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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES –
Maurizio ARRIVABENE (Ferrari), Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Gene HAAS (Haas),
Zak BROWN (McLaren)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Maurizio, please can we start
with you? After Japan you said that Ferrari needs to challenge the
impossible in terms of the title race. Is an unpredictable one like this
one, with this weather, an opportunity to hit back?
Maurizio ARRIVABENE: You mean with the weather? I suppose. If you have a
good car, the weather conditions, they are no influencing the performance of
the car. With the sun, with the rain, you must always be into the situation
where you are leading. So for us the rain is not really a factor that is
going to determine the result. Of course it’s going to mix it up a bit more
but it’s not the main concern.
Yesterday, in the press conference, Lewis sat where you are sitting now and
reiterated his support for Sebastian, saying he had been perhaps unfairly
criticised at times this season. What is your opinion of that?
MA: My opinion is that Lewis and Sebastian started in 2007 together, they
are professional drivers and colleagues. I don’t want to get into the
conversation in between the two drivers. It’s normal that being a Formula 1
professional that they are supporting each other, despite what they do at
the track. In the track they fight like hell and out of the track they are
colleagues and they are supporting each other. Having said so, you mention
criticism. For sure the criticism to Sebastian they are not coming from the
team, because I have said many, many times, we are winning and losing
together. It’s not new news, but I would like reiterate that we win and we
lose together – end.
Q: Thank you Maurizio. Claire, you recently announced George Russell as one
of your race drivers for next season. Just what will George bring to
Williams and why did you sign him?
Claire WILLIAMS: Yes, so we announced George last week and we’re very
excited to do so. I think everybody regards George as an exciting talent. We
have a few new rookies coming into the sport next year, which obviously is a
great thing for the teams and for the fans. I think George’s racing pedigree
really speaks for itself. He’s won the F4 championship, the GP3 championship
and hopefully later this season he’ll win the F2 championship in Abu Dhabi.
So I think his on-track prowess speaks for itself, but overall George, as a
person, he’s a very impressive individual. He’s got a great personality. He
really is truly determined. He knew exactly what he wanted going into 2019
and he’s got it, and we’re really excited to start working with him.
Q: George will be one of the drivers, but what about your second seat? Is
there any news, and who is on your shortlist?
CW: No, unfortunately we haven’t made that decision yet, we’re taking our
time with it. We’re not in any mad rush. We have a few drivers on the list;
clearly I wouldn’t confirm who they are. But we are excited about that
decision too, we have some exciting prospects that we are evaluating now.
We’ve got a number of considerations to factor into that decision and we’ll
make an announcement in due course; I’m hoping by the end of the season.
Q: Thank you very much. Zak, speaking of announcements, yesterday you
announced that Coca-Cola will partner with McLaren until the end of this
season. Just what are you hopes for that partnership?
Zak BROWN: We’re very excited to have Coca-Cola. They are one of the world’s
most famous brands. I think they are a great entry into the sport. They will
help bring a younger audience and great for McLaren. We’re going to be
activating with them in the remaining markets and hopefully it will be a
successful partnership that will go on into the future.
Q: Something else that McLaren has being doing a lot of this season is
restructuring behind the scenes. You’ve made some big technical changes. Are
all of those changes complete? Is everyone in position that would like in
position before 2019?
ZB: I’m very happy with the progress and the changes that we have made. I
wouldn’t say it was complete. I think a Formula 1 is always reviewing and
modifying on almost a race-by-race basis – not necessarily the team in the
same way you would a race car – so we are where we wanted to be as far as
who we’ve brought in and who we’ve promoted and excited for our future and
hard at work on next year’s car, while trying to get the most out of this
one here for the last few races.
Thank you. Gene, I think this is the first time we’ve had you in the press
conference this season, so if we could just look back over the year, how do
you reflect on Haas’ third season in F1 and has it exceeded expectations?
Gene HAAS: Well, this season I think we are stable. I think we’re more
stable than we’ve been in the past. The faces are becoming familiar and I
think that lends itself to communication, better results. Unfortunately we
haven’t had the results that we should have but the potential is there. I
feel good about that. The partnerships we have are important but it’s
becoming a little bit more transparent as to what our responsibilities are
and what we have to do and the learning process has gone well.
