same podium we had last year. Romain, great race. You must feel a little bit of pressure off the shoulders because although this is only race four, the first three races didn’t really give you the results you were looking for. How do you feel?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, that’s completely true. The first three races have been consistent but not what where we wanted. We worked hard, the whole team. It wasn’t easy to find out what was missing to get the feeling back into the car but basically we got it. Started the race with a strategy a bit different from everybody. We started on the hard tyre, thinking that we go long on the first stint, but got the debris on the car, so the race was a bit harder and we had to do some good fights on track but this is why we’re racing and what we enjoy. So, very pleased to be here, same as last year. Now just keep this consistency and get the results.

    Q: Well, we’re very happy to see you up here. If I could just come back one more time to our race winner: I’m just spotting, you’ve got some lucky charms outside your boots, I’ve never noticed that before. Do you want to tell us about that before giving us your feelings about where you are in the championship right now?

    Vettel: I don’t know, probably in a good position regarding the championship…

    Q: Can you show the fans around the world or is it top secret?

    Vettel: Not top secret but I don’t get my legs so high because I’m not a woman… I’ve had them for a long time and they seem to work. One is actually from my grandmother, actually the other one as well. Again, very, very straightforward race and incredible the pace we have today. We surely did not expect that. In the end it was quite controlled. We managed the gaps and we still had enough tyres to push towards the end. The other thing I would finally point out is congratulations to Renault. It’s the same order as last year so basically the first three cars on Renault engines. The guys back in Viry in France are pushing very, very hard and sometimes get criticised for not having the strongest engine but in the end we stand up here, three Renault-powered cars, so merci beaucoup, well done to them and looking forward to the next races.

    Q: Sebastian, was that the sort of race you expected? Long periods when you just seemed out on your own, driving against a delta – or did you just expect it to be much more closely competitive than that?

    Vettel: Surely I did not expect that. I think, yeah, was pretty dominant today, as I said, certainly not the expectation. Yeah, in the beginning, obviously quite tight, wheel-to-wheel racing. I knew it would be crucial to get in the lead if I can because then you have a little bit of an advantage, looking after your tyres and managing the race from there. I could feel that I was able to pull away and the medium compound felt pretty strong but then obviously we had three sets of new hards and for us the car seemed to work very well on those tyres. Obviously I realised in the second stint that I was able to open a gap so I thought, ‘right, I’ll take my chance as much as I can to pull away.’ Because you know it can only help at the end of the race, you don’t know what is going to happen. It probably buys us some flexibility. Fortunately we never got into a pressure situation again. But a very strong race. We were able to look after the tyres and really manage every stint the best way we could. I have to say, big compliments to the guys at home, to the guys here, on the strategy side. Yesterday wasn’t probably that straight forward but we decided to save the tyres that I mentioned and they seemed to work very good today and we had a very strong race, it all worked in our direction, so very pleased.

    Q: Speaking of strategy, Kimi, you said you wanted to make a two-stop strategy work. You felt that was the right way forward. But did you need to be five, six places further up on the grid? Was it qualifying that cost you a chance of the win today?

    Raikkonen: I think it didn’t help but I think overall we would not have had the speed for beating Red Bull in here this weekend. And even if yesterday we could have been a few places better but still we couldn’t have challenged on speed whatever we would have done to the front. So, I mean, I don’t think on the speedwise we could really have challenged for the win. But I would say then second was the best that we could achieve and also third for the team so a good result.

    Q: Romain, at the end you seemed awfully pleased with that third place, congratulations to be back on the podium. You say ‘this is where we should be’. Do you also believe this is where you should be?

    Grosjean: We’ve got a difficult start to the season. I think we’ve put in a lot of work and effort to understand what was exactly going on – and it wasn’t easy to find out but basically I think we came back where we should be. Yesterday qualifying was a bit disappointing but never mind, we had a lot of new sets of tyres for today, which was good. At the start of the race… well after the first few laps there wasn’t optimism because we have a lot of big debris coming into the radiator and the rear brakes and we had to pit it very early because the temperature was going up. So I knew that the two first stints would be normally quite long on hard tyres and then do short on mediums but we had to pit and change the tyres. But then the car was good. And I think it was one of the races where I had the most overtaking manoeuvres and fights on track. Easy, not so easy, and the last ten laps was pretty good because I had a Force India in front of me. I knew I was much quicker but for how many laps is the medium because they start to lose pace? So I was trying to take care of them but at the same time pushing hard and finally back on the podium. The same podium as last year, so it’s pretty good to be here.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Abhisheck Takle – Midday) Sebastian, as you said, dominant performance today but how crucial was it to get that place back from Fernando early on and do you think you would have been able to win with the advantage you eventually you had without getting him back at the start?

