2019 Bahrain GP: FIA Team Principals' Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Zak BROWN (McLaren), Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo Racing), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso)

A question to all of you first: you had a meeting with Formula One earlier this week. In the broadest terms can you tell us what was presented and is there a positive way forward regarding 2021? Fréd, if we could start with you please?

Frédéric VASSEUR: We can. We tried to cover all the topics of the project. I think that we are doing a good step forward. It’s not an easy one because we are 10 teams around the table with different kinds of structure for the company, with different targets, but we are going in the right direction from my point of view.

Q: Thank you. Zak?

Zak BROWN: I would agree with Fréd. Chase rolled out I think pretty much what we were all expecting around budget cap, revenue distribution, governance and technical rules. I don’t think anyone was surprised because he has been consulting with all the teams, really since this time last year. And like Fréd said, it was all a very positive step in the right direction. It’s probably not an ideal situation for any of the 10 teams but given that you have 10 teams you’re never going to land on something that works for all. So I think the fact that it’s maybe not perfect for any one team means that he got it pretty right.

Q: Thank you. Guenther?

Guenther STEINER: I think I would like to say the same. There were positive talks. If they would all agree with what we want, we would be done. But they don’t. They’ve got their own thing to think about, so…. No, without joking about it, I think it’s a good step forward and hopefully we can get this done soon, because we need to move forward. We need technical regulations, we need the governance, to know how that works going forward, but Chase and Ross they work hard on it and together with the FIA, with Jean Todt, hopefully soon they can come up with the ultimate solution which will please all of us and find the right compromise among the 10 of us, which I don’t envy them to try to find the compromise between us 10, but somebody has to do it and they will get it done.

Q: Thanks, and Franz?

Franz TOST: There’s not too much to add. We talks about all the topics just mentioned and I think Liberty Media and the FIA is on the right way forward and I hope that soon we will have a final regulation on the sporting side, as well as the technical side. Regarding the commercial prospect, a little bit difficult, because as you can imagine the big teams do not want to spend less money, the smaller teams want to spend less money. It’s early or later a compromise we have to find to have a good and competitive and interesting Formula One in the future.

Q: Thank you. Zak if we could come back to you: there’s a new face with the team this weekend in your technical director James Key. During your meetings with him so far, what’s been on the agenda?

ZB: Well, it’s very early days. James just started on Monday and attended the Strategy Group meeting with me on Tuesday and of course he’s been here ever since. I think he’s just in observation mode at the moment, getting to k know the team. We’ve made quite a few changes, starting in the middle of last year, and so it’s great to have him on board. And then of course we have Andreas Seidl who will be joining us in a month to run the Formula One team, so once he’s joined then we’ll be pretty complete on the racing team and then we just need to put our heads down and try to go faster.

Q: James Key is new but there’s a returnee next week in Fernando Alonso, who is going to be testing next Tuesday. How do you expect his input to help the team?

ZB: Well, he’s got 17 or 18 years of experience in Formula 1, he’s got four or five years’ experience with McLaren. Obviously a very talented, experienced driver and as we look to continue the development, as the midfield sitting here is unbelievably tight, we’re going to value his opinion and feedback and to get three drivers contributing to how we can make the race car better is one third better than having two, so I think his experience will be a valuable contribution.

Q: And his experience in 2018 in particular?

ZB: Yeah, ultimately a lot of this year’s car was based on his feedback from last year, so for him to be able to get in the car and recognize the changes we’ve made I think he’ll be able to say that we’ve gone in the right direction or the wrong direction, we need a little bit more of this or a little bit less of that and make sure that he gives Carlos and Lando as much of a competitive car as possible.

Q: Thank you. Franz, you’ve got a new driver line-up this year, both of whom have been invited back into the Red Bull fold. First of all, how has Daniil changed since he was last with the team?

FT: You know, when Danill was with us the first time, it was 2014, and he came from GP3 to Formula One. It was a big step in those days. He did a really good job with us and then he went to Red Bull Racing, he also had some good races there, he finished on the podium, but for different reasons he came back to us and he was struggling a little bit. But not because of his abilities or because of his skills. I think in those days our car was not so reliable or so competitive. Therefore it was a really difficult situation. He had then a one year break, was together with Ferrari, he learned a lot, became much more mature and has a better overview of Formula One. He is now back and he is showing his performance. Therefore, we are happy he is with us. Alex is coming from Formula 2. He won last year four races, showed a really good performance and from the first test onwards I was really happy to have him in the team because he surprised all of us by a fantastic performance and also by really good technical feedback. He has also a good overview of how to treat the tyres. I must say that Toro Rosso has a very, very strong driver line-up this year and I’m convinced that both of them will have a lot of success in the future.

Q: That’s the drivers, what about the engine? It’s your second year with Honda. How much progress have they made last year to this?

FT: They made big steps forward regarding reliability as well as the performance. I must say a big thank you to Sakura because they worked very hard and they closed the gap to the top teams and with Red Bull Racing I think they are this year they are in a position to fight for victories as well as the championship. I am more than happy to work together with Honda, with such an established company.

Q: Thanks. Fréd, let’s start by talking about drivers as well. Two new drivers. How has Kimi’s experience helped you so far?

FV: As you know, even if Sauber was there before, now with Alfa Romeo Racing is quite a new team and we restructured the team last year and the year before quite a lot and we have plenty of new guys and I think that to have Kimi on board is a good push in terms of experience also for the team. Drivers, for sure, they are a pillar of the performance, not only into the car but also alongside and he is part of the development of the company and the team.

Q: And are you confident that Antonio can run him close this year?

FV: Yeah, yeah. He did a very good Q1 in Melbourne and I will be patient. I remember perfectly the press conference last year in Bahrain, because a big part of journalists wanted to ask me when Charles would stop, because he was absolutely nowhere from them after two races and then he was the world champion. You just have to stay calm everybody and to give him the time to put everything together but I am very confident that he will do it.

Q: As you say, a lot of changes at Alfa Romeo Racing over the winter. What’s a realistic goal for the constructors’ championship this year?

FV: Honestly, it’s difficult to have a clear picture from Melbourne. The only thing I think it that you can move, in terms of team, from P4 for P9 or P10 from one session to another one. It’s more than tight, more than before, more than ever. It will be a big fight on development and we have to stay focused and to be able to do the same as we did last year, and then we’ll see. But I don’t want to point to something like this yet.

