F1 Madness

Tag: japanese grand prix

  • 2019 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

     

    Q: Congratulations Valtteri. Qualifying P3 in Suzuka you don’t expect to lead into Turn 1 but Sebastian made a mistake, you pounced on it and you absolutely dominated that race in classic style. You must be delighted with that?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I’m very happy. Obviously it was a pretty close qualifying and yeah starting third here is never, but there’s not point ever to give up on anything and I knew anything was possible today and opportunities were there today and the first one was at the start. I had a really nice start and obviously Sebastian had an issue, so managed to get in the lead and then the pace was super good. I could really control the race. I really enjoyed it and had fun, so yeah, very, very happy.

    Q: Were you a little bit worried when they pulled you into the pits and said you were on a two-stop strategy or was that always the plan? Or did you think you were going to have to overtake Lewis?

    VB: Yeah, we knew that one or two stops were both possible and that there was not a massive difference between the two of them. We knew if could be a scenario. That really went smooth. I could really control it when I could and push when I wanted. Nice.

    Q: And to top off the day, Mercedes just won their sixth Constructors’ title in a row. You must be delighted with that?

    VB: Yeah, really proud to be part of the team. A sixth title in a row is so impressive, so very proud of every single team member, here at the race team and also at the factory. Well done guys and girls.

    Q: Well done Valtteri. Enjoy the evening. Sebastian, congratulations, I know after qualifying you put it on pole position, but I have to talk about the start – what happened? You moved and had to stop. Was that a mistake on your behalf?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I mean the lights were on a long time, but it was my mistake, so I lost the momentum them. So I ended up worse than just having a poor start, it was a really poor start. Then it was difficult because Mercedes was quite quick in the race, especially at the back of the stint, they had more pace than us. Yeah, Valtteri was flying, literally, at the end of the first stint. Obviously Lewis tried to do one stop and I guess it didn’t work and in the end I knew that he would come out behind and I just paced myself around all the bits in the track where I could and just tried to get good exits in the places where he could be a threat. So that worked but, yeah, it was obviously a tough afternoon to then maintain second.

    Q: Do you think if you hadn’t made that mistake at the start the win was possible?

    SV: I don’t know, because then they can obviously play a lot more the tactics, so obviously that way they had one car comfortably in the lead and Valtteri was out… we weren’t a threat to him. But yeah I think with the lack of pace today, probably second was probably the maximum, but surely I’m not happy with the very first start of the race but after that it was fine, but as I said we just lacked a little bit of pace. But overall it’s been a positive day, everything packed in one day and to get pole and second today is reasonable. It’s a bit of a shame. I don’t know what happened to Charles, otherwise we could have maybe had both cars to challenge them a bit more.

    Q: Lewis, I know everything you did today you never really got let loose, you were always kind of in the mix, but when you were free you had the pace and a challenge all the way to the end.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, well firstly it’s congratulations to the team, so well deserved. To win it six years in a row, the Constructors’ Championship, is the main point. I really just wanted to get the best points for my team today.

    Q: Looking ahead: now that it’s down to the Drivers’, do you suspect that you and Valtteri will be battling all the way a bit more freely now that the Constructors’ is over and over and done?

    LH: It makes no difference because we’ve been racing freely all year.

    Q: Yeah, but it will be a hard fight all the way to the end?

    LH: For sure.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Valtteri, great race by you today. Can we start by talking about the start? How good was it, almost as good as Austria 2017?

    VB: Not quite. I think nothing compares to that. Sebastian nearly had as good as that one I think. But I did have a very, very good start. But for sure it looks better if there are cars around that don’t have a good start and very much needed, because we knew we had a good race car here with a good pace but if you are behind other cars you can’t really use it that much. I was very happy to get to the lead and obviously it’s quite different being in the lead and being able to control and on this track [being] in the free air makes a difference so I really enjoyed it.

    Q: Once in the lead did you have any other concerns during the race?

    VB: Everything was going pretty smooth. Just the second stint was full of traffic, so I was overtaking backmarkers all the time, so I couldn’t really have good rhythm and very good pace in that stint.

    SV: You could have slowed down.

    VB: Yeah… I didn’t want to. Yeah, when Lewis didn’t stop for his second stop I was slightly concerned that maybe his tyres would last to the end and he could actually make it, because he had a decent gap to me. But obviously he was on the medium and I think that tyres would have struggled massively at the end. So, from my side, obviously a very good race and on top of that very, very happy for every single team member, getting the sixth Constructors’ title. Really well deserved. It’s not just the result today but all through the season so very, very proud.

    Q: Very well done. Sebastian can we start at the start? What happened from your point of view?

    SV: Well obviously I had a poor start so I lost quite a lot of momentum when the lights go off. A mistake on my side. I had it in my hands, literally, to perform a good start – normally starts are really strong – but obviously today we didn’t get it right. I don’t know what happened to Charles but we both missed out on the start maybe for different reasons. After that we knew it was going to be a difficult race. Overtaking isn’t straightforward here and obviously in terms of pace it was very difficult. We could see in the first stint that Valtteri was just quicker, especially towards the end, and then Lewis was catching. He was basically very close to me when we pitted, so I think overall we got the strategy right to stay ahead. I don’t know if… maybe they didn’t get it entirely right. But not the day we wanted if you start first and second. I don’t know where Charles finished. Sixth? Did he? So second and sixth.

    Q: Were you concerned about getting a penalty for the start?

    SV: I don’t know. Not really. Obviously I had a very poor start in general…

    [Valtteri and Lewis laughter]

    LH: You’re lying! Come on!

    SV: No I didn’t. If you jump the start then obviously you get caught, so I think it was just fine.

    Q: And Sebastian, we saw a thrilling battle between you and Lewis at the end of the race. How much did you enjoy that?

    SV: I was surprised when they pitted to be honest. I expected him to stay out and try the one stop. Once I knew that.. also before, Valtteri was so far away and we were not fast and it was not possible to catch him, so when he came out I was not rushing to open the gap, I was just trying to keep my tyres somehow fresh to make sure that if he arrives then everything is still in good shape and I have the chance to have good corner exits and play the advantage we have down the straights, which worked. It got a bit close once with traffic but other than that I think it was quite good. I was quite quite happy when I saw the chequered flag. I didn’t want to do another five laps like that. But I knew obviously in the places where you can’t pass I can take it easy to try to maintain the tyres a little bit.

    Q: Lewis, coming on to you, Sebastian was surprised that you came in for your second stop. How surprised were you to be called in?

    LH: I wasn’t surprised. The team put me on a two-stop, so I knew already when they put the medium on, that was going to be the case.

    Q: Do you think, as the race played out, you could have got to the end on that one-stop?

    LH: With better guidance I think I probably could have. They said, when they put the tyre on, that we are going a two stop because the degradation is high. So then, just the direction I was given in terms of having to try and close the gap to Seb. So every time I was having to close this gap, so used the tyres quite a lot. So, in how I was using them, there was no way I was going to make it to the end on that. If I had, from the beginning, said we’re just going to eke it out and just see if we could manage it, then I could have just driven differently and, potentially, held it to the end – but all in hindsight.

    Q: Lewis, you’ve been with the team for all six Constructors’ titles. How does this one rate against the others?

    LH: It definitely feels a little bit different. Obviously… I wouldn’t say as happy as previously because naturally we lost Niki this year and it doesn’t feel the same without him. So, naturally I’m very, very proud of the team. Very proud of everyone back at the factory, and I know Niki would be taking off his hat for today’s result. Yeah, I think we owe him a huge amount and this win is really for him. I think the whole team and the whole of Mercedes will probably dedicate this to Niki. I definitely do. Very, very proud to be a part of it, and a part of the journey – but it has been a difficult, a tough year for us, y’know? And every time I walk into the garage I see Niki’s headphones and his cap. I sat and I looked at it today before I got in the car. As I said, I know he’ll be proud, I know his family will be as well. The team should be proud too.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Question for the Mercedes drivers. Valtteri, you asked your engineer if he was sure that Lewis was going to stop a second time. He told you yes, you kept to that pace – but then two laps later you had your best lap until that point, that coincided when Lewis came in. Were you starting to have doubts that he was coming in and you wanted to catch, just in case? And for Lewis, if the plan was to go to second stops, why do you think they kept you out for so long at the end of the first stint when you were two to three seconds slower than Valtteri and Sebastian?

    VB: Yes, for sure I was wanting to make sure what’s the race situation and what’s going to happen. At that point actually I had some margin to save the engine a little bit for the future races. So that’s why I was asking if I really needed to go full gas, or if there’s a bit of margin for safety. I think the timing for the good lap times, I was getting through some backmarkers then getting into the rhythm again, getting into good lap times. All my stints, they were not massively long so I could really push hard when I wanted. And like I said earlier, the car felt really good today, so I was very comfortable to push when needed.

    Lewis?

    LH: Was I surprised. No, that was the target, that was what we were supposed to be going for. The surprise is that, every time you come out, by going long you end up frikkin’ twice as far behind as you were before, which is twice as frustrating. Because I can’t see that, so I’m not aware of that, and I come out and a I realise that I’ve just lost another ten seconds and I’m like: ‘Why – you could have told me. If you’d said I was going to come out a further ten seconds behind – I was pretty much 22 seconds behind Valtteri – I would said no and would have come in earlier.” So, there’ll be some discussion I’m sure when we get back.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you have many times said that this is your favourite circuit. Does it feel any different after finally winning here compared to those five before?

    VB: For sure. It keeps it my favourite circuit, for sure. It’s not been one of the strengths of mine – ever – this track, but even though it’s always been kind of the favourite that I’ve looked forward to the most in terms of the driving side. So, yeah, for sure now it makes it a more special track for me, and it’s one of the very iconic grands prix in the calendar to win, so very pleased to do that, for sure.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Valtteri, Lewis. A sixth successive double set of titles – confirmed today, one of you two will win the Drivers’ Championship. Toto has spoken before about the pride of wearing the shirt, the staff and Mercedes, can you talk a little bit about how proud you are to be part of this record-breaking team, and what you’ve built here.

    VB: I think I said earlier, I’m very proud obviously. We’re making history and, it’s funny with anything you do, if you are getting success, and so on, sometimes it’s quite tricky to realise that success. Sometimes you have to step outside, a step or two to realise it really. I’m sure we will look back at this afterwards at some point, that wow, we made six and obviously hopefully more – but this moment, yeah, I hope we all can really appreciate it and take the time to enjoy it as well, even though we need to keep pushing. It just feels like life goes pretty quickly onwards and it’s very important to enjoy those moments and, at least personally for me, I’m really, really proud, really happy for every single team-member. I know the amount of work that has gone into achieving it. So very, very happy for everyone and I just hope everyone realises that and enjoys it because it’s well-deserved.

    LH: I think I kind of said stuff earlier on. I’ve been with the team for seven years. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13 so very proud to be racing the silver star and be part of this incredible journey that Mercedes is on. Joining them in 2013, with just the utter belief that we will do something special, it’s kind of crazy to see it coming to fruition, all the hard work. Naturally, when I met everyone in 2013, just seeing how dedicated they were there, and it still remains the same. Even though we have the success each year, they’re hungry, they’re driven, they’re excited that they have Valtteri and I in the car and they give absolutely everything. And I love that, and it really inspires me to go out there and drive the way that I do, the way that we do throughout the weekend.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Two questions for Seb: how did you enjoy the battle against Lewis and secondly, if I’m correct, there’s not chance whatsoever now to clinch the title for you so is Mexico the first step of the next attempt?

