Tag: mercedes

Hamilton pips Rosberg to pole during Singapore GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton pipped Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to pole position during an insanely cool conclusion to today’s qualifying session ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton locked up into the first corner on his final flying lap during Q3 but was able to recover well enough to beat Rosberg by what Rosberg has rued as a “nothing gap” of only 0.007secs.

Their first runs in Q3 saw the duo only banking 6th and 7th place on the grid but in the closing run of the session it was Rosberg who stole top spot, only to have Hamilton snatch it away from him.

Those final few minutes of Q3 were exactly what Formula One is all about! As the flag dropped, we watched Daniel Ricciardo crossing the line to take the provisional pole position – to the ecstacy of the Singapore crowd who went absolutely crazy for him as he crossed the line.

But moments later, it was Nico Rosberg who had the crowd on their feet as he snatched the pole away, before Hamilton came storming across the line to take that all important pole position.

Rosberg was really frustrated about missing out. When told that Hamilton had beaten him to pole by 0.007s, Rosberg shouted “Damn it!” on the radio.

After qualifying, Rosberg said, “Seven thousandths [of a second], when I think back to the lap, it’s nothing. It’s just a little bit here or there that could have done it, but that’s the way it is. Lewis did a good job to get pole, so fair play and second place is okay. It’s a long race ahead and it’s fine.”

Rosberg did point out that a change in brake specification before qualifying put him off his game a tad, though he says it started to come together in time for his final run.

“We changed brakes ahead of qualifying and I’d got into rhythm with the other brakes so that was a challenge and we expected it to be. The balance also wasn’t very good because the track had cooled down, so relative to the session before qualifying when it was hotter, there was a lot more understeer and the rear has a lot more grip. I had to completely adapt the settings to get it through qualifying, but in the end I was able to push flat out and put in a good lap time.”

The two Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, have locked out the second row of the grid.

Sebastian Vettel apologised to his team immediately after the qualifying session, saying that he really thought he had more time in him and that he could have done better. Christian Horner replied saying, “Don’t worry Sebby. It’ll come.”

But, reflecting on the session, “I’m not happy with that final lap, I was pushing a bit too hard and didn’t get it all together,” he explained after qualifying. But the German feels that they could have had a shot at getting the pole today and said, “I think pole position could have been in our grasp today.”

“We’ll hope to have a good race tomorrow, with good pit-stops and a good strategy and we’ll see what we can do from there,” he added. “It’s a long race, so we’ll see how the tyres work and what we can do.”

For a short while, it seemed as though Ferrari might be able to get in on some front row action but Q3 saw Fernando Alonso only managing 5th place, while a software problem saw Kimi Raikkonen forced to stop his run before being able to put in a final lap and only managed to finish seventh on the grid.

Ferrari technical chief Pat Fry apologised to Raikkonen for the issue after the qualifying session.

“We are sorry that he had a software problem on his final Q3 run, because he could definitely have got a better result,” he said.

But Raikkonen said that the issue had not overshadowed the breakthrough that he and the team made.

“We’ve been struggling with the car a bit all weekend, but we kept changing it and we changed it for qualifying, which was good,” he said.

“It was one of the few times that we have changed it to something really good that I wanted. Unfortunately we had a problem, but there was a lot of potential today and it was nice to have a good feeling with the car.”

Raikkkonen also felt that there was more potential to be reached before hitting the software glitch that brought his session to an end.

“I know I kept messing up the middle sector all the time and there was a lot of potential on the other sectors,” said the Finn. “There was a good feeling with the car and I could put it where I wanted. It was feeling easier to drive, so it’s a shame what happened today, but that’s our sport. Sometimes you hope it would happen during a different weekend when you’re having difficult times.”

The initial Q3 runs saw Felipe Massa having a taste at the provisional pole position after the first round of runs, but he slipped down to 6th with the second runs. Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas placed his car in 8th place.

The top 10 was rounded out by Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat.

Jenson Button will be very disappointed after being the biggest casualty of Q2. The Brit locked up at the hairpin and just missed out, finishing 11th. Jean-Eric Vergne, who was very impressive during the practice sessions, brought his car home in 12th place.

Nico Hulkenberg was 13th fastest, while Esteban Gutiérrez did well to split the Force India drivers and beat compatriot Esteban Gutiérrez.

Romain Grosjean complained of brake issues in the first knockout session but progressed, although he was the slowest runner in Q2 and will line up in 16th position. He was most unimpressed at the end of the session, bellowing over the team radio, “I don’t believe it! Bloody engine! Bloody engine! We bust our balls for this?!” An apology from his engineer explaining that it was the same issue they had in Q3 was not enough for him, “I don’t care! I don’t care! It’s too much!”

