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  • 2017 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2017 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Mark Webber)

    Lewis, I’ve seen some top performances from you over the years mate, but the last 24 hours, with qualifying, equalling Michael’s 68th record pole position and the execution of today’s grand prix was absolutely clinical. Run us through it.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you, man. I heard it’s your birthday, so happy birthday. I don’t know if the crowd can hear us, but the crowd has been amazing this weekend, so big thank you to everyone for all the support. It’s been a strong weekend for myself and the team. The team did an amazing job and I’m really grateful for all the hard work. The support has made all the difference, seeing all the British flags amongst the kind of Irish orange has been amazing. Sebastian put a great fight on, but this is what I said I was coming to do, so I did it.

    Sebastian, it looked like a really, really…

    Sebastian VETTEL: It’s Mark’s birthday today, so happy birthday!

    Thank you very much. It’s not about me today, believe it or not, it’s about you guys. That looked like a tough fight. Obviously you two were really duking it out lap after lap after lap. Obviously maybe not the most spectacular race, wheel-to-wheel, but as a racer I could see what you two were laying down.

    SV: Yeah, it was good fun. It was really intense, because as you said, every lap I was waiting for Lewis to make a mistake, and he didn’t. He was probably waiting for me to make a mistake; I didn’t. Re-start? Maybe that’s why maybe I’m not entirely happy. I was fearing that I’m not close enough but I was too close. So on top of the hill I had to go out and then it’s a drag race, I’m on the outside and nowhere really to go, but it was good fun. I think we had a very good pace. If you compare this track to Silverstone I think it was a lot better here, so yeah, we’ve done good steps forward and looking forward to next week obviously, our home race, so yeah, it’s been a good race overall.

    Well done, big points, mate, big points. Danny Ric – well done!

    Daniel RICCIARDO: G’day mate.

    Well, the safety car came at a nice time. You were sitting in there and then there’s new fresh tyres ready to go and you made the most of it. A beautiful re-start at the top of the hill against Valtteri and then you got it home. You held Kimi off, which was sensational, so a huge result for the team though, right?

    DR: Yeah, it was. You know, Max dropped out early. Firstly, thanks… I know it’s pretty much full of Dutchies here, so thanks for hanging around, appreciate it, we all do. Then Kimi had a penalty so we got into fourth. We had pretty good pace mid-race and then we got the safety car. I knew we’d been given a bit of an opportunity with that and it was good to capitalise on that with Valtteri on the re-start.

    Lewis, you got the driver of the day, which we would expect, but yesterday we spoke to you quickly and you spoke about coming here in 1996 with your father, the first time you really saw Formula One at this level, so run us through your emotions this weekend, how much it means to you, your 200th race, and those special memories coming here 21 years ago.

    LH: Is it 21? Oh, jeez. Well, I like this Mexican wave everyone is doing. There are many kids here and probably adults that dream of doing what we’re doing here today and I came here in 1996 with my dad and it was our dream. We were nobodies and it was our dream to be here one day. Hopefully this just shows to those of you who are watching that dreams do come true and you just have to keep striving for excellence, believe in yourself and never give up.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, awful lot of pressure to soak up in the final part of the grand prix after being very much in control early on. Sebastian had a new set of ultrasofts for eventualities; you didn’t. You must have been pretty nervous in the build-up to that re-start. Tell us how you defended it, how you kept him at arm’s length and how you feel about coming through that?

    LH: Well I felt it was a bit like NASCAR, where they keep pulling out the safety cars for no reason. The wing was cleared, after we’d slowed down they could have done a VSC but I guess they wanted to see a race, so that’s for sure the reason they did that, because there was hardly any debris, if at all, they cleaned it so well. Anyways, before that it was obviously close. The Ferrari has generally had the upper hand, particularly on race pace, throughout the weekend and very, very, very strong today and obviously I was towing him around everywhere so they were getting a good tow out of the straights. And on the re-start the safety car was driving so slow, it was I guess to let the other people catch up, but keeping tyre temperature, being that I was on the harder tyre, was very, very difficult. Yeah, it came to the re-start, Sebastian was obviously very, very close. The front tyres weren’t switched on initially and he got a good tow. I think he was little bit close down the run out of Turn 1, so I think he probably had to lift off or otherwise he would have come by potentially before Eau Rouge, which was a good thing for me because having to lift he loses a bit of performance. But he did a great race, he was very, very consistent throughout. It was fun to be racing against, firstly another team, and Sebastian really at his best and with the car at the best, being so close. We were just battling within half a tenth every single lap and that’s what racing is all about. As I said, I think they were able to keep up and follow quite closely for a long, long time, so I think ultimately they had the better pace today but fortunately I was able to do just enough to stay ahead.

    Q: Sebastian, sport is all about taking chances when they pop up. Obviously you had a new set of ultrasofts, you saw Lewis going on to the softs, you must have thought ‘here we go, this is my chance’. Take us through that restart, it was very close, how did you come down the hill, how did you get through Eau Rouge? How do you feel also, just in general about being this close on a track which, after Silverstone, on paper should really have suited Mercedes far more than it suited you?

    SV: That’s a lot of questions. Obviously, I knew that we had a tyre advantage with the ultrasoft versus the soft, for the first couple of laps in particular. The restarts. So you could also see, exiting Turn One, was all over Lewis. It was not that hard to follow so close and maybe that was the problem. My restart in the initial part was too good. I was too close, so yeah, for sure if I had to do it again maybe I would try something different but at the time I… we know that they have very good straight line speed in their quali mode and at the start of the race I obviously felt how strong they were up the hill on the start, so I did not want to be too far either. Finding that optimum is difficult. Lewis also lifted a bit down to Eau Rouge, which I think he could afford because he knows he has a very good top end at the top of it. But yeah, I think overall it was a very good race. It was good fun. Obviously not that exciting probably to watch because we were very close but nothing happened but good fun in the car because I was waiting for him to maybe have an error he was probably waiting for me to have an error or an off but it didn’t happen so the quality was very high I thought, and very consistent lap times despite the tyres, I think, dropping lap by lap. But yeah, never really had a chance. Maybe half a chance, quarter of a chance but yeah, I think the positive thing is that we had very good race pace. It was very difficult to follow in the middle sector but we stayed close and then we benefit in the first and last sector. Overall the car was very good. We didn’t change too much compared to Silverstone which shows, on the one hand that Silverstone was just a bad weekend but we improved also the car so… especially in race pace, very strong. I mean we were, on average, a second off, or nearly a second off in Silverstone, so it’s a big step. I’m very, very happy. I think we are on the right track and I don’t think we have a circuit we should fear, going from now.

    Q: Speaking of chances Daniel. Any sniff of a chance you get, you take it and end-up on the podium. You did it again today, particularly with that wonderful pass at the restart. It looked a risky tyre selection going into the weekend but having that new set of ultras paid off. You must be really delighted with the way this weekend has gone for you.

    DR: It certainly ended well. It’s always a funny one here. We come in not so optimistic and even qualifying… I think even the year I won I don’t think I qualified too well but we seem to find some extra pace on Sunday and we put ourselves in a position or we take advantage of something and capitalise, so yeah, I’m really happy, y’know? Another podium’s always good. The start, the first few laps with the ultrasoft actually, we were struggling quite a bit. We could see blistering and problems we always have at this circuit, with this nature of circuit, the high speed but struggling to really move or make much progress in the first stint. But then we put the supersoft on and we found a good rhythm. I think we were able to keep a similar lap-time to the leaders. Although they were on the soft, I felt, y’know, respectively we were finding a good rhythm and pace and then we got the Safety Car. For sure Lewis didn’t like it too much – and fair enough – but for me obviously it opened up an opportunity on the restart with Valtteri and capitalised on that. He was on the soft, I was on the ultra and I knew if we were going to have a podium, it was happening on the restart. Once his tyres got up to temperature it would have been hard to do something, so, yeah, pretty happy. Good momentum now for the second half of the season.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, what a way to start the second half of the season off. Looks like you were in control there, you felt a little pressure from Seb, did you feel you had the whole race in control and, y’know, with this historical pole position that you did yesterday, does this set you up for momentum going into Monza on his home track for Ferrari?

