Tag: Valtteri Bottas

Grosjean Quickest on Final Day of Testing and Alonso Crashes

Romain Grosjean put his Lotus on the top of the time sheets at the end of the final day of the second pre-season test while McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was air lifted to hospital after a crash at T3.

Grosjean’s time of 1:24.067 on the soft compound tyres from Pirelli put him on top of the time sheets in the afternoon session which is also the fastest time of the entire 2nd test. Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes finished the day second fastest firing somewhat of a warning shot to rivals. Rosberg’s time of 1:24.321 on the medium compound tyres, was just 0.254s slower than Grosjean’s time. Pirelli say that the gap between the two tyres is about 2 seconds a lap. That should get teams shifting rather uncomfortably in their seats.

McLaren’s test came to an abrupt end when Alonso went off the track and crashed into the T3 barrier. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene. He was then taken to the circuits medical centre. He spent a few minutes at the medical centre and was then airlifted to a nearby hospital for further tests. After a short while, McLaren released a statement saying that Alonso was “conscious and spoke with the doctors”.

The second test did not go too well for McLaren who seem to be still ironing out the kinks with the new Honda power unit. Throughout the 4 days of the test, they managed a total of 104 laps.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat finished 3rd fastest with Sauber’s Felipe Nasr just 0.015s slower in 4th. “It was another good day for us,” Kvyat explained. “We learned a lot that will be of benefit in the future and that’s what testing is all about.”

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas ended his day 5th fastest racking up 129 laps. Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr finished 6th fastest. His day came to an early end when he also crashed at the exit of T3.

Sebastian Vettel finished 7th fastest with Nico Hulkenberg finishing 8th and Alonso 9th.

At the end of the day Vettel said that they mainly focused on long runs and different tyre configurations. There were some “teething problems” but he feels positive about the car so far.

Below is the timing sheet for the final day of the second pre-season test:

February 22, 2015
Maldonado On Top of Time Sheets on Day 3 of Barcelona Test

Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado claimed the fastest time of the day on the 3rd day of the Barcelona test on the super soft tyres.

Maldonado’s run in the afternoon seen him cross the line with a 1:24.348, 0.391s ahead of Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso who also did a run on the super softs. “We achieved a lot today and it was great to complete so many laps and end the day as the fastest car,” said Maldonado.

Although the rain started to fall later in the day the drivers still managed to put in a respectable amount of laps one the rain had stopped.

The redesigned seal that was intended to fix McLaren’s MGU-K issue did not work as planned. This mean that Button had to run the day on reduced power completing only 24 laps for the day.

Defending World Champion, Lewis Hamilton took third spot of the day ahead of Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber. Hamilton still battling an illness said it was very tough day for him physically. That didnt seem to affect his pace too much though and he completed a marathon 101 laps.

After an out lap spin that put him into the gravel trap, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel completed the day with 105 laps with the 5th fastest time of 1:26.407 which was just marginally faster than Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull. Apart from the out lap incident. Vettel enjoyed a relatively trouble free day out on track.

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas both drive for Williams on the day which seen Massa finishe 7th fastest and Bottas 9th fastest.

Mercedes test driver Pascal Wehrlein was back at Force India today. He completed 81 laps with the fastest time for him on the day of 1:27.333 in the 2014 VJM07.

February 22, 2015
F1 2015: Jerez Test Driver Line Up
The first test for the 2015 Formula 1 Season gets underway tomorrow in Jerez, Spain.

The test will run from 01 – 04 February. This is how the drivers will line up on each day

Day 1: Sunday 1 Ferbuary
- Mercedes – Nico Rosberg
- Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo
- Williams – Valtteri Bottas
- Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel
- McLaren – Fernando Alonso
- Force India – Not participating
- Toro Rosso – Carlos Sainz Jr.
- Sauber – Marcus Ericsson
- Lotus – Pastor Maldonado
Day 2: Monday 2 February
- Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton
- Red Bull – Daniil Kvyat
- Williams – Valtteri Bottas
- Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel
- McLaren – Jenson Button
- Force India – Not participating
- Toro Rosso – Max Versappen
- Sauber – Felipe Nasr
- Lotus – Romain Grosjean
Day 3: Tuesday 3 February
- Mercedes – Nico Rosberg
- Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo
- Williams – Felipe Massa
- Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen
- McLaren – Fernando Alonso
- Force India – Not participating
- Toro Rosso – Carlos Sainz Jr.
- Sauber – Felipe Nasr
- Lotus – Pastor Maldonado
Day 4: Wednesday 4 February
- Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton
- Red Bull – Daniil Kvyat
- Williams – Felipe Massa
- Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen
- McLaren – Jenson Button
- Force India – Not participating
- Toro Rosso – Max Versappen
- Sauber – Marcus Ericsson
- Lotus – Romain Grosjean
The Caterham and Marussia teams have not finalized their entries for the 2015 season and have been excluded from the list.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
January 31, 2015
F1 2015: Car Launches, Testing Dates and Driver Line Ups

The 2015 Formula 1 Season is upon us and with all the teams releasing teaser pics and with the car launches and testing about to take place within the week we thought we’d give you a quick run down on the testing schedule and the driver line up for each team.

Testing Dates:

01 – 04 February – Jerez, Spain

19 – 22 February – Barcelona, Spain

26 February – 01 March – Barcelona, Span

Car Launches:

29 January – McLaren(Online)

30 January – Ferrari(Online)

30 January – Sauber(Online)

31 January – Toro Rosso

01 February – Mercedes

Driver Line up:

MERCEDES: Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

RED BULL: Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat

WILLIAMS: Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas

FERRARI: Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen

MCLAREN: Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button

FORCE INDIA: Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez

TORO ROSSO: Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.

LOTUS: Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado

SAUBER: Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr

The entries for the Marussia and Caterham teams were on the provisional FIA list subject to confirmation before the season begins.

The complete 2015 Formula 1 World Championship Calendar can be found here

January 27, 2015
Williams engineering team shake-up for 2015, Massa gets new engineer

The Williams F1 Team has announced a number of changes to their engineering team ahead of the 2015 season.

This includes recruiting Dave Robson from McLaren to take over as Felipe Massa’s new race engineer.

Robson, who spent several years at McLaren working as Jenson Button’s race engineer, will report to Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance Rob Smedley who was Massa’s race engineer at Ferrari.

The shake-up sees Massa’s former engineer Andrew Murdoch promoted to the role of Senior Performance Engineer where he will lead the performance group at Williams’ Grove base and work on developing new techniques and processes within the team to ensure that performance improvements are rolled out to both cars throughout the 2015 season.

Murdoch will still be seen on the pit wall as he will remain part of the trackside team, focusing on Valtteri Bottas’s car. Bottas will still be engineered by Jonathan Eddolls.

Carl Gaden who joined the Williams team in 1988 and has served 22 years as their chief mechanic has also been promoted. He will take on the role of Senior Car Systems Engineer and will now be responsible for system reliability. Mark Pattinson, previously Number One Mechanic on Felipe Massa’s car, has been promoted to replace Gaden as Chief Mechanic for the team.

“Off the back of a great 2014 campaign Williams is determined to continue this positive momentum into the new season, and these recent changes show our commitment to that goal,” said chief technical officer Pat Symonds.

