Tag: Valtteri Bottas

F1 2017: Russian Gp Preview – Game On In Sochi

From the middle of the Bahrain desert the Formula 1 paddock travels to coast of Russia for the fourth round of the 2017 season.

The Sochi Autodrom made its debut on the F1 calendar in 2014 and received a fairly lukewarm reception from fans. For one thing the circuit lacks any sort of elevation change, which normally accounts for a trickier cambers and braking zones. The layout of the track, at 5.8 kilometers, is characterized by long straits and ninety-degree corners, which will test a car’s efficiently in traction and how well it rotates on its axis. “It’s always challenging to come from high speed into a low-speed corner and achieve the best out of braking,” says Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

In the three races at the Sochi Autodrom the amount of tyre degradation experienced has been negligible. Memorably, in 2014, after flat-spotting his tyres into turn one, Nico Rosberg pitted on the first lap of the race and completed 52 laps on one set of tyres. But it might be a bit different in 2017 for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the paddock arrives in Russia slightly later in the year than normal and, temperature-wise, it should be hotter. Secondly, this will be the third race weekend on the track surface, which will have ‘settled’ in a bit more and therefore should produce more grip. The 2017 cars will also corner a lot faster than in previous years which will place significantly more stress on the tyres which should effect tyre-life. Pirelli have nominated the soft, super-soft, and ultra-soft compounds for this weekend’s race.

Who will it suit? With all things being equal Mercedes has proven that on Saturday’s, in qualifying, they are still king. But even so Sunday is where the points are awarded and this is where Ferrari is likely to come into its own. Traditionally, Ferrari has performed better on the super-soft tyre than Mercedes and this, along with their inherent pace, will likely by their trump card. Nevertheless, it will still require a perfect all-round performance from the team, including the pitwall’s calls on strategy.

On paper it shouldn’t be a circuit where Red Bull does well but they have in the past. It’s unlikely that they’ll be going for the win or even the podium. Nevertheless, where there is a Max there almost always seems to be a way. There is something special in the make-up and performance from the young Dutchman that demands attention and which makes it impossible for him to be ruled out of the equation. It’s always an exciting prospect to imagine what he might pull out of his bag of tricks come race day.

In the mid-field Williams should do well given the Mercedes power unit bolted to the back of their car. Though through no fault of his own Lance Stroll is yet to finish a race in 2017. It will be a tall order but it needs to be the Canadian driver who shines for the British team this weekend.

Who would’ve thought at the height of Mercedes domination last year that in 2017, on the cusp of the fourth round of the season, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel would be leading the driver’s championship by seven points. And in truth, any one of four drivers has a legitimate chance of winning the Russian grand prix this weekend.

April 26, 2017
F1 2017: Bahrain Gp Review – Ferrari Win Again

In pre-season testing all indications were that Ferrari had turned a significant corner. All indications were that Mercedes would finally, after three years of dominance, have a challenge on their hands. Despite this many couldn’t believe their eyes and were sure that Mercedes were sandbagging. But three races into the 2017 season have proven that pre-season testing was no fluke and that Ferrari are more than capable of challenging for the titles.

Under the floodlights of the Sakhir International circuit Sebastian Vettel scored Ferrari’s second win in three races while Lewis Hamilton and polesitter Valtteri Bottas completed the top three. Bottas led cleanly off the line as Vettel got the jump on Hamilton and proceeded to stalk the back of the leading Mercedes for the duration of his first stint. The Ferrari’s ability to stick as close as it does to the car in front is a significant revelation of the strength of its aerodynamic package. Contrastingly, several others drivers including Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have deemed it impossible to follow closely in their cars.

While Vettel was able to stick close it was clear that he lacked the ultimate edge to overtake Bottas. It is at this point that Ferrari called Mercedes’ bluff by diving into the pitlane first. Here, unlike in China, Vettel was able to make the undercut work and with fresh tyres set a handful of laptimes appreciably quicker than both Mercs and took over the lead of the race. Mercedes had been caught out by Ferrari’s aggressive strategy and seemed flustered by it.

It wasn’t long after the first round of pitstops that Max Verstappen suffered a brake failure, which ended his race. Soon after a coming together of Williams’ Lance Stroll and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz brought out the safety car for only the third time in the history of the Bahrain grand prix. Merc were genuinely rattled too. As they attempted to service both Bottas and Hamilton on the same lap the latter was given a five second penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly at the entrance to the pitlane. Ultimately, Hamilton finished roughly seven seconds off Vettel with Bottas trailing home in a disconsolate third after being instructed to give way to his teammate twice. In fairness, Hamilton was closing on Bottas at a rate of two seconds per lap and the pass would’ve been inevitable.

Meanwhile, despite an expected brake-by-wire issue Kimi Raikkonen showed a better turn of pace in the second half of the race and finished fourth. Perplexingly, the Ferrari pitwall again botched the Finn’s strategy by leaving him out for too long. Nevertheless, it is quickly becoming clear that unless Raikkonen wants to be considered the second driver within the team it’s about time that he start unlocking the promise of his Ferrari.

In fifth Daniel Ricciardo had a fairly anonymous race as he trailed home nearly forty seconds adrift. Felipe Massa finished a solid sixth for Williams ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, in seventh, and Haas’ Romain Grosjean in eighth. In the Renault Nico Hulkenberg scored two points for ninth while Esteban Ocon finished tenth for a third consecutive time in the Force India.

It was nearly impossible to imagine that McLaren’s situation could get any worse, but it has. Not only did Stoffel Vandoorne not make the start of the race but also Fernando Alonso retired on the final lap with an “engine problem”. The announcement that Alonso will skip the Monaco Gp in favour of the Indy 500 seems the only bit of good news for the embattled team at the moment.

As Seb Vettel now leads the driver championship by seven points its clear that the 2017 season is primed for a battle royale between the prancing horses and the silver arrows which takes up again in Russia in two weeks time.

April 17, 2017
2017 Bahrain GP: Post Race Press Conferece

DRIVERS

1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Sebastian, your 44^th victory. Normally 44 is a lucky number for Lewis but you’ve just added another win, your third time here in Bahrain, but most importantly the second of the season out of three races, great day.

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, really a great day. I don’t know what to day. The last half of the in-lap when all the fireworks were there and track was lit up, it was. I just love what I do. I didn’t find any words. It was a really great team effort today. Right after the start I could feel that ‘yeah, we’re quick, we can have a word’. So really tried to put Valtteri under pressure. He didn’t do any mistakes. It was difficult down the straights to get near him. But then we obviously went for the undercut, early pit stop, worked fantastic, very good job. But when the safety came initially I thought ‘not again!’

Yeah but this time it worked for you…

SV: I’m not sure.

You pitted and then when you cleared another lap we had the safety car.

SV: I think I was lucky because the others were just close to the pit lane so they couldn’t really benefit let’s say. I don’t know. I was a bit surprised when I came out ahead of all of them because I thought with the safety car we might have lost the advantage. After that it was good. The car was really amazing to drive. I had a good feeling yesterday, so for many laps it really worked well. It was just a pleasure. I could control the pace in the end. Lewis was obviously a bit of a threat again towards the end, with the traffic you never know. But a very controlled race, the car, as I said, was a dream today. Happy Easter and thank you very much.

Q: Lewis, pit lane, what do you think of that? Those five seconds were pretty costly today?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah definitely, but firstly a big congratulations to Sebastian, he did a fantastic job today, and also a big thank you to Valtteri for being a gentleman out there. Obviously a very difficult race, it didn’t start out the best, but the pit lane was my fault, so apologies to the team for losing the time there. I tried my hardest to catch up but it was a long old way to go, it was 19 seconds. But I gave it everything I could but Ferrari did a great job today. So we’re going to push hard together, re-gather as a team and come back fighting.

Q: You know, I’m noticing this year that even when you’re getting the wins, you’re very composed; you’re not too disappointed. What is this then? Do you really feel that this is going to be a long-game championship?

LH: Of course the disappointment is there. Losing points for a team, particularly when you could have won the race is definitely painful, but it is what it is and all I can say is I gave it everything I could. Yeah, I mean, I’m getting old I’m catching you up.

Q: You’ll never catch me up! Lewis congratulations. Valtteri, after the high of yesterday, a disappointing day. We heard you on the radio talking about struggling to keep the rears alive. What happened with the race balance? Talk us through that.

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it was really a tricky race for me; struggling with the pace all through the race. I think in the first stint we found a bit of an issue with the tyre pressures and that explained the rear end struggle. But ever since that I was just rear limited and I was out of the tools on the steering wheel, so it was just oversteering all through the race, which is why the pace was slow, which is a real shame because for sure the target for today was a lot, lot higher.

Q: It’s difficult to win in Formula One. You had a lot of support after that pole yesterday, especially within the team, so you’re feeling well settled in Mercedes?

VB: Well, for sure I think this was overall the best weekend yet with the team, but there is much more to come.

Well, we wish you luck with that journey. Back to Sebastian. You seem a little bit surprised by the ultimate qualifying. After qualifying the pace to Mercedes was a little bit down but you’re right in this championship, you’re leaving this grand prix leading the world championship.