    SV: Well, obviously not happy with the fact that we didn’t have the year that we were looking for but it’s not today that made the difference, not yesterday, not last week or… Obviously it’s been a long year and it’s still going so… I don’t think we’re lacking anything. I think we just need to work better. I think we are very committed, working very hard but it’s not yet on the level that can be achieved. Obviously Mercedes have shown that in the last years that you can do better and they’ve been able to maintain that. I think we are not in that position, but I’ve loved to be honest and I’m sure that we would be more enthusiastic by nature but that’s not the case so we need to work better. As I said, I think we don’t need to work harder but I think we need to work better. The first one: yeah, I enjoyed it but obviously I knew that I was a bit of a sitting duck because I was quite slow in the corners and very fast on the straights, so I just tried to play my advantage and that worked. I’m sure that Lewis didn’t enjoy that as much but in the end it was key to… or we tried as hard as we could to stay ahead despite being slower at the end so that’s good but overall we had a great chance today, starting first and second. Obviously after the first couple of meters that advantage was gone but after that we knew that it would be difficult from where we were to turn it around and we saw in the first stint that we just couldn’t go with them, especially at the end they were a lot stronger. So as I said, there’s still room for improvement. It doesn’t start in Mexico – next year;  next year starts next year so whatever we can learn this year, I think we’ve learned a lot about our car, the weaknesses, we’ve improved it but we’re still not there so… We’ve had a strong couple of races but overall I think we’re still a little bit behind.

    Q: Sebastian, you say you’ve learned a lot about yourselves; what have you learned about Mercedes this year?

    SV: It’s very difficult, obviously you can’t see what they are doing but I think from the outside they are very close to perfection every time they go out on track so very consistent, very little mistakes. That’s certainly also part of what makes them  so strong but yeah, if you clinch the Constructors title with four races to go there’s a lot of things you do better than all the others. If you go into detail then you can argue what their car is maybe doing better than ours but I don’t think that’s the point overall, it’s a team effort and as I said, I think we do have the ingredients, we do have the commitment, we do have the intelligence but we just need to do it better. It’s a lot of small things; it’s not one thing that we need to improve, it’s a lot of small things that we need to do better, every single one of us and that’s the only way that we can try and step up. Hopefully they get a bit bored, we will see what happens.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just throwing it forward, you can now obviously win the championship in Mexico so how important is it for you to get that over the line as soon as you can? And Valtteri does this result give you renewed hope that you might be able to do the unthinkable and beat Lewis to the title?

    LH: I think for me it’s never  been a case of always wanting to rush things. Valtteri’s driven well all year long, he’s done a great job today and he will most likely do a very very solid job these next races, so we still have a battle, the fight continues. I think Mexico is generally our worst race of the year because of the way our car is set up and it’s going to be a tough one for us. The last few have been pretty shocking, even though we’ve won the title there. I’m hoping for a better weekend but I think it’s going to be very hard to beat the Ferraris with those long straights. We have no hope of getting by on those straights, that’s for sure but even if you look at the others, the McLarens are picking up some serious speeds on the straights, so are the Red Bulls so I think it will be a tricky one. I don’t anticipate it will be Mexico. I think we will be battling for a good few races.

    VB: Yeah, I don’t really give up on anything as long as there’s a theoretical chance so there’s no point in that. Today was a good example on the track where it’s difficult to overtake. You start third, OK, two Ferraris ahead, it’s a difficult case to win but it’s possible. Yeah, everything’s possible although I’m realistic as well that I will need to be very lucky, that’s a fact, to win all the rest of the races but yeah, I don’t really think about that much at this point. It is my bad, mostly, that I’ve been behind this much in the points compared to Lewis, it’s my fault which I try to fix for the future but it is where we are now and just take it now race by race and see how it goes.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, are you kicking yourself now that you did make that stop or are you thinking maybe I could have got to the end of the race on those tyres? Question to the other two drivers: if you were in that same situation, you’re leading the race, you’ve got 22 laps to go, would you have risked it and stayed out? Final question: Sebastian, who’s going to win the title out of these two guys here?

    LH: Honestly, I’m thinking of what I’m going to eat tonight. I’m thinking about I can’t wait to get back to the UK to see my niece and nephew. What’s done is done. Naturally we’ll go and sit and talk to the engineers and strategists. I think today could have been done better. There’s multiple scenarios during the year when that’s been the case but nonetheless, Valtteri did the job. I’d have had to have driven differently in that second stint, stretch out as far as you can… naturally when I was in the lead I thought about staying out but by the time I’d already pushed so much to close the gap to Seb… we should have at least got a one-two today but I think the strategy wasn’t optimum for me. It was naturally optimum for Valtteri but yeah, there were a lot scenarios. Valtteri had a very good gap to the first stint. He didn’t have to stop early because he clearly had a good enough gap. They should have stopped me before Seb to undercut him but it’s always an afterthought. Often the first car gets priority which is always how we’ve always had it but we can do better as a team, to make sure we score more one-twos, so we’ll just work hard on that and there’s no love lost or anything like that. We’ll be pushing hard.

    VB: Yeah, obviously, I don’t know. I wasn’t in his car and I can’t know how the tyres were feeling and how much he was pushing before and so the only thing I know is that at this point for him probably the computer would have said no, it’s not possible with the numbers we had for the tyre life so that’s the only thing I know.

    SV: Yeah, I think Valtteri has said pretty much it. It depends a lot on how you feel with the tyres so I don’t know whether Lewis was talking with the team and asking to stay out or what were the options, but if you get the call out then you trust the team and you come in. And the second one is that Lewis will win it. Doesn’t matter which race. I don’t think it matters for him, does it? It wouldn’t matter to me.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Lewis, in the last few laps you had softer tyres than Sebastian, newer tyres than Sebastian, you had DRS but still you couldn’t make the move. How worrying is that, that this gap is too big in terms of straightline speed, for Mercedes to catch for next year?

    LH: We’ve got time for next year. I think it’s not been a great year for us in terms of the great issue, in terms of our engine development. I think it’s been a really hard time for the guys, they’ve been working as hard as ever but it’s just not been as successful in that department, as I say, plus it’s quite draggy but we’ve had great reliability and hopefully that remains the same and that’s still something to be really proud of of course. We have, obviously, still won the Constructors championship but we’ll push to try and maybe reduce the drag a little bit but also increasing power for next  so they’re fully onto it and I have all the confidence in the world that we’ll be able to make some sort of step into the next season. Of course I got in the tow of Seb, the tow with DRS and maximum power and everything… it’s incredible how quick they are. It makes it very very difficult, even if you’ve got the advantage of the tyre but I think it’s cool anyway, it provides interesting racing. I wish we could have had a closer race today but it’s a difficult track to do so.

  • 2019 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2019 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Guenther STEINER (Haas), Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo)

    Q: Tomorrow’s programme has been called due to the typhoon. Can we get your thoughts on that decision and could you explains how it has affected your programme today. Perhaps we can start with Fred?

    Frédéric VASSEUR: I think that it’s safety first and probably it makes no sense to ask the spectators to come on track and then to be in a big mess. In terms of schedule and programme for the team. We already thought about this yesterday evening honestly. OK, it will change the programme but I think we can afford the weekend with two free practices. Perhaps it will be a good exercise for the future.

    Q: Thank you. Cyril?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, nothing really to add. It has happened before and it will happen in the future. There is enough time on Sunday to conduct both qualifying and the race. I think maybe it will give us an impression of Formula E, maybe a little bit, so not a bad thing. That’s for my neighbor on the left, and on the right.

    Q: Tanabe-san?

    Toyoharu TANABE: First, I’m sorry to the fans willing to be here Saturday, but in terms of our programme we will just prepare for the qualifying and the race this afternoon and then maybe analyse the data and then ready for the qualifying on Sunday and the race.

    Q: Mattia?

    Mattia BINOTTO: I would join certainly his comment, as first I think it’s a shame for the fans but it’s a fully respectable decision, safety is first. In terms of programmes, certainly it’s a lot more intense now. We are certainly skipping one session, which is FP3. Qualifying may be occurring on Sunday morning. But it means that today it will be a lot more intense. We’ve got, eventually, more tyres to be used – the ones from FP3. We need to set up the car for the Quali on Sunday morning. There’s just a session less. Things are more complicated but certainly a great challenge but I’m pretty sure it should be a good show and spectacle on Sunday.

    Q: Guenther?

    Guenther STEINER: Nothing to add from a sporting side. I think it was the right decision from the organisers, safety is first, and the rest is set.

    Q: Thank you gentlemen. Tanabe-san, if I could come back to you, please? It’s always special to race here at Suzuka and Honda has a good chance of getting a good result this weekend. How exciting is it to be in that situation?

    TT: Yes, it is a very special race. The Japanese Grand Prix is our home race, and then the Suzuka circuit is owned by Honda. All Japanese fans are willing it to have a good result from Honda-powered cars. On the other hand, it’s kind of pressure for us, but fans give us more power. In terms of the weekend preparation, the setting is the same as the other races. So, we just set up the PU accordingly and do our best.

    Q: Can we get a word too on the performance of Naoki Yamamoto this morning in the Toro Rosso. He was only one tenth slower than Dany Kvyat. How would you assess his performance today?

    TT: Considering it’s his first run on a grand prix weekend I think he did a good job. Comparing the lap time against Dany is a bit difficult because they are doing different strategy in the practice. But he did a decent job for the team to set up the car in the first session of the weekend and then his run today will definitely encourage Japanese young drivers. So, thank you Toro Rosso and Red Bull and it’s good for the Japanese fans as well.

    Q: Thank you. Fred, coming back to you: there are five races left this year, so when you look back at this season, has it been a success?

    FV: It was a really up and down season. We had the first four or five races where we scored a lot of points and then we had a bad momentum around Monaco and Barcelona and then we went back. The last four races were very difficult. It’s up and down. But let’s see in the last five if it’s up and hopefully the last five will be OK.

    Q: What can you do to level out the performances?

    FV: It’s small things and small details honestly. If you compare with Sochi that we were, with Antonio, we were P13 in Quali but we were two tenths off compared to P7 in Q2 and it’s very, very tight and for small details sometimes you can be completely out of the classification but we have to take care when you are doing the analysis. But it’s true also that we made too many mistakes over the last three or four weekends – teams, drivers, everyone in the same basket – but at the end of the day we have to wake up a little bit and to come back to the pace and top score points in the last four events.

    Q: And how has the experience of Kimi Räikkönen helped the team?

    FV: He’s staying calm. He’s not a big nervous. I think it’s good also for us to stay focused on the real issue and not to start to try to go in every single direction. We know what did wrong on the last two or three events and I hope that we will be able to correct it for Suzuka and the next ones, and that’s it.

    Q: Guenther, if we could come to you now please. In Russia, Kevin Magnussen scored his first points since the German Grand Prix. What aero was he running on his car that weekend and is that the direction going forward?

