F1 Madness

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  • F1 2019: Spanish Gp Review – Mercedes Untouchable

    F1 2019: Spanish Gp Review – Mercedes Untouchable

    To say the Spanish grand prix was a damp squib would be generous. The circuit de Catalunya produced a dreary affair that didn’t do much for the image of Formula 1.

    But first, the rightly deserved plaudits. Just ten weeks ago Mercedes left pre-season testing with the firm belief that they would have to work overtime to catch up to a seemingly imperious Ferrari. Far and wide the expectation were that this would be the year the Italian team hit the ground running. In fact, they were tipped to dominate, at least, the opening rounds of the 2019 season. How quickly reality has decimated those predictions.

    Up and down the paddock the teams arrived at the first European race of the season with various updates they’d hope would increase the pace of their car. Not least of all, Ferrari arrived with a raft of upgrades from rear-wing endplates to the front-wing, to a completely new internal combustion engine. But still it fell significantly short of Mercedes.

    Valtteri Bottas spectacularly scored a third consecutive pole position by trouncing his teammate Lewis Hamilton by six tenths of a second. It was a big statement by the Finn but it wouldn’t go unanswered for too long. Elsewhere, Seb Vettel managed third on the grid while another error in quali meant Charles Leclerc was fifth quickest behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

    barcelonasunday13-815749Hamilton’s answer to Bottas came quickly as he scythed into the lead of the race as soon as the lights went out. Though Vettel had a decent getaway from the line he soon found himself on the outside of turn one with nowhere to go which allowed Verstappen into third. Bar a few moments in the race when Bottas closed the gap slightly there was little for Hamilton to be concerned about as he strolled to a third win in Spain.

    Verstappen who easily had the measure of Ferrari on the day joined the Mercedes teammates on the podium. For Ferrari it wasn’t only yet another day to forget in terms of their lack of pace but also for yet more dubious strategy calls. Early on in the race it was clear that Leclerc had pace in hand over Vettel who had flat-spotted his left-front tyre into turn one. With the top three disappearing up the road it seemed the obvious choice to release Leclerc. But the pitwall spent several laps apparently discussing the switch. Eventually, Vettel himself offered to let Leclerc by.

    By the first round of pitstops Hamilton emerged with a nearly ten second lead over Bottas while Verstappen effortlessly held onto third. Both Vettel and Leclerc suffered a rear-left issue in their respective stops. Although the delay in the pitbox didn’t necessarily affect either Ferrari driver’s ultimate position it is yet another sign of a team in trouble. At this stage Ferrari split the drivers’ strategy with Leclerc on the hard tyre and Vettel on the medium.

    However, for several laps Vettel, on the much quicker compound, was stuck behind Leclerc. Chaos reigned at Ferrari as neither side of the garage seemed to know that the other was on the opposite strategy. By the time Ferrari pitwall caught up, and Vettel was let by Leclerc, the slim chance at the final step on the podium was gone.

    The comedy of errors from Ferrari is yet again an indication of a team that it miles away from being able to challenge Mercedes much less beat them. Ferrari may yet win a few races in 2019 but from their display in Spain it seems highly unlikely that they will make a legitimate charge on either championship this season.

    2019 Spanish GPA late race Safety-car, deployed for a turn one clash between Lando Norris and Lance Stroll, threatened to inject some excitement into the otherwise monotonous race with a fifteen-lap sprint to the chequered flag but it never happened. It was a rather docile end to what is expected to be the last Spanish grand prix before Zandvoort takes over the mid-May slot in 2020.

    With Vettel and Leclerc in fourth and fifth Pierre Gasly was sixth for Red Bull. Kevin Magnussen was seventh for Haas ahead of home-favourite Carlos Sainz in eighth. After pulling of several impressive overtakes Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Toro Rosso as Romain Grosjean took the final point on offer in tenth.

    At least for now it appears that there is no end to Mercedes’ domination in sight. Even at the height of Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s and Red Bull’s stellar run in the mid 2010s they couldn’t deliver a staggering five consecutive one-two victories as Mercedes have done in 2019. Though there are several months and a lot of racing to go this season some would say that the writing is on the wall.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Q: Lewis Hamilton, you’re the winner. It didn’t look so good yesterday; it looked amazing today.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly I just have to put it down to this incredible team. This is history in the making to have five one-twos, so I’m very, very proud to be a part of that and very proud of everyone’s hard work here at the track and back at the factory. It’s definitely been a bit of a hard first four races. Naturally this is a great car but we don’t always get along. So I’m grateful that in the race we managed to settle our differences and get away well. Long, long run down to Turn 1 and I’m grateful for it, really happy for the whole.

     

    Q: Put us in the cockpit. We heard you in Baku say maybe you gave a little bit more space than you would normally do for a competitor out of respect for Valtteri. You really went for it there. He was the meat in a sandwich at one point. He had Vettel on the other side and you really managed to force yourself to take the lead.

    LH: Yeah, it was obviously an interesting start. It was obviously very, very close. I saw the red car go round the back of both of us and so I had no idea whether they were further ahead – I assumed they might be. And I knew that Valtteri would be braking super deep, but it wasn’t a replay of Baku at least.

     

    Q: Just finally, you get that extra point for fastest lap. Your re-start after the Safety Car, it was a quali lap. You were almost two seconds quicker than anyone. That was in your mind to set the fastest lap at that point or was it just to break the DRS?

    LH: Yeah, it was. We had obviously just done the pit stop, so I was just trying to keep the tyres warm and I knew those first couple of laps on these new tyres or fresher tyres would be the moment that we had the chance to get that, and I’ve not had a fastest lap all season, so it was about time.

     

    Q: Congratulations, great victory. Valtteri, it got oh, so close into the first corner and we saw you have a little correction on your steering to avoid contact with Lewis, to avoid contact with Sebastian. They really squeezed you into that first turn?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it was pretty tight, but I lost it at the start. There was some strange behaviour on the clutch. It was biting, releasing, biting, releasing, which I never felt before, so I lost it there.

     

    Q: Obviously you’re not in the happy place you were yesterday after that stunning pole position, but you’re still in the hunt for the championship, you’re going to some tracks that you enjoy, what do you take away from this weekend apart from that second-place result?

    VB: Well, as a team it’s incredible. A fifth one-two in a run is really good. I got some good points. Every single point is going to count this year so that’s good for sure but I’m just keen to find out why the start was so bad and why the issue happened.

     

    Q: Max, admiring the competition. You were given Driver of the Day, you’re up to third place in the championship. Pretty good. You’re a bit of a fly in the ointment to the Ferrari team though.

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a hectic first corner, so I just backed out of it, and actually it gave me a good position out of the first three corners and then from there on, of course the Mercedes cars were too quick today but I could do my pace and we were competitive, so happy to be on the podium.

     

    Q: Just tell us what you were looking at here? What can you learn when you look at your competition this close

    MV: I don’t know, just looking around to see what’s different to mine.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Congratulations Lewis, another wonderful race from you. Job done at the start. You didn’t seem to suffer from being on the dirty side of the race track.

    LH: No, I had looked at the support races and it appeared that both sides were quite equal. So when the lights went out, the initial start was good and then after that we were quite close all the way down to Turn 1 and the Ferrari might have even been alongside us again. It was a great battle and naturally a decisive moment. This is such a great circuit but it’s very, very hard to follow once you get through Turn 1. I’m not really sure if they’ll ever make amendments to make it a race where we would be closer. But nonetheless once we got around Turn 1 I just had to get my head down and focus on just trying to deliver each lap. But just an incredible day for the team. We brought an upgrade here obviously and everyone worked so hard to make sure they brought a decent upgrade, something that delivered on every aspect and very, very proud of everyone back at the factory for their hard work. And the guys here at the track? They’re just always faultless. But still a huge thank you to them for their continued efforts. Also, we’ve got Dr Zetsche here. It’s ‘Zetsche’ not ‘Zeetsche’, as they said on the podium, twice. He’s been a massive supporter of mine since I was 13. Ultimately, he was there in the decision-making process of whether they would take me on as a kid. When I went to McLaren he was part of the decision-making process of whether I got the Formula 1 driver in 2007, and joining this team again. And every year on from then when we had to re-sign. This is his last race with us and I just want to say a big thank you to him.

     

    Q: You seemed much happier with your car today than you were yesterday?

    LH: Yeah, the balance yesterday was a bit of a nightmare. But race pace has generally been quite good for me, I’ve been really happy and comfortable generally in the races. When we went out to do the laps to grid I wasn’t very happy with the balance still, so I had to make some changes. I had a to alter my driving style a little bit. But it worked well in the race scenario. Going to look into detail why it doesn’t work well on a single lap. That may take some time. Normally with tyres I’m pretty good but I think that’s the weak area. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just need to discover it and that’s what I’ll put some effort towards.

     

    Q: OK, well good luck with that. Well done, Lewis. Valtteri, it was won and lost at the start. You’ve spoken already about some problems with the clutch, was there any warning or any problem on the formation lap?

    VB: No, absolutely, no. It was the first time I’ve felt anything like that, like a vibration in the clutch and that’s why the initial getaway was very poor. It was kind of biting and releasing in a very quick frequency. So it’s really annoying. All the hard work this weekend for me went down the depths but obviously I’m not blaming any individual in the team, and as we are a strong team, we are going to investigate how it happened and how we can avoid it ever happening again in the future. That’s the strength of the team. But obviously for me as a person, it is annoying to have it this way but that’s how it goes. But I also want to say, there could be worse days in the office and as a team we are performing at an incredible level, and also from my side hats off to every single member at the both factories and here at the race team to be performing like we are now, and also congrats to Lewis for the win here, he had good race pace and a good result for us.

     

    Q: It wasn’t your day today but the slow-corner performance of the W10 has been so impressive here in Barcelona, does that give you a lot of confidence going to Monaco in a couple of weeks’ time?

    VB: It is nice to see the strength we have, especially with the new bits in the car we had for this weekend. But Monaco is such a unique track. A big part of it is getting the tyres to work and it’s extremely difficult. There are a lot of new parts with completely new asphalt and it’s a difficult track to put a lot of energy through the tyres. It’s a special track in terms of mechanical set-up – there are a lot of bumps and warps and off-cambers in the track, so for me it’s completely unknown how we are going to perform there but obviously I hope very well because I myself have been living there for five years now. I live just next to the start-finish line, so it would be nice to have a good car there.

     

    Q: Well done Valtteri. Max, second podium on the year. How confident were you of finishing on the podium today?

    MV: Well, you’re never sure, but I knew that we could take the fight to Ferrari. In qualifying we were already very close. I think my race was also decided in lap one, to overtake Seb around the outside in Turn 3. Yeah, that was good and from there onwards I could just do my own pace. Well, I was trying to follow the Mercedes cars but they were clearly a bit too quick. Very happy to be on the podium and also back in third in the championship, so that’s pretty positive.

     

    Q: As you say we’ve seen some tremendous pace from Mercedes this weekend. What can you tell us about the progress being made by Red Bull?

    MV: Well, it’s good, but not as good as Mercedes did. We clearly still need to work harder and bring better things to the car. But it’s good to see that I think we closed the gap to Ferrari and I’m happy about that.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, the performance here and also in Baku as well, I think both you and Pierre had very good race pace there. Two things for you: do you think Ferrari is now vulnerable to you guys on most tracks, and going to Monaco, where Red Bull is usual strong, do you think you’re going to be quick enough thee to catch these guys?

    MV: Yeah, race pace in Baku I think was pretty strong, but of course here people come here with upgrades and clearly we lost out a bit to Mercedes, but it seems that we did catch up to Ferrari. For Monaco, I think at the moment, looking at the low-speed performance in the last sector, we are clearly not the favourite and I also don’t expect it to be like last year when we were super strong in Monaco.

     

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Lewis, do yiou think you won the race at the start and Valtteri do you think you lost the race at the start?

    LH: I don’t even know what to say to that. I mean, you watchjed the race, right? You watched the race? I wouldn’t say it was lost anywhere else or won anywhere else particularly. But I had good pace today. Obviously I had a 12-second gap at one point, so I had natural pace today, but I think overtaking would have been… even if Valtteri was behind me, he would struggled to have overtaken me, and vice versa, so the start was the key.

    VB: Obviously the race is 66 laps and we need to focus on every single corner and with the cars nowadays, pushing to the limit, it is easy to make a mistake. It’s never lost or won in the first corner, there will be always opportunities, possibly, and you have to believe in it. Today, there wasn’t, really. Lewis was faultless after the start. There was safety car but there was no opportunity for me. When you look at it back, yes, I lost it at the start, but you never think that in the car.

     

    Q: Valtteri, just talk us through the re-start after the safety car, because that might have been another opportunity?

    VB: Yeah, I tried to get close to Lewis at the re-start. I think I was maybe a bit less than 50m by Turn 1 behind him, so no possibly to overtake him. Then Turn 1, 2, 3, they’re extremely quick corners, it’s impossible to follow that close, so you create a gap. Then I went into charging mode with the engine. I tried to charge my battery and I tried the quickest lap a couple of laps later. I maybe should have tried it one lap earlier. I think Lewis got it. But anyways, that was it.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, congratulations on your victory. I think after Baku you said you were a bit too generous perhaps on the first lap. So that did you extra determination today going tinto Turn 1 that you were going to be the first man through that corner?

    LH: Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the last race. It is a new race. I think today was really trying to redeem myself after a poor performance yesterday. Just back into a strong battle that we’ve had for years now. It was respectful and balanced – as we always are. The team has spoken of it, and Valtteri and I have spoken of it, and I think we have the best pairing that any team has, especially with the balance that we have in terms of how respectful we are. A lot of the drivers don’t do that, they don’t have that respect between themselves. I think today I was obviously well and truly on the inside. Today, I was more just super-inspired by this young kid who sent me a message, Harry. He was kind of my spirit angel today.

     

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Lewis, forgive me if you’ve explained this before. Harry – what was the background to that and the inspiration it gave you?

    LH: Well, I posted it, I don’t know if you’ve seen it? You’ve got to stay up to date with social media, man. I just had a really nice message from a young kid who is suffering with an illness. We had sent him a card and a cap and I saw that today before going into the race. I was chilled but I was looking for something for inspiration, something to grab onto, so I dedicated today’s race to him. You try to go out there and do something for someone and it doesn’t always turn out as well as it has, but nonetheless it has, so I hope he’s watching and I’ll be sending him a message shortly after this, that he’ll get, and we’re going to try to do something special for him.

