DRIVERS – Carlos SAINZ (Toro
Rosso), Felipe NASR (Sauber), Daniil KVYAT (Red Bull Racing), Nico ROSBERG
(Mercedes), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren)
Fernando, if I can start with you. This has been a happy hunting ground
throughout your career – you got your first pole here, you won with three
different manufacturers – so a good place to come back from what was a
difficult episode. What can you tell us about what you’ve been through in
the past few weeks?
Fernando ALONSO: Happy to be here in another Formula One season. I start one
race later than I should be but, yeah, unfortunately I had the accident in
Barcelona and following the recommendations by the doctors I missed the
first race. But, yeah, happy to be here, as I said. Malaysia has always been
a very nice circuit for me in my Formula One career. My first pole position
was here in 2003, my first podium and then as you said three wins with three
different teams give me the possibility always to enjoy this circuit and I
know it’s going to be very tough this year to repeat such a result but,
yeah, happy to be back in the cockpit and ready to enjoy the weekend.
You’ve only done around 500km of testing with this car so far. How do you
see the journey ahead and the challenge now to hit the targets the team has
set?
FA: Well, I think we need to be with the feet on the ground knowing that we
are not in a position that we wanted and not in a position that we will be
hopefully very soon. It will be like a test session for me, the first races.
As you said I did in this car more or less the same number of laps that
another guy do in one day, so obviously I’m not probably confident with the
car in this moment and I will need to learn many things, not only on the
driving style but also on the approach McLaren has to the weekends. So, many
things to learn for me; very challenging moment of my career and ready to
take it.
Okay, thank you. Kimi, coming to you, obviously you had some problems in
Australia towards the end of the race but the pace all weekend was good and
you were close to your team-mate Vettel throughout, so it looks like it’s
going to be a good in-house battle between the two of you. How do you see
it?
Kimi RAIKKONEN: Obviously we are in a much better position than we were say
even at the end of last year so in that way it's a nice place to be but
obviously we still have to improve quite a bit. We want to be in front and
we still don't have the speed exactly, at least in qualifying, to be there.
In the race I think we are a bit stronger compared to Mercedes. But I think
it will be a fun year, obviously not an ideal start of the year and we got
some damage from the start and had those issues in the pit stops but you
know it can happen sometimes but at least we had pretty good speed. I’m sure
we’re going to have strong races and good battles but like I said we still
have some work to do to be absolutely where we want to be but we have done a
good job so far.
Can you tell us what it is about the chassis and the way it handles in
particular that makes it a better race car for you personally?
KR: I think it’s the whole package. It’s not just the engine we improved.
Yes, we improved that a lot but we improved the chassis itself a lot as
well. It’s the whole package, you cannot just point to one area that has
been improved from last year, it’s the whole thing. I think how everybody
works and it’s one team and things are going in the right direction and
people are pushing and doing a good job. Like I said, it’s still early days.
We still have to work hard and improve things but where we started, so far
we have done a good job.
Carlos, coming to you, a great debut obviously in Melbourne for you. It
could have gone even better without the long pit stop. I guess you dream of
your grand prix debut and then when it goes well, like it did, is it a
feeling or elation or relief, or both?
Carlos SAINZ: A bit of everything to be honest. It was a good debut, which
I’m very happy with. It obviously gives you a boost of confidence and also a
big boost of motivation to keep up the good work and keep improving because
I’m sure I still have a lot, a lot, a lot to improve.
Did all the attention that was on your team-mate Max Verstappen help to take
the pressure off you a bit and allow you to perform better?
CS: This may be a bit what it looked like from the outside, but obviously
from the inside I perfectly know the amount of pressure I put on myself and
the amount of pressure STR and Red Bull are putting on us and for sure I can
tell you we have exactly the same amount of pressure to perform. So not
really, to be honest, I think we were pretty equal in that sense and it was
just a good weekend.
Felipe, another rookie and another very good result in Australia with fifth
place, which is the debut result ever for a Brazilian in Formula One. What
does that result… it must be very emotional to even hear that… what does
that performance mean to you and the team?
