Team reaction after race in Interlagos (part 2)

Kamui Kobayashi scored one point in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos. The Japanese driver was on a different tyre strategy to most of the field and came tenth after having started 12th. Nick Heidfeld, having started 15th, was stuck in traffic for most of the race and dropped back to 17th after being given a drive through penalty with six laps to go.

Kamui Kobayashi: “My result isn’t great but perhaps one point is okay for today. For me the start was okay but at the beginning of my long stint with the hard tyres I suffered from a lack of grip and lost positions. Then, when the Prime tyres were getting older, I got a lot of understeer. When I was on the fresh tyres I could overtake both Toro Rosso but overtaking was not easy this time. You need good straight line speed to overtake in the first corner and I really didn’t have enough of that.”

Nick Heidfeld: “Finishing 17th is certainly disappointing. The race started actually quite good, I managed to overtake a few cars on the outside in lap one. Then I was in that bunch of cars behind Adrian Sutil but actually I had not quite the straight line speed to overtake. I was just outside the points when the safety car came out and so the team decided to gamble a bit and get me in for fresh tyres. However, with the drive through penalty the race was over anyway. The penalty was absolutely justified. I just didn’t know that Nico (Rosberg) was lapping me. I had blue flags already when there were a couple of cars between us and when he was behind me I could not tell if they were for him. I had a lack of information, perhaps because the team hadn’t the information either. I apologized to Nico straight after the race.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “One point doesn’t look like much, but Kamui fought very hard to finish tenth – this was a strong performance. Nick was unlucky, because he was stuck in traffic for much of the race. Then, after his second pit stop, he was penalized with a drive through penalty.”

James Key, Technical Director: “An eventful race for most drivers in many respects. With Kamui we tried to start with the prime tyre considering that the track temperature was going to be high so warm up wouldn’t be so much of a problem. We knew that his pace should be okay. Then he changed unfortunately just before the safety car came out, so we lost a bit of an advantage on the option tyres, but he did a good job to squeeze a point out of it. Nick started on the option tyres to have a fighting chance at the start of the race, and it was a fairly normal strategy with the prime tyres on the second stint. We pitted him to protect his position under the safety car, but then after the safety car he got a drive through penalty, which we need to look into it because we didn’t see what exactly happened. We knew the proximity of Rosberg, but there was a car between him and Nico.”

Jaime Alguersuari: “I think we can be quite satisfied with today’s performance as I never expected to finish as high as eleventh in the dry conditions, as we lacked some top line speed. All the same, I had some good battles. With no retirements ahead of us, finishing three places higher than I started is the best we could have expected. Now I am looking forward to our last race of the season in Abu Dhabi and we only have a few days to wait, which is nice!"

Sebastien Buemi: “You can never be really happy with a thirteenth place finish, but all the same I think we did a reasonably good job today. I made a super start and got past three cars. Then on the second lap I also managed to get by Kobayashi. I think I ran at a good pace and I managed to fight off the guys coming up behind me. Towards the end on a one stop strategy, my tyres were very worn, so I was pleased I was still able to defend my position. Not a bad afternoon.”

Franz Tost: “We started from fourteenth and nineteenth and finished eleventh and thirteenth and when the entire field bar one car finishes the race, it is hard to score points, so we can take some satisfaction from finishing in front of most our direct rivals today which is good. We were eleventh for most of the race and when the Safety Car appeared, we decided to leave both our cars out on track, giving the drivers the task of defending position against some runners on newer tyres. Jaime and Sebastien did a good job in the closing stages therefore, as indeed they did for the whole 71 laps. Congratulations to Red Bull Racing for winning the Constructors’ title.”

The Force India F1 Team has finished today’s Brazilian Grand Prix in 12th position with Adrian Sutil. Adrian moved up 10 places from his grid slot after a strong first stint on the harder tyres and a change to the options under the safety car period at two third’s distance. After pulling off one of the most exciting overtaking moves of the race on Sebastien Buemi on lap 61, Adrian passed the flag in 12th.
Following a long battle with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, Tonio Liuzzi retired from the race on lap 49 in an accident in the first corner complex. Tonio was fortunately uninjured in the impact.

