F1 Hungary Blog - Sunday press conference
After a nail-biting 70 laps of the Hungaroring in blistering heat, it was three very red-faced and sweaty men who lined up to face the media after Lewis Hamilton's first win for Mercedes.
Present were Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), and Sebastian Vettel.
Q: Lewis, when we spoke last night you didn’t believe you could be on pole position and you gave yourself no chance of winning today’s race. How on Earth does it feel now?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s an incredible feeling. I really have to say a big thank you to all the fans today for turning up. It was great to see their support. And my team: they just did an incredible job. We studied a lot last night. We were hoping the tyres were going to work for us. We had no idea it was going to go that well — but the last 20 laps was just managing the tyres and cruising.
Q: Well you got a great start but there were two key moments where you overtook Jenson, so you didn’t lose any time behind him down into turn one and then that turn three pass on Mark Webber, that was just incredible.
LH: Yeah, I think you could tell I was hungry for it today. I was just going all-out. I needed to get past those people and usually I get stuck in traffic, generally in my races, and today I wasn’t having it. I was going for every move I had.
Q: Incredible support here for you as always Kimi. P2 on the podium, you really had to work hard for that today.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, obviously I keep making my life difficult on Saturdays so then we pay a price but I had a good car and we managed to do two stops so that was the only way really to jump people. In the end it was a bit tight with Seb but in the end it paid off for us and we gained some points in the Championship. So that’s good.
Q: You made the last set of tyres last 33 laps which is quite spectacular today in these conditions. Surely you thought he was going to have a great chance to pass you towards the end but you just seemed to park your car in the middle of the track and make it so difficult.
KR: Yeah, I mean I knew it was going to be a bit tight but I felt that the tyres were good still in the last ten laps. So maybe last two laps they drop off quite badly but I didn’t really have any doubts that I couldn’t keep him behind. I had good speed through the last sector so I knew that in the first corner they will not have a chance. Obviously you take a chance always when you make so many laps with a set of tyres – but like I said, the team worked well, everything worked well for us and unfortunately yesterday wasn’t an easy day so otherwise we could probably have fight for a win. But anyhow, we are here.
Q: Satisfied you take a few points off the World Championship leader?
KR: Yeah, it’s better than nothing.
Q: Sebastian, only third but the fans seem pretty happy with that. How do you feel about it?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it was not the best race. The start was difficult but was able to defend second and then Lewis pulled in, we thought we had a little bit more on the soft but the rear tyres seemed to fall apart pretty quickly and then I lost a bit, came out behind Jenson which was crucial and struggled to get past, damaged my front wing which didn’t help, after that managed to get past. It was a long time but lost a bit of speed and basically tried to hang in there, tried to fight back. Very close with Kimi in the end but as he mentioned, he was very quick through the last two corners and then I couldn’t really get him on the straight. So yeah, I did all we could but surely wanted a little bit more today.
Q: You felt Kimi didn’t leave you enough room at turn four towards the end of the race. You felt that was a bit too close?
SV: Yeah, I told him but he was laughing only. It was fine. Obviously in the heat of the moment it was quite tight getting into there, I tried to prepare the next corner but nearly lost the car. That’s racing.
Q: Lewis, two very quick questions. Does this put your World Championship crusade very much back on course and how does this race today compare with your other victories?
LH: I think this is probably one of the most important grand prix wins of my career. To move to a new team and to win for Mercedes-Benz is just a real privilege. The guys have done an exceptional job, I’m so glad I could be a part of the team and I really couldn’t be happier. I hope there’s many more to come.
Q: And this year’s World Championship? Surely you’ve still got a chance of it, you’ve got to work hard.
LH: We’ve got to work hard, you never know how the tyres are going to last elsewhere but if we come here and make our tyres last then we should be able to do it anywhere. So, fingers crossed.
Q: Lewis, congratulations. You weren’t too optimistic yesterday but a lot of factors obviously worked well for you today: good start, getting the traffic right as well and some great overtaking manoeuvres. Tell us about them.
LH: It’s been a great weekend, really a great weekend. Really didn’t expect it coming in. It’s probably been one of the toughest weeks for me. Obviously we hadn’t had the test, we didn’t do the test, we were on the back foot when we came in. Really wasn’t even expecting to be on pole. Really surprised with that and then yeah, at the start of the race the pace was OK. I think maybe Sebastian perhaps was just as quick or a little bit quicker but fortunately he was behind and my tyres went off just maybe a lap or two before his. I think I called the pitstop just right – the first one – and after that it was just managing the gap. I had to make sure I got past people. I normally get held up in my… I thought when I came behind Jenson I thought it was just my luck because that’s what usually happens. But I got past him and was surprised to see Sebastian and the others get stuck behind him as well. I guess he did me a favour there. But I think generally we had the pace on everyone today. I know I was really controlling the pace, particularly through the second, third and last stint, particularly on the last stint. This is just down to an exceptional job from the team. We came here with upgrades and constantly doing work to try and understand these tyres. I think today we bolted them on and they just worked for us. I really was not inspecting it.
Q: Kimi, that was a robust defence at the end of the race. I’m not certain if it was a good job interview for joining Red Bull Racing for next year but tell us about it.
KR: Obviously I don’t have anything for next year so I mean it does matter what happens on a race circuit for that matter. I knew that my tyres are pretty OK and I was good through the last sector so I was pretty sure there was no chance to try to overtake me into the first corner but then obviously turn two was a bit more tricky for me all race. He got a good run, Sebastian once before and then second time and I defended. Maybe I’m over a bit on the right and it’s a bit tight but then I kept him behind and that was the only time he had a good run on me. In there it is very difficult to overtake because it is so narrow on top of the hill. After that I had no issues. That was the only part of the circuit that I really had some problems with the tyres. But it was good work for the team, the car was working well but unfortunately I keep making Saturdays… after Saturdays making the race a bit difficult for myself. Hopefully we can fix that a little bit and be a bit more on the front at the beginning of the race.
Q: Sebastian a little bit of trouble behind traffic during the race itself. What do you feel about third place?
SV: Generally happy. Not the best circuit to be stuck in traffic because it’s quite difficult to overtake. I think we had not enough speed on the straights to put people under enough pressure so yeah, obviously got stuck behind Jenson for a long time. Damaged my front wing as well which dropped us back and after that obviously it was about the fight back as much as we could. In the middle of the race I didn’t know where I was. I just tried to hang in there and try to come back as much as we can. In the end obviously quite close with Kimi. We were faster, I had fresher tyres but as I said, no way past. Once I was pretty close up the hill. I think I didn’t have enough room on the outside but it’s pretty difficult to judge. Obviously I couldn’t go around the outside and pass him but I was trying to maybe put him under pressure for the next couple of corners and try to create my chance but yeah, was not a decent gap anyways. So, I tried, didn’t work, we have to be happy with third. The car was good all weekend, there wasn’t much missing. But as I said, I should have done a better job with Jenson in the beginning and especially not damaged my front wing – and then it could have been a different race. But would, could, should. In the end I think we’re happy with third.
Q: (Abhishek Tackle – Midday) Lewis, track temperatures were in their fifties today; would you say you’ve turned the corner with your tyre wear issues and how much of that was work going on back at the factory, and how much of that was the new tyres, new constructions?
LH: I think it was a bit of both. As I said, coming into the weekend, we are making improvement but not big enough to make the difference it did today so I’m assuming that a large part of that was the tyres. I really wasn’t expecting it. Our long runs didn’t look that great in P2 but I got the balance just spot on today with the front wing and yeah, if we can be quick here in a race with these track temperatures then I’m very hopeful that we can be competitive everywhere else, so this could be a really good... could be a good turning point for us.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Lewis, which of the ingredients made the difference in your success today?
LH: Teamwork, absolutely teamwork. The guys have just been phenomenal all year with the work they do in the garage, preparation of the car, the reliability has been exceptional - obviously not for Nico today – and the team’s in the position where it’s beginning to develop the car still through the season. At this point of the year, last year, they said they weren’t anywhere near making improvements so it’s good to see that. I think hopefully I’m a part of that as well. I feel like I really earned my keep today so I’m really happy for that.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, we have heard you complaining a bit over the radio two laps from the end when you thought that Kimi didn’t leave you enough room in turn four. Was it serious?
SV: In the heat of the moment, for sure, obviously it’s narrow there. As I said before, it was clear... or it was to me at that stage that I didn’t find a way past around the outside. First of all, Kimi is not an idiot and secondly, it’s a narrow part of the track so it was clear but I was pushing very hard, trying to create a chance, put him under pressure and as I said, it was clear I didn’t pass him there, but maybe two corners later or something. Yeah, I was not too happy but as I said, it was quite hot this afternoon, I was pushing very hard and it was quite narrow and I was a little bit on the dirt, turning in. You feel that you have to say something so that’s what I said.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Sebastian, three weeks ago in Germany, I asked you if you would relish the challenge of having Kimi as your teammate next year and you said you would enjoy having such a competitive teammate. I was wondering if your opinion had changed, now that you had finished behind him.
SV: There have been races where I have finished behind him, especially in the beginning of my career - I finished nearly every race behind him. And there are races where I’ve finished ahead of him so that doesn’t really matter. As I said, I think he’s one of the drivers I get along most with. He’s been very honest all the time which I appreciate a lot. I think at the end of the day we’re a group of 20, 22 guys; some of them you like, others you don’t. I think at the end of the day you have to beat everyone. Obviously we enjoy it a lot more as well if you’re fighting other drivers in similar cars, meaning with similar pace, because it’s kind of boring when you’re only fighting your teammate. I think this is something we all enjoy.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, at Nurburgring, after your battle with Kimi, you said that one day you will feel as angry as Kimi felt that day. Do you feel angry now?
SV: I don’t think it was really really angry but obviously it was a battle for the win so I was happy that I succeeded. Today was for second, but still, you know, second is better than third. I’m not entirely happy with my race because I think the car was probably a little bit better than where we finished today but as I described, with the race that I had, I think P3 is what we have to be happy with. It’s not a disaster. We were still on the podium which is nice, a lot of people here which is still very special so I think we have to keep our feet on the ground. I’ve always said that there will be days when there will be people ahead of us and there will be days when we will be ahead of them so it’s just life.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, do you think that with nine races to go it’s possible to fight for the championship?
LH: I think it’s too early to... still far too early to... of course, when you have a win like this, you get excited and you think anything is possible and obviously today shows that anything is possible but I think it’s still too early for us to say whether or not we can challenge these guys. I know the guys are working hard so that we can close the gap and I hope today is the first step in doing so but we’ve got a lot of tough races coming up. I just hope that that’s not the last time my tyres work for me.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, do you think that today there is some complaint about the strategy because as you said before, you were twice stuck behind McLaren when you came out of the pits?
SV: Usually in the past it was not a bad thing when you came out behind a McLaren but this year’s a bit different. Yeah, I’m not blaming the team. I think it’s pretty easy (to see) what happened. In the first stint I lost more time on the way to the pits, because the tyres were falling apart (more) than they expected, probably around 1.5s. If you take those away, I come out ahead of him, so I think in terms of strategy they did the right call. Second time round, I think he was on a very used set of soft tyres which was going away quickly and I found my way past pretty quickly as well, so I’m not blaming them. If there’s anything to blame, today, then it’s me because I damaged my wing which wasn’t the best thing.
Q: (Michael Neudecker - Sud Deutsche Zeitung) To all three of you: how did the high temperatures today affect you, your performance?
LH: Physically it was quite easy, to be honest. I wasn’t on the ragged edge the whole way. Particularly the last twenty laps I was able to really chill, I was drinking a lot and just trying to bring it home, look after the car and the tyres, yeah, for the first time ever that I can remember my tyres not being a problem. I think this track has always been good to me. I hope there’s many more like this.
KR: Obviously I was bit out of tyres at the end because we did a run with a set of tyres but apart from that it was OK. It was a bit hot but as normal as any hot race. No problem.
SV: Yeah, it was pretty hot, especially, obviously, towards the end of the race when the drink is not cool any more, it’s more like tea, which isn’t the nicest to cool down. But yeah, I think we were probably in a bit of a different situation to Lewis, still fighting towards the end, I was pushing very hard. Every time you get close, you lose some grip. I was struggling to get past, didn’t succeed but yeah, it’s not the only hot race we have during the season.
Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) Lewis, does it feel different winning for Mercedes than it did for McLaren?
LH: I think it feels different. It always feels like it’s the first time, that’s for sure, when you win. I remember the first time I won it was exceptional, an exceptional feeling and today it was a really calming, relaxing feeling when I came across the line. I really wasn’t expecting it. As I said yesterday, I talked it down a lot because I really was expecting a real tough race today, I thought we were going to fall behind. The experiences I had at McLaren were some of my greatest but I think this is one of the highlights of my career up to now. Moving to a new team and a team that was struggling massively last year and to finally get a win with them after the first nine or ten races is a great feeling.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, now you’ve got some feeling with the new tyres, do you think you have the right package to win in Spa?
KR: I don’t know. It’s a different circuit. I have no idea. Last year we were not very strong there. I think we know the reasons and for sure our car is better this year but is it good enough for fighting for a win? We will see in Spa in one month.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) Kimi, you are now second in the championship. What does this mean now, at this time, for you and for the next four weeks? Will you go to Enstone and help to develop the car or just have fun and holiday?
KR: I don’t design the car so there’s not much use for me there. Everybody has to be off work in a week’s time so there’s nothing happening at any of the factories, at least, that’s how it should be. I will do something and see what happens at the next race in four weeks.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, if, at the end of the first bend you were first in the race after the start, the story of this race might have been different. And Lewis, I would also like to hear your opinion about that.
SV: Well I wasn’t so, hard to... If. If. If I was sick today I wouldn’t race so... I think Lewis did a great job today, a good lap yesterday and deserved to win today no doubt. I think we had a bit stronger pace than what we probably had towards the end of the race, but I didn’t do the best job either. I damaged my front wing, I got stuck behind Jenson, didn’t find a way past unlike Lewis so yeah, there are things that I could have done better but it’s hard to say where we could have been without those two things. I think it would have been close. Obviously he had track position, overtaking is difficult, maybe we would have been a bit closer, maybe with strategy we could have found a way past, I don’t know. But in the end, as I said, it wasn’t the case.
LH: It’s nothing I really want to think about. I got into turn one first, that’s the most important thing. I think if Sebastian was out in the lead it would have been hard to have kept a hold of him but I think generally my second and third and fourth stints were pretty strong. I think I would hopefully have had as good a pace as he would have had so I think it could have been a close race.
Q: (Gabor Joo – Index) Kimi, last year you finished second, this year you finished second as well. Are you satisfied with the progress Lotus is making in terms of car development?
KR: Obviously we always hope for more, myself and the team hopes for more. I think we’ve made progress, for sure. Now we have tyres that are a little bit different and I wasn’t so happy with how things ran on Friday and yesterday – more happy in qualifying than the whole weekend before that but still not ideal and in the race we usually run better than in qualifying. I was happy with the car in the race but obviously when you start from such a bad starting place it’s difficult to make big progress on this kind of circuit but I managed to do two stops and we’re still pretty competitive so we’re happy how we’ve done but we’re here to try to win races and if we keep finishing second and third like we’ve done many times this year, it’s probably not enough for the championship but the best thing today when we finished second we gained a few points on Sebastian, so it’s better than nothing but with a win it would have been a much bigger difference.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Lewis, tyre problems cost you your first chance of a win for Mercedes at Silverstone and it’s ironic that now, because of that, the tyres have been changed and here we have them, you’ve got your first win, so does this make up for everything that happened in Britain and if the tyres now suit you, it could have ironically set you up for the rest of the season?
LH: Well thank you. Yeah, yeah, you can’t really make up for Silverstone. That was my home Grand Prix, we were in a good position to have won that so I don’t know when I will ever get a chance to win at Silverstone again in front of my home crowd. But this is definitely a great feeling to finally get the win. I’ve been on pole position for the last three races, it’s good to finally not lose position and just stay and be able to hold it and maintain position throughout the race, it’s a good feeling. I came here saying and praying that when we put on these tyres that they would come towards us more than away from us and it seems like they’ve done that: 52/55 degrees track temperatures today, one of the hottest races I think I can remember doing and for a team that really struggles with tyre degradation today was a walk in the park. I’m really baffled... I used all the technique I could possibly use to look after the tyres which I’m sure everyone is doing, but it worked today. I really really hope that when we go to the next race it happens, that we’re able to do the same.
Q: (Geza Suranyi – Heves Megyei Hirlap) Lewis, you said that this circuit is a classic, so as a four time winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix, perhaps it’s about time to name a corner after you. Which corner would you chose?
LH: I’d forgotten that it’s four times here. That’s incredible, absolutely incredible, I’m so happy with that. I love it here: the weather’s great, the fans, we have such a great turnout, they have beautiful women here, great food, I really can’t say more about it. A great track. If I was to chose a corner, I would say turn two.
Present were Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), and Sebastian Vettel.
Q: Lewis, when we spoke last night you didn’t believe you could be on pole position and you gave yourself no chance of winning today’s race. How on Earth does it feel now?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s an incredible feeling. I really have to say a big thank you to all the fans today for turning up. It was great to see their support. And my team: they just did an incredible job. We studied a lot last night. We were hoping the tyres were going to work for us. We had no idea it was going to go that well — but the last 20 laps was just managing the tyres and cruising.
Q: Well you got a great start but there were two key moments where you overtook Jenson, so you didn’t lose any time behind him down into turn one and then that turn three pass on Mark Webber, that was just incredible.