     

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Lewis, you mentioned the gap that you were able to build-up but then was then wiped away during the Safety Car period. Were there any concerns or frustrations when you saw the Safety Car come out? And could you talk us through your restart as well – because you built quite a big gap to Valtteri very quickly.

    LH: Naturally, when you when you work upon building a nice cushion, a nice buffer… we had that quite long stint to do, I think it was… I can’t remember how big it was but it was obviously nice enough, and obviously after we did the stop, it was still quite good, and then I’d realised we were going to a two-stop rather than a one-stop, which meant you could then utilise the tyres. And then the Safety Car came out. And naturally you prefer a VSC. It was pretty drastic how slow the Safety Car was going so it was hard for all of us to keep the temperature in the tyres – but yeah, you just stay cool and focus on the restart. It’s pretty straightforward here, generally, the restart, so that wasn’t’ an issue. I think after one or two laps I was already up at five seconds, and then I backed off to cool the tyres down a little bit, then to give myself an opportunity to fight for the fastest lap. I still had time left but was grateful I had the fastest lap at the time and didn’t need to push again. The team told me to turn the engine down and that both cars would do it, so it was good after that.

     

    Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Congratulations Lewis. Yesterday Toto mentioned that you and he had discussed you potentially going to Ferrari at some point in your career. After the start you’ve had to this season, and the start Mercedes have had, is there any reason… do you foresee ever leaving Mercedes, given how strong they are now and how dominant they are over Ferrari?

    LH: I don’t really remember what he’s referring to. I think when you’re in negotiations you always have to drop in the Ferrari name.

     

    MV: You come out better!

     

    LH: You come out better. No, naturally in negotiations… Toto’s a very intelligent man so we have great negotiations and great conversations and naturally I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, so it’s very difficult to see myself anywhere else. I have never made it a secret that I’ve been a Ferrari fan, particularly Ferrari cars, and that’s no secret. Do I plan on going elsewhere? I haven’t made any plans for my future. At the moment I’m just enjoying driving with this team. I’m enjoying continuous growing with this team and, I mean, it’s incredible what we’re achieving together, what we have achieved in these six years, seven years or whatever it is, and I plan on working with this team to help it become the most successful team of all time. That’s my current goal and my sole focus.

     

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you have now 35 podiums, as many as Juan Manuel Fangio, how does that feel?

    VB: Not much feelings, honestly, from that. 35? Hopefully 36 in two weeks and one more win.

     

    Q: (Joe van Burik – racingnews365.nl) Question to all drivers. On which tracks coming up this season do you expect Red Bull to be strong?

    MV: Monaco, Singapore, Mexico… yep. They should normally be a little bit better for us.

     

    Max, before we put that question to Lewis and Valtteri, what are the strengths of your car, do you feel?

    MV: Compared to?

     

    What are the strengths? What are the good characteristics?

    MV: I think at the moment we’re not really better in any corner than Mercedes, so… I don’t know. It’s good! It’s not that it’s a bad car – but at the moment Mercedes is just a bit quicker than us everywhere. Medium speed, high speed is pretty similar I would say, but again, that depends on downforce levels you’re running every single weekend so it’s a bit difficult to say, but clearly on this track, they were very strong in the low-speed corners and that it normally pretty good for Monaco as well.

     

    Lewis, when do you expect him to challenge you for a victory?

    LH: Honestly, I don’t know. I think this year they’ve made a big leap with Honda doing a great job with the engine. If you look at their laps, their speed on the straights are much, much closer to ours, if not sometimes a little bit quicker than ours at the end. It’s probably the first year their focus has to be on the car. It’s quite interesting in Formula One where engineers are so intelligent but they often stay with one philosophy and never want to shift the way they design a car. Even when others have shown a different direction works. I’m sure the car’s going to continue to improve. As he mentioned, places like Monaco, they’re always quick in Monaco, they’re always quick on those street circuits particularly. The races he mentioned, I’m sure it’s going to be very strong. Let’s hope that there’s more than they’re closer because we welcome more battles throughout the year. It would be great to have a Ferrari and a Red Bull there, fighting with us in a natural race.

     

    Anything to add Valtteri?

    VB: No.

     

    Q: A question for Lewis. Firstly congratulations for your win. In the moment that the Safety Car came to the track, we have seen problems for the drivers in general to keep the tyres on temperature. Now we are heading to Monaco, do you think the middle period of this year, are getting difficult to get it on the window to work properly. Do you think Monaco will be challenging for the temperatures of the tyres?

    LH: Something I haven’t thought of but, I mean, the tyres are very hard this year. Harder than it was last year. Probably a smaller working window so I do anticipate it’s probably going to be… I think it was already hard last year to get the temperature in the tyres. I think it was something that Red Bull were really good at last year, so that probably be the same this year going to Monaco. It’ll be really interesting to see. We don’t have the hyper this year, I don’t think, do we? It’s like the supersoft but harder again. So in my opinion we need to have more pitstops; we need a tyre that doesn’t overheat. That’s a complaint that we’ve had for many, many years. We had a meeting in Brazil last year and we weren’t aware of that – do you remember – and everyone had been saying it for years and years and years. Hopefully that should be the target for the future. We want a tyre that we can really push to the limit and stay up with someone without it overcooking itself and you having to back-off, because that enables racing. Monaco should be interesting – but again, it’s not a race where you can particularly follow. You can’t follow that well, and it’s not a race you can particularly overtake in. Particularly with the cars being bigger: now it’s even harder. But the tyre restart would be interesting on Safety Cars and those kind of things.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions for Valtteri. Up to Lap 15 you were sort-of within striking distance of Lewis, through a maximum of 3-3.5 seconds. Then you lost a lot of time over the next ten laps. Was that some tyre issue or had you accepted that you were not going to get him? And, did you have any concerns with your power unit after the oil leak you had on Friday.

    VB: Yeah, in the beginning of the stint I was pretty close to Lewis all the time. Obviously just waiting if there would be an opportunity. On this type of track you only need to be within four seconds and you’re sliding quite a bit around. So, I’ve been ahead and I know the difference, how much it makes when you can really focus on saving the tyres where you want to and, in the free air, it’s quite a bit better. So why the gap became bigger? I had to go through some of the slower cars and, at the same time, my tyres started to drop off. With less surface on the tyre I lost a bit of temperature. So yeah, my tyres were finished much earlier than Lewis’. That’s why the gap became better. So, probably I was sliding the car more during the first stint and he made a gap there. From my side, from the team’s side, there was no concerns after the oil leak. It was nothing to do with the engine itself. It was just a simple thing like a pipe and one bolt came loose, or something like this. So, no concerns.

     

    Q: (Gunnar Leheste – Eesti Päevaleht) Question to Max. There were three Red Bull Juniors driving this weekend in Formula Three. Did you get the chance to see the races and what are your impressions of the guys?

    MV: I did see a bit of the racing, it was pretty good but it can be better – but they just start, so I think Helmut with have a call with them after ever race weekend, so yeah, they will work hard for it. It’s good.

     

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) Question for Max, some more about the race, what was key in the first part, in the first corner, stay out of chaos and profit in the corners after that? And what were your thoughts about the Safety Car?

    MV: They were going three wide into the corner and I don’t think four cars fit! Yeah, just taking it easy and that was good, because in the end I was in the right position for Turn Three. So, that definitely gave me a better opportunity, of course, to be on the podium. And with the Safety Car, I think it was right to call out the Safety Car because there were a lot of stones on the track and two cars, but I think we could have raced one or two laps earlier. That would have helped with tyre temperatures as well.

     

    Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – Paddock Magazine) Question for Lewis and Valtteri. Lewis, you have mentioned that it is good to have Red Bull also in the fight – but is it a relief for you to not have Ferrari right behind you, breathing down your neck? Does that make you guys feels a little bit more relaxed, thinking about the Championship, of course?

    LH: Honestly it doesn’t, you know? We’re still very, very focussed on trying to make sure we deliver each weekend. We don’t come to the race knowing that we’re going to have a gap, like today. And also, we’re aware of… we only have a small amount of engines through the year, reliability could be an issue, anything could happen at any point, so you’re super-focussed on trying to make sure you deliver. My personal feeling is that I prefer it when they are in the mix with us. I prefer the races, where, for example Bahrain where they were on the front row. I love that. That’s… especially when we’re intertwined, where there’s a Ferrari and a Mercedes, or a Mercedes and a Ferrari, The last couple of years, that’s what we’ve had, and from a drivers’ point of view and a team’s point of view, it’s much better when you’re competing with another team. When it becomes more internal, it’s less exciting, I would say – but it’s still massively challenging for the drivers. We still have to deliver. It’s not a case of just rocking up and going out. We still have to work very, very hard to extract everything from the car, just as every other driver is extracting everything from their car.

  • 2019 Spanish GP: Bottas Makes it Three In A Row

    2019 Spanish GP: Bottas Makes it Three In A Row

    Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas made it three pole positions in a row by taking pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.

    Bottas looked untouchable during qualifying around the Circuit de Catalunya and took pole position with a scintillating lap of 1:15.406 on his first run in Q3. Bottas’ time was 0.634s faster than Mercedes team mate Lewi Hamilton who ended qualifying 2nd fastest and in doing so locked out the front row yet again this season.

    “This feels really good. In every run in Qualifying I found room for improvement, little bits here and there, and I managed to get everything together in Q3 and had a very strong first lap,” said Bottas after qualifying.

    Lining up on the second row of the grid is Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in P3 with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull in P4. Vettel with a 1:16.272 was 0.866s off Bottas’ time. Verstappen was just about a tenth off Vettel. The Dutchman giving Ferrari something to think about in the coming races.

    Charles Le Clerc could only manage P5 after suffering some floor damage on his car in Q2 by running wide at T9. In order to get through to Q3 Leclerc had to run twice in Q2 and only had one set of tyres available in Q3. He ran twice with the one set in Q3 but could not improve his time after his first run.

    In P6 is the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly who just got ahead of the Haas of Romain Grosjean in P7. Gasly finished two tenths ahead of the Haas. P8 was Grosjean’s team mate Kevin Magnussen who was not that far off the pace of the Frenchman.

    Ninth fastest was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo will have to serve his three place grid drop penalty for reversing into Kvyat at the previous race.

    The two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon – who qualified 11th, 13th and 12th respectively will all move up one position thanks to Ricciardo’s penalty drop.

    Nico Hulkenberg in the other Renault was one of the surprises to be eliminated at the end of Q1. Hulkenberg, while on a timed run, locked up into T4 and while trying to catch the rear of his car, pinged across the gravel and nearly made contact with the wall. Minus a front wing which was being dragged along under his car, Hulkenberg made it back to the pits for repairs but it was a little too late as the German could not make it through to Q2 on subsequent runs.

     

  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1– Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes), 2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), 3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS
    (Conducted by Jenson Button)

    Q: Valtteri, that was a fantastic qualifying effort, outstanding. And to beat this guy around here. I know how difficult that is. The car is obviously feeling pretty awesome underneath you?
    Valtteri Bottas: Yeah, by the time of Quali 3 it was just really getting better and better. Really enjoyed that and enjoyed the adrenaline rush we get from those laps. I’m very pleased. Practice 3 was difficult obviously with the spin, but I just forgot that and moved on.

    Q: But it wasn’t just that, it was a massive margin. And now that makes it three in a row. That must give you a massive boost for the race tomorrow and for the rest of the season?
    VB: It does, yeah. It’s started well, the season, and the way I’d hoped for. I feel better and better in the car, so I look forward to tomorrow.

    Q: Good man. Lewis, watching that it looked like you really needed to get the lap in the first run in Q3. The second run, I don’t know if it was the temperature or what, but you needed to get it done then, and it seemed like the last sector was a bit loose?
    Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, I mean, firstly Valtteri did a fantastic job, he’s been quick all weekend. I think on my side I just didn’t put the laps together. The last couple of laps in Q3 particularly just weren’t strong. I had to go out early, because I had come in too early and I had a low battery pack and so I had to go out first, ahead of everyone and ultimately it just wasn’t a good enough job.

    Q: But the thing here, starting P2, you get that massive tow down the straight, so looking forward to a great race tomorrow?
    LH: Yeah, I’ll be giving it everything. We’ve always got great weather here. It’s great for the team to have this one-two. We’ll try to convert that into a one-two and if I can reverse it I’ll be happy.

    Q: Sebastian, I think that’s probably as good as you could have expected. Looking at the last sector that seems to be a massive deficit for you guys here.
    Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it seems to be more than an Achilles’ heel at the moment. I just spoke to Valtteri and they were both very happy with the car, especially last sector. For us it was a bit more tricky. I think we got everything out of the car in the first run. In the second run I had to try something different and it didn’t work, but yeah, happy but not happy, if you know what I mean.

    Q: I totally know what you mean. But it’s weird in the last sector, because it looks like the car is planted. It looks like the rear end is planted and you just have understeer. But maybe that’s an aerodynamic deficit, so you balance the car like that. Is that the case?
    SV: The car doesn’t feel bad, but obviously we are not quick enough. In terms of balance we got it more or less right. I had a bit more understeer; what you saw is right. Probably more than they have but I think overall in those sort of corners, you know yourself, you just need the grip and I think we might be down on that.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, congratulations, it was a stunning lap from you there in Q3. The only man to break into the 1 minute 15s all afternoon, just talk us through that final segment of qualifying in particular.
    VB: Yeah, thanks, it was really enjoyable and to get a nice lap like that is a nice feeling and a nice adrenaline rush. What makes it enjoyable is when the car is behaving, when the car is doing what you want it to do and what you ask it to do. I think as a team we have done an incredible job with the upgrades we brought here and with the set-up direction we’ve taken. But I was really building up to the qualifying after a difficult Practice 3 with the spin and each run I always knew ‘OK, here I can improve’ and so on and I managed to put it together for Q3.

    Q: How good was that lap in Q3 and are you surprised by the gap to Lewis?
    VB: For sure the gap is big. I never would expect that but I don’t know how Lewis’ lap was but this time I got everything pretty well right in the lap.

    Q: Mika Häkkinen has the Finnish record of six consecutive pole positions, just something for you to think about?
    VB: I’m not really a big fan of numbers. Obviously I respect Mika a lot, but at this point of the season there’s no point counting numbers, the point is focusing on the moment.

