Watch this interview of Ron Dennis talking about Fernando Alonso’s radio outbursts at the Japanese Grand Prix, developments at McLaren Honda and how he inadvertently confirms Jenson Button for the 2016 season
Tag: mclaren
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F1 2015: Japanese GP Review – Hamilton Back On Top
As it turns out the only show that the Japanese grand prix put on was to demonstrate just what a difference seven days could make.
In Singapore Mercedes were shockingly off the pace and never got close to troubling the top step of the podium. It now appears that this performance was a merely an anomaly. With a distinct and obvious pace advantage in practice and a front row lock-out in qualifying both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg returned the status quo of Formula 1 in 2015.
Nico Rosberg lined up his Mercedes in pole position alongside Lewis Hamilton for the start of the race. The German’s advantage, however, would last only a handful of seconds as Hamilton derisively pushed Rosberg aside to take the lead of the race into turn two. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel slotted into second, after starting fourth, while Rosberg slipped down to fourth behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.
The race seemed to settle early on as Hamilton extended his lead over second-placed Vettel who had no answer for the pace of the Mercedes. It appeared for all as Hamilton was cruising his way to victory but the driver confirmed that he had to cope with a tyre issue during the race. “At one stage I had such a vibration it was giving me a headache and everything was blurred,” said Hamilton.
Even so, Hamilton lorded his unbeatable pace over the entire field on occasion lapping more than a second faster than anyone else. Nico Rosberg, through pitstop strategy and a pace advantage, was able to recover to second place by the end of the 53 lap race only two seconds ahead of third place finisher Sebastian Vettel.
In the end Rosberg finished nearly twenty seconds adrift of his race-winning teammate and has seen the points gap extend to 48 points. It isn’t yet mathematically impossible for Rosberg to take the driver’s crown but it is becoming increasingly unlikely that he will do so.Naturally, there are many variables, such as reliability, that could factor into the final results. But as was evidences again in Japan in a straight out wheel-to-wheel fight with Hamilton Nico Rosberg just doesn’t have what it takes to beat his double world champion teammate.
Behind the top three finishers Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen used pitstop strategy to undercut the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and take fourth place on the day. Despite finishing in fifth Bottas would’ve been disappointed with the pace of his car considering that he was overtaken by both Rosberg and Raikkonen, on the hard tyre, while running on the effectively quicker medium compound tyre.
The sister Williams of Felipe Massa had a slight coming together with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo off the start line. Both drivers suffered punctures which weren’t able to recover from and eventually finished the race in fifteenth and seventeenth respectively. The only retirement of the race came in the form of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr with a one lap remaining.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished a solid sixth ahead of the Lotus duo Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. It was an impressive showing by the Lotus drivers considering the financial difficulties the team are currently facing. Toro Rosso’s ever impressive rookie pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz finished ninth and tenth. It wasn’t a clean run to the flag for Sainz however who smacked the bollard coming into the pitlane destroying his front-win the process.In eleventh place and a lap down is where McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished his Japanese GP much to his displeasure. Owing to a dreadfully uncompetitive season the Spaniard’s frustration seemed to boil over. As he was mugged for position on the straights he compared his Honda engine to that of a GP2 car; there’s a bit of amusement in there if you squint really hard. The good news for Alonso is that it can hardly get any worse than it is right now.
The days of being a McLaren driver are just a fond memory for Lewis Hamilton now as he stands on the cusp of becoming a three-time Formula 1 world champion. The victory is Japan is the 41st of his career and brings him level in the number of wins with his great hero Ayrton Senna. It’s never wise to compare drivers of different eras so we won’t. Instead we are safe in the knowledge that in this moment Lewis Hamilton is well and truly the man.
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F1 2015: Third Free Practice Report – Rosberg Sets The Pace
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg set the fastest time ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in third and final practice session for the Japanese grand prix.
The rain finally abated as the one hour long third free practice session got underway on Saturday morning. Several cars immediately streamed out onto circuit to get their run programs underway in the dry, but overcast conditions.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the early pace but was later eclipsed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg for the top of the timing sheets. Both Williams’ drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa showed higher up in the standings as they set the fourth and fifth quickest times respectively. The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was next up in sixth while teammate Sebastian Vettel completed the one hour session in eighth place.
It was difficult to read much into the pace of teams as no extended long runs were completed during the practice session. However, Pirelli predict a 1.5 second laptime delta between the hard and medium compound tyre. This bit of data would suggest that few, if any drivers, will able to get through the first session of qualifying on the hard compound tyre.
There were no major incidents in the session for any drivers despite a few run-offs at the famously difficult Degner curves and Spoon corners.
Final free practice standings:
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2015 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES:
Jonathan NEALE (McLaren)
Yasuhisa ARAI (Honda)
Luigi FRABONI (Ferrari)
Paddy LOWE (Mercedes)
Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Arai-san, Suzuka is Honda’s home grand prix. How do you feel to be back home here and are you getting pressure from within the company and from fans?
Yasuhisa ARAI: So, it is great to be back home, our home. Suzuka is such a special place for us and for Honda’s 200,000 employees and associates and many fans. They supported us and they want success [from] our team. So it is a little bit big pressure I have got. But there is a very good feeling, not only for Honda but McLaren-Honda.
You’ve had two very difficult weekends, in Spa and Monza, with updated power units, and even in Singapore you had issues when you were expecting points. Realistically, what do you expect from the race here in Suzuka?
