 |
| PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com |
DRIVERS
1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Sebastian Vettel, welcome back, 53rd victory, it’s been over a year, that must feel sweet?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it does. Obviously I’m a bit sweaty. No, I’m very happy. Great race. I think, first of all, big congratulations to the team. Obviously the start of the season has been difficult for us but in recent weeks I think we started to come alive. Really proud of everyone’s work back home. Secondly, I really want to thank the fans. Obviously the last couple of weeks for me have been not the best, but it’s been incredible to be honest to get so much support, so many letters, so many nice messages, yeah, people telling their own stories of when things might not go well and so on, so it gave me a lot of strength, belief and I tried to put it all into the track today, into the car and it’s nice when it pays off.
Q: Well, you know the game, you know there’s been criticism of late – this is the perfect way to answer it. Talk us through that strategy call. Now, my understanding is that lead car get the call on the pit stop, so when you saw Charles go past the pits did you drive that strategy call to come in and go for the undercut?
SV: It was a very late call. I thought it was a bit early, because I wasn’t sure that we could make the tyres last in the second stint. Obviously then I just gave it everything on the out lap because I saw the two cars in front of me not pitting, especially Lewis. I was then very surprised obviously the lap later to come out ahead. Then it’s been quite busy managing the tyres, going through traffic. I was trying to go through and slice through as quick as I could, maybe then to get a cushion and control it at the end but it didn’t work when the safety car came out. Obviously we controlled it to the end. The car was getting better and better. It was tricky at the re-starts on cold tyres but I think as first car you always have an advantage.
Q: I just want to push you on that. Did you make the call or was that your engineer?
SV: No, I was think… just the corner before, like Turn 21, the last turn before the pit entry I received the call. I don’t know if somebody pitted or all of a sudden the gap was big enough, but for me it worked today so I’m happy.
Q: Congratulations. Charles, astonishing performance yesterday, all looking great out front and then of course, just as I was asking there to Seb about strategy, that’s what undid this opportunity for you to win this grand prix. How are you feeling?
Charles LECLERC: Oh, it’s always difficult to lose a win like that but in the end it’s a one-two for the team, so I’m very happy for that. It’s the first one-two for the season. All the guys deserve it. We arrived here hoping for maybe a podium and we go back home with a one-two, so for that extremely happy. Then, of course, disappointed on my side, as anyone would be. It’s like this, sometimes it goes that way and I’ll come back stronger.
Q: Interesting that you say you came here maybe hoping for a podium. This track does sometimes throw an unusual result but do you have confidence that the issues that you had with the car prior to the summer are now resolved with the update?
CL: Let’s wait for a few grands prix but it looks positive here, a lot more positive than we expected. Quali pace, race pace was strong too, so they’ve done an amazing job.
Q: Just one more on the strategy. You were controlling the pace at the beginning, backing everyone up and there was no clear gap to drop into. How aware were you that the undercut was always going to be there as a risk and how much did that come as a surprise?
CL: Yeah, this was the strategy. The strategy was fixed at the beginning of the race. I stick to the plan. Then, at the end the most important thing is that we finished one-two.
Q: Max, well, more than maybe you expected coming into the race. Qualifying close but not quite as strong as we’ve seen from Red Bull in recent years… Third place though, you’ve got to be happy.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Absolutely. The whole race went well. Of course in the beginning it was all going really slow so everybody was very close together. Then I started to struggle a bit with the tyres so we boxed and actually that was quite a good call as we undercut Lewis at the end. From there onwards it was all about just managing the tyres home. It was a bit tricky with the safety cars at the re-starts because the tyres they get quite cold. In general happy to be on the podium. It’s always difficult to overtake here, so to do it by strategy is of course very positive. A good amount of points. A lot of things to analyse and to work on but still, happy to be in the top three.
Q: Three safety cars, did that take the pressure off physically, it was almost a two-hour race?
MV: Not really, because you have to warm up your tyres, so you’re actually working harder than when you are going flat out. It’s always going to be a tough race, especially at the end with Lewis pushing on, it was good, it keeps you going flat out until the end. It’s a good workout.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Charles, congratulations, second place. A good result for you but it was decided on strategy. Tell us how surprised were you when you saw that Seb had pitted?
CL: I was surprised because obviously I was not aware in the car, but I guess if this decision has been made it was for the good of the team and it had to be the only way for us to do a one-two. So if it’s the case I completely understand it, but obviously from the car it’s very frustrating. So not completely happy but yeah, anyway the overall result of the weekend is very positive. We hoped for at least one car on the podium for this weekend and we go back home with a one-two, which we definitely did not expect on a track like this. So this is very positive.
Q: You’ve said already that you’re going to come back stronger. What have you learned today?
CL: Well, to be honest, today I don’t think I could have done much things better or differently. Yeah, the only thing probably is I will ask a bit more about the strategy around me and who is not, because I was not aware, so I don’t know if I should have pushed a bit earlier during my first stint. I don’t know, we have plenty of data anyway and I will analyse it.
Q: Max, great result for you to come home ahead of both Mercedes. Is there anything you could have done differently to have beaten one of the red cars?
MV: No. (Laughs). It’s very simple. I could make it a huge story, but no.
Q: So you’re satisfied that was as a good as it was going to be. After qualifying you said the performance wasn’t good enough. Was the car better today?
MV: It was a bit better. I think in the race I could follow, a bit. I was not in a position to attack but at least I could follow the cars ahead of me around, they never really pulled away. Of course initially it was all about tyre management anyway, so I was driving really slowly. I think we pitted at the right time, undercut Lewis, that was very positive and from there onwards it was just about staying alert with the safety car re-starts as well, but I think we managed everything quite well and I think for us after the difficulties we had in qualifying it was still good to be on the podium.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frédéric Ferret – l’Equipe) A question to Charles. In the morning briefing for the strategy, was there a plan where the second would go undercut or the first?
CL: No, we didn’t speak about that plan so I think that will be one of the discussions too to try and understand why we didn’t speak about that situation before. But it’s impossible to go through all the possibilities in a race, all of them are unique but no, we didn’t speak about this particular situation.
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Charles, you said that you didn’t know that Seb had pitted. Do you think had you known that, you had the pace in the car at that time to push that little bit harder on your in-lap and make the difference and come back out on track ahead of Seb?
