Tag: pirelli

Weather Report for the 2015 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix

Formula 1 returns to Monte Carlo, Monaco for Round 6 of the Formula 1 World Championship.

As Formula 1 weekends go, the Monaco Grand Prix is one of the most exciting weekends on the F1 calendar. Although the race ends up in a procession, the build up to the race is what makes things exciting.

Pirelli have brought their two softest compounds to the Circuit de Monaco, the red super soft compound and the yellow soft compound tyre. The circuit is the slowest on the F1 calendar and also has the slowest corner of the entire championship. This puts emphasis on mechanical grip rather than aerodynamic grip. The slow corners and stop-start nature of the circuit the new compound super soft tyre is ideal for just such conditions.

The super soft tyre from Pirelli has a new rubber compound for the 2015 season and a new construction. The new compound makes the tyre more resistant to graining and blistering.

The weather in Monaco is expected to be sunny with a few clouds around and some rain forecast in the afternoons. Maximum temperatures will hover in the low-to-mid 20’s. The weather is expected to remain the same throughout the weekend. Rain is forecast for the afternoon sessions, but there’s a chance that it may hold off.

Below is the snap shot of the weather for the weekend and our live forecast that updates throughout the day.

May 20, 2015
F1 2015: Monaco Grand Prix Preview – Magical Monaco Is Back

Often words are used to describe things and situations and just as often the true meaning of these over-used words are lost. But if you have ever looked for a true definition of opulence, then look no further than Monte Carlo.

The Monaco grand prix weekend is arguably the most looked forward to race on the F1 calendar. It’s the visual representation of what Formula 1 can and should be. It’s glamorous, drenched in money and diamonds, daringly fast and dramatically out-of-place.

The history of the famous Monte Carlo race alone is enough of a tale to weave the most majestic of Formula 1 stories. For around these famous streets the definitive legends of the sport artfully plied their trade. So rapt was the great Ayrton Senna with the Anthony Noghes circuit that he described it as the most extreme out of body experience he ever had behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, as if it was a sixth sense driving him around the narrow streets, centimetres from the barriers.

Even in the year 2015 this venue and circuit has lost none of its magnificent charm and remains the jewel in the Formula 1 crown. This means too that qualifying for the Monaco grand prix is as important as ever. It could spell the end before the weekend has even begun considering the definite advantage that Mercedes hold over one lap.

But don’t consign anyone else’s chances to the scrapheap just yet. In 2009, Jenson Button all-dominant Brawn secured the Monaco Grand Prix pole position by a few thousandths of a second over the lacklustre attempt of a car Ferrari slapped together that year.

Then there is the potential undercut on new Pirelli rubber. The supersoft is a choice this weekend and the performance advantage of this particular compound has been nearly two seconds in some circumstances. It has been the case so far this season that Ferrari are lot kinder to their tyres than Mercedes and they will undoubtedly be looking to exploit such an advantage this weekend. However, Ferrari’s advantage isn’t quite as clear-cut as that. Much will depend on the temperatures and it will have to err on the sizzling side of things for Ferrari to have a genuine leg up on Mercedes. Alas, if no one else can stem the Silver Arrows’ dominance this weekend at least the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg should be quite intense.

Last year’s Monaco grand prix was shrouded in controversy thanks mostly to Nico Rosberg’s “mistake” in qualifying. It cost Lewis Hamilton the chance of snapping up the coveted pole position and put the fraying tension between the two on display for the world to see.

In 2015 the story reads a bit differently. Although Hamilton starts the weekend in the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time this season, he is the one who will have to make the running around these famous streets. Consider Rosberg’s dominant win in Spain and add to the equation that he has quite an affinity for Monaco grand prix and has won on the last two visits to the Principality then it certainly looks like a leg up on his teammate.

The Monaco grand prix is literally the most regal event on the F1 calendar given that the trophies at the end of the race are presented by the Monegasque Royal family. Now all we need to know is who will be crowned maestro of the Monaco streets.

May 20, 2015
Pirelli focused on safety after proposed tyre rule change

Official Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli says that it remains focused on safety following the FIA Strategy Groups’s announcement about proposed 2016 ‘free choice’ tyre rules.

The FIA revealed on Friday that the Strategy Group – which is made up of six F1 teams, FIA President Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone – were proposing a series of changes aimed at spicing up the F1 show. The changes include the return of refuelling in 2017, higher noise levels and aerodynamic rule changes, amongst others.

Also included is a proposed change that will allow F1 teams free choice to select any two of the four dry weather compound Pirelli tyres – the Hard, Medium, Soft and Super Soft – ahead of each race on the F1 calendar.

Under the current regulations, Pirelli is responsible for selecting two tyre compounds per race, based on relevant data and analysis by the tyre supplier.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery was very critical of the proposal saying that it came as a surprise and was concerned about teams being reckless in their decision-making.

“If you start opening up choices this is what will happen: firstly, the top teams will centralise around the same choices because they use the same ideas and data we would be using,” Hembery said following the announcement.

“Then there would be some people that would want to risk a little more, and then there would be some people who would want to be a little reckless.

“That means they would be taking a product into a situation that would create a safety problem, and if there is a safety problem then we cannot accept that risk, so it is impossible.

“That is even before we get into the logistical problems and extreme cost it would involve to do such a thing.

“It’s more important to look at ‘why would you want to do something like that’ and ‘what are you trying to solve’ rather than suggesting a change without analysing what you are trying to achieve.”

Hembery did however state that Pirelli will remain focused on safety and developing a safe solution. “As ever, Pirelli will work with the teams and the FIA to find solutions to problems that are safe, and deliver the required results,” he said.

May 18, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2nd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3rd Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TV UNILATERAL

Nico, first pole of the year. Is it fair to say you needed that?

Nico ROSBERG: Well, of course. Of course I needed it sooner rather than later that’s for sure, that’s for sure because it’s just one step in the right direction to winning the race here this weekend. Yeah, it was a good day in the office for sure.

Well done. Lewis, a little spin this morning and looked like you were slightly on the back foot in the later part of qualifying. Why was that?

Lewis HAMILTON: I don’t think I was on the back foot at any other stage. I generally didn’t have the pace today. Nico did a great job and generally I don’t know if I really had the balance where I like it. I did my best with it and I think tomorrow there’s still a lot to play for.

Thank you for that. Coming to you Sebastian, obviously third place again up amongst it here at the front of the grid. Race pace looks strong but would it be fair to say you’re a bit disappointed with the margin to the Mercedes today after all the development work?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I think disappointed is the wrong word. I think it’s great to keep confirming that we are right behind. Obviously we would have loved to be a little bit closer, especially for this race as in a way this is a home for us with one of our main sponsors, Santander, so yeah, I think we should still be in good shape for tomorrow. I hope for a good race. But you have to say that those two guys are doing a good job. They are quick. They have been very quick here in winter and I think they confirmed that so far. So I hope tomorrow, as I said, we can be a bit closer but we will see.