Adrian Sutil: An exciting race today and I really enjoyed it. After a reasonable start, I did the first part of the race on the harder tyres and it worked really well. I thought it would be difficult with the graining but after 20 laps the car just seemed to work better and better and I could set some competitive lap times. Then the safety car went out and we changed to the softer compound straight away. Then I tried to move up some places, but it was very hard to pass the Toro Rossos as they were unbelievably quick on the straight. I managed to pass at least Buemi and gain one position. From P22 on the grid I think P12 is very positive and I’m happy with that result and performance.

Tonio Liuzzi: It was a good race until the accident, we were able to fight with a lot of cars. It was tough on the option tyres at the start but then in the middle part of the race I was able to put in some consistent and quick lap times. Unfortunately I had been struggling with the brakes all race and then going into the second corner something on the car let go and I couldn’t turn in. The car just went straight on and into the barriers. We’ll look into why this happened and make sure we understand the reasons fully. I’m OK after the accident though and am now looking forward to Abu Dhabi where I hope we can take the fight back to Williams.

Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer: First of all, we must extend our congratulations to Red Bull on securing their first-ever constructors’ championship. For us, we knew this would be a difficult race and to come away with 12th is a good effort considering our starting positions. Adrian again showed our strong race pace and Tonio put in lap times that matched those of the top ten until his retirement. Thankfully he is OK after the accident, and we’ll look into the reason for this. We’ve got another race coming up very soon and although it’s going to be a tough week with the travelling, we’re going to keep fighting until the end.

An excellent end to the Brazilian Grand Prix saw Lotus Racing take one more step closer to tenth place in the 2010 Championship after Heikki Kovalainen finished 18th, just ahead of Jarno Trulli in 19th.

Heikki Kovalainen: “It was a good race, probably the best we could have hoped for in the conditions today. I made a good start and passed Timo straight away which put me in a good position for the rest of the afternoon. I enjoyed it out there – I had a good battle with Jarno and Timo for quite a lot of the race, and as we neared the end Jarno was very close so I had to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes and we could get both cars home. The important thing today is that we are now one race away from tenth and that will be the goal next weekend in Abu Dhabi.”

Jarno Trulli: “Another very positive result for the team and I’m really happy I got to the end of the race! I had yet another small hydraulic issue, but good work from the guys in the garage managed that, and towards the end of the race I was able to push Heikki and end up just behind him. I didn’t have a great start, I had a lot of wheelspin but pretty soon I was able to attack Timo and just as I was shaping up to pass him he pitted and I came out ahead of him after the stops. After that I caught up with Heikki and we then had a pretty comfortable run to the end of the race.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An excellent race for us after what has been a very good weekend. Congratulations to Red Bull for winning their first constructors’ championship today, and for us it was a textbook race today. Heikki made a great start and went straight past Timo, and Jarno followed him past a few laps later. After that we were able to open a gap to our nearest rivals and maintain track position right to the end. It was a very professional race from the whole team and pushes us another step closer to tenth so we will be aiming to take that performance to Abu Dhabi and repeat it at the final race.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “Firstly my sincere congratulations to Red Bull Racing on securing the constructors’ title today. They are a superb team, full of honest, professional people and we are very excited about working with them next year. They have set the standards Mike and his aero team must reach and that is an excellent challenge for him and our whole team. From our point of view I am very happy with the performance today. We looked a class team out there and the two car finish is just reward for the hard work this weekend and all year. Two flawless pitstops from the team in the garage showed that we have talent everywhere, and for a team that is still only a year old that is very impressive. What pleased me most is the fact that we kept pace with most of the cars in the middle of the pack, right up to the fifth place car who we were only just over a second away from in race pace. With all the steps we have taken to build such a solid foundation for our team next year we will be right in the mix with the established teams in 2011, but for today I want to say congratulations to the whole team. Now we focus on Abu Dhabi, the last race of the season and the one where I hope we secure tenth place.”

