F1 Madness

Tag: red bull racing

  • Australian Grand Prix: Team Principal Press Conference

    Australian Grand Prix: Team Principal Press Conference

    Team Representatives

    Toto Wolff (Mercedes)

    Eric Boullier (McLaren)

    Rob White (Renault Sport F1)

    Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari)

    Claire Williams (Williams)

    Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing)

     

    Q: A very interesting first day’s running. I’ll start with you Christian, as the defending world champion team. I guess given where you were two weeks ago in the winter testing, you must be fairly pleased with the way this first day of running has turned out. Tell us what has been going on behind the scenes in this intervening period?
    Christian Horner:     Well today has been a very string first day for us. It’s been our first proper test day of the season. We’ve had a very difficult pre-season with numerous issues, which have been pretty well documented prior to us arriving in Melbourne. It was refreshing for the drivers to get plenty of laps in and really get a first proper feel for the car. It’s been an encouraging start but we still have an awful lot of work to do we can still see that there is quite a gap to the Mercedes and to Ferrari but we’re starting to realise what that gap is and by the end of this weekend that should hopefully have a bit more clarity. But certainly behind the scenes there’s an enormous amount of effort of going on both back in the Red Bull factory back in Milton Keynes and of course in Viry-Chatillon with the Renault guys as well. With such a big regulation change and such is the complexity of what is nowadays referred to as the power unit rather than the engine it’s not unsurprising that there have been quite a lot of issues to deal with.

    Q: Tell us about managing the situation from your point of view. Does being a four-time world champion team recently – focusing on things like teamwork and morale – does it make it easier to rescue yourself from the kind of situation you were in because you’ve had some success or does it make it more difficult?
    CH:     Neither of those issues has been an issue. Morale is extremely high and we work very effectively as a team. It’s been a challenging winter to design, build and then obviously modify RB10, but the way the team has responded to the challenge has been fantastic. There is a real desire and inner strength within the team. We’ve achieved quite a bit over the past few years and that’s not by accident. As I’ve said there are always engineering solutions to engineering problems.

    Q: Thank you for that. Moving to you Stefano. Obviously Christian thinks you’re ahead of his team. Fernando was fastest this morning and third this afternoon. How do you assess the first day of term for Ferrari, and what was the difference in programme between Alonso and Raikkonen.
    Stefano Domenicali:     Today was an interesting day just to see if some of the issues we had during the Bahrain test were solved. We are still not on top of all the things we have to solve and this is something that shows, as Christian says, the complexity of this project. But you know, what we have to do is keep working on the things we know. We need to improve and that’s the way it is. For sure there were different things to test and to try between the drivers but that’s part of the normal programme we do. In my view today maybe you will see that some teams were a little bit hiding or having some issues for the day. Tomorrow the situation will be different again, we don’t know, we will see. If there will also be different weather conditions this will be another thing we never tested with this car so far, so the managing of the car in possibly wet conditions could be another exciting or challenging thing for all of us. But so far, it’s important that we were able to run with the programme we wanted even if we had some little issue to solve. But that’s part of the game, it’s just the first free practice of a long season.

    StefanoDomenicali_PressConferenceQ: And are you happy with the structure you’ve got in place now? I know there has been a lot work behind the scenes – technical facilities, changes in the management, new people coming in, appointments and what have you. Is this the team you want now?
    SD:     I think the basic for sure. We’ve done a great job in the last couple of years to restructure the team, restructure the facility, that was absolutely and imperative thing to do and I think that now we are in the way that we should be to do the best we can in these conditions. So, so far I’m pleased about it.

    Q: Talking about restructuring, Claire, we’ll come across to you. Obviously very much a new look Williams team in more ways than one. What steps that have gone on behind the scenes with your team are you most proud of at the moment?
    Claire Williams:     I think like you said we’ve had a lot of effort that’s gone on behind the scenes to make sure that we entered this season in a completely different place as to how we ended it last year. So I think a lot of work has gone one behind the scenes but I don’t think you can single out one of those efforts. Bringing in the Mercedes engine has had a huge influence on our position this year and our performance. Bringing in Pat Symonds and him heading up a whole new technical team as well has been significant and played its part as has obviously bringing in Felipe Massa to partner Valtteri this season. So there has been a lot of work and we’ve had a good winter but this is only the first race of the year and we haven’t qualified yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how we do tomorrow.

    Q: You had the fastest time in the Bahrain test, you did the second-highest kilometres in testing, where are you today? What has today’s running revealed to you?
    CW:     Today’s been positive. I think the engineers are all relatively happy with what they’ve managed to achieve. It’s been the usual programme of everything you’d expect us to be running on Friday practice. I think Felipe had a bit of an issue this morning which prevented him from going out – but that was to do with his radio software rather than an issue with the car. Valtteri seems comfortable with the car, little bit of understeer that we’ve got to correct overnight but both drivers are saying that they’re happy.

    Q: Eric, fifth and ninth this afternoon, plenty of laps on the board. Is it about what you expected from your first day of competitive running?
    Eric Boullier:     I don’t know if we had any expectations today, just obviously we had a lot of plans and a lot of tests to do, to go though. Obviously first to put again some laps and miles and setup for the drivers. I think we can be happy, we went through most of the plan today so I think the team did a good job.

    Q: You’ve been at McLaren a few weeks now. What changes do you want to make in the team and how much autonomy are you going to be given to do that by the management group?
    EB:     The first part of your question, it is still in my head, on my mind, my plan. But it doesn’t have to be public. This is obviously a great team, a lot of history, the best facilities, I think, in the paddock. And obviously a lot of great individuals eager to do well and go back where the team should be. So, that’s going to be… let’s say, most of the work is going to be to get everybody on track on this. For the second part of the question, it’s a team effort as always. The idea behind the split in the team principal role is something which we have… I actually had personal experience in Lotus. I think it’s good today when you have so much travel during the season and so many people to care about at the factory, it’s obvious that you need to focus or get some different roles split over the company. I think it worked well in the past and it should work well in McLaren.

    Q: Toto, you came here as favourites, certainly among a lot of pundits, fastest and second fastest on the soft tyre runs, long run looked to be a step ahead of the others. Did it turn out how you expected today?
    Toto Wolff:     Yes. If you look after Free Practice Two and analyse that, that was quite satisfying. As you said, on one lap the pace was good and the long run was good as well. But you can see how quickly it goes. In Free Practice One, Lewis went out and after half a lap the car stopped, so you need to be very careful. It’s just enough to have a little problem and the race or the qualifying could be finished.

    Q: Obviously you’ve got two top drivers and clearly a competitive package. Have you had conversations behind the scenes in terms of priority, team orders, obviously thinking about what happened last year?
    TW:     Yes, we had those conversations, and I think it’s important to have those conversations. Both of the drivers know each other for quite a long time, they have been team-mates before – back in karting – and we got caught out by surprise last year in Malaysia and we don’t want this to happen again. It’s just very good discussions we had. They’re not only very talented and fast but also very intelligent. They treat each other in a very fair way. We went through some of scenarios and I think we’re in a good place.

    Q: So it depends on circumstances as to what you decide?
    TW:     It depends on circumstances, yes.

    Q: Rob, two teams getting plenty of laps on the board today, two teams in a bit of difficulty. Obviously your problems going into this season have been well catalogued. How do you feel about what we’ve seen today?
    Rob White:     First race weekend is always a testing time and of course this year feeling particularly anxious because we’re not as well prepared as we would have liked to have been. So, one of the things that Christian rightly alluded to is the fact that in some ways some of the race weekend scenario still needed to be practiced for the first time in P1 and also P2. So, pleased to be able to run through a normal-looking race weekend programme. That’s the big achievement of today.

    Q: Obviously you hadn’t done too many practice starts coming into this Melbourne weekend. I noticed there were quite a few taking place with Renault-powered cars today. Are you happy where you are on practice starts?
    RW:     Yeah. There was nothing magical. They were kind of towards the end of the run plan for the testing and we didn’t quite get there in the pre-season testing in several cases. We haven’t got any particular concern about them. Of course we’re now into learning about the setup parameters in order to try to get some performance into the practice starts. It is a very important phase of the race. We’re very conscious and all of our teams are very conscious of that. So, once again, we’re behind where we would have liked to be and the task now is to try and gain ground.

    Q: A quick line from you on that Christian, are you comfortable on the starts.Christian-Horner
    CH:     It’s been the least of our problems. We haven’t been out on the track doing laps, let alone starts. We’re hoping to start the race on Sunday so we’ll need a start.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – The Age) Claire and gentlemen, the reaction to the sound of the engines has been underwhelming, to say the least. You people have heard these engines during testing, has it occurred to anyone that we’ve got a real problem on our hands, just how horrible they sound, and how the fans are going to react?
    CW:     Personally I like the sound of the engines, but then I love Formula One and I love watching cars go round a racetrack. I think people will pretty quickly get used to what Formula One engines sound like. We’ve had so many changes over so many decades of motor racing and you very quickly forget what a previous engine sounds like and I think people just want to see a good race on Sunday and I think that as long as we can deliver that then I think that any issues that perhaps… or contentious conversations around that may fade away.

    TW: Well, if you like sound of engines, let’s go back to V10 and V12, let’s not do any hybrid. This is modern technology, this is where road cars are going. Downsizing is the motto and I think we just need to accept that the formula has changed. These cars are going to go quicker than the old ones in a couple of races, we’re going to get used to the sounds and I promise next year you will not notice and you will not notice any difference any more.

