South African Ashley Haigh-Smith joins the RX2 fray for season finale

Ashley Haigh-Smith
PHOTO CREDIT: RX2 Series Media

The RX2 International Series has today unveiled a 16-strong entry list for its 2018 season finale in Cape Town next weekend (24/25 November), with the addition of South Africa's very own talent Ashley Haigh-Smith.

Although best known for his rallying exploits, having competed in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship – the only South African driver to have done so – and made history as the youngest-ever South African S1600 Champion, Haigh-Smith does have some rallycross experience under his belt. He made his debut in the discipline in last season’s inaugural World RX of South Africa at Killarney International Raceway with Olsbergs MSE.

Twelve months on, the 26-year-old – a Capetonian born-and-bred – is set to return to the fray, but this time in RX2, World RX’s official feeder series. Having caught the rallycross bug, he has struck a deal with Finnish outfit SET Promotion to take the place of Simon Syversen, who has stepped aside to focus his preparations on 2019.

“I can’t wait to get back out on-track for the RX2 season finale in Cape Town,” said Haigh-Smith. “Last year’s event was epic, and it was a real honour to be a part of it. I’m really looking forward to representing South African motorsport and going head-to-head with the current cream of the RX2 crop – there are some extremely talented drivers in the field so it will certainly be a tough challenge, but I love a challenge!"

“I need to thank Andreas Eriksson from Olsbergs MSE for the support he has shown me and especially Ian Davies for putting me in contact with Jussi Pinomäki from SET Promotion, who I am looking forward to working with next weekend. I’m passionate about proving that South African drivers can truly excel on the international stage, so hopefully I can go out there and really give the home fans something to cheer about!”

“It’s fantastic to have Ashley joining SET for the final round of RX2 in South Africa,” said SET Promotion Team Principal, Pinomäki. “The opportunity for him to drive with us came about because Simon has decided to skip the event as he focusses on his programme for 2019.  

“The fact that Ashley has already raced at Killarney in World RX will help him to get up-to-speed more quickly than if everything was new to him. Our two regular RX2 drivers Sami-Matti Trogen and Jami Kalliomäki will go to Cape Town having shown good pace this season, and we will use that experience to help Ashley at his home event. If last year is anything to go by, he will receive huge support from the fans.”

The 2018 Gumtree World Rallycross of South Africa driver line-up confirmed.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World Rallycross Media

Its official: The Gumtree World Rallycross of South Africa, on the 24th and 25th of November at the Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town, is the only place to be if you’re a speed freak and confirmed is the final list of drivers who will be battling it out on the tarmac, a lineup that includes past and present legends. So seriously, if you don’t have tickets, then get them soon…they’re selling almost as fast as the Supercar and RX2 vehicles that will be roaring all weekend. Make sure you get for the whole family. Kids under 12 are free, and there’s loads of off-track entertainment, like the majestic Silver Falcons Air Show and the Monster Energy Rig. It seriously doesn’t get any better than this, or bigger, or faster. 

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: ticketpros.co.za/portal/web/index.php/event/e70af636-c059-8ee2-c734-5a07fef5649b

And so, without further ado, meet the stars that will be coming out to play in Cape Town.

The current FIA World Rallycross Champion Johan Kristoffersson, who drives a factory-developed Volkswagen Polo Supercar for PSRX Volkswagen Sweden, leads the pack. The Swede currently tops the 2018 Championship standings, intent on defending his 2017 title. Compatriots Robin Larsson of Olsbergs MSE, Mattias Ekström of EKS Audi Sport, Timmy Hansen of Team Peugeot Total and his brother Kevin of Team Peugeot Total are also in the mix, ensuring that Sweden maintain a strong presence on the Cape track.

Sebastien Loeb of Team Peugeot Total is the world’s most successful rally driver, claiming nine World Rally Championships. The Frenchman will be looking to add to the six podiums he took in 2017, but he’ll have stiff competition at Killarney from Latvian champion Janis Baumanis of Team Stard and the highly experienced Russian Timur Timerzyanov of the GRX Taneco Team. All three are currently neck-and-neck in this year’s top ten.

Kristoffersson’s team-mate, Norwegian Petter Solberg [double World RX champion] will also be here, as will fellow countryman Andreas Bakkerud of EKS Audi Sport and the rising young Finn Niclas Grönholm of GRX Taneco Team. Making up the rest of the pack are GC Kompetition drivers Guerlain Chicherit and Anton Marklund, ALL-INKL.COM Munnich 77 drivers Timo Schedier and Rene Munnich, Gregoire Demoustier of Sebastien Loeb Racing, Oliver Bennett of Oliver Bennett and Kevin Eriksson of Olsbergs MSE.

That’s quite a list…and it’s going to be quite a weekend. Wait, make that a long weekend! Because on Thursday the 22nd of November the World Rallycross Parade makes its way from the back of the Table Bay Hotel to the Amphitheatre at the V&A Waterfront where drivers, including Kristoffersson, Loeb and Solberg, will be signing autographs at a special meet and greet. It’s the perfect way to get in the mood for a perfect weekend of non-stop, all-out, full-throttle action. Make sure you and the family are there!

The 2018 Gumtree World Rallycross of South Africa - ENTRY LIST
LIST provided by FIA World Rallycross Media.

2018 Brazilian GP: FIA Post-Race Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) 2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

Q: Max, can you tell us what happened?

Max VERSTAPPEN: I don't know what to say, I mean, you do everything well, you go through the field, we had a great car, and then by such an idiot you get taken out while he is being lapped. I have no words.

Q: What a fight it was. I don’t think anyone quite expected that after yesterday. I mean, the moves you were making early on, very bold into Turn 1, pushing your way through and using everything you had.

MV: I think it was better than expected today. The car was working brilliantly today. The team also gave me the right strategy, we could be going quite well on the supersoft, so we did quite a long stint. But, yeah, I don’t know what to say. Still I’m happy with second, but we should have won today.

Q: Yeah, like you say, it was almost back-to-back victories, does it give you confidence going into next year that something is going to come of this machine?

MV: Well, we should have more power, so we’ll be even better.

Q: All the best. Kimi, late pressure from Daniel coming in, but a good race from you?

Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, it was good. Not easy, but there was some battling, so it was fun. Obviously we hoped for better but not the easiest.

Q: Ferrari’s tyres choice didn't look like it worked out in the end, these guys looked very strong at the beginning, certainly Max on the supersoft. Do you think that was wrong?

KR: I don’t know. My tyre was good, but it was difficult to pass and it took too long to pass. You cannot replay on other tyres, so we don’t know.

Q: Lewis, that’s 2018 Constructors’ champion as well. And you can see what that means to Toto Wolff – the barriers have fallen over twice here in Parc Ferme, which is unusual. Lewis, what does that mean to the team?

Lewis HAMILTON: Honestly, these guys have worked so hard the last six years and it’s been an incredible journey for them. This is what everyone works for the whole year, you know. Everyone wakes up and goes to work every day and tries to bring the best out of themselves and they really pull together as a unit. I’ve always told you how much of an honour it is to drive for them, and this was the best style we could do it, because we were struggling. We had problems with the engine. Also he passed us like we were a sitting duck at one stage, but obviously they made a mistake and that brought us back into contention. I’m just so proud of everyone. Everyone back home, thank you so much for your continued efforts. For all our partners, for all our sponsors, who without we would not be here, powering along to a win in Brazil. So, God bless you, thank you.

