PART TWO: DRIVERS – Felipe
Massa (Williams), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Felipe, let’s start with you. Another driver, along with Jenson Button
who we’ve just been hearing from, who thought he’d done his last Monaco
Grand Prix at the end of last year. How special is it to have another chance
to race on the streets of Monaco again? Was it one that, when you announced
your retirement, you thought ‘actually, I’m really going to miss that race’.
Felipe MASSA: Ha, yeah. First of all, it’s always a big challenge to race
here in Monaco. For sure I was thinking last year, maybe I will miss that
challenge – but it’s always a different challenge, to get Monaco. You’re
always learning things, every year. The way of driving, corner, so many
different corners, is quite tricky. A big challenge for everybody, all of
the years that you are racing here. I think this year will be even a bigger
challenge. Tyres are wider. Big tyres. The car is bigger and the track is
still quite narrow. It always has been: it will be even more for how big is
the cars now. I remember when Nelson Piquet was saying in the past that
racing in Monaco is the same as taking your bike and driving in the kitchen.
It will be more or less similar this year.
DR: We’re racing cars, not bikes…
FM: It was Nelson Piquet, not me…
DR: Same thing. Brazilian.
FM: Then, it’s so nice to have Jenson back. Everybody likes him. I just saw
him down below. Really nice to have him back racing back with us. Hoping the
best for him. Being behind me – but hoping the best for him. He can enjoy
maybe the only race that he’s back. Nice to have him back.
Q: Now the story of your season so far this year is an interesting one;
you’re the only driver apart from the Ferraris and Mercedes who have started
every single race in the top ten on the grid, and you’ve also finished every
race but you’ve only scored 18 points, so what’s been happening on the
Sunday? Is it strategy, is it bad luck, is it tyre management? Where can you
find that bit that’s missing?
FM: Well, not strategy, I would say. I had sixth position pretty much in my
pocket in Russia and I had this puncture in the tyres, I had to stop. Then
in the last race I was starting... the most important thing for me was to
have a good start. I managed to pass Perez, Alonso at the start and then
Fernando was on the outside of corner two and he was also... these two guys
running, that they crashed, running outside of the... running into us so I
had to go a little bit right and I had no idea Fernando was trying to go
right. We touched slightly and my tyre was blown, so I was in front of them,
I definitely had the pace to finish in front of them so what is that? Bad
luck? Racing? It happens? So I don’t know but it was a shame because I know
that if I had these two results that I was supposed to have in the last two
races everybody would say things a little bit different than now.
Q: Daniel Ricciardo, 2016 Monaco Grand Prix pole-sitter of course; the
expression ‘unfinished business’ was invented to describe situations like
yours this weekend, after what happened to you last year, is the car going
to be suited again this year? What’s going through your head?
Daniel RICCIARDO: We’ll wait and see. Certainly, yeah, looking back on last
year, a bit of unfinished business but I will do what I can. I definitely
come here with still good feelings, good vibes. The level of confidence is
still high, I guess. We’ve got some new parts on the car. We had them in
Barcelona, we saw it gave us bits and pieces but not as much as we obviously
still desire. We’ve got more this weekend and probably more Monaco-specific
as well, so hopefully that will give us more than it did a couple of weeks
ago and give us a chance to start leaning on the front guys a bit more.
Q: It’s clearly surprising to everyone that the Red Bull hasn’t been able to
compete for wins and poles this year so far, even after that raft of
upgrades but are the front two teams still catchable, looking to the next
few races ahead, into the summer?
DR: I’ll hope so. It’s hard to predict. I think it was in Bahrain, we seemed
relatively strong in qualifying without too much of an answer and then we
bring the update and we’re kind of still there, with that same gap. I think
this weekend is a chance. If you put everything together in qualifying round
here it can give you a good chunk of lap times. It’s just having that level
of confidence around here which helps and then we’ll see, see what happens
after this weekend. This one’s fun, yeah, looking forward to it.
Q: Pascal, great result last time out, career-best eighth position in Spain,
one stop strategy, perfect execution by you. What did that mean to you and
the team?
Pascal WEHRLEIN: I think it was great for everyone. It gave us big
motivation. Of course the start of the season was difficult for me and also
for the team so in my third race, to already score a few points is great and
everyone is happy and everyone is pushing really hard. As I said, it’s
giving us big motivation. We have some new parts on the car this weekend so
hopefully in the future we can see results like this more often.
Q: Well the four points have put you ahead of McLaren and this is clearly an
important race for them to score points, so how intensely will you be
focusing on racing and covering them this weekend?
PW: I think not at all. We are focusing on what we can do, on our maximum.
You know it’s still very early in the season so we just try to extract the
maximum from the car and we will see where we finish but I think it’s too
early now to say we are covering McLaren.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Daniel, your qualifying lap last year; was it
perfect or near perfect and how much quicker do you think the new car will
be?
DR: I think from my side, I thought it was all I could do. I was really
happy with the lap with the tools I was given but I felt like we could have
had a better car in some areas of the lap, so I felt a bit limited. I
remember through Casino Square there was still quite a bit of understeer, so
yeah, it didn’t feel like the front tyres were probably still where they
needed to be but yeah, I was pretty happy with the rest. And then yeah, this
year it’s hard to predict the lap times. We’ve seen on some tracks we’re
three or four seconds quicker and others just maybe one and a half or two.
