FIA Post-Qualifying Press Conference: 2019 Mexican GP.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS
1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

Q: Max, that’s an excellent pole position on a track that had Ferrari written over it in terms of top speed. You missed out on the narrow margins last year but you’ve got the job done and given yourself the best chance tomorrow.

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it’s been quite an interesting day but of course to come out on top was incredible. Yeah, the last few races we know that Ferrari have been really quick on the straight but for us to come back like this and take pole position here, a big thank you to the team for that. They always kept pushing very hard. They kept bringing new parts to the car and it showed today that we are very quick.

Q: Have you believed all weekend that you’ve had a car good enough for pole position?

MV: Secretly you always hope and you always keep pushing. You try to find the right balance in the car and in Q3 that all came together.

Q: And the start tomorrow? We know these Ferraris are quick down the straight, you’ve obviously got to defend there but you know what you’ve got to do based on last year.

MV: Yeah, it will be a bit different for me, starting first instead of second on this track. We’re going to give it all. We have a good race car anyway so even if something happens in the start and we lose a position I think we are still fine.

Q: Well done Max, nice to see you battling with the Ferraris. Charles, best of the rest I guess. Looked like the lap wasn’t going too bad until a small mistake right at the end of the lap on that last one.

Charles LECLERC: Yeah, the first lap was quite good. The second one, we tried to put a bit more balance in the car to have a bit more front, which helped the first sector but then the last sector was too tricky and I lost the rear, so I lost all the time I made up in the first sector. But Red Bull was very quick. Max especially was extremely quick and the race is still long tomorrow.

Q: I guess when you look in the distance there, you know you have a top speed advantage on these guys, you must be looking forward to the start and applying your strategy to try and optimise.

CL: Yeah, definitely. The start will be very important but the top speed we have is very good so hopefully we can take advantage of this.

Q: Sebastian, third place, I know you’re going to be disappointed with that. You’ve looked in very good shape all weekend, actually, and you were the king of the first sector but it looked like you struggled at the end of the lap?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I had a mistake on my first run, so I was quite confident that in the second run I could make up for it. But unfortunately there was the double yellow so I had to slow down. So the lap was lost. But yeah, the car is good. Obviously I would have liked to be a bit further up, I think it was possible. But let’s see tomorrow. It’s a long race and I think we have the speed, as all weekend we have been quite quick.

Q: You optimised that in Russia, which was a long run to the first braking zone. Do you still think you can get the business and do well tomorrow?

SV: We’ll see. We hope to have a good start and then take it from there. Obviously it’s a long race, a tough one on brakes, cooling in general, so let’s see. Also with the tyres, I think it will be quite an adventure tomorrow. I think all top six cars opted to start on the medium tyre, so we will see who dares to go the longest. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Max, sensational performance by you, well done. Just how tough was it out there to find the limit in those ever-changing conditions?

MV: Well, I think it was just because the track is very slippery and it’s difficult to get the tyres working in the right window, so it all depends on your out lap and everybody is trying to be close to each other and in the last sector we are always slowing down but then you just hope that your tyres are working for Turn 1. This time it was all going well and from the start of qualifying the car was working like I wanted it to be. Of course very happy then in Q3 to get pole.

Q: You said this morning that pole might be a step too far. Did the car exceed your expectations?

MV: Yeah, maybe a little bit. I think compared to yesterday we even made a step forward, so that’s always good, that’s always positive, and like I said before, with the tyres, they were working well this time so that’s good.

Q: Many congratulations and good luck for tomorrow. Charles, you’re starting on the front row for the sixth consecutive race. How happy were you with the performance of your Ferrari?

CL: Very happy, especially in the first run of Q3, I think the car there was very good. In the second run of Q3 I asked for a bit more front and it was just too much for the last sector, so I lost all the time I made up in the first sector. But overall Max was just too quick today for us. But the race is tomorrow. We have got good straight-line speed, which I hope we can take advantage of at the start.

Q: Were you surprised by the pace of the Red Bull?

CL: Yes and no. I think we expected them to be strong. After FP3 maybe we thought we had a shot for pole and then in qualifying they were too quick. So a bit surprised in qualifying.

Q: Sebastian, coming to you: on pole last time out in Suzuka, P3 today. How would you describe your session?

SV: Overall I think it was good. But unfortunately in Q3 on the first run I had a mistake and the second run I was caught out by the yellow flags, so yeah, not ideal. I didn’t peak when it was time to peak in the sessions, especially in Q3. But other than that, the car felt good. I think there was more in hand. Obviously Max was a fair bit faster than us but I think with a clean lap we could have challenged him.

Q: Looking ahead to the race, how big a factor will tyre management be?

SV: Yeah, it will be the most important part of the race. Obviously we’ll see how everything gets going. I think everybody opted to start on the medium tyres. We’ll take it from there. Obviously it’s a long race around here.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, what do you think made the difference here to previous races, to have this sort of performance in qualifying and how satisfying is it to hit back after a few near misses since the summer break?

MV: Yeah, I think the last few races we have been really hurt of course on straight line speed and on most of the tracks you can’t gain enough in the corners compared to what you lose on the straights and I think here it’s still big but this track has very low grip so it’s not only aero, it’s also mechanical grip, which is a little bit more important and good kerb riding and stuff like that and I think traditionally our car has always been very good. We just made a mistake in Singapore with the set-up, otherwise I think we could have been really quick there as well. For us it didn’t work out there. We learned a lot from it and I think we came here with a car which was very well prepared already on the simulator, where I was very happy with it and basically we didn’t need to change too much on the track and it was working.

Q: (Fréd Ferret – l’Equipe) Question for all three of you. Do you think that the first straight line will be as at Sochi and how will you deal with the tow?

MV: Well, just look at the last tow year. I guess that says enough.

CL: Yeah, this time I won’t be starting on pole, second, so hopefully I can take the tow from Max and have an opportunity, but yeah, the start will be important for sure.

SV: Nothing to add.

MV: You will have a mega tow.

SV: We’ll see.

Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Max, it looked like you set a fastest final sector despite the accident of Bottas. Can you explain whether you backed off or if you were aware of it, if you saw the yellow flags coming into that corner.

MV: I was aware that Valtteri crashed.

Did you back off?

MV: It didn’t really look like it, did it? No.

Q: (Abhishek Aggarwal - INDIAinF1.com) Sebastian, as we know at this track, in the whole calendar it’s at the highest elevation above sea-level – 2.5km – Do you think there could be something like the thin air changing strategy for tomorrow’s race – comparing it to other circuits?

SV: Well, it is a big challenge around here because obviously it’s a very demanding track for the car. First of all we lose a lot of downforce despite running all the downforce that we have. So, as Max was saying, the cars are sliding a lot, very difficult to drive. So, that obviously leads on to tyres and tyre management. It will be very difficult to get the tyres to work and make the tyres last. The other one, obviously, with such thin air up here is to make sure you cool all of your components such as brakes, engine, oil. A bit of everything.

