F1 Madness

Tag: toro rosso

  • F1 2014: Sochi Success For Hamilton

    F1 2014: Sochi Success For Hamilton

    The most exciting thing about the first ever Russian Grand Prix was … nothing. If truth be told the only moment that induced  any sort of eyebrow-raising was a 60 meter lock-up by Nico Rosberg as he tried to steal the lead of the race from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

    Other than Rosberg’s rather frantic attempt at getting ahead, the Sochi Autodrom turned out to be a bit of damp squib. The layout, once again designed by Hermann Tilke, provided a technical challenge to drivers when it came to stringing a perfect lap together but as far as the track surface is concerned it most definitely did not want to play ball with Formula 1. Pirelli had the difficult task of predicting what the track surface would offer up and based their decision on how other new tracks had performed. While keeping this in mind it is difficult to blame the Italian tyre manufacturer for bringing tyres to Russia which are almost literally bulletproof.

    russian-gp-start-rosbergSo indestructible were the Pirelli’s that Nico Rosberg, forced to pit on lap 1 with severely flat-spotted tyres, was able to run a 52 lap stint on one set of tyres. It wasn’t a gigantic risk nor was Rosberg, at any point, required to tip-toe around and nurse his tyres. No, he was able to push and for most of the stint set a pace comparable,  and sometimes even quicker, than the race leader.

    We commend thee Pirelli for producing the world’s first everlasting F1 tyre. But we implore you to chalk this up to a frightening one-off incident that should never again be repeated.

    Saturday’s qualifying certainly provided more entertainment as Williams’ star Finn Valtteri Bottas nearly snatched pole position from Lewis Hamilton’s grasp. It wasn’t to be for the Williams driver but he put himself in the best position possible to fight for a podium finish.

    The early part of the race and the Finn’s pace suggested that he could perhaps have a go at the leading Mercedes. But this too fizzled out towards the middle part of race as Hamilton started steadily building the gap to the Williams. Bottas eventually finished third and set the fastest lap of the race.

    Jenson Button followed through on the pace McLaren had promised in the free practice sessions with a fine fourth place finish. It was a lonely drive for the Brit who ran as high as third during the opening stint of the race. The second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen recovering from a five place grid penalty induced by a gearbox change,

    Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished an uninspired sixth and remained as coy as ever as to his future in the sport. Many have already plopped theLewis Hamilton Sochi 2014 Spaniard into a McLaren seat for 2015 but Sky’s Ted Kravitz hinted, post-race, that the double champ could be off to Lotus.

    Daniel Ricciardo did his level best to get past the Ferrari of Alonso but ultimately could do nothing about it and finished ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel in seventh.

    Kimi Raikkonen spent most of the 53 laps embroiled in scrap with the two Toro Rosso drivers but eventually got the better of them and finished a distant ninth. Sergio Perez nearly cut it too close on fuel consumption but held on to bring the Force India home in tenth.

    Felipe Massa attempted an aggressive two-stop strategy but never quite recovered from a technical issue in qualifying; the Brazilian finished eleventh.Only Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi and Marussia’s Max Chilton failed to see the chequered flag. As a sign of respect to Jules Bianchi the Marussia team chose to run only one car this weekend.

    The Russian Grand Prix most probably didn’t even register a blip on the thrill meter. But it did give us another bit of insight into the title fight. Now that Mercedes has been crowned worthy Constructor’s champions it leaves a straight-up fight for the driver’s crown. Rosberg’s crack at snatching the lead was a tad anxious. Still the German has not beaten Hamilton on a level playing field. We’ve talked a lot about the psychological battle between these two. Is it now finally starting to tell on Nico Rosberg?

     

  • 2014 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2014 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    Drivers:

    Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

    Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso)

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Adrian SUTIL (Sauber)

    Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: It’s just five days since we were in Suzuka, I would just like to hear your views on the events of last weekend – starting with Fernando.

    Fernando ALONSO: I think it was a very tough race. Obviously all of our thoughts are with Jules. All of our minds are there because we have huge respect for our work but when there are big accidents there are no words to describe – but you can feel. As I said, it was a tough weekend and right now we are here, a difficult weekend again. Emotionally very difficult. Ready to race, to race for him, being as professional as we can but definitely our minds, or my mind, is with him in this moment, praying for him.

    Adrian.

    Adrian SUTIL: So hard to say in words. Of course, very shocking moment for everyone, for myself. Nothing really to say about anything. Probably everyone has seen it. It’s just… we have to pray right now. This is all we can do. We can hope that we get some better news. It’s just that we are now here in Sochi, a grey cloud over us but try to be professional enough, more professional and focus on the race weekend again and also good to get rid a little bit of this mood but still it affects everyone. My thoughts are the same. Pray for the best and race for him.

    Felipe.

    Felipe MASSA: For me I think it was the worst race of my life. It’s a really bad race, worse than the race of my accident – because I didn’t remember. It was the worst race of my life. Yeah. It’s so difficult to be everyday because I can just be thinking about him, thinking about Jules. It’s a very difficult weekend for all of us. Maybe tomorrow it will get a little bit better because at least you are working, at least you have something to think about, some issue put inside your brain. Try to race and do the best we can for him, for his family. But anyway, it was the worse race of my life.

    Daniil.

    Daniil KVYAT: Obviously it is a shock for me as well. Wouldn’t expect to hear quite negative news after the race finished. All I can wish now is that we can hear better news, positive news about Jules. I really wish him to recover, it’s the only thing that matters. Nothing like this has happened for a long time and we all hope, here in Formula One that the health to Jules. I’m thinking of him very often, like all of us. We’re all united to support him. I run out of words so I stop here.

    Jenson.

    Jenson BUTTON: I think, listening to everyone, I think we all echo the opinions of the guys sat here so far. It’s a very horrible feeling knowing what one of your fellow drivers went through and is going through. I think the only thing to say, and the most important thing is that we wish him well and our thoughts are with him. I think we all feel the same in the Formula One world.

    You’re a council member on the GPDA and so are you Sebastian. What lessons can be learned, do you think?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I think first of all you need to see that it was an extremely difficult race for all of us. I think I join on what the other drivers said, in terms of how difficult, it is probably the most difficult race to digest so far. But I think difficult conditions, leaving a very, very small margin for error. Obviously for Jules at that time it was too small. On top of that, very unlucky circumstances led to a catastrophe really. I think at this stage, for of all, all of our thoughts are will Jules, with his family, and we wish him all the strength that we can send. About the accident, I think it is very difficult. Obviously there is a lot of stuff going on now but surely if something happens there is always the chance to learn something for next time and avoid these things happening. Also, you need to understand that the cars we race, the speeds we travel, yeah, accidents can happen. But obviously, as I said, extremely unlucky circumstances led to much more than the usual type of crash that you see when you lose control of the car.

    Q: Daniil, we move on to this weekend. I suspect a very proud moment for you. Tell us your feelings when you come into your first home grand prix and our first Russian Grand Prix.

    DK: Quite mixed feelings as you see here the atmosphere and all our thoughts are still about Japan. So, I think it will be like this for a while. Another side of course, it’s my home grand prix. I’m pleased to see what I see here. Big structures, big track and I think around ten years ago, when I was starting my career, we couldn’t have even dreamed about this. And not this thing becoming reality. So, obviously it’s a special moment for me and the first time racing in Russia. In the end it’s our work and we carry on doing  what we’ve been doing for such a long time.

    Q: For the rest of you, can I just have your general impressions of the country, if you wish to, and the circuit as well.

    AS: It was a positive surprise, or a positive experience when I got here. Flew over Moscow but already went in there without problem. They really welcomed us into the country. I haven’t seen so much – straight into the hotel, the hotel is very big but incredible what they’ve built around there. The infrastructure is really good, the track looks very modern and interesting to drive. I haven’t even walked the circuit yet, I will do it after. Of course there is not so much information about the circuit for me and for our team because we have no simulator – so it will be the first time for us, driving on Friday morning. Exciting to have a new circuit, a new country on the calendar. Hopefully it will be a nice weekend with a lot of fans coming and making a good atmosphere. So yeah, pretty good so far. Looking forward to it.

    Felipe?

    Felipe Massa_Press ConferenceFM: I agree totally with Adrian. It was nice to be here, I think it is a nice circuit, the infrastructure is pretty good so yeah, I think what I’ve seen until now is pretty positive. I hope we can have a nice race for these guys, these fans. So yeah, tomorrow we’ll have a better idea how is the track but it looks pretty OK, pretty interesting. Hope we can have a good weekend, good first weekend and first impression for all these Russian people and fans. Hope they enjoy the first race of Formula One here.

    Sebastian, what are your thoughts on the major factors needed around the circuit. I assume you’ve been around the circuit.

    SV: Yeah, I have. Also I’ve been here a couple of weeks ago for promotional activity with Infiniti. I had the opportunity to take a car around and have a look at the track. I think it’s a difficult one to find the right compromise. Obviously you have a lot of corners but also you do have a lot of long straights. Especially the start-finish straight is very long. You definitely need some speed down the straights but overall it looks like an interesting track. A lot of 90° corners, especially I think two and three will be an interesting challenge. Generally obviously it’s a unique feeling to drive around in an Olympic Park. So, obviously as has been touched on before, a bit of a shadow going into the weekend due to the events last weekend but for sure it is very exciting to have the first Russian Grand Prix and great to be part of that very first grand prix here.

    Fernando?

    FA: I share all the comments. I think it’s always a nice feeling when you arrive into a new circuit because it’s a new challenge. For everyone: for engineers, for drivers, for teams, etcetera. The other side, the feelings are there, especially for our team, which has been very close to Jules all the career, it’s an especially tough weekend. We have to be professional, we have to be working in the best way, just to race for him because we need to show we are a strong team – but it’s going to be tough.

    Jenson, your feelings about the circuit. Presumably you’ve driven it on the simulator, have you been around and had a look at it?

