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DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG
(Force India), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Adrian SUTIL (Sauber), Kimi
RAIKKONEN (Ferrari), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Nico ROSBERG
(Mercedes)
Nico Hulkenberg, if we could start with you. Points in every race so far
this season, only you and [Fernando] Alonso have managed that so far and
you’re seven to two against your team-mate in qualifying. How positive is
that for you and how do you think that is perceived within the Formula One
paddock?
Nico HULKENBERG: I think it’s very positive in general. I think it’s a very
good achievement to have scored points in every race – probably Nico and
Lewis would have been the same without the technical failures. I think it
has been a very positive start to the season, first half, many, many points,
much better than we expected going into the season and I think that is also
the perception of the paddock. However, we’re only in the middle of the
season and there’s still a long way to go before the end and our aim is to
get the fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship. We have a big
challenge on our hands there against Williams, McLaren and many others. I
look forward to that.
You’ve largely been fighting for fifth and sixth places in races this season
but just recently, the last couple of races, it was more like eight and
ninth. What brought about that change and where do you think you’ll be
fighting this weekend?
NH: I think Silverstone was overall a bit difficult for us. The track didn’t
suit us so well, plus the conditions made it even more difficult. Therefore,
it was still a very good achievement to get points on the board there. In
Austria we were a bit compromised by a few issues, which we found out after
the race, otherwise that could have been better. So hopefully here we’ll be
back to bigger points but it’s difficult to know. Obviously it’s very hot
this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how the tyres behave and who
will manage it the best.
Kevin, coming to you, points in the last four grands prix for you, six
points finishes in total this season with one podium but McLaren still seem
to be quite up and down dependent on circuit, why is that?
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: It’s difficult… it’s a good question. It’s something we
don’t really quite understand 100 per cent, but surely it has a lot to do
with tyres, they behave quite differently race to race. I think we are
improving, the car is improving, we’re putting downforce on the car at
nearly every race so I think we're moving in a positive direction.
We’re coming up to the summer break and there’s a lot of talk about the
driver market – as there always is at this point. Where do you think you
stand with regard to staying at McLaren next season.
KM: I can only do my best and hope that is good enough. Anyone at McLaren
should feel that you have to deliver to your best to deserve to be there and
that goes for me and Jenson as well.
Kimi, the first question has to be how are you feeling after your accident
at Silverstone, any after-effects and what happened?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: Well, I crashed, I guess you saw it. No, I had some pain but
it’s all fine.
Just in your leg?
KR: No actually it was in my ribs the most, that’s why I didn’t do the test,
but it’s all gone away now.
You’re 100 per cent now?
KR: Yeah.
Many things have not gone the way you expected them to this season in your
rejoining Ferrari, but can you tell us what has gone the way you’ve expected
it and what positives you’ve drawn so far?
KR: We’ve been in every race at least. That’s what you expect at least. It’s
been a difficult year, hopefully it will turn around at some point – it
must, it cannot go much longer like this, it’s not fun. But this kind of
thing has happened to me before and we always managed to turn it around, so
I have a strong belief it will turn around. We have to just fix issues and
get things as I want and I’m sure we can be back where we should be.
Nico, coming to you: a new contract extension with Mercedes, congratulations
on that, you also got married since we last saw you, but you’ve never been
on the podium in Germany, I see from your record, so I guess that’s this
weekend’s first objective. You’re still on top of the championship, just
four points clear, but your team-mate Lewis Hamilton said that this is a
‘reset moment’ in the title race and that he’s been on the back foot all
season. How do you see it?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it’s been a very exciting week for sure. We also became
world champions, which was awesome. In terms of the championship, how do I
see it? I just see it as the next race, which is Hockenheim. It’s our home
race. I really look forward to driving here. I’m here to win, of course. I’m
here to try to extend the championship leads. That’s where it ends for me.
I’m really just looking at the moment, taking it race by race.
