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Tag: lewis hamilton

  • 2019 Russian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Russian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

     

    Q: Lewis, congratulations on another race win here in Russia. That’s Mercedes dominated all of these races here since we’ve come here in 2014. But you were up against it. You were pushing hard; you did something very different on strategy. When Ferrari had that issues, the perfect storm, you capitalised on it didn’t you?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah. First of all, just an incredible job for all of the guys here this weekend, not giving up, trying new things, pushing forwards, always trying to be innovative and just never giving up. That makes me incredibly inspired and it’s just incredible to have this result today considering how quick they were off the start. Just keeping up with them was an incredibly hard task. But, as I said, we haven’t given up, we keep on pushing and the car was really fantastic today. So a big thank you to everyone here and also back at the factory, because I know they’re all sitting on their couch with their fingers crossed. And we’ve got a great crowd today as well.

    Q: This mindset that you’re in Lewis, generally, we wouldn’t see you quite as happy, getting on the front row as you were yesterday and obviously to go out there and get the job done when you’ve struggled to get on top of Ferrari. What now? Are you thinking about the championship only or do you think it’s about winning races all the way to the end of this?

    LH: Honestly, I try not to… I say this every season, I try not to think too much about the championship and [take it] one race, one step at a time. I think collectively that’s what we’ve been working on. Obviously it’s getting harder and harder as the season goes on. No, it’s one step at a time; one foot in front of the other, we don’t want to stumble. But of course we have got to keep on putting performances like this in and I know the bosses back in Stuttgart will be super-excited about today.

    Q: The team are absolutely rock solid and you can hear it from everybody how excited you are about it?

    LH: Oh man, it feels like a long time coming but it feels like the first time as well, so that’s why it feels special.

    Q: Enjoy. Valtteri, P2 I guess starting from P4, you can’t be too disappointed with that. Lewis had track position and it was bringing it home to the end.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I think starting fourth and finishing second is not bad. For sure, it’s not a win, but as a team, for us it is a big win. It’s been a tough few so it’s good to get back to these kind of results. I had a good race myself. Just the first stint I was lacking a bit of pace, I couldn’t keep up and I was stuck behind one of the McLarens at the beginning. But the second stint felt decent and I just had to keep Charles behind and I managed to do it, so not too bad.

    Q: You had that Ferrari in your mirrors. Honestly, did you expect then to have that race pace they did today, because that’s been a strong point of the Mercedes over the past races?

    VB: We saw that we should have good race pace for today and we believed we could do it. We really need to raise our game in the qualifyings now but race pace is OK and I had fun.

    Q: Charles, the perfect storm happened for Ferrari. Obviously they lost a car through reliability and you finished in P3. I know you’re going to be critical at how it happened but at the same time that’s a podium finish?

    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I mean at least we are quite consistent. It’s good to be back on the podium. It’s a shame for the team not to have the second car up here, but yeah, on our side an OK-ish race. Mercedes are still very quick in the race runs, a lot quicker than compared to qualifying. So we need to work on that, to try to understand and improve that for the next races.

    Q: We heard you on the team radio saying that you wanted to swap back, Sebastian didn’t stick to the rules, obviously something was discussed before. Are you starting to lose trust with that, that something wasn’t followed?

    CL: I will always trust the team. The tactic was me giving the slipstream to be one-two at the end of the straight, which happened. But then… I don’t know, I need to speak with the team to know better the situation.

    Q: OK, and on to the next one. You can look back and the race performance has certainly has been increased, hasn’t it?

    CL: Yeah, we were quite quick. I think we definitely had the pace to finish in front of Valtteri but it was quite tricky to follow. As soon as I was getting around 1.5s behind him everything would overheat and it would be quite a difficult time for us. Third today was the best we could have done unfortunately with the safety car.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Lewis, a huge day for you and the team. Just tell us before the start of this race, how confident were you?

    LH: To win the race? I don’t think we were particularly confident. We knew that we were on obviously tyre and we put ourselves on a slightly different strategy in that respect and I was hoping that was going to give us an opportunity to dice and fight with them at some stage through the race. But before the race we sat down and we were like, our estimations of whether the soft tyres will last or not, either we’ll be correct or they’ll be correct. And ultimately, I think they were right, because the soft tyre was much stronger than we anticipated. Obviously there was that difference between the compounds, so keeping up with the softs, with their consistency and their speed, was… Oh God, it was so hard. So I wasn’t expecting that. There was obviously that slight tail-off towards the end where I was able to start closing the gap but it wasn’t massive chunks out that I was taking out of them but then were obviously able to extend, we were planning to extend for like 15-plus laps or something like that and hoping that when we came back out on the soft we would have the chance to fight with one of them who is on a different tyres. Obviously safety car and all those things came into it. Valtteri did an exceptional job, because it’s not easy keeping the Ferraris behind and Charles has been driving so well, so ultimately just an incredible day for the team considering the challenges that we have had. I think this weekend we knew that we had have to pull more out of this car and there was more potential there, but we didn’t know where it was. I think we pulled ourselves a little bit closer to the Ferraris this weekend and it was just enough to get ahead of them.

    Q: And you got swamped by the Ferraris at the start. Was that the result of you being on the mediums and them on the softs?

    LH: I think partly. When we did the laps to the grid, I didn’t have a lot of grip, I don’t know about Valtteri, but I was a bit worried. And then obviously we definitely lost a little bit from the initial phase but then I wasn’t able to get to the tow because he stayed on the left and gave Seb the tow. I tried to sneak in behind Seb but there was a McLaren there so I had no tow down to Turn 1 and I nearly lost another place. After that it was just trying to keep up with them, but it was like trying to do qualifying laps every lap trying to keep up with them because they were so fast. Massive challenge but one I’m really proud of, really proud of everyone and I hope that everyone back at the factory is able to relax for a second but then come back and work hard tomorrow, because we still have plenty of races to go and a lot of challenges ahead of us.

    Q: Valtteri, great performance from you today, fourth on the grid to second. How much pressure were you under from Charles in that last phase of the race?

    VB: Yeah, for sure, it’s never easy. I think they had a strong car today, good pace and, as we’ve seen this year, they’ve been extra quick on the straights. So I knew if they get close enough, especially in Sector Three, they are going to be a big threat into Turn Two. Just really had to try to keep it together, try to minimise the mistakes and, you know, the car felt pretty decent today, especially with the soft tyre in the corners. So, try to really maximise everything I could in the corners, and try to get a good Sector Three and good exit out of the last corner and that way I could keep the position. But yeah, to be in that position beforehand, I think the team did all the right things today. Already the decision yesterday to start on the mediums to go long in the first stint, you know then, at certain points when you go long in the first stint, you start to hope for that VSC or Safety Car to come – and today it came. Like a miracle. So, that’s always good. So, yeah, bit better feeling than yesterday for sure.

    Q: Charles, congratulations on third place – but it was a complicated afternoon for Ferrari. Can we just go back to the start. Can you just tell us about this agreement that was in place between yourself and team-mate Sebastian?

    CL: I think everything was respected. At the start, obviously I went to the left to give Seb the slipstream. I knew he would overtake. We knew that. Then we just had to do the swap back, and we did it at the pit stop later on in the race and yeah, then our race went downwards. As soon as Seb had the issue, the Safety Car didn’t come at a great time for us and, yeah, everything was more complicated from then on.

    Q: Charles, just to clarify, so you’d agreed to stay to the left and Sebastian was expecting you to hold that side of the track to get the tow. Is that what was agreed?

    CL: I mean, staying to the left whatsoever… If there was Lewis and Seb side-by-side I obviously had to advantage Seb and not Lewis, which is normal. So yeah, that is what was agreed.

    Q: And how surprised were you that Sebastian didn’t swap back immediately?

    CL: I don’t know. I think the situation was quite tricky. There was a Safety Car straight away, so then it was quite difficult. I tried to stay as close as I possibly could for two or three laps but then it was very difficult to follow, especially first and second sector. Tyres overheated and then I dropped back a little bit. But then I was, as I said on the radio, I had one hundred per cent trust in the team to do it themselves, as it was agreed before the race, and that’s what they did at the pitstop.

    Q: And any reliability concerns for you after Seb’s engine problem?

    CL: I don’t think so. I don’t know. I actually don’t even know what is the issue. First I need to speak with the team but I don’t think there was any concern on my side.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Charles, you mentioned there having one hundred per cent faith in the team to sort the situation, and you did it at the pit stops but obviously the team needed to get involved to sort that. Do you have the trust in Seb after this to honour team agreements? And to the Mercedes drivers, you’ve talked about how good your relationship is, and how hard you work for one-another in the team. How damaging would it be to that relationship if one of you openly didn’t follow a team order?

    LC: Yeah, I think the trust doesn’t change and we need to trust each other, Seb and myself, because I think it’s usually important for the benefit of the team in some situations to know that you can count on the other car, and vice versa – I mean in both ways. So yeah. I think it’s very important but yes, the trust is still here.

    Lewis?

    LH: I mean we work together, so it’s about having respect. And I think the respect  has been there since day one. We talk about the scenarios very openly. Valtteri has always been respectful in all those scenarios and I think it’s vital that we’re both acting accordingly, which we do, I think.

    Valtteri, anything to add?

    VB: No, that’s fine.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Charles. Do you think if Seb would have given you the place earlier, you could have fought for the win?

    CL: Not if the Safety Car would have been the same – I mean at the same time. To be honest, that was our main… the main thing that went wrong today was this. But this is nothing we could have done. It’s a shame for the team because I believe we had the potential to do very good today and, yeah, with the Safety Car at that time of the race, was not great for us. Yeah, that’s it.

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Charles. You said you gave Seb the tow. Does that mean you could have done anything differently if you would have fought against him?

    CL: I actually had absolutely no reason to fight because, as I said, I trusted completely in the fact that we will swap back after, so there was no need to take any risks at that time, and yeah, that’s why I just didn’t fight.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Charles, do you think the second pit stop was not too optimistic – because at the end you lost the position with Valtteri?

    CL: I think it was a tricky situation. Because obviously staying on mediums that had already five or six laps, compared to softs that were new. Especially for a restart after the Safety Car. We are, I think, everyone on the grid is struggling to keep these tyres in temperature any time we are behind a Safety Car. If you are on a Medium, already it’s a disadvantage, and if it’s a bit worn, then it’s another disadvantage. So, we didn’t want to take the risk to lose more than one position. I think we did the right choice. Looking back, you can always think about a better scenario – but at that time I think it was the right decision for us.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) For the two Mercedes drivers. Lewis, at the start, you could stay within three seconds of Seb. Was that the limit for keeping the tyres alive and going for as long as possible – or you couldn’t get any closer. And to Valtteri, exactly the opposite. After the restart was the priority just to keep Charles behind, or you couldn’t get closer to Lewis because you didn’t have the pace?

    LH: I think that was probably the limit. I was on the Medium tyre; they had the advantage with the Softer tyre which is quite a bit quicker. And then secondly, when you’re towing, two seconds is quite hard to follow. So yeah, I think I dropped back to around 3.3s or 3.5s, but I was trying to keep up. I wasn’t managing it, that’s for sure! They were just pulling away initially, and I think once we got to like, 15 or 18 or whatever it was, I started to be able to keep up with them a little bit better and as their tyres started to drop off a little bit, I was able to then start making some headway, and start taking time out of their gap.

    Valtteri?

    VB: I think at that point we were on a similar tyre with Lewis, same car. For me the priority was definitely to try to keep Charles behind. For sure I was trying in the beginning. If I could get a chance at the restart of the Safety Car and the first lap, but there was no way. So, I was trying to balance out in the first few laps to push hard enough to keep Charles behind and, at the same time, try and leave a little bit of margin to Lewis. Because when you follow very close behind obviously you slide and destroy the tyres easier. So, I think the few seconds gap I had most of the second stint at the end was ideal. I Could get a bit of a tow effect on the straights and not too much sliding in the corners. So, that’s pretty ideal. But I have to say, Lewis was very quick today and, especially the first stint, I don’t know why, I didn’t have the pace to match. Second stint was a lot better.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) There’s been a fair amount of concern and criticism raised by the drivers over the direction of the 2021 rules and how much you guys have heard. We know that Chase and Ross gave you a bit more of an update this weekend. Do you feel a bit more informed now? Would you like a little bit more inclusion, even away from the meetings that you’ve attended with the FIA?

    LH: I think it’s been a huge step for us to be involved, it’s a big step for all the drivers to be united and I think we’re building a new and better relationship with the FIA, the GPDA and the FIA communicating and I think they’ve been quite open. I think there are things that we ask about and they are like ‘we can’t change it now’ but there’s no such thing as can’t for an engineer. There’s lots of things that can be improved but the thing they did show us the other day is that the amount that you lose behind a car today… what their simulations say that we will lose in terms of downforce behind the new car… I think it looks great, so I’m working as hard as I can to make sure I can stay around for then and get to drive those newer cars. And naturally we don’t want the cars to be slower either – I think they said they’re two or three seconds off so hopefully we can push that forward but some things like weight, we don’t want the car to get heavier but it is going in that direction. But I know they’re working really hard at it.

    VB: Yeah, I think, as Lewis said, it’s a good start that we are closer to them and they are actually sharing the ideas with us and I think we have a pretty good understanding when it comes to driving and racing and we’re always happy to give our opinion and I think we have the best understanding what makes us happy and what makes the racing better. It means happier fans and so on so for sure it’s nice to be involved and hope that that really continues.

