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  • F1 2017: Russian Gp Preview – Game On In Sochi

    F1 2017: Russian Gp Preview – Game On In Sochi

    From the middle of the Bahrain desert the Formula 1 paddock travels to coast of Russia for the fourth round of the 2017 season.

    The Sochi Autodrom made its debut on the F1 calendar in 2014 and received a fairly lukewarm reception from fans. For one thing the circuit lacks any sort of elevation change, which normally accounts for a trickier cambers and braking zones. The layout of the track, at 5.8 kilometers, is characterized by long straits and ninety-degree corners, which will test a car’s efficiently in traction and how well it rotates on its axis. “It’s always challenging to come from high speed into a low-speed corner and achieve the best out of braking,” says Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

    In the three races at the Sochi Autodrom the amount of tyre degradation experienced has been negligible. Memorably, in 2014, after flat-spotting his tyres into turn one, Nico Rosberg pitted on the first lap of the race and completed 52 laps on one set of tyres. But it might be a bit different in 2017 for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the paddock arrives in Russia slightly later in the year than normal and, temperature-wise, it should be hotter. Secondly, this will be the third race weekend on the track surface, which will have ‘settled’ in a bit more and therefore should produce more grip. The 2017 cars will also corner a lot faster than in previous years which will place significantly more stress on the tyres which should effect tyre-life. Pirelli have nominated the soft, super-soft, and ultra-soft compounds for this weekend’s race.

    Sochi Autodrom, Russian Grand PrixWho will it suit? With all things being equal Mercedes has proven that on Saturday’s, in qualifying, they are still king. But even so Sunday is where the points are awarded and this is where Ferrari is likely to come into its own. Traditionally, Ferrari has performed better on the super-soft tyre than Mercedes and this, along with their inherent pace, will likely by their trump card. Nevertheless, it will still require a perfect all-round performance from the team, including the pitwall’s calls on strategy.

    On paper it shouldn’t be a circuit where Red Bull does well but they have in the past. It’s unlikely that they’ll be going for the win or even the podium. Nevertheless, where there is a Max there almost always seems to be a way. There is something special in the make-up and performance from the young Dutchman that demands attention and which makes it impossible for him to be ruled out of the equation. It’s always an exciting prospect to imagine what he might pull out of his bag of tricks come race day.

    GP RUSSIA F1/2016In the mid-field Williams should do well given the Mercedes power unit bolted to the back of their car. Though through no fault of his own Lance Stroll is yet to finish a race in 2017. It will be a tall order but it needs to be the Canadian driver who shines for the British team this weekend.

    Who would’ve thought at the height of Mercedes domination last year that in 2017, on the cusp of the fourth round of the season, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel would be leading the driver’s championship by seven points. And in truth, any one of four drivers has a legitimate chance of winning the Russian grand prix this weekend.

  • New Restart Rules and Tighter Regulations on T-Wings in the Pipeline

    New Restart Rules and Tighter Regulations on T-Wings in the Pipeline

    The F1 Commission and the F1 Strategy Group met today (25 April 2017) in Paris to discuss technical and sporting changes to F1. The meeting, was for the first time, attended by the CEO of the Formula One Group, Chase Carey.

    The sporting and technical changes have all been agreed to and will now go to the World Motorsport Council to be approved.

    After running the proposed Halo head protection last season during some of the practice sessions it seems as thought the FIA has now abandoned the idea of the halo and will now focus their energies, together with the teams, in testing the a new “shield” type solution. The FIA hopes to test this new solution during the season for it to be rolled out in time for the 2018 Formula 1 season.

    Future designs for the shark fins and T-wings will be limited going forward.

    “Changes in the regulation boxes around the engine cover have been made so that designs incorporating the ‘t-wing’ and ‘shark fin’ will be strictly limited,” said the FIA in a statement.

    The topic of burning oil has been a contentious issue recently with some teams convinced that Mercedes have been using this technique especially during qualifying to get more power out of their engines. Regulations will now be tightened up and teams will only be allowed one specification of oil for an entire Grand Prix weekend.

    Another proposed change is the restart procedure after a red flag during the race. Currently drivers will line up on the grid or in the pit lane during a red flag period. Once the track has been cleared the field gets underway behind the safety car. The new procedure will be to line up on the grid for a standing start.

    The final sporting change was that tyre supplier Pirelli will be able to test the 2018 wet weather tyre compounds using the previous specifications of cars and wheel dimensions.

    From the Spanish Grand Prix the FIA will enforce the rules regarding the visibility of driver names and numbers.

    Finally, F1 Strategy Group meetings will be opened to non-member teams to enable them access to the discussions. This, the FIA says, demonstrates the effective commitment of both the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder to improve transparency in the sport.

  • Bahrain In-Season Test Round Up

    Bahrain In-Season Test Round Up

    The first Formula 1 in-season test took place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 19 and 19 April. Pirelli also used the opportunity to test the 2018 tyres with Ferrari on the Tuesday.

    The test saw a mix of current drivers and young drivers with a couple of new faces with the likes of Sean Gelael in the Toro Rosso, Oliver Turvey in the McLaren, and Gary Paffet in the in Williams.

    Pirelli, together with Ferrari ran the 2018 tyres on Tuesday. Head of Car Racing at Pirelli, Mario Isola said that Pirelli was able to complete their programme with Ferrari for the day. Despite the delay with the car due to mechanical problems, officials allowed Pirelli a further 3-hours of running.

    The both test days time sheets were topped by Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton finishing fastest on the first day and Bottas on the second day. While Hamilton had issues on the first day of the test at the beginning he was able to complete 97 laps. That tally was however, exceeded by Bottas on day two of the test. The Finn racked up 143 laps which is the equivalent to just under 1.5 grand prix race distance at 774.916km. At the end of the test Mercedes say that they may have found a solution for their tyre problem’s they’ve been having in the race.