CL: At that time obviously the tyres were quite dead but probably before I had quite a lot of margin. In the first few laps, obviously we wanted to go as slow as we possibly could for the guys behind to not have the window to pit. So yeah, in that period I could have done a much better job but I stick to the plan and I think that’s what helped us to do one-two today – so yeah, you can always do something better but at the end I stick to the plan.
Q: Sebastian Vettel, your fifth win here in Singapore. Welcome back to the middle seat. It’s been a while. What is your overriding emotion right now?
SV: Happy! Obviously it’s been a good night. I knew that it would be tricky from where we started. I was trying to push as hard as I can at the start. It was very close with Lewis, very fair but very close, so I couldn’t really get ahead of him. And then I knew that, usually the races around here start very slow, and I knew that Charles would probably take it easy to control the race, which he did. Back in the train obviously it’s not so easy to stay close to the car in front, looking after your tyres, so that’s what I tried to do, to be able to stay with them as much as I could once they were picking up the pace. And I knew before the race that, as soon as I get my call to box, that’s when I can try to make something with this race. So that’s what I tried to do. It was very late, just last corner before the pit entry. I pushed as hard as I could on the out-lap. I think I was surprised Lewis didn’t react the lap after – but also surprised that they had such strong pace for a couple of laps. So we obviously had to clear them, and once that was done I really tried to slice through traffic as good as I could to have a bit of a cushion and maybe control the race from there. Didn’t work when the Safety Cars came but yeah, So I think the overriding emotion right now is just happy with how the night went.
Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) First of all congratulations Seb, it’s been a while. You were referring to some messages that you get by fans that cheered you up, directly after the race. Can you tell us what kind of messages those were and, as you’re not on social media, how did they even receive you? Did they write letters to your house or how exactly did you get the messages?
SV: There’s still a way, y’know? Obviously people were able to send messages before social media, even if that’s very difficult to imagine for some people today. A lot of little notes, handwritten letters, which… obviously if people make the effort to write something, when you find a bit of time in the evenings to go through, it’s really encouraging I have to say. Years ago, y’know, when you start its very difficult to imagine that people follow you and these kind of things but recent years, especially here, especially in Asia, I have a lot of support, a lot of fans that come over and over again. As I said, I just got a lot of energy in the last couple of weeks, just from messages that I received from the racing world, from people that I know, from a long time ago but especially fans. After Monza, and then coming here, so, as I said, people sharing their own story of when things are up and when things go down which obviously… for us everything is centred around racing but really it’s not the most important thing and, when you read through some of the notes and people’s struggles in life, some very intimate and private, you know it gets to you. It gave me a lot of belief and confidence to just keep trying. Obviously nothing was wrong in the last couple of weeks. I knew that we weren’t really far away from a breakthrough moment, sort of, but surely, you know Charles has been very strong and was right to win the last two races – but I knew on our side that we just need to keep doing our job and sooner or later things will fall in to place. So obviously I’m happy that it was rather sooner than later.
Q: (Cezary Gutowski – Przegląd Sportowy) Question to Charles. How difficult was it to keep your nerve in the car – because we heard lots of radio communications, lots of emotions. How tough was it to continue?
CL: Obviously I think during the Safety Car I was quite often on the radio. But then as soon as the Safety Car went away I focussed on the job and tried to do the best of my race. Of course, in the car it’s frustrating and then as soon as I thought a little bit more of the situation after it, then you see the things maybe a bit differently. Even though I still need some explanations just to understand fully why this decision was taken. But yeah, of course it’s always frustrating in the car because you only see your situation and you don’t see everything else.
Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Sebastian, congratulations. To get the result after so many questions about your form and the slump that you’ve had, how satisfying does it feel to hit back and, I guess, answer your critics?
SV: Maybe less satisfying than you think. As I said about form and stuff, I don’t think there was anything wrong. So it wasn’t like we were lacking speed or anything. I think it’s much… I think I could have done a better job yesterday. Obviously recently, I think there was nothing wrong in general. Things weren’t maybe falling in place, plus obviously I messed up in the race in Monza, that’s my mistake, otherwise I think I… you know, it’s a long race and a lot of things could happen. But yeah, overall, it’s part of the game. I’ve been around now for a long, long time and yeah, it’s just how the tide turns sometimes. I have the highest expectation on myself and I’m not happy when I’m not delivering what I know I can. Certainly I had moments this year when I was struggling to just get it out. So, I know that I can improve from there, so I can’t be happy with that – but yeah, equally I know that it wasn’t as bad or disastrous as maybe then people put it together. So, I think if you’ve been around for such a long time and you’ve had so many good moments then obviously you get hammered when there are bad moments. I think that’s just part of the game.
Q: Sebastian, is there a sense of relief this evening?
SV: I’ve had that question now a couple of times. Not… yes in a way maybe it kicks in a bit later but yeah, maybe just a confirmation that if you keep doing what you do… moments where you know that things are wrong and you need to make changes but lately I didn't feel that any big changes are necessary. In that regarding it’s a confirmation but it’s not like ‘finally I can breathe again’. It’s not like I felt in a wrong and bad place. I knew that I have to pull through and go through it myself. So, yeah…
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Sebastian, this time you don’t need to change around the number one and two signs although Charles might differ on that. But just building on from that, was this a team victory or more like a personal victory for you?
SV: I think you are very misled if you ever think that you are bigger than this team. I don’t think any individual can be bigger than this team. I said on the radio, the first thing is obviously this is a victory for the team because if you look at the hard facts then we came here after we got completely destroyed in Hungary. We had a minute gap between the leaders, the winners and us and coming here, similar track at least in terms of car specification, to be in a position where we were able to fight for pole yesterday and take control of the race, that’s a team success, as I said on the radio and that’s what I honestly feel. So of course you’re looking after your own race and for yourself but I think nothing can beat this team. I was very down after Monza for myself but up for the team and obviously today I’m a bit more up for myself but still very up for the team, as I said, because it was also a very positive surprise with how we were able to be more competitive here. Having said that, I think we still can do better; we must do better. Mercedes was very strong on the used set of softs once we all came in. I don’t think we had that pace in hand so there are still things we can look at.
Q: (Erik van Haren – De Telegraaf) Max, what is your overall conclusion after this weekend, your overall feeling? Quite happy about today or more of the disappointment of yesterday?
