News
7th September 2014, 18:00
Sebastian Vettel on how Red Bull's strategy gamble backfired at Monza; McLaren's Jenson Button and Force India's Sergio Perez on their 'amazing' battle; and Daniil Kvyat on the brake issues which almost sent his Toro Rosso flying into the wall one lap from the flag. The drivers and senior team personnel report back on an action-packed race in Italy...
Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, 13th
"From the beginning of the weekend our performance was not on the level where we would like to be. Even though we have been working very hard, session after session, to improve the car handling, I have been struggling for the whole race, making it very tough today. We will now have to analyse carefully what went wrong and hopefully we will come back stronger at the next race in Singapore."
Daniil Kvyat, 11th
"I feel disappointed with how my race ended. We had a brake disc failure I think, but I managed to hang on and bring the car home in P11. It's a shame when you give it your hundred percent and you finish the race outside the points, but I'm very pleased with my race in general. Starting from the back is never easy, but I managed to overtake a few cars and get close to a points finish. We will now have a look at what exactly happened, before heading to the next race in Singapore."
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
"Daniil did a fantastic job today. Starting from the last position on the grid he was able to make his way up. I think he is the driver who can count the highest number of overtaking during today's race. In the last two laps he was fighting to close the gap to Kimi Raikkonen, getting quite close to him, but unfortunately he suddenly suffered a front brake failure, which we will have to investigate. Only thanks to his extraordinary driving skills he was able to control the car and avoid a collision. All considered, I'm really impressed by his capability to close the gap to the cars in front of him and I'm convinced that he might have finished the race in 9th position today, after the 5 seconds penalty imposed to Magnussen. As for Jean-Eric, he complained about a lack of grip which made him struggle with the car for the entire race and therefore he finished in the thirteenth position. The team has done a solid job with a good working strategy and fast pit stops. We just have to go on pushing as much as possible to arrive well prepared in Singapore to score the points which we missed out on today."
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, 12th
"It wasn't a very busy race for me. I was racing alone most of the time and just doing my own race: not being towed around or benefiting from DRS made it a bit harder. I had a very good start, especially considering I was on the hard tyre, but I lost contact with the cars ahead of me quite soon because they were on the medium and I didn't really have the same pace. It was quite difficult to manage the car, especially the rear end: I had some oversteering and it was tricky to drive. I pitted quite early as I wasn't going anywhere on my hard tyres and we saw a good opportunity to jump people, but we still found it difficult to deal with the balance. We need to look ahead now to Singapore and work to bring more performance to the car. Singapore is a track we all enjoy: everything - the track, the atmosphere, the setup - is special."
Sergio Perez, 7th
"The race was a lot of fun. We were always fighting somebody and always pushing hard. It was great racing and it's good to score important points for the championship. The most important part of the race was the fight I had with Jenson, which was really nice and reminded me of the old days. I know he is a driver that you can fight really hard and it's always clean. At the end of the race with Kevin, I knew he had a penalty and there was no need to attack him. It meant I could focus on keeping Jenson behind me, which was not easy."
Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director
"Six points keeps us where we need to be in our close championship battle with just a single point separating us from fifth place. Sergio was mighty today, showing once again how well he can race with some brilliant overtaking and defending. Nico made a great start, but he has not been completely comfortable with the car balance all weekend and especially in the race today. Despite his very strong start, points were out of reach. With six races remaining this season, I still believe we have all to play for and that we must keep pushing hard."
McLaren
Jenson Button, 8th
"This wasn't the result I was after - but the was good fun nonetheless. It's just a pity that we didn't quite have the race pace we'd hoped for: when you start fifth and sixth, you're not just looking for a points finish, you want a bit more than that. If we'd had a clear run, I think we could have done a bit better - but, in the traffic, it was easier for the cars around us to pick us off than it was for us to pick them off.