Adrian Sutil was unable to make it out of Q1 and informed his Sauber team that he was struggling for power, while Pastor Maldonado managed only 18th in the Lotus.

Both Jules Bianchi and Kamui Kobayashi were quicker than their respective team mates, with Max Chilton a second behind Bianchi and Ericsson rounding out the field, 1.9s down on Kobayashi, although he missed his first run due to electrical issues.

Your final provisional grid with lap times are below. Join us on Twitter @F1_Madness tomorrow for what we hope will be a cracking Singapore Grand Prix. There’ll be live commentary before, during, and after the race, as well as some chat and interaction with like-minded F1 crazy fans! Join us!

September 20, 2014
Singapore GP Free Practice 3: Alonso Finishes Top

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso pulled out one very quick lap in Free Practice 3 to finish top of the time sheets for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Alonso topped the session with a 1:47.299, 0.051s quicker than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished P2 with a 1:47.350. Nico Rosberg ended his session in P3 with a 1:47.488, 0.189s slower than Alonso’s time.

It would seem that Mercedes were sandbagging in this session and not revealing their true pace. When asked, Mercedes Executive Director Toto Wolff said that is was a normal free practice three for them. When pushed further by SkySports F1’s Ted Kravitz, all he said was “This is free practice and not qualifying”.

The turn of pace of the Ferrari is very encouraging, although on the other end of the garage, team mate Kimi Raikkonen could only manage a P9 finish nearly a second off the pace.

The surprise of the session was Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne who finished the session in P4 with a 1:47.711 ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes could only manage 1:47.738 to finish P6.

The Williams team looks like they’ve sorted out their oversteer issues with the car and finished in P7 with Felipe Massa and P8 with Valtteri Bottas.

This session was much more closely contested with the top 9 all withing 1-second of each other. With Ferrari and Red Bull showing encouraging pace, we may see a Mercedes upset. On the other hand, Mercedes could’ve just been taking it easy and will blitz the field in qualifying.

Below is the full timing sheet for FP3

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

September 20, 2014
Hamilton On Top after Practice 2 in Singapore

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished top of the time sheets in the second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Hamilton topped the session with a time of 1:47.490. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished the session in P2 with a 1:47.623, 0.133s slower than Hamilton. Although it seems as though Hamilton may have a few tenths of a second in the bag. Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull finished the session in P3 with a 1 47.790, 0.3s slower than Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen finished in P4 in the sister Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel managed P5 after spending most of the session in the garage after and engine replacement following his engine problem in FP1.

Nico Rosberg reported understeer early on in the session but pounded around. He was called into the pits and the mechanics got to work on his car. On his flying lap, Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado crashed at the exit of T12 after running over the kerbs into T11 and getting a bit of oversteer into T12. He went straight into the barriers which brought an end to his session. It just didn’t work out for Rosberg who finished the session in P13.

McLaren have said that they intend to challenge Red Bull at the Singapore Grand Prix. They’ve come out fighting and they’re quite close to Red Bull in terms of pace. They’re not there yet, but its encouraging news for the Woking based team. Williams on the other hand are struggling for pace. The Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished the session in P17 and P18 respectively. The FW36 does not seem to like the slow nature of the Marina Bay Circuit.

The session was a very close session with the top 7 all within 1-second of each other. The long run pace of the Mercedes cars was quick. The Red Bulls and the Ferrari’s were not far off Mercedes in the long run pace either. All this has the making of a very exciting race.

The full timing sheet for FP2 is included below:

September 19, 2014
Post Free Practice 1 Singapore – Alonso Tops The Sheets

Fernando Alonso topped the times for the first free practice session ahead of Sunday’s Singapore grand prix.

The Ferrari driver set the fastest time of the one and a half hour session ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The Red Bull pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top five respectively.

Safe for a few brushes of the barrier and the odd spin no driver has yet been felled by the 5km long Marina Bay circuit. Much of the focus was pulled rather to the driver’s helmet colours for this weekend with a plethora of designs up and down the pitlane.

The newly announced, but relaxed, ban on radio communication between the pitwall and driver made its presence felt in the first session of the weekend. Lewis Hamilton’s inquiry as to other driver’s sector times was met with a “we’ll talk about it when you’re back in the pits” from Bonno, his race engineer.

The session came to fiery end for Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn’s right-front brake caught fire in the pitbox. Sebastian Vettel’s session ended on a less than stellar note as the German was forced to pull over at the exit of the pitlane with what he thought was “a problem with the engine.”