Q: Guenther, everyone else here has new drivers for 2019. You have the same driver line-up as last year. What advantages has that stability given you?

Guenther STEINER: Just keeping the stability, we hope to have an advantage that the drivers don’t have to settle-in, because that always takes a little bit of time: they know us, we know them and for us last year, when we had to decide, we came to the conclusion that’s the best way for us forward, just to keep it stable and go on another year with the same driver line-up.

Q: And, what about your ambitions for this year? You finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship last year. Given the size and budgets of the teams ahead of you, how realistic is P4?

GS: I think it’s very difficult to say yet – because we had one race, we had one big test and one race and we don’t know where we really stand. I think we have to wait a few races to see. That will be our aim. Whether we achieve it or not, I don’t know yet – but you always have to aim for something better. As Fred just mentioned, the midfield is very competitive this year. More than ever, I would say. So, you never know what is happening from race-to-race, which I find is interesting. We just try to make less mistakes: we didn’t start well in Australia with that one but we try to recover from it and just try to score as many points as possible and try to achieve fourth, which would be better than last year. But you never know. Let’s wait and see.

Q: And to get fourth, are you going to have to change your approach regarding regarding development?

GS: No. I think we made big step last year from two years ago, how we develop. We learnt a lot and we’ll try to be even better than last year. We will bring developments, we try to make them quicker this year. Last year we were a little bit slow because we don’t have our own manufacturing capabilities. We outsource. By doing that a little bit more last year we found better partners, better people which can react quicker. So, we just try to be quicker and do more – like everybody else will do. With these new regulations this year, this is the race to finish best of the rest: basically who can manager their upgrades better and who can do more, and who can get better upgrades.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dieter Recken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Reference Tom’s question earlier on about Tuesday’s meeting. It was here exactly a year ago today, according to the calendar, that Liberty presented their vision for 2021. So, exactly a year has passed. Have we actually made any progress in that year? To all four of you please.

FT: Yes. They made some steps forward, on the sporting regulations side as well as on the technical regulations side there are some really good ideas. I hope that they will take place. And from the commercial side, there are also some changes. As I mentioned before, I think they are on the right way but time is now becoming a crucial factor because we have to decide – or they have to decide – now, the final version of all these different topics within the next half of the year – and I hope that they will do this.

Guenther?

GS: I fully agree with Franz that it’s now a timing issue. We need to get this done quicker rather than later. And, on the other side, to answer the question ‘did we make progress?’ Yes, we made progress but progress you cannot only see in ‘is the new document better than the old one?’ It’s also progress I think, for FIA, FOM and us, is a better understanding of each other, what we want to achieve and what can be achieved with the different models we are getting out there. So, I think there has been a lot of progress made, not actually in what is offered but in the understanding of what needs to be done that everybody agrees. And that is not written on paper. That is more a general understanding of all the partners involved to make the next proposal, to get closer to get something final and to see where it needs to be reworked – but I would say there has been progress but as I continue to say, timing now is very important.

Zak?

ZB: Not much to build on what Guenther and Franz said, other than yes, there has definitely been progress in that we now have a deal in front of us to react to. I think it’s been well thought-out. We’ve all been consulted and we’d just emphasise, yeah, timing now is of the essence so we can all get prepared – but the ball’s really in our court for that.

Fred?

FV: Yeah, difficult to add something but honestly we did good progress and now we have to close the deal soon but at least on the technical regulations, the sporting regulations and all this side of the discussion, I think we have a much better picture of the situation, and on the other aspect, more financial, I think that we are doing one step in the direction of each other and we will be able to close something soon.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) For all of you, starting with Guenther please, how would you describe your philosophy and style of team management?

GS: I would say pretty direct. I’m hands-on, I’m doing this a long time, I try to motivate people in the best way be being direct and telling them what I think and then we discuss. Pretty simple.

Zak? Your management style?

ZB: Probably best that you ask the racing team but my view is you need to bring on the best talent you can, empower them, give them the resources that they need and ultimately all these Formula One teams are big entities and so you need great teamwork, so I tend to focus on letting everyone do what they do best. They’re more talented than I am in many areas.

Fred?

FV: It’s always difficult to describe yourself, and probably it will be much more useful to ask my guys. I’m coming from racing, and I tried to get everyone motivated with the same spirit: that we are a small team on the grid and we need to get the best from everybody if we want to be competitive. We have to keep the approach of the proper racing team and I think we are on the good way.

Franz?

FT: I would say a democratic way of management. All the people which are in the team and the board management of the team are involved in major decisions. We are sitting together nearly every second day to discuss the important topics and then we make together the decisions – to motivate the people and to find the money to run the team. Those are the jobs.

Q: (Ben Anderson – F1 Racing) You were talking about the need for urgency over clarifying the 2021 picture – but whatever those rules look like, there’s talk of a delay to publishing them, maybe until December, to not benefit the top teams and help the smaller teams. As leaders of smaller teams, would you really benefit from a delay to the publication of the regulations, considering you would have in theory less time and less resource to react to that delay?

FV: It’s always difficult to know if the late publication of the regulations will help the small teams or the big teams – because they’re also able to develop much faster than us and it’s not an easy goal or an easy way to decide. Honestly, for me it’s not just a matter of timing , it’s also a matter of  being sure about what we are doing. It’s much better to take this kind of decision that to publish something a bit later. we are not in a rush to publish something on the 27th of June. It’s not the big part of the deal.

ZB: We’ll just react accordingly, as other racing teams will. Obviously if you start earlier, you get a bigger head start, also gives the ability to maybe spend more money, which the big teams have. So, if it’s June, August, December doesn’t really matter: it’ll be the same for all ten teams and we’ll all respond accordingly.

Guether?

GS: I agree with Zak – but whatever it is, it is, on this topic – because I think the big teams will always be in a better position because, in theory, they should be in even a better position if we start later because then they can throw even, more in a short time, emphasis on it. So it’s neither here nor there. At some stage we just have to have to come to a conclusion that we get started and get going. Keep it practical and don’t discuss, or maybe get a little bit of an advantage because that is why we don’t decide. From our side, if we start in June, fine, if we start in December, fine as well. We will not have a big opinion about either of it.

Franz?

