F1 Madness

Tag: spanish grand prix

  • Raikkonen Claims Top Spot in Free Practice 3 for Spanish GP

    Raikkonen Claims Top Spot in Free Practice 3 for Spanish GP

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished on top of the time sheets ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel for the 3rd Free Practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

    Raikkonen set a time of 1:20.214 to go 0.242s clear of team mate Vettel who set a 1:20.456 as his best time of the session. Although not the neatest lap from Raikkonen it was good enough to give him the top spot on the time sheets.

    Vettel’s session was cut short after the team detected an issue with his telemetry data just as he was about to take to the track. The German stopped the car in the pit lane and was pushed back into the pits. Ferrari say that there was no real issue with the engine but parts will be changed as a precaution.

    Finishing the session 3rd and 4th fastest was the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was 0.381s off the pace after a few untidy laps. Bottas, who sat out most of the session after the team had found an electrical issue with his car after FP2, managed 4th fastest after coming out quite late in the session. The Finn is running the same engine he ran for the first 4 races of the season after the team opted to replace his engine last night after breaking curfew. The team found that the replacement engine had another issue with it which forced them to revert to the old engine.

    The two Red Bull’s finished in 5th and 6th with Max Verstappen leading Daniel Ricciardo. In 7th fastest is the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg followed by the Williams of Felipe Massa in 8th.

    Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso finished 9th fastest with Fernando Alonso in the McLaren in 10th.

    Just missing out on a top 10 spot was Romain Grosjean in 11th in the Haas followed by his team mate Kevin Magnussen in 12th.

    The Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were 13th and 14th respectively. It didnt seem like they were struggling and we should see one of them make Q3.

    While his team mate broke into the top 10, Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso could only manage 15th ahead of the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson in 16th.

    Lance Stroll was 17th for Williams with Jolyon Palmer 18th for Renault.

    Bringing up the rear was Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in the Sauber.

    It seems as though Ferrari have turned a corner with their setup and both drivers seem more comfortable in the car. Mercedes still look like they will have the upper hand come qualifying. It should be noted that the Red Bulls looked very strong in the final few corners and could be closer to the Ferrari’s in qualifying.

     

     

     

    Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • 2017 Spanish GP: Friday Press Conference – Part 2

    2017 Spanish GP: Friday Press Conference – Part 2

    PART TWO: TEAM REPRESENTATIVE – Maurizio Arrivabene (Ferrari), Christian HORNER (Red Bull), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Christian, there was talk of the Red Bull for this Spanish Grand Prix being a substantial step ahead of the car that started the season. How different is it in the end, and how satisfied are you with the performance on day one?

    Christian HORNER: I think it’s probably been overstated slightly in various media outlets but it’s a pretty significant upgrade, it’s an aerodynamic upgrade, most of which is pretty visible. It’s the knock-on from those elements and probably the bits that you can’t see that obviously involve a great deal of work, a great deal of time and effort from back in the factory. They’ve done an incredible job to get it all turned around and on the car in time for today’s running.

    Q: Cyril Abiteboul was with us a few moments ago in part one and told us that the full potential of the Renault 2017 engine would really come with the third iteration of the season. What’s your view?

    CH: Well I was trying to ask him the question at the back that you wouldn’t give me the microphone for in the previous version, because I was very keen to learn when that third edition will come. Obviously for us, the sooner the better. It seems that Renault has chosen a path that is showing true potential but I think they’ve got some complications in terms of being able to extract the power unit’s full potential. Hopefully they’ll be able to release that sooner rather than later.

    Q: Yesterday, here in the press conference, we talked with the top drivers about the driver market and possible moves for next year. Is it the case that you know already that both of your drivers are locked into your team for 2018?

    CH: Yes, absolutely.

    Q: Monisha, moving on you. Obviously you announced the Honda deal which means that eight months from now you’ll be bolting a Honda into your 2018 car to go testing. How far up the road from where they are today do you expect them to be at that point?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, we certainly expect that they’ll have sorted out all the issues they have been facing so far and we expect that to also happen still in this season. Looking at the talks we’ve had with Honda and having seen their facilities, knowing how determined they are, we have no reason to doubt that.

    Q: Are these conversations that you’ve had with them for some time? In Honda just generally about participation together with you?

    MK: It’s been going on for some time but, you know, we looked at all the options we had. We had a couple of talks going on for a long time.

    Q: What does the Honda partnership allow you to do from the point of view of sponsorship, driver choices etcetera, does it open things up for you?

    MK: Well, regarding drivers, I’ve said before, at the end of the day it’s the team’s decision, and also the team’s responsibility to have good drivers. And like we’ve done in the past, even with our current engine supplier, Ferrari, that we’ve discussed these kind of issues with the key partner. And we have also taken drivers from our engine supplier because it was the right thing to do there. It’s something that we’re open to and we’ll see how it pans out. In terms of sponsorship I think it’s far too early to look at these things. We’ve just announced the deal. So we’ll see how that develops as well.

    Q: Maurizio, could you have imagined that, after four races, your driver would be two wins to the good and 13 points in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, much of that, I guess, you would say, by being bold, which is what you called for the team to be, you and Sergio Marchionne.

    Maurizio ARRIVABENE: OK, we are happy, of course, we were not expecting to be here but I’ll add that the hard work is paying back, so, I mean I’m very, very pleased for the overall team, for the guys that are here, the guys in Maranello, that they are working very, very hard. Having said so, I saw how Red Bull was growing here in Barcelona and how they are competitive. Mercedes have to defend the title of the World Champion, and we are still focussed on the race after race work and we try to do all our best to make the race interesting.

    Q: We spoke with Toto a few minutes ago in part one of this press conference about the dramatic-looking car that Mercedes have brought here this weekend and asked him if he was satisfied with the performance of it. What are your thoughts on how of the balance of competitiveness between you and them, where that lies now going forwards through this weekend and the next few races ahead of us?

    MA: One of the lessons that we learned last year is to look at all of our competitors. Visually the Mercedes is very impressive because yesterday we were looking at the Mercedes but we were looking also at the Red Bull and you have two schools: one that is the one of Mercedes that is quite interesting, creative and surprising, the other one is the Red Bull school where maybe something is not really evident but it’s extremely efficient. We need to take in consideration what they do, to be able to compete with them and to continue our development. One of the mantra this year is that we are looking, if there is something interesting, we are investigating, but we follow our way, we have our programme and we want to continue to follow our programme without distraction.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Kate Walker – Motorsport network) I’m sure you’re aware that the FIA are currently celebrating all of the volunteers who allow motor sport to happen in every category. I was wondering if you could give us your thoughts on the importance of celebrating these men and women and any sort of positive experiences you’ve had with circuit officials around the world?

    CH: It’s quite incredible the job that they do, not just at Formula One events but racing events and categories around the world, from club racing upwards and quite an awful lot of them are doing it out of the love of their hearts, their passion for the sport. Again, all the medical assistance, the doctors etc etc, I’m only full of admiration for them and without them we quite simply wouldn’t be able to operate. They make it look easy but do a wonderful wonderful job.

    MA: I’ve a good case that is when I was young and crazy for Formula One that I tried to apply to be a voluntary marshal but my objective was only – the money was not a lot in my case – just to be near by the car and to see the race. Then they asked a couple of questions, they discovered that I was just a Formula One supporter and they threw me out. This is really… I have to say Chapeau to the Federation because that means that the guys are not only passionate for Formula One, they are here  working for free but they are also experts in the world that they are doing for all of us who have a great respect for all of them.

    MK: Well, I think it’s very important that you have a day like this because this is really the moment that you can focus on all the volunteers who are doing such a great job. They are doing it really out of passion and without them, like Christian said…  such difficult  situations can be sorted out and just have such a smooth way things go so we should try to really show, like this, so many more examples where people are in the sport at whatever their level, whatever category , that it takes so much more than just what you maybe see during the race, the teams or the drivers, it takes so many more people to bring across all this.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Maurizio, we saw in P1 big time differences between the Ferraris and the Mercedes. Did you have any issue and how was it so big? And the second question: do you believe that Mercedes still have an advantage on a single lap and it’s tough to catch them now?