    After a disaster weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, McLaren were hoping to try some new ideas around their power unit in the hope that it will bring them some much needed reliability. After the first day of the test with Turvey at the wheel it looked as though McLaren would spend most of their time in the garage tinkering with the power unit. Turvey was the slowest at the end of the first day posting just 17 laps.

    Things looked up for the Woking team on the second day with Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel. The Belgian clocked up 81 laps for the day and was 4th fastest.

    “Today has probably been our best day this season so far,” said Vandoorne at the end of the 2nd day.

    “It’s the first time that we’ve had a day without any big problems, where we could actually get on with our programme. I think we completed everything we wanted to do today, and we went through a lot of set-up stuff that we didn’t manage to do in Barcelona.”

    “It’s been a very productive day and I’m very happy that we’ve been able to do so many laps. Especially after a difficult day yesterday and a difficult weekend, it wasn’t looking great, but I’m very pleased.

    “For the team, it’s not been an easy week, after a double-header and then coming to the test with so many issues. They’ve been working flat-out, and they’ve done a very good job to get the car back out on track every time.”

    Team Principal Eric Boullier praised the team for the hard work and effort that has gone into these past few weeks. According to Boullier the team were able to get through their entire programme for the day and were able to complete back-to-back test runs.

    “It’s certainly been a trying couple of weeks for everyone at McLaren-Honda, and I can’t thank the team enough for the long hours, hard work and incredible effort they’ve put in after a long period away from home,” said Boullier

    “Oliver and Stoffel, too, have both done a sterling job, and, for Stoffel in particular, the mileage we’ve been able to cover today after difficult back-to-back race weekends for him has been priceless.”

    Haas’ Romain Grosjean who was very critical of the braking issues caused by the Brembo brakes on the Haas was in the car on the first day testing out brakes from Carbone Industrie. The Frenchman felt that the brakes from Carbone Industrie were better, but the situation was made slightly more complicated after Brembo brought updated products to the Chinese Grand Prix which the team had used during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

    The rest of the teams went about their business testing various new parts and configurations on their cars and collecting data with a few issues popping up during the course of the the test.

    The pack up will be quick and the teams ship off to their bases to evaluate all the data collected during the test and prepare for the Russian Grand Prix.

    Bahrain 2017 Test_Overall

  • F1 2017: Bahrain Gp Review – Ferrari Win Again

    F1 2017: Bahrain Gp Review – Ferrari Win Again

    In pre-season testing all indications were that Ferrari had turned a significant corner. All indications were that Mercedes would finally, after three years of dominance, have a challenge on their hands. Despite this many couldn’t believe their eyes and were sure that Mercedes were sandbagging. But three races into the 2017 season have proven that pre-season testing was no fluke and that Ferrari are more than capable of challenging for the titles.

    Under the floodlights of the Sakhir International circuit Sebastian Vettel scored Ferrari’s second win in three races while Lewis Hamilton and polesitter Valtteri Bottas completed the top three. Bottas led cleanly off the line as Vettel got the jump on Hamilton and proceeded to stalk the back of the leading Mercedes for the duration of his first stint. The Ferrari’s ability to stick as close as it does to the car in front is a significant revelation of the strength of its aerodynamic package. Contrastingly, several others drivers including Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have deemed it impossible to follow closely in their cars.

    While Vettel was able to stick close it was clear that he lacked the ultimate edge to overtake Bottas. It is at this point that Ferrari called Mercedes’ bluff by diving into the pitlane first. Here, unlike in China, Vettel was able to make the undercut work and with fresh tyres set a handful of laptimes appreciably quicker than both Mercs and took over the lead of the race. Mercedes had been caught out by Ferrari’s aggressive strategy and seemed flustered by it.

    Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain. Sunday 16 April 2017. World Copyright: Sam Bloxham/LAT Images ref: Digital Image _W6I2713

    It wasn’t long after the first round of pitstops that Max Verstappen suffered a brake failure, which ended his race. Soon after a coming together of Williams’ Lance Stroll and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz brought out the safety car for only the third time in the history of the Bahrain grand prix. Merc were genuinely rattled too. As they attempted to service both Bottas and Hamilton on the same lap the latter was given a five second penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly at the entrance to the pitlane. Ultimately, Hamilton finished roughly seven seconds off Vettel with Bottas trailing home in a disconsolate third after being instructed to give way to his teammate twice. In fairness, Hamilton was closing on Bottas at a rate of two seconds per lap and the pass would’ve been inevitable.

    Meanwhile, despite an expected brake-by-wire issue Kimi Raikkonen showed a better turn of pace in the second half of the race and finished fourth. Perplexingly, the Ferrari pitwall again botched the Finn’s strategy by leaving him out for too long. Nevertheless, it is quickly becoming clear that unless Raikkonen wants to be considered the second driver within the team it’s about time that he start unlocking the promise of his Ferrari.

    1135In fifth Daniel Ricciardo had a fairly anonymous race as he trailed home nearly forty seconds adrift. Felipe Massa finished a solid sixth for Williams ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, in seventh, and Haas’ Romain Grosjean in eighth. In the Renault Nico Hulkenberg scored two points for ninth while Esteban Ocon finished tenth for a third consecutive time in the Force India.

    It was nearly impossible to imagine that McLaren’s situation could get any worse, but it has. Not only did Stoffel Vandoorne not make the start of the race but also Fernando Alonso retired on the final lap with an “engine problem”. The announcement that Alonso will skip the Monaco Gp in favour of the Indy 500 seems the only bit of good news for the embattled team at the moment.

    As Seb Vettel now leads the driver championship by seven points its clear that the 2017 season is primed for a battle royale between the prancing horses and the silver arrows which takes up again in Russia in two weeks time.

