F1 Madness

Tag: ferrari

  • F1 Hungarian GP qualifying: Ferrari locks out the front row

    F1 Hungarian GP qualifying: Ferrari locks out the front row

    The Scuderia Ferrari team stamped their authority all over today’s Hungarian grand prix qualifying session locking out the front row of the grid, leaving the Mercedes team on the second row.

    It was Sebastian Vettel who took the pole position for tomorrow’s race, with a record breaking time of 1:16.276. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen slotted in ever just under two-tenths behind him with a 1:16.244.

    Valtteri Bottas was the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers with a struggling Lewis Hamilton lining up in fourth place. Hamilton has been complaining all weekend about balance, vibrations, and difficulty handling the Mercedes. The W08 is most definitely not happy with the heat around the Hungaroring, especially so when Pirelli’s supersoft tyres are bolted onto the car. The Briton completed the qualifying session just over half a second off Vettel’s pace. And, with pole position being so crucial around the notoriously difficult-to-overtake Hungaroring, Hamilton will have his work cut out for him tomorrow if he intends taking back the championship lead from Vettel – even if there’s only one point currently separating the two world champs.

    The Red Bulls locked out the third row of the grid with Max Verstappen beating Daniel Ricciardo to the fifth spot. The Red Bulls have been looking strong all weekend but just couldn’t put it together to take up position in the second row. Nico Hulkenberg qualified seventh fastest but will take a five place penalty thanks to a gearbox change.

    Both McLaren drivers made it to Q3 and Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will start from 8th and 9th on the grid respectively, with Carlos Sainz rounding out the top 10 in his Toro Rosso.

    Jolyon Palmer was knocked out in Q2 after setting a time 0.760s slower than his team mate. He beat Force India’s Esteban Ocon to the 11th spot on the grid by just 0.080s. Daniil Kvyat will line up from 13th place with Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean behind him.

    Kevin Magnussen set an identical time to Perez but missed out on the Q2 spot because the Force India driver set his time first. Rookie Williams driver Lance Stroll was 17th fastest 0.007s off Magnussen and Perez, with Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein’s lining up behind him in 18th.

    The star of the show must have been Paul Di Resta though. The Scot made his F1 comeback following Felipe Massa being pulled out of the race weekend. He’s been feeling ill and dizzy and the call was made during the final practice session to let Di Resta take the wheel.

    Despite finishing only 19th, Di Resta showed real progress throughout the qualifying session. His five flying lap times looked like this: 1m22.289s, 1m21.218s, 1m21.075s, 1m20.390s, 1m19.868s. That sort of progress can’t be attributed to anything other than proper skill real. He’ll be making his first race start since the 2013 Brazilian grand prix and Marcus Ericsson will line up behind him for tomorrow’s race.

  • 2017 Hungarian GP: Friday Press Conference Part 1

    2017 Hungarian GP: Friday Press Conference Part 1

    PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Frédéric VASSEUR (Sauber), Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Mattia, it’s very tight at the top of the timesheets this afternoon. How did today go for you, Ferrari, and how do you assess the pace of nearest rivals?

    Mattia BINOTTO: Obviously we just finished the session so we are looking at the data. I think it has been a difficult session because of a lot of traffic, red flags, so difficult somehow to complete the programme. We had to do some compromises on the programme but trying to collect as much data as possible. As you said, the field is very close but nevertheless we are concentrating on ourselves. Trying to optimise the balance of the car will be very important for qualifying and the race. It will be quite hotter Sunday compared to what we got today, so preparing and working on the balance will be very important and key.

    Q: And knowing what you know now, are you confident you can be more competitive here than you were at Silverstone two weeks ago? 

    MB: I think it’s always difficult to judge but certainly today was less negative, let’s say, compared to what we have seen in Silverstone. But Silverstone is in the past. I think somehow we need to forget it, being focused on what is this weekend. I don’t think the comparison is really necessary. More important just being focused on Hungary.

    Q: In the past week it has been announced that the Halo head protection is going to be introduced in 2018. Can I ask you about the practicalities of including the Halo on next year’s car, just from a cooling point of view, an aerodynamic point of view, how far down the road are you with those developments?

    MB: Obviously the decision has been made at the last Strategy Group meeting in the last week. It’s quite a late decision compared to the project but nevertheless, because of the safety it’s important everybody tries to work very hard on it. The implications are from the chassis structure point of view. So we need to make sure that we are fitting well the Halo on the chassis and the chassis is resisting to the loads that are required by regulations. As well from the aero point of view it may affect certainly the back of the car and that has to be taken into account when designing the new car.

    Q: Mario, just a word on today’s running. What have we learned about tyre performance, tyre wear, degradation? How many pit stops can you foresee on Sunday?

    Mario ISOLA: Difficult question, because, as Mattia said, during FP2, which is the most representative for us to collect some data, we had two red flags. In terms of delta lap time between soft and supersoft we saw something like 0.8s, 0.9s per lap. It is a bit more than we expected. Our estimation was 0.6, but more or less in this range. We know that the medium is not going to be used during this weekend. The temperature is very high, so degradation will be a key factor on the supersoft, especially on the supersoft, but we don’t have a number now. The number of pit stops will be dictated by the degradation of the supersoft. The tarmac is new. Last year the circuit was resurfaced. Very smooth, but very black. So the temperature is going up easily and we expect more than 50 degrees tarmac on Sunday, so it could be quite a challenge.

    Q: You’ve done a lot of analysis since Ferrari had their tyres problems at Silverstone two weeks ago. Can you just tell us about the conclusions you have drawn and whether or not they were freak incidents? 

    MI: We made a lot of analysis to be sure that we were not underestimating any potential issue on the tyres. So we didn’t want to say anything about Vettel’s tyre, because we saw together with Ferrari the loss of pressure starting from Turn One since Sunday afternoon. We wanted to take some time to analyse deeply both the tyres. We saw two different failures. One was a puncture. The conclusion was, on Vettel’s tyre, that it was a puncture with a loss of air starting in Turn One and obviously at a certain point the construction is not able to support the load and in Turn 6 it failed. For Kimi, it was more difficult, because it was not clear at the beginning. The carcass was still in one piece. We had a part of the tread missing and we had two points in which the belt was damaged, on the inside shoulder. So we had to analyse not only Kimi’s tyre but most of the tyres used during the race to exclude that there was any other potential issue. We can away with the conclusion when we were 100 per cent sure that we didn’t have any other issues. I cannot say it was debris or an impact or something like that because I don’t have the evidence but the evidence is that we have the belt that is damaged in two specific points and the rest of the tyre is still OK, but Kimi had to stop to replace the tyre, so this is the result of the investigation.

    Q: Fred, welcome back. Hefty accident for Pascal this afternoon. Just a word on his condition and also the state of the car? 

    Frédéric VASSEUR: It’s a bit too early to have a clear conclusion on the reason of the accident, but we will do the investigation. The monocoque looks OK, but we have to investigate a little bit more. I left the garage straight after the end of the session.