    MA: I received the same question in Australia on Friday, I remember, and the gap in FP1 was the same, it was one second between us and Mercedes. On that occasion, I answered the question as I answer today. Chapeau to Mercedes for what they have done but we are not going to change our programme. We have a programme for this weekend, starting from Friday, improving Saturday and looking also for Sunday. This is what we want to do and what we are focused to do. Having said that, as I’ve said many many times, they are the World Champions and they have to defend their title of course. They are stronger, they are the reference for all of us and what we have to do is just try to create them some problems.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Maurizio, nice to see you here on a Friday. We’re seeing more of your drivers on a Sunday but a lot less of you; Liberty Media want the teams to do more for the fans, more media. I think I’m right in saying your team is probably the one that does less media this year than last year. Could you perhaps explain some of that and is that because it was a distraction last year, is it stress reduction or… what is the thinking behind it?

    MA: I’m surprised, honestly, because we were doing social media for two races on Thursday with one driver and then we continue to do what we were doing last year, so what are we talking about? This is my simple answer. Liberty, of course, they would like to have more and more and more interviews but they are also talking about digital so we try to balance the first two races and now we are back to what we were doing in the past so my opinion… all of you have the newspaper (version) but they also have a digital version of the newspaper so I don’t see where the problem is. We are really focused on what we are doing, that’s true.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Maurizio, just to follow up on that, but I thought you would usually speak after the race…

    MA: Yes, if you received the press release, I’m putting a statement on paper what we are going to think. It’s also true – your colleague mentioned Liberty before. One of the things we are pushing for is to have the driver that somehow they are the heroes of the show. The role of the team principal is to manage the team, to put the driver up, to do their job. At the moment, we are really really focused and I am focused with all the team to do their job and I tell you, it’s quite hard to fight with a monster like Mercedes and to look at what these guys are doing, so that’s a question of concentration, to give statements to the media when we have to do it, on Sunday after the race. That’s it, there is no other intention.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Sure, I was slightly distracted. What I was going to ask you – though it’s useful in a sense than just a statement, that we can ask you things and you can respond to them rather than it’s just a blank statement that we can’t really get back to. But that’s slightly by the by. I was actually going to ask you, before that, was would you rule out having Fernando Alonso back as a driver at Ferrari or not?

    MA: Ah, this is the real question! Is there a reason why you want me to talk… It’s not different to the answer that I gave to you before. You need to understand the spirit of our team this year. We are really working as a team and the two guys, the two drivers, they are part – an integral part – of this team. We are so concentrated on what we are doing, we are working so hard, all together that the conversation about contracts is not a priority. I don’t want to be… I tell you the truth. We are working well together, we are feeling very very well together so we want to do our best, to work on the performance of the car and for us it’s… the contract is not a priority. The atmosphere is great, why we have to start talking about something that is distracting us? We look each other in the eyes and we understand that we are a team.

    Q: (Martin Vriezema – NOS) Christian, we just had an interview with Max and he said in a very realistic way ‘we are still the third team.’ And there was also a bit of frustration, maybe he was a little bit sad even. How do you deal with this ambitious driver who realises he’s not the number one yet… which also counts for Ricciardo of course, and do they ask for a different approach from your side?

    CH: Well, first of all, he’s probably right in his observation that yes, today we are still currently the third team but I think it has concertina-ed, I think we are closer to Ferrari and Mercedes than we’ve been at any points so far this season. I think we’ve bought some performance to the car. There’s still some fine tuning that needs to be done and understanding of what we’ve introduced but I don’t sense any frustration with him. He’s focused, he’s motivated, he goes for it on every lap that he’s out on the track. He’s enjoying being a Grand Prix driver. Of course he’s hungry and ambitious but that applies to Daniel as well. I don’t sense any frustration; he’s certainly not requesting any change to our approach. He can see the effort that’s going on behind the scenes, the hours that people are working, because it is a sport at the end of the day and department after department are competing against some enormous adversaries in the likes of Ferrari here and obviously Mercedes.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christian, about six or seven years ago you seemed to be totally opposed to any form of cost-control, cost caps etc, yet recently you’ve been reported as coming out as saying that you’re in favour of some sort of budget cap. Why do you think it could now be controlled when a couple of years ago it couldn’t be and also some input from the other two if they would like to comment on that as well?

    CH: Well, firstly, just to clarify, I’m not at all in favour of cost caps. I think they’re unworkable, un-policeable and our biggest concern throughout that whole discussion four or five years ago was how on earth do you equate what’s going on within a subsidiary company of an automotive manufacturer within research and development? So I’m not in favour of a cost cap, what I am in favour of and I would expect probably every Grand Prix team to be in favour of is to try and control the amount that we’re currently spending through perhaps simplicity of the regulations, perhaps de-cluttering the regulations because Formula One moves at such a pace that every area is under scrutiny and that means spend and that drives spend and I think there’s an opportunity with a new commercial rights holder in conjunction with the FIA to really look at what are the key cost drivers and go upstream and deal with those and then that will naturally have an effect on the outcome of how much you can and can’t spend, and there’s certain aspects that, you know, people sitting in the grandstand today have no idea about and probably know interest about in terms of some of the technology that we’re all spending a fortune on, so I think simplification would definitely be an effective way forward.

    MK: Well, it’s good to hear that from Red Bull because we, together particularly with Force India, have been exactly saying this, that we need to get the costs down and at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to us if you have a budget cap or you have other tools of cost control, they should look at prescriptive parts if you makes the rules simpler. The important thing is to bring these costs down and actually make sure that the teams can be run in a sustainable way and then focus on the show and I think now, listening to the new owners of the sport, we certainly see that they share this view and they will actively work on this, I hope very soon, and present their proposals.

    MA: I think before talking about a cost cap we need to understand how in the future the actual commercial owner wants to grow the business of Formula One, to create more interest and also to work on the split-up of the relationships of Formula One and how we are in the hands of everything we are doing, especially (inaudible). I remember that we were talking about digital – I mean Liberty, not us – they were talking about digital that is representing only the one per cent of the potential commercial business for the future, so this is an area that we need to work on. Concerning the cap, I always said that we are in favour of cost reduction, then there is not a perfect formula to do it but for sure we are ready to take into consideration any kind of sporting regulation that they could help to reduce the costs without touching  the performance, because if you reduce the costs and the performance is going down then you have no spectacularisation somehow. So I think this is what I said in the past and what I continue to remark for the future. It’s also important to understand how is the commitment of the so-called small teams because compared to other sports they are not small at all. I think we also need people who are really committed to this sport. They want to work in the profession and they are also well-equipped financially. I think the worst image that Formula One could have is people who are building up a team, they are coming in for two or three years and then they are going out. Those are question that we need to ask of ourselves together with, as Christian said very very well, together with regulations  that are helping all of us to reduce the costs.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Christian, you have had a couple of brake issues this year which have hurt your race performance. You seem to be on the same brake material as Ferrari; I’m assuming therefore it’s not related to that. I wonder if you could just talk us through that. It’s a bit strange.

    CH: We’ve had two issues, one in Bahrain and then one obviously at the re-start in Sochi. Whilst the outcome was the same, the failure was different. In the failure that Max had in Bahrain… it was actually a crack that allowed hot air to blow over a seal on the caliper which then failed and then he lost hydraulic fluid in the caliper itself, so that was an incident within the brake drum. The incident with Daniel was far harder to understand because it was after a safety car so the car had been going slowly, the brake temperatures were all under control and then he obviously had what was an instantaneous failure pretty much at the restart and there’s been an awful lot of work and analysis going into that and we believe we have a solution that we’ve tried and tested hopefully today

  • 2017 Spanish GP: Friday Press Conference – Part 1

    2017 Spanish GP: Friday Press Conference – Part 1

    PART ONE: TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Today is the FIA Volunteers’ Day and there will be a ceremony later this afternoon on the pit straight to honour their contribution to motor sport. Perhaps a word from you all on the work of the volunteers?

