FIA Formula1 Racing

2025 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

2025-04-20T02:06:00.009-06:00

STC Saudi Arabian GP 18th Apr - 20th Apr 2025

Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Free Practice 1 Fri 18 Apr 14:30 - Fri 18 Apr 15:30

Free Practice 2 Fri 18 Apr 18:00 - Fri 18 Apr 19:00

Free Practice 3 Sat 19 Apr 14:30 - Sat 19 Apr 15:30

Qualifying Sat 19 Apr 18:00 - Sat 19 Apr 19:00

Race Sun 20 Apr 18:00 - Sun 20 Apr 20:00

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Grand Prix at Monza 2023

2023-09-03T08:11:00.002-06:00

Get yourself ready for the Grand Prix at Monza! Laura Winter summarises all the big talking points from the Temple of Speed.

Heikki Kovalainen

2020-09-02T08:45:00.002-06:00

Tom welcomes one-time Grand Prix winner Heikki Kovalainen onto the show to discuss his roller-coaster Grand Prix career, which began with Renault in 2007 and took in 111 starts, with stops at McLaren, Caterham and Lotus.

The amiable Finn discusses the challenges of going up against an all-time great in Hamilton – their sporting bets and what separated them on the race track – and looks back on his only F1 win in Hungary in 2008.

There are also stories on his breakout defeat of Michael Schumacher at the Race of Champions, that massive crash at Barcelona in 2008, the struggles that saw him end up at the back of the grid and much, much more…

Join us at our Telegram Channel >>> https://t.me/s/motorsporttotal

Belgian Grand Prix

2020-08-30T16:07:00.004-06:00

Lewis Hamilton's fifth win in the last seven races extended his championship lead over Max Verstappen to 47 points with just 10 of this season's 17 races remaining. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas came in 8.4 seconds behind him but ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, meaning the Finn cut the gap to second place in the standings after Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo, who took the extra point for fastest lap, finished fourth ahead of team mate Esteban Ocon who snatched fifth from Red Bull's Alexander Albon on the final lap.

But it was another low point for Ferrari. The Italian team has won in Belgium for the last two years but Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc failed to muster a point between them, finishing 13th and 14th respectively. Ferrari are yet to win a race this season.

Sunday's victory was Hamilton's 89th career win, meaning he moves to within two wins of Michael Schumacher's Formula One record and takes another step closer to equalling the German driver's record of seven career titles.

Most of Sunday's drama came earlier on though, after a serious crash involving Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams' George Russell. Both managed to emerge unscathed.

British Grand Prix weekend

2020-08-01T08:20:00.005-06:00

Catch up with all the hot topics and leading themes as we head into the British Grand Prix weekend.

Riccardio was sublime today

2018-04-15T02:51:00.000-06:00

Daniel Ricciardo wins the Chinese Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas holds onto to second place while Kimi Raikkonen completes the podium. Max Verstappen crosses the line in fourth but his 10-second penalty drops him to fifth, elevating Lewis Hamilton a place.
Daniel Ricciardo: "Twenty four hours ago I thought I would be at the back of the grid so firstly thanks to the boys, today is the real reward for that work. It was hectic I heard about the safety car in turn 14 and they said to come in. It all happened quickly. It was decisive and I got the win." Regarding his overtakes, Ricciardo said: "Sometimes you have got to lick the stamp and send it. We had the soft tire so knew I could get more out of the breaking."

Valtteri Bottas, who finished second: "The race was going pretty well for us and we were looking strong until the safety car. We were in trouble then really and it is disappointing. It felt like we deserved victory but not today. This is racing, these things happen."

Kimi Raikkonen, who finished third: "I think we made a good start, got blocked a bit and got passed in the first corner. We stayed out very long and got a little luck on the safety car. In the end we would have needed the soft tires to really go for it. Once you get close it is so difficult to follow people."

Vettel wins chaotic Korean Grand Prix

2013-10-06T20:42:00.000-06:00

Sebastian Vettel cruised to his fourth victory in a row during a Korean Grand Prix that bordered on chaos at times, with a tyre failure and car fire twice bringing out the safety car.
Just like in Singapore, Vettel kept his head as several behind him appeared to lose theirs, and in doing so made sure the wheel-to-wheel battling stayed firmly in his mirrors. Kimi Raikkonen held off team-mate Romain Grosjean for second place as he made use of the safety cars to recover from his ninth-place grid position to finish on the podium. Grosjean will have felt hard done by after holding on to the coat tails of Vettel in the first half of the race, only to be passed by his Lotus team-mate into Turn 1 in the gap between the two safety car periods.
The battle for fourth raged from the safety car periods to the chequered flag as Lewis Hamilton was passed by Nico Hulkenberg at the first safety car restart and then failed to find a way back past. Hulkenberg drove a superb race from start to finish, but was put to the test in the closing stages as Hamilton attacked the Sauber lap after lap. Fernando Alonso was stationed in sixth to pick up the pieces, but despite a couple of looks up the inside of the Mercedes, never found a way past.
However, it was not just Red Bull's rivals who were left with questions to be answered at the end of the race. Sergio Perez suffered a tyre delamination on his right-front Pirelli causing the first safety car and a fire truck was deployed onto the track in front of the cars as they were still racing to deal with a fire on Mark

Webber's car. The Pirelli delamination is likely to be explained by a nasty lock up in the previous braking zone, but the fire truck will likely result in a review of procedures to deal with fires.

At the start Vettel made a perfect getaway and led Hamilton and Grosjean into Turn 2, who continued to battle into Turn 3 where Grosjean got ahead. The main casualty of the opening lap was Felipe Massa, who spun on his own heading into Turn 3 and nearly took out team-mate Alonso.

Jenson Button also got tagged in the melee and had to pit soon after to change a damaged front wing.

Abu Dhabi GP first practice

2012-11-02T05:32:00.001-06:00

Lewis Hamilton was in outstanding form as he set the pace in first practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The McLaren driver was 0.333 seconds quicker than team-mate Jenson Button in second place.
Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was third, 0.765secs off the pace. The German's title rival Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest as Ferrari tried out a number of new parts. Red Bull's Mark Webber was fifth ahead of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes and Williams' Pastor Maldonado. Schumacher's team-mate Nico Rosberg was eighth fastest, ahead of Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas and Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Felipe Massa followed with 1m 45.567s for Ferrari, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 45.587s, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 45.722s, Romain Grosjean on 1m 45.743s in the second Lotus, Jules Bianchi, standing in for Paul di Resta in the second Force India on 1m 45.769s, and Sergio Perez in the second Sauber on 1m 45.811s.

The Toro Rosso were off that pace, with Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 46.649s from Jean-Eric Vergne on 1m 46.708s, then Heikki Kovalainen flew the Caterham flag alone with 1m 47.718s after morning team mate Giedo van der Garde never got a timed run thanks to engine problems.
Timo Glock was on Kovalainen’s tail with 1m 47.891s for Marussia, as Pedro de la Rosa took 22nd for HRT with 1m 48.354s. Max Chilton’s first Friday run for Marussia yielded a solid 1m 48.887s, while Ma Qing Hua’s return to the second HRT, in place of Narain Karthikeyan, was good for 1m 50.487s.
Much of the interest in the session was in Ferrari's new parts, aimed at bringing them closer to Red Bull's pace and reviving Alonso's faltering title challenge.
The Spaniard has fallen to 13 points behind Vettel after a run of four consecutive wins for the Red Bull driver.
Alonso tried out a new front wing, a new rear wing and a new design of barge boards - the aerodynamic shapes between the front wheels and the side-pods.
Credits: F1, ESPNf1,BBC

Belgian GP - Press Conference

2012-08-31T01:58:00.004-06:00

Drivers – Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Charles PIC (Marussia), Vitaly PETROV (Caterham), Pedro de la Rosa (HRT), Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)
Belgian GP - Press Conference
Jean-Eric, this is a new circuit for you in Formula One but I understand you’ve raced here before?
Jean-Eric VERGNE: Yeah, I think it’s my favourite track. I’m really happy to be here in F1, to learn this track in and F1 car. I found it amazing in Formula 3 and World Series. So I can’t wait to drive tomorrow in this car, it should be nice.

So you’ve been here in Formula 3 and World Series by Renault?
JEV: Yes. I won three races in F3 in the same weekend here and last year I won as well. I finished second and first. It’s generally a good track for me, so hopefully I make a good run here as well this weekend.

A lot of people feel that with the problem with the technical director at Toros Rosso that development might have finished but I understand that’s not the case.
JEV: So far everything is OK. The team is still pushing really hard. I don’t have much to say about it.

You have some updates here though?
JEV: Yeah we have some good updates. Well, I don’t know if they’re good, but we have some and also we’re testing some new things for next year’s car – front suspension. So, everything is still going on quite well in the team and we’re looking forward to this weekend.

Charles, obviously you’ve raced the first half of the season – how do you feel it’s gone as far as you’re concerned?
Charles PIC: Quite good. I am quite happy about my first half of the season. Everything was new for me. So, first races were not easy because everything was new and there were a lot of things to learn. But I am quite happy with my progress and quite happy with the team’s progress because the start of the year was not easy. We were not able to make the winter tests. They worked really hard and made a lot of improvements and even if you cannot always… it’s not easy to see because the position is not changing but we are trying to close the gap. So, really looking forward to the second part of the season and to updates coming from the summer, so we’ll see how it is and on my side I will be focused to keep pushing hard and improving myself.

I guess you measure yourself on your team-mate obviously but also on the people either side of you and in front of you. Are you happy with the gap between yourselves and Caterham?
CP: Yes, we are not in the position yet to fight with them but it was much closer for the last two races – Hockenheim and Budapest. It’s great and I hope that with the update it will be even closer this weekend.

Vitaly, the one problem you’ve had so far is qualifying in relation to your team-mate, whereas in the races you seem to have beaten him. Is that something you intend to tackle in the second half of the season?
Vitaly PETROV: Of course I will try my best. What is good is that I know the problem, so we will try to fix this problem in the second half of the season, so I will try to get close to my team-mate and then we will see.

One of the things you did during the break was visit some cities in Russia. It seems that you’re going to all sorts of cities that most of us have never heard of. What’s the idea behind that programme?
VP: First of all it was part of my private sponsor, called Russian helicopters, so I visited two big cities, the first one is Rostov and the second one is Ulan-Ude. Actually, it was a good visit because it’s the first time I’ve been there. You know, Ulan-Ude is very close to China. It’s like if you go across the river you will be in China. From Moscow it’s six or seven hours flying. I visited the biggest lake in the world, it’s called Baikal. Unfortunately I was just there for one day. This lake it’s line is for 365 kilometres and length, it’s quite… I don’t how much it is. Actually, it was a good experience and I hope that I will go back there maybe, one day.

Pedro, the team has obviously made strides forward, what are your own ambitions for the second half of the season and what about your thoughts professionally for the second half of the season?
Pedro DE LA ROSA: Professionally? You mean racing? Well, I think that we’ve made progress; we’ve managed in this first of the season to go in qualifying, from not qualifying in Australia outside the 107 per cent, to 103.4 per cent in Valencia, so I think that’s a very, very aggressive improvement. However the positions are similar. In fact we’re qualifying in more or less the last two positions and then it’s difficult for us. Although we’re closer to pole position we still haven’t made enough steps on the positions regarding the qualifying and the race finishes. So that’s where we are concentrating: we still have to make the car quicker in the second half of the season. We don’t have anything new for the next few races. We will have an upgrade for Singapore. That’s where we are – but we are definitely happy with what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved, although it may not look like it in the results. We’ve still can do a lot better in the second half.

And how important will the break have been to the team? OK, you’re saying they won’t have brought anything for the immediate races – but for future races?
PdlR: I think the break is nothing as we haven’t been able to work or gain any advantage from the break, so for us it doesn’t make any difference. Before the break we knew that the upgrade was coming in Singapore, if everything goes to plan – and after the break it’s still the same. Until Singapore I think we will be more or less in the positions that we’ve been so far, and then wait for Singapore for this next upgrade.

Michael, another milestone here at Spa: 300^th grand prix weekend. What does that mean to you? Does that mean a lot to you at this stage or will it in the future?
Michael SCHUMACHER: It’s certainly an interesting, beautiful, nice number to be around. A number that I didn’t think about, that I would do that, at the time that I retired at the end of 2006. And now here we are and I’m counting the 300 – because at one point it was the talk about whether there would be somebody able to beat Riccardo Patrese’s record of 250-whatever. I said ‘forget that, it isn’t interesting for me’, and here we are. And suddenly… it isn’t anything that I’m challenging or looking for to have just a number on my board but being the 300, yeah it’s a beautiful side-effect.

I think you’ve seen the poster down the road which says ‘Michael, make it 400’. What chances?
MS: I guess I can say not. It’s obviously nice that the fans are still with me and encourage me to go on. This morning I had a beautiful welcome, becoming the honorary citizen of Spa, that is something very special to me. And that’s why the 300 becomes special – because it’s in Spa. It all happened to me here in Spa. First race, first victory, some beautiful victories and interesting races and 2004 the seventh title, last year the 20^th anniversary and now number 300 and being honoured. So it’s a full package. Spa has always meant a lot to me. I always called it my living room – now I can officially call it my living room. It’s good.

But should we never say never?
MS: For the 400? We probably say no for that one.

Jenson, during the break, not only an Iron Man but your own triathlon as well. But the triathlon didn’t end quite the way you wanted to – perhaps we should share that story?
Jenson BUTTON: I think we should move on from that one!

The whole of Britain knows about it, so how about the whole of the world.
JB: I did a triathlon for [charity] Help for Heroes and it was quite cold in the water. People were wearing wetsuits, I’d left mine in the hotel so I decided to try to squeeze into my girlfriend’s… which felt OK until I got into the water and then it tightened up in… certain areas. So that was the end of my race. I had a panic attack in the water! So yeah, good and bad memories but it was a great event and I think everyone had fun and we raised a lot of money for Help for Heroes. In the end it was fun but the most important thing is what we raised.

Your aims for the second half of the season? How do you see the second half of the season? People are talking about perhaps driver orders that you’ll help Lewis…
JB: I’m I think 40 points behind Lewis, so you’d say that I’m going to give up on fighting for the Championship just because I’m 40 points behind my team-mate? Lewis is 40 points behind Fernando and I still think he thinks he’s got a very good chance of winning this Championship, so no, we go racing as always and try to do the best job we can. The last two races for us before the break were very good: I had a second in Hockenheim and obviously Lewis’s win in Hungary – so we come here positive we can get a very good result. So, no, that’s definitely not the situation and we want to get as many points for ourselves but also for the team. The team championship, the Constructors’ Championship is very, very important to McLaren and it’s something that we’re going to work on as much as we can.

Spanish GP - Press Conference

2012-05-11T00:18:00.001-06:00

Drivers present are: – Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Pedro de la Rosa (HRT), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull).
PRESS CONFERENCE
Kamui, so far this season a couple of good races and a couple not so good. What’s been the difference between them?

Kamui KOBAYASHI: Of course it’s definitely the car. We had quite good performance at the start, quite a good start to the season. Unfortunately, we also some races where the strategy was not really going well. It’s not let’s a bad thing for my season. I had a great start but I think we have to work hard especially on the long runs.

Yesterday, Fernando talked about drivers having more respect for one another. Do you think that’s the case? Should drivers leave more space for each other?

KK: Maybe. I don’t know. It’s always difficult to say.

You’re quite an aggressive overtaker

KK: Yeah, but for me I’m doing something quite normal. It’s not special. I’m just doing my job. Maybe it looks aggressive but I never crash with anyone. I never crash and stop the car. There may be contact but it’s always quite OK. Maybe it looks aggressive but it’s not aggressive in fact.

And of course, you’ve been on the receiving end as we remember from Spa last year.

KK: Spa last year? Where? Ah, with Lewis, you mean? That’s what I mean that was just an accident you know. I didn’t expect both cars to make contact because there was no point. I didn’t expect Lewis to come across and I just stayed on my line. It was just sudden, you know. There was no way to avoid that. That was something special though, it’s not really a racing accident and not aggressive stuff from me, so…

Nico, on paper you’ve been beaten by your team-mate so far this year. How are you feeling about it?

