|
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES
Frédéric VASSEUR (Ferrari), Ayao KOMATSU (Haas), James VOWLES (Williams)
Q: Ayao, why don't we start with
you? It's a bit of a milestone moment for the Haas Formula 1 team. 200 races
this weekend. You've been there throughout. Tell us about the journey the
team has been on to get to 200.
Ayao KOMATSU: I don't think we've got
enough time to talk about our journey. But yeah, I still remember ten years
ago like yesterday—car build, pre-season testing, going on to Melbourne.
Yeah. And then, lots of ups and downs happened since, but now really proud
that we are here. 200 races, and improving the team, fighting in the
midfield. So yeah, something I think all of us in the team should be proud
of.
Q: You talk about ups and downs. Give us a highlight and a
lowlight, if you could.
AK: Yeah, the first high was really the first
race in 2016, Melbourne. By the time we left car build, we felt like we'd
done a season already. Then we realized that we hadn’t done anything. Then
pre-season testing—we don't remember much because we hadn't slept much. And
then going to Melbourne, we were really almost dead. And then couldn’t do
the pit stop practice, then to score the P6 with Romain was amazing. And
then following that with Bahrain, race two, with a P5 with Romain on the
aggressive strategy. So those are the clear highs. 2018 was a really good
season, and Austria, P4 and P5, was an amazing result. It really was like a
win for us. And then the low was when we started going in the wrong
direction in 2019, and we couldn't fix the car. We had a half-decent
qualifying car, but we just couldn’t race, and they couldn't solve it for
the entire season. That was a low. And then COVID hit, and we really
couldn't do much. So that was a low. But now, we are improving again. So,
it’s good.
Q: Improving again now. Let's just talk about this weekend
in Canada. What are your hopes? What are your expectations for this one?
AK: Honestly, expectations are always very difficult. Every single circuit
we go, especially with the C6 tyre, which is very sensitive, I find it a bit
difficult to predict exactly where we're going to be. And then for me, just
here in Montréal, we focus on having a clean weekend, build up to it, and
then try to get the best out of the car and drivers. And then hopefully we
can fight for the points, but a long way to go. Yeah, we need to improve the
car quite a bit.
Q: Okay. Good luck with that. Thank you very much.
Fred, if we come to you now. Can we just start with Charles' car in FP1? How
much damage is there? Are there any ramifications for FP2?
Frédéric
VASSEUR: When I left the garage, we think we damaged the chassis. And by the
way, we won’t be able to do FP2, by regulation. We need to do some checks,
but I think it's over for today for Charles.
Q: Now can we talk about
the Italian media? Lewis Hamilton was in here yesterday, and he dismissed
recent criticism of you in the Italian media. What's your take on it?
FV:
I have to stay calm because I will have to finish to the stewards. It's some
Italian media, it’s not all the Italian media. It’s not about myself, I
think, because this I can manage. It’s more about the people of the team. To
throw their name like this, I think it’s just disrespectful—for them, for
their family. And we had the case last year with the chief of aero already.
We had some other names this season. I don’t know the target. I don’t
understand the target. Perhaps it’s to give s**t to the team, but in this
case, I don’t see the point. Perhaps it’s for them the only way to exist.
This is probably more the reason. But it’s really hurting the team. It’s, at
one stage, a lack of focus. And when you are fighting for the championship,
every single detail makes the difference. And from the beginning of the
weekend, we are just speaking about this. And if it’s their target to put
the team in this situation, they reached their goal. But I think it’s
really—it's not like this that we’ll be able to win a championship. And at
least not with this kind of journalist around us. I won't go to the stewards
for this – so far!
Q: Fred, Does it go with the territory of being
team principal of Ferrari that you have to deal with this kind of thing?
FV: No but to be the team principal—I knew when I took the position that you
are exposed, and this I think is quite easy to manage. It's more for the
people of the team. They are working very hard and to decide one day that
“this one will be replaced, this one is useless”—honestly, it's very harsh.
