Team reaction after qualifying in Silverstone (part 1)

Red Bull Renault

Sebastian Vettel: “Silverstone is unbelievable. The corner combinations, I can only say it again and again, they’re so much fun – especially in qualifying. Our car obviously works very well in these sorts of corners, it’s so great, the speeds we reach here – I think we’re all a bit crazy, but it’s so much fun. The new section is also good, especially Turns 11 and 12 where you come into the new section with a big bump. I really like this track and fortunately our car always works very well here. It was a tight session today. In Q2 I wasn’t perfectly happy – I think I was pushing too hard and tried a bit too much, so for Q3, I went a bit more conservative.
I still had to push and I had two strong laps; in the end we got the pole, which is the key for tomorrow.”

Mark Webber: “That was pretty good; we did the best we could. It was a very tight fight with Sebastian again, unfortunately he got me, but we’ve got a long Grand Prix tomorrow. I have to thank the guys, they’ve
absolutely buried themselves to get my car ready for this weekend and have done a great job. We’re at the front and some of our main rivals have had a more difficult day, so it’s interesting. Seb and I ran different
spec front wings here for qualifying, but we’re still evaluating which is the best to have, I don’t think there’s a huge amount in them. The effort that goes into any GP is unique, but the English support is massive.
There’s a big industry here, Formula One has been here for decades and that’s reflected in people’s passion and desire to be here.”

Christian Horner: “A brilliant performance by the team today – both drivers were excellent, there was really nothing to choose between the two of them. After this morning’s incident we only had one new
spec front wing available for qualifying, which Adrian was very keen to run; not necessarily because it was better, but because it offered a new direction to look at. Therefore it came to me to make a difficult decision
as to which car it went on. A situation like that is not ideal and it doesn’t happen very often. It went to Sebastian based on Championship position, his performance in P3 and the drivers’ feedback on the different front wings from yesterday. In the end it was a great team performance to be first and second for tomorrow’s race in front of so many members of our factory which is based 20 minutes away. The drivers
were very, very closely matched through all three sectors of the qualifying and were quick at different parts of the circuit. I’m really pleased for the team to be starting its local race at the front of the grid.“

Fabrice Lom (Renault): “The team’s ninth pole position out of a possible ten this year is great. We have a front row lock up at Silverstone, which is a track that’s full of history. It’s a very good result for us;
it’s the local race for many people from the Red Bull Renault team and we’re very happy to offer this front row to our friends at Red Bull in Milton Keynes. Now we need to confirm this tomorrow and try to
reproduce what we did last year with a perfect one two.”

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso: "We knew that at this type of circuit, the Red Bulls would be out of reach, but we managed to get ahead of the rest of the pack. We are aware we still need to up our performance level but it was important to get a positive indication and I think that, thanks to all the work we have done in the past weeks on the development of the car, we have managed to do that. On my final run, I had traffic in sector three - I think it might have been Michael – but even with a clear track ahead of me, I definitely would not have improved my grid position. Up until now, the weekend has gone well but now we must tackle the part that counts, the race: we must try and finish on the podium, because we need to score a lot of points. In terms of pace, we have proved to be competitive and we must try and at least put the Red Bulls under some pressure to ensure they don’t have an easy time of getting the win. In two days we have seen how easy it is to lose precious time through small errors and this circuit is pretty tough on the cars. This morning’s problem? There was a slight water leak because of a problem with a pipe, but it was all fixed in the break before qualifying."

Felipe Massa: "I am pleased with the performance of my car which was competitive today. Unfortunately, I always struggled a lot in terms of getting grip from the tyres on the first lap on a new set, as was especially obvious in Q3. I would say that here we saw the same situation that arose in Melbourne and to a greater extent in Barcelona. A shame, as I could have got a better result. I remain very confident for the race: yesterday, when we had a heavy fuel load on board, we managed to maintain a good pace and I hope that tomorrow, it will be even better. I plan to make up some places compared to my grid position, although I am aware it will not be easy. Despite the modifications, in my opinion, the track does not produce many overtaking opportunities: let’s see what we can do."

Stefano Domenicali: "We can be reasonably satisfied with today’s outcome. Fernando had a great qualifying, getting all the potential out of the car. A shame for Felipe, who could have finished higher, although his chances of having a good race are still intact. Looking to tomorrow, clearly our aim is to get a podium finish. We start behind what looks like the untouchable Red Bulls, but several times this year we have seen our car prove to be more competitive in the race than in qualifying. It will be important to get a good start and, as usual in fact, reliability remains the key factor. Usually in qualifying, you see all the potential in terms of performance and for us it is encouraging to see that on a track whose characteristics definitely do not favour our car, the extensive work of the past few weeks is reaping its rewards: now we must transform that into results."

