Formula 1 Press Conference 2016 Grand Prix of Europe – Here’s all the information and details from yesterday’s press conference at the Baku City Circuit. The Grand Prix of Europe.
DRIVERS – Formula 1 Press Conference
Carlos Sainz – (Toro Rosso)
Nico Hulkenberg – (Force India)
Rio Haryanto – (Manor)
Valtteri Bottas – (Williams)
Fernando Alonso – (McLaren)
Sebastian Vettel – (Ferrari)
Press Conference – 2016 Grand Prix of Europe
Fernando – you were here earlier in the race in your capacity as an ambassador for this race. How much has changed since then?
Fernando Alonso: A few things have changed then. Obviously the circuit now is ready and all the garage, the pit lane, the grandstands and also the weather!
It was quite cold in March and I remember wearing two jackets, walking on the circuit and now it’s quite hot, windy and the race will be different on that aspect but I think the job they have done is fantastic!
Everything is ready – Also the fans are well into F1 and they are very prepared, very enthusiastic for the race on Sunday and everything is ready for a good show.
In terms of the layout, which bit looks most interesting?
Fernando Alonso: A few things that we need to discover in the car. Obviously walking is always different, in the simulator it’s different – so let’s see.
Turn 8, 9 and 10, the narrow section on the uphill will be quite interesting to drive there and see how we can maximise the car limits there.
The very unique theme on this circuit is probably the straight-line speed, which will be very high, and to be on a street circuit those kind of speeds will be quite unique.
We need to check if it’s really flat out from Turn 16 to Turn 1 or if Turn 19 and 20 you need make a lift there. Anyway, it’s quite interesting and will be for some teams a little bit more painful, probably for us, in terms of the distance on the straight.
I should have made some modifications when I came here in March to make it a little bit slower (laughs), but that’s the way it is and we will see.
Thank you Fernando.
Valtteri, if we could come on to you – Montreal marked your first podium of the year.
How much of a sense of relief was there in the Williams team?
Valtteri Bottas: It definitely makes a difference to the team, having a good race by the team, with the strategy and pit stop and everything, it was a good weekend – especially Sunday it was a very strong performance by us.
It always does give a lot of confidence to every single guy in the race team but also at the factory to push even harder!
So yeah it is overall a good positive feeling in the team. We know we can do good results, so it’s nice to continue from here.
Was that result track specific or are we witnessing the start of a mid-season resurgence from Williams?
Valtteri Bottas: Montreal definitely was one of the good tracks for our car, really its within the strengths of the car, but there are still plenty of good races to come.
I don’t think this is going to be too bad for us and also the next three races after. I’m pretty sure we can still, with a good weekend, if we keep developing the car, we can fight for the podium and that should be the goal for us as a team.
Thank you.
Rio, if we come to you – You’ve been making steady progress this year.
You’ve outqualified your highly-rate team-mate three times!
Are you feeling comfortable in the car now? Just give us a resume of how you feel it’s gone so far in 2016?
Rio Haryanto: Yes, I have been progress every time, each race.
It feels great to be able to be fighting quite close between the team-mates but our goal is still quite a long way, we wanted to really improve and to get the best results we can for the team.
Just give us a word on how things are back home in Indonesia, the popularity of Formula One there and how it’s growing?
Rio Haryanto: I think it’s been really good!
The popularity has kept increasing and I believe that as they have broadcast the Formula One races on the national channel the popularity is increasing and I think it’s good for Formula One.
Thank you.
Nico, points finishes at the last two races in Monaco and Montreal.
Can we expect to see you continue that rich vein of form here in Baku?
Nico Hulkenberg: Yeah, I hope so!
Obviously it’s a new venue: no data, no knowledge, no previous laps here, so everybody starts from scratch pretty much, which could be interesting.
The track looks quite exciting, as we’ve all seen now. I think we’ve made a massive step since Barcelona with the car.
The upgrade there really made a big change to our game. Since then we’ve really been a points scoring contender on every track, so I feel confident that we can keep it up, yeah.