    SD: I think that Claire and Toto summarised the situation very well.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) Stefano, are you worried about the problems that Kimi seems to have had today or are you more satisfied by the performance of Fernando?
    SD:     I always have to see the negative side of the… or the empty side of the glass, so of course we need to make sure that all the things that are still not solved – not only on Kimi’s side – have to be solved or addressed very quickly because the competition is very strong and the time that we have available is not a lot. So I think that for me the most important thing is to address and to solve the issue very quickly and whatever it is, the driver is not really the problem because I’m sure that both drivers will be able to manage the situation in the best way that they can, but there is still a lot of work to do.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Eric, you’ve added a new sponsor to your rear wing without much in the way of fanfare. Could you explain the significance of that and maybe shed some light on your quest for a title sponsor. Are you closer to announcing something? I think Ron said the other week that it would be in the next few events. Are we closer to firming something up there?
    EB:     We lately signed a new sponsor which is good news and we are happy to welcome Asos which is an on-line fashion retailer. I think it’s in nine languages delivering to 234 countries – I know my figures. It’s obviously very exciting for us. It’s a huge company selling clothes and selling all stuff like fashion stuff.

    Regarding the other part of the question, we will soon announce… we will hope to sign soon a title partner. We are not in a rush to announce it until everything is closed and done but it’s going to be done in due time.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action) Stefano, three questions about your power plant: what are the specific issues that need to be fixed? Within the rules of homologation, what can you now do to develop the engine and the third question is how do you rate your engine compared to your rivals?
    SD:     First of all, we need to wait and see because points are the things that count so the first thing we need to do is to work on the reliability of it, because that is still not clear if it’s enough, it’s never enough compared to the others. In terms of analysis, I think we need to be careful because when you address only the issue on the engine, I think that’s wrong. We need to address if there is the need, of course, to address the things on the entire car, on the efficiency of the car in a global way, not only the engine, on the mechanical side there’s also the balancing of electrical power versus the engine power itself versus the efficiency of the car as the car itself. I think the right answer is that we need to work all around the car, full stop, and we will see where we’re going to be because I already see a lot of classifications done already but I think it is better for everyone not to anticipate too much. I know that words are easy to fly away but I think we need to be very cautious and careful. That’s why I keep this position. I think that we have a good base and we need to develop on that and see when it counts to bring home the points that are the things that are more important for this championship.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Christian, your cars with Daniel did more than a race distance today and Sebastian almost did a race distance across the two sessions. Is that the first time you’ve done a whole race distance in a day’s running in the whole of pre-season testing and does that mean that you can do the whole of the race distance on Sunday with a vague confidence that the car will actually do all the laps, especially as we saw a heat bulge on Sebastian’s car in the lower left hand part of the side pod during FP1?
    CH:     Well, I think Sebastian today has covered a third of the mileage of his total winter and obviously Daniel has done pretty much a race distance today, so that’s extremely encouraging for our guys and the guys back in Paris at Renault. So hopefully it bodes well for the weekend because the most important thing is to see the chequered flag on Sunday and that in itself is an enormous challenge. We’ve learned some valuable lessons today, an awful lot of information to look at and to be honest with you, it’s the first real opportunity that the drivers have had to drive the car properly without it being interrupted at any different part of the lap or the circuit. Really, for both drivers it’s been their first chance to really start to explore the car and for the engineers to start to look at set-up and so in many respects, this is where we would ideally like to have been at the first test but that wasn’t the case. We’ve got some ground to make up.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) To all of you including Rob because it could affect your side of the championship, since we last met in Brazil, we’ve introduced double points at the last race which is arguably the least scintillating race of the season. Given that the structure, the entrants and drivers licence fees are basically a tax on performance, how do you feel about these double points races, possibly for the last three races? Now there’s talk about points for qualifying positions, what are your sentiments?
    RW:     I guess my opinion is more as a relatively independent observer and as a fan of the sport, I think that as long as the points structure is understood in advance, it’s an optimisation target like all of the rest and Formula One is a fantastic machine for getting the best out of a given set of constraints. I personally am not in favour of things that are hard to understand and therefore if it gets too complicated, I won’t like it.

    TW: Yuh. Is it good? I think when it was decided we didn’t put too much emphasis on it, we didn’t think it was a big drama. It’s clear that you have to support the commercial rights holder and if the TV audience is dropping, I think we have an obligation to listen. We got the reaction afterwards, it was not what we expected. You have to honour that. Nothing has changed since then, the last race remains double points and let’s see what we’re going to do next year.

    CW: Exactly the same as what Toto was saying.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, yesterday your president sent a letter to the fans; could you explain to us the meaning of the letter, particularly the part he wrote about the systems and all the problems that can be grey areas in the rules. Could you explain the spirit of the letter, please?
    SD:     I’m not the president, first of all. You know that very well. No, I think that our chairman wanted to send a letter to our supporters before the first weekend of another season, as he always does every year, and I think that he was highlighting the challenge that we have this year in terms of new regulations for us and it’s a challenge also for the federation to align with these regulations because also on their side, it’s a big task to make all the controls that are needed to make sure that everything is running properly, so I would say it’s just for him a way to stay close to our tifosi, to our supporters because you know how much he cares about Formula One and that’s the way you always are at the beginning of the season.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta -Turun Sanomat) Stefano, if it rains tomorrow, does it help your drivers to challenge the Mercedes boys for the top positions?
    SD:     Good question – the answer is I don’t know. We will see.

    Q: (Will Buxton – NBCSN) For everybody, there’s rumours doing the rounds that there’s a move on to try and get a test in Malaysia next week, before the race. Is that something… by the looks of things, it’s a surprise. I was wondering if that is something you had heard and if so it’s something you would be in favour of?
    CH:     Well, it’s certainly a surprise. It’s the first I’ve heard of it and if it is happening, we won’t be there. I think it’s fairly unlikely.

    EB: I’ve never heard of it too.

    Q: (Sylvia Arias – Parabrisas) Monsieur Boullier, I would like to know your opinion about Federico Gastaldi. As team principal, I saw you today saying to him ‘good luck’.
    EB:     Yes, I wished him good luck, obviously, but I have no opinion at all because it’s not my matter anymore.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) What sort of progress would all of you like to see made on the cost cap or budget caps or whatever?
    CH:     What was the question again? You wanted the cost cap or what progress? Forget the word cost cap for the moment. Let’s just focus on saving money. I think everybody around this group here wants to see all of the teams save money. The necessity to spend money in order to be competitive is what we want to reduce and I think however we achieve that as a group, it’s something we all want to see happen. How to make it happen is obviously something much more complex. Then there’s obviously discussions about caps and this and that. You’ve got to look at the root causes for why are costs the way they are and then in my opinion, address it that way.

    EB: I think Ron has maybe said he’s not favour of caps – again, it’s words. Definitely he’s obviously in favour of reducing costs. Obviously competition or trying to be competitive is obviously the nature of any sport, especially Formula One, so we just need to draw the line and make sure that technically we can’t spend too much to be competitive and try to have some targets which could be reasonable and suiting everybody.

    TW: Maybe Stefano wants to say something.

    SD: I think that Christian and Eric have summarised the situation very clearly, so nothing to add. We are always saying the same thing.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) But there’s no progress and that as the question: what progress would you like to see made?
    SD:     I think that progress is on the way because we are discussing what to do at the level of the strategy group. I’m sure that you’re aware of the work that is around that. I think that at this moment it’s better to stay quiet and tell you when the thing is done and say we are doing something without going into the details of it.

    Q: But it is the case that it’s got to be in place by 2015, isn’t it?
    SD:     Yeah.

    CH: We’ve done an incredible job of reducing the costs for this year with the introduction of a new power train that’s probably 25 percent more so we’re doing a great job so far!

    Q: (Chris Lines – AP) Rob, can you tell us a bit about the problems afflicting each of the teams; are they individual to the teams or is it a common problem and do you have a time line when you think this engine will be functioning at its principal level? Will it be KL, Bahrain, China, Europe?
    RW:     If we take a step back and look at the kind of troubles that have befallen us and our teams, then the first thing to say I think is that we’re behind where we should be in terms of time, in terms of our internal objectives, then independent of one’s level of competitiveness, then it’s completely unacceptable to be coming to a first race as relatively unprepared as we are and without having run through all of the scenarios that we needed to. In terms of where the trouble lies, then we remain confident that the building blocks that we’ve got in place are the right ones, that we know the level of thermal efficiency that we need for the turbocharged engine to be competitive in terms of power. We know that the regulatory constraints on the electrical machines from the battery and that mustn’t be exceeded but in order to be competitive, you’ve got to be able to be up with those limits and we are up with those limits and where it’s tough is delivering turbo to the backside of the drivers to the contact patch between the tyre and the tarmac, the sum of those parts and at the moment we’re not yet able to deliver that in a decent fashion. And this comes right back to the heart of these regulations. In order to get the performance out of the cars, the cars are going to be quicker than the old cars in a minute with substantially less fuel, there’s a lot more stuff and getting all that stuff to peacefully cohabit in the race car and to make it appear to the driver like it’s a different thing to the thing it is is where the troubles are. I guess that’s the stuff that is common to all users of our power unit and I don’t really have anything much to say about the specific differences between one car and another. We’re certainly working hand-in-hand with the teams that we work with in order to fix our problems and if we can participate in solving other ones then that’s good too.

