Friday's press conference - Turkey
TEAM PRINCIPALS: Flavio BRIATORE (Renault), Stefano DOMENICALI (Ferrari), John HOWETT (Toyota).
Q. To start with could you talk about your own team's performance so far this year; whether and when you expect it to improve. How do you feel about it so far.
Flavio BRIATORE: We are not happy at all. We were expecting a different championship and we were expecting a much better performance from our car. From the beginning when we arrived in Australia we felt that we had a big difference between us and the Brawn. I think everybody felt that. I think you guys knew what was going on (becomes inaudible). Our team I believe approached the 2009 car from a completely different approach but we expect to improve race by race if it is possible. But now the question is if we see what happens.
For me the championship is finished already. Brawn is very, very difficult to beat for anybody. Maybe Red Bull have a god possibility to finish second and I think everybody else is fighting for the third and fourth place. This is the honest situation, for sure. We never give up and we try to improve the car but everybody is improving the same and this is the situation where we are.
Q. When we had the first diffuser for the Renault in China we thought that was going to be the answer. But it doesn't seem to have made a difference.
FB: I don't think it is only the diffuser. It is with the concept of the car. Everybody now has the diffuser. I believe as well Brawn at this moment have another one or two tenths in the pocket. We try very hard but this is the situation. The team is improving the car and we have a chance now we are in June and July we want to really push with this car and see what happens. But the situation is really, really difficult for us.
Q. Stefano, same thing with you really. It looked better in Monaco but Monaco tends to be a little bit of a wild card really.
Stefano DOMENICALI: Well, I think that, first of all, of course, the start to the season was not really the start that we wanted or what we expected. We knew we had to pay the price as we fought to the end last year with our competitor McLaren. But then what you have to do is try to consider the reality and react and this is what we are doing with all the people at home.
I think that the car has improved and our target is to make sure we do the maximum during the weekend in order to go back to our normal standard. This is the approach that we will have day by day. We did a step already in Spain and we had quite a good performance in Monte Carlo and we hope to have a good race here in Turkey and we will not give up until the moment when we really feel we cannot do it anymore. That is our approach.
Q. What about the indications so far here as you have a big reputation to defend. Felipe (Massa) won the last three years from pole and Kimi (Räikkönen) won the year before that, admittedly not in a Ferrari.
SD: I think today it was pretty difficult to understand exactly what the picture is as the track was pretty strange. The track condition was very changeable. We saw that both the hard (tyre) and also the soft didn't perform as we expected in getting better and better. For sure the hard improved lap by lap but with no real grip on our car. But also with the soft we didn't improve exactly the time as we were thinking. But overall we need to consider the gaps today and we need to understand what the fuel load of all the cars is. It would be wrong to take any judgement before understanding the picture. I think that tomorrow morning with the track in a better condition we should have a better idea of what will be the race on Sunday.
Q. John, for Toyota was Monaco just a one-off? Did you understand what happened there?
John HOWETT: Well, we had four strong races. Barcelona, some question mark although relatively we didn't seem quite so competitive, particularly in sector three. Monaco was more or less unacceptable and we have to see where we are this weekend. We expect to have a return to a competitive position.
Q. What is the indication so far?
JH: Well, I think like Stefano says it is pretty difficult today. The track has been fairly green. The tyres have been difficult probably because of the track condition and we need to understand tomorrow. But relatively we have looked definitely stronger than Monaco.
Q. A question on a slightly different subject. There have been rumours that the Japanese Grand Prix won't go back to Fuji. What is the official line from Toyota?
JH: Genuinely it is not Toyota Motorsport's position. I am not involved at all with Fuji Speedway. It is another company within the Toyota group. I have heard that they are reconsidering but I genuinely can't answer and I don't know the exact position.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q. (Mark Hughes - Autosport) Stefano, Max Mosley is saying that Ferrari is contractually obliged to race in next year's Formula One World Championship because of the Concorde Agreement. What is your take on that?
SD: Well, our position is very clear and we have already said that. That is the position of Max of course. We had an agreement with the FIA but we felt that the obligations inside that agreement were breached, so the agreement is not valid anymore. We have put in our entry together with other competitors with the condition that we think is important to respect for the future of Formula One. If I may take the opportunity to say that I think it is important at this moment to be constructive. There is no-one who wants to have any fight with anyone because this is not, at least on our side, the position that we want to take.