Q: What goes through your mind when you see Verstappen spin? Did you know he was going to be back on a charge and coming strong?

LH: I saw it happen and it wasn’t something that… I wasn’t surprised by it or anything like that. I saw them racing but they weren’t racing for the same position. In my mind, I would have been in a different frame of mind. Fortunately he was able to keep going, no one got hurt, and they kept going, it’s a racing incident I guess. Max is that go-getter guy and every now and then it bites you. But I’m really, really proud; I don’t care about anyone else.

Q: I’ve got one last question for you. Big credit to you, that’s 49 wins in the turbo-hybrid era of Formula 1. That’s 50% of all the races. A lot of that’s owed to you, isn’t it?

LH: I keep telling you, I’m just a chink in the chain. They give me the tools and I try to do the best I can with it. I’m proud that I’m able to sometimes bring a little bit more than is needed or that it’s capable of, but that’s what I live for.

PRESS CONFERENCE

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, I can only imagine the frustration, the emotions at the end of the race for you. Can you just explain what happened between you and Esteban after the race? We saw your altercation. Did he do anything to antagonise you and will you try and speak to him at once when emotions have settled down later on?

MV: I don’t really have a lot to comment on that, except that he was being a pussy.

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – Revista VIP) From a drivers’ point of view, how do you see the future of Formula One to attract a young audience as self-driving cars and electric cars are being developed so quickly? And if you see a future better between Formula E and Formula One?

LH: It’s a difficult one because I’m conflicted. The gasses that we emit with our cars are not particularly helpful for the climate and for the world, so on one side that’s a concern for me but on the other side, as a racing fan, I’m a petrol head and I will always be a petrol head. There will never be a time when I’m an electric head. I hope, at least, in my period of time, it’s always going to be a fuelled car with at least some sort of V-shaped engine, with some sort of sound. I think it’s great what Formula E are doing and it’s a great start, it’s great to see all the top brands  - Audi, BMW, Mercedes – are all getting heavily invested because, particularly on the roads – just coming here, for example – you see the traffic every single day, there are thousands and thousands of cars on the road. There’s the same in every country you go to so the sooner we can get rid of the majority of those cars and then turn them into hybrids, then I think that would be a massive difference, but there are a lot of other things we can do around the world with businesses to help with those emissions. But I don’t think you are ever going to compare Formula One and Formula E. Maybe in five, ten years maybe, but the technology that we have, it’s quite far advanced compared to what they would be having and they’re slower than Formula Ford at the moment so they’ve got a long way to catch the speed of a Formula One car. I don’t know if that’s their target but I think it’s really impressive. I’ve been watching their cars on social media and they look pretty cool, so I wish them all the best and looking forward to seeing it progress.

MV: I think the boss clearly said of Formula E already that they don’t want to compete or be seen competing against Formula One so I guess that says enough. It’s just a different category. It seems like it’s getting more interesting, of course, with all the big car manufacturers joining in but at the moment I’m happy where I am and I will probably be one of the last people in the world to try and buy the last barrels of oil.

KR: Nothing to add, really. Formula E looks nice but…

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Max, you have more of an opportunity to talk about the incident with Ocon in a more extended way. Do you think that just one stop and go of ten seconds, against the work of 900 people in your team, that this punishment is enough?

MV: I think at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what penalty he gets. I already have the penalty of not winning the race so even if you disqualify him, give him two drive-throughs or whatever, it’s not going to make a difference to our race. I don’t know what the right penalty would be but, like I said, of course they have the right to unlap themselves but you have to be careful. I think that has always been the case.

Q: Max, can you just tell us how badly damaged your car was after the incident with Ocon?

MV: So, you know all the cut-outs you have on the side of the floor, that whole area, so I guess that’s this wide(about 15-20cms) that was completely gone so it was pretty bad. I lost a lot of downforce. I had to lock a lot of tools on the steering wheel but that was still not enough. But still the car was quick. We could have been much faster, for sure.

Q: (Dario Coronel – Gran Premioweb) Lewis, today your celebration was very emotional. Why?

LH: I think it was probably an explosion of the last race in Mexico winning the World Championship… I didn’t really feel the celebration there because I knew that we still had another championship to win and I really needed to remain focused for the team and I really came here, to build up to here, just really focused on making sure that I could deliver for them. Naturally the will to want to win is so high for everyone and the stakes are high. Ultimately, you could make mistakes and all these different things but we didn’t or I didn’t on the track, for example, so to come in and see my guys who I’ve come along this great journey with and we’ve had a lot of success but we’ve still remained fierce and competitive and I think our relationship is better than it’s ever been so just that bond, it was just a great great moment, plus it was a really hard race. I was constantly, like, talking to the car: ‘come on, keep going, keep going’ because we had this engine problem and I knew I could see  Max just in my mirrors so I was doing qualifying laps every lap to keep him behind, which is how racing should be really anyway. Unfortunately that’s not the case a lot of the time this year but… We’ve just won the World Championship for the fifth time so that’s real history in the making for the team and if I was to stop today, for example, Mercedes would always remember this day and that I was a part of it, and that’s cool.

Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD) Max, over the last days, you’ve told us a lot of times that this is not a circuit for Red Bull, winning was not an option. Ending 1.6s from the winner, with a spin, what does that say about your chances in Abu Dhabi in two weeks?

MV: I don’t know, because this was much better than expected to be honest. I expected to be good in the race but not this good. We will have to wait and see.

Q: (Mattheus Sacramento – ESPN Brazil) Max, there was a similar incident – not exactly the same – but in 2001 in Brazil with Jos Verstappen and Montoya. You’re too young, I’m not sure if you ever heard of it. Montoya was in first place and Jos was 16th I guess and they had a crash. I just wanted to know if you knew that or if that came back to your mind in some ways, that impacts the way you saw Ocon?

MV: Well, I think that was completely different but yeah, that happens. I don’t know what you want me to say, it’s always bad when you get taken out from the lead.

2018 Brazilian GP: Post-Qualifying Press Conference

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes) 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari) 3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

Q: Lewis, another pole position, you 10th pole position of the year. What have you got to say?

Lewis HAMILTON: That was a tough qualifying session. Obviously the weather was going up and down and we didn’t really know what to expect. Obviously Ferrari are incredibly quick this weekend a lot of work went on in the background with my engineers to make sure we got the car to be best place we could. I’m just really happy to be here in Brazil, you know, knowing I’ve got Senna’s design on the back of my helmet, so I mean… I didn’t know I had the pole, the last lap wasn’t that great, if I’m honest, I had a bit of understeer in a few places but I was so grateful when I heard I got pole.

Q: This place means so much to you. You can see the tribute you do to Ayrton every year and the Brazilian fans love you as well?

LH: I just appreciate so much the love that I get here. It’s been a crazy journey with the Brazilian fans. Obviously the first year I came here I was fighting against Felipe and I was almost the enemy when I left but over the years it’s really grown to I think adore each other. There’s a huge amount of respect I have for them and I love the country so it works hand in hand.

Q: What can we expect tomorrow. Obviously Ferrari are doing a different tyres strategy. I think you guys were going to do it but the rain compromised Q2, can you still dominate this race?

LH: I don’t know, we’ll see. You’ve seen how quick the Ferrari’s are. I mean, they had a lot more blistering yesterday than we did on the supersoft tyre. I don’t know if it’s correct but we wanted to be on the soft and things kind of swung us the wrong way. Right or wrong we will see tomorrow but hopefully still, with the choice we have, I’ll make the best of it.

