|
1 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Lotus)
2 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Kimi – your first victory since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Tell us about
your emotions at this time.
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Not much really.
People want to know how amazing it is to win a grand prix. Tell us.
KR: Last time you guys was giving me shit because I didn’t really smile
enough, so maybe this time again but I mean I’m very happy for the team –
and myself – but mainly for the team. It’s really a hard season for the team
and not an easy time. Hopefully this gives them more belief, not just for
the guys making all the work but also for the guys who run the team. I hope
this can turn around the tables and give us many more good races and wins.
If not this year then next year.
Fernando, you never gave up, you were chasing Kimi down in the closing
stages of the Grand Prix. You must be surprised to see your world title…
well all three of you were technically in the world championship battle
until this moment. Tell us about your race and how you felt it was going.
Fernando ALONSO: I’m very happy, I think we were not super competitive this
weekend. We started seventh, sixth at the end with Sebastian’s penalty so we
have to fight all through the race, the first laps to do some good
overtakings and then a very good strategy that gave us the ability to fight
at the end for the victory. In the last couple of laps Kimi was a little bit
slower, so we attack. But second, I think, was the maximum today, starting
sixth, so a perfect Sunday again for us and we kept fighting until the end.
Sebastian, did you honestly believe you could be standing here today,
starting from the end of the pitlane?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, I did, to be honest with you. After the first couple
of laps obviously that target was drifting a little bit away. I had a messy
start to the race, which is quite difficult at the back, to get through the
cars as quickly as I could, damaged my front wing. And then to the safety
car, yeah I had a little bit of a big mistake with Daniel [Ricciardo] I
think, who was stopping his car on the straights and I was very surprised.
Turned to the right and… if it would have been 50m earlier, 50m later I
wouldn’t have done damage to my front wing further but after that, I said to
myself ‘yeah, either we go full attack or nothing’. So that’s what we did
and I had a fantastic race. I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously the safety cars
here and there was helping, the second one, and after that, at the end it
was a nice fight with Jenson. He was difficult to pass. I expected to have a
little bit easier time because obviously I was passing the slower cars
before and with him I was a bit struggling. Then I just squeezed my way past
into Turn 11 which was nice, it was very fair but for sure, it was a
thrilling grand prix, up and down all the time. Yeah. Obviously it’s very
nice to stand here now, pick up a trophy and drink some champagne. It’s not
actually champagne, I don’t know what it is but it tastes good.
Your name is up there as a double world champion. Do you now feel that
you’ve got your hands on one side of the cup for a third world title?
SV: I think it’s still two races to go so obviously we see how quickly
things can change. Yesterday was a surprise for us, I think would we have
started from third it would have been a different race. But yeah, it was
obviously a chance to fuck it up and we didn’t do that. So I think we can be
very proud today: we got the maximum. We lost only a very little bit, I
think we have the momentum still, the car is bloody quick, so looking
forward to the next two races. We are definitely believing in it and that’s
the target.
Kimi, you’ve won before, you’ve won the title before and standing here you
sent a message to the team about how you hope this will motivate future
success, but when it is moment going to sink in? That you’ve won a grand
prix in your comeback year.
KR: I mean like I said, I’m happy, but there’s nothing to jump around about.
Really we still have a few races to go, I’ll try to do the same again, and
for sure we’re going to have a good party today and hopefully tomorrow, when
we are feeling bad after a long night, we will remember how we feel so… I’m
just happy for everybody in the team.
PRESS CONFERENCE.
Kimi, well done, congratulations. Fantastic win for you, you’ve really been
waiting for this win, I think, all season and now it’s happened. What are
your feelings?
KR: Like I said before, I’m very happy for the team. We have had hard times
lately and hopefully it gives some belief for the people, even more that… I
mean they’ve been working very hard the whole year but with the hard times
there’s a bit unknown in the whole situation and hopefully for the people
who runs the team, who owns the team, the people who works for… for
everybody, hopefully it gives a bit more support and hope that things will
turn around and be even better than it’s been this year. So, great thing for
the team itself, for the guys and, I mean of course I’m happy myself, but if
I win it’s great, if I don’t I will try again and it’s not the end of the
life. We’ve been close few times but now I said that even the last race I
think we had the speed to even win the race but if you don’t start in the
front we see what can happen. We knew the start would be a really big key
and I got a really good start so I think with the McLaren we didn’t have the
speed, at least in the beginning of the race – but then we have to finish
the race to win so… I mean after that we were pretty good. Just the safety
cars made us a little bit more tricky today.
