Tag: Valtteri Bottas

2015 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Willams)

TV UNILATERAL

Nico, you were fastest in Q1 and Q3, fastest after the first run in Q3, on pole by a decent margin. Are you pleased with that?

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure, I’m very happy. It’s been a difficult weekend actually, because of the little running that we got; we didn’t get much practice. Qualifying worked out really well; found a good balance on my car, thanks to my engineers as well. We had to guess a bit where is it going to be and it all worked out well. I felt comfortable, so got some really good laps in and I’m very happy with that.

Very well done. Lewis, obviously you were trailing your team-mate after the first part of Q3 and then you didn’t go for the extra lap at the end. Why not? And I saw you looking around the Ferrari afterwards, did you learn anything from it?

Lewis HAMILTON: No. I did go for my second lap; I just didn’t finish it. I made a mistake at Turn 13 I think it is. Yeah, a difficult weekend I think for everyone. Nico did a great job on his lap. I wasn’t quite perfectly happy with the balance that I had. But overall really happy. I think it’s great for the team and yeah, as you say last year this is not such a bad race for P2.

OK, thank you for that. Valtteri, you matched your result of last year, do you feel you have the measure of Ferrari this weekend?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, it seems like it, at least today. We were quite competitive. It’s good to be third; it’s a good place to start here. Obviously it has been a tricky weekend for everyone but I really think we managed to use Practice 3, well, part of it, what we had, pretty well. I managed to get some good laps in qualifying, consistently, and I pleased with the laps and what we did as a team.

Well done. Coming back to you Nico, obviously you’re going for the Constructors’ Championship tomorrow, trying to clinch it here for the second year in a row, but have you personally got a plan for worked out for Turn One. Lewis referenced it I his answer, after what happened here last year.

NR: No, not yet. I haven’t thought about that yet. At the moment just enjoying being on pole and I’ll dig into that this evening or tomorrow morning to work out a plan for that. Of course the Constructors’ Championship is a really important target for us this weekend – it would be amazing to clinch it for the second time so early on in the season – so we’re out to do that, but at the same time, of course, I’m out here to try to reduce the gap to Lewis in terms of points.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Nico, you mentioned in your first answer about the lack of running this weekend, the really unusual situation. We had it in Japan but even worse here because of the curtailed Free Practice 3 after Carlos Sainz’s accident. So what have you been able to find out in terms of long runs with this much softer tyres than last year here in Russia and how much guesswork is going to be involved in strategy and race performance tomorrow?

NR: Well, we tried to prepare as best we could. So this morning we did do some high fuel running, everybody did. So we do have an idea of how it’s going to be tomorrow, so it’s not completely just guessing. No, we’re quite comfortable that we know what to expect and strategy-wise we think we have got a good strategy, so it should be fine.

Lewis, I wonder if you could give us your view on what happened this morning – the accident of Sainz and going under the barriers? Your thoughts on that speaking on behalf of the drivers?

LH: To be honest I don’t know anything about it, so I couldn’t really comment. I’m just glad he’s OK.

Q: OK, well I’ll throw a question maybe you can answer. You obviously mentioned the fact you are quite happy to start in second place, based on what happened here last year. So, obviously today didn’t work out for you in the single laps but fro the little that you’ve been able to learn from the high-fuel running, do you think you’ll be able to challenge for the win tomorrow.

LH: I wasn’t saying I was happy, I mean I have no choice of being second right now, obviously Nico did a better job in qualifying but I feel there’s still all to play for, as you’ve seen in many other races where I’ve started second. I think it’s exciting. It makes the race ever more exciting and, as I’ve said, Turn One, it’s a long, long way down to Turn One. Probably one of the longest ones of the whole year so it should create opportunities. But there are other opportunities throughout the race as well.

Q: Coming to you Valtteri, obviously both these gentlemen managed to get through Q1 without using a set of Supersoft tyres, just showing the performance that they have. A lot of your competitors struggled, it seemed, to get temperature into the tyres today as the temperatures actually came down during the course of the qualifying session. Is that something you struggled with – and can you articulate what it was like to use these tyres here today?

VB: Yeah. We already saw last year it’s quite tricky to get tyres to work in the first timed lap, and that’s why you could saw many people doing many laps and longer running in qualifying than normal. What we did in the practice and in Q1 also, we just tried to learn more about the tyres so we’re sure we’re making the right decision what we’re going to do in Q3 in terms of tyre temperatures, pressures and how many laps we do. So I think everyone struggled with it today – but we got it right. We got the max out of the car and the tyres.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for all of you about the accident of this morning, car that went through the barrier. Would like to know if you’re worried about it: the dynamic of the accident. The car was inside of the barrier.

We’ve already asked Lewis that question so we’ll start with Nico.

NR: I haven’t seen it so difficult to comment. Of course we always need to push to improve things. Apparently it’s not good, not ideal, so let’s see if we can make progress on that.

Valterri?

VB: I haven’t seen it either, so can’t really say that much. Like Nico, we always need to keep pushing on the safety.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Nico, in the last race you were very conservative at the start and maybe that was one of the reasons you lost the victory. How do you plan your start tomorrow?

NR: On the one side I don’t agree with your opinion – but that’s OK. On the second, just work on it tonight and tomorrow. Work on the start, get everything right there, look at last year’s start, learn from that. That’s it.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) To both of the Mercedes drivers: you were very aggressive – Hamilton was very aggressive – here last year and you were very aggressive also in Japan. I would like to continue on this matter, to know that if, as you have this goal tomorrow [the Constructors’ Championship] does it change you approach for the first corner?