SV: Yeah, it’s a long year; I’m not really looking at that. As I said, I’m really enjoying, the car has been a pleasure. It was very good yesterday and I was a bit down because the gap was so big. I think we could have been a bit closer. But something inside me told me we have a good car and we can do well. Right from the first lap I felt the car was there and yeah, I think the Easter hunt was on. They were hiding some eggs but it looks like we found them today. No, really, really happy. Big thank you to the team, they have been working incredibly hard. The guy that has been up here, Matteo, works day and night at the track, in the factory. So really a lot of commitment from every single one and it’s great to see everything coming together.

Q: Well, we can hear the marshals who have been supporting the grand prix celebrating by revving a motorbike here. You’ve got to say we have a tremendous welcome here in Bahrain, so it’s one your better grands prix?

SV: Well, I guess. I’ve been reasonably successful the last couple of years. I love the trophy, I think it’s one of the most beautiful trophies we have, so when I crossed the line I was really happy because I knew we were going to get it, so I think we can leave here very happy. Not yet, because we’ve got the test next week, but yeah for now we just enjoy.

Q: Are you doing the test?

SV: Yes.

You’re relentless aren’t you?

SV: Well, I thought halfway through the race that I’m really looking forward already next time to jump in the car, which is in two days, so I’m looking forward to it.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Congratulations Sebastian, obviously you got ahead of Lewis at the start. Tell us a bit about that and also the final stint, just judging the pace as he was coming through like a rocket, having come into the pits after you, how you measured that pace and measured your gap to him?

SV: The start, obviously it was crucial for us to get between, to not allow them to get in their rhythm, pull away, do their thing. So, upset them a bit. I think we all had more or less the same start. Mine initially was maybe a tiny bit better than Lewis, which put me just about side-by-side – but their car is really long so it’s a long way to get side-by-side – but then I think I benefitted from the act I had a clear track ahead, Lewis was a bit stuck with Valtteri and it’s a bit of a tricky one to judge, so I could just take lots of risk under braking and get the move done. Then, the final stint, obviously we had quite a decent gap plus the safety margin of Lewis’ penalty – which I wasn’t sure why but it didn’t matter at that point – and I just tried to control the gap to Valtteri, maybe pulling away a little bit and at that point just controlling the gap. He was very fast when he came out. I was expecting him to be quick on a new set of supersoft tyres but probably not that quick and he was closing in. When I faced the traffic I lost a lot of time but then obviously he had to face traffic as well. In the end it was safe enough. At the beginning of the stint I really didn’t push at all, just took it easy and responded to what those two guys were doing, which obviously helped me at the end because I had a lot of tyres left.

Lewis, coming to you, as Sebastian said, you had a tremendous amount of pace today but perhaps there were one or two too many setbacks to give you the chance to win: the start, obviously the penalty as well and the tyre choice for the final stint which you questioned on the radio. Maybe you could just drill down into those three for us.

LH: Yeah, a challenging weekend. The start was OK but Sebastian was in my blind spot so I didn’t know whereabouts he was. I didn’t know where anyone was behind me. Valtteri got a good start and it was really just about covering him. I obviously lost position to Sebastian there. It was really hard to follow but we’re generally all similar kind of pace, and then yeah, completely my fault with the Safety Car. Supposed to have a five-second gap and I think I had a four-second gap. Just a misjudgement from myself. Valtteri was great to… obviously I had very good pace, particularly the second and last stint and I honestly believed I would be able to catch Sebastian up but obviously with a five-second penalty that made it twice as hard as it was already going to be. As I said, apologies to the team but I tried the best I could to recover it and we still got good points for the team today with a second and third but we still have this great fight and Sebastian did a great job and he had fantastic pace.

And just on the tyre choice. You have a four-lap fresher only set of softs compared to Sebastian rather than a new set of supersofts. The team’s saying it was based on, presumably, Valtteri’s middle stint.

LH: The tyre felt great so I believe it was the right choice. The team have generally been making really great choices this year. I thought it was going to be a supersoft but honestly I think the tyre was the best one, particularly for 16 laps pushing at the pace I was going was a long way to go. I don’t know if the supersoft would have lasted that long.

Part of what informed that decision was, I guess, your supersoft stint Valtteri. Not the easiest but before that, Toto Wolff has said you had a problem with the generator on the grid that meant your tyres were over-inflated or had too high tyre pressure in the opening stint. Tell us about that.

VB: Yeah, so I don’t know the exact issue but I was just told there was a problem with the tyre pressures, which I could really feel in the first stint since lap two. I was just sliding around with the rear end, struggling to get on power out of the corners, so the pace wasn’t good and Sebastian was really putting pressure and they could undercut us as well and trying to extend the first stint, I just couldn’t keep up with the pace. The tyres were just dropping. Then on the second stint it was a bit better initially. I think the second stint was not that far off. Still struggling with oversteer but much less than in the first one, and then the last stint, again, used the tools I had to adjust the car balance but still couldn’t get the rear end to work. Really strange race for me and the pace was disappointingly poor for me. Yeah, not a good day for me.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Lewis and Valtteri. If you compare this race with Melbourne, is the softest compound a weakness for Mercedes? You seemed to have the same problem like in Melbourne that the rear tyres were going away.

LH: I don’t really remember what the issue was in Melbourne. I think it was more front tyres – but I’m sure it was the rears as well. Here was maybe more rears, I would say – but yeah, I would say it’s similar.

VB: At least for me personally yes. The softer compound has been more of a struggle with the tyres and also the hotter it is, more of a struggle. So something definitely for us to understand.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Valtteri and Sebastian, can you tell us how difficult was the battle between the two of you?

SV: For about the first stint. I passed you in the pit stop, didn’t I?

VB: No, we were side-by-side at some point.

SV: Ah, the safety car, after the safety car. Yeah, that was hairy. I thought I did reasonably well on the restart. It was a bit tricky because we only got the message very late: ‘the safety car’s coming in’ and then, you can’t just be stupid and break the field down, do a stop-and-go but I tried to use a little bit of momentum. I thought I had a decent gap leaving the last corner and then… I don’t know, it felt like I had more headwind than in the whole race on that particular lap. I was fairly confident halfway down the straight, just looked in the mirror to check and he was coming. I saw sparks behind me everywhere and then I obviously had to defend. Yeah, then I wasn’t quite sure where he was under braking but I guess we were side-by-side so it was a lot closer than I expected, leaving the last corner. But fortunately, I stayed ahead.

VB: Yeah, obviously it was getting close and I tried to make a move into turn four.

SV: I was just thinking, then there was another one, exactly, because I had a bad exit and it was quite close tight. I think you locked a little bit and then I locked a little bit into turn four.

VB: I was obviously outside so then it’s always tricky. There was some good racing but that was a short moment unfortunately.

SV: I forgot about that…

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Bottas and Lewis: when the safety car came in, Sebastian had stopped on lap ten and the safety car came out on lap 13 and you entered the pits on the 13^th lap, with the safety car. It looked like it would help a lot but for some reason it didn’t, maybe the opposite. Without the safety car, maybe Bottas could get out from the pits in front of Vettel. Do you have the same feeling? Did you have a slow stop?

VB: Yes. Under safety car on the first stop, there was a problem with the pit stop. We lost a lot of time and maybe it would have been very very close. Maybe I would have been just in front but the team is still investigating what was the issue there. I think there was also some traffic as well because the stop was slow. One of the Red Bulls came into the pit lane and we couldn’t exit immediately so double the time.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Without the safety car?

VB: I don’t know, to be honest.

Q: And Lewis, I think you had… one of the front tyres was a bit slow coming off or going back on again or slight delay?

LH: I couldn’t tell what the issue was but there was a bit of a delay. There was a domino effect, you know. If I had had a five second gap Valtteri would have pulled in, the Red Bull would have pulled in. I would have pulled in before the Red Bull, I would have got out before the Red Bull. It cascaded for me in the domino too early.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi last year was many times in front of you. What have you done that nowadays he’s always behind you?

SV: Well, I guess for a start, compared to last year, I’ve started the race. That helped. I had my – so far the only – and I hope it stays that way – DNS last year here so not even starting was quite a disappointment. And then, I don’t now, he was behind the Red Bull in the opening of the lap and so obviously we’ve seen that it’s quite tricky to pass. I was a bit faster in the opening stint than Valtteri but I couldn’t really get close enough and I guess he probably lost a bit of time and then I just saw the final result. I don’t know what happened to his race but I think he came back to fourth, not finishing too far behind Valtteri so I think for both of us the car probably worked really well today and yeah, I think it depends on… from my own experience, how the opening lap goes and so on, but this has usually been a very very good hunting ground for Kimi, so maybe the time loss on Friday for him with the issue he had in the car didn’t help but yeah, you do your own race and then I’m sure we will talk about it afterwards.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, in the race simulation on Friday you didn’t look like you had a very good performance from the car and also qualifying seemed to confirm it. We had this impression, looking at the long runs. And suddenly, in the race, the performance was there. Did you change the car dramatically or did the conditions on the day change and help you?

SV: No, from yesterday to today, you can’t change anything. Friday to Saturday we did a bit but yeah, it’s not that sudden. If we could go faster in qualifying we would because qualifying higher up is always advantageous. But yeah, I had a good feeling yesterday so I was a bit surprised by how big the gap was because the car felt really good and for today, I had a good feeling because Friday was a bit mixed, I wasn’t so happy with the car. We improved it for Saturday and I thought OK, if it stays like that then today can be a good race and after a couple of laps I felt everything was making sense and yeah, obviously I was in Valtteri’s gearbox for all of the first stint and not falling back too much so that was obviously good for us, a good start with the opening lap, getting between them and then yeah, the pace was certainly key today to win.