    CL: Yeah, I completely agree. I think it’s very important that, as has been said, we are all united for the same goals. I think our ideas are clear, what we want and it’s important that we are involved because we just feel things that sometimes on the data doesn’t look the same way. It’s a good step.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, you’re 73 points clear of Valtteri, 107 clear of Charles now with just five races to go. Is it difficult, in your mind, not to think that you’ve already pretty much got this sixth world title?

    LH: I just don’t try to think about it. It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s pretty easy just to focus on the task in hand and it’s not easy at the moment so honestly just focusing on trying to be the best I can be each weekend, one race at a time and making sure I’m just delivering at a high rate. What’s really impressive is just to see how naturally we’re fighting against the Ferraris who have got great pace but Charles, Valtteri, Seb, Max, Carlos, some of the other drivers are really performing so well. I think it’s one of the best years I’ve seen the drivers perform in terms of just class performances, so it’s meaning that everyone is having to raise their bar including myself. I’m enjoying that challenge and as I said, just one race at a time. The next one is going to be super hard to keep… to trying to beat these guys again but not impossible as we’ve shown today.

    Q: (Doria Panova – motorlat) To the Mercedes drivers: another podium, congratulations, but obviously it wasn’t a perfect weekend for you, so what is your opinion about this Grand Prix and what areas do you think you need to improve?

    LH: Well, we’ve been very fortunate to have come to Russia and quite incredible performances for many years now. I think the Ferrari had the front row last year or the year before…

    VB: Year before…

    LH: …and obviously again incredible performance this weekend. I think we’ve done a good job today so it’s ended up being a good weekend but of course we were on the maximum limit and I think those guys are still quite dominant at the moment so it’s taken quite a special job from us today to pull out ahead of them. I’ve really enjoyed my time here. I’ve not spent a huge amount of time in Russia but the people seem so welcoming and just generally really nice people and I think that getting used to Formula One… you know, when you grow up I see Russia and you see the Kremlin in the movies  and you see Moscow and it’s freezing and when I came out here, I didn’t even know that they had a seaside and it’s beautiful. I wake up and open my curtain and I see the sea. I have no clue what point of Russia I’m actually in but it’s obviously got a lot to offer. In terms of the racetrack, I think it’s growing on me and it’s obviously got the great straight. I think we can do better in making it somehow better for closer racing, because the corners are all so fast, it’s very very hard to follow as we are all saying. So perhaps in the future we might be able to make the corners tighter or something. I don’t know.

    VB: Yeah, definitely. I’ve always enjoyed coming here, it’s been pretty successful for me personally. I’ve had many podiums and my first ever win for me here so it’s a special place on that side and obviously neighbours with Finland. You say we didn’t have a perfect weekend but we had a perfect day today and it’s Sunday that really matters in Formula One, so happy days! But we definitely have work to do.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Lewis, you mentioned this a bit but Suzuka is a different kind of track but with Ferrari now being quick on the corners and possibly the Red Bull Hondas having no grid penalties, how tough is it going to be between all three of you and the other three drivers from the top teams? What balance do you expect there?

    LH: It’s going to be awesome. Suzuka is incredible, it’s one of the most exciting parts of the year and now so more than ever before because you’ve got three solid, incredibly fast teams, particularly pushing each other and having the ability, the potential to win a race. I have no idea who is going to be quickest there. Obviously, at the moment, Ferraris are quite dominant but maybe it will suit our car a little bit more, who knows? Or the Red Bull, maybe. So it’s exciting to go there because that’s a serious driver’s track, one of the best ones of the whole year. The tarmac run-off areas that you see here or around the world…  it’s proper grass and gravel and walls so it’s the ultimate test, I would say, that track, for the car and also for the driver. I just hope that we get to have a good race there.

    VB: Yeah, look forward to it. Not much to add. I think it’s going to be exciting, good fight between three teams and between all the drivers and I really look forward to it. Personally, it is my favourite track if I had to chose one so it should be fun.

    Q: Charles, how confident are you of Ferrari’s pace at Suzuka?

    CL: I think, as I’ve said earlier this week, we’ve been quick in Singapore, we’ve been quick in Monza and both of them are the complete opposites so I think it shows that we are doing some progress so there are no reasons for us to be very slow in Japan, but it doesn’t mean that we will have an easy life. I’m pretty sure that Mercedes and also Red Bull will be very strong there. I’ve only been to Suzuka once but it’s a track I loved, last year I took so much pleasure driving especially through the first sector. It was just a really great experience so I’m really looking forward to going back there.

    LH: It’s pretty incredible it’s your second year, only your second year. Already in Ferrari and he’s doing… is it four wins this year?

    CL: No, no, you are over-estimating me. No, two.

    LH: OK, anyway, that’s still pretty impressive.

    CL: Thanks man.

    Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – motorlat) Charles, given Sebastian’s DNF today, how much of a concern is reliability to you at the moment?

    CL: As I’ve said, I don’t even know what the issue is so for now, I’ll speak with the engineers.  I don’t think reliability has been an issue or a concern from the beginning of the year on our side so I don’t expect it to become one now but let’s see. I’ve got no idea what the issue is so I firstly need to speak with the team to understand what went wrong.

  • 2019 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2019 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS
    1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS
    (Conducted by Jenson Button)

    Q: Charles, all I can say is, wow! What a dominant performance. All of the way through practice, yesterday, today, qualifying – you really are on a role.
    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, the car felt amazing. It definitely feels great to be back on pole. I don’t know if it’s the best track to start on pole. The straight is very long after the start. Tomorrow the start will be very important as always, but here probably even more, because of the straight length.

    Q: It’s still the best place to be in. The last person to score four [consecutive] pole positions for Ferrari was Michael Schumacher. That must make you feel pretty special?
    CL: Yeah it definitely feels very, very special, but I don’t really want to think about those kind of stats for now. I just want to focus on the job. There’s still a long way to go until tomorrow. It’s definitely a good start, we’ve been competitive all weekend long and the race simulation seems positive too, so it’s looking good for tomorrow.

    Q: Congratulations. Lewis, I must say, all the way through qualifying, obviously the Ferraris have had the upper hand, but as always you pulled the lap out there at the end and got the best out of the car?
    Lewis HAMILTON: I’ll tell you, it was a tough qualifying session, because these guys have some crazy speeds on the straights. They go to another level, you know. That whole party mode you talked about us having, they have something else beyond that – jet mode! Nonetheless, I gave it absolutely everything I had at the end and the team did such a great job to just tinker and push forwards. I’m so glad it came together. I wasn’t expecting to get on the front row for sure, so I’m really, really happy with it nonetheless.

    Q: And the great thing for you guys also is that you have the medium tyres for the start of the race. It looks like you knew they would be quick in qualifying so you’ve gone for a slightly different strategy for the race.
    LH: Yeah, well we know that they are on a slightly lower drag level this weekend plus they have that power, so we’ve got to try something. You’ve seen the last couple of races we’ve been behind all the way, so we’re fortunate enough to opt for another strategy and I think the team have done a really good job with putting us in that position. It’s a long way down to Turn 1, so it’s not always the best for starts on the harder tyre, but I’m going to try to two the hell out of Charles if I get the chance. But it’s going to be hard because they get good starts as well.

    Q: Sebastian, not the easiest qualifying I’m sure. Q1 was pretty tricky: one little mistake and all hell broke loose after that. But, P3, you’ve got the run down to Turn 1 and I’m sure that after the last race, with the strategy and winning that race, there are still a lot of opportunities tomorrow?
    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I’m not entirely happy, I think I couldn’t extract the absolute maximum from the car. As you said, it was a bit disruptive in Q1 but by the time we got to Q3 I thought it was OK. You spoke about Turn 1, it’s a long way, obviously we’ll see. We’re on different tyres strategies compared to the Mercs, so I think the race will be decided tomorrow. The speed is there so let’s keep it up.

    Q: As you said, there’s a long straight down to Turn 2. You guys are pretty quick in a straight line too. For us it’s going to be great watching, but it’s going to be pretty crazy for you guys into Turn 2?
    SV: Yeah, first you need a good start; then you worry about the rest, sort of thing. Let’s see. Obviously there’s potentially an advantage if you are behind but I guess if you are behind you always tend to say that, so let’s see what happens.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Charles, you got progressively quicker as the session went on. Where were you finding the time?
    CL: I don’t think I had any clean laps before the one of Q3. The first lap of Q3 felt very good. The second lap: very good until Turn 16, where I lost rears, and I lost a little bit of lap time. But overall the car was just coming together. The balance was better and better. I was adjusting a little bit the aero balance and I just felt more and more confident.

    Q: And what about your confidence for tomorrow’s race – the long run pace of your car?
    CL: I believe that the long run pace yesterday was extremely positive, I think probably the most positive of the whole season, so this is looking good. But it’s going to be an interesting race. I mean, Mercedes are starting on the medium, so I think the strategy will play a role. I think we did the right choice to start on the soft, but we will see tomorrow.

    Q: Good luck with that and well done today. Lewis, if we could come on to you. You sounded very happy at the end of the session, happy to split the Ferraris for the second week in a row. How good was your lap?
    LH: Pretty decent. It was a pretty good lap. Honestly, it was a really good lap. Last time, Singapore felt like a really good lap as well, it’s just… I was just saying to Charles out there that already by Turn 1 we were already three tenths down or something like that, so it’s very, very hard. But nonetheless I pushed, we pushed, as hard as we could and I was really, really happy with the lap. It all came together. That last one was the best of the weekend – as it should be – and no mistakes or anything like that, so I really feel like I got everything and maybe a little bit more from the car to split the Ferraris once again, which is not an easy task.

    Q: Charles thinks it’s going to be a strategic battle tomorrow. Do you feel the same way?
    LH: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think the team did a great job to put us on the mediums and naturally from the two tyres there’s obviously a delta and the softer the tyre the better the start. So it will be a little bit tough off the start tomorrow. But even if we were in the lead, if we were on pole for example, they are just so fast on the straights by the time we get to Turn 1, which is the little kink, they blast past us with the jet fuel or whatever it is. So, yeah, it is about strategy, which is why we are on a different tyre and I hope that we can utilise that and keep the pressure on. If you’ve seen the couple of races we’ve had we’ve been right with them but I’m hoping tomorrow we can really give them a good fight.

    Q: Sebastian, coming to you, it seemed a good opening lap of Q3 for you but then it seems to slip away on that second lap. Is that a fair assessment?
    SV: Not really. I was quite happy in general. Obviously a bit disruptive with Q1 where we got a bit unfortunate with yellow flags and stuff. I thought by the time we got to Q3 that was fine. I think overall I was pretty happy with the car. I just felt that there was more in the car that, yeah, I couldn’t get to. Nevertheless, I think tomorrow is a long race. I think we have good pace for the race. It will be very interesting with the Mercedes on different tyres to start with, so let’s see what happens.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, how important was it to be on the first row for tomorrow’s race? And would it be crucial to be at the second corner first, before the Ferraris to avoid what happened last week in Singapore?
    LH: Time will tell. But, of course, if I’m able to try and somehow keep Seb behind, and there’s only one car ahead, for example, that changes things on top. So, naturally we’re going to push as hard as we can but it’s going to be very, very hard. Down to Turn One it’s a long drag – but I’m sure we’ll have a good battle, one way or another.

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for all three of you. You all sounded pretty confident that you’re on the right tyre, even though you have different ones. Can you explain why you are confident this is the right tyre you’re starting on? Do you think this has to do with the car that the tyre suits better to your car – or is it only strategic reasons?
    CL: On our side I think the start is very important here and we thought that the benefits of starting on Soft was big. And then there was not much difference, in terms of degradation, from the Soft to the Medium. So, yeah, we thought it was worth it to make it our start tyre.
    LH: I just wanted to be on something different.

    Is that what it now takes to beat these guys? You’ve got to roll the dice?
    LH: I don’t know. I haven’t beaten them for a while! So I can’t tell you. I’ll tell you at the end of tomorrow.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all three. Charles, this is your fourth pole in a row. You were asked downstairs, you’re the first person to do that for Ferrari since Michael, which is obviously pretty special. Are you on a roll at the moment in qualifying where you feel like you can’t do anything wrong, and everything comes together. And to Lewis and Seb, you’ve both had massive success in Formula One, been on this sort of run – what does it do for you as a driver when you have this sort of succession of poles?
    CL: Of course I felt confident going into qualifying but at the end anything… I mean at one point it’s going to end, so whether it’s now or later, I don’t know. So, the only thing I’m trying to do is focus on myself, try to have exactly the same procedure as I’ve had since the last four races and not… yeah, I definitely don’t come in the car thinking it will be easy and that it will come together alone. I just try to keep working as I did in the last few races, and then hopefully the lap time comes.

    Lewis, how does it feel? The importance of momentum, invincibility when you’re on a roll?
    LH: I don’t know – I’ve never felt invincible. Of course, when you get on a roll, it doesn’t really make… from my experience, it’s nice, for sure but it doesn’t make a difference. So if it’s separated: one pole; one second; one pole, it doesn’t make any difference to me. But he’s stealing all the poles right now, so it’s going to be very, very hard to beat their poles when they’re so fast on the straights but we’re working at it.

    SV: I don’t know – it’s been a while for me! Yeah, I think you take every session separately, so you’re not really trying to look back. I think it’s just about nailing every session.