    Q: Congratulations. Well, Lewis, coming to you, Valtteri made the point ‘how was Lewis’ lap’, well how was Lewis’ lap?
    LH: It was OK; it could have been better for sure. Valtteri did a fantastic job particularly once he got to Q3. It was a bit of a tacky Q3 for me, which is kind of rare for me, but it happens. Otherwise, I’m just really happy and proud of the team for the upgrades we were able to bring this weekend to eke the gap to the Ferraris. It is an amazing track to drive, especially as we come from Barcelona testing, it’s transformed so much since then, so really proud of everyone.

    Q: Surprising gap between you and Valtteri. What do you put that down to? It looked like a very aggressive lap from you that first lap in Q3.
    LH: They just weren’t very good laps. Simple as that, and Valtteri was just quicker today and rightly deserved the pole.

    Q: Sebastian, coming on to you, looks like it was quite a tough afternoon for you – but it’s been a hard weekend for Ferrari, as well, relative to the performance of the Mercedes. Just talk us through the handling of your car.
    SV: Well, it’s been a busy weekend, obviously. Happy to be in P3. I think it gives us a good chance for tomorrow and we look forward to the race. I think we brought some new bits, a new engine, everything seems to work but clearly we are not yet where we want to be but I think in terms of team effort, everybody was doing their utmost. We tried a lot of stuff yesterday, and again today. Different directions. I think we ended up getting the best out of the car for today, which, as I say, wasn’t enough and we’re certainly not satisfied – but I’m very happy with the approach, with the chance that we took, in terms of trying something daring, something I think ultimately will pay off. Not yet – not today at least! But hopefully it helps us in terms of pace tomorrow. Hopefully sets of the right direction for the next couple of weeks.

    Q: Happy with the approach of the team – but were you surprised by the gap to Mercedes?
    SV: I think yes. Of course. Coming here we did not expect… but also we seemed to lose a quite big amount of time in the last sector. I think it’s quite clear we seem to be faster down the straights, so probably carrying a little bit less wing than them, but then obviously in the last sector there are no straights and yeah, struggling a little bit to bring it together, so it’s not a very long sector but they’re quite some corners, and mostly lower speed, and that’s where we seem to be losing the most time. So, definitely some homework. We know this track very well, everybody does, but the conditions today, etcetera, we were not able to match them

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, your first-ever hat-trick of poles. Is the speed in qualifying your strongest weapon in this World Championship fight right now?
    VB: Well, for sure, in terms of qualifying performance, it has been so far my best start of the year in Formula One – but it’s not only about Saturdays. For sure, it’s super-important and, depending on the track, but also the race performance, start performance. I think it’s going to be key – one of the key things for sure.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Sebastian. You said the last sector was very slow. 1500m – eight-tenths. Can you describe for us if you lose when you brake, the speed in the middle of the corner, the traction? Because it’s really a lot in a very short space.
    SV: Yes, it’s a lot of time – but as I said, obviously we gain down the straights and we lose in the corners. Obviously the first in the first two sectors we have straights to compensate, so maybe you don’t see the loses in the corners but, I think it’s pretty transparent: I think you have access as much as we have to the GPS data. We lose time in the last sector in the corners in pretty much every corner. So, from 10 to 15 there’s not one corner that stands out. Obviously eight-tenths sounds a lot but if you then divide it by the amount of corners, it’s a bit less – but it’s still a lot. In the end of the day, it doesn’t change anything. For us, it’s a lot of homework. The car, I think, certainly didn’t feel perfect, so there’s something we can improve but overall, obviously, yeah, overall we seem to be a bit down in terms of grip and not being able to carry as much speed through the corner, not go on throttle as easy as them, so it’s a loss not necessarily in braking, I think it’s more the speed carried around the corner. It’s not the first time. Obviously here it bites you in the last sector because there are many corners and no straights – but that’s what it is. For tomorrow, we’ll see what we can do. Certainly the straight-line speed will help us to put pressure on the first straight and then go from there.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) Two questions for Seb: did you feel that problem during the winter tests as well, the problem in the slow corners and secondly, you always said the potential is there; did you have this feeling this weekend as well?
    SV: Well, I think, starting with the second question, I think we didn’t start off well in Australia, we certainly weren’t extracting the maximum from the car. I think we probably, with hindsight, didn’t carry the best set-up but from then onwards we gradually improved, we certainly were not where we wanted to be. To return to your first question, I think winter testing is now quite a while ago and I think the cars have progressed quite a lot – our car as much as other cars. Obviously conditions were different and so on. We had a very good feeling the first week. The second week things were a lot closer but obviously there was a lot of – how can I say? – positivity after the first week which we carried over and we sort of wanted to carry into the season but so far we haven’t managed to extract that. I think overall the car is good, we have the performance, we need to put it together, we know we can do better so we need to dig deep. Obviously now is not the first time we’re losing out and not the second time and not the third time, so there’s a consistent trend that we seem to lose in some places, independent of conditions: sunshine, clouds, tyres, compounds and so on. Yeah, a bit more fast to understand but if we had the solution surely it would be on the car already.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To the two Mercedes drivers: are you surprised by the gap? I know you’ve brought upgrades this weekend but are you surprised by the gap that you’ve got over Ferrari? I know the cars have changed from last year, the aero rules are different but how much better does this car feel to 2018?
    LH: Well, we didn’t expect to have the gap, for sure and in terms of whether it’s better than last year, for sure it’s better. I don’t really know what else to say. VB: I have to say that when I saw the times, definitely we expected Ferrari to be closer. Everything based on winter testing, this seemed to be a track that really suits them and since the practice, we saw yesterday that we were in good form. Obviously we have been doing a good job as a team with the direction we’ve been taking the car in, in terms of where to find the performance and how and so on, so we’ve done a really good job on that and I think we’re all impressed. Obviously race pace is going to be important tomorrow and for sure the car feels better. With the new aero regs, everyone thought it’s going to be a bit slower but with the technology nowadays that the team has it’s incredible how (inaudible) can still improve. The amount of downforce the amount of stability the cars have now is enjoyable.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Also for Valtteri and Lewis: you had a very clean and exciting fight in the first few corners in Baku but there you can overtake later in the race. Here, given how difficult it is to pass, how crucial are those first six, seven hundred meters going to be and how are you planning to play it?
    VB: For sure it’s going to be important. It’s one of the longer runs into turn one from the start so definitely the start performance is important and there’s also a bit of a tow effect for the cars behind so on track, it’s difficult to overtake, for sure the start is going to be important and turn one but yeah, it’s pretty normal and (I shall) look forward to the fight. LH: Yeah, pretty much the same. Just approach it as we always do.

    Q: (Laurence Edmonson – ESPN) To both Mercedes drivers: there’s obviously a few changes to the car this weekend. Valtteri, do you feel that’s brought it a little more closer to what you were looking for and has that helped you? And Lewis, has it upset your balance and where you have the car?
    VB: I think we’ve just been able to improve the general stability and provide a bit more grip from the aero of the car. There’s no different kind of behaviour from the car than any races before, I feel. It does feel a bit different from winter testing though, in a big way, but if it really suits me or not – I really can’t say but definitely the car feels better and that’s always – when you have the grip – it’s always a good feeling. LH: The upgrades always feel good so sometimes they’re transparent – this one’s quite transparent for me and obviously I was not able to utilise the performance of the car or extract the performance of the car so I will just continue to work on that.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, we always used to see you in the middle (in the press conference) with the phenomenal numbers you have but now for the third time in a row you are on the left side. Is this a sign of something? Do you start to re-think your approach to Q3, to analyse more, because you have lost out to your teammate with the same car for the last three times?
    LH: I don’t think it’s about Q3, I think it’s about the whole weekend and it’s the feel that I have in the car, I just need to work on it so I don’t think it’s really about my approach in qualifying particularly. But of course I’m looking at all solutions and I’ll get there eventually.

  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Friday Free Practice Round-Up

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Friday Free Practice Round-Up

    The “European” season of the F1 world championship kicked off on Friday with Free Practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

    Whisperings around the paddock say that this will be the final Spanish Grand Prix and F1 will not come back in 2020. Nevertheless, there was practice sessions to power through and power through the teams did.

    With the Circuit de Catalunya hosting the pre-season testing, it does not take teams long to get to grips with the track and teams usually get their new bits bolted on and head out for some lappage.

    Free Practice 1

    Early on in the session it seemed as though Ferrari had their issues behind them as the early pace was set by Charles Leclerc, but it was Mercedes with Valtteri Bottas who showed that their updates worked just that bit better. Bottas looked quick very early on and indications very early on were that Mercedes had quite a significant pace advantage over the rest of the field.

    Bottas set the fastest time of the session with a 1:17.951. Just a touch under a tenth was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with a 1:18.066. This may have given Ferrari hope at the end of the session. They were soon to be proven very wrong come FP2.

    Third fastest in the other Ferrari was Charles Leclerc with a session best time of 1:18.172, 0.221s off Bottas’ benchmark. Finishing 4th fastest was Lewis more than six-tenths off the pace. Hamilton struggled with grip throughout the session and reported that he could not get the tyres in the zone.

    “It was quite windy on track today and it was a bit tricky with the grip levels on the three different tyres, but we got through our programme and now have lots of data to analyse tonight and then fine tune the car for tomorrow,” commented Hamilton.

    With new aero parts on the Haas, Romain Grosjean ended the session 5th fastest and in doing so validating the work of the Haas engineers. Carlos Sainz split the Haas drivers by finishing 6th in the McLaren with a best time of 1:19.155, 1,204s off the pace. Kevin Magnussen, who was still running the older aero parts on his Haas, ended his session 7th fastest ahead of the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly 8th.

    Daniil Kvyat finished 9th fastest a touch a head of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who rounded out the top 10.

    Max Verstappen ran into some traffic on his flying lap run and his session was cut short after an oil leak on his Red Bull.

    With a few seconds left in the session, Lance Stroll – who finished the session 13th fastest – brought out the Red Flags after he dipped a wheel on the gravel before Turn 9 which sent his RP19 over the gravel and into the barrier.

     

    Free Practice 2

    Valtteri Bottas, in the break between FP1 and FP2 had some porridge and made it two from two finishing the second free practice session with a best time of 1:17.284.

    His Mercedes team mate, Lewis Hamilton was just 0.049s off Bottas’ benchmark but still struggled with grip at times.

    Leclerc finished ahead of Vettel in FP2 with session best lap time of 1:17.585, 0.301s off Bottas’ benchmark. This should be quite worrying for Ferrari. Being so far off the pace quite early on in the weekend does not point to a smooth weekend for the Scuderia.

    Max Verstappen finished 5th fastest with a spec 2 Honda PU. Honda had chosen to change his PU after an oil leak curtailed his running in FP1.

    Continuing on his good form from FP1 was Haas’ Romain Grosjean with a P6 finish with a session best time of 1:18.153 for the Frenchman. Team mate Magnussen was P9. The two Haas’ once again split, this time by Gasly in the other Red Bull.

    Carlos Sainz had another good session finishing 9th fastest ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat in P10.

    Mercedes clearly showing their superiority quite early on in the weekend and their expected to go even quicker come qualifying. Their long run pace was far superior to Ferrari and Red Bull and all indications from the long run pace points to another Mercedes 1-2 dominating weekend.

    Ferrari seem to have the speed in the high speed Sector 1 and Sector 2. Where they are struggling is in the slow and technical Sector 3 where mechanical grip is important. Mercedes, over the years, have shown that they are exceptionally strong in this section and Ferrari were no match at any point in time. Clearly nothing has changed. The Ferrari seems to cook it’s tyres by the time it gets to the final sector and struggles for grip whereas the Mercedes manages to keep the tyres in the very tiny operating window which allows them to get the pace through the final sector.

    We have seen come-backs in Formula 1. This has been a week of comebacks in sport but this might be one mountain Ferrari will be unable to get over.

     

  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo Racing), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)

     

    Q: Guenther, a promising start for the Haas team here in FP1 but it’s been another difficult start to the season for Romain Grosjean. Are we seeing a repeat of last year or is it a different set of problems for him?

    Guenther STEINER: I hope that he hasn’t got the same problems here as he had last year. I think a lot of people would not enjoy that. I think we’ve struggled as everyone has seen. In Australia we were performance-wise not too bad but we had the pit stop issue. In the races afterwards… I shouldn’t say it because I’ve got Mario beside me, but we had some issues, we couldn’t get the tyres to work, which he will disagree with heavily, I forewarn you. But here it seems to be working. But it’s too early to say, it’s FP1, you know. We at least have to go through FP2 to get to some conclusions. This morning was a good session; it was enjoyable again. Let’s hope we can repeat it for the rest of the weekend and we don’t do any damage in the race.

     

    Q: But from Romain’s point of view are you seeing more consistency from him this year than at the same stage last year?

    GS: Absolutely. He’s very calm. He cannot do anything about it. He stays very calm, he stays focused, and I’ve all the confidence that he doesn’t repeat what happened last year.

     

    Q: Now, you’ve already touched on tyres. You were quite outspoken about them after the race in Baku two weeks ago. Just tell us what the issues were?

    GS: Mario knows better than me. He’s the expert on tyres, not me you know. We have got issues, we cannot get them to work, we cannot get the heat into them on certain kinds of tracks and that is our problem. I said in Baku that we would be struggling, beforehand. Here I was more confident, not completely, be should get them to work here and we get them to work here. But we have an issue that we cannot get the tyres to work at each track, so that is our issue.

     

    Q: Thank you and good luck this weekend. Mario, perhaps we could get your reaction to some of the comments Guenther came out with in Baku?

    Mario ISOLA: Yeah, I believe that Baku is quite a unique circuit, where you have an asphalt that is very smooth and so is not going to generate energy into the tyre, you have a long straight, cold weather conditions, the tyres are losing a lot of temperature and we know from the past the characteristics of the circuit. Last year, when we developed the current product, we were require to have a product without blistering – you remember last year we had some race with blistering – and to reduce overheating. That was a clear request from the drivers. So basically, our tyres have been developed with this in mind. Also, the working ranges are probably a bit higher than last year. But we didn’t experience any issue here in Barcelona in the pre-season test. We had good weather, but it was February, March, and the same in Melbourne. In Bahrain, OK, I had a chat with Guenther, I know their situation, and I hope they find a solution to that but I cannot say that it is a common problem to everybody. In Baku, because of the circuit characteristics it was a bit more difficult to keep the front and rear tyres in the right operating window. The operating windows cannot be narrower than last year because don’t forget that we have two compounds, that we call C3 and C4, that are the same compounds as we had last year, so at least with these two compounds we have the same operating window, and this is the analysis I can do now.