    LH: I think… obviously it’s an amazing feeling to come back into the season and start off on the right foot, being that the Ferraris obviously finished on the right foot going into the break but they’ve really put in a fantastic fight today. The speed and pace they had was very strong. There was not a point at which I would say that I could be comfortable. I think for both of us it was pushing every single lap, which is more like a sprint race, which was fun. That’s really how racing should be: no room for error; no room for any mistakes – because if I’d had the smallest mistake, he would have picked up on it. And there were clearly strengths and weaknesses from both sides: strengths on our car and strengths on their car. We were constantly exchanging times. But this is definitely a good start going into the next race. Clearly we have not a bad car on the straights. I think, again, I imagine it’s going to be very, very close in the next race. I would think more heavily towards places like Singapore, where it’s high downforce circuits, where I think Ferrari seemed to have really picked up some pace. Places obviously like the last race. Otherwise I’ve got a say a big thank you to my team. It’s been a long period of time with Mercedes-Benz, and obviously with this team as well, so I wouldn’t have been able to have won any of these grands prix without them, so very, very grateful for all the hard work that they put in, and yeah, it just feels… everyone worked so hard so then when you match them and put in the same effort together and achieve what you set out to achieve, it’s such a great feeling.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) Lewis, Friday you were very fast on the soft tyres and today, after the pitstop, it looks like you suffer a little. Sebastian was very close to you, could even use the DRS. And also, you had 14 laps to the end when you did the second pitstop and you used again the soft tyre, not the ultrasoft. Were you satisfied with the decision?

    LH: It was a very, very late decision. It was made literally just before the last corner, so I wasn’t expecting it. I was expecting to collect the Safety Car – which is why I allowed Sebastian to get close, because I didn’t… it’s not like the VSC where you have to keep to the delta, there’s no point because I’d be catching the Safety Car. Obviously that didn’t work out that way and came into the pitlane with Sebastian right up my tail, so very, very fortunate the team did a great pitstop and able to get back out ahead. After that, yeah, the pace I think I was struggling because the tyre temperatures were so low. I just couldn’t keep… from the slow pace, the safety car was going extremely slow and I knew it would be… firstly he’s on the better tyre and yeah, knowing that I thought the start was going to be very difficult. And it clearly was. I got into Turn One struggling with the front end of the car. But fortunately got a relatively decent exit but I mean he was on the gas before I was. I could hear him. So he was in a much more comfortable position but fortunately, once he pulled out of my slipstream we were both going against the same wind and fortunately I think maybe we have a little bit less downforce and that worked in that scenario.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Daniel, tell us more about that restart? You came out, there’s three cars abreast going up that hill and you come out in third place.

    DR: Obviously I was focused on Valtteri but I was aware Kimi was… I was getting a good tow from Valtteri but we know the Ferrari has a bit more straightline speed than us so I was using Valtteri’s pace but also knew that Kimi was probably going to get a double tow. All I could do… I saw Valtteri cover the inside so I went to the outside but then I was thinking ‘I don’t know if he’s seen Kimi, maybe Kimi’s going to get to the inside’ so did Kimi go to the inside in the end? Yeah. I don’t know but all I could do was focus on Valtteri and to be honest, in the braking zone it was still blind. I knew I was maybe in front but you get to a point you can’t really see so I gave enough room in case he was still there, and you just kind of hold on and hope for no one to come in the side of you and then by the time you get to turning left for turn six I knew I had done it and I saw Kimi in the mirror. Yeah, I figured it probably felt nice on TV; it felt good. It puts me back up here so I’m happy.

    Q: (Bas Holtkamp – Race Express) First of all, congrats for your third place on behalf of all the disappointed Dutchies. Max has had a lot of material problems this year, while you seem to have a lot of luck or are you just more gentle on your car? Is that maybe the reason why?

    DR: Yeah, I certainly… I do a lot of things with my driving style which is very nice to the car. I actually talk to it a lot during the race. I massage it. I wouldn’t call it foreplay but it’s something like that and Max is young, he’s aggressive, he goes straight in! I know you’re shaking your head but I feel like you knew the answer would be something silly like that. In all seriousness, I don’t have an answer for it. I’ve honestly… I have asked before. I’ve even asked all the guys in the team, the mechanical and also from the power unit side and I’ve said is there something you see Max is doing which I should maybe avoid and they said no, there’s nothing he’s doing. He’s not over-revving it or anything silly. It’s unfortunate. I commented on the podium that… I think it was Austria as well he had a big big following there and all the fans still stayed, the whole weekend. Obviously they all want him to do well but I think they’re racing enthusiasts so really nice that they stay around for the rest of the race and support us all. Yeah, I know he gets bigger cheers from them but I still feel like they are a good crowd, there’s no aggression, it’s all love.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriera della Sera) Sebastian, you had a good chance with the start but what about the scenario with the safety car? Have you imagined what could have happened?

    SV: Well, we had the safety car so no, I didn’t imagine much. I was following Lewis, I think we had more or less the same pace. Obviously it was difficult to follow super close and get in range and really try and create something so – I don’t know, the gap to the car behind with Valtteri was around five/six seconds, growing, especially at the end of the stints where I think Lewis and myself had better pace than the rest. I don’t know, it was fairly healthy, there were 14 laps to go, something like that, 15 laps to go so probably would have finished the race like that. It wouldn’t have made a difference, at least to us but for sure with the safety car then, yeah, I smelled a chance. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be a great chance and as I said, not entirely happy with the way I executed but that’s how it went. Nevertheless, as I said before… it’s normal, as I said before, as a racer you always look at what you could have done better but you also need to appreciate the fact that it was a very very good weekend for us, all the way. Both cars very quick, competitive and closer than I think one could expect before the race.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GP Plus) Lewis, there were moments during the race where you were clearly a bit nervous over the radio, things like the speed of the safety car and the other nervousness seemed to come from the fact that you had to go on the yellow tyre at the end. Was that because there was only a supply of yellow tyres? Do you know why you didn’t get the same ultrasofts that Seb was able to use?

    LH: In Q2, Ferrari only ran once, we ran twice, so we used the spare ultrasoft whereas they saved it. I doubted if they were planning on doing a two stop as a two stop was slower but just by sheer luck there was a safety car which again, I commented, which I don’t think was necessary but anyways it worked out OK, so yes, we had to put on a fresh tyre. If we had put on a used ultrasoft we would probably have been in more trouble so I think it was the right decision at the end of the day, but potentially in the future, maybe we will take precautions to make sure we also have a new tyre available just in case. But otherwise… I think everyone was in the same boat with the safety car being slow but yeah, I guess for me, being on that harder tyre, it was already hard for Sebastian on the ultrasofts to keep temperature in the tyres but being on the harder tyre again, it makes it even harder. But anyways, it was what it was and I did the best I could with it and fortunately was able to defend, just about.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Daniel, you always seem to be there man, right, when it’s right about time to get what you need to get done and take care of business. You describe your driving style; would you approach it like a fighter approaches way being patient, waiting for those openings?

    DR: I always want to… when I was younger, a lot of the time I would leave a weekend, leave a race on a Sunday and have questions or doubts in mind head, like if tried that or I should have done this or… There wasn’t often enough where I felt like I was leaving everything on the table or taking advantage of a situation. I wanted to make a point, particularly when I got the opportunity with Red Bull Racing and coming into a top team, you know, I don’t want that feeling, I don’t want to fly home on a Sunday with the race replaying in my head and thinking ah, if only I tried this move and then the race would have been different. It’s something I felt I always had in me but in particular the last few years, I’ve been able to show it and get it out of myself. Yes, the simple term is leaving with no regrets and then just trying to capitalise on the moment and I think for that you need to be present in the moment. I enjoy… I love what I do. Fridays, practice. Yeah. Saturday qualifying, it’s pretty good, but Sunday is most certainly what I love and I think it’s easier to capitalise when you’re having a good time.

     

    Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

  • 2017 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2017 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     

    GRID INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Will Buxton)

    Q: Lewis, Ross Brawn just wants to have a couple of words with you to congratulate you on this achievement.

    Ross BRAWN: I’m here to deliver a very special message from Corinna Schumacher and the Schumacher family, who want to congratulate you on equalling Michael’s record and as they said, Michael always said records are there to be beaten, so they want to send their very special thanks. Congratulations, Lewis, well done.