Thank you. Back to you Nico: the three of you were the only drivers that managed to save a new set of medium tyres for tomorrow’s grand prix. The races have been strategic and tactical so far this year. Are we to expect more of the same tomorrow?

NR: Yeah, definitely. Strategy is going to be important and it’s a big advantage to have an extra new set of tyres for tomorrow’s race so it’s good to have that. Of course overtaking is also more difficult at this track so starting in front is a particularly big advantage here.

PRESS CONFERENCE

In Bahrain you were saying you had made a mistake because you had not pushed in Q2 because you were thinking about the race. It was very obvious today that in Q2 you pushed much harder, clearly thinking about pole position. In fact you did two laps that were good enough for pole today.

NR: For sure, yeah, Bahrain was still in my mind and I wanted to make sure that I don’t do that mistake again. I just got myself in the rhythm in Q2 and it worked really well for me today.

Lewis, was it the opposite the case for you. You were sixth tenths behind in Q2, which looked as though you had been thinking perhaps more about the race tyre set you would be using from Q2 to Q3. Did that have any impact on finding the limit in that session that impacted your Q3.

LH: No, I just got some traffic on my lap, I was stuck behind one of the McLarens, so it didn’t really make any difference to my in-lap.

Thank you for that. We mentioned, Sebastian, your long run performance yesterday. What was striking about it was that it was long, on the medium tyre, and consistent, but not massively quick or not quick enough to be able to think you can challenge these guys tomorrow?

SV: Well, being realistic they are quick. They are not on pole and second, the first row, for tomorrow by chance. They showed I think in every single session this weekend that they are very competitive with either tyre. So I expect them to be very strong tomorrow. But, of course I hope that we can be a bit closer. The past races we were a bit closer on race pace but, as I said, being realistic it will be difficult to beat them

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, you have a lot of new parts on the car this weekend, as most other teams have. Did you hope to get a bit closer to Mercedes or do you still hope that these are circuit characteristics that don’t really suit your car?

SV: Well, in general, I think our car was fine on any circuit this year so I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be the case this weekend. Yes, we would have hoped to be a bit closer but the weekend is not over yet for a start and also in the past… and usually this is quite a good indication of how quick your car is, we know we still have something to do. Obviously everybody has been pushing. I think we made a step forward so I’m looking forward to the race and looking forward to the next races. Maybe one race is not enough to confirm everything but, as I said, happy that we are still where we were for a start and hopefully we can be a bit closer tomorrow.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Seb. Seb, anyway the difference – the gap – compared to Mercedes seems to be bigger compared to the last races. Are you disappointed for that or you think it can be better in the race?

SV: I hope it’s going to be better in the race. I think we expected them to be very, very strong here because in winter testing they’ve been very, very strong. I’m sure they have improved their car since then – but I think the conditions are completely different so we will see. It’s true that the gap is there, the gap is probably a little bit bigger than it was the last couple of races. I don’t think that’s down to one thing only – I think there’s always a lot of things you throw in the bag and maybe we are struggling a little bit more this weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing where we are tomorrow and then you can ask me again – hopefully.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboSport.com) Sebastian, do you think we can have a repetition of the Malaysian Grand Prix where you had a great advantage in the tyre wear and it also explained your victory there. Here the tyre wear is very high also…

SV: First of all, apologies, it comes with a red suit, those two guys, they haven’t asked me a single question in the last four years! I think it’s a different weekend. We have the same tyres, it’s correct, but it’s a completely different circuit as well. I think potentially the tyres are not working as well as they used to in Malaysia. It looks like Mercedes have a bit of an edge and are more comfortable on both compounds, compared to us. So, we’ll see what we can do in the race. Hopefully, as I said many times, we’ll be a bit closer.

Q: (Laurentzi Garmendia – Berria) To Lewis, Barcelona is a track known to be quite difficult to overtake. Does it make the start for tomorrow especially… to put an effort in at the start?

LH: Probably. Yeah, it’s always one of the opportunities. You have that and some of the pitstops. It’s very, very difficult to overtake I think, as it’s shown and proved over the years. I haven’t even started to think about that yet.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Could you explain why you and Kimi choose two different configurations – aerodynamic configurations – on the car? You with the new one and Kimi the old one. The reasons and why the different choice.

SV: Very simple. We didn’t have the best day yesterday I believe. We both were not entirely happy with how the car felt. I think, as I mentioned before, it was probably tricky conditions this weekend, quite windy, I think the tyres are not working for us as they maybe used to. So, we were not sure about where we were and we decided to split the cars for today.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Lewis, could you please explain why did you feel the need to go out again at the end of Q1? Did you try something new with the setup still? And what about your spin in P3. What was behind it?

LH: Touched the Astroturf in P3 and then in Q1, that was the team’s decision.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Nico. How important is the boost from the psychological point of view, having the pole position today?

NR: It’s just important for tomorrow’s race because it’s better to start first than second, that’s obviously. Psychologically, yeah, it’s good. Feels great. I’m happy – so it’s good for tomorrow.

Q: (Christopher Joseph – Chicane) A question for Nico. What mindset will you take into the race tomorrow that’s different from the season so far?

NR: No different. Same thing. Try to go for it. Try to go for the best possible result. Starting first in the car that I have, it’s going to be trying to go for the win, for sure. Take the advantage from the start from being first and that’s it.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboSport.com) Question to Lewis. Consider the advantage that you have in the championship, do you consider to start the race already racing for the championship or do you…

LH: Every race. Every race you do you’re racing for the championship. Every race I do I’m racing for the championship…

The question is if you consider to take more risks or because of the advantage you have, you maybe drive more carefully?

LH: I don’t think so. I think I’ll drive the same as I did last year. Seemed to do me quite well.

May 9, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

DRIVERS:

Felipe NASR (Sauber)

Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing)

Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso)

Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)

Roberto MERHI (Manor)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Fernando, shall we start with you? Last time out you only missed Q3 in Bahrain by a few tenths of a second and finished only a few seconds away from a points finish. Is that the end of that chapter of McLaren-Honda and does the more competitive chapter begin here this weekend in Spain?

Fernando ALONSO: Well, let’s hope so. I think in Bahrain we had a nice step and that brought us closer to the Q3 cut-off and also to the points and we need another small step to reach that goal. Obviously it’s not what we want, we want to be on the podium and win races, but one step at a time and hopefully here in Barcelona we can see this step, as you said. But we need to see what the others are bringing here to this race. Obviously it’s the first European grand prix, which normally everyone brings some good updates, as we do as well, but it’s just a matter of which one made the step a little bit bigger.

There was some glowing praise for you in the past week from McLaren boss Ron Dennis, how has that relationship evolved since your return to the team?

FA: It’s been great. I have been always very luck to have the support of all my teams and all of my bosses, especially when I am in the team. When I say no to them they change their opinion a bit but that’s how the sport runs and I understand but what is important is to be happy with your job, to know and to make sure that your discipline and your professionalism is at the highest level when you are working for a team and that the people who pay you at the end of the month are happy.