     

    Q: Apart from the two compounds that are the same as last year, have the new compounds become harder to work with for the teams?

    MI: I don’t think so, because the C1 and C2 are slightly softer than last year and with the C5, which is equivalent to what we called the hypersoft in 2018, the main issue was the graining and the new compound has a better mechanical stability with the same or wider operating window. Obviously we have to discover that in the next few races, where we are going to use this compound. They tested this compound in Abu Dhabi, they tested it in Barcelona, because it was a free choice of all the five compounds, and I believe that the new compounds are not more difficult to manage.

     

    Q: Looking a little bit further ahead, you announced yesterday that Formula 2 will use 18-inch tyres in 2020. What can you tell us about your testing programme ahead of Formula 1 making the same changes in 2021? Have you decided how that’s going to work yet?

    MI: Yeah, for Formula 2 we obviously have a very packed test programme because we have to develop the tyres in six or seven months. We already agreed a test schedule with the promoter and with the FIA. For Formula 1 the intention is to have three sessions – September, October and November – and three teams are going to supply the mule car, and they are Mercedes, McLaren and Renault. And we are going to offer the opportunity to provide a mule car for 2020 again to all the teams, it’s their choice if they want to do that or not. So it’s the same system and the same procedure that we have used in the last few years. We offer to everybody, teams can accept or not and then we make a plan according to the number of teams that accept it. We have 25 days of testing for next year, as it was in the last few years, so we have a short development plan for 2020 in the first half of the season and then we switch on 18-inch tyres from September onwards.

     

    Q: Thanks. Franz, perhaps we could move on to you. We heard from Guenther an overview of Haas’ start to the season, perhaps you could give us your thoughts after the opening four races from Toro Rosso’s point of view?

    Franz TOST: Toro Rosso has a competitive package. We have a car that works well, we have a powerful engine from Honda, and two drivers that are also competing quite good. We scored points in all the races apart from Baku but I think Daniil could have finished there in the ninth or tenth position but unfortunately he was involved in a collision with Ricciardo. I’m quite positive that we can also be here within the first ten. Generally speaking I think we are in the position to come with at least one car in qualifying three and to score points.

     

    Q: OK. A word about Alex Albon as well. He was something of an unknown quantity coming into this season. Has he surprised you with how quickly he has adapted to Formula 1?

    FT: Yes, it was a positive surprise, because as you know, if a young inexperienced driver is coming into Formula 1 there is always a questions mark, but I said already during the test sessions here in Barcelona in February that Alex could become the driver surprise of the year and so far he has done really a very good job, with good technical feedback on the mechanical side and the aero side, but also regarding the tyres he understands how to use the tyres in the best possible and we are really very happy to have him in the team.

     

    Q: Thank you, Franz. Fréd, coming to you, we saw some compliance issues with the front wing of Kimi Räikkönen’s car in Baku a couple of weeks ago. How have you resolved that for this race? Have you reverted to an older spec or have you updated the Baku wing?

    Frédéric VASSEUR: Just to clarify, that I think first we were out of the spec, we did a mistake, and perhaps you could consider that the decision was a bit harsh, but it’s like this, we have to clean in front of our door first and I think the mistake was on our side and for sure that we are not coming in Barcelona with the same wing.

     

    Q: It’s been a strong start for Alfa Romeo this year, particular on Kimi Räikkönen’s side of the garage. But we saw progress from, Antonio in Baku. How confident are you that he’s made a breakthrough and that he can progress and challenge Kimi for the rest of the season?

    FV: I think if you look at the first four races I think he was into the pace but I think we made on his side too many mistakes. He had some reliability issues. He got the penalty in China first, he didn’t do the quali and then in Baku… OK it’s far too much, we have to give him a clean sheet one week and to do a proper job, but I think he is improving. He was in front of Kimi in Baku, and he did a very strong quali also in Melbourne. No, I’m quite confident that he is very focused and motivate and the results will come and will help.

     

    Q: OK, thanks Fréd, good luck with that. Mattia, we’re back Barcelona, where two months ago Sebastian in particular was singing the praises of your car. The driveability then seemed to drop away when we went racing. After FP1 today can you tell us, are you back where you were in March?

    Mattia BINOTTO: I think we never dropped away. I think that certainly we had a strong winter testing, but I think that our main competitors were as strong as we were at the time, and on the last day of winter testing they scored the same lap time as us. As a matter of fact, I think we already mentioned that they would have been very strong as well. I think that since then we are both developing our car. The car developed, so coming here it’s certainly not any more the same car we had at the time, the weather conditions are completely different, the heat is certainly a different factor. So, are you exactly, let me say, on the same page? I don’t think you can compare. I think more important that it’s a relative competition so it’s more important that we are focusing on the weekend and trying to optimize the car and the package, and we are doing our best.

     

    Q: You’ve bought a host of upgrades to this race. A lot has been made of the power unit upgrade that is a couple of races early. Can you just tell us what’s been going on in Maranello to bring these updates forward? Are people working even harder than normal?

    MB: Obviously when you are planning such a change on your schedule you need to do it a few weeks ago. It’s not something we decided within that week. Having started the season in Melbourne we recognized that somehow we may have been late on our let me say performance compared with our competitors and we tried simply to push on all the main items where we were already planning developments. We were simply looking for opportunities in anticipating some of the programmes. We did it already with an aero package in Baku which was somehow introduced earlier compared to our initial programme. We did it here as well for the power unit. You simply achieve that by trying maybe sometime to shortcut or intensify the activity. I have to say that the people back at Maranello have worked very hard, we intensified our activities, and we are working still very hard, as it seems that’s what we need to do at the moment.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to all of you: has the success of the Netflix series helped you to have an agreement with them for the Season Two?

     

    Franz, have you signed something with them for the second season?

    FT: No, not that I’m aware of.

    Will you sign with them?

    FT: We will see.

     

    Do any of you just want to give us your thoughts on the success of the Netflix series, and what you think it’s done?

     

    GS: I didn’t see it – but everyone tells me. I don’t know how successful it is because there were no ratings, so I’m told and Netflix never gives them, but I think everybody was positive about it, so I guess it helps. It should help to bring people in who don’t normally watch the races, who see this. There are more people watching Netflix than F1, I would say. If the people watch it and then get interested in F1, that should help us. That should help us all, and it’s a good thing in my opinion.

     

    And Guenther, to follow up on Fred’s question, would you be willing to help Netflix with a Series Two.

    GS: Yes!

     

    Mattia, will we see Ferrari involved?

    MB: I think that, as Guenther said, it’s certainly an interesting programme. We were not participating last season as Ferrari. We are considering it at the moment. We have not taken our final decision, so it’s something we will do in the next few weeks.

     

    Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Looking to the future, in 2021 to 2024, we’re going to have single make brakes and wheels. I’m a little bit interested to know how that’s going to affect your teams and, in terms of Pirelli, how it’s going to affect your company, both commercially and technically. That’s to everybody.

    MI: On our side, having a standard rim is obviously… you know that at the moment each team is designing his own rim and that could make things a bit complicated for us. Sometimes it’s difficult to fit a tyre. And heat exchange with the rim is also an item we are able to consider so, for sure, it’s a standardisation that could help on our side. The brakes as well.

    GS: Standardisation. First of all, I think it hasn’t been decided how much we do standardisation so I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here to say that it’s been decided for ’21. I don’t know if anyone signed an agreement that it will be standardised. A lot of parties looked into it because the tenders went out – but it could go both ways, y’know? Sometimes you get some parts which just work, and sometimes you get parts that everybody’s got the same and some people get them to work with their car. The worst bit for me, we need to make sure that Formula One keeps its DNA. And the DNA of F1 for me, it’s developing… it’s the only motorsport that is free for technology. Once you start standardisation, it can be a slippery slope in my opinion. We need to be careful not going down that slope and all of a sudden ending up with all the same cars. A lot of people are interested in our technology and that is why they’re watching F1. I don’t know. First of all, we need to see what is happening with standardisation before I make a final comment how I think about it.

     

    Mattia, what’s your view?

    MB: Very much aligned with Guenther. So, first it’s not decided yet, yes, true there are some tenders and discussions are on-going. As Ferrari, we always relay that we are against the standardisation principle – but we know as well that we need to control the costs and expenses – and obviously there is a budget cap so we need to find the right balance. Standardisation only makes sense if you may save money, which has to be proved first. And as well we need to take care of the DNA of F1, as Guenther said. For example, if we take the rims, all the cars with exactly the same rims – I think that, in terms of aesthetics, is not good for F1 from the outside, because you’re not differentiating any more the cars from one car to the other, maybe just the paint. But it’s not something we should look at. We are going through an entire process, together with the FIA tenders. I think first we should look at the result of the tenders and then to a proper evaluation and make it carefully.

     

    Fred?

    FV: F1 was able to do it on the ECU 15 years ago. I think that we can manage a situation on the brakes or the rims. The only issue, for me, would be the timeline. We need to be aware quite soon, and we need to have more details quite soon about the technical aspects. If we are in a rush then everything is more and more expensive.

     

    And Franz?

    FT: First of all we have to wait, what the regulation at the end will say. Standardisation of parts, there are two reasons: first to come down with the costs; the second also to bring the performance together of the different teams. I don’t agree to say the DNA of Formula One is just to develop, we have to find a way to come down with the costs and no-one takes care which brakes we have in the car, or which rims they have. The people want to see some interesting races, some overtaking manoeuvres. They don’t care about the form of the rims or about the brakes. They just want to see interesting races. And we have to come down with the costs. Therefore I am in agreement with as many standardised parts as possible.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Mattia, you talked about the upgrades and the earlier upgrades and rejigging the schedule. I just wanted to check what the longer-term consequences of that will be this season – because obviously it’s a long season. Does this, by bringing it at race five, does that lock you into probably a fourth engine at the end of the year – and could you introduce an additional spec at the end of the season?

    MB: No, that’s not the plan. The early introduction doesn’t mean that we cannot still use PU1 in some races. Maybe that can be an option – but certainly we are not hoping to have four engines per season per driver plan.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Mario, given all the talk about the tyres etc., obviously when you came into the season, you had some form of objective list, your target letter etcetera. Are you quite comfortable that you’ve achieved all of those in terms of compounds, of degradation etcetera – and at which stage do you phase-out of developing 13-inch tyres and concentrate purely on 18-inch?

    MI: I would say, as I’ve said before, one of the targets was to eliminate the blistering that we had last year. And the other one was to reduce the overheating to give the opportunity for drivers to push more. I believe we are in the right direction. Last year we started the development of the new produce with some other ideas – and we want to conclude this phase for 2020. That’s why we have decided to keep the development of 13-inch tyre in the first part of the season for next year, so the plan is also to find new compounds with a wider working range, that is what they are asking for. And to upgrade another step in the construction. Then obviously we will focus on 18-inches, that is a big challenge.

     

    Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Question to all four team principals. Given your respective starts to the season, could you give us an idea as to whether it has been worse, or better than expected, and the reasons behind that. And what your expectations are for the rest of the season, now you have a decent idea as to where you are performance-wise.

    FT: From Toro Rosso’s side, I must say we had a reasonably good start into the season. As I mentioned beforehand, we scored points and we have a competitive package. From the different race tracks, I must say Australia was really a big success. Many people were there, it was also not so bad in Bahrain and Baku. From the race entertainment itself, I must say it was not so exciting because we have two cars in front which are winning race after race and that’s not, I think the best for Formula One because it starts to become boring as far as friends of mine say to me: don’t watch F1 any more because always the same are winning. This I think is not good.

     

    Alfa Romeo’s perspective?

    FV: For Alfa Romeo racing, probably a good start to the season that we score points on every single event and it’s so tight in the midfield that you can – as Franz said before – that from one session to another one, or one race to another one, you can move from P4 to P10 and it’s very difficult to make any prediction. But I think at least at this stage of the grid it’s exciting, and when you arrive in Barcelona, you never know if you will be P7 or P20. I think that the fun is there and everybody is pushing like hell to bring updates and to push and get results on the next one. I think I’m quite happy with the job done so far – and for Alfa Romeo Racing it was a good one.

     

    Mattia?

    MB: Difficult answer. Certainly we are not happy for the points we’ve scored so far. I think we have missed a great opportunity in Bahrain where we certainly could have done a fantastic result compared to the one we did. I think as well in Baku we could have done a better race and certainly a better quali – so if you make the sum at the end, we are missing points, we are missing points compared to where we believe is our potential. Our objective certainly is not to be where we are in terms of – again – points and classification, so we cannot be happy on the start of the season. But assessing that from the performance overall, it’s not a drama at all. I think we have got still a good car. The competition is very, very strong and that, I think, was known and it’s not a surprise but I think we are still in the battle and we could to every single racing with the willing to do well – and we can do it.

     

    GS: I think we clearly underperformed from Australia onwards, because of our issues which we cannot get a grip of, and we need to do a better job going forward on that one. I think, as Fred said, the competition in the midfield is very tight which makes it interesting for F1 but I think, if you ask, maybe we should have more points but we don’t. The good thing is, it’s very close together. Nobody in the midfield went away with 30 or 40 points so you can make up a lot in one race. As long as we don’t keep on doing what we did up until now, we should be OK – but I would say, I’m happy on one side – the car is very competitive – but we didn’t get the maximum out of it. We just need to do a better job as a team altogether.

     

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Mattia, you mentioned earlier about Netflix. Another area that Ferrari have not been involved and I’m sure it’s well down your list of priorities is e-sports. I just wondered if you’d made the decision whether you were going to be competing in it and what are the pros and cons for a team like Ferrari of getting involved?

    MB: I think e-sports and Netflix – both of them are certainly great programmes. E-sport is increasing in terms of interest and certainly as Ferrari we are looking seriously into it. We are not yet fully committed to the programme but it’s something where the discussions are ongoing and we will very soon make our own decision.

     

    Q: (Joe van Burik – Racing News 365) It seems very likely, a year from now, we will be racing in Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix. What are your personal experiences with that track and what do you expect of that event?

    MI: I don’t have a lot of experience in Zandvoort. We go there with GT racing but to be honest, I don’t know the circuit very well.

