Tag: kevin magnussen

F1 2014: Belgium GP – Rampant Ricciardo Wins Again

No matter whom you’re a fan of in Formula 1 it’s never a hardship to see Daniel Ricciardo take the top step of the podium. The highly likeable Aussie snapped up his third career victory in brilliant style and is still the only driver to have beaten Mercedes to the chequered flag.

The Mercedes team management had given their driver’s only one rule: do not crash into each other. By the second lap of the Belgium GP the temptation proved too great for Nico Rosberg who’s eyes must’ve lit up as he chucked his car around the outside of Lewis Hamilton into Les Combes; Nico, you rebel you. Rosberg’s front wing damage was far less dramatic than Hamilton’s puncture which dropped the Brit completely out of contention.

What Nico Rosberg did was effectively catapult an atomic bomb of tension right in the middle of the Mercedes garage. Rosberg has since declared his unwavering belief in his relationship with Lewis Hamilton and believes this hullaballoo will blow over. It may, and although the two rivals may make pretty for the cameras there is no doubt that Hamilton will be a bit silent-ragey about this for quite a while. Not least of all because Hamilton revealed, post-race, that Rosberg admitted to “doing it on purpose” and though he could’ve avoided the collision he wanted to “prove a point.” Hamilton wasn’t making it up either as Mercedes management confirmed that Rosberg had indeed made these astonishing statements during the team de-brief.

It doesn’t seem that far-fetched to be honest. Fact is that Nico has been quite reserved when it came to overtaking other drivers. In Hungary he virtually set up camp behind Jean-Eric Vergne and in Spa he barely showed a wheel to Sebastian Vettel before scaring himself off the road at the last chicane. It could’ve been a case of him wanting to show that he has the pluck to overtake. He may want to do a bit more cleanly next time though.

Whatever point Rosberg was so desperate to prove will be irrelevant to race fans. He is now a driver who has admitted to deliberately colliding with a fellow competitor. Rosberg has earned praise this season for his relentless consistency and for delivering some wonderful victories. After this, he hasn’t only had to put up with some booing but more importantly might just lose some respect.

As the Merc boys were swapping carbon fibre Daniel Ricciardo sailed into the lead of the race and masterfully controlled his drive. The Red Bull driver again underlined his class by holding off a monstrously fast Rosberg in the closing stages. As long as this Aussie bloke keeps that superstar talent churning we can’t help but be giddy about the future of F1.

Kimi Raikkonen ran as high as second place in the race but being a sitting duck in the straight bits of the circuit doesn’t make defending very easy. A relatively comparable pace to the frontrunners, at least for some part of the race, kept the Iceman in touch but the podium proved a bridge too far. The weakness of the Ferrari power unit was well and truly on display as a straight-line speed deficit of thirty odd kilometres to the Mercedes powered Williams of Valtteri Bottas meant Raikkonen was relegated to fourth place on the day. Although Raikkonen is highly unlikely to be gushing about fourth place it is the Finn’s best result of the season.

Kevin Magnussen’s race wasn’t too shabby either. The Dane more than held his own against a determined Fernando Alonso in a stonking wheel-to-wheel battle with the Spaniard and his teammate Jenson Button. Regrettably, the stewards took a severe view on some of his racing and slapped him with a twenty-second penalty which results in a twelfth place finish. All the same, the on-track performance won’t have done K-Mag’s contract negotiations any harm at all.

The fall-out of the Rosberg/Hamilton incident may have far reaching consequences, so says Mercedes’ Toto Wolff. The consequences referred to was probably of an internal nature but if they’re not careful the now sixty-five point gap to Daniel Ricciardo may not be as insurmountable as they may think.

August 25, 2014
Magnussen Handed 20 Second Penalty after Forcing Alonso Off the Track

The stewards have handed McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen a 20 second penalty and two penalty points on his super license after the Belgian Grand Prix for running Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso off the track.