LH: Yeah, I think you could tell I was hungry for it today. I was just going all-out. I needed to get past those people and usually I get stuck in traffic, generally in my races, and today I wasn’t having it. I was going for every move I had.
Q: Incredible support here for you as always Kimi. P2 on the podium, you really had to work hard for that today.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, obviously I keep making my life difficult on Saturdays so then we pay a price but I had a good car and we managed to do two stops so that was the only way really to jump people. In the end it was a bit tight with Seb but in the end it paid off for us and we gained some points in the Championship. So that’s good.
Q: You made the last set of tyres last 33 laps which is quite spectacular today in these conditions. Surely you thought he was going to have a great chance to pass you towards the end but you just seemed to park your car in the middle of the track and make it so difficult.
KR: Yeah, I mean I knew it was going to be a bit tight but I felt that the tyres were good still in the last ten laps. So maybe last two laps they drop off quite badly but I didn’t really have any doubts that I couldn’t keep him behind. I had good speed through the last sector so I knew that in the first corner they will not have a chance. Obviously you take a chance always when you make so many laps with a set of tyres – but like I said, the team worked well, everything worked well for us and unfortunately yesterday wasn’t an easy day so otherwise we could probably have fight for a win. But anyhow, we are here.
Q: Satisfied you take a few points off the World Championship leader?
KR: Yeah, it’s better than nothing.
Q: Sebastian, only third but the fans seem pretty happy with that. How do you feel about it?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it was not the best race. The start was difficult but was able to defend second and then Lewis pulled in, we thought we had a little bit more on the soft but the rear tyres seemed to fall apart pretty quickly and then I lost a bit, came out behind Jenson which was crucial and struggled to get past, damaged my front wing which didn’t help, after that managed to get past. It was a long time but lost a bit of speed and basically tried to hang in there, tried to fight back. Very close with Kimi in the end but as he mentioned, he was very quick through the last two corners and then I couldn’t really get him on the straight. So yeah, I did all we could but surely wanted a little bit more today.
Q: You felt Kimi didn’t leave you enough room at turn four towards the end of the race. You felt that was a bit too close?
SV: Yeah, I told him but he was laughing only. It was fine. Obviously in the heat of the moment it was quite tight getting into there, I tried to prepare the next corner but nearly lost the car. That’s racing.
Q: Lewis, two very quick questions. Does this put your World Championship crusade very much back on course and how does this race today compare with your other victories?
LH: I think this is probably one of the most important grand prix wins of my career. To move to a new team and to win for Mercedes-Benz is just a real privilege. The guys have done an exceptional job, I’m so glad I could be a part of the team and I really couldn’t be happier. I hope there’s many more to come.
Q: And this year’s World Championship? Surely you’ve still got a chance of it, you’ve got to work hard.
LH: We’ve got to work hard, you never know how the tyres are going to last elsewhere but if we come here and make our tyres last then we should be able to do it anywhere. So, fingers crossed.
Q: Lewis, congratulations. You weren’t too optimistic yesterday but a lot of factors obviously worked well for you today: good start, getting the traffic right as well and some great overtaking manoeuvres. Tell us about them.
LH: It’s been a great weekend, really a great weekend. Really didn’t expect it coming in. It’s probably been one of the toughest weeks for me. Obviously we hadn’t had the test, we didn’t do the test, we were on the back foot when we came in. Really wasn’t even expecting to be on pole. Really surprised with that and then yeah, at the start of the race the pace was OK. I think maybe Sebastian perhaps was just as quick or a little bit quicker but fortunately he was behind and my tyres went off just maybe a lap or two before his. I think I called the pitstop just right – the first one – and after that it was just managing the gap. I had to make sure I got past people. I normally get held up in my… I thought when I came behind Jenson I thought it was just my luck because that’s what usually happens. But I got past him and was surprised to see Sebastian and the others get stuck behind him as well. I guess he did me a favour there. But I think generally we had the pace on everyone today. I know I was really controlling the pace, particularly through the second, third and last stint, particularly on the last stint. This is just down to an exceptional job from the team. We came here with upgrades and constantly doing work to try and understand these tyres. I think today we bolted them on and they just worked for us. I really was not inspecting it.
Q: Kimi, that was a robust defence at the end of the race. I’m not certain if it was a good job interview for joining Red Bull Racing for next year but tell us about it.
KR: Obviously I don’t have anything for next year so I mean it does matter what happens on a race circuit for that matter. I knew that my tyres are pretty OK and I was good through the last sector so I was pretty sure there was no chance to try to overtake me into the first corner but then obviously turn two was a bit more tricky for me all race. He got a good run, Sebastian once before and then second time and I defended. Maybe I’m over a bit on the right and it’s a bit tight but then I kept him behind and that was the only time he had a good run on me. In there it is very difficult to overtake because it is so narrow on top of the hill. After that I had no issues. That was the only part of the circuit that I really had some problems with the tyres. But it was good work for the team, the car was working well but unfortunately I keep making Saturdays… after Saturdays making the race a bit difficult for myself. Hopefully we can fix that a little bit and be a bit more on the front at the beginning of the race.
Q: Sebastian a little bit of trouble behind traffic during the race itself. What do you feel about third place?
SV: Generally happy. Not the best circuit to be stuck in traffic because it’s quite difficult to overtake. I think we had not enough speed on the straights to put people under enough pressure so yeah, obviously got stuck behind Jenson for a long time. Damaged my front wing as well which dropped us back and after that obviously it was about the fight back as much as we could. In the middle of the race I didn’t know where I was. I just tried to hang in there and try to come back as much as we can. In the end obviously quite close with Kimi. We were faster, I had fresher tyres but as I said, no way past. Once I was pretty close up the hill. I think I didn’t have enough room on the outside but it’s pretty difficult to judge. Obviously I couldn’t go around the outside and pass him but I was trying to maybe put him under pressure for the next couple of corners and try to create my chance but yeah, was not a decent gap anyways. So, I tried, didn’t work, we have to be happy with third. The car was good all weekend, there wasn’t much missing. But as I said, I should have done a better job with Jenson in the beginning and especially not damaged my front wing – and then it could have been a different race. But would, could, should. In the end I think we’re happy with third.
Q: (Abhishek Tackle – Midday) Lewis, track temperatures were in their fifties today; would you say you’ve turned the corner with your tyre wear issues and how much of that was work going on back at the factory, and how much of that was the new tyres, new constructions?
LH: I think it was a bit of both. As I said, coming into the weekend, we are making improvement but not big enough to make the difference it did today so I’m assuming that a large part of that was the tyres. I really wasn’t expecting it. Our long runs didn’t look that great in P2 but I got the balance just spot on today with the front wing and yeah, if we can be quick here in a race with these track temperatures then I’m very hopeful that we can be competitive everywhere else, so this could be a really good... could be a good turning point for us.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Lewis, which of the ingredients made the difference in your success today?
LH: Teamwork, absolutely teamwork. The guys have just been phenomenal all year with the work they do in the garage, preparation of the car, the reliability has been exceptional - obviously not for Nico today – and the team’s in the position where it’s beginning to develop the car still through the season. At this point of the year, last year, they said they weren’t anywhere near making improvements so it’s good to see that. I think hopefully I’m a part of that as well. I feel like I really earned my keep today so I’m really happy for that.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, we have heard you complaining a bit over the radio two laps from the end when you thought that Kimi didn’t leave you enough room in turn four. Was it serious?
SV: In the heat of the moment, for sure, obviously it’s narrow there. As I said before, it was clear... or it was to me at that stage that I didn’t find a way past around the outside. First of all, Kimi is not an idiot and secondly, it’s a narrow part of the track so it was clear but I was pushing very hard, trying to create a chance, put him under pressure and as I said, it was clear I didn’t pass him there, but maybe two corners later or something. Yeah, I was not too happy but as I said, it was quite hot this afternoon, I was pushing very hard and it was quite narrow and I was a little bit on the dirt, turning in. You feel that you have to say something so that’s what I said.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Sebastian, three weeks ago in Germany, I asked you if you would relish the challenge of having Kimi as your teammate next year and you said you would enjoy having such a competitive teammate. I was wondering if your opinion had changed, now that you had finished behind him.
SV: There have been races where I have finished behind him, especially in the beginning of my career - I finished nearly every race behind him. And there are races where I’ve finished ahead of him so that doesn’t really matter. As I said, I think he’s one of the drivers I get along most with. He’s been very honest all the time which I appreciate a lot. I think at the end of the day we’re a group of 20, 22 guys; some of them you like, others you don’t. I think at the end of the day you have to beat everyone. Obviously we enjoy it a lot more as well if you’re fighting other drivers in similar cars, meaning with similar pace, because it’s kind of boring when you’re only fighting your teammate. I think this is something we all enjoy.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, at Nurburgring, after your battle with Kimi, you said that one day you will feel as angry as Kimi felt that day. Do you feel angry now?
SV: I don’t think it was really really angry but obviously it was a battle for the win so I was happy that I succeeded. Today was for second, but still, you know, second is better than third. I’m not entirely happy with my race because I think the car was probably a little bit better than where we finished today but as I described, with the race that I had, I think P3 is what we have to be happy with. It’s not a disaster. We were still on the podium which is nice, a lot of people here which is still very special so I think we have to keep our feet on the ground. I’ve always said that there will be days when there will be people ahead of us and there will be days when we will be ahead of them so it’s just life.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, do you think that with nine races to go it’s possible to fight for the championship?
LH: I think it’s too early to... still far too early to... of course, when you have a win like this, you get excited and you think anything is possible and obviously today shows that anything is possible but I think it’s still too early for us to say whether or not we can challenge these guys. I know the guys are working hard so that we can close the gap and I hope today is the first step in doing so but we’ve got a lot of tough races coming up. I just hope that that’s not the last time my tyres work for me.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, do you think that today there is some complaint about the strategy because as you said before, you were twice stuck behind McLaren when you came out of the pits?
SV: Usually in the past it was not a bad thing when you came out behind a McLaren but this year’s a bit different. Yeah, I’m not blaming the team. I think it’s pretty easy (to see) what happened. In the first stint I lost more time on the way to the pits, because the tyres were falling apart (more) than they expected, probably around 1.5s. If you take those away, I come out ahead of him, so I think in terms of strategy they did the right call. Second time round, I think he was on a very used set of soft tyres which was going away quickly and I found my way past pretty quickly as well, so I’m not blaming them. If there’s anything to blame, today, then it’s me because I damaged my wing which wasn’t the best thing.
Q: (Michael Neudecker - Sud Deutsche Zeitung) To all three of you: how did the high temperatures today affect you, your performance?
LH: Physically it was quite easy, to be honest. I wasn’t on the ragged edge the whole way. Particularly the last twenty laps I was able to really chill, I was drinking a lot and just trying to bring it home, look after the car and the tyres, yeah, for the first time ever that I can remember my tyres not being a problem. I think this track has always been good to me. I hope there’s many more like this.
KR: Obviously I was bit out of tyres at the end because we did a run with a set of tyres but apart from that it was OK. It was a bit hot but as normal as any hot race. No problem.
SV: Yeah, it was pretty hot, especially, obviously, towards the end of the race when the drink is not cool any more, it’s more like tea, which isn’t the nicest to cool down. But yeah, I think we were probably in a bit of a different situation to Lewis, still fighting towards the end, I was pushing very hard. Every time you get close, you lose some grip. I was struggling to get past, didn’t succeed but yeah, it’s not the only hot race we have during the season.
Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) Lewis, does it feel different winning for Mercedes than it did for McLaren?
LH: I think it feels different. It always feels like it’s the first time, that’s for sure, when you win. I remember the first time I won it was exceptional, an exceptional feeling and today it was a really calming, relaxing feeling when I came across the line. I really wasn’t expecting it. As I said yesterday, I talked it down a lot because I really was expecting a real tough race today, I thought we were going to fall behind. The experiences I had at McLaren were some of my greatest but I think this is one of the highlights of my career up to now. Moving to a new team and a team that was struggling massively last year and to finally get a win with them after the first nine or ten races is a great feeling.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, now you’ve got some feeling with the new tyres, do you think you have the right package to win in Spa?
KR: I don’t know. It’s a different circuit. I have no idea. Last year we were not very strong there. I think we know the reasons and for sure our car is better this year but is it good enough for fighting for a win? We will see in Spa in one month.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) Kimi, you are now second in the championship. What does this mean now, at this time, for you and for the next four weeks? Will you go to Enstone and help to develop the car or just have fun and holiday?
KR: I don’t design the car so there’s not much use for me there. Everybody has to be off work in a week’s time so there’s nothing happening at any of the factories, at least, that’s how it should be. I will do something and see what happens at the next race in four weeks.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, if, at the end of the first bend you were first in the race after the start, the story of this race might have been different. And Lewis, I would also like to hear your opinion about that.
SV: Well I wasn’t so, hard to... If. If. If I was sick today I wouldn’t race so... I think Lewis did a great job today, a good lap yesterday and deserved to win today no doubt. I think we had a bit stronger pace than what we probably had towards the end of the race, but I didn’t do the best job either. I damaged my front wing, I got stuck behind Jenson, didn’t find a way past unlike Lewis so yeah, there are things that I could have done better but it’s hard to say where we could have been without those two things. I think it would have been close. Obviously he had track position, overtaking is difficult, maybe we would have been a bit closer, maybe with strategy we could have found a way past, I don’t know. But in the end, as I said, it wasn’t the case.
LH: It’s nothing I really want to think about. I got into turn one first, that’s the most important thing. I think if Sebastian was out in the lead it would have been hard to have kept a hold of him but I think generally my second and third and fourth stints were pretty strong. I think I would hopefully have had as good a pace as he would have had so I think it could have been a close race.
Q: (Gabor Joo – Index) Kimi, last year you finished second, this year you finished second as well. Are you satisfied with the progress Lotus is making in terms of car development?
KR: Obviously we always hope for more, myself and the team hopes for more. I think we’ve made progress, for sure. Now we have tyres that are a little bit different and I wasn’t so happy with how things ran on Friday and yesterday – more happy in qualifying than the whole weekend before that but still not ideal and in the race we usually run better than in qualifying. I was happy with the car in the race but obviously when you start from such a bad starting place it’s difficult to make big progress on this kind of circuit but I managed to do two stops and we’re still pretty competitive so we’re happy how we’ve done but we’re here to try to win races and if we keep finishing second and third like we’ve done many times this year, it’s probably not enough for the championship but the best thing today when we finished second we gained a few points on Sebastian, so it’s better than nothing but with a win it would have been a much bigger difference.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Lewis, tyre problems cost you your first chance of a win for Mercedes at Silverstone and it’s ironic that now, because of that, the tyres have been changed and here we have them, you’ve got your first win, so does this make up for everything that happened in Britain and if the tyres now suit you, it could have ironically set you up for the rest of the season?
LH: Well thank you. Yeah, yeah, you can’t really make up for Silverstone. That was my home Grand Prix, we were in a good position to have won that so I don’t know when I will ever get a chance to win at Silverstone again in front of my home crowd. But this is definitely a great feeling to finally get the win. I’ve been on pole position for the last three races, it’s good to finally not lose position and just stay and be able to hold it and maintain position throughout the race, it’s a good feeling. I came here saying and praying that when we put on these tyres that they would come towards us more than away from us and it seems like they’ve done that: 52/55 degrees track temperatures today, one of the hottest races I think I can remember doing and for a team that really struggles with tyre degradation today was a walk in the park. I’m really baffled... I used all the technique I could possibly use to look after the tyres which I’m sure everyone is doing, but it worked today. I really really hope that when we go to the next race it happens, that we’re able to do the same.
Q: (Geza Suranyi – Heves Megyei Hirlap) Lewis, you said that this circuit is a classic, so as a four time winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix, perhaps it’s about time to name a corner after you. Which corner would you chose?
LH: I’d forgotten that it’s four times here. That’s incredible, absolutely incredible, I’m so happy with that. I love it here: the weather’s great, the fans, we have such a great turnout, they have beautiful women here, great food, I really can’t say more about it. A great track. If I was to chose a corner, I would say turn two.
F1 Hungary Blog - Race report
If the Hungarian Grand Prix was a demonstration of Lewis Hamilton’s capabilities when he and Mercedes are on their back foot, it would seem that the Brackley racers have been putting the wrong foot forward all year.
By rights, the Silver Arrows had no business winning Sunday’s race. Not only had Mercedes been prevented from taking part in the Young Driver Test that saw their opponents test out Pirelli’s new tyre constructions, but the Saturday-quick W04 is notorious for chewing through its rubber on Sundays, lightning fast on low fuel but disastrous on heavy loads – and much, much worse in the hear.
But Lewis Hamilton – who had on Saturday said it would take ‘a miracle’ for him to win at the Hungaroring despite starting from pole – delivered a commanding performance for all 70 laps of Sunday’s race, leading for much of the afternoon, making short work of the men in front after every pit stop, and managing those troublesome tyres for the duration, despite track temperatures exceeding 50˚C.
Behind Hamilton the key players at the sharp end of the Hungarian Grand Prix were podium finishers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, while Jenson Button was one of the key actors when it came to shaping the race as a whole.
The McLaren may not have had the pace to fight for a podium on Sunday, but a combination of the British driver’s well-honed racecraft – particularly his ability to expand the width of his car while keeping well within the bounds of the Sporting Regulations – and the Red Bull’s lack of straight-line speed meant that Vettel spent countless laps staring at the rear wing of Button’s MP4-28, unable to get past.
Without the 12 laps Vettel spent stuck behind Button after his first pit stop, the defending world champion might have been able to challenge for the win at the end of the race. But the German racer lost the best of his tyres in Button’s dirty air, and was eventually asked by the team to pull back from the McLaren to prevent overheating of both rubber and brakes.