YA: You know I think Suzuka is the most difficult circuit in the world – for the driver and also the machine, power unit, so it is not so easy to get a good place but we will do our best as a team.
OK, thanks you very much. Let’s move on to Jonathan Neale. Jonathan it’s been a difficult year for McLaren, with most of the focus on Honda and the power unit but how happy are you with your side of the team’s performance?
Jonathan NEALE: I think we’ve difficult made steps to improved the McLaren racing organisation over the last 18 months. We’re not where we want to be but we can see progress. We see progress on the chassis; we see progress in aerodynamics. It was frustrating that we didn’t score the points that we should have done in Singapore; at this game you don’t expect a double DNF, so that was massively frustrating, But we’re definitely moving forward; we have a lot of work to do as a team and a very busy winter [ahead].
OK, let’s move to what happened yesterday, when Jenson Button was in this press conference. He said he was exploring “plenty of opportunities”; those were his words I think. Is one of those with you and if so how are the talks going?
JN: With me personally?
It’s up to you – if you are starting a team that’s fine!
JN: I get the sense from the media there was a big anti-climax yesterday and there was a lot of discussion about where Jenson was at. Jenson is a fantastic guy, a world champion and a big part of the family at Honda and McLaren – he’s been with us for six seasons – and we’re contracted with him, we want him to stay, we like him very much. But if your driver doesn’t really want to be in the seat we have to respect that. I really hope that we have done enough between us to continue those discussions with him and have the confidence to have him with us, and that’s what we’d like.
Thank you for that. Let’s come down to the front row and move on to Luigi Fraboni from Ferrari. Ferrari had a really good result in Singapore but in very different conditions to here in Suzuka. What do you expect from the race this weekend?
Luigi FRABONI: Yea, of course, here is completely different. Let me say that we were very pleased with the great weekend in Singapore. We are looking forward to what is going to happen here. Today, of course, it was wet so it is difficult to say. We know that things are a little bit different but on the other side we are waiting to see what is going because for sure on our side we have improved and we are confident we can do a good job here.
How happy are you with the engine performance and do you think there are other tracks this season at which Ferrari can challenge?
LG: Well, of course, on engine performance, because I did all the last year’s season and I know what it mean. This year we did a big improvement and I think I have the opportunity to say thanks to all the guys at home because it was really a fantastic job. I had today in Maranello… after Singapore I was pleased to see the face of all the guys that are working in the department because it is a good motivation for us. During the season we have some improvement and we are happy about what we are doing and I think we can do even more and we are also completely focused on the project for next year. About the other tracks, I think that we think that in every track that we will play our cards and do our best, because I think that the pack is competitive.
Q: Paddy, have you worked out what happened last time out in Singapore – and maybe more importantly, are you confident it won’t happen again?
Paddy LOWE: I keep getting asked that actually. It’s not a simple answer at the end of the day. One of the things we’re very clear on is that, even if we got everything right in Singapore, that doesn’t necessarily mean we would have been at the front. We’ve got some strong competitors, the two gentleman on my sides here [Horner, Fraboni] came to Singapore with very strong packages. So, there are things we didn’t optimise for that circuit. It’s a very unusual circuit and, in fact, it was our weakest one last year as well in qualifying. So we’ve definitely learnt some lessons from that. We still have a lot more to learn but our focus now is on this race, which is a very different track so some different things to apply and get right – and we don’t take for granted, again, that we will be strong here but we’ll do our best.
Q: As the season progresses you switch more of your resource towards the 2016 season. How far advanced are you in that process given that you’re leading both the Constructors’ and the Drivers’ Championship by some points.
PL: It’s fairly normal. All the teams have to migrate their resource through the year, more and more to the next year. Slightly different this year because we have an extra month – apparently – next March with the current provisional calendar but I think probably we’re not unusual. Everybody will have moved pretty much to next year by now, so we’re almost all there but still a few more things to do.
Q: Christian, where are you with Ferrari and with Renault?
Christian HORNER: In Japan actually! Where are we with Ferrari and with Renault? Well, our situation with Renault, there’s obviously a lot of column-inches that’s filled. All I can really tell you is that there’s some positive discussions going on behind the scenes with Renault. I think both Red Bull’s position and Renault’s position is fairly clear in what we want to achieve and hopefully that should be concluded within the coming days. As far as anything else, it’s purely speculative but of course we’re having various different conversations.
Q: How real is the threat to quit?
CH: Well, Dietrich Mateschitz, he doesn’t talk very often but when he does you have to sit up and take notice – and I think he’s somewhat disillusioned with Formula One at the moment. He’s been very consistent in that statement. It’s my job to try and find a solution. We have a big commitment to Formula One, a big workforce, a very talented team and I’m doing my best to try and ensure that we find a competitive engine to power the team next year – but of course if that’s not the case there is a risk because Red Bull’s position is different to teams such as McLaren or Williams or Ferrari. Formula One has to provide a return. A marketing return globally. And, in order to do that, you need to be able to not be restricted in terms of the tools at your disposal.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Kate Walker – Motorsport.com) I’ve got a question for Christian, Paddy and Jonathan please. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of speculation about the future of wind tunnels in Formula One. I was wondering: can any of you three see a future without wind tunnels? And, if you can, what safety concerns do you have about that hypothetical future?