Q: (Jaap De Groot – Het Parool Amsterdam) Question for Max. Starting now on the pole position, new challenge according to the situation at the first turn. The last year you took a profit out of it form the second position. You see that also as a challenge to keep pole position?

MV: We’ll find out tomorrow. I’m not too worried about it. If they drive by, it’s fine – then we have a good race.

Q: Yeah, but the last two races that you won were decided in the first turn.

MV: Yep, that’s true. Let’s do it a bit different this time!

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for all three of you. Usually you all love the downforce, you all love the cornering speed here, it’s quite different. We will get a presentation of the new regulations next weekend. We don’t know exactly what we expect – but would you be happy to lose a bit of downforce in the future? Because for us as a TV viewer it looks quite spectacular to see the cars sliding a lot in the fast corners.

SV: I think as a one-off it’s nice, so obviously if we lose a lot of downforce for all the tracks it would mean that we lose a lot more up here as well. So, yeah, I think it’s always exciting to have fast cars. I think people also on the grandstand see if the cars are slow, hence, I think the trend to go towards faster cars with the regulations to go with faster cars from ’17 onwards – but I’m sure that we are all ready to go a little bit slower as long as it’s a step forward for all of us in terms of racing. If not, then obviously it’s not really what we want.

MV: Yeah, I think that the cars are really quick at the moment and I don’t think you can find a way of following in a better way with the same cornering speeds like we have now, so I think we do have to go a bit slower but, of course, I do not want to go four, five seconds slower. Maybe two, two-and-a-half maximum. Stuff like that. The car will still be very impressive through the corners. And anyway, whenever you drive on the limit, it’s always very hard, so if it’s going two seconds faster, slower, doesn’t really matter. I think at the end of the day it’s more important that we can actually race instead of just be there and can’t do anything.

Q: Max, do you enjoy the car when it’s producing less downforce, like here?

MV: Well, I enjoy this car more, of course – but for sure we’ll find a way of making that car enjoyable as well.

Charles?

CL: I agree. The feeling in qualifying with this much downforce on the cars is just amazing and I love driving that way. But yeah, as Max said, we’ll need to sacrifice a little bit of that to have better racing. We just need to find the right balance it between cutting the speeds and trying to follow.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Max, today you lost only two-tenths on the Ferrari on the first sector, yesterday it was more than double. Any explanation for that?

MV: I think we improved the car again a little bit and yeah, maybe yesterday was not the perfect sector one – but of course you always know you can improve, or you try, at least. And yeah, today it was just working a little bit better.

Q: (Carlos Alberto Velázquez – Reforma) Question for Max. It’s your second pole it will be your third win here in Mexico. Wouldn’t Mexico be your best race track in your life, in Formula One. It will be your favourite for you?

MV: No. I don’t think you can change your favourite track. Since I was a kid it was always Spa and it’s still the same. But I always love coming here. It’s different, y’know. Of course we have some tracks where we can do really fast through corners and have a lot of grip. This is the opposite. It’s still quite technical and you have to be really focussed on trying to hit the apexes well and trying to make the tyres work, which is a bit different to some other tracks, which I like. And yes, it’s been good to me in the past. It’s definitely not a bad track for me.

Q: (Fernando Alonso – motorlat.com) Charles, I don’t know if we’ll lose the chance for a really tight fight in quali and do you think this will be translated to the race, to have a very close fight between the Red Bull and Ferrari?

CL: Red Bull and, again, Max especially, was very quick yesterday in the FP2 long runs. So it’s going to be difficult but I think anything is possible if we take an advantage at the start. I think there are quite big problems for cooling for everyone, so it’s very difficult to follow around this track. So yeah, we’ll have to take the opportunity in Turn One is we have it.

Q: Sebastian, do you think you’ll be closer to Red Bull in race trim?

SV: Well, I think we were very close today. Maybe closer than the stopwatch was telling. So, I think it was a match and I hope it’s… I’m quite confident it’s going to be a match as well. Obviously it depends on how the race unfolds but also I would not rule out Mercedes.

Q (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all three please. Just to go back to Valtteri’s crash and the yellow flag at the end of Q3. Is it clear among drivers and with the rulemakers what you can get away with, with a yellow flag – and also is it realistic to expect you to back off all that much in qualifying when all that’s on the line?

CL: Yeah, of course, I think it’s clear for everyone that when there’s a yellow flag you need to slow down. On my side, the crash was behind, so I cannot judge that situation but yeah, I think it’s clear for every driver. It’s the basics.

Anything more you’d like to say on this topic Max?

MV: No, I think we all know what a yellow flag means.

Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Why didn’t you back off then, if you saw the yellow?

MV: Well, it doesn’t matter, does it?

Q: Well it might, if the FIA look into it.

MV: Well, then delete my lap. The second. The other lap was fine as well.

Q: Not from a safety perspective? Any concerns?

MV: Do we have to go there? To safety? I think we know what we are doing – otherwise we would not be driving an F1 car. It’s qualifying and, yeah, you go for it. But like I said before, if they want to delete the lap, then delete the lap.

FIA Team Principals' Press Conference: 2019 Mexico GP.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Andreas SEIDL (McLaren), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Racing Point)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Andreas, we’ve seen some strong performances by McLaren in recent races. How comfortable are you in P4 in the Constructors’ Championship, 43 points ahead of Renault?

Andreas SEIDL: Yeah… well, I wouldn’t say ‘comfortable’! It’s obviously good to be in that position; it’s good to see how we perform as a team, still getting better and better, still bringing more parts to the track as well for this year – but at the same time it’s not something we get carried away with. The targets we are having are a lot higher, so for me it’s a lot more important… of course we want to score this P4 this year but it’s a lot more important to get everything in place, let’s say, in the next weeks, months, which we think is important to make the next step also.

Q: Well, let’s talk about that step Andreas, because you’ve already announced Mercedes power units in 2021 but also a change in design philosophy for the 2020 car. Can you explain why you’re doing that, given the progress you’ve made this season? Can you stitch those two things together for us?

AS: First of all, regarding the Mercedes decision, I think we have communicated everything regarding that. Obviously, it was an important milestone, also for myself, to have clarity here as quickly as possible, so very happy to have the World Championship-winning powertrain in the back of our car from 2021 onwards. At the same time, this is 2021, so our focus is on next year, on 2020. The reality is that we are still more than a second down compared to these guys next to me, so this means, even with the regulations staying the same, we still see a lot of stuff we want to tackle with next year’s car, which means we also have to do some bigger changes also, in terms of car concept. James Key is working hard on that, together with the entire team back home. I’m very happy with the progress that I’m seeing there and the target is clear for next year: we want to somehow jump in between these… let’s say a position in terms of lap time also where we are right now and where these guys are, and hopefully we can make that step for next year.

Q: Otmar, it’s pretty congested where you are in the Constructors’ table at the minute. You’re currently lying P7 but only ten points behind Renault in P5. Looking at these last four races, do you think you have the car to take P5?

Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, we hope that we do, and we’ve made some significant upgrades recently to the car and we’re still understanding it a little bit. Our drivers and team are up for the fight. It’s not going to be easy. We are ten points behind not ten ahead, which makes it doubly difficult but we’ll do all we can to finish fifth, if that’s possible.

Q: And a quick word on Lance Stroll if we may. We saw a strong performance from him in Japan, out-qualifying Checo Pérez for only the second time this year. Do you feel he’s finally turned a corner?

OS: Lance is a very intelligent and good racer and he’s been learning all year, so I’m not sure it’s turning a corner but he’s getting better and better. And apart from the little mishap we had, here he looked pretty strong in FP1 as well but that came to an abrupt end at Turn 16. But we’ve got two good drivers. Sergio’s been with us for a long time, he knows the team, he’s great on a Sunday; Lance is learning and hopefully between the two of them we can make up that ten-point deficit that we talked about.

Q: Christian, how confident are you coming into this weekend. Max Verstappen has won this race for the last two years, what chance a third?

Christian HORNER: I think you’d have to look at season in isolation, and I think at the moment Ferrari are very much the benchmark in terms of outright, one-lap pace, and qualifying is so important here because it’s pretty difficult to follow closely other cars. Obviously, Mercedes’ form has been phenomenal across all types of circuit this year. I think coming here it’s a bigger challenge than we’ve faced previously. And, of course, on top of that, we’ve got some variable weather around on Saturday and Sunday. I think it looking pretty tight if you looked at the first session though, looking at the relative competitiveness of the cars. So, it looks like it could be a fantastic battle over the next couple of days.

Q: You were third and fourth in FP1. Quick word on Alex Albon who has out-scored Max Verstappen 48-31 in the five races that they’ve done together as team-mates. His race performances have been very strong, he’s now starting to maximise the car in qualifying. Can you just sum-up his progress.

CH: Yeah, I think he’s doing a very good job. You have to remember this is his first season in Formula One. He’s up against an incredibly tough team-mate in Max and he hasn’t had the benefit of a bunch of testing or anything like that, so I think he’s equipped himself and adapted well. His feedback shows a very strong understanding of the car – and as he gains confidence on circuits he’s visiting for the first time, he’s certainly impressed the whole team with his attitude, his application and his performance so far.

Q: Re-sign him for 2020?

CH: It’s still early days. I think the privileged position that we’re in as Red Bull with the ownership of two teams is that we don’t have to make any firm decision about who partners Max until the end of the year. They’re all under contract to Red Bull, all of the drivers, so we’ll take our time to make sure we make all the evaluations in readiness for next year.

Q: While we’re talking about the future, can you provide us with some clarity about the team’s long term future with Honda? What are the plans?

CH: I think it’s very similar to everybody else at the moment: there is no Concorde Agreement in place; there’s a lot of discussion going on behind the scenes but there’s no team with any commitment to Formula One past the end of 2020. And so I think Honda, wisely, are waiting to see how the technical regulations, the sporting regulations pan out, and the commitment of the teams to the relevant Concorde Agreement, so, yeah, I think we’re in a relatively similar position to the other teams around me.

Q: Toto, so you clinched the Constructors’ Championship in Japan, great weekend for the team. Now that you’ve had a few weeks to reflect, where does this Constructors’ Championship rank in comparison to the other five?

Toto WOLFF: This year has been very different, because first of all the loss of Niki is overshadowing everything we do. He was such an important part of the team and with us at every single race and there’s still this big void – and you could feel that when we won the Championship in Japan, that he was missing. On the pure sporting side, obviously we set ourselves this unbelievable objective of trying to win six double-championships in a row, which was not done before and I think achieving that is really something that we can be proud of. But, having said that, we are always sceptical about our own performances and, if Ferrari wouldn’t have dropped the ball in Sochi, and wouldn't have dropped the ball in Suzuka at the start, it would have gone much further than Japan, and for this very reason, it’s nice to have locked it in, and have it between our two drivers for the Drivers’ World Championship but it doesn’t feel as if we have been really the dominant force in those last few races. And I see the positives in that – because it helps you to not get carried away with this fantastic achievement of six titles.

Q: While we’re talking about performance, your last pole position was back in Germany. Is that stat an accurate reflection of performance, or have you missed some opportunities?

TW: No, I think it’s an accurate reflection of performance and you can see that the Ferrari on a Saturday is almost unbeatable. They are able to up their game from Friday to Saturday and once all the power kicks in that they have available, it’s very difficult to compensate for the loss in straight line. But I don’t want to diminish their performance with the rest of the chassis either. They just seem to have the strongest car on Saturday. And when it comes to racing on Sunday, the Red Bull and the Mercedes are maybe a tiny bit more competitive at some of the races. Not the high-speed tracks that we’ve seen – but all of the others. We seem to be crawling back a little bit.

Q: And the Drivers’ Championship is now a straight fight between your guys. Are the orders from the boss going to be a little bit different this weekend?

TW: Well, Japan was a very complicated race for us in terms of strategies. I think we have an obligation to do our best, to give them a car that is reliable and fast for them to fight it out on track, give them equal opportunity, and if you look at the points, the probability is probably much better on Lewis’ side to win the Championship, but nevertheless, we don’t want to interfere in their fight and will do our best to stay neutral as we’ve always been.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Otmar, regarding the protest you filed against Renault in Japan, was that an issue you’d been looking at for a few races, or is it something you’ve been looking at for a long time?

OS: Well, we started looking at it after Silverstone. We, ourselves, had some issues with our brake bias actually failing, with I think resulted in Checo I think running into Hülkenberg at the restart after the Safety Car. That’s when we started looking at making our system a little bit more robust. As I’m sure everyone does, we started looking at our competitors to see what they do better than we do, and that’s when we noticed that Renault had the system that we really wanted. So it started in Silverstone. We then wrote to the FIA asking if we could do the same, and the FIA wrote back saying we can’t. So that’s how that all came about.

Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport-Total.com) A question to all four gentlemen: with the budget cap kicking in in ’21, is there an element of danger for sort of a spending war going on now and in 2020 for those who can afford to get a head start into ’21, as happened in 2014 with the hybrid formula?

TW: The truth is that we are all within the same financial reality and none of us has unlimited resource, unlimited financial resource behind us to just pour money into the system. It’s still about efficiency. I can tell you, and you know very well, that in the auto industry things are not looking easy. Nevertheless, having said that, it is clear that the big teams are the ones that are very restricted from 2021 onwards. We need to look at our structures, change process and maybe also the organisation in a way to adapt to these new challenges, which will hit us hard in 2021, because we will be doing things differently to the way we are doing them today. This is why it’s a clear in 2020 that we have to adapt and change and all this change is costly and will be happening in 2020, so 2020 will be a year of more financial expenditure in order to get ready for 2021.

AS: From my point of view I don’t see this big risk. The big teams or the top teams still really have a head start clearly for the ’21 regulations. I would say not just because of budget but because they are simply in better shape and are doing a better job. For the ’21 regulations the aerodynamics will still be a key performance differentiator. There are limitations also in place for next year, in terms of CFD and wind tunnel hours that you can do, so in the end everyone has to decide how much hours you want to spend on the ’20 car and the ’21 car, so that’s how we see it. On our side, on the budget side, we have a given budget so this will not be affected by the ’21 regs coming in, in ’20.