    JB: Yeah, I’ve done a few laps on the simulator. I haven’t walked around circuit yet, I’m going to do that in a couple of hours. I think we all look forward to a new challenge and this is definitely a new challenge. I think the most important thing this weekend in terms of the grand prix is that we put on a good show. It always is. The first year of a new circuit, hopefully we’ll have full grandstands and a good fight out on the circuit. So that’s what we’re hoping for.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Gentlemen, you’re obviously all aware of the inherent risks of motor racing but partly that’s why you love Formula One. Is there any part of you, going into this weekend, that makes you reconsider taking part in this sport after what happened on Sunday? That’s for all drivers. Felipe, I can see that you’re the most cut up about this. After your accident maybe you could start with this as well please?

    FM: Well, for sure you think about it, but it doesn’t mean that’s the right thing to do. What I love to do is to race. What I love to do is to be competing. That’s where I feel happiness. That’s where I feel pleasure. We know that in what we’re doing we have a risk in this sport, but I think it’s what I like to do. It’s where I really feel happy, it gives me motivations and give me some, yeah, happiness. Sometimes you think about it but then you’re thinking more and you understand that this is my world, this is what I like to do.

    Sebastian?

    SV: I think Felipe expressed it very well. We all share a common passion for racing; we all share a passion for competing. Obviously we are all very fortunate to find ourselves in Formula One racing the best and quickest cars in the world, which give the best excitement and probably the best satisfaction. But there is always some risk involved, which is, I think, always a part, or a great part, of the feeling why you feel so alive. I think if you have to make the decision, I’m fairly confident for us you’d always prefer to go racing.

    Fernando:GP RUSSIA F1/2014

    FA: Same.

    Jenson? Daniil?

    DK: I agree with all the comments before mentioned. In my case I just started my career as well. Every sport is risky. You never wish anyone to get hurt, but these things happen. I completely share all the comments of the other guys.

    Adrian?

    AS: Nothing to add.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question to all drivers: just to clarify whether you are a GPDA member or not. But regardless of whether you are a member or not, how do you think the drivers can contribute to help F1 to learn the lessons of what happened last Sunday?

    FM: Well, I’m not a member but I’m for sure trying to do everything I can trying to help on the safety because for me safety is the most important thing. I think this is not the right place to comment about any point, just comment about safety. Safety is what I care about.

    Sebastian?

    SV: Well I think it’s very difficult right now to give you the golden answer. As I said there were a lot of circumstances that probably led him to that type of accident. For sure, though, there is always something you can learn. I think for now we need to first of all digest what happened and then make the right conclusions. I think it would be wrong only a couple of days after, with all the events going on, with all the happenings we’ve had since Sunday, to come out with something that hasn’t been though through.

    Fernando?

    FA: I don’t really have anything to add. There is an investigation going on. We don’t have all the details. We don’t have all the information necessary to suggest any change. So we let the people work and whatever idea, whatever things come from the drivers’ point of view we will share it.

    And are you a member of the GPDA?

    FA: Yes.

    Jenson, your thoughts on this?

    JB: I think everything’s been said already. Obviously we work as hard as we can to help our… to help the GPDA and to help the safety of the drivers, as the FIA does as well. Obviously it will be talked about a lot over the next few weeks and months and we can always learn. There’s always more to learn better ways to help our sport.

    Adrian?

    AS: Yes, very similar opinion about it. I’m not a member yet but that might change. We have a new director now and some good ideas. Whatever we can do, I think all the drivers, we’re together and we have the same thoughts: to make things better, especially for safety. It’s something you can never learn enough. Development goes always on and research has to go on. We are living in a very modern world and improvement is done every day. The most important thing is to learn out of mistakes and make it better.

    Daniil?

    DK: Yeah, I think of course in the next GPDA meetings we will have a talk about all that has happened. I think there can’t be any rash decisions right now. They have to be progressive and calculated decisions to improve. But of course, like Sebastian mentioned, there was many different circumstances that are yet to be considered but we will be still talking about this for sure.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – F1 Express) A question to Adrian Sutil. Obviously being a witness you know, probably more than anyone else, what happened. I want to ask were you consulted, did the FIA ask you to consult your opinion or what you saw of the accident after the Japanese Grand Prix?

    AS: Yes, just how much I could see. Of course I was standing there but I think the pictures and the video which was on the internet it was very clear what happened, so there’s not really more I can say. I think we have to wait for the investigation there and there’s nothing more I can right now to be honest.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sorry Adrian if I continue on this matter because I think that for you it’s quite hard and painful but we can see of course the beginning of the accident. What happened before he went off? Maybe you can give some more details if you are watching him? And for Sebastian, changing the matter, we know you split from Red Bull and we would like to know when you can announce the new team and why you wait for the announcement please?

    AS: I was standing there and of course I was not expecting anyone to go off and when I realised that there was a car coming it was in the gravel already. I just saw the last seconds. I don’t know what happened before. I can’t really say. I was just a witness until when the fatal crash really happened. But I haven’t seen what happened before. That’s it.

    SV: No update really. I hope I will be able to make an announcement soon and once the announcement is out I think you are probably clever enough to draw the conclusion why I had to wait.

    Jenson Button_Press Conference 2014Q: (John Burns – New York Times) One of you has spoken about there being a shadow, obviously as a result of last weekend’s accident. A few weeks ago Ari Vatanen raised another shadow over this race over events occurring 300 miles to the north and northwest of here. I wonder whether any of you would like to comment on the question of politics and sport. Is it realistic to draw a wall between the two and say they shall never intersect or do you as individuals think about this, worry about it, wrestle with it and come to the conclusion, as you seem to have done in every case, to race notwithstanding?

    JB: I think you know it’s a very difficult question for any of us sat here to give you an answer to. I think the correct people to speak to would be the governing body and if you have to, speak to our team principals but us as drivers I don’t think it’s the correct question for us.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Fernando, just to change tack completely to cycling. I believe the UCI have announced that your team won’t be competing next year. Can you offer any explanation behind that? What’s the situation going on with your team there?

    FA: Well, I think two weeks ago we announced a partnership with Novo Investment from Qatar and they are in control of our next projects, which we are very excited [about]. For them it was not the right moment to create the team. We will have another, as I said, exciting project that will be announced maybe next week or maybe in 10 days’ time and, yeah, follow their wishes and try to enjoy that part of cycling that I love so much.

    Q: (Sylvia Arias – Parabrisas Argentina) Daniil, next year you are going to be in Red Bull. I would love to know your feeling about that. It’s such a very important step forward for you.

    DK: Obviously I’ve been told about it in Japan. I was very happy about it, very honoured. Joining Red Bull Racing next year means a lot. Obviously the name of the team says it all and we will do our best to fight for the highest position possible. So I think that’s all.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) We are talking about closed cockpits; I would like to know your feelings about this option?

    FA: I probably tend to agree to at least check and try or test the idea. I think we are in 2014, we have the technology, we have aeroplanes, we have had many other samples that they use in a successful way so why not think about it? All the biggest accidents in motor sport over the last couple of years have been head injuries so it’s probably one part where we are not at the top of safety. Even in my case, in 2012 at Spa, I could probably have died there in corner one if it had been 10 cms closer to my head. If the technology is there and available,  and there is the possibility, I would not exclude it, for sure.

    SV: Sort of a mixed feelings to be honest. If you look at Formula One cars since the beginning of Formula One and open-wheeled racing, I think it’s one of the things that are very special about Formula One. On the other hand, as Fernando touched on, there’s a lot of reasons why we should look into closed cockpits for the future. As I said, at this stage, after what happened, I don’t think it’s right to… I don’t really have an opinion to be honest.

    FM: I totally agree with what Fernando said, so I think it would be interesting to try, it would be interesting to work on that possibility. Definitely, for my accident it would have been perfect. Maybe for Jules, I don’t know. But I think maybe it could have been interesting for so many different types of accident, including the one I had, but I totally agree with Fernando. I think it could be an option and we will see when we could try something or see something to understand if it’s positive or not, but I totally agree with him.

    AS: I think definitely it would be worth a try to test it out. We don’t know how it would be but I think these cars have been open for a long time in this category but maybe it has a future also with closing them. I think this is the category where things are tried to make it better and more modern and going in the right direction, so I think it’s definitely worth a try and maybe it works. For sure, we have seen airplanes where it looks quite similar from the cockpit and there it’s closed. If we can minimise a risk without losing anything, of course it’s very interesting.

    JB: It’s a difficult one. As Seb said, there are positives obviously, in terms of the safety point of view but this is Formula One that’s been open cockpit since the start of time so it’s a very big change for the sport to make. Safety is something that, as I said, we can always improve on so I’m sure it will be looked at whether it is possible to change or not for the future.

    DK: There are many sides to this decision if it will be taken. Like I said, I think now, when these kind of things happen, you have to take a little break and calculate everything, try everything and calculate what would be the best solution. Like everyone else said, why not but it has to be tried and has to be very well calculated.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Obviously race driving consists of managing risk to be the best of your ability, be it drivers’ risks, sporting risk, mechanical and technical risk. Is there are such a thing as acceptable risk and where does that level lie? When would you decide something is unacceptable and when is it acceptable?

    SV: I think our passports say that we are all old enough to make our own decisions in life and I think generally we all have a brain that we are allowed to use, so it’s our conscious decision if we want to go racing or not. I think we expressed the love that we share for racing, for the thrill, managing the car on the limit etc. Obviously there’s always the risk that something can go wrong. I think it lies in the nature of the sport, if you look at the speeds involved etc. I think we’ve come a long way in terms of safety if you look back and a lot of improvements have been made but I think if anyone is not happy, he’s old enough to say no. Surely, I think we’ve been very fortunate that in our generation there have been crashes with limited outcome. Obviously last week reminded us all of how apparent the risk is and how quickly things can change but surely if you look at the type of accidents that we had in the last couple of years, how violent they looked and fortunately nearly nothing happened,  shows that improvement has been made. Obviously that’s a great feeling but you should never lose the respect, I think, for what you do.

    FM: Well, I think over the last years, all these improvements that we had in Formula One was good, it was impressive. To be honest, we saw so many accidents when drivers just jumped from the car and nothing happened which was pretty impressive. I think that’s what we need to fight for. We need to fight to have everything the most safe way around, so what happened last weekend was not exactly like that – it was a tractor on the track – and we cannot do anything when it’s like that. I think it’s two different things. I think we have  good working to make the car safer all the time and this is going in the very good direction  but in the normal situation around the track.

