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  • 2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Felipe NASR (Sauber)

    Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing)

    Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso)

    Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)

    Roberto MERHI (Manor)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Are you proud to have inspired that Fernando?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Carlos?

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

    Nico, your thoughts.

    NR: Nothing to add.

    Felipe?

    NR: No, nothing.

    Daniil?

    DK: No problems

    Roberto?

    RM: No.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Carlos?

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

    Nico?

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

    Daniil?

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

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

    Roberto, anything to add?

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

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

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

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

    FA: It would feel terrible!

    CS: It would feel great!

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

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

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

    Fernando?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez cleared after FP2 collision

    Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez cleared after FP2 collision

    The FIA F1 Bahrain Grand Prix stewards have decided to take no further action against either Sebastian Vettel or Sergio Perez after the two drivers colllided during the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s race at the Sakhir International Circuit.

    With just over ten minutes remaining in the practice session, Vettel clipped the rear tyre of Perez’s Force India while braking into Turn 1. Vettel suffered damage to his front wing and brought out a brief Red Flag. Sergio Perez had been fighting with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson for track position.

    Vettel came over the teamradio saying, “I had a failure. I had a braking failure and f**king Perez took my wing off. Unbelievable!”

    After investigating both drivers for the incident the Bahrain FIA race stewards said in a statement that “No further action is warranted. As no driver was determined to be wholly or predominantly to blame, the stewards decide that no further action should be taken.”

    “I came out of the garage and had a problem,” Vettel said. “I hit the brakes but suddenly there was a blow and I couldn’t brake properly. Therefore I hit Sergio Perez in the corner. Of course I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do anything else in that moment. I was looking for Sergio to say sorry, but he was still sitting in the car.”

    Vettel had been seen to immediately head for the Force India garage to apologise to Perez following the incident.

  • Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

    Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix

    The Bahrain Grand Prix is back-to-back with the Chinese Grand Prix. We here at Madness HQ really enjoy these back-to-back races. It keeps us busy and eases with withdrawal. Round 04 of the Formula 1 World Championship takes us to the Bahrain International Circuit where for the second time it will play host to the seasons first day-into-night race.

    The circuit is well known to the teams, the year round warm temperatures made it a favorite test venue for the teams. The track has 15 corners in total with 2 DRS zones.

    Mercedes have once again stamped their authority on the season after a completely dominant weekend by Lewis Hamilton. He took P1 in all three practice sessions, pole position in qualifying, fastest lap and race win in the race. A royal flush so to speak.

    Ferrari have now cemented their place as best of the rest with Sebastian Vettel finishing P3, behind the Mercedes pair. Ferrari tried their best to manage expectations for the Chinese Grand Prix after their win in Malaysia, but the fans were hungry for the victory. It became very clear during the race on Sunday that Mercedes were just too quick for the Maranello team. Nevertheless, they are continuing with developing the car and are getting closer to Mercedes. They have not ruled out a few more wins this season.

    Further down the field it looks as Renault have made an improvement with their power units which brings Red Bull back up the order. This is some good news but the team face the inevitable penalty of a power unit change as they have already used 6 of their 8 allocated power units for the season and we are just 4 races in.

    Sauber are quietly going about their business and are getting good points. They are currently 4th in the Constructors Championship ahead of Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

    Although they say they are making progress, McLaren are lagging at the bottom of the constructors table with no points to their name. Both McLaren drivers are towing the line and are hiding their frustrations very well at the moment. The team is making improvements throughout every race weekend. Things should get better for them once the European leg of the season begins.

    Below are the television broadcast times for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. All times are GMT+2

    Free Practice 1: Friday 13:00

    Free Practice 2: Friday 17:00

    Free Practice 3: Saturday 14:00

    Qualifying: Saturday 17:00

    Race: Sunday 17:00

  • Hamilton holds the lead in second practice

    Hamilton holds the lead in second practice

    Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace during Friday’s practice sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix as he ended the second practice session almost half a second faster than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

    Hamilton posted a time of 1:37.219 during the low-fuel runs on Option tyres finishing 0.443s ahead of Raikkonen. The Finn’s performance on the soft tyres was very impressive and long run pace on the Prime tyres was also right up there with Mercedes. The stage certainly seems set for an epic battle this weekend.

    Red Bull’s struggles continued with Daniel Ricciardo only making it out of the garage at the 45 minute mark, but the Australian driver managed to post the third fastest time of the session – just over a second down on Hamilton’s time.

    His team mate, Daniil Kvyat posted the sixth fastest time but his session came to an early end in the barriers after he suffered a brake failure. He had left the pits with a brake problem and Red Bull called him back to the garage informing him to slowly make his way back, but he headed into the gravel at the hairpin, into the barrier and damaged his front wing.

    Sebastian Vettel spun off early in on in the session but recovered to finish fourth fastest, with Nico Rosberg managing fifth after running wide at the final corner on his hot lap.

    Valtteri Bottas finished seventh for Williams and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was eighth.

    After sitting out the first practice session, Romain Grosjean headed out to  finish ninth and Jenson Button rounded out the Top 10 in his McLaren. The McLaren team have made some definite improvements with Button only about 0.4 seconds off Grosjean’s pace on the soft tyres.

    Pastor Maldonado was fastest through the speed trap but finished only 11th fastest, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Marcus Ericsson and the Toro Rosso youngsters Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.

    Felipe Massa spins, FP2, Chinese Grand PrixNico Hulkenberg placed his Force India in 16th, ahead of Felipe Massa.

    The Brazilian driver’s session also ended early when he locked his rear tyres under braking at the hairpin and spinning off into the barriers – also damaging his front wing. His spin brought out a brief red flag while his Williams was recovered from the track.

    Sergio Perez was 18th quickest, ahead of Robert Merhi and Will Stevens for the Manor Marussia team.

    Stevens spent most of the session in the garage with a power unit problem but was able to head out onto track in the final few minutes of the session.

    Spectator runs across track in second practice session for Chinese Grand PrixThe session was punctuated by a spectator who ran across the pit straight between the flying cars of Ericsson and Hulkenberg.

    The idiotic fan was arrested and taken into police custody.

    You can watch the madness here.

    Spectator runs across track in second practice session for Chinese Grand PrixAnd is if that didn’t make the session interesting enough, a couple was spotted in the stands having their wedding photos taken.

