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Manor Celebrate First Points Haul for 2016

The Manor Formula One team brought home their first points finish for the 2016 Season thanks to Pascal Wehrlein.

Wehrlein who made it through to Q2 in Qualifying on Saturday ended a strong weekend for the Manor team in the points in 10th place at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The team celebrated like it was a victory for them and they will no doubt feel that the hard work that they’ve been putting in has finally paid off. This was their first points finish since 2014 when Jules Bianchi finished 9th for Marussia and brought home 2 championship points.

“It’s incredible. I’m so happy! It’s just been one of those weekends and to end it this way is a fantastic reward for everyone,” said a very happy Wehrlein after the race.

“At one point I was feeling quite dejected, because we were a little unlucky with our strategy in relation to the safety car. I’d just pitted, so when I came out after my second stop, I was last.

“That wasn’t such a great feeling, but we just had to work with what we had, which was Soft tyres all the way to the finish – 40 laps!

“To finish the race in the points from that position by running for more than half a race distance on a single set of tyres is an incredible achievement.”

“The result is very important. Not just because of what it means for our position in the Championship, but it also shows that we have made real progress.

“It’s been a step by step process, and one that hasn’t always been visible to people outside of the team, but today is a good day and a really great reward for all of us.”

Racing Director, Dave Ryan had this today about Manor’s points finish:

“After yesterday’s Q2 performance in qualifying, today’s point-scoring finish is a fantastic way to end a really positive weekend.

“The most important thing about it is that it shows that we’re a serious team and we’re working extremely hard to improve.

“Pascal has been looking comfortable the whole time we’ve been here in Austria and even though there was a point in the race where things were not looking so great for him, we felt sure he would turn it around.

“That’s exactly what he did and he put himself in exactly the right position to take advantage if things came his way.

“We need to keep our feet on the ground, but after an enormous amount of hard work in the first half of the season, everyone thoroughly deserves to enjoy the moment before the hard work starts again tomorrow.”

Photo credit: Manor Racing Formula One Team

July 3, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Noemi de Miguel)

Congratulations Lewis, how do you feel just now?
Lewis HAMILTON: What an incredible race that was. It was incredibly tough. This track is amazing. Big thank you to all the fans for coming out, because honestly I love it here in Austria. Every time I come we have like the best hotel, the food is great and apart from this generally I really love it here. We have Toto Wolff and Niki who are also from here.

We have some noise around right now. Do you know why it is?
LH: I don’t know, but that’s not my problem, it’s theirs.

OK, Max, Lewis says he likes a lot Austria, but it’s your team house. Congratulations, what value is this second place to you? Amazing.
Max VERSTAPPEN: It’s an amazing day you know. To finish second with a Red Bull car at the Red Bull Ring is incredible. I enjoyed it a lot. It was an exciting race and yeah, thank you to the guys, they gave me a great car to finish second.

And after the Spanish Grand Prix, again in a podium?
MV: Yeah, exactly. I hope it keeps going like that.

Congratulations as well, Kimi. How do you feel now? Do you consider it a surprise here for Ferrari?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: I mean, not an easy day for us. I felt we didn’t really got what we could have. But I did the best I could. We had a good speed in the end and maybe a chance to overtake Max but then there was a yellow flag and then, fair enough, he finished in front of me and that’s how it goes sometimes. I don’t know. The car’s been feeling good all weekend and we started the race well and then suddenly I found myself in sixth position, so we tried to come back and the speed was fine and obviously for the team with Seb, he had some issue, not an easy weekend but with the speed that we had I feel that we didn’t really get what we deserved but that’s racing. We go again next weekend and we try to do better.

Let’s meet Lewis and ask about what happened with Nico?
LH: He made a mistake into Turn One and so I had an opportunity to go down the outside into Turn Two. I left a lot of room on the inside and I guess he locked up and crashed into me. I think he had a problem with his brakes potentially.

Did you consider who was…
LH: I am here to win. I am here to win. That’s all.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, a controversial end to the race. Tell us about the incident between you and Nico?
LH: I don’t feel any particular way about it. I don’t feel it was controversial really. Nico made a mistake into Turn One. You know, we were racing right until the last lap. He made a mistake, clipped the inside kerb and went wide and I got a good run on him up to Turn Two. He blocked the inside, so the only place I could go was down the outside. So I was on the racing line. He was in my blind spot, so I assumed he was still there, so I went very wide, left him plenty of room and as I started to turn – I was at the edge of the track – he collided with me. My guys said that he had something up with the brakes, maybe. So I’m not quite sure exactly what happened. Then I came back onto the track as quick as I could. It was very close between us there. If he did have a brake problem it would be the reason he lifted off really early down the next straight, which we were racing on. But for me it was exciting because… I mean I don’t understand exactly how I ended up being second. I was in the lead and then I guess the safety car kind of brought it into that position. But I never gave up. I pushed all the way. I knew I needed those points. I knew that I have some incredible fans here supporting. Some of them have come a long way. So I did everything I could to not give up and to push all the way.

Lewis, your third win of the season, the 46th of your career, first as we said here in Austria. An enthralling grand prix really, a hug on the podium for the chief strategist at Mercedes, James Fowles, who essentially set up quite an interesting showdown at the end there. Gave you the undercut chance, put you on the soft tyre. Nico reacted, put on the supersoft. Your out lap was a little slower than his but it ended up with a very exciting finale. I just wonder from your point of view, from the cockpit… you’ve spoken about the incident, but tell us about the race itself and that whole strategy call.
LH: Well, first off and most importantly, I just want to say a big thank you to the team who continue to push hard and continue to develop. You know we’re trying to stay ahead of these guys who are also [improving in] leaps and bounds and getting faster and faster, so I think it’s exceptional what the team have done to give us the performance we had today. So yeah, I got a fairly decent start and I was in the lead and I felt that I was doing what I needed to do but then I guess with the safety car I was a bit unfortunate with that and lucky for Nico. Behind in second and obviously I did the stop but with the soft tyre in these cooler conditions it was not so easy to start them up, so I obviously came out second behind Nico once he did his stop. After that it was just all guns blazing, just as hard as I could. I needed those points. I can’t afford to lose any points. Luckily I was as close as I could be on the lap. Nico made a mistake and I tried to capitalise on that. I don’t know if it was a mistake he made in Turn Two, it may have been his brake issue, but we collided and obviously I was able to still continue to go. But I’m just really grateful. I didn’t give up. I kept pushing. I thoroughly enjoyed the race, you know. This is what racing is about. It’s about close battles, difficult times and challenges ahead but the most important thing is to keep going and keep your head up every time you stumble.

OK thank you. Moving to you Max, many congratulations, the start was crucial, you got ahead of your team-mate there and then as in Spain another very long second stint – 56 laps on a set of soft tyres setting you up for this wonderful result.
MV: Yeah, it was a great start and also a good first lap and straight away I could feel the pace was there in the car. So I just moved up to the front and once I cleared some guys I just started to go into my own rhythm. The Mercedes cars at the moment are still a bit too quick, but yeah, I think everything was going quite well. I did a long stint on the soft tyre and especially the last 10 laps, including with some traffic made it very hard. I could see Kimi behind me, he was catching up a lot. At the end to come home in second after what happened on the last lap is of course a bonus. Also, to finish here second, as a Red Bull driver at the Red Bull Ring, is a great feeling.