    Toto WOLFF: Well, we wouldn’t be able to go racing without the volunteers and it’s something that isn’t so visible to the public that with the many devoted and engaged people, all around the world on the racetracks, they enable us to put on a show, so it’s definitely a good little exercise to do and honour them.

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Nothing much to add. Motor sport is a bit strange in that it’s just a few that get elected to race or even be in the garage but it’s a sport that involves a lot of people, whether in the garage, mechanics, at the factory, but also around the track and taking part with the federations around the world. Yeah, it’s a great opportunity to honour their ongoing commitment.

    Robert FERNLEY: Yeah, without doubt they are the unsung heroes of motor racing across the board, not just for Formula One. We must remember that they do great work outside Formula One, which we’re very focused on. I think people forget that weekend-in, weekend-out they’re there, so great honour.

    Q: Thank you. Moving back to you Cyril. Good qualifying pace so far this season, but perhaps not unlocking all the race results you might have hoped for. Why is that?

    CA: Well, part of that is it’s still a year where we are still in a construction phase. So in talking about construction it’s easier to qualify and extract maximum performance off a given package on one lap, on a short run, which is what we are doing consistently since the start of the season. We know also that we have fragile reliability and that’s really our area of focus. It is hitting us regularly, during races and also during Fridays, in the preparation of the race typically. Usually we have a good group of people who is managing or setting up the car properly for qualifying but when it comes to really managing the car and fixing the issues for a longer run, that’s really down to how reliable we have been over the weekend. So that’s really something that is hitting, which is biting on regular occasions, so that is the area of focus for the time being. We also have a great qualifier in Nico. He’s also clearly leading the way on race pace. Jo has not been very favourite in the conditions… he’s had on many occasions adverse conditions in his weekend. The only weekend he had a clean weekend, which was in Bahrain, he managed to be in Q3. So that is what we are trying to repeat because we think that the car also has a better pace on Sundays, so that’s the target for this weekend.

    Q: From which race onwards are you hoping to unlock the full potential of this 2017 Renault engine?

    CA: The full potential of the engine is something that will take a number of races with the existing hardware. You know that constant development, that constant improvement… based on the existing hardware there is more to come in performance and that’s really down to how quickly we can fix the reliability issues. I guess that will be down to the introduction of power unit number three. We may or may not change the hardware to extract more power but irrespective of the hardware there will be more power coming that’s for sure. So it’s all down to the engine introduction plan.

    Q: You mentioned Jolyon Palmer there, obviously he has had a few difficulties. What are you saying to him behind the scenes and what do you foresee for him for the rest of the season?

    CA: Well, the main thing we have done is that we’ve been through what has happened since the start of the season, including the winter test, when we were in Barcelona and he already had difficult conditions to deal with. So, limited mileage over the winter, a number of reliability issues in preparation for the first four races, which has not been helpful, and clearly he has a very talented team-mate, which is clearly showing what the car is capable of. But having said, Nico is not a magician, and that’s what I’m telling him. He has shown that on occasion he has definitely the pace to match his team-mate, so it is on that we are focusing. And we are making sure that he now has a clean weekend so that he can build his confidence, that we can rebuild his confidence in himself.

    Q: Robert, double points in every race so far, you’ve got to be happy with the way your 2017 season has started and with both of your drivers appearing to be well and truly on it?

    RF: Yeah, from our point of view, after the testing in Barcelona we knew we had a slight performance deficit and it was always going to be down to making sure that we extracted the optimum from the races and the team, the drivers, fantastic job, absolutely superb.

    Q: So the big question is can you keep it going? You’re up against some fairly tough opposition in this midfield, not least Cyril. Of course you’ve got Williams to think about, Toro Rosso as well. How important is the update pack you’ve brought here this weekend and what has it given you so far?

    RF: I think like all teams we’re looking for direction more than physically upgrading at the moment. It’s the direction that we need to be able to develop for the rest of the season. I think what we have seen so far is very promising and we’ll take it through going forward for the next races. Hopefully Renault’s problems will remain large ones and we can keep going!

    Q: Toto, first of all a word on this dramatic looking, updated car that you’ve brought here this weekend. Did it perform according to expectations during the practice sessions?

    TW: Yes, so far we are happy with the correlation and the results of the two Friday sessions and the car certainly looks very sophisticated. But it’s the interaction of all those bits that overall should make us achieve a performance gain. But Friday is pretty early days in the weekend. Tomorrow afternoon you’re going to see whether there is a real effect.

    Q: Valtteri Bottas won his first race last time out. You’ve had an interest in him for many years, what did you feel personally to see him winning a Formula One grand prix?

    TW: I’ve known Valtteri for 10 years so it’s clear that achieving his target to win a race is something special but in my position it’s about the team’s interests and having a Mercedes winner is great. Having a Mercedes challenger for the world championship or even winning a world championship and I’m behind both of them and we’ll be cheering whoever wins.

    Q: It was important that he won, with an all-Ferrari front row for that race in Russia. It could have been costly for you in the world championship, when Lewis was clearly having an off day. What did the debrief reveal?

    TW: Valtteri had a very good day because he was able to exploit P3, which is probably the best starting position in Sochi and used the slipstream down to Turn One and from thereon controlled the race. Considering that a four-time world champion was close behind him in those last laps, he did a very good job. As for Lewis, he was in traffic. We were a bit marginal with the cooling and that’s why he had a car that was not able to deliver maximum performance at all times. We could see that there were glimpses of performance but if you run into hot air and the car is heating up too much there’s not a lot you can do. From there it’s a difficult situation for the driver and the team and there wasn’t a lot we could do.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Peter Windsor– Motorsport Network) Toto, what about Lewis’ problems in sector three? We heard talk of diff, traction that wasn’t that happy with. What were you able to look at after Russia? I presume there was nothing broken on the car or anything like that, but can you give us more insight into what the problem was for him?

    TW: The interaction between the chassis, the suspension and the tyres is new ground for every team. And you need to understand how you make each of those various tyre compounds function. We tried to fix out, we tried to cure a problem that was created in the interaction of those two components by giving different diff settings or by trying to switch the brake balance back and forth. Just to give it a go or give it a try. It is a more fundamental issue. You need to have a car that is stable in the window, that has the basic performance and then translate that into qualifying performance and race performance and if you add to the equation a new compound or various new compounds it becomes a difficult exercise and that is one of the key topics we are looking at the moment.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) The FIA has mandated that all driver numbers and driver names are clearly displayed on cars from this race onwards. Looking at it this morning it seems that some teams have embraced it wholly and included it in their new colour schemes and that others have perhaps paid lip service to it. Could all three of you give your opinion on it and whatever you think it’s a good move?

    RF: I think it’s a good move from the FIA, probably overdue in all fairness. I think that perhaps some time out, when all the commercial agreements that we currently have, that’s across all the teams, come to an end they should standardize where the numbers go and make sure everything is clear for everybody going forward. At this point I think you have to do the best you can with whatever you have from a commercial agreement and I think all of the teams have tried their very best to embrace it.

    TW: Bob just summarized it pretty well. It’s trial and error. We played around with various designs. Some of us like the look of it, some of us don’t. We took a little bit off after P1 and just have the number now. But with all aesthetics, it’s mixed feelings.

    CA: Exactly the same. It’s a good move from the FIA. It’s something that maybe should have happened earlier and hopefully they will make sure to standardize. Just like in any other sport, where you know where to find the name and number of any player on the soccer field or anything. That’s the sort of thing where you want to have a standard position, so as mentioned as soon as the sponsorship contracts are falling out you want to make sure to seize the opportunity, that window, to impose what it is should be. Formula One. Formula One should be at the top of the sport in terms of presentation, the standard of presentation, so that’s what should happen sooner rather than later.

    RF: Just to add to that, I think it’s the number that is more important element, because now that the drivers have got numbers throughout their career I think the promoters would ideally like to see the number prominent rather than worrying too much about the same, so I think that would be the right move going forward.

    Q: (Sven Haidinger – motorsport-total.com) Toto, the Mercedes car is a little bit difficult in terms of the set-up to get it into the right window. Are you missing Nico Rosberg a little bit in terms of that, because Lewis has taken the set-up a couple of time from him and he’s one of the most experienced guys in the team or has been?