JN: I think the answer is: I think it’s possible. The progressive march forward of supercomputing and the software and CFD and the ability to run sensors on the car use the car more as a full scale wind tunnel is definitely a direction that’s happening. I wouldn’t like to predict a pace or timescale on that. I know there have been discussions recently about the proposal to eliminate wind tunnels from the process. We are fairly neutral about that. I personally don’t have concerns from a safety point of view. I think there are plenty of other ways of validating that what you have works.
PL: I think there will come a day when we will stop using wind tunnels all on our own – because new technology becomes superior. I think the timing of that is a long way off. Many, many years. At the moment CFD is a great compliment to the wind tunnel process – but only when it has the ability to be calibrated against the tunnel on a regular basis. I think I’d have to disagree with Jonanathan there to some extent, that there is an overriding safety demand. We’ve seen other formulae in which cars become unstable at high speed. We must make sure the cars are fully validated from that point of view and the wind tunnel, at the moment, is the only reliable way of doing that.
Christian?
CH: I guess what you’ve got to remember is that they’re both simulation tools ultimately and a wind tunnel to feed and to run is extremely expensive compared to, in comparison, CFD. I think the strategic discussion to have is at some point CFD will become strong enough and powerful enough to replace the wind tunnel. At what point is that? I think the Strategy Group are having responsible discussions about what the time frame, if that scenario happens, is. Because we all have big investments. Every team in the pitlane has multi-million pound investments in this technology and to unravel yourself from that isn’t an overnight scenario. So, I think we all need to get on the same page about it, take away competitive advantage or differences. And if we do that by looking far enough down the road, then a road map hopefully can be achieved.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jonathan, by my calculations in 2013 McLaren Racing lost about £12m. You haven’t yet published 2014’s results but I would estimate it to be probably double that because you lost your title sponsor, plus your results went south. This year’s even worse. If we add all these together, we are probably looking at a figure of fifty or sixty million pounds over three years. How much longer can a team actually sustain this sort of loss?
JN: Well you’re right. I don’t want to make light of that financial situation, Dieter, but the reality is McLaren Racing is part of the McLaren Technologies Group and to some extent that’s a source of strength for us, it’s not something to be taken lightly or be complacent about. Of course, if we finish way down in the Constructors championship, that has an impact on prize money for next year and of course that will be part of our focus, as I say, but we are fortunate in having a technology group on which we can at least shelter for some of these difficult times. But it’s not something that we can sustain indefinitely.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Luigi Fraboni, I would like to ask you about the fifth engine that you are supposed to be using in Austin. How will be the characteristics of the engine, I suppose it will be the engine that you will use next year?
LF: Well, at the moment we are happy with the power unit that we have. We are continuing to develop the engine on the dyno. We have four tokens to play so if there is the opportunity, and we saw that this was to do then can introduce a fifth power unit but at the moment there is nothing defined especially for Austin.
Q: (Koji Taguchi – Grand Prix Tokusyu) Arai-san, if next year any other power unit company doesn’t have enough capacity to deliver a power unit, does Honda have any chance to give their power unit to other teams?
YA: I have had lots of the same question. We don’t have any offers right now. I think that for Honda and for the other power unit suppliers it is a very difficult time to prepare for next year, to supply other partners. And also, Honda has a strong relationship as a works team, McLaren-Honda. We don’t have any plans.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, you spoke earlier on about your big commitment to Formula One and when I say your commitment, I mean your team’s commitment to Formula One. But there is obviously talk about possibly withdrawing from Formula One. Over the last two years or so, you’ve actually justified Red Bull’s position on the strategy group and as a CCB team etc on the basis that it had given a commitment through to 2020. So how does this square with the threats to withdraw? Are there financial penalties which you are prepared to carry or will Red Bull just walk?
CH: Well, as Bernie Ecclestone would say, circumstances change and circumstances now are very different, obviously, to when we entered into that agreement. Our intention is to find a solution and there’s an awful lot of work going on in the background to try and find a solution. Some of that is out of our hands but rest assured that every effort is going in to ensure that Red Bull will be here until 2020 and hopefully beyond, but there’s some big questions that obviously need answering.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Another question for Luigi about the technical possibility to support two more teams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, for next year?
LF: Well, honestly I’m not involved in all this stuff so the only thing that… this kind of decision is taken by our president and by our team management, so at the moment I cannot tell you anything of this. For sure they have all the information that they need in order to have the right collaboration for next year.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Is it technically possible?
LF: I think it could be, yes.
Q: (Kazuki Kasahara – Car Watch) I would like to ask Jonathan and Arai-san: in the 1990s and 1980s, McLaren-Honda had a special feature, a Suzuka version. Do you have any special features for this Suzuka?
JN: Special feature, that’s a tough question. The short answer is no, other than it’s a great opportunity for us to spend some time here at a fantastic race circuit but also behind the scenes together, getting our engineers and people together, looking at what we have to do to put ourselves in a competitive position. We have the guys from Exxon Mobil here as well so for the Esso and the Mobil 1 brands there’s a good chance for us to get together with the guys at Honda and really give that a push. Everybody’s working very hard, but we don’t have any unique feature on the car that’s special for here yet. We will wait until we’re winning before that starts.
YA: As I answered before that this is a very special circuit for Honda but unfortunately the current regulations cannot apply such kind of special feature. But my heart and Jonathan’s heart has a passion, very very special for Suzuka.