Chris Dyer: "We had a few minor problems this morning on Fernando’s car, because of a water loss: it was down to a leaking pipe which was promptly repaired, but it meant our Spanish driver was unable to try the soft tyres before qualifying. In any case, it would not have changed much in terms of his grid position. Fernando did a great job, getting the maximum out of his car, while Felipe was unable to do the same, mainly because of a lack of grip: a shame as maybe he could have been a few places higher up the order. We knew the Red Bulls would be strong here, but we are happy to be ahead of our other rivals. Both drivers start from the clean side of the track and so we hope to be able to make up some places at the start and then make the most of our race pace and maybe improve still further through strategy and how we carry out the pit stops. From what we saw yesterday, we should not have any problems with the tyres, neither the hard nor the soft."

McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: “Fourth position makes me happy like you wouldn’t believe! And I’m so proud of my team. They’ve been pushing so hard all year, but in the last couple of weeks, they’ve pushed longer and harder than ever to get the upgrade package here.

“The new parts are an improvement, but we just weren’t able to get them all to work properly yesterday. And while that meant we had to take most of them off last night, the team still did a remarkable job to get us ready for qualifying this afternoon.

“We knew we were some way off the Red Bulls on sheer pace, so my grid position was really down to getting as good a lap as possible around here.

“And, honestly, I reckon this is the best lap I’ve ever done – and it’s down to all the fans around here: the support around this track is like nowhere else. British race fans are the best by far. I had to nail that lap as if my life depended on it – and I don’t know how I managed to get so far up the grid.

“I’m so happy. The guys in front are faster than us, but this race isn’t over.”

Jenson Button: “This morning the car was really good, so it felt like there was something wrong this afternoon.

“I don’t yet know if there’s an issue, but the car felt very strange. I had to take enormous amounts of front wing out, and I don’t know why. We had a similar problem finding a good balance on Friday.

“We removed the blown diffuser overnight, and I’m comfortable that that was the right decision. It wouldn’t have been right to run it here. But we’ve still got some aero upgrades on the car – a new front wing – and they’re working really well.

“While it’s true that we didn’t have too much practice with the exhaust system, things were reasonably good in P3, and I still felt like we could do a reasonable job in qualifying this afternoon. So P14 is very disappointing.”

Martin Whitmarsh,Team principal: “With extremely limited testing opportunities and a big upgrade package to develop, we were always going to be up against it this weekend – and so it proved. Nonetheless, I want to pay tribute to the indefatigable work ethic of all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Everyone has made a truly enormous effort – and, although we had hoped to qualify rather more impressively than we did here at our home grand prix, everyone did an absolutely fantastic job when you consider that we found ourselves on the back foot this morning with an untried configuration to take into qualifying.

“Moreover, Lewis drove superbly this afternoon to record a seriously impressive second-row grid slot, and will be pushing as hard as ever to convert that starting position into a significant points haul tomorrow afternoon.

“As for Jenson, it’s a pity that we didn’t manage to supply him with a car in which he could feel comfortable today – but, like Lewis, he never gives up and on race day he’ll be giving no quarter in his attempts to score as many points as he possibly can.”

Mercedes GP

In qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone today, Mercedes GP showed an improved performance from recent races with Nico Rosberg achieving fifth place on the grid and Michael Schumacher in tenth position after a mistake on his quick lap in Q3 compromised his chances of finishing higher up the field.

Nico Rosberg: “I’m really pleased with fifth place today and it shows good progress after being so far back in Valencia at the last race. This is a positive step and important for us to know that we really understood what the problems were and how efficiently we have been able to turn the situation around. Everyone at the factory has worked really hard and this gives us a great chance for the race tomorrow at one of our home circuits. My lap was good today and it’s nice to be fighting back up there towards the front again. I’m looking forward to the race and if I get a good start, then we have every reason to expect a strong result.”

Michael Schumacher: “Clearly I am disappointed after today’s qualifying as I couldn’t get my lap together in Q3. After the second session which was pretty good, I wasn’t able to maximise my performance and I am obviously unhappy about my grid position. I made a small mistake on my first quick lap so I slowed down to give the tyres the possibility to work again for the second fast lap. But there wasn’t much more to come and so I pushed harder and therefore made some mistakes. Now I will have to work hard for the race tomorrow which will be difficult from where I am starting as overtaking here is not really possible. I have to do a good start and see how far I can get. I will certainly try to make the most out of it.”