    AS: I think it’s clear for everyone that racing can be dangerous but I’m here because I’m aware of it and I like it. I’m here because I want to race and I know and I’m aware of the danger but that doesn’t mean that I just accept it. Of course, we all try to make it better and make it more safe because we don’t want to see this happening frequently. We’ve done – GPDA, Formula One – have done a great job in safety over the last years so it has been improved unbelievably but we can always make it better but yeah, still I’m sitting here and I will race because this is my passion and I want to do it and as soon as I feel different and I don’t feel like that any more, I will stay at home, this is for sure.

    DK: I agree with Adrian. We are here, we are racing and we know that the risks are still high, as we had the confirmation, unfortunately. The speeds are very high, over 300kph but we don’t want to race at 100kph because it’s not racing any more so on any circuit you cannot exaggerate but we always want to have maximum safety and this is what the GPDA, for example, is doing. And I think we have seen that the improvement has been huge but these kind of things, unfortunately, remind us that there is always something that can be improved.

    JB: I think enough has already been said on this matter.

    Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Fernando, in the last races you have had some problems in the car. Are you expecting to finish on the podium in the last races of this year?

    FA: Well, I think it’s our wish. We have some races to go now and the car is picking up the pace. We are becoming more and more competitive in the last events. We lost some opportunities but we will try our best in the remaining races, especially, as I said, now I think the team is quite in shock with Jules and we are all worrying for him but it’s time to be united and to deliver a good result and that will also show him great respect so let’s try this weekend.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, this is the last Grand Prix with Mr Montezemolo as president. I would like to ask you your feeling about it. Everything is overshadowed by Jules but this is also the fact.

    FA: I think that president Monzemolo has been very successful in his career and has helped Ferrari in a big way, on the track, outside, as an industrial power. He’s done many things for Ferrari so huge respect for his career there. I have a very close and good relationship with him so I’m wishing him the best for the future.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) For everybody, Felipe said before that we have also to improve the environment around us. I think that more safety cars in circumstances like Sunday should be alright.

    FA: As I said, there is an investigation going on at the moment. Once I was not on the track at that moment, so I cannot judge the conditions very precisely so I don’t have an opinion.

    SV: I think with hindsight I think it’s always easy to say ‘this could have been avoided, this should have been done.’ I think there are definitely some lessons. I think everyone is obviously thinking about what we can improve and improve within a week’s time. I think here we have a completely different circuit, completely different conditions so I think – as I said earlier and Felipe touched on – it was a very special accident with unique circumstances leading into a very bad outcome. But surely, if the answer is as easy as bring in the safety car then I don’t think that’s a big thing for people to do in the future. On the other hand, I don’t believe the answer is as easy as that either.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) I would like to know if you’ve found the pit lane is wide enough here or do you think you’re going to be very careful coming into the pits to change tyres during the race?

    SV: It’s quite narrow, especially the pit entry looks very narrow. I don’t know, I think in the first place they had a lot of space to build the track so sometimes you wonder why some areas like the pit lane didn’t get a bit bigger.

    JB: It fits a car, so that’s a start. We’ll go from there.

    FM: Looks a bit tight but we will see tomorrow.

  • Hamilton Ahead in Practice 2 at Suzuka

    Hamilton Ahead in Practice 2 at Suzuka

    Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished fastest in the second free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix.

    Hamilton finished the session with a 1:35.078 ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in P2 with a 1:35.318, 0.240s slower. Valtteri Bottas in the Williams finished the session P3 with a 1:36.279, 1.201s slower than Hamilton. McLaren’s Jenson Button finished the session in P4 with the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel rounding off the top 5.

    The session got off to a rather interesting start with Kobayashi crashing into the barriers at the exit of T3. Replays showed that he lost the rear of the car on the entry to T3 which sent him into a spin and into the barrier backwards destroying his rear left suspension.

    Ricciardo Suzuka FP2 Crash

    Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne had apparent electronics issues twice in the session. The first time was at the beginning of the session, the second time with just 2mins before the end of the session at the exit of Spoon.

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo crashed out 20 mins into the session. He was about to start a timed lap and got on the throttle a bit early at the final corner. The rear of the car swung around, he corrected but unfortunately he ran out of track which meant he was on the gravel and into the barrier taking off his front left suspension in the process.

    With just under an hour left in the session, Sauber’s Estaban Gutierrez had a bit of and off at Spoon Corner. replays show that he went straight on into Spoon. It looked as though he carried too much speed into the corner.

    With 20mins left in the session there were some spots of rain around the circuit. The drivers were well into their long runs at this point but it did prove quite tricky for some. Most of the drivers were being caught out by the damp conditions as some were locking up and running wide while others were too early on the throttle out of the slow corners.

    The session ended prematurely as Jean-Eric Vergne stopped on track again. This time at the exit of Spoon. The replays showed that as he made a tweak on the steering his car cut out and the screen on the steering went blank.

    Mercedes were once ahead on the long run pace. Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams and McLaren were all very close together. McLaren, however, are looking more comfortable around Suzuka despite Jenson Button saying that Suzuka wont suit the car.

    It’s going to be an interesting qualifying session. With the rain forecast it will mix things up and make things very interesting.

    Below is the timing sheet for the FP2 session for the Japanese Grand Prix

    FP2 Suzuka 2014

  • F1 2014: Japanese GP Preview – Who Will Be The Man In Japan?

    F1 2014: Japanese GP Preview – Who Will Be The Man In Japan?

    In Japan there is a circuit known as Suzuka, it is roughly 5.8 km in length and throughout its history has witnessed the both the greats of the sport and some of the most dramatic moments in the history of Formula 1.

    Adored by drivers and fans Suzuka is simultaneously one of the most iconic circuits on the calendar and one of its biggest challenges. Beyond the narrow strip of asphalt there are run off areas, no second chances. Here, a bit of gravel is all that precedes brutal punishment.  This degree of difficulty is why Suzuka is so revered by one and all. The level of skill required around these parts are second to none and the reward for a driver, when he gets it right, is huge sense of achievement and most likely a pretty good lap time to boot.  “When you finish a lap at Suzuka you really appreciate it because you know both the car and you have been really tested. You can be proud if you have got the maximum from everything,” says last year’s podium finisher Romain Grosjean.

    The refreshing Daniel Ricciardo describes the first sector of the lap as a delight. “It’s a dream. You have those fast changes of directions through the Esses, hard around the Dunlop Curve and then, arguably the best bit, turns Eight and Nine: Degner. Through Eight you’re hanging on, it’s so narrow and there’s no room for error but you want to push as hard as you can.”

    Suzuka_CircuitThe great thing about Suzuka is that the lustre isn’t all contained in the first sector.  Sector two is distinguished by the Spoon curve and the frighteningly flat-out 130R which follows on from the back straight. Despite the near non-existent margin for error and narrow track surface a few overtaking opportunities exist. Turn one is a popular choice but has to be preceded with a decent exit off the final chicane and a respectable straight-line speed. Another occasion for overtaking could present itself under braking into the final chicane and if a driver is feeling particularly adventurous, and perhaps a tad desperate, the first part of the Spoon curve may even be an option.

    The demand for downforce isn’t as great around the Japanese track. However, striking the balance between having enough grip in the twisty bits and ensuring that they can reach reasonable speed down the straights is the key to set-up. It bodes well for Red Bull to be the best of the rest behind the outlandishly fast Mercedes.

    The sinister underbelly of Formula 1 has struck once more. At least this is what the Formula 1 conspiracy theorists have been peddling. Giving 800px-2012_Japan_GP_-_at_startrise to their frenzied ramblings was a Mercedes announcement that Rosberg’s retirement in Singapore was caused by a contaminated substance and subsequent electronics short circuiting of his car. It turns out, after a thorough examination, that the steering column electronics were contaminated by an undetectable substance.  The loudest of the conspiracy theorists maintain that Rosberg’s car was deliberately sabotaged by the Mercedes management. Besides the fact that the team lost out on scoring points, and the cash that goes with it, what possible explanation could there be for deliberately taking one of its cars completely out of the race?

    From a perspective more slanted towards the neutral the Rosberg retirement wasn’t exactly a full blown tragedy. Yes, for at least ten minutes we all felt bad for Rosberg and we sympathised with his desperate attempts to get going. But after this period of gloominess subsided the realization of F1’s skulking unpredictability sunk in. And just maybe you would’ve concluded that this little sequence of events could result in a cracking end to the season.  Now we head to Japan with a slender three-point gap between the duelling teammates. Neither Hamilton nor Rosberg has ever won here which tees up the battle perfectly. All that is needed is for Messrs Rosberg and Hamilton to set it on fire.

  • F1 2014: Singapore Lights Up Championship Fight

    F1 2014: Singapore Lights Up Championship Fight

    If there are only a handful of things that can be counted on as a certainty in Formula 1 one of them will be the erratic fickleness of it all. Singapore played the joker that may just have turned the 2014 F1 season on its head.

    The unfortunate victim of the ever dependable randomness of F1 was Nico Rosberg. A healthy, even comfortable, 22 point lead was completely blown away as unreliability struck the German before the start of the Singapore GP.  An apparent steering wheel problem relegated Rosberg to a pitlane start which only delayed the inevitable. With already having to stage a comeback from the back of the field Rosberg was lapping five second off the pace and eventually had to retire with an unresponsive car. Toto Wolff confirmed that the entire system had broken down due to the failure of a “lume within the steering column.”

    It left Lewis Hamilton with the delectable opportunity of regaining the championship lead. However, the characteristics of the Marina Bay circuit and a safety-car period allowed both Red Bulls and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari to within striking distance of the Silver Arrow, or so they thought. It was to be nothing more than a far-fetched pipedream for those behind Hamilton as he easily dismissed their feeble attempts at beating him.

    If Formula 1 is our religion then we need to bow down the designers of the W05 Mercedes. In the last decade we’ve seen the Red Bull domination net itself four world championship titles but it certainly did not boast a lap time advantage as great as three seconds.