The start really was… gave you the second place straight away, it was a
really excellent start.
KR: Like I said yesterday, this going to be key, to get behind the faster
car and not start behind the cars that cannot go as fast as us. And I mean
we have a fast car for lap time in the race but if we stuck behind there’s
no way we’re going to get past so, that’s what we could do this weekend: put
yesterday in a good position and then made a good start and then just go
from there.
And how much is the development that has been taking place on the car with
the exhaust etc, how much has that been bringing pace to the car?
KR: It brings some pace, helps our straight line speed. So in average we
gain some advantage but it’s exactly the same car we have in Korea. So we
see how much even this year in all the races some circuits suits better for
one team and the next one is not so good for you. We had good speed last
race as I’ve already said. We made some mistakes in qualifying and paid the
price in the race. So now we put all together like we should have done quite
a few times this year but for one reason or another we haven’t. But at least
we’ve got one win so we’ll keep try to push still and see what we can do in
the next race.
Fernando, tremendous pace at the end there, where did that come from and was
it just a little bit too late?
FA: Well, I think we just saw on the board eight laps to go, there was no
more concerns about the tyres because obviously doing one stop you never
know how the tyres will finish the race, and also after the last safety car
we saw Sebastian with the soft and the first three of us, we were with the
prime, so we didn’t know how much a threat was Sebastian for fight until the
last lap. So after they lost a little bit of time, Jenson and Sebastian, and
we didn’t care any more about the tyres, I push 150 per cent for eight laps
and I tried to catch Kimi but it was never enough to be within one second
for the DRS to be even closer. So at the end we didn’t have the pace to win
but fantastic race anyway. We didn’t have the pace this weekend in any
practice, in qualifying seventh and ninth and then today we were fighting
for a victory – surprising again. This is thanks to a perfect car for the
race, a perfect start, perfect strategy, perfect pitstops so everything
perfect Sunday for us, maximising what we have in hands.
Do you think the modifications brought to the Ferrari helped during the race
today?
FA: I think it helped for sure because when we tested it on Friday, they
gave us some performance but we are talking very few hundredths of advantage
that for sure when you have a gap to close that is a couple of tenths, when
you bring hundredths and your opponents bring also some new parts, I think
more or less you are in the same position. So, we need to keep working and
in Maranello they work day and night very hard to bring new parts. Here in
the track, mechanics work 24 hours and we are doing our maximum and we sure
that hopefully it will be enough.
Are you a bit disappointed that you didn’t have more of an advantage over
Sebastian, you only pulled out three points?
FA: To be honest we were concentrating on our race. Our simulations we had
gave us the possibility to finish fifth or sixth, so we were not very
optimistic with today’s race and despite what Sebastian was doing in the
race we were taking eight, ten points maximum in our simulations. So we
concentrated on our race. He did a very good race and he was able to use the
performance in some of the parts of the race when he was in clean air plus
the safety cars that I think put the group all together. So at the end I
think this is nothing we can do, we just need to concentrate on our race and
if we finish in front of Sebastian in the next two races then maybe we have
a chance. So that’s our concentration now.
Sebastian a pretty lively race for you one way or another. It’s quite lively
back there isn’t it – there’s a lot going on?
SV: Yeah, usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field
but we did it twice today so… Yeah, obviously not the first couple of laps
we were hoping for. We damaged the front wing early, which didn’t seem to be
a big problem but it was probably the worst possible time with the safety
car. I think we were already quite high up, close to the top 10, around 13,
14, 15 or something like that. And then I had a moment with the Toro Rosso.
