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  • 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.

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  • 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.”

  • Barrichello back in action

    Remember this guy? Rubens Barrichello returns to the F1 paddock.
    Remember this guy? Rubens Barrichello returns to the F1 paddock

    A familiar face graced the Formula 1 paddock today as Rubens Barrichello returned to his old stomping ground. This time around the ever-popular Brazilian wasn’t in the cockpit but instead behind the microphone for Brazilian broadcasting giant, Globo TV. Barrichello will share the commentating duties with former F1 driver Luciano Burti and Reginaldo Leme.

    As opposed to several cheeky ex-drivers-turned-pundits Barrichello said that he would err on the side caution. “That’s not my style, never was,” Rubens stated. But don’t expect him to gloss over anything either he says.

    Barrichello’s record-breaking Formula 1 career of 19 seasons came to an end at the conclusion of the 2011 as Williams announced that they would not be extending the Brazilian’s contract.Determined to keep on racing Barrichello opted to compete stateside in the IndyCar Series for 2012 with the KV Racing Technology team. He completed fifteen IRL races but with no drive for 2013 made good on his promise to race ‘at home.’ That translates into a full time driver for Full Time Sports in the 2013 Stock Car Brasil season.

    Commentator, racer, pundit. Whichever role Rubinho takes he is certainly very welcome in the F1 paddock.

     

  • F1 Bahrain 2013: Post-qualifying press conference

    F1 Bahrain 2013: Post-qualifying press conference

    Q: Congratulations Nico, you’re first ever top four start in Bahrain and you did it in style. Were you as surprised as some people that pole was yours today?
    Nico Rosberg:     A little bit, yeah. It wasn’t really clear before who was the quickest car, especially over one lap. I was a bit closer this morning already, so I was a bit more happy than yesterday for sure, so as a team I think we worked really during the night to improve the car because yesterday we were really struggling. So that’s been going well. I’m really, really happy, that’s a fantastic result. That’s great for tomorrow. Of course tomorrow it’s going to be a tough race for sure, with rear tyre degradation especially, so a lot can still happen.

    Q: We’ll talk more about the race in a couple of moments. Sebastian, you’re qualifying today: was that the pace of the Red Bull or was it a lap that could have been better? Are you disappointed with second place?
    Sebastian Vettel:     Definitely not disappointed. I think congratulations to Nico; he put a very strong lap in. I think it was all his today. Initially when I crossed the line I saw that I didn’t go first, so I saw second placed on one of the screens but I didn’t know how much was missing, because the lap was fine. You always a little bit here or there but, yeah, when I got told the gap to P1, to Nico, it was clear that even with the perfect lap he was unbeatable today. But nevertheless, very happy. I think we managed to save some tyres throughout qualifying. As Nico touched on it will be all about tyres and tyre degradation tomorrow, once again. So, we’ll see what happens but for sure it’s good to start from the front.

    Q: Today, Fernando, was all about the dash for pole, though, and it was a lap, your second lap, that contained a couple of errors right at the end and you came back into the pits. Was that trying too hard because Nico’s lap was too fast or were you just not happy with the balance of the car or what?
    Fernando Alonso:     Well, in the car obviously you don’t know Nico’s lap, we don’t have TV in the car yet! So we tried to complete the second lap and it was very, very similar until the last corner and in the last corner the exit I saw it was half a tenth or one tenth slower than the previous lap so we decided to come in just to save one lap on those tyres. You never know if you have to use them again in the race, so very, very happy with third place. Normally in qualifying we’re struggling a lot but today the car was very competitive in qualifying and this puts us in a strong position to start tomorrow’s race with the group of the leaders and fight for the podium with a little bit more margin.

    Q: Nico, both Sebastian and Fernando have hinted at tyre degradation sorting out tomorrow’s race. It’s something that Mercedes have suffered from in the past, so is today your day for celebration and is tomorrow just a day to limit your losses?
    NR:     I really want to kick-start my season. It’s really been a rough ride in the first three races and so today’s really been the first normal qualifying up to now, so I just want to kick-start everything now, my whole season. I’m OK for the race tomorrow, you know. For sure the competition is going to be tough, definitely. Difficult to say if we have enough pace to win the race tomorrow but for sure we’re going to try and I look forward to starting first – definitely.

     

    Questions from the floor

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday). Question to Fernando: you must be pretty confident heading into tomorrow because you’ve shown good long-run pace and a strong start could set you up for the win, don’t you think?

    Fernando Alonso: Well, let’s see. I think the race is very long so we need to wait and see how the pace is tomorrow. It’s true that on Sundays normally we do improve our performance and we seem more competitive on Sunday than on Saturday. Friday also the long runs were more or less OK and not a big drama with the tyres. So, let’s wait and see tomorrow. The conditions keep changing all the time here in Bahrain with the circuit running more and more categories, not only the Formula One, so I think tomorrow will be a good opportunity for us, first of all to win the podium and try to get some consistency and races in the podium and if we can fight for the win, even better.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe). Question to all three drivers: are you surprised by the times of the two Lotus’?

    Nico Rosberg: Where are they? [Ninth and eleventh] In that case, yeah, for sure, because all weekend they’ve been looking very quick.

    Sebastian Vettel: Did they run in Q3 or not? [Räikkönen qualified and ran] Yeah. Same as Nico, it’s a big surprise. I don’t know, that’s why I was asking. I don’t know what’s their plan for tomorrow but yeah, they were quite quick this morning, for sure. It didn’t matter the compound, they were quite quick all weekend so something must have gone wrong.