Q: (Sef Harding – Xero Xone News) For Sebastian, it looks like the Prancing Horse has really come alive and it looks like you’re going to have a hero’s welcome back in Maranello. What has this done for the team and the morale of the team heading into Sochi?

SV: Yeah, I think at this stage Sochi is quite far away so I’m not willing and I don’t think the team is really looking to Sochi right now. I think we enjoy the moment. Yeah, obviously we did a massive stint over the winter. I think last year was a very good year for us. It wasn’t good in terms of results, don’t get me wrong, but I think for the team, getting together, a lot of things that had changed now seem to start clicking. Obviously it helps when straight from the box, in testing, we had a good feeling. We looked reasonably competitive. Australia obviously was a massive boost for all the team and yeah, you can see when they are singing down there, and the whole factory has really come alive so that’s great and we need to just make sure we keep it going and yeah, keep enjoying that way, but for now, I think the team has obviously done a really really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and as I said, things start to click and hopefully that sort of success now in the first couple of races helps us to build up some sort of momentum that maybe these guys had in the past and the last couple of years, so they will be the ones to beat. It’s a long season, but for now, as I said, looking forward to tonight.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, Sochi has suited you very well so far. Do you expect to have your best weekend because of that?

VB: Well, for sure that’s the goal. I still haven’t definitely got… there’s no race results as I’ve been hoping for so it’s always the next one. Anyway, it would be the target to have a strong weekend but Sochi has normally been pretty good for me. I really like the track layout and I have always been comfortable there so we will see. It’s a completely different type of track again, completely different kind of temperatures, different asphalt so many different things. We’ll see.

Q: (Ralph Woodall – L’Equipe) Valtteri, how did you feel when you were ordered by the team to let Lewis pass you?

VB: Well, I think honestly as a racing driver it’s maybe the worst thing you want to hear. That’s how it is. For sure I did it because there was potential. Lewis could challenge Sebastian. In the end it didn’t happen but the team tried which I completely understand but personally it is tough but that’s life. I didn’t have enough pace today and we need to find the reasons why that was.

April 16, 2017
F1 2017: Bahrain Gp – Bottas Snatches First Ever Pole

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas secured the first pole position of his career ahead of the 2017 Bahrain grand prix.

The Finnish driver snatched pole from teammate Lewis Hamilton by a scant 23 thousands of a second while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel trailed four tenths behind in third. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo delivered a brilliant lap quick enough for fourth while Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen rounded out the top six.

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg delivered a stunning lap for Renault and will start the race in seventh overall. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa will start eighth ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas in ninth. The second Renault of Jolyon Palmer completed a great quali session of Renault with the tenth quickest time.

Fernando Alonso and his McLaren have been consigned to the back of the grid after the Spaniard suffered a MGU-H failure. As a result of this failure the ICE (Internal combustion engine) also necessitates a change, hence the drop to the back of the field. Carlos Sainz, on course to make it into the third part of qualifying, suffered an as yet unknown failure on his Toro Rosso and will start from sixteenth place.

April 16, 2017
2017 Bahrain GP: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TV UNILATERAL

Q: It must be a brilliant feeling for you Valtteri, describe the emotion?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, obviously really, really happy. It’s the first pole in my career. It’s my fifth season now in Formula One. It took a few races but got it and hopefully it’s the first of many. But just want to say big thanks to the team for giving me this car, to drive it on pole. We’re both starting on the front row. I think we made a really good job this weekend, to really focus on the evening conditions and we really managed to get a lot of lap time out of the car in the slightly cooler conditions and hopefully that’s going to help is tomorrow as well, so grateful for the team.

Q: This is what you came to Mercedes for, of course. How did you do it? What was the key this evening for you personally?

VB: You know, it’s not an easy track to get everything right. It is quite technical; there are quite a few difficult braking points, turning ins to the corner, it’s easy to have a lock-up or just miss the apex slightly. So it is just getting the lap together and to get the car well balanced. It was a good enough lap for the pole today, so that’s good.

Q: Well done to you. Lewis, fastest in the first runs in Q3. It looked like a little correction towards the end of the lap. Is that where it got away or was it elsewhere in the lap that you felt it slipped?

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly a big congratulations to Valtteri, he’s been working so hard, he’s gelled so well with the team and today he was just quicker. He did the better job, so hats off to him. Yeah, the first lap felt great and I looked up and the time was so close and I thought ‘wow, he’s doing some… that was a good lap, he did a great job’. But I was losing quite a bit of time through the first sector, that was generally my weaker point, which is actually unusual; usually it’s a stronger point for me. I’ll work on it for tomorrow, but Valtteri found some great pace, particularly through the first sector, the second and third ended up being quite good but just overall a little bit down. But a great battle and that’s how close I think qualifying should always be. It forces us all to be more on the limit. I’m generally happy with the job I did and it’s great for the team to be one-two.

Q: Very well done. Speaking of close, Sebastian, it was very close in Q2, I think it was six one hundredths of a second, the top three. Was it a little bit dispiriting for you when you saw they suddenly found another four tenths of a second when we went into Q3?

SV: Yeah, it was. I think overall I was very happy with how qualifying went, with how the car felt, because we had some issues yesterday. Nothing wrong but we just tweaked the balance for today I think in the right direction, so I was happy how it turned out to be. Felt good; Q2 I thought ‘OK, this will be tight’. I was very happy to go into Q3. Then I was very happy with my first lap. I crossed the line, looked up and saw both of them were ahead and then when I got the time, yeah, I was a bit down to be honest because four tenths was a lot more than I expected, also given how good the lap felt. Then, on the next run I just tried a little bit too hard everywhere but equally I had nothing to lose. I was quite safe also to cars behind. So I was quite confident, also the lap felt good as I said, so I tried a bit harder. It didn’t work; I went slightly slower. Obviously if I go a tenth quicker it’s not enough, so I tried to do a bit more but yeah, hopefully we can do a bit more tomorrow.

Q: Well done. Back to Valtteri, obviously a lot of satisfaction at your first pole but no champagne at this point. I guess you go to be tonight dreaming of your first grand prix victory tomorrow?

VB: I think the main thing is that I need to personally, and as a team, we need to enjoy for a very short period of time… you need to enjoy what you have done so far in the weekend. But the main thing is tomorrow so there is not point to start dreaming about anything. We need to look at everything, whatever we can do tomorrow, work together as a team and plan a good strategy, a plan for the race tomorrow. For me it’s all about just focusing for the race and getting the maximum out of it but definitely a good place to start and I think as a team we can be really strong tomorrow and we can get that one-two, the first one for the year.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Valtteri, I think if you were to plot your qualifying in the last three races it would just be about three-tenths off Lewis in Australia, less than two in China and now you’ve gone and got the pole. Describe to us how you’ve chipped away at that, how you’ve worked at that.

VB: Well, for sure, every single qualifying is always different circumstances and different track, different scenarios but I definitely feel I’ve been getting more and more comfortable with the car, how it is behaving and also working with the team and fine-tuning the setup of the car. I’m getting better with that as well with the engineers. So overall just, yeah, feeling more confident in the car and today it felt good, especially towards the end of the qualifying in Q3. Got some good laps, felt that I could extract pretty much the maximum out of the car. That’s always a good feeling and for sure it always takes a bit of time to get there.

Q: Lewis, obviously you managed to find that little bit of a margin today that Sebastian was talking about in qualifying – but generally, it is pretty close in terms of race pace, what we’ve seen so far, particularly on a track like this: higher temperatures; looking after the rear tyres is important. What kind of a battle are you expecting tomorrow in the grand prix?

LH: Well obviously today we had a bit of a margin to the Ferraris but generally in race trim they seem to be a bit quicker but I guess we’ll see tomorrow. Perhaps it will level-out a little bit more. It’s definitely going to be a close battle. Valtteri’s long runs were very good and I think… I don’t necessarily know how good their long-runs were but I heard that they were quite quick, the Ferraris so it’s definitely going to be close, all of us, and looking after the tyres is definitely very difficult. Whether it’s a one or two stop will be interesting to see. Temperatures, all those different things. Hopefully we’ll have a great battle tomorrow.

Q: Sebastian, maybe you could articulate for us, it seems to have been quite tough for everybody – and Valtteri referenced it earlier on – to put a perfect lap together, to join all of the dots, and particularly this weekend going into qualifying. Can you just articulate why you think that is today?

SV: Well I think generally we struggle less, everyone struggles less in the evening because the temperatures are dropping. Something we’ve seen now for two days is that generally we struggle a bit more, everyone with the hot conditions. The tyres don’t hold up as well as they used to in the first two races, so in a way, it’s probably a bit more similar to how it probably was last year, that you can’t attack all the way through the first flying lap. So I think that’s a difference. At Valtteri touched on, this track historically has been fairly technical. Corners like 9-10, they are probably built to lead drivers into mistakes so it is very easy to get it a little bit wrong and overshoot a bit, so those two things combined I think make it quite tricky. Yeah, at the end of the day it’s probably risk-assessment. When you are steering towards the corner and then you have to make a judgement how much you trust the car, how much risk you take, and in the end if you take a lot and you get the reward, it feels great. If you take you a lot and it goes wrong, you lose time.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, congratulations, I counted that is has been 168 races without a Finn in the pole. How important is it for you to put Finland back in the polesitters group?

