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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES: James VOWLES
(Williams), Andrea STELLA (McLaren), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)
Q: We're at a very iconic racetrack. Question to all of you, first of all,
let's get a bit of colour about being here in Brazil. James, if we could
start with you. Best memory of Interlagos, first of all, please?
James VOWLES: I mean, mine's probably a long time ago. It's not Williams,
I'm afraid, but it was 2009. Because this is where I won the championship
for the first time with Jenson and as a constructor as well. There's a
number of championships won here, and you can see why and it just always
accumulates in this fantastic race. And it's exactly the same thing on that
particular weekend as well. I'll remember it for the rest of my life. But
it's one of those tracks that's iconic.
Q: Thank you. Andrea?
Andrea STELLA: Actually, my memories go even farther away because my best
memory is 2007 when we won the championship with Kimi. It was quite a
dramatic event because actually the result was only confirmed around
midnight because there were some investigations after the race. That was the
positive side of the outcome. The year after we were champions just for 38
seconds and then Hamilton took the title. Year 2006, it was the last race of
Michael at Ferrari. I think personally that's the strongest race pace I've
ever seen because he was one lap down following an incident and then he
finished fourth. So there's quite a lot going on here. I think if there's
not a documentary about Interlagos, we should definitely do it.
Q: Thanks, Andrea. Mario?
Mario ISOLA: I think it's a bit more recent. 2016 was a very exciting race.
It was wet, with Max recovering a lot of positions and a lot of action on
track, with Massa that crashed, and then it was supposed to be his last
race. So a mix of emotions and it was as a spectator. Obviously we win all
the championships, so… It was a nice race!
Q: Alright, Mario, thank you for that. James, let's come back to you now.
It's been a frustrating month for Williams, just one point from three races.
Where's the potential of the car at the moment?
JV: We have the ability to score points every weekend. We have to reflect on
the fact that that midfield battle is incredibly tight. In the case of
Mexico, there were sort of four or five teams, all of us within, I think it
was about 30, 40 milliseconds of each other. You have to get everything
right. The frustration is, we have the car pace, but we haven't always
delivered for various mechanisms. So, in the case of Mexico, that really was
a race incident. There's nothing you can do about it. At the start of the
race, three doesn't fit into two. We had a second incident in FP1. And all
of those just set you back during the course of the weekend. But even with
that together, Alex was still able to put that car right up there into that
ninth place. And based on Franco's race pace, we had the potential to score
good points. And it's the same back in Austin. It's a tale of a brilliant
drive from Franco, brilliant overtake from Franco on Fernando, and good
recovery. But again, accident at the beginning of the race, because we are
just bunched together and all of us are fighting for the same meter, just
put Alex out of the race. So we haven't maximised anything over the last two
weekends, and it's frustrating. Getting a fast car is more difficult and we
have a good foundation to work from. and again, it looks good this morning.
Q: So a change of luck is what Williams needs as much as anything?
JV: This is where I'm going to have a bit of turmoil myself, because I don't
believe in good or bad luck. I really don't. I think you create it through
structure, through process, through just delivering the car to be in the
right place on the right track at a certain point. But I'm struggling to
come to terms with what happened in Mexico as a result of that, but I think
it's really our job is… Head down. We've got a quick enough car. Just make
sure we execute as well as we can and let points come our way.
Q: So if we look at your closest battle in the World Championship, the
Teams’ Championship, three points between you and Alpine, who do you think
has the faster car at the moment?
JV: They've done some impressive... Pierre's been really good in qualifying
the last few events. But in the race, we've generally been able to basically
get ahead of them every time. So I think still on what I consider the
important metric, race pace, we're fine. We're ahead of them but it's not
far away.
Q: Can we talk drivers and specifically Franco Colapinto? Is he still making
great improvements from race to race? What are you seeing?
JV: Without doubt and there's more to come from him as well and that's to be
expected. It would be easy to forget, when you look at the performances in
Mexico, in Austin, that he's only been with us for a handful of races in
Formula 1, but he has. And as you'll know with all of the greats – there's
one, Piastri next door – you keep building across time. You don't finish
your learning in four or five races. And there's a tremendous [amount] more
to come from him.