Despite visible degradation on Button’s front tyres from around lap 20 onwards, with the British driver slowing by tenths a lap, it was lap 24 before Vettel was able to make it past. It was too little, too late – the Red Bull driver was 13.3 seconds behind race leader Hamilton, and the short Hungarian circuit meant that every turn of the circuit led to more lapped cars to overtake, more traffic to slow him down.
For chunks of Sunday afternoon, Raikkonen was the hidden threat on track. Despite a comparatively poor qualifying and an average start, the Finnish racer never dropped out of the points. It was a measured and intelligent race from the Iceman, who concentrated on setting steady – but quick – lap times while teammate Romain Grosjean fought for glory, and ended up paying the price. Raikkonen stayed out of trouble, drove hard, and reaped the rewards.
The closing stages of Sunday’s race saw a nail-biting run to the finish, with a freshly-shod Vettel closing in on Raikkonen as the pair dipped in and out of DRS range. But the Finnish racer was able to keep the gap where it mattered, extending his lead over the world champion in the second sector on every lap, putting Vettel under the sort of desperate pressure to pass that led to a petulant radio call from the young German on lap 68.
Vettel later brushed off the incident as saying it was heat of the moment nonsense, but the cry of ‘he didn’t give me enough room’ followed the Red Bull driver’s only real – failed – opportunity to make it past the E21 for an extra clutch of championship points.
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1h42m29.445s
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) + 10.938s
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) + 12.459s
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull) + 18.044s
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) + 31.411s
6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) + 32.295s
7. Jenson Button (McLaren) + 53.819s
8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) + 56.447s
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) + 1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) + 1 lap
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) + 1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
13. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
14. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) + 2 laps
15. Charles Pic (Caterham) + 2 laps
16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) + 3 laps
17. Max Chilton (Marussia) + 3 laps
Paul di Resta (Force India) RET
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) RET
Valtteri Bottas (Williams) RET
Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) RET
Adrian Sutil (Force India) RET
By rights, the Silver Arrows had no business winning Sunday’s race. Not only had Mercedes been prevented from taking part in the Young Driver Test that saw their opponents test out Pirelli’s new tyre constructions, but the Saturday-quick W04 is notorious for chewing through its rubber on Sundays, lightning fast on low fuel but disastrous on heavy loads – and much, much worse in the hear.
But Lewis Hamilton – who had on Saturday said it would take ‘a miracle’ for him to win at the Hungaroring despite starting from pole – delivered a commanding performance for all 70 laps of Sunday’s race, leading for much of the afternoon, making short work of the men in front after every pit stop, and managing those troublesome tyres for the duration, despite track temperatures exceeding 50˚C.
Behind Hamilton the key players at the sharp end of the Hungarian Grand Prix were podium finishers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, while Jenson Button was one of the key actors when it came to shaping the race as a whole.
The McLaren may not have had the pace to fight for a podium on Sunday, but a combination of the British driver’s well-honed racecraft – particularly his ability to expand the width of his car while keeping well within the bounds of the Sporting Regulations – and the Red Bull’s lack of straight-line speed meant that Vettel spent countless laps staring at the rear wing of Button’s MP4-28, unable to get past.
Without the 12 laps Vettel spent stuck behind Button after his first pit stop, the defending world champion might have been able to challenge for the win at the end of the race. But the German racer lost the best of his tyres in Button’s dirty air, and was eventually asked by the team to pull back from the McLaren to prevent overheating of both rubber and brakes.
Despite visible degradation on Button’s front tyres from around lap 20 onwards, with the British driver slowing by tenths a lap, it was lap 24 before Vettel was able to make it past. It was too little, too late – the Red Bull driver was 13.3 seconds behind race leader Hamilton, and the short Hungarian circuit meant that every turn of the circuit led to more lapped cars to overtake, more traffic to slow him down.
For chunks of Sunday afternoon, Raikkonen was the hidden threat on track. Despite a comparatively poor qualifying and an average start, the Finnish racer never dropped out of the points. It was a measured and intelligent race from the Iceman, who concentrated on setting steady – but quick – lap times while teammate Romain Grosjean fought for glory, and ended up paying the price. Raikkonen stayed out of trouble, drove hard, and reaped the rewards.
The closing stages of Sunday’s race saw a nail-biting run to the finish, with a freshly-shod Vettel closing in on Raikkonen as the pair dipped in and out of DRS range. But the Finnish racer was able to keep the gap where it mattered, extending his lead over the world champion in the second sector on every lap, putting Vettel under the sort of desperate pressure to pass that led to a petulant radio call from the young German on lap 68.
Vettel later brushed off the incident as saying it was heat of the moment nonsense, but the cry of ‘he didn’t give me enough room’ followed the Red Bull driver’s only real – failed – opportunity to make it past the E21 for an extra clutch of championship points.
2013 Hungarian Grand Prix results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1h42m29.445s
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) + 10.938s
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) + 12.459s
4. Mark Webber (Red Bull) + 18.044s
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) + 31.411s
6. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) + 32.295s
7. Jenson Button (McLaren) + 53.819s
8. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) + 56.447s
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) + 1 lap
10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) + 1 lap
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) + 1 lap
12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
13. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) + 1 lap
14. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) + 2 laps
15. Charles Pic (Caterham) + 2 laps
16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) + 3 laps
17. Max Chilton (Marussia) + 3 laps
Paul di Resta (Force India) RET
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) RET
Valtteri Bottas (Williams) RET
Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) RET
Adrian Sutil (Force India) RET
F1 Hungary Blog - Saturday press conference
There was one very surprised man at the post-qualifying press conference at the Hungaroring, with the pole-sitter shocked to discover that his had been the fastest lap set on Saturday afternoon.
Present were Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), and Romain Grosjean (Lotus).
Q: Congratulations Lewis, a phenomenal pole position, a phenomenal time on what is a very challenging circuit I think.
Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Yeah, it is. Especially with the temperatures and everything. That makes it pretty tough but I was really surprised when I came across the line and they said I got pole. I was expecting Sebastian to get it because he had shown some serious pace before. And it didn’t even feel that great a lap so that’s why I was quite surprised.
Q: When we saw Sebastian’s time we thought surely it’s not possible to beat him – yet you did so.
LH: As I said, I’m really surprised. I felt maybe he made a mistake or something. But I think as always it’s down to the… we bought some upgrades this weekend. The guys have been working incredibly hard to try to catch everyone and they’re just doing a phenomenal job. It’s a result of all the hard work they’ve put in.
Q: A tough circuit here. Surely pole position is very, very important because it’s so difficult to overtake?
LH: It definitely helps. It’s very difficult to follow here. If you can get off the… it’s a long way down to Turn One from the start but if you can get into Turn One first, try and hold your position then it’s definitely advantageous. But looking after the tyres in these conditions is going to be, as always, trouble. These guys are going to be ridiculously fast so trying to keep ahead of them or hold onto them is going to be the challenge tomorrow.
Q: Sebastian. I have to say we thought you surely had it in the bag with that time. Did you feel the same?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well there wasn’t much missing so I think Lewis did a good job. I put a strong lap in, I had two sets of new tyres and I was pretty happy with both laps. Maybe on the second try I was losing out a little bit in the middle sector. It’s very twisty and a lot of corners in a short amount of time. Maybe I wasn’t aggressive enough there. But it’s stupid to sit here now and say “we should have done this, we should have done that.” At the end of the day I was pretty happy with my lap but it was just not quick enough. Obviously Mercedes have a very strong pace in qualifying. I think Lewis did an exceptional job today if you look also at the gap to Nico, so you have to be fair and respect that. I’m not arguing with that. Surely I would have loved to be a little bit faster and to be on pole but still I think it puts us in a great place for tomorrow. I think we have a good car and good pace also for the race. Shame that in the other car Mark had an issue. He didn’t have KERS and had a problem with the gearbox so had slow upshifts so he was basically not having an attempt for the front and the first couple of positions but still I think we should have a good race tomorrow because the car feels fine. I’m quite confident.
Q: Romain, you were second on the grid here last year, finished third. You’re in the first three again this year. It must be a lucky circuit for you, do you feel that?
Romain GROSJEAN: Well I don’t know! I quite like the circuit but it doesn’t mean much unfortunately. It has been a good weekend so far, been working pretty hard with the team, trying to get the best out of the car. Our last lap was a pretty good lap, not missing much to get even more ahead but those guys were really quick so I think it’s good to be here. The race is very long tomorrow and it’s hot so we will see what we can do and what we can get as a best result.
Q: And both the long and short runs have been good in practice?
RG: Yeah, they were pretty all right yesterday. I think the Option is quite a tough tyre to make last but then the medium one was all right on our car. With the temperature coming up it can change a little bit the things. It was the case last race. My first stint was very long just because the tyres held up pretty well. Hopefully tomorrow is going to be the case again and then I can try to have a go. But we’ll decide when the time comes.
Q: Lewis, how much of a worry is the long-run pace for the race tomorrow? Particularly given the heat?
LH: It is what it is, y’know? It’s been the same for a long time. We don’t come into the race and it’s a surprise to us. That’s what it is. It’s great to have the pole position but it doesn’t really mean a lot throughout the weekend. Obviously the race is where we score the points. It’s going to be tough tomorrow. It didn’t feel like a disaster through our long runs but it definitely wasn’t as good as the guys next to me. So, that’s the way it is.
Q: Sebastian, this is a trophy that’s missing from the trophy cabinet. You reduced that number by one last time in the German Grand Prix. How badly do you want this one?
SV: Well, hopefully… I’m not that young anymore but hopefully I’ve got a couple of years left and I’m not in a rush. Obviously it’s a very nice race, a lot of fans coming, especially from Austria to support our team. So, yeah, that’s great, a great atmosphere and it would be very nice to win here. It’s a shame that they don’t have the nice, traditionally trophy any more. Instead we get this, I don’t know, this six-legged dog as the trophy on the podium the last couple of years. But, no, I think we are in a good position. Pretty happy with qualifying, obviously I would have loved to have been on pole but Lewis did a good job, as I said before. So we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be hot and a lot will be decided over the tyres. We’ll see what we can do.
Q: Romain, you were on the podium last year. Is there a certain confidence after last year’s performance and this year’s performance as well? You were fastest this morning and now here you arte third fastest on the grid.
RG: As I said, this has been a pretty good weekend so far and the car is behaving pretty well. The main job was to try to get those new tyres to work properly and it didn’t change night and day, so that was a good surprise from yesterday morning. And then, just trying to improve the car lap after lap, and that’s what we did. The long run yesterday was OK. It felt OK in the car, which was important. Then tomorrow we will see with the race. We will see different strategies I guess and we’ll try to get the best of our car when we get free air and stuff like that.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor) Sebastian you have mentioned in the [TV] press conference that maybe you were not aggressive in the middle sector. Was it because you though you virtually had pole and you didn’t want to take too many risks.
SV: No, surely not. In the end, I wasn’t on holiday. If you could, then I would say have a go and try to do the same time. I lost a little bit of time there and should have been more aggressive. That doesn’t mean I didn’t push but maybe I should have pushed a little bit harder and a little bit extra to get some more time. I think the time Lewis did was in the car but it’s always easy with hindsight to say you could have done a little bit more here or there but as a fact, we did not, so we deserve P2 today.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov - F1 Life) Romain, what does it mean your little smile. Is this success for you, this third place, or maybe you want more?
RG: I do always smile, so it’s hard to read on that. It’s OK. You always want better and I think we had a tough quali and it’s really hot in the car and I gave a good effort to get there. It’s good to be in the top three. This morning we were fastest but we knew it would be very tight and again it is. I’m, pretty pleased with the gap which is behind. Tomorrow’s race is long and a different story. I was a bit surprised by the Mercedes being that quick but in the race we know it’s a different story.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Lewis, your pole has demonstrated that your qualifying pace has not been affected by the new Pirelli constructions. What kind of feelings do you have about your long run pace, about the race tomorrow and especially the fifty degree plus track temperatures we are anticipating?
LH: I’m not really looking forward to it. I was just saying to Sebastian, it’s just a shame that we obviously have good pace... we’ve got a good car so I think if we didn’t have the tyre issues we would be able to compete with the guys in the race. It sucks in the way that I’m not able to have a race with these guys but we will do the best we can tomorrow. The tyre degradation is an issue and no matter what rules change or whatever solutions we find, so far, generally it seems very difficult for us to improve. But we’re just working away at it and hopefully we will get there before the rules change again for next year, different tyres come in. Otherwise it’s just trying to get as many points as we can and trying to hold on to Sebastian for as long as I can.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Népe) Lewis, Michael Schumacher won here four times at the Hungaroring with two different teams. You can be the next one tomorrow. Is there any more pressure because of that?
LH: No. I really am not bothered at all about beating someone else’s record or matching someone else’s record. I’ve been very fortunate to have had a good car for quite a few years when I’ve come here with McLaren and I was privileged to have the opportunity with them and obviously now we are in a good position but now I don’t envisage tomorrow being a win for us. We’ve got a steep hill to climb tomorrow with these tyres and in these conditions. If we did win it would be a miracle and I would be really happy with it of course but I still feel the win is a while off.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Romain, it looked like the new tyres have actually helped you as opposed to your teammate. Is that a fair reading?
RG: No, I don’t think it is. I think at Silverstone and Nurburgring we were very competitive and to be honest I haven’t really found exactly the same feeling as I had last year with the tyres. I think we are just doing a good job with the car. That we struggled at the beginning of the year is not a secret with mapping and stuff like that, but since then we have found what I need to bring the car where I want to and it’s getting better and better. I don’t think those tyres have changed the deal massively.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) There was another close race between you and Seb in Germany; now you have another chance to do that tomorrow. Is there any chance that Lewis might hinder you as you chase after him tomorrow?
RG: Well, he’s on pole at the moment, so he’s the one with the advantage on the grid but then it’s just up to how the tyre reacts in the race, what the degradation is like, when people pit, the strategy and stuff like that. We know the track is quite short and you can easily fall into traffic which cost me the win here last year in the second stint, so it’s just up to us to get the best out of everything I can.
Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) Sebastian, how difficult do you think it’s going to be for you to keep Romain behind, given that he’s qualified so close to you and he could potentially run longer on the soft tyre?
SV: Well, it depends, obviously. We know that the Lotus usually is very good with its tyres, exceptional to everybody else. I think we are in a good position too so we will see. At the moment, as Romain said, Lewis is leading the pack and then we go from there. The race is long, the first corner is only a small part of it so we will see what happens at the start and after that it could be all different already. It’s a long way to go, it’s a lot of laps here, 70 laps, it’s a long race, it’s going to be hot so I think it will be tough for drivers but also for the cars in terms of cooling. I think we’re all on the limit. It will be a long race and surely tyres will be important but I think we are confident, as confident as we can be. How strong the Lotus will be I don’t know. On the long runs they don’t look anything special but we saw the same at Nurburgring on the Friday so let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Q: (Zolt Godina – Best of Radio) Lewis, do you have problems with the car in terms of driving, as in the first part of the season?
LH: It’s still not the easiest to set up but we’ve not done a bad job this weekend as we have managed to get through the last couple of races, getting quite high up. I love the car and I’m constantly growing with it and improving with it. Each qualifying I get into I’m getting stronger and more confident as to how to get the best out of the car. I hope there’s more to come.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) We are hearing – it will be announced tomorrow – that the contract for the Hungaroring will be extended until 2021. Could you please all comment on that, if you are happy to come to the Hungaroring?
LH: I love it here. I love the track, I’ve had good experiences every time I’ve come since 2006. Budapest is a beautiful place. We have a good turn-out every time we come, great weather. We can’t really complain so I’m happy that it’s on the calendar. It’s a historic circuit so I’m proud to have put my name to it and when I retire someone else will come but I’m grateful to be around when it’s here.
SV: Yeah, not much more to add. I think the race has been here since ’86 so it is already a tradition to come here. Obviously it’s very special to have a lot of fans always coming despite the fact that it’s very hot and they usually leave the track with big sunburn. Yeah, they love coming here, a lot of people from Germany, from Austria which is obviously very special for us. Looking forward to the next couple of years and I think it’s a good message. The only downside probably is the fact that usually overtaking around here is not that easy but I think it’s a great place, nevertheless.
RG: I was planning to stay on holiday a little bit next year after the race so it’s great news. I love the city, I love the place so I’m pleased with that.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Yesterday, team principals were divided in opinion as to whether there should be more races on the calendar. As drivers, do you think there should be more?
SV: I think it’s enough, twenty is enough races. Maybe for us (drivers) it’s possible to have another one here or there but especially for the teams, in terms of logistics and for team staff I think it’s already a big effort, very little time, very few weekends to spend at home with their families, with their kids. I think you mustn’t forget about that and therefore I think twenty races is already a lot. Five years ago or ten years it was only 16 races so it’s already a lot more and I don’t think more than twenty races is good for the teams.
LH: I love racing so I could race every weekend if I had to, but as Sebastian said, it’s difficult for the guys in the garage and people back at the factory. They’re constantly on the edge, and particular the guys who are travelling, as you said, seeing their families and stuff. I’m sure if I went into the garage and asked my guys if they wanted to race more I’m sure they would say they would but they would also miss their families.
RG: I quite agree with Seb. Twenty is pretty alright and it’s tough for everyone so why not some more testing but twenty races is about good.
Q: (Jeroen Huis in T Veld – Jhed Media B.V) We’ve talked about the heat a lot and what it does to the tyres but what does it do to you, Lewis, physically and even more, in tomorrow’s race for two hours in the heat?