"I had an amazing battle with Checo - we took the first Lesmo side by side, which doesn't happen very often. It's a pity I couldn't get past him - I tried so many times, but he was so strong under braking that to match him into the turns I was locking up the fronts and the rears, which left me struggling for position on the exits. But I was really on the limit. It was superb wheel-to-wheel action - I hope it was great entertainment for the spectators and fantastic TV for the fans at home."
Kevin Magnussen, 10th
"I made a great start - I got up to second into the first corner - but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that position, and inevitably I fell back. Obviously, it was nice to be up at the front for a while, and disappointing that we couldn't stay up there, but as I say I knew it wouldn't last for ever.
"It's unfortunate to come away from the weekend having only scored a single point. Okay, we're not battling for the world championship, but we're still fighting for crucial positions in the constructors' championship, and the points we lost today would have been very useful from that point of view. It's frustrating to get another penalty, of course it is, but we'll analyse them and see what we can learn. Let's see if we can do something different next time."
Eric Boullier, McLaren racing director
"Kevin made a truly tremendous start from fifth place on the grid, which gave him momentum enough to slip neatly past Felipe into second place into Turn 1. Thereafter he drove hard and well, making no errors, but was unable to prevent a number of faster cars from passing him over the next 53 laps.
"In the closing stages he and Valtteri were involved in a spirited and entertaining dice - the kind of wheel-to-wheel racing that Formula 1 fans thrill to see - and in our view he was unfortunate to be penalised for what we saw as a legitimate defence. But the stewards' decision is final, and as a result of it Kevin ended up being classified 10th. Jenson drove a typically controlled yet combative race, finishing ninth on the road, which became eighth as a result of Kevin's penalty.
"As a team we scored only five world championship points today, which was quite a lot fewer than we'd expected to score, but there are positives to take from the weekend too: our qualifying pace was strong and our race pace was solid, and as I said yesterday it's clear that we're making sure and steady progress.
"The next race, the Singapore Grand Prix, will be run on a tight and tortuous circuit whose layout could hardly be more different from the flat-out speed-bowl that is Monza, but, on fast circuit or slow, you may be well sure that we'll be doing our damnedest to score as many points as possible in an effort to consolidate our fifth place in the constructors' championship."
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 6th
"I think that was the most we could do today. On the primes we weren't able to look after the tyres as well as we wanted to. The target is to get back to the front, at the moment the gap is quite big but we will have to work hard to close it again. We have had some difficulties this year, but they can only make us stronger if we learn from them. In terms of strategy we wanted to get the McLarens so we went aggressive with the early stop, but the tyres started going off at the end and all in all that was what we could do today."
Daniel Ricciardo, 7th
"The strategy helped today, it kept the tyres fresh enough to go those extra few laps at the end. I saw the cars in front of me pit and the pace was still good enough, so seeing that we didn't have great pace when we were out of position then we thought we would try something different and that's why we went long, which helped towards the end of the race. I was more comfortable with the prime tyre and was able to do some good moves, which kept me smiling. The start wasn't ideal, it's one of the longest runs up to Turn One here from the start line and it's not a place where you want to have a bad one, but I dropped the clutch and didn't get the traction, so we will have to look at that, but we kept a cool head and picked our way back through the field. I think fifth, even with a good start, was the best we could do."
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
"I think fifth and sixth was the absolute optimum today. We picked two different strategies, an aggressive one with Sebastian to undercut the McLaren, which worked and gave him track position but unfortunately made his tyres marginal at the end of the race. With Daniel we took the opposite approach as he was running in clear air. We ran him long in the first stint with a shorter second stint and then his passing moves to come back through the field were truly impressive and obviously with Sebastian struggling with tyre degradation due to the length of the stint, it became inevitable that the two were going to swap positions. But fifth and sixth place, at a circuit dominated by Mercedes-powered cars, is damage limitation achieved."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 track support leader
"As expected it was a hard race and we played with the strategy to nurse the tyres and stay as close as possible to the front. Sebastian pitted early to protect position, which left him with very worn tyres at the end, but he nevertheless managed to keep as much pace as possible. Daniel went longer on the first stint and was then able to keep his tyres in good shape until the end of the race. We've still got a lot of work to do but overall it's a reasonable result for the team compared to the qualifying pace yesterday."