VB: Thank you Heikki, and congratulations to you as well! Sure, it feels good. I didn’t even realise it’s that long – nearly ten years.

SV: Who? Where? [Heikki Kovalainen, Silverstone] Oh.

VB: It’s good to break that, it’s a lot of races without a Finn on pole so that is good and obviously very proud always to drive for Finland, for my country and very glad for all the support I’ve got from there. So yeah, happy.

SV: Where were you in 2008. F3?

VB: Formula Renault!

Q: (Ysef Harding – Xero Xone News) This question is for Valtteri. Valtteri, first off, congratulations on your first pole with the team. It really looks like you are starting to find your groove out there, really find your mojo. Do you feel that that’s starting to come alive for you in the car? That you’re finding that groove, you’re bonding with the car out there on the track now?

VB: I definitely feel now much more comfortable in the car, with the car than, for example, qualifying in Melbourne. So yeah, the more laps, the more time you spend with a car and driving it, you get to be more at one with the car. So, definitely feel better and better, like I said earlier. Yeah. Felt better here than, for example, last week in China in qualifying. It’s good. I need to keep doing that progress and keep trying to get better all of the time.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, any explanation why the gap was bigger here than in the two races before?

SV: No, not really. I haven’t seen obviously where we lost most of the time but I think a little bit spread everywhere. I think Sector One, Sector Three stood out so Sector Two wasn’t too bad. Yeah, there’s more straights in Sector One and Three, so I don’t know if they had an update for here that allowed them to push harder but it seems that we lost a little bit of time everywhere and maybe a little bit more than usual down the straights. Yeah. I think for tomorrow the most important thing is that the car felt good today and I think we should be closer. Hopefully it’s going to be a tight race and then we’ll see.

Q: (Khodr Rawi – motorsport.com) Question to all three drivers. Are you surprised by the lap times set today in qualifying? Because the pole position is faster by around seven-tenths compared to last year pole position. Where you expecting faster lap times? Thank you.

LH: It’s seven-tenths? We’re seven-tenths quicker than last year? I can’t remember. I wasn’t even thinking of that. The car feels better here than it did last year but I don’t have an answer for why it’s not a bigger gap than it was in the past. At least they’re faster.

SV: I think it was expected that we go quicker this year, depending on the layout: sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Probably this layout is one of the least favourite ones this year in terms of how much faster we can go, compared to the year before.

Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Valtteri, you said in the week that you bounced back very quickly from the error you made in China and put it behind you on Tuesday, I think. You allowed yourself to be annoyed on Monday but does this really help to properly put it to bed and look forward to have a result like this straight away afterwards?

VB: Well, I think it’s always nice to have a good result whether you’ve had a good or bad weekend before but for sure if you’ve had a bit of a struggle in the last race it’s always nice to start the weekend in a good way but anyway tomorrow is the day that then matters but it’s good. I’d rather be on pole today than anything less, so let’s see tomorrow.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) To all three of you: does Valtteri’s pole now mean that this is a three-way fight? We’ve all been saying it’s just going to be between Lewis and Seb; is it going to be a three-way battle now for the championship?

LH: It always was, at least three, maybe four. Yeah, Valtteri’s been right there with us from the beginning so nothing changes.

VB: I think it’s obviously very early days to speak about the title fight, how it’s going to be. It’s going to be a massively long season. As I said at the first races, it’s going to be a massive year in terms of development for the cars and which team is going to develop the most and that’s going to be the fight for the title. Too early to say about the title fight but for sure we are now the two best teams and I feel I’m now in the game.

SV: Well, today is the day for Finland and Formula One. Keeping it Finnish, I would say yes.

Q: (Heikki Kulta –Turun Sanomat) Lewis, like I said that the last time you lost the pole to a Finnish driver was 2008; do you still remember how that felt? Does it feel the same as now?

LH: Cold! Yeah, I remember 2008, Silverstone, I remember it very very clearly. Heikki did a fantastic job. He was quicker throughout the weekend and we had a different set-up from testing which he chose and he was just quicker and it ended up being one of those… Back then you divided the cars by two laps of fuel and often I would have… sometimes I would have the lighter fuel load; on that weekend, he was just quicker and we needed as a team to be at the front so he ended up having the lighter fuel load and did a great job but obviously I got a great start in the race. You know, when you asked the first question I had a really crazy thought: I’m sure at home he (Heikki Kulta) has like a wall and every day he goes home and he ticks off – ‘damn, it’s another race that…’ He’s got a whole wall, 130 or 180 or whatever it is, 168 crosses so I’m sure on Monday you’re going to be repainting the wall, a nice clean one!

SV: Does the word excited exist in Finnish?

VB: Kind of.

LH: It’s probably something really simple. What is “exciting” in Finnish?

VB: (Inaudible)

SV: See! It doesn’t exist!

LH: It’s not one that’s really used much in the vocabulary.

VB: I don’t know really.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Lewis and Bottas: in 2014 we had a wonderful battle between Lewis and Nico here at this Grand Prix. Are you free to fight tomorrow or after what happened in Barcelona and Austria last year there are some internal rules: you can put the car here, you cannot there? It depends what position your teammate is in?

LH: Are we allowed to fight? Nothing’s changed in the sense that we are allowed to fight. It’s the same as it was last year – as always as it remains respectable but yeah, we can fight hard out there. None of us wants to not finish the race. It’s just about being sensible and making sure we bring both cars home but generally yes, we are allowed to fight.

VB: Yeah, I agree. I’m really happy that we are allowed to fight and I’m sure we can do it hard, hard but fair and try to avoid what we did last year with Lewis in turn one. We actually collided.

LH: I’m behind this time…

VB: I’m sure we can be alright.

SV: I wouldn’t mind!

Q: (Ysef Harding – Xero Xone News) Lewis, this looks like this is starting to get interesting now that Valtteri’s got a pole and he may have a good result and you’ve gotten very happily because of the battle with Sebastian Vettel. You looked about as happy as a warrior getting ready to go into battle. Do you look forward to it possibly being a three-way battle at the end of this weekend?

LH: I do, I do. I think it’s great how close it is between the teams because then it brings out the best in each driver and I just feel… when you feel like you’re at your best and you do a good job and you’re fighting against someone else who is doing just as good a job it’s that much more exciting and the more drivers we have in the mix then the more tense it gets. Fortunately… don’t think for a long time it’s been more than three or four drivers but anyway I’m really happy it’s more than just the two of us. There’s going to be lots of ups and downs throughout the year but Valtteri’s definitely keeping me on my toes and I’m thoroughly happy for him today. As I said before, he really deserved that lap and his first pole… I know how special it is to have your first pole position. It is just amazing. You dream of it as a kid and I know that he will be enjoying it and tomorrow could be his first Grand Prix win but obviously I will try my hardest to win the race but whichever the case, he’s going to have one at some stage this year. If it’s not tomorrow it will be…because he’s getting stronger and stronger.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, according to the power unit report, a turbocharger and one of the E-motors have been changed in your car. Is that a concern this early in the season?

SV: Not really. Obviously it was not planned but yeah, it doesn’t set us back. I think we’re doing fine. I think we pushed very hard over the winter. I think we did a very very good job, especially on the engine side, power unit side. I think there’s been a very big step so it feels great, feels like a lot more power than last year and yeah, obviously the year isn’t over yet but as I said, it shouldn’t be a problem

April 15, 2017
F1 2017: Chinese Gp Review – Hamilton Wins For Mercedes In China

Just about the only thing that was predictable for the 14^th running of the Chinese grand prix is that Lewis Hamilton started from pole position alongside the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel while Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen locked out the second row of the grid.

Friday’s running at the Shanghai International Circuit was abandoned due to weather conditions prohibiting the medical helicopter from landing at the designated hospital in Shanghai. It meant that teams and drivers entered into Sunday’s race with only the data and knowledge of the one-hour final practice session and whatever number of laps they completed in qualifying.

The weather conditions on Sunday were best described as dank as the field started the race on intermediate tyres. The only exception to this was Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso who opted to start the race on the dry, supersoft tyre, much to this dismay of his engineers. While the circuit was wet in some parts it was drying quickly in others and the intermediates were discarded within four laps.

A virtual safety car was deployed for the recovery of Lance Stroll’s Williams, which had been dumped off the circuit by Sergio Perez. It is at this point that Ferrari decided to call Sebastian Vettel into the pits for a change of boots. Unfortunately, a full safety car would be deployed shortly after to clear the heavily damaged Sauber of Antonio Giovinazzi. This afforded race leader Hamilton a free pitstop while Vettel was stuck behind a Verstappen/Ricciardo/Raikkonen train.

While Vettel launched a bid for recovery, Hamilton was comfortable at the front and without any real pressure, he could control his pace. The cooler temperatures also played into Mercedes’ hand as it means less tyre degradation.

Despite finishing second to Hamilton, Vettel delivered a telling performance in the Ferrari. Take into account that Hamilton had a free pitstop under the safety car, and factor in that Vettel lost a good amount of time behind the Ricciardo train. The fact that he finished only six seconds off Hamilton indicates that Ferrari had a car that could’ve won the race.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen brilliantly recovered his race and went from sixteenth to finish third ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. The sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen finished in a frustrated fifth. While the Finn struggled through the race with an intermittent power issue, the Ferrari pit wall compounded his frustration by calling an absurd strategy. Their inexplicable decision left Raikkonen out while all the front-running drivers made their stops while the driver was adamant that the tyres would not make it to the end of the race. From the radio messages, it was clear that Raikkonen had to force the issue and he eventually pitted, what was ten laps too late.