  • 2017 Bahrain GP: Post Race Press Conferece

    2017 Bahrain GP: Post Race Press Conferece

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Sebastian, your 44th victory. Normally 44 is a lucky number for Lewis but you’ve just added another win, your third time here in Bahrain, but most importantly the second of the season out of three races, great day.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, really a great day. I don’t know what to day. The last half of the in-lap when all the fireworks were there and track was lit up, it was. I just love what I do. I didn’t find any words. It was a really great team effort today. Right after the start I could feel that ‘yeah, we’re quick, we can have a word’. So really tried to put Valtteri under pressure. He didn’t do any mistakes. It was difficult down the straights to get near him. But then we obviously went for the undercut, early pit stop, worked fantastic, very good job. But when the safety came initially I thought ‘not again!’

    Yeah but this time it worked for you…

    SV: I’m not sure.

    You pitted and then when you cleared another lap we had the safety car.

    SV: I think I was lucky because the others were just close to the pit lane so they couldn’t really benefit let’s say. I don’t know. I was a bit surprised when I came out ahead of all of them because I thought with the safety car we might have lost the advantage. After that it was good. The car was really amazing to drive. I had a good feeling yesterday, so for many laps it really worked well. It was just a pleasure. I could control the pace in the end. Lewis was obviously a bit of a threat again towards the end, with the traffic you never know. But a very controlled race, the car, as I said, was a dream today. Happy Easter and thank you very much.

    Q: Lewis, pit lane, what do you think of that? Those five seconds were pretty costly today?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah definitely, but firstly a big congratulations to Sebastian, he did a fantastic job today, and also a big thank you to Valtteri for being a gentleman out there. Obviously a very difficult race, it didn’t start out the best, but the pit lane was my fault, so apologies to the team for losing the time there. I tried my hardest to catch up but it was a long old way to go, it was 19 seconds. But I gave it everything I could but Ferrari did a great job today. So we’re going to push hard together, re-gather as a team and come back fighting.

    Q: You know, I’m noticing this year that even when you’re getting the wins, you’re very composed; you’re not too disappointed. What is this then? Do you really feel that this is going to be a long-game championship?

    LH: Of course the disappointment is there. Losing points for a team, particularly when you could have won the race is definitely painful, but it is what it is and all I can say is I gave it everything I could. Yeah, I mean, I’m getting old I’m catching you up.

    Q: You’ll never catch me up! Lewis congratulations. Valtteri, after the high of yesterday, a disappointing day. We heard you on the radio talking about struggling to keep the rears alive. What happened with the race balance? Talk us through that.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it was really a tricky race for me; struggling with the pace all through the race. I think in the first stint we found a bit of an issue with the tyre pressures and that explained the rear end struggle. But ever since that I was just rear limited and I was out of the tools on the steering wheel, so it was just oversteering all through the race, which is why the pace was slow, which is a real shame because for sure the target for today was a lot, lot higher.

    Q: It’s difficult to win in Formula One. You had a lot of support after that pole yesterday, especially within the team, so you’re feeling well settled in Mercedes?

    VB: Well, for sure I think this was overall the best weekend yet with the team, but there is much more to come.

    Well, we wish you luck with that journey. Back to Sebastian. You seem a little bit surprised by the ultimate qualifying. After qualifying the pace to Mercedes was a little bit down but you’re right in this championship, you’re leaving this grand prix leading the world championship.

    SV: Yeah, it’s a long year; I’m not really looking at that. As I said, I’m really enjoying, the car has been a pleasure. It was very good yesterday and I was a bit down because the gap was so big. I think we could have been a bit closer. But something inside me told me we have a good car and we can do well. Right from the first lap I felt the car was there and yeah, I think the Easter hunt was on. They were hiding some eggs but it looks like we found them today. No, really, really happy. Big thank you to the team, they have been working incredibly hard. The guy that has been up here, Matteo, works day and night at the track, in the factory. So really a lot of commitment from every single one and it’s great to see everything coming together.

    Q: Well, we can hear the marshals who have been supporting the grand prix celebrating by revving a motorbike here. You’ve got to say we have a tremendous welcome here in Bahrain, so it’s one your better grands prix?

    SV: Well, I guess. I’ve been reasonably successful the last couple of years. I love the trophy, I think it’s one of the most beautiful trophies we have, so when I crossed the line I was really happy because I knew we were going to get it, so I think we can leave here very happy. Not yet, because we’ve got the test next week, but yeah for now we just enjoy.

    Q: Are you doing the test?

    SV: Yes.

    You’re relentless aren’t you?

    SV: Well, I thought halfway through the race that I’m really looking forward already next time to jump in the car, which is in two days, so I’m looking forward to it.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Congratulations Sebastian, obviously you got ahead of Lewis at the start. Tell us a bit about that and also the final stint, just judging the pace as he was coming through like a rocket, having come into the pits after you, how you measured that pace and measured your gap to him?

    SV: The start, obviously it was crucial for us to get between, to not allow them to get in their rhythm, pull away, do their thing. So, upset them a bit. I think we all had more or less the same start. Mine initially was maybe a tiny bit better than Lewis, which put me just about side-by-side – but their car is really long so it’s a long way to get side-by-side – but then I think I benefitted from the act I had a clear track ahead, Lewis was a bit stuck with Valtteri and it’s a bit of a tricky one to judge, so I could just take lots of risk under braking and get the move done. Then, the final stint, obviously we had quite a decent gap plus the safety margin of Lewis’ penalty – which I wasn’t sure why but it didn’t matter at that point – and I just tried to control the gap to Valtteri, maybe pulling away a little bit and at that point just controlling the gap. He was very fast when he came out. I was expecting him to be quick on a new set of supersoft tyres but probably not that quick and he was closing in. When I faced the traffic I lost a lot of time but then obviously he had to face traffic as well. In the end it was safe enough. At the beginning of the stint I really didn’t push at all, just took it easy and responded to what those two guys were doing, which obviously helped me at the end because I had a lot of tyres left.

    Lewis, coming to you, as Sebastian said, you had a tremendous amount of pace today but perhaps there were one or two too many setbacks to give you the chance to win: the start, obviously the penalty as well and the tyre choice for the final stint which you questioned on the radio. Maybe you could just drill down into those three for us.