After a promising qualifying performance for Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock yesterday, his VR-01 was less competitive in the dry conditions today and having been passed by Kovalainen whilst trying to avoid Petrov, he lacked the pace to be able to take the fight to Lotus. He ended the day 20th.

Lucas had a disappointing day in his first Grand Prix on home soil. He reported a mechanical problem early in the race, which was identified and fixed but this necessitated a long stop in the garage and as a consequence he was unclassified when he crossed the line.

Timo Glock: “Not a very exciting race today. I had quite a good start but unfortunately Petrov had made a mistake in turn two, went wide and I had to slow down, which enabled Kovalainen to overtake me on the outside. Then I was trying to follow Kovalainen but he was quicker and we did not have the pace to match them. We were not quick enough here and so it’s disappointing to finish behind them in 20th position. We changed quite early from the Option tyre to the Prime, which meant that I had to run on the Prime tyre for 53 laps. However we head straight to Abu Dhabi now and hope for better things to enable us to end the season on a high.”

Lucas di Grassi: “I really enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere at Interlagos today. The Brazilian fans were incredible, the grandstands were full and it was an amazing experience. Unfortunately the race didn’t go as planned. We had a mechanical problem since early in the race, which was getting worse and worse. We had to stop and investigate it because it was getting more and more difficult to drive the car. We realised though that the problem could be fixed and that is what we did, but by then my race was over and all I could do was get the car to the finish. I hope for a better race in Abu Dhabi where I will be pushing really hard to ensure we end the season well.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “A disappointing day today. Perhaps we had the car setup biased slightly too much towards the wet conditions of yesterday but nevertheless we simply didn’t have the pace to match our immediate competitors today. Lucas had a problem with his rear suspension, which we were able to rectify but it cost him a lot of time which is disappointing in his home race. Timo gave it his best shot and extracted the maximum from the car but unfortunately it was just not our day today, so we hope for a better race in Abu Dhabi next weekend.”

Under dry and sunny conditions, in contrast to yesterday’s rain, Hispania Racing completed its first ever race in Brazil and both cars were able to cross the finish line again, making it the eighth time this season and the third in a row that the Spanish team finishes a race with its two cars. Bruno Senna didn’t make any mistakes, kept closing the gap and was able to fight for positions with the other new teams, finishing 21st. Even though Christian Klien had to start the race from the garage due to a fuel pressure problem, the team managed to solve the problem quickly and he was finally able to get out, run at constant pace and cross the line in 22nd position. The Spanish team’s attention now turns to the last Grand Prix of its first season in Formula 1, in Abu Dhabi next week.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “Our race performance was very good today and better than expected. We could easily keep up with the other new teams pace. Christian Klien was unlucky as he had a fuel pressure problem on the way to the starting grid and had to stop the car at the pit lane exit. I want to say thank you to the mechanics who could repair the car and get it back onto the circuit after only four laps. Bruno Senna showed a good performance at his home Grand Prix and finished close behind the other new teams. We are now focusing on the finale of the season in Abu Dhabi and we hope to achieve another good result.”

Christian Klien: “Unfortunately, the car stopped on the way to the grid due to fuel pressure problems. But the mechanics did a very good job and managed to fix the car so that we could go in the race after four laps. The race was a test for us in order to gain some race kilometers. The lap times were good and we could keep up with the pace of the other new teams. Due to the problems I had at the beginning, I had more fuel in the car but I could finish the race with constant lap times. I am happy to complete a race after Singapore again and I want to thank the team for giving me this opportunity and doing a great job all over the weekend.”

Bruno Senna, Race driver: “We had a strong race today and we finished just behind the other new teams. I am very satisfied with the result I could achieve at my first Formula 1 race at home in Brazil. It was a good feeling before the race when the crowd was chanting and they gave me a lot of energy for the 71 laps. I am very thankful for the support of the fans and the team’s good work. Now I am looking forward to the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi and I hope to perform well again.”