As you say it’s been a great week for Germany on the sporting front. As a
keen follower and friend of the national team is there a way you can harness
some of that positivity into your challenge this weekend?
NR: The effort of the team as a whole, how they all played together and
everything was really great to see and that’s what won them the tournament I
think, not any individual strength or anything. That’s what we’re trying to
do as well, to really work well, everybody together, to really make the most
of it. I think we’re also on the right track with that, in that respect,
because to dominate the sport as we are doing at the moment, I think that
indicates we work pretty well together as a team and of course there’s room
for improvement but we’re going in the right direction.
Adrian, you qualified 13th at the first race in Australia at the start of
the year and 13th at Silverstone. There seems to be some continuity there.
If you look at the ultimate pace of all the cars, Sauber doesn’t seem to be
progressing. Is that the way it’s seen internally and what’s the plan?
Adrian SUTIL: Yes, more or less a consistent season but also a few changes
and progress of course. I think the car is a better car compared to the
first races but you can’t really see it in results. Nevertheless Silverstone
was a bit better. You could see already in the free practice the car was a
bit more competitive and also I think in qualifying in the rain we were
closer to the top 10, which was good. We are still struggling sometimes with
the tyres, especially with the hard compound, in the race, which slowed us
down a lot. I can’t really say more. Of course we want to try to improve the
situation. It’s not where we want to be but everyone in the factory is
trying the maximum to improve that. It’s not an easy situation but we’re
going to get out of it pretty soon.
You’ve said several times that stability is the problem, that the car lacks
stability. Can you elaborate on that and what plans are in place to fix
that?
AS: Well, the window is very small where the car operates and also the
window when you are close to the limit, whether it stays on the line or is
completely off – it’s easy to make a mistake with this car. So you need to
have a lot of confidence in the car, you need to drive and learn as much as
possible about the car behaviour to feel well. It’s getting better very
race. But yeah, it’s a little diva to control. It’s just a situation like
that so we try to make it more easy to drive. The stability is sometimes
there, [then] you have a bit too much understeer in the other areas, so you
are shifting the problem from one end to the other but it’s very difficult
to get rid of the problem completely so this is where we are struggling most
at the moment.
Sebastian, obviously winner of the German Grand Prix last year, your first
F1 win on home soil. Tell us about the feeling of racing here at home,
especially with the country on such a sporting high at the moment?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously last year was very special – I had been
trying many times before, so it was definitely a good feeling to succeed. I
think this year should be a very good weekend. Mostly good weather forecast
and obviously the whole of Germany still has the German flags from the World
Cup around, so it would be nice to see a lot of those on the track and get a
little bit of that support as well here on the circuit.
Obviously the battle with Fernando Alonso in Silverstone was one of the
highlights of this season so far. There were quite a lot of radio messages
from the pair of you at the time but looking back and thinking about it now,
how much did you enjoy it?
SV: Yeah, I probably enjoyed it more than I probably said after the race. I
still think it took a little bit too long because obviously I lost quite a
lot of time fighting him and couldn’t progress to probably finish higher up.
But it was definitely very tight, it’s always very tight when you fight with
Fernando, he’s very tough to overtake, he doesn’t give you a lot of room,
but eventually I squeezed past, so for sure I was happy to finally overtake
him on the track.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Question to Nico. First of all, congratulations on
becoming a married man. Secondly, you’ve obviously had to change your helmet
design this week. You showed it off on Twitter with the World Cup on top of
the helmet. I’ve spoken to FIFA and they’ve expressed their reason why
you’re not allowed to have the World Cup: intellectual commercial property
rights and all that. You’re obviously disappointed I guess, but can you
understand their reasoning behind it?
NR: All the things you have to think about, it’s amazing that even a trophy
has its trademark or whatever, just sticking it on a helmet you know. That
was a surprise but of course I fully understand. It was a pity as it looked
really cool, with the trophy on top. Anyways, replaced it now with a big
star and no-one can take that away. The star is ours.
