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TEAM PRINCIPALS: Stefano
DOMENICALI (Ferrari), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Christian HORNER (Red Bull),
Franz TOST (Toro Rosso).
Q: Christian, winner of the last two races. How has it affected the team and
how has it affected Mark Webber? Do you feel a load is off his shoulders?
Christian HORNER: Yeah, I mean Germany was a fantastic weekend for Mark
Webber. It was his first pole position and his first race win after 130
attempts. It was a big milestone in his career and he was very, very quick
throughout the weekend. It was thoroughly deserved the result that he
achieved. I think hopefully it will be a weight off his shoulders now. There
is a big difference between thinking you can win and knowing you can win and
he has crossed that line now, so I am sure we will see hopefully more
victories for Mark in the near future.
Q: Is there a different atmosphere in the factory now?
CH: Everybody in the factory was extremely motivated coming into this
season. We knew we had a good car. The effort that has gone into the
development of this car is nothing short of astounding. The commitment that
has been shown by so many unsung heroes back in the factory, in the garage
here and at every grand prix so far this year has been quite staggering. I
think the challenge we have had this year, combined with new regulations,
has also been the lack of testing, so I am sure we, like other teams, are
rushing though components at breakneck speed to get them to the car. Even
components that were on the drawing board 10 days ago are finding themselves
getting onto a car at a grand prix weekend which is unprecedented. The whole
development pace is fanatical at the moment but the guys at Milton Keynes
have risen to the challenge. The design team led by Adrian (Newey) and his
guys have responded brilliantly well and that’s resulted in the kind of
performances that we have seen in the last couple of races.
Q: You talk about the design team and the pace of development. I am a little
surprised that perhaps you haven’t got a little update here. I know you had
one a couple of races ago but with the beak coming up and then a double
header surely it was important to have an update here?
CH: We have got a few little bits here. We are targeting to get something
onto the car every single weekend. It is a challenge and the next challenge
is obviously the summer break when we are not allowed to do anything, so we
have got a week to produce whatever we are going to do for the next race in
Valencia. But we have a few bits and pieces here. This weekend is obviously
a big weekend. Theoretically this is Brawn territory and we are going to do
our best to take the fight to them but there are a few other cars that also
will go pretty quick this weekend.
Q: How do you feel about the balance between Brawn and yourselves over the
last couple of races? Is it because they weren’t suited to the conditions
but you had made a step forward?
CH: I was very happy with the balance at the last two races. I think that
yes, for sure, we have made a step. I think they have a great car and they
started the year and came out of the blocks very quickly. I think over the
last few races we have made steps. We have understood the double diffuser
more and more and I think more than anything that has added performance to
the car. We saw the first iteration of that in Monte Carlo, the second in
Silverstone, so as we understand more of that philosophy it is just opening
up more and more development avenues. I think that will continue throughout
the rest of the season.
Q: Franz, first of all I think one of the things you have got to do is
building up your own technical department. How is that coming along?
Franz TOST: It is coming along very well I must say. We have currently
around 220 employees. We have started to run the wind tunnel in Bicester and
in about two or three weeks we will have the CFD installed in Faenza and so
far everything is to the time scale.
Q: The modifications here. Did they come from that group of people?
FT: No, the modifications here are coming from Milton Keynes, from Red Bull
Technology. We are still getting the drawings from them because this is for
this year’s car. Regarding the designer group which is working in Faenza
they are doing the job for next year’s car.
Q: And how have those modifications worked out today?
FT: They worked out well and I think we made a step forward. We were out
with some fuel in the car today and I expect that tomorrow at least we will
be in the second qualifying.
Q: You have a new driver here with Jaime Alguersuari. He is the youngest
driver ever to be in Formula One and he has not had a lot of experience in a
Formula One seat. What was the thinking behind hiring him and also starting
his season at this stage?
FT: The thinking behind is that first we were not happy with another driver
which we exchanged. Then, as you know, Red Bull, respectively Dietrich
Mateschitz, bought the second team to give young drivers a chance to come
into Formula One. As you know Red Bull is running a very successful young
driver programme and from these drivers Jaime is currently the most
experienced, the fastest and the most mature driver. He is currently the
youngest driver in a Formula One field but it does not mean he is
inexperienced. He has so far done 118 races, he won 17 races. He had 36
finishes on the podium and he won last year the English Formula Three
Championship and also this year in the World Series he has so far done a
good job. In Le Mans last Sunday he finished in third position and therefore
I don’t think he is as inexperienced as other drivers think he is. Today he
did 82 laps without any mistake and I think the times he did were quite
impressive and I am quite convinced that Red Bull has chosen the correct
driver and I am convinced that we will have a good future with him. The
reason why he started here in Hungary is that five weeks ago he drove a race
here for the Renault World Series and he finished in sixth position if I
remember right. That means he was familiar with the track and it would have
been a much greater risk to start with him in Valencia or even later than in
Spa. Therefore he should enjoy being here in Hungary. He should enjoy
sitting in the car and I am convinced he will do a good race.