LH: It’s not really that bad, to be honest. I’ve not really noticed the heat too much so far this weekend. Malaysia is usually the biggest killer and Singapore, obviously, with the humidity but it’s not that humid here. It’s nice and warm and of course it would be nice to be cooler in the car but by this time of the season you are used to it so just have to make sure you drink plenty and that’s it.
Q: (Gabor Joo– Index) Romain, do you expect one pit stop less than the other two guys tomorrow?
RG: How much do you plan? I don’t know. It really depends on how it goes. I think again it’s a question of how long you can go in the first stint without losing too much time or gaining time and then the strategy guy will be on the pit wall making all the calculations and working harder to give me the best chance.
Present were Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), and Romain Grosjean (Lotus).
Q: Congratulations Lewis, a phenomenal pole position, a phenomenal time on what is a very challenging circuit I think.
Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Yeah, it is. Especially with the temperatures and everything. That makes it pretty tough but I was really surprised when I came across the line and they said I got pole. I was expecting Sebastian to get it because he had shown some serious pace before. And it didn’t even feel that great a lap so that’s why I was quite surprised.
Q: When we saw Sebastian’s time we thought surely it’s not possible to beat him – yet you did so.
LH: As I said, I’m really surprised. I felt maybe he made a mistake or something. But I think as always it’s down to the… we bought some upgrades this weekend. The guys have been working incredibly hard to try to catch everyone and they’re just doing a phenomenal job. It’s a result of all the hard work they’ve put in.
Q: A tough circuit here. Surely pole position is very, very important because it’s so difficult to overtake?
LH: It definitely helps. It’s very difficult to follow here. If you can get off the… it’s a long way down to Turn One from the start but if you can get into Turn One first, try and hold your position then it’s definitely advantageous. But looking after the tyres in these conditions is going to be, as always, trouble. These guys are going to be ridiculously fast so trying to keep ahead of them or hold onto them is going to be the challenge tomorrow.
Q: Sebastian. I have to say we thought you surely had it in the bag with that time. Did you feel the same?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well there wasn’t much missing so I think Lewis did a good job. I put a strong lap in, I had two sets of new tyres and I was pretty happy with both laps. Maybe on the second try I was losing out a little bit in the middle sector. It’s very twisty and a lot of corners in a short amount of time. Maybe I wasn’t aggressive enough there. But it’s stupid to sit here now and say “we should have done this, we should have done that.” At the end of the day I was pretty happy with my lap but it was just not quick enough. Obviously Mercedes have a very strong pace in qualifying. I think Lewis did an exceptional job today if you look also at the gap to Nico, so you have to be fair and respect that. I’m not arguing with that. Surely I would have loved to be a little bit faster and to be on pole but still I think it puts us in a great place for tomorrow. I think we have a good car and good pace also for the race. Shame that in the other car Mark had an issue. He didn’t have KERS and had a problem with the gearbox so had slow upshifts so he was basically not having an attempt for the front and the first couple of positions but still I think we should have a good race tomorrow because the car feels fine. I’m quite confident.
Q: Romain, you were second on the grid here last year, finished third. You’re in the first three again this year. It must be a lucky circuit for you, do you feel that?
Romain GROSJEAN: Well I don’t know! I quite like the circuit but it doesn’t mean much unfortunately. It has been a good weekend so far, been working pretty hard with the team, trying to get the best out of the car. Our last lap was a pretty good lap, not missing much to get even more ahead but those guys were really quick so I think it’s good to be here. The race is very long tomorrow and it’s hot so we will see what we can do and what we can get as a best result.
Q: And both the long and short runs have been good in practice?
RG: Yeah, they were pretty all right yesterday. I think the Option is quite a tough tyre to make last but then the medium one was all right on our car. With the temperature coming up it can change a little bit the things. It was the case last race. My first stint was very long just because the tyres held up pretty well. Hopefully tomorrow is going to be the case again and then I can try to have a go. But we’ll decide when the time comes.
Q: Lewis, how much of a worry is the long-run pace for the race tomorrow? Particularly given the heat?
LH: It is what it is, y’know? It’s been the same for a long time. We don’t come into the race and it’s a surprise to us. That’s what it is. It’s great to have the pole position but it doesn’t really mean a lot throughout the weekend. Obviously the race is where we score the points. It’s going to be tough tomorrow. It didn’t feel like a disaster through our long runs but it definitely wasn’t as good as the guys next to me. So, that’s the way it is.
Q: Sebastian, this is a trophy that’s missing from the trophy cabinet. You reduced that number by one last time in the German Grand Prix. How badly do you want this one?
SV: Well, hopefully… I’m not that young anymore but hopefully I’ve got a couple of years left and I’m not in a rush. Obviously it’s a very nice race, a lot of fans coming, especially from Austria to support our team. So, yeah, that’s great, a great atmosphere and it would be very nice to win here. It’s a shame that they don’t have the nice, traditionally trophy any more. Instead we get this, I don’t know, this six-legged dog as the trophy on the podium the last couple of years. But, no, I think we are in a good position. Pretty happy with qualifying, obviously I would have loved to have been on pole but Lewis did a good job, as I said before. So we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be hot and a lot will be decided over the tyres. We’ll see what we can do.
Q: Romain, you were on the podium last year. Is there a certain confidence after last year’s performance and this year’s performance as well? You were fastest this morning and now here you arte third fastest on the grid.
RG: As I said, this has been a pretty good weekend so far and the car is behaving pretty well. The main job was to try to get those new tyres to work properly and it didn’t change night and day, so that was a good surprise from yesterday morning. And then, just trying to improve the car lap after lap, and that’s what we did. The long run yesterday was OK. It felt OK in the car, which was important. Then tomorrow we will see with the race. We will see different strategies I guess and we’ll try to get the best of our car when we get free air and stuff like that.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor) Sebastian you have mentioned in the [TV] press conference that maybe you were not aggressive in the middle sector. Was it because you though you virtually had pole and you didn’t want to take too many risks.
SV: No, surely not. In the end, I wasn’t on holiday. If you could, then I would say have a go and try to do the same time. I lost a little bit of time there and should have been more aggressive. That doesn’t mean I didn’t push but maybe I should have pushed a little bit harder and a little bit extra to get some more time. I think the time Lewis did was in the car but it’s always easy with hindsight to say you could have done a little bit more here or there but as a fact, we did not, so we deserve P2 today.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov - F1 Life) Romain, what does it mean your little smile. Is this success for you, this third place, or maybe you want more?
RG: I do always smile, so it’s hard to read on that. It’s OK. You always want better and I think we had a tough quali and it’s really hot in the car and I gave a good effort to get there. It’s good to be in the top three. This morning we were fastest but we knew it would be very tight and again it is. I’m, pretty pleased with the gap which is behind. Tomorrow’s race is long and a different story. I was a bit surprised by the Mercedes being that quick but in the race we know it’s a different story.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Lewis, your pole has demonstrated that your qualifying pace has not been affected by the new Pirelli constructions. What kind of feelings do you have about your long run pace, about the race tomorrow and especially the fifty degree plus track temperatures we are anticipating?
LH: I’m not really looking forward to it. I was just saying to Sebastian, it’s just a shame that we obviously have good pace... we’ve got a good car so I think if we didn’t have the tyre issues we would be able to compete with the guys in the race. It sucks in the way that I’m not able to have a race with these guys but we will do the best we can tomorrow. The tyre degradation is an issue and no matter what rules change or whatever solutions we find, so far, generally it seems very difficult for us to improve. But we’re just working away at it and hopefully we will get there before the rules change again for next year, different tyres come in. Otherwise it’s just trying to get as many points as we can and trying to hold on to Sebastian for as long as I can.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Népe) Lewis, Michael Schumacher won here four times at the Hungaroring with two different teams. You can be the next one tomorrow. Is there any more pressure because of that?
LH: No. I really am not bothered at all about beating someone else’s record or matching someone else’s record. I’ve been very fortunate to have had a good car for quite a few years when I’ve come here with McLaren and I was privileged to have the opportunity with them and obviously now we are in a good position but now I don’t envisage tomorrow being a win for us. We’ve got a steep hill to climb tomorrow with these tyres and in these conditions. If we did win it would be a miracle and I would be really happy with it of course but I still feel the win is a while off.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Romain, it looked like the new tyres have actually helped you as opposed to your teammate. Is that a fair reading?
RG: No, I don’t think it is. I think at Silverstone and Nurburgring we were very competitive and to be honest I haven’t really found exactly the same feeling as I had last year with the tyres. I think we are just doing a good job with the car. That we struggled at the beginning of the year is not a secret with mapping and stuff like that, but since then we have found what I need to bring the car where I want to and it’s getting better and better. I don’t think those tyres have changed the deal massively.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) There was another close race between you and Seb in Germany; now you have another chance to do that tomorrow. Is there any chance that Lewis might hinder you as you chase after him tomorrow?
RG: Well, he’s on pole at the moment, so he’s the one with the advantage on the grid but then it’s just up to how the tyre reacts in the race, what the degradation is like, when people pit, the strategy and stuff like that. We know the track is quite short and you can easily fall into traffic which cost me the win here last year in the second stint, so it’s just up to us to get the best out of everything I can.
Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) Sebastian, how difficult do you think it’s going to be for you to keep Romain behind, given that he’s qualified so close to you and he could potentially run longer on the soft tyre?
SV: Well, it depends, obviously. We know that the Lotus usually is very good with its tyres, exceptional to everybody else. I think we are in a good position too so we will see. At the moment, as Romain said, Lewis is leading the pack and then we go from there. The race is long, the first corner is only a small part of it so we will see what happens at the start and after that it could be all different already. It’s a long way to go, it’s a lot of laps here, 70 laps, it’s a long race, it’s going to be hot so I think it will be tough for drivers but also for the cars in terms of cooling. I think we’re all on the limit. It will be a long race and surely tyres will be important but I think we are confident, as confident as we can be. How strong the Lotus will be I don’t know. On the long runs they don’t look anything special but we saw the same at Nurburgring on the Friday so let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Q: (Zolt Godina – Best of Radio) Lewis, do you have problems with the car in terms of driving, as in the first part of the season?
LH: It’s still not the easiest to set up but we’ve not done a bad job this weekend as we have managed to get through the last couple of races, getting quite high up. I love the car and I’m constantly growing with it and improving with it. Each qualifying I get into I’m getting stronger and more confident as to how to get the best out of the car. I hope there’s more to come.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) We are hearing – it will be announced tomorrow – that the contract for the Hungaroring will be extended until 2021. Could you please all comment on that, if you are happy to come to the Hungaroring?
LH: I love it here. I love the track, I’ve had good experiences every time I’ve come since 2006. Budapest is a beautiful place. We have a good turn-out every time we come, great weather. We can’t really complain so I’m happy that it’s on the calendar. It’s a historic circuit so I’m proud to have put my name to it and when I retire someone else will come but I’m grateful to be around when it’s here.
SV: Yeah, not much more to add. I think the race has been here since ’86 so it is already a tradition to come here. Obviously it’s very special to have a lot of fans always coming despite the fact that it’s very hot and they usually leave the track with big sunburn. Yeah, they love coming here, a lot of people from Germany, from Austria which is obviously very special for us. Looking forward to the next couple of years and I think it’s a good message. The only downside probably is the fact that usually overtaking around here is not that easy but I think it’s a great place, nevertheless.
RG: I was planning to stay on holiday a little bit next year after the race so it’s great news. I love the city, I love the place so I’m pleased with that.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Yesterday, team principals were divided in opinion as to whether there should be more races on the calendar. As drivers, do you think there should be more?
SV: I think it’s enough, twenty is enough races. Maybe for us (drivers) it’s possible to have another one here or there but especially for the teams, in terms of logistics and for team staff I think it’s already a big effort, very little time, very few weekends to spend at home with their families, with their kids. I think you mustn’t forget about that and therefore I think twenty races is already a lot. Five years ago or ten years it was only 16 races so it’s already a lot more and I don’t think more than twenty races is good for the teams.
LH: I love racing so I could race every weekend if I had to, but as Sebastian said, it’s difficult for the guys in the garage and people back at the factory. They’re constantly on the edge, and particular the guys who are travelling, as you said, seeing their families and stuff. I’m sure if I went into the garage and asked my guys if they wanted to race more I’m sure they would say they would but they would also miss their families.
RG: I quite agree with Seb. Twenty is pretty alright and it’s tough for everyone so why not some more testing but twenty races is about good.
Q: (Jeroen Huis in T Veld – Jhed Media B.V) We’ve talked about the heat a lot and what it does to the tyres but what does it do to you, Lewis, physically and even more, in tomorrow’s race for two hours in the heat?
LH: It’s not really that bad, to be honest. I’ve not really noticed the heat too much so far this weekend. Malaysia is usually the biggest killer and Singapore, obviously, with the humidity but it’s not that humid here. It’s nice and warm and of course it would be nice to be cooler in the car but by this time of the season you are used to it so just have to make sure you drink plenty and that’s it.
Q: (Gabor Joo– Index) Romain, do you expect one pit stop less than the other two guys tomorrow?
RG: How much do you plan? I don’t know. It really depends on how it goes. I think again it’s a question of how long you can go in the first stint without losing too much time or gaining time and then the strategy guy will be on the pit wall making all the calculations and working harder to give me the best chance.
F1 Hungary Blog - Saturday report
The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend continued under sunny skies with scorching temperatures on Saturday morning, giving drivers a sense of the conditions they will be running under on Sunday afternoon.
A largely incident-free final practice session saw Romain Grosjean top the timesheets for Lotus, ending Red Bull’s run of FP domination at the Hungaroring. The Frenchman led Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez; the latter driver crashed in the closing minutes of the session, bringing out the yellows and preventing his opponents from improving their times.
Esteban Gutierrez missed on anything more than installation laps during FP3 – the Sauber driver was suffering engine problems, and spent much of the morning in the garage as his team swapped out his powerplant.
The Mexican racer made up for his lost time in qualifying, when he was the first man out on track once the pit lane opened for Q1. But the first driver to set a representative time in the session was Valtteri Bottas, who topped the timesheets on his first run with a 1m21.532s lap.
With track temperatures exceeding 50˚C predicted for Sunday’s race, tyre preservation is the name of the game this weekend. To that end, the big guns – Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus, and McLaren – all elected to keep their drivers in the garage for as long as possible during Q1, saving rubber for the later shoot-outs and for the race itself. At six minutes remaining, none of the ten drivers had set a time.
Alonso’s first effort saw the Spanish driver shoot straight to the top of the timesheets with a 1m20.652s lap, before Grosjean unseated him with a 1m20.447s effort, three-tenths faster than teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s first effort. Sebastian Vettel’s first lap saw the defending world champion two-tenths shy of Grosjean.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton went straight to the top of the timesheets, with the German racer leading his teammate by 0.011s. In the dropout zone in the final minute were the driver pairings from Caterham and Marussia plus Gutierrez and Paul di Resta. Hovering on the edge was Sergio Perez.
As Q2 got underway, the track temperature had climbed to 50˚C, while the skies were gathering clouds.
The Lotus drivers set the early pace, with Grosjean unseating his teammate, before Hamilton claimed the top spot with a 1m20.303s lap. The Briton’s time at the top was short-lived, with Vettel crossing the line in 1m19.992s, the first driver to break the 1m20s barrier.
On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Webber’s efforts were hampered by KERS failure, and the Australian racer was in the dropout zone before the session was half-run. Joining him were the driver pairings from Toro Rosso and Williams, and Nico Hulkenberg.
While the dropout zone is usually the area to focus on in qualifying, at the top end of the timesheets was an interesting battle between Grosjean and Raikkonen, with both drivers using rather more rubber than was strictly necessary to stay in the running as they did their best to out-pace each other.
In the final minute Rosberg and Hamilton bested Vettel’s earlier pace-setting time, while the Williams pairing saved themselves, knocking the McLaren pair into the dropout zone, before being dropped back in during the final rush of laps that saw positions change second by second.
When push came to shove, the losers were Adrian Sutil, Hulkenberg, Jenson Button, Jean-Eric Vergne, Pastor Maldonado, and Bottas.
Daniel Ricciardo started a lap which he did not complete; the Toro Rosso strategists appeared to have chosen a free choice of rubber over grid position. Webber also started a lap he didn’t finish, although the elder Australian’s afternoon was affected more by the lack of KERS than it was the allocation of rubber.
The driver pairings from Mercedes and Lotus were very closely matched, with Hamilton and Rosberg split by 0.063s, and Grosjean and Raikkonen split by 0.038s. Hamilton claimed provisional pole, but Vettel’s first timed lap saw the Red Bull driver cross the line eight-tenths faster than the Briton, who dived back into the pits for fresh rubber and a final attempt.
Ricciardo did leave the pits in the final minutes, but given Webber’s lack of running all the Toro Rosso driver needed to do was set a time – any time – to guarantee ninth on the grid. But the Australian did far better, lapping in a respectable 1m20.641s that was good enough for P8.
The final minute saw a chaos of times, the standings changing with each man to cross the finish line. But when all was said and done it was a very surprised Hamilton who led Vettel, the Briton asking ‘is that pole?’ when congratulated over the radio by his team.
Provisional grid
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m19.388s
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m19426s
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m19.595s
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m19.720s
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m19.791s
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m19.851s
7. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m19.929s
8. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m20.641s
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m22.398s
10. Mark Webber (Red Bull) NO TIME SET
11. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m20.569s
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m20.580s
13. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m20.777s
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m21.029
15. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m21.133s
16. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m21.219s9
17. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m21.724s
18. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m22.043s
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m23.007s
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m23.333s
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m23.787s
22. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m23.997s
A largely incident-free final practice session saw Romain Grosjean top the timesheets for Lotus, ending Red Bull’s run of FP domination at the Hungaroring. The Frenchman led Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez; the latter driver crashed in the closing minutes of the session, bringing out the yellows and preventing his opponents from improving their times.