Q: Enjoy tonight, at least you’ve got that four-metre head start tomorrow. Sebastian, coming very close there – P2. A different tyre strategy as we just discussed with Lewis. Are you happy with today?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I think it was good fun. In the end I had a tiny lock-up in Turn 8. I got a good start to the second attempt in Q3 and I thought I’d go for it, but it was a little bit too much, so I lost some time and didn’t improve. It was very close, so it was a fun session.

Q: I don’t know if you are aware but you have been called to the stewards for the scale incident. What do you have to say about that?

SV: I think it’s better if I don’t say anything… They shouldn’t call us, because when the conditions are changing like that I think it’s unfair if somebody gets called in and yeah, I wanted them to hurry up.

Q: How difficult is it for a driver and an engineer to read the conditions when it’s coming like that. Is it more the driver’s feel or do you have to stick to the weather systems on the computer?

SV: It’s a difficult one. Inside the garage we don’t really see much, you can’t see out. You have to trust the laps you did before. You have to trust the communication you are having with the pit wall on the conditions, what you see other cars are doing. But when it’s like this it can be anything, so I think in the end we all got lucky that we got more or less the same conditions for everyone, so as long as that’s the case then it’s fine.

Q: Well, I hope you put on a good show like you did in Mexico, show that fighting spirit. Valtteri, third today, not far away, but I guess you can’t be happy with that?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, not far away but here the margins are small. I knew this weekend I did have the pace to be on pole. I think it was there for me to grab but I couldn't take it today. I was more than two tenths up in the second run but lost everything in the last corner on the back straight without any tow, so it was quite disappointing.

Q: When you see the rain falling what do you feel as a driver? Do you keep pushing or is there a bit of trepidation?

VB: Yeah, it really depends on the situation but once the rain really started to come down luckily we already had a good lap on the board, so there was no need to take risks. But sometimes you need to go for it and try.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, that looked like an exciting session in tricky conditions. Just what were the conditions like?

LH: Well, the track was actually really good. There’s a lot of grip here and it’s a fantastic circuit. They don’t generally make circuits like this anymore. You’ve got the different… it’s quite hilly, but it’s a real challenge, even though it’s quite short. It’s very technical – but the grip felt quite good and obviously, the rain was popping in every now and then – but it was just spitting. It was difficult to really tell whether it was going to be slippery in the next corner or not – because when you’re travelling at the speeds we go at, on your visor, because you’re driving through all the rain, it looks like it’s raining more than it is. So, that was definitely tricky – but I think everyone did quite a good job with it – and luckily it held off so we could push at the end when the track was good

Q: You mentioned the speeds you’re doing here at Interlagos. Valtteri’s pole position last year was a new track record – you have taken more than a second off that time. Just how quick does it feel around here now?

LH: With the new tyres, with the soft tyres, supersoft tyres and the updates that we have to our car… it’s a smaller circuit, shorter circuit, so therefore the difference usually… for example our car is a lot quicker than it was last year at this point – but it doesn’t show as much. At other circuits it’s three seconds-plus. Around here a second is still quite a lot. So, it does feel great though, around here. Into Six and Seven it’s a little lift through there basically and flat though… there’s no other corners where you’re flat out, or anything like that but you definitely do feel… the grip is what you feel, it’s just amazing. It’s better than ever.

Q: Sebastian, coming onto you, less than a tenth of a second behind pole position. How are you feeling after that session?

SV: Pretty good. I think it was fun. I think the track was good, as Lewis said, and obviously very close. I had a good start to my final attempt but yeah, tried a little bit too hard probably, going into Turn Eight in the middle sector and locked the front and then lost a little bit the rhythm. Tried something special in the last corner, didn’t work so… yeah. All in all pretty happy. I think we got the car where it is happiest, and the balance was good in qualifying throughout, so we’ll see. We’ll start with a different tyre tomorrow. Maybe that can make a difference.

Q: Just to elaborate on that point about the tyres, do you think that’ll be the crucial point in the race?

SV: Hmmm… might be. I mean, I think it’s the tyre that probably most of us probably wanted to start on but then with the conditions it was a bit tricky. Yeah, in the end it wasn't really wet but there was some rain around the track, so yeah, happy that we got it done and now we start with a different tyre, so let’s see.

Q: Valtteri, fastest in Q2, you’re less than a tenth off pole position but starting third tomorrow. Just sum-up the session for us.

VB: I think the gap is a bit more than one-tenth but obviously, it’s a bit disappointing one red car got in-between us and the pace I had this weekend so far felt like I could definitely fight for the pole position, and I think it was there for me to grab it. But in the second run I was more than two-tenths up on my best lap but somehow Turn 12, just lost a little bit and then I think I was the first car out in the last run so I had no tow on the back straight and just kept losing time on the uphill. And I saw that it was not going to be an improvement, so for sure that’s disappointing but yeah, it was a strong qualifying for us as a team and another great pole for Lewis – but yeah, I think for tomorrow, we’ll see how our decision to go with the supersoft is going to… what’s going to happen.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Seb, could you just talk through the weighbridge incident please, just from your perspective – and are you now worried about getting a grid penalty for tomorrow’s race?

SV: No, I don’t want to talk through. I think it’s pretty clear what happened, so. I think we do qualifying, we should talk about qualifying.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Lewis, there was a situation between you and Sergey in Q2, I think. Can you talk us through that situation? It looked pretty scary from outside.

LH: Yeah, basically everyone was on an ‘out’ lap – me, Sergey and everyone in front of me – and when you’re on your ‘out’ lap, towards the end of the lap Valtteri was up ahead of me so he was backing off to get his gap so I had to make sure I kept a gap with him. As far as I was aware, no one behind was on a lap so I was making sure I had the gap but then all of a sudden, out of the last corner – sorry, out of turn 11 - I saw a car coming at high speed so I was like ‘oh my God, is that someone on a lap?’ so I went to move to the left and that’s where he decided to go but he wasn’t on a lap, so I don’t really know what his thinking was really, with it, because respectfully, between all the drivers, we all do respect… you know, I could have easily tried to overtake Valtteri or Valtteri whoever was in front of him. We all know to keep our space by that point so it was generally quite a disrespectful move in the sense of where it was dangerous between us both because I was not expecting it to happen that way, and so I was actually trying to get out of his way but he ended up going inside but then he got to the corner and then slowed up to  utilise the gap but then also I don’t know whether to slow my lap up or not. It was kind of strange. It was completely unnecessary because we had a space behind, behind him there was a bit of a space so ultimately his lap and my lap weren’t great from that so hopefully he can learn from it.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri, you talked about having a moment at turn 12, what happened on the lap? The car snap away or was it just not as quick?

VB: No, I didn’t really have a moment, I just lost a few hundredths there, I think. I think at the beginning of the lap it was getting very good, then the middle of the lap was average and lost a tiny bit in the last corner, but the main time loss, I think it was more than a tenth,  was just up the hill, just losing time on the straight. No drama, but definitely not a perfect lap but I think with a perfect lap pole would have been possible.

Q: (Michael Schmidt -  Auto Motor und Sport) Seb, in Q2 you were almost as fast as the Mercedes on the soft tyre, so the harder tyre, have you been surprised that there wasn’t a bigger gap with the supersoft?