The pair were fighting for fourth position with two laps to go in the race when Magnussen forced Alonso off the track on the run to Les Combes corner. Alonso, at the time, was also under pressure from Jenson Button in the other McLaren in 6th. After being forced off the track, Alonso lost the position to Button, but then fought back though Malmedy and Rivage to take back the place from Button and attempted a pass on Magnussen on the outside at Rivage, but again, Magnussen forced the Spaniard off the road.

Alonso lost the place to Button on the final lap after Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, trying to get ahead of Magnussen, took out most of Alonso’s front wing at the La Source hairpin.

The statement by the FIA reads as follows:

“The driver of car 20 was defending his position on the straight between Turns 4 and 5 [Raidillon and Les Combes], a significant portion of car #14 was alongside car #20. The driver of car #20 did not leave enough space for car #14 and forced the car off the track,”

The penalty dropped Magnussen to 12th and promoted Alonso to 7th.

The Spaniard was very relaxed about the situation and seemed unfazed by what had happened. “”When you are fighting for lower positions, sixth or seventh or whatever, it’s a little bit less important,” he said. “You just try to have fun, with safety as well, but it was not a big deal.”

Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

August 24, 2014
F1 2014: Hungarian GP Preview – Tricky Hungarian Test Awaits

Less than seven days later the Formula 1 paddock descends on the city of Budapest for the Hungarian GP. Technical in nature the 4.381 km circuit will require high downforce, efficient cooling and most importantly a good qualifying performance.

The Hungaroring is often referred to as Monaco without the barriers because of its tricky layout which for the most part has only one racing line. Consequently, there won’t be much opportunity for overtaking nor will all mistakes go unpunished. The Hungaroring retains some of the old-school Formula 1 characteristics which means that gravel traps and barriers loom in close proximity. Contrastingly, there are several tarmac run-off areas which offer some reprieve for error-stricken drivers.

Given the lack of proper overtaking opportunities strategy will be particularly important. The extremely high track temperatures seen at Hockenheim has given the teams vital information as to how to Pirelli rubber will react when exposed to similar conditions in Hungary. The tyres we are bringing to Hungary are a step harder, to deal with the increased demands, so we would expect the usual two pit stops,” predicted Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

The circuit’s layout is dominated by medium to high-speed corners with little time spent at full throttle. However, the average speed of the lap remains fairly high. “The Hungaroring is a great track,” says McLaren’s Jenson Button. “Everybody thinks of it as a slow circuit, but, out the back, it’s got some pretty decent corners – Turn Four requires some serious commitment, and it’s made harder because it has a blind apex. Equally, the sequence of S-bends that make up Turns Eight to 11 are really satisfying to drive.”

Lewis Hamilton has been dogged by issues in qualifying for the last several races as he trails fourteen points behind teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. However, Hamilton is prepared to come out fighting once more and resolutely said that enjoys having to fight for victories and the title.

The 2008 champion may have more to fight against this weekend than just his teammate. The Williams team has been on the cusp several times of mounting a serious battle for victory and if they can continue their stunning momentum Hungary may be their best chance yet.

Williams’ chance to win the Hungarian GP will come on Saturday. The Hungaroring, much like Monte Carlo, is notoriously difficult to overtake on. Despite the fact that race pace is always priority for Bottas, Massa and their engineers they may devote a bit more time and effort than usual to enhancing their one lap pace. But locking out the front row or securing pole position won’t be all that is required. The team will have to take an aggressive approach on strategy as they still lack on overall race pace when compared to the Silver Arrows.

By this stage of the season the duel between the Mercedes drivers is as intense as at any other point.

However, their attention may be required elsewhere this weekend. Can Williams steal the all mighty Mercedes’ thunder?

July 23, 2014
F1 2014: German GP – Relentless Rosberg Scores Home Victory

Life happens to be pretty good if you’re name is Nico Rosberg. Not only has he extended his Mercedes contract but he’s gotten married in-between races, secured a comfortable pole position on Saturday and wrapped up a dominant home grand prix victory to boot.

