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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz
TOST (Toro Rosso), Pat FRY (Ferrari), Eric BOULLIER (Lotus), Christian
HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Monisha KALTENBORN (Sauber)
Franz, a new technical director. One has departed and a new one has arrived.
First of all, can you explain what happened with Giorgio?
Franz TOST: First of all I want to thank Giorgio Ascanelli. He did a very
good job over the last six years, when he was with us because we must not
forget that he had to build up infrastructure at Toro Rosso. When he started
there were around 20 engineers and today there are around five times the
number. He did a really great job. We were quite successful. As you know in
2008 we won the first grand prix with Sebastian Vettel, therefore thank you
very much for this. Now times have changed, we are looking forward to a new
challenge and therefore James Key is on board with us.
So, what can you hope for from James in the short term with this year’s car
and in the longer term with next year’s car, which presumably has already
been started?
FT: First of all, this year’s car, we’ve arrived into September where we
can’t expect so many changes. I think we will come up with some upgrades for
the rest of the season, but there were planned and in project already before
James joined us. But he is now very much involved in the design of the new
car, which already started around two months. But nevertheless he will have
hopefully a lot of influence over next year’s car.
Presumably you’re very encouraged to see what’s happening with Sauber, which
was James’ last car?
FT: Sauber is doing very well. The car is very fast and hopefully he will do
a similar good job, as he did at Sauber.
And the same engine of course?
FT: Exactly.
Pat, first of all, tell us about Alonso’s problems today?
Pat FRY: Well, this morning, obviously, he had an issue, which stopped us
running a little bit early. This afternoon has been a bit of a messy
afternoon for us. We had a problem with a brake system and finally a gearbox
problem stopped us running right at the end. Fortunately, we managed to do
all the long-run work with Felipe. We didn’t get the entire programme done
with Fernando, but we answered the questions we needed to ask.
Was that quite a high mileage engine? And what about the gearbox, do you get
a penalty for that?
PF: Gearboxes are free on Friday obviously and the engine was obviously a
Friday engine at high mileage.
In terms of the performance this year, you’ve turned round a car that was
not particularly competitive at the beginning of the season, particularly
around Barcelona and the Mugello test. What did you do then and what can you
do now? Was it modifications or was it set-up changes.
PF: Mainly modifications to the aero package. I think we made a reasonable
step forward in Barcelona and we made another reasonable step forward in
Canada. I mean, every race we bring new parts but I think those are the two
steps that I suppose stand out when you look at the performance of all the
teams. But I think we’ve still got a long way to go to be happy with our
performance level.
And the aero package here: how is that working?
PF: Yeah, everything seems to be behaving sensibly. It’s a little bit of an
extreme circuit here and I’m sure there will be different downforce level
choices with people and it should make for an entertaining race anyway.
Eric, we’ve seen Romain Grosjean here. Presumably you’ve had quite a chat
with him. What has he said and what have you said to him since last weekend?
EB: Nothing much to add to what had been said in the media here. Just to his
clear understanding that is was a severe penalty he got and talking about
the reason why and how we can change things to make his weekend a little bit
easier to handle for him. Basically this kind of discussion.
Last weekend, Kimi at one point was complaining about lack of power on the
radio…
EB: He was asking ‘can I have more’. During the race we have different
strategies. We knew that Sebastian was too far in front of us to catch up
and so we went into a fuel saving mode and obviously that’s changing a
little bit the mapping and the performance of the engine. He was just hoping
to be back to the normal fuel system.
Jerome D’Ambrosio steps in having done a few laps earlier on this year at
Mugello, but only that. In retrospect would you perhaps give a reserve
driver more laps, or maybe even a Friday for example?
EB: The plan was to give him a couple of Fridays and more over the whole
season. But because of the performance we had to reconsider a little bit the
strategy and ambition of the team maybe for this year. It’s always when
something happens that you say ‘I should have done this differently’.
Obviously I am happy with what he did bring. We gave him also a couple of
runs with an old car, a three years old car in different demos and that
helped him as well to keep a little bit some feeling with a Formula One. But
yeah, if he would have a more mileage he would have fit a little bit better
even if he did a good job today.
Christian, last weekend there seemed to an issue again about power. I’d like
you clarify what it was all about – was it set-up or gearing or what the
problem was last weekend for the Red Bull team?
Christian HORNER: The problem you’re referring to was?
At the top of the hill.