Q: Norbert, you have KERS here. The difference in speed was very interesting
at the last race, particularly of Lewis (Hamilton) across the start-finish
line in comparison to everybody else which I guess was KERS assisted. Would
you expect the same sort of thing here?
Norbert HAUG: Yes, so far I am not quite sure whether the timing is right
but I hope it is. Then we have a big advantage in the first sector. The
times were a little bit all over the place and I am not quite sure if the
split times are the correct ones. But it is quite obvious that we have very
good top speed at the start-finish line. Looking back at the Nürburgring I
think Lewis really would have made it. Mark, certainly not by purpose, hit
him and Lewis got a deflated tyre. He definitely would have made it around
the corner and I am sure as Heikki (Kovalainen) showed that at least for the
first 15 laps or whatever he could have been in the lead and then it would
have been a different story, so that was bad luck, it was not on purpose. It
could have been the other way around. You can lose or damage your front wing
or whatever. It was very tight, Lewis coming from fifth but to overtake four
guys ahead of him and such guys in the cars. That means quite something. It
is not the longest straight at the Nürburgring, so I think that was a great
achievement. And of course I hope for very much the same here. It would be
better to be further up the grid but I doubt it. But maybe we can catch some
guys in front of us at the start and then we will see how the race develops.
I think we need reasonable lap times but definitely we are not in a position
to go for race wins but I think since Silverstone, where we have been
nowhere basically, we have improved a lot. You could see that at the
Nürburgring where hopefully we were going in the right direction. Coming
back to the basis of your question, our KERS is a big, big help, not only
here but on various race tracks. Even in Monaco that was the case, I think
we did competitive lap times. For obvious reasons we could not get the
result there but we have been competitive there. We have been absolutely not
competitive at the quick ones like Turkey and Silverstone. The Nürburgring
is not the quickest either but we did a reasonable job there and hopefully
we can continue that direction here.
Q: You stated that it would be nice to have a German driver in the team.
What is the situation with the current two?
NH: Well, I am stating that for 15 years to be honest and it is still the
truth. Just to put it very clear. There is a lot of speculation going around
and the newest one is that Lewis is afraid of a German driver in the team
but I can honestly tell you that if you have had Fernando Alonso in your
first year in the team and you were evenly matched with Fernando Alonso,
then I don’t think you should be afraid of any team-mate. We need to see how
things are developing. I think Heikki did a great job. If you look at
qualifying times and qualifying positions this is quite evenly matched
between both of them and I think Lewis is a match for basically everybody. I
think if you are not 9-0 after nine races, then this is positive and I think
in Heikki’s case it is quite balanced between both of them. I think we
should keep that in mind, so there are no decisions taken. But, of course, I
think all of us are looking at the market. This is our job and we are
looking to develop opportunities. We helped young drivers a lot. I have to
say I am absolutely pleased with the successes of Sebastian Vettel and also
the other German guys. They are great guys, good friends. If they are better
and quicker than us, then they beat us and that is fine. We just need to do
a better job and I think that is the right atmosphere, when you appreciate
that somebody else is doing a good job as well. But don’t worry we are going
to come back and we will be strong again sooner rather than later.
Q: Since the German Grand Prix there have been doubts about German Grand
Prix next year. We haven’t got a French Grand Prix this year. The British
Grand Prix has some doubts around it. There is no American Grand Prix. It
has been stated that some of the teams are worried about the grands prix in
the future in their major markets, the ones that I have just mentioned. What
can you do about reinstating those grands prix? What are the hopes of
Constructors’ such as yourselves?
NH: First of all I think the British Grand Prix in my view, as being an
observer, as being a racer, gave the perfect answer on race day. I was
surprised to hear lots of noise and lots of hoorays when I saw on television
that Lewis was fighting with Fernando for whatever, 17th position. I think
everybody stood up and clapped. These are the real enthusiasts and if
Silverstone was not a fantastic race, it was not the most interesting one,
we should have done a better job and we should have had more fights. But the
people genuinely enjoyed it and not having a race there is, I think, not the
right thing to do. Well, they can swap with Donington, it is not my
business, but Silverstone proved they are absolutely capable of having a
sensational grand prix. It is an historic race track. I like the race track
very much. Even if we could not perform there we have won a couple of races
there already. But I think races like these should be on the calendar and if
they swap one year to the other with Donington, that is fine with me. The
same applies to Germany. I think there is still a very good chance for
Hockenheim. The Nürburgring was a good race as well, so I think the
prospects are not bad to keep these traditional race tracks on the calendar.
