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FIA Friday press conference - Australia |
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Drivers: Fernando Alonso (Renault), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull) Q: How have the first official practice sessions been for you? Mark, can you give a rough run down of how it has been? Mark Webber: It didn’t go that well in the first session. We didn’t get that many laps in. We had a problem with the seal on the drive shaft and obviously we were pretty keen to do a bit more running in the second session which was going to plan until we had another small problem with the exhaust. Certainly not ideal in terms of reliability today, but not too bad pace-wise when we are out there. We will see how it goes for the rest of the weekend but reasonably encouraged. I have not really had a decent look at the times to be honest because I had to come straight here, so I don’t know what else went on with other people, but we got on okay. Q: Sebastien, how was your first day? Sebastien Buemi: Everything was new for me today and I had to discover a lot of things. But I would say that the first practice went quite well and we did a lot of laps. You have got to learn the circuit as it is quite tricky out there. In the second session we had some small issues, but in general I am quite happy with how it went. I still need to learn a lot of things, so for the moment we are working hard and we will see what we can achieve tomorrow. Q: Fernando? Fernando Alonso: It was fine. Obviously the first day is always difficult starting the championship with many things to discover in terms of the car. It is also the first time we test in warm conditions after being in winter in Europe, so useful information always on Friday. We try to analyse all the information tonight and tomorrow and hope to have a better car. That is quite normal between Friday and Saturday, we test a couple of things overnight. Q: Lewis? Lewis Hamilton: My day has not been too bad. It is great to be back. Obviously we are not as quick as we would love to be but we are working very hard and we got though quite a good programme and made some decent steps for us at least. Don’t really know what everyone else is doing on the track but I am happy with what we have done today. Q: Lewis, we heard you say that the car was bottoming all the time and was really very difficult to drive. LH: Yeah, it is a very bumpy track, so I think at the time we were just a bit too low. That’s what happens when you are on heavier fuel, so we will make some changes to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore. Q: You were very quick on the straight as well, fastest by about two or three kpm. Does that suggest you are not running a lot of downforce? LH: No, it just means we have got a good Mercedes Benz engine. Q: But where is the car lacking as testing has not been particularly good? LH: In general it is a good car, it is just general lack of grip everywhere pretty much. It is not particularly one area of the track, it is everywhere. We cannot carry the speeds through the corners that we would like. It is predominantly aero and we are working very hard. We have made some steps forward with it and for sure the gap to the others is nowhere near as big as it was back in Barcelona but we have still got a long way to go. The guys back at the factory are working very hard to rectify that. There is no quick fix. It is going to take some time. Q: Were you still trying new bits today? Is there still a flow of bits coming from the factory? LH: No, today we didn’t try any new bits. We had everything we needed on but I am sure over the course of the first few races that there will be some new bits coming. Q: How much were you using KERS today and how much were you adjusting the front wing? LH: I didn’t use the front wings, it wasn’t beneficial to me today as I didn’t need it. With the KERS we use it. You use it over a lap. On the longer runs it is learning how to manage it but we don’t seem to have any problems with that. Q: Fernando, same question to you. How much were you using the front wing adjustor and how much were you using KERS? FA: Same answer. KERS every lap and the front wing I didn’t touch it today. Q: Do you think you might use it more in the race? FA: No. Q: How different did the car feel today compared to testing? FA: No big difference. I think every track is a bit different and you need to adapt the set-up a little bit to the track and also to the conditions. Today it was very windy and we expect some windy conditions for tomorrow and Sunday, so we need to accommodate a little bit to that and we need to do small set-up changes also for that. It was the same in the winter from Portimao to Barcelona to Jerez, always different tracks. Some of them a little bit bumpy, some of them slow speed corners or high speed corners, so small things that you always adapt to the track and today we tried to work on that. We came from a set-up more or less similar to what we thought was the right one from the last test in Jerez and regarding last year’s set-up here as well with last year’s car, so between everything we choose our set-up and now we are just tuning a little bit. Q: For the first time here you have run late afternoon at the sort of time the race is going to be run. What was the visibility like, particularly