Felipe NASR: It was very unique I have to say, coming from a very troubled
weekend. My very first ever weekend in Formula One was not ideal the way it
started, with all this trouble, going to court and everything else; missing
first free practice, a track that I didn’t know. So it was a very good
outcome to come up fifth in my first ever race and I think for the team as
well it was something they really needed. It’s important. It shows the team
was ready, myself was ready to put the things on the side and being able to
deliver in the race. It was something very special.
During the race you were able to keep Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull
behind you and you were even able to drive away from him. So how do you feel
about this car and how excited are you about what’s possible this year?
FN: I was a bit surprised to see that happening. I knew the car had the
potential to do it but to hold back Red Bull was unexpected. It could only
show that the car has… the engine has done a good improvement over the
winter, over last year. I think we need to take the profit from these early
races to maximise our potential and getting the opportunities right. I think
there are still teams struggling out there to finish races and we need to
use that as an advantage for us.
Coming to you Daniil, obviously a challenging first weekend to say the least
for you and Red Bull, you qualified behind the Toro Rossos and didn’t even
manage to take the start. What progress have you made with Renault since
Melbourne in particular on the driveability of this power unit?
Daniil KVYAT: I think we will only find the answer tomorrow to be honest. I
hope we did. The whole team now is working really hard to overcome the
difficulties we are facing right now but myself and the whole team we are
used to working realty hard and that’s what we are going to do and we are
going to try our best to put ourselves in a strong position once again.
Last year, of course, you were in the points on your first visit to this
Sepang circuit. What features of this track do you enjoy?
DK: Well, generally, it’s quite a challenging circuit I think for all of us.
It’s famous for the heat, for the warm, hot conditions. Generally this track
has been good to me, I have been here a few times. I enjoy driving it here.
It has a few fast, high-speed sections that you usually enjoy quite a lot as
a driver. I’m looking forward to this weekend and hopefully we will keep
moving forward.
Nico, Melbourne looked like Mercedes had doubled the advantage in terms of
relative fastest laps across the weekend over your nearest rivals compared
to the start of 2014, but do you expect a smaller gap on this type of
circuit?
Nico ROSBERG: I don’t think it’s right to say that. Of course qualifying
pace was very strong, yes, but more important is the race pace, especially
from Kimi we saw an extremely strong stint, so not really fair to say that I
would say. I think Ferrari especially have definitely closed the gap and are
closer than our nearest rival was last year.
Specifically this type of circuit, do you expect the gap to be smaller?
NR: It’s very difficult to say. It’s early days, we need to wait and see how
it goes here.
You said after the race in Melbourne that you could follow Lewis but it was
hard to mount an attack, so presumably qualifying is crucial to get the
advantage this weekend to make sure you start the race on the front foot?
NR: Qualifying is definitely important in this internal battle especially
since we have the same cars but it’s not everything, because we have seen in
the past, even in races, playing around the tyre order or things like that
it’s still possible to overtake and this weekend here, there might be a bit
more leeway in the strategy to try to launch a better attack.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Fernando, how long after the accident did you
start to get memories of the accident back, what did you learn about it when
you went to the factory last week and do you now believe that there was no
problem with the car?
FA: Everything was more or less as a normal concussion. So, I had this
concussion, went to the hospital. I went to the hospital in good conditions.
There is a time that I don’t remember from two o’clock to six o’clock or
something like that, but everything again was normal due to the medication
that they give you to go into the helicopter and to do some tests in the
hospital.
Everything was normal. I didn’t wake up in ’95, I didn’t wake up speaking in
Italian or all these things that probably they were out there. I remember
the accident and I remember everything that following day.
Obviously with the team we have been very close working on that and with the
FIA, they were very helpful all the times, and we were in close contact, all
three parts constantly and yeah, there is not in the data anything clear
that we can spot and we can say it was that, the reason. But definitely we
had a steering problem in the middle of turn three. It locked into the right
and I approached the wall I braked in the last moment, I downshift from
fifth to third, and yeah, unfortunately on the data we are still missing
some parts. Also the acquisition of date on that particular part of the car
is not at the top so there are some new sensors here at this race and there
are some changes we do on the steering rack and other parts and yeah that
was the main thing. The last week at the factory was more a work on the
simulator and trying to explain to me these new sensors and these new parts
that will go on this race.