SV: Yes, the lap felt really good, the tyre felt really good. You go into the weekend, you have an estimation of what’s the difference between the tyres and then you do your Friday running and you might correct it but I was definitely surprised, the tyre felt really good. I don’t think it was much slower. Yeah, but it didn’t feel… usually we were expecting something like three or four tenths but it felt really good. I was surprised when I crossed the line in Q2 because I also kept some margin for the rain so could have gone faster on that tyre easily. So if it’s that good tomorrow, then happy days!

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) You’re starting on different tyre compounds. Lewis has been quite outspoken in Austin, I think, when you started on the harder compound, that it was quite a disadvantage there. What do you expect just from starting on different tyre compounds?

LH: I was told that there’s not a huge difference, but there’s always a difference of some sort. It will definitely be a little bit interesting. It’s not a massive run down to turn one but Ferrari are very good at their starts in general normally. However, we are actually quite even in terms of the overall year performance with Ferrari. We’re actually quite equal with them, so we’ve both had a similar amount of good starts so I’m excited to just have a battle, you know.  But making that tyre last I think is going to be the interesting scenario but it is what it is. We’ll give it all we can tomorrow.

SV: Again, we have an estimation of what the penalty might be with the harder compound at the start but it’s a very short way to turn one so we’ll see. I have quite good memories from P2, starting P2 here so we will see. I think it depends a lot more on the job that you do at the start, to get everything right then a little bit of difference on the tyres.

Q: Are there similar grip levels on both sides of the track?

SV: I think so. The last years it was pretty even so, yeah. Usually the right side or the odd side here is a bit cleaner but I’m sure that with the other races across the weekend it should be fine, there should be plenty of rubber.

VB: Nothing to add.

2018 Brazilian GP: FIA Team Members Press Conference

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Jonathan Eddolls (Toro Rosso), Nick CHESTER (Renault), Ayao KOMATSU (Haas), Jock CLEAR (Ferrari), Rob SMEDLEY (Williams) 

Nick, it’s been a great last couple of races for Renault and it looks like you’ve pretty much secured P4 in the Championship. That was your stated aim at the start of the year, but just talk us through how satisfied you’ve been with the development curve of this year’s car?

Nick CHESTER: Well firstly, it has been a pretty tight fight, we’ve had a fight all year and the last couple of races have been pretty good for us. We’ve developed the car pretty hard all year. We knew we were going to have to and that it would be a tight fight. But it’s pleasing and I think if we have another couple of decent races towards the end of the year – Brazil and Abu Dhabi – then we’ll be about there.

Q: These past couple of races, as we said, have been good. Have you made a step forward that has allowed you to be that competitive on every track or has it been track specific?

NC: It’s been a bit track specific. We know that there are some tracks that are better for us than others. We’re a little bit better in slow-speed corners than high-speed corners but also we have been working the development to try to bring the car on through the year.

Q: Thank you. Jock, it’s been a fantastic battle between yourselves and Ferrari this year but there can only be one winner. Where in your opinion did it start to slip away from Sebastian Vettel?

Jock CLEAR: Yeah, it has been a fantastic battle and that’s why we do this sport. It’s seasons like this that you just relish, Obviously when you are on the wrong end of it, it is frustrating. But specifically, we haven’t really looked back at what point, as you put it, things slipped away from us. The fact is a season is season and the points we score in Abu Dhabi are just as important as the points you score in Australia, and to win a championship you need to put together a full season and we haven’t done as good a job in that respect as our direct competitors and we are aware of that. We look back over the season, we look at the strengths of what is probably the strongest Ferrari season for 10 years and we build on those strengths. I think the win in Austin is a testament to the fact that the team does come back and does fight back and we did understand some of the issues we uncovered in the second third of the season. The fact is that over the course of 21 races you have to score more points than the opposition. We haven't done that for Seb, we’re still in the hunt for the Constructors’ obviously and it’s going to be a tough battle here and hopefully to Abu Dhabi.

Q: Sebastian has been performing under a lot of pressure this year. How difficult do you think it’s been for him?

JC: It’s difficult to say really. The fact is drivers of his caliber relish the pressure. That’s again what I think, the top athletes pit themselves against the best and the pressure is the pressure. That’s part of the job. I think he has enjoyed the season. There have been highs and lows. I think he said recently that losing the championship in 2009 he found more frustrating. I think on the whole, he has come to this battle willing to take risks, willing to give it his all and we’re part of that. We’ve all done our part this year to the ups and downs. I think from Seb’s point of view it just gives him more strength to come back next year and say ‘this is unfinished business’.

Q: Thank you. Ayao, coming to you, Mexico aside, which was a bit of a blip for the team, it’s been a positive and consistent season fro Haas. In what areas have you improved the car since Melbourne?

Ayao KOMATSU: I think most of… all the areas. This is only the third year for us but this is also only the first year that we actually decided to develop the car throughout the season. The first year was all about operation. The second year we managed to focus a bit more on performance but third year we really focused on performance and improving the cars throughout the season. Of course last year we stopped development early to focus on this year, so that paid off. We are very happy with our baseline and how the team is operating, especially considering it is only our third season.

Q: So looking forward, there is a bit of a reset with the new aero rules. How are you guys dealing with that transition and how confident are you of retaining P5 in 2019?

AK: I think we are dealing with it as well as we can be. Obviously when the regulations changed from ’16 to ’17 that was a big change for us, that was going from first to second year. We were pretty aware of the challenge but we managed it. This year our understanding of the car, at least from an aerodynamics point of view, is reasonable, so yeah, I’m confident that our aero guys will do a good job again for next year. But if you ask me how confident am I to retain P5, of course it’s a competition, so we’ve got to do a better job than other people. So it’s not easy, I’m under no illusion and then going into our fourth again we need to look at ourselves, improving in every single department to have a chance of retaining fifth. So a huge challenge, but a challenge we will love to attack with our full capability.

Q: Thank you. Jonathan, we’ve talked about Haas’ development curve, we’ve talked Renault’s, can we talk to you about Honda? Specifically, where have they added performance and reliability over the year?

Jonathan EDDOLLS: Yeah, I think with Honda, honestly it was surprise at how good they were at the start of the year, given everything that we had seen in the press. They’d had a fairly… not a bad picture painted of them, but the expectation were lower than we experienced and they were already at a reasonable level. Through the year there have been two really big updates, the Spec 2 for Canada and then the Spec 3 fairly recently. The Spec 3 in particular saw a really big improvement in power, especially in qualifying, and that has really helped in some of the races and will help us for the next two races. Reliability has actually been relatively good. I think if you look at the number of PU penalties we have taken, it’s very high, and it doesn’t look like Honda has had such good reliability. However, many of those we have elected to take ourselves just to get Pus in the pool when we have had a bad qualifying for instance. Reliability has come on a long way and power is now looking good.

Q: Certainly is. Now while we’re talking progress, can we talk drivers as well, specifically Pierre Gasly? What has impressed you about him and in what areas have you seen him progress this year?