    LH: Yeah, a challenging weekend. The start was OK but Sebastian was in my blind spot so I didn’t know whereabouts he was. I didn’t know where anyone was behind me. Valtteri got a good start and it was really just about covering him. I obviously lost position to Sebastian there. It was really hard to follow but we’re generally all similar kind of pace, and then yeah, completely my fault with the Safety Car. Supposed to have a five-second gap and I think I had a four-second gap. Just a misjudgement from myself. Valtteri was great to… obviously I had very good pace, particularly the second and last stint and I honestly believed I would be able to catch Sebastian up but obviously with a five-second penalty that made it twice as hard as it was already going to be. As I said, apologies to the team but I tried the best I could to recover it and we still got good points for the team today with a second and third but we still have this great fight and Sebastian did a great job and he had fantastic pace.

    And just on the tyre choice. You have a four-lap fresher only set of softs compared to Sebastian rather than a new set of supersofts. The team’s saying it was based on, presumably, Valtteri’s middle stint.

    LH: The tyre felt great so I believe it was the right choice. The team have generally been making really great choices this year. I thought it was going to be a supersoft but honestly I think the tyre was the best one, particularly for 16 laps pushing at the pace I was going was a long way to go. I don’t know if the supersoft would have lasted that long.

    Part of what informed that decision was, I guess, your supersoft stint Valtteri. Not the easiest but before that, Toto Wolff has said you had a problem with the generator on the grid that meant your tyres were over-inflated or had too high tyre pressure in the opening stint. Tell us about that.

    VB: Yeah, so I don’t know the exact issue but I was just told there was a problem with the tyre pressures, which I could really feel in the first stint since lap two. I was just sliding around with the rear end, struggling to get on power out of the corners, so the pace wasn’t good and Sebastian was really putting pressure and they could undercut us as well and trying to extend the first stint, I just couldn’t keep up with the pace. The tyres were just dropping. Then on the second stint it was a bit better initially. I think the second stint was not that far off. Still struggling with oversteer but much less than in the first one, and then the last stint, again, used the tools I had to adjust the car balance but still couldn’t get the rear end to work. Really strange race for me and the pace was disappointingly poor for me. Yeah, not a good day for me.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Lewis and Valtteri. If you compare this race with Melbourne, is the softest compound a weakness for Mercedes? You seemed to have the same problem like in Melbourne that the rear tyres were going away.

    LH: I don’t really remember what the issue was in Melbourne. I think it was more front tyres – but I’m sure it was the rears as well. Here was maybe more rears, I would say – but yeah, I would say it’s similar.

    VB: At least for me personally yes. The softer compound has been more of a struggle with the tyres and also the hotter it is, more of a struggle. So something definitely for us to understand.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Valtteri and Sebastian, can you tell us how difficult was the battle between the two of you?

    SV: For about the first stint. I passed you in the pit stop, didn’t I?

    VB: No, we were side-by-side at some point.

    SV: Ah,  the safety car, after the safety car. Yeah, that was hairy. I thought I did reasonably well on the restart. It was a bit tricky because we only got the message very late: ‘the safety car’s coming in’ and then, you can’t just be stupid and break the field down, do a stop-and-go but I tried to use a little bit of momentum. I thought I had a decent gap leaving the last corner and then… I don’t know, it felt like I had more headwind than in the whole race on that particular lap. I was fairly confident halfway down the straight, just looked in the mirror to check and he was coming. I saw sparks behind me everywhere and then I obviously had to defend. Yeah, then I wasn’t quite sure where he was under braking but I guess we were side-by-side so it was a lot closer than I expected, leaving the last corner. But fortunately, I stayed ahead.

    VB: Yeah, obviously it was getting close and I tried to make a move into turn four.

    SV: I was just thinking, then there was another one, exactly, because I had a bad exit and it was quite close tight. I think you locked a little bit and then I locked a little bit into turn four.

    VB: I was obviously outside so then it’s always tricky. There was some good racing but that was a short moment unfortunately.

    SV: I forgot about that…

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Bottas and Lewis: when the safety car came in, Sebastian had stopped on lap ten and the safety car came out on lap 13 and you entered the pits on the 13th lap, with the safety car. It looked like it would help a lot but for some reason it didn’t, maybe the opposite. Without the safety car, maybe Bottas could get out from the pits in front of Vettel. Do you have the same feeling? Did you have a slow stop?

    VB: Yes. Under safety car on the first stop, there was a problem with the pit stop. We lost a lot of time and maybe it would have been very very close. Maybe I would have been just in front but the team is still investigating what was the issue there. I think there was also some traffic as well because the stop was slow. One of the Red Bulls came into the pit lane and we couldn’t exit immediately so double the time.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Without the safety car?

    VB: I don’t know, to be honest.

    Q: And Lewis, I think you had… one of the front tyres was a bit slow coming off or going back on again or slight delay?

    LH: I couldn’t tell what the issue was but there was a bit of a delay. There was a domino effect, you know. If I had had a five second gap Valtteri would have pulled in, the Red Bull would have pulled in. I would have pulled in before the Red Bull, I would have got out before the Red Bull. It cascaded for me in the domino too early.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi last year was many times in front of you. What have you done that nowadays he’s always behind you?

    SV: Well, I guess for a start, compared to last year, I’ve started the race. That helped. I had my – so far the only – and I hope it stays that way – DNS last year here so not even starting was quite a disappointment. And then, I don’t now, he was behind the Red Bull in the opening of the lap and so obviously we’ve seen that it’s quite tricky to pass. I was a bit faster in the opening stint than Valtteri but I couldn’t really get close enough and I guess he probably lost a bit of time and then I just saw the final result. I don’t know what happened to his race but I think he came back to fourth, not finishing too far behind Valtteri so I think for both of us the car probably worked really well today and yeah, I think it depends on… from my own experience, how the opening lap goes and so on, but this has usually been a very very good hunting ground for Kimi, so maybe the time loss on Friday for him with the issue he had in the car didn’t help but yeah, you do your own race and then I’m sure we will talk about it afterwards.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, in the race simulation on Friday you didn’t look like you had a very good performance from the car and also qualifying seemed to confirm it. We had this impression, looking at the long runs. And suddenly, in the race, the performance was there. Did you change the car dramatically or did the conditions on the day change and help you?