Daniil, coming to you. It’s been a tough start to your Red Bull Racing career, the car has let you down several times. Is that what’s prevented you from getting the most from yourself or is there more to it than that?

Daniil KVYAT: It hasn’t been an easy one so far, like you said there have been a few weekends that were quite tricky, for many reasons. We just need to get it right and then we start looking deep into the things and hopefully it will happen very soon.

So what goals have you and the team set yourselves for recovery going forward?

DK: No real goals to be honest. We just try to take the best out of the package that we have, we try to extract everything and then we see where we are. No particular goals or anything like that.

Thank you for that. Coming to you Felipe, four races in, a fifth place among four top-12 finishes for you and 14 points on the board. How satisfied are you with the opening phase of your debut season?

Felipe NASR: I’m quite happy with it. It’s been a good first four races. We have been maximizing our opportunities in these early stages of this championship, but I expect things to become more difficult as we move on. We know our limitations; we know what we can do. So far I think the team gave me enough preparation and I think I was ready to take those chances early on.

As you say, Sauber have obviously capitalized on their early-season form and reliability. What lies ahead then do you think in this next phase of the season, up to the summer break, in terms of development and being able to fight, to continue to fight, for points finishes?

FN: Well, Barcelona is always a good picture to see where everybody is sitting and it’s not going to be any different I would say in the way that we are also bringing a few updates on the car but we don’t know how big is this step compared to our main competitors and we just have to capitalise on these opportunities we have when they show up. It’s never easy to be in those points, so any points really matter for us. Let’s see. We were quite good in testing here in Barcelona, so it’s one for me to look forward to.

Roberto, coming to you: How do you sum up the first four race weekends with Manor this season and what are your feeling on a home race as a Formula One race?

Roberto MERHI: Yeah, obviously the first race we could not race in Melbourne. Then we did Malaysia, which was my first grand prix and was a great experience, it was good for us, for the team. It was really important to finish the race there. Obviously after that we did Shanghai and Bahrain and I think Shanghai was quite OK, in Bahrain I was struggling a little bit. All the tracks I raced were new for me, I never drove on those tracks and now coming here to Barcelona, it’s the first track I know in the world championship and I am quite confident to do a good result and to have a strong pace in this race and I am quite happy to race here at my ‘house’. I think it’s going to be a good race and also the first normal track I would say in the calendar because Barcelona is a normal track with a good combination of corners, with a very slow last sector. Then we can know better about the car and also push more the limit here.

The pace of this car is clear, relative to the rest of the field. Can you tell us about the next steps, development parts and the scheduled arrival of the 2015 car, do you know when that’s going to be?

RM: The team right now is pushing hard right now to put the new car on track as soon as possible but it takes a little bit of time. As you know we started two weeks before Melbourne and I mean it was everything done in a hurry but I think they are doing already a very good job to be racing and to be finishing the races and everything but yeah it looks like around August we will have the new car. We hope to have it around there but they are trying to work as hard as they can to put the car on track as soon as they can.

Thank you very much. Carlos, highest placed Spanish driver in the championship heading into your home grand prix. Can you talk a little bit about your feelings racing a Formula One car on home soil?

Carlos SAINZ: Well, it will always be a very special weekend for me and a very special race to remember. I remember being here 10 years ago for my first grand prix when I came to watch, getting into these huge hospitalities, meeting some important people, meeting my idol here on my left, Fernando, for the first time, when he was in Renault. That was a big shock for me and an amazing experience and probably thanks to that it’s where I take the decision that I really wanted to be a Formula One driver one day and I really wanted to make this dream come true and 10 years later here I am achieving this dream and having my first chance in my home grand prix.

Are you proud to have inspired that Fernando?

FA: Yeah, obviously I feel proud of seeing Carlos here. Obviously the talent that he has has no questions in all the categories and now in Formula One. Everyone is surprised by I’m not. He’s the future of our country and I’m happy to sit together here.

Second question to you Carlos: Barcelona has not over the past 10 years been a great circuit for Toro Rosso – never had a top 10 qualifying and only two 10^th-placed finishes. Do you see anything in the development parts that you’ve brought here this weekend that encourages you to believe you can buck that trend this weekend?

CS: Well, I didn’t know that, that’s something new. We know it’s a track that should suit our car fairly well considering that there is a bit less straight, more fast, flowing corners, fourth-gear corners, where you need the downforce. We know we have the downforce, we just need to make it work. We need to make the car balance correctly. Probably in Bahrain we didn’t get it right, so well. Here we are bringing our upgrades as every other tea. But yeah, the season will develop and big teams like McLaren and Red Bull they will start cutting back and going to the places they are supposed to be and it will become difficult. As Felipe said, for us it’s now about using every chance we have and I am confident that here in Barcelona we can have on with this track layout.

Thank you. Coming to you Nico. Your 30^th career podium last time out in Bahrain. Did you take encouragement from the way that race panned out which you can build on now?

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure it felt like a good race. I felt comfortable in the car, you know, and of course it’s enjoyable to attack like that and pass the red cars so for sure it’s given me a boost coming here to Barcelona.

Well, we’re entering the period of the season now, up to the summer break, where you did you best work last year arguably – five poles and three wins – how can you harness the spirit of that early summer 2014 and get yourself back ahead of your team-mate this time?

NR: It’s just a matter of maximizing the weekends. It’s not really come together until now. Parts have gone well but other parts not so well and I just need to put it all together and of course I’ll start to try and do that from here onwards.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Fernando, you’re here back at the track where you had your testing accident in February. Any concerns at all about what might unfold this weekend with the car, with the track? We also read stories during the recent mini-break that you are planning to visit the hospital staff who looked after you when you suffered your concussion. Can you just elaborate on that a little bit as well please?

FA: No concerns. That was an accident that happened three months ago and unfortunately it was a little bit longer to recover. The impact was a little bit unlucky and it put me one month out of the car. But yeah, coming back here with full confidence and full motivation to do well. To perform and to deliver a good result in front of the home crowd. Yeah, the week that I was in the hospital I had one of the best staff I could imagine in the hospital. They were so kind to me and I plan to have dinner with them, probably on Sunday. I stay here on Monday for one event with a sponsor, so Sunday night after all the stress and the race pass; more in a quiet place probably on Sunday I will have dinner with all of them.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Nico, a question to you. Of course you have had a fighting race in Bahrain but you still finished behind Lewis. I think if you analyse the times I think we can come to the conclusion that maybe it’s not only Lewis who became faster since last year but also you became a bit slower compared to yourself. Do you agree? Do you think just Lewis got so much faster or you have some problems maybe? Is it a psychological thing or have you analysed and come to a definite conclusion as to what the problem might be?

FA: Thank you very much for you kind question! I don’t think it’s something to generalize [about] or anything as such. Of course the results speak for themselves. It’s pretty clear. That’s it. For me it’s Barcelona. It’s a race on it’s own and I come here after a personal feeling boost from Bahrain. I just want to optimise this weekend and that’s it. Not thinking much more than that.