    Talk about a High Speed Wedding and all. Let’s hope their marriage is a little slower paced and longer lasting.

    If today’s practice sessions are anything to go by, Sunday’s race is going to be very interesting! A lot will depend on who can make their soft tyres last longest – with Ferrari already proving at the Malaysian Grand Prix that their cars are very easy on the rubber. Today too, the Ferraris showed their ability to make their tyres last. Lewis Hamilton completed 11 laps on the soft tyre before seeing a significant drop-off. Sebastian Vettel on the other hand, was still setting decent times after 14 laps on the softer rubber.

    There’s still plenty to play for though – Hamilton’s pace advantage is a lot bigger than in Malaysia so Ferrari will need to work hard to catch him if he races off into a lead.

    Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness tomorrow for live coverage and chat throughout the third practice and qualifying sessions.

    Here is your timesheet for the second practice session:
    Chinese Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 Results

     

  • 2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

    Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

    Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, it must have been a few really amazing days for you and we’ve heard you’ve been back to Maranello. What’s it been like to be back there as a winner and do you have to temper the enthusiasm right now?

    Sebastian VETTEL: No, I think we are realistic about where we are and what we want to achieve. I think the targets haven’t changed. Obviously it was a great victory we had in Malaysia and great for us as a team, and especially for myself a very emotional day – my first win with Ferrari. And then to come back – I think it was Wednesday – coming back to the factory and to see all the people there was quite special. There are a lot of people working there, so you can imagine, and of course they were very, very happy. The team hasn’t won for quite a while, so I think they enjoyed the fact that they had something to celebrate, there are a couple of rituals involved and it was nice for them to get that feeling again, but as I said, for the next races nothing has changed: we want to confirm that we have a strong package, we have a strong car and we want to make sure that we stay ahead of the people we stayed of in the last couple of races, but knowing that obviously Mercedes is in a very, very strong position.

    We saw really good pace from Ferrari in Malaysia. Is this pace for real and continue to take the fight to Mercedes?

    SV: I think it was for real two weeks ago. I don’t think Mercedes backed off and everyone else. It was obviously nice for us to see that we were so competitive but I think there were also a couple of circumstances coming together but most important we managed to capitalise and get a very good result and win the race. But for here and for the next races, I think in general [at] the start of the season, things can be up and down. We want to make sure that there is quite a lot of up, not so many downs but it’s normal that some races you are more competitive than others, so I think, as I said, that we managed to do a very good job in Malaysia but for here and for the next races we have to be realistic about what we want to achieve.

    Thank you very much. Moving on to you Felipe, Williams haven’t had the start to the year that they were hoping for. Have we seen the real pace of Williams this season or is there still a lot more to come? Can you claim you place back here in China?

    Felipe MASSA: Well, I think we cannot complain about how we start the season. You always want to be on top, but we are third in the championship, so we scored some good points as well, even losing some good points in the first race from Valtteri who was not there racing. But even counting that, I think it was OK. So we cannot complain [about] where we are, we always want to have more, we always want to be better, to be more competitive, and also we saw that Ferrari was pretty good. I think it was the team that made the most steps forward compared to how we finished the last race. We need to work as hard as we can to fight with them and even trying to get closer or better compared to Mercedes as well. We’re working for that, we just need to keep pushing and knowing race by race where we are, but I think we cannot complain. We are not far away compared to where we finished [last season] so we are there in the fight.

    The team admitted after Malaysia that there might be some operational procedures that need fine tuning, that there’s still room for improvement, and there are also some new upgrades to be shown or tested here in China. What are you hoping for this weekend?

    FM: I think you always have some room for improvement. You always can improve and you always need to keep working to improve the car, that’s what we’re doing, but it’s also what the other teams are doing, to improve maybe the car, the procedures, the pit stops, the pace – everything is important for every race, Here we have some new parts but I think maybe other teams will have as well, so we need to wait and see. I hope we bring what expect to bring race by race, which is always what we are working for.

    Marcus, coming to you: this year has been a step up for you coming from Caterham to Sauber. It’s been a quite promising start, pre-season testing, the first race, but Malaysia was a big learning process. Has the prospect of scoring points changed your approach going into racing?

    Marcus ERICSSON: First of all, it’s a big step up, like you say, coming from Caterham into the Sauber team. We’ve been competitive from the start and Australia was great for us, with both cars in the points. Then I think Malaysia was a really good weekend. I was top 10 in every session and managed to get to Q3, so it was a really great weekend and then obviously I did my mistake in the race, which I had to pay a big price for but that’s something you learn from. I’m not the first one and I’m not the last one that makes a mistake in a race. But yeah, overall, I think the Malaysia weekend was very positive and we bring a lot of good stuff from that and we showed again that we can be competitive and we’re going to aim to continue that form in China and I think it’s realistic that we can do as well. I’m really looking forward to getting going again tomorrow.

    The pecking order is beginning to take shape at the moment. Have you and Sauber set any targets for this year already?

    ME: Not specific targets for championship position but I think for us it’s the target for every race weekend now to try and score points and like I said, it’s a realistic target with the pace we have at the moment. We need to try to score the points and also keep up with the development of the car. That’s the big aim for us for now.

    Thanks. Moving on to you Nico. It’s been a difficult start to the season for you and also the team, with all the delays and pre-season testing. Force India seem to have slipped back in this pecking order we were talking about, so what are the challenges you are facing at the moment, especially now that the B-spec car has now been pushed back to Austria?

    Nico HULKENBERG: Well, yeah, the challenge is to get a faster car, to find performance. Like you say, clearly we are not in the easiest situation and Malaysia has been particularly tough on us but I think everybody in the team is pushing really hard and there is hope. There is still room for improvement with this car before we get major upgrades, so we just keep our heads down, focus hard and try to get the most out of it.

    We saw a lot of wheel-to-wheel racing in Malaysia. Do you think this something that can be repeated this weekend and which are the main challenges that everyone is going to face this weekend in terms of tyre deg or temperatures or reliability?

    NH: Usually China is well know for front graining so we’ll have to wait and see if that happens again this year. But Malaysia, with those high temperatures tyre deg was high and whenever tyre deg is high you have a lot of wheel-to-wheel racing. I think it was quite entertaining from that point of view. I think it’s going to be a little bit more difficult here to overtake but we’ll see what happens.