    Q: (Dzhastina Golopolosova – The Paddock Magazine) Question to Charles. Mercedes dominated here for five years and today you showed that you can break this trend. What do you think about tomorrow?
    CL: For now… I mean the race it tomorrow. It will be very important to stay in front, and they were also strong in the race pace, as they’ve always been since the beginning of the season, so, it obviously feels good to be on pole here. I think Singapore was a big surprise for everyone, for us to be in front and here, I think we felt we had our chances, considering how quick we were in Singapore. Yeah, I mean it feels good to break that but we need to finish the job tomorrow.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Charles, Jenson already mentioned the record that you equalled today with Michael Schumacher but I want to consider with you that there was this past 19 years from that and there are some other guys, for example Seb, who are with you that couldn’t do that. So how is your feeling, to think that today is an historical day not only for you but for Ferrari?
    CL: As I said, it feels good but it doesn’t change my approach to the other weekends and as Seb and Lewis said, every time you go into a session, you take it just normally, without thinking about the others, the last poles I’ve had. So yeah, obviously it feels great but I don’t want to think about these things and I just want to focus on the job ahead.

    Q: (Giusto Ferronato – La Gazzetta dello Sport) For both Ferrari drivers: in Italy probably now many people are thinking that you have found the solution to win all the races. Is this correct or they are too optimistic?
    CL: I think we need to keep our feet on the ground. Obviously at the moment we are in a good momentum, we are having really good performances but at the end it doesn’t change… Mercedes are still quite ahead in the overall championship, which at the end is what matters the most. I think we need to keep our heads down, keep working. Of course at the moment it seems that it’s working our way but I will not say it will be like this for the rest of the season, so we need to keep working.
    SV: Not much to add so maybe too optimistic. I think we need to wait until tomorrow. I think at the last race obviously it was difficult to pass. I think Mercedes was faster than us in the race so we will see what happens tomorrow with different strategy.

    Q: Sebastian, is this the best Ferrari you’ve driven?
    SV: I think the car got a lot better since the beginning of the year when we started to really struggle. Obviously we had a bit of a high at winter testing. I think we understood what it takes and I think the step in Singapore in particular seemed to help us and allowed us to make another step forward. But I think the ’17 car out of the box was probably the best so far.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Sebastian, have you looked at all the data with Charles on the exercise of pole and have you found where he is better than you since the return of the summer?
    SV: Well, obviously in qualifying here and there. I think we didn’t have the best sessions on my side. I think obviously today Charles was faster so it’s pretty easy to see where he’s faster but it’s a little bit here and there. I don’t think there’s any pattern standing out, saying that he’s always faster in the same type of corner. As I said, obviously the last couple of races was closer than maybe it looked on the result so we will see what happens tomorrow. Usually come race day I’m getting more and more confident in the car and pace has never been a problem in the race so we will see what happens.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you’ve mentioned the deficit you’ve got at the moment to Ferrari and where you feel that deficit is so how deep are you having to dig inside yourself for a lap like this? You had a big gap to Valtteri today for example and you said your Singapore lap was also very good.
    LH: Yeah. Honestly I feel like that maybe the last couple of laps have felt worthy, like pole-worthy in terms of how this has come together and optimising within the car. Naturally obviously they are faster than us and Charles has done a good job but I mean in terms of being as close to the limit as possible and yeah, I think I’ve just been getting more and more comfortable with the car, I think in this second half of the season, a little bit more comfortable with it, even though we’ve lost a little performance compared to them but there’s still work to do collectively, in all of us, including myself so we just keep working on that. Please don’t write that the wrong way, pole-worthy, I was meaning in terms of what do you… putting the perfect lap together, I feel like each time I’m getting as close to that as possible and then you finish the lap and it’s quite a long way off pole but it feels like quite an achievement to get in between the two Ferraris who have a bit of a delta to us at the moment.

  • Singapore GP Qualifying Recap: Leclerc takes stunning pole for Ferrari

    Singapore GP Qualifying Recap: Leclerc takes stunning pole for Ferrari

    Charles Leclerc claimed his third consecutive pole position for Ferrari, taking both the Mercedes and Red Bull teams by surprise ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

    Leclerc outpaced Hamilton by 0.19s seconds to clinch the pole despite losing control of the car on several occasions, according to the Frenchman. Sebastian Vettel had held the provisional pole position after the first runs in Q3, but both Hamilton and Leclerc improved on their times during their second runs to claim the front row of the grid.

    It was expected that Ferrari would struggle around the streets of Singapore, but both Ferrari drivers made significant progress with the setup of the car during the course of the race weekend.

    Leclerc was strongest in the first sector, where Ferrari is able to maximise its power advantage. That said, Leclerc did have to put in the work to fend off Hamilton in the next two sectors where Mercedes appears to be the stronger car.

    Vettel aborted his second run after making an error which meant his time would not improve. The German will be starting from third position. Vettel said that he had “peaked too early in the session,” and that his lap “should have been better”.

    Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had been hoping to be stronger and challenge the front row of the grid, but finished in fourth place, just under 6 tenths off Leclerc’s time. Valtteri Bottas initially showed some good pace but failed to improve on his Q2 time and had to settle for fifth place in the second Mercedes.

    Alex Albon impressed on his first visit to Singapore, claiming sixth place in the second Red Bull. Carlos Sainz finished seventh fastest for McLaren ahead of the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg. Lando Norris claimed the last spot in the top ten for the second McLaren.

    Sergio Perez qualified in eleventh position but will drop five grid places with a penalty following a gearbox replacement. That moves Antonio Giovinazzi up a position, and he’ll start ahead of the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly.

    Kimi Raikkonen damaged his front wing on his first run out in Q2 and was unable to improve on his second run. Magnussen will start the race behind him with Daniil Kvyat, Lance Stroll, Romain Grosjean, George Russel, and Robert Kubica rounding out the grid.

    UPDATE: Daniel Ricciardo has been excluded from the qualifying results for exceeding the MGU-K power limit during Q1.

  • 2019 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2019 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Daniel RICCIARDO (Renault), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Robert KUBICA (Williams), Lando NORRIS (McLaren)*

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Romain, if we could start with you, please. Many congratulations, it’s just been announced that you are staying with the Haas team in 2020. Please can you give us your reaction to this news?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, good evening. It’s great, obviously great news. I will be will be with team for a fifth consecutive season. We’ve built this story since day one and it feels like the story is not yet over, so very, very happy to carry on with the team. Obviously this year has been a challenge but also it’s been a good year in terms of growing up for the team and understanding what went wrong and how can we move on in the future. Looking forward to many more races in, black and gold for now, but under the Haas colours.

    Q: You say this year has been a challenge. How confident can you be that 2020 is going to be better?

    RG: You never really know but I guess that the team has worked really hard and has made some good understanding this year from the drivers’ feedback and from what we have seen. It’s a bit of a similar situation to 2017 to 2018 where in 2017 the car wasn’t as fast as we wanted and then in 2018 we had a very competitive car. Yeah, I have got confidence that we will bounce back, to which level you never know, but hopefully to a good one where we can fight for some fun races.

    Q: Many congratulations Romain. Robert, while we’re on the subject of 2020, is there anything you can tell us about your future?

    Robert KUBICA: Yes and not. First of all, we are looking forward to the next year and looking forward to different opportunities but yeah, in order to evaluate our opportunities I have taken the decision that I will not continue more with Williams [after] this year. I will stop at the end of this year with the team. Which is a decision that I took, which opens a bit the opportunities for me for the future in different scenarios and now I will evaluate what is possible.

    Q: Do you want to stay in Formula 1 next year?

    RK: Well, I always say that I took a lot of energy, a lot of time for me to recover and come back to the sport and since I joined back Formula 1 I would like to stay. I said that this year it would be say a goal to remain in Formula 1. But yeah, of course my answer would be, yes, but not at any cost. And I think I have to first of all do what will bring me back a bit of joy in racing. Of course this season has been very tough from a performance point of view but it has also been very demanding, being back in Formula 1 after a long time is not easy – especially when you are in a difficult situation, as we are. But still nevertheless I have to thank the team for the opportunity and we will see what the future will bring.

    Q: Well, thank you and best of luck with that? Lando, it’s been a slightly frustrating period for you since the summer break. How easy has it been to shrug it off, particularly the last-lap retirement at Spa?

    Lando NORRIS: It’s not been too bad to be honest. As much as I’ve been annoyed and disappointed… (laughs)… stop it!

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I gave him 10 seconds. I knew you’d start laughing within 10 seconds.

    LN: I don’t want to! OK, as much as it’s been annoying and disappointing, especially at Spa – last lap and I was on for my best result – and at the moment for us, as a team, we haven’t had the best few weekends in a row, and especially after Monza, Renault caught up quite a bit in the championship, so it’s been tough for me because when you’re on for such a good result – I know it’s fifth and not a win and so on, but for us and for myself it’s still a big achievement – I’m a little bit annoyed. At the end of the day we’ve still been working hard. We’ve shown at points what we can do, we’ve showed it in other areas, but at the end of the day, it happens. It wasn’t in my control. It wasn’t in my engineer’s control. It’s just something that happens in Formula 1, so I just have to move on.

    Q: And looking ahead to this weekend, it’s your first experience of the heart and humidity of Singapore and what can we expect from McLaren this weekend?

    LN: Personally, I’ve been here, maybe a bit too long, but I’ve been here since last Thursday. Not for any reason in particular apart from getting used to the place. Cycling the track a bit. Getting used to the temperature, the humidity and so on. Everyone says this is the toughest race of the year for the drivers…

    DR: You’re sweating already…

    LN: I know! Everyone says this is the toughest race for the drivers physically, for the concentration you have to have on the track, and then in combination with the heat and so on, so yeah, I’ve done everything I can training wise, but I’ll find out on Sunday.

    Q: The car?

    LN: I don’t know. I want to be hopeful and say it’s going to be better than Monza, because Monza I don’t think was the best for us, even though Carlos qualified well, I don’t think it was the easier track compared to some of the others, so I’m hoping that this weekend we can be a bit stronger but at the same time I think we all know it’s going to be quite a difficult one.

    Q: OK, well good luck with it. Thank you Lando. Daniel, you scored your best result for Renault at Monza. Was that result the shot in the arm you needed?

    DR: I don’t like needles, so normally I don’t like a shot in the arm. It was definitely good for us. I think it had been a while since we had a big result like that – obviously Canada was the standout in the first half of the year. I think Spa was a pretty positive weekend for us up until the start of the race. I think we were on for a decent result there, but then to back it up in Monza, and both cars to do it, was really good; definitely strong from the start of the weekend. Obviously it’s nice as a driver to get the result, but definitely for the team to get that, I think they had been craving a strong result, from both cars as well, and to get us back in the points, or in that points battle we’re in. Obviously McLaren were running away with it but we made some good ground. So yeah, that was good. I think I made an emphasis afterwards to kind of tip my hat to the engine guys, especially the guys working at Renault in Viry. To get a big result like that on power circuit, not many would have predicted that, especially in the last few years, so to come out there and do it in Monza I think was a big pat on the back for them.

    Q: And looking at this weekend: you’ve had good results in Singapore, with four podiums, so what about the car? What can expect from you here?

    DR: I don’t know. The last few races we seem to perform better on lower downforce circuits, but going back to Monaco that’s the most similar circuit to probably here and we qualified quite well there so. I think we do have the potential to be good on this circuit as well. I don’t think it comes as natural for us or our car at the moment. But I definitely think we can put it together, so we might have to work a little bit harder for it but I think the pace is ultimately there in the car, we just have to find it. But it’s a fun one. As all the boys really said, it’s physical, it’s hot, bumpy but street circuits, they’re a good time.

    Q: Thanks. Lewis, you’re gunning for your fifth win here in Singapore and after the battles with Ferrari at Spa and Monza and Red Bull prior to the summer break, how tough are you expecting this race to be?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, this is one of the toughest races of the year, if not the toughest, physically and mentally and then we come here each year, it shifts between the Ferraris, the Red Bulls and us. Last year the Red Bulls… they’ve particularly been quick over the years and we anticipate that they they’re going to be strong this weekend. And again, I have no idea whether Ferrari will be quick, as they have been in the last races, or not. We’ll just focus on ourselves and try to make sure we extract the most we can. We’ve not really performed that well over the last couple of years but we’ve come out with not such bad results due to other circumstances so I hope that we fare well.

    Q: Any concerns about the performance of your car in the heat following the cooling issues you had in Austria earlier in the year?

    LH: I’m sure that’s definitely on the radar. It’s not really the hottest that we’ve seen so far, so fingers crossed it stays something similar to this but of course if the rain comes or whatever, if it gets hotter through the weekend it could change.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to all of the drivers. What are your thoughts on the new ways you are dealing with hard racing? Second question, is the haze in Singapore a concern for you as drivers?

    LN: I think they’ve dealt with it fine. To be honest, I haven’t seen everything what happened between Lewis and Charles in Monza but I think it’s fine. Compared to some other categories, you get a lot more racing than we have had in Formula 1. Or, let’s say, in the past few years. This year’s maybe a little bit better. But when we get a chance to race, I think it’s better – everyone says it – just let us race. We can have some battles and, if a bit of contact comes every now and then, I don’t think it’s the end of the world. I think that, sometimes, part of it…  obviously you do have to look into it and if it’s anyone’s blatant fault or anything’s done intentionally, then that is unfair. I think the chances of us just racing, having fun, I think that’s part of Formula 1, so from my side, that’s fine. The haze… I don’t know. I think it’s fine…

    DR: You look a bit funny…

    LN: I’ve been here the longest out of anyone, I think, so if anyone was starting to be ill, or not feeling good… I think I’ll let everyone know.

    Q: Daniel?