    GS: I have been once in Zandvoort with DTM, a long time ago and I think it’s a great place to go racing. It’s a race track near cities, for sure there will be a lot of Dutch fans there and I think it’s always exciting to go to new places. I know Zandvoort is not new but it’s new again for Formula One. I think it’s exciting because we reach out to more people who are sometimes in areas where they cannot go to other races and it’s interesting, new things to learn, new things to see and I actually look forward to it.

    MB: It’s new for me as well, I have never been in Zandvoort so it will be the very first time. Quite interested and exciting to be there. I think it’s good to have another race in Europe and the Netherlands, as Guenther said, a lot of Dutch fans so I’m pretty sure it will be a good race so I’m looking forward (to it).

    FV: Yeah, I went a couple of times to Zandvoort for the F3 and DTM and it was always a great and exciting event with a lot of fans. I think it’s a good place.

    FT: We did a lot of races in Zandvoort in Formula Ford, Formula Three. It was very positive, I must say I like it there, it’s close to the sea, it’s close to Amsterdam. They have, I think a fantastic infrastructure, interesting track and I expect many many spectators will come there and it will become a very exciting race for Formula One, therefore I hope that we go there.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) First part of the question for you, Mario: can you talk us through the process, how you chose the three teams for the 18 inch tyre tests this year and how many teams offered the possibility? And for the team principals: what are your feelings about that, you were probably not chosen or you didn’t offer your cars? Do you think this could be a disadvantage, especially for Mattia? Your main competitor, Mercedes, is delivering a car. Could this be a disadvantage for you?

    MI: OK, the process is the one I described before. We offered the opportunity to test to all the teams and three teams replied in a positive way and obviously everybody knows that the development is not just in these three sessions in 2019, so as I said, all the team can decide to participate in 2020. The three teams that replied positively have been chosen and we are planning three sessions so it’s quite easy to give one session each.

    MB: Yeah. Obviously we have been offered. It has been our own choice not to participate. Been short on time and the resources for the programme so as Ferrari we decided simply not to take part in this test in ’19 but we are preparing ourselves to do it obviously in 2020. I’m pretty sure that we will have the opportunity to do it. Will that be a disadvantage? Certainly you cannot do everything and you need to make your own priorities as some stage and that again has been our own choice but there is still a process put in place where Pirelli anyway are sharing the data with all the teams, of the output and the results of the new tyre testing so we are certainly counting on that one for actually the very first test.

    FT: Everybody could decide. We from Toro Rosso can not afford to do this test because we simply don’t have the manpower and also not the financial resources and therefore three teams decided to do it and that’s fair.

    FV: If Mattia is short of resources to do the test, you can imagine that for us it’s not easy.

    GS: We are working hard to figure out the ’19 tyres so we have no time for the ’21 tyres.

     

    Q: (Sergio Rodriguez – Formula Rapida) Yesterday we saw that PIrelli will use F2 as a way to develop the 18 inch tyres. Do you think that F2 can be used as a development platform for the new revolutions coming in 2021? Not only that but in the future as well? Do you think F2 can be used as a platform test?

    FT: Of course. First tests with F2 makes sense. Pirelli can get a lot of information, data about it and in parallel to this, anyway test with the three Formula One teams and I think the way they are doing it is the right one.

    FV: Yeah, they will get live experience with Formula Two. I think it’s also good for young drivers in F2 to be used to drive with the 18 inch tyres and then I think each team will try to build up a collaboration with GP2(F2) teams and to have a look.

    MB: The question has been asked of the four team principals but for me Pirelli is the best person to reply, whether that is useful or not as a platform. The cars are quite different, the level of performance is certainly quite different. The level of downforce and loads on the tyres are different but those are things that Pirelli is obviously aware of but at least it’s a good starting point. They can get some experience on a different platform, a different formula and whatever they can do there will be of help for Formula One, but I’m pretty sure that they are pretty aware that on the F1, the exercise will be much more difficult.

    GS: I think there are no negatives to test them in F2 but the technicalities… I will leave that one to Mario to explain because as Mattia said, the loads and the forces, I think they are different, unless Mario disagrees with me!

    MI: No, no. I never disagree with you. He’s right. The forces, especially after 2017 when Formula One decided to move on to the wider size and the cars are faster and faster, it’s a good opportunity to get some experience from our side but we cannot compare the F2 tyre with a Formula One tyre. We will develop the Formula One tyre with the new cars, with a representative performance and otherwise we make a mistake for sure. We have to develop a bespoke tyre for Formula One but the effect we are anticipating with Formula Two is helpful because we can have some experience with single-seaters on 18 inches but don’t forget we are supplying a lot of other championships with 18 inch tyres, like GT and touring cars and so on, but the stress and the energy that is going into the tyre on a Formula One car is not comparable.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, racefans.net) Mattia, the way that I understand it, the veto that Ferrari has is a contractual right, not a lifetime right. How important is it to Ferrari to retain this veto right after 2020, in other words from 2021 onwards? Is it a sticking point in your negotiations or are you happy to forfeit it?

    MB: No, certainly the veto right is something important for Ferrari but I believe it’s something important for F1 overall as well because somehow it’s not only protecting us but it’s protecting all the teams maybe against some decisions which could be against the spirit or the interest of the teams themselves, something that we are starting discussing with both the FIA and F1. I think we are doing well in that respect and hopefully we can keep the same rights.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Fred, just wanted to clarify what you said at the beginning about the front wing hereafter what happened in Baku. So is it correct to say you haven’t had to change the specification, it’s just that you’ve had to replace it with one of the other front wings that you had?

    FV: No, we changed the hook and the fixation.

  • 2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2019 Spanish Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Carlos SAINZ (McLaren), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Pierre GASLY (Red Bull Racing), George RUSSELL (Williams), Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) 

    Q: Carlos, welcome home. You’ve said that this is the most important race of the year, just tell us why that is and tell us what you’ve been up to in the build-up?
    Carlos SAINZ: Thank you and welcome to Spain, beinvenidos. Yeah, a special race for everyone I guess, but for me in particular because it’s my home race. I’m one of those lucky drivers on the grid to have a home race to enjoy with the fans and the Spanish people. It’s my fifth now and it’s incredible how time goes by so quickly. I remember my first time here in 2015 like it was yesterday. Yeah, looking forward to enjoying it, spending some extra time with the fans and the media of course and that’s it.

    Q: Have you had more attention now that you are the only Spanish driver on the grid?
    CS: Honestly I don’t feel it. I don’t feel like I get more or less attention. Probably this weekend I’ll be quite busy. But it’s not something that really affects me much or it’s not something I’m noticing in particular, but if it does happen I guess it’s not a bad thing.

    Q: You’ve finished in the points every time you’ve raced here in Barcelona. How confident are you of continuing that trend this weekend?
    CS: Well, I think one of the main reasons for that is that this track has always suited the car I’ve been racing with. I think I’ve struggled in the past with top speeds and long straights in the cars that I’ve been racing with and in Barcelona that deficit was always reduced. So it meant my cars that I was racing here were a bit better. But also I think I’ve always been comfortable in this track. I’ve had some success also in lower categories. I like the track, I like the challenge, I like racing with the fans behind me. I think after this week, what happened to Liverpool, you can also see that having a crowd behind you also helps and at least to me it always helps.

    Q: Good luck for this weekend, thank you for that. George, coming to you. It’s been a difficult start for you and the team this year. How important is this race in establishing a development path for the car? Are you aware of anything new?
    George RUSSELL: Well, there were a few things on the plan but unfortunately, after the incidents in Baku, they sort of shuffled things back a bit. But it’s normal that every race that we have some things to test. At the moment we’re probably slightly different to other teams because we’re trying to test to understand our limitations and to try to bring something greater a bit further down the line, because obviously we are quite far behind at the moment and we need to find a sizeable chunk.

    Q: What about from a driving point of view, how are you developing as a driver?
    GR: I think very well to be honest. I think it’s a great opportunity for me, being slightly under the radar, slightly less pressure off my shoulders. Really I’m only fighting with Robert let’s say. I’m not really interested in that. I want to be fighting with the guys further up the grid and I’m working really closely with the team and with Robert actually because, as I said, we’re not interested in fighting for 19th place.

    Q: You’re working closely with the team, but what about with Patrick Head? He’s back as a consultant with Williams. How have those discussions gone with him?
    GR: yeah, Patrick’s a great guy. He’s going to bring some motivation and some great spirit to the team, with obviously all of his knowledge. So much history with Williams as well, so I think it will be a positive step.

    Q: Thank you very much. Pierre, coming on to you. We’ve seen progress with you at every grand prix this year; you’ve been chipping away at it. I wonder if you could give us a little bit more detail on what have been the issues with the car, and is it now more to your liking? 
    Pierre GASLY: Yeah, quite a lot of things happened since the beginning of the season I think, overall. Things don’t really come our way so far, but we can see progress. I can feel I’m getting more comfortable inside the car and the direction we are taking is working and making me feel better. I think we saw some progress in Baku. We had penalties and unfortunately I had to retire in the race, but we are going in the right direction.

    Q: You say you had progress in Baku. A lot has been made of Ferrari’s power unit upgrade this weekend, but Honda brought an upgrade to Baku. What can you tell us about it?
    PG: As we said in Baku, I think it was mainly on the reliability side. So I think everything is going as expected on the PU side. I think Honda is pushing massively into bringing new upgrades this season as well. But I think we are really pleased with what they have achieved since the beginning of the season in terms of performance and reliability. Of course we always want more, and we know Ferrari and Mercedes are also pushing and are still a bit faster than we are. But I think with the development we will catch progressively.

    Q: Now, you’ve raced Max Verstappen for many years. How would you assess the job he’s doing this year? Has he surprised you?
    PG: I mean I’ve always known he’s one of the most talented guys, but yeah, I must say he is really good at extracting the maximum from the package at the moment. For me it’s really good to be next to him at the moment, use his experience with the team, with Red Bull Racing, with the car, to see a bit what he does to extract the maximum from the package that we have. He has been driving really well, really consistently, so it’s definitely a good benchmark to me.

    Q: Thank you Pierre, best of luck this weekend. Valtteri, coming to you: world championship leader, best ever start to a season, double the number of points as this time last year. People look for a reason why things happen. Do you have an explanation for why things are going better this year than last year?
    Valtteri BOTTAS: There are many things in this sport that can affect things for sure. Sometimes you’re more lucky for sure, sometime very much less so, but I honestly think why I’ve been able to improve year by year is work. Work with the team; work with my ability; focus on all the single details, and if you work hard it’s only a matter of time before things start to go right. Obviously I’m pleased with season, how it has been started compared to recent ones, that’s very positive. But also one of the things is as a team – the level we have been able to perform at in these first four races has been really impressive. It’s not only me, it’s the team, but it’s a good battle with Lewis at the moment.

    Q: You have a new race engineer this year. How has that shaken things up on your side of the garage? 
    VB: Yeah, I have a new engineering team completely, race and performance engineer, and whenever you have new people around it makes you think about some things differently. It can open up some new routes on the set-up and the direction. It has started really well. We have been learning a lot as an engineering team all the time and it’s getting better and better. So far, so good.

    Q: Now your boss Toto Wolff says Mercedes have been lucky at some races this season. Would you agree with that? 
    VB: Well, I think we have done a great job as a team and at the level we’ve been performing we deserve these results at the moment. Sometimes we might get lucky, like Bahrain, where obviously it was due to other teams failures that we got the one-two, but it meant that we were the most reliable car at that race. So it’s not about luck, I think it’s mostly how the team is performing.

    Q: Thank you. Sebastian, we’re heading into race five, what’s the mood in the Ferrari camp?
    Sebastian VETTEL: Good.

    Q: You’ve got a lot of upgrades coming this weekend. Do you need a faster car or a more driveable car? What are you hoping for from these upgrades? 
    SV: Well, we hope to improve the car obviously. We introduced some bits in Baku already last race and another set of new parts here. Obviously we want to make the car faster here and there. I think we were reasonably quick but not quick enough overall to put the cars on the front row at every event. We’re lacking a little bit, but I think overall the package is promising. We know that we have a strong car; we’ve struggle a bit to put it together, so to answer your question, probably a bit of both.

    Q: It’s clear that you have a big fight on your hands, particularly with Mercedes. How is the team reacting to that compared with previous seasons, from an internal perspective?
    SV: Well, every year is different. As I said, the spirit is good, the team is in good shape, so we’re looking forward to come here, we’re confident about the parts we’ve brought here, we are introducing a new engine as well, so we’ve got some stuff that wee think should help us to be stronger than the last races. And as I said, the spirit is good. Comparing to previous years, at this point last year we were in a better place, we had won some races and overall we’d been more competitive, but nevertheless I think the spirit is as good or better than last year.

    Q: Before I open this up to the floor, it’s the UN’s global road safety week, something that all of you guys contributed to earlier on in the year when you helped produce a video. I’ve got a question to each of you, which is: what can everyday road users learn from Formula One drivers. 

    SV: Obviously we try to go as fast as we can, which is not a good idea on the roads, so my initial response would be ‘not that much!’ But we are very professional, we try to obviously control every situation that we are in, and I think we are very lucky that we can push ourselves to the limit on the race track, so there’s no need to try to do something funny or odd outside the track. I think, as much as we respect ourselves on the track, you should respect other people that are participating and trying to get from one place to another. The road, or the track, you’re not on your own. That’s something that you hear many times from racing drivers at any time they raced in Formula One or other categories, that they respect the other people that raced with them. In the same way, you should respect other drivers that share the road with you.

    CS: Basically, what Seb has said. You must not behave like an idiot on the road on the road. Respect everyone – and wear your seatbelt. I think those two things are the most important.

    VB: We never have mobile phones in the cars – so that’s something everyone can learn not to use them.

    PG: Yeah, I agree with all the comments. I think most of us have been also involved in some loss from road car accidents. In my case, I have been, and I think safety is the most important thing. Respecting others, and yeah, just be responsible when you’re on the road. You’re not by yourself, you have other people around and yeah, I think it’s important to take care of the lives of other people around, and also of your own life. As Seb says, we don’t give a great example on track because hopefully we have the chance to drive really fast on track, but when we get to the road, we must be really responsible and be careful of others.