    Moving on to you Romain: 11th in Malaysia. We saw very good qualifying pace but then Lotus seemed to struggle for pace during the race and we haven’t seen a clean race from a Lotus this year, so where does Lotus stand in the pecking order?

    Romain GROSJEAN: Well, I do think our race pace is actually better than our qualifying pace. Of course, we didn’t show much in Australia and in Malaysia I think we had a good race. We didn’t finish where we were supposed to, we had a few issues with the car but generally I think we could have done better than we did and on paper everything is looking in that direction, so it’s very positive. We haven’t put everything together right now. I’m sure that we’ve learned a lot and from where we come back from last year it’s a massive step forward and I think we enjoy driving the car. There are updates coming and every time we put something on the car it works in a good direction so hopefully this weekend it’s going to be a bit better, an easier race and from there we can start scoring points.

    I was going to ask you: there’s obviously a lot more to come from this car this this year that we haven’t seen yet but how much are you enjoying it this year compared to last year and what are the targets to be set?

    RG: I’ll tell you one thing: if you could delete from the cloud of your life a year I would delete 2014. So let’s speak about 2013 and 2015. I have fun in the car, I do enjoying driving it, it works pretty well, you can set it up and I think all the credit goes to the engineers who have managed to listen to us and get in a good direction. After three laps in this car this year I was just happy that it goes right.

    Q: Moving on to Jenson. It’s also been a difficult start to the season for McLaren-Honda, especially pre-season. A lot of work but massive steps taken between pre-season to Australia and then Australia to Malaysia. What is expected for this weekend? How big can the improvement be?

    Jenson BUTTON: Hopefully very big! Yeah, it’s always tricky when you start off in the winter with not doing much mileage. I think for everyone it was a big surprise to see us finish in Melbourne. I think for the outside world, they probably didn’t think we made a big step from Melbourne to Malaysia but we did. It was very, very big. We weren’t able to finish the race but we got a lot of useful information, again for another big step forwards. We’ve got to see what we’ve got here. It’s a very long straight here, which makes it a little bit tricky but we’re all working very well together.  I feel we still haven’t got the best out of what we have right now, so hopefully we can do that this weekend – and there’s a lot in the pipeline for the future. A lot of people have asked me how I’m so positive and how the team are so positive and upbeat, and it is because we see a great future. It’s just a lot of hard work now improving before we can get there.

    Q: There’s two world champions in the team and a lot going on behind the scenes: a lot of work, a lot of hours but there’s also a very interesting competition between both team-mates. You seemed to have the upper hand in Malaysia. Did you enjoy that?

    JB: I don’t really think that was the case but when you’re fighting at the front or fighting at the back I think that’s when you more concentrate on your performance against the guy that’s in the same car. When you’re fighting in the pack it’s obviously very different. For us two to be competitive, like any team-mates in Formula One, it’s important for us to improve and to make big strides forwards. It’s great having such an experienced driver in the other car. Hopefully that’s going to help us, first of all get into the points and then hopefully challenge for something better in the future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian, a couple of questions. Do you expect only the confirmation of the potential of the car here or also a step forward? Second question, are you going to invite Nico, Lewis to the Ferrari debriefing tomorrow?

    SV: No, I think we rather stay amongst ourselves. Then, I think in general we had two races, usually you need a couple of races to really understand where you are. I think we have a decent understanding but the target is to confirm the fact that we were very close to the top cars in Australia and fighting with Williams for the podium. Obviously in Sepang two weeks ago we were very, very close, and close enough to win, so that was a great success – but, as I said, in general I think we want to establish as probably the team right behind Mercedes. That means that we stay ahead of strong teams like Williams, Red Bull, and not just for one or two races but ideally for the whole season. Once we’ve confirmed that, then the target is to ensure that the gap gets closer and closer with Mercedes.

    No invitation. No.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Mid-Day) Question to Sebastian. This is a two-part question. I’m sure you’re aware that you’re just one win short now of Ayrton Senna’s mark of 41. Is that something you think about heading into this weekend? And, as someone who’s very interested in the history of the sport, could you describe your emotions that you’re just one win shy of that mark? Second part, you and Lewis could both surpass that mark potentially this season – so do you think that number, the 41 is more attainable in modern-day Formula One, and if so, why do you think that is? Thank you.

    SV:  First of all, I wasn’t aware, to be honest. I know Michael’s number but that’s just ridiculous, if you look at numbers. I think it’s very special. Obviously it took me a long while to get the number forty done. I hope the next one is not that far away but, yeah, I think it would certainly mean a lot for any driver. That’s why I think statistics in this regard are quite nice. Once you are on the track it doesn’t really matter so much. The second part of your question, I think nowadays it’s probably not entirely fair to the guys in the past simply because we have more races. So, we were supposed to have 20 races but we have 19 this year, and in the past, if you really go back many years they only had ten races and then 13, 14, 15. Only in the last, probably ten years, it ramped up to 20 races a season – which obviously increases your chances of winning more races.

    Q: (Weian Mao – Titan Media) Question to Felipe and Jenson. You have been racing here in Shanghai since the very first one in 2004. What’s the most impressive thing for you, on track or in the city? And Seb and other drivers, if you would like to share your past memories of Shanghai.

    FM: Well, I think it’s a nice track. It’s a track that has a lot of high-speed corners, quite difficult for the front tyres, front-left. Very long straights, see some overtakings, is a nice place to be, so it for sure, since I came here for the first time – it was 2004 – to now, you see how much this place develops. Amazing. I remember on the first year, I was taking maybe two hours in the traffic from the city to the track, and now it’s much better. You see how much this country develops, and you see how nice it is here, the people. It’s nice, I really enjoy a lot to come here in China – and is also a nice track. Maybe we just need a little more people to watch the race, because here… I don’t know if it’s too expensive or what, but people, they’re always in the hotel waiting for you, a lot of fans but maybe they are not here on the track, so we need to push on that.

    JB: I agree with Felipe. This place has changed a lot since we came here in 2004. I think the circuit is a fun circuit to drive. I also think that the last couple of years we’ve had more people at the race, more supporters. Obviously the first year there was quite a lot because it’s new and it’s exciting but I would say the last couple of years it’s been pretty good. It’s still looks like we need more advertising in the city because, when you’re in the city you don’t know there’s a grand prix going on apart from the fans outside the hotel – but it’s great to see how passionate they are about the sport. And it’s men and women as well, which is good. Hopefully it can just keep growing – like China’s economy has.

