Team reaction after qualifying in Silverstone (part 2)

Sauber Ferrari

Pedro de la Rosa achieved his best qualifying result of the season so far when he finished ninth in Silverstone. It was the fourth time this year the team had made it into the top ten qualifying with one car, and for the first time it was De la Rosa. Team mate, Kamui Kobayashi, qualified 12th for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.

Pedro de la Rosa: “I am a very happy man today. It was not only my best qualifying this year, but also the best Saturday because in free practice this morning my car was very good. We learned a lot during Friday’s practice sessions and made a lot of changes, aerodynamically as well as mechanically. Now my car is very consistent. Ahead of the weekend we thought we would be quite good here because of the high speed corners, and it has turned out we are. It is good to match expectations. The new parts we took to Valencia worked and the small steps we have for Silverstone are an improvement too.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “The overall performance of the car has definitely improved, but today I found it extremely difficult to put a good lap together. I got it right in one corner, but wrong in the next. Sometimes the grip was there, sometimes it wasn’t. I struggled from a lack of consistency. The race is a different story and from 12th on the grid there is certainly a good chance to score points.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “For the first time this season our lap times in qualifying have been competitive and this certainly is pleasing.”

James Key, Technical Director: “We had anticipated this track would suit our car better than some others, but we needed to work a lot after we arrived here. The engineers did an excellent job to get the car’s balance right. In the morning session you could see we had made a good step forward, so our target was to get to Q3. It was a brilliant drive from Pedro. He put in a superb lap for his best qualifying result so far this season. Kamui also did very well coming so close to Q3, and he just missed it by a tenth of a second. We will now concentrate on the race tomorrow and hope to score some more points.”

Force India Mercedes

The Force India F1 Team will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix from 11th and 20th* positions with Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi respectively following a tough qualifying session round the modified Silverstone Circuit.
Adrian and Tonio eased into Q2, with Adrian posting a promising fourth quickest time in Q1. In the second segment however both struggled to replicate the grip on the softer tyre compound and missed the cut for Q3 by only a couple of tenths.

*After the session Tonio was however handed a five place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg and will start 20th.

Adrian Sutil: We have had a good car the whole weekend but we struggled a bit with the tyre grip today so the result is a little bit disappointing in the end. In Q1 I could set a good time on the hard tyre and it looked really good for a Q3 slot but then in Q2 I just couldn’t get a good lap any more and couldn’t go any quicker. We need to investigate why we couldn’t go faster on the softer tyre but it’s not the end of the world and P11 is a good position to start. The top 10 is of course the goal for the weekend, so it’s important to finish the race, then anything is possible.

Tonio Liuzzi: We need to work to understand why we were not so fast this session as we believed a Q3 position was possible with both cars based on the performance in practice. In Q1 it went OK and the balance in both the high and slow speed corners was quite good. Unfortunately I only got one flying lap on my first run and then on the second couldn’t improve. I think P12 or higher was there, but it can happen. We’ll now start 20th because of the penalty - we thought that we had to keep Nico [Hulkenberg] behind and I didn’t realise he was on a hot lap. From there it’s not going to be easy but there are overtaking spots here at least, plus the incentive of racing in front of our home crowd.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: It’s a shame we couldn’t produce a better qualifying result at our home race this weekend, but we shouldn’t be too downcast by the starting positions. As we saw in Valencia, a lot is still possible from these positions and we could still yet get a good haul of points. Both drivers couldn’t quite get the optimum lap but our performance in the earlier part of the weekend shows that the pace is there. We’ve gone well at Silverstone before and the drivers feel confident round here so we’ve got to keep focussed right till the end.

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Sebastien Buemi: “Q1 went well, but I am a little bit disappointed about Q2, because I was hoping to do better, maybe thirteenth or fourteenth. On my final run, I chose to use the Prime tyre, which is not the best way to go quickly, as you should be able to make the most of the Option, but today the car did not allow me to be significantly faster on the softer tyre, so we decided to try the Prime, after it worked well on my first run in Q1. Now we will have to see if we can do something on the strategy front to try and get something out of tomorrow’s race. You could feel that the wind had increased a lot from this morning, especially in the first corner, but that was the same for everyone. I think we have lost out a bit in terms of performance compared to the other cars around us, but the team is working hard to catch up.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “I had a lot of trouble with heavy traffic this afternoon and effectively, I only got one clean lap. It is a shame, as I am sure that without the traffic I could have got through comfortably to Q2 as the pace was easily there in the car, but I did not have enough fuel to do another lap and there would not have been time to go out again after I came into the pits. The last three qualifying sessions have not gone very well for me, but let’s see if we can come up with a good strategy for tomorrow and have a better afternoon. I am staying calm about it, because these situations happen now and again and I have to keep looking forward.”