The battle for supremacy between the Mercedes teammates was dealt a severe blow as Hamilton was exiled to 20^th place on the grid following a brake disc failure in qualifying and a subsequent gearbox change.

Nico Rosberg was completely in control of the 67 lap German GP as he led fellow front-row starter, Valtteri Bottas, to the chequered flag for his first victory on home soil. The Finn delivered yet another stunning drive to hold off a recovering Lewis Hamilton for his third consecutive podium. Even though Williams’ biggest target is to finish ahead of Ferrari in the constructor’s championship their ability to keep one Mercedes at bay is, on merit, is a tremendous result.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen’s inexperience was telling as he collided with the Williams of Felipe Massa into turn one. Massa’s car was flipped onto its roll-bar before coming to rest on the tarmac run-off area of turn one. The Brazilian was uninjured but suffered his second retirement in three races.

In fairness, Magnussen should have yielded the corner to Massa as he was out of the Williams driver’s sight. The incident was mopped after a short safety car period and the race re-started with Rosberg in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton unleashed a determined drive from the back of the field but it wasn’t without a few risky moments. There was slight contact with Kimi Raikkonen at the hairpin as he passed both the Ferrari driver and Daniel Ricciardo. Later on a rather dicey attempt at overtaking Jenson Button into the same hairpin resulted in a damaged front-wing endplate. A three-stop strategy meant that Hamilton ran the last two stints of the race on the quicker supersoft tyre. However, despite his clear pace advantage he was unable to overtake Bottas for second place. Hamilton’s rather glum face after the race showed his disappointment with the third step of the podium. Some may take exception to Hamilton’s body language but it tells of a driver for whom winning is the only acceptable result.

A spin by Sauber’s Adrian Sutil on the main straight gave rise to a contentious moment in the race. The stricken Sauber was parked horizontally on the straight which would ordinarily prompt an appearance from the safety car. Surprisingly, the race director chose to forego the safety car and opted for marshals to recover the car under double-waved yellow flags. Any situation in which marshals are required to venture onto the circuit is a safety risk which makes this decision controversial.

Behind the podium finishers the rest of the field put on an exhilarating show of wheel-to-wheel racing at its finest. Sebastian Vettel got the better of Fernando Alonso in a fabulous fight for fourth before Daniel Ricciardo continued a thrilling battle with the Spaniard. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. Kevin Magnussen recovered to ninth after his collision with Felipe Massa while Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten positions.

While all twenty-two Formula 1 drivers have by and large respected the rules and each other there have been too many instances in the past where the fear of a penalty curbed their eagerness to take the fight to each other. As a result the exhilarating fights throughout the field at Silverstone and in Germany are a direct result of the steward’s announcement that they would take a more lenient stance on dishing out penalties.

Daniil Kvyat’s race came to a fiery end as the rear-end of his Toro Rosso was engulfed by flames. Lotus Romain Grosjean’s difficult season continued as the Frenchman was forced into retirement with a suspected power unit issue.

If Lewis Hamilton was unsure about the prowess of his teammate before it is definitely not in doubt any longer. An unrelenting Nico Rosberg has extended his championship lead to fourteen points and what is particularly threatening is that he appears to have done it with disturbing ease.

July 22, 2014
Video: Felipe Massa rolls in scary Turn 1 crash at Hockenheim

Brazilian Formula One driver, Felipe Massa, crashed and rolled in spectacular fashion just seconds after the start of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on Sunday.

Massa’s German GP lasted only a matter of seconds after he was clipped and rolled by Kevin Magnussen at the first corner on the first lap of the race.

F1 Rookie Magnussen had taken the inside line into the corner in an attempt to pass Massa, only to find the Brazilian attempting to sweep through the corner ahead of him. This did not work out for either driver and ended with Massa’s Williams in the gravel and out of the race.

Thankfully, Massa walked away from the incident unharmed but another DNF to his name despite the much-improved performace of his Williams car, will not have him feeling anything but bitterly disaapointed. .

The stewards investigated the incident but ruled that it was a racing incident and no further action was taken against Massa or Magnussen.