    Guenther STEINER: I don’t know what aero he was running because we are mixing it up a little bit. There is no definitive spec what we could call it. It’s a hybrid, we call it and, going forward, in the moment we are on a very similar spec like we had in Russia. Going forward, we test a few things and I cannot tell you what we do in the next race because we just try to get better and get a better understanding so we are not in this position next year. But, I mean, it seemed to be working a little bit better in Russia. So, let’s hope we can find a few more points on our way to the end of the season.

    Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently with the development of this year’s car?

    GS: A lot. It’s like… I don’t want to go into the specifics of technical stuff but we should have listened a little bit more to the drivers when they gave their opinion about what the car is doing and whatnot. And sometimes listen more to drivers than look at numbers. That’s what we have to learn out of this. And now I think we need to get what drivers say correlated with what the numbers say and get an understanding so we can move forward. As I said, we would have done a lot different from Barcelona onwards.

    Q: Cyril, tell us about the progress with your car, particularly this weekend, and what feedback you’ve had from your drivers about the new front wing?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: It’s as always when you bring this type of parts, in particular with these current regulations, it’s a very sensitive part. I think everyone here would say the same thing. So, it always takes a little bit of time to understand properly, to measure, we’ve done a number of back-to-back tests. The guys are currently looking at the data at the factory – and also listening to drivers, Guenther, we are also doing that – and no, there is nothing really bad but I think there is more to come in pace and in balance in particular. But this is a very complex area of development of the car. It’s highly loaded so it creates some instability. It’s complex.

    Q: Can you tell us any more about what the drivers were saying about the car this morning?

    CA: I don’t want to go into specifics but I think the balance was not exactly where it was supposed to be, so we need to review that in particular, make sure that the data do back up what they were experiencing on track. And if that does, we’ll be making some set-up change in FP2 to see if we can indeed get it to work a bit better.

    Q: OK, and looking a bit further ahead, it looks like you won’t be supplying any customer teams in 2021. How will that impact on your power unit development?

    CA: In particular for next year there is no impact because the engine for next year is done, it’s on the dyno already, you know that it’s a long lead-time development, so nothing is going to impact what we are doing for 2020. It’s going to impact what we could be doing for 2021 on the basis that, when you have multiple customers, in particular the way that Renault is doing it, we always try to satisfy everyone to take on board all the comments in terms of installation, and so on and so forth, so that will be one less distraction. We will be able to focus on ourselves and just on ourselves. And that’s it. From an economic perspective, there is absolutely no impact and nothing in it, because we sell, more or less, at a cost. Due to the price cap limitation. So, frankly, it’s nothing, that it’s good news, because, you know, it’s always satisfying to see your product being used by multiple teams but in terms of what we need to achieve and deliver for Renault it has absolutely no impact.

    Q: Mattia, we understood from Charles yesterday that you spoke to both drivers in Maranello last week. How confident are you that another situation like the one we saw in Russia won’t arise again?

    Mattia BINOTTO: First, it’s not the first time we are speaking in Maranello. It’s true that I met both of them this week, they were in Maranello for some activities: simulator etc., I think we had positive, constructive, honest, fair, transparent discussions with both of them, individuals. I think what happened in Sochi, nothing really bad but certainly something that needs to be improved and addressed and I think it’s only an opportunity of lesson learned and trying to do better in the future. But how much I’m confident it will not happen, I’m not at all. I think these are both very good drivers. They are all going for a single objective which is winning themselves but I think what again is more important is that at least we between us we’ve got clarity and fairness and I think that’s key.

    Q: You say they’re both very competitive drivers. What have you learnt about Sebastian and Charles over the last two grand prix weekends?

    MB: I think that they are both performing very well and, as I’ve often said this season, it’s somehow a luxury for a team principal having this situation. I’m very pleased for the racing performance of Sebastian, as I am for the one of Charles since, let’s say, the start of the season and his progresses. What I’ve learned, that we’ve got a very competitive line-up. But I don’t think I learned it. It’s not a surprise, it’s something on which we’re simply happy.

    Q: And what about this weekend. How’s your car performing and what do you make of the pace of the Mercedes this morning in FP1?

    MB: It’s only FP1, very difficult normally to judge. We cannot neglect that we set the four poles in the last four grands prix but we’ve seen as well that our competitors have brought some upgrades here. The Red Bull and the Honda will be very competitive this weekend as well. The weekend will be shortened because of tomorrow. Sunday morning the conditions can be very difficult for everybody after, let me say, the bad weather of tomorrow. So, I think it will be a difficult and challenging weekend for everybody. More important that we are focused on ourselves. We’ve got some homework after FP1 certainly to do. A few balance issues to be addressed. Again, I think the benchmark are still the cars which are ahead in the Championship and we are still the challengers but I’m pretty sure we can be competitive and this is our objective.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Eric Bielderman – L’Equipe) To all managers: would you regard this afternoon’s FP2 as a potential qualification session due to the fact that Sunday morning, with the wind, it might not be possible… there is a slight chance it might not be possible to run the qualification process?

    GS: I wouldn’t say a qualification but I think a lot of us will try to put in a fast time to prevent…  if qualifying is cancelled on Sunday morning, they are discussing it now, we need to look at the weather. But for sure, we have got more tyres available as well because we are not running tomorrow so it’s a judgement for everybody to do, to see if they can do a good lap but I think it will be quite interesting as Mattia said before, this afternoon, with not having FP3, there will be a lot of running out there this afternoon so hopefully we have got an interesting programme going.

    MB: Not much more to add. I think the answer was completely clear. I don’t think the main objective of this afternoon will be to set the best lap time. The main activity, certainly, will be to address any set-up issues that we got in the morning, making sure that we are ready for Sunday because still, I think, the most likely will be to have qualifying on Sunday morning and then the race in the afternoon. But no doubt, if we can, we will try to do at least a good lap, just in case.

    TT: In terms of a PU settings point of view, we just set up our PU for the qualifying and the race this afternoon and we will see. I hope the typhoon goes very quick after landing on the Japan island.

    CA: Yeah, it’s going to be a bit of a balancing exercise because we still need to prepare the race and particularly, in our case, because of the development parts, we still need to understand (them) a bit better and look at that but in parallel, we will keep that in the back of our minds. As far as we are concerned, we have elected to stay with our Friday engine, which is down on power because it’s an engine which we were using initially at the start of the season, so it’s costing a little bit but on balance we still believe that Sunday will be decent enough so that qualifying can be run so we prefer to stay with that plan.

    FV: Not much to add that I think at the end it will be a mix between FP2 and FP3 and in case of non-quali on Sunday, I hope that we won’t take the race number for Antonio!

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Fred, when will the team decide who Kimi’s team-mate will be next year?

    FV: We will take the decision quite soon but honestly, if you have a look at the last event I think that Antonio is doing a very strong job, that he was matching Kimi in the last six or seven qualifyings in a row. He was in front in Sochi. OK, the first lap was not a good one for us but he’s doing the job and he’s improving step-by-step but this morning we had an issue on the car and he was not able to show the pace but he’s doing the job, he’s improving and I’m very confident with Antonio.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Financial Times) I have a two-part question for Mattia: first off, I was wondering if you could talk us through the progress on the 2021 rules from the perspective of Ferrari and secondly, what is your current position on the use of the veto?

    MB: 2021, there will be a meeting with the FIA and F1 next week on the 16th which I think will be very important because that’s the last one, altogether, before the end of the month when there will be a new vote. I think there are still a lot of open points and discussions are still ongoing so how will be the conclusion of all these discussions, it is very difficult to say at the moment. There are various interests between teams, between the teams and the F1 and the teams and the FIA. But certainly, as Ferrari, we are intending to play our role, we believe as Ferrari because of what Ferrari represents for F1, we’ve got a voice, an important voice in the discussions but no doubt that there’s still a lot of points to be addressed. In terms of the veto – you mentioned the veto – as I said I think last time in Sochi that will really be a shame. I don’t think that should be the case at all. I think we’ve got a good and open discussion with the stakeholders at the moment and I’m as well somehow hopeful that we can find the right compromise at the end.

    Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) Gunther, you’ve been summoned to the FIA stewards for what you said over the radio in Sochi. Are you surprised, are you upset, do you believe you have a strong defence case?

    GS: I don’t know what they’ve got to say. I’m going to see them in five minutes, I will be leaving here early actually, because the two dates clashed. I don’t know what they’re going to tell me. You read the same as I read so I don’t know any more information than that. I can tell you something a little bit later but I hope I don’t get a penalty for leaving the press conference early!

    Q: (Martin Moravec – dpa) Mattia, when you look at this intense rivalry between Sebastian and Charles, do you fear that at some point you could lose control of your drivers?

    MB: No, no I don’t think there is the risk of losing control because there is a difference between not managing drivers and at least having the intent to manage them. There is always a solution which is not manage them, maybe someone may do so, I think our intention is to try to manage the situation to the benefit of the team and secondly to the benefit, overall, as well, of the drivers. We may do a few things that can be addressed or improved and I think that is what we are building and trying to do for the future.

  • 2019 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2019 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Renault), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), Carlos SAINZ (McLaren), George RUSSELL (Williams)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: George, you haven’t raced at Suzuka before, so how excited are you about what lies in store this weekend?

    George RUSSELL: Yeah, extremely excited. It’s a circuit I’ve been looking forward to driving for years actually. It’s actually one of the best and purest out there, so just hoping we don’t get rained off tomorrow or Saturday.

    Q: Is there one particular aspect of the track you’re looking forward to the most?

    GR: I’d say the thing I’m looking forward to the most is probably the ‘Esses’ to start with, you know, such an amazing flow of corners. But just generally I think the whole circuit is really incredible, so just the whole experience of it.

    Q: Can we take stock and reflect on your first season in Formula 1. What have you learned and has F1 met your pre-season expectations?

    GR: I think it has met my pre-season expectations, just the whole Formula 1 rollercoaster itself. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect but I’m really happy with how the season has gone generally. From the good moments personally to the tougher times I wouldn’t change anything at all because especially from the tougher times I’ve learned a huge amount and generally being in the position I have been, at the back of the grid, it’s given me an opportunity to just explore a bit more and go under the radar and hopefully that will help me out in years to come when we should be fighting.

    Q: Thanks, enjoy the weekend ahead and good luck. Max, Hondas home race this weekend. Has it been a particularly busy build-up for you?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, yeah it has been. On Tuesday the whole day. But actually I got to drive the very first Honda F1 car so that was actually quite cool. But I guess it’s more than normal that you start a bit early this week with some commitments.

    Q: And how was the RA272, the car with which Honda won that Mexican Grand Prix back in 1965?

    MV: I didn’t fit in very well; I was a bit stuck. It was just a really cool experience.

    Q: Now let’s throw it forward to this weekend. What can we expect from you and Red Bull. You’ve scored a podium for the last three years at Suzuka. Given a clean race is a fourth consecutive podium realistic?

    MV: That’s definitely the target. First, also, let’s wait and see how the weekend is going to go and also with the weather, but of course we’ll try to do our very best this weekend to have a good result.