    Vettel: Well, certainly we had more pace than we expected today, which I think is related to the way that we worked with the tyres. We know that the car is quick, we saw that yesterday that we were able to pull a strong qualifying lap together. Sure, it was crucial because another car in front and especially once you start to settle into a rhythm it’s difficult to overtake. I think today it was probably helped a little bit by the fact that there was quite a strong headwind down the main straight, so the advantage for DRS or for overtake was probably a little bit bigger than usual. At the beginning, I thought that if there was a small chance to get into the lead I have to take it because then I can take care of the tyres the way I like and hopefully divert the race the way that we planned beforehand, whereas if you sit behind someone and get stuck then you struggle, you lose grip, you start to slide and the tyres start to go off and you might have a different race, but surely with the pace that we had, I think we could have had a strong race, even not being in the lead immediately but I preferred it that way for sure.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have been on the podium six times here in Bahrain; which has been the best of these six races?

    Raikkonen: I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. Second is obviously better than third place but we haven’t won and that’s what we try to do. Today we got good points, we didn’t lose too many to Sebastian but obviously it doesn’t help to finish second if he’s winning all the time. So we try to find something but all of them have been improved, in a way.

    Q: (Kate Walker) Sebastian, we’ve heard quite a few negative comments about Pirelli’s rubber so far this year but the loudest voices that have complained have come from your team. Now you’re actually leading the Drivers’, leading the Constructors’ (championships); we’re seeing you do very well. Does this mean that we’re going to see an end to the complaints from Milton Keynes about the Pirelli tyres?

    Vettel: Well, I think that certainly the fact that we won the Constructors’ championship the last three years makes people listen so probably more than other people. At least, from my point of view, I did talk about the tyres, I did complain but I always said that as long as there are other people doing a better job then we have no right to complain, we need to catch up. I don’t think you have to be a genius to see that from race to race some people suffer with the tyres – maybe someone more and some people less – and cannot go the true pace of their cars. It’s obviously very strategic these days but then again, it’s the same for all of us. Out of four races, I think we’ve had two good ones and two maybe average ones but then if you look at the results, the average is not really disastrous either. To come third and fourth is a very strong result and I’m sure not complaining about the results. Comparing Formula One to a couple of years ago, you probably have to ask Kimi more than me but it’s surely different, the fact that you can’t push as hard as you like every lap, you have to work with the tyres and sit at a certain pace and go from there. So I think that’s what we – at least the drivers that I have talked to – that’s what we think is very different and to some extent less enjoyable than in the past.

    Q: Kimi, how much different is it to seven, maybe eight years ago?

    Raikkonen: First of all, I don’t think Pirelli could please everybody, whatever they would do. There’s always somebody who will complain, even if they changed and made them happy then I’m sure there will be people who want something different and not happy so I don’t think it’s their job to try to always change things if somebody’s complaining or doesn’t like it. Even in the past, if we would have put the same amount of fuel in the cars, we couldn’t have run at full speed all the time, because the tyres would have gone off so I don’t really think it’s all that different now. We just made more stops and ran less fuel in those days. I would say that’s really the biggest difference. I’m sure the tyres wouldn’t have lasted long in those days.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, how different is this win to Malaysia, where there was a lot of criticism, and do you think that without Fernando’s DRS problem it might have been a little bit harder today?

    Vettel: Regarding the second question, I don’t know or I can’t judge the Ferrari’s pace. I think the last couple of races they have been very strong, so everything else but a strong performance today would have been a surprise to be honest. But how strong, I don’t know. I think we felt pretty happy today and in very good shape. I don’t know where Felipe finished but we can’t really judge Fernando’s race with the problem that he had with the DRS that I was told, so difficult to say.

    The first question was? Ah yes, if you race for victory, you try to pass whoever is in front of you so I think Malaysia is a long time ago now, I think we’ve moved on and I think that in terms of crossing the line first there’s no difference. But obviously we were in a better position at the beginning of the race already, so a very very different race in that regard.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Romain, we read that Alain Prost said that your problem at the beginning of the season was self-confidence. Do you think that a result like this – if that is the problem – can help you?

    Grosjean: I think that the fact that you’re able to come back from a very difficult situation proves that I think he was wrong. I haven’t seen him this year, I have a deep respect for what he did but I think it’s easy to speak when you are not here.

    Q: Did the new chassis help at all?

    Grosjean: No. It was different matters. We got a bit lost last year. Our struggle mid-season – Hockenheim, Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps – and then we came back. There is so much technology with those cars and it’s true that Pirelli tyres are not easy to drive and every time we have a small problem somewhere it makes it worst but when you manage to get it right then it’s OK. It was just something with the feeling of the car; when you’re not confident with your car it’s not self-confidence, it confidence in your car, there’s nothing you can do.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, with these tyres, who would you rate as your strongest competitor for the championship?

    Vettel: Well, I don’t know. It’s a long long championship. I think if you look at the first four races Lotus is very quick, they manage the tyres pretty well in the race. Ferrari is very quick, the cars haven’t changed too much compared to last year. If you look, pure performance is very tight. On a Sunday it can be different because of the way you take care of the tyres; sometimes you’re in a better shape, sometimes not. But I think the Ferrari is an all-round car as in they’re always quick and they’ve been very competitive in the race. Mercedes is surely very quick over a lap but probably a little bit too aggressive with the tyres. Yeah, a little bit surprised by McLaren but I think they will come back at some stage this year, probably already in Barcelona and that’s how it is but to point out the main rivals, I think we need to look after ourselves, make sure we score points and everything else is difficult to predict.