LH: You said I was aggressive here last year? Here? I don’t remember being aggressive. But whatever I did last year it worked so I plan to stay the same really.

Q: I think the point of the question is that you have had a few starts where you have been quite close, not least the last one in Japan and as you’ve got the Constructors’ possibly tomorrow, is it going to change your thinking going into the first corner. For both of you.
NR: No. Nothing changes anything. It’s one way and that’s it.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) In Q1, only Lewis and Nico were on soft tyres, all the others were on supersoft tyres. Is this some kind of reference that we can expect in the race?

NR: Looks like we were especially quick on the soft which is always a good thing of course in the race, because everybody has to use them once so that can only help us.

Q: You’re expecting this to be a one-stop race tomorrow then?

NR: I don’t know about the strategy yet. That’s look into that this evening.
LH: Yeah, very strange coming into the weekend – people were making assumptions that we would have a repeat of Singapore. Obviously I had no idea what it’s going to be like and to think that now we have it the other way round it’s very, very strange. I don’t have answer for it but the car felt good otherwise on the tyres today. I don’t know how it will be for the race. I think from our short long run, the seven laps that we might have got, we have to take information from that, but it didn’t feel bad.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri you were a very consistent third in every session; was this your strongest qualifying hour of the season?

VB: Well, I think compared to the number of laps I’ve got and everyone has yesterday and today it was not bad from my side. I felt very good. I could have been feeling very good in the car all weekend and managed to do multiple laps in a very consistent way without any mistakes. Yeah, I can be happy for the session but it’s difficult to say if it’s the best or one of the best.

October 10, 2015
F1 2015: Russian GP Qualifying Report – Rosberg Sets The Pace

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has taken pole position for the 2015 Russian grand prix.

The first part of qualifying went the usual route as both Manor F1 cars were eliminated from the running. Jenson Button, newly re-signed with McLaren for 2016, advanced ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso to the second part of the session.

Quali two caught out Williams driver Felipe Massa would was not able to overcome traffic on circuit to set a quick enough time to advance. Teammate Valtteri Bottas easily advanced the top ten shoot out with both Mercedes’ and Ferraris’ well in the mix. Local hero Dannil Kvyat was not able to drag his Red Bull in the final part of the session much to the disappointment of his home crowd.

The top session turned out be a bit of an anti-climax as Nico Rosberg’s first run, some three tenths quicker than Hamilton, was enough to secure pole long before the chequered flag came out. Hamilton, slightly out of sorts around the Sochi Autodrom, did have a second go at snatching pole but a mistake meant he abandoned the lap and his chance of securing a 50^th pole position start.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas set the third quickest time whilst Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will start Sunday’s Russian grand prix in fourth and fifth respectively.

October 10, 2015
F1 2015: Russian GP Preview – Second Chance For Sochi

There are a couple of circuits on the Formula 1 calendar that can be depended on to deliver a cracking race. Brazil’s Interlagos circuit delivers something dramatic and breathtaking almost every year. Then there are those that are as dull as mud such as Bahrain but the Sakhir circuit has transformed over the last couple of years thanks to its new night race status.

The F1 paddock has only been to Russia’s Sochi circuit for the Russian GP once and although it’s slightly unfair to judge it on the one race it’s had so far, we will. The super smooth circuit delivered a bore fest of epic proportions in 2014. So ‘grippy’ was the circuit asphalt that Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was able to run a set of tyres for 52 of the 53 racing laps without even a suggestion of an issue.

Pirelli isn’t exactly our favourite tyre supplier at the moment; see previous rants for evidence, but what happened at the 2014 Russian GP wasn’t entirely their fault. Despite the thousands of terabytes of data at their disposal they were not able to predict how the track would behave. Afterall, circuits are living things influenced by a bevy of variables that can only be calculated with factual data collected by cars running, consistently, on it. In 2015, Pirelli has some tangible data and can therefore make a better informed choice. As a result the Italian tyre manufacturer is rolling out the red side-walled supersoft tyre for the Russian GP weekend.

The Sochi Autodrom, thanks to its variety of corners, provides a technical challenge to the drivers. It’s quite a long lap and a reasonably technical one too. “If you make a small mistake in one corner, you are punished for the rest of the lap,” says Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. “If you’re off line for one corner, it might not be until one of the straights that you can recover. Off-line is very slippery too so you’re doubly punished!”

The circuit, situated inside the Olympic Park, holds special memories for the Mercedes team who clinched the constructor’s championship here last year. There are some fears that the street-style circuit and the presence of the supersoft tyre may combine for a repeat of the Singapore grand prix but nature of the Sochi Autodrom and the cooler temperature will play in the favour of Mercedes. The German team must outscore nearest rivals Ferrari by three points on Sunday to secure back-to-back constructor’s titles.

At the beginning of 2015 Nico Rosberg would have believed himself a match for Lewis Hamilton. Last year he bested his teammate in the qualifying battle and occasionally looked the part of true championship contender. But twelve months later this theory has been de-bunked. Mind you, the 2015 season isn’t over yet and much could still transpire between the Russian GP and the season finale.

