F1 Madness

Tag: jules bianchi

  • Suzuka Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Suzuka Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Here’s what the lads at Marussia had to say ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

    Jules Bianchi, Marussia

    “I am very much looking forward to my first experience of racing here at Suzuka. It is a track that is associated with some of the greatest moments in Formula 1 history and racing here will be one of the highlights of my debut season, regardless of the outcome. It is also a real test of car and driver with some fantastic corners, which I have only ever been able to sample on the simulator until now. I think that rain is possible early in the weekend, which should make life interesting – much like some of the big moments I saw here when I was growing up – but I think it may be dry later on, which will enable us to keep pushing for our season objective. I love Japan and have spent the past few days training and relaxing in Tokyo, which has been good fun. I can’t wait to be driving in front of the incredible fans here on Sunday.”

    Max Chilton, Marussia

    “It’s great to be back in Japan and to finally get the opportunity to race at the Suzuka Circuit. I came straight here from Korea so I would have the opportunity to explore a little more because there are so many fantastic things to experience here. This will be another new challenge and one that I have been looking forward to because it is such a technical circuit and because of all the history attached to it. I have been inspired by some of the great battles I have watched here over the years. The fans are also pretty special, both in and out of the circuit. Seeing them camped outside the drivers’ hotel is quite something, never mind the reception we get when we’re out on track. I hope we can race to a strong two-car finish again – and hopefully with less attrition up ahead.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “This weekend represents another interesting challenge for our drivers in that neither Jules nor Max has driven at Suzuka previously. Technically it is one of the more challenging and interesting circuits, so they’ll start the weekend with maximum track time to help bring them up to speed. It has been raining heavily at the circuit today but our forecast suggests this won’t be the case come Saturday and Sunday, so I hope we can enjoy conditions more conducive to achieving our objectives this weekend.”

     

  • Korean Grand Prix Team & Driver Quotes

    Korean Grand Prix Team & Driver Quotes

    Sebastian Vettel edged ever closer to the championship title in a thrilling 2013 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix. The Lotus drivers enjoyed a double podium and Nico Hulkenberg had the race of his life. We hear from them, and the other drivers and senior team members after Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix.

    Red Bull
    Sebastian Vettel, 1st
    “It was a long race today, but it’s really great to win the Korean Grand Prix. The start was crucial, it’s always tricky here as you’re nervous about the long straight when you start from pole. Fortunately we had good traction off the line and I had a strong exit out of the first corner. We kept the lead and tried to control the race from there. I think Mercedes had more range than us today, but we were able to win which is great. It was a very strong performance from the whole team and I’m happy. We’re just focusing on continuing to take one step at a time and trying to get the best out of the car at every single race.”

    Mark Webber, DNF
    “The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today. It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don’t know what happened, but obviously he hit me from the inside and that was that. There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn’t gone towards the chassis – we will have to see before the next race. Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture. After the Pirelli tyre failure on Perez’ car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tyre that came off and then unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”

    Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
    “A really disciplined drive by Sebastian today to win his third consecutive Korean Grand Prix. It was a race dominated by tyre preservation and Sebastian managed it extremely well. It was a great shame to lose Mark who would have been on the podium today after he picked up a puncture from the debris from Perez’ incident. Then, after that he was the innocent victim of the incident that saw Sutil losing his car and hitting him, which caused a fire. It was somewhat frustrating to see our car on fire for what seemed to be an age.”

    Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull
    “A win that was not as easy as it looked for Sebastian! With two safety cars, Seb had to do the job twice to increase the gap with the competitors and he’s did it very well, again showing his talent. It was a shame for Mark as he was really on for a very strong result in spite of his starting position. The collision with Sutil damaged the car and caused the fire. It’s too early to tell if we can re-use the engine yet – we will have to look at the damage. There is plenty to study in the week before Japan now, particularly with the strong position Sebastian is now in the championship.”

    Lotus
    Kimi_Raikkonen_PressConferenceKimi Raikkonen, 2nd
    “Second place is okay and a good result for the team, but we’re here to win and having to fight your way to the front from a bad starting position is not ideal. Qualifying was pretty awful for me, but it’s difficult to say whether a better grid position would have made the difference. Sebastian was faster than us at the end; not massively, but a little bit for sure and his tyres were fresher too so I think it would have been tough to catch him in any case. We were closer to the Red Bull today than we have been in some races, but not close enough. People might say it was good luck with the safety car, but sometimes these things go with you and others they go against you. We made up some places even before that happened, and if we hadn’t had the speed then we wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage. You could see at the end that we had more than enough pace to keep the others behind, so I think it’s deserved.”

    Romain Grosjean, 3rd
    “It’s a fantastic result for the team. Of course, one step higher on the podium would have been better for me and two steps better would have been superb, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Our battle with Lewis (Hamilton) was good and our pace was great, but the two safety car periods hurt our attempts to battle for the win. After the restart I should have been in front of Kimi on the road, but it was my mistake which let him past. I went a bit wide in Turn 15 and got on the Astroturf – which is very slippery – and that let him get a run on me. Then there were yellow flags into Turn 3 so I couldn’t take the place back straight away. Of course, I was asking the team to let me past Kimi as I was on fresher tyres, but they left us to race which is our philosophy of fair play. You lose so much downforce in sectors two and three and obviously our cars are pretty close on performance so it’s pretty hard to pass, but we have to be very happy with a double podium.”

    Eric Boullier, Lotus team principal
    “Another double podium for the team is a fantastic Korean Grand Prix result and it tastes like a race win this late in the season. Credit to everyone back at Enstone for delivering us extra performance from the long wheelbase car, as any gain towards the end of the year is especially beneficial as we fight for position in both championships. The race team delivered a great strategy and pit stops, whilst both drivers drove exceptionally well. We have a lot of promise for the remaining races and podiums are certainly on our agenda.”

    Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
    “A great result for the team. We thought we would be competitive coming into this weekend, and in the end we qualified well and raced extremely well. Romain drove an incredibly strong race, and without the safety car would have taken a very comfortable second place. There was an element of luck for Kimi with the safety car and he certainly made the most of that, before once more demonstrating that he never stops pushing by capitalising on the one mistake made by his team-mate all weekend. It was close between the two, but we let both drivers race to the end which was the right thing to do. All signs look positive for Japan.”

    Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
    “It was a fantastic race from both drivers. Romain was very strong in the first part of the race, controlling the pace and managing the fuel and tyres very well. We reused his engine from Singapore and everything worked perfectly. We were on the limit with Kimi’s engine with some of the richer fuel mixes to help him get through the field and maximize performance. A great result all round.”

    Sauber
    Nico Hulkenberg, 4th
    Nico Hulkenberg after the Korean Grand Prix“Today I drove one of the best races in my career so far. I have had cars in the mirrors before, but today there were a lot and it was a bit annoying. Lewis (Hamilton) really put the pressure on at the end, especially in the last sector. I knew I needed to get out of Turn 1 well. The car’s traction was very good today, so that kept me alive against Fernando and then Lewis later on. We were also very fast on the straight. I had a good start, although on the outside into Turn 1, which was a loss at first, but then I had a real good slip stream and was able to get past on the outside. A big thank you to the entire team for providing such an excellent car today.”

    Esteban Gutierrez, 11th
    “I had a very good start, then I arrived at Turn 3 and saw what was going on. I tried to protect my position, my rears locked and that’s why I lost a couple of positions. To recover from that was quite a challenge. I had some good fights with Massa and Checo (Perez) coming from the back. Of course, I wanted to score points today, but this is racing. It’s a great experience and will help me to improve my race craft. We had good pace today and are definitely able to fight in the top ten.”

    Tom McCullough, Sauber, head of track engineering
    “This is a fantastic result for the team, and we have picked up some very important points in the constructors’ championship. Looking at what happened in the race, today was a right front tyre management exercise, knowing where to be quick and where to protect the car, and Nico executed that exactly as we wanted. He withstood some immense pressure from a lot of very good drivers behind him. Esteban had a great start and Turn 1, but was unlucky into Turn 3, losing track positions due to other peoples’ mistakes. From that point on he came very close to scoring his first points, so can take a lot of positives from this race. We aim to carry this momentum forward to Suzuka next week. This is proof the hard work being done in Hinwil is delivering on the track.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal
    “I am very relieved we were able to keep up our level of performance throughout the whole weekend. We went into the Korean Grand Prix with high expectations and it is a great feeling that we were able to meet these through our own strengths. Nico put in a superb performance and, once again, great fight, as it definitely was not easy to keep those cars behind him. Esteban had a difficult start, so struggled a bit more. However, all in all it is a great step ahead for the entire team and shows we are working well together at home in Hinwil and on the track.”