    Q: (Khodr Rawi) Romain, was it possible to do a two stop strategy like Kimi today? And do you expect the same kind of performances in the next races?

    Grosjean: Well, it would have been possible if we hadn’t had to stop on lap six or seven, due to the temperature problem and the front wing from a McLaren that flew and completely blocked the radiators. We had to stop because we were having water issues and the rear brake drum was completely closed, the brakes were not working any more. Kimi was in front of me, so it was better to stop rather than losing the brakes. Then tyre management was OK, I think it’s getting better and I don’t see any point where shouldn’t be able to repeat the performance.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, we know that Christian Horner is pushing Pirelli for harder tyres and we saw that it looks like today your car behaves a bit better on hard tyres. You had three sets of new hard tyres. Can you comment on that?

    Vettel: Well, I’m not sure I understood everything but I think on the tyre strategy we were more or less committed to that yesterday, using all the softs in qualifying and able to position ourselves on the front row nicely for the race, and then trying to make the first stint as long as possible and go from there with three sets of new hard tyres. In the end, I think there was not that much difference between the medium and the hard, we already saw that yesterday on high fuel performance. We felt a little bit happier on long runs, probably on the hard, that’s why we decided to go that way and it seemed to work. It’s difficult to say how good or bad the medium would have been because we didn’t have a new set of medium tyres. I didn’t see what other people did but I think that the fact that we sit here is pointing out that we did a good job today on that front.

  • Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix Results

    Sebastian Vettel stormed off in the desert to win the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of the Iceman, Kimi Raikkonen and his team mate, Romain Grosjean.

    Here are the race results. Full review race report to follow shortly.

    Pos  Driver        Team                      
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           
 2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault          
 3.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault  
 4.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes   
 5.  Hamilton       Mercedes                  
 6.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      
 7.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault     
 8.  Alonso         Ferrari                      
 9.  Rosberg        Mercedes                         
10.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes                  
11.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault                  
12.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari                   
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes              
14.  Bottas         Williams-Renault                   
15.  Massa          Ferrari                          
16.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari              
17.  Pic            Caterham-Renault                 
18.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari                   
19.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth                
20.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth         
21.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault         
22.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari

  • F1: A game of chess, not checkers

    Reynard Gelderblom (@Reynardg), Motorsport Editor of Street Motion sent us his thoughts on the role that strategy plays in Formula one, following the Chinese Grand Prix.

    If you’d like us to publish your Formula One related opinions, just email us and we’ll add it to the Fan Pages of this website.

     

    F1: A game of chess, not checkers

    Formula One Strategy
    Formula One Strategy – much like a game of chess

    A thought which came up quite a few times while watching this past weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix is: “I don’t ever want to play chess against any of these team managers.”

    F1 is very much about strategy these days, with the tyres playing a huge part of planning throughout the weekend. All of us will still remember this same race in 2012 where one lap meant the difference between second and fourteenth for Kimi Raikkonen.

    I’ve heard many complaints over the past weekend though from people calling this boring, most notably during the third qualifying session on Saturday. For me, this was extremely exciting. Then again, whenever I go to the casino you’ll be sure to find me at the Blackjack table and never at a slot machine. Formula One is truly the thinking man’s sport.

    The race weekend starts on Friday morning with all teams receiving an equal amount of tyres from two Pirelli compounds. Friday practice teams need to gather enough information about the tyres, how long they’ll last, what will work in which conditions etc. Come Saturday morning, your strategy for tyres needs to be in place. Effectively Saturday qualifying is when you start your race these days. A good example was with Red Bull in China. There’s no doubt that Vettel could’ve qualified higher than ninth, but making up grid slots would’ve cost the team dearly in the race.

    Then comes the race: Webber’s failure to supply a fuel sample after qualifying got him pushed to the back of the grid. Again the team took advantage of this by changing the gearbox and gear ratios and thereby willingly choosing to start from the pits. Hamilton started first with Alonso third. Again, Alonso could’ve easily gotten pole position, but at what cost? As the race progressed, this played out as expected.

    Then there was the question of the option tyre. All teams must make use of both tyre compounds during a normal dry race. For this race, Pirelli’s softer compound clearly had no real lifespan to talk of – just six laps. Most teams just wanted to get this over and done with. For this one, Vettel had an entirely different strategy to anyone else: take the option tyres with six laps to go. All of a sudden, Hamilton was under pressure and with one lap to go third spot would’ve gone to the one who could keep it together on the tyres.

    Of course fingers can be pointed to Pirelli. Shouldn’t they maybe have supplied the teams with better tyres? Shouldn’t they gather as much team data as they can to come up with a better solution? One thing to keep in mind is that this is not 2005 when tyre changes weren’t allowed. We certainly won’t see any scenes like we did back in the USA Grand Prix of that year where all but six cars pulled off the circuit prior to the start for safety reasons. Tyre changes are part of the game now – and it’s a variable teams have to take into account.