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2015 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference
DRIVERS:
Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)
Max VERSTAPPEN (Toro Rosso)
Will STEVENS (Manor)
Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)
Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Sebastian, congratulations for last time out, only a few days since your win in Singapore. Is your performance there something you can translate to this track?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it’s a completely different track here but we’d hope. But I think you have to remain realistic. In a way it was a big surprise to see Mercedes struggling, which I don’t expect to be the case here. Again, it would be a big surprise. But if the chance is there we have to go for it. As I said, the nature of the track is completely different here. We’ll have to wait. The weather could bring a lot of surprises as well. It’s going to be a tough weekend.
We know that you love Suzuka – you’ve won four times out of six I believe and you also won a championship here in 2011 here. So, what can you expect this weekend?
SV: Well, based on that quite a lot! Yeah, I love the track; it’s a driver’s circuit. I think we all love the track. It’s one of the old school circuits on the calendar. It’s a lot of fun. If you want to know what a Formula One car can do then the first sector I would say sums it up and says pretty much all. In my point of view [it is] the best track in the world and great fun to be here.
Thank you very much. On to Valtteri Bottas. Valtteri, you had a good race last time out, finishing fifth. Do you think you’ll be able to make the same challenge again here in Suzuka?
Valtteri BOTTAS: It was a good weekend for me. We knew Singapore would be a difficult one, probably the most difficult track for the rest of the calendar. Good to be here because we do think we can be more competitive here than we have seen last weekend. Really looking forward to it. Like Sebastian said, it’s a great track to drive. Also, the fans are awesome here, so it’s good to be here and we are expecting strong results.
Williams are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship, 112 points behind Ferrari and 59 points ahead of Red Bull. With six races of the season left are you, as a team, moving into a testing period for the last six races, with an eye to next year?
VB: For sure we’ve been developing next year’s car already for a long time and we have already done some tests looking more at the future rather than maybe only this season. Yeah, that is one of the targets for the rest of the year, to look ahead to next year but still we want to have good races and if we can find anything for this year’s car for sure we will try to do it if it doesn’t impact the development of the new car. Still many races to go if we want to gain our position. It would be nicer to be a bit closer to Ferrari also.
Thanks very much. Will Stevens: new team-mate and a new challenge for you. How do you feel about the rest of the season?
Will STEVENS: Yeah, I think the year so far has gone pretty good for me. I think Singapore last weekend for sure wasn’t one of my easiest weekends of the year but you need weekends like that to improve and to learn from. So heading into this weekend and the rest of the year I don’t know any of the tracks, apart from Abu Dhabi, so I have a lot of learning to do. But I always like coming to new circuits, especially here. It’s always [been] a circuit I’ve wanted to drive, so looking forward to getting out there. The weather looks pretty mixed for the weekend so I’m sure we’re going to have a very eventful weekend.
What about your future at Manor? Are you seeing lots of progress? How have things changed over the year in the garage?
WS: I think as a team for sure the next few years are going to be pretty exciting for them. This year was always going to be tough, using last year’s car with the old Ferrari power unit, so it’s going to be as tough as it can [be]. But looking ahead to next year, for me personally we’re working hard in the background to try to sort out things for next year, which are looking positive, so we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have some things to tell you soon.
Thank you very much. Max, another really good race and result for you in Singapore but pretty controversial. Do you want to tell us about it from your side?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, I really enjoyed my race. Of course the start was a bit disappointing but from there on I think we had a great pace in the car. Yeah, kept pushing and catching the guys in front of me and at the end to come back in the points was just a great result and, yeah, very happy with that.
Do you want to tell us a little bit more about what happened between yourself and Carlos Sainz and maybe what has happened since the last grand prix to talk about things within the team?
MV: Well I can tell you nothing has changed in our relationship or something. I was trying to overtake Checo, I was very close and I was looking in my mirrors as well. It didn’t feel for me that it was close enough to give it a go, so I decided to stay there and at the end we had a conversation about it in the team and everything has been cleared and we are ready to go again here in Japan.
Thank you very much. Let’s move on to Nico Hulkenberg. Nico, it was clearly a disappointing result for you last time out in Singapore, after the collision for Felipe Massa. You’ve picked up a three-place grid penalty as well. Have you had a chance to look back over the incident and have another view of it?
NH: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I looked at the video footage and I think I probably should have given him a bit more room, because he was on the inside and I had some space on the right. Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was ahead enough, but I wasn’t clearly, in hindsight, so we take up the penalty here. But it’s behind us, now we move on and make the best of it this weekend.
This weekend, today in fact, Sergio Pérez has been confirmed at re-signing for the team, so a bit of stability in Force India. Why do you think re-signing was the right thing for you to do?
NH: Well, I think for both of us. We work well together. I think we are a strong combination and I think we both have faith in the team and we see still a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward, together with Force India, and I think both of us want to continue growing with the team.
Q: Jenson, you’ve been the centre of a lot of media speculation over the last week. Can you tell us what your plans are?
Jenson BUTTON: What, today? Or after this…?