    Lewis Hamilton Singapore 2014 PodiumNever let it be known that Hamilton isn’t a man who doesn’t rise to the occasion. The safety-car appearance meant the Brit would have to pit and re-take the lead in order to win the race. First he would have to build a gap to second place and within several laps Hamilton’s staggering pace had ensured that he would emerge in the thick of the Red Bull fight. His superior speed, and fresh rubber, easily saw him past Sebastian Vettel and just to rub a bit of salt in the wounds he again extended the gap to fourteen seconds by the chequered flag.

    Ferrari showed improved pace on the Singapore streets and with added benefit of the supremely gifted Fernando Alonso the Scuderia’s weekend wasn’t too shabby at all. The never-say-die Spaniard once again unleashed a masterful driving performance. The double world champ got to within touching distance of the podium, even second place, but was stranded behind the two Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in fourth.

    What is it about this Fernando Alonso that makes him the wonder that he is? To consistently out-perform what he is given and make a car do things no one dares think is possible. He’s preference for over-steery cars makes the current Ferrari a bit easier to drive but beyond this there is very little of the F 14T that is good. Surely then it can only come down to him, it does. His relentlessness seemingly knows no bounds and there is very much a feeling of a single-minded stubbornness when Alonso is in the cockpit. The sort of tenacious belief that he will get a lap time out of that car come hell or high water. Even if he isn’t your Formula 1 be-all-and-end-all he is still to be admired and commended.

    Felipe Massa defied belief, and all statistical predictions, as he completed a mammoth 35 lap stint on the soft compound tyres to finish fifth. GP SINGAPORE F1/2014Teammate Valtteri Bottas nearly pulled off the same feat but lost several positions on the final lap as his tyres finally gave up the ghost. Jean-Eric Vergne overcame two five-second penalties to finish a brilliant sixth.

    There was a bit of argy-bargy and some lost carbon fibre in the mid-field between Sauber’s Adrian Sutil and Force India’s Sergio Perez. Perez suffered significant front-wing damage as he was squeezed up against the barriers by Sutil and the shards of carbon fibre strewn across the track were the catalyst for the safety-car deployment. It was a bit surprising that the Stewards didn’t penalise Sutil whose actions did appear a bit dicey. Nevertheless, Checo did stage a fine recovery to finish seventh.

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen never recovered from a software glitch in qualifying and finished eighth ahead Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India. McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen wrapped up the final point of the day but teammate Jenson Button lost sixth position after being forced into retirement with a suspected electronic issue.

    A slender, but perhaps decisive, three points is Lewis Hamilton’s world championship lead over teammate Nico Rosberg. With five races remaining, and double points on offer in Abu Dhabi, this exceptional battle is, thankfully, far from over.

  • 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES

    Franz TOST (Toro Rosso)

    Vijay MALLYA (Force India)

    Manfredi RAVETTO (Caterham)

    Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber)

    Eric BOULLIER (McLaren)

    Claire WILLIAMS (Williams) 

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    If I could I begin with a question to all of you? Obviously there have been changes today to the team radio ban. The FIA met with the media earlier today but I wonder if we could get a perspective from the teams: why the changes were needed and what it was like today to manage the relationship between the pits and the drivers? Monisha, maybe you would start?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: The change comes from complaints that were raised by the fans that the drivers receive too many instructions and are just, in a way, carrying out whatever instructions they have been given. That’s something we as teams of course understand and that that’s not exciting for the event and for the show. So I think it was the right decision to say that we should try to stop these type of instructions and that the drivers do more on their own. As a team, we were a bit surprised to see what extremes the first clarification went to, because we felt that it went into areas that could have raised other concerns as well. So we’re quite happy that the FIA has now taken this position to really just cover areas that were meant to be covered, performance of the driver and not, as such, the entire car.

    Franz, can I ask you, because obviously you’ve got a 20-year-old in your car and next year you’ve got a 17-year-old. So to what extent is it a disadvantage not being able to quote-unquote ‘coach them’? 

    Franz TOST: The changes are absolutely not necessary and I still don’t understand why because all these information are also entertainment for the people in front of TV, to hear a little about the communication between the team and the driver. And for us, of course the more inexperienced a driver is the more information you have to give him and it requires a lot of work during the week to work out the programme and we still have the possibility within the regulations to communicate in a proper. For me it’s absolutely nonsense what we are discussing here, because in all the other kinds of sport a coach gives some information, instructions to a footballer player on the sidelines or whatever. This does not mean that the sportsman is not able to do his job. He can do his job, he does do his job, but maybe he can do it in a better way. It’s just a performance improvement, therefore I don’t understand it.

    Manfredi, what’s your view on this? You too have got a rookie in your car. Do you share Franz’s view? 

    Manfredi RAVETTO: First of all, I have to say, it’s remembers us a little bit of the good old days. I think so many nice pages of motor sport history have been written without pit to car communication. Having said this, we take it easy. It’s a decision from FIA and we have to accept and respect it.

    Vijay, you’re active in many sports, you car a lot about the show. What do you think about this? 

    Vijay MALLYA: You know, the FIA rule has always existed: that the driver should drive unaided. But despite that rule being in existence, teams have taken pit wall to car communication to a certain level and now we have been asked to pull back. It’s as if we have been abusing the regulation in one form or another. This is not Playstation. Whatever you may say from the pit wall, the amount of influence it actually has on the driver and the excitement of the race and the race result is something that is highly debatable. But then, the FIA makes the rules and it’s the obligation of every team to abide the rules. So I guess we will abide by the rules that were fortunately clarified to a more practical extent this morning.

    Claire, you’ve got one of the more experienced drivers in the field, how has it been for you? 

    Claire WILLIAMS: I think it’s been OK. I think it’s an adjustment for everybody, but as Vijay said, they are the new regulations, they have been put forward in an effort to make the show more exciting. But I’m pleased that the new directive that came out this morning has adjusted what is and what isn’t allowed to be said and it has clarified that. From our perspective, as long as we are able to communicate messages around safety and reliability to our drivers, that’s the most important thing. But we’re racers at heart and we want our drivers to be going out there and driving the cars.

    And Eric, your feelings? You’ve obviously always been very involved in this side of things, do you have any concerns about what is and what isn’t allowed? 

    Eric BOULLIER: Yeah, obviously we had some different messages internally during both free practices, like ‘shall we say this’ or ‘shall we not say that’. So we had to police a little bit, or monitor what we wanted to say. In the end I think most has been said by my colleagues. The only thing which was worrying a little bit is to change the regulations during the course of the season, which is never a nice thing to do, even if we obviously listen to the fans and obviously respect the decision of the FIA. Happy as well that they clarified a little bit what can be said and not. And obviously happy that we can still say or deliver some message about safety or reliability of the cars.

    Coming back to you Monisha. Can you give us an insight at the heart of the team at the moment? Do you need to shake the tree to break this cycle that you have got into this season? And also, can you tell us what the latest is about Sergey Sirotkin and whether he’ll run in free practice one? 

    MK: Well, we’re probably having the worst season we have had in the history of the team so far. We know the reasons for it. We’ve been trying to make changes, which not easy when you have certain limitations that you have work within. We’re step by step coming out of it. The steps in my view could be bigger sometimes, that they are a bit more measurable. But the direction is right. So, we have to be patient, focus on the right things and hopefully get out of it. Coming to Sergey, we have announced that he will be driving FP1 in Sochi. That’s one of the milestones we have agreed with him and then we’ll see where we go from there.

    Thanks for that. Vijay, coming back to you, you’re neck-and-neck with McLaren for fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. How do you deploy the resources then from here for the rest of the season. Do you want to develop hard this year and try to beat or have you also got one eye also on 2015? 

    VM: As you rightly said, McLaren is just one point ahead – literally as well, as we sit. Having said that, it is my intention to reverse that. We will do everything possible to achieve that by the end of the season. I’m sure they are developing their car and so are we. Unlike previous years I think all developments done this year will, in fact, carry over to next year’s car. So whatever investment is made I think it’s not lost on 2014 alone. But we enjoy tough racing – I’m sure McLaren do too – and we’ll have some fun and let’s see in Abu Dhabi who’s ahead of whom.

    Coming to you Manfredi. Changes again in the management structure at Caterham, the third different team boss in the course of the season. Can you tell us a bit about Christijan’s departure, the structure as it is now and your plans for the development of the team? 

    MR: First of all, I must say thank you to Christijan Albers, because he supported us, coming on board in a very crucial stage. His decision is a very private and personal one, but it is kind of a natural cut-off with the end of the European season, because he wanted to stay closer to his family and the flyaways are not the best option in this case. Having said that, there is a new structure in place. The main goal is to stabilise the company, on the financial side as well as on the technical side. We are very much focused on getting the best out of the current 2014 car but we are also working very hard on 2015. We are enjoying an excellent co-operation with Toyota and its wind tunnel in Cologne, where our next year’s car is already testing. Unfortunately we inherited… when I say we, I refer to new ownership and new management… a quite difficult situation. The situation was difficult to such an extent that previous ownership decided to pull the plug and therefore whatever we do we see it as an achievement.

    Franz, last time you were with us in one of these Friday press conferences you were on a good roll of top-10 qualifying and race results. It seems to have thinned out a bit. I think you’ve had two top-10 finishes in the last four races. What’s been going on to cause that, and also can you give us an update on Max Verstappen’s development? 

    FT: I think here this weekend I expect a good performance and I expect that both cars are in qualifying three and I expect that we score points. Max Verstappen did, last week, a test in Adria. He finished by doing 396km without any problem. People were really impressed with his performance and now it’s in the hands of the FIA whether he gets a Superlicence to do the Friday P1 session in Suzuka and then we will see. We will prepare him step by step and I am convinced that he is the correct driver for us for 2015.

    Do you know when you will get answer on the Superlicence? 

    FT: It must be soon as the next race is already in Suzuka.

    Q: Claire, obviously now third in the Constructors’ Championship after that result in Monza, can you catch Red Bull, do you think, for second? And can you tell us what this renaissance for Williams has meant for the spirit inside the team?