Q: : Coming to you Kimi, a great start, you were third on the opening lap – but a longer first stint on the supersoft tyre and you ended up losing track position to Max. As in Spain, chased him down in the end but couldn’t get through. A frustrating afternoon for you or are you reasonably satisfied to be on the podium?
KR: Not really. I mean yes it’s OK to be on the podium, it’s better than fourth place, obviously that was a big gift for us but we take, no complaints. We had pretty good speed in the beginning. I was saving tyres a bit and pushing and, y’know was bit catching, bit losing time to Mercedes and going like that. We were pretty close. Then, once we made a pitstop suddenly found myself in sixth position. I think was, y’know, was a bit hard after that. There were safety cars and stuff but the biggest issue was probably with the first Red Bull. Tried to get past him, we had good speed but it as so difficult to get close enough and he always, always when I close I could not find the traction to challenge him and then luckily on one lap I managed to suddenly get a jump on him. Then the speed was good and I kind of run out of the laps. Without yellow flags we could probably have had a very good go with Max – but that’s how it goes. He got second, I got third. Disappointed but it’s better than nothing and we got three points back on Rosberg so it all helps.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Kimi, you have very strong pace today but you have changed tyres about six or seven laps after the Red Bulls. Was it already the plan then to go for only one stop or was it down to the Safety Car that you could do that?
KR: Obviously I think the plan yesterday or this morning wasn’t one stop. The first plan, but then the plans change because you never know how the conditions are and obviously conditions from yesterday or Friday has changed a lot so you have to change it. You have many different plans and whatever suits the best you will choose it. It was quite easy, my tyres were in good shape still and I was fast but unfortunately ran out of the laps and, like I said, the yellow flag didn’t help in the end – but that’s part of racing. I’m disappointed where we end up with a good first part of the race and then where we came out after that – but, y’know, like I said, could have been an awful lot worse. Unfortunately for our second car for Sebastian he had some issues, I don’t know what it was, obviously I saw him at the end of the main straight but it’s been many weekends for us that we can get one good result and the other one not finishing so obviously we want to get as a team strong results. We have some things to work on and next race we push again.

Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – de Volkskrant) First podium for Red Bull on the Red Bull Ring and in lederhosen as well. How is this going to be celebrated with the team tonight because it should be amazing?
MV: Well the celebrations will be in the plane I guess because I’m going back to England. Busy schedules for next week but yes, of course, great achievement. I think the car was great all weekend. We need to keep working, that’s for sure but definitely we have some happy faces in the plane.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, we could hear on the radio why Nico has supersoft and you have soft tyres. My question is: isn’t it also responsibility of the drivers to take the decision what tyre they can use? Once we have less than 20 laps to the end and the supersoft would be the most reasonable choice?
LH: This is the case where you have to rely on your engineers because they have better understanding. They would have seen all the other drivers run on the supersoft from the beginning and they would have seen the drivers run on the soft. I had no facts to quantify a judgement. I was not in a position to make a judgement there. When I came in I’m hoping the team will give me the best tyre. I’m expecting them to give me the best tyre. So, I had the soft, Nico didn’t have a soft, so I don’t believe he had a soft left, as far as I’m aware. So that would be why. That was the only choice he had. My tyre goes longer. But the performance was still good, it was just the warm-up was the issue. I guess they were concerned that the ultrasoft doesn’t last that long. We didn’t do a long run on the supersoft either so we didn’t know if that would go far. So, no, your answer, it is not the case.

Did you have supersofts?
LH: I had supersofts, yeah.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) Question to Lewis. Where was bigger and better the rivalry? In 2007 with Fernando or this year? And what do you think, could Ron Dennis handle this problem now with your team-mate better?
LH: It’s different. When I was racing with Fernando we both had pretty much the same opportunity in the sense that our cars were both reliable, we had no problems so we were battling more so on the track. This is just as intense but it’s a little bit different. Nico today racing hard but we’re in different… the picture’s a lot different. He’s in the lead with four engines and I’m fighting for the lead with one engine. So we’re in different positions in that respect. So I would say it’s a little more intense from my side as every point counts more than ever.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Max…
MV: Really?
…Really to you. When Kimi was chasing you, did that bring any memories to you from Spain.
MV: Definitely. As soon as I saw him in the mirrors I was thinking about Barcelona. Only the problem was he was catching quite a lot now compared to Barcelona. He was there all the time and catching up a lot. I just tried to make no mistakes and at the end we kept him behind which of course is what we wanted. It was great for myself to be on the limit all the time until the end of the race.

Q: (Zsolt Godina – Fan media Ltd) Max, you started the season with Toro Rosso but it seems that it was very easy to adapt to the Red Bull car. What do you think you can get as the maximum out of this car, is there more potential?
MV: I think there is always more potential. You can always improve and you can always do better but like I said from the first race in Barcelona until now, I’m still learning. The general pace is there, it’s just in qualifying, how to get the last bits, 100 percent but definitely race by race it’s getting better and better.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Lewis, how disappointing is it to hear so many of the crowd booing when you’ve just had your first win in Austria?
LH: Of course it’s not great and especially with how much I love it here. It’s one of the most beautiful countries I’ve been to. Every time I come here, the scenery… I have a motorbike here this weekend and I’ve been driving through the valley and just seeing how beautiful and natural it is here. And so to have that kind of feeling for a country and then have that response when you have a win, for sure it’s not the greatest but I forgive them. Sometimes that’s just the way it is and I don’t judge them for that. They have the right to have an opinion. Not quite sure why they have done it but it doesn’t really make any difference to me. I won the race, I think fair and square.
MV: You have to be careful that you don’t get knocked off your bike when you drive home.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, you stayed out much longer than Nico in the first stint, presumably to do a one-stop race. Have you been surprised to be pulled in for a second stop and what do you think about it, seeing Ferrari and Red Bull obviously being able to do a one-stop race?
LH: Yeah, for me the plan to be on a one-stop and I hit my one-stop target and then I was on that second tyre and when I was asked to pit it felt fine. I knew Nico was on – I think – eleven or twelve lap older tyres than me so they said that he would have to stop again but I didn’t think I would have to and I was very… I had a split decision as well as to whether I was going to come in or not. They asked me to come in and I followed their direction but obviously they showed that the tyre could have gone the distance. I don’t know whether – at the pace that we were going – that they would have lasted as long as their’s – who knows – but in hindsight I would have probably tried to stay out but if I had stayed out maybe Nico would have stayed out so it would have been a similar situation.

Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) Max, back to the similarities with Barcelona, did it cross your mind that with another Mercedes crash you could win this one as well?
MV: Yeah, of course then the chance is bigger. Today one crashed, of course we take the opportunity but, well, normally it’s not like that.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport Magazine) Kimi, you said the car was fast at times today. Looking ahead to next weekend, how will it go at Silverstone?
KR: We’ll see next weekend, obviously. I start guessing something… I think, like I said, the car felt pretty good in the race but it was hard to get past people. Once we got close it was pretty difficult to get past them, more than I expected, which is not ideal but once we were on our own, after passing Ricciardo, the speed was very good but obviously I ran out of laps. Silverstone is a lot different as a circuit. Conditions might be similar to today but who knows. The car was pretty good everywhere, we will see. A lot of work goes on through the weekend to make the car good and make the set-up right so let’s see how we do that.