    Mercedes
    Lewis Hamilton, 5th
    “That was not a great day for us and it feels like we deserved more as a team. After Grosjean got ahead of me at the start, there was no way past and it seemed that we were losing out to others on traction cars all day. In my second stint, running the prime tyre, my right front was just destroyed all of a sudden. When that happens, you start losing temperature, understeering and locking up under braking, so it was really hard to maintain the pace in those laps. It was a really difficult part of the race but I had to get to a certain target lap before I made the final stop. After the safety car, we were just losing out in traction to the Sauber. Our car was really strong through the middle sector but not quick enough on the straights to stay ahead. It was a nice battle with Fernando but it’s hard to take when it’s only for P5 or P6. It was just not a good race for us today but we have the chance to bounce back in Suzuka.”

    Nico Rosberg, 7th
    Sparks fly from Nico Rosberg's Mercedes“That was another very tough race for me. I couldn’t believe what happened with the wing: I was on course for a podium finish after overtaking Lewis and two seconds later, the front wing just broke. It was pretty scary because that could have been a dangerous situation but the engineers told me over the radio that it was under control and I could carry some speed back to the pits. It’s a shame because the car felt great today and I found a good balance and how to get the most out of the car, which I hadn’t managed until this point of the weekend. It’s been a real up and down season so far for me but it’s good that we have another race in a week’s time. Our car is very competitive and I had good pace compared to the cars on the podium. So I’m looking forward to the next races.”

    Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
    “It proved a very challenging race for the team and one which leaves us with the rather bitter taste of “what might have been” after finishing fifth with Lewis and seventh with Nico. The cars settled in third and fourth positions during the first stint and both looked very competitive compared to those around them. However, Lewis began to struggle around 13 laps into his second stint when he reported that his right-front tyre was no longer performing properly. At that point, we had a difficult decision to make: an extra stop at lap 22 would have committed us to a much slower three-stop strategy, or we could leave Lewis in clean air to tough it out and try and reach the target lap to make our two-stop strategy work. We chose the latter option but it was a pretty painful few laps as Lewis battled to minimise the time loss. On the other car, Nico’s tyres were in much better shape and he was running at the same pace as the leaders and well on course for a podium finish when he suffered a structural failure on the front wing assembly which forced him to make an immediate pit stop. The safety car phases ultimately made the final part of the race more comfortable in terms of tyre life but neither driver was able to make up much ground against the cars around them which had a traction advantage. It’s been a tough day and we will aim to deliver a stronger performance in Japan.”

    Ferrari
    Fernando Alonso, 6th
    We knew this would be a difficult race and unfortunately the results confirmed the concerns we had already experienced on Friday, when we had a few problems with tyre degradation on the long run. It wasn’t a surprise to be off the pace in qualifying, as that’s been the case since the start of the season, but the fact that we didn’t have the pace in the race was one. Unfortunately, at the start, I couldn’t keep the Sauber behind me and that meant I had a particularly stressful race in terms of the tyres. What happened to Felipe at the third corner was not a problem for me: there were a lot of us there at that point and someone must have touched him. I tried to avoid him and continued without it affecting my race, because by then, I was already behind Hulkenberg. Now we must think only about Suzuka and try to get back on the podium, rediscovering the form we usually have on Sunday, that allows us to fight at the front. Vettel is a very long way off in terms of points, but above all in performance terms and we cannot expect miracles between now and the end of the championship. Second place in the constructors’ championship is probably a more realistic target, but one thing’s certain, we are not giving up now and we will give it our best shot right to the very end.”

    Felipe Massa, 9th
    Felipe Massa after qualifying at Singapore“Today’s Korean Grand Prix was really very complicated, because my chances of getting a good result evaporated right from the first lap, when I found myself in the middle of a group, all of us fighting and I decided to go down the inside to try and brake later. Unfortunately, some of the cars were slower and in order to avoid driving into one of the Mercedes, I was forced to move over to the right, ending up in a spin. Luckily, the car was alright, but at that point I was contemplating a race from the back of the pack. Thanks to a few nice passing moves I still managed to bring home some points, which was a good thing compared to how it looked after the start. Today, we weren’t competitive and there were at least three or four teams quicker than us, including Sauber, but I hope this was mainly track dependent and that our car will be better suited to the Suzuka track.”

    Pat Fry, Ferrari engineering director
    “Today the top places were out of reach, in what was a very tense race for both our drivers, caught in traffic behind the Saubers from start to finish. On this track, their two cars were able to make the most of better traction on the exit to the corners and their high top speed made life difficult when trying to overtake them. At the start, Fernando managed to close on Rosberg at the first corner, but had to back off so as not to go off the track, which helped Hulkenberg get past on the straight. Once he was behind, he had to deal with tyre wear and it was a real shame, because our pace was not lower than that of the Mercedes. As for Felipe however, the spin going into Turn 3 dropped him to the back. On lap 15, after a climb up the order that took him to 14th place, he found himself behind Gutierrez. Both Fernando and Felipe did their utmost and fought hard all weekend against tyre degradation and graining, which was particularly high, because of the characteristics of this track. For Suzuka, we will try and improve and get back to aiming for a podium finish, because we certainly don’t want to be fighting for sixth and ninth.”

    Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
    “After positive results in Belgium, Monza and Singapore, there’s no use denying that today’s result doesn’t make us happy. We were hoping to be able to attack the two Mercedes on the opening lap, as we knew we could deal with their race pace. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the incidents just after the start affected our race, wiping out any chance of getting close to the podium. In these conditions we didn’t manage to get the most out of our car and now the only thing we can do is keep our concentration high for the next round in Japan, where we get an immediate chance to redeem ourselves. Even if the drivers’ title is now an almost impossible target, we still have an obligation to continue to give our all to the very end of the championship, because we are still fighting for second place in the constructors’ championship.”

    McLaren
    Jenson Button, 8th
    “Turn 3 was always going to be something of a mess on the first lap. And, sure enough, there was an incident; a car got hit, went wide and hit me. That contact damaged my front wing endplate. It didn’t really cause me too much of a problem in terms of staying with the cars in front, but it really started to hurt the temperatures, so we had to pit for a new nosebox on lap four. That cost me a bit of time. Our pace on the prime tyre was very good, however, and I was able to run two strong stints on the prime to stay in the hunt. During my second pit stop, the (pit-release) lights went green then went red again, so I briefly stopped as a precaution straight after I was released. I had a quick look behind me to check that everything was okay – everything seemed fine, so I continued. Considering those delays, eighth place wasn’t a bad result. Still, I was a bit gutted to lose seventh right at the end of the race. As soon as I lost the DRS to the bunch of cars in front, that was it for me: I couldn’t get any temperature back in the tyres. It was always going to be difficult with Nico (Rosberg) at the end: his tyres were almost 10 laps fresher than mine. I did 33 laps on my final set, whereas the previous set did 18! I’m really happy to have picked up those points – four points were about as good as it was going to get today.”