It is a moment where we genuinely need to find a solution. We have been here in Formula One for 60 years. We behave with a lot of responsibility to make sure that the values of Formula One will remain and this is the reason why we feel that it is important to look at this condition. This is the approach that we have taken together with FOTA. Do not underestimate that this year with FOTA we have already achieved a lot of cost saving measures without anyone that was requesting us as we know what the environment around is. But stability, governance, rules and the way to change them, these are crucial points to the future of Formula One. We want to work together to try to find a way out of this moment which is really not good for Formula One.
Q. (Jonathan Legard – BBC) This is a question for all of you. Can any of you shed light on these conditions which you were encouraged to attach to your entry beyond 2010 by FIA President Max Mosley and then apparently he is now quoted as saying you cannot possibly apply conditions like this. You just have got to come in or that's it. How do you read the situation?
JH: Regarding the situation I don't know. We will just have to wait and see what the response is. If you look in the International Sporting Code, I think it is Article 75, there is a mention of conditional entry although it does mention that it needs to be specified in the supplementary rules which maybe it isn't. We did attend a meeting where we were invited by the President to submit conditional entries. I think the conditions are the conditions that the FOTA members have jointly developed and feel are the right conditions to submit our entries in and are positive for the future of the sport. The reaction? I think we just have to wait and see.
SD: I think on my side I think I can add only one thing. The starting point is I think what the FIA wanted to achieve in terms of goals and I think they were very clear. And I think that the answer from all the teams that are entering the championship and want to attend for the future in Formula One are basically targeting exactly the goals the President of the FIA gave to us. This is very important to tell. We know that cost saving is very important for all of us but with all respect we should know how to run our business and we are here to make sure that in any case we are profitable and we develop the brand and we use Formula One for marketing tools.
That is part of the business. We know that and we have a proposal to make sure that we control for the future a significant reduction in costs. So target one is done. Secondly we want to have stability on the governance of the rules and basically make sure that the process by which you can change the regulation is the one that was used in the history of Formula One in the right way. The third point is by doing that, by being altogether, we are confirming all the teams to be here and stable up until 2012. I think basically that was another point of worry for the FIA not to have a constructor present in Formula One. I think that all these points are basically responding to the right points of Max when he was worried about the future of Formula One. This is honestly what I can add to what John has said.
FB: I think it is very clear. Everybody in the last two weeks says there is a war. There is no war. We don't want any war. There was a comment saying we need a war. I think we have the responsibility for the employees that we have. I think we have the responsibility with the fans and with the supporters of Formula One. We don't want war with anybody. What we want is governance. We want a system that was always in Formula One. We want a Formula One Commission. We want a Concorde Agreement. We want stability.
We want to cut costs and make Formula One more efficient. It is not nice when somebody says that next year Renault will not be in Formula One anymore, Toyota is not in Formula One anymore and BMW is not in Formula One anymore. We do not trust these people and in the meantime we are trusting Mike Gascoyne with all respect to Mike Gascoyne and Mr Campos with all respect to Mr Campos. Yet this bunch of shell companies is putting in the entrance. I think it is very destructive when somebody tells me that Renault next year is not in Formula One anymore in a moment we are negotiating with sponsors, with supporters.
It is destructive for Toyota and everybody as well. We want only a healthy Formula One. We have the responsibility with the fans. We never talked about the million, million people watching us. People do not understand anymore what is going on. We want only to just stay in the business, have a normal governance and work with everybody, with Mr Mosley. We do not want a war with Mr Mosley. Nobody wants a war with anybody. We don't want a war with Mr Ecclestone. We don't want a war with anybody. We want to have a better Formula One, better show, better entertainment. This is what we want.
For sure we want to be Formula One more efficient and this is nice if we are working together to achieve the target. What we want to achieve is maybe much less of what is proposed by the federation but is a different way to achieve it. There is no war. There is no winner, no loser. If there is a war everybody will lose but we just accept all the bombardments we have day by day. We are not at war with anybody. We just want to respect our employees, our brand and it is not nice when somebody tells us that next year Renault is no longer in Formula One.
This is really destructive if somebody believes the constructor is not in Formula One anymore. We have been in Formula One the last 20 years if you are talking about Renault and Ferrari 60. What kind of guarantee can this company give you that apply for entry to the championship. There is nothing wrong with a new company if it is properly done. We are talking about that, it looks like Brabham is just arriving and the family is fighting already. It is only a shell company. This is very destructive for Formula One, for the value of our brand and for the show, for the people. We want this Formula One, simple as that.
Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) This is primarily a FOTA question: there seems to be a perception that FOTA is being extremely selfish and possibly even sinister in trying to keep out the newcomers, those who have registered an interest in coming in. Does FOTA actually welcome these incoming teams?