Q: (Sandor Meszarnos – Autosport Formula) Lewis, I think many of us want to be a fly on the wall at the Mercedes post-race briefing. Can you please tell us what kind of conversation you expect with Nico, with team managers?
LH: It’s going to be pretty straightforward. We just do our de-brief. I don’t think anything will really be said. I honestly don’t have a great picture of what went on. I knew where I was on the track. I can’t make a comment or a judgement until I’ve seen the replay. If it was a mistake of his or it was an issue, who knows? We’ll find out but there is no problem, we were racing hard and sometimes these things happen.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, in Baku you were fourth and very disappointed. Now you are third and seem to be disappointed. Is there any difference in your satisfaction after the race?
KR: No, I mean I’m not here to try to finish third or fourth or second. We are here, as Ferrari, to try to win and obviously it doesn’t give you a lot when you’re third or second. But that’s how life is. We keep trying and keep pushing forward, then improving things and I’m sure we can get where we want to be. It will take some time and some hard work but that’s the idea why we are here. Like I said, I’m sure me plus a lot of our fans plus the team would be much happier if we could be a few places higher. But that’s how it ended up today.

Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild Zeitung) Lewis, do you expect the rivalry between you and Nico to become even more intense, the closer the racing between the two of you becomes and the closer you get to the end of the season?
LH: I could anticipate it will stay the same as it is now. We are battling. Today obviously was slightly unfortunate with the safety car otherwise I would have been in the lead and I think I had more pace today, so it would have been easier. But well absolutely, we’re racing to win and we’re fighting for the championship and we will see. I’m not the furthest away now, so at least I’m within a good distance from him points-wise. I don’t know how many points I am behind, so that’s definitely better than what I came with and I’ll take that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Max, when you did your pit stop on lap 15, did you plan to go until the end of the race on that set of tyres or did the safety car afterwards help you to understand that it could be possible, because Sebastian, on lap 26, with supersofts, had a tyre blow-out?
MV: Of course the safety car helped but I was just going on to see how the tyre lasted. I was telling the team it’s all fine, it’s all fine, just keep going. If I felt it was not going on any more, for sure I would have pitted but it was all going fine. The cars in front of me were pulling away, they were just quicker, but I was pulling away from the cars behind, so there was no reason to stop.

July 3, 2016
Penalty For Rosberg, Keeps 4th

Nico Rosberg has been handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Rosberg made contact with Hamilton at Turn 2 after a brake-by-wire failure at Turn 1 which saw him run wide. This allowed Hamilton, who was already within DRS range, to close up to Rosberg and pick up the slip stream on the run to Turn 2. Rosberg defended the inside line. Hamilton took the outside line into Turn 2.

Rosberg went a bit too deep on the brakes and went straight on. Hamilton meanwhile took a wide line around the outside. Rosberg made contact with Hamilton’s right sidepod which sent the Brit on to the run off. Rosberg with a collapsed front wing made the corner and pushed on. Hamilton off the track tried to rejoin but was momentarily blocked off by Rosberg and had to lift off and rejoin the track.

Hamilton eventually got passed Rosberg on the run to Turn 3 just before a yellow flag zone where Force India’s Sergio Perez had crashed. It is at that moment that Rosberg’s wing worked its way loose and became lodged under the nose of his Mercedes.

With Verstappen and Raikkonen not far behind. it was only a matter of time before Rosberg was passed. He eventually crossed the line in 4th dragging the broken front wing under his car.

After the race the stewards had summoned Rosberg and Hamilton to explain themselves after the race. In addition Rosberg was also cited for breaching Article 12.1.1 h) of the FIA International Sporting Code.

After a quite a lengthy deliberation the stewards handed Rosberg a 10-second time penalty to his race time for causing a collision and 2 points on his license.

“Having taken note of the extensive evidence given by both drivers and the video and telemetry data, it was apparent that Car 44 (HAM) was in front of Car 6 (ROS) – i.e. more than fully alongside – and that the driver of Car 44 could have clearly made the turn (T2) on the track, if not for the resultant collision,” said a statement by the stewards.

“Car 6 did not allow Car 44 “racing room” and hence the driver of Car 6 was responsible for the collision,” the statement concluded.

Rosberg also received a reprimand for breaching Article 12.1.1 h) of the FIA Sporting Code.

“It was disappointing to lose the race like that,” said Rosberg after the race

“It got quite difficult on the final few laps as I had to manage my brakes and I was confident that I could bring the victory home.

“I had the inside line and we both went into the corner a bit long. I was surprised that Lewis turned in and it ultimately meant that we came together – that’s how the sport goes sometimes but it’s really difficult to lose the race in that way.”

July 3, 2016
No Changes To Red Bull Ring Kerbs Ahead of Race

The FIA has said that it will not make changes to or remove the kerbs around the Red Bull Ring that have proved to be unforgiving on drivers that have driven over them.

Daniil Kvyat’s suspension failure in qualifying, which lead to a spectacular crash in Qualifying, was caused by the loads generated by the kerbs. The kerbs in question are the yellow painted ones that are places beyond the traditional red and white apex kerbs.

Nico Rosberg also suffered suspension in Free Practice 3, but he ran over the red and white kerbs. According to Toto Wolff, who spoke to Motorsport.com, said that the suspension failure was not caused by the load of the kerbs exerting on the suspension but rather a strange oscillation on the tyre that causes the suspension to break.

The FIA seem very firm on this issue and it does not look like they will accede to the teams.

The high speed nature of the track and with each driver trying to user every last millimeter of the track means that sometimes a driver will tend to drift a bit wide if he carries too much speed into a corner. The kerbs in this case act as a deterrent in almost the same way a gravel trap would. In the eyes of the FIA a driver gains an advantage by running wide as he is able to maintain his speed.

The kerbs, in this case, provide enough of an incentive for the driver to keep within the track limits.

Picture Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

July 2, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, it was one of those days when I guess it was all about the timing of the switch onto the slick tyre and then actually coming across the line it must have been extremely exciting, the final few minutes of that session?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was a really fun session. It was one of those sessions that it starts off dry, goes wet, and quite incredibly here it dries up so quickly, it’s like driving through fog at some stages. I think it just added to the excitement of the while thing. I’d never driven here in the rain before and being a new surface as well it was very, very slippery. It was drying up corner by corner and at the end it was about getting that last lap. The previous lap was a good lap as well but if I had finished that lap I would have been right behind Daniel Ricciardo, so I backed off, which was a big risk really. If I didn’t finish my lap or there had been a yellow flag I wouldn’t have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it.

Well done. Turning to you, Nico, you’re second but it’s a bittersweet feeling I imagine, knowing that you’ve got to go back five places on the grid after the accident this morning and the subsequent gearbox penalty. A shame really, because your preparations for the race up to that point had been pretty ideal. Tell us about your day and your prospects from here?
Nico ROSBERG: First of all, a really unbelievable job from everybody, even Lewis’ mechanics came on to my car to try to get it out in time, so that was a huge team effort. We got it out 11 minutes to go in Q1, so it was really tight and awesome, so that was great. And then a very exciting qualifying, going dry-wet-dry and it was unbelievable how quickly it dried in the end then to get back on to slick tyres. I think Lewis just did a good job there in the very end, so that’s it. Second not first, but it’s OK. The five places will be quite costly… well, very costly of course for tomorrow, unfortunately. I’ll make the best of it anyways and try to get a good race from there.