    Q: You’ve been in the new job, team principal, for just a week or so, but it’s been a busy week. I just wondered if you could talk us through the reasons behind the switch from Honda power in 2018 to Ferrari power? 

    FV: Yeah, Sauber and Honda signed a memorandum of understanding a couple of weeks ago but things move forward quite fast in our world and I think that the situation was a bit unclear also regarding the collaboration between McLaren and Honda and on our side the engine supplier had to find a solution for the gearbox. We had a deal with McLaren and the situation was a bit more complicated. On the other end, the collaboration with Ferrari is based on a long-term relationship and we had the opportunity to discuss with Ferrari to get the new-spec engine and I think it was a good choice and we found a mutual agreement with Honda to stop the collaboration.

    Q: Just to confirm, it will be a current-spec Ferrari engine that the team has…

    FV: Not the current one, the next one!

    Q: Exactly! Just to finish, I know you have only been there a week but I’d love to get your thoughts on Sauber as a team, both in the short term and in the long term?

    FV: The short term, that will be difficult to achieve something – it’s a long-term project for sure. But I think the basics are there. The facility is impressive compared to the other teams. I think we are in a good move. The wind tunnel is a good one and the team, I think that Sauber is still in F1 an iconic name and there is a real team spirit, quite comparable to the team spirit I had last year at Enstone. Everybody is really dedicated, pushy, and now that the financial structure is stabilised I think we can have some hope for the future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Roksana Cwik – SwiatWyscigow) A question for Mr Vasseur. When you brought Robert Kubica to Spa and he drove the RS01, did you think he would be here?

    FV: No, at this stage he did some test sessions in the simulator before. I tried to help him for different reasons. We had the opportunity to do a race in the RS01 in Spa. He did it and he did a good job, but it’s not my project anymore!

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question to Fred, I wonder if you could clarify exactly what your position is please? Are you responsible for the total Formula One programme, including marketing, sponsorship, whatever, or only the sporting side. And if not, who else reports to Mr Picci?

    FV: My position is quite clear, that I’m the CEO of the company and team principal. It means that at the end of the day I am in charge of all the departments.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Mattia, this track might be a completely different story but in the last few races we’ve seen Mercedes maybe gaining a bit on Ferrari. Do you think it was because there has been some decisions like the restrictions regarding the floor or engine oil burning, or just because you’re at different phases of development during the year and it will ebb and flow between you?

    MB: I think that each race is different to the others. There have been races at the start of the season where we have been competitive and others where Mercedes has been competitive. If you look, for example, Bahrain very early in the season, they have been very competitive in qualifying, we have been in the race. I don’t think that there is a clear tendency and a clear trend on the competitiveness of the two teams. Certainly the development is very important. That has to be done race by race. There are still many races to go, we are just half of the season and I don’t see any reasons why this should be one trend or another one. I think that oil burning, as you mention, is something that is not directly related to Ferrari and the floor, honestly I don’t think there is any impact on our performance.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) This is again to Mattia. We have seen that both of your drivers are now on their fourth turbochargers. Is it just normal as you are playing around with the element or is it cause for concern and now basically you are sure you will have to take a penalty later this year?

    MB: Certainly it is somehow a concern in the fact that we had failure on the turbo at the start of the season and we have to replace them at the very start and you introduce very early in the season turbo number three and turbo number four. Having said that, we introduce as well in the following turbos some modifications for reliability. They are running well at the moment, so we’ve got all the pool at the moment that have been introduced but we’ve got all the mileage available on each turbo, so we are rotating them and, obviously it’s our objective to conclude the season with the current pool of turbos.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mattia, a lot of your motorsport and road car competitors are embracing Formula E with a vengeance. Could you see Ferrari ever doing that?

    MB: That’s something that sometimes we have discussed internally but no decision have been taken and honestly it’s a decision that is not down to my responsibility. So, I have no clue and no answer for you.

  • F1 2017: Free Practice 1 Report Hungarian Gp – Ricciardo Quickest

    F1 2017: Free Practice 1 Report Hungarian Gp – Ricciardo Quickest

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the quickest time of the first free practice session ahead of the 2017 Hungarian grand prix.

    Ricciardo’s 1:18:486 was roughly two and a half tenths quicker than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen while Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, an Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top five. Sebastian Vettel was sixth quickest while the McLaren’s showed well on a circuit which should suit their car with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in seventh and eighth respectively. Renault teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer rounded out the top ten.

    Mid-way through the practice session a red flag was brought out by Antonio Giovinazzi. Subbing for Kevin Magnussen in the first practice session Giovinazzi seemed to aggressive on turn in to turn 11 and binned the Haas in the outside barrier, tearing the front-left suspension off.

    A second red flag was brought out right at the conclusion of the session for debris strewn across the circuit as Jolyon Palmer in the Renault tore off his front wing on the Turn 11 kerb.

    Free Practice 1 Standings:

    Screen Shot 2017-07-28 at 11.36.46 AM

  • F1 2017: Sauber Ferrari Powered in 2018

    F1 2017: Sauber Ferrari Powered in 2018

    The Sauber F1 team announced today that they will be retaining their partnership with Ferrari for the 2018 season.

    The announcement comes on the back of the fact that Sauber has broken off its deal with Japanese manufacturer Honda earlier this week. The short-lived partnership was announced earlier in the season by then team principal Monisha Kaltenborn.

    “I am very pleased to confirm that we will continue to work with Scuderia Ferrari as our engine supplier in form of a multi-year agreement,” said newly appointed team principal Frederic Vasseur. “The shared experience between the Sauber F1 Team and Ferrari has built a strong foundation, which will allow us to move forward swiftly and efficiently, also in terms of the development of the 2018 car.”

    The continuation of the Sauber/Ferrari partnership presents an interesting debate as to who will be in the cockpit for the team in 2018. With Swedish owners it is seems that Marcus Ericsson is assured of his seat but the host of Ferrari academy drivers which include Antonio Giovinazzi and F2 star Charles Le Clerc makes the second seat at Sauber an enticing prospect.

  • 2017 Hungarian GP: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    2017 Hungarian GP: Thursday Press Conference – Part 1

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Nico HULKENBERG (Renault)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Gentlemen, if we could by getting your thoughts on the Halo cockpit protection that is going to be introduced from the start of 2018. Sebastian, if we could begin with you, what are your thoughts about the Halo and how do you feel it compares to the Shield you tested at Silverstone two weeks ago? 