JH: Yes. I think there's a lot of misinformation which carries on from Flavio's point. I think that all the major companies, and I would say beyond manufacturers and FOTA members who have contributed in six decades – us, almost one decade – to Formula One and I think we have been working very unselfishly in the last four or five years to reduce the cost of entry. I've never heard any resistance from any FOTA member to welcoming new teams. I think, generally, all we're asking for is a stable platform derived, really, from a Concorde Agreement and once we have a stable governance and a stable platform I think we can significantly improve the sport for the benefit of all the stakeholders and that's purely and simply the intention of FOTA.
And if I could go beyond that, I think that we are, as many of the major players in FOTA, an integral part of global motor sport. We're involved in young driver programmes, quite a number of us provide Formula Three engines. You see major sponsorship, for instance, from Red Bull. We are active from grass roots to motor sport at the top level, everywhere. I think the value of motor sport is very important to us, so to point out that we are being selfish or sinister is, I think, genuinely wrong. Most of the big companies involved in FOTA I think are serious about motor sport and adding value at all levels across all areas of motor sport. Renault, I think, are very strong in that, Ferrari are synonymous with motor sport. I don't think we have to say anymore.
SD: If I may add just one thing to what I said at the beginning: do not forget that this year, without the help of the members of FOTA it was maybe not possible for some of the teams that are contesting the championship this year to run. So we did something for the benefit of all the people that are racing now, to make sure that they can stay alive. So I think it is wrong to say that FOTA is selfish. FOTA is in the status to say that it is an entity that is here to make sure that it's working properly, with the FIA, with FOM, for the benefit of motor sport, and this is the way that we are approaching this, all the members, all together, in that respect.
FB: I think the same as John and Stefano. We shouldn't forget an example like Brawn; without Mercedes, sure they would have no engine for this season. That's quite clear. A lot of the team members of FOTA have their engines for five million for the future and it never happened. Five million is a representative amount, six or seven percent of the budget. We're talking about the gearbox.
FOTA wants the new teams, no problem, but everybody has to respect the same rules, the same situation. We want Formula One with one rule, we want Formula One with different engines – we want Ferrari engines, we want Renault engines etc., etc. I don't think we're asking something completely mad. What we want is stability, stability of governance, that's what we want. I don't think it's something which is selfish or cynical. I think FOTA has made incredible steps to help everybody. We are very happy if some new teams want to enjoy Formula One under the same conditions, with the same rules.
Q. (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Stefano, you mentioned earlier about being constructive but how destructive is it when the president of the FIA this week turns round and mentions that if you guys want your own rules, you can go and run your own championship? And if, come next Friday, the FIA rejects the block bid from FOTA, will Ferrari be prepared to lead the other nine teams into that new championship?
SD: First of all, I can reply what I can say. We want to be as constructive as we can. Of course, for me in this civilisation of discussing, confronting themselves, it's the nature of this world, it's something that we need to accept and it's not normal that when you want to find a solution, you cannot find a solution. For me that's imperative.
And I think that everything that we're asking for, if I may say, is absolutely linear and consistent with the history of Formula One: nothing new, so it's very, very logical. Regarding the second question, if our entries are rejected, what is going to happen? I think that within FOTA we need to sit down and discuss the situation but we really want to find a solution.
Q. (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Everyone has pretty much the impression that FOTA and the FIA are pretty much bluffing, so which one is bluffing the most? And the second question is do you think that the FIA has put itself in a very bad position because there are six to eight new teams which want to enter the 2010 championship and ten wish to remain?
JH: We can't really answer, that's a position the Federation has to explain to you. I think whether or not they've done the right thing or the wrong thing is something we can't really clarify. I would confirm that we're not bluffing and I don't mean that as a threat. I just think that we just have a sincere, simple, straightforward position which we believe is correct for stabilising the future of Formula One. From our side, it isn't power politics or war, as Flavio said.
Q. (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Deutschland) If nobody wants a war can you then explain why it's so difficult to find a solution for this crisis?
FB: Honestly, we don't know. For us it's a surprise why it's so difficult. On my side, we don't understand why it's so difficult. We want to be in Formula One. We want to be there in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015. Again, we are always talking about 2012, I don't know why. We are talking about the future; why not 2013, 2014. I don't think there's any difference. From day one, FOTA was never aggressive with anybody. We just want to participate in the championship, we want to cut costs, we want to have clear rules, we want to have a governance, we want to go through, like it was in your time, we need a Formula One Commission, we need to make all the decision-setting together for the good of the sport, for the good of Formula One.