Esteban Gutierrez missed on anything more than installation laps during FP3 – the Sauber driver was suffering engine problems, and spent much of the morning in the garage as his team swapped out his powerplant.
The Mexican racer made up for his lost time in qualifying, when he was the first man out on track once the pit lane opened for Q1. But the first driver to set a representative time in the session was Valtteri Bottas, who topped the timesheets on his first run with a 1m21.532s lap.
With track temperatures exceeding 50˚C predicted for Sunday’s race, tyre preservation is the name of the game this weekend. To that end, the big guns – Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus, and McLaren – all elected to keep their drivers in the garage for as long as possible during Q1, saving rubber for the later shoot-outs and for the race itself. At six minutes remaining, none of the ten drivers had set a time.
Alonso’s first effort saw the Spanish driver shoot straight to the top of the timesheets with a 1m20.652s lap, before Grosjean unseated him with a 1m20.447s effort, three-tenths faster than teammate Kimi Raikkonen’s first effort. Sebastian Vettel’s first lap saw the defending world champion two-tenths shy of Grosjean.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton went straight to the top of the timesheets, with the German racer leading his teammate by 0.011s. In the dropout zone in the final minute were the driver pairings from Caterham and Marussia plus Gutierrez and Paul di Resta. Hovering on the edge was Sergio Perez.
As Q2 got underway, the track temperature had climbed to 50˚C, while the skies were gathering clouds.
The Lotus drivers set the early pace, with Grosjean unseating his teammate, before Hamilton claimed the top spot with a 1m20.303s lap. The Briton’s time at the top was short-lived, with Vettel crossing the line in 1m19.992s, the first driver to break the 1m20s barrier.
On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Webber’s efforts were hampered by KERS failure, and the Australian racer was in the dropout zone before the session was half-run. Joining him were the driver pairings from Toro Rosso and Williams, and Nico Hulkenberg.
While the dropout zone is usually the area to focus on in qualifying, at the top end of the timesheets was an interesting battle between Grosjean and Raikkonen, with both drivers using rather more rubber than was strictly necessary to stay in the running as they did their best to out-pace each other.
In the final minute Rosberg and Hamilton bested Vettel’s earlier pace-setting time, while the Williams pairing saved themselves, knocking the McLaren pair into the dropout zone, before being dropped back in during the final rush of laps that saw positions change second by second.
When push came to shove, the losers were Adrian Sutil, Hulkenberg, Jenson Button, Jean-Eric Vergne, Pastor Maldonado, and Bottas.
Daniel Ricciardo started a lap which he did not complete; the Toro Rosso strategists appeared to have chosen a free choice of rubber over grid position. Webber also started a lap he didn’t finish, although the elder Australian’s afternoon was affected more by the lack of KERS than it was the allocation of rubber.
The driver pairings from Mercedes and Lotus were very closely matched, with Hamilton and Rosberg split by 0.063s, and Grosjean and Raikkonen split by 0.038s. Hamilton claimed provisional pole, but Vettel’s first timed lap saw the Red Bull driver cross the line eight-tenths faster than the Briton, who dived back into the pits for fresh rubber and a final attempt.
Ricciardo did leave the pits in the final minutes, but given Webber’s lack of running all the Toro Rosso driver needed to do was set a time – any time – to guarantee ninth on the grid. But the Australian did far better, lapping in a respectable 1m20.641s that was good enough for P8.
The final minute saw a chaos of times, the standings changing with each man to cross the finish line. But when all was said and done it was a very surprised Hamilton who led Vettel, the Briton asking ‘is that pole?’ when congratulated over the radio by his team.
Provisional grid
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m19.388s
2. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m19426s
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m19.595s
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m19.720s
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m19.791s
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m19.851s
7. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m19.929s
8. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m20.641s
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m22.398s
10. Mark Webber (Red Bull) NO TIME SET
11. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m20.569s
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m20.580s
13. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m20.777s
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m21.029
15. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m21.133s
16. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m21.219s9
17. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m21.724s
18. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m22.043s
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m23.007s
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m23.333s
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m23.787s
22. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m23.997s
F1 Hungary Blog - Friday press conference
Given the line-up at the Friday press conference and recent news stories involving a number of the key figures, the event itself was a far more tranquil affair than anyone had anticipated.
Present were Cyril Abiteboul (Caterham), John Booth (Marussia), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Claire Williams (Williams), and Toto Wolff (Mercedes).
Q: Good afternoon everyone. Cyril, can I start with you? In a way it’s been a quiet season for you so far, there doesn’t seem to have been any forward movement. What’s been going on behind the scenes?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: Come to the factory and you’ll see that a lot is happening! We’re continuing with our plan. We said quite early that we would have a bit of a particular season because we started with a hybrid car, which was based mainly on last year’s car and obviously we have been carrying on with that programme, so we have seen new upgrades almost every race since Bahrain. That is quite aggressive, I have to say, maybe a bit ambitious also, because we also keep an eye on 2014. Sometimes what we are bringing is working and is delivering. Sometimes it’s not working exactly as we want. Also as we are a young team we have to learn about controlling so many upgrades and that maybe some things, thinking about it… maybe we are sometimes a bit too audacious in what we are bringing on track. But we are coping with it, that’s exciting, that’s also keeping the motivation high in the garage and at the factory, which is always a challenge when you are at the back of the grid.
Q: There has been some doubt, maybe completely fictional, about Giedo van der Garde’s seat within the team. Heikki Kovalainen has been mentioned. One wonders whether Alexander Rossi will ever get a seat for the United States Grand Prix. Can you tell us the situation there amongst with your drivers?
CA: This is the first time I’m answering this. I think the situation is quite straightforward. Apart from the fact that we have young drivers in the seats and a reserve driver who is more experienced, I think our structure is quite clear. Having said that, it’s true that the two drivers we have are two young drivers, one has a bit more experience than the other. One has some challenges with tyres, obviously Giedo, and we have to see how the changes to the tyres this weekend are affecting him but also how the upgrades to the car are affecting his challenge. But just like everyone, he’s being challenged, just like I am challenged on a daily basis by our shareholder. So like everyone, he has to deliver but he has no particular pressure, no more pressure than any other driver on the grid.
Q: John if I can come to you. Interesting announcement that you are going to be using the Ferrari powerplant in the future. It must, first of all, be a big investment to use that but at the same time a saving as well as you have all the transmission too?
John BOOTH: It’s a saving on effort. We’re very happy with our position with Scuderia Ferrari. It too a long time negotiating but very happy for the whole team to announce it a couple of weeks ago.
Q: Where does that fit, first of all, with Jules Bianchi, because of course he’s a Ferrari young driver and secondly, with McLaren, with whom you have a partnership.
JB: First of all, with Jules, he is a Ferrari young driver but the two deals are totally separate. The powertrain deal has no bearing on Jules’ future at all.
Q: And with McLaren?
JB: Two totally separate contracts. Ferrari’s contract is purely powertrain and then the other one with our other partners McLaren covers separate areas altogether.
Q: So it will work quite well?
JB: Yes, no problems.
Q: Toto, we’re half way through the season now, what marks out of ten would you give the team’s performance in the first half of the season and what can you still achieve in 2013?
Toto WOLFF: Well, I think the team has made a great step forward from the second half of last season. If you would have told us we’re going to score two wins and a couple of pole positions, we would have taken it, so the score would have been an eight probably.
Q: So what can still be achieved?
TW: Obviously we have many challenges to overcome. Our car is still a bit of a difficult one in hot conditions, what we are going to expect here on Sunday. This is something we must analyse, also in terms of making it work next year.
TQ: he way the driver pairing has worked with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has surprised quite a few people. What’s it like to work with them? It was amusing to hear Lewis saying here yesterday that Nico’s considerably more competitive than he was when they were in karting together.
TW: It’s great, because we have a really good team spirit. Although they are very competitive with each other, they know each other for a long time. They have two completely different ways of working and being competitive, driving the car, analysing. Within the team we have just a great contentment working with the two of them.
Q: Claire, coming to you: interesting new re-organisation on the technical side. Can you give us some background as to why it happened and how it came about?
Claire WILLIAMS: I think it’s been obvious to everybody that the performance of the team hasn’t been where we wanted. At the end of 2012 we thought we’d made a step forward with our performance that clearly when we came to Australia this year that wasn’t the case. In order to move forward and to get to where we want to be we needed to make changes on the technical side of the business. We needed to make those changes and obviously Pat Symonds coming on board as our new chief technical officer is part of that step but it’s only the first of a number of good news announcement we’ll be announcing in the near term.
Q: What does that mean for next year’s car? Has that already been started, does Pat go straight onto that?
CW: No, Pat will divide his time between trying to make improvements to this year’s car but then working on the 2014 car as well.
Q: So this year’s car will still be developed?
CW: It will be. We’re Williams – we wouldn’t stop developing a car mid-way through the season.
Q: Franz, first of all, testing performance at Silverstone: what was your feeling about that?
Franz TOST: Good. We had, I must say, two very good days with Ricciardo and with Sainz in the car. The third day we struggled a little bit because we had a hydraulic problem and therefore we lost two hours but I must say also Kvyat did a good job and generally speaking the young drivers from Red Bull were surprising fast and I think they were high-skilled and will have a successful future.
Q: What’s your feeling for next year with your drivers? Are you being prepared to lose one of them?
FT: We will see. It’s not decided yet from Red Bull but we must not forget Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull bought Minardi in those days to give young drivers from the Red Bull driver pool a chance to come into Formula One. Toro Rosso is the team to educate young drivers and I see it as positive because it shows that a) drivers are skilled and b) that the team has done so far a good job – and therefore if they choose Daniel I am quite happy with this decision.
Q: And will you look outside the young driver programme to replace him or strictly-speaking within the young driver programme?
FT: We will see. We will discuss together with Red Bull. If there is a driver from the Red Bull driver pool of course we will take him. And if this is not the case then we will look outside. Currently I think there are some skilled drivers within the Red Bull driver pool.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Question about the number of races and which races we’re going to have next year. Does anybody want more than 20 and which races present the biggest challenges for a team? And as a back-up to that, is the German Grand Prix important to you all?
JB: Any more than 20 would be very difficult for a small team to service. We would start drifting into the area of having to have back-up crews, to rotate staff – and that obviously becomes very expensive. German Grand Prix? All European races are very important. I think it’s where grands prix were born and we need to maintain them as long as possible. Most difficult one… no difference really!
Q: Toto…?
TW: I think there is a consensus about doing 20 races and, like John said, anything more and you need to ramp-up the organisation. So, let’s stick to 20 – I think it’s a good number. Most difficult one for us is the hottest – so I hope not Hungary this weekend.
Q: The German Grand Prix?
TW: Obviously that’s our home grand prix, so ultra-important.
Q: Claire?
CW: I don’t really have a huge amount to add except that 20 races for any team is a lot of races for team personnel to have to go to and manage. To make it any greater than that would be, as John said, a significant difference for everybody. Germany clearly is a very important race for us, in particular next year when we have our partnership with Mercedes starting.
Q: Franz?
FT: I’m happy with as many races as Bernie can organise because we are a race team. If it’s 22 it’s 22: if it’s 24 it’s 24. I’m happy to go everywhere. Germany is very important. Nürburgring of course because of the history but also the Hockenheimring. I think these are the classic races which we need in Europe. It’s one race in Germany, Monaco, Silverstone, Monza, Austria of course – which is a new race on the calendar next year – we need to have more races in Europe, not just to go overseas.
Q: Cyril?
CA: I tend to agree with Franz. If you look at other models, other series, in particular in North America, you see that the number of races is almost irrelevant. I think we need to know what is the right model between exclusivity – making our show a bit exclusive so that we do not saturate an audience about Formula One – and making sure we are here for a sufficient period of time. And then I guess the economics can be done in such a manner that every outfit can cope with that. I guess it would mean proper preparation and in that respect it would be good to know for the time being, to start with, to get some confirmation about the calendar for next year before talking about expanding. In that respect I think more notice, more lead-time in the preparation would be welcome to know where they are. I think Germany, I would agree is important. When it comes to a challenge, the biggest challenge for us is when we hit a new track and when in particular the conditions on a Friday are totally different to the conditions on a Sunday. Everyone has to deal with the same issues, except that our simulator – which is now a very important element of the team’s preparation – may not be as developed as other teams. Therefore familiarisation on the Friday is particularly important for us.
Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News/Auto Action) To all of you: there’s always talk about cost-cutting in Formula One. Compared to a couple of years ago, have your operating costs gone up or down?
FT: There is no cost-cutting in Formula One. Formula One is expensive, we all know that. Next year we will have an increase of – I don’t know – 15, 20 million and that’s reality. This is the reason why, as I said before, the more races we do, the more income we have. We have to show a good entertainment, that sponsors are interested in Formula One and we have to go all over the world to different countries which are important for our sponsors and therefore I think that real cost cutting will not happen as we all discuss all the time. Formula One was expensive and Formula One will always stay expensive.
CW: I think cost control is the most important thing, isn’t it. But then we’re looking at an escalation in engine costs next year which, for a team like Williams is always difficult but we’ve always found a budget which we need to go racing. Our costs over the past couple of seasons at least, have remained relatively stable but obviously those are escalating next year but it’s our responsibility to ensure that we find the budget that we need in order to keep us racing at a competitive level.
TW: You know we can’t close ourselves out from the real world and it’s pretty tough out there at the moment so on one side we want to be competitive and successful on track because this is the reason why we’re here but on the other side there is an economical reality which we must respect. So for us at Mercedes it’s all about being efficient, about not spending money where it’s not necessary but staying competitive – or being competitive.
JB: Our costs have increased year on year but that’s mainly due to us being a very young and very small team that has a planned expansion programme for every year. That’s the main reason for our cost increases.
CA: Yeah, the same thing obviously. I tend to believe that it’s going to be extremely... it’s human nature to spend whatever people have to spend so I guess that limiting expense is difficult. I think the only time that Formula One did a fairly good job limiting costs was by putting some cap on engine costs and also limiting the number of engines used so I think it’s only by policing the product that is on the track, therefore the car, that you will have a more direct influence on the overall costs, rather than looking at what’s happening in the factory. That’s my belief.
Q: (Abhishek Tackle – Midday) Franz, Christian Horner seems to have ruled out Jean-Eric Vergne for the Red Bull seat, so what can you tell us about his future at Toro Rosso, because Chrstian Horner says that he still deserves to be in Formula One. Will the ultimate decision on his future rest with Dr Helmut Marko?
FT: I’m convinced that Jean-Eric Vergne will race next year for Toro Rosso. We must not forget that Jean-Eric came later into Formula One (than Daniel) and why Red Bull Racing is thinking about racing with Daniel Ricciardo next year, it’s simply because he is more experienced, he showed very good performance in the first half of the season but Jean-Eric Vergne is quite close to him. It’s not that Jean-Eric is out of the team. As far as I’m thinking, next year he is with Toro Rosso.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) I don’t know who can answer this question but we spoke about the future of the German Grand Prix, I believe at 1pm there was a meeting with Mr Ecclestone about the future of another Grand Prix, namely the Indian Grand Prix which has certain tax issues. Earlier this week, Sochi announced their date for the 19th of October next year and I have spoken to representatives here who have confirmed the date. What is the future of the Indian Grand Prix and why could it possibly fall away, please?
JB: It was a private meeting so it’s not for public discussion. As far as I’m aware, the Indian Grand Prix is on the schedule and we’ll be going.
TW: Well, I think you know that the calendar is in the hands of the promoter and we have a great promoter, so wherever we need to go, we will go.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Franz said something about reality; is the reality sensible and is reality sustainable in regard to the budgets of Formula One?
FT: As long as the cars are on the starting grid, as long as we are racing, this is the reality of Formula One, yeah? Nevertheless, we should think how we could come down with the costs but if I look at next year, what has been decided is we get a new power unit package, which is more expensive than the current one and we’ve brought back testing, which costs even more money. That means we are discussing different directions. The most efficient cost-cutting was from 2009, 2010 when we said ‘OK, we don’t do any more testing’ and when the engines were frozen, no development on this side, that meant that engine costs came down and during the last years everything was quite stable. But next year, I’m worried about the costs because they are simply running away.
CW: It’s my job to get the money into the team so it always worries me when I’m looking at an escalation in costs and as I said in my answer before, whether it’s sensible and whether it’s sustainable, this is a sport that we race in and as someone said earlier, it’s an expensive sport but as Toto said, we have to be mindful of the outside world as well. I think my biggest concern is the disparity between budgets of teams and I think that in order to have a level playing field in Formula One, in order to remain competitive in Formula One, there has to be some kind of control over costs so that we are actually operating on a fair and even platform in this sport, rather than having some teams racing with a 50 million pound budget compared to teams racing with a 250 million pound budget or 200 million pound budget and I think that that’s one of the biggest issues we have facing us at the moment.
Q: Toto, it might be said that you’re one of the wealthier teams out there.
TW: Well, I’m not sure but Franz always said it very clearly and directly; there is a bunch of new regulations kicking in next year and we have to look carefully at all the steps and decisions we are making because we cannot allow costs to escalate. This is very important for us as well. And then on the other side what we are seeing is the team environment is very difficult but as Claire said, it’s about getting the money in and finding the sponsorship and at the moment, I have the feeling that it is getting a little bit better and we must not forget that Formula One is the number one sport platform in the world. We are going international with all the new races coming in so I am nevertheless very optimistic.