FT: First of all, it’s not 100 per cent decided yet. Should be confidential but anyway… as we see, people know about what we discussed in this meeting. The main topic is not to spend even more money because the earlier the new regulation is being published, the earlier the teams start to investigate this new regulation and spend a hell of a lot of money for the development. Which means, if the new regulation comes out in June, this year teams immediately will be concentrated to build up engineering groups to investigate this new regulation and to start with the different tests and simulations, just to get an advantage out of it. We will see where we end up.

Q: (Abdulrahman Al-Saud – University College Bahrain) We’re aware that the Bahrain circuit will have more opportunities for overtaking compared to Melbourne. How do you help the drivers find that edge to identify whether they can or can’t?

FT: Whether they can or can’t overtake? They just should push the right hand pedal and overtake. Where’s the problem? DRS open and go. There are three DRS zones here, long straights. I expect that we will see much more overtaking manoeuvres than in Melbourne. We all know that Melbourne is a track where it’s difficult to overtake but here in Bahrain, I think that there are possibilities that drivers can overtake and the rest we will see on Sunday.

GS: I agree with Franz.

ZB: Yeah, I think you let the drivers drive so they’ll figure out best where they think they can make a move on the driver in front of them.

FV: I won’t explain to Kimi where he has to overtake!

Q: (Ben Edwards – Channel 4 TV) Zak, you’ve got some big names management-wise at McLaren. You’ve got James Key coming in, you’ve mentioned Andreas Seidl, you’ve got Gil de Ferran there. Can you just explain to us the roles that each of those are going to play?

ZB: Yeah. Andreas Seidl is going to be responsible for running the Formula One team, full stop, so he’s the boss and will ultimately be responsible for the performance. James Key is the technical director and will ultimately be responsible along with many people for producing a fast race car and then Gil de Ferran will remain in the role that he’s been working with me in as sporting director, which is looking over a variety of McLaren Racing programmes and he’s done a great job, kind of jumping in as we’ve been in transition and so when Andreas gets settled into that, you’ll see Gil go more to the role that he was intended to do when we brought him on in the middle of last year.

Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) Zak, of the four team bosses here, you are the only one whose team is not strongly affiliated to one of the top three teams at the moment. Do you share Renault’s concern of the status of so-called B-teams, especially in regards with aero-listed parts?

ZB: Yeah, of course we do. I think the way the sport has grown has enabled teams to be able to do new business, if you like, with other teams and we’d like to see the sport come back to more of a purity of a constructor. They’ve done a great job, we all know what the rule book allows and so they’ve done an excellent job with it but we’d like to see everyone be a little bit more independent moving forward.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) On exactly that topic, because that was my question. In any event, you obviously run an independent-type situation whereas the other three are in some way or other affiliated to a larger team, I wouldn’t be insulting and call them B teams but certainly satellite or supplier relationships. How do you feel about these regulations, the other three?

FT: First of all, if someone, who runs a manufacturer team is complaining that the small teams are faster and better than him, then he hasn’t simply done his homework in a proper way, because we at a Toro Rosso, we have from Red Bull Racing the gearbox from last year, the rear suspension from last year and parts from the front suspension – most of the front suspension we’ve anyway done ourselves. So, the reason why Toro Rosso is so competitive is mainly because of the fantastic power unit which we have from Honda. It seems that others are not doing such a good job and therefore they should not complain and wingeing around. They just should do their job. We have a good package together with the car, fantastic drivers and a fantastic power unit from Honda, that’s the reason why we are competitive.

GS: As Franz says, leave us alone, leave us doing our job. You know, we are fine, get back to yourselves. I think a lot of these manufacturer teams should also see the opportunities they are given because they want to take something away from us, I see it like this, which was there before. We didn’t invent it. Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Haas, Ferrari didn’t invent this. This was there, we took it, this model and they did. If they want to do it they can do it but we are not going to say you have to do it, so we are not the people which want to take something away from the manufacturers. If you think your way is the better one, have it like that. Good luck and I wish them well, but if you don’t deliver as Franz says, if you are yourself your own problem, because you don’t do it well, don’t blame other people doing a different job for doing it well and trying to diminish what they are doing by making it worse, because in doing that, the gap will grow, because at the moment the teams which have these affiliations with the big teams, they are getting closer to the top three and that’s what it should be. If we are knocked down, then we create, instead of a two tier society, it will be a three tier. There will be the works teams, the good ones, then we will have the bad works teams and then there will be us so what have we achieved then for the sport? That is our principle. We don’t try to take anything away from anybody. It was there, it was decided, democratically years ago, that this is a model which can work. We read the rules, some other people didn’t and here we are, so I think it’s a model which is pretty good to go forwards.

FV: Nothing to add, but I don’t want to speak for the others but yes, there is a regulation that we are playing a fair game in the area of the regulation and we have to stay aware about the (inaudible) for everybody. I don’t care about what the others could think about the situation but there is a regulation, we are pushing like hell to stick to the regulation and to do our best and that’s it.

Q: (Christoph Becker – Frankfurter Allegemeinezeitung) This week there’s been a call up for the first time by international organisations on F1 and FIA to demand the release of prisoners who have allegedly protested against the race here. FIA and F1 have refrained from doing so. What’s your position here?

FT: It’s quite easy. We are here for a sport event, not for a political event. That means, first of all, I was surprised that there are still some political turmoil which I don’t think is the reality. I think that the reality is just that a few people want to create troubles and Formula One is here to make sport, to entertain the people and we should not be involved in any political questions. This, people should do, who are here, who are living here. The government, whoever, that’s their job, not our job.

Q: Anyone else like to add to anything Franz has said on the subject? Ok.

Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) There are have been some complaints from drivers that they couldn’t see the starting lights in Melbourne. I’m just wondering, did you hear anything from your drivers, how much of a problem is it, is there any solution?

FV: No, we had no issue with these particular points but I think it depends also on the position on the grid and probably the halo but I think they will sort it out quite soon, to find a clear solution.

Q: It was Pierre Gasly in this press conference yesterday who said he had problems in Melbourne. Anything from your drivers Zak?

ZB: No, our drivers didn’t say anything.

GS: No, nothing from our ones, they were fine with it.

FT: Also the good start!

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Gentlemen, apart from Zak, you may have noticed…

ZB: I’m not a….

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) … has got the brand of an e-cigarette, a new generation cigarette on it. Is it something that (inaudible) turns commercial relationships for your own teams, going forward?

FT: I don’t care where the money is coming from. I’m fine with it.

GS: At the moment we don’t have a presentation, nobody’s approaching us and should we be approached to do it we would look into it and think about it but this one of the things we are not going actively after, alternatives to cigarettes, like we will deal with it when we get the problem.

