Tag Archives: F1

November 14, 2013 · 7:43 pm

Sergio Perez: “I found out a couple of days before you found out…”

Sergio Perez insists that he only found out this week that he was on his way out of McLaren, and had firmly believed that he would be staying on with the team.

“I found out a couple of days before you found out, so it was a very late decision,” he said in Austin today. “I had no idea, it just came as a shock to me because the team was always giving me good feedback, everything was pretty much settled down and I was going to stay with the team but then something happened in the last few weeks so they decided not to… It puts me in a very difficult position now, to look forward for my future.”

Nevertheless he said he didn’t feel let down by the team, especially in terms of the awkward timing.

“No, not let down at all. As I said, it’s been a difficult year. People from the outside can think whatever they want, but inside the team, every single person that works in the team knows the amount of pressure we are having, everyone, from Jenson, myself, Martin, everyone, everyone. With McLaren and the year that we have had it was so disappointing for everyone so they have had to make some changes and yeah, they had to change me, and that’s racing.”

Regarding his future he said: “I know there are some options. As I said before, I want to stay in Formula One but I will no stay in F1 just to stay. If I don’t find the right option for myself then I have to look at something else but I’m pretty confident something good will happen and hopefully I find a good seat. I think I have a lot to offer a team.

“I have been three years in F1, one year with McLaren. A very difficult year but I think I learn a lot. I think this year, although it has been very difficult and probably one of the worst in terms of results for myself, I think I am a good driver and I can do good things out there.”

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November 14, 2013 · 5:08 pm

Hulkenberg turned down Lotus due to “bigger picture”

Nico Hulkenberg says he chose not to leave Sauber to drive for Lotus in the final two races because it would have been too much of a risk.

“Of course it is attractive and sounds attractive from the outside,” he said. “On the other hand it was for the last two races, which brings also some risk with it. And also after that you have to see the bigger picture which is beyond after two races, what can happen there. And that’s why we came up with this decision.

“I just went there to see Eric and to speak face-to-face about these two races as well, because obviously the future and next year is important as well, and that’s why we went to see each other and speak face-to-face.”

Regarding the risks, he said: “Stepping into a new car, which you don’t know. If I had stepped in there I don’t think people would have expected me to beat Romain right away, he seems to be fairly comfortable in the car now and in the team, he’s delivering very good results now.”

Asked by this writer if his choice would have been different had there been a 100% guarantee of a 2014 Lotus drive: “I think had that been the case that would have been a big change in the plan, for sure.”

As to whether moving at this stage would have ended his chance of driving for Sauber in 2013 he said: “Exactly…”

Hulkenberg admitted to some frustration about now knowing where his future lies.

“It is a bit tricky, and a patience game, a bit of a mind game, to be delivering and not knowing abouut the future, it’s a bit tricky. Of course I’d like to know weeks or months ago what I’m doing. The answer is it is at is, so I have to live with it and cope with it. It’s not me, half of the field is not knowing what they are doing. From that point of view on a race weekend you have to black that out, keep delivering, that’s all I can do on the circuit.

“I’m aware that we have to keep out eyes and ears open, we can’t let it slip through our hands. I think there are options and opportunities for me to be somewhere.”

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November 8, 2013 · 4:46 pm

Chilton hoping for continuity with Marussia

Max Chilton says he’d like to benefit from continuity by staying with Marussia for a second season in 2014.

His team mate Jules Bianchi has already been confirmed, but thus far there has been no firm word on Chilton’s future. Inevitably other drivers have been linked to the seat, but equally Chilton’s budget is of potential interest to other teams.

“There’s been lots of chat, but we’re not far off it,” Chilton told this writer. “We’re just trying to get the final details sorted. I try not to worry about all the other stuff you hear, because a lot of it is gossip. As long as we know what we’re up to and the team want me back.

“I’ve said that continuity is key. I learned that with Carlin [in GP2]. The car was quick but because the team was not 100% fused we didn’t have many results. The next year I suddenly had podiums, poles, wins and finished fourth from 20th the year before, in exactly the same car. I’d like to think that if I had another year back here it would be a stronger year.”

Chilton says that the new partnership with Ferrari can only be positive.

“I think it’s really good for the team. Ferrari have been around a seriously long time and they’ve got a lot of knowledge. That will help us. Also in the past when they do big rule changes it tends to stir it up, at least for the first four or five races or half a season. If we play our cards right and we get some good information from Ferrari you never know what will happen in Australia next year.”

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November 6, 2013 · 12:18 pm

Felipe Massa: “I know how to be competitive…”

Felipe Massa says he’s been a lot more relaxed since it was confirmed that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season.

Massa has outqualified Fernando Alonso five times in the past six races, although to be fair the Spaniard chose the prime tyre in India.

