Team reaction after qualifying in Melbourne (part 1)

Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Williams & Renault

By Franck Drui

27 March 2010 - 09:01
Team reaction after qualifying in (...)

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: A great result for the team. It’s obviously Mark’s home race here – but he got pole in Germany, so it’s kind of a revenge (laughs)! But, it’s a long race tomorrow. I think we made a good step with the car ahead of today’s qualifying. The final session was all about if it would rain or not, so we waited a little bit at the start. My first lap in Q3 was the quickest and it was spot on until the last three corners. I was on the edge through Turn 14, but then I lost a little bit in last corner going on to the main straight. It was a very good lap up until that point though and the result says it all. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

Mark Webber: I would prefer to be on pole position of course, but second is still a good result and it’s great for the team to have a one-two. It would be nice to be one place further up, but Seb did a good job.
It was a good battle – with about 800ths between us in the end. I wasn’t mega-concerned about the weather today, as it’s the same for everyone and whatever happens, happens! I think tomorrow will be enjoyable – but I would prefer a dry race, as the track can get slippery with intermittent conditions.

Christian Horner: It was a brilliant team qualifying performance today with great laps from both drivers to secure the front row. Sebastian also set a new track record for pole position.
Inclement weather looks as if it’s looming for tomorrow afternoon, but there’s no better place to start the race than from the front. Our strategy was slightly different to the other teams with our tyre choice in Q1 and Q2, but both drivers did excellent jobs and we’re in good shape for
Sunday.

Fabrice Lom (Renault): A super result, in fact the perfect one for qualifying. It was a very good performance, we have a fast car and good drivers. We’re really happy, but as we can see from the last race, the most important thing is to finish tomorrow with no problems. We let Red
Bull down at the last race with engine problems on both cars, so we will only enjoy it if we have no problems tomorrow and finish the race in the same positions.

Ferrari

Third and fifth places: that was the end result for Scuderia Ferrari in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso will start from third spot on the starting grid, just ahead of his team-mate, Felipe Massa, who posted the fifth fastest time.

Stefano Domenicali: We are satisfied with this result. We knew the Red Bulls were very quick, but we are not far off them. Fernando really drove a great qualifying, getting the most out of the car. Felipe struggled a bit to get the tyres working properly, but all the same he managed to get a good place. Tomorrow’s race looks like being very unpredictable. Traditionally at this track, the safety-car very often plays its part and I don’t think tomorrow’s race will be an exception to this rule. We will therefore need to be ready to deal with any eventuality. Furthermore, there is a question mark over the weather. For our part, we will try and bring home the best result we can: in a long and closely contested championship like this one, the key is to always score points.

Fernando Alonso: I am pleased with the way qualifying went. You always want to be on pole, but third place is still a good result. We knew the Red Bulls were very strong, but we are close to them and can count on having a good race pace. Our aim is to get to the finish, not making any mistakes and getting a good result, maybe making it to the podium. Of course I want to fight for the win but it is not worth taking risks as it is too important to bring home points. After yesterday’s free practice, we were not worried because we knew our work had only focussed on being ready for Sunday’s race. Anything can happen here and we must be ready for any eventuality. A new engine? Yes, it brings luck to change it…But joking apart, it was part of our engine management plan to have a new unit for this race.

Felipe Massa: Not the qualifying I was expecting, going into this Grand Prix. Ever since the temperature dropped, I have always struggled to find the best way of getting the tyres up to temperature, while yesterday morning for example, when it was hotter, the situation was much better. With today’s temperatures, I had no grip, which is not particularly encouraging. Let’s hope it’s a bit warmer tomorrow. In FP3 I really found it difficult, but come the end of qualifying I still managed to get a reasonable result. It’s definitely not ideal in terms of looking for a win, but all the same, I will try and bring home a good number of points. This race is very tough, partly because, as we have often seen in the past, anything can happen here.