CH: I think we’ve missed a bit of an opportunity, in fact I raised it at the meeting last week, where, if you look at it, we have the budget cap, which in principle I think is pretty much agreed. It’s painful for the bigger teams and obviously will prevent the bigger teams from spending beyond that 175 million cap. I think with hindsight we would have been better bringing the cap in first for ’21 and then taking more time to develop these regulations and evolve them and bring them in in time for ’22, so that any development that the big teams undertake would be under the umbrella of the cap. I think it’s impossible to bring that cap forward to 2020 because you will never achieve agreement on it. So therefore, my feeling is that a budget cap is ultimately a sensible thing for Formula 1, but the interim period of 2020 with the current regulations we have as teams gear up for 2021 with unrestricted spend makes it a very expensive year and I think it will create a broader gap between the teams going into 2021 as those teams with more resource will simply spend more time in the research and development phase before the cars hit the track at the beginning of ’21. So, as I said, I think an opportunity has perhaps been lost to have that process more controlled under the cap and delay these regulations and evolve them, because there is some great stuff going on, but the car and the concept looks very underdeveloped at the moment and I think if another 12 months was taken to develop that concept and bring in something that works and perhaps addresses some of the other issues like weight and so on, I think would have been perhaps a more beneficial approach.

OS: From our perspective we’ll be way under the cost cap this year, next year and in future years to come. As Christian says, if next year there is a tendency to spend more to prepare for 2021, we certainly won’t be doing that, because we just don’t have the financial resources to do so and that might give the bigger teams that do have those resources an advantage going into 2021. So perhaps the sensible thing to be done, as Christian says, is to move the rules out so that you are faced with the umbrella of the cost cap when you’re developing for the new rules. I don’t know if that opportunity is completely gone but if it isn’t then it’s a sensible thing to do, because for us, we won’t be anywhere near the cost cap.

Q: Just before we move on: Toto, your thoughts on what Christian has just suggested?

TW: I think Christian said it in a very right way. I think in Formula 1 we are very ‘actionistic’ (sic). Things need to be done immediately and everything is so bad and we can’t continue without deploying a more strategic long-term vision. There are arguments that said ‘well, why don’t we put the cost cap forward, why don’t we implement it one year earlier and then start with the technical and sporting regulations in 2021’, but as Christian said, I think they are not very mature, the regulations will need some more input around the cost cap. The single most important factor is the auditing and policing process and none of that is in place for 2020 and obviously if you can’t police it in the right way it makes no sense to implement the rule. In general it’s a situation that we need to see a ramp-up in resource, in the way things are being policed, on the financial side and on the technical side. This is something that we need to address and therefore I think that the idea of pushing it one year out looks logical and strategically well thought through, but it didn’t gain the traction and didn’t trigger enough appetite with the ones that decide.

Q: Andreas?

AS: Yeah, not a lot more to add really. I think our position is clear. We like what is on the table now, what we have seen last week also, in terms of what’s coming in on the technical side, the sporting side and on the financial side ands just waiting now for the 31st of October to see the publication of these regulations and we all know what we have to work to from ’21 onwards.

Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports News) Toto, we read some very powerful words today about your understanding of the racism Lewis suffered as a young boy. You also talked about how he’s not perhaps appreciated as he should be or has the honours he perhaps deserves. We see all the furore about making some comments about the environment recently. Do you have any lingering worry as his boss that there is an unconscious racial bias against him still?

TW: I don’t want to step too much into personal experiences and things that he made aware to me, because this is a discussion we had in private, but look at the room here, it’s not very diverse. I think for us it is very difficult to understand that if you are one of the very few that you are faced with these kind of situations. I can tell you that from my personal perspective, racism is not something that is out there and in a more educated environment and very into the face it’s more the subtle side that is very painful and hurts and this is why we sometimes need to put ourselves into a different perspective and I have very much learned to do that because of him and his perspective. I have never seen things in that way before he had explained it to me and I realised them. In terms of things that have been said around the environment, I think it is very important that each of us tries – and this is my personal opinion – tries to the best of his abilities to be conscious about things and help in reducing emissions and our own personal bit to the whole story. I have seen Lewis doing that. I have seen him changing in his behaviours, be it reducing his own flying, and he has done that, and I think we need to acknowledge that and respect rather than criticize. It’s the power… how can I say, almost like the economies of scale – if everybody changes we will have nine billion people changing and I think it needs to start with yourself and he has done that and I think he is right.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all four please. To pick up on the comments about the 2021 rules and what could have been done in terms of the cost cap. To be clear, do you think there is any scope to delay the wider introduction of new rules for 2021, would you support that, and what shape are 2021 rules in in general after last week’s meeting?

OS: Well, it was discussed at last week’s meeting. We had a bit of discussion, a debate on delaying the rules by a year, just for the reasons Christian mentioned. I think it’s just a bit more equitable between the big teams that can afford to spend more now if we delayed it by a year, but I think there is a small chance of that happening. As far the regulations go, we’ll know in a week’s time. They are a bit more restrictive than what we have today but it’s financial, technical and sporting, so it’s three different publications that we will get.

CH: As Otmar said, there are three elements that are going to be passed through at the end of the month. The sporting side is arguably the easiest. I think the technical regulations, they are immature and there are still a large amount of questions being raised. So I think what does get published there will be inevitable TDs and refinements before we get to the 2021 season. Likewise with the financial regulations, there has never been a policed budget cap in Formula 1 previously and obviously having all the tools and the infrastructure to police all the different corporate entities that exist and subsidiaries etc within Formula 1 is no small undertaking. It’s a very complex business and everybody’s structure is different. So there is a lot of ground to cover and even though I think regulations will come out on the 31st, I think there will still be financial directives, technical directives that see adjustments happen before we actually get to the 2021 year.

TW: Yeah, maybe only one point to add, because it’s pretty much my point of view too, is that I don’t think these regulations are going to be stopped. It’s been made very clear that this is moving forward. There will be tweaks and changes in detail and interpretations but broadly I think this is moving forward.

AS: Nothing to add really.

Q: (Christoph Becker – Frankfurter Allgemainer Zeitung) Coming into the year it looked like this was going to be Brexit season. Now it’s most likely not, it’s going to be in the future probably. Could you elaborate a little bit as to how much this issue has affected your teams this year, and how much it will continue to affect you, since the political situation seems to be a little bit unclear still?

AS: I obviously have also heard what’s going on there in detail….

TW: They’re going to kick him out first!

AS: … in the newspaper, but I’ve got the guarantee that I can stay at least, whatever happens. I think as a team we simply did our homework and prepared for every possible scenario which is on the horizon and I’m sure whatever happens in the next weeks and months there will be solutions in place and we will keep going racing.