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

September 19, 2014
F1 2014: Singapore GP Preview – Stage set for Singapore Showdown

It wasn’t that long ago that the thought of Formula 1 cars under lights was just something the ringmasters were talking about for the future. Now, in 2014, Singapore marks its seventh year on the calendar. It’s no exaggeration to say that after nearly a decade of glittering floodlit F1 cars it still tickles the fancy.

Sebastian Vettel has won the last three Singapore Gp and it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that he could notch up number four. A complete domination, not a Mercedes victory is a given this weekend. Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit has the most corners of all the tracks on the 2014 calendar and its dependence on mechanical grip rather than pure engine power creates the potential for some rivalry. “The demands on the car are very high in terms of braking, steering and also the engine. It’s also a long race – often running to the full two hour limit and frequently characterised by safety cars,” says Paddy Lowe, Mercedes technical director.

The battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will too recommence. In Italy, Hamilton got the better of Rosberg but the latter still holds a 22 point lead. As proven in Monaco, minus the dubious qualifying incident, Rosberg is no slouch around the street circuits. But the small mistake, that cost him victory at Monza, is the tiniest indication of a crack in the ever polished veneer. As a result Hamilton is in the ascendency where the psychological fight is concerned but it means little if you’re still trailing in the points. However, the Brit and not Rosberg, is the one under more pressure this weekend. Because, unlike Hamilton, never before has Rosberg been lauded as the fastest man in F1, never has he been called a championship contender before this year, and never has he been expected to win simply because of who he is. This all translates to the fact that Rosberg has very little to prove and has far less pressure than megastar Lewis Hamilton.

Change is abounding in the Ferrari camp as the ubiquitous Luca di Montezemolo has stepped down as President. Montzemolo must be praised for the terrific and tireless job he has done to maintain the team’s legacy. This is another in a long line of significant changes within the Italian team and while all the re-shuffling and re-working and hiring and ‘gardening leave’ is fine and dandy there is still a worry that all the moving and shaking may not pan out where it matters most – on the track.

Nevertheless, one of its two drivers, Kimi Raikkonen, is optimistic about a better performance around the Singapore streets. A disastrous home grand prix last time out again drew attention to its dismal power unit and Raikkonen has pointed out the ERS (energy recovery system) as the team’s biggest Achilles heel. However, the less power hungry and more twisty the circuit the better it will play to the Ferrari. “I think the next few circuits will suit us as they’re not so fast. We have to go there and see how the car is, but I expect to be in a stronger position,” says Raikkonen.

One of the things that have always been liked about Formula 1 is its excessive attention to detail. No element or point is too small to escape the hawk-like, near obsessive, meticulousness with which these teams go to work. Recently, this continuous aim towards perfectionism has spilled over to ‘driver coaching.’ We say recently because audiences have only been exposed to radio communications between car and pitwall over the last few seasons.

‘Driver coaching’ has been noted most frequently between the Mercedes drivers and their respective engineers this season. On numerous occasions Hamilton and/or Rosberg would be instructed as to where they could potentially gain time or where they were losing time in comparison to the teammate. No more says the FIA who have clamped down and outlawed all messages that aid driver or car performance. This includes informing a driver about how to manage his fuel consumption.

Long since some have been moaning that the drivers are simply puppets merely following instruction from the pitwall. Now driving will be instinctual rather than a reaction to reams of telemetry data. By golly, they’ll have to think for themselves and it could just improve F1’s image.

Invariably, because F1 employs some of the most brilliant minds in the world there is likely to be coded message passed to the drivers even if the FIA has said these are not allowed. Good news is that we will still here Bonno telling Hamilton that it’s “hammer time” and Kimi Raikkonen will be left alone as he so memorably requested at the 2012 Abu Dhabi grand prix.

September 18, 2014
Broadcast Times for the 2014 Fomrmula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula 1 circus heads out for the final few rounds of fly-away races and for the season and the first stop is the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The 5.065km circuit is one of the most physically and mentally demanding circuits on the calendar. Not only is it long in distance, but it borders on the 2 hour race limit. If there is more than one safety car period, the race will have to conclude after the 2 hour time limit has passed. This has happened once and with a safety car almost always guaranteed at the race it’s likely that we may see it happen again.

The heat and humidity, even at night, makes it very tough on the drivers and the length adds to that. Cooling for the cars is also very important for this track.

