F1 Madness

Tag: Valtteri Bottas

  • F1 2018: Azerbaijan Gp Review – Chaos & Collisions in Baku

    F1 2018: Azerbaijan Gp Review – Chaos & Collisions in Baku

    The ingredients were there to make the Azerbaijan grand prix a cracker. And they all mixed together to produce as thrilling and unpredictable a race as any Hollywood director could dream up.

    There wasn’t a long wait for the inevitable safety-car as Esteban Ocon collided with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen after leaving the Finn no room into turn two. It meant that Raikkonen needed to stop for a new front-wing and the soft compound tyre, which dropped him to plumb last.

    For most of the race pole starter Sebastian Vettel seemed to have it under control as he managed the pace ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes. But the mid-race lull quickly gave way to a melee of crashes and safety cars. Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen who dramatically took each other out at the end of the start/finish strait induced the second appearance of the safety-car.

    The two Red Bull drivers had been swopping paint and banging wheels throughout the race as the battled for supremacy. Ultimately the FIA race stewards adjudged that Verstappen had moved twice ahead of Ricciardo that prompted the crash. Both drivers were given a reprimand and Red Bull management have chalked it up to “two guys taking things into their own hands” and that blame would not be appropriated either way, at least that’s what team principal Christian Horner said in public.

    Baku 2018_Ricciardo_Versatppen_Race_CrashIt certainly hasn’t been the first time that Verstappen has made two moves under braking as Vettel, Raikkonen and others have criticized him for it in the past. His errors in judgment are beginning to pile up and well into his third season in the sport the excuse of ‘inexperience’ cannot be used any longer. While his aggressive approach to racing has been lauded and welcomed Verstappen runs the risk of developing a reputation that wont be easy to overcome.

    The second safety-car was good news for Valtteri Bottas, who, because he hadn’t stopped yet, was in the lead of the race. His twelve-second window over Vettel was enough to get him in and out of the pitlane ahead of the Ferrari driver. The re-start prompted Vettel to attempt a dive up the inside of Bottas for the lead of the race but the Ferrari driver only succeeded in significantly flat-spotting his tyres. He dropped behind the Force India of Sergio Perez to finish fourth.

    The joy was short lived for Bottas though as he was agonizingly forced out of the race with a right rear puncture. As the dust settled Lewis Hamilton emerged to win the 63rd race of his career ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who was at one point plumb last. Sergio Perez kept his nose clean enough to earn the final step on the podium. By his own admission Hamilton considered ‘lady-luck’ the determining factor in his race win. Nevertheless, luck is part of the sport and Hamilton kept it together when everything was going off around him.

    Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Race Day - Baku, AzerbaijanRenault’s Carlos Sainz secured a brilliant fifth place finish by the driver of the day was undoubtedly Sauber’s Charles Le Clerc with a stunning sixth place. Fernando Alonso recovered from a double-puncture to finish seventh ahead of Lance Stroll who scored Williams’ first points on the season in eighth. Stoffel Vandoorne took ninth for McLaren as Brendon Hartley scored the first point of his F1 career in tenth.

    Hamilton’s victory takes him four-points clear at the top of the driver’s standings while Ferrari retake the lead in the constructor’s standings ahead of F1’s return to Europe for the Spanish grand prix in two weeks time.

  • Azerbaijan GP 2018: Friday Practice Round Up

    Azerbaijan GP 2018: Friday Practice Round Up

    Friday Practice in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix showed the Red Bull are looking like the team to beat. After a strong showing in FP1, and FP2 Daniel Ricciardo looks like he’s in the groove this weekend, hot on the heels of his victory in China.

    The Australian was not far off the pace in FP1 finishing 2nd fastest. In FP2 he finished top of the time sheets with team mate Max Verstappen a little bit off the pace finishing off a strong Friday for Red Bull.

    Free Practice 1

    The session was off to a busy start with the Mercedes drivers heading out unusually early in the session. Nevertheless it was Valtteri Bottas that edged out Daniel Ricciardo by 0.035s to finish fastest of the session. Bottas best time of the session was a 1:44.242.

    In a really strong showing was the Force India of Sergio Perez finishing the session 3rd fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 4th nearly one second off Bottas’ pace.

    Esteban Ocon finished 5th fastest ahead of the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Although Verstappen had set a time early in the session, he was out of the session just as quick. The Dutchman lost the rear of his Red Bull under braking into T5 and tagged the barrier side on. He kept the car running and tried to get going again but he stalled the car and could not get it going again. The VSC was deployed to retrieve the stricken Red Bull. Verstappen sat out the rest of the session trackside.

    The green and dusty track made conditions tricky and the notorious Turn 8 run off area came into play very quickly there were also a few other drivers that tested the limits of grip into various other corners around the track by aborting the corner and taking to the run off area.

    Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, got on with McLaren’s program and finished the session 7th fastest. Sergei Sirotkin ended 8th in a very good session for Williams.

    Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10 for Ferrari. Vettel complained about a lack of rear grip throughout the session and tried various tyres in a bit to try and find a viable setup. Kimi Raikkonen suffered a technical issue after 10-minutes and sat out the rest of the session.

    At the end of the session it looked like Mercedes and Red Bull had it dialled in very early on in the session but the long runs of FP2 were still to come…

    Free Practice 2

    Free Practice 2 all but confirmed Red Bull’s strong pace with Ricciardo topping the session with a session best time of 1:42.795 just edging out Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who set a best time of 1:42.864. Raikkonen did catch a small break courtesy of a tow from Hamilton down the long run to the finish line.

    3rd Fastest was Max Verstappen who had a much cleaner FP2 but had an issue at the end of the session where he was told to come into the pits slowly. Red Bull, after the session revealed that a faulty sensor was the cause and that there is no real concern.

    Valtteri Bottas finished 4th fastest ahead of team-mate Hamilton in 5th. Continuing their good run of form from FP1 was Esteban Ocon in the Force India finishing 7th ahead of another solid session for Carlos Sainz in the Renault.

    Kevin Magnussen finished a good session for Haas in 9th with Nico Hulkenberg in the second Renault rounding out the top 10.

    Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari did not feature in the top 10 with another scrappy session with rear grip once again the issue.

    Like in FP1, the drivers continued to test the limits of grip under braking with a few drivers running into the run off areas around the circuit.

    Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber was confined to the garage for the session after a gearbox issue was detected early in the session.

    On the long runs Red Bull are coming out the fastest with Ferrari close behind. Mercedes are finding it hard to get heat into the tyres which means front and rear grip comes at a premium. On board shots of Hamilton’s car shows that the usually on rails Mercedes is quite a way off peak grip.

    Red Bull seem to have the edge on one lap pace as well in Baku. Mercedes’ qualifying engine mode might spoil the party for the Bulls come qualifying which will make strategy quite important once again. With the Ultra soft being the qualifying tyre and with little durability, it looks like the soft tyre will be the favoured race tyre. And we know how well the softs suit the Mercedes. Red Bull have something to say about that though…

  • F1 2018: Azerbaijan Gp Review: Battle in Baku

    F1 2018: Azerbaijan Gp Review: Battle in Baku

    The Formula 1 paddock is set for Baku this weekend as it jets into Azerbaijan for the fourth round of the 2018 season.

    On the back of the first three races the teams will arrive at this weekend’s grand prix with a varying degree of mindsets. Ferrari should arrive in a fairly decent frame of mind but all is not up to par in the Italian team’s stable. The general assumption would be that Ferrari would have learned from several dubious strategy calls in 2017 but, again, the calls in China left a lot to be desired. It is an area that in 2017 cost them race wins and if they are to genuinely take the fight to Mercedes they cannot fall into the same hole this season.

