2018 Hungary GP: FIA Drivers' Press Conference - TRANSCRIPT.

DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes), Carlos SAINZ (Renault), Esteban OCON (Force India)

Q: Valtteri, if we could start with you please. New Mercedes contract announced at Hockenheim last weekend. Can we just get your thoughts on that? How much confidence does it give you and what do you feel it says about your performances so far this year?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Thank You. Yes, of course, at this point of the year it’s a very, very good point to know what you’re doing next year. When there’s a contract still to be had for the future. So, yeah, very happy of course, first of all. And really, it also makes me a proud team member again. I think for sure the team, they were evaluating all the options, as always, which is fair enough. I’m really proud also that the team wanted me and no-one else for the seat so, for sure it feels good. Really happy to continue.

Q: Valtteri, we’re at the half-way point in the season. How do you assess how it’s gone so far? And do you feel you’ve stepped-up from last year?

VB: I feel by the end of last year I started to improve quite a bit. I think I’ve been able to carry that performance from the end of last year into this year in general. Obviously where I am in the drivers standing, the amount of points I have, it’s not quite ideal but I know, and the team knows, my performance each weekend and we can see it’s been a step-up from last year.  For sure, I just want to keep getting better and keep improving as usual.

Q: Esteban, while we’re talking contracts, perhaps I could come to you and ask you about contracts. It’s a furious silly season this year, particularly in the midfield, what can you tell us about your future?

Esteban OCON: Yeah, I mean of course you know when there are rumours it’s almost good. It means that people are watching you on track and are quite happy with what you are doing. So, it’s always a nice thing. On my side, I’m always focussed on the job I have to do, and I think yeah, if people talk about you there is always plenty of opportunities. So, we’ll see. I’m not worried.

Q: When can we expect any news?
EO: When there will be something, you will be the first to know.

Q: Subject of contracts Carlos, seems only fair that we talk to you about it as well. What can you tell us about your whereabouts for 2019?

Carlos SAINZ: Yeah – I thought that was coming after Esteban’s question. Yeah. Pretty much the same: nothing has been announced recently. Nothing has changed from my contractual situation together with Red Bull and Renault. Until those two parties don’t move and they don’t know what Ricciardo is doing etcetera, my situation still doesn't change.

Q: What is your priority for next year?
CS: My priority is to find a place that I’m comfortable with. I’ve already spoken about a two-year deal. First my priority is what Red Bull and Ricciardo are doing and then myself together with my management team will find the solution I'm sure.

Q: Valtteri, coming back to you to talk about this weekend. Very few straights here, some engineers refer to it as ‘Monaco without the Walls’. Do you feel you’re coming into the weekend on the back foot as a team, as a result of that?

VB: I think historically for Mercedes it’s not been the strongest race. It is a fact. And we know the tracks where you need the maximum downforce, normally Red Bull has been really strong and Ferrari for sure as well. I think coming to this weekend we can’t say we’re the favourites. We come to this weekend knowing that we can do pretty well if we can get everything right and that it’s going to be again a close battle between three teams – at least – for the win. We’ve been seeing some really crazy races this year and I think it’s going to be a close fight again. We’re not too confident, in a way, but at the same time if we do a good job, everything is possible.

Q: Something of a home grand prix for you this weekend. A few extra flights from Helsinki laid on I gather.

VB: It is. It’s a race where I think most of the Finns, they come to. It means a lot to see so many Finnish flags. Even the local fans here, there’s big support I feel. I think there’s a lot of fans of mine and I’m really happy to see all of them this weekend.

Q: Coming back to you Esteban. You’re just one point behind your team-mate Sergio Pérez in the world championship now. Can you just talk to us about how this intra-team rivalry with him this year has changed since last year? Is it more intense? How do you feel? What’s the feeling in the team?

EO: It’s always been big. The rivalry we have inside the team. I think it’s good. It pushes us up and pushes us to perform better, I would say. Of course, you know, I’m getting more experience. Towards last year I was happier with the job I was doing with the team, and also this year I feel strong. I feel very good at the moment – but it’s a close fight until the end with Sergio. Of course, we both want to finish ahead of the other one. But, you know, he’s pushing me hard, I’m pushing him hard and I like the rivalry we have inside the team. But the atmosphere is still great and we have a great relationship, so it’s all good.

Q: Carlos, very close battle with team-mate Nico Hülkenberg this year. 7-4 in qualifying so far. Can we get your assessment at this halfway point of the year as to how you feel you’ve done at Renault, how you’ve settled in?

CS: Yeah, I think I’ve settled in pretty nicely, especially, I would point out, since Baku, Barcelona, I’ve managed to what I wanted to do to get the car a bit more to my liking. A bit more towards my comfort. And just when I managed to do that I started to do good qualifyings. Looks like Sundays have gone a bit more complicated for me – not achieving, or not getting all the points I would like to get – but those kind of things have been a bit out of my control recently. I’m particularly happy now where I am with the car and the speed I have with the car.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Carlos, to pick up on something you said there. The progress you’ve been making, or you feel you’ve made with the car this season, do you feel the complications, the problems you’ve had recently have maybe masked the extent of that progress that you’ve made; that breakthrough that you’ve made?

CS: Yes. Definitely. I think if start picking up the points that I’ve lost in the last three or four races, for things that are a bit out of my control, I think my position will be reflected a lot better. My team knows that, I know that and in terms of speed, especially since, as I said before, Baku/Barcelona I’ve taken a step forward and I feel a lot more confident with the car. All those, as Valtteri said before, sometimes the points don’t reflect the situation and the realistic state of your championship and your performance.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, in Hockenheim, there was a chance you could have won the race by stewards decision. With all your bad luck this season, how would that have felt, to you, winning in that way?

VB: Yeah. I’m definitely always really hungry for the wins and yeah, of course we always want to win, and yeah, the longer it goes from winning a race and knowing you’re in a car that each weekend there is an opportunity for that most likely. For sure it’s… yeah, I really want to win and for sure it would mean a lot – but yeah, it was not meant to be again. There was different things happening in the race. Obviously when Sebastian went off, at that point I was leading the race. Just in that situation, with the state of my tyres, with the rain, I kind of had no opportunity except to stop so I lost the lead. But yeah, that’s life. We’ve seen those kind of things happening as well earlier this season and I don’t think I’m the only one with those things happening either.

Q: How close do you feel you got to taking the lead of the race, when you came alongside Lewis Hamilton into the hairpin?

VB: Yeah. We did have a good battle at the safety car restart. I think we raced really fair but we both obviously wanted to end-up ahead. Yeah. I think at some point we were completely side-by-side so for sure it was close.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Esteban, when you signed the original Force India contract, just before Brazil 2016, you said you were fairly involved in it and that there were five parties involved? I’m assuming you know your contract pretty well. Could you clarify for us whether Renault has any option on your services or can you only go to another Mercedes-Benz team?

EO: I won’t go into details on that. I’m managed by Mercedes, this is not a secret, but I won’t go into details on my contract.

Q: (Andrea Tajthi  – Motorsport Mania) My question is for Valtteri. As I know you are quite a quick runner, what is your track record at the Hungaroring and are there any F1 drivers who can run faster than you?

VB: I can’t remember my time here. Obviously I do love running and when I had more time, as a test driver, I used to run a lot more of the tracks. I have no idea of the lap time and no idea about other drivers and their running. Obviously we all need to be very fit and I’m sure everyone can run well, but I can’t remember, sorry.