It would be nice to have an insight into your plans for the future…
JB: OK. Well… I can’t give you anything else. Since the last race there’s no more information to give you. You’re going to have to wait for a little while I’m sorry to say but we’re in good talks, the team and myself so, that’s it. We’re here to concentrate on this weekend. It’s a big weekend for us. McLaren-Honda in front of Honda’s home crowd at their circuit… we hope that we can have a good weekend. Obviously the weather mixes it up a little bit which I think is what we need to be properly competitive so yeah, we’re focussing on this weekend and hoping for a reasonable result.
Q: Japan’s always been a special place for you. Just tell us, over your time here, you’ve never finished outside of the top ten I believe, you won here back in 2011 when Sebastian was winning his championship – but why is it so special to you?
JB: I think it’s, as Sebastian touched on earlier, I think it’s a very special circuit for most drivers. It is the best circuit in the world as Sebastian said – not that he’s driven every circuit in the world – but it’s got a nice flow. I was asked the other day which is the best corner here. It’s difficult: you can’t pick just one corner, it’s just the circuit itself. It’s such a fantastic layout. From Turn Two all the way up the Esses, through Dunlop it’s breath-taking. A very special circuit to drive on and even better to win on. I’ve been coming here since ’94 when I raced in karts at the kart circuit just across the road. I remember walking the circuit then just thinking, yeah, it was built for a Formula One car. This was the circuit for a Formula One car – and it is. It’s also very special because a lot of connections to Japan working with Honda for so many years. Obviously my wife is Japanese and yeah, I’m a big fan of the culture as well.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Sorry Jenson, you said “we’ll have to wait a little bit.” How much is a little? You also said you’re in talks with the team. That would seen to suggest you’ll be around next year as well?
JB: There’s so many possibilities of what could happen next year. So many possibilities but I’ve got nothing else for you I’m sorry to say.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Sorry Jenson I’m going to try and push you a little bit more. You did speak on Sunday about the fact you no longer had any joy in Formula One: the joy of winning, the joy of being on a podium. Is that a kind of indicator as to your mindset, bearing in mind that joy is probably unlikely to return next season if you were to stay with Honda, given the difficulties they’re still likely to face?
JB: Yeah, I think it was worded slightly differently than that – but I don’t think any driver has joy when they’re not fighting for victories. That’s what we’re here to do, y’know, that’s what we love. It’s the challenge of fighting at the front and the possibility of fighting at the front. So, no. I don’t like finishing 14th. I don’t like finishing tenth. That’s not what gives me joy, that’s not what excites me – but there are so many other things that, if they work in your favour, or if you see a future, there’s the possibility of joy coming back and that’s exciting. That’s a challenge. But no, after the Singapore Grand Prix I wasn’t joyful. No.
Q (Trent Price – Rewind Media) Sorry Jenson, we’ll get this out of the way now. Despite a particularly difficult 2015 you’ve had some extremely good years with Honda. 2004, latter half of 2006 respectively. Being here at your second home, how would you like to reflect on your time at Honda?
JB: We’ve definitely had some ups and downs in the past. 2004 was a great year. I got my first podium that year. I think we got ten podiums that season and finished third in the championship. We were second in the Constructors’ so pretty special year. 2006 was when the team actually became Honda and I won my first grand prix with Honda, and still the only grand prix for Honda in this era. So, a special day. The president of Honda was there. He came to two races that year and he was stood on the podium with me, so a great experience and a great memory. But we never achieved what we set out to do, which was fight for the World Championship. We had some good times, we have a lot of fun – but we never quite achieved that. So, I think this time is an important time for Honda. They will give everything, I think, to win the World Championship, a matter of time. I know they’re working flat out. I don’t think anybody can put a time on how long it will take but I know they’re giving everything to do that so hopefully one day we’ll see the president of Honda stood on the podium again.
Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) Sebastian, when hybrids came in last year, with the Red Bull, you didn’t seem that comfortable with it, certainly at certain points during last year. Last week in Singapore, you put on a display that showed you are absolutely at one with the car. Has anything changed in your driving style with the hybrid cars? And can you just talk through that change a little bit?
SV: I think obviously the cars changed massively from ’13 to ’14, not just the power unit but also the car itself. So I think for all of us it was the experience that there’s quite a lot less grip available, which as a driver is obviously not the right direction to go in because you want to go faster. So there were some things that I had to get used to and for sure, at the beginning of the year, last year wasn’t great, getting the experience with this generation of cars etc. On top, I had a difficult year for many reasons but yeah, I think much more in control and comfortable with this year’s car compared to last year’s for many reasons, but I don’t think it’s down to the power unit really. I think the power unit, for us drivers – well, it is what it is. I think we’re not probably at the same standings as the fans in terms of sound etc. Obviously it is a step back but yeah, in terms of the technology behind it, it is incredible. The question still remains open, whether we need it or not, that’s for everyone, individually, to decide, I guess.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, you were talking about the enjoyment of racing. Behind you is Nico who won at Le Mans this year. Is it an option to do the same as him, to do Formula One and some special races in other categories next year?
JB: I’ve never thought about doing both. I think with a 22-race F1 calendar you’re going to be very limited on weekends and sometimes it’s nice to have a weekend off from motor racing so I can’t see that happening. Maybe Nico’s going to be doing the same thing again next year but I think for every other driver it’s going to be a super busy calendar if that is the case, that we have that many races. I don’t think it will really work – for me, it wouldn’t really work anyway.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, looking at this circuit and the next ones, what are the opportunities for Ferrari in your opinion? And second question: are you used to singing Italian songs or was after qualifying your first time?