All sorts of factors could conspire to stop Hamilton from claiming a third title. But there isn’t a genuine feeling that Rosberg could be one of these factors. There isn’t a bona fide threat that he is suddenly going to turn in to a Hamilton-beater and there never has been this season. Rosberg must respond at the Russian GP with an emphatic, straight-out, victory against Hamilton and show that he isn’t just a good driver in a great car.

October 7, 2015
F1 2015: Japanese GP Review – Hamilton Back On Top

As it turns out the only show that the Japanese grand prix put on was to demonstrate just what a difference seven days could make.

In Singapore Mercedes were shockingly off the pace and never got close to troubling the top step of the podium. It now appears that this performance was a merely an anomaly. With a distinct and obvious pace advantage in practice and a front row lock-out in qualifying both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg returned the status quo of Formula 1 in 2015.

Nico Rosberg lined up his Mercedes in pole position alongside Lewis Hamilton for the start of the race. The German’s advantage, however, would last only a handful of seconds as Hamilton derisively pushed Rosberg aside to take the lead of the race into turn two. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel slotted into second, after starting fourth, while Rosberg slipped down to fourth behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

The race seemed to settle early on as Hamilton extended his lead over second-placed Vettel who had no answer for the pace of the Mercedes. It appeared for all as Hamilton was cruising his way to victory but the driver confirmed that he had to cope with a tyre issue during the race. “At one stage I had such a vibration it was giving me a headache and everything was blurred,” said Hamilton.

Even so, Hamilton lorded his unbeatable pace over the entire field on occasion lapping more than a second faster than anyone else. Nico Rosberg, through pitstop strategy and a pace advantage, was able to recover to second place by the end of the 53 lap race only two seconds ahead of third place finisher Sebastian Vettel.

In the end Rosberg finished nearly twenty seconds adrift of his race-winning teammate and has seen the points gap extend to 48 points. It isn’t yet mathematically impossible for Rosberg to take the driver’s crown but it is becoming increasingly unlikely that he will do so.

Naturally, there are many variables, such as reliability, that could factor into the final results. But as was evidences again in Japan in a straight out wheel-to-wheel fight with Hamilton Nico Rosberg just doesn’t have what it takes to beat his double world champion teammate.

Behind the top three finishers Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen used pitstop strategy to undercut the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and take fourth place on the day. Despite finishing in fifth Bottas would’ve been disappointed with the pace of his car considering that he was overtaken by both Rosberg and Raikkonen, on the hard tyre, while running on the effectively quicker medium compound tyre.

The sister Williams of Felipe Massa had a slight coming together with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo off the start line. Both drivers suffered punctures which weren’t able to recover from and eventually finished the race in fifteenth and seventeenth respectively. The only retirement of the race came in the form of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr with a one lap remaining.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished a solid sixth ahead of the Lotus duo Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. It was an impressive showing by the Lotus drivers considering the financial difficulties the team are currently facing. Toro Rosso’s ever impressive rookie pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz finished ninth and tenth. It wasn’t a clean run to the flag for Sainz however who smacked the bollard coming into the pitlane destroying his front-win the process.

In eleventh place and a lap down is where McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished his Japanese GP much to his displeasure. Owing to a dreadfully uncompetitive season the Spaniard’s frustration seemed to boil over. As he was mugged for position on the straights he compared his Honda engine to that of a GP2 car; there’s a bit of amusement in there if you squint really hard. The good news for Alonso is that it can hardly get any worse than it is right now.

The days of being a McLaren driver are just a fond memory for Lewis Hamilton now as he stands on the cusp of becoming a three-time Formula 1 world champion. The victory is Japan is the 41^st of his career and brings him level in the number of wins with his great hero Ayrton Senna. It’s never wise to compare drivers of different eras so we won’t. Instead we are safe in the knowledge that in this moment Lewis Hamilton is well and truly the man.

September 27, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Willams)

TV UNILATERAL

Congratulations Nico, once again on pole here. One must wonder what might have happened if you had all had a second run, but earlier in the week you suggested that you might have found a little something in your rivalry with Lewis Hamilton, how much of an influence did that have?

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, first of all very happy, great day today and a good comeback also for the team. It’s fantastic after such a difficult weekend in Singapore to be back to back to our usual strength today, a strong performance today from the team – great car, so very thankful for that. Really turned things around; optimized everything for this track. And for me, pretty much nailed my laps today, so really pleased with the way it went and a great position to be in for tomorrow.

Lewis, there did seem to be a couple of little mistakes on the one lap you had. What might have happened on the second lap?

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, it doesn’t really matter, but the second lap was looking good. On the first lap I lost a bit of time in, I think it was Turn 11, and I think it was the last corner. No, Nico is driving well this weekend. I definitely felt pretty good on that last lap but I’m glad that… I don’t know if it’s Ricciardo or Kvyat, but I’m glad they’re safe.

Yes, Daniil Kvyat is OK. He got out of the car OK.

LH: Good.

And Valtteri, how much of a surprise [is it] to win the Williams versus Ferrari versus Red Bull battle?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, it’s very good for us obviously. It’s a very different track to Singapore and we always knew it’s going to be better for our car. I think we came in for this weekend, for the dry, with a good set-up already, so we didn’t really have that much work to do from practice to qualifying and today was one the most difficult Saturdays we’ve had, because there was rain on Friday and here qualifying is very important, so good surprise.