I don’t know what he did. He was braking his car down and I was surprised,
caught out. Maybe I should have paid more attention, but yeah, I went to the
right and I wasn’t very lucky, there was the DRS board, which I took head on
and then I thought ‘well, now the front is fucked at least, so we’ve got to
change it,’… (sorry). We did it in the worst possible moment, during the
safety car, when all the cars were already queued up and yeah we lost
everything. We were dead last. At least we had a fresh wing and from then
went through the field. It was a lot of fun. Quite difficult with some guys,
a little bit easier with other guys, but the most important thing was that
the pace was there and we were in a very strong position – already halfway
through the race, 20 laps to the end and also on the soft tyres in the last
stint. Obviously the safety car helped a little bit. Nevertheless, I think
it was a fantastic race: a great fight with Jenson in the end, who was the
most difficult to pass, obviously he was the quickest I passed in the whole
race. We know that… I think it’s quite difficult for us to get past a
Mercedes-engined car. It was very, very close with him. I enjoyed the fight
a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very, very fair.
You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid. And after
that not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but the pace
was there. Obviously we had an interesting race, up and down all the time
and a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today,
but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy. The guys are pushing 100 per
cent. I feel very happy they’re all behind me and I try to do my best for
them. I think we have two more races ahead of us, we’re in the best possible
position so I think we’re looking forward to the next race – a new grand
prix, a new challenge. It’s difficult to know who is going to be quick but I
think it was another race today where we see that it’s over as soon as we
see the chequered flag and not before.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Kimi, was that your best start in a Lotus
and after that, which one was the hardest competitor, the second safety car
or Fernando?
KR: I think we've had some very good starts before, but compared to the
others, today was a pretty normal start on our scale. I managed to pass Mark
and Maldonado before I changed into second gear. I'd had a very good start
on the warm-up lap so I knew this was going to be good. That was our aim, to
try to make a good start and we managed to do it, so it was key for our win
today.
For sure, the safety car hurt us much more than the others. We had a good
lead and then nothing, and then twice. The first time was when Hamilton was
in front of us but it definitely didn't help us today.
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov - F1 Live) Kimi Raikkonen, how and with whom and how
many days will you celebrate this win?
KR: I have almost two weeks. As long as I manage to get myself to the next
race I think the team is happy. I try to get home at some point.
Q: (Kate Walker - Girl Racer) Kimi, one of the highlights of the race was
your radio messages, the ones that you were giving to the team. How
distracting is it when you're fighting behind the safety car or whatever, to
have them reminding you to warm-up your wheels?
KR: It's a normal thing. It's the same with all the teams. For sure, they
are just trying to help but if you keep saying the same things two times a
minute, I'm not so stupid that I cannot remember what I'm doing. It's a
normal thing, they are just trying to help. I know what I'm doing. I will
ask for help if I need it. It's not the first time and it won't be the last
time. It's been many times with other teams also but they are all there to
help you and try to put you in the best position. Different people like
different things.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, was it a bit of
racing into the unknown at the beginning; you changed the gearbox, the
ratios? Were you pretty sure you could do this kind of race or were there
some obscure points that you had to sort out during the first laps, to find
out what you could do?
SV: No, I don't think it was racing into the unknown. Obviously what we
didn't know was how quickly we would get through the field. We knew that we
were quite a lot quicker than the first couple of cars that we were
approaching; obviously we have a different pace to Marussia, HRT, Caterham,
so it was important to get through those. We took the chance to take ratios
which helped down the straights, made life a little bit easier but obviously
when you're not in the pack, you pay the price as well, so I think it did
help us for overtaking but when we were in clean air, it was surely not
optimum but it's always a trade. I think from Friday to Saturday we changed
the car, not necessarily made a step forwards. We were changing quite a few
things and getting closer to what we had on Friday which I think was a
faster car so it was as simple as that.
Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Fernando and Sebastian, Michael has had 56
races without a win after his comeback; are you surprised that Kimi won his
18th after his comeback?
SV: No, I think it doesn't matter how many races it takes you. The most
important thing is that you get the results you can achieve. I think Kimi
drove a fantastic race today. For the first time the car was probably able
to win and he did it. I don't know how their race was at the front, I was
busy myself but I think we've seen this year that generally if you compare
this year, the Mercedes was not as competitive as the Lotus, so it's as
simple as that, not in every race but in the majority of races. I think
Michael showed his talent more than once in the last three years, even
though he probably wasn't as successful as he was before, I don't think it
makes him any worse.