    DR: On the racing stuff, actually I think Lando covered it very well. There’s a little bit of touching, and there’s pure dirty driving, or dirty racing – but I think a little bit of… I mean I obviously saw the replays of Monza. It was certainly tight and, yeah, a bit on the edge with giving room…

    Q: Are you referring to Lewis and Charles?

    DR: I think so! I think that’s where the question came from right? You were looking at Lewis the whole time so I figured it was about that! Yeah, it’s a tough one – but look, I think Lando covered it well. If we remain with a certain level of respect, it’s fine. But if you’re repeating a little bit of dirt too often, either you get payback from the driver or, I guess the stewards should intervene. For now, I think we’re doing OK with controlling it. Obviously at times as well in the car, in the race, your temper and emotions can take over, so maybe your initial feeling is harsher than maybe what you think afterwards once you’ve reflected but generally  I think that they’re doing OK. It’s hard. Unless you’re in the car, unless you’re in our position, with our point of view, it’s really hard to get it perfect every time so we have to sympathise with them a little bit. It’s not as easy from the outside.

    Q: Haze and pollution?

    DR: It’s been OK for now. No further comments.

    Q: Lewis, hard racing?

    LH: I think they both answered it pretty well, so I don’t really have much more to add to it, to be honest. The haze should be fine. Maybe we’ll see more of it on Sunday. If you ask everyone, we’re going to be here for ever if we all answer it.

    Q: But you have no further comment with what happened at Monza with Charles?

    LH: No. Moving forwards. Nothing we can do about the past. I’m down for hard racing. We’re good.

    Q: Romain?

    RG: No comment! Just the same thing.

    Q: Robert?

    RK: Exactly the same. I think what is the most important is consistency – and that’s it.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Robert, you say you took the decision to pursue other career opportunities outside of Williams. Was Orlen involved in this decision? And also, are you looking at simulator positions next year with Formula 1 teams?

    RK: Yeah, so first one, it was my decision, so of course I know there are some consequences which then Orlen follows my decision but this is a completely different topic. It has been only, purely, my decision. Regarding simulator, I don’t want to go too much into the details but, as I said, I will evaluate different opportunities. I will be very surprised if I was doing only simulator. I will be very surprised if I will not be racing next year.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Robert, how proud are you of the job that you did to get back into Formula 1? Does that outweigh how this year has gone. And, to the other four, you know how hard it is to be an F1 driver, to be at this level. How impressed are you that Robert got back to here – and what do you think F1 loses by him not being on the grid next season?

    RK: I forgot the first bit! How proud? I’m not really the kind of guy that is proud but for sure it has been a long journey. I have repeated this for the last two years. It is always the same story, nothing changes. It has been extremely hard for me but nevertheless I still think I make the right decision. Of course, everybody from Williams, myself, we are on the same boat and we would appreciate better performance and better results this year and an easier life. In the end it is a very difficult and very tough season for everyone from Williams. But I just have to move forward and that’s how it is, and this is the outcome, the reason I took the decision. Yeah, regarding the others, y’know, you make the question to them but I think we can skip it. It will take a long time anyway.

    Q: Well, let’s ask Lewis – you’ve raced Robert the longest out of anyone here. The impact he’s made since he’s been back in F1. If he doesn’t find another seat next year, how much will Formula 1 miss him?

    LH: That’s definitely put me on the spot. I’ve known Robert probably the longest; we started racing together in go-karts, like 1997? 1998. For me, Robert’s one of the most talented drivers I’ve competed against. As I say, from that beginning I already saw the talent that he had, and when he got to Formula One…

    RK: It’s been a long time!

    LH: It’s been a long time. What’s remarkable is the strength and determination he’s shown. Particularly through the incident he had. Not a lot of people can come through those circumstances and come back, make it back into the sport and deliver against others who don’t have the same situation that he’s been in. I think it’s been great to have him back. It’s definitely not the same scenario as when he was obviously in a more competitive team back in the day – but I think he’s done great this year. We need the best talent in the sport and we obviously need them to be as high up as possible creating a part of the show. So I hope he stays. I understand his position and I don’t know what’s given him the reason to make the decision but I hope there’s a position for him next year.

    Q: Would anyone else like to say anything?

    RG: He’s an inspiration for anyone that had a bad experience. First time I spoke to Robert was 2009 in Abu Dhabi, I think. We were supposed to be team-mates in 2010. I was very, very much looking forward to it. It didn’t happen. Then obviously I followed Robert as the third, or reserve driver at Lotus when he had his accident and then the way he came back. In motorsport he is an example, but also in life generally, to come back to the highest level and, as you say, fight the way he fought back is very impressive.

    Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) Lewis, your pole position lap last year is still being talked about today. What does it take to get into a zone like that on a street circuit of all places?

    LH: To be honest, it’s a bit of a blur, the whole lap. I don’t know who was driving… It was obviously a special lap from our side. I’ve been to this track since 2008, obviously, tyre temperatures are a huge issue. You get to the last sector and the tyres are dropping off, it gets a little bit trickier, it’s obviously such a long lap. I think it was just a combination of everything. The previous sessions had been up and down, probably hadn’t put a good lap together all weekend and it just happened to be right lap at the right moment. The chances of that happening are quite slim but it just happened at the right time where the stars were aligned, I guess. But more so the temperatures and just the flow ended up right but the focus that you need here, as all these drivers will know, is just very intense, positioning is everything and timing, really getting yourself into a rhythm is really key here to maximising the width of the circuit and the potential that’s in your car.

    Q: (Wojciech Paprota – SwiatWscigow.pl) Lewis, some days ago you unfollowed everyone on your Instagram and now you basically don’t follow anybody including myself, unfortunately. Does it mean that social media has been some sort of a distraction for you?

    LH: I don’t think I was following you before, anyway, so it shouldn’t really affect you. No, I think I just wanted kind of a fresh slate. I feel like social media is such an incredible platform naturally. I just noticed that for me – I don’t know how it is for you guys – but you wake up and the first thing you do is turn on your Instagram and check what’s happening. You’re always catching up and I just decided to change… I wake up now and I have a bit of a read, I start my day differently and I’m hardly ever on it and this has made a big difference to my life, personally. I do sometimes miss not being able to see what my friends are doing, particularly. And then sometimes obviously people come up and say ‘hey, you’re not following me but you follow that person’ so now I don’t follow anybody and no one can complain. But if I want to see what my friends are up to I have to go and type their name in now and it’s not so easy to go back to follow everyone because I was following like six hundred people or something before so…

    DR: He wasn’t one of them!

    LH: No. But I still follow everyone closely, like I look at everyone’s Instagram particularly within my sport just to see what they’re up to and I still support people. I just don’t feel like you should be forced to have to follow people to show that you support them.

    Q: (Cezary Gutowski – Przeglad Sportowy) Robert, you’ve been here for a while so I would like to ask you what was maybe your biggest challenge in motor sport, the thing that you are most proud of, that you’ve done so far?

    RK: I think honestly, if you take out the results which for sure in motor sport, they have a big influence, probably it is the last seven, eight years, put it together. Not one single moment but it has definitely been the biggest achievement of my life, probably, to come back to achieve what I have managed to go through, what happened and still managed to race.  Being back on an F1 grid was definitely the best end of period, the best final which I could deserve and which I could imagine.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, can we talk about the haze? I know that everyone has brushed it under the carpet a little bit but what sort of measures are in place for feedback to you, just how important that air quality is? When you’ve got locals saying it’s approaching dangerous levels and it’s quite significant for them, as athletes, I just wondered how you safeguard yourself? Do you have special filters on your masks or is there anything you can do or do you just put your faith in the FIA and just assume that everything’s going to be OK?

    LH: Honestly, I’ve not… we all have doctors on hand. It’s not been brought up as an issue for us but I am conscious of it. Naturally, I don’t know how it is for the drivers but you blow your nose after a race, dirt, soot comes out of your nose. You’ve got the carbon that you’re breathing in. Clean air is naturally an important part. I’ve been told not to go for a run outside, for example, because it won’t be great for me but I don’t know how it’s going to impact us in the race but I think tonight and tomorrow I will be speaking to my team. There’s not really a lot we can do, we can’t have anything else in our helmets so it is what it is, I guess.

    Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhuan News Agency) To Romain, in particular, next year Formula One goes to Vietnam which is not a country with a long history or tradition of motor sport. Do you feel that Formula One should continue to go and expand in new destinations like this, where they perhaps don’t have a history of motor sport or should the sport continue to focus on the traditional heartland in places like western Europe, for example?

    RG: It’s a good question and I don’t have the answer. There are definitely tracks which you want to keep racing on, that have a lot of history, but also some tracks now that have history, didn’t have any ten years ago like Singapore. Now everyone thinks that Singapore is a normal race but it only started in 2008. I don’t know. Obviously the number of races is limited by the human factor: should we do one year more in Europe, one year more outside Europe  and mix. Obviously there are tracks where you want to race and there are other tracks where you want to race also. I don’t know the answer.

    LH: It doesn’t really matter what I think. I think it’s been great to have new circuits. I think keeping the historic ones, where we had the biggest following because those are the people who really… that crowd that really makes the atmosphere, if you go to the UK for example. We’ve got to keep those. Losing Germany I think is a bit of a painful one for example. But I think adding new circuits… I think it’s good to go to new territories for sure, to expand our reach as a sport. I prefer that they do a street circuit that can maybe be taken down, it’s only temporary rather than, for example, India where they built that beautiful circuit and we don’t get to race there any more.

    DR: Selfishly, it’s nice to go to new destinations, it’s a chance to… I think we’re quite privileged to have this job and to be able to see new parts of the world. It’s sometimes an excuse to go and check out another place so from that point of view it’s actually always exciting for me because I know that I probably wouldn’t have travelled to all these places as a holiday destination if F1 didn’t take me there. I’ve discovered some pretty awesome places around the world through the calendar. I’ve never been to Vietnam so yeah, I’m excited to go there. And yeah, it’s a chance to open new fans up to the sport and I guess give a new crowd an opportunity to see what it’s like. Right now, I don’t see the downside of it, not at all.

    LR: I think that covers it all.

    RK: Yeah, I think everything has been said.

    Q: (Joost Nederpelt – NU.NL) Sebastian Vettel is under a bit of pressure right now at Ferrari with a strong teammate. Do you think he can bounce back and should we not write him off too soon?

    DR: I’m probably a decent one to answer for it because in times he’s maybe in a similar position to where he was in 2014 and he bounced back, I think, second race in 2015, I think he won in Malaysia from memory. He definitely has the ability to bounce back. All that’s going to take is one race. I think it’s just been a bit of an effect as well. Obviously it probably started – trying not to speak for him but at least from the outside – it probably started in Canada, obviously, the controversy there. It could have been his first win of the year and if that got done differently that might have changed the whole outcome of these next few races. You never know. In the past, he’s always been strong here in Singapore, so this could be the weekend for him, where he does turn it around but yeah, I think it’s just one… he’s one race away from turning it around. Obviously there’s a lot of things to deal with in this sport, especially when you’re at the top, it’s not just talent any more, it’s pressure, it’s head space, it’s where you’re at in your personal life and all this but you don’t lose your talent so can he still drive very fast? Absolutely. I think he’s just waiting for that weekend to put it all together and get himself back. It could very well happen this weekend.

    LH: I think Daniel answered it really well to be honest.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Lewis, Daniel spoke about the importance of headspace and off track pursuits. You obviously have a very active off track life. How important are things such as your fashion line and things like that to energizing you on track as well and contributing to your performances?

    LH: If I didn’t have those I would still be driving the way I do. I think they are just other outlets that for me personally work well for me and ones that I enjoy and give me energy, I guess, to continue on doing the other things that I love such as this job, which is not really a job, it’s a hobby really. But to each their own, we all do it differently, we all prepare in a different way, but it’s only been a positive for me.

  • F1 2019: Singapore Gp Preview – F1 Ready to Rule the Streets

    F1 2019: Singapore Gp Preview – F1 Ready to Rule the Streets

    After the back-to-back stops in Belgium and Italy Formula 1 heads off for the fly-away races for which the first stop is the Far-East Asian city state of Singapore.

    The Marina Bay Circuit, first introduced in 2008, is famed for being the first night race on the F1 calendar. It hasn’t been without controversy with the most contentious incident being the 2008 Crashgate saga. Then Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was ordered by Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds to deliberately crash in assistance of teammate Fernando Alonso. Luckily, the Singapore grand prix and F1 has moved on from then to deliver several memorable races on the city streets of Singapore.

    The 5.063 kilometer stretch around the harbour is comprised of a tapestry of twenty-three corners. The proximity of the barriers combined with the relentlessly nature of corner-after-corner gives drivers little time to relax and demands persistent attentiveness and concentration in fairly extreme conditions of 80% humidity and more than 30 degree ambient temperatures.

    Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel each have four wins a piece in Singapore. It was Vettel’s win 2015, seemingly out of the blue, that stopped Mercedes’ domination, albeit momentarily. Last year’s qualifying session saw Hamilton deliver, arguably, one of the most perfect quali laps of his career. The lap may have been only three tenths clear of second-placed Max Verstappen but the way he danced the Silver Arrow around the twisting Singapore streets will live long in the memory.

    Ferrari arrives on a tremendous high after winning in both Spa and Monza. But they also arrive with the understanding that it will be far greater task to take the top step of the podium. Given the characteristics of the Ferrari and its struggle in low speed corners it is almost inevitable that this weekend will be an uphill battle to beat either Red Bull or Mercedes.

    The story this weekend isn’t expected to be all Ferrari and Mercedes though. There is every expectation that Red Bull will be solidly in the mix for top honours, especially in the form of Max Verstappen who always excels on street tracks.