There weren’t a high a number of overtakes in this year’s race but what we did see were several pretty spectacular overtakes. There were two from Vettel, one on his own teammate, and one around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo. There were several from Max Verstappen too and an especially spicy one from Romain Grosjean around the outside of turn two on Felipe Massa. The point is that while there weren’t a 100 passes, there were genuine and very bold overtakes that came about as a result of some driver heroics instead of being aided by DRS.

While conditions flattered Red Bull on the day Valtteri Bottas did not cover himself in glory as he spun out of contention early on. The Finn eventually finished sixth. Sainz, who had started the race on supersofts, drove brilliantly to recover from an early spin and finish a spectacular seventh. Kevin Magnussen delivered Haas’ first points of the season in eighth ahead of the two Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon in ninth and tenth.

Neither McLaren saw the chequered flag as first Stoffel Vandoorne retired with a fuel-pressure issue and later Fernando Alonso pulled off the track with a driveshaft failure.

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel head to the Bahrain Gp this weekend equal on 43 points. The hotter temperatures in Bahrain will boost Ferrari’s challenge in what is sure to be an enthralling battle with Mercedes.

April 10, 2017
2017 Chinese Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS – 1. Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), 2. Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), 3. Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, many congratulations on what looked like a great lap at the end of Q3 there. Talk us through the lap and your session.

Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Yeah, it’s been an interesting weekend so far, obviously without testing yesterday. Today was a real challenge for all of us in the sense that we had to compile a lot of yesterday’s testing into this morning and hope we’d hit the nail on the head with the balance of the car. But the Ferraris have looked so fast, through practice this morning and then through each qualifying session. We knew it was going to be close, and it was going to mean we would have to pull out all the stops and really have a very, very perfect lap, you know, a solid lap. I managed to just chip away at it from session to session. No major issues. But the last lap was my best lap, which is always the plan – sometimes it’s in another session. The lap started off not as good as perhaps the Q1 first lap but then the rest of the lap got better and better – I think it may have been tyre temperatures or something, who knows. It felt strong and then obviously coming into the last corner knowing I was up a couple of tenths… it’s always nervous going into Turn 14 because you want to break late and gain some but you don’t want to throw away everything you’ve gained. And through the last corner and coming across the line, and then just waiting after that to see what everyone else had done. These guys behind were still finishing off their laps. So, very, very happy, super grateful for the huge efforts that the team have put in to keep us in the fight. It’s more exciting than ever for me, because we’re really fighting these guys, you know. It’s amazing, and I think that’s what racing’s all about. It really pushes you to raise the bar every time you go out, which I love. Lastly, just a big thank you to all the fans. We’ve got a lot of British flags here in China, which is amazing.

And Lewis what does it mean to you to take the 75^th pole in the history of Mercedes?

LH: Well, I’ve been with Mercedes for a long, long time, since I started when I was 13 actually. Since I’ve been in Formula One, all my wins, all my poles have been with Mercedes, so very grateful and thankful to be in the family, and to be a part of this amazing journey that the whole team is on, that this whole brand is on. I’d like to go along and keep stamping something in the history books so someday I can look back on it.

Q: Sebastian, a great session from you and Ferrari as well. How important was it for you to get on the front row today?

Sebastian VETTEL: We’ll see tomorrow how important it was. It was a nice session; I enjoyed it a lot. I think if we could have been a bit quicker at the end I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I think I was very happy with the lap I had. Last corner maybe I lost a little bit – maybe I ‘chickened’ onto the brakes a bit too soon. Obviously it was very close with Valtteri, good job we got just enough margin to make it to the front row.

Q: Do you think you have a better race car than qualifying car at the moment?

SV: I think our car is strong no matter what. It obviously depends what these guys are doing. Certainly we’ve seen also in the previous years that in quali they seem to be able to really get on top of what they have. I think we can still improve. Let’s see what the race looks like tomorrow. The conditions will be quite different. Maybe we should put fuel in the car and race now. I don’t know what happens tomorrow.

Q: Valtteri, have you worked out where you lost that one thousandth of a second to Sebastian?

Valtteri BOTTAS: I think on one lap around here there are quite a few places. One thousandth, like you mentioned, it like this maybe? It’s not so much. It is a real shame he managed to get between us. I think last time it was two thousandths and now it’s one thousandth, so…

SV: I think it was two hundredths, I don’t know.

VB: It’s getting closer! So yeah it’s a shame but the race is tomorrow. We are starting as a team first and third. It’s a good place to start. The weather can be anything really tomorrow. Lewis was strong today, Ferrari was strong and we were always expecting a close fight today on track. I think it will be the same case tomorrow. Thanks to the team again. We did a good job in the short amount of time in the practice today to get the car set up well and it was enjoyable to drive, but let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Q: Thank you Valtteri. Coming back to you Lewis, well, it looks like you’ve got a real fight on your hands tomorrow. How much are you relishing this battle with Ferrari?

LH: Particularly for tomorrow, it’s going to be an unusual day. I heard it’s going to be wet potentially, to start off the race. I’ve not driven the wet tyre this season, so that’s going to be fun, to experience the bigger car, wider tyres for the first time. I mean I did an out lap yesterday on the extreme, but it was a very slow lap, so I’ve not actually experienced it. So tomorrow will be a new lesson for me to learn if it is wet and it will be interesting to see… I think the Ferraris have a very, very strong car, particularly a step-up more so in the race pace and how they treat their tyres, particularly when it’s warm, so it will be interesting to see what the weather brings us tomorrow. But I think we have worked hard to understand our car a little bit better and I think whatever the case it’s going to be close between us and that bodes well for one of the most exciting days to come for a long time.

Q: Lewis, how much do you feel that you are on the back foot after the lack of running yesterday? How much has it set everybody’s programmes back?

LH: I don’t know. I think the thing is we’ve all been here for so long and the more you drive the more you learn to minimise the loss of a day like yesterday. So, y’know, as a team we’ve learnt so much over the years, and as a driver as well. You learn, even while you’re not driving, you’re thinking about the steps that you need to take. So we try go into a day like today as if there hasn’t been a loss. But as I said, this morning we had to do long run, short run, and a qualifying run in one short session, as opposed to doing it in three sessions – but I think we got as much as we could done and if we had had yesterday, I don’t think we’d have been much further up the road, if any at all, to be honest. Don’t know how these guys feel but we’ve got great engineers who analyse and analyse and analyse and did a fantastic job and, I’m assuming, for Sebastian.

Q: The weather forecast looks indifferent for tomorrow at best… it could rain. You’ve touched on it already that you haven’t used the new full wet tyre from Pirelli. Does that make you nervous?

LH: No, I’m excited about it, to be honest, because it’s a new experience. I’m sure it’s not a huge, huge difference to what we’ve had in the past. Perhaps a little bit. I’m kind of excited about. It makes it more… it’s great to have some excitement. To be faced with a new challenge. You just have to be the most proactive, most reactive tomorrow. If it is wet. If it is raining I just hope that the clouds stay high so that the helicopter can stay take off so that we can actually do a race. We’ve got an amazing turnout here so we want to make sure we can put on a good race for them.

Q: Sebastian, it’s 380m from the grid to Turn One tomorrow. How significant is that going to be – or do you think you are going to be able to overtake tomorrow?

SV: For me it’s 388m, I guess. Hopefully I can make up those eight metres. Which side are we starting on. Where’s pole? [on the outside] OK, so if I make up 8m then it looks pretty good. I don’t know. There’s a lot of things that can turn out in many ways tomorrow. That’s one option that I mentioned but we don’t know what the conditions are going to be like. We’ll see. I think it should be an exciting race nevertheless. Obviously very limited running yesterday, hardly any for me. I think I did two laps but nobody really did a lot of laps, so we’ll see. The car is good, the car is fine, so I’m confident, no matter the conditions that the car is working, and then we try to do the fastest race.

Q: Lewis has already said that racing against someone like yourself is what racing is all about. Just how much are you relishing the battle with him?

SV: Well, it’s been a while so yeah, I think we’re on a good way. Obviously it’s a lot of fun when you fight for poles and wins. Certainly enjoyed Australia a lot, despite the outcome on Sunday which obviously was fantastic – but in general, to be able to fight at the front for the podium, and really fight for it is a great feeling. Same here. You go into the weekend and… we didn’t really have much expectation because it’s a completely different track but on the hand we did know that our car is working well. So, just need to keep it up. Need to try to improve it whenever we can. So overall, I can only give it back, and hopefully there’s a lot more for the rest of the season. But this is only race two. A lot of things can happen but we need to obviously give everything we have to stay there.

Q: Valtteri, as Sebastian says, this is only race two, it’s your second race with Mercedes. How comfortable are you feeling in the team? Are you settling in? Are there still a few things you need to learn?

VB: Definitely. Approaching this weekend, compared to Melbourne, the first one of the year, it was a different feeling. Being true, that one full race weekend with the team, doing the qualifying session and the race, with a podium finish, it was a nice start, so definitely feeling more and more comfortable. I think still, as I’ve been mentioning, there is a big learning curve for me with everything and I feel more better and better still, every single day with the team and every single lap with the car. So, yeah…

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Maybe a question to all of you. Different circuit, same result as in Melbourne. The advantage a little bit smaller than in Melbourne. Where does Ferrari stand against Mercedes? What do you think Lewis, Sebastian and Valtteri?

