F1 Madness

Tag: williams

  • F1 2016: Free Practice 2 Report German Gp – Rosberg Tops Timing Sheet

    F1 2016: Free Practice 2 Report German Gp – Rosberg Tops Timing Sheet

    Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheet at the end of the second free practice session for the German grand prix.

    The Mercedes driver out-paced teammate Hamilton by four tenths of a second to end the 90 minute practice session with a quickest time of :1:15:614. Lewis Hamilton, 0.394 adrift, finished the session in second overall ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

    Max Verstappen slotted his Red Bull into fourth ahead of Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and Kimi Raikkonen in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh quickest in the Force India ahead of Jenson Button, Sergio Perez, and Fernando Alonso.

    The long runs suggest an advantage for Mercedes especially on the red-walled supersoft tyre but the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was able to turn laptimes on the yellow-walled soft tyre not far off the Mercedes pace. At the end of Friday Ferrari is currently the third best team behind Mercedes and Red Bull. However, their pace should improve on Saturday as they bolt in some fresher engines.

    McLaren’s Jenson Button made a trip to the hospital after complaining for an eye irritation but the visit is believed to only a pre-cautionary matter.

    The issue of track limits was shoved into the spotlight as the stewards warned that they would clampdown on anyone who ran over the white line on the exit of turn 2 more than three times.

     

  • F1 2016: German GP Preview – Hockenheimring Returns!

    F1 2016: German GP Preview – Hockenheimring Returns!

    The last time the F1 paddock visited Germany’s Hockenheimring was in 2014. Back then Mercedes’ dominance was just getting into its stride and Sebastian Vettel was still a Red Bull driver.

    Given the amount of things that have changed it feels impossible that the race around the Hockenheimring was just two years ago. In 2016 Lewis Hamilton is a triple world champion, Sebastian Vettel has settled into life as a Ferrari driver, and there was no American team on the grid.

    What remains unchanged is the mystic and attraction of the Hockenheimring.  They will all be fighting it out on a German circuit that varies quite a bit from what was seen two weeks ago in Hungary. The layout includes just two high speed corners as the rest of the lap is comprised of medium speed corners. This requires stability under braking and conversely good traction out of the slower speed corners.

    Overtaking here is easier than at the Hungaroring but Red Bull and Ferrari are unlikely to have enough to challenge Mercedes. For Red Bull the fact that the German circuit is very much power limited will have a big impact on their pace. However, expect to see Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen loitering near the top few positions and likely giving the Ferrari’s a tough fight.

    HockenheimringThe Italian team have been thrown a bit of curveball with the departure of tech chief James Allison. It’s never a good sign when one of the head honchos leaves mid-way through the season but it is likely that Allison did not in order to spend time with his young children. The immediate impact on Ferrari won’t be too significant. They still have scheduled updates to fit to the 2016 car throughout the season as they shift focus to their 2017 challenger.

    In Germany the cooler weather may once again be Ferrari’s foe. Throughout the season the team has consistently struggled with maintaining optimum tyre temps in cooler conditions.

    The run down to turn one tightens quite quickly and it remains to be seen how hard the two Merc boys will fight for dominance when the light goes out. You can’t help feeling that if Rosberg is beaten by Hamilton here it may be championship over for the German.

  • F1 2016: Hungarian Gp Review – Lewis Hamilton, Hungaro-King

    F1 2016: Hungarian Gp Review – Lewis Hamilton, Hungaro-King

    The Hungarian grand prix marked the theoretical mid point of the 2016 season. Yet, after ten races a singular point was all that divided Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in the championship fight.

    Throughout the weekend’s practice sessions and qualifying it was Rosberg who looked most comfortable. But it wasn’t long before Hamilton got the drop on his pole-starting teammate and seized the lead of the race. Although it was not as dominant a drive from Hamilton he always maintained a big enough gap to Rosberg to ensure his fifth win around the Hungaroring.

    The Silver Arrows held a distinct pace advantage over the rest and were hardly challenged by third placed Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver threatened Rosberg’s second place by momentarily closing the gap to 4.5 seconds in the second half of the race but couldn’t make any further impression.

    The embattled Ferrari’s ran better in race trim but still fell short of reaching the podium. Sebastian Vettel, who started fifth, closed to within half a second of Ricciardo as the race drew to its ends but was unable to overtake on the notoriously difficult Hungaroring.

    GP UNGHERIA F1/2016Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen were embroiled in a fight for fifth towards the end of the race. Verstappen managed to hold off Raikkonen who started 14th after a timing error on Saturday. However, the manner in which Verstappen defended his position was questionable, at best. In trying to keep Raikkonen at bay Verstappen changed direction twice which is prohibited under FIA regulations. While stewards saw no cause for investigation the young Red Bull driver’s actions was met with scorn on social media.  Raikkonen eventually brought the Ferrari home in sixth and set the fastest lap of the race.

    Although a fair distance adrift Fernando Alonso scored some points for the McLaren in a legitimate seventh place ahead Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso and the Williams of Valterri Bottas. The final point went to a rather anonymous Nico Hulkenberg as the only retirement of the day came in the form of a Jenson Button whose McLaren suffered an oil leak.

    Lewis Hamilton landed a hammer blow as he not only secured a fifth win at the Hungaroring but with it took over the lead in the driver’s championship. By successfully overcoming a 43 point deficit it also strikes a significant psychological blow to Nico Rosberg. Remarkably, the battle for championship glory is far from over and has all the possibility of turning on its head once more as ten races still remain on the 2016 calendar.

    (All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

  • 2016 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2016 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Rémi TAFFIN (Renault Sport), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber), James KEY (Toro Rosso), Pat SYMONDS (Williams), Jock CLEAR (Ferrari), Guenther STEINER (Haas)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Monisha, if we could start with you: a very positive news story both for Sauber and for Formula One following the buyout of the team by Longbow Finance. Can you tell us a little bit more about the new owners? Who are these people who have bought one of the most prestigious brands in Formula One?

    Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, Longbow Finance is a Swiss company. They have been active in financial investments for more than 20 years, from Switzerland. Their operation involves, well typically private equity investment for international client and of course investment portfolio management.

    So when are we going to start seeing the benefits and when are you going to start seeing the benefits of the buyout – something this year?

    MK: Well, we are working on that, but you know these things take time. We have had a rough time these past few months and the first target of course of the new owners is to stabilise the entire group. So you have to settle matters and then of course, again, to get back to your business as usual to have then a basis for being competitive. I’m sure we’ll have a few things still coming up this year, I mean we still have a few things to do, we don’t want to end up where we are, but of course we are focusing more on next year and there I am very confident you will see a lot more.

    Thank you. Guenther, coming to you, we’re half way through your first season in Formula One, can you just give us a half-term report? How do you feel it’s gone?

    Guenther STEINER: I think it has gone pretty well. I would just like to take this occasion to thank Gene Haas for the trust he has put in all of us, you know that we can come here, because I think the Haas story, an F1 team from America is good news, like good news that Sauber found an investor. Back to where it has gone, we had a very good start, for us, sure some people might think differently, if you are Mercedes or Ferrari, but we are very happy. Then we had a bit of a downturn, which wasn’t massive, I mean we still finished 11th. We finished 11th three times, so we were almost there but not really there. But we got back. The team has grown a lot in these 10 races up to now, if you saw it in the beginning. I wouldn’t say we were bad in the beginning, but if you are new it take some to gel and we always knew this and maybe we were lucky to get these points in the beginning because it gave us confidence, we knew where we were, that the car is good or that it is decent and we were building on it. And then when we had the four races where we didn’t score, we didn’t lose our head or get nervous. We just kept on working, we said “we know we can do it, we just have to do it again”, and I think we did it again, we finished eighth and then in Austria we finished in the points again, so all in all, very happy. Now we are at the point where we look to next year, well we started before now to look to next year, but now it’s full steam ahead on the new car and the race team is just getting better and better because they learn more and more every weekend. We are getting more people in on aero development for next year because we want to be even better next year. I hope we can achieve that. Everybody in the team can be proud of what they achieved and I would like to thank everybody in them because they worked hard because the first three races weren’t easy. They were difficult for everybody. People worked day and night. But they pulled through and now we are where we are, we’ve got 28 points and we are proud of them.

    You say the team is growing, you’ve got more people in the aero department, what about the infrastructure in Banbury? Do you feel confident enough to take on more of the manufacturing of next year’s car in-house?

    GS: No, that was never our plan. We continue a few years like we are. We want to grow in a few areas like race engineering and aero development, but design staff and manufacturing we don’t want to take, because we don’t want to get distracted. I think our principle works – to buy as much as we can from somebody else. We want to keep doing that because there is not a lot in it if you go to do it yourself, not a lot of speed we think is in it in the car. We would just distracted we don’t want anything of that to happen, so we keep on with our business plan, as we set out in the beginning.

    Thank you. James if we could come on to you please. An impressive double points finish for the team at Silverstone. Do you think you pre-season target for the season of fifth in the Constructors’ Championship is still on? Can you catch Force India?

    James KEY: Well, we’ve got a long way still to go, so you’d hope so, we’ve done just about half the season so far. Force India have done a really good job recently and they’ve made the most of some good opportunities, where perhaps we haven’t. We’re not happy with the number of points we’ve scored. We’ve got developments to come to the car, which could give us a chance later in the season, so there’s more to come from us. You clearly can’t give up in the middle of the season; you have to keep pushing. I know a bit of a gap has developed, that was really only made over a couple of races, a couple of big scoring races for them. So the same has got to happen for us to close up, so we’re not going to give up on our chase but it’s not easy.

