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1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red
Bull Racing)
2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Lotus)
3 – Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)
PODIUM INTERVIEW (Conducted by Kai Ebel)
Q: Sebastian, tell the world how sweet a taste is this home victory?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it’s unbelievable. I’m very, very happy, an
unbelievable race. Kimi was pushing very, very hard in the end and obviously
they tried to do something different with different compound tyres. I think
we had a very solid, very controlled race but I was pushing, I think, every
single lap, except the laps behind the Safety Car. Very happy with the
result and incredible to finally win in Germany.
Q: At the closing stages of the race you felt the warm breath of this guy
[Räikkönen] in your neck so what do you think about driving with this guy
next year together in one team?
SV: Well, I don’t know. I think first of all I enjoy today and, yeah, I
could feel him coming and more and more pressure but yeah, I obviously had a
couple of laps where it was quite close with Romain as well who tried to
push very hard. In the middle of the race we lost KERS for a couple of laps
so it was very difficult – but fortunately the system recovered and yeah,
it’s very useful to defend properly. Very happy that the race ended after 60
laps and not 61 or 62.
Q: Kimi, was it better for you that the radio had some problems and you
couldn’t understand the guy from the pit wall?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No actually – I could hear them but they couldn’t hear me. I
think it only worked in one part of the circuit and unfortunately today
there was quite a lot to discuss and it didn’t work. So, not the ideal but
we managed to do pretty well and obviously we want to win but today we
didn’t have the speed. The race should have been a bit longer, maybe then we
could have had a good chance – but we scored good points for two cars and we
are getting back where we should be. So in the end not ideal but pretty OK
for us.
Q: Romain, how good is it being back on the podium, even if it is now the
third position and not the second if that could been?
Romain GROSJEAN: It’s good, it’s a good result for the team. We had a very
strong race, which is good. Very good first stint. I thought I would have
had a chance at one stage on Seb but the Red Bull was quick today. And then
at the end we choose different strategy with the team. I think that was the
right things to do – just put one car on one tyres and the other one on the
other one, and it appears the Option for Kimi was quicker. So, yeah, I think
it was good to play a little bit, the team, and then I’m very happy to be
back on the podium. I think we’ve deserved it for a little while but now
it’s reality.
[Question in German]
SV: Obviously I felt the push from the crowd and yeah, obviously, I tried to
focus the last couple of laps, knew it would be very close with Kimi once he
gets past Romain, so yeah, incredibly tough, I was pushing every single lap
as hard as I could and Lotus was incredibly quick today, looking after their
tyres probably a little bit better than other people. But yeah, all in all,
fantastic. Compliments to the team, three great stops we had. Very, very
happy with the day.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Sebastian, many congratulations. That was a tremendously entertaining
race to watch for anybody who loves the sport. You were obviously made to
work pretty hard for it. Your fourth win of the season [and the] 30th of
your career. Clearly, the defining thing is that it’s meant so much to you
for such a long time and you’ve achieved so much in 26 years but just put
into words what it means to finally win your home grand prix.
SV: Definitely a great relief. Very happy with how the day went. To be
honest, for sure, there are a lot of expectations. Especially when you have
a good car and for a couple of years you’ve had a good run, when you come to
home soil people expect you to win. I think the whole team, including
myself, we never ever let that get to our head but it just feels very, very
sweet now to have succeeded after a couple of tries. Sometimes we were
close. I think we had good races in the past in Germany as well, finished on
the podium, which was a great experience but today, to win here, yeah. Both
tracks, Hockenheim and Nürburgring mean a lot to me. To race in Germany I
think is a privilege. To have the ability to have a home grand prix. Great
relief, very happy, special day for sure. I think it take some little while
to sink in but yeah, just incredibly proud today. The team did a fantastic
job for strategy and for the pit stops. On the track it was so difficult. I
pushed every single lap but it’s so tough when you’re on the edge and you
know that you can’t go over the tyres too much because then you will not
reach the end of the stint. Equally, passing people, you know that you have
to get through traffic as quick as you can, so not an easy race. The Safety
Car didn’t help us. We had a little bit of a cushion but Lotus was
incredibly quick today and gave us definitely a big run for our money. I’m
just very happy that it worked out. Last but not least our compliments to
Pirelli. They did a very, very good job within a couple of days to react and
bring a different rear tyre to this event. I think we didn’t have any
failures throughout the whole weekend. Compliments to them. They had a lot
of criteria after the last race but it looked like they made up for it this
race and hopefully for the next races we continue to have racing like that.