FV: No particular comments on this point because we are not in the same situation.

2019 Bahrain GP: FIA Drivers' Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

Source: FIA.com

DRIVERS – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes) Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), Pierre GASLY (Red Bull Racing), Daniil KVYAT (Toro Rosso), Lando NORRIS (McLaren)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lando if we could start with you please: two weeks on, how do you reflect on your grand prix debut in Melbourne?

Lando NORRIS: If I look back now on how the whole weekend went, it was better than I anticipated going into the whole. During it you obviously change how you think you can do and after qualifying eighth, which was awesome for my first quali, I ended up 12th in the race, which was a bit disappointing. But overall I don’t think there were many things I did wrong. Obviously there was a the start and a couple of bits in the middle of the race, but for my first weekend I don’t think I could have asked for much more.

Q: The car seemed more competitive over one lap in qualifying than it was in race conditions. Do you think that will play out this weekend as well? Is it a characteristic of the car?

LN: I don’t think so much. I don’t think out race pace overall, apart from the very end of the race, was too bad. I lost a couple of positions in Turn 1, so I was still P10 and I think my pace in the first stint on the softs was reasonably good, keeping up with the guys ahead. But I just got a bit unfortunate in the middle; I didn’t get past Antonio as quickly as the others did and that put me back in terms of results. I don’t think our pace was a problem. I don’t think it’s a lot worse than our quali pace, it’s just it didn’t go as cleanly as qualifying.

Q: And looking back to 12 months ago in Bahrain : a great victory for you in F2, a great weekend. What’s the goal this time around?

LN: Well, I’d love to do the same, but I don’t think that is a very realistic goal! Obviously it started the season off very well last year. As much as I would love to have a similar result to what I had last year I know that’s an unrealistic aim for this weekend. I think we have got to just take it one step at a time. First time in Formula 1 here, so it’s going to be a bit different.  But hopefully we can have a weekend like we did in Australia, a good qualifying and that will set us up a bit better for the race and I can work on the things I didn’t get done so well.

Q: Good luck for this weekend. Thank you Lando. Daniil, you scored a point on your Formula 1 return in Australia. How satisfying was that?

Daniil KVYAT: I think it was a good race for us. All the weekend we were quite competitive. It was good to know that we are in the mix. The midfield is very tight this year, so we were definitely in the fighting mix. The race itself was very…. There was quite a lot of action, so in the end to score the point at the end of the first race of the season is always good and we just look ahead. Here it’s a different kind of circuit so we’ll see what we can achieve here now.

Q: Tell us a little bit more about the car. How competitive is it and what are its greatest strengths?

DK: It’s hard to say just one strength or weakness. Everyone seems to be very close in the midfield, so you have to have a really good weekend always. It seems like if you lose just a couple of tenths you can lose a few positions, so you always need to be working on putting everything together. Otherwise instead of entering into Q3 you can end up maybe P14, P15. It’s a tight midfield and it’s good to know that it is. It seems that there will be opportunities for everyone.

Q: It’s been a while since we had you in an FIA press conference, because last year you were working with Ferrari. Can you tell us a little bit about what you got up to in 2018 and what you learned?

DK: Obviously I wanted to race but it was very good to be a part of such a team as Ferrari. It was great to see Sebastian and Kimi working from very close. There was a lot of simulator work; they always kept me busy, it was very nice. Learning, I think it was best that I managed to stay close to the F1 world in a way and tried to do my jobs just as good as possible to help the team to achieve the best result possible. It was a very good experience.

Q: Thanks. Pierre, it was a tough weekend for you in Australia, but how much encouragement did you take from Max’s performance?

Pierre GASLY: I would say the overall performance during the weekend was good. A good start, looking at the practice, and also the Q1. I think the overall pace was looking promising and yeah, for sure, what happened in qualifying really put us on the back foot for the race and on a track like this made the final result pretty poor and clearly not what we wanted. It was a pretty tough weekend to accept because I think we deserved a better result on Sunday but things didn’t go as we would have liked. We just need to make sure we have a clean weekend. I think the performance from Max is really positive for everybody in the team, and for Honda. I’m really happy for Honda to get their first podium. It’s looking pretty positive for the coming races.

Q: It seemed like you got caught out by the track evolution in Q1 in Melbourne, so can we expect a different approach to qualifying this weekend from you and the team?

PG: I think we have a better idea of the performance of other teams and on the grid. I think we could see that basically all the teams got a bit closer compared to last year. I think we have a bit more information and we’ll probably be a bit more careful. But let’s see how the performance is from one track to another. It can be quite different. I think Bahrain is back to kind of a normal track and let’s see how the weekend goes.

Q: Well, it’s a normal track on which you went very well last year. What chance of a repeat this weekend or going better than fourth?

PG: We’ll go for the best we can. We saw in Australia we have a competitive car - in quali and also in the race. For sure Mercedes and Ferrari look really strong but I think the most important thing is that if we manage to put everything together we should have get a good shot at having a good result this weekend.

Q: Thank you. Charles, we’re getting used to seeing you in red but it was just your first race for Ferrari two weeks ago. How do you reflect on that and can you just talk about the emotions you felt back in Melbourne?

Charles LECLERC: To be completely honest, the emotions, I didn’t really feel them. Obviously when you are at a race you are focusing on the job you have to do in the car and that’s what I try to do as much as possible. It was not an easy weekend. Obviously after the Barcelona weekend we expected more, but on the other hand there were a lot of positives to take. Anyway, Melbourne is not such a representative track on car performance – even though that doesn’t mean we are as strong as we want to be. But yeah, there is a lot of work to do and I’m pretty confident in the team that we have done the right job in between Melbourne and here to try to improve. And on my side I think I did quite a lot of mistakes in qualifying and during the race and I will try to not repeat these mistakes.

Q: They weren’t totally obvious to us watching, those mistakes. Can you elaborate?

CL: In Q3 I didn’t put the lap in as I wanted to and then in the race I think you have seen the off on the TV. It didn’t have any consequences for the result because obviously I was fifth and there was nobody behind but in other situations it could have been a lot worse, so I need to work on this.

Q: Now you finished a minute back on the man who is on your left up on the podium. Was it a particular issue with the car in Melbourne? How did it feel? Did it feel well balanced or did you think it was just track specific and you expect to be more competitive this weekend?