    Q: (Will Buxton – NBCSN) FOTA, perhaps in the run-up to this season the perhaps inevitable dissolution of the Formula One Teams Association. How disappointed were those of you that were members of it with the dissolution of FOTA; those of you that weren’t, why didn’t it work for you? And as we move forwards with this sport and the usual talk of the need to reduce costs, how important is the unity of the teams in progressing this sport?
    CW:     Yes, obviously we were a member of FOTA and it was disappointing that it did dissolve but I think that from when it was originally established – it set out with a very clear mandate – and over the years that mandate has changed for a variety of reasons. I think the most important thing in this sport is that teams come together to work together to address the issues that we face and whatever those may be. We do need some form of structure around the teams so that we have a platform to have conversations so whether that’s FOTA or whether that’s something else, that’s something that Williams would be keen to be a part of in the future but obviously we, as a team, are now part of the F1 strategy group which obviously we’re pleased about.

    EB: Obviously as McLaren and ex-deputy chairman, we were quite involved in FOTA. I think it’s a bit disappointing to see FOTA disappearing but it was expected in the end. First FOTA was created in a different context with a lot of car manufacturers in the paddock and it has survived over the years. There were some defections and it just ended up where unfortunately it should have been. The most important thing is to keep some discussions and some firm places between the teams, as Claire said, to address our issues if we have to.

    TW: I think the mandate of FOTA was to represent all teams and that mandate got diluted over the years. Teams stepped back and at the end it was a bit of a struggle for FOTA to keep alive and I think we were either all in or no FOTA.

    SD: I think that clearly at the specific moment when FOTA was created it was really a situation that there was really the need to make sure that the teams were all together and if you recall, during that time, there were situations where the championship could have gone through a different part, we were very close to being in that situation but year by year the situation changed and therefore that was the reason why we quit FOTA two years ago, because we felt that that kind of situation was not really needed any more to be effective as an organisation. I think that for sure it is important for teams to agree and speak on a lot of subjects because we are all the actors in this show but we also need to recognise that there are different actors with different weights that also have be considered. All of us do care about this business, do care about this sport and I believe that this is fundament to also look ahead in the new way that we are organised, for example with the strategy group, to make sure that we take the right decisions for the future of Formula One.

    CH: I think that Stefano has summed it up perfectly. FOTA, when it was created, had some specific agendas. It was at a time of uncertainty over many issues regarding Formula One and then of course, the crisis came in 2008 and FOTA at that time achieved some good things in reducing costs and teams working harmoniously together within critical circumstances. Then the mandate as FOTA changed, and when it suddenly became involved in how you run your team and run your business and trying to police how a team is run, that’s not the role of the teams and you’re only ever going to end up in conflict when teams are trying to write regulations of how they should spend budgets etc etc. For that reason, we left at an identical time to Ferrari, because we just didn’t believe in the direction that FOTA was going. Then it was no surprise to see – ultimately – that it petered out over the last few years

  • Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    Australian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren)

    Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, can we start with you. You’re a four-time world champion, it’s your 121st grand prix and your seventh season in Formula One. Four times a world champion consecutively but would it be fair say that as we sit here today you’re not terribly optimistic about making it a fifth in a row this year?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t think that’s fair to say. It’s a long year. Our pre-season testing, our preparation, hasn’t been ideal and, yeah, we’re probably not in the best position for this race but I think it’s a different story when we think about the championship. There’s a long way to go. Two years back Fernando was on the grid with 1.5 seconds to pole position but he was very close to beating us to the title at the very last race. Anything can happen. That’s why this race is important, just as any other one. But there are a lot of races this year.

    Obviously we’ve all seen from the outside, and you’ve mentioned now the difficulties you had in pre-season testing but what are you doing to try to put that right – you personally?

    Sebastian Vettel at the Press Conference after the Italian Grand PrixSV: It’s obviously a tough step for all the teams, all the drivers, a lot of new things to get used to. We know that obviously we’re not in the best shape yet. There are a lot of things we need to solve. Unfortunately, you can’t solve them overnight. We’d love to but we can’t. So you really have to go step by step, together with Daniel, I think just trying to be as precise as we can, trying to give the engineers the best feedback possible about the whole power unit so that we move forward on that and also talking about the car because at this stage it’s a bit unknown where we are. It’s not a secret: you need very, very strong reliability to be a title contender, so we’ll see… I’m looking forward to tomorrow and especially Sunday to get a feel for the new regulations and see where we are.

    Thanks for that. Moving on to Fernando: two-time world champion of course, 193rd grand prix this weekend, 14th season he’s beginning in Formula One. Ferrari a little hard to read from the outside in terms of testing, you haven’t really stood out, for good or bad. From your perspective how to do you feel Ferrari is placed with this new technology going into this very different new season?

    Fernando ALONSO: I think it’s very difficult to tell how competitive we are at the moment. We’ll get some answers in 24 hours or 48 hours, we will know a little bit more than we know now. The car itself and the technology that Formula One brought this year are a little bit complex to everyone. We are learning and we are developing the car every day that we work on it. As I said, a little bit of an unknown situation for everybody. We just need to put everything together, maximise what we have, and see where we are.

    Some changes have just been announced recently to the qualifying format, particularly in relation to the final part of qualifying. I was wondering if we could get a comment from you on those changes and the impact they might have?

    FA: I think it will not be a huge difference, from the outside especially. OK there were some cars that didn’t run in Q3 or they only did one run in Q3 and now maybe we’ll see an extra lap from everybody but apart from that I think it’s not a huge change in approach in the qualifying for the teams and the drivers. Anyway, I think this change is welcome, to see more cars on tracks. I arrive many times with no new sets for Q3, so now I’m happy.

    Moving on to the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is starting his 130th grand prix. It’s his eighth season LewisHamilton_PressConferencenow in Formula One at the age of 29. Obviously it looks very promising after testing and both you and Nico Rosberg it seems are in a position to take an advantage of Mercedes’ competitiveness. I wonder will it come down to which one of the two of you wants it more?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Possibly. Yeah, it’s very technical this year and we’re all in the same boat. We’re always trying to find where the advantages can be between two drivers. From race to race I think you’ll see… one race he’ll be ahead, one time I’ll be ahead, same as you saw last year. Obviously the goal is to be ahead all the time.

    Can you talk about the feeling of driving these 2014 cars, compared to the cars of the last generation: the pleasure you get from driving them, whether they’re more you’re kind of car, what’s coming through the steering wheel to you?

    LH: Well, naturally I think.. I probably speak for all of us that last year’s car felt better, it was perhaps a little bit nicer to drive, when we had lots more downforce. But that was a car that was in the fourth year of its evolution. Now we’re in a new phase and it’s just something that just takes some time to get used to. The sound, for example, is not as impressive as what we had in the past but once you get all the cars on the track, on the grid, I’m pretty sure it will be impressive for the fans still.

    Q: Felipe, 192nd grand prix this weekend, your 12th season you’re starting in Formula One and certainly from the outside, your decision to move to Williams at this stage of your career is starting to look fairly inspired, judging by the winter testing programme. What do you think can be achieved this year, in terms of results?

    Felipe MASSA: I don’t know. I think it’s new to everybody so maybe we start having some answers this weekend. Not all of the answers but some. I’m really happy to be with Williams. Really enjoying the working with it to now, to feel the car and the working. It’s a lot to do. You can never forget that it was a very difficult time for Williams in the last years and it’s a lot to do, a lot of work, a lot of development going on inside the factory, inside the team. So many new people arriving – including me. But, I’m pretty motivated. For sure we can be there. I don’t know how competitive we’re going to be compared to the other teams. Maybe we will see teams better than us – I don’t know. Maybe we can see ourselves fighting with them and be as competitive as the top teams like these three guys here – but I think it’s just the beginning. It’s a lot to do, a lot to understand and the understanding will be very important for trying to make the car better and better all the time. But, feet on the ground, I think maybe this weekend we start to understand a little bit.

    Q: Obviously you’ve got the Mercedes engine which at this point looks to be the one to have, going into the season – but there’s clearly more to the Williams renaissance than just that. Can you tell us some of the things you’ve noticed? Maybe one or two points of things that you’ve noticed that have changed?

    FM: Well, I feel the team is really motivated. They want to grow, they want to get better and they want to be back in the good times. So I feel a lot of understanding for the people. I’m really happy with the people I work with, they’re really professional. So many new people are arriving and there are many good ideas inside the team. Me as well. I’m trying to give as much experience, as many ideas as I can from my experience in a different team. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward. I think it can be a nice season for us – but how nice I don’t know. We need to see.

    Q: Daniel, it looks like you had one really good day of testing in the car. Observers were saying the car looked pretty good when it was going around. Do you share that view.

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I think we had one stand-out day. There weren’t many, as Seb said but at least one for me was pretty good. I think we’re all a bit unsure how good our cars are. Speaking for all the drivers, I think we’re just curious and hanging out to get on the track this weekend and see where everyone stands and get a clearer picture. I’ve had a busy week leading up to the race and I’m probably more excited than anyone else right now to get in the car.

    Q: You’ve got your big break, here you are, it’s the big time with the World Champion team. You’ve got a four-time world champion sitting on the other side of the garage from you. What’s your strategy from here? Are you going to just focus on your own job or trying to look at what Sebastian’s doing and try to beat him?

    DR: I think for now just focus on what I’ve done the last few years and keep doing what I’ve been doing to get to this point – and then assess it from there and see how it’s going. Obviously I get a good view behind the scenes from the engineers of how Seb works with his guys and understand a little more through that as well – but for now it’s just do my thing and see where I stand off that and we’ll work from there.

    Q: Kevin, welcome to Formula One, if you look around you at the drivers sitting here with you this afternoon, who have seven Drivers’ World Championships won between them, 104 grand prix victories between them. Do you feel you have to pinch yourself to believe you’re sitting here today.