MV: Not good enough. We came here to win and clearly didn’t. Yesterday I think was worse than today but I would say it’s a little wake-up call. From Austrian onwards, it’s maybe our worst race in terms of performance, where we expected to be really good. I have a few ideas why it went wrong so we will analyse all of them and see if we can already be better in Sochi. The layout is not that amazing for us but you can clearly see if the car is working through corners or not. I think here, clearly, in too many corners the car was not working like I wanted it to. We’ll go home and see what we can do better.
Q: (Tony Dodgins – Channel 4) Charles, obviously the strategy with Seb made sense with Lewis there but once you were running one-two at the front, did you anticipate that the team might swap you back round again, as we’ve seen at other races and was that discussed on the radio?
CL: No, that wasn’t discussed on the radio. I just waited for the decision of the team, whether they thought it was the thing to do or not, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t expect anything, I just focused on the job I had to do and then waiting for them to say anything, if they had to say anything.
Q: (David Coath – Motorlat.com) Max, after the third safety car, obviously Lewis was in the DRS zone. What do you feel was the key to keeping him behind as he finished 0.7s behind you?
MV: Yeah, he was pushing hard. My tyres were going off a little bit but I think it’s quite normal. His tyres were seven or eight laps better than mine and with seven laps to go I didn’t have any problems so it really started to be with four laps to go and then you could see he was closing in so I just had to make sure I had good exits out of some crucial corners where I knew he was going to be quick. We managed to do that. I guess the people in the garage were a bit more nervous. I was just focusing on getting good exits.
Q: (Oliver Davies – sportskeeda) Sebastian, it’s just been over 391 days since your last victory in F1, roughly, but specific. How do you rank this win out of your victories in F1, because you’ve had a bit of a long wait to get back at the top?
SV: I don’t know, to be honest. Obviously I’m in a very, very lucky position to look back on so many but you always look forward to the next one. Obviously it took a while but as I said, I’m not happy if there are chances that I don’t take and obviously there were some chances, well deserved by Charles, the last weeks. Things that I should have done, could have done better but you always look forward to the next one so I’m happy for today but fairly quickly you turn the page and you want to do better the next race. It’s been like this since I started and still like this. One day maybe it’s not like this any more and then maybe it’s time to do something different, I don’t know.
Q: (Wojciech Paprota – SwiatWscigow.pl) Seb, Charles, over the last couple of minutes you said that so many things have not been discussed within the team. How would you describe the level of internal communication within the team? Is it fine, is it not perfect; how would you describe it?
CL: I think the level of how much we speak in the team is very good. Then there will always be situations that you don’t speak about, otherwise the meetings will be eight hours longer and I don’t want that. They’re already very long. I think it’s very good, the way we work but again, there will always be situations you don’t speak of.
SV: Obviously we try to speak about things in the race etc, what can happen and so on. As you might imagine, you try to get on with your job in the car but as I said previously as well, I think it’s an exception team and the team stands first. I think we aware of that.
Q: (Alex Garcia – Diariomotor.com) Question to both Ferrari guys: it’s the first time since 2008 that Ferrari has won three races in a row on different tracks and we know that Singapore has a tendency to throw up the odd result but what are the implications for Ferrari coming back to the pace that you didn’t have maybe at the start of the season?
SV: Well, I’ve been around for a while now with Ferrari and I think there’s only one way for Ferrari to be back which is when we win the championship. That’s a very harsh judgement but that’s what it is, that’s the reality. We’re working very hard on that. I think this year will be very, very difficult to turn things around with the current form that Mercedes has for the last 15 races or 14 races that we did now, but we keep fighting because anything we learn this year will help us next year, so the bits we brought here obviously are positive in terms of also looking to next year’s direction, development etc. But we need more, obviously we want to be the best team, which currently we are not. The last races have been good for us so that’s great for our self confidence inside the team for everyone, but there’s still a lot of work ahead of us.
CL: I really hope so. It will be difficult because I’m pretty sure that the other teams will bring some upgrades too in the next few races but it’s looking good. We’ve had two opposite characteristics of tracks in the last three weeks and we’ve been quick in both of them and I think it was quite a big surprise for us but for every one to be quick on a high downforce track like here. It’s a good thing and I hope it’s a good sign for the future.
 |
| PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com |
DRIVERS
1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)
Q: Charles, congratulations to you. I mean, man, that’s three out of three pole positions. Everyone expected at Spa and Monza but you’ve lifted it to another level?
Charles LECLERC: I’m extremely happy about today. If you look at the lap, it was a good lap, a very good lap, but there were some moments where I thought I’d lost the car that I took back and at the end, finishing the lap, we are in pole position. I would like to thank the team so much for what they have done. I mean, we came here knowing that it would be a difficult track for us but the team has done an amazing job to bring the package that we needed and I’m extremely happy to be on pole for tomorrow.
Q: On the back of Monza they did bring this package and it certainly revitalised this car around this track. Explains how it feels and why it is so different?
CL: Well, we brought some new bits and they worked properly, which was good to see. It’s not always the case, but it was this weekend. I’ve had a very tough Friday. Yesterday was definitely not my day; I didn’t feel comfortable in the car, but I worked quite hard and today it paid off, so very happy.
Q: All the best for tomorrow, that team is fully behind you and I hope you put a good race on. Lewis, you needed a superhuman lap after your first run in Q3 to put yourself on the front row and to put yourself in position to fight this man?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, I don’t know where Ferrari picked up their pace today as this is potentially not one of their tracks, but they did a great job. Charles obviously put some great laps in and it really needed something special at the end so I gave it absolutely everything I had. It was very, very close to the wall a couple of times but it was as much as I could get out of the car and I’m very, very happy to be on the front row in the mix with them so we can try to divide them tomorrow.
Q: I guess your confidence in the race pace will pay off tomorrow and this is a hard race. It’s a long one that you’ve got to be there at the end?
LH: Yeah, I think tomorrow we can be aggressive…
Q: Different to Monza?
LH: Ha! Well, it’s a street track but we’ll see.