TW: I think you need to prepare as in every company out there, for a potential impact. It’s clear that it will harm us in a way because our business live with the just-in-time concept of product supplies, but we are going to get our head around it and as a team I think we have put a lot of effort into understanding what the potential impact could be and we are ready for whatever outcome.

CH: Likewise we’ve done our research, as far as you can do, as to what is the potential impacts of a Brexit, if there is a deal, if there’s no deal, if there’s extensions, and I think it’s been a bit of distraction this year in certain respects. I think people, as a whole, are fed up with it. They just want it done, one way or another and whatever it is we’ll deal with and get on with it. It’s a little bit of a comedy show, British politics, at the moment in the way that the whole issue has been handled with obviously different agendas being covered. But whatever it is, we will deal with it and I think we’ve done our due diligence whichever way it goes.

OS: We’ve been planning for the worst case, the worst case being a no deal Brexit so I think we’ve put some plans in place to cope with that and we’re hoping for the best case. But only time will tell, but I think we’re well prepared to keep going if Brexit does happen sooner rather than later and there is no deal.

Q: (Bart van Dooijeweert – Nu.NL) Christian, Max Verstappen is driving the 99th GP of his career this weekend, making one hundred in the US. Obviously he’s not a rookie any more. You’ve been very positive about his results the last 18 months. On the other hand, in this sport, nobody’s perfect, there’s always room to improve so what can he still do better do you think?

CH: Well, I think you’re always learning in any sport. I think that it’s incredible to think that Max has only just turned 22 years of age and he’s about to celebrate his 100th Grand Prix, which is a remarkable record already. I think he’s doing a great job. You can see that the experience of those 99 races is really serving him well. I think he’d probably only done about 25 races in cars before he arrived in Formula One so all his learning has been very much under the scrutiny of the media and I think he’s dealt with that incredibly well. He’s extremely well rounded now; he’s almost a veteran!

Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat.com) Toto, there’s a subject about the upgrades on your engine, that there are a lot of worries, precisely in the site of Racing Point and the problems that the car that Checo has in several races. Do you think these problems are more about the hard to develop this season or is it because the development is taking as high as possible or is more about the configuration for the other teams?

TW: I think you have no differences between the configurations. As per the rules, you need to have the same hard and software on every car and our philosophy has always been that the learning that is happening across a multitude of cars is very important to improve the performance. On the Racing Point cars, we’ve been unlucky this year, in the same way we’ve been unlucky with Robert (Kubica), I think it was Spa and these have been incidents that are not down to pushing performance but more things that we haven’t seen before on the dynos, so things still break, this is a mechanical sport and with all the best simulations in the world you still sometimes find out while running them in anger that things break and this is what happened to us and this is something we need to keep under control, also for the future races. Certainly it’s something that we need to be on our toes for the last few races in order to give equal material to our two drivers and next year we just need to get better in terms of reliability as well.

Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Toto, Lewis traditionally turns up in the second half of the season but this year he has won just one race since the summer break and then Ferrari have come back as well. Lewis spoke the other day about how he’s had quite a lot going on his life and I just wondered if you’d noticed anything different with him this season or is it perhaps just very draining going for his sixth title?

TW: There is a reason why this is a record. I think it’s very difficult to keep yourself in the right spot, motivated, energised, passionate about things and we certainly are but it’s not trivial. I don’t think this has really played a role in his second part of the season. I think that Valtteri has upped his game which is good for the team, it’s good for Lewis, it’s good to see. The Ferrari has become very strong and has resurged after the summer break and has become the benchmark and the result is that we’ve not been able to score the results that we had in the first half of the season, so I wouldn’t put it down to him as a driver, I think he’s still in a very good place. It’s more that he didn’t have the car that was able to give him these kind of results.

Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Toto, I was wondering that when you get the new regulations signed and sealed, will you then sit down with Lewis to discuss a new deal and how strongly do you believe that you will be able to keep him away from Ferrari?

TW: I think that this Ferrari thing has maybe been blown out of proportion. Lewis has a clear opinion where he sees himself in the future and we are and have always been very loyal to our drivers. This is taking it ordinary cross of business, 2021 everything is different and the drivers in the same way as the teams will be looking at opportunities and their future evaluate options that are on the table, benchmark the team’s performance and at the end of the day the cars’ performance is what counts the most for the top guys. These discussions have slowly but surely started but I don’t see this coming to any closure in terms of the 2021 line-up any time soon. That will be going into the next season, is my opinion.

2019 Mexican GP: FIA Drivers' Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS – Antonio GIOVINAZZI (Alfa Romeo), Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), Sergio PÉREZ (Racing Point), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Alexander ALBON (Red Bull Racing)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sergio, home race coming up. How has the build up been? I think you’ve been busy running marathons, a taxi service, all sorts of things?

SERGIO PÉREZ: A little one – 8km. Yeah, it’s been a busy one. Basically I’ve been doing everything, every single stuff out there. It’s a pretty special weekend for me. I think it’s the best grand prix on the calendar, but very special for me. Yeah, I’m just looking forward to it. If there’s a weekend I want to be perfect and do very well, it’s this weekend.

Q: Well if you do very well, you might record the 100th points finish of your career this weekend. What would it mean for you to do that in front of your home crowd?

SP: It would be very special. More than that I look forward to giving them a great race. I think last year we were doing a very good race but then we ran out of brakes, so I think in the past we’ve been a bit unlucky in a couple of races – one in 2015 with the safety car that came at the wrong moment – so I hope this weekend… we are in a good run, so hopefully we can do a good one this weekend.

Q: Thanks very much and good luck Checo. Alex, Suzuka two weeks ago was a tremendous weekend for you, culminating in fourth place, the best result of your Formula 1 career to date. Did you change anything going into the Japanese Grand Prix or was it more of a reflection of the general progress you’ve been making?

ALEXANDER ALBON: I think it was more of a reflection. I don’t think anything special went on before Japan. Just getting more comfortable every time. Japan was just a really good track; I love it. I just enjoyed it and it suited me a bit better. It was a good weekend.

Q: You say you’re getting comfortable all the time. How different is the Red Bull to drive compared to the Toro Rosso you did the first half of the season in?

AA: Yeah, I’d say they have their differences, obviously. But it’s like every car. I think you’ve got to learn its little tricks and everything like that. Spending that time with Toro Rosso you kind of develop a bit of a driving style towards it and changing teams you’ve got to almost start blank again and work again, so it does take time but it’s very normal for every time you change to a new car.

Q: Your team-mate has won this grand prix for the last couple of years. How confident are you coming into the weekend that you can get your first podium?

AA: We’ll see. Maybe we’re not as favorites as we were in previous years. We do have our success here but the Ferraris are looking very strong as always, so we’ll see. On my side, just focus on myself. A podium would be nice, obviously, but not too focused on that at the minute. We’ll see.

Q: Thank you Alex, good luck this weekend. Antonio, you’re enjoying a good run at the moment, you’ve outqualified Kimi Räikkönen for the last three races. A question that’s quite similar to the one I asked Alex: have you changed anything in your approach to qualifying in particular?

