Tag Archives: F1

June 20, 2014 · 3:18 pm

Rosberg unconcerned by Hamilton advantage in Austria

Nico Rosberg is unconcerned by a 0.4s deficit to Lewis Hamilton on supersoft tyres in FP2 today – and says that he was able to make up the difference when it counted in the last race in Canada.

“It was there in Montreal also,” said Rosberg of the gap. “When it was qualifying I was right where I needed to be.”

Rosberg admitted that he’d experienced a few problems today.

“We were just working through everything and trying to optimise everything for tomorrow. There were a few things that weren’t ideal. We were just really pushing on and trying to sort everything out.

“It’s a new track, so it’s always a learning process every lap. As I say there’s a few areas of the car, like braking and general balance, and it was bouncing a lot down the straight just now, and that goes into the braking zone this bouncing. It’s a very unusual feeling, so we need to try and look into that.”

Regarding the tyres he said: “Graining was a very big issue, my rear tyres were completely grained. But I think it’s the same for everybody, especially on the softer tyre. On the harder tyre it’s OK.”

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June 20, 2014 · 11:27 am

American entrepreneur buys stake in Williams

American healthcare entrepreneur Brad Hollinger has acquired a 5% stake in Williams, having bought some of the shares previously owned by Toto Wolff.

Vibra Healthcare owner Hollinger has raced in SCCA and historic events, and owns and drives a number of F1 cars, including a Benetton, Williams and Jordan. He runs under the Hollinger Group Motorsports name.

When Wolff landed his role as Mercedes motor sport boss he indicated that he would back out of his involvement with Williams, and that process has taken some 18 months to get underway.

“When I got involved with Mercedes it was clear that I was going to cut own the shareholding to a pure financial investor’s size,” Wolff told this writer. “It was important to get somebody who was good for the team, for the company, for the [Williams] family, who has a good understanding. There are many people who when it comes to being able to commit, they are not able to.

“He’s a serious entrepreneur. He owns historic cars and he has an understanding for the business, and he decided to take a similar role like I did in 2009, start with a financial investment and then see how it pans out. He has 5% and he has an option to acquire more from me, but no plans at the moment beyond that.”

Wolff says Hollinger won’t be involved in decision making: “No, not at all. He has his own core business, that’s what he’s doing, and this is a mixture between believing in the business case, and the global sports club that is F1, and enjoyment.”

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June 20, 2014 · 9:53 am

Stewards confirm that Perez/Massa case is reopened

The Austrian GP stewards have confirmed that they will take another look at the Canadian GP clash between Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa after Force India presented new evidence this morning.

In essence they acknowledged that Perez was not able to defend himself as he was taken to hospital after the accident, and thus his views were not heard. A new hearing will take place at 4pm today.

The stewards said that the new elements provided by Force India were “the verbal testimony of its driver and the relevant telemetry.” The team pointed out that it had not had any contact with Perez prior to the orginal hearing, which was attended only by team representatives.

The stewards added: “…these are exceptional circumstances, namely where the driver was taken to hospital and unable to communicate with his team or attend the hearing, and this determination is not to be considered a precedent.”

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June 19, 2014 · 4:42 pm

Lewis Hamilton: “If we were perfect then it wouldn’t be fun…”

Lewis Hamilton insists that he sees the positives after both Mercedes W05s hit trouble in Montreal.

Hamilton says that the team has learned from the problems it faced, but has not had to compromise the car’s pace while addressing them.

“We definitely haven’t lost any performance,” he said. “We would only have gained from that experience, as you do generally from all experiences like that. Regardless of whether you lose points, you step back from it, a lot of work goes into understanding the situation and rectifying it. If faced with a situation like that first of all we’ll be able to handle it a lot better, and secondly the car has been fixed so that it won’t happen again.”

In Montreal Toto Wolff suggested that Hamilton’s car had retired and Nico Rosberg’s didn’t because it got so hot in its pitstop, but Lewis says it was more a case of the fact Rosberg had a clear track ahead.

“It was not necessarily the pit stop,” he said when asked by this writer. “I think it was more to do with the fact that Nico was in clear air in front of me, and so he’s constantly got cool, free, clean air coming in, and I was very closely behind all the time, so I was having dirty warm air. You can see a slight difference in the temperatures. They were both on the limit, and mine went over.”