Chris Dyer: We are quite pleased with this result, given that we came pretty close to getting the most out of the potential of our package. We still lack a little bit of performance to be ahead of the two Red Bulls, but nevertheless, we are in a good position for tomorrow’s race. After the difficulty in the last free practice session, Felipe did a good job in qualifying, managing to get a good position on the grid. Both cars will be starting from the clean side of the track, which could be an advantage. At the moment, the weather forecast for tomorrow is dry for the race, but we saw both yesterday and today that there is real chance of short showers. We must therefore be ready to deal with this eventuality, as well as making the most of any opportunities that might arise during a race that traditionally seems plenty of action.

McLaren Mercedes

Jenson Button : “After our strong performance yesterday, this morning the car didn’t work as well as we’d expected. We lacked grip, and it looks as though the cars ahead of us here have more downforce.

“Nevertheless, qualifying this afternoon was good. I felt pleased with the car on every lap except the final one in Q3. I don’t know whether it was the wind picking up, but I didn’t feel the car was working quite as well as it had in the first two sessions. I didn’t have the balance I’d had previously – there was a lot more understeer in the car – but it only cost me a tenth or two.

“So, the best lap we probably could have done was a 1m24.4s – which is still half a second off the pacesetters. We’re not there yet, but this is an improvement because we’re a lot closer to the front than we were in Bahrain.

“I’m happy with the performance of the team this weekend. We pretty much got the best out of the package we have at the moment.”

Lewis Hamilton : “Today was a surprise – I wasn’t expecting to be out in Q2. I felt I got as much as I could out of the car, but I just couldn’t get the grip from the tyres.

“On my first run in Q2, I was held up by traffic, so I wasn’t able to do a quick lap. I pitted early, got a clear lap, but still struggled to find time in the final sector – even with new tyres. I don’t know what the reason for that was.

“So I didn’t have a great day, but it’s encouraging to see Jenson doing such a good job. Hopefully, we’ll both have a good race tomorrow.”

Martin Whitmarsh : “Jenson performed strongly in qualifying this afternoon, and a second-row grid position is the result. With good race pace, he ought to be able to score reasonably heavily tomorrow.

“Lewis put in a decent lap in Q1, but never felt comfortable with his car in Q2 and consequently failed narrowly to squeeze into Q3. That was a bit of a surprise to all of us, Lewis included, but we know what a competitive individual he is and there’s therefore no reason why he, too, shouldn’t have a good race tomorrow.”

Mercedes GP

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified their MGP W01 cars in sixth and seventh positions today ahead of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne tomorrow.

Under grey skies with cooler temperatures than during today’s practice, the Mercedes GP Petronas pair progressed easily through Q1 with two runs on the prime tyre, and through Q2 using the softer option tyre for a further two runs.

With rain threatening in Q3, Nico and Michael went out right at the start of the session. Running on the option tyre, both were unable to find a clean lap with Nico making a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes and Michael caught up in some traffic. Their quickest laps put Nico in P6 and Michael in P7 and whilst both drivers came back into the pits to switch to the prime tyre for a final run, they were unable to improve their times.

Nico Rosberg: It was a disappointing qualifying today as I had made really good progress during practice with my engineers but didn’t do the best job when it mattered. I made a couple of mistakes on my best lap on the option tyres which cost me three or four tenths. There was more in the car today so it’s always frustrating when you don’t get the most out of it. It’s not typical for me to make such mistakes in qualifying. But that’s the way it goes sometimes and sixth position is still a good place to start. We should be stronger in the race and anything can happen tomorrow.

Michael Schumacher: We had a reasonable qualifying session today and I am ok with the outcome even if I was a bit handicapped by traffic, especially on my final quick lap. We made some changes with the car after practice this morning which did not work out perfectly. But in general I would guess the ranking that we see now reflects the situation well and our performance is probably the maximum for our car at the moment. Anyhow, we still have a lot in hand for tomorrow’s race, and I am on the clean side of the grid for the start. As we all know, a lot can happen over the course of a race.