    You say you’ve got some chassis developments coming but there will be no power unit developments because you’re using the year-old Ferrari engine. How much of a frustration is that for you now?

    JK: Well, we knew it was going to get more and more difficult as the season went on. The pace of power unit development has continued at a pretty high level. It was never an advantage for us to have an established power unit but one that was a year old, it was always a disadvantage – that’s no disrespect to Ferrari, but clearly they have made good steps on their own ’16 unit and we’re not benefiting from any of that. So it’s deeply frustrating really, but we knew what to expect. We have to try to compensate with chassis and make better use of our opportunities.

    Thank you. While we’re on the subject of power units, Rémi, if we could turn to you please, how satisfying has the development of the power unit been, given where you were a year ago?

    Rémi TAFFIN: I think it only be a good satisfaction, because where we were coming from was a difficult year last year and now we can see the improvement on track and everything we got out from the factory to the track was working well, so that was a good step forward, either first race or actually Monaco/Montreal specification we introduced. It’s all working well. I just have to say we’re on it, but we have a good way to go.

    What’s next on the roadmap fro Renault? When are we going to see the next upgrade?

    RT: I think it will be next year. The big step we will have will be next year’s engine, race one. Until we get to the end of the season now we will be working on the specification we have now, trying to extract the most out it, but there won’t be any more let’s say big step as we had for race one and six.

    Thanks. Pat if we could turn to you now please, it’s been a difficult year for Williams, not least in Austria and Silverstone, the last two races, two tracks where you went so well in recent years. Have you discovered the cause of the problems at those two tracks? Were they track specific or was there something more serious at hand?

    Pat SYMONDS: Well, I think we’re getting on top of it. It does seem that Canada was a long while ago – we were on the podium there – but it was only five weeks ago. But three races since then, Baku, Austria, Silverstone, and I feel in all three of those we haven’t performed in the way I expected to. S we are looking into it. We are looking at various things that we have introduced. We’re making sure that we understand them; that’s a process that’s been going on even today. But it’s quite an intense period, you know. Over a period of just five weeks we’re actually doing four races and one test – five events in five weeks. It’s hard to catch your breath when it’s going at that sort of pace. But I’m pretty confident we’re getting on top of things. We had a good day today. I was pleased with how it went, particularly on the long runs, and I think we’re getting back where we should be.

    Where’s the focus in Grove now, is it on 2017? Do the 2017 technical regulation changes come at a good time for you, a chance for you to press the reset button if you like?

    PS: Well, they come at the same time for everyone. We all have equal opportunities and I really do regard it as an opportunity. In answer to the first part of your question, we’re pretty focused on 2017 now, as I’m sure all the teams are, because there is so much work to do. There is so much to be gained in the early part of the learning curve that you can’t afford to leave things too late. It makes it quote challenging of course. If you are in a fight in 2016, as indeed we are, but you’ve still got an eye on the future, you have to balance things pretty carefully. But of course not all development is aerodynamic and while the wind tunnel is pretty devoted to 2017 work, there are other areas where principles do carry over, so we’re still carrying on in those areas.

    Thank you, Pat. Jock, turning to you: like Williams, Ferrari hasn’t been able to maintain the momentum it built up towards the end of last year. Why is that? Are you simply losing ground in the development race or are there more fundamental problems than that?

    Jock CLEAR: Firstly, apologies for keeping everybody waiting. I don’t thing we feel that we are losing a huge amount of ground if you see what I mean. From my point of view I have recent knowledge of the opposition and a huge respect for what we are trying to beat effectively. Our performance has come under a bit more scrutiny now that Red Bull are putting us under pressure, but again that is a testament to how strong they are as a team. We haven’t lost a huge amount of ground to the leaders. If you look at it over the course of the last couple of races, in Canada we were very close and in Silverstone we were a long way off. I think we have learned a lot about some of the areas where the car is weak and that has helped us to identify where we need to work and we are under no illusion that Mercedes are going to continue to be strong and Red Bull are going to continue to be strong. All the teams are working hard. It’s the ongoing challenge. We are working as hard as we can on closing that gap and sorting out the issues, but as everybody has said already, we can’t take our eyes off next year, because that’s a big opportunity. So we’re now having to measure that resource and measure that balance between keeping some momentum or looking to get some momentum later in the year but also putting a lot of resource on what, as Pat says, is a huge challenge for everybody next year. That balancing act is very difficult for all of us. And as I say, it’s just a testament to the guys at the front how well they are continuing to develop and that puts us under pressure because we are not closing the gap as quickly as we’d want to be and that’s racing.

    You say you have recent knowledge of Mercedes. That gives you a unique perspective on the two teams. How are Mercedes and Ferrari different from an operation point of view?

    JC: Sorry to be no fun but I’d rather not share those details if you like. Obviously my own experience at Mercedes I take with me into this position and those sort of insights are really helpful to Ferrari and we’ve talked about those long and hard – the areas where actually Ferrari are stronger, the areas where Ferrari are weaker, again filling in all those details. It doesn’t happen overnight. I was never going to arrive and change things overnight. Far be it from me to think I’ve got anything like that much influence. I’m just here to try and get the race team to do the best we can with the package we’ve got and make sure we’re feeding back the right things to Ferrari at Maranello. That’s the same structure as all the teams I’ve ever worked at. The dynamic is different, the people are different, but again that’s probably true wherever you go. There are no obvious stark differences that I can share with you, but there are those details that obviously I’ve shared with Ferrari.

    Maybe no differences, but many similarities?

    JC: Oh absolutely, many similarities. The passion. If anybody was under any illusion that Ferrari is not as passionate as they used to be in the halcyon days of Ferrari, it’s incredibly for the passion. That is a huge, huge boos for all of us. It’s a pleasure to be part of that passion. Some times it’s our Achilles heel, sometimes we know very well that passion can make things quite difficult for you, but on the whole it is just a huge positive and it is a joy to be part of.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question for Monisha. Following the non-starts that were Qadbak and with the Russian investors, I’m sure that you did some due diligence on Longbow Finance, so you are in a position to confirm or deny that the Rausing family are participants in Longbow Finance please?

    MK: What I can tell you is that our partner is Longbow Finance, it operates in Switzerland. All disclosures that are required in Switzerland are done and that is important to us, who exactly our partner is. And that is Longbow Finance.

    Q: (Viktor Bognár – Magyar Szó) Question to Pat. We have some new technical directives about the radio communication between the engineer and the drivers. Is there any fear that it causes some over-complication of the rules? What would be the best solution in your opinion?

    PS: It’s an interesting question. I think that the interpretation that’s been put on the rules is quite harsh. The rules that are taking about is a rule that says the driver must drive the car alone and unaided. I think it was put there many, many years ago to perhaps limit some of the electronic controls and things like that. Indeed it was that very rule that was cited in the banning of traction control, for example. To bring it in to the sphere of communication with the driver is odd. I’ve always through of Formula One as being a team sport and I’ve always thought, as teams, we should participate together to assist our driver. And you know, you can ask where the limit is. If the driver is to do everything alone and unaided, should he change his own tyres at the pitstop? Clearly ridiculous but that could be the logical extension of it? But I think what’s particularly interesting is that, I think it’s rather a shame that something that’s really unique in motorsport is something that we are doing away with. If you cast your mind back just a few weeks, we have the Euro football championship going on, that fantastic game, Italy and Germany, it’s going to penalties, wouldn’t you have loved to have heard what was being said? Three penalties missed. Would you have not wanted to hear what the goalkeeper was saying? Would you not wanted to hear what those strikers were saying? Now in Formula One we actually have the ability to engage our fans and allow them into the cockpit to get that sort of level of immersion… and we’ve allowed it to go away. I think that’s the biggest shame of all.

    Q: (Joe Saward – Auto X) This is a question for everybody, specifically based on what Pat was saying. We’ve got six races in eight weekends. Is that sensible?

    Guenther, why don’t we start with you?

    GS: You’re asking me about sensible! It is a lot of work, it is tough. I think for us we didn’t feel the difference so much because we started off new and we were just running anyway, so a littlebit more or less is not a difference. Is it sustainable? I don’t think so. I think we should try to make it a little bit more scheduled. A better schedule that you don’t have six events in six weeks because it gets old pretty quick. Sometimes these things happen and maybe change is in the future, I don’t know – but asking if it’s sensible… no.

    James, your thoughts

    JK: I think when you have 21 races you’re always going to get a compressed timescale for things – unless you lengthen the season, which I don’t think any of us would like to see. So, whether it’s sensible or not, difficult to say but I think as long as you’ve got that many races in a season, you’re going to get a situation where you get six weeks of enormous activity, particularly in the middle of the year.

    Pat?

    PS: I think that… we examined, I think around 2008, how we were going to go racing in the future and we decided that 20 races was very much the tipping point. Now, of course, you say, “20 races, what about testing and things like that,” we do still have two in-season tests, we have reduced to only two pre-season tests – but what we’ve done is get rid of test teams, so there’s an awful lot for the race team to do. On top of that next year… well, firstly, we’re not at 20 races any more, we’re at 21 and who knows whether that will go beyond, but we’ve also got tyre testing to take into account next year, so I think we’re way past the tipping point and we, as a team, and I think most teams, are looking at a completely different structure because we cannot ask our personnel to maintain the level of activity that’s being asked of them. And therefore we’re going to have to look at rotation. It’s an incremental cost, we have to put people in there and, y’know, I’ve been in racing now for 40 years and this is the first time when I’m starting to see people say, “well, actually, y’know, we don’t want to go racing. We love Formula One, we enjoy working in the factory but it’s actually too much of a drain on family life and quality of life to be on the road all the time.