“We are proud to be able to promote our existing talent to help strengthen every area within our engineering team and we will continue to invest in new talent where necessary to ensure we have the support and resources to achieve our on-track ambitions throughout 2015 and beyond.

“Our engineering team for the coming season is looking strong and I’m excited to get the new season underway.”

Williams finished the 2014 season in 3rd place in the Constructors’ Championship – their highest finish since 2003.

January 6, 2015
2014 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Test: Day 1

The first day of the 2014 Abu Dhabi test ended with Valtteri Bottas on top of the time sheets with a time of 1:43.396.

The headline act for the day was McLaren who were debuting their MP4-29H/1X1 with the Honda power unit. However, due to electrical issues and a fuel/data exchange issue the Woking based team was delayed for most of the morning. Reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne did have some track time for a mere three laps where he broke down on all three laps. The second of which resulted in a red flag as his car had to be recovered.

“We’d hoped to get a few more laps today, but we had a fuel data-logging issue that stopped the car a couple of times,” Vandoorne explained.

“However, the team are already analysing the situation and we’ll hopefully cure it ahead of tomorrow”

Although McLaren suffered a setback today, Vandoorne remained upbeat for the second and final day of the test.

Nevertheless, it’s been a very positive day for us. At this stage of development, any lap we complete has a benefit – and it’s better to be solving these initial teething problems in November rather than in Jerez next February,” he explained.

GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer in his first outing in an F1 car for Force India was very excited about his experience. After some problems in the morning they were able to get going and the rookie clocked up 37 laps for the day and managed to finish in P4.

“I really enjoyed my first experience at the wheel of a Formula One car,” said Palmer.

“I always had the ambition to drive a Formula One car: it was surreal when I first got out of the pits, but after the first moment I was just focusing on getting the job done for the team and doing my best.”

Nico Rosberg, on the back of loosing the championship to Lewis Hamilton clocked up a mighty 114 laps for Mercedes, the most of any driver on the day. He finished in P3 with a time of 1:44.512

Kimi Riakkonen finished P2 for Ferrari, with a little under half a second down on Bottas’s time. The highlight of the day for Ferrari was their new singing, four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel paying the team a visit in the Ferari pit garage and getting to know the crew.

Red Bull had Formula Renault 3.5 Champion Carlos Sainz Jr at the wheel of the RB10. He clocked up an impressive 100 laps for the team and set the fifth fastest time.

Will Stevens was at the wheel for Caterham today. Fresh after his F1 debut at the race on Sunday he was given another go in the Caterham. He finished in P6 with a lap time of 1:45.436 and posted 102 laps.

Charles Pic ended the day in P7 with 89 laps under his belt for Lotus. Former Caterham driver, Marcus Ericsson drove for Sauber and finished behind Charles Pic in P8.

Max Verstappen had a suspension issue which ended his session in the morning. He ended up in the barriers because of this on only his third lap of the session. The team managed to get the car repaired for the afternoon session and he was back out on track

Below is the unofficial running order of the day

November 25, 2014
McLaren Gets The Go-Ahead to Debut Interim Development Car

The McLaren Formula 1 team have been given the go-ahead to debut their McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 at the Abu Dhabi test that starts tomorrow.

The team have already run the development car at a filming day at Silvertone last week to check the installation of the power unit together with other systems in the car. The feedback from the team and Honda seems positive and they’re both confident that they will be able to do more runs at the Abu Dhabi test.

Speaking to F1.com, McLaren team principal has this to say: “On Tuesday and Wednesday, here in Abu Dhabi, we’ll be testing our hybrid McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 for the first time.”

“It’s an exciting time for both McLaren and Honda, and for all who sail and will sail in the good ship McLaren-Honda. Ahead of us are many weeks of hard graft, but you may be well sure we’re up for the task.”

McLaren’s rookie test driver, Stoffel Vanddorne, will be at the wheel of the new car for both the testing days.

Here’s how the other teams will line up for the test:

Mercedes: Nico Rosberg/Pascal Wehrlein

Red Bull: Carlos Saintz Jr/ Daniel Ricciardo

Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen/Raffaele Marciello

Williams: Valtteri Bottas/Felipe Nasr

McLaren: Stoffel Vandoorne

Lotus: Esteban Ocon/Charles Pic

Force India: Jolyon Palmer/Spike Goddard

Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen

Sauber: Marcus Ericsson

Caterham: Will Stevens

November 24, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

3rd Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Martin Brundle)

Lewis, you did it. We saw the emotion on your face now when they were playing your national anthem. Can you try to put that into words for us, just how much this means to you?

Lewis HAMILTON: I’m a bit lost for words really. I think one thing I want to say is a big, huge thank you to all the fans coming out all this way, all the flags, all the caps, everything, it made such a difference this weekend. Also to my family, thank you guys, thank you so much for coming, I really, really do appreciate it. My mum back home. And my team, who throughout the year did an incredible job and without them I wouldn’t be here today. I can’t really explain how much this means. It means even more than the first one. It feels like it’s the first time. I feel so blessed.

Wow. Tell us about the race a little bit, what a start you had to the grand prix!

LH: Yeah! That’s my guy down here, giving me a good start. It was like a rocket! It was probably the best start I ever had. I knew from then on, straightaway, that I was in the lead. Obviously going into the race I had a couple of different options of how to approach the race. If I was behind then we’d see how it goes until the first stop but if I was ahead I knew I had to really, really race. The car was fantastic, we really got it spot on for the race. Obviously qualifying wasn’t perfect but we got it ready for the race and that’s what’s most important.

And then you heard on the radio: ‘Nico has a problem’. What were your thoughts then?

LH: You know Nico put on an incredible fight throughout the year. He was a phenomenal competitor. We met each other back in 1997 and we always said it would be amazing to be racing in the same team and he did an amazing job today and very sad obviously to know that his car wasn’t quick enough that we can fight in the end but still he was graceful enough to come up to me just now.

Do you mind sharing with us what you said to each other after such an intense season? It’s been a bit difficult from time to time between you, especially at Spa, and we saw you having words together.

LH: He just come into the room just now, very, very professional, and I just said fantastic. He said ‘you drove really well’. And the same to him, all year long he drove incredibly well, especially in qualifying, so hat off to him.

But there was a little man who kept you very honest through that grand prix, kept you on your toes, you had to keep some pace up towards the end and that was Felipe Massa. Felipe, I don’t know about your but I’m thinking about 2008, when you were on the podium, the last time you won a grand prix, you must have thought I’ve got a chance to win again today, and this man took the championship off you a few seconds after you crossed the line. But what a race for you?

Felipe MASSA: First of all, thank you everybody. Lewis, well done, congratulations, because you deserve it, you did a fantastic championship, your team, so congratulations really. Yeah, it was an incredible race for us. I didn’t expect to have that pace and I didn’t expect… we were slightly slower than Mercedes but not so much on the same tyres and then I was able to keep the tyres until, not the end, but until a long part of the race and then we were talking to the team. We tried the option, yes, why not, I mean we are here, we have a big gap to the car behind, which was Valtteri, so let’s try. We try. Unfortunately, Lewis was a little bit too far but I wanted so much that victory. We were close and I hope that’s just the beginning for next year.