JB: It’s a tough environment out there at the moment but I very much agree with Claire. If you have teams operating with a budget delta of maybe 200 million, what does it do for the sport? It doesn’t make it any more attractive so I think there needs to be a way of keeping costs under control and a more equal distribution of revenue.
CA: I’m not so worried about costs, I am more worried about performance and I think that one can affect the other, obviously. The only thing that we need to make sure is that there is the question about distribution and cost control and level playing fields but I think we need to make sure that Formula One as a whole is properly valued so we are not living above our standards. Like any household, we are making sure not to spend more than we receive, generally. Then there is the question of distribution which is something different and it is true that there are some studies that demonstrate that as a sport we tend to be struggling in comparison to other sports like the NBA, like NFL which do not have the sort of costs that we have. We are highly technological, we are driven by innovation, we need to be manufacturing I don’t know how many composite parts per year. So I think maybe we need to put the efficiency of the business at the foreground of performance. It may not be the case by now.
Q: (Zolt Godina – Best of Radio) Toto, next season will be your last as a partner of the McLaren team; will you have any difficulties in terms of the working relationship between the two parties?
TW: No, I think both organisations are very professional and of course it’s sad losing a customer who has been with Mercedes for so many years and a very successful partnership but I have no doubt that it will be handled in a very professional way from McLaren as well.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Toto, following on from what you said earlier on about new regulations coming in and costs and whatever else, if one looks in the back ofAutosport one regularly sees one team advertising enormously for staff, full page adverts week in, week out. How much are you ramping up the operation? Will you still be able to remain within the resource restriction agreement or are you that far below that at the moment you can afford all these extra people?
TW: You know, I think if you look quite carefully at Autosport we are not the only ones advertising there. This is the number one or one of the good publications in the UK for hiring staff and whether it’s in Autosport or any other platform, I think this is just a normal process. There is a certain fluctuation in personnel and also at Mercedes we are very interesting in getting and keeping the best possible people. Obviously you much watch how RRA is affecting the operation.
Present were Cyril Abiteboul (Caterham), John Booth (Marussia), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Claire Williams (Williams), and Toto Wolff (Mercedes).
Q: Good afternoon everyone. Cyril, can I start with you? In a way it’s been a quiet season for you so far, there doesn’t seem to have been any forward movement. What’s been going on behind the scenes?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: Come to the factory and you’ll see that a lot is happening! We’re continuing with our plan. We said quite early that we would have a bit of a particular season because we started with a hybrid car, which was based mainly on last year’s car and obviously we have been carrying on with that programme, so we have seen new upgrades almost every race since Bahrain. That is quite aggressive, I have to say, maybe a bit ambitious also, because we also keep an eye on 2014. Sometimes what we are bringing is working and is delivering. Sometimes it’s not working exactly as we want. Also as we are a young team we have to learn about controlling so many upgrades and that maybe some things, thinking about it… maybe we are sometimes a bit too audacious in what we are bringing on track. But we are coping with it, that’s exciting, that’s also keeping the motivation high in the garage and at the factory, which is always a challenge when you are at the back of the grid.
Q: There has been some doubt, maybe completely fictional, about Giedo van der Garde’s seat within the team. Heikki Kovalainen has been mentioned. One wonders whether Alexander Rossi will ever get a seat for the United States Grand Prix. Can you tell us the situation there amongst with your drivers?
CA: This is the first time I’m answering this. I think the situation is quite straightforward. Apart from the fact that we have young drivers in the seats and a reserve driver who is more experienced, I think our structure is quite clear. Having said that, it’s true that the two drivers we have are two young drivers, one has a bit more experience than the other. One has some challenges with tyres, obviously Giedo, and we have to see how the changes to the tyres this weekend are affecting him but also how the upgrades to the car are affecting his challenge. But just like everyone, he’s being challenged, just like I am challenged on a daily basis by our shareholder. So like everyone, he has to deliver but he has no particular pressure, no more pressure than any other driver on the grid.
Q: John if I can come to you. Interesting announcement that you are going to be using the Ferrari powerplant in the future. It must, first of all, be a big investment to use that but at the same time a saving as well as you have all the transmission too?
John BOOTH: It’s a saving on effort. We’re very happy with our position with Scuderia Ferrari. It too a long time negotiating but very happy for the whole team to announce it a couple of weeks ago.
Q: Where does that fit, first of all, with Jules Bianchi, because of course he’s a Ferrari young driver and secondly, with McLaren, with whom you have a partnership.
JB: First of all, with Jules, he is a Ferrari young driver but the two deals are totally separate. The powertrain deal has no bearing on Jules’ future at all.
Q: And with McLaren?
JB: Two totally separate contracts. Ferrari’s contract is purely powertrain and then the other one with our other partners McLaren covers separate areas altogether.
Q: So it will work quite well?
JB: Yes, no problems.
Q: Toto, we’re half way through the season now, what marks out of ten would you give the team’s performance in the first half of the season and what can you still achieve in 2013?
Toto WOLFF: Well, I think the team has made a great step forward from the second half of last season. If you would have told us we’re going to score two wins and a couple of pole positions, we would have taken it, so the score would have been an eight probably.
Q: So what can still be achieved?
TW: Obviously we have many challenges to overcome. Our car is still a bit of a difficult one in hot conditions, what we are going to expect here on Sunday. This is something we must analyse, also in terms of making it work next year.
TQ: he way the driver pairing has worked with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has surprised quite a few people. What’s it like to work with them? It was amusing to hear Lewis saying here yesterday that Nico’s considerably more competitive than he was when they were in karting together.
TW: It’s great, because we have a really good team spirit. Although they are very competitive with each other, they know each other for a long time. They have two completely different ways of working and being competitive, driving the car, analysing. Within the team we have just a great contentment working with the two of them.
Q: Claire, coming to you: interesting new re-organisation on the technical side. Can you give us some background as to why it happened and how it came about?
Claire WILLIAMS: I think it’s been obvious to everybody that the performance of the team hasn’t been where we wanted. At the end of 2012 we thought we’d made a step forward with our performance that clearly when we came to Australia this year that wasn’t the case. In order to move forward and to get to where we want to be we needed to make changes on the technical side of the business. We needed to make those changes and obviously Pat Symonds coming on board as our new chief technical officer is part of that step but it’s only the first of a number of good news announcement we’ll be announcing in the near term.
Q: What does that mean for next year’s car? Has that already been started, does Pat go straight onto that?
CW: No, Pat will divide his time between trying to make improvements to this year’s car but then working on the 2014 car as well.
Q: So this year’s car will still be developed?
CW: It will be. We’re Williams – we wouldn’t stop developing a car mid-way through the season.
Q: Franz, first of all, testing performance at Silverstone: what was your feeling about that?
Franz TOST: Good. We had, I must say, two very good days with Ricciardo and with Sainz in the car. The third day we struggled a little bit because we had a hydraulic problem and therefore we lost two hours but I must say also Kvyat did a good job and generally speaking the young drivers from Red Bull were surprising fast and I think they were high-skilled and will have a successful future.
Q: What’s your feeling for next year with your drivers? Are you being prepared to lose one of them?
FT: We will see. It’s not decided yet from Red Bull but we must not forget Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull bought Minardi in those days to give young drivers from the Red Bull driver pool a chance to come into Formula One. Toro Rosso is the team to educate young drivers and I see it as positive because it shows that a) drivers are skilled and b) that the team has done so far a good job – and therefore if they choose Daniel I am quite happy with this decision.
Q: And will you look outside the young driver programme to replace him or strictly-speaking within the young driver programme?
FT: We will see. We will discuss together with Red Bull. If there is a driver from the Red Bull driver pool of course we will take him. And if this is not the case then we will look outside. Currently I think there are some skilled drivers within the Red Bull driver pool.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Question about the number of races and which races we’re going to have next year. Does anybody want more than 20 and which races present the biggest challenges for a team? And as a back-up to that, is the German Grand Prix important to you all?
JB: Any more than 20 would be very difficult for a small team to service. We would start drifting into the area of having to have back-up crews, to rotate staff – and that obviously becomes very expensive. German Grand Prix? All European races are very important. I think it’s where grands prix were born and we need to maintain them as long as possible. Most difficult one… no difference really!
Q: Toto…?
TW: I think there is a consensus about doing 20 races and, like John said, anything more and you need to ramp-up the organisation. So, let’s stick to 20 – I think it’s a good number. Most difficult one for us is the hottest – so I hope not Hungary this weekend.
Q: The German Grand Prix?
TW: Obviously that’s our home grand prix, so ultra-important.
Q: Claire?
CW: I don’t really have a huge amount to add except that 20 races for any team is a lot of races for team personnel to have to go to and manage. To make it any greater than that would be, as John said, a significant difference for everybody. Germany clearly is a very important race for us, in particular next year when we have our partnership with Mercedes starting.
Q: Franz?
FT: I’m happy with as many races as Bernie can organise because we are a race team. If it’s 22 it’s 22: if it’s 24 it’s 24. I’m happy to go everywhere. Germany is very important. Nürburgring of course because of the history but also the Hockenheimring. I think these are the classic races which we need in Europe. It’s one race in Germany, Monaco, Silverstone, Monza, Austria of course – which is a new race on the calendar next year – we need to have more races in Europe, not just to go overseas.
Q: Cyril?
CA: I tend to agree with Franz. If you look at other models, other series, in particular in North America, you see that the number of races is almost irrelevant. I think we need to know what is the right model between exclusivity – making our show a bit exclusive so that we do not saturate an audience about Formula One – and making sure we are here for a sufficient period of time. And then I guess the economics can be done in such a manner that every outfit can cope with that. I guess it would mean proper preparation and in that respect it would be good to know for the time being, to start with, to get some confirmation about the calendar for next year before talking about expanding. In that respect I think more notice, more lead-time in the preparation would be welcome to know where they are. I think Germany, I would agree is important. When it comes to a challenge, the biggest challenge for us is when we hit a new track and when in particular the conditions on a Friday are totally different to the conditions on a Sunday. Everyone has to deal with the same issues, except that our simulator – which is now a very important element of the team’s preparation – may not be as developed as other teams. Therefore familiarisation on the Friday is particularly important for us.
Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speedsport News/Auto Action) To all of you: there’s always talk about cost-cutting in Formula One. Compared to a couple of years ago, have your operating costs gone up or down?
FT: There is no cost-cutting in Formula One. Formula One is expensive, we all know that. Next year we will have an increase of – I don’t know – 15, 20 million and that’s reality. This is the reason why, as I said before, the more races we do, the more income we have. We have to show a good entertainment, that sponsors are interested in Formula One and we have to go all over the world to different countries which are important for our sponsors and therefore I think that real cost cutting will not happen as we all discuss all the time. Formula One was expensive and Formula One will always stay expensive.
CW: I think cost control is the most important thing, isn’t it. But then we’re looking at an escalation in engine costs next year which, for a team like Williams is always difficult but we’ve always found a budget which we need to go racing. Our costs over the past couple of seasons at least, have remained relatively stable but obviously those are escalating next year but it’s our responsibility to ensure that we find the budget that we need in order to keep us racing at a competitive level.
TW: You know we can’t close ourselves out from the real world and it’s pretty tough out there at the moment so on one side we want to be competitive and successful on track because this is the reason why we’re here but on the other side there is an economical reality which we must respect. So for us at Mercedes it’s all about being efficient, about not spending money where it’s not necessary but staying competitive – or being competitive.
JB: Our costs have increased year on year but that’s mainly due to us being a very young and very small team that has a planned expansion programme for every year. That’s the main reason for our cost increases.
CA: Yeah, the same thing obviously. I tend to believe that it’s going to be extremely... it’s human nature to spend whatever people have to spend so I guess that limiting expense is difficult. I think the only time that Formula One did a fairly good job limiting costs was by putting some cap on engine costs and also limiting the number of engines used so I think it’s only by policing the product that is on the track, therefore the car, that you will have a more direct influence on the overall costs, rather than looking at what’s happening in the factory. That’s my belief.
Q: (Abhishek Tackle – Midday) Franz, Christian Horner seems to have ruled out Jean-Eric Vergne for the Red Bull seat, so what can you tell us about his future at Toro Rosso, because Chrstian Horner says that he still deserves to be in Formula One. Will the ultimate decision on his future rest with Dr Helmut Marko?
FT: I’m convinced that Jean-Eric Vergne will race next year for Toro Rosso. We must not forget that Jean-Eric came later into Formula One (than Daniel) and why Red Bull Racing is thinking about racing with Daniel Ricciardo next year, it’s simply because he is more experienced, he showed very good performance in the first half of the season but Jean-Eric Vergne is quite close to him. It’s not that Jean-Eric is out of the team. As far as I’m thinking, next year he is with Toro Rosso.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) I don’t know who can answer this question but we spoke about the future of the German Grand Prix, I believe at 1pm there was a meeting with Mr Ecclestone about the future of another Grand Prix, namely the Indian Grand Prix which has certain tax issues. Earlier this week, Sochi announced their date for the 19th of October next year and I have spoken to representatives here who have confirmed the date. What is the future of the Indian Grand Prix and why could it possibly fall away, please?
JB: It was a private meeting so it’s not for public discussion. As far as I’m aware, the Indian Grand Prix is on the schedule and we’ll be going.
TW: Well, I think you know that the calendar is in the hands of the promoter and we have a great promoter, so wherever we need to go, we will go.
Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) Franz said something about reality; is the reality sensible and is reality sustainable in regard to the budgets of Formula One?
FT: As long as the cars are on the starting grid, as long as we are racing, this is the reality of Formula One, yeah? Nevertheless, we should think how we could come down with the costs but if I look at next year, what has been decided is we get a new power unit package, which is more expensive than the current one and we’ve brought back testing, which costs even more money. That means we are discussing different directions. The most efficient cost-cutting was from 2009, 2010 when we said ‘OK, we don’t do any more testing’ and when the engines were frozen, no development on this side, that meant that engine costs came down and during the last years everything was quite stable. But next year, I’m worried about the costs because they are simply running away.
CW: It’s my job to get the money into the team so it always worries me when I’m looking at an escalation in costs and as I said in my answer before, whether it’s sensible and whether it’s sustainable, this is a sport that we race in and as someone said earlier, it’s an expensive sport but as Toto said, we have to be mindful of the outside world as well. I think my biggest concern is the disparity between budgets of teams and I think that in order to have a level playing field in Formula One, in order to remain competitive in Formula One, there has to be some kind of control over costs so that we are actually operating on a fair and even platform in this sport, rather than having some teams racing with a 50 million pound budget compared to teams racing with a 250 million pound budget or 200 million pound budget and I think that that’s one of the biggest issues we have facing us at the moment.
Q: Toto, it might be said that you’re one of the wealthier teams out there.
TW: Well, I’m not sure but Franz always said it very clearly and directly; there is a bunch of new regulations kicking in next year and we have to look carefully at all the steps and decisions we are making because we cannot allow costs to escalate. This is very important for us as well. And then on the other side what we are seeing is the team environment is very difficult but as Claire said, it’s about getting the money in and finding the sponsorship and at the moment, I have the feeling that it is getting a little bit better and we must not forget that Formula One is the number one sport platform in the world. We are going international with all the new races coming in so I am nevertheless very optimistic.
JB: It’s a tough environment out there at the moment but I very much agree with Claire. If you have teams operating with a budget delta of maybe 200 million, what does it do for the sport? It doesn’t make it any more attractive so I think there needs to be a way of keeping costs under control and a more equal distribution of revenue.
CA: I’m not so worried about costs, I am more worried about performance and I think that one can affect the other, obviously. The only thing that we need to make sure is that there is the question about distribution and cost control and level playing fields but I think we need to make sure that Formula One as a whole is properly valued so we are not living above our standards. Like any household, we are making sure not to spend more than we receive, generally. Then there is the question of distribution which is something different and it is true that there are some studies that demonstrate that as a sport we tend to be struggling in comparison to other sports like the NBA, like NFL which do not have the sort of costs that we have. We are highly technological, we are driven by innovation, we need to be manufacturing I don’t know how many composite parts per year. So I think maybe we need to put the efficiency of the business at the foreground of performance. It may not be the case by now.
Q: (Zolt Godina – Best of Radio) Toto, next season will be your last as a partner of the McLaren team; will you have any difficulties in terms of the working relationship between the two parties?
TW: No, I think both organisations are very professional and of course it’s sad losing a customer who has been with Mercedes for so many years and a very successful partnership but I have no doubt that it will be handled in a very professional way from McLaren as well.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Toto, following on from what you said earlier on about new regulations coming in and costs and whatever else, if one looks in the back ofAutosport one regularly sees one team advertising enormously for staff, full page adverts week in, week out. How much are you ramping up the operation? Will you still be able to remain within the resource restriction agreement or are you that far below that at the moment you can afford all these extra people?
TW: You know, I think if you look quite carefully at Autosport we are not the only ones advertising there. This is the number one or one of the good publications in the UK for hiring staff and whether it’s in Autosport or any other platform, I think this is just a normal process. There is a certain fluctuation in personnel and also at Mercedes we are very interesting in getting and keeping the best possible people. Obviously you much watch how RRA is affecting the operation.
F1 Hungary Blog - Friday report
Friday morning in Budapest dawned bright and sunny, giving teams ample time to prepare for Sunday’s scorcher of a race, when track temperatures are expected to exceed 50˚ centigrade.
But despite the ideal track conditions, the opening practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend saw the typical run of installation laps followed by half an hour of largely empty track before the running began in earnest.
An exception was Rodolfo Gonzalez, who was behind the wheel of Max Chilton’s Marussia for a Friday morning run. The Venezuelan racer completed 25 laps over the course of the morning, and had the track to himself for a not insignificant period of time.
