Team reaction after race in Interlagos (part 1)

Sebastian Vettel: “We are the 2010 Constructors’ Champions! Regards to everyone here and back in Milton Keynes, it’s their achievement – we are one team and they can be very, very proud of what they have accomplished today. It has been a pleasure for me so far this year to drive that car. We have had ups and downs and many have given us a hard time, sometimes right and sometimes not, but we are always on the edge trying
to make the car quicker, which is so good. We are always pushing to get updates, even when they only offer a little bit extra. Everyone matters in this team and I’m proud of them and also of myself today – we had a straightforward race, no issues and we were able to control it. There are a busy few days before the next race, but I think back in Milton Keynes and here in Brazil, there will be a couple of drinks tonight.”

Mark Webber: “Today is a sensational day for the team – for everyone in Milton Keynes, in Red Bull and for all our suppliers – the list goes on and on. We have won the Constructors’ and done it with a dominant one-two finish after a tough weekend in Korea. So many people have worked so hard for this, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, Peter Prodromou, Rob Marshall, the boys in the race shop, the race bays… the list is endless – they all know who they are and it’s a credit to all of them. We’ve had everything thrown at us this year – right-height systems, flexi wings – and at the end of the day we’ve won, which is a very big achievement. Looking to the Drivers’ Championship I took a few points off Fernando today, so it’s still all to play for in Abu Dhabi. The team’s philosophy is that we race and we will work to that. Seb deserved the win today – it was a close fight. Both of us need to finish ahead of Fernando in Abu Dhabi, so let’s see what happens there.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal: “This is an unbelievable result. In six years this team has come from a team that no-one took seriously – that everyone thought was a party team – to the 2010 Formula One Constructors’ Champions. We have finished ahead of teams with far more experience and heritage than ourselves – we took them on and we won. Thanks to the tremendous dedication of every single team member, to the incredible support from Red Bull and to the vision and unfaltering commitment from Mr. Mateschitz. It’s a very proud day for everyone in the team and for everyone within Red Bull to
have won the 2010 Formula One Constructors’ Championship – and to do it in such dominant style, with our fourth one-two finish of the season, is very special. We’ve assembled a great group whose collective commitment and effort has delivered this result. Six and half years ago Mr. Mateschitz had a vision and today we have fulfilled it, it is an unbelievable feeling.”

Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: “A big, big wow – it’s a
historic day for Red Bull Renault. We have won this first title for the team and it’s a big reward for all the hard work we have done. Congratulations to everyone at Red Bull, at the Renault factory in Viry- Chatillon, and to everybody in Mechachrome who have helped us to win this title. We now look to the Drivers’ Championship, but before that we need to enjoy ourselves and to celebrate, congratulations to everyone.”

Scuderia Ferrari takes away fifteen points from the Brazilian Grand Prix, thanks to a third place for Fernando Alonso, while Felipe Massa finished fifteenth. Thanks to this result, Fernando continues to lead the Drivers’ championship, while the Constructors’ title is now out of reach for the Scuderia.

Stefano Domenicali: “First of all, I want to congratulate Red Bull Racing and Renault for taking the Constructors’ Championship title, which is a very important achievement. We said the Drivers’ title would go down to the final race and we will now arrive in Abu Dhabi with Fernando currently heading the classification. We knew it would be a hard task to bring home the title, as our main rivals are very strong and they demonstrated that once again this afternoon. Now we face eight crucial days. We know what we have to do and we will prepare everything with the maximum attention to detail: each one of us knows we have to give a hundred percent at our specific tasks and, maybe even a little bit more. As for the race, I think Fernando did the most he could after yesterday’s qualifying: his opening laps were exceptional and he managed to pass first Hamilton and then Hulkenberg in decisive fashion, but without taking excessive risks. Then he had to manage his race and he did that in impeccable fashion, even after the Safety Car, when the situation could have turned out to be very tricky. Felipe was unlucky at his pit stop, when a problem in fitting the front right meant he had to come straight back in for another tyre change. That was a shame as he could have finished in a good position. Lastly, I would like to thank the Brazilian crowd for their continued support: going into the race there was talk of the atmosphere being a bit tense for Ferrari. In fact there was nothing of the sort, confirming the great passion and sporting spirit of the fans in this country.”