Nico HULKENBERG: Well, the first four races have been quite tough to be honest. I would have liked to take more than two points out of the first four races. We have been quite unfortunate in some races, such as Melbourne, where we had a first-corner incident and there was very little I could do and then a clutch failure issues in Bahrain. These were two races where we potentially could have finished in the points. But I’m looking forward, I’m bedding in well with the team. I think the team is doing a good job in putting everything together and if we get a bit more luck then I think it will be good.

How do you feel about team development? Are the developments coming at a reasonable rate as far as you’re concerned?

NH: Yes, definitely. We bring some new parts, probably like every other team, here and we have to wait and see where the new parts put us but obviously we’re hoping it’s a step forward. I think it is a step forward but just how big a step we’ll see over the next two days.

Pedro, we see a new team that has recently moved to new premises and taken on a lot of new staff. What sort of role do you see yourself playing in the development of Hispania Racing Team?

Pedro DE LA ROSA: As you’ve said, everything is new. We’re establishing ourselves; restructuring the team; we are growing. But really I’m not playing any different role than any other race driver would do. I’m part of the team; I’m a race driver; I’m experienced. If they need my advice on anything, I am there. But I’m not playing any special role other than driving as fast as I can and giving good feedback about the car.

You spent so long at McLaren are you not trying to put some of those influences on the team?

PDLR: Gradually I will. That’s the aim and that’s what I’m here for as well. But so far the team has been extremely busy trying to move into our new premises in Madrid, establish a structure, a ‘basement’ as I say, and after that we will grow gradually and that’s when I think my input will be, if possible, more beneficial. But so far the objective has been clear. We have to establish ourselves, we have to put he ground for building more floors on top of us but so far I’ve been very discreet and not in a very important position.

And where do hope the team will be at the end of the year?

PDLR: I have no idea really. We are improving race by race. We have made the car a lot quicker. Don’t forget at the first grand prix we did not qualify and gradually we have been closing the gap to pole position. That’s what we have to aim for: race by race, closing the gap, making sure that our car is a little bit quicker than it was at the previous grand prix. After that, at the end of the year, we will see. We don’t have to set ourselves any targets other than making the team more competitive race by race.

Kimi, you were plainly a little frustrated that you could have won at Bahrain but didn't. Is that a true appraisal of your feelings about Bahrain?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, I think once you get so close, you're not happy with second. If you’re 20 seconds behind then it doesn’t really matter but we had a chance but at least for the team it was a good weekend.

You’re a two-time winner here, both from pole position. Do you think a win is possible here? You’ve said you team will be winners at some stage.

KR: Well, the rules are different, so you don’t have to be on pole now to win. We’ll try. I don’t know how it will go. It’s very difficult to say before the weekend starts. The teams are very close. So if everything goes smoothly then we can be up there. But small difficulties in some areas and you’re suddenly much further back. We try to do everything right and then see what happens.

You didn't test at Mugello as apparently the team hadn’t brought major modification, but for this race have you at least brought modifications that will at least see you maintain where you were at the opening rounds?

KR: We should have some new parts and we’ll see what happens.

Fernando, another winner here in 2006. How did you feel the Ferrari was in testing? Did you feel it was a lot different?

Fernando ALONSO: No, not really. We didn’t have any big improvements in the car, so what we tested were different set-ups and things we missed from winter testing. It’s been quite difficult for us with a lot of problems on the car and not many laps. The Mugello test was to complete what we had left from winter but in terms of improvements, we had minimum changes on the car so it felt the same?

Did that set-up research, as it were, make you feel more comfortable with the car, more competitive?

FA: Well, we’ll see. Obviously we had some ideas in terms of setup and some different possibilities that we were not introducing in the first four races because we didn’t have the opportunity to test them. So, it was good in Mugello: some of them were positive; some of them were negative so it’s good to know. As much information as you have is better preparation for the next grand prix. Obviously we arrive more prepared now than how we arrived in Australia with only three tests in the winter. But to make the car faster I think in terms of setup you cannot find much. If you want to be running at the front it’s more aerodynamic parts and updates in the car. Hopefully they come but we need to wait.

You know this circuit pretty well, you had a very good start to the race last year – do you think we’re going to see more overtaking on the circuit now, what with more KERS and a longer DRS as well?

FA: I think it will be similar to last year, to be honest. I saw some numbers of previous races here. On average like four or five overtaking manoeuvres in the last nine years and last year there were 57 – so it was a big change. The race this year will be similar to last year because of the degradation, the DRS and the KERS. With all the possibilities that we have now, as we had last year, for sure we will see some more overtaking. This changes also a little bit the philosophy of this circuit. As Kimi said, pole position was 60 per cent of the victories, now pole position is obviously the best starting position but it’s not crucial anymore because with this year’s tyres it’s less important.

Sebastian, you broke the mould last year by winning from second on the grid, where you’ve started for the last three years but you won last year from there. This is such a performance track, is this a track where you’re really looking for an indicator for the rest of the first half of the season? If you’re competitive here you will be elsewhere?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I think if you are competitive here I think it means that you have been previously. It’s a track that we usually know quite a lot from winter testing, we have some data to compare to, so it’s very familiar. But it doesn’t mean if you are competitive here you are competitive everywhere. Equally, if you are not competitive here it doesn’t mean you will never be competitive. I think it’s similar to other tracks. Really, if you think which sector you’re talking about, which speed range of the cars. I think you have sectors on every track where you could get an indication. As I said, I think it’s the fact that we know a lot about this track, we have a lot of data to compare against, to see if we did a step forward compared to the winter and how big the step was. Surely then you have to consider different temperatures: it’s a different time of year so it’s also difficult to compare black and white – but yeah as a rule of thumb probably this circuit does give you an idea because simply you have all the corners you find somewhere else, you have tight chicanes like in the last sector, hard braking for the hairpin, fast corners like in the first sector. You have a bit of everything.

And yet everyone has been here, everyone knows exactly what sort of setup they would require. Is it perhaps one of the toughest races in that respect?

SV: Yeah it is. But as I said as well, you race here in May, it’s quite different if you look at the temperatures compared to February or March, so yeah, it does have a big change on the setup, so whatever you might have found out over the winter in testing, it might not work in the same way or the same style it did during testing. Also, you need to consider that the cars you launch are quite different to the cars you race at the first race, and then, you know, you race around May or June later in the season. So, yeah, it’s a bit wishy-washy because of that – but overall it’s a track we know fairly well from a driving point of view as we’ve done a lot of laps here. We should know our way around here.

Questions from the floor

(Alex Popov – RTR TV) Question for Pedro and Fernando, about the Spanish Grand Prix in general because here and there we read about the difficult situation in Valencia, the difficult situation in Barcelona and now we have two grand prix but in the worst situation we will finish with no grand prix at all. Your thoughts about it.

PDLR: I’ve said a lot already since the first time we were told that Spain would have two grands prix, that it was a historical moment and a unique situation and we should be very, very proud of it. I still say the same answer: we still have two grands prix in Spain this year, and we should, all of us, be very proud, very happy and maximise this moment and then wait for the future to tell us what will happen – which is completely out of our hands, you know? This is all I can say. I’m very happy to be here, this is a Spanish Grand Prix, but also a Spanish Grand Prix with a Spanish driver in a Spanish team – so let’s forget about what might happen in the future because, as I said, I have absolutely no control over it.

(Mike Doodson – Honorary) Gentlemen, Michael Schumacher persistently criticises the Pirelli tyres, or at least the policy of Pirelli. To us and the fans it’s clear that Pirelli has been a major ingredient in the improvement of the quality of the racing this year and last year. Do any of you share Michael’s concerns about the tyres or do you think he’s just making excuses for not winning?

FA: I think Seb should answer, being German.

SV: Yeah? I think, y’know, we get a completely different impression inside the car than you might get outside the car. So, you’re always talking of two different worlds. I think for us quality of racing, if you compare racing today, you have to, I think, look after your tyres a lot more than probably you had to three, four, five years ago. For us, if you take, for instance, 2009 where we were allowed to refuel, we had new tyres and the tyres lasted longer, in that they didn’t see that much degradation. It’s a different quality inside the car because you can push nearly every lap similar to qualifying, whereas now I think the racing is different: we fuel the cars up, they are much heavier, and if you have a heavier car there’s more stress for the tyres, so it puts the whole thing in a different window. If you put a new set of tyres on with 20 laps to go, or 15 laps to go, which is, let’s say, the stint length, earlier, a couple of years ago, it’s a different world for the tyres. The tyres do see more degradation and then we start to slide and then one guy slides more than the other because he puts his tyres on two laps earlier. It creates a different type of racing, more overtaking, which I imagine is seen as better quality from the outside, simply because things happen. I think it depends what you really want. We have more overtaking. Fernando is good with numbers, so like Fernando said earlier. I think the races today – over the last two years since we have changed a couple of things – has become much better. Also for us. I had a race here where I was following – how many laps is the race, 66? – I think I was following Felipe [Massa] for 60 laps out of that and I couldn’t pass. Nowadays you know that your chance will come in the race and that’s changing the position inside the car as well.

Fernando…

FA: I don’t know. I agree with Seb but I don’t agree that Michael has continually criticised Pirelli. Michael said one thing and what has been written in the press has maybe exaggerated what he said. I read what he said and I don’t see any big problem with that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Fernando, you have a very different car from this race. Let’s suppose this car does not correspondent to that criteria…

FA: We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have. Obviously we have new parts, but everybody has new parts. Because it’s Ferrari, there are quite a lot of expectations every race we go to. It seems like only Ferrari is bringing new parts. We have a step forward, we believe, on what we had in Bahrain, but we also know that it’s not the last step we have to do. It’s a continuous work, that we need to start here in Barcelona, making a step forward and try to improve our qualifying position and our race pace, but in Monaco we have to bring new parts. In Canada (we have to) bring new parts. So we will not bring a new car to every race as it seems that we brought here in Barcelona.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) But just to finish the question: if the car does not correspond…

FA: I answer you on Sunday.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Yes, but just to finish: considering your car has completely new ideas, a revolutionary car, do you think this could be the end of the season for Ferrari and you will start thinking about next year’s car?

FA: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. We need to see how the car works here and if it works fine, it will be a good step, the first step of many that we have to do during the next couple of races. If the step is not good enough, because the others improved the same or more than us so we remain in the same position, we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach or whatever, because the championship is long and we will never give up in May, after four races.

Q: (Livio Orricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Do you think the basis of this car could be used for next year’s car?

FA: I think so. Yes.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) For all of you: if you look at the drivers in 1992, there were only two non-European countries represented. If you look at the same field twenty years later, this year, there are seven non-European countries represented. Is there a chance that in a few more years, the majority of the drivers will come from outside Europe and how do you think that will impact the sport?

KK: It’s difficult to stay. For drivers I think it’s very difficult, everywhere, Asia especially. I don’t know for the future, but at the moment I don’t know how many Europeans there are now? 17. We have to see. It’s very important for a programme for the development of drivers. I think that this programme is quite weak everywhere. I think for the future, they definitely have to work a lot. It’s very difficult to find how young drivers come to Formula One. I don’t know how it can be changed for the future but I definitely think we have to work on programmes for driver development.

Q: A huge German presence on the grid at the moment, Nico. Can you see that being maintained by a young driver programme in Germany?

NH: Which young driver programme? Is there one? I don’t know. We don’t keep track of that statistic. I think it will always be a good mixture between European and non-European drivers in the future.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) To anyone, but Fernando and Sebastian particularly: following the rulings in the two Nico Rosberg incidents in Bahrain – one of which Fernando was involved in – are you clear in terms of what’s allowed and what isn’t when it comes to defending your position?

FA: Yes.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Has your understanding changed between before Bahrain to now?

FA: No, maybe I did…

SV: Fernando made it pretty clear. He said ‘you have to leave the space. All the time you have to leave the space!’

FA: Yes. Yes.

SV: It was clear, no?

FA: As I did last year with Sebastian. In Monza.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) That isn’t what happened in Bahrain.

SV: He just thought my car was slimmer.

FA: But you passed. You passed.

SV: I think the rule is clear. You can argue. I think there were two incidents with Nico in Bahrain, one with Fernando and I think Fernando made his point clear afterwards. And with Lewis, and I think Lewis got past, so I think you can talk for hours now, but if you saw the situation in Bahrain, it’s exceptional, because you have a kind of asphalt run-off. Yes, it’s pretty dirty but we always try to go on the limit, the one who is overtaking, the one who is defending. Surely sometimes you need to respect that the guy is there and you need to leave the space. I think if it would have been grass, it would have been a different story. You wouldn’t go there in the first place. In Fernando’s case I think he would have made the same point.

Q: (Carlos Miguel- La Gaceta) Fernando and Pedro, if a fan of Formula One in Spain is thinking about coming here on Sunday, what are your goals for the race? What can you offer to the people?

PdelaR: Well, from our point of view, you know our goal is to fight and to improve from where we left it in Bahrain and that’s all we can offer, we can promise. We cannot promise victories – we leave that for Fernando - but we will promise, wherever we finish, we will do it with the pride of being here and doing a serious job, giving it all, and maximising what we have.

FA: Same thing. And giving 100 percent. We cannot promise anything. This is not a mathematical problem, it’s a sport, we all try to do our best so we will work hard, we will take care of every detail this weekend as we do normally, trying to do a serious job and hopefully finishing in the best position possible, but you cannot promise anything.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Leaving aside whether or not it’s a home race for you guys, how much of a difference does it actually make for you to be back in Europe again? Kimi, you don’t actually like the travelling very much out of Europe, do you?

KR: Yeah but I I arrived in China on the Thursday morning, so arriving for a European race on the Thursday morning is no different really.

PdelaR: I’m biased answering this question because it’s back to Europe, but especially it’s back to Spain, so for us, it’s a Grand Prix that arrives a little bit too early in our development programme, as far as I’m concerned. We have been improving since Australia but we probably need more Grands Prix to offer a more competitive show to our fans. That’s the only downside, but nevertheless, we are here, we are in Spain. It’s our home ground and we are very happy to be here. I’m looking forward to it. I used to live ten minutes away from the track and this is something that – when you grow up – you can always listen to the engines, so the Formula One cars, when you wake up every morning during the weekends – for me it’s a very special event, absolutely.

Q: Kamui, not so easy commuting from Japan.

KK: For sure. I’m used to being here a lot of times. I came to Europe 17 years ago and I’ve been here to Barcelona a lot of times. After long trips being back in Europe in Formula One is always great and it’s always great to see the motorhomes in Barcelona. This is always great and it’s always good to be back in Europe for Formula One.

SV: I think for all of us we’re happy to race in Europe. Surely we have races overseas which we enjoy. For instance, we all love going to Australia. Yes, it’s a long trip but once we are there I think we all enjoy being there and it’s the same here. In the end, I don’t think it makes a difference how long you travel. Yes, it is more convenient if you are only an hour, an hour and a half or two hours on the plane rather than twelve and then another twelve. As I said, I think every country we go to, there is a strong culture for motor sport. We hope for a lot of excitement and for a lot of people to come. It makes us feel very special when we are on the grid, to see that the grandstand is packed and usually around here are a lot of fans, cheering, especially for Fernando and the Spanish drivers, but it’s the same when we go to Silverstone, they’re cheering for their drivers. I think we can be very happy everywhere we go, and hopefully put on a great show so that the people enjoy it as well and they come back next year.

Q: (Alex Popov - RTR TV) Gentlemen, after testing at Mugello, Vitaly Petrov criticised the circuit, because he expressed concern about its safety, so do you think he was wrong to express his concern like this? He was criticised by other drivers, because he expressed concern. Is he wrong?

FA: I think everyone will have his opinion. I’m not someone to say that Vitaly is right or wrong. It’s more maybe the safety commission’s job or whatever. Personally, everyone will have their opinion, as I said. I like Mugello, I like the layout, I like the feelings, the emotions that you have driving there. As I said after the test, driving one lap in Mugello is like driving one hundred at another circuit, for adrenalin and how much you enjoy the lap. We were in Italy, with a lot of Ferrari support. I enjoy those three days testing so much, but in terms of how safe the track was or not, I don’t have the information to give an answer.