    Notorious for taking Ferrari to task the Italian media has delivered a scathing rebuke of the team’s treatment of Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn has started the 2018 season in fine form but was still, shamefully, used as a blocker for his teammate during the Chinese Gp. It’s a slippery slope Ferrari find themselves on. If they continue to sacrifice Raikkonen in aid of Sebastian Vettel they will, undoubtedly, forfeit any chance of winning the constructor’s title too. And if Ferrari is in the market for a replacement for their last world champion, say someone like a Daniel Ricciardo, it must be careful as to what image they are projecting to prospective drivers.

    For Mercedes Baku has turned into a must-win grand prix. The German team finds itself in unprecedented territory having not yet won a race in the 2018 season. Regardless of the circumstances that led to Ferrari, and Red Bulls’, victories the fact remains that Mercedes finds itself needing to respond. More so, Lewis Hamilton has looked decidedly off colour even in comparison to teammate Valtteri Bottas. Nevertheless, the team seems confident that it can bounce back. “We just need to stick our heads together, stay calm, get the head down and come up with some solutions. Huge confidence in the team, they’ve proved that in the past,” says Toto Wolff.

    Lewis Hamilton - Italian Grand Prix pole positionThe Baku circuit is one where Mercedes should do well. The circuit in Azerbaijan is the third longest on the calendar as comprises a rather unusual layout for a street circuit. The tight and twisting middle sector is bookended by long, power hungry straits, which combines in the first counter-clockwise lap of the year. While the track hasn’t shown too much tyre degradation in the two years that it’s been on the calendar it may prove a factor this weekend. In particular Ferrari has taken an aggressive approach by selecting ten sets each of the ultrasoft compound while Mercedes has gone for nine and Red Bull for eight set of the softest compound this weekend. “Baku is a bit strange,” says Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola. “Because it’s a street circuit, but with a very high speed straight. You have some sectors that are very, very fast, but also you have some parts of the track under the sun, and some parts in shadow”.

    The long straits may put Red Bull into some difficulty with overall laptime when compared to Mercedes and Ferrari but they should in no way be discounted this weekend. The probability of a safety-car around the exceedingly tight mid-sector is high and Red Bull’s strategy calls have already netted them a race win. Max Verstappen’s performance this weekend will be worth noting as the young Dutchman has not only been shown up by his Aussie teammate, so far, in 2018 but also has to iron out some recklessness from his own driving.

    The chances are good that this will be the weekend that Lewis Hamilton bounces back into form. The question is will Ferrari have the speed and more importantly the composure to stop him in his track, no pun intended.

  • F1 2018: Chinese Gp Review – Red Bull Win Shanghai Thriller

    F1 2018: Chinese Gp Review – Red Bull Win Shanghai Thriller

    The 2018 Chinese grand prix may have taken some time to kick off. But once it came alive it produced one of the most thrilling and memorable races for quite some time.

    Ferrari’s front-row lock out in Saturday qualifying, some half a second clear of the first Mercedes, set up what seemed like a foregone victory for the Italian team. However, even as dominant as Mercedes have been in the hybrid era Formula 1 remains one, if not the, most unpredictable sports in the world.

    Nevertheless, the race got off without too much excitement. Sebastian Vettel cut off teammate Kimi Raikkonen to retain the lead while the Finn dropped behind the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The opening stint of the race was uneventful with Vettel heading to a third win in as many races. However, it was a dubious day for Ferrari as Mercedes, with Bottas, took over the lead with a sharper strategy call.

    Ferrari weren’t done with the astonishing calls though as they decided to leave Kimi Raikkonen out on track to serve as a blocker for teammate Vettel in his quest to get back the lead of the race from Bottas. Ferrari’s call dropped Raikkonen to sixth after the pitstop. To treat their last world champion in such a manner was nothing less than shameful by Ferrari.

    Daniel Ricciardo_China 2018_Finish LineThe race kicked off soon after as Pierre Gasly crashed into the side of his Toro Rosso teammate Brendon Hartley. Not only did Gasly incur a ten second penalty but the debris strewn across turn 14 prompted the deployment of the safety-car. While Bottas and Vettel missed a chance to dive into the pitlane for fresh tyres both Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo were called in and armed with new soft tyres.

    Again, Ferrari was out-smarted on strategy as there was enough time to make the call to switch Raikkonen to new tyres. Mind you, Mercedes didn’t call in Hamilton either but did so as they though track position would be more important than fresh rubber.

    The pace advantage of both Red Bulls was clear immediately in comparison to Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel, and Bottas. But Max Verstappen proved too impetuous in his overtaking moves as he ran off track when attempting to overtake Hamilton. He regrouped but got it wrong again when he hit Vettel at the turn 14 hairpin. The Dutchman was given a ten second penalty and will undoubtedly receive a talking to from his team.

    He’ll be well advised to take note of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo who pulled off several stunning moves. First, he came from impossibly far back to take the place off Hamilton at the hairpin and followed it a lap later by easily picking off Vettel at the same spot. The best of the lot was the audacious on Bottas to take the lead of the race. Ricciardo scampered off into the distance to secure the sixth win of her career.

    Daniel Ricciardo_China 2018_PodiumValtteri Bottas held on to a solid second place by just six tenths of a second. Kimi Raikkonen secured third despite being hung out to dry by Ferrari. Though Verstappen recovered from his collision with Vettel his fourth on the road turned into fifth with a warranted ten-second penalty for causing a collision. Lewis Hamilton trundled home in a desolate fourth in what was an off-colour weekend for the reigning champion.

    Nico Hulkenberg brought his Renault home in a solid sixth place ahead of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren in seventh. Sebastian Vettel limped home in eighth with Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten.

    Daniel Ricciardo’s brilliant win in China illustrated a Formula 1 team in perfect synergy. The team was pushed to the limits after needing to change the Australian’s engine on Saturday in time for qualifying. A job that normally takes three hours to complete was miraculously accomplished in two. And then there was the genius strategy calls and tremendous work in the pitlane to stop and service both cars back-to-back. To top it all off Ricciardo provided the icing on the cake with a sensational driving performance. Now that is Formula 1 at its best.

    All images courtesy of Red Bull Racing & Pirelli Motorsport

  • 2018 Chinese GP: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Chinese GP: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

     

    Daniel – what an absolute star. What a race! Your sixth victory, but is that the sweetest one?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I don’t know what it is, I don’t seem to win boring races, they’re all pretty fun. That was unexpected. Put ourselves 24 hours ago and I thought we’d maybe be starting at the back of the grid. Firstly, thanks to the boys yesterday. I thanked them after qualifying but today is the real reward for that work. So thank you to everyone at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, the mechanics worked their butts off, so…

     

    And the team had their brain in gear didn’t they, under the safety car, getting you in the pit lane. Double stacked the car twice, so the pit crew were on it as well?

    DR: It was hectic. I heard ‘safety car’ in Turn 14, and they said ‘we’re going to double stop, come, come, in the box’. It happened very quickly but very decisive moves, winning moves also from the team, so thanks a lot. Yeah, fat lip and all I got the win.

     

    Just take us through one of the great overtakes – maybe on Lewis? That came out of nowhere down to the Turn 14 hairpin.

    DR: Yeah, sometimes you’ve just got to lick the stamp and send it. So, there we go. I enjoyed it very much.

     

    You still made the apex somehow, extraordinary?

    DR: Yeah, obviously we had the soft tyre so I knew I could get a little bit more out of the braking than them. A lot of the time you get one chance to try so I made the most of every opportunity.

