Team reaction after race in Singapore (part 2)

The Force India F1 Team picked up further points to add to its 2010 championship tally in today’s Singapore Grand Prix. Adrian Sutil put in a fighting drive to eighth position despite starting from 15th on the grid. Adrian moved up through the field thanks to a creative strategy that saw him pit on lap three under the first safety car period. When the rest of the field pitted he moved steadily up the order to secure four points.
Tonio Liuzzi had a frustrating race after an incident on the first lap pushed him into the wall. At first it appeared Tonio had not picked up any problems, but the right rear suspension had been damaged in the impact and gave way the following lap.

Adrian Sutil: It was a really hard race today, in the heat and the humidity and having to race the whole way - I always had a car following really closely behind! Starting from 15th on the grid, I think this was the maximum we could have done. It’s a fantastic result, particularly after the disappointment yesterday. I said before it is very important to score every single point we can so we can keep ahead of Williams in the constructors’ championship. That’s why I tried so hard to keep Hulkenberg behind - any points we get are very important. We now go onto Suzuka, one of my favourite tracks, where I’ll try my best to keep everything on track until the end of the season.

Tonio Liuzzi: It was a difficult first lap. I had a good start and I was trying to overtake Heidfeld, who went straight on into turn seven side by side with Adrian. I was holding my line but after the corner they both came back on the line and I was squeezed into the wall. I had some contact with Heidfeld and damaged the front wing a little and then I must have cracked the rear suspension as well as the lap after it broke completely and I lost the rear end. It’s really disappointing as looking at how the race developed I think we could have picked up a good finish. Anyway, it will be onto Japan now where I hope we can have a much better race.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: We knew Singapore wouldn’t suit us as much as other tracks but we got the best outcome we could today. We got back in the points again - every single one counts at this stage in the championship. Adrian drove a great race, keeping a whole stream of cars behind him on very used tyres, and deserved his eighth position. Unfortunately Tonio retired early on after a racing incident. Given how qualifying went yesterday, to get one points finish is satisfying and we can now move onto the circuits that should work more to our advantage.

Jaime Alguersuari: “I am satisfied that I finished the race, but to be honest, it was possibly the most boring race of my career. I was stuck in a train of cars and there was virtually nothing I could do. It should have been a good opportunity for us to score points today, having qualified eleventh, but it went wrong before the start with a coolant leak on the car, which meant I started from pit lane after the others had gone by. At that point, my hopes of having a good day disappeared. At least I managed three overtaking moves. Looking on the positive side, I think our car has improved in terms of performance and it’s not so bad to start last and finish twelfth.”

Sebastien Buemi: “It was a very tough race. I made a good start, but on the opening lap I had a contact with Kobayashi, which I think might have done some damage because from that point on I had a lot more understeer. So we decided to stop and change the front wing to be on the safe side and at the same time we also changed the tyres. I came out behind Petrov and spent most of the race behind him. Later on, I had to pit another time to pressurise the hydraulic system and we again changed tyres, which meant I was able to catch and pass Jaime and close on Petrov again. I tried to pass him, I didn’t manage it and I was caught by Kubica, who was on fresh tyres. Another pit stop was needed, where we fitted the soft tyres and after that I was able to do some good lap times. I am disappointed because I think that, without the difficulties I had, tenth place should have been within my grasp. However, generally the car has improved which is encouraging for the next race.”

Franz Tost: “Unfortunately, on his laps to the grid, we noticed there was a water leak on Jaime’s car and as we were unable to fix it before the pit lane closed, he had to start from the pits. This was a shame, as it meant he was unable to make the most of his best qualifying performance of the season, which had seen him secure eleventh place on the grid. After that, he drove a good race. As for Sebastien, on the opening lap, he told us he thought he might have a problem with the front wing, after making contact with another car. Therefore, we called him in during the first Safety Car period, changing his tyres and the nose section. Later on, he was unable to get past Petrov, so we decided to bring him in again for fresh tyres, after which he passed his team-mate. He was still unable to catch Petrov and when Kubica, on fresh tyres passed both our cars, we again brought Buemi in for new tyres, in the hope this would give him a performance advantage, but the strategy did not work. Overall, we should have got a better result, as the car had performed well throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, this evening a variety of circumstances kept us out of the points positions.”

Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi finished the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix in 15th place, the only car from the new teams still running at the finish.

The team had opted to start with Timo on Prime tyres and Lucas on Options, and an early safety car meant that Timo would be forced to stay out, while Lucas, like his rivals, could benefit from the opportunity and switch to the longer-lasting Prime tyre.