going down into turn three? FA: To be honest, it was a little bit worse than practice one and compared to last year as well as the sun is quite low at this time. It is a little bit worse but it is not a big problem and hopefully it will be fine for everyone, but there is no doubt that it is better at 2 o’clock for us in terms of visibility. Q: Is it a problem in terms of braking points for example, as sometimes it is in shadow and sometimes it isn’t? FA: No, but as I said, because it is that low in terms of looking to the mirrors and some of the corners you don’t see as clearly as you see at 2 o’clock in P1. But it was not a huge problem and it will be fine, I am sure. Q: When there are loads of cars around you is that going to be an issue in the race? FA: Hope not. If you have all the cars behind you it is even better, so that is what we have to try. Q: Sebastien, what has been the biggest surprise about F1 for you now that you are actually taking part in the session as you have been doing GP2 and been in the paddock a lot and you were the medical car driver for three races last year. SB: I would say that there is quite a bit of difference, but in a weekend like that everything goes fast even if we think we have got three hours of testing. But with all the stuff we have got to test you need to keep your head cool and analyse everything. We didn’t do so much testing with the new car, so for us it was like a proper testing today. It is going to be a test for us all weekend, so we are going to test all the stuff on the car and try to understand it as we didn’t run much in Barcelona. But I would say everything goes fast and you need to analyse everything. Q: This is one of not very many circuits you don’t know. I guess the medical car experience was quite useful. SB: Yeah, it was useful at the end of the season on the last couple of circuits. This circuit was new to me. It is not a street circuit, but it is not a proper circuit, so it is really green and you have got a big improvement in the first session, so you need to understand well if it is what you change on the car or if it is the circuit or if it is yourself, so you have got to analyse everything. Q: But you feel you have made a fairly good transition from GP2 to Formula One? SB: We had slick tyres in GP2, so it is not such a big change anymore. In GP2 you work with one engineer and you work with like 15 in F1, so it is bit more tricky, but I would say that driving the car is not such a big difference. It is a faster car for sure and you have got the best drivers in the world, so you have got to be doing everything perfect if you want to be up there. Q: Mark, your fastest lap time was fourth fastest and the only non-diffuser car in amongst there. What was that lap like? MW: Pretty good. We did a few laps around it as well but as the other guys said we are chipping away on the car and trying to improve it. We were dealing a little bit with the wind as well and all the normal things that you have on a track like this on a Friday, so it wasn’t too bad a lap. I was a bit little surprised to be there to be honest but we will see what fuel loads people run tomorrow. Q: Do you think you can do it again tomorrow? MW: No. Q: Why not? MW: Because other people will go faster, I think. Q: How’s the leg holding up? MW: Very good, very good. Luckily it doesn’t give me much grief in the car. The biggest challenge is walking up and down this pit lane but I’m OK with it. I just have to rest it each evening as best as I can. I’ll be fine after the first few races; come Shanghai I should be pretty good. Q: It’s taken quite a recovery. It must have been a very bad break. MW: Oh yeah, my leg was snapped in half, so it takes a while to recover. It has surprised me how long but the guys say that’s exactly how much time it needs. It’s quite a big break. I’ve had good people around me and I’ve had very, very good advice at crucial times to get the right decisions made at the right time to get the other surgery done and go from there, which was very, very important for me because we didn’t have much time. Also with the testing, I wanted to make sure I didn’t interfere with the testing with the team, in terms of not being able to do the work that I should have been able to do. Yeah, I was lucky to have good people and here we are. Q: These reliability issues that you’ve had today, have they come as a surprise or have you had those sorts of problems in testing as well? MW: The amount of them, yeah. Obviously Sebastian also had a few today as well, so that was quite a few for the amount of laps we did for both cars in terms of the little niggles that we had and it only takes a small niggle to be a show-stopper on Sunday, so we want to make sure that they’re not there. Of course, winter testing doesn’t go without its problems, but we were a bit surprised by some of the problems, yeah. QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR Q: (Frederic Ferret - L’Equipe) Fernando, were you happy with your first day, and what are you expecting in qualifying and the race? FA: I think I’m happy but I could be happier. Pace-wise, it’s difficult to understand. It’s only Friday but we were tenth in the first session, twelfth in the second, so obviously it’s not the perfect position from which to fight for podiums, for wins etc. So hopefully tomorrow we need to find some more performance