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah. Definitely. It is a dream come true and every day is fantastic at the moment – I’m sure it will keep staying like that. I’m just really excited to be here. It’s been a long winter, since signing. I’ve been looking forward to this weekend but yeah, feeling good. It’s been a good winter in terms of preparation with the team. They’ve done a really good job in terms of preparing me for this. It’s not easy. It’s a big job, a big challenge but I think I’m pretty much as ready as you can be these days. I’ve done a lot of work over the winter but I’m not underestimating the challenge that I’m facing. It’s a big challenge but I’m looking forward to it.

    Q: Shed a little light on it for us. McLaren looked very strong at the start of the testing but perhaps the end looked a bit more difficult. What was going on?

    KM: I think the whole testing we pretty much ran the launch car and were behind a little bit on development – but the car feels good. If you didn’t know the lap times of the other guys you would think that it’s pretty fast – and that’s a good sign. If we can just put some downforce on the car and keep developing as we did over the winter with the car, I think we can be in a good position. The team obviously come off a difficult season and they are massively motivated to come back to where they belong and that’s a good feeling.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – Crash.net) To all six of you: I was wondering in development terms if you could tell us the difference between the cars that were packed up in Bahrain and the cars that we’re going to see leaving the pit lane tomorrow?

    SV: I think it will be a very different car. Obviously, for us, we had a lot of problems during the test so we didn’t get to test a lot of stuff and we hope we do some more running here and obviously put the parts to the car that we think are better for overall performance. Yeah, it will be a bit different but I think it’s the same for all of us.

    Q: Fernando, I was on the same plane as Pat Fry and he was certainly pushing a lot of boxes out through customs when we arrived, so you’ve got quite a lot of new parts I guess.

    FA: No, maybe they found some…

    SV: Spare parts.

    FA: …food or something. The car is exactly the same as it was in Bahrain, not new sponsor, not anything.

    LH: It’s very similar to the two next door… probably more so to Fernando. There’ll be a couple of things on the car but generally it’s going to look the same.

    FM: The same car.

    KM: We’ve got a few bits on the car so hopefully we will be good.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Sebastian, obviously this past pre-season has been very different compared to previous pre-seasons with Red Bull. I was just wondering if you come into this season with a different mind-set, knowing you’ve got a car that could struggle to even cross the finishing line on Sunday, compared to the car you’ve had in previous seasons where you know it’s going to be pushing for the front row of the grid, pushing for race wins. Does your mind-set alter?

    SV: I think generally, at this stage for all us it’s difficult to know what to expect, how the racing will look, how it will feel inside the car, how many cars will cross the line. We saw that we had a lot of problems, others had a lot of problems during the tests that we had. It’s difficult to have any sort of expectations for most of us I think, but as I said in the beginning, it’s a long season and so obviously I’m going out here, not trying to just make it round, I’m going out here to push to the maximum and do the best I can and then we will see where we are and we will see how far we get. The target, for sure, is to finish and the target for sure is to finish in the best possible position, so that’s the mind-set, fairly straightforward and for the rest of the year, I think we’re a strong team, we have a lot of good people on board, we have strong resources so I’m confident we should progress as the season goes on.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action) Lewis, you and Nico get along very well, you got along very well last year when you were going for wins. This year, you might be both going for the championship, you’ve been in that kind of a fight before. Do you see that putting a bit of a strain on the relationship with Nico?

    LH: I mean when everyone’s talking about the relationship between us, it will be the same at the start as it will be at the end. We’ve been racing together since we were 13, we’ve been in championships competing right to the end, one where he’s won, one where I’ve won and it’s been the same since… It’s a more fierce championship and a lot more is riding on it but at the end, I don’t see any issues.

    Q: (Trent Pryce – Richland F1) Kevin, you say that the McLaren feels quick, does that mean it’s responding well to set-up changes? Does it feel like it has a good baseline?

    KM: Yeah, both, I would say. It just feels like a Formula One car, it feels like it’s balanced and I don’t have a lot of experience with Formula One cars but definitely the car that we had last year just didn’t have the right feeling about it. This year’s car is responding well in terms of driving the car and also set-up changes and has a good feel about it.

    Q: (Shane McInnes – 3AW) Seb, have you offered much advice to Daniel, your new teammate now racing at Red Bull and if you have offered some advice, can you share that wish us?

    SV: Not much, we didn’t drive that much this year so there was not much I could talk about. Obviously you do your own thing once you are in the car, but as a team we share everything that we experience and together with the engineers, it’s always… people expect that if you come to a new team or if you have a new teammate or you know a certain driver very well, people expect kind of questions like ‘how hard do you approach turn three in Australia’ or in Monaco. It’s not like that. Obviously everybody’s got his own style and even if I told him to brake here or there, then he would still try and find his own way. There are some things where I’m open so if he has some questions he can ask. It’s the same for me the other way round. I think I can learn a lot from him so obviously he’s a new guy, he has a different driving style to Mark. I didn’t see that much yet in testing because we didn’t run so much, but I’m sure, as the season goes on we’ll both learn from each other.

    Q: (Ben McKay – Australian Associated Press) Felipe and others if you wish, there are so many uncertainties leading into this season, is it fair to say that Formula One is under something of a cloud with the continued poor health of Michael Schumacher?

    FM: Sure, I always think about him every day, pray for him every day so I really hope that things can go back and be OK for him. For sure it was a shame to see what’s happened but I keep thinking about him, he’s on my helmet and we’ll keep praying and believing that things can be OK for him and he’s coming back.

    Q: (Mat Coch – Pitpass.com) Kevin, this year you’re up against Jenson Button who I guess is getting towards the end of his career while you’re at the very start. Do you feel that it’s a little bit of a make or break year for both of you and that if you beat him, your career is made whereas if he beats you, you’re perhaps in a bit of trouble?

    KM: Well, we all know that you are measured against your teammate but I don’t see it like that, I try and do my best, try and learn as much as I can in the early part of the season and see where it takes me. There is a lot pressure in being in Formula One, especially when you are with a big team as I am. It’s where I want to be, I’ve always dreamed of being with McLaren and I’m here and I’m going to do my best and try not to worry too much about the negative things.

    Q: (Sylvia Arias – Parabrisas) Felipe, I want to know that after so much time with Ferrari, working with a Latin team, how do you feel now with a British team, what differences have you found, your feelings?

    FM: For sure, working with the car is the same and everything, similar things. It depends which team you are with but the idea, the working is the same but it’s very different the way… outside, the way they talk, they are much more quiet. The Italians, they cannot talk without shaking their hands. I am like that because I am from Brazil as well, so for sure it’s a big change for me. I’m trying to learn everything quickly, changing some names as well, understanding the way they talk as well, because I never lived in England, so that’s also new for me. But it’s nice, it’s a nice experience as well, but definitely the mentality is pretty different.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) For all six, it’s a simple question: which team is the favourite for the championship?

    DR: I think the championship is… as Seb said before, a long way away so… I could probably say for this race, judging from testing but I think we’re going to develop so much throughout the year, all teams with the new cars this year so to answer the question simply, for this race, I would put my money on Mercedes but try not to count anyone else out but to answer your question in one word then it’s them.

    KM: I don’t know, it’s very hard to predict. We’ve seen for many years whoever is strong for the first part of the season might not always be the one at the end of the season so it’s hard to predict. I don’t know.

    FM: Yeah, I think I would say Mercedes.

    LH: I will say Williams.

    SV: Yeah, not much to add. I think for this race Mercedes based on winter testing for the season. I think after three or four races we will know a little bit more.

    FA: I’ve no idea.

    Q: One final question: how many finishers in the race on Sunday?

    FA: How many are we? 16.

    SV: 12

    LH: 15

    FM: 14

    DR: No one. We’re all going to be running across the line!

    KM: 22.

  • F1 2014: Australian GP Preview: Mystery In Melbourne

    F1 2014: Australian GP Preview: Mystery In Melbourne

    Eleven teams will start the 2014 Australian grand prix. Beyond this obvious fact not much else can be forecasted. Unpredictability in Formula 1 is back with a vengeance and brings with it a bevy unanswered questions.

    How many drivers will finish the Australian grand prix? The saying that to finish first, first you must finish has never been so appropriate; and the prediction of half the field finishing the race is seen as generous by some. Reliability has dominated the winter testing season as teams struggled to integrate the new power units and electronic systems. Renault powered cars were stricken on the side of the track most often with issues ranging from cooling to complete failure. Meanwhile the consistent crooning of the Mercedes power stamped its authority at the top of time sheets.

    The pecking order after twelve days of testing suggests that Mercedes, Williams and McLaren are the front running teams, at least on paper. These teams, all Mercedes powered, delivered the most consistent performances over long runs and in qualifying trim. The newly renamed Williams Martini team looks to have taken a significant step forward and Felipe Massa believes that he will start the Australian GP with a good chance of mixing it at the front.  It would be especially sweet for the former Ferrari driver should his Williams feature in the top three.

    Messages of support for SchumacherTo be the favourite on paper doesn’t carry much weight, if any at all. The reality is that Red Bull Racing may yet show up Down Under and perform quite well. The car rolled into the back of the truck on the final day of testing will hardly resemble the one that takes to the Albert Park circuit this weekend. Several teams will bring a raft of updates for their cars as they aim to learn as much as possible before the start of Sunday’s race.

    The Ferrari team has remained under the radar with neither of its mega quick drivers revealing too much about the team’s prospects. The Italian squad’s winter hasn’t been awesomely positive nor has it been disastrous.  Fernando Alonso was particularly underwhelmed about driving in 2014. “We were saving the tyres from lap one of the stints last year, and we are saving the tyres from lap one this year. That’s no different. I don’t think things will change that much, but obviously the cars are slower,” said the double champion. It is worth noting that the Alonso is one the greatest politicians in the F1 game. A bit of psychological by-play is never too far from his repertoire.