OK, thank you for that. Nico Hulkenberg, welcome back. Reminiscent, conditions-wise and the way you drove, of Brazil a few years ago, in the Williams days. You must be absolutely ecstatic and set yourself up now, moving up to the front row of the grid with Nico Rosberg’s penalty, for a great day?
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, no, absolutely, it reminded me a lot about Brazil and I was feeling really good in the car and it was just a flashback to back then. I was feeling really good and to be honest, I was expecting a little bit better, so when he said third… I wasn’t disappointed. A great effort from the team. Not an easy session to be out there at the right time, it’s all about timings. The car performed well, we put it together, so a very solid job and a very good starting position for tomorrow.

Very well done. Lewis, coming back to you, on a serious note we saw a couple more suspension failures during that qualifying session with Kvyat and Pérez. What’s the feeling among the drivers, what’s the conversation going to be this evening and what’s the concern there?
LH: I can’t speak on behalf of all the drivers, but for me those yellow kerbs are quite dangerous. We’ve now seen a couple of incidents already. I don’t know how many more of those it’s going to take before a car ends up in the wall and perhaps someone gets hurt. I’m sure Charlie and the FIA are looking at it but that’s definitely an area we can improve. The idea is good, because they definitely don’t want us running wide and using the outside of the circuit but perhaps another solution is going to be needed.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, one of the interesting talking points arising out of the second part of qualifying was the decision by Ferrari and Red Bull to go out and set their time on the supersoft tyre. You and Nico had both used the ultrasoft but then right at the end you went out and had a bit of a look on the supersoft just as some rain began to fall. So, your thoughts on why you went the way that you did in the first instance and what happened at the end there.
LH: I just did what I was told! I think our strategists understand that that ultrasoft was the better tyre. We had the supersoft available I think they perhaps saw – I’m guessing – I’m assuming they saw that the Ferraris had gone out and they thought we might try to go out and see if we could do a time on it, even though we think there is a time delta between the two. Naturally a hard tyre often goes further so that doesn’t seem like such a bad option. They have qualified on supersofts?

Yes – they’ll start on the supersofts and so will Red Bull
LH: OK, that’s not a bad thing. I think the ultrasoft is not a good tyre for the race. It’s going to be a struggle to get a lot of laps out of it so the strategy will be interesting tomorrow. Obviously those guys are starting behind me so I’m hoping I have a bit of an advantage at the start just from being on the softer tyre but… yeah, in practice my tyre lasted for four laps, so I think for Nico it lasted maybe eight? He says five. So it’ll definitely be tricky but we’ll do the best we can with it.

Q: OK, the same question to you Nico. Your race, the first stint is going to be much more complicated because of where you’re starting. So your thoughts on this situation going into the race tomorrow. And also, picking up on what I was asking Lewis before about the kerbs, is it just a case now of, for the rest of the weekend, staying off them – or is there more to it than that?
NR: For sure yeah, need to stay off them. I even stayed off them in qualifying now most of the time, except for when it really counted. Tyres is going to be tough tomorrow but the thing is we don’t really know because the temperature is going to drop so much so who knows how the tyres are going to be? For sure in the hot it was really tough but maybe in the cold it’s going to be better.

Q: Nico, coming to you, obviously your team is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment with podiums in Monaco and Baku recently. You’re still looking for your first Formula One podium personally. You must be feeling that tomorrow may well just be your day. Are you very optimistic and excited going into tomorrow’s grand prix?
NH: Yes. First of all I’m happy and excited about today. Special circumstances obviously with the rain in Q3 and then the drying-up track but for sure starting second is a very good starting position. Tomorrow we’ll do what we can. I’m not thinking too hard about that now. We’ll do that in the next couple of hours and tonight and tomorrow but our car has made huge steps forwards since Barcelona really and ever-since we’ve scored a lot of points and a few podiums so yeah, we’re on a good slope, we have good momentum and just try to carry it into tomorrow and make it into another good Sunday.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Angélique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Lewis, yesterday you considered that you were not at your top level. So what did change? Did you improve since yesterday? Was it work more on your mental, or the car or maybe both?
LH: A little bit the car but mostly I just had to find time today. Nico had been performing well all weekend and it was just chipping away at improvements, constantly looking at my data, trying to figure out where I was losing the time and how I could improve. Bit by bit, corner by corner… at one point there’s five corners where I’m down, then it’s four corners I was down, then two, then just one corner where I was down. That’s something that… then it rained and I was thinking ‘Jeez, I’ve finally got into this position where I can perhaps battle for pole with Nico’ and then it rained – but fortunately those are conditions I like as well, so it made it a little bit easier, I have to say, when it got into those conditions ‘cos it’s then a bit more about who takes the most risk, I guess.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Hulkenberg, we received indication on the screens that you were under investigation because of the yellow flags in Q2. Are you aware of this?
NH: No, I wasn’t aware that I’m under investigation. I think it was the incident where Sainz’s car’s engine blew up and he was parked on the right on the main straight. I did lift, I did lose time there but still with new tyres, track improvement I might have gone faster, I don’t know but we will see. I’m not too concerned.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, when you came in here, you stopped to watch your lap – all the lap – what was your view of it, what was your analysis of your own lap?
LH: I could have been faster! I was looking at some places where… you know, when you do a lap like that it’s really difficult to… you know, the previous lap maybe I had an oversteer moment in one corner, you don’t know if it’s dried up and what… it probably has dried up on that next lap so you don’t know just how much you can push on each corner. In hindsight… hindsight’s always a great thing – there were drier patch and more grip and more potential in some corners that I did, but it doesn’t matter because I’m where I need to be. That’s what happens when I watch it. I’m just thinking could be a little bit more there, a little bit more there.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Nico, I would like to know – maybe you said it before but I don’t know – but when this accident happened, was it because you touched the kerb or is it because there was a mechanical problem in the car and the suspension was broken?
NR: The suspension broke. On the kerb, on the normal exit kerb, the first one, the thin one.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you: there’s a possibility that next year maybe we will have a bigger version of the Austrian Grand Prix, a new track layout but of course the old one, the Osterreichring. Are you satisfied with this information? Would you like to compete with Formula One cars on this or is it OK now?
LH: Me personally? That’s the best news I’ve probably heard in Formula One for a long time. They’re going to take a track back to what it should be or what it was previously. The track is nice as it is now but I’ve not seen the old track but I can imagine going up into the mountains and into the woods it’s going to be epic so I really hope they do that personally.
Q: Nico, your Dad raced here on the old one, any thoughts on that?
NR: I just watched the video from 1982, one of the closest finishes with my Dad finishing second and definitely it looks very exciting so yeah, if they do that, cool.
NH: I wasn’t even aware. Don’t know what the layout was but yeah, whatever. Fine.

July 2, 2016
Hamilton claims dramatic Austrian GP pole

Lewis Hamilton claimed the pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix during a dramatic Q3 qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Rain arrived towards the end of Q2 to wet the circuit and leave drivers starting the Q3 session on intermediate tyres before the track dried really quickly enouch for slicks to be viable.

Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to switch to ultra-softs and set a sequence of fastest laps before Hamilton bettered his time with a 1:07.922. Rosberg finished second, half a second behind Hamilton but is set to drop to start from seventh thanks to his gearbox penalty.

Hulkenberg will therefore move to second with McLaren’s Jenson Button starting from third – pending an investigation by the stewards for Hulkenberg not slowing down on the yellow flags for an incident for Carlos Sainz Jr.

Kimi Raikkonen will start from fourth tomorrow, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Valterri Bottas, Rosberg, and Max Verstappen. Felipe Massa completes the Top 10 behind the demoted Vettel who qualified fourth but will start 9th after his gearbox penalty.