     

    You were a little closer to Valtteri when you passed him than you are now, but Valtteri, kind of bittersweet. Your 100th start but the safety car didn’t play into your hands and left you on some slightly older tyres and struggling a little bit.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, you know, the race was going pretty well for us and we were looking strong all the way, until the guys, during the safety car, stopped and we were in trouble then with Daniel and nearly with Kimi in the end. It is disappointing. We were giving everything we had and it kind of felt like we deserved victory… but not today.

     

    Without the safety car, do you think you had enough grip and pace to keep Sebastian behind you and take victory?

    VB: It felt like everything was under control so far. I had no major drop-off in the end, so I think we could have done it, but this is racing, these things happen.

     

    Kimi, wow, it looked like you were a bit out of position. It looked like you were struggling a bit. They kept you out a long time before the pit stop. Then the safety car played into your hands and you had great speed and you got yourself back onto the podium.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I think we made a good start and then got, unfortunately, blocked a bit and passed in the first corners. I struggled a little bit following people in the beginning. On my own I wasn’t too bad, but far from ideal at the start of the race and then obviously we stayed very long out. A little bit of luck with the safety car. I had good speed on the mediums but in the end we would have needed the soft tyres to really go for it. But I think I was kind of OK in the end, but once I got close I had much more speed than Valtteri but once you get close it’s so difficult to follow people, to get a good run you need much better tyres to get that proper run and you can kind of offset yourself. But I’ll take what I got, because at one point it didn’t look good at all.

     

    Daniel, I just want to go through the other overtake, when you passed Valtteri into Turn 6, because that looked a little bit touch and go.

    DR: It was close. I think it was hard but fair. I saw him defend, so I wanted to go shallower, but then he came a bit more… I thought about pulling out. No, I’m just kidding! I knew there would always be enough room and the tyres had pretty good grip, so worst case I went wide and I’d have another crack somewhere else.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Daniel, many congratulations. In winter testing, if someone had said to you “Red Bull will win a race this year before Mercedes,” what would have been your reaction?

    DR: Good job. Yeah, pretty cool. Holy Testicle Tuesday! I don’t know. I’m sitting here, reciting everything in my head what just happened. Yeah, awesome. Even after yesterday. I’ve only got six, it’s not a whole lot but the wins seem to come under always some circumstances. Baku, and this one now where we really thought we were going to start the race at the back. We didn’t think we were going to get out in qualifying and, just over 24 hours later, now to be here, it’s… this sport’s crazy. A week ago I was with my head down after two laps on Sunday. Yeah, frustrated at the sport, frustrated at all the variables that are involved in the sport. Sometimes I question why I chose this sport because there’s so many other things out of your control and it does get you down a lot – but then when you have a day like this it’s worth fifty of those bad ones.

     

    Q: Valtteri, coming on to you. A lot was made yesterday after qualifying about the team having set the cars up for the warmer temperatures that we had today in the grand prix. How was the balance of the car?

    VB: I think the balance was OK. Like actually it felt OK yesterday, we were just not quite quick enough with the ultrasoft, so yeah, today we only used soft and medium and I think on the soft it was next to nothing, the difference to Ferrari. We were as competitive as them. I think with the medium it was pretty much the same case. So, for sure, starting the race from the second row makes it more difficult. It’s a shame what happened in the end because we really took the opportunities in the beginning of the race start, during the pitstop. After the pitstop everything was going fine. And then with the Safety Car we just got a little bit unlucky – but that happens sometimes. It’s difficult to accept that quickly, after the race – but that’s F1.

     

    Q: Talk us through the undercut. Were you surprised to come out ahead of Vettel?

    VB: No. We knew that it is possible with this kind of gap, if you get everything perfect, coming in, in the box, into the pitlane and all that. If you can switch on the tyres quickly, it’s possible. That’s why we stopped at this point. It was perfect timing from the team. I think it felt it was my quickest stop I’ve had with the team. So, everything just went really well. Good out-lap. So, we knew it was possible.

     

    Q: Kimi, can we get your thoughts on the pecking order now. Because Ferrari were so quick in qualifying yesterday, yet here you are in third place.

    KR: It’s very hard to say. I think if you ask anybody, it’s a bit tricky to give you an answer. I think today a lot of the end results depended on whether you had better tyres than others, when you could offset yourself to the others. Obviously, it’s part of the game. A big part of the game. And here it made a big difference. And the safety car playing in there. So, like pure speed, with everybody on the same tyres… it’s difficult, very difficult to say in a race. I think it’s nice like that, for everybody to watch, because nobody really knows, everybody would love to know, nobody really has because it changes from race to race. And such a small difference makes a big difference in the end results. I think you just have to wait and see. I think it might change from race to race and who runs what tyres.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Daniel, you’ve pulled off a lot of spectacular overtakes already in your Formula One career, not just to win races. Where does the overtake on Valtteri today rank and can you just talk us through what was going on in the car and going on in your head at the beginning of that process, through the overtake and afterwards?

    DR: Yeah. Opportunity be knocking! That’s what I would say. I could tell that obviously we had the advantage coming in at the safety car and having those softs. Yeah, I sensed the opportunity. Initially it was ‘OK, maybe now we can fight for the podium’ and at the rate that we were going through the field, and I could feel the tyres were holding on well, then it was obviously fully set on the win. Yeah, I don’t know. Obviously I had pace over all the guys that I got ahead of but you still don’t want to sit behind for too long. I saw Valtteri defend but I was kind of committed already from turn three that I was going to try. It was cool, it was close but I would say close but fair and it’s cool when you go wheel-to-wheel and I think it’s fun for drivers and it’s good TV so I enjoyed it. It makes it a bit sweeter than just maybe cruising past on the straight so that was a lot of fun.

     

    Q: And Valtteri can we just have your take on that overtaking manoeuvre?

    VB: Well, yeah. I was defending, obviously I saw him very close in turns one, two, three. He got a decent exit as well. He was closing lap after lap with pretty big gains. Yeah, from my side there was not much to do. I tried to defend but ultimately, with the better tyres, he could really brake quite a lot later and got inside. Like he said, it was all fair and like this. I think it was just a matter of time, with the pace he was going.

     

    Q: (Keren Wang – Top Driver) Daniel, why didn’t you share your shoey with Valtteri and Kimi?

    DR: To be honest, actually I don’t know if I’ve ever offered it to Kimi but to be honest I sprayed most of the champagne so I didn’t have that much more and obviously I saw my number one mechanic Genty (Chris Gent) and he was the priority at the time. There wasn’t enough to go round today unfortunately. Hopefully there’s plenty more opportunities.

     

    Q: Kimi, would you accept a shoey?

    KR: Lucky for us…

    DR: Maybe next time. It’s a privilege.

     

    Q: (Keren Wang – Top Driver) Daniel, you kept your cool throughout the race. What was in your mind when you saw that Max had made a mistake and you overtook him?

    DR: I could see it coming a few corners before. Obviously I saw he was close to Lewis out of ‘three’. I wasn’t close enough to be involved at that moment so yeah, I was just watching, I guess and obviously if there is some contact, I’ve got to then position myself and try and be prepared. Yeah, then I saw he was trying on the outside of ‘seven’ and I could see them both drift wide and I could see that one car was probably not going to make it, so the difficult thing was then when Max went off track I wasn’t sure if he was going to slide back across, hold the line, so that was quite tricky initially, but then I could see he was coming on with quite a bit of speed so then it was quite easy in my mind to cut across the inside to let him go. But yeah, even those things, they happen so fast and you’re still in the heat of the battle so it’s quite hard to always pick the right move. Fortunately I didn’t really lose any time with that and yeah, it was pretty close, so I don’t know what the viewers thought but it seemed like it was a pretty close battle.