    Jock, Monisha or Remi, do you have anything to add?

    JC: Just to support Pat, his point on pushing people and people making that level of commitment. Big sports play very well off the bench these days – and that’s a big part of rugby, big part of football is what you do with your substitutes. We don’t have that luxury I’m afraid, and we’ve got a lot of guys out there who, during this five-week period who are really, really up against it to get enough sleep and, as you say, to find time to look after their families. It’s beyond the tipping point, as Pat says. I don’t think it’s necessarily not sensible, I don’t think we’re worried about the safety of it, we’re still very comfortable that we can put those cars out there safely for Seb and Kimi every week – but people are just very, very tired and we’re only halfway through that five week four race period.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Auto Bild Motorsport) A question to Jock. One of your drivers told us yesterday that we shouldn’t write that negative about Ferrari, we should write more positive. So maybe we could start right now. Could you tell us some areas where Ferrari is stronger than Mercedes?

    JC: Ha! I would rather not share those areas. As I say, I’m sorry to not play to the party. The comparisons are very, very difficult. It’s a very different culture, it’s a very, very different way of working. Just the geography of the setup is very different. And that naturally arrives at a different solution. The people involved are all very, very experienced in F1. They’ve all had different upbringings through either the British teams or the Italian teams and that arrives at a different result. As I say, the difference are not necessarily those that are going to make the difference between whether you’re on the front of the grid or not. That still boils down to how well you can get the results out of your wind tunnel, how well you can develop your power unit, and I would say the key, key point with Ferrari and all of the teams is that with this new hybrid engine, it’s much more integrated than ever before. You can’t just say “right, that’s your aero, that’s your chassis, that’s your engine,” and those three will come together. They’re all so closely linked nowadays and that integration is a strength of Ferrari because nobody has a closer relationship with their engine manufacturer than we do. Even at Mercedes, geographically, they’re not in the same place. So we have that advantage. That’s one that’s obvious to everybody – but it is an advantage. And having that close community with the engine side and the chassis side, not that we have this hybrid unit where they’re so closely integrated, with the aero, with the cooling systems, that is a strength that we need to work on and we need to make the most of.

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) I’ve got a question for all of you please. Recently we’ve heard comment from Paul Hembery of Pirelli talking about his preference to return to some form of warm-weather testing for 2017, particularly with the changes in the tyres and everything else. Could each of you please tell me what your position is on warm-weather testing, whether you’re pro- or against it and what you see as the key advantages and disadvantages?

    Remi, if we start with you.

    RT: I’m not sure I’m really well-placed to comment on tyre testing. The only thing I maybe would comment on that one is something we already covered: the resources we’d have to put in front and the people we have to get on board for that. Apart from that, I guess I’m not going to comment on tyres, to be fair.

    Monisha?

    MK: Technically, it’s difficult for me to argue anything on that but I think the picture I have here is we had good reasons to get rid of these kinds of testing activities. We’ve seen times where there was unlimited testing, lot of tyre testing was done at the time, basically with one team and we all got those tyres. And we had at that time, when there were many manufacturers actually in the sport, where money was not that much an issue, we still got rid of these kind of things and, step-by-step, we are getting back to areas again that we never wanted at that time. So, I just wonder where this is all going to. We’ve again got in-season testing, fine, we got something else away, but it’s just becoming more and more expensive, costs are just going up and I just feel it will end up somewhere in a very, very bad situation and I think we should learn from the steps we have taken in the past and not again wait for something to happen where people again may be leaving the sport. It’s not always just the small ones. It could equally happen, which we’ve seen years ago, how bigger… how manufacturers have left. I think we should be very cautious in opening up these kind of shows again. I think as teams we should probably not have that much liberty with regard to tyres. It would probably be easier if we were to just let the tyre manufacture do what he does and focus on other things.

    PS: We are actually evaluating the costs at the moment. It is an incremental cost, there’s no doubt about it. If you have the situation where you could test in the venue where you were racing, you can limit some of those costs, and indeed many years ago we used to do that. We used to start the season in Brazil and test there. We started the season in South Africa and we tested there. You can stop on the way and this is the sort of Middle East on the way to Australia and you can mitigate your costs by not bringing things back to base, in our case, back to the UK. It is an incremental cost and one of the problems is that you’re always sending a lot of people to these tests; there are so many systems that need looking after. From the UK, a flight to Barcelona is £50 or something. To Abu Dhabi, it’s significantly more and so it doesn’t come at no cost. But I think that we have got a problem but the problem is probably greater than you might realise because the rule that came in for this season, which allows the teams to chose their tyres and chose three tyres from the five available – which incidentally, I think is a very good rule and it has done quite a lot to spice up the racing and to bring a little bit of randomness into some of the strategies – it really does fall down next year because we have to make those tyre choices before Christmas, before we’ve even run a car with the tyres and indeed, I think by the time we’ve done our testing, we will have supposedly chosen tyres for the first five or six races. Now that hands an enormous advantage, in my opinion, to the teams that have done the testing, even if it’s blind testing, even if we’re getting that data, you won’t pick up all the nuances that the test teams have had. So I think what’s far more important is that we look at that problem and perhaps for a year or for the first half of the season or something like that we suspend the right of the teams to make that tyre choice so that we all live together, we don’t hand that advantage to Ferrari, to Red Bull and to Mercedes, because we would love to have been involved in that testing and we got quite a long way down the path to designing a car for it but we simply couldn’t afford to do a test like that and these costs just keep on adding up all the time.

    JC: Yeah, obviously we were very much like Pat, very keen to be involved in that and we have the advantage of having the resource and being able to put a car together, not specifically because we thought it would give us a huge advantage. I think we’re all comfortable – I would like to hope – with the way that data is going to be shared and the way the tests are going to be run but Pat is absolutely right, there will be nuances that you will get out of it by being there at the time and the drivers involved will get a feel for it so there’s an advantage there and certainly, for all of us, I think we’re well aware that making decisions for what tyres we’re going to be racing at the beginning of next year when even we will have had very little touch on them is very difficult to do, so Pat’s very correct on what he says. That probably needs to be looked at. We certainly don’t… and we never envisaged our involvement with the Pirelli testing as an opportunity to steal a yard on everybody else and as such, we would be quite happy to go along with that if some way were found to even out that possible advantage early season. More about the Pirelli testing: I think we sympathise with Pirelli in their plight to make the best tyres they can. They come under a lot of pressure every now and then and they don’t have much testing opportunity in the same way as we don’t  and obviously, they’re always going to be pushing to do testing and warm weather testing is important because a lot of these races are in the warm weather. So again, I think we have to sympathise with Pirelli’s position and a season that is long, and as we’ve discussed before, has 21 races and doesn’t have test teams any more, those sort of long distance, long haul tests that you could put after the flyaway races are just going to add to a hugely busy programme already. So it’s finding the team as well as the resources as well as the money; it’s all pushing the boundaries in every direction. We’re almost at explosion point in fitting everything into a year.

    JK: I think I’d add a query to Jock’s points. I think to be fair with Pirelli they do need to be given a bit of a break with this. We’ve had a significant demand on them from our new regulations. There’s some targets for them to try and meet which are tough and they haven’t got so long to do it. Tyres are big players now, tyre management and all the science that goes into it just from the tyre point of view is significant and I think it’s going to be the same or probably more so next year, they’re going to be a very big part of the 2017 regs. A cold Barcelona isn’t the best place to try and learn exactly what these things are going to do, neither for Pirelli nor the teams so although of course there’s a financial implication which has to be carefully considered, the bang for buck of going somewhere which is more representative and gives both the tyres – well, both Pirelli tyre information and the teams the sort of tyre information which is useful and makes testing useful – is significantly better perhaps at going to warm weather conditions than the cold Barcelona.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) This is primarily for Pat, Jock and James: could you tell us how you found the new asphalt (here) in terms of grip, in what way is it different from the old one, the kerbs and what kind of driver feedback did you get today?

    PS: I think we were pleasantly surprised. There were some problems in the European F3 race that was held here a little while ago, there was quite a lot of blistering on the tyres and we were aware of that so we were thinking that maybe we were going to have a tough day today but in actual fact, even the supersoft tyre has actually held up very well today in the longer runs, better than we had expected. The track is quite smooth, the kerbs are quite good, we’re pretty happy with the work that’s been done.

    JC: Yup, absolutely the same feedback as Pat really. We had some fears and they’ve not really been founded today. We’ve had a reasonably comfortable day on the tyres, both the types that we’ve tried. The kerbs are smoother, I think you see that the lap times are considerably quicker than last year but I think a lot of that is the softer kerbs, basically. The grip level for us is similar to last year but certainly the kerbs are making a difference on lap time.

    JK: It’s similar for us. We had a troublesome day today so it’s a bit difficult to make quite the same judgements but it hasn’t been as big a surprise as we thought.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Remy, when the 2014 engine regulations were introduced, one of the points was in fact the token system to save costs etc. That of course has been changed totally going forward. You’re talking about a big upgrade for next year. This is a time when major companies  start putting together their budgets so what has the effect of the change of the regulations been on budgets?