Thank you. Nico, all the teams are in the same boat, they’ve had just one hour of dry running to prepare for tomorrow’s race, rather than the usual four hours. So, how prepared, how good is the car for race set-up?

NR: Well, I’m confident that the car is going to be good but, as for everybody, we didn’t have the perfect preparation, so there might be a few surprises tomorrow. I’m confident I found a good balance. I did do some high-fuel running this morning and the balance was good, so it should be fine.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Nico, you were on pole position here last year, eventually finished second, how can you change that?

NR: Well, for one, hopefully it’s going to be a dry race tomorrow, that would help, for sure. And that’s going to be the big one. Beyond that, I’m really comfortable with the way the car was handling this morning in the dry, good long run, quick, so it should be all good.

Q: Lewis, is it a great relief that Mercedes are back on top again after last weekend?

LH: Well, the guys are working incredibly hard to try and understand last weekend. It’s definitely great to be back up here and it’s very strange, obviously, to see some of the pace of different people behind but definitely the car feels like normal this weekend, which is great to see.

Q: For both of you, one’s always talking about a perfect car, you’re looking for the perfect car, everything’s got to be absolutely right, so how well has it gone so far this weekend?

NR: At times today I had the perfect car, for sure, and that’s why it was a great pleasure to drive it. Suzuka is the ultimate track and to have a good car here is just awesome.

LH: I think the great thing about this sport is that there’s never a perfect car. It’s always evolving, it’s always improving, there are always areas you can improve on, collectively with the drivers. My engineers did a fantastic job working hard to get the set-up in a nice place. It was exciting, qualifying was exciting. I was enjoying the battle with Nico. It was a shame we didn’t get to finish the last lap.

Q: And Valtteri, excellent grid position here again. As I mentioned, perhaps a bit of a surprise considering Red Bull and Ferrari are very good around here and Williams haven’t necessarily been thought of as being good around this sort of circuit.

VB: Well, we always knew it was going to be better than the last race in Singapore and we had some new bits for the race in Singapore which produced some more downforce and that’s helping here in the high speed corners where you need stability from the car and today I felt really comfortable with it. And from practice onwards, everything was run very smoothly. I think as a group we did a very good job today but it’s tomorrow when we need to do the perfect job.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Nico, last year you struggled in the rain. If it rains tomorrow, do you have the answers to your problems last year against Lewis?

NR: I didn’t struggle in the rain, I just struggled on the inter tyre and on the inter tyre yesterday I was feeling great so I’m confident about that. So even if it rains, that’s fine.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines) Nico, how much did the track evolve, it was obviously so green at the beginning, from that first lap to the last lap?

NR: Yeah, well, not much at all because on the prime I did a 1m 33 whatever, I don’t know, very close to the option time so I don’t think it was evolving much, and also the soft tyre somehow underperformed a little bit. We were expecting a bit more from that. It didn’t feel that great out there as well.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Is that maybe the reason why you couldn’t beat last year’s pole position time? I think it was almost equal.

NR: Yeah, I’m sure the track was surely not as good, because there’s just not as much rubber down there. And beyond that, I’m not sure what the reasons are.

QUICK NAVIGATION

September 26, 2015
Rosberg claims Suzuka pole after Kvyat crash

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in a red flagged qualifying session following a massive crash for Red Bull’s Dany Kvyat.

Rosberg, claiming his second pole position for the 2015 Formula One season, set a time of 1:32.584 – 0.076s clear of team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton made a mistake at the hairpin, locking up and was denied a final flying lap after Kvyat’s crash.

Kvyat lost control of his Red Bull after dipping two wheels onto the grass coming up to the hairpin and rammed into the barriers, flipping his car along the way.

Thankfully Kvyat was able to get out of his car unaided and was was able to walk away uninjured.

With only a half a minute of the session remaining, it was not restarted handing Rosberg the pole position.

Valtteri Bottas finished third for Williams ever so slightly ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will line up behind them with Daniel Ricciardo starting in seventh place.

Romain Grosjean was eighth for Lotus while Sergio Perez did not manage to set a time in ninth place, ahead of Kvyat in tenth.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified in 11th place for Force India but will drop three places as a result of his penalty for causing a collision with Felipe Massa at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz Jr. who finished 12th will move up to 11th place, ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso.

Max Verstappen was 15th after stopping his car on the circuit due to a loss of power and was unable to take any further part in qualifying.

Jenson Button brought his McLaren home in 16th place, qualifying outside the top 10 at Suzuka for the first time in his career. His first run was not satisfactory as his team had not given him the correct engine setting and he felt that the double yellows for Verstappen’s car on the circuit cost him his best lap.

Marcus Ericsson was 17th after spinning off at Spoon early in the session and his team mate Felipe Nasr was also eliminated.

The Manor Marussia pair of Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi will line up on the back row of the Suzuka grid.

Suzuka qualifying photo credits:

Nico Rosberg: Mercedes AMG Petronas

Screengrabs: FOM

September 26, 2015
F1 2015: Third Free Practice Report – Rosberg Sets The Pace

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg set the fastest time ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in third and final practice session for the Japanese grand prix.

The rain finally abated as the one hour long third free practice session got underway on Saturday morning. Several cars immediately streamed out onto circuit to get their run programs underway in the dry, but overcast conditions.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set the early pace but was later eclipsed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg for the top of the timing sheets. Both Williams’ drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa showed higher up in the standings as they set the fourth and fifth quickest times respectively. The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was next up in sixth while teammate Sebastian Vettel completed the one hour session in eighth place.