    Q: Thanks. Nico, you’ve enjoyed a purple patch recently and you’ve reached Q3 in the last four races. You’ve also go a new front wing this weekend, so what are you expecting from the car and from yourself this weekend?

    Nico HULKENBERG: I think it’s kind of the same build-up business as usual. Obviously we want to score as many points as possible on Sunday. We’re still fighting in the championship and it’s just about getting the maximum out of the car and ourselves, especially Saturday but Sunday.

    Q: And this new front wing?

    NH: Yeah, it’s new, so we’ll see how that copes and if it brings something to the party or not.

    Q: OK, let’s throw it further forward now. Lots of your fans are waiting to hear about your plans for next year. Has there been any movement? Is there anything you can say?

    NH: No, frankly not. There’s no news, so it’s a little bit more of a patience game, so I’ll have to and see a little bit longer.

    Q: Carlos, great race in Sochi for you and you’re now looking to score your 50th points finish in Formula 1. How confident are you of achieving that this weekend at Suzuka?

    Carlos SAINZ: Fairly confident. I think this year whenever we have been doing solid weekends like we did in Russia we have been in a very strong position to score points. Those first three races at the beginning of the season and those first three races in the second half of the season that put us a bit on the back foot but hopefully after Sochi we are back to scoring points. I didn’t know that stat, that 50th points scoring, but it would be a nice thing to do here in Suzuka.

    Q: You talk about some races that put you on the back foot. Well, you’ve already scored 66 points this year, which is more than any others season in your Formula 1 career. How much satisfaction does that give you?

    CS: Yeah, it’s quite a lot of satisfaction obviously because we didn’t know coming into the year more or less where we were going to be so scoring so many points, seeing the hard work of the tea, paying off and putting together, whenever we’re in the points, solid points finishes – P6s, P7s, P5s. It’s really good news. We’re still very far from where we want to be. We want to make good progress in the next couple of years but at least this year we made a very big step forward and that’s a good starting point.

    Q: You say you want to make progress, well in 2021 McLaren are going to be using Mercedes power units. Your thoughts on that deal?

    CS: Obviously it’s a deal for the future. At the moment we are focused on our relationship with Renault, which honestly has helped us a lot – to realize our own problems and to realize where we need to work the most, thanks to last year’s competitiveness with Renault and Red Bull we could judge our package better thanks to that engine and thanks to the progress Renault has done on this year’s power unit we are actually scoring a lot of points. The Mercedes deal is part of the plan, to our road to recovery, let’s put it like that, and hopefully that will also give us another good step.

    Q: Charles, thank you for waiting. You’re top scorer in the last four races. How confident are you of Ferrari’s performance this weekend?

    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, it’s working pretty well since we came back from holidays. The car feels great. We’ve had, I think, four poles in a row, which is always nice. The last two races have been a bit… not what I expected, but the performance is there, which is the most important, and there are no reasons for us not to be competitive this weekend. So, yeah, we’ll see how it goes. I think we need to focus on the Friday especially. Saturday seems to be very tricky, if not impossible to drive, so Friday will be very important. And I hope we can have a very positive Sunday.

    Q: You say the last couple of races have been a bit tricky, obviously Russia didn’t go as smoothly as you would have hoped. How were your discussions with the team and with Sebastian after the race?

    CL: Yeah, obviously there was some misunderstanding from the car but I think we’ve had a discussion and everything is clear now. Obviously it felt like it was a huge deal from the outside – which it definitely wasn’t but yeah, now everything is fine.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) George, on paper, the car on race results is where it was at the start of the year – but how much has the car improved?

    GR: It’s definitely improved a lot, just in the driveability side of things. So, from within, it’s definitely a nicer car to drive. It is obviously, always difficult to make huge leaps forward for any team but I think the foundations we have in place now are really positive going into next year. We’re trialling a new front wing this weekend, which shouldn’t necessarily bring much performance to this year’s car but should hopefully unlock quite a lot for us moving into 2020, so I’ve got faith we should be fighting. Probably towards the lower end of the midfield but hopefully in the mix much more than we are at the moment.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Charles Leclerc. Sorry to come back to the subject. Did you have talks with Mattia Binotto and Seb Vettel since last race in Russia. Did you go to Maranello when Seb was there?

    CL: No, unfortunately I had some things happening on the day he was in Maranello, so we didn’t have the chance to meet-up together – but I had a meeting with Mattia and he had one with Seb the day earlier. Yeah, everything is fine, as I’ve said.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all five drivers please. At the moment we do have the topic of the typhoon that’s expected to hit the area on Saturday. Obviously the FIA and F1 are monitoring the situation – but just from a drivers’ perspective, you know what it’s like driving these cars and these tyres in the wet. How much rain do you really need where it’s a position where it’s unsafe for you to go on track? Do you want to be consulted when it comes to deciding whether it goes ahead on Saturday?

    NH: Yeah, I think we’ve seen in recent years that, in terms of rain, we don’t need too much for it to be unsafe. Especially when you throw wind in there as well. It gets, I think, pretty tricky. We can obviously debate a lot and discuss but I think we just have to wait and see what actually hits us and how bad it is, or not, and make the right call at the time. Obviously there’s a lot of fans here. We want to race; they want to see us drive. So, I think we need to try and make this weekend happen – but obviously we need to see what happens and we’re at the mercy of the weather there.

    Q: Max?

    MV: I’ve got my speedboat on standby so I’m ready to go for Saturday.

    Q: Max, would you like to see the drivers being consulted about the conditions?

    MV: Yeah, I guess so, but it’s going to be very clear anyway if it’s possible or not. At the moment, it doesn’t really look very likely on Saturday. Sunday looks fine. Yeah, let’s see.

    Q: Charles?

    CL: Yeah, as Max said, I think it’s pretty clear if the typoon is going to come here there’s no way we can drive but off my previous experience – and I’ve only done one year and a half in Formula One but they’ve always been quite safe with the conditions. So yeah, they’ve always asked what we thought about the track once we’re in the car. So, yeah, happy. We will see.

    Q: And Carlos?

    CS: Nothing to add. I have full trust in Michael and his team that we will run in safe conditions if we do so. Hockenheim is a good example. The first five laps of the race it was clearly a bit too wet and until the drivers there in the midfield, we didn’t say it was safe enough, it wasn’t clearly green flag. So, it’s not a problem for me.

    Q: And George?

    GR: Not much to add. As the guys said, it will be pretty clear come Saturday what the situation will be. I think we can handle quite a lot of water. It’s just the standing puddles and the aquaplaning that is the biggest limitation for us. So, like Carlos said, I’m sure they’ll make the right decision.

    Q: (Rik Spekenbrink – AD Sportwereld) Question for Max. If qualifying will be postponed until Sunday, how would that change your approach and routine towards qualifying and the race, and also for the team?

    MV: Bit more free time on Saturday and waking up a little bit earlier on a Sunday. I mean, we have done it before. From my side, I have experienced it once before, I think in Austin 2015? So, yeah, it is what it is. It doesn’t really affect me.

    CS: More FIFA!

    MV: Yeah, I brought it here, so if you want to have a game on Saturday.

    CS: Always up for it.

    MV: If you’re ready to lose…

    CS: Hmmm… we will see.

    Q: (Giusto Ferronato – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Charles, at this point of the season what is more important for you: to help Ferrari to stay in front of Red Bull or stay in front of your teammate?

    CL: Well, I think as a team it’s always a priority to do good for the team but then as (in) every team, Seb wants to beat me, I want to beat him as much but yeah, the priority is to do good for the team which (is what) we all do.

    Q: (Jake Michaels – ESPN) To the four guys who have driven here before: can you just describe what it’s like to drive this track, particularly the first sector, the difficulties and why it’s so enjoyable?

    CS: I think not only the first sector, I think the whole track just has a very good flow and a very good sequence of corners. I think the fact that the track also penalises mistakes in the first sector and maybe put a wheel wrong you have a chance of… not crashing but putting it in the gravel also makes the adrenalin and also the difficulty of the track a bit harsher. Because of that, I think many Formula One drivers we miss these kind of tracks. I wish, like in the future, we can go towards designing these kind of tracks instead of others where – and I’m not going to mention now – but yeah, I really like it, the fact that it’s also a bit narrower than the average track and in sector one makes it a bit more demanding. So it has a lot of things – elevation changes… a lot of things that make it really special.

    CL: The first sector, I absolutely love it. As Carlos said, you can’t make any mistakes and the fact that you need to be so precise in every corner otherwise you are late for the other and you lose quite a lot of lap time makes it quite challenging for us. I really enjoy driving here.

    MV: Yeah, good flow. Yeah, it’s the first sector, right, that you wanted to know (about). We were actually talking about the first sector. Really good combination of corners, especially in qualifying on low fuel it’s really enjoyable. Of course it’s more enjoyable if you have a good car balance as well but I’m counting on that. It’s always good to be here, it’s one of my favourite tracks. Is that good enough?

    NH: Yeah, it’s just very quick and dynamic and everything that these guys have said. It’s a very good package as a track.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Nico, you have had a pretty good run since the summer break, closing up to your teammate points-wise, but still no drive for next year. Is there any scenario you can think of that doesn’t see you in a race car next year? What are the options?

    NH: Pizza baker? No. You mean in Formula One or in general? General. I guess there is that scenario but to be honest, if it wasn’t to continue here, after that, honestly I haven’t given (it) that much thought. I think, also for me personally, I would take some time to get clarity over what I want, find a new challenge. Of course I will be in some racing car again in the future because that’s what I love doing, it’s my passion so I think only time will tell what happens then.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Charles, you said everything’s clear now between you and the team and Sebastian. What exactly is clear? How do you all have to behave in those situations in the future? Do you have to obey team orders as didn’t happen in Russia? How’s it going to work?

    CL: Yeah, I think that’s clear from the beginning of the season, we need to obey team orders and what is clear is that the situation wasn’t clear for both of the drivers, starting the race, and I think that’s the most important (thing). So we spoke about it and we’ll make sure that this situation doesn’t happen again in the future.

    Q: (Julien Biliotte – AutoHebdo) Max, you sounded disappointed if not resigned after Sochi. How much more patient are you willing to be with Red Bull Honda before looking at other opportunities to find a championship-winning car?

    MV: I was not really disappointed but I was also, of course, not very happy but I think that’s pretty normal when… for me it was a pretty boring race, you know. I think you will always sound happier when you win or you have a really exciting race and you finish on the podium and of course maybe the last few races they have not been our strongest but I believe we can do better and we are working very hard of course to make that happen but I think it would be wrong if I would come out of the race in Sochi and be very happy to the cameras, so we just keep pushing very hard and for the future, I don’t know. I’m not too worried about it, I just want to win and I will do my very best all the time and so is the team trying to do so. Yeah, let’s see.

  • 2018 Japanese GP: Thursday Press Conference

    2018 Japanese GP: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren), Esteban OCON (Racing Point Force India), Lance STROLL (Williams).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Three of the four of you are without a contract for 2019, so let’s start with that topic, and perhaps you could just tell us the latest. Let’s start with Esteban.

    Esteban OCON: Yeah, that is true, so far. I still don’t have any news to tell you, unfortunately. For sure I am trying to get a seat for next year but if I don’t, I will be sitting on the side, but the sure thing is I will be back for 2020 and I will push my maximum to be back in 2020 anyway.