NH: Personally I enjoyed Mugello very much. I think it’s a very different circuit to all the others that we go to. You always feel like you’re flying there, a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth gear action which is great to have. Like Fernando said, whether you feel safe or not is a very personal thing. I think it was OK.

KK: That’s a great circuit. There are a lot of very safe circuits like Abu Dhabi without gravel, but this circuit had gravel and if we made a mistake we ended up in the gravel which is good for drivers and good for training and testing. The test was something we had to try and in the race, of course we have to stay on the track and it’s difficult to take a lot of risks but during testing we can take more risks to improve our driving. It’s great for me.

SV: Well, the first time I heard that he was saying something about safety at Mugello. I think we all loved the track because it’s different – like Nico said, there’s a lot of high speed corners. Sure, if the speeds are high, there is higher risk. There is obviously quite a lot of run-off but surely here and there you would like to have more. As long as nothing happens, everything is fine; if something happens… it’s always easy to say something after there’s an incident and say this and that. I think it was not as if we felt we were scared. We left the garage feeling safe. I think if we would race there one day, potentially yes or no, then surely here or there you can argue to make improvements for safety, but I think they did everything they could on the day.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – Radio Estado ESPN) Nico mentioned that Mugello is different from every other track that you guys race on in the year so does this very fact make it less useful to have tested there instead of somewhere else?

KK: Difficult. I think maybe it’s not really useful for mechanical stuff but definitely useful for aero development at least, because we can test the aero on the straights. Difficult to see the stability in the corner. Basically I think this was a good test.

FA: I agree. I think it was good to test some parts of the car, not for some others, but like all the other circuits. When we test in Jerez, test in Barcelona, we try different things. I remember in the old days testing in Paul Ricard. Some days we test on the 50s lap circuit because we were testing for Monaco Grand Prix: different tyres and different parts, so every test is welcome for different areas of the car, but it’s good. For people who don’t like Mugello there is a very easy solution.

Sebastian Vettel on pole in Bahrain

2012-04-21T08:01:00.001-06:00

World champion Sebastian Vettel took his and Red Bull's first pole position of 2012 ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The German, who out-qualified team-mate Mark Webber for the first time this year, was 0.098 seconds quicker than Hamilton, with Webber third.
McLaren's Jenson Button was fourth, ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Force India's Paul di Resta did not set a time and are ninth and 10th.
Both men preferred to save a set of tyres for the race because tyre life is expected to be a critical factor.
The same reason lies behind Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, whose team-mate Romain Grosjean is seventh, failing to make it into the top 10.Raikkonen said he "could easily" have got into final qualifying but preferred to save a set of tires for the race.

The chief beneficiary of all this strategic play was Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified a stunning sixth, ahead of Grosjean and Sauber's Sergio Perez.
Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher will start 17th after failing to get out of the first qualifying session.

Vettel has had a difficult start to the season, uncomfortable in Red Bull's new car, and before Bahrain his highest qualifying position was fifth.
But Red Bull's race pace has been strong and Vettel said he was optimistic of a good result in the grand prix.
"We should be better off in the race," he said. "Our race pace has proven to be consistent in the last couple of races.

"I'm happier with the way the car feels. We should be able to get the same kind of feeling and result on Sunday.

"I'm looking forward to the start and then I think it will be very tight. I think Nico [Rosberg] has been very strong all weekend and the Lotus guys can surprise.
"In terms of race pace, I think everyone will be much closer together."

Vettel said his pole owed much to intense work by the team to understand better the car.

"We have been busy working on the car," he said, "trying to find the perfect solution and the right way to go forward. I don't think the boys had much sleep the last four races.

More of this report at BBC Formula 1 Sport

F1 Season 2012 opens in Australia

2012-03-17T21:46:00.001-06:00

Lewis Hamilton just held off to Jenson Button to secure a McLaren one-two in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. As the paddock waited for Red Bull to show its true hand, it turned out to be McLaren which had been hiding its true pace. Hamilton posted a sensational lap time of 1:24.922 on his first flying lap in Q3 to head the rest of the field by over 0.7s and his time remained unbeaten despite the best efforts of his team-mate.
Button ended up just 0.152s slower than Hamilton after a strong final lap, crossing the line just behind Romain Grosjean who had provisionally been second after an impressive showing in the Lotus. Grosjean himself had just pipped Michael Schumacher - securing his best qualifying result since returning to Formula One - as Mercedes showed its pace too.
Red Bull was surprisingly found wanting when qualifying got underway, and ended up with Mark Webber outqualifying Sebastian Vettel as the pair line up side-by-side on row three. Nico Rosberg was unable to match his team-mate's performance as he made mistakes on both of his laps in Q3 and will start seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

Q2 was held up when Fernando Alonso put two wheels on the grass and spun in to the gravel at turn one. The Ferrari was unable to get out of the gravel under its own power and had to be removed by a crane, causing a red flag. Alonso slowly slipped down out of the top ten, while team-mate Felipe Massa was never in the hunt and dropped out in 16th place ahead of Sergio Perez.

Ricciardo won the Toro Rosso battle as he just edged through ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. Alonso ended up 12th ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Bruno Senna and a slightly disappointing Paul di Resta.

Kimi Raikkonen was the big name to drop out in the first part of qualifying when he ran wide at turn 12 on his final lap. He backed off to go for another lap but compounded the error by waiting too long and crossed the line after the chequered flag dropped. That meant Massa scraped through in 17th, while Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov were unable to move Caterham out of Q1.

Below them were both Marussia cars of Timo Glock and Charles Pic who did well to get within the 107% time. HRT missed out on the 107% time as Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa struggled to find clear air and both find themselves under investigation for impeding other drivers.

Credits: ESPN F1

Vettel continued his supreme dominance

2011-10-30T13:25:00.004-06:00

Sebastian Vettel continued his supreme dominance of the 2011 season by winning the inaugural Indian Grand Prix from Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. Mark Webber was fourth and Michael Schumacher will be delighted to have finished ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg in fifth place, while Lewis Hamilton finished seventh after being involved in yet another collision with Felipe Massa. Vettel's pole to flag victory was his eleventh of the season and the German now has the record books in his sights in matching Schumacher's tally of 13 race wins in a season.
The race itself provided good racing and incident aplenty and was well received by a near capacity crowd at the Buddh International Circuit, a perfect advert for the first running of Formula One in the country.

As the lights went out it was Button who made the best start, passing Alonso as the Ferrari ran wide at turn 1 before muscling past Webber into turn 4. Schumacher was another fast starter, moving up to eighth from 11th with Bruno Senna moving up to 10th from 14th.

The back of the grid also saw incident aplenty, Kamui Kobayashi, Jarno Trulli and Rubens Barrichello all involved in contacts that saw the Sauber driver forced into retirement and the other cars pit for repairs. Timo Glock was another early casualty, the Virgin retiring as a result of the opening lap melee, soon to be followed by Pastor Maldonado, who lost drive exiting turn 4.

With Vettel stretching away from Button and Webber at the front of the field, the midfield battles made for fantastic viewing for the packed grandstands, Sutil, Alguersuari, Buemi and Senna running close together as the Renault held up the Toro Rossos in the early stages, before DRS allowed the pair through. That was the last action for Buemi though, whose engine soon gave up.

Back at the front, Webber and Alonso were the first of the front runners to pit on lap 17 with Button and Vettel following suit. But the big incident of the race happened seven laps later and it came as no surprise that it involved yet another racing incident between the feuding Hamilton and Massa. As Hamilton tried to pass the Ferrari into turn five it appeared that Massa did not see the McLaren pull alongside him and he turned into the corner, sending his Ferrari spinning off into the run-off area before rejoining the track.

The result was a broken wing for Hamilton, while Massa's front wing also vibrated heavily. In a break from the norm this season, Massa was punished with a drive-through penalty for turning in on the McLaren and causing a collision - the right decision as the Ferrari had been unwilling to avoid contact. Things quickly went from bad to worse for Massa when he clattered over a kerb into turn 9 in a near repeat of his qualifying incident, breaking his suspension and sending him into retirement.

The battle for third gathered momentum on lap 40, Alonso nipping out just ahead of Webber as both drivers completed their stops for the prime hard tyre. Webber continued to press the Ferrari right until the final lap but Alonso held firm to cement the final podium place.

The final round of stops also brought a bit of interest to the race of the front; Button had never been much more than five seconds behind, but a quick lap as Vettel got his hard tires up to temperature saw the gap come down to 2.8s. Having led every lap though, Vettel was unwilling to lose out late on and eased away to win by over eight seconds, setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap to complete a perfect weekend.

Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez rounded out the remaining points places and home favourite Narain Karthikeyan will be pleased with his 17th place, finishing ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo but just 0.5s behind the Virgin of Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Celebrations on the podium were slightly muted as the top three remembered Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli who lost their lives racing in the last fortnight. All three dedicated the race in their memory.

CredistL ESPN F1 / Fraser Masefield

Hungarian Grand Prix - the better man won

2011-07-31T10:56:00.003-06:00

Lewis Hamilton refused to blame his team and said that "the better man won" as he endured a difficult Hungarian Grand Prix to finished fourth.
Hamilton led early in the race and looked favorite for victory as he built up a nine second lead by the half way point. With his team-mate Jenson Button in second place McLaren looked to have the race under control, but then the decision to put on supersoft tires during the third pit stop while Button, Vettel and Webber put on softs with 30 laps to go proved costly.

Hamilton was slower and had to make an extra pit stop, while a rain shower also caused him to spin and lose his lead, before getting a drive through for forcing Paul di Resta off the track as he recovered. Hamilton said he had struggled with his front left tire, but was full of praise for the race winner.

"First of all congratulations to Jenson," Hamilton said to the BBC. "He was pushing me hard the whole race and the better man won today, he did a fantastic job and congratulations to the team.

"It was an intense race, we obviously got a good start, did great for the first half of the race - I was struggling a lot with the graining on my left front tire, I don't know if it was my fault for pushing too much - then I had a big mistake. Again my left front tire was pretty worn so I went a bit wide, came out of the chicane and spun which is very very rare, I think it's one of the first times I've spun. And then after that I have to apologize to Paul di Resta, I didn't see him, so I had absolutely no clue - I don't know where or what happened - but I got a penalty for something which is to be expected I guess sometimes, so I apologize to him."

Hamilton then pitted for intermediate tires, a decision which dropped him out of the running for a podium, and he refused to blame his team for the error as he it was suffering with communication problems.

"We were having radio issues and I could hear my engineers but they couldn't hear me. So I was constantly asking them for information but they couldn't hear me so it was a very difficult call for them. I think perhaps at one point they got some information from me and I heard them say it was going to rain and it was already spitting so we opted to go for the wet tires. I think they called me in and I did the lap, anyway the tires went off, it wasn't necessarily the best call but that's motor racing."

After a frustrating afternoon, Hamilton said that the pace of the car and Button's win showed the level of McLaren's improvement.

"I think we can definitely say that the team has done a fantastic job. For us (he and Button) to both be the most competitive this weekend I think is a fantastic way to go in to the break. Of course we would have loved a one-two, I feel like I let the team down a little bit, but we'll bounce back at the next race."

Found @ ESPN F1 website

Canadian F1 Grand Prix press conference

2011-06-10T09:25:00.003-06:00

Prior Canadian F1 Grand Prix press conference. Attending the drivers: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Pastor Maldonado(Williams), Sergio Perez (Sauber),
Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Adrian Sutil (Force India)
Q: Adrian, talk about this circuit as you have said it is one of your favourites.
Adrian SUTIL: Yeah, this is a very nice circuit. I like it here. I like the atmosphere here and it is a kind of street circuit. We have long straights here, some chicanes and there is always something happening in the race. It is usually good to overtake but also Montreal as a city is a nice place so I really enjoy the whole weekend.

Q: In terms of the car what sort of modifications have the team brought here for you to address the special qualities of this circuit?
AS: We are still trying to improve our upgrade package that we took to Barcelona. It is not easy to make it work, the blown diffuser, at the moment, the way it should be. But we are working on it. In Monaco I think we ran it for the first time in the race. We are not sure if it really was a big advantage but I am sure it was a little. But there is still more to come. We need now just time on the circuit to understand a lot of things and we also have some other updates on the car, not only the diffuser, especially for this race here. It should be good for us. We have a big straight-line speed. It is a very fast car on the straights. This circuit has fast straights and a few slow speed chicanes and hairpins so it is not such an aerodynamic circuit here.

Q: The last couple of years the Force India has always been good on low downforce circuits. Is that still the case?
AS: Yeah, I think so. It suits us better than a circuit like Barcelona for example. Last year was a very good performance here and very strong qualifying with both cars. Hopefully it will be a little bit better here as qualifying is our main issue. The race is always a bit better but still we want to be somewhere else in the field.

Q: Vitaly, the last time we saw you, you were immobile in the car. How are you now?
Vitaly PETROV: I am fine, thank you. It looks now everything is good. When I went to the hospital they prepare for me the bed close to Sergio but at the moment everything is fine.

Q: Were there are any lasting injuries? Anything that lasted for some time?
VP: Not really.

Q: The race was stopped so when you were in the car what was the problem?
VP: The problem first of all was my legs were stuck inside the cockpit. At the same time I tried to move them and I didn’t feel them. This is why I decided it is better to wait for someone to help me as I tried to feel my fingers on the leg and I couldn’t feel them. This is why I didn’t want to do some bullshit. I just wait for the people who can help me to do something. I thought it was broken to be honest but I was lucky it was not.

Q: Coming to this race, how do you think the Renault is going to perform?
VP: I think we bring some good parts here. We hope it will work and I hope it will be much, much better than last year.

Q: You didn’t have a good race here last year?
VP: No.

Q: There are a lot of different parts coming for the Renault here.
VP: Yeah, we have a lot of parts here and it should be very helpful for this track. This track we need low downforce but also good brakes and we need very good speed on the straights. We have a good package and tomorrow we will see how it works.

Q: Pastor, you were heading for a good result in Monaco. Was it very frustrating not to have got that good result?
Pastor MALDONADO: Yeah, for sure. Finally I was doing a really good race. The car improved and I am getting better and better with the car. I am more confident. In Monaco I think I show our performance and I hope it was so great because of the pace. The pace was so good during the race. The team did a very good job on the strategy, everything was running good, but at the end I think with Lewis it was race contact, nothing more.

Q: You have been so good in Monaco, not just two weeks ago, but in previous races there as well. How can you transfer that sort of form, that sort of performance, to just conventional circuits?
PM: I think it is a very difficult circuit, especially mentally during the race. You must take some risks. I know very well the track. I know where to put the car and for me maybe it is a bit easier than the other circuits. I really enjoy driving there. I enjoy every single corner, every lap in Monaco and the atmosphere is fantastic.

Q: You haven’t been to Canada in F1 but you have been here before in karting. When you were how old, 12 or 13 or something?
PM: Yeah, something like that.

Q: Do you remember Canada?
PM: Yeah, I remember. For sure it is my first time here. The track seems amazing. Let’s see what we can do. For sure at the beginning it will be a bit difficult especially tomorrow for me. I need to learn the track. We have a new aero package so I need to understand the new parts in the car. It is going to be a difficult day but anyway it is my job and I will do my best and let’s see what we can do.

Q: Lewis, you have an incredible record here. If you look at your record in qualifying and the race it just goes one, one, one, one, one and then a collision with Kimi Raikkonen. But up until that moment it is a tremendous record so obviously a circuit at which you excel.
Lewis HAMILTON: Firstly, it is great to be here. It is a fantastic place. The weather is great here. I really don’t have an answer for you exactly why I have been so successful here. I am sure it is a combination of the climate, the atmosphere. I think the fans here are spectacular. I think this is one of the top grands prix of the year when the city is packed full of people. It is a great place to be. The track also has a great history. Gilles Villeneuve was pretty spectacular here and for us it is a bit like a street circuit. I regard it as a street circuit. It is quite bumpy. It is a little bit like a go-kart track. We have to take the kerbs so I particularly enjoy it and I am looking forward to this weekend.