Q: What does the future team-wise hold for him? I mean, should an
opportunity arise elsewhere? He said yesterday in the press conference, the
‘normal thing’, and I'm quoting him there, would be for you to let him go.
Is that the reality? Will you let him go if there's another opportunity?
JV: The best I can say is this: we are exploring possibilities with a number
of teams that are interested at the moment. And beyond there, it would be
wrong to do anything more than speculate here. There's nothing to really
communicate beyond that point. When there is, I'll happily talk about it
because he's an exceptional driver. And I really mean that. Go look outside.
There was tens of thousands of individuals here to support a driver that's
been in our championship for five races. He's doing an outstanding job on
track. And as I've said from the very beginning, earn your position and
elements will come your way. But beyond there, I think especially when we
look at the fact he's a 21-year-old and my responsibility is also towards
him and making sure we do the right thing, I want to make sure that when we
have news, come to the world, but there really isn't much to talk about
right now.
Q: Would you want him on a bungee back to Williams?
JV: It's the same conversation we've just had. In any circumstance, I want
to make sure we understand what others are interested in, and then we'll
form our basis as to what's the best solution for everyone.
Q: Alright, James, thank you for that. I'm sure there'll be more questions
in a minute. Andrea, can we come to you? Let's talk about the world title
fights. First of all, the Drivers' Championship. How's Lando dealing with
the added pressure of battling Max Verstappen? Have you seen him grow as a
driver in the last few races?
AS: Definitely. I think Lando is coping with this situation of being in the
fight for the championship in a way that we are enjoying, first of all, I
would say. He's now a very mature driver. Fast, the race craft keeps
improving all the time. The attitude, the learning from every situation,
which we can appreciate almost on a race by race timescale. I think Lando is
definitely now a mature driver to succeed in this kind of fight, which is a
fight against one of the best drivers, I think, in the history of Formula 1.
Titles, looking at the titles that Max has achieved, then I think this is
universally recognised. So we just keep telling Lando all the time, like,
keep doing what we are doing, let's keep improving all the time, let's
become the best version of ourselves, race after race.
Q: You mentioned race craft, you say keep doing what you're doing, but would
you like him to do anything different in his wheel-to-wheel racing with Max
Verstappen?
AS: Not at all. You know, when I say keep doing what we are doing, I
obviously mean this in a broad sense, but definitely I also mean this in a
very specific sense. I think we got some learning, for instance, from
Austria. We got a little too close. And the points we're missing from
Austria, because of having had a proper collision and then being knocked out
of the race, are points that we regret. We don't really regret many other
points in this season, potentially the one in Austin. where we still believe
that the final classification isn't correct, but we respect the work of the
stewards. We have tried with a right of review to find some correction of
that situation that happened in Austin. This didn't happen. We move on.
Yeah, so I think from Lando's point of view, that's the way it should be
going racing. Lando reflects, also, in the way he goes racing, our own
values. We race fair, we race in a correct way, we race in a sportsmanlike
way. And then ultimately in this kind of close fights, there's a third party
that is the stewarding. We trust the stewarding. I think in Mexico this
worked very well and we had good racing.
Q: And in the Constructors' Championship, how do you see the threat from
Ferrari? Does your 29-point advantage give you a margin for error?
AS: No margin at all. No margin at all. 29 points with four races to go
against Ferrari and Red Bull. First of all, we talk about Ferrari and Red
Bull, like the world champion team, Red Bull. Ferrari, a team that have been
in contention for the world championship for many years. Ferrari in
particular recently with a very fast car. two solid drivers. In Formula 1,
you don't really lean on these kind of margins. The only thing you can do is
just stay focused on yourself, execute at the best of your potential, race
weekends, and then really look at the classification after the race in Abu
Dhabi.
Q: Okay, thank you, Andrea. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in a
minute. Mario, coming to you now. First of all, what are the teams and
drivers saying about the new track surface here at Interlagos? Lando's
fastest lap in FP1, already faster than pole position last year.