Was there any point where you thought ‘I can win this race, I’m going to take this victory’?

FM: yeah, I think, you know when it was 10 laps to go I was a little bit more than a second quicker per laps I said ‘if these tyres stay like that then I can win the race’ but definitely the tyres were degrading a little bit, especially that I was on the option. In the last four laps I didn’t have enough, a gap any more compared to him to catch like I was catching before. But I think it was a fantastic job for the team. I’m so proud to be on this team, so really, really, thank you guys. You are really in my heart and I’m so proud to be racing for Williams. Really, it’s just the beginning, we can do a lot more than that. Thank you guys.

Provisionally third in the world championship then, the great Williams team and a lot of thanks will go to this young man for the points that he has scored this year. He’s secured fourth in the world championship as well, ahead of great drivers like Vettel and Alonso. Good to see you up here again Valtteri.

Valtteri BOTTAS: Thank you, I always like to be here. Obviously the higher the step the better it is, but I think for this season it will do for us like this. It’s been an amazing year with so much improvement as a team and getting so much stronger, and this last race shows how strong we are getting. The curve is to the up. I’m expecting a lot from next year. But now I can say only that I’m really, really thankful that I can be part of this team and that I can drive this good car.

Congratulations. Final word then from Lewis. Lewis, what happens now in your life – in the next few hours, days, months?

LH: I really don’t know. I’m just going to take it one day at a time. This is the greatest day of my life, as I said. It’s realty due to all the people around me. 2008 was a special time in my life. The feeling I have now is way, way past that and above and beyond. It’s the greatest feeling ever. I’m grateful to God, I’m grateful for my car finishing and really, to everyone, thank you so much everyone. Thank you.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, many, many congratulations. You’ve had a little time there to collect your thoughts after the whirlwind of the race and the podium. It’s been a long tough season. You did it in style though, with that sensational start and a victory. How important was that to you today and what was the turning point this year?

LH: It’s very hard to soak all this up. When you’re going through the race, when you’re coming here this weekend, there’s so much pressure from around you, you’re just trying to ignore it, trying to keep your eye on the ball. Coming in today… Niki was right, I didn’t sleep last night. I went to bed at about 1am and woke up at like 5am this morning and I went for a run this morning and a massage and everything and I thought for sure I’m going to be tired when it gets to the race but somehow I felt composed and my family came and surprised me at breakfast, which was really a great thing. I wanted them to be here but I just knew how intense the weekend would be and I didn’t know if I was going to have time to give them any time. I didn’t want to finish the day or the weekend saying ‘I wish did that or I wish I did that’. This has been an incredible year. I just cannot believe how amazing this has all been. Coming to this team last year, the decision to come here, when a lot of people said it was the wrong choice. The steps we took last year and then coming into this year, it was just unbelievable and then again, as I said, the fan support has been phenomenal. I never in a million years thought I’d have that kind of support, so as I said before, this is the greatest moment in my life. It’s very hard to… it feels very surreal. It feels like an out-of-body experience. I feel like I’m back here watching this going on, it’s not really happening. So I’m going to really make sure I gift my thanks and count my blessings.

Very good. Felipe, a brilliant drive from you. And a similar theme really: a decision to leave Ferrari, to go to Williams, to re-start your career. Give us your emotions about the way it has all turned out?

FM: Yeah, I think today was an emotional day, to see what we achieve during the whole season, the whole championship. Not just me but also the team. It’s fantastic to be part of it. It’s fantastic to be inside a big evolution inside a team. Definitely we lost so much points this year. It would have been completely the end of the championship if I had the normal season, the normal first half of the season that I expected but I think today it was so nice to see that we are there, we can win the race, we can fight for victory, we can fight hopefully for championships but it shows we are there, shows that we didn’t forget how to win. I think, for me, that’s what counts at the end. Such a difficult time for so long, you know, and we’re still there. When we had the opportunity, we’re there to fight for the victory and I think that’s what makes me proud and makes me happy and makes me even more motivated to carry on and to push hard every day.

Thank you. Valtteri, the start didn’t really work out for you today but a brilliant recovery from there and obviously Williams a great result in the constructors’ championship, you personally in the drivers’ championship. Just sum up this breakthrough season for you?

VB: First of all, I’m going to say congrats to Lewis. He really deserves it. Amazing season from him and from his team, so yeah, really, really good job. From our side, yeah, my race today was compromised after the start. I had a lot of clutch slip, which was not really the first time it’s happened to me, so that’s one thing we really need to work on in the winter. But yeah, a little bit compromised the strategy being stuck behind other cars but you know, overall, an amazing end to the season. An amazing… from last season, it’s been just incredible how much we have improved. And as a team being two cars on the podium it really shows how much we also have been improving during the season, which is the main thing, because next year things are going to be really tricky, everybody is going to improve and we are really aiming to be again stronger and fighting for the wins. All I can say now is that I’m really happy to be part of this team now, because we are really on the up and from us and from my side there is definitely more to come for the future, so looking forward.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Nahed Sayouh – Autosport Middle East) Lewis, now you have won the championship with Mercedes, will this boost your chances to renew your contract and stay with the team beyond 2015, or make you look for another new challenge?

LH: I definitely don’t feel that I’m looking for a new challenge. As I said when I joined this team, I wanted to be a part of something that was building and growing and knew success like the team hadn’t really had before. And so I feel like this is just the beginning. We still have another year to go, so there’s no particular rush but this is my home. I feel very happy here. And obviously the team did a mega job, so I’m forever grateful for them.

Q: (Martin Samuel – Daily Mail) Lewis, forgive my ignorance on this, a start like that that you got today, a phenomenal start, how much of that is technical and how much of it is human? How much of it is the athlete?

LH: The car… very little is the athlete. Obviously we have a sequence that we have to go through and we have to perform at the right time, making sure that you prepare the clutch throughout the weekend, prepare your tyres when you get to your spot. I would very closely with the engineer who works with my clutch. He came to my room before the race and asked “how do you want to approach this.” I said: “the same as every time. We don’t need to do any more or any less.” When the start goes, when you do the formation lap, you get a feel for how good the clutch is at that point. You have to guide them or give them feedback whether you need more torque or more slip. Anyways, we hit is spot on. The second part, when you let out the second part and you feed the throttle, that’s when the driver comes it. But it was for sure… it felt like the best start I’ve ever had. Absolutely phenomenal.

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Question to Lewis and Felipe. I would like you to comment on the best thing in the season for you: the best race or the best dual you have on the track? And the worst part of the season? The moment you guys think was the worst moment of the season, in the battle of the championship for Lewis and for Felipe, in the battle of him with Valtteri in the Williams.

LH: I think firstly I really want to say a big congratulations to these guys. They’ve been doing an incredible job this year. And to see… growing up watching Williams at the front, to see them back up there I think is fantastic. I’m really happy for Sir Frank and the team and very much looking forward to fighting them in the future. They’ve been driving exceptional well this year and to be back up here with Felipe after our great history of many, many years ago, it’s really good to see him up here still and a fighting force. Highs and lows of the year: Spa was a low, the lowest point. This is the highest. By a long, long, long way. I said coming into this weekend that I wouldn’t change the season, the way it’s gone, for anything really because I’ve learnt a lot. If anything, I felt very, very strong with the way I came out of the good and the bad. Obviously coming to the last race, knowing it’s double points, which… jeez… do you think it was a good idea? Didn’t feel like a good idea when we came into it. I’ll take the points though…

FM: I thought it was a bad idea in 2008…

LH: You needed the double points then! But yeah, exceptional race.

