TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - James VOWLES (Williams), Frédéric VASSEUR (Ferrari), Flavio BRIATORE (Alpine)

Q: If I could start with all three of you, if that’s okay. It’s been a challenging season, with world events affecting everybody, but I’d just like to get a word from you, if I can, on the Bahrain organisers, who’ve brought the Bahrain Grand Prix experience here to Malaysia this weekend, and the huge effort that they’ve put in to make this feel as though we are at the Bahrain Grand Prix. James, if I can start with you.
James VOWLES: Yeah, I think incredible job by them. When you walk outside, you can see actually huge amounts of the facilities from Bahrain itself that have been brought here, and it’s impressive to do that at the scale and level that they have done. For us, we obviously want to be racing as much as possible, and it’s fantastic that they’re managing this event back onto the calendar in the way it is. So well done to all of them, and hopefully normal service resuming shortly.
Frédéric VASSEUR: Yes, not much to add. I think it’s showing the commitment of Bahrain vis-à-vis F1. It’s something unusual to do the Bahrain Grand Prix somewhere else, but it shows the effort of all the Bahrainis vis-à-vis F1. We knew for a long time that it’s like this, that we are always more than welcome when we are going to Manama, but honestly it’s exceptional.
FB: Same. Really, thank you to the Crown Prince Salman and all the organisation, Stefano. We want to do as many races as possible. This was a fantastic idea. It’s a little bit strange, you know, to be in Malaysia, but when you arrive at the airport yesterday, it was “Welcome to Bahrain”. So basically, I think it’s a super idea. For us, it’s great to race in Malaysia.

Q: Thank you very much. Fred, if I can come to you. Ferrari felt it necessary to issue a public statement this week expressing full confidence in you. Can I ask why was that statement needed?
FV: I think this you have to ask your colleagues. When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all the week, I think as a team we need to work in serenity, and it was absolutely not the case. I think the statement was mandatory to do something, or it would have been the same this weekend. But honestly, the big issue that we have today is the stability, the serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have, and not to have this kind of question all the day.
JV: I’m just going to add to that. Normally we beat each other up and put knives in our backs, but Ferrari is in the best place it’s been in the championship for a while. They have innovation on the car this year with a rear wing and exhaust blowing that we’ve all copied as a result of it. It’s a team that’s doing brilliantly. So, I mean, for me personally, there is no question that Fred is the right person to do this.
FV: Thanks.
FB: You’re the right lawyer.

Q: Fred, if I could continue with you. In Baku, you had to add downforce to the car because of grip issues. You weren’t able to see the full potential of that second ADUO, the power unit there. What’s your understanding of the potential of this car, and particularly at this circuit this weekend with this layout?
FV: We knew before going to Baku that it wouldn’t be the easiest weekends of the season, that with the straight line that we have, for sure the deficit was huge. We tried to do our best so that wven if it was not an easy one, we were still on the first row. It’s not also a bad result in itself, the quali at least. And this weekend, I think it’s much more difficult to have a good understanding of what could be the weekend, that will be mega dominated by degradation. We saw this morning that it’s a completely different story compared to the last four or five weeks, when you had Monza, Madrid, Baku. We had almost zero deg. This weekend will be another story. It means that we have to change a little bit the focus and to be much more focused on the race pace.

Q: Thank you. Flavio, if I can come to you. The crash in Baku obviously cost the team dearly in that fight for fifth in the Constructors’. Can I ask, have you spoken to the drivers coming into this weekend? Have you discussed any consequences for similar incidents?
FB: Whatever we do is internal to the team. Sure, I was very disappointed with what happened in Baku, but it’s another race. We need to forget. We need to look always for the future, and the past is the past. There’s nothing possible to do. I was upset, yes, like I believe everybody in the team, including Franco, for the mistake he made. But this is the past. We need to go ahead and think about the future. Let’s talk about the race, the qualifying tomorrow and the race Sunday. Every race is a different scenario. Last weekend was not nice for us at all, and we’re fighting for fifth position with Racing Bulls. We gave away a lot of points. After that, it’s finished. What can we do? Whatever we’ve done, it is impossible to come back.

Q: The gap now, 15 points to Racing Bulls. When both teams are essentially fighting for eighth, ninth and tenth in the championship,
FB: I think we have seven races… or eight. James, how many. No. Jesus Christ!
JV: I don’t know either. Just do both and then they can cut it the right way.
FB: So, basically, eight races. Okay, we see what happens.