    CW: It would be lovely to catch Red Bull but as I was told by my team when I last said ‘we’re after Red Bull’ I got into a lot of trouble. I think now the position for us is very much to consolidate where we are in the Championship – which is obviously in P3 – to build hopefully that gap between us and Ferrari, I think. From where we were last year, obviously we finished in P9, it’s a really great turnaround for everybody at Williams. Probably not one, if you’d said to us last year, this is where you’re going to be this time next year, we would have believed you – but a lot of hard work has gone into that turnaround from changing our power unit, bringing in new personnel, bringing in Felipe Massa and obviously some new commercial partners to support us as well. That’s all contributed to a great new atmosphere at Williams. I think if you just come to our motorhome, you get a sense of revival and a refreshed spirit about what we’re doing. We’ve always been here to race. Obviously the past few years have been really challenging for us. It hasn’t necessarily dampened the spirit but there is a real galvanised effort now within the team. Everyone believes that we can win and we can go on to fight for a seventeenth world championship.

    Q: Eric, in a little over four months from now by my calculations, you’ll be hitting the track with a McLaren-Honda in pre-season testing. It doesn’t sound like very long when you say it. Where are you in the development programme for that? And is it looking like the current drivers will be the ones driving that car.

    EB: There is obviously a lot of work behind the scenes with our new partner for next year. We have not exactly defined when and where we will test first, to be clear about some discussions and rumours. There is a lot of work going through and, to be honest, as per the original schedule, everything is fine so far. Regarding the driver line-up, wait for the decision and the announcement.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) Bernie Ecclestone has once again raised the possibility of three car teams, perhaps as soon as next year. I wanted to ask you, how real is the danger that we might lose three teams before the start of next season and, specific to Monisha and Manfredi, how confident are you that your teams will be on the grid in Melbourne next year?

    MK: Well, as I said, we are having the worst season of our history, of our team, and yet at the same time, we are more than 21 years in Formula One and we do get that question often and every time we say, ‘well we’ll be around’. I’m going to answer the same way, we’ll be around next year as well.

    Manfredi, do you share Monisha’s confidence?

    MR: All I can say is that we are very relaxed in this respect. I mean, everybody knows the situation in which we found this team, in which state it was and, well, we are just trying to keep it alive to improve and we are working, as I said before, also providing you with some details on the programme for next year. This is what we are targeting. Of course we want to be on the grid in Melbourne next year – that is definitely our goal.

    Vijay, I guess you’re in the part of the grid that doesn’t like the idea of three-car teams too much?

    VM: No. I’m a firm believer, as I’ve always said, that every effort should be made to make sure all teams, big and small, survive and race. That’s part of the DNA of Formula One. But the regulations and the agreements do provide that, if the grid is less than 20 cars, then participating teams will race a third car. That’s something everybody signed up to as well. I hope it never comes to that. As I said, I think the DNA of Formula One should be preserved. I will repeat once again that I will try to persuade the decision makers – the commercial rights holders – that they should look very seriously at a more fair and equitable revenue-share model so that we don’t have to answer such questions all the time.

    Eric, I guess you would be one of the teams that would be looked at to provide a third car. What are you your thoughts on this situation?

    EB: Well, it’s a little bit like Vijay said. We obviously all look for what will keep all the teams onboard. That’s the first priority. There are some mechanisms that, effectively, if some teams were not on the grid, we would maybe run three cars to keep the grid at a decent number. But I don’t think we are there yet, as I said before.

    Claire, your views. 

    CW: Yeah, I agree with what everybody has said. I think that to be having this conversation now shows where we are as a sport. We need to be working harder to ensure that we protect the teams that we have on our grid to ensure that competition that I don’t necessarily think having three-car teams brings. I think we want to have a healthy grid of ten teams all fielding two cars. Not four teams fielding three cars. For Williams, that’s not the DNA of our sport.

    Franz, what would it mean for you?

    FT: I hope that all the teams which are now taking part in the Formula One World Championship will be on the starting grid next year in Melbourne, and then it’s not necessary to discuss a third car.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport-Bild) A question to Mr Ravetto. Can you give us some background to your financial situation at the moment, starting maybe from Silverstone to now, and the status quo now?

    MR: Yeah. Thanks for asking this question. In reality I believe our team was not set-up to race in Silverstone. This is the truth. Since new ownership came on-board, since new management has been established, I think we managed not only to race in Silverstone but also to arrive to Singapore. I must say it’s not a very easy task. The financial situation is not one of the easiest. I only have to repeat myself when I said even before, we inherited a situation which was more than critical. I do not know what the reasons are for this, maybe you should ask the previous owners.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Another topic that’s reared its head this weekend is the possibility of an engine un-freeze for next year. I believe it was discussed this morning in the team bosses’ meeting. None of you produce your own engines. Accordingly you’re either customers or partners. Where do you stand on this issue, particularly where potential cost increases are concerned?

    MK: If we look at this year’s season we’re seeing that there’s such a big disparity between the different engines. And Formula One is not just about different engines, engines do play a role there but the gap should not be that big. We do support the idea that development of an engine is allowed within certain given parameters but it not necessarily leads to the fact that we, as customers, should actually bear the costs for that. Because that’s something that is always taken for granted, that the moment we talk about engine development it’s just a logical step next to say ‘it’ll get more expensive’. As a customer we say ‘why should it?’ because actually the supplier is doing it first of all for his own team. Not for us. We are benefitting from it, of course. We are also paying a lot for the engines. Yes, we as a customer, support that – within the parameters. But we should be getting the same spec at the same cost.

    Do you share that Vijay?

    VM: Well, you know the engines for 2014 are already a lot more expensive than in previous years and if unlimited engine development in-season is allowed, I agree with Monisha, that that the teams, those sat around this table, shouldn’t be burdened with these additional costs. But on principle, maybe I would agree to support maybe one in-season update of the engine in a very controlled and limited way but I think it would not be appropriate to allow unfettered in-season development.

    Claire, it’s one of the secrets of your 2014 success. Would you welcome teams being able to upgrade their engines?

    CW: No! Because, as you say, we’ve got the Mercedes power unit and fortunately they’ve done a great job this year. I look back over history in Formula One when we have these kinds of conversations and, you have to enter the season with your race car and, if you haven’t done a good enough job, then why change the regulations? Why should teams be allowed to do that? However, if it is part of the conversation, then fine, we’ll be involved in that conversation and we’ll support it – but only based around what Monisha has already said: as a supplied team, we don’t believe those costs should be passed on to us. If the manufacturers want to spend that money developing their engines, then fine – but as a customer team we want to receive the same specification that the manufacturers provide, and at the same cost that we have now. The cost of changing to this year’s spec engine have been considerable. We’re paying about £20 million for our engine in a period when we’re trying to control costs in Formula One. We’re now looking at a period where engine development costs are going to increase significantly – and I’m not sure that’s the conversation this sport should be having.

    What about you, Eric, because next year you go back to being a works engine team again, but it will be a first generation Honda hybrid turbo versus second generation Renaults, Ferraris and Mercedes, so where do you stand? Presumably you would like to be able to upgrade.

    EB: No, we would like obviously to make sure there is a… I like to use as reference that first comment of Monisha, a regulation which makes the possibility for all engine manufacturers to have a fair, let’s say, trade, to make sure we can be as equal as possible. I think that’s very important for the show, obviously as well, as there was a lot of stories written about the engine since a long time, a lot of complaints as well about the fans, a lot of positive as well because the racing was good and it’s just a normal discussion, let’s say, going forward to make sure there is more equity between the engine powers.

    MR: Regarding a lift of engine freeze, I believe that generally speaking everybody deserves a second chance in life so why not applying this to engine manufacturers? Having said this, I have to emphasise that the most important thing for a small team like Caterham is to keep costs under control. I remember times when we were using 60/70 engines per year instead of the number we are using now and the bill was very similar, so there must be something to readdress.

    Q: Franz, you remember those times as well? Where do you stand on this? 

    FT: No, first of all I must say that the parity of the performance of the engines is fundamental to increase the show. It cannot be that two cars are one-to-two seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Fortunately and nevertheless we’ve had some very interesting races but the engine manufacturers should have the possibility – if they want – to come up with modifications but only if the additional costs will not come to the customers, because this is unacceptable, but generally, I think it’s good that Ferrari and Renault can come up with new modifications for next year.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) I’ve got a question for Claire and Eric as members of the F1 Strategy Group. I know you can’t give us too much information about the meetings that you have; however, Charlie’s said that the radio decision was made at the Strategy Group meeting in Monza. What kind of pushback did the teams present give with regard to the rules, and why was it such a surprise that the recently-cancelled radio rules were quite so strict as they were? 

    CW: I think the conversation came out of a need to improve the show as we talked about earlier but I think our concerns were around the reliability and safety and so Charlie was asked to go away and have a look at that and obviously that’s what’s come out this week and the directive that came out this morning addressed and clarified what we were and weren’t allowed to say. So that was as much of the conversation as I would want to talk about.

    EB: Yup, nothing to add. Just a discussion which we obviously had in Monza and as you say, it was raised and just based on the regulation, there was some adjustment that was proposed and just to make sure that in such a short term there was back and forth discussion.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Vijay, over the past couple of months, we’ve read a lot about your financial troubles in India, court issues etc. How much is that impacting on you personally, at a personal level? How much is that impacting on your personal running of the team and is there any carry-over financially for the team? And secondly, Roy Sahara has his own personal issues; does he still play an active role with the team or are you now looking for other investors to take over from him? 

    VM: Sahara Group have problems relating to funds raised from the public which the Securities and Exchange Board of India have determined were not raised as per regulations and need to be refunded. Sahara claims that the investors have been refunded and claims to have provided the necessary proof of refund to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. They don’t seem to be able to verify the facts provided by Sahara, therefore the current situation. As far as my situation is concerned, I’m not a borrower, I have not borrowed any money from any bank and therefore all that you read about may contain my name but has to do with one of our companies which is Kingfisher Airlines but of course, if you continue to refer to me in my personal capacity, it conveys the wrong impression that I’m a debtor in a sense, which I’m not. The agreement between Sahara and myself is that they’re shareholders in the team, they continue to be shareholders in the team. I have asked them if they would like to change the situation and they said no, they want to stay in. I’ve always run and managed the team which is doing better than it ever has in its history and we’re going forward from here.