    Sebastian, your best memories.

    SV: It’s quite funny. In 2007 I had a very good race here, finishing in the points for the first time with Toro Rosso. Finishing fourth. Before the race it was dry and I was speaking to Jenson on the drivers parade and Jenson’s car was not very competitive that year, not at all, so he wasn’t very keen to race in the dry, let’s say, and he was praying for some rain – otherwise he was looking forward to the party, he said, on Sunday night. But then the rain came and I think for both of us it was a great race. He finished fifth, I finished fourth and we both started P18 and P20, something like that. Definitely good memories. Also the win in 2009, the first win with Red Bull. Obviously quite a special place.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) To you all: you were talking about how the fans are passionate here and that means you are met at the airport and you get loads of presents from the fans. What was the most interesting, strange or different present you’ve ever got from a fan here in China?

    JB: I don’t know about strange and interesting. The little badges are pretty cool. Have you seen the badges? They put like bear faces with… it’s panda (faces). That’s pretty cool. Apart from that it’s traditional things like chopsticks and fans and what have you. It’s great, I love coming here, lots of goodies to take back home.

    SV: I had a panda experience as well but it was a stuffed panda, not a real one, obviously. But it was too big to take it home so I had to leave it in China I’m afraid. That was some years ago. It’s nice when you get something small to take along but that was too big, I struggled.

    JB: That poor, devastated person that gave you the panda, eh?

    SV: But I’m honest. At that time I couldn’t afford an extra seat to pay in the plane, so I couldn’t take the panda with me.

    FM: Well, I had a panda as well. I always have a lot of books and on every page they put pictures of all the fans, like a big book and it’s fantastic. So it’s really nice to put in the… I also have a museum where they can put everything, even some gifts and everything from the fans which is nice. I always receive a lot of things for my son as well, gifts and sweets and everything. They are really amazing.

    NH: No panda for me, no. It’s pretty much like the other boys say, local stuff, a lot of sweets, books, Lonely Planet so I can find my way around Shanghai, stuff like that.

    RG: I’ve received a very nice box of macaroons when I arrived at the airport. After a long flight that was pretty nice.

    ME: No panda experience for me so far but I’ve had some candy and stuff like that, local stuff.

    Q: (Gergely Denes – GP Live) Sebastian, can you give us a bit of an insight about the celebration at Maranello after the win? If I’m correct, you mentioned some rituals after a win. Can you give us just a little bit of insight about that process at Maranello?

    SV: Well, I was there anyway to do some work. It was planned to come on the Wednesday to be in the simulator but obviously it was also quite nice to receive a bit of a welcome after the win. All the factory got together for a quick lunch which was quite nice, to have all the people in one room – it was a big room – all together and able to celebrate a little bit. Also I learned that when you win with Ferrari, they put a Ferrari flag right at the entry gates. Obviously the last couple of years… it has been a long time since there has been a flag. I think some ten years ago there were a lot of flags, especially at the end of the season, so this flag will stay for the rest of the year. We will of course try to maybe put another one sometime soon, but it’s tough right now.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) Romain and then to Nico, there was some discussion among the fans and journalists about the incidents each of you had in Malaysia. I want to hear your views on that. Was the punishment a correct call or was it a racing incident in your opinion?

    RG: Well, I think, to be fair, it wasn’t really… with Sergio. During the race, it was a good move on the outside of the high speed corner. He took a risk and he came out of the way… ended up. Sergio came to see me and just apologised. He had no more tyres at that point of the race and he just went a bit wide. I think that was… Yeah, he got a penalty. He didn’t bring back by flat tyres of my spin the time lost but I think you just need to be careful in the high speed corners, not to get wheels in between other wheels.

    NH: Yeah, also I spoke to Dany after the race and he just didn’t expect me to dive back in and he didn’t see me as well. I still tried to pull out of it but it was too late so we touched. The penalty was maybe a bit harsh but it’s history now and we will move on.

    Q: (Gary Chappell – Daily Express) Sebastian, according to Bernie Ecclestone, you weren’t a very good World Champion, you didn’t represent the sport very well, at least, not as good as Lewis Hamilton. How hurtful are those comments and what’s your opinion of them?

    SV: Well, I think he’s free to say what he wants so it’s fine. For me, I’m very happy with what I have achieved so far and looking forward to what might be coming and that’s it.

    JB: Maybe it’s because you’re not on Twitter.

    SV: Yeah, is Bernie on Twitter then? I don’t know.

    JB: I didn’t think he was into that social media stuff.

    SV: Wonder how he knows, then?

  • F1 2015: Chinese GP Preview – Advantage Mercedes in Shanghai

    F1 2015: Chinese GP Preview – Advantage Mercedes in Shanghai

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

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

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

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

    shanghai_international_circuit65a8dd6515e2c7fb2df1Sebastian Vettel’s win in Malaysia doesn’t mean that he or Ferrari will be able to consistently beat Mercedes. But it’s given Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his team something to think about. “In two weeks you are caught up and you lose the race fair and square on track which is a bit of a wake-up call, which is good for us.”

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

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

    Lewis Hamilton_Malaysia 2015All the teams like coming to these parts too. It’s bustling juggernaut economy and bustling automotive industry is a big target for the manufacturer’s involved in the sport. Achieve commercial success in the densely populated Chinese region and you’ll be smiling at the way to the bank.

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

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

  • 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso)

    Felipe NASR (Sauber)

    Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing)

    Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)

    Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE:

    Fernando, if I can start with you. This has been a happy hunting ground throughout your career – you got your first pole here, you won with three different manufacturers – so a good place to come back from what was a difficult episode. What can you tell us about what you’ve been through in the past few weeks?

    Fernando ALONSO: Happy to be here in another Formula One season. I start one race later than I should be but, yeah, unfortunately I had the accident in Barcelona and following the recommendations by the doctors I missed the first race. But, yeah, happy to be here, as I said. Malaysia has always been a very nice circuit for me in my Formula One career. My first pole position was here in 2003, my first podium and then as you said three wins with three different teams give me the possibility always to enjoy this circuit and I know it’s going to be very tough this year to repeat such a result but, yeah, happy to be back in the cockpit and ready to enjoy the weekend.