Felipe Massa: “Everything happened to me today and it is a real shame that I was unable to obtain the result that was within my grasp, even after yesterday’s qualifying and by that I mean a good finish. When I went back out on track after the first stop I immediately felt that something was strange with the right front wheel and I had to come back to the pits immediately to change tyres again. From then on, my race was pretty much over. Towards the end, the Safety Car presented me with an opportunity and in fact, I managed to make up a few places. Then came the collision with Buemi which knocked me back again and, with the cars that had to lap me, several times I lost contact with the drivers I was fighting for position. When I had a clear track ahead of me, I managed to do competitive lap times, which confirms that the potential was there. I would have liked to have been fighting it out at the front here, but it wasn’t possible: I will try and make up for it in Abu Dhabi at the final race. We still have a very important target to reach and we will do our utmost to succeed in that.”

Fernando Alonso: “All things considered, I am pleased with this result. We have only lost three points to our closest rival and, given how things turned out yesterday in qualifying, it went well: if this morning, I had been told it would finish like this, I would have happily signed for it! I want to congratulate Red Bull and Renault for the Constructors’ title: to reach the top in just a few years is a great achievement. We were very cautious in the very first corners, because everyone was very aggressive and we did not want to risk touching anyone. Then, we immediately lost too much ground to Vettel and Webber: it took me several laps to get past Hulkenberg, while passing Hamilton is never easy. My race pace was good, as we had seen on Friday. When the safety car came out, we thought it might be an opportunity to attack, but there were too many backmarkers between me and Mark and it took too long to get past them: a shame , because at that point, the car was really very competitive. Now, we go to Abu Dhabi: we know what we have to do and taking the title depends on us.”

Chris Dyer: “We are very disappointed for Felipe, who had everything in place to have a good race. Unfortunately, there was a problem at the pit stop which meant he had to immediately come in again, which pretty much put him out of the running. As for Fernando, he got the maximum result he could, in the light of how qualifying went yesterday. The way he ran his race was perfect, with some fantastic opening laps, during which he managed to deal with first Hamilton and then Hulkenberg, and after that he managed the car and the strategy in just the right way. There was some tension at the restart after the safety car period, because the two McLarens had opted to fit new tyres: we knew there was a chance of tyre degradation, which might have put us in difficulty. Fortunately, at that moment our race pace was very good and we were able to manage our advantage over them. Our aim was to arrive at the final race still fighting for the title and we have done that, even getting there with a driver leading the classification. It will definitely be tough but we will do all we can to bring home this championship title.”

Lewis Hamilton: “I pushed as hard as I could on every lap today, but this was a tough race for me. I actually feel quite lucky to have finished where I did.
The car just didn’t feel like it did in practice. I was even struggling to overtake the backmarkers in a straight line – Fernando [Alonso] shot past me at the start, too – and it almost felt like my F-duct wasn’t working perfectly.
I’m still in the hunt for the drivers’ championship, but I’m 24 points down, so I have nothing to lose now. In Abu Dhabi I’ll be doing everything I can to pull off the win I need, and hoping the other guys hit problems.
As always, we won’t give up and we’ll keep on pushing. We’ve seen many times before that almost anything can happen in the last race of the season. It’ll take a miracle – but miracles can happen!”

Jenson Button: “I had a great race today and had a lot of fun fighting my way through the field. We finally sorted the car out for the race, I had some pretty decent race pace, I made some great passing moves, and the team made a couple of perfect calls on strategy. From where I started, I couldn’t have done any better, so it feels good to have finished fifth.
Lewis can still win the drivers’ world championship – but the top three drivers will have to fare badly for it to happen, so I guess it’ll be difficult for him.
For me, I’m out of it now, so I’ll treat the final race much as I treated this one: I’ll just have fun and try to enjoy it.
I won the drivers’ world championship in Brazil last year, and I lost it here this year. But, all in all, it’s been a pretty good season. It was a learning year, and good practice for next year: I firmly believe we can really build on this for the 2011 season.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is a really strong team – in fact I don’t think there’s any team stronger than us.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: “The 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix was a tense and absorbing race.
Fighter that he is, Lewis tried his damnedest to pass Nico [Hulkenberg] in the early laps, and very nearly pulled it off on a number of occasions, but lost quite a lot of time to the front-runners in the process. As a result, in the end, he wasn’t able to improve on his starting position: fourth.
Meanwhile, Jenson drove a typically canny race to move from 11th on the grid to fifth at the flag.
Once the Safety Car had been deployed as a result of Vitantonio’s [Liuzzi] shunt, we opted to bring both our drivers in for new tyres – a more or less risk-free strategy given that the gap back to Michael [Schumacher] had been sufficiently large for Lewis and Jenson to be able to rejoin the field without losing their fourth and fifth positions respectively.

“The rationale behind that decision was that, had the front-runners’ older Primes begun to degrade in the final laps, our drivers would have been uniquely well placed to capitalise on that degradation. In the event there was very little such degradation, so our drivers derived no demonstrable benefit from their fresh rubber; but they suffered no disadvantage either, so it was well worth trying.

"More generally, Jenson lost the chance of retaining his drivers’ world championship this afternoon, but he’s been a superb team player all year and has made a great start to his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes career. He’s already looking forward to doing better still in 2011.

“Lewis, by contrast, is one of four drivers who are still in contention for this year’s drivers’ world championship – and, although he faces a very tough task in order to prevail, he’ll definitely be giving it everything he’s got in Abu Dhabi in his efforts to become world champion for the second time in his career. Good fortune will have to play its part, and nothing short of a win will suffice, but it’s by no means impossible.

“Last but not least, the battle for the constructors’ world championship came to a finish today – and the victors were Red Bull Racing. Although in some ways it goes against the grain for me to say so, because our ethos at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is that winning is all, it’s always refreshing when a new constructor’s name is etched onto that famous trophy.

“So, on behalf of all at Woking, I’d like to offer congratulations to all at Milton Keynes.”

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished the Brazilian Grand Prix in
sixth and seventh places today to achieve a double points finish for the
Mercedes GP Petronas team in Interlagos. Nico and Michael made the most of
the opportunities presented to them and had strong races to move up the
order and improve on their grid positions.

Nico Rosberg: "I had a strong start today and when Michael pitted ahead of me, I had clear air and was able to make up positions thanks to our good strategy. From
then, it got a little chaotic but the team made a great call to get me on new rubber when the safety car came out. Unfortunately Jenson did the same and there was a lot of chaos with lapped cars so I wasn’t able to make up any further positions. Michael let me past which was nice as he was on used rubber against my new tyres."

Michael Schumacher: "I had quite a good start today gaining two positions which unfortunately I lost again directly afterwards following my exit on the grass because of the
fight with Robert. We then had good pace but with hindsight, my pit stop was maybe a little too early which left me stuck behind Adrian. Towards the end, I let Nico past when he was on fresh tyres as he had the better chance to fight Jenson in front of us. I look forward to Abu Dhabi now where I hope to have another encouraging race."

Ross Brawn: "We are pleased to get a solid double points finish with good drives from
Nico and Michael today. It was frustrating to lose a place to Jenson in the early stops as we expected him to get held up with traffic but he did a good job to get through. We made all the right strategy calls today which enabled us to make up several places on cars ahead of us on the grid. We had a radio problem which caused confusion with the tyres at Nico’s second stop however we boxed him again with no loss of position. It’s good to have two cars scoring points but obviously we are not finishing where we would like to.
Congratulations to Red Bull for taking our Constructors’ title today and we will be after them next year."

Norbert Haug: "We achieved the best possible results for us today to finish behind the
drivers who were fighting for the World Championship as we have done in the six races since Spa. The team, Nico and Michael did a solid job and it is positive that Nico came home in sixth place after starting from 13th position. Michael recovered well from losing two places on the first lap to finish in seventh position and could have gone one place better if he had not been caught after his pit stop behind a car who changed tyres late in
the race. Sixth and seventh places are not our target for the future but for now these results are the maximum with the technical package we currently have. Well done to everybody in our team and thank you for your hard work.
We have one more race to go next weekend and then we are looking forward to next season with consistently better results. Congratulations to Red Bull Racing for winning the 2010 Formula One Constructors’ World Championship."