MI: Yeah, we were expecting these lap times because we, as usual, we
measured the roughness of the circuit. It's much smoother compared to last
year, but the level of grip is still in line with last year. Not very high,
but more or less the same. So we were expecting similar lap times, also a
lot of track evolution. I heard some comments about bumps, but honestly,
it's not a detail that we consider in our measurement. I'm expecting, as I
said, a lot of track evolution and maybe a few issues if it is wet. It seems
we have a chance of rain tomorrow in the afternoon and Sunday during the
race because this bitumen on top is, in general, is creating a slippery
surface when the asphalt is so new.
Q: Thank you for that. Can we now throw it back to Mexico last weekend and
to the tyre test that went on during FP2? What conclusions did you draw?
MI: It's never easy to run a tyre test in the middle of a race, and I have
to thank all the teams for their availability. We ran the test. It was
positive. We got a lot of data. We have now defined a new C4, C5, and C6 for
next year. Thanks to this test, the test is useful to validate new
compounds. Obviously, we cannot test a different construction during this
kind of test. I was a bit worried when I saw the red flag, obviously,
because we didn't have a lot of margin for running all the plan, but we did
it. We shortened the long runs by a couple of laps to be sure that everyone
was able to finish the test, and it worked quite well.
Q: So you say C6. There will definitely be a C6 compound in 2025. Where will
you run that tyre?
MI: That's a good question. I would like to wait for the Abu Dhabi
post-season test. We still miss a few data on the C6. It is important to
underline that we have to homologate the compound if we want to use it, but
we are not obliged to use it. So I prefer to have the flexibility to have a
C6 in the range that is mainly for street circuit. I can imagine, for
example, Las Vegas, just to give you a name that is not Monaco, because
otherwise. everybody is just mentioning Monaco. We have more and more street
circuit in the calendar. having the flexibility to have a C6 could be
useful. And we are not obliged to select, let's say, three consecutive
compounds. So if we realise that, for example, the C6 could be good in some
circuit, but close to the C5, we can also decide to nominate C3, C4, and C6
and skip one level. So this is giving us a bit more flexibility. We are
going to discuss with the teams and with the FIA a draft allocation for next
year, as we always do. And I'm happy to have this flexibility, honestly.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Jon Noble – Motorsport.com) Andrea, in this championship fight, how much
more complicated has it got now that Ferrari has stepped up in the hunt?
Because Max is obviously clearly focused on Lando and doesn't particularly
care if he lets Ferraris through in that fight. But you're fighting a
driver's championship and a constructor's championship. So how much more
tricky is it in dealing with those two elements?
AS: The complication associated to Ferrari being part of this championship
quest, I think now is more material because of the numbers. But for us,
personally, at McLaren, we have always internally talked of Ferrari being a
potential problem in terms of being a candidate for the championship because
it has been very clear that, especially at Monza and afterwards, they had a
very fast car. They improved in their top speed. They improved in terms of
their downforce. And at some of the events, they didn't maximise what was at
stake for them. Like if we think back to Baku, I think they had the pace to
win the race, Singapore. So it has become more evident, but for us it's
always been the case. We knew that Ferrari was in the quest. Clearly, in the
last two events, if we look at Lando's race, we allegedly lost some points
because of the interactions with Max. It's racing. We need to take these
things into account. The best thing we can do is just be as fast as possible
and not even be in the range. This is a joke! I think Red Bull will always
be there. It's a very optimistic prospect. But I think we are reassured by
the way these kind of close situations have been handled in Mexico. This
gives us some reassurance for the future and ultimately it's racing, it's F1
racing. We need to accept this and do our best.
Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) There's a question primarily to James
and Andrea, but Mario, if there's anything from a Pirelli perspective to
add, please do. I just wonder what your thoughts are on the progress that's
been made with the 2026 regulations. There was the update a couple of weeks
ago. The suggestion is that the performance profile has changed on the cars.
They've become a little bit quicker. How happy are you with that? What room
is there still to improve?