We, certainly in FOTA, whatever influence we will have, I think, it is our
thinking that we would like to have races like these on the calendar.
Q: Stefano, how have this weekend’s modifications worked out today?
Stefano DOMENICALI: Well, of course today we have done quite a different job
on the cars. First of all we also started some work in relation to the new
year, 2010, because we need to anticipate some development there because we
know that from now to the end of the season we can have a lot of running.
Secondly, we had some issues relating mainly to the usage of the tyres
today. I don’t think Felipe was really happy about the balance of the car in
both conditions, even if I have to say that at the end of the day, when he
was trying to do a good time on the supersofts, there were always yellow
flags at the wrong moment, but that’s part of the game. Kimi (Räikkönen) was
not too bad, he felt that the car was reasonably good. I think that the
modifications that we brought today gave what we expected, so it’s really a
matter of understanding how the situation is within the real framework. We
know that in Hungary the situation on the first day is really very difficult
to analyse as always in the past on a track that is not really perfect. We
saw a lot of drivers having some difficulties, going wide or not being
really clean on the track, and of course we need to understand the lap time
exactly because the fuel effect is quite high. So we need to be very
careful. And above all, this year, with such a different performance
situation, day by day, run by run, we need to not draw any conclusions
before the chequered flag, I would say. But for sure, we know that… I think
Norbert made a good point: I don’t think we are in a position to be ready to
win a race from a performance point of view but we need to be ready, just in
case something happens. I know that all the competitors are pushing very,
very hard to improve their performance and we know that because the gaps are
so small, a little step can make the difference. It’s a challenging season.
In this condition we need to take that now with a positive approach, when
you are performing not at the standard that you wanted to react, so I think
that’s the situation today. Let’s see tomorrow.
Q: How much are you working towards next year and how much are you still
concentrating on this year?
SD: We are totally concentrating on this year at the track. I think that
now, after the August break, we will be fully concentrated on next year’s
car.
Q: A lot of people have been talking about Kimi’s performances this year and
about his future; what is his future?
SD: I know there is a lot of speculation going around. As we always say, the
question is that we don’t ever say something about any driver, if he’s
performing well, if he’s performing badly. We are always speaking about the
team and that’s our line. You know what the situation is with our two
drivers and there’s no change on that. Nothing to add on top of it. Up until
2010 we have an agreement with Kimi and Felipe, and that’s the situation. No
more than that.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Stefano, it was suggested in Germany
that by now the Concorde Agreement would have been signed. Could you explain
what the latest situation is, how close are all three parties now?
SD: I think that we are progressing. I think that we are very, very close to
reaching a solution. As always with such a complexity, the closer you get to
the goal, the more everyone is trying to squeeze or to find different things
around it but I am optimistic that before the August break everything will
be sorted out.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Question to Stefano and Norbert: it is being
said that we will be down to five engines per driver for next year. How sure
are you that it will happen because Cosworth has obviously voiced some
concerns about being able to retune their engines and if it will stay at
eight engines, will you still be able to offer your engines for five million
euros for the independent teams?
SD: What I can say about that is, as I said, that the closer that you get to
signatures on a document that also has to incorporate sporting and technical
regulations from the baseline, for sure this is not a point that is 100
percent clear. This is the current situation. I think this is one of the
most important points that we need to clear up.
Q: (Michael Trawniczek – Rallye and More) Mr Haug, is it true that you said
that a crash similar to that of Henry Surtees is not possible in Formula One
and if true, why are you so sure?
NH: I never said that.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Stefano, could you explain
to us what will happen during the summer break because it’s something new,
where you have to close the door?
SD: We are looking forward to it; at least, for us, with one week to go and
then, at least in my professional career, I’ve never had two weeks holiday
in August, so I’m really looking forward to it. But basically we had to sign
an agreement where all the teams would not go ahead with any kind of
activity apart from maintenance, things that we need to do in that period to
refresh or looking after the maintenance and structure of our buildings, but
that there’s no production, no design, no activity. This is something that
we decided together in order to follow the rules of saving money for all the
teams involved.