    Lance?

    Lance STROLL: Right now, still have five more races to go so I’m going to take it weekend by weekend. Yeah, we’ll see what the future holds.

    Stoffel?

    Stoffel VANDOORNE: So far not much news from my side, to be honest. Formula One seems very unlikely, obviously, and like I said last week, there’s been a lot of talks with different series, different teams, and there are a lot of possibilities. So, I hope I can tell you a bit more in the next couple of weeks.

    Q: Esteban, the car is performing very well at the moment, had a good race in Russia and you have a very good record here at Suzuka: qualified fifth last year, finished sixth. So, what are your expectations for the weekend?

    EO: Yeah, definitely big expectations. We have a strong car since a couple of races now. We had a strong upgrade now and we are fighting to be the fourth fastest team each time so definitely looking forward to be racing on this track. As you said, I have great memories, so I can’t wait. It’s a track that suits my driving style quite well, and it’s one I’ve been successful at, so I look forward.

    Q: Lance, Russia was a tough weekend for you and the team. Can you tell us, what are the car’s shortcomings, and how difficult is it to drive at the moment?

    LS: In terms of result it was a tough weekend. We didn’t pick up any points or anything but I still think we had a decent race, y’know? The position is not what we’re hoping for and not what we’re aiming for but y’know, we had some pace during the race. I was behind Fernando throughout the whole race, challenging him, trying to get by – but the nature of the track, it’s very, very difficult to overtake. Yeah, and y’know, where we stand now, I believe there’s no more upgrades for the rest of the season, but we’re still going to be doing everything we can every weekend to try to improve the balance of the car. I’m going to try to get everything I can out of the package that we have for the rest of the season.

    Q: Stoffel, I believe you came down on the bullet train this morning from Tokyo, I just wanted to explore your love affair with Japan. You raced here, of course, a couple of years ago in Super Formula. Just what is it about Japan that you love so much and perhaps you could tell us a secret about Suzuka as well – because you won your last race in Super Formula here at Suzuka.

    StV: Yeah, I’ve got some good memories from Japan, racing here in Super Formula. I think first of all the fans are always pretty amazing and it’s quite exciting to come back here and see what they bring for all the drivers. I think they really support everyone. So, definitely good memories from my year in Super Formula. Also, one of the greatest circuits. I think the feelings you have here in a Formula One car is probably the best you can have. Very challenging and looking forward to being back here this weekend.

    Q: Sebastian, we saw quite a gap in performance between yourselves and Mercedes last weekend in Russia, particularly over one lap. How confident are you of closing that gap here at Suzuka – particularly at a track that’s been very kind to you in the past.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, within a week you can’t do too many things differently, so we hope that the track suits us a bit better and we have a better weekend than in Russia. I think we nevertheless managed to get and squeeze everything out of the car. I think in race pace we were hopefully a bit closer – so let’s see where we start off here.

    Q: One of the highlights for us, observers of the Sochi weekend, was seeing you and Lewis going wheel-to-wheel. He spoke after the race about how much he enjoys the challenge of racing against a driver of your calibre. I just wanted to get your thoughts on him. How much are you enjoying the challenge of racing Lewis Hamilton this year? And in what areas does he impress you the most?

    SeV: Well, first of all I think you always enjoy when you race somebody on track and you tend to enjoy more when you come out ahead – so I’m sure he had more fun last weekend than I had. But yeah, obviously, it’s tough to have a wheel-to-wheel battle on the track but then if you do, you appreciate it a lot more, so I think… it’s been intense races and challenging races we had but not that much wheel-to-wheel racing but yeah, as I said, I enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy it probably as much as he did. I would have liked it to have lastest a little bit longer, for more laps, but that was probably the only chance that we had. Apart from that, obviously, it’s always difficult to compare. These days, I think racing is very different to maybe the way it has been many years ago. You don’t spend much time with each other even though you share the track for all the sessions, you don’t see each other very often until the race, and then even in the race it depends on how the race unfolds – but I think it’s also fine like that, in a way, that some races are more intense than others. I think if every race would be intense then they would all be normal again. Naturally, obviously you enjoy it more when you come out on top.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Sebastian, you talked about getting the most out of the car last weekend in Sochi. In the last swinging fight with Mercedes, over the last couple of weekends have you been surprised to be behind Mercedes at a couple of tracks where they struggled at in the past, especially when you seemed to have a performance advantage in Belgium and then again in Italy in qualifying?

    SeV: I think I answered it many times. I think I’ve said many times that we have a strong car, but I don’t think, against the people’s opinions, that we had a dominant car at any point this year. I think the highlights that you mentioned or the races that mentioned, in qualifying we were not ahead. In the race I think it was very close and I think it has been very close all year. I think there were too many races from our side where we weren’t close enough. A race like last weekend, the way they could play with us in the race, usually means they had more pace. There were other races in the season where we didn’t have the pace they had. But I think we have always been very close, most of the races close enough to have a good fight. So we’ll hope that we have the same performance here. Hopefully we are closer in qualifying, which matters obviously to place the car well to then have a strong car and show that pace, because once you are behind, for the reasons I mentioned earlier we don’t have a lot of wheel-to-wheel racing, it’s not that easy to follow close, and then if you are racing for the same tenth, even if the cars were easier to overtake it wouldn’t be that straightforward because ultimately you go as quick as the guys around you, but hopefully we are a bit closer.

    Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Sebastian, do you think that Ferrari is not pragmatic enough when it comes to team orders? We saw in Sochi that Mercedes was quite open to ask Valtteri to move aside and if we think about Germany or Italy, you guys seemed a bit more reluctant with Kimi, so do you think they have the edge in that area?

    SeV: Generally, I think it is a sensitive topic or subject, obviously for the reasons that we have seen after last weekend. I don’t think we have been in the same position as they have, probably, during the race, so I think it is more a question for the team and not for me.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Sebastian, given that you have finished behind Lewis at five of the last six races, how do you, personally, as a driver, keep your confidence up and do you head into this weekend thinking it’s now or never in terms of the championship?

    SeV: I don’t like the now or never approach. I don’t think there’s much sense in that. I didn’t know it was five out of six, now I know, so the secret before just now has been not to count. No, I think you attack every weekend, every weekend is different, the track is different, the circumstances are different, so I’m very happy to be here. I love this track, it’s my favourite track in the world, so I’d better enjoy it and not spoil it by starting to count the things that are against me and focus on the things that are working for me.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, the weather forecast, it seems that it will be bad until Sunday, only Sunday there will be the dry track. In rain conditions, the last few races you were not very lucky. It is a handicap? And the second question, technically did you lose a little bit the direction in these few races after Monza?

    SeV: How do you know about our technical direction? Sorry, but I don’t think it’s true; I don’t think we lost direction. We made progress with our cars, the steps that we planned, the steps have been coming. Now, you never know where you are in comparison to others, maybe they have done smaller steps or bigger steps, I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure speaking to all our engineers that we are where we would like to be or where we wanted to be. Of course you would like to be always further with more performance, but that’s the same for everyone. And the first question, I think there is nothing that speaks against us in wet conditions. I think as you said, here and there it didn’t play into our hands but it won’t be like that forever, so I’m not afraid if it’s wet.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) A question for all four drivers. It’s one of the few tracks where we don’t have tow DRS zones. I know if you had DRS down the back straight, maybe 130R wouldn’t be flat or would be more of a challenge but do you think there should be a second DRS zone at that part of the circuit?

    LS: I would say so. Whether 130R is flat or not is car dependent and depends on how much risk you are willing to take. I don’t think that’s really the reason why we should debate whether there is a DRS zone or not on the back straight. I think it could only help overtaking. It’s already a track where due to the nature of the track it’s very difficult to follow, with all the high-speed corners and all that, so if there is a way of helping overtaking, helping the show, it would be good.

    Esteban?

    EO: I think it would be quite a challenge to have DRS there, even harder than Silverstone, Turn 1 really. Let’s see what’s going to happen in the future, it could be interesting.

    So you would like to see a second DRS on that straight?

    EO: As Lance said, it could only help overtaking into the last chicane. In the race it would not probably flat, especially following other cars, but in qualifying it could be an interesting challenge.

    Sebastian?

    SeV: I’m not a big fan of DRS, so I don’t know. Now we are in Japan, I think Mario Kart, if you remember, it might be more fun to throw bananas out of the cockpit, so maybe it’s a better idea to have bananas than DRS. I don’t like it, I think it’s artificial. I think we should find a different way to make the cars follower each other closer and not rely on DRS.

    Stoffel?

    StV: I agree with Seb. I think the fact that we are talking about DRS probably shows how difficult it has been for cars to follow each other and to race each other, so I think in the future if we could have much closer racing and do the old school overtakes, that would be the best.

    How difficult was it to overtake in Super Formula here?

    StV: It wasn’t easy, because obviously the cars are all the same as well and the competition was tough as well, but there were possibilities and those cars didn’t have DRS as well.

    Q: (Masahiro Owari – Formula Owari Masahiro) This is the 30th Japanese Grand Prix. Do you remember which Grand Prix, which year, did you see your first Japanese Grand Prix on TV, and do you remember who won?

    StV: I don’t remember it! No, I don’t. One I remember was when Kamui was racing and got on the podium. Which was 2012? Quite late. Yeah.

    SeV: I watched all of the races that Michael ran later with Ferrari but I always fell asleep in the second part because it was very early and usually he was in the lead. It was sort of clear after half the race or after the first couple of laps. But I remember the one where… when did Ayrton win here? ’88? Yeah, this I don’t remember. I was one. Later, did he win again? 1991? Yeah. 1993? Maybe that one. ’88, for sure not, because that would be unrealistic, I was one year old. But ’93, that sort of makes sense. That was the first memories anyway and I remember how he lifted the cup, and I think the cup here is beautiful as well, the trophy. It was the same back then as it is now. Yeah, I remember that. Not so much the race but I remember the moment on the podium.

    Q: Do you get a kick that the track is pretty similar to how it was back then when Ayrton was racing on it?

    SeV: Yeah, I do. I think it’s one of the… it’s my favourite track and I think it’s one of the original tracks that haven’t been messed with. I think it’s… like Stoffel described earlier, I think the feeling you get inside here, in the car, is probably the best all season, when you throw the car from one side to the other up the hill and then you’ve got some really characteristic… how you say?…

    EO: Iconic.

    SeV: Iconic, thank you French, iconic corners like Spoon, 130R nowadays maybe not as tough as it was back then but overall it’s a great track.

    EO: Yeah, I don’t remember the first time I’ve watched this track or this Formula One Grand Prix but the first thing that comes into my mind is always the fight Alain against Ayrton Senna, obviously, in the last chicane and also the first corner the following year, that’s the first thing that comes to my mind, like for sure, historic stories.

    LS: Yeah, same. I don’t remember a race in particular. We saw Schumacher take off and win the race round here but that’s probably when I started watching Formula One but I’ve watched the replays of Senna and Prost fighting around here and making contact in the last chicane. Those are historic moments.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) You may have seen that the Strategy Group has discussed changing qualifying into four Qs so it will be four out, then four, then four and then finally leaving eight for the final Q1 shoot-out. What do you think about that? Will it make any difference? Will it help you? How do you feel about it?