CH: Basically with the lack of running on Friday because it was obviously
raining your gear ratio choice is made on Friday night and we elected to go
quite aggressive with our top gear. With 20/20 hindsight we would not repeat
that decision in a similar situation and we would go a bit longer. What was
happening was once our drivers were getting in the DRS zone and opening
their wing they were getting into the limiter and weren’t able to capitalise
on the DRS. Therefore, with Sebastian, the progress that he made was coming
back up the hill through Blanchimont into the chicane. He did a great job
passing quite a lot of cars around the outside and inside in that last
chicane.
That must have been very satisfying to get the result you did get given the
problem in the traditional overtaking area.
CH: Yes, I think it was actually one of the best race I’ve seen Seb drive to
be honest. His performance last week was very strong. It was great for the
team to score points on a day when our main rivals weren’t on track because
of the incident on the first corner from which everybody, thankfully,
emerged unscathed.
It was a strong race, particularly by Sebastian. Our pace on Saturday we
didn’t quite understand in qualifying over a single lap because we looked
quick in the morning and then that performance eluded us in the afternoon.
Our race p[ace on the Sunday was actually very strong. We were flexible with
our strategy, we managed to make a one-stop work well, particularly for
Sebastian. Mark’s strategy was a little bit more conventional but overall it
was positive points for the team.
And you’ve got some good tracks coming up, some tracks where you’ve excelled
in the past. What are your feelings about those?
CH: I think the one thing we’ve seen in 2012 is that past form is irrelevant
this year. It’s impossible to predict what your form is going to be like
from circuit to circuit. Obviously we arrive at each grand prix and we try
to maximise the car and the package we have. This weekend is no different to
that. Singapore is another challenge in itself, a bumpy, twisty street
circuit compared to the long straights and flowing corners here at Monza.
That’s the big challenge of Formula One is to try to be consistent across
all 20 venues, of which we’ve got eight to go.
Monisha, last weekend you went from Heaven to Hell in a very short space of
time. What sort of impact did it have on the team?
Monisha KALTENBORN: Well, we are used to these kind of situations where you
think it’s looking good and it doesn’t quite work out. Until the formation
lap it was really looking good for the team. We had a fantastic race weekend
until then. One of the best qualifying positions so far for the team, and it
all looked really good. Then suddenly on the formation lap, we see how
things are billowing out and it ends up really badly. So, what we did then
is analyse what happened on Kamui’s car and see where we can still improve.
Because that’s important for us. We see quite often that if qualifying works
out well, we have good race pace and then we can really get a lot of points
home. That’s what’s we did. We took a lot of positives home from that
weekend, that the car is very competitive, and we need to make sure that we
don’t make mistakes during the race weekend.
Were you particularly looking at what happened on Kamui’s car? Sergio
obviously got involved in the incident…
MK: Sergio really couldn’t do anything, he was just terribly affected by
that incident. On Kamui’s car we had to find out why there was that smoke
and why the start was not that good.
Any conclusion to that?
MK: We know now what happened, we analysed that. And whatever the team can
do, we’ll definitely do.
In terms of your technical team, tell us how it’s working these days. It’s
been like this since the start of the season, but you don’t actually have a
technical director, do you?
MK: No, we don’t have a technical director, that was my choice. We have
three main areas which we consider to be critical for the development of the
car – which is the aero, the design and what we call the vehicle
performance. Their heads are in this committee. They sit together and decide
on a technical direction. If there are any other issues then we four, with
me in there, sit in there and try to find the best solution. It seems to be
working and it’s a bit of a history at Sauber that we’ve always had very
strong heads of department and the people under them. It’s always been the
backbone of the team and it works well.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
(Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Franz, I would like to ask you to recall
some memories of the 2008 Grand Prix – the whole emotion, the whole weekend.
Was it a confirmation for you, and for Christian, that Seb is going to be a
future champion?
FT: Let me say it in this way. We started already on Friday, if I remember
right, to prepare the cars for Sunday under wet conditions because the
weather forecast was quite clear: it said there was a high risk of rain. And
I remember that we said to the drivers, ‘stay out, do as many laps as
possible’, because here in Monza under wet conditions it’s a little bit
different than on other tracks because their are not so many possibilities
that the water can runoff and therefore you have exactly to know where to
drive. Sebastian Vettel and Bourdais did a lot of laps and we found a good
setup in those days. And then I was quite happy on Saturday during the
qualifying when the rain didn’t stop. And then, of course, on Sunday, when
it rained when the race was started under the safety car. Once Sebastian was
in front I was quite convinced that he could at least finish the race within
the first five positions. I didn’t think that he could win the race but then
he did a fantastic job. And then the team also during the pitstops made a
good job and then at the end fortunately we won this race. But we must not
forget there were very special circumstances. We clearly could see in those
days that Sebastian Vettel’s learning curve and his performance improved
from race to race. And I was convinced that he could do a really good job at
Red Bull Racing. That he won then the championship already in 2010 you
couldn’t know in 2008. But that he will have a good future, this was quite
clear for me.