  • 2018 Chinese GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2018 Chinese GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (conducted by Davide Valsecchi)

    Q: Sebastian, what a lap, it was just amazing. And then the last sector, how good it was, it was something unbelievable.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I was happy with the whole lap, not just the last sector. The car was really amazing. It just kept getting better, so really happy. I knew that on the first lap I had some mistakes. I lost the rear at Turn 3 at the exit of the low-speed, and then 6 again, so I was a bit beaten up, but then I knew that if I got a tidy lap and I have a little bit of margin then I could push.

     

    Q: Do you ever check the reaction of the fans? They love it!

    SV: Yeah, really good. Also in the hairpin, in Turn 14, just under braking, outside, I see the people going crazy. It’s really nice.

     

    Q: Kimi, you were on pole just until the last sector of Sebastian Vettel. You have to be proud of your quali? I know it must be disappointing but your drive was excellent today.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: It was OK, but not good enough. It’s not exactly what I wanted, so, yeah, we go tomorrow and see what we can do.

     

    Q: About tomorrow: what do you think you can do?

    KR: Well, we try to improve. Obviously it’s going to be a long race. We need to stay out of issues and go from there and see what it brings.

     

    Q: Valtteri, how was your quali? It seemed that you were struggling a bit but then just at the end you could improve. What do you think, how was your Mercedes today?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I think for us it was quite straightforward honestly, as a qualifying, run by run understanding the tyres, getting them to work better. But we never could achieve similar grip levels to Ferrari today.

     

    Q: Let me check it out, tomorrow, first row, Turn 1, how is it going to be?

    SV: I don’t know. We find out tomorrow. Looks like on Kimi’s side there’s more rubber, so I need a good start!

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Sebastian, just talk us through that session and how you built up to that incredible time of 1:31.095?

    SV: Yeah, it was indeed a crazy session – the car was unbelievable and it just got better. I think right from the first lap in the first of part of qualifying, in Q1, I was really happy and in the end we didn’t have to do much on the car. I didn’t have to fight so much finding the last fine tunings. I was very happy with the settings I had from the beginning. Usually you change quite a lot, you change your mind… it was tricky, because also the wind was changing, sometimes more, sometimes less, and a bit gusty as well. Trying to look around the lap to see where the flags are, trying to get a reference. The last lap in Q3 I knew I could step it up. I knew I had a bit more in me, because on the first run I had two moments, out of Turn 3, accelerating I was probably a bit keen. The same out of Turn 6, I lost the rear twice, so I lost a bit of momentum in those places. So I knew that I had a little bit more and obviously in the last lap I got it all together and very happy that when I crossed the line I was looking up to see the screen and I saw something green, which is usually good, and little bit of purple. Really pleased; it was a tight session but I think again a great result for the team.

     

    Your car seems to be getting stronger by the race. Are you surprised by the gap to Mercedes this weekend?

    SV: Yes, we are. I think the first three races have been a bit different now. The tracks are quite different to each other and to have that much of a gap is a bit of a surprise. But I think it’s also a track where you just need to get in and find that sweet spot and if you are a little bit out then easily you drop a little bit of time, so I wouldn’t be surprised tomorrow if that gap disappears and it will be a very tight race. Obviously, I wouldn’t mind if it stays there but I think it will be a tight race amongst the top three teams, and a long, tough race, but obviously it’s good to start from the front.

     

    Q: Kimi, coming on to you, you’ve been hooked up all weekend. Very, very close to your team-mate. Just talk us through the session from your point of view.

    KR: I think it was pretty straightforward. Not much really happened. Obviously after the morning it was a bit unknown where I was going to be with the wind and everything. I was pretty OK. Not much to say that was wrong. For sure there are things that we can improve always – but that’s a never-ending story. It was close. How close I don’t even know but close enough to make a difference, a few corners here and there. So, yeah, not ideal but tomorrow is another day. We’ll see what happens.

     

    Q: You say tomorrow’s the day. You’re going to be starting the race on the soft tyre, as are the top four drivers. Was that a straightforward decision – or were you tempted to start on the ultrasoft?

    KR: It was quite an easy decision, at least in the minds. If you cannot be fast enough… that we only find out in qualifying always but I think it was quite straightforward decision. We’ll see how it plays out tomorrow. It’s a bit unknown tomorrow.

     

    Q: Valtteri, just talking about that gap to Ferrari. Sebastian has already told us that he’s surprised at the size of the gap. Are you?

    VB: Yeah, we are. We thought coming into today that we would be fighting for the pole position but it was definitely out of reach today, there was nothing in the lap that we could have gained that much. I think there’s a little bit in terms of getting the tyres absolutely perfect for the lap – but it’s not half a second. You could feel it if it would be that big. So, I think they have a really strong car. We can see it, especially in long corners, Turn One-Two, they make some good gains to us and obviously not without any speed difference on the straights, they can keep the gains they make in the corners – so we definitely have work to do but yeah, tomorrow is a different day. Again, a long race ahead and like we saw last weekend it probably will be close. Hopefully we can make it up tomorrow what we lost today.

     

    Q: Can we elaborate a bit more about tomorrow. Do you think you’re going to have a more competitive race car than you had today?

    VB: hmmm… it’s difficult to say. We expected to go into today, that we would be fighting for the pole. From our numbers, it’s going to be very close between us and Ferrari – but as they were quicker today, we don’t know. But we will for sure try with everything we can. Obviously, we start on similar tyres so there’s not going to be massive differences with the strategies but yeah, we need to try and take the opportunities.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question for Kimi. Kimi, the first two sectors of your final lap were the fastest in the session so far, what happened in the final sector?

    KR: Nothing really. I lost some time but… I don’t know why. It wasn’t like I did some big mistake but yeah, need to see, I don’t know right now.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Question for the two Ferrari drivers. It’s always a balance between race pace and qualifying pace. Now, as you’ve seen the gap to the Mercedes, do you feel you’ve sacrificed race pace a bit too much for qualifying pace?

    SV: No. No, I think we try to look at both, obviously, and tomorrow the forecast is quite different so I think we kept that in mind. Obviously we see how it works tomorrow but the answer is still no.

     

    Kimi, anything to add?

    KR: I honestly don’t know how you could sacrifice something today to be better tomorrow. We have nothing that you could change like that. I never… as long as I remember, there has never been a case like that. You have somehow different setups for two days. It’s what you have. If it’s fast in qualifying it’s fast in the race, if it works.

     

    Q: (Yiyi Duan – Titan Sport) Kimi, very good qualifying lap but still not good enough so what details do you think can be improved if you want to overtake your teammate, if it’s possible, in tomorrow’s race?

    KR: Well, obviously first of all we need to make sure that we run a troublefree race. Obviously that’s the first point and then we have to see how it pans out, obviously, so it’s a long race. We know what we’re going to do between ourselves so there’s nothing… I think the start will be a big part of it and who knows? We will see how it pans out and what it brings but we need to make the best out of it.

     

    Q: (Keren Wang – Top Driver) Valtteri, you mentioned that you were struggling to find the grip level that you had yesterday. Was it because of the low temperature, does that mean that your car is less competitive under low temperature conditions?

    VB: Well, I think the grip levels came up, for sure, from yesterday so in a way it was better but I think I said, I just struggled to find as much grip as Kimi and Seb. I said maybe some part of it can be from the tyres but I think some of it must come from the car. I don’t know if yesterday… it’s (tomorrow) going to be quite different to today, definitely warmer, a few degrees warmer with the air and definitely on the track; with the sun it’s a question mark. But we don’t think we are less competitive on a cold track. I thought we struggled a bit in Bahrain with the heat! For sure, we always need to understand everything better but for sure we need to make the car better as well.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Seb, you had some problems yesterday; I don’t think the balance was alright and on the long run the lap times dropped a bit. Why did it go so much better today? Did you change something dramatic in the car or what happened?