Ross Brawn: Whilst we weren’t necessarily able to compete with the top three, I thought we might have done a bit better today, and certainly be fighting for fourth and fifth places. We didn’t really seem to get smooth runs and whilst it’s the same for everybody with the conditions and traffic, the little things just didn’t quite come together for us today. The car is good so we’re a little disappointed but we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to find some time to compete with the guys in the top two or three positions and that’s our objective.

Norbert Haug : It was not quite the optimum result that we could have achieved today but better than fourth place would not have been possible. We know that there is more work to be done in order to improve our technical package and catch up to the Red Bulls and Alonso’s Ferrari which were out of reach. This will happen step by step and it will take some time. Nico and Michael did a good job within the possibilities that we currently have and are split by less than half a tenth of a second. We will try to do a better job tomorrow and improve our positions during the race.

Williams Cosworth

Rubens Barrichello improved upon his Bahrain qualifying performance at Australia’s Albert Park street circuit today as he eased into Q3 and drove his FW32 to P8 in the top ten shoot out. Nico Hulkenberg’s efforts were somewhat thwarted by traffic during his debut qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix leaving him to line up in 15th place on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Rubens Barrichello: Qualifying went quite well for me and I’m happy with the way things went. We went through Q1 and then I put a good lap in during Q2. I was pleased with my lap in Q3 but there was a bit more there which we missed out on due to traffic. I think we can achieve a better result tomorrow than we did in Bahrain. Eighth is a nice result, but I know everyone in the team aims a lot higher. I’m sure we will get there, but right now that is the limit of the car.

Nico Hulkenberg: I’m disappointed with qualifying and expected more. The target was obviously to get into the top ten, but I didn’t get the lap together and this is the result. This is my first qualifying here; it’s not an easy circuit to learn and it’s very narrow and quite bumpy. It will be difficult to get into the points tomorrow from P15, but you never know what could happen if the weather turns.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: That was a good effort from Rubens today to qualify in P8, even if he lost time in traffic on his fastest lap. We only had enough tyres for one run in Q3 and decided to send Rubens out early to avoid any potential rain. Nico struggled to manage the traffic during Q2 so he wasn’t able to put in an ultimate lap. We’re looking forward to a strong race tomorrow, regardless of the weather.

Renault

Robert Kubica: ”I think I got the maximum that was possible from qualifying today. I had to push hard because the car was not easy to drive and I think we lost some performance in the colder conditions. For the race tomorrow the weather could play a big role, but I don’t care if it’s wet or dry. Hopefully we can fight for some good points.”

Vitaly Petrov: “I’m disappointed not to make it out of Q1 because the car has been competitive all weekend. Qualifying is a new experience for me and I’m still learning: it’s very busy out on track, it was difficult to get a clear lap and I didn’t put my three best sectors together when it counted on my final run. The times show I had the pace to be in Q2, so of course I’m disappointed not to have reached my potential. The car didn’t not feel as well balanced today, either, in the different track conditions. It will be a tough race starting so far down the field and the track is narrow so it’s difficult to overtake, but I will try my best to get a good result tomorrow.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “After a promising practice yesterday, today did not go as we expected, which is partly down to the cooler conditions. It’s disappointing for Vitaly who is still learning about F1 even though he has shown that he has the speed. He was on a different tyre choice to Robert in Q1 and had good pace, but at the end of the lap he was losing grip and made a mistake. Robert’s car was not as competitive as yesterday, but he got the most from it to make it into the top ten, which is a good result. We hope there will be a lot of action in the race and we know that our car can be competitive in the damp. So anything can happen.”

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: “Robert’s ninth place was as good as we could hope for from today’s qualifying session after a difficult practice session this morning. We seem to have lost some of our competitiveness overnight with both drivers feeling the cars had less grip and more oversteer than yesterday. Robert did a credible job to qualify ninth and had a fairly straightforward session. Vitaly made a small mistake on his second run in Q1 and unfortunately didn’t make it through to Q2.

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