Antonio GIOVINAZZI: No, I don’t think so. I think already in the first part of the season I was really close to Kimi, always really there. Second part, yeah, the confidence was coming better and better. But I don’t think it’s something we need to talk about – I was in front of Kimi three times. I’m just really happy that my confidence is coming better and better. The speed is better. I think we are struggling a little bit on race pace now. I hope we can find the right way this weekend and come back [into the] points, so we miss from two races already, so we need to get back there.

Q: How confident are you of finding the right way, because both Alfas were in Q3 here last year and raced well, so do you think you are going to have a better weekend than you have had at the last couple?

AG: I hope so. We had an intensive week last weekend and we tried to find something in the car, because I think the car is fast, because in qualifying we are there, almost close to Q3, but in the race we are struggling a lot, so I think we need to find just the last detail and then try to be back in the points soon.

Q: You’re doing a great job at the minute, what have the team told you about next year?

AG: Nothing yet. I think I just need to focus on my job and try to continue like that and then we’ll see for next year.

Q: Are you confident?

AG: Yes, I need to be confident. I think the second part of the season was quite strong from my side. I need to just keep pushing like that and then we’ll see.

Q: Good luck, thank you Antonio. Sebastian, tremendous pole position by you in Japan a couple of weeks ago. How much did you enjoy that moment and how much did you need that moment for your own peace of mind?

Sebastian VETTEL: Not so much. Obviously we had both quali and the race on Sunday, so there was not so much time to enjoy. I think there was nothing wrong before. Obviously, qualifying, maybe some events before that didn’t really go my way but yeah, I enjoyed Suzuka more than that particularly qualifying session. Obviously it was a good day, a near perfect day, the race should have been a little bit better but yeah…

Q: This weekend, are Ferrari favourites coming into this Mexican Grand Prix?

SV: I don’t know. So-so. Obviously people look at the track and they look at the straight line but I think that, yeah, we have obviously been strong on the straight lines in recent races but there are a couple of corners plus here it’s not one of the tracks where efficiency matters so much. We do have quite an efficient car but maybe we can’t use that to our advantage, so we’ll see how we manage around the 'cornery' sections, because some of these type of corners have been our weakness, so we’ll see.

Q: OK, good luck with that. Lewis, we talked about Checo’s busy build-up to this weekend and I see that you have been in the boxing ring with Julio Chávez. Tell us about it?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, I was with Puma yesterday at an event. We had a great turnout. It’s crazy; I started boxing when I was eight. Obviously I was much younger and I wouldn’t say In was particular ever great at it, but it was really quite an honour to be in the ring with such a legend.

Q: Did he teach you anything?

LH: Yeah, yeah, he gave me a few pointers. He said I had a heavy hand, so I don’t know…

SP: Ready for the fight!

Q: Let’s talk about the fight this weekend then. It’s been six races since you last had a pole position. How confident are you of breaking that run this weekend?

LH: Oh, I don’t think a lot has changed. We’re going to go into this weekend knowing that Ferrari are massively quick usually on the straights and obviously straights are a powerful element of this circuit, so I don’t know when we’ll be getting another pole – unless it rains, which can change everything. But as you’ve seen in previous races it’s not necessarily all about qualifying nowadays. It’s about making sure you’ve got the car ready for the race, so we’ll still give it everything. This is a race that bodes well for the Red Bulls and the Ferraris in the past, but we’ve made a lot of improvements in our understanding of the car and how we use it, so maybe this weekend maybe we’ll a better chance than we have in the past.

Q: Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, you will clinch the world championship if you beat Valtteri Bottas by 14 points. What would it mean to you to win it here in Mexico for the third consecutive season?

LH: Well, I don’t remember if in a season I’ve finished 14 points ahead of Valtteri at any point, and if it has it may have been one race maybe. So I anticipate that it will be a difficult weekend. Valtteri has been strong all year and obviously won the last race so I expect him to be strong this weekend too. It doesn’t matter where it’s done, as long as you get it done, and that’s what I’m trying to do. But I’m fully aware that there are still plenty of points on the table and I’ve got to deliver over these next four races.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) For Lewis: you’ve never been afraid to use your profile on social media to raise issues you have outside F1, what you think about the world etc, so you made people take notice in between Japan and here with your comments about the state of the planet and what people can do. I think that led to a few people questioning whether it’s valid to raise concerns about the planet if you’re part of the F1 circus, with all the travelling and stuff. I think even Fernando Alonso was quoted as saying it’s not something you can comment on really, because it’s not fair. I just wondered how you balance using your personal profile to raise stuff like that with the role you have in F1? A second part: Jean-Eric Vergne, the Formula E champion, said Formula E would be a natural move for you, given your eco-friendly status and what the championship is trying to do. Are you interested in doing Formula E after Formula 1?

LH: I have no interest whatsoever to do Formula E, so that’s not something I currently plan to do beyond. And then, lots of people have had opinions about how I utilise my social media, but ultimately it’s my platform and we all have a voice, everyone here and around the world, and it’s how you choose to… how you want to use it. Personally, it’s not the easiest, because yes, we are travelling around the world, we are racing Formula 1 cars and our carbon footprint for sure is higher than the average homeowner who lives in the same city, but that doesn’t mean that you should be afraid to speak out about things that can be a positive change and I’m always looking at things, and how I can improve the effect that I’m having on the world. I guess it’s something that over time I have become more and more aware of and it takes a while. It’s not a quick-fix thing. It takes time to understand the implications and I think it’s just about education and I’m just trying to highlight areas. Whether people choose to look into those, that’s up to them, but I’d feel like I wasn’t doing anything positive if I didn’t mention it.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) I had a very similar question to Lewis, so obviously it’s been answers. So, to the other drivers there, how do you feel about the environmental factors that Lewis has raised on social media. Are you also sort of active about the environment?

SV: Yeah. I’m not following Lewis. I’m not active on social media but I think the point is very clear. I think you would be ignorant if you wouldn’t look at it and obviously, as Lewis mentioned, it’s very difficult, in a way, to us to get acceptance from outside, because we don’t have the smallest footprint because the races happen around the world. We do have to travel, so it’s part of our jobs. But I think in general, Formula 1 should do more. It’s a worldwide operating platform. I think we should send a much stronger message regarding this subject and I think personally – this is free to everyone – but I think everybody can do something, contribute a little bit and if the whole world would act like that, it would make a huge difference. I think it’s inevitable that change is coming and hopefully rather sooner than later.

Antonio?

AG: I completely agree with Seb, what he says. So nothing to add.

Checo?

SP: Yeah, I think it’s very important that we raise our voices. A lot of people hear us – especially for someone like Lewis. It’s very important. I see the messages that he sends often on his social media are good. A lot of people are following him, so if we can impact the world, if we can help a bit, I think we are obliged to do so. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Alex?

AA: Not to much to add to that. I think what Lewis said was really good and… yeah, just because we’re in Formula 1 doesn’t mean we can’t care about the environment.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just on those Instagram posts. In one of them you said you feel like giving up on everything and shutting down completely. I was just wondering what provoked you to say that and how your frame of mind is going into this weekend.