Q: (Péter Vámosi – Racing Line Hungary) A question to all the drivers. In 1971 there was a race in Brands Hatch called the Jack Brabham Trophy, which was a race for team principals. They had identical Ford Escorts, and by the way Jack Brabham won it. What do you think about an idea, today, something like that as a support race for Formula 1, for team principals and who do you think would win it?

CS: I would like that kind of race for sure. And I would like it also for racing drivers, to put all racing drivers in the same car for one race a year – imagine Macau Formula 3 – put all of us in exactly the same car, exactly the same engine, just to check the drivers’ performance. The team principals also, that would be fun. Maybe we could join the two races and we could just have fun for a weekend in Macau or something like that. There you go, my idea! Let’s see if they do something.

Who do you think would win out of the team principals?

CS: Out of the team principals? Good question. Who has a racing past? I think Christian Horner has been a racing driver. Give me ideas?

EO: Toto as well.

CS: Toto also. So those for sure have the best chance but then we would also have fun seeing other people.

EO: Should we be engineers, though? That would be fun.

CS: Engineers, no!

EO: Engineers who tell them what to do.

Valterri, your thoughts?

VB: It would be very good to watch. I think it would be nice to manage them actually, and properly be their bosses.

CS: Their driver coach or something.

VB: Make all the calls and positions and they would maybe get a feel of how we feel in the car.

And who win out of the team principals?

VB: Good questions. I think some of them can drive – at least Toto very much thinks so. No, he is alright, so I think he would be up there, thereabouts.

Esteban?

EO: I agree with Valtteri.

About Toto?

EO: Yeah.

Q: (Adrian Rodriguez Huber – Agencia EFE) A question for Carlos. Obviously at this point of the year every year there are a bunch of rumours. One of them, I don’t know if it’s true, I read it, is maybe you joining Fernando next year in the same team. Does this make any sense to you and what do you think about this?

CS: You’re going for the headline here right. No, I cannot comment on it. Nothing changes until I’m not… until my future is not decided by Red Bull or anything like that and Ricciardo doesn’t sign a deal etc my future is still uncertain and I’m not linked with any other team yet.

Q: (Rocio Andreina Romero Navarrete – Motorlat) A question for Carlos. The McLaren opportunity for you: are you ready to beat Fernando Alonso, as until now he has beat all the team-mates?

CS: I don’t know, because I haven’t even though about it, as still it’s not happening. I’m ready to beat anyone in the field. My racing spirit and my competitiveness and my self-confidence tells me that I can take over anyone. Probably Fernando would be the biggest ask that you could have on the grid, that’s for sure, but yeah, I would feel ready for anything.

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri, after what happened in Hockenheim where you were not allowed to fight in the last few stages and given the championship situation, do you think you will still have a chance to race freely for wins or will you have to play a supporting role for Lewis like you did in the second half of last year?

VB: I do believe we are still allowed to race freely. Obviously it always goes case by case but there’s no plan in place at the moment for me being at all in a support role. We are still on equal terms. That’s the plan for now. Obviously hopefully it will continue until the end of the year. Back to what happened, you know, I think with all the difficult races we had on the triple header, we lost so many points with different causes, and I kind of get the team’s decision after lap one. We were side by side a couple of times and they wanted to get those points. I am very confident they would have done the same if I was in the lead at that point. Yeah, that’s how it is.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Going back to this team principal race, and Valtteri, particular what you said, didn’t you have a race against Toto one day? Could you tell us about it please?

VB: Yes, we have raced Toto with a rally car. That was already back in 2008. I remember it was my first proper… It was kind of a test day on gravel track and Toto had done a few rallies before that, for me first time…

EO: He beat you! That’s what you meant; he beat you…

VB: No.

EO: No? Are you sure?

VB: Wait for it. We’re doing lap times all through the day. There was one Austrian rally driver with us; unfortunately I can’t remember the name. And lap times were getting closer, closer, more competitive and by the end of the day I went through to ask Toto how they were…

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) And what happened?

VB: Nothing really happened. Honest. I promise!

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Carlos, in Germany last weekend, obviously you lost the points because of the stewards’ decision. Could you just talk us through what happened on track? It looked a little odd and I think Marcus referred to it as a bit of a strange incident. So what happened from your point of view?

CS: Yeah, this was a very particular incident and a very strange situation. Just after my pit stop for inters I got lapped and I was one lap down and as soon as there was the safety car gave us the notice to unlap ourselves I was a little bit leaped into unknown, not knowing really well who was lapped, who had to unlap themselves and who didn’t. At that point I saw pretty much most of the cars going really slowly, even if you were allowed to unlap yourselves, so I just decided to push, to rejoin the field at the back of the train as soon as possible. I think some drivers got the notice a bit later than me and they were simply not pushing, they had the recharge mode on so I just… particularly with the Sauber, I thought he had a problem on the car or he didn’t want to get to the back of the field because he wasn’t even pushing, so I decided to clear him, just as a personal decision. I was told to give the position back to him, I gave the position back to him but I don’t know if intentionally or not he braked again and he let me by again. So big mess and a bit difficult to understand at that point what is happening, as you can all imagine now because the story is not very easy to tell. (I’m) Always wondering if it is not easier to drop back, get ourselves at the back of queue and recover the lap down instead of having to do a full lap of pushing behind the safety car, everyone pushing flat out to try and unlap themselves, if you know what I mean. Maybe it’s just easier to drop back, go to the end of the queue and recover the lap that you’ve just lost.

Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Valtteri, can you tell us when exactly you got the call from James Vowles in the race? Where were you on that? Was it the end of the lap, was it part way round the lap, into the stadium?

VB: I think it was more or less into the stadium. I think it must have been around turn 12, so during the first lap after the safety car went (in). In all honesty, I think kind of the biggest of the battle was already there, at least, that lap as it is very tricky to follow. We’re in similar cars, OK, there was a little bit of a tyre difference but the last sector is extremely difficult to follow and it is just unknown if I would have had any other opportunities or not, maybe, maybe not, but yeah, that’s when the call came.

Q: (Viktor Adorjan – Origo GP Hirek) To all gentlemen: we could see during the last couple of races that front runners could overtake the midfield runners quite easily, whatever, recovering from their fallbacks of lost places. Is there something to be done – apart from having faster cars – in order to make life harder for the front runners who are trying to reclaim their positions in the near future to make races a bit more exciting?

EO: I don’t know, to be honest. At the moment, yeah, it’s really easy for them because we can’t fight, we would destroy our tyres and it’s useless to do that because we are not competing in the same league to be honest. Yeah, I see it from that angle, that it’s not my race so I have to let them go and fight for mine. But we’ll see in the future. I’m sure Formula One wants to have more equal cars between teams and I think that would be a good thing for the show, definitely.

CS: No, not much to add, not realistic when you see all these cars flashing by because we are not fighting them. I’m sorry to say that because it’s not good for the show but we are just not able to fight them, it’s two completely different categories, it’s up to two seconds, two seconds and a half sometimes in race pace. There’s bigger spaces between other categories sometimes and they are called different. It’s like that, but I really have a lot of trust in Liberty Media, the FIA that they’re going to push hard to overcome these deficits and make the thing a bit more close because if not, it’s just a top six race and then the rest, as we all know.