SV: It was not my first time. I think my first time was probably after Malaysia. Yeah, I’m not a good singer so maybe I stop that now, since everyone has heard it.
JB: I don’t think any of us are!
SV: Well, maybe Lewis is, I don’t know. It was obviously out of the moment, it was a special day on Saturday and Sunday so I was singing both days but I think it was more equally bad both days.
To come back to your first question, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the results so far this year, we had a great car on every track, every nature of circuit: street circuits like Monaco, Singapore we’ve been competitive but on other tracks as well like I just mentioned: Malaysia. Probably Silverstone was one of the weekends where we lost a little bit of that but then again you look at so many races in the same year and you know we weren’t completely off the pace so I think we can be reasonably confident but of course we have to remain realistic. I think we’ve learned along the way so hopefully that means that we will be a bit stronger again but the favourites I think still have to remain Mercedes with their two cars.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jenson, you said that you’ve been having constructive talks with your team and also that there are lots of options for next year. This would indicate that you haven’t quite made up your mind about 2016. Is your future really in your own hands or are there certain contractual obligations?
JB: I can’t go any further with my comments on that. But I’ll be happy next year. That’s the important thing.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Seb, drivers come and go in this sport, some quicker than others as we know, in Formula One it’s the nature of the business but what would it mean if – and still a big if – Jenson did decide to call it a day at the end of this season?
SV: First of all, I think…
JB: Try to be nice.
SV: …we don’t know if that’s the case. I think you’ve tried to ask him but I think he has his reasons – whatsoever – not to go further. It would be a loss, for sure. I remember when I was a little kid and he was considered very very young, joining Formula One. I have to give you that he looked very young when he started with Williams. Nowadays though, you have guys who are 17 who are starting already, so in that case he was already old when he started, or I was quite old. Certainly, he’s a big character. We know that he’s quick, he deserves to be a champion and I’m sure that if there were more years when he had the package to win the big one, he would have had a big say in that. The quality is out of doubt. On top of that he’s a very fair guy on the track. Outside the track, I think we all like him for many reasons so it would be a big loss.
JB: Thank you mate. I’ll start crying in a minute, it’s so emotional!
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines). Max, I know that the team and you and Carlos have sorted out everything from last weekend but did you also look forward and say ‘maybe if there’s a situation, one teammate will let the other teammate by just for a few laps’ – something like Red Bull did in Monaco this year?
MV: Yeah, exactly. I think one thing we needed to be a bit more clear on the radio. We spoke about it and hopefully it will not happen again but we will see. If we are a bit more clear then for sure.
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F1 2015: Japanese GP Preview – Suzuka Surprise In Store?
In less than seven days the Formula 1 paddock goes from the floodlit city streets of Singapore to the sublime Suzuka circuit in Japan.
The return to Suzuka one year after the tragic crash of Jules Bianchi is poignant one. The heartbreaking passing of the French driver has never been too far away from the consciousness but this weekend it will be vaulted to the forefront. The one consolation is that this circuit and all of glorious Formula 1 history is a proper place to pay homage to Jules.
The 5.8 kilometre circuit is a true car tester and it combination of high speed, low speed, elevation changes and demand for accuracy makes it one of the biggest and most satisfying challenges of the calendar. “As a track it’s one of my favourites and I really enjoy the old-school fast corners. The first sector stands out as the most fun,” says Williams driver Valtteri Bottas. “The weather can always play a part so you always need to keep that in mind strategy wise.”
The fast flowing nature of Suzuka will play to the strengths of Williams’ car and the team will be expecting a significantly stronger weekend in terms of outright pace and performance. “In qualifying last year we showed great pace and dominated the second row,” says Rob Smedley. “The team continues to get stronger throughout this year and we can go back there expecting another good performance. It’s important to capitalise on our car performance and score more points than our closest rivals.”
At the start of the season Ferrari would’ve been earmarked as Williams’ closest rivals but with three victories under Sebastian Vettel’s belt the Italian team may too far away from the Martini sponsored team. The victory in Singapore was an excellent but the pace shown throughout the weekend is what was most impressive. But how is it possible that Ferrari suddenly unleashed an unbeatable pace in Singapore? The characteristics of the Marina Bay circuit contributed greatly and so did the use of the supersoft Pirelli compound tyres which Ferrari has always been able to exploit.However, the real improvement happened two weeks earlier at Monza. The team introduced an upgrade in Monza of which resulted in Kimi Raikkonen qualifying on the front row of the grid only two tenths of the peerless qualifier Lewis Hamilton. Due to the demand on mechanical grip and driveability of the engine Singapore highlighted the gains made from the Monza upgrade.
Now the question is whether the same gains will translate to a substantially different circuit such as Suzuka. The one thing that could be to the detriment of Ferrari is the tyre selection, made by Pirelli, for the grand prix weekend. To cater for the high energy demands of the circuit Pirelli has selected the orange- and white-walled tyres, the two hardest compounds in its range. The weather too will be considerably cooler and will influence the ability of the driver to get the medium and hard compound tyres up to operating temperature.
Twelve months ago Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg headed into the Japanese grand prix weekend with a slender three points separating them at the top of the driver’s standings. In 2015, the gap is 41 points with Rosberg trailing Hamilton but this won’t, initially, be the focus of either driver.Their respective performances throughout the Singapore weekend were dismal by their lofty standards and whispers of uncertainty have slightly tainted the belief of the dominant team. But the hesitation won’t last too long as the team should be well within their wheelhouse this weekend. That is, if the tyre pressure regulation doesn’t have anything to do with it.