(Dan Knutson - Honorary) Pat, looking ahead to Suzuka, what do you need to
have a fast car there and how will your car go there?
PF: Well, I suppose it’s dominated by efficiency and aerodynamics. It’s just
that we need to keep up the constant drive we’ve been doing all year, as
everyone is, just to improve the efficiency of the car.
(Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) To the four team principal, 2014 obviously
there’s a major change in engines. The four of you are customers of engines
– in other words you don’t have teams producing your own – what sort of
progress has been made on the costing issues and what are your expectations
in this regard?
CH: I think 2014 is going to be an interesting year. The engine is radically
different. I think that it’s important that the engine doesn’t become the
crucial, single performance differentiator – I think that would be
particularly unhealthy for Formula One and for the engine manufacturers
involved. I terms of cost of supply I think the difficulty with introducing
new technology and advanced technology such as the 2014 engine, it comes at
a price. And I think all of the independent teams are very eager to know
what that price is and what the impact of that price will be. I don’t think
it’s the right market for Formula One to see an increase in costs. I don’t
think that’s ultimately sustainable. But hopefully it won’t have an impact
on the fiscal side.
MK: We have been very clear about our position. At the moment a lot of
details are unclear on the technical side and also the price. We’ve also
very clearly said that we don’t want to go down to those times many years
ago where engines were so horrendously expensive. I think in the last year,
in this whole movement with cost-cutting and the engine freeze which took
place. Now costs have really gone down a lot and we don’t want to take three
steps back again with this new engine and end up at a point which was there
many years ago.
FT: It’s quite clear that this new powertrain in 2014 will increase the
costs. It’s not possible to make it cheaper, as we get it now, because
there’s a new engine, we have the new ERS system, there’s the new batteries
and everything will for sure increase the costs. And 2014 will become an
expensive year. Now the question, how is the depreciation in the following
years? Just maybe to level the costs, on an acceptable amount. This we will
see and I hope that we can negotiate this with the manufacturers, I hope the
manufacturers will be as fair as they were in the past. And then I’m
convinced that we will find a solution.
EB: I do share the same position. It’s a concern, the costs of the new
powertrain. We expect either though the engine RRA or different discussions
we can have with the engine manufacturers… you know it’s going to be
reasonable… we don’t see new technologies is going to be difficult to bring
the price down, cheaper than now – but if there is an increase we just
expect a reasonable increase.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Pat, yesterday Michael
Schumacher said that covered cockpits were necessary, they will be
introduced in the future for sure. Do you agree with that or are there other
options on the table from the Technical Working Group?
PF: Looking back at the start of last weekend's race, it was a lucky
situation. It could have gone very badly, so I think the whole of Formula
One was very lucky. A flying car or a large piece of car flying in the air
is still the one thing that we struggle to protect the drivers against.
There's obviously been quite a lot of research by the FIA which is still
continuing. They've looked at the covered cockpits and then different roll
cages as well, so I think that research just needs to continue really, as
quickly as it can.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) What is your opinion of the
projected increase in fees paid to the FIA for next year?
EB: Well, as you said, it's a potential increase. We have not been
officially informed yet about this change by the FIA. If that's the case, we
obviously will need to understand why and what will be the justification for
such an increase, because there is a massive difference, as you can
understand, between the current level (and the future one).
CH: I think it's important to understand what's involved in the increase,
what's included within it, what we pay that's external from the current
entry, for example. There's only been a brief discussion about it at the
moment. I'm sure there'll be further talks in the coming weeks.
MK: As Eric said, we've only been learning about this from the media. The
FIA has not really got in touch with us so we have to wait and see what they
really propose and what their intentions are but apart from that, I think
the FIA is fully aware that there are many teams out there which are already
in a financially challenging situation and if you put further burden on them
like this - depending on the package - you should be careful about the
situation.
FT: It doesn't match so much with the cost reduction but we have to find out
what is the reason behind this and we have to know more details and then we
will sit together with the FIA and then we will see where we end up.
Q: (Naoise Holohan - Manipe F1) Given the successes of Fernando Alonso
during the course of his career and how he's driving this year, can I get
the opinion of everybody on the question of him being the greatest driver of
his generation?
CH: I think it's always very difficult to compare drivers across
generations. You have to look at the equipment at their disposal, who their
competitors were at that time. Fernando, for sure, is one of the all-time
great drivers in Formula One but I personally find it very hard to judge
where and how you compare different generations. There are generations which
we didn't even see which only people as old as Bob (Constanduros, moderator)
would remember and I think it's very difficult to judge drivers from
different generations.