FM: I think, to be honest, I had the best podiums of the season. Being on the podium in Italy after so long, was fantastic to see the people there screaming my name and being so happy that I was there on the podium – but I would say the best was Brazil. To be at home in the podium, to have your people, they are really supporting you, I think it was such incredible energy. But I would say that maybe the best race of the season was here. It was really a strong race I had today and I think that it was maybe the best race of the season. The worst: when I crashed on the last lap in Canada. I thought it was going to hurt. That one. The other, in Germany as well, maybe were the worst races.

Q: (Sana Bergesh – Tempo Magazine) I’m going to ask the local question. The UAE loves welcoming the Formula One and all these amazing drivers here year after year. I want to know, after the race, where do you go in the UAE. What are your favourite things to do while you are here? How do you unwind after a race like this?

LH: Firstly, I love coming here every year, the fifth year of coming to this race. Every year it’s without doubt one of the best grands prix if not the best grand prix in terms of the whole atmosphere. A lot of the Brits came over here, they get to enjoy a holiday at the same time because it’s such a beautiful, peaceful place. I went for a run by the water today, the last time I won I went jet-skiing because it’s so nice on the water here. But afterwards… I have no idea what I’m going to do tonight. I’ve got to try to absorb this bit-by-bit. As I said, my family’s here, so definitely going to have a nice dinner with them. And I think I’ll have a drink tonight.

Q: (Phillip Merrell – AMEinfo.com) Lewis, after winning today, what’s your message to your fans, after winning this championship?

LH: My message to my fans… I always say we win and we lose together. This weekend I had my guy who does my website put together a collage of different clips of messages from people. And I really didn’t know what to expect when I got it. I got it and there’s something happening in my heart. I can’t really explain it. The love and positive energy that I get from my fans and the support through thick and thin, y’know through the good and the bad, they’ve been there. So big thank you to them. They really helped me get through the bad moments and make it even more special being at the top. Seeing them out there today, all the flags, the caps, it really made me believe that I can do anything. So big thank you to them.

Q: (Saher Soukar – Saneou Al Hadath) Lewis, you told us yesterday that you felt you were a lot wiser coming into this race, as opposed to 2008. How did the emotions compare – and why is this moment the greatest moment of your life or career?

LH: Well, 2007 was a very bad experience, obviously losing the championship I fell to a low that I couldn’t control and 2008 came back, fighting in the championship, Felipe won the race, won the championship for a second and then obviously what happened in the last corner, I got it back and for me I’d lost it, won it, lost it and, whilst it was a great experience, my emotions were shot. I don’t know, that year, I was just immature. I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now. Didn’t approach the race the same as I did today. Today I went in… normally you go in butterflies in the stomach, a bit nervous, today I was going into the race thinking ‘I feel extremely calm’, which is really weird. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Obviously it was a really good thing. Last night sitting there thinking, Jeez, tomorrow is the day. We could go into the race, something could happen to the car and that would be the championship done. Naturally just thinking of all the negative things possible, y’know? And working really hard to bring the positives into it. I brought that today. I think really that knowledge and experience got me through the race today. Looking after the car. Battling to the point where I’d got the championship in a good position and then, obviously it helped that Nico’s car was not performing properly so, when he fell out of the points, I knew that I could fight with Felipe and… yeah… that was the most fulfilling experience I have to say.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, congratulations for the good result, summarizing this season, do you feel you could have been the best of the rest behind the Mercedes in the drivers’ championship also?

VB: Yeah. I think obviously if we look back over the season there were, especially at the beginning of the season, many races where we maybe didn’t get everything out of the pace what we really had in the races. It’s been just a process, getting better as a team, as there was a long way to come to this point from last season. So I think, yeah, if you look back, yeah, possibly could have been fighting for second place. Now the season is finished, every time we’ve made some mistakes we’ve learned from them and that’s the main thing. We’re just going to make sure we don’t repeat any same mistakes next year. I’m sure we’ll be fighting for a better position. But third in the constructors’, for me fourth in the drivers’, it will do for now. But for the future, it’s not enough.

Q: (Nawied Jabarkhyl – Gulf News Broadcasting) Lewis, coming into this weekend, there was a lot of talk about your personal relationship with Nico Rosberg. Now that it’s all over, how are you going to take that forward and the history that you have, what’s your relationship going to be like going forward. What’s your thoughts on it?

LH: I think it’s been so intense between us all year long. There’s been good moments and bad moments. Without a doubt we’ve had a friendship or a relationship that we built a long, long, long time ago, so that will always be there. He was a very, very fierce competitor this year, he did an exceptional job. He’s going to be quick for a long time. I’ve got to pick up my qualifying pace for next year. It could have been either one of us today. Obviously we both wanted it. But I think with our relationship, we’ll continue to try to lift the team up, we’ll work together as we have done all year long. Perhaps things naturally will ease up a little now. He was graceful enough to come up to me and see me after, which I really appreciated. It was really big of him to be able to do that. It’s very, very tough, I know what it’s like losing a championship so, for sure, we’ll keep working at it.

Q: (Ali Bukar – Tempo Magazine) What I want to ask Lewis is this: it’s no secret that your relationship with Nico has been terrible this year. Is this a healthy relationship in Formula One? You guys are working as teammates and yet there is a terrible relationship between both of you.

LH: It’s not a terrible relationship. We’ve been fighting all season as I’ve just explained; there have been good moments and bad moments but we’ve worked together, professionally I think, all year long to push this team, so the team has no problems. I think we deliver to the team to the maximum.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Lewis, can you explain to us more about the turning point at Spa-Francorchamps? What happened exactly when suddenly you started winning, winning, winning – probably this is the main reason you are here, celebrating the world title?

LH: Yeah. Well, Spa was a low moment. It was a very difficult scenario to be in and going back years ago, I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did this year. I would have chosen another way which wouldn’t have been a positive and I guess with age, as I said, and just maturing and having a different perspective on life, I think I handled it a different way, I really thought for the following days and really turned my focus to a different area. I came back to the next races with a slightly different approach and I won’t explain exactly what I did because I need to bring it to the next races next year but I did tweak some of my approach throughout the weekend which helped me get those wins. I’ve still got some improvements to make, qualifying was good this year but could be better. It would make it much easier if I could get qualifying sorted because the race pace is very much there.

Inside the team? Nothing really changed, I don’t believe. The team has been amazing. It’s been very hard for them. They’ve wanted both of us to win, having to be very balanced but ultimately they’ve done an exceptional job. It is a great group of people in this team; there’s a lot of love in this team, a lot of passion and it’s been a real privilege to work with these people.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, when you heard on the radio about the ERS problems of Nico, have you been worried that it could hit you as well, knowing what happened in Montreal when both cars were affected with something like that? And have you been happy when the team told you to turn down the power for a while, knowing that it would give Felipe the opportunity to catch up?