    SV: No, from yesterday to today, you can’t change anything. Friday to Saturday we did a bit but yeah, it’s not that sudden. If we could go faster in qualifying we would because qualifying higher up is always advantageous. But yeah, I had a good feeling yesterday so I was a bit surprised by how big the gap was because the car felt really good and for today, I had a good feeling because Friday was a bit mixed, I wasn’t so happy with the car. We improved it for Saturday and I thought OK, if it stays like that then today can be a good race and after a couple of laps I felt everything was making sense and yeah, obviously I was in Valtteri’s gearbox for all of the first stint and not falling back too much so that was obviously good for us, a good start with the opening lap, getting between them and then yeah, the pace was certainly key today to win.

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xero Xone News) For Sebastian, it looks like the Prancing Horse has really come alive and it looks like you’re going to have a hero’s welcome back in Maranello. What has this done for the team and the morale of the team heading into Sochi?

    SV: Yeah, I think at this stage Sochi is quite far away so I’m not willing and I don’t think the team is really looking to Sochi right now. I think we enjoy the moment. Yeah, obviously we did a massive stint over the winter. I think last year was a very good year for us. It wasn’t good in terms of results, don’t get me wrong, but I think for the team, getting together, a lot of things that had changed now seem to start clicking. Obviously it helps when straight from the box, in testing, we had a good feeling. We looked reasonably competitive. Australia obviously was a massive boost for all the team and yeah, you can see when they are singing down there, and the whole factory has really come alive so that’s great and we need to just make sure we keep it going and yeah, keep enjoying that way, but for now, I think the team has obviously done a really really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and as I said, things start to click and hopefully that sort of success now in the first couple of races helps us to build up some sort of momentum that maybe these guys had in the past and the last couple of years, so they will be the ones to beat. It’s a long season, but for now, as I said, looking forward to tonight.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, Sochi has suited you very well so far. Do you expect to have your best weekend because of that?

    VB: Well, for sure that’s the goal. I still haven’t definitely got… there’s no race results as I’ve been hoping for so it’s always the next one. Anyway, it would be the target to have a strong weekend but Sochi has normally been pretty good for me. I really like the track layout and I have always been comfortable there so we will see. It’s a completely different type of track again, completely different kind of temperatures, different asphalt so many different things. We’ll see.

    Q: (Ralph Woodall – L’Equipe) Valtteri, how did you feel when you were ordered by the team to let Lewis pass you?

    VB: Well, I think honestly as a racing driver it’s maybe the worst thing you want to hear. That’s how it is. For sure I did it because there was potential. Lewis could challenge Sebastian. In the end it didn’t happen but the team tried which I completely understand but personally it is tough but that’s life. I didn’t have enough pace today and we need to find the reasons why that was.

  • F1 2017: Bahrain Gp – Bottas Snatches First Ever Pole

    F1 2017: Bahrain Gp – Bottas Snatches First Ever Pole

    Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas secured the first pole position of his career ahead of the 2017 Bahrain grand prix.

    The Finnish driver snatched pole from teammate Lewis Hamilton by a scant 23 thousands of a second while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel trailed four tenths behind in third. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo delivered a brilliant lap quick enough for fourth while Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen rounded out the top six.

    Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg delivered a stunning lap for Renault and will start the race in seventh overall. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa will start eighth ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas in ninth. The second Renault of Jolyon Palmer completed a great quali session of Renault with the tenth quickest time.

    Fernando Alonso and his McLaren have been consigned to the back of the grid after the Spaniard suffered a MGU-H failure. As a result of this failure the ICE (Internal combustion engine) also necessitates a change, hence the drop to the back of the field. Carlos Sainz, on course to make it into the third part of qualifying, suffered an as yet unknown failure on his Toro Rosso and will start from sixteenth place.

     

  • 2017 Bahrain GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2017 Bahrain GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

     

    TV UNILATERAL

    Q: It must be a brilliant feeling for you Valtteri, describe the emotion?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, obviously really, really happy. It’s the first pole in my career. It’s my fifth season now in Formula One. It took a few races but got it and hopefully it’s the first of many. But just want to say big thanks to the team for giving me this car, to drive it on pole. We’re both starting on the front row. I think we made a really good job this weekend, to really focus on the evening conditions and we really managed to get a lot of lap time out of the car in the slightly cooler conditions and hopefully that’s going to help is tomorrow as well, so grateful for the team.

    Q: This is what you came to Mercedes for, of course. How did you do it? What was the key this evening for you personally? 

    VB: You know, it’s not an easy track to get everything right. It is quite technical; there are quite a few difficult braking points, turning ins to the corner, it’s easy to have a lock-up or just miss the apex slightly. So it is just getting the lap together and to get the car well balanced. It was a good enough lap for the pole today, so that’s good.

    Q: Well done to you. Lewis, fastest in the first runs in Q3. It looked like a little correction towards the end of the lap. Is that where it got away or was it elsewhere in the lap that you felt it slipped?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly a big congratulations to Valtteri, he’s been working so hard, he’s gelled so well with the team and today he was just quicker. He did the better job, so hats off to him. Yeah, the first lap felt great and I looked up and the time was so close and I thought ‘wow, he’s doing some… that was a good lap, he did a great job’. But I was losing quite a bit of time through the first sector, that was generally my weaker point, which is actually unusual; usually it’s a stronger point for me. I’ll work on it for tomorrow, but Valtteri found some great pace, particularly through the first sector, the second and third ended up being quite good but just overall a little bit down. But a great battle and that’s how close I think qualifying should always be. It forces us all to be more on the limit. I’m generally happy with the job I did and it’s great for the team to be one-two.