Q: (Graham Keilloh – F1Plus.com) A question for all the drivers. We all
recall the incident at last year’s German Grand Prix with Mark Webber where
a wheel fell off after a pit stop. In recent days there have been moves
afoot for there to be a little bit of rowing back on the tough sanctions
that were put in place following the Webber incident. I just want to know
what each driver feels about more leniency for unsafe releases that may be
coming in?
NH: To be honest I didn’t really understand the question. I’ll pass it on to
Kevin.
KM: It’s good if us drivers don’t get points or penalties [that are] that
harsh , as it’s not really our fault. Of course we are a team and we should
be penalised somehow together but I think it’s good if it doesn’t just go to
the drivers.
Adrian, anything to add?
AS: No.
Kimi?
KR: No.
Sebastian, do you have a view?
SV: I think it’s like going to prison for stealing a chocolate bar. I think
it’s too harsh for the drivers, it's more for the team. There’s not much you
can do as a driver, but it is what it is.
Nico?
NR: Obviously it is one of the most dangerous situations for all of the
people working in the pitlane you know. So definitely it should be harsh to
try to avoid people doing that or things like that happening. We need to
find the best way, what sort of penalties to do.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi there has been a lot of
criticism around you in the past few months. Do you feel that your position
in Ferrari could be threatened next year or do you feel confident that you
will sort your problems and that everything is going to be OK for the
future?
KR: Like I said, I’m sure we can fix them. How fast? I hope quickly but it
depends on many things. I have a contract so I’m not worried about that for
the future.
Q: (Abhishek Takle - Midday) A question for Sebastian. Hockenheim obviously
hold some special memories for you because this is where you watched your
first Friday practice session. You won the German Grand Prix at the
Nurburgring. What would it mean for you to win here at Hockenheim, at some
point in your career?
SV: Well, I hope I can turn things around and that we can have a good race
on Sunday and a good weekend in general. But of course we are not the
favourites going into the weekend but there’s always a chance of winning.
For sure, this circuit is very special to me because my home town is only 30
minutes from here, it’s where I grew up. I also started go-karting not far
from here, just around the corner, so a lot of memories. I know a lot of
people that work here, so it always feels like a second home. In that regard
it would be nice. So definitely a very special place for me, special
memories. The first car race I did was here in 2003, so yeah, it’s
definitely one of the tracks I want to win at.
Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question for all drivers. Many
teams will race without the FRIC system. Is there a feeling that this might
change the gap between the teams significantly or not; that it will stay
more or less the same, like it was before?
NR: Everybody has it to some extent. It’s impossible to predict. For sure it
can have some influence but we just need to wait and see what happens.
Sebastian?
SV: Well I said it is one of the things that obviously got banned now. I
hope it brings the field closer to Mercedes but it’s difficult to say. All
of the teams have been playing with it to some extent. How much it has an
impact? I think it has to be seen this weekend and also probably next week
in Hungary. After those two races I think you can have another judgement.
Kimi, your thoughts on the FRIC suspension?
KR: Yeah, I mean it’s the rule and obviously that decides if we can use it
or not. It’s not in our car, I don’t expect it’s going to be a completely
different world but until we run it, the cars, and see what the other teams
do, it’s hard to say. I guess we’ll know a bit more after this weekend.
Adrian?
AS: I think… we hope… it will be better for us, that we are closer – but
very hard to say, for sure. Some, they rely more on it, some less. Let’s
see. After the weekend we’ll be wiser.
Kevin, your thoughts.
KM: Not much to say really. We ‘ll try to get the best out of the car
without it.
Nico?
NH: It’s pretty much how Nico said, it’s really hard to predict if and how
much people will lose due to it. It’s just a case of wait and see how much
it impacts on different cars.
Q: (Koen Verhelst - Media Group Limburg) A question for all the German
drivers: where did you watch the World Cup soccer finals last Sunday and, in
relation to that, how to you explain the success of Germany both in Formula
One at the moment and football and perhaps also in the economy?