More to follow...
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Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, 13th
"From the beginning of the weekend our performance was not on the level where we would like to be. Even though we have been working very hard, session after session, to improve the car handling, I have been struggling for the whole race, making it very tough today. We will now have to analyse carefully what went wrong and hopefully we will come back stronger at the next race in Singapore."
Daniil Kvyat, 11th
"I feel disappointed with how my race ended. We had a brake disc failure I think, but I managed to hang on and bring the car home in P11. It's a shame when you give it your hundred percent and you finish the race outside the points, but I'm very pleased with my race in general. Starting from the back is never easy, but I managed to overtake a few cars and get close to a points finish. We will now have a look at what exactly happened, before heading to the next race in Singapore."
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
"Daniil did a fantastic job today. Starting from the last position on the grid he was able to make his way up. I think he is the driver who can count the highest number of overtaking during today's race. In the last two laps he was fighting to close the gap to Kimi Raikkonen, getting quite close to him, but unfortunately he suddenly suffered a front brake failure, which we will have to investigate. Only thanks to his extraordinary driving skills he was able to control the car and avoid a collision. All considered, I'm really impressed by his capability to close the gap to the cars in front of him and I'm convinced that he might have finished the race in 9th position today, after the 5 seconds penalty imposed to Magnussen. As for Jean-Eric, he complained about a lack of grip which made him struggle with the car for the entire race and therefore he finished in the thirteenth position. The team has done a solid job with a good working strategy and fast pit stops. We just have to go on pushing as much as possible to arrive well prepared in Singapore to score the points which we missed out on today."
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, 12th
"It wasn't a very busy race for me. I was racing alone most of the time and just doing my own race: not being towed around or benefiting from DRS made it a bit harder. I had a very good start, especially considering I was on the hard tyre, but I lost contact with the cars ahead of me quite soon because they were on the medium and I didn't really have the same pace. It was quite difficult to manage the car, especially the rear end: I had some oversteering and it was tricky to drive. I pitted quite early as I wasn't going anywhere on my hard tyres and we saw a good opportunity to jump people, but we still found it difficult to deal with the balance. We need to look ahead now to Singapore and work to bring more performance to the car. Singapore is a track we all enjoy: everything - the track, the atmosphere, the setup - is special."
Sergio Perez, 7th
"The race was a lot of fun. We were always fighting somebody and always pushing hard. It was great racing and it's good to score important points for the championship. The most important part of the race was the fight I had with Jenson, which was really nice and reminded me of the old days. I know he is a driver that you can fight really hard and it's always clean. At the end of the race with Kevin, I knew he had a penalty and there was no need to attack him. It meant I could focus on keeping Jenson behind me, which was not easy."
Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director
"Six points keeps us where we need to be in our close championship battle with just a single point separating us from fifth place. Sergio was mighty today, showing once again how well he can race with some brilliant overtaking and defending. Nico made a great start, but he has not been completely comfortable with the car balance all weekend and especially in the race today. Despite his very strong start, points were out of reach. With six races remaining this season, I still believe we have all to play for and that we must keep pushing hard."
McLaren
Jenson Button, 8th
"This wasn't the result I was after - but the was good fun nonetheless. It's just a pity that we didn't quite have the race pace we'd hoped for: when you start fifth and sixth, you're not just looking for a points finish, you want a bit more than that. If we'd had a clear run, I think we could have done a bit better - but, in the traffic, it was easier for the cars around us to pick us off than it was for us to pick them off.
"I had an amazing battle with Checo - we took the first Lesmo side by side, which doesn't happen very often. It's a pity I couldn't get past him - I tried so many times, but he was so strong under braking that to match him into the turns I was locking up the fronts and the rears, which left me struggling for position on the exits. But I was really on the limit. It was superb wheel-to-wheel action - I hope it was great entertainment for the spectators and fantastic TV for the fans at home."