These journalists, and I’m not putting everybody in the same basket, but
they have to consider that these people, they have families, they have
wives, they have kids. And this is completely disrespectful. But I don’t
want to speak anymore about this stupidity.
Q: Okay. Let's talk about
performance. This was a tough race for Ferrari last year. Do you come into
it feeling more confident?
FV: Well, at least we won’t do worse than last
year—it was a double DNF. But the pace this morning was okay for Charles
before the crash. And with Lewis it was okay also. We made a step, I think,
if you compare to the first races— now we came back to P2, we had the last
three or four weekends with strong pace. It was already the case at the
beginning, but more on the race pace than the quali pace. Now I think we’re
able to put a little bit more of everything together and do a good weekend.
But it’s still a long way compared to McLaren because they are still one
step ahead. We have to keep McLaren as a target and not look behind us. But
we’re on the right way.
Q: Okay. Fred, thank you for that. James,
let’s come to you now. Can we just start talking about something off track?
The Williams FW14B—you drove it recently. Just tell us what that was like
and what the overriding emotion was for you when you were behind the wheel.
James VOWLES: Yeah. It’s exceptional. I mean, genuinely, after we stopped,
they left me in the car and said, “do you need a minute,” and I stayed in
there for ten minutes just enjoying the moment. We were getting it basically
ready, making sure it was okay before we take it to Goodwood, and it’s an
opportunity of a lifetime. I can’t really describe it any other way. It’s
something I saw on TV thirty years ago that I never would have dreamt of
even being close to, let alone having the ability to drive it. It’s a very
light car. It’s exactly Nigel’s car as he won the championship in Budapest
in ’92. And it’s an exceptional moment for me to just have the ability to be
a part of it.
Q: Not too tall?
JV: No. Thank you! I thought you
were going say too wide! Genuinely, again—I went on a diet a little bit last
year to get myself a little bit thinner to make sure I’d get inside it. The
biggest problem is my feet are a little bit big. I think Nigel’s feet are
smaller than mine. So, it’s quite difficult to get everything fitting into
the nose box.
Q: Alright. And what about the here and now? Spain
looked a little tricky for the team. On the evidence of FP1, are you going
to go better here? How do you explain that? Is it the return of short radius
corners?
JV: Yeah. So I'm only laughing because Fréd said… Well,
basically, he said there’s no corners here and that’s why we’re quick.
Spain’s quite a unique circuit. Turn 3 and Turn 9 now are flat-out corners
that you’re in for a long period of time compared to other corners on the
circuit, and that isn’t the case for most other tracks now. Unbelievably,
that’s actually more an outlier than anything else. And without question, we
still have a problem baked into our car that if we’re loaded for a long
period of time at high speed, we struggle. And Barcelona proved that. The
only point I would make is we have improved, though. We were in a
situation—at least, we had both front wings missing after lap one—but we
were in a situation where the car could have scored a point there, which is
different to how we've been many other years. But without question,
Montreal, conversely, is the complete polar opposite for us. It's very much
a circuit that suits the characteristic of our car—the short corners. And I
don't think it'll be quite as rosy as we saw this morning. McLaren weren't
up there, and Charles wasn't there either, and I'm sure he will be. But the
point is we should be competitive enough to still be fighting for points
this weekend.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (John Noble – The
Race) To Fred, I don't know if Ferrari would be satisfied with the season
you've had so far, but what's been the kind of dialogue with John Elkann so
far this year? And what's the kind of battle plan agreed going forward to
recover the rest of this season into '26?
FV: The initial goal was to
fight for the championship, but I think it’s true for us, it’s true for
McLaren, for Red Bull, for Mercedes. We are all in this mood to fight for
the championship at the beginning of the season. I think if you compare with
expectations, probably McLaren is one step ahead compared to everybody. And
we didn’t do a good job on our side.