    SV: We made some small changes but I think it was already pretty OK yesterday afternoon. I think in the long run I was catching traffic and (on) the other one it started to rain so I think for everyone it was a bit compromised, the amount of laps that you got. Yeah, I think overall I was happier today. Obviously it helps a little bit to focus on one lap as well, if you get the P3 session right you get the better feeling for the car so between practice and qualifying we didn’t do hardly anything. I think the overnight changes that we did, they were working and they made the car a little bit better. I was a little bit happier with the front end overall. I hope we can carry that momentum and feeling, obviously, into the race tomorrow.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri, are we seeing a recurrence of Mercedes’s struggles on the softest compound Pirellis from last year? And in those scenarios why do you think you are able to get more out of the car than Lewis?

    VB: I think we saw in the races before that in general we’ve been a bit better with the harder compounds. That is something that we’re still working on, to get more out of the softer compounds and I think Ferrari is doing something better on that so yes, for that. I think the gap between me and Lewis was really small, it’s been quite small all weekend so it’s about fine details. I haven’t seen the lap so it’s difficult to say, really, why I was ahead but yeah, it’s been close between us all season so far so that’s how it is.

     

     

    Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One

  • 2018 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Sebastian, you had to work for that one!

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I think I came on the race with about 10 laps to go, “I have everything under control”. I don’t know if they broadcast that. That was a lie; there was nothing under control. When they told me the pace of Valtteri at that time, there was no way I could do that. I was making the maths inside the car with 10 laps togo, at that pace, he’s going to catch me! I tried to keep it as clean as possible. Both Mercedes at the end of their stints were very strong, already in the first one. I think by going onto the prime… obviously they saw what we did, but going onto to the medium tyre, I thought that’s check mate, because we had to come in again. That was the original plan, but then we diverted obviously, and the tyres, I tried to make them last, nursed them as much as I can, and it worked. But just! There wasn’t much… I guess at the end of the straight for Valtteri, he had a bit of a sniff, but fortunately he ran out of laps, so very happy.

     

    Well, it’s great – your 49th victory from your 200th start. I’ll just bring Valtteri in here: so give us the mind set inside the car? You’re hunting him down, so you’ve got the gap within DRS, what were you saying in your mind as you got up close to the Ferrari gearbox?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I was seeing red.

     

    I get that! There was a lot of red. You just ran out of laps there, but the emotion in the cockpit?

    VB: Yeah, you know, I knew that because we were on the harder compound that he would struggle in the end, and he started to struggle, so I was just trying to get every corner perfect, every lap perfect, trying to catch him, but it was just not quite enough. But you are focusing on making everything perfect.

     

    So, Seb, you feel you had him completely under control, you were making a race of it?

    SV: Yeah, well, as I said, obviously coming out I knew we would have quite a gap because I pitted one or two laps sooner but then I wasn’t sure what they were on about. As I said, they were on the harder compound, meaning there is no stop necessary for them and it turned it out to be a greater strategy – it put us under a lot of stress and pressure. I think we had nothing to lose at that point, trying to stay out, trying to win, or I guess finish third. It worked – just. So, really pleased. If you manage to get the win under these conditions it tastes even better, so really happy.

     

    Quick message to Seb for next time. Are you going to get him? You can look him in the eye, you don’t need to look at his gearbox.

    VB: Well, you know, being second with such a close margin and having good pace at the end is extremely disappointing, so for sure I will try to get them next time.

     

    OK, well done. Lewis, congratulations on the podium, difficult weekend. We heard you frustrated in the car, there were some radio communication issues. We could hear what you were saying, but somehow your team couldn’t. Talk us through that. You should be happy with a third place, but you seem a bit disappointed?

    Lewis HAMILTON: No not at all, I’m happy! Firstly, congratulations to Sebastian and Valtteri did an exceptional job this weekend. I’m really happy to have… I started ninth, so third is not bad at all. It’s damage limitation. I think there were some frustrating points during the race where they couldn’t hear me, so I had to choose particular points during which I could speak to them.  So communication was really difficult. When you’re trying to catch Sebastian who was 25 seconds ahead, to know exactly what you need to do in order to not kill your tyres but make it so that you can catch him at the end, it’s difficult and if you’re not getting that feedback, it makes it kind of frustrating.

     

    Quick message to your fans here?

    LH: Big thank you to ebveryone in Bahrain, all the British flags here, thank you for coming out and supporting us, I appreciate it.

     

    Seb, coming back to you, leading the championship. I think we have to go back to something like 1982 since the guy that won the first two races of the season didn’t win the championship. You’re all about stats…

    SV: Well, they had less races in 1982, so probably… I don’t believe in all those things. Sometimes they work for you, sometimes against you. It doesn’t matter – we won and it’s a great feeling tonight. Bit sad, because I think in the pit stop with Kimi one of our mechanics got injured, so send him the best regards, I’m sure the guys are looking after him. Overall, a mixed day, knowing that, then one car retiring, but fortunately we managed to stay ahead of those two.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE – QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Lewis, I believe, if my ears are correct, you used the word ‘dickhead’ after the race concerning Max Verstappen and the overtake and the contact. Is that correct? And more importantly, is there an opinion you have on the contact you had with Max in the beginning stages of the race? Who was wrong, or was it just a racing incident?

    SV: Can I answer that question?

    Yes.

    SV: I think it’s not fair… I mean, I don’t know what Lewis did. We’ve all been in that situation, we fight someone, we go sometimes wheel-to-wheel, it’s close and you have a lot of adrenalin going, do you think comparing to football, if you have a microphone on a football player’s mouth, that everything he says is something nice and is a nice message when the guy tackles him and maybe sometimes he fouls him or not. So I don’t think it’s justified to give us these kind of shit questions and making up a story out of nothing, if we are just racing and we are full of adrenalin and sometime we say these things. I mean if I hit you in your face, you’re not going to say “oh, Sebastian, that wasn’t nice”. It’s a human reaction. Sometimes I feel it’s all a bit blown up and artificial if we have these questions, trying to make a story out of nothing. So, it’s not personal, don’t take it personal. So I think we should cut it right there, so now if Lewis can answer.

     

    I’ll just apologise for any colourful language in Sebastian’s answer there. Now over to you, Lewis.

    LH: Honestly, I don’t really remember it. I think maybe it was when we were talking afterwards? Ultimately, I had a coming together with Max and it was an unnecessary collision. There needs to be a certain respect between drivers and ultimately… maybe I need to go and watch the manoeuvre again, but it didn’t feel like a respectful manoeuvre, but ultimately it was a silly manoeuvre for himself, because he didn’t finish the race. And obviously he’s tending to make quite a few mistakes recently, so it was just unnecessary for him to do that. I can’t really remember at what stage of the race it was or why we were even in that position, but yeah, I don’t really care to be honest.

     

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, after Australia, does this result put your championship fight in the balance or would you have needed that victory?

    VB: It’s difficult to say about the balance in terms of championship, title fight because it’s only race two out of 21 so obviously, I got some points today but Sebastian, who’s leading the Championship definitely got more points. It’s early days – but anyway a lot better than two weeks ago. And even today, the race pace we had was actually slightly better than we expected coming into today. So, that was positive. I think this weekend has really opened up our eyes in terms of how much we still have work to do with the car in certain conditions. It’s really fast – but like yesterday we could spot some weaknesses of the car and even today. It’s been an important weekend. We need to make sure we keep improving those negatives we have to Ferrari.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) A question for Sebastian. Do you think that the performance for this weekend is… how much of it is down to improvements that you’ve made with Ferrari and how much is it maybe not quite being at the same level as in Australia.