“I feel very relaxed, very relaxed to be honest,” he said when asked by this writer how it had affected his approach. “And I think that’s the best for me as well. You know, I can get inside the car to enjoy myself, to take the best out of the car, but enjoying and relaxing.”

Despite his good recent form relative to Alonso Massa says that 2013 hasn’t been a great season.

“For sure it’s not the best season for me, I can do much better than what I did this year, the last years. I think what is important to know is that I have the speed. I have the speed, I know how to win, I know how to be competitive, and we just need to try to put things together, and that’s what I’m trying. This season we had some very good races, but we had some very difficult races. Anyway, I’m looking pretty optimistic for the last races.”

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November 5, 2013 · 12:09 pm

Mercedes still improving the W04, says Brawn

Ross Brawn says Mercedes is making progress with the W04 despite not bringing any updates recently.

The team principal is adamant that performance has been found as the engineers have been able to hone a package that has remained consistent in terms of actual parts.

“We are chipping away at trying to find improvements to the car,” said Brawn. “As I’ve mentioned before we can’t do it at the expense of next season. But there’s little things with the set-up we’re trying to do, there’s little things to better understand the tyres.

“Sometimes when you don’t change the car very much in terms of development you consolidate what you have and you explore the set-ups more, because you’ve got fewer things to play with. So we’re exploring the set-ups, the balance, the aerodynamic balance, the mechanical balance. And there are little things coming out which are accumulating into a decent improvement.

“I’ve seen that so many times before, that when you fully explore the package, and you consolidate what you’ve got, it’s surprising how you can move forward. I think the last couple of races are a good example of that. We’re in a different place with the set-up than we have been for a few previous races, and it seems to be giving some benefit. Not enough yet, but it seems to be some benefit.”

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November 5, 2013 · 11:51 am

Teams not paying drivers is “incomprehensible,” says Wolff

Mercedes motor sport boss Toto Wolff says that it’s “incomprehensible” that drivers have gone unpaid by F1 teams.

The Kimi Raikkonen situation has created headlines, although others have been in a similar situation.

“Of course it’s not a good sign, drivers not being paid, or employees and suppliers not being paid,” said Wolff. “It’s not what we want to see. It’s a matter of how you manage your business, and for me it just seems strange. I’ve never had any similar situation in all my life, I’ve never seen any similar situation, and I just wonder why the hell people are not paying their staff. Is it true or is it not true, I don’t know. If it is true for me it’s just incomprehensible.”

On the specifics of a top team like Lotus struggling, he said: “Of course it’s not nice to hear that a frontrunning team isn’t able to pay the bills. But for me it’s a matter of how you manage your company. Without wanting to be too hard, because I have no knowledge about how the team is being run, you operate on the budgets you have available, and this is how any other normal company functions.

“I think speaking too much about is F1 in bad shape or not, yes the whole world is in bad shape, the whole environment is in bad shape, and we have to all look about how we finance our operations. The same applies to us, you can’t overspend. It’s damaging for F1 to hear those stories, and it’s not good.”

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November 4, 2013 · 10:03 am

Fernando Alonso: “With Felipe it was not a fight…”

Fernando Alonso says that fifth place was the best he could have achieved in Abu Dhabi, and the result was good damage limitation given Ferrari’s lack of pace during the weekend.

“I think I did my maximum,” he said on Sunday night. “The car in front was 20 seconds ahead. It’s true that I lost a little bit of time with the traffic, but 20 seconds is a lot of time, but we didn’t have the pace to be in the top four. And top five is the maximum. We have one Mercedes in front, one behind.

“We have one Lotus in front and one behind, obviously, with the DNF of Kimi. So I think my job is done after a very, very tough weekend, very difficult, not having the pace, we still finished in front of one Lotus, one Mercedes. We need to do better in Austin, but this time I think we minimised the damage.

“With Mercedes it’s true that we need to do better. There have been some weekends now that it’s not only Mercedes that worry us. It’s Lotus, Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso, McLaren, so are dropping a little bit too much, and we need to do better. Obviously the car will be the same in Austin and Brazil, so we need to do better here at the track, in the set-up every weekend, optimise circuit-by-circuit, the drivers must do better, doing perfect laps all weekend, because we need to beat Mercedes.”

Alonso made some interesting observations about his battle for position with Felipe Massa.

“With Felipe it was not a fight, I followed what the team tell me to do. The first stint the team told me to back off, to have a little bit of free air in front of me, to cool down the brakes, that they were too hot. In the second they told me to close the gap to Felipe, maybe we go for one or we go for two stops. I closed the gap, and then told not to attack, Felipe will pit soon. Then Felipe pitted and I had the opportunity to do some laps and overtake Felipe and the Toro Rosso in those laps. Then at the end with the soft tyre I had a shorter stint which was very good in terms of pace. It was the best part of the race.”