Just speaking about us—Ferrari—we
didn’t do a good job, the couple of races, we had the disqualification in
China. We were 60 points behind Red Bull and Mercedes at this stage of the
season. And overall, I think we had a decent recovery, at least compared to
Red Bull, Mercedes. Compared to McLaren, they are still one step ahead. It
means we have to continue to try to do a better job each day and improve. I
had the feeling that on some occasions this year, we missed opportunities,
and we didn’t do the same level of job as we did last year, let’s say. And
this, clearly, we need to improve. But it's true that if you want to win the
championship—and I think it’s a good lesson of 2024—you can’t leave points
on the way. Last year, we had a double DNF in Canada. We had a couple of
events with DNFs and issues, and it’s where we have to improve, clearly. But
I think it’s difficult to say because we are still behind McLaren. The
target is to be P1. But I think we are improving from the beginning of the
season to today.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Fréd, just picking up
on that. Is there a full understanding in terms of where Ferrari has left
points on the table so far this season and gone wrong in some places?
Because other areas like pit stops, for example, that was always
traditionally a weak point for the team, and now you've become the
pacesetter. So how do you kind of balance that in terms of analysing where
you've gone wrong and where you've gone right?
FV: Yeah. But it’s not a
race of a pit stop. At the end of the day, it’s good to have a good pit stop
because it’s part of the—it’s not part of the success, but it could be part
of the issues. And honestly, if you compare with the beginning of ’23–’24,
we did a good step forward on operations: strategy, pit stop, even
reliability. But still, we are behind McLaren. At the end, the target is not
to do a good job. The target is to do a better job than the others. And it’s
the same for 2026. When you're asking us, “Where are you?”—we are improving,
but the target is to improve faster than the others. Overall, I think it’s a
long process, and it’s why I don’t want to come back on the part of the
discussion. But it’s where, each time that you have a kind of distraction or
issue internally, you are losing a little bit of focus during the season.
And this is our job to recover. I have the feeling that sometimes teams in
the UK are a bit more on their own and a bit more focused on what they are
doing. But, you know, the best example for me is McLaren. In 2022–23, they
had a very harsh season. They were at the back, but they were focused. They
worked on their own, and they improved step by step. And it’s, I think, what
every single team wants to do. I have huge respect for the ten teams on the
grid—I know all of them. They are competitors, they are racers. And when we
are not doing well, we are aware. It means we are trying to put everything
together, we are pushing, and the most important is to be able to do your
own job. That’s sometimes where we are struggling a little bit.
Q:
(Mark Mann-Bryans – Autosport) Another one for Fred, please. You’ve
obviously got in Lewis a seven-time world champion and Charles, someone
who's been ingrained in the team for years now. Does that give you the
confidence that their performance and their mentality won’t be affected by
talk of your future or things around the team?
FV: It’s a good example to
speak about Charles. I think Charles has a long-term contract with us. Every
single interview from the beginning of the season, he’s telling that he
wants to stay with Ferrari. He wants to win with Ferrari. His future is with
Ferrari. But every single Monday, we have an article telling that “Charles
will go next year,” “Charles will…” At one stage, I don’t know what we have
to do. I’m sorry—I can’t repeat every single weekend the same things. But it
is like it is. Now, with Lewis and Charles, I think we have a good
relationship altogether. We have a clear target. We know that we have to
work. We know that we have to push. But the mood in the team is very good.
And that’s the basis if you want to recover and to win. Everything is there.
Everything is on the table to do a good job, and altogether, we are working
well.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) I’m sorry, Fréd again. Sunday
night in Barcelona, you told us that both drivers had issues and you
wouldn't elaborate. Yesterday, Lewis said he’d been told not to talk about
it. Charles wouldn’t talk. Why all the mystery?
FV: When I’m telling you
in the press conference that I won’t disclose, don’t come back ten minutes
later to try to understand. And the Friday after to try to understand—I
won’t disclose what’s happened. It is like it is. Full stop.
Q: Okay?
Isn’t it better just—given the situation you guys are in—isn’t it better
just to give fans and the media at least some idea of what the issues are?
You don’t have to go into detail.
FV: Ah, we put the front wheel at the
rear.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) For Fréd and for James this
time. We got a media screening of the F1 movie last night and a couple of
little cameos in there for you. Fréd, you actually had a cameo with Tom in
the press conference. How was it filming those scenes and being part of the
Hollywood world?