    What’s more, it does in fact bring a level of excitement to a GP as well. I watched this race along with another group of motoring journalists at one of our favourite restaurants in Cape Town. I can’t remember when last it took me an hour to finish a proper fried up breakfast and the reason for this is simply because I didn’t want to look away from the screen. I didn’t want to miss any slight sign of the tyres starting to fade on someone’s car or a single radio message. This was pure thrills from start to finish.

    Balancing equations of minimum quantities of fuel, KERS, DRS, tyres, ideal track position after pit stops, when to make what move… all while trying to win a race. As I said, I wouldn’t want to play a game of chess against these guys.
    By Reynard Gelderblom

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

    Keep up with the latest local motorsport news by following for Street Motion on Twitter.

    streetmotion

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Bahrain Qualifying: Ted’s Notebook

    Bahrain Qualifying: Ted’s Notebook

  • Niki Lauda urges Red Bull to sign Kimi Raikkonen

     

    Niki Lauda urging Red Bull to sign Kimi Raikkonen
    Niki Lauda thinks Raikkonen is the best driver on the market.
    Photo: nanopress.it

    Formula One legend, Niki Lauda, has advised Red Bull to go ahead and sign Kimi Raikkonen for next season.

    Lauda, who is currently the Mercedes chairman and co-owner, is known to have enticed Lewis Hamilton into switching to Mercedes from McLaren.

    He now thinks that Red Bull Racing should snap Raikkonen up for the 2014 season.

    The Finn is currently only three points away from the lead of the drivers championship standings and his consistency is proving to be unmatched.

    Dr Helmut Marko, and even team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, have both already spoken about their interest in Raikkonen as Mark Webber’s contract is set to run out at the end of the season and the driver has already been linked to rumours of leaving Formula One. His recent spats with Sebastian Vettel are also fuelling the rumours about his exit from the team.

    Lotus’ Eric Boullier said “It is not the question of how I am going to keep him (Raikkonen),it is a question of does he want to stay?” Boullier, of course believes it would not be a great move for Kimi to move away from his comfortable seat at Lotus to Red Bull where he will have to “race against Vettel”.

    But Niki Lauda thinks Red Bull should absolutely target Raikkonen. “He is sensational, a cool guy, and absolutely on the level of Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper.

    “Kimi is definitely a title contender. If I was Red Bull and I wanted to change something with the drivers, then I would definitely go for Kimi.”

    “He is the best driver on the market by far.”

     

  • Mark Webber, Poker Face

    Mark Webber, Poker Face

    After the well publicized and hotly debated Malaysian controversy rumours about Mark Webber’s future in Formula One have been steadily building up a head of steam.

    Several ‘pundits’ have suggested that the Australian may vacate the Red Bull garage at the end of the season. But where would AussieGrit go? Surely,he wouldn’t quit racing cold turkey – Sportscars may be the answer. More specifically, Webber is rumoured to be joining Porche’s LMP1 project as the marquee returns to sportcar racing in 2014. But Mr. Webber remains coy on any suggestions that he has penned a five-year contract.

    “I’ve never made any decisions on my future in March or April,” Webber told reporters. “As you’d expect, with what I’ve done as a driver, there could be other offers and opportunities. But I actually have not even pursued anything at the moment. Nothing here, nothing anywhere else. It’s just too early for anyone. Come early summer things will start to ramp up a bit.”

    Webber went on to say that he has a ‘very good’ relationship with Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz and the proverbial ball is firmly in his court.

     

  • F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    F1 Bahrain GP Qualifying Team and Driver Quotes

    Mercedes
    Nico Rosberg (1st, Q3 – 1m 32.330s)
    “For the first time this season everything went perfectly today and that’s a great feeling. Pole position feels like a kick start for me and it’s a great achievement from everyone in the team. We still had some work to do after the practice sessions yesterday and the team had a busy night to turn it around. Thanks to them for the quickest car out there today. The race tomorrow is a different story and we’re very aware of that. It will be difficult, especially with the rear tyres, and we know that other teams were stronger than us on the long runs on Friday. It will be a big challenge to stay ahead but starting from the front helps.”

    Lewis Hamilton (4th, Q3 – 1m 32.762s)
    “It wasn’t the best of days for me but big congratulations to Nico. Back to back pole positions for the team is great and Nico did a really good job out there. I couldn’t quite find the pace today and with losing five places from changing the gearbox, we’ve got a tough challenge ahead starting from ninth place. These things happen and I’ll do my best tomorrow. The best chance to gain some positions will come at the start and then we’ll see how it goes. Tyre degradation will be a huge factor so it’s going to be a very interesting race.”

    Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
    “As a team, we recovered well from two difficult practice sessions yesterday. Neither driver was happy and, together with their engineers, they did a great job to put us in a much stronger position today. Nico produced a great lap to take pole. I said earlier in the season that I think we have the best driver pairing in Formula One and they are proving it with their performances. Lewis had some problems this morning but he coped with them well and recovered strongly to qualify fourth fastest. He will drop five places on the grid tomorrow but we can still expect him to deliver a strong race. We know tomorrow’s race could be very different and perhaps today’s slightly cooler conditions favoured us, so let’s see what it brings.”