LH: I’m not really sure how to explain that. Close. The times show it as close as it’s been. It’s within a tenth, I think, the distance between us.

SV: Being pragmatic, I think if you take the average of what we’ve had so far, then you can say that in qualifying we’re still lacking a bit and in the race I think we are a good match. I think Lewis was struggling a bit in Australia with his tyres. We weren’t as much. I don’t know what happens tomorrow. It will be a lot cooler. Certainly after tomorrow you can draw another average – but what matters most is that after 20 races you draw the average and we come out on top. That would be great! But it’s a long way, as I said. So, for now we’re very happy being able to challenge Mercedes and hopefully we can do that more and more.

Q: And Valtteri? What did you expect the gap between yourselves and Mercedes to do here in China?

SV: A thousandth!

VB: Yeah! I was hoping for one thousandth at least. We were always expecting it would be really, really close. Everything between the two teams is between one or two tenths, depending on conditions for the sessions, race or qualifying. That’s why it’s going to be interesting tomorrow.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, the distance between you and Lewis, Ferrari and Mercedes in general, seems to be even closer than last year and the past years in general. This difference in qualifying, compared to last year and previous seasons; do you think it can be a trend throughout the season?

SV: Well, I think we’ve made a big step as a team so I think it’s really thanks to the team that simply supplied me with a better car. I think in general I like this formula a lot where you can push on the limit. Probably the last couple of years it was creeping away from all of us, step by step, and with this year’s cars it’s back to how it was a long time ago and back to how it should be. I don’t know if it’s a combination of things; as a driver you jump into the car and you always try to do your best but as I said, big thank you to the team to supply me with a great car this year, right from the first outing and I have high hopes that we can still improve it from where we are. I know the team is still growing together, there is still a lot of progress that we can make but the way I feel and the way the team feels and the way the team shows it to me directly and indirectly, there’s no rush. We are here to do our job and we know that we can be strong. I think we’ve laid a good foundation and now it’s up to us to build onto it. Now it’s April, we still have a lot of time. The most important thing, I think, is that we enjoy it.

Q: (Keren Wang – Top Driver) Lewis, we’ve seen a bit of happy tail from your car today on your flying laps. Could you tell us a little bit about your car set-up; is it compromised for a wet race tomorrow or is it somewhere between wet or dry, either condition?

LH: What was the first part? Happy tail, ah oversteer. It’s actually a little bit understeery I would say.

SV: Where was the happy tail? One corner to another?

LH: It was pretty good. It’s like a see-saw, you know? You can decide to have it more understeery or oversteery. This is a track where you need to have a very good front end. I think generally in Formula One it’s not too often where we have to set the car up for a wet race, particularly when you don’t know if it’s definitely going to be wet so you set it up for what you’re faced with that day and tomorrow you can make changes to the wing; tomorrow, for example, if it is wet, that’s the only real difference you need to make. It’s not like go-karting where you loosen everything off, you slacken the car off. You don’t really need to do that necessarily for… If we know it’s a completely wet weekend and maybe we can do some small things but it’s quite similar. We’ve got to make sure we’ve put ourselves at the front.

Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) To all three of you: what do you think will be the key tomorrow: the start, the strategy or perhaps even some overtaking which would be exciting?

LH: I think probably in that order: start, strategy and then, depending on what the conditions are on the track… if it’s wet of course there are opportunities to overtake, if it’s dry it’s very hard to follow as has been the rule now, particularly when there’s thousandths between us. You lose a lot of thousandths behind each other with the loss of downforce. Yeah, I think it would be great if we get some… a wet race would be exciting.

SV: I think… mostly conditions. If it’s dry we know what to do, everybody knows what to do. It’s fairly easy knowing what to expect. If there’s an element of wet then it can mix things up so we will see. I think we wake up tomorrow, look outside and see what to do. We have enough wet tyres so it should be fine if it’s wet.

VB: Seeing the forecast, I think really making the most of the conditions throughout the race, being on it with the strategy. I think that’s going to be one of the key points.

Q: (Fu Yu – China International Radio) Valtteri, you’re only a thousandth of a second slower than Sebastian on the front row. Do you think you could have done a little bit better and how confident do you feel about making up that gap tomorrow?

VB: Always if you could do the lap again, especially when it’s one thousandth, you can find it somewhere, especially with the short amount of running throughout practice. We only really had practice three. Yes, definitely, I could have done better but I think every driver on this grid, having got a second qualifying, would improve and then it becomes more and more tricky to improve.

Q: (Fu Yu – China International Radio) How confident do you feel about making up that thousandth of a second tomorrow?

VB: When we’re on the grid tomorrow then it doesn’t matter. I always tend to get all the points from the qualifying that I need to improve and what we need to improve as a team. We move on for tomorrow and tomorrow I’m not going to think about the one thousandth; it’s a new day and a completely new opportunity and we are going to do everything we can to be one and two and for me still chasing my career-best result.

Q: (Marius Salvini – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, pole position number 65 is even closer. What do you think about it, is it something of a magic number for you?

LH: It really is, I think. Every pole has been – it might be hard for you to believe – but every pole position has been so unique in its own way. There’s always been a different journey to gain that pole, there are different things that have happened on that lap. It’s still today – and I’m sure it will never change – it’s still so real that I have that amount of poles and to think you can have a pole in Formula One…. because the dream was to get to Formula One. And now, it’s perhaps even more exciting, I’m nearing Ayrton, he had a lot of pole positions with less races. We know what he did back then was just phenomenal, the same with Michael but just grateful to be up there up amongst them. I definitely feel that what I love even more now is that I feel like more than at any other time, I feel like I’m really having to earn those pole positions being that it’s so close, so again, on top of that the feeling is even better

April 8, 2017
F1 2017: Chinese Gp Preview – China Set For Mercedes Reaction

From the quaint streets of the Albert Park circuit in Australia the Formula 1 paddock heads the grand architecture of the Shanghai International circuit in China for the second round of the 2017 season.

Remarkably, F1’s latest visit to China marks the 14^th year that the Shanghai circuit has been on the calendar. There is a bit of history about the circuit too. Its inaugural race in 2004 was won by then Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello and in 2006 Michael Schumacher scored what would be his 91^st and final victory. A year later Kimi Raikkonen’s win in changeable conditions would set up an unlikely championship triumph while, in 2012, the Chinese grand prix was also the very first race win for the reigning champion Nico Rosberg.

Nevertheless, while these stats and victories remain firmly in the history books the 2017 crop arrives with what is still very much an era in its infancy. While Ferrari has won the first race of the season the Shanghai International circuit demands a far different type of car performance. For one, this circuit is far more front limited which means that a car will need to work well with its front tyres to set competitive lap times. The tyres too will be tested more than in Australia as the Chinese circuit is far more abrasive.

Tyre wear may prove to be a significant factor, especially for Mercedes. It was this issue that Lewis Hamilton singled out as the reason for his defeat by Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari. What’s more, in Australia it was clear that Mercedes W08 is not as comfortable following other cars as the Ferrari appears to be which, by itself, can substantially influence tyre degradation and wear.

However, these aren’t the only issues Mercedes are facing and the team has admitted that it needs to reduce the weight of its 2017 car. An overweight car not only costs lap time but also takes away the teams ability to position ballast in the car to aid handling. What’s more, Haas team principal Guenter Steiner thinks that Ferrari’s 2017 power unit might be on a par with than that of Mercedes, if not better. The make up of the Chinese circuit, which includes several high speed corners, and long straits, will be a good test of Steiner’s theory.

But by no means is Mercedes ruled out of taking the top step of podium this weekend. The prediction of fairly low temperatures for the race weekend will be in their favour as cooler condition will mean less overheating of their tyres. But they’ll have to work hard if they are to withstand the threat of Ferrari. For Red Bull the fight is highly unlikely to be for the podium considering the deficit of the Renault engine to that of Mercedes and Ferrari.

Several critics have railed about the difficultly of overtaking in 2017. The detractors felt vindicated by the overall lack of overtaking in Australia but Albert Park, as a semi-street circuit, is not the best barometer in this case. While the jury is still out in what is still a fairly immature point of the season the Shanghai International circuit, thanks to its two long straits, will offer more overtaking opportunities. It will not be definitive but it will begin to reveal how easy or difficult overtaking will be in 2017.

Since the start of the hybrid era in 2014 Mercedes have been an unstoppable juggernaut only rarely tripped up by themselves. In these three years the world has witnessed how the Mercedes team runs and conducts itself as the dominant force. At the start of 2017 they are by no means down and out but are, at the very least, perceived to be ever so slightly on the back foot. Therefore, it will be fascinating to observe how they respond.

April 6, 2017
2017 Australian Grand Prix: Post-Race Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Mark Webber)

Q: Sebastian, all those thousands and thousands of hours of work from the whole team over winter testing, you guys have shown the form early in the season, massive victory, how do you feel?
Sebastian VETTEL: Unbelievable. Thank you everyone, it was a fantastic grand prix. It was quite, in a positive way, when I was coming back to the pits and there were people running on track going wild with Ferrari flags. It was unbelievable. Thanks for the support. Like you said, it was what we needed. The whole team has been working really, really hard. The guys didn’t get much sleep here and back in the factory. The car is really behaving well, incredible to drive, a beautiful day. Thank you.