Ross Brawn: “Nico did a very good job today and his fifth place puts us in a decent position for the race. Michael looked quick after Q2 and we were expecting an equally strong Q3 however he made a mistake on his lap and unfortunately that was it. But we saw today what Michael is capable of and that’s encouraging for the future. This is an important weekend for the team as we focus on consolidating our position and today probably finds us in our natural position in the order right now. We have a fantastic team and I am pleased that they have had some modest reward today from the commitment and hours of hard work that went into our upgrades. Of course the race is what counts so we will wait and see what happens tomorrow.”

Norbert Haug: “A step forward compared to our performance at the last race in Valencia. The gap to the best placed ‘non Red Bulls’ is not too big today and Nico extracted everything possible from our car. It’s a pity for Michael who was in fifth place in Q2 and in a position to repeat that result in Q3 if it had not been for a slight mistake on his only run. However Michael is a good starter and can make up places. For Nico, a respectable result is possible tomorrow and this would be the best reward for all of our hard-working team members at Brackley and Brixworth. Many of them will watch their home race from the grandstands in Silverstone hoping for a good result for Mercedes GP.”

Renault

Robert Kubica: It hasn’t been the easiest weekend so far and we have been struggling with the overall feeling and pace of the car. We’ve been changing lots of things, but it has been difficult to put everything together. It felt like a great result just to get into Q3, so I’m very happy to qualify in P6 and pleased with the lap time – especially because, on the first lap of my final run, I had a big moment in turn 1 and nearly lost the car at 270km/h! Looking to the race, we know how difficult it is to overtake at Silverstone. As usual, the start, the first lap and the pit stops will be the crucial points in the race.

Vitaly Petrov: At the start of the session everything seemed quite good: the lap time was there and the speed was there. After my first run in Q2, the engine cut out in the pit lane, and my mechanics did a fantastic job to get me back out before the end of the session. But on my final lap in Q2, I didn’t warm up the tyres very well so I need to analyse the data from my lap. For the race tomorrow we know how difficult it is to overtake here, but as usual I will try my best.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: Today’s qualifying session was a mixed one for us. Robert drove superbly to deliver the perfect lap on his final set of tyres in Q3 and his sixth place is an excellent result. Once again we are pleased to be ahead of one Ferrari and one Mercedes. Vitaly’s session was
more complicated because there was a fuel pick-up problem at the end of his first run in Q2, which cut the engine and put him under pressure for the rest of the session. His result was not what we were hoping for, especially after an excellent lap in Q1 and the speed he had shown earlier in the weekend. I hope tomorrow he can show some good race pace and make up some positions.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: This weekend hasn’t been the most straightforward for us, but it’s difficult to pinpoint where we are struggling. Overall I think Robert’s sixth place is pretty much where we deserved to be, but it was a real fight to get him up there. He and his engineers did an excellent job in Q3 and managed to get the best out of the tyres, which brought him up to P6. Obviously P16 is disappointing for Vitaly, but we had a fuel pick-up problem during Q2. The mechanics
did a great job to get the car turned around in time for another run, but it wasn’t enough to get him into Q3. It’s a real shame for Vitaly because he had matched Robert this morning and did a strong job in Q1.

Williams Cosworth

The AT&T Williams team capitalised on an intense two days of practice validating a significant
package of car upgrades with a strong performance from Rubens Barrichello who will start tomorrow’s race from P8. Rubens’ team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg, had a more coloured session this afternoon, struggling with car performance and unfortunately baulked on his final pair of timed laps at the end of Q2. Without a clean run on option tyres, he could do no better than 13th.

Rubens Barrichello: Top eight in qualifying is a good effort by the team. We still have to improve but today’s result is satisfying and probably the best we could hope for. I hope we can get into the top six tomorrow. The cars are all very close, and there aren’t too many overtaking opportunities around the lap, so it’s going to be a good battle. The upgrades are all working well, but they need more development if we are to move higher up the field.

Nico Hulkenberg: Traffic really destroyed qualifying for me today. As I was going into the first corner on a quick lap in Q2, Liuzzi exited the pitlane under blue flags but didn’t move out of my way. That ruined my lap from the outset as I couldn’t get past him. I also struggled with the car today. I don’t know why and I’ll be looking into that with my engineers now.

Sam Michael, Technical Director: That was a good qualifying by Rubens. It was a shame that Nico didn’t go through to Q3. All the new parts have improved the cars’ pace but, as usual, we need to keep working hard on the whole car package. Our focus is now on the race and scoring points tomorrow.