Q: (Simon Arron – Motor Sport magazine) Question to Fernando and Nico, Bernie Ecclestone has recently mentioned that it’s possible, beyond 2015, Monza could be removed from the calendar. You guys have both stood on the podium there, can you tell me what Monza means to you and how you’d feel if it was removed from the schedule.

NR: Well, Monza is one of the legendary tracks. Of course it is important to the F1 calendar, just as the German Grand Prix is important. I, of course, definitely wish that we continue to race there. If front of the tifosi also, the atmosphere is always awesome so it’s important to F1, that race.

FA: Yeah, same opinion. I think it’s one of the best races of the year. The podium is amazing there with all the fans on the main straight. It’s the home of Ferrari – it’s very important for Formula One. But, as Nico said, also the German Grand Prix is very important and its not any more this year, so, who knows.

Q: (Sebastian Scott – racedepartment.com) Question for all the drivers. Pirelli have said this week they’re going to be aiming to use the softer compounds throughout the next races. Do you feel that will aid some drivers more than others – and also aid some teams more than others? And how to you feel about that?

FA: Nothing really to comment. It’s their decision. I’m not a huge fan of changing philosophy in the middle of the championship, of which tyres or which compounds you need to bring to the races. You should stay with the original idea and the philosophy. But, y’know, as I said, it’s like that. Probably for our car, if I’m honest, maybe it’s better the soft compounds. So maybe it can be a benefit for our performance – but I don’t say that. I say that they should stay with whatever was the original plan because they could change the result of the championship.

Carlos?

CS: As far as I know, obviously Monaco and these kind of races we’re always going to be with the soft and supersoft, so no big changes. I don’t have experience in those tracks with soft and supersoft so I don’t know if it’s the ideal compound or not – but yeah, I’m happy. We tried the supersofts here in the winter, I really enjoyed the grip it had, so the quicker the better, always.

Nico, your thoughts.

NR: Nothing to add.

Felipe?

NR: No, nothing.

Daniil?

DK: No problems

Roberto?

RM: No.

Q: (Haoran Zhou – LETV) Question to Nico. You did a 22.7s in winter testing which opened everyone’s eyes and your team-mate did a 23.0s on scrubbed tyres – more than a second in front of everyone. Are you expecting something of the same here? That you have a clear advantage or you think things have changed?

NR: No, we expect it to be similar now to the last couple of races. We still hope to be in front in qualifying and in the race it’s going to be very close. I think it’s going to continue. Of course here everybody has bought some updates, so that might shuffle things around a little bit – but the general trend is probably going to stay very similar.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) My question is to Fernando Alonso. Red Bull needed four years to win its first championship. Mercedes the same. In the opinion of Eric Boullier, one or two weeks ago, McLaren-Honda also needs four years. My question: Fernando, are you OK to wait four years to be the champion with McLaren-Honda.

FA: Well, you know, if I could sign now that in four years I will win, yes – but it is not guarantee. This is Formula One, it’s a very complex sport and I will do my best every weekend to help the team to achieve some good results. If we can fight for a championship, we can become a champion in one year, two years, three years, or four years, you never know. It’s not really a plan that you put in your head: ‘OK, I will wait X time to become champion’. I’m trying to enjoy every weekend. Even now, y’know, the first races that I did, how the team is growing up, how all the young people, all the Japanese, they are determined, they are motivated to this challenge. And now I arrive at my home grand prix, so even if I am not able to fight for the win, I enjoy every single minute with the fans, with the performance updates that we bring here, so every race is a challenge and I’m enjoying this process. If I can fight for a world championship or not, only time will tell us – but I’m a very happy person so it’s no problem to wait.

Q: (Angelique Belokoptov-Auto Digest) Question for all drivers: imagine that this afternoon I have to describe each of you to my readers. Can you describe yourself in three words. Three adjectives that can show them who you are. Start with Fernando please?

FA: Thank you! I cannot answer. This is your job. If you came here and we tell you who we are, it’s very easy but I think if I have to describe me as a driver, you can put whatever adjective because it’s a different opinion for different people and we will never agree as sportsman to tell exactly three words and agree every one. This is quite complex. In terms of who I am really, who is Fernando outside the paddock… this is a secret…

Carlos?

CS: Yes, it’s the same. I prefer other people to judge me and my personality, my driving style, my approach, than to really describe myself. I think it could sound a bit… not correct to describe yourself. I prefer the others to do that… Me as a driver, I know who I want to be and how I want to do it but to describe yourself as good, talented or whatever, it can sound… not correct. A bit arrogant. So I prefer you guys to analyse me and come to your own conclusions.

Nico?

NR: I really tried hard to think of sometimes – but I can’t some up with anything. So no. Sorry.

Daniil?

DK: I obviously hear this question quite often… sorry, it’s better that… it’s a boring question really. I don’t know what to to say. Like the other guys said, it’s better to let other people think. Every person thinks different things.

FN: What can I say really? We’re all different to each other. Everyone has a particular think different as a driver or as a person. It’s up to you guys to judge it.

Roberto, anything to add?

RM: I am quite new here. I think I need time to say something.

Q: (Bob Constanduros – Bob Constanduros & Associates) Fernando, for the benefit of the photographers, can you tell us why you’ve kept your shades on? I believe you’ve tweeted a picture?

FA: It’s a sponsor campaign! No… even if they will be happy… no, I have a stye – a little inflammation of my eye. They recommend not to be too much on the artificial light. I try to protect a little bit the eye today and tomorrow to be ready for Saturday and Sunday.

Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Question for Carlos and Fernando. Carlos, I saw a picture of you as a child shaking the hand of Fernando years ago. Now this weekend you can beat him on the track. If that happens, how would that feel. Also to Fernando.

FA: It would feel terrible!

CS: It would feel great!

CS: I don’t know if I will fight him on track or not. I just know I fought him in Bahrain. You don’t realise it’s Fernando, you just see a McLaren and try to beat him. Out of the track it’s different. He’s the man. He’s Fernando, and we have a good relationship. Inside the track everyone is a competitor. If we race in a go-kart race, for charity or something, you try to win and to beat everyone. Here its the same. It will feel a bit strange in the paddock and everything but for the rest, I’m very happy to be here, I’m enjoying a lot this beginning of the season and my first grand prix, my first race in Europe, sharing all these good moments. It will be interesting.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboSport.com) To Nico, sorry to come back to the subject, you said ‘maximise the weekend’. Sometimes it works well and sometimes not so well. What is not working so well that can justify these results? And to Alonso, if, when a driver wins a championship, he can be even more efficient the next season?

NR: It’s just a weekend itself coming together. Optimising it. For now it’s not really come together yet. That’s it. Just put all the pieces together. There’s not specific areas or anything like that. It’s just general.

Fernando?

FA: I don’t know. It depends on the personality and the character or everyone. It could help you to take some weight out of the shoulders and to take some pressure out after winning a championship, the following year you are more relaxed and perhaps you could perform better – or could be the opposite: you relax a little bit, you lose a little bit of that extra motivation and you are a little bit slower. It depends for everyone.