    TW: Certainly if you have the experience of Nico who has been in the team for a long time it is always helpful, but Valtteri has filled those shoes pretty well. He’s similar to Nico, an engineering-minded driver, and it’s more in those early stages of the season to understand the basic product, the car, the architecture of the car, suspension, kinematics, so I wouldn’t see it as a deficit.

    Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) It looks like the UK is heading towards a so-called hard Brexit and that could have serious implications for the Formula One teams based in the UK, especially for the ones with engine suppliers who are based outside the UK, such as Cyril and his customers. With no single and no freedom of movement of EU citizens into and out of the UK, what implications do you forecast it having for you, what contingency plans have you put in place – that in respect of customs reflecting the lead times and recruitment going forward for the 2019 season?

    CA: Thank you for the question! We will have to see, because there were already a number of forecasts when Brexit happened that a number of things would happen which have not happened so I don’t think it’s for me to comment on what’s going to happen or not. The main elements will be currency and it has had frankly a positive impact on all of the UK-based teams so in that respect that’s good news for us strangely. We have to see long-term how that evolves because that is not a situation that is sustainable. Then we will have to look at the movement of staff, because clearly we need to attract talent from everywhere around the world and we need to make that the UK remains a place that is welcoming talents from wherever they are. We have lots of movement of staff between France and the UK. That’s something we will look at carefully. When it comes to transfer or goods that is something that is not bothering us, in the sense that the engine, if that’s what you are referring to, are actually leased, the ownership is not passed on to the UK entity and that’s the same with all our customers, so VAT should be neutral in that respect. Obviously we have to be careful but when it comes to be contingency plans, no, we don’t really have a plan as we are building new buildings in Enstone in the UK, we don’t really have a plan to move that we are currently building somewhere else. We are still assuming that people will be reasonable and we trust the UK to protect their industry and motorsport is an important industry for the UK.

    TW: Cyril has given us a 360˚ view. There’s nothing to add to that. We are monitoring it. Hopefully it will turn out well. I like to work in the UK and I’d like to continue to work there.

    RF: Unfortunately I’m probably a little bit older than these two and I remember when we used to do it before we had the EU, so it’s not an issues and we still do an awful lot of races today where we still go through an awful lot of compliance issues so I don’t really see it as an issue at all.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) A question for Bob really. Some projected figures came out during the week about FOM payouts to teams for 2017. There are no great surprises but yet again your team, despite finishing fourth, seems to be getting less than half than the top three and less than McLaren even. Just some comments on how you see things panning out with the new owners and whether you see any progress being made on redistribution in the future?

    RF: I think my position on this is pretty clear. I have been very much a strong voice against these type of things for the last couple of years. But I think what we have to do now is support Liberty and the new owners as they are making noises and definitely looking into trying to address both costs and income distribution. Let’s give them an opportunity, the key thing is to support them going forward. The disparities are not acceptable as far as we are concerned, but as I say I think time will tell.

    Q: (Sergio Alvarez – One Magazine) Question for Toto: do you believe the changes in your technical direction may have hindered your understanding of the car? How are you managing the transition in the technical department from Paddy to James Allison?

    TW: There are figureheads that are present in the media: some more, some less, that represent the team – but it’s an organisation of 1,000 people – almost 1,000 people – that run a team and especially in the area of tyres, race delivery, race track engineering, the situation is unchanged. We have a great team that is there, that has been in place for many years, that is looking after these components – and I’m extremely happy with how they’ve tackled the situation until now.

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) This is for all three of you, since Fernando Alonso’s announcement to go to the Indy 500 there’s now a debate created between IndyCar and the comparison to F1 and the differences in terms of show, presentation, and as you Mr Fernley said earlier, the presentation, would you be willing to work in depth with the new owners to make a better show for the viewing audience as well as the fans in attendance that come from all over the world to watch the sport in terms of opening up the paddocks more, making it more accessible for the drivers, making it more accessible for the pits. We saw that they bought down a two-seater car and are giving tours now. Would you be willing to do the same for viewing fans that are coming to the race?

    RF: Having done both IndyCars and Formula One I can speak from a reasonable amount of experience on that. IndyCars is a fantastic show, especially the Indy 500, there’s no question of that. Can we get more access? I think we can. I think we can learn a little bit from IndyCars but overall we are Formula One and we’ve got to keep that identity as well. I think that Liberty understand that. I think they’re working to getting it more inclusive but, on the other hand, keeping it where it needs to be – which is slightly exclusive as well. So it’s a balancing act and I’m sure they’ll do a great job. They have all the expertise to be able to look at that.

    Toto?

    TW: Yes, the Indy 500 is one of the great races and the concept is completely different to what we have. The oval, per se, gives different access and it’s a one-a-year event. If you look at the IndyCar series overall, they’re far away from where we are. Having said that, I think Fernando going to Indy is a great opportunity for him, it’s an opportunity to create some good news around the team again, and they need that, and it has given Formula One more exposure in the US, so overall I think it is a good exercise.

    Cyril?

    CA: Yeah, I would agree that there is definitely lots to learn from other sports. To a certain degree we tend to, y’know, we’re not necessarily all very old but we still spend quite a lot of time in Formula One, so having some people showing us what can done outside – whether it’s new owners, new management but also F1 drivers getting experience outside F1 and returning to Formula One, I think it’s great. We need to constantly benchmark. We are in a competition – not just in Formula One but Formula One is in a competition against other sports properties – whether motorsports or other forms of sports – because that’s where all sponsors, all carmakers, all fans will look. They are benchmarking us, even if they don’t realise they benchmark: they always have multiple choices when it comes to looking at a programme, buying tickets… they cannot follow all the sports so we have to make sure to remain at the top of the offer. And that’s great, to finally have the opportunity of a fresh breathe of new air coming and influencing us – but as mentioned by Bob, we need to keep our identity. I think this exercise will kick off under the influence of all these new sorts of people: what is the core identity of Formula One? That will be an exciting exercise to do, starting with, for instance, engine topics.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Primary question to Toto and then a follow-up question to the other two. Toto, there’s a very strong rumour, or suggestions, that Mercedes-Benz is going to offer some form of technical assistance to Honda. Would you care to comment on that please. And then to the other two, should such a concept of one winning engine manufacturer helping another one, should that be allowed in Formula One.

    TW: At that stage I wouldn’t want to comment.

    You’re not excluding it then?

    TW: I’m not commenting.

    Cyril?

    CA: I cannot comment on a no comment.

    Bob?

    RF: I’ll comment! As a team that’s not only paid for its engines but contributed to the development of them I would certainly be very negative towards sharing that technology with another team that it a competitor of ours.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobild Motorsport) A question to Toto. Is there a possibility or, let me say, how big is the possibility that next year drivers, by example Fernando Alonso or Stoffel Vandoorne, driving a Mercedes engine without moving to your team?

    TW: What are the options? They are driving a Honda engine like it is today and it looks like this is the current situation or different engines. I think it’s important for Formula One… Honda is important for Formula One. It’s a massive and very successful company and I have no doubt they will eventually be where they expect themselves to be. So, I don’t think they are going to drive a Mercedes engine.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) This is for Toto. Bit more lighthearted. You and your fellow Austrian Niki Lauda seem to be the TV face of Mercedes AMG. You’ve known each other a long time. I wonder if ever you’ve ever had any disagreements with him on strategy or whatever – if you could let us in on any of the little disagreements you might have had in the course of your association.