    RT: I think the short answer is not a lot to be fair, because we’re not really limited already by the number of tokens so that’s not really changed our world and since we look at what we’re going to be doing next year and the year after, it’s not going to be changed so I guess the short answer is nothing.

    Q: (Joe Saward – AutoX) We have these fantastically efficient hybrid engines at the moment and it takes 350 trucks to move the Formula One circus from one race to another. Are we getting confused, here?

    GS: We haven’t got 350, I think we’ve got nine. I think if that is what it needs, you know, we are highly efficient, absolutely. I don’t know what to say to this one. It’s like we are putting a show on, if this is what it takes to put the show on we need to do it. I don’t think it has a lot to do with what we are doing out on the track, how we bring it here. It’s actually a good number. I never knew that number, that there are so many trucks involved in getting this circus up and running. We try to be efficient, just to let Joe know. We have got only nine out of… there’s 11 teams so everybody should have about 30. We’ve only got nine so we are very efficient which goes along with the efficient engine in our F1 car.

    Q: Jock, Ferrari would have more than nine trucks, what’s your take of it? 

    JC: Well, obviously in my new role I suddenly became aware of how much of this we ship around the world. It was one of the first questions I asked and they told me that most of them are there to deliver the breakfasts for the journalists! But no, as Guenther says, we’re putting a show on. Are we getting confused? We’re here to race racing cars as fast  we can around the track, that’s never been any confusion for me. What the circus looks like is just as much a part of what you guys want, what the fans want, what we want. I don’t think Ferrari are chosing to put more and more trucks on the road. I think we’re just part of this circus and if it wants to go in a different direction, Ferrari are willing to with it. It’s our sport, it’s your sport but from my point of view, I’m here to make a racing car go fast around the circuit.

    PS: Well, I think like you, Joe, I was quite surprised as I walked into Silverstone and thought I’d arrived at the truck Grand Prix rather than the Formula One Grand Prix. I think we shouldn’t confuse things. We have produced a very very efficient power unit. It is the way of the future and I think it is a pretty good contribution to automotive engineering. If you start looking at the fuel used going Grand Prix racing where do you stop? Do you count all the cars in the car park? I’ve often argued that actually the person who is sitting at home watching our race on television is not using any fuel and if we didn’t have a race, he would probably be driving around the countryside going shopping or something so where do you draw the line? I don’t think we should confuse the fabulous job that the power unit manufacturers have done with putting on a bit of a show.

    MK: I know that Joe got a bit confused the other day when he saw a few Sauber trucks going in different directions and he wondered if we’d got lost. I think there are other points we’d rather look at if we talk about confusion but I do agree that if you compare us to other big sporting events – if you look at, for example,  the  entire carbon footprint we have – I think Formula One in spite of being  racing and the automotive factor, is much better than compared to football or so because most of our audience is at home it’s been said, as compared to at these big games or big events, 80,000 that are travelling actually to the event. So I think we’re not doing a bad job on that.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Jock, you’ve worked with lots of drivers. Fernando left Ferrari after five years, I think, because he became frustrated that there wasn’t a championship there. What’s your impression of Sebastian and how patient he will be, because he’s been very admirable on what he’s said about how you’re doing this year but he’s a winner and wants to keep winning?

    JC: Yeah, as you say I’ve worked with a lot of drivers and I think I said in Australia when that comparison was asked of me in that sense, Seb is every bit the four time World Champion that you people know him to be and he is a very very integral part of what we’re trying to do to win another World Championship at Ferrari. How patient will he be? He is a racing driver who is used to winning and passionate about winning – all racing drivers are passionate about winning – but as I say, he’s used to winning so it hurts, it cuts him deep to be not being able to compete side by side with Lewis and Nico at the moment. But having spoken to him, he’s up for the battle. He enjoys the fight, he said as long as we can go there on a Sunday and we can have a battle, even if it’s not at the front, if it’s with the Red Bulls, he enjoys racing, he just loves racing racing cars. He’s a bit like Michael when he came back into Mercedes; he just loves racing racing cars. Now, yes of course he wants to win but he believes in us, we believe in him, he’s part of this Ferrari team, he doesn’t consider himself an outsider. He’s part of this as much as we are and he considers his contribution will be measured by whether we make it or not as well. We often talk about whether we can deliver a winning car to the driver; well I think we all now know over the last few years it’s probably been true for many years in F1 that the driver is an integral part of bringing that together. It’s no coincidence that the great drivers end up at the best teams if you see what I mean; that’s because they’re part of creating the best teams and Seb will be a central part of that and we look to him to help us get there and he looks to us to help him get there and we’ll do it together.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Mr Clear, I would love to know if it’s true or not that Ferrari had a contact with Ross Brawn and in this case, if Ferrari’s looking for a somebody – an engineer or somebody like that?

    JC: Honestly, that sort of discussion is certainly not something we would talk about in public. I don’t know anything about it directly, so I really can’t comment. I’m obviously well aware that it might be speculation in the press but it’s not a conversation we’ve had at Ferrari that I know of and as I say, those sort of discussions, anyway, would certainly not be for public consumption.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Just a quick one again on drivers. Pat how would you feel about having Jenson at the team? Is that something you’d push for internally?

    PS: I think Jenson’s a great driver and of course he started his career at Williams, so there’s quite a lot of affection for him. As a person, I regard him as someone I have been friendly with for many years. He drove for us at Benetton when I was there, he’s a great driver, he’s still showing to be very strong. I hope that he’s in Formula One next year, whether it be with Williams or elsewhere.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Guenther, obviously a team in your situation needs stability going forward and one of those components is on the driver front. What are your plans for next year, when can we expect to know what your driver line-up will be like for next year?

    GS: We decided to wait, to talk internally even about drivers until the European season is over so after Monza, because at the moment we are quite happy with what we are doing. So we don’t want to get distracted or get the drivers distracted by talks, what will happen, what will not happen. We just wait until after Monza and then we sit down and try to make a decision as soon as possible so we keep that stability going.

  • F1 2016: Hungarian Gp Preview – Three-Way Battle Around The Ring

    F1 2016: Hungarian Gp Preview – Three-Way Battle Around The Ring

    When the FIA announced a 21-race calendar for the 2016 it’s likely that few really took notice of what this actually meant. As the paddock heads to the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary for the 11th round it will, astonishingly, only reach the halfway mark of the season on lap 35 of the race.

    The 70 laps of the Hungaroring are akin to a street circuit thanks to its tight and twisting layout. The second sector especially highlights the flowing nature of the circuit, as it comprises eight medium to high speed flowing turns that demand absolute precision.

    The price for its kart-like layout and lack of straits is that overtaking opportunities are not obvious or abundant. The most predictable overtaking opportunity is an out-braking maneuver into turn one.

    The top two teams in the championship are split on tyre strategy. Pirelli is bringing the white-walled medium, yellow-walled soft, and red-walled supersoft tyre compounds to the race. Ferrari has loaded up on nine sets of supersoft tyres each for Raikkonen and Vettel while Mercedes have opted for eight sets of the softest tyre for Rosberg and Hamilton. The Hungaroring is a circuit that is notoriously low on grip for which the supersoft tyre is ideal.

    Daniel Ricciardo_Monaco 2016The Red Bull team are primed for a good weekend in Hungary. The improved Renault power unit is not quite to the standard of Mercedes and Ferrari but it’s not far off. But they do excel in the aerodynamic department and with a better power unit than ever bolted to the back of the Red Bull and the tight and twisting nature of the Hungaroring Christian Horner and his team can be more than bullish about their chances, pun intended.

    The inter-team rivalry between Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will be especially interesting to note this weekend. In their six races, so far, as teammates Verstappen has scored 77 points to Ricciardo’s 64 points. But the Hungarian grand prix will be a big test for the Verstappen vs. Ricciardo battle.

    Ricciardo has an affinity for the tight and twisty circuits as he has proved on several occasions including earlier this year in Monaco. The Aussie knows his way around the Hungaroring too as it was here, in 2014, that he pulled off several magnificent overtaking moves to win a memorable race. This will be a good indicator of how Verstappen is progressing. “I have to up my game compared to where I was before in Toro Rosso because he [Ricciardo] is very quick,” said Verstappen.

    Ferrari-SF15-T-Jerez-01It should be a better weekend for Ferrari too. As it stands Kimi Raikkonen currently sits third in the championship with 106 points while teammate Sebastian Vettel is fifth on 98 points. However, the team experienced their worst race weekend, in terms of performance, at Silverstone. But Raikkonen believes that the team’s struggles in Britain were a once off. The biggest issue, which plagued Ferrari at the last race weekend, was the cooler weather. It’s a well-documented fact that both drivers struggle to get the front tyres to the correct operating temperature in cool condition. This shouldn’t be an issue this weekend as the Hungarian grand prix weekend in hot summer conditions.

    But while Red Bull and Ferrari are likely to be in better shape for Hungary the ever-dominant Mercedes will still be lurking. The qualifying pace advantage will be a big asset around a circuit where overtaking is difficult. Nevertheless, while the two Silver Arrows are in prime form they should, and likely will, face stiff competition for the top step of the podium in Hungary.

  • 2016 Formula 1 British Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2016 Formula 1 British Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren), Jolyon PALMER (Renault), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas), Pascal WEHRLEIN (Manor)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Jenson, let’s start with you, 2009 Formula One World Champion? A positive result in Austria showed clear improvement in car pace. Was that circuit and tyre-specific or do you expect that to roll out this weekend and the weekends to come in the best few weeks?