    Q: So, Lewis, that was some lap. It was mighty. Tell all the fans, tell everyone at home, how good does it feel to hook one up like that around here?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, first of all, I want to give a big shout out to all the fans here, they’re always amazing here every year we come here. There are a lot of Brits, a lot of people from the Netherlands, from all over, so thank you so much for coming out. I can’t believe it. First of all, a big thank you to my tea, Ross [Brawn] was a big part of me being here at this team, so the success we have had he is much a part of that as well. But the team have done an amazing job. Valtteri did a great job to be up here ahead of the Ferraris, an amazing feeling. This is one of my favourite circuits, so to come here and put a lap together like that, it’s a dream. I’ve got the best job in the world, so I’m just grateful to be here.

    Q: And to equal Michael Schumacher’s record on the track where he made his debut, the track where he took his first grand prix victory is something special too.

    LH: It is and to hear the message that Ross just gave, I just have to say a big thank you and pray for Michael and his family all the time. I’ve had the privilege of racing with him, from karting days in Kerpen to on the track and always admired him, and still do today, so I’m just honoured to be up there with him now in the poles, but he will still be one of the greatest of all time.

    Q: Congratulations. Seb, that was some lap at the end to get on the front row, you needed that didn’t you?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it was the right time. I had a very good feeling in Q1, the get go was really go but then I lost that feeling a little bit, I had a bit light front end, especially then through sector two with the medium-, high-speed corners. I was lacking a little bit of response. But the last lap the car was a little bit more alive, immediately I could feel it turning into Turn 1. And then I have to also admit that I was a bit lucky with Kimi, he had to abort his lap but he gave me a very, very nice tow, which I think made it a bit more comfortable with Valtteri. Obviously it’s very important. Good position today, great job from the team, very happy, so looking forward to the race.

    Q: We know these guys are worries about your long-run pace. Are you confident in it?

    SV: They should be! So far it has been looking pretty good, so I hope we can keep it up. The car, on one lap, I thought all weekend it was a bit trickier to get it together. Consecutive laps with high fuel I felt really good, so let’s see what we can do with the strategy tomorrow as well, but for sure Mercedes will be quick. But, we don’t have to hide. We are on the front row for a reason. We have the speed and we should have it in the race.

    Q: Congratulations. Valtteri, are you annoyed that he just pipped you at the end there? As he said, he got a tow from Kimi coming up the back and without that it might have been an all-Mercedes front row.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, of course it would have been nice to be one-two tomorrow, but it’s not a bad starting place. I was aiming for pole today, but to be honest Lewis has been doing and absolutely perfect job all weekend and for some reason I’ve been struggling and I just haven’t been able to get close enough, so we’ll need to investigate why. That’s something we’ll need to understand but already my thoughts are for tomorrow.

    Q: Everyone is focusing on those two guys for the title, bit you are in the hunt for the title as much as both of them. How much do you want the win tomorrow to prove to everybody, as much as to them, that you’re here, you’re fighting and it’s as much yours as it is theirs?

    VB: Getting my first couple of wins this year you just want more, so of course that is going to be the mission for me tomorrow and main thing as a team is that we get a strong result. But I’ll do everything I can and I don’t mind if they are being looked at more than me, I’ll just keep doing my job and trying to get better and better.

    Q: Can’t wait for tomorrow. Lewis, you’ve got the championship leader on the front row with you, you’ve got your team-mate inches behind you and he’s very much in the hunt for this title as well, really the second half of the season couldn’t be starting any better for Formula One could it?

    LH: Well, we had a great holiday and we’ve come back feeling fresh and this is the perfect way to start the weekend. The second half is going to be tough for all of us, the team, the people back at the factory, but we’re geared up for the second half, so I hope that we can bring it.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, many congratulations, a day I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to for some time. The magic number – 68 – you’ve equalled the all-time record of Michael Schumacher. And what a place to do it – a track that is so synonymous with Schumacher, and with a record fastest ever lap of track. Your feelings?

    LH: Yeah, it’s a special day, definitely. To be honest, I knew it was on the horizon and I knew at some stage I’d be getting that 68th pole but I really hadn’t thought about it very much. I didn’t apply pressure, I was like “it could come soon, it could take a long time”, but now being there, it’s an unusual place to be. I remember coming here in 1996, my first grand prix, and watching Michael come by out of Turn 1 and the engine just shook my rib cage – it was incredible. And that was when my love for the sport took another step. And to think that God knows how long later I’m now equal to him on poles, it’s very surreal and very much a humbling experience, particularly knowing that Michael is such a legend. It’s an incredible feat that he achieved and I feel very proud to be up there with him.

    Q: It’s a special day generally in numbers – 4.2 seconds faster this year’s pole compared to last years. The average generally this year has been around 2-2.5s, can you break it down for us why this weekend is so far much faster around this track with these cars?

    LH: It’s a medium-high downforce circuit so it’s to do this engine being more powerful than it was last year, for all of us. We’ve got a lot more downforce, so the speed that we are going through the corners, it’s so much faster than it was last year. It’s a longer circuit, there’s more time at full throttle, so DRS counts for more than it perhaps has done at other places. A combination of those I would assume. Yeah, it feels amazing around this track. It always does, but to have a car as we have here and the set-up I was able to work with my engineers, to achieve the balance was great, and to really be able to lean on the car around this circuit, I’ve never had such a feeling. Pouhon, Turn 10, was nearly flat, which is insane, I’ve definitely never experienced that in my time whilst in Formula One. We’re just like Ricky Bobby – we want to go faster, and it is a great feeling when you do.

    Q: Congratulations, very special day. Sebastian, it was important for Mercedes today that they get two cars on the front row and it was very important for you that they didn’t. It took you a while to get there, so under the circumstances would you class that a very special lap on your behalf?

    SV: Not just on my behalf. I think I had a little bit of help from a friend. Kimi had to abort his lap and he was very generous in giving me a tow in the last sector and that got me about two tenths so that helped and it made it a bit more comfortable with Valtteri looking at the result. Q1 I was really happy, the car was amazing. Q2 the main job was to get through, and then Q3 first lap I was missing a little bit the feel for the front. The second run in Q3 was better in that regard. So I was very happy with the last lap and as I said obviously with a little bit of a help it was quite nice. It was then tricky getting into the last corner, because knowing that you arrive so much faster with the tow and braking is never easy, it’s easy to miss it for the last corner. But I managed to get it right and to get it across the line so that was useful. The pace has been good this weekend. I think less for one lap, more so for long runs, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

    Q: Your long-run pace yesterday looked very promising compared to the Mercedes so does that give you some hope for tomorrow. There is a strange start to this race as well, because you don’t necessarily always want to be the first car down the straight in the opening stages as there is an opportunity for P2 to get ahead?

    SV: Yeah that’s right. Well, we’ll see when we get to that. I think the start is still very important and you try to do your best there and try to take it from there. I think the long run pace looked good yesterday, also this morning. Obviously we didn’t do a lot of laps overall this weekend, it’s a long lap, so the amount of laps you get is not that much compared to other tracks. But, as I said, the car was really good, especially for the race, so now we hope to confirm that. Tomorrow will be a tough day though, I mean start, first laps, as you said big straights, tows and in general strategy around here so we will see what happens.

    Q: Coming to you Valtteri, you had second place, again it took you a while to get to that point, and then obviously Sebastian took it away from you. He’s explained that the tow had a part to play in it – but did you feel you were on your A-game today?

    VB: Yeah, first of all congrats to Lewis for the pole and for the 69th [68th] it’s a mega-achievement. I’ve only got two so some way to go. This whole weekend for some reason I’ve been not really close enough to be able to challenge for that pole. For sure Lewis has been really on it but I’m slightly confused why I’ve not been able to get quite close enough. Still need to find some answers for me. The balance of the car has been feeling really good. Been just really lacking overall grip and that way, losing a lot of time in the high-speed corners in Sector Two. So, yeah, was always going to be a bit tricky to challenge for the pole, unfortunately. Would have been nice to at least be second but Sebastian got ahead. But still, second row and I’m sure as a team we can do good tomorrow.

    Q: As we were just saying, the Ferrari, the long run pace on the ultrasoft yesterday and again the long run pace this morning looked pretty handy, but what was striking about you guys is that your soft tyre pace is pretty strong. Presumably, strategy-wise, you’re counting on that tomorrow to get in front of Sebastian before the chequered flag.