Q: (Valenti Fradera – L’Esportiu) Roberto, is your seat guaaranteed for the rest of the season or is it confirmed race by race?

RM: No, at the moment I am driving for Manor F1 team and until they say the opposite, I will be the driver. Normally it is my seat.

Q: (Daniel Johnson – Telegraph) Fernando, how important is this weekend for you and the team to show good signs of progress? And secondly, lots of more casual viewers of Formula One will find it hard to understand why you as a two-time champion are having to fight to get into Q2 and fight to get into the points. Does that ever leave you feeling disillusioned?

FA: Well, I think this weekend is important as it was in China and in Bahrain, not so much for the results or the points or the qualifying position; it’s more an update on the performance that has to be consistent and has to deliver what we expect from the car. That is what happened in China and in Bahrain, that everything we brought to the car delivered as expected. So coming to this weekend, our hope is that everything we bring here keeps going into the car in a healthy way and performing better and then the final result depends on many other factors: luck, the performance of our competitors right now and that’s a little bit a second priority right now.

Yeah, from the outside it’s normal to be out of Q1, Q2, it’s a little bit disappointing for everyone but more for us inside the team because the expectations are always very high with the McLaren-Honda partnership coming back together. It’s normal that everyone expects much more than what we are doing now but we are in the fifth race, so the championship is long. We still have high hopes that things will change quickly and we will start performing a little better. On my side, as I explained in the first question, I’m enjoying the challenge a lot. We started at the very bottom and we are climbing the mountain and we are doing it a little bit faster than everyone expected, so this is thanks to all the work that the team is doing and I feel very proud to be here.

Q: (Manuel Franco – AS) Roberto and Carlos: do you think that Fernando will be World Champion again?

RM: Obviously Fernando is driving for McLaren at the moment and they are not really competitive compared to Mercedes or Ferrari or most of the teams. It depends a little bit on him and also it depends a lot on the car he is driving. If McLaren gives him a good car in the future, he can win perfectly another World Championship but if he doesn’t have a car good enough to be competitive, you cannot do anything against that. He needs to be in a good team at the right time to be competitive.

CS: Same. Nothing much to add. I really think that Fernando… you give him the weapons, he will always do the job, even when you don’t give them to him, he always performs, like he’s showing again this year. So yeah, I’m fully confident that if McLaren can put everything together, they will be a good partnership, for sure fight for the championship. If you win it or not, that depends on the year but he will fight, for sure.

Q: (Manuel Franco – AS) Fernando, do you think it would be possible that Roberto or Carlos could be World Champion in the future?

FA: Very similar answer to be honest. It depends on which car and what moment of your career you are but they have an advantage, they are young and they have more time to succeed and more time to play around, so hopefully we can see them fighting for the championship, why not?

Q: (Nikolai Sarozas – Espolita) Fernando, I believe you had a chance to drive the legendary McLaren-Honda MP4/4 recently. Can you tell us about the feelings in the cockpit, how was it to drive with a simple steering wheel, manual gearshift and so on? Were you able to feel the power and the grip of that car? How was it? Was it quicker than the current one?

FA: It was an amazing experience. Obviously it’s not quicker, to answer straight away, because those cars, in their actual configuration of the circuit, they could run up to ten seconds slower than the real cars that we have now, so definitely the car felt slower but yeah, it was an amazing experience. I grew up watching that car winning championships and races with Ayrton and Alain Prost so to sit there and to experience some laps – I think I did eight laps, each of them felt amazing, difficult to forget that day. It was difficult with no power steering, with a manual gearshift, with three pedals so there was some action there to get used to in the first couple of laps, a lot of torque in the engine. I remember when I went out of the garage and at the exit of the pit lane, I went probably a little on the throttle: there was no power, no power so I went to full throttle and suddenly came all the torque and I nearly spun. It was a risky moment and it was the installation lap so it was a day to remember.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Fernando, two questions to you. First one is that it’s very difficult to rate a McLaren car itself, so do you think you could win with a McLaren car with a Mercedes engine at the moment. The second question is are you surprised by the steps that Ferrari made, especially on the engine side over the winter, and can you explain why?

FA: Yeah, I think the car has the potential to perform at the top level. We had everything together, obviously, we have a very complex package with the power unit and the philosophy of the car with the new entries recently with Peter Prodromou and other staff on the team that have changed a little bit the mentality and philosophy of the design and the car. So I think it’s the time that we are right now putting all the pieces together and have a good package, hopefully in the future, even if we have to sacrifice some months now. I really think that we have the potential to fight with the top teams in future.

And then about the Ferrari: not so surprised to be honest. We had a tough year in 2014 but even with that we were third and fourth in the championship until five races to go. Now, I think they are second and fourth so they made that step forward. In performance, it looks more because I think also Williams and Red Bull are a little bit under-performing right now but it’s interesting and good for the championship to have not only Mercedes domination. Hopefully they can keep improving even more.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Some drivers have already used up three or four engines this year and they face some pretty daunting penalties if they have to take fresh engines which they obviously will have to. My question is do you think it is a good or fair rule to penalise sportsmen for the failings of their equipment? And I guess we will probably have to ask this question to Daniil first.

DK: Well yeah, it’s a fair point. The situation is not easy, for sure, for us. We used quite a few already but it is what it is. So no complaints, we will see what’s going to happen with the fifth engine or not but once again, it’s something out of our control and we just stick to what we have and we just try to take the best out of the rules that we have for ourselves. So we just keep on working.

FA: Not really. It’s a good question, maybe a little bit unfair, maybe not. It’s the same for everybody. You know the rules before starting the championship so we just need to do a better job than our competitors. It’s the same with testing. We are not allowed to test. So it’s the only sport… it’s like if you play tennis and you cannot test the racquet before Wimbledon. Everything is like this. You just need to approach the thing in the best way possible and to prepare yourself better than the competitors.

NR: Just to add something: maybe yes, I think our sport is always linked between car and driver and if the car breaks down, I also suffer because I can’t finish the race, and it’s the same all the time. Of course, I’m happy to have a Mercedes Benz engine in the back because we’re still on our first engine and it’s looking good, so that’s great.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Fernando, coming back to that old McLaren from the eighties: obviously the public still doesn’t really like these new turbo engines and the perception is that those old cars are much harder to drive on the limit than these ones. Do you agree, after driving it, was it really harder to get on the limit with that, so what can you say to those critics who say that ‘come on, these cars nowadays are not really hard to drive on the limit’?

FA: Well, obviously I was not on the limit because that was quite risky to do the filming day for our sponsor and maybe crash so I was at fifty percent, just enjoying the laps. I don’t think that it was more difficult than our (current) car. I think that when you drive a machine to the limit it’s difficult. To all the people at home that maybe see that the cars are too easy now, I think it’s a combination of things, a combination of very high quality television which I think all the cameras now look perfect, even the on-board cameras you see are like a train, they show no vibration, nothing, so everything has improved. You see an onboard camera 20 years ago and it looks like crazy, it’s exactly the same now but the technology is much better now. But yeah, to all those people I invite them to come to a go-kart race with us and they will be scared when we drive a go-kart at the limit, even a go-kart that seems a simplest thing in the world but every motor sport machine that you drive at the limit is extremely complex.