Q: (Jaime Rodríguez – El Mundo) Fernando, after this episode, have you got
more respect or more fear to your job?
FA: No, not really. You know, at the end of the day we know motorsport is
dangerous. We know that sometimes you have a big accident, spectacular and
the car is completely destroyed and nothing happens, and sometimes you crash
in a low speed corner or something, and it depends on the angle, depends on
how you hit, or which part of the body you hit, you have more or less
injuries. It is the same in the normal day life: sometimes you live an
extreme life and nothing happens and sometimes you walk on the street and
have a big issue. So, no more respect than before, it’s just, y’know, a very
normal thing. I felt ready to go to Australia as well but I understand also
the recommendation from the doctor that it was maybe too early and, yeah, we
wait for one more race. That, obviously, creates even more feeling, no? But
happy to be here, happy to help the team. Obviously we’re struggling a
little bit at the moment and the winter has been quite difficult and the
same at the first race. It was hard for me to watch on TV with the team not
performing so well. So yeah, we are here to help and to give McLaren and
Honda the experience that we can have, Jenson and me, and trying to recover
from this form as soon as possible.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Fernando, you said “the steering
just locked”. The steering is for a racing driver, let’s say, a very
delicate thing in the car, like the brakes if it fails. If you still don’t
know why there was a problem with the steering is that a thing that is
worrying you despite the new sensors you have on the car?
FA: Not really. I think, as I said before, together with FIA and with the
team, we were constantly doing some checks, investigations, some
possibilities, and as I said, there are some areas in the car that,
instrumentation-wise are probably not at the level to see this problem. It’s
like a problem that may occur, in this phrase, 20 years ago, Formula One did
not have the technology to spot that problem. I’m sure that we are missing
something on the data acquisition that we will spot in ten years’ time or
whatever when the technology is available. So, that’s one reason and, yeah,
I have zero doubt or zero concern.
Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph) Question for Fernando. Given that you
remember the accident, as far as you are concerned, it wasn’t a driver error
or, as the team put it, a gust of wind blew you off course in any way?
FA: No, no, definitely not. I don’t know if you see the video but even a
hurricane will not move the car at that speed. Also, if you have any problem
or any medical issue, normally you will lose the power and you will go
straight to the outside, never to the inside. In a Formula One car you still
need to apply some effort on the steering wheel. So, that’s one thing.
Honestly, y’know, obviously with an accident, with the repercussion of the
accident, the news, being in Spain, a lot of attention on that day and
probably the first answers or the first press conference that the team have,
my manager, whatever, all the stuff around in these early days, it was just
some guess. The wind, maybe other possibilities. That creates a little bit
of confusion obviously – but you cannot say nothing for three or four days
until I remember everything because these three or four days then will
become even worse. So I think they say the theory of the wind, etc., but
obviously it was not a help.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) Apologies to the other five members of the
panel but it’s another question for Fernando. With everything that’s
happened over the winter and to yourself personally and to the team as well,
one of the big things that’s been debated by the fans and I’m sure many
journalists in this room is whether you’ve made the right decision,
returning to McLaren. What would your reaction to that debate be?
FA: I’m one of the happiest persons in the world. Yes, I am. I have a
challenge in front of me. A tough challenge clearly. I think it’s difficult
but it’s going to taste better when we do it. I grew up watching TV with
McLaren-Honda domination and Ayrton Senna in the cockpit. I understand that
we are now too far back and we will be heavily criticized and it will be
fair to receive that criticism because we are not at the level we will be –
but it’s nothing we can do now, just work, it’s a long-term project and all
my career I experience some beautiful moments – even the last five years –
with Ferrari we didn’t win the championship but it was a fantastic
experience. But five was enough – I didn’t want to be seven years second or
third so I prefer to risk and challenge for victory. Even if you need to
take some risk for the first year.
Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) A question to Fernando. Coming back to the
accident, can you remember one thing, if you lost consciousness before the
first impact or not, and when, why?