Q: Kimi, moving to you. Obviously Lotus were in a strong position. They
could make a tactical gamble, put Red Bull on the back foot. From your point
of view, you got through, Romain let you through towards the end. But was
there a scenario where you could have won this race today?
KR: Obviously not, because we didn’t win it. I was stuck behind the Mercedes
after the first stop for a little while until I got past them. It cost me
some time. After the Safety Car we were pretty OK and the cars, three of us,
had similar speed and it’s very difficult to overtake anybody. I could run
longer and we had a think about it, if we can try to run until the end but
we had a massive problem with the radio. I could hear them but they could
only hear me between two corners. So I’m wondering if we should have done
it, take a gamble and try to go to the end because the tyres were pretty OK,
my speed was pretty OK so it was hard to know what happens in the next ten
laps. We decided to come in and put the soft tyres. We had good speed.
Obviously I got some help from Romain to get past but that was… we would
have had a big fight, anyhow. I could have probably passed him in a normal
situation but obviously it would have cost me a lot of time. And as a team
we try to win and I caught up with Seb but, like I said before, everybody
was behind each other but we are too close on speeds and it’s so difficult
to overtake then. We tried everything that we had and failed to win but I
think for the team we did a good race and got both cars on the podium, so as
a team we’re happy but obviously I lost some more points to Seb in the
championship. We keep trying.
Q: Romain, great to see you back here in the top three again. Fantastic
first stint that really played you into contention for this grand prix. Tell
us about your race, about how you felt and also a little bit of detail maybe
about the radio traffic that was going on.
RG: We had a good qualifying and the first stint has been amazing, seeing P1
on the board is always good. The car was working much better than what we
thought on Option tyres. After the first pit stop Seb and myself were quite
a long way ahead of everyone else and it was looking like we will try to see
with strategy to adapt, to stop three stops depending on how we were going
and then the Safety Car came. It made it easy for strategy but less good
then for the traffic. Clearly then, as a team we had to put different eggs
not in the same basket and change different strategy for Kimi and myself. It
appears that Kimi’s one worked better but it could have been the opposite.
So, it’s good to be back on the podium, good to score strong points. The
summer is back on – which should help us to be more consistent at the front.
But the first stint has been really good and finally getting car and tyres
that work together, it’s nice.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1Life) Sebastian, what to you think about the
weather today? Maybe the weather help you make a win, or no?
SV: Well first of all it’s German weather. It’s always like this in Germany.
I think we were just a little unlucky the last couple of years. I think it
didn’t help us today. I think it made it a little bit more tricky. I think
it helped probably Lotus a little bit. They were taking care of their tyres
probably a little bit better than the rest of the field. By the looks of it
they were very strong at the end of the stints – but I say that now, I don’t
have a proper look. But in the end we won today so we had good speed – good
enough to win the race so I’m very happy but I think we were a little bit
stronger on Friday than today.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you came in for
the third time, did you do it in order to cover Romain or did you come in
anyway? Was it a plan to come in?
SV: No, I don’t think it was the plan yet. Tyres were holding up OK and the
gap to Romain was increasing a little bit again at that time. Just before
the stop, a couple of laps, I lost KERS and I was able to switch it back on
and pull away again. But obviously I think we try to cover him to make sure
we stay ahead and we defend the lead because we saw that overtaking is quite
tricky here. It’s possible: I went through traffic pretty quickly but
obviously there was a big delta in speed, in pace at that time. So, yeah, in
order to make sure we stay ahead, we try to cover him.