EB: I do share what my colleague next to me has said. It's clear that it's
difficult to judge and compare different generations. What we can say today
is that in the career of a driver you have different phases and I would say
that Fernando is at the top of his form today.
PF: He's obviously an outstanding driver, isn't he? I had the pleasure of
working with him in 2007 and again now. I think I would agree that it's hard
to actually compare even drivers in different cars. What is the actual
performance of the car? The only driver you can really compare to is your
teammate because you have like-for-like tools. He's certainly at the top of
his game this year
FT: From the arithmetical point of view it's Michael Schumacher because he
won seven titles and then Fangio, Prost, Senna and because these drivers
have done the best job or did the best job during their career and to
compare drivers within different periods of time is simply not possible.
MK: As it has been said, each time was so different that it is indeed so
difficult to compare, but I think it's highly impressive in a season that
despite all the different winners and things like that, Fernando has been so
consistent, always just bringing the car home and getting all those points.
It's extremely impressive, the way he's doing it.
Q: (Kate Walker - Girl Racer) Going back to the 2014 engines, in addition to
the actual spec change, we're going to see a reduction in the number of
engines available to each driver from eight down to five, that at a time
with no real track testing. Are you concerned that the 2014 championship may
be determined by engine reliability rather than driver skill?
EB: Yeah. The concern is when you have a big change in the regulations is
that you don't want an engine reliability issue, especially when you are
limited to five engines per driver. You don't want to have an engine
powertrain dominating compared with the others so there's a lot of question
marks which I think have been raised by the Technical Working Group and even
different groups working with the FIA. We have to rely if possible on the
regulator in the governing body to make sure that everything will be in
place, to make sure that reliability of such issues are fixed for the
beginning of the season, even if it's not going to be easy to challenge for
the engine manufacturers, but we have to believe everything has been planned
at least.
CH: I think Eric has summed it up very well. I think the other key thing to
remember is that technology will be very new. Basically 50 percent of the
power will come mechanically and fifty percent of the power will come
electronically and I think the technology will be very immature and then
you're talking about homologation of engines as well at the beginning of the
season and I think it would be very easy to freeze in an advantage or a
disadvantage which would be unhealthy for the sport, I think, so hopefully
there will be some constructive discussion in the coming weeks to ensure
that a performance advantage or disadvantage for a manufacturer of which
potentially there will only be three, will be able to be addressed if
somebody undershoots, particularly in the early years. It will all converge
over time but as the technology is particularly immature there could be
quite large variances, certainly in the first year or two.
Q: (Kate Walker - Girl Racer) Is that a discussion that is currently
ongoing?
CH: I'm sure that in the Technical Working Group they are talking about it
but it's a challenging topic. It's a difficult time to be introducing a new
engine, obviously, under the financial climate that we currently have but
that's where we are and hopefully in the time between now and when the
engine is introduced, measures can be made to ensure that not only costs but
competitiveness of a power plant can be measured and controlled accordingly.
MK: Well, the risk is absolutely there and maybe we then have to also... or
the engine manufacturers allow them certain activities next year regarding
the reliability and maybe that could also have cost implications, positive
ones, for us, so I think we have to be open to discuss that and look into
that.
FT: The 2014 powertrain package will become a great great challenge from the
technical side, because there are so many new factors which have to be taken
into consideration. It's not only the engine, it's the air system, the
batteries and it's not only the reliability, it's also the cooling. I
personally fear that the field will not be as close as it is currently. I
think that maybe one engine manufacturer will come up with a special
solution and those cars will be far in front, as we saw in the turbo years.
I just hope that the three manufacturers will come up with similar solutions
and that the output of the powertrain will be at a similar level, that we
also will see in 2014 a nice and interesting Formula One season as is
currently the case.
PF: I think the 2014 power unit is a very interesting technical challenge,
lots of complication, and the drive to improve performance and efficiency is
going to be massive. Dealing with reliability is certainly not an
insignificant problem. There were certain teams which want to run an engine
in an old Formula One car. That has been discussed at the TWG - I was keen
to do that because I think it will help improve the reliability, running it
in a proper car with all proper G-loading and everything. That was vetoed or
voted out, whatever the right term is, so we're left trying to answer the
questions on the dyno. We will answer some of the questions but we certainly
won't answer all of them. There will be an element of risk when you go into
the February testing, when you're going to have three tests to sort it out.
If you've got a major problem, you're in a bit of trouble. Best we get our
design right to start with, I suppose.