    Q: Very well done. Speaking of close, Sebastian, it was very close in Q2, I think it was six one hundredths of a second, the top three. Was it a little bit dispiriting for you when you saw they suddenly found another four tenths of a second when we went into Q3?

    SV: Yeah, it was. I think overall I was very happy with how qualifying went, with how the car felt, because we had some issues yesterday. Nothing wrong but we just tweaked the balance for today I think in the right direction, so I was happy how it turned out to be. Felt good; Q2 I thought ‘OK, this will be tight’. I was very happy to go into Q3. Then I was very happy with my first lap. I crossed the line, looked up and saw both of them were ahead and then when I got the time, yeah, I was a bit down to be honest because four tenths was a lot more than I expected, also given how good the lap felt. Then, on the next run I just tried a little bit too hard everywhere but equally I had nothing to lose. I was quite safe also to cars behind. So I was quite confident, also the lap felt good as I said, so I tried a bit harder. It didn’t work; I went slightly slower. Obviously if I go a tenth quicker it’s not enough, so I tried to do a bit more but yeah, hopefully we can do a bit more tomorrow.

    Q: Well done. Back to Valtteri, obviously a lot of satisfaction at your first pole but no champagne at this point. I guess you go to be tonight dreaming of your first grand prix victory tomorrow?

    VB: I think the main thing is that I need to personally, and as a team, we need to enjoy for a very short period of time… you need to enjoy what you have done so far in the weekend. But the main thing is tomorrow so there is not point to start dreaming about anything. We need to look at everything, whatever we can do tomorrow, work together as a team and plan a good strategy, a plan for the race tomorrow. For me it’s all about just focusing for the race and getting the maximum out of it but definitely a good place to start and I think as a team we can be really strong tomorrow and we can get that one-two, the first one for the year.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, I think if you were to plot your qualifying in the last three races it would just be about three-tenths off Lewis in Australia, less than two in China and now you’ve gone and got the pole. Describe to us how you’ve chipped away at that, how you’ve worked at that.

    VB: Well, for sure, every single qualifying is always different circumstances and different track, different scenarios but I definitely feel I’ve been getting more and more comfortable with the car, how it is behaving and also working with the team and fine-tuning the setup of the car. I’m getting better with that as well with the engineers. So overall just, yeah, feeling more confident in the car and today it felt good, especially towards the end of the qualifying in Q3. Got some good laps, felt that I could extract pretty much the maximum out of the car. That’s always a good feeling and for sure it always takes a bit of time to get there.

    Q: Lewis, obviously you managed to find that little bit of a margin today that Sebastian was talking about in qualifying – but generally, it is pretty close in terms of race pace, what we’ve seen so far, particularly on a track like this: higher temperatures; looking after the rear tyres is important. What kind of a battle are you expecting tomorrow in the grand prix?

    LH: Well obviously today we had a bit of a margin to the Ferraris but generally in race trim they seem to be a bit quicker but I guess we’ll see tomorrow. Perhaps it will level-out a little bit more. It’s definitely going to be a close battle. Valtteri’s long runs were very good and I think… I don’t necessarily know how good their long-runs were but I heard that they were quite quick, the Ferraris so it’s definitely going to be close, all of us, and looking after the tyres is definitely very difficult. Whether it’s a one or two stop will be interesting to see. Temperatures, all those different things. Hopefully we’ll have a great battle tomorrow.

    Q: Sebastian, maybe you could articulate for us, it seems to have been quite tough for everybody – and Valtteri referenced it earlier on – to put a perfect lap together, to join all of the dots, and particularly this weekend going into qualifying. Can you just articulate why you think that is today?

    SV: Well I think generally we struggle less, everyone struggles less in the evening because the temperatures are dropping. Something we’ve seen now for two days is that generally we struggle a bit more, everyone with the hot conditions. The tyres don’t hold up as well as they used to in the first two races, so in a way, it’s probably a bit more similar to how it probably was last year, that you can’t attack all the way through the first flying lap. So I think that’s a difference. At Valtteri touched on, this track historically has been fairly technical. Corners like 9-10, they are probably built to lead drivers into mistakes so it is very easy to get it a little bit wrong and overshoot a bit, so those two things combined I think make it quite tricky. Yeah, at the end of the day it’s probably risk-assessment. When you are steering towards the corner and then you have to make a judgement how much you trust the car, how much risk you take, and in the end if you take a lot and you get the reward, it feels great. If you take you a lot and it goes wrong, you lose time.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, congratulations, I counted that is has been 168 races without a Finn in the pole. How important is it for you to put Finland back in the polesitters group?

    VB: Thank you Heikki, and congratulations to you as well! Sure, it feels good. I didn’t even realise it’s that long – nearly ten years.

    SV: Who? Where? [Heikki Kovalainen, Silverstone] Oh.

    VB: It’s good to break that, it’s a lot of races without a Finn on pole so that is good and obviously very proud always to drive for Finland, for my country and very glad for all the support I’ve got from there. So yeah, happy.

    SV: Where were you in 2008. F3?

    VB: Formula Renault!

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xero Xone News) This question is for Valtteri. Valtteri, first off, congratulations on your first pole with the team. It really looks like you are starting to find your groove out there, really find your mojo. Do you feel that that’s starting to come alive for you in the car? That you’re finding that groove, you’re bonding with the car out there on the track now?

    VB: I definitely feel now much more comfortable in the car, with the car than, for example, qualifying in Melbourne. So yeah, the more laps, the more time you spend with a car and driving it, you get to be more at one with the car. So, definitely feel better and better, like I said earlier. Yeah. Felt better here than, for example, last week in China in qualifying. It’s good. I need to keep doing that progress and keep trying to get better all of the time.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, any explanation why the gap was bigger here than in the two races before?