McLaren have said that they would be ready to challenge Red Bull by the Singapore Grand Prix. The Woking based team are expected to bring a few new parts to the car and they will be hoping that they can close the gap to Red Bull. No doubt that the other teams will be continuing development of their 2014 cars, but it seems like some of the focus is being turned to 2015.

Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci has said earlier in the week that the performance deficit to Mercedes is still very large and that weakness was on display at the Italian Grand Prix. He’s confident that the car is improving and they can finish in a strong position.

It seems like all is quiet at Mercedes. After all the conspiracy theories that were flying around after the Italian Grand Prix it seems as though its business as usual now. With the team radio ban enforced form the Singapore Grand Prix it will be interesting to know how their drivers perform.

Below are the broadcast times for the 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix

Free Practice 1: Friday 12:00

Free Practice 2: Friday 15:30

Free Practice 3: Saturday 12:00

Qualifying: Saturday 15:00

Race: Sunday 14:00

We will bring you updates on our Twitter account (@F1_Madness) during FP1 and FP2 with live commentary throughout the sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

September 17, 2014
Mercedes confirms Pascal Wehrlein as reserve driver

The Mercedes team have confirmed 19-year-old Pascal Wehrlein as their official reserve driver.

Wehrlein seems to have the resume of a real up and coming Formula One star – even at such a young age. He finished 2nd in the Formula 3 European Championship in 2012 and has been competing in DTM since the start of 2013. He claimed his first Formula 3 win at the Lausitzring on Sunday.

We may not all have noticed him, but Wehrlein has been seen quite a bit in the F1 paddock so far this season. He’s even completed over 30 days of work in Mercedes’ simulator.

Wehrlein also received his first taste of F1 action in Portugal last week when he tested the Mercedes W03 at the Portimao circuit.

“I was delighted when I learned that I would be completing a Formula One test for Mercedes in Portimao,” he said.

“It took me a few laps to get used to the incredible speed, the very hard brakes and the high cornering speeds – it’s in another league compared to the DTM,” he said. “But I adapted quickly and was able to improve in each of my short and long runs. In total, I drove 500 km and didn’t want to head back into the pits!

“The test was simply the greatest experience I have had so far in motorsport. There weren’t any nerves, which surprised me – I just felt ready for it. The feedback from the team and from Toto [Wolff] was very encouraging and I think that I did a good job. It certainly helped that I have been working hard in the simulator since February. For me, it is a nice recognition of my efforts that I have been nominated as reserve driver for Mercedes.

“For me, it’s a dream come true to have completed this test and now to take on my new role. All my life, I have worked hard to get the opportunity to drive an F1 car. And it was always my goal to do it with Mercedes-Benz.”

Pascal Wehrlein Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas

September 15, 2014
FIA bans F1 radio instructions to drivers with immediate effect

Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has banned F1 radio communication between drivers and their race engineers that relates to the performance of the car.

As part of their effort to improve F1, the FIA has decided to ban any F1 radio communications that may appear to make driving in Formula One seem too easy as a result of drivers getting instructions on how to drive their cars.

The fight for the 2014 Formula One Drivers’s World Championiship title between Mercedes team mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, in particular, has seen a number of examples of both drivers being coached with information from the pit wall about how they are performing against their team mate and where and how they can improve.

F1 radio messages are also often seen to advise drivers on where they can make changes in order to aid the performace of their cars but F1 race director Charlie Whiting has issued a statement to all teams informing them that these messages are banned with immediate effect.

Article 20.1 of the FIA’s F1 Sporting Regulations is being cited. The article states, “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.

Whiting’s message to teams regarding the ban on F1 radio communications read, “”In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”

The ban on F1 radio communications has been prompted by fears that the amount of communication between drivers and their race engineers during races has increased to the point where drivers now seem like “puppets” steering the wheel.

The radio ban will include information about tyres, the condition of the brakes, fuel consumption, engine maps, ERS modes, fuel mix and differential settings. Formation lap instructions such as burnouts, gearbox sync, clutch bit point and brake and tyre temps are also banned. It seems like the only thing the race engineers will be able to relay to the drivers over the radio are messages about traffic, pit stop timing and, if the need arises, team orders. It seems that drivers will be looking at their pit boards more often now.

A recent example of such F1 radio communication which gained a lot of media and social media attention was when Nico Rosberg asked his race engineer for “driving advice” during the German Grand Prix.

Following the ban on F1 radio communications, teams still have the freedom to advise drivers on pit stop strategies and also on safety issues.

The ban will be discussed further in Singapore, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, in order to clarify exactly what is and is not permitted.

