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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES –
Frédéric VASSEUR (Renault), Yusuke HASEGAWA (Honda), Eric BOULLIER
(McLaren), Maurizio ARRIVABENE (Ferrari), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Christian
HORNER (Red Bull Racing)
Maybe we could start with a general question for everyone. Obviously in the
next couple of weeks there have got to be some decisions made on the future
shape of Formula One, the regulations for 2017 and engines for 2018, so
Christian, maybe we could start with you and how things are shaping up on
the chassis side and where you think the discussion are, what shape we’re in
and what we can look forward to?
Christian HORNER: Well, I believe that as far as the technical regulations
are concerned, we’re pretty close to a conclusion on that. They were
basically agreed at the last strategy meeting, so I think it’s just a
formality to finalise those chassis regulations at the end of this month. I
think most people are already tentatively looking towards next year based on
those regulations anyway. As far as the engine regulations are concerned,
again there have been some discussions recently, which again will go through
the Strategy (Group) and subsequently onto the Formula One Commission but
everything has to be fixed by the last day of this month for 2017, so I’m
not expecting too many major surprises.
And are you comfortable with where everything is at the moment, the shape of
those regulations?
CH: Well, they are the same for everybody at the end of the day. It
represents a bigger change on the chassis side, so that inevitably is going
to move things around a little. On the engine side there is obviously
discussion still going on and that’s probably the bigger topic for the
future, but as far as the chassis is concerned I think they are interesting
rules, they add an element of variance compared to what we currently have,
so you’ll see some different solutions no doubt from different teams, that
you usually get from a regulations change such as that.
Toto is that a situation that suits you, that there might be some variation
in how the regulations suit the teams?
Toto WOLFF: Well, every variance challenges your organisation and I think we
are well position to take up the challenge. Definitely making the cars look
different, puttying emphasis on new bits or innovation is interesting.
Whether those rules can provide more interesting racing is another question.
In hindsight, because we’ve voted on these regs already, we will see next if
it works out. But yeah, I’m looking forward.
Eric, what are your thoughts on this?
Eric BOULLIER: Pretty similar to be honest to Toto and Christian. It’s
exciting a little bit to have a new package. I guess the car will be faster
and the drivers definitely will enjoy driving the car. So drivers happier,
fans happier I guess. As far as we are concerned on the engine, we are
seeking some stability, which would be the key to develop and have a better
convergence in the future.
Maurizio, Eric mentioned the fans there. These regulations are largely
predicated on making Formula One more appealing, how important is it that
Formula One gets these regulations right, now, for the next generation of
Formula One fans?
Maurizio ARRIVABENE: I think as my colleagues said, I think the regulations
they are under discussion and nearly done, they are also especially to
enhance the show in Formula One. Next year you are going to see a different
car, tyres a bit larger and then if you want to make sure you do a good
overtake you have to enlarge the track – no, I’m joking! I think it’s all
following the direction to enhance the show and to make Formula One more
interesting.
Frédéric, Renault has come back into the sport this year as a constructor,
how difficult does it make it for you, or does it make it easier for you
that everything changes next year?
Frédéric VASSEUR: I don’t know if it will be easier or more difficult, but I
think at least it’s new rules and it’s important for us also to start with
this kind of game. But I think it’s not for sure much easier for us to start
with a new regulation for next year, because we have to restructure the team
and it’s not for us the best moment to change the regulations. But it
doesn’t matter, it’s not the target, the FIA is not there to play the game
for one team or another one but we have to try to push for Formula One and
to find the most exciting way for the fan. And I think if the car is more
impressive it will be much more fun for the fan and spectators.
Hasegawa-san, welcome, your first time on this panel, and your second stint
in Formula One. What’s Honda’s position on the engine regulations or the
talks that are happening for 2018 in terms of power units for then? Are you
satisfied with the progress that has been made there?
Yusuke HASEGAWA: As they mentioned still we need to have some further
discussion but something like cost reduction and obligation. Yeah, from an
engine manufacturer point of view, or as a member of Formula One society
point of view, we have a kind of obligation to the fans and to this group,
so Honda is happy to have that regulation, although we need to have some
further discussion I understand.
Just to the other people who engine manufacturers, what about the guaranteed
supply that is being talked about for 2018. Is that something that you are
comfortable with; is it deliverable? Toto?
TW: It is a complex agreement. We have been given the task in coming up with
solutions so that no team is left without an engine. I think all the engine
manufacturers have acknowledged that, so we try to cover that. There is an
aspect of price reduction, which is important to most of the teams, and we
tried to cover that in the framework agreement. Obviously it’s very
difficult to make everybody happy. Christian isn’t so happy. But I think we
need to come up with a solution until the end of April. We need to ratify
those regulations and at the moment everybody is working very hard to at
least find the smallest common denominator.