It was difficult to read much into the pace of teams as no extended long runs were completed during the practice session. However, Pirelli predict a 1.5 second laptime delta between the hard and medium compound tyre. This bit of data would suggest that few, if any drivers, will able to get through the first session of qualifying on the hard compound tyre.

There were no major incidents in the session for any drivers despite a few run-offs at the famously difficult Degner curves and Spoon corners.

Final free practice standings:

September 26, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

DRIVERS:

Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

Max VERSTAPPEN (Toro Rosso)

Will STEVENS (Manor)

Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Sebastian, congratulations for last time out, only a few days since your win in Singapore. Is your performance there something you can translate to this track?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it’s a completely different track here but we’d hope. But I think you have to remain realistic. In a way it was a big surprise to see Mercedes struggling, which I don’t expect to be the case here. Again, it would be a big surprise. But if the chance is there we have to go for it. As I said, the nature of the track is completely different here. We’ll have to wait. The weather could bring a lot of surprises as well. It’s going to be a tough weekend.

We know that you love Suzuka – you’ve won four times out of six I believe and you also won a championship here in 2011 here. So, what can you expect this weekend?

SV: Well, based on that quite a lot! Yeah, I love the track; it’s a driver’s circuit. I think we all love the track. It’s one of the old school circuits on the calendar. It’s a lot of fun. If you want to know what a Formula One car can do then the first sector I would say sums it up and says pretty much all. In my point of view [it is] the best track in the world and great fun to be here.

Thank you very much. On to Valtteri Bottas. Valtteri, you had a good race last time out, finishing fifth. Do you think you’ll be able to make the same challenge again here in Suzuka?

Valtteri BOTTAS: It was a good weekend for me. We knew Singapore would be a difficult one, probably the most difficult track for the rest of the calendar. Good to be here because we do think we can be more competitive here than we have seen last weekend. Really looking forward to it. Like Sebastian said, it’s a great track to drive. Also, the fans are awesome here, so it’s good to be here and we are expecting strong results.

Williams are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship, 112 points behind Ferrari and 59 points ahead of Red Bull. With six races of the season left are you, as a team, moving into a testing period for the last six races, with an eye to next year?

VB: For sure we’ve been developing next year’s car already for a long time and we have already done some tests looking more at the future rather than maybe only this season. Yeah, that is one of the targets for the rest of the year, to look ahead to next year but still we want to have good races and if we can find anything for this year’s car for sure we will try to do it if it doesn’t impact the development of the new car. Still many races to go if we want to gain our position. It would be nicer to be a bit closer to Ferrari also.

Thanks very much. Will Stevens: new team-mate and a new challenge for you. How do you feel about the rest of the season?

Will STEVENS: Yeah, I think the year so far has gone pretty good for me. I think Singapore last weekend for sure wasn’t one of my easiest weekends of the year but you need weekends like that to improve and to learn from. So heading into this weekend and the rest of the year I don’t know any of the tracks, apart from Abu Dhabi, so I have a lot of learning to do. But I always like coming to new circuits, especially here. It’s always [been] a circuit I’ve wanted to drive, so looking forward to getting out there. The weather looks pretty mixed for the weekend so I’m sure we’re going to have a very eventful weekend.

What about your future at Manor? Are you seeing lots of progress? How have things changed over the year in the garage?

WS: I think as a team for sure the next few years are going to be pretty exciting for them. This year was always going to be tough, using last year’s car with the old Ferrari power unit, so it’s going to be as tough as it can [be]. But looking ahead to next year, for me personally we’re working hard in the background to try to sort out things for next year, which are looking positive, so we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have some things to tell you soon.

Thank you very much. Max, another really good race and result for you in Singapore but pretty controversial. Do you want to tell us about it from your side?

Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, I really enjoyed my race. Of course the start was a bit disappointing but from there on I think we had a great pace in the car. Yeah, kept pushing and catching the guys in front of me and at the end to come back in the points was just a great result and, yeah, very happy with that.

Do you want to tell us a little bit more about what happened between yourself and Carlos Sainz and maybe what has happened since the last grand prix to talk about things within the team?

MV: Well I can tell you nothing has changed in our relationship or something. I was trying to overtake Checo, I was very close and I was looking in my mirrors as well. It didn’t feel for me that it was close enough to give it a go, so I decided to stay there and at the end we had a conversation about it in the team and everything has been cleared and we are ready to go again here in Japan.

Thank you very much. Let’s move on to Nico Hulkenberg. Nico, it was clearly a disappointing result for you last time out in Singapore, after the collision for Felipe Massa. You’ve picked up a three-place grid penalty as well. Have you had a chance to look back over the incident and have another view of it?

NH: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I looked at the video footage and I think I probably should have given him a bit more room, because he was on the inside and I had some space on the right. Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was ahead enough, but I wasn’t clearly, in hindsight, so we take up the penalty here. But it’s behind us, now we move on and make the best of it this weekend.

This weekend, today in fact, Sergio Pérez has been confirmed at re-signing for the team, so a bit of stability in Force India. Why do you think re-signing was the right thing for you to do?

NH: Well, I think for both of us. We work well together. I think we are a strong combination and I think we both have faith in the team and we see still a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward, together with Force India, and I think both of us want to continue growing with the team.