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I wasn’t a big fan of the Shield, mostly for the reason that it was impacting visibility. The Halo test I did, I think it was last year in Abu Dhabi, and for sure you need to get used to it but at least it didn’t impact on the vision, so I think that was the biggest difference. Obviously there has been a lot of talk, as I got it, but I think overall you need to understand that it is a decision that helps us in the car in case something goes very wrong. For sure, if you look at Formula One, the way Formula One cars look and so on, I can understand if people say it doesn’t belong on a Formula One car but on the other hand I think times are changing, you are moving forward and I think if you put it very clear, then it also should be very clear for everyone and there shouldn’t be a doubt in your mind whether to introduce it or not. I think if you offer the system as it stands, with the power that it has to give us additional protection, offer that to Justin Wilson some time ago, I think he would take it and we would all be happy to take it to save his life. Now we can’t turn back the clock but I think knowing that something is there that helps us in scenarios it would be ignorant and stupid to ignore. Regarding the looks: as I said, I like Formula One cars of the past and so on, but there are also elements that I like nowadays. I mean, racing cars with wings that Formula One cars didn’t have until I think late-‘60s or [early] ‘70s, so now that’s part of it. There are plenty of other examples – we had V12 engines, which I would like to go back to, and we don’t have anymore. But overall, it’s supposed to help us and I think that’s what we need to remember.

    Q: Fernando, you’re the most experienced driver in the room with 280 starts to your name, what are your thoughts on the Halo?

    Fernando ALONSO: I tend to agree with everything Sebastian said. First is the safety and if this device can help in many of the fatal accidents that we had in the last 10 or 15 years, as has been proved by the FIA, I think we are all happy to implement the device and we are all happy to have some of our colleagues, if we could go back in time and save their live we would be all happy. That’s the first and only thing we should talk about. Then, the aesthetics: I don’t care too much to be honest. Formula One has changed a lot. Even from my first year, in 2001, until now, the cars look very different. The height of the front nose, the height of the cockpit [surround] to protect the helmet area, you know. Forty or 50 years ago they didn’t have seatbelts in a Formula One and when seatbelts were implemented there was not any debate. If they had to fit it in Formula One… it’s fun to drive with no seatbelt… it should be like that. For me there is no question, I’m happy to implement any extra head protection for next year. If the FIA studied and developed the Halo and this is the most effective way to protect the head of the drivers it’s more than welcome in my opinion.

    Q: Nico, you’ve expressed your reservations about Halo in the past. Now it’s here, what’s your reaction? 

    Nico HULKENBERG: I’m still going to race. I won’t retire for sure. But yeah, I was never a big supporter of Halo or of additional head protection. I’m still not but it’s not my decision, it’s the FIA making the safety rules and requirements. So it is what it is, I will accept it and get on with it.

    Q: Can you elaborate on why you’re not a fan?

    NH: I think there is that element of if they fix the looks; it doesn’t look pretty for sure. It will protect against something, the freak accident, accidents that’s one out of a million. We have security and the protection of the cars gets better, these tethers that keep the tyres get better and better every year and give even less chance of a tyre or heavy things flying round, so I’m not sure that this additional protection is necessary because all the other areas keep improving and we’ve compromised the looks quite a lot.

    Q: Marcus, your thoughts on the implementation of Halo? 

    Marcus ERICSSON: I think it’s positive. I think like Fernando and Sebastian said safety should be prioritized. I think the FIA has done a good job to really look into it and if this is a best solution at the moment I think it’s a no-brainer to go for it for next year. If it can save someone in the future, it’s great. Also, I tested it last year and when I drove with it I didn’t really notice it all, so I think it’s a good thing that it’s not going to change anything when you drive, that you have the same feeling when you drive. Yeah, it maybe doesn’t look the prettiest but I think it’s also something we will get used to. It’s always when there are big changes in Formula One it doesn’t look so pretty at first, but then people get used and I think it will be the same thing with the Halo.

    Q: Sebastian, this is your 50th start for Ferrari, a milestone reached by only 13 other drivers. How do you reflect on your two-and-a-half years with the team and what does the future hold? 

    SV: I think time is moving quickly. Obviously, I have been very busy. I think the whole team has been very, very busy trying to get back. I think this year has been very, very god for most of the year so far. Overall, very positive. I’m really enjoying it. I think it’s great to be part of the Ferrari family and as I said we are all focused and determined to get Ferrari back to where it belongs, so that’s our mission let’s say, our target, our goal and yeah, that’s what we’re working on.

    Q: And beyond the end of the year? 

    SV: Well, it’s true that I haven’t got a contract yet but I think the primary objective at the moment is not to look at papers and worry about those, I think it’s to make sure that we get some good results. Obviously we have another race and another opportunity here before the summer break and then there is a bit more time.

    Q: Fernando, does the layout of the Hungaroring present you and McLaren with your best opportunity so far?

    FA: Yeah I think so. I think Monaco was also a great track, in terms of the characteristics of it. I was not there, so this is really the first time that I had this possibility of hopefully feeling competitive and feeling the possibility to be there in Q3 and then in the points, if something happens in front of us maybe to get even a better result than this, maybe seventh or eighth, that is the maximum you can fight for at the moment. So definitely an important weekend for us. We paid some penalties in the last two races to arrive here with some more freedom of engine choices and something more in the pocket, so hopefully it pays off this weekend.

    Q: Nico, a tremendous weekend for you and the team at Silverstone. Can the pace there translate to this race track?

    NH: Yeah, I think this weekend I feel it’s a bit more of a true teller. For sure, I think at Silverstone, with the upgrades we brought, it was definitely a good step forward but I think Hungary here, these track characteristics, will be a true teller for us of where we stand. Interesting days ahead. I’m also excited to see how the car feels, the way we pan out. We have some additional upgrades again this weekend. The team has got some good momentum, pushing quite hard and bringing new bits to every race, so it all feels very positive, so we’ve got to keep working in that direction.

    Q: Marcus, could we just get your reaction to the news that Fred Vasseur is the new team principal at Sauber? 

    ME: I think it’s good news. I think Fred is a very respectable (sic) person in the paddock and he has done a lot of great things in motorsport in general. I don’t know him that well yet, but I went straightaway after Silverstone down to Hinwil to sit down with him and, yeah, I got a really good feeling talking to him and he had some really good ideas on how to structure the team for the future, both short- and long-term. Obviously, this is the first weekend he’s working on track with the team, but I think all in all it’s good news for the team. There are a lot of good things happening. Also we have some updates on the car this weekend as well, so exciting times for Sauber.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Sebastian, it’s said that this is a very tough race for Ferrari, because you need to react from Silverstone otherwise Mercedes could get a bigger advantage. Do you agree or not? Do you still believe that the season is long and that you have chances in the future?

    SV: I think I had a lot of tough races in my past already. I think it’s normal that there is always talk about this race or the next race coming up based on the race you had. I’m no stressing too much. I think on paper this should be a good race for us. Let’s see how we get going. Certainly, looking back, Silverstone wasn’t a great weekend for us. At the same time I think things were going quite good for Mercedes, so I think it has been the other way round as well this year. I’m not stressing too much. I like the track, I’m just going to enjoy. Everyone here, we know what we have to do and that’s what we plan to do, so the fact that it’s the last race before the summer break or the race after Silverstone, that maybe wasn’t good for us, doesn’t change anything. You can score as many points here as anywhere else. But, as I said, it’s a nice race, so I think we need to make sure we enjoy.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte) Sebastian, after the Monaco Grand Prix you had a 25-point advantage over Lewis and also Ferrari was first in the Constructors’ Championship. Four races later Ferrari is behind and you have just one point in the difference. It looks like Mercedes did a better a job in developing the car. Fernando, in the case of the accident you had in Australia, the Halo, what would be the influence of it?