Q: We’ll move across to second place. Lewis Hamilton, who did everything right, he did everything right. Come on, Australia. Absolutely world class is Lewis. On pole position, phenomenal start, mate. And for me, I think the strategy didn’t quite work out for you today. Did you have to pit? Why was it so early? And obviously for you then to get the race victory back off Sebastian was going to be very difficult from then onwards.

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, definitely. Firstly, a big congratulations to Ferrari and to Sebastian, they did an amazing job this weekend. It’s been a great weekend for us and the team, but just in the race, I struggled with the tyres at the end. I had to pit a lot earlier than these guys because I just ran out of grip. Pitted and I got stuck behind one of the Red Bulls and sometimes that’s just the way it goes. But overall, a great race and good points for the team and I mean look at this crowd. Thank you for coming out today and it’s always such a great place for us to be.

Q: Well done Lewis and great sportsmanship there and I wouldn’t expect anything different from a world champion. Valtteri, first time up here with Mercedes, how does it feel? Big weekend for you, no errors, talk us through it.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, obviously first race with the team and really want to thank everyone. The team has been so welcoming. We worked really hard for this first race to be ready. Everything went nice and smoothly but it’s just that the red guys are a bit too quick, so that means we need to work harder. We are definitely ready for that. I am ready for that. This is just the start, starting with a podium, we can improve it from here, so I’ll look forward to the next few races.

Q:Well done mate, we’ll finish with Sebastian Vettel. Your 43rd victory. The last time I saw this kind of atmosphere was with both our hero, Michael Schumacher. So emotionally for you it must be massive for you to have all these Italian fans down here in Melbourne, in Italy and around the world, winning the first race of the season and taking the championship fight to this man.
SV: Yeah, it’s a long, long way ahead. For now I think we’re just over the moon. I think it’s been a hard winter and an incredible race today. At the start I wasn’t entirely happy. I think I was a little bit too nervous.

I was surprised. I thought you were going to do it.
SV: I had a bit of wheel slip off the line. Lewis was a tiny bit better and then I had to take care of Valtteri in Turn One, but then I had a decent exit. But after that I was really trying to keep the pressure on to make sure that they get that message that we are here and we’re here to fight. Obviously got a bit lucky when Lewis came out in traffic but still we were hanging in there, the tyres were still good, the car was working, so excellent job. And as I said, the support around the track: I had a look with 20 laps to go left and right and especially last sector they were always on fire with the flags, so it was really great. Yeah, thank you.

Q: And a quick word on the beast: what are the cars like now compared to last year?

SV: Ah, you could push much harder. Usually the first couple of laps you were pushing last year and then the tyres were dropping off. Now the tyres are still dropping off a bit but you can keep pushing. You can keep braking at the same point. The car is screaming “more, more, more!” Also, at the end with the harder tyres there is hardly any degradation so it’s really good fun, especially in the fast corners. You could keep going forever, it was a great race, and I enjoyed it a lot.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Congratulations Sebastian, your second win here in Australia and the 43rd of your Formula One career. Great start to your year. Talk us through the conversation on the radio after Lewis made that early pit stop. What were deliberations in terms of the strategy? And when you came in and went out on the soft tyres, to try to warm that thing up, you had quite a bit of action behind you, tell us about how tense that got?

SV: I think we realised early on that we had decent pace. I was able to follow Lewis and then I think after 10 or 12 laps he was really pushing, trying to open a gap, and he succeeded a bit. I was struggling to keep up, but still hanging in there. And I knew if there was anything to happen around the first stop then I need to be right behind him to either put them under pressure or have a chance to jump into the pits earlier to pass him through the stop. Once it was clear that he went in, there was no point to follow. We stayed out, the tyres were still holding on and the pace looked alright. I wasn’t aware of the traffic situation at that point and I just tried to calm down a bit because I was quite hot on the previous laps, but still keep the pace up and hope for an ‘overcut’ so to say. Then I was told he was facing some traffic, which I didn’t know who and how fast the traffic was and whether he would clear but I just tried to hang in there. And then obviously we saw the gap, went into the pits and it worked. It was very tight. I lost a lot of time on the in-lap because I had a lapped car, I think it was a Williams. I lost about a second so I was a bit angry but that’s how it goes sometimes and still it was just enough and I had Max right behind me and Lewis as well, so that was quite tight. Turn One was a bit slippery, but I managed to get a decent exit and a decent run down to Turn Three. I just held the inside. I knew that Max would probably try something but I just kept in front. That was obviously crucial for our race. I tried to push for as hard as I could for the one or two [laps] Max was still out because he was slower on the older tyres, to open a bit of a gap and control the race. The car was really good, working well and I could control the gap and the pace, going through traffic and just bringing it home. It was very pleasant. A different race to last year, where you had to manage a lot. Now I think it was a bit more raw, especially the beginning. Even if it wasn’t a wheel-to-wheel fight I could see Lewis was pushing really hard. There were some corners where he was on top of me and other corners where I was catching up. It was nice that we could just push and race to let’s say the first stop. Then obviously we got a bit lucky with him facing some traffic. But equally we pushed him to the pits and did well. Otherwise, if he had a big lead after 15 laps then he could stay out, control the race and pit into free air. We did a very good race. I’m very happy with the calls today. It worked brilliantly and as I said, big thanks to the team. We say this all the time but I think if you’re not part of the team I think it’s difficult to realise but what this team has done in the last six months has been really tough, rough as well, not easy to manage the whole team but I think the new car, in general… obviously today is fantastic, a big reward a big relief for everyone. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. The foundation has been laid a
long time ago and really proud to see it coming together. This is just one race. I’m sure we’ll have a great night, we’ll create… we did already, but we will create some great memories tonight and we’ll take it from there. I think we enjoy what we do, the spirit is great in the team and that’s for us to keep it up.

Q: Congratulations. Lewis, a lot of pressure on you at the start but the getaway looked pretty flawless so talk us through that. Then Sebastian said he felt he pushed you into the pits and you came in relatively early, lap 18, did you have to come in?
LH: We had a really good start, which is fantastic; it’s good to have a good getaway. After that, I was struggling with the grip from the get-go. Sebastian was able to always answer in terms of lap time and the majority of the time do faster lap times and then towards the end I got a bit in traffic and the car started to overheat the tyres and I was struggling with grip and it was to the point that I needed to come in. Plus, the gap was closing up and I was sliding around. So it was my call because otherwise he probably would have come by anyway. So then I came in and then I got obviously stuck in traffic, which is a little bit unfortunate but that’s motor racing. But a big congratulations to Sebastian and Ferrari. I know it’s been a long time coming for them to get a result like this. It shows we are going to have a race on our hands, which we are very happy to have, which is great for the fans. Unfortunately it’s harder than ever to get close to cars, which is a shame. We can’t even have a close battle but who knows, maybe in the future we will.

Q: Valtteri, so we learned that Ferrari’s pace from testing is real. What did you learn this weekend about your new car, your new team and where you yourself can improve going forward?
VB: Well, first of all I think it is a start. There are always things that could have gone better but it is a good starting point for the journey for me driving for Mercedes. I think the main things were obviously yesterday, the qualifying, I didn’t get everything perfect but it was the first qualifying with the team and this track really hasn’t been fantastic for me ever in qualifying. But there’s a long season ahead. Today, I think the race was good. As a team I think we did a good job with the car we have. I think Ferrari was quicker today, there’s no doubt about that. They have obviously done a great job and a better job for this race. From my side the main thing today was the first stint. I struggled quite a lot with the ultrasoft tyres. It felt like I was just sliding around, always missing front grip, rear grip, especially after like 10 laps of the first stint. That wasn’t easy. But once we put the soft tyres on it was quite a good feeling with the car and the car was behaving really nicely. It was really nice to drive. But it was a bit too late and still missing a bit of pace. Overall, I think not a disastrous first race weekend with the team but I do have my points I will take and I can do better next time and I look forward to that.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian. Can you tell us please which was the road map that the team had to follow to achieve this victory and how much is it a surprise to be on the top now?
SV: I think for all of us it is a positive surprise. I think the road we followed is pretty simple: we didn’t look left; we didn’t look right; we didn’t look forward; we didn’t look back. I think we focussed on what we had to do at the time. Obviously there has been a lot of up and down, left and right the last 12 months but I think, especially the last couple of months, things calmed down and we just tried to do our job. Obviously there has been a big reshuffle but, as I said, people are happy, happy to work, working with each other. That’s the key. At the end there’s no shortcut, you need to get the job done and invest a lot of hours thinking. Passion, I think, is a great driver back in the factory, also here. I think up and down the pitlane the amount of hours the guys are covering is mad. You need to love what you’re doing but especially… I said it years ago joining Ferrari, there seems to be an extra passion just working for the Prancing Horse and, I think, just focussing on ourselves really has been the big difference. I think a key to deliver a great car, which we obviously have. The speeds look alright, both on the straights and in the corners we are competitive. As I said, I was able to stay with Lewis. They had a little bit the upper hand yesterday but I knew, y’know, we had much better balance yesterday than on Friday so I knew in the race anything can happen. It’s the first race of the season, I’m surprised we didn’t have a Safety Car but anything can happen. I wanted to stay in there and make it clear we had the pace. It was nice to see that we have and, as I say, to get the job done.