    In a normal year of F1, the first race of the season requires for a variety of factors to come together just right to ensure success – and 2014 is no TEST PRE-CAMPIONATO F1/2014 BAHRAIN 19-22/02/14normal year. Teams are limited to 100 kilos of fuel per car for the grand prix which will call for vigilant fuel management throughout the race. As before, tyres have to be looked after, so too the power units which are limited to five per season. However, in F1 2014 the driver can be the difference.  “It really is a driver’s car – more than the old ones,” said McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen. “It’s a bit more difficult with more torque. It’s difficult to take care of the tyres and I think it’s going to be tricky. You need more skill and more sensitivity in your throttle.”

    Few things are the same in Formula 1 2014. The cars do not look the same, they do not sound the same and they are a tad slower. However, the skill of the greatest drivers in the world and absolute unpredictability of it all ensure that it remains the greatest spectacle. This is Formula 1 2014.

  • Renault Will Seek A Reliability Break After the Season Begins

    Renault Will Seek A Reliability Break After the Season Begins

    Renault, the engine supplier to three teams in this seasons Formula 1 grid may seek a reliability break from the FIA once the 2014 season gets underway.

    Although final engine specifications have to be locked in by teams to the FIA before 28 February,  Appendix 4 of the F1 sporting regulations doesn’t make provision for Renault to make changes to the engines for reliability, safety or cost saving reasons.

    The issues with the Renault engines started at the Jerez test where Red Bull Racing did not run their car for as many laps as the other teams due to power store problems with the Renault engine. When they did manage to get the car on the track it broke down a few metres down the track or even in the pit lane. There was some running by Red Bull but not enough for them to call it a successful test as evidenced by the fact that they started packing up early on the final day of the Jerez test.

    Head of Track operations at Renault, Remi Taffin, thinks that all three engine manufacturers will have to make the same application to the FIA at some point during the season due to the complexities of the power units. Although admitting to some reliability issues with the Renault engine, Taffin insists that the engines are reliable and that there aren’t any major issues with the engine. The only issue they have at the moment is making everything work together.

    “Where we are struggling is where we put everything into the car and have to get the most out of it. Because we are struggling to make everything work together, we have not actually got the performance we have from each [individual] component in terms of level of competitiveness.”

    Talking to Autosport Taffin said that the problems look far worse on the outside than what they actually are.

  • Mark Webber’s Message to You

    Mark Webber’s Message to You

    Mark Webber will be leaving Formula One and heading for Porsche Cup racing next season. Here’s Mark’ special message to his fans.

     

  • Q&A with F1 technical genius Adrian Newey

    Q&A with F1 technical genius Adrian Newey

    Few people would argue with the statement that Adrian Newey is the greatest technical mind of the current Formula One generation. Newey’s CV is unparalleled and in this interview he turns his thoughts to the 2014 Formula One season discussing the impact of next season’s technical changes and challenges, his approach to design and his massively successful career.

    Q: You are the most successful Formula One designer of recent years. Lately cars have mainly been evolutions of the previous year’s design, but 2014 brings with it massive changes. How do you go about that? Do you really start with a clean sheet of paper as legend suggests?
    Adrian Newey:     The first thing that you do is to read the regulations – very, very carefully. You try to read what they actually say, rather than what they intend to say, as this is not always the same thing. After that I’m actually breaking it down into bite-size chunks. Then you try to understand from the regulations the aerodynamic and mechanical packaging that appears to be the best solutions for those different areas. You go away and research them and at some point try to bring it all back together again. For me that is the important bit: the end product should be a whole and not pieces thrown together into one cluster.

    Q: How many people are involved in this process?
    Adrian Newey:     We have over 100 engineers. In terms of the early key layout it is a smaller group. For the RB10 we started by dividing the task into the front and the back end (of the car) aerodynamically, and the middle in terms of packaging the engine and the cooling. Cooling will be a huge challenge next year.

    Q: Is the blank sheet of paper and a 7B pencil still reality?
    Adrian Newey:     To some extent it is still habit. I graduated in 1980 – obviously long before CAD systems – so I have always used a drawing board and never took the time to learn a CAD system. (laughs) For me what you’re used to is almost like a language – and you stick to the one that you know best. I love the drawing board because most of the work I do is of half scale, so I can have the complete car in front of me, whereas the CAD system limits you to the size of the screen. Having said that, for an organization like us it would be much too intense to have too many people like me working on a drawing board, because everything has to go on to the computer to go through CFD and later be manufactured.

    Q: Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said of you that you are completely crazy and absolutely fearless. Is that what it takes to design the most successful F1 cars of recent years – and to take on this 2014 challenge, where you can arguably only lose?
    Adrian Newey:     I am not sure. I guess it’s less about being crazy and more about having confidence that what you are doing is going into a good direction. Equally you have to be passionate about it and believe that what you’re doing is correct. You might call it the artistic side of it – but then you have to be able to stand back and try to be objective: is that a good direction, or isn’t it? If the answer is ‘no, it is not’ then you have to be prepared to say that the last hour, the last day, the last week is in the bin.

    Q: The design process at other teams is probably not that different to what you’ve just described, so what makes the difference? Do you have an inner voice that tells you the good from the bad?
    Adrian Newey:     No, no inner voice. I call it the 24-hour rule: does it still look a good idea after 24 hours? That decides whether it gets a tick or a cross. Actually, you develop a sensibility for that procedure. The brain is an amazing thing: you might be doing something completely different – maybe making a cup of tea – and suddenly you know right from wrong!

    Q: You have created so many successful cars that gave now legendary drivers the chance to win: drivers like Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen and now Sebastian Vettel. Did you take their strengths and weaknesses into account?
    Adrian Newey:     When I was a young designer Robin Herd came up with a March that was designed around Ronnie Peterson’s reactions. I honestly cannot say that I have ever consciously done that: to design a car on the belief of a driver’s reactions.

    Q: So it was never a Mansell, Prost or now Vettel car, but rather a Newey car…
    Adrian Newey:     Well, what does happen is that when we have continuity in drivers like we’ve had for the last few years with Sebastian and Mark (Webber) then you listen to their feedback and the car evolves at least in parts as a result of their feedback. That does happen.

    Q: When you look back at all those names – Senna, Prost, Mansell etc – where would you rank Seb? What would be your personal ranking?
    Adrian Newey:     It would be unfair to go into rankings – to put one above the other – but what I would say is that Seb, without question, is one of the true greats. Of the great drivers I have been lucky enough to work with, what they all tended to have in common is intelligence. They all have the ability to drive the car and have the spare mental capacity to understand what they are doing when they drive the car, and to have great recall when they get out of the car – they can play back in their own minds what they’ve just experienced and combine that with a great work ethic in the evening in terms of talking to the engineers.

    Q: You have been in motorsport for 30 odd years. What have those years taught you?
    Adrian Newey:     Formula One is hard work! (laughs) I like to think that I haven’t changed too much in those years – that Formula One hasn’t changed my personality, if you like. When I look back to my university days, most of my fellow students wanted to design aircraft, whereas I always wanted to be a race car designer. They then subsequently worked on projects where you could see the results in 10 or 15 years’ time – where feedback on whether it was good, bad or indifferent was ‘light years’ away. That wasn’t for me. The exciting thing about Formula One is you get a high level of feedback. It’s painful when you’re going badly, but at least you know. And then there’s trying to stay on top of the changes. When I graduated I went straight to Fittipaldi – a small F1 team at that time – and I was hired as a junior aerodynamicist, which when I started turned out to be chief aerodynamicist, as I was the only one! Even when I moved to Leyton House, as a team we were a total of 55 people, with six engineers in total, with me doing the aerodynamics, designing the car and manufacturing it with this tiny little team. You cannot comprehend this nowadays. Now you have Red Bull Racing with 600 plus employees, with a hundred plus engineers – so things have gone up tenfold or more. So trying to stay on top of the technology changes and the managerial changes has been an exciting task. Coming back to what all these years have taught me: standing still is deadly.

    Q: Are you satisfied with yourself? Do you sit back in those rare quiet moments and think ‘not bad at all’?
    Adrian Newey:     No, I never sit back reflecting on such things. I am trying to play to my interests, yes, and hopefully my interests are also my strength. I try not to attend too many meetings. I try to spend at least 50 percent of my time behind the drawing board and the rest with my colleagues at the factory going over their findings. At the races, of course, I spend time with the drivers and that gives me the chance to be involved in many different things which I find very stimulating.

    Q: Does your job have an expiry date? Do you ever say to yourself ‘three more years and then I call it quits’ for example? Or contemplate telling Christian Horner or Helmut Marko one day, ‘Hi guys, I’m not coming into the office today – or ever again in fact…’?
    Adrian Newey:     That wouldn’t be my style. I have been involved with Red Bull Racing from the start, so I feel a great deal of loyalty to the staff. I would never stop without giving anybody a good period of notice. But the honest truth is that as long as I keep enjoying it, I will keep going. Probably the closest I came to stopping in Formula One was around 2002. There seemed to be so much politics – Ferrari and the FIA – that it was quite a difficult time.