  • F1 2019: Italian Gp Review – Leclerc Dazzles with Home Win

    F1 2019: Italian Gp Review – Leclerc Dazzles with Home Win

    On lap 69 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria Max Verstappen sent his Red Bull up the inside of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, banged wheels, and snatched the lead of the race and ultimately the victory. This was a significant moment in Leclerc’s fledging F1 career. To that point he’d been refined, a bit too polite for the cutthroat world of Formula 1 racing.

    But he learned from Austria and with it his mentality shifted. And it’s a good thing it did for he needed all of that ruthlessness in Monza. Ferrari arrived in Monza fresh off a win in Spa and with the knowledge that their car should be the favourite at Italy’s famed Cathedral of Speed. This was confirmed as they secured pole position with Leclerc on Saturday. The shambolic final few minutes of quali all drivers, except Carlos Sainz, missed the chance to set a laptime because of jockeying for a slipstream. It left Hamilton on the front row and Vettel down in fourth.

    It was a bit of a nervy start for Leclerc who had to fend off Hamilton into the first chicane. But he held his own with Hamilton running within 1.5 seconds in second. While Bottas remained in third Vettel momentarily lost out to Nico Hulkenberg but quickly recovered fourth by passing the Renault down the start/finish straight on the start of lap 2.

    Vettel’s failure to make inroads at the start wasn’t a particularly big problem as he held the front three well within view. However, a handful of laps later and seemingly out of the blue he spun in the middle of the Ascari chicane. The German rejoined the track and in doing so hit the Racing Point of Lance Stroll. While Stroll attempted his own recovery he too rejoined in an unsafe manner which forced Pierre Gasly into taking avoiding action in the Toro Rosso. Vettel was subsequently, and rightly, handed a ten second stop/go penalty for rejoining the circuit in an unsafe manner while Stroll was handed a drive-through penalty for his own infringement.

    Italy 2019_PodiumIt spelled the end of Vettel’s race who ultimately trundled home in 13th. Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen too was given a ten second stop/go penalty for starting the race on the incorrect tyres. The Finn was forced into a pitlane start after a crash in quali and started on the medium compound whereas his run in Q2 and advancement to Q3 meant he was locked into starting on the soft compound. Newly minted Red Bull driver Alex Albon too was given a five-second time penalty for cutting the chicane and gaining a lasting advantage.

    At the front Hamilton continued to hound the rear of Leclerc’s Ferrari but the Monagasque driver was more than equal to the task. There were a few chinks in the Leclerc-armour though. A lock-up into the first chicane late on meant he had to cut the corner, which allowed Hamilton ever closer. Leclerc close the door into the second chicane but crowding Hamilton towards the edge of the track. Opinion will undoubtedly be split on whether the move deserved a penalty but the stewards felt that it required no investigation and, therefore, no penalty. Here is where Leclerc’s experience in Austria stood him in good stead. Had he not learned from that scenario and vowed to take a more aggressive approach Hamilton could well have been passed and into the lead of the race.

    Through all of this Leclerc supplied a master-class in absorbing pressure from Hamilton. Consider the factors: he is 21-years-old, in a Ferrari, at Monza, and with a five-time world champion glued to your gearbox. The level of pressure is off the charts and for Leclerc to take it in his stride the way he did is telling. Lest we forget this is only his second F1 season. He is a driver still very much in his infancy but this performance in Monza demonstrates an enormous potential if everything goes according to plan.

    Hamilton himself locked up in the first chicane and lost his chance at taking the lead and the win. It was Valtteri Bottas’s chance next but even on fresher tyres Leclerc was too canny, and too quick in the straight. He held off both Mercs and sailed to a hugely popular win that sent the Tifosi into raptures.

    While Bottas and Hamilton completed the top three Renault enjoyed their best day of the season with a fine fourth and fifth place for Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg respectively. Albon recovered from his earlier penalty to finish sixth ahead of Sergio Perez in seventh. Max Verstappen recovered to eighth from starting at the back of the grid while Antonio Giovinazzi finished ninth on home soil. Lando Norris completed the top ten for McLaren.

    Ferrari and Leclerc will leave Italy having achieved something truly special. And while Mercedes were bested they are safe in the knowledge that extended their lead in the constructor’s championship heading into Singapore where they are expected to be extremely strong.

  • 2019 Italian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Italian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

     

    Q: Charles, what a brilliant drive. That will go down in Ferrari legend, well done.

    Charles LECLERC: Thank you so much. What a race. I’ve never been so tired. Can I speak in Italian? (Continues in Italian).

    Q: The great Mercedes Benz team threw everything at you, two against one, but you didn’t succumb to the pressure.

    CL: Yeah, I did a few mistakes but at the end I finished first. Very happy with this. I need to be careful with the mistakes but obviously none of them made me lose the position today.

    Q: Well done, brilliant race. Valtteri, the fresh tyres at the end looked quite good but not quite enough to pass young Charles.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I think we had a good strategy with me and I was able to go pretty long in the first stint and that opened up some opportunities at the end. But I’m gutted, you know. I was trying everything I could to get him and there was no way past. Always when I was getting close enough I started left-front locking, because of the lack of downforce and they are so quick in the straights as well. But I tried and I think it was the best I could do today.

    Q: He was very strong off Parabolica, the last corner, wasn’t he, and then down the straight, so difficult to overtake.

    VB: Yeah, it was really difficult. We were trying everything we could with engine modes and everything, but not quite enough. Yep, we move on.

    Q: Third consecutive podium here but maybe not the place you wanted to be. Thanks Valtteri. Lewis, what a dice, what a battle that was! It got a bit fruity in places.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Fruity?

    Q: A little bit close. His elbows were coming out here and there. What would be your word?

    LH: He did a great job. Congratulations to Ferrari and to Charles, he did a great job. A lot of pressure from Valtteri and I. I did the best I could, I think, but obviously following so closely for such a long time the tyres eventually just went off the cliff. Nonetheless, they were just quicker today – much quicker in a straight line, so even

    if we did get close we couldn’t pass. Not our day but still strong points for the team. We pull away from Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship and ultimately that’s what really matters.

    Q: And you must be homing in on your sixth title? It must be starting to come into range in your mind?

    LH: Honestly, I’m just trying to do better each race. I’m not really focused on that at the moment. But of course, a healthier lead than I’ve been in in the past, so obviously I’m grateful for that. But today wasn’t a perfect race. I think this weekend some improvements to be made to my set-up and obviously within myself, so I’ll focus on that for the next race.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Valtteri, congratulations, you took second place with 12 laps to go. Another lap or so do you think you could have got the win today or did Ferrari have the pace?

    VB: First of all, well done Charles. (General laughter, as CL is absent). We tried everything we could today as a team and personally I was giving everything I could for the win. For sure, it’s annoying because it’s so close – finishing less than one second behind the leader. But, yeah, at least I tried everything I could. We tried. The tricky bit was that they were so quick on the straights. It required us to be so close in the corners that it was not really possible to follow, leading the straight (sic), and also getting issues with brakes locking up once getting so close to the car ahead. I was pushing hard, so what can I say? Just not quite enough. Otherwise, it was a good race. I enjoyed it a lot, hunting for the win and the pace was pretty good especially in the second stint.

    Q: Thank you and well done. Lewis, you put a lot of pressure on Charles today. How much pleasure do you get from that race?

    LH: There’s not a lot of pleasure from finishing third. Going backwards is never a great thing. Still, it was a great race. He did a great job. It was nice and tight for a long time and they deserved the win – they did a better job.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, during the race while you were trying to hunt down Charles, we heard a couple of times that it got a bit ‘dicey’ with him. There was the move at the second chicane, where he pushed you onto the run-off, and I think there was another one at the Curva Grande where you were going around the outside and he moved to the left? Was it just heat of the moment frustrations in the car or on reflection, a bit calmer, do you still think he was a bit on the limit or over the limit at times.

    LH: Uhh, that’s racing. Yeah, it’s just racing I guess. I had to avoid colliding with him a couple of times but I guess that’s how the racing is today. You just move forwards.

    Q: Thanks Lewis. Charles has joined us. Many congratulations. Second race win in the bag. It was an incredible grand prix, an incredible podium. Can you just describe the last two hours of your life?

    CL: It’s quite difficult – a lot going through my mind, during the race, after the race. A lot of emotions. Obviously it was very difficult during the race. Lewis was behind me. I think the biggest gap there was was maybe 1.7 or 1.8 seconds, so right behind me. I knew that Lewis rarely makes mistakes, so obviously I had to stay on it. I did a few, which never cost me a position – once was very, very close. It was crazy and then finally in the last two laps I started to believe that the win was possible. I think that with the traffic Valtteri dropped a little bit and that helped me to get a little bit of space. And then finally going on the line, I let go all my emotions through the radio. I don’t think you can understand anything that I have said on the radio, but it felt absolutely amazing, and the podium also. It’s going beyond all the dreams I’ve had since I was a child. To see so many people cheering for one team, singing all together, it’s amazing.

    Q: If we were to discuss the decisive moments in today’s race, was it that choice of the hard tyre at the pit stop?

    CL: I don’t know. I think the strategy was good. Obviously we were in a tricky situation because we had the two Mercedes behind and I was the only Ferrari and they could play the game of going long with one car and earlier with the other. It was very tricky but in the end I rthink we made ther right choice with the hard.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Following up on that response from Charles, I’d like to ask Mr Hamilton if he had the choice of white tyres and if they had been available would the result have been different in your opinion?

    LH: I mean yeah, if I had gone onto the hard tyre I probably would have had the pace to have finished second, with a tyre that goes longer, but I wouldn’t have changed the position between myself and Charles I think. They were ultimately just a little bit too quick today. I did ask in the morning if I could go to the hard tyres and they said no. They said that because we hadn’t run it they didn’t it was quick enough. I think the tyre we were on was quick but I did say in the meeting this morning that the tyre was potentially going to go off the cliff. It was because I was following so closely behind for so long, just really on the ragged edge, trying to get as close as I could to get in shooting distance of trying to overtake. But every time I opened up the DRS – I don’t know if you were going to a different power mode – but the gap would stay the same. It’s pretty incredible the speed they have on the straights.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) Charles, congratulations. Speaking of cliffs, I’m just wondering how your tyres were in the last 10-15 laps and how much tyre management was involved? Car looked a bit squirrelly on some corners, had a few moments, a few lock-ups. How near the cliff were you?

    CL: The hard were quite difficult to manage. From the beginning, apart from the first two laps, or, no maybe a bit more, maybe three, four laps, I felt quite good, but then there was like a drop off of grip from all four tyres and then I’ve been struggling a little bit with front locks, and towards the end I’ve started to lose the rear, and that’s where the performance started to… where I started to slow down a little bit. They were not in a very bad shape. I believe they could have stayed where they were for quite many laps still – but yeah, I was just struggling with the rear left especially.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Charles, you said since Austria and the incident with Max, you changed your approach, being more aggressive. I think we saw that most clearly today in your fight with Lewis. Could you talk us through battle with Lewis, and do you think without this change in approach, you made that you would have won today’s race?

    CL: Obviously I think since Austria it’s clear that we can go a bit further in the way that we defend and overtake and yeah, just the aggressivity of us drivers. I believe that Austria helped me to change this approach and today it’s also thanks to this that I’ve managed to win. It was obviously very on-the-limit but… yeah, I’m happy to race like this.

    Q: (Diego Sanchez – thebestf1.es) Charles, can you describe how you feel right now, just in one word – and how you chose this word?

    CL: I don’t know how you say it in English: Libération.… yeah, freedom. More or less this. How many laps were there in the race? 53. 53 laps felt a lot longer than 53 laps. As I’ve said, I felt a lot of pressure from behind. So, obviously, from once I crossed the finish line until now is just pure happiness.

    Q: (Godina Zsolt – f1vilag.hu) Charles, congratulations. After this race win, how do you see your chances for the next races – and do you think that this could be a turning point for Ferrari in terms of the Championship?

    CL: We need to stay realistic. I think we expected that Spa and Monza would be very good races for our car but we also know that the next few races will be a lot more difficult for our car. So, we need to be realistic and, yeah, it’s not going to be easy. I think especially Singapore. I think it will be a nice surprise if we are better than what we expect – but what we expect – but we expect to struggle there. We’ll see in two weeks.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Last year Verstappen got a five second penalty for a move that looked similar to what happened at the Roggia chicane today between Charles and Lewis. What do the three of you think about the black-and-white flag being employed for that move today?

    CL: I’ve been aware on the radio that I took a black-and-white flag for moving under braking but I’m not so sure of which move you are speaking about. If it’s the one in the right hander where we were flat-out or… after that. What it after that?

    Q: The first one, where Lewis went slightly off the track to the right, on your outside, on the entry to the chicane.

    CL: OK – to be completely honest, obviously I knew he was on the right, he braked a little bit early which I think was probably on purpose because he didn’t’ want to try around the outside. I thought I had left a car width. I haven’t seen the images to be honest. But I was pretty sure there was a car width.

    Q: And Charles, what do you think of the use of the black-and-white flag?

    CL: As I’ve said, I think it’s good if we can race harder. Again, I haven’t seen the images so I cannot say particularly in this case but overall I’m happy if we can race harder. So… yeah… I’m fine.

    Q: Lewis, can we get your thoughts?

    LH: We’ve just constantly asked for consistency. So, there was a rule put in place, and then it wasn’t abided by today and they used difference consequences for the rule today but I don’t really know why that was the case. It’s motor racing, I guess, and I guess the stewards woke up on a different side of the bed this morning. I don’t know.