FV: I'm looking for a new job!
Q: What were your
thoughts on being part of it? What was that process like?
FV: I only had
to say two words. It was not a huge experience, but it went pretty well.
Q: And Luke, do you want James’s thoughts on the movie as well?
JV:
The thing that impressed me was Fred’s two words, of all.
FV: And one
was Italian – “niente.”
JV: But it was—probably more—that they
integrated with us as though they were the team here. You have to remember,
for a lot of the scenes, they only had one shot—one take—and that was it.
We’re not going to go back to the start of the race and do it again. They
just had to pick up their imagery. And that’s what impressed me with it. If
you get involved in film, you realize they do about 40 takes. Even when we
do our own work, we do 40 takes. And they didn’t. They got it done on time
and did it right. It’s quite impressive.
Q: (Rodrigo França – Car
Magazine Brazil) Following up on that question for the three of you. Do you
think the F1 movie can bring more fans, as Drive to Survive has also reached
a new audience for Formula 1?
AK: Yeah. I think so. Because, I think for
lots of people who are just having a passing interest in motorsport, I think
that film is really immersive. I think onboard footage—we look at it all the
time—but for people who don’t watch it all the time, I think it’s really
quite immersive. And then racing scenes with the real footage and CGI,
etc.—it’s brilliantly merged together. So yeah, I think so. I think it’s
pretty exciting for fans who don’t see this all the time.
FV: I think you
can do the parallel with Netflix—that we will attract a new fan base with
the movie. And perhaps then, in the future, they will watch the races just
because they watched the movie before. And it’s also the target of this
story.
JV: Yeah. Same thing. I’m confident it will attract a new fan base
to the sport because it is authentic to Formula 1, but it’s a Hollywood take
on it. But it will involve a different audience—especially, I think, in the
US. And that’s exactly the whole purpose behind it: to bring eyeballs to our
sport that I love.
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) It’s actually for James
and Ayao. On the topic of the day with what Fréd was saying about Ferrari.
You’ve both been parts of teams in different roles before becoming team
principals. When there's speculation and media reporting that is negative
about the team, how much does it impact you and the work you're doing
internally, and the atmosphere within the team, in the way Fréd was saying
it does for Ferrari?
JV: I think the thing I’d put here, of all—I’ve
known Fréd for probably 20 years or so. Fred is an incredibly good leader.
And what you see him doing here in front of you today is he’s shouldering
all of this because that’s what we do, and that’s our job to do it. And his
point is actually valid. For me personally, it’s never caused me grief or
upset. But what I’ve seen it do is destroy individuals as a result of one
line that’s written by someone who may or may not know any details behind
it. So answering your question, it shows you what the power of words are—in
a positive and negative sense. But what I would say is I have all the
respect in the world for Fréd and what he is doing in Ferrari, because they
are competitive and they are moving forward. Simple as that.
AK: Yeah. I
guess it’s part of F1. These rumours—people like to talk about those things
when they haven’t got anything else to write about. So yeah, it does affect
the team to a certain extent. But I think when the team leader is there—I’ve
been with two different teams previously that had really good leaders—and
when communication internally is clear, then we have trust in them. So yes,
outside people can say whatever they want. I think true teams—they will be
fine.
Q: (Daniel Valente – The Score) Another question for Fréd. So
yesterday, Lewis and Charles were both very outspoken about their support
for you. I just want to know—can you talk about how much or what that means
to you to have that kind of public backing from both your drivers?
FV:
Their reaction—I can understand their reaction because we are working on a
day-to-day basis. We are working to reach a target, and we are working all
together. And it’s not about me. Again, I knew before. I knew perfectly that
I’m exposed. The issue is not the team principal because we are fully aware.
I think the issue in this kind of situation is more the people of the team.