CL: We expect to be more competitive. I think our package is strong. We have some answers to the lack of performance in Melbourne. I don’t think we have all of them but we definitely have some answers to it. Then we will only see here whether it was only track specific or if there is something else but I am pretty confident in the package we have.

Q: Valtteri, you’re the championship leader for the first time in your career, how does that feel?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, for sure it feels good – but it’s only one race of the season, and now the full focus is to this weekend.

Q: You said after the race in Melbourne that the car felt amazing. How confident are you of a repeat in Bahrain this weekend?

VB: Honestly, it is quite difficult to say. For sure, we were all positively surprised on the performance we had in Melbourne – but, like Charles said, it is a bit of a funny circuit, and I would say here this weekend and China, we’re going to get a much better picture of the real performance at this point of the year. Obviously it was very welcome for us to see that kind of pace and the feeling with the car was a lot better than in winter testing – so obviously the time spent between was very efficient. So, yeah, see how it feels here.

Q: You said after the race that it was the best race of your career. Why do you think that was? Is it because this year’s Mercedes suits you better than either of the previous two?

VB: It must be the beard! No, honestly, it really felt after the race that it was one of the best, or my best race. Obviously the start of the race was key to getting the lead – but after that, I did no mistakes and everything was very much under control. And when you feel you are performing at your best is a beautiful feeling. I now just need to keep the momentum and feel that again soon.

Q: Do you feel more comfortable in this Mercedes than anything else you’ve driven?

VB: For sure, every car is always a bit different and in the end you, as a driver, need to be the one that compensates yourself to the car to get the most out of the package but yeah, I would say in testing, in Melbourne, everything started on the right foot. I never felt anything odd with the car. For sure there are things we can still improve, but yeah, I feel comfortable in the car.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: (Erik Bielderman – l’Equipe) Question to Pierre and Charles, how did you manage to deal with frustration after the first race. What I mean by frustration is that, for Charles, you couldn’t go to have a proper fight with your team-mate, and to Pierre, that you were expected with the Red Bull to make points and that was not the case.

CL: Yeah. There was no frustration on my side. Obviously it is the first race but on the team side I don’t think there was anything to gain, whether I was fourth and Seb fifth, or me fifth and Seb fourth. It was exactly the same amount of points for the team, so it’s understandable that they didn’t want to take the risk for us to fight each other and lose even more points. So yeah, it was like this and I understand the decision.

Pierre?

PG: Yeah, as I say, it was quite tough to end up with that result after the promising free practice. We showed some good pace in FP2 and FP3 and yeah, at the end of the weekend, not to score points with the package we had, for sure was difficult. But we know the reasons and we’ll try to do our best to make sure we have clean weekends – because the package is working well.

Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Question for Valtteri. There’s been a lot of talk about how you’re much more determined this year and come back much stronger, much more focussed than you perhaps were last year. That question was posed to Lewis and he says he sees no difference because he always considered you to be competitive and a strong driver – but would you say there definitely has been a change in mindset from you this year, and that Melbourne was a proof of that – or is it too early to say.

VB: For sure, if you look at the results, it’s obviously very early in the season. It’s one race – but I can for sure say that something in my mindset has changed for the year. The preparation over the winter and just the way of how I feel and think about things has changed. It’s quite difficult to explain in detail but I feel different to years before.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how would you rank this circuit? Is it in the same group with Russia and Austria in your mind?

VB: It’s normally been quite a strong race for me but obviously every year it’s a new race, and you still need to go off quite well. I think racing here, this year, might be a bit better in terms of overtaking with the new DRS zone so I think still, ultimately, the race pace is going to be important but it’s been a strong race for me personally in the past  and yeah, I can rate it quite well on my list but obviously the aim is to approach every weekend knowing and aiming to be on top of your game and not to have any bad races anyway.

Q: (Kate Walker – New York Times) To Charles and Valtteri: the next Grand Prix weekend in China is going to be our 1000th round of the F1 World Championship. I was wondering if you can tell me, of those 1000 races, whether you were racing or whether you were watching as a fan, what’s your favourite memory?

VB: If I have to choose one now, I feel the happiness at home, looking at the TV, of the driver: it was Mika’s first win in 1997 and the last race of the year and obviously he went and won a couple of titles so I would say that was my favourite.

CL: My side, I will probably be a bit selfish and maybe Monaco is my best memory because it was my first ever Formula One Grand Prix last year so it was something special and to be completely honest, I haven’t watched that many Grands Prix on TV because I was always out racing in karting so yeah, Monaco last year was my best memory.

Q: (Oubay Autosportme.com) My question is to Charles: how could you describe the atmosphere at Ferrari after the first race? And also, is there a fundamental issue with the car or just a matter of finding the perfect balance?

CL: I think the mentality is the right one and we need to keep this one throughout the whole year. The mentality is very positive. Obviously we are aware there is a lot of work to do but I’m pretty confident, as I said, in the team, that they will do everything to improve the car. I don’t think there’s any fundamental issues in the car concept. I’m pretty confident in that too. It’s just about fine-tuning. Obviously, as I said before, what we showed in Australia I don’t think was the real performance of the car and I think we are all quite confident that we can be better already from here in Bahrain but as I said, the mentality is very good in the team and we need to keep this spirit. We are all working as a team and all working together and this is a good thing to see.

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri already mentioned that overtaking is probably fairly easy this weekend. There are three DRS zones. Is that going to affect the strategy you’re going to have for the race and is this the way you want racing to go with more DRS zones?

LN: I think it will affect us slightly. You obviously have more chances of overtaking so you would say a two-stop strategy could be a better chance than trying to do that in Australia, say. I think and hopefully it will cause teams to chose more different strategies, basically, which can hopefully lead to more overtaking, more action, which is always a nice thing for a driver. It’s hard to say. I didn’t drive last year so I don’t know much better or worse this aero package is compared to last year. Some people have said it’s better, some people have said it’s the same or worse – not worse but the same as previous years. I think we have to have overtaking and I think Bahrain, as a track, is definitely better than Australia to overtake anyway, even without DRS zones. But I think nowadays it’s so difficult to overtake in general. DRS is one of the few ways to be able to lead to action and overtaking so I think you’re going to have to have it. Three DRS zones is quite a bit so I’m sure you’re going to see a lot of overtaking and action this weekend. It’s not the most natural and the best way to do it but it’s probably what we’ve got to do, I guess.