FA: I agree.
Q: (Khodr Rawi - F1 Arab) Kimi, how special is it to be the first driver to
win for Lotus since Ayrton Senna in 1987
KR: It's a long time for them, I guess. I don't think there are any (of the
same) people in the team any more. It's a name. It's the same team and it
has been since Fernando was there, just a different name. It's a great name
for us, good past but you know I race for the team whatever the name is, I
don't really care so it's just for the guys who do all the work. Maybe it
looks good in somebody's eyes but for me it really makes no difference.
Q: (Mark Fogarty - Auto Action) To each of you: who is going to win the
World Championship?
KR: I wouldn't put money on me! They are quite close; I don't know what the
points difference is. Ten? One bad race could decide the championship if
they keep doing what they've been doing. It's hard for Fernando but we saw
yesterday and in races before that anything can happen. If it's a normal
situation I don't think much can happen but one small mistake can decide
everything.
FA: Yes, I'm confident. We will fight until the end. We are not fast enough,
this is true and we are honest with ourselves, we know this. We need to
accept this. It's a weak point, the performance that we have at the moment
in our package, and we have some strong points which we will try to use.
SV: I think we were not always fast enough this year but for the last couple
of races we were, so looking forward to the next two races.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, this has been a
pretty troubled weekend for the team. On Friday Mark had the issue with the
KERS, you yesterday in the morning, then the problem with the fuel. How much
of a relief is it for you to come out of such a weekend and be on the podium
losing only three points to Fernando?
SV: Honestly, I would have loved to have got past Jenson quicker and past
Fernando as well. I think the speed was there but it turned out to be quite
tricky to pass Jenson, and took a lot of time. But yeah, I think we can be
very happy with today. I think it's one of those races where it's difficult
to predict the outcome. We have simulation tools etc telling you one thing
but I was convinced that you have plenty of chances and I said yesterday,
obviously it was a big hit for us because if you can chose between starting
third and last you don't need to be a genius to make that one out. It was a
big hit but I said yesterday that every chance is an opportunity and there
were lots of chances today for us. I think we had a very good race, I
enjoyed it a lot and I'm very happy with today's result.
Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you said before that
yesterday was a mistake. How angry are you that this mistake happened? You
don't have to be Einstein to calculate how much fuel has to go in for three
laps, especially after it had already happened to Hamilton in Barcelona. Do
you think the team should have been more careful?
SV: There are so many things that could have worked differently. I made a
mistake on the last run, I aborted the lap, nobody ever finds out, nobody
realises there was a problem. As I said earlier, it was a mistake, there was
no intention to go stupidly close to the limit for a gain of nearly nothing.
I think it's different to what happened to Lewis in Barcelona at the
beginning of the season, obviously they deliberately put less fuel in the
car and stopped on the in lap, but for us, we had enough fuel but somehow we
had enough fuel on paper but not in the car. Obviously we stopped the car
for emergency reasons, not to damage anything and then obviously it was
quite a long procedure yesterday and unfortunately we couldn't drain the
fuel that we wanted and it was not enough to provide the sample so it was as
simple as that. Rules are clear. I think the penalty was very harsh but we
had to take it. Rules are clear. If it happens to you in race three and you
are in a similar position at the end of the year, nobody is asking and it's
not a big fuss but if it happens to you three races from the end, obviously
there's more attention etc. We had to live with that.
Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, your last win was at
Hockenheim in July, more than three months ago. Do you think you absolutely
need to win one or both of the last two races to gain the title and do you
think it's possible to do it?
FA: That will help, for sure, but I don't think so.
Q: (Vanessa Ruiz - ESPN Radio) Sebastian, so in the end, after all the
difficulties, do you guys consider your result a surprise or not?
SV: I don't think you can talk of a surprise. I think we knew we were quick.