And this is affecting me much more than my own position. You know what I
mean? At one stage, we have to consider that the people who are in every
single team on the grid—they are all working very hard. They are putting in
all of their energy. Sometimes they are making sacrifices for their family
and so on. And to put names like this on the paper—I think it’s very, very
harsh. You have to understand that when a journalist is saying “Ferrari will
recruit this name for this position,” there is someone already in that
position. And Sunday evening, the guy says, “Okay, tomorrow morning, I won’t
have a job anymore because if what is in the newspaper is true, I will have
someone in my position.” And it’s the same for all the people working under
that person. And we are in this situation on a daily basis now in Italy. And
too much is too much. Honestly, if they want to be successful, at one stage,
we also have to be able to work in a clean environment. And we are not in
that situation so far.
Q: Fréd, is there anything you can do as the
team principal to protect the team?
FV: Yeah. I’m going on Monday morning
to see the guys and to say, “Guys, it’s not true.” But I’m not a fireman at
the end of the day. It’s just a matter of respect. We are fully open with
them. That means if someone has to ask a question about recruitment or
whatever—either I will say no, I can’t speak, or yes. In this case, I would
have said no way, because the person that we were speaking about last year—I
had to Google the name of the guy to see the face of the guys. We are at
this point now—that they are able to spread a rumour about someone I never
met in my life. And consider that we are speaking about people. We are not
speaking about things. And I think everybody needs to have a bit of respect.
Q: (Alexis Bélanger-Champagne – La Presse Canadienne) Might be a bit of
a reach, but the F1 Canadian Grand Prix will be moved to late May next year.
I’m just curious—do you expect any difference, any impact? It might be just
a few degrees colder, but besides that, could that change anything for the
teams, with this change in calendar?
AK: I think even when it’s the same
time of year here, the weather is quite unstable. You can have a dry race,
wet race, really changeable conditions. So I’m sure teams are fine with it
being a different time of year. I don’t think it’s going to be drastically
different. But I think it’s very good for everyone to look at how they can
optimize travel logistics.
JV: I’ve had the pleasure of coming here in
winter. I definitely don’t want to race here in winter—it’s freezing cold.
But I think May is perfectly fine. The way they’ve done it makes sense from
a calendar perspective, just to make sure we’re not touring around the world
too much. I think it’ll be absolutely fine. I don’t think it would
dramatically—your question was—change the result. Not really. I think all of
us are pretty good now at adapting to warmer or colder [weather].
FV: No.
I just hope that it won’t make a huge change in terms of conditions—weather
conditions. I don’t think so. And for the calendar, it’s a good move. It
makes absolute sense to do it.
Q: (Simon Cremer – Radio Canada)
Question for all three of you. We’re approaching the halfway point of the
season, I believe. I was wondering—how would the balancing act between
focusing on performance this year as opposed to 2026 cars? I’m curious to
know how much that involves your day-to-day job, the three of you, as team
principals.
JV: I think you’ll find it’s probably different team by team.
For us, I’ve been very vocal about this. We pulled the car at the tunnel on
January 2nd on purpose. We’re here to make sure we have an opportunity. Next
year is basically a clean sheet of paper—you can redraw everything. There’s
no carryover. And for us as Williams, that’s a really good opportunity to
make sure we’re just digging out some of the other elements that we need to
put foundations in for and get it right. But that’s probably an exception,
not the rule. But for us, it’s a good reset opportunity.
FV: Yeah. I
think every single team has the same topic on the table now: to decide when
we have to switch completely to the next year’s project. For sure, every
single day in the wind tunnel on the next year’s project, we are making
perhaps ten times more improvement than on the current car. And it’s always
a difficult choice—but that’s life, and we knew before. From the beginning
of the season in the press conference, we were speaking about this. Due to
the circumstances and the situation in the championship, we will make
different choices.
AK: Yeah. Obviously, especially for small teams like
us, it’s a very significant challenge. But it’s the same for everyone—it’s
the name of the game. So, we are just getting on with it. But one thing
which is difficult is still the technical regulation is not completely
stable. So, you work on certain things, the regulation changes, then you
have to start again. So yeah. But again—it’s the same for everyone. But it’s
challenging. |