Christian, Toto mentioned that you may not be very happy. It’s obviously
been an issue in the past. What’s your position on that supply going
forward?
CH: I think it’s a complex situation, but fundamentally there were four
criteria that were requested by the governing body to be met to ensure
stability moving forward. Those four criteria were: a significant reduction
in cost to €12 million, the availability of supply or the guarantee of
supply, power convergence to within a relatively small bandwidth and to
address the noise. As we sit here now we are not anywhere near having met
any of those criteria and I think unfortunately what will happen, as is
often the case with these things, time will run out at the end of the month
and nothing will be achieved and nothing will change. There is one more
attempt in the Strategy meeting and the Commission meeting at the end of the
month to discuss and table the concerns and where we're at, but failing that
regulations will inevitably stay as they are.
Q: Eric, Fernando back in the car today, maybe you could tell us what the
process has been, how it worked with him today? And also maybe you could
give us some insight into what Stoffel did at the last race and what he
brought to the team.
EB: Well, happily everything is back to normal. Fernando back in the car
today was fine. The FIA wanted obviously to have another check and another
go after practice one which was an easy one because he ran through practice
one without any issues. He felt ready anyway before the weekend and I think
this is a matter that is closed now. For Stoffel, obviously as far as we are
concerned he did a very good job in Bahrain. Never easy to jump into an F1
car for a race weekend. I think he impressed everybody by how quiet he was
and obviously by the good job he delivered. I think it’s a good driver for
the future to have in our stable.
Q: Hasegawa-san, obviously the performance of McLaren has stepped up a
little last year – what are your expectations for the rest of the season?
Where do you see performance gains coming, when can you expect them to come?
YH: It is too soon to say the exact number or position but obviously we’re
not happy, we’re not satisfied with the current position. We can improve
definitely with a decent level of step-ups so we are happy about that. Of
course it is coming from the chassis as well but we can contribute with the
power unit. It is important to show that we can improve in the step-ups.
This is our target so far.
Q: Maurizio, one and two this afternoon, so a fairly good afternoon’s work.
You’ve had two good results in Australia and Bahrain but a couple of
technical issues as well. What’s been the response to those back at base and
do you feel that that’s now been overcome?
MA: What’s happened in Australia and Bahrain, we explained it very, very
well and I think I don’t need to give further explanation because what we
said, it was absolutely true, like it or not. Concerning here, it was a good
Friday, not a bad one but unfortunately not gaining position on the grid or
points in the championship. So, it’s a good short but the weekend is still
long. Concerning the expectation of the season, I can say the Mercedes team
of this year is the strongest one that I saw in the last ten years because
it’s quite a lot of years that I’m around and, I mean, to be able to win
against them, you have to work and be better than them. So, we are doing all
our best to have good results.
Q: Toto, the best team in ten years! And Nico is performing very well at the
moment. How have you seen him change over, not just the winter but if you
look back to him in 2014-2015, do you think he came into the season with a
different attitude? Is he a different driver?
TW: Before answering the question I’d like to give the flowers back – they
are pushing us very hard and you have seen today that it is raw performance
and we have seen the performance in the last couple of races. Ferrari
haven’t been able to pull it together because they made a big step from ’15
to ’16, similar to the step of ’14 to ’15 and in order to have the package
rolled properly deliver and be reliable, that isn’t an easy task but in
terms of sheer performance, they are really pushing us. And that it good;
this is how the competition should be. In terms of Nico, he’s in a great
place. I don’t see him oscillating a lot. People keep asking when Lewis had
his winning streak last year, ‘is that going to knock Nico down?’ and then
when he started winning after the championship was decided, ‘is it going to
pull him up?’ Those guys perform on a very high level and it doesn’t
particularly effect them whether they’ve had a good weekend or not. They’ve
been in the job – or in motor racing – for 20 years or more, so the Nico I
see today is developing as a personality, developing as a racing driver and
learning – but also it’s not very much different to how I’ve known him the
last couple of years.
Q: Frédéric, you’re coming back to the grid as a constructor as we
mentioned, you’ve had a couple of months now to assess where things are:
what have you identified, or what did you identify as the things that needed
immediate attention – and how is that progressing?
FV: Nothing special and on every single matter because as we all know, we
took over the company very late. The first challenge was to be on track for
Barcelona and I think we did it but now, for sure, it’s a long term project
and we have to improve on each area. There is no one, single matter to work
on. We have to push on every single project and every single department of
the company – but we know that it’s a long way and we are more than
motivated and I hope that we will do it.