    VB: Yeah, it is going to be a long race and here we know always anything can happen and you never know with the weather as well. It’s going to be a day full of opportunities for me as well, starting third. Probably going to see different behaviour with the different cars, with the different tyre compounds. So, should be interesting.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) First of all, congratulations Lewis for this special day, special record too, so question to all three of you, could you please share with us a special memorable moment shared with Michael please?

    SV: It’s not fair to pick one moment. I think the fact we’re both from the same country makes it easier to in a way get closer to him. I know him for a very, very long time, the age of six or seven I met him for the very first time, he was handing over the trophies to the kids at the go-kart track in Kerpen, his home track, not far away from here. Yeah, it was massive. We were more than a hundred kids and he took the time to shake all our hands, hand over the trophies, so as a child I think that was indescribable. Obviously he was my hero. I had his posters everywhere in my room and he was pretty much the only guy I followed when I was young. So, yeah, big inspiration and we then I think we had a lot of good moments, a lot of fun moments. As a child it’s different, you’re star-struck in a way. It’s my hero, what do I say? I don’t know. And then later on I got to know him and yeah, we really got a long. He’s a great guy, good fun and I think the admiration for his skills is the same as day one. We shared a lot of good moments at the Race of Champions together and even if you can argue about the format and so on, still you have to drive different cars, adapt and the way he drives a go-kart is… I don’t know… it’s just so different to everybody else I’ve ever seen. So, I don’t know how I look from the outside but I guess I don’t look that, so yeah, many moments. Sober and not sober. It’s hard to pick one.

    Lewis?

    LH: I think I already mentioned earlier on my find and probably favourite memory of seeing Michael come by but just like Sebastian, I grew up watching him and I would play him, I would always be… particularly when he was in a Ferrari, when I was racing in computer games I was Michael a lot, the majority of the time. Having the privilege, I raced with him in Kerpen many, many years ago and yeah, just trying to think of the best moment. I’ve always had good, fond memories of him. Another really good one was Abu Dhabi, just before he left. I plucked up the courage to go ask if he would swap helmets with me. He was welcoming and did, so yeah, that’s definitely one of the coolest things in my house.

    Valtteri?

    VB: I remember watching on TV all the battles he used to have in the 1990s with Häkkinen. That was really good to watch and remember how excited I was every Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, waking up and knowing it’s going to be another proper battle on track. And I also remember, it’s not even so far ago, 2012, when I did Friday practice for Williams and, for the first time I was the same time on track with Michael. For me, that was quite special.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Sebastian, you mentioned Kimi’s generous gesture to you. We didn’t see it on TV and I was wondering if it happened spontaneously or if you had to position yourself on the track or did that just happen by good chance?

    SV: As far as I understand, he had a mistake on his last flying lap, his last attempt, so it wasn’t planned; he wanted obviously to finish that lap but when he, I guess when he did the mistake and just because of where we were positions, he obviously cruised back to the pits. I guess the team didn’t even tell him anything. I think he just saw a red car in the mirror and thought ‘I’ll hand him a tow,” which was quite nice. It was obviously quite useful for me – but it wasn’t planned. I saw some other teams playing around with tows previously in qualifying – but usually it’s one of those things you can’t really plan so we tend to stay away from it. To answer your question, I think it was very spontaneous.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) First off, congratulations Lewis. You went into Beast Mode in Q3, you talked about that moment with Michael. How does it feel that now, you creating this moment and building this legacy of yours, that you’re inspiring that next generation, who will sit here say the same thing, that they were inspired by what you did here today?

    LH: Well, thank you. I think it’s a good question. I’ve not really sat and thought too much about it because obviously I’m here right now – but it is the case, y’know. Many, many years from now they’ll be some kid, some grown-up sitting here… maybe it’s not many, many years from now – Sebastian’s not far behind on the poles, could catch-up, but yeah, I think it’s amazing, it’s a real privilege for all of us to be up here, knowing that even currently that there are kids, even adults that are looking up to us for inspiration in their daily lives but also setting goals. For me, I always try to put out positive energy. I think success comes a lot with a real positive frame of mind. It’s very easy for all of us to be negative on occasions – but the most important thing is to wake-up in the morning and try to find that positive energy, wherever you get it from, and apply that to whatever it is that you’re trying to work or achieve. I think we’re all born as stars with the opportunity to do something special. It’s all about finding and using  that positive energy.

    Q: (Livio Orrichio – globoesporte.com) Lewis, in your last set of tyres, you didn’t get the best in the T1, the first part of the track, but you did a wonderful T2. Did you change the car in the final part of the qualifying, the Q3?

    LH: You mean the last lap? No. Well, you can’t change the car, the only thing I could do is wing but that doesn’t affect the first sector. I was up as far as I’m aware. My dashboard, it said I was up 0.8 of a tenth, or something like that, nearly a tenth in sector one, so I’m not really sure what you’re relating to. Maybe it was down but my delta said it was up. But I didn’t change anything. I did pretty much the same sector – but the second sector particularly and a little bit in the last sector was really where I made the gains. That middle sector, Turn Ten, it’s nearly flat, as I mentioned. That was pretty awesome.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how crucial is it tomorrow to beat at least one of these guys behind… I mean in front of you, for your championship hopes?

    VB: Hopefully at least one behind, so I’m not last. Yeah, for sure we’re all fighting for the title. Obviously it is nine races to do so there are a massive amount of points still available. So this is only one race but every race counts. For sure try to gain any positions possible. For us as a team, we know that it is a strong circuit for us. So we really need to capitalise. We want, as a team, to be one-two. That’s going to be the mission.

    Q: (Bas Holtkamp – Raceexpress.com) Question to Lewis. Now you’ve achieved this goal for the most pole positions ever – almost, you’ve equalled Michael – what is your next goal. Do you have a magic number in mind? Like, are you going for the 80 or 100 or whatever?

    LH:  No, I haven’t… I generally take my days one days at a time so I haven’t planned for anything further than for what I already have – but I plan on being here for some time so I will work towards whatever number it could possibly be. When I came across the line on that slow-down lap, it was a real moment to reflect on my team, who did such a great job, who have worked so hard through the year to enable me, to give me the car of my dreams. That’s the car that we all… that’s the car that us three up here have dreamed of racing. There’s so many people back at the factory, and people watching TV just don’t even have the even the faintest idea. There’s so much work that goes on back home, there’s so many people. Every day I go to the factory I find a new little workshop that’s underneath the stairs, and I’ve been walking past that for five years and didn’t even know it was there – and five people come out of that little space and they’d have been there for 20 years. So, yeah, I’ve been really fortunate to work with some really great people and I’m just really just a small link in the chain but I’m proud of my link in the chain and I plan to continue to propel this car and this team forward. I believe that we can get many more – so that’s the goal. Sky’s the limit really.

    Q:(Flavio Vanetti – Corriera della Sera) Sebastian, we know that you signed a long term contract and I would like to know if in some way it’s the same trust that Michael had towards the team?  And secondly, if you had any moment in which you had doubts about Ferrari and maybe you thought to quit the team?

    SV: I don’t know what trust Michael had. I never actually spoke with him about that. Yeah, unfortunately, as you all know I didn’t have the opportunity. I think he would have been one of the first people to ask back in 2014 and probably have to consult also you know, now in terms of… I don’t know, through the course of this year for the future, whatever. I love this team, I love the people who are working for this brand. Obviously Lewis touched on the effort that is going into building a Formula One car. I think for most of the teams it’s probably the same but still I believe Ferrari has something unique, something that other teams don’t have. People talk about a legend, to me it appears that this legend is still alive because of the people who work for it, day in, day out. I’m sure you have been to Maranello, probably most of you haven’t but if you walk down the streets in Maranello, the presence of Ferrari is huge but if you see the people working at Ferrari and meet them, then it’s even bigger, what they carry inside them, the passion for the brand and that’s I think and I’m convinced, allowing every single one of them to go an extra step compared to other people, other teams. That’s my conviction and extremely grateful to be part of that family. In a way, it was a no-brainer to continue. We haven’t yet achieved what we what we wanted to achieve but things are looking pretty good and obviously we have a long road ahead of us.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, if you take pole position at Monza, you’ll break Michael’s record. Would that be the ultimate tribute to him, the ultimate place to do it in front of all the Ferrari fans to pay tribute to his greatness?

