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Tag: australian grand prix

  • 2020 Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2020 Formula 1: Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Nicholas LATIFI (Williams), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Daniel RICCIARDO (Renault)

    PRESS CONFERENCE
    Q: Now, it’s been a complicated build-up to this first race of the season, so I’d like to start just by asking you about your preparations. Daniel, what have you been up to and why is it so difficult for an Australian at home. It seems that this race track, there’s not much love between Australian drivers and Albert Park?
    Daniel RICCIARDO: I guess there haven’t been many Australians, so like the statistics… It’s a game of percentages, right? But anyway, I hope this one is good. I feel like one year’s good, one year’s not, but I think I’m due a good one. I’ve been preparing, been preparing well. I don’t know how to sit; everyone’s trying to sit away from each other. We’ll get cosy. What have I been doing? I don’t know, just the usual. Since testing: back in Europe, bit of simulator stuff, and then I was home for a few days. It’s good to be here.

    Q: How about the motor – the new car? What did you learn about it in testing? Do you feel you can make a step forward from last year?
    DR: Yes, I do. I think the test ended well for us. Day three of week two was a lot more promising and both my feedback and Esteban’s, you could see our expression when we got out of the car, it was certainly a lot more optimistic, so that was encouraging. I just look back at last year, the whole build-up and everything. I was watching some onboards before and I don’t know, I can just see me from the outside and I’m like, “yeah, I’m a lot more comfortable in this car now”, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do.

    Q: It’s your 10th season in Formula 1?
    DR: Yeah, someone reminded me…
    Lewis HAMILTON: Jeez!
    DR: I know, kinda old, huh!

    Q: It’s your 14th, Lewis.
    DR: I’m still a baby. Thanks guys.

    Q: Let’s move on to the baby, Nicholas Latifi, your first grand prix this weekend. Just describe how you feel? An emotional moment, I guess?
    Nicholas LATIFI: Yeah, definitely very exciting. When I was first announced as the race driver last year this weekend seemed so far away. But day by day, going through all the winter preparations and everything, just kind of closing in on this weekend. Yeah, a lot of anticipation from myself and from the team as well, but yeah, really just happy and grateful to be here and just can’t wait to get the weekend underway.

    Q: And more nerves than last year when you were in Formula 2?
    NL: Right now, no, I would say there are not really any nerves at the moment. I’ve kind of said that from already starting winter testing as the official race driver, for me it just felt like a continuation of the work I was doing with the team last year. I was already really comfortable in the team environment. To be honest, all the stuff that made it feel a bit more like I was the race driver was all the external – all the media, the fan interactions, it’s just at so much more of a higher level. Right now everything is still calm. Maybe once I’m waiting on the grid and the lights are about to go out, that’s probably when I’m going to notice…

    Q: You make a reference to the work you were doing with Williams last year, you did six FP1 sessions, so you knew about last year’s car, you drove it. How much of a step forward is this year’s car?
    NL: It’s definitely a step forward. It’s difficult to quantify how much, because it’s always the same in winter testing, you never really know what people are doing with engine modes and fuel levels, but just from my first feeling in the car it was definitely much nicer to drive, giving the driver much more confidence to push and attack the corners, which is what you want. We’re going to see come Saturday where we are in the pecking order. We’re optimistic it definitely is a step forward but we’re just going to have to wait and see just how much.

    Q: Well, good luck with that. Sebastian, talking about differences from last year to this year. From the outside winter testing back in Europe looked a little bit inconclusive for Ferrari. What can you tell us about it?
    Sebastian VETTEL: I think testing is always inconclusive. You never know where you are and that’s the good thing about coming here and [we can] finally get going and racing. I think testing has, not a lot, but it does have its nice sides, aspects, but really racing is what it’s about, so as I said, it’s nice to come here and finally know where you are.

    Q: But like Nicholas and Daniel, can you say that this year’s car is a clear step forward?
    SV: It is but I think that’s probably true for everyone. That’s the idea of having a new car, obviously learning from the experiences of the year before, so I think it’s true to say that everybody had got a better car this year, but it always depends on where you are relative to the others. So I think our car is doing what we expected. It is a step forward, it feels better, but ultimately it matters where you are next to all the others.

    Q: Well, you’ve always gone well here at Albert Park, you’re going for victory number four this weekend. What is it about your relationship with this track? Why do you go so well here?
    SV: I don’t know. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like the track. I think it’s a fun track and generally it feels like the right place to kick it off, great atmosphere. Maybe my biggest advantage is that I’m not Australian. And Lewis as well. I think Lewis has done really well here as well. No, because you opened up by saying that Australians haven’t done really well here!
    DR: The irony is my best year was the year you had an Australian, but then that got taken away.

    Q: 2014, the year you finished second for a bit.
    DR: Yeah. Anyway, I’m still bitter.
    SV: I don’t know; I was trying to joke. I know, I’m German, so it’s probably not what you expect. I think everybody just loves the track and that’s myself included. I think it has a nice flow to it, a nice rhythm. It’s good that they didn’t resurface much of the track, keeping some of the bumps, some of the nature of the track. I think it’s quite fast, considering it’s a semi-street circuit. Yeah, I like it.

    Q: Thank you. Lewis, coming to you, before we talk about track stuff, I just wanted to ask you about your detour on the way here to New South Wales. Tell us what you were doing up there and what you found?
    LH: Yeah, I got here on Monday morning and went straight from the airport in Sydney out to the Blue Mountains and got to see… Through the winter I was watching the news and seeing the devastation out here and how it was affecting people but more so than anything how many animals that perished. That, for me, was too big a number to even comprehend. I wanted to get out here before that but it just wasn’t possible and I was like ‘when I first get here I want to go and see it first-hand for myself’. So, I landed, took a two-hour drive up to the Blue Mountains and slowly started to see a lot of the burnt trees, the forest, as far as the eye can see. A really beautiful place. There was already regrowth, but I went to visit an organisation, Wires, that was helping during the whole period, whilst the animals were suffering, while the fires were going on, and they are helping rehabilitate some of the animals. It’s all just people living in local homes around the area who volunteer and so it was really quite amazing, they are the heroes. It felt amazing to see it for myself and see all the hard work that has been done and it meant a lot to them, the people that I met, that we took the time to go out.

    Q: Daniel, were you here in the height of summer when the bush fires were at their worst?
    DR: I was. I was home, but home for me is Perth, so west coast. We weren’t affected, nothing to the extent of the east. For me to be at home but to see the engagement from the whole world, from all over, that was really nice. It was affecting our country, my country, and to see the generosity from everyone, from all parts of the globe, that was a really good touch.

    Q: And Lewis, just on the on-track stuff, you completed more laps than anybody else in winter testing, how confident are you coming into this race?
    LH: I don’t really ever use the word confidence. I think we just worked as hard as we could. The runs went well or the days went well in Barcelona. We did leave with reliability issues, which I know the guys have been trying to move mountains over the past couple of weeks so we arrive in the best shape possible. So I truly believe in all the hard work we’ve done. We’re hoping we start off on the right foot. I think we arrive here with two less days of testing compared to last year. I think we’ve got quite a good grip on the car and we arrive as best prepared as we can be. As Seb was saying, it’s going to be interesting to see where we all stand, but that’s the exciting part of coming to your first grand prix.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Lewis: with the winter testing, is there some driver and some car you may see as your main rival for your title?
    LH: Force India, maybe?
    DR, NL: Racing Point.
    LH: I don’t call it Racing Point, because I don’t like the name! I prefer Force India. No, I think it’s the same – Ferrari and Red Bull. I think Red Bull have been particularly strong so I don’t really know where they stand between them, but Red Bull were realty strong particularly at the end of last year. Obviously Ferrari have taken a little bit of a step, it seems they may have… they have definitely taken a bit of a step back power-wise, but maybe the car is better, so we’ll see tomorrow when we get in the car over the next couple of days how that plays into effect.

    Q: Sebastian, do you feel like you have taken a step back power-wise?
    SV: Well, we’ll see. I don’t know if others… I think we’ve focused on all areas and also on the engine in the winter and as I said we will find out this weekend, probably in qualifying conditions when everybody is trying to get to their maximum, and we finally see where we are, not just on power but also on the car.

    Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Lewis, regarding the Coronavirus situation, are you comfortable having travelled all the way to Australia and are you satisfied with what Formula One and the FIA have done so far regarding that situation?
    LH: I felt OK travelling out here. Naturally, being on a flight with God knows how many people and then stopping in an airport full of so many people, I didn’t really think too hard on it. I was just trying to make sure I was taking all the precautions I could in terms of not touching things and always using hand sanitizer. I am really very, very surprised that we’re here. I think motorsport is… I think it’s great that we have races but for me it’s shocking that we’re all sitting in this room. So many fans are already here today and it seems like the rest of the world is reacting probably a little bit late but already this morning you’re seeing, with Trump shutting down the borders from Europe to the States, you’re seeing the NBA’s been suspended, yet Formula 1 continues to go on. I don’t know: I saw Jackie Stewart this morning, you know, looking fit and healthy and well in the lift. Some people, as I walked into the paddock, some elderly individuals. It’s a concern, I think, for the people here. It’s quite a big circus that’s come here. So it’s definitely concerning for me. So, no, is your answer.

    Sebastian, anything you’d like to add?
    SV: Not really. I think it’s very difficult to have a fair judgement. Of course, you realise that a lot of sport, competitions, big events get postponed and cancelled and, like Lewis said, it’s fair to ask the question: why are you here? Obviously we have to trust the FIA and FOM to take precautions as much as they can, but I think the answer that nobody can give you at the moment is how much you can control what is going on. As a matter of fact, we are here. You just try to take care as much as you can.

    Daniel, while we’re on the topic, anything you’d like to say?
    DR: …

    Nicholas?
    NL: Nothing really more to add. I think the guys summed it up quite well, just taking all necessary precautions and following the advice of the professionals.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just as a follow-up to that. We’ve seen several team members have gone into isolation because they’re been tested for the Coronavirus. If any of those results come back positive do you think that the race should be postponed or called off on Sunday?
    LH: It’s not for me to make that decision – but I heard that result’s not going to come back for five day or something. Coincidentally. So… yeah. Unlikely.

    Q: (Matt Dixon – The Times) Lewis, you’ve been outspoken where others have maybe not dared to be about Corona. What do you think is the reason this race is still going on? Obviously there are… well, is it business interests? Why are we still here?

    LH: Cash is king. Honestly I don’t know. I can’t really add much more too it. I don’t feel like I should shy away from the fact of my opinion. The fact is we are here and I just urge everyone to be as careful as you can be. Touching doors and surfaces, and I hope everyone’s got hand sanitisers. And, really for the fans, I really hope they’re taking precautions. I was walking through and seeing just everything going ahead as normal, like it’s a normal day – but it’s… I really don’t think it is. I just hope all the fans stay safe. I really hope we go through this weekend and we don’t see any fatalities, or things that come along in the future.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, thank you for having the balls to say your piece there and speak out. Everyone else seems to be hiding behind ‘we trust the FIA’, which seems pretty mad. I want to know – this is all four drivers – how you would respond if the FIA, F1 decided to take the decision to suspend the first couple of races of the season, maybe start in Europe. How would you take that? Would that be welcome? Sensible? What’s your opinions?

    Let’s start with Daniel.
    DR: You really want me to talk? Honestly, from my side, I have to put my trust in the FIA and also, I think, we may all have opinions but at the end of the day I’m here to compete and race cars. I’m not really much more than that in this situation. There’s people who are spending more time investing in it than I am and I’m kind of just following guidelines. I came here knowing we were going to compete so, to be honest… I don’t want to say selfishly… but I’ve just got my head down, focused on the race and I’ve been training and preparing and obviously getting a bunch of emails with guidelines and this and that but I honestly haven’t spent too much time digging into details. There are certainly people around me doing that, so yeah, it’s a tough one. I know it’s real but, as maybe Seb touched on, I don’t know who knows really, at least in this room, we don’t really know the extent of it or how quickly it can spread, or what level it’s at. It’s kind of left to the others for now. It’s mixed. The racer in me is happy that I’m here, for sure.

    Sebastian, if the first couple of races were suspended, postponed… what would your reaction be?
    SV: Well, one way or the other, I think you expect and you hope that we take the right decision, or the sensible decision. So, if that’s the case then there’s probably reason for it. If it’s not the case then you rely on the fact that maybe there’s not enough reason for it. As I said, I don’t think I’m the one to judge, and I think, to be completely straight, we are probably in a lucky situation, as in, obviously we are exposed to people, and so on, but I think we can largely control our own situation. Obviously in the car we don’t even have a passenger. What I mean is, you try to control the situation for yourself first, as much as you can. That’s selfish but I think everybody in this regard is selfish. You see some people being more relaxed about handshakes, others less. Now some laugh it off, some take it very serious. I think, as I said before, my stand on it is that it’s very difficult at the moment to really categorise and say that it is great, I don’t know, serious, or not serious – but that’s why you have to ultimately put yourself into other people’s hands and trust them. I think we all did getting down here. The flights weren’t cancelled, we were all allowed to travel, so we trusted whoever we flew with. We are sitting in this room. Within that, I think that you are within your own bubble and you try to control it as much as you can. I think that’s valid for us sitting here on the couch, that’s valid for people sitting opposite us and it’s valid for people outside and around the globe. I think it’s probably right to take care and take precaution. How much is necessary, and who’s responsible and whatever other questions, I think there are a lot of questions at the moment that are very difficult to answer.

    Nicholas?
    NL: Obviously for me, it being my first race in Formula One, it definitely is a bit of a strange feeling to have it all starting like this but, again, me, nor any of us are qualified to really make that decision on if the race goes ahead or not. I mean, if the coming races, including this one, don’t end up going ahead, then just have a bit of a holiday I guess. There’s not really much more influence that I’m going to have on the decision. And, again, just following the advice of the professionals really.

    And the debut would have to wait…
    NL: yeah.

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) To all drivers. We now understand that at least four team members have been tested for the Coronavirus and up to eight. Now, if one of these comes back with a positive result, given how close-knit, and how closely everyone works together in the paddock, is it not of concern to you that it will probably suggest that the Coronavirus has taken hold in the paddock already?
    SV: I don’t know. How can you answer that? You can’t. You don’t know. Maybe yes – and I think as far as, and I’m not an expert, but as far as I understand, some people will have it and you don’t see anything. They show no symptoms. You might have it.  Sorry, but who knows. Maybe to some degree you never know and to another degree you will. So, I think the precaution obviously, as far as I understood, that these people got checked. I don’t know how long it takes, if it takes five days or shorter, I have no idea. I think you will probably have to cross that bridge when it comes to it. Then, there’s always an argument that we should have seen this before, we shouldn’t… I think we are all here happy in a way to race because we all love racing. We want to race – but you can’t ignore the fact that something is going on and you have to be aware of the situation – but answering these questions, I think nobody can.

    Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports) Sebastian, the FIA have had this inquiry into your power unit. They haven’t found the team guilty of any specific wrong-doing. Are you disappointed then that they didn’t clear the team, could this have been handled better in terms of what’s been said in public? And to Lewis: it’s been a friendly rivalry between Mercedes and Ferrari; are the gloves off now?
    SV: I took the gloves out once to Lewis and it wasn’t the right thing to do so I said it afterwards. Remember Baku!
    DR: Well done Baku.
    SV: Everyone remembers that race so… who won the race? Anyways, what was the question, sorry?

    Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports) That the team wasn’t cleared, Sebastian, given that they couldn’t find a specific illegality with the engine.
    SV: Um, well, I don’t know. As far as I understand it was cleared so I think… For me it’s very simple. Obviously I trust my team to do the right things, within the regulations, at all time. I think we all trust, all drivers, the governing body as in the FIA, to do their job for all teams on the grid. I think that’s probably the answer, so there’s not much else to add. If you have further detailed questions and so on, then I’m not the one to answer because I think the cars are quite complex now so probably I’m not the best person to give you enough insight. I think the other one, that I would like to add, which I think from your second question, I can smell might be a hint, is that for me it doesn’t change anything in terms of the relationship that I have with other drivers and in this particular (instance) with Lewis. I think the respect that we share we’ve grown over the years is untouched and I don’t think is at threat.
    LH: What was the question?

    Q: Are the gloves off?
    LH: Well, no.  Firstly I think I repeat what Seb has just said. Between us our respect has continued to grow over the years and that doesn’t change. I think that what goes on in the background between teams and the governing body, I think is a separate issue. I think it could have been handled better, for sure but again, that’s really something that should be directed to Toto. I think for us athletes, us drivers, we just want to arrive at the races. Naturally all the teams are different in their performance but you want to feel that you’re playing on fair grounds. That’s the approach that we have and I think… I don’t really know. I won’t add too much more to it because it will just cause more trouble.

    Q: (Roger Barne – Beyond the Racing Line) There’s a bit of talk about having some changes to the track in the next couple of years here in Melbourne. What’s the drivers take on what would you like to see at Albert Park track changed in the next couple of years? Nothing, Seb?
    SV: I haven’t heard anything.

    Q: (Roger Barne – Beyond the Racing Line) Possibly resurfacing, widening the track, possibly going on at 12 to lengthen that end to add another straight?
    DR: I’m aware of some of it so I guess I can talk on it a bit. As a driver, I think as Seb touched on earlier, we do enjoy this track. I don’t know any driver that doesn’t. It’s fast and flowing. In a way, it’s a bit like Monaco, like it’s a pleasure to drive by yourself but for overtaking come Sunday it’s not always the best track on the calendar. I think the overtaking average is certainly one of the lowest. We were asked our opinion –  I guess a few of us – if we thought the track could do with some changes and yeah, we were told there were some areas on the track they could widen or try and change the angle of the corner, to try and open it up and create maybe bigger braking zones or basically more chances for overtaking. I think this is what is trying to be achieved. So I’m definitely for that because we’ve also driven this layout for a while so with a few corners changed then if it did make the show on Sunday better I think we would all be OK with that.
    LH: Yeah, no, I agree with what Daniel said. I think it’s firstly, this is a fantastic place to come to every year, I think the best opening race in a country that probably Formula One’s ever had. It’s such an exciting place to come to and the track is fantastic but probably a bit like Monaco, a little bit more so on a single lap for us in qualifying, but in the race I think it’s the third or fourth most difficult track to overtake on so if they were to make some modifications, make it longer, particularly right now when we’re getting faster and faster, you’re probably going to see less overtaking I would imagine, potentially this year also being that we have more downforce, more drag which affects the car further behind even more so. So yeah, I’m definitely for them adding some really cool modifications. I just hope that we do stay, keep the race here. I don’t really know what they would have to do to the actual current layout; just extending that’s going to make a big difference. I don’t know the answer to that but I’m all for it.
    SV: I haven’t seen any suggestions. In a way it would be sad to change. I get the point but I don’t know, obviously next year it’s supposed to change a lot in terms of racing, so maybe it’s wise to wait for that before you rebuild the whole track, might also be the cheaper option, let us spend the money on the cars before you spend the money on the track. I think it’s probably best to wait and see what happens next year and then we’ll see. If they make the track even nicer then go ahead but usually with those things they end up doing it not so nice.
    Q: Nicholas, how was your track walk yesterday?
    NL: Yeah, I was going to say, I can’t really comment so much on that because I haven’t driven it. We have been around the track four times already; I did come out quite early. It looks like a great track to drive; I’ve heard many great things about it. I ran twice. I came on Saturday; I was here quite early. Yeah, walked it twice. I’m just going to have to wait and see.

    Q: (Inga Strake – Pole Position Reports) Lewis, your team press release said that at the beginning of the season you feel really fit, probably fitter or more ready than before. How much is that is down toward what you’ve been posting over the winter, your vegan nutrition and what did the change in nutrition mean for you? And is it more about food and eating, what you take in or also about sustainability and environment?
    LH: I think my health has just got better and better over the last couple of years as I’ve gone to the plant-based diet. It is not the easiest thing to straight away go to and you’re constantly learning about the foods and discovering more foods… things that you probably would never… no, things that I would have never really eaten before, to give you some variability. I focused on having consistent good solid meals; I had a chef during the winter so that was really why it was particularly a better period of time for me but I do feel a large part of the reason I have gone that way is because of the environment and for the animals. It’s a little bit difficult, sitting up here, because I know not all of us do… you know, vegan, not everyone continues but not for me, I’ve definitely felt the benefits from that on the health side of things and physically, it’s just enabled me to… you know people do think you’re going to lose muscle if you don’t have your protein, that’s… a lot of the time people say I need my protein but it’s absolute rubbish. You just need to do some reading on line. I’ve managed to… last year I bulked up, I put a lot more weight on. This winter I trimmed down, like cut but have more muscle and I’m able to lift more weight than I’ve ever done before and I haven’t been able to run further than I’ve ever been able to run before. That’s just enabled me to train better. But you’ve seen it in other sports, other sportsmen and women around the world are trying these things. Serena (Williams) has been working on it, Djokovic, you’ve got a bunch of people out there that are doing it. I think it’s a positive and important way to go for us all. I think there are lots of areas that need to… not just in food but there’s a lot of things that we all need to do better moving forward but one step at a time.
    Q: Have you ever tried a 40-hour fast, Lewis?
    LH: Why would you do that?
    DR: Why do you ask? He asked me in Abu Dhabi. What was my answer? I was bored, wasn’t I?
    Q: You said you’d done a 40-hour fast.
    DR: Yeah, so a bit of experimenting so I guess on the diet stuff so, lot of vegan stuff now you hear and fasting comes in. I guess I’ve stayed open-minded through it all so yeah, I tried a little bit of fasting over the last few years but yeah, I’m not going to go on a spiel and say I did it because of this reason, that reason. I just… a few people did it and said it was quite good so I thought I’d try it. Did you do it?

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Just to go back, obviously a serious subject, the coronavirus, would there be any circumstances if there were more incidence of people getting ill or, God forbid, someone involved in the sport, died, at which you guys would say we’d rather not race? You say we’re already here which we obviously are but there will be 100,000 in on Sunday and the day before and that could be alleviated if there were no race. Would any of you consider lobbying to go down that route?
    SV: My stand, and I think I probably… I hope others would agree, we hope it doesn’t get that far. If it were to get that far then for sure you pull the handbrake and I think we are a group of 20 guys and I think we’ve got together over the last years for various circumstances on various topics and I think we share common opinion on big decisions and that, I would qualify, is a very, very big decision and ultimately, as I said before, you look at yourself and we would, I think, be mature enough to look after ourselves and pull the handbrake in that case.

  • 2018 Australian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Australian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Mark Webber)

     

    Sebastian, 48th victory, 100th podium, a couple behind Alain Prost, so run us through it – what a race. 

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously pretty good. We got a bit lucky with the safety car but yeah, really enjoyed it. A great turnout today, you saw in the grandstands, I really enjoyed the lap back in. And for the race, I mean my start, I was hoping for it to be a little bit better, but it didn’t really work, so I had to settle for third. And then, towards the end of that first stint I lost a little bit the connection to Lewis and Kimi ahead. I was struggling a little bit with the tyres. I felt happier with the soft tyres, with the yellow tyres at the end, for the second stint. Obviously I was praying for a safety and there was a car that stopped in Turn 4 and I was like ‘no, it’s not coming out’ and then somebody stopped, I think it was a Haas, in Turn 2, and then when I saw it I was full of adrenalin, even though the race is frozen, but still to come into the pits, everything on the limit, trying to get back out, because they told me it was really close with Lewis. And when we got out ahead I knew it was difficult to pass but he kept some pressure on, especially at the beginning of the last stint and then at the end, during the last five laps at least I could enjoy it a little bit more.

     

    Well done. Lewis, God, what a weekend you’ve had! Give him a round of applause. He’s been incredible this weekend, absolutely on fire yesterday in qualifying. You’ve been on this podium eight times, more than any other driver in history in Australia. I thought you drove phenomenally this weekend, mate, it got away through tactics in the [it lane. Talk us through the race, how was it for you?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s been an incredible weekend, honestly. To arrive and have the performance we had today. A big congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari. Today, obviously, they did the better job and we have to go back to the drawing board and work on it. We still have great pace, our qualifying was great, I think through the race I was able to apply some pressure towards the end. This is one awesome circuit but it’s so hard to overtake, even with the extra DRS, obviously with the cars being as close as they were. At the end it was really trying to live to fight another day, save the engine and we’ll try to regain the point later on. But a big thank you to everyone that has come out this weekend. We’ve got so many British flags and for the Australians for having us this week.

     

    Kimi, my man. How was it? Sixteen times this man has raced in front of you guys. He’s an absolute legend. Up here on the podium for the first time since he won in 2013. Kimi, how was your race?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I think it was OK. We didn’t have the most luck but what can you do. Luckily it was Seb that got the luck and it was our team at least. I think I had decent speed all day long and just difficult to pass. I got a good go in the second corner and then just tried to follow and see if we could do something in a pit stop. Obviously with the safety car it’s pure luck. We could hold onto third place. Got some pressure in the end, from the Red Bull with little bit more fresh tyres, but I’ll take it the third place. I think I’ve been happy with the car and it’s nice to go onto the next races.

     

    Sebastian, we meet up again on this podium with (you) victorious. It’s a nice meeting point in terms of Ferrari winning, the season starting off on the front foot, last year it was a titanic battle with Lewis, off to Bahrain in a few weeks. How do you see it playing out?

    SV: Obviously we were a little bit lucky today. Lewis had a great lap yesterday. He deserved pole position. He drove a very good race; controlled it in the beginning. As I say, we got a bit lucky, but we’ll take it. We put a flag up in Maranello for every win and I asked them to do that this morning back in Europe. We’re not yet there where we want to be. I’m not yet exactly there with the car, you know. If I don’t feel what I need to feel then it’s a bit tricky. I think we all know. But I think it gives us a good start, a good wind and fresh motivation for the coming weeks.

     

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: (Yianni Mavromoustakos – Talkingtorque.com.au) Firstly congratulations to Seb, now for all three drivers, how did you find the Halo in race conditions.

    KR: No different than in testing or at any other point. I think it definitely doesn’t disturb at all. I think it was helpful here because the sun, when it’s coming in the right height, it’s blocking the sun in the eyes. So, I think it was only beneficial here, and it’s safer. Maybe people don’t like how it looks but y’know it might make a difference for us one day and it’s a good thing to have.

     

    Seb?

    SV: During the race, it was no issue. As Kimi said, it even helped. I don’t know what you call the thing in the car… it worked like a sun visor, that helped. In the parade lap, that’s when it was bothering because you couldn’t see so well the people in the grandstands. Was trying to find, is it better to look below, or… wasn’t tall enough to get above. Other than that, no difference.

     

    Lewis, anything to add?

    LH: I don’t think so.

     

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Seb, what do you still miss in the feeling of the car. It’s up to the balance of the car, the power of the engine or what else?

    SV: No, I think the car has huge potential but yeah, I’m still struggling a little bit. I think if we also compare to where we’re still a bit weak, it’s where I also feel that the car is not yet there, so, what am I missing, when you talk about something that you miss as a driver, the car doesn’t respond the way you like and it’s still sliding in places you don’t want it to slide. I’m quite… I want the car to be spot on when I hit brakes and turn in, and in that window, I’m not yet happy, so it’s always sort-of a compromise. Of course, it’s our job to drive around problems that we have but if I could chose, I would like it a bit different and yeah, it’s not a big drama. I think we can live with it but I feel also if we get on top of that then you feel more confident. A track like here, when you have confidence it makes a big difference. I think today was quite windy, very gusty. You always try to push but equally to try to be a bit safe – because you don’t want to throw it away. That’s exactly where it makes a difference: if then then have the confidence and you trust the car, you don’t think for a second, you just go out and do it. At the moment, it just feels a bit too conscious. So, let’s hope I get to think less, and we need to think less in the next races.

     

    Q: (Paul Gover – Herald Sun) Party time for you guys tonight. Will you be inviting the guys from the Haas team perhaps as well?

    SV: I don’t know what the problem for them was. Obviously, as I said before, the Virtual Safety Car did help me today, no doubt, but as I said as well, there were other races where it didn’t, so that’s the way it goes. I’ve been on the other side as well. I said as well that, y’know, Lewis was probably the quickest out of all three of us but that’s how it goes and for sure, wearing red is a good day today.

     

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, it’s your best start to the season for five years. P3, it is more satisfaction or a disappointment?

    KR: Obviously, you want more, always, and you want to win. I think we had decent speed all weekend and we were pretty OK in the early part of the race and then obviously, it’s just pure luck sometimes that goes your way or against you. What happened today, at least it was our team. Not ideal for me but it’s a decent start and it’s a long year so the feeling has been OK this weekend. We go for the next race and I’d rather take a third place than no points, so yeah, we always want more but I’ll take it and we go.

     

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Tabloid time again. Sebastian, are you concerned about ‘Party Mode’, do you think it’s legal what Mercedes have got?

    SV: I think so. I think also Lewis was right yesterday. I think that… y’know we do get a bit of data, GPS data and stuff like that… I think they did turn it up for Q3 but not by seven-tenths. I think probably if you look at qualifying carefully, I try to do so last night. It’s fair to say they were quick in Q1, quicker than us, Lewis was quick in Q2 and then his second run, I don’t know, something happened. So, his last run in Q3 was the only proper run at the end and he had a clean run and I don’t think the gain that he had in time was down to engine. Probably a tenth, a little bit more, but not seven tenths. So, the credit is for his lap that he did and not for the engine power. It’s completely fine what they’re doing because they didn’t do anything special. Not more than they did last year, probably even a bit less by the looks of it. So, it was clear that he just had a very good lap and he drove well.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – Press Association) Seb, do you take any extra satisfaction in the win today, given the comments that Lewis made yesterday about wiping the smile off your face after qualifying?

    SV: Not really. He said he was joking and I believe him. I think we are old enough, I don’t think we need to go on that sort of level. It’s fine as long as we joke with each other and I don’t think… apart from a point last year, we don’t have a problem with each other. I think even if we are very different persons, I think we share – all of us – a common passion and that makes us quite equal again. We love racing and we try to do our best, once we’re in the car and beat all the others. I think in that regard, I don’t see why we shouldn’t get on with each other.

    Q: Do you see it the same way, Lewis?

    LH: Sorry, I wasn’t listening.

    Q: No reason you shouldn’t get on with each other?

    LH: Don’t think so, no.

     

    Q: (Daniele Sparisci – Corriera della Sera) Seb, in your feeling, what is the difference between this victory from the one from last year in Melbourne? Which one is more unexpected?

    SV: The one today. I think last year we had more pace in relative terms. Last year we were putting them under pressure. Even though Lewis was in the lead, I think we managed to put him under pressure so yeah, I was forced to pit and we benefited from that. Because we had the speed today…  I think we didn’t have the true race pace to match them but we weren’t that far off. In the last stint, even though we were probably lucky with the safety car or virtual safety car, we still had enough pace to stay ahead and make it very difficult for him to be close and try and do something. I think also compared to the others, it didn’t look like there was a whole train behind us so I think we had some decent pace.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions for Kimi: first of all, you were quicker than Sebastian in qualifying and in the first part of the race with the ultrasoft tyres so is that satisfactory and encouraging for future races? And second, with the harder tyre, you didn’t seem to be able to hold on to them. Was the balance the difference?

    KR: I think I had a chance to fight for the first place in the beginning but I was very happy with the car all weekend. Obviously there are things that we have to improve, we know that, but it wasn’t too bad and in the end of all the guys I had the older tyres so obviously with Ricciardo my aim was just to keep him behind because I followed throughout the first part of the race but it’s very difficult to overtake so it wasn’t really there. The biggest thing was to try to get in front of Lewis. I was happy to take the third place, not ideal but I was pretty happy with everything, not much to complain about but obviously the position could be a bit better.

     

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, if the team had warned you about Seb’s pitting, would have you been able to do something else to change the scenario?

    LH: I’d have to go and look at it but it was quite close between us, maybe a second or so. If I had known that Sebastian was in my window I may have been able to make a difference, yes. Whether it would be enough, I’m not quite sure. I’d have to look.

     

    Q: (Mikko Hyytia  – Iltalehti) Kimi, how surprised were you by Sebastian’s tactics because on the radio it sounded like you were pretty surprised?

    KR: Not really. The only thing I was surprised because we were talking on the radio that they didn’t let me know what he was doing. Obviously we talked before the race and there were hundreds of options what we can do and that was his best option and no threat from behind. He would obviously take a chance because he had nothing else to lose at that point, safe in third place so it would work out well. I wasn’t really surprised what they did. I was surprised that we didn’t – at one point – know exactly.

     

    Q: (Phil Branagan – Auto Action) Question to Seb to follow on from that earlier one: because the result was so similar to last year, and the race played out similarly, would you say, compared with Lewis’s car you were better off this year than you were a year ago, worse off or about the same?

    SV:  Well, at the moment we’re a bit worse off. Last year we had more pace at this point. If you look at the gaps the whole weekend and we’re not yet a true match. Obviously we had very good pace today, Kimi was very strong in the first stint. I think I was probably a tiny bit stronger in the second stint but it was a different race for us. But I think if you look and you are fair, then Lewis was fastest whereas last year I think we were fastest and it was very very close and therefore at this point we know that we are not yet where we want to be because we want to be fastest.

  • Vettel Tops Wet and Dry Free Practice 3

    Vettel Tops Wet and Dry Free Practice 3

    A wet start with a rapidly drying track with 15mins left in session has left a few more unknowns after the 3rd free practice session for the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

    It meant that the Ferrari’s who switched to the ultra soft tyres before the end of the session topped the time sheet with Sebastian Vettel setting a session best time of 1:26.067 and team mate Kimi Raikkonnen a further 2.432s off Vettel’s time with a 1:28.499. Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber was the only other driver to post a lap on dry weather tyres, finished third fastest with a time of 1:28.890.

    The session started wet with a few initial installation laps on the full wets. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso went straight out on the intermediates.

    The Mercedes pair were out on intermediates and traded fastest laps as usual. Force India on the other hand saw no value in taking part in the session and both their drivers were confined to the garage.

    There was some trouble for Lance Stroll but the team did a great job to get him out after a gearbox issue saw him sit out part of the session.

    Vettel’s lap will give Mercedes something to think about even though it was no where near the times set yesterday in the dry. Red Bull who were hoping for rain didn’t quite show their hand in the wet. Qualifying is expected to be dry where Mercedes is expected to be clear ahead. It’s a question of who is going to line up behind them.

     

  • 2018 Australian GP: Friday Practice Report

    2018 Australian GP: Friday Practice Report

    It was a Friday of domination by Mercedes for the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

    Lewis Hamilton took the honors in both Friday practice sessions finishing top of the time sheets. It looked like Mercedes were unreachable after Free Practice 1, but things closed up a bit in Free Practice 2 and, as it stands, it looks like Red Bull could pose a threat to Mercedes come race day.

    It’s believed that either Mercedes will qualify in pole position in tomorrows qualifying session. There is some rain forecast which may throw things for a bit. Red Bull will no doubt be hoping for rain. Ferrari on the other hand have not said much, only that there is more to come from the car and that they’re looking good for the rest of the weekend. Their long run pace puts them in contention but qualifying high on the grid is crucial.

    Free Practice three should finally reveal who’s got the pace to challenge the mighty Mercedes.

    Free Practice 1

    Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the first one to venture out on to the Albert Park Circuit to kick the 2018 off. With the track being very green, it took a few laps before some representative times started coming through.

    Mercedes were quick out the blocks and fastest times were being traded between Hamilton and Bottas almost immediately. The Red Bull’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen got in the mix as well but it was Hamilton who eventually set the session best time of 1:24.026. Bottas was second fastest 0.551s off the pace with a 1:24.577 with Verstappen a further 0.745s down.

    While the Red Bulls and Mercedes drivers ran with the super soft tyres and the ultra soft tyres, both Ferrari drivers chose to limit their super soft running and ran almost exclusively on the soft compound tyres with Vettel having a short stint on the super softs.

    McLaren were hoping that their bad run of luck would’ve ended in testing but that was not to be. Fernando Alonso sat out most of the session with an exhaust issue. Vandoorne didn’t escape the gremlins either. But McLaren were able to get the pair back out on track and Alonso jumped up the order and eventually finished 8th fastest with Vandoorne in 10th.

    Haas were definitely the surprise of the session. They proved that their testing pace was not a one off with Romain Grosjean finishing 7th.

     

    Free Practice 2

    With Mercedes utterly dominant in the first session it was expected they would just leave the rest of the field behind. But Red Bull and Ferrari had other ideas. In the end it was much closer than anyone had expected and it sets up a great qualifying and race.

    Hamilton took the fastest time of the session with a 1:23.931. 2nd Fastest was Max Verstappen in the Red Bull just 0.127s off Hamilton’s time with a 1:24.058. Bottas in the second Mercedes was 3rd fastest 0.228s off Hamilton’s time.

    The Ferrari’s were 4th and 5th with Raikkonen ahead of Vettel. The latter saying that he’s not entirely happy with the balance of the car, but he expects changes that will be made overnight to yield some results.

    The second session was a more aggressive. With some rubber laid down in the first session, the drivers were getting stuck in and pushing to find the limits. There were off track excursions from Esteban Ocon in the Force India at Turn 3 and Carlos Sainz in the Renault at Turn 12.

    Raikkonen and Bottas almost had a coming together when Raikkonen got muddled up at Turn 3. Bottas approaching, had to take to the gravel trap to avoid his fellow countryman. The pair were summoned to the stewards but it was judged that although Raikkonen had impeded Bottas he former did make the move to cede the apex to Bottas and that it was not intentional.

    The mid-field battle is heating up as Haas emerged best of the rest again. The rest of the pack are all extremely close.

    It’s setup to be a close race. Mercedes is expected to use their superior “quali” engine mode to steal pole. The race, however, is going to be an interesting prospect with rain expected in qualifying.

  • 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Post-Race Press Conference

    2017 Australian Grand Prix: Post-Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS
    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Mark Webber)

    Q: Sebastian, all those thousands and thousands of hours of work from the whole team over winter testing, you guys have shown the form early in the season, massive victory, how do you feel?
    Sebastian VETTEL: Unbelievable. Thank you everyone, it was a fantastic grand prix. It was quite, in a positive way, when I was coming back to the pits and there were people running on track going wild with Ferrari flags. It was unbelievable. Thanks for the support. Like you said, it was what we needed. The whole team has been working really, really hard. The guys didn’t get much sleep here and back in the factory. The car is really behaving well, incredible to drive, a beautiful day. Thank you.

    Q: We’ll move across to second place. Lewis Hamilton, who did everything right, he did everything right. Come on, Australia. Absolutely world class is Lewis. On pole position, phenomenal start, mate. And for me, I think the strategy didn’t quite work out for you today. Did you have to pit? Why was it so early? And obviously for you then to get the race victory back off Sebastian was going to be very difficult from then onwards.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, definitely. Firstly, a big congratulations to Ferrari and to Sebastian, they did an amazing job this weekend. It’s been a great weekend for us and the team, but just in the race, I struggled with the tyres at the end. I had to pit a lot earlier than these guys because I just ran out of grip. Pitted and I got stuck behind one of the Red Bulls and sometimes that’s just the way it goes. But overall, a great race and good points for the team and I mean look at this crowd. Thank you for coming out today and it’s always such a great place for us to be.

    Q: Well done Lewis and great sportsmanship there and I wouldn’t expect anything different from a world champion. Valtteri, first time up here with Mercedes, how does it feel? Big weekend for you, no errors, talk us through it.
    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, obviously first race with the team and really want to thank everyone. The team has been so welcoming. We worked really hard for this first race to be ready. Everything went nice and smoothly but it’s just that the red guys are a bit too quick, so that means we need to work harder. We are definitely ready for that. I am ready for that. This is just the start, starting with a podium, we can improve it from here, so I’ll look forward to the next few races.

    Q:Well done mate, we’ll finish with Sebastian Vettel. Your 43rd victory. The last time I saw this kind of atmosphere was with both our hero, Michael Schumacher. So emotionally for you it must be massive for you to have all these Italian fans down here in Melbourne, in Italy and around the world, winning the first race of the season and taking the championship fight to this man.
    SV: Yeah, it’s a long, long way ahead. For now I think we’re just over the moon. I think it’s been a hard winter and an incredible race today. At the start I wasn’t entirely happy. I think I was a little bit too nervous.

    I was surprised. I thought you were going to do it.
    SV: I had a bit of wheel slip off the line. Lewis was a tiny bit better and then I had to take care of Valtteri in Turn One, but then I had a decent exit. But after that I was really trying to keep the pressure on to make sure that they get that message that we are here and we’re here to fight. Obviously got a bit lucky when Lewis came out in traffic but still we were hanging in there, the tyres were still good, the car was working, so excellent job. And as I said, the support around the track: I had a look with 20 laps to go left and right and especially last sector they were always on fire with the flags, so it was really great. Yeah, thank you.

    Q: And a quick word on the beast: what are the cars like now compared to last year?

    SV: Ah, you could push much harder. Usually the first couple of laps you were pushing last year and then the tyres were dropping off. Now the tyres are still dropping off a bit but you can keep pushing. You can keep braking at the same point. The car is screaming “more, more, more!” Also, at the end with the harder tyres there is hardly any degradation so it’s really good fun, especially in the fast corners. You could keep going forever, it was a great race, and I enjoyed it a lot.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Congratulations Sebastian, your second win here in Australia and the 43rd of your Formula One career. Great start to your year. Talk us through the conversation on the radio after Lewis made that early pit stop. What were deliberations in terms of the strategy? And when you came in and went out on the soft tyres, to try to warm that thing up, you had quite a bit of action behind you, tell us about how tense that got?

    SV: I think we realised early on that we had decent pace. I was able to follow Lewis and then I think after 10 or 12 laps he was really pushing, trying to open a gap, and he succeeded a bit. I was struggling to keep up, but still hanging in there. And I knew if there was anything to happen around the first stop then I need to be right behind him to either put them under pressure or have a chance to jump into the pits earlier to pass him through the stop. Once it was clear that he went in, there was no point to follow. We stayed out, the tyres were still holding on and the pace looked alright. I wasn’t aware of the traffic situation at that point and I just tried to calm down a bit because I was quite hot on the previous laps, but still keep the pace up and hope for an ‘overcut’ so to say. Then I was told he was facing some traffic, which I didn’t know who and how fast the traffic was and whether he would clear but I just tried to hang in there. And then obviously we saw the gap, went into the pits and it worked. It was very tight. I lost a lot of time on the in-lap because I had a lapped car, I think it was a Williams. I lost about a second so I was a bit angry but that’s how it goes sometimes and still it was just enough and I had Max right behind me and Lewis as well, so that was quite tight. Turn One was a bit slippery, but I managed to get a decent exit and a decent run down to Turn Three. I just held the inside. I knew that Max would probably try something but I just kept in front. That was obviously crucial for our race. I tried to push for as hard as I could for the one or two [laps] Max was still out because he was slower on the older tyres, to open a bit of a gap and control the race. The car was really good, working well and I could control the gap and the pace, going through traffic and just bringing it home. It was very pleasant. A different race to last year, where you had to manage a lot. Now I think it was a bit more raw, especially the beginning. Even if it wasn’t a wheel-to-wheel fight I could see Lewis was pushing really hard. There were some corners where he was on top of me and other corners where I was catching up. It was nice that we could just push and race to let’s say the first stop. Then obviously we got a bit lucky with him facing some traffic. But equally we pushed him to the pits and did well. Otherwise, if he had a big lead after 15 laps then he could stay out, control the race and pit into free air. We did a very good race. I’m very happy with the calls today. It worked brilliantly and as I said, big thanks to the team. We say this all the time but I think if you’re not part of the team I think it’s difficult to realise but what this team has done in the last six months has been really tough, rough as well, not easy to manage the whole team but I think the new car, in general… obviously today is fantastic, a big reward a big relief for everyone. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. The foundation has been laid a
    long time ago and really proud to see it coming together. This is just one race. I’m sure we’ll have a great night, we’ll create… we did already, but we will create some great memories tonight and we’ll take it from there. I think we enjoy what we do, the spirit is great in the team and that’s for us to keep it up.

    Q: Congratulations. Lewis, a lot of pressure on you at the start but the getaway looked pretty flawless so talk us through that. Then Sebastian said he felt he pushed you into the pits and you came in relatively early, lap 18, did you have to come in?
    LH: We had a really good start, which is fantastic; it’s good to have a good getaway. After that, I was struggling with the grip from the get-go. Sebastian was able to always answer in terms of lap time and the majority of the time do faster lap times and then towards the end I got a bit in traffic and the car started to overheat the tyres and I was struggling with grip and it was to the point that I needed to come in. Plus, the gap was closing up and I was sliding around. So it was my call because otherwise he probably would have come by anyway. So then I came in and then I got obviously stuck in traffic, which is a little bit unfortunate but that’s motor racing. But a big congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari. I know it’s been a long time coming for them to get a result like this. It shows we are going to have a race on our hands, which we are very happy to have, which is great for the fans. Unfortunately it’s harder than ever to get close to cars, which is a shame. We can’t even have a close battle but who knows, maybe in the future we will.

    Q: Valtteri, so we learned that Ferrari’s pace from testing is real. What did you learn this weekend about your new car, your new team and where you yourself can improve going forward?
    VB: Well, first of all I think it is a start. There are always things that could have gone better but it is a good starting point for the journey for me driving for Mercedes. I think the main things were obviously yesterday, the qualifying, I didn’t get everything perfect but it was the first qualifying with the team and this track really hasn’t been fantastic for me ever in qualifying. But there’s a long season ahead. Today, I think the race was good. As a team I think we did a good job with the car we have. I think Ferrari was quicker today, there’s no doubt about that. They have obviously done a great job and a better job for this race. From my side the main thing today was the first stint. I struggled quite a lot with the ultrasoft tyres. It felt like I was just sliding around, always missing front grip, rear grip, especially after like 10 laps of the first stint. That wasn’t easy. But once we put the soft tyres on it was quite a good feeling with the car and the car was behaving really nicely. It was really nice to drive. But it was a bit too late and still missing a bit of pace. Overall, I think not a disastrous first race weekend with the team but I do have my points I will take and I can do better next time and I look forward to that.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian. Can you tell us please which was the road map that the team had to follow to achieve this victory and how much is it a surprise to be on the top now?
    SV: I think for all of us it is a positive surprise. I think the road we followed is pretty simple: we didn’t look left; we didn’t look right; we didn’t look forward; we didn’t look back. I think we focussed on what we had to do at the time. Obviously there has been a lot of up and down, left and right the last 12 months but I think, especially the last couple of months, things calmed down and we just tried to do our job. Obviously there has been a big reshuffle but, as I said, people are happy, happy to work, working with each other. That’s the key. At the end there’s no shortcut, you need to get the job done and invest a lot of hours thinking. Passion, I think, is a great driver back in the factory, also here. I think up and down the pitlane the amount of hours the guys are covering is mad. You need to love what you’re doing but especially… I said it years ago joining Ferrari, there seems to be an extra passion just working for the Prancing Horse and, I think, just focussing on ourselves really has been the big difference. I think a key to deliver a great car, which we obviously have. The speeds look alright, both on the straights and in the corners we are competitive. As I said, I was able to stay with Lewis. They had a little bit the upper hand yesterday but I knew, y’know, we had much better balance yesterday than on Friday so I knew in the race anything can happen. It’s the first race of the season, I’m surprised we didn’t have a Safety Car but anything can happen. I wanted to stay in there and make it clear we had the pace. It was nice to see that we have and, as I say, to get the job done.

    Q: (Leon Alepidis – F1fan) Question to all of you, now that you have completed a decent sum of laps with 2017 cars around the Circuit de Catalunya and Albert Park, for which track and individual turn a re you most looking forward to?
    SV: I don’t know if I can get all the races together! Probably Silverstone. I think with that amount of grip and downforce. Probably Suzuka as well later on in the year. Also I guess the cars will be even faster from what they are now. So, yeah, I think that would be quite nice. I’m looking forward to that.

    Lewis?
    LH: Yes, Silverstone, I agree.

    Valtteri?
    VB: Yeah, I think all the quick ones: Spa; Suzuka; Silverstone will be nice. But I think even street circuits will be a bit more challenging I think – not that it wasn’t challenging before, but with these cars it will be nice.

    Q: (Lennart Bernke – Bild) Seb, you are always talking about a different spirit inside the team and how you have changed from the last year. Can you tell us how exactly you have managed that or what happened inside the team that made the spirit different this year?
    SV: I didn’t manage anything, I’m not the team manager so you need to ask other people. In the end it was clear that when we started off two years ago, three years ago that there’s a lot to do, a lot to reshuffle. I think the team was at a low. The spirit was very good in the first year, in 2015. I think last year was a very good year. Obviously not for the results but in terms of growing the team. It’s good also to hit some lows and go through difficult periods – even though it pretty much sucks – but if you look race-by-race it’s not great but seeing what happens in the background is important. I think people always kept the belief and, as I said, the last six months have been very calm. We have done our work and it starts to slowly pay off. Now it peaks and we are at the top of this grand prix but that’s a small achievement. If you look at who we are up against, I think Mercedes has been phenomenal the last couple of years: incredible team effort, incredibly by both drivers. I think Valtteri just fitted in and kept doing a fantastic job for the team. No weak link from the outside, not that we can see. They will be the ones to beat but for sure today I’m just happy and we take it as a team. You saw the guys: they were smiling, singing, so I’m sure we’ll see more of that tonight.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) For all three. The first time with the new clutch rules at the start. None of you lost a position but how did your start go?

    Lewis you’ve already dealt with that. Sebastian?
    SV: I had a bit of wheel slip. It’s tough, obviously, it’s a very fine line. You try to guess where to go. If you get it right it feels fantastic; if not it’s… yeah, you’re not getting the maximum out of it. Hopefully a better start in China.

    Valtteri?
    VB: I think mine was quite average. Not the best possible for these conditions but not too bad. So yeah, pretty happy with that all obviously. Would have been nice to jump at least one car but yeah, it was good. Definitely been working hard on the starts and it seems to pay off but for sure we can improve on that.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, in the Championship, is this the most important podium for you so far and was that the most physical also?
    VB: Most important podium… I don’t know. For sure it is good to start with a podium this season with a new team. I think every position is important for the Championship itself. So it is too early to say if it is the most important. Most physical? I think one of the most physical. This is not one of the most physical tracks – but the new cars definitely make it harder. But yeah, based on what I felt today, some of the circuits will be quite a challenge but I was OK today. It’s nice to feel a bit more physical effect and a little bit more fatigue. I like it.

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Lewis, just saw you stretching out your left shoulder there a bit. Any discomfort after that race? And also, was it as physical as you guys expected? More? Less? With these new cars over a race distance.
    LH: No, I’m just stretching. It was more physical but it was no problem for me and doesn’t look like it was for these guys either.

    SV: It’s not the most physical circuit in the year. I think later on it will be very interesting. Here is very technical. So, first couple of laps, at least for me, were very intense. Obviously it’s easy to have an error, get
    something wrong under braking, go a bit wide etcetera. Later on I had a bit of a gap and I could control it, and therefore it was a bit easier.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, Ferrari won the first race of the season last time seven years ago. Is this the biggest chance for the team and are you going to refresh your song compilation for victory?
    SV: Was that in Bahrain? Yeah. What was the second part of your question? I was thinking about which race it was.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Are you going to refresh your victory song compilation?
    SV: Ah, no, no, no, no. I’m not a good singer otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I’m pretty sure I will think of something if we’re lucky enough to repeat what we did today but no plans. I think it came very spontaneously now two years ago. We’ll see. I think that’s a very nice problem to have, to worry about which song to sing but for now I think we’re very happy with how the race went today.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, in the second part of the race you seem to have struggled to close the gap to Sebastian even when you had a free track in front of you. At one point you were asking the team ‘is there damage to the floor?’ Has there been anything with your car or were you just struggling with the tyres?

    LH: Not that I know of. In the second part of the race… I had stopped about eight laps before these guys so I just didn’t know how long the tyres were going to go so I just took it easy and at the end, obviously, I got more pace but even if I did close the gap, you can’t overtake so… and I may not have made it to the end of the race having stopped so early.

    Q: (Paul Gover – News Ltd) Sebastian, the last time Ferrari won here in Australia was Kimi and he went on to be World Champion. Do you have any feeling at all yet about how the championship might go for you this year?
    SV: No, not interested at this point to be honest. Obviously I was very fortunate so far in my racing career. I’ve had some good races and good years but definitely the first race is not the time to look at the table. As I’ve said before, you really have to go step by step. It’s good to know that we have a great car but it’s just the beginning: new regulations, new generations of cars so there will be a lot of progress. These guys have proved to be the ones to beat for the last couple of years, more and more so. We know that they have a great engine but also they had a great car the last couple of years and they made good steps forward so we are the ones who need to catch up but as I said, for today I am just very happy and for sure whatever happens this year, the race today doesn’t hurt.

    Q: (Phil Branagan – Auto Action) Lewis, we heard some of the radio communication after your tyre stop; there was a conversation about a switch to plan B and then a switch back to plan A. Did something happen in the car to prompt that change of strategy during the second half of the race?
    LH: Strategy A is a one-stop, strategy B was a two-stop and I was in second so they were looking at alternatives of other ways to get me back to first.

    Q: (Andre Leslie – DPA) Lewis has now suggested a couple of times that it’s very tough to overtake. Can I ask Sebastian and Valtteri if that is what you guys are feeling and can you explain to us why?
    VB: I think it is definitely… you know even in the years before it’s been difficult to follow once you get within one and a half, one second just because of the turbulent air which messes up the aerodynamics of the car and that way we don’t have that much grip. Now, as more of the grip from the car is relying on the aero it’s a bigger effect and the cars are wider so I think there’s more turbulent air so now I think it’s more like two seconds or even two and a half because you actually feel quite a big effect from the car in front and that way in the corners it’s more difficult to follow. Obviously you have a bigger slipstream on the straight but if you can’t follow in the corners it’s tricky to get a slipstream. That’s the problem.

    SV: Nothing to add.

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Lewis and Seb, the two of you have been the dominant drivers of the past decade in terms of World Championships but you’ve rarely had a year when you have been able to fight
    each other in fairly equal machinery. Sat here now, knowing that you’ve both got cars that are closely matched, is there a bit of anticipation between the two of you to go head to head?
    SV: Great respect for Lewis. I think he had an amazing debut here ten years ago. I still remember his move around the outside, when he made other people look a bit silly. I think since then, since day one, he’s proved that he’s very very quick, very talented but also working hard. I think it was a matter of time before he won the World Championship which I tried to stop him doing in Brazil, as hard as I could, in my Toro Rosso. Great memories – but I don’t remember the last ten years. Roughly we’ve been racing each other but if I have the same outcome as you had on that day…

    LH: I’m going to get you back.

    SV: Yeah, to cut it short, I have great respect. He’s proven to be one of the quickest drivers on the grid and for sure I would love to have a close battle. Obviously right now it looks like we have equal machinery. I hope it stays that way and then we will see how it turns out but it’s obviously a lot of fun to race for victories and a lot of fun to race against the best.

    LH: Yeah, I second that. Incredible amount of respect for Sebastian and what he’s achieved in his career. It’s been a privilege to be racing in an era with him and now finally at a period of time when we can actually have a real race. I wish we could race a lot closer in the cars that we have today but still I think the fact that we are similar pacewise, it’s going to be a very very hard slog this season I think. It’s going to be physically and mentally demanding but as Sebastian said, racing the best is what Formula One is all about and ultimately makes you work that much harder, having to raise the bar and I’m looking forward to that.

  • Vettel Fastest in Shortened Australain GP 3rd Free Practice

    Vettel Fastest in Shortened Australain GP 3rd Free Practice

    Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time for the 3rd Free Practice session for the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Qualifying this afternoon.

    Vettel’s time of 1:23.380 was the fastest lap of the session and is now the fastest time around the Albert Park Circuit. His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished 4th fastest after a puncture curtailed his run. Interestingly enough, Ferrari only ran the ultra soft tyre the entire session.

    Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas finished 2nd fastest ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Bottas set a 1:23.859 which was 0.479s off Vettel’s time with Hamilton a further 0.490s off.

    In 5th was Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who produced a very quick lap on the ultra softs to cross the line in 1:25.063. This pace is encouraging for the Enstone team, but Jolyon Palmer in the second Renault could only manage 19th fastest after some issues with his car.

    In a rather quiet session for Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo set the 6th fastest time that was 1.712s slower than Vettel’s time. Red Bull seem to be struggling with the car setup and balance with Max Verstappen complaining that there was mid corner under-steer. Verstappen finished his session 12th fastest.

    The two Toro Rosso’s of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat finished 8th and 9th respectively sandwiched by the two Haas drivers of Romain Grosjean in 7th and Kevin Magnussen in 10th.

    The session ended early after William’s Lance Stroll tagged the barrier at the exit of Turn 10. Stroll running a bit wide into T10, took a little too much kerb. He got on the power a little too early and the rear stepped out and smacked the barrier damaging the rear right suspension.

    There were incidents throughout the session with McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne taking a trip through the gravel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen coming to a stop at T14 after a puncture. The Finn switched off his Ferrari and restarted it using the MGU-K. He limped back to the pits with a clearly deflating rear left tyre.

    The scene is set for qualifying. Ferrari have shown some pace while Mercedes have had a couple bags of sand in their cars and will undoubtedly turn up the engine to eleven for Qualifying. We’ll finally know if Mercedes are the team to beat this year.

     

     

    Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2017 Australian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Eric BOULLIER (McLaren), Maurizio ARRIVABENE (Ferrari), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Paddy LOWE (Williams)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Opening question to all of you gentlemen: obviously it’s the opening day of a new season of Formula One. Lots of changes on the cars but sum up how your first day went? Eric why don’t you kick us off?

    Eric BOULLIER: Reasonably well. Obviously we didn’t add as many laps as we were expecting but if you compare with the testing it was a little bit better. Obviously the cars look more spectacular more aggressive, It was a good working day for us.

    Christian, obviously you had the incident with Max that lost you a lot of track time but Daniel’s long run looked pretty reasonable.

    Christian HORNER: Yes, not too bad. Certainly the first session today was encouraging. The few changes that we made the drivers didn’t like too much. Max did a little bit of grass mowing at Turn 12 and that compromised his session in the late afternoon but we got a lot of good information and we’re generally quite encouraged.

    And Paddy, how was your first day of action at Williams?

    Paddy LOWE: It was sort of a mixed day because we had a great first session, some encouraging pace. [It was] Lance’s first practice ever in Formula One, so he was taking it steady, step-by-step, making good progress. But into the afternoon we had an electrical problem on Felipe’s car, a short circuit, and that really ended his session very early. So we didn’t get the homework we would have liked on that car. But overall, quite encouraging for tomorrow.

    Maurizio, did today go as you thought it would?

    Maurizio ARRIVABENE: We were working mainly on car balance. This morning we were struggling a bit more than normal. But then in the afternoon we were still working on the car balance, but nothing different versus our Friday programme.

    Toto, Lewis looking very much the man to beat.

    Toto WOLFF: Yes, he had a very good day overall. For the team it was one of the better Fridays. Having had some question marks over testing in Barcelona it was encouraging to bounce back in that way, but it is a day that doesn’t matter.

    Q: Eric, coming back to you. We hear you are collecting quite a lot of air miles at the moment going forwards and backwards to Japan. How serious are your problems and what steps are you taking with Honda to resolve them?

    EB: Well, obviously we had a very bad winter testing, a lot of troubles, didn’t do many miles, no race simulations but like you said we are having many, many meetings with Honda. We both take it very seriously. All the options are open. Today we discussed how we can catch up and recover from that situation.

    Q: Toto, they say you should never change a winning team, but here you are after three dominant seasons with a new technical chief and a new driver, so how has the dynamic in the team changed?

    TW: It’s a very large organization, between Brixworth and Brackley it’s almost 1500 people and the dynamic is positive. Every year we are trying to reinvent ourselves without compromising performance and we are in good spirits.

    Q: Christian, a slightly quieter testing period than with Ferrari and Mercedes, but lots of new parts arriving on the car today. Tell us how the development race will impact this year’s championship. Is it going to be the deciding factor and are you going to come out on the right side of it?

    CH: Well, I think it’s going to be a big factor. These regulations are still very immature and there are going to be a lot of gains in a short space of time and it’s a matter of who can most efficiently develop their car and effectively get components on the car that drive performance forward. It wouldn’t be unrealistic to expect the cars to be 1.5s quicker by the time we get to Abu Dhabi than where we are here today. It will ebb and flow during the season but at the front of the grid hopefully we get a bit closer to Toto’s guys and have some closer races this year.

    Q: Paddy, you’ve gone back to the team you did some winning with back in the early 1990s, a dominant period with Mansell and Prost. Why is this move to Williams the right thing to do at this time of your career?

    PL: I had a great three years in my previous team, some great success there, but there was a great opportunity, a challenge at Williams. As you say, it’s going back to the team where I started my career in Formula One. It was quite emotional and special going back there a week ago, seeing people I literally hadn’t seen for 24 years, but fantastic team and we look forward to making substantial progress over the years to come.

    Q: Maurizio you have been downplaying expectations going into this season, but what I’d like to know is, inside the team, how hard it was to build what looks to be a very competitive car given all the technical changes and staff upheaval that you had in the second half of last year?

    MA: If you change something, it’s for the better, not to get worse. We have a change, the team is working very well together. Over the winter the guys were exchanging information; they have a common goal. Working all together, having a common goal and exchanging all the information they have, the car becomes not the car of one but the car of everybody and this is what has driven us until today and into the future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (John McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Maurizio. Liberty have arrived, and one of the things they have said they want to do early on is make everyone more available to the media, but after arriving here it seems you have gone in the other direction. One of your drivers was unavailable yesterday in advance of this big race at the beginning of the season, from an organization as big as Ferrari. I was wondering why that is, whether that will go on or whether that will be addressed?

    MA: Define media. What do you mean by media? Today, defining media is quite large in terms of communication media. It’s also social media. It’s not only what we are thinking about. Yesterday we had Sebastian who was talking and we were using social media and posting something related to Kimi. Liberty also said that in this business at the moment the digital platforms are used at only 1% of the potential. So, the good thing is to find the right balance. Instead of having two drivers on Thursday and talking and doing a copy and paste of one versus the other with the same questions we made sure that Sebastian was talking in one way and Kimi in the other. So we cover all the communication platform. Making happy also Generation Z.

    Q: (Seff Harding – Xero Xone News) – To follow up on that, a question for all of you, do you feel that there does need to be a change in accessibility to the press, to arrange interviews that may be on social media, Facebook Live, Instagram, to reach out to other audiences, in other markets and of course to other demographics?

    CH: I think the changes that have been put in place this year have been positive. I think that relaxing the rules regarding the digital platforms, allowing content to be generated… non-circuit content giving the ability for fans and followers to get a little bit beneath the covers and closer to seeing the personalities of the drivers in the build-up to a grand prix or pre-season is certainly positive. It’s a media business at the end of the day. Formula One is a media business. We have to engage with the media. It’s important that we give access to the drivers, access to the fans or how else are we going to promote the sport.

    Toto?

    TW: I think like Maurizio said, we have to cover three different generations. We have to cover the long-time followers, so-called middle ages, the Millennials and Generation Z. You kind of need to play the full span. For example, when we launched the car we put some time into the car launch, which is a risk on the engineering side, you’re compromising your time, and we did a Facebook Live launch, 360, and we had almost a million views in 24 hours and it was successful. We have to embrace all that, not forget any audiences within these groups but target all of them and Liberty’s approach has been right so far, in opening up.

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Question for all of you: we’ve had the big regulation change this season, can you tell me whether you think we will actually see better racing and the reason why this is so or why if not?

    Eric, why don’t you start?

    EB: I think the car, obviously it’s a hot topic with everybody talking about overtaking numbers and manoeuvres and whatever. I think 90 per cent of the overtaking is thanks to DRS since this device has been introduced. So as far as we are concerned the DRS is still on so I don’t think there will be many changes on this: the number of overtaking. The car philosophy stays the same as the previous generation and, as long as it is dictated by this front wing, you will have this loss of downforce effect into the corners. On the positive side, I think the drivers were the ones lobbying us, all of us, to have a faster car, fastest cornering cars and clearly we have achieved this, I think, with bigger tyres, more downforce, fastest cars today and obviously that’s going to facilitate, or help the bravest drivers to try or attempt some manoeuvres to overtake. So, I don’t think there will be a big difference compared with before. I think, and the drivers as well, I can already feel – and I’m talking for McLaren only – Fernando clearly was the one who was complaining about the previous generation, and he’s clearly happier now with this kind of car. He enjoys driving the car and you can see the cars today, in some fast corners they are flat-out already on Friday afternoon – so I think it’s a good sign about what we wanted to achieve. I think all the drivers happier should make the show better.

    Paddy, any thoughts?

    PL: Yeah, I agree with what Eric said but on top of that I think the other element we will see with much higher loads now in the car, with higher cornering speeds, driver endurance is much more demanding, so we may see more mistakes in races, drivers more on their human limits. So, I think that could be another interesting factor.

    Anything to add Christian?

    CH: I think the guys have covered it pretty well. I think the cars are going to stretch the drivers. I think sitting here, and we don’t know whether the racing is going to be better over the year or not, but I think the drivers are going to be working harder, you’re going to get perhaps more differential between drivers and they’re going to have to work harder for overtakes when arguably some of them have been a little bit too easy over recent years.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Based on comments that Ross [Brawn] made earlier today and also previously, it appears that the Commercial Rights Holder could play a more active role in the regulatory process. Which means that possibly entertainment could take precedence over technology etc. How do you feel about this? About the commercial rights holder getting increasingly involved in the regulatory process?

    Toto?

    TW: This is an entertainment platform and it should be around the entertainment of the fans and I think with Ross in place it’s the right individual. He has seen it from the other side; he knows pretty much what matters to the teams and now trying to seek a good balance between keeping the DNA of Formula One, keeping it at the pinnacle for racing drivers and for engineering and equally making sure it’s the best possible show for our fans will be the main priority. I think we are definitely in an interesting place and it looks positive.

    Maurizio?

    MA: I think for the future cost and performance, they are two key factors. Reducing the cost and increasing the performance, they are the two key factors. Then, of course, it’s an entertainment, what we are doing here. It’s part of the entertainment business. Everybody, they’re open to discuss and talk about new ideas in the appropriate places. At the moment we have governance, so talking to everybody to help the sport to grow is fine until we are all aligned to the actual governance. Or, if we want to change it, we have to sit and discuss about this.

    Paddy?

    PL: yeah, we welcome a focus on entertainment. That is what this sport is all about. I think the really encouraging thing is that Ross is building a team behind him who are going to do proper research into proposals that are under consideration, so I think there’s every reason to feel positive about the future.

    CH: I personally think there is far too much emphasis on technology at the moment and we’re spectacularly bad at communicating that. I think the average fan and viewer understands very little about the technology that’s in a Formula One car which, as Maurizio alluded, is enormously expensive. So, I think the Commercial Rights Holder, it’s their business at the end of the day. They have to decide what they want the sport to be and, if the route is fan-attraction and creating a really exciting product, and at the end of the day they want to create great content on TV then it’s vital they come up with an outline of what their vision of Formula One is. And then, obviously, the FIA have a regulatory position and the teams need to be involved in that process. We have a process that that can be achieved in if two of the three parties agree.

    EB: All has been said I think

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Maurizio, given the results of the test and what happened today, do you have an accurate idea of the position of Ferrari?

    MA: Yes, we have it in Barcelona and in Barcelona we have our programme, we follow our programme since the last week and as well it’s what we are doing here on Friday. On Friday we are working on the balance of the car, as on Day One in Barcelona we were working on finding the best performance day after day without panicking, without being under pressure and being focussed on what we were doing.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Another one for Maurizio. Daniel Ricciardo recently told us in an interview that Sebastian Vettel becomes even quicker and more motivated when he has a winning car in his hands. Do you expect him to give an extra performance this season? And what do you need: Ferrari and Seb to go home together, to sign another contract for 2018?

    MA: I’ll start from the end of the question. Talking about contracts now is only distracting the attention of our drivers so I’m not ready to talk about any contracts. Then, I would like to see Sebastian happy during the season because if Sebastian’s is happy that means the car is very quick.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Maurizio, do you have as much belief that you can win this race now, as you did this morning. I hear what you’ve said and the work you’ve done during the day – but do you have as much belief that you can win it as you did at the start of the day?

    MA: We want to keep our feet on the ground. It’s Friday. We have to work this evening. Tomorrow we continue our job and then, until Sunday, we have a lot of things to do, still. So, I don’t want to do any prediction.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) For Christian. It’s only Friday but can you imagine Daniel winning on Sunday or is the gap too big?

    CH: I think, being realistic, the performance we’ve seen today from Lewis, he’s the absolute favourite. He was the favourite coming here and all today has done is underline that. But then it’s motor racing and anything can happen. We’ve seen spurious results in opening grands prix in previous years and obviously to have a home winner would be an unbelievable result – but if you look at the pecking order at the moment that is a long shot.

    Q: (Andre Leslie – DPA) Question for Mr Wolff, to do with the makeup of your team this season, with Valtteri Bottas now replacing Nico Rosberg, obviously Nico leaves a big hole in the team but Valtteri is keeping pace brilliantly today – we’ve seen twice. How do you see his role going forwards this season?

    TW: It’s obviously very big shoes to fill. Nico is the reigning World Champion and Valtteri has to fill those shoes. He has a couple of days of testing behind him which were very positive and the work with the engineers went very well and today was the first proper day on a race weekend. I think that in terms of the mindset, he has settled in very well into the team and how he has to find his grip and benchmark himself against probably the best driver in Formula One at this time. I’m very confident he is going to find the pace and his place in the team.

    Q: (Heath McAlpine – Auto Action) For all of you: today’s first practice session saw minimal running from the teams worried about engine mileage. Would you support a change in the engine regulations to increase the Friday running for your teams?

    EB: Good question. I think if we don’t run it is because we may have some technical limitation or let’s say no interest to gather data at that stage so if we do between let’s say 18 and 30 laps per session it’s because it depends on the engine plan generally. I know you can have a different regulation to have more laps but we could do it simply by making sure there is an interest for the teams to run.

    PL: I don’t entirely agree with what you’re saying, really. I think the teams are running pretty much a full programme during both sessions. If anything they’re limited by tyres more than engine mileage.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) I would imagine that this is the first Grand Prix that any of you have attended without having Bernie Ecclestone in overall control and charge. Have you, today, thought about the fact that you can’t just pick up the phone and phone Bernie if there’s some sort of issue?

    CH: How do you know he’s not still in charge? What Bernie’s done for Formula One has been amazing. The sport is what it is today because of what he created. I think in the role that he has, he’s still going to be in a position to contribute, he still has a huge amount of historical knowledge, respect and relationships around the world and I think that harnessed and used in the right way is an asset to Formula One. I’m sure he’ll be at some forthcoming events and yeah, I think hopefully the new owners can use him constructively and beneficially to build on the good work that’s already been done.

    MA: I think that Bernie deserves all our respect because if we are here and if the sport grows it is thanks to him. I think that the new group that is owning Formula One is here to make this sport grow even more so there is no future without the good historical base. If we have a good historical base then I think the new owners are looking forward to continue to grow and that’s thanks to Bernie for everything he’s done and now we need to look forward.

    Q: (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Earlier there was a question about cars not running on the circuit; what can be done in the interests of entertainment to spice up the Friday action which is comparatively dry for those at the circuit, given that everyone’s involved in their own programmes, preparing for the weekend?

    PL: I don’t know. We used to have qualifying on Friday as well as Saturday back in the old days. Maybe that could be considered. I think the great thing now is that we have an evolving process to consider the rules properly and develop a sport that incorporates new ideas.

    TW: I think you need to differentiate because we had a very busy afternoon with lots of track action. We had a morning which is completely normal and a green track so there is not a lot of interest in testing cars on a track that’s going to develop a lot with the limitation on tyres, with the limitation on engine mileage and if you start to open that up it’s like Pandora’s box because we’re trying to limit costs. The question is that as much as you need an entertainment most of the time entertainment on track, I think we have a good compromise at the moment.

    Q: (Sam Tickell – Flagworld.com) We’ve had a lot of positive reaction to the change and the look and the appearance of the cars this year and it was mentioned previously that Liberty are looking to research for the future. How radical to the change in the appearance of the car would teams like to go to in the future, should the research suggest that a major change should be needed?

    MA: Radical change with the new rules, everybody already changed their car and I think these regulations are offering the possibility to the designers of the cars, to the aeros, to exploit even more in terms of creative approach is the first step and then in the future we can do something more. We need to make sure that the car it’s still looking like a car and not something that is a bit strange, that’s for sure.

    CH: I think the looks of the car… I think they currently look great. I think it’s all about evolution. I think that rather than focus on the looks I would prefer to focus on the sound. I think the best sounding car we have here this weekend is a 12-year old Minardi that 12 years ago had the worst sounding engine in it and was hopelessly uncompetitive and I think that when you hear the acoustics of a V10, you’ve only got to go and see the faces around the circuit to see what it embodies in fans of Formula One, so I would be far more focused on addressing that element than the aesthetics of the cars at the moment.

    TW: I think we’ve changed the aesthetics of the car. I think trying to figure out what we could do next is maybe too far. Like Christian says, if we can work on the sound of the car and if we look into a future generation of engines that is something that needs to be considered. There wasn’t enough emphasis on the sound in the past and if we can combine great technology, affordable technology with a lot of horsepower and a good sound, that would be really ticking a box.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Last year Ferrari lost the pace compared to Red Bull for example in the second part of the season. Are you confident you can have a quick and a more efficient development during the season this year?

    MA: What I can tell you is that we are putting all our effort to do all our work best to avoid the same result as last year. That’s it. What more can I say?

    Q: (Leon Alepidis – F1fan) Regarding the new commercial deal and the discussions that will be taking place soon, we have already heard from the new owners that they are planning to scrap the historical status for a team and the money that that brings. Would you agree that in order to have a more fair distribution of the prize money and a more competitive sport or not and why?

    MA: This kind of discussion you do it with the people who have the contract with you and not in public.

    EB: I guess if you ask the people for more money they will be against and you ask less money they will be in favour but this is a discussion behind the scenes, not to be done in public.

    CH: Well, there’s probably not a team principal in the paddock that would say they are happy to take less money. If they are, they’re mad so therefore I think it’s a question of bringing the bottom up rather than the top down and hopefully that may well be achievable.

    PL: Sounds like a good idea, we’ll support that one, yeah

  • 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Practice 1 & 2 Round Up

    2017 Australian Grand Prix: Practice 1 & 2 Round Up

    Free Practice 1

    The 2017 Formula 1 season got underway at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne Australia this morning with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton picking up where Mercedes left off by finishing fastest in both Friday sessions.

    Hamilton’s fastest FP1 time of 1:24.220 was completed on Pirelli’s purple marked ultra-soft tyres. Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas finished the session 2nd fastest just a little over half a second off the pace from Hamilton with a 1:24.803 also completing his fastest lap on the ultra-soft tyres.

    Rounding out the top 3 was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo with a fastest session time of 1:24.886, 0.666s off the pace. His team mate, Max Verstappen was 4th fastest a little further off the pace with a time of 1:25.246.

    Ferrari were 5th and 6th fastest with Kimi Raikkonen leading Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Massa back in the Williams seat finished 7th fastest ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean in 8th.

    Previous team mates, but now at different teams, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finished 9th and 10th respectively rounding out the top 10.

    FP1 started very slowly as all the teams eventually got settled into their Free Practice programs.

     

    Free Practice 2

    Lewis Hamilton once again topped the time sheets in FP2 for Mercedes as they continue with their early domination for the race weekend.

    FP2 got off to a smooth start but just before 30mins into the session Renault’s Jolyon Palmer lost the rear of his Renault at the exit of the final corner. He made contact with the outside barrier which bounced him back on to the track. The Renault sustained damage to the rear wing, rear suspension and the front left suspension. The session was red flagged to allow the marshals to clear the track.

    Williams ran into issues after Felipe Massa ground to a halt with gearbox issues. Kevin Magnussen spent most of his session in the garage after his car developed a water pressure issue. He was able to go back out but was immediately called back into the pits.

    Marcus Ericsson’s session ended prematurely as well after over-steering into the gravel at Turn 6.

    Ferrari appeared to have made some progress from FP1 after Vettel was able to finish 2nd fastest but still more than 0.5s off Hamilton’s pace and just narrowly finishing faster than Bottas.

    Red Bull finished 5th and 6th with Ricciardo ahead of Verstappen.

    In the mid-filed battle it looks as though Toro Rosso has the early upper hand ahead of Haas with Renault not far behind. Force India seem to be struggling slightly but are looking solid.

    It’s a bit of a mixed bag for McLaren at the moment with Fernando Alonso finishing 12th fastest with Stoffel Vandoorne down in 17th position.

    Mercedes have the early advantage after the Friday sessions in Lewis Hamilton. FP3 should give us a better indication where things stand. Whether Ferrari and Red Bull are sandbagging is a question that everyone is asking. It’s still too early to call it but we do know that it looks like Hamilton is picking up where he left off.

     

     

    Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

  • 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 2

    2017 Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 2

    PART TWO: DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (MERCEDES), Esteban OCON (FORCE INDIA), Felipe MASSA (WILLIAMS), Lance STROLL (WILLIAMS)

    Q: It’s been a Mercedes one-two here for the last two seasons. Presumably another one would suit you just fine. Is that why you made this move?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Sure, that would be a good way to start. Obviously we do need to see where we are standing against all the other teams. It’s a completely new season, a new era of Formula One, a new team for me but that’s always the ultimate target. I feel in a good place and definitely it’s always some kind of dream coming true, being part of a team like this that has pretty much dominated the last three years in Formula One. I feel very happy but just keen to get going.

    Q: We could see from testing that you settled in during the first week and then managed to close up a bit to your teammate Lewis Hamilton’s pace at the second test so are you more or less where you expected to be at the first race?

    VB: I feel well prepared, I feel definitely ready to race. I really think we made the most out of the short period of time I had to prepare with the team and get into everything perfectly. Obviously it’s been a massive learning curve for me, since mid-January until today and that is still going to continue but I felt testing was good. Every single time I was in the car I felt better and better and I’m sure that is just going to continue and I’m feeling more and more part of the team so happy to be here racing.

    Q: Lance, welcome to Formula One, at 18-years of age, the second youngest driver after Max Verstappen to take part in Formula One. How’s the preparation gone and what would success look like for you this year?

    Lance STROLL: Yeah, thank you. I think preparation has been going really well so far. We had a good test in Barcelona, the second week me and Felipe did all the running which was good. I think just a solid year, a clean year, obviously still a lot to learn so I don’t think putting a position or a number would be the right way to approach the whole thing. I think we’re just going to take it race by race. It’s still going to be a big learning curve for me, there’s still a lot for me to understand about everything but listen to the people around me that are there to help me and take it race by race. Looking forward to the whole thing.

    Q: With all the rule changes that have gone on from last year to this year, is this a really good year to come in as a rookie or is it actually quite tough?

    LS: I don’t know. It is what it is and I’m just going to have to make the best of it. I don’t want to look at it as a negative or a positive, it’s the way it is, it’s a new regulation and it’s for everyone. It’s my rookie year and I just have to learn what I have to learn and get on with it.

    Q: Felipe, welcome back. Does this mean we get to have another party? How’s the surprise comeback worked out so far?

    Felipe Massa:  Well, first of all, I didn’t expect to be here on Thursday. Maybe I was planning to be somewhere (else), eating more, getting more fat, whatever, maybe not being here on Thursday which is an amazing day in Formula One. But things change in life – which actually didn’t change, to be honest but for reasons… Yeah, I’m really happy, motivated, ready for this challenge and I think everything I hear, when Claire calls me, and I said ‘I think we need to talk in a proper way’ so then we had a long meeting and everything that I asked,  that needed to be different, especially on the technical side, so many different things that didn’t work in the proper way need to be better and everything she said and everything Williams is doing I believe is correct. So many new people arrived and are still arriving, so many things that we are working hard to make work in a better way so yeah, I’m staying in Formula One, I think to be racing for a team that I believe is professional and important, I feel important as well. Yeah, that’s why I took this decision to carry on. I feel really happy and yeah, so we will see. I think the real answer to where we are we will have here on Sunday but also during the championship. I had some good feelings in the Barcelona test and I’m really looking forward to having another great, competitive season and a nice job also, that gives me pleasure, so I’m really looking forward, really fit and ready for this challenge.

    Q: Just continuing on the theme we spoke of with Lance a minute ago, the challenge of being a rookie. You made your debut when you were obviously very young as well back in 2002. What did you wish that you’d been told then and how did you handle coming into Formula One?

    FM: Well, I am a rookie. I stopped, I retired! We start the first race, two rookies! No, I’m joking. It’s his opportunity, he’s allowed to learn, he shows that he has a talent for that, that all of us had the opportunity at the start and yeah, I met him when he was eight years old, one year more than my son which is really painful, to be honest, and here we are teammates. I have all the happiness to work with him but also to pass on everything I can. We are working for the team, together, both drivers so we need to score as many points as we can. It would be nice to work with him and to have a great championship together and for the team which is the most important thing.

    Q: Esteban, obviously you were a rookie last year, now a move up the grid from Manor to Force India. It’s a team that’s been able to score podiums consistently in the last few years so easy question: is that the target for 2017 for you?

    Esteban OCON: Well, I think it’s a bit early to speak about that at the moment. No one has done a race yet so we see where everyone is. I think in testing everyone had a little bit left in the pocket so you know it’s early to speak about that but I think to start the weekend here, the approach would be to do a strong weekend, to reach the finish line because in the past you always had problems for the other teams and for teams and if you arrive at the finish line you always have a strong result so I think that’s the way to approach it.

    Q: You’re obviously part of the Mercedes Junior programme; do you feel that if you perform now for Force India there’s a real possibility of getting into a Silver Arrows at some point in the near future?

    EO: I’m obviously a Mercedes Junior driver but at the moment I’m a Force India driver and I’m fully focused on this target, to do a strong job this season and I think it’s still early to speak about being a Mercedes F1 driver in the future, so no, at the moment I’m very happy to be with Force India and I’m fully motivated with them.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Esteban, where were you and what did they tell you about your car would be pink this year? What were your first thoughts?

    EO: I was actually at home, I was just training when I had the call. No, I think it’s a really good thing, overall, for the team.  BWT coming in to Formula One is a great thing as well, it also changes the perspective… a pink car – you don’t see one a lot of times so I think it’s a good thing but also a good sponsor like BWT makes money coming into the team and it can only make the car go faster.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, so far you have been three times on the front row. If this is a winning car, would P2 be a satisfying or disappointing result for you?

    VB: Well it depends if your teammate is P1 or… Obviously the result targets are going to be completely different now than what they have been in the past few years but as I said before, we still need to wait and see where we are, really. We will see on Saturday, we will see on Sunday. It’s only the very beginning of the year but for sure as a driver you always want to be on the front row and in the best place, P1, but let’s wait and see and go step by step and day by day.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Felipe, first question is how did you feel coming back into F1 because it’s like the Godfather, you tried to get out but they pushed you right back in again. And what were you doing when Claire did throw up the W and the symbol and you had to put your super suit back on and get back in the car?

    FM: Well, for sure, things change for a reason. I had a lot of support from everybody to carry on. I have a lot of support from my family, a lot of support from my fans. It was really amazing to see everybody pushing me: carry on, carry on. We want to see you there and that everything that happens around the team that… maybe, we will see where we are now which I believe is correct what is happening so then we need to work to make it better. Yeah, to be honest, I had an amazing feeling when I decided to stop in the second part of the season and I didn’t have a reason to carry on. If I don’t have what I believe is correct, which maybe I have now. Then also the feeling that I had in Brazil, also in the last race which gave a lot of happiness in the way that I’m stopping, it’s fantastic you know, but also it was not easy for me to take the decision to carry on because everything was just beautiful. But maybe something has happened for a reason and maybe it was not the reason to stop. I’m ready, motivated and we will see where we are going to be and how the season will be. I’m really 100 percent ready to do it in the right way.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) Couple of questions for Valtteri: now you’ve had some time in the car in testing, do you feel that you’re at a stage where you’re able to get the most out of the car now. And second question, I know it’s still early days but assuming you’re sitting in a title-contending car, what’s your approach going to be: step by step, get that first win or do you feel under pressure to mount a fully fledged title challenge?

    VB: Yeah, like I said before, I definitely feel every single time I was stepping into the car and out of the car in testing, I felt like I’d made progress and between the two tests as well. I feel I was getting very close to getting pretty much everything out of the car  and being absolutely perfect. As always, it requires a lot of work, a lot of time in the car and a lot of effort, a lot of talent so as mentioned, I’m sure things will just get better and I will feel more and more comfortable every single day of the race weekend and every single race but I feel that I’m ready to race, I’m ready to bring the car where it should be, what the pace of the car, what the limits of the car is. I feel comfortable with that. About the second question, definitely… I always set my targets very high so from the first race, this race onwards, immediately, I want to perform where the car can be. That is my target. Of course I always go day by day and step by step but I want to start at a very high level and keep getting better from that .

    Q: (Heath McAlpine – Auto Action) Valtteri, Paddy Lowe recently made some comments about Williams having some elements that Mercedes does not. Have you been able to make any comparisons between the teams, after moving in the opposite direction?

    VB: For sure I see a lot of difference between the teams. Definitely there are some things very very good at Williams, some things have been massively impressive at Mercedes. Williams have a great facility, a good bunch of people, a lot of clever engineers so for sure both teams have a lot of strong points, definitely differences in the way they work, so it’s difficult to really point out exactly what parts maybe are better here or better there but overall, as the last few years have shown, Mercedes is a winning team, it definitely has this winning mentality at the moment. No one is standing still, everyone is pushing flat out  – what Williams is also doing is definitely no bad, worse but you just sense that at this point, the group of winners know how to win at the moment and I hope that that can continue but the hunger is definitely still there at Mercedes. But I definitely agree with Paddy: Williams is a great team and has massive potential and it’s a shame that we couldn’t achieve the results together that I think the team deserves, but hopefully the future is good for Williams.

    Q: (Kathy Watt – Inside Sport) I’m just wondering what you do in the off-season to prepare: is it on the bike or running or different other sports to get fit for the season?

    Q: Esteban – you’ve been up a mountain or something?

    EO: Yeah, I was up in the mountains at almost 2000m for almost two months. I felt this was the best way for me to prepare. When you get high in altitude, when you get down again it’s easy to breath so I was training there a lot. It was about nine hours of cardio per week, ten hours of gym per week and all the rest was reaction work, co-ordination work, visual perception work, how the detection is as well, balance of body as well so it was complete training. It was very tough, for sure the toughest of my career but I’m happy that I’ve achieved it now, looking at how the cars are tough to drive.

    LS: I was just moving sports, some biking, some running, some gym work, some strength work, some neck work but just staying fit in all different areas and just gaining fitness by increasing the amount of training I was doing. Just moving and keeping active.

    Q: How about you Felipe? You were eating feijoada and drinking beer and then when the phone call came: stop. Right?

    FM: Which was pretty much straight away actually so I didn’t have enough time to drink and to eat feijoada, I would say, so yeah, I was definitely… most of the drivers didn’t know how the new car was going to be so I was definitely preparing myself in a much different way to how it was in the past, even if I was always training very hard but I took on a new trainer, a guy who is following me everywhere I go, training every day. I had to train more also, for sure cardio but also a lot more my muscles to be stronger, for these loads that we have in the cars now, so I was training in a very different way, to get a little bit stronger and training my neck a lot more which I think works pretty well because on one day in Barcelona I did 168 laps, which was my record in one test and I feel really good, so yeah, ready to start the season and really hope I’m totally fit to accept anything different that we might have this year compared to how it was up to last year.

    Q: (Michael Lamonato – ABC) On a related question: how different have you found these cars in the sense of that strength component? What specifically have you changed in your training and in your first days in the car in testing? Was there anything in particularly that you felt a bit of pain or a bit of strain from the new cars?

    VB: I think always after the winter, it doesn’t matter how much training you do and if  you’re the fittest you’ve ever been starting the year, it’s so unnatural driving a Formula One car for the human being that the first reactions are always a bit strange but very quickly you get used to it, your body gets used to it. Obviously if you have a new seat as I did for this year, it’s tuning those kind of things and yeah, you might get some bruises and stuff but that’s part of the winter testing but specially with the new cars there’s more G-forces, more load going through your body which makes more fatigue and means being able to maintain the same level of focus and alertness – you need to be fitter than before and like every driver have a good preparation for that but the main thing is the G-forces, the cornering speed and that way you maybe need a bit more strength especially the neck.

    Q: (Trent Price – SEN Radio) A question for Felipe and Lance. Paddy Lowe has already identified a few areas where Williams are stronger than Mercedes. What’s your first impressions of Paddy coming into the team. What has he brought in already and how is the relationship building?

    FM: Well, as Valtteri said, Williams has many areas that work pretty well. Definitely we have some other areas that we need to improve, which is what I was saying before, things didn’t work in the proper way, as even Valtteri said. This are the points we need to make better, improving, as quick as we can, because it means results, it means performance, it means everything. But I am sure he is a very important engineer, manager, that he can help to improve things in the right way. Bringing some good ideas from other areas that we were not so strong as a team like Mercedes where he won the last three years the championship – they are really strong. Not only him, but so many people, engineers, people that are working in different areas. That is something we are working very hard on, so he has just arrived, but I’m sure he understands things pretty quick. We are the beginning of a very important work but I believe we can do it in the right way. I really hope that the car is helping, because the car is there; it’s ready. If you have a good car it’s helping the job in so many areas that it needs to be better, it needs to improve. That’s the way I believe it is. I was talking already with Paddy and I’m sure with all the important and very good engineers we have I believe and I hope we can do a very good job.

    Q: Lance I believe you signed before it was clear that Paddy was going to Williams, so what did you feel when you found out?

    LS: Yeah, Felipe said most of it. I’m obviously new this year, so I don’t have the experience that Felipe and also even Valtteri have of Williams, so a lot of it is just new for me. Starting with winter testing, I obviously went to a couple of races last year and I got to know some of the people but really, until you’re a driver and properly involved in everything that’s going on, you don’t pick up on everything. But for sure I think having Paddy in the team is positive for everyone. He’s obviously had great success in recent years and I think it’s just positive energy for the team. I think we have a great group of people at Williams and I think everyone is aiming for the same thing, which is achieve the best possible results we can achieve and Paddy’s here to help us do that. I think it’s all good.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Felipe, how tough an opponent was Valtteri in qualifying and in racing and how was it compared to your time with Kimi at Ferrari?

    FM: Definitely different times. Different cars and everything. I think Valtteri shows his talent. He really improved year by year since he started. I think it’s a great opportunity for him to race for a team like Mercedes. I believe he’s ready for his job, he’s ready to show what he can do and definitely he has an incredible team to work with, very strong team-mate – but I think he’s ready to do a great job. I really hope the best for him. It’ll be nice if he’s behind me – but we will see.

    Q: (Alex Popov – Match TV) A couple of questions for the young drivers. But different questions. Esteban, first of all, your target before the training was to gain 5kg of muscle, and you achieve it. And now I heard – I don’t know if it’s true or not – you have to go back 2kg. If it’s true, how difficult it will be now?

    EO: Yes, it’s true I gained 5kg over the training course, which was very hard but I achieved it and feel good in the car. But then you know, all the teams are quite conservative with parts on testing, and they got heavy parts, and then once they see reliability is good they start to put lighter parts on the car. I think that’s what’s going to happen this race. On myself, I didn’t lose any weight and I kept my weight to feel fresh in the car.

    Q: (Alex Popov – Match TV) For Lance, it’s more about a performance target. Another young driver will fight the team-mate from race one. You’re in the position of having like a coach in the team, like an elder brother. Will you try to not to lose too much or beat your team-mate from race one?

    LS: Felipe’s not here to be a coach. He’s a competitor like everyone else and he has his helmet on racing like everyone else. Everyone sets their targets differently and everyone is in a different situation – but all the teams have two drivers competing for the same thing, which is to try and finish as far up the grid as possible. That doesn’t change – but my targets are obviously different to some other young drivers. Everyone’s in their own situation: I’m just going to focus on my stuff and do the best I can – which is what I always do. That doesn’t change.

  • 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    2017 Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Let’s start with Lewis Hamilton – a two-time Australian Grand Prix winner, record five times pole sitter here at Albert Park? Lewis, you and the other drivers have spoken about how much you enjoy driving this new generation of new cars. Could you perhaps give us an idea from your own point of view of a few areas you particularly like about it?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly, hi everyone, it’s good to see you, it’s good to be back. I don’t know, as racing drivers and in general you want to drive the quickest cars in the world and you always want to go faster and the cars are faster than they were last year. And the challenge of exploiting that speed with your car on track is a great challenge. It’s more in the direction of how Formula One should be, in the sense of the physicality side of it. We are athletes, and Formula One should be the most physically demanding sport in terms of all the driving series. In the previous years that’s not been the case. To the level we train to it’s relatively easy for us to, but now you are going to have to push the boundaries, which I like.

    There’s a saying in sport – never change a winning team. But you have a new Mercedes technical boss and a new team-mate. How’s that all working out?

    LH: So far, great. I sat down with James and had a great conversation with him and he’s really blended well into the team and super-excited to work with him. It’s always great to have great new creative minds and he’s one of the smartest people I have ever met, if not the smartest. I’m excited to see what he can bring out of me and the team and all the guys we’re working with. Valtteri has, as I said before, Valtteri has been gelling really well into the team, working really hard to be the best he can be, which is all I want.

    Sebastian coming to you, of course 2011 Australian Grand Prix winner. You had a good chance to win this race last year and the recent testing would suggest you will be in the hunt again on Sunday. Is there a more solid baseline do you feel to this year’s Ferrari attack.

    Sebastian VETTEL: We’ll see. So far we don’t know anything. For all of us it will be exciting to find out where we are on Saturday/Sunday, to get a first impression. For us a lot of new things last year didn’t really go the way we expected, so I think for this year we have really focused on ourselves. We have tried to do our job back in the factory and in testing… I think testing times, I don’t think they are that crucial, I think it matters much more what you show from here onwards. We’ll see. I think we are a bit in the dark like everyone else, not knowing what other people have done. For ourselves we can be reasonably happy, we did decent mileage, we didn’t have any major issues with the car and hopefully we can carry that momentum into the race.

    Well, the car looks pretty competitive but the real question I guess is how it will do in qualifying. Ferrari have only taken five pole positions this decade, since 2010, so how have you addressed that? Have you got a go-faster engine setting for the final part of qualifying?

    SV: Not necessarily. I think we worked on all areas, trying to improve. Obviously we all know that qualifying is important to have a good race, so the higher up you qualify the better the chance you have in the race. Statistically it doesn’t look that good, so hopefully we can turn that around.

    Fernando, coming to you, 2006 winner here of course, there’s no hiding the fact that McLaren and Honda are in a very difficulty position at this stage. Do you have any expectations at all for this season?

    Fernando ALONSO: Well, I think let’s wait and see. We have only done the testing period, so I think the first race now will put things a little bit more clear. It’s a question mark also for us where we exactly are. We were not able to push the car to anywhere close to the limit at any lap on the testing, due to different problems. Let’s see. If we can have a good first weekend, see a little bit more of the potential of the car and hopefully see where we are. But yeah, still a long way to go for us and a lot of work to do.

    It’s been only three weeks since testing began and the problems came to light. Have you and team been able to put the rescue plan in place yet or is that something that’s going to come in the next few weeks?

    FA: The team is always working to improve the situation – to word as hard we can, to identify the problems and to improve those areas. I guess everyone did the maximum in the last three weeks and let’s see what we can find tomorrow on the track and that’s more a question for Eric and Honda.

    Daniel, it’s a stat they don’t care for much around these parts, but no Australian has won the Australian Grand Prix since it became a championship round in 1985, so come on Dan, are you going to put that right this weekend?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I’ll try. I’ll try to. It would be nice. If anyone could win just one race they’d always say their home, so that’d be cool, it would be good.

    SV: Didn’t Alan Jones win here?

    Not since it became a world championship round, no.

    SV: So what race did he win in 1980?

    DR: That was the world championship. He’s here; I’ll ask him.

    Daniel, do you want to add anything more?

    DR: I’d love to. We’ll see what happens. I’m prepared. As Lewis touched on, it’s more physical this year and I think we’ve all done our work in the pre-season. I’m sure all of us up here feel like we’re coming in as well prepared as possible and it’s been fun to put more emphasis on that, on the training. The cars are more enjoyable. They are going to be fast. For the fans here this weekend to see the cars on track, the cornering speeds, I think they’ll definitely see that. Hopefully we’re cornering quicker than anyone else.

    Well, you got a really good look at your team-mate Max Verstappen in the second half of last season. How tough are the battles between you two this year?

    DR: Hopefully tough. Hopefully we’re fighting for victories, I think that would be something we would welcome. He’s obviously fast. It’s his third year now and although he’s young, he’s no longer a rookie anymore so I think we both carry a bit of experience. I think the team is excited to see how we go and I think everyone else is. They’re starting to hype it up a little bit. Hopefully it’s hyped up by the fact that we’re fighting at the front, that’s what we both want.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) I want to say good afternoon to everyone and I want to wish us good press conferences for the rest of the season and a good, robust conversation. This question is for the entire panel. This year we have some new owners, the sport is owned by Liberty Media and they have a big, bold vision for the future of F1. What would be your top three wishes for the new owners of Formula One?

    DR: A race in Vegas.

    SV: A race in Germany.

    DR: That’s it; I’ve said mine.

    LH: Miami race…. More ladies in the paddock? More paddock access to some women, there’s too many dudes in the paddock.

    SV: V12s.

    LH: V12s, I agree.

    Fernando?

    FA: I agree. I agree with everyone… equal engines for everyone.

    LH: I don’t agree with that one.

    DR: But not electric.

    LH: And not Honda. I’m kidding…

    Q: (Andy Benson – BBC) We had Charlie Whiting in here a couple of hours ago and one of the things he was saying was that the so-called ‘Verstappen rule’ has been removed, just leaving the general catch-all regulation about potentially dangerous driving. Are you all happy with that situation?

    SV: I don’t know. I’m not…

    You’ll be told tomorrow.

    DR: We’ll be told tomorrow? You know everything before us! Let’s see. I think we can… the good part of it is it means less decisions to be made on track. If they leave it up to us I guess the positive is that we sort it out on track. Hopefully we can get redemption if we feel like something has not gone our way. We’ll see., I like being able to race. That’s the positive from it.

    SV: Will I get my trophy back… it makes sense!

    DR: I guess he wants his trophy back from Mexico. It was a pretty small one actually. Right, I’ll shut up.

    Q: (Leon Alepidis – F1fan) A question for Daniel. For many years it has been talked of to have a second grand prix in the USA. In the past Germany, Spain and Italy had a second grand prix in the same year. Your thoughts about a possible second grand prix in Australia and where would you like that to be?

    DR: I’m going to sound greedy if I ask for another one here. We’ve got some great circuits… Seb’s saying Bathurst. That would be an amazing circuit for sure. Adelaide, I believe… I was very young but I did go to the 1993 grand prix, I was very young but I heard Adelaide was amazing, they still do it with the V8 supercars. Phillip Island, they host a great event for MotoGP, so there’s a lot. I wouldn’t say no, but I feel a bit greedy asking for more than we have got already. I think everyone else would like to come here. You guys like Australia, right?

    Q: (Rebecca Williams – News Ltd) A question for Fernando. You were involved in a frightening smash here last year at Albert Park. Just wondering how you feel about your return to the track this year, and if that’s something that’s going to be at the back of your mind when you get out there, specifically at that corner?

    FA: Not really. You try always to forget all the accidents, all the moments you were scared in the car, so yeah, it was a pretty big one here last year but it will be perfectly OK and I’m really looking forward to go back here. I like the circuit. I like how passionate the fans are when we are on the track so it will be a good experience to go through those turns.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere Della Sera) To Sebastian. You said it’s too early to have a judgement on your car. But do you feel this car has enough quality to let you fight for the title?

    SV: Well, it’s March now! I think if you are in a fight for the title that’s a question for October, November. I think looking at the performance of the cars obviously it was expected to be a big step up and that’s how it felt on the track. I think that’s what we all said when we first got out of the car, that it’s a big step forward. It’s not entirely fair to judge to the previous years because it’s a different formula but I think they will be the fastest cars we have ever driven. Naturally, the day I came into Formula One the cars got a bit faster, a bit faster, then they tended stall a little bit. We distributed straight line speed versus cornering speed and I think for us what really gives us a good feeling is cornering speed and I think we are back to the level we were probably ten years ago, and maybe a bit faster. For us it’s always nice to have the feeling that these are the fastest cars we have ever driven. On competitiveness we are all here to find out, that’s why we go racing I guess.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, last year it was very tight between you and Kimi in qualifying. With this better car do you think it can be even tighter or is it easier for you in qualifying against him?

    SV: I think it’s never easy. You try to get the best out of yourself, out of your car for one lap. I think last year has been closer than the year before but it’s always been fairly close. Obviously I want to be in front of him and he wants to be in front of me but I think starting the season priority number one is hopefully we are in front of the others. But as I said its still very, very early. We try to do the best job for ourselves and the team and we go from there.

    Q: (Andre Leslie – DPA) Question for Daniel. Daniel, this week in Australia – I’m sure you’ve been here longer than that – how has it been with the pressure and the reception that you’ve received around the country? Is it something that is a weight on your shoulders or is it something you look forward to?

    DR: It’s not a weight on my shoulders. It means more work, for sure. This week is easily the busiest F1 week of the year for me. But it’s all positive support. It’s kind-of overwhelming actually. I’m surprised that so many people are getting behind me and the event but it’s obviously cool. It’s nice and encouraging to see. I hear that ticket sales and everything is up quite a chunk from last year. I try to enjoy it. I appreciate it won’t last for ever. It’s demanding, it’s a tiring week but it’s pretty cool to see so many people supportive of me and the event. I don’t see it as pressure in terms of, if I don’t win on Sunday, they’re all going to leave the track and say I’m hopeless and never come back. They want to see me do well and that’s how I see it. It’s just a bit of extra motivation for me and I think the drivers’ parade on Sunday I’ll see that and feel it and get me jacked-up for the race.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid Day) Question for Fernando. Fernando, you’ve spoken about how much you’re enjoyed driving these cars, this new generation of cars, despite all the problems in testing. I just wanted to ask you, does the joy of these new cars take away some of the pain – or is it a case that if you’re not competitive then it’s no-longer fun? Thank you.

    FA: No, I think they are two separate things. One is how you enjoy and how much adrenaline these cars are giving to you on the cornering speed. Comparing with the last couple of years I think it’s a good step forward. Not only for us drivers but also for the spectators: for the people here in the grandstands and watching on television they look spectacular and that’s a positive thing. And then, yeah, naturally I think all sportsmen, we are competitive and y’know, when you arrive to race like we are doing now in the first grand prix of the year, you know that joy is together if you are competitive. Let’s see how competitive we can be this year. At least when you are driving alone, you are enjoying. Then when you have a car close to you and they go much faster than you, that’s a little bit less enjoyable.

    Q: (Jerome Bourret – L’Equipe) Do you think that the new regulation can stop Mercedes’ domination or do you expect Lewis to still be the man to beat this weekend and this year? And Lewis, do you consider yourself the favourite for the Championship?

    SV: Well, I think he must be. Mercedes obviously has been in very, very strong form the last three years and even though we changed the regulations, if a team is strong then they will build a strong car the year after, no matter what you do with the rules. I think it’s very clear who is the favourite. For all of us sitting here, we are trying our best to catch-up. How much we have succeeded, we will see and, as the season goes on, I’m sure the cars will have big progression and all the teams will bring lots of stuff to develop the cars. So, whoever’s in a good place in the beginning and still in a good place at the end will have a chance.

    DR: I think for everyone, it’s like when Red Bull were dominating a few years ago, everyone wanted to see someone else win. So it’s natural. People like change. And for us drivers not being in a Mercedes, we want to see change as well. I think even to have more cars fighting for a win, it makes it more exciting. I’ll let Lewis answer but I think if he wins a race against four of us as opposed to just maybe his team-mate, I think that reward is bigger as well. So, I think if you can win against more, it’s not only good for the fans but that feeling of self-accomplishment is greater. We’ll see. Ferrari showed good pace in testing. If they can maybe take a few points away as well, it opens up the Championship over the long term.

    See it that way Lewis?

    LH: I see Ferrari being the quickest at the moment and I think they will definitely be the favourites but we’ll find out more going into the weekend. It’s interesting to see Sebastian’s usually a lot more hype and I can tell he’s trying to keep a lid on it. But their pace was obviously great in testing. I’m very keen to see what Red Bull bring because they were quite far behind through testing, at least compared to Ferrari and didn’t see them bring many upgrades – or an upgrade as far as I could see. So I’m assuming they’re bringing something here which I’m excited to see what they do bring. And I agree with Daniel in the sense of having more teams and more drivers up at the front fighting for wins, that’s what racing is all about. I’m hoping that’s the case. We, as a team, I don’t believe, as far as I know, no team has won back-to-back through rule regulation changes, so that is our goal as a team. We’re here to win, we’re here to do something no-one else has done. Whether or not we’re in the right place at this moment in the season, we’ll find out. But I have every belief in my team that we can do that.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Can you remember how many cars were on the grid during your first grand prix weekend. And the real question is, is 20 enough to keep the public satisfied.

    FA: Yes. Enough. Obviously, it’s nice to have many cars on track and many teams in Formula One but at the same point it’s a sport that’s quite difficult to get in, quite difficult to stay for many years. We see with some of the smaller teams how they struggle to keep their financial situation healthy in the year. I think to have a good ten teams and 20 cars on track is more or less the number that we see in Formula One for many years. I think it’s OK.

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) You just touched on this. The last three years you’ve been fighting for the title, just between you and your team-mate. Would this year be more significant, would you enjoy it more if it was a two- or three-way fight with Ferrari, Red Bull and other drivers. Would it mean more to you?

    LH: Well, as I just mentioned, every year your goal is to beat everyone, of course, and the more of a fight you have, the more satisfying it is when you are victorious, so we’re fully up for a challenge and for a fight. So, that’s what I prepare for. I think it’s not a bad thing. I can’t remember the last time we had three years and then a rule change – but I think they should probably shorten that, maybe, and do more changes. Because there can often be dominance for a certain team and it’s hard to catch up. There’s a limit to how much development you can do through a year, and the top teams can generally develop at a similar pace. If you’ve got a gap already at the beginning it’s hard to squish that gap being that there are rules in terms of how much investment and time you can put into developing your cars. Doing drastic changes kind of spices it up. I’ve never seen the fans so excited about the season as they are this season, being how that it is we don’t know where the cars and the teams are. So, more of these kinds of experiences would, I think, be welcome.

    Q: (Shane McInnes – Radio 3AW) Just about the length of the season, we know it’s 20 races this year but new owners have suggested they might like to see it get out to 25 races. Is 25 too many, and do you think 20 is the right amount or even less, going forward?

    DR: I think it depends on how they structure it. It’s not too many. NASCAR do 36 or something. It’s a lot but the travel’s a lot less because they’re just in the US. So, I think it depends logistically how they do it. It’s all… I don’t know. I like racing. If it means just racing and no testing and less other stuff then… maybe. We spend more days in front of cameras and other things than actually behind the wheel of a racing car. I’d be open to the idea.

    SV: I think 25 is too many. I think 20 is enough. We don’t need more. I think anything between 16 and 20 is the right number. Also, thinking of the efforts going in from the team point of view. For us it’s fairly easy, arriving more or less with hand luggage, doing the job and getting back. I think we’re on the better side. For a lot of the team, for the staff, it’s hard work. So, I think we are having enough races.

    LH: I think if you asked any member of my team whether they’d want to do more races or less, they’d ask for more. It is definitely tough on the guys that are travelling but they love it. They’re addicted to it. They love motor racing and, of course they love time at home but… I’m like Daniel, I love racing so I’m not opposed to more races but I think they’ve got to change the structure, at least on different weekends. If it’s the same four days for 25 races, oh my God I think that would be too much. If they spice it up and make it more… a period during the season that’s perhaps more exciting than another, I think there’s a lot they can do. As long as they are in countries that have a good following. There’s no point in going to a country… for example Turkey, which was a beautiful place but there was no-one that turned up to a race. But if you go to places where there’s a real great atmosphere then you can create a great event, then I think that would be awesome.

    Fernando, any thoughts?

    FA: The same. We all love racing I think so more racing will be always welcome – but in a couple of years’ time.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, how excited are you about the prospect of taking on Seb, a driver that’s won four titles. Obviously, you have three. Do you think this could be the start of a great rivalry that Formula One needs with arguably the two best drivers of their generation going for the title?

    LH: Yeah. I’ve not had a lot of battles with Sebastian on track so, of course, would love to have that. I think the fans want to see that but even between all of us. We need this guy [Fernando] to have a good car so he can get up there and fight with us as well – before his time’s up. We got a hint that it’s another couple of years at least, so that’s good. I feel we’re yet to see the best of Fernando. The sport needs that and he deserves to be able to show that. So, yeah, you want to be racing against the best. I think that’s what the fans want to see. That close racing and sheer competitiveness and see the ups and downs of the best doing their best. I’m definitely looking forward to racing with all these guys and I hope there’s lots of close racing.

    Q: (Andrew Tate – The Age) Lewis, does part of you wish you were racing the reigning champion for the championship this year.

    LH: Not really. When I walked in here I was thinking it was kind of neat because I have a champion here, a champion there and a potential champion here as well.

    DR: Thanks!

    LH: …so it obviously doesn’t make any difference if the reigning champion’s here or not. At the end of the day every year it’s a brand-new year, a brand-new start, it’s a brand-new challenge and a brand-new championship to win. So, I think we’re all out there to beat each other – but as far as I’m aware you don’t say ‘that guy over there’s the current World Champion, I want to go and beat him’. You just want to beat whoever it is you’re up against.