    You’ve only done around 500km of testing with this car so far. How do you see the journey ahead and the challenge now to hit the targets the team has set?

    FA: Well, I think we need to be with the feet on the ground knowing that we are not in a position that we wanted and not in a position that we will be hopefully very soon. It will be like a test session for me, the first races. As you said I did in this car more or less the same number of laps that another guy do in one day, so obviously I’m not probably confident with the car in this moment and I will need to learn many things, not only on the driving style but also on the approach McLaren has to the weekends. So, many things to learn for me; very challenging moment of my career and ready to take it.

    Okay, thank you. Kimi, coming to you, obviously you had some problems in Australia towards the end of the race but the pace all weekend was good and you were close to your team-mate Vettel throughout, so it looks like it’s going to be a good in-house battle between the two of you. How do you see it?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: Obviously we are in a much better position than we were say even at the end of last year so in that way it’s a nice place to be but obviously we still have to improve quite a bit. We want to be in front and we still don’t have the speed exactly, at least in qualifying, to be there. In the race I think we are a bit stronger compared to Mercedes. But I think it will be a fun year, obviously not an ideal start of the year and we got some damage from the start and had those issues in the pit stops but you know it can happen sometimes but at least we had pretty good speed. I’m sure we’re going to have strong races and good battles but like I said we still have some work to do to be absolutely where we want to be but we have done a good job so far.

    Can you tell us what it is about the chassis and the way it handles in particular that makes it a better race car for you personally?

    KR: I think it’s the whole package. It’s not just the engine we improved. Yes, we improved that a lot but we improved the chassis itself a lot as well. It’s the whole package, you cannot just point to one area that has been improved from last year, it’s the whole thing. I think how everybody works and it’s one team and things are going in the right direction and people are pushing and doing a good job. Like I said, it’s still early days. We still have to work hard and improve things but where we started, so far we have done a good job.

    Carlos, coming to you, a great debut obviously in Melbourne for you. It could have gone even better without the long pit stop. I guess you dream of your grand prix debut and then when it goes well, like it did, is it a feeling or elation or relief, or both?

    Carlos SAINZ: A bit of everything to be honest. It was a good debut, which I’m very happy with. It obviously gives you a boost of confidence and also a big boost of motivation to keep up the good work and keep improving because I’m sure I still have a lot, a lot, a lot to improve.

    Did all the attention that was on your team-mate Max Verstappen help to take the pressure off you a bit and allow you to perform better?

    CS: This may be a bit what it looked like from the outside, but obviously from the inside I perfectly know the amount of pressure I put on myself and the amount of pressure STR and Red Bull are putting on us and for sure I can tell you we have exactly the same amount of pressure to perform. So not really, to be honest, I think we were pretty equal in that sense and it was just a good weekend.

    Felipe, another rookie and another very good result in Australia with fifth place, which is the debut result ever for a Brazilian in Formula One. What does that result… it must be very emotional to even hear that… what does that performance mean to you and the team?

    Felipe NASR: It was very unique I have to say, coming from a very troubled weekend. My very first ever weekend in Formula One was not ideal the way it started, with all this trouble, going to court and everything else; missing first free practice, a track that I didn’t know. So it was a very good outcome to come up fifth in my first ever race and I think for the team as well it was something they really needed. It’s important. It shows the team was ready, myself was ready to put the things on the side and being able to deliver in the race. It was something very special.

    During the race you were able to keep Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull behind you and you were even able to drive away from him. So how do you feel about this car and how excited are you about what’s possible this year?

    FN: I was a bit surprised to see that happening. I knew the car had the potential to do it but to hold back Red Bull was unexpected. It could only show that the car has… the engine has done a good improvement over the winter, over last year. I think we need to take the profit from these early races to maximise our potential and getting the opportunities right. I think there are still teams struggling out there to finish races and we need to use that as an advantage for us.

    Coming to you Daniil, obviously a challenging first weekend to say the least for you and Red Bull, you qualified behind the Toro Rossos and didn’t even manage to take the start. What progress have you made with Renault since Melbourne in particular on the driveability of this power unit?

    Daniil KVYAT: I think we will only find the answer tomorrow to be honest. I hope we did. The whole team now is working really hard to overcome the difficulties we are facing right now but myself and the whole team we are used to working realty hard and that’s what we are going to do and we are going to try our best to put ourselves in a strong position once again.

    Last year, of course, you were in the points on your first visit to this Sepang circuit. What features of this track do you enjoy?

    DK: Well, generally, it’s quite a challenging circuit I think for all of us. It’s famous for the heat, for the warm, hot conditions. Generally this track has been good to me, I have been here a few times. I enjoy driving it here. It has a few fast, high-speed sections that you usually enjoy quite a lot as a driver. I’m looking forward to this weekend and hopefully we will keep moving forward.

    Nico, Melbourne looked like Mercedes had doubled the advantage in terms of relative fastest laps across the weekend over your nearest rivals compared to the start of 2014, but do you expect a smaller gap on this type of circuit?

    Nico ROSBERG: I don’t think it’s right to say that. Of course qualifying pace was very strong, yes, but more important is the race pace, especially from Kimi we saw an extremely strong stint, so not really fair to say that I would say. I think Ferrari especially have definitely closed the gap and are closer than our nearest rival was last year.

    Specifically this type of circuit, do you expect the gap to be smaller?

    NR: It’s very difficult to say. It’s early days, we need to wait and see how it goes here.

    You said after the race in Melbourne that you could follow Lewis but it was hard to mount an attack, so presumably qualifying is crucial to get the advantage this weekend to make sure you start the race on the front foot?

    NR: Qualifying is definitely important in this internal battle especially since we have the same cars but it’s not everything, because we have seen in the past, even in races, playing around the tyre order or things like that it’s still possible to overtake and this weekend here, there might be a bit more leeway in the strategy to try to launch a better attack.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Fendando Alonso_Malaysia 2015 PCQ: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Fernando, how long after the accident did you start to get memories of the accident back, what did you learn about it when you went to the factory last week and do you now believe that there was no problem with the car?