Unfortunately, we just haven’t gotten the results we should have had, even
though we’re fifth in the championship. That by itself looks good. It kind
of reflects on how much luck has do with it among all the teams when they
are racing. It seems that especially in the mid-pack, who makes the least
amount of mistakes is the one that comes out ahead.
You mention being fifth in the championship, but fourth place does look like
a realistic proposition over these last four rounds. If you were to achieve
that, how do you then go about bridging the gap to the top three teams?
GH: Well, I kind of feel like we’re not really racing in Formula 1, we’re
racing in Formula 1.5, so if we were to finish fourth then that would be a
win in our series.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Zak, you’re American, we’re
in America and the big race in America is Indianapolis and McLaren would
like to do Indianapolis and the Indycar series with Fernando. Any progress?
ZB: For the Indycar series, we’ve taken the decision to not compete on a
full-time basis in 2019. We’re simply not ready yet and very focused on
Formula 1. So we won’t be doing that in 2019. We do have a desire to do it,
as I’ve mentioned before, in the near future. As far as the Indy 500 is
concerned, it’s something that remains of interest to us. That will be a
decision that ultimately we take in the off-season. I think it’s something
that Fernando would like to do as well, but right now we’re still focused on
Formula 1 and until we get a little bit of fresh air we’ll remain focused on
that.
Q: (Massimo Lopes Pegna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) For Mr Arrivabene. You
always of course race to win. Now from Sunday to the last… the next three
grands prix, you are kind of
forced to win in order to keep alive the hope of winning the championship.
In which way would change your, if any way, strategy or how you race these
grands prix.
MA: It’s not a question of strategy. The question is to find the right
balance in a car that in the last two to three races was not easy to manage
– especially in relation to the slow-speed corners. I know that the numbers
are all against us in terms of the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships,
but our job is to go there, to go to the track, without giving up. We have
done analysis in Maranello about the issue that we need to sort to be
competitive in the next few races, including this one. We have most probably
a certain answer and we will see in the next few days if instead of being a
simple answer they are a solution.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) For Gene, Claire and Zak: a little earlier
this season, over the summer, one of your midfield rivals, Force India, went
through its process of falling into administration and then being rescued.
When that happened there was obviously the slightly confusing situation
about prize money – what they would and would not be eligible for. I just
wanted to know, do you have a resolution on that. Is it a satisfactory
resolution and if not what are you hoping will be the outcome from that?
GH: I think from the standpoint of being a participant in Formula 1, we’re
just looking for an even enforcement of the rules. Like the stewards in a
race they have be non-judgmental and they have to enforce the rules in front
of them and every team expects those to be evenly enforced, and our argument
with Force India is: is it a new team or a continuation of an existing team,
and that’s really where the stumbling block is. We went through the process
of becoming a new team. We abided by the rules. The big one is the
two-out-of-three-year rule and our argument is that if we had to go through
that process we feel that with Racing Point if it’s a new team then it
really should have to go through the same process we went through. So the
question for FOM is: is it a new team or the continuation of an existing
team. We think it’s pretty obvious to us it’s a new team and therefore
should have the rules applied as per the Concorde Agreement.
Q: Claire, Williams’ position on this?
CW: Williams has signed the waiver that everybody knows about that would see
Force India receive their prize money payments. We’re happy with that. I
think from our perspective, the team is operating as it did prior to
Lawrence buying it, acquiring it, and so we don’t necessarily consider it to
be a new team, as such. I believe, as Gene just said, there are still some
issues that need to be ironed our behind the scenes with FOM and the FIA.
We’ll wait to see what happens.
Q: And Zak, your comments?
ZB: I agree with what Gene has said. Take a step back: obviously very happy
that a Formula 1 team continues in business, that’s good for the sport, but
what it did highlight were some of the governance issues and inconsistencies
in the sport that need to be tackled moving forward. So I hope that what we
do is we learn by this event and other events and not have things be
chaotic, as it kind of was. There were different waivers flying around and
it was in and it was out, it’s a new team, it’s not, and I think more than
anything the sport needs to learn by some of these holes and get a better
governance system in place.