Q: Your win last year meant that McLaren have won 11 times here, as many as Ferrari, so it is obviously a good circuit for the team as well?
LH: Yeah, again not quite sure why we are generally so quick here but I think our car is always quite good over kerbs. We have got reasonable high speeds and end-of-straight speed and I guess you have got to be quite close to the walls here which I particularly like doing. Not too close this weekend. It is great that I was able to contribute to those wins for the team and hopefully we can maybe take a step ahead of Ferrari at some stage.

Q: Looking back at the last race. Was that part of the pressure perhaps of being in the World Championship fight, wanting to be in the World Championship fight. Is that what we say the motivations is? Is that the result of that?
LH: I think it is a combination of many things. All of us drivers here know what it is like, even you guys know, to be under pressure and to put pressure on yourself to succeed. We all have good and bad days in the office. That was definitely one of the worst weekends in the office but that’s motor racing, that’s life. You learn from those situations. It has been great, I have gone back and I have had a couple of days back home training and refreshing my mind and coming back here I feel completely refreshed and really looking forward to definitely a more positive weekend.

Q: Sergio, nice to see you here. What’s the latest news from the FIA doctor.
Sergio PÉREZ: Thanks, I just went to do an exam and do all the tests with the FIA and everything was fine. We gave them our results from the doctors and everything is fine to race again this weekend.

Q: So you are clear to go, that’s good news?
SP: Yes.

Q: What have you been doing since Monaco to get yourself back fit again?
SP: They released me from hospital on Monday. I stayed in Monaco for two or three days, just working and recovering from the accident. Then I flew to Zurich to do another check-up with a clinic there and after that everything was okay. Then I went back to Mexico, which is very close from here. I was some days at home, which was very positive for me. Then I went to do karting on Monday and Tuesday so I am already okay.

Q: The karting was just to get yourself up to speed again?
SP: Yeah, of course. It always helps after a big crash to at least drive something.

Q: Do you feel this is a little bit of a home race as it is on the same continent?
SP: Yeah, of course. It is the nearest one to my home so I think there are a lot of Mexicans around. I hope it will be a very special grand prix for me.

Q: A new circuit for you. Have you driven it on the simulator or just on the PlayStation?
SP: I have played it on PlayStation but I could not use the simulator as I was planning to do after Monaco but it was not possible to go. I have seen a lot of on-boards. I think it is a very special circuit. You are always very close to the walls and to do a good lap around here you have to really push a lot to get the maximum out of the car and out of the lap.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

(Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, you said you were good on the track and McLaren is good also. Is it your best chance at the beginning of the year to beat the Red Bulls as they are not so good in Montreal?
LH: I would like to think so but again they have been fast at every circuit. I think they have been incredibly successful on all the circuits so far, so you have to assume they will be very quick here as well. But perhaps, as in the last race, maybe the gap will be a little bit closer compared to places like Barcelona. I am expecting to see that through a lot of the field. I would definitely say, looking at the next few races, that this is definitely one of the better ones for us.

Q: (Dave Stubbs - Montreal Gazette) Lewis, this race will feature two DRS zones. How is that going to change the complexion of this race as you see it?
LH: We use the DRS in qualifying, so we use it everywhere we can. I think the great thing here is you see quite a lot of overtaking here. You have the great long straight coming out of a hairpin. I definitely think it is not always easy to follow through corners still as you still need downforce. But the DRS, having it in two places, I think will enable people to get even closer. It is a long, long straight. I don’t know where they put the DRS zone exactly for those straights. I think it will just make racing even better. Of course the FIA will assess if it is too easy or not too easy. I think we will work together with them to make sure the zones are set in the right place so we don’t just whizz past people halfway down the straights. I think so far this year it has been fantastic for racing and enabled people to get close to actually make safe manoeuvres, so I think this weekend you will probably see that as well.

Q: (Dave Stubbs - Montreal Gazette) Still regarding the two DRS zones, do you think it would be maybe a more exciting show to have the second zone at the Wall of Champions, so that whoever gets past in zone one can try to fight back in zone two.
LH: Yeah, I guess it will make it much tougher. When you overtake one person you overtake them but then they are able to use DRS in the next zone. It is going to make it much harder as when you make an overtaking manoeuvre usually you are able to pull a little bit of a gap by the next lap so hopefully they are not right behind you but here you won’t have. They will be right on your tail so I guess strategy and depending on where you use the DRS and the way you overtake it is going to be interesting, I would assume everyone would probably wait, just stay behind them and not even bother overtaking on the first DRS zone and wait for the last one so for the rest of the lap they are able to pull away.

Q: (Francois Drabli – Pole Position Magazine) Lewis, yesterday you were driving Ferraris at Mont Tremblant race track in the Laurentians, so do we see a trend there?
LH: No, no, no. I was just at a friend’s house and they were the only cars that he had, so I had a little bit of a go.

Q: (Francois Drabli – Pole Position Magazine) Did you have fun go-karting at the same time there ?
LH: I didn’t do any go-karting. I had planned to go there and just have some fun and he has a lot of cars, so I was going to get to drive a McLaren – the GTR longtail – but I thought it was probably just wise to just drive a road car around a couple of laps, so I only did a couple of laps, but I will definitely be going back at some stage to make sure I can use all the rubber that he has and all the brakes he has and it’s free, so it should be fun.

Q: (Marco degli Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, we have learnt that there has been an exchange of letters between you and President of the FIA about the issues in Monaco. What’s your mood now, don’t you think that you are too often a sort of target for a lot of criticism for your behaviour, not necessarily as a driver? Don’t you feel a little under permanent judgement?
LH: No. Well, last week, coming back from the Grand Prix, I had some time to reflect on my behaviour and my weekend and again, just a feeling of it just being a bad day, a bad weekend in the office, so I wrote a letter to the FIA to apologise, and I also spoke to the drivers. I just felt it was necessary to do that, I think it was the right thing for me to do and to be able to put everything behind me. This is racing, you know. When you’re competitive – and this is the pinnacle of motor sport – and it’s not easy to overtake in this sport, and so every manoeuvre you make is definitely questionable. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t. So it’s inevitable when I do quite a lot of overtaking quite often, so sometimes it’s going to be right, sometimes not, but I think the stewards are doing a great job. Since I’ve been in Formula One, it’s been improving, the consistency of the rules, the approach of the stewards with the new racing driver, I think it makes it much better so while I would prefer not to be up at the stewards’ office so often – and trust me, I’m trying my hardest to stay out of there – my whole life I was always in the headmaster’s office so I’m used to it. I would just try to improve and learn from the situations that I get myself into.

Q: (Martin Samuel – The Daily Mail) Question to you all: Rubens Barrichello, speaking as the chairman of your association, said today that the drivers were not opposed in principle to racing in Bahrain. Can I ask you gentlemen if that is true and if so, why is it not a matter of principle to race in Bahrain?
AS: I think that for me, I would say, as long as it’s safe, I could race there, but I’m not in charge of that, so the FIA and the FOTA is doing that and I think they will find a solution. But for me, as long as it’s safe I’m happy to race. It’s a good place to go, I always like this circuit so that’s all I can say about that.
VP: I think the question is just about the safety. The FIA knows what to do. If they see that it will not be dangerous, we will go. If it’s still dangerous I think it’s better not to go.
PM: Ok, let’s wait for the FOTA decision. I think we are drivers who enjoy racing. For sure it’s a difficult time there but I think we need to wait and see what they decide.
LH: I think the drivers mostly commentated on things (already). Hopefully the teams and the FIA and the drivers will collectively make the right decision and us as drivers, we just have to rely on them that the right decision will be made. We want to race, not just for our own benefit but also for the benefit of others as well.
SP: Well, first of all for me it was important to recover after the crash so I’m not very aware of the news. I will speak to my team and see what is the latest news. I don’t know if everything is clear to race there but for me, if it’s one race more or if my team agrees and all the drivers and teams agree, then I think there’s no problem to go if everything is safe again.

Q: ( Fulvio Solms – Corriere dello Sport ) Lewis, referring to your Monte Carlo issue, do you think it’s correct to compare your behaviour to the young Schumachers’ and the young Alonso’s?
LH: Well Schumacher is not really young any more – oh, when he was younger. I would hope not. I think I’m a passionate driver. I can’t emphasise just how passionate I am about racing and about winning and the pressure that I put on myself, with the pressures that go with the job and the admiration for what you do, I think that inevitably sometimes you say the right and the wrong things. Like Gilles Villeneuve and like Ayrton, they were also very, very passionate racing drivers, so I prefer to hopefully one day be referred to someone similar to them.

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Lewis, Todt said that, had you not written, he was thinking about a six race ban, so was that in your mind when you wrote, and do you think you’re lucky not to have had that sort of thing?
LH: It wasn’t in mind, no, but just as I said earlier, I just had time to reflect on the weekend and I wrote a sincere apology to Jean and to the FIA and I got a great letter back, so after that I was able to put it behind me and I’m very grateful to be here. I do want what’s best for the sport and I want to be able to contribute to improving the sport and making things great here.

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) And when you say you’ve spoken to the drivers, does that include the man behind you, Mr Maldonado and Mr Massa, Mr Massa being the one who said that he thought that a ban would be appropriate because it would teach you a lesson?
LH: I know Felipe really well, I’ve known Felipe since Formula Three, maybe GP2 and so have a relatively good relationship with him. I gave him a call and he had calmed down also and he was able to understand the position and I’ve seen him… I’ve known him for many years, actually. We’ve known each other for quite a few years, him and his family. You know he’s doing a fantastic job, he was very quick that weekend and was obviously not wanting to put anyone out of the Grand Prix. It’s one of the toughest Grands Prix to overtake, but I think the drivers understand and it’s easy, in the heat of the moment, to say the wrong things but afterwards to realise that, OK, you probably were not in the right position to make the manoeuvre, so I felt it important for me to just make that clear to them and apologise for my statement afterwards.

Q: (Dave Stubbs – Montreal Gazette) Sergio, was there every any doubt at any point that you would be fit to race in Montreal and can you tell us a little bit what kind of tests the FIA gives you to determine that you’re fit to race this weekend?
SP: After the accident, everything was planned to leave the day after, but I felt a bit dizzy so I stayed there one more day and there was enough time, we were always very positive that there was enough time to recover after the accident. All the doctors were very positive that nothing was damaged, no problem at all, so it was just a matter of time to get back to normal life, and I got back very quickly. They did all their examinations – actually they are very good examinations. They checked all my bones, my reactions, my memory, that everything is fine and that I don’t feel sick or have a headache and they saw all the results from the doctors, so that’s what they did.

Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarcksport) Lewis, going back to Monaco again, first lap at Monaco, when Michael passed you into the hairpin, can you just talk us through that? Presumably you thought you had a puncture or something, but it looked like… I don’t know. Can you tell us what happened? The opening lap, going into the hairpin. Michael got you down the inside in a very easy way.
LH: The opening laps? Yeah. He just caught me sleeping really. Yes. I was keeping an eye on the guys in front because everyone was bunched up. Everyone was going particularly slowly and Michael went for a gap that was there. I noticed very late that he was there and I didn’t turn in, I gave him enough room to let him past. The race is not won on the first lap. I think that experience also led me to believe that overtaking was possible there so that’s why I tried to do a rather opportunistic overtaking manoeuvre, but I wasn’t luck enough to have as much space as Michael.

Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarcksport) Adrian, can you just talk us through the incident with Kobayashi?
AS: Yeah, well the only thing that I could feel at this stage was that he hit me a little bit on the rear tyre and then I lost control of my car. I caught my car again but he got past me so the incident was looked at by the stewards. I think he got a reprimand for that. I’m OK with this. At this stage I was a little bit slower because of something with my tyres, so he tried it. It’s difficult to pass in Monaco and let’s say it was on the edge but I have no problem with it.

Q: (Terry Jones – Edmonton Sun ) Adrian, Lewis, earlier you made reference to your thoughts about how much you enjoy this race in Montreal. I wonder if you could both expand on it in terms of the context of the Canadian Grand Prix and Montreal compared to other events on the F1 circuit?
AS: Well this is more like a street circuit, as I said, and it’s always nice and enjoyable, a little bit different to all the normal circuits where the run-off areas are big and you can probably get away with some mistakes. So here there’s a wall and you have to be very careful when you’re driving but it’s also a great circuit just to have a race and to overtake, to make some manoeuvres. Strategy is quite important here and I would say that overall this weekend is special. OK, sometimes you have more like a normal race weekend where it’s all about the racing. Of course, that’s here for us as well but you can feel this atmosphere and all the fans around the circuit. It’s close to the city, it’s in the city which is why I like it here, that’s why it’s always something special and a little bit of a different place than a normal permanent race track.
LH: First and foremost, the city is one of my favourite cities in the world. I think it’s very cosmopolitan and great restaurants, the weather’s generally been fantastic every time we’ve been here. I’ve not been here when the Grand Prix has not been here but every time we’ve been here with the Grand Prix, it just seems incredibly lively. They put on a great show and great hosts for all the fans that come. And then you come to the circuit which is on a tiny island, with great history, as Adrian was saying. I think street circuits are my preferred circuits, they are the riskiest, the trickiest circuits to race on and it’s a great place to drive. It’s one of those circuits where downforce is not the most important thing. It’s a combination of high speed as well, end-of-straight speed, so you can overtake. It has that massively long back straight here which you don’t have at a lot of circuits and the fans…I’ve never been here when the grandstands have not been completely packed. You go to circuits sometimes where there are a couple of thousand people and the atmosphere is just nowhere. But you come here and you immediately feel the huge buzz, as I’m sure do the people who are watching, because you can see all these people in the crowd, passionate about motor racing. It’s spectacular.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you sounded quite downbeat about your chances here just then…
LH: That’s a misunderstanding.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Yeah, I was going to say because on the face of it, this has got to be a circuit that favours you almost more than any so far, hasn’t it? Don’t you go into the weekend as favourite?
LH: I never like to go into the weekend as favourite and I don’t like to be too upbeat. I’m not Muhammad Ali. I’m not going to come here and say this weekend’s going to be the best weekend ever. I’m coming off a very tough weekend where I had good pace. I’m racing against some very, very talented drivers who are going to be quick as well and I’d rather do my talking on the track, so I’m hoping that our car works well here. I feel like I’m in a good head space so hopefully that will add to a good result.

Shanghai Chinese GP Press Conference

2011-04-17T09:00:00.000-06:00

Drivers Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren, Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull), Mark WEBBER (Red Bull)
FIA Chinese Formula 1 GP press conference 17. April 2011
Q: Lewis, you made a gamble to keep back a fresh set of tires. Was it the gamble that paid off for you today?
Lewis HAMILTON: I think today the strategy we came up with going into qualifying definitely helped. I think my new option tire seemed to last a little bit longer than the guys in front but I think it was quite a few things that came together really. The pitstops were fantastic. It was good for us. The guys are always pushing to improve and the car felt great. I was just trying to nurse my tires whilst trying to pick up pace. It was one of the best races I have experienced where guys were out in front of me and I had to do quite a lot of overtaking. But thumbs up to the guys back at the factory and in the garage. They really put their hearts into developing the car and making the car the best it can be every weekend. It feels amazing to be able to bring home the victory for them.

Q: We saw your emotion at the end of the race. We didn’t quite see your emotion at the start of the race. What was going on with your car as you only just made it to the grid and how worried were you that you might not be able to start?
LH: I don’t think worried was coming into my thoughts to be honest. I was in the car nice and early to go out and then we had a problem as the car just would not start. I am still not sure exactly what went on but they had to take a lot of the bodywork off and I knew there was six minutes to go.
Then there was two minutes to go but fortunately everything just came together very quickly. The guys did a great job but, of course, for me it is very important to stay as clam as possible as that reflects on all the guys in the garage. I tried to stay positive and they got the car out which was the most important.