    LH: I’m not really sure whether that, how… my next step, how that applies to anyone else. If I dedicate it to him, yeah, could be the best tribute being that he had so much success at Ferrari and in Italy. Yeah, I’ve not really thought of it to be honest. Don’t have an answer for you there.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday, Motorsport Week.com) Sebastian, speculation before you signed was that you were going to possibly sign a one year deal with Ferrari. Now they’ve come out and announced that you’ve signed at least three years. Do you see yourself ending your career at Maranello?

    SV: Well, I don’t know, since we learned last year that these things can happen fairly quickly and spontaneously you never know. But yeah, obviously now I don’t need to think and spend time about thinking about the future so that’s clear and then I think we cross that bridge when we get to it. It’s a long time, a lot of things can happen so we will see. Also then you can never say never. You retire and then, I don’t I know, might get bored, come back. We may see Nico back in a couple of years, who knows? Michael obviously decided to come back at some point because he loved racing but that’s all far far away so not really a topic.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Sebastian, yesterday you said that there would be no news on your contract for two weeks. I just wanted to know what changed in 24 hours for you?

    SV: Nothing personal, I don’t like the Sun. I saw a clip yesterday of a funny interview with Jurgen Klopp and he doesn’t like the Sun either so maybe I will jump on the bandwagon. Maybe I give you a last answer. Yeah, I didn’t think that it’s probably the right time so I didn’t rush or push but things were coming along together fairly quickly in the end and we decided to go for it and make the call. So yeah, I know it wasn’t the best in terms of one day and then the other but that’s how it was.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Perhaps you will like the BBC, Sebastian. Did you actually sign it this weekend? How did you decide to sign for three years? And did you have any talks with or thoughts about joining Mercedes?

    SV: Well, I mean I have been around in the paddock for a while so I know people and it’s natural that you talk but it’s never been more than chatting, mostly about other stuff, to be honest but yeah, I’ve been talking for a while with Ferrari. As I said, my intention was to stay. We haven’t succeeded so the mission is still ongoing. I want to win in red. We talked about inspiration earlier about Michael, he was mostly dressed in red. He won most of his races in red and his championships. I don’t want to step in his footsteps. I think the whole generation of the Ferrari team today wants to leave their own footsteps but certainly there’s a huge inspiration so something for me is now the biggest challenge, the biggest dream that I have and what I want to achieve. I think, to answer your question at the beginning, since I like the BBC, is yes, I actually signed it this weekend.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Do you think tomorrow will be a Ferrari-Mercedes battle again or do you fear Red Bull might interfere?

    LH: Yeah, he just said where are they? I don’t… where did they qualify?

    SV: Five and six.

    LH: I’ve not seen their pace, so as far as I’m aware they’ve been a bit down on power, they’ve tried different… lower and higher range of wings. I think they’ve been a little bit off the pace as far as I’m aware but you never know. Whatever conditions we’re faced with tomorrow, I think the pace of us at the moment, both Ferrari and Mercedes, is pretty strong so…

    SV: Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that we see significant increase in race pace for Red Bull so obviously in qualifying, also round here, it might not be their strongest track but tomorrow, come race, lot of laps, looking after the tyres, I think they’ve proven in the past that they’re very strong so you should never under-estimate and forget about them.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Valtteri, is it frustrating seeing everybody else signing new contracts?

    VB: No. Good for them.

    LH: Who’s everybody else, anyways? This one dude here.

    Q: Kimi, Vandoorne.

    LH: Not everyone else.

    VB: No, I’m just really focusing on my own things. I know where we are with everything. I don’t need to worry if other people are doing contracts. I’m only interested in what I’m going to do and what the team is going to do and that’s what matters. Like I said, there’s no rush really because for this season I joined in January, so there’s still plenty of time.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To both Mercedes drivers: no problems with tyre temperatures considering the ultrasoft tyres on the flying laps and also long runs, and Sebastian, Lauda said today that he stopped talking to you two months ago. What went wrong that the conversations didn’t go ahead?

    LH: Can he answer first? I’m interested to hear his…

    SV: Nothing. Nothing went wrong. I think I’m very happy. I think Niki is generally a happy guy so… nothing went wrong.

    LH: For us, we didn’t have any problems with the tyres. I haven’t struggled with tyre temps so far this weekend and I think it wasn’t a problem throughout qualifying as well. It was very easy to get temperatures. The tyres have been giving quite a lot of grip. I think it feels like, particularly for qualifying, that the one step softer was a good direction but it will be interesting to see how it works out tomorrow.

    VB: Yeah, definitely, I think right choices from Pirelli for this weekend, to go with the softest compounds. Even with the ultrasofts no big problems, little bit of overheating during the lap but it’s not massive, it’s pretty normal so it was good.

     

    Photo by courtesy Pirelli

  • Hamilton Tops Rain Affected Free Practice 2 For Belgian GP

    Hamilton Tops Rain Affected Free Practice 2 For Belgian GP

    Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets at the end of a shortened Free Practice 2 after rain affected the final 20 minutes of the session.

    Hamilton set his time of 1:44.753 on the ultra soft tyres to go 0.262s faster than second fastest man, Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn cut the timing beam in 1:45.015 after Sebastian Vettel, who held the top spot for a short while, and Valtteri Bottas set their lap times.

    Third fastest of the session was Bottas almost half a second off the pace with a session best time of 1:45.180. Max Verstappen kept Red Bull in the mix with a 4th fastest time ahead of Sebastian Vettel who was 5th fastest. Vettel ultimately didn’t have a good session saying that he was not entirely happy with his afternoon. His long run pace should give Mercedes something to think about.

    Daniell Ricciardo was 6th fastest ahead of the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg. Both Renault’s were able to get into to the top 10 with Palmer in the other Renault ending the session 10th fastest behind Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso in 9th.

    Felipe Massa had to sit out the session following his crash in Free Practice 1. Williams confirmed that the safety cell on his car was punctured and a new chassis would need to be fitted. This requires the car to be scruitineered again by the stewards before the car is able to turn a wheel on the track. It is expected that the car will be checked tomorrow morning ahead of Free Practice 3.

    Drivers and teams took no chances as soon as the rain started falling and with 25 minutes still left in the session it was effectively over once the rain came down.

    It does seem like this weekend will belong to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes come qualifying. The new power upgrade to the Mercedes power unit looks like it’s already paying off, although we’ll only know the extent of the upgrade in Q3.


    Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

  • F1 2017: Belgian Gp First Practice Report – Raikkonen On Top

    F1 2017: Belgian Gp First Practice Report – Raikkonen On Top

    Kimi Raikkonen topped the first free practice session in his Ferrari ahead of Sunday’s Belgian grand prix.

    Formula 1 resumed after a month long shut down with a 90 minute practice session around the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. It was Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who topped the session with a quickest lap time of 1:45:502 set on the Ultrasoft compound tyre. Meanwhile Hamilton was second quickest but set his fastest lap of the session on the yellow-walled soft tyre. Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top five.

    The session was red-flagged early on when the Williams of Felipe Massa ended up in the barriers on the exit of Malmedy. So extensive was the damage to the Williams that the team are opting to change the chassis. Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber had his own reliability issues which allowed him to complete only 13 laps in the session. Later Valtteri Bottas inflicted some damage on his Mercedes as he strangely drifted off the track and into the barrier.

    Fernando Alonso’s session was underscored with an underperforming engine. The Honda engine in Alonso’s McLaren is a new spec, specifically version 3.6. Meanwhile, local driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who was tenth quickest in the session, will drop 35 places on Sunday’s starting grid due to power unit element changes.

    Final Standings Free Practice One:

    Screen Shot 2017-08-25 at 11.54.30 AM

  • F1 2017: Belgium Gp Preview – Spa Kicks of Second Half of F1 2017

    F1 2017: Belgium Gp Preview – Spa Kicks of Second Half of F1 2017

    The 2017 Formula 1 season resumes this weekend at the celebrated Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. As one of the most iconic and beloved circuits in the world the Belgian race weekend is eagerly recommended as one of the great races to attend in your lifetime.

    The reason for it isn’t only the grand circuit, which encompasses such memorably brave corners like Eau Rouge, Pouhon, or Blanchimont. Instead it’s the atmosphere created by the fervent supporters, being in the heart of the Ardennes forest, and watching the best driver in the word’s most elite racing series attempt to conquer the most classic circuit of them all.