JE: Well, firstly he is very confident in his ability. He is a very fast driver and I think that confidence has grown throughout the year. Some the areas he has improved the most: tyres management. He was good already at the start of the year. As we know these Pirelli tyres are very difficult to understand in all of the conditions. Every race is different, every race presents a different challenge – graining, blistering, overheating. I think that’s one of the areas he’s worked on and developed the most. He’s still had a couple of races recently where it’s shown that we haven’t fully understood the tyres but the good thing with him is he’s happy to sit down after the race and go through everything – he’s massively keen to learn. The most recent races, he’s shown that in tyres management he has made big steps there. I think also his ability to track the grip in qualifying. Maybe at the start of the year, let’s say it was a surprise to him how much the grip would come up through qualifying and it can be quite difficult to track that run to run, but that’s another area that he has improved a lot.

Q: Thanks. Rob, some big news from you in recent days, you are going to leave Williams at the end of the year. Can you share with us why you are going to do that?

Rob SMEDLEY: Well, I don’t know if it’s big news, but it’s news I guess, on a quiet week. I think I joined Williams at a time when they were evolving from having a torrid time of it let’s say – the new regulations in 2014 and the part that I was going to play in the journey was to take on the vehicle science, the vehicle performance side of it, the race operations and to try to help out in that area and I think that if you look back at 2012, 2013 and from that point on, from 2014, with the huge effort that all of the guys that work in that department, we have been able to grow it, we’ve been able to improve it, and hopefully I leave it in better shape than it was. It’s a good group now, they’ve got good knowledge, good methodologies, we brought a lot of science into the way we use tyres, into the way we use the car in general, so that the team can go ahead and pretty much exploit any car that’s given to them, the race operations itself, the way the mechanics work. Hopefully it is in better shape than it was. It’s kind of time for a new challenge for me now, I think. Williams has got it’s own challenge in front it to come from where it is at the minute. I’m going to go away and take another challenge somewhere else. I’m going to spend some time at home – that’s first and foremost the thing I’m going to do. I’m going to spend some time with my family who have supported me for a long time. I’ve got to do that. I have no choice in that. But I’m very, very grateful that I can do that and spend some time being a normal husband, a normal dad and not going away every two weeks and not working until 9 or 10 in the office every night, so I’ll enjoy that to begin with and then we’ll go from there.

Q: Well, where do you go from there. Do you want to stay in Formula 1?

RS: Yeah, I definitely want to stay in Formula 1. Formula 1 is my passion. It’s been all my working life that I’ve been in Formula 1 and it’s still the pinnacle of motorsport. There are other series that are snapping at its heels but it’s still got a lot to offer. Formula 1, we’re working on it all the time, it’s not the complete package. It has so much more potential than what you actually see. So yeah, I do want to stay in Formula 1 on the technical side. I’m lucky, because I’m already talking to people and that’s a fortunate position to be in and we’ll just see where everything takes us.

Q: And just a final word on Williams? You know the team well, so what steps do you think the team needs to take next to regain performance and respectability in Formula 1?

RS: There’s never one magic bullet is there. I think in all areas really, you can never stop learning and improving. I think it would be a mistake to pinpoint one area and say that has to be the sole concentration or that’s the sole problem; it’s not. As with anything that’s not quite working as well as it should be, or as efficiently as it should be, with any business, with any organisation, it’s never one thing. What Williams need to do now… they’ve got strong leadership and Claire is at the front of that leadership and I think what they need to do at that leadership level, is they need a recovery plan and that has to attack all areas of the business. It has to be technical, but it has to be all the support structure of the business as well. There are areas that need modernisation, there are areas that need change and there are areas you should recognise that are strong compared to other Formula q1 teams but are not supported in other ways. It’s a long road, they’re a talented bunch there, there are some really good technical people, some really good engineers and a good management group and the trick now is they have to pull together and start to go in one direction.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Jock Clear. You worked with Michael Schumacher and now you work with Sebastian Vettel. Can you tell us what are the similarities in the way they work and the differences between them?

JC: Yeah, obviously I’ve worked with a lot of drivers so this question comes up time and time again. Sorry to sort-of evade the question direction but direct comparisons just aren’t there, with any of these drivers, with any of the World Champions I’ve worked with. They are themselves, they are characters within themselves, they’ve got their own way of working. On the face of it, if you stand back and say, ‘well, would operating like Michael have made Seb more successful, or even would Michael operating like Seb have made him more successful, they are what they are. You get the rough with the smooth. We don’t get the opportunity to make the ideal driver. So they all attack it in a different way. The opposition and the competition of the hour of the year obviously varies, so with all sportsman it’s very difficult to make direct comparisons. All I can say is that the common theme that all of these top drivers have is that they are exceptionally focussed. They are exceptionally sensitive to everything around them. And that’s not just the car. That’s the support structure and the people around them. And they require a whole load of things lining up to get those championships in the bag. And that’s where the team comes in. That’s why it’s not just about the driver. It’s not just about Schumacher or Vettel or Hamilton. It’s about the whole team. So we, with Seb, will create victories and championships, hopefully, down the line and it won’t be in the same way as Michael did.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) It’s a question to all five of you guys please. There’s a fair few people hoping that the rule changes on the front wing for next season will improve racing, make it easier to follow. The more you understand and learn about your respective 2019 challengers, how confident are you that this end goal will be met? And how much of a chance of there that this time next year we’re back and looking at the same things, same sort of numbers?

NC: OK, well, yeah, it is quite a big change for 2019. Big change to the front wing with wider span, different barge boards, different front drums, and I think the concept that the FIA have put forward to try and improve the wake to the following car is the right thing. Obviously in one year you couldn’t do all of the changes that are planned eventually for 2021. From what we’ve seen so far I think it’ll make a small difference. It’ll go in the right direction, so the following will be a little bit improved – but we’re probably going to have to wait until 2021 to see what the full package can deliver.

Jock, your thoughts?

JC: Yes, just to echo Nick really, on the face of it, it is going in the right direction. I think we’re all a little bit tentative about exactly what it’s going to look like and that is the fact of the matter. We’re going to have to wait until next year to actually see what the implications are – because of course ten teams will come up with ten solutions, some of which we won’t even have thought about and then that may well move the goalposts slightly. I think we are attacking the right areas. We are looking at the fact that close racing doesn’t necessarily mean everybody can overtake easily – but it does mean that cars can follow each-other and they can pressure each other – and I think that’s the thing we’re targeting. Just allowing cars to maybe be close battling in the future.

Rob?

RS: The only thing I would add to what Nick and Jock said is that yeah, I think Nik Tombazis summed it up quite well… I read an article last week and I think he said you’ll never get a Formula One car – which is essentially an aerodynamic formula – following like a touring car. It just won’t happen. Physics won’t allow that to happen. So you have to accept that cars are difficult to follow – especially with this generation of cars and the amount of downforce that they generate. So, y’know, it will be a little bit better, it will go in the right direction but we’ll all iterate to solutions to get us back to where we are in about six months.

Jonathan, anything to add?

JE: I think these guys have covered it. Obviously we haven’t ourselves done full overtaking simulations with the new regulations so I guess it would be unfair to say how much we think, as a team, it’s going to make a difference – but for sure, the start of next year will be a bit of a development race when we see all the different ideas and concepts that the teams come up with.

Ayao?

AK: A lot depends on other factors as well, such as tyres. So, we’ll see. I’ve got nothing to really add.

Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) A question for Jock. You mentioned at the beginning, looking at the season as a whole, and not pinpointing one position. It seemed that the common consensus around the middle of the season was that Ferrari had taken quite a decisive step ahead of Mercedes in terms of performance around Silverstone, Germany. Do you agree it was that significant? And if it was, how big a loss were those 25 points in Germany from Sebastian?