LH: I was asking the team if I could turn down the power, because I realised, when the gap started to increase between me and Nico, I was thinking OK, I’ve got to back off, got to look after the tyres so… look after the car, started avoiding kerbs, all those kind of things. No, I think… yeah, naturally I was… a couple of moments down the straight I was rubbing the cockpit, I was saying ‘come on baby, we can make it. Stick with me.’ I really did. You won’t see it but I did. Several times. Do you ever do that?

FM: Yeah, I did.

LH: You know, rubbing the cockpit. ‘Come on baby, just don’t… we can make it.’ So I did that a few times but no, to be honest, I had complete faith that things were going to go the right way today but of course, you never know. But the car was feeling good and ultimately at the end I was able to push, I wanted to win the race, I wanted to have that battle with Felipe. He obviously came in for those tyres and I thought Jeez, he’s going to catch and get the win, but managed to just keep him behind me.

Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) Lewis, congratulations, you’re a multiple British World Champion, joining the likes of Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill. What do you think you can go on to achieve now? You’ve got a fantastic team and car and obviously in great form. Do you think this could be the start of a Lewis Hamilton era?

LH: I don’t know. This really is something incredibly special, what this team has put together and I think we’ve got great people in their right positions and me and Nico will continue to push the team forward, as will the boss of Mercedes who have been so committed and building the best engine. These guys know just as much as I do, it’s been phenomenal this year. I think it’s really important the steps we take moving forwards to continue improving and I 100 percent believe the team will do that. I’m looking forward to battling with people for sure but I do believe that we’ll be there fighting with people hopefully for some time.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, congratulations, just your reaction please: Prince Harry’s called you a legend over the radio, you’re now 10-1 to be knighted at the end of the year as well, the reaction to that please, and also on a serious note, what sort of calming influence has the Missus turning up had, and your Dad and your family. Just wondered how much that helped your mind? We knew you were a little bit edgy at the start of the week and just wondered if that did have an effect?

LH: At the start of the week, I wasn’t edgy; at the start of the week I was feeling really good coming here. I genuinely felt, when you saw me coming here on Thursday, I really did feel relaxed, practice was generally going well and qualifying was a little bit tougher and the pressure was increasing. I was messaging with my Dad last night and I went out to the beach and I was messaging with him and I said ‘guys I would love you to be here but just know I’m here just working away. I’m not out having dinner or all these different things. I’m trying to make you proud.’ Anyways, he turned up in the morning. He must have been at the airport while he was doing it. I think I was so focused this morning that it wasn’t… when they came to surprise me, I wasn’t that shocked or anything like that. I took it in my step but naturally, my family are the ones that got me into racing, they’re the ones that sacrificed everything to get me to where I am today. Who you see today is because of them, so a reflection of them, so being here without them didn’t feel right, naturally, because they have every right to be here to enjoy it with me, so I’m just grateful they were there. My Mum is at home, she wanted to come as well. I’ve got a big family but obviously I can’t please everyone but I’m sure she’ll come to many races next year.

Q: (Bob Constanduros) Lewis, you’ve spoken a little bit about the part that Ross Brawn played in you entering this team. He’s having a bit of a significant birthday today, I don’t know if you know that. What sort of message have you got for him?

LH: Yeah, I mean to Ross, to Norbert Haug, to Niki, to Dieter, to all the board members, the belief that they’ve had in me, particularly when I got into Formula One… I signed with McLaren and then Ron and Norbert gave the go-ahead for me to get the seat. Coming in to this team, as I said to you, Ross really sold it to me. He came with his laptop, sat and had tea with me which was just surreal to see because I’ve been watching TV for years, seeing the success that he had, thinking ‘oh my God, Ross, he wants me. Before he wanted Michael and now he wants me’ which is a very strange situation to be in and I’m forever grateful. I wish him a huge happy birthday. He invited me, obviously I’m here so can’t go but I will definitely probably speak to him later today but I’m really grateful for him wanting me to be in the team and the other members really being so supportive to being in this team because they wanted to win and it felt that I would be a perfect fit. I think we’ve proved that he was right.

Q: (Leigh O’Gorman – Walker Watson) To all three of you: even though it was a dusk race, could you give an indication of how your general car balance felt through the changing temperatures, tyre-wear etc?

FM: Well, I think it’s very easy. We just want to answer. The car balance changed completely through the temperature so during the day, during the evening. Normally during the evening the tyres behaved a lot better so you can use the tyres on more laps so degradation is lower, even if it was not so low but it’s lower so lap times quicker so I think there’s a big difference between driving in the day and driving in the evening.

VB: Yeah, I agree with Felipe, it’s quite a big difference because we started in what was still slightly sunlight and then it gets really dark, the temperature really drops so every tyre set you put on is going to behave slightly differently. Luckily, we have quite a few tools on the steering wheel which we can really help the balance of the car, so that helps.

LH: I think they’ve answered it pretty well. It was the same for me.

Q: (Haoran Zhou – F1 Express) Lewis, you have just been nominated for Sports Personality of the Year; do you think you have a chance of winning that?

LH: I’m more hoping that I get to go and see the Queen again

November 23, 2014
F1 2014: Brazilian GP – Sao Paulo Success For Rosberg

The one thing Nico Rosberg needed to be this weekend was perfect and he came as close to it as any Formula 1 driver could ever dream of.

Nico Rosberg converted his tenth pole position of the season into victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix under serious pressure from teammate Lewis Hamilton. The two Silver Arrows led cleanly off the front-row of the grid and ran line astern for the shortened first stint of the race. As the soft Pirelli tyres were giving up the ghost on the newly re-surfaced Interlagos circuit it was Rosberg who blinked first and dived into the pitlane for a set of the medium compound tyres.

Shrewdly, Hamilton had been biding his time and unleashed an almighty fast lap as Rosberg pitted. It would’ve been enough to give Hamilton the lead of the race and perhaps even the race victory.

A half spin into turn four undid all the Brit’s progress and handed Rosberg a 7.5 second lead after the round of pitstops.

Hamilton brilliantly reduced the gap to little more than half a second but this time not even his unrelenting tenacity was enough to beat Rosberg.

The F1 Gods seemed to be conspiring against local favourite Felipe Massa as the Brazilian had to overcome several dicey moments during his race.

First, the Williams driver was forced to serve a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Later, and quite comically, Massa nearly stopped in the McLaren pitbox, whose mechanics are similarly decked out in white overalls, as he came in for a fresh set of boots.

Nevertheless, much to the pleasure of the crowd Massa secured his first podium of the 2014 season.

The man who clinched his own world title here in 2009, Jenson Button, underlined McLaren’s recent progress with an impressive fourth place at the end of the 71 laps.

Sebastian Vettel completed a quiet run into fifth in a relatively solid afternoon of racing for the four-time champion. Who would have thought, as Vettel went on a nine race winning streak in 2013, that he would ever be racing in quite such anonymity as he did in this Brazilian Grand Prix. But so the wheel of Formula 1 turns, mercilessly and with emphatic certainty.

Ferrari, to some extent, put together a better performance with a sixth and seventh place finish for Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen respectively. The two teammates battled late on in the race as Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver to successfully complete a two-stop strategy.