CH: As an Italian you should know that the whole of Italy closes for a month
anyway and we thought that it was only fair that the rest of the racing
community does the same, at least for two weeks. So it’s a very strange
thing to have an enforced holiday, telling people that they can’t work, they
can’t come into the factory. It’s a compulsory, it’s been agreed by FOTA,
it’s documented what we can and can’t do. Yes, it’s a lot of people who are
forced to take a break for two weeks.
Q: (MC) Norbert, does that apply to the racing engine departments at
Brixworth and Stuttgart as well?
NH: Absolutely.
Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Your objective is to save money and reduce the
costs of Formula One but the teams bring new updates and new steps forward
at every single race. So to what level can we say that you are saving money
because it seems that development has never been so fast?
FT: OK, but within the new regulations development will be restricted. For
example, with homologations next year: front wings, rear wings. They are
homologated. You can bring out three new modifications, the floor as well,
the monocoque, also only one crash structure. That means that FOTA has
worked out quite a good programme where we are convinced that we can reduce
costs.
CH: I think that we’ve already seen significant savings this year. I think
that the testing ban has saved significant money. I think that the work that
was done on the engines and if you look at the decrease in price in engines
over the last three years, predominantly through the work of FOTA - the FIA
has obviously signed it off - is significant. So I think teams have already
reduced budgets this year by between fifteen and thirty percent and I think
that there will be further significant savings through the resource
restrictions that are planned to be implemented. We’ll even be restricted on
the number of people that we potentially plan to take to a race circuit next
year. I think Formula One has reacted responsibly. It has moved to get its
costs under control. It’s positive to see three new teams entered for next
year which would have been impossible, I think, without the resource
restrictions that will be introduced.
NH: I think the engine is a very special issue. If you look back two years,
an engine lease was four times as much money as it will be next year, and I
think that’s quite remarkable. FOTA worked on that. I stress, this is a FOTA
idea and of course you need to be in a position to produce these engines, so
I think that’s a really perfect fix and something that is a very special
price. I don’t think that three years ago anybody could have imagined that
this would have happened. In our case, we will spend thirty percent less
money as Mercedes Benz than we did last year and this is just the beginning.
I’m sure we can improve much more and these resource restrictions are really
the way to go and we are very restrictive. These guys put a lot of work into
that, much, much more than I did. Martin Whitmarsh, for example, worked flat
out and there was a great atmosphere and I think this is the new style of
Formula One. You are competitors on the race track but you work together
next to the race track and this is really happening, and I think this is a
very, very positive development. I think FOTA will improve further and be
open, help the media to get the job done and so on and so on and this is not
singing a song, this is what we want to do, step by step, what we want to
develop, because some things can just be improved and we need to make sure
that the spectators like our sport even more, so more interesting races, and
so on and so on and there are quite a few ideas and a very constructive
co-operation between the teams.
SD: I think that Norbert is totally correct. We don’t have to underestimate
that this year it is due to FOTA that we are able to save money, above all
in the area of the engine. Now, hopefully we will get all the Concorde
(Agreement), all the other things done and now FOTA should concentrate on
the main things that we have outlined at the beginning, to try to put ahead
ideas on improving the show, put ahead ideas on keeping the restrictions
that we have discussed. Now is the time to revert to the main objectives of
FOTA, as we said, working together with the FIA in proposing something new
and giving back the positiveness of Formula One because otherwise we will
loop around something that is not beneficial to anyone. We need to make sure
that people or sponsors that were on hold now, because of the situation,
once again will give the green light, they will find that Formula One is
attractive. This is the job that we have to do because otherwise we will
miss our objective and this is what we want to start on. Unfortunately we
have delayed with our previous planning but now we have to focus on this.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Christian has just mentioned the testing ban,
so what is the future of the in-season testing ban because I’ve heard some
drivers and even team bosses saying that it’s just too much not to have any
kind of testing, just some straight-line testing during the season? Is there
an intention to change that next year maybe?
CH: I think that the testing for next year is being worked on at the moment
within the sporting working group and it will be 15 days of common testing
between the teams prior to the season and obviously we then have the three
young driver days. I guess this is something that will be debated, as to
when you run your young driver days, in order to not prevent youngsters
coming in to Formula One. I think it’s finding that balance (that is
difficult) but I think that can be done quite easily.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Cutting costs also means
cutting jobs; could you give us some figures about teams next season, how
many less people in the aerodynamic department, engine department, chassis
department, etc?
SD: All that I can say is that we are working on a situation in order to
reduce the number of people at races. All the other things are related to
something that we will exploit internally because everyone has their own
organisation, so we cannot say that everyone is doing the same thing as the
others. But for sure what we are aiming at now is to look at the number of
people that attend races. |