JC: Well, I can only say again that the value of points is the same throughout the year. Yes, I would say our car was at its strongest at around about that time and then we go on to Russia and Japan where we struggled in pure performance terms and we weren’t really in a position to take the fight to them. So, as I said, or as you’re saying, if you pinpoint specific areas, certainly you can highlight where they were stronger than us and we were stronger than them. But again, over the course of a season, we would like to now be in a position where we could win the next two races and win the championship for Seb. Or the Constructors’. Unfortunately, what’s gone before, the points are the points – but again, just to reiterate over the course of this season, we haven’t quite got it spot on at every race. The positive is we understand why. As I say, those couple of races where we did have a slump, we came back in Austin, we were brave enough to go back on some of the development, and that’s the kind of culture that we want to have now. That people are brave enough to say “OK, I think we’ve made a mistake.” We go back, we relearn what we thought we understood, and we come back in Austin and we win the race, and we were competitive again in Mexico. So that’s the positive to it. The championship position we all know.

Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Jonathan, with James Key on gardening leave, how is next year’s Toro Rosso being designed and who is in charge of leading the process?

JE: Obviously within Toro Rosso, luckily we have very good succession planning across all departments, so already before James left, we had a deputy technical director, Jody, and for the minute, he’s the deputy technical director so he’s filling that gap for us at the moment.

Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Apologies for pitching another one to the entire panel – but there you go. Calendar expansion. Looks like we’re going up again in size next season. The commercial rights holder has talked about maybe even going up to 25 in the future. For you guys as engineers, you thrive on creativity, attention to detail, all the types of factors that start to slip when fatigue creeps in. And you also have to deal with a travelling group of engineers and a group of permanent staff at home that are also looking at things. So, my question is, what is the effect of calendar expansion on your side of the business, and what sort of strategies can you come up with to mitigate those effects in the near-future?

AK: Yeah, obviously especially for small teams like us, increasing the number of races is quite tough. We don’t have so many people to substitute or rota in. And also in terms of process and procedure we’re still getting on top of what we’ve got now, so it’s not going to be easy – but it’s going to be the same of everyone. We’re happy to compete in this championship so whatever comes along we have to accept and take it. But yeah, it doesn’t really change what we try to put in place. But yeah, I expect the challenge for us to be a bit tougher than for bigger teams.

Jonathan?

JE: I think Ayao’s covered it. I think the key thing that we will need to do is look at more rotation. Some of the roles within the team, there is already a minimal amount of rotation. But I think that will need to expand to nearly all of the roles within the team. Probably the race engineer would stay the same throughout the season but almost all of the other positions, trying to do that many races with tests etc., just becomes too much. As you say, the fatigue is too high. It’s just not going to be possible. So I think we would have to cope.

Rob?

RS: Nothing to add really.

Jock – does it affect the big teams less than the smaller teams, the calendar expansion?

JC: Yeah, I would have to be honest and say it probably does. We have more strength in depth, we have more resource available to us. I think the only thing I would echo, as Jonathan said, we do have to actually look at how we’re using our people – because we want people to enjoy this. One of the great things about doing this sport, being involved in this sport is that it’s a passion for all of us. There’s very few people in this pitlane who wouldn’t be doing this on a Saturday and a Sunday if it was just their hobby. That’s the honesty of it. We would be doing this because we just love going racing with cars. And you want people to enjoy it. You don’t want people to be ground down after three years, saying, “it’s no good, I can’t do any more of this,” because people have come to this from six, seven, eight years old. They want to do it, and they’re passionate about it, and we don’t want to kill that passion. So, we’ll find ways to keep it enjoyable to keep it practically doable, and the racing will go on and hopefully it will continue to grow the sport.

Nick?

NC: Yeah, I think once you get towards 25 races you have to find a way to rotate a bit. People are already under pressure with 21 races. It’s a long season. The other thing is, it also puts pressure on the factory. You make bits for a lot longer through the year. So, there’s budget pressures and there’s factory pressure from making parts and obviously more freight to go with it.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Couple of questions, one for Jock, one for Rob. For Jock, I would like to ask you… we understood that you are changing the rules next year. I would like to know in which way that you are maybe working closer with Leclerc and how important is it for an experienced technician to work with a young guy? And for Rob, if one of your options on the table is to come back to Italy?

RS: Andrea, Andrea, Andrea…

JC: Do you want to answer yours first, Rob? Or have you?

RS: Go on, Jock.

JC: I think it’s no secret that with a change of driver line-up, we, as a team, are just going to cut our cloth accordingly, as we say in English, so I’m part of the team, I’ve recently made a longer term commitment to the team, and as such, I will use my skillset wherever we feel that’s best. I have a lot of experience with young drivers and a lot of experience with experienced drivers as well so with Charles coming in, I will help in any way I can to make his life easier, to ease some of the pressure and to make sure that we get the best out of Charles and out of the team as a whole over the next few years.

Q: Jock, just to be more specific on that, are you going to be Charles’s race engineer?

JC: It’s not all finalised at the moment but at the moment yes, I will certainly have a strong influence on his side of the garage and whether that is the job title or not we’ll finally decide upon but certainly I will be taking a closer attention to him than maybe I would have done on either of the individuals we’ve had – either Kimi or Seb – up to now.

RS: I’m going on holiday there (Italy) in January if that helps! I would say at this moment in time I’m not closing off any options. As I said earlier, I’m in a really fortunate lucky position that people want to talk to me so I’m talking and, as I said, there’s absolutely no avenues closed off. What I actually need to do is to at some point, towards the start of next year, is to get all the options on the table and after having spent a little bit of time away from it and being able to look at things with a clearer head, slightly less fatigued, then I will make a decision but until that point I will see what the options are as they come in and go from there.

Q: (Andreas Lopes – Motorlat) For Jock Clear: with Ferrari testing a new floor in previous races and then not used on Sunday in the race, can you explain what kind of problems you had or is it testing for next year?

JC: Well, there’s nothing really to explain. This is a process we go through at many events. I think we brought pretty much an aerodynamic upgrade to every race this year so we have various options open to us, depending on the circuit to circuit, we try and find the best combination. The positive is that we are producing these options, that the wind tunnel is continuing to produce effectively tools for us to use from race to race and that’s our job as race engineers on the operational side, is to make the most of the bits we’ve been given and that’s the process.  For example, you’ve seen this morning, in FP1, we’ll do a comparison between two floors, two front wings, bargeboards, those sort of things and then from then on, we’ll decide which combination is giving us the best performance for this track. And that’s just a normal process for us.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Do you already have numbers for next year’s cars’ lap times and how much slower are they compared to this year’s ones?

NC: Well, we’ve got some initial estimates. Obviously we’re only part-way through the tunnel programme and we’ve taken a bit of a hit back with the new rules and it’s going to be a question of how fast we can develop. I’m not going to give you the actual number because obviously it’s more interesting for us but yeah, I think the key is going to be how teams come back and how they develop over the next few months and into next year.

JC: As Nick says, any change, whether it be big or small, tends to impact the programme because these cars are so highly developed around what you actually have on the car. As soon as you change one part it does take a step back so I think we’ve probably all taken a step back, when we look at the new regulations and then gradually we will recover. What the lap time is, what the numbers say is absolutely irrelevant at this point because it’s all relative. We will do our best, we will develop our best but if somebody else has done a better job it won’t be enough. If everybody else hasn’t, it will be enough and we simply don’t know. All we do is we go through our process which is what we can trust.