    Toto Wolff, Mercedes team executive director 
    “First and fourth places were a strong result this afternoon and we have to be very happy with Nico’s pole position. He did a great job and both of his timed laps in Q3 would have put him on pole position. Lewis has had a more difficult and disrupted weekend so far so qualifying was all about damage limitation for him, which he managed to do extremely well. However, we should be under no illusions about tomorrow. It will be a very tough race and it will be important for us to race hard in order to get both cars to the finish in strong positions.”

    Red Bull
    Sebastian Vettel (2nd, Q3 – 1m 32.584s)
    “I’m not disappointed with that. Well done to Nico, it was a strong lap and it was all his today. When I crossed the line I saw I was second on the screen and didn’t know how much I was missing to pole as the lap was fine. When I got told the gap to P1, it was clear that even with a perfect lap he was unbeatable today, but nevertheless I’m very happy. We managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying and it will be about tyre degradation tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens. It’s good to start from the front.”

    Mark Webber (5th, Q3 – 1m 33.078s)
    “I would have like to have got a bit more out of the car in that session and been a bit further up, but seventh with a penalty isn’t the end of the world. We have a different tyre strategy to some of the others and it’s a long Grand Prix, so let’s see how we go. I’m proud to be starting my 200th Grand Prix tomorrow. When I was a youngster arriving in Formula One, I never thought I would be in the sport for so long. I have had some incredible highs and some tough lows, but that’s top line sport. I have learned a huge amount during that time, about myself and life in general, and the drive is still very strong for the sport; I still enjoy it a lot. It’s another number, but it would be good to get a good result to mark it.”

    Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
    “That was a very tightly contested qualifying session. We stuck to a plan we formulated before qualifying, using one set of the soft tyres in each of the sessions. Sebastian did a super job to qualify on the front row alongside Nico Rosberg. Mark, despite his three place penalty, will line up in seventh place and with the way you can overtake at this track he’ll be able to make progress from there. So, a very solid qualifying and one we can hopefully build on in the race tomorrow. Well done to Nico for getting pole today.”

    Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull
    “Bahrain presents some unique challenges for the engine, with very hot ambient temperatures and low humidity. This can be tricky for the cooling systems and is something we need to monitor closely to ensure it doesn’t become a problem. Equally the lack of running here throughout the year makes the track conditions very slippery, so we tweak the engine maps to give improved grip. All in all it’s a positive result today and gives us a lot of options on strategy tomorrow.”

    Ferrari
    Fernando Alonso (3rd, Q3 – 1m 32.667s)
    “It’s really good news that once again we managed to do well in qualifying, which is our Achilles heel! This is now the third time this year that we end up in the top three and, even if usually Sunday goes better thanks to our race pace, I am really pleased to see our potential already maximized on Saturday. The data seen from Friday’s long runs means we can be optimistic about a race in which our main adversaries are represented by Vettel and the Red Bull in front and the Lotuses which might be behind us on the grid, but they will definitely be in the game. Because of the penalties for Hamilton and Webber, Felipe will start from fourth: I think it’s much better that I find myself alongside my team mate’s Ferrari than Lewis’ Mercedes! We won’t discover which is the best strategy until tomorrow and it’s impossible to make predictions. But I think the best tyre for the race will be the hard and that could work in our favour, given it’s the one we have been most comfortable on all weekend.”

    Felipe Massa (6th, Q3 – 1m 33.207s)
    “I am very pleased with the outcome of this qualifying, because in the end, the decision to take a risk in Q3, going in a different direction to the one we had originally planned, turned out to be the best one. On the medium compound, I didn’t feel able to fight for the top places, the car had little grip and suffered a lot at the back. Even with the hard tyres, the chances of ending up further down the order was extremely high, but I still opted to stay with the tyres I felt most comfortable on. The penalties for two of the drivers ahead of me -Webber and Hamilton – mean I now move up the grid to fourth place, a point from where I can race with the leaders. Starting on the medium will definitely be an advantage, but to have a good race it will be vital to find the best strategy and ensure everything runs perfectly.”

    Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director
    “It was reasonably straightforward to interpret this qualifying session and the good start positions we now have mean we are optimistic for tomorrow’s race and they also reward the entire team for all their efforts in improving our performance during qualifying. Of the updates brought here to Bahrain, we have decided to use only the most significant ones, while we will introduce the others in the upcoming races. We are not yet where we want to be, but the gaps seen today tell us that our work is going in the right direction and we must continue like this. Tomorrow, for the third consecutive time, Fernando will start from third place, which is on the clean side of the track here and we hope that could be an advantage at the start. Felipe’s fourth place is a great basis from which to build a race that he will run on a different strategy to his team-mate, having opted to use the hard tyres in Q3. Once again, we can expect a Sunday on which drivers will have to pay close attention to tyre degradation, while the pit wall will have to make the right calls.”