But yeah, 13.6s... if we get below 1m 12s we’re going pretty quick around
here. I would expect below 1m 12s, yeah. We’ll see.
Q: (Leigh Diffey – NBC Sports) Mate, in regard to what went down last year
which denied you the victory, did anything change internally within the team
as far as in-garage procedure or protocol to ensure that that would never
happen again?
DR: Yeah, they went to some old-school spanking techniques with a big
wooden... cricket bats, pretty much, as we call it! And beyond that, the
physical pain there was certainly some... there was no physical pain for the
record! Not that I know of. But there were certainly some things which were
already in place for Canada, some systems stuff within the garage, as
opposed to just radio communications, let’s say. There were actually
displays that were put up around the garage which were clear for more people
and they kind of knew what was happening as opposed to just verbal
communication which can sometimes be more confusing, obviously in the heat
of the moment. Yeah, that was solved immediately which was obviously nice.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Felipe and Daniel; you’re both vastly
experienced drivers, I just want to hear your perspective on Esteban Ocon’s
form this year and what qualities you think define him as a driver, from
what you can see?
FM: Well, I think he’s doing a good job. I think he’s learning, race by
race. I think he’s starting to get quite competitive with Perez, race by
race. They managed to do a good job in Barcelona. Unfortunately. I could
have been in this fight. I think he’s showing good performance so he’s
growing, learning and yeah, I’m sure the team is happy with what he’s doing.
DR: He’s obviously quick, he proved that in junior categories. I think it
was with him and Max in Formula Three, from memory, who were in the title
hunt. You know Esteban got that, so he’s obviously talented. Max has already
proved himself. These days it’s a lightweight sport as well and Esteban
probably weighs 48 kilos dripping wet so that certainly helps.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Considering what you have been seeing
from the tyres this year, is it realistic that with the case of a safety car
at the start, for example, most of the drivers pit and then go through with
the same set of tyres to the chequered flag?
FM: Yeah, maybe. Maybe, yes, especially on this track. If you have the
opportunity with the safety car, not to even gain... maybe staying in a good
position, so maybe people will try. It would be a little bit of a shame for
this race, one stop is definitely not great. I remember we were even talking
in the last [drivers’] meeting with Charlie and even some drivers were
asking maybe it is supposed to be two stops, it needs to be two stops for
everybody and then the race will be nicer, it will be more fun, it will
maybe... something’s going to happen for the strategies, that it can work
better for the show also.
DR: Yeah, certainly you could get through the race on the same set of tyres.
We talked about ideally... OK, we go softer with compounds but maybe we even
have a Monaco tyre, that would be fun. Then obviously it needs testing and
all that so then it.. whether it’s easier said than done, I don’t know but a
Monaco-specific tyre would be cool, like something super super supersoft and
then yeah, you would probably... inevitably going to have to make more than
one pit stop.
PW: I think in terms of wear it’s really - as Daniel said - it would be an
easy one-stop. It’s just about keeping the temperature in the tyres, so I
think that’s the most important thing this year. Our one stop in Barcelona,
for example, only worked because we could keep the temperature in the tyres.
We are not limited by wear, we are limited by the temperature and I think
that’s the most important thing this year, also for Silverstone, we
discussed that the hard tyre is way too hard, it was way too hard for
Barcelona. We as drivers want to go a bit softer.
Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) With the new cars, especially the bigger tyres,
might this be a big problem on lap one because there’s not much space in
turn one and other places?
DR: Ideally I repeat last year and don’t worry about that but generally,
yeah, it’s always tight around this track, even now, I think, because what
have we got, I think 200mm, 20 centimeters wider. It doesn’t sound like much
but then when you put all the cars together and on a tight circuit like this
you see it and you notice it straight away, I’m sure. Qualify well, that’s
going to help.
PW: Yeah, so obviously Saturday’s the most important day but then some
corners are very tight and especially when you are in the midfield it’s
quite exciting, yeah.
FM: Yeah, as I said, it will be quite tight this year. I remember sometimes
you’re just kissing the guardrail a little bit and maybe we will have a lot
more kisses this year and maybe it can be a little bit more than a kiss!
Maybe a punch in the face if you kiss too hard. As I said, it will be a
little bit an extra challenge for all of us and I really hope that we can
have a good weekend.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Felipe, high downforce circuits are
not the best for your car. It was in the past, it looks like it continues
this season despite the change of regulations. So is it realistic to believe
that you can be strong here or do you think Force India can beat you?
FM: Well, actually in the last three years, this was the worst race for us,
it was terrible, the feeling that you have here on this track, definitely
was not the right track for our car in the last three years, but you need to
keep in mind this time it’s different rules, different challenge for so many
different reasons. The only thing I can say and I can be a little more
optimistic is that in the last sector in Barcelona we were not so bad this
time. We were terrible in the last three years on that sector, so I would
say that maybe it can give you a little bit extra... making you a little bit
more optimistic, that something can work in a little bit different way and
the car can be a little bit more competitive than how it was in the last
three years. |