CL: Yeah, well you can afford to drop back in the standings for an extra stop and have the chance to overtake after again easier. Already in the past I think it was quite an easy track to overtake on with two DRS zones, so with one more it can only be easier. So yeah, it will change the strategy a little bit. That’s it.

VB: Nothing to add really. I think that’s it. It’s going to be a bit easier.

PG: I think they’ve summed it pretty well. Probably you can go with a more aggressive strategy with that extra DRS zone if it’s easier to overtake but I think the more action it can give us the better it is. After all there are other ways to overtake; without DRS would be nice as well if we are able to follow each other and there is more action thanks to that and that will be the best way but I think immediately that’s the only thing we can change, the DRS zones, so if it brings some more show, I think everybody’s going to be happier.

DK: I think there is always good racing in Bahrain so we just wait and see for the race.

Q: (Masahiro Owari – Formula Owari) Question to Pierre and Daniil: you had a problem at the start at Melbourne, you couldn’t see the starting lights. Could you please explain more details; which signal did you see or did you request anything from the FIA?

PG: Basically it was a pretty messy start because maybe it was my position but I think also Russell behind me had the same problem and Kubica as well but basically the lights were right behind Daniil’s rear wing so I couldn’t see the red lights. On the formation lap, they pulled the car back so I could see them and then as I got in my position for the race start, basically I was looking for them and also the lights on the side are really forward on the grid. Basically I had no idea so I just started to release the clutch when I saw the others moving but actually it wasn’t ideal and I think they are planning to raise the starting lights a bit because I think it’s probably going to be an issue on other tracks as well

DK: I could see everything so maybe he should try to look up

PG: Maybe because you’re taller. I think it’s better (not) to start in this position any more and that will be the easiest thing.

Q: (Abdulrahman Al-Saud – University College Bahrain) Valtteri, what advice would you give to an aspiring F1 driver?

VB: Never give up. It’s obviously not one of the easiest sports to get into but it’s possible. As a kid, obviously there were many people who say when your goal is to get into Formula One and be successful in Formula One, they tell you that it’s impossible but seeing the possibility in things, that can be their strength. Obviously there’s many factors to being a driver but you never know. I guess the main thing as a kid, when you’re doing it, is to enjoy it and then normally the rest will sort itself out one way or another.

Q: Could we just open this question to Lando as well? You’re a rookie. Anything you can add?

LN: I would agree with what Valtteri says, to be honest. It’s obviously a long journey, it’s not quick. You can’t just change from… and I’m sure very few can change from one sport to another but I think a lot of hard work and dedication is what I think all drivers here and all drivers on the grid have put into racing but a similar comment in terms of never giving up, because sometimes it can seem quite far out of reach and then all of a sudden you can be in Formula One, you can have a contract with a team. Similar comments: determination, hard work and not giving up. Many other people have done it, although it’s a very tough sport to get into. There’s only twenty in the world who can do it. I think never giving up is probably one of the best ways to describe it.

BT Sport to broadcast full 2019 World RX championship

The FIA World Rallycross Championship will be broadcast live in the UK and Ireland throughout the 2019 season as part of a multi-year agreement with BT Sport.

BT Sport will broadcast all 10 rounds of the world championship live and the World RX package also includes a comprehensive weekly highlights show.

“To have a broadcast partner of the calibre of BT Sport is a great fillip for the FIA World Rallycross Championship. It underlines the heightened interest in World RX and we look forward to engaging even more UK fans in our story throughout the 2019 season on the BT Sport platform,” said Torben Olsen, the Managing Director of World RX for IMG, the series promoter.

Broadcast coverage of World RX showed a year-on-year increase of 41.4% in 2018 with coverage spanning Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, the Americas and Europe. The estimated cumulative TV audience for dedicated broadcast for the 2018 season was almost 35 million.

In addition, the appeal of World RX among digital audiences continues to grow with over 317 million impressions, bolstered by live streaming of qualifying which drew 400,000 viewers on average over a race weekend. Further innovations around live streaming will be introduced in 2019.

Details of our extensive global broadcast coverage will be revealed shortly.

GC Kompeition unveils a striking new livery.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media. 

GC Kompetition has today revealed their striking new livery for the 2019 FIA World Rallycross Championship.  

The new livery includes the blue and yellow colors of their new partner, Bilstein.

The 2019 Renault Megane R.S. RX Supercars will carry a split livery design for the team's drivers, Guerlain Chicherit and Anton Marklund. 

Guerlain Chicherit, GCK team owner has high expectations for the 2019 season. 

“2019 is a really big year for GCK. We debuted the team in the FIA World Rallycross Cham­pionship in 2018 and have been working really hard to further develop the GCK Megane R.S. RX, the first car to have been designed and built from scratch to compete in rallycross," said Chicherit.

The 2019 FIA World Rallycross championship gets underway in 14 days at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

FULL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION below!

TECHNICAL SHEET - GCK Team.

Text - Junaid Samodien
Information - GC Kompetition.

GCK Academy reveals 2019 World RX livery

PHOTO CREDIT: Behance.

GCK has today unveiled the livery of its Academy team ahead of the 2019 FIA World RX championship. 

Team owner Guerlain Chicherit created the 'GCK Academy' team with a vision to further young rallycross talent and support junior drivers, giving them the opportunity to compete on a world championship motorsport stage. 

Chicherit witnessed the growth of the FIA World Rallycross Championship and the increasing difficulties junior drivers face to develop in World Championship cars. Having witnessed these difficulties the Frenchmen decided to start the GCK Academy.

Begian Guillaume De Ridder and Frenchman Cyril Raymond will compete under the GCK Academy banner in 2019.

Guillaume de Ridder's GCK Academy Clio Supercar livery.

Who is Guillaume De Ridder?

After promising start in karting and rallying, Guillaume started rallycross in 2017 racing the RX2 World Championship and SRX Cup, part of the Belgian Rallycross Championship.

Guillaume proved to be a fast learner and was soon noticed because of his remarkable speed. He finished third in RX2, with 3 podiums, and second in the SRX Cup. 

He won the title of Rookie of the year in RX2 as well as for the RACB (Belgian motorsport federation, for all racing categories). 2018 saw Guillaume successfully continuing rallycross, becoming RallyX Nordic champion in the Supercar Lites category and World Champion runner up in RX2, driving for Olsbergs-MSE.