    Often classified as the driver’s track at 7.5 kilometers Spa comprises of everything that makes a circuit great. Several elevation changes, off chamber corners, and a slew of overtaking opportunities should make the 44 laps a must watch.

    The high average speed of the circuit, and its layout, calls for a low downforce setup to be coupled with a good amount of power output. It sounds tailor-made for Mercedes and they will start the race weekend as favourites.

    Their most likely challengers are unlikely to be either Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen. One of the most disappointing aspects of the 2017 season is the fact that Red Bull didn’t hit the ground running. With the major regulation change it was expected that the Austrian-based team would be challenging for the titles in 2017 but this aspiration is a bridge too far for them now with only nine races remaining in the season.

    Nevertheless, team principal Christian Horner believes that his team will “at least” be able to match Ferrari’s pace for the remainder of the season. Their rate of development has been impressive especially since the Spanish gran prix. But it’s a bold statement given that Ferrari will be throwing everything at the remaining races in order to secure the respective drivers and constructors championship titles.

    Großer Preis von Spanien 2017, Samstag - Wolfgang WilhelmThe championship battle between Ferrari and Mercedes is likely, and hopefully, one that will go down to the wire at the season-ending Abu Dhabi grand prix. However, a single misstep in any of the next nine races could put serious pains to gaining the coveted trophies.

    For Mercedes, the gains have to come from improving the downforce of their 2017 car especially for the races that follow after the Belgian and Italian grand prix. “We definitely do have work to do, they [Ferrari] are quick through the corners, and we need to work on that. We need to work on our maximum-downforce package, that’s the main thing,” Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas confirmed.

    kimi-the-king-of-spa-It’s not straightforward for Ferrari either. They’ve been lacking a bit of pace at certain races, most recently, Silverstone. However, the last race before the summer break was a momentum-building, and important, one-two victory.

    It means that Ferrari will arrive in Belgium with confidence and with two drivers who can run right at the sharp-end. What’s more, championship leader Sebastian Vettel firmly believes that the team has identified its areas of weakness and is now more able to set about improving the car.

    Arguably, Spa is one of the circuits where Kimi Raikkonen excels most. As a five-time winner and with impressive performances in the last two Raikkonen isn’t too bad a bet for victory this weekend, if Vettel isn’t in second.

  • F1 2017: Mid-Season Report

    F1 2017: Mid-Season Report

    The 2017 Formula 1 season ushered in fundamental change both on and off the circuit.

    One of the biggest changes to F1 came in the form of the new aerodynamic regulations that drastically changed the aesthetics and the speed of the cars. Wider and faster the 2017 cars have, mostly, brought a refreshing change to F1. While cars have been cornering significantly quicker than they ever have before the issue of overtaking has still not been solved. The wider cars, and bigger tyres, have instead made the ability of following a competitor closely a lot tougher. However, the flip of side of this has been that, when presented with an overtaking opportunity, drivers have been more aggressive in making their moves, which has led to more entertaining racing.

    While the change to the cars has been a substantial change the biggest change has been, arguably, the resurgence of Ferrari. Less we forget, up until 2017, Mercedes has dominated the hybrid era with consummate ease. The fact that Ferrari is a bona fide championship challenger has been a refreshing change that the sport desperately needed. While the championship battle will likely, and hopefully, carry all the way to the final race of the season, the most impressive aspect of Ferrari’s resurrection has been how the team has achieved it. Though it may be paying off in this season it isn’t something that’s happened overnight. The first pieces of the puzzle were put in place years ago, as noted in this column back in 2014, and is testament to an inspired dedication by all involved at Maranello.

    Nevertheless, while Ferrari has been, mostly, impressive in 2017, Mercedes haven’t exactly been slouching. Lewis Hamilton, faced with consistent pressure from Sebastian Vettel, is probably driving as well as he ever has in his career. With due respect to the deserved 2016 Hamilton always believed that he had enough to beat Rosberg and he did so two times out of three. But with Vettel it’s different as he’s now up against a four-time champ who is relentless, ruthless, and ready for title number five.

    M81131One of the most impressive drivers this season has been Valtteri Bottas. The Finnish driver has quietly made his way into the championship fight with some impressive drives. It’s never beating a master of qualifying such as Hamilton and Bottas has finally begun to fulfill the potential he entered F1 with. Many wouldn’t have easily written off his chances of beating Hamilton, over a season, at the start of the year. But this question isn’t so comfortably answered after half a season of Bottas vs. Hamilton.

    Formula 1 is a baptism of fire for any driver but even more so for rookie drivers.Williams’ newly signed Canadian rookie Lance Stroll had one such rough start to his F1 career. While he wasn’t to blame for the three retirements in the first three races of the season it was evident that he was struggling and over-driving his car.

    But the turning point came in Canada with a fine ninth place finish on home soil. Since then, he’s matured and become more comfortable which he capped, so far, with a memorable third place in Baku. While circumstances conspired to elevate him to that position he still needed to do the job in the cockpit.

    Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Spanish Grand Prix - Race Day - Barcelona, SpainElsewhere, Esteban Ocon has quickly found his feet in Force India and F1. So much so that he’s been more than a nuisance to his highly rated teammate Sergio Perez. Yes, he’s made a few mistakes but overall Ocon has been a brilliant addition to the team who could easily be mistaken for a seasoned F1 driver.

    As it stands Vettel leads Hamilton by fourteen points in the driver’s championship but its not a comfortable lead by any stretch of the imagination.

    And the best thing of all about the 2017 Formula 1 season as that for the first time in quite a while we have no idea which way the championship will go. The season resumes at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit on August 27.

  • F1 2017: Hungarian Gp Review – Formation Flying For Ferrari

    F1 2017: Hungarian Gp Review – Formation Flying For Ferrari

    The Hungaroring was always a circuit slated to suit the characteristics of the 2017 Ferrari and the Italian team drove home their advantage with a controlled one-two victory.

    As in Saturday qualifying the Ferrari driver pair of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were line astern in first and second at light out. As the pair cleanly led at lights out the Mercedes duo, Bottas and Hamilton, had there hands full of fast starting Red Bulls. However, while the initial start went relatively well Verstappen clouted the side of his teammate Ricciardo in a clash that would ultimately come with a hefty price. The coming together put Ricciardo out of the race while Verstappen incurred a ten second time penalty for his part in the incident. While Verstappen’s move was rather silly there was, clearly, no intention on his part, which made the penalty somewhat harsh.

    Initially, pace set by Vettel and Raikkonen was much too quick for Bottas to live with who quickly fell seven seconds behind in the opening stint. Vettel too seemed to have the measure of Raikkonen in the opening laps but as the race drew towards its pitstop phase the Finn was clearly the quickest of the two Ferrari’s and easily maintained a second gap to his race leading teammate.

    048Despite the track temperature soaring in the mid fifty degree range and fears of increased tyre degradation they Pirelli compounds held up well, perhaps a bit too well. It’s no secret that Pirelli’s approach to the manufacturing and construction of their 2017 tyres has been conservative. It is this conservatism that has led to drivers being able to make one stop per race.

    It is likely that Pirelli conservative approach stems from an apprehension that the quicker, and heavier, 2017 cars needed more robust tyre construction. Here’s hoping that with all the data gathered this season that 2018 sees malleable range of compounds.

    While Vettel wrapped up the 46th victory of his career it was clear that he was not the fastest Ferrari driver on the day. For the majority of the second half of the race teammate Raikkonen ran within a second of the leader clearly illustrating his superior pace. But as the Hungaroring is notorious for lack of overtaking second is what the Finn was confined too. It didn’t make for a comfortable afternoon for Ferrari though as both Mercs of Bottas and Raikkonen started closing down the leading pair at a rate of knots.

    There was a suggestion that Ferrari swap Vettel and Raikkonen so as to ensure a comfortable victory but this move never happened. Contrary to many on social media, who slated Ferrari’s unwillingness to swap its drivers around, it was the right move. The reality of the team orders debate is that you can’t have it both ways. In Monaco, Ferrari handing Vettel the optimum strategy and ultimately the race win was rightly criticized. If this was unacceptable from Ferrari it shouldn’t have been accepted, or called for, in Hungary either.

    065While it ended well for Ferrari in Hungary Mercedes and Hamilton would’ve won a few more fans with the spirit they displayed. On the instruction of the team Bottas had let Hamilton, with better pace, through to third with the aim of catching the Ferrari pair and giving back the place if he couldn’t do so. However, by the start of the final lap Bottas was seven seconds adrift and under pressure from a recovering Verstappen.