JV: I think there was really good work done both by the FIA, but also the
teams at the same time, in coming to a solution that I think is much better
now. Where we're in a situation, there's more freedom to be able to explore
those regulations. There's more performance that comes with it at the same
time. I think it's a better balance of what we've achieved. And it's really
good. I mean, I've said it twice in that sentence, but it's because it
really was a good reflection as to how all the teams came together with the
FIA to produce those regulations as one. That's why it came together as
quickly as it did.
AS: Yeah, first of all, I would like to completely express my agreement with
James in terms of the good work, the good collaboration between the FIA and
the teams, which is important to underline. I think in terms of cornering
speed, Now in simulation looks like much more convincing. that may still be
offering good racing, may still be offering Formula 1 as the pinnacle of
motorsport. So from this point of view, downforce level seems to be in a
much better place. I think there's still a few weeks of work. And hopefully
this will lead us to the target that will guarantee good racing and good
overall speed like we all want to see for a Formula 1car.
MI: We continue our development plan. Obviously we are monitoring the
technical regulations in order to have a tyre that can suit the expected
performance of the cars. The limitation we have is that testing on the mule
cars obviously is not fully representative of what we will find in 2026. We
have one test, the first wet test in the next few weeks. that is already
planned and we will continue and we will try to do our best to have a good
product. I believe that most of the job is on the virtual model of the tyre
and we have a fantastic cooperation with the teams to test this model on
their simulators and come back with the feedback.
Q: (Gabriel Araújo – Reuters) A question for Andrea about your young talent
Gabriel Bortoleto. Max suggested yesterday that if he was Sauber, he would
have signed Bortoleto already. There is a possibility, of course, that
Bortoleto moves to Sauber. I want to know what's the situation for him at
the moment. Would you be willing to let him go? For how long? So how's the
scenario for Gabriel?
AS: Having the possibility to talk about Gabriel, I would like to take this
opportunity to say once again how good a work he's been doing in junior
categories, winning F3, leading F2 at the first season. And this is to lead
into the fact that I think it's very, very normal and natural that Formula 1
teams are interested in having Gabriel as a driver. In terms of McLaren,
McLaren will not stop the possibility for Gabriel to drive Formula One. So
conversations are ongoing and we will see what the scenario will be for the
future.
Q: (Luis Alejo - espn.com.br) For James. Christian Horner was seen leaving
the Williams Hospitality today. Was it a meeting about Franco Colapinto?
JV: We've recently signed a new coffee sponsor, which is Reviver from Gulf,
and he really wanted to try it. That was a good part of the conversation. He
enjoyed it.
Q: (Nigel Chiu – Sky Sports) Question for Andrea, please. A couple months
ago, there was a lot of talk about team orders at McLaren. What's the
situation now, given there's only four races left? Is Lando still getting
preference over Oscar?
AS: In terms of this topic, the situation hasn't actually changed very much
compared to some comments that we made. I think we were already before Baku.
We are in the quest for both championships. Lando is the driver that is in
contention for the Drivers' Championship, so it's natural that we are going
to support Lando. We have always said that we would do that in the spirit of
our principles, which lean onto integrity, sportsmanship, fairness to both
drivers, and that's what we are trying to do. You will have seen that in
both Austin and Mexico for instance Lando had some upgraded parts which were
not available for both cars. so we gave them to Lando and this is a way of
creating a support to the driver that is in the fight for the championship.
At the same time, as part of our approach, we keep having pretty much daily
conversations with both drivers because we want to make sure that if some
actions are required in a competitive session, this comes with the agreement
from both parties because we look at the season, but we also look at the
future.
Q: (Rodrigo Ayrton - Diario Olé) James, what do you feel when you came to
every circuit, every track, and the fans acclaimed Franco Colapinto,
especially here in São Paulo with a lot of Argentinian people?
JV: Pride is the first emotion that I feel. I'm really proud of Franco. I
mean, we've obviously worked together for a little bit of time, not as long
as perhaps I would do with most young drivers, but a reasonable period of
time. And I've seen him grow up tremendously in the last two years. And for
me, it's just reward for an individual, a young man that's performing
absolutely incredibly and to see his fan base out there is exceptional. And
I think Argentina has been through a reasonable amount of pain and it's
good. What's incredible is seeing a whole country respond to someone iconic
that's doing something great in the sport. So I'd go always to pride.