Q: And Valtteri, is it as easy as these guys are making out?

EO: Yeah.

VB: Well, it really depends on the track, of course, but on tracks where there are overtaking opportunities, big DRS zones when you have the edge of more than 1.5s, two seconds in the race taking places, yeah, then of course you are always trying to do it quick but it’s kind of a matter of time. Like Carlos and Esteban said, I’ve been in the same situation many many times before and you’re always doing your own race as a team, as a driver, so you always need to calculate the risk on how much you’re willing to risk your race for one position because you can lose five places if you destroy your tyres or something like this.

Q: (Peter Varkas – Auto Motor) Valtteri, going back to the end of the Hockenheim race for a minute, we have heard Peter Bonnington telling Lewis on the radio that he should push, because they were afraid he might get a penalty after all. The difference, I think, in the end, was four and a half seconds between him and you so were you given the same chance to push and were you aware by your engineer that you should push in case Lewis would get a penalty so that you would be able to stay close to Lewis?

VB: I wasn’t aware of his pit stop situation, that he had to go over the line so I wasn’t aware of that, so that’s why I wasn’t really trying to be within one second because everything was pretty much set for us then. I wasn’t aware.

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Carlos, you made a big effort around this time last year to get to Renault, even upsetting some people at Red Bull. Are you disappointed that they’re not willing to fight very hard for you and they’re looking at other chances for next year, or do you still think you’re their number one priority to stay?

CS: Well, nothing has happened, not yet, so I cannot be disappointed or happy about the decision that they have taken because nothing really has yet occurred. As you all know, I did push hard last year to join this team because I have a lot of confidence in the project, in the team, and from what I know the management and everyone is happy with my performance and how things are going.

Q: (Giovanni Messi – NewsF1.it) Valtteri, last year, here in Budapest, Lewis gave position to you to end on the podium at the final lap. But last year you were closer than this year to the championship leader, so do you think that in a similar situation this year, the same thing could happen or are you now too far from Lewis in the championship?

VB: Like I said, I think it really always goes case by case. It’s not guaranteed and a completely identical situation can happen again, who knows? Every situation is treated by the situation but there’s be,en no decisions or anything like that made, that I would be in a different role than Lewis. We are still both trying to collect maximum points, trying to always win the race. We always have an equal chance for that so one way or another, if me and Lewis end up in similar situation, then it’s up to the team but we are on equal terms so I’m still allowed to try and catch him in the points and so on.

Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Carlos, what do you expect from this weekend here?
CS: I think it’s going to finally be a race track that suits our car better. We’ve gone through three or four very difficult tracks for us: lots of long straights, high speed corners where we are not so strong. We’ve brought back the upgrade back in Hockenheim that we finally will run on both cars this weekend, apart from a few other upgrades. And together with the track layout that I think is going to suit the car a bit better with slower speed corners, I think we have a good chance to be the fourth fastest team in qualifying again, which it has been a while since we have been. It would be nice and a big motivation boost, I think, for all the team to go to the summer break with both cars in the points and ? in that midfield group.

FEATURE: Chasing Pit Stop Perfection

It'll take longer for you to read this sentence than it takes a Formula One team to complete a pit stop. That's how quick modern-day tyre changes are. Well, at least in theory - if you change the tyre choice last minute, it can take slightly longer... 

What is the most important factor for a good pit stop? 
Achieving the perfect F1 pit stop is far from easy. It requires all of its intricate elements to be working in absolute harmony. This is a tough task, particularly when the pit stop falls in the midst of a tense on-track battle. Cars arrive and depart in a little over two seconds. Well, that's the aim, anyway. Anything over that mark is considered a 'slow stop', which is remarkable when you think about the amount of activity that happens in such a short space of time. Outright speed, however, is actually not the most important goal for the team - instead, it's all about consistency. A 1.9-second stop is great, but if you follow that up later in the race with a 3.6-second tyre change that advantage is lost. Teams are looking for their pit stop times to be consistent across not only individual races but the season as a whole. 

What exactly do the individual crew members do in a pit stops? 
Within the tight timeframe of an F1 pit stop, the first step is the car coming into the box and stopping on the marks. One crew member will be holding a stop board, indicating where exactly the front tyre should come to a stop. Once the car has reached its position, the sign will go up and it will then be lifted up by the people operating the front and rear jacks. It's at this point that the tyre crew get to work. There are twelve people involved in changing the tyres, three on each of the car's four corners: one operating the wheel gun, one taking the old tyre off and another placing the new tyre on. Once the wheel nuts have been loosened, the worn tyres are taken off and new ones are then fitted. The wheel nuts are tightened and if the crew members are happy that they are safely on, they will hit a button on their wheel guns to confirm this. While this is going on, there are two crew members positioned at the front of the car to adjust the front wing flags, using electrically-operated guns. There are also two placed in the middle of the car, to steady it on the jacks, clear the radiators and clean the driver's visor and mirrors when required. Another team member is overseeing the pit stop and the pit lane traffic. This person has the final say as to whether the traffic light gantry system goes green, which releases the driver into the fast lane. If there's too much traffic, they'll keep holding down their button until a gap emerges. 

 

PHOTO CREDIT: Sutton Images.

How long do the individual tasks take? 
It's tricky to break down just how long each element takes, because it goes by so quickly. But, from the car stopping on its marks to the wheel nut being taken off is around five tenths of a second. From there, you need another second for the tyre change and securing it back on is roughly four tenths. Dropping the car takes around two tenths. But, of course, this all depends on whether everything goes to plan. 

How does the pit crew practice for pit stops? 
Naturally, with so much focus on consistency and the need for all of these people to be working in synchronisation, practise most definitely makes perfect. The team completes around 60 practice pit stops over the course of the race weekend. On the Thursday, there's always a change-around, where people swap roles for a few of the stops. Every member of the pit crew has his set role and these are usually kept the same throughout the course of a season. But, people have experience in different task, so a change-around can take place if necessary. And the team doesn't just running through normal, everyday scenarios. They're also practicing possible situations that may come up, like changing a nose (which requires a special side-jack), switching to the spare wheel guns or using the starter motor if the car stalls. To make sure that the pit stops are as consistent as possible from the very first race of the season on, the team does about 60 pit stops per week during pre-season. 

What else can a team do to get faster pit stops? 
In addition to trying to prepare for most scenarios, there's a constant drive for improvement - from the positioning of the crew to the equipment itself (such as the wheel nut design). Fitness is another way to enhance pit stops and the team work hard in the gym to be in the best shape possible. The main focus is on strength, conditioning training and stretching, but there's also training specific to the different roles. 

FEATURE BY: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. 

2018 German GP: FIA Post-Race Press Conference.

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Lewis, starting from 14th place today, you truly couldn’t have believed you could win this race? 

Lewis HAMILTON: I did. I mean, it’s obviously very, very difficult from that position and highly unlikely, but you’ve always got to believe. I said a long, long prayer before the race started. We did the parade lap, I could see how much support I had out there and I just wanted to stay collected, stay calm. But the team did such a great job, the car was fantastic today. Honestly, I’m so grateful. I would never have though you could do something like that today, but I just kept pushing, I kept believing and it happened. I really manifested my dream today. So big, big thanks to God. 

Q: I’ve seen you emotional on many, many occasions, but you look as if you’re struggling to grasp what's just happened. You know you’ve just won the German Grand Prix and taken back the lead in the world championship?