    GR: I think it’s important to respect the road. On a race track, you know what’s around the corner, whereas on the road, anything could be there: could be a small child crossing the road or whatever. You have to respect the road: it’s not a racetrack.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Sebastian. You said in February your feeling about the new car was very good since the first moment. You got the fastest time after eight days here. What happened that you didn’t get in the races the same good performances – and do you believe you can repeat this weekend what you experienced here in February and March?
    SV: The honest answer is we don’t know entirely. Obviously the car was really good in testing. We arrived in Australia and we struggled a little bit to feel the same. I think the first four races for us have been a little bit up-and-down. There were stretches where the cars felt really good and other parts where the car hasn’t – but deep down we know that the car is strong. So, we are trying to put the bits together and trying to understand. We haven’t found the silver bullet – but in the last ten years I never found the silver bullet so I don’t think it exists. It’s really getting down to the detail, trying to understand more and more, trying to understand the conditions that we face, and trying to obviously improve and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Now, this weekend will be interesting for us because obviously we had such a good feeling and it’s not so long ago. I’m pretty sure I remember how the car felt and it will be interesting to see how it behaves the next couple of days. But I’m quite confident if we can get to that level then we should be very competitive. As I said, on top of that, we have some new stuff, so let’s see. I can’t give you an exact answer.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question to all five please. It seems very possible this could be the last time we have the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. It seems a race at Zandvoort, a Dutch Grand Prix, could replace it in the future. I’d just like to know what you think about the prospect of an F1 race at Zandvoort and what you would miss about this place?
    PG: I think it would be quite a shock to lose the Spanish Grand Prix because Barcelona is probably the track we have all driven on the most since Formula 4, Formula Renault, all the categories. So, hopefully an agreement can be found. I don’t mind having more races, I like races, I like racing and hopefully we can get the two in the calendar. And Zandvoort is pretty exciting if it happens. It’s a really narrow track. I’ve been there only once but it’s really challenging on the driving side. So, I think to put some F1 cars there will be pretty cool and exciting.

    VB: I’ve no information on the details and the politics of what’s going on, but obviously it would be a shame. It’s been in Formula One a long time, this track, and there’s so many fans in Spain and around Barcelona. It’s a nice grand prix for all the fans to come to, also from elsewhere. So, that would be a shame. On the other hand, I’ve raced with F3 in Zandvoort and it’s a pretty cool circuit. There’s a lot of of culture now, especially with Max  being in Formula One for a few years now, so for sure that will be a nice one – but the two combined would be obviously ideal for everyone.

    CS: Obviously for me it would be a big loss in the calendar – but as far as I know, negotiations are still on-going. I think that’s been confined. From me, wishing that all the institutions are going to do their job, they’re going to agree on something. I think it’s in the benefit of Barcelona, of Spain, of Formula One. I think a Spanish Grand Prix has a lot of history in Formula One; I think this track has a lot of history in Formula One, and it would be a shame to lose it. So, hopefully they can agree on something. Maybe not next year because it’s too late, or hopefully yes, just agree on something for the future.

    SV: It would be a shame for Carlos. For the rest of us, we’ve been here many times and I think we’d still do the testing but it’s a nice venue, it’s a nice time of year to come here, so it would be a shame. Maybe we could go somewhere else in Spain. Maybe they could build him a race track close to Madrid. Easy for you as well…

    CS: Maybe in the future I can build one myself!

    GR: I think it would be a shame to lose this circuit because it’s a great one – but on the other hand, Zandvoort is probably in my top five favourite circuits. I think it’s a really incredible circuit, it’s got so much character. Obviously safety is incredibly important these days in Formula One but I just truly hope we don’t get rid of the gravel runoffs in Zandvoort in the two high-speed corners because that’s what makes the circuit so daunting and so incredible to drive. Like I said, it would be a shame to lose Barcelona but equally I’d be very excited to race in Zandvoort.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, on Sunday it will be Mothers’ Day, at least in Finland. Would victory be a perfect present for your mother?
    VB: Of course it would! Traditionally this grand prix is the Mothers’ Day grand prix and normally my mum comes here. She’s coming this year as well, and that would be a nice gift for her. Also nice for me, to win another one.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Sebastian, you’re already 35 points behind in the championship race. How imperative is it you win on Sunday. Question to Valtteri as well: do you think Lewis views you as a genuine rival for the championship?
    SV: Yeah, I wasn’t aware but I knew we were behind. At this point of the year, it doesn’t really matter by how much. I think it’s quite straightforward, we need to start scoring more points. The later we start doing that, the worse it looks. The sooner, the better. It’s pretty straightforward to be honest.

    VB: I think that’s something you’re better to ask Lewis – but I would guess so.

    Q: (Lorenzo de Linares Alvarez – momentogp.com) Carlos, as Sebastian said earlier and with the rumours of not having Barcelona next year, you won the Formula Renault at Jerez; would you like to race there in Formula One? 
    CS: What I would like the most is to have Barcelona. I think this city, this track, deserves to be in Formula One. If you could add Jerez, then even better because I (would) have two (Grands Prix in my country). And if you don’t get Barcelona, I wouldn’t mind having Jerez back. That’s pretty much my order of priorities if you ask me now. But this city and Spain, I think, deserves to be Barcelona in the F1 calendar.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Seb and Valtteri, after pre-season testing, as drivers, you guys generally say that you won’t know where you are as a driver, where the car is at, the team as a whole until after the first few Grands Prix of the season. We’ve had those first few Grands Prix now so could you kindly provide an assessment of where you feel you’re at at the moment on the back of those first few races, what you feel your chances are of winning the world title? 
    VB: Well, I think that obviously if you look at the results, it looks like we’ve been dominating as a team, four one-twos in a row but I think on the pure pace of the car, I think there’s not that much difference between us and Ferrari. It’s really been depending on the race weekend. For sure Melbourne we were stronger. I think on pure pace in Bahrain they were better and after that it’s been pretty close and all about fine details in qualifying and what’s been happening in the race. I would see us as not far from par with Ferrari and depending on tracks, it’s going to change and obviously this weekend with the upgrades – from my understanding, Ferrari is bringing a new power unit – see how that works and we have some new parts as well so see how those work. Can’t really count off Red Bull on this type of track and also Monaco in two weeks. It is early on in the season and as always with some regulation changes it’s going to be about the development, how much we can improve from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi.
    SV: I think that first when we were testing we were ahead. Second we were going testing I think we were a match. First race we were behind, second race slightly ahead, third, fourth race behind both in qualifying and race so at the moment we are slightly behind but we also know that it’s not a long way and then things could come our way so that’s why I said it before, the spirit is good, everybody is fired up and willing to fight and therefore I believe our chances also are as good as anybody else’s.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Traditionally this is not a Grand Prix where we see a lot of overtaking but this year DRS is a lot more powerful than before. Can we look forward to quite a bit of overtaking this year on Sunday? 
    GR: Yeah, probably obvious that we haven’t done much overtaking this year so I can’t really comment on that.
    SV: Yeah, I think we will see some. It depends on the race, obviously, but I think we should see some, we should definitely see more here than if we go to Zandvoort. It’s just true, no? It’s like Monaco isn’t it?
    CS: Overtaking? Yeah. Tiny bit easier this year with the DRS effect and maybe the cars being a tiny bit better to follow but overtaking in Barcelona is always difficult. You need a big tyre delta here to overtake. I think the races are one-stop and if everyone is on a one-stop unless there’s a big pace delta you are not able to overtake. If there is a race of two or three stops, one-stop, a mix, then you have a big tyre delta and that tyre delta helps you to overtake. It depends a bit on the strategy, on the tyres, but for sure the DRS is helping.
    VB: I think it’s going to be difficult still, on this type of track, but it is the nature of the track and that makes qualifying more valuable and like Carlos said, it’s a lot about strategy. If we see one stop, two stops then it could be more interesting but we’ll see.
    PG: Yeah, I agree. Barcelona is always difficult but from one year to another it can always be different so we will see this year but maybe with all the cars being slightly closer, slightly bigger, the DRS effect could make things a bit more exciting.

    Q: (Michael Doodson – Michael Doodson) Carlos, you’ve done your best to be optimistic about the future of Formula One in Spain but we’ve lost Fernando, we’re about to lose this place and worst of all, there seems to be no free-to-air television Formula One in Spain. I’ve lived here and I know how difficult it is to find it. Do you think that there’s anything that can be done, like for example you or your team bringing pressure on Liberty to make sure that Formula One gets a good deal and can be seen by ordinary Spanish people on free-to-air television? 
    CS: Well, you have me, which hopefully helps, to keep this thing going and keep the momentum that Fernando built with his success in Spain. Free-to-air television is none of my business, that’s purely Liberty and Formula One deals with the TVs which I have absolutely no access to, where I cannot put pressure. Spain normally hasn’t had a big culture for paying for watching sports like maybe now they have in the UK or in other countries but yeah, let’s see how that develops. And for the rest, yeah, just keep hoping, no? For myself, I’m going to try and do everything I can, maybe a podium this weekend  helps but I think it will not happen. I don’t know, I don’t know what I can do apart from just talking with the institutions and maybe ask and pray to keep this thing going.

    Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) Seb, Frankfurt’s playing in the Europe League semi-finals tonight. Will you watch the game and could it provide some extra motivation for you if Frankfurt makes it to the final? 
    SV: Yes, yes. Yeah, I will be watching, of course. Yeah. Obviously for Frankfurt it’s a huge achievement already to be in the semi-final. Anything can happen. Obviously it’s not easy but yeah, I’m rooting for them as many others will so…

    Q: (Roksana Cwik – SwiatWyscigow.pl) We had a question about Zandvoort and I would like to ask about Rio and if we lose Interlagos. What is your opinion about it? 

    (Q: It’s been reported in the media about the future of the Brazilian Grand Prix and it’s been speculated that maybe a move to Rio is on the cards).
    PG: Yeah, I saw some news about it but I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. I love Brazil in general. Sao Paulo is a really cool track, quite challenging. I’ve been there only twice, drove twice there. I’ll be happy to continue to go there. I don’t know what’s the plan with Rio but I think I will need to wait a bit longer and see what’s going to happen.
    VB: I think the same thing. In Sao Paulo there is obviously a lot of history in Formula One, many great races have been done there. Many I remember seeing as a kid and so on but Rio would be nice. I have been there once and it’s a beautiful place. No idea for me either what’s happening behind the scenes but I’d be there for sure.
    CS: I like Sao Paulo, I like its track, this old school layout, the history it has from the nineties and also the famous title fight there in 2007. I think it brings great memories. I don’t know, I think it depends on the track they build in Rio. If they build a cool track with cool racing, I think the city’s great, from what I’ve heard. Just ask for a cool track with cool racing, good overtaking and a fun track for the drivers then I think we wouldn’t miss Sao Paulo as much as we will if it doesn’t go so well.
    SV: Yeah, I wasn’t aware that it’s going to happen. I heard some rumours but I think it’s a shock. I think Interlagos is a great place, a lot of history. I think the old track at Interlagos is even better than the current one but I couldn’t think of anything other than maybe the track being a little bit short that Interlagos is almost missing. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to the last race we have there. Who knows, in the future, if we go back? It’s a great place, so it’s a real shame. I’m sort of a fan of hanging on to old things. It would be nice to go back very soon. Maybe have two races in Brazil, since the crowd is usually quite amazing.
    GR: Sao Paulo was where I made my FP1 debut in 2017 so I have some fond memories there. I think it’s an amazing circuit but I think Rio’s a really cool place. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go so if the rumours are true, I would be looking forward to it.

    Q: (Oliver Reuter – Express, Cologne) Seb, you compared your Ferrari with a Rubik Cube. Are you confident that the Ferrari guys are so clever that you can fit all the parts in the right direction? Did you try it yourself and are you confident that they can fix it this weekend? 
    SV: You mean the Rubik Cube or the car? The car I’ve tried, the Rubik Cube, yeah, I’ve tried as well. Easy, sub-two minutes. Yeah, I think we have a lot of clever people on board. As I’ve said before, I think this track will be interesting for us because the car was really working well pre-season so we will see how it works this weekend and how it feels in comparison but yeah, we’re working flat out, trying to make sure that we have the fastest car on the grid and we win all the races that are left.

  • F1 2019: Baku Gp Review – Bottas 2.0 Wins Again

    F1 2019: Baku Gp Review – Bottas 2.0 Wins Again

    Since joining the Mercedes team at the start of the 2017 season Valtteri Bottas has had impressive races. But there was recognition by all other drivers that if you show him a front wheel he’d, embarrassingly, give way. But the Valtteri Bottas that has been unleashed at the start of the 2019 season is far removed from the driver of the last two seasons.

    Finns are notoriously measured in how much they say and at the start of Sunday’s Baku grand prix Bottas let his peerless driving do all the talking. The manner in which he held his car inches from teammate Hamilton made it clear that he wasn’t going to budge nor was going to simply give up the lead of the race if he could help it. His statement was clear – you’re going to have to go through me. That tenacity kept him the lead of the race off the start line and he backed it up with a faultless drive to secure the fifth win of his F1 career.

    Mercedes, quite literally, could not have started the season in a more perfect manner than scoring a one-two victory in all four of the races so far in 2019. Operationally, there are no teams on the grid that can touch the might of Mercedes. They arrived on Friday genuinely unsure of their pace. It appeared that Ferrari easily had the measure of the circuit and a pace advantage that seemed insurmountable. But if nothing else Mercedes must be respected and lauded for the stunning work they do behind the scenes.

    2019 Azerbaijan GPIf it’s organizational brilliance at Mercedes then at Ferrari it is the calamitous opposite. The dubious decision to put both cars out on the medium compound tyre for the second session of qualifying was the beginning of Ferrari’s unraveling this weekend. Not only was the track temperature not conducive to the medium tyre but also strategically it made little sense for Sunday’s race, more on that later.

    It resulted in both drivers hitting the turn 8 wall with Leclerc coming off worst with a wrecked front suspension. Vettel was able to carry on but only managed third on the grid after failing to cash in on the slipstream benefit. Ferrari had gone from a near guaranteed front-row locked out to third and eighth on grid.

    But still they had a chance; At least until it came time to make their strategy call. Leclerc made decent headway on the more durable medium tyre in the opening stint of the race and looked set for good result, perhaps even a podium. But Ferrari has become rather infamous for mad strategic calls and it was no different in Baku. They left Leclerc out on track despite the fact that he was losing, often, more than a second per lap to the chasing pack of Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel, and Verstappen. Eventually Bottas and Hamilton made their pitstops, closed down Leclerc and passed him on track. Leclerc eventually finished fifth with a strategy only Ferrari would be able to explain. A late pitstop for fresh tyres earned the Ferrari driver the consolation of an extra point for fastest lap.