Q: (Sabrina Faija – Clarín) A question to James. Andrea talked recently
about McLaren. won't stop Gabriel Bartoleto from racing in Formula 1. Has
Williams the same position?
JV: The best I can really tell you is we're actively working with teams that
are interested to try and find the right arrangement that helps Franco, that
protects Franco as well and protects all parties. So it's very much in those
lines. It's the same concept behind it. It's never straightforward between
Formula 1 teams because you're fighting on track and you're trying to find a
solution for a career of a young man. But answering the question, He is
earning his place. He needs to do more on track to keep earning his place as
a result of things, but he's shining, and that's why there's interest from
teams. And our responsibility in that is I have a responsibility both
towards him and Williams. And hopefully we'll have some great news to be
able to talk to everyone about, but today that isn't available.
Q: (Jon Noble – Motorsport.com)To Andrea, it's been said there's a lot of
similarities between this year's championship and 2021 in terms of a close
championship fight. Technical controversies between the two teams,
psychological warfare and two drivers battling on/off track, wheel-to wheel
and controversies. How much are you reflecting on kind of history and past
title battles to learn and does that kind of influence and have a factor in
your approach?
AS: Well, first of all, as you were making this question, I felt a little
bit of pride in the fact that now is McLaren that is part of this
contention. 2021, you know, is in the history of Formula 1. It will stay
there for a long, long time for various reasons. But like I say, first of
all, let me express a bit of pride to be there now with McLaren. There's
always a lot you can learn from the past and actually one thing we say
internally is that let's try to learn from situations without us being
protagonists of these situations. So we definitely look at that season, we
looked even If we want to talk about some hot topics, even the close racing
between Max and Hamilton, we looked at the mutual monitoring, as you said,
between the teams, which is normal practice, but definitely, as you contend
at this level, you need to pay extra attention in analysing what competitors
do from a technical point of view, from a sporting point of view. So, yes,
2021 is a reference season, like many others, in fairness. and we try and
learn as much as possible.
Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) For Andrea and James. Again, looking at 2026,
obviously, aero testing is prohibited, but you've got groups working on the
rules. In terms of the recent changes that were published, how much extra
opportunity is being created? I'm thinking the front wing changes, all the
devices around the front of the sidepod and the floor. Is that not only
going to improve performance, but also create more opportunity for the fine
control? Is it kind of inching back a little bit more to what you had
pre-‘22 with the fine control of barge boards, that kind of thing? Is there
a big opportunity there and will that be a significant development area once
you get into ‘26 and you're all fighting it out?
AS: With the recent release of the car geometry, especially from an
aerodynamic point of view, basically two main things have been achieved as
you refer to. One is a much higher downforce level and the second one is
more freedom. We welcome both. We welcome the more freedom. I think this
will give teams the possibility to just use their knowledge, use their
methodologies. The knowledge that has been accrued over the years, even if
with different regulations, is a way of creating some differentiation. So
we've always been advocating this kind of approach and we welcome the fact
that there will be more freedom.
JV: Yeah, well said by Andrea, as always. It's fundamentally, yes. To answer
your question, we now have more freedom where you could see a different
direction that you're going in. So there's more flow controlling devices in
place, which lead to downforce, but differentiation between teams. What's
been really positive as well is there's still some small areas of
improvement around the diffuser. But again, what's great to see is teams in
the FI working hand in hand in order to improve that. Because every time you
make a change like that, it has some consequences. But I think what you're
going to see now is instead of all teams working in the same few
millimetres, there'll be some different concepts. I personally think that is
good for the sport.
Q: (Dario Coronel - Infobae.com) The question is for James. When will the
future of Franco Colapinto be defined?
JV: What was the question? When will it be decided? Yes. I mean, these sorts
of things are always hard to do because you're talking about multiple teams
talking together. But it'll be something that I'm confident before the last
race of the season we'll have nailed. But it's really hard for me to
pinpoint where in between those two timelines. |