Q: Sebastian, beaten off the line by both McLarens but you quickly got the lead back again. Did you feel at any stage that a two stop strategy might have been the wrong choice today?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well I think the start was not the best we had this year On top of that it seems that for some reason the left hand side here is worse than the right hand side, plus the fact that you turn right doesn’t help. But it was not a 100 per cent good start so I lost also the position to Lewis who started behind me. Then it was about being patient. I think we treated the tyres better in the first stint and could have stayed out but there is no point doing that as you try to pit earlier. I came to the box and afterwards came out first, which was good. But it was quite a surprise seeing Jenson in front of me when he went into my garage. I just hoped for him to carry on. We had something similar two years ago with the Toro Rosso. I don’t know what attracts people to stop in our garage but fortunately it had no affect. The guys kept their heads cool, we kept going and, as I said, we came out into the lead. Then I think we probably tried too hard staying on two stops so the middle stint ideally should have been a bit longer but in the end you find yourself out there on the hard tire. I saw Lewis coming closer and closer and there was no point really. I tried to defend as much as I could without losing too much time to the guys behind but he found his way past easily. It was a difficult race for us. We did a couple of mistakes, on top of that we had some problems, but still we finished second so I am very, very happy with that. First of all, congratulations to Lewis and to McLaren. They did a very good job and it shows one race, you try something a bit different and if you do mistakes it is natural and there is someone else to beat you. I think it was a good race for us as we can learn a lot today. I am the only one with two stops up here so there is surely something to look into tonight.

Q: Just how difficult was it given the lack of communication you had with the pit-wall in the latter stages?
SV: It didn’t make it easier. Usually you exchange information, how the tires are, what the other guys do, what tires they are on and so on. I asked a lot of questions but did not get any answers. We had a problem with communication. On top of that we had some problems with the KERS during the race. It wasn’t a trouble free race. Mark obviously had a good race, very good pace, so the pace was there. It was there all weekend but once we decided to go to two stop you have to be patient, look after your tires and when it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. That’s why I think we missed that one step today.

Q: Mark, after qualifying 18th yesterday you said given your luck on the Saturday you might get hit by a truck. It seems you drove that truck straight the way through the field today. A storming performance from third.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah, it was an interesting grand prix. I think we decided to start on the prime, the hard tire, in the first stint which we know was not the most desired tire for everyone in the field as it doesn’t really have the characteristics of a hard tire in terms of sometimes duration and lots of things like that so got that out of the way. But that was quite tricky actually as even with the guys I was with it was not easy. Everyone was using the DRS at the same time, which we pretty much predicted, because of the type of cars ahead of me and how they qualified. It wasn’t easy to come back through those guys and I had a mistake in turn two on my in-lap, the tires basically did not have much left of them, but I got the car back. We really started from there. When you still see P17 on your board after 15 laps, or whatever it was, you think ‘how is this going to come?’ But then all of a sudden I just felt comfortable with the car. I had a few sets of tires left from after qualifying so that helped a bit. Maybe that is the best way to do it all the time, not even take part in qualifying and just go from there. But all jokes aside I think the guys did an incredible job. Back-to-back races for us and it is clear we have not had the smoothest run with my car, but they haven’t given up and that was a drive for them today and everyone back at the factory. Again congratulations to Lewis. It was good that someone finally, of course Seb is in the same team but he has been on a phenomenal run and we are all here together fighting for victories. Shame McLaren won in a way but also we can’t let Seb get too far away, so it was good day for the racing and good day for us in terms of points for the team.

Q: Lewis, your first grand prix race win of the season and the first non-Red Bull race win of the season. Is this game on in the title now?
LH: I think we have still got a long road ahead of us but we are working very, very hard to close the gap. I think the race pace we are quite similar but in qualifying we still have got a lot of work to do. But I am absolutely overwhelmed. It feels like a long, long time since I was sitting here. Feel very proud and extremely grateful for all the hard work the guys put in and I will continue to push. These guys do a fantastic job and I am looking forward to many, many more great races like this.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, we were just talking about trying to remain calm in the garage with everyone rushing around wiping up whatever it was on the floor. But you had no idea what it was?
LH: I really didn’t know. The car just wouldn’t start. I was very, very curious. We have had it not start initially several times in the past so I thought it was nothing. But when they kept trying it was becoming more and more of a concern for everyone. I could see everyone was doing their best to find out what the situation was and also fix it so I didn’t want to be asking questions all the time, saying ‘what is going on, what’s going on’ so I just said ‘how long have we got until the pit-lance closes?’ It was six minutes at the time so I could relax really. I think I could relax at the time as I just have real confidence in the guys that they would figure it out. I didn’t think it was going to be too big a problem, but it was right on the limit. I don’t know how long?

Q: Thirty seconds.
LH: Thirty seconds, yeah. As I was driving to the light I was nervous that just as I got to it, it would go red, but fortunately we got out and there was no problem. Then there was a bit of a rush on the grid with the guys but as always they did a professional job, kept their heads cool and thanks to that we are sitting here having won.

Q: Combined with the fact that it has been a car that you have made into a winner in three weeks really from Australia where there were brand new bits on it. In itself, that is phenomenal.
LH: It is and that’s really a true showing of the strength of our team. We came out to Barcelona with the upgrade package we had there and it really wasn’t working and the reliability was a disaster. We couldn’t even get past 20 laps. Then they pushed very hard in the space of a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and it was just incredible what they were able to bring to Australia. Australia was our first race distance and the car has been great. It really has been great. Red Bull are doing a fantastic job. They are very, very fast. They have got a wonderful car and they are doing the job and we are having to push with absolutely everything we have to try and close the gap. I think today we were similar pace perhaps in the race, I think they were generally a little bit quicker, but I think it was just due to us just trying to be a little bit smarter on the strategy and making it work and fortunately it did today. Other times perhaps it won’t work out but today it did so we are very happy.

Q: Was that the reason for the emotion at the end. The relief of getting on to the top of the podium?
LH: I think the emotion probably comes from the desire to win, the desire to be better and the desire to compete against the toughest drivers in the world. When you haven’t won for a while, I can’t remember the last time I won but when you haven’t won for a while it feels like an eternity so you just keep pushing, trying to keep your mind fresh. I think with the whole thing that happened in the pit-lane, I was confident going into the race but perhaps I wasn’t even going to be in the race. I thought I was going to be back with Mark and obviously just the way the race turned out. I came out behind someone and I think Sebastian came past me at one stage. I wanted to pit at one stage and Jenson was pitting so I couldn’t pit as he was pitting. I had to try and keep things up and I was just able to pull through several cars. I couldn’t believe I was catching Sebastian. He was doing a great job to stay ahead. He put up a very, very fair and strong fight and I am very happy I was able to get by.

Q: Was it an enjoyable race for you as it was for us?
LH: It was absolutely, every inch of the race, every second, was incredibly enjoyable. I love being able to fight with different drivers and have the battles and have them at their best. I really felt that today. Whilst the tyres were going off on some of the cars I felt they were really performing and driving very well to defend their position, so it made that even more exciting.

Q: Sebastian, there was only one retirement. Can I ask you about traffic. Was it really busy out there?
SV: As usual I would say. The track is fairly long so it spreads out, but it depends which cars you talk about. There are some cars you come across a bit more often than others so it wasn’t too busy.

Q: After your run of wins is second a disappointment?
SV: To be honest I don’t think so. I have not seen all that happened but from the bit that I saw I think there is a very important lesson to be learnt today. The strategy that I picked was not the one that was meant to be the best but these things happen. You never know until you cross the line. If the race is a little bit shorter, if the tyres are holding, we are talking two laps every stint holding together a little bit more, then it could be different. But in the end I was struggling a lot. You just wait to turn the car around, wait to get on power as you haven’t got much tyres left. It was quite a nice fight with Lewis, twice down the long straight I was able to just stay ahead and also for the next corner but I saw that there were seven laps to go so not much that I could do. To be honest I was quite surprised by his move into turn seven. I think he did a very good there and surprised me. Congratulations to them. I think we have given it our best and I don’t see second today as a disappointment. Mark proved the car was very quick today. For us with a different strategy you cannot always show everything you have. First stint I was very happy. Even though we lost the start, being third, I had the feeling I could have gone a bit longer but for strategy reasons you pit earlier. But all in all we are happy with second. First was not meant to be so second is the best we could do today.

Q: Looking at the start, did you use KERS at the start?
SV: I did, but to be honest, my initial launch was not 100 per cent. I probably had problems to really start going; you feel that inside the car. It’s hard to wait then and I was probably a bit too aggressive later on. You can’t use KERS straight away, you have to wait until you reach 100kph, so I saw that I immediately lost a position to Jenson, which wasn’t nice and then Lewis behind. I tried to defend hard into turn one, but at some point you have to give up and let the guy go. As I said, in general, the fight with him today was very fair. It was quite entertaining and good fun from that side.

Q: Mark, a phenomenal drive all the way up from 18th on the grid. Was it enjoyable for you?
MW: It was obviously a very interesting Grand Prix for me. We decided to get rid of the hard tyre in the first stint because we knew we were going to be in a bit of traffic. That worked out well, the guys made the best decision there to… it was their call to start on the prime and that worked out well. Well, I went off the track in turn one, I was struggling with the tyre and I thought “my God, this day is getting difficult” so I just kept my head down and focused on the next corner to give it everything. The guys did a good job in the pit stops; the first one was not the best, but after that they did a very, very good job. I got a bit lucky today – we didn’t have so much yesterday, but hey, look, I’ll take as much as I can get. I still had to do a little bit of driving today so it wasn’t too bad, so thanks to the guys.

Q: And a fair amount of racing; you could have done with a few more retirements rather than one, couldn’t you?
MW: Absolutely. I was looking for more yellow flags, a few more retirements, a couple of Vodafone cars pulled over but nothing, no yellow flags, I had to pass everybody. Yeah, I really earned it today, I think. I think the DRS position was pretty good for the race, in terms of overtaking. Maybe we need to look at top gear for the sport, to get that right between low and high fuel, because sometimes it’s hard. We have DRS but we’re on the limiter. The DRS, basically, sometimes doesn’t work because you have the wrong top gear, it’s the same for everyone. So anyway, we learned quite a bit today, a great result for the team, second and third. Congratulations to Lewis, they got the race.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Wang Wenfei - Titan Sports) Sebastian, you were leading and I wonder if you remember what the team told you on the radio on lap 29, and are you going to change the nickname of your car to get more luck in the race?
SV: Whether I remember on lap 29 what the team told me over the radio? And if I’m still happy with the name of the car? No, I think we have to keep our feet on the ground. I do. We’ve had three races, we’ve finished first, first and second. There’s not a lot of room for improvements. Obviously, today, we could have been one step better but Lewis and McLaren were too strong and not within reach for us, with the strategy that we used today. I’m very happy. To be honest, with the radio, I have no clue what I was told because some bits I heard, other bits I didn’t. As I said, I think they asked some questions, didn’t get any answer and the other way around. Sometimes it worked. Fortunately, the pit board was always there, and looking for the pit stops, I got the call to box. But these days, with the racing that we have, it’s quite important to have the communications and if one step doesn’t work it’s not really a pleasure. As I said, I’m happy with the name of the car. She behaves well.

Q:(Michael Schmidt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Sebastian, if you had been first at the start, would you have done a three-stop strategy and secondly, what did you think when, at the first pit stop, Jenson Button tried to park in your spot?
SV: If we could have stayed ahead at the start I think the race could have been different, probably not the first two or three laps but after that I felt quite comfortable in the position that I was. On the other hand, you obviously need to remember that Jenson, who was leading at that stage, is not able to use the DRS. I was always fairly close to Lewis and it is around half a second that you gain just by doing that. But as I said earlier, I had the feeling that I could have gone longer but there was no point, for strategy reasons. So, if we would have stayed ahead, we would probably have been able to pull a gap and then react to the people behind, too, and then maybe it would have been a bit more clear to us – what to do, two stops or three stops. The first time I came in I was fairly close to Jenson, obviously he was the race leader. I just got past Lewis on the back straight and came in to pit and I thought “what’s going on”, because I looked at my box, but I have to say, I stayed quite calm. He pulled over and into my slot, so I was just hoping for the front jack man to react and to indicate to him to keep going, you’re wrong. I lost a little bit of time because I waited, I didn’t want to stop then and then go again. Fortunately, Jenson realised and I could do my pit stop. It’s not easy for the guys, as I said earlier, it’s very easy to lose the rhythm, wrong car and imagine if they’ve changed the tyres. Then it’s a big mess and I have to go one spot further to McLaren and ask them: ‘hello’. If I would have come in at the same time with Lewis and if he was supposed to get his new set it would have been nice, but that way, no way.
LH: I would have got tyres.
SV: From my team or from…
LH: Yeah, yeah, from your team.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, how much does the KERS affect your result today?
SV: We had some trouble in the race and for the majority of the race, unfortunately, we had to do without KERS, so the first stint was fine but then we lost it fairly early after that. Yes, it’s a big hit, obviously. Here you have the long straight, the back straight, where it has a big effect, so it surely doesn’t help if you try to pull away.

Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Sebastian and Mark, obviously the KERS problems have been there during the first three races: how important is it that the team gets these problems sorted out as soon as possible, especially with McLaren getting stronger by the race?
MW: Yeah, it’s a key component in Formula One these days, mate, so it’s completely obvious that we want to address it as soon as possible. McLaren have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes from 2009 and they’re doing a good job of it, and that’s not an excuse, it means that we have to work harder, we have to work as cleverly as we can and as fast as we can. Fortunately, we now have a bit of a break, so it will be a clear focus for us in terms of durability and consistency and also understanding the system. It’s not only a performance thing but it’s also incredibly disrupting in the garage for… my car was rebuilt about four times this weekend. It makes it so much harder for them in terms of making mistakes, when you open a car up and put it back together all the time, it’s not easy. We have awesome guys on the case. As I say, with the limited experience we have, that’s the way it is and we’re still going OK in the Constructors’ championship, I think, so let’s regroup, get to Turkey and work hard on it.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News) Mark, a mega race, tons of passes, a bunch of fastest laps, does this make your top 10 list?
MW: It’s a different type of racing, Dan. There were some phenomenal races even when you drive for smaller teams, but today worked out for me. I had a good feeling from the middle part of the race to 60-70 per cent of the way through the race that things were starting to come to us, so it’s easy to sit here and say yeah, it was phenomenal, top-three drive, overdone, rah rah rah, but in the end, that’s my job, mate, isn’t it? You’ve just got to (get your) head down, arse up and get into it – so that’s what I did.

Q: (Stephane Barbe – L’Equipe) Lewis, could you describe your move on Jenson?
LH: Ummm. I don’t remember it. I can’t remember it. I’m in a daze right now. Where did I overtake him? First corner. Yeah, I remember now. I’m not joking. Jenson seemed to… I think it was on our last or second stint and basically I was able to catch him. I had my new tyres which, as I said in qualifying, I was able to save and they just seemed to hold on a little bit longer than Jenson’s, so I was able to close the gap and I knew that I had a pit stop coming up, so I was able to push quite hard in those last few laps and I was very, very good on the brakes into turn 14, very close on the way up to turn 16 and I was able to get a real good tow from him out of the last corner. I’m not sure whether he expected me to go on the inside there into turn one but, fortunately, he left me enough space and I was able to capitalise on that and he put up a fair fight but there was nowhere really for him to go, because I was fully up alongside him. It was a great move and a great little battle. As I said, just with everyone generally, I had really good fights with everyone. None of them made it easy and that’s the kind of racing I love, so I think that’s why it feels even better than perhaps it’s felt in the past.

Q:(Michael Schmidt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Lewis, would you say that the tyres saved yesterday were the key to your race win today?
LH: I don’t think that was the only thing. I think all my tyres were in good condition. I think it’s always a combination of things but that definitely did help. Without that, I wouldn’t have overtaken Jenson. It would have been hard to get close enough. But, obviously, I had quite a lot of key moments through the stints in which I needed to really maximise and I think today… in some races you’re able to maximise and things just go the way you want it to go and then in some other races, some parts of it will go well and then one part you’re a bit unfortunate. I had a close coming together with Pérez, I think, at turn one, I think it was. I was coming out of the pits and he cut across and touched my wing, I think, or my tyre. I thought I had a flat spot or a flat tyre but otherwise, just cool fighting.