    SV: I can’t disagree with what you said because it’s based on the points that we have today but I think you need to look at the races. Obviously, you know, we didn’t get the best races in the last couple. Saying that I think we were very close to winning in Austria. I don’t think we were lacking any speed there and that’s only two races ago. Now, as I said, Silverstone for sure was not the best race for us, but sometimes shit hits the fan and then it’s not so pleasant. In many ways it was not such a good weekend for us. Obviously the last two laps didn’t help, but these things happen. Sometimes you suffer a puncture. It will not be the last one, unfortunately, in my life, and it has happened to all of us. You have a lot of races, some will be better, some will be worse. Now, the last couple were maybe not fantastic but I’m very positive. We come here and we know the car is strong, we know we have a chance to fight for victory and that’s good news, so I think we should look at the positives rather than looking at one race where maybe things didn’t go well for us and it turned out to go well for them. I think if you look at the week after Monaco, we were quite happy, maybe Mercedes wasn’t. In the end., you shouldn’t get distracted from short-term results. Rest assured, we were not happy with the result in Silverstone. There were some weaknesses. It was a very good weekend for us in terms of what we learned about the car to go forwards and in fact I think we have some bits here that should help us and the plan is to keep pushing. So, as I said, the determination, the commitment is very high to make sure we stay at the front.

    FA: I think nothing really will affect the exit from the cockpit, as I understood from the FIA studies, so that will be the same for me. Definitely, while you are in the air, my only worry there was if something could impact with my helmet. If I had the Halo there I would probably be a little bit less afraid of any injury, so happy to… not to repeat it, but happy to wear it.

    Q: (Roksana Cwik – SwiatWyscigow) Sebastian, after the Silverstone tyre failures, what has been done at Ferrari to ensure it won’t happen again?

    SV: Obviously we looked into it with care. It impacted on my race, on Kimi’s race, and obviously we are trying to find the reasons for it, together with Pirelli, to find and understand. In my case it was a slow puncture that started already some corners before. Unfortunately, if you want to say, a little bit too late, so we couldn’t react and get into the pits straight away. We spent a lot of time on the tyre. Obviously it wasn’t fresh anymore. I could feel the degradation. At the time we thought it was fine. It’s one of those things that with hindsight it could have been easy for us to get a new set and to come back. But at the time you have the track position, you don’t know other people are doing, you don’t know how much they are struggling with their tyres at the end of the race and so on. I think we took a lot of action trying to understand first of all what happened and then a lot of action trying to understand what we could have done better and what we will change in the future when we are in a similar position.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Question for Fernando. In Silverstone you had dinner with McLaren people and after this dinner they said we are really lucky, we have hopes that Fernando will stay next year. What do you have to say about that?

    FA: Nothing really. I mean, we had dinner there, we have some grands prix that the whole McLaren people are there, so we had some conversations for the future as well but nothing really changed. My opinion or my wishes for next year which remains the same.

    Q: (Péter Vámosi – Vas Népe) Question to all Monaco winners and Le Mans winner. First of all what do you think of Porsche’s exit from World Endurance Racing and Championship and what do you think, can you make the triple crown now, like Graham Hill in the past or is this possibility gone now?

    Let’s start with Nico.

    NH: Yeah, obviously a pity in a way to see Porsche leave the WEC Championship. I guess they came back, they were there now four years, won it three times in a row so I guess you could say mission accomplished. They’re probably looking for a new challenge now. It was only down to two manufacturers, so probably need something new, something more challenging. Definitely a bit of a shock to the system there.

    Fernando, the triple crown?

    FA: I think it’s still there. It’s not that you cannot win Le Mans with another manufacturer, y’know? Arguably now Toyota will be very favourite next year. And then the Indy500 it doesn’t affect. Porsche was not there. So did they confirm today they stop the programme? I didn’t know.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, you said that you have made your analysis about what happened with the tyre in Silverstone – but what was the conclusion? Could you have done anything to avoid them or was it just a freak incident that both of the cars had either a puncture or delamination and you could have done nothing about it.

    SV: Excuse me for being sarcastic, we could have pitted. So then… for sure it doesn’t happen. Yeah, as I said, there’s plenty of things that we learnt. We’ll probably take action next time and try to avoid. As I said, from my point of view, I got the explanation and then you move on, you can’t go back and change it. I obviously was inside the car, we talked about the tyres before it happened and, as I said, they didn’t feel fresh, I reported – but I was also sure they would make it. Then, two laps, you could argue, two laps more, two laps less, so with hindsight now it’s easy but it has happened. It has impacted our race. We can’t change that, what we can change is next time we face maybe a similar situation.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Motorsport . com) Question for Sebastian. I know you opened the conference by talking positively about the Halo from your own personal opinion. I believe that last year you, as a GPDA director, along with the other directors, wrote to the FIA talking about having canvassed the other drivers, both current and reserve and found widespread support. Have you spoken to your fellow drivers now that the Halo has been implemented? Are you finding the same level of support? What’s the GPDA stance, rather than your personal one, please?

    SV: Well, our GPDA stance is very simple. Obviously the GPDA is there to support and try to look from a drivers’ voice into things that can be improved in terms of safety. That’s our main interest and has been in the past. So, I think it’s very clear. More or less one year ago we got a presentation here. Shortly after, or right after the drivers’ briefing about the Halo, about its consequences, about the outcome in various accidents, whether it was better, worse or neutral, and the result was very clear, it was better to neutral depending on the accident obviously. So, right after that, as far as I remember – it’s a year ago – we sent a letter that we appreciate the fact that FIA is continuously trying to push and trying to find new solutions to give us more support on track to help push safety. We asked them, as much as we can, to keep doing exactly that. So, look further into it and so on. As I understand, I think it was agreed about a year ago anyways, that we will have addition head protection for ’18. Now it has been just confirmed. Bit surprised to see the surprise about the decision but, as I said, not just from my personal point of view, I think the majority of the drivers appreciate the fact that we go forward now. As I said for aesthetics, it’s always difficult to please everybody opinion but I think the Halo system that we saw last year will probably not be the one that we see next year and the year after and the year after. It’s one of those things that maybe they start off not so good looking and then they’re actually not so bad.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Question for Nico and for Fernando. I’d like to know your thoughts on Formula E as a sport. Mercedes have decided to go there next year and you two have raced in other categories. Wanted to know your thoughts on that sport.

    FA: I don’t have a strong opinion because I never saw the real car, I never had too much interest on the details. Difficult to have an opinion of that – but I respect a lot other series out there, apart from Formula One. They race in the best cities in the world and they are promoting this Formula E in a very good way. So, y’know, as I said, I respect the series and maybe one day I get more interested but now I don’t have a strong opinion. It’s clear it’s attractive for some of the big manufacturers and things like that, as Mercedes show with the announcement. So, y’know, they’re doing a good job.

    Nico?