Esteban Gutierrez only just missed out on Q3. He’ll start the Austrian GP from 11th place.

Pascal Wehrlein scored a career best for himself and the Manor F1 team qualifying in 12th place. Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso will start from 13th and 14th place.

Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergio Perez follow – Perez suffered a rear suspension failure.

The guys over at Renault didn’t make it through to Q2 with Kevin Magnussen and Jolyen Palmer finishing 17th & 18th ahead of Manor’s Rio Haryanto and Daniil Kvyat.

Kvyat suffered a right-rear suspension failure in a a pretty hectic crash, spinning out, clipping the wall at Turn 8 and ending up in the gravel at the final corner. Drivers are raising concerns about the kerbs causing the multiple suspension failures over the weekend so far. Hamilton expressed concerns in the press conference as did Kvyat and a few other drivers. Lewis went as far as calling the kerbs dangerous

Kvyat was not able to continue after his car was pretty much written off leaving the Toro Rosso team with a big task to complete to prepare for tomorrow’s race.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr did look capable of competing for Q2 but will start from the back row of the grid.

Join us for live chat and commentary for tomorrow’s Austrian GP on Twitter @F1Madness.

July 2, 2016

Ferrari 1-2 in 3rd Free Practice for Austrian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari at the top of the time sheets at the end of the 3rd Free Practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix.

In a session where teams were still finding the limits of their cars, Vettel put his SF16-H at the top of the time sheets early on in the session. He kept improving his time throughout. On his second stint on the ultra soft tyres he set a time of 1:07.098. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen set a 1:07.234, 0.136s off Vettel’s time.

Lewis Hamilton locked up 3rd fastest with a 1:07.308. Mercedes seemed to have been struggling with the high track temps. Their initial running saw heavy graining and blistering on their tyres. Nico Rosberg crashed out of the session after a rear suspension wishbone failure at the exit of Turn 2. This sent the German nose first into the barrier which spun him around where the rear of his car made contact with the barrier as well. Rosberg was up on Vettel’s time through the first sector.

After the session Mercedes confirmed that Rosberg would have to incur a 5-place grid drop for a new gearbox.

The Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen finished 4th and 5th fastest respectively. The Williams pair finished 6th and 7th with Valtteri Bottas finishing ahead of Felipe Massa.

Nico Hulkenberg finished 8th fastest for Force India showing strong pace for the Silverstone based team.

McLaren, who chose not to run their radical new rear wing, finished 9th and 10th with Jenson Button finishing just ahead of Fernando Alonso.

We’re building up to a very close qualifying with Ferrari stepping up their game with their token engine upgrade and with Mercedes slightly off the pace. Although Rosberg was very quick through the first sector before the crash it’s tough to predict what his final lap time would be. Mercedes have a tough task of repairing Rosberg’s car before qualifying. It is expected that they will have it repaired before qualifying but it will be touch and go.

Both Vettel and Rosberg will drop 5-places down the grid after qualifying which should play into the hands of Hamilton, Raikkonen and the two Red Bulls.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:07.098s	–	20
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:07.234s	0.136s	26
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:07.308s	0.210s	20
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:07.639s	0.541s	22
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:07.761s	0.663s	22
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:07.814s	0.716s	23
7	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:07.831s	0.733s	27
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:08.285s	1.187s	23
9	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:08.304s	1.206s	19
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:08.327s	1.229s	17
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:08.442s	1.344s	26
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:08.475s	1.377s	22
13	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:08.534s	1.436s	29
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:08.550s	1.452s	21
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:08.569s	1.471s	31
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:08.786s	1.688s	32
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:08.939s	1.841s	27
18	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:09.008s	1.910s	11
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:09.116s	2.018s	28
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:09.137s	2.039s	25
21	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:09.557s	2.459s	20
22	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.959s	3.861s	16

July 2, 2016

F1 2016: Austrian Gp Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Runs Quickest

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg set the quickest time in the first free practice session ahead of the Austrian grand prix.

The first free practice session for the 2016 Austrian grand prix got underway in sunny conditions at the Red Bull Ring. The drivers quickly hit their stride with some blistering lap times early on in the session with Nico Rosberg’s 1:08:166 having been a record breaking lap.

The German driver would improve to a 1:07:373 by the end of the session to record the quickest lap ever around the current configuration of the Red Bull Ring. Teammate Lewis Hamilton set the second quickest time with a 1:07:730. The two Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were third and fourth with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top five.

Dutch driver Max Verstappen exited the session early after clouting a kerb which broke a steering arm and left his Red Bull beached in a gravel trap. No other major incidents were recorded but for a few spins from several drivers.

Ferrari were expected to test the Halo 2 head protection system but chose not to do so. The McLaren team ran several updates including a new rear wing and conducted a back to back test on a new floor.

Free Practice One Standings:

July 1, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

DRIVERS:

Esteban GUTIÉRREZ (Haas)

Felipe NASR (Sauber)

Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Renault)

Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso)

Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)
PRESS CONFERENCE

Daniil, can we start with you. Good qualifying last time out in Baku but results are proving hard to come by at the moment. Are you now fully settled back in with the team and what are your goals for the rest of the season?
Daniil KVYAT: Yeah, I think step by step it was coming better and better. We had a few competitive, in terms of pace, weekends and Baku was certainly one of them, starting from the third row. That was already a good achievement, even though of course the points are given on Sunday, that’s why we didn’t manage to finish let’s say. But I think there are plenty of races left, things are coming better and better and I’m feeling more settled in the team. They are giving me lots of support because obviously coming in like this wasn’t very simple but now things are more clear and I’m just enjoying racing. I’m enjoying myself and to be honest I’m having a really good time.

This is another power circuit obviously. Are we starting to see the effects of your one-year old power unit versus all the current units?
DK: Yeah, we do. To be honest, already Baku was one of those tracks where it wasn’t meant to be easy for us but nevertheless we found good compromises and managed to make a good Saturday. I think here is going to be another very difficult weekend for us. Obviously it is a power-limited track and most of the time on the straight it’s not the biggest friend of us. Still, you know, we have to keep fighting and play the best game with the cars we have in hand, so we will just do our best and then we will see where we are.

Thank you for that. Felipe, coming to you, you won the GP2 feature race here back in 2014 and you made the most of the package in Baku, getting into Q2 and then racing up to P12. How satisfied were you with that result, which I think was your best of the season so far?
Felipe NASR: Oh, it was pretty good, you know. I think it was one of the very first trouble-free weekends I had and I was able extract the maximum from the car, from the strategy. We actually had pretty good pace in the race, able to fight the McLarens and I was pretty close to the top 10. I mean, not enough but it was a decent weekend, you know. If we can have something similar here and if we c a n have a bit of fortune on our side then maybe we can score our points of the season.

It’s your second year in Formula One. Looking at the rest of the field and prospects for your team, where do you go from here, do you think, looking forward?
FN: Where do I go from here? [Laughs]. Well, we still have 13 races to go, there’s so much to go on yet, so many things to roll and happen. I’m still fully committed to the team I’m pretty sure. The situation seems to have got better from what I hear – getting all the employees and the salaries paid it juts gives a boost to everyone back at the factory, at the track. I’m sure we can soon start updating the car. All we want is the results on the track, which I think we can have pretty soon. So we just got to keep on doing what we can for now.