LH: Well, I’m only human so, like everyone you have up and down days. I think that’s really what I’ve been trying to convey really, because I think it’s very difficult for people who are watching on social media to be able to relate to certain individuals who live in a celebrity world. A lot of people don’t realise that they’re also humans and they also have feelings and have the ups and downs. Some people do care, some people care less, or whatever. And… I don’t know. It was not the best feeling at the moment but I’ve got great people around me, I’ve had a lot of support from fans, I’ve had a lot of support from around my family. There’s a lot going on in my life at the moment and, I don’t know, I think I was just… well, anyway, coming into this weekend I feel very positive, back to doing what I love doing and… yeah, I think it’s just always trying to stay positive, which is not always easy but I think I’ve done really well in the past to stay positive for the majority of the time – but I think there’s a lot that goes on in our lives and I think it’s important to also be open. And the whole thing’s in… so I’m always very open, very transparent with my feelings, whether people like it or not but I’m super-focused still on these four races and what I can do to get the job done, as the team have done such a great job and I continue. I’ve got lots and lots of positive plans for the future for positive change.

Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Following up on the environmental issue, are you guys political. And the question is to all drivers – and I’m not asking if you have sentiments for any political party or anything – but do you support a party, not telling us who it is probably, do you care, do you follow the news, would you say you are political persons.

AA: No, not so much. Is that OK?

LH: I don’t think I’m particularly political. I watch the news as much as I can. I find it very interesting to watch what is happening around the world. I think it’s a scary time for all of us. There’s so much talk in all the different governments around the world and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of solutions, or they don’t seem to be coming up with a lot of solutions, so it definitely is a bit worrying but there’s not a lot that we can do individually except for just try to be better within our own bubble. And if you have a platform, try to project some positivity – but I’m not supportive of any particular party.

Checo?

SP: Nothing more to add to what Lewis said.

SV: I think it’s not so much about knowing which party you want to support. I think, when you talk about the environment, supporting the planet. So, I think politics in a way have failed in the past, and at the moment we have seen, or we see in different areas that is critical and hopefully they will manage to get their act together and succeed in trying to find solutions that will help our planet and will help other problems that we have amongst ourselves, as in human beings, to try and improve the situation. In that regard I’m a supporter of the planet and, again, as I said earlier, I think change is coming. So I think it’s up to us to embrace it rather than ignore it before probably it’s too late.

AG: Nothing too much to add.

Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis, sorry to come back to the Instagram post. It’s already been mentioned about the criticism you received on the back of some of it. I just wondered how you deal with that, because obviously you’re trying to put out a positive message and people then come back with their own views on that. Does it ever get to you and how do you get over it?

LH: I don’t normally spend a lot of time reading comments but of course I’m aware of that people have their own opinions and some people are going to be with it, some people are going to be against it. And that’s just the name of the game. I generally try not to let that kind of thing get to me. I think it’s important for all of us in life to feel good and feel like you’re doing something positive regardless of those that try to knock it down, the stuff that you do do that is positive. And yeah… just staying true to your values and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. And, as I said, I’ve got great people around me who are constantly lifting me up. So, there’s no… I’m fortunately not alone. I’ve got a lot of great people around me who, within my team, within my closest friends and family. Not all my family’s vegan but it doesn’t matter. They are also trying to make positive change in the decisions they make in their lives and I think that’s great.

Q: (Fernando Alonso – motorlat.com) Sebastian, right now we talk about the things that help Ferrari with the motor upgrades but you already said that you have to focus on the slow corners. You as a team are thinking in balance all the performance in the track or what is the way you will approach this weekend?

SV: Well, obviously for this weekend here it’s quite straightforward. Normally you think about the downforce choice you make – so trying to find the right balance whereas here obviously you put the maximum downforce on the car that you can, because of the difference in altitude and the air being thinner, so, as I said previously, the efficiency around this track is not so important. And yeah, to focus on the low speed corners in particular around here, other than trying to put every single bit of downforce on the car that you have, is trying to find the right set-up, finding the right balance, in terms of obviously extracting grip – but on the other hand, finding the right handling, the confidence in the car, looking after the tyres, getting the tyres in the window and all these small things. They do make a big difference for one lap in quali – but also then how you treat the tyres, especially throughout the race.

Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Lewis, you are very close to taking your sixth title, largely because you’ve had a such a strong season. Would you just consider how you got to this position? Are you able to identify what has been the most difficult challenges you’ve had to overcome, to be in such a strong position now?

LH: I think every season you’re looking at it… obviously we got to the beginning of the year and people thought we were talking ourselves down and not showing our true performance. In actual fact it was reality. Ferrari had a good car at the beginning, perhaps it just wasn’t working that great earlier on in the season. I think our focus is just always trying to… the biggest challenges are always trying to understand these tyres. I think everyone has been on that case each year and there’s quite a different dynamic to them this season. So if you look at qualifying, for example, I think that’s an area which has probably been my weakest, even though I feel like I’ve been doing good laps but they’ve not been as good as others. I think the races have obviously been stronger and continued, I guess, on from last year but been very, very strong this season. But then I guess it’s also just been the balance of everything you’re doing outside of the sport, the obstacles you come across in the build-up to the races and just remaining consistent. Punching out these performances each weekend in, weekend out for us guys it’s such a hard task and I think people underestimate and undervalue how hard that is. Perhaps other athletes would understand because they go to competition after competition but it’s really hard because people turn on the TV and see a few hours of our weekend but there’s a massive amount of work that goes on obviously in the background, which you guys will know, obviously and I think it’s really just trying to continue to make… keep the team motivated, steering them in the right direction – because they can easily go in the wrong direction quite often with these cars nowadays.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Sorry to go back to the environmental stuff Lewis. You mentioned that your post came as a result of a down, a period that you mentioned highs and lows. Was there a particular moment that you can share with us which was the trigger for putting that statement out? And just as a follow-up; what sort of changes have you made to your day-to-day life to help the environment? I know there’s the diet but diet aside is there anything else which you’re doing which you can tell us?