    Force India
    Paul di Resta (7th, Q3 -1m 33.235s)
    “We knew we were in good shape to challenge for Q3 today and we looked strong throughout all the sessions. As the tracked gripped up we didn’t quite have the speed we expected, but I’m still pretty happy with what we’ve achieved, especially as I will move up to fifth with the grid penalties. We’re in a great position for tomorrow; the car is strong and our long run performance yesterday gives us every reason to be hopeful of challenging for some good points.”

    Adrian Sutil (8th, Q3 – 1m 33.246s)
    “The car was quite tricky to drive today and the grip level of the track made it difficult to complete the perfect lap. My final lap in Q3 could have been better, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome, especially if I move up to sixth. The track suits us, we like the warm weather and things look promising for tomorrow. It’s a good starting position to have both cars on the third row and we will be looking to move forward in the race.”

    Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
    “An excellent team effort today brings us our best qualifying performance of the year. We knew we had the pace to get both cars into Q3 and in the end there was very little to choose between Paul and Adrian with just a hundredth of a second separating them. We expect to move up a couple of positions with both cars when the grid penalties are handed out, which puts us in a very strong position for the race. We have no concern with the tyres so the key tomorrow is to hold track position and find some clean air with the strategy so that we can make the most of our strong race pace.”

    Lotus
    Kimi Raikkonen (9th, Q3 – 1m 33.327s)
    “It wasn’t the easiest qualifying session after a weekend which hasn’t been the easiest so far either. Yesterday it was difficult at times to find the balance with the car and I found that again today. This morning it felt good and we didn’t do too bad in free practice, but we didn’t quite get it right this afternoon. My lap wasn’t great, but it’s a long race so we’ll just have to see what we can do tomorrow.”

    Romain Grosjean (11th, Q2 – 1m 33.762s)
    “It’s obviously disappointing to miss out on Q3 but it’s just one of those things. There weren’t any issues with the car, we just tried to be a little too brave by doing just one run and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. On the positive side, we’ve found a lot of performance this weekend compared to the first three races and our pace on the prime tyres in Q1 looked very strong. We qualified in similar positions last year and came away with a double podium, so it’s still all to play for.”

    Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
    “We’re obviously disappointed with the qualifying result. We just missed the cut for Q3 with Romain who had been looking strong, but unfortunately the track evolution caught us out a little bit and he made a couple of small errors on his only lap in Q2. If this hadn’t been the case, we’re sure he would have made it through. Kimi’s session was a bit more of a mystery. His second run in Q2 was pretty respectable but it just didn’t come together for him in Q3. He’s been strong all weekend up until that point, so we’ll need to trawl through the data this evening to understand what happened. Romain has plenty of new tyres to work with and starting on fresh rubber should give him a good boost at the start and through the first stint. We can decide which compound he will start on so we’ll be crunching the numbers to work out the optimum strategy. Romain has plenty of new tyres to work with and starting on fresh rubber should give him a good boost at the start and through the first stint. We can decide which compound he will start on so we’ll be crunching the numbers to work out the optimum strategy. We were very happy with our long run pace yesterday, with both cars showing decent pace and manageable tyre degradation levels. It’s a tough race on tyres which tends to work to our advantage and we managed a great result from a very similar situation this time last year, so we’re certainly not out of it yet.”

    McLaren
    Jenson Button (10th, Q3 – no time)
    “It’s been a very difficult weekend so far, but 10th is a strong result for us today. The team is used to fighting at the front, so it’s the little things – like getting through into Q3 – that can make a positive difference. Of course, it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, though. I’ll race as quickly as I can, but I don’t want people to expect too much from us. However, there are positives to be drawn from today: we out-qualified a Lotus, which was a surprise, and I’ll be driving the first car starting on new tyres tomorrow. As in China, that brings a slight strategic advantage, so I’m hoping we can have another decent outing. I think we’ve both got a chance of scoring points – it would be great for both Checo and me to finish in the top 10 tomorrow.”

    Sergio Perez (12th, Q2 – 1m 33.914s)
    “Qualifying was very difficult, and it was disappointing to miss out on getting into Q3 by just a few tenths. We didn’t really have the pace to get any further up the grid, though; I think Jenson showed the maximum that was possible for us in Q2 today. Still, we’re in a better position to fight for points tomorrow. I’ve set my car up to look after its rear tyres, so I think our race pace should be a bit more consistent. It’s still going to be hard to get into the points tomorrow, but I hope we can have an okay race and make it into the top 10. But it’s going to be a long, hard race.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
    “Both Jenson and Checo did a very disciplined job out there today. Going into this race weekend, we knew it was going to be difficult for us – this is a rear-limited circuit, a characteristic that accentuates the weaknesses we have with our car. Still, those circumstances required patience and hard work, and I think the drivers and the engineers got the best from a package that’s more limited on a circuit like this. Jenson’s lap in Q2 was a phenomenal effort and allowed him to get through to Q3. While that’s not what anybody at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is used to accepting, we acknowledge that these are currently difficult times, and that lap was a welcome fillip. Equally, Checo drove extremely well in Q2, and was just a couple of tenths shy of Jenson’s top-10 effort. As in China last weekend, our efforts are primarily focused towards aiming for a decent result in the race tomorrow. Both our drivers are great racers, and I’m sure they’ll go out there and do a fantastic job for us.”

