F1 Madness

Tag: red bull racing

  • Court upholds Ricciardo’s Australian GP disqualification

    Court upholds Ricciardo’s Australian GP disqualification

    The FIA’s International Court of Appeal has upheld the stewards’ decision to exclude Daniel Ricciardo from the Australian Grand Prix following a hearing in Paris on Monday.

    Ricciardo finished the season opening Australian GP in 2nd place but was disqualified after the stewards discovered that his RB10 had exceeded the fuel flow rate limit of 100kg/hr and despite warnings, his team chose to ignore the directives from the stewards to turn down the fuel flow rate.

    Red Bull appealed the decision claiming that they used their own fuel flow sensor after experiencing unreliability when using the FIA’s sensors. The team were confident that their appeal would be successful.

    The appeal was heard in Paris on Monday and the International Court of Appeal announced on Tuesday morning that they have upheld the decision of the stewards.

    The FIA issued a statement saying: “The Court, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided to uphold the Decision N°56 of the Stewards by which they decided to exclude Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s car N°3 from the results of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.”

    A full explanation behind the reasoning of the verdict is expected later this week.

    Red Bull have issued a statement accepting the FIA’s decision on the matter:

    “Infiniti Red Bull Racing accepts the ruling of the International Court of Appeal today.

    We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn’t think we had a very strong case. We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.

    We are sorry for Daniel (Ricciardo) that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved. We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian throughout the season.

    “We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.”

     

    Photo Credit: Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula 1 Team

     

  • FIA to hear Red Bull Ricciardo appeal today

    FIA to hear Red Bull Ricciardo appeal today

    Red Bull have appealed Daniel Ricciardo’s second place Australian Grand Prix disqualification and the appeal will be heard by the FIA at a hearing in Paris today.

    According to team boss, Christian Horner, Red Bull are confident that they have a “very strong case.”

    Ricciardo, who raced his way to second place at the seasoning opening home grand prix for the Aussie but was stripped of the position, and the 18 accompanying points, after his RB10 was found to have “consistently exceed” the maximum allowed fuel flow rate of 100 kgs per hour.

    Red Bull have argued that there was a problem with the sensors provided by the FIA which is why they chose to rely on their own. In essence, the team chose to ignore a technical directive from the FIA which explains what to do in the event of a fuel flow sensor ‘drifting’ or failing completely.

    According to the team, Ricciardo’s sensor did drift, and they therefore chose to use a back-up system which had not been pre-approved by the FIA. The disqualification was as a direct result of Red Bull ignoring the FIA’s advice before and during the race. The governing body insists that Red Bull were warned several times during the race.

    Horner claims that the team had every right to ignore the FIA’s advice – because it was exactly that, advice, and not legally binding rules as per the technical regulations.

    Daniel RicciardoShould the team win their appeal, they will move up to second place in the Constructors’ Championship, and Ricciardo would move up to third place in the Drivers’ Championship.

    “Those points are vital, every point is vital,” Horner said. “We believe we’ve a very strong case. As more races have progressed issues have become more evident, new evidence has come to light, new understandings have come to light. Hopefully we can present our case fairly and get the second place Daniel deserves from Melbourne.”

    Ricciardo has confirmed that he will not attend the hearing in Paris today.

  • Mercedes dominate and Hamilton sets the pace in FP3

    Mercedes dominate and Hamilton sets the pace in FP3

    Mercedes continued to show their excellent form during the final practice session ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

    Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets a tenth of a second ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg, with Checo Perez in the third spot for Force India, a half-second country mile behind them.

    Despite spending the first half of the session in the Williams garage, Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa managed to secure the 4th and 5th spots for the Williams team, showing a good improvement in their performance.

    Jenson Button managed 6th place for the McLaren team and Fernando Alonso secured 7th in the first non-Mercedes powered car, for Ferrari. The Ferrari drivers seemed to be struggling a great deal with rear grip around the track. While many drivers were caught out by the tail wind around T11, the Ferrari drivers seemed to be getting to know the outskirts a little too well around there.