    Sergio Perez, 10th
    Sergio Perez suffers a Pirelli tyre delamination at the Korean Grand Prix“We definitely deserved more today – we were very unlucky. With regards to my tyre delamination, although that particular set was already quite old, I braked at the same point as normal and got a flat-spot from the lock-up. I’d done 21 laps with that set, when, all of a sudden, the front-right just exploded, destroying the front wing. It was lucky, because there weren’t any other cars around me. Still, from a team point of view, it’s very disappointing for a single incident like this to destroy the good progress we’d made all weekend. Regarding Felipe, we were racing very hard trying to get some points – on one occasion, I thought he was going to leave me more space, then he turned in, I tried to brake and we touched a little bit. On the second incident, I thought I had the corner. I’m pleased that the stewards felt there was no need for any further action – it was just racing.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
    “Sometimes, it takes a difficult race to bring out the strengths of our people – and I’m pleased that, despite our drivers enduring a puncture and two nosebox changes this afternoon, we still managed to get both Jenson and Checo into the points. That was achieved through a combination of great tactics – our strategists worked on the fly to ensure Jenson recovered superbly from an earlier-than-planned stop to replace a damaged front wing; well-executed teamwork – our mechanics performed brilliantly under pressure to replace two broken front wings and a severely delaminated front tyre; and great driver focus – Jenson drove a scarcely believable 33-lap stint on one set of tyres, effectively turning his race into a one-stopper, and Checo showed great racing spirit to take the battle to those around him after a delamination destroyed his right-front tyre and his front wing. To incorporate all those setbacks into a single afternoon, yet still run competitively, is a great bonus to the team. And while the final classification may only show we finished eighth and 10th, those bald facts cruelly fail to do justice to the way we overcame adversity on our way to those positions. Although fighting for minor points finishes isn’t really what we expect at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, today’s results were greatly deserved after a day of extreme difficulty.”

    Williams
    Valtteri Bottas, 12th
    “I was a bit unlucky with the incident on the first lap as I was blocked and lost a position whereas others were able to make up places. The first stint was difficult as I was struggling with the supersoft tyre, but the pace improved a lot in the second stint on the mediums and the safety cars allowed me to close in on the top ten. In the end it was all about making sure we still had the grip in the tyres to fight for some points in the final laps, but I think 12th was a fair result as the cars that finished ahead of us had better pace all weekend.”

    Pastor Maldonado, 13th
    “I had a very good first lap, moving up to ninth after an incident at turn three allowed me to make up a lot of places. I tried to maintain my position in the top ten but the safety cars hindered my race today as the cars behind were able to keep closing up behind me, and after the second restart they just had too much pace and were able to overtake. It’s disappointing not to finish in the points but the end result is a fair reflection of our performance this weekend and we need to work hard to find some gains for the race next weekend in Japan.”

    Xevi Pujolar, Williams Chief race engineer
    “It was a busy first lap with Valtteri losing out in the incidents that happened ahead on track, whilst Pastor was able to gain from them and moved from 18th to ninth. Pastor had a good opening stint but graining on the front-right tyres of both cars was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. We still stayed on target for a two-stop strategy with both cars but after we moved from the supersofts to the mediums for the second stint tyre management was still difficult. Valtteri was able to manage the front-right slightly better because Pastor was pushing harder further up the field and we ultimately had to cut Pastor’s second stint slightly short. We used the two safety-car periods to help manage tyre wear to get to the end of the race but we knew it was going to be tough. With more laps on his tyres than those around him, Pastor was unable to defend from Gutiérrez, Perez and Massa in the closing stages. We were close to fighting for points but the car pace unfortunately wasn’t quite good enough.”

    Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
    “A chaotic Korean Grand Prix but one that almost worked out in our favour. Pastor did a good job to stay clear of the trouble and ran in the top ten for parts of the race. With a bit more luck we could have scored a point, but the conditions were just so unpredictable that it didn’t go our way in the end.”

    Caterham
    Charles Pic, 14th
    charles-pic-mycaterham“That was a good race for me I had a good, clean start but into Turn 3 I had to go off track to avoid Massa who’d spun and lost a couple of places. I made them up and for both the first and second stints the car balance felt good. We’d started on supersofts and they held up well for the first stint so we pitted on schedule and re-joined on a set of new mediums. As I say, the car balance felt good and I was on plan when the first safety car came out so we boxed right away for the second stop and at that stage we were looking at a long final stint to the flag. However, then the second safety car was brought out almost immediately and that obviously helped with the tyre management for the final stint. I did have some issues with the front right for the last few laps but nothing too bad so I got the car to the flag in 14th which is a decent result for us – not quite where we want to be but almost!”

    Giedo van der Garde, 15th
    “My start was great, really strong and when everyone was moving to avoid Massa in Turn 3 I had to push out wide to avoid contact with a few cars around me. I really don’t think I’d pushed any other cars out on purpose on lap one but I was told to box for a drive-through penalty because of what the stewards saw and from there my race was pretty much over. I served the penalty and then had to box again immediately as the supersofts I’d started on were done, so even though I was up as high as 12th in the first stint I re-joined in 22nd and set about catching up Chilton and Bianchi. I was up close to Chilton just when the safety car came out and the team did a great job to help me get past him with a really quick stop on the first safety-car lap. That sort of teamwork needs to be mentioned as it plays such a critical role in the overall race, so the boys deserve a thank you for that.The second safety car came out almost immediately when Mark’s car caught fire and then when we restarted I had a bit of a lock-up at the end of the main straight and Bianchi got past, but within a couple more laps I regained the place and was back behind Charles in 17th. I had a flat spot from that point in the race but kept pushing and finally finished in 15th, just behind Charles. Without the drive-through I’m sure I could have finished higher, maybe not up in 13th, but close and while that’s obviously frustrating today, it shows how close it’s getting and that’s good for my motivation and the whole team.”

    Marussia
    Jules Bianchi, 16th
    “I was hoping to be able to have a good fight with the Caterhams today and despite the setback of the grid penalty I was in a good position after the first couple of corners of the opening lap. It wasn’t too long before we had to focus our efforts on tyre management and the first two stints were pretty tough as we were not able to push. In the third stint, when there was less to lose, we could give it more of a shot but it was not enough to try to take a position from them. We have a tough job on our hands in these next five races and it will require every bit of our focus and concentration, but we know what we have to do and everyone is working very hard for that. My thanks to the team as it is not just tough in the cockpit!”

    Max Chilton, 17th
    “Overall, a good team result today as we achieved the right outcome for our bigger picture. I think we were lacking a little in terms of our expected race pace but also we were unable to really push because of the need to manage our way through each stint with the tyres. The opening lap melée set me back a little but then I caught back up to Jules and the two safety cars meant that we never had the blue flag situation to worry about. The pit stops were really slick and I think we did everything we could. We are much closer to the Caterham cars, we know that, but we need to be able to carry that through into the race to make things a little more comfortable. ”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “It was a tough race today but one that the whole team has done a fantastic job to manage. Indeed, ‘management’ was really the word of the day. We knew it would be tough to complete a two stop race, but we felt that this gave us our best opportunity of being in a position to take advantage of any safety cars that came along. The starts were very good this week and we have definitely made progress in this area. The rest of the race was really quite difficult in terms of continuous lap by lap calculations to determine the pace we should run at in order to make our two stop strategy work. This is quite labour intensive for the engineers and drivers but I’m pleased with the job we did with this. We are still a little way off where we need to be in terms of outright pace, however we can take some comfort that on a couple of occasions today we were racing our nearest competitor. We are hopeful that with a few smaller developments we have coming over the next few races, we can take a further step forward to ensure we are best placed to deal with any further races of attrition which may arise in the remaining five races, given our objective.”

    Toro Rosso
    Jean-Eric Vergne, 18th
    “At the moment, we’re not quite sure what happened in the end. I felt the car pull to one side and something was clearly not right, so the team called me into the pits. Starting from 16th, this was always going to be a difficult weekend and after I made up a few places in the early stages, I began to suffer with tyre degradation, so I agreed when the team decided to switch me from a two to a three stop strategy. I just want to get to Suzuka and start again now, but we will need to do a lot of work if we want to return to the performance level we should have had here.”

    Daniel Ricciardo, 19th
    Daniel Ricciardo retires from the Korean Grand Prix“I think we did all we could today in the race. I had a decent first stint and tried to run as long as possible on the Prime tyre. The car wasn’t perfect but it was good enough to be in a points position with a few laps to go and I was hanging on nicely to ninth. It’s deja vu, as I had the same scenario here last year, when I came down to Turn 3 with a few laps to go, I braked and the car immediately shot to the left. That time it cost me one place. Once I got out of the cockpit this time, I could see there was a mechanical problem at the front left corner. Personally, I was really pleased with my performance in the car today. Maybe we didn’t have a top-ten car but I was able to fight in the top ten. But for myself and the team it’s frustrating to get no reward. Now all we can do is look ahead to Suzuka.”

    Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
    “Daniel was the only driver to start on the medium tyre as we wanted to try something different on the strategy front to make up some places. It seemed to work well, as he made up a few positions by mid race. However, the safety car came at the wrong time for him, but we had to bring him in, knowing he would have a tough final stint on the supersofts. He did a good job of managing his tyres and defending his ninth place quite comfortably. Then with two laps to go, we had a mechanical issue on the car which we will investigate when we get it back and he had to park at the side of the track. Jev had a harder afternoon, starting from further back and, after making up a few places, the heavy traffic in the back of the field meant he had higher tyre degradation. We decided to switch him to a three stop strategy, but in the end we had to retire him with what might be a similar problem to Daniel’s car.”

    Force India
    Adrian Sutil, 20th
    “I was quite unlucky on the first lap because after Massa spun everybody headed for the inside and somebody hit me on the side of my front wing. The damage was not too bad but I still had to pit for a new one. As the race went on I was able to fight back quite well and after the safety car I was in P12 and not planning to pit again. At the restart I lost the rear of the car under braking for Turn 3. I really don’t know why because I was not braking late and the car just snapped. I hit Webber so I apologise for ending his race. It’s a disappointing end to the race because I believe there was still a chance of a point.”

    Paul di Resta, DNF
    “I have to hold my hands up and apologise to the team. Maybe I took a little bit too much kerb and that sent me off the track. The way we’ve set the car up means it has been quite edgy and difficult to drive, and that’s what has caught me out today, although whether it has cost us points is hard to say. The performance in the race was not where we wanted it to be and the front tyres were wearing out too quickly. So we need to have a rethink ahead of Suzuka and go there determined to have a clean race.”

    Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
    “It was not the easiest day in the office for anyone at Sahara Force India and we leave Korea feeling disappointed. Paul was pushing hard after his second stop and just made a small mistake at Turn 12. It was a fairly gentle tap against the barrier, but it was enough to damage the right rear corner and end his race. Adrian also had an eventful time, being a victim of the opening lap incident at Turn 3. Pitting early for a new wing dropped him to the back of the pack, but he battled back and was in contention for some points. Unfortunately the damage to his rear wing led to his eventual retirement. After a tough race like that it’s important we try and bounce back in Japan next week.”

    Pirelli
    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
    “With the medium compound proving to be the ideal race tyre, most drivers aimed to get onto it as soon as possible, with teams reacting from the start of the race to the strategies that had been put in place by their immediate rivals. We had a tyre choice that may have been aggressive, with the supersoft being a perfect qualifying tyre and the medium optimal for the race, but this was in accordance with the requests of many of the teams. Regarding Sergio Perez’s front-right tyre issue we have been able to determine very quickly that it was the result of a flat spot caused by a lock-up under heavy braking. We’re obviously on exactly the same construction as we raced here last year, so there’s no underlying problem, while flat spots or punctures have just always been an integral part of racing. The two safety-car periods had an important effect on the race strategy, which meant that all the finishers apart from one completed the race with just two stops. Without safety cars, we probably would have seen more people stopping three times, but it was always going to be within the two to three stop window, which has been our target since we came into Formula One.”

  • Driver Announcement: Bianchi to Remain at Marussia

    Jules_Bianchi_2012-1The Marussia team has announced that Jules Bianchi will remain with the team in 2014.

    The Frenchman has delivered solid performances for Marussia since making his debut in Australia at the beginning of the season. The move to retain Bianchi, a Ferrari Academy protegé, comes as no surprise as he has had the better of teammate Max Chilton for the better part of the season.

    Bianchi was full of praise for the Marussia team. “I couldn’t have wished for a more supportive environment in which to make my F1 debut and from the very beginning I have always felt completely at home with the team,” said Bianchi.

    Team Principal John Booth echoed his sentiment and said that consistently is vital part of making a success of the 2014 season.

  • Singapore GP Preview Quotes – Marussia F1 Team

    Singapore GP Preview Quotes – Marussia F1 Team

    Jules Bianchi, Marussia
    “The Singapore Grand Prix will be a totally new experience for me as my first night race. In my debut season, where everything is new, it is certainly one of the highlights of the calendar for me and I can’t wait for next weekend. Having been to the race previously I know that there are so many different aspects to the weekend – staying on European hours, going to bed when I should be getting up and eating breakfast in the middle of the afternoon. I’ve driven the track on the simulator and it looks like a lot of fun, although it will be pretty hot in the cockpit. The next part of the season is going to be quite a challenge for everyone, but the Team is pushing so hard to maintain 10th place in the championship and I really hope that is going to be possible for us.”

    Max Chilton, Marussia
    “Singapore is a great city and I can’t wait for my first Formula One night race experience there next weekend, although it’s not a new circuit for me and I have great memories of winning there last year in GP2. The track is quite reminiscent of one of my favourite circuits, Monaco, and I would be happy to achieve the same sort of result as I did that weekend in Monte Carlo. Working to European hours is always interesting but I’ve seen the floodlights first-hand, so I know that while it feels like night-time in the paddock, it’s like daylight on the track. We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to try to optimise our current package and for my part I’m quite pleased with how my pace is really building, so my first objective for Singapore is to maintain that momentum.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “We always feel a little sad putting Europe behind us, along with some of the classic motor racing venues. Having said that, we’re never sorry to head to be heading to Singapore, for one of the team’s favourite races. The atmosphere and spectacle are quite unique and this year it will be nice to share our experience with two drivers who are very excited to be competing in their first night race. The conditions are quite tough for the race team and drivers, with the fierce heat and humidity, but the unique racing environment soon overshadows those factors and I’m sure we’ll look forward to enjoy every second of the Singapore Grand Prix.”

    Photo by Marussia F1 Twitter team

     

  • Belgium GP: Post Qualifying Report – Hamilton times it to a tee

    Belgium GP: Post Qualifying Report – Hamilton times it to a tee

    The notorious Spa weather had a definitive say in today’s qualifying sessions as Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position in the dying seconds of the session.

    The fickle weather dampened the 7 km long circuit enough to prompt the fitting of intermediate tyres all twenty-two cars. It was the opportunists who would cash into the difficult conditions and on this occasion both Caterham and Marussia happily took the gamble to run the medium compound slick tyres towards the end of the first twenty minute session.

    As the circuit dried considerably so the laptimes tumbled. The Williams duo who had found themselves heading the timing sheets ultimately ended up outside the top sixteen. Giedo van der Garde for Caterham and Marussia Chilton and Bianchi all advanced the second part of qualifying thanks to some quick thinking tactics.

    The second session was run in completely dry conditions and it was Kimi Raikkonen who a set a low 1 minute 48 to end the session quickest of all. While Jenson Button stuck his McLaren into 5th place on the sheets teammate Perez failed to advance.

    The dry running would be confined to the second part of qualifying as the light rain marked the start of the top ten shootout. As the field rushed out of the pitlane on white-walled medium tyres only Paul di Resta opted to remain in his garage. The Force India emerged shortly afterwards on intermediate tyres. It appeared to be a stroke of tactical genius by the Force India team as the other nine cars on circuit all returned to the pitlane for inters.

    Di Resta was left with a clear track and what appeared to be the best track conditions as the rain intensified and circuit became a slippery thrill ride. For the majority of the session it looked as if the Scotsman was on course for his first pole position. Nevertheless, there would be a late twist in the tail. The rain had ceased and conditions had hugely improved towards the end of the ten minutes.

    As several drivers snatched the top spot it was Lewis Hamilton who timed it to perfection. The Brit was the last driver to cross the line – therefore setting his lap at the time the circuit was at its best.

    Hamilton snatched the pole position by two tenths of a second from championship leader Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber lines up third ahead of the sister Mercedes of Nico Rosberg in fifth. Paul di Resta ended up with fifth place ahead of Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa rounds out the top ten.  

    QualiSpa

  • Belgian GP Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Belgian GP Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Preview Quotes from the Marussia F1 Team ahead of this weekend’s Belgian GP at Spa.