All the time we are forgetting the fans, the tifosi, the people. We're always forgetting these people. There is a lot of confusion now. I don't understand what the problem is. I think some people really don't understand why there is a problem. It's very destructive. We're not bluffing because when you have the responsibility of three or four hundred people, it's not bluffing. These are people who go home and the next day we need to make sure that we have the money to pay their salaries. You're not bluffing when you are putting on the line so many employees between everybody. We have to be concerned about that. We have people who have mortgages, we have people who have to send children to school. We are not bluffing. As I say, we don't want any war, we want stability in order to have a long term Formula One engagement. This is what we want. We don't want anything special, we just want stability, just stability.
Q. Max Mosley said in Monte Carlo that he will insist anyway on this £40m budget cap. Could it be realistic in 2011, 2012 for you or at any time?
SD: As I have said, the objective to cut costs is pretty clear but we don't think the way and the numbers have to be published. This is a business and we have to manage it and this is the reason why, with all respect, we are not publishing the income or the revenues of other activities connected to Formula One because that's normal. In business, it's part of the game and we want to save money in the way that we feel appropriate to run a business, to run a company. We may arrive at certain numbers but in a different way managed by the teams, and this is the way, as I've said before, to basically achieve the target of the concern of Max, that Formula One is too expensive.
FB: We have ten teams in Formula One, as usual. During the last seven or eight years we have had ten teams. We don't understand what's happened this year because at one point – after Honda decided to not be part of it – it looked like everybody would follow the Honda route. There was this really panicking situation about (needing) more teams in Formula One. We didn't get that point because none of the ten teams still in Formula One want to stop.
Honda is not Honda, it's Brawn. It's not that urgent to find GP3 – no, whatever – Formula Three teams to enjoy Formula One. I don't think it's so urgent because everybody has guaranteed to participate in the championship. We're still here. Next year, if everything is normal, I think everybody will still be there. We didn't understand all this panicking, why we need to change everything. It's very difficult for us to understand because we have confirmed that we want to stay in Formula One, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and we need governance. This is what I think is quite clear. We don't understand why we need this panicking that there are no more teams in Formula One next year.
Q. (Sarah Holt – BBC) Have you had any official response from Max Mosley since submitting your conditional entries last Friday? And the second question is, are you worried that all the remaining eight FOTA teams may not stand together on June 12? Williams has already been suspended, are you worried you might splinter?
JH: Before coming into the room, I hadn't received answer on behalf of Toyota and I don't think the others have, so unless something's come whilst we've been sitting here, at the moment there is no answer from the Federation. I think at the moment, that whilst there are differences, what I think is really impressive about FOTA at the moment is that most of the teams really have a common wish and common bond to achieve the same objectives, so frankly I'm very optimistic that FOTA will remain intact.
Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) John, are you going to suspend Force India? This is the most recent rumour that we've heard because they've done something different. And for Stefano, what will Ferrari's position be if Ferrari are accepted and for instance, Renault and Toyota are not accepted by Max Mosley?
SD: I can answer the second question and I'll leave John the first one. As we said, we are moving jointly in this position, so our position is clear to answer the first question on our situation formally speaking. Secondly, the conditions are the same for everyone, so hopefully we will all be in.
JH: On the Force India question, what I would say is that it's likely they may be suspended. I haven't really had the opportunity to speak to Vijay (Mallya) directly. I think in accordance with FOTA he submitted a conditional entry and apparently due to commercial issues, totally unrelated to any other team or support, they felt obliged – because of other binding legal activity due to funding or other issues – they needed to submit an official entry. He will be here tomorrow and I will speak to him and I have to say that I think it is the intention of FOTA to suspend them, based on a face-to-face discussion with Vijay but he has confirmed to me, through Bob Fearnley, that he is totally supportive and committed to FOTA.
Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) The FIA set an entry deadline of May 29. You people submitted your entries before then, so no problem. However, subsequently, you people issued a deadline of June 11 in terms of signing the commercial agreement. If that deadline is not met, where do you go from there?
JH: In my case, from Toyota's position, we're quite relaxed. I think that what we're asking is reasonable. We believe that common sense will prevail and I think that should the entries be rejected, as Stefano mentioned, we need to sit down and discuss the next steps. We do have a number of scenarios and scenario planning and the worst case scenario would be to have to establish our own series, but I think FOTA has a list of scenarios based on the reaction and how the response of the Federation moves forward.