Q: (Bo Zhao – Wenhuibao) Lewis, there is an interesting phenomenon in Shanghai in that there are seven champions here. Not one seems to have been able to repeat their victory here, but you have broken that deadlock. How do you value that? This time you see more and more fans coming to watch the race; do you want to say something to them?
LH: Absolutely, and I think that’s a good point. Coming into this weekend and coming here, every year I’ve come here since 2007, I’ve come here and I’ve had the fans, who are just incredible. While the grandstands aren’t as full as we would like, perhaps, but every time I arrive at the airport, I’ve got fans standing there waiting. I think it started off with maybe one or two at the beginning and each year it gets a little bit more. Their support is just incredible and you go back to the hotel, they might be outside the restaurant, they’re back at the hotel when you come from the restaurant, they’re there before you leave in the morning and when you come back, it’s absolutely unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve had great letters that are read each night from several of the fans that give me a letter outside, and also gifts. Every day, I spend a little bit of time with them, try to give as much time to them. But that gives energy to me. They’ve not been overbearing or anything, they’ve been really supportive but that’s also the same of my fans around the world, I’m so appreciative of the support we get. It makes a big difference. I don’t know how it is for everyone but definitely for me.
In my long answer, I was trying to say that this weekend some of the fans said “can you make it two?” and I said: “I will do absolutely everything I can” but obviously I was on P3, it was going to be a very tough race, but you can never ever imagine a race like today and what happened throughout the race and even before the race, so I feel very, very blessed to be sitting here, very, very happy.

More at Motorsport Total and Redbull Motorsports

Credits: FIA Press Release

Australian GP - Press Conference

2011-03-25T14:26:00.000-06:00

Australian GP - Press Conference, 25/03/2011. Drivers present: Jérôme D’Ambrosio (Virgin), Nick HEIDFELD (Renault), Sergio Perez Mendoza (Sauber), Paul di RESTA (Force India), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull)
Q: Sergio, how did things go for you today? What are your first impressions?
Sergio MENDOZA: I think it was a good day. I felt comfortable towards the end of the session. Tomorrow I need to improve a bit more. Apart from this I think it is a good first day and hopefully tomorrow can go the same way.

Q: This is your first grand prix, although I am sure you have been to grands prix before with GP2 et cetera, what is your first impression of it?
SM: It is very tough, it is very difficult to get the most out of it with the traffic, with the tyres, with all the things you have to be moving which I was not used to. In GP2 you do not have to move anything like this. It is very critical not to get everything right for just one lap but to be consistent as well, so it is quite a big step but overall I am comfortable.

Q: What’s the most different thing from GP2 for you?
SM: I would say the amount of things you do have. Not only inside of the car, out of the car you have also a lot of people around you. You have to be very focused to be right and don’t do any mistakes as it is very easy to do mistakes. You are very busy moving a lot of things on the steering wheel which I was not used to. You have to worry about the tyres, it is a big package. It is not only one thing, I think it is a bigger picture.

Q: Obviously a good time today.
SM: Yes, today was good day for me.

Q: Paul, you were also quicker than your team-mate as well. Your feelings about today?
PdiR: Again, it is quite difficult to come to your first grand prix. I obviously sat out FP1. Nico (Hulkenberg) was in the car and session two was quite tricky with the weather. Also the traffic, just trying to get some clear laps to give me a good idea going into tomorrow. I think it was quite positive. We ran through the programme we had to so we will certainly need to sit down and analyse it and try just to improve upon myself where I think most of the time will be.

Q: As you say, you sat out the morning session. That must have been quite difficult but on the other hand you had your morning session a year ago.
PdiR: Yeah, the morning session is a bit different. It gives you a bit more time. When you go out with all these guys and they are all up to speed a bit quicker, you obviously have to pace yourself a bit. But it is my first grand prix so I have to work from the bottom and try and work my way to the top. Every lap around Melbourne is key. You can quite easily make a mistake. I had to get through the programme going into tomorrow.

Q: How different for you is Formula One this year from last year?
PdiR: It is quite different. Thankfully I was able to go to all the grands prix last year and also take part in some of the testing in FP1 so it is not that new to me. But at the same time there is extra pressure, extra demands on you as a race driver. But you know what the case is when you take this job. I want to stay very focussed and put the effort in and keep a long-term relationship in Formula One and also with the team.

Q: A lot of people would say you were a touring car driver and now you are a single seater driver. That perhaps is over-extending it, but how different are the cars?
PdiR: They are quite different, there is no denying it. But Formula One has always been my dream to get here. It is the car I want to drive. You can’t really compare them. They are both at a different level. Equally I enjoyed racing DTM with Mercedes-Benz. I had four great years there. I think it has prepared me well but this step is also very big and only time will tell how the transition is. But relatively, up until now, I feel quite confident, quite comfortable. I need to put a lot of effort in and work up.

Q: Jérôme, how was today for you. It seemed to be fairly simple but not necessarily, particularly quick at the moment?
JD’A: Well it was a good day for us. Obviously we need to work hard. It is not easy, but we made progress throughout the day and for us in this situation the most important thing in the end is to get better every time we hit the track. That was our case between the two sessions. I believe it will be the case also for tomorrow so this is the main thing really.

Q: This is your first full season of Formula One, but you have driven Formula One cars quite a lot haven’t you?
JD’A: About four morning sessions last year and then the Abu Dhabi rookie days. That was some experience. It was good for me to get up to speed in the winter testing. Last year I didn’t know the buttons and the steering wheel. It is quite complicated with Formula One. But then a race weekend is obviously very different. It is something new. Being quick over a test day is not the same thing. I have got many things to learn from Timo (Glock) so I am really lucky to have him beside me this year so I can learn a lot.

Q: You did the Renault demonstrations as well?
JD’A: Yes.

Q: Which must have been fun anyway?
JD’A: That was fun. That was donuts things. Now I know how to do donuts in a Formula One car, but hopefully I won’t have to use it in a grand prix weekend.

Q: How much of a worry is the 107 per cent rule as you were outside of that today?
JD’A: Well it is really nothing I should worry about as that is not going to be anything productive. The only thing I can do, and we all can do as a team, is to focus on getting the best out of what we have now. We will progress and we will get better but for now, for this weekend, we just have to focus on getting the best out of the package and that is the only thing which will bring us to a result that will hopefully be in the 107.

Q: Your aim for the season?
JD’A: It is difficult to give an aim in terms of results or points or things like that, quite concrete. There is a lot of data missing for that. I think for me I need to learn a lot from Timo and get as close to him as possible through the season. Get closer and closer and that’s the main things really.

Q: Sebastian, World Champion of course. How have things changed for you in 12 months.
Sebastian VETTEL: Well in terms of how I approach the first race nothing has changed. It is Friday afternoon, it is a very busy day and I cannot be in the garage now, I have to be here so potentially it is the worst possible moment of the weekend to answer your question unless you can answer me which ratios we put in the car or those sorts of things. But as I said in terms of approach, how you come here, what you want to achieve, nothing has changed. Looking back it makes me very happy and very proud. I think that is the same for everyone in the team as well. We enjoy where we are at the moment, but we know as well we have zero points at this stage just like everybody else.

Q: Looking at the various changes in Formula One. First of all the tyres, how different are the two types of tyres after today’s sessions.
SV: Well they are different. I think it was good finally to come here and start the season and race on a different track. All winter we have been in Barcelona and I think we know it inside out and we know exactly what the tyres do. Today we were, I wouldn’t say surprised, but in a way probably surprised as the tyre behaviour is different. No doubt compared to last year the tyres are different. You cannot compare. There is a big difference. But I think we expected worse conditions here in terms of how long the tyres last et cetera. I think this morning and this afternoon was quite useful and helped us understand what to do in the race on Sunday. So far I think it is positive. Still we cannot race with one stop only. I think we have to come in a couple of times so ultimately we will find out on Sunday if the track improves or not as it is also something we have seen in the test. In four days running the track does not rubber in so we will see how it is here, different tarmac, different track, different lay-out, different conditions but so far we are positively surprised.

Q: What about the Drag Reduction System. It was very interesting watching you how much you use the DRS in one lap today.
SV: Well I think it is not just me it is all the others as well.

Q: No, I don’t think so. I think you used it more than anyone.
SV: Yeah, I don’t think the others need to wake up. We said it often enough that it works in a similar manner to the F-Duct and surely it keeps us busy. Melbourne is a rough track with a lot of bumps, lot of corners and you really feel the speed here in some corners and you don’t have much time between the corners. Everything is following up quickly so it keeps you busy. Similar to the F-Duct, you try to work on it as soon as you can to try to get the biggest benefit. I would be surprised if everyone else is much later operating it. I think that is partly what we have been talking about pre-season and not all of us yet probably do understand. As you can see and as you said it was the first time a lot of people got to see it. Qualifying and practice is very different to a race as in a race ideally you use it once a lap or maybe twice, but you know where and how so it is quite different to practice conditions.

Q: How do you balance using that with using KERS as well?
SV: Yes, you have to do that on top so there is no real balance. Either you do both...

Q: Have you got enough thumbs?
SV: It is up to us, the teams and drivers to find a lay-out that suits you. Nevertheless whatever part you use or if you use your thumb, another finger. Elbow hasn’t come in yet. But you need to find a way according to your liking. It depends or it varies between the drivers. Just practice and get used to it. But I think all of us, you are very busy, with both of those things plus driving. Now imagine the phone rings, then the next wall is very close.

Q: Nick, good to see you but in sad circumstances. I believe you have something on your helmet to acknowledge Robert?
Nick HEIDFELD: Yes, I have his initials, RK, on the front of my helmet.

Q: It was obviously a late change for you to take over his seat. You were obviously working with Pirelli before then as a test driver; how much of an advantage was that?
NH: Well, I think one thing that could have been an advantage was that I helped in the early part of development on the construction, so at least that should have been something that suited me well. I wasn’t there when they developed the compounds and what I found out in testing was that I had no advantage at all in knowing how to set up the car, because you can imagine that when you develop a tyre you don’t try adjusting the set-up, you just put on new tyres, new tyres, new tyres all the time and we didn’t actually touch the set-up.

Q: So how did things go today?
NH: It was OK. It could have been better, could have been worse. We had some small issues on the car, didn’t do all the mileage we wanted but most importantly we learned quite a bit. You spoke about the tyres before with Sebastian; I also thought it was quite interesting. From testing in the winter we thought the soft tyres would only last one lap. I did my quickest lap here today on the second lap; the third lap wasn’t too bad either so this hopefully makes qualifying a bit less of a problem, because we will see more pit stops. And then on top of that, we see that the lap time difference between hard and soft tyres is quite big, huge - at least, compared to last year. That means that maybe only the very quick cars like the Red Bull may be able to use the hard tyres and save some soft tyres, but most other cars will already have to use soft tyres in Q1 to get through. That means that you only have two sets left for later on which you might also have to use in the race, so it makes things very different, quite interesting and complicated.

Q: And obviously if you get through to Q3, you’re probably going to be on soft tyres, you’ve got to start the race on soft tyres.
NH: Yes, definitely. It’s the same as last year. Of course they will last a bit longer but I don’t think that is the big issue; the big question is how many stops is it after that? On simulations, in winter testing in Barcelona, we’ve seen most cars and people doing three stops but you also saw that their lap times became quite slow towards the end of the stint. That was just to find out where the limit is. So it might be that in a real race situation you would have seen four stops. That, again, will be interesting to see. Today’s degradation was obviously a lot better but it should spice up the racing. It will be interesting to see how difficult it is to overtake during the race. It’s going to be new for everybody.

Q: And also there’s the possibility of better weather on Saturday, increased track temperatures as well. How much of a difference will that make?
NH: Nobody knows, because it wasn’t that hot in winter testing. Some people believe that with higher temperatures we will see the circuit improving and the rubber sticking to the surface for once. Now we just see marbles off-line, which might also make overtaking more difficult, but as Sebastian said, throughout winter testing the circuit was pretty much the same from day one to the end.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Nick how difficult was it to find your way back to Formula One in such a short time, and do you feel happy to be there, just as you were in other teams?
NH: Well, of course I’m extremely excited – as we’ve discussed – I’ve said many times that this is not the circumstances I wished for, with Robert’s really, really bad accident, but the team has made it very easy for me. They were very open right from the beginning and I only missed one test so I missed two days of driving. What I missed more was being with the team but the time that I’ve had up to now was enough to make up for that. I was probably a bit busier than the others in those early weeks but now I think I’ve caught up.

Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Nick, we were normally used to seeing Robert in front of Vitaly in FP1, 2, 3, qualifying etc last year. Do you think it’s going to happen to you too? Do you have the same level as Robert? How do you see it?
NH: Well, I guess you asked the question because you saw that in P1 I was not in front of Vitaly but of course I will try to do my best, to do the best performance I can. I’m quite confident that I will be able to do that and will show some good performance.

Q: (Andreas Gröbl - Osterreich) I have a question for Sebastian and Nick, maybe. Sebastian was talking about gear ratios before. Can you give us an idea as to how much the new drag reduction system influences gear ratios, in particular your highest gear? And if so, does that compromise you on straights where you’re not using the system?
SV: Basically, that’s the reason why we use it in qualifying and practice. Obviously, as I touched on earlier, it’s like the question why you have to operate it for all of the lap whereas you only have it available at one or two sections of the track in the race. So it would be useful to have the same regulations in qualifying and practice as in the race but that’s not the case. The reason why we’re allowed to use it at all in qualifying and practice is because otherwise we would probably select a different gear – top gear especially in the car – which then would not allow us to overtake because we would be sitting on the limiter as soon as we stalled the wing. So that is obviously the background, so to have the ability in practice and qualifying, to have similar ratios to in the race, working in the same range, so of course, that’s the first time we are now having to make this decision and it’s extremely important. Obviously the engineers can do a lot of work, but I think the driver is still very, very important and his input is as well. Practice just finished half an hour ago, that’s why, to be honest, I’m not so happy to be here now unless, as I said, you can give me an answer on our gear ratios.

Q: (Gert Vermersch – Het Nieuwsblad) Question to all drivers: the moveable wing was introduced to improve overtaking: did anyone of you use it to overtake somebody, and if yes, was it easier?
NH: Didn’t.
SV: Basically I tried, did not succeed. I tried but it was not enough to get past. In the end, that’s a good thing because you don’t want racing to be artificial, but to really answer this question I think we have to wait until Sunday when everyone is on similarly aged tyres and the same fuel load.
JD’A: I wasn’t really in a position to try, I guess.
PdiR: I think a lot of people have been using the DRS through most of their runs to try and get data on it. In testing, you can’t really get an idea when one car is not using it and one car is allowed to use it.
SP: I didn’t try it.

Q: (Thierry Wilmotte – Le Soir) Sebastian, you have a lot of rookies around you. Do you remember your first Grand Prix and do you have some advice to give to them?
SV: Of course I remember, it wasn’t that long ago. I raced with Paul, for instance, in Formula 3. I might have been in Formula One now for a couple of years but it wasn’t that long ago that my memory has suffered. Yeah, it’s always difficult to give advice because everyone at the end of the day has his own style and needs to find his own way. It was a little bit the same when I came in. Of course I wanted to drive as fast as the guys who were winning races but sometimes you have to accept that you’re probably not in the car to win races or finish on the podium, so really I think you need to find your own way and your own happiness, I guess. In the end, I did enjoy racing when I came into Formula One, my first race with BMW and then with Toro Rosso, even though I finished 17th or 12th in some races and obviously I do enjoy it now. I think that’s the most important thing.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Sebastian, you mentioned about Paul being your former teammate. He, of course, beat you that particular year…
SV: Thanks for mentioning it!
…are you surprised that it’s taken him so long to get to Formula One? Obviously you went down very different routes after that season, and now that he’s here, what does it meant to have him here?
SV: I had the chance, obviously, to get to know him in ’06 and get used to his Scottish accent. Yes, so I understand him now! As I said, routes can be very different and in the end you have to find your own way, so I think it was quite exceptional the way he came into Formula One finally. I think he rightly deserves to be here. He’s quick enough, he’s proven that many times in DTM and before. I’m not again mentioning… you did it already. You know what happened in 2006 when I finished second. It’s good to have him here and I think we have a lot of young drivers now, but one day we might have old drivers again so if we all get old, we still want to be here and we don’t want new drivers to come in. I’m happy for every single one that has made the step because you know yourself just how hard it is. If you ask Nick the same question, he remembers very well. It never goes according to plan, even though from the outside it might always look easy for some of the people, I don’t think anyone had an easy route to get into Formula One. A lot of things have to turn your way.