Q: (David Tremayne – The Independent) Maurizio, you’ve had a few strategic
and operational snafus of late. Can you tell us, have you taken steps to try
and solve those problems for this race and the remainder of the season? And
do you also envisage having a much more intensive investigation into your
structure for those kind of things over the winter?
MA: I mean, I already answered the question. I said, of course, if we are
here, we were not sleeping the last few weeks. We were making an analysis,
as I said before, to certain weaknesses that we notice in the last few
races. We are taking here solutions – but it is the track that is judging if
the solution is really a solution – or is not, for sure. We are here to
compete, with a mission impossible, but working in this kind of environment,
it’s our job.
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Claire, George obviously has a long-term
Mercedes contract. Is that a factor for him arriving? Basically, shorthand
for ‘are you getting a cheaper deal on the engines’? And secondly, the
second drive, what are the financial considerations involved in that? Do you
need someone to bring financial support with them – and would you be open to
having two Mercedes-backed drivers in your line-up.
CW: George has obviously come up through the Mercedes young driver programme
but that was not a factor in our decision-making. We purely saw a young
talent coming up through the junior championships, as I think we all have.
We’ve all recognised the talent that George has, and are probably all pretty
excited about the talent that he has coming into this sport. So no, the
Mercedes relationship wasn’t a factor. George has a multi-year arrangement
with us moving forward and he will be a Williams driver during that period
and will focus on being a Williams driver. There were no factors around
financial considerations with Mercedes on making that decision. It was
purely a decision made on the talent that George has. When it comes to the
second seat, clearly as an independent team, and clearly, as everybody
knows, independent teams in this sport haven’t had an easy ride over the
past few years, the sponsorship landscape is pretty tough out there. The way
that the prize fund distribution is at the moment in Formula One doesn’t
make it easy, and not least coming tenth in the championship this year puts
the squeeze on things a little bit – but we’re managing our finances pretty
well, we’ll have a good budget going into 2019, it will be on par with the
one that we have raced with this year – but there are a lot of
considerations when it comes to choosing the driver for the second seat –
but predominantly the main one has to be on talent.
Q: (Les Kiser – Speed City Broadcasting) Gene, I’ve got to ask you, and tell
you a little bit, there was a media representative about a year and a half
ago, two years more like that, when we mentioned an American team coming to
F1, she chuckled, as if it were a joke. You definitely demonstrated the
prowess to be on the grid. This team has responded well. You started off
with a single name on the car as Haas. We’re seeing it grow. Do you think
that is also a reflection of the fan base that is growing in the United
States?
GH: Well, it’s all be very positive, as far as the reception of the team and
the name Haas Automation on the car. I’ve seen probably the most recognition
over in the European markets. There’s a lot of brand name recognition. I was
over in Tunisia, I was getting off a plane to go to one of our factory
outlets and the person asked: ‘are you with the F1 team?’ which is pretty
interesting in North Africa, so we’re getting good brand recognition there.
Obviously there’s a huge fan base here in the United States. So, I think as
far as my company’s concerned, it’s all been very, very good. Now we have
brand recognition. People don’t necessarily know what we do – but at least
they know the name. So from that standpoint, I think the enthusiasm of at
least American Formula One fans, it’s really done well, really done well. I
appreciate all the fans that support us and tell us that. If we can just get
them to send us some money, it’d even be better!
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Maurizio, the last time
Ferrari had an extended spell without championships was from 1979 to 2000 –
21 years. You’re heading for half that now, having won the last championship
in 2008. With a budget cap coming, one of your major advantages, namely the
team’s size, is likely to be reduced a fair amount. Can you see Ferrari not
winning a championship for 21 years again?
MA: I’m here only since three-and-a-half years, I can respond for my period.
I think the budget cap has nothing to do with the performance of the team
because the performance is due to the quality of the work that you are
doing, due to the professionalism and many other things. The budget cap, it
could help to enhance the creativity of the guys: if you have talented guys
in the team – and I’m talking about all the various areas, from the chassis,
to to aero to the engine – for sure it’s a good thing to do because in the
last five, six years, the amount of money teams are spending, it’s really
important. These are important numbers. For a car manufacturer like we are,
it’s also an investment, especially on the engine part, which can be
transferred in terms of research and development and technology to the GT
side. But we need to think also about the so-called small teams. I mean, the
budget cap, it could be beneficial for us, and also for the teams, can
reduce, a bit the gap but hoping
that means we keep the DNA of Ferrari and our focus is reducing cap but
keeping up the performance and continue the research and development to be
transferred into the GT side.