    NH: Yeah, for sure, the fact is it’s growing. More and more manufacturers are getting involved, obviously many car manufacturers are going more the hybrid and electric car route, so there’s good support for the series. Personally, I’ve never been to a race or seen the car or driven or anything so also can’t comment too much about it but think the setup as such is working. Will be interesting to see where it goes in the next couple of years.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Sebastian, what is it that’s delaying you about signing the new Ferrari deal and when do you expect there will be news on who you’re going to sign for? Re-signing or moving somewhere else.

    SV: As far delaying, I think the fact we are working hard, both from the team’s point, my point, I think we have other things to do right now, so, as I said, in the summer there’s a bit more time. There’s a couple of weeks’ stretch  where there is no race but for now I think the focus is extremely high on working on the car. So, for me I’m obviously not designing the bits but trying to give as much feedback as I can, trying to spend time in the simulator, generally talking to the team. That, at the moment, has priority. As I said, a piece of paper can be signed fairly quickly so that’s not a problem.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) To follow up on that, Sebastian, Ferrari have said they’re ready to renew your contract whenever you are. Do you want to stay with the team?

    SV: I don’t see why not. I think… I’m certainly not ready this weekend, and last weekend, so, as I said, I’m not in a rush, I don’t think the team is in a rush, as far as I understood, I think I have a good contact to the team, I think they would tell me otherwise so, as I said, there’s no problem, nothing wrong.

    Q: (István Simon – Automagazin) My question is to Nico Hülkenberg. After the grand prix we are going to have a two-day FIA Formula One test here at the Hungaroroing and one of the big names, in fact the biggest name to participate in the test is Robert Kubica who will be testing a Renault car, 2017 car. What are your feelings towards him as a possible team-mate to you for next year or even this year? Are you going to follow his process closely? Have you been asked by the team to give any advice to him how to drive this car?

    NH: Firstly I think it’s a great comeback for him personally after the accident and the difficulties he has been through to have this opportunity and chance to test the current Formula One car. We all knew that he was one of the really good drivers before his accident and could have had a really great career. So, yeah, for sure I will follow. I won’t be here but for sure I want to know how he’s getting on. It will be very interesting to see how it works. Team-mate question, to be honest I’m really relaxed about who is the team-mate. Team-mates, you always have a team-mate. You work with him, you get on with him, obviously it’s a competitive relationship but it doesn’t matter really who it for me. So, I’ll sit back and wait and see

  • Sauber Calls off Honda Engine Deal for 2018

    Sauber Calls off Honda Engine Deal for 2018

    Sauber have confirmed that their 2018 technical partnership with Honda been cancelled.

    “It is very unfortunate that we have to discontinue the planned collaboration with Honda at this stage,” said Vasseur

    “However, this decision has been made for strategic reasons, and with the best intent or the future of the Sauber F1 Team in mind.

    “We would like to thank Honda for their collaboration and wish them all the best for their future in Formula 1.”

    It is unclear what Sauber’s future plans are. They could choose to carry on with their Ferrari engine deal. The other options open to the Hinwil based team are Mercedes and Renault. Both have ties to Sauber in one way or another. Mercedes through Pascal Wehrlein and Renault through former Renault team boss and now current team principal of Sauber, Frederic Vasseur.

    The Honda deal was put together by Sauber’s former team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn, but following her departure from the team ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix both parties decided to call of the deal.

    Sauber say that they will announce a new technical shortly.

  • F1 2017: Hungary Gp Preview – Hungaroring Vital Piece In Championship Puzzle

    F1 2017: Hungary Gp Preview – Hungaroring Vital Piece In Championship Puzzle

    In an F1 championship as closely contested as the 2017 edition every race weekend becomes an important one. At this stage, as Vettel and Hamilton are separated by a single point, none are more vital than the last race before the summer break.

    The 2017 Hungarian grand prix runs around the Hungaroring. A tight and twisting cacophony of medium speed corners this circuit is often described as a supersized karting track. It’s flowing nature mandates total precision, as an error in one corner will be carried through an entire lap and ultimately result in loss of laptime. “It has many low and medium speed corners, which demand stability on corner entry and strong traction on the exit. It’s quite hard on both the front and rear tyres so overall it can be characterised as a tough handling circuit,” said Renault’s Nick Chester.

    The circuit is further notorious for being green at the start of the weekend, as it doesn’t see much running for the rest of the year. However, grip improves throughout the weekend for which Pirelli have brought the supersoft, soft, and medium compounds. While the Pirelli compounds have proved to a step harder than in 2016 the hotter conditions in Hungary should allow for better tyre performance. Meanwhile, the belief is that the medium compound will simply be a travelling tyre as it is too hard to be considered for use.

    hungariangp-merc-twitterWhich teams will the flowing corners of the Hungaroring favour? Traditionally, the streets of Monaco have been a good indicator as to who could do well in Hungary. However, a few things have changed since May race dominated by Ferrari. Significantly, the biggest change has been Mercedes’ ability to get on top of their tyre issues by understanding how to correctly bring them into their operating window. While on the face of it seems as if Merc have pulled away in terms of car development it is in fact in this area where they have made the biggest gain. Red Bull too could go well here as the circuit highlights chassis more than power. What’s more is that overtaking around the Hungaroring isn’t abundant.

    Therefore, if Verstappen or Ricciardo can get ahead of either Merc or Ferrari drivers, and work the strategy in their favour, they could have enough pace to step on the podium at the end of it.

    For Finns Kimi Raikkonen and Valterri Bottas Hungary is as close as they’ll get to Finland and it, obviously, brings out a serious amount of support from across the border. Both Finns had good drives in Silverstone too, barring Raikkonen’s late race puncture. With the championship as close as it has been at any point in the season what the teammates of the two title contenders do is equally as important. With two race wins this season Bottas has already shown his prowess and it’s about time that Raikkonen do the same.

  • Pirelli Concludes Investigation into Vettel’s British GP Tyre Failure

    Pirelli Concludes Investigation into Vettel’s British GP Tyre Failure

    Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli has concluded the investigation into the tyre failure that dropped Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel from 4th to 7th.

    Pirelli say that a slow puncture was the cause of the first failure. Vettel ran off the track out of Brooklands 2-laps before the end of the race as a result of his tyre failure but was able to make his way to the pits and finish the race. Pirelli say that further damage to the tyre was caused by Vettel driving back to the pits.

    “As appeared clear since Sunday afternoon, a full investigation has now confirmed that the original cause of the failure was a slow puncture,” said Pirelli in a statement.

    “The consequent driving back to the pits on an under-inflated and then flat tyre led to the final failure.”

    Vettel’s tyre failure came almost immediately after team mate Kimi Raikkonen suffered, what looked like a similar tyre failure. Replays of Raikkonen’s tyre failure showed otherwise and initially it looked like the rubber de-laminated form the tyre canvas.

    Pirelli say that they are still investigating the cause of Raikkonen’s tyre failure but they expect to conclude their investigation in a few more days.

    “Kimi Raikkonen’s damaged tyre shows less evidence of what occurred, so further tests and analysis are still ongoing in Pirelli’s laboratories and indoor testing facilities,” added Pirelli in a statement.

    “It will take a few more days to reach a definitive conclusion.”

     

     

    Photo by courtesy Pirelli

  • F1 2017: British Gp Review – Hamilton Untroubled Amid Ferrari Drama

    F1 2017: British Gp Review – Hamilton Untroubled Amid Ferrari Drama

    The phenomenon of home ground advantage has nearly always been touted in the world of sport as a sort of mythical influence that makes the team or a person nearly unbeatable. This advantage was no more evident as Lewis Hamilton took a record-equaling fifth British grand prix win around the famed Silverstone circuit.

    While Hamilton blitzed the field in Saturday qualifying to the tune of half a second he, similarly, ran unflustered towards the checquered flag on Sunday. While the second-place starter Kimi Raikkonen, who shaded his teammate the entire weekend, briefly threatened in the Ferrari he could, ultimately, not get within striking distance of Hamilton.

    The remainder of the podium places seemed set too as Raikkonen ran comfortably in second ahead of Valtteri Bottas who was recovering from a ninth place starting position after a gearbox penalty. Nevertheless, two laps from the chequered flag the thread on Raikkonen’s left-front tyre appeared to come apart and forced him into the pitlane. The easy second place he’d been heading too suddenly transformed into fourth. But the drama was far from over as Sebastian Vettel, now running third, suffered a seemingly identical front-left failure on the final lap of the race. The German was able to limp back to the pits but the chance of salvaging a podium was long gone as he emerged in seventh place.

    012Pirelli has announced that the failures on Raikkonen and Vettel’s car were not caused by the same problem. In Raikkonen’s case Pirelli found that the thread had separated from the tyre, which makes it a manufacturing fault. However, in Vettel’s case the failure was put down to tyre age. But Vettel’s tyres were not being pushed beyond what Pirelli had said were possible. While Ferrari was the only team to pay a price in terms of points several teams revealed post-race that their own tyres were on the edge of suffering similar failures.

    The drama-filled ending to the British grand prix meant that Mercedes strolled to a one-two victory with Raikkonen in third. Max Verstappen provided some early race entertainment in a fight with Sebastian Vettel but ultimately ran a fairly anonymous race to finish fourth. Daniel Ricciardo, starting from the back of the grid due to reliability issues, delivered a storming drive through the field complete with several stunning overtakes to finish an impressive fifth. Renault’s day started poorly as Jolyon Palmer failed to take the start with mechanical issues but the ever-impressive Nico Hulkenberg’s sixth place finish saved the day. With Vettel in seventh the Force India pairing of Esteban Ocon, eighth, and Sergio Perez, ninth, continues to score important points over their rivals Williams who secured the final point in tenth with Felipe Massa.

    052Besides the formation lap retirement of Renault’s Jolyon Palmer there were only two further retirements. A clash between Toro Rosso teammates Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz saw the latter punted out of the race while Fernando Alonso suffered yet another engine failure despite Honda’s introduction of a so-called reliability upgrade.

    While Ferrari has not only fallen 55 points behind Mercedes in the Constructor’s standings Vettel’s late race troubles have all but eviscerated his championship lead over Hamilton from twenty to a single point.

    It is evident now that the early season pressure has transferred from Merc to Ferrari and the Italian team needs to pull something out of the bag for the Hungarian Gp in two weeks time.

    (All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

  • 2017 British Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2017 British Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 2 – Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 3 – Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Owen WILSON and Jenson BUTTON)

    Owen Wilson: Congratulations, what an exciting race. You made it look easy out there.

    Lewis Hamilton: It was not so easy. It’s never easy.

    OW: How are you guys doing? Great British win.

    LH: That was the feeling I can’t really describe. It feels amazing to be up here, so proud to see all these great flags everywhere. The support this weekend has been immense and I’m really proud that I could do this for you all. Thank you so much for all your support, pushing us, the team faultless this weekend. Valtteri did an exceptional job as well so it’s a perfect weekend for us.

    OW: What’s next? Are you going to win the championship?

    LH: That’s the plan. That’s the plan. And then I want to be in Cars 4.

    OW: Done!

    LH: No, it’s been… I really… there’s a long long way to go.

    Jenson Button: I’m actually going to move past you for a second, Lewis. Valtteri, well, starting back of the top ten is always going to be tricky but an awesome strategy and obviously a few issues from these boys over here: P2. 1-2 for Mercedes. How awesome.

    Valtteri Bottas: Yeah, thank you. You know I’m really happy for today. It was definitely not easy, the whole race, to start from P9 and there were many cars not easy to get through but the team did an absolutely perfect strategy and just get my head down, get going and in the end, also with the puncture with Kimi, we got a bit lucky but a perfect weekend for us and well done to Lewis and thank you guys for all the support, thank you.

    JB: Awesome, good lad. But again, you got to make the best of a tough situation and you did that, you brought home some massive points for the team, so congrats, buddy.

    VB: Thank you.

    JB: Kimi, that was a tough race. It looked like you and Lewis were disappearing off into the distance, it looked easy although obviously it’s never easy but it looked it. And then you had the problem, but pretty awesome still to fight back to third position. How do you feel about it?

    Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah, I think we got more or less most of the part of the race, the car in the race. They were just a bit faster today. Tried at some point to go a little bit to go faster but then unfortunately there seemed to be an unlucky situation which keeps following us and for whatever reason the front left not really exploded but the canvas came off from the tyre. Luckily I could get back quite fast and the car stayed in one piece. Unfortunately, Seb had the same thing a lap later more or less the same place. Not happy but better than nothing.

    JB: A strong weekend, which is nice to see. Lastly, Lewis, this is the first time I’ve actually stood on this podium so it’s great to stand here with this guy who did an absolutely amazing job. Look at what you’ve done. Look how happy all these people are with that awesome performance.

    LH: It’s incredible, man. Thank you. You deserved to be up here so many times when you were racing here. But it’s great that there are now two Brits up here still. Thanks so much and again, just a big thanks to everyone. You guys, I’m coming over to crowd surf, just so you know. Be ready for me! And everyone who’s watching, thank you so much for the support, all the kids, Billy, you guys down here. I really want to say thank you so much for coming. You guys have inspired me this weekend, and this race is for you. Thank you.

    JB: Awesome, well congratulations to you guys up here, especially you. And thank you so much for this. This is spectacular. The British fans are the best in world and Silverstone was a very special Grand Prix this weekend because of these guys. That’s it from here; see you in two weeks at the Hungaroring.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Congratulations; the win in numbers: your 57th career win, fourth successive here at Silverstone and fifth overall, tying the record with Jim Clark. And of course in the Drivers’ championship you’re now just one point behind Sebastian Vettel. A very dramatic Grand Prix; you seemed to be completely in control but it was all going on around you. How aware were you of what was going on around you and how in control did you feel?