July 21, 2014
F1 2014: German GP Qualifying – Rosberg Secures Home Pole

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has secured pole position for the German GP.

The major talking point of the qualifying session was the crash of Lewis Hamilton during the first session of qualifying. A brake disc failure pitched the Brit’s Mercedes into the wall and out of qualifying. Hamilton appeared to be uninjured after the incident but was taken the medical centre for checks. Hamiton’s crash momentarily brought out the red flag as marshals tended to recovering the damaged Mercedes.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen missed the cut in the second part of qualifying and will start the race in 12th position. Sergio Perez starred for the Force India team as he secured a spot in the top-ten shootout with seconds remaining on the clock. Jenson Button also failed to advance to the final part of the qualifying session.

Nico Rosberg appeared to be in firm control but still had to ward off the Williams of Valterri Bottas. The German was able to secure pole position with a relatively comfortable margin but not improve in his second run in Q3. The Finn will start tomorrow’s race on the front row of the grid after missing out on pole position by only two tenths of a second. Brazilian Felipe Massa will start 3rd and shares the second row with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen.

July 19, 2014
Rosberg leads the pack in final practice

Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets during the final practice ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix with a time of 1:17.779.

Rosberg’s time is a surprising 0.601 clear of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Despite a spin in at turn eight halfway through the session, Fernando Alonso recovered to set the third quickest time of the practice session, a mere 0.004 down on Hamilton.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas led much of the practice session on prime tyres, but ended up fourth and fifth respectively after the supersoft runs.

Kevin Magnussen finished sixth after setting the pace during the opening stages of final practice, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.

Raikkonen switched to options very early on, but was unable to continue in the final stages of practice due to a problem with his fuel pump. The Ferrari team are working ferverishly to change the fuel pump before qualifying gets underway.

Red Bull’s performance was either lacklustre, or one big sandbag as reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel parked his car in ninth place.

Nico Hulkenberg took the last spot in the top ten for Force India.

Jenson Button had much complaining about understeer and problems with his braking during practice, most likely a result of no longer having FRIC suspension. None of the teams will be running FRIC this weekend after it was deemed illegal by the FIA earlier this week.

Full timesheet for the session is below. Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for qualifying later this afternoon at 14h00 GMT +2.

Photo credit: Mercedes

July 19, 2014
F1 2014: German GP Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Tops

The first free practice session for the German grand prix got underway under glorious blue skies.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Williams development driver Susie Wolff completed her second outing for the British based team. However, the first lap out of the pits revealed an issue which required the Scottish driver to limp back to the pitlane in 1st gear. Thanfully, the engineers were able to sort out the issue and sent Wolff back out. Wolff completed a total of 22 laps and set a fastest time of 1:20:769, roughly two tenths slower than teammate Felipe Massa.

The session progressed without incident although Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was forced back into the pitlane early on with a water pump problem. The Finn, fully recovered from his heavy Silverstone crash, clocked the 8th fastest time overall.

Albeit the early stages of the weekend, the Red Bull pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were able to set a relatively similar long run pace to that of Mercedes. The second free practice session will reveal a clearer picture of the pecking order for Sunday’s German GP.

July 18, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Santander German Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

DRIVERS:

Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren)

Adrian SUTIL (Sauber)

Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)

Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Nico Hulkenberg, if we could start with you. Points in every race so far this season, only you and [Fernando] Alonso have managed that so far and you’re seven to two against your team-mate in qualifying. How positive is that for you and how do you think that is perceived within the Formula One paddock?

Nico HULKENBERG: I think it’s very positive in general. I think it’s a very good achievement to have scored points in every race – probably Nico and Lewis would have been the same without the technical failures. I think it has been a very positive start to the season, first half, many, many points, much better than we expected going into the season and I think that is also the perception of the paddock. However, we’re only in the middle of the season and there’s still a long way to go before the end and our aim is to get the fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship. We have a big challenge on our hands there against Williams, McLaren and many others. I look forward to that.