September 11, 2014
F1 2014: Italian GP Review- Hamilton Rises To The Challenge

After all is said and done it is still on track where the real talking is done. Two weeks on from enormous disappointment Lewis Hamilton turned up in Italy ready to do the talking. A comfortable pole position started the ball rolling.

It wasn’t all picture perfect though as a poor start dropped Hamilton down to fourth at the start of the race. But there wasn’t very much that was going to douse the fiery determination of the Brit. He fought back first with an overtake on Kevin Magnussen and later a fearless move around the outside of Felipe Massa into the first chicane. Rosberg tried to maintain the four second gap he’d built up but a mistake caused him to straight-line the first chicane which halved the gap over Hamilton.

In the first laps after the one round of pit stops Hamilton unleashed his superior pace and reduced the gap to Rosberg to 1.2 seconds. A bit of pressure to the mix and Rosberg soon out-braked himself and missed the first chicane. This mistake was enough to hand Hamilton the lead of the race who went on to win his sixth race of the season.

The storm of controversy wouldn’t be nearly as juicy if someone wasn’t there continually stirring the pot. Some suggest that Rosberg’s mistake at turn one was actually not a mishap at all. The conspiracy theorists reckon that Rosberg was serving his punishment from the goings on at Spa. Since sanity does tend to dominate our consciousness for most of the day this theory is easily dismissed as utter rubbish. Ask yourself how weak a driver, a person for that matter, Rosberg would have to be to agree to something so blatantly spineless.

Elsewhere, newly re-signed Williams driver Felipe Massa recorded his first podium for the British team ahead of his recovering teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn had to fight his way back from tenth after a dreadful start to the race. He was able overtake several drivers, via slipstreaming, with the help of his super-slippery-in-a-straight-line Williams. Daniel Ricciardo yet again put on display his staggering race craft with several extravagant overtakes which ultimately netted him a fifth place finish ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren carried over their improved pace from Belgium to Italy which enabled Kevin Magnussen to finish seventh on the road. However, the rookie was demoted to tenth after he’d been given a five second penalty for forcing Bottas off the track earlier in the race. Force India’s Sergio Perez inherited seventh as he held off former teammate Jenson Button in a tantalizing wheel-to-wheel battle.

Ferrari fans turned up in droves to cheer on their beloved team but the two prancing horses could never muster much more than a simple trot across the line. To add insult to a serious lack of pace Fernando Alonso suffered an ERS (Energy Recovery System) failure on his car. The Spaniard succumbed to his first mechanical retirement since 2009. Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen dragged the lacklustre Ferrari around the Monza circuit and eventually finished ninth overall.

The short cool down before the podium was rather telling of the relationship between the Merc drivers. There was no congratulatory handshake and in fact for most of the time Lewis Hamilton had his back to his teammate chatting away to Felipe Massa. The podium interview, conducted by Jean Alesi, was as awkward. The former Ferrari driver wanted to know if Hamilton and Rosberg were still friends to which the Brit reflexively answered: “yes, we’re teammates.” So that’s a no then.

Lewis Hamilton may only have pulled back seven points on the championship lead but the psychological victory was far greater. For one, Hamilton will be delighted with the knowledge that he could pressure Rosberg into a mistake. What’s more, Hamilton will savour the realization that he has exposed some cracks in the Rosberg armour.

September 8, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Jean Alesi)

Lewis, so we would like to know, do you like to complicate your life?

Lewis HAMILTON: What a great crowd we have here. This is amazing to see. The whole finish line straight is completely filled with fans. You guys make this race, so thank you so much for the support.

Nico, I spoke with our friends from Monza, they said: “maybe for Nico we change Turn One.” Can you tell us what happened in Turn One?

Nico ROSBERG: It was a pity. It didn’t work out today but Lewis drove a great race and he deserves it. So it’s OK.

Lewis and Nico, I have to speak but I cannot speak very loud because it’s a secret. Are you friends again?

LH: Of course, we are team-mates and we always will be so…

That’s the best picture we can see is when you are friends, because all your life you race together and we like the way you drive, we like the way you fight, so we are happy to hear that.

Felipe, you have made you first podium [this season] but it’s a place you know very well, Monza, so you have to say something in English as well.