LH: Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about that. It was so tough out there and conditions were… perfect! The conditions were perfect for business time. When it rained I knew I would have a good position. But then you never knew what would happen after the safety car. The other guys behind had the new tyres on. I would say, as I said, I’m just so grateful for the hard work the team has done and I hopefully this solidifies their belief in me and hopefully my driver solidifies my belief in them. And I guess for those that don’t know me – now you do.

Q: Lewis, truly world-class drive; go and celebrate. Valtteri, tough afternoon, because you had the chance, as did Seb, but ultimately Lewis took it. What are your feelings now? Second place is still a good result, but the win was there.

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, you know, as a driver the win is what you are looking after and when Seb went off I thought ‘now is a good chance’, but I think for Lewis the safety car was better timed, he could stay out, I had to stop. Taking positives: as a team, a perfect result for us, in Germany, our home grand prix for Mercedes, for Daimler, so that’s very good.

Q: We heard the team telling you to hold station and you very quickly said ‘Ok, understand’ or ‘Ok, James’. What was your mind feeling at that moment?

VB: You know, we had a bit of a battle lap one after the safety car with Lewis. I didn’t get past then so then they told me to minimise the risk, which I understand, but yeah…

Q: Well done, great result. Kimi, we just talked to Valtteri and he was told to hold station. We heard you team coming on and not really telling you to move but telling you that tyre temperatures were critical. You said: ‘tell me what you want me to do’. You understood what they were trying to do wanted but you wanted it to be very clear that you needed the instruction to let Sebastian through.

Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, we have certain rules but it wasn’t clear enough. I had speed and obviously it was a bit in a moment in the race that I wasn’t ideally to stop… yeah, that’s what happened. In the end, it didn't change an awful lot. It was a tricky race with the rain and it was pretty slippery in a few places. I had a small moment with one of the lappers, the Sauber, under braking and Valtteri got past me, so not an easy race. Happy to finish. A bit disappointed but I’ll take it today and we’ll try next time.

Q: We saw your team-mate go off in the hairpin there. Do you think the Ferrari was more sensitive in those conditions, it was more difficult to drive than Mercedes today?

KR: I don’t know, I only drive my car, so that’s only what I feel like. In the past it’s been very difficult in that amount of rain and I was surprised by the grip we had. It was very difficult to know where the grip is and where not. Usually when you go fast and suddenly it’s not there, there is nothing you can do.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Edd Straw - Autosport) A question for Lewis and Valtteri. I heard a couple of communications about steering loadings on the Turn 1 kerb, which I presume was related to the problem yesterday. I think Valtteri there were a couple of messages for you  and I think Lewis you at least had one, mid-race. How big a concern was that and how was it impacting your driving knowing you were having to be a little bit more cautious there for fear of causing a reliability problem?

LH: I hadn’t thought about it really until they mentioned it , but I felt it, it was quite aggressive on one particular part of the kerb, so I just stayed away from it. I had been riding the kerbs all weekend but then it started to become more and more of something that we had to be aware of. I was still running the kerb later on, just not as aggressive. I didn’t have any more problems after that.

VB: Yeah, similar for me. There was one point on the kerb, if you hit it at a certain angle, you can feel it gets you harder, so you try to avoid that and it’s fine.

Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) To Lewis, congratulations. You seem a bit emotional. You sounded like you had a bit of a lump in your throat. You’re sat their smiling, kind of shaking your head almost in disbelief. Are you able to process yet how big this race is in terms of the championship. Was it maybe slightly slipping away from you and now you’ve firmly got two hands back on it?

LH: It definitely felt… I mean it’s too early in the season to ever really feel like it’s slipping away but of course it never feels good when you face adversity but, the longer you endure it, the stronger you grow. So yeah, I definitely felt at one point, there was Jesus, it’s a steep hill for us, but it’s OK. Y’know, just keep believing, positive things are going to come ahead. Just keep fighting, just give it everything you’ve got because at some stage things will come good. Today is one of the most unbelievable days for me because… I prayed as I always do before the race and my prayers were really answered. It freaks me out a little bit more than normal. And then to see the kind of biblical storm afterwards… there was a lot of negativity before the race. Y’know, I think when you come to England, going around I don’t remember any of the fans booing. We’ve got quite a good group of fans in England. And when I came here, there was a lot of booing. The weird thing is that I was really happy about it. It was unusual. It’s weird that I’m still happy. It was because I kept seeing individually, a couple of different British flags in amongst a hundred or a thousand… a sea of red and then you’ve got a British flag in there. Then you have people from Mexico, people from England, you have people I think from Nigeria or somewhere in Africa with Hamilton shirts on – the name Hamilton on, standing in amongst the red. And it was just so positive for me. That’s why I said at the end, that love conquers all. And I really feel that the rain’s come down and just washed away any negativity. It’s a glorious day. It couldn’t have been a better day for me and one that I will always remember.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, just to bring you back to Sebastian’s celebrations after the British Grand Prix, laughing at Mercedes, promising to take the English flag at his Italian HQ, does that serve as motivation in some sort of way? Do you use that as a boost ahead of race like this? Knowing that you could inflict damage on his title…

LH: Honestly, I don't need to search for a boost or energy from other people’s business. I just focus on mine. I truly believe that… I’m just focussed on trying to be the best I can be in myself. Because the best me… if I’m my best and my higher self, I feel like I’m able to drive like I was able to today, regardless of all the people, who else is around doing whatever they are doing. So, I did say when I came here that you can see things and they can often be maybe a sign of weakness. As I said, if we just kept our heads down, we knew this weekend Ferrari were going to be quick – and they’re ridiculously quick on the straights. I think Valtteri did a fantastic lap yesterday, really great lap when I watched it – but he was just losing down the straights which there’s nothing you can do about. But, yeah, we just… I’m just really proud of my guys as well, not getting phased by this fight that we’re having. They could easily jump to conclusions and say, oh well, they’re doing this or they’re doing that, instead of, you know what? All we can do is control our own destiny. All we can do is work on our starts, try and improve, make sure we do a better job understanding the car, doing a better job, pushing for better aero performance, all these different things. Massively proud of them.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Kimi. Kimi, when we have the restart of the race on lap 58, you were on ultrasoft and new tyres, Valtteri also. But Lewis had ultrasoft from lap 42. Were you surprised with the performance of Mercedes in these last ten laps, considering Ferrari seemed to have the fastest car all weekend?

KR: Yeah, for sure. They were very strong. All the stories that we are so quick on the straight. It wasn’t really the case after the restart. Yeah, I think for sure there was some difference I guess, because Valtteri had a good run. I was surprised overall how good the grip was, because it was still some rain and it was pretty decent grip and the tyres were still cold but I think the ultrasoft worked pretty well in that rainy condition. Usually when you have that amount of rain it’s usually pretty slippery but yeah, it was slippery in some places but most of it was still… you had some grip. Quite a surprise overall from what I remember from the past. Usually it gets pretty slippery quickly.Q: (Heikku Kulta - Turun Sanomat) To the Finnish drivers: how long do we Finns have to wait for a Finnish victory or is P2 going to be the maximum for the rest of the season?

LH: I have a fraction of Finnish in me, so that’s all three of us. You have a bit of a victory today.

Q: (Heikku Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Yeah, but we are not hearing the Finnish anthem!

