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PART ONE: TEAM
REPRESENTATIVES – Frédéric VASSEUR (Sauber), Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Mario
ISOLA (Pirelli)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Mattia, it’s very tight at the top of the timesheets this afternoon. How
did today go for you, Ferrari, and how do you assess the pace of nearest
rivals?
Mattia BINOTTO: Obviously we just finished the session so we are looking at
the data. I think it has been a difficult session because of a lot of
traffic, red flags, so difficult somehow to complete the programme. We had
to do some compromises on the programme but trying to collect as much data
as possible. As you said, the field is very close but nevertheless we are
concentrating on ourselves. Trying to optimise the balance of the car will
be very important for qualifying and the race. It will be quite hotter
Sunday compared to what we got today, so preparing and working on the
balance will be very important and key.
Q: And knowing what you know now, are you confident you can be more
competitive here than you were at Silverstone two weeks ago?
MB: I think it’s always difficult to judge but certainly today was less
negative, let’s say, compared to what we have seen in Silverstone. But
Silverstone is in the past. I think somehow we need to forget it, being
focused on what is this weekend. I don’t think the comparison is really
necessary. More important just being focused on Hungary.
Q: In the past week it has been announced that the Halo head protection is
going to be introduced in 2018. Can I ask you about the practicalities of
including the Halo on next year’s car, just from a cooling point of view, an
aerodynamic point of view, how far down the road are you with those
developments?
MB: Obviously the decision has been made at the last Strategy Group meeting
in the last week. It’s quite a late decision compared to the project but
nevertheless, because of the safety it’s important everybody tries to work
very hard on it. The implications are from the chassis structure point of
view. So we need to make sure that we are fitting well the Halo on the
chassis and the chassis is resisting to the loads that are required by
regulations. As well from the aero point of view it may affect certainly the
back of the car and that has to be taken into account when designing the new
car.
Q: Mario, just a word on today’s running. What have we learned about tyre
performance, tyre wear, degradation? How many pit stops can you foresee on
Sunday?
Mario ISOLA: Difficult question, because, as Mattia said, during FP2, which
is the most representative for us to collect some data, we had two red
flags. In terms of delta lap time between soft and supersoft we saw
something like 0.8s, 0.9s per lap. It is a bit more than we expected. Our
estimation was 0.6, but more or less in this range. We know that the medium
is not going to be used during this weekend. The temperature is very high,
so degradation will be a key factor on the supersoft, especially on the
supersoft, but we don’t have a number now. The number of pit stops will be
dictated by the degradation of the supersoft. The tarmac is new. Last year
the circuit was resurfaced. Very smooth, but very black. So the temperature
is going up easily and we expect more than 50 degrees tarmac on Sunday, so
it could be quite a challenge.
Q: You’ve done a lot of analysis since Ferrari had their tyres problems at
Silverstone two weeks ago. Can you just tell us about the conclusions you
have drawn and whether or not they were freak incidents?
MI: We made a lot of analysis to be sure that we were not underestimating
any potential issue on the tyres. So we didn’t want to say anything about
Vettel’s tyre, because we saw together with Ferrari the loss of pressure
starting from Turn One since Sunday afternoon. We wanted to take some time
to analyse deeply both the tyres. We saw two different failures. One was a
puncture. The conclusion was, on Vettel’s tyre, that it was a puncture with
a loss of air starting in Turn One and obviously at a certain point the
construction is not able to support the load and in Turn 6 it failed. For
Kimi, it was more difficult, because it was not clear at the beginning. The
carcass was still in one piece. We had a part of the tread missing and we
had two points in which the belt was damaged, on the inside shoulder. So we
had to analyse not only Kimi’s tyre but most of the tyres used during the
race to exclude that there was any other potential issue. We can away with
the conclusion when we were 100 per cent sure that we didn’t have any other
issues. I cannot say it was debris or an impact or something like that
because I don’t have the evidence but the evidence is that we have the belt
that is damaged in two specific points and the rest of the tyre is still OK,
but Kimi had to stop to replace the tyre, so this is the result of the
investigation.
Q: Fred, welcome back. Hefty accident for Pascal this afternoon. Just a word
on his condition and also the state of the car?