At the restart, Timo was running in 10th place for nine laps, until the faster cars of the established teams were able to hustle their way past, and the team’s focus switched to the battle for the new teams. Timo was running well, pulling out a gap to Heikki Kovalainen, who was in turn being hounded by Lucas. But before Timo could build a large enough cushion to pit and still stay in front, the Safety Car was deployed for the second time, leaving Timo no alternative than to pit earlier than planned.

The timing turned out to be disastrous for the team, as Kovalainen was ahead of the safety car and able to establish a whole lap advantage over Lucas and Timo. A fault in the hydraulic system forced Timo to retire with ten laps to go but Lucas continued to the finish, taking the new team honours when Kovalainen’s Lotus spectacularly caught fire.

After a strong race helped by smooth and fast pit work, the team looks forward to the next race in Japan, with the expectation that the planned aero upgrades will further reduce the gap to the established teams.

Lucas di Grassi: “A very good result overall and I have achieved my target for Singapore. We opted to pit during the first safety car period but we were very unlucky with the second, which made us lose a lot of time in the race. After that I just focused on getting to the finish. The car was feeling better and better and I was improving my lap time, so overall I’m happy with my performance today.”

Timo Glock: “I got a reasonably good start to the race but both Lotus cars were able to overtake me. I was then able to retake Trulli at turn 7 and it was quite good putting pressure on Kovalainen. At the first safety car we tried to stay out, which worked out okay and I was running as high as P10. I stayed in front of all the other guys for a few laps but when Sutil overtook me there was no chance to keep the others in the pack behind me. When he passed I couldn’t recover quick enough because the tyres were dirty as a result of having to go offline. We were just unlucky with the second safety car. I had to come in for tyres and we just ended up behind. Then a few laps from the end we had a problem with the hydraulics and our race was over. So now we look forward to the next one in Japan where we have more of our upgrade package and that should help us a lot.”

John Booth, Team Principal: “Well done to Lucas who had a solid run to the flag to be the leading finisher for the new teams. He also set the fastest lap of the new teams. We tried a different strategy with Timo, starting on the Prime tyre and staying out during the first safety car. He had a good battle with the midfield cars early on, but was unlucky with the timing of the second safety car. Unfortunately he suffered a hydraulic problem towards the end of the race. Overall though it has been a positive weekend and once again the teamwork has been great.”

A fantastic Singapore Grand Prix ended in spectacular style for Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen after he pulled over on the start / finish straight and put out a fire in his car by himself that brought to an end a battling drive under the Singapore lights. Jarno Trulli had suffered a hydraulics failure on lap 26, which ended his race after both he and Heikki had made very good starts and had been fighting in the midfield in 15th and 16th in the early laps. A double pitstop under the first safety car period on lap three gave them both strong track positions which they both held until Jarno’s retirement, and Heikki’s eventual race-ending fire.

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “The race tonight marks a major step forward for us. On the pitwall we were talking about beating Michael and Buemi in a straight fight on track, and we told Heikki to take the fight to them - not to take the conservative approach. If we’d taken the safer option maybe Heikki wouldn’t have hit Buemi, but we’re here to race, and that’s what I mean about a big step forward. This is all part of our learning curve, but coming here and racing the Toro Rossos and Mercedes at the end of a pretty hardcore race is a sign of how far we’ve come. We’ll take all these lessons into next year, and it can only help us be an even more potent force in 2011.”

Heikki Kovalainen: “That was not quite how I thought my race would end! Until the fire, I was having a really strong run and the car had felt good throughout. We were looking good for 15th, but then I had a coming together with Buemi towards the end of the race. I spun the car to get back onto the track which I think cracked the fuel tank pressure release valve and it looks like that caused an airbox fire. I didn’t want to come into the pits as it definitely wasn’t safe enough to do so, and pulled over on the main straight. A couple of guys from Williams gave me an extinguisher, so I put the fire out on my own – I told Tony and Mike that they maybe need to pay me more as I’m now a fireman as well…”

Jarno Trulli: “I had a very good start and was running well with Heikki but then the problems started. I had a puncture just after the first safety car which brought me back in early, and then the hydraulic problems that have affected me quite a few times this season struck again. It’s been a difficult weekend to be honest, but now we go to Suzuka which is a track I really look forward to, so hopefully I’ll have some better luck there.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “It was a very eventful race and a real shame at the end to see Heikki’s race brought to an end with the fire. Both cars made a great start and got themselves in front of the Virgins which is obviously what we wanted to do. We stopped them both during the first safety car lap, which seemed to be the right call, and the pitcrew did a great job to get them both turned around as quickly as they did. Unfortunately Jarno then picked up a puncture from some debris on track and then a hydraulics problem brought his race to an end. We tried to get him back out, but after having done so the problems started again straight away so he had to come back in.