in the cars, to be a little bit quicker and we cannot afford to start the race in the middle of the pack if we want to score some good points,. So tomorrow expectations for qualifying are more or less the same and we will try to start the race in the top six, the top eight. If not, I don’t think we can be too happy if we start behind those positions. Q: (Andrea Cremonesi - La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for all of you: in the first seven positions there are all the cars with the diffusers except Mark’s, supposedly not within the spirit of the regulations. Do you fear that it could be a hard championship for those who don’t have the diffusers, that it could be two championships in one? MW: No one here knows the ultimate pace until we get going on Sunday and even then we might see some teams not showing their full pace on Sunday if they’ve got something up their sleeves. I think that they will be very, very keen to keep this advantage if they can, legality-wise, which so far they seem to have done. But I don’t fear that there will be two different championships in the race. I think it will still be a competitive Grand Prix and that should not get in the way of what the ruling is. I’m sure it will be looked at a bit further, by the sounds of it, and we will go from there. As you all know, the drivers can’t do much about this stuff, it’s up to the boffins to sort it out. Q: (James Allen - Financial Times) For Fernando and Lewis, the two drivers using KERS here, is it simply a case of using it in one place on the track or have you been experimenting today with perhaps using it out of some corners and trying different things with it and if so, would you be able to share some of your discoveries? LH: I don’t think it’s rocket science. It’s the same for all of us, we use it as much as we can and we have 400 kilojoules, around six and a half seconds, I guess, to use over a lap, so you generally try to use two seconds or a second a time out of every corner if you can use it but you have to spread it out throughout the lap. FA: Same. Obviously for optimum lap time normally we follow the instructions of our team, our engineers which is to use a little bit of KERS every place they tell you. But we still have the capacity or the possibility of using all the KERS in one place but that will be maybe more in a race situation if you are fighting with someone, if you really want to attack in one manoeuvre, try to overtake him. Maybe you save all the 400 kilojoules for one time but this is something that we will discover in the race for the first time because in testing it’s different and it will be the first time that we race with KERS obviously and it will be a new experience for everybody. Q: (Ian Parkes - The Press Association) Lewis, you’ve been used to running at the front in Formula One for the past two years now, pretty much throughout most of your career. I’m just wondering how difficult it might be for you in the short term until you hope the car comes good, running towards the back of the pack, midfield if that’s the way it’s going to be, looking at the practice today. LH: I think it’s tough for anyone, but we’ve got a lot of experience as a team, but personally I’ve got a lot of experience of running at the back in other categories, so it’s not completely new to me and we have had some races where I have been a bit further back but for sure we’re not in the place where we would rather be but we’re working extremely hard, as hard as we can and it’s actually a good opportunity for us to try and turn it round. We’ve got a steep, very tough challenge ahead of us but if anyone can do it, I believe my team can and so we’ve just got to remain positive and keep pushing. Q: (Mike Doodson) Mark, I understand that marshals have had to take special precautions if they are handling a car that’s fitted with KERS. I believe this involves heavy gloves. I wonder if you, your fellow drivers, the GPDA are concerned at all about the possibility of the delays that this could create in intervening if there’s a serious incident. MW: That’s a very good question. Obviously if there is a large accident, like Robert’s for example, and we need pretty good medical attention and very fast, it has been mentioned a while ago that we would like it to be addressed. They’re pretty sure that they have the right type of gloves to still do the procedures that they need to do quite quickly, the important procedures that they need to do at the scene of such an accident, to make sure everything’s OK, so hopefully we don’t have to experience that at all. As usual, you do gain knowledge and experience sometimes on the front line, so we will see how it goes. I think that there’s not many cars with KERS anyway, so hopefully they will have some common sense that they know that the cars with KERS, the cars without KERS, can be treated a bit differently in the case of a panic or an emergency. Q: (Mike Doodson) I don’t want to put you on the spot, but there was an incident in Adelaide involving Mika Hakkinen in the nineties when it was instant intervention which actually saved his life. Presumably you have that sort of thing in mind as well. MW: Of course, yeah. Now we know what procedure Mika Hakkinen had on the day and that was of course what saved his life very quickly. The FIA and the medical team and all those people understand what we need in a very critical situation like that, so they need to be aware of it and deliver for us, of course, they need to do it. I bloody hope so. Q: (Chris Creswell - Herald Sun) I’ve just been reading your diary, Sébastien, it’s very funny. Did you really get your Toblerone chocolates taken off you by the customs? SB: No, it was a joke. Q: (Chris Creswell - Herald Sun) And that $350 taxi fare was a joke too? SB: Yup. |
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Williams, Brawn and Toyota had all looked quick in pre-season testing, but no one was quite sure how it would translate come Melbourne. On Friday we got the answer. The leading teams and their rivals reflect on their early progress at Albert Park&ldots; Williams Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:26.687, 1st; P2 - 1:26.053, 1st “In both sessions sector two was working particularly well. There are only two ‘real’ corners in the sector, but it’s really interesting and it feels good in the car. The FW31 is well balanced all round the track, but seems even more so there than in any other places. After a winter of testing, it’s good to get out on a new, fresh track and we seem to be in a better position than we thought.” Kazuki Nakajima, P1 - 1:26.736, 2nd; P2 - 1:26.560, 7th “Sector two is my favourite here at Albert Park. It includes a complete variety of corners, from the medium speed in turn 6 to the slow speed corners like 9, while 11 and 12 are the quickest. It makes it hard to establish a rhythm, but sector two certainly keeps your attention!” Brawn GP Rubens Barrichello, P1 - 1:27.226, 4th; P2 - 1:26.157, 2nd "To be here in Melbourne is a real achievement for the team and it feels good to be back in the car and working towards a race weekend strategy again. Despite the limited testing time that we were able to do before this race, we have proved that we have a competitive car and were achieved some good work today. We evaluated both tyres and are happy with the overall performance so I think we have a good chance of a strong qualifying performance tomorrow." Jenson Button, P1 - 1:27.467, 6th; P2 - 1:26.374, 5th "It was great to finally get the season underway today. We had a good first day of practice and the long run performance looks competitive, particularly on the harder tyre. We still have some work to do on the softer tyre so that will be a priority for tomorrow's practice session. I had traffic on both of my new tyres runs at the end of the day which was a shame so we don't know how quick we are over one lap yet but there is plenty of time to find that out tomorrow." Ross Brawn, team principal "The circuit at Albert Park is very different to the tracks that we used for our limited pre-season testing programme so our focus today has been on setting the car up to suit the conditions that we have here and the preferences of our drivers. Track conditions improved considerably in the second session however we are clearly not alone in finding the experience of running slightly later in the day less favourable than anticipated. It is a useful indication of what we may find when the race runs at a similar time on Sunday. The car performed well and we are pleased with the day's work experiencing only minor issues which are to be expected with our limited testing mileage. A good start to the weekend." Toyota Jarno Trulli, P1 - 1:28.142, 12th; P2 - 1:26.350, 3rd "It was a tough day because we covered quite a few laps and had a lot of things to work on. In general we have worked really hard to understand the tyres and find the right set-up, which is not easy. I am still not completely happy with the car balance and, even though when you look at the timing sheets things look pretty good for us, the car isn't completely comfortable to drive. Now we have to work on improving the set-up and the balance for tomorrow when it is most important. Anyway, I have to say it's great to be back at a Grand Prix because I love being behind the wheel with the atmosphere and excitement of a race weekend; this is what I live for." Timo Glock, P1 - 1:27.710, 8th; P2 - 1:26.443, 6th "In the end I am satisfied with our day but I have to say the first session went better than the second session for me. In the first session I had a good feeling from the car and things were running well but then later on I suddenly had a few problems because the car was a bit nervous and didn't feel as stable on the long runs. The behaviour of the car seemed to change between the sessions so we have to look at the data to understand why that happened. So we still have some work to do but that is the purpose of practice and we will work hard on the car set-up before qualifying tomorrow." Dieter Gass, chief engineer, race and test "It was a reasonable day for us. The track evolution was different compared to previous years but that was probably connected to the later start for practice. As usual it was dirty to begin with so that affected the grip and then in the second session it seemed the track began to drop off at one stage. The biggest issue we have to follow up is the tyres because the behaviour is not quite as we expected, but apart from that it was a pretty smooth day with both cars. We didn't have any significant issues so we completed quite a lot of laps and got through our full programme of looking at set-up and studying the tyres. It is only Friday so it's not easy to judge relative performance but we are looking quite competitive, even though we will focus on improving our long-run performance before the race." Red Bull Mark Webber, P1 - 1:29.081, 17th; P2 - 1:26.370, 4th "It's great to be back in Australia. I'm proud of the Australian GP; they put on an excellent show here for everyone and it's good for the local people. They've had a tough few months recently with the fires, so I hope they enjoy the weekend. My day today was a bit hit and miss to be honest, as we had a few technical problems with the car. "I didn't get many laps in during the first session, but the second was a lot better. We completed more laps and tried both types of tyres, so we've got some good stuff to go through tonight. It was quite interesting to see how low the sun was through the trees towards the end of the second session, it was good to run with that to get used to it for Sunday." Sebastian Vettel, P1 - 1:32.784, 20th; P2 - 1:26.740, 8th "We had a bad session in this morning's practice and didn't get too much running, due to a hydraulics problem. In the afternoon we were able to get some laps in, but unfortunately I made a stupid mistake towards the end of the practice, so we couldn't run through our programme. "Nevertheless, it's looking alright with what we've done compared to the time we had on the circuit, so let's see how we go tomorrow. Like always on Fridays, it's a bit difficult to interpret everyone's lap times, but I think we can be happy." Christian Horner, team principal "After the off-track activities of the last couple of days, it was good to get the weekend under way. There were a couple of issues in the first session - a hydraulics leak with Sebastian and a driveshaft problem with Mark limited our run-time. "In the second session both drivers showed good pace and we worked through our programme. Unfortunately Sebastian had a small off, which ended his day early, but both drivers seem comfortable in the car and their pace was respectable." Force India Adrian Sutil, P1 - 1:27.993, 9th; P2 - 1:27.040, 9th “I hope this is representative of where we are, but it is still very early on in the weekend. We had a good session in the afternoon and could do some quite promising runs. I was pleased with the car, we had no real problems. The balance depended on the tyres. In the second session we did some race runs and struggled a lot with the softer tyre, but I think once the track rubbers in the tyres will grip better, but overall it was OK and a good position in the end. I think we can be happy with where we are right now. Giancarlo Fisichella, P1 - 1:28.603, 14th; P2 - 1:27.282, 13th “It's a bit too early to say how we can perform this weekend. The car is better under high speed but so far I am struggling with the rear locking and I'm not 100 percent comfortable just yet. We're in better shape than last year for sure though. We will see tomorrow but at least we know there is potential to improve over night.” Simon Roberts, chief operating officer “It's been a promising start to the weekend today. I've been really pleased with the team and the overall performance. We managed to get everything we needed to completed and, apart from a couple of niggles in the first session - really just early season teething problems - it was a good team showing.” Ferrari Felipe Massa, P1 - 1:27.642, 7th; P2 - 1:27.064, 10th "We are more or less okay with the set up, although there is still room to improve the performance. I was not able to do a time on the soft tyres in the second session as I made a mistake because of oversteer: in this phase we had a different balance on the car compared to when we had used the hard tyres, which proved not to be the ideal choice. On top of that, towards the end of the session, the wind got up a bit, which definitely did not help. Tomorrow, with everyone on the same fuel load, we will see what the situation is." Kimi Raikkonen, P1 - 1:26.750, 3rd; P2 - 1:27.204, 11th "This morning, the car went well, while in the afternoon, we didn't manage to find a satisfactory set up, even though we tried various solutions. I think there is every chance we can improve our performance, but I can't say by how much compared to the others. Today, it's difficult to say where we are compared to them and we will see after tomorrow's qualifying." Luca Baldisserri, sporting director “The first Friday of the season always throws up some surprises and that is even more than usual the case this year, given the numerous rule changes. Today, we did a lot of running and had no technical problems: reliability will be one of the dominant themes of the championship and it will be vital to try and pick up points every time. In these three hours of free practice, we saw that our performance over a long run seems to be very consistent but we have to see how to improve outright performance for tomorrow's qualifying." Renault Fernando Alonso, P1 - 1:28.123, 10th; P2 - 1:27.232, 12th “At last, after lots of winter testing, expectations and predictions, we have started the 2009 season. Today we concentrated on car set-up in hot conditions without being too concerned by what our competitors were doing. We now have lots of valuable information and, as usual, we will go over that this evening. We are missing some grip but we have some ideas about how we can overcome these issues. So I’m still