Q: That’s what I was going to ask you. Do you think you’ve got enough time to claw those points back with the races there?
FB: Plenty of time. Just finish the race.

Q: Thank you very much. James, just a single point from Baku. What’s your assessment of the upgrade that you took there? A step in the right direction?
JV: A lot of it is getting, I mean, chassis will carry over into next year. A lot of it was actually forward investing into making sure that’s right. It’s nice to see the car had ballast on it, so directionally correct, but it’s too late in the season. That’s the facts behind it. We haven’t added enough aerodynamic performance. We’ve focused our cost cap dollars really on just getting the elements right that we need next year, and that was at the sacrifice. We left quite a bit of performance in the tunnel at home. Step in the right direction, but Baku is also a track, to a certain extent, that suits some of the characteristics we have, and I think here will be a tougher time.

Q: So where can you target, James? Vegas is a potentially good one for you, or?
JV: There will be tracks that move up and down. I mean, what you can see now in that sort of midfield hump is there’s no doubt about it, Alpine are strong out ahead today as well, I have to say. VCARB, very, very strong in what they’ve done, and there’s a gaggle of us within the same tenth fundamentally. So, it will move up and down race on race. It’s just not going to be a guarantee to go out there and get points enough to move the championship forward at the rate I want it to.

Q: Thank you. One final one to you, Flavio. You’ve added Mike Elliott to your team as Technical Director. I think, from my understanding, he was pretty much in demand in this paddock. How did you get him to sign, and what does he bring to the team?
FB: I feel that we need a better, stronger technical direction in the team. In this moment we’re improving, but not enough. Like in any business, you need to put the technical fundamentals in the team, and I feel that Mike Elliott was the right person to come back in Formula 1. A lot of experience in Mercedes. He was already with Haas and Aston for a few years. What can I say? We need constantly to improve the team, technically, commercially. We just arrived in the team one year ago. It was a position with the team one year ago, but not really what I want to be in Formula One. Now, little by little, we need improvement to try to catch Fréd and everybody, and to defend our position from Williams. This is what we want to do. We want to win. We’re doing everything possible to make sure the team is in the condition to win.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Craig Slater – Sky UK) A quick question for Fred. Fred, strong and sincere backing from both your drivers about your leadership yesterday. Lewis did raise the question about, does the overall leadership structure need to be looked at? Just from your perspective, are you happy you have all the powers you need from those above to lead the team, and are you minded to evolve the structure beneath you, or do you think the way things are, you’re set for success at Ferrari?
FV: First, about the structure of the team, I think, as Flavio said before, that in the technical equipment at least, it’s a non-end story. It means that you have to improve. I think it’s the DNA of what we are doing, to not take a success as a final situation, but try to improve in the good and the bad moments. Honestly, the dynamic that we have, we recruited a lot, but as the other teams, and we are trying to push the limit of everything. On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something or whatever. In the good moments, we are winning as a team. In the bad moments, we are suffering as a team, and I don’t want to speak about a single individual or whatever. Honestly, I think it would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified. We had a good beginning of the season. For sure, it’s not enough. We want to get more, we want to win more, we want to win the championship. But at the end of the day, we had a positive start. We are struggling the last couple of races, but we are hoping to come back soon with development and to be back into the pace.

Q: (Mara Sangiorgio – Sky Sport Italia) My question is for James and Flavio. I think that you have already experienced difficult times with your team during your career. Do you think the media pressure you face is different from what Fréd and Ferrari are dealing with?
JV: Obviously it’s difficult because I haven’t been fully in that position, but from what I can read, yes. Fundamentally, I think where it’s different, we all know that, let’s be frank about it, our jobs are on the line. We don’t do a good enough job, that puts us at risk straight away. I think that’s a given. You take that when you take the title. But there’s a difference to how you’re celebrated in success and how you’re punished in failure. Generally speaking, we all are. I would say, this is very external when I read it, I would say it’s exaggerated more in a way towards Fred, albeit his predecessors in that role. I think it’s much higher highs, much lower lows. That’s how I see it.
FB: The same for me. The media look like every time you fail, the business is very happy. I think so. This is unfortunately like that, because we see if you’re doing well, the media is very quiet. The moment you’re doing bad, the media wake up and, “Why? Boom, boom.” So, we need to live with that. And sure, it’s much harder for Fréd than us, you know, for the amount of articles, because from a media point of view the attention for that is very high as well. We see in Baku we have a drama. After coming back to Baku, something I know, and really I don’t understand it, is we are penalised. We deserve to be penalised. I don’t understand why Racing Bulls was not penalised, because Lindblad did exactly the same to Lawson. Why are we penalised and also Lindblad was not penalised? To go back one second, we’re not replaying Baku. After that, we need the media because it’s our business. We need the media, but sometimes we need more friendly media. It’s not possible, but we try.