FM: Yeah, sure. I’m quite happy for the first podium of the season. I was not very lucky in some of the races, but the luck is on our side I’m sure now, from now to the last race we’re going to be there fighting, so I’m so happy to be on the podium here and there’s a lot more to come. So thank you very much and you are the best. Beautiful, you are the best.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, many congratulations, another victory here in Italy; the first time in your Formula One career, I believe, that you’ve won six races in a single season, so a positively good omen there for you I’m sure. In the second stint… obviously the start wasn’t great and I’m sure you’ll touch on that, but also at the beginning of the second stint your engineer suggested to you that you might like to drop back 2-2.5s behind Nico and maybe attack him at the end, but you didn’t do that. You put the pressure on him and obviously ultimately he went straight on at Turn One and you took the lead. Give us your mindset at winning the race, the start, and that phase there.

LH: Well, first of all, a big congratulations to the team. They said that they would want a one-two and they got it today. It was a difficult race. For whatever reason… at the start there’s a button that you press which engages the launch sequence and for the formation lap it didn’t work. I thought “no problem, I’ll just put it on for the race” and then when I got to the grid I put it on and again it didn’t work. It’s very, very strange, I’ve never really had that happen before. There was a different sequence of lights that were on, that were unusually… that weren’t on ever before. Anyway, I tried to pull away as fast as possible. The RPM was all over the place and fortunately I managed to not lose too many places. We never practice a start like that where you don’t have the launch sequence in; we always practice in a launch sequence to optimise it. So I had no idea really what I was supposed to do, so I just floored it and hoped for the best. Then after that I had a good battle with Felipe, obviously. That was very fair through the corner. Then the engineer said that I should stay back, but knowing from experiences and also particularly this year I knew that that wasn’t the way forward, so I chose another route.

Can you say a bit more about that?

LH: The car felt good and it was the closest I had been at that point and just really during the previous stint I knew when I was behind others, when I was behind Nico, when I got closer to him on the older tyres it was very hard to stay with him. So I knew that the only chance would be at the start and so I took it.

Nico, you got a perfect getaway, you were leading in the first stint, but obviously the talking point regarding you is the two straight on moments into Turn One. One I think on lap nine and then obviously the decisive one, which led to Lewis taking the lead. Was it your mistake? What can you tell us about it?

NR: No, it wasn’t my mistake, it was the other guys’ fault… I’m just kidding! It was just Lewis was quick, coming from behind. I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and that lost me the lead in the end. Definitely very disappointing from that point of view. But then at the end of the day, also, first of all it’s a great day for the team, because after the recent difficulties it’s the first one-two for the team in a long time, I believe, if I’m not mistaken. And so that’s back to where we need to be, so that’s awesome. And then for me: of course I’m disappointed now right afterwards but in the end of it, still second place, still a lot of points, so it’s not a complete disaster.

I think it’s the first one-two since Austria.

NR: Yeah, so that’s great. And the team deserves that, to put all the recent things behind us now and move forward.

Very well done. Felipe, congratulations on another podium here in Italy and an important one – your first one for Williams and more importantly it takes you ahead of Ferrari now. Williams are third in the Constructors’ Championship.

FM: Yeah, definitely. It’s a great day for us. It was a great race, a great start. Also the pace, I think, was very good. So, not enough to fight with Mercedes but I think we had a very good pace, a very good car. The team did a perfect job. I’m really, really happy to be on the podium today. We missed a little bit during the season to be on the podium but so it’s special to be on the podium here in front of these amazing people. Also, a very positive result for us that we passed Ferrari here as well, which is very important for us, very good for us, so I think it’s amazing to see how Williams were last year and we are fighting with big teams. Definitely it’s really good for the whole team and we will keep fighting until the last race and I hope really we can get this third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It would be fantastic for the whole team. I’m so happy to be on the podium here in this amazing place that I really love.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Lewis and Nico. When you put Nico under pressure, were you expecting a mistake of Nico? Where you trying to get close and overtake him? Question to Nico, can you tell us more about the difficulty of braking at the first chicane?

LH: I was pushing to overtake him. That meant it opens up doors for everything. So, I mean… I don’t really know what to say.

Nico?

NR: Monza, yeah, it’s one of the most difficult tracks for braking because of low downforce and the highest speed of the year. That isn’t any excuse or anything, that’s just the way it is. It is one of the challenges, y’know, of this weekend here. Unfortunately I got it wrong. Two times in the race.

Q: (Péter Farkas – Autó-Motor) Nico, it’s maybe a bit surprising that you don’t look particularly downbeat despite coming second to Lewis. It’s almost as if you have expected that second place to him. Is it fair to say that you have not completely regained your balance from Spa? Or do you think it has nothing to do with it?