VB: Yeah, hopefully we don’t have to wait long but obviously there was a possibility for that today. Always  through the race, I knew that it is possible and also things started to unfold quite nicely towards the end of the race with the rain and everything. But yeah, like I mentioned before, it was just not for me the best timing for the safety car with the tyres I had. It’s just a matter of time. All the drivers will always want to win and me and Kimi are amongst those. We are both in a competitive car so for sure it’s going to happen at some point.

KR: I will keep trying. Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. We will try every weekend and every race and we’re not far from it but obviously so far it’s not been happening so we will try next weekend again and I’m sure it will come but obviously there’s no guarantee or anything. Things change quickly and we’ve seen it . Home today and come back next Thursday and do a better job.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Next Grand Prix is on a completely different circuit to the two previous ones, Silverstone and here.  Considering what you know from your car in this season, what can you project for the Budapest race?

KR: Very difficult to say, I think. It’s traditionally been good for us but there’s a lot on the weather, what it’s going to be like there. In the past years we would probably be feeling more stronger to go there but it’s the same as always. It’s going to be close and whoever makes the best out of it is going to come out on top. We go there and try and do the best that we can and see what we get.

LH: It’s usually not our strongest track but I’m hopeful that… it’s not a power circuit so hopefully this extra chunk of power that Ferrari have doesn’t serve them as well there and maybe we can have a decent fight with them but they’ve always been really good on tyres and that’s quite a hot track so undoubtedly they’ll continue to be fast but I really hope that… I’ve got high hopes for it still. Red Bull? Oh yeah, exactly. Red Bull’s power unit has been good. They suffered here for whatever reasons but they will be very quick, I’m sure in the next races where it is really strong for them. So, should be a closely matched race.

Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) Kimi, can you just talk through your thought process coming up to the second pit stop.  We  could hear on the radio that you were keen to take the risk and just stay out because there wasn’t too much to lose for you so do you regret the fact the team didn’t let you stay out, because even when they called you in you did say ‘are you sure?’ so was there an opportunity missed there?

KR: No, it’s always easy to say afterwards but honestly we don’t know what would happen if we stay out. I’m 100 percent sure that the ultras worked better plus I had very used tyres at that point already but I can’t give an answer if it would have been just fine or a complete disaster, so that’s always an unknown and you try to weigh up the differences and hope that the new tyres will give you some grip to come back. Obviously we knew that the Mercedes will be on one of the some aged tyres but they seemed to be the right decision in those conditions so I don’t have an answer, I don’t think anybody would have an answer what the end result if we stayed out or not. Who knows. That’s how it goes.

2018 German GP: FIA Post-Qualifying Press Conference.

DRIVERS

1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Sebastian, you’ve still got your helmet on but the people want to hear from you. Your 55th and I suspect one of your most enjoyable pole positions?

Sebastian VETTEL: So I just said thanks to the fans. It was amazing to see so many red flags, Ferrari flags, so much support, German flags, all around the track. Yeah, I felt in Q1 that the car could do it and it just kept getting better. I knew that for the last lap I had a little bit in me and I was able to squeeze everything out. Still a bit full of adrenaline but very happy.

Q: Valtteri, it looks to me like you gave it absolutely everything, everyone was stunned when you temporarily took pole position. In the end, the Ferrari was just too quick for you. Was there anything left?

Valtteri BOTTAS: I don’t think so. I think it was a good lap. Of course, maybe we can speak about the hundredths, but not a couple of tenth. Yeah I gave it all and they were just a bit too quick today but we’ll see tomorrow.

Q: What about tomorrow? You a little indication yesterday of race pace. It’s nip tuck between you and Ferrari, so the start is going to be crucial.

VB: It is going to be. Now we are starting on the same compound for this race, so it’s definitely going to be crucial, race pace-wise I think we are going to be close.

Q: Congratulations on your second place. Just coming to Kimi, congratulations, top three. You’ve always been a bit of a specialist around Hockenheim, in fact this is the first time Seb’s outqualified you, but in the end it just slipped away towards the end of session?

Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I had a small moment in the first run, in 12, I touched the inside kerb and got sideways, so you know, not ideal. And then in the second run I had a little bit of caution because of that. For sure, there was more but today it didn’t come.

Q: So looking towards to the race tomorrow, you need to get the start to work for you to be the perfect rear-gunner for Sebastian?

KR: Well, we’ll try to obviously race ourselves and we’re going to race as a team and I think third place should be pretty for the start itself so we’ll see tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sebastian, what a performance from you in the car this afternoon?

SV: Well, thank you very much. I think it was not an easy day. This morning we woke up and some clouds and quite a lot of rain. But I was surprised how quickly the track was drying and in qualifying the car was really, really a pleasure to drive. Some days you can feel already when you go out and you do you first flying lap that you’ve got something in your hands that you can play with and that’s the feeling I had today and from there it just got better and it was more about tuning myself in the sessions before. Sometimes I did get the laps together and sometime I did not entirely; I was trying different things. But I knew in Q3 I could get quite a bit out of the car and myself and made it work. Yeah, really happy. Both laps on the limit and then the adrenaline kicks in and it’s quite a good feeling to get everything right. So I was really happy with the car and the work we have done overnight to squeeze a little bit more out of the car. It feels so quick around this track with these cars and it’s really enjoyable. To do it here, just minutes away from where I come from, where I was born and grew up I think means a lot, so thanks for all the support this weekend; to see the fans, the red hats and the German flags waving all around the track, no matter, really cool, looking forward to tomorrow.

Q: Very well done. Valtteri coming on to you: tremendous final sector from you in Q3 but can you just talk us through your laps in that final session and how are you emotionally now, are you frustrated?

VB: Well, for sure it was a tough battle for the pole and in the end today Ferrari was just a little bit quicker, especially Sebastian has a very nice lap. I think if I could do the lap again I’m sure there would be hundredths here and there, maximum one tenth, I think, but just a bit too quick. Otherwise, yeah, a good lap, especially the last sector. That was something I missed in the first run of Q3, so yeah, for me the feeling with the car was quite and yeah, that was the result.

Q: Kimi, we’ve talked about Q3 with the other two, so just talk us through the session please.

KR: So-so. I think in the end it’s not too bad but there was one moment in Turn 12 in the first try and then obviously after that I knew there was quite a bit of lap time but tend to be a bit safer and not to have mistakes and lose positions more. I was a bit compromised because of that. The car was working well and, for sure, there was more lap time but this is what we got today.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (James Roberts – F1 Racing) Sebastian, of all the laps that you’ve done in your career, where does that one rank, in front of your home crowd today?

SV: To give you an honest answer, I don’t remember all the laps I’ve done in my career. I’ve done quite a lot – but yeah, I think today is definitely one of the best moments. Yeah, I… I have a bit of a mixed relationship with this track. It seems sometimes we were really close in the past then for some reason it didn’t come together. So far this weekend it’s been great. The car is behaving well. I think we improved it for today. Tomorrow we need to be sharp. I don’t know what the weather’s going to be like. I think anything can happen. For now, that doesn’t matter. I’m just happy. It’s great to get the lap together here and obviously it means a lot with the support that I get – and we get as a team, with so many passionate German tifosi. I think it’s quite nice. That’s what counts and that’s what I feel now. And yeah, I was happy with the lap. Very happy. I think I have done decent laps, I have done bad laps. This is one of the better ones but I don’t think… I’m not a fan of saying this is the best I’ve ever done. I hope the best I will ever do is yet to come.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how much more pressure did that put on your shoulders for the Mercedes home success when Lewis is so much far away behind?