    Toro Rosso
    Daniel Ricciardo (13th, Q2 – 1m 33.974s)
    “This result is not too bad, even if it’s unfortunate that so far, we have not found the pace we showed last week. I don’t think I could have done better than this today, looking at the guys we managed to out-perform in qualifying and how we went in free practice. We were close to a McLaren and ahead of both Saubers and Williams, so I feel that is where we should be on current form. As for tomorrow, I’d love to get back in the points again and the tyres could produce some interesting surprises, which might work in our favour.”

    Jean-Eric Vergne (16th, Q2 – 1m 34.284s)
    “It was a strange session for me, as I set my fastest lap in Q1 on the hard tyre. After that, on the mediums that are meant to be faster, I was incapable of improving my time. The car seems to have changed a lot over the weekend and we need to find out why. At least looking at my lap time on the hard it wasn’t too bad, but there’s something we don’t understand about the mediums. We can’t say the car is bad, so I feel we can do better tomorrow, when there are still possibilities to do something in the race.”

    James Key, Toro Rosso technical director
    “On Friday we were fairly pleased with where we were, although we knew the car was not as well balanced as it could be. So we worked overnight and made changes for FP3, when we found that the balance was improved but somehow, while we had good pace on the prime, we were struggling more on the option. For qualifying, we went back a little bit on our settings to ensure we hadn’t made the car insensitive to the tyres. Jev got through into Q2 with a time set on the prime and Daniel had a reasonable lap on options. We knew it would be tough to get to Q3, especially as Force India are clearly quicker than us in qualifying trim this weekend. In the end, it was extremely tight, with Daniel doing a good job on the options, but Jev didn’t get his option lap and we now need to look at the data to understand what happened. The gap between the two types of tyre here is much less than in China and the option seems to be a reasonable tyre to race on, so it’s useful that we have a couple of sets of new options for that, as looking after the rear end of the car will be a key element in the race.”

    Sauber
    Nico Hulkenberg (14th, Q2 – 1m 33.976s)
    “We always knew it was going to be difficult to get into Q3 today. However, I expected we would be starting closer to the top ten. The car felt quite good in the practice session this morning, but then the wind changed and it seemed very sensitive to that. I think, it will be a long race tomorrow, especially because we know we are lacking pace at this circuit, but we will fight to achieve the best result possible.”

    Esteban Gutierrez (18th, Q1 – 1m 34.730s)
    “It’s not a good feeling starting last, but we always knew that this weekend was going to be difficult. Our speed this weekend has not been great. It was important to drive a clean qualifying today, but I did my best and this is what I got. It was a bit of a disadvantage to do the race preparation in free practice three, because I didn’t get enough practice on the new tyres on low fuel. However, it was important because the data will help us to prepare the strategy for the race tomorrow.”

    Tom McCullough, Sauber head of track engineering
    “Due to Esteban’s penalty we elected to concentrate on high fuel running in FP3 and approach qualifying in a different way today. We have plenty of new sets of fresh tyres left for him tomorrow, and we are looking at the best way of using them. On a more standard programme, Nico was happy with the car in FP3, but it was more difficult to drive in qualifying, and we need to understand that. To be within the same tenth as the two cars in front of you is always disappointing at the end of qualifying. We look forward to maximising the strategy with the goal of scoring points.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal
    “We were able to improve the performance during the three free practice sessions, but it was not enough in the end. It’s a difficult weekend for our team. In Esteban’s case it was clear he would have to start from a long way behind due to his grid penalty. Nico was able to improve consistently, but he was unlucky because he ended up less than a tenth of a second behind 12th. It’s a challenging situation for the race, but we accept it and we will make the best of it tomorrow.”

    Williams
    Valtteri Bottas (15th, Q2 – 1m 34.105s)
    “I had a bit of traffic in Q1 so I was quite lucky to get through given that one or two tenths can be the difference between progressing to Q2 or not. I put a good lap together in Q2, the best lap I’ve driven here this weekend, so I’m pleased about that. I feel I got everything out of the car today but tomorrow will be a long race in these conditions, so I will be ready to challenge right from the start.”

    Pastor Maldonado (17th, Q1 – 1m 34.425s)
    “I have an extra set of tyres which is positive for tomorrow, and we are working together as a team to look at what we can do in the race. Qualifying 17th is a bit disappointing, but we are realistic with our targets at the moment. We are trying to do our best from the track and at the factory, and we are working to have a better qualifying performance soon.”