Despite losing two races to mechanical failures Hamilton says he’s not frustrated.

“At the moment knowing that we’ve got a lot of races ahead of us it’s not concerning me too much. Of course if it was later on in the season and we were where we were, it would be a little bit different. In one sense it’s comforting to know that I feel like I’ve done my optimum, up until now, but there’s still room for improvement. Plus as a team it is in some ways positive for us to know that we can still improve. If we were perfect then it wouldn’t be fun for the rest of the year.”

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June 19, 2014 · 3:13 pm

Felipe Massa: “I will not trust him anymore…”

Felipe Massa has made it clear that he is still upset with Sergio Perez after their controversial last lap crash in Montreal.

Massa insists that Perez was totally at fault for the clash, which will be examined by the stewards tomorrow, at the request of Force India (see separate story).

“The rules says when somebody moves the car behind and put the front wing on the side of your rear tyres you cannot move any more,” said Massa. “So he didn’t follow that. I will not change my opinion. What I just said, this is the rule. And it’s coming from the FIA. And if you know the history, most of the time it’s always the young drivers, especially him, who cause these problems, cause these accidents, which is dangerous.

“If I made a mistake I will be the first one to say I made a mistake, I’m sorry, like I always did when I made a mistake. But people don’t think in the same way. So I’m sorry for him, and I hope he learns, otherwise he will pay more penalties in the future.”

Asked what he would do next time he tries to pass Perez Massa said: “I will think twice. I [have to] believe that he will not move his car. And you cannot believe, when somebody is paying so many penalties, and causing so many problems, you cannot believe. I will not trust him any more, definitely, in the car.”

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June 16, 2014 · 10:04 am

Schumacher undergoing rehabilitation, says manager

Michael Schumacher is no longer in a coma and is undergoing rehabilitation at an undisclosed location, his management has confirmed.

A statement from Sabine Kehm read as follows:

“Michael has left the CHU Grenoble to continue his long phase of rehabilitation. He is not in a coma anymore.

“His family would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months.

“The family also wishes to thank all the people who have sent Michael all the many good wishes to Michael. We are sure it helped him.

“For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye.”

Kehm has also made it clear that there are no plans for any further bulletins on Michael’s situation and that no more information will be forthcoming.

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June 11, 2014 · 12:22 pm

Jenson Button: “A fourth place without people crashing is probably our aim…”

Jenson Button was one of the unsung heroes of the Canadian GP, the McLaren driver having snatched a surprise fourth place after running as low as 11th for most of the first stint.

Button found pace as the race went on and on the penultimate lap he jumped up from eighth to sixth when Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg got tangled up at the hairpin, and the Spaniard ran wide while the German lost momentum on the exit. Right after that at the start of the final lap he gained two more spots when Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa crashed out.

“The first stint for me was not good on the option tyre, I really struggled with that,” said Button. “As soon as we got on the prime, the pace was good.

“I was so far back after my first stint, that was the problem, and then everything just fell wrong, as it has done for me here many times, as in a certain race in 2011! But then I was able to pick it up at the end and the car was working well. So I was able to catch up, obviously helped by some cars slowing down at the end of the race. But that’s part of it, you’ve got to judge your race and it’s from A to B, how quickly you can go, and not individual laps.

“Some races you get unlucky, some races you put yourself in the right place, and it works out. But in terms of how the car feels, that’s more important, and there is progress being made. The feel of the car is the best it’s been all year I think, with less downforce as well.”

Button said he really enjoyed his afternoon, and the chance to race properly

“I had a lot fun out there, with some good moves going on, not just in the DRS zones but the hairpin as well. An enjoyable race, and obviously the last [racing] lap was a lot of fun between Hulkenberg, Fernando and myself. Very happy to get fourth, some good points. But I think more than the position the progress that the team has made is good, and there’s more to come at the next race, hopefully a bigger step.

“The next couple of races are where we should see more progress, which should take us close to the front. A fourth place without people crashing is probably our aim for the next race, I should say.”

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June 9, 2014 · 3:10 pm

Sergio Perez: “I cannot understand why he had to scrape by…”

Sergio Perez and Force India have responded to criticism from Felipe Massa and Williams after the controversial last lap collision between the pair.