    LH: Yeah, I was very very fortunate, firstly the team did an exceptional job this weekend. The car felt great and really was generally faultless. So proud of everyone at the factory. Valtteri did an exceptional job to come back from way back in eighth, I believe. Perfect weekend for us as a team. I was up front, got a very good start and after that I was really able to manage the gap between myself and Kimi and just bit by bit, extend… We were planning on stopping on lap 19 or something like that so I was able to extend it by quite a bit and then at the end, I was… I had a decent gap and it was just about managing that 12-14s gap I had to Kimi. I could see on the TV screens at a few places around the track Valtteri’s race. I got to see a bit of the race. And then I heard at the end that there were some tyre blow-outs and I had some graining and some vibration on mine so the last couple of laps I took it easy because I knew that others were having trouble. But yeah, coming across the line, I could have kept going, I felt like I could have kept going. I think we really had the legs this weekend. You just saw the crowd… I’m sweating not necessarily because of the race but because I was just running outside and got to crowd-surf with everyone. The support has been immense this weekend. The crowd… I’m glad that the rain held off. The amount of flags, the amount of support, the energy was tremendous. I had some really great support from some Great Ormond Street children, Starlight Foundation children and Billy Monger has come down and given us… he really blessed the team and also a new friend of mine, Michael, who’s fighting cancer has come down from South Africa and he was down by the car as I was on the podium so really this is a dedication to him and to all those children who are fighting.

    Q: And just very quickly, you really extended either side of the pit stops; the gap went right out to Kimi either side… just very quickly, how did you do that?

    LH: At which point?

    Q: Either side of the pit stops, the gap went right out to Kimi.

    LH: Yeah, I’m not really following. Either side of it, yeah, sorry? Yeah, I think at that point once I got my tyres to balance and temperature, then I started to pick up the pace. I knew that I had three or four laps to go so I gave it everything and in that period of time, I happened to be just over a second up on Kimi per lap so that was really where I was able to make the difference. The pit stop was flawless and so I think overall the whole pit stop period of time was bang on. And then my out lap was great and those next few laps… because Valtteri was behind, it was important that I didn’t hold him up so I was trying to get away and get away enough that I didn’t also disturb his air.

    Q: Valtteri, from ninth to second, 36 laps on the soft. Tell us about that, did you encounter any issues such as the Ferraris did later in the race, towards the end of that stint and also you were looking for that gap to try and attack Vettel. Tell us about that?

    VB: Yes, so for us, as a team, really perfect weekend for circumstances, how we started today, me in ninth place. It’s just amazing what we’ve done today. The car was so good to drive today. It was really quick and the team did a perfect strategy for both of us, I think, me and Lewis. I did start the race on the soft tyre and had to run really long and we actually had to extend the first stint quite a bit because everything was still looking good. Yeah, towards the end, when I went to the supersoft the pace was quick with the fresh tyre. Sebastian was closing on Kimi. I think realistically he would have been a bit too far away, definitely, for me to get P2 but then I got lucky, on the other hand, he got unlucky to lose his second place in the end but 1-2 is perfect.

    Q: Kimi, finally, Max Verstappen held up Vettel in the early stages creating a nice opportunity to build a good lead. Did you think at that point you were pretty comfortable in second place and then tell us about the dramas at the end? Was there any kind of warning before that left front went? Did you hit any debris?

    KR: We were quite comfortable in second place, but it wasn’t the easiest feeling. We had a weekend in which it was quite difficult in some places. In the race it was similar to how it was on Friday so I tried to hang on to Lewis and tried to keep the gap but I just didn’t have enough speed today. Everything was going more or less smoothly and the gap was fine for us but then two laps from the end, I don’t know what happened, just before turn six, the left tyre didn’t explode but the rubber part came off suddenly in the middle of the straight and I don’t think I hit anything. Everything felt normal before that moment and luckily I came back quite fast. I think I destroyed the front wing after that because the tyre was flapping around but we managed to get a decent position. I was very unlucky but in a way lucky. I didn’t want to… the same happened to Seb a lap later. I think the same happened to him. I don’t know, I don’t know what happened. We could have been second today but we didn’t really have the speed against Lewis today. Obviously we have some work to be done. We had a decent start but once we fell behind, we had no real chance to beat them.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GP Plus) Lewis, warmest congratulations. You have now equalled Jim Clark and Alain Prost with five wins in this great race and we know how much you treasure that perpetual gold trophy. I was just wondering if you were planning to commission of your own, because you don’t get to keep it, if you haven’t done so already?

    LH: I’ve been wanting to get a copy of it for a long time. I don’t know if I have one yet, to be honest I haven’t seen any of my trophies for a long time; I put them in storage! But one day I will see, but I definitely want to get a copy of that one, it’s a beautiful looking trophy, it has so many legends stamped on it. I’m proud to see that the Hamilton name is there, fully ingrained in it and will be there way beyond my time.

    Q: (Andrew Dillon – The Sun) Lewis, where for the next race will the preparations be – Disneyland maybe, something like that? What does it say about you as a driver and this season that you can go on your controversial trip, as you did, and come back here and win so convincingly. What does it tell us about you that you are able to do that, please?

    LH: I think it… there is no reason to question my preparations. I have more poles than most. I am obviously building up the wins that I have. My performance is second to none. If you don’t know now that my preparation is mostly on point, then I guess you never will. I will be training hard next week in different locations, as I always do. I have work, so I will be working and focusing all week and then I will be in the UK for at least two days when I will be at the factory and then I will go to the race.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Lewis, congratulations on your fifth win. Obviously the speed of the Mercedes indicates that a fourth world championship for you now is more than a real possibility. If you were to achieve that would you consider retirement, which has been mentioned in the media a few times or would you carry on for a fifth title?

    LH: I think that’s so far ahead, to be honest. We’ve got so long to go in the season. At the moment I’m loving driving. I feel like I’m at my prime. I feel like I’m driving better than ever and I’m loving driving with the team. So I can’t imagine… there is no current reason to want to have to stop. I’m still enjoying it and I still have a contract with the team for at least a year so I plan to see that out at the moment.

    Q: (Andrew Dillon – The Sun) Lewis again, two parts please: can you a) can you talk about the feelings of crowd-surfing out there and b) what it means to have cut the lead at the top to just one point at the half way point, and to do it today at Silverstone?

    LH: Growing up watching the TV and seeing Nigel and seeing the greats, to see the reception they got from the fans, I had never seen it on TV at any other circuit with any driver, that kind of experience. It was always “how amazing that would be, I wonder what that feels like?” And every year for the last four years I have got to feel that and each year it feels like it has grown and got bigger, more accepted and like I just now went and did the crowd-surfing and they pulled me out into the crowd. The reception has just been amazing and so energising and really fuelling up the inspiration to go out there and put a weekend’s performance in like that. I saw that… I was constantly looking up where Vettel was and I could see that he was in third and hoping that Valtteri was going to catch him and then I saw the battle and I was like “yes!” I was super happy when he got past him. I was thinking: “we’ll take that”, firstly for the team and secondly it’s great for the result. But then I couldn’t have imagined or dreamed that he would have the problem at the end. So to have that close up this close at the British Grand Prix, that’s fantastic, so happy. Yeah, we just got to keep pushing, keep fighting. Clearly this weekend we have shown we are a team that is pushing. For the first time in history to come into a second era of car and still be in the fight I think it’s great. I think the fans are enjoying it. Kimi drove a great race and he was very quick today and I think it’s great to have this constant battle with the red cars.