Q: (Alan Baldwin - Reuters) Eric, there have been a couple of stories about
Robert Kubica getting back into a rally car and trying that out. Has there
been any kind of contact with you over the last few months? If he were to
get in touch with you, would you be at all interested in giving him a ride
in one of your older cars for old times' sake?
EB: It's a long time that we haven't been talking about this. No, I did read
in the press, like you, that he was doing some rally and actually he's
supposed to do a rally next weekend or something like this, but we don't
have much contact. I have contact with his management but nothing else. I've
not been updated about his current state for a long time.
Q: (Gary Meenaghan - The National) Eric and maybe all of you; in this era of
no end of season testing, how important is the simulator?
EB: You know the simulator has now reached a very good level of detail, to
get the drivers familiar, to bring out the real use of a simulator which is
not related to the driver. It's true that in the position today, where some
drivers are stepping into Formula One in the last three or four years with
thousands of kilometers of testing, to generally get used to the team with
the process of Formula One, with the procedure of the car, with everything,
it's easy, obviously, to step into Formula One. With the current format,
now, most of the drivers now have to step in with zero miles under their
belts which is a bit tricky. But there is an economic reality as well.
Testing costs a lot of money, a lot of resources as well, because not only
money, we are already having a busy calendar during the season and we have
set up - Lotus F1 are set up to have one crew for the whole season, so
adding extra testing would obviously have consequences on the resources, so
the question is up in the air, let's say. Is the balance today good enough
with simulator and with a few test days at the end of the year? I don't
know, I don't have the answer. I know that the balance today is working but
is it fair or not?
FT: Testing is very very expensive. If you want to go out for a test, you
need your own test team. We cancelled the test team because of the costs
three years ago. I think this was the correct decision. Regarding the young
drivers, as Toro Rosso is a young drivers' team, normally we do it in this
way that young drivers which are coming into Formula One get the possibility
to run on Fridays in the morning, and I think this is a good possibility to
step into Formula One, to learn everything. And every team can do this. It's
not only restricted to young driver teams and therefore I think the current
balance which we have from the regulation side is a good one.
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll - Motorsport-total.com) Christian, you mentioned
before a potential freeze of an engine advantage when the engines come in in
2014. Is that one of the reasons why Red Bull is so keen for an engine RRA
to be introduced with a chassis RRA, possibly in 2013?
CH: Er, no. The reason that we said that there should be... if an RRA is to
come in in full force and policed by the FIA it should encompass all aspects
of the car of which the engine and power unit is a significant part, because
some teams in Formula One belong to automotive or are automotive
subsidiaries that produce both chassis and engines and obviously some
resource will come between chassis and engine and it's impossible with a
chassis-orientated RRA to eliminate elements and treat, in our opinion, all
parties transparently and fairly. Our view is that if you're going to look
at a resource restriction of any form, you've got to look at the formula in
its entirety rather than cherry picking certain elements, and obviously the
engine is a key cost driver and therefore should be included within any
overall package rather than just, as I say, looking to cherry pick certain
items and cost drivers.
Q: (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) Christian, your colleague Helmut Marko, if
he was reported correctly, stated that he felt that the Sauber was the
fastest car out there. Given that it's a James Key car, given that James is
going across to Toro Rosso, are you concerned that possibly Toro Rosso will
produce a faster car than you next year? And would you invoke drink orders
in that case?
CH: I think the Sauber has been a very good car this year. I think it's been
clear at different races that they've had very good pace, including less
than a week ago in Belgium. The changes in the regulations this year were
significant and it seems to have concertina-ed the field significantly and
that also includes the likes of Williams, Lotus have made a big step as well
this year, so you turn up to a Grand Prix not knowing who is actually going
to be competitive, how competitive your own outfit is going to be. I think
James Key has done a good job previously, not just at Sauber but the teams
that he's been at prior to that and I think it was an obvious choice for
Toro Rosso when they were looking to restructure, to include James within
their line-up. I think as far as the future is concerned, I'm sure he is
going to be looking to make his mark there and the teams are open to race.
Sebastian Vettel won his first race here in 2008 in a car that was designed
in Milton Keynes and run by Toro Rosso, but the teams were free to race each
other and that will continue to be the case.
Q: (Dieter Rencken - The Citizen) Franz when I visited you in May, you were
speaking about your expansion plans and you were going to move into new
factories etc during the shutdown. What sort of progress was made there?
FT: Step one of our building is finished now and it's mainly for the
composite department and we moved the composite department into the new
building during the shutdown and fabrication has already started. You are
invited to come there to see it. It looks good. |