Giorgio Ascanelli: “There’s not much to say about this qualifying: we were simply not fast enough and it is down to the car as the drivers did what they could. I expected us to be outpaced here and we are pretty much running at our maximum capacity. However, we hope to have something good coming in the next race or two, which will allow us to move forward. We had two good races in Canada and Valencia, even if we were already losing ground to our nearest rivals, but at those tracks, our drivers were able to make a difference, but that was not possible here.”

Lotus Cosworth

Lotus Racing outclassed the other new teams in Saturday’s qualifying session at the British Grand Prix, Heikki Kovalainen finishing 19th and Jarno Trulli 21st, after an exciting session which showed the team’s upgrade package has kept them at the front of the pack chasing the midfield teams. The team enjoyed a royal visit just before qualifying, HRH Prince Andrew The Duke of York stopping by the Lotus Racing garage and being shown around by Team Principal Tony Fernandes and Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne.

Heikki Kovalainen: “I’m pleased because I’m in the position I targeted for qualifying, but even though we’re the fastest of the new teams, that wasn’t my best qualifying session this year. It was pretty tricky out there today – it was windier than in FP3 and I found the balance wasn’t quite where it had been this morning. Nevertheless, we’re in a good position and good shape for tomorrow. The car feels good on the heavier fuel load, so I think we’ll be ok. I also want to say that Jarno did a great job out there – to be within half a second after the bad luck he’s had all weekend is great, and I hope we can get both cars home tomorrow. That’s the main goal, so let’s see what happens.”

Jarno Trulli: “I’m pretty happy with my result to be honest – I managed to learn the circuit very quickly, almost having to do so during qualifying as the problems I had on Friday and Saturday meant I’ve had very little time on track! Qualifying was the first time I managed to really push the car, as a hydraulics problem had cut short FP3, so, overall, I’m happy and my position is better than I expected.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “I have mixed feelings after qualifying. Again we had some mechanical problems with Jarno this morning, which meant that going into qualifying he had only completed 12 laps over the whole weekend on the new circuit layout, so he had a very difficult task in front of him and did a good job to be as close in time to his team mate as he was.

“Heikki had traffic on both his runs, which was a shame as he could have got a little more out of the car had he had a clear run, but he was ahead of the other new teams so that’s a positive. Overall it’s been quite a difficult weekend so far but we’re looking forward to the race tomorrow and are focusing on getting both cars to the finish.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “We did as well as we could have expected with not a lot of running this weekend, but well done to Heikki who probably could have gone faster if he had not hit so much traffic. Jarno did exceptionally well, having only run a few laps all weekend, and that’s what his pace, experience and knowledge gives us. It was great to see the Lotus Racing flags in the crowd, and a lot of green and yellow shirts and caps. Tomorrow, hopefully, we can make them proud, bring two cars home and put on a show worthy of the efforts of the team.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

Virgin Racing enjoyed a positive Qualifying session today in preparation for their debut home Grand Prix at Silverstone tomorrow.

Slightly cooler temperatures had prevailed for this morning’s free practice session. Talk was mainly of bumps and kerbs, both of which caused Timo problems; the bumps affecting his throttle sensor and the impact from the kerbs resulting in damage to his front wing. Lucas was more fortunate, being able to run through his programme and compare the prime and option tyres. He finished 20th in the session, Timo was 25th after only being able to complete six laps.

Qualifying was the most dramatic yet for the team. An extra front wing assembly was delivered to the circuit only minutes before the start of the session, but Timo was straight on the pace and continually traded times with Heikki Kovalainen on his first set of Option tyres. Lucas too was running well and it was clear that the honour of fastest new team was going to be hotly contested. Timo threw down the gauntlet but was pipped by 0.375s in the dying sessions. Timo was classified 20th and Lucas 22nd. It was a great performance by the team and a good reward for all of the effort over the last two days.