    SV: It’s a difficult one. I can’t speak for them but I think it’s always a combination of things. You try to put so many things together and sometimes you succeed more than other times. I think probably the circuit came our way. I think mostly the fact I had a better feel with the car, we worked on the setup helped us to extract more. It was more consistent on one lap but also in the race. So, I felt just healthier and more in control. So, as I said, how much they struggled, I don’t know. I think they looked pretty handy at the end of the stints, at least, and in qualifying the gap wasn’t massive. So, I think overall it’s been close but obviously, it’s good to be just ahead.

     

    Q: (Arrackal Alexander – Gulf Auto Zone) Congratulations on the win. My first question to Vettel is: what have you to say about the car you won with and going into Shanghai are you confident with this car. The second question is to Bottas, it is you had a problem coming in where you almost caught up with him and there was a lot of smoke coming out through the front. What exactly was that? And did it have a problem. Did it have anything to do with being in second. And third one to Lewis Hamilton. Coming in from ninth and going all the way up to third congratulations – but what happened to the car and what one gathers from your conference earlier there was some problem with communication. What did that have to do with just coming in third, and what are your plans going into Shanghai?

    SV: You start, otherwise we won’t remember.

    LH: That was a long question. Communication, it was just the helmet radio so they could hear wind but they couldn’t hear my voice. Obviously, there’s turbulence in the car, that’s what they could hear rather than my voice. So, that’s an area we need to improve – but it’s not always the case. Just must have been something busted this weekend. Yeah, luckily we go from here with good points still and a good finish. I’m really, as I said, happy with third but going into Shanghai, it’s a good track for me in general. So, I’m hoping to turn the tables a little bit that weekend – but it’s going to be obviously hard. The Ferrari’s have shown incredible pace the last couple of races, so yeah…

     

    Seb, talking about going to Shanghai…

    SV: Yeah, I mean, as I’ve touched on many times this weekend, I had more confidence in the car, a better feel. I don’t know how to explain the best way but if you have more confidence and the car’s responding to your input then ultimately you go faster because you know what to expect and you can anticipate and overall you are happier. I think that’s the main step that we did for this weekend, working for the setup. Now Shanghai’s a completely different course, with different conditions. Usually it’s quite a bit cooler there. So, we’ll see when we get there – but yeah, it’s a tricky one to get everything right. The setup again will be crucial for us. It seems a bit more difficult to get into the window but if we do like this weekend, and we find the sweet spot, then I’m pretty confident that we can do well there as well.

     

    Valtteri?

    VB: When you’re closing up, the car ahead, it was obviously going to be very close with Sebastian in the end. I was trying everything I could to get to the distance to try and overtake. And in the braking zones, when you get close you lose some downforce because of the turbulent air. It affects mainly the front end, so that’s why it’s a little easier to lock the front wheels under braking. So, that’s the smoke. But didn’t really go wide in any corners, but it’s just when you’re pushing the limits, that can happen.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri, your second stint was not very linear. Initially you gained 3.5s in the first ten laps but then on the next ten laps you lost four seconds and only by lap 44 you really started catching up. Were you trying to save tyres or you only reacted when it was clear he was not going to stop again?

    VB: Initially I was trying to get a feel of the medium tyre which felt very good but suddenly it started to drop a little bit and knowing that I had to finish the race, at that middle part of the stint, I decided to take it a tiny bit easier, to kind of save for the end, but also I lost a lot of time with the backmarkers, I think more than Sebastian. I think for this track, the rule of blue flags seems like you need to get too close to get the blue flag switched on because you already lose a lot of time when you try to get there but I guess that’s the same for everyone. But yeah, in the end, tried to get everything out of the tyres and pretty much two laps to go I started to struggle with the tyres so yeah, long stint.

     

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, at one moment in the race your lap times were very high, more than seven seconds slower than yesterday. Were you controlling the pace, knowing that you should be racing to the end and knowing also that both Mercedes drivers were on mediums and you were on soft?

    SV: Yes, funny you mentioned that. I was thinking the same thing, I was thinking somewhere mid-race that the lap times we were doing, if only now I could have one lap like qualifying the gap would be massive to Valtteri and I could have a breather, I could breathe again. But yeah, obviously when we’re racing we are on the same set of tyres, they’re not getting better. We were running down the fuel so you should get faster but obviously sliding more and more. You’re not able to push as hard as in qualifying, I think that’s where the gap is coming from plus I think everybody had to manage the race a little bit. We had a virtual safety car for two laps, two and a half, three laps, something like this, so you save a bit of fuel but we still had to do some fuel saving, so it slows you down again a little bit and you have to manage (it). Obviously our plan was a bit different when we started, I lost a little bit at the end of the first stint, Valtteri was closing in, and then, I think, I knew we didn’t have the freedom any more to react so that’s the advantage if you are behind, you can wait and obviously Valtteri did that and they decided to go on a different strategy, trying to win the race so you can’t blame them. But for us, the plan initially was a bit different but then our only chance really, as the tyres were holding on quite well, was to stay out and it just worked. I think we had nothing to lose. Obviously if we pitted again with five laps to go we finish third but equally I felt if we pitted 15 or 20 laps to go, it would be difficult to make progress because I guess the medium tyres were more consistent, then it would have been much harder to get past Lewis, initially, who was ahead, if we had a normal stop and then chase down Valtteri. So that’s what we did and obviously we responded well after it looked like they put us in checkmate. I’m obviously extremely happy that we could still come out on top.

     

    Q: (Sushma Athilat – Radio Mirchi) I just wanted to congratulate you. Do you know Bahrain really looks forward to Formula One every twelve months. I’m sure every country is especially excited to receive you all but do you have a message for the people of Bahrain?

    SV: Well, obviously now you’ve had the Grand Prix for many years and I think especially switching to a night race in 2014 I think it just looks cool. You have the sparks coming out, it’s great. Obviously if you’re on the podium or on the in-lap or the parade lap, after the chequered flag you have the fireworks. Obviously I was lucky the last two years to come in first. It’s a great race, people are enjoying… just outside the paddock, I think there’s quite a good vibe. There’s the go-kart track busy. Usually it’s a fun weekend and it’s great to see that there’s more people coming. I think it wouldn’t hurt if there were still more people, especially from outside, but for sure all the Bahraini people… you have the posters everywhere hanging and the people are really proud and happy to have the Grand Prix, so it’s nice to be part of that.

    VB: Yeah, I was lucky this weekend to meet some local fans who had got access to the paddock as guests of our team, just by being very supportive. Our team picked up a few of them and it was really nice to meet and speak a little bit about the local culture but for me it’s always been a good place to come for racing and even some years for testing so always enjoy it. The sun is shining, people are friendly. For me the track has been good in the past so it’s a bonus as well.

    LH: I think they’ve pretty much covered it. I said something on the podium. I love it here and the fans are amazing.

     

    Q: (Mario Salvini – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, I guess you know perfectly well when the last time a Ferrari driver won the first two events in a season and what happened at the end of that year…

    SV: No. Last year we went to Australia, China and then here, right? Well, I guess it was Michael then. Fernando, he won the first race, I remember, in 2010. That’s so long ago. Well, look, we have a very very long season ahead of us. It’s clear that we need to improve, we have to improve our car, our package. I guess everybody’s trying to do the same so the competition is very high. Needless to say that Valtteri and Lewis are pushing very hard. Obviously, Kimi, alongside, is pushing incredibly hard. The two Red Bull guys with Max and Daniel are pushing hard. Then there’s a bit more of a gap but I think those three teams and six drivers are very very close to each other. Even if now, for us, the first two races went amazingly, for others maybe not so much, there’s still a long long way and a long season, a lot of races, a lot of things that can happen so it’s a bit pointless to try and look forward as I said. It will be important to improve and be quick everywhere you go. That helps. The quicker you are, the quicker your package is, the more you are one unit with your car, the happier you feel, the more you’re able to extract when it really matters.