You’ve largely been fighting for fifth and sixth places in races this season but just recently, the last couple of races, it was more like eight and ninth. What brought about that change and where do you think you’ll be fighting this weekend?

NH: I think Silverstone was overall a bit difficult for us. The track didn’t suit us so well, plus the conditions made it even more difficult. Therefore, it was still a very good achievement to get points on the board there. In Austria we were a bit compromised by a few issues, which we found out after the race, otherwise that could have been better. So hopefully here we’ll be back to bigger points but it’s difficult to know. Obviously it’s very hot this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how the tyres behave and who will manage it the best.

Kevin, coming to you, points in the last four grands prix for you, six points finishes in total this season with one podium but McLaren still seem to be quite up and down dependent on circuit, why is that?

Kevin MAGNUSSEN: It’s difficult… it’s a good question. It’s something we don’t really quite understand 100 per cent, but surely it has a lot to do with tyres, they behave quite differently race to race. I think we are improving, the car is improving, we’re putting downforce on the car at nearly every race so I think we’re moving in a positive direction.

We’re coming up to the summer break and there’s a lot of talk about the driver market – as there always is at this point. Where do you think you stand with regard to staying at McLaren next season.

KM: I can only do my best and hope that is good enough. Anyone at McLaren should feel that you have to deliver to your best to deserve to be there and that goes for me and Jenson as well.

Kimi, the first question has to be how are you feeling after your accident at Silverstone, any after-effects and what happened?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Well, I crashed, I guess you saw it. No, I had some pain but it’s all fine.

Just in your leg?

KR: No actually it was in my ribs the most, that’s why I didn’t do the test, but it’s all gone away now.

You’re 100 per cent now?

KR: Yeah.

Many things have not gone the way you expected them to this season in your rejoining Ferrari, but can you tell us what has gone the way you’ve expected it and what positives you’ve drawn so far?

KR: We’ve been in every race at least. That’s what you expect at least. It’s been a difficult year, hopefully it will turn around at some point – it must, it cannot go much longer like this, it’s not fun. But this kind of thing has happened to me before and we always managed to turn it around, so I have a strong belief it will turn around. We have to just fix issues and get things as I want and I’m sure we can be back where we should be.

Nico, coming to you: a new contract extension with Mercedes, congratulations on that, you also got married since we last saw you, but you’ve never been on the podium in Germany, I see from your record, so I guess that’s this weekend’s first objective. You’re still on top of the championship, just four points clear, but your team-mate Lewis Hamilton said that this is a ‘reset moment’ in the title race and that he’s been on the back foot all season. How do you see it?

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it’s been a very exciting week for sure. We also became world champions, which was awesome. In terms of the championship, how do I see it? I just see it as the next race, which is Hockenheim. It’s our home race. I really look forward to driving here. I’m here to win, of course. I’m here to try to extend the championship leads. That’s where it ends for me. I’m really just looking at the moment, taking it race by race.

As you say it’s been a great week for Germany on the sporting front. As a keen follower and friend of the national team is there a way you can harness some of that positivity into your challenge this weekend?

NR: The effort of the team as a whole, how they all played together and everything was really great to see and that’s what won them the tournament I think, not any individual strength or anything. That’s what we’re trying to do as well, to really work well, everybody together, to really make the most of it. I think we’re also on the right track with that, in that respect, because to dominate the sport as we are doing at the moment, I think that indicates we work pretty well together as a team and of course there’s room for improvement but we’re going in the right direction.

Adrian, you qualified 13^th at the first race in Australia at the start of the year and 13^th at Silverstone. There seems to be some continuity there. If you look at the ultimate pace of all the cars, Sauber doesn’t seem to be progressing. Is that the way it’s seen internally and what’s the plan?