Q: Jenson, you’ve been the centre of a lot of media speculation over the last week. Can you tell us what your plans are?

Jenson BUTTON: What, today? Or after this…?

It would be nice to have an insight into your plans for the future…

JB: OK. Well… I can’t give you anything else. Since the last race there’s no more information to give you. You’re going to have to wait for a little while I’m sorry to say but we’re in good talks, the team and myself so, that’s it. We’re here to concentrate on this weekend. It’s a big weekend for us. McLaren-Honda in front of Honda’s home crowd at their circuit… we hope that we can have a good weekend. Obviously the weather mixes it up a little bit which I think is what we need to be properly competitive so yeah, we’re focussing on this weekend and hoping for a reasonable result.

Q: Japan’s always been a special place for you. Just tell us, over your time here, you’ve never finished outside of the top ten I believe, you won here back in 2011 when Sebastian was winning his championship – but why is it so special to you?

JB: I think it’s, as Sebastian touched on earlier, I think it’s a very special circuit for most drivers. It is the best circuit in the world as Sebastian said – not that he’s driven every circuit in the world – but it’s got a nice flow. I was asked the other day which is the best corner here. It’s difficult: you can’t pick just one corner, it’s just the circuit itself. It’s such a fantastic layout. From Turn Two all the way up the Esses, through Dunlop it’s breath-taking. A very special circuit to drive on and even better to win on. I’ve been coming here since ’94 when I raced in karts at the kart circuit just across the road. I remember walking the circuit then just thinking, yeah, it was built for a Formula One car. This was the circuit for a Formula One car – and it is. It’s also very special because a lot of connections to Japan working with Honda for so many years. Obviously my wife is Japanese and yeah, I’m a big fan of the culture as well.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Sorry Jenson, you said “we’ll have to wait a little bit.” How much is a little? You also said you’re in talks with the team. That would seen to suggest you’ll be around next year as well?

JB: There’s so many possibilities of what could happen next year. So many possibilities but I’ve got nothing else for you I’m sorry to say.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Sorry Jenson I’m going to try and push you a little bit more. You did speak on Sunday about the fact you no longer had any joy in Formula One: the joy of winning, the joy of being on a podium. Is that a kind of indicator as to your mindset, bearing in mind that joy is probably unlikely to return next season if you were to stay with Honda, given the difficulties they’re still likely to face?

JB: Yeah, I think it was worded slightly differently than that – but I don’t think any driver has joy when they’re not fighting for victories. That’s what we’re here to do, y’know, that’s what we love. It’s the challenge of fighting at the front and the possibility of fighting at the front. So, no. I don’t like finishing 14^th. I don’t like finishing tenth. That’s not what gives me joy, that’s not what excites me – but there are so many other things that, if they work in your favour, or if you see a future, there’s the possibility of joy coming back and that’s exciting. That’s a challenge. But no, after the Singapore Grand Prix I wasn’t joyful. No.

Q (Trent Price – Rewind Media) Sorry Jenson, we’ll get this out of the way now. Despite a particularly difficult 2015 you’ve had some extremely good years with Honda. 2004, latter half of 2006 respectively. Being here at your second home, how would you like to reflect on your time at Honda?

JB: We’ve definitely had some ups and downs in the past. 2004 was a great year. I got my first podium that year. I think we got ten podiums that season and finished third in the championship. We were second in the Constructors’ so pretty special year. 2006 was when the team actually became Honda and I won my first grand prix with Honda, and still the only grand prix for Honda in this era. So, a special day. The president of Honda was there. He came to two races that year and he was stood on the podium with me, so a great experience and a great memory. But we never achieved what we set out to do, which was fight for the World Championship. We had some good times, we have a lot of fun – but we never quite achieved that. So, I think this time is an important time for Honda. They will give everything, I think, to win the World Championship, a matter of time. I know they’re working flat out. I don’t think anybody can put a time on how long it will take but I know they’re giving everything to do that so hopefully one day we’ll see the president of Honda stood on the podium again.

Q: (Ben Edwards – BBC TV) Sebastian, when hybrids came in last year, with the Red Bull, you didn’t seem that comfortable with it, certainly at certain points during last year. Last week in Singapore, you put on a display that showed you are absolutely at one with the car. Has anything changed in your driving style with the hybrid cars? And can you just talk through that change a little bit?

SV: I think obviously the cars changed massively from ’13 to ’14, not just the power unit but also the car itself. So I think for all of us it was the experience that there’s quite a lot less grip available, which as a driver is obviously not the right direction to go in because you want to go faster. So there were some things that I had to get used to and for sure, at the beginning of the year, last year wasn’t great, getting the experience with this generation of cars etc. On top, I had a difficult year for many reasons but yeah, I think much more in control and comfortable with this year’s car compared to last year’s for many reasons, but I don’t think it’s down to the power unit really. I think the power unit, for us drivers – well, it is what it is. I think we’re not probably at the same standings as the fans in terms of sound etc. Obviously it is a step back but yeah, in terms of the technology behind it, it is incredible. The question still remains open, whether we need it or not, that’s for everyone, individually, to decide, I guess.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Jenson, you were talking about the enjoyment of racing. Behind you is Nico who won at Le Mans this year. Is it an option to do the same as him, to do Formula One and some special races in other categories next year?