    Q: Fernando? Fernando Alonso: Yeah, same.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo). Nico, the race simulation you did in free practice, you have indication that you have a good pace for the race or maybe it will be like in the last races where you were very fast in qualifying, not so much in race?

    Nico Rosberg: I think it’s not going to be… we’re not going to be as quick as we were in qualifying compared to everybody else. I think it’s much closer tomorrow on race fuel but you just have to wait. There’s so many factors that influence that, you just have to wait and see. For sure it will be much more difficult, yeah.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Nico, when we met yesterday, we were joking a little bit with bad words in Italian about your situation.

    Nico Rosberg: What were we talking about? Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). We were joking with a bad word… Nico Rosberg: Ah yeah. You said that, yeah? Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Yes, I know, my apologies. How did you improve the car? Nico Rosberg: Yesterday we were in a difficult situation. We were not where we wanted to be and not where we were in the last couple of races, so it was all bit question marks and a bit surprising. But as a team, we really did a fantastic job to turn it around and to be absolute quickest today, it’s great. That’s just down to having done really really good work last night and this morning.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport). Sebastian, can you explain to us why you saved all three sets of the harder tyres? Do believe that there will be four pit stops tomorrow?

    Sebastian Vettel: To be honest with you, I don’t know how many stops we have to do. I think you don’t have to be a genius… one stop is impossible for everybody, two stops is impossible for most, I think, and then it’s between three and four stops. I think we decided to do what we did because we think it’s the best way. In qualifying we were not exactly sure how quick we would be. We didn’t want to take any risks, we wanted to make sure that we finish in front and we believed that the soft tyre was faster, or the medium tyre, so we went for that in qualifying.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta). Fernando, are you afraid of Massa starting on hard tyres in fourth position? And after your 1m 32.8s on hard, could it have been better to qualify on hard tyres?

    Fernando Alonso: Well, I think it’s fantastic that Felipe is fourth. He finished sixth in qualifying but with (the penalties for) Webber and Hamilton he will be fourth, so it’s better to start alongside Felipe than to start alongside Lewis to be honest. I really prefer this combination of results, that I should help the first corner attack and hopefully we can both do a good start and hopefully – with these different strategies that we have – can cover some more scenarios in the race than maybe wouldn’t be in our control if we had the same tyres. It’s true that we felt comfortable on the hard tyre in Q1. He also felt comfortable on the hard tyres in Q1, but he chose them for Q3. I think they are very close together and I think that when you gain something in qualifying you can lose it in the race; when you lose in the race, you gain something in qualifying so it’s a difficult trade-off but I’m extremely happy with our strategy and I’m extremely happy that we’re third and fourth. Tomorrow, we both need to think about being on the podium. It will be really important for the Constructors’ championship as well.

    Photo: BBC.co.uk

     

  • Bahrain GP Qualifying Top 3 Press Conference Video

    Bahrain GP Qualifying Top 3 Press Conference Video

  • Nico Rosberg takes surprise pole in Bahrain qualifying

    Nico Rosberg takes surprise pole in Bahrain qualifying

    Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix with a stunning late lap in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session.

    Mercedes were not looking like the team to beat during the practice session but Rosberg stormed to pole shocking his rivals with a 1.32.330.  Sebastian Vettel took second spot for Red Bull with a 1.32.584s, just ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari in third.

    This  comes just a week after his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, secured pole in China to give Mercedes their first consecutive poles since their return to F1.

    The second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton qualified in fourth position, but will faces a five-place grid penalty after the team changes his gearbox following this morning’s free practice session.

    Mark Webber who qualified in 5th position will start in 8th after the stewards awarded him a three-place drop following a collision in China last weekend.

    Felipe Massa, the only driver to qualify on hard tyres will be starting alongside Alonso on the second row of the grid.

    Here is the full time sheet for the session:

    Pos  Driver               Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m32.330s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m32.584s  + 0.254s
 3.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m32.667s  + 0.337s
 4.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m32.762s  + 0.432s
 5.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m33.078s  + 0.748s
 6.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m33.207s  + 0.877s
 7.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m33.235s  + 0.905s
 8.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m33.246s  + 0.916s
 9.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m33.327s  + 0.997s
10.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes
Q2 cut-off time: 1m33.702s                                     Gap **
11.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m33.762s  + 1.016s
12.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m33.914s  + 1.168s
13.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m33.974s  + 1.228s
14.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m33.976s  + 1.230s
15.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m34.105s  + 1.359s
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m34.284s  + 1.538s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m34.425s                                       Gap *
17.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m34.425s  + 1.547s
18.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m34.730s  + 1.852s
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m35.283s  + 2.405s
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m36.178s  + 3.300s
21.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m36.304s  + 3.426s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m36.476s  + 3.598s

107% time: 1m39.379s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

     

  • Lewis Hamilton gets 5 place grid penalty for gearbox change

    Lewis Hamilton will suffer a 5 place grid penalty for the Bahrain GP
    Lewis Hamilton will suffer a 5 place grid penalty for the Bahrain GP

    Lewis Hamilton will receive a 5-place grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix after qualifying today following a gearbox change by Mercedes after final practice this morning.

    At the end of the session, he suffered what seemed to be a tyre failure and also incurred damage to rear suspension on the way back to the pits. The Mercedes team has had to rebuild the rear of the car and has decided to replace his gearbox in the process, resulting in the  five-place regulatory grid penalty.

    Hamilton finished FP3 fifth fastest.

    Esteban Gutierrez and Mark Webber are also facing grid penalties this weekend after being penalised for separate collisions during the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend.