F1 Madness

Tag: circuit of the americas

  • Penalties for the 2017 US Grand Prix

    Penalties for the 2017 US Grand Prix

    Before Free Practice one had got underway at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas there were a few drivers that had a number of power unit components changed which will drop them down the grid a few places.

    Renault has introduced a few 2018 parts to their current engines and have fitted them to their power units.

    F1 debutant, Brendon Hartley has had a rude welcome to F1. On his first race he’ll start with a 25-place grid penalty against his name.

    • 6th Internal combustion engine – 10 grid place drop(1st of the 6th element)
    • 6th MGU-H – 5 grid place drop
    • 5th Energy store – 5 grid place drop
    • 5th Control electronics – 5 grid place drop.

    Nico Hulkenberg – 20 grid place drop

    • 6th MGU-H – 10 grid place drop (1st 6th element)
    • 5th Internal combustion engine – 5 place grid drop
    • 5th Turbo charger – 5 place grid drop

    Stoffel Vandoorne – 5 grid place drop

    • 8th Internal combustion engine – 5 place grid drop
    • 9th Internal combustion engine – 10 place grid drop
    • 11th MGU-H – 5 place grid drop
    • 11th Turbo charge – 5 place grid drop
    • 8th MGU-K – 5 place grid drop.

    Williams

    Williams have been handed a 10 000 Euro suspended fine and team reprimand for failing to hand back a set of tyres 3 second too late.

    This is the second time that Williams is guilty of this, but because Williams was 3 seconds late the stewards decided to hand down the suspended fine.

    Max Verstappen – 15 grid place drop 

    • 6th Internal combustion engine – 10 grid place drop (1st 6th element)
    • 6th MGU-H – 5 grid place drop

    Kevin Magnussen – 3 grid place drop

    • Magnussen will drop three places after impeding Force India’s Sergio Perez in Qualifying. Perez, who was behind Magnussen on track, was on a flying lap while Magnussen was on an out-lap and received the incorrect information from the team. He also gets one penalty point on his super license which brings his total to 8 points for the 12 month period.

    Lance Stroll – 3 grid place drop

    • Like Kevin Magnussen, Stroll receives a 3-place grid drop for impeding Romain Grosjean during qualifying. Stroll was on a cool down lap and had just rounded Turn 19 and was on the racing line on his way to the pits. Grosjean behind was on a flying lap and closed up to Stroll. At the same time Kvyat was off the racing line to the left of Stroll, who decided to go off the track to the right. Grosjean behind had already decided to pass Stroll off the track and almost collided with the Williams. Stroll also gets 1 penalty point on his super license, his first in his F1 career.

    Provisional Starting Grid

    With all the penalties imposed the grid moves around so much so that only the top 5 qualifiers keep the positions they start in.

    1. Hamilton
    2. Vettel
    3. Bottas
    4. Ricciardo
    5. Raikkonen
    6. Ocon
    7. Sainz
    8. Alonso
    9. Perez
    10. Massa
    11. Kvyat
    12. Grosjean
    13. Ericsson
    14. Wehrlein
    15. Stroll*
    16. Verstappen*
    17. Magnussen*
    18. Hulkenberg*
    19. Hartley*
    20. Vandoorne*
  • 2017 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 2

    2017 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 2

    PART TWO – DRIVERS: Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Nico HÜLKENBERG (Renault)

     

    Q: Let’s start with Fernando Alonso. Two-time Formula One World Champion who’s just announced a new deal with McLaren that I think will take you to 17 seasons in Formula One. Tell us your feelings, and also what remains for you to achieve here?

    Fernando ALONSO: Well, the feelings are great, obviously. It’s a good day for me, announcing next year, I will be back here with McLaren and obviously happy and proud to continue this relationship. It has been three difficult seasons for us, we are not as competitive as we wanted and now I think it’s time to change this situation and hopefully next year to be back in the positions that McLaren belongs and hopefully give something to our fans that have kept supporting us for the last three years. That will be the main thing for next year. As I’ve said, happy to arrive to this agreement at the end.

     

    Q: On that topic, obviously you’re switching to the Renault engine for next year which has this season so far won two grands prix and had ten other podiums. Is that the kind of thing you have in mind from McLaren-Renault next season?

    FA: We’ll see. I think every years the projects are a little bit different. You never know what you can achieve with the new cars. Sometimes you go to the first winter test and have a nice surprise and are quicker than you expect; sometimes you have bad surprises and you are a little bit slower and something is not according to plan. Let’s see what we can do next year – but definitely very happy again to have a Renault engine on my car. I have a very strong relationship with Renault from many, many years now. I’ve been working with them since then, even on my karting school etcetera, so extremely proud to also drive for a Renault engine.

     

    Q: And a final comment on the colour of your cap, all part of the Susan Komen initiative this weekend.

    FA: Yes. Obviously I think the whole of Formula One is given big support to all the women that are fighting constantly with breast cancer. I think we want to pass the message that they are not alone, they have a lot of support. With all the necessary things and controls they can make in advance, I think there are many, many hopes and they are not alone.

     

    Q: Romain Grosjean, on home soil – kind of – with Haas, off the back of a double-points finish in Japan that moved you up in the Constructors’ Championship as well, what’s the mood like in the team at the moment, going into this weekend.

    Romain GROSJEAN: The mood is pretty good. It has been since the first day, to be fair, even through the highs and lows. It was really good to have a double-points finish in Japan. Japan and Monaco, which are two very difficult tracks. So, it shows the team is doing great progress. We’re coming here of course very motivated as always. Pretty special grand prix because it’s the home race for the team. We just need to keep our feet on the ground and start from zero every weekend and build up from there but you know it’s only the second year of the team and we are fighting with Renault, Toro Rosso, Williams in the Constructors’ Championship – and they are teams that have been here for a very long time, so you can be very proud of that. We know where are our strengths, we know our weakness and we are working on that for the future – but I think there is a lot of potential in the team to move up the ranks.

     

    Q: On that subject, Fernando’s planning on moving up the grid next year, Nico’s definitely planning on moving up the grid next year. How are Haas and yourself going to move up the grid in the face of that competition?

    RG: Well who isn’t? That’s the real question! For sure McLaren is going to be a competitive team next year. We have less experience than others. I think that year was a really good test for us and knowing that we were coming with a change of regulation, to see what we could do. We’ve done pretty well. I’m thinking that, I’m hoping that next year we go up another level, which everyone obviously does – but I think, as I say, we’ve got more potential to unlock and we’re going to try to do that. We know where we’ve been good, we know where we haven’t been good and obviously now the key is to work on where we’ve been weak.

     

    Q: Nico, a new teammate in Carlos this weekend and going forward.  Do you expect him to give you a hard time this weekend in Austin, or indeed in the last four races or is that more likely to come next season?

    Nico HULKENBERG: No, definitely a harder time probably than so far this year. Obviously he’s got a few challenges on his plate, changing team at the back end of the season is not the easiest situation. There are a lot of new things that he has to get used to: car, team, people but I’m sure he will be on a decent level straight away. I look forward to working  alongside him. Obviously four important and intense races now ahead of us so yeah, we need to focus and do a good job.

     

    Q: Do you know him much already?

    NH: I’ve known him obviously from this year and last year, the time that he’s been in Formula One but probably get to know him a lot more in the next couple of weeks.

     

    Q: Obviously the Renault’s been quite an interesting story, the way it’s developed this year; pretty much since Silverstone it seems to me you’ve generally been the fourth fastest car in qualifying at most venues; where has that come from?

    NH: Well, it’s come from hard work, good development, everybody back at the factory has done a good job during these last couple of months and that’s it pretty much. We’ve brought updates for the car and transformed the car into a much better performing car on all sorts of different tracks so we’re in a good position. As we say, we still obviously have quite a bit to do this year. We want to not finish where we are now, in terms of team championship position, so it’s important for us to do a good job in the last four races.

     

    Q: So based on the growth that you’ve seen this last few months, obviously you think you’re going to be able to race Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull in 2018? Is that too much to expect?

    NH: I think that’s asking a bit much if you see the gap and the advantages they have at the moment. It’s a pretty difficult task to close that gap. I think if we can halve that gap, we’ve already done a very good job. It’s not that they’re not doing a fantastic job so TBC but obviously we will make up as much as we can.

     

    Q: Kevin, four points finishes in 2017 with a best of seventh, how would you sum up the season so far in terms of your own satisfaction?

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: I think it’s been an up-and-down season with a lot of potential and perhaps also some missed potential at times this year but we’ve still had some good races and the potential seems to be good in the car. When we’re quick, we’re very quick and competitive but our lows have perhaps been a bit too low. That’s something to work on for next year, consistency, and getting the car more regularly at its best. I think we can move towards that; whether we can be constantly fourth best team, I don’t think so. It’s not realistic at least but we will do what we can and see.

     

    Q: Now you and Romain are now noticeably more close together more often, starting to become a bit of a Force India scenario. How much are you enjoying that?

    KM: Well, we haven’t crashed into each other this year so it’s not like that but we’re enjoying it and it’s good that we’re both getting the most out of the car and just shows that we’re fighting hard and doing our best.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Fernando, I believe it’s a one year contract extension you’ve signed; is that correct and if so what’s the thinking? Are you looking beyond next year, do you want options open?

    FA: We don’t talk too much about the contracts, the inside but no, it’s not one year.

     

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Fernando, just following that up, I’m told it’s a multi-year contract but presumably that’s got options in it. Do you then foresee potentially at McLaren if things go well next year and then maybe into the future Le Mans, Indy 500? Are these things that you’re talking about with McLaren as well?

    FA: We’ll see, I think it’s just talking too much ahead. We have enough to do for next year, to put McLaren again at the top of the grid and that’s the first priority right now. I think on my personal side there are no other priorities than Formula One at the moment but with a door open for different series and different goals that I always believed that you need to win in other series if you want to be a more complete driver, a better driver, because motorsport is not only Formula One. Even if it’s still the priority, we will see what the future brings.

     

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Romain, you and your wife recently worked on a cookbook together, Cuisine and Confidences. Can you tell us a little bit about the book and what went into it, the journey that you take because it covers two things you love aside from Formula One, cooking and your family?

    RG: Yeah, it’s been great fun. It was just through meeting people and we met a guy called Patrick Rougereau and he’s been voted best culinary photographer in the world last year and he actually made my plate look pretty nice which it wasn’t always, so it was a good job. And it was basically… it was basically just a way to share my passion for cooking and every recipe has a story behind it for which my wife writes the text, so it’s all cooking that we do back home, either with the kids, with friends and so on. It was just a great thing to do and I thought it could be fun to see that a Formula One driver can actually do something a bit different than an autobiography and having a cookbook that can give a bit of an inside of our lives through recipes.

     

    Q: Do any of the other drivers have a passion for cooking? Nico, do you enjoy cooking?

    NH: No.

    FA: No

    KM: Just eating.

     

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Fernando, as somebody who now has experience in Indycar and also Formula One, how do you think F1 can win over American fans? Is the passion for racing different around here?

    FA: I think here it’s a little bit more relaxed; you know the atmosphere in the race, in the weekend… The races here are much more unpredictable, what the result can be on Sundays so that is quite attractive from a fan point of view. In Formula One, we know the starting grid on Sunday, we can write a paper now and sign and we will maybe miss one or two positions, maximum, and that’s the worst thing that we have and hopefully we can change that.

     

    Q: (Geoff Gluck – Geoff Gluck.com) Fernando, you’ve seen a lot of teams come in over the years but Haas F1 team has had pretty good success in their first couple of seasons. Have you been surprised at how well they’ve been able to do as a start-up team?

    FA: Yeah, definitely, it definitely has been a very good thing for the sport. I think what Haas has managed to do in the last two years is quite impressive. I think the first year we could argue that with the help of Ferrari or the agreements that they had, we will see a competitive team already from race one but I think with the changes of regulations this year etc I think they did an amazing job again, so two consecutive years in a very demanding sport like F1, competing at a good level is a great achievement  so hopefully we will see more teams coming with this commitment and with this kind of result and also with Haas with better results in the future will be great as well.

     

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Fernando, five months ago, you running in the Indy 500 got a lot of people’s attention obviously. When you reflect back at that time, what are the biggest moments you take with you and are you looking to potentially doing something like that again in the future?

    FA: Well the moment was… it’s difficult to pick up one moment of that month. If I had to chose one, it would be Sunday: the drivers’ presentation, the drivers’ parade ten minutes before the race. That was an amazing moment: 250-300,000 people in one venue was very impressive, the atmosphere there. But I think the whole months was very unique and opened the eyes a little bit of what I said before: Formula One is just one more series in motorsport, probably the most mediatic one, it’s a fantastic show and we all are very proud to be Formula One drivers and we dream from a very early age to become Formula One drivers but there are other motorsport series that are as good as that and you know I’m a fan of this one, so that was a good discovery for me. Obviously now, with the new McLaren deal for next year I can confirm that I will not be at the Indy 500 next year because there is Monaco Grand Prix on the same weekend and priority next year will be to perform well in Formula One but at the same time I can confirm that I will be in the Indy 500 in the future. I don’t if it will be ’19 or 2020 or whenever but it’s a race that I definitely will experience again.

     

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) For all drivers: Austin will stay on the Formula One calendar probably but if there will be a second Grand Prix in the US, what circuit or what city would you like?

    NH: I’ll say Miami, because I think it’s a fun, cool town and to host the Grand Prix there woul be quite cool and spectacular I think.

    RG: Well, I think there would be many many places to get a great Grand Prix. Laguna Seca is a pretty cool track, I love Long Beach, Miami would be nice. Why not Las Vegas, so I think it’s such a big country that there are opportunities in a lot of cities.

    FA: Yes, the same. There are many places that could host a race. Even Indianapolis on the old circuit.

    KM: Yeah, Laguna Seca would be awesome, Watkins Glen, a city race in Miami or New York would be cool as well, so more races would be good.

     

    Q: (Jim Virtuno – Associated Press) Romain, you’ve driven for Haas now for two years; what’s your sense of Gene’s patience or impatience of the development of the team and do you sense that he’s in this for the long haul?

    RG: I think he’s the best team owner I’ve ever had. He’s passionate about racing and really loves it to a high extent and that makes the whole team just very enjoyable to work with. I think Gene was initially surprised how competitive and how complicated Formula One is but he’s now got it and he knows that what we’re doing is pretty good. Of course we always want more and if Gene is in Formula One it’s not too… I believe in the long term fight for eighth or sixth in the Constructors’ Championship but try to go for podiums or one win. We know the gap is big right now but that’s where the patience is. But again, as I say, he’s super passionate about the team, the racing, the whole Formula One and that love that he’s got for the race just goes through the whole team and makes it, as I say, a very very good team to work with and I believe a very successful team in the future.

     

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Nico, you’ve obviously got used to having Jo in the car next to you throughout the season and knowing your own strengths and weaknesses against his. Does it refocus you at all when you get a new teammate, that sort of fear of the unknown change your approach at all?

    NH: You probably would have thought a little bit but then I think then on the other side I’ve done pretty well this season so far so I think I just need to keep doing what I’ve so far this year, that worked pretty well for me and I’m in a good spot, I’m confident, I like where I am so I won’t get distracted too much. I just need to focus, to get the best out of myself and my car and my crew and I think then I will be fine.

  • 2017 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    2017 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Brendon HARTLEY (Toro Rosso), Carlos SAINZ (Renault), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, five-time US Grand Prix winner, three-time F1 world champion, US Grand Prix always a big one for your, personally and for the team, no doubt many commitments in the run-up to the event, but I just wondered how much you enjoyed your hours spent at NASA yesterday?

    Lewis HAMILTON : Good morning everyone, super happy to be here of course and had an incredible day yesterday, having a bit of a comedown today. I was just buzzed all day yesterday because it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. It’s always something I’ve been fascinated about, space and space travel particularly. So to actually go there… and I had a million questions. I’m sure the guy got fed up with me. I asked a lot of questions and I got to see a lot of great things, some of the new technology they are working on and yeah, I want to go back.

     

    You stand on the threshold of your fourth Driver’s world championship this weekend, but does a part of you regret that the fight has sort of gone out of it now with all the misfortunes that Vettel and Ferrari suffered on the Asian leg in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan?

    LH: No I don’t feel any type of way about it.

     

    But obviously you’ve got such a massive margin now. There was such a tension throughout the season up to September but there’s much less tension now from your point of view, approaching the races?

    LH: Nothing has changed for me, man. Everything is exactly the same as it was going into the last race, going into the second half of the season; it’s exactly the same mentally for me. Maybe it’s changed from your perspective, but for me it hasn’t.

     

    Fair enough. Thanks for that. Marcus, the seats are filling up now for 2018. Are you comfortable with the position you are in and do you have any guarantees about next season?

    Marcus ERICSSON: I think in Formula One when you don’t have a contract signed you can never be comfortable, so it’s important for me to push hard now in the last few races to show that I should be on the grid for next year.

     

    You’ve never been outqualified I believe by a team-mate here at Austin, what do you like particularly about this track?

    ME: I didn’t know that but that’s good. I enjoy this track. I think it’s the best one of the new tracks on the calendar. It has a good mix of very fast corners. The first sector is really good fun to drive and really challenging and I look forward to driving it with these new cars as well. I think it’s going to be quite impressive. It’s a good mix of corners on this track and it’s enjoyable to driver.

     

    Turning to Brendon Hartley, 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner, welcome to your grand prix debut. Tell us, who called who, what part did Porsche play in it all and where is it all leading?

    Brendon HARTLEY: Good questions. Actually, when it was announced that Porsche would stop endurance racing in LMP1 for next year, I called Helmut Marko and I said: ‘Look, I’m a different driver than I was 10 years ago, I’ve learned a lot, and if there is ever and opportunity I am ready.” He didn’t say much, he just said he got the message, and three months later he made the call. This happened very quickly. I didn’t know about it much sooner than the press did. It’s been quite a whirlwind of a couple of weeks to arrive here. Yeah, I’m pretty relaxed at the moment, all things considered. Really looking forward to getting out on track. Obviously I’ve had quite a bit of time to chat to the engineers, to go through some data, a little bit of time on the sim. But I’m looking forward to free practice one and see how comfortable I feel and working towards the race start on Sunday, which is a big moment for me, so yeah, really excited.

     

    When you say you are a different driver from 10 years ago, what was wrong with you as a driver 10 years ago that made it go wrong with Helmut and how have you changed?

    BH: I guess I wasn’t ready. I had some success in the early days, I won the Formula Renault championship, I became the reserve driver, had my first F1 test at 18 years old and I guess I just didn’t deal with the pressure. I stopped enjoying it, I wasn’t happy; I was pretty young and away from home. When the Formula One dream, so to speak, stopped in 2010, I picked myself up, I found endurance racing and yeah, I have learned a lot from that experience. Being in the LMP1 programme, a high-profile category, where there is a lot of pressure, probably not that dissimilar to Formula One in some ways, in that respect, in development of the race car, and working with team-mates has been great. I’m a lot stronger than I was back then, basically. I wasn’t ready at 18 years old. I like to think I’m ready now. I’m not very prepared for this weekend, I haven’t the car, I haven’t driven a single-seater since 2012, but I like to think that Porsche LMP1 has hopefully prepared me well.

     

    Excellent. Thank you very much for that. Carlos, splendid in yellow. You’ve made your move to Renault this weekend. Why? Why is it important to do four races at the end of this season, to get your head around the new team ahead of next year? In what ways will you benefit from this?

    Carlos SAINZ: First of all, I think that 2018 cars will be an evolution of this year’s cars. So every input I can have regarding this year’s car, every feeling I can get from every single area of the car, I’m sure it will help me for next year. On top of that, it’s always better to meet engineers, PR people, team bosses… start working along together with all of them four races earlier that gives us a bit of an advantage for 2018 rather than going straight into winter testing in 2018.

     

    So I think the thing we all want to know is how close can you expect to be to Hulkenberg’s pace in qualifying, your new team-mate this weekend, given the amount of time you will have with an unfamiliar car on Friday and Saturday in practice? What’s your goal?

    CS: Let’s wait and see, no? I think my main target has to be to go session by session. I’m the first one who wants to be on the pace straight away, but I cannot get too excited about that. I need to cover all the procedures, all the steps that I want to take, little by little, to get to know the car. I need to adapt myself to the car and I need to adapt the car to myself at the same time. That takes a bit of time and I’m going to go step by step and hopefully get there as soon as possible.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Équipe) Lewis, do you have any explanation of your strengths in qualifying, even when your car is not as good as you would like?

    LH: I think it’s just about know the car and knowing where you can push at those areas. Of course there are weaknesses but still you can find a way to exploit those weaknesses and just about get by. It’s been a fun car to drive because it’s not been perfect. So it’s then relied on a lot of your ability to balance it in uncomfortable scenarios or situations, which is something that I’ve always loved doing. It’s how I started in life, with not such a great go-kart when I was young, so that’s about it really.

     

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Lewis, the fun exchange with Takuma Sato on the podium got a lot of buzz here in the States. Talk about your interest, potentially, in the Indy 500 after getting a chance to have that exchange with him?

    LH: Honestly, it hasn’t inspired me to do the Indy 500. I’ve always respected it and appreciated it and I got to watch part of it when Fernando did it, which was super exciting. I love the idea of drivers being able to do more than one series. Just the other day I happened to get to drive a Formula One car on an oval, which was interesting. I have a huge amount of respect for those drivers; it’s quite scary when you approach those banks at the speed that they do. But I personally don’t have any particular desire to… maybe one day I’ll day I’ll have some fun and go out. Obviously I get lots of opportunities to do those things but I have no plans to go there and do anything serious.

     

    Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Brendon, what have the team have said to you about their expectations for this weekend and longer term what may come after this weekend?

    BH: Actually, there have been no expectations set. To be honest, some of the team members I’m just meeting for the first time today, and yesterday during the seat fit. I made the seat yesterday. Nothing has really been said yet. Obviously I want to do the best that I can. I’m trying not to put to many expectations on it. In some ways I’m underprepared but obviously I want to do the best job I can. Nothing has been said by the team, and also, going forward nothing has been said yet.

     

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve talked about being on another level since the summer break. I was just wondering, what’s changed for you within the team, and maybe for you personally, over that break and into these races that’s allowed you to operate on that higher level of consistency?

    LH: I think it’s really just been that confidence of understanding the car a lot better this year, particularly in the second half of the season; knowing it’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, I would say that we are constantly evolving the process in which we work together, myself and my engineers. So we’d often hit the ground running with a balance I’m more comfortable with, which then naturally helps you easily step forward throughout the weekend in the right direction. And otherwise, just on my driving side, I don’t know, I think there are a lot of positive things happening in my life. There are a lot of interesting things forecast over these next 18 months, so I guess that’s an exciting and uplifting thing. So I’m arriving at these races, generally, with an abundance of positivity; it helps keeps your mind in the right place. Obviously, Toto and the team, Mercedes, have been incredibly supportive of all the different things that I’m into and the things I do and the way I move, which enable me to be in that position, and which are much appreciated.

     

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Lewis, there are reports in some of the media that you might be considering taking a knee on Sunday during the US anthem. Can you clarify that? What is your position?

    LH: I don’t really have a position and I don’t have any plans.

     

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Brendon, looking at this track, in 2013, I go back to your event in the Grand Am endurance race. How fitting is it to have this F1 start here and how critical is it to come here to a place where you have all this track time?

    BH: Yeah, it’s definitely nice coming to my Formula One debut at a track I know very well. Like you say, it dates back to 2013 and I think I’ve driven here almost every year since. Actually, as a racing driver, learning a track, when you have enough experience, it can happen quite quickly. I think learning the car will be the bigger challenge. The big tyres, the big downforce that these Formula One cars have at the moment, obviously they are setting lap records at every track they go to. Yeah, I’m going to have a bit on my hands tomorrow and the track is only a small part of it. But yeah, looking forward to it.

     

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Brendon, what have the team told you about the chances of you continuing for the rest of the season?

    BH: Not much, actually, so I’m trying to just focus on the weekend and see how that goes and see what comes from it.

     

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Équipe) Brendon, have you asked Sébastien Buemi or Mark Webber for some advice on how to drive a Formula One?

    BH: Yeah, I’ve obviously… all the friends I have in the sport I’ve been asking for a bit of advice. I saw Mark this morning for breakfast. I saw Daniel, who is one of my best buddies as well, Daniel Ricciardo, I saw him two nights ago, I asked him for all the advice I could manage to get out of him regarding tyres. Yeah, some of it is going to come down to, like I say, driving free practice one, seeing how I go and then asking some of those questions. A lot of them aren’t really relevant until I’ve actually experience the car.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just following on from the question about the protest take the knee, I’m just wondering if anything had changed, you’d spoken to anyone, or anyone had spoken to you about not doing it, because you said you have no plans to do it on Sunday?

    LH: Of course there has been a lot of mention of it – not of the kneeling, but just of the whole situation here in America, so I get to speak to a lot of… I know black and white people that live here in America, so I get quite a view of what’s happening here in the States and opinions from Americans here about the movement, which I think is pretty huge, and which you’ve seen that I’ve posted about it, because I respect it highly, and I found that the movement that [Colin] Kaepernick started is awesome and I’m very much in support of it. But I’m here to win and that’s the top of my priorities at the moment and I’m not really focused on anything else at the moment.

     

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Lewis, Ferrari seems to have fallen into a technical crisis in the last few races. Do you expect them to react here? Sebastian could be a strong fighter at the end of the season as well?

    LH: I think he’s been a strong fighter all year and just because he’s obviously had a few issues technically, but I think still the car is as good as it’s always been. For sure they’ll have some sort of upgrade coming into this weekend. They’ve definitely had a couple of hiccups but I anticipate they’ll be very strong this weekend and for the last four races – so that’s why nothing changes for me. I’ve still got to continue to keep the pressure on and there’s no reason to back out, just got to keep pushing forwards.

     

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, you’ve been a sheriff here the last four years. How would it feel to take this win, this Championship, a fourth World Championship here in the United States again, for the second time, in front of many children who look up to you or are inspired by you, by your story and would love to see you win here?

    LH: Honestly I think the talk of the Champion win this weekend I think is silly really. I mean, Sebastian is going to be… you can’t expect them to have a difficult weekend again. They’re going to be quick, they have an opportunity to win. The Championship, as long as it’s done in the next four races, that’s my focus. I honestly couldn’t care less if it’s here on the last race, as long as it’s done. I think winning here is the most important thing for me, particularly in the midst of all that’s going on in the country. I think that is a priority for me. You know what I’m talking about.

     

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Daily Telegraph) Lewis, you spoke quite tantalisingly just then about exciting things happening in your life over these 18 months. I just wondered if you could flesh that out at all, whether there was anything in particularly helping to lift your spirits for race weekends at the moment?

    LH: I can’t tell you what it is, all top secret stuff but just positive things. When you’re a racing driver often you’re put in a box and there’s talk of you not doing much but being a racing driver and there’s a lot more to me than being a racing driver and I have a lot of great things that are happening. So, it’s just, after a lot of work, a lot of trial and error, a lot of pushback over the years, to see positive things starting to happen, things starting to move in the direction I was hoping it would eventually move – which you’ll see come to fruition in the next 12 to 18 months. That’s allowing me to take the pressure off and enjoy what I’m doing here, more than ever before.

     

    Q: (Kevin Lyttle – Austin American Statesman) Carlos, I wanted to ask you, your thoughts on COTA as a race track, and also on Austin as a Formula One city.

    CS: I’m actually particularly excited to make the debut with the Renault car in a circuit like Austin because you have every single kind of corner that you enjoy in Formula One in this kind of track. You have a long straight and then a big braking zone, you have a lot of long high-speed corners, high-speed changes of direction, medium-speed, high-speed. Because of that, I think it’s a great circuit for me to get to know the car in all these areas. Apart from that it’s one of my favourite grands prix of the season in the end. You know you have great vibes surrounding the whole grand prix, with the concert, with the fans here are particularly special and I’m going to enjoy the weekend because of that.

     

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) To Lewis, two things to clarify. There was a bit of a smile then, you said winning is the most important thing and you know what I mean. I’m not entirely sure I understood the end of your answer to that question. If you could just explain what you mean. And, forgive me if I’m reading too much into this but you said winning is the most important thing, and when we spoke in Malaysia you said about taking a knee, it wasn’t your anthem, there was plenty to consider. So would you therefore consider maybe staging a protest during your own anthem if you do win?

    LH: Like I said, I wasn’t even looking far away into it. I’ve not given it that much thought. And when I said ‘you know what I mean’, it wasn’t to everyone, it was to the gentleman at the front here. Yeah. As I said, I’m here to win. That’s my focus. I don’t really plan on allowing all the BS that’s surrounding the topic pull me down in my strive to winning this world title. I’ve worked hard to be where I am today and whilst I do have opinions and feelings towards the whole situation, as I’ve said, at the moment, no plans on doing anything.

     

    Q: (Mariana Jiménez – Récord) Lewis, you’ve said that you don’t have the title in your head right now but wouldn’t it be nice to wait until Mexico and get your first title there in front of the crowd?

    LH: I’m looking forward to going to Mexico, as I always do every year, I have a lot of support out there, I have a lot of love for Mexicans and… yeah… it’s just an awesome event to anyway, so to go there again, particularly after the last couple of years. I think every year it seems to grow in its attendance. I guess the organisers learn so much about how the event goes and improve it for the following year. Winning the World Championship is obviously the goal and of course I think about it every day. I think my drive naturally is to winning that World Championship so every bit of my energy goes towards that mission. Honestly, wherever it happens, I don’t mind if it happens in Mexico, I don’t mind if it happens here, I don’t mind if it happens in Abu Dhabi, as long as it happens. But definitely Mexicans know how to celebrate so, if it does happen there, hopefully I’ll get one of the sombreros and be in a party.

     

    Q: (Simon Lazenby – Sky Sports) Lewis, if you’re to win this championship, would you say Ferrari have blown it. They’ve handed it to you on a plate.

    LH: If I was to win this Championship I think I would say that I’ve earned it.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Another question for Lewis. You’re going to be the only British driver on the grid this weekend, which is the first time in your career. I was just wondering what you thought about that, the state of play in motor racing in Britain and whether you’re quite surprised you’re the only guy racing from Britain this weekend?

    LH: I don’t know how it is for the other drivers here but when you arrive you don’t think I’m here surrounded by members of… from where I’m from. So it makes no difference to me. I still work to raise the flag, and you do it as an individual, not as a team with other racing drivers, so yeah, that’s how it is.

     

    Q: (Jim Vertuno – AP) Brendon, there’s been a lot of expectation, speculation, that you were heading to Indy Car next year. Does this weekend change your plans there? What’s your future look like.

    BH: Nothing’s been confirmed for me for next year, so yeah, like I said before, I haven’t asked too many questions and have just been focussed on trying to do the best I can this weekend because I’ve got a fair amount on my plate to figure out and do a good job. So, I’m trying not to think further forward. But yeah, I was looking at Indy Car and I still am. Nothing confirmed for next season yet.

  • F1 2017: United States Gp Preview – Can Ferrari Bounce Back In Texas?

    F1 2017: United States Gp Preview – Can Ferrari Bounce Back In Texas?

    Most people would hold the opinion that the fight for the 2017 world championship is all but over. And you’d be hard pressed to make a legitimate argument against this opinion given that Hamilton holds a mammoth 59 point lead going into the United States grand prix.

    It’s as good a time as any then at this weekend’s US grand prix for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari to start cutting Hamilton’s lead. BU they need to understand and overcome their reliability woes to do that. The galling thing for Ferrari over the last few races would have been that they had the pace to win, with the possible exception of Japan, but failed to even reach the chequered flag. Some suggestions are that quality control at the Maranello factory hasn’t been up to scratch and its been painfully illustrated on track. What it is though is further evidence of how much Ferrari have flirted with the edge in the design of their 2017 car and their bid to win the title. Its evident that they’ve pushed the margins too far and have, arguably, lost the likely chance of being champions in 2017.

    The question is really if Ferrari can recover. Instead, it is can they recover in time? It would be tough to find much support for the idea that Ferrari and Vettel could still walk away with the title. Still, however unlikely it seems it is never impossible especially in a sport as unpredictable as Formula 1. The silver lining in Vettel’s woes, however small it might be, is that he’ll have fresher power unit components in the bank than Hamilton which could allow him to push harder on Sunday afternoons, granted he gets the opportunity to do so.

    Lewis Hamilton - Italian Grand Prix pole positionFor Hamilton the equation is a simple one. Keep racking up the points with race finished, which will invariably not be outside the top three and it’ll be enough to make him a four time champ perhaps even before the end of the season. If Hamilton were to win around the Circuit of the Americas this weekend and Vettel finishes fifth or lower he would be champion.

    What are Hamilton’s chances of taking victory in Texas this weekend? Barring any sort of unreliability for anyone, it should be a good fight between Merc and Ferrari with the latter probably holding an edge on Sunday. The first important factor is that the ultra- and supersoft combination of tyre compounds are in offing this weekend. Traditionally, Ferrari has been the stronger on this combination. What’s more, it’s also expected to be slightly warmer in Texas than in Japan, which plays to Ferrari’s strength as Merc’s problem of maintaining the correct core tyre temperature, continues to be an issue for them.

    The layout too of the Herman Tilke designed track is more suitable to Ferrari and their aerodynamic proficiency. The first sector is dominated by a fast and flowing Esses section which has characteristics of both Silverstone’s iconic Maggots-Becketts complex and the first sector of Japan’s Suzuka circuit. In general, the five and a half kilometer circuit is dominated by medium to high-speed corners thatreward a good aero package. Added to this are a few hairpins, which will encourage and provide overtaking opportunities.

    Vettel - Final Practice, Chinese GPWhile most of the attention is focused at the front of the grid there are a few changes in the offing further down. Carlos Sainz bid farewell to the Toro Rosso team in Japan and will this weekend race as a fully-fledged Renault works driver. It means that Daniil Kvyat returns to the Toro Rosso fold. However, he will not be alongside Pierre Gasly who will instead be looking to win the Super Formula title this weekend. In his place will be 27 year old Kiwi and WEC superstar Brendon Hartley.

    Given their horrendous run in the last three rounds there is little expectation of Ferrari. However, the pressure on the team to deliver is enormous and could prove the catalyst for Vettel to simply throw caution to wind in Texas.

  • Magnussen Penalized for Off-Track Pass on Kvyat

    Magnussen Penalized for Off-Track Pass on Kvyat

    Renault’s Kevin Magnussen was handed a 5-second time penalty for his pass on Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat at Turn 12 at the United States Grand Prix.

    Magnussen who was fighting Kvyat for 11th in the race passed Kvyat into T12 after the long back straight at the Circuit of the Americas.

    The Dane went deep on the brakes and ran wide at the exit of T12 and rejoined the track ahead of Kvyat.

    The stewards ruled that Magnussen gained an advantage and handed down the time penalty and 2 penalty points on his super licence.

    “Car 20 left the track in turn 12, gaining a lasting advantage,” said the stewards in the penalty decision document.

    The penalty meant that Magnussen, although finishing 11th, dropped down to 12th promoting Kvyat to 11th.

    Massa-Alonso Incident

    Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were summoned to the stewards after the race after Alonso passed Massa at T15 with a dive down the inside making contact with the front left wheel of the Williams. Massa picked up a puncture and was forced to pit. The Brazilian finished the race in 7th with Alonso going on to pass Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso to finish 5th.

    Alonso felt that the move was fair. Massa, however, felt that his race was compromised after that.

    The stewards ruled that no further action should be taken and neither driver incurred any penalty.

    Unsafe Release for Raikkonen

    Ferrari were fined €5000 for the unsafe release of Kimi Raikkonen on lap 38 after the right rear wheel was not properly fastened.

    At first glance the pit stop looked like a routine stop for Raikkonen until he came to a stop at the exit of the pit lane. Because of the incline to Turn 1, Raikkonen was able to release the brake and roll the car back to the pit lane. He parked his car off to the side in the pit lane and he got out of his car ending his race.

     

    Photo credit: Renault Sport Formula One Team

  • F1 2016: Texas Gp Review – America Brings Victory For Hamilton

    F1 2016: Texas Gp Review – America Brings Victory For Hamilton

    Lewis Hamilton has returned to winning ways with a measured drive to victory at the United States grand prix.

    Lewis Hamilton ran perfectly controlled race to take his 50th career win and with it a fifth victory on American soil at the Circuit of the Americas. While the perception from the outside made it look like an easy afternoon for Hamilton the Mercedes driver admitted to being “petrified” that his car would suffer a reliability issue as it did in Malaysia earlier in the season. “I was just the whole race concerned the car was not going to make it,” said Hamilton. “Right up until the line, I was just in fear of the same thing, the same feeling I had, the sound I heard in Malaysia. So I was grateful the car made it across the line.”

    Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was an ever-present second ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in third but he had to work for it. The German dropped behind Ricciardo at the start of the race and faced serious pressure from Max Verstappen after the first round of stops. Nevertheless, the rub of the green went Rosberg’s way and he emerged in second.

    GP USA F1/2016Aussie driver Ricciardo was on his way to the second step on the podium but the deployment of the virtual safety car afforded Rosberg a de facto free pitstop and, crucially, track position ahead of Ricciardo. As if to add insult to serious misfortune the virtual safety car was deployed to recover the stricken Red Bull of his teammate Max Verstappen who suffered a catastrophic gearbox failure.

    There was a second high profile retirement in the form of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as an embarrassing mistake from the pit crew at the Finn’s final stop meant he left the box with a loose wheel that eventually led to his retirement. As one side of the Ferrari garage suffered a costly self-inflicted blunder Sebastian Vettel was able to bring his Ferrari home in a lonely fourth in what was the best the team could have hoped to achieve regardless of the circumstances.

    GP USA F1/2016Fernando Alonso embraced the Texas spirit as he delivered a bigger and better performance than McLaren has seen in a while. The Spaniard’s feisty driving showed his fighting spirit as he battled his way into fifth while Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz finshed sixth ahead of Williams Felipe Massa in seventh. Force India driver Sergio Perez recovered brilliantly to eighth after a first corner incident while Jenson Button made up ten places to finish ninth in the McLaren. The Haas F1 Team became the first American team to score a point on home soil as Romain Grosjean collected tenth place.

    The grand prix in the lone star state delivered good news all around for Mercedes. The team secured its fifth one-two victory of the season and Lewis Hamilton stemmed Rosberg’s momentum and sliced his championship lead to 26 points. The good news for Rosberg is that he delivered exactly what he needs with his second place finish.

    Nico Rosberg’s lead in the championship has been sliced to 26 points with the Mexican grand prix just days away.

  • 2016 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2016 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Gerard Butler)

    Q: Hello Austin! Congratulations Lewis.

    Lewis HAMILTON: How are you guys doing! What an incredible crowd we have here. It’s you guys that make this race so special. Thank you for so much for coming out.

    Q: So, Lewis, you needed the win, you got it, how do you feel?

    LH: I feel OK. This has always been a good hunting ground for me. I love being here in the States. It very much feels like home and, as I said, we have had some incredible support this weekend, which I’m so thankful for. So a big, big thank you to everyone and the team did a great job this weekend to put us both up there and I’m very proud to be a part of it.

    Q: So you’ve won, what is that, four times here now, five times in America, you love this track, and it’s your 50th grand prix win! One off Alain Prost – amazing.

    LH: Oh, finally! Finally. I completely forgot. Thank you very much.

    Q: [Nico] How do you doing? How are you feeling, talk us through it, an unusual opening?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I mean I lost out a bit at the start unfortunately, then gave it everything to come back. Second place is OK, it’s damage limitation here today of course. I wanted to win here in America, that would have been awesome, but it wasn’t to be. Next time, maybe.

    Q: Were you playing the percentages? Were you playing safe a little bit?

    NR: No, no, definitely not. Flat out all the way to the end.

    Q: Daniel! I hope you’re going to speak to me not in your Aussie accent. I’m a Red Bull man so, like you, I’m very happy. What a great start.

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Thank you very much. I hear Mr Butler does not drink alcohol, I respect that completely – but I believe he’s going to drink some Red Bull out of my shoe right now. The race wasn’t that exciting but hopefully now…

    Q: I did not… Listen, I love Red Bull but you’ve got to be kidding me! I hate you… actually quite tasty…

    DR: Thank you very much for that sir. That was an absolute… display.

    Q: I though you did absolutely fantastic. Tell us a little bit about the start for you

    DR: This is quite overwhelming. So yeah, the start went nearly to plan. The start was OK. The plan was to try and get both Mercedes. We at least got Nico, which was a positive. Then we were looking like we were holding second quite well and then the Virtual Safety Car. It is what it is, it’s a bit of a frustrating one sometimes. Nico was able to jump me through that procedure. Bit of a shame obviously. I think we would have had a good fight at the end, so sorry about that but a bit out of my control.

    Q: OK Lewis, gloves are off.

    LH: How did that taste? Bit of toe-jam and Red Bull?

    Q: Well Red Bull’s quite a powerful drink – so fortunately I could taste mostly the Red Bull.

    LH: Good, good, good.

    Q: So, gloves are off, what are you feeling now. You’ve tightened it up a bit…

    LH: All I can do is do my best and continue to drive as I have this weekend. Nico’s been driving fantastically well all year. So the battle will continue – but I know we’ll have all this support that will continue as well. So please keep your fingers crossed guys

    Q: Are you going to take him?

    LH: I’ll be going for it.

    Thank you guys, thank you very much.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: We’ve got to talk about this milestone: fifty Grand Prix victories. Only two men have ever done it before: Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. You must be so proud.

    LH: I had completely forgotten that it was going to be the fiftieth. It’s been a long time coming. Once again, and I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve been here for ten years, I’ve had lots of ups and downs and lots of great opportunities to work with some incredibly gifted people who have helped me get here today. Then my family as well without whom I wouldn’t be here today. It’s kind of very surreal, for sure. I can’t believe that there are only three of us but hopefully onto bigger and better things.

    Q: It was important today that it went this way for you because if it had gone the other way it would have been forty points with three races to go, which would have looked a bit of a tall order. It was interesting to see you on the grid though, you looked extremely relaxed. Why was that, why were you so calm going into this race?

    LH: I’ve generally been relaxed all weekend. I feel like… I knew that the start was going to go well so that’s the first time in the whole year that I’ve known that that’s going to go well. Great work done by the guys and great work done in the factory last week and it worked perfectly today.

    Q: Nico, we’ve got to talk about the start You got away well, you went across to the outside and Daniel came up the inside. Talk us through it.

    NR: Yeah, got away really well. Not quite enough to give it a go down the inside so Lewis would just have closed so no point in trying that so just went round the outside. All was looking good, actually, I just struggled for a bit of grip then out of the corner and Daniel had that extra grip and that’s it. We knew that that was going to be a risk with that supersoft. Then flat out after that and it worked out of course with the VSC.

    Q: You knew the recovery strategy was obviously based on the medium tyre, you were playing a long game but you were very quick on the medium tyre as well. Once you got onto it, you presumably knew that you were going to finish second today.

    NR: Yeah, I felt really good out there in the car, we found a great balance and I was feeling really comfortable  and so I was just able to push really well and so that was a good feeling, yeah.

    Q: Daniel, we’ve got to talk about the start. From your perspective, were you a bit surprised Nico went to the right? How did you read it and talk us through how you got ahead?

    DR: Yeah, I think the actual launch itself didn’t seem that much stronger than the Mercedes on the soft tyres so I was hoping it would go a bit better but then, yeah, Nico opted to go to the outside so I had some room on the inside there. Yeah, I got one at least. I was obviously hoping to get two but that was better than nothing and then yeah, I think the first part of the race we sort of just seemed to… everyone just seemed to have similar pace. I guess Lewis was probably controlling it at the front but we seemed at that stage to be able to hold on to second and then the virtual safety car, I think we lost ten seconds it worked out to be, with Nico. I believe after the pit stops we would have had about five seconds on him. And then after the virtual safety car he had close to five seconds on me so that was frustrating, I guess. It just would have been interesting, even if he caught me at the end, just to at least have a fight. I think the race, after the virtual safety car, became a bit… not that exciting. I guess without it it would have made it a bit more spicy at the end. That was that. Unfortunately third was the outcome but it was still nice to be on the podium. It’s a cool place, I’ve always loved it here for everything: the anthem before the race kind of gives you goosebumps and then the crowd… obviously on the podium is pretty cool. It’s been a good weekend.

    Q: Does it make it worse that the virtual safety car was actually triggered by your own teammate?

    DR: Absolutely sir. When I saw Max out there I thought ‘ah, hell. My boy’s done it again!’ So anyways, that was a devastational moment but we’ll keep soldiering on. We still got some points over Ferrari today so I’m pretty pleased with that.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Daniel, what are your thoughts regarding the upcoming three races if you can get close to these guys again?

    DR: We’ll try. I think looking at it, on paper I would say Abu Dhabi is probably where I fancy my best chances. It’s been a strong circuit for me and I think us as a team have normally been pretty good there so that’s probably one. Mexico is still new. I think the surface is going to be a lot different when we go there next week, it will be more rubbered in. I think it’s going to be a completely different track to last year and we will see. Brazil, it’s been a while since we had the sort of magical Brazil downforce so maybe we can get one of those this year and have a chance. We’ll keep trying, keep doing what we can. Obviously they’re hard to beat but maybe next time the virtual safety car will help us out. We’ll see.

    Q: (Seff Harding – Zero Zone News) Nico, you put in another one-two for Mercedes; do you feel like you’ve lost any momentum after this race this weekend, heading into Mexico?

    NR: I just feel that it’s a pity that it didn’t work out with a win this weekend. I was going for that. It would have been awesome here in America but it didn’t work out. Lewis did a great job this weekend, all the way through, qualifying and race so it just wasn’t to be. I’ll live with second place now and next race is another great opportunity.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globo Esporte.com) Lewis, there’s no way not to question the mathematics of the championship. To Nico, two second places and one third would be enough to be champion. Do you think about it and what can you do to maybe change it or are you just going for the races and trying to win?

    LH:  Honestly, I just focus on doing the best job I can. Honestly today, beyond doing the job… I felt comfortable doing the job, I was just the whole race concerned the car was not going to make it so right, I’ve been told the line, I was just in fear of the same thing, the same feeling, the sound that I heard in Malaysia, so I was grateful that the car made it across the line and I have a lot more confidence in his reliability. It’s going well for him. I’ve just got to continue to do my job and hope for the best.

    Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Lewis, having Daniel put a bit of pressure on Nico through that race, does that give you some extra hope that maybe the Red Bull will be able to finish between you and Nico and give you a better chance of taking this championship?

    LH: I don’t really think about that. I just kept focusing on doing my job to the best of my ability. I can’t control what’s behind and there’s no point in even hoping for anything, just hoping to do the better job on the weekend and have more weekends like that. That would be great.

  • 2016 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2016 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Renault), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico, let’s begin with you: congratulations on your first works drive in Formula One, with Renault for next season. Tell us, why is this the right move for you now and what was the clincher that made you decide to take it?

    Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, I believe that it’s the right step in my career at this point. I feel I have come a long way with Force India – it’s my fifth year with them. We’ve had some good success together. But I felt that it’s time for a new challenge. Since I’m in F1 I’ve always wanted to race for a manufacturer team and this is a really good opportunity. The timing was pretty good too. So I think it was a good decision I think from my side.

    You’ve qualified in the Top 10 at the last nine consecutive races, what has been the secret of the consistency you’ve been finding recently?

    NH: I think a good strong car! That always makes things easier. I feel the team has done a really good job to develop the car. The car has really become an all-rounder. If it’s a high downforce, low downforce track or low-speed, high-speed, we’re always inside the top 10 somewhere and really [we have] become a strong contender behind the top three teams and it’s just the result of some good, hard work.

    Kevin, coming to you: So where does this deal leave you? As Nico’s team mate or are you likely to pursue other avenues?

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: No, I hope I can stay on as his team-mate. That’s my target and that’s what I hope is going to happen. And hopefully it won’t be too long before we will be able to announce what’s going to happen – either/or – so we’ll just do this race and focus on driving and enjoying my time in the car and we’ll see what happens.

    You started your F1 career with a podium, then sat out 2015 and came back this year with Renault. What are your thoughts on how your second run at F1 has gone and how the reality of Renault this year matched your expectations?

    KM: I would say it has matched the expectation. We knew it was going to be a tough year, because the car that Renault took over from Lotus was very underdeveloped. Renault, at the beginning of the year, was behind on engine power; so going from a Mercedes engine to a Renault was a little bit of a step back. Renault has done a great job to improve the engine. We’ve got more out of the car but haven’t really improved it in terms of getting more downforce, because the focus has been on next year’s car back at the factory. It was going to be a transition year, where the focus was on the future and not so much on this year in terms of performance, so I think we’ve got out of it what we could.

    Thanks for that. Valtteri, coming to you: what about your plans? I’m sure you’re aware that you have now broken the F1 record of Jim Clark for the longest F1 career spent entirely with a single team. Is it time to stick or twist?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I understand that stick or twist is meaning if I stay with Williams or not. We’re going to still need to wait a little bit to get things confirmed about what’s going to happen next year. But, yeah, it’s a nice fact. I’ve had a great time with the time and we’ve had some good results but I feel like there could be something more still to achieve together but let’s wait and see.

    You’ve been in the points at the last two races, including a very strong run in Malaysia, but both races you’ve qualified outside the top 10. Has that surprised you?

    VB: Definitely. We’ve struggled a bit in the last couple of races with the pure pace and obviously the team has focused a lot on next year’s car and we can definitely see that if some other teams are improving then it’s more tricky in certain tracks. So hopefully here it’s going to be better and I’m sure there are still good races for us this year and we just need to make sure we get everything right.

    Coming to Lewis, then: the reigning world champion and four-times US grand prix winner. You’ve had a pretty busy time of it, pre-Austin, speaking with American TV – the Ellen DeGeneres show – and also the news about you appearing in the new Call of Duty game. Tell us about that and what does that say about your ability as an F1 driver to reach our beyond the sport to new audiences?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, good morning everyone. Yeah, we were fortunate to have been on the Ellen show the other day, which was fantastic. I love being out here in the States, so this was a good opportunity for me to reach a completely new audience that perhaps… I’m pretty sure that most of the people that were in the audience, on the show, hadn’t heard of Formula One, so they were all glued to their seats to learn something new. It’s a weird thing. I don’t think anyone’s been on the Ellen show, so I’m pretty proud of it.

    And the Call of Duty thing?

    LH: Yeah, Call of Duty: I play that game every winter… obviously during the year but particularly in the winter, so to have got the call with the opportunity to be a part of it, I was like – absolutely. I jumped at it. So I can’t wait for this winter. A friend of mine that plays with us, he had no idea… well, he might read about it… but I haven’t told him yet that I’m in the game, so when I’m playing him in the winter and he sees me on there, he’s definitely going to lose it a little bit.

    Back to the day job: 100 points available in the remaining races, you trail by 33 – clearly you need some wins to get back into it, so is Austin the ideal place to race next, given your history here. You’ve won three of the four races that have been held on this race track?

    LH: Yeah, Austin has always been… America has always been a good hunting ground for me. I’ve been out here for a week already, so I’m looking forward to fighting again. This is a fantastic track. They did a very good job with the design. It’s one of the few of the newer circuits that really allows good overtaking and following of cars, which is always difficult in Formula One. Yeah, I’m here, I know the weather is going to better this weekend, so particularly for the fans that will be great and yeah, I’m excited.

    It could hardly be worse than last year, could it! Thank you for that. Moving on to another former winner of this race here, 2013 US Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel. Sebastian, it seemed that Suzuka summed up Ferrari’s season in many ways: the car was fast, but through a variety of reasons wasn’t able to convert that into a podium or a shot at victory. Do you see any of the four remaining tracks, including this one obviously, as winnable?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I think there is always a chance. I think obviously in Japan we did some progress, so that was a positive, but as you said, it was probably was a good summary of our season so far. Nevertheless, I think the most important thing is that we fight, we give everything we have, and it could have been a better in Japan, it wasn’t and so we’re ready for this race.

    When we were in Monza, in the press conference, you talked about the feeling of being a Ferrari driver in Monza in front of the tifosi. Of course the US has a long, long history with Ferrari, it’s the biggest market for the cars and there is a tremendous fan base here for it, so what does it feel like to be a Ferrari driver in America?

    SV: Well, I had a very good race last year. Obviously we had to start a little bit further back. The weather helped us in that regard, to come back and finish on the podium, so it was a great first race with Ferrari here. As you mentioned, a huge fan base also here. Obviously, Italy is really the core, where the foundation lies, but I think everywhere around the world it’s amazing to see how much support we get. I think there are always a lot of Ferrari flags, people dressed in red and very passionate fans around the tracks, it’s great to be part of that family.

    Thank for that and coming to you Romain: your 100th grand prix this weekend, how appropriate, because it’s a big weekend, the Haas Formula One team’s first home grand prix in the USA. What special arrangements does the team have, to bring workers, families and so on to the race?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, we arrived Monday in Charlotte and then went to see the factory in North Carolina and went to see the NASCAR factory and did some media. Of course a lot of employees at the North Carolina factory are going to come here, which is great, as they don’t get to see us very often – the base is more in Europe – so that’s going to be good. Having my 100th grand prix here, home race for the team, is just a great thing.

    You’ve had some special days here in the past as well. You come here off the back of a Japanese GP where both cars qualified in the Top 10 for the first time ever. Can you repeat that here and this time convert it into some points?
    RG:     Well, if I’m not in Q3 but I score points that would be good as well! In Japan we had a great qualifying and we made some good progress on the car, which is good. We had a new front wing that we could eventually run, which worked well. It’s very hard for us every time we go to a track, because we don’t have any data from the past and we don’t know where to start with the set-up, so we have to guess a little bit and it takes more time than other people to find everything correct. But we definitely will try to qualify well and then scoring points in the race would be good, because we haven’t done that for a long time?

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Seff Harding – Zero Zone News) This question’s for Lewis: Lewis, you’ve done some great work with Unicef and recently you posted on your Facebook about the trip you took to Haiti two years ago, and you also noted the aid that’s needed for Haiti right now after the devastation of Hurricane Matthew. My question to you is: do you have plans to make another trip to Haiti to visit some of the devastated areas?
    LH:     Well, it’s good to see you again and thank you for the question. I haven’t another plan to go to Haiti, but I would love to. The trip that I had there was life-changing. To go to a country that has so much beauty but so much poverty was a huge eye-opener and obviously sad to see. But also to see the smiles on people who have so much less than all of us here. But knowing and seeing the devastation there and they don’t have the tools or the means to be able to make change and to recover from the difficult scenario they are in. That’s why we have an opportunity, us, as drivers, who have the following we have, not necessarily particularly to have to encourage people, but some people perhaps don’t know where to go to help. People are constantly on their phones, and if they see ‘oh, I didn’t know I could just go online, or by the click of a button help change someone’s life’, so that’s what I try to do. But I am working with Unicef on further plans for the future. I don’t know if it’s going to be in Haiti. If there’s a way I can get there and time for me to get there and help in any way. I don’t know what I could do, apart from taking a picture for social media, which is not really that helpful. But my thoughts and prayers are will all the families that are there.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Sebastian, we know that you’re contract expires at the end of 2017. Do you expect to start soon the negotiations with the team to extend it?
    SV:     Well, I think we are all fairly busy at this time to focus on the four races that are left and focus in particular to prepare for next year, so I think that’s where, honestly, the main focus lies. I don’t think it’s that important to look into details such as… my contract is all fine for next year, so as I said, with a lot of things happening back at the factory, back in Maranello, I think… I know we’re very, very busy and that’s where I want also the focus to be.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve had some great races and pole laps this year – but also a couple of more shaky weekend. How do you look back on this season as a competitor, for you, leaving aside the reliability issues?

    LH: Honestly, I don’t look back. There’s very little point to look back, it’s only looking forwards. As I’ve said, there’s obviously the four races but I’ve still got hopefully some time here in my career for better days. I’m obviously aware that you can’t always have great races and it’s a long, old season. But no-one’s perfect but yeah, all I can do is work as hard as I can with the team, we’ve got a great car, a great team, there’s no reason why we can’t have more positive weekends moving forwards.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question for Lewis. Lewis, you said previously that fans should be asking the questions and not the media. Well, there’s a fan who called himself @bigorangepaul on Twitter who’s asked, under the hashtag #fanQs4LH How will you feel if Nico wins the world championship this year? And the second question is: Have you considered when you will retire, or take a sabbatical?

    LH: Thank you for the question, what’s his name? @bigorangepaul. I don’t plan on taking any sabbaticals. If I stop, I stop, that will be the plan. And, what was the other one? Oh. Try to take it like a man. It is… you can’t win them all. Look at all the world championships in the past who’ve won championships and lost championships, it is part of the game. I am in the position right now where there are still a lot of points available so I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and still have the belief that anything is possible – but then I’ll move on. Once it’s decided and it happens, all I can do about it is shape the future, which is the next year. So, life will move on, we’ll go into next season and hopefully come back stronger.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, I’m sorry to come back to this subject because we saw you taking pictures now with your mobile and it was a big discussion at the last grand prix. It’s also an opportunity for you to clarify your point of view about this, let’s say, behaviour. And also, my personal question is, you think it’s fair to go in the drivers’ parade using earphones, creating a barrier to the fans, where they want you to hear them say “Lewis, we like you, Lewis we are here for you”, something like that.

    LH: Well, on the drivers’ parade, you don’t realise… at the beginning of my career I would stand and… you know I have respect for every single driver here… we’d stand and we’d talk, just generally shootin’, talking about whatever, and often not noticing that there’s certain individuals in the crowd who have travelled, probably spent all their money to get to a grand prix. So I actually genuinely often stand at the front of the truck and I often have one ear off so I can generally hear people and I make sure that I connect with the people that have come out to support me, y’know? A  lot of the people that have… sometimes there’s a Grenadian flag, but there’s often people, whatever country we’re in, even if it’s not their nationality they’ll have a British flag there and they’ll be waving. And if I’m talking to these guys often you’ll miss that. If I was in the grandstand having come to support someone, and I’m waving at the dude and he’s not even paying attention, I’d be pretty pissed. So that’s what I try to do. I try to connect with every single one. If you look at it, I point out to everyone, let them know that I recognise them and I appreciate it because I never in a million years thought I would ever have fans; people who consciously would decide to follow me and not the dude next to me. We all have that, and I think it’s really important that we engage with them, so I do. And then, I just took a picture just now, I waited for everyone to finish their questions and their answers. So respect me, I just took a picture. It’s a good picture, you’re all in it. So… yeah.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Question for Lewis, just going back to, I think the fan’s question about Nico. You’ve been racing against him your whole life. Generally you’ve beaten him. The last two years you’ve beaten him for the championship, you’ve beaten him in karting. Does that make what’s happened this year quite hard to take – because it’s not something that’s really happened to you before?

    LH: Not really. I think if you look if all things were… we’ve always been having close races, close battles. I think in all fairness to all of us here, if all things were equal in whatever our scenarios are, there would be a certain result. Obviously this year it’s obviously been a little bit different in terms of how our performances have been, particularly mechanically. And there’s nothing you can do about that. But, out of the ten times the car has been good – whatever it is – I’ve often done the job with it but then there definitely has been a few that, probably in the first few seconds of the race have not gone that well. But that’s motor racing.

    Q: (Tony Di Zimo – NBC Sports) Question for Lewis, after Japan, Mercedes clinched the third the third consecutive Constructors’ Championship. Can you describe what it felt inside the factory when you guys had the celebration and just how difficult that achievement is to accomplish?

    LH: Good question. Honestly, it’s kind-of daunting when you go back to the two factories because there’s so many people. I remember joining the team and having to stand… they’re like “we want to introduce you to everyone,” and having to stand in front of 800 people at the first place and then 500 people at the next place and speak to them. That’s always a difficult thing. But then, after you’ve grown to know everyone and you’ve gone on the journey that I have with this team and reached the success, it’s an incredibly proud moment for us to stand up there and show our appreciation – because those guys are not travelling like us but they are working crazy hours to enable us to get off the line, to be up the front and win these championships. And it takes a huge amount of work for these people to come together and every single individual operate at the best they can possibly do. I remember joining this team and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the majority of the people that were in here, said that it wasn’t the right decision. I had the belief that this team would really go somewhere and I’ve been a part of that journey and very proud of it. It was incredible. Everyone was just so happy – and now they’re turning all of those energies to next year.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Seb. Considering the last upgrades on the car, are you confident that Ferrari finally found a direction to follow from now to 2017? And what about strategies, is there something to correct?

    SV: About strategies, no, I don’t think so. I think… I’m guessing you’re referring to the last race… it’s one of those things with hindsight, it’s always easier to analyse but, in the moment I think where we were, we were in third, probably fourth place, because we didn’t have the pace that Lewis had from behind, so I don’t think there was much focus, I know that the there wasn’t much focus at that time on him, the main focus was to get second initially with Max. And we tried something different. It might have worked – and then you come out as the hero. In that case, it didn’t work, so it’s fine. We can live with that. The first question… for the new parts, yeah, I think it was a step forward, both Kimi and myself, we liked it straight away. I think it gave us quite good performance in Japan. Japan usually is quite a good test for the overall performance of the car, so here you can argue it’s similar in some ways. The first sector has a lot of fast corners as well, the last sector is a little bit slower but overall, yeah, it gave us a good indication for this year and then there’s always some things that you learn. Next year the rules are changing quite a lot – but still, every bit you understand about the car and how it works will help you also for the future.

    Q: (Frank Schneider – Bild) Question to Lewis, we saw you last week with some trouble with your feet. You weren’t able to drive at the Barcelona test. Are you 100 per cent? And what happened?

    LH: I am 100 per cent, yeah, feeling great. I basically had an injury that I’ve been carrying generally all year long, in both feet. Just induced by running. Unfortunately the physio said that it just takes a lot of stretching and it just heals over a long time. At the time I woke up in the morning, I was feeling quite a lot of pain the day before, and it hadn’t diminished, so there was very little… the most important thing was to be fresh for here and feeling better for here. This is actually the first week that it’s felt good.

    Q: (Will Buxton – NBC Sports) Lewis made the point in the last press conference in Japan that these press conferences needed changing in their format because they’d grown stale and a bit dull, so to the guys who haven’t answered anything in about the last 25 minutes – so that’s the back row and Nico Hülkenberg – what’s your current level of boredom and do you think this afternoon could be better spent?

    You’re smiling the most Romain, so you start.

    RG: Aw, thanks! It’s been great fun. I took a picture with a brand I’m not allowed to touch because I’m a Microsoft ambassador…

    LH: Sorry!

    RG: I may get in trouble with that! I’m just using the jet-lag. No, it’s not ideal, as a matter of fact, when you’re at the back and we don’t have any question. But we know it – but it’s how it goes. Maybe there’s room for improvement. Just keeping quiet.

    Nico, you’re at the front, how does it feel?

    NH: Yeah, quiet today. He takes the main questions, easy job for me.

    Valtteri?

    VB: Yeah, easy. Tomorrow anyway is the day we’re all looking forward to. This day anyway isn’t going to go any quicker, so I’m good.

    And finally Kevin.

    KM: Yeah, it could be better. But that’s how it is.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, just to bring you up on social media. Just curious really. You’ve taken to blocking journalists on Twitter. Not sure your reasons why, we’ve been fairly supportive of you during your early career. I wondered why.

    LH: That’s something that’s just been brought to me. I don’t actually manage every single part of my social media. I have a couple of other people that do. Our general approach is that if you see something, see someone generally talking smack then you kind of cut it. I’d flown back from Asia and then I got a message afterwards…  I don’t know who has been blocked or not… I don’t have any particular feeling for it… I don’t have a lot of time to go online and do that. I don’t think it was just media. It was a lot of people got… I think it was a blocking-spree. I don’t even have… if you look at my phone I don’t even have the app, I don’t really do my Tweets. So…

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, SpeedSport) Valtteri, you say the car has not had the pace recently. Looking in the long term, do you think Williams has the structure and the resources to consistently fight with the works teams?

    VB: I think… like I’ve said, many many times, I definitely think Williams can do a  lot better than what we’ve seen for example this year. Two years back was a lot better, it was definitely not yet maximised really, every single bit, so there is potential. Definitely it is out there, the facilities. Team Haas, they are good, good to fight with the works teams but it’s tricky. It’s a massively competitive sport and everyone is pushing so hard, investing more and more but so also is Williams at the moment, trying to get some new interesting people and really trying to push forward. Obviously always when there is a rules change, there is always a great opportunity for every team to catch up, if you’ve let back a little bit. Yeah, I think we can do a lot lot better than this but we will see.

    Q: (Jonathan Green – SpeedCity) Lewis, again from the fans on Speedcast, on Twitter. We lost, here in the States, two great icons: one a sportsman in Mohammed Ali and obviously Prince and I wonder, given your interest in the States, how much those two people were any influence on you as a sportman and as somebody in the public eye?

    LH: Yeah, for me growing up, those two… as soon as I could remember hearing music, my Dad was always playing Prince so I grew up on that music and still today… Some of the races I’ve won this year, I’ve been listening to Prince, even before his passing.

    SV: What, during the race?

    LH: No, no, before the races, you know? Yeah, the beautiful thing about music is that it lives on so the great thing is that he’s left us a legacy that we can always… it’s timeless. And then when Mohammed Ali, absolutely as a sportsman who defied odds and stood for what he truly believed and was a remarkable man. I had the pleasure of meeting him but unfortunately the disease was too far gone at the time so I didn’t really get to have a conversation with him. I was hoping that I could be in the position that we could have a bit of banter and hear some of the comments that he wouldn’t normally say but still it was an amazing experience to meet him. He is truly missed. I think two races ago, I was watching Rumble in the Jungle, just because that… and some of the experiences he had are inspiring and we can all apply to whatever issues or situations we’re going through in our day-to-day life.

    Q: (Jim Vertuno – AP) Sebastian, Lewis is hopeful with four races left that he can catch Nico. In what you’ve seen on the track and your experience, is it realistic?

    SV: Of course. It’s realistic because I think he’s quick enough. It’s realistic because there’s a lot of points to get and I think it would be quite bad if you quit now. If I could swap, I would immediately and go for it, so I’m sure that he goes for it and four races is a lot of laps to do, a lot of things that can happen so it’s only over when it’s over.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Nico, we could hear you saying on the radio after passing Valtteri ‘see you later’ in Japan. So what did you mean? See you later in the race or maybe see you later at Renault next year?

    NH: No, I didn’t mean that actually. It just came naturally, a couple of seconds after the pass, I was just pleased with the move on him, just came out.

    SV: Why would you want to see him again, though?

    NH: Exactly, why would I?

    Q: (Silva Arias – Parabrisas) Nico, congratulations for this step forward. Tell me please, which are the main things do you expect to have at Renault which you didn’t have at Force India?

    NH: Well, I think them being a manufacturer, they are under some expectations to eventually be successful and be at the front and compete for wins and that’s obviously what I’m looking for. We know at the moment there is still a long journey ahead of them, to climb back to the top because it’s been a difficult year and where they’ve come from, when they bought Lotus last year was not the easiest situation so it will take time to rebuild the team and to get back to the top but obviously what I see there is a good future, definitely a big challenge, a massive challenge but I’m very much up for that and why not build a new success story with them?

    Q: (Leigh Diffey – NBC Sports) Romain, we’re the host broadcaster here in the United States so week in, week out we’re talking about you a lot, we’re talking about Haas a lot. We always preface the team ‘America’s Formula One team’. Tell our audience, tell the fans what life’s like in America’s Formula One team for the first time in 30 years because it’s a big deal for us and for our viewers?

    RG: Yeah, it is. It’s great to be here. Everyone is very much looking forward. I think it’s an extra pride to be wearing the American flag on the car and having the Haas name, Gene with Haas formation,  Stewart-Haas racing and now Haas… it’s got a huge story, huge successful life. I think it’s a big name and here in the US is quite special so hopefully a good race for us and a good result.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Lewis, based on what you’ve just said to Ben about social media and you not managing it, this is my question, not a fan’s question but I’m sure the fans would like to know…

    LH: There’s obviously several platforms so I’m not consciously doing every single platform all the time so I still have a lot of people who help me because it’s quite a big job.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) … so is there a chance though that some of the opinions that are expressed are not your own opinions on there? I’m sure the fans would like to know.