Q: (Mark Ellerich – Sport1.de) How intense is the relief to get this done,
with this win now? Did you have a plan to get it here in Germany, right now,
this year?
SV: Yeah, I made it in January! No, in the end it’s just another race and we
try to prepare as much as we can for every race. Surely winning here is very
special and tastes very very sweet, especially the way we won today with a
lot of pressure from behind, but I think we did our homework – as much as we
could – on Friday, the conditions changed a little bit and it was quite
close today but we succeeded, that’s the most important thing. Very happy to
take the win today and also it’s good to score some points.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Sebastian, Kimi is one of the men on the short
list to replace Webber as your teammate next season. In the closing stages
of the race, we saw him giving you quite a bit of challenge. How do you feel
about the prospect of being challenged by a fellow World Champion in equal
equipment for an entire season rather than just a few laps?
SV: Well, I wouldn’t mind. I think he wasn’t nice today to me because of
that but in the end of the day, to be completely straight, it’s not my
decision. I think I have a good relationship with the team and to be honest,
we spoke about that but not in detail yet. I think the team has no pressure
to decide on anything, at least, that’s what they communicated with me. I
think I get along fairly well with Kimi; we never had a problem on track,
even if one day we might have and crash into each other which can happen,
then I think we deal with it as grown-ups and talk about it and sort it out
amongst ourselves, at least, I think that’s the relationship I have with
him. I respect him a lot on and off track. But like I said, it’s not my
decision.
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Would you be excited by the challenge?
SV: Yeah, definitely. I think it’s strange in a way because I was looking up
to Kimi when he was with McLaren for many years and trying to give Michael a
very hard time but his McLaren broke down many times and now, since he’s
come back, I’ve raced him again and I think there’s no doubt that when it
comes to qualifying, to race, he does his job very well and gets the maximum
out of the car, and that’s what – at the end of the day – is our job. He’s
quite good at what he does. That’s my opinion.
Q: Kimi, give you an opportunity to respond to that.
KR: He seems to be a bit better. I don’t know what will happen in the
future. Things will be decided at some point but until that happens there’s
nothing to talk about. I would definitely tell if I know something just so
that all these follow-up rumours and nonsense stops straight away. But right
now, there’s absolutely nothing for next year and we will see. For sure, at
some point, once we know we will tell but I don’t have any pressure to make
any decision right now. Obviously I try to make the right decision for
myself but it depends on many things; next year there are rule changes,
everything else, so it can be a right or wrong decision. Whatever it will
be, I will live with it and I’m fine with it. We will see when it comes.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, your best ever result in Germany.
Does it taste any better than the previous ones or is it only victory that
makes the difference?
KR: Obviously we are here to try and win races. We couldn’t today because we
were not fast enough but for the team it was a good result after a couple of
quite difficult races, so obviously for my championship it was not ideal, we
lost some more points but it’s still a long season and if we keep putting
ourselves in a position for at least fighting for first place then I think
we can do it again but as I said, it’s good for the team and not so good for
my championship.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, your team was one of
the teams that suggested to come back to 2012 tyres and it looked like your
car behaved very well today. Is there any relationship between these two
facts?
SV: I think no. Whenever I opened my mouth, it was purely targeted at
safety, because it can’t be the case that we go out and we have a race like
at Silverstone. I think in the end of the day, we step into the car, we want
to race, race at the limit and we cannot drive into the unknown. All sorts
of criteria I think was targeted at that and I think people forget that at
the end of the day, you have to do your maths, you don’t have to be a
genius. We are leading the team championship and the Drivers’ championship
and if anything, we are the ones that have most to lose. Nevertheless, we
pushed very hard, at least I did, from the drivers’ point of view. I wasn’t
shy of communicating as well. I think we are happier overall - all the
drivers – with the tyres we raced this weekend. Whether it suits your car or
not is secondary.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) And to Romain and Kimi, is the
performance of your car also related to the new tyres?