    Jules Bianchi, Marussia
    “On the one hand it is very important for everyone in the sport to have a good long break. On the other hand I was ready to go racing again after just one week! That was three weeks ago now, so I am very much looking forward to Spa this weekend and also to the second half of the season, which is very important for us as we have to give it 100 percent to ensure we achieve our objectives. Over the break I have had the chance to reflect on my debut season so far, think about how I can bring all of that experience together to make me stronger and also focus very hard on my physical condition so that I can perform at my best through the run of long-haul races coming up. It will be good to race at Spa again as it is a fantastic track and it will be very special to get my first taste of it in an F1 car.”

    Max Chilton, Marussia
    “I can’t wait for Spa this weekend. The break has been a good opportunity to think about the first half of the season but it will be good to be back in the car again. I’m feeling very positive about what we need to do in the remaining nine races and I’m ready for the challenge. Although we haven’t been racing, the break has still been a busy time as I treated it a little like a ‘training camp’ and spent part of it on a pretty intensive physical programme. Having raced at Spa a few times now, I’m looking forward to my first experience of driving a Formula One car at what is a very special circuit. It’s a different challenge, with the exceptionally long lap and fantastic mix of long straights and high-speed corners and it certainly ranks high on my list of favourites.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “It is good to return after the summer break and have everyone in the team rested and ready for the second phase of races. With only two European rounds remaining, the long haul run will be quite demanding, so the chance for some much-needed respite has been key for everyone. We also head into the second part of the season still holding 10th place in the constructors’ championship and we are keenly focused on what we need to do at every turn to ensure we maintain that position. The challenge begins again this weekend in Spa at what is a favourite destination for our Team and the fans. There we will have some new suspension parts and brakes to evaluate and, as ever, consistent progress during the course of the weekend and a two-car finish ahead of our nearest competitors are the target outcomes.”

    Photo: Marussia F1 Team

  • Hungarian Grand Prix Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Hungarian Grand Prix Preview Quotes – Marussia

    Preview Quotes from Marussia F1 Team ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix

    Jules Bianchi, Marussia

    “Spending Friday afternoon in the car at Silverstone highlighted how much I’ve missed the racing since Germany, so I’m looking forward to Hungary before we have the long summer break. The first part of the season has passed by so quickly and I think it is important that we have a stronger weekend in Budapest, so everyone stays focused on what we need to do during the second half. Everyone deserves a good long rest as a reward for the all the hard work, but then we have to continue pushing hard to ensure we achieve our objectives for the season. The Hungaroring is a circuit I enjoy, having raced there several times before in GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5. It is usually extremely hot and because the track is quite demanding to drive, it is not such an easy weekend. There is no let-up across the whole lap so it requires a lot of focus, but that is why it is quite an interesting race because it demands everything you have as a driver. Let’s hope for a positive weekend for the Team with a strong two-car finish.”

    Max Chilton, Marussia

    “Hungary holds many special memories for me as the track where I achieved my first race win in GP2 last season, so I’m really excited to be heading back there. I love everything about Budapest – the track, the weather, the people and the city. It is always hot and sunny at the Hungaroring and it’s just a circuit I really enjoy which seems to suit me. As ever, the objective is to have the best build-up possible then raise our game a little in qualifying before hopefully enjoying a good race to finish ahead of our immediate competitors. It would be nice to send the Team off for the summer break with a positive result in hand.”

    John Booth, Marussia team principal
    “We’ve had a constructive test at Silverstone this week, providing our young drivers with valuable experience and our race drivers with the opportunity to test the 2013 compound-2012 construction tyres. We’ve been extremely fortunate with the weather and judging by the forecast for next week in Budapest we can look forward to more of the same, although temperatures in the mid-thirties can feel very warm indeed in the midst of a busy race weekend, particularly in the cockpit. The Hungaroring will be a very demanding circuit for our drivers, although their fitness for any circuit is never in question; we’re very fortunate to have two guys who take their physical preparation very seriously. This is a track that demands their full attention throughout the lap and with little or no respite. They both seem to enjoy it there and their simulator preparation has gone well, so now we hope to have a strong weekend with everything coming together for us to get both cars home and ahead of our direct competitors.”

  • 2013 Santander German Grand Prix – Team and Driver Quotes

    2013 Santander German Grand Prix – Team and Driver Quotes

    Red Bull-Renault

    Sebastian Vettel (1st): “It was a tough race; it was one of the toughest for a long time. I’m happy the race wasn’t two or three laps longer, as Kimi was a bit quicker towards the end. I’m very happy that it worked out and it’s very special. The team worked really hard to give me the chance to win this weekend and we got it. First of all you have to remember that it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to race in your home country; we have around 20 races, but there are obviously more than 20 countries, so it’s special to race at home and get so much support. I had a good start and then just focused on every single lap during the race. You don’t really think about where you are while you are racing, you can’t allow your mind to drift, but when the flag came out and the race was over I really let myself enjoy the parade lap and saw a lot of people in the grandstands cheering and waving flags. These pictures will remain in my head for a long, long time.”

    Mark Webber (7th): “I knew we had lost the tyre in the pit stop of course, but not that someone got hit by it. That’s bad and I hope he is okay, that’s the main thing. Today was a bit of a nightmare and you want to wake up tomorrow and have another go at it. We had an excellent start and were in a great position leading up to the first stop with Seb, but we lost all of that. We lost a lot of points today and a chance to challenge for the win, but there’s no rewind button now.”

    Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “The most important thing today is that the cameraman who got struck by the tyre does not appear to have suffered any life threatening injuries. It’s a timely reminder that working in the pit lane is dangerous. Everyone reacted incredibly quickly and the most important thing is to hear that he seems to be fundamentally okay. Looking to the race, for any driver to win their home grand prix is something tremendously special and after the disappointment of missing out on the victory a week ago in Silverstone, Sebastian drove faultlessly today and can be very proud of what he’s achieved in his home grand prix in front of the home fans. It’s a huge result for him and very positive for the Championship. For Mark, it was a strong recovery drive; he got back on to the lead lap through the pace car and then fought his way back into the points. It’s a great shame that we couldn’t have both cars right up there today, but all credit to Mark for his very determined drive. We need to understand what went wrong in that first pit stop for Mark, but as I said, our main concern today is knowing that the cameraman is okay.”

    Thierry Salvi, Renault: “We fought hard for that today. Kimi and Romain really pushed us hard, but Sebastian did a great job to win at home for the first time. Mark also drove a storming race, coming from a lap down to a points-scoring position. For Renault it is very positive to see three Renault-powered drivers racing for the win and ultimately to have a clean sweep of the podium. Although it certainly makes us nervous behind the screens!”

    Ferrari

    Fernando Alonso (4th): “This was a difficult race, we weren’t very quick and at some moments we were not competitive enough. In the first stint, we paid the price for being on used tyres, because by lap twelve they were already finished, which cost us some of the advantage we hoped to gain from our strategic choice. Even if we were hoping to finish on the podium, finishing less than eight seconds off Vettel after starting eighth is an encouraging result. The team is doing its utmost to make the car more competitive and after tackling a few races without being too sure about our updates, today we can claim to have cleared up many of our doubts and to have understood which are the areas we must concentrate on to move the development forward. When we arrived here on Thursday, the Silverstone test did not seem that important, because the race drivers were only meant to be testing the tyres, but having heard what the FIA had to say, it’s been confirmed that we can test updates and this makes it a much more sensible proposition. If I get the call from the team, I’m ready to go.”

    MassaOutFelipe Massa (DNF, Spin): “I am very disappointed with what happened, especially after the rest of the weekend had gone well. At the start of lap four, when I was on the straight, at the moment when I braked, the rear wheels locked up and I couldn’t stop the car from spinning. When the car came to a stop, it was stuck in fifth gear and I couldn’t stop the engine from stalling. It’s very odd that it got stuck like that, even if so far, the team has not seen anything unusual. The Mediums did not have the pace we expected after Friday’s free practice, but maybe other factors, such as the higher temperatures, came into play and made the difference. Now I want to focus on the next race when I plan to do my utmost to turn things around.”

    Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: “Given the current state of play, I think today’s result is the most we could have achieved and I don’t think the strategy had much of an influence on the outcome of the race. Wanting to see the glass as half full, the points we have picked up at this point in the season are very important. The variable temperatures we saw today produced different performance levels. This turnaround confirms yet again how difficult it is for everyone to interpret as well as possible the true competitiveness of the car-tyre package at every track. Looking ahead, now it is vital that we optimise the performance of our car, just as our rivals have managed to do, because we want to get back to fighting for the top places as soon as possible. In Hungary we will have different tyres and it will be important to understand their behaviour right from the test at Silverstone, in two weeks time. At the same time, we will try to change pace on our development work, an area where we need to push hard.”

    Pat Fry: “Today’s temperatures and track conditions, different to those we saw over the past days, had a strong influence on the performance of the various teams. In our case, I don’t think the final result would have been different if we had opted for the opposite strategy, because, starting from fifth or sixth on the Softs, our position in the end would have been the same. Our pace on the soft compound was better than expected, when one considers that it’s particularly sensitive to the higher temperatures, while the degradation of the Mediums was higher than expected and caused us a few more problems in balancing the car and that spoilt our first stint. I am sorry for Felipe, who had made another great start, but unfortunately he locked up the rear wheels under braking and spun, possibly because of the lack of grip. Fernando managed to get the most out of the car, always trying to attack when possible. It was a shame to miss out on the podium in the end, especially as the speed of the Red Bulls and Lotuses was not that much higher than ours. Now there are two weeks before the next round in Hungary, during which we will be pushing as hard as possible to close the performance gap which separates us from the leaders.”

    McLaren-Mercedes

    Jenson Button (6th): “There are a lot of positives to take away from this weekend; our pace was reasonably good; it’s nice to be Jenson Button and Sergio Perezracing cars closer to the front, such as the Mercedes; our laptimes compared to the four cars at the front weren’t too bad either; and today’s points are badly needed right now. Unfortunately, the two Caterhams fighting in front of me in the closing laps probably cost me fifth place. When you’re fighting for position, you expect the backmarkers to move over, even if they’re fighting for position themselves. It’s a shame – those points could be so important for us later in the season. The Safety Car also didn’t help our strategy – but we were a lot stronger this weekend than we’ve been for the past few races. We can be positive – as a team, we didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, and we got the best out of what we have. Overall, it’s a positive day for the team – now we just need to find some more pace in the car.”

    Sergio Perez (8th): “My car performed a lot better today than it did yesterday. We had better pace and degradation than we’d expected: we managed a very long final stint, and I think we maximised everything today. We should be happy. After the Safety Car, it was like the start of a second race. I just focused on preserving the tyres over that long stint – the car and tyres performed very strongly, but we just lost out on the final corner. It was always going to be difficult to hold Mark [Webber] back. This is a good step on from Silverstone – it’s been a very promising weekend, and I hope we can take another step forward for Hungary.”

    Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: “Both drivers did a fantastic job this afternoon – they managed the limits of the tyre, pushed aggressively when it was needed and were always able to maximise the pace of the car. It’s just a pity that they each lost position on the final lap. That was a little bit frustrating: we had terrible traffic at the end, so Jenson lost a couple of seconds at a critical point in the race. That enabled Lewis [Hamilton] to close him down quicker than normal and take a position that we felt we could have kept. The whole team did an extremely good job today: our strategy was perfectly managed, our pitstops were faultless, and the engineers maximised the pace of the car. We raced well, but we’re still not where we want to be, although there are positives to take away from today. We’ll be putting out heads down during the three-week break before Hungary and will be aiming to capitalise on the momentum we’ve gathered this weekend.”

    Lotus-Renault

    Kimi Raikkonen (2nd): “We had a pretty good last stint of the race, but the cars are close on performance so it’s difficult to overtake. Maybe some more laps would have helped us, but the race is only 60 laps so you have to do your best with that. After my first stop I was stuck behind a Mercedes for a while, but once I was past the car was pretty good. After the safety car three of us were able to pull away, but we were too close on speed to change the order. It was a good day for the team. Of course, we wanted to win; we couldn’t, but we did score the most points here. The warmer temperatures definitely helped us, so let’s hope for some more hot weather in Budapest.”

    Romain Grosjean (3rd): “After some difficult races, everything went right today and it was pretty special when I was leading the race and returning to the podium is naturally a good thing. My car felt great on the first stint with the soft tyres and it’s clear that the summer weather really suits us. Hopefully we’ll have a long summer now in Europe! Letting Kimi past at the end of the race was the sensible thing to do as we were on different strategies and he had more of a chance of going for the win than I did at that point. We didn’t know which tyre would be the best at the end of the race, so we didn’t put all our eggs in one basket.”

    GrosjeanParcFerme

    Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “That was a very good race from the team which validates all the hard work which has been going on back at Enstone, so we thank everyone at the factory for their efforts. After three difficult weekends, being on the podium was exactly what we needed. We need to continue like this to make up for lost ground in both championships. The E21 worked very well today and both Kimi and Romain drove superbly. We had a good strategy from the pit wall, some fantastic pit stops, and were it not for losing some time behind both Mercedes, it’s possible that we could have won today. I think we’ll have to ask Pirelli to keep this weekend’s specification of tyres for the rest of the season.”

    Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: “We’re very happy to be back on the podium again after a short spell of bleak races. Both cars ran faultlessly from start to finish and it did look like we could be able to take the fight to Sebastian [Vettel] but ultimately we didn’t quite manage it. Kimi was held up by Lewis [Hamilton] after his first pit stop but came back fighting at the end of the race. Romain did a fantastic job managing his first set of tyres which enabled him to make some great gains. We did consider running Kimi on a two-stop strategy but we could see the tyre performance dropping. We expected slightly more performance from his final set of soft tyres, but he was right with Seb at the end.”

    Riccardo Penteado, Engine Support Leader: “A great race from both drivers, with incredible pace. It was a shame that the traffic pushed us back from the outright win but a double podium is still a great result, and more than we expected going into the weekend. Engine-wise, it’s been a good Grand Prix, although temperatures were hotter than expected. The result shows the engine-chassis package is back to its best and we’ll look to keep this going to the next race.”

    Mercedes GP

    Lewis Hamilton (5th): “That was really a tough race out there for us today. I didn’t have a great start and the Red Bulls were much quicker off the line, dropping me back to third. We really struggled with the second set of tyres which then compromised the rest of my race. It’s a real shame as the team are working so hard and doing such a good job. We’ve clearly got a good car but for some reason, it doesn’t work in these hot conditions. We’ll keep working on it and the positive from today is that we were able to recover to fifth place with a good strategy and great pit stops, and we’re still second in the Constructors’ table. Hopefully we’ll have a better chance at the next race but, for now, there’s a lot of hard work ahead of us.”Hamilton-Rosberg

    Nico Rosberg (9th): “The car didn’t feel so nice to drive today. We struggled a lot with the rear tyres and that’s why we weren’t able to match the pace of the guys in the front. Even so, I had a bit of fun when I changed to the option tyres and could really push to at least score a few points. But we need to understand the new tyres a bit more because it seems that the new construction has shuffled things around, especially in these hot conditions. We have to do a lot of work in the next weeks to make sure we arrive in Hungary in good shape.”

    Ross Brawn, Team Principal: “Our first thoughts today go to the cameraman who was struck by an errant wheel in the pit lane. Happily, he does not appear to have suffered serious injuries but it was once again a reminder of the dangers of our sport and underlines the need for constant vigilance in terms of safety. Today was a race of two halves for us. In the first part, we were once again overstressing the tyres – particularly on the prime compound – and our performance fell away as a result. However, as the temperatures cooled off a little and things settled down, both drivers had respectable pace and were able to fight their way back through the field. Lewis and Nico kept pushing until the final lap and were rewarded for their commitment and determination. At one point it didn’t look like we would come away with much at all from this afternoon, so there has to be a certain satisfaction in saving 12 points today. We have said all along that there is still a question mark over our performance in hotter conditions, and today’s race showed that we still have work to do. We have made big steps forward since Bahrain and Barcelona, where we particularly suffered with hotter track temperatures, and our performance was much improved compared to those races. But we have not yet done enough to convert our Saturday pace into race-winning speed in all conditions on Sunday. The three-week break until Hungary will give us an opportunity to think about how we can make further progress on our tyre management as well as continuing to develop the core performance of the car.”