Thanks for that. Esteban, Haas has fallen from fifth in the Constructors’ recently to eighth, but you personally have been on a bit of an upward curve, you out-qualified your team-mate in Monaco and Canada. What’s been making the difference for you?
Esteban GUTIÉRREZ: Well, I’ve been pretty unfortunate in the first part of the season. It hasn’t been easy to have a lot of technical issues. It wasn’t very straightforward. Therefore, I believe it wouldn’t be fair to rate my season based on the points, because I’ve been in a lot of positions to score the points in many races and not been able to finish the race because of different reasons that were not in my control, so now it’s been improving a bit. It hasn’t been easy in the last three grands prix because of my health, but now I feel much better so now I’m looking forward to the next four grands prix, which are pretty close together.

The F1 paddock is now starting to think and talk about next year, new contracts and such. Have you started that process yet with Haas?
EG: Yeah. I know pretty much where I’m going, so…

OK, sounds good. Kevin, coming to you, there have been some notes of optimism coming through from the team’s pre-race preview materials. What is it about your car that’s really not worked recently and that gives them some optimism about this race track?
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: I think we have tried some very different things to learn about the car, to get a better understanding of the car we have and basically we are going back now to something we know and that gives a little bit of optimism. I don’t think it’s going to a lot better than previous races but hopefully we will be able to know what we have and to get a better weekend.

Looking at it from the outside it would make sense to stop developing this car and focus 100% on 2017, but what are you, as a driver, asking for and what’s on the horizon?
KM: As a driver what you care about at the end of the day is winning and we are so far off that that in my mind I would be fine to switch focus completely, because we are clearly not going to win with this car. The sooner we can start winning the happier I am and that’s what I want to focus on, so shifting focus as quick as possible I think is the best thing. But I am not team principal and there is a reason for that. Maybe more qualified people take these decisions but I trust whatever the team is doing.
Thanks for that. Kimi, coming to you, 99th race start for Ferrari this weekend, puts you fourth on the all-time list for the Ferrari team. There has been quite a lot of discussion externally, ie within the media and among other teams as well, about Ferrari’s strategy decision-making in the last few grands prix. I know you have been on the wrong side of it a couple of times. Have you reviewed it internally and will you be approaching it any differently as a team?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No I think we did the best that we could. Obviously people outside the team can talk as much as they want. We cannot control them and it’s not our business. We work as a team, one group as Ferrari and obviously we always look at what we done over the weekends afterwards and we try to learn on everything, good and bad things. I think it hasn’t been easy weekends for us lately but I think we managed to turn them around quite well as a team. There are some decisions that have to be made over the races and we had no issues with them. We tried to make the best out of it as a team. Obviously certain situations have changed a few things in the last race, but it’s a normal thing.

We’re now coming into that traditional part of the season where the Formula One paddock speculates about your seat at Ferrari for the following year. Do you have any clarity on whether you will carry on next year?
KR: I don’t know. I know that I have a contract for this year and I don’t know what will happen next year. A lot of talk. A lot of talk every year I would say since I’ve been in F1. It’s nothing new. Same story really – people can say what they want and discuss but they have very, very little understanding of what’s happening and then this I’m not signing the contract. Well, if I was making the decisions then it would be very easy to tell what will happen, but I don’t. We’ll see. We’ll try to do our best and for sure the team knows my side of the story. That’s enough from me. The rest I have no interest to talk about it in here or anywhere else, apart from with the team.

Thank you for that. Daniel, your 27th birthday tomorrow I believe, entering your prime I guess. Just a pair of seventh places in the last two grands prix though, whereas you had a chance to win the two before that. Is it all about the engine or have you personally lost a little bit of momentum?
Daniel RICCIARDO: I haven’t lost anything. We had Canada, yeah, I think we could have done better than seventh. The second set of tyres flat-spotted and would have tried to maybe do a one-stop race if that wasn’t the case and that could have been a different story. Baku – I think it is a power circuit but also we knew we had gone a bit wrong after three laps in the race. We struggled a lot with tyres. We probably just haven’t executed the perfect weekend I’d say since… probably not for a while, but I think performance-wise there’s still more in there. We’re better than seventh, that’s probably what I’m getting at. This circuit will test us this weekend. Historically, the last couple of years it hasn’t been a strong one for us, but we’ll see. We’ll try to do what we can, hopefully better than seventh.

There’s been quite a bit said recently about your contractual position over the next couple of seasons – discussions about Ferrari, but also discussions about options been taken up for the next couple of years. Can you confirm today that you are staying with Red Bull until at least the end of 2018?
DR: Yeah. Yeah.

A little more detail, a little more flesh on the bones.
DR: Every word I say… one word turns into 10, and then 30 and 50. So, I’ll just leave it at that.

But obviously a big part of that is it is your own decision to do that rather than take any other options or look at other options?
DR: Absolutely. It goes both sides for sure. It’s a bit like what Kevin touched on. We want to win. This year is going to be tough for a world title but obviously where we are this year is where we are. You can’t do anything about that now. But looking ahead to next year and spending time with the team and seeing what’s ahead I think it’s the best place to be to try to challenge Mercedes, so that’s where it stems from.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Question to all of you. Obviously at the last race a couple of drivers, including Kimi, had some problems with the radio restrictions. We are now into the ninth race of the season and the new radio rules. What are your stances on this one? Lewis Hamilton said it’s impossible to memorise all the settings that you have on the steering wheel. Do you agree with that, or is it manageable? Is it fine like that?
KR: I think it’s fine. Obviously always some certain situations you might have some issues that you want to talk but rules are rules and they’re the same for everybody. It wasn’t really any big issue. I kind of knew what it is but tried to get some confirmed things from it – but it didn’t change anything. It wasn’t anything that we had to know 100 per cent or we would have had some issues. I think it’s fine, y’know? It is what it is.

Daniel, did you have any sympathy for Lewis?
DR: um… not really. Obviously not directed at Lewis, I think anyone in that position… on race day you care about yourself, so certainly you don’t feel any sympathy for anyone else in those two hours on a Sunday. Yeah, I think Kimi touched on it: it is what it is; it’s the rules and, sure we can’t… I think everything we can do is in front of us, so some things, if there’s a failure during the race, the team’s allowed to tell us a certain procedure perhaps to fix the failure – for example an electronic thing or whatever it is – but in terms of engine modes and things like that, sure there’s a lot to do but we do know – or we should know at least where it all is. So, I think yeah, we’ve just had to adapt to it but it’s been OK.

How about you Daniil? Are you good at this stuff? Are you quite techie? Do you enjoy it?
DK: Yeah. It hasn’t been an issue for me. You might say the new generation… I haven’t played Playstation or anything like that, but it hasn’t been an issue for me so far. You have to prepare yourself for many scenarios. I try to predict these things and see what might happen. Of course it’s impossible to see everything – but it hasn’t’ been an issue for me.

Felipe?
FN: I think similar to the other guys. You either try to know the most you can on what you have to do in the race. There’s some things we can cover and some other things it depends on the team communication. Some of them, they’re not allowed to say – but I haven’t faced anything yet to be in such a situation. It is what it is.