Ferrari
First Session
F. Massa: 5th 1.29.342 22 laps 276 chassis
K. Raikkonen: 7th 1.29.398 25 laps 279 chassis
Second Session
F. Massa: 11th 1.29.416 38 laps 276 chassis
K. Raikkonen: 15th 1.29.520 33 laps 279 chassis
Weather
First session: air 22/23°C, track 30/34 °C, sunny.
Second session: air 25 °C, track 41/37 °C, sunny then partially cloudy.
The lesson from the first day of practice for the Turkish Grand Prix is that everyone is closely matched, given that the first sixteen in the second session are all within just over seven tenths of a second. The F60s of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa covered a total of 118 laps, without encountering any technical problems. “Today’s results are even more difficult to interpret than they usually are on Fridays,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “Apart from the normal unknowns relating to fuel loads and tyre useage, the track conditions also played a part, as they changed a lot during the two sessions. Having said that, we are reasonably happy with the work we did today, also taking into account our fuel loads. There is still work to do to improve the handling of the car, but all in all, I think we are going in the right direction.”
Felipe Massa: “The track surface today was very dirty, as could be seen by the number of off-track excursions. As for us, we concentrated on finding the best set-up for Sunday’s race and it’s difficult to say where we are compared to the rest. On top of that, everyone is very close in performance terms, so I think we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to understand something. The harder tyres give little grip, as we expected, while the softer ones seems to suffer significant degradation, even though, as the track evolves, that situation should change. The new aerodynamic elements we have here are definitely not worth a second, but they are a small help, which when put all together, improve our performance.”
*Kimi Raikkonen: “At this track, conditions change very quickly, so it is difficult to judge the performance of the various cars on the basis of today’s results. The track is very dirty and, after making some changes to the set-up, the car seemed to handle a bit strangely, but then it was back to normal for my final run in FP2. There is still work to do on the car but I am confident: I think we will find the right solutions to be competitive tomorrow and on Sunday.”
Chris Dyer: “It was a rather complicated day, because of the track conditions, it being dirty and also because of the wind. We got through our programme without the slightest problem, concentrating on tyre choice for the race, finding the best set-up on the car and on evaluating new aerodynamic solutions which are making their track debut today. Both the compounds that Bridgestone brought here seem to be pretty critical in terms of grip, at least from what we could see today. But we know the situation will improve bit by bit as the track gets rubbered in. All in all, we are reasonably satisfied with what we’ve seen today. I think that again here in Turkey, we will be able to confirm the progress seen in Spain and Monaco.”
Bridgestone
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
What was significant about today's running?
"Today was mainly about track condition. Istanbul Park is a fabulous track, but it is not used very much during the year. This means it starts the weekend dirty and it takes time before rubber is laid on the surface to allow our tyres to work well. In the second session this improvement did not happen as much as we would expect and we are working to understand why this could be. Certainly, it was relatively windy today and this has an impact on the current generation F1 cars. Today we heard a lot of talk about lack of grip and graining, however that is usual for a Friday. Here we generally see one of the greatest track weekend evolutions of the season so tomorrow will be interesting."
How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
"This weekend looks to be a little difficult in terms of making predictions and the data from today shows there is still work to be done on set-up for teams, but also that the track is changing. Interestingly, we saw some big differences in car balance dependant on which compound was used, which is not something we have experienced to this extent so far this season. Track temperature is important here. If it gets hotter than today we expect the hard tyre to give more grip than the soft. If it gets cooler, we expect the soft tyre to offer better grip than the hard. Today was in the middle in terms of temperature, so grip levels and lap times were very similar between the compounds."
Force India
Adrian Sutil, P1 - 1:29.864, 12th; P2 - 1:30.081, 17th
“We had no problems on the car today and everything worked well, but the grip level was not good out on the circuit. It was a bit dusty, and the tyres were very difficult to come to terms with, it didn't seem like we had enough grip. We struggled to get in a reasonable lap time and we were always doing the same time regardless of which tyre compound we were on. We now have to see what we are going to do but it may be different when the circuit has a bit more rubber down.”
Giancarlo Fisichella, P1 - 1:30.729, 18th; P2 - 1:30.295, 19th
“The balance was not so good at the beginning of this morning's session as the car was a bit too pointy and nervous, but we went in the right direction and made some positive steps. Then this afternoon on the long run on harder tyres we were quicker but unfortunately I couldn't time a better time on the softer tyres as I had the coming together with Nakajima through Turn 12.”