Q: (Jan Olejniczak – Eleven Sports) Question to Fréd. We hear more and more about the comeback of V8 in the future. It’s said that F1 stakeholders reached an agreement on the future of the F1 engines. Do you have any knowledge about it, and maybe you are involved in these talks?
FV: We are all discussing, at least the PU manufacturers, about the future of the regulation, for sure. But each time that we have a big change, that we had the big change in 2014, we had the big change in 2026, it’s a challenge for F1 because you have also to anticipate what could be the future of automotive in five, 10 years. It’s a challenge. Now we have also to take into consideration some other parameters, like the cost of the engine for everybody, and not only for the PU manufacturers but for the teams, the performance, the expectation from the fans could change also from year to year. It means that, yes, it’s a challenge. We are all involved, we are all discussing about what could be the best solution, and I hope that quite soon we’ll be able to find something.

Q: (Mervi Kallio – Viaplay) This is for Fred, a follow-up to Mara’s question. We heard what James and Flavio said about the noise around Ferrari and how it looks outside, but you have a thick skin, Fred. You have been in the business for quite some while. Has it surprised you that when things go right there’s hardly anything, and then when things don’t go so well there’s a lot of noise? And, as we heard, drivers are supporting you, James is supporting you, you have the whole team behind you.
FV: Thanks to remind me that, I’m starting to be old! No, but for sure, as James said before, when you take the role, you know the positive and the negative side of the job. I was expecting something like this. What is sometimes a bit unfair is when you put someone under the bus, and I’m there also to defend my team, my guys. As I said before, when we are winning, we are winning as a team, but when we are struggling, I’m there to defend all of them. I think it’s the right attitude from everybody, from them to defend the Team Principal, from me to defend them when we are struggling. Honestly, I knew what I would get on that. I’m not surprised at all, but sometimes the attacks are a bit personal. It’s not good. We need friendly media.

Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) To James and Flavio. It seems the top four teams have made a step away from the pack over the course of this regulation set and this season. What prospect do you see of anyone breaking that stranglehold over the next few years, and how much harder is that job made with the cost cap?
JV: It’s a really good question. First and foremost, I own the mistakes that we made this winter, and we need to detach that from that question. So we have gone backwards. We had a car that was overweight. But actually, when we did the cost cap, this is way back in COVID, when we had a phone call about it, there were three key tasks that we wanted out of it. We wanted long-term financial sustainability, and I think in that goal, not just have we achieved it, but we’ve exceeded it. This business now has good investment that allows us to go on, and they’re businesses. They weren’t businesses before 2021 at all. The two others, though, that went with it were sporting equity and, effectively, compression of the field, so effectively competitiveness that compressed together. Those are the three goals of cost cap, and those two have failed. There’s a bit of statistics I was looking at about a month ago, which is the following: if I take the last 15 years of the sport, the five before, sorry, the five that we’ve been in as cost cap right now, currently the top four teams score 83% of the points. Before that it was in the 70s, just to be clear about it. In other words, we have made the situation worse, where the top four are the top four and all the rest of us are fighting over, ballpark, 17% of the points. Number of times on the podium used to be 10% of the time, now it’s 5% of the time. I can give you a whole bunch of statistics, but the cost cap has made it worse, not better. I’m probably unique because – it’s not a compliment – I went from the best team to the worst team. I think that’s fairly clear. What I hadn’t appreciated or realised when you do that jump is just how little exists. When you’re in a cost cap, I’m not spending money on the car. I’m spending millions, tens of millions actually, just on basic systems, so you just know where a part is in the factory. So that’s not going to the car, it’s not going to a front wing, it’s not going to an upgrade. It’s going on systems that I need to do just to do the very basics. So, we’re caught in a cost cap trap, because if I do anything short-term, and I always talk about investing in the future, now you understand why. If I do anything that’s about this year, I will slow myself down in the future, and I can’t do that. We have a two-tier championship. That’s not me telling you that. That is just what is on the table right now in terms of points score. And I think, and this is where we have to come together as a business, that’s not right in terms of what we want for the future. We do want the ability for, if we do a good job, we should have the ability to fight for that. Even last year, which was a great year, the gap on points between us and P4, between us and Ferrari, was 238 points. It’s not a small amount. It’s an absolute gulf, and we were on the podium three times. In cost cap, and I didn’t appreciate it until I came into Williams, it really penalises you in terms of what you’re doing. The solution isn’t to take cost cap away. As I said before, we have a brilliantly financially stable sport now as a result of it, but we do need to think about what mechanisms we have in there to make sure we’re all playing with the same tools and the same mechanisms, because today we’re not. That’s a bit lengthy, but that’s my thoughts on it.