    FA: Everything was more or less as a normal concussion. So, I had this concussion, went to the hospital. I went to the hospital in good conditions. There is a time that I don’t remember from two o’clock to six o’clock or something like that, but everything again was normal due to the medication that they give you to go into the helicopter and to do some tests in the hospital.

    Everything was normal. I didn’t wake up in ’95, I didn’t wake up speaking in Italian or all these things that probably they were out there. I remember the accident and I remember everything that following day.

    Obviously with the team we have been very close working on that and with the FIA, they were very helpful all the times, and we were in close contact, all three parts constantly and yeah, there is not in the data anything clear that we can spot and we can say it was that, the reason. But definitely we had a steering problem in the middle of turn three. It locked into the right and I approached the wall I braked in the last moment, I downshift from fifth to third, and yeah, unfortunately on the data we are still missing some parts. Also the acquisition of date on that particular part of the car is not at the top so there are some new sensors here at this race and there are some changes we do on the steering rack and other parts and yeah that was the main thing. The last week at the factory was more a work on the simulator and trying to explain to me these new sensors and these new parts that will go on this race.

    Q: (Jaime Rodríguez – El Mundo) Fernando, after this episode, have you got more respect or more fear to your job?

    FA: No, not really. You know, at the end of the day we know motorsport is dangerous. We know that sometimes you have a big accident, spectacular and the car is completely destroyed and nothing happens, and sometimes you crash in a low speed corner or something, and it depends on the angle, depends on how you hit, or which part of the body you hit, you have more or less injuries. It is the same in the normal day life: sometimes you live an extreme life and nothing happens and sometimes you walk on the street and have a big issue. So, no more respect than before, it’s just, y’know, a very normal thing. I felt ready to go to Australia as well but I understand also the recommendation from the doctor that it was maybe too early and, yeah, we wait for one more race. That, obviously, creates even more feeling, no? But happy to be here, happy to help the team. Obviously we’re struggling a little bit at the moment and the winter has been quite difficult and the same at the first race. It was hard for me to watch on TV with the team not performing so well. So yeah, we are here to help and to give McLaren and Honda the experience that we can have, Jenson and me, and trying to recover from this form as soon as possible.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Fernando, you said “the steering just locked”. The steering is for a racing driver, let’s say, a very delicate thing in the car, like the brakes if it fails. If you still don’t know why there was a problem with the steering is that a thing that is worrying you despite the new sensors you have on the car?

    FA: Not really. I think, as I said before, together with FIA and with the team, we were constantly doing some checks, investigations, some possibilities, and as I said, there are some areas in the car that, instrumentation-wise are probably not at the level to see this problem. It’s like a problem that may occur, in this phrase, 20 years ago, Formula One did not have the technology to spot that problem. I’m sure that we are missing something on the data acquisition that we will spot in ten years’ time or whatever when the technology is available. So, that’s one reason and, yeah, I have zero doubt or zero concern.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph) Question for Fernando. Given that you remember the accident, as far as you are concerned, it wasn’t a driver error or, as the team put it, a gust of wind blew you off course in any way?

    FA: No, no, definitely not. I don’t know if you see the video but even a hurricane will not move the car at that speed. Also, if you have any problem or any medical issue, normally you will lose the power and you will go straight to the outside, never to the inside. In a Formula One car you still need to apply some effort on the steering wheel. So, that’s one thing. Honestly, y’know, obviously with an accident, with the repercussion of the accident, the news, being in Spain, a lot of attention on that day and probably the first answers or the first press conference that the team have, my manager, whatever, all the stuff around in these early days, it was just some guess. The wind, maybe other possibilities. That creates a little bit of confusion obviously – but you cannot say nothing for three or four days until I remember everything because these three or four days then will become even worse. So I think they say the theory of the wind, etc., but obviously it was not a help.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Apologies to the other five members of the panel but it’s another question for Fernando. With everything that’s happened over the winter and to yourself personally and to the team as well, one of the big things that’s been debated by the fans and I’m sure many journalists in this room is whether you’ve made the right decision, returning to McLaren. What would your reaction to that debate be?

    FA: I’m one of the happiest persons in the world. Yes, I am. I have a challenge in front of me. A tough challenge clearly. I think it’s difficult but it’s going to taste better when we do it. I grew up watching TV with McLaren-Honda domination and Ayrton Senna in the cockpit. I understand that we are now too far back and we will be heavily criticized and it will be fair to receive that criticism because we are not at the level we will be – but it’s nothing we can do now, just work, it’s a long-term project and all my career I experience some beautiful moments – even the last five years – with Ferrari we didn’t win the championship but it was a fantastic experience. But five was enough – I didn’t want to be seven years second or third so I prefer to risk and challenge for victory. Even if you need to take some risk for the first year.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) A question to Fernando. Coming back to the accident, can you remember one thing, if you lost consciousness before the first impact or not, and when, why?

    FA: No, I remember everything obviously. I don’t want to go through every detail because it’s going to be long but I remembered everything. It was Sunday morning, all the setup changes, the lap times, I think Vettel was in front of me before Turn Three but cut the chicane to let me go, exiting the pitlane. After the hit I was kissing the wall for a while and then I switch off the radio first, because it was on, and then I switch off the master switch for the batteries to switch off the ERS system just because I saw the marshals coming and, if not, they cannot touch the car. So, yeah, I was perfectly conscious at the time. I lost consciousness in the ambulance or in the clinic at the circuit but the doctors said this is normal because of the medication that they put you, just for the helicopter transportation and the checks that they do in the hospital: the MRI and the evaluation needs this protocol, needs this medication so this is normal that maybe you don’t remember.

    Is is normal the marshals didn’t touch the car?

    FA: This I don’t know.

    Q: (Manuel Franco – Diario AS) Two questions, the first for Fernando, the second for Fernando and Carlos. Fernando, what had you learned from the accident? About people, about you, about life? Second question. In this race will be three Spanish drivers: you and Roberto Merhi. With England and Germany it’s the country with most drivers in the race. What do you think?