Eventually, fresher tyres allowed Fernando Alonso past Raikkonen who could’ve had a slightly better afternoon if not for some finger-trouble on the front-jack in the pits which cost the Finn roughly six seconds.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth overall a scant two tenths off Raikkonen while Kevin Magnussen ended a distant ninth in the second McLaren.

Valterri Bottas was never able to recover from a delay in his own pitstop which was owing to a loose safety-belt. Bottas confirmed post-race that severe graining on his tyres significantly affected his pace as well. The only two retirements were in the form of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean who pulled off in a smoking heap and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who suffered a front-left suspension failure.

Perfection is what was called for from Rosberg and what was needed to beat Lewis Hamilton.

He nearly succumbed to the relentless pressure from his teammate but this time unlike in Italy, Russia and the United States, Rosberg’s mental fortitude was resolute.

This victory has repaired some of the psychological damage inflicted by Hamilton and proved that come Abu Dhabi Nico Rosberg will be there fighting tooth and nail until the very last possible second.

November 10, 2014
2014 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

Drivers:

Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1)

Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

Sergio Perez (Force India)

Romain Grosjean (Lotus)

Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Let’s start with the world championship leader. Lewis, 17 points ahead, the biggest lead you’ve had this year so far, which poses the greater threat do you think: Nico or reliability from here on?

Lewis HAMILTON: It’s a good question. I don’t know, I think they are both relatively de cent threats. But the guys have worked very hard to eradicate those through the year so I hope that we can all go through these next races together as a tea, without any of those issues.

Do you feel a bit more in control of things now, though?

LH: It doesn’t really feel any different to several races ago really. As I keep saying: just fighting and chasing the ultimate goal.

You’ve won twice here in the US, once in Indianapolis and then the first race here at COTA. You have a great affinity for this country, how do you see the potential for Formula One here in the US?

LH: I think there is a huge market for Formula One. I think if you watch all the different sports here the people in this country are so passionate about sports in general, whether it be basketball, baseball or NFL or even NASCAR and IndyCar, so they are extremely enthusiastic about competition and wheel-to-wheel racing or just real out and out heart racing or competition. Whilst we only have one race here, there’s lots of opportunity here for it to grow. I’ve just definitely seen from 2007, even though we missed out quite a few years, there’s still quite a lot of growth here. I was in New York yesterday for example and there were people waiting outside this building, with signs and just Formula One fans with our team tops on, which was huge.

Thank you for that. Daniel, coming to you, nice look you’re sporting this weekend. Third in the drivers’ championship, you’re 10-6 against Sebastian in qualifying, which means that whatever happens from here to the end of the season in the head-to-head he can’t beat you. How does that feel?

Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, I’ve said it I think before that I’ve been really happy with the season. Yeah, I guess it’s exceeded my expectations and probably everyone else’s as well. A few more races left, I would love to get another… or ar least a few more top results. I think Austin is a good chance for us. A circuit I’ve personally enjoyed a lot the last few years. I think it’s not only fun to drive but for racing it provides… I honestly think it’s the best circuit on the calendar for overtaking. I think there are more spots around the lap here for overtaking opportunities than any other, so that’s always exciting. Yeah, so we’ll see how we go. I think we should be alright here.

Well, the Red Bull boss has obviously spelled out that you’re the new team leader of Red Bull Racing for 2015. The target then is now on your back. How big a threat do you see Kvyat being to you, to do to you what you have done to Sebastian this year?

DR: I feel a bit still young to the team but yeah I guess I will be the old guy next year. But yeah, I know Dani, I know him pretty well from a few years already. I definitely won’t take him lightly. I know he’s very quick and just because he’s still inexperienced in Formula One I’m sure he’s going to bring a lot to the team and a lot to the table. I’ll keep working on myself, try to keep improving. I feel I’m not at my peak yet, so I’ll try and get there personally first and then see where Dani fits in. I’m sure we’ll have a good working relationship, we joke around a bit already now, so I think that light sort of humour will remain in the team.

Valtteri, coming to you, you scored your first ever Formula One points here at the Circuit of the Americas 12 months ago, and what a 12 months it’s been since then for you, five podiums and now you’re fourth in the drivers’ championship. Is it realistic to think that you can improve on this for next year, which are the areas?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I have really good memories from here, it’s so good to be back. It’s a nice circuit, everyone really likes to drive here. The atmosphere, everything is great. And like you said: what a 12 months it’s been. It’s been really good for us, we’ve been improving step by step, we made a big step in the winter and now we are in a really good position. But I do think we can still improve next year; that’s the goal. We aim to do better than this season and I’m sure it is possible.

Looking at the characteristics of this Austin circuit, it looks like a track that should suit the Williams, like a number of places we’ve been this year. Is that the way you guys are reading it too? Do you think you can be a bit of a threat this weekend?

VB: Yeah, I think it should be not bad. I think we can be strong here. It could be difficult to be close to the Mercedes as we were in Sochi but still I think it should be good and we’re going to have a good fight with Red Bull and Ferrari for sure.

Romain, coming to you, you finished second here last year, great memories there, but you’ve only had two points finishes since that fantastic result. Are you committing your future to Lotus? Can you tell us any more about that and whether Lotus is the right team for you?

Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, very good memories from last year, not so good to remind me that I only scored two times this year. For a long time I’ve said that Lotus will be much better next year than they are this year, for a few reasons. There’s been a lot of work at the factory and the fact that the team brings a new nose here just to try to prepare for 2015 is a strong sign. I have a contract with the team. I have the option to leave if I want to – this is from some performance clause. So far there are still places available at top teams or they haven’t been confirmed and that’s there where I want to be in the near future and that’s what we try to do.

It sounds like the ball is in your court. In terms of news, of course you’ve got some good news. I understand you’re going to have another. So at the end of a difficult year a nice bit of news for you and your wife.

RG: At least that worked! So, pretty good timing as well for next year. I think personally I had a tough season with the results but outside the track I lost four people that were very close to me, the next one being the boss of Total, Christophe de Margerie, last week or the week before. So I thought it was important to announce good news. We have support in tough times but now we have support in good times and I am glad to be the father of a family of almost four people.

Many congratulations to you. Staying on the theme of next year, Sergio, if we could come to you, your team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, has confirmed for 2015 with Force India, where are you with the process? Is the deal almost done?

Sergio PEREZ: Yes, it’s getting very close. Obviously it’s getting close to the end of the season, so things are getting very close to sort out the deal for the team. I definitely want to stay longer in the team. I want to establish myself in the team. I’m four years in Formula One and I’ve been moving around probably too many times. So I want to do a second year with the team and that’s my target. So hopefully everything goes right and we can announce things soon.

Obviously we’re very close to Mexico here and presumably you’ve been back home in the past couple of weeks or so. Can you give us any updates on how the track is coming on, what the mood is like, what the expectation is for next year?

SP: It’s really high. There are a lot of enthusiasts back home and the people are really excited to have the grand prix back home. I know the circuit is getting rebuilt; there was an event a couple of weeks ago. So, yeah, things are moving on very quick and Mexico is very excited to have all of you, all the drivers, all the teams all together, so it will be a very nice event.

Staying on that theme, Esteban, obviously next year the US Grand Prix will be paired with Mexico on the calendar. What do you think that will do for the development of Formula One in this region?