VB: For sure it’s important race for us as a team, obviously. One of our home races: home race for Mercedes; home race for Daimler. So, it is a big one. This is now where we start from. We need to make the most out of tomorrow. I’m in the second [place]. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow and I’m sure Lewis can still come back to a good position. We’ve seen many mixed races, anything can happen. So, we won’t give us still on a very good result for tomorrow.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have never had a home race and today we saw how much that helped Sebastian to get more push. Would that help you also to once in your life have a home qualifying race?

KR: I don't think so. I don’t think he suddenly drives this weekend faster than he’s been driving at other races just because it’s in his home country. So, I don’t see it makes any difference in my view.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Sebastian, you normally say your car in race conditions is even better. Is it possible to be even better than that? Second question, there will be a change in the President of Ferrari. What will be the impact of that for you and for the team?

SV: On the second question, I don’t know. First question, I think for the race usually we are a bit quicker, so… the last couple of qualifyings… the last one was very close with Mercedes. Here we seem to be a little bit ahead. Yesterday was a good day. I think from yesterday to day we improved the car. Obviously the track was quite a bit cooler so I think everybody has the sensation that the car was a bit better today because the track wasn’t that hot. Nevertheless, I think what we were lacking in places, we were better today. Yeah, I’m quite confident for tomorrow but, as I pointed out, the race is tomorrow and there’s a lot of things that can happen, that can bite you, so we need to be sharp and awake. But for now, I’ll just enjoy the pole and tomorrow when I wake up, I’ll think, yeah, we look forward to the race and try to be there. That’s what counts. We’ll see what the weather does – but one way or the other I believe that we’ve got a strong package. So we need to make the best of it.

Q: (Sonja Kreye – SpeedNews) Sebastian, what would you say what it takes to perform such a lap as you did to get the qualifying and the pole position,  considering if you’re talking to someone who wants to become a professional race driver, a young talent?

SV: Practice! Obviously we’re talking about how many laps I’ve done before. I think we all would jump in the car, going into qualifying. We’d know what is coming towards us. It’s a mixture. You need to have confidence in your car, in yourself. You also need to enjoy it, have fun. Yeah, usually you’re quite busy around the lap and I think one of the greatest feelings that I sense when I drive the car is that I’m not thinking of anything else, and that can be very stressful but it’s also a great feeling and makes you feel very free. That’s what I felt today, I didn’t think of anything else and it felt good and obviously after that you see the people around and you take everything in.

Q: (Joe van Burik – Autocar NL) To all three of you: would you say getting the tyres right on Sunday is more crucial and trickier here than ever this season?

KR: I don’t know really. How do we know until tomorrow? Obviously we know after the race here whether it was difficult or not. There’s been many races this year where it has been tricky. I think it depends a lot on the weather, how it’s going to turn out to be tomorrow. If it’s something like yesterday, for sure it will be not that easy but I think it’s impossible to say, what we’re going to get and how it’s going to be, so we prepare the best way that we can and see what it brings.

SV: Yeah. I don’t know. I think we have some tricky races for managing the tyres. I don’t think it will be the trickiest, I think it will be one of the trickiest. How tricky? As Kimi said, we will find out tomorrow. Obviously you try to prepare as much as you can but if it’s tricky it’s usually tricky for everyone so we will see.

VB: Nothing to add. I think it’s not going to be the most difficult race in terms of tyres. We’ve had difficult ones already so we will see tomorrow.

Q: (James Roberts – F1 Racing) Sebastian, how significant is this and how sweet is it knowing that your title rival will be starting down the grid with Lewis having his gearbox problems in Q1?

SV: Well, obviously we saw it but I don’t know what exactly happened. I think it doesn’t really matter. We will see what happens tomorrow. Obviously you look after yourself and obviously for me it was a good session. We prepared the car well and everything went smoothly. Obviously you always try to push the limits. You don’t wish anything bad or something like a technical issue which he had, I understand, to happen to anyone, so it was a shame to see him go out and I mean it, but you look after yourself and try to do the race tomorrow which is the most important part of the weekend.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Sebastian, do you believe that if you finish the first part of the season with a good margin in the championship and considering the car you have, the step forward Ferrari made, you go to the second part with a good advantage in terms of being World Champion?

SV: I don’t know what to believe to be honest. I try to get the maximum points every weekend, especially at this stage of the year. Later on, you find out whether you are in a good position or not but yeah, if we can score points and if we have a quick car, a car to fight for wins then I believe that puts us in a very good position, and then you add up your points towards the end and you see where you are, so I don’t think right now is moment to stress about the championship.

2018 German GP: FIA Team Members' Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Bob BELL (Renault), Andrew GREEN (Force India), Pierre WACHÉ (Red Bull Racing), Paddy LOWE, (Williams)

Q: Bob, can we start with you please. Hot off the back of FP1 here at Hockenheim. New front wing, one of the things you have been trying out. How different is it and is it performing as you were expecting?

Bob BELL: Yeah, it’s a reasonably different concept for the front wing. We successfully tested it OK this morning and thankfully we did it on Nico’s car, because Carlos lost track time. We still have to go through the data on it to understand what exactly it is doing. Driver feeling is positive, but we need to go to through the data to be absolutely sure it’s doing what we expected it to do, everywhere.

Q: And did it survive the trip through the gravel as well?
BB: Yes, it did, thankfully.

Q: Just on the subject of FP1, I think there was a coolant seal issue on Carlos’ car. Are you confident he is going to be out for FP2 later.

BB: yeah, to be honest we could probably could just have got him out for that bash at the end of the session, but it wasn’t worth it. It was a very minor leak but buried deep inside the car so it wasn’t quick to fix, but yeah he’ll be fine for this afternoon.

Q: Now, Bob, you’ve said in the past that it takes a team five years to get to the top from coming into Formula 1. This is now year three for you guys. Can you give us a progress report as to how things are going and what the target is for both the end of this season and for 2019?

BB: My quotation of five years was based in on historic evidence with what happened when Red Bull took over Jaguar, Mercedes took over Brawn, when Renault came in after taking over Benetton, and of course those were in different eras. Formula 1 is significantly more complex, the teams involved are significantly bigger now than back then, so I would say now that five years is a minimum. In terms of being of progress, we’re reasonably on track. We had very much hoped to secure fourth place in the championship this year. We’re in the fight for that. It’s going to be close, but we’re still confident that we can get the job done. So that’s good. We’re on target in terms of where we hoped to be on track, we’re on target in terms of where we hoped to be with development of the organisation – that’s rejuvenation of facilities, recruitment of staff, methodology, process, all those good things. And looking slightly further ahead, then I think next year again, realistically, if we can secure fourth place, close down the gap to the top three teams, then I think we will be in reasonably good shape.

Q: Thank you. Andrew, if I could come on to you now, because Bob has just said he wants P4 this year. I guess that’s definitely a position you guys are going for. Cehco told us yesterday in the FIA press conference that he thinks it’s still achievable. Just how much harder is it for you guys to get that P4 this year?