Dominic Harlow, Force India chief race engineer:
“We were expecting quite a contrast today from Monaco as the circuits are very different, with Istanbul being much more fast and flowing circuit, and that is what we found. The grip was quite low and the balance of the cars a little knife edge and we've some work to do to improve that for tomorrow. Our tyre evaluation today collected the data that we need and it will be interesting to see how things evolve now as it warms up over the weekend. The VJM2 ran reliably and the team worked hard to maximise our track time today.”
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, P1 - 1:30.944, 20th; P2 - 1:22.571, 9th
“My first day in an F1 car at this track was a very difficult one. On the plus side, we had no mechanical problems, so we did a high mileage. That means at least we have a lot of data to analyse to work out why we are slow and hopefully find a better set-up for tomorrow. At the moment, it’s difficult to say where we are, although obviously we are not where we want to be. The main problem today was that we could not get the most out of the tyres. Compared to the others, we are not too bad on a long run, but on new tyres, it wasn’t working 100 percent.”
Sebastien Bourdais, P1 - 1:30.838, 19th; P2 - 1:22.615, 11th
“A tough day and I wish we could have been a bit higher up the order. We are not such a long way off, but there is a little bit missing to put us in the fight. I know that tomorrow will be better, but today we struggled to get the tyres working properly. Usually, the soft is quite a bit better, but today it didn’t bring anything and it was harder to drive with it. In terms of balance it seems like a 50-50 split between oversteer and understeer, but the main problem is lack of grip. Now we must look at all the data and see how we can improve for tomorrow. There have been other races this year where we’ve been a long way back on Friday and then made good progress on Saturday, so we will see&ldots;”
Brawn GP
*Rubens Barrichello, P1 - 1:29.525, 9th; P2 - 1:29.305, 8th
"It's been a slightly different Friday today from our recent experiences. We don't look that competitive at the moment however it is still early in the weekend and depends on the programmes and fuel levels that our competitors are running. There is a lot of work for us to achieve, particularly in the first sector where we seem to be suffering the most, but we believe that we understand the issues. We know that we can work with this car to improve its performance quickly and that puts us in a strong position to make the changes needed ahead of qualifying."
Jenson Button, P1 - 1:29.747, 11th; P2 - 1: 29.430, 12th
"We've had a tough first day of practice trying to find a good balance with the car. We tried many different set-up options over the course of the two sessions but unfortunately could not get the car to where I want it to be and struggled with a lack of grip. However we now have a great deal of information to review after trying a few evaluations and believe that we have some understanding of what is causing the problems. We need to have a good look at everything tonight and I'm hopeful that we can resolve today's issues and have a better day tomorrow."
Ross Brawn, Brawn GP team principal:
"We've had a challenging opening day to the Turkish Grand Prix weekend as we faced issues on both sides of the garage. The team worked very hard in both sessions on a number of set-up changes and whilst we made some progress, we were not able to find a good enough balance on either car. We also experienced a lack of grip on both the prime and option tyre. I'm confident that we will get to the bottom of this overnight and should be in a much better position ready for qualifying tomorrow."
Toyota
*Jarno Trulli, P1 - 1:29.271, 3rd; P2 - 1:29.207, 6th
"We mainly concentrated on set-up work and tyre evaluation as usual on a Friday. The track was pretty dusty, especially in the morning, so we felt a little lack of grip but that was expected here and it should improve tomorrow. The new aero bits are working well and they look like a good step which bodes well for the rest of the weekend. My lap times were competitive and the long runs went well so we will see what we can do for tomorrow. I am pleased with how things went today so we should be competitive."
Timo Glock, P1 - 1:29.934, 13th; P2 - 1:29.518, 14th
“It was a normal Friday practice for me with a programme of long runs and also various set-up comparisons. It was a bit tricky because I didn't feel the balance of the car was exactly where I wanted it to be, especially on the soft tyres, but we will work to improve that in time for qualifying. The lap times were really close in the afternoon session and I know I had the potential to be quicker. We are stronger than we were in Monaco, which is what we expected as that track is a one-off, so we want to demonstrate that in qualifying."
Dieter Gass, Toyota chief engineer race and test:
"It was a very productive day for us. We had some aero updates on the car which we used successfully and we clearly looked better than we did in Monaco, as we anticipated here. As usual in Turkey on Friday you have a very big circuit evolution and we saw that in the morning. In the afternoon, between third and 16th places all cars were within half a second and that means that only a difference of 10kg of fuel would completely mix up the pecking order. So it is difficult to draw conclusions yet but we are definitely on a different level of performance compared to Monaco so we can be optimistic for the weekend."