Q: (Leon Alepidis – F1fan) Question to all of you, now that you have completed a decent sum of laps with 2017 cars around the Circuit de Catalunya and Albert Park, for which track and individual turn a re you most looking forward to?
SV: I don’t know if I can get all the races together! Probably Silverstone. I think with that amount of grip and downforce. Probably Suzuka as well later on in the year. Also I guess the cars will be even faster from what they are now. So, yeah, I think that would be quite nice. I’m looking forward to that.

Lewis?
LH: Yes, Silverstone, I agree.

Valtteri?
VB: Yeah, I think all the quick ones: Spa; Suzuka; Silverstone will be nice. But I think even street circuits will be a bit more challenging I think – not that it wasn’t challenging before, but with these cars it will be nice.

Q: (Lennart Bernke – Bild) Seb, you are always talking about a different spirit inside the team and how you have changed from the last year. Can you tell us how exactly you have managed that or what happened inside the team that made the spirit different this year?
SV: I didn’t manage anything, I’m not the team manager so you need to ask other people. In the end it was clear that when we started off two years ago, three years ago that there’s a lot to do, a lot to reshuffle. I think the team was at a low. The spirit was very good in the first year, in 2015. I think last year was a very good year. Obviously not for the results but in terms of growing the team. It’s good also to hit some lows and go through difficult periods – even though it pretty much sucks – but if you look race-by-race it’s not great but seeing what happens in the background is important. I think people always kept the belief and, as I said, the last six months have been very calm. We have done our work and it starts to slowly pay off. Now it peaks and we are at the top of this grand prix but that’s a small achievement. If you look at who we are up against, I think Mercedes has been phenomenal the last couple of years: incredible team effort, incredibly by both drivers. I think Valtteri just fitted in and kept doing a fantastic job for the team. No weak link from the outside, not that we can see. They will be the ones to beat but for sure today I’m just happy and we take it as a team. You saw the guys: they were smiling, singing, so I’m sure we’ll see more of that tonight.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) For all three. The first time with the new clutch rules at the start. None of you lost a position but how did your start go?

Lewis you’ve already dealt with that. Sebastian?
SV: I had a bit of wheel slip. It’s tough, obviously, it’s a very fine line. You try to guess where to go. If you get it right it feels fantastic; if not it’s… yeah, you’re not getting the maximum out of it. Hopefully a better start in China.

Valtteri?
VB: I think mine was quite average. Not the best possible for these conditions but not too bad. So yeah, pretty happy with that all obviously. Would have been nice to jump at least one car but yeah, it was good. Definitely been working hard on the starts and it seems to pay off but for sure we can improve on that.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, in the Championship, is this the most important podium for you so far and was that the most physical also?
VB: Most important podium… I don’t know. For sure it is good to start with a podium this season with a new team. I think every position is important for the Championship itself. So it is too early to say if it is the most important. Most physical? I think one of the most physical. This is not one of the most physical tracks – but the new cars definitely make it harder. But yeah, based on what I felt today, some of the circuits will be quite a challenge but I was OK today. It’s nice to feel a bit more physical effect and a little bit more fatigue. I like it.

Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Lewis, just saw you stretching out your left shoulder there a bit. Any discomfort after that race? And also, was it as physical as you guys expected? More? Less? With these new cars over a race distance.
LH: No, I’m just stretching. It was more physical but it was no problem for me and doesn’t look like it was for these guys either.

SV: It’s not the most physical circuit in the year. I think later on it will be very interesting. Here is very technical. So, first couple of laps, at least for me, were very intense. Obviously it’s easy to have an error, get
something wrong under braking, go a bit wide etcetera. Later on I had a bit of a gap and I could control it, and therefore it was a bit easier.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, Ferrari won the first race of the season last time seven years ago. Is this the biggest chance for the team and are you going to refresh your song compilation for victory?
SV: Was that in Bahrain? Yeah. What was the second part of your question? I was thinking about which race it was.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Are you going to refresh your victory song compilation?
SV: Ah, no, no, no, no. I’m not a good singer otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I’m pretty sure I will think of something if we’re lucky enough to repeat what we did today but no plans. I think it came very spontaneously now two years ago. We’ll see. I think that’s a very nice problem to have, to worry about which song to sing but for now I think we’re very happy with how the race went today.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, in the second part of the race you seem to have struggled to close the gap to Sebastian even when you had a free track in front of you. At one point you were asking the team ‘is there damage to the floor?’ Has there been anything with your car or were you just struggling with the tyres?

LH: Not that I know of. In the second part of the race… I had stopped about eight laps before these guys so I just didn’t know how long the tyres were going to go so I just took it easy and at the end, obviously, I got more pace but even if I did close the gap, you can’t overtake so… and I may not have made it to the end of the race having stopped so early.

Q: (Paul Gover – News Ltd) Sebastian, the last time Ferrari won here in Australia was Kimi and he went on to be World Champion. Do you have any feeling at all yet about how the championship might go for you this year?
SV: No, not interested at this point to be honest. Obviously I was very fortunate so far in my racing career. I’ve had some good races and good years but definitely the first race is not the time to look at the table. As I’ve said before, you really have to go step by step. It’s good to know that we have a great car but it’s just the beginning: new regulations, new generations of cars so there will be a lot of progress. These guys have proved to be the ones to beat for the last couple of years, more and more so. We know that they have a great engine but also they had a great car the last couple of years and they made good steps forward so we are the ones who need to catch up but as I said, for today I am just very happy and for sure whatever happens this year, the race today doesn’t hurt.

Q: (Phil Branagan – Auto Action) Lewis, we heard some of the radio communication after your tyre stop; there was a conversation about a switch to plan B and then a switch back to plan A. Did something happen in the car to prompt that change of strategy during the second half of the race?
LH: Strategy A is a one-stop, strategy B was a two-stop and I was in second so they were looking at alternatives of other ways to get me back to first.

Q: (Andre Leslie – DPA) Lewis has now suggested a couple of times that it’s very tough to overtake. Can I ask Sebastian and Valtteri if that is what you guys are feeling and can you explain to us why?
VB: I think it is definitely… you know even in the years before it’s been difficult to follow once you get within one and a half, one second just because of the turbulent air which messes up the aerodynamics of the car and that way we don’t have that much grip. Now, as more of the grip from the car is relying on the aero it’s a bigger effect and the cars are wider so I think there’s more turbulent air so now I think it’s more like two seconds or even two and a half because you actually feel quite a big effect from the car in front and that way in the corners it’s more difficult to follow. Obviously you have a bigger slipstream on the straight but if you can’t follow in the corners it’s tricky to get a slipstream. That’s the problem.

SV: Nothing to add.

Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Lewis and Seb, the two of you have been the dominant drivers of the past decade in terms of World Championships but you’ve rarely had a year when you have been able to fight
each other in fairly equal machinery. Sat here now, knowing that you’ve both got cars that are closely matched, is there a bit of anticipation between the two of you to go head to head?
SV: Great respect for Lewis. I think he had an amazing debut here ten years ago. I still remember his move around the outside, when he made other people look a bit silly. I think since then, since day one, he’s proved that he’s very very quick, very talented but also working hard. I think it was a matter of time before he won the World Championship which I tried to stop him doing in Brazil, as hard as I could, in my Toro Rosso. Great memories – but I don’t remember the last ten years. Roughly we’ve been racing each other but if I have the same outcome as you had on that day…

LH: I’m going to get you back.

SV: Yeah, to cut it short, I have great respect. He’s proven to be one of the quickest drivers on the grid and for sure I would love to have a close battle. Obviously right now it looks like we have equal machinery. I hope it stays that way and then we will see how it turns out but it’s obviously a lot of fun to race for victories and a lot of fun to race against the best.

LH: Yeah, I second that. Incredible amount of respect for Sebastian and what he’s achieved in his career. It’s been a privilege to be racing in an era with him and now finally at a period of time when we can actually have a real race. I wish we could race a lot closer in the cars that we have today but still I think the fact that we are similar pacewise, it’s going to be a very very hard slog this season I think. It’s going to be physically and mentally demanding but as Sebastian said, racing the best is what Formula One is all about and ultimately makes you work that much harder, having to raise the bar and I’m looking forward to that.

March 26, 2017
F1 2017: Australian Gp Qualifying Report – Hamilton Leads

Lewis Hamilton has secured pole position for Australian grand prix but it was far from the comfortable domination the Mercedes driver has been used to.

Nipping at the gearbox of the Mercedes was Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari only two tenths off the pole position time. This time is in stark contrast to Ferrari’s last six outing in quali around the Albert Park during which they had failed to come within in, roughly, seventh tenths of the quickest time.

New Merc driver Valtteri Bottas, in third, will share the second row with Ferrari’s other driver Kimi Raikkonen, in fourth. Red Bull were a distant best of the rest in the shape of Max Verstappen while Daniel RIcciardo in the second part of quali. Constrastingly, Romain Grosjean shone for Haas in sixth.

Williams’ fresh out of retirement Felipe Massa secured seventh ahead of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat in eighth and ninth respectively. While Daniel Ricciardo is nailed down in tenth the Red Bull driver is likely to require a gearbox change which will trigger a five place grid drop for tomorrow’s race.

Sergio Perez will line up the pink-liveried Force India in eleventh while Fernando Alonso managed the twelfth quickest time in the McLaren.

Standings After Q3:

March 25, 2017