In that final stint Alonso set a series of fastest laps despite having no chance of catching the car ahead. Asked by this writer if he was just having fun, he said: “I was having fun. It was the first laps that I had no traffic in front, and the team told me to push. In other parts of the race they told me to cool the brakes. Now that I had the brakes in condition I could finally push.”

Alonso was keen to play down the incident with Jean-Eric Vergne, which resulted in no action from the stewards after they accepted that the French driver hadn’t seen the Ferrari and had given Alonso no choice but to go off track.

“I was going out of the pit, I was alongside the Toro Rosso, and we didn’t have the space to both go on the track. At that point you are invisible or you are going to be forced to be out of the track. The rules say that when you have a car alongside you you cannot use the full width of the track. I was forced to go out, and I think it’s clear. I think he didn’t see me, that’s what he said now, so that’s it. I think it’s very clear. I think it’s a minor thing of the fantastic race we did.”

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November 4, 2013 · 9:17 am

Massa frustrated by Ferrari’s tyre strategy “mistake”

Felipe Massa was left frustrated at the end of the Abu Dhabi GP after Ferrari put him onto medium rather than soft tyres, costing him pace and the chance to beat team mate Fernando Alonso to fifth place.

Massa had run 18 laps from the start on soft tyres, and Ferrari made the call to put him on mediums for the final stint despite the fact that there were only 17 laps left to run, the car was lighter, and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Massa eventually finished eighth while Alonso, who stopped 11 laps from  home for softs, was fifth.

“We made a mistake,” he said. “I didn’t expect to use the medium in the last stint as well, I expected to use the soft. I did 19 laps [sic] at the beginning, and I was the best car on the soft, and then we decide to stop in the last moment the second time, and I expected to see the soft tyres on the car, and I saw the other ones, so it was a problem.

“That was the mistake of my race. Without this problem I would have finished easily in the top five, I would have got completely behind [Vergne], passed him in two corners. We were behind Hamilton, I would have passed him easily on different tyres, maybe one second quicker, and we’d have a free track in front. That was a mistake.”

Massa said he hadn’t asked for softs because he thought the choice was obvious.

“I didn’t discuss because for me it was clear that it was going to be the soft, and also they called me at the end of the lap and said stopping now is better, and then there was no time to speak about the tyres. For me it was clear.

“I think it was a little bit too conservative. For if my first stint was 12 laps or 13 laps it’s pretty acceptable, 17 laps at the end with a quick pace, maybe you’re not going to have tyres any more. But I did 19 laps, in the sun. It was still hot, it was colder at the end with more grip, for sure. That was the problem.

“Definitely, I’m not happy, because today I was doing a great race, all the time fighting and overtaking cars, a very good race all the time, a good pace, and then suddenly I didn’t finish in the position I was supposed to finish, so this is a bit frustrating. Anyway I think I showed a good pace, and this is important, to show a good pace, a good race.”

However he denied that there had been any attempt by the team to hamper him and favour Alonso.

“For sure not. The team needs points, the team needs to score as many points as possible, the team will never do that to me. It’s not really even close to my mind that the team is doing something. I believe in the team and I will believe until the last moment. But today as I said it was a mistake. We could have scored more points today.”

Meanwhile Massa said he had no view on the  Vergne/Alonso incident: “I don’t know. I didn’t see it so well.”

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November 4, 2013 · 8:34 am

Video: Nico Rosberg on third place in Abu Dhabi

Nico Rosberg logged another podium with third place in Abu Dhabi, having run second in the first part of the race until he lost out to Mark Webber. Here’s what he has to say about his weekend.

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November 3, 2013 · 6:03 pm

Hospital check for Alonso after heavy bump over kerbs

Fernando Alonso has gone for a hospital check-up after bouncing over the kerbs while battling with Jean-Eric Vergne in Abu Dhabi.

The jolt was hard enough to set off the FIA-mandated g-force alarm, which means a compulsory medical check-up for the driver.

Alonso admitted afterwards that he felt some back pain, and after a check at the circuit medical centre he went for further investigations at the local hospital.

“I still have all the teeth after the bump,” he joked after the race. “And the back is obviously in pain a little bit now. It was a big hit. We have the alarm on the chassis, after a minimum of g-forces there is this alarm on the chassis for big crashes, for the medical car etc. And the chassis has this alarm now in parc ferme, so for sure it was a big hit. Hopefully I’m OK for Austin and Brazil.”

Meanwhile following an FIA investigation no action was taken on the incident.

Update: Alonso left the hospital at around 11pm local time, and Ferrari says he is OK.

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