You say everybody starts from scratch. Just give us a few words on how a driver prepares for a new race like this.
Is there much correlation between the simulator and how much will you be relying on those opening laps tomorrow?
Nico Hulkenberg: I think it’s different from team to team.
Some teams have a simulator, they have the track already, we don’t, so for us it’s really going to be starting from scratch, those opening laps are going to be very crucial and important – discovering the track, finding the limit, getting the lines etc.
Correlation of simulator, sometimes it’s really good, sometimes not so good. I guess at the end we all have to come here, do the real thing, learn and work from there.
Thanks.
Carlos, coming to you, 20th to ninth last weekend in Canada, how satisfying was that result?
Carlos Sainz: It was very satisfying, especially after the disappointment on Saturday, as you can imagine.
To manage to recover well and come back from 20th to ninth was an achievement not only for me but also for the team.
We had a bit of a scrappy Sunday in Monaco with some issues on the pit box and all that side and we managed to arrive to Canada and we managed to put on a very good race from the back, with perfect strategy, perfect pit stops and it was a also relief in those terms.
Yeah, to manage to split the two Force Indias coming from all the way back was a huge achievement and now we need to keep working, because we need to keep this up and keep going for it.
How difficult is it going to be to keep it up, because other teams are getting a lot of engine upgrades at the minute?
How do you rate the competitiveness of the Toro Rosso now with the year-old Ferrari engine?
Carlos Sainz: It’s going to be tough.
Already you know… you put an example, in Australia we managed to qualify P5 and P7 and now in places like Canada or Azerbaijan we will struggle to get into Q3, so for sure we are going a bit backwards.
We haven’t put that many upgrades on the car since Australia, but thanks to the good effort of the team we are not that much falling back, no?
And we are still in the game, we are still fighting for P5 in the Constructors’, with the same car as in Australia, which is a huge achievement, even though you take into account how many upgrades Force India and McLaren are bringing and we are still there trying to hold on.
OK, thank you.
Sebastian, thank you for waiting, on to you.
Now, this is a coastal location, there is probably going to be a lot of seagulls around, so how do you think that is going to affect your race?
Sebastian Vettel: Well, technically I think it’s a lake; it’s not a sea.
I think I read some… before I knew we would be coming here, I read some years ago that it is the biggest lake in the world.
So I shouldn’t be afraid of any seagulls. There will be some, but hopefully they won’t sit in front of the car.
Canada was Ferrari’s most competitive showing of the season.
Is that the pace that you have been threatening to do all season or did the upgrades make the difference?
Sebastian Vettel: For sure, upgrades help. I think everything we brought to Canada – there was a lot of talk about the turbo update – did make a difference, so that was good but I think it was just a clean weekend in particular, because the weekends before were a bit messy, in particular in qualifying we weren’t able to show the pace or release the pace of the car, so in this regard Saturday was strong.
I think we qualified where the car belongs and on Sunday we had a trouble-free race.
Obviously we were able to put Lewis under a lot of pressure, because simply the speed was. I think you just seem to a nicer and easier Sunday where you can do your thing if Saturday goes well and this has to remains the target.
As for here, as we’ve been through, it’s a completely new track, but it looks very, very exciting, so I’m very much looking forward to it.
Would you say that Canada was Ferrari’s cleanest weekend of the year so far?
Sebastian Vettel: Well, certainly for me it was. I think it’s also a track where last year we have been fairly competitive.
It’s probably right to say the characteristics suit us, but I think we should be strong everywhere to be honest, so yeah, the weekends before weren’t entirely clean.
So, there we have some of the press conference – the rest of the questions were from the floor, some of which couldn’t really be answered especially as it’s a new track and the drivers have limited knowledge about what can actually be done here.
Lots more coming soon on the blog, including a few tweaks to the website to add more features which you’ll love! 🙂
The Formula 1 Girl
xx
Press Conference & Image – FIA