“Heikki clearly had a pretty dramatic race. When the fire started he made the decision not to come into the pitlane for safety reasons, and did very well to put the fire out himself. Until that point he was having a fantastic race and we were looking forward to fighting with Michael and Buemi right to the end, but unfortunately the fire put paid to that. The main thing really is to say thanks to him for being brave enough to put it out, and be thankful that he’s fine after what was a pretty spectacular end to his race. After such a good race performance from him and the whole team, we will take some real positives from this weekend, and look forward to the last four races.”

Neither Kamui Kobayashi nor Nick Heidfeld finished the Singapore night race. Kobayashi was stuck for a long time behind Michael Schumacher, and after he had overtaken him he crashed into a barrier. A few laps later it was Heidfeld who was fighting with Schumacher, and who hit the barrier after a controversial manoeuvre by the Mercedes driver.

Nick Heidfeld: “Of course I would have hoped for a better result and wanted to finish the race. But, in my view, Michael (Schumacher) was braking a bit too late and knocked me out of the race. My race was compromised soon after the start anyway. Vitantonio Liuzzi wanted to pass me from a long way off on the outside in corner four. Then I believe he braked early and unfortunately I crashed into him. The car wasn’t easy to drive with the missing rear wing endplate and, anyway, the set-up had not been ideal because you are not allowed to change anything after qualifying. However, having said that, the lap times were not too bad for a while in the race. I’m now looking forward to my favourite circuit, Suzuka.“

Kamui Kobayashi: “It was clearly my mistake. After I overtook Michael Schumacher I knew I had to push very, very hard to score a point, but meanwhile the tyres were completely gone. I misjudged this in that corner and crashed into the barrier. Then Bruno Senna crashed into my car as well. The overall damage is quite bad. At the start it was very close and I lost one place to Vitaly Petrov. Against Mark Webber I had no chance, and then I was tenth behind Michael. I could have gone faster but had no chance to overtake. When I saw an opportunity I attacked him and it worked. Then, as I said, I pushed like hell and ended up in the barrier.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “Everything went against us today. We shall quickly leave that behind us and concentrate on Kamui’s home race in Suzuka, which is important for our team.”

James Key, Technical Director: “It’s ultimately a shame not to finish. Our drivers had a split strategy to make use of the relative positions they were in. So we started Nick on the prime tyres, and Kamui was on the option compound from qualifying. With the very early safety car period we had to decide whether to pit Kamui or leave him out, and, like the guys around us, we decided to leave him out. Kamui got stuck behind Michael Schumacher, who was really slow and that cost Kamui an awful lot of lap time. Once he got passed Michael, Kamui had to push to the limit to get a gap to the cars behind him and to make the strategy work. Unfortunately in pushing he had an off, and that was the end of his race. Nick had a problem with his front wing and a puncture after a first lap incident, so we had to bring him in and give him the option tyres to catch up on. He then came in again during the second safety car period, and we put him on prime tyres, which would have taken him to the end. But then there was a racing incident which unfortunately saw him pushed out when he was the car in front.”

After showing good progress during the whole weekend in Singapore, Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team was very unlucky at its first night race. Both drivers, who were running at the Singapore Street Circuit for the first time, had to retire. Bruno Senna had to stop on lap 32 after not being able to avoid Kamui Kobayashi’s car, who had gone into the wall just some seconds before. On the other hand, Christian Klien retired from the race on the same lap after detecting a hydraulic failure in his car during his second pit-stop. After an unlucky Sunday, the Spanish team is already looking forward to the Japanese Grand Prix.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “It was an unlucky weekend because we did not finish the race. As we knew that a lot of things could have happened on this track, we were in a good position after deciding to have an early pit-stop during the first safety car period. One car crashed in an unfortunate situation, and the other one had a hydraulic failure on the same lap. Now we have to look forward and think of Japan, which I think is one of the best tracks.”

Christian Klien: “I really enjoyed being back in Formula One again even though a comeback here in Singapore might be one of the most difficult. Due to the humidity and the challenging circuit, it has been a tough race today. At the beginning I got off to a good start, could win some positions and was 18th in the meantime. I want to thank the whole team for their great job and also for giving me the opportunity to race.”

Bruno Senna: “As soon as I came out of the corner and into the braking area the flags came out, but it was too late and there was no way to avoid the accident. The marshals were just too late and I didn’t have any notice of what was going on. It’s just one of those days. But we have to keep on working hard for Japan.”