Team reaction after the Chinese GP (part 2)

Williams Cosworth

A rain-affected Chinese Grand Prix delivered an unsatisfactory result for the AT&T Williams team at the Shanghai International Circuit this afternoon. Light drizzle at the start of the race quickly turned into continuous rain, which ultimately compromised the team’s strategy and led to a series of pitstops for both drivers to counter the conditions. At the conclusion of the 56 lap race, neither driver had made it into the points, with Rubens Barrichello finishing in 12th and Nico Hulkenberg in P15.

Rubens Barrichello: "The race didn’t go as planned. I was called into the pits for the intermediate tyres early on, it was a hard call and the race developed from there. I think we made good calls after that but by that time it was too late to recover."

Nico Hulkenberg: "It was a tough race and obviously not very satisfying for the team. Looking at the positives, it was good experience for me to complete the full race distance and experience all of the different conditions that we faced today. In particular, it was helpful to see how the car and tyres handled and we now have some good data for any races which might be similar in the future. Results-wise, though, this is nowhere near close enough to where we want to be."

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was disappointing not to score points today with either car. Some of the calls on our pitstops were wrong, some were right, but overall we weren’t fast enough and didn’t make the right decisions.
Rubens made a good start so we have improved in that area since Malaysia. We’re now looking ahead to Barcelona to take a step forward with our performance.

Toro Rosso Ferrari

Jaime Alguersuari: “I tried to get points today, but in the end it wasn’t possible as I made a mistake lapping a Hispania, who was slower than me and was shown the blue flag, but he moved from side to side. I tried to get past on the right, but he came back on me and touched my wing, which is how I lost it. We tried to switch to Intermediates before everyone, but in the end I had to pit for an additional set. I did what I could in what was a crazy race. On the slick tyres, we were really fast and I got past Sutil and there were some good passing moves, but I’m disappointed with the result. Now we go to my home race in Barcelona where I hope to challenge for points again.”

Sebastien Buemi:“Not running on Friday was my first problem, because that means you don’t qualify so well and once you have to start the race from the middle of the pack, the risk of this type of accident is always greater. I don’t want to blame anyone for the crash, but Liuzzi lost his car and crashed into me. It has been a very difficult weekend and now we need to work and see what we can do in Barcelona. I also need a bit more luck.”

Franz Tost: “Sebastien made a good start, but unfortunately, he was hit by Liuzzi, who spun under braking. This was the second time this season that Sebastien has been involved in an accident not of his own making. Overall, he performed well this weekend up to that point, recovering from his lack of running on Friday. I’m sure a good result will come his way soon. Jaime drove another good race, even if the changing weather conditions were not so easy for him to deal with. He had to make two extra stops, once after the first lap when he thought he had damaged his front wing, after touching Kobayashi. But when he came in, we did not see any damage, so did not change it. The second stop came when he lost the front wing after a coming together with a backmarker and, but for these two extra stops, I’m convinced he could have finished in the points once again. Our car performance was good here and the team worked well in this afternoon’s complicated conditions, so we are looking forward to Spain.”

Lotus Cosworth

Lotus Racing’s first four races came to an end in China with another solid performance as the head of the new teams and for the first time coming out in front of one of their established rivals. Heikki Kovalainen dealt with the tricky conditions superbly, making a bold call early on to stay out on dry tyres when most of the pack opted for wets, and finished the race in 14th place after a tight battle with Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams. Jarno Trulli’s race came to a premature end on lap 34 after his run of bad luck continued in Shanghai in a race dominated by the damp conditions.

Heikki Kovalainen: “This was a great way to round off our first four races. I think we had the correct strategy today in what were pretty tricky conditions. The pace was good – we were again ahead of the other new teams, and this time had a good battle with Williams. The decision to stay out early on dry tyres was made by me and the team together – it wasn’t wet enough to come in and as soon as the race started I could see the rain had calmed down so we agreed it was the right call to stick with the plan. The other cars on wet tyres were obviously struggling so that worked out very well. It might not always work out like this for us, but today it showed we’re a good team who make the right decisions, so I’m really pleased, for everyone in Lotus Racing, and all our fans.

Jarno Trulli: “It was a tough day out there from the start, which is a shame because we’d had a trouble free weekend and I was able to push for quite a few laps. The conditions weren’t too bad and I was enjoying myself , but I had more hydraulics issues which brought me in on lap 18. The team did a good job to get me back out again but unfortunately the problems struck again and I had to retire. We’ve got a bit of time now before Spain to work on the new upgrades, so let’s see what happens when we reach Barcelona.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Whilst I’m obviously pleased I want to say first how disappointed I am for Jarno. He’s had a lot of bad luck so far - it seems all our bad luck has been on his car, so apologies to him, but it was a fantastic race from Heikki. We judged all the calls correctly and were on the right tyres all the way through, so congratulations to the whole team for that. I’m also very pleased to see our race pace was very good, especially at the end on the wet conditions. These first four races were always going to be tough, but we’ve achieved what we set out to and now we’re looking ahead to Barcelona and seeing how the updates we’ve been working on help us move forward.”

Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “I’m really happy today as we’ve accomplished what we said we’d do. We wanted to see at least one car cross the line for the first four races, and we’ve done that, but it’s kind of bitter sweet today. It’s obviously a great result for Heikki but a real shame for Jarno as he seems to take the brunt of the issues – it’s a bit odd as it does seem to be just his car. The conditions today made it very tense out there and it’s very satisfying, and shows how we’re progressing, that today we were racing Williams, who we beat on track.”