    Q: Have you ever gone terribly wrong with a car? Something that you’ve regretted ever since…
    Adrian Newey:     Wrong yes, regret no. The cars that didn’t go nearly as well as I would have hoped: the 1989 Leyton House car, the successor of the 1988 car that changed the direction of Formula One a bit as well. We’d designed the car more or less purely on an aerodynamic base and then tried to package the mechanical parts. At that time – the turbo era – most people were doing it the other way round. They first designed a mechanical car and then looked at the aerodynamic side, so we were completely different in our ‘preferences’. But back to the story: coming out with a good 1988 car, we’d grown overambitious in 1989. The 1989 car was simply too complicated for the size of the team – and our experience. That was something to learn from. The other car – a similar situation – showed that I didn’t learn the lesson completely. It was the McLaren MP4-19A – the 2004 car. Ferrari was ‘cleaning up’ at that time and we felt that we needed to make a big step – or at least push to make a big step. And again, we made a mistake by pushing too hard. We were pushing so hard that we didn’t make our homework good enough.

    Q: Do you get offers from other teams – even though everybody knows that you are so close to Red Bull Racing?
    Adrian Newey:     Yes, I do. The usual stuff. If I didn’t, I would be worried! (laughs)

    Q: Coming on to 2014. Everybody says that from what they’ve seen so far, the 2014 cars look ugly…
    Adrian Newey:     Well, it’s the regulations that define the car. And, of course, ideally the car is fast and has a stylish design. But everybody in the paddock will give a fast car preference over an attractive car – that’s the way it is. Yes, for me it would be good if a bit more consideration was given to aesthetics in the drafting of the regulations. But fast is paramount over beauty.

    Q: Coming to the regulations, years ago they had the characteristics of Swiss cheese: many holes and much room for interpretation. How much interpretation is possible today?
    Adrian Newey:     It’s less and less. The F-duct was a very clever example of getting around regulations; the exhaust duct was a good way of getting around them; little bits and pieces where we’ve found small loopholes in the regulations. But it is increasingly getting smaller. To have been an engineer in the seventies – the early seventies – would have been fascinating for me. You had almost no regulations, but on the other hand you also had very little research capabilities. You came up with a car, ran it, and if you were lucky it was a good idea and it ran well. If not, then you ran the previous year’s car and hoped for next year.

    Q: Keyword 2014: Could it be that suddenly somebody is two seconds faster than the rest?
    Adrian Newey:     Let’s start with the regulations. You can divide them into two parts: the powertrain and the aerodynamic changes. The aerodynamic changes are big, but they are smaller than the changes we had in 2009. So yes, there is the chance that one team comes up with a car that is better than their rivals’, but on top of that you have the engine changes and what is absolutely unclear is whether one engine manufacturer will be able to come up with a significant advantage. But the car that will brush aside all others will be a car having the combination of good engine and good chassis – if one side is letting you down you will have a problem. But who will come up with the ideal combination? That’s the big guessing game for all of us and will add spice to the 2014 season.

    Q: Can Adrian Newey really switch off?
    Adrian Newey:     Believe it or not, I can. Then I go the Caribbean for a few days and make my mind stop racing. Yes, that I do. But Formula One is a very consuming taskmaster – and one of the tricks is to keep it in balance, as it would be very easy to end up doing nothing but work.

    Q: What would happen to the team should you decide that a few days off is not enough – that you need much more time to recharge the batteries?
    Adrian Newey:     They would carry on.

    Q: But how?
    Adrian Newey:     I am only one person – hopefully an important person – but things carry on, they always do. (laughs) But since I’ve been at Red Bull I’ve never tried it – only back in the times when I switched teams.

    Q: Finally, you are known as a design genius – and your track record confirms that – but how well suited are you to daily life? Can you cook for example?
    Adrian Newey:     I can do a Sunday roast and I can cook spaghetti, but that’s about as far as it goes. (laughs) I think I am a normal guy, although my family might completely disagree.

     

    Photo credit: Photo taken by Morio [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

     

  • F1 Brazilian GP Review: Brazil Brilliance for Red Bull

    F1 Brazilian GP Review: Brazil Brilliance for Red Bull

    The myth that the number thirteen has any negative connotation to it is of little consequence to Sebastian Vettel. A fourth world title and thirteen grand prix wins in 2013 has made sure of that.

    It is difficult to fathom the true impact and understanding of Red Bull Racing and Vettel’s domination this season. Therefore, statistics are the only possible way of putting this incredible run of results into some sort of perspective. Out of a possible maximum of 475 points Vettel scored 397, taken nine pole positions and equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of thirteen grand prix wins in a season. However, Vettel took this record a step further and became the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to win nine consecutive races in the same season.

    brazil-podiumTo get to his ninth victory in a row Vettel was given the merest of challenges at the start of the Brazilian GP as Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg charged into the lead of the race. However, within two laps Vettel dispatched of the Silver Arrow, retook the lead of the race and set off on building a gap. Behind the German the battle for the podium positions saw Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber duking it out. Webber was able to overtake first Hamilton then good friend Alonso to run second by lap 13.

    The race settled quite quickly as Rosberg faded with an oversteering Mercedes and Vettel merrily built his lead to more than ten seconds over teammate Webber.

    Felipe Massa, in his final race for Ferrari, was running in fourth position roughly six seconds off a podium position. However, as the Ferrari driver held off Lewis Hamilton he was given a drive-through penalty for cutting the pit-entry line. No driver was impeded nor put in danger by something that Massa did but the stewards took a hard line. On an emotional day such as this for the Brazilian the stewards could have issued a warning. Other hardliners may say that rules are rules but you can’t help feeling that it was rather heartless from the stewards to slap Massa with a penalty.

    brazil-bottas-hamiltonConfusion reigned on lap 47 as a collision between Hamilton and Williams’ Valterri Bottas had Red Bull unprepared for the arrival of Sebastian Vettel in the pitlane. Vettel lost nearly ten seconds in the box and Christian Horner admitted after the race that they feared a safety-car deployment for the Hamilton/Bottas incident. Despite the delay in the pits Vettel maintained the lead but Webber lost second place to Alonso.

    Lewis Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for ‘causing a collision’ with Bottas. As Hamilton took up position for the corner he drifted slightly towards Bottas leaving the Finn with nowhere to go. Bottas was forced into retirement as Hamilton had to pit with a destroyed right-rear tyre. Gentle rain fell throughout the 71 laps of the race but it never reached the level needed to switch to the intermediate tyres.

    brazil-finaldriversphotoAs the top three in the form of Vettel, Webber and Alonso settled, it was Jenson Button who delivered one of his best drives of the season. A 14th place starting position would have done little to buoy the mood of McLaren after experiencing one of their most difficult seasons ever. Nevertheless, Button drove brilliantly to finish fourth, McLaren’s best position of the season. “For Checo, myself and the whole Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, today was an incredible day. I’m pleased to have finished fourth: it’s almost the podium position that I came here aiming for. We really needed today’s result. The 2013 season hasn’t been an easy one – it’s been tough for all of us at the circuits, but it’s probably been even tougher for the guys back at the factory, working flat-out to make parts. They’re a really amazing bunch of totally passionate and utterly dedicated people, and they richly deserve the ‘lift’ that today’s result will have given them,” said Jenson Button.

    Sergio Perez finished sixth behind Nico Rosberg ensuring that McLaren become the only team in Formula 1 history to have both cars classified in every race this season. “As of today, McLaren became the first team in Formula One history to have both its cars classified in every Grand Prix during the season. And, also as of today, McLaren completed 99.17% of the season’s total possible race distance – 7139 miles [11,488km] out of a possible 7198 miles [11,584km] – which is not only better than every other team managed this season but is also a new world record, beating the previous record of 98.30% set by BMW-Sauber in 2008. Those two stats constitute compelling proof of the fact that our trackside mechanics and engineers possess the three D’s in impressive abundance: dedication, determination and discipline,” beamed McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

    brazil-felipe-massaFelipe Massa eventually finished eighth ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg while Lewis Hamilton recovered to ninth. Daniel Ricciardo finished in tenth place in his final race for the Toro Rosso team before heading to Red Bull for the 2014 season. The day didn’t have a fairytale ending many would’ve hoped it would have for Felipe Massa but the Brazilian was able to see the big picture after the race.  “I want to thank everyone who gave me this opportunity and maximum support all the time, including President Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali and all the mechanics and engineers who work at the track and back home, as well as all the Ferrari fans who, over the years, have rejoiced with me and also suffered with me during the most difficult moments,” said Felipe Massa after the race.

    Second or even third place in the constructor’s title wasn’t intended for Lotus as Romain Grosjean was forced into retirement on the first lap with an engine oil leak and Heikki Kovalainen could only muster 14th place. Despite a difficult afternoon Mercedes pipped Ferrari to second in the constructor’s championship by six points.

    brazil-webber-thankyouThis race in Brazil will be remembered for some time to come. The farewell of the V8 engine, Felipe Massa’s last race as a Ferrari driver and the last time Mark Webber stood on a Formula 1 podium.

    The 2013 season has been one of a peerless German and his Austrian team’s absolute domination. Never before has this level of supremacy been seen in the sport. Although it may not have been everyone’s cup of tea as a sheer piece of inspired engineering the RB9 commands tremendous respect and appreciation.

    Take a bow Red Bull Racing.

  • 2013 US Grand Prix: Post-race Press Conference

    2013 US Grand Prix: Post-race Press Conference

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Mario Andretti)

    Q. Sebastian, I’m still out of breath. How in the world do you do it: eight straight, I mean you’re rewriting the record books. Tell us about it. Second last year, top podium step this year. Tell us.

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t know, honestly! It’s impossible to know what to say. First of all, I would like to say thanks to the crowd. It’s unbelievable. It’s only our second race here. Second race here and we’ve got more than 100,000 people coming on Sunday. I think this is one of the best races we have all season. The whole city is going crazy, so it’s phenomenal to race here in front of the crowd. The car was fantastic. It was a bit tight at the start; Romain had a good start initially, I didn’t know whether it would be enough. It’s tough judgement up the hill and then I just tried to focus on myself. We had incredible pace again in the car and could control the gaps. I don’t know, eight in a row is… you are a legend, you know….