Q: Flavio, would you like to add your response?
FB: Pretty much the same. I believe the idea of the cost cap is very good, but the administration we have with the cost cap is tremendous. At one point, I don’t know if it makes sense to have one budget cap, whatever is the number. Others want the drivers included. In this moment, whatever is the number, maybe the big team have 300 million, 400 million, the small team have 250, 300, but put everything in the budget cap. With this, we don’t have more, “This is inside, this is outside, this is inside, this is outside.” At one point, I believe we need to decide what can we do with the budget cap. For me, the best is to put everything inside the budget cap, whatever is the number.
JV: It’s a good point. That’s definitely one direction to go in. The other point I forgot to make, which is relevant to this, is before the cost cap, Williams weren’t spending really any money at all. So, I’ve, roughly speaking, tripled the expenditure. I don’t know Flavio’s numbers. I know roughly it’s about the same thing. Force India didn’t have any money. Aston Martin were putting in every penny they can towards it. So, it’s a different environment, but still worse. The solution I think we need is something that anyone in this room can understand, which is either championship points-linked, because it gives you the scale, or championship position-linked, and a simple mechanism that allows us, over time, not next year, allows us to shrink in together.
FV: We have it on the wind tunnel.
JV: We do on the wind tunnel, I agree, and it’s a step in the right direction. What I’m indicating more is…
FV: What we have to keep in mind is that before the cost cap, 2018, 2017, 2016, for sure the business in general was much worse, but we had also five or six teams in bankruptcy or almost in bankruptcy. And it’s not just the fact that the business is going well, it’s the fact that we are sending the message that everybody can compete, right or wrong, but this is the message. And this is also attracting new investors and new OEMs in the business.

Q: (Thomas Maher – PlanetF1.com) A question for Fréd, please, and following on from Craig’s earlier question. Fred, do you believe you have enough autonomy within the Ferrari organisational structure to succeed? And in light of the drivers’ comments yesterday, do you agree that the structure might need looking at?
FV: Honestly, the relationship that I have with my bosses, Benedetto and John, is a very good one. We are in daily contact, and I can’t complain at all about the organisation. But for sure, you always want to get more, you always want to do more, you always want to recruit more too. But I think it’s true for me and it’s true for everybody on the grid, that you always want to do more because it’s the DNA of what we are doing. But honestly, it has nothing to do with the organisation.

Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) A question for James, please. James, you spoke about your Baku package and you’re now able to put ballast on the car, and the chassis is now carryover for 2027. With regards to the rest, and in terms of performance, are you confident of avoiding the similar pitfalls that you endured this year? Are you in good shape for 2027?
JV: The beauty of our sport is we don’t know if we’re in good shape until we turn up in round one, and even then, to Fréd’s point, you’re not sure. I’m confident that we won’t have any of the disaster we had this winter. In part, we have to accept, though, that’s not as big a load that we’re putting through the business because the chassis is already here. They’re in front of you right now. That does make a considerable difference. But what have we done? We’ve changed actually quite a bit of the software systems, ways of working. We’ve brought in Piers [Thynne], who has been an absolutely brilliant godsend help in that regard. We have information we just simply didn’t have one year ago that allows us to make a better call on that. What you’re not aware of, and no one here can be, is we think we’re doing a good job with development in the wind tunnel and across systems, but you don’t know until you turn up at the first race next year.

Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhua News Agency) To all three of you. You referenced earlier the fact that we don’t know exactly how many races we’ve got left. Putting aside the obvious logistical and security concerns and issues, how important is it for you, from the sporting point of view, to know how many races there are left and how many championship points you have left to fight for?
FV: Honestly, it wouldn’t change my approach in the next couple of events. We are doing the best usage of the cost cap. Perhaps at the one or two races at the end, you will have the question about the stock of spare parts, but today it’s not changing at all my approach on the next couple of events.
FB: The same. Nothing changes. We hope we have all the races in the calendar and, honestly, nothing changes.
JV: Nothing more to add.

Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) One for James first. On the cost cap trap you talked about, obviously you mentioned points as one of the potential mechanisms. How would you go about trying to make that system work so that it differentiates between, if you like, the potential of the team with what it’s got and underachievement in terms of what’s being delivered? And is there a way, perhaps, to independently and objectively evaluate facilities and all those kinds of things to allow that spending separately from points?
JV: There’s a way of doing it, but it gets very complicated. But if I put some numbers on the table, just to build a car that had four wheels pointing the right way with bodywork that roughly looked like a Formula One car is about 30% more expensive with myself compared to what I remember from a previous team. Inefficiency of tools, what you have on the external supply chain, there’s about 100 things that add up to it. So you could do it that way and say, “Right, all of that money, fine, put that back in. You get a cost cap addition for it.” It’s not transparent, it’s not visible to the outside world, and that sort of thing concerns me. What you’re more looking for is an amount to try and correct these issues that is not so much that you suddenly leapfrog to the front. To your point, you could have a bad year. So, it should still be that someone like Mercedes, if they do a better job, they should still win a championship. That’s not what you’re impacting. What you’re trying to do is dig out, honestly, 20 years, in my case, of underinvestment that I can’t really do in the cost cap. Let’s get that back on the table.

Q: (Dzhastina Golopolosova – F1Maximaal.nl) Question to James. James, after Baku you said that there were some weaknesses in the car that could be exposed at other circuits, and now that you have had the first free practice session here at Sepang and have some real data, what have you learned so far? Is the car behaving as you expected, and has anything surprised you?
JV: It’s a handful, there’s no doubt about it, out there. So the balance wasn’t together in terms of how the car was, which is a fear I had after Baku. Baku, it’s very easy to get a balance, easier to get a balance there. It’s got plenty of other issues. Malaysia, I think, is probably on the extreme of exposing it. We discussed it already. It’s incredibly warm here. The circuit is actually very low grip. I don’t know if you saw when cars went offline, but there’s just a rooster tail of dirt. So it’s very low grip, and that tends to exaggerate the issue. The fact that you saw that when we put the soft tyre on, it was quite a large jump, sort of indicates that to you already. We’ve got some plans and ideas for FP2, but the reality behind it is we’re too far away here, which is what I was fearful of, and it’s still exposing those weaknesses. Those will not be addressed this year.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Fred, it’s one for you, please. I have a question actually about Carlos Sainz. Obviously you worked with him at Ferrari. For a team in Williams’ position, how important do you think a driver like Carlos and his attitude and his character is to help them try and lift the team up the grid?
FV: Honestly, Carlos did a very good job with us in ’23, 2024. Very strong season, not only in terms of pace and qualification, but in terms of contribution to the technical aspect. But for sure, the situation of James is a bit different. As he said before, it was not just a matter of balance when you start the season 14 kilos, or I don’t know how many kilos… I lost also 14 in solidarity with you!
JV: Well done!
FV: But the contribution of Carlos on this is, for sure, a bit more different. But it’s a huge asset for a team to have someone with this level of experience, his contribution, that is fully focused, dedicated. And I think for James it’s an asset, but it’s more for James to speak about Carlos than me.

Q: James, if you’d like to add anything, we can finish with that.
JV: I’m going to put Alex into it as well. They really are both championship-level drivers that would earn their place in any team right now and could go out there and win races if they had the right car underneath them. Fréd’s point is absolutely valid. When you make some of the mistakes we have, there’s nothing they can do to help you on weight. What they can help you do, though, is when you’re far enough away on characteristics of the car, they are very good at driving you to where you need to be. And I have to say Carlos has an exceptional ability to do that. I’d equally say, if you go and speak to both, they are performing at the same level than they did last year, despite the difficult start to the year. And that’s just a sign of the professionalism of top-tier drivers.