Andrew GREEN: It’s quite obviously a bit trickier than last year, we secured fourth with a few races to go. That probably won’t be the case this year. But no, we still believe we’re in the hunt. We’re still pushing hard. It is very close. There are a few teams in that portion of the grid who seem to be just swapping places and alternating the scoring of points. It could take one extraordinary race to push someone out of reach or another team into contention. It's that sort of level of competition at the moment. But we are still there and for as long as it’s mathematically possible to do it, we’re still going to be pushing.

Q: Has your development rate this had to be faster than previous seasons, just to stay where you are?

AG: Yeah, the development rate is at least as great as it was last year, that’s for sure. There is performance coming out of the current set of regulations at at least the same rate as we have had for the last 24 months. It’s still an arms race. If you bring new bits to the car and your make it go quicker you move forward. If you don’t bring new bits to the car you go backwards, because everybody is. Bob is an example; they’ve just brought a new front wing. We haven’t. So it’s going to be a tough race for us.

Q: On the subject of wings, can we just throw it forward to 2019 with the new regulations that are coming in. Can you just give us an update on where Force India is with progress on those new regulations?

AG: Yeah, I think those regulations were officially defined a few weeks. We have been working on the basis of those regulations for a couple of months, mainly in the virtual world, in CFD. We’ve made some progress. We’ll be testing some parts in the week after Hungary, to confirm the direction that we are going in and the changes to the car that these regulations make. The front wing is key to everything that gets set up further down the car, so changing that is a big step, so we want to make sure we are developing in the right direction, so we are bringing parts after Hungary just to confirm that. It’s an interesting set of regulations that’s for sure. I’m not sure that it’s a pretty set of regulations, but it is interesting.

Q: Can you give us any numbers as to how much less downforce they will provide?
AG: It is a significant chunk, yeah. We hope to battle our way out of it by the time we get to the beginning of next season, but yeah, it is a significant change.

Q: Thank you. Paddy, let’s talk front wings. It seems to be what we do! You brought something new here. Has it done what you were expecting?

Paddy LOWE: Yeah, very similar to Bob, although we were testing it on both cars. So we have got two new front wings and we are able to run them effectively in anti-phase across the garage. So we had a perfectly executed programme to learn what we needed to learn, gathered a lot of data. You saw we had a lot of rakes. I think we managed to cover the entire car in flo-vis at the end. So yeah, a lot of analyse, but the feedback so far is pretty good, so an encouraging start.

Q: Now you said recently that what you are going through at Williams now is the toughest challenge of your career. I just wanted to ask you about that. Why is it tougher than what’s come before?

PL: Well, in the end you are solving problems, not only problems about a car but about an organisation and trying to understand how to effectively tune it up to be more competitive and to get back to the front of the grid and those are very, very difficult problems to solve and that is very taxing on me and my colleagues. As you know, Formula 1 is a very impatient sport and very visible, so when things are not going well it’s very clear for all to see, it’s on TV. You see, for example, what happened in Silverstone, we had two cars starting from the pit lane, which is certainly a new experience for me and probably everyone else in the team. That came as a result, ironically, of trying to push the boundaries from where we are. We need to keep learning and learning very fast. We do a lot development days on Fridays, that’s a test day. We had a test that we ran and frankly it wasn’t ready to race. We had committed to it too far in advance. These sort of things happen when you are trying to push yourself really hard. But you do that and it’s a very public problem, at your home grand prix. That certainly makes it tough.

Q: Can you put a timescale on when you expect Williams to be back where they belong? In terms of sorting out the issues with the current car, is it 2018 or are you already looking at 2019 now?

PL: I was somewhat comforted by Bob’s perspective of ‘this is a minimum five-year programme’. He’s very right. Formula One is a very, very competitive sport these days. All the teams, incredibly professional, operating at an extremely high level, so I can tell you that, even though we are at the back, in an absolute sense, we are not doing a bad job. It is very, very difficult to produce even a car that is coming last. Takes a huge amount of effort and commitment from everyone concerned and a high level of technology. So, it’s not easy. We would like to recover ourselves off the back, very definitely. If we can do something within this season, that would be great. Clearly with the rule change for next year, that’s a fresh challenge – but also an opportunity. So, we see that as a good chance to make a bigger step that we might do across a normal winter, so a lot of focus on that.

Q: Would a more experienced driver line-up have helped you this season?

PL: Well, the better driver, the better. Everybody would love to have a championship-winning driver in their car but that’s not possible. You have to work your way up to that on merit. The merit that they would want to drive for you and the merit that you can afford to pay their salaries, so, we can’t all have championship-winning drivers. We have a driver line-up, we’re very happy with the two young guys, they’re very talented and yes, their feedback doesn’t come from such a great level of experience as championship winners would provide but I don’t think they’re the problem we have at the moment. The car isn’t quick enough; there’s a lot of things to do to get a much better platform to work with, and that’s what we’re doing.

Q: Pierre, you’re technical director. The structure at Red Bull, Adrian Newey has been chief technical officer for a long time – but there was not technical director prior to your arrival. Just why the need for one now?

Pierre WACHÉ: As you know, Adrian is still involved in the Formula One project. This year’s car and next year’s car – hopefully – with his talent. But, as you know also, he is splitting his time with a supercar in the Red Bull Advanced Technology programme. Then, the team requested a technical leadership in a different organisation to compensate his split time, and a reorganisation to put a technical director in place. That’s the main reason, I would say.

Q: Confirmation came through this morning that Daniel Ricciardo has engine penalties this weekend. Is that a tactical move? A strategic move by the team to leave you in the best possible shape for the Hungaroring next weekend?

PW: Yes. We were not forced to take the engine penalty. Even if we don’t take a full engine penalty; we are mainly MGU-K and Controller and Battery penalty here. We don't want to take this penalty in Budapest for sure. We have to take it at one point before shutdown to go through the race weekends. Then yeah, it’s part of the tactical aspect.

Q: Exciting times for the team. Of course, Honda coming on board next year. Can you just shed some light on how you’re ramping-up to their arrival? For example, have you got some Red Bull Racing engineers down with Toro Rosso in Italy? Or have you got some guys over in Sakura in japan? How’s the integration with Honda going?

PW: First of all, it’s a very short-term relationship we are trying to build now. It’s not a long time ago that the announcement was done. Then Toro Rosso are experiencing some relationship with them. Us, we’re just starting. We don’t have yet some people in Toro Rosso to learn how it works. We create this relationship. As you know, with now 12 years we are in a relationship with one manufacturer, Renault, creating some great links. Then we have to rebuild that. It takes a very long time. On top of that, as other people mentioned, the new regs are coming and the integration of the engine is on top of the new regs development. It’s a massive challenge for the team. I hope the Honda and Red Bull relationship will be a success.

Q: Are Renault being less forthcoming with information now they know the relationship ends at the end of the season?

PW: For sure the information for next year’s engine they will not share with us but on the current engine and how we operate on the track and try to extract the performance, we don’t have any doubt that Renault would like to win races with us.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Gentlemen, overnight the FIA published the tender for the 2020-2023 inclusive period. 2020 will use the existing tyres but 2021-2023 will be 18-inch tyres, a narrower front tyre by 35mm and no blankets. What are the implications on this from a technical perspective?

BB: I wasn’t aware of that. That’s new. I think the biggest challenge will be, perhaps for the tyre manufacturer, if it’s a change of tyre manufacturer, in doing two different types of tyre over the space of a year. I think that’ll be the biggest challenge for them.