confident. We should deliver a better performance tomorrow.” Nelson Piquet, P1 - 1:29.461, 18th; P2 - 1:27.828, 19th "That wasn’t an easy day. I struggled to find a good balance on a green track with little grip. However, the settings that we worked on today have still helped us explore some interesting developments for tomorrow and I remain positive.” Pat Symonds, executive director of engineering “As always in Melbourne, there are lots of support races and the track was in reasonable condition when free practice began. Having said that, the sessions took place quite late in the day and the asphalt tended to cool down and we had to take this into account. The car was not as well balanced as we would have liked. We encountered lots of oversteer today and reducing that is what we are concentrating on. "The harder tyres are rather difficult to get up to temperature. The soft tyres give a good level of performance from the first lap, but they then suffer from quite significant graining. We encountered an electrical problem on Fernando’s car this morning and that limited his track time a little bit. Other than that, the R29 has not had any problems. Our goal is to focus on the balance of the car in order to overcome the oversteer on this demanding circuit.” BMW Sauber Nick Heidfeld, P1 - 1:28.137, 11th; P2 - 1:27.317, 14th "It was great fun to drive here today. It was high time the season started. We had no technical problems and completed our entire programme - with the usual tyre comparison and long runs. The Albert Park circuit isn't a permanent race track and, therefore, naturally has a very low grip level at the beginning of the race weekend. It improved a little during the two practice sessions but even in the end it wasn't good." Robert Kubica, P1 - 1:28.511, 13th; P2 - 1:27.398, 15th "It was the first Friday of the season, but, apart from that, it was the normal work improving the set-up and evaluating the tyres for the race. We collected a lot of data which we have to analyse so we can make more progress. Overall we are lacking grip, and we have to find out why." Willy Rampf, head of engineering "At last the new season has started! We did not have any technical problems today, KERS also worked without any difficulties. We were able to complete our full programme. The focus was the set-up work for the race, but so far we are not satisfied with this. The decisive factor will be to use the tyre performance perfectly for both specifications. We will concentrate on this in the third practice." Toro Rosso Sebastien Bourdais, P1 - 1:29.499, 19th; P2 - 1:27.479, 16th “It was good that we had a trouble free day and were able to get on with our work, even if we knew we were not going to be quick enough, as we are lacking some development parts, which at this early point in the season always make a big difference. I was fairly happy with the balance of the car on the super soft tyre, apart from a bit too much oversteer at high speed. Overall, it’s not too bad, but we will do the best we can even if I think we will struggle to make it into Q2 tomorrow.” Sebastien Buemi, P1 - 1:28.785, 15th; P2 - 1:28.076, 20th “My first F1 practice session and I had a lot of new things to learn and to deal with. It was not too bad, we tried various changes and improved the car lap by lap. The second session got off to quite a good start, but later we had some difficulty with finding the right set-up. Given our lack of testing with this car, today was like a test session which we used to learn more about the car. It’s my first time at this circuit and I still need to get used to it and I learned a lot, but there is still plenty to do to improve tomorrow.” McLaren Heikki Kovalainen, P1 - 1:27.453, 5th; P2 - 1:27.802, 17th “Although the track was very green and slippery, the car felt good from the start of the session. Our balance was good, particularly in the high-speed corners, and KERS deployed well, working smoothly throughout both sessions. A reasonable first day - even if the times don’t properly reflect that. We saw some decent pace and made some progress which was pleasing for the new guys on my car this year.” Lewis Hamilton, P1 - 1:29.042, 16th; P2 - 1:27.813, 18th “The first session didn’t prove too productive for us. We worked hard to get the prime tyres to operate effectively, but the track conditions and our set-up made it difficult to get them to work, and it didn’t give me the confidence to push hard. The changes we made after P1 made the car feel much better. We’re still working to refine the balance - and we have a number of issues still to address - but we are heading in the right direction.” Martin Whitmarsh, team principal “We arrived in Australia fully aware that we’d be facing a tough start to the season. But we adhered to a disciplined programme today, focusing on tyre durability work, and weren’t swayed by a desire to post flattering times. Equally, we’re now focusing on implementing the performance steps we’ve planned for the next few races. Overall, then, we’ve made good progress recently but are well aware that we’ve still got a lot of work to do.” Norbert Haug, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport vice-president “After the winter tests, we knew that we would have a difficult start into the season. While our car has improved since the Barcelona test, we still have a lot of work to do.” |