May 7, 2015
F1 2015: Chinese GP Preview – Advantage Mercedes in Shanghai

If you’re not mulling several burning questions and theories at the same time then you’re more than likely not thinking about Formula 1 and the upcoming Chinese grand prix.

The biggest of these burning questions is whether Ferrari’s stunning Malaysian grand prix victory was indicative of something or just a flash in the Mercedes dominated pan. But things are rarely ever as simple as either answering yes or no either way. This is after all Formula 1 and there are a plethora of variables and circumstances that have to enter into providing a carefully thought out response to this poser.

The biggest determining factor will be the temperature. In Malaysia the scorching track temperature played to Ferrari’s strength but it wasn’t the only advantage they put on the table. In comparison to Mercedes the Ferrari driver’s did a much better job at managing their tyre degradation.

The Pirelli tyres are far less temperamental than when they were first introduced to Formula 1 but the benefit of eeking a bit more performance out of them than the competition is a big advantage. The temperatures in China won’t be anything like that of Sepang but the track surface is quite an abrasive one. Add to this that Pirelli have selected the medium and soft compounds for the weekend and Ferrari is still in with a shout.

Sebastian Vettel’s win in Malaysia doesn’t mean that he or Ferrari will be able to consistently beat Mercedes. But it’s given Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his team something to think about. “In two weeks you are caught up and you lose the race fair and square on track which is a bit of a wake-up call, which is good for us.”

The pace of development in Formula 1 has always been staggering but never quite something you can get used to. In 2014 Williams were, by far, the second quickest team on the grid and even locked out the front row for the Austrian grand prix. Several months later the Grove based team has, so far, fallen short of the frontrunners. We are missing race pace – and quite a big amount,” said Valtteri Bottas. “With the ideal race, starting at the front, the gap wouldn’t be that big but it is too big, much bigger than we expected.

The FW34 Williams shouldn’t have too bad a time of it this weekend because China’s Shanghai circuit is a marvellous mixture of intricate, technical corners and wide-open straights prepared to test the limits of the modern F1 hybrid technology. Turn one is a test in patience as it makes a 180 degree turn before accelerating into a slightly off-camber turn two. “The circuit has a very long straight, where a good top speed is important, and an interesting mix of low, medium and high speed corners. In addition, it has several technical sections where unique corners, such as turns one and 13, lead straight into further corners requiring a good car balance and precise driving,” says Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering at Sauber.

All the teams like coming to these parts too. It’s bustling juggernaut economy and bustling automotive industry is a big target for the manufacturer’s involved in the sport. Achieve commercial success in the densely populated Chinese region and you’ll be smiling at the way to the bank.

There will be more than just the battle up front to whet the appetite this weekend. The Lotus F1 team maintain that they have made big gains from last year but have not yet been able to show this on track. If they are able the fight in the mid-field, with Toro Rosso and Sauber, may yield quite a battle.

The saying goes that you’re only as good as your last race. In this case it means a dazzling Ferrari victory and Mercedes being, slightly, found out. But the pragmatic part of the brain will remind you that though Ferrari’s victory was stunning it is still up against the juggernaut of Mercedes. Then again, pragmatism is terribly over-rated.

April 9, 2015
Weather Forecast for the 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

Round 2 of the Formula 1 World Championship brings us to the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia for the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Herman Tilke designed track is one of the most technical tracks on the F1 calendar. It has a good mix of slow corners with a few high speed corners thrown in for good measure which places a tremendous amount of energy through the tyres. A few elevation changes an bumpy braking zones adds to the complexity of the track.

With the hard abrasive surface Pirelli has chosen the white medium and orange hard compound tyre for the race. The two tyre choices will best suit the high humidity and high ambient temperatures which is not only tough on the drivers but also extremely tough on the cars. Nearly every afternoon there is an intense downpour in Sepang this should bring out the wet weather tyres for the first time this season.

The weather this weekend in Sepang will be hot with thundershowers forecast in the afternoons. Temperatures will hover in the low 30’s with high humidity. The thundershowers are forecast to hit the track in the afternoons. This would put them during qualifying and just before the race.

Below is a snapshot of the weekends weather and a live forecast that updates through the day.

March 25, 2015
Pirelli Announces Tyre Choices for First Four Grands Prix

Formula 1 tyre provider Pirelli has announced the tyre nominations for the Australian, Malaysian, Chinese, and Bahrain Grands Prix.

For the Australian Grand Prix Pirelli will bring in the white medium and yellow soft compound tyres.

In Malaysia, the Orange Hard and White Medium compound tyres will be used. Pirelli nominated these the two hardest compounds available for the high abrasiveness of the asphalt at the Sepang Circuit and also because of the high temperatures.

The P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyres are nominated for China. Those are the tyres best suited for the high degradation experienced by the tyres on the Shanghai circuit.

For Bahrain, a circuit that is tough on the rear tyres, Pirelli have nominated the White Medium and Yellow soft compound tyres. The Bahrain Grand Prix is the first day-into-night race on the calendar. This leads to falling ambient and track temperatures as the race goes on. The tyres chosen would provide the ideal balance between the rear mechanical grip needed whilst coping with the falling track temperatures.

The above tyre choices are identical to the first 4 races of last season. The only difference is that the rear tyres have a different construction which allows for temperatures to be distributed more evenly.

Photo by courtesy PIRELLI

March 4, 2015
F1 2014: Brazilian GP – Sao Paulo Success For Rosberg

The one thing Nico Rosberg needed to be this weekend was perfect and he came as close to it as any Formula 1 driver could ever dream of.

Nico Rosberg converted his tenth pole position of the season into victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix under serious pressure from teammate Lewis Hamilton. The two Silver Arrows led cleanly off the front-row of the grid and ran line astern for the shortened first stint of the race. As the soft Pirelli tyres were giving up the ghost on the newly re-surfaced Interlagos circuit it was Rosberg who blinked first and dived into the pitlane for a set of the medium compound tyres.

Shrewdly, Hamilton had been biding his time and unleashed an almighty fast lap as Rosberg pitted. It would’ve been enough to give Hamilton the lead of the race and perhaps even the race victory.

A half spin into turn four undid all the Brit’s progress and handed Rosberg a 7.5 second lead after the round of pitstops.

Hamilton brilliantly reduced the gap to little more than half a second but this time not even his unrelenting tenacity was enough to beat Rosberg.

The F1 Gods seemed to be conspiring against local favourite Felipe Massa as the Brazilian had to overcome several dicey moments during his race.

First, the Williams driver was forced to serve a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Later, and quite comically, Massa nearly stopped in the McLaren pitbox, whose mechanics are similarly decked out in white overalls, as he came in for a fresh set of boots.