Adrian SUTIL: Yes, more or less a consistent season but also a few changes and progress of course. I think the car is a better car compared to the first races but you can’t really see it in results. Nevertheless Silverstone was a bit better. You could see already in the free practice the car was a bit more competitive and also I think in qualifying in the rain we were closer to the top 10, which was good. We are still struggling sometimes with the tyres, especially with the hard compound, in the race, which slowed us down a lot. I can’t really say more. Of course we want to try to improve the situation. It’s not where we want to be but everyone in the factory is trying the maximum to improve that. It’s not an easy situation but we’re going to get out of it pretty soon.

You’ve said several times that stability is the problem, that the car lacks stability. Can you elaborate on that and what plans are in place to fix that?

AS: Well, the window is very small where the car operates and also the window when you are close to the limit, whether it stays on the line or is completely off – it’s easy to make a mistake with this car. So you need to have a lot of confidence in the car, you need to drive and learn as much as possible about the car behaviour to feel well. It’s getting better very race. But yeah, it’s a little diva to control. It’s just a situation like that so we try to make it more easy to drive. The stability is sometimes there, [then] you have a bit too much understeer in the other areas, so you are shifting the problem from one end to the other but it’s very difficult to get rid of the problem completely so this is where we are struggling most at the moment.

Sebastian, obviously winner of the German Grand Prix last year, your first F1 win on home soil. Tell us about the feeling of racing here at home, especially with the country on such a sporting high at the moment?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously last year was very special – I had been trying many times before, so it was definitely a good feeling to succeed. I think this year should be a very good weekend. Mostly good weather forecast and obviously the whole of Germany still has the German flags from the World Cup around, so it would be nice to see a lot of those on the track and get a little bit of that support as well here on the circuit.

Obviously the battle with Fernando Alonso in Silverstone was one of the highlights of this season so far. There were quite a lot of radio messages from the pair of you at the time but looking back and thinking about it now, how much did you enjoy it?

SV: Yeah, I probably enjoyed it more than I probably said after the race. I still think it took a little bit too long because obviously I lost quite a lot of time fighting him and couldn’t progress to probably finish higher up. But it was definitely very tight, it’s always very tight when you fight with Fernando, he’s very tough to overtake, he doesn’t give you a lot of room, but eventually I squeezed past, so for sure I was happy to finally overtake him on the track.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Question to Nico. First of all, congratulations on becoming a married man. Secondly, you’ve obviously had to change your helmet design this week. You showed it off on Twitter with the World Cup on top of the helmet. I’ve spoken to FIFA and they’ve expressed their reason why you’re not allowed to have the World Cup: intellectual commercial property rights and all that. You’re obviously disappointed I guess, but can you understand their reasoning behind it?

NR: All the things you have to think about, it’s amazing that even a trophy has its trademark or whatever, just sticking it on a helmet you know. That was a surprise but of course I fully understand. It was a pity as it looked really cool, with the trophy on top. Anyways, replaced it now with a big star and no-one can take that away. The star is ours.

Q: (Graham Keilloh – F1Plus.com) A question for all the drivers. We all recall the incident at last year’s German Grand Prix with Mark Webber where a wheel fell off after a pit stop. In recent days there have been moves afoot for there to be a little bit of rowing back on the tough sanctions that were put in place following the Webber incident. I just want to know what each driver feels about more leniency for unsafe releases that may be coming in?

NH: To be honest I didn’t really understand the question. I’ll pass it on to Kevin.

KM: It’s good if us drivers don’t get points or penalties [that are] that harsh , as it’s not really our fault. Of course we are a team and we should be penalised somehow together but I think it’s good if it doesn’t just go to the drivers.

Adrian, anything to add?

AS: No.

Kimi?

KR: No.

Sebastian, do you have a view?

SV: I think it’s like going to prison for stealing a chocolate bar. I think it’s too harsh for the drivers, it’s more for the team. There’s not much you can do as a driver, but it is what it is.

Nico?

NR: Obviously it is one of the most dangerous situations for all of the people working in the pitlane you know. So definitely it should be harsh to try to avoid people doing that or things like that happening. We need to find the best way, what sort of penalties to do.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi there has been a lot of criticism around you in the past few months. Do you feel that your position in Ferrari could be threatened next year or do you feel confident that you will sort your problems and that everything is going to be OK for the future?