    2019 Azerbaijan GPAhead Bottas had the race firmly in control despite a late VSC (Virtual Safety Car) deployed for the stricken Red Bull of Pierre Gasly. Elsewhere the other biggest incident of the race was a misjudgment on the brakes from Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who took out himself and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. To add to his blushes Ricciardo strangely reversed into side of Kvyat when trying to rejoin the track and has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Spain.

    While Bottas and Hamilton secured yet another one-two victory for Mercedes Vettel trundled home third in the Ferrari. Though the German driver was only a handful of second adrift of the Silver Arrows it will be scant comfort on a weekend where Ferrari brought several updates to their car. Max Verstappen finished a solid fourth for Red Bull ahead of Leclerc in fifth.

    Twice a podium finisher in Baku Sergio Perez was sixth for Racing Point ahead of the McLaren duo of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. Lance Stroll made it a double-points finish for Racing Point in ninth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in tenth who started the race from the pitlane in his Alfa Romeo.

    At the start of the season Valtteri Bottas noted that, during the off season, he’d spent a lot of time hiking in the Finnish woods and eating porridge. Whatever he discovered in those woods and whatever is in that porridge it has transformed Valtteri Bottas into an uncompromising and unapologetic racing machine. Long may it continue.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport 
  • 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

     

    Q: Valtteri, an absolutely perfect day you’ve had. Lights out to flag, a bit of pressure from Lewis, but controlled and payback from last year and that win that went away?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, indeed. It was actually a tough race, even though maybe not much happening at the front Obviously Lewis was putting pressure all the time, so I could not do any mistake. But honestly, everything was under control so I’m happy to see the chequered flag and get this first place.

     

    Q: You’re the calmest person I’ve seen. Back in control of this championship as well. You’ve had a very good start to the year. It’s all about keeping the momentum up. There’s no better guy than Lewis putting the pressure on, but to get that job done, what does that mean going away from this grand prix, back to Europe?

    VB: It obviously means a lot. It’s incredible as a team on which kind of level we are performing now. I already said to the guys I’m so proud to be part of that. We’re all performing really, really well. For me as well, it’s only my fifth win, so of course it feels good and it carries on well.

     

    Q: I hope you can enjoy your Sunday night; you certainly deserve it after this weekend. Lewis, your team-mate did a solid job all weekend, he just pipped you in qualifying but you never let him out of your sights today and you were fighting all the way to the end.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, congratulations to Valtteri, he drove a fantastic race. He made no mistakes and truly deserved the win. It was all lost in qualifying, so there’s really not much more for me to say. But it’s a great result for the team. Honestly, this is the best start to a season we’ve ever had.

     

    Q: I want to pick up on the team. Four one-two finishes. How much credit do you owe to these guys year after year after year to give you a car to do a solid job like that?

    LH: It’s a team effort. Everyone back at the factory has been working non-stop every year. Every year they come back more hungry for success and it’s a true testament to strength and depth within the team. So really proud of everyone and really great to be a part of it. It was a really great race. For once we’ve been able to push the whole way. It’s pretty cool.

     

    Q: Sebastian, P3 at the end after qualifying. It looked like you struggled in the first stint, regained a lot of strength mid-race and you were able to put the pressure on Mercedes.

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know. You’re right. The first stint was really poor. I really struggled to initially get the tyres to work. I think they were too cold and I damaged them, and by the time they were hot they were damaged, so it was never really working. I was really uncomfortable, inconsistent, just couldn’t get a feel and confidence with the car, so that’s not usually so good around here. After that, I was surprised. I was already looking forward to a difficult stint on the medium tyres, but no problem to switch them on and they lasted until the end no problem. So much happier, much more confidence and I think we had some pace to at least go with them, sometimes put a bit of pressure. We obviously had to keep and eye on Max behind. With some of the overtaken, lapped cars he was getting a bit closer but in the end we had enough pace on the medium tyre to react, to keep him behind. It was crucial to keep that third, good for Charles to get that fastest lap at the end, to snatch it away from the Mercedes boys. Still plenty of work for us to do, obviously we are not quite where we want to be. But at this point we just need to maximise what we can.

     

    Q: And I guess looking forward to a more familiar track, Barcelona, where you had such a strong winter and it looked like you guys were going to be the benchmark this year?

    SV: I hope so. Obviously the last four races, on average, we were not quite there, so I think we are not the favourites going to Barcelona. But the team is in good spirits. We have another couple of stuff getting on the car, so we need to chase them down. We are looking to hopefully a smooth weekend. Our first four weekends haven’t been that smooth. But it will be crucial to catch them and turn things around.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Valtteri, you said in China that the start of the race cost you the race there, but you looked determined to make sure that didn’t happen today?

    VB: Yeah, honestly I could have done a better job at the start today. I think I was a little bit on the cautious side. I didn’t want to get the wheel spin started, so I was rather smooth on getting on power, not to kind of mess it up. But Lewis had a good start, so that’s why he was on the inside and we were pretty much side by side actually through Turn 1, so I was just carrying the speed on the outside, and same thing in Turn 2, leaving enough space. It was nice and fair and I was obviously pleased to keep the first place.

     

    Q: That was the start, but then at the end you also came under pressure from Lewis as well. How tough was that pressure and were you two racing right to the flag?

    VB: Yeah, you know, it was a pretty long stint, the second one. So you can sometimes play a little bit, when you push more, when sometimes you try to save the tyres a bit more, because it’s always a bit unknown how the tyres are going to behave when they are coming towards the end of their life. At times I could really notice Lewis trying really hard to catch me and he was really close at times, like in the end. So I had to really respond and push as well. The main thing for I was focusing on was just purely my own driving, not falling for the silly mistakes. I managed to keep it together, so for this I’m really happy.

     

    Q: Well done today. Lewis, we’ll start at the start as well. Just how close was it between you and Valtteri and how tough is it to judge how hard to push against your team-mate?

    LH: It’s always difficult to judge. But Valtteri did an exceptional job all weekend and today he was very fair in giving space and after that he was faultless. So today he truly deserved the win. It was a great race. It was really cool that we could push as hard as we could all the way to the end. It was great that the team allowed us to do that. Also just the team’s performance throughout the whole weekend, the engineers, everyone back at the factory who are just constantly delivering 100%. This is truly the strongest season we’ve ever started with but really deservingly in the sense of just how hard everyone has worked in the delivery, so really proud to be a part of it and this is a really great result for everyone.

     

    Q: You mentioned the start to the season. That’s four straight 1-2s. Is this also the best form as a team you’ve produced in the time that you’ve been there?

    LH: I think so, yeah, definitely. Valtteri’s really, clearly stepped up this year and is really happy in the car and really delivering and driving fantastically, so it’s going to take some really great performances from both of us to out-perform each other. And that’s how it should be. Hopefully at some stage Ferrari will be in the mix with us. I think this weekend, I do think they had the performance to be on the front row with both of their cars. From our data we saw that Seb didn’t get a tow, for example, which is worth four or five tenths or something, so he probably would have been on pole had he got that tow and the race would have been maybe more exciting. So, again, it takes one hundred per cent deliver throughout the weekend, which we, I think, were as close to that as possible. They’re going to have to pick it up if they want to fight us.

     

    Q: Seb, moving on to you, Lewis says that Ferrari will have to pick it up if they want to fight Mercedes. How well did your race go today and how close to the maximum did you get out of your car?

    SV: Well, he’s right. We need to pick it up obviously. We saw in the first stint that we really struggled to follow. I was really quite… yeah it was difficult to find a rhythm, difficult to extract grip from the tyres. After the stop it was a lot better. I expected it to be a tough and long afternoon but after that the car was quite good and I was able to push and I think we stayed with them, and with the blue flags maybe in the end we weren’t particularly lucky, the places around the track, I saw Lewis had some quite good tows with lapped cars here and there – but what goes around, comes around. I think overall the second stint was better for us than the first one. We lost, I think, all the potential to put pressure at the beginning of the race. But they were very strong and did absolutely right be pulling a gap. After that for us I think it was just to try and put them under some sort of pressure and bring it home.

     

    Q: You’re clearly close to Mercedes, based on the finishing positions here. What do you think is going to be key to breaking this run of form that Mercedes has shown?

    SV: Well, we need stronger pace, simple as that. We need to be faster. I’m convinced we’ve been, partly this weekend, looking very strong but overall not strong enough. So, it seems that for us it’s more of a conscious effort to get the car in the right window, whereas maybe for them it seems to click a little bit easier. Especially a place like around here, you need the confidence in the car. I’m not yet there. I can feel that I’m not driving at my best because simply the car does not answer or does not respond the way I like. And then I think it’s unnatural. I think everybody’s been there. I think all drivers know that sort of feeling: when it’s not there, then your judgement is normally right, to not go there because you end-up losing the car. So, yeah, I seem to be more sensitive at the first races than at the test. The test was really good but that’s a long time ago now. We need to look forward and improve the way we handle things, the way we work to just get faster. That’s it.

     

    Q: Valtteri, returning to you, Championship leader heading back for the European season – just how much confidence do you take from this start to the season?

    VB: Confidence is good. I’m happy to just carry on. Obviously, yeah, it’s been a good start personally for me for the season, it’s a long season ahead. I do realise that. But something I’m really proud of is the level at which the team is performing. It’s, for me, incredible. We need to be really, really proud of that – but not think about it too much. Just keep doing what we’re doing and the list of things that we can do better as a team is still long. So we need to focus on that. So let’s keep going.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, it was fine margins between you and Valtteri today. I think you lost a bit of time the way the VSC ended and then Valtteri got the tow just as you were closing in on the last lap from the Williams. Do you think it was fine margins that made the difference today? And Valtteri, what was the feeling when you saw you had a slower car up ahead to get DRS from on that last lap?

    LH: Yeah, I think ultimately Valtteri did a better job in qualifying on that last lap, which put him in the position to be able to fight and then fine margin at the start, which… yeah, I’ll have to work on. And then I lost two-and-a-half seconds, or whatever it is, under the VSC, so had to regain that and, with only nine laps to go, that was not so easy. So, that was my fault and something I’ll work on. There’s somethings I can fix on the dash to make sure that doesn’t happen again. But, nonetheless, it was a great result for the team.

     

    And Valtteri, your thoughts when you got traffic towards the end of the race.

    VB: Yeah, there was some traffic, obviously you lose time mostly – but sometimes actually you can gain from it, like here if you can get a nice tow on the straight and get the DRS. It’s always a very welcome bonus when Lewis is putting pressure behind! It’s not always it works for you. Sometimes he gains from it. So that’s how it goes. Yeah.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Just to the two Mercedes drivers — we saw Toto deliver a radio message in the final laps. I was just wondering what the rules of engagement were for you two in the closing laps of today’s race.

    LH: It wasn’t a message to us. We were allowed to fight to the end.

    VB: Yup.

     

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Lewis, with hindsight probably that first lap fight with Valtteri was the defining moment of that race. Do you think you could have pushed a bit harder or been a bit more aggressive if it was another driver than Valtteri, your teammate?

    LH: Definitely. Most definitely. It’s very very difficult — ultimately you always have to remember when you’re in a team as big as this that you are only one, and there are so many people that depend on us, so selfishly I could have for sure pushed a lot harder and Valtteri would have lost position, maybe I would have gained position, most likely he would have got overtaken by a Ferrari or something like that, so we have to work together. So whilst I wanted to overtake him, I had to be cautious at the same time, to give him space so that we would block the front row and stay there. Ultimately I lost out in that, but that’s a sacrifice you have to sometimes make in order for the team to win. I think if it was a Ferrari there it would have been a lot different. And that will be how it continues for the rest of the year — I think Valtteri and I have always had a lot of respect for each other, and we continue to do so. I think you can see that. That’s how we deal with it — we discuss it before the race, we agree as gentlemen, and we stick to it.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconselos – Formula Press) For Valtteri, when you were speaking to di Resta before the podium you said it was tough but you had it under control all the way. Did it get too close for comfort on the two laps that Lewis had DRS?

    VB: Yeah, sure, I didn’t want him to get DRS, that was not planned. He had a very good middle sector that lap and managed to close and here even if you’re like 1.2, 1.3 behind exiting from Turn 16 then you’re gaining time before the DRS detection. I wanted to keep him out from DRS, so it was my bad. But he was pushing hard, so that’s how it goes.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Seb, the feeling for you and Charles earlier in the weekend was that the team had made a step here, that the upgrades were working as you liked, and it just seemed like the circumstances of the weekend just sort of went away from you. Do you still retain that positivity from earlier in the weekend or do you feel like there is a sort of similar amount of work to do as before?

    SV: Well, absolutely I think it was a step forward with our car, but I think more of a dominating factor is just the way we seem to be able to get on top of or into these tyres. I think there’s a lot of performance in that. The struggle we had here in those low speed corners is less of an aero problem, more of a mechanical grip issue. So a lot of homework for us, obviously, in the last couple of weeks, but I’m sure that once we get everything together the car is strong, and then we will be much more in the fight. At this stage, obviously, averaging the first four races we were just not quick enough.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconselos – Formula Press) For the two Mercedes drivers — in the last two years your cars were called ‘divas’, but you’ve won on the first four very different tracks. Is this car the most complete one?

    LH: I mean, it’s an evolution of the last couple of years cars, so it should be better, and it is in many ways. I would say it’s more our understanding of the procedures that we have to implement that allow us to deliver more from it. I think we’re able to extract a bit more from the car itself, and that’s just from diligence, due diligence we’ve done so much better through testing in our understanding and analysis. Everyone’s just taken a step forward and it’s great to see.

    VB: It always can be better! For sure it’s maybe not still the easiest car to get to work, but once it works it’s quick, so something similar we’ve seen before and in the end, like Lewis said, it is an evolution from years before. There’s obviously work to do, but I think this year so far, the four races we’ve had, it’s not only the car. It’s all the areas the team is working on, how well we are performing in all the other areas than just the car. I think that’s maybe been the biggest thing so far this year.