    LS: That’s the first time I’ve heard of that format. There’s more entertainment for the fans and gives the drivers a bigger chance, maybe can mix up the top three teams a bit more and increase the risk of getting into the last qualifying session. Could spice things up.

    EO: Could be a good challenge for the midfield teams, you know, so you could have two drivers in Q4 so it could be fun but then I don’t know how it would change things for the top teams. It would probably be the same.

    SeV: Just wondering what we will discuss in ten years’ time, whether we will be talking about Q9 and Q10, if that makes sense. I don’t know. Probably not but I don’t know, maybe we should go less. Without going too deep, my personal opinion is that nowadays I think we need too much entertainment to be happy. I think it would be nice to settle for something less as well. My preferred qualifying was back in the days when they had one hour and you could do what you want. Obviously qualifying for some people will never be as exciting as the race but for other people it’s more exciting than the race so it depends on your tastes, but I think it’s about getting the perfect lap and I don’t think it matters how many qualifying sessions you have. Now we have three and the one that most people look out for is the last one, so if you have Q4, Q5, Q6, Q7 what’s going to change?

    Q: Do you think the current format needs changing?

    SeV: No but that’s my opinion, so I might be wrong.

    StV: Yeah, not much to say to that, really. I don’t think this is the biggest problem so far. As Seb says, I think we don’t really need to have an extra session. We’re out in Q1 anyway so… It doesn’t change for me.

  • 2017 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2017 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Takuma Sato)

     

    Lewis, a sensational win, congratulations. How do you feel today? 

    Lewis HAMILTON: Wow, you got some bling! Where’s this from?

    Yeah, look at this. It’s a 500 winner’s ring.

    LH: I love that! I need that ring! Hi, everyone. We’ve had such a great crowd here this weekend. In Japan they always look after us so well here, so very, very grateful for that, and the support has been immense. So, it’s great to have a beautiful day here, it’s probably the first time I’ve really seen the sea from here. The track was fantastic; the team did an incredible job. Max drove an outstanding race and honestly it wasn’t an easy one for us at all.

    You had a sensational lap, breaking the track record yesterday, but it didn’t look like you had an easy afternoon today. At one stage Max was coming on a charge. How did you manage that, were you just calm, were you just controlling the situation?

    LH: Yeah, I mean, today… the Red Bulls just seem to be rapid in race trim. Obviously we’re quick in qualifying trim. But still I was able to just hold him behind. But it definitely got very close a couple of times, particularly at the end with the VSC and then when we restarted the tyres were cold, I had a bit of traffic, so he caught right up, so it was very, very close.

    Well done, congratulations. Max, congratulations, a fantastic charge. Obviously [last weekend] in Malaysia you had a sensational win and look at your fans here in Suzuka, you’re charging almost to a win. How do you feel today?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a great day again. I think Suzuka is great to me. I really love the track, already last year. I think the pace today was really promising. The first stint on the supersoft I was struggling a bit with the left front, but as soon as we switched to the soft tyre it was actually very competitive and I was always with Lewis and especially in the last few laps I think we had great pace. It’s just really hard to pass. The last two or three laps I gave it my all to try to try to close the gap. But we had a really good day again and the car is definitely improving race by race and I’m really happy about that.

    Fantastic Max, congratulations again. Daniel, you look a happy boy. Suzuka fans, says hello them maybe?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, this is my first podium here. My objective this weekend was get a Suzuka podium and I have it and it feels great, so arigato.

    You mentioned that this is your first podium at Suzuka. Obviously this is a track you love and this is your ninth podium of the season. You’re looking strong. At the end you had a charge from the other guys, so how did you manage in the last few laps?

    DR: Yeah, it’s a circuit I’ve always enjoyed and now with this year’s cars it’s a lot of fun. You know, the race, after the start it started to spread out and it wasn’t that exciting from my point of view but then I had Valtteri coming at the end so actually to have a bit of pressure at the end made it more exciting. It was good fun…

    Excellent, fantastic, two Red Bull guys [on the podium]. Lewis…

    LH: Can I try this ring? Can I just see if it’s worth me going and doing [the Indianapolis 500] one day. Can I try it?

    Of course, anything for you. Lewis Hamilton with an Indy 500 winner’s ring!

    LH: It’s pretty good. Congratulations. I was about to run!

    The championship: you now have a massive 59-point lead. Obviously it was a little bit fortunate for you and a bit unfortunate for the red cars but there are four races to go, so what’s the strategy, how do you feel about it?

    LH: Yeah, honestly, I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap. Ferrari have put on such a great challenge all year long. All I can really say is that I have to put it down to my team. They’ve done a phenomenal job, reliability has really been on point. They are just so meticulous and that’s really why we have the reliability we have and the result we have been having. So a big thank you to the guys. I think a lot of them have already gone back to start packing up. But I owe it to everyone here and back at the factory and again the support that we get, it really does help lift us, so a big thank you to everyone.

    Q: Well Lewis, an emphatic victory in reality. Perhaps you could talk us through it in chronological order. Let’s start with the start, who made the better getaway, yourself or Sebastian – and when did you realise he had a problem?

    LH: The start was OK. It didn’t feel initially the greatest but I think the initial getaway was not spectacular, there was a bit of wheel spin but then from then on, had a good start but I guess everyone around me, or at least Sebastian, had the same kind of thing. So, he slotted in behind me. Then it was pretty much under control from there, and then I saw that Max had done a big lunge into Turn 11, in my mirrors, so I just saw them drop back a step and really from then I was just trying to manage the pace, manage the tyres. It was a long way to go, the hottest the track had been all weekend – so it was really crucial, knowing that particularly the Ferraris and also the Red Bulls are very, very quick in the race, it was important in those moments that I looked after the tyres the best.

    Q: Was a two-stop ever a reality or was it always a one-stop as far as you were concerned?

    LH: A one-stop was the way. There was no way we could make a two-stop work, and knowing the others would be two-stop, just missing a stop makes a big difference – but I think it was definitely on the limit with tyre life and tyre wear. Yeah, these guys seem to have a bigger wing: slower on the straights but much, much quicker, it seems, through the first two sectors, and particularly if he’s right with me, he’s able to follow. When I was with someone I was not able to follow. So, I guess under-winged for the mid sector and fine down the straight. Then it just got a little bit close towards the end. I had a comfortable gap going into the pit-stop and then I think Max did the undercut thing and gained a bit of time. Then my out-lap, I took it easy, just trying to look after the tyres again, so he closed up to 1.5 seconds and then after that I pulled it back out to two and a half or three seconds or something like that, so I was just controlling the pace but towards the end the VSC lost a lot of temperature in the tyres and waking them up was not so easy. Then I got traffic, I was stuck behind Fernando and I think it was Massa, at the time and I was just losing so much time. His car was so big in my mirrors. I was thinking ‘Jeez, this is very, very close’ with a couple of laps to go – but once I got by just managed to keep it together. So yeah, it was not an easy walk in the park today. It was very much one that I had to work very hard for. Great race by Max and enjoying racing with him.

    And a 59 point lead in the World Championship now. Just one hundred on the table. One and a half hands on that championship trophy – how are you feeling about it?

    LH: I think it’s kind of unbelievable really, to think that we are where we are. I was excited actually to have a good race with Sebastian here, as I was in the last race – but he’s obviously been incredibly unfortunate. In the world today, in Formula One it is a lot about reliability, it is about the team’s whole performance, not just speed on the track, and I think the team has shown, through and through for many years now that we have a very, very solid platform. The guys do such a phenomenal job with how they build the car, in terms of reliability. Mercedes are the real leaders in that area and so I really owe it to everyone back at the factory for providing me with a car that I can utilise, and use my abilities in. So, big thank you to everyone back at the factory. There’s still a long way to go. One hundred points is a lot of points. Anything can happen in life. I’ve just got to try and keep my head down and hopefully continue to perform like this – but I feel very, very fortunate and really blessed and enjoying the experience.

    Q: Max, coming on to you. We were getting excited at the end there. Was the win really on? What were you thinking in the car?

    MV: difficult to say. I could see Lewis was managing his tyres and of course, with the traffic it just seems like it was a bit more difficult for him to follow other cars, compared to me. So I closed up – but also when you are really close you start to lose a lot of downforce, so I couldn’t really attack him – but at least I tried. Before that, the start for me was very crucial. From there on I could basically do my own race. Once I got past Seb in the Hairpin I quickly realised that he had an issue, so that was good for me, of course, and yeah, the first stint, I think it was alright. I think Lewis was just a little bit faster and then after the pitstop we had great balance on the soft tyres and yeah, I just managed to keep it around 2.5s-3s. I didn’t want to close-up more because then you destroy the front tyres. In case you maybe needed them at the end. So, yeah, I think the car lately in the race has been really competitive. I think like Lewis said, we have a bit more wing, so we are quite competitive through the corners. Of course, then on the straight we have an even bigger deficit than normal but it seems to work for us in the race so far, so yeah, of course happy to be here on the podium again. It seems like Suzuka is pretty good to me.

    Q: And concerns about that front-left, you mentioned.

    MV: Well, it was all on the limit I guess – but for many people.

    Q: Daniel, your first podium here at Suzuka. You had your mirrors full of Valtteri Bottas at the end there, kept it exciting at least.

    DR: Yes, exactly. The race was pretty lonely after I lost out on the start. And then yeah, lost touch. Little bit like last week, lost touch of Max and Lewis and then it was just trying to do my pace. It was a bit lonely and then yeah, actually Valtteri coming at the end actually made it a bit more exciting for me. Made me feel pushed until the end basically. Kept it open. For the rest, I think there were parts of the race where our pace was pretty good but I think once the start is done here it’s very difficult to overtake. You need a pretty big speed advantage. Front left, yeah, you could see it was wearing and getting a few blisters but yeah, the race itself, not very exciting but for sure I’m happy to be on the podium here. I said from the start of the weekend I wanted my first Suzuka podium and, yeah, I got it.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Question for Max. You’re on a charge in the last five laps and you came across the battle with Alonso and Massa. How did that affect you? Alonso cut right in front of you as Lewis went by him and you seemed to drop back a bit. Was that basically the defining moment that stopped your charge?

    MV: Yeah, didn’t help – but for me the last lap was more with Massa, but at the end of the day I think I wouldn’t have passed Lewis anyway because it’s really hard once he’s in free air. It was more like when Lewis was getting held up then I could close up and then maybe you can do something but once he got past, even when I got held up, y’know, it’s done. It’s of course not ideal but it wouldn’t have made a difference.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Max and Daniel, you swapped positions at the start, could you just talk us through how that first little bit went?