Nevertheless, much to the pleasure of the crowd Massa secured his first podium of the 2014 season.

The man who clinched his own world title here in 2009, Jenson Button, underlined McLaren’s recent progress with an impressive fourth place at the end of the 71 laps.

Sebastian Vettel completed a quiet run into fifth in a relatively solid afternoon of racing for the four-time champion. Who would have thought, as Vettel went on a nine race winning streak in 2013, that he would ever be racing in quite such anonymity as he did in this Brazilian Grand Prix. But so the wheel of Formula 1 turns, mercilessly and with emphatic certainty.

Ferrari, to some extent, put together a better performance with a sixth and seventh place finish for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen respectively. The two teammates battled late on in the race as Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver to successfully complete a two-stop strategy.

Eventually, fresher tyres allowed Fernando Alonso past Raikkonen who could’ve had a slightly better afternoon if not for some finger-trouble on the front-jack in the pits which cost the Finn roughly six seconds.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth overall a scant two tenths off Raikkonen while Kevin Magnussen ended a distant ninth in the second McLaren.

Valterri Bottas was never able to recover from a delay in his own pitstop which was owing to a loose safety-belt. Bottas confirmed post-race that severe graining on his tyres significantly affected his pace as well. The only two retirements were in the form of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean who pulled off in a smoking heap and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who suffered a front-left suspension failure.

Perfection is what was called for from Rosberg and what was needed to beat Lewis Hamilton.

He nearly succumbed to the relentless pressure from his teammate but this time unlike in Italy, Russia and the United States, Rosberg’s mental fortitude was resolute.

This victory has repaired some of the psychological damage inflicted by Hamilton and proved that come Abu Dhabi Nico Rosberg will be there fighting tooth and nail until the very last possible second.

November 10, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Petrobras Brazilian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES:

Paul MONAGHAN (Red Bull Racing)

Pat FRY (Ferrari)

Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli)

Rob SMEDLEY (Williams)

Sam MICHAEL (McLaren)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Paul Hembery, if we could start with you? Interesting day today to say the least. Obviously a new track surface here at Interlagos [along with] your choice of soft and medium tyres for this weekend. What did you learn today, particularly in the extremely high track temperatures, up around 57-58 degrees [Celsius]?

Paul HEMBERY: Well, the track is very different from last year. We’ve lost a lot of the macro roughness, 50% less than last year, so it’s a very smooth track and in the first sessions we saw a lot of oils coming out from the new tarmac that we’ve got out there, which you get from new surfaces. So a lot of graining going on in the first run on the tyres in P1. It improved a little bit through the day. Having said that it’s a strong pull for something like the softer compound here when you get up to nearly 60 degrees on the track. A little bit of blistering we started to see on the front tyres. But who knows what the rest of the weekend is going to hold. Nobody foresaw having this high temperature today, so there are still a few question marks, I guess, for the rest of the weekend.

What about 2015 tyres? Give us an insight, if you could, about your thinking, what you want to achieve on strategy, performance, that kind of thing?

PH: Well, we’re not planning any great changes. We’re trying to improve a little bit the footprint area of the tyre, which is what you do as a tyre maker. Compounds? Well, again minimal changes. Maybe working on some of the temperature ranges of some of the compounds, but not planning anything dramatic. Primarily because we still want to understand what these technical guys are going to come up with in terms of developments for next season. They’ve had a year to understand the new regulations and we are expecting some quite strong improvements during next season.

Thank you very much. Rob, coming to you, same first question for you as it was for Paul, but from a team’s point of view. What did you find today running with these tyres on this new track surface? Anything you’d like to share with us about it?

Rob SMEDLEY: I think that the track improved quite dramatically through the first session as Paul just said. There were a lot of oils coming out. As you put Formula One cars over the surface you impart a lot of load into the surface and the oil comes out. I think that’s quite normal. And as it did the track gripped up a bit, between the first and the second set there was quite a big track evolution. We started the second session about 17 or 18 degrees hotter than what we finished the first. We were 56 degrees, I think, track temperature, about 34 or 35 ambient and that went up to 57-58 at the end we were measuring at the end. So they were quite extreme temperatures. On the old surface round here with that tyre of temperature you’ll get quite a lot of degradation. And that’s why I think everybody put the option on and the people who looked best on it were simply the people who’d run least in their short runs. Anybody who’d run four or five laps, as our cars had done, we grained the rears and blistered the front. But I think that’s quite normal for these track temperatures. We’re predicting, for what it’s worth, that it will be quite different conditions for tomorrow and Sunday. I think the main thing to take out of it, as always, is that Friday, yes it’s important and it’s good to go and do your homework, but the track can change quite dramatically for the rest of the weekend.

Q: Felipe, yesterday in the press conference was very optimistic about the next steps for Williams. They’ve obviously been a midfield team for a while now but the car and the technology are clearly on the point of being race-winning again. What needs to be done about developing the mentality of the team to that point as well?

RS: It’s a long-term project. You have to change cultures and methodology within the team and, like I’ve always said since I arrived at Williams, it’s very easy to change process, you can change process in a week – but it’s much more difficult to change culture, y’know? The team’s got to get back to being able to win. Being ready to win. Being pretty much ready to beat everybody. If you look at the most recent success – bar Mercedes – in F1 then it’s Red Bull. They started off some years back with not the quickest car and certainly not the best operation and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me saying that. And right now, in terms of their chassis, they still have a fantastic chassis, in terms of how they operate, they operate very well – but it’s because the same core group was there for a long time. And that’s what we have to do at Williams. I think we’ve got reasonably sensible people there now, there’s a good level of competence, a good level of young talent as well – which is always important – it’s not just the people at the top end who make all the decisions but the people who actually do the work as well. And yeah, for the moment it’s working. There’s more to do. We have to go further but as long we stay on the road that we’re on, hopefully it will work out.

Q: Pat, tell us about the contrasting day for your two drivers: obviously Kimi at the top of the timesheets in FP2 and the fire for Fernando. Is that going to mean a penalty?

Pat FRY: The fire, it’s a high-mileage Friday engine to be honest. I’m sure every team’s in a similar boat so it doesn’t really affect the strategy that we run on a Saturday and a Sunday, so that side of things, it looks more spectacular and it’s hard work for us to clean it all up but it’s not that big a deal. I think this morning we, like most people, we struggled with graining of, particularly the right front, and it takes a little bit of a while for us to work out how to deal with that. As the track improved the graining reduced significantly in the second part of FP1. We’ve been trying different setup options with Kimi and he seems happier. We’ve been reviewing… it’s been a constant battle for us to try and work out and give him the front end he wants in the car. We’re a little bit closer and it shows that, if we can give him the car that gives him the right feedback, he’s right there and right on the pace. So, I think that side of things went reasonably well. Long run pace, it’s hard to say really. I think everyone’s long run was disrupted by, firstly, the red flag we caused and then the following red flag. On Fernando’s side, again, similar comments with graining and car balance. I think everyone’s struggling a bit with the tyres and the way they’re behaving here. But yeah, we didn’t get a clean lap on the very first lap but other than that I think they’re relatively close together.