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, first of all congratulations and thanks for taking everyone on this wonderful Sunday drive through this beautiful English countryside. I want you to describe this weekend, how it felt to take this win, to equal Jim Clark, to do this in front of people who love. Your brother is here, you have people who supporting you. What’s that feeling been like to do that as a British driver and to keep that lineage of success for British drivers in representing your country?

    LH: It just doesn’t feel… it does feel real I have to say. Not that it doesn’t feel real, it just feels… it’s hard to find the words. When I was racing here I just couldn’t imagine I’d be. I could imagine one day driving a Formula One car and maybe winning the championship but I couldn’t imagine having the poles I have, matching the likes of Jim Clark and Aytron Senna and having the Hamilton name amongst those stars. I’m really proud and I have to really take it back again to the incredible dedication from my family, my dad. The upbringing that I have had is obviously the reason that I’m able to do what I do. The opportunity that was provided by my dad. And then the love that I get here is pretty… It’s one of the most special, if not the most special thing that happens in the season for me. You don’t get it anywhere else and I don’t even think any other driver gets it in any national country like it is at the British Grand Prix. So there is no way we can lose this grand prix. There is just no way it is going to happen as far as I’m concerned.

    Q: (Chiara Rainis – tuttomotoriweb.com) Question to Kimi, at one point you said there was something in your cockpit that was moving around. What was it?

    KR: I don’t remember which part, halfway through the race there was something going around underneath my heels, around the pedals and it moved… I don’t know, there was something. I haven’t looked and it didn’t bother me too much, apart from going under my heels a few times but then, y’know, we’ll find out later what it was. Maybe there’s some rubber than flew into the cockpit or stuff like that. It happens sometimes. It bothered me a few times and then flew somewhere into a corner and didn’t really disturb me anymore.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions, one for Valtteri, one for Kimi. Valtteri, obviously the first part of the plan went really well when you got past the two Force Indias, Vandoorne and Hülkenberg very quickly – but then you started to close on Max and Seb as they were fighting. Was there a temptation to get into that fight – or you needed to give some space to keep your tyres alive. Second part of the question, are you happy with the way Sebastian defended on the second part of the race. And for Kimi, again, closer in racing then in qualifying – but not close enough as you said. Is this circuit-related or do you think Mercedes has taken an extra step here?

    KR: I don’t know whether we’re closer or not. I think the first part, yes but around the pitstops, probably not, so I have to say, obviously we have to look and try to learn. For sure last few circuits hasn’t been ideal for us. I’m sure Hungary should be a better circuit for us, and our strengths – but we wait and see. Need to keep working hard and try to improve. Try to keep fighting as much as we can.

    VB: For me, in the first stint, that’s when the start of the race was very good. Got through a couple of cars pretty quickly with the strong car that we had, that made it definitely easier with the good pace since lap one really. And when I was getting closer to Seb and Max, they were battling and it is always – even though you have pace – it is always difficult to get through if there’s two cars because one car between has the DRS. So, for me at that point, I knew I had to run long in that stint to make my strategy work. So it was kind of just managing the gap. Kind of hoping they would get themselves into some kind of trouble, by fighting that hard, and just waiting for my opportunity. The opportunity came later: they both pitted, I still had good tyres left and it was up to me to try to maximise whatever was left in the tyre. The fight with Sebastian for first time I tried to get past. I was going on the outside, he was defending on the inside, I think we were pretty much side-by-side. Yeah, for me there was no more space than to go off the track. Yeah, that is racing. For sure he was defending hard and I was trying hard from the outside, so no drama on that. Next lap, tried again, got a bit closer and managed to do the same move. That was OK.

    Q: (Sunni Upal – The Sun) Hi Lewis, five wins here now, going to Hungary soon, another track you’ve won many times at. These are longevity records but you’re still at the peak of your career. How many more years do you think you have in you? How many more wins around here?

    LH: I still feel young, so y’know… I still feel young, still feel fit. I’m sure I can go for a long time if I really wanted but yeah, I really have no idea what the future holds. All I can do is make sure that I maximise every single day and every opportunity that I get that comes ahead of me, I continue to enjoy my life the way I want to enjoy my life, regardless of what people say. Yeah, hopefully continue to make my family proud and my team proud and my fans proud. Yeah.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, you were very down after Austria, understandably and you were good with us and explained why, saying you were disappointed because you care so much, you’d had bad luck. This race, you’ve had a great race, good fortune as well with seeing Sebastian go off – just wondered what it does for you mentally, psychologically – a boost in the title race, really. What this actually means, if you can just describe it.

    LH: I personally don’t take much from the incident with Sebastian. More so just on our performance this weekend: through practice, through… even more so arriving with all the smoke and mirrors that was happening around, so much negativity trying to pull the weekend down but obviously it had no affect, and it didn’t affect… the fans were out-and-out loving and supporting all weekend, regardless. Yeah, and just to be able to go out there and perform. Just really proud of all the hard work that all the team have done, the engineers, our work ethic. As I said, in the last few races I think we’ve had the pace, it’s just unfortunate our hard work has really not shown in the results. So to come here and have that weekend, still not perfectly faultless but there’s more faultless races to come in the future. So, yeah, we’ve got Budapest… we didn’t even bring an upgrade here. We’ve got more coming hopefully in the future. It’s going to be a close race, I think. It’s going to go right down to the wire, clearly. But I’m hoping for a cleaner stint of races for Valtteri and I.

    Q: (Stephen Camp – Paddock Magazine) Question to Lewis for the first part and probably to you and Valtteri for the second part. Do you feel that now, at the halfway point of the season, the gap is now one point, do you feel it’s a turning point for yourself in the season – and second part to both of you, do you feel that Mercedes have perhaps maybe stepped ahead of Ferrari in terms of the competitiveness of both cars?

    LH: I think it’s difficult to ever say it’s a turning point. I think ultimately there’s constantly turns and you guys about the pendulum, back and forth. Obviously the pendulum swung a little bit this weekend and I think that’s only good for Formula One, it’s only good for the fans, probably super-exciting for them to see the close battle that we’re continuing to have. Without a doubt we hope it stays the way that it’s swung this time but, as you know, a pendulum swings. We’re just hoping that we can be on our toes to react to whatever is thrown at us in the next races.

    Valtteri?

    VB: Well, like Lewis said, we didn’t bring anything new really for this race. For sure it is always going to be track-specific. This seemed to be a strong one for us but as Lewis said as well, as a team we’ve been working really well together and the team has been flat-out since our struggles earlier in the year. That kind of is now paying off, all the hard work, and the car is feeling better and better, every weekend. So, can’t really still be too satisfied and say that we are ahead. We need to keep trying, try and get the car better, keep working on it, like we are doing now.