SV: I watched in on TV at home. I wasn’t there! Thank God they showed it. At
home, with a couple of friends. I think the reason, it has been 24 years
since we last won the World Cup. I hope that the next one doesn’t take 24
years again. I think we had a very strong team for the last World Cups as
well and were very close to win. It’s good that we succeeded now. For the
Formula One drivers, I don’t think there’s a particular reason. Obviously,
for us, to some extent we’re the generation after Michael and Michael was a
big inspiration, so for sure, when Michael made Formula One really a sport
in Germany and made it big a lot of fathers with their sons went to the
go-kart tracks and wanted to do like him. I think it’s chances, in the end,
if you have a thousand kids trying rather than ten, the chances that one or
two end up in Formula One are obviously a lot greater. The economy… I’m not
a specialist – but I think we like to work.
Adrian?
AS: The same, I watched on TV at home. Very quiet. It was a great game, I
think. Very exciting and both played very well. One minute the Germans were
a bit better than the other ones and scored a goal. I think something to be
very proud of. It’s great to see Germany being very happy about it. So many
festivals and parties after it, so really, really good. Good mood in the
air, so, great also for this weekend here, for the German Grand Prix. The
drivers? I think it all started back in the 90s, probably. When Michael went
into Formula One there was a big boom of racing in Germany – but also a lot
of car manufacturers are based in Germany, it’s a very strong country for
cars, for technology in general – and they’re supporting young drivers from
the early ages, especially BMW was involved for many years with the Formula
BMW. That’s where I started the racing, I think also Sebastian as well and
Nico. Most of the drivers took the step and went into Formula 3. So there
are clear categories where you can go. Still, I think it’s very hard to say
it’s a really good support because it’s so expensive. When I see the number
for young kids coming up into racing, in go-karts you have to spend so much
money, not having a real… let’s say you can’t be sure that you’re going to
make it. So, even there. Football has a better structure behind. We could
still improve it but Germany, for sure, it one of the leading countries and
that’s great. They’re pushing it really hard.
Nico Hülkenberg, anything to add.
NH: I also watched it at home with some friends. I think we won because we
had the strongest team and a great team spirit, a very clever coach. I think
I agree with what Sebastian says about the drivers and why we have it strong
now and the economy, I think is just German mentality and appetite to be
strong in the economy.
Nico Rosberg, your thoughts.
NR: I watched it at my parents place, as is tradition in our family because
my Mum is the biggest soccer fanatic in our family, so I watched it there
with friends and went absolutely crazy when they scored. It was a great
time. I agree with the others on the other parts.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, last week Lewis was
putting in doubt your true nationality about being German, real German
supporter – and your helmet problem proves the opposite. How big is this…
the pressure that Lewis is putting on you? Are you feeling it? Is it also
big the pressure to have a championship that is open now completely, and to
race at home and try to win this race?
NR: On the media, I generally don’t read the media, so most of the time I
don’t know what’s going on – but this I did know about it. I really don’t
get into such things. Everybody’s free to have his opinions, and I was there
anyway and it was more or less a joke discussion, so for me it’s not really
relevant to discuss it in any way. Other than that, yeah, it’s a great
battle between us. Every race it’s been us two fighting it out for the win.
It’s fantastic – a tough battle also – but good. I’m sure it’s going to
continue for a long time and it will be very close – and I look forward to
the race here now in front of… it’s my second home race, I have Monaco and
here. I’m very fortunate in that sense, I have two home races, and look
forward to all the support and I really hope to do a fantastic job. It would
be a great end to already the great times I’ve been having recently if I
could win here at the German Grand Prix.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, do you remember having any heavier
shunt than you had in Silverstone?
KR: Yeah, probably I have had. Hopefully not too many more but it’s just
part of the thing. It hurt a little bit but quite often you can have a quite
slow accident and get badly hurt, so it’s not about that really, it was just
an unfortunate thing. Nothing serious happened. It’s part of the sport. |