    TW: Well, we’ve been doing that for quite a while. We had a certain period at the beginning of our relationship where we were both thrown into the team, where we needed to find a way of making decisions in a committee and not alone like we’ve both done our whole lives. But since then our relationship has contributed in a good way, I believe. He’s a completely different personality. For me, he’s the personification of pressure – and pressure’s good sometimes. He certainly has a lot of experience and has been around for many years and I enjoy working with him. Niki says he has no friends – but when we won one of the last races, we were on a flight together and in the plane he had an emotional moment and said he hasn’t got any friends – but he has a half-friend now. So I consider myself our-performing some others. He’s somebody that I value and enjoy being around. Disagreements? Permanent disagreements for the benefits of the company. We are able to come into discussions with two different standpoints and walk out with one – and that’s good.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Toto, just building on what Dieter said, in this new open world of disclosing things to the media, which Liberty Media say that they’re in favour of. Can you really not elaborate, in the name of openness, about what you’re doing with Honda? The work that I’m sure many thousands or millions of fans in Formula One would wish to know, which in a sense, strikes me as quite straightforward, to be upfront about the work that you guys might be doing with them in developing their engines.

    TW: I understand your standpoint. We are not doing anything for Honda. That is the current status quo. So, unless that situation changes, I don’t want to contribute to rumours out there, that are false and I think are damaging for Honda and create hardened standpoints from teams or from other stakeholders. We’ll see what happens

  • Watch: Brembo – Spanish GP Hardest Braking Point

    Watch: Brembo – Spanish GP Hardest Braking Point

    The hardest braking point on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is at turn 1. The driver has to slow down around 173 km/h over just 50 meters. The calculated brake energy involved is 2,401 kW. The driver is subjected to 4.8 g, while he pushes with 154 kg onto the brake.
  • Ferrari 2016 Spanish Grand Prix Quotes

    Ferrari 2016 Spanish Grand Prix Quotes

    Ferrari finished the Spanish Grand Prix 2nd and 3rd with Kimi Raikkonen ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Although it was a double podium finish for the team, they ruing the missed opportunity at a race win.

    Sebastian Vettel

    “Today there was a big chance to win the race, so definitely I was attacking to win, that was what I was hoping for. But that lasted up to the point where I came out after the last stop and I realized the advantage I had, with a set of tires that were a couple of laps fresher, over the guys ahead was practically not there.

    We struggled on the Medium tires, where Red Bull was strong, and this is the reason why Kimi and I couldn’t attack, but we were very strong on the Soft tires.

    We decided to split the strategies between the two cars: I went for the three stop strategy, then I tried to attack the leader and I succeeded, but in the end both Daniel and myself came out behind the two stoppers.

    So all in all we were lacking pace, which is something we need to understand.

    There is nothing wrong with our car, it’s good, it works well, and the stuff we brought here seems to work. My congratulations to Verstappen. The first win is one of the best moments you can have, it’s something really special. So ‘chapeau’, Max managed to stay ahead, even if he had a lot of pressure from Kimi”

    Kimi Raikkonen

    “I had a poor start, with massive wheel spin when I released the clutch. I managed to recover some places in the first few corners and then I caught up with Max pretty easily.

    The car was ok and the speed was good, but once you are following another car for many laps this doesn’t help the tires and I was missing a bit of grip and downforce.

    It was a struggle to follow him close, I never really had a good run on him out of the last corner because he was really fast there.

    It’s a bit disappointing when you get that close and you don’t win, but after a difficult weekend we have to be somehow happy for this result.

    As a team we keep working as hard as we can and try to get the wins, we keep fighting and when we have difficult weekends likes this one, we have to keep the fight alive and be up there to score points.

    Max really deserves this win, for me he’s not a surprise. He was doing a very good job already last year and today in a better car he was able to win”.

    Maurizio Arrivabene – Team Principal

    “We must be realistic and accept the fact that, if both Mercedes had been in the race, the result would have been different.

    Today we had an opportunity and we failed to take advantage.

    Even if on track we had a fast car we had to pay a hefty price for the problems we experienced in qualifying and which, on some parts of the circuit, re-surfaced during the course of the race.

    Now we must address these issues and move on from there. Congratulations to Max Verstappen for his maiden Formula One win”.

  • 2016 Spanish Grand Prix:Mercedes F1 Team and Driver Quotes

    2016 Spanish Grand Prix:Mercedes F1 Team and Driver Quotes

    Both Mercedes drivers failed to finish Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix following their opening lap crash. The stewards have decided that no further action will be taken on either of their drivers and have deemed it a racing incident.

    Lewis Hamilton

    “I had a decent start from pole but got slipstreamed on the way to the first corner and lost the lead. Coming out of turn three, I was catching Nico really quickly and went for the gap on the right – I had part of my car alongside but then had to take to the grass.

    The gap was there and, if you’re a racing driver, you go for that gap.

    We saw what happened after that.

    I’m hurt and disappointed for the team most of all because we lost 43 points today. We’re all here working together towards the same result and the team give me the opportunity to race with the work they do.

    When I came to a stop in the gravel trap, all I could think about was how gutted I was for the team – that’s where I feel the pain. But we will move on together and come back stronger in Monaco.”

    Nico Rosberg

    “I had a great start and I was ecstatic after passing Lewis around the outside of turn one. At that point, it was my race to win.

    I came out of turn three and realised I was down on power with the wrong mode selected due to the engine mode switch being in the incorrect position.

    Lewis was closing in, so I decided to make a clear move to the right hand side as soon as possible, to close the door and show him that wasn’t an option. I was very surprised that Lewis went for the inside anyway. The next thing I knew, we were in the gravel trap.

    I’m gutted, not just for myself but for the whole team, it’s the worst feeling as a driver.”

    Toto Wolff – Head of Mercedes Benz Motorsport

    “After all the hard work we’ve put in over the past two weeks it’s deeply disappointing to come away with no points, but in my opinion this was a racing incident, with the drivers racing for position, and I don’t want to start blaming one or the other.

    Both Lewis and Nico are upset and we talked with them, looking at the pictures and the data, to determine exactly what happened.

    By letting the drivers race as we do, this kind of eventuality can happen but we won’t change our approach – we owe it to Formula One and the fans to let them race.

    But today, it was the work of the whole team that finished in the gravel trap, and this isn’t what we want to see happen – both of the boys know how much hard work goes into each race weekend and that they have the responsibility to bring that home.

    We have matured as a team over the past years, so we will be able to move on from this and, hopefully, fight back in a positive way in Monaco. I want to add a word for Max, too; on a bad day for us, he sprinkled a bit of magic on the sport, so big congratulations to him on what I’m sure is only the first of his Grand Prix wins.”

    Paddy Lowe – Executive Director Technical

    “First of all, congratulations to Max Verstappen. It’s a tremendous story for Formula One.

    It was a very short race for us today and it was a huge disappointment for the team, especially to lose both cars in such dramatic fashion.

    It’s hard to take, especially given the amount of hard work prior to this weekend to solve a number of reliability risks and to bring the level of performance to the car that was witnessed in qualifying.

    It was a dominant front-row lockout and we were looking forward to a great race.

    We pride ourselves on allowing both our drivers to race, and race to the limit and that involves some tough manoeuvres from both Lewis and Nico and they sometimes won’t work out as we saw today.

    The stewards have ruled for no further action against either of our drivers. Most importantly we head to Monaco stronger and in better shape to continue in our quest for the 2016 Championships.”

     

    Photo credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1

  • FIA post-race press conference – Spanish Grand Prix

    FIA post-race press conference – Spanish Grand Prix

    Full transcript of the post-race press conference following the Spanish Grand Prix.

    Drivers: 1 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2 – Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 3 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari).

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Placido Domingo)

    Q: Max Verstappen, of course you are aware that you are the youngest winner ever in Formula One. How does it feel?

    Max Verstappen: It feels amazing. I can’t believe it. It was a great race. I have to say thank you to the team to give me such a great car to win straight away in the first race – amazing feeling!

    Q: Your father must be so proud of you?

    MV: I think so. From a very young age my Dad helped me a lot and to achieve this – amazing.

    Q: This is amazing. Just to change from the Toro Rosso to the Red Bull in this week and to win and oh my God, just having behind you someone who is known to be really persistent, like Mr Raikkonen? [Kimi] How do you feel having just a young pilot, like you were at the beginning of your career?

    Kimi Raikkonen: No, obviously I’m happy for Max but disappointed for myself, but that’s racing. We have our best today after quite a difficult day yesterday and then a pretty poor start. We tried and tried. I was fast but once I got close I could not follow close enough through the last corners and losing downforce behind. I tried and tried but it wasn’t enough today. I think after yesterday we would have been happy to take second and third but obviously we got so close today that it’s even more disappointing, but that’s part of racing and at least we scored good points for the team.

    Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen & Sebastian VettelQ: It was unbelievable to have four drivers fighting for it until the very last turn. Sebastian, you are well deserved the third place. Just one question: of course you have been champion four times with the Red Bull and today having the Red Bulls recovering and also the Ferrari, in a way it’s growing. It’s wonderful. It’s a pity we have the Mercedes gone in the first round but it shows how much excitement the cars being equal could happen with the great drivers.

    Sebastian Vettel: I think first of all, many congratulations to Max, it’s a great achievement and in the end it’s his day. For sure, for us we would have loved to be a little bit closer and in front but we tried everything. We tried with strategy but it didn’t quite work today. Nevertheless, I think it’s a great effort from the team after a not so good day yesterday to come back and recover. But as I said, it’s Max’s day and as a sportsman I think we have to respect that, so well done again to him and to the team.

    SPANISH GRAND PRIX PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Max, the reception said it all and Sebastian just said it: it’s very much your day. Just sum up your emotions, as an 18-year-old, winning your first ever Formula One grand prix?

    MV: It’s amazing. I mean, this race felt like an endurance race to me, especially the last 10 laps. I couldn’t believe that I was leading the race. And yeah, today just everything went well. I could hold on to the tyres and I think we did the best strategy possible and yeah, unbelievable, I can’t believe it.

    Q: Max, youngest ever winner of course of a Formula One grand prix race. So many questions. Obviously the strategy came towards you after Sebastian pulled your team-mate into a different kind of tactic. Nevertheless, you had to remain very calm under sustained pressure from Kimi Raikkonen on your right there. What’s the most surprising aspect of this win for you, or is it not a surprise to you?

    MV: It is a very big surprise. Of course I didn’t expect that. On the first stint on the soft I could keep up quite well after the two Mercedes crashed. But at one point, if you are so close behind the first you start to destroy your tyres so yeah I lost a bit of ground there and we decided to pit and again there, when we went onto the medium tyre, the car felt great. From there on I was just managing my speed, my tyres; I was just managing everything. At the end I think we did the best strategy possible. Especially in the last stint I got quite a bit of pressure from Kimi behind, but on this track it’s quite difficult to overtake so for me it was a case of not making mistakes, no front locking, so that’s what I tried to do and it worked. This feeling to be first… I was targeting a podium but then to win straight away, it’s an amazing feeling.

    Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen & Kimi RaikkonenQ: Coming to you Kimi, second today and second in the championship. Swings and roundabouts for you: the start cost you but then the strategy came towards you. Youngest driver in the field against the oldest, what were you thinking in the final laps?

    KR: yeah, I had a poor start. When I released the clutch I got wheelspin and it’s impossible to recover from the first part of wheelpsin when that happens. Luckily, I managed to go around the people in Turn Three and I didn’t lose too badly. It could have been an awful lot more worse. I think speed-wise it was pretty OK. I was able to catch the three guys in front of me. But in the end when I got to Max, I got close but I could not follow close enough or get a good enough exit in the last corner because I was close and obviously I gave quite a hard time to my tyres to following him for so many laps. It’s disappointing not to win but after yesterday and after a bad start I take what we got today and especially for Ferrari as we quite a good points today with two cars. It’s going forward, not what we want, but I’m happy for him [Max]. We all know he is a good driver and he’s in a good team now. When it comes to youngest and oldest, it happens to be like that. I raced against his father. That actually sounds even more scary. In F1! That’s how it goes.

    Q: Fantastic, thank you very much. Sebastian, you were behind the two Red Bulls, you needed to do something different, so you threw the dice on the strategy with three stops. But it turned out for both of you not to be the fastest way today and then you had a real ding-dong with him in the closing stages of the grand prix?

    SV: Yeah, it was an interesting race. Obviously we tried everything. We tried to get ahead. In the end I think we were surprised at how superior the two-stop was, but yeah, from their point of view, they tried to cover as much as they can. They tried to cover with the lead car, which made sense, but I think you could see for both of us, Daniel and myself, that the three-stop wasn’t really superior. Then I had an interesting race trying to hold him off. They were quite competitive on the medium tyres. Bit quicker than us in the last sector, so bit difficult to hold him off. Once it was very hairy, it was quite close into Turn One, if I didn’t open up we just crash. In that instant for sure I was on fire and complaining, because if I don’t play according to his move there is a crash. Then again it is racing and I can see that he is trying the one chance he had. I had a bad exit and he has to go for it. In the end I have raced him many times and it’s always good fun. It was very entertaining for me trying to hold onto it, trying to hold onto the podium, so I’m very happy I made it. Obviously it took the tension away when he had the puncture in the last two laps, I don’t what happened there. But all in all, high hopes after Turn Four for all of us to have a go and win the race. We tried everything. We split the cars. Obviously on my side it was in hindsight probably the worst strategy, but you know, all this talk doesn’t matter now. Max won the race. I can just pass my congratulations. It’s very special to win your first race and it’s his day. He deserves it. He did a great race. I saw those two fighting a little bit in front of us two fighting, so well done.

    Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg crashQ: Final thought, did you have a good view of the accident between the two Mercedes and your thoughts?

    SV: Not really, I was just losing track position to him [Max] in Turn Three. I think I probably took the wrong line. I think I was behind Daniel. I got a lot of understeer, lost a lot of downforce following him so close and Max did a good job, going on the outside, clean bit track, go the clean air and just used it to pass me so well done to him. As a consequence I lost also position in Turn Four to Carlos, but I couldn’t see what really happened. I just saw two silver or grey cars crashing into each other.

    Q: Did you see it [Max]?

    MV: I just saw one car going onto the grass and as soon as you go onto the grass and you spin, then you can’t do anything. I think it was Lewis unfortunately, he spun and hit Nico but I don’t know why he got into the grass.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX PRESS FLOOR

    Q: (Christopher Joseph – Chicane) Question for Sebastian. I spoke earlier with Jackie Stewart about the need for mind management and controlling your emotions when racing. Just wondered how you approached that in today’s race and in general at different phases of the race – whether you’re challenging, holding someone off, chasing etcetera, etcetera.

    SV: I think as the race panned out, start, I had a very good start, very good traction straight away. I was basically P4 into the first corner then, as I said, just lost out to Max and then Carlos. But at the point was trying to attack and make progress. We all benefitted from the two cars crashing ahead. Then I tried to… yeah, I know we’re quicker than the Red Bulls, I tried to pace myself catching up, once I got past Carlos, so the mindset was, y’know, you have 60-odd laps, whether you win or whether you gain or lose a second here or there doesn’t matter now. It’s 66-laps that matter from now onwards. But I think, as I said, strategy obviously, with hindsight we decided the wrong way but we had to try, going into the lead, trying to put the leader at that time under pressure, which was Daniel and, yeah, in terms of mindset obviously there’s various stages where you attack and where you have to, sort of, control. Once I was starting the last stint on the medium tyres I felt after a couple of laps that I wasn’t really that much quicker than the two cars ahead so I could figure out myself that the degradation wasn’t huge of the medium tyres. Overall I think for us we struggled a bit more compared to the Red Bull on this compound. So I sort of focussed on what was going on behind. I knew that Daniel would come at some point because he’s got a fresher set of tyres. I was able to hold him off, which was the most important, which… yeah, was all I could do at that stage: trying to defend the podium. The gap to the cars ahead was a bit too bit to attack and close it because there were practically at the same speed.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Seb, you had just mentioned the last stint, did you have a problem because initially you caught up quite quickly on the first two but then quite early the lap times were the same?