    DR: I saw a little bit of a replay now at the back but honestly, I couldn’t see… I mean the cars this year, they’ve got more of a blind spot basically, so after the start – I knew my start wasn’t that good and I was expecting to see Max but I didn’t see him for a while so thought maybe his start was also not good so I thought I would cover the inside but I wanted to leave some room because he could be there and then as we got to the apex, I saw he was there. I don’t think I could really have done anything else. I guess if I came across straightaway, he was there the whole time I imagine. Yeah, I think it was just the jump off the line that wasn’t that great. Then I was on the outside and I didn’t get a good drive off turn two being hung out on the outside and that’s where I think Ocon got the better exit. I think it just all the start with the initial launch, we stuffed it there. So I’ll look into it, see if it was something I could have done better

    MV: I think I had quite a good start and like Daniel said, it’s really difficult to see in the mirrors but luckily we all had enough space afterwards so that was all good.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Lewis, you said you enjoyed fighting with Max at the front. It’s the second consecutive race now that that’s happening. Can you tell us a bit more about that; how was it to fight against him?

    LH: Well, we didn’t really have a massive fight as such on the track but we all know how quick Max is, he’s doing a great job, very consistent. Yeah, the last race he was just too quick. I think today he was quicker – maybe just a little bit quicker – but I think I was able to match the times we were doing at the time. Yeah, we’re quicker in qualifying but they are at least within a tenth or so of us in the race. Today was I was kind of like – he won the last race, I’m not letting you have this one. It was really just about not making mistakes. I was driving down the back straight at one point and I’m thinking ‘Jeez, the guy behind me is so much younger than me, I’ve got make sure I kind of man up and show my age and make sure that I stay ahead. Show that I’m actually still very young at heart.’ That was kind of my thought process for you behind. I was kind of like I’m not letting…

    MV: I was thinking ‘this guy’s so old in front of me.’

    LH: Yeah, I’m not letting this little… that was the kind of thought I was having. No, I’m enjoying being in an era with such great young talent coming through. He’ll be here far beyond after I stop. But until then, I will try and not give him too many poles or too many wins.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you now have a huge advantage over Sebastian Vettel. Will you change your approach in the next races or will you go to win anyway?

    LH: To be honest, there’s not really any need for me to change the approach. The points are still what you go out there to achieve but also you try and look after your car. I just don’t think there’s any need to make any changes. I’m not really particularly taking crazy risks in order to be in the position I’m in. So yeah, I think we’re just going to try and continue to do what we’re doing. Of course, we want to try and look after the car and the engine but I’m already doing that throughout the races so there’s not really much more I can do and I think if sometimes you come off the gas a little bit you actually cause yourself more trouble than you need.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Lewis, reliability is everything this year. On your cooldown lap you were talking to the engineers, speaking about vibrations. Is there anything possibly wrong with the engine or anything that might run over to Austin that needs changing?

    LH: I don’t think there’s… I don’t honestly think there’s any wrong with the engine. I just felt a couple of things so I just… you just point out things that you might forget to tell them after this next meeting. You make lots of different switch changes and the turbos make strange noises and different vibrations come in, so I’m hoping there’s nothing. I don’t think there is anything, I think it was just low… shortshifting which the engine doesn’t like so much. So I think that was it.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportwereld) Max, again a good result; what about the confidence in the car? Is the bad luck over now do you think?

    MV: Confidence was always there, so now I’m finally having luck so that’s good.

  • Sainz to Join Renault after Japanese Grand Prix, Palmer Out

    Sainz to Join Renault after Japanese Grand Prix, Palmer Out

    Carlos Sainz will move to Renault following the Japanese Grand Prix after Renault’s Jolyon Palmer announced after qualifying that he will participate in his final race on Sunday afternoon at Suzuka.

    Sainz was supposed to join Renault from next year but according to a statement released by Toro Rosso “circumstances have changed” and they are able to release Sainz earlier.

    “First of all I would like to thank Toro Rosso and Red Bull for allowing me the possibility of finishing this season with Renault Sport Racing,” said Sainz.

    “More specifically, I really want to thank all my engineers and mechanics for their support and tremendous work throughout these years.

    “Toro Rosso is made up of a fantastic group of people and I wish them only the best for the future.

    “On my side, I will definitely do my very best in tomorrow’s race… this would be the best possible send-off! Additionally, competing in these last four races with Renault gives me a good opportunity to get to know the team and the car earlier than expected. I am looking forward to start working with them.”

    Daniil Kvyat will return from the United States Grand Prix to see out the end of the season and will race alongside Pierre Gasly, the man who replaced him at the Malaysia Grand Prix.

    Team Principal of Toro Rosso Franz Tost: “I would like to thank Carlos for all his efforts over almost three Formula 1 seasons.

    “He always did his very best, demonstrating an excellent attitude and commitment to his work, which helped him and us to get some great results during that time.

    “Therefore, on behalf of everyone at Toro Rosso, I wish him all the very best with his new team. We look forward to beating him on track!”

    Jolyon Palmer_Japan 2017Early Renault Exit for Palmer

    The Renault F1 Team confirmed that Jolyon Palmer, who’s future at the team was in doubt, will race his final race for the team in Japan.

    Renault say that they have reached a “mutual agreement” with Palmer to terminate his services for the rest of the season.

    “The Japanese Grand Prix will be my last race for Renault,” commented Palmer.

    “It’s been an extremely challenging season and I’ve been through a lot in the last three years, but it’s been a tremendous journey overall with the team.

    “I can look back proudly at the performance in the second half of last season, my first point in Malaysia and of course reaching a career high of sixth place in Singapore this year.

    “I wish the team all the best for the future. My immediate focus is now on achieving the best possible result in the Japanese GP, and then I can assess my options for the future.”

    There were reports that Sainz would, in fact, switch over to Renault before the end of the season pending a financial settlement with Palmer who did not want to accept any settlement and wanted to race till the end of the season. It appears that this may have happened or at least some pressure may have been applied on Palmer to perform.

    Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport Racing Managing Director: “I would like to thank Jolyon for his commitment to the team and his professionalism.

    “Since Renault’s return to Formula 1, Jolyon has been highly dedicated in an evolving environment.

    “He has shown great personal qualities and we wish him all the best in his future career.”

  • 2017 Japanese GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2017 Japanese GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Jenson Button and David Coulthard)

    JB: Lewis this is your first time qualifying on pole in Suzuka. Absolutely immense, great job buddy, but it’s not just that, you have just shattered the qualifying lap record of Felipe Massa, set back in 2006 by 1.7 seconds. How does it feel?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Incredible. Firstly, look at this crowd – we have such a great crowd. It’s been a really good day and every lap was fantastic. You were rapid here, Nico was rapid here, I never really got a great balance in the past and I never did great in qualifying, so to finally get the balance behind me, with the great work of my engineers, and the great timing from all the mechanics, I finally got on track and did the time. And the car is crazy here, I wish you could feel it, man!

    JB: Yeah, watching you through the Esses, it looks unbelievable, the changes of direction. But from the word go in qualifying it was there.

    LH: Yeah, it’s my first time. I’m running out of opportunities to get this pole, so I was like “I’ve got to make sure I make it stick today”. Valtteri did a great job. Obviously he is going to have the penalty at the start but still he has a great opportunity in the race to get up there with us.

    JB: Let’s go and speak to Valtteri. Good job buddy. We had breakfast, sort of, together this morning and obviously it’s not been the easiest weekend for you, but pretty awesome to come away with P2.

    KR: Yeah, it’s been a really difficult weekend and obviously went off this morning. The guys did a great job getting the car back together. My driving was really getting better through the qualifying. I think there was still something to be found. But P1 and P2 at this point, but obviously with the gearbox penalty I’m starting seventh.

    JB: Yeah, it’s not easy as we know starting further back, but the car looks immense around here and you, as you said, have done a fantastic job today. But watching from the outside, watching the cars through here it’s the only time I really, really miss driving these beasts.

    VB: I tell you, you are missing a lot!

    JB: I know, good job buddy. Sebastian, how are you doing?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Fine.

    JB: These two were just unbelievably quick today, especially Lewis. He’s definitely sorted out his qualifying around Suzuka. P3 but obviously you’re starting the race from second. We all know that’s not a bad position to start here. How are you feeling, buddy?

    SV: Ah well, I mean qualifying has been quite good to be honest. I’m reasonably happy. I tried everything on the last run. I know I had to take a bit more risk, but it didn’t work, I ran out of track at the exit of the Esses. But I knew that if Valtteri got past, we would still be on the front row. I would have loved to have been a bit quicker, but quite amazing with the new cars around here. I love the track and it’s been a very special day. Thanks for the support, there are a lot of Ferrari fans, so arigato.

    JB: And as we know, Turn 1, you never know. Starting on the front row there is always the possibility of making it stick at Turn 1, so have a good one buddy, good job. Lewis, do you want to jump in here DC?

    DC: Lewis, that was spectacular to watch. Standing in the commentary box there were moments when I couldn’t believe how fast that car was going through the corners. Big congratulations, it sets you up perfectly for tomorrow, looking forward to the race?

    LH: Yeah, it’s going to be a different view here. I’ve never really had this view here, you know what it’s like. We’ve worked hard for the car to hopefully work well in the race. Those Esses really kill the tyres, so I’m hoping we’re in a good position for that. Naturally the Ferraris will be rapid, as they always are, but I plan to keep them behind.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Well Lewis, you obliterated the lap record. Every lap you did during that session was faster than the one before. It looked very smooth from where we were sitting. Talk us through the session and how good was that last lap?

    LH: It definitely was a fantastic session. I don’t know if people watching realise, but how your team time everything in terms of what time you go out, positioning, the preparation with the mechanics – all that stuff has to work perfectly. The team were just so on form, as they always are, but that worked perfectly and enabled me to get out in the right time and in the right space and deliver the laps, so hugely grateful to everyone for all their hard work. And the laps: yeah, very much on it. Didn’t make one mistake each lap, just got better and better. It’s really about building a foundation, which you do in Q1, and then building upon it lap after lap and hopefully you don’t have any mistakes. It was just every single lap apart from the last lap, which was up, but I think it was Q3 run one, which was the lap. Just incredible to come here with this car. This track has always been one of the greatest, if not the greatest circuits, and with this car it’s just mind blowing. I wish you could feel what we feel. It’s always been one of the craziest rollercoaster rides but with the downforce we have now – I think it’s three seconds faster than we’ve been before – it’s insane the speeds, this car is throwing us around inside. But the way you are able to throw the car around is like the craziest rollercoaster ride, which I love. So I hope the cars continue to get better, as they have this year. It’s incredible for me…. Ten years or whatever it is, my first pole position here. So tenth time lucky, so I’m grateful for that.

    Well, it was a great qualifying performance. I think a lot of people will be wondering what’s the race pace going to be like, particularly after what happened in Malaysia last weekend. Are you confident you’ve got that as well?

    LH: Well, we got some running in P1 and P3. P1 felt better than P3. The car is a lot different this weekend and a lot more enjoyable to drive. Last weekend was a bit of a disaster but we still got pole, which was unusual. Generally, I believe, we take step a bit slower when we get to the races, whereas the Ferraris do the opposite. I think that’s really the philosophy of how our cars are designed, difference-wise. I think in the race we’re going to be OK. But for sure the Ferraris were very, very quick in the last race so it will be interesting to see the pace they have. Kimi did a decent run, as well as Sebastian, today. We’ll see. We’ve put ourselves in the best fighting position and obviously it’s me and Sebastian on the front row – I wouldn’t want it any other way.

    Q: Valtteri, coming to you, it’s been a topsy-turvy kind of day for you, that accident in final practice and then pulling it all together and getting that lap together at the end. Talk us through how difficult it was to claw it back from the low of final practice.