NR: Spa is behind me. I put it behind me before the weekend. No. In today’s race, just came to the mistake because Lewis was fast from behind. That’s it. There’s nothing unusual or anything. And me not being downbeat, I am very, very disappointed inside. But there’s no point now to go hanging mouth down and things like that. It’s still a one-two for the team and that’s a great day. And it’s not a disaster, that is a fact. I need to quickly look at the reality: second place, it’s OK. There’s a lot worse than that. I lost seven points to Lewis, so, y’know, that’s the frame of mind that I’m trying to take.

Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, first of all, congratulations. When you had that incident at the start there, given the many incidents you’ve gone through in recent races, was there a thought in your mind of ‘oh no, not again’? And to Nico, unfortunately for you there were some more boos on the podium. Was that disappointing again to hear? And how do you try to move on from that?

LH: I think when you’re preparing for the race you generally do everything near enough the same but you have to be prepared for the unexpected. I’m quite grateful today that I didn’t lose it, I didn’t end up crashing in the first corner, I didn’t end up touching anyone, I didn’t end up locking or anything like that. So, managed to keep my composure even though this thing… what it is, is a button that engages a system which controls the RPM, helps you control the RPM, and when that doesn’t engage, the RPM just goes all over the place, so you’re not able to get normal starts, so a correct launch. I don’t know what the problem was, I guess the guys will investigate it and we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m just grateful that I was able to not lose too many places and the also recover from that.

Nico?

NR: It’s obviously not nice but what can I say? I hope that with time they forgive and forget. That would be great. I have apologised, I can’t really do anything more than that. Yep, that’s it.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus Segondnya) Felipe, 2007 you was second driver in Ferrari with Kimi champion. Last year you was second driver in Ferrari with Fernando, double champion. Today you are on the podium Monza, Italia, without Ferrari, without Kimi, without Alonso. Is it your message to Ferrari, first question? And second question: what do you feel in the podium here without Ferrari?

FM: First of all I think is not a message to anyone, I think it’s just… y’now… you saying that I was second driver, I was trying everything to be the first driver all the time in my career. So, whatever team I was, had difficult times but it is part of our lives. Sometimes you have times that are a little bit more difficult than you expected but you need to fight against it, you need to go forwards. I always fight. It’s not a message. We are fighting with Ferrari as well, that’s not a message. We need to do everything we can to be in front of them. I’m not driving to Ferrari any more. I have an incredibly heart for Ferrari, they are really inside my heart and they will always be because I had an incredible time there, a great time there. But now I am in another team and we need to fight with everybody, not just Ferrari but Red Bull, Mercedes, everybody. We need to try to be in front of everybody and, y’know, today we did a fantastic job so we were in the podium. I think it’s a message that we’re competitive. It’s a message that we are there, that we are fighting. It’s not something that I need to… I have nothing against anybody. I just want to be in front of these people, which they really like me. I had an incredibly time with them for many years. It’s not that I’m not in red anymore that I don’t have the same pleasure and happiness to be there in front of these incredible people.

Q: (Andrea Cremonese, La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Lewis and one for Nico. For Lewis, do you think recovering seven points is a bigger relief after what’s happened in the last few races, and if you feel yourself have plenty of confidence for the Championship? For Nico, if after the second mistake, if you was a little bit affected in the instruction that you received from the team because you lost in two laps two seconds from him, from 4.6 to 2.6 seconds in two laps.

LH: Well, I’ve generally felt like I’ve always been in good shape. But I came here with a positive attitude. Hoping just for no issues. I guess the cool thing about today is that I had another serious one and I managed to pull through it. Again, all those experiences I’ve had kind of have prepared me for it today and I’m still looking for one of those weekends where we don’t have any troubles. Clearly today I had the pace on everyone and on Nico and I felt that way all weekend. So, I’m going to make sure that’s the case moving forwards.

Nico?

NR: I don’t remember what happened. I think it was… traffic? Lapping somebody or something like that. That was the biggest problem but I’m not quite sure. But either way, Lewis in that phase was quick, so it didn’t really change that much but yes, maybe that shortened the process a little bit. But nothing in particular.

Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Lewis, we talked about Monza being about mental toughness as well as about what you can do on the track, and today we saw you fight your way through the field.You ignored the team’s advice about holding back a bit and then you had to listen to all the Italian in the weighing room, the podium and no one was speaking English to you. Do you feel like you showed today that you’re mentally tough enough to win the title? Is that important?