    Jenson BUTTON: First of all, good afternoon. I would say it was weather-dependent rather than tyres. I think the conditions helped us quite a lot. In the wet we were pretty quick and in the drying conditions we made the best of it. Put it P5, and obviously got lifted up to P3 and was running P2 for a bit of the race but were quickly put into our place. But considering that, I don’t think P6 was too bad. The three teams in front of us were a massive amount quicker than us but to beat the cars that we did, we did alright. Coming here I don’t expect to be qualifying fifth, unless we get some really good British weather and have a good downpour, which I’m hoping for, because then I think we do have more of an opportunity. Yeah, we’ll see. Then race is going to be reasonably tricky for us here. The car is very good in low-speed corners. High-speed corners we don’t really know. We do have some upgrades, aero-wise, engine-wise, so it’s moving forward. It’s just never as a quick as you hope is it. But the guys are doing a very good job of bringing something to every race and on the power side it should be a positive step.

    That’s performance, but in nine races McLaren has only managed to get both cars to the finish on three occasions. Is that because you are pushing it so hard in development or is reliability a bit of a concern?
    JB: I don’t think so. If you look at a lot of teams, cars aren’t finishing and yeah, so I don’t think that is an issue. I would rather be pushing things to the limit and getting better results and possibly having some reliability issues. We’re not fighting for a world championship this year, far from it, so it’s important for is to try to maximise what we have, enjoy the weekend and get the best out of what we have on the weekend and I think they are doing a good job of balancing that.

    Thank you. Romain, turning to you, you were back in the points in Austria, your fourth time this year scoring points, the first time since Russia. It was based on a long stint on the tyres. Were you encouraged by what you achieved in Austria?
    Romain GROSJEAN: Yeah, I thin Austria was a good weekend for us. I think qualifying could have been a bit better but then the car felt great for the long run on tyres. We understood a bit better how to use them, so hopefully we can transform that and keep it going here in Silverstone. Then in the race the car felt good. We managed to get the one-stop strategy that we planned working. It’s a shame we didn’t have enough speed to just overtake the McLaren but generally very happy with the result.

    It’s only the first season for the team but performance seems to have fluctuated all season. Do you feel you now understand the strengths and weaknesses of this car, enough to establish a good baseline for next year’s car, for example?
    RG: I think we started very well and then we had some issues, very different every time, that didn’t allow us to score points. I think Baku and Canada we did have the chance to score points but once we had debris in the radiator and the other time we lost the front wing. That cost us a shot at good results. I think we could have been a bit more consistent but it’s a brand new team, first year and things like that you expect that to happen. Hopefully now things are a bit more settled and we can try to score points as much as possible.

    Pascal, turning to you, your first Formula One points last time and the first for Manor under that name as well. It was based on getting the tyres into the right operating window, which has been a bit of a struggle for you and the team this year. Do you think you have learned the magic formula now?
    Pascal WEHRLEIN: I don’t think so. I think the new surface in Austria helped us a lot. It was quicker and so we put more energy into the tyres and it helped us a lot. We were in the working window for qualifying and for the race and we could extend the run in the race. In qualifying, on the first lap the tyres were there and I could do a very good lap with P12 in Q2 and that’s it.

    You’re coming from a track that you knew very well from your previous racing experience to one here at Silverstone that you have never raced on I believe. What are you looking forward to about Silverstone, what’s exciting you?
    PW: I think there are many nice corners, like… I don’t really know the names, but it’s Copse of Hops…

    RG: Maggotts, Becketts, Chapel…

    PW: A bit strange names but still the corners are really nice, really high-speed corners. I like that challenge, basically. With the Manor car it won’t be easy because we are struggling a bit with downforce. In general, I am really looking forward to drive this track tomorrow. I’m always looking forward to new tracks.

    Thanks. Turning to Valtteri Bottas, a podium finisher here a couple of years ago. Of course you know all the corners, you’ve been through them many times in the past, one of your favourite tracks I believe. It’s been a good track for Williams over the past couple of years. This year do you arrive here feeling optimistic you’ll be able to compete on that same level again, because at other circuits this year it seems to have been a bit more of a struggle for you?
    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, definitely. It’s really cool to be in Silverstone, one of my favourite tracks. It’s a home grand prix for Williams so it’s always great. There is a very special atmosphere racing around these high-speed corners. Of course we have high expectations, but we will need to wait and see how the practice goes, because there have been some circuits where it’s been very close… I mean, just a few races ago we had high expectations but we couldn’t execute that. We just need to do everything we can in the practice, find a good set-up with the car and try to get the tyres to work perfectly. That’s been the main issue in Baku and Austria. So yeah, just waiting for quali and race and hopefully we can be high up there.

    Now, I think that I’m right in saying that you’ve had the opportunity to drive some of the great Williams F1 cars from the past around Silverstone in your time in with the team. Tell us about how that felt, any highlights, what the experience was like?
    VB: Yeah, I’ve driven Keke Rosberg’s wining car from ’82 and Damon Hill’s car from the ‘90s. Yeah, it’s been really cool trying out those cars on the same track that I’m driving in nowadays Formula One. Of course they are very different. Completely different behaviour. The technology has gone so much forward nowadays. But I have to say that with the cars we have now it’s a real enjoyment driving here in these corners, so I wouldn’t change that.

    Turning to Jolyon, first British Grand Prix as a Formula One driver. Some 135,000 people are expected here on race day. Everything has built up to this I guess, so what does this weekend mean to you?
    Jolyon PALMER: Well, it’s huge. My first British Grand Prix, a race I’ve been looking forward to since the start of the year really. So a track I know really, really well, I’ve been racing here for a long time. And I love the track as well. The layout is awesome, lot of fast corners. You need a lot of commitment but I really enjoy it. And then the crowd, which is every year fantastic here. Been coming here myself for many years and now to be racing Formula One here is going to be pretty special. So I’m looking forward to it.,

    Now you out-raced Magnussen in Austria, but you haven’t managed to get into Q2 for a while, in fact I think it’s the first race of the season. So is qualifying the clear for you at the moment?
    JP: Yeah, 100% really. For us we have been quite close – Montreal I was only 15,000ths off Romain to get to Q2. It was really close. Austria as well we were OK but then we had a red flag and we struggled to get the last set of tyres on. I think we’re not far away and hopefully this weekend we can find the last bit. I think the track should suit us more than the last few. And then once you’re in Q2, you’re starting a few places higher, you’ve got the pace to start a few places higher and you have more chance of scoring points. I mean they are the two aims: to get into Q2 and then score some points.

    Turning to Lewis, defending world champion of course, a three-time British Grand Prix winner. Just mention to Jolyon there, 135,000 people expected here on race day, so a lot of expectation, but lets’ talk about the championship. Twelve races to go, 11 points behind your team-mate, nearest rival challenger is 50 behind. Do you see this now as a two-horse race and how excited are you about it?
    Lewis HAMILTON: I don’t think it’s a two-horse race. I should take a page out of your book [Jenson], good afternoon everyone. No, I mean, it’s the same as it’s been since the beginning. It’s still a fight. I think Ferrari are still there. Sebastian has had a couple of unfortunate races but they are still a force to be aware of. Every time I look up the cameras go… watch this!

    JB: We need some silent shutters, can we do that?

    LH: We do, we do. It’s definitely a nicer position to be in. I’ve definitely seen worse days and worse times, obviously I was 43 points behind at one point. It’s still behind but it’s not impossible to come back.

    Mercedes bosses met with you and Nico and the team’s issued a statement in the last couple of hours saying “in the last five races there have been three incidents that have cost us over 50 points in the championship. We have therefore strengthened our rules of engagement to include much greater deterrents to contact between the cars. With these in place we will our drivers to manage the situation. Their destiny is in their own hands.” Now clearly, last time out in Austria, the stewards found that the collision was your team-mate’s fault but what’s your comment on the statement today and how will it affect the battle going forward?
    LH: In all honesty, I think our destiny has always been in our hands, so it doesn’t realty change anything. We are still able to race, no team rules or team orders or whatever it’s called, which I think is great for the fans, so I think everyone should be excited.

    And you’re both completely clear on what it all means and what these “much greater deterrents” are?
    LH: Yeah.

    Are they scary deterrents?
    LH: I should say yes.

    You should?
    LH: I guess I should say yes.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport Magazine) Two questions for Valtteri. Has the team discovered what went wrong in the last race and going into the second half of the season is Red Bull still a target or are you looking over your shoulder at Force India?
    VB: First of all with Austria, it was a really disappointing race for us. Like Pascal and Jenson said they could really use the conditions to their benefit with the tyres and the temperature and the new asphalt but for us it was completely the opposite, so we really struggled massively. I think there are multiple factors. I’m still yet today to have a better look with the engineers about it. I can say we don’t 100% understand our performance yet. We have some kind of ideas but we are still analysing everything. But the good thing is at least we now to a more normal type of tarmac, not new at least, so hopefully it works out better. With the Red Bull, definitely they are strong and they are getting stronger all the time. But we also have some updates lined up. I am trying out the new front wing that Felipe tried out in Austria. I think we both have and also some other updates lined up for the next few races. With that in mind then if we can get better results than Austria and if we start to understand things better and really use those tracks that are good for us, getting string points for our cars, then it is still possible. I think it is a good target for us to try to put pressure on them, try to beat them in the races and if we can’t make it then at least we should finish ahead of Force India.

    Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA) Question for Lewis, you, Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell have all won three races, British Grands Prix at this circuit. If you win on Sunday you’ll be the most successful British driver at Silverstone. Have you thought about that and what would it mean to you if you won?
    LH: Is that true? Nigel has four. [one at Brands Hatch] Ah, I see. No pressure then! I didn’t know that. Ask me if I get there. It doesn’t change anything into the weekend. As Jenson said, it’s a great thing to be able to arrive here and have the incredible support we have. We’ve definitely got the best following of fans here and the Brits turn out regardless of what the weather is, they turn out in their thousands and it’s just a very  proud experience being here and being able to represent all the Brits. I’m still of the mind that… I remember being here when I wasn’t even in Formula One and one day dreaming of driving Formula One, so it’s just crazy to think I’ve had those wins here and I hope that I can continue to, along with the drivers here, raise the flag proudly.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Along the same lines Lewis, as time has gone on, this race has grown bigger and bigger for you and for the British sporting public and I wonder if there is a point where you have to be very disciplined about it not affecting your weekend performance and how you approach the weekend to find that balance between what you normally have to do and this massive audience which you find yourself facing?
    LH: Honestly, I personally draw a lot of energy from the fans. There’s races where you have a few and races where you have a lot. You come to Silverstone and that’s when the energy is in abundance. I just absorb that. Seeing people that have saved up there money to come and spend their money here and put all of their energy towards you getting across the finish line first, that’s… pretty much impossible to describe how amazing that feels. And when there’s so many of them, all drivers will talk about it giving you that extra tenth or two on the weekend and I generally find that is the case. So the more and more there is, hopefully there’s more time in it. Don’t know if that’s the case, I hope so! I’d like to believe so.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Has Toto given you any guidelines about how you can race with Nico, side-by-side now? For example, could you do what you did in Suzuka or Austin last year under whatever new guidelines there might be?
    LH: Unfortunately Andrew, everything that’s been said is private and confidential so I’m not allowed to… it’s a good question. We’re still able to race, and obviously in those races the stewards deemed me racing, so we… I… will still race like that.

    Q: (Qasim Abdul – Renaissance Foundation) Lewis, my question is in two parts: how can young people get into Formula One first of all. Because it’s not broadcast as much as other sports. Second, when we spoke to you, you were very interested in “Peace”, and right now with all the media that’s going on, how can we spread peace [unclear] Would you like to come with us to the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway?
    LH: That sounds pretty cool. I’ve never been invited. Is it a good gig?
    It’s in Oslo, so it’s really cold, but good…
    LH: Maybe we should chat about that off-line. I’m always up for good events. Peace. For us as a team, fortunately we have people higher-up and obviously we’re adults so we, with our bosses, we work very hard, or they work very hard to try and dilute whatever tensions there are between all the people in the team. Whilst it’s not the easiest thing to come across, it’s something that I think, as men and women, we are able to reach an agreement at that point. So, while at one specific moment you might be angry, there’s always peace on the horizon. The first one, it’s really hard. It’s not like the other sports, like football, tennis, basketball. Not taking away from how hard it is to get into those sports but growing up I could go and buy a basketball and play in my driveway. You could play at school, you could play anywhere you want. Go-karts, you have to go and find a kart track, you can hire a kart but it’s expensive. It’s very expensive, and that’s the issue. But there are people, like Carolyn Hoy who does the karting championship in the UK, who really try to make it manageable for all families. Ultimately there’s going to be a wealthier and those families that have less money – but I think Jenson and I, from what I know of Jenson’s background, we both didn’t have money but we both got here which shows it is possible. There is always a way. Where there’s a will there’s a way and our parents somehow found that way. Jenson’s Dad worked so hard – he even did my engines, at a decent rate as well! He didn’t overcharge us! Our job is really to encourage kids. And it’s not just for motor racing. It really is for whatever it is that they’re into. I guess this is a platform for us to real inspire people in whatever genre or sport or form of work or whatever ambition they have, to fight for it and not give up, even though times do get low. I think the races we have that are good and the races that are bad, hopefully through those experiences we show that.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, if you were a team principal – let’s suppose – in the circumstances you are facing now with Nico, what would be your reaction? You would let free completely? You would give some orientation? Because you also would answer to the president of the company, for example.
    LH: Me personally, I think I’d be in a better position because I’m a racing driver, so I know what you would do, and what I would do on a race track and what I would not. Our great engineers and generally individuals who don’t race, it’s difficult to understand the decisions we take when we’re racing at 200mph. So I think I’d be in a better position – but I’m not going to tell you what I would or would not do. I would want them to race, that’s for sure, and I wouldn’t bring in team orders ‘cos racing is why I’m here and why I’d want to be there: to see the guys race. I’d probably be more understanding that, when you have cars that are racing first and second, there are going to be times, out of 60 races together… I don’t know if it’s five collisions we’ve had, I don’t know how many collisions we’ve had, but it’s a small amount compared to the amount of successful races we’ve had and 1-2s we’ve had. So, that’s me.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – Channel Four) Just a really simple question for the British drivers: what’s your favourite thing about coming home to race here in Britain? Whether it’s on track or something you do off-track like seeing your families or watching TV or something…
    JB: Watching TV or something! That’s the best question. I’m not taking the mickey, it was a very good question. The best thing about the British Grand Prix. We can say that we love the circuit because I think every driver likes Silverstone. It’s flowing, there’s so much history here, whether your car works here or not, you still enjoy the circuit. As a British driver, it has to be the fans. It has to be the support that you get here. I camp here, as a few of the drivers do, and when you drive from the campsite – motorhome site I’ll call it, glamping I think it’s called – you drive in, see the people coming in, see the Union Jacks, and obviously the different team kits. They don’t just come here to support the British drivers, they come here to support whoever they like and whatever team they like. But if you drive past someone with a Renault hat on, and you’re a British driver, he’s still going to cheer for you. And he’s still going to say good luck for the weekend – or a Mercedes hat – because they’re so supportive of Formula One as a whole, not just individuals. Which is what makes this race so special. I think for everyone a race that stands out because of that. Also, after the race we get to go to the stand, where they have the live bands, and standing up there, whether you’ve had a good race or not – and most of mine haven’t been good here – you stand up there and there’s just a sea of people, different flags, people that are British, people that are from all over the world that come to watch this race, the atmosphere’s electric. It’s a very special feeling. Then you head back to the motorhome and have a Bar-B with your mates. It’s old-school. Like the karting days.

    LH: I’m trying to think what it is because you’ve now taking my answer, so I’ll pass it to Jolyon for a second.

    JP: Not getting onto a plane to get to a race is a bonus. Just an hour up the M40 is quite nice. It’s the same as Jenson, it’s the fans, I think. Home support, friends and family that can come up as well but just generally the fans are pretty awesome here.

    LH: He’s covered then all!

    JP: I’m just going broad so you’ve got no more options!

    You mentioned the fans earlier Lewis, but I wonder also racing here, as Jenson said, it’s old-school. Does it basically just bring back a lot of memories. Does it connect you with your childhood and all those races?
    LH: What I love firstly, is landing here the other day, whether it’s going home, seeing family, driving down the countryside where I grew up, seeing friends who I grew up with. I guess just being around something you’re used to. We’ve been to Baku, for example, and it’s all new: you don’t know the streets, you don’t know the restaurants. Here you can go to your usual favourite restaurants, meet up with your friends, it’s an amazing feeling. Last night I caught up with a couple of friends that I grew up with, that I met 21 years ago. It’s that but most importantly, as Jenson said, it’s when we arrive here. It’s the history, it’s knowing that we’re going to be one of only 22 people in the world that get to be here and one of the relatively small amount of British drivers, compared to the amount of people in the world, who get to come here and represent their country. It’s just an amazing feeling when you get on your home turf. I would imagine it’s similar for football fans in their own stadium with their own fans… the majority of fans are there for them. It’s unbelievable. It’s as powerful as, for me, the energy is as powerful as the sea. Like a wave. It’s unreal. It’s so powerful it’s hard to absorb – but you absorb as much as you can. It’s amazing.

    Q: (Angela Bern – SID) Lewis did the reaction of the crowd last Sunday in Spielberg affect you in any way? They were booing during the victory ceremony. Is that something that affects you, that you are thinking about afterwards?
    LH: Fortunately not at all. I don’t know if you saw my Snapchat but I had an amazing time literally… once we got away from the track, leaving, went to a really beautiful place for the last couple of days and had the best two days of the year. And also, someone mentioned to me that potentially that someone… some of the fans didn’t see exactly everything what happened and also a comment from someone that… someone told me that someone said that I had rammed Nico off. I understand that that was the first reaction and whether some of them still feel the same away, it doesn’t really make a big difference. This weekend, the cheers will make those boos so small which is a good thing.