One team expected to complete more running than they did was Mercedes, who missed out on testing the new Pirelli constructions during the Young Driver Test at Silverstone. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton completed 28 laps each during FP1, little more than the number completed by those rivals who had more experience of the new rubber.
By and large, FP1 was a quiet session, with the only incident of note coming about thanks to Jean-Eric Vergne who span his Toro Rosso at Turn 4, narrowly avoiding hitting the barriers in the process.
Red Bull ended the session fastest, with Sebastian Vettel leading Mark Webber by just shy of three-tenths. The two men were the only drivers to lap in the 1m22s, although Kimi Raikkonen was very close, setting a fastest lap of 1m23.010s.
The afternoon saw more of the same, with Red Bull dominating what was a more closely fought session that ended with the top five finishers split by three-tenths. Vettel headed Webber for a second time, amid rumours that the Australian was lacking a few of the upgrades fitted to his teammate’s car.
It was an incident-free session, with all 22 men keeping their cars on track in the main. There was an odd moment of light relief when Max Chilton drove into the pit lane holding the small screen from the front of his car; it had snapped off mid-lap and the Briton was able to hold onto the visor when it flew at him.
With the higher track temperatures on offer after lunch, creating conditions expected to be far more representative of Sunday’s race, FP2 was an interesting study in tyre wear. It was thought that Lotus would be the big winners in a hot race, but heavy blistering on Kimi Raikkonen’s front tyres indicated that victory might not be quite as assured as had first been presumed.
FP1 times (unofficial)
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m22.723s [19 laps]
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m22.982s [24 laps]
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m23.010s [20 laps]
4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m23.099s [22 laps]
5. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m23.111s [20 laps]
6. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m23.370s [26 laps]
7. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m23.390s [20 laps]
8. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m23.531s [28 laps]
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m23.591s [26 laps]
10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m23.911s [21 laps]
11. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m24.119s [21 laps]
12. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m24.150s [27 laps]
13. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m24.157s [28 laps]
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m24.204s [15 laps]
15. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m24.299s [19 laps]
16. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m24.314s [23 laps]
17. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m24.383s [24 laps]
18. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m24.608s [21 laps]
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m25.827s [24 laps]
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m26.808s [25 laps]
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m27.617s [20 laps]
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez (Marussia) 1m28.927s [25 laps]
FP2 times (unofficial)
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m21.264s [34 laps]
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m21.308s [42 laps]
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m21.417s [40 laps]
4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m21.426s [34 laps]
5. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m21.544s [37 laps]
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m21.802s [42 laps]
7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m21.991s [40 laps]
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m22.011s [32 laps]
9. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m22.180s [41 laps]
10. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m22.304s [41 laps]
11. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m22.526s [39 laps]
12. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m22.529s [37 laps]
13. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m22.781s [36 laps]
14. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m22.837s [42 laps]
15. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m22.841s [39 laps]
16. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m23.369s [34 laps]
17. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m23.411s [41 laps]
18. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m23.646s [34 laps]
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m24.325s [38 laps]
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m25.065s [36 laps]
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m25.143s [39 laps]
22. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m26.647s [33 laps]
But despite the ideal track conditions, the opening practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend saw the typical run of installation laps followed by half an hour of largely empty track before the running began in earnest.
An exception was Rodolfo Gonzalez, who was behind the wheel of Max Chilton’s Marussia for a Friday morning run. The Venezuelan racer completed 25 laps over the course of the morning, and had the track to himself for a not insignificant period of time.
One team expected to complete more running than they did was Mercedes, who missed out on testing the new Pirelli constructions during the Young Driver Test at Silverstone. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton completed 28 laps each during FP1, little more than the number completed by those rivals who had more experience of the new rubber.
By and large, FP1 was a quiet session, with the only incident of note coming about thanks to Jean-Eric Vergne who span his Toro Rosso at Turn 4, narrowly avoiding hitting the barriers in the process.
Red Bull ended the session fastest, with Sebastian Vettel leading Mark Webber by just shy of three-tenths. The two men were the only drivers to lap in the 1m22s, although Kimi Raikkonen was very close, setting a fastest lap of 1m23.010s.
The afternoon saw more of the same, with Red Bull dominating what was a more closely fought session that ended with the top five finishers split by three-tenths. Vettel headed Webber for a second time, amid rumours that the Australian was lacking a few of the upgrades fitted to his teammate’s car.
It was an incident-free session, with all 22 men keeping their cars on track in the main. There was an odd moment of light relief when Max Chilton drove into the pit lane holding the small screen from the front of his car; it had snapped off mid-lap and the Briton was able to hold onto the visor when it flew at him.
With the higher track temperatures on offer after lunch, creating conditions expected to be far more representative of Sunday’s race, FP2 was an interesting study in tyre wear. It was thought that Lotus would be the big winners in a hot race, but heavy blistering on Kimi Raikkonen’s front tyres indicated that victory might not be quite as assured as had first been presumed.
FP1 times (unofficial)
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m22.723s [19 laps]
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m22.982s [24 laps]
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m23.010s [20 laps]
4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m23.099s [22 laps]
5. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m23.111s [20 laps]
6. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m23.370s [26 laps]
7. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m23.390s [20 laps]
8. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m23.531s [28 laps]
9. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m23.591s [26 laps]
10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m23.911s [21 laps]
11. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m24.119s [21 laps]
12. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m24.150s [27 laps]
13. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m24.157s [28 laps]
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m24.204s [15 laps]
15. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m24.299s [19 laps]
16. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m24.314s [23 laps]
17. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m24.383s [24 laps]
18. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m24.608s [21 laps]
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m25.827s [24 laps]
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m26.808s [25 laps]
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m27.617s [20 laps]
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez (Marussia) 1m28.927s [25 laps]
FP2 times (unofficial)
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m21.264s [34 laps]
2. Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1m21.308s [42 laps]
3. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1m21.417s [40 laps]
4. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1m21.426s [34 laps]
5. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m21.544s [37 laps]
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m21.802s [42 laps]
7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m21.991s [40 laps]
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m22.011s [32 laps]
9. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m22.180s [41 laps]
10. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m22.304s [41 laps]
11. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m22.526s [39 laps]
12. Sergio Perez (McLaren) 1m22.529s [37 laps]
13. Pastor Maldonado (Williams) 1m22.781s [36 laps]
14. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m22.837s [42 laps]
15. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m22.841s [39 laps]
16. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m23.369s [34 laps]
17. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) 1m23.411s [41 laps]
18. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m23.646s [34 laps]
19. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m24.325s [38 laps]
20. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m25.065s [36 laps]
21. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m25.143s [39 laps]
22. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m26.647s [33 laps]
F1 Hungary Blog - Thursday press conference
After a three week break, Formula One got back to business with the Thursday afternoon drivers' press conference at the Hungaroring.
Present were Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Paul di Resta (Force India), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus).
Q: Good afternoon. We’ll start with Lewis Hamilton. As a three-time winner here and a two-time pole-sitter, I think the heat is on, literally, here this weekend for you to try to make it four wins. Forty degrees ambient expected on Sunday, how much is that going to be a disadvantage to you and Mercedes?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s good to see everyone again. It’s going to be tough this weekend definitely – the conditions will not help. Plus, we haven’t driven the tyres as everyone else has. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do, but that’s what we do best and we just have to work as hard as we can this weekend to try to understand the tyres and put ourselves in the best position possible. We have a lot of work to do to continue to improve our race pace, but I anticipate it will be a difficult weekend.
Q: Do you think you are at more of a disadvantage, are you worse off, or is every team in the same boat with the temperatures this weekend?
LH: I’m sure everyone is going to have to open up their cars, so everyone in in the same boat in terms of car packaging and the heat that the cars are absorbing. Tyre-wise, of course there are teams that will deal with it slightly better than us, just naturally, and there are some people that will deal with it the same as us.
Q: Nine races into your Mercedes career and we’re almost at the half-way point of the season. Do you see still yourself as a championship contender?
LH: I don’t really look at myself as a championship contender at the moment. Of course, we’re fourth, we’re second as a team in the Constructors’ Championship, so… just at the beginning of the season everyone was writing me off and then all of a sudden they changed their opinions and we’ve had some really good results. That’s just due to all the hard work the team are putting in and we’re not giving up. We’re going to keep pushing. We hope that we’re going to get some wins in the future races coming. It’s going to be tough but I’m really happy with how the season has gone so far, especially compared to where the team was last year, it’s a massive step.
Q: Let’s turn to Pastor Maldonado next. Can we start with a comment about Williams’ appointment in the last few days of Pat Symonds, who comes in as technical director. From a driver’s perspective, how welcome is that and how necessary do you think it was that the team have a new technical director and new leadership in that part of the company?
Pastor MALDONADO: We had a hard beginning to the season with the car, fighting a lot to improve and develop the conditions and the performance. It’s quite tough for us, still. We try to put everything together in the past races. Some races we were a bit better, some others not. Especially the consistency and the race pace is quite good on our car, just missing a lot of performance in quali which is penalising us a lot. Starting from the back is not the best for us. Yeah, I think we need some change. The way, how we’ve been working, trying to improve out performance was not the best and for sure any change in a good way is very welcome.
Q: What about yourself at the moment? I think ‘silly season’ is very much upon us, a few rumours in the press about your future career. Did you take much notice of that? Can it be a destabilising factor for a driver?
PM: No, I’m still full focused on the season. I think we can still improve. We are a strong team. Last year we were fighting for good places, sometimes even fighting for the podium and this year, some years you miss the pace. We just need to be together as a team, work harder than before, try to fix the problem and to be there again. I think we have all the tools to become again very competitive.
Q: Thanks Pastor. Esteban, let’s turn to you next. Looking at the championship table, you’re the leading rookie, how do you assess your performance in the first half of your first Formula One season?
Esteban GUTIERREZ: It’s been very challenging. Obviously I’m not completely happy with how the first part of the season went. But again, being a rookie I’ve been focusing a lot on gaining a lot of experience to improve every part I can. I think what matters is the second half of the season, Everything will be judged on how the second half goes and I’m full focused on what is happening from now own.
Q: What areas have you been focusing on most? Where do you think improvements need to be made?
EG: I think qualifying can be improved a lot. There’s obviously a lot of variable playing into account on performance, sometimes different car set-ups, different things, trying to experiment with new things. Obviously this puts the situation a little bit more difficult. The team’s situation is not the best. We were expecting a lot better performance from the car. But we are close as a team and we are working ourselves to get all these things right.
Q: Because of that situation you mentioned with the team, do you feel you haven’t had the full opportunity to show exactly what you can do?
EG: Well, definitely it’s affecting that, but as I said the second part of the season there is a good chance to show what is really our performance, our capabilities and obviously to put everything together, to reflect everything in the results.
Q: Valtteri, if we could turn to you, the other rookie amongst us this afternoon. Did you feel you’ve had the opportunity to fully show your ability behind the wheel or is the performance of the car not helping you?
Valtteri BOTTAS: I think for sure it’s not helping. Also we expected a much better start for the season. If you would be consistently fighting in the top ten, everyone would see maybe a bit more of what you can do. It’s not easy but I’m trying my best and I think still improving a lot all the time. I think the first half of the season hasn’t been too bad for me. Of course when I look back there’s always things you could have done better. You learn all the time, that’s how it is.
Q: With Pat Symonds arrival, is it too much to expect results will turn around this year, very quickly? As a driver is that something you will be looking for?
VB: Of course you would hope so but I think the fact is it’s not a quick fix. It’s still going to take time and we need to keep working on the areas where we need to improve and I think it’s more about the future, not necessarily the end of the year. Of course we try to improve. Any improvement would be nice because it’s so close at the moment. For me it’s a positive thing. It was good to work with Mike before but I think at this stage maybe we just need some new ideas and new opinions.
Q: Paul, a change to the tyres again this weekend. 2012 construction, 2013 compounds, you had a chance to drive with them at Silverstone. Force India, some say, might be disadvantages by these tyre changes. How fearful are you that this could be proved true?
Paul DI RESTA: It’s a hard one. Obviously we got a little bit of an impression at Silverstone but I think it was directed to enable Pirelli to understand their tyre more, that they’re bringing for the rest of the season. Tomorrow’s going to be busy, it’s the first time that we get to try some setup things and actually understand them but yes, we did have a good idea of where the tyres were working and how to use them over a race distance. That’s not to say that this won’t continue and, on the flip side, it may suit the car better. It’s completely unknown. All we can do is do what we can and the team is working hard to try and score some points because we missed them in the Nürburgring.
Q: In terms of this season, it’s been a successful season for yourself and for Force India but with resources tight at the team and the concentration having to come on 2014 eventually. As a driver, how difficult is that balancing act going to be? I’m sure you want to fully focus on 2013 and not so much on 2014 at the moment.
DIR: It’s certainly a harder balance this year, I think, with the new regs for next year. I think everybody at the factory is probably focussed on next year whereas we as a race team are focussed on this year. Just a lot of racing, a lot of points and a lot of laps that we need to be on top of our game. Ultimately where we reward ourselves, this will help the team next year in terms of Constructors’ position. That’s why I think everybody here is trying to stay on top of McLaren if we can. We can’t underestimate what they are and what they do. Up until the last weekend of racing we were having a damn good season and there’s no reason why we can’t get our elbows out and fight even harder.
Q: Kimi, like Lewis you’ve had plenty of success in Hungary. I think one more podium and you equal the record for the most about of podiums for a driver here. With the high temperatures, does that play into your hands a little bit on Sunday? If we go on the form of Germany, we assume it should do.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I think we’ve always been a bit more happy when it’s more warm. Now it’s a bit difficult to say with the new – or different – tyres than we raced at the beginning of the year but last year helped us and the tyres should be a mix of this year and last year so let’s hope that it works well for us.
Q: You didn’t go to Silverstone. Did you think twice that maybe you should?
KR: No. The decision was made with the team that there was not really so much… it was better for the team to put a young driver in it because we were not allowed to do any changes as a race driver, so with that sort of rules you don’t really learn much. We would only have had one set of tyres or so, and so it was overall better for the team to use our test drivers.
Q: Red Bull? Lotus? Maybe somewhere else? It’s silly season and you seem to be, you appear to be if the stories are true, very much a man in demand. When you look at next season and where you may or may not be driving, what are the factors that go through your mind in helping you make that decision?
KR: There’s not really one thing. I think there is going to be an overall package and whatever feels right for me. Whatever the decision will be it might feel stupid to somebody else but then it might feel right for me. I have no idea what will happen. We have to wait and see what will come but hopefully whatever it will be, it will be the right choice.
Q: (Gerhard Potochnik - Kleine Zeitung) We are talking about the future; a few days ago Red Bull and Bernie Ecclestone announced that there would be an Austrian Grand Prix next July. Can you tell us your thoughts about this?
KR: I was there maybe two years ago or something the last time. It looks slightly different. The circuit is exactly the same, I think. It’s a nice place to go, I think. It’s not a very difficult circuit because it hasn’t got many corners, but it usually produces very good racing because of the layout of the straights and the tight corners. I’m more than happy to go back there.
Q: Paul, a new venue on the calendar, does that excite you?
DIR: A new event, yeah. I’ve never been there so I don’t know what to expect but it looks a very good track from what Kimi said.
EG: It looks interesting, obviously another track, hard to know what to expect but it’s always interesting to go to a new place.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, if it’s really going to be 40 degrees for the race, is that really going to be too hot for you and your car? Is it a big risk for your record of finishing races?
KR: It’s the same for everybody, obviously. It will be a bit more tricky for cars and everything, brakes, everything for the drivers, but it’s not the first time that it will be hot when we are racing. If it’s going to be that hot we will see what happens. It was meant to be hot today and it was raining. Things change quickly.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speedsport News) Kimi, following on from the earlier question about Red Bull; you don’t like to do PR, Red Bull likes its drivers to do a lot of PR. How much PR work would you put up with if it means you have a winning car?
KR: Obviously you can’t have a guarantee what will happen next year with any team or any cars. There are a lot of rumours about PR days but we have ten and some other teams have a hundred. I’ve been in most of the top teams and I know exactly how it goes and if you count things that you do during the week and during a weekend and you put everything together, everybody has a different way of counting the days. I’m sure it’s not – at least in my knowledge – the difference between the teams is in days and it’s not a deciding factor.
Q: (Michael Noir Trawniczek - Rally and More) Kimi, when you are chosing the package and the right team, what sort of questions do you ask, how technical is it, do you visit the factory, things like that? How do you make your choice?
KR: I think it’s like I said earlier, it’s a combination of things and it has to be right on racing and outside of racing. Basically everything just has to feel right and I think in the end it comes down to whatever I think is the right choice and there will be no guarantee that the choice will be the good one in the long run but I’m fine with it, whatever the outcome will be; you live with the choices.
Q: Is any choice for next year complicated by the fact that the engine regulations, the rule regulations have changed quite drastically?
KR: Obviously it would be much easier for everybody to more or less get an idea what will happen next year without those big changes but that’s how it is. It really depends on whether one engine manufacturer gets it right and one wrong, then it might be a long season for some teams and an easier one for others but I don’t know. You hear rumours but that’s all I know about it.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, your team didn’t take part in the Silverstone test; how does it affect your team and you and Nico from a driver’s point of view?