Timo Glock: “It has been quite a difficult weekend leading up to Qualifying. We experienced a lot of technical problems throughout Free Practice and I couldn’t do any proper set-up work. This morning I had a problem with the throttle pedal and I didn’t have any proper running on the Option tyre, so we went pretty blind into Qualifying in terms of the set-up. In the end I was quite happy with the car, even though it still isn’t fully fine-tuned. However my two Qualifying laps were really good and I’m very pleased to be ahead of Lucas despite the difficulties. We’re also closer to Lotus, having beaten Jarno and being only two or three tenths behind Heikki. It is really positive for the Team and shows our aero package really works. With an easier weekend I think we would have been closer to them. We now have to wait and see how the race goes for us but I’m looking forward to a good fight with Lotus.”

Lucas di Grassi: “I think we improved the car a lot since the last race. It feels much better and I’m looking forward to the Race tomorrow. For Qualifying we didn’t achieve the best lap possible because I wasn’t able to put a lap together and there is more to come from the car. The positive is that we are much closer to Lotus and our upgrades are proven to be exactly as we expected so I’m pleased.”

Nick Wirth, Technical Director: “That was fun! It’s been tough waiting for this moment, and to be in a good qualifying fight has certainly lifted the whole team. Lucas continued his great string of consistent and fast performances and the work that he and his engineers have done this weekend have been very valuable for the team. We aren’t quite there on car weight with Lucas’s chassis which is costing him a few tenths, but we’ll get there soon. It certainly hasn’t been anywhere near a smooth enough weekend on Timo’s car and we got another new front wing on his car with minutes to spare before qualifying. Frankly, he did a fantastic job considering his lack of running this weekend and that’s great for him. For the team, this session marks a clear step forward in performance where we have caught up Lotus and pulled further away from HRT, and it couldn’t be a more public validation of our digital development process. We’ll keep our heads down and focus on another strong two-car finish in front of our fans, friends and families.”

HRT F1 Cosworth

Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team, had a day without technical issues at its tenth race of its history at the legendary Silverstone circuit. The Spanish team wants to show its support of the Spanish football team in tomorrow’s world cup final by putting a “Vamos España” sticker on both cars. Karun Chandhok qualified 23rd with a best lap time of 1.36.576 and his team mate Sakon Yamamoto is starting from position 24 (1.36.968) into tomorrow’s 52 laps race. Before, in the morning session, everything worked well. The Indian (22nd) clocked a best lap time of 1.36.286 and the Japanese was 24th (1.37.178).

Dr Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “It was a difficult day for us but everyone in the team did a great job. The changing crosswinds had effects on the car balance. In qualifying, we had a small balance problem on the rear end of Sakon Yamamoto’s car which didn’t allow us to go quicker. Karun Chandhok was unlucky on his second outing when he was disturbed by traffic. Otherwise he could have done a quicker lap. For Sakon it is not easy to start into the season without having raced since 2007. There are many small details like how to use or heat the tyres that he has to learn about. But Sakon is improving every lap and as there are 52 laps to go in the race tomorrow, he can show a good performance. All in all, we could work on the set-up for the race and are confident, to fight for positions with the other teams on Sunday.”

Karun Chandhok: “I had quite a messy run with traffic which was really frustrating. We lost about four tenths on the first run when I was in traffic on my quickest lap. Then on the second run, I had a lot of traffic on the out lap and couldn’t get the tyres in the window. It’s a shame because we had the potential to go at least half a second faster. Considering that I was faster this morning in FP3 I think I could have been quicker without the traffic. It’s going to be a long hard race tomorrow with the high loads on the tyres and the bumps and we’ll do the best job we can."

Sakon Yamamoto: “Yesterday, it was a memorial day for me in my life being back in Formula 1 on my birthday. I am very pleased about the qualifying result even though it was a bit difficult because of changing wind directions. I like this circuit because it is very challenging for the driver and the new track layout is also quite interesting. We expected to go a bit quicker but the car balance was slightly changing compared to the morning session. We will have to find it out for tomorrow. I am looking forward to the race and I am going to do as best as I could to give something back to the team.”