    Toto Wolff, Mercedes Motorsport Director: “We had a real character-building afternoon here at the Nurburgring. Neither of the drivers could find any grip on the prime tyre in the first part of the race and it mirrored similar experiences we have had so far this season. We managed to recover in the second half, though, and our result was pretty respectable in the end given how things looked after the first 30 laps. Well done to both drivers for squeezing the maximum out of the car today. After such a successful weekend in Silverstone, it feels a little bit like a night and day difference for us. We need to get our heads down at the factory, properly analyse our performance and keep working hard because we know that we will see similar temperatures in Hungary to what we experienced here.”

    Sauber-Ferrari

    Hulkenberg

    Nico Hulkenberg (10th): “It was an extremely tough race. I was fighting on every lap, but this is what we were able to get out of it. To be honest, I expected we would have better pace today, but we didn’t. The car didn’t feel as good as I expected it would either. I thought, and hoped, we could fight with McLaren, but, unfortunately, they were too fast for us today. It was a race with a lot of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles, which are always fun. However, having to fight for positions all the time is never good for the strategy, as it’s tough on the tyres and you loose time. Nevertheless, this weekend was better than the previous ones. We didn’t have an update on the car, we experimented with the set-up, which worked well.”

    Esteban Gutierrez (14th): “From the beginning to the end we were fighting for positions, so it was a very tough race. It was difficult to overtake, because we were lacking speed on the straights. My rhythm was quite reasonable and I tried to do my best. The strategy wasn’t ideal, although everything went to plan, but we pitted just before the safety car, which didn’t make it any easier.”

    Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “One point is not exactly what we expected after a strong qualifying, but the safety car period didn’t play into our hands. Nevertheless, we move on to the test in Silverstone and to the next Grand Prix with confidence. We were able to improve, particularly in qualifying, and we want to continue to improve. Nico delivered a strong performance. The last stint particularly was absolutely thrilling. Of course, we are not where we want to be, but we made a step in the right direction.”

    Tom McCullough, Head of Track Engineering: “We elected to split the strategies with the tyres at the start. Esteban started on the soft tyres, Nico on the medium. Unfortunately, the timing of the safety car was at the worst moment for us as a team – eight laps into Nico’s second stint on the medium tyres and immediately Esteban had pitted. Therefore, it was going to be difficult to recover and score points from there. Nico did a good job in the last stint to get tenth place, which is good for the morale of the team.”

    Force India-Mercedes

    Paul di Resta (11th): “It’s not been the easiest of weekends for us, but in the final part of the race it looked like we were on course to score some points. In the end we just ran out of tyres during the last couple of laps, but it was always going to be risky with our two-stop strategy, especially as we had to pit under the safety car. There were times in the race when the car was working well, but I really struggled with the first set of mediums and was not happy with the balance. Things improved quite a bit for the final stint, but by then we were out of position. It’s a bit gutting to miss out on points so we need to unleash our potential and get back to our usual form in Hungary.”

    Adrian Sutil (13th): “It turned out to be quite a disappointing race and for whatever reason we’ve just not had the pace this weekend. I struggled a lot with the tyres and had to convert from a two-stop race to a three-stop race, which was not our plan. I also lost some time at my final pit stop and after that the points were just too far away.”Adrian Sutil, Spain 2013, Sahara Force India

    Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: “It’s disappointing to end our run of points finishes, but Paul came very close to picking up the final point today. Ultimately his two-stop strategy wasn’t quite enough to fend off our competitors in the final few laps, but we came close to pulling it off. Adrian’s race was also decided by tyre wear because we had to switch him to a three-stop strategy mid-way through the race. Overall we were missing some performance and didn’t have the pace to make the strategy work. Both Paul and Adrian were unable to pass the Williams of Maldonado after the safety car, which compromised the strategy. With three weeks until the next race and a young driver test before that, we will work hard to ensure we can recapture the form we’ve shown earlier in the season.”

    Williams-Renault

    Pastor Maldonado (15th): “It was a good race for us today as we put everything together and we were on for some points. It’s disappointing to finish where we did today after the problem with the pitstops but we have to look at the positives and move forward from this.”

    Valtteri Bottas (16th): “We didn’t get a good start today as we had a few problems getting away from the line. We also lost some time in both pitstops so we need to work out what happened there. The race pace was better than we had seen previously this Williams600weekend which meant that we could have been challenging for points, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”

    Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: “We started the race on medium tyres, and as most of the cars around us started on softs we had the opportunity to run out of sync and make up some positions. We were targeting a two-stop strategy for both drivers which we made work. Pitting before the safety car also worked to our advantage. The drivers drove a clean race and managed the tyres well but we lost a lot of time in our pitstops. We had a problem getting the front-right tyres off both cars and also a problem on the left-rear during Valtteri’s final stop, which resulted in the drivers not being able to finish in the positions they deserved. We are now investigating what happened to make sure we can fix this for the future. Overall, our strategy, the higher track temperatures and our tyre management enabled us to be in a position to compete for the top ten.”

    Laurent Debout, Renault: “We were a lot more competitive in the race than we have been in previous Grands Prix and were fighting for points. It was a shame to lose time in the pitstops, but there are definite positives we can take away; we’ve made a step forward on the race pace, which is what counts.”

    Toro Rosso-Ferrari

    Daniel Ricciardo (12th): “A frustrating and rather dull race for me. After the start, I was able to hold position on the Option, but Ricciardoonce we pitted for the Prime tyre, I really struggled for pace and couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to in order to get more out of the car. I did try to push more, but the car wouldn’t take it and I began to lock the brakes and slide too much, as I didn’t have enough grip. This meant I had to drive more smoothly, but it was very frustrating going round and round, gradually slipping backwards. I can’t explain why for now, so we will need to look at the data to see why we were just too slow for much of the weekend.”

    Jean-Eric Vergne (DNF, Hydraulics): “There’s not much to say today, because after not having a good pace all weekend, today there was no change. I found the car very difficult to drive right from the start, then there was the moment at my pit stop, when I had to brake hard to avoid Di Resta who was released from his pit right in front of me, which cost me more time. On lap 23 the team told me they had spotted a fault with the hydraulics and called me in to retire. It’s extremely disappointing, as this is my second consecutive race retirement. A weekend to forget.”

    Franz Tost, Team Principal: “Naturally, it is disappointing not to score any points this weekend, especially after Daniel had secured a sixth place on the grid. In the current era of Formula 1 where retirements are rare, it is particularly frustrating that we had to call Jean-Eric into the garage with a hydraulic problem. We didn’t have the pace we needed today and Daniel did what he could, fighting with the Saubers and Force Indias, finishing ahead of one of each of them, but we were not quick enough to chase the McLarens, which were very strong today. For these reasons, we just fell out of the points zone. As for our strategy, it was fairly clear that three stops was the way to go for the majority. We knew this weekend would be a bit more difficult for us, as the track would not be best suited to the characteristics of our car. However, we have a few new updates planned for Hungary and before that we have two weeks to try and make further progress with our car.”

    Caterham-Renault

    Charles Pic (17th): “My start was ok – I passed Chilton but I had to brake hard in turn one and pretty soon I had a big vibration from the front right. We were always going to stop pretty early so we didn’t have to change strategy too much, coming in at the end of lap four to go onto the primes. In the second stint the deg level on the tyres was good. We were looking at stopping earlier to cover one of the Marussia pitstops but as the tyres were performing well we could stay out. For once we had some luck with the timing of the safety car and boxed for another set of mediums, coming out behind my teammate in 17th. As we’d changed the plan under the safety car I had to manage that second set of mediums and they were holding up well until I had a slow puncture on lap 35 and had to box unexpectedly. The unplanned stop obviously ruined the strategy which is a real shame as we would have been right up with the pack ahead who were all bunched up because of the safety car. That’s pretty frustrating but there’s not much you can do in those circumstances. Because of the stop I came back out last but passed Chilton and with a few laps to go I passed Giedo whose tyres were gone and from there it was just a question of getting it to the finish.”