Q: Sebastian congratulations, the crowd are behind you. I know you had a very good lap at the start of Q3 there. It slipped away at the end but I guess overall you should be satisfied?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously not really with Q3 – the final attempt should have been better. Overall, the car was making sense, I was feeling good and I was able to improve run by run, so maybe I peaked a bit too early. I think the track was probably bit faster at the end. As I said obviously I had a tiny wobble, so no point finishing the lap because I was already quite a bit behind, but it puts us in a good position for tomorrow.
Q: You’ve got a lot of experience around here, you’ve won races, and you know it’s a long game. Are you feeling confident with the car you’ve got when it’s heavy and with high degradation?
SV: Well it will certainly feel different tomorrow than it did today, but overall, yes. I think it should be a good race, so let’s see what the tyres will do, if we are able to push the full two hours, or if we have to manage, but one way or another it’s always fun around here so looking forward to it.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Charles, many congratulations, that looked like a sensational lap. Can you just describe that pole position lap to us?
CL: It was quite a crazy lap. The first one I compromised it. I started the lap too close to Lewis and that compromised the second sector and then I had quite a bit of pressure to perform on the last lap so I gave it all. There were quite a bit of mistakes, I lost the car quite a few times and I’ve seen myself in the wall at least twice or three times in the lap, but it felt amazing, the car was great. Friday was a very difficult day for me and to come here in qualifying and do the pole position feels absolutely amazing.
Q: How surprised are you by the pace of the car this weekend?
CL: Very surprised, because even though we knew there was a bit more to come yesterday we did not expect to challenge neither the Mercedes nor the Red Bulls. It’s quite a big surprise for the whole team but it juts proves how good a job they have done back at the factory and today it’s also thanks to them if we are on pole.
Q: Lewis, if I can come to you and maybe start with that subject. How surprised are you at the pace of the Ferraris?
LH: Well, we obviously came into the weekend knowing we would have a fight with the Red Bulls and it’s just knowing how the Ferraris have been in other places with high downforce, they’ve not been so strong – Budapest for example – and all of a sudden they’ve brought an upgrade here and it seems to have worked. Of course we were not expecting to have such a strong performance from them and to have that deficit to them. But they did a great job and I’m grateful that was able to split them – only just. But we were definitely lacking pace today, it was definitely a struggle out there to battle with them and be up there. I like how close it was between us all and hopefully that puts us in good stead for more good fights.
Q: And how was Q3 for you – quite a big jump between your first and second runs?
LH: The day has not been that great. I mean yesterday was a much smoother day for me and today was just a little bit of a… I feel like performance was lost a little bit today or else everyone else just improved. But Q3 the first lap run was so-so, didn’t feel so good. Obviously we were a second away and it looked like quite a leap to catch them up but yeah, then I just managed to pull back half a second in that last run, a nice clean run, but still just two tenths down in that first sector, which is obviously where it was lost.
Q: Sebastian, Lewis says he wasn’t pleased with his first run of Q3 but you were fastest of everyone. How was that final segment of qualifying for you?
SV: It started off very good and then, the last run, I think already in sector one, lost a little bit and was playing catch-up, and trying to take more and more risks throughout the lap which didn’t pay off. And then yeah, the last lap obviously didn’t come together. So, I think, yeah, overall it's a good result of us putting the car, y’know, first and third for the team is great. I think it wasn’t the track where we expected to be so strong, so happy with that but obviously not happy with the very end of Q3. I think the car was good today and pole was up for grasp – but let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Q: What about tomorrow? The long run pace of Ferrari versus that of Mercedes and Red Bull?
SV: It was worse yesterday but yeah, I think we were able to extract quite a bit more from the car today, so let’s hope tomorrow is more like today.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Charles. Can you tell us more about the two hard moments you had near the wall and how you catch the car in that time. Where was it?
CL: I think whenever you lose the car, you don’t really know how you do it, it just comes instinctive and, yeah, these two times you are thinking about I think is exit of Turn Three and exit of Turn 11. These ones were quite big times. I was actually quite surprised I didn’t lose so much time by losing it that much but yeah, everything after that went smooth and I was just giving it all. So, yeah, it felt quite intense in the car but I’m very happy.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To Charles and Seb, the upgrade here, how much of a difference has that made? How different does the car feel to Hungary, for example, high downforce. And Lewis, you talked about that deficit that you had in sector one. The Ferraris have been really quick on the straights this year, how ominous is it that they have picked up a bit of downforce as well?
CL: On my side I struggle to compare two tracks. It’s quite difficult but performance-wise, it seems that it’s working. I think data-wise it was working yesterday for the engineers too. I think, from Hungary to now, we’ve understood also the car better in a way that we know the balance we need to achieve in order to have the best performance and I think that has also showed in the results on track. So, I think it’s a combination of knowing where the balance needs to be and the improvements that we’ve made on the car.
Q: Sebastian, anything you can add: Hungary to here?
SV: First of all, different tracks. In Hungary, if you speak about qualifying, maybe it's the one to compare but for now, for tomorrow, we don’t know yet. I think we didn’t have such a great balance. I think some corners were very good; other corners we lost a lot. It seems like this weekend we’re not losing in those corners that we were losing in Hungary. So I think it’s mostly adding performance to the car and in the right place, so we were able to trim the balance, so that, yeah, we could extract more performance.
Q: And Lewis, how ominous is the pace of the red cars?
LH: I don’t know where they’ve picked up their pace, obviously. For a street circuit like this, earlier in the year they were not as close but they’ve obviously done a great job. I don’t really know where we’re losing it. Obviously in that first sector is a bit of a loss to us. I think some part of it is straight line but then they’ve been able to match us in the middle and the last sector, so I think just overall, clearly a big step for them and we’ll just keep pushing. We’ve not had an upgrade really for a while, so maybe when that comes it’ll help us a little bit.
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Another question to the Ferrari drivers. Can you explain why you were losing so much time yesterday and how much you changed today to find all that pace – because it seems like a real night and day shift between yesterday and today?
SV: Well, not that much. Obviously, yeah, yesterday we suffered with a lack of front grip, so we tried to put more front in the car. I think tonight with the temperatures dropping, etcetera, it seemed to come alive for us. I think that’s the biggest difference. In terms of spec, and so on, it’s exactly the same as yesterday.
CL: Yeah, I was not happy with my driving yesterday. I think there was quite a bit into it. It was not a great day for me. So, I improved quite a lot driving today. And, as Seb said, also the balance we improved quite a bit from yesterday to today.