Cyril Raymond's GCK Academy Clio R.S. RX Supercar livery

Who is Cyril Raymond?

Raymond discovered motorsport thanks to his father, who was a rally driver in France. In 2004, Cyril started go karting in the south of France at the age of 10. 

In 2013, Raymond discovered Rallycross through his wife, whose father was a driver in the French Rallycross Championship and her uncle had a Rallycross team. He started racing the Twingo Cup and won the French Junior Rallycross Championship in his first year. 

In 2014, Cyril had an official program with the French federation ofRallycross (AFOR) in the Super  1600. He won the Championship and became double French Champion. At the end of  2014, Cyril tested the RXLites car in Turkey with OlsbergsMSE.In 2015, Cyril decided to do one race of the French Rallycross Championship in a supercar and won it! 

In 2017, he won the RX2 Championship (7 races, 6 wins) and the Red Bull GRC Lites in America with OlsbergsMSE. 2018 saw him missing the first race of the FIA European Championship but he finished the Championship 3rd overall and won his home race, LoheacRX in France. 

Source: GC Kompetition

Story - Junaid Samodien
Source - GC Kompeition

Kristoffersson hints at a potential World RX return.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World Rallycross Media. 

Two-time Champion Johan Kristoffersson hints at a potential return to racing in the FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2019. 

The Swede published a video on social media over the weekend of him driving a "Bauhaus" branded Volkswagen Polo Supercar.

Video Published by Johan Kristoffersson on Instagram (@kristofferssonjohan)

Video Source: https://www.instagram.com/kristofferssonjohan/

Kristoffersson was left without a seat for the 2019 season when PSRX Volkswagen Sweden withdrew from the championship citing "the loss of competitors in the FIA World Rallycross Championship" following EKS Audi Sport, Peugeot Sport and Olsberg MSE's withdrawal from the championship. 

With an uncertain future in Rallycross, the Swede announced that he will be competing in the 2019 FIA World Touring Car Cup [10 events], and will compete on a part-time basis in rallying.

Despite the excitement surrounding the Swede's social media video, it still remains unclear if he will be competing in any World RX rounds in 2019.

Kristoffersson's social media video sparked the conversation of his likely return to World Rallycross. But, an interesting conversation developed between Johan and Gronholm RX.

Gronholm RX posted the comment: "Comeback?" to which the Swede replied: "haven’t missed a race yet, can’t count as a comeback."

Is a comeback on the cards? Only time will tell!

2019 Australian GP: Post-Race Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS
1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Martin Brundle)

Q: Valtteri, the race of your life?

Valtteri BOTTAS: I think so! I don’t know what just happened.

Q: What a perfect start, to get away.

VB: I don’t know what to say. It was definitely my best race ever. I don’t know what happened. I felt so good and everything was under control. The car was so good today. So truly enjoyable. I need to enjoy today.

Q: You made it a one-horse race. Twenty-six world championship points with the fastest lap. You were determined to have that fastest lap.

VB: Yeah, definitely. It’s a new rule for this year. As I had really strong pace I wanted to go for that in the end and it’s always a bit risky with worn tyres but it was worth it. I’m just so happy and I can’t wait for the next race.

Q: A one-two for the team, congratulations Lewis, second place, but maybe a bit of a frustrating day for you?

Lewis HAMILTON: No It’s been a good weekend for the team, so I have to be happy for everyone and a really fantastic job from everyone. Valtteri drove an incredible race today, so he truly deserved it. We’ve just got some work to do. Still, it’s a great, great start to the year, more than we could have hoped as a team.

Q: Max launched an attack on you at the end. Did you have it covered?

LH: Yeah, no problem at all.

Q: Any idea where the pace may have gone to?

LH: I do have some ideas, but I’ll wait until I sit with my engineers to go over it. Naturally, position at the start was a little bit frustrating, especially when you have a good weekend up to that point but that’s how the game goes and I’ll just train and work hard to try and improve the next time.

Podium place for Max Verstappen. You had an interesting afternoon.

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I had to overtake Seb to get onto the podium, which is not easy around here, so I was happy to pull that move off, and also challenging Lewis for second, so, yeah, pretty pleased with that.

You had the Ferraris covered. You had a little trip across the grass, probably took you back from behind Lewis. But you were still coming at him.

MV: Yeah, it was unfortunate but I don’t think it would have changed the end result.

So, reasonably happy with today?

MV: Of course. To start the season on the podium, challenging the Mercedes car ahead, I think that’s a very positive start for us. Also a big well done to the team, after the difficult Friday we had. And also big thanks to Honda, also their first podium in the V6 era, so very happy for them.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Well Valtteri you said on the podium that you had porridge for breakfast but was there any indication in practice that you were going to be able to unlock that sort of performance from the car? 

VB: Well, first of all, as a team, in practice we saw that we were strong, both in short runs and long runs, but obviously it’s impossible to draw a proper conclusion but we saw the raw pace yesterday in qualifying, as a team, with a good margin to Ferrari, and today race pace was strong – much stronger than we expected coming into this weekend. That’s obviously good news. It shows that we have definitely done all the right things between the testing in terms of direction with the car. Also, for myself, it was definitely the best race I’ve had in my life. Obviously, the key thing for me was the race start, to get to the lead and then being at the front I could show strong pace and I could pull a gap. I think in the first stop I could also…. I stopped a bit later so I was a good tyre in the end. Just the car was feeling so good today, it was truly enjoyable.

Q: Well, many congratulations. Lewis, it all seemed to slip away from you at the start. Tell us about that moment?

LH: I don’t really remember much of it, honestly, it was quite a long time ago really. I don’t know, maybe I got wheelspin. It doesn’t really matter, Valtteri got a better start. Once we got to the first corner, we held position, we had the front row still. And Valtteri did an exceptional job throughout the race, so congratulations to him and after that it was just about bringing the car home.

Q: You talked on the radio about maybe some tyres issues. Did that play out?

LH: No, not really. I wasn’t entirely happy with the balance I had but it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t a problem for me to finish second.

Q: Thanks. Coming to you Max: If we had said to you before this race that you would finish 35 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari, what would you have said?