“Another great thing for me was to see how the Lotus Racing dream is spreading, in China, Asia and across the world. We saw a load of Lotus Racing flags in the stands, and this time next year let’s hope we see even more fans out there cheering for us – we’ll do our best to give them something to be very proud of!”

HRT F1 Cosworth

Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna both achieved race finishes for the HRT F1 Team in today’s Chinese Grand Prix with the Brazilian finishing in 16th and the Indian in 17th position. It was a wet race where many drivers came unstuck and retired in the rain, but both HRT F1 drivers kept control to bring their cars home in competitive positions.

Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: “A good day for the team completing our second two-car finish in the rain in our fourth race. Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna drove their second wet race after Australia. Again we reached our goal with two cars finishing the race and we gathered quite a lot of data on this track that can be used for the European season. Congratulations to the team. Now in the three weeks to come, we must work on more developments for the team’s home Grand Prix in Barcelona.”

Karun Chandhok: “I am fantastically happy to have finished this race again today after our difficult debut in Bahrain and it was not easy today with the rain. Because of a necessary change of hydraulic components on the car, I had to start from the pit lane. This change was profitable as the car was fully operational until the end of the race. It was a bit difficult as we had less front grip and I was struggling with it. Because of the rain I went off a couple of times but I made it to the finish. For the team it is encouraging to finish with both cars again. A great thank to the team. To finish was very difficult today but I am happy I have done it.”

Bruno Senna: “I am very happy to finish the race again. We had no experience in really wet conditions like today and the car was a bit difficult to drive. The ceiling was low and it got a bit dark. Overall, my visor was a bit too dark for those conditions. I enjoyed racing on the wet track. I’m happy for the team who did a great job again to have another two cars finishing the race.”

Virgin Racing Cosworth

After a promising start to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, unfortunately Virgin Racing experienced problems with both cars in the countdown to the Race start.

The final hours leading up to the Race revealed a problem with the clutch on Lucas’ car when it was started following release from Parc Ferme. Despite the strenuous efforts of his crew, Lucas was unable to make it to the Grid and the team began to prepare for a Pit Lane start for his car. However, the replacement clutch was not functioning correctly and the Race began without him. Still determined to be part of it in order to gather vital data for the development programme, the team pressed on in the garage and Lucas finally joined the action on Lap 7. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the clutch problem called time on his race, just 8 laps later.

Everything was running smoothly for Timo until the final stages of the Grid procedure. His car suddenly lost engine valve system air pressure and the team returned the car to the garage to try to fix the problem. It soon became apparent that the issue lay deep in the system and any attempt at addressing it would have called for the entire back end of the car to be removed - a task too substantial to contemplate during the Race.

Both Virgin Racing cars ran faultlessly throughout all three Free Practice sessions and Qualifying, which is what makes today’s problems as surprising as they are frustrating.

Timo Glock: “A very difficult day for myself and the whole team. Everything was going well until late into the Grid procedure, so the problem came out of the blue and there was nothing we could do to make the start. It proved to be a great Race - one that we would obviously have wanted to be part of. At times like this, when things are so disappointing, you just have to make use of the frustration and get something good from it. I know everyone will want to get to the bottom of what happened for us and fix it and I think that process will ensure that we have a much better start to the European season.”

Lucas di Grassi: “This is obviously not a great way to end our weekend and that is very frustrating because we had two very good days of running on Friday and Saturday. I know we will work hard to identify the problems, fix them and get back to the kind of performance we experienced in Malaysia because we have what it takes to continue to be the best of the new teams.”

Nick Wirth, Technical Director: “Following the overnight Parc Ferme, we started the cars this morning and discovered that the clutch on Lucas’ car was not functioning correctly. We changed the clutch before the Race, but it still wasn’t working properly even when we eventually got Lucas out and into the Race and ultimately we had to retire him. Timo’s car lost engine valve system air pressure on the Grid, which required us to move him back to the garage. We attempted to refill the air system but it was clear that there was a substantial air leak from the system in a place which was difficult to access quickly, so we were also forced to retire his car. All in all, a very disappointing day, but I know that we will get to grips with the problems and bounce back in Barcelona.”

Sauber Ferrari

In China both the BMW Sauber F1 Team’s cars retired. Kamui Kobayashi was out of the race on lap one when he was an innocent victim of someone else’s accident. Pedro de la Rosa had managed to climb up to fourth in difficult track conditions when he stopped with a technical failure on lap eight. The cause of this failure still needs to be analysed.

Pedro de la Rosa: “Of course I am deeply disappointed. We made all the right tyre decisions. I started on slicks and managed to stay out in the drizzle. I enjoyed overtaking and then I was in fourth. When you are in a situation like this you really have to finish. We missed a great chance today. I don’t know what exactly happened. I felt there was something wrong with the engine and then stopped in turn nine.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “It is such a shame. The track conditions were difficult today and this always opens up chances, even if you are not high up on the grid. I’m sure we would have scored points today. My start was good, but after a few corners Vitantonio Liuzzi’s car just flew into mine and I was out.”

James Key, Technical Director: “Obviously it was a very exciting race today for watching, but frustrating for us. Kamui was unfortunately the victim of an accident that was happening behind him, and was caught out by a car coming across the track. It was not his fault. Pedro was driving an excellent race, he made a great call on the tyres and the team went with that decision. He stayed on the dry option tyres while others changed to wets, which was a very good call by the driver and the team. He ended up fourth - looked fairly strong, was battling with Vitaly Petrov and the lap times were good. Sadly there was a problem with the car. It is engine related but we can’t say whether it’s a specific engine problem or a problem related to the chassis. We still need to analyse that when the car comes back. It was a points’ opportunity today, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”