KR: Like I said, I’m sure we can fix them. How fast? I hope quickly but it depends on many things. I have a contract so I’m not worried about that for the future.

Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) A question for Sebastian. Hockenheim obviously hold some special memories for you because this is where you watched your first Friday practice session. You won the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. What would it mean for you to win here at Hockenheim, at some point in your career?

SV: Well, I hope I can turn things around and that we can have a good race on Sunday and a good weekend in general. But of course we are not the favourites going into the weekend but there’s always a chance of winning. For sure, this circuit is very special to me because my home town is only 30 minutes from here, it’s where I grew up. I also started go-karting not far from here, just around the corner, so a lot of memories. I know a lot of people that work here, so it always feels like a second home. In that regard it would be nice. So definitely a very special place for me, special memories. The first car race I did was here in 2003, so yeah, it’s definitely one of the tracks I want to win at.

Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question for all drivers. Many teams will race without the FRIC system. Is there a feeling that this might change the gap between the teams significantly or not; that it will stay more or less the same, like it was before?

NR: Everybody has it to some extent. It’s impossible to predict. For sure it can have some influence but we just need to wait and see what happens.

Sebastian?

SV: Well I said it is one of the things that obviously got banned now. I hope it brings the field closer to Mercedes but it’s difficult to say. All of the teams have been playing with it to some extent. How much it has an impact? I think it has to be seen this weekend and also probably next week in Hungary. After those two races I think you can have another judgement.

Kimi, your thoughts on the FRIC suspension?

KR: Yeah, I mean it’s the rule and obviously that decides if we can use it or not. It’s not in our car, I don’t expect it’s going to be a completely different world but until we run it, the cars, and see what the other teams do, it’s hard to say. I guess we’ll know a bit more after this weekend.

Adrian?

AS: I think… we hope… it will be better for us, that we are closer – but very hard to say, for sure. Some, they rely more on it, some less. Let’s see. After the weekend we’ll be wiser.

Kevin, your thoughts.

KM: Not much to say really. We ‘ll try to get the best out of the car without it.

Nico?

NH: It’s pretty much how Nico said, it’s really hard to predict if and how much people will lose due to it. It’s just a case of wait and see how much it impacts on different cars.

Q: (Koen Verhelst – Media Group Limburg) A question for all the German drivers: where did you watch the World Cup soccer finals last Sunday and, in relation to that, how to you explain the success of Germany both in Formula One at the moment and football and perhaps also in the economy?

SV: I watched in on TV at home. I wasn’t there! Thank God they showed it. At home, with a couple of friends. I think the reason, it has been 24 years since we last won the World Cup. I hope that the next one doesn’t take 24 years again. I think we had a very strong team for the last World Cups as well and were very close to win. It’s good that we succeeded now. For the Formula One drivers, I don’t think there’s a particular reason. Obviously, for us, to some extent we’re the generation after Michael and Michael was a big inspiration, so for sure, when Michael made Formula One really a sport in Germany and made it big a lot of fathers with their sons went to the go-kart tracks and wanted to do like him. I think it’s chances, in the end, if you have a thousand kids trying rather than ten, the chances that one or two end up in Formula One are obviously a lot greater. The economy… I’m not a specialist – but I think we like to work.

Adrian?

AS: The same, I watched on TV at home. Very quiet. It was a great game, I think. Very exciting and both played very well. One minute the Germans were a bit better than the other ones and scored a goal. I think something to be very proud of. It’s great to see Germany being very happy about it. So many festivals and parties after it, so really, really good. Good mood in the air, so, great also for this weekend here, for the German Grand Prix. The drivers? I think it all started back in the 90s, probably. When Michael went into Formula One there was a big boom of racing in Germany – but also a lot of car manufacturers are based in Germany, it’s a very strong country for cars, for technology in general – and they’re supporting young drivers from the early ages, especially BMW was involved for many years with the Formula BMW. That’s where I started the racing, I think also Sebastian as well and Nico. Most of the drivers took the step and went into Formula 3. So there are clear categories where you can go. Still, I think it’s very hard to say it’s a really good support because it’s so expensive. When I see the number for young kids coming up into racing, in go-karts you have to spend so much money, not having a real… let’s say you can’t be sure that you’re going to make it. So, even there. Football has a better structure behind. We could still improve it but Germany, for sure, it one of the leading countries and that’s great. They’re pushing it really hard.