Red Bull
*Sebastian Vettel, P1 - 1:29.337, 4th; P2 - 1:29.202, 5th
“I felt a vibration during the second session, so stopped the car as it didn’t look very good. We didn’t know what the exact problem was, but when we got the car back it turned out it was the engine. We made some changes to the car between the two practice sessions, which meant we were a few minutes late starting the second practice. It wouldn’t have been a problem but then, as it turned out, I was only able to complete three laps in the afternoon due to the vibration in the car. I’ll be relying on Mark’s data from today - having one car running on Friday isn’t ideal.”
Mark Webber, P1 - 1:30.176, 15th; P2 - 1:29.383, 9th
“It’s not the easiest circuit in the world to stay on the track – a few people were having excursions here and there, but being dusty off line, it’s very easy to run out of talent here. It was a pretty good day for us and we’ve got lots of information to go through tonight. As usual we did the tyre comparison. Turn 8’s a special corner here, very unique, but there are many other corners out there too that we have to get right. We’re looking forward to trying to stay on the track tomorrow and on Sunday.”
Williams
*Kazuki Nakajima, P1 - 1:29.371, 6th; P2 - 1:29.091, 4th
“It was quite a strange practice day, especially the afternoon’s session when we tried the prime and option tyre compares. The tyres really weren’t working well today. I think our car is fairly quick, but we need to wait and check the data to see how we can get the best out of the tyres.”
Nico Rosberg, P1 - 1:28.952, 1st; P2 - 1:29.257, 7th
“I think that the new aero parts we’ve brought out here are working as we expected them to, which is good. Having said that, levels of progress are always calculated in relation to other people and we are never sure where the others are, especially on a Friday. Today’s sessions were mainly about tyre testing. We covered a lot of ground with them, particularly in the afternoon session, so we now have a better understanding of how both the option and prime are working, but we will have another look at them tomorrow morning to figure out how to get the most out of them. It’s clear that tyre choice will be an interesting call for both qualifying and the race.”
*Sam Michael, Williams’ technical director:
“We had a reasonable day in terms of keeping to our schedule and completing the work that we needed to do. We’ve brought some new parts here, all of which are working well. Today proved useful in that we’ve collected some important set-up information which we will look at this evening in order to make the best decisions for tomorrow’s qualifying and then Sunday’s race. We then spent the majority of the afternoon looking at ways to extract the most from the two tyres that Bridgestone have brought here.”
BMW Sauber
*Robert Kubica, P1 - 1:30.645, 16th; P2 - 1:29.056, 3rd
“Today we worked on the set-up of the car and tried to understand the two tyre compounds Bridgestone have brought to Istanbul. Additionally this was the first time we have had the double diffuser on our car. We did a couple of different tests so as to understand how it works and what effects it has on the car’s balance. It is too early to say if it works well as the difference between Monaco and Istanbul is too large.”
Nick Heidfeld, P1 - 1:30.689, 17th; P2 - 1:29.550, 16th
“My lap time doesn’t look good but I still have confidence in our new aero package. Actually the balance of my car wasn’t right, but Robert’s lap time is quite promising. On the positive side, the bad balance of the car has indicated the direction we need to go in and so we can work on it. We didn’t do major changes in the second session because we had to do some important comparisons.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber head of engineering:
“We used the double diffuser for the first time today, and it looks like this is a step forward. However, we still have a lot of work to do, because it’s quite difficult to find the right balance with both tyre specifications. Between the morning and the afternoon sessions we changed the set-up of the two cars quite a bit to make the new aero package work. In the afternoon, as usual, we did our race preparation and the pace looked quite promising.”
Renault
*Fernando Alonso, P1 - 1:29.422, 8th; P2 - 1:28.847, 2nd
"Driving at Istanbul Park on the first day is never easy as the track conditions are really poor and we always see the track evolve during the weekend. So we just tried to get some laps on the car and evaluate some parts, rather than focussing too much on set-up work as we didn't want to get confused by the constantly changing track. So there is more to come and tomorrow morning we will start our proper set-up work. Even though our position looks good today, we know that tomorrow will be more difficult."
Nelson Piquet, P1 - 1:30.132, 14th; P2 - 1:29.401, 10th
"The track conditions weren't easy today as the track was very green and that made it difficult to learn much about the car. It improved a bit in the afternoon and that's when we did most of our running which allowed us to start evaluating the tyres. It's important to make the most of the final practice session tomorrow morning so that I can find a set-up that I am happy with and approach qualifying in reasonable shape."