While Mercedes should re-affirm their pace advantage there will be a few uncomfortable looks over their shoulder at Ferrari this weekend and more than a keen eye will be kept on their rival’s pace. For whatever issue they encounter it is certain that Ferrari are more than ready to pounce.
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Button hints at F1 exit, Suzuka announcement expected – “the joy is gone”
Amidst increased swirling speculation regarding his Formula One career, Jenson Button has admitted that the “joy” of competing in F1 is no longer there and has hinted at exiting the sport.
The British driver has always said that the moment he no longer enjoys being behind the wheel of a Formula One car, he would cal it a day. He also insinuated that he would like to make an announcement at this coming weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix – which he considers a second home race.
Although McLaren holds the option on Button for the 2016 season and holds the final say over whether he will stay, the team’s financial situation and being keen on bringing his salary down will most likely force them to rethink their future plans. Button will not be keen to stay on at a lower salary with the struggling McLaren-Honda outfit and struggle at the back of the field.
“My head knows but my mouth and tongue doesn’t know. The joy of being in the car is only there if you’re fighting at the front and you feel as though you are achieving something,,” Button said to British media.
“If you’re fighting near the back, you’re driving an F1 car, but you can easily get joy driving something else. The joy you get is from competing. It’s about fighting at the front.
“It’s about the possibility of standing on top of the podium. That’s the joy of F1.”
Button indicated that while meetings will still need to take place with McLaren, his mind was made up and he’d like to make an announcement at Suzuka.“I have made that decision, that’s the important thing,” he said. “It is always nice to make an announcement when you are at your home grand prix, but I don’t know what’s happening yet.
“There are a lot of meetings in Japan, Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier will be there. I’m sure there will be a lot of meetings at the headquarters.”
Should Button leave, the vacant seat will almost certainly belong to either reserve Kevin Magnussen, or test and development driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who is also the runaway leader in the 2015 GP campaign.
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F1 2015: Singapore GP Review – Scintillating Seb Wins In Singapore
There is something about the streets of Singapore and Sebastian Vettel that form an irresistible combination.
As the fireworks lit up the night sky of Singapore it was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel that ignited the city streets with an electrifying victory. The four time world champion hit the ground running as he obliterated the field in Saturday’s qualifying to take pole position. There wasn’t much looking back after that as he commanded all of the sixty-one laps to the chequered flag.
A textbook getaway off the line and a blistering pace built the gap to second placed Daniel Ricciardo to five seconds within a handful of laps. The sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen kept the Aussie Red Bull driver within sight but was never able to make a move for the position. Raikkonen confirmed after the race that his tyres gave up quite early on his stints. The Finn expressed a bit of surprise at ending up in third given his tyre struggles.
For Seb Vettel there were no such worries as he expertly controlled his pace to secure career victory number 43. After such a dominating period with Red Bull, which yielded four world titles, some thought the move to Ferrari was odd. Yet, it turns out that it was arguably the best thing that could’ve happened to him and the Ferrari team. Many an observation has been made of Vettel’s work ethic and dedication behind the scenes and it is clear that the team are as infatuated with the German as he is with them.
In fourth place is where Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg finished the race after a dismal weekend for the team. The championship leading team were on the back foot from the outset on Friday as they appeared significantly off the pace. Many, including Daniel Ricciardo, expected the Silver Arrows to turn it on for qualifying but that never materialized. Instead, Hamilton and Rosberg were summarily spanked and relegated to the third row of the grid.As if to add insult to a serious lack of pace unreliability hit Lewis Hamilton as the Brit suffered his first retirement of the season. No one from Mercedes were willing to point out why they were suddenly lacking in pace but they almost certainly have a good idea of how their advantage abruptly evaporated.
It is uncanny how this ultra dominant team seem to not be as good when they aren’t making the running. A warning of overheated brakes came early on from the pitwall to Rosberg and then a mysterious technical failure for Hamilton. There will be much to ponder on in the next couple of days for Mercedes but don’t expect them not to roar back to life in Japan. They will.
The safety car probability around the Marina Bay Circuit remains 100% as it was deployed on two occasions in the race. First it was to collect the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg after he smashed into the side of Williams driver Felipe Massa. The incident, into turn one, was investigated by stewards and Hulkenberg was, rightfully, slapped with a three place grid drop at the next race.
The second safety car period came about as result of a man strolling on the circuit seemingly without a care in the world. It’s always a spine chilling sight to see anyone on the track in the middle of a grand prix. Thankfully, the man didn’t cause any problems before jumping over the wall and off the circuit.Valtteri Bottas made the best of a difficult weekend for Williams with fifth place ahead of Daniil Kvyat. The Russian started in fourth place but an issue in the pits dropped him down the order. Force India’s Sergio Perez came home in an anonymous seventh ahead of the feisty Max Verstappen in eighth. The second Toro Rosso, driver by Carlos Sainz, finished in ninth but much to the chagrin of the team who had ordered Verstappen to swop position with teammate Sainz. The 17-year-old flat out refused the team order and maintained his position.