FA: No, I remember everything obviously. I don’t want to go through every
detail because it’s going to be long but I remembered everything. It was
Sunday morning, all the setup changes, the lap times, I think Vettel was in
front of me before Turn Three but cut the chicane to let me go, exiting the
pitlane. After the hit I was kissing the wall for a while and then I switch
off the radio first, because it was on, and then I switch off the master
switch for the batteries to switch off the ERS system just because I saw the
marshals coming and, if not, they cannot touch the car. So, yeah, I was
perfectly conscious at the time. I lost consciousness in the ambulance or in
the clinic at the circuit but the doctors said this is normal because of the
medication that they put you, just for the helicopter transportation and the
checks that they do in the hospital: the MRI and the evaluation needs this
protocol, needs this medication so this is normal that maybe you don’t
remember.
Is is normal the marshals didn’t touch the car?
FA: This I don’t know.
Q: (Manuel Franco – Diario AS) Two questions, the first for Fernando, the
second for Fernando and Carlos. Fernando, what had you learned from the
accident? About people, about you, about life? Second question. In this race
will be three Spanish drivers: you and Roberto Merhi. With England and
Germany it’s the country with most drivers in the race. What do you think?
FA: What I learned is that I have so much support from so many people. It’s
been amazing how many messages from people I’ve received. So many warm
wishes from all the sport and government and everyone. Everyone was so
interested. And in the Formula One paddock as well because even from the
flight on Tuesday that I arrived here until today has been a very nice
experience to see really, truly, wishes of health for me. That was something
that I learned, probably, after the accident. You don’t realize until you
have a problem, or you miss one or two races that, y’know, so many people
are behind you and are supporting you. And then, about the race, yes, it’s
nice to have three Spanish drivers. Hopefully we can see for many years. We
had three previously with Marc Gené and Pedro [de la Rosa] and now hopefully
we can have many more years because Carlos and Roberto, they are very young
and they have good possibility and a good future and I wish they can stay
very long.
Carlos, your view on that?
CS: For me it’s obviously great. I’ve always had a good relationship with
Fernando and I now have a very good relationship with Roberto. I think the
more Spanish the better and, yeah, that’s it.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Speed Sport) Accidents can happen to experienced drivers,
so Nico, and Kimi, do you every worry about having accidents? Has there been
a time in your F1 career where you maybe thought ‘I don’t want to go out?’
NR: Yeah, of course sometimes I think about it and there is a certain
element of fear when I’m driving sometimes but that, I think is natural, and
holds me back sometimes to go too far beyond the limit. But it doesn’t make
me slower in any way.
Kimi?
KR: I’ve had quite a few accidents in the past and last year one not so nice
one. But it’s part of the game. If you make a mistake, you pay a price. It’s
up to you. If you’re not prepared to take the risk or if you’re scared, I’m
sure there’s plenty of guys that are willing to jump in a car and race. So,
no, I think you… obviously it’s part of the thing but I think you have
better chances to get hurt in normal traffic than on the race circuits.
Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) Fernando, the team was saying even up to a
couple of days ago that there was nothing wrong with the car, and yet you’re
saying the steering locked. How do those two statements work together?
FA: Yeah, as I said before, I think it’s clear that there was a problem in
the car but it hasn’t been found on the data at the moment. It’s one of the
things that I did also in the factory last week, not only the simulator but
going - with all the engineers and all the data available - going through
the moments and there are some spots here and there but there is not a clear
answer. So I understand completely and support the team until they find a
clear answer that it was this or that, it’s impossible to say or to lie that
it was this or that. They need to go much further. If they will find
something any time, I don’t know because if after one month we didn’t find
anything on the data, it is maybe because whatever part was the problem, it
was not available on the data, so maybe it will never be.
Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) But they have gone further and say there is no
problem.
FA: Well, I don’t think that they say this any more.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, can you expect this circuit to give
your car the same chance to have a good position , as you had at Melbourne?
KR: Well, I hope it’s better than Melbourne for me. Like I said, we had the
speed and I think things are running smoothly, we just have to avoid
mistakes. We had some bad luck at the start but the car’s been quick at
every circuit we’ve been to so far so I don’t see any reason why it
shouldn’t be here. I think it could be even better than it was at the last
race. It’s a proper circuit and I think it will be good, fitting well at
this circuit so we’ll just wait and see.
Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Fernando, do we now have a precise idea of the
violence of the impact that gave you such big concussion?
FA: No, I don’t exactly know the details.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) I’m a bit confused by this: there’s no problem,
there’s nothing on the data, you’ve lost consciousness, someone said you
didn’t lose consciousness, your team also said there was a gust of wind.
It’s all just very confusing but one thing for me, if there’s no data and
the team haven’t found anything, could the problem happen again?
FA: Well, as I said, I think some of the confusion comes from the very early
quotes and very early explanations because the attention was very high at
that moment. The stress was very high, I was in intensive care, there was
some urgency to say something because there was a lot of attention so that
was probably part of the confusion. On the data, as I said before, I think
there was some lack of instrumentation maybe on the car, to miss the exact
problem and there are some actions taken for this race which are probably
not necessary but there is extra care with some parts on the car that were
unique to me, that I requested because of my driving style when I joined
McLaren and here we will go back to the normal steering rack and things that
they’ve been using with Jenson and Kevin for the last couple of years. Of
course, there are some actions for this race and as I said, there is zero
problem, zero worries on my side. Everything is OK.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, could you tell us
exactly what happened this morning during the test?
FA: Today, we’ve been through the normal processes as we have during the
last month. As I said before, everything that I did or that happened in the
last month were completely normal, the concussion, the rehabilitation, the
checks, the extra checks, the recommendation to wait two or three weeks
before any dangerous activity again, so everything went normal and this
morning, again, it was a normal procedure after a head injury to do an
impact test with the FIA and some reaction tests and some examinations with
the Malaysian Grand Prix doctors. Everything went as smoothly as possible
and I have the green light, so that was a very positive moment.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) You’ve partially answered
this before, Fernando, but seeing Ferrari is so strong, do you think that
maybe you might have waited a little bit longer before leaving and achieved
some results?
FA: Obviously, as I said, with the performance that we have right now, it’s
easy to criticise our team and my decision, whatever, but as I said, I’m
first of all so so happy that this is the most important thing. When you’re
happy with yourself or you’re a healthy man inside, that is the first
victory and that is what I am now, because I’m following my dream now. And
secondly, I could wait and achieve some nice results as you’ve said probably
yes, but after 14 years of Formula One and two championships, a podium or
fourth place or fifth place is no longer a nice result.
Q: (Carlos Miguel –La Gaceta) Fernando, I would like to know your feelings
after 14 years, watching a race on TV?
FA: I don’t think I pick the best race to watch, probably. One, it was very
early in the morning, so that didn’t help the enthusiasm for the race, and
secondly, the number of cars on the grid and after the first couple of laps
was obviously not ideal. Yeah, it was a strange feeling, no doubt that I
missed being there, I missed driving. It was strange but luckily I’m here.
Q: (Carlos Miguel –La Gaceta) Carlos, is it a big motivation for you to beat
the new Ayrton Senna as you did in the first race?
CS: For me the first motivation is always to extract the maximum potential
from myself, focus myself and with self-confidence and knowing that you can
extract the full potential from yourself then you should believe that you
are in front of your teammate. I believe Max is a great talent, I believe
he’s going to perform really well this year and he will be a very tough
competitor but my main focus, as I said, is not to beat him but first of all
extract the maximum potential from myself and that will put me in a good
position for sure.
Q: (Byron Young – The Mirror) Fernando, I’m a bit confused: how can you not
be worried? From what you’re saying to us, the steering was locked, heading
towards the inside wall. You’re fighting with the steering wheel so that’s a
car problem, and you’re getting back in the car this weekend and you don’t
know what caused that problem. How can you not be worried?
FA: I fully trust the team. They’ve been looking at every single component
of the car for a month, they’ve been simulating the efforts, they’ve been
doing so many tests, they’ve been changing every single part that they had
some doubts about so I think we have the safest car right now, because of
all the studies that they’ve done. And after one month, I’m probably the
most medically checked driver in history so we should be fine, both of us. |