Pat Symonds, Renault executive director of engineering:
"It was quite a challenging day. The circuit was very slippery - as we saw from the number of cars that went off the track. Also, the tyre behaviour was not as we expected and so despite Fernando's high position on the timesheets, we still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow."
McLaren
*HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
MP4-24-03
P1 programme 20 laps 1m29.590s (10th)
Evaluating the latest series of aero modifications (additions to the front wing and the rear floor), Heikki started the programme on a set of Options (after his initial set of Primes were removed with a loose valve). He completed two runs (five laps/1m31.076s best and two laps/1m31.686s) before switching to a set of Primes to carry out a four lap run at the end of the session (1m29.263s best). The morning was largely spent refining the balance as Heikki felt the set-up required some improvement before he was completely comfortable.
Heikki said: "At the start of the session, the track was very green and it was quite hard to stay on the road - particularly in the opening corners. At first, the car was quite difficult to drive but we worked hard during the session and I think we found a very good balance."
P2 programme 37 laps 1m28.841s (1st)
Lunchtime changes improved handling and locking and Heikki declared himself pleased with the balance after an opening five-lap run on Primes (1m29.803s). Another short run (three laps/1m28.841s) was followed by a longer run (eight laps/1m29.882s) - both on Primes. Two final runs were carried out on Options (two laps/1m29.550s and seven laps/1m30.427s). Despite being affected by an ongoing issue with his brake balance system, Heikki set the fastest time of the day and concluded that his car felt in good shape for the remainder of the grand prix weekend.
"The most important thing is that the car is working fine - and the balance is surprisingly good," Heikki said. "I think we've made another step forward so everybody in the team can be pleased about today. I still think it will be a tough fight to get into the top 10 tomorrow, but we'll be trying the maximum to improve overnight so that we can join the fight. Overall, it's very encouraging that we have made another step forward."
LEWIS HAMILTON
MP4-24-04
P1 programme 23 laps 1m28.952s (2nd)
A busy and productive first session. Starting on a green track, Lewis nonetheless quickly got down to business during three timed runs (a fourth was cut short by the late-session red flag). Running on Prime tyres throughout, Lewis completed runs of five laps/1m30.247s best, four laps/1m29.319s and four laps/1m29.263s.
"The track was very slippery this morning, particularly in the first sector where several cars were sliding around a lot," said Lewis. "But we had a very good session, I was very satisfied with the car: it felt good to drive. More encouragingly, I could also feel a subtle improvement from the new parts we tested today. A good start to our weekend."
2 programme 31 laps 1m29.435s (13th)
Carrying on with a typical Friday afternoon tyre comparison session, Lewis ran a brief run on Primes to confirm between-session mechanical changes (two laps/1m29.435s) before completing two longer runs on Options (eight laps each - 1m29.810s and 1m29.450s). Adapting to rear stability issues, Lewis lost the back of the car at the exit of Turn One and later out-braked himself into Turn 12 during his final run on the Prime (two laps/1m29.887s). Nonetheless, the subtle mechanical and aerodynamic improvements made to MP4-24 for this race look promising.
Lewis said: "Before we arrived here, we thought we'd probably have the same sort of pace that we had in Barcelona, but it seems like we're a little bit faster than we anticipated. I had a couple of spins this afternoon - but that just proves I was pushing hard! We have a little instability on the exit of some corners but I've been pleasantly surprised by the pace of the car today. The guys back at the factory have worked hard to give us this improvement; now we'll keep on working and trying to improve the car and hope that tomorrow is an even better day for us."
MARTIN WHITMARSH - team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
"A good effort by Heikki today, who was quickest despite having a very frustrating two sessions. This morning, he had a valve problem with his tyres so had to switch sets at the last minute, which interrupted his programme. And this afternoon, he had a problem with his brake balance sensor. Despite all this, he conducted his full programme and made reasonable progress over his long runs.
"Lewis concentrated on a tyre comparison and set-up programme. I think we possibly went in a few wrong directions this afternoon, so we're comfortable with the pace we've achieved. There's still a lot of work left to do to optimise the car, but hopefully we can continue the strong progress we started today
"It's always nice to see you've set the quickest time of the day. The reality is that the timesheets don't lie - our aim for tomorrow is to hopefully get both cars into the final session of qualifying. That's our realistic goal."
NORBERT HAUG - vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"Today was a productive test day for us. The laptimes seem to be closer than ever with just over seven tenths of a second separating Heikki in first from 16th place in the rankings. Our laptimes during this afternoon's race simulations looked not bad and hopefully we can make another step forward tomorrow and start from a good position on the grid for Sunday's race."