    Mike Coughlan, Williams technical director
    “Following practice this morning, our long run pace was looking better against the competition so our focus this afternoon was to just get into Q2. We ran new option tyres in Q1 on both cars to give us the best chance, but unfortunately we didn’t quite manage this with Pastor, despite both drivers posting identical times. The times were extremely close, with Valtteri just 0.4 seconds off Q3, so there was a chance we could have achieved more. Now we need to look to tomorrow and concentrate on our long run performance, and getting the best strategy for the race.”

    Marussia
    Jules Bianchi (20th, Q1 – 1m 36.178s)
    “After a positive start to the season, I think it has perhaps been a little frustrating for all of us that we have hit upon a circuit that is not so well-suited to our car. This happens – up and down the pit lane – but we have done a good job to stay focused and do what we can to make the best of it here. The balance problems we experienced yesterday were quite pronounced and gave us a tough start, but I think the direction we have taken to resolve them is a good one. Overall we have faith in our race pace and strategy and we will see tomorrow whether or not this was destined to be our race.”

    Max Chilton (22nd, Q1 – 1m 36.476s)
    “I’m much more comfortable heading into the race than today’s timesheet might suggest to be honest. After a good day yesterday we had the KERS water pump problem this morning and I lost half of the Free Practice Three session. Although that wasn’t the best preparation for qualifying, with the running I did get I could see that the changes we made since yesterday are positive and we have made progress in the right direction. Things were going well in qualifying but unfortunately I locked up into Turn 11 and looking at the data I easily lost three to four tenths there. So, again, it’s a question of looking beyond the timesheets at where we really stand for the race tomorrow and staying focused. We’re playing the long game here in Bahrain this weekend, so if I can get the right side of Van Der Garde at the start I think we can show more of the progress we have made behind the scenes.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “The build-up to the race has not been entirely straightforward again, but we’re optimistic that, as was the case in China last weekend, we will experience a much better Sunday. There is no denying that this track has not favoured our car so well, but behind the scenes we’ve actually made good progress to overcome the balance issues which have been our main concern. A KERS water pump problem on Max’s car created another disappointing setback for him, so all credit to him for recovering so well in qualifying. He was disappointed with a small mistake on his second quick lap but looking beyond that he did the best job possible under the circumstances today and should be proud of the way he has responded to the challenges we’ve presented him with. Jules has also done his customary solid job and I think we can look forward to strong performances from both of them tomorrow. We now have a better understanding of the problem we experienced in the garage today with Jules’ car. This morning, a small amount of fuel was spilt due to an issue with the fuel connector. We examined all the components and made some changes ahead of qualifying, but unfortunately there was a further small fuel spillage this afternoon at the end of the session. On both occasions, at no point did the fuel ignite. The car crew were quick to respond with extinguishers as a precautionary measure, entirely in accordance with our procedures, and this served to make the situation appear rather more dramatic than it was. Having said that, getting to the root of the issue has been our highest priority, and we are now confident that the measures we have taken will prevent a reoccurrence.”

    Caterham
    Charles Pic (19th, Q1 – 1m 35.283s)
    “I’m pretty happy with where we finished today. We’d obviously have liked to be a little higher up the grid but with the package we have here in Bahrain I think we got as much as we could today in qualifying, so we can be reasonably pleased. We have a couple of new parts here which have definitely helped us make some progress, and after a good FP3 we were well set for qualifying. Yesterday the car had quite a bit of understeer which is pretty much a direct result of putting on updates at the back of the car, but the changes we made overnight gave me a much more balanced car and the final lap time today in Q1 showed the progress we’ve made since last week. Now we need to carry that pace into tomorrow’s race and having seen relatively good degradation levels on the long runs we could have an interesting fight with a few cars ahead.”

    Giedo van der Garde (21st, Q1 – 1m 36.304s)
    “For me that was a decent qualifying session and I’m happy with where we finished up, considering the fact I’m in the same car we’ve raced since Australia without the new parts Charles has been running here in Bahrain. Overall I’m pleased for the whole team as his lap time today is a sign of what we have to come and the amount of hard work everyone’s putting in to show how we can perform. In Spain I’ll have the same updates as my team mate and that’ll obviously mean I’ll be able to compete at the level he is, but for today I got nearly everything out of the car on that final lap and I think I can play an important role in the race tomorrow on a track that we’re clearly looking okay on.”

    Pirelli
    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
    “Unlike China, the key to managing the tyres here is going to be thermal degradation, with track temperatures well in excess of 40 degrees centigrade. With all the traction and braking events, this challenges the rear tyres in particular and that will be the limiting factor. The track is evolving all the time so we should see the times getting faster and faster: even though this year’s pole time is already quicker than last year’s pole, which was set on a nominally softer compound. The performance gap between the two compounds is much smaller than it was in China, around 0.6s per lap, which means that there are several different possibilities for strategy – as there isn’t one obvious way to go. This is something that we already saw in qualifying, with teams adopting different approaches in each session. Overtaking is reasonably easy in Bahrain compared to many other tracks, and it’s looking like the hard tyre may be the preferred race tyre here with some teams going for the medium. The problem seen on Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes during free practice was not the result of a structural tyre failure, but instead must have been down to a piece of debris on the track.”