Esteban?
EG: I have absolutely no problem. I like the idea because it will motivate engineers to get rid of a lot of buttons on the steering wheel. We just need two pedals and one steering wheel to drive.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) To all drivers. We saw here the organizers amplify the run-off areas, increase the safety. And we come from one circuit where, most of the bends, you approach at 300kph, you didn’t have run-off areas. Which options you prefer? High risk or less risk?
KM: I think it’s a difficult one because when you have do something to improve safety you do it. It has to be done. You can’t not do something for safety because it’s more exciting or whatever. If there is something that you can do to improve safety, you have to do it. But there’s no reason to deny that the more risky circuits are more fun. At least for myself I think so and I’m sure most of the drivers will say the same – but we can’t make the tracks more dangerous on purpose to make it more fun. But yeah, I guess that is a factor: for most drivers, it’s more fun when the track is more risky.

DK: We’re coming from Baku and I got a lot of adrenaline, I was really on the edge all the time. I was always thinking ‘ this corner, if I make a mistake, it’s going to punish you’. I’m a bit old-fashioned on this question – but of course you cannot just put a concrete wall everywhere to make it exciting. You have to find a good compromise between paying the price for your mistake and not hurting yourself, obviously, because Formula One has been investing so much in safety and it is incredible what has been achieved. Let’s say here also, Turn Five, Turn Six, there are gravel escape roads so you pay a higher price if you go off, let’s say. I think this kind of track, they have a bit more value. In my view, personally.

Esteban?
EG: I have the same opinion as Kevin and Daniil.

Felipe?
FN: I would say so. I think Baku was something… you would pay the price for it if you did a mistake or something but we’ve been working so much on safety that we don’t need to give up all of it to just say we should risk more on tracks that is, more… if you want to call it dangerous. Like the other guys said as well. It’s also true to say that some tracks, you lock-up, you go off and you come back on the race… I feel for me it’s sometimes so easy to give up time there and you are back on the race. If it was like before you wouldn’t have been able… if you have a gravel trap or something, you would have lost a lot more time to come back. Drivers that do less mistakes, somehow they get benefited.

How about you Kimi? Precision’s always been a big part of your game.
KR: Well, comparing last race and this, they’re completely different because one is a street circuit so it will never have the run-off areas than in a normal circuit. In the end the FIA has the group that works on measurements of how much run-off area you need in each place and, y’know, it’s safe everywhere. They would never make the circuit where there is not enough run-off area in how they calculate the chances. It may look different but the end result, it can’t be an awful lot different. Obviously it will because it’s a street circuit and there’s no space like we have here at a normal circuit. I think it looks a lot of different but in the end it’s a different place. Every circuit is different. Some are a bit older circuits, obviously then there are different run-off areas. New ones usually are tarmac but what it good, what is not… you always try to stay on the circuit because that’s the fastest way around.

How about you Daniel, how do you feel about paying a high price for mistakes on those sorts of tracks and this sort of track?
DR: Yeah, I think we’ve all got a similar view. It’s a hard one. You obviously want to balance the safety always but Baku, I can obviously speak because I had a… it wasn’t a big accident but it was at least an accident and, yeah, I thought it, in a way, had a good balance because it destroyed my car, so if that was the race it was clear I was out – but the impact didn’t feel like anything. So I thought all the… you paid a price but looking at the track you were going to pay it in a safe way. Sure the walls, sometimes don’t tickle, but wherever there was the high speed there was generally a SAFER barrier or something. So, I think that’s the main one. As Felipe touched on, if you do make a mistake, at least pay a bit of a price for it. Whether it puts you completely out of the race or not, at least lose time – because sometimes it is too easy to just run wide, come back on and lose a second as opposed to losing ten or whatever. Yeah, tough one. I’ve always liked street circuits. It does give you the biggest rush, and I think now they’ve got a good balance. All the street circuits we go to are pretty good. Sure, you crash but I think you can crash safely.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, there are 100 points to gain in July. How many of those hundred would you need to still be in the fight for the championship in the second part of the season?
KR: Obviously we try to get as many as we can. I don’t think one month will decide the whole story. It’s still a long way to go and the end of season a lot of things can happen. The point is always, when we come racing is to do the best and try to score as many points as we can. No need to make any plans. We go to every race like normal and hopefully get out the good result.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport magazine) Daniel, your team-mate Max Verstappen has also been confirmed through 2018. How do you see that relationship evolving or is it too early to tell?
DR: It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen in the long run. I can obviously speak for the first few races and it’s been good. Max came in and set a bit of a tone in Barcelona. That was obviously a pretty crazy weekend and I think since then it’s been good. Obviously Monaco didn’t work as well for him and he openly admitted it and took it on the chin. In a way we’ve thrived off the new challenge, the new rivalry, so hopefully it can keep pushing the team in the right direction. Hopefully there is some rivalry. A rivalry would probably mean we’re fighting for victories more often. Sure you can still have a healthy one. I think if you’re mature about it and if you can basically just admit if one guys better on the day and be open about it, then you’ll have good respect for each other. It’s probably when you start making excuses out of nothing, is when it doesn’t work out so well. Keep going hard and, so far, so good.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) Bernie had the idea, fifteen or maybe 20 years ago, that there should be a race at the Olympic Games, every four years – a non-championship race? Basically, what do you think about this idea and of course, Felipe, will you be at the Olympic Games in Rio this year?
FN: You want me to go to Rio? You want me to race? We have our break so if I’m in town, I probably will be, so a flight to Rio is not far away, give a bit of support to my Brazilian athletes wouldn’t be a bad idea. Yeah, but you said, to have a race every four years then I don’t know. I don’t know. I think we have got enough races going on already.
EG: Yeah, it would not be a bad idea actually, why not?
KM: Yeah, I wouldn’t mind another race.
DK: We would maybe build a same car, probably, for the Olympic sport and all 22 drivers, same car, same tyres everything the same. Maybe it could be interesting, like a world final, if you like.
DR: I was about to say, I like medals so yeah.
KR: What can I say? There’s always ideas, let’s see what happens in the future but it’s hard to see that it’s going to happen so…
DR: No points, but a lot of prize-money, I guess. Yeah?
Q: A quick question: apart from Felipe, is anybody here planning to go to any of the Olympic Games, just as a spectator or is anyone hanging out there? No? No.

Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) Danny, as your 27th birthday is approaching, how do you look back at your career so far and are you where you expected to be, 10 or 15 years ago?
DR: Getting deep, getting deep. Let me bring out my notebook and see what notes I made when I was ten. I don’t know. I didn’t really look back on it, so far, to be honest. I think it all happened so quickly that you just sort of get into a bit of a… you sort of roll with it and just keep going but sure, as a kid, I dreamed to be racing Formula One, it’s one of those things, you know. In 2011 I got my chance and it was like a dream come true but then you do a few races and then it’s like, OK, now I want to be with a better team and I want points and then I want podiums, I want wins. Fortunately I’ve been able to get some wins now which is a big box ticked for me but now it’s like, OK, I want the next best thing which is the World Championship. In a way, you’re never satisfied but I think obviously that’s good because I’m obviously still very young and hungry so I think that fuels my hunger but sure, I’m happy and I’m obviously very grateful to be in this position. I think of all us appreciate the… it’s 22 of us that are here. It is awesome but you can’t help but want more, you know? I think Seb at my age, already his 24… not 24, his four titles so I go look at Seb and I go aaahhh. Obviously I would love to achieve more at this age but fortunately I’ve got some time on my side, I think.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Esteban and to Felipe: Mr Ecclestone said that at the end of the new Concorde Agreement, he will fight to share the money in Formula One in a more equal way. You from Sauber, you from Haas, what’s your point of view about it?
EG: Well, luckily I’m a racing driver, I don’t have to think about… Yeah, exactly. Well, it’s not happening now, not necessarily going to affect me. There are many propositions which are probably going around, many ideas but I’m sure they are going to chose the most convenient for Formula One. We have to think in all other sports and try to bring the sport higher and higher and if that is the right way then for sure everybody will be happy with that.
FN: Well, I think it would for sure balance out things better for teams that are dependent on other resources. For example, Sauber is a private team, it just gives you a better chance to start the year developing the car, developing things. Sometimes you’re just so spread apart that we cannot even get close to other teams, just on how much we can do with Sauber, financially or resources. It wouldn’t be a bad idea. For sure, it’s something to consider but it has to balance out for everyone as well, not only thinking about us so let’s see.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Coming back to the danger topic; obviously many fans and even some drivers say that danger is part of the attraction but if we look at the race in Baku, it was actually quite dull and every one of you seemed to be quite cautious, maybe because of what happened in the GP2 race, and we always moan about these big run-off areas and the tracks being not dangerous enough, or some people do anyway. But can you argue that actually a risky track doesn’t produce really good racing? If you look at Monaco or Baku, because you are obviously being more cautious and these tracks that are more safe and have these big run-offs actually are able to produce better racing, because you take more risks?
DK: Well, it’s a good point because we saw in GP2 that it was quite a big mess, there was a lot going on so obviously everyone knew that on this track a lot might happen but actually didn’t happen, but these kind of races just happen and it was just a one-off. I think the track, when you look it, could provide a lot of entertainment and I think in the future that will happen, a lot of races on the track which I think will enter history because I think this kind of track, in my opinion, will provide some great racing. I think everyone was good because in the end we are professional drivers, no one hit the wall during the race. There was no safety car to reshuffle the strategies so everyone more or less knew what they were doing. The faster cars just went ahead, the slower cars just settled there in the middle so there was no big action going on, I think. I still think that this kind of track should be… of course not every track should be a street circuit. It didn’t affect me at least.
Q: How about you, Kevin. As you came through the field, were you holding anything in reserve or were you giving it everything?
KM: No, I think we were giving it everything but for sure, after watching the GP2 race I thought this is going to be a good one to finish because I thought there would be quite a few crashes and safety cars and stuff. For sure, I took a little bit more care not to crash but not a huge amount. I think it was just coincidence that no one did.
KR: That’s probably why it’s GP2 and F1 is a different story. We’ve seen many other weekends when we watch their race…
EG: I thought Baku was pretty exciting.
DR: I was going to go more towards the open circuits, like the modern ones and that. I think some have done it well and some not as well. Yeah, that’s the thing. If you have a modern circuit then sure there’s some risk which is taken away because of the safer run-offs but if they shape the circuit well, then it can produce good racing. For me, Austin is a great example. Austin’s a pretty safe track, there is a lot of run-off but I think the way they’ve tried to design it… like turn one, it’s such a wide apex. You can take so many different lines into that corner, that creates great passing and you’ve got other corners on that track which are a bit unique. I think a lot of the time with our sport, a lot of it is one line. There’s an ideal racing line. I follow… also this guy next to me… we follow motocross a lot and there’s so many different lines in motocross and I think there’s some room in F1 to create something like that. Obviously not extreme but you’ve got some… you know the ideal line is perhaps… like in motocross you go the long way round because the corner’s like a bowl, it’s banked, you carry momentum but then if you’re close you sort of do a block pass. I don’t know, so maybe there’s some room for these modern circuits to be more exciting. So they’d be safe, sure, but the racing could be more exciting. I think there’s still some things which circuit designers can implement and maybe we can learn from other motorsports.
KR: Obviously you always want to see more overtaking but it’s not easy, there has been a lot of different rules and stuff been done in F1 to create overtaking but has it really changed a lot? Over the years, not really in my view but you know you’re going to blame the circuits that they built, they will not spend I don’t know how many millions of dollars or euros, money, to make a new circuit like in US and expect them to make it without run-off areas. In MotoGP, they have to have run-off areas for when they fall down. They’re being used for a lot more than just F1, they are not building circuits just for us so they have to make everybody happy.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Kimi, I would like to know how difficult it is for Ferrari to get the right temperature in the tyres and what do you expect in this race?
KR: For sure, it’s not been easiest job in the last few years but it varies a lot depending on how the circuit is, conditions, weather, all those things, what tyres we will have over the weekend and I think in the last few races it’s been quite difficult but we managed to find something and turn it around for qualifying, for the race. It depends how the weather will be here, obviously. It’s a bit unknown. There’s a new surface on the circuit so how will that affect things we will have to see but I think it should be OK.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) There are some rumours that the old Osterreichring will be restored, the big layout for endurance racing. As Formula One drivers, what do you think? Would it be better to use that one or is it OK right now?
Q: Double thumbs up from Dan Ricciardo, you’re obviously aware of the history, Dan.
DR: A little bit.
Q: Seen the old vids on YouTube?
DR: Ah, no, but I’m aware of it. For a few reasons. I think it would be cool to have a bit more distance on the track. I think next year, as well, if the cars are going to be as quick as they say they are then the lap times are going to be close to a minute which is a very short lap and I think it would create a bit more to the circuit. I think that there is the space so yeah, I’ve heard a few people talk about it and I think it could be pretty interesting for us.
DK: I tried to open a video last night but wifi was slow so I had to give up. But I agree with Daniel…
DR: He was too busy looking at other things!
DK: No, sorry Dan!
DR: Don’t be sorry!
DK: So I agree with Dan, yeah, on track.

June 30, 2016

Broadcast Times for the 2016 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix

From the City streets of Baku Formula 1 moves the vast open planes of the Styrian mountains in Spielberg, Austria for round 9 of the Formula 1 World Championship and the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull Ring, previously known as the A1 Ring, hosted Formula 1 races from 1997 to 2003 when it was dropped from the calendar. The track was bought by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and was rebuilt. The layout of the circuit, however, remained the same.

The circuit is 4.326 km with 9 corners and an elevation change of 63 metres from the lowest point in the pits to the highest point at Turn 2. The mountains around the circuit give it somewhat of an arena type feeling and crowds at the highest point have a good view of all the parts of the circuit.

Resurfacing work has been carried out on the circuit. Degradation is expected to be low with the smoother surface.

Mercedes are once again expected to come on top in Austria. In fact, all Mercedes powered cars are expected to perform well at this power circuit. Force India are on a great run of form and Austria should be another circuit that favors their cars characteristics. Williams have always performed well at the Red Bull ring and should be close to the front.

With a home Grand Prix, Red Bull are in much better shape than last year. Although tyre troubles hampered their performance in Baku, they’re expected to be mixing it up at the top of the time sheets with Mercedes and Ferrari.

As we’ve seen with some circuits this season so far, lap records have been tumbling. This year the 1:08.337 lap record set by Michael Schumacher in 2003 is set to fall. We can expect to see a time 3-5 seconds faster this year.

	CDT	GMT	GMT+2	Local
Free Practice 1	Friday 03:00	Friday 08:00	Friday 10:00	Friday 10:00
Free Practice 2	Friday 07:00	Friday 12:00	Friday 14:00	Friday 14:00
Free Practice 3	Saturday 02:00	Saturday 09:00	Saturday 11:00	Saturday 11:00
Qualifying	Saturday 05:00	Saturday 12:00	Saturday 14:00	Saturday 14:00
Race	Sunday 05:00	Sunday 12:00	Sunday 14:00	Sunday 14:00

June 30, 2016