    Nevertheless, Hamilton, in a superb show of sportsmanship, slowed significantly in the final corner to give return Bottas’ third place. While Hamilton gave up three points by finishing fourth his move has earned respect. Verstappen, apologetic after the race for the clash with his teammate, eventually finished fifth.

    Amazingly, Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap of the race and finished a solid sixth ahead of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz in seventh. The Force India drivers continued to keep each other honest with Sergio Perez in eighth and Esteban Ocon in ninth as the second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne scored the final point in tenth. Williams’ Felipe Massa withdrawal from the Hungarian Gp with an inner-ear issue meant that reserve driver Paul di Resta was subbed it almost literally at the last minute. While he ultimately retired with an oil leak the Williams reserve driver did his reputation no harm with a measured performance in a car he’d never driver before.

    The majority of the 70 laps of the Hungarian Gp were nervy for Ferrari but they emerged with an important one-two finish. It allows Sebastian Vettel to stem Mercedes’ momentum and to crucially take a fourteen-point lead into the month-long break.

    (All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

  • 2017 Hungarian GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2017 Hungarian GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     

    GRID INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Will Buxton)

    First question inaudible.

    Sebastian VETTEL: … to have the car in the right window, to have the sun shining, to have people around, that’s what it is about, so it was really big fun. Obviously a front row for us, which is incredible and now we are looking forward to tomorrow.

    Q: Yeah, no, front row in front of all the Ferrari fans, the flags waving in the grandstands. What changed overnight, between yesterday and today?

    SV: Nothing. We are working hard. Obviously the last race wasn’t great for us, but it doesn’t matter now. We are here and try to do the best and that’s what matters. Really step by step and I am very happy with where we are as a team. Again, we need to remember where we were 12 months ago and where we are now. Also thanks to the support, people believing in us. It’s great to get the result also on Saturday, but as I said, the main task comes tomorrow so nothing won today but sure we are very happy and take it to move forward.

    Q: Kimi, that was a superb lap, absolutely sensational. Listen to all you fans, massive fan base in from Finland. How good did that lap feel? 

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Actually not too good. The start was good and the end was not too bad but in the chicane I braked on the outside kerb and got loose and really threw it away there but you know, it was decent enough for second place but it is disappointing. I felt I had it quite comfortably but you know I couldn’t really finish.

    Q: Is it too easy to say that this is a track naturally should have suited Ferrari?

    KR: If you purely looked at lap times, yes, but then if you look from yesterday it wasn’t the easiest day and today we have definitely been pretty happy with things. I managed to improve my car for the qualifying and I must say we are happy with how they are handling now. So far, so good but tomorrow is going to be a long race and a hard battle, so we have to keep it going.

    Q: Valtteri, lots of Finnish flags. A great lap, phenomenal job. How hard has it been for you guys to take the fight to Ferrari today? 

    Valtteri BOTTAS: They’ve been quick all weekend and coming into qualifying we knew it should be close and they will be tough to beat and they really had the upper hand today. They had a quicker car, so they have clearly got everything right for this track and we still have work to do on circuits like this, but you know, let’s see tomorrow.

    Q: Are you guys on the back foot a little bit this weekend? 

    VB: This weekend, yes, clearly. We can see that we are not performing as we should, as we want, so that just highlights that we still have work to do with the car. But now we are focusing for the race tomorrow, because it’s going to a long one and still anything is possible.

    Q: Seb, you lead the championship by one point, summer break starts tomorrow. Is it going to be, well, 25 points tomorrow? How big is that gap going to be? 

    SV: Not by my count: summer break starts on Monday. Not even that, we have the test next week. Numbers… I was decent I would say in maths in school but yeah it’s way too early. We go racing; we go flat out. That’s what we have been doing for the first races and that’s what we keep doing. I think that’s the only way to succeed. Certainly we have a lot of boost from people here, at home and in Italy, you know, it can’t be better than that and the main thing is to enjoy.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Sebastian, your 48th pole. It looked a pretty seamless session from where we were sitting, how was it for you? 

    SV: Seamless? Well, it was seamless in terms of we didn’t have any problems. I felt quite good straight away from Q1 onwards, we did the laps that we had to do and then come Q3 I was fairly confident… you always debate about small things you can do with the car. I was very happy with the first run. I knew there was still a little bit, so I went flat out on the second attempt and I was a little bit faster, it felt like I was faster, but then I arrived in the last sector and I think I asked a bit too much of the tyres beforehand and lost it, sort of, all in three corners and did the same time. So then I didn’t know. I looked up and I didn’t know who was coming behind me because there was a bit of time. I was very happy with the first lap. I think the second could have been a little bit better. The car was phenomenal. And then when I saw it was two red in the first two positions then obviously… the same time, simultaneously the radio opened and there was a big scream. So, really nice. Obviously it is only Saturday, so nothing to get from today other than the best position but we did that and it’s great I think, especially after… there’s always a lot of talk but the talk after the last race was a bit too much so it’s good to give the answer on the track. I’m just happy, as I said. I really like the track. The car was fantastic today and it was really a pleasure to just go round.

    Q: Kimi, it is a Ferrari front-row lock-out. You came on the radio at one point and said you were unhappy with your braking, so was there more to come from you? Had you been happier with the car?

    KR: No, in the end it was OK. Obviously when you lock the front, it’s not ideal but there is nothing wrong with anything, it’s just you try to always find a better way of driving and doing things, so it’s a very normal thing to discuss stuff like that. I was pretty happy with the last apart from going into the chicane, I dropped the wheels on the left kerb and got sideways. I lost an awful lot of lap time. I really felt I had a good chance to put it in first place but anyhow it was decent enough for second place, so obviously great for the team. But it is only Saturday. We have a long way to go tomorrow, both cars, and we try to keep the positions and see what happens.

    Q: Valtteri, Mercedes were seeking their third consecutive front row lock-out here in Hungary. It hasn’t happened. How surprised have you and the team been by the pace of the guys sat alongside you?

    VB: I definitely think today, all-day, Ferrari has been just too quick for us. We saw in the practice the times they were doing: after that we were expecting a tricky qualifying but I think, y’know, it felt like we got most out of it, more or less but just they were quicker today and yesterday it was looking a bit better for us, so, yeah, today was a little bit surprising but it just shows that we definitely have work to do. Tracks like that that requires the maximum downforce of the car, we seem to be struggling a bit more, for one reason or another. So, just need to keep working.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, of course from here the aim must be victory – but you haven’t had a clean race since the Monaco Grand Prix. So which is more important: having victory tomorrow or having a clean race at last before the summer break?

    SV: Well, if you say the last clean race was Monaco, it ended in a victory so… I don’t know. Chances are good, we start at the front, they couldn’t be any better but tomorrow is a long day. It’s hot, it’s always hot here. It’s tough for tyres. We saved a set compared to the others. We’ll see. I think the race is long and a lot of things to look out for so… yeah. A clean race is a good race and then we’ll see which result we get.

    Q: (Péter Vámosi – Vas Népe) Question to all drivers. Since 2005 there is a tendency here, if you win the Hungarian Grand Prix, you will be not the champion at the end of the year. What do you think about this?

    SV: I don’t know what happened in 2004?

    Michael Schumacher won here…

    SV: 2003? I don’t know. Statistics! I think if you ask us, we all want to win tomorrow. That’s it.

    Kimi, Valtteri, anything to add?

    VB: No. Nothing to add, we all want to win tomorrow.

    KR: I’ll happily take it. See what happens.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Valtteri, the car was lacking a little bit here in the supersoft tyres but how was it on the soft tyres in the long runs?

    VB: I think long runs seemed OK but it seemed OK also for Ferrari and actually Red Bull, so at least what we could see from the practice long runs, all three teams were really consistent actually. So, yeah, that’s why today in Budapest is always important but yeah, I’m sure we can still fight for… trying to gain position, trying to win the race. That’s still the goal although it’s not going to be easy because it’s consistent pace between the teams.

    Q: (Ysef Harding – Xiro Xone News) This question’s for Valtteri and Kimi. Both of you have had some interesting interactions with some young fans. What does it feel like having that kind of support from the smallest of F1 fans?

