Category Archives: F1

Jenson Button says that at Interlagos the turbo engines have more power than any of the V10s or V8s with which he experienced the circuit before.

Due to the high altitude of Sao Paulo normally aspirated engines used to lose a bit of performance. That has contributed to the fastest lap times seen at the track for a decade.

“Normally we lose about 15% of power, we’re losing very little now,” said Button. “So we’ve probably got the most power we’ve ever had in my era of F1, even with the V10s, because you lose 15%, around Sao Paulo. There’s a bit of that. Also because the surface is new, it’s got a lot of grip. Traction here is the best traction we’ve felt for a long time, since we had [exhaust] blowing. It’s good.

“When I first drove the circuit with the new asphalt I didn’t like it all, because I thought it took away from it – it was like driving around a completely different circuit, with the way the asphalt worked. It’s rubbered in a bit now. It’s different still, it doesn’t feel like the old Interlagos, which is a shame. I had quite lot of fun driving the car, and it’s good to see us finally improving lap times from a few years ago.”

Lewis Hamilton insists that he was not disappointed to miss out on pole position at Interlagos, and is confident that he can turn things around in the race.

Hamilton has been behind Nico Rosberg all weekend, but in the end he lost pole by a tiny margin after a locking up moment.

“It was great fun,” said Hamilton. “Nico did a great lap and I lost a little bit of time in Turn 10 and perhaps a tiny bit in Turn One. But it was great – just having to keep on going out and fighting. That’s what qualifying is all about and it should always be that kind of gap, that close. So, really exciting and I hope people enjoyed that.

“And then, of course pole position is the best place to start here but it’s a long race tomorrow. It should be quite exciting with all the pit stops and the weather we don’t really know, so I’m here, I want to win, just as much as anyone else here, so I’m going to work as hard as I can tomorrow and hope we get have a race at least.”

Lewis is not interested in second place: “I’ve come here to win so the priority target as always to try and win the race. Of course, on top of that, I want the team to have another one-two which is going to be our target. We know the Williams are very close. Hopefully we’ll have a good battle tomorrow.”

Hamilton did of course enjoy the biggest day of his career in Brazil, when he won the 2008 title, but he says that he’s not looking back.

“I’ve not really thought too much about the past here but, as I said, I’m here to win. Going to try to get off the line as quick as possible tomorrow and if I have a shot into Turn One tomorrow, I’ll take it.

“Otherwise, it’s a long race, 71 laps here. There should be several, two or stops, so lots can go on during the race. So I’m generally excited and it’s not the only opportunity off the start. We just, as I’ve said at all races, I just hope that we can race at least.”

Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to top spot in both sessions in Brazil today as a new track surface and hot conditions provided a challenge for teams and drivers.

Pirelli has switched from hard/medium to medium/soft after lobbying form the drivers, and the right front soft showed signs of blistering, notably on Rosberg’s car.

“Today was quite a normal day,” said the German. “The unusual thing though was the asphalt is completely new on this track, and it’s completely different to last year, it’s much smoother, and that has a big impact on the car. Initially the balance was completely wrong, just massive understeer.

“So then we just had to adapt the settings. What you can do is make the front end softer, and the rear end much harder, so you make the rear work harder, and then you have less understeer. So that’s what we did a little it, and that worked out. Then I felt quite comfortable, on one lap it was quite good.

“It was extremely hot, I think historically they’ve never seen such hot asphalt temperatures as today on this track, because of the fact also that it’s clean asphalt, so it gets hotter. Also the tyres were completely blistering. That’s very extreme, we haven’t seen that very often, and that was a bit of a worry today. That’s something that we need to keep an eye on. But anyway we’re expecting it to be cold for Sunday, so it should be OK.”

Colin Kolles insists that the planned Romanian F1 team has nothing to do with Caterham, contrary to suggestions that one team might morph into another.

Kolles was advising the FRR/Forza Rossa project before he got involved in Caterham as advisor to buyers Engavest.

“The Caterham F1 issue has nothing to do with Forza Rossa or the FRR F1 team,” Kolles told this writer. “These are two different and separate matters. The problem is that some people think that this administration situation has something to do with Forza Rossa, and it does not have anything to do with it.

“CSL, with their know-how, could maybe have been utilised for a new F1 project because you cannot sell IP directly. It’s not even possible to have IP transfer from one competitor to the other, only to a limited extent.”

It’s understood that FRR has not submitted an entry for the 2015 World Championship, although there is provision in the rules for late entries.

Sergio Perez has landed a seven-place grid penalty for the Brazilian GP after his first lap collision with Kimi Raikkonen and Adrian Sutil in Austin.

The incident spelled the end of the race for both Sutil and Perez, who also gets two penalty points.

The stewards noted: “The driver of car 11 could not reasonably have expected to complete the manoeuvre. His collision with car 99 was reckless.”

Perez said: “What happened today is really unfortunate. I made a move on Adrian at turn 15 when he left the door open, so I went up the inside. Then Adrian started to close the door and I had to try and brake later than him.

“By doing so I was unable to avoid contact with Kimi, which caused me to make contact with Adrian also. I just didn’t expect Kimi to be in that position. It’s a big shame because I had a great chance to keep up my run of points finishes and I was determined to do well in such an important race.”