  • 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS 1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) 2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) 3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)
    Q: You’ve got to be the happiest man here today, Valtteri; what a sensational last lap to grab pole position. An interrupted session, you kept your composure, and I guess you stole that pole position from Ferrari, because they have been ever so strong? 
    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I’m really happy for that. It was a nice feeling to get it done on the last lap – it was a nice lap. As you said, Ferrari have been really strong, so obviously Charles was out, by a mistake, and as a team we did really good to be where we are now after such a difficult practice.

    Q: After everything that happened in China in Q3, it looked like you and Lewis had some traffic, but then, crucially, we heard your engineer saying you picked up a tow in the last sector, was that the difference to get it? 
    VB: Well, it’s all about small margins and I did get a good tow in the last lap. Of course, the corners I have to drive as well. It’s all about fine details and I managed to hit the sweet spot.

    Q: How difficult was it to get the temperature into the tyres with the cold conditions? 
    VB: Yeah, it was getting trickier and trickier. We’re not supposed to race that late here but yeah, I got them to work somehow.

    Q: Lewis, a Mercedes front-row lockout again. I know you always want pole position, but it’s a good job by you all to re-engineer this car and take the fight to Ferrari.
    Lewis HAMILTON: Absolutely. It’s been so close all weekend. Ferrari have looked incredibly quick and Valtteri did an exceptional job in qualifying. It’s just a massively great result for us, because we came here, we didn’t have an upgrade, the Ferraris looked like they were particularly quick, also with Max, so for us to lockout the front row due to circumstances, I’m really grateful for it. It puts us in a good fighting position for tomorrow.

    Q: Do you think you can continue that? What can we look forward to tomorrow? Do you think you can take the fight to Ferrari? 
    LH: I hope so. I think that pace-wise we are slightly closer in race trim than it seemed in qualifying. Sebastian… I don’t know if he got a great lap but he may not have been in the right space, because it’s all about tows here. But nonetheless, we’ve got a good crowd here; I hope the weather is good. Valtteri is always quick here so I’ve had my work cut out so far this weekend.

    Q: Sebastian, P3 on the grid. It was looking so good this weekend for you and Charles. An interrupted session. These guys just stole it at the end? 
    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know if they stole it. I think they were a bit quicker than us today. For me it started a bit slow. Towards the end it was getting better, but it was quite tricky. The session was very long, the sun is going down, the track cooled down, so it was difficult to get the right balance of pushing on the out lap and playing with tow, trying to get something. I had a good lap but I had no tow to close the lap, so that cost a bit. But happy that we sort of got the maximum out, but I’m not happy that overall from a team point of view we were expecting to have a better session, with Charles and myself closer to the front.

    Q: Just give us an insight: how much can the tow be worth? You were obviously at the front of the queue but that gives you the best preparation but they obviously maximized it by gaining that [tow]?
    SV: Well, it depends, but up to half a second. Then it’s always a compromise, as if you are too close in the middle sector you lose out, but I would say going with the other people, probably around three tenths. So yeah, it could have been a bit closer with somebody in front, but yeah, as I said, the track was getting cooler, the car was more difficult to drive and I prioritized to push on the out lap to have the tyres in the window when I started the lap. Now I sort of regret that I maybe didn’t take the gamble on, but I still think it was probably the right call.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Valtteri, your second pole position of the season, but is it fair to say this one is a little more unexpected than the first?
    VB: You could say. Definitely after the practice yesterday and then this morning we saw Ferrari was extremely quick. Also Red Bull was quick. Even at the beginning of the qualifying they seemed kind of out of reach. But you never know what can happen. We don’t give up. In the end, Charles went off and it came down to one lap at the end. So I’m really happy for us. Obviously also a nice lap at the end and that really feels good.

    Q: You mentioned the lap at the end. How good was your final lap and how tough was it to get that lap clean when you had Lewis behind you and a car in front as well? 
    VB: Well, it’s obviously also the weather, because everything was delayed and it was a lot cooler, so the tricky bit was to get the tyres to work. When it comes down to one lap on this kind of track the tow effect is quite important and I managed to get quite a pretty good gap to the car ahead. But yeah, it feels good when you have a good lap when it matters.

    Q: Congratulations. Lewis, it was so close between you and Valtteri and on your final lap I think you made a small mistake in the first sector. Is that where it got away from you, or did that help you later in the lap as you improved in the final two sectors? 
    LH: Well, firstly, Valtteri did an exceptional job. It was a great result for us as a team. Coming into the weekend it didn’t look like we had the pace. The race pace looked good but the pace in qualifying we thought we might not be as c lose as we would like to the Ferraris. But we worked on the car and improved it today. Yeah, unfortunately my first two corners were pretty shocking. I had a small moment in Turn 1 and then in Turn 2. So already by Turn 4 I think I was three tenths down. But I recovered that in the next two sectors but unfortunately it wasn’t enough, and Valtteri did a great job.

    Q: You mentioned the fact that both of you have got the job done. How big an advantage was it having two Mercedes cars in the final part of qualifying, and do you think that will help you in the race, given that Charles wasn’t in Q3 and that Pierre didn’t take part in it either for Red Bull?
    LH: Sorry, I didn’t understand that…
    Q: How big an advantage was it to have the two Mercedes cars in Q3? Certainly when you’re working out the tow and trying to prepare those final laps. 
    LH: I don’t know that it makes a big difference, in the sense that you can still find your way behind someone else but it was definitely perfect for the team to have both cars there, and ultimately that’s the ultimate difference that Valtteri and I have been able to make at the moment, so we need to capitalise on that.

    Q: Sebastian, moving on to you, a similar sort of question. Were your chances affected at all by the fact there was only one Ferrari in Q3?
    SV: Well, we would have loved to have two Ferraris in Q3 but I don’t think it makes a difference obviously. You try to find a sweet spot in the track, which is always tricky and you can see everybody is just waiting in the pitlane and doesn’t want to be the first one out. In the end I didn’t have a tow on my final lap, which cost some time in the last sector but it was quite tricky; the conditions were changing; because of the long qualifying session temperatures were dropping and yeah, I think it was even more important for me to feel the tyres and make sure they are there from the first corner. So, yeah, it was a difficult session but I think having one or two cars doesn’t necessarily make a difference. It’s trying to find that sweet spot. It’s a bit of a gamble always.

    Q: You mentioned on the grid that you were happy with the lap that you produced in the circumstances – but after the final practice session, did you really expect Mercedes to be able to overturn the gap that yourselves had?
    SV: Yeah, I think it’s been a trend that we are a bit faster in free practice compared to them, so I think it’s just down to doing things a bit differently but… yeah… certainly I struggled a bit in qualifying. It wasn’t straightforward this evening. So, mostly I think with the track changing, going with the conditions was quite difficult. Only in the end I think it started to come back. The last two runs, and especially the last run, seemed to be a bit more straightforward in Q3. Before that obviously it was key to make it through which, with the interuptions that we had, and the cleaning going on on the track, wasn’t the most straightforward thing. Certainly not happy from a team point of view because the pace looked really, really good in the practice sessions so far – yet we find ourselves behind those two again! But, tomorrow is a long race and I believe we have a better car with continuous laps.

    Q: Valtteri, returning to you. Taking this pole position, after what happened last year in Baku, does it feel like you’ve got a bit of unfinished business tomorrow?
    VB: Well, for sure it was… yeah, I kinda feel like that. Even though starting from pole, in some races it might feel like 50 per cent is done but here it’s nowhere near 50 per cent. Anything can happen here. We’ve seen that once I was one lap behind and I finished second in the race. Once I was leading three laps from the end and I didn’t finish. I’m glad, as a team, we’re at the front and it will be fun tomorrow.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Sebastian, you’ve had quite a moment in the same corner where Charles crashed a couple of moments before he did. Can you elaborate on just how close it felt from inside the cockpit?
    SV: Well, you obviously try to go as close as you can here because it’s faster as close as you can to the wall. So, I don’t think you can seriously calculate the difference of a centimetre or two more or less. So, in the end, I think we all find ourselves in the same boat with some moments across the weekend where we think yeah, it could have gone wrong as well. I was surprised when I clipped a little bit the wall with the rear axle. Not much, but enough to upset the car – but I caught it, which was obviously crucial to carry on. But yeah, we had two incidences in the same corner now in qualifying – but there’s a lot of corners here where things can go wrong.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Question to all three. Sebastian mentioned that it was a difficult and a long qualifying session. Qualifying has its own rhythm and you’re all used to it and prepared for it. How difficult was it keep the concentration and then have the rhythm with the two long interruptions we had today?
    VB: Obviously sometimes it can be tricky but today it didn’t really seem to matter. When I was in the car and focussing on the lap it didn’t feel like we had a break. So, it’s all about trying to be on the moment. Don’t care if there was a 15 minute break or a two minute break.

    Lewis, your thoughts on trying to keep the rhythm through a qualifying session that was so disjointed?
    LH: I didn’t have a problem with the rhythm.

    Seb, anything to add?
    SV: Yeah, I think well done to those two for keeping the rhythm. Especially with doing a practice start in Q3 – that’s usually quite a rhythm-breaker – they did well.
    LH: hmmm?
    SV: Just on about your fake starts in Q3. Did you do a start or did you just stop?
    LH: We just dummied you basically!
    SV: Well, did you do a start or did you just stop?
    VB: Kind of. Clutch calibration…
    LH: Definitely clutch calibration.

    Q: (Dzhastina Golopolosova – Youth Information Agency) Question for Valtteri Bottas. Today in qualification you were quite confident – what are your expectations for tomorrow’s race and what can you say about the eighth turn where Kubica and Leclerc made a mistake – is it a section of the track that is difficult?
    VB: Like I said, here is a very unpredictable race. Obviously we are pretty happy we are starting with a 1-2 as a team. We feel we do have a strong car in the race – but here, anything can happen. It’s a very eventful race. Who’s tyres are going to last the best, who’s going to have the best pace. Also, with Safety Cars, how everything pans out. You can get lucky or unlucky. Many unpredictable things can happen, but we need to keep focussed as a team, and for me as a driver, and focus on taking it corner by corner. Where the accidents happened in qualifying, for sure it’s one of the most difficult parts on the calendar. It’s extremely tight, you’re going over the kerb. If you do a small mistake, you’re in the wall, as we saw, especially when it was getting cooler, it’s easier to lock the tyres up under braking. So, it can happen.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1vilag.hu) Sebastian, you said a few times that your car was working better in the winter testing. Do you think that something is missing, and if so, what do you think was the problem?
    SV: Well, I think we are getting better at understanding where I think we are weak compared to Mercedes, so obviously the first couple of races have been difficult for us — the tracks have been varying, the conditions have been varying, but I think there’s a sort of pattern emerging. I think we were in a much better place here, considering that the corners here are fairly low speed. I think we are much more competitive but not yet there, otherwise the picture today would have been a bit different.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport): Seb, you mentioned the difficulty of the track temperature dropping when the session ran on. Yesterday — I know obviously we only had FP2 really — you were particularly strong in the middle sector, but maybe that fell away today. Do you think that was just down to track temperature? Is that where you felt you lost car performance today, just not adjusting to the lower track temperatures as well as the others maybe?
    SV: Well, I don’t know. I don’t know how it felt for the others, but I think it was tricky for us with the track conditions, with the temperatures dropping. Obviously in sector two you have more so the corners, so it’s quite normal when you struggle with the car and don’t have the confidence around here, the place you lose most is sector two. I think it goes hand in hand. Other than that, I think the car was quite good today when we were in the right place, but it was difficult to get it in the right window.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport): Question to Sebastian. You started in Q2, like Charles, on the medium tyre, you gave it even another go then. Was it too much risk, were you forced into too much risk in order to make it in Q3 on that tyre?
    SV: No, I don’t think so. I mean, we tried, it was clear to see, but obviously by then the track has dropped already and that didn’t make it easier, so it was quite tricky the first lap but I was quite confident that the second lap will be better, so yeah. Obviously I only started it and then I was right behind Charles when it happened, so yeah. I think it’s just a tricky place, I don’t think it’s down to tyres at that point. Obviously a shame that we lost one car, that we couldn’t go through. Especially he was very quick this weekend, so. Now we look forward to the race and I’m sure we can recover.

    Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat.com) Question to all three drivers. Obviously after Charles Leclerc’s crash we all heard that he was very critical towards himself. Later he wrote on social media ‘I was just useless today’. Do you think that he was way too hard on himself?
    LH: I’d be the same. That’s how we’re tuned as racing drivers — when it’s your mistake, we’re tough on ourselves. I think probably when you’re younger as opposed to being older you’re maybe a little bit less when you’re older. But still, it’s painful. There’s a lot of pressure around a track like this, on his young shoulders, so it’s totally normal. Years and years ago I didn’t come out of my room for two or three days when I had some experience like that, so I totally understand how he feels. It’s cool that he’s open about it, because he can get it out and move forwards tomorrow.

    Q: Valtteri, your thoughts on being critical?
    VB: Yeah, the own mistakes you do yourself and you could have avoided, they hurt the most, I think. And it’s annoying, so I definitely can understand. Maybe Finns, maybe we don’t shout it out loud so much, but we still have feelings.

    Q: Well Seb, you had a Finn as a teammate previously — have you seen a change with Charles as your teammate?
    SV: Well, I think it’s normal — if you do a mistake, you’re not happy about it. Being critical I think is also the reason why he’s here, why we’re here. I don’t think anybody of us enjoys that part of our racing life, but every now and then it’s part of it, so. The weekend isn’t over yet, I think we have a good car, and I’m sure we can recover as a team tomorrow.

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll Motorsport-Total.com): Valtteri and Lewis, do you think — given the potential of the tow around this circuit — that being on the front row might actually have a downside too? And Sebastian, do you think there could be a chance in the first lap?
    Q: So Valtteri, you’re starting on pole — do you think it could be a downside on the first lap?
    VB: I honestly don’t think it’s going to be a downside. I think here still in the middle sector is full of corners, and it’s quite difficult to follow very close by. We hope the race pace between top teams is going to be very close, so if I could choose I’d definitely be sitting right where I’m sitting now. We’ll see tomorrow.

    Q: Lewis?
    LH: I agree with Valtteri.

    Q: And Seb?
    SV: Yeah, what to say? Obviously I’m not on pole so it’s going to be a big help tomorrow. It’s a long race, anything can happen here. Certainly if we have a good start, that might help, and then it’s a long straight after closing the first lap and we’ll see where we are. It’s a long race ahead of us. It’s definitely possible to overtake around here.