JB: I’ve never thought about doing both. I think with a 22-race F1 calendar you’re going to be very limited on weekends and sometimes it’s nice to have a weekend off from motor racing so I can’t see that happening. Maybe Nico’s going to be doing the same thing again next year but I think for every other driver it’s going to be a super busy calendar if that is the case, that we have that many races. I don’t think it will really work – for me, it wouldn’t really work anyway.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, looking at this circuit and the next ones, what are the opportunities for Ferrari in your opinion? And second question: are you used to singing Italian songs or was after qualifying your first time?

SV: It was not my first time. I think my first time was probably after Malaysia. Yeah, I’m not a good singer so maybe I stop that now, since everyone has heard it.

JB: I don’t think any of us are!

SV: Well, maybe Lewis is, I don’t know. It was obviously out of the moment, it was a special day on Saturday and Sunday so I was singing both days but I think it was more equally bad both days.

To come back to your first question, I don’t know, it’s difficult to say. Looking at the results so far this year, we had a great car on every track, every nature of circuit: street circuits like Monaco, Singapore we’ve been competitive but on other tracks as well like I just mentioned: Malaysia. Probably Silverstone was one of the weekends where we lost a little bit of that but then again you look at so many races in the same year and you know we weren’t completely off the pace so I think we can be reasonably confident but of course we have to remain realistic. I think we’ve learned along the way so hopefully that means that we will be a bit stronger again but the favourites I think still have to remain Mercedes with their two cars.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Jenson, you said that you’ve been having constructive talks with your team and also that there are lots of options for next year. This would indicate that you haven’t quite made up your mind about 2016. Is your future really in your own hands or are there certain contractual obligations?

JB: I can’t go any further with my comments on that. But I’ll be happy next year. That’s the important thing.

Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Seb, drivers come and go in this sport, some quicker than others as we know, in Formula One it’s the nature of the business but what would it mean if – and still a big if – Jenson did decide to call it a day at the end of this season?

SV: First of all, I think…

JB: Try to be nice.

SV: …we don’t know if that’s the case. I think you’ve tried to ask him but I think he has his reasons – whatsoever – not to go further. It would be a loss, for sure. I remember when I was a little kid and he was considered very very young, joining Formula One. I have to give you that he looked very young when he started with Williams. Nowadays though, you have guys who are 17 who are starting already, so in that case he was already old when he started, or I was quite old. Certainly, he’s a big character. We know that he’s quick, he deserves to be a champion and I’m sure that if there were more years when he had the package to win the big one, he would have had a big say in that. The quality is out of doubt. On top of that he’s a very fair guy on the track. Outside the track, I think we all like him for many reasons so it would be a big loss.

JB: Thank you mate. I’ll start crying in a minute, it’s so emotional!

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines). Max, I know that the team and you and Carlos have sorted out everything from last weekend but did you also look forward and say ‘maybe if there’s a situation, one teammate will let the other teammate by just for a few laps’ – something like Red Bull did in Monaco this year?

MV: Yeah, exactly. I think one thing we needed to be a bit more clear on the radio. We spoke about it and hopefully it will not happen again but we will see. If we are a bit more clear then for sure.

September 24, 2015
F1 2015: Japanese GP Preview – Suzuka Surprise In Store?

In less than seven days the Formula 1 paddock goes from the floodlit city streets of Singapore to the sublime Suzuka circuit in Japan.

The return to Suzuka one year after the tragic crash of Jules Bianchi is poignant one. The heartbreaking passing of the French driver has never been too far away from the consciousness but this weekend it will be vaulted to the forefront. The one consolation is that this circuit and all of glorious Formula 1 history is a proper place to pay homage to Jules.

The 5.8 kilometre circuit is a true car tester and it combination of high speed, low speed, elevation changes and demand for accuracy makes it one of the biggest and most satisfying challenges of the calendar. “As a track it’s one of my favourites and I really enjoy the old-school fast corners. The first sector stands out as the most fun,” says Williams driver Valtteri Bottas. “The weather can always play a part so you always need to keep that in mind strategy wise.”

The fast flowing nature of Suzuka will play to the strengths of Williams’ car and the team will be expecting a significantly stronger weekend in terms of outright pace and performance. “In qualifying last year we showed great pace and dominated the second row,” says Rob Smedley. “The team continues to get stronger throughout this year and we can go back there expecting another good performance. It’s important to capitalise on our car performance and score more points than our closest rivals.”

At the start of the season Ferrari would’ve been earmarked as Williams’ closest rivals but with three victories under Sebastian Vettel’s belt the Italian team may too far away from the Martini sponsored team. The victory in Singapore was an excellent but the pace shown throughout the weekend is what was most impressive. But how is it possible that Ferrari suddenly unleashed an unbeatable pace in Singapore? The characteristics of the Marina Bay circuit contributed greatly and so did the use of the supersoft Pirelli compound tyres which Ferrari has always been able to exploit.

However, the real improvement happened two weeks earlier at Monza. The team introduced an upgrade in Monza of which resulted in Kimi Raikkonen qualifying on the front row of the grid only two tenths of the peerless qualifier Lewis Hamilton. Due to the demand on mechanical grip and driveability of the engine Singapore highlighted the gains made from the Monza upgrade.