Nico Hülkenberg, anything to add.

NH: I also watched it at home with some friends. I think we won because we had the strongest team and a great team spirit, a very clever coach. I think I agree with what Sebastian says about the drivers and why we have it strong now and the economy, I think is just German mentality and appetite to be strong in the economy.

Nico Rosberg, your thoughts.

NR: I watched it at my parents place, as is tradition in our family because my Mum is the biggest soccer fanatic in our family, so I watched it there with friends and went absolutely crazy when they scored. It was a great time. I agree with the others on the other parts.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, last week Lewis was putting in doubt your true nationality about being German, real German supporter – and your helmet problem proves the opposite. How big is this… the pressure that Lewis is putting on you? Are you feeling it? Is it also big the pressure to have a championship that is open now completely, and to race at home and try to win this race?

NR: On the media, I generally don’t read the media, so most of the time I don’t know what’s going on – but this I did know about it. I really don’t get into such things. Everybody’s free to have his opinions, and I was there anyway and it was more or less a joke discussion, so for me it’s not really relevant to discuss it in any way. Other than that, yeah, it’s a great battle between us. Every race it’s been us two fighting it out for the win. It’s fantastic – a tough battle also – but good. I’m sure it’s going to continue for a long time and it will be very close – and I look forward to the race here now in front of… it’s my second home race, I have Monaco and here. I’m very fortunate in that sense, I have two home races, and look forward to all the support and I really hope to do a fantastic job. It would be a great end to already the great times I’ve been having recently if I could win here at the German Grand Prix.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, do you remember having any heavier shunt than you had in Silverstone?

KR: Yeah, probably I have had. Hopefully not too many more but it’s just part of the thing. It hurt a little bit but quite often you can have a quite slow accident and get badly hurt, so it’s not about that really, it was just an unfortunate thing. Nothing serious happened. It’s part of the sport.

July 17, 2014
Ron Dennis says Button needs to ‘try harder’

Amidst increased speculation around the future of F1’s most experienced driver, Jenson Button, McLaren boss Ron Dennis has called on the Briton to up his game, and try harder.

Rumours have already been circulating that McLaren is hoping to sign a big-name driver for next year, with Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and even Lewis Hamilton linked to the team. Dennis seems to be keeping his options open insisting that Mclaren are “not looking to finalise our driver lineup now”. He has, however, admitted that he would “love” to have drivers of their calibre at the Woking-based team.

“We want to win races and we would always hope that the best available drivers would wish to drive our cars. The key word is ‘available’ because people have contracts and we respect those contracts, but if Lewis was in a position to drive for us next year, as with many of the other top drivers if they were in that position, we’d love to have them on board. No one should ever feel threatened, either drivers or engineers, all we want to do is win and we have to take considered positions and considered decisions on that process.”

But Dennis hinted that the decision will only fall in Button’s favour if he improves his performance – despite having a car that not nearly matches those of the front runners. At the same time, the McLaren boss seems impressed with rookie Kevin Magnussen.

“I’m sure Kevin is giving a big wake-up call to Jenson,” Dennis told Britain’s Sky. “In some ways you say ‘Great, we made a great choice with Kevin’, and in other ways you say ‘Come on Jenson, you are a world champion and absolutely one thing you can do on a consistent basis – and you should be doing it – is beating your team mate’.

“Do I want him (Button) to try harder? Of course I do,” Dennis insisted. “He’s a highly paid grand prix driver, and yes, we’re not giving him the best car, but he could do his bit, and Kevin’s got to make it as difficult for him as possible.”

June 30, 2014