    VB: yeah, so y’know, I saw the picture of this guy. I’ve never had that kind of fan: face painted, hair painted blue. Just wanted to cheer him up. The boy was in the wheelchair as well. The team managed to find his parents and that was really cool. I’ve never seen the reaction of a fan like that, so it made my day really, also meeting him.

    Kimi, you remember back to the Spanish Grand Prix?

    KR: Yeah, obviously it was a sad moment at first, so not very happy memories of the first part but then the second part cheered me up and cheered up the little guy and his family up a lot, so obviously it was great. Can’t expect to happen every time, just by luck it all went like that, I guess. It’s great if we can please somebody. Had quite a hard time with me going out so, yeah, it turned out to be OK and that’s the main thing.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte) Question to all drivers. The qualifying, we were in 56°C in the asphalt. It seems to be it will be a challenge to keep the tyres for tomorrow. Ferrari at the beginning of the season had an advantage on that. Comment of all drivers, Mercedes and Ferrari.

    SV: Yeah, I think your question is also a good summary. I have not that much to add. It’s been really close. Tomorrow will be largely unknown because we didn’t get much yesterday. We got a glimpse but there was a lot of red flags so nobody could really do what they wanted to do. So we’ll see. We’ll see how it works. Obviously first we focus on the start and then we see how the race goes – but really happy with the car today. The balance was better than yesterday. I don’t see why it should change for tomorrow. It was hotter today than yesterday and yeah, I think we were coping quite well with that. Should be OK – but yeah, for sure it will be the main challenge tomorrow to survive longer than the others in better shape.

    Kimi, anything to add about the balance of your car and the track temperature?

    KR: No, that’s perfect.

    OK, Valtteri, how about the Mercedes?

    VB: Well, can’t say it was absolutely perfect but for sure it’s going to be more tricky tomorrow than the long runs we did yesterday – but that’s going to be the same for everyone. I think us, as a team, we have improved since some of the struggles we’ve had in hotter temperatures, it’s gone in a bit better direction. Tomorrow will be a good test for that.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1vilag) Kimi and Sebastian: F1 teams will have two days of testing at the Hungaroring next week. So how important will those days be for Ferrari in terms of upgrades and in terms of fighting with Mercedes during the second half or the season? 

    KR: Obviously it’s important. We don’t get an awful lot of track time so you can do simulations and stuff like that but when you get track time, it’s definitely the best option and obviously we have two days so we will see what we come up with and what we try and find out but it’s definitely helpful and we can obviously have a bit more freedom and time to try things and learn about certain things.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) To all three: given how difficult it is to overtake here and recent history at starts, how much risks are you all prepared to take in the first few moments of the race? 

    VB: Yeah, it is one of the most difficult circuits to overtake, that’s for sure. So yeah, the start will be important. It’s quite a slow speed corner, turn one, high braking so normally you can see places being exchanged so for sure, trying to gain if there’s any possibility.

    KR: Obviously, if you could chose, you would take the left hand side but I don’t think it’s really going to destroy your day, it’s more about making a good start rather than which side you are and try to do that and see what happens in the first few corners.

    SV: Well, it’s not the first start for us. I think we’ve been there… I think we all focus on the start and then you have to react from there, it’s impossible to predict. I think we’ve had good starts, especially this weekend so let’s see tomorrow.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) To all three of you: all of you have been doing spectacular lap times today, in fact Sebastian broke the lap record from 2004 by more than two seconds, so could you please describe how much more spectacular it feels from the car to drive on a twisty circuit like this so much quicker than before? And in which corners is the most spectacular compared to last year?

    SV: Well, it feels great, I think we always want to go faster so… we always want more so it’s good to know and to feel that the cars are fast, certainly faster than they’ve ever been so that’s great, also in terms of power, I think we’re getting there so it’s quite nice. Biggest differences I would say is that you tend to gain everywhere but braking, I think, is a big difference and then talking specifically about corners, obviously you’ve got the high speed (turns) four and eleven and I think also the fact that they resurfaced for last year helps, especially in turn five. Eight and nine are less bumpy so you can extract the grip a little bit more. Yeah, it’s always nice to go fast.

    Kimi, you were in Formula One back in those… the halcyon era of 2004; how does this compare?

    KR: Obviously very difficult to compare. I think the biggest improvement comes from resurfacing the circuit and it improved the grip like in Austria. It’s very smooth and a lot of grip. Obviously the cars are faster this year than last year but no way to compare. It feels very normal for us because we get used to it. Done it for a lot of races that are actually a lot faster circuits so it’s not suddenly like… even if the lap time is a lot faster, it doesn’t feel like… it just feels normal.

    VB: Yeah, definitely it is quick like all the circuits; all the corners this year are pretty much quicker so you always enjoy it more, especially turn four and eleven here is impressively quick and I like it.

  • F1 Hungarian GP qualifying: Ferrari locks out the front row

    F1 Hungarian GP qualifying: Ferrari locks out the front row

    The Scuderia Ferrari team stamped their authority all over today’s Hungarian grand prix qualifying session locking out the front row of the grid, leaving the Mercedes team on the second row.

    It was Sebastian Vettel who took the pole position for tomorrow’s race, with a record breaking time of 1:16.276. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen slotted in ever just under two-tenths behind him with a 1:16.244.

    Valtteri Bottas was the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers with a struggling Lewis Hamilton lining up in fourth place. Hamilton has been complaining all weekend about balance, vibrations, and difficulty handling the Mercedes. The W08 is most definitely not happy with the heat around the Hungaroring, especially so when Pirelli’s supersoft tyres are bolted onto the car. The Briton completed the qualifying session just over half a second off Vettel’s pace. And, with pole position being so crucial around the notoriously difficult-to-overtake Hungaroring, Hamilton will have his work cut out for him tomorrow if he intends taking back the championship lead from Vettel – even if there’s only one point currently separating the two world champs.

    The Red Bulls locked out the third row of the grid with Max Verstappen beating Daniel Ricciardo to the fifth spot. The Red Bulls have been looking strong all weekend but just couldn’t put it together to take up position in the second row. Nico Hulkenberg qualified seventh fastest but will take a five place penalty thanks to a gearbox change.

    Both McLaren drivers made it to Q3 and Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will start from 8th and 9th on the grid respectively, with Carlos Sainz rounding out the top 10 in his Toro Rosso.

    Jolyon Palmer was knocked out in Q2 after setting a time 0.760s slower than his team mate. He beat Force India’s Esteban Ocon to the 11th spot on the grid by just 0.080s. Daniil Kvyat will line up from 13th place with Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean behind him.

    Kevin Magnussen set an identical time to Perez but missed out on the Q2 spot because the Force India driver set his time first. Rookie Williams driver Lance Stroll was 17th fastest 0.007s off Magnussen and Perez, with Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein’s lining up behind him in 18th.

    The star of the show must have been Paul Di Resta though. The Scot made his F1 comeback following Felipe Massa being pulled out of the race weekend. He’s been feeling ill and dizzy and the call was made during the final practice session to let Di Resta take the wheel.

    Despite finishing only 19th, Di Resta showed real progress throughout the qualifying session. His five flying lap times looked like this: 1m22.289s, 1m21.218s, 1m21.075s, 1m20.390s, 1m19.868s. That sort of progress can’t be attributed to anything other than proper skill real. He’ll be making his first race start since the 2013 Brazilian grand prix and Marcus Ericsson will line up behind him for tomorrow’s race.

  • F1 2017: Free Practice 1 Report Hungarian Gp – Ricciardo Quickest

    F1 2017: Free Practice 1 Report Hungarian Gp – Ricciardo Quickest

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the quickest time of the first free practice session ahead of the 2017 Hungarian grand prix.

    Ricciardo’s 1:18:486 was roughly two and a half tenths quicker than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen while Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, an Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top five. Sebastian Vettel was sixth quickest while the McLaren’s showed well on a circuit which should suit their car with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in seventh and eighth respectively. Renault teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer rounded out the top ten.

    Mid-way through the practice session a red flag was brought out by Antonio Giovinazzi. Subbing for Kevin Magnussen in the first practice session Giovinazzi seemed to aggressive on turn in to turn 11 and binned the Haas in the outside barrier, tearing the front-left suspension off.

    A second red flag was brought out right at the conclusion of the session for debris strewn across the circuit as Jolyon Palmer in the Renault tore off his front wing on the Turn 11 kerb.

    Free Practice 1 Standings:

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