RS: It’s a reasonably big change, what we’ve done at the front end of the car that Nick talked about earlier. We’ve got rid of all the furniture on the front wing, it’s a wider span, the brake duct winglets have gone, the bargeboard area is very different and what that does is it gives you much worse wheel weight control essentially. What will be really interesting is that there will be… there’s some really clear directions with which to work and certainly we’ve found some really clear directions of where we need to work to recover the performance and it will be just very very interesting I think, at the start of the season, to see the different concepts that come out but then you’ll probably find that there’ll be a really quick convergence as usual as we take the best concepts from all the cars and blend that into the normal lookalike Formula One car.

JE: Nothing to add. I think these guys have summed it up very well already.

AK: No, not really. Nothing to add.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) For Jock and Rob: Jock, how excited are you to work with someone like Charles next year? He’s going to be so highly rated and how important is it to manage him as an individual, not just a driver, when there’s so much expectation?  And Rob, when you had the experience of working as Felipe’s race engineer when he started with Ferrari, how important was, that managing all of that expectation and getting to know him as a person and building that relationship?

JC: Obviously we’re very excited. We’ve known Charles for a while now. We’ve had a relationship with him over a few years, from his days in the Academy so he’s not an unknown entity for us, we’re not going into this completely blind and clearly in his first year in F1 he’s showed some great potential, he’s had some great races so I think everybody is excited about the prospect, everybody knows what kind of pressure he will come under, that racing at the very sharp end is going to be a very different prospect for him, but that’s a challenge for us as well. One of the comments that many people made was ‘is he ready?’ Well, we have to be ready as well, Ferrari have to be ready to take this step. It is a brave step that Ferrari has made and we’re all pleased about the fact that we’re willing to make that step but we have to be ready to give him the opportunity and support him in the right way and hopefully he’ll go on to great things and I think the relationship with Seb will be important. We need to manage that very positively and make sure the team as a whole grows, not just on Charles’s side and not just on Seb’s side.

RS: Well, we’re breaking the ten year rule now so it’s quite difficult for me to remember! I think that the world was probably a little bit different back then. We’re all so much more aware of exactly what Jock’s just talked about, that the expectations going from Sauber to Ferrari, which is exactly what Felipe did in fact, are enormous and even within the hierarchy of Formula One, the pressure increases as you go further up the grid. In Ferrari, to the Italian nation, Ferrari is a religion and therefore that just brings all its own issues, challenges, if you like, but I think we’re all so much more aware of that now. If you go back to 2006 when Felipe came in, it was just… we kind of pushed him through the door and said to him get on with it. And we realised very early on that that wasn’t going to work. We had a slight change of management on his car after about three races into the season and it was at that point trying to understand where the issues were and what we needed to do to solve them so we were being reactive if you like and trying to help him to integrate into this brand new environment. Even though he’d done some Formula One, he’d never done Formula One at Ferrari level. But again, to repeat myself, I think things have moved on so much now, we’re so much more aware and I can imagine that Ferrari already have quite a lot of plans to be entirely pro-active with Charles’s entry into the team and then how he goes through winter testing, how he gets through those first races. Expectation management is a big thing in Ferrari and I think that they’ve been, ultimately, really intelligent with the communications that they’ve made over that, that Charles is there to learn, he’s there to integrate himself well into the team and his future is not decided on 2019. He’s a guy with a great talent, he’s got a huge future in front of him, definitely probably the biggest talent we’ve had come into the sport in a while. It’s a pleasure to watch him and he deserves it. As long as Ferrari manage it correctly then it will be a huge success.

2018 Brazilian GP - FIA Drivers' Press Conference.

DRIVERS – Brendon HARTLEY (Toro Rosso), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas), Lance STROLL (Williams), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber), Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Marcus, if we could start with you. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for you since Mexico. You’ve announced your plans for 2019, in IndyCar. Is that farewell to Formula 1 or do you see IndyCar as a stepping stone back to Formula 1?

Marcus ERICSSON: I don’t really know the answer to that question; I think that’s what the future will tell. I go to America fully committed to doing a great job over there. I see myself as being there for quite some time. But then in the future you never know what will happen. I’m just super excited to go there. I met the team and it felt really, really good. I think IndyCar, from the outside, looks like a lot of fun, so I can’t wait to get started.

Q: So that means your Formula 1 tenure is over, at least for now. How do you reflect on the last five years?

ME: It’s been amazing, I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s also been tough. Most of the time I’ve been running in back-of-the-grid teams and cars and that’s always tough, especially when you’re used to growing up through the junior ranks and you always fight for wins and podiums and you always go in with that mindset to a race weekend, and then the last five years that’s never been realistic and that’s been the tough part of it. That’s why also I’m so excited about next year, that I can actually be back racing for wins again. I bring a lot of experience and a lot of good memories from these five years, for sure.

Q: Let’s just finish by talking about the on-track performance of you and your Sauber. You had your sixth points finish of the year in Mexico. How confident are you of repeating that here at Interlagos?

ME: We are confident that we can be competitive here. I’ve scored points now two weekends in a row and I’m aiming to continue that. I think the car at the moment is competitive. We know it’s very tight there in the midfield but we’ve done a good job all year to improve all the time and we continue to do that and I’m sure we’re going to be in the fight this weekend as well. I feel really good, feel really confident so I’m sure we’re going to be there and fight for those points on Sunday.

Q: Thank you, Marcus. Stoffel, you're another driver who has announced plans outside of: is it farewell to Formula 1 or do you see Formula E as a stepping stone back into Formula 1?

Stoffel VANDOORNE: It’s a bit hard to tell. I’m starting a new challenge, which I’m really looking forward to, with HWA in Formula E. I don’t really have a break this winter, so I’m going straight into that and that will also be… my mindset is to do the best job there. So whatever happens in the future, it’s difficult to tell at the moment. You know, the driver market this summer has been a little bit crazy and no one could have really expected what has happened. Things like that can happen in the future and who knows what is going to happen. But for now I’m just focusing on Formula E and trying to do the best job there.

Q: So how do you reflect on your couple of seasons with McLaren?

SV: Definitely it’s not been the best two seasons. I’ve had a great time with McLaren through the junior series and they’ve supported me a lot to make the step into Formula 1. But the two years I’ve had in Formula 1 have been good in terms of experience but I would have much preferred to fight higher up. The timing was right to get to Formula 1 and I think I was with the right team, the right support, but I think just the competitive we’ve had over those two years have not been great. It would have been nice to fight a bit higher up.

Q: Well, we saw you back in the points in Mexico last time out, where you finished eighth. Just talk us through that result: what changed on the car, did you make a breakthrough, because you were more competitive?

SV: Nothing changed. That weekend we just looked a little bit more competitive in general. From my side that weekend went really well from the start. Qualifying wasn’t maybe the best for us but we were a little bit closer to the group in front, which usually means on race day we are a little bit better than them. It turned out to be that way. I think the tyre degradation helped us quite a lot there to be a bit more competitive and to make a bit of a difference. It was nice to finish eighth and get some points on the board and also quite important for us for the Constructors’ Championship.

Q: Thank you. Brendon, we’ve been speaking to these guys about 2019. Any update on your plans for next year?