Q: (Matthew Cochinos – Pitpass.com) Jérôme, the fact that you’re flirting with the 107 percent rule come qualifying tomorrow, has the comparative lack of performance in the car surprised you or caught the team unawares?
JD’A: Obviously we worked quite hard throughout the whole winter and we probably hoped for better progress but in the end, Formula One is tough, it’s a high level competition and we improved a lot compared to last year. Obviously you guys only see performance, but there are a lot of things that go around that like reliability and things like that. We did make progress – obviously we would like to be quicker but again, sometimes it doesn’t go exactly according to your plan and you’ve got to work hard to catch up and I’m sure we will do it, but we can only get better.

Q: (Luis Aguirre – Grupo Reforma, Mexico) Sergio, could you tell us a little bit about your first day in Formula One at a grand prix, and are you surprised to see you name in eighth position, and how real is this eighth position for you?
SP: I have to say it was really a good day for me because in the morning it wasn’t so good, because I didn’t know the circuit and I also had some traffic, but I have to say that the second practice was real, if I compare it to my teammate. It was a good session. I learned quite a lot about the tyres. Around here is quite different to what I was used to in testing. The conditions are really different. Normally you get your lap on lap one but now you can take more laps to set a time, so this is really something I experienced today. What really matters is tomorrow in qualifying and the race. We are trying to get the most out of it for tomorrow and try to do a good qualifying.

Credits: Press release FIA - Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

F1 start of season

2011-03-24T23:11:00.002-06:00

Formula 1 season opener Albert Park Melbourne, Australia. The wait has been a little longer than anybody anticipated due to the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but on Friday morning Formula One will be back on track in Australia. For the fans the past two weeks have been made all the more agonizing by the amount of unanswered questions building up over the winter. Will the regulation changes improve the racing? Is Mercedes really a front runner? How far is the McLaren off the pace? In Australia all the pre-season pontificating will finally be put straight by some cold, hard results.

Red Bull has been used as the measurement of performance by most the other teams on the grid during pre-season testing this year.
The car promises to be as quick as last 2010's championship-winning RB6 and, judging by its sizeable winter mileage, even more reliable. It's ominous news for Red Bull's rivals but we've yet to see the RB7 on low-fuel, making it difficult to tell exactly where it stacks up in comparison to the Ferrari and all the other cars snapping at its heels.

There's no hiding from the fact that McLaren's pre-season testing has not gone to plan. The car was unreliable and, according to team boss Martin Whitmarsh, one second off the pace at the final test at Barcelona. Put simply, McLaren appears to have been a little overambitious with its 2011 car and the fact it launched at the second test while its rivals ran at the first didn't help. The team could still surprise everyone with its planned upgrade in Australia, but the chances are that it will head to Europe playing catch-up after the early-season flyaways.

Nico Rosberg had a hugely impressive 2010 season, beating team-mate Michael Schumacher by 70 points and taking three podiums. This year he should have an even more competitive car and Albert Park is a circuit that he has always been strong at. A win will be a bit of a stretch, but he's worth keeping an eye on as media attention again turns to Schumacher ahead of a crucial point in his comeback.

Tires - Pirelli has delivered on its promise to take a more aggressive approach to tyre development and has produced a range of compounds that degrade very quickly compared to last year's Bridgestones. We are expecting the hard tyres to last no more than 25 laps while the softs may only be good for 10-15 laps, meaning drivers will have to complete at least two pits stops but are more likely to opt for three. Timing the pit stops correctly will be crucial as lap times were rocketing upwards when the rubber went past its best in testing.

Built around a man-made lake and using public roads, Albert Park is one of F1's most popular venues (Find a map and info at Racing Maps F1 Circuits page here). While overtaking is limited to turns one and three (and even those are at a push), there are plenty of opportunities for drivers to make mistakes. An abundance of gravel traps rather than concrete run-off areas restricts the margin for error even further.

Content credits: ESPN F1

Nick Heidfeld Q&A: I’ve done a good job for Renault

2011-02-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

Formula One veteran Nick Heidfeld looks set to make an unexpected return to the grid in 2011 after an impressive Saturday test outing at Jerez for Renault, the team in the unfortunate position of needing a stand-in for injured star driver Robert Kubica. Heidfeld and team principal Eric Boullier were seen locked in deep conversation over the lunch break, the body language of both very positive. Add to this the fact that the German topped the timesheets at the end of the day and the guess must be that we’ll be seeing much more of Heidfeld this season…

Q: Nick, today was something of a crucial day in your career. How did you deal with that?
Nick Heidfeld: As somebody lately said rightfully: I’ve been in such a situation before. So I naturally did the best I could to get me a future drive - but in the end it’s only testing and not racing so the team expects a profound feedback to enhance the car. That’s actually what I did. I think that the car was already different in the afternoon from where I’d picked it up in the morning. I think we’ve improved it over the course of a test session.

Q: So you have the impression that it was a good working situation?
NH: Yes, we have already started to improve the car and tried to detect where the strengths and the weaknesses are.

Q: Does that mean you walk away from this test with the confidence that you’ve given your best - and that it is now up to the team to make up their minds?
NH: I have been pretty pleased with how it went today and I have not let thoughts about their possible decision distract me from performing. It does not help to think about what they might tell you when you get out of the car - it simply takes away concentration.

Q: But must not the dice fall in your favour? After 15 laps you’d already been faster by six-tenths than possible team mate Vitaly Petrov. Doesn’t that speak for itself?
NH: The question is what others would have done after 15 laps. But yes, I think I’ve done a good job. What others interpret into that time is not up to me - and it is always the same thing: we don’t know what programme Vitaly was running on.

Q: Can you sum up this last week, from last Sunday morning when you were pretty sure that F1 would go on without you this year, to this very moment when you had the chance to deliver a good performance in Jerez on Saturday afternoon?
NH: The first news was that I saw on the internet that Robert had an accident in Italy last Sunday. First the talk was that he had injured his leg. The first thought of course was that I hoped that it is not too bad. The second thought then was probably I could step in for him. I was locked into the internet to find out what was going on and the real unhappy aspect was that if it is worse for him it could be better for me. This is a very oppressive feeling. You don’t want anything bad for someone. On the other hand it can mean a real chance for yourself.

Q: When did the team get in contact with you?
NH: I want to point out that the team contacted me, and not vice versa. I know that some drivers contacted the team. On Tuesday I was already visiting the team in Enstone and was speaking with Eric and the engineers - but no seat fitting then. The seat was done in Jerez in two nights because during the days Vitaly was driving. The first night - Thursday - we were working until 3am, and on Friday until 2am. On Wednesday I was heading home to get my license - as a Formula One license at that time was not very high on the agenda - and from one moment to the other it became a paramount issue.

Q: Was there anything else on your agenda for this season had there not been Robert’s accident?
NH: We’ve been speaking with Mercedes GP for the same position as last year: test and reserve driver. Sure, you start to think about other options. DTM was on my list - I thought that this could be something - but clearly F1 was always my priority.

Q: You seem to attract precarious situations. Was there ever the fear that this was it for you in F1?
NH: Fear no, worries yes. Naturally there was the chance that I might end up without any position in F1, but then I would have worked to get back in the course of the season - just like I did last year.

Sebastian Vettel is F1 drivers champion

2010-11-14T08:34:00.002-07:00

Red Bull F1 driver Sebastian Vettel has driven a flawless race from Pole position to win Formula One's 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2010 F1 drivers championship in thrilling fashion. It is his fifth win of the 2010 Formula One season, and 10th of his F1 career. It was also his 19th podium of his career.
With the victory, Vettel is the youngest World Champion in history at 23 years, 134 days, beating Lewis Hamilton (2008) who took the honor from Fernando Alonso. For Red Bull it is there 9th win of the 2010 season, and further enhances their constructors championship efforts.
In the end, no team orders were required as Sebastian Vettel drove a perfect qualifying followed by a perfect race.
All of the misfortune he found early in the season was finally overcome at the very last moment - the season finale.

An emotional Vettel said of his win & world championship, "Thank you boys I love you all!" Red Bull Boss Christian Horner screamed back to him "You are the world champion! World Champion!"
Horner continued, "It's unbelievable, this is the first time Sebastian has led the world championship, and he's finally done it at the last race of the year!"

Vettel continued to celebrate saying, "I'm a bit speechless, I don't know what you are supposed to say in these moments. We've always believed in the team and the car. This morning I tried not to think about anything, and avoided contact with people. We only led this championship once, when it matters."

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished second putting up a great fight for his 9th podium of the season. Hamilton said, "It was a great result and finish to the season."
2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button put up a valiant fight despite being mathematically out of the championship. Button said, "I feel like I'm at home, and happy with the season. I think the experience we've gained this season will really build for next year."

Poor Alonso. Yes, it was Fernando who failed to get past a pesky Petrov powered by a Renault - and wrongly blamed the Russian - but it was the Ferrari pitwall who made the catastrophic decision to put him back in traffic. it was the wrong call.
Alonso said, "It was a frustrating race, and during the safety car Petrov and Rosberg pitted, they were difficult to overtake. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. If we hadn't have stopped, we believe that Webber wouldn't have passed us. Petrov drove very well with no mistakes. We are look forward to 2011 and winning more races and fighting for the championship."

For Red Bull Mark Webber - who many believe Red Bull should have declared as number one at least one race ago - lost the championship. Although Webber had chances today to redeem himself, he really lost the championship yesterday with a horrid qualifying of fifth. Webber was pushing hard during the race - even hitting the barrier at one point - but at no point showed he had the pace of Vettel. For Webber, this will be remembered as a season that might have been. But when the pressure rose to a precipitous peak... he failed to get the job done.

Michael Schumacher had a very scary incident on Lap 1 after battling with his teammate Nico Rosberg. The younger Mercedes driver had the inside of the turn, and Schumacher's Mercedes began to slide around leaving him facing on-coming traffic. Vitantonio Liuzzi and his Force India F1 car was unable to avoid the 7-time world champion and hit him nose-to-nose. Fortunately, the Force India chassis slide to Schumacher's right and just missed his helmeted head by inches as it rode up on top of the stricken Mercedes. Both Liuzzi, and Schumacher would walk away from the scene of the accident.

Driver and teams after the Brazilian Grand Prix

2010-11-09T01:41:00.001-07:00

Ferrari Fernando Alonso - 3rd: "All things considered, I am pleased with this result. We have only lost three points to our closest rival and, given how things turned out yesterday in qualifying, it went well: if this morning, I had been told it would finish like this, I would have happily signed for it! I want to congratulate Red Bull and Renault for the Constructors' title: to reach the top in just a few years is a great achievement. We were very cautious in the very first corners, because everyone was very aggressive and we did not want to risk touching anyone. Then, we immediately lost too much ground to Vettel and Webber: it took me several laps to get past Hulkenberg, while passing Hamilton is never easy. My race pace was good, as we had seen on Friday. When the safety car came out, we thought it might be an opportunity to attack, but there were too many backmarkers between me and Mark and it took too long to get past them: a shame , because at that point, the car was really very competitive.
Now, we go to Abu Dhabi: we know what we have to do and taking the title depends on us."

Felipe Massa - 15th: "Everything happened to me today and it is a real shame that I was unable to obtain the result that was within my grasp, even after yesterday's qualifying and by that I mean a good finish. When I went back out on track after the first stop I immediately felt that something was strange with the right front wheel and I had to come back to the pits immediately to change tyres again. From then on, my race was
pretty much over. Towards the end, the Safety Car presented me with an opportunity and in fact, I managed to make up a few places. Then came the collision with Buemi which knocked me back again and, with the cars that had to lap me, several times I lost contact with the drivers I was fighting for position. When I had a clear track ahead of me, I managed to do competitive lap times, which confirms that the potential was there. I would have liked to have been fighting it out at the front here, but it wasn't possible: I will try and make up for it in Abu Dhabi at the final race. We still have a very important target to reach and we will do our utmost to succeed in that."

Stefano Domenicali: "First of all, I want to congratulate Red Bull Racing and Renault for taking the Constructors' Championship title, which is a very important achievement. We said the Drivers' title would go down to the final race and we will now arrive in Abu Dhabi with Fernando currently heading the classification. We knew it would be a hard task to bring home the title, as our main rivals are very strong and they demonstrated that once again this afternoon. Now we face eight crucial days. We know what we have to do and we will prepare everything with the maximum attention to detail: each one of us knows we have to give a hundred percent at our specific tasks and, maybe even a little bit more. As for the race, I think Fernando did the most he could after yesterday's qualifying: his opening laps were exceptional and he managed to pass first Hamilton and then Hulkenberg in decisive fashion, but without taking excessive risks. Then he had to manage his race and he did that in impeccable fashion, even after the Safety Car, when the situation could have turned out to be very tricky. Felipe was unlucky at his pit stop, when a problem in fitting the front right meant he had to come straight back in for another tyre change. That was a shame as he could have finished in a good position. Lastly, I would like to thank the Brazilian crowd for their continued support: going into the race there was talk of the atmosphere being a bit tense for Ferrari. In fact there was nothing of the sort, confirming the great passion and sporting spirit of the fans in this country."

Force India
Adrian Sutil - 12th: An exciting race today and I really enjoyed it. After a reasonable start, I did the first part of the race on the harder tyres and it worked really well. I thought it would be difficult with the graining but after 20 laps the car just seemed to work better and better and I could set some competitive lap times. Then the safety car went out and we changed to the softer compound straight away. Then I tried to move up some places, but it was very hard to pass the Toro Rossos as they were unbelievably quick on the straight. I managed to pass at least Buemi and gain one position. From P22 on the grid I think P12 is very positive and I'm happy with that result and performance.

Tonio Liuzzi - DNF: "It was a good race until the accident, we were able to fight with a lot of cars. It was tough on the option tyres at the start but then in the middle part of the race I was able to put in some consistent and quick lap times. Unfortunately I had been struggling with the brakes all race and then going into the second corner something on the car let go and I couldn't turn in. The car just went straight on and into the barriers. We'll look into why this happened and make sure we understand the reasons fully. I'm OK after the accident though and am now looking forward to Abu Dhabi where I hope we can take the fight back to Williams."

Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer: "First of all, we must extend our congratulations to Red Bull on securing their first-ever Constructors' Championship. For us, we knew this would be a difficult race and to come away with 12th is a good effort considering our starting positions. Adrian again showed our strong race pace and Tonio put in lap times that matched those of the top ten until his retirement. Thankfully he is OK after the accident, and we'll look into the reason for this. We've got another race coming up very soon and although it's going to be a tough week with the travelling, we're going to keep fighting until the end."

HRT
Christian Klien - 22nd: "Unfortunately, the car stopped on the way to the grid due to fuel pressure problems. But the mechanics did a very good job and managed to fix the car so that we could go in the race after four laps. The race was a test for us in order to gain some race kilometers. The lap times were good and we could keep up with the pace of the other new teams. Due to the problems I had at the beginning, I had more fuel in the car but I could finish the race with constant lap times. I am happy to complete a race after Singapore again and I want to thank the team for giving me this opportunity and doing a great job all over the weekend."

Bruno Senna - 21st: "We had a strong race today and we finished just behind the other new teams. I am very satisfied with the result I could achieve at my first Formula 1 race at home in Brazil. It was a good feeling before the race when the crowd was chanting and they gave me a lot of energy for the 71 laps. I am very thankful for the support of the fans and the team's good work. Now I am looking forward to the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi and I hope to perform well again."

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "Our race performance was very good today and better than expected. We could easily keep up with the other new teams pace. Christian Klien was unlucky as he had a fuel pressure problem on the way to the starting grid and had to stop the car at the pit lane exit. I want to say thank you to the mechanics who could repair the car and get it back onto the circuit after only four laps. Bruno Senna showed a good performance at his home Grand Prix and finished close behind the other new teams. We are now focusing on the finale of the season in Abu Dhabi and we hope to achieve another good result."

Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen - 18th: "It was a good race, probably the best we could have hoped for in the conditions today. I made a good start and passed Timo straight away which put me in a good position for the rest of the afternoon. I enjoyed it out there - I had a good battle with Jarno and Timo for quite a lot of the race, and as we neared the end Jarno was very close so I had to make sure I didn't make any mistakes and we could get both cars home. The important thing today is that we are now one race away from tenth and that will be the goal next weekend in Abu Dhabi."

Jarno Trulli - 19th: "Another very positive result for the team and I'm really happy I got to the end of the race! I had yet another small hydraulic issue, but good work from the guys in the garage managed that, and towards the end of the race I was able to push Heikki and end up just behind him. I didn't have a great start, I had a lot of wheelspin but pretty soon I was able to attack Timo and just as I was shaping up to pass him he pitted and I came out ahead of him after the stops. After that I caught up with Heikki and we then had a pretty comfortable run to the end of the race."

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "An excellent race for us after what has been a very good weekend. Congratulations to Red Bull for winning their first constructors' championship today, and for us it was a textbook race today. Heikki made a great start and went straight past Timo, and Jarno followed him past a few laps later. After that we were able to open a gap to our nearest rivals and maintain track position right to the end. It was a very professional race from the whole team and pushes us another step closer to tenth so we will be aiming to take that performance to Abu Dhabi and repeat it at the final race."

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton - 4th: "I pushed as hard as I could on every lap today, but this was a tough race for me. I actually feel quite lucky to have finished where I did. The car just didn't feel like it did in practice. I was even struggling to overtake the backmarkers in a straight line - Fernando [Alonso] shot past me at the start, too - and it almost felt like my F-duct wasn't working perfectly. I'm still in the hunt for the drivers' championship, but I'm 24 points down, so I have nothing to lose now. In Abu Dhabi I'll be doing everything I can to pull off the win I need, and hoping the other guys hit problems. As always, we won't give up and we'll keep on pushing. We've seen many times before that almost anything can happen in the last race of the season. It'll take a miracle - but miracles can happen!"

Jenson Button - 5th: "I had a great race today and had a lot of fun fighting my way through the field. We finally sorted the car out for the race, I had some pretty decent race pace, I made some great passing moves, and the team made a couple of perfect calls on strategy. From where I started, I couldn't have done any better, so it feels good to have finished fifth. Lewis can still win the drivers' world championship - but the top three drivers will have to fare badly for it to happen, so I guess it'll be difficult for him. For me, I'm out of it now, so I'll treat the final race much as I treated this one: I'll just have fun and try to enjoy it.I won the drivers' world championship in Brazil last year, and I lost it here this year. But, all in all, it's been a pretty good season. It was a learning year, and good practice for next year: I firmly believe we can really build on this for the 2011 season. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is a really strong team - in fact I don't think there's any team stronger than us."

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal: "The 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix was a tense and absorbing race. Fighter that he is, Lewis tried his damnedest to pass Nico [Hulkenberg] in the early laps, and very nearly pulled it off on a number of occasions, but lost quite a lot of time to the front-runners in the process. As a result, in the end, he wasn't able to improve on his starting position: fourth. Meanwhile, Jenson drove a typically canny race to move from 11th on the grid to fifth at the flag. Once the Safety Car had been deployed as a result of Vitantonio's [Liuzzi] shunt, we opted to bring both our drivers in for new tyres - a more or less risk-free strategy given that the gap back to Michael [Schumacher] had been sufficiently large for Lewis and Jenson to be able to rejoin the field without losing their fourth and fifth positions respectively. The rationale behind that decision was that, had the front-runners' older Primes begun to degrade in the final laps, our drivers would have been uniquely well placed to capitalise on that degradation. In the event there was very little such degradation, so our drivers derived no demonstrable benefit from their fresh rubber; but they suffered no disadvantage either, so it was well worth trying. More generally, Jenson lost the chance of retaining his drivers' world championship this afternoon, but he's been a superb team player all year and has made a great start to his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes career. He's already looking forward to doing better still in 2011. Lewis, by contrast, is one of four drivers who are still in contention for this year's drivers' world championship - and, although he faces a very tough task in order to prevail, he'll definitely be giving it everything he's got in Abu Dhabi in his efforts to become world champion for the second time in his career. Good fortune will have to play its part, and nothing short of a win will suffice, but it's by no means impossible. Last but not least, the battle for the constructors' world championship came to a finish today - and the victors were Red Bull Racing. Although in some ways it goes against the grain for me to say so, because our ethos at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is that winning is all, it's always refreshing when a new constructor's name is etched onto that famous trophy. So, on behalf of all at Woking, I'd like to offer congratulations to all at Milton Keynes."

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg - 6th: "I had a strong start today and when Michael pitted ahead of me, I had clear air and was able to make up positions thanks to our good strategy. >From then, it got a little chaotic but the team made a great call to get me on new rubber when the safety car came out. Unfortunately Jenson did the same and there was a lot of chaos with lapped cars so I wasn't able to make up any further positions. Michael let me past which was nice as he was on used rubber against my new tyres."

Michael Schumacher - 7th: "I had quite a good start today gaining two positions which unfortunately I lost again directly afterwards following my exit on the grass because of the fight with Robert. We then had good pace but with hindsight, my pit stop was maybe a little too early which left me stuck behind Adrian. Towards the end, I let Nico past when he was on fresh tyres as he had the better chance to fight Jenson in front of us. I look forward to Abu Dhabi now where I hope to have another encouraging race."

Ross Brawn: "We are pleased to get a solid double points finish with good drives from Nico and Michael today. It was frustrating to lose a place to Jenson in the early stops as we expected him to get held up with traffic but he did a good job to get through. We made all the right strategy calls today which enabled us to make up several places on cars ahead of us on the grid. We had a radio problem which caused confusion with the tyres at Nico's second stop however we boxed him again with no loss of position. It's good to have two cars scoring points but obviously we are not finishing where we would like to. Congratulations to Red Bull for taking our Constructors' title today and we will be after them next year."

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel - 1st: "We are the 2010 Constructors' Champions! Regards to everyone here and back in Milton Keynes, it's their achievement - we are one team and they can be very, very proud of what they have accomplished today. It has been a pleasure for me so far this year to drive that car. We have had ups and downs and many have given us a hard time, sometimes right and sometimes not, but we are always on the edge trying to make the car quicker, which is so good. We are always pushing to get updates, even when they only offer a little bit extra. Everyone matters in this team and I'm proud of them and also of myself today - we had a straightforward race, no issues and we were able to control it. There are a busy few days before the next race, but I think back in Milton Keynes and here in Brazil, there will be a couple of drinks tonight."

Mark Webber - 2nd: "Today is a sensational day for the team - for everyone in Milton Keynes, in Red Bull and for all our suppliers - the list goes on and on. We have won the Constructors' and done it with a dominant one-two finish after a tough weekend in Korea. So many people have worked so hard for this, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, Peter Prodromou, Rob Marshall, the boys in the race shop, the race bays… the list is endless - they all know who they are and it's a credit to all of them. We've had everything thrown at us this year - right-height systems, flexi wings - and at the end of the day we've won, which is a very big achievement. Looking to the Drivers' Championship I took a few points off Fernando today, so it's still all to play for in Abu Dhabi. The team's philosophy is that we race and we will work to that. Seb deserved the win today - it was a close fight. Both of us need to finish ahead of Fernando in Abu Dhabi, so let's see what happens there."

Christian Horner, Team Principal: "This is an unbelievable result. In six years this team has come from a team that no-one took seriously - that everyone thought was a party team - to the 2010 Formula One Constructors' Champions. We have finished ahead of teams with far more experience and heritage than ourselves - we took them on and we won. Thanks to the tremendous dedication of every single team member, to the incredible support from Red Bull and to the vision and unfaltering commitment from Mr. Mateschitz. It's a very proud day for everyone in the team and for everyone within Red Bull to have won the 2010 Formula One Constructors' Championship - and to do it in such dominant style, with our fourth one-two finish of the season, is very special. We've assembled a great group whose collective commitment and effort has delivered this result. Six and half years ago Mr. Mateschitz had a vision and today we have fulfilled it, it is an unbelievable feeling."

Renault
Robert Kubica - 9th: "It was a tough race this afternoon. I spent every lap in traffic but I didn't have enough of a performance advantage over Hülkenberg to get past: I was losing a lot of time in the low-speed corners, and I couldn't use our top speed advantage because I was stuck on the rev limiter for a long time on the main straight, so couldn't attack him. The other critical part of the race came just after my pit stop, when Hülkenberg and I were running behind my team-mate for a number of laps and we couldn't make the most of our fresh tyres, which cost me a position to Schumacher."

Vitaly Petrov - 16th: "I made a bad start and was in the middle of a big pack of cars in the first corner. I tried to give everybody space, then at turn two I took a normal line but had to take avoiding action to not hit Alguersuari and cause an accident. That put me on the kerb and I dropped to the back of the field by the time I exited turn three. After that, there was nothing I could do but try and push, do my normal race and make up positions wherever possible."

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "We knew that we would have a tough battle with the cars around us today, but we didn't take full advantage of our opportunities. Robert spent his entire afternoon in traffic and we weren't able to get him out of it with strategy, while Vitaly's race was essentially over on lap one. It's disappointing after showing good performance at different points of the weekend, but we will now focus on the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, and on finishing our season on a stronger note."

Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi - 10th: "My result isn't great but perhaps one point is okay for today. For me the start was okay but at the beginning of my long stint with the hard tyres I suffered from a lack of grip and lost positions. Then, when the Prime tyres were getting older, I got a lot of understeer. When I was on the fresh tyres I could overtake both Toro Rosso but overtaking was not easy this time. You need good straight line speed to overtake in the first corner and I really didn't have enough of that."

Nick Heidfeld - 17th "Finishing 17th is certainly disappointing. The race started actually quite good, I managed to overtake a few cars on the outside in lap one. Then I was in that bunch of cars behind Adrian Sutil but actually I had not quite the straight line speed to overtake. I was just outside the points when the safety car came out and so the team decided to gamble a bit and get me in for fresh tyres. However, with the drive through penalty the race was over anyway. The penalty was absolutely justified. I just didn't know that Nico (Rosberg) was lapping me. I had blue flags already when there were a couple of cars between us and when he was behind me I could not tell if they were for him. I had a lack of information, perhaps because the team hadn't the information either. I apologized to Nico straight after the race."

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "One point doesn't look like much, but Kamui fought very hard to finish tenth - this was a strong performance. Nick was unlucky, because he was stuck in traffic for much of the race. Then, after his second pit stop, he was penalized with a drive through penalty."

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari - 11th: "I think we can be quite satisfied with today's performance as I never expected to finish as high as eleventh in the dry conditions, as we lacked some top line speed. All the same, I had some good battles. With no retirements ahead of us, finishing three places higher than I started is the best we could have expected. Now I am looking forward to our last race of the season in Abu Dhabi and we only have a few days to wait, which is nice!"

Sebastien Buemi - 13th: "You can never be really happy with a thirteenth place finish, but all the same I think we did a reasonably good job today. I made a super start and got past three cars. Then on the second lap I also managed to get by Kobayashi. I think I ran at a good pace and I managed to fight off the guys coming up behind me. Towards the end on a one stop strategy, my tyres were very worn, so I was pleased I was still able to defend my position. Not a bad afternoon."

Franz Tost: "We started from fourteenth and nineteenth and finished eleventh and thirteenth and when the entire field bar one car finishes the race, it is hard to score points, so we can take some satisfaction from finishing in front of most our direct rivals today which is good. We were eleventh for most of the race and when the Safety Car appeared, we decided to leave both our cars out on track, giving the drivers the task of defending position against some runners on newer tyres. Jaime and Sebastien did a good job in the closing stages therefore, as indeed they did for the whole 71 laps. Congratulations to Red Bull Racing for winning the Constructors' title."

Virgin
Timo Glock - 20th: "Not a very exciting race today. I had quite a good start but unfortunately Petrov had made a mistake in turn two, went wide and I had to slow down, which enabled Kovalainen to overtake me on the outside. Then I was trying to follow Kovalainen but he was quicker and we did not have the pace to match them. We were not quick enough here and so it's disappointing to finish behind them in 20th position. We changed quite early from the Option tyre to the Prime, which meant that I had to run on the Prime tyre for 53 laps. However we head straight to Abu Dhabi now and hope for better things to enable us to end the season on a high."

Lucas di Grassi - Not classified: "I really enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere at Interlagos today. The Brazilian fans were incredible, the grandstands were full and it was an amazing experience. Unfortunately the race didn't go as planned. We had a mechanical problem since early in the race, which was getting worse and worse. We had to stop and investigate it because it was getting more and more difficult to drive the car. We realised though that the problem could be fixed and that is what we did, but by then my race was over and all I could do was get the car to the finish. I hope for a better race in Abu Dhabi where I will be pushing really hard to ensure we end the season well."

John Booth, Team Principal "A disappointing day today. Perhaps we had the car setup biased slightly too much towards the wet conditions of yesterday but nevertheless we simply didn't have the pace to match our immediate competitors today. Lucas had a problem with his rear suspension, which we were able to rectify but it cost him a lot of time which is disappointing in his home race. Timo gave it his best shot and extracted the maximum from the car but unfortunately it was just not our day today, so we hope for a better race in Abu Dhabi next weekend."

Williams
Nico Hulkenberg - 8th: I am happy with that result because I gave it everything today; there wasn't anything left in me to give! I was struggling quite a lot with the car, it really wasn't easy to drive, but I kept Kubica behind me all the way. The team did a great pitstop and chose the right strategy; we just needed some more car pace. Even though we started on pole, my expectations for the race were to finish between fifth and tenth, so P8 is fine and it means we are now sixth in the Constructors' Championship.

Rubens Barrichello - 16th: We had a faulty pitstop today which we need to investigate. I was happy with my pace though. Unfortunately, after one of my overtaking attempts on Alguersuari, he ran over me which destroyed my front tyre so I had to come in again. I just came in too many times to score points. I'm sorry for all the Brazilians who came here wanting a different result. All I can say is that I gave it my all until the very end.

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering: From our grid positions, the results obviously aren't great, but Nico drove well despite struggling with vibrations, and he was driving to the pace of the car. We were unfortunate with the timing of the safety car because it pulled us too far back in the order and prevented us from possibly challenging Mercedes. Rubens' drive was destroyed by a problem pitstop in which we had an issue with the nut on the right rear. He then had a bump with Alguersuari which caused a puncture and required another stop. That effectively put him out of contention for points. Many congratulations to Red Bull for winning the Constructors' Championship.

FIA Formula1 Racing

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Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship,is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules with which all participants' cars must comply. The F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix ("big prize" when translated in to English), held on purpose-built circuits and public roads. The results of each race are combined to determine two annual World Championships, one for the drivers and one for the constructors, with racing drivers, constructor teams, track officials, organizers, and circuits required to be holders of valid Super Licences, the highest class of racing licence issued by the FIA.

Formula One cars race at high speeds, up to 360 km/h (220 mph) with engines revving up to a formula-imposed limit of 18,000 rpm. The cars are capable of pulling in excess of 5 g on some corners. The performance of the cars is highly dependent on electronics (although traction control and driving aids have been banned since 2008), aerodynamics, suspension, and tires. The formula has seen many evolutions and changes through the history of the sport. Europe is Formula One's traditional center, where all of the teams are based, and where around half of the races take place. However, the sport's scope has expanded significantly in recent years and Grands Prix are held all over the world.

Formula One is a massive television event, with an aggregate global audience of 600 million people for each race. The Formula One Group is the legal holder of the commercial rights. With annual spending totaling billions of US dollars, Formula One's economic effect is significant, and its financial and political battles are widely covered. Its high profile and popularity make it an obvious merchandising environment, which leads to very high investments from sponsors, translating into extremely high budgets for the constructors. However, mostly since 2000, due to the always increasing expenditures, several teams, including works teams from car makers and those teams with minimal support from the automotive industry, have gone bankrupt or been bought out by companies wanting to establish a team within the sport; these buyouts are also influenced by Formula One limiting the number of participant teams.

Source: Wikipedia F1