LH: I was watching a documentary and it was just sad to see the things that we are kind of not aware of. Again, it just inspired me to want to do more and reach out to those who perhaps don’t know some of the things that are happening. In terms of the things that I’m doing in my life, I’m trying to make sure that by the end of the year I’m carbon neutral at the end of the year. I don’t allow anyone in my office but also within my household to buy any plastics. I want everything recyclable down to deodorant, down to toothbrush, all these kind of things so I’m trying to make as much change as I can in my personal space. I told you I sold my plane over a year ago. I fly a lot less now, I’m trying to fly less through the year and mostly flying commercial so that’s been a big change in my habits. I’ve avoided trips as well, if I didn’t need to do it, been in the UK, for example, with family and going up to Bedfordshire and kind of stayed at Soho House for example, with the family instead of going on holiday. What else? Obviously I’ve changed my diet which is quite a drastic difference. I’m also pushing for… so for example I have a new smart electric hybrid at home – it’s not hybrid, it’s electric. I’ve sold several of my cars, some of them I don’t really want to sell because I still love them and I’ve worked hard for them and I don’t drive them a lot if I’m honest. And also, all the cars that I have, so Mercedes, I’m very fortunate that I get quite a few cars around the world, so I have three Mercedes in the States for example. Send them back and get new QCs. I have a Maybach in London for example. I think they’re bring the hybrid out at the end of next year for the Maybachs. However, right now that doesn’t really suit what I’m fighting for so I need to change that also for either an EQC or one of the hybrids they have. I’m constantly making changes. It’s not a quick fix. It’s not something you do over a short period of time, but I feel (Indistinct) that I’m making those changes  and I’m encouraging people around me to also… my friends are seeing me doing those and also being more conscious and also looking to do those kind of things. I work with the team who are also really pushing to be carbon neutral, also changing things in their canteen because there’s a lot of plastics which you will see here, for example, we have mostly just water which are biodegradable bottles. I’m working with Mercedes on the future plan with them, for example. Car manufacturers have all leather interiors. There’s no reason why we cannot have for the leather for the suede so I’m pushing to be a part of that change with Mercedes Benz. And what’s the last one? There’s one more. Oh yes, and obviously I work with Tommy Hilfiger, nearly 70 per cent of all the clothes that I’ve done are sustainable and either recycled fabrics of leather, faux suede and the goal is to have that 100 percent and I’m looking at some point that to be 100 per cent sustainable, hopefully in the next year or two. That’s also encouraged Tommy Hilfiger, who work in quite a damaging business or industry to also look into that and push that direction. I don’t know much more I can do at the moment. I still love racing and I want to continue with that. If you look at our sport, it’s shifted from… we use a third less fuel now, there is more I think that Formula One can do and I think they are putting plans together but I think we have to push all the industries, you have to push Formula One to do more and I think that they’re giving us a proposal later on, I think today, of the plans that they have in place and we’ll do whatever we can to support that.

Q: (Yhacbec López – Motorlat) Seb, Ferrari has not won here, the Mexican Grand Prix, since 1990 so is this the biggest chance since F1 came back in 2015 to win the Mexican Grand Prix finally?

SV: I don’t know. I think we can answer on Sunday. If yes, then hopefully we can make it happen; if no then we obviously come back again next year. Yeah, I can’t predict what’s going to happen. I feel confident, I think we have a strong package. There’s part of the track that should be in our favour. Other parts might be a bit more difficult but we will see how it works out. The weather could be a bit of a difficult role this weekend so we will see what happens.

Q: (Arturo Escalona – Compania Periodistica ESTO) I would like to know your opinion about three more years of the Mexican Grand Prix? 

SP: Well, those were great news for our country, for Formula One. I think Formula One is looking to have more races like Mexico. We don’t have that many where we go there and the fans are cheering – not just for me but for everyone up there. It’s just something that’s extremely good to have and you see places like Monza, England, those unique places that are, for us, very special so for me especially, it was extremely good to hear that the Mexican Grand Prix is for another three years, especially as it has grown so much in the past. Now can you say Formula One is very big in Mexico so I hope it carries on not just three years, more than that.

LH: Oh great. I love coming to Mexico so it’s good for me. I think Mexico City is… Mexico in general has such a beautiful culture, the people have always been so warm and welcoming. I’ve got friends from when I lived in Switzerland who are still my dear friends today. And also I spend a lot of time in Colorado for example, a lot of the Mexicans are out there skiing with us. But this Grand Prix, it’s very very unique, obviously with the high altitude that we have here, it always put a huge demand on the drivers but also the cars. I didn’t think when we came here for the first time that we would have such a big turn-out consistently each year. I think it’s getting bigger each time they come and the atmosphere is really created by the people that come here, the people who come and support us. I see no reason for this Grand Prix to ever stop. The only thing I hope is that we can try to make sure that when we do come to these Grands Prix and we leave, we will leave a positive (indistinct) on the city in some way, shape or form, whether it’s working with certain foundations. Because I know there’s a lot of people in need within the city and within the country so I think there’s more we can do.

SV: Yeah, I think it’s great to continue going to a Grand Prix where there’s passion for racing. I think that since we’ve come back – I don’t know how it was when Ferrari last won in 1990, how it was before, but certainly since we’ve been coming back since 2015 it’s been very positive, lots of people, full grandstands. It’s not the case everywhere we go so we should be very happy about the fact that we are allowed to come back.

AG: Of course it will be my first time here but I did two FP1 in ’17 and ’18. The track is really nice to drive and we always see a really good race here. Also like the other say, the passion here is quite high, so really happy to continue to race here.

AA: Yeah, first time here so excited. I’ve loved the food already: spicy and excited. Coming into the stadium is supposed to be really special so I’m excited to see that on Sunday.

Cape Town is set for a thrilling World RX climax.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media.

South Africans, whether they are race fans or not, are set for a blockbuster championship fight when the SABAT World Rallycross of South Africa heads to Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town 9-10 November. 

Most significantly, this year’s title will be decided on South African soil and to celebrate, the new organizers World Sport is preparing a bigger and better weekend than ever to ensure that Cape Town's World RX extravaganza goes off with a bang.

The World Rallycross Championship delivers dramatic ground-shaking rapid-fire action second to none throughout a splendid series of Saturday heats, through to Sunday’s Semis and into the explosive action of the championship-deciding final World Rallycross Finale — a seismic thrill to the race fan and the man in the street alike. 

Racing 600bhp supercars capable of accelerating to 100km/h in under two seconds on the mixed dirt and asphalt of the Killarney International Raceway RX track. 

The World Rallycross drivers will arrive in Cape Town hot off a year of grueling all-wheel-drive warfare that has raged across the globe, from the Emirates, through the Americas and across Europe en route to it all coming to a head right here in South Africa. 

The driver's will line-up on the grid against the back group of Table Mountain, and expect the Hansen brothers, Kevin and Timmy to fight all the way through the qualifying heats, semi-finals and finals in pursuit of the World RX title, but the Hansen's won't have it easy, as Monster Energy RX Cartel's Andreas Bakkerud is hungry for glory. Joining them on the grid is Bakkerud's teammate Liam Doran and Oliver Bennett (Xite Energy), all-rounders Timo Scheider and Guerlain Chicherit, Kevin Abbring, Anton Marklund, Cyril Raymond, and Krisztian Szabo to deliver mind-blowing action throughout. 

In addition to the World RX spectacle, the RX2 International Series Champion will be crowned at the Killarney International Raceway as Oliver Eriksson vies for the RX2 title with Jesse Kallio and Ben-Philip Gundersen aiming to stop him. 

Fans can expect a stunning support bill too, along with a broad selection of trackside activities throughout the weekend, with a special day and weekend deals as well as fly-in packages for out of town visitors. 

Find out more about 2019 SABAT World Rallycross of South Africa at www.fiaworldrallycross.com
Tickets are available at www.quicket.co.za 
Travel Packages are available at https://travel.worldsport.co.za/wrx-cape-town