     

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Seb, when did you decide that you had to switch to a one stop. Were you effectively forced into it and at what point did you make the call? And also, where would you rate that win among your many?

    SV: Well, fortunately I have a lot to chose from. I’m not sure I remember all of them now but certainly it felt great. If you compare Australia and here it’s a different race, needless to say. Obviously the way Australia happened… it was quite intense the last stint in Australia with Lewis pushing from behind but I was a bit more comfortable there because I knew the track is more difficult to overtake (on) whereas here, I knew that if Valtteri gets close with the DRS he can really be a threat. My tyres were done, ten laps to go I think I went on the radio and said I have everything under control – I had nothing under control. I was hoping that they tell Valtteri that Sebastian’s controlling the pace and tell him to turn the engine so that I can relax a bit but obviously that wasn’t the case, he wasn’t told. I’m sure if I was on the radio saying that my tyres were done, then they would have told him ‘come on now, keep pushing.’ I think he was pushing, nevertheless, but yeah, overall obviously a great way to win. I think I mentioned before the sad part is that obviously one of our mechanics got injured. I will go straight away to find out what’s going on and hopefully he’s in good hands and in good care and makes a speedy recovery. If that happens, you celebrate as a team but at the same time you look after each other. Hopefully it’s not too bad. As I said, hopefully he’s in good hands and gets the best care he can right now and then has not too long of a break because I know the guy and he loves racing so let’s see.

    Ah, the strategy, sorry, I forgot. They have different plans and when they told me the plan I first had to think what was that again, when we talked about it. It wasn’t the first or second option. I had to think a little bit but then I got it and I looked up on the tower and I saw Gasly was in P4 so I thought the gap would be quite big and we have nothing to lose and go for the one stop and try to make the tyres last but it wasn’t our intended strategy at first. When did they tell me? I don’t know, probably something like twenty-something laps to go. With 15 laps to go I was still very comfortable and then there was a big step around ten laps to go where, the tyre just dropped off and the last five laps were really difficult.

  • F1 2018: Bahrain Gp Qualifying Report – Ferrari Supreme

    F1 2018: Bahrain Gp Qualifying Report – Ferrari Supreme

    The hotter temperatures and circuit layout in Bahrain played perfectly the Ferrari’s strengths as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen easily locked out the front row of the grid for the second round of the 2018 season.

    The German’s 1:27:958 was one and half tenths quicker than Raikkonen’s best lap. However, the Finn cited traffic as an issue during his final run in Q3. Valtteri Bottas will line up third for Mercedes and share the second row with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    Lewis Hamilton had set the fourth quickest time overall but drops to ninth following an forced gearbox change. Elsewhere, Max Verstappen made an early exit from qualifying with a crash in the opening session. The Dutchman is slated to start the Bahrain grand prix from fourteenth on the grid.

    Pierre Gasly was the star of qualifying as he remarkably set the fifth quickest time in his Toro Rosso Honda. Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz round out the top ten on the grid. It was a dismal day for McLaren as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne managed only the thirteenth and fourteenth quickest times. Similarly, Williams continues to struggle as Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll are set to line up in eighteenth and twentieth, respectively.

    While qualifying is a vital part of any race weekend prizes are only handed out on race day. And with Hamilton having to fight his way through from ninth, on a contra strategy, it’s advantage Ferrari in Bahrain.

  • 2018 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2018 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Kimi, if we can start with you. It was third place in Australia for the opening and it could have been even better and you said you were happy with the car during the first weekend. Could you just tell us what about this car you like and does it suit you more than last year’s car? 

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Obviously it’s hard to say. I think it was a pretty straightforward weekend. For sure, we could have done more things and improved always, but it’s the same: it doesn’t matter if you win or are tenth of something; there are always things to improve or work on. Obviously we have a very limited amount of time over the weekend to do things, with the practice, and also with the weather it was a bit tricky. Overall, I think we were quite pleased with how things went. You want more, better positions, but I think we take that happily. As a team we did a pretty job out of it. Not much to complain about really. We want to win races, but it’s the first race out and we managed to do decent points, so we go forward here, try to make a good practice. So far the car has been working well, even with pretty limited testing over the winter, with some illness and obviously the weather was not ideal on the first test, so I’m pretty OK with how things are running, so let’s just keep doing our normal things and improving.

    Thank you. Valtteri, coming to you: it was a difficult weekend for you in Australia, especially with the crash in qualifying. How much does a weekend like that play on your mind in the gap between races and how eager are you to get out on track this weekend? 

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, not so much been in my mind, because everything was kind of processed during the weekend. It was a bad weekend, that’s it. Now we still have 20 races to go and we’re here in Bahrain, so nothing really to worry about at this point. We have a competitive car. We know we still have a lot of work to do to make it better. Just a bad weekend, so looking forward to this one.

    Thank you very much. Fernando, you said on Saturday evening in Melbourne that hopefully you’d finish higher than P7 or P6 in Australia and you went and finished in fifth place, so where will you finish this weekend? 

    Fernando ALONSO: I don’t know, I don’t have the crystal ball anymore! I think definitely the car has some potential. Over the winter we had some ups and downs in testing and then in Australia it was the same thing – the free practice was affected by the weather and the qualifying was not smooth enough for us to show the potential. It was a good race, a lucky race with the two Haas retirements and the Virtual Safety Car. Nevertheless, I think we take this fifth place and we move on. There is still a lot to improve for us if we want to catch up to the top three teams, but I think we have the potential there and hopefully we can unlock some performance in the next races.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport) Fernando, following on from that: as you say, ups and downs and still potential to come, but are happy days here again?

    FA: Well, I think there’s still quite a reasonable gap to close with the leaders, but I think it’s up to us now. It’s up to the team to deliver the performance in the next weeks, in the next four or five or six grands prix. If we are able to bring the performance to the track and close that gap and, you know, being in a reasonable distance to the pole position and the podium finishes and things like that, then it’s up to us to deliver the result on the weekend. I think the next two months are crucial for our hopes in this year’s championship, but hopefully we can keep improving the car, keep putting more performance and if it’s not a world championship fight, it will hopefully be some podium positions during the year or it can be regular top six or top five positions, not only in Australia P5 because of the Virtual Safety Car and the two Haas retirements. Maybe P5 could become a normality. That’s something we need to discover and to find out and as I said before, it’s probably the first time in the last three years that it’s up to us now to deliver that result, so we will try to do our best.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have eight podiums here but the qualifying results have not been that good – only one P3. Is that the biggest difference you have between racing and qualifying in any circuit, and, if yes, where is that coming from?

    KR: I don’t look too closely what has happened in the past, you probably know better. To be honest we try to do our best. Sometimes it works; sometimes not and obviously, you start where you qualify. If it’s a good place or not that great you try to make the best out of it. To be honest some years it’s been working out well here. You can choose the tyres and do a different race and it worked out well. Could it be better if you started at the front? Who knows? Another weekend where we try to do a good job and be up there and see where we end up. It’s a bit unknown. This is a completely different circuit to the previous two where we’ve been in Barcelona and Australia – so yeah, we have to see how everything plans out and where we are, where others are – but it’s been a pretty decent place in past years.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Kimi and Valtteri, starting with Kimi. Kimi, you were almost seven-tenths slower in qualifying in Australia. Do you think Mercedes can also have such an advantage in qualifying here? And, in race conditions, if you believe Ferrari will be more or less in the same gap to Mercedes – or even smaller due to characteristics of the track, and considering the history of Ferrari in this track?