    Rounding out the Top 10 were Nico Hulkenberg for Force India, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen for McLaren.

    Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel ended his session early – without the opportunity to head out on soft tyres, after spinning off at the exit of Turn 2 and stalling his car in the gravel trap.

    Conditions during the third practice session were far from those we can expect during qualifying and the race tomorrow now that Bahrain has joined the elite night race hosts. Temperatures drop considerably in the evenings at the desert circuit so expect a few surprises from qualifying later this afternoon.

    Who can catch the Mercedes drivers to steal the pole position for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix? Right now, it would seem absolutely nobody can!

    Time sheets and full tyre info below. Please join us later on @F1_Madness for live commentary and chats during qualifying for the Bahrain GP.

    FP3 Timesheet:

    Bahrain_FP3

    Tyre info:

    FP3_TyreInfo

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

    2014 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3rd Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

     

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Benedict Cumberbatch)

     

    Well Lewis, congratulations, your first win this year and you got the hat trick – pole position, the best lap time, on lap 54 I think, and now you’re here. How does it feel?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Incredible, incredible. After such a difficult weekend and such a long winter. We have a great crowd here today. For Petronas, who worked so hard with Mercedes to give us this win, I just feel so grateful, particularly after such a tragedy three weeks ago. I’d really like to dedicate this to those people and their families.

     

    Quite right. Tell us a bit about what it’s like to drive in Malaysia. You’re covered in Champagne now rather than sweat but as one wily commentator pointed out to me on the grid earlier it’s incredibly hot here. It’s in the mid-50s in terms of humidity and we hit 35 degrees Celsius on the track. What do you have to consider when you’re driving?

    LH: Yeah, you’re sweating even before you get in the car. It’s trying to keep you body as cool as possible and then just keep you focus. Fortunately, the team were just spot on with all the pit stops and the calling, the timing. Also the info I was getting was just spot on.

     

    It seems much clearer these days. You can hear the radio a bit more. Is that to do with the cars being a little bit quieter?

    LH: It is. The cars are quieter. The most noise is the wind, the buffeting. Otherwise, what a great car, what a great job from everyone.

     

    You did a fantastic job, congratulations once again. Now, Nico, congratulations to you too, well done, sir. That was a fantastically exciting moment Nico Rosberg_PressConferencejust there [at the start]. Did you feel Sebastian on your shoulder? Because you took such a hard line on the right, you were like less than a foot away from the side.

    Nico ROSBERG: Thanks to my engineer we worked together well and we got a great start and that allowed me to go into second place. It was a bit ‘iffy’, Turn Three I got a bit sideways, saw plenty of action there but it worked out well and from then on I was trying to chase Lewis but he was a bit too quick today.

     

    Well, you did fantastically well, it was a superb run.

    NR: Just one more thing. Malaysia you can be proud because your company Petronas has taken us to the front of F1, so you can be really proud of that. Petronas has given us the best oil and fuel in F1, it’s brilliant.

     

    Sebastian, congratulations, your first time on the podium this year. You won here last year in the rain and that was an interesting race to say the least. How did it work this time being in the dry and the heat rather than the wet?

    Sebastian VETTEL: It was dry last year as well.

    It was dry; there you go.

    SV: It was a really good race. The start was not very good. I was quite surprised when I saw Nico on my right.

    Tell us about that.

    SV: I don’t know. I though I had a good start but then I focused on getting in the tow of Lewis to maybe attack him going into the first corner. Then Nico was there on the right and it was quite tight. Daniel was coming as well as I was trying to get past Nico. So I lost a place but fortunately I got it back and then later on I was trying to get as close as I could to Nico. At some stage it looked like we are pretty similar, pretty evenly matched but then it’s like he found another gear, he was pulling away. In the end I was just trying to get the car home. Obviously Daniel didn’t make it for a couple of reasons. All in all it’s good to get another podium after Daniel has been on the podium in Australia. But we still have a long way [to go] these guys are bloody quick, congratulations to them, they did a good but we are trying to catch-up.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Lewis Hamilton_Press ConferenceQ: Lewis, congratulations, the 23rd win of your career. The first 1-2 for Mercedes of the modern era, your first win in Malaysia. You weren’t wanting to celebrate yesterday after that pole but I guess you will allow yourself a celebration tonight.