    Giedo-van-der-Garde-Caterham-Testing-2013-10_2907096Giedo van der Garde (18th): “I made a great start, passed two cars and then did Vergne on the first lap so by the end of lap one I was up to 17th. The car felt pretty good but we wanted to get the softs out of the way quickly so we stuck to the plan and came in early to go onto the mediums which had held up well on the long runs in practice. The first set of mediums was performing ok but we adapted the plan, pitting on lap 20 for another set of the harder compound. I’d just seen the first blue flags when the safety car came out so I was able to get the lap back and when the race restarted I was in 16th, behind Bottas’ Williams and Gutierrez, and ahead of Charles. From that point it was honestly a bit of a lonely race! I was focused on making sure I could get the car to the finish without any problems, and we didn’t have any more blue flags until towards the end of the race so it was all pretty trouble free. I boxed again on lap 35 and from there it was all about bringing it home. That was a long final stint so the tyres were completely gone towards the end and my pace had dropped a lot, but both Charles and I were clear of our nearest rival so it was a pretty straight run to the flag with him. Despite the final place I think this was another small step for me. My tyre management in the race improved a bit today and I’ve been working on it all weekend. We now have a small break until the next race in Hungary so I have time to head back to the factory, do more work in the sim and come back in Hungary aiming to continue to progress.”

    Marussia-Cosworth

    Max Chilton (19th): “Not an easy race today. We both struggled with our starts and the opening few laps and then I started to close the gap to Charles and Jules; I was happy with the car. Unfortunately for Jules he had an engine problem so I knew that I had to do my best to get some reward for the Team. In the middle stint there was nothing between us and Caterham and then the safety car came out and stirred up everyone’s strategies. We made the right call, but just suffered with rear tyre wear with 10 laps to go. On the whole I was happy with my performance and speed today.”

    Jules Bianchi (DNF, Engine): “Obviously it is very disappointing to end my race so soon, due to an engine problem on lap 22. I BianchiFiregot a very poor start and it was a real battle to recover from that and stay ahead of Pic. I had just completed my second pit stop and got ahead of Van Der Garde when the engine let go, but I think we had the pace to be able to fight to keep both Caterhams behind had I continued. The car felt well-balanced and we were showing the usual more positive race pace. It has been a less than straightforward weekend so perhaps this was just not destined to be our race and we just have to look ahead to the next one in Hungary.”

    John Booth, Team Principal: “An incredibly disappointing result for the Team today but perhaps one which, when digested on Monday morning, will be viewed more favourably. It is clear we had much more potential today and Jules’ unfortunate engine problem meant that we were unable to beat our nearest competitors. We don’t yet know the cause but I am sure working with Cosworth tonight we will be able to make an initial assessment of what went wrong. What was pleasing today was to see Max running very much at the same pace as Jules and the Caterhams throughout the race and he only lost out due to a more oversteered balance today, which meant that his rear tyres suffered later in the stint. We now move on to the Young Driver Test and thereafter the Hungarian Grand Prix in three weeks’ time.”

  • F1 2013: German GP Review – Vettel breaks his German jinx

    F1 2013: German GP Review – Vettel breaks his German jinx

    The 2013 German grand prix is one that will stay in the memory bank of Sebastian Vettel for quite some time. Bested in Saturday’s qualifying session by Lewis Hamilton the reigning world champion had it all to do in Sunday’s race.

    Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished a tenth clear of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to take pole position for the German grand prix.

    The biggest casualty of qualifying was teammate and British grand prix race winner, Nico Rosberg. An initial run in the second part of Saturday’s qualifying appeared to be enough for the German to advance to the top ten shoot-out. However, a late flurry of flying laps in the closing stages of the second session of quali pushed Rosberg down to eleventh and out of contention for the front row of the grid. The German commented that the team had “underestimated the pace of the track.”

    Lewis HamiltonEver dependable Jenson Button managed to drag his McLaren into the top ten and continually impressive Daniel Ricciardo and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg advanced to the final part of qualifying.

    But Saturday once again belonged to Lewis Hamilton. The 2008 champion pipped championship leader Sebastian Vettel to pole position but a tenth of a second. Former German grand prix winner Mark Webber will start third and Kimi Raikkonen, in the Lotus, fourth. Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo will start fifth and sixth ahead of Massa, Alonso and Button.

    Acing the start was the easiest part of Vettel’s afternoon as he had to fight both the Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel grabbed the lead of the race straight away and controlled the pace easily ahead of teammate Mark Webber.

    The soft compound Pirelli tyres dictated early pitstops for the frontrunners and pushed Lotus’ Romain Grosjean into the lead of the race. Mark Webber’s first pitstop, on lap nine, took a dramatic turn as his right-rear wheel was not attached correctly. It bounced through the pitlane before striking and FOM camera-man, Paul Allen. The cameraman was being held for observation with a concussion, broken ribs and a fractured collar bone. Red Bull have been fined 30 000 Euro for unsafe release of Webber’s car.

    A pitstop from Grosjean re-instated Vettel to the race lead but the German looked unlikely to maintain the lead under serious pressure from Grosjean’s Lotus. Nevertheless, the nearly ten second gap to third placed Raikkonen would soon be wiped out.grosjean1

    For what seemed like a fairly innocuous retirement from Marussia’s Jules Bianchi soon took a dangerous turn as Bianchi’s driverless car started to roll down the middle of the circuit. This prompted the deployment of the safety car on lap 24 and spurred a flurry of activity in the pitlane.

    By the time the safety car pulled into the pitlane Vettel had both Lotuses breathing down his neck. Romain Grosjean tried his level best to overtake the Red Bull driver but it proved a bridge to far for the Frenchman who subsequently pitted on lap 40 for a fresh set of medium tyres. Vettel followed into the pitlane a lap later and relinquished the lead of the race to Kimi Raikkonen.

    The Lotus driver was leading the race by 15 seconds over Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and felt that the tyres and the car were, possibly, performing well enough to hold on to the lead. However, communication problems between the pitwall and Raikkonen ultimately led to a late pitstop for the Finn.

    “I could run longer and we had to think about if we should try to run until the end,” said Raikkonen. “But I had massive problem with the radio. I could hear the team but they couldn’t hear me, apart from at two corners.

    Raikkonen last pitstop switched him to the soft compound Pirelli tyres and left him roughly three seconds adrift of the Red Bull. Despite closing down Vettel in the closing stages of the race and getting to within the DRS zone, the Finn was unable to regain the lead of the grand prix. Raikkonen finished one second behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.

    Sebastian VettelFerrari’s qualifying strategy hadn’t quite gone to plan with Felipe Massa retiring and Fernando Alonso only salvaging fourth. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s difficult afternoon was blighted with tyre issues but the Brit fought his way back to finish fifth overall. Jenson Button returned McLaren to the points paying positions with a fine sixth place ahead of a recovering Webber in seventh. Perez, Rosberg and Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.

    The dismal run of form for Williams continued this weekend as the team failed to score even a single point on the weekend they are celebrating 600 grand prix starts.

    Just seven days ago Sebastian Vettel walked away from the British grand prix without a single point in the bank. But he’s no three champion by mistake and this is not the impetuous Vettel of 2009. A mature, in control, winning machine is what Vettel has transformed himself into – and that is going to take some stopping in 2013.

    As impressive a collection of achievements as Sebastian Vettel has been able to put together winning his home race has always eluded him. But a finely judged drive and resisting big pressure from Raikkonen has earned the championship leader a coveted home race victory.

     

  • Sebastian Vettel finally wins his home race at the German Grand Prix

    Sebastian Vettel finally wins his home race at the German Grand Prix

    Sebastian Vettel today finally added his home German Grand Prix to his list of F1 victories.

    He did come under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen at the end, but the Iceman just couldn’t reach him in time. Romain Grosjean finished third, with Fernando Alonso a close fourth.

    There was plenty of action during the race including a safety car for Jules Bianchi’s Marussia rolling backward across the track after retiring and a cameraman in the pit lane being hit by a flying tyre which had not been properly seated on the Red Bull of Mark Webber.

    Full race review to follow. Full final results timesheet below.

    German Grand Prix results

     

    Photo: Red Bull Racing