    KR: Who knows. You can keep guessing as long as you want, we see over the weekend where we are. I have zero interest to start guessing where we are, what’s the difference in qualifying. There’s so many things that will change that and y’know, we’ll do our best and see where we end up in qualifying and the race – but the most important part is the Sunday after the race where it will be finished. I am finished to be two seconds off if we win every Sunday. I don’t care. It’s pretty irrelevant on Saturday in that way. But yeah, I don’t know. That’s why we come here. To find out.

    VB:     I think pretty much the same. You can always guess but at this point we can only guess, so yeah… I think historically Ferrari has been good here. They had good race pace in Australia. Last year they had stronger pace here than in Australia, so I think it’s going to be a threat and they’re going to be close to us. Even Red Bull. But more than that, just can’t say. We will see how the weekend develops.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Interesting day coming up tomorrow where we understand Liberty Media will be presenting their blueprint of the future of Formula One to the teams. I was just wondering, as drivers, what input you’ve had, what consultations you’ve had and where you see any changes necessary from a racing perspective to improve Formula One for the future. It’s a question to you all.

    FA: I don’t think that there is anything thing that we can probably can say about that. Definitely Liberty has been quite open to us from Day One and they’ve been asking us all of last year about opinions and different ideas that we may have. So, they were very productive conversations. So, now I think they have a plan. They will show it tomorrow to the teams and we will agree with whatever their decision is because they have all the power and they have all the knowledge of who to do things. Hopefully they’ll bring new ideas, new things that can improve the show and that will be welcome from all of us.

    Kimi, has there been any feedback you’ve been giving to Liberty about the direction of Formula One?

    KR: No, in the end it’s no our decision, it’s up to them. It’s their business. They make plans and obviously take decisions they feel is correct. I don’t know what they’re doing now. I know very little about it and I’m not interested in it, so we’ll see tomorrow what they say. It’s in many years’ time anyhow. I doubt I’ll be here so it doesn’t really bother me.

    Valtteri, anything to add?

    VB: Not really. I think Fernando covered well. In the end, it’s their decision and tomorrow we’ll see what they will recommend. It’s difficult to speculate more than that – but it will be interesting to see what they recommend.

    Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Valtteri, you say it’s been processed –  what happened at the Australian Grand Prix –  but how much pressure do you feel to have a good performance here? 

    VB: I think it’s a normal race weekend, that’s my feeling at the moment, honestly. Sometimes you have bad races and then there’s always the next one and of course you always want to perform but there is no point in gathering pressure from one mistake in qualifying. Of course, I always hope for a good weekend but yeah, I feel a normal race weekend ahead.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Just coming back to the previous question, to all drivers, Fernando said they have the power to change Formula One. If you had the power, what would you change in the Formula One we have today? 

    KR: I don’t have it, so…

    Q: Nothing you’d change at all?

    KR: No, I don’t have the power so what’s the point to wasting… even thinking about it because I don’t understand why you… what’s the point for me, to give you a list, because in the end I have zero power? I can’t. You understand? We can’t, we don’t make the rules, that’s my point. What’s the point of even making a story out of it.
    FA:  Well, I think it could be a closer battle, that will always be welcome but it has always been like that in F1. I remember watching the TV in the very old days… it was on television last week a race from ’90 or ’89 and apart from the first four cars, everyone was flat. We remember that era like a golden era, with big names etc and they’ve always been a big spread but I think if you see now, other series, if you watch a race of IndyCars or whatever, that unpredictable result until the last ten laps makes you excited in front of the television and now we can put (down) the qualifying order for this race right now, on Thursday and that’s a little bit sad.
    VB: Well, I think, like everyone, all the spectators, all the drivers, we would all love more closer racing like Fernando said but how to do that? It’s not in my hands.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Fernando, one of the current stated objectives this year is to return to the podium. Now based on what you’ve experienced in testing and the race, what you’ve just said etc, in order to get onto the podium you have to beat both or one or both Ferraris, one or both Mercedes, plus two Red Bulls which have got the same engine. Do you honestly believe that that’s do-able and achievable this year? 

    FA: Yes. We were two places from that podium already in Australia. They were very close, the last ten laps, Ricciardo and Kimi fighting together so anything can happen in a race. I won two races in 2008 with that ING Renault. I was on the podium in 2009 with the introduction of KERS and that car that we were, I think, ninth in the World Championship or something like that, and I was on the podium so anything can happen in F1. If you are close to that position, sooner or later that opportunity will come and we will be there to take it. I think it’s very possible this year.

  • F1 2018: Bahrain Gp Preview – Ferrari to drive home advantage?

    F1 2018: Bahrain Gp Preview – Ferrari to drive home advantage?

    Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher won the first Bahrain grand prix, held in 2004. While it was a new, never before raced at, venue for F1 it didn’t produce much excitement as it earned the unfortunate moniker ‘Bore-rain’ thanks to its processional races.

    However, in 2014, as the tenth anniversary of F1 in Bahrain rolled around, no pun intended, organisers decided to run the race under lights. It was a masterstroke as the formerly docile race came alive and produced some of the most exhilarating racing all season. It was Lewis Hamilton who beat then teammate Nico Rosberg to victory following thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead.

    In 2017 Valtteri Bottas scored the first pole position of his career but ultimately didn’t have the composure to hold of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. It is a new season though and Australia has not done much to reveal the true pecking order of 2018.

    Though Ferrari stood on the top step of the podium in the first race of the season the Sebastian Vettel was the first to admit that the opportunistic win had a definite element of luck infused. Further, he admits that the 2018 Ferrari isn’t yet where it needs to be. “I think our car has huge potential but I’m still struggling a little bit. When you talk about something that you miss as a driver, it’s because the car doesn’t respond the way you like. Ours is still sliding in places you don’t want it to slide. I want the car to be spot-on when I hit the brakes and turn in, and in that window, I’m not yet happy,” says Vettel.

    MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS

    The Sakhir International circuit is not the ideal test of an F1 car but it will allow them to stretch their legs a bit more than in Australia. Low speed corners dominate the circuit layout, which means that traction and tyre temperatures significantly influence the laptime. Specifically, management of rear tyre temperatures is the key in Bahrain.

    The top three teams, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull have made similar tyre choices for the weekend where the supersoft, soft, and medium tyre will be run. The high desert temps and difficulty in managing rear tyre wear could play to Ferrari’s favour as Mercedes has traditionally suffered on the softer compounds of the Pirelli range.

    It isn’t all about what happens at the sharp-end though as the tight mid-field battle has all the potential to produce some of the closest racing of all. The team to look out for is Haas. They were desperately unlucky that cross-threaded wheel-nuts forced both cars retire in Australia. However, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were turning a genuinely quick pace and should be able to replicate it this weekend.

    Bahrain_NightMany drivers including Lewis Hamilton and both Red Bulls complained about the lack of overtaking opportunities in Australia. This should be somewhat alleviated in Bahrain partly due to its kilometer long straight.

    There was little question in Australia that Mercedes had a quick car. However, there are several factors, most notably the higher temperatures and rear tyre wear, that could play in Ferrari’s favour. Given that Vettel does not yet feel 100% comfortable with his Ferrari it could well be Kimi Raikkonen who has a record seven podiums in Bahrain.