Q: (Massimo Lopes Pegna – La Gazetta dello Sport) In Trento a couple of
weeks ago you said you were still not sure if you were going to stay at the
helm of Ferrari next season. I was wondering if two weeks later there is any
change in this decision? If you know already, or when eventually you would
announce the decision?
MA: Every day I hear a different version of what I said in Trento! The
latest one, that somebody, the public, said “yeah, you have to say”, I asked
to the public, you want me say yes, you have to say it. Then I read,
everybody said yes – but you must win. That was not true – because before I
asked the question, half an hour before, somebody, talking about another
subject said: “guys, when are you going to win?” Then they mix up the two.
OK. This is a new version. Of course, when I answered the questions related
to Juventus, so we are opening up another topic, I said that my future is in
Ferrari – but it was the top management that have to give to me the final
blessing. This is the answer.
Q: (Rocio Romera – Motorlat.com) Mr Arrivabene, what will be the reaction of
the team if Charles Leclerc can give Vettel a run for position next year?
And Mr Zak Brown, letting go a two-times World Champion as Fernando, how
will it change the team dynamics?
MA: I mean, I always said Charles is a very, very talented driver. It’s the
reason we took him in Ferrari. I think, for the first time in the history,
because you have to go back to the Rodríguez brothers that is similar to the
one of Leclerc. I said he’s very talented, we took a decision, it’s more or
less in line with the decision that all the other teams took. If you look at
Mercedes, they took two years ago Bottas, that he was a kind of rookie
coming from Claire’s team, Williams. If you look at the other teams, they
have Verstappen, a young driver, McLaren the same, Renault the same, so we
are more or less aligned. There is no novelty. I mean, it depends what you
mean. These two guys, fighting together. Enzo Ferrari always said the first
competitor of the driver is his team-mate. Until they are competitors, to
try to gain the first and the second position is fine. If they are
competitors who crash into each, this is not fine. But, in all honestly and
seriously, I think Leclerc, he needs to gain experience to do the job. He
needs to try to win races – but the main objective for him is to gain
experience and always do his best. We are at the early stage to think that
in the future they will fight head-to-head together. Hopefully yes – but I
think it’s a bit early.
Zak?
ZB: Yeah, obviously Fernando’s an immense talent with a tremendous amount of
experience. Of course, we’ll miss him in the garage but we have two
outstanding talents, Carlos Sainz, who has some good experience in Formula
One, so while young, he has good experience, and Lando Norris who we think
is a great talent who is going to need to get experience – which is what
we’ve been giving him in free practice one these last few races – and he has
done an excellent job, so we’re very excited for our driver line-up for next
year.
Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) The new budget cap’s coming in. Do
you really think this is the magic bullet which is going to put you all on
the same plane? Zak’s talking about competing in F1.5. Do you think it’s
going to bring a level playing field to the teams, because you should all be
able to make the budget caps, or is there something else missing from the
seven smaller teams?
GH: Well, when I watch some of the races and I see how fast the top three
teams just blow by us on the racetrack, you’re just somewhat aghast: wow,
how do you we miss that? I don’t know how those cars are so much faster but
if I talk to Ayao (Komatsu) and he’ll tell you ‘you’ve got a couple of
tenths on your tyres, you’ve got a couple of tenths on your aero, your
chassis is off a couple of tenths and there’s your second or two’. I know
that we’ve put a huge effort into trying to address all those parameters but
I just don’t see how we’re ever going to make up a second and a half, two
seconds off of these guys. They are just so much faster than we are and it’s
evident in the race. Will budget cap help? Probably if it reduces the size
of their R&D department. I guess for every person we have they
have five people. Personally, I would think that five people would make it
more confusing but it does seem to work. If there’s anything that can reduce
that gap between the technology they have and what we don’t have, that would
probably be very helpful. How you go about doing that without the bigger
teams somehow have workarounds I don’t know. There’s something wrong that… I
don’t think we can ever make up that gap.