Q: (David Coath – motorlat.com) A question for each of you please. With the reverse grid proposals, you would be starting 20th, 19th and 18th. Your thoughts please on any discussion that people talk about a reverse grid.
CL: I would not be happy. I’m a lot happier to start first tomorrow but yeah, I don’t think it’s the solution for Formula 1. I think the best shall win and start in the best place and not reversing that order. I don’t think it’s the solution.
LH: I don’t really know what to say to it. People that propose that don't really know what they’re talking about.
SV: I think it’s complete bullshit to be honest. I think we know… if you want to improve things I think it’s very clear we need to string the field more together, we need to have better racing. So, it’s just a plaster. I don’t know which genius came up with this but it’s not the solution. It’s completely the wrong approach.
LH: He said it better than me…
Q: (Daniele Sparisci – Corriera della Sera) To the Ferrari drivers: when did you start realising that pole was possible? This morning in FP3 did you see the car improving so much?
CL: I thought the car was improving in FP3 but I expected Mercedes… It wasn’t a clean run for Mercedes and Red Bull this morning. We didn’t really know what to think but I think from then Q1 and then yeah, through Q1 I understood that we could have an opportunity for pole.
SV: To be honest, I think Q2 is normally when people start putting serious references in and we were about there. By then I realised that we might have a chance for pole. The car felt very good.
Q: (Oliver Davies – Sportskeeda.com) Charles, that’s three pole positions in a row, a fifth career pole position all in this season. Just how confident are you, how big is it, has it grown more and more each week because you’re only 21 but you’re achieving things very young? How do you feel so far?
CL: It feels great but yeah, you enjoy qualifying for a very short time because then you need to focus on the race and in the end there are no points awarded for the pole position, which is a shame. It’s great, it’s very good to see that we are on pole on a track like this where we expected to struggle but on the other hand, me personally, I’m just focusing on the race now and I will, of course, be very happy if I’m in the same position tomorrow.
Q: (Joe van Burik – RacingNews 365) Charles, how does it feel after two victories and now the pole position for tomorrow, to be the young driver everyone is looking at after Max has had his success earlier this season?
CL: Well, it feels good, it means I’m doing well so that’s good. I think a pole position always feels like very, very good, just because we are all on the limit, we are all trying to put everything in this one lap and once you manage to put everything you wanted in that lap and that you finally get pole position it always feels amazing.
Q: (Andreas Haupt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, do you feel that with a perfect lap you could have matched Charles’s lap time or even be ahead of him and what was the problem on the second lap in the first sector?
SV: Well, I didn’t do it so obviously it’s all if and so on. I think the lap time was possible so I thought the first run was good, it was a good reference but I thought that especially in sector three I had quite a bit of lap time in hand and parts in sector two. And then in the last attempt I lost the car a little bit through turn three in sector one and then again in turn nine. From that point onwards I was a little bit down compared to the previous lap and was sort of trying to catch up and probably did push a little bit too hard so simple as that. Then had a bigger mistake in 18 so from that point onwards that was quite a lot of lap time lost. As I said before, the car was good, I felt good so obviously a shame that I didn’t put together the last attempt in Q3 but I think it was there today.
Q: (Oliver Davies – Sportskeeda.com) A question for all three drivers: out of all the races on the F1 calendar, would you say this is probably the most brutal test out of them all, because of the conditions out there on the track?
SV: Yeh, but brutal in which regard? Physically? Well I think physically it’s tough because obviously it’s very hot and there’s hardly any place to rest. In terms of bumps, it was a lot worse ten years ago, they’ve made it a lot better throughout the years. Yeah, I think in the race it will be a different story because we have to manage tyres most likely, so it would be a lot more fun if we had the possibility to push nearly as hard as in qualifying throughout the whole race. That would be the ultimate test so tomorrow will be quite a bit easier in that regard, but still, it’s a long race.
CL: Yeah, as Seb said, physically it’s demanding but I also think that mentally it’s quite demanding because obviously being a track circuit you cannot lose any concentration and the first mistake you make you pay (for) it so yeah, I really like driving here.
LH: I feel the same as these guys. They answered it exactly the same as I would answer it.
 |
| PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com |
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Zak BROWN (McLaren)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Guenther, you’ve just confirmed Romain Grosjean for 2020. Can you just talk us through your reasons for that decision?
Guenther STEINER: We just woke up one morning and decided to do it.
As easy as that?
GS: Easy at that.0
Q: How close was the decision – with Nico Hülkenberg, for example?
GS: So now we have to work, you see? We have to pull more out! We talked with him and, in the end, decided to go with Romain.
Q: Just talk us through Romain’s strengths… weaknesses?
GS: Weakness as well? Where should I start! No. Romain’s been with us a long time and we looked at ourselves and in the moment the drivers are not our issue, it’s the car. So in the end we decided to focus on the car and keep the other things stable and therefore we resigned Romain for another year. We know his weaknesses – a lot of people know that he has very big highs and very big lows as well. So, hopefully it’s time to change. I’m waiting for that and maybe next year is a good year.
Q: Guenther, how can you help him be more consistent?
GS: I try to talk always. If someone’s got anything to teach me, I am here. Just make an appointment with Stuart and I’m listening very good.
Q: Fred, on the subject of Nico Hülkenberg, is Alfa Romeo a viable option for him?
Frédéric VASSEUR: We are focused with Antonio. Antonio had a very tough weekend in Spa but a strong recovery the week after in Monza. We want to help him to develop and continue to improve. It will be time to discuss about the future but I am really focused on Antonio, that I think he is doing, step-by-step, a good job.
Q: What has he got to do? What does Antonio have to do to retain his seat?
FV: Everybody is under pressure in the paddock and it’s not only the drivers: we are under pressure and Formula 1 is a world of pressure – but we have to deserve it, all of us, and Antonio also.
Q: And you feel he has the speed? Is it a consistency thing with him?
FV: The speed is there for sure, that he is matching Kimi in quali since the first one and we have absolutely nothing to complain about the speed.
Q: And so consistency with him. Is that what you want him to work on?
FV: I just want to score more points – but as does everybody.
Q: Zak, it’s been a slightly difficult period for the team since the Summer break, during which Renault have taken a chunk of points out of you. First of all, have you taken extra precautions here to improve reliability?