    VB: Well, first of all I want to say well done to Lewis again for the pole. And I really want to thank the team. Like Lewis said, they’ve done a great job through the qualifying. We’re always the right time on the track and in perfect gaps. Just everything went very smoothly so that allowed also me to just really focus on the driving itself. With the incident, I had in practice three, there was some extra work for the guys. They did really well to get the car together. It worked perfectly, so thanks for that. It’s been a tricky weekend, not quite so clean so far, and going slightly over a kerb in practice three can make a massive difference. Had to reset, go for it. I used the soft tyre in quali two, so that mixed my rhythm slightly, I think but could get some improvements step by step. The lap in the end, it was not perfect but not that far off.

    Q: Sebastian, talk us through your session. Third fastest. You’re going to be, as we’ve heard, on the front row of the grid tomorrow, due to that penalty for Valtteri but first of all, qualifying, how was it for you?

    SV: Pretty good, I’m pretty happy, to be honest, the car balance was getting better and better. Obviously, we were lacking a bit of performance but all in all I think it was a positive day. I think the car should be a bit better in the race. The last run in Q3, I tried a little bit more than there maybe was but I obviously knew the gap behind was quite big and Valtteri wasn’t really a threat because he gets the penalty tomorrow. So, took a bit more risk, didn’t work but still happy with third and then a front row for tomorrow. We’ll see. I think our starts lately have been quite good. We’ll see what we can do.

    Q: And are you confident you’ll have the legs of the Mercedes in race conditions?

    SV: I don’t know which sort of pace they will have. Obviously, you always know what you are doing but they have been a bit up and down: last week they weren’t very quick; this weekend they seem to be back to normal, so I think so far this year has been very close. I expect it to be very close tomorrow. For us, I think normally we are a bit stronger in the race compared to quali, so that’s where I guess we get together and see what we can do, at the start and then during the race.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, last week you struggled and nobody in the team really seemed to have an explanation for it. This weekend, only seven days later, you are flying. Do you know why?

    LH: I think we have an idea. I think there’s a lot of analysis that’s gone in to understanding it so I think we do understand, yes. It’s not something we can particularly rapidly change, but we’re in a cooler climate here, so that’s definitely one thing that adds to it.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Question for Lewis. Your first pole at Suzuka, you’ve never really hooked it up here, you’ve had competitive cars in the past – what’s so different this year? You seem to be absolutely blinding through every corner.

    LH: It’s interesting because every single time I’ve struggled here. Struggled with finding the right balance, generally not always… often not starting on the right foot and then just struggling where to find the placement. Sometimes I’ve started on the right foot and led the car in completely the wrong direction. Yeah, so it’s always been up and down. This is the first time – and I would say definitely the first car that I’ve really felt that it’s been underneath me all weekend. Small tweaks here and there but in the right direction. So, I think fundamentally a better job done globally. Particularly with my engineers. My engineer understanding what I need from the car and vice versa: what I need from my engineers and the car. It’s worked out better this time. My knowledge of the car is better than it’s been before – which has enabled me then to go out and do the job, so I’m really… it’s really, really a confidence builder for us as a group, me and my engineers and mechanics. I don’t mind that it’s taken that long. I hope that I can capitalise on today’s great work.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how important was it for you to beat Kimi as you seemed to be on the same tactic as him?

    VB: Yeah, of course it is good to start ahead. I think he also got on the softs in Q2 so we are mostly likely going to be on a similar strategy for the race, so I’ve definitely got the upper hand in the race in that way but we’ll need to see how their race pace is and again it’s going to be a long race but it’s just a real shame… it would have been better to start one and two as a team, that would have been nice but that is what it is.

    Q: (Mark Mann-Bryans – Press Association) Lewis, your car in the last few months has been labelled capricious, a diva – I believe you even said on Thursday it’s a bit stubborn. But is it days like today when she makes it up to you?

    LH: Definitely, definitely. It’s been a great car in qualifying this year particularly, and qualifying for me is probably the most enjoyable part of the weekend, so being able to put together laps like today is the one you wait for, all weekend: Q3, round one and two are really what motorsport is all about. It’s about ultimate performance from myself but also from the car. So it is definitely great when she comes together on days like this which is important. We were perhaps on the back foot here, perhaps won’t be as great a position to be in but let’s hope that she’s not stubborn tomorrow.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, how important would it be for your championship campaign to have a normal qualifying for both of the Ferraris?

    SV: Well, I don’t know. Obviously there was a small issue this morning that lead into the problem with Kimi’s car, certainly not ideal but it is what it is. I think the car is quick so even if… I think last weekend showed that even if you – well, not necessarily qualify out of position – but if you start out of position then you can still get back. I’m sure that he can have a strong race from where he starts.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) To all three of you: with missing FP2 basically yesterday and this morning’s practice session having two reds, did this affect any of your programmes, leading up to qualifying and do you feel you have enough laps in and also the changing characteristics of the circuit? FP1 was essentially dry and the rest were wet or damp. How did this affect your qualifying going into qualifying?

    VB: Yeah, definitely you would always prefer to do more laps, there’s always more track time, possibilities to learn more and make the car better and fine-tune your driving, get the confidence, so definitely for me, missing practice two and then half of the practice three wasn’t ideal. Then you need to make the most out of the limited time you have and try and improve during the qualifying.

    LH: Fortunately, it didn’t get in the way of it really. I got a bit of a run in in P3 in the rain. If anything, that might have been a benefit to me , because if I’d had P2 in the dry maybe I wouldn’t be on pole, because we would push the car to make changes and whatever and wouldn’t have ended up where we were so pretty grateful for the rain that came. Often when you miss a session, it does definitely put you a little bit further down the ladder from where you potentially could be but I think I managed to still reach there so I do think it was potentially a benefit for me, missing P2.

    SV: Don’t think much impact. I think we got enough laps for performance runs. Obviously the long run preparation wasn’t as usual but by the end of the season you know the car, you know the tyres so it’s not a big deal. I think the biggest change for tomorrow will be the conditions. I think there should be sunshine which makes everything a bit hotter, so let’s see how that goes.

  • 35-Place Grid Penalty for Alonso

    35-Place Grid Penalty for Alonso

    Fernando Alonso was handed a 35-place grid penalty after Honda elected to change his entire power unit after engineers found a hydraulic leak.

    This effectively means that the Spaniard will start at the back of the grid alongside fellow countryman Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso who was handed a 20-place grid penalty.

    Alonso’s car was fitted with his 8th internal combustion engine, 8th MGU-K, 7th batter, 10th turbocharger, 10th MGU-H and 6th control electronics.

    Elsewhere on the grid, Renault elected to change a few components on Jolyon Palmer’s engine which drops him a total of 20-grid places.

    Palmer’s car was fitted with it’s 6th turbocharger and 5th internal combustion which makes it a total of 20-place grid drop.

  • Bottas Fastest in Final Free Practice Session at Japanese GP

    Bottas Fastest in Final Free Practice Session at Japanese GP

    Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time for the final free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix but crashed out with just over half an out to go in the session.

    Bottas set a 1:29.055 on the super softs in the Mercedes, 0.014s faster than team mate Lewis Hamilton. On, what looked like his second go at a timed lap, the Finn ran wide at T14 (Spoon) and dipped a wheel on the wet astro turf. This dragged him further off the track and on to the grass on the run down to 130R. He then tagged the barrier with the rear right, which pivoted the car around which caused the front right to make contact with the barrier. He was able to make it back to the pits.

    The session was red flagged as the marshals cleaned the track and inspected the barriers.

    Just when the session restarted, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was the next one to experience the ruthlessness of the Suzuka circuit. Raikkonen, on a flying lap, carried too much speed into Degner 2, which swung the rear of the car around under braking. He managed to catch the slide but in doing so went across the gravel and clouted the barrier damaging the rear left wishbone. This brought out the second red flag of the session.

    There’s is no word on any gearbox change on Raikkonen’s car due to the contact with the barrier.

    Sebastian Vettel set a time late in the session to go P3. After another go at a fast lap Vettel improved to a 1:29.379 which is still 0.324s off the benchmark set by Bottas.

    The two Red Bull’s who were running different setups were 4th and 5th with Verstappen ahead of Ricciardo by 0.108s. According to Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, the Red Bulls are the fastest cars through the corners but were losing about half a second of time down the straights.

    Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez made the top 10 for Force India with Ocon finishing 6th fastest and Perez 10th.

    Nico Hulkenberg got the Renault once again into the top 10 finishing 7th fastest ahead of an 8th placed Fernando Alonso in the McLaren.

    The red flags did break the momentum of the session somewhat. One feels that the times could have been faster this session.

    Mercedes look comfortable up front with their package and Hamilton looks set to take pole position with Sebastian Vettel joining him on the front row.

    The cloudy conditions are set to persist throughout the afternoon so we could see a dry qualifying session.

  • 2017 Japanese GP: Free Practice Round Up

    2017 Japanese GP: Free Practice Round Up

    It was a mixed Friday during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix after a busy Free Practice 1 where Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel emerged the fastest, and a rainy Free Practice 2 resulted in very limited running during which Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time.

    Free Practice 1

    With rain forecast for later in the afternoon the teams were eager to get out on track and get their setup niggles sorted out. Sebastian Vettel finished off the session fastest with a best lap of 1:29.166.

    Vettel’s lap time came after the session was restarted when Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz crashed on the run to Turn 12. Sainz got a wheel on to the grass which spun the Toro Rosso around and into the barrier just before Turn 12. The red flags were brought out for the stewards to clear the stricken Toro Rosso and the debris.

    Lewis Hamilton was 0.211s off Vettel’s time with a second fastest session time of 1:29.377. Hamilton, after the session, said he felt that Mercedes has returned to normal after feeling comfortable with the car after the session compared to last week in Malaysia.

    The rest of the top 6 consisted of the usual suspects with Daniel Ricciardo finishing 3rd fastest ahead in the Red Bull ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 4th.

    Valtteri Bottas finished 5th fastest with Max Verstappen in 6th. Verstappen had a bit of an off track excursion across the gravel at Spoon on his super first timed lap on the super softs. A second attempt by the Dutchman was curtailed by charging issues on his ERS.

    Esteban Ocon continued with his good practice form by finishing 7th fastest setting a session best time of 1:30.899 for Force India while Nico Hulkenberg popped his Renault into 8th.

    Romain Grosjean managed to get the Haas into 9th ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne in 10th.

    Free Practice 2

    The session was delayed indefinitely from the start as the heavy rain did not let up. Eventually the session got underway 45mins after the scheduled start time.

    Drivers were not keen to head out but a few ventured out for installation laps.

    Few more drivers headed out for installation laps but it was the Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon that were the first to set times for the session.

    At the end of the session just 6 drivers set times with Lewis Hamilton topping the time sheets with a 1:48.719, 0.799s faster than 2nd fastest man, Ocon who set a time of 1:49.518.

    Perez was 3rd fastest setting a session best time of 1:51.345.

    Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll finished 4th and 5th respectively more than 3 second off Hamilton’s time.

    More rain is expected tomorrow for Free Practice 3 an qualifying.