Esteban GUTIERREZ: I think it’s very positive in many ways to have more and more races in America. So I think now complimented with the Mexican Grand Prix and to have all the Mexican energy and also the American energy, in combination to that, it’s, I think, very positive to all of that.

A quick thought on your championship position with Sauber. You’re still behind Marussia in the constructors’ championship, but they aren’t here. How hopeful are you that you will come out ahead at the end in the constructors’ championship?

EG: Well, we are fighting all weekend. We’ve been doing that in the second half of the season, we have been very close to score the points on many occasions. We’ve had some technical issues which made it very difficult to consolidate those results but we still have three more chances and probably out of those three maybe only one or two! So we have to get the most out of what comes up as an opportunity and we are fighting all the way and, yeah, let’s hope we get the points that we want.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) A question for Lewis and Romain: Lewis, guys like Lauda and Prost took a year or two off, came back, won races and championships. Given how intense F1 is these days, the lack of testing, how much momentum would you lose if you took a year off. And Romain, you did take a year or so off, how much momentum did you lose?

LH: It’s not something I’m thinking about. I would imagine, yeah, naturally you would definitely lose some traction and then coming back into testing, you don’t have a lot before the season, and particularly with all the controls, the new updates every single year, the technology’s constantly evolving, so to be on top of that, I imagine that would definitely take a while to come back into. So it wouldn’t be helpful. But perhaps back in the day, there was more running and testing, so perhaps… Niki could tell you more. But I’m sure, perhaps, it was a little bit easier for them to come back in.

Romain?

RG: Yeah, I think there it two ways of seeing things. Of course you do lose some of the confidence that you had in the car and the stuff you could do – but on the other hand, you learn in a tough time. And when your car is not so nice to drive, you learn some new tricks and learn to do around. And the day you jump back in a good car, it may feel very easy and quick.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) With the demise of the two teams, there’s been a lot of talk about third cars and teams. For the front running teams that obviously means it could dilute your efforts if the team is running three cars instead of two. And for the mid-grid teams it means you’re inevitably going to finish further down the order than you would at the moment. How do you drivers feel about third cars and teams?

DR: I think from our position it’s something, if we’re requested to have a third car, I think we’ll definitely look into it and try to make it happen. From my side, let’s say, having another team-mate, I wouldn’t see any negatives. I remember 2008, I think I had six team-mates in Formula Renault, so it was like being in a school classroom. I wouldn’t see any downside from a driver’s point of view.

Lewis?

LH: I haven’t really thought about it to be honest but I think, as you said, we would have to expand the team to make sure the efforts aren’t diluted, as you said. But yeah, if it’s a position for a younger driver, it could be quite good. Especially bringing then on, giving them the best experience and especially putting them alongside top drivers who have the experience. Perhaps they will come along a lot more than they ever have in the past. When I think about the two teams that have dropped out, my biggest concern really is just for all the employees in those teams that have to provide for their families that perhaps don’t have a job now. If we do do this perhaps they still have space in other teams.

Valtteri?

VB: Not too much to add really. Just I really think it’s an interesting topic. Everyone wants to see more cars on the grid and the more is better, so we just need to find out how soon that would be possible for the teams to make it happen. I think it would be quite interesting. I don’t see, as a driver, any downside in it really.

Esteban, does it create opportunities as well?

EG: Yeah, it could bring more opportunities for the drivers and also I think it would be good for the level of competition overall, so, yeah, all in all, it’s a positive.

Romain – I’m sure you’ve thought about this.

RG: Yeah. It really depends where you are. If you are one of the smaller teams, you see it as a non-chance of scoring points and showing what you’re capable of. On the other side, if you put it on a good team and you’re racing in the same cars as what we call the superstars, then it gives you an opportunity to show how strong you and then get called one of those superstars. I think whoever is doing a good job as a driver, bringing them to the good team, like Daniel, showing that he’s capable of winning races. A third car would certainly help some of us to have a good reputation.

Sergio, your thoughts.

SG: I think it will definitely help the opportunities of the drivers. Obviously there will be a bit more of a chance. Formula One is really limited. The spaces where you can go and where you can actually win during a year, so it can create a bit more opportunity to the drivers, as a driver point of view. I think it’s also sad to not have so many people set out from Marussia and Caterham – so hopefully they can be in a better position for the future and, if it’s good for the sport, why not? I think we should all help this sport to get better.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Very probably we’re going to have Sebastian Vettel, who is the World Champion, not taking part in the qualifying on Saturday because of the change of the power unit. Don’t you think this is quite bad of the sport to promote? To have the World Champion not taking part, or any of you not be able to take part in a qualifying session just to preserve the engine?
Daniel, can you clarify this? Hasn’t there been a question raised about this?

DR: Yeah, he’s been asked quite a bit and I don’t think anything’s 100 per cent yet. I think it’s… if he qualifies on pole he still has to start from pitlane so its… why would you put miles on the engine? It’s not 100 per cent but that’s the though behind everything. It’s… yeah… not ideal for him and for everyone, for the fans if that is the case. You want to be out there. You want to drive. For yourself, you want to learn more, you want to be on track, and yeah, you want to give the fans what they came for, so, yeah, we’ll obviously see what happens but that’s the rules and the regs for this year, and unfortunately that’s a negative from it – if that is the case.

Lewis, do you have a view?

LH: I agree with Daniel.

Q: (Sef Harding – Zero Zone News) This questions for Lewis. Lewis, what is it about new tracks that you enjoy so much, being that you won here back in 2012 for the inaugural race, and you won the inaugural race in Sochi three weeks ago?

LH: I like the fact it’s just a new challenge for us, y’know? We get every year… I’ve been in Formula One now eight years and every year you go to those tracks and you’ve experience them before. You’re always trying to better yourself at the tracks you know but the new circuits, you want to be the one that masters it before everyone else, that kind of thing. Of course, when you get a car that you’re able to do that, it’s even more exciting. One of the most exciting races for me was here in 2012. Being about to follow… it’s very, very difficult to follow in one of these cars but, as Daniel mentioned, this is one of the circuits that enables you to. For whatever reason, it’s just the way the corners are laid out, you can follow a Formula One car. And when I was able to follow Sebastian and actually attack a Red Bull – which was the dominant car that year. And also, the amount of people that were here for that race. Sochi, that was a great new circuit again, and to have a car that I was able to fight and obviously be ahead of. In ten years time you’ll look back and know that Hamilton was at the forefront of those debut races – that’s quite cool for me. I look back at history and at Michael who’s got the world record on all the laps on all these previous circuits and also won the first time. Hopefully in the future I’ll have a couple of these.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo OnLine) Lewis, your numbers, your statistics are the best this year and maybe, in the last race of the championship something bad happens to you and you lose the World title because of the double points in the last race. First, is it fair for you and do you think it should be re-thought for next year?

LH: I think the question is ‘what is fair?’ This is the rule that they have brought in for the first time; do I really agree with it? I don’t know if any of us agree with it or do not agree with it, but it is the way it is and you just have to deal with it and just hope for the best really. It would suck if that was the case – big time – but I’m not even going to put that negative energy out there. I’m just going to try and do the best job I can with the car that I have and what will be will be, I guess.