    Q: So do you not welcome the use of the black-and-white flag?

    LH: Well, that’s what… Verstappen should have got that last year. We’ve asked for consistency. So the same rule should apply each time – but yeah… I don’t know what else to say about it.

    Q: Valtteri, your thoughts

    VB: I haven’t seen the whole thing, so I can’t say anything.

    Q: (Daniele Sparisci – Corriere della Sera) Question to Charles. Was it more difficult to win here or in Belgium, with all this battle?

    CL: Here. I think it’s the first weekend in my life where the only thing I’ve got in my head is winning. Normally I focus on just the job I have to do in the car, which normally is more successful and it works better. But, since Wednesday, seeing the support we’ve had, was just, yeah, incredible. The only thing I wanted this weekend was to win in front of all the guys that are supporting us, for the team. So, it was very difficult because also during the race I was thinking to that win and how much it would mean to everyone in the grandstand here. So it was adding a bit of pressure, and as I’ve explained earlier, also I had quite a lot of pressure from lap one to the last laps.

    Q: (Stephane Barbe – L’Equipe) Charles, could you describe especially your feelings on the podium, which is so different here from other places perhaps.

    CL: Well, it felt amazing. I have never had a podium with… I’ve never been on a podium with so many people underneath it. And to see that the whole straight was full of people – mostly red – 99 per cent red – was great to see. Yeah, as I said earlier, hearing them cheering, singing was just… a lot of emotions.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, seven times a Finnish driver is second in this race. Is it an impossible place to win here?

    VB: No, it’s not impossible! Not far away today, it just happens that a Finn hasn’t won here. so, maybe one day. Try again next year, obviously. Like I said earlier, I think we tried everything we could and it felt like we maximised everything with the strategy and all – but just not quite enough.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Charles, what are your earliest memories of Ferrari? Do you remember, for example, Michael Schumacher winning the Italian Grand Prix? Maybe just a little on that sort of background as a boy; it’s quite a while ago…

    CL: I’m very bad with history and I’ve got a very bad memory for my own races so yeah. For the others races, I really don’t remember anything. The only thing I can remember is maybe one of the first Grand Prix I’ve seen in Monaco, which was at the exit of turn one, I remember looking for the red car. I was playing with the small cars that you have when you are a child – I was maybe five years old or something like this. This is the only memory I have from a Formula One car probably.

    Q: Can you tell us about your first visit to Maranello?

    CL: I went there with Jules Bianchi, who had to go there for some TV stuff and obviously he tried to let me in with him but they decided I couldn’t go in the factory. Now it’s a little bit easier to go inside but yeah, I remember obviously of dreaming of one day going through these doors and seeing how a Formula One team works, especially Ferrari. But I remember I was very impressed by the way as soon as you arrive in Maranello, which is a city, you can feel that everyone is just here, all working for Ferrari or completely crazy about Ferrari. That was very very special.

    Q: Can you remember what year that was?

    CL: No. No. I’ve got a very bad memory!

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Charles, speaking of that, you are in the Ferrari Driver Academy since a long time, in the Ferrari family so can you tell us of the importance of the programme and if that makes this podium so special and your winning here in Monza for the fans and for the Ferrari family?

    CL: Well, at the end, if I’m here, it’s also thanks to the FDA. There are a few people in my career who have helped me to get there but definitely the Ferrari Driver Academy is part of these persons or group of persons. We did a lot of mental preparation, physical preparation. They also helped me a lot with the simulator work so I was on the simulator quite a lot and they have tried to give me as much experience that they had from Formula One to me to grow as a better driver so obviously I believe it’s a great proof that the Academy is working properly and there are also a lot of talents coming who are very strong and I’m pretty sure they will come very soon, joining obviously me but all of us in Formula One soon.

    Q: (Joe van Burik – RacingNews 365) Charles, how much did you miss the support from Sebastian in the race today? Was it extra hard, considering you didn’t have him?

    CL: Obviously it’s always an easier situation to have two cars instead of one but obviously yesterday Seb was extremely unlucky, he couldn’t do the lap in the second run of Q3 so yeah, but I’m pretty sure it will be better in the next races.

    Q: (Fabio Seghetta –  TuttoMotorsport) Charles, obviously with this win you’ve overtaken Sebastian in the drivers’ standings. Do you think the next races, apart from the good or bad performances, you will stay there or do you think that together you can try to get as many points as you can to go over and maybe challenge the two guys to the left and right of you?

    CL: To challenge Lewis and Valtteri will be very difficult because, as I said, I don’t think we will be as competitive as we’ve been in Spa and Monza but let’s see, obviously . I don’t know if I will keep the position ahead of Seb in the drivers’ championship. I think we need to work together and to try and have the best performance for the team. He wants to beat me, I want to beat him as much as he does but yeah, we’ll see at the end of the championship. I can’t know.

    Q: (Giovanni Messi –  News Formula One) Charles, two questions: the first is, what did you think of during your final lap and if you have an opinion – I don’t know – on  Sebastian’s mistake during the first laps of the race?

    CL: On the last two laps I started to see in the grandstand that there was quite a lot of agitation, that all of the fans were jumping so yeah, I was telling myself ‘stop looking at the grandstand, look at the track, focus on what you are doing as a driver and then you can enjoy whatever there is outside.’ But it was quite difficult to stay focused on driving, seeing how much movement there was in the grandstand. And then I haven’t yet seen Seb’s mistake.

    Q: (Davide Russo – Russ Formula One) Valtteri, you still believe in this championship?

    VB: Well there’s no point ever giving up when there’s still statistics to say it’s possible. Obviously it’s a bit of a long shot, honestly, if you’re realistic with the way Lewis is performing and the consistency he’s having. But obviously you never know. This is F1, we’ve seen crazy things happening so there’s no point giving up, I just focus as an individual, my best performance I can and for us, as a team, to keep those improvements coming, that we are doing together and by the end of the year we will see, but there’s no point in giving up.

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – The Paddock Magazine) Charles, you need to beat a four time World Champion first if you want to win a race. Do you think Sebastian is the toughest teammate you’ve ever had, considering the lower categories as well?

    CL: Yeah, definitely. He’s definitely the most complete driver I’ve been in the same team with. I’ve learned a lot from Sebastian. He’s an amazing driver, very quick. He has a lot of experience too so the way he works is very methodical and very detailed and of that I’ve learned a lot.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve had an apparently very warm and respectful relationship with Charles so far this season, when seen from the outside. Will anything change in that as a result of your unhappiness today?

    LH: I’m not unhappy; of course, as I’ve said, I don’t like to go backwards but he did a fantastic job today. I gave him as much pressure as I could and we had a couple of close moments, we could probably talk about it in private together but it’s nothing major and we continue to race. I’m looking forward to many more races together.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) Charles, amazing that you mentioned that you were thinking during the race about winning and what it meant, and I’m just interested to know what part of the lap, given the amount of pressure you’re under constantly, you were able to think about that. Where on the circuit were you actually able to think about things like that?

    CL: Maybe on the long straight for like 200 meters, I had the time to think. We were quite quick down the straight… not for the whole straight, only for part of it. I was thinking very quickly.

  • F1 2019: Belgium Gp Review – Leclerc Takes Debut Win

    F1 2019: Belgium Gp Review – Leclerc Takes Debut Win

    After roughly a month long break the Formula 1 season commenced the second half of the season at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit this weekend.

    Teams and drivers arrived in the paddock refreshed and raring to unleash their cars on the 7 km carousel that is the Spa circuit. In a brilliant display of superiority and skill Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stormed to pole position on Saturday ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel. Regrettably, the excitement would be short-lived as a serious accident in the F2 feature race would claim the life of Anthoine Hubert and badly injure Alfa Romeo development driver Juan-Manuel Correa. The Columbian-American driver is reported to be in stable condition after undergoing surgery.

    At only 22 years old Hubert, the 2018 GP3 champion, celebrated two GP2 wins in France and Monaco earlier this year. Described as a kind person with an enormous work ethic Hubert’s early years were spent racing alongside and becoming friends with the likes of Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, George Russell and pole-sitter Charles Leclerc. The loss of Hubert is a deeply tragic and unfortunate reminder that as much as safety has advanced racing cars can never been one hundred per cent safe. It has served too as a reminder of the great camaraderie that exists in the motorsport fraternity. For as fiercely competitive as it can be, in moment of shock and sadness, display incredible compassion and togetherness.

    For only the third time in his career Leclerc lined up on pole position. The Ferrari’s power advantage on the long Spa straights were a clear advantage as, from the start, Leclerc held the lead. Further back the Turn 1 hairpin saw Max Verstappen into the side of Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo causing significant damage to both cars. While Verstappen was out of the race a few corners later with a broken driveshaft Raikkonen, despite massive floor damage, trundled home in 16th place.

    2019 Belgian GPSeb Vettel seemed to play the perfect strategy as he pitted on lap 15 for a set of medium tyres. He quickly closed the gap to Leclerc, Hamilton, and Bottas and assumed the lead of the race as the front three took to the pitlane seven laps later. However, it quickly became evident to the pitwall and Vettel that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the end of the race on the one set of tyres. By this stage Hamilton, happier on the medium compound, had begun to reel in the Ferraris’.

    With Leclerc only two seconds ahead of his teammate and Hamilton bearing down on the pair of them the Ferrari’s seemed defenseless. But Vettel took one for the team by staying out two laps longer in order to hold off Hamilton. It allowed Leclerc to build a roughly six second gap over Hamilton. It proved to be just enough for the Monaco-born driver who crossed the line only nine tenths of a second ahead of the Mercedes driver. Valtteri Bottas completed the podium in third while Vettel, after a second stop, came home in fourth.

    Lando Norris, voted driver of the day by fans, fell heartbreakingly short of a stellar fifth place finish as his McLaren expired on the last lap. It promoted Alex Albon to fifth in what was an impressive first Red Bull outing despite starting at the back of the field due to engine component penalties. Sergio Perez, with a new three-year deal in his pocket, was sixth ahead of Dannil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Renault while Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll secured the final points-paying positions in ninth and tenth.

    2019 Belgian GPThe help from Vettel proved invaluable for Leclerc as he secured his maiden Formula 1 victory. A first win in F1 is meant to be accompanied by unbridled joy and elation but for Leclerc it is marred by the death of his friend. Still, Leclerc put on a fine performance that he could well carry through to Ferrari’s home race this weekend.

    As prodigious as the Ferrari power was at Spa it could be ever more devastating to their competitors at Monza this weekend. There is little to suggest that we wont see Ferrari on the top step at their famed La pista Magica.

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

    2019 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Q: Charles, I’m sure mixed emotions there. We saw you step from the car, point to the sky, an emotional weekend and your first every victory in Formula One, congratulations.

    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, on the one hand I’ve got a dream since being as child that has been realised. But on the other hand it has been a very difficult weekend since yesterday. We have lost a friend first of all. It is very difficult in these situations, so I would like to dedicate my first win to him. We have grown up together – my first ever race I have done it with Anthoine and there was Esteban here – and just shame what happened yesterday. I can’t enjoy fully my first victory but it will definitely be a memory I will keep forever.

    Q: Beautiful words and certainly echoed by the entire motorsports community. It puts a dampener on this celebration, but this racer’s race: you raced, you won, and you’ve been dominant all weekend. It seems amazing that it’s taken this long for you to get the first victory when we consider what happened back in Bahrain. So how do you reflect on the technicalities of this race and the delivery of the team?

    CL: Yeah, it’s been a very difficult race, we have been struggling quite a bit with the tyres towards the end, but a lot happier than what I have done in Budapest on my side. I’ve managed the tyres better but Mercedes were very quick in the race and we expected it yesterday but it’s a good weekend performance-wise – pole position and the first victory – so with that I’m quite satisfied.

    Q: And when you take a victory in front of a multiple world champion it’s particularly satisfying. 

    CL: Yeah, and the end of the race was definitely not easy. He was catching very quickly, so I had quite a bit of pressure but happy I kept him behind.

    Q: Congratulations. Lewis, difficult race for us to really understand. At various points you looked like you had the pace, at various other points you looked like you were struggling. But the opportunity was there and you were still pushing right to the end?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Oh yeah, I gave it absolutely everything that I had. You know we had a great crowd today. I think more people than we have ever had here. A very difficult race today. The Ferraris were just too fast on the straights and very, very hard to keep up with. I got as close as I could at the end – maybe another couple of laps. Forty-four is usually my lucky number but maybe we needed a few more laps today. Nonetheless, congratulations to Charles, his first win. He’s had it coming all year, so really happy for him.

    Q: Finally Valtteri. It looked fairly lonely out there. You were in viewing distance of the race ahead but you just didn’t seem to have the overall pace today?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, race pace felt OK, as we were expecting, but Ferrari was always since the beginning really strong. Strong on the straights. Always at the end of the stint we were better but there was no chance really for me. I was trying as hard as I could and we took the advantage of saving the engine a bit in the end and the gearbox for the next few races.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Charles, sensational performance from you all weekend. What does this victory mean to you after what has been a very difficult 24 hours for everybody?

    CL: Yeah, very difficult to enjoy this first win with the situation we have had yesterday, but overall it is just a dream come true. Since I was a child I’ve been looking up to Formula 1, dreaming to be first a Formula 1 driver, which happened last year, and then driving for Ferrari this year and then the first win today. It’s a good day but on the other hand, as I said, losing Anthoine yesterday brings me back to 2005, my first ever French championship. There was him, Esteban, Pierre, myself and we were four kids that were dreaming of Formula 1. We’ve grown up together in karting for many, many years and to lose him yesterday was a big shock for me but obviously for everyone of motorsport. It was a very sad day and, as I said, very difficult to enjoy it fully today, but hopefully in two or three weeks I will realise what happened today.