Perez was given a five-place grid penalty for Austria, essentially because he appeared to move left just before the incident.

Rob Smedley of Williams complained after the race that Perez had continued racing in a car that has brake problems after hearing references on the team radio. However the conversation related to a temporary glitch that was solved by a reset, and at the end of the race Perez had no problems other than the fact he was on much older tyres than those around him.

“It was very disappointing to lose such a strong result through no fault of our own,” said Perez today. “I was following the same line and braking patterns as in the previous laps and I just got hit from behind by Massa. There was plenty of space on the left of my car to attempt a clean overtake and I cannot understand why he had to scrape by.

“I watched several replays of the incident and I can’t help but notice how Felipe turns right just before he hits me. I can only think he must have changed his mind and wanted to rejoin the racing line, his misjudgement cost us a big amount of points.

“Also, I’m not happy about comments saying we should have retired the car. It was perfectly driveable with just some adjustments and we showed it up until the moment in which we were taken out. Other cars out there had been in similar conditions for way longer than us and they finished the race without problems.

“If someone thinks you can keep two Red Bulls behind for as long as we did with so-called ‘terminal’ problems, they are clearly misguided.”

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June 9, 2014 · 2:27 pm

Toto Wolff: “We’re just sorry to have let Lewis down…”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that Lewis Hamilton’s Canadian retirement had not necessarily handed a crucial championship advantage to Nico Rosberg, given the length of the season.

Rosberg gained 18 points on his rival by salvaging second place in Montreal.

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Wolff when asked if the odds were against Hamilton. “How many races are we in the season now, seven? So we are having another 13, with double points! So we have 13 races left. First of all we have to be careful in saying that it’s an easy home run for us, because you can see they have scored massive points, Red Bull today, and you can lose that gap really quickly. But I guess between the two of them it’s going to come back to an end of season with double points.”

Regarding Hamilton’s frustrating day, he said: “We’re just sorry to have let Lewis down, and it’s a shame, particularly when the championship is as close as it is. But he’s in good spirits and he’s a fighter and I have no doubt that he will come back.

“As for Nico he deserved to take those points, because he had a car which was heavily handicapped against all others. He managed to pull out a mega first sector where the power loss was not as bad as obviously the back straight, and he deserves to have that second place.”

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June 8, 2014 · 11:51 pm

Daniel Ricciardo: “The race came to life at the end…”

Daniel Ricciardo scored a hugely popular maiden GP victory in Canada, and while it took a little bad luck for Mercedes to make it happen, the Aussie had to be there to take advantage.

Crucially he got ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel at the final stops, and then passed Sergio Perez with five laps to go. Two laps after that he was able to blast past the Mercedes of a struggling Nico Rosberg to claim the lead.

“It’s not that we were leading the whole race,” said Ricciardo. “So it’s not that I had time to understand that I was going to win, it all happened in the last few laps, so I think that’s why it’s still taking a while to comprehend in my head. But really nice, a really good feeling. The race came to life at the end. Mercedes had their issues and it enable us to close on them. We had a good fight with Perez and we were really struggling to pass them.

“They had, as we know, a really strong car down the straight and it was doing a good job through the corners as well to keep me behind. But then out of the last chicane I got a really good run on him and made the move stick in turns one and two. I was close to overshooting it, dropped a couple of wheels in the grass but it was fine and then Nico in the closing stages. Really, really nice. I wasn’t sure if the two drivers on the last lap were OK, so I just wanted to make sure they were cool before we got celebrating, but I believe they’re fine so really, really happy with the result.”

Ricciardo said he’d worked hard to find a way past Perez.

“To be honest I was trying the whole time I was behind him. I was looking for opportunities and, as I said, he was driving well and wasn’t making any mistakes and realistically I needed a bit of a mistake from him because they were just getting off the corner so well. But then I think, yeah, he got quite close to Nico and perhaps just overshot the braking a little bit in the last chicane. I managed to just stay with him on the exit, get the tow and use the DRS.

“I knew we were strong braking into Turn One, we were really quick into there so, yeah, once I had the outside line free I just basically went in and made it work. Yeah, that was the place I wanted to do it – but as I said, I was trying all the time and it was just then that the opportunity came – but I wasn’t really holding back!”

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