Zak BROWN: No. I think you’ve just got to keep going racing. Our pitstop obviously cost us in the last race, we understand why so we have addressed that so hopefully we won’t have a repeat. No, you know, the last couple of races haven’t been great but that’s racing. Still seven races to go, so it’s going to be a close fight to the finish.
Q: How important is momentum for a team like McLaren?
ZB: I think momentum in the sport is important for everyone, whether it’s drivers or race teams. It would be good to come away from here with a good result, given we’ve had two poor races. This is a tricky track; who knows what the conditions will be. I think you’ve just got to stick to what you know and put those races behind you and focus on this weekend.
Q: And given McLaren finished sixth in the Constructors’ Championship last year, how important is fourth for you this year?
ZB: Well, we want to improve on last year. In reality, we were seventh, because of the points situation with Force India. So, on our road to recovery, we just want to improve incrementally, so fourth would be great but I think that’s about as much as we could realistically achieve. It’s going to be tough holding on to it but we’re up for it and we’ve got some very good competition from Renault and Toro Rosso’s not far behind.
Q: Cyril, same question to you first of all: how much importance does Renault place in fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: It’s relatively important. It’s important in the sense that we were P4 last year and everyone is expecting, and everyone around us, including ourselves were expecting to be able to equal that result, if not to improve it. Improving, we know, is going to take time. So going backwards is not great. We had fantastic momentum from ninth, sixth and fourth in the last three years. We’d like that momentum to continue but, you know, it’s a sport. We’ve missed a number of opportunities for scoring big points – but we seized one last weekend. That’s good. It’s going to be an interesting fight. It’s a fight that we are also honoured to have – because McLaren is a great team, they recovered a lot, they have a very good chassis so, you know, it's a decent and honourable fight.
Q: And with the confirmation of Romain Grosjean staying at Haas next year, that’s one less option for Nico Hülkenberg. How sorry would you be if him leaving Renault was to force him out of Formula 1?
CA: It would be difficult. Because, I think I’ve said it on a number of occasions, we feel Nico has been a pillar in the team’s construction. He’s obviously also a great driver. He’s a huge professional outside of the track, has got huge experience and, for me, whether it’s between Renault and Nico, or Formula 1 and Nico, it will be unfinished business. So, I can’t do anything but really hoping he will find a way forward but it’s a bit out of our hands now.
Q: Christian. Alex Albon has had two races with the team now. How would you sum up his progress so far?
Christian HORNER: I think he’s done a very good job. I mean, obviously short notice when he got into the car but his drives in both Spa – particularly Spa in his first race, the recovery that he made to P5 was really impressive – he had a strong weekend in Monza as well. And so everything that he’s done so far, I have to say, the whole team’s been very impressed with.
Q: And looking ahead to this weekend, Red Bull has scored 12 podiums here in Singapore, which is double that of any other team. FP1 went well for you – so how do you fancy your chances looking ahead to Sunday?
CH: Impressive statistics but unfortunately Mercedes have finished ahead of us quite a few times in the last four or five years – so I think they are very much going to be the favourites here. Lewis is always strong at this circuit. We’ve got a competitive car and we hope to be able to take the fight to them. We pushed them hard last year. Hopefully we can go one-better this year. Max has been in fantastic form during the summer months and had a positive first practice – but that’s only one practice at the start of a long weekend.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Christian, on drivers for 2020, when do you expect Red Bull to be taking a decision? Do you think this will be something that will come after the end of the season?
CH: We don’t need to be in any rush. All the drivers that are under consideration are under contract, so we’re in a unique position where we don’t need to rush anything. So, we’ll take the fullness of time to look and evaluate the progress of Alex and measure it against Dany and Pierre.
And as a follow-up Christian, it is just Dany and Pierre? Would you look at Nico Hülkenberg, for example?
CH: Nico isn’t on our list. He’s a great driver and it would be a great shame not to see him continue in Formula 1 next year. He’s a professional driver that arguably hasn’t achieved his potential in Formula 1 and I very much hope for him that he does find a seat because he’s better than some other drivers that are on the grid and he should be in Formula 1.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Fred, you mentioned with Antonio, you want to see that improvement to the end of the year. With a decision for you for 2020, will you wait until after Abu Dhabi, just to make sure Antonio gets the full season to grow.
FV: Wouldn't make sense as we are not in a rush at all. Could make sense to postpone the decision and have a look at Antonio and the improvement from Antonio but honestly I think he is on the good way.
Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Fred and Cyril. What’s your opinion on the decision to not have Formula 2 and Formula 3 at the French Grand Prix next year?
FV: For sure it’s a shame for the French Grand Prix because it’s always two exciting races – but I think they did it for technical reasons. Last year they missed the German Grand Prix and it’s quite difficult for the junior series to do three or four events in a row. I think they have to skip one and next year will be the French one.
CA: It’s never good news for the promoter who’s concerned. So, for the French Grand Prix, they’ve had a hard time on year one because of some accessibility aspects. They’ve had also a hard time year two because of the show. So, I think we need to try, as Frenchmen in the sport to come up with some kind of offer for support. Last year we also tried to create some racing from Renault, like Clio Cup. We could also be considering Formula Renault to go there. So, we have a number of things that we could do to help and make sure there is a busy weekend and value for money for people buying tickets – because we all know tickets are quite expensive. We need to make sure there is not a vicious circle, and we are all here to make sure this event is sustainable. We still believe it is a great thing to have a Formula 1 race in France, being a French carmaker. With a French driver.
Q: (David Coath – motorlat.com) A question for Zak. Lando was at McLaren Shadow yesterday doing esports and I’m just wondering how esports is impacting on the team, if at all?
ZB: The esports, our Shadow programme, has been very successful. We were the first Formula 1 last year to really launch our own esports platform. I think esports in general is really good for motorsports. I think it become the new grassroots. Historically, it’s been karting, which is quite expensive and unobtainable for many people and I think esports can put a steering wheel in the hands of men of women around the world of all ages. It talks to the younger generation to help our fan base, so it’s been very successful, our partners like it, I think it’s good for McLaren, and I think esports in general is a good thing for motor sports.
Q: (Joe Klausmann – racingline.hu) A question for Fred and Guenther. What is your opinion about the coming budget cap? Do you need it? Is it enough? Will it help you?