    Q: (Chris Lyons – AP) It seems that the ban on messages about car performance – not driver coaching but car performance – will come in at the start of 2015. Is that your impression or is this something that is going to be argued and debated more between now and then? 

    EB: I think it’s going to be discussed further. There’s clearly been a pushback on part of the allowance for the messaging which has been postponed for now and the article 20.1 of the sporting regulations is quite clear, even if there is always some room for interpretation, so that’s why there will be some more debate.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Monisha, without going into the politics about whether we should or shouldn’t be going to Sochi, obviously Sergei is being backed by Russian money. Are any of the new sanctions that have been put in place by the EU and the US affecting that money coming into you or do you expect it to be affecting you, and any general questions about that? 

    MK: It’s not affecting it.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) So it’s not Russian money coming to you. 

    MK: I never said that. You asked me if it’s affecting it and I said no.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) And do you expect it to affect you in the future as sanctions get tighter? 

    MK: If you look at the sanctions which at least apply to Switzerland, it wouldn’t really affect us so we wouldn’t fall within that ambit. What happens in the future we don’t know.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Manfredi, just to follow up from Ralf’s earlier question, there seems to be a new name on the nosecone of your car this weekend. Could you clarify whether that’s a change of your operating company or whether there’s a new company? 

    MR: No, no, no, definitely not, this has nothing to do… Basically, it’s not there is a new name. The team has always been identified by the abbreviation of CF1. You write it also in your comments. By the way, the entrant is and stays One Malaysia Racing team and One Malaysia Racing team is a conglomerate of companies which are working on different tasks and it stays like this.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Another question to you Manfredi, particularly about the structure of your team. I’d like to give you a second chance of answering this question: your investors, the Swiss-Middle Eastern investors, your team has consistently refused to identify them. In this paddock, one gets suspicious so is there a reason why they are keeping such a low profile? 

    MR: It’s impolite to answer with a question but who’s the beneficial owner or ownership of an investment fund? Who’s the owner of Blackstone, just to make an example?  So the ownership behind our team is a group of investors, it’s a club of investors. They just want  to make the best out of their investment and they don’t need to have any kind of personal visibility or publicity. By the way, it’s something they refuse. They are very much business-driven and investment-orientated. I hope it helps.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) Another question for you, Manfredi. If you’re not able to tell us who the investors are, could you please tell us what other items might be in their investment portfolio? 

    MR: I’m not supposed to know this in detail. It’s a group of wealthy individuals and I’m just trying to make my best in running this team, together with a very nice group of people. That’s my main concern. All the rest, I’m really not supposed to go more in detail.

  • 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    Drivers:

    Marcus Ericsson (Caterham)

    Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)

    Sergio Perez (Force India)

    Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

    Adrian Sutil (Sauber)

    Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: First of all, a question to all of you about the ban on large amounts of radio traffic between the team and the driver. What’s your reaction to this? Sergio, perhaps you could start?
    Sergio Perez:     Hi everyone. I don’t think it’s ideal that they, suddenly from one race to another, they change it dramatically that you cannot get certain calls. But it doesn’t influence it much. I don’t see it as a big deal, it’s something that we as drivers need to get more used to. We will have, definitely, more information and we’re going to be a bit more busy throughout the race to basically try to keep everything under control – fuel loads and engine modes, all that kind of stuff. I don’t see a problem to get used to, it’s just a dramatic change from the last race to this one.

    Q: Kimi, you famously told the team “leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” Does that mean you welcome this change?
    Kimi Raikkonen:     Well, obviously we don’t speak a lot on the radio in my case usually, when there are no issues – but obviously it might get quite complicated if there are some problems with the car and you have to change certain things to try to finish the race. I don’t know how the rule goes at those times. Obviously it makes it more complicated for us but it’s part of the game so it’s OK.

    Q: Pastor, your thoughts on it.
    Pastor Maldonado:     For sure it’s not a great thing, especially with all the complex systems we have at the moment – but it’s the same for everyone so it doesn’t matter.

    Q: What about from a rookie perspective. Presumably there’s been quite a lot of coaching going on over the radio Marcus, so far this season. Are you going to miss it? Particularly on the approach to the start, getting everything prepared for a start, for example?
    Marcus Ericsson:     No, I think…I like the idea, to be honest. I think it’s good to get the drivers more in focus. I think it’s good. But for us as a small team I think it’s a bit trickier because our steering wheel, we don’t have a big display. A lot of the other teams, I think they have a big display, so they can show a lot of stuff on this, whereas we have a very small one. So it’ll be a bit more tricky – but yeah, like I said, I like the idea and I think it’s good to make us drivers a bit more in focus.

    Q: Jean-Eric, are you supportive as well?
    Jean-Eric Vergne:     I don’t mind it. I think it will be more or less the same as before. I like to do things by my own and many times this year I changed the settings before my engineer told me, so yeah, I will be a bit more lonely on the radio – but it should be fine.

    Q: Adrian?
    Adrian Sutil:     No problem really. I think all manageable. It’s a bit more work but we’ll handle it.

    Kimi Raikkonen Press ConferenceQ: Kimi, coming back to you, obviously this season hasn’t been quite what you expected it to be – but did you expect to have your problems sorted out by now? And what’s your focus for the remaining six races or so?
    KR:     Obviously to do as well as we can and have good results for the team and for myself. I expect it to be difficult. Probably the team didn’t expect to have such difficulties over all. We expected to be stronger overall. It’s part of the game and we have to try to sort things out. I think we have done pretty good improvements – compared to where we started – as a team and obviously then I’m getting more happy with things but obviously still not where we want to be in the end. Still a lot of work to do.

    Q: Pastor, front row qualifier here two years ago with Williams, it’s always been a strong Lotus track – so is there some optimism there for a top ten result maybe this weekend?
    PM:     I hope. For sure, the qualifying pace is always a bit tricky for us but during the race, for any reason we are able to recover the pace and sometimes we are much more competitive. So hopefully here we can be a bit more competitive than Monza for sure but it’s difficult to say something before we get in the car.

    Q: Sergio, you’ve scored points in all three of your appearances here at Singapore and you’ve come off the back of two strong results, so your thoughts on this race? And also how close you are to committing to Force India for another season?
    SP:     I think things are settling down and I think we should be very close to committing for next year with the team but you never know; I have experience from the past so you never know what’s going to happen. Yeah, we are really optimistic for this weekend. We have a good upgrade package and I believe we can be competitive and definitely our target is the McLarens which we are fighting with really closely and hopefully we can score more points than them this weekend with both cars and the upgrade package gives us some boost.

    Q: Adrian, like Sergio you’ve scored points in your last three races here in Singapore but there’s no getting away from the fact that Sauber is yet to get into Q3 this season, so what’s the rescue package and what lies ahead for the rest of the season?
    AS:     We have a good package here, the last one, but it should give us a little bit more speed. We have to try it out on Friday. We’re not so far away – especially in qualifying – from the group in front and it’s just missing a little bit to the top ten normally but Monza was quite tricky, especially in the race. We were losing a bit too much time and our performance was a bit slower but this track is very special and very different so I hope it suits our car. There’s a lot of work, we need some points and this is the main target for the moment.

    Q: Marcus, since the last round, obviously the team principal has moved on so can you tell us a bit about the structure now at the team and the plan for upgrades and so on?
    ME:     We’re still pushing hard like we’ve done the last couple of races and bringing some more updates for here, so not much has changed. Obviously Christijan left which is a shame, we got along very well, but still I think the team is pushing on quite a lot and it’s a positive atmosphere from everyone. We just have to wait and see this weekend, see how it suits our car but in general I have a good feeling. I had a really strong race last time out on a street track so I think hopefully we can try and repeat something similar to that.

    Q: Jean-Eric, still six races to go but you’ve already scored points more times this year than you did last year so what’s the plan now for you for the rest of this season and what about next season? Have you made any progress yet with your plans for 2015?
    J-EV:     Yeah, talking about this weekend and the race and the season, I really want to end the season strongly. I think we should have had a lot more points with our team if we didn’t have so much bad luck but I think now that’s behind. I really want to make the best out of the last six races with Toro Rosso and then find a good option for next year.

    QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, it’s two hours in very humid conditions; Nico Rosberg said that the last laps are always very painful here because it’s physically so demanding. How painful are they for you?
    KR:     I don’t know. Everybody has their own feelings so I can’t know how they feel like but in the past it hasn’t been a problem. It doesn’t feel as hot or humid in the last years unless the course has slowed in the race, so I don’t see why it should suddenly be a problem.

  • 2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2014 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS :

    Jules BIANCHI (Marussia)

    Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso)

    Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Can I start with a question to all of you? We had news this week that next season there will be a 17-year-old driver on the grid. Can I have your reaction from a driver’s point of view? And maybe we’ll start with Felipe.

    Felipe MASSA: Definitely, he’s a very quick driver. He shows talent in a go-kart, in Formula 3, winning many races; I think he’s second in the championship. It’s his opportunity. First of all, I think it’s great that teams are still interested in the talent of the driver and not the money and I think that’s really positive, it’s good for the sport in general. I’m happy for that. Seventeen is a little bit young! For sure, we need to wait and see how he’s going to perform in his first year. I think the most important thing is that he has the talent; I mean he’s quick. I hope he can be clever as well, to learn everything from Formula One. There’s a lot that be will learn and I hope he’s quick enough to learn and to be consistent in Formula One and that he can stay, not just staying for one or two years and not doing what he’s supposed to do. Until now he shows great talent and I hope he can show the same in Formula One, so I’m happy.

    Nico, your thoughts?

    Nico Rosberg Press ConferenceNico ROSBERG: The same as Felipe said. All the journalists are always asking ‘is it only with money that you can get to the sport?’ and things like that. It’s great to see that if you have the talent and you really deserve it… there have been many examples recently that have made it into F1. That’s important, that’s good. Of course, it’s very young but I think we’ll be OK.