CW: Yeah, I would tend to echo what Gene has said, that there’s
unfortunately no way that teams like mine, anyway, that are operating on a
budget of around 120m could even consider competing to win races or World
Championships against the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, that are
spend at least two if not three or four times the budget that we are. For
me, that’s not a level playing field and for me, at any rate, that’s not how
competitive sport should be. It shouldn’t be about the money that you have,
it should be about the talent but talent only takes you so far when teams
are outspending you three-to-one. So I am very much looking to the budget
cap coming in but I also believe that there’s a whole lot of other work that
we need to do in order to make sure that this sport has a sustainable future
and one that probably matches the DNA that this sport has grown up with over
the past fifty years, that we tend to be veering from at the moment, in my
opinion.
ZB: I pretty much echo the same thoughts. I don’t think there’s a silver
bullet in anything but I do think the budget cap can play a significant role
in balancing the playing field. You also need to do that by having the right
regulations moving forward which is something that we’re all very active on
but if you do look at the sports, most of them have some sort of budget cap,
salary cap and probably one of the most successful being the NFL where
everyone’s pretty much on a level playing field and that’s where you see the
upsets and the surprise champions and I think that would be healthy for the
sport. I still think, at the end of the day, the best teams will rise to the
top but it would be good to have some more unpredictability in the sport and
have a chance to get back on the top step of the podium.
MA: I think from the financial point of view, of course reducing the cost is
always more than welcome. It’s not related to the what, it’s related to the
how. If reducing costs means equalisation it’s not for us. Standardisation
is one thing, equalisation is another so equalisation is not in the DNA of
car manufacturers. Reducing costs? Of course it is, that’s normal but I’m
not telling you something new. We always stick to this point, to this
direction. The problem is a bit more than the simple question related to the
budget cap, that as I said, is very important. The question is related to
the overall F1. What we want to do, to increase the interest in the sport,
we need to analyse the mistakes of the past, to look forward for solutions
in the future and this is also very important and to be honest, with
ourselves: how is the level of interest to Formula One versus yesterday?
What do we need to do? It’s not the budget cap, it’s one of the solutions
but it’s the solution. We need to go back and to re-launch the sport.
Launching the sport is kind of complicated and a complex equation but it’s
something that we absolutely need to do and analysing also the audience that
we have. If at a certain point you have an audience that is becoming older,
older, older and you work to retain what you have and (Inaudible) to acquire
– I’m talking about the past – and your attention is less focused on
acquiring the young generation, this means that you have a problem. If you
have a problem, you need to find a solution and the solution is not only
related to the budget cap that I underline is important, it’s very very
important, but it’s not the only one solution. In terms of competitiveness
within the teams, OK, we mentioned NFL but I am European, I mention
football. For example, how can you tell to Real Madrid ‘sorry, if you play
with – I don’t want to mention a small team – don’t play with your best
team, play with your middle team.’ Come on, it’s ridiculous. The sport is
done also by the big teams which are participating in the sport and it’s
part of the fascination of the sport. In the last few years in Formula One,
we saw Ferrari at the time of Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher that they
were winning for years. Afterwards, we had the period where Red Bull was
winning for years and nobody complained. In the meantime we never focused
our attention on the audience and the audience, little by little, became
older. This is the exercise that we need to look at. Our competitor today,
in my opinion, it’s my personal opinion, they are the Playstations. If you
look at Gran Turismo, most probably we need to switch our minds and focus
our attention on our competitors. Today we have a broad offer of
entertainment and we need to look at everything, not only certain sports and
try to equalise everything. Is Playstation a competitor? In my opinion yes.
What do you have to do to beat the Playstation? You have to do something
that is more interesting, most probably. It’s not a detailed answer to the
question but we need to direction our attention to the entertainment
industry and today
what they offer is bigger than many many years ago. And then you need to ask
why other sports - and let me underline football – they are still big
numbers - even if they sometimes face crisis - versus us. It’s an enormous
and transparent exercise and then you apply the Ryder Cup, you apply
whatever you want because if you save money it’s always perfect, everybody
is happy. But as I said before, standardisation doesn’t mean equalisation
for us. |