As the youngest ever F1 driver Verstappen as already proven that he has enormous potential and that he can stand up for himself. Team orders is always a divisive point on which people often disagree but Verstappen would’ve won some fans with this move. “When we put on our helmets we are rivals,” said Verstappen after the race.
Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr completed a solid drive for Sauber to snatch the final point on offer in tenth. Along with the retirements of Hamilton and Hulkenberg was Felipe Massa with a suspected gearbox issue. The two McLaren’s also had to end their respective races prematurely.
A notable mention goes to American driver Alexander Rossi who made his F1 debut this weekend for the Manor Marussia team. Rossi has agreed terms to drive five of the last seven races of the season and performed impressively to finish ahead of Will Stevens who has been with the team since the start of the season.Not many would’ve thought that with six races to go in the 2015 season that a Ferrari driver could be in with a shout of taking the title. Yes, Singapore and its characteristics complimented the Ferrari but the engine upgrade introduced for Monza has made a telling impact. Yes, Vettel sits forty-nine points adrift of Hamilton and yes Mercedes won’t suddenly disappear from the top of the timing sheets each weekend. But this was a stunning reminder that Ferrari will ready and able to pounce on the smallest of slips.
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F1 2015: Singapore Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Heads The Field
Nico Rosberg has topped the timing sheets in the first free practice session for Sunday’s Singapore grand prix.
The Mercedes driver topped the 1 and a half hour session throughout with teammate Lewis Hamilton a scant three tenths off his ultimate pace. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo showed strongly in third ahead of both Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
The feared murky conditions appeared to have no impact on running as dusk quickly gave way darkness as the floodlights took over. Several drivers showed their prowess as they handled some impressive power slides into turn one. Apart from a couple of brushes with a few barriers the drivers were keeping their noses clean. That was until the newest F1 rookie Alexander Rossi crashed underneath the grandstand, destroying the right-hand side of his Manor F1 car. The American driver has been catapulted into a race seat and will compete in five of the last seven race weekends.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso showed an improved turn of pace to end the session 11th fastest. Williams, who usually play it close to the vest in the early part of the weekend, were 6th fastest with Valtteri Bottas while Felipe Massa seem to run the standard program as set the 17th quickest time overall.
Final Free Practice 1 standings:
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F1 2015: Italian GP Review – Hamilton Strolls to Victory
The Italian GP wasn’t one that was ever going to set your heart aflutter but it delivered its fair share of drama.
The Saturday qualifying session delivered a dream result that elated Ferrari’s fanatical tifosi. Kimi Raikkonen delivered a stunning lap just two tenths shy of pole position to line up his scarlet Ferrari in second place while teammate Sebastian Vettel completed the top three.
It was Lewis Hamilton however who ran the show on Sunday much like he did on Saturday to secure a staggering seventh consecutive pole position. Most were drooling about a possible Italian GP battle between the Ferrari’s and Lewis Hamilton’s number 44 Mercedes. Alas, a disastrous start for Raikkonen and all-round lack of pace for Vettel meant Hamilton could stroll through the 53 laps to eventual victory.
As the red lights extinguished so did Raikkonen’s chances as he remained achingly motionless in his grid slot. As it were, Raikkonen reported that when he released the clutch nothing happened after which the car engaged the anti-stall function. It dropped the Finn to dead last but a dogged drive through the field netted the 2007 champ fifth place.
The simplicity of Hamilton’s task in the lead of the race was evident as he increased his pace at will. He built a substantial gap over Vettel which could’ve been considerably bigger if he had wished it so. Yet, the sister Mercedes wasn’t enjoying as easy a weekend. A failure in free practice three forced Rosberg to take an older engine onboard which landed him only fourth in qualifying. It looked to be going slightly better in the race as the championship runner-up was able to leapfrog Williams on strategy. The German was even able to take the fight to second-placed Vettel and was set to launch an attack on the Ferrari. However, a spectacular engine failure brought a fiery end to Rosberg’s ItalianGP and most probably his championship aspirations.A spicy fight between Williams’ drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas highlighted the closing stages of the race. Despite significant pressure from behind Massa was able to resist his Finnish teammate and secure third much to the delight of deputy team principal Claire Williams.
The Pirelli tyres seemed to be, mostly, out of the spotlight when compared to the aftermath of the Belgian grand prix. But a suspected breach in tyre pressure regulation, by Mercedes, was noted by the Italian tyre supplier. Both Hamilton and Rosberg’s cars were found to be below the specified tyre pressure and were subsequently referred to the stewards.
In hindsight the instruction given to Hamilton to increase the gap to Vettel makes sense. At the time however not even the driver was sure what to make of the message coming from the pitwall. It is clear now that Mercedes were trying to avoid losing the Italian GP victory should a time penalty be imposed. As it turns out the stewards, after meeting with Mercedes personnel chose to take no further action.While some might term this a lucky escape for Mercedes the details as to how and when tyre pressures are measured remain a tad sketchy. If the pressure were measured at different times it could turn out that Mercedes could well have been within the regulations. There is likely to be clarification on the measuring of tyre pressures in the near future.
As the newly blonde Lewis Hamilton looked out at the fervent Monza crowd there seemed to be a moment of realisation for the Brit. A comprehension of the very special moment he is experiencing in his glittering career. Are we seeing a soon-to-be three-time world champion in the form of his life? A 53 point gap to second place seems to suggest it.
All photos by courtesy Pirelli