FV: We can come back on this topic. For sure the budget cap is far away from our current budget but it’s the first step of the financial regulations. For sure, for us it won’t have a huge impact. I don’t know for Guenther, but at least for us, but that’s life.
GS: I agree with Fred. Once we agree, not many time but… We are well below the budget cap, but it’s in the regulations now and now we will see what is coming.
Q: (Joe van Burik – RacingNews 365) – A question to all. How do you feel about the fact that Nyck de Vries, who is about to be the Formula 2 champion, won’t be racing in F1 next year but will be heading to Formula E?
ZB: I think it’s great he got a topline ride in Formula E with the Mercedes team. Nyck’s an excellent driver. He was part of our junior programme some time ago and you know, there are not a lot of seats in Formula 1 available at the moment and I’m just glad he’s landed somewhere where he can continue to shine and have a career in motorsports.
CA: The only comment is that, we’ve said on a few occasions, we are still under the impression that there are not enough seats in Formula 1. Ten teams is really the minimum number and probably 11 or 12 would be better for accessibility to Formula 1 for young drivers, the Minardis of this world. Obviously Toro Rosso/Red Bull has done its own arrangement but that’s really something that is very exclusive to a happy few top teams. As Renault we would like to see more teams joining in and in particular to have a more dynamic system for younger drivers.
CH: It’s good for him to have a professional career. Obviously he had been around a long time – He’s been in Formula 2 I don’t know how many seasons now – and that’s always taken into consideration, in probably what has not been one of the most stellar Formula 2 seasons, this year. Good for him that’s he got a professional contract with a manufacturer in Formula E.
GS: I would say the same. Good for him that he got a contract with a very good team and he can make a career out of it. Not everybody can land in Formula 1. I think we have to see the good side, that there are other opportunities other than F1. It is what it is, but he has got a future and that’s the most important [thing].
FV: I have nothing to add. He’s a fantastic guy. He was flying in go-karts, he won the GP2…. [phone rings]… It’s Romain Grosjean!
GS: He’s calling after my comments!
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) A question to Christian. A couple of stories after the last race about changes to qualifying on a Saturday coming next season. Is there any update you can tell us about? And is it a format that needs changing?
CH: There’s been lots of discussion about qualifying. For me, I actually think personally that qualifying works really well - the three sessions, it’s easy to understand, it’s not too complicated and it builds to a crescendo. For your relatively passive viewer it’s relatively straightforward. The problem we have at the moment is that obviously as a result of the qualifying the fastest cars is starting at the front. At a track like this, if it’s a one-stop race, then the grid position is pretty much dictate, bar reliability, where cars are going to finish. There needs to be the ability to have other strategies in a race that creates a little bit more jeopardy, creates more risk and reward, because we have seen some of the most exciting races, like Hockenheim, where all analysis goes out the window and you’re just reacting on instinct to what’s happening at that point in time, because you can’t strategise something like that. I think grand prix teams these days are so good at analyzing the data and maximizing the performance from the start to the finish of a grand prix, I think if we can add more variance to a race, but not doing it artificially, I think I would certainly be in favour of.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) A question to all five, please. Another one on potential changes. Grid penalties have been a sore subject for a few years now. One of the suggestions that has been detailed a little bit recently is about potentially adding ballast to cars instead of having grid penalties for engine changes. Are you a fan of that? Do you think that is likely? Or do you think there is another option that might be a better alternative to grid penalties?
FV: I’m not a big fan at all of the ballast – not ballast success, but ballast penalty. I think it would be even worse for the race. At least when you have the penalty you start from the back it could spice a little bit the race but if you have the ballast penalty it would be even worse.
GS: I agree. The ballast is more difficult even to explain to spectators, all of a sudden when a car goes slower than the other ones. I think ballast is not my preferred view. We need to find a penalty system that is severe enough that they start at the back or the position to find out. But at the moment I think it isn’t working too bad, so I think I prefer this one than ballast by all means.
CH: I’d certainly agree on ballast. I think we’ve seen in other categories that it doesn’t work. It screws your whole weekend, not just the qualifying. The only shame about what we have at the moment is that it potentially robs the fans on a Saturday of seeing drivers going for a qualifying position. If we look at Monza, Max taking part for a couple of laps in Q1, not wanting to progress past Q2. I think if we could find a more balanced penalty than just straight to the back of the grid we should consider it, so that you are still encouraging drivers on a Saturday to be going for a qualifying position.
CA: Our position has not changed for a while. We are suggesting a time penalty by position to grid penalty. A time penalty you could serve under your pit stop or that would be added at the end of the race and that would just encourage better racing without altering the starting position, without altering also qualifying. And frankly I don’t understand why, I don’t understand the unintended consequences, I don’t understand why it’s not more commonly supported, but there must be a good reason.
ZB: I agree with Cyril, so you got one vote. I think a time penalty is pretty clean to understand. It doesn’t mix up the grid, you serve it at your pit stop. Strategy comes into play – when do you pit, tyres etc – so that I think would be the simplest, least disruption, the easiest to understand and would add some excitement to the race.
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Christian, Red Bull’s been known for the strength of its aerodynamic department over the past decade. With what you know of the 2021 regulations, are they a bit too prescriptive or are they exciting your aerodynamicists and people like Adrian Newey? And then for everyone else a similar question: how are your aero departments looking at that?
CH: I doubt there’s any aero department that’s read those rules and got particularly excited about them. For any aerodynamicist, prescriptive design is not in their DNA. Some of the regulations were released yesterday I think and there’s probably a few long faces in the aero department today, but that’s not just unique to Red Bull and our strengths over the last few years hasn’t purely been solely down to aerodynamics. It’s more digesting those rules, they raise some questions which will no doubt be put forward in the coming meetings which we seem to have endless amounts of and yeah, we will see where they end up.
ZB: I think I too would like to see more freedom expressed so when you have the budget cap then you’re fixed on how much you can spend and if the rules were a little bit more opened up, whether it was aerodynamics or others, then you’d have some more choices to make and you might see cars coming out looking a little bit more differently than they do today, because you could chose where you think you’re going to get your competitive advantage. That being said, all the engineers in this sport are pretty clever people and so they will figure out areas where they think they can make a differences, so I think it will still be a strong engineering exercise but opened up rules – because the budget cap kind of stops you from just spending – maybe doesn’t require that same level of restrictiveness, because you’ve got that seal that is set for you.