Frédéric VASSEUR: It’s a bit too early to have a clear conclusion on the
reason of the accident, but we will do the investigation. The monocoque
looks OK, but we have to investigate a little bit more. I left the garage
straight after the end of the session.
Q: You’ve been in the new job, team principal, for just a week or so, but
it’s been a busy week. I just wondered if you could talk us through the
reasons behind the switch from Honda power in 2018 to Ferrari power?
FV: Yeah, Sauber and Honda signed a memorandum of understanding a couple of
weeks ago but things move forward quite fast in our world and I think that
the situation was a bit unclear also regarding the collaboration between
McLaren and Honda and on our side the engine supplier had to find a solution
for the gearbox. We had a deal with McLaren and the situation was a bit more
complicated. On the other end, the collaboration with Ferrari is based on a
long-term relationship and we had the opportunity to discuss with Ferrari to
get the new-spec engine and I think it was a good choice and we found a
mutual agreement with Honda to stop the collaboration.
Q: Just to confirm, it will be a current-spec Ferrari engine that the team
has…
FV: Not the current one, the next one!
Q: Exactly! Just to finish, I know you have only been there a week but I’d
love to get your thoughts on Sauber as a team, both in the short term and in
the long term?
FV: The short term, that will be difficult to achieve something – it’s a
long-term project for sure. But I think the basics are there. The facility
is impressive compared to the other teams. I think we are in a good move.
The wind tunnel is a good one and the team, I think that Sauber is still in
F1 an iconic name and there is a real team spirit, quite comparable to the
team spirit I had last year at Enstone. Everybody is really dedicated,
pushy, and now that the financial structure is stabilised I think we can
have some hope for the future.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Roksana Cwik – SwiatWyscigow) A question for Mr Vasseur. When you
brought Robert Kubica to Spa and he drove the RS01, did you think he would
be here?
FV: No, at this stage he did some test sessions in the simulator before. I
tried to help him for different reasons. We had the opportunity to do a race
in the RS01 in Spa. He did it and he did a good job, but it’s not my project
anymore!
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Question to Fred, I wonder if you could
clarify exactly what your position is please? Are you responsible for the
total Formula One programme, including marketing, sponsorship, whatever, or
only the sporting side. And if not, who else reports to Mr Picci?
FV: My position is quite clear, that I’m the CEO of the company and team
principal. It means that at the end of the day I am in charge of all the
departments.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Mattia, this track might be a completely
different story but in the last few races we’ve seen Mercedes maybe gaining
a bit on Ferrari. Do you think it was because there has been some decisions
like the restrictions regarding the floor or engine oil burning, or just
because you’re at different phases of development during the year and it
will ebb and flow between you?
MB: I think that each race is different to the others. There have been races
at the start of the season where we have been competitive and others where
Mercedes has been competitive. If you look, for example, Bahrain very early
in the season, they have been very competitive in qualifying, we have been
in the race. I don’t think that there is a clear tendency and a clear trend
on the competitiveness of the two teams. Certainly the development is very
important. That has to be done race by race. There are still many races to
go, we are just half of the season and I don’t see any reasons why this
should be one trend or another one. I think that oil burning, as you
mention, is something that is not directly related to Ferrari and the floor,
honestly I don’t think there is any impact on our performance.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) This is again to Mattia. We have seen that
both of your drivers are now on their fourth turbochargers. Is it just
normal as you are playing around with the element or is it cause for concern
and now basically you are sure you will have to take a penalty later this
year?
MB: Certainly it is somehow a concern in the fact that we had failure on the
turbo at the start of the season and we have to replace them at the very
start and you introduce very early in the season turbo number three and
turbo number four. Having said that, we introduce as well in the following
turbos some modifications for reliability. They are running well at the
moment, so we’ve got all the pool at the moment that have been introduced
but we’ve got all the mileage available on each turbo, so we are rotating
them and, obviously it’s our objective to conclude the season with the
current pool of turbos.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Mattia, a lot of your motorsport and road
car competitors are embracing Formula E with a vengeance. Could you see
Ferrari ever doing that?
MB: That’s something that sometimes we have discussed internally but no
decision have been taken and honestly it’s a decision that is not down to my
responsibility. So, I have no clue and no answer for you. |