The AT&T Williams team conclude the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend having manoeuvred into sixth place in the constructors’ championship courtesy of Nico’s four points from his eighth place finish. A difficult race for Rubens Barrichello ended in P14, who slipped down the order following a lengthy first pitstop and an unscheduled second after a collision on lap 34 caused a puncture.

Nico Hulkenberg: I am happy with that result because I gave it everything today; there wasn’t anything left in me to give! I was struggling quite a lot with the car, it really wasn’t easy to drive, but I kept Kubica behind me all the way. The team did a great pitstop and chose the right strategy; we just needed some more car pace. Even though we started on pole, my expectations for the race were to finish between fifth and tenth, so P8 is fine and it means we are now sixth in the constructors’ championship.

Rubens Barrichello: We had a faulty pitstop today which we need to investigate. I was happy with my pace though. Unfortunately, after one of my overtaking attempts on Alguersuari, he ran over me which destroyed my front tyre so I had to come in again. I just came in too many times to score points. I’m sorry for all the Brazilians who came here wanting a different result. All I can say is that I gave it my all until the very end.

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering: From our grid positions, the results obviously aren’t great, but Nico drove well despite struggling with vibrations, and he was driving to the pace of the car. We were unfortunate with the timing of the safety car because it pulled us too far back in the order and prevented us from possibly challenging Mercedes. Rubens’ drive was destroyed by a problem pitstop in which we had an issue with the nut on the right rear. He then had a bump with Alguersuari which caused a puncture and required another stop. That effectively put him out of contention for points. Many congratulations to Red Bull for winning the constructors’ championship.

The Renault F1 Team endured a frustrating Brazilian Grand Prix this afternoon at Interlagos. In spite of running sixth in the early stages of the race, after gaining a position at the start, Robert Kubica finished ninth – spending much of his race stuck in traffic and unable to show the car’s full potential. Vitaly Petrov’s race was ruined on the first lap, when he was forced off track to avoid an accident at turn two, putting him to the back of the field. He recovered from 23rd position to finish the race 16th.

Robert Kubica: It was a tough race this afternoon. I spent every lap in traffic but I didn’t have enough of a performance advantage over Hülkenberg to get past: I was losing a lot of time in the lowspeed corners, and I couldn’t use our top speed advantage because I was stuck on the rev limiter for a long time on the main straight, so couldn’t attack him. The other critical part of the race came just after my pit stop, when Hülkenberg and I were running behind my team-mate for a number of laps and we couldn’t make the most of our fresh tyres, which cost me a position to Schumacher.

Vitaly Petrov: I made a bad start and was in the middle of a big pack of cars in the first corner. I tried to give everybody space, then at turn two I took a normal line but had to take avoiding action to not hit Alguersuari and cause an accident. That put me on the kerb and I dropped to the back of the field by the time I exited turn three. After that, there was nothing I could do but try and push, do my normal race and make up positions wherever possible.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: We knew that we would have a tough battle with the cars around us today, but we didn’t take full advantage of our opportunities. Robert spent his entire afternoon in traffic and we weren’t able to get him out of it with strategy, while Vitaly’s race was essentially over on lap one. It’s disappointing after showing good performance at different points of the weekend, but we will now focus on the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, and on finishing our season on a stronger note.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer: This was not our finest race of the season. It was extremely frustrating for Robert to spend the whole race stuck behind Hülkenberg. In terms of strategy, we were left between a rock and a hard place on the call to stop Robert: Button and Massa had stopped for fresh tyres before us, and were making up time, so we pitted to cover them and try to get out in front. Unfortunately, Hülkenberg also chose to stop on the same lap and we simply followed him in and out of the pits, then Robert lost time running behind his team-mate for several laps. As for Vitaly, he made
a poor start, then went off at turn two on the first lap, which ruined his race.

Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations: First of all, congratulations to Red Bull-Renault on their championship success today, and particularly to our engineers who work with the team. The entire team at Viry, including our partners and suppliers, should be proud to have once again demonstrated that we are capable of building and supporting a world champion engine. As for Renault F1 Team’s race this afternoon, it was a disappointing one. We were capable of more but take home only two points.
On the technical front, we had no problems, so the only answer is to work hard to achieve a better result in the season finale next weekend.