    LH: Yeah. Definitely. Incredibly happy. My first time. It’s my eighth year here and finally got that win. I really just owe it all to the team. Did a fantastic job, the guys back at the factory pushing non-stop to get the car to where it is, and of course to do it on Petronas… on our home ground… almost, to get a one-two, I mean it’s quite special when you get a one-two. I’ve not had many in my career and so that makes it even more special. I’m really grateful for all the work that’s done and… yeah, great day.

     

    Q: Nico, I guess you’re looking on your mobile there at the points position because you’re not only leading the World Championship but you’ve extended your lead today in the World Championship. But to take you back to earlier in the race, you seemed to have a few problems with the rear tyres, we were hearing over the radio, maybe you could tell us a bit about that – and also maybe a bit about the start as well.…

    NR: First of all the start, I had a really good start, so I was happy about that because it’s not so easy this year. The rear tyres are harder and we have more torque. So it’s very difficult to get it right – but it felt great and got away well and then Sebastian, I thought he was going to put me right into the wall, but he stopped just before – so thank you for that!

     

    SV: I had a similar experience last year…

     

    NR: …that doesn’t make it right to do it again! My heartbeat skipped a beat a little bit but I kept right on it, it was OK anyway, it wasn’t that bad. Then I had a bit of a moment in Turn Three, a bit of a tail, tank-slapper and that allowed them all to get another run on me, but it all worked out. And then I was just trying to chase Lewis but he was a bit too quick today. It was a bit difficult out there because the track was really poor, it seemed, sliding so much, and just struggling with the rear tyres especially. That made it a bit difficult out there.

     

    Q: Sebastian, coming to you, you said over the radio at the end there that you’re pretty pleased, that you’ve got some work to do still but you were on the whole pleased with the outcome – but you were 24.5s behind Lewis at the finish, and that’s a pretty big number still, isn’t it?

    SV: Yes, it is – but I don’t think that’s… probably Lewis could have gone faster, I think we could have gone faster at the end of the race but our priority at the end was to make sure we secure the podium. So, I think probably to see the reality, I don’t know where the gaps were, probably 10, 15 laps to the end but no doubt, congratulations to them, they did a very good job, they looked nearly seamless already in winter testing, they are bloody quick, the package they have is very, very strong, we know that but I think, y’know, for us there’s mostly positives that remain. After Australia, Daniel did a fantastic job here again. I think the car was very competitive, it’s a completely different track, different conditions but yeah, we are there and that’s the most important… I think it’s much better than what we expected at some stage during the winter. We know that there’s a lot we can do better – because it doesn’t feel great when we are out there racing. Just if you go out on track and listen and look at how the cars behave, on power I think there’s a big difference, so yeah, we know that. I think it’s a question of time, how soon we manage to catch up. And then we try to give them a harder time.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, was there any difficulty during the race for you or was it an easy trip?

    LH: I don’t think any race is ever easy. Obviously there are opportunities that are presented in front of you and obviously you have to take them with both hands and today that’s what I did but no, looking after the car, looking after fuel, not making any mistakes, it was a massive challenge in that sense. The time… I would hear that Nico had stepped up the speed, reacting to those things without damaging your tyres, so without doubt it was still a great challenge, but one that I was able to do well because the car was spectacular this weekend, so really really happy with just a great performance by the team.

     

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) For the three of you, do you think that the three contenders for the title are sitting up there today?

    LH: I would like to think that us, as Mercedes, are the title… at least, at the moment, but there’s such a long way to go. We’ve got a lot of competition out there so I’m sure everyone’s going to be pushing and so we need to stay on it.