Now the question is whether the same gains will translate to a substantially different circuit such as Suzuka. The one thing that could be to the detriment of Ferrari is the tyre selection, made by Pirelli, for the grand prix weekend. To cater for the high energy demands of the circuit Pirelli has selected the orange- and white-walled tyres, the two hardest compounds in its range. The weather too will be considerably cooler and will influence the ability of the driver to get the medium and hard compound tyres up to operating temperature.

Twelve months ago Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg headed into the Japanese grand prix weekend with a slender three points separating them at the top of the driver’s standings. In 2015, the gap is 41 points with Rosberg trailing Hamilton but this won’t, initially, be the focus of either driver.

Their respective performances throughout the Singapore weekend were dismal by their lofty standards and whispers of uncertainty have slightly tainted the belief of the dominant team. But the hesitation won’t last too long as the team should be well within their wheelhouse this weekend. That is, if the tyre pressure regulation doesn’t have anything to do with it.

While Mercedes should re-affirm their pace advantage there will be a few uncomfortable looks over their shoulder at Ferrari this weekend and more than a keen eye will be kept on their rival’s pace. For whatever issue they encounter it is certain that Ferrari are more than ready to pounce.

September 24, 2015
F1 2015: Singapore GP Review – Scintillating Seb Wins In Singapore

There is something about the streets of Singapore and Sebastian Vettel that form an irresistible combination.

As the fireworks lit up the night sky of Singapore it was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel that ignited the city streets with an electrifying victory. The four time world champion hit the ground running as he obliterated the field in Saturday’s qualifying to take pole position. There wasn’t much looking back after that as he commanded all of the sixty-one laps to the chequered flag.

A textbook getaway off the line and a blistering pace built the gap to second placed Daniel Ricciardo to five seconds within a handful of laps. The sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen kept the Aussie Red Bull driver within sight but was never able to make a move for the position. Raikkonen confirmed after the race that his tyres gave up quite early on his stints. The Finn expressed a bit of surprise at ending up in third given his tyre struggles.

For Seb Vettel there were no such worries as he expertly controlled his pace to secure career victory number 43. After such a dominating period with Red Bull, which yielded four world titles, some thought the move to Ferrari was odd. Yet, it turns out that it was arguably the best thing that could’ve happened to him and the Ferrari team. Many an observation has been made of Vettel’s work ethic and dedication behind the scenes and it is clear that the team are as infatuated with the German as he is with them.

In fourth place is where Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg finished the race after a dismal weekend for the team. The championship leading team were on the back foot from the outset on Friday as they appeared significantly off the pace. Many, including Daniel Ricciardo, expected the Silver Arrows to turn it on for qualifying but that never materialized. Instead, Hamilton and Rosberg were summarily spanked and relegated to the third row of the grid.

As if to add insult to a serious lack of pace unreliability hit Lewis Hamilton as the Brit suffered his first retirement of the season. No one from Mercedes were willing to point out why they were suddenly lacking in pace but they almost certainly have a good idea of how their advantage abruptly evaporated.

It is uncanny how this ultra dominant team seem to not be as good when they aren’t making the running. A warning of overheated brakes came early on from the pitwall to Rosberg and then a mysterious technical failure for Hamilton. There will be much to ponder on in the next couple of days for Mercedes but don’t expect them not to roar back to life in Japan. They will.

The safety car probability around the Marina Bay Circuit remains 100% as it was deployed on two occasions in the race. First it was to collect the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg after he smashed into the side of Williams driver Felipe Massa. The incident, into turn one, was investigated by stewards and Hulkenberg was, rightfully, slapped with a three place grid drop at the next race.

The second safety car period came about as result of a man strolling on the circuit seemingly without a care in the world. It’s always a spine chilling sight to see anyone on the track in the middle of a grand prix. Thankfully, the man didn’t cause any problems before jumping over the wall and off the circuit.

Valtteri Bottas made the best of a difficult weekend for Williams with fifth place ahead of Daniil Kvyat. The Russian started in fourth place but an issue in the pits dropped him down the order. Force India’s Sergio Perez came home in an anonymous seventh ahead of the feisty Max Verstappen in eighth. The second Toro Rosso, driver by Carlos Sainz, finished in ninth but much to the chagrin of the team who had ordered Verstappen to swop position with teammate Sainz. The 17-year-old flat out refused the team order and maintained his position.

As the youngest ever F1 driver Verstappen as already proven that he has enormous potential and that he can stand up for himself. Team orders is always a divisive point on which people often disagree but Verstappen would’ve won some fans with this move. “When we put on our helmets we are rivals,” said Verstappen after the race.

Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr completed a solid drive for Sauber to snatch the final point on offer in tenth. Along with the retirements of Hamilton and Hulkenberg was Felipe Massa with a suspected gearbox issue. The two McLaren’s also had to end their respective races prematurely.

A notable mention goes to American driver Alexander Rossi who made his F1 debut this weekend for the Manor Marussia team. Rossi has agreed terms to drive five of the last seven races of the season and performed impressively to finish ahead of Will Stevens who has been with the team since the start of the season.

Not many would’ve thought that with six races to go in the 2015 season that a Ferrari driver could be in with a shout of taking the title. Yes, Singapore and its characteristics complimented the Ferrari but the engine upgrade introduced for Monza has made a telling impact. Yes, Vettel sits forty-nine points adrift of Hamilton and yes Mercedes won’t suddenly disappear from the top of the timing sheets each weekend. But this was a stunning reminder that Ferrari will ready and able to pounce on the smallest of slips.

September 20, 2015