    Q: Thank you and well done. Lewis, you came close today – less than a second at the flag. If you had executed the race slightly differently do you think the outcome might have been different?

    LH: How do you propose I execute it?

    Q: Around the pit stops perhaps?

    LH: Well, I mean I executed it as best I could. Strategy I think maybe could have been slightly better. I think after Seb stopped… actually I completely lost where I was. I was obviously trying to keep up with him but he was very strong on the soft tyres and we just stayed out too long, I think, because by the time he came in and the next lap the gap was twice as big. So I was chasing that up and also I got stuck behind Seb. But ultimately he did a superb job, so even if we had different strategies it would have been hard to beat him today I think. Ultimately he deserved the win and did the job, so…

    Q: Well done Lewis. Valtteri, your 50th points finish for Mercedes today. Do you think you got the maximum out of it?

    VB: It felt OK. Honestly I think it’s definitely my best result and feeling of performance I’ve had in Spa. It’s normally one of the more difficult ones. Maybe first stint lacking a bit towards the end with tyre drop-off. Second stint was really strong and at the end we were really just getting to the flag. We knew there were no more opportunities, so saving the engine and gearbox quite a lot. It was a bit of a Sunday drive at the end. Not that many opportunities along the way. Obviously we managed to make up one place with better strategy than Sebastian so that was positive so I was just really waiting for the opportunities but there wasn’t that much.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Charles, it obviously wasn’t the easiest win. What were you thinking when, first of all, you came out behind Sebastian after he’d stopped earlier, and then, as you felt Lewis closing in, in those last laps when you appeared to have had a comfortable lead, after all the disappointments you’d had this year up until now?

    CL: When I came out behind Sebastian, first I was not completely confident that the degradation was that much on the medium, that I could actually catch him – but after two or three laps, there was quite a big delta pace, so then I was like ‘OK, I don’t think we’ll lose time together’, which is exactly what we didn’t do. And then, towards the end, I was checking the mirrors and obviously every lap on the radio, my engineer was telling me the gap with Lewis, and he was very, very quick. On the Softs, I felt quite comfortable but on the medium I was struggling a bit more. So I was just trying to focus on my own job. Trying to bring the car as quickly as possible to the end – but it was very close. I think one lap more would have been difficult to keep Lewis behind but yeah, it ends up like this, which I’m very happy with.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Question for all three drivers. A very difficult weekend under the circumstances. Could you talk a bit about how you cope with getting back in the cockpit today and pulling the visor down and going racing after a tragedy such as the one that struck on Saturday?

    CL: Yeah, I guess for everyone but for me it was definitely the first situation like that where we lose someone on track – a track that you need to race the day after. So it’s obviously quite challenge to then close the visor and go through this exact same corner at the exact same speed you do the day before – but that’s what you need to do at the end. So yeah, that’s what I tried to do at best today.

    LH: Pretty much the same. You just compartmentalise it and you move forwards. Get in and do your job. From a racers point of view and an athlete’s point of view you switch into a zone. It’s quite easy to switch into that zone.

    VB: When you put the helmet on, there’s not much in your mind than really concentrating on the thing you do. The thing you love to do: driving. And focussing on that. For sure before and after it’s on the mind and always in the back of your mind but when you go to the zone, there’s nothing, no distractions.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To Lewis and Charles, Lewis, when a driver wins for the first time in Formula 1, that’s when they announce themselves. Obviously Charles has come very close this year, in Bahrain especially. How good a job do you think he’s done coping with the pressure, first year racing at the front of F1 and for Ferrari. And Charles, those last few laps, did it feel more nervous knowing what had happened in Austria and Bahrain – or were you able to keep focus, as you said, and keep him behind?

    LH: I don’t really know what to say. I think his results speak for themselves really. It’s not easy for any driver to jump into a top team, let alone Ferrari, against a four-time World Champion, in the sport more than double… God knows how much more experience, and then to continuous from race one, out-perform, out-qualify and out-drive a four-time World Champion is not easy to do. So I think that speaks for itself. He’s been really unlucky in quite a few races this year. Could easily have been the third win today. So, there’s a lot more greatness to come from him and I’m looking forward to seeing his growth and racing alongside him. It was fun today, trying to chase him. He was just a little bit too quick.

    Charles, your thoughts. Were you more nervous?

    CL: I wasn’t more nervous. I’ve started to get used to being in that situation where I’m first and I’m chased by someone that is quicker. Obviously I knew it was Lewis and I knew I could not afford to do any mistakes because he will take the opportunity. But yeah, apart from the last lap, he was never really close enough to try something. But yeah, as I said, I was just trying to focus on my own job and finish the race.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) First for Charles, do you have any flashbacks and were you prepared to do something more muscular than you did in Austria if Lewis had come closer – or were you comforted by the idea that you were quick were it mattered at the end of the long straights. And, for the Mercedes drivers, given the speed differential we saw here this weekend, how difficult is Monza going to be against Ferrari?

    CL: In the position I was, I was just focussing to try and keep Lewis as far as I could from me. And then obviously, if there was an overtake, you rarely think about it before, you just try and deal with it once it’s happening. I was, as I said, focussing on my own things. Trying to fix a little bit the balance issues that we had. I had quite a lot of degradation on the rear tyres. I was struggling with that, so I was fully on that to try and gain some pace.

    And Lewis, looking ahead to Monza?

    LH: It’s all straights, so Ferrari… it’s going to be a happy weekend for Ferrari, most likely in that respect. I mean, this weekend, I think just in qualifying we’re losing over a second a lap. So, there’s not much me and Valtteri can do in that instance and there’s not a lot of corners there to catch that up. So, it’ll be interesting. In the next few days we’ve got to make some drastic improvements to our straight speed, somehow. I don’t know if that’s possible – but if anyone can do it, it’s our team. So, we’ll do our best – but position is also everything. We’ve got slightly better degradation than them, so maybe…  and it’s a longer race, isn’t it, so hopefully we can have another close race like we’ve had this weekend.

    VB: Yeah, I think they’re going to be quick there – but last year they were quick as well but we managed to make their life pretty difficult. I think that’s where we got booed on the podium and everything. We try to do the same again.

    LH: It’s probably better for me that I didn’t catch you and overtake you today – I don’t think your fans would have let me leave the track.

    CL: You have more fans than me!

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Charles, could you talk us through that situation when you closed the gap to Seb? Because I think the initial plan for everyone was to go on a one-stop and he undercut you and gained the position. Was it always clear he would let you pass – or did you ask the team?

    CL: Actually, I can’t remember… I don’t think I’ve spoken on the radio from the first lap to the last lap. So no, I haven’t asked anything. Obviously at the beginning of the race we are making our own plans. It was not planned that he would stop earlier but I think that was just a result of the degradation he had on the first stint. But yeah, I think it was pretty clear to me, considering the delta pace we had at that time, once I arrived behind him, that something will happen and that we wouldn’t lose too much time. So, yeah. Nothing was planned but I think everything was clear.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – LivioOricchio.com) Charles, Friday we saw in the long runs you didn’t have great pace. You were slower than Mercedes. Saturday we came to the qualifying, you kept the speed of Friday but also today you showed the performance from Friday that we didn’t expect. Did the team change the car in a very correct way; can you explain to us?

    CL: Yeah, I’ve been working a little bit, especially after Budapest, as I’ve said, to try and improve the race pace. On Friday night, we changed the car a little bit after the race runs to try and help the race runs a little bit. I think it actually helped the qualifying pace which we didn’t expect to be that quick on Saturday. But it definitely also helped the race runs so I’m happy and it’s definitely thanks to the changes we have done from Friday to Saturday.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) We obviously have Monza up next, the fastest track. We saw accidents here. Are you concerned about the safety, could more be done, or are we doing as much as we can to keep people safe in Formula One?

    LH: I think there’s a huge amount of work that the FIA have done up to this point. I think they’ve been working incredibly hard and we’ve seen big steps already. Obviously, particularly when Charlie was here he made massive steps forward so we will continue in that direction.

    CL: Yeah, I completely agree. I think everyone is working extremely hard to try and improve the security of the sport which I think should always be the priority but then it will always remain a dangerous sport, obviously, once you are going at these speeds it is dangerous. And then here, Eau Rouge is quite dangerous because obviously the wall is quite close, so there will always be some corners which are challenging and that are more dangerous than others but overall I think the FIA has done an incredible job in the last twenty years to improve safety in our cars.

    VB: Nothing to add.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Charles, I would like you to comment on your relationship with Spa where you have won in GP3, Formula Two and also about your relation with Monaco because it has such tradition as a race track and a Grand Prix but never has had a driver winning in Formula One, so if you’ve grown up in your childhood wanting to be an F1 driver, watching those streets that have a Grand Prix?

    CL: Well, with Spa obviously I’ve been quite quick and it has been quite a successful track for me in the past so it’s good that it stayed like this this year and I could have pole and victory, it felt amazing. And with Monaco, obviously growing up in a city where the Grand Prix is such a big part of the year because obviously we only see the race on TV but there’s a lot of preparation before that and after that too, to put up the grandstands and then take them down. So yeah, it’s a big part of my year. I can’t remember having any memories about being passionate about Formula One before three and a half years old, it’s a bit young, but once I first tried karting at three and a half years old, since that day I’ve been completely obsessed with Formula One and motor sport in general. Yeah, I definitely think it helps to be from Monaco and having the Grand Prix here. I have always been passionate about this sport.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1Valag.hu) Lewis, it was an amazing weekend for you: technical problems on Friday, a crash on Saturday. What kind of lessons could be learned in order to be more competitive next weekend in Monza?

    LH: Well, there won’t be a huge amount of time for us to reflect as we’ve got to go straight into next weekend but naturally when you come away from a break it’s easy to be… the tension builds up through the first half of the season and everyone’s on point and then you notice when you come back it’s all a little bit more relaxed and things don’t always go perfectly to plan so I guess in hindsight we’ll probably work harder to make sure that when next year comes round we start on the right foot and hopefully next week it will start off on the right foot and be a smoother weekend. I think from my side, obviously Saturday was not helpful and so we’ll try to avoid that in the future. Otherwise I think we’ve got some improvements to try to make to the car within four days so a lot of pressure.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Charles, it’s your first season with Ferrari and you’re leading Vettel 1-0 in wins, 3-1 pole positions, 6-0 in the last qualifyings. Has this exceeded your expectations or been better than you expected and given the right circumstances, do you already consider yourself, in terms of ability, capable of challenging for a world title?

    CL: Well, it’s a difficult question, so on the first one obviously I think I’ve been in better form especially in qualifying since six races, I’ve changed my approach a little bit. In the race, it’s been a bit of a different story. I’ve been struggling a little bit in the two previous races but I’ve changed here and it seems to pay off so that’s great. Then if I feel like I’m ready to be challenging for world titles; at the end I have the car and team for it. We obviously need to work because we are struggling a bit compared to Mercedes but on my side, yes, I’ve got a lot to learn, that’s for sure but I feel ready and you always need to feel ready, once you are in that position, otherwise I shouldn’t be in the seat that I am in today.

  • 2019 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2019 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Timo Glock)

     

    Q: Well done for today. You seemed to be totally in control of the weekend so far and you got a really good lap in. How did it feel like in qualifying for you?

    Charles LECLERC: It felt good. Obviously the first sector was not exactly what I wanted, especially in the first corner, we had to go very slow to prepare the lap because there was a lot of traffic. I struggled for that a bit, but after that from the second corner onwards then we were very strong and it felt amazing.

    Q: It seemed like you were the only guy who stayed out of trouble on the out laps, because everyone struggled to find a clean spot, but you managed it really well, or not?

    CL: Yeah, that’s what I asked actually when I was in the garage – to not really care about the slipstream, it was just too much of a mess to prepare the tyres and the lap overall, so ~I wanted to be alone and yeah, it worked out, so I’m happy.

    Q: Good feeling for tomorrow for the race? 

    CL: Yeah, we were struggling a little bit more during the race pace yesterday, so we need to work on that. But, yeah, looking at the pace today I’m pretty sure we will be strong.

    Q: Seb, well done today, P2. I think when I saw you in the middle of the same like Charles, you struggled on the out lap to get the tyres into the right window. Was that the key problem today?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I mean in the end it’s good that we secured the first row. To fight for pole, I was sort of in the queue; it doesn’t help, but no excuses. We look forward to the race tomorrow. I think we have good pace in the car, so hopefully we can show it also over, what is it 44 laps?

    Q: But you didn’t seem that happen on the long run pace yesterday. You think tomorrow it’s going to be OK when it’s a lot cooler?

    SV: Yeah, I think it should be better. The car was better today, so we’ll see. Obviously temperatures should drop overnight, which makes a difference, but it’s the same for everyone.

    Q: Thanks. Lewis, first of all I think we need to talk about your mechanics. They did an awesome job.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Absolutely. P3 was a terrible session for me. Of course, it’s painful because you know how many people work so hard to build those parts and then you know how hard the guys work to put the car together and I knew that was going to be a tough challenge. But my guys are just faultless, they always work and give 110% and I’m so grateful for that. After that I was really just trying to pay them back with a good qualifying session. Considering I missed P3 and a lot of P1 actually I’m really grateful I’m up here.