Brendon HARTLEY: Pretty much the same stance I’ve had for the last races. It’s probably not worth going into. I’m still very much focused on my own performance, what I can do to get the most out of the weekend, working with the team. I’m focusing on myself and not much has changed, so there’s no real news to give you.

Q: You’ve started ahead of your team-mate Pierre Gasly in two of the last three races, so it feels like you’re getting a bit of momentum behind you. While we’re in reflective mood, can you just talk us through how you feel you’ve improved as a driver during 2018.

BH: Yeah, I definitely have improved and there was a lot to learn, being a rookie – an old rookie at 28 years old – but still a rookie in Formula One. Coming from LMP1 there was a lot of similarities, which I’ve touched on many times before but then also a lot of new things to learn. Tyres is a big one that springs to mind. Maybe the environment in Formula One, the style of racing, and I guess some of the external pressures that are sometimes put on you as a driver. I felt through the season… yeah, I’ve maybe hardened my approach, I’ve got stronger, I’ve learnt from mistakes, figured out, with the engineers what’s going to get the most out of the weekend for me, in terms of the car, the set-up. I think I’ve bought a lot of experience to the team and in the second half of the season I’ve definitely been stronger. Qualifying, me and Pierre have been quite aligned: sometimes he’s been just ahead, sometimes I’ve been just ahead. The races haven’t always worked out and I don’t think the points on the board is a true reflection. I think sometimes people do forget it’s also a team sport, it’s not just an individual, it is very much a team sport and I’ve been a team player. I think now the focus is really on making sure we’re ahead of Sauber before the end of the season. That’s the main focus for Toro Rosso right now and I think we’ve got an exciting couple of races ahead. Mexico we had really, really good pace considering we had the older-spec engine. Even with the issue I had on the first lap with the flat spot, I was still in a points position before the penalty and the damage, and I think that, knowing how much performance we can gain from the new engine, and potentially the new aero package that we’ll both have this weekend, I think we can be excited and optimistic for the last couple of races for 2018.

Q: You mentioned the upgraded Honda engine there. How much of an improvement is that? Is it something you can actually feel in the cockpit?

BH: It’s a tricky one to answer because these Formula One cars are very light and you have close to 1,000hp – I don’t know the exact number – and the objective from the drivetrain, which is massively complicated with three different engines and all sorts of calculations going on to make it all work but in theory you get power when you put down the throttle pedal and… I guess the point I’m trying to make is that every track we go to, we have different downforce levels, different altitude in Mexico, for example, so to feel a power increase is tricky for a driver but the lap time shows a story and there’s no question from everybody in the team and from all the data that there’s a really big step. I think we suffered a little bit in Mexico, especially in the racing environments and off the start line not having it – but we have it onboard again for the next two races and yeah, it gives us something to be optimistic about.

Q: Lance, we’ve spoken to everyone else about 2019, so I feel it’s only right that I should ask you the same question. When are you going to tell us what your plans are?

Lance STROLL: Yeah, well, right now I’m still focussed on the remainder of this season. There’s two races left, that’s where my heads at. We’ll see what the future holds.

Q: Can we expect an announcement about your future within this season or do you think it’ll be a winter announcement?

LS: I believe so. Time will tell. That’s all I can say right now.

Q: I think that’s you telling us to move on. We’re in reflective mood here. You’re coming towards the end of your second season in Formula One. Talk us through your ambitions in the sport now. You’ve been able to observe all the other drivers around you, including the world champions. What do you think you can achieve in Formula One?

LS: That’s dependent on a lot of things. I mean, right now I’m just taking it day by day, year by year. We’ll see – but there are so many factors in Formula One that are important. You need to be in a good car first of all – this year has been a good example: it’s been a very challenging year with the car. The performance really hasn’t been there and therefore we couldn’t score many points. So that’s a bit part of it – but yeah, I’m not looking too far down the line right now, I’m really just trying to, y’know, focus on the present, make the most of where I am currently and we’ll see down the line what happens. It’s too hard to tell, sitting here today.

Q: How difficult has it been for you to make the most of where you are currently, because it’s been a difficult season? What do you feel you’ve learned during 2018?

LS: Yeah, it has been very challenging. The car just hasn’t been there so we’ve just been surviving every weekend rather than actually competing. Been getting knocked out in Q1 a lot, most of the races I’ve had good starts and I’ve been in a points-scoring position, we’ve just fell back down the order so it’s kind of always been the case, we’ve just been on the back foot throughout the whole year. We haven’t really developed the car at all since Australia, I don’t think we’ve really improved the car at all. It’s been tough to see some of our competitors early on, like Sauber, for example, who were neck and neck with us at the beginning, make big steps in the right direction, compared to us. Yeah, it’s been a survival year, that’s all I can say. But I’ve still developed as a driver, I’ve matured as a driver. The second year in Formula One, more seat time, more experience. I’ve absorbed a lot of information, even though it’s been a very challenging year compared to last year but that’s the nature of the sport. As a driver, you have to accept that some years are more challenging than others and that’s part of the game.

Q: Kevin, we’re talking about 2018, so how do you reflect on the season that’s just been? It’s been a good year for you. You can clinch your qualifying head-to-head against Romain Grosjean this weekend in Brazil.

Kevin MAGNUSSEN:  Yeah, it has been a pretty good year, I think. It has shown that we are making progress with the team, year by year, and I think our aim should be to keep that up in the next season. I think this year it looks like we’re probably going to finish fifth in the Constructors unless we get some very good weekends in the next two weekends. That leaves us at least one realistic target for next year, to take another step forward. I think this year we’ve had a very fast car. We haven’t always scored the points that we should have for different reasons but the good thing about that is that we can go into next season and know that we can do better, because the performance is there.

Q: Well, Mexico really hurt the team’s chances of getting P4 in the championship, didn’t it? Both cars knocked out in Q1 for the first time this year; do you understand what the problems were in Mexico?

KM: Not quite, but I think we understand that it’s probably to do with tyres as we hadn’t changed the car so the only thing that really can be such a big factor is the tyres and I think in Mexico you have these factors like you have very little downforce because of the altitude and that has a lot of knock-on effects on different things so cooling as well and you run the car in a different window in Mexico. I think we got the tyre performance a little bit wrong so we suffered a lot in Mexico and that was a weekend to forget, definitely, but also at the same time we of course are trying to learn from it because last year and the year before the team also had a bad weekend in Mexico, so hopefully next year we can learn a bit more and get there a little bit more prepared, to not have such a big off weekend.

QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parks – New York Times) Stoffel and Kevin; Stoff you touched on your two years at McLaren, can you just expand a little on your relationship with Fernando, what you might take forward from those two years, having worked alongside an experienced double World Champion? And Kevin, could you just give me your thoughts on Fernando as a driver? I know you’ve expressed some disagreements in the past. Does that still hold true and what positives can you say about him?

SV: Yeah, for me it’s definitely been a good experience to go alongside Fernando, let’s say. The way he prepares a weekend – obviously Fernando’s one of the most experienced drivers on the grid. I think as a rookie it was very valuable for me to learn from that, especially the way he prepares his weekend, through the practice sessions, how he’s building up to the race on Sunday, how he’s trying to extract the most so there’s a definitely a lot I’ve learned over the past two years which I can carry forward.

KM: My respect for Fernando as a driver is very big. There’s no doubt he’s definitely one of the best drivers on the grid. Even though we’ve had some tough fights and a few arguments, there’s no damage to my respect for him as a driver. I think that’s it.