    FA: What I learned is that I have so much support from so many people. It’s been amazing how many messages from people I’ve received. So many warm wishes from all the sport and government and everyone. Everyone was so interested. And in the Formula One paddock as well because even from the flight on Tuesday that I arrived here until today has been a very nice experience to see really, truly, wishes of health for me. That was something that I learned, probably, after the accident. You don’t realize until you have a problem, or you miss one or two races that, y’know, so many people are behind you and are supporting you. And then, about the race, yes, it’s nice to have three Spanish drivers. Hopefully we can see for many years. We had three previously with Marc Gené and Pedro [de la Rosa] and now hopefully we can have many more years because Carlos and Roberto, they are very young and they have good possibility and a good future and I wish they can stay very long.

    Carlos, your view on that?

    CS: For me it’s obviously great. I’ve always had a good relationship with Fernando and I now have a very good relationship with Roberto. I think the more Spanish the better and, yeah, that’s it.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport) Accidents can happen to experienced drivers, so Nico, and Kimi, do you every worry about having accidents? Has there been a time in your F1 career where you maybe thought ‘I don’t want to go out?’

    NR: Yeah, of course sometimes I think about it and there is a certain element of fear when I’m driving sometimes but that, I think is natural, and holds me back sometimes to go too far beyond the limit. But it doesn’t make me slower in any way.

    Kimi?

    KR: I’ve had quite a few accidents in the past and last year one not so nice one. But it’s part of the game. If you make a mistake, you pay a price. It’s up to you. If you’re not prepared to take the risk or if you’re scared, I’m sure there’s plenty of guys that are willing to jump in a car and race. So, no, I think you… obviously it’s part of the thing but I think you have better chances to get hurt in normal traffic than on the race circuits.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) Fernando, the team was saying even up to a couple of days ago that there was nothing wrong with the car, and yet you’re saying the steering locked. How do those two statements work together?

    FA: Yeah, as I said before, I think it’s clear that there was a problem in the car but it hasn’t been found on the data at the moment.  It’s one of the things that I did also in the factory last week, not only the simulator but going – with all the engineers and all the data available –  going through the moments and there are some spots here and there but there is not a clear answer. So I understand completely and support the team until they find a clear answer that it was this or that, it’s impossible to say or to lie that it was this or that. They need to go much further. If they will find something any time, I don’t know because if after one month we didn’t find anything on the data, it is maybe because whatever part was the problem, it was not available on the data, so maybe it will never be.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) But they have gone further and say there is no problem.

    FA: Well, I don’t think that they say this any more.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, can you expect this circuit to give your car the same chance to have a good position , as you had at Melbourne? 

    KR: Well, I hope it’s better than Melbourne for me. Like I said, we had the speed and I think things are running smoothly, we just have to avoid mistakes. We had some bad luck at the start but the car’s been quick at every circuit we’ve been to so far so I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be here. I think it could be even better than it was at the last race. It’s a proper circuit and I think it will be good, fitting well at this circuit so we’ll just wait and see.

    Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Fernando, do we now have a precise idea of the violence of the impact that gave you such big concussion?

    FA: No, I don’t exactly know the details.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) I’m a bit confused by this: there’s no problem, there’s nothing on the data, you’ve lost consciousness, someone said you didn’t lose consciousness, your team also said there was a gust of wind. It’s all just very confusing but one thing for me, if there’s no data and the team haven’t found anything, could the problem happen again?

    FA: Well, as I said, I think some of the confusion comes from the very early quotes and very early explanations because the attention was very high at that moment. The stress was very high, I was in intensive care, there was some urgency to say something because there was a lot of attention so that was probably part of the confusion. On the data, as I said before, I think there was some lack of instrumentation maybe on the car, to miss the exact problem and there are some actions taken for this race which are probably not necessary but there is extra care with some parts on the car that were unique to me, that I requested because of  my driving style when I joined McLaren  and here we will go back to the normal steering rack and things that they’ve been using with Jenson and Kevin for the last couple of years. Of course, there are some actions for this race and as I said, there is zero problem, zero worries on my side. Everything is OK.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, could you tell us exactly what happened this morning during the test?

    FA: Today, we’ve been through the normal processes as we have during the last month. As I said before, everything that I did or that happened in the last month were completely normal, the concussion, the rehabilitation, the checks, the extra checks, the recommendation to wait two or three weeks before any dangerous activity again, so everything went normal and this morning, again, it was a normal procedure after  a head injury to do an impact test with the FIA and some reaction tests and some examinations with the Malaysian Grand Prix doctors. Everything went as smoothly as possible and I have the green light, so that was a very positive moment.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) You’ve partially answered this before,  Fernando,  but seeing Ferrari is so strong, do you think that maybe you might have waited a little bit longer before leaving and  achieved some results?

    FA: Obviously, as I said, with the performance that we have right now, it’s easy to criticise our team and my decision, whatever, but as I said, I’m first of all so so happy that this is the most important thing. When you’re happy with yourself or you’re a healthy man inside, that is the first victory and that is what I am now, because I’m following my dream now. And secondly, I could  wait and achieve some nice results as you’ve said probably yes, but after 14 years of Formula One and two championships, a podium or fourth place or fifth place is no longer a nice result.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel –La Gaceta) Fernando, I would like to know your feelings after 14 years, watching a race on TV?

    FA: I don’t think I pick the best race to watch, probably. One, it was very early in the morning, so that didn’t help the enthusiasm for the race, and secondly, the number of cars on the grid and after the first couple of laps was obviously not ideal. Yeah, it was a strange feeling, no doubt that I missed being there, I missed driving. It was strange but luckily I’m here.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel –La Gaceta) Carlos, is it a big motivation for you to beat the new Ayrton Senna as you did in the first race?

    CS: For me the first motivation is always to extract the maximum potential from myself, focus myself and with self-confidence and knowing that you can extract the full potential from yourself then you should believe that you are in front of your teammate. I believe Max is a great talent, I believe he’s going to perform really well this year and he will be a very tough competitor but my main focus, as I said, is not to beat him but first of all extract the maximum potential from myself and that will put me  in a good position for sure.

    Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) Fernando,  I’m a bit confused: how can you not be worried? From what you’re saying to us, the steering was locked, heading towards the inside wall. You’re fighting with the steering wheel so that’s a car problem, and you’re getting back in the car this weekend and you don’t know what caused that problem. How can you not be worried?

    FA: I fully trust the team. They’ve been looking at every single component of the car for a month, they’ve been simulating the efforts, they’ve been doing so many tests, they’ve been changing every single part that they had some doubts about so I think we have the safest car right now, because of all the studies that they’ve done. And after one month, I’m probably the most medically checked driver in history so we should be fine, both of us.