LH: Firstly, I didn’t ignore the team’s orders. I have a great relationship with my engineer and he’s constantly in touch with me throughout the race and really guiding me. If I’m losing a bit of time here or there, he’s telling me so that I know how to correct it. They want to win just as much as me so they’re just trying to guide me to what they think but at the end of the day, I was the one out there and they had to really decide: OK, I can back off here and keep the tyres but the calculation might be better the other way. I knew that if I applied the pressure, an opportunity would eventually come. I didn’t get the chance to say it really out there but the fans have been amazing here. Even I’ve gone through difficult times here – 2007 probably, when I was racing against Fernando and obviously we were racing with Kimi and the Ferraris but I’ve really felt a real growth of the support that I’ve had here over the years. It’s such a beautiful nation. When you come here, the weather’s always good, the track’s incredible and there’s nowhere you go and you see the whole straight, which is one of the longest straights in the whole season, completely full of fans, mostly with red caps and flags but they really create the atmosphere. In terms of me, I came here to do a job and I did it so I’m happy with that.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, there are six races to go and you lead by 22 points. When do you think that it’s time to start to consider only the championship instead of winning races?

NR: I don’t know. For me the approach that works best at the moment is just trying to win the race that I’m at, that’s the way I feel most comfortable at the moment. We will see. Maybe I will tell you when I change my thinking.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Nico, the team told us at the end of the race that you were managing brake temperatures. Was that the problem at the first corner as well? Were the brakes the problem throughout the race?

NR: No, the brakes were no problem at all, up towards the end when you first heard it on the radio, that’s when it started to become… and it wasn’t a massive problem, just something that you have to manage a little bit. That’s always going to happen, because opening up the front brake ducts you lose quite a lot of aerodynamic performance. You always try to bring that to a certain limit and that may then put you slightly over in the race so it’s not the first time and last time that something like that is going to happen and I think it was just pretty much optimised for here.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor) To all three of you: all three of you had reasonably long first stints on the mediums. How marginal were the tyres to do a one-stop? Did any of you have any problems? Lewis mentioned that it was hard to follow Nico on used tyres at the end of the first stint.

FM: Well, I think a one stop was the strategy for everybody before the race. I think the tyres worked pretty well, maybe a little bit more degradation on the medium which I was suffering a little bit more at the end of the stint on the medium but no problem at all with the hard tyres. I think it was really pretty much OK to one-stop, at least for us.

Q: Lewis, we heard a message to Nico from his engineers saying that you’d reported that the tyres were beginning to go off before lap ten, I think it was. Did you have any issues? Did it clear itself?

LH: No, basically I was in traffic, I was behind a couple of cars. The grip didn’t feel good at the time. To be honest, the tyres have been really good this weekend. It was generally really easy in terms of doing a one-stop. There was only one risk and that’s really if you lock up, that’s generally why you’ll see drivers going (straight) on at the first corner, because they don’t want to try and make the corner, lock up because then they have to convert to a two-stop which is much slower, so the thought is that if you get a lock, you let off the brake and go straight and that’s what Nico would have done twice and that’s what other people would potentially have done today. But I think it’s such a cool track – I don’t know if it was fun to watch the race – but to give more racing, more pit stops would have been good here, bit of a softer tyre which was a bit more of a challenge because the tyre was really easy to generally look after. I didn’t have any problems really…. I was behind Nico, losing downforce through the high speed but then as soon as he pitted the car was quick again, so I think the tyre could have gone even further.

Q: Was it any way marginal for a one-stop for you, Nico?

NR: Not really, no. Of course there was quite a lot of degradation on the soft one but no, it was fine. And I agree, it would be better to have two stops for more exciting racing, but then again, for the fans and you watching on TV for sure the one-stop is much easier to understand because it’s very straightforward and simple, whereas as soon as you get into two-stop, it becomes different tyre strategies and this and that and it becomes near impossible to understand often in front of the TV, but also has some advantages.

Q: (Ottavio Davide – Tuttosport) Felipe, do you think that on a completely different track such as Singapore it’s possible to beat both Mercedes?

FM: Mercedes? Very difficult. In Singapore, especially, I think it will be very very difficult, but Singapore is a race at which many things happen so we need to believe that we can do a good job there as well so I would say maybe from now to the last race, Singapore is maybe the track that is going to be more negative than the others for us. But at Singapore, you never know, many things happen there so I hope we can do a good job there as well. If we can beat Mercedes it will be a surprise but we will try everything we can.

Q: (Leigh O’Gorman – Walker Watson) For all three: concerning how Monza is such a fast circuit, so much of it is full throttle, were there any issues with regards to fuel usage during the race?

LH: It’s not an issue. This track was very easy to…

NR: No problem.

FM: No.

NR: Mercedes engine, I suppose.

September 7, 2014