    SV: In all honestly, first lap I felt really good and then I think we just struggled on the medium compound. I think the whole afternoon that was the slower tyre for us. I think I said it on the radio, so it was probably broadcast, I don’t know but I think in all fairness we were quicker than the Red Bulls on the softs, around half a second and then on the mediums probably the same pace. Not enough to really create something, as you could see in the second stint already. I was closing – but I wasn’t really able to really put Max under pressure. Yeah. So, obviously it was difficult at that point. Then we tried to go a different route with the three-stop. On the soft again I was able to close after no so successful pitstop, close the gap to Daniel fairly quickly I would say, with around about half a second per lap but overall there was the difference on the medium tyre which today for us didn’t quite work, and that’s what we spent most of the race on, so… yeah, something for us to understand and to learn.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, is this the closest to winning in your last 59 races without victory? How does it feel to be second in the Championship after three years?

    KR: I think first of all it’s always disappointing when you don’t win. But when you get close, this close, and still don’t win, it’s more hard to accept. The others did a better job, we had quite a difficult weekend. Like I said earlier, after yesterday if it had been offered, second and third, we’d happily take it – but whatever happened in the first lap with Mercedes and all the rest, getting there, having the speed but not being able to really challenge or try to pass, it was not ideal but I’ll take the points and we go for the next race and try again. At least as a team, as Ferrari, we got some points back on Mercedes and as drivers we got some points back. So we have to be happy, even though we always want more and we want to put the Ferrari where it belongs on the top step.

    Spanish Grand Prix, podiumQ: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Max, congratulations, brilliant win for you. In the closing stages of the grand prix, grip was at a premium, as you said, and massive pressure from Kimi. Can you give us some idea of how you split your time in terms of driving the car and looking in the mirrors – or perhaps not looking in the mirrors?

    MV: As soon as we pitted I knew we were going to the end. So the first few laps, I didn’t really push. I knew the Ferrari was a bit faster than us today but I just let him catch up and then you’re just controlling the gap. Of course sometimes he got DRS so using a bit to stay ahead. It worked well until eight laps from the end. We were also catching some traffic and then it was all about managing the last sector really; not to slide too much and get a good exit out of the chicane. Yeah, you’re looking a bit in the mirrors but yeah… always.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) When you started as a test driver it was said you were too young for Formula One. Is this an answer to those comments?

    MV: To be honest, I’m not here for that. I’m enjoying it. I’m trying to do my best and today that was first. That was just a great feeling.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Seb, both you and Kimi had a particularly good opportunity to study the performance of the Red Bulls today. I wonder whether you can tell me, and perhaps Mr Marchionne, exactly where Ferrari needs to improve to be in front of the Red Bulls.

    SV: Should you become president in the next week I will tell you for sure but I don’t know your chances to be honest. I am sure we will tell him. At the end of the day there is no big secrets to hide. I think I’ve said it already. I think we were quicker today, we know that we’re quicker, but we didn’t win today. Overall they did a better job. Congrats to Red Bull, congrats to Max in particular. They did everything right. I think I’ve said it, on the medium tyre we didn’t feel as – at least on my side – didn’t feel as happy, even if I had an advantage… I don’t know how much earlier these guys stopped but I had a fresher set of tyres and then Daniel again had a fresher set of tyres but you could see even with a fresher set it wasn’t straightforward to overtake and just use the pace. Plus, I think, as I said, for us on the medium tyre we struggled a bit more. I had a bit more oversteer, challenge to keep the rear calm, challenge to get on power, use the exits and as where Red Bull were stronger today, the last sector, the nature of the last sector, in that regard favoured them, which allowed Daniel to be quite close all the time and, I guess, vice versa which allowed Max to always open up a bit which made it harder for Kimi.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) To Max. You did your second pitstop on lap 34. You have 32 laps ahead. Did you have an indication it could be possible go until the end and mainly to keep the pace in the final part of the race because some drivers would be on fresh tyres at that stage?

    MV: To be honest I knew it was going to be very hard but from there on you know you have to set your mind and try to control the tyres, especially the first ten laps. Of course you are not pushing hard on them, you are just controlling it and I have to tell you, the last ten laps, you are driving on ice. It’s like driving on ice. Sliding a lot but it’s all about managing the last sector and get a good exit. I think that’s how a lot of races are won here in Barcelona.

    Q: (Giorgio Terruzzi – Corriere della Sera) Max, who helped you more, yourself, your father, Dr Marko? I’m asking in which way they helped you.

    MV: I think from when I was four until 16, I think it was mainly my Dad.

    SV: What happened in the first four years?

    MV: I was just living.

    SV: Your mother…

    MV: Yeah, my Mum did a lot of work there, yeah. In the end she brought me into the world so… she did a very good job. Yeah, from there, from 16 onwards I think it was a bit of a combination: my Dad, Dr Marko of course. They gave me the opportunity to get into Formula One so it’s great. From there on, you get prepared, physically prepared, you get a great chance at Toro Rosso and then they moved me up to Red Bull, so I think it’s a bit of a combination.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sports) Max, now at your first Formula One Grand Prix victory, Sebastian and Kimi are sharing the podium with you, but can you remember what you were doing and where were you when they won their first F1 Grands Prix?

    MV: (To Sebastian) When was yours? 2008? Monza. Probably I was go-karting, yeah, somewhere, having fun. Yours?

    KR: 2003.

    MV: I was six years old so I can’t remember. I don’t know

    SV: Got picked up from the kindergarten.

    MV: Yeah, probably.

    Spanish Grand Prix, podiumQ: (Frank Woestenburg – De Telegraaf) Max, can you tell us a little bit about your emotions during the last lap and just after the race, what kind of things were you thinking?

    MV: To be honest, I think on the last lap I got a bit of cramp. I was getting very excited. I couldn’t believe it. I was looking up to the big boards, I saw my name, first, with ten laps to go. OK, I was already first before but then I started to watch the board. I was just thinking to myself, don’t look at it any more and focus on the tyres and bring it home and that’s what we did. A great feeling. I absolutely didn’t expect this.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Max, congratulations, you’re so young that probably you’re racing with your heroes on the grid, so I would like you to tell us about that, who are your racing heroes and you can also mention from the history that you watch on old videos or history or something like that?

    MV: To be honest, I don’t really have racing heroes. You have respect for each other and I think also you have respect for what other people have achieved in their careers. Winning a race is one thing but to win a championship is another thing. We have a lot of respect for each other.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian…

    SV: Are you sure it’s not for Kimi? I just said to Max earlier that there’s a 99.9 percent chance that the question will always go to Kimi, so I feel quite honoured actually. Thank you.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) You have said many times that you don’t care that much about getting those records. Does it feel any different now when you seem to lose them?

    SV: Not really. I think records are there to be broken so I was very excited when I achieved that (being the youngest winner) but in the end I think it’s the day that matters and today I tried to win, I didn’t try to… having the mindset when I saw Max was in the lead to hold him off. I was hoping at some point to see a caravan trailing his car and the yellow number plates, but unfortunately we weren’t on the autobahn so… I thought that this would slow him down but he didn’t stop and pick up a caravan after the pit stop. I guess he was quite smart to say ‘no guys, no caravan yet’.

    MV: Does the Ferrari have a hook on the back?

    SV: No, you have. I think you have a thing sticking out. No, I think again, records are there to be broken. I was so excited when I won my first race that I didn’t care if I was twenty or 25 or whatever age, and I think the answer to the question earlier, that Max had to answer about his age, I don’t think it matters. If you’re quick enough you belong here and then as soon as you are you belong here and as long as you are you belong here so I don’t think it matters whether you’re 18 or… I think Michael kept racing until he was 43? I met Stirling Moss a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately he only raced until his thirties but I think he was there to race until his fifties. Obviously cars these days are a bit easier to drive than when I started but still I think there’s nothing that speaks against… I don’t know how old Kimi is actually but 35 year old to keep fit and to drive these cars if you’re still quick enough, you’re still young enough, so that’s the bottom line.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Max, congratulations, I would like to know if you have already talked with your father, what did he tell you in this case and your hopes or your opinion for the next Grand Prix in Monte Carlo?

    MV: No, I haven’t seen my Dad yet but I think he’s happy. For the next race, to be honest, I don’t know. I’m still learning the car. Before I got into the car, I didn’t even have a hole for my drink tube. I still had to make it. We’ll see. I think our car will be good on a street circuit so I’m definitely looking forward to that and it will be a great feeling to start there in FP1 that’s for sure.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Sebastian and Kimi, when you did your pit stops did you expect that maybe Max could make another pit stop or did you think he was going to the end of the grand prix, to the chequered flag?