    Q: You were nearly crashing, I think even Valtteri on the out lap, because it was a mess as well. Was it for you hard to get the tyres in as well, because everyone seemed to be affected by that?

    LH: Yeah, that was a bit slow. Obviously he was trying to keep the tow of the car in front, so I was trying to hold behind him and everyone was behind me, so it’s really tricky. But nonetheless Ferrari have done a great job today, Charles did an exceptional job and I hope we can bring the fight to them in the race tomorrow.

    Q: I think your long-run pace was very good yesterday and there is a chance for you on the long straight to attack the Ferraris straight away. Are you happy that it’s going to be 10 degrees cooler tomorrow? Is that helping you out?

    LH: I don’t know, I’d have to ask my engineers. Either way I’m going to give it everything and hopefully give these guys a good race.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Charles, many congratulations, you dominated all three segments of qualifying. Can you tell us how it feels to be on pole by seven tenths of a second?

    CL: It obviously feels amazing. It was very tricky, especially in Q3 I struggled quite a lot, the start of the lap was always very, very messy, because there was quite a lot of traffic with all the cars around but in the end I managed to do the full lap correctly and I’m very happy. I definitely did not expect to be that much ahead, but very happy with my lap anyway.

    Q: Well, came close to winning in Bahrain earlier this year, so given your level of dominance so far this weekend how confident are you for tomorrow?

    CL: I don’t know. I think we have been quick since FP1 but once we did the race simulations in FP2 we weren’t as quick, so I think it’s not going to be easy tomorrow. We will try to give everything. The gap is quite big today but it doesn’t mean it will be like that tomorrow, so we will working hard to improve on the race run we did yesterday and we will see.

    Q: Well done again. Sebastian, you said on your cool-down lap “what a mess”. Can you just describe the session and particularly Q3 from your point of view?

    SV: Uhh, messy! I think I was getting into a sort of a rhythm, maybe it took a little bit longer for me today to really get a hold of the car but it felt quite good. But then in Q3 it was quite messy, with everybody trying to get a tow and a lot of queuing for the last corner, which made it very tricky and, yeah, obviously the tyres then are not where they were probably supposed to be and being further back it I think it wasn’t ideal. Anyways, Charles did a better job today, also with that, so now looking forward to tomorrow. I felt the car was quite good, which is the most important thing so let’s see tomorrow with the change in ambient conditions, in track conditions, what the race is going to be like.

    Q: Thank you and good luck tomorrow. Lewis, it’s been an impressive comeback by you and the team after your crash in final practice. First of all, any lasting physical effects from that crash and how was the car in qualifying?

    LH: Firstly, it’s been an interesting weekend so far. We struggled obviously a little bit in the first session with some problems and then, yeah, I made a big mistake this morning with the change we made and it just didn’t feel great out there and obviously I had that incident. But the guys did an incredible job, incredibly diligent, to perfection – taking the car apart and rebuilding it. There’s so much pressure on those guys through the weekend and naturally I don’t ever want to put them in that position, but I think they relished the challenge and so really proud of them. So going into this session I was just hoping that I’ve got the car in the right place and ultimately hoping I can pay them back with a good qualifying session and I think today was really smooth and I think the team did an amazing job in terms of where they put us out there. It was a little bit tricky when everyone was slowing down but nonetheless, congratulations to Charles, he’s been so quick all weekend. But I think in the long run we can at least give them a bit of a challenge tomorrow. I think a bit of the straight speed, which is where generally all the speed is, it’s usually not there so much in the race, so hopefully we’ll be there or thereabout with them tomorrow and can put in maybe some interesting strategies, we’ll see.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Seb. You said you didn’t get into the rhythm very fast; it took a bit of time for you. Do you have an explanation for that – because yesterday it looked like you lost quite a lot time on the straights?

    SV: No, not really. I don’t think we lost time on the straights. I think nothing out of the ordinary, so… No, I think it was quite tricky to get the car where I wanted it to be for one lap, and it was better in qualifying. I struggled a bit yesterday afternoon, this morning, but, as I said, by qualifying it was fine and then obviously towards the last part of quali it was a bit messy again, not ideal preparing the lap, so yeah, I’m not happy with the final attempt, it wasn’t clean. So, yeah, I’m not worried, I think pace-wise it was looking quite good and let’s see what we get tomorrow. Obviously a big change in terms of temps. Let’s see how we adapt.

    Q: (Erik Bielderman – L’Equipe) Lewis, when you don’t claim the pole position, like today, do you head into the Sunday’s race in a more excited mood because of the challenge that awaits you?

    LH: When you’re on pole, you’re always the happiest, naturally – but nonetheless, yeah, I’m happy that we have a fight. I think we knew that coming here, that it was going to be challenging. We didn’t know where the Red Bulls or Ferraris would be but we knew the Ferraris would be extremely quick given that they’ve been fastest on all the straights throughout the year. That’s a big gap: seven-tenths is a huge margin but nonetheless I think in the race trim it looked like it was a lot closer. So yeah, I’m excited that I’m in a position where hopefully I can try and battle these guys tomorrow. That makes it more fun for us, for me – and for the fans, hopefully.

    Q: (Godina Zsolt – F1Valag.hu) Charles, congratulations, you said a few weeks ago that Sebastian is doing a better job in terms of tyre management. Were you able to work on that this weekend, and don’t you think that this could be the key to win this race tomorrow?

    CL: Well, I’ve been analysing quite a lot Hungary. Actually, maybe it looked worse than it actually was but there’s definitely some work to do on my side on this. So, we’ll see if tomorrow it pays off. I changed a few things – very small things – but details always makes the difference at this level. So, yeah, we’ll see tomorrow if it’s any better.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Question for Charles. Obviously you’ve come close to winning in Bahrain and also in Austria. Bahrain was nothing to do with you. What have you taken from those two races; those two close calls that you can perhaps take into tomorrow to give you a bit more of an edge?

    CL: I mean obviously Bahrain was nothing to do with me, so not much to take from there. Austria, I think there were lessons learnt but I think I already showed it after in Silverstone, as I already speak about the aggressivity (sic) level I had with my opponents – but apart from this, nothing. I guess, at first it feels a bit weird when you are coming to Formula 1 and you do your first laps in the lead. So, the more laps I am in the lead, the more comfortable I am. And this feels good.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Possibly to all of you. When you were queuing up in your out-laps, what was more important for a perfect lap afterwards: to get a good tow or to have the tyres in the window? And was it possible at all to achieve both targets?

    LH: On the perfect scenario you got the tow and the tyres in the window. In Q3 I don’t think so, no because everyone was backing up. Obviously we had that really slow section with Hülkenberg, I think it was, and then Valtteri and myself and then again in the next one, everyone again was backing up into the last one, so I think the second one was a little bit of a better position, a chance, but still, it’s very, very tricky. I don’t think they were both… they were optimum for all of us.

    Q: Charles, how was it for you?

    CL: Yeah, at first I really targeted the perfect slipstream for the first run in Q3 but after that I really felt that the tyres weren’t ready for Turn One and I actually lost quite a bit of time. So then, for the second run in Q3, I just asked the team to send me whenever the car was ready, to be alone and to try to do the job alone, without slipstreams, which I think, yeah, in my opinion, on my car, it felt better to have the tyres in the right window than having the slipstream. So, we went as soon as possible – but obviously we found anyway some cars in front.

    Q: Seb?

    SV: Well, obviously it was more important to get the tyres in the right position for me. Or in the right place. I was, on both laps, too close to the cars in front and the tyres not right to start the lap with. So yeah, it was a lose-lose. The straights were good – but I was too close and lost quite a lot, I think also in Sector Two.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, coming here, obviously Mercedes has the upgraded engine across for you and Valtteri and the customer cars. Two out of six of those cars have now had failures: Pérez’s car on fire and then Robert’s in the Williams in the qualifying. For you, going into tomorrow, does that present any concerns or do you just trust your team to analyse it and make whatever countermeasures they need to make.

    LH: I don’t know the details of why the engines have gone, so I have nothing to worry about currently because I don’t know anything about it really. I’m sure, when I get back, I’m sure they’re trying to analyse it and they’ll give us a bit of an idea – but still, I’ve just got to keep my head down and do what I do and what will be will be. There’s not much I can do about it, so there’s no point worrying about it.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Charles, you spoke earlier in the season about your need to focus on qualifying and the build-up through all three sessions. I guess a third pole of the season proves your strategy is working; a sixth race in a row you’ve out-qualified your team-mate as well. Do you feel that you’ve cracked the code to F1 qualifying now?

    CL: I’ve done some changes on qualifying and yeah, I definitely feel the difference, and feel it’s going the good way. As I said in Hungary, now I need to focus a little bit on the race because in some races I haven’t been as good as I wanted to. So, now I’m trying to focus on that, to rebalance a little bit and we’ll see how it goes.

    Q: (Viktor Bognar – Magyar Szo) In the past weeks, in the mainstream media and social media it’s all about burning the rainforest and efforts of the global climate change. Do you think that Formula One should or could do something more to raise awareness to this problem? And do you agree with the way how Formula One promotes efficiency and sustainability at the moment?

    SV: I think it’s a very important subject. I feel that Formula One has a wordwide operating platform and should do a lot more. I don’t think that just promoting the efficiency of our engines is enough plus I think unfortunately a large part of our technology inside the car will not go onto the road so you can argue about the necessity. So I think – not just on track but also off track – I think Formula One could do a lot more and should set an example because I think it is a very serious matter and serious subject.

    CL: OK, to be honest it’s only my second season in Formula One. I’m not completely aware about how everything works on the engine so maybe I need a bit more experience to understand all of this.

    LH: I’ve been here for a long time. I don’t really know what their current plans are but I think they are working towards a goal in trying to improve the carbon footprint that we have as a sport. But I think up until now the job we’ve done in the sport – they haven’t done anything, particularly I think when Bernie was in place, there wasn’t a lot being done then. So we are in the position where we are now, beginning to shift. If you look at the V8s and the V10s, we are now using a third less fuel than we used to use in a race distance, so that’s already a step forward but there is absolutely more that we can do. Also, on things like the amount of plastic that’s used throughout the weekend – I’ve got three bottles right here. I’m not opening them, but someone will drink these and that becomes waste so I think the amount of waste that comes out of a race weekend, also through all these weekends, we can do a lot about that and so I’m trying to encourage Ross and his team to make a change. And as a team, I’m pushing Mercedes to be the leaders in that, so hopefully soon you’re going to see some positive changes from our side.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, we very rarely see mistakes from you. Can you put your finger on what happened there? Was it a loss of concentration? Can you figure out what happened, you made that mistake?

    LH: You’re looking way too deep into it, man. Shit happens. I’m only human. I think my track record has been pretty good but it sometimes happens and yes, it’s frustrating and it never feels good, whether it’s in your first year or if it’s in your 13th year whatever, it doesn’t really make any difference but you can always learn from it. So there’s always a silver lining, there’s always an opportunity to pick yourself up, to rebuild and there’s always an experience with your guys and I think today was a massive challenge for the team. I think they did an exceptional job and I’m really happy, generally, with the job that I did in qualifying, so collectively it’s a positive. But I go in the back of the garage and I see my broken parts and I’m like ‘oh my baby’ but they’ll fix it, they’ll fix those parts hopefully or maybe I’ll have to put them up in Toto’s office or something and sign it and say sorry.

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) This queuing thing in Q3 seems to be a bigger topic this season. There were quite a few occasions now where things happened like this. Do you think you need some stricter rules, what is allowed there? At some point it looked a bit ridiculous when other cars were on their fast lap and came and they were queuing up, five, six, seven cars whatever.

    SV: I’m not in favour of any more rules. I think we have too many anyway.

    CL: I didn’t personally feel that it was worse than last year, at least. I felt that last year was as bad, actually. Everyone is trying to have a tow, which is normal but yeah, I agree with Seb also. I don’t think it should be another rule written in the book for this particular case.

    LH: I don’t remember ever going that slow before last year.

    SV: I think what should change, actually, what we should take from this – seriously – is that tyre-wise we shouldn’t be so much on the limit so obviously you’re fighting for a tow and so on but you’re also fighting to get into the optimum window which years ago it wasn’t that critical, whereas now it is. So you’re fighting for the best spot on the track which will hit the climb or the peak next week in Monza for finding the right tow because it does make a difference but it has also been part of those type of track, let’s say. But I feel if we had better tyres we could play with probably a bit more speed and so on.

    LH: I agree with Seb. Every weekend they put the pressures up so high it’s crazy, which again makes it a little bit harder for us but the tyres are so hard so getting them working, and they’re talking about taking blankets off for the future, we’ll never get temperature in the tyres if they do that. I think this year is definitely the slowest we’ve been. Today felt a little bit dangerous at one point because we were going round turn 15 on the kerb and there was a car coming and I couldn’t move, go on the grass. I was stuck behind Valtteri and I think the next… Hulkenberg or whatever. I can imagine if I was on a lap and I was coming round that everyone was crawling around at five miles an hour it would be a bit of a worry and a bit of a distraction so I’m not really sure what we can do to stop it from happening but maybe we have to be on the pit speed limiter or something like that. You shouldn’t be able to go five miles an hour or two or whatever we were doing because we were literally going as slow as possible to let people past. I did it in Austria, I think, to let everyone by because I was the first car out there and the tow is so strong this year with this car.  They talk about the front wing being easier to follow, it’s just caused a lot more drag.  This is a draggier car this year so the slipstream is even more powerful or the tow is more powerful than we’ve ever experienced.