Q: Tell us how the Mattiacci long-term plan is manifesting itself in the technical department.

PF: I think, like all these things I’ve said to you before, to stop and look at what you’re doing and realise where… or start thinking long term, is definitely what we needed to do. It’s good that we’ve done that. Some of the changes that have been emplaced are already paying huge dividends in the way we’re developing next year’s car. Only time will tell really. There’s a huge amount of catching-up we need to do but at least there’s the drive to improve the technical process, invest where we need to. It’s a long-term process but the right path is there to get us back to the top.

Q: Sam, you’ve obviously announced that you’re leaving Formula One after a long career at the end of this season. Why have you decided to leave the sport and what are your plans?

Sam MICHAEL: Thanks James. First thing I wanted to say was that it’s been really been an honour and a privilege to work alongside all the engineers and technicians and drivers, media and all the people that make up Grand Prix racing. It’s an incredibly privileged position to be in and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. There are some fantastic people in this business, it’s one of those businesses where there’s lots of different characters and a great deal of diversity but the one thing that bonds us all together is that we’re all racers. We always have conflicts and fights about whether it’s technical regs or sporting regs or who said what or did at different times. We’re all here to do the best thing for Formula One and if it didn’t exist like that then we wouldn’t be here. It’s been a fantastic run, 21 years with four different teams and I looked at it and thought it’s time to go back to Australia. Looking forward to that, probably spending a bit more time with my family. As you know, yourself, motor racing itself is an incredibly selfish business when it comes to families and I think it got to the point where I thought if I don’t see my kids grow up at this point then I probably never will. So that was basically the driving factor behind it. It’s been a great trip and that’s it.

Q: What’s your favourite period?

SM: I’ve enjoyed all of it really. As I said, I’ve been very lucky to work with some pretty inspirational people right from the beginning with the two Peters, Peter Collins and Peter Wright, the infamous Eddie Jordan, obviously Gary Anderson who was a good teacher at the time, then Frank and Patrick and then obviously Martin and Ron. You could look at each period and say that when you’re winning Grands Prix, they’re the most fantastic results and the highlights, but there’s actually lots of other little areas and little wins that you get, whether it’s coming up with a new technology before someone else in a team, results where you’ve driven from the back… I think of things like when Alex Wurz drove from the back in 2007 and got to the podium. I think of Nico Rosberg’s first Grand Prix in Bahrain where he started a lap down effectively and got back to seventh and had fastest lap of the race. There’s all the wins as well that I had in those teams. I think all those moments are the ones that bonded a race team together and they’re the ones that you remember the most.

Q: Paul Monaghan, great year, obviously for Daniel Ricciardo: three wins, third in the drivers’ championship. Less so for Sebastian Vettel who admitted yesterday that ‘Ricciardo has simply done a better job than me.’ What’s the technical explanation for these two very different seasons?

Paul MONAGHAN: We present two equal cars to the drivers and I think you have to ask Sebastian for a little bit more explanation of his side of what he meant. We service both drivers with the best equipment we can, treat them equally, allow them their requests where we can and field them onto the track in the best state we possibly can. I would have said Sebastian’s coming off five very intense years, isn’t he, and he’s been phenomenally successful and I suppose it concludes with we wish him well.

Q: Well, you’re turning a page, obviously. You’ve got Daniel Kvyat coming in; when do you get to run him for the first time, and more importantly, do you think he’s ready?

PM: He’ll be ready. He’s had a season, hasn’t he? He’s had some glamorous moments. In terms of running him, I think it’s going to be in February and yeah, looking forward to it. It’s a new challenge for us, isn’t it? So off we go, we’ll see what happens.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rob, Pat Symonds said Alonso could be a disturbing factor for a Williams that is still growing and trying to become a top team to win again. Do you agree with that?

RS: Well, I don’t exactly know what Pat said so I can’t really comment on that. I’m sure that’s not verbatim what you’ve just said to me, it rarely is. I think that Williams is, yes, growing, yes, in a state of transition. But I don’t think that anybody would be a distraction. I think that it’s up to us to be able to integrate people into the team, whoever they are. If they’re good and they offer something, then it’s up to the management and the rest of the team to be able to integrate them. Don’t take this away as a quote that I think that Fernando Alonso’s coming to Williams because he isn’t. You’d have to ask Pat to explain further on what he said, but as far as I’m concerned, I think that Williams is open to everybody.

Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV Sport) A question for Paul: I know there were very interrupted race runs that everybody was doing this afternoon but Red Bull did look pretty good. Do you think you can give Mercedes a bit of a run, particularly if the weather conditions change this weekend?

PM: Yes, in summary to your question, we’ll set out to try and win the race. If it’s dry and the race is as we might expect, then we’ll probably watch the Mercedes. If you throw in a bit of inclement weather, a few unexpected pit stops, we’ll do our utmost to finish at the front, yes.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Paul, I would like to follow up on what Rob had said about the core group of people who of course will no longer be around: for example, Adrian’s moving on, Sebastian’s moving on, I believe Rocky is moving on as well, so there will be a total restructure. How do you people see that restructure working internally? Will there be an announcement of people starting to move into positions?

PM: Well, I have to correct you on two out of three points you’ve made. Sebastian is departing the team, he’s one part of the team. We wish him well. Adrian’s not leaving, he’s taking a step back, but he’s still around. Rocky’s staying with the team so the core team to which you refer is still there and I think, as Rob said, we’ve been together for a long time, we work well together, we’re a close knit team so people are changing positions, structures have been in place for a little while now so I don’t envisage a great change in a short period of time. I think, from the outside, you will struggle to see very much in the way of differences and as the core team is staying together, then we expect to be strong if not stronger next year.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Pat, we’re hearing in the past few weeks different stories about the new Ferrari, first that it was delayed and that the data was not as good – even worse than this one, then that there have been some improvements. What can you say about the work that you are doing in Maranello? Where are you standing? What are you foreseeing?

PF: Well, I don’t know where you get your information from, to be honest. Yeah, we’ve set ourselves some strong challenging development targets on both the power unit side and on the chassis side. There’s obviously a huge gap we need to catch up. I think things are progressing reasonably well. Have we reached our target? No, far from it but I guess there’s four and a half months to go still – at least – but things are coming along and improving on both fronts really, so I think there’s been good progress there. All the teams are working well together, so only time will tell how much performance everyone else is going to put on. So we’re doing the best we can with the resource we’re applying, so it’s going OK.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speedsport News) Sam, do you plan to be involved in racing when you get back to Australia? And would you consider being involved in the V8 series down there?

SM: Thanks Dan. I think at this point in time, the first thing I want to do is get back to Australia. I’m still on this side of the world (Europe), get back there and get everyone – my family – established and then decide what I’m going to do next. Since it’s become public, it’s been a really interesting time with some quite fascinating and interesting projects but at the moment I’m not going to make any decision until I’m back there. Spend a few days on the beach first. Thanks.

November 8, 2014