    Daniel, your thoughts on this?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Not much more to add. It makes me feel a bit old! Definitely the Red Bull Junior Team and the programme for me worked a treat; helped me get to where I am. Obviously it’s good they’re now helping out Max. Obviously the age is the question mark but the talent, as Felipe said, is there. It’s going to be interesting but, yeah, it’s good.

     

    Romain, what about you? Like the three guys before you, you all started in your 20s, what about starting so young in Formula One?

    Romain GROSJEAN: It’s a wonderful opportunity that he has and it’s something quite special to come to Formula One. As everyone says, he has shown great talent early in his career but he will have a lot of homework to do to learn everything about racing in higher categories – tyre deg, speed, a lot of things. But it’s good to see fresh blood, but a bit sad for JEV.

    Jules?

    Jules BIANCHI: Obviously as everyone says it’s a great opportunity for him and it’s great that some teams still invest in young drivers like that. I’m sure he will be doing well. He’s really quick; we saw that in Formula 3. He won everything in go-karts. I’m also sad for JEV, I hope he will find something else but this is how it is now.

    And Daniil, you’ll be driving alongside him next year, you started at 19 this year, what are your thoughts?

    Daniil KVYAT: Yeah well, I think we will see how it is going to be. I think we’re going to be team-mates. I think it’s not as complicated as it looks to all of you. For the rest you just come and see what you can achieve. For every driver it’s the same. It’s not my job to analyse all the things deeply and so we will just wait and see.

     

    What’s not as complicated as it looks?

    DK: I think any driver can come to Formula One, can adapt, can get up to speed. I think everybody is coming to Formula One for some reason – because he has talent, because he has been successful somewhere; there is always a reason why someone comes to Formula One but then there are many different things that make the difference, so it’s as simple as that.

     

    Jules coming to you. Two classic tracks coming up: Spa and Monza the next two races. One of your relatives is in a photograph over here, driving a Ferrari from the past. But what are your feelings on racing here and the prospects for you and the team and are they pushing hard do you feel?

    JB: It’s special for me to be in Belgium and here in Spa because of my family; my great uncle won here in GT cars and I feel a bit like being at home again, so I’m good here, I’m happy. We’re trying to push hard with the team, trying to stay ahead of Caterham. This is still our target, so we’ll try to achieve that. For sure, it won’t be easy because they are pushing hard as well. They are not giving up. That’s why we will keep fighting. We will have to see how it will be in Spa. Monza will be another challenge but at the moment I’m focused on this race.

     

    Romain, you said you’re reviewing you options for 2015. Obviously Lotus have secured Mercedes engines for next year. What are the next steps forRomain Grosjean Press Conferece you and the team? 

    RG: I think we still have to understand and analyse a bit more this difficult season. There were many reasons why we started on the back foot but I’m sure we can still learn a lot. The idea is to prepare the future as good as it can be for Lotus. They have been designing wonderful cars in the last two to four years and I don’t see reason that it’s not the case again in the future. Hopefully things get better but so far we still need to do our job, understand things and what we can learn from that difficult season.

     

    Daniil, coming to you. As this Daniel was saying, just picking up on his points from earlier on, you know with the Toro Rosso programme you’ve got around about two years to prove yourself and obviously in Jean-Eric’s he moves on. Tell us, when you’re in that situation, does it feel reassuring to know that you’ve got those two years, you’ve got that time to prove yourself or does it add to the pressure?

    DK: It all depends on how you take it. Obviously you can take it from two sides. Obviously you have to think that you’ve been given the chance and you just try to use it as good as you can. You cannot really be thinking too much about there is some limited time about it, but yeah, so I’ve been given a chance and I’m just doing my best all of the time, trying to make the best out of it. There’s no special trick.

     

    Felipe, on paper this race and the next one should be two of your strongest tracks this season. What are you and Williams hoping to take out of these two races, particularly coming off the back of the strong result you had last time out? What’s your minimum expectation?

    FM: Well, I hope it can be more than just on the paper. I hope we can show good performance on the track in this race and in Monza. But I would say maybe most of the races we can be competitive. Maybe Singapore will be the most difficult one but I would say that at most of the tracks we can be there, we can be competitive. I hope that we can show that and I hope that we can be… still growing, still improving, like we did from the first race until now. It would be great to have a very competitive car and very good race here and Monza but also in the second part of the season. We’re still fighting. We know how important is the points. We’re going to fight; we’re going to do everything we can to be competitive.

     

    Daniel coming to you. The first win obviously is always special. The second one, four races later, suggests it’s becoming something of a habit. Tell us about your confidence level at the moment and how you see the second half of the season for yourself and Red Bull in terms of opportunities and objectives?

     

    DR: Yeah, just keep building on the first half of the year we had. It was really nice to get a couple of wins in the first 11 races, so yeah, for confidence, for motivation, for myself and the team it’s obviously really high. Spa and Monza are circuits which on paper aren’t circuits that are going to suit us the most but we’re coming in with a bit of momentum so we’ll try to pull off a good result here and in Monza and then we’ve got a few tracks that will really come to us after that. So not much changes, just to keep building as always, keep learning and keep enjoying it. That’s important: that’s what I’m doing this year, I really am loving it, and just let that continue.

     

    Q: Nico, a number of talking points coming after the Hungary race, going into this one, one of them the team saying they’re not going to bother giving calls to either driver to let the other one through, even if there are strategy considerations. What were your own learnings from Hungary and what were you taking on from here?

    NR: I gather it was a bit of a mess afterwards, after Hungary, so it’s best I don’t add too much I think and I continue to not give too many details. In general of course we discussed it after the race – just because it’s important to review a situation like that and know how to move forward. Now we’re moving forward but of course, I have also learned various things from that race which I will try to adapt for the future.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GPWeek) To follow up the first question you were asked today. All six of you were racing as teenagers – one of you actually in Formula One – but a couple of you had to take a holiday from Formula One for a while. My question is, to all six of you, do you think each of you would have been ready for Formula One at the age of 17?

     

    Nico – didn’t you test an F1 car at 17 or 18?

    NR: Yeah, I tested an F1 car at 17. Driving-wise I would have been ready, I feel, but the limitation at the time was physically. That was a big limitation because at the time it was still V10, big downforce – I’m not sure if more downforce than now but the tyre grip was higher, y’know? That was the big limitation at the time for me as, a 17-year-old. But nowadays it is a little bit easier physically, definitely, so that will help.

     

    Dan, I think you were 21 when you came in – would you have been ready at 17?

    Daniel_Ricciardo_Press_ConferenceDR: Let’s say… no. I think I was still racing karts at 16 and then, yeah, I hadn’t driven many formula cars when I was 17, I think it was maybe my first season, so then I didn’t feel ready, no. Obviously my path was probably a bit different as well. I grew up a bit later.

     

    Romain, similar story for you?

    RG: 17 I was competing in my first races in single-seater. It was a Formula Renault 1.6l and no, I wasn’t ready.

     

    Daniil?

    DK: It’s an interesting question. I think I was racing in [FR] 2.0 at 17 and, if I have to come back again and do some pole laps that I did that year, maybe I couldn’t even do them again. In terms of pure performance, pure driving it’s a very similar driver: me now and me back at 17. But, many factors, of course form mental side and physical side. But, like I said, everybody’s different, so we just have to wait and see.

     

    Jules, you have a similar kart background to Max but you put a few years in, in the junior categories. What do you think, where would you have been at 17?

    JB: I was not ready at 17. It was my first year in Formula Renault 2.0, so I cannot say I was ready, for sure. I was doing mistakes there. So, if you still do mistakes in the previous categories, you cannot be ready for Formula One.

     

    Felipe, you were 20, I think, when you made your Formula One debut.

    FM: Yeah, I think when I started, when I drove first time the race car, I was 15. It was a Formula Chevrolet in Brazil. I think it was never a problem to be quick, it was a problem to understand – especially in Formula One. I was 20, I think it was a little bit too early for me. I really agree with what Nico says. Physically, at that time, it was a lot more difficult than now. Now I would say the race if very easy from the physical point of view, which is easier for a young driver to learn and understand – but at that time it was a lot more difficult from the physical point of view.

     

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Coming to what Felipe and Nico just said, also Lewis said in last few days that he feels this F1 is too easy for him, he would like to come out of the car exhausted, pushed to the limits. With these new cars it’s not the same any more. Would you also like it to be more difficult, more challenging, this Formula One?

    NR: In the first instance we’re here for the fans, yeah? So we need to do great racing. At the moment we’re seeing great racing, so that’s a big positive. That’s the first and most important thing – and then we need to work on the sound, which seems to be quite important to the fans, which I can understand. So those are the sort of things that are important. Then, from a driver’s point of view, yes, in an ideal world… I mean it’s great as it is, that’s a fact, but maybe it was a little bit better if I could do quali laps every lap with the tyres lasting forever, just proper qualifying every single lap in the race and harder physically. All of that would make it slightly better, yes, but I don’t really think about that because it is the way it is now, and that’s great, the way it is now.

     

    Daniel, do you agree with Lewis’ point of view?

    DR: Yeah, I think not much more to say. The racing is the first thing that needs to be good and it is. And maybe we should sweat a little bit more than we are. We’ll see.

     

    Felipe, you come from an era when you did sweat quite a lot. What are your thoughts?

    FM: I agree 100 per cent with what Nico said but the physical, to be harder or easier is related first of all to the refuelling. This is the first point. And on that time we had a loFelipe Massa_Press Conference more grip on the tyres as well. I think that’s the two things that make it more difficult to drive the car. To have more grip, and when we had the refuelling to have maximum 60kg in the car, 55kg all the time. It was a lot quicker, most of the laps. That’s why it was a lot more difficult from a physical point of view.

     

    Jules, this is the only F1 you’ve known. What are your thoughts? Would you like it to be a little bit more physically challenging?

    JB: Yeah, it would be good. I have no problem with that, for sure we are not like completely dead at the end of a race. We still have energy. So maybe it would be better for the people outside to see that when we get out of the car, we fall down, I don’t know what they like but, for sure, it’s not like this at the moment, so if we can improve this, yeah, let’s do it.