MV: I would tell you ‘we will find out on Sunday’. Winter testing doesn’t really show the true picture, as you can see this weekend. We had a good car. In the start, stayed out of trouble. It was just very hard to stay close to Seb, as my tyres were overheating very quickly. I just did my own pace, a manageable pace, and we could extend our stint a little bit and then when we did the pit stop afterwards we had a bit fresher tyres than Lewis and Seb ahead. I managed to get by Seb, which is not easy around this track, because it’s just so hard to follow. But very happy to get to third. Trying to challenge for second was a very positive feeling, especially after my Friday. At the end we couldn’t pull it off, but in general I’m juts very happy to be on the podium. I think we managed to turn it around in a very positive way after Friday and for Honda to have their first podium in the V6 era is a great start, so big congrats to them.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Yianni Mavromoustakos – talkingtorque.com.au) Question for Max. How did you find the Honda engine after your first race with it – and do you think you’ll be capable enough to compete for top spot?

MV: Well, I think in terms of speed we had throughout the race, it was again a very good step forward to last year. If I just compare top speeds against the other two top teams, so I’m very pleased for that. Also, in general, the engine has been performing really well, without any issues. So, that is also very important. I guess time will tell if we can fight for top spot.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, obviously the performance of the Red Bull Honda package, evidenced by the fact you finished third – but how encouraging was it that you were not only able to finish third on the road but were able to push Lewis and show performance all the way to the end. It didn’t look like you were having to manage the package at all towards the end.

MV: No, we didn’t. Well… you always have to manage the tyres because as soon as you get close to the car ahead they overheat, the tyres. In general, just very pleased, because I could at least have a go at it, in terms of top speed. Good progress, and there are a lot of positive things coming as well, and so far we have been working really well together. Very pleased with that. I think Valtteri was very far ahead still. It was a good result today, but we have to work hard to, of course, improve.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Congratulations Valtteri. For the first time in six years, a Finnish driver is leading the championship. How does it feel to be first time there as a leader?

VB: Congrats to you as well! Thank you. Obviously, I don’t think I was ever leading a championship. Obviously I know it’s only the first race of the year. I’m not so good with the numbers of the days and statistics but all I can say is that I’m really pleased with the way the season has started. First of all for us as a team, we have such a strong package going forwards and then, for myself, after quite a tricky last year, to have started the season like this. It’s very good and I look forward to the next race.

Q: (Roger Byron – Beyond the Racing Line) For everyone, how was it with the new aero package, following cars this weekend? In a race you find out more…

MV: Ask Valtteri how it was following!

LH: No different.

No different to previous seasons?

LH: No.

You were pretty close to Lewis at the end there Max…

MV: Yeah, I had no chance to get by. It is still very hard. The only positive thing what we improved is the DRS effect. So, as soon as it opens, it’s a lot more powerful than last year but following is still a lot of turbulence.

Anything to add Valtteri, when you were coming through traffic…

VB: It was quite… I didn’t get close enough to traffic ahead to really see a difference.

Q: (David Coath) Valtteri, you drove the perfect race and your pitcrew was perfect as well. How does that make you feel when you know how much everyone in the team is giving?

VB: It means a lot. It is teamwork and nothing comes for free. Or by one person’s efforts. We’ve all worked for this result we’ve got now as a team together, over the past years and over the winter, and over the weekend. I’m very proud of every single person here in the team at this race weekend but also at the factory. There’s many hidden heroes in Brackley and in Brixworth. Just want to say a massive thanks to them and I really know how much they work and how much it means.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Valtteri, was there any moment during the race that you had a flashback to Russia last year and you thought maybe someone might come on the radio and say ‘slow down’?

VB: No, I didn’t think of that, actually, and there would be no reason to think about that. We are all starting a new season with zero points, we are here to fight, both me and Lewis will want to fight this season, for sure, against each other and against everyone and we are still one team so no point in thinking about those kind of things.

Q: (inaudible – Finnish News Agency) Valtteri, you said yesterday that you approached the weekend differently, started from zero. Can you explain how your preparation was different from last year, for instance?

VB: Yeah, for sure every year you learn as a person, you learn about yourself, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you in terms of preparation and what preparation includes: how you rest, how you spend your free time, how you do the training, how much training, what kind, all those kind of things, travel plans, all sorts. So just trying to optimise everything for this year, try to maximise every single thing that is possible. I don’t know, it’s quite difficult to explain what’s been going on here last winter, inside of my head and definitely something changed in terms of the way I feel about things in life in general and in racing, but that’s all in my thoughts. I felt good in the car today and yesterday. That’s all that matters.

Q: (inaudible – The Age Newspaper) Max, I want to ask about your mindset and the first race without Daniel. Does it change not having to look sidewards and being able to focus on yourself and not focus as much on internals and have a weekend purely about your performance? Did it feel different today without Daniel?

MV: Well, I always focused on myself so it’s not like something changes, from my side. No.

Q: (Giusto Ferronato – Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, can you tell us something about (how much) wheelspin you had, wheelspin at the start?

LH: Yeah, probably too engaged with the clutch, probably, but I don’t really know because I won’t know ‘til I go back, but ultimately I didn’t do a good enough job.

Q: (Phil Branagan – The New Daily) Lewis, the build-up to this race has been very much about your team versus Ferrari, and many people in the room have written about that. Did we have it wrong? And you just fought off a Red Bull; is this now a three way fight for the championship between those three teams?

LH: I don’t know if you wrote it wrong. It was supposed to be a three-way fight… I thought it was going to be a three-way fight so maybe you did write it wrong.

Q: (Jeremy Statis – L’Equipe) You really seemed to care about the fastest lap point at the end of the race. Would you say it will be a big deal during the season and will you be ready to take a lot of risks to get it?

VB: Yeah, obviously it’s a point and if you get three of those or more it’s going to make a big difference at the end of the year. You never know. One point can make a difference in the end. For sure we’re willing to risk but still knowing that if you’re about to get 20 or 18 points or 15, whatever, they are still more important than getting one extra so you need to calculate the risk but today was worth it, within a stop for an extra set of tyres for it, but with the worn tyres I went for a quick lap and it was worth it.

I just want to say, again, thank-you Charlie and I want to say that this win is for Charlie and all his work for Formula One. He’s done a massive amount and it means a lot to all of us drivers.

LH: It’s 21 points so we’re going to fight for them.

MV: There are 21 possible points you can get so it can help but like Valtteri said, at the end of the day it’s most important to score 25 or 18, 15, 10. Try to go for one more and then it goes wrong, it can happen sometimes but anyway, I think in some situations like today, I was pushing anyway to try and get Lewis so it happened that I was doing, at that time, the fastest lap. It’s nice if it happens.