Q: Christian, these two gentlemen along side you, they’re a little bit ahead
but two fourth places in a row in Australia and Bahrain. Does that give you
encouragement about the steps that have been made over the winter, not just
on the chassis, on power unit as well. Where do you see it taking you this
year?
CH: Well we’re hoping to join their love-in. Sometimes two’s company,
three’s a crowd… we’ve made good progress over the winter and I think at the
last couple of races we’ve had arguably the third-fastest car. It’s a very
tight pack fighting over that third place and the jump then to where these
two teams are is quite a significant one. We’re hoping with further
development on the power unit, that we expect around Montreal, to make good
progress, certainly in the second half of the year and at certain circuits
hopefully, try and get onto their shirt tails – but it’s quite a big gap
that is inevitably going to take more than a season to close down.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ben Edwards – Channel 4 TV) Frederic, about today, and about the tyre
problem we saw on Kevin’s car and the decision not to run the car this
afternoon; can you just explain that a little bit?
FV: We investigated the problem at the end of FP1, that the problem came
from the suspension and we had a lot of damage on the car and it was much
better for us to stay in the garage for FP2 but we will be ready for
tomorrow morning.
Q: (Haoran Zhou – Top Driver) Question to everyone: during the last round of
big regulation changes we heard that people like Ross Brawn were quoting
downforce figures in the meeting to guide everyone how we should set these
chassis rules. Presumably that sort of the discussion is present again in
the strategy group; can you give us a rough range how much more downforce
would next year’s car have on the chassis side? Is it one third or 20 points
or something?
TW: Interesting one! Around 80 per cent! No, the numbers vary of course and
they vary because of different interests so it goes from teams saying that
it’s not a lot more than it is today until 30-35%.. So it could have quite a
big effect on downforce which is in one sense good, because the cars will be
more difficult to drive, will deploy much more G on the driver like in the
past. But equally G isn’t visible for the spectator and the risk might be
that overtaking could be more difficult and it will put an additional stress
on the tyres. And all this is still in debate, but we have chosen the way
forward and to come back to your question, that is the bit of the bandwidth
I would say between zero and thirty percent.
EB: It’s a little bit... yes, the debate was based as well on the tyres
because we wanted to have more mechanical grip, let’s say, so there is a
different tyre size, different compound and philosophy and all the
discussion has been steered more about an improvement in lap time and on
that point, I did agree with Toto. I think having a car with more downforce
makes the drivers a little bit more confident to let’s say outbrake each
other and obviously if you change the philosophy of the aero, less driven by
the front wing, you improve the overtaking so I think it should be good.
Q: (Joe van Burik – De Telegraaf) Mr Boullier, Stoffel Vandoorne received
much praise for his performance in Bahrain; what more does he have to do to
prove himself worthy of a fulltime racing seat or is that merely a matter of
time?
EB: Well, at this stage I don’t think he has to prove anything anymore, it’s
just a question of having an opportunity.
Q: (Haoran Zhou – Top Driver) Again, to presumably everyone: with the bigger
tyre size for next year, presumably adding some weight, starting weight of
the cars in race trim would be something like 820 kilograms and with
Pirelli’s tyres being designed to degrade faster, that would significantly
put a burden on how much the driver can push at the start of a race, which
at the moment, at the start of the race, a Formula One car is not going that
much faster than a GP2 car. Is there any way you can address that problem?
And how much the drivers can push cannot really be solved by adding more
aero to the cars in race trim.
CH: First of all, I hope the cars aren’t 820 kilos. They’ve got a lot
heavier with the new technology that’s been introduced over the last couple
of years and compared to ten years ago, they’re more than a hundred kilos
heavier than they were, almost approaching sports car weight, and that of
course adds to the characteristic of making the car a little lazier than a
lighter car but I disagree with you that by adding downforce and load back
onto the car you’re going to give the driver a harder time. You’re going to
give him much more of a workout. The drivers have been crying out for cars
that are more challenging to drive. The cars that we have at the moment...
it’s been discussed whether they are too easy to drive and I think that by
making the cars edgier, by making them quicker you will get a bigger
variance of drivers, the teams will get better value for money out of their
drivers and they’ll have to start going to the gym again. So I think it’s a
positive thing that we’ve got a regulation change but yes, the cars are a
little bit on the heavy side. It would be nice to somehow get a hundred
kilos out of them.
FV: I think that Pirelli will adapt the tyres to the new regulations. It’s
not a matter of downforce or degradation; it’s just the combination between
the tyre regulations and degradation. |