I think if you look at the race, there were a lot of things that happened
that you couldn't foresee. I don't know what happened to the HRT which
caused the first safety car and I don't know what happened to Romain who
caused the second safety car, but obviously these things are difficult to
predict. I think we knew that we had a chance to get into the top five, even
with a normal race. Given the pace was there, as I said earlier, what we did
from Friday to Saturday, obviously we tried to improve the car, not
necessarily achieved that but we are hungry, we want to try things to make
the car faster. I don't blame anyone for that. I was one of the biggest
drivers to make the changes, behind that on Friday, and they didn't work,
but yeah, obviously we're not talking seconds per lap but small things and
today we lost a position on the grid but we got the chance to change the car
which we did and we knew that it will be a very competitive car. The speed
was there, as I said, and obviously here and there we were a little bit
lucky, but I think we created our own luck in that regard.
Q: (Shubha Chandran - Chequered Flag, India) Sebastian, what kind of focus,
commitment and mental strength does it really take to start from where you
did, and eventually end up where you have, from a purely individual
perspective?
SV: The race is long. I said to the guys before the race that I trust them
100 percent and they can trust me. I will try everything. There's no reason
to give up. Of course, if you look where we started, it was the worst
possible spot but we gave everything we had and I think when you do that,
you cannot fail so it was a perfect example of that today. Everyone was
focused on the moment and enjoying it as well. Don't forget that, I think we
are here, obviously, to fight for wins and stuff like that but we are also
here to have a good time, enjoy and have fun and I think all the guys in the
team at the moment, they don't want to be anywhere else. Obviously it's
tough on Sundays. The tension is there, obviously you're nervous, excited,
any race such as this one, especially with the difficulty of starting last
but it's also the challenge that you like, to race every single lap.
Obviously it's nice to sit here and look back. Some days it will be
difficult again, when we sit - not here - and look back and look at the
mistakes that we've made, but hopefully we will learn from those as we did
in the past to maximise the times that we sit here.
Q: (Heikki Kulta -Turun Sanomat) Kimi, does it take anything from your joy
that when you win you kill your last hope of the championship?
KR: No, I think we knew already, a few races ago, that we didn't have the
speed to challenge at the front. We always said that we would keep fighting
and trying to do the best that we can. We got the win, we might have lost
the championship on the same day but I don't really care. We didn't really
expect to be fighting with them anyhow. We've always been a bit behind and
not really had the speed to challenge them in normal races and now in the
last few races we've had very good speed and finally we put all the things
together and won. We will try again next year.
Q: (Anne Giuntini - L'Equipe) Sebastian, sorry to come back to yesterday's
incident but we didn't really understand why you stopped the car, because a
loss of fuel doesn't really damage the engine, normally?
SV: Obviously it was a precaution. We saw some numbers going down and in
order to save the engine at last, save the pumps in between etc, we decided
to stop the car, convinced that we had enough fuel in the car to provide a
sample but, as I said, for some reason we didn't have enough fuel so I don't
know what happened. There must have been a mistake somewhere which was a big
hit, like I said, but I'm sure we will learn from that and it won't happen
again. I think we have done the exercise a lot of times, we know the rules.
As I said, we are talking two hundred millilitres that were missing. If you
go to the loo before qualifying or something like that it can make the same
kind of difference. I think it's very difficult to measure. It was a mistake
for which we had to pay a very hard price but c'est la vie.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, in two weeks we're
going to Austin, you have the first chance to win the third title and it's
going to be your 100th Grand Prix.
SV: Yeah, it sounds a lot. Obviously time goes by quickly. I'm sure when you
ask Fernando and Kimi they remember their first couple of races and probably
don't feel that it's so long ago. I think that more than anything, if you do
something that you love, that you enjoy the time goes by quickly. Now, when
I'm talking about 2006, 2007, when I started to drive a Formula One car for
the first time, I still know most of the guys and can recall the places I've
been. If you then tell me it's six years ago, it sounds like a big number.
I'm sure, when someone tells you the first time that you came into a Formula
One paddock, it's however many years ago, it might be shocking as well. Time
goes by and obviously with age, you get a little bit smarter - hopefully.
You learn certain things and you get a little more relaxed probably but also
it's important to stay childish, stay hungry and do mistakes, otherwise how
can you go forward. All in all, looking forward to going home, get some
rest, charge some energy to be full charged in America to attack and
obviously try to win. |