Andrew, anything to add?
AG: No. I knew nothing about it either. Dieter’s well ahead of the game here. Yeah, like Bob said, that is a big challenge for any new tyre manufacturer to come in and do one set of tyres for one season, and then a second set of tyres for the remainder of the contract. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Paddy, the ramifications for the teams will be huge as well.
PL: Yeah, we weren’t aware of that either. I know the idea of 18-inch wheels has been debated many, many times over the last ten or more years. So, it’s an interesting thing to make a commitment to that because it’s not absolutely clear that’s a great way forward – and I think we need to analyse the implications technically by going that direction. Certainly, it makes a very different tyre. A much heavier package as well and quite challenging to design and manufacture tyres that will take that duty at that profile.

Pierre?
PW: I think it will come also with some chassis regulation change that it will affect the car behaviour and, for sure, this kind of tyre size will change the car balance and the way you operate, even more if, as you mentioned, we will not have any blankets. I’m pretty sure the challenge will be how we can be consistent, create some lap-time during quali and be consistent during the race without any massive issue in terms of build-up the laps, degradation, and warming up. Depending on how the regulations will be proposed in terms of chassis will influence this aspect.

Q: (Julien Billiotte – Autohebdo) Questions to Paddy and Andrew. There have been reports that Lance Stroll and his financial backing might switch from Williams to Force India. How much of a worry would it be for Williams and how much of a boost would it be for Force India?

PL: I’m not worrying about it. It’s that type of time in the season when there are lots of stories around the media about drivers doing this or that. As far as I’m concerned we’re working very much in the present with Lance. It’s true he hasn’t committed for next year. We haven’t committed to him either, so that is an open point. Where it lands, who knows. We would love to stay with Lance and that’s our assumption at the moment.

Andrew?
AG: It’s not really an area I get involved in, to be honest. We get told what drivers get put in the car and we make sure they fit. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Q: (Edd Straw – Autosport) To pick up on the new tyre rules, specifically the tyre blankets, apparently banned for 2021, this is something that’s been talked about a few times over the past ten years. It’s going to come in and then it’s been dropped, for pretty valid reasons so just wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on that, specifically safety concerns, the practicalities of actually dealing with things like tyre pressure limits etc that are caused by this, so I guess we could start with Andrew and work our way across in terms of whether this is a good idea and could it have serious unintended consequences?

AG: I’m guessing, given it was only published yesterday, that there hasn’t been a lot of discussions on it and it will need a lot of discussion. There are a lot of issues that will need to be solved and going forward, especially alluded to a few of them with the changes to the rim diameter, the way we operate the tyres, how we operate them without blankets. There’s just so much to talk about and agree on that’s it difficult to say, right here and now, what we’re going to do because we need to start the discussions.

RB: I’m sure that a set of tyre requirements from the supplier can be agreed upon that will deliver tyres that will be capable of being operated safely, without blankets. Plenty of other racing series do it so I don’t see any reason why we can’t in Formula One. If those specifications for the tyre allow us to get around some of the limitations that we face in operating the tyres at the minute, pressures, cambers, all those things, and make that task less onerous on the teams and produce more consistent performance throughout the life of the tyres, then I think that’s all to the good, and I’m sure that is possible to do. But it takes time to be sure what those requirements should be and to give the tyre manufacturer, whoever it is, time to develop the tyres. That’s not the work of five minutes.

PL: Yeah, it’s very difficult to know and again, it’s been debated many times. I quite like the spectacle of a grid with all the equipment, including tyre blankets. I think that’s part of the impression that Formula One gives of being a very technical sport, the pinnacle of motor racing, so I would miss it from that point of view. But on the other hand, if you’re reflecting on what Bob says, if it drives us towards tyres that have a much wider window to operate in, that could be a good thing. I know at the same time they are talking about moving qualifying perhaps to formats where there are less laps, more criticality around doing single laps and again, if that’s around tyres that aren’t prepared with blankets that would drive us towards tyres with a wider window which I think would be a good thing for the sport.

PW: I think, on the technical side for the manufacturer it will be quite difficult, even more when you see the evolution of pressure you have without blankets, starting at 13 degrees, finishing at more than 100 degrees. With the energy we are putting in the tyre in Formula One is higher than other categories, then for sure it will be a big challenge for the tyre manufacturer. As an engineer, when it’s challenging, it’s quite interesting. I’m pretty sure we can find tricks and some possibilities on the car to use and to operate the tyre in the best way but it will be a big challenge for the manufacturer.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Paddy, Mercedes in Austria, after James Vowles made a mistake, made much of their philosophy of being able to put your hand up and own up to a mistake because you learn from your mistakes. You’re obviously familiar with that from your time there. I was wondering if Williams have a similar philosophy and whether you’ve put your hand up and admitted to mistakes since you joined and are others doing the same?

PL: Yeah, I’m always prepared to stick my hand up. I don’t necessarily do it in… that was quite a public demonstration I thought, to actually announce it over the radio in a race. I don’t think that happens very often but I would be the first to admit where things have gone wrong. Even if I look at what I’ve contributed in the last year at Williams, there are certainly things I would do much differently if I had my time again, that’s part of a process of development and understanding an experience. The main point is that you proceed together as a team, the team becomes stronger,  I think, if people are honest and work in that way so I’m very much a supporter of that.

Q: (Sam Collins – Racecar Engineering) Sorry to bring it back to the tyres; talking in general terms, because I know we’ve tested on the low profile tyre before, could you tell me what the implications for the inboard suspension are, particularly at the front where the packaging volumes are quite restricted?

PW: I think, just by reducing the profile of the tyre, you reduce the deflection of it, that, as for sure, if you have the same front ????, the influence of the inboard suspension will be higher in terms of deflection. For sure, the spring will take more. I think there is more control for the chassis people of the ride height of the car. Then on this aspect it’s not so bad and also the influence of  the tyre deflection on the aero side will be reduced. Without saying that, as Paddy mentioned before, all the packaging of the brake ducts, the weight of the car from the spring mass will affect the performance of the car. That we have to take into account. Normally the packaging should be OK, it’s more the deflection of it and possibility that it will be higher.

PL: Yeah, I don’t think we can really add to what Pierre said. I think it’s a different space to work in. Mostly you have more volume actually, so a lot of things that you might want to do are easier because there’s more space.

RB: No, not a lot to add. I think what will make a huge difference to the packaging inboard of the front of the car will be mainly what we do with uprights, brake drums and all the outboard kit, understanding what the tyres need, in terms of suspension kinematics, all of that, I think will be a bigger problem and a packaging exercise at the front.

AG: I suppose we have to wait and see what the regulations are that define that area as well because we’re assuming… or everyone’s assuming we can use all that volume inside the bigger rim but maybe the regulations won’t allow us to do that, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) If we take the bigger rim, could one actually go to a bigger brake, in other words a non-carbon-type brake, maybe a composite or steel brakes?

AG: Anything’s possible, Dieter. Let’s see what the regulations are. But yes, you could.

Q: Bob, would you welcome a different material?
RB: I’d welcome bigger brakes. I think for that new formula we will need them. We’re getting close to the practical limits with the current brakes, without spending a lot of money, which would be good to avoid, so yeah, I think it does represent an opportunity to redress some capacity in the braking system.

PL: I can’t add to that.

PW: Nothing to add.