    Q. Your first win on American soil. Your debut was on American soil as well?

    SV: Yes, 2007 in Indianapolis. To come back [to the US] last year and finish on the podium and today to win the race is incredible. I don’t know what to say.

    Fabulous, congratulations. I guess you’re going for nine next week?

    SV: We’ll try.

    Q. Romain, congratulations, your best effort of the season – sixth podium. You have represented Lotus in a very proud way. I guess number one in the team next year, right? Let’s make it official. So congratulations. Tell us about your race today?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, good race. Good start, I could pass Mark and almost got Sebastian. The car was working very well today. I’m very proud to represent Lotus and my guys that are working in Enstone. It’s a fantastic team. Being between those two cars is our best – everyone did a 100 per cent job. It means a lot to do a podium here in the United States. I like this country. It’s always good to come here, so glad, and looking forward to come back on that beautiful track and hopefully next year we’ll be one step ahead.

    Q. Mark, I guess this is going to be your last stop here in Formula One at the Circuit of the Americas, so not a bad effort today, third, a podium.

    Mark WEBBER: Yeah. Obviously pole position was very important yesterday, so I knew it was going to be important and that it would cost me a lot better result today. A little bit disappointed not to qualify better. We knew it was not going to be the easiest to get into turn one from there. We had a good launch, a good start, but then obviously we all wanted to be on the outside. I got a little bit boxed in and then I had to pass Lewis. Then it’s not easy to pass Romain. He drove very well. He was very clean on the exit of eight, nine. The DRS in the end was a little bit short on the ratios but in the end that’s how you get the ratios for the whole race. So, good job for the whole team and I’m happy to finish on the podium in front of the American fans for the last time, in Formula One anyway. I’ll see you next year with the Porsche.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q. Sebastian, your 12 win this season, seventh from pole, 38 th of your career but probably the most important number is that it’s the eighth in a row. Never been done before in Formula One. You got a bit fed up answering questions about it in anticipation but now that it’s actually happened and you’ve actually done it, how does it feel?

    SV: It’s incredible. I think it’s one of those things that you never expect to… one of those records that you never expect to be beaten so it’s very difficult to find the right words. I didn’t really answer the questions the last couple of days because at the end of the day what makes me jump into the car is not a certain number. But certainly today, when you realise that you’ve done it, it makes you very proud in that moment and, yeah, I think it’s very difficult for all of us to realise what it actually means. If you look back, and if you look those names who had similar records or outstanding performances in the past, I think it’s impossible to understand. People look back and they talk about that time and about certain drivers and one day people might look back and talk about our time and what we’ve done as a team. I said it on the team radio, the spirit is fantastic. Everybody’s just happy to turn up, give it everything he has and I think – if there is one – that’s the secret. Yes, we have a phenomenal car; yes, the car has been mostly very, very reliable but I think it’s the mindset we have going in, really trying to give it everything we have, not miss a single step… yeah… How to, after the race, not to turn around and think that there was a little bit left here, a little bit left there. Another very, very, very strong weekend. I think people tend to forget that every single weekend is a challenge on its own. It’s not eight weekends as a whole. It’s every single weekend. And to have such an incredible run, it’s very difficult to realise.

    Q. Romain, your sixth podium of the season. I think you just said in your own language that it’s one year ago that you became a father. It’s been an amazing turn around from last year to this year but obviously this was a race all about your start and particularly then about soaking up the pressure from Mark in the closing stages. Tell us about it.

    RG: Yes, exactly. We knew that the start would be crucial for us and then the race, if they were going ahead, they had too much speed for us, basically. They’re doing a fantastic job with a phenomenal car, as Seb says. But we can… he spoke about the spirit in his team and I think we have the same: every guy is happy to come in the morning and happy to work and check things. Y’know, drivers will always complain about this and this and this. They change it and it brings us to second at the end of the day. So, a very good start, a very good strategy, same as everyone else – I think I was just a little bit better on the option. I said in my own language that one year ago my wife sent me a picture of a pregnancy test saying that ‘well done Champion, you’re going to be a Dad!’ So America brings me a lot of bliss and pleasure and looking forward to come back here.

    Q. Mark from your point of view. Obviously starting second. The initial getaway looked fine but it then was going up the hill that you lost the initiative. I guess your race really was dictated by qualifying yesterday to a large extent but particularly by the getaway today.

    MW: Yeah, pole position yesterday was where the fight was. Going to be very difficult from there. I think we were… I was very happy with how I drove today. Got a very good start. You want to be on the outside for Turn One but Romain was already there. I think I made a very good start from the left hand side, which is not the easiest here, so we did what we could. Lewis also was on the outside for clean braking so I had to be a little bit careful with Seb on the inside. And then you’ve got to clear people and you know when you’ve got to clear people you use tyres, you use everything up. Romain drove a very good race, he was very strong in the last part of the first sector which you need to be to get out of there. It’s super- super difficult to stay close. I did what I could for most of the time but also the tyres are screaming at you for lap after lap and you have to drop back, give them a breather, go again. So, yeah, I did a pretty clean race. I think the performance and pace were very strong from my side but yesterday was when victory was made easier for Seb.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q. (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain, what was the strategy to resist to Mark, and Mark, what were the different things you tried with the KERS?

    RG: Well, I think the strategy was pretty clear. We were copying what Mark was doing. When he was pitting for hard tyres, we pitted for hard tyres, if he was pitting for prime or option. Then in the race I was just trying to make as much gap as I could before the DRS zone, so turns eight and nine are pretty hard to follow another car. I think we had a pretty good balance around there and then use all the power we could on the back straight, trying to avoid the DRS and then I know that by turns 17,18, 19 it was very difficult to follow me, so he was very close every time into turn one, but never had a go. I think the closest he was into turn 12 was probably ten meters. He pushed me wide once because I outbraked myself but as long as he didn’t seem to be too big in the mirror that was fine.

    MW: As usual, the Lotus is not too bad on the softer end of the range, if you like, with this tyre we qualified on. Had to do the race start, obviously I had to use the tyre to pass Lewis, so when it was time to build up towards the stop, to be patient, to go as long as possible but also knowing that Romain was covering us off, covering the move and waiting for us to pit because the Enstone guys are not rookies when it comes to strategy either. We knew we would look to have an attack on the prime but also, as you say, moving the KERS round a lot is part of my job, to try and create more pressure. The back straight was OK to use all of it, but the key areas are eight, nine and then the hairpin. It’s not the easiest track on which to follow people, I think we saw last year, obviously Seb was in traffic with Lewis, Lewis was very quick but following all the time and couldn’t pass. It’s a challenging venue still to pass because of turn eight and nine, I think, so in the end we did what we could do. There’s not many regrets as to what we could have done differently to get the job done on Romain after that.

    Q. (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing magazine) Mark, we have a Brazilian Grand Prix in one week, so what’s your feeling as you go into your final F1 Grand Prix?

    MW: I’m looking forward to it, driving round in the middle of the race thinking ‘yes, I’m really looking forward to it because it’s time’, the enjoyment factor is there but it’s not like it was when I was at Jaguar or when I first started at Red Bull. That’s natural, that’s why the decision gets made obviously. The category has changed quite a bit in the last few years, I’ve done what I can, done my best but when you realise there comes a point where it’s not what it once was and that’s what happens to all sportsmen and women, there’s a point when it’s a little bit different. I’ve got one week to go, I will leave the paddock very satisfied. I’ve been dealt a very good hand, very proud of what I’ve achieved. I never thought I would do that when I left Queanbeyan in Australia, to have had the results I’ve had, to have worked with the amazing people I’ve worked with, to race against amazing drivers on the best tracks in the world. I’ve learned a huge amount about myself, about everything. One week to go and go from there. It’s the next chapter when I step out of the car for the last time I will be fine with it. Back to UK Sunday night, walk the dogs on Tuesday morning.

    Q. (Sarah Holt – CNN) Seb, not such a massive victory margin as we’ve seen in recent races but still, can you tell us what it’s been like to effectively race yourself in the last few races and what’s been going through your mind in the car?

    SV: It’s not as if I’ve been getting bored. Obviously I’ve quite a lot to do, looking at the gaps. First of all, I have to match their pace. Obviously when they do come closer it’s not the best feeling because you want the gap to increase always, but you don’t want the gap to become smaller. I think it was clear this weekend that again we had a very strong package. Friday already looked very good, especially on the long run pace. I think in terms of set-up we might have compromised the pace a little bit yesterday. Also it was very tricky with the windy conditions in qualifying for everyone to get everything right in just one lap. It was very easy to lose out a little bit here and there but today I was happier with the balance. Already on the laps to the grid I could feel the car was more similar to Friday so I was very happy once I was in the lead after turn one. Obviously I had to wait a little bit with the safety car before I could unleash the pace but certainly it’s a great feeling when you do pull away, and then it’s about pacing yourself, pacing yourself to get the range, to look after the tyres etc. Certainly there are a lot of things going on but also it’s a nice feeling to have a little bit of a gap because you can take it a little bit easier in some crucial places, to look after the tyres and benefit from that, especially later on in the stint. Overall, you do tend to have quite a bit of work in the car, it’s not necessarily… it is a Sunday afternoon drive but not in that regard.

    Q. (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Just following on from Sarah’s question: Seb, a lot of great drivers say they’ve never actually driven the perfect lap, and I guess therefore the perfect race has never been driven. How was your race today, we didn’t see every corner of every lap. In your own standards, did you make any mistakes at all?