     

    Your perspective, Daniil?

    DK: Well, I testing last year’s car so I can rely on that a little bit. For me it wouldn’t be a problem, to be honest, to drive last year’s car in terms of the physical point and speed-wise as well. But in the end I don’t think the cars of this year are easier to drive than last year’s cars in terms of just driving because we lost some downforce, we have to fight. I’m pretty sure this Eau Rouge corner here is going to be quite interesting and challenging again. It’s been so easy flat the last few years. I don’t think it’s going to be so easy now. It’s always some negative and some positive sides everywhere. Everybody has a different opinion in the end, so it’s hard to make everyone happy.

     

    Romain, your view.

    RG: Yeah, well I think the first point is that the last few races have been really cool. I could watch, unfortunately, a bit of these grands prix. But on the other hand, don’t get us wrong, the cars are not easy to drive. They’re still performing very well. And yes, physically they are easy, but there are other challenges. I think it’s still a tough job. I remember my time in 2009, and already then the cars were physically harder to drive. I would like more: the quicker it goes the more we enjoy it. We are racing drivers. If you give us 200 more horsepower and more grip, we will take it – but what we want is to really have good races.

     

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Nico, you mentioned earlier about the talks that followed the Hungarian Grand Prix regarding the team orders situation. First of all, were those talks resolved to your satisfaction? Secondly, you also mentioned about learning things but you didn’t really expand. Are you able to expand at all on what you did learn, going forward now for the rest of the season in your battle with Lewis?

    NR: Yeah, sorry, I don’t really want to go into much more detail than that. As I said, we sat down, discussed it all. That is important after such an occasion, such a situation, and then review, if we need to change something for the future and that’s what we’ve done.

     

    Q: (Thomas Bastin – La Derniere Heure) To the most experienced – probably Felipe and Nico – we are now in the second part of the season with the new cars. Do you think that for the fans they are more spectacular to see and are they also more difficult to drive?

    FM: Well, I think it is definitely very nice for the fans. They see a lot of overtaking but maybe it’s the noise. The noise is really something that makes it more spectacular, like we had in the past. But the fights, they can see. Every race there are always big fights between the cars. I think it’s really interesting for the people. The noise is definitely something that we’re missing.

    Q: And your thoughts, Nico, particularly picking up on the point that Daniil made a moment ago, that with much less rear end downforce this year, corners like Eau Rouge can be much more of a challenge, right?

    NR: No, it’s that we have a little bit less grip in some places, but it’s not really… It depends on which car, of course. I think to watch from the outside it’s still awesome to watch these cars. They’re still the fastest cars that there are in terms of corner speed and things like that and just the sound… I understand that we need to keep on working on that and hopefully we can find a solution. Maybe we just put some big loudspeakers on the car. That’s the direction of electric cars in the future anyways.

     

    Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, I’ve see that you’ve been pretty active the last few weeks, hunting for pizza in Napoli, having parties in Ischia or Capri. How badly did you need this break for you in such a hard and tense season, fighting every second weekend for victory?

    NR: Needed, not really. After Hungary I wanted the next race to be the next day and just continue like that so it’s not like I needed a holiday but of course it was there and it was great. We had a great time with friends and family. I find it quite good that there’s the two weeks where everything is shut down because otherwise, even on a day off, there’s still e-mails with the team and this and that coming through and like that there is nothing. In those two weeks there’s really nothing happening and it’s quite a good thing for everybody.

     

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov  – AutoDigest) To all of you: you know every driver has his beliefs to have luck during a race, someone wears white shirts, another doesn’t shave, so what about you? What will you do or not do before a race?

    JB: Well, there’s one that I won’t tell you, there’s one that I can tell you: that I always get into the car from the right side. That’s it.

    DK: There’s no luck, I think.

    RG: I used to have superstitions when I was younger and once I forgot things that I used as superstitions and I won the race, so I thought that was useless but there are certainly routines: I always put on my suit the same way, I always jump in the car from the right hand side and with the seatbelts always the same way. It’s just the fact that you get ready to race.

    DR: It’s an excuse for something to go wrong! It’s nonsense.

    NR: I keep my underwear from qualifying if I’m on pole for the race! And they’re not allowed to be washed either.

    FM: Yeah, me too! Not to be on pole, you know, because otherwise I have just one this time. If I start the weekend in a good way and I use the same on Saturday and Sunday. I also go inside the car from the left side, to put my right foot first in the car. So many things that don’t change anything but you just feel well.

     

    Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1 Zone) Daniil, your team will have the youngest line-up next season; could that be a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to developing the car?

    DK: To be honest, this season is still going on for me and there are eight races to go and I’m still not thinking about that. I think, as I said, getting up to speed is not such a big problem so then there are many many different details and factors that decide what’s going to happen for the future of the driver, whoever he is, so I think obviously it’s good, getting as young as possible to Formula One because then you have plenty of time but it’s all up to how you can develop. At the moment, I really don’t know how to say. I don’t think it’s going to be a big problem. We will develop OK.

     

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Daily Telegraph) Nico, you said at the beginning, when James asked you, that there was a bit of a mess after the last race, given what happened with the team orders. Is that why you seem fairly reluctant to elaborate – which is fair enough – but is that why you’re reluctant to explain more about it?

    NR: No, sorry, let me make that more precise. I gathered that there was a bit of a mess in the media and so it wouldn’t be useful for me to give another extra bit to that at the moment, it’s better to let it all calm down. That’s what I meant.

    FM: You fight, after the race, with…?

     

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) For Jules Bianchi: there are a lot of people saying that you deserve a better car than the Marussia. What are your expectations for next year? Do you feel the same?

    JB: Well, I’m trying to do my best now while I’m with Marussia because it’s the same I’m with at the moment and I’m happy to be with Marussia, for sure. They gave me the chance to get a Formula One drive so I can’t complain. Obviously my manager and Ferrari has to work out what I will do next year, it’s still not sure yet so we’ll have to wait and see but for me, at the moment, I just want to finish the championship well. I will try to do as we started, stay in front of Caterham and then we will see.

  • Max Verstappen to Drive for Toro Rosso in 2015

    Max Verstappen to Drive for Toro Rosso in 2015

    Scuderia Toro Rosso announced on 18 August 2014 that young rookie Max Verstappen will drive for the team in 2015.

    Verstappen (16), will drive alongside fellow rookie Daniil Kvyat. Which means long standing Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne will be without a racing seat in 2015.

    The young dutchman is currently competing in the Formula 3 European Championship where he has won 8 out of the 27 races to date, which has also put him in contention for the F3 title. Verstappen will become the youngest F1 driver on the grid next year at the Australian Grand Prix at 17 years of age. The previous record holder was Jaime Alguersuari who made his debut for Toro Rosso as well at 19 years of age.

    “First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Helmut Marko and Red Bull for all their trust and giving me the chance to make my Formula debut in 2015 with Scuderia Toro Rosso. Ever since I was seven years old, Formula 1 has been my career goal, so this opportunity is truly a dream come true,” said Verstappen

    “We are happy to welcome Max into the Toro Rosso family,” said Team Principal Franz Tost.

    “It’s great to see how the Red Bull Junior Programme continues to find talented young drivers and gives them the opportunity to come into Formula 1. We consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully,” he added.

    “I would also like to thank Jean-Eric Vergne for all his hard work. He has produced strong performances, but unfortunately he was also hindered by some reliability problems.”

    “We hope that we have resolved these problems and that he will be able to end the second half of this season on a high note and thereby show that he still deserves another opportunity in Formula 1.”

  • F1 2014: Hungarian GP Preview – Tricky Hungarian Test Awaits

    F1 2014: Hungarian GP Preview – Tricky Hungarian Test Awaits

    Less than seven days later the Formula 1 paddock descends on the city of Budapest for the Hungarian GP. Technical in nature the 4.381 km circuit will require high downforce, efficient cooling and most importantly a good qualifying performance.

    The Hungaroring is often referred to as Monaco without the barriers because of its tricky layout which for the most part has only one racing line. Consequently, there won’t be much opportunity for overtaking nor will all mistakes go unpunished. The Hungaroring retains some of the old-school Formula 1 characteristics which means that gravel traps and barriers loom in close proximity. Contrastingly, there are several tarmac run-off areas which offer some reprieve for error-stricken drivers.

    Given the lack of proper overtaking opportunities strategy will be particularly important. The extremely high track temperatures seen at Hockenheim has given the teams vital information as to how to Pirelli rubber will react when exposed to similar conditions in Hungary. The tyres we are bringing to Hungary are a step harder, to deal with the increased demands, so we would expect the usual two pit stops,” predicted Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

    top-dog-580x326The circuit’s layout is dominated by medium to high-speed corners with little time spent at full throttle. However, the average speed of the lap remains fairly high. “The Hungaroring is a great track,” says McLaren’s Jenson Button. “Everybody thinks of it as a slow circuit, but, out the back, it’s got some pretty decent corners – Turn Four requires some serious commitment, and it’s made harder because it has a blind apex. Equally, the sequence of S-bends that make up Turns Eight to 11 are really satisfying to drive.”

    Lewis Hamilton has been dogged by issues in qualifying for the last several races as he trails fourteen points behind teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. However, Hamilton is prepared to come out fighting once more and resolutely said that enjoys having to fight for victories and the title.

    The 2008 champion may have more to fight against this weekend than just his teammate. The Williams team has been on the cusp several times of mounting a serious battle for victory and if they can continue their stunning momentum Hungary may be their best chance yet.

    Williams’ chance to win the Hungarian GP will come on Saturday. The Hungaroring, much like Monte Carlo, is notoriously difficult to25852052 overtake on. Despite the fact that race pace is always priority for Bottas, Massa and their engineers they may devote a bit more time and effort than usual to enhancing their one lap pace. But locking out the front row or securing pole position won’t be all that is required. The team will have to take an aggressive approach on strategy as they still lack on overall race pace when compared to the Silver Arrows.

    By this stage of the season the duel between the Mercedes drivers is as intense as at any other point.

    However, their attention may be required elsewhere this weekend. Can Williams steal the all mighty Mercedes’ thunder?