For the future, I wouldn’t perhaps advise it for the following years but…

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Lewis, you touched earlier on your trip to New York yesterday. What do appearances like that do for Formula One, when you appear on a major American TV programme? And secondly, you’re wearing quite an interesting item around your neck, could you give us an insight as to what exactly that is, whether it’s got any significance, any special meaning?

LH: New York was just very… it was incredible really. I just remember growing up watching all these movies and you see it in New York, all the cool taxis and then to be in the middle of New York, in the street with the Formula One car and actually people had arrived at 5.30 in the morning for the 8.30 show. There were fans there with team tops and it’s just something I just wouldn’t have perhaps expected over here. It really was a great buzz these guys had. There’s more and more excitement growing here in the States and as I said, they are massive sports fans over here. I really hope that it continues to grow, and obviously with this race, they did such an amazing job from 2012 until now and I hope that continues to grow. Over here, they have a good recipe for good shows. When you go and watch an NBA game you know you’re excited the whole way through. Same with NFL and the same with baseball and so they have a good recipe for entertaining fans and we can perhaps take a bit of that and add it into this race and maybe others and make it even more attractive.

And then just my piece; I’m really into art. I couldn’t afford the real Andy Warhol painting so I thought I would get it on a miniature scale so that’s what I have, it’s the Mercedes 300SL cars.

Q: (Greg Creamer – COTA PA) To all of you – perhaps Lewis, as a former winner here, you will take this first – with the changes this season with less downforce, more weight on the cars, more torque, in the past couple of years you’ve been able to do this with one stop. You’ve got these sections from (turns) three to nine and then from 12 through 15, are you seeing anything on the simulator, any kind of indication as to what the toll is going to be on the tyres this year and how they will work?

LH: I personally haven’t yet, but I’m going to speak to my engineers shortly after this but I hope that we’re doing more than one stop. One stop is not really particularly exciting and I think it’s good for the fans to see it all changing. To have degradation… I know in the past we maybe complained about too much degradation but having at least two stops I think would maybe be good for the fans to see. Otherwise it becomes a bit of a procession.

VB: I think it’s definitely going to be more difficult to do one stop just because with all the changes from last year and also we have one step softer set of tyres here so I think it’s definitely going to be more difficult. Let’s hope there’s… for the fans more than one is better so we will see.

EG: I agree with both of them. I hope that we can get more than one stop to play a bit more with the strategy and to make it more interesting for everybody.

Q: Sergio, you’ve done a few strategy things in your time and got good results. Do you see any opportunities here this weekend?

SP: To be honest not. I think it will quite likely be a one stop. The tyres are just too hard. Most probably we will see one stop for many people.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Sticking to the topic of tyres; since Sochi, Pirelli have announced that they’ve come softer a grade each for Brazil after two drivers had voiced their concerns. Did you people have similar concerns about the choice of tyres for Brazil and are there any other choices in the past where you’ve had particular concerns?

RG: I think there have been a few places where we knew we could race softer tyres, especially when you have to remember that this year everything is… tyres are one step harder than they were last year. So it just makes things harder and even the rear we have soft and medium whereas last year was medium and hard. At the end of the story, they’re exactly the same tyres. Yeah, a few places we knew they were too hard. I think Brazil used to be supersoft, I wasn’t racing in Formula One then, it was before I came, it was supersoft down there so when hard and medium came, they were a bit too hard.

DR: Nothing further.

Q: Valtteri, you’ve been caught out a few times this year.

VB: Yeah, well, not much to add really. I think sometimes there have been races where they could have been a bit more aggressive but now at least I think Pirelli’s reacting, making changes for the rest of the year, so that’s a good thing so I think everyone is learning more and more all the time about new compounds and we will see in the future. Possibly there are some things which could have been done better but it’s always easy to say afterwards.

Q: Final thoughts on this, Lewis, because the Mercedes has always been able to make the harder tyres work this year, hasn’t it?

LH: Yeah, I think I agree with what was just said. I think it’s important to remember that Pirelli have actually done a really solid job this year, and OK, whilst the tyres are sometimes a little bit too hard for us, it’s what we’ve asked for and they’re learning and they’re improving and hopefully these next steps will be… but you know, safety has not been an issue this year which is huge because this last year it was sometimes a concern. Yeah, it would be good to move forward with a tyre that does (not) allow anything worse to happen. A few more problems in terms of pit stops would not be too bad.

Q: (Carlos E. Jalife – Fast Mag, Mexico) You’re going to be racing in Mexico in 2015 and Azerbaijan in 2016, yet we do not have a French Grand Prix. What do you think about losing all these traditional sites and yet racing in a place like Azerbaijan – I’m not saying Mexico because Mexico started in 1962 and it’s older than everything else except for seven of the other locations, it has an older tradition. What do you think, starting maybe with Romain, about not racing in France which had the first Grand Prix in 1906?

RG: I’ve missed racing in France; I’ve never raced Formula One in my own country. I’m sure it’s something special so I wish it would come back one day, but there are different… I think it’s quite good as well that we discover new places, for example, Austin. Indianapolis was not a very good end and then we came here the first year and I was very surprised to see how many fans came so it’s good to see new countries, it’s good to see new tracks and it’s good to see that fans love it. I think it goes on and off and things change.

DR: I think it’s definitely nice having some traditional places. It would definitely be a shame to lose some of the iconic – let’s say European – circuits but with that, I also love coming to new places as well. I’ve been very vocal about Austin, my love for this place, my love for the venue, the circuit, everything. I think it’s definitely been one of the (best) if not the best of the new generation circuits in Grand Prix for us. I’m also really excited for Mexico next year. I know Esteban and Sergio are pretty crazy people so I’m sure we’ll get a good following there. We definitely have to keep some of the iconic ones in Europe. It would definitely be a shame to lose those. As for moving further away from those and exploring new places, I think that’s also great for the sport.

LH: I think it’s probably already been said but the old circuits… growing up and seeing the history of Formula One, I remember when I was younger, watching a lap of Senna’s, for example, around Monaco and then dreaming of one day driving that track and knowing the history of it, even way before and then driving it for the first time, that feeling was just unreal, I can’t really describe it. Obviously you’re into a new circuit, there is none of that history, so there is that difference but we’re coming to a new age where in fifty years’ time people will be talking about these circuits which are at the beginning of the history here. Inevitably, things are going to change a bit. Something in Paris would be cool.

SP: Obviously I’m a big fan of Formula One for a long time so I love the historical circuits: when we go to Spa, Monza, Silverstone, those kind of races are very special for a driver to live the tradition that those places have but also when we go to new places, for example when we came to Austin, it was great and every time we come here it’s fantastic. When we go to Mexico, there are really some special venues coming up but obviously the traditional ones must remain in Formula One, I think.

EG: Yeah, I like exploring new places. I’ve been enjoying racing on new tracks a lot, ever since I came into Formula One. To get to know a new track is very exciting and as long as the fans love it, I think we’re going to be very happy anyway.

VB: Yeah, I also like discovering new places, new tracks, I think it’s nice but it’s also really good to have the history of Formula One as part of the calendar so it’s important to have a good combination of both, I think, which I think, at the moment we more or less have

October 30, 2014