    SV: No, not really. I haven’t seen obviously where we lost most of the time but I think a little bit spread everywhere. I think Sector One, Sector Three stood out so Sector Two wasn’t too bad. Yeah, there’s more straights in Sector One and Three, so I don’t know if they had an update for here that allowed them to push harder but it seems that we lost a little bit of time everywhere and maybe a little bit more than usual down the straights. Yeah. I think for tomorrow the most important thing is that the car felt good today and I think we should be closer. Hopefully it’s going to be a tight race and then we’ll see.

    Q: (Khodr Rawi – motorsport.com) Question to all three drivers. Are you surprised by the lap times set today in qualifying? Because the pole position is faster by around seven-tenths compared to last year pole position. Where you expecting faster lap times? Thank you.

    LH: It’s seven-tenths? We’re seven-tenths quicker than last year? I can’t remember. I wasn’t even thinking of that. The car feels better here than it did last year but I don’t have an answer for why it’s not a bigger gap than it was in the past. At least they’re faster.

    SV: I think it was expected that we go quicker this year, depending on the layout: sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Probably this layout is one of the least favourite ones this year in terms of how much faster we can go, compared to the year before.

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Valtteri, you said in the week that you bounced back very quickly from the error you made in China and put it behind you on Tuesday, I think. You allowed yourself to be annoyed on Monday but does this really help to properly put it to bed and look forward to have a result like this straight away afterwards?

    VB: Well, I think it’s always nice to have a good result whether you’ve had a good or bad weekend before but for sure if you’ve had a bit of a struggle in the last race it’s always nice to start the weekend in a good way but anyway tomorrow is the day that then matters but it’s good. I’d rather be on pole today than anything less, so let’s see tomorrow.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) To all three of you: does Valtteri’s pole now mean that this is a three-way fight? We’ve all been saying it’s just going to be between Lewis and Seb; is it going to be a three-way battle now for the championship?

    LH: It always was, at least three, maybe four. Yeah, Valtteri’s been right there with us from the beginning so nothing changes.

    VB: I think it’s obviously very early days to speak about the title fight, how it’s going to be. It’s going to be a massively long season. As I said at the first races, it’s going to be a massive year in terms of development for the cars and which team is going to develop the most and that’s going to be the fight for the title. Too early to say about the title fight but for sure we are now the two best teams and I feel I’m now in the game.

    SV: Well, today is the day for Finland and Formula One. Keeping it Finnish, I would say yes.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta –Turun Sanomat) Lewis, like I said that the last time you lost the pole to a Finnish driver was 2008; do you still remember how that felt? Does it feel the same as now?

    LH: Cold! Yeah, I remember 2008, Silverstone, I remember it very very clearly. Heikki did a fantastic job. He was quicker throughout the weekend and we had a different set-up from testing which he chose and he was just quicker and it ended up being one of those… Back then you divided the cars by two laps of fuel and often I would have… sometimes I would have the lighter fuel load;  on that weekend, he was just quicker and we needed as a team to be at the front so he ended up having the lighter fuel load and did a great job but obviously I got a great start in the race. You know, when you asked the first question I had a really crazy thought: I’m sure at home he (Heikki Kulta) has like a wall and every day he goes home and he ticks off – ‘damn, it’s another race that…’ He’s got a whole wall, 130 or 180 or whatever it is, 168 crosses so I’m sure on Monday you’re going to be repainting the wall, a nice clean one!

    SV: Does the word excited exist in Finnish?

    VB: Kind of.

    LH: It’s probably something really simple. What is “exciting” in Finnish?

    VB: (Inaudible)

    SV: See! It doesn’t exist!

    LH: It’s not one that’s really used much in the vocabulary.

    VB: I don’t know really.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Lewis and Bottas: in 2014 we had a wonderful battle between Lewis and Nico here at this Grand Prix. Are you free to fight tomorrow or after what happened in Barcelona and Austria last year there are some internal rules: you can put the car here, you cannot there? It depends what position your teammate is in?

    LH: Are we allowed to fight? Nothing’s changed in the sense that we are allowed to fight. It’s the same as it was last year – as always as it remains respectable but yeah, we can fight hard out there. None of us wants to not finish the race. It’s just about being sensible and making sure we bring both cars home but generally yes, we are allowed to fight.

    VB: Yeah, I agree. I’m really happy that we are allowed to fight and I’m sure we can do it hard, hard but fair and try to avoid what we did last year with Lewis in turn one. We actually collided.

    LH: I’m behind this time…

    VB: I’m sure we can be alright.

    SV: I wouldn’t mind!

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xero Xone News) Lewis, this looks like this is starting to get interesting now that Valtteri’s got a pole and he may have a good result and you’ve gotten very happily because of the battle with Sebastian Vettel. You looked about as happy as a warrior getting ready to go into battle. Do you look forward to it possibly being a three-way battle at the end of this weekend?

    LH:  I do, I do. I think it’s great how close it is between the teams because then it brings out the best in each driver and I just feel… when you feel like you’re at your best and you do a good job and you’re fighting against someone else who is doing just as good a job it’s that much more exciting and the more drivers we have in the mix then the more tense it gets. Fortunately…  don’t think for a long time it’s been more than three or four drivers but anyway I’m really happy it’s more than just the two of us. There’s going to be lots of ups and downs throughout the year but Valtteri’s definitely keeping me on my toes and I’m thoroughly happy for him today. As I said before, he really deserved that lap and his first pole… I know how special it is to have your first pole position. It is just amazing. You dream of it as a kid and I know that he will be enjoying it and tomorrow could be his first Grand Prix win but obviously I will try my hardest to win the race but whichever the case, he’s going to have one at some stage this year. If it’s not tomorrow it will be…because he’s getting stronger and stronger.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, according to the power unit report, a turbocharger and one of the E-motors have been changed in your car. Is that a concern this early in the season?