  • F1 2015: Malaysia GP Preview – Sepang First True Test

    F1 2015: Malaysia GP Preview – Sepang First True Test

    The first race of the season around Australia’s Albert Park circuit is a highly anticipated one. It’s the keenness to kick off a new F1 season which gives the streets of Melbourne that distinctive feeling of excitement. Its twenty-five points awarded to the winner are no less important than some of the more iconic races on the calendar but it can often disguise the teams’ true form and potential.

    The second round of the season, around Malaysia’s Sepang International circuit, will highlight those who have taken a genuine step forward. Equally, the dazzlingly high-speed corners and tantalising long straights of Sepang is also going to emphasize any shortcomings a car might have.

    Not much has changed at the sharp-end of the grid which Mercedes still, comfortably, dominate. But behind the silver arrows’ Williams and Ferrari appear to have traded places in the competitive order. Much of the Ferrari turnaround is down to the notorious power unit. Not long ago the Ferrari power unit more closely resembled a slow trotting donkey than its famed emblem of the prancing horse. But the Maranello team has produced a unit worthy of its heritage with a rumoured initial 80 horsepower gain since last year. It even has Williams raising a few eyebrows and admitting that the Ferrari unit may be “a bit quicker” than their Mercedes. This has made such a big change at Ferrari that it’s even spurred to normally tacit Kimi Raikkonen into a notably bullish state. “I believe in the race, we are not far from Mercedes. I’m sure we can be up there and fight at the front,” said Raikkonen.

    Valterri Bottas, Australian GP QualifyingAt this stage no there has been no news on Valtteri Bottas’ readiness after suffering a partial muscle tear in the Oz quali session. If Bottas is not Finn he will undoubtedly be missed by Williams who will likely find themselves in a spicy fight for the podium with Ferrari. The lofty predictions for an all-out fight could not happen thanks to the temperamental weather system in the area.

    Of the things that will happen this weekend Red Bull whinging and finding fault with Renault is a given. If their problems were evident Down Under then they will be glaring in Malaysia because Sepang is a power hungry circuit and Red Bull has nothing to feed it. So unhappy is Red Bull with the competitive order that Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, has threatened that Red Bull will quit the sport because of its current regulations. Team boss Christian Horner suggests that the FIA should look into an equalising engine performance to close up the field. It’s quite ironic, and perhaps even a bit hypocritical, given Red Bull plethora of victories during Vettel’s four consecutive championship seasons.

    Christian Horner Pit WallLet’s be clear Red Bull may have won four consecutive drivers and constructors championships but it doesn’t have the legacy of a Ferrari or Williams or McLaren so its threat to quit the sport doesn’t elicit the same fear. In the meantime, they’ll do their PR image a huge favour by taking it on the chin and focusing on the track. The form suggest that their fight will be for the lower points paying positions with Lotus and Toro Rosso and perhaps on a good day they may even challenge for a top five place.

    Malaysia will provide a more realistic pecking order which will unquestionably be headed by Mercedes. It is ridiculous to suggest that the mighty Silver Arrows will face any form of pressure but it will be fascinating to see Sepang reveal Ferrari’s true progress.

  • Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

    Broadcast Times for the 2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

    Formula 1 heads to Malaysia this week for round 2 of the Formula 1 World Championship to one of two home races for the Mercedes F1 Team.

    The Malaysian Grand Prix always throws up a curve ball or two we can always depend on its unpredictability. The tropical weather may have a surprise or two for us this weekend.

    With the first race out of the way the pecking order of the field is starting to take shape although we wont get a true sense of it until a few more races. From what we can tell, all the fun and action is happening behind Mercedes who are well and truly ahead of everyone. Ferrari have emerged as best of the rest for now and there has been a considerable amount of talk about the improvement that they have made. The truth of the matter is that it was just one race and one race does not a season make. If Ferrari can maintain and improve this level of performance then we can call them the best of the rest.

    Williams, on pace, is not that far off from Ferrari. Technical Head at Williams Pat Simmonds has said that he feels that Ferrari are faster than them. This week however, Williams say that they should be much stronger on a purpose built track.

    Red Bull are struggling with their power unit and have made their feelings very clear about how what they think about the Renault power unit. McLaren on the other hand show some encouraging signs and its been a week of good news for the team with Alonso poised to return to racing once again after his concussion ruled him out for the first race of the season.

    The mid-field battle is heating up rather nicely with Toro Rosso showing some very good pace early on and with Sauber coming back into the mix. It does make things tough for Force India who seem to be on the back foot at the moment.

    After software issues dented Manor’s chances of turning a wheel in Australia, they will want to come out fighting in Malaysia. This will be the first time their car has turned a wheel this season and it will be interesting to see just how they fair.

    Although the race is in Malaysia the times this weekend are slightly more favorable.

    Free Practice 1: Friday 04:00

    Free Practice 2: Friday 08:00

    Free Practice 3: Saturday 08:00

    Qualifying: Saturday 11:00

    Race: Sunday 09:00

  • Sauber “Surprised” by Van Der Garde’s Remarks

    Sauber “Surprised” by Van Der Garde’s Remarks

    After Giedo Van Der Garde voiced his dissatisfaction at Sauber and the way they handled his contract dispute, the Sauber F1 Team have released a statement of their own saying that they are surprised by what the young Dutchman has claimed.

    In a statement  released on Facebook, the Sauber F1 Team have said that they are “rather surprised” by van der Garde’s intentions and they cannot understand the reasoning behind his scathing statement directed towards the team.

    “Many of you read today’s statement on Giedo van der Garde’s Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised,” read the statement from Sauber.

    “We don’t know about Giedo’s intentions. He may try to present himself as a winner, while we had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand.”

    The statement goes on to say that the team have answers to the accusations made in the statement, but Sauber will not be drawn into a mud slinging match in the media.

    “We’d have very good answers to the many statements and accusations in Giedo’s post. But to expand on this wouldn’t help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that.”

    Sauber have made it clear that they have put the matter behind them and that they are now focusing on preparations for the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix.

    “The next race in Malaysia is where our focus is and that’s where we will build up on last weekend’s success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. All our efforts are drawn to this objective.

    “With this in mind we’d like to encourage you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be. From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you.”