    LH: No, not at all. Every single thing that’s said is generally… I can either send it if I’ve not got it… for example time to post it or if it’s not the right time of course I can write it, send it and one of my team will post it when it’s the right time.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globo Esporte.com) Sebastian, one of the reasons Ferrari is getting better results recently is that the team is developing the car while other teams in the second part of the season, as far as you know, no, they are concentrated on next year’s project. The question is, what is this development for and considering the knowledge you have now, can you use next year’s car more? The limitation of forty hours wind tunnel combined with cfd is there for this year’s car and next year’s car so it means are you using space of next year’s car in this existing car? Your comment please?

    SV: Well, thank you for the lesson but I think I know the rules particularly well and so does the team so I think everything that we brought this year to the car has always been the plan to be brought to the car and I think everything that we brought made sense. I don’t think that we’re the only ones still bringing bits to the car. I think it’s normal in this time that if you’re not fighting actively for the championship obviously your main focus is on next year, given the demands of the rules that are changing but I still see the point in going round, I see the point of going to the next four races, not just to try and win and be successful and be there and fight, but also to learn about this year’s car which ultimately will help you also with next year’s car. I think every lap that we spend we try to spend wisely, we try to do the right thing in order to maximise the moment but in particular, looking forward to next year. So thanks for the lesson again. I am well aware of the hours and how they are split and so on but as I said, I’m confident we’re doing the right thing.

    Q: (Samuel Reiman – Fox Sports) Lewis, turn one, it’s a long run up to the first corner at this track. Obviously starts have been one of your difficulties this year it would seem. Does that concern you for this weekend’s race and have you been able to make any progress throughout the season with your starting procedure?

    LH: It has been an ongoing thing all year long. There’s been a lot of changes, a lot of work, perhaps more than in other areas. I was at the factory last week and we were working very hard to cover up all areas so we hope that we have a slightly better formula this weekend. If not  then there will be a better formula next weekend, but it is something that… I definitely feel that we’re in a better position so fingers crossed for Sunday.

    Q: (Kevin Lyttle – Austin American Statesman) Kevin and Valtteri, this track here has had some financial issues recently with damage from the storms and things like that. How do you think it stacks up and the city of Austin stacks up as an F1 stop. And the second question would be what’s the most interesting thing you guys have done in Austin?

    KM: The most interesting thing was the race last time I was here in 2014. But it’s also a great city, it’s a really cool city for Sunday night, it’s good for partying and other things as well: good restaurants. It’s great to hang out here but it’s a great race as well and it’s good to see American fans. It’s not often you see American fans at other tracks so it’s quite special here. So yeah, I think it’s a great race and it definitely deserves a place on the calendar.

    VB: Yeah, for me, overall this Grand Prix is a lot of fun. It’s a great track to drive. I think all the drivers really like the circuit and obviously a lot of support from the fans as well in here and just next door there is a great city like Austin with plenty of things to do and such a nice feeling in the city, so overall it is one of the best Grand Prix weekends in the calendar in my opinion. And the coolest thing I’ve done here? I think it was last year, it was not in Austin but it was in Georgetown, just next door. I had an opportunity to visit the police department in there so I spent the day with the local police and they showed me their work. I got to drive a police car around the track and everything. I beat their best lap time, by the way in their training circuit. That was a lot of fun.

  • F1 2016: United States Gp Preview – Rosberg v Hamilton In Texas

    F1 2016: United States Gp Preview – Rosberg v Hamilton In Texas

    The F1 paddock travels halfway around the world from Japan to the lone star state of Texas and the Circuit of the Americas for the 16th round of the season.

    The Circuit of the Americas (COTA), designed by F1 architect Herman Tilke, hosted its first race in 2012. As one of the newest circuits on the calendar it doesn’t quite fit into the mold of a modern circuit. While it does have acres of run-off areas like its modern counterparts its in the layout where you can see a real throwback to old school circuit. The Esses section in Sector 1 is especially reminiscent of the Maggots-Becketts section at Silverstone with a hint of Suzuka bleeding into the combination.

    “The track in Austin is sick, I love it. It has a lot of unique features like the wide apex at turn one, you could fit about four cars side by side through there. There are loads of opportunities to overtake and have fun throughout the whole track. It has fast flowing sections and hairpins, pretty much everything I like in a track,” says Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    F1-2012-austin-texasIn 2015 a colossal level or rain mired the Texas grand prix weekend and severely impacted the level of spectators in the stands. However, the weather forecast for the 2016 race weekend is lot sunnier, literally and figuratively. Twelve months ago Lewis Hamilton arrived in Texas with one hand on the driver’s title but one year later it’s a much different story for the Mercedes driver. He trails teammate Nico Rosberg by 33 points with a maximum of 100 points still available.

    This means that even if Hamilton wins all four of the remaining races it does not ensure that he will win the title. Even if this situation eventuates Rosberg would still need to finish third in at least one of the races for Hamilton to be champion.

    But in the dominant era of Mercedes there has never been a better chance for Lewis Hamilton to show a real champion’s courage. Not ever has any driver or champion been revered for winning from the front but rather for how they respond when the odds are against them. Grand prix in the United States have been an enormously rewarding for Hamilton. As a rookie he won in North America at Indianapolis in 2007 and has won three of the four races held in Texas. It stands to reason, barring unreliability, that the reigning world champion will be difficult to beat in Texas.

    CircuitOfTheAmericasLet’s not diminish the performance of Nico Rosberg in 2016. The metronomic way he has been inching his way to the title has been extraordinary. Few could argue that he wouldn’t deserve the title at the end of it. And he’s, mostly, aced it off the start line this season. The beauty of the fight between Hamilton and Rosberg, despite the latter’s points lead, is that it is impossible to predict. There still hasn’t been a true wheel-to-wheel race between the two either. Perhaps Texas is primed for just such a battle.

  • F1 2015: Texas GP Review – Hamilton Clinches Title in Texas Thriller

    F1 2015: Texas GP Review – Hamilton Clinches Title in Texas Thriller

    On Friday and Saturday race fans would have been cursing the biblical levels of rain that fell over Texas’ Circuit of the Americas. It completely obliterated any opportunity of running in all but one of the practice sessions and forced a postponement of qualifying to Sunday morning.

    However, as the weather cleared in time for Sunday’s race it was the changeable conditions that were the catalyst for a frenzied US grand prix.  As the start of the race drew closer the rain had ceased its incessant pounding but with the track still mostly wet conditions called for a start on the intermediate tyres for the entire grid.

    Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg  snatched pole from teammate Lewis Hamilton in a shortened qualifying session while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat locked out the second row of the grid. Along with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who incurred a five place penalty for changing a gearbox, both Ferrari drivers were demoted ten places on the grid for fitting a sixth, upgraded, engine. Sebastian Vettel started in thirteenth while Kimi Raikkonen lined up in eighteenth place.

    hamtexas2The start of the race followed a familiar pattern between the two Mercedes drivers. Hamilton took the inside line into turn one and forced Rosberg wide and onto the run-off as the pair bumped wheels. The move, which Rosberg later called “a step too far” dropped the German down to fifth. As Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat hounded the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes for the lead of the race the sister Red Bull was in close attendance in third. But a clash between Sauber teammates Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson left enough debris at turn one for race control to call on the virtual safety car.

    As the race restarted the superior performance of the Red Bull on the wearing intermediate tyres was enough for both its drivers to overtake Nico Rosberg. As the circuit dried it was evident that Daniel Ricciardo was able to look after his intermediate tyre slightly better than Hamilton and he took the lead of the race on lap fifteen.

    By lap eighteen the circuit had dried enough to change onto slicks. As conditions changed so too the challenge of the Red Bull’s diminished in the dry conditions. With superior pace Nico Rosberg retook the lead of the race and proceeded to build a stunning ten second gap over Hamilton. This was the Nico Rosberg performance we had been waiting to see all season. By this point, it was a strong, determined drive that would delay Hamilton’s winning of the world championship.

    saubertexasOn lap twenty-eight the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson grinds to a halt at turn eleven and requires the deployment of the safety car to recover the car. Rosberg’s nearly eleven second lead over Hamilton is completely eradicated. Sebastian Vettel, who has fought his way into fifth, takes the opportunity to fit a set of mediums to see him through to the end of the race. The Ferrari driver makes short work of Kvyat and Ricciardo and moves himself into third place.

    It wasn’t long before the virtual safety car was called on again this time to clear the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. The German driver tried an ambitious move up the inside of Daniel Ricciardo for fourth place but came off second best with fatal damage to his car. It prompted Rosberg to pit as Hamilton took the lead of the race.

    By lap forty-two Hamilton had a six second gap over Rosberg and as Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat clouted the barrier at the final turn, bringing out the safety car, the Brit dived into the pitlane for a new set of tyres. It dropped Hamilton behind Rosberg and it seemed as if he would have to wait at least one more week to secure the title.

    hamtexas3However, in a bizarre twist Rosberg ran off the circuit at turn sixteen and gifted the lead of the race to Hamilton. Rosberg just held on for second in the closing stages ahead of Vettel. This ensured that as Hamilton crossed the line he was a three-time world champion.

    Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen finished a stunning fourth ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez in fifth. Jenson Button brought his McLaren home in sixth whilst Carlos Sainz finished seventh in his Toro Rosso. Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado , Sauber Felipe Nasr and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten.

    Eight cars failed to make it to the chequered flag including Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who retired with overheating brakes after sliding off the track earlier and colliding with a barrier. For Williams too it was a weekend to forget with a  double retirement. Manor Marussia driver Alex Rossi can hold his head high after matching the team’s best result with a twelfth place finish.

    In an incredible season Lewis Hamilton has become only the tenth triple world champion in the history of the sport. Yes, Mercedes has provided him with an astonishing car to drive but the knowledge that Hamilton is a racer of the highest calibre has been there since his first lap at the 2007 Australian grand prix. Now, Lewis Hamilton is no longer just on the cusp of greatness.

    (All images of Lewis Hamilton courtesy of @MercedesAMGF1)