    SV: Not really. Obviously it was not planned but yeah, it doesn’t set us back. I think we’re doing fine. I think we pushed very hard over the winter. I think we did a very very good job, especially on the engine side, power unit side. I think there’s been a very big step so it feels great, feels like a lot more power than last year and yeah, obviously the year isn’t over yet but as I said, it shouldn’t be a problem

  • Vettel Makes it Two From Two After Topping Time Sheets in FP2

    Vettel Makes it Two From Two After Topping Time Sheets in FP2

    Sebastian Vettel edged Valtteri Bottas to go fastest in the Second Free Practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

    Vettel’s time of 1:31.310 was just enough to edge Bottas’ time of 1:31.351. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest on the evening with a time of 1:31.376, 0.066s off Vettel’s time.

    Kimi Raikkonen was 4th fastest for Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 5th. Hamilton had a bit of trouble setting a fast time. He ran wide on his first timed lap and the second time he almost ran into the back of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg at T9. Hamilton had to avoid running into the back of while approaching T9 at full chat while Hulkenberg was on a cool down lap. The stewards said that they will investigate the incident after the session. They have subsequently summoned the two drivers for their explanation about the incident.

    Hulkenberg finished 6th fastest ahead of William’s Felipe Massa in 7th.

    Max Verstappen finished P8 after spending some time in the garage after sustaining damage to his floor and a few other parts on his car caused by the T-Wing that broke off Bottas’ Mercedes.

    Romain Grosjean finished 9th for Haas while Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

    While Vettel may have set the fastest time of the session he did run into some trouble just before his long runs. His car shut down out of Turn 13. The quick thinking German undid his harnesses, reached over the steering the hit the neutral button to let his car coast to the bottom of Turn 14. He kept going and got it to the pit lane where his team was able to push him back to the garage. Ferrari were able to diagnose the problem and get Vettel out for his long runs.

    Carlos Sainz also suffered from engine problem after his car came to a grinding halt at Turn 11 after smoke was seen out of the back of the Toro Rosso.

    Stoffel Vandoorne who ended his FP1 early had to cut his FP2 session short after engine troubles put an end to his session. This is quite concerning for Honda after they opted to change his engine ahead of FP2 while they investigated the problem with his FP1 engine.

    Red Bull have shown some good long run pace and are up there with Ferrari and Mercedes. Hamilton was unable to complete a flying lap simulation but he looked very quick the times he did get to complete a few sectors. It will be close between the Ferrari’s and Mercedes once again in qualifying.

     

    Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • Vettel Ahead for Ferrari in Bahrain GP Free Practice 1

    Vettel Ahead for Ferrari in Bahrain GP Free Practice 1

    Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of Free Practice 1 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

    While Vettel was the fastest of the session, his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was on the other end of the time sheets finishing slowest in the session after an overheating turbo ended his session. Vettel set a time of 1:32.697 which was 0.4s faster than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who set a 1:33.097.

    Max Verstappen was 3rd fastest of the session almost a second down on Vettel and ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez.

    Felipe Massa was 5th fastest but brake issues ended his session. Replays of the incident showed Massa locking up his rear wheels and spun off the track at Turn 13. Lance Stroll had a good session finishing 6th fastest behind his team mate but ahead of Esteban Ocon in the Force India.

    Fernando Alonso finished 8th fastest in the McLaren ahead of Romain Grosjean in P9 for Haas.

    Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10 in 10th fastest clearly running a very different program to the rest of the front runners.

    It was not a session without incident. After Raikkonen’s turbo overheating issue, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne retired from the session with engine problems.

    The session was a relatively quiet session with not many drivers lighting up the timing wall. One needs to remember that the conditions for this session are not representative of Qualifying and the race so teams mainly use this session for data collection and wind tunnel correlation.

    The second free practice session should give us a better idea of the relative pace of the teams for the weekend as the conditions are more representative.

     

     

    Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • Button Confirmed as Alonso’s Replacement in Monaco

    Button Confirmed as Alonso’s Replacement in Monaco

    McLaren have confirmed that Jenson Button will make a come back out of his sabbatical to drive for the team in the Monaco Grand Prix to replace Fernando Alonso who will be taking part in the Indianpolis 500.

    Button was replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren for the 2017 season. While saying that it was a sabbatical it could’ve effectively be seen as a retirement from the sport. While not having set foot in competitive racing since his break from F1 Button feels that he is fit and up to the task of driving in Monaco.

    “I’m thrilled to be making a one-off return to Formula 1 racing, and I couldn’t think of a better place to make that return than my adopted home Grand Prix: Monaco,” said the Briton.

    “I’ve won the race before, in 2009, and it’s one of my all-time favourite racetracks. It’s a tricky street circuit on which a good driver can really make a difference – and, although the McLaren-Honda MCL32 hasn’t begun the season well, I think it may be more suited to Monaco than to the faster circuits that Fernando and Stoffel have raced it on so far this season.

    “OK, I realise we won’t have a realistic chance of repeating my 2009 victory, but I think we’ll have a opportunity to score world championship points, which will be very valuable to the team in terms of constructors’ rankings.

    “As for Fernando, I hope he not only fares well at Indy but enjoys it too.

    “It’ll be a great experience for him. He’s an excellent driver, as we all know, and he’s very experienced, so, although super-speedway driving techniques will be all-new to him, I expect him to get to grips with it all pretty quickly.

    “And on Sunday evening, after the Monaco Grand Prix, I’ll sit down and watch him do his stuff on TV. I’m looking forward to that too.

    “But most of all I’m looking forward to pitting myself against the unique racing challenge that is the Monaco Grand Prix. I’ll drive the MCL32 around Monaco in the McLaren sim beforehand, and I reckon I’ll be ready for the race after doing that.

    “I’m supremely fit, having done a lot of triathlon training recently, so I have no worries on that score. And it’ll be nice to say ‘hi’ to all my old Formula 1 mates too, and hopefully to give the fans something to cheer about.”