    Q: (Mikolaj Sokol – Rzeczpospolita)  Lewis, when you’re battling on the track, attacking or defending, what’s the balance between rational thinking, preparation and analysis, and just pure racing instinct and reflex? What goes on in your mind in those split seconds when you have to take a decision the track?
    LH: Can you just tell me that again? I’m just struggling to… So when I’m racing for the championship, the balance…
    Q: (Mikolaj Sokol – Rzeczpospolita)  No, when you’re battling on the track, attacking or defending against any other driver, what’s the proportion between thinking, analysing and preparation, when it comes to every move on the track, and pure racing instinct in those split second decision?
    LH: Well, the more of every single one of those, the more instinct, the more preparation and the more… yeah, you want to have it all. Some of us drivers have more instinct, some of us drivers have better preparation, but we’re all working on our skills throughout the years to be the best at overtaking and analysing manoeuvres, so when I’m trying to make a manoeuvre, for sure it’s analysing the weaknesses of the car ahead, analysing your strengths and then planning and executing and in executing it takes a lot of instinct to know… you know, when you go for a manoeuvre, you basically have a calculation, a percentage of your chance of overtaking. Sometimes it’s 100 percent, sometimes it’s less but as racing  drivers, we even go for the small percentages and that’s what makes us racing drivers and if we don’t then we’re not racing.
    Q: Any others? Valtteri, does it come from experience, how much of it is experience, how much of it is instinct?
    VB: I think it is both really and of course it depends completely on the situation. Sometimes you don’t have time to plan things, if something comes in front of you in the race and you suddenly need to go with your instinct rather than planning. But it is funny, sometimes, when you’re really at your best, really focused and sometimes it feels like there’s plenty of time to think about the situation, what to do and how to make the move and then if you see it in the replay for example, it just looks really quick, completely depends on the situation.
    Q: How about you, Romain, because you had to consider how much risk was appropriate? You went through that process and it made you a better driver.
    RG: I knew that would come to me! I messed up a few times. I think the start, for example, is instinct because you cannot prepare for what’s going to happen in front of you and you cannot think ‘well  these guys are going to turn right and they’re going to go left  and so on’. It’s all at the minute and that’s where you really need to take the right decision and aim for the right objective. And then during the race, there are other times as Valtteri says where you can take your time and you can actually follow another guy for a few laps and for a while and then you know that you’re much faster and I can actually go for it and it feels more natural but it’s well prepared. Another case where a car just comes out of the pits in front of you and in the instinct and decides to go right/left.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Romain, arguably last year you had a pick of where you could go. You could have stayed – if the rumours and the gossips are to be believed – you could have stayed at Lotus. You could have gone to other teams but you chose Haas. Nine races into the new season with a new team, what are your thoughts? Are you happy you’ve made that decision? What do you want to do next year and also tell us a bit about NASCAR.
    RG: Well, I’ll tell you one thing. On the 9th of September last year, I made my decision and I didn’t regret it from there. I like to think before, but when I stick to one plan then I don’t like to regret. I think I’m living a very nice experience in a very good team, very proud to be driving for the US, for a US team. Very proud to have scored a first time ever in Formula One, the first points for Haas so all of that together, it’s a very nice experience and I don’t regret one thing that I’m doing and the more we go, the more we learn, the more the people I work with are really following the same trend so that’s great.
    NASCAR, when I was sitting on my sofa watching the Sonoma race, I wished I was there. It looks good fun, I liked the last lap with Tony Stewart winning the race and pushing Martin Truex a little bit wide but it was great fun. I do need to get a few laps, a few days in the car, do some laps, get some good sensation and then I will come to do a race.

    Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobild Motorsport) Lewis, if in future you will get some team orders – you or Nico, you will get some team orders – would you follow them or would you react as angry, two years ago when your team told you to let Nico past but you didn’t?
    LH: Oooh, buddy, you’re feeling in a certain way, hunh? Hey, you’ve just got to let it go buddy, that was a couple of years ago. I would, that’s my job, that’s what I get paid to do. That’s what we agreed today, that’s what’s in our agreement. If you go back to 2014 and if you listen to the manuscript, you understand I didn’t say no. I just said I won’t get in the way. He didn’t get close so…

    Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Just going to back to instinct versus experience, Valtteri I’m just wondering: turn one at Bahrain with Lewis? Was that instinct or was that experience, maybe get some Lewis input here?
    VB: It was both, I think 50-50. For sure coming into the corner I remember seeing a gap there, I was sure I could get inside and try and keep my position. Not sure Lewis maybe saw me and I was also sliding at the same time, slightly drifting off the apex, not a lot but… Yeah. I don’t know how Lewis saw it. I would say that was a 50-50 situation.
    LH: I can tell you, I didn’t see it, I just felt it. I don’t know, it was a racing incident.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, speaking about you being a team boss. Seeing what Nico did last week, would you understand it as a racing driver?
    LH: Didn’t I just answer that question? I’m pretty sure that I did say that if I was a team boss I would be in a better position to understand the situation because I have driven and know what I would do in that situation. I do believe so. I’m pretty sure I said that before.
    Q: Would you accept from Nico’s point of view, would you be more understanding of Nico’s point of view?
    LH: Any more than I am now? I don’t really understand it, more accepting than what?
    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) As you are a racing driver, seeing it as a racing driver, would you understand what he did?
    LH: Well, I understand it now and I would understand it then. It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong. I would have to take an opinion, I would have an opinion whether it was right or wrong but I would understand it just as I do now.

    Q: (Casseem Campbell – Renaissance Foundation) On a more positive note…
    LH: It’s all about positive energy, yeah.
    Q: (Casseem Campbell – Renaissance Foundation) To Lewis and Jenson. I’m a big believer in the mental part of any sport as I’m a tennis player as well. Well, not a tennis player, I play tennis. I wanted to know, in terms of Formula One specifically, what are the main nuance qualities you feel that a Formula One driver has to have to be successful?
    LH: Good question. I think… is that for all of us?
    Q: To you and Jenson.
    LH: Go first.
    JB: You’ve started mate, go for it.
    LH: Ah s***. I think it’s very similar to other sports. I watch other sports like tennis and I’m amazed  when – and I always refer to Federer as one of my favourite players – when a player’s up and I understand the positive mental space you’re in when you’re up and then when you make a mistake, how you don’t drop it all or lose it all, how they come back from a couple of sets down, for example and those kind of things. You take a lot of energy, I think I try to take a lot from that because for us it’s kind of similar, you know? We have our ups and downs, you have your good days and your bad days but as a racing driver, for us it’s a long long season, it is about focus, it’s about… the training helps massively. You go out for a run, it helps you really… you have a lot to think about. I think for every single person it’s different but for me, if I go and work out whatever it is, it helps me stay focused. It is about keeping the eye on the prize, it’s about learning through every single experience, whether good or bad. Hopefully you have more… hopefully you learn more through the bad times because that’s how you grow. You learn less in the good times I would say. But if you understand to learn and enjoy from the bad times, then you appreciate the better times. I don’t know if that’s really… I don’t think I’m answering it, I’m leaving you space to answer it. The nuances in the performance…
    JB: I think Formula One is a sport but it’s not as physical as most sports so it has to be mental. A lot of it is about feeling but mentally to have to be in the right place, you really do. Off the back of a good race, you have so much more confidence coming into the weekend. I think we’ve all been through tough times  in our careers and some people, they fall into the tough times and never come out again, and you see that with racing drivers which is a shame because you know the raw talent is there. So it’s not just about being strong enough as an individual because you can only learn that with time and it can be too late by the time you’ve learned that, you are already cast aside for another driver. So you need good people around you to support you, family and obviously close friends but also the people you work with. Formula One is a massive team sport and it’s not just about people doing their job correctly, building the front wing or designing the rear wing or what have you. It’s about making sure that you are in the right frame of mind and everyone working together and making sure there’s a positive attitude, because it’s not just the drivers that have difficult days, it’s the mechanics as well and the engineers who have a bad day if they make the wrong call. They’re told they’ve made the wrong call and it hurts, mentally, a lot. And it’s about you all pulling together in those difficult times and making the difference. It’s a massive mental game, Formula One, and a lot of people don’t realise that.
    LH: Ultimately down to the positive mental attitude. I think that’s the key, as Jenson said

  • F1 2016: Austria Gp Review – Hamilton, Lord Of The Ring

    F1 2016: Austria Gp Review – Hamilton, Lord Of The Ring

    Over the course of a grand prix weekend a driver normally runs close to two hundred laps. It’s uncanny then that everything can be made or undone by one lap.

    In Saturday qualifying, a wet and dry session, Lewis Hamilton steered his Mercedes to pole position in dominant fashion. While teammate Nico Rosberg qualified second on the road he moved down the grid due to a gearbox penalty. It promoted Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to the second front-row starting position of his career. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, also hit with a gearbox penalty, fell down the starting grid, which promoted McLaren’s Jenson Button to third place.

    As Hamilton led cleanly from pole position it didn’t take too long for Hulkenberg and Button to fall by the wayside. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, now into second, kept Hamilton relatively honest with a gap of 3.5 to 4 seconds in the first stint. A recovering Sebastian Vettel was soon running third behind teammate Raikkonen.

    Ferrari’s advantage rested on the fact that, as Hamilton’s closest rival, Raikkonen started the race on the supersoft tyre, which, theoretically, should last longer than Hamilton’s ultrasoft tyres. However, for a reason unbeknownst to most Ferrari called Raikkonen in only one lap after Hamilton’s own visit to the pitlane. It dropped the Finn to sixth behind both Red Bull drivers. Ferrari’s strategists, not for the first time this season, had made the wrong call.

    GP AUSTRIA F1/2016As Hamilton and Raikkonen dived intot he pitlane it left Vettel in the lead of the race. However, as the German driver started lap 27 he suffered a violent delamination to the right-rear supersoft tyre. It speared the Ferrari into the pitwall and out of the race. Ferrari do not believe that they pushed the tyres beyond their limits and Vettel’s laptimes before the incident would suggest that the set of tyres were well within working range.