Kevin Magnussen, 10th
"I made a great start - I got up to second into the first corner - but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that position, and inevitably I fell back. Obviously, it was nice to be up at the front for a while, and disappointing that we couldn't stay up there, but as I say I knew it wouldn't last for ever.
"It's unfortunate to come away from the weekend having only scored a single point. Okay, we're not battling for the world championship, but we're still fighting for crucial positions in the constructors' championship, and the points we lost today would have been very useful from that point of view. It's frustrating to get another penalty, of course it is, but we'll analyse them and see what we can learn. Let's see if we can do something different next time."
Eric Boullier, McLaren racing director
"Kevin made a truly tremendous start from fifth place on the grid, which gave him momentum enough to slip neatly past Felipe into second place into Turn 1. Thereafter he drove hard and well, making no errors, but was unable to prevent a number of faster cars from passing him over the next 53 laps.
"In the closing stages he and Valtteri were involved in a spirited and entertaining dice - the kind of wheel-to-wheel racing that Formula 1 fans thrill to see - and in our view he was unfortunate to be penalised for what we saw as a legitimate defence. But the stewards' decision is final, and as a result of it Kevin ended up being classified 10th. Jenson drove a typically controlled yet combative race, finishing ninth on the road, which became eighth as a result of Kevin's penalty.
"As a team we scored only five world championship points today, which was quite a lot fewer than we'd expected to score, but there are positives to take from the weekend too: our qualifying pace was strong and our race pace was solid, and as I said yesterday it's clear that we're making sure and steady progress.
"The next race, the Singapore Grand Prix, will be run on a tight and tortuous circuit whose layout could hardly be more different from the flat-out speed-bowl that is Monza, but, on fast circuit or slow, you may be well sure that we'll be doing our damnedest to score as many points as possible in an effort to consolidate our fifth place in the constructors' championship."
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 6th
"I think that was the most we could do today. On the primes we weren't able to look after the tyres as well as we wanted to. The target is to get back to the front, at the moment the gap is quite big but we will have to work hard to close it again. We have had some difficulties this year, but they can only make us stronger if we learn from them. In terms of strategy we wanted to get the McLarens so we went aggressive with the early stop, but the tyres started going off at the end and all in all that was what we could do today."
Daniel Ricciardo, 7th
"The strategy helped today, it kept the tyres fresh enough to go those extra few laps at the end. I saw the cars in front of me pit and the pace was still good enough, so seeing that we didn't have great pace when we were out of position then we thought we would try something different and that's why we went long, which helped towards the end of the race. I was more comfortable with the prime tyre and was able to do some good moves, which kept me smiling. The start wasn't ideal, it's one of the longest runs up to Turn One here from the start line and it's not a place where you want to have a bad one, but I dropped the clutch and didn't get the traction, so we will have to look at that, but we kept a cool head and picked our way back through the field. I think fifth, even with a good start, was the best we could do."
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
"I think fifth and sixth was the absolute optimum today. We picked two different strategies, an aggressive one with Sebastian to undercut the McLaren, which worked and gave him track position but unfortunately made his tyres marginal at the end of the race. With Daniel we took the opposite approach as he was running in clear air. We ran him long in the first stint with a shorter second stint and then his passing moves to come back through the field were truly impressive and obviously with Sebastian struggling with tyre degradation due to the length of the stint, it became inevitable that the two were going to swap positions. But fifth and sixth place, at a circuit dominated by Mercedes-powered cars, is damage limitation achieved."
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 track support leader
"As expected it was a hard race and we played with the strategy to nurse the tyres and stay as close as possible to the front. Sebastian pitted early to protect position, which left him with very worn tyres at the end, but he nevertheless managed to keep as much pace as possible. Daniel went longer on the first stint and was then able to keep his tyres in good shape until the end of the race. We've still got a lot of work to do but overall it's a reasonable result for the team compared to the qualifying pace yesterday."
More to follow...
For tickets and travel to 2014 FORMULA 1 races, click here (http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc9 24805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftickets.formula1.com%2F).
For FORMULA 1 merchandise,