RG: I think when we tested it in Canada – well, personally, I quite liked
them. They were more proper racing tyres with the different rear belt so I
was sort of happy that they brought them here. I think the compounds –
medium and soft – were better than hard and medium normally, so I am looking
forward to using the full new tyres from Budapest onwards that I understood
a little bit better last year than this year. The fronts are a bit strange
sometimes but as Sebastian said I think the main thing was to have a safety
issue. We all remember Felipe Massa in 2009 and we don’t want to see the
same thing with a piece of tyre so we were glad and happy that Pirelli did
something and well done to them because it wasn’t easy.
KR: First of all, I don’t think it’s a 2012 tyre. The front tyre is exactly
the same as all year. The rear belt is different but it’s not the
construction of 2012. We tried these tyres in Montreal and they were fine.
It’s not a very big difference to what we ran before so for us, I don’t
think it made any difference. They felt a little bit better tyre in
Montreal. I think the biggest difference is on high downforce circuits but
the weather is hot so that’s probably what made the bigger difference for
us.
Q: Heikki Kulta (Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, Kimi has been chasing you for
victory quite a few times. What this the tightest of them all or was Bahrain
last year even tighter?
SV: It was a different race. I think Bahrain was tighter because he was
right behind for more than a couple of laps. Obviously I had Romain pushing
very hard before Kimi pushed at the end of the stint, because he came
through, past Romain and he was a little bit quicker at the end. Yeah, but
both races, in terms of race pace, were very even and if the cars are nearly
the same pace then it’s very tricky and very difficult to overtake, so
obviously if you’re ahead, it’s your advantage but I’m sure that one day it
will be the other way round and I will probably hate it as much as Kimi does
right now.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, how confident are
you about the next race because they will change the tyres again and they
will be even more similar than 2012 tyres?
SV: First of all, I think we have to wait now. I think there’s a test at
Silverstone where race drivers are allowed to test and so we have a tyre
test you can say, for at least a day and get a little bit more of an idea,
and then I think Pirelli will make up their mind and decide to get together
with the FIA - whether the teams like it or not, it doesn’t matter. So I
think at this point we don’t know which tyres we are probably running in
Hungary. The most important thing is that we learn the lesson from previous
races, especially Silverstone, so for here, I think nothing happened which
is good but it’s good to have another proper look, especially around
Silverstone and then decide for the remainder of the season.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi, during the last laps,
did you think about the opportunity of being with Red Bull and if that had
an effect on your mood during the fight?
KR: Absolutely not. I try to win and it doesn’t matter if it’s a teammate or
some other team. As long as we give ourselves a chance, I try to make it
happen and obviously if there is a good chance to try to overtake I will try
it but we never got that close so there was nothing to do really.
Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.Net) Romain, for the second race in a row, you were
told you to let Kimi pass. Do you think you have any chance to fight for
wins when you’re ahead of Kimi?
RG: When the opportunity comes, yes. Today, as I said, we didn’t put our
eggs in the same basket and Kimi was quicker and might have gained on
Sebastian but it didn’t work. I think it was the right thing to do. It is
important for a team to score points and try to get the win. Without the
safety car it would have been a different story, but we all got together and
that was it.
Q: (Jan Kotulla – Mannheimer Morgen) Sebastian, what about the support from
the tribunes today?
SV: Yeah, it was great to receive so much support. I think it’s unique for
Germany to have a situation where the Grand Prix is coming and you have two
drivers able to win the race. Obviously Michael was in a good position for
many years so I think we are in a lucky position anyway, but I think it was
exceptional this year with Nico winning in Monaco and at Silverstone last
week. Yeah, I think it was great and nice to see, especially round turn
seven where, for the second time around Nurburgring, there were a lot of
people and guests and friends from Red Bull. They put a big banner up on the
formation lap and also on the in lap so it was very special and I enjoyed
every second, for sure, especially after the chequered flag.
Q: (Jan Kotulla – Mannheimer Morgen) And to all of you, have you see the
movie Rush and what’s your opinion about the movie?
SV: I haven’t seen it. I went to bed, so sorry Niki, he was very kind and
invited me. I thought it was smarter to go to bed. So I have to wait.
RG: I needed to sleep too so I went to bed as well.
KR: No. |