    After a short safety-car stint to clear up Vettel’s tyre debris Rosberg resumed the lead of the race on lap 32 with Hamilton in second. After both Merc driver made their second stops Nico Rosberg was delivering a drive at the Austrian grand prix worth remembering. He fought he way through to the lead of the race with consistent speed and superior strategy.

    But Hamilton wasn’t giving up and closed the gap to four tenths of a second on lap 67. Rosberg seemed unflustered right until the final lap of the race. The German driver made a mistake into Turn 1 handing Hamilton the advantage. Hamilton had a run on the lead into Turn 2 as Rosberg let his car run wide and made contact with Hamilton. Rosberg got off worse in the exchange as he limped home in fourth with a damaged car. The stewards imposed a 10-second penalty on Rosberg for causing a collision but he remained fourth overall. As it were Rosberg’s brake-by-wire system went into passive mode on the pit-strait. However, it’s clear from on-board footage that he was trying to run Hamilton wide.

    GP AUSTRIA F1/2016Behind race-leader Hamilton Red Bull’s Max Verstappen narrowly held onto second after running a 56-lap stint on the soft tyre. Kimi Raikkonen recovered Ferrari’s dubious strategy call to finish third as Rosberg limped home in fourth. Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth ahead of one of the stars of the race Jenson Button. The Brit out-performed his McLaren to finish in sixth ahead of Romain Grosjean (7th), Carlos Sainz (8th), and Valtteri Bottas (9th). The other star of the afternoon was Manor F1’s Pascal Wehrlein who scored his first career point in tenth.

    There is no rest of the sport that never sleeps as the F1 paddock heads straight to legendary Silverstone circuit for this weekend’s British grand prix.

    (All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

  • F1 2016: Austrian Gp Preview – Quali The Key In Austria

    F1 2016: Austrian Gp Preview – Quali The Key In Austria

    From the medieval city streets of Baku the Formula 1 paddock travels to the crisp countryside of Austria for the eighth round of the 2016 championship.

    A case could never be made that Formula 1 lacks diversity. It swops the mostly tight confines of the Baku City circuit for the mountains and fresh air of Austria’s Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Located in the picturesque Styrian Mountains the 4.3 kilometer circuit is dotted with only nine turns. The average speed of a lap around the Ring is estimated at 224 kph while 70 percent of the lap is spent at full throttle.

    There are only seven braking zones around a lap but they are big stops from high speeds, which classifies the brake wear rate as high. This no longer appears to be an issue for Mercedes in 2016 but should they not be running in clear air it could rear its head.

    As the shortest lap on the calendar at less than 70 seconds the grid is expected to be tighter, which makes qualifying vital. In 2015 the top three positions in qualifying were covered by four tenths of a second. The circuit’s four long straights mean that there is opportunity for overtaking but getting past a car with a good straight-line speed will be difficult.

    Austrian Grand Prix - Red Bull RingFor this year’s grand prix teams and drivers have selected the yellow-walled soft, red-walled supersoft, and purple-walled ultrasoft tyres. Both Ferrari drivers have selected nine sets of the ultrasoft tyres while Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have each opted for eight sets of the purple-walled tyres. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have chosen seven sets of the softest compound. Tyre wear last year was minimal as Daniel Ricciardo was able to run a fifty lap stint on the soft tyre before needing to pit.

    Ferrari’s tyre choice could be put down to fact that this track surface is a relatively smooth one with normally cool conditions. This combination often presents some struggle in getting tyres to the optimum temperature. As they’ve continually struggled to get the tyres to their optimal working range Ferrari should find it easier to do with the ultrasoft  tyre. This will be a crucial element of Ferrari’s progress and position this weekend.

    GP AUSTRIA F1/2014There is no doubt that Nico Rosberg is sitting pretty. He starts the weekend with a 24 point lead over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the race for the driver’s title. The fickleness of Formula 1 demands that even a gap of 24 points must not be taken for granted. It’s this approach that has been Rosberg’s secret in 2016; to take every race on its individual merit. But the two Merc drivers might have to focus on more than just each other, especially in Saturday qualifying.

    Williams are notoriously good performers at the Austrian grand prix thanks to the Mercedes power unit and Red Bull are no slouches thanks to the stop up they’ve made with the upgraded power unit. But while they are looking at each other all of them are aware of what Mercedes can deliver. On several occasions in 2016 its been shown that the Silver Arrow is not as potent when it runs in dirty air and under pressure. The qualifying session on Saturday will be the critical point for any driver or team to stop a complete Merc domination.

  • F1 2016: European GP Review – Rosberg Rules In Baku

    F1 2016: European GP Review – Rosberg Rules In Baku

    If you’d asked most people to point out Azerbaijan on a map they would probably struggle. If you then told them that its capital city Baku is going to host its first F1 race in 2016 it would possibly have been met with reluctant enthusiasm.

    Nevertheless, on the edge of the Caspian Sea the Azeri organisers plotted a street circuit unlike any other. The combination of the stunningly high-speed section and incredibly tight section around the city’s beautiful medieval architecture merged perfectly to highlight the strengths of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. The German driver cleaned house in Baku by taking pole position, fastest lap and the race win in dominant fashion.

    Rosberg led cleanly off the line and was never challenged as he completed the 51-lap race on a one-stop strategy. It yielded his fifth win of the season and a sizeable increase in his lead atop the driver’s table. As faultless as Rosberg’s weekend preceded so the opposite was true for teammate Lewis Hamilton. Seemingly out of sorts, Hamilton stuck his Merc in the wall on Saturday and confined himself to a tenth place starting position. An ERS (energy recovery system) issue disrupted his charge through the field. Thanks to the FIA regulation, which bans certain radio communications, Hamilton was left to figure out the setting himself. The Brit was able to eventually resolve the issue and set two blisteringly quick laptimes before cooking his tyres.

    GP EUROPA F1/2016Behind race leader Rosberg Sebastian Vettel overtook Daniel Ricciardo for second. To cover the Red Bull stop Ferrari called Vettel into the pits. However, the driver overruled the pitwall and stayed out. It paid off ultimately as Vettel finished second without any realistic shot at victory.

    Force India’s Sergio Perez secured third to score his second podium in three races. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen ran third for nearly the entire race. The Finn stopped early on lap 8 and ran a 43-lap stint on the soft tyre. But a five-second penalty for crossing the pit-entry line and a late ERS issue meant he was unable to keep Perez at bay. Eventually Raikkonen, suffering with a bout of food poisoning, finished fourth. Lewis Hamilton finished a lonely and disappointed fifth ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in sixth.

    Both Red Bull drivers were forced onto two-stop strategies with overheating rear tyres and faded badly throughout the race. Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh ahead of teammate Max Verstappen in eighth. Nico Hulkenberg brought his Force India home in ninth while Williams’ Felipe Massa scored the final point in tenth.

    GP EUROPA F1/2016All expectations were that the safety car would appear several times throughout the race given the tight confines and close proximity of the walls. But all twenty-two drivers were exceptionally well behaved and there were no major incidents. In fact, only four drivers did not make it to the chequered flag. Toro Rosso has some investigating to do as both their drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz, were forced to retire with suspension issues. Manor Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein retired with brake failure as Fernando Alonso’s McLaren was pulled into the garage with a gearbox failure.

    Remarkably Rosberg had the same ERS issue as Hamilton but was able to rectify it by changing the right settings. This resounding victory increases Rosberg’s championship lead to 24 points over Hamilton. But given that thirteen races remain on the calendar the race for the 2016 driver’s crown is just warming up.

    (All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

  • What do the Drivers Think About the Baku City Circuit?

    What do the Drivers Think About the Baku City Circuit?

    After having at a go at the Baku City Circuit the drivers give their views on the track and the layout.

    Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes: “The track isn’t easy – not because the layout is particularly difficult to learn but because it’s very slippery out there. It’s quite Monaco-esque in terms of braking and how close the barriers are – but you’re arriving at much higher speeds. Otherwise it’s like a mixture of Valencia and Sochi with the smooth track surface and the style of the corners themselves. It’s a real challenge and I think it’s going to be tough for everyone over the weekend. It takes a lot of focus, which is something I like. I’ve enjoyed driving here today.”

    Romain Grosjean, Haas: “Discovering a new track is exciting in some places and pretty tricky in others. It’s not easy to find the right balance”

    Vatteri Bottas, Williams: “It was an interesting day for me, I really like the track. It’s very demanding, it has some high speed corners and some twisty, more technical areas, so it’s definitely one of the most challenging tracks on the calendar, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun.”

    Nico Hulkenberg, Force India: “Coming here to Baku has been great fun and the track is very cool. It’s got a bit of everything, with long straights, big braking zones and some exciting high-speed corners, which all the drivers enjoy. So, overall you have to say they’ve done a really good job with the circuit and it makes a nice change to come here and try something that is so different.”

    Sergio Perez, Force India: “I knew when I walked the track yesterday that it was going to be good fun to drive – and today didn’t disappoint. It’s an amazing circuit: really challenging, no margin for error, and a real pleasure to drive.”

    Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing: “I think the circuit is pretty cool, it’s definitely as tight as it looks and has a lot of corners unlike any others on the calendar. There are a few interesting lines past the castle which adds to the toughness. It’s pretty unique and as I showed this morning some of the corners are pretty challenging and not that easy.”

     

     

    Photo Credit: Red Bull Racing Formula One Team