    Q: And the championship leader?

    NR: That sounds very good already as it is but there’s a long way to go. I’m not thinking about that at the moment, I’m really just taking it race by race, just enjoying the moment, making the most of it, keeping on it, keeping to push. The best example is now Red Bull. The last day of testing was four weeks ago or something or three weeks ago and they were absolutely nowhere and now he (Vettel) was right in the back of me, pushing me. OK, I had some pace in hand so I could beat him in the end clearly but still, the way they’ve ramped up their pace, very impressive, so we need to keep on it to keep our advantage.

    SV: Well, I think Fernando is missing, Daniel, Kimi and probably one other guy that we don’t know yet. Still early days, but that’s what I would say.

     

    Q: (Kate Walker – Crash.net) For all three of you: we’ve heard an awful lot about some extreme measures that drivers have taken to stay below weight this season with the car. Now Malaysia is always a punishing race because of the heat. Was it more difficult this year, especially as we had no rain, just the physical challenge?

    LH: It’s always a great challenge here and today wasn’t as hot as it has been in the past, i would say. Generally, this year, with a lot less downforce, it’s a lot less physical – still really physical but it’s not as much as years and years ago when we had so much downforce and particularly last year when we had a lot of downforce, but it’s still a serious workout. Fortunately I’m just grateful my drink machine worked, even though it’s like drinking hot tea, it did the job. I think the team has done a great job in terms of weight this year. We know we’re not having to cut things off to get to the weight.

    NR: Yeah, it’s not nice that everything weight-wise is on the edge but that’s the way it is. It’s always a compromise between being light but still being able to perform at the highest of my abilities and I found my compromise and so I felt absolutely fine today. But of course, it is tough out there always. Malaysia is very very hot.

    SV: It’s always hot, it’s not a walk in the park but I think we’re going slower, tyres are harder, cars are slower, less downforce as Lewis touched on, so it’s probably a little lessSebastian Vettel_Press Conference hard than it was. The fact that we all try to save weight for this year… next year the weight goes up anyway which is good for the heavy drivers but for this year it’s a pain for them. Doesn’t help, because you’re a bit more on the edge but this is probably one of the worst races. I think the most difficult one is probably Singapore later this year.

     

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, Red Bull made big progress between Bahrain and Melbourne, again progress between Melbourne and here. Are you happy with the speed of development, is that the speed you need in order to catch the Mercedes, let’s say, when the European season starts?

    SV: Yeah, we need to make big steps because they are quite far ahead but I’m quite happy with the steps we’re currently making. It’s the first race distance I’ve done this year, since Brazil, it’s the first race distance I’ve done so that’s a big step. Obviously, at some stage during testing, we didn’t expect to finish the first couple of races so well done to all the guys in the team on the reliability front. It’s not a big secret, we know there’s still a lot to do. In terms of driveability we’re not yet there where we want to be. In terms of power, it’s not a big secret without giving a hammering but the guys at Viry are flat out to work on that front. Renault is pushing very very hard but at this stage we have to summarise and say that Mercedes did a better job, they’re quicker than us so we know that there’s a lot of things we have to do better but it’s still a bloody good result today, finishing on the podium, right behind them. That’s what we need to do, as long as we can, up to the point where we’re even and we can challenge them and give them a harder time.

     

    Q: (Ajit Devadason – Sify.com) Lewis, this is to do with your helmet design: the words that you have chosen for this season on the back of your helmet, Still I Rise, are you thrilled that it’s working your way and it’s matching belief?

    LH: It’s what I have tattooed on my back so I just added it to the helmet design and I think the metaphor is just that regardless of what difficulties you go through, you still rise above it. That’s really something my Dad has always enforced in me. We’ve had so many ups and downs throughout our lives and our careers, as everyone has, but he would always ‘say just rise above it’ and do your talking on track. I had a difficult time in the last race and that’s what I did today, so I feel quite good about it.

  • 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