CA: Looking at 2021, it’s going to be such a step change I think it’s not bad to start with some things that are fairly prescriptive and according to the result that we see, then to progressively open up because the world is not going to stop in 2021, there will be years after that, we will have to come up with evolution like always to the regulations and it will always be the time to free up a bit. We still have our aerodynamic capacity and departments’ strengths and weaknesses so it will still be a possibility but I think we need to be careful because last time there was such a massive change to regulations – it was 2014 – and that created a cycle that I understand people criticised a lot for the fact that it locked up a performance differentiator so that’s why I think it’s not bad to do that initially and open up.
GS: Too prescriptive. Yeah, I would say so. The budget cap should regulate that the budget cap and the aero development, they can probably use the wind tunnel and CFD just for a limited time should be so it’s a little bit close but maybe in the beginning it’s good that we’re not going too far. I think we wait a few weeks until the aero people have got their proper comments because now they act emotionally about it but they will find a way around what they are doing anyway. My opinion is not set yet.
FV: I’m just a bit scared that if the room of freedom is too small at the end we will end up with like a monotype but it won’t be a monotype and we will have to spend millions for this.
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Mr Horner, do you agree that this is your best chance for a third victory this season or is the progress you’ve made as a team so big, so huge that every remaining race is a big chance now?
CH: Well, certainly I think we’ve had good pace the last five races. If you look at our performance since Austria, Silverstone we were strong, we obviously won the race at Hockenheim, we qualified on pole and came pretty close to winning in Hungary, the race pace in Monza, if you look at Max’s performance from the back of the grid in clean air, he was as quick as any of the leaders, so that’s certainly encouraging across a cross section of circuits so hopefully, in the remaining seven races some will be better for us than others but hopefully we can be strong at all the venues coming up in the remaining seven Grands Prix.
Q: (Gaeton Vigneron – RTBF) A quick thought about insurance: it seems that quite a lot of young drivers in F2, in F3, are not covered by insurance. Do you not think it would be an obligation organised by the team themselves to avoid a serious problem?
FV: Honestly I don’t know that we are taking care about the insurance for all drivers. ART, for example is doing the same in Formula Two and Formula Three but probably with some other drivers it is not the case but probably we have to take care of this, that’s right.
GS: I wasn’t aware that some people are not insured, I wasn’t aware of this. For me it’s logical to get insurance basically, doing this sport. I don’t know why they are not insured. I don’t know about it so I cannot make a comment.
CH: Are you talking about life insurance or car insurance? When I was driving it was obviously down to the individual to take out a policy, because everybody’s circumstances are different. I would say it’s really something that sits with the driver to take out the policy that’s appropriate for them and their circumstances.
CA: As far as we are concerned, all our academy drivers are insured, that’s part of what they need to fulfil in order to qualify. Obviously there are different types of insurance, like everything in life. Maybe we need to be more drastic about the level of the insurance but we make sure that this is the case with our drivers.
ZB: Yeah. I think all racing drivers need to have insurance. It’s ultimately the responsibility of the drivers. In Formula One, all of our drivers have insurance, it’s super important, it’s not also inexpensive and there’s a lot of drivers coming up through the ranks that may not be able to afford it but it’s certainly very, very important, especially when you need it. I guess the FIA could look at or the individual countries that issue licences, that would maybe be an area that the race licence issuer could maybe insist on some level of insurance but then how much and is it enough and is it the right type of insurance? I think the big message is every racing driver should have insurance.
Q: (Joost Nederpelt – NU.NL) Christian, we saw in Monza that Ferrari has a very strong engine. Are you confident that Honda can close the gap any time soon?
CH: Well, I think that Ferrari are very much the benchmark in Formula One at the moment. We see that their straightline speed is truly impressive. I think the rest of the manufacturers are converging to a pretty close ground. It’s just Ferrari that has that outstanding performance, so it’s down to the rest of the manufacturers to ultimately catch up. They are the current day benchmark.
Q: (Oliver Davies – Sportskeeda.com) Just a bit of an insight for the weekend: obviously being a night race, what’s it like for teams to start later on in the day, what’s it like for it being a longer weekend, is it a long day?
ZB: Most of the drivers – well, I’m sure all the drivers stay on European time so I think for them they adjust, just like it’s any normal Grand Prix. Most of that is the case for the racing team. I think for the executives in the race team, such as myself, it becomes a much longer day. I got started this morning at about eight o’ clock and we’ll do that each morning, so I can tell you, I’m more tired than normal, but I think for the majority of the racing team they just adjust the clock accordingly.
CA: Nothing really to add because it’s a bit strange for your body because you try to stick to a time zone but everything around you is telling you something a bit different. It’s difficult not to either eat five times in a day or not at all in a day, so I’m trying to find a proper balance. No, but it can look like long hours and what’s a bit sad is that we are completely detached from the city. Sometimes, when after work, we like to walk into the streets and get a feel for the city in which we are racing and here, if you walk out at three or four o’ clock… I’m not finishing that sentence.
CH: First of all it’s a great atmosphere to race at night. I suppose the benefit for Zak is that he gets to have two breakfasts. It’s a bit weird when you come in at four o’ clock and you see people saying good morning and having a cup of tea and breakfast, and then seeing drivers milling around the hotel at four o’ clock in the morning, in the evening. That whole shift of staying on a different time zone, it seems to work and I think the spectacle here is fantastic. I think the race is always a highlight on the calendar. From a corporate point of view, it’s one of our biggest races of the year. We have more guests here than 90 per cent of the other Grands Prix that we go to, it’s the race that everybody wants to be at and it’s something you just adjust to and try and deal with.
GS: I agree. You deal with it. I think it’s a fantastic race at night and I think everybody’s doing it differently. There is not one thing everybody does the same. Everybody gets up when he wants and has as many breakfasts as he wants so you shouldn’t pick on Zak, Christian, that’s not fair! I think that atmosphere is good and it’s different, so there’s something to talk about and that creates interest, racing at night. Yeah, for sure, you’re a little bit confused, therefore I’m confused talking today so I’ve got an excuse for that as well and now I hand over to my friend Fred.
FV: I’m OK with Gunther!