    SV: Well, it’s different these days. If I compare when I came into Formula One, it was more like sprint racing for twenty laps, get a new set of tyres, refuel and go out and do another sprint. Today, obviously, is different because you don’t refuel, the car is very heavy at the beginning and naturally, just because of the way that you have to look after tyres. Now we’ve seen in the past couple of years that these tyres do need some management as well, also in terms of driving style and looking after them and making sure you don’t go crazy too soon, because it might hurt you later on, so therefore, if you look at the perfect lap, you can’t repeat a 100 percent lap every time, because you need to look after the car and tyres. In the end, I think what you want to achieve is the fastest race to the finish line. I think we had a very very strong race today. The last couple of laps on the softs I was struggling because I running into traffic and the tyres were falling off so we were actually the first to come in this time, despite the big gap, but then the hards seem to last very very well in the end. We had very strong pace. I think I went a little bit wide once or twice into turn 12 under braking but other than that, I obviously tried as well to keep it on the line. It is a little bit easier if you have a ten second gap to the car behind to not necessarily use all the kerbs here and there, to manage the tyres a little bit better.

    Q. (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) The concentric doughnuts you did afterwards looked beautiful. Do you have any set-up that you put into the car before the race in terms of diff or brake balance, to make that happen?

    SV: No, no, definitely not. Obviously there’s a couple of tricks, we had some… we do have some show runs every year and this is usually when you get to practise your skills when it comes to doughnuts and burn-outs. It just seemed like a good spot. You know, you have to do it in a smooth way otherwise I get a big bollocking from my engineers for not looking after gearbox, engine and so on, so I try to be smooth but equally you want to create some smoke and just have fun. But not any maps, particular set-ups that go in the car just because of that.

    Q. (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, what do you think that Michael will tell you about this broken record?

    SV: Well, in a way I think I have the same approach as him, as probably every sportsman. I don’t think we are jumping into the car to beat certain records. At his time, he was braking a lot of records and many of them will last forever, I think. To come even close and today to beat one of those is exceptional. I think, as a sportsman, you don’t jump into the car to break records and equally you don’t expect them to last forever. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and generally, I think he’s very happy with what he has achieved and seemed fairly relaxed. I think he’s riding a lot of horses lately so he’s quite happy to go karting with his kids and enjoying his life after Formula One. There’s a huge part of our lives if you consider that there’s a lot of years left once we retire. It’s good to enjoy those as well.

    Q. (John Sturbin – Ft. Worth Star-Telegram) Sebastian, on Friday, the technical directors were in here including Adrian Newey talking about next year’s changes and how that might upset the balance of power. Is that something you were maybe referring to in your post-race message, you were talking about ‘this is something we need to remember?’ Are you worried about next year and how it might upset everything?

    SV: No, to be honest… Yeah, I remember Adrian said the same thing. I think we have all been there. Yesterday evening I took a shower and I had some thoughts about the day, finishing on pole. It’s a little bit of a shame that obviously because of the run we’ve had lately, people take it as guaranteed that you deliver the result on a Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon because I think people tend to in a way respect the result and what it means, the effort behind it and I think it’s natural that as an athlete you have ups and downs. Right now, you could say that it’s rather more up and then down but you never know what’s going to happen, next year is an unknown. I’m sure we will push very very hard and

    I’m sure we will fight a lot to maintain our position but there’s no guarantee that next year will be like this year. With the new regulations coming in, I think nobody really knows where he will stand. You will have the big teams in front but the question is who and the question is also in terms of gaps. Yesterday was one tenth between Mark and myself which is very very small, it’s a small gap and certainly there’s a reason to believe that next year the gaps will be bigger and the season will be less consistent for everyone. It’s unknown at this stage but generally I think we need to remember and therefore enjoy the moment and the days we’re having

  • F1 2013: Austin GP – Vettel Lone Star in Texas

    F1 2013: Austin GP – Vettel Lone Star in Texas

    In sporting terms the Oxford dictionary defines the word domination as playing better than your opponent in a game. However, this definition is just a few understated words contained in a book. A tangible example is more comprehensible and Sebastian Vettel’s eight grand prix victories in a row is the very definition of domination.   

    Sebastian Vettel led away from his 44th career pole in Texas and remained untroubled for all 56 of the Austin grand prix race laps. A one stop tyre-strategy resulted in the German momentarily relinquishing the lead of the race to Lotus’ Romain Grosjean but it was apparent that the four time champ was well in control of proceedings.

    The sister Red Bull of Mark Webber lost two places off the grid to Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton but before he could attempt to regain his position a collision between Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado deployed the safety car. The first lap crash pitched the Force India into the barrier on the back straight of the Circuit of the Americas and out of the race with severe suspension damage. Sutil later commented that Maldonado was “on a planet of his own.”  “I was staying straight with my steering wheel and to the left and right there was a lot of space. I don’t understand why someone then hits you. There’s like an emergency area around him, you have to give room for two cars, not just one,” said Sutil after the incident.

    Circuit of the AmericasThe race resumed with Vettel at the head of the back timing his re-start to a tee and leaving Grosjean in his wheeltracks. Mark Webber seized an opportunity to overtake Lewis Hamilton on lap thirteen and set off after second placed Grosjean. The Mercedes pitwall instructed Hamilton to look after his tyres and the Brit was into the pitlane on lap 25 ruling out a possible podium finish.

    Behind the front four Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso resurrected their battle for fifth. Several brilliant overtaking moves between the two added some spice to an otherwise lacklustre grand prix. Alonso seemed set to snatch fourth from Hamilton but the Mercedes driver was able to withstand the initial onslaught after which the Ferrari’s tyres lost its edge. Hulkenberg in turn had a go at passing Alonso but had to settle for a solid sixth place finish.

    Out of favour at McLaren Sergio Perez delivered a good enough drive for seventh place. However, the stand out driver of the weekend was Williams’ Valterri Bottas. The Finnheikki set an amazing pace throughout the weekend which saw his advance to the top ten shootout in Saturday’s qualifying. Bottas, confirmed to be driving for Williams in 2014, was rewarded with an eighth place finish and the first points of his Formula 1 career. Nico Rosberg never truly recovered from starting 12th on the grid and was only able to manage ninth on the day. The final points paying position went to Jenson Button who spent his afternoon embroiled in the mid-field. Despite the fact that the McLaren has been nowhere near the pace for the whole of the 2013 season Button admitted that, as a driver, he has to do some work as well. “It’s not just that [the car is uncompetitive],” he said. This weekend I just didn’t put it all together. I’ve got to sort myself out.”

    Romain Grosjean delivered a solid drive for Lotus in the absence of Kimi Raikkonen but only narrowly kept alive the Enstone based team’s quest for second in the constructor’s title. Heikki Kovalainen, parachuted into the other Lotus at the last-minute, was struck by an on and off kers issue as well as an unfortunate problem with his front-wing. “The team found out there was something wrong with the front wing and I was losing more and more downforce so we had to come in and change the nose.”There is nothing physically wrong with the nose, so they suspect there is some rubber or something stuck somewhere,” said Kovalainen. Up until his unscheduled pitstop the Finn was running comfortably in the points.

    BZT_wgOCMAArQV5Sebastian Vettel proved that Texas truly is the lone star State. From Belgium to Italy to Singapore, Korea, India, Japan, Abu Dhabi and Texas the German super-human now holds the record for the most consecutive wins in a season. However, it isn’t all elementary to Vettel. He declared himself speechless over the radio to his team and added “we have to remember these days. We can’t guarantee they will last for ever. Incredible team — I love you.” The rest of the field are certainly praying for this run to come to an end.

    Vettel attempted to put his record-breaking run into some perspective after the race. “People tend to forget how much work there is behind all these this and how special it is. I remembered back in 2008 how happy I just was to, once in my life, to be on pole. I think you should never lose the passion and the joy,” he added, “and always remember the days when you were just dreaming of these things to happen.”

    Photo credits:

    @redbullracing

    @Lotus_F1Team

  • Abu Dhabi GP Preview Quotes – Red Bull Racing

    Abu Dhabi GP Preview Quotes – Red Bull Racing

    After sewing up both the Driver and Constructors’ Championships for the fourth consecutive year, here’s what the Red Bull Racing team had to say ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP this weekend.

    Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
    2012 Qualifying – DSQ, 2012 Race – 3rd
    “The race in Abu Dhabi is one of the highlights of the racing calendar. Starting at dusk and finishing in the dark makes it pretty impressive. I have special memories of the Abu Dhabi GP after winning the first race here in 2009 and then repeating the victory in 2010 to win my first world championship, that was an event I will never forget.

    “The circuit is impressive: 5.5 kilometres, 55 laps counter clockwise with large run-off areas and a pit lane that leads through a tunnel to the other side of the straight. A few key points of the track for me are; Turn 1 because it is very difficult to see and is very fast. The last corners, (Turns 20 and 21) must be regarded as one, because you have to exit perfectly from the first to catch the last corner correctly. The trick here is to get on the throttle as early as possible in order to build up enough speed for the subsequent straight.”

    Mark Webber, Red Bull
    2012 Qualifying – 2nd, 2012 Race – DNF
    “Racing in the twilight and finishing at night with a spectacular backdrop; the Abu Dhabi GP is a unique event in that sense. The track temperature is dropping during the race which is an interesting point for us, performance-wise, with the tyres. Also we’ll have a different visor tear-off for the first part of the race, for the first 10 or 15 laps we’ll have a dark tear-off because of the low sun in the last sector, and then when the sun has gone behind the grandstand we can get rid of that tear off and run a clear one for the rest of the race.”