LH: To be honest, it doesn’t really faze me. I think it would have definitely helped if we were there and we have an understanding of how to set up the car with the new tyres and to see what kind of characteristics they have and how they behave on long runs and all those kind of things but we will try and find that out this weekend. At the end of the day, it is what it is and we will just try to do the best with what we’ve got. It’s a great team, I have no doubt that we will make up for the lost time.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Gentlemen, you may have seen the story last week that Sauber are due to fast track a young Russian by the name of Sergey Sirotkin into Formula One. If he is on the grid at the start of next season, and he gains the necessary super licence, he will be 18-years old. Is 18 too young to be racing a Formula One car?
PM: It’s a difficult one because I don’t know the driver very well. It’s difficult to say. I think it’s more up to the team and not to us.
VB: Yeah, I don’t really know the background of this driver so it’s difficult to say.
DIR: It’s unfair to say anything. I don’t think anybody knows too much about him because he’s not been in racing cars too long.
Q: But is 18 too young to be a Formula One driver, if you take away the individual concerned?
DIR: You can never say never, can you? People surprise you with what they’re doing. If that’s a decision I’m sure there’s a reason behind it.
LH: I wasn’t ready at 18. I was pretty good at 18, so...
KR: I’m sure there will be and has also been an 18-year old, I guess. For sure they will take him if they feel it’s the right thing, so I don’t see that age will be the problem. It’s about experience and that. He might be ready, he might not. Time will tell.
Q: He might need a good teammate to look after him, Esteban.
EG: Well, very difficult to judge. What Kimi said comes down to experience, results. I think all of that should be taken into account.
Q: (Jose Maria Moreira – Organizacion Editorial Mexicana) Esteban, will Sergey Sirotkin and the Russian backers affect your future at Sauber?
EG: Well, that doesn’t really make a difference to my current season so to be honest, my focus is here, it’s on this season and I know very well what I have with the team, what has been my path with them over the last few years and what we’re looking into in the future.
Q: (Gergely Denes – F1-Live.hu) Kimi, last week there was some Twitter chat between Lewis and your team, a photo postcard of you and Roscoe, Lewis’s dog. Are you aware of that and what is your opinion of it?
KR: It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t have a Twitter account, I don’t have any other things. I don’t really have a comment.
Q: You weren’t the man putting #where’sRoscoe on the side of the car?
KR: (Sighs and points to the team’s PR man)
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Népe ) Lewis, what is the difference between Nico Rosberg as a teammate in GP2 and Formula One?
LH: I wasn’t his teammate in GP2. I was his teammate in go-karts. It was more fun when we were in go-karts, that’s about it. We’re both older and wiser and yeah, we don’t play as many games and kid games and all the silly things you do as a kid. He’s more competitive now than he was back then.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Lewis, if Kimi goes to Red Bull, would he be an even harder competitor for you than he is now?
LH: I think Kimi will always be one of the hardest competitors here. He’s a fantastic driver, he’s got great experience and he’s constantly proving his abilities and I think whatever car you put him in he’s going to be a fighting force in the field and of course he’s doing a great job at Lotus, they’ve done a great job this year and over the last couple of years. I think whatever he decides either way, he will have a strong car and I just hope that we’re competing with them.
Q: (Joo Gabor - Index) Kimi, we can divide your Formula One career into two; which one have you enjoyed most, the first one to 2009 or the second one now?
KR: I don’t really count it as two. I did something else that I wanted to do between them and then obviously I wanted to race again. It hasn’t really changed much. Obviously the team’s different but I’ve been in different teams in the past and every team has a good side and some things that you are probably finding not that much fun. Obviously when you have decent results you have more fun that if you have bad years. I would say that is very similar, more or less the same people, same stuff. I have no real difference between earlier teams and how it is now.
Present were Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Paul di Resta (Force India), Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus).
Q: Good afternoon. We’ll start with Lewis Hamilton. As a three-time winner here and a two-time pole-sitter, I think the heat is on, literally, here this weekend for you to try to make it four wins. Forty degrees ambient expected on Sunday, how much is that going to be a disadvantage to you and Mercedes?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s good to see everyone again. It’s going to be tough this weekend definitely – the conditions will not help. Plus, we haven’t driven the tyres as everyone else has. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do, but that’s what we do best and we just have to work as hard as we can this weekend to try to understand the tyres and put ourselves in the best position possible. We have a lot of work to do to continue to improve our race pace, but I anticipate it will be a difficult weekend.
Q: Do you think you are at more of a disadvantage, are you worse off, or is every team in the same boat with the temperatures this weekend?
LH: I’m sure everyone is going to have to open up their cars, so everyone in in the same boat in terms of car packaging and the heat that the cars are absorbing. Tyre-wise, of course there are teams that will deal with it slightly better than us, just naturally, and there are some people that will deal with it the same as us.
Q: Nine races into your Mercedes career and we’re almost at the half-way point of the season. Do you see still yourself as a championship contender?
LH: I don’t really look at myself as a championship contender at the moment. Of course, we’re fourth, we’re second as a team in the Constructors’ Championship, so… just at the beginning of the season everyone was writing me off and then all of a sudden they changed their opinions and we’ve had some really good results. That’s just due to all the hard work the team are putting in and we’re not giving up. We’re going to keep pushing. We hope that we’re going to get some wins in the future races coming. It’s going to be tough but I’m really happy with how the season has gone so far, especially compared to where the team was last year, it’s a massive step.
Q: Let’s turn to Pastor Maldonado next. Can we start with a comment about Williams’ appointment in the last few days of Pat Symonds, who comes in as technical director. From a driver’s perspective, how welcome is that and how necessary do you think it was that the team have a new technical director and new leadership in that part of the company?
Pastor MALDONADO: We had a hard beginning to the season with the car, fighting a lot to improve and develop the conditions and the performance. It’s quite tough for us, still. We try to put everything together in the past races. Some races we were a bit better, some others not. Especially the consistency and the race pace is quite good on our car, just missing a lot of performance in quali which is penalising us a lot. Starting from the back is not the best for us. Yeah, I think we need some change. The way, how we’ve been working, trying to improve out performance was not the best and for sure any change in a good way is very welcome.
Q: What about yourself at the moment? I think ‘silly season’ is very much upon us, a few rumours in the press about your future career. Did you take much notice of that? Can it be a destabilising factor for a driver?
PM: No, I’m still full focused on the season. I think we can still improve. We are a strong team. Last year we were fighting for good places, sometimes even fighting for the podium and this year, some years you miss the pace. We just need to be together as a team, work harder than before, try to fix the problem and to be there again. I think we have all the tools to become again very competitive.
Q: Thanks Pastor. Esteban, let’s turn to you next. Looking at the championship table, you’re the leading rookie, how do you assess your performance in the first half of your first Formula One season?
Esteban GUTIERREZ: It’s been very challenging. Obviously I’m not completely happy with how the first part of the season went. But again, being a rookie I’ve been focusing a lot on gaining a lot of experience to improve every part I can. I think what matters is the second half of the season, Everything will be judged on how the second half goes and I’m full focused on what is happening from now own.
Q: What areas have you been focusing on most? Where do you think improvements need to be made?
EG: I think qualifying can be improved a lot. There’s obviously a lot of variable playing into account on performance, sometimes different car set-ups, different things, trying to experiment with new things. Obviously this puts the situation a little bit more difficult. The team’s situation is not the best. We were expecting a lot better performance from the car. But we are close as a team and we are working ourselves to get all these things right.
Q: Because of that situation you mentioned with the team, do you feel you haven’t had the full opportunity to show exactly what you can do?
EG: Well, definitely it’s affecting that, but as I said the second part of the season there is a good chance to show what is really our performance, our capabilities and obviously to put everything together, to reflect everything in the results.
Q: Valtteri, if we could turn to you, the other rookie amongst us this afternoon. Did you feel you’ve had the opportunity to fully show your ability behind the wheel or is the performance of the car not helping you?
Valtteri BOTTAS: I think for sure it’s not helping. Also we expected a much better start for the season. If you would be consistently fighting in the top ten, everyone would see maybe a bit more of what you can do. It’s not easy but I’m trying my best and I think still improving a lot all the time. I think the first half of the season hasn’t been too bad for me. Of course when I look back there’s always things you could have done better. You learn all the time, that’s how it is.
Q: With Pat Symonds arrival, is it too much to expect results will turn around this year, very quickly? As a driver is that something you will be looking for?
VB: Of course you would hope so but I think the fact is it’s not a quick fix. It’s still going to take time and we need to keep working on the areas where we need to improve and I think it’s more about the future, not necessarily the end of the year. Of course we try to improve. Any improvement would be nice because it’s so close at the moment. For me it’s a positive thing. It was good to work with Mike before but I think at this stage maybe we just need some new ideas and new opinions.
Q: Paul, a change to the tyres again this weekend. 2012 construction, 2013 compounds, you had a chance to drive with them at Silverstone. Force India, some say, might be disadvantages by these tyre changes. How fearful are you that this could be proved true?
Paul DI RESTA: It’s a hard one. Obviously we got a little bit of an impression at Silverstone but I think it was directed to enable Pirelli to understand their tyre more, that they’re bringing for the rest of the season. Tomorrow’s going to be busy, it’s the first time that we get to try some setup things and actually understand them but yes, we did have a good idea of where the tyres were working and how to use them over a race distance. That’s not to say that this won’t continue and, on the flip side, it may suit the car better. It’s completely unknown. All we can do is do what we can and the team is working hard to try and score some points because we missed them in the Nürburgring.
Q: In terms of this season, it’s been a successful season for yourself and for Force India but with resources tight at the team and the concentration having to come on 2014 eventually. As a driver, how difficult is that balancing act going to be? I’m sure you want to fully focus on 2013 and not so much on 2014 at the moment.
DIR: It’s certainly a harder balance this year, I think, with the new regs for next year. I think everybody at the factory is probably focussed on next year whereas we as a race team are focussed on this year. Just a lot of racing, a lot of points and a lot of laps that we need to be on top of our game. Ultimately where we reward ourselves, this will help the team next year in terms of Constructors’ position. That’s why I think everybody here is trying to stay on top of McLaren if we can. We can’t underestimate what they are and what they do. Up until the last weekend of racing we were having a damn good season and there’s no reason why we can’t get our elbows out and fight even harder.
Q: Kimi, like Lewis you’ve had plenty of success in Hungary. I think one more podium and you equal the record for the most about of podiums for a driver here. With the high temperatures, does that play into your hands a little bit on Sunday? If we go on the form of Germany, we assume it should do.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I think we’ve always been a bit more happy when it’s more warm. Now it’s a bit difficult to say with the new – or different – tyres than we raced at the beginning of the year but last year helped us and the tyres should be a mix of this year and last year so let’s hope that it works well for us.
Q: You didn’t go to Silverstone. Did you think twice that maybe you should?
KR: No. The decision was made with the team that there was not really so much… it was better for the team to put a young driver in it because we were not allowed to do any changes as a race driver, so with that sort of rules you don’t really learn much. We would only have had one set of tyres or so, and so it was overall better for the team to use our test drivers.
Q: Red Bull? Lotus? Maybe somewhere else? It’s silly season and you seem to be, you appear to be if the stories are true, very much a man in demand. When you look at next season and where you may or may not be driving, what are the factors that go through your mind in helping you make that decision?
KR: There’s not really one thing. I think there is going to be an overall package and whatever feels right for me. Whatever the decision will be it might feel stupid to somebody else but then it might feel right for me. I have no idea what will happen. We have to wait and see what will come but hopefully whatever it will be, it will be the right choice.
Q: (Gerhard Potochnik - Kleine Zeitung) We are talking about the future; a few days ago Red Bull and Bernie Ecclestone announced that there would be an Austrian Grand Prix next July. Can you tell us your thoughts about this?
KR: I was there maybe two years ago or something the last time. It looks slightly different. The circuit is exactly the same, I think. It’s a nice place to go, I think. It’s not a very difficult circuit because it hasn’t got many corners, but it usually produces very good racing because of the layout of the straights and the tight corners. I’m more than happy to go back there.
Q: Paul, a new venue on the calendar, does that excite you?
DIR: A new event, yeah. I’ve never been there so I don’t know what to expect but it looks a very good track from what Kimi said.
EG: It looks interesting, obviously another track, hard to know what to expect but it’s always interesting to go to a new place.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, if it’s really going to be 40 degrees for the race, is that really going to be too hot for you and your car? Is it a big risk for your record of finishing races?
KR: It’s the same for everybody, obviously. It will be a bit more tricky for cars and everything, brakes, everything for the drivers, but it’s not the first time that it will be hot when we are racing. If it’s going to be that hot we will see what happens. It was meant to be hot today and it was raining. Things change quickly.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speedsport News) Kimi, following on from the earlier question about Red Bull; you don’t like to do PR, Red Bull likes its drivers to do a lot of PR. How much PR work would you put up with if it means you have a winning car?
KR: Obviously you can’t have a guarantee what will happen next year with any team or any cars. There are a lot of rumours about PR days but we have ten and some other teams have a hundred. I’ve been in most of the top teams and I know exactly how it goes and if you count things that you do during the week and during a weekend and you put everything together, everybody has a different way of counting the days. I’m sure it’s not – at least in my knowledge – the difference between the teams is in days and it’s not a deciding factor.
Q: (Michael Noir Trawniczek - Rally and More) Kimi, when you are chosing the package and the right team, what sort of questions do you ask, how technical is it, do you visit the factory, things like that? How do you make your choice?
KR: I think it’s like I said earlier, it’s a combination of things and it has to be right on racing and outside of racing. Basically everything just has to feel right and I think in the end it comes down to whatever I think is the right choice and there will be no guarantee that the choice will be the good one in the long run but I’m fine with it, whatever the outcome will be; you live with the choices.
Q: Is any choice for next year complicated by the fact that the engine regulations, the rule regulations have changed quite drastically?
KR: Obviously it would be much easier for everybody to more or less get an idea what will happen next year without those big changes but that’s how it is. It really depends on whether one engine manufacturer gets it right and one wrong, then it might be a long season for some teams and an easier one for others but I don’t know. You hear rumours but that’s all I know about it.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Lewis, your team didn’t take part in the Silverstone test; how does it affect your team and you and Nico from a driver’s point of view?
LH: To be honest, it doesn’t really faze me. I think it would have definitely helped if we were there and we have an understanding of how to set up the car with the new tyres and to see what kind of characteristics they have and how they behave on long runs and all those kind of things but we will try and find that out this weekend. At the end of the day, it is what it is and we will just try to do the best with what we’ve got. It’s a great team, I have no doubt that we will make up for the lost time.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Gentlemen, you may have seen the story last week that Sauber are due to fast track a young Russian by the name of Sergey Sirotkin into Formula One. If he is on the grid at the start of next season, and he gains the necessary super licence, he will be 18-years old. Is 18 too young to be racing a Formula One car?
PM: It’s a difficult one because I don’t know the driver very well. It’s difficult to say. I think it’s more up to the team and not to us.
VB: Yeah, I don’t really know the background of this driver so it’s difficult to say.
DIR: It’s unfair to say anything. I don’t think anybody knows too much about him because he’s not been in racing cars too long.
Q: But is 18 too young to be a Formula One driver, if you take away the individual concerned?
DIR: You can never say never, can you? People surprise you with what they’re doing. If that’s a decision I’m sure there’s a reason behind it.
LH: I wasn’t ready at 18. I was pretty good at 18, so...
KR: I’m sure there will be and has also been an 18-year old, I guess. For sure they will take him if they feel it’s the right thing, so I don’t see that age will be the problem. It’s about experience and that. He might be ready, he might not. Time will tell.
Q: He might need a good teammate to look after him, Esteban.
EG: Well, very difficult to judge. What Kimi said comes down to experience, results. I think all of that should be taken into account.
Q: (Jose Maria Moreira – Organizacion Editorial Mexicana) Esteban, will Sergey Sirotkin and the Russian backers affect your future at Sauber?
EG: Well, that doesn’t really make a difference to my current season so to be honest, my focus is here, it’s on this season and I know very well what I have with the team, what has been my path with them over the last few years and what we’re looking into in the future.
Q: (Gergely Denes – F1-Live.hu) Kimi, last week there was some Twitter chat between Lewis and your team, a photo postcard of you and Roscoe, Lewis’s dog. Are you aware of that and what is your opinion of it?
KR: It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t have a Twitter account, I don’t have any other things. I don’t really have a comment.
Q: You weren’t the man putting #where’sRoscoe on the side of the car?
KR: (Sighs and points to the team’s PR man)
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Népe ) Lewis, what is the difference between Nico Rosberg as a teammate in GP2 and Formula One?
LH: I wasn’t his teammate in GP2. I was his teammate in go-karts. It was more fun when we were in go-karts, that’s about it. We’re both older and wiser and yeah, we don’t play as many games and kid games and all the silly things you do as a kid. He’s more competitive now than he was back then.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Lewis, if Kimi goes to Red Bull, would he be an even harder competitor for you than he is now?
LH: I think Kimi will always be one of the hardest competitors here. He’s a fantastic driver, he’s got great experience and he’s constantly proving his abilities and I think whatever car you put him in he’s going to be a fighting force in the field and of course he’s doing a great job at Lotus, they’ve done a great job this year and over the last couple of years. I think whatever he decides either way, he will have a strong car and I just hope that we’re competing with them.
Q: (Joo Gabor - Index) Kimi, we can divide your Formula One career into two; which one have you enjoyed most, the first one to 2009 or the second one now?
KR: I don’t really count it as two. I did something else that I wanted to do between them and then obviously I wanted to race again. It hasn’t really changed much. Obviously the team’s different but I’ve been in different teams in the past and every team has a good side and some things that you are probably finding not that much fun. Obviously when you have decent results you have more fun that if you have bad years. I would say that is very similar, more or less the same people, same stuff. I have no real difference between earlier teams and how it is now.