    SV: I think I wasn’t worried about Max at that point, I was trying to attack the leader of the race which was Daniel, so I think at that point I was obviously going onto the soft tyre. I committed to a three stop, Max then obviously – or Red Bull – had the opportunity to split their cars, they tried to cover with Daniel and obviously do the opposite with Max. As it panned out, obviously that was the quickest strategy but again, that was the race, everybody had the same chances when the lights went off so in the end Max and his team did the best job, crossing the line first. That’s how simple the rules are. With hindsight you’re always smart, you could have done this, could have done that but I think on our side we tried everything. On my side we tried everything, I guess on Kimi’s side so yeah, not much more to say.

    KR: It was for both of us. I knew that he was going to the end so basically it was the same for me. Not much to really say.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Max, do you think the performance of Red Bull is also related to this track or the engine is not so so important or the chassis, and we can see Red Bull in the next rounds of the championship as strong as here?

    MV: For me, I think this track in general with this car suits us a bit better but still you want more and more power and soon I think we will get some more power, so that’s very positive, but I think a street circuit will be even better for us, but let’s wait and see. We have to wait until we have driven there.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) This is a question for Sebastian on the three stop strategy. Did you go back onto the mediums at the end because the soft was not what you thought it would be, or was that the strategy that you actually wanted to run, and could you even have run another second set of softs? Would that have been an option?

    SV: I don’t know if we actually had another one, probably we had but honestly at that point, when we went for the undercut to get ahead of Daniel which we did, it was thirty-odd laps to go and I tried to squeeze even another extra lap by staying out and thirty laps on the medium I think was tight. Thirty-odd laps on the softs I guess was impossible to be honest, so even if we had another one, which I’m not sure we had, we would not have made it so yeah, how do you outweigh to jump into the pits early to get ahead, to get track position and then to probably go on the set that is the least preferred but also was a new set versus a scrubbed one, so I think it was fairly clear what we…

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) But did the softs go off sooner than you thought?

    SV: No, they were holding on longer than I thought, to be honest, so I was much happier on the softs. I think you saw in the first stint that once I cleared Carlos I was quicker. I caught up and on the third stint we had a bit of a messy stop, we lost a bit and Daniel was six seconds down the road and within a couple of laps we closed up and as soon as we were close enough, obviously then it was who dares jump into the pits first, knowing that you will only stretch your final stint but at that point we had already committed to a three stop.

  • Penalty for Magnussen Following His Contact with Team Mate

    Penalty for Magnussen Following His Contact with Team Mate

    Renault’s Kevin Magnussen was given a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points on his license after his Turn 13 incident with team-mate Jolyon Palmer.

    Magnussen made contact with Palmer on the final lap of the race while attempting a pass at Turn 13 for 13th position. While Magnussen was on the soft tyres and had more grip the stewards deemed that Magnussen would have not made the corner and resulted in forcing Palmer wide.

    “Car 20(Magnussen) was on a new set of soft tyres, and Car 30(Palmer) was on an older set of hard tyres leading the driver of Car 20 to have significantly better grip and speed,” said the stewards in a statement

    “However, the Stewards determined that Car 20 could not have reasonably expected to make the corner of Turn 13 without colliding with Car 30, which was subsequently forced off the track.

    “The Stewards imposed the penalty referred to, which was converted to a time penalty after the race as the cars were on the last lap.”

     

    Photo credit: Renault Sport Formula 1 Team

  • No Further Action By Stewards on Rosberg-Hamilton Incident

    No Further Action By Stewards on Rosberg-Hamilton Incident

    Following the first lap crash which saw both Mercedes cars out of the Spanish Grand Prix. The stewards have decided that no further action will be taken on either Nico Rosberg or Lewis Hamilton.

    The crash happened before Turn 4 on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix after Nico Rosberg took the lead from pole sitter Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1. Both Rosberg and Hamilton had good starts off the line but Rosberg had the advantage through Turn 1 as he swept around the outside and took the lead of the race.

    Around Turn 3 Rosberg’s car started to de-rate. Which meant his car was harvesting energy halfway through the corner. This also meant, according to Hamilton, that Rosberg was 180HP down on power around Turn 3. Hamilton saw this happen and took advantage of the situation and dived for the inside line on the run to Turn 4. Rosberg meanwhile, noticed the incorrect engine mapping and changed it mid corner and then moved to defend his line into Turn 4. This move then squeezed Hamilton off the track and onto the grass which sent Hamilton’s car into a spin. He then made contact with Rosberg who was braking for Turn 4 and resulted in both Mercedes out of the race and promoted Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo into the lead.

    The pair were summoned to the stewards after the race where they decided that “neither driver was wholly or predominantly at fault.” No further action was taken.

    “The incident concerned started when Car 6 dropped into an incorrect power mode, as set by the driver prior to the start,” read a statement by the stewards

    “This created a significant power differential between Car 6 and Car 44 at the exit of Turn 3 coming onto the straight, resulting in as much as a 17kph speed difference between the two cars on the straight.

    “Car 6 moved to the right to defend his position, as is his right under Art 27.7 of the Sporting regulations

    “Simultaneously Car 44 as the significantly faster car with, at that time, apparent space on the inside, moved to make the pass. Art 27.7 requires the leading driver to leave room, if there is a “significant portion” of the car attempting to pass alongside.

    “Car 44 had a portion of his front wing inside Car 6 small fractions of a second prior to Car 44 having to leave the right side of the track to avoid an initial collision, which may have led him to believe he had the right to space on the right

    “Once on the grass on the side of the track Car 44 was no longer in control of the situation.

    “Having heard extensively from both drivers and from the team, the Stewards determined that Car 6 had the right to make the maneuver that he did and that Car 44’s attempt to overtake was reasonable, and that the convergence of events led neither driver to be wholly or predominantly at fault, and therefore take no further action.”

  • Force India 2016 Spanish Grand Prix Quotes

    Force India 2016 Spanish Grand Prix Quotes

    Force India scored six points in today’s Spanish Grand Prix with Sergio Perez racing to seventh place. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg was an early retirement following an oil leak and fire.

    Sergio Perez

    “It was a very good race and I think we managed to get the maximum result we could hope to achieve today. We were able to keep some very fast cars behind us and we capitalised on the accident on the first lap [between Hamilton and Rosberg] to bring home a good amount of points. I had to fend off Felipe [Massa] in the last three laps: I was on very old tyres and he was closing in on me, but I managed to defend my position. This was pretty much the only action I had all afternoon; the rest of my race was quite lonely, which helped me look after the tyres and allowed me to defend in the final few laps. We had a good strategy that helped us leapfrog the Haas and brought us this good result on a track that has never been our strongest.”

    Nico Hulkenberg

     “It’s frustrating not to finish another race. I saw some smoke coming from the back of my car and then it developed into a fire so I had to park quickly at the side of the track. It’s a shame because I missed the chance to fight for points and we also missed out on learning more about the car in race conditions. Sometimes in racing you have periods when things don’t go your way, but you have to keep the faith and believe that sooner or later your luck will change. There are also some positives to take away from this weekend because we’ve made progress with the car and I think the performance will continue to improve. So we will keep working hard and come back stronger at the next one.”

    Robert Fernley – Deputy Team Principal 

    “It’s been quite an eventful weekend for us, so it’s fairly satisfying to be leaving Barcelona with six points in our pocket. We made a good step with the car, allowing Sergio to run solidly inside the top ten all afternoon. It’s a track with limited strategy options and few overtaking opportunities so it was quite a lonely and straightforward race for him. On the other side of the garage, Nico was out of luck with an oil leak causing a fire and forcing an early retirement. Thankfully Nico was able to park up and helped the marshals extinguish the fire. So it’s been another mixed weekend, but I think our improved performance bodes well for the remainder of the season. As we learn more about this car we have the potential to continue scoring good points at the upcoming races.”

     

    -Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team