2009 BRITISH GRAND PRIX
SATURDAY POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE – June 20, 2009
DRIVERS:
1. Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull), 1m19.509s
2. Rubens BARRICHELLO (Brawn GP), 1m19.856s
3. Mark WEBBER (Red Bull), 1m19.868s
TV UNILATERALS
Q: Sebastian, fastest car all weekend here, a great final run, you look to be in very good shape.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah,
fantastic weekend. From the beginning to the end we didn’t have a
single problem. All the new parts we brought here seemed to have worked
very well, so I think we have made a step forward but you know, when it
comes to qualifying there is tension there. You try to do your best. It
was quite difficult today. At the beginning of qualifying I was
struggling a little bit sometimes here and there with traffic. The wind
was not such a big issue today but it was always a bit tricky when you
have cars ahead of you, you can feel it even though you are three or
four seconds behind. So in the first two qualifying sessions I was
struggling a little bit. Then in Q2 we put on the soft tyres and then
from there onwards I was quite happy with the car. And in Q3 we had two
very good runs I would say, especially the last one. I think that was
the lap of the weekend. From the beginning to the end it was very close
to being perfect. Of course, as a driver you always think there is a
little bit here, a little bit there, but this lap was very good. I was
able to use the tyres perfectly well and yeah, I brought the lap to the
chequered flag and I was surprised by how quick I was at that stage and
finally it was enough to get pole position, so that’s the most
important thing. I can only say – and I don’t do it because everyone
usually does it at this stage – but I can only say very, very big
compliments to all the guys back in the factory. It’s only half an hour
from Silverstone and they have been working so hard to get this car to
where it is now, so it’s all down to them. I think both of us have
proved that the car is working very well and yeah, I’m looking forward
to tomorrow’s race.
Q: Rubens, it’s been a tough
weekend for Brawn Grand Prix. You’re second, your team-mate, Jenson
Button, is down in sixth place. It looks like it’s been hard work; you
must be pleased with the outcome today.
Rubens BARRICHELLO: Very,
very pleased. I think those guys have been doing a fantastic job the
whole weekend. For me, too, it was the best lap of the weekend in Q3
where I took the extreme of the car. I need to check if I breathed
during the lap because it was such a nice one. Silverstone has always
been quite good and I want to thank all my engineers for their hard
work because we found a good balance and I’m pleased to be in the
middle of them (the Red Bulls) at least. It’s going to be hard to beat
them tomorrow but that’s what I’m here for.
Q: Mark,
you’ve been trading fastest laps with your team-mate all weekend. This
Red Bull car looks absolutely fantastic but right at the end there it
just didn’t work out for you; what happened?
Mark WEBBER: Yeah,
as you say, it’s been a good weekend for us so far. I would have liked
a slightly cleaner run on my last Q3 lap. Kimi (Räikkönen) was, I don’t
know, drinking some vodka or dreaming or something… I don’t know what
the hell he was doing. He should have been on the right and he’s on the
racing line, dreaming, so that wrecked my rhythm into Stowe, I was very
tight into there and so... Anyway, no-one’s here to listen to a
shopping list of excuses. I would have liked to get more out of the car
on the last lap, it wasn’t the case but we’re still third.
Congratulations to Seb, he did a good job. I think both of us are
getting some good results out of the car now, so all the guys at Red
Bull, all their hard work is now being realised. We’re definitely in
for a good result tomorrow if we can have a clean race.
Q:
Sebastian, this car is obviously good here. It’s good in the slow
sections and in the fast sections and Jenson Button, the championship
leader is down in sixth place. Do you see this as a potential turning
point weekend in your season?
SV: I can tell you after
tomorrow’s race. It’s sixty laps around here, this circuit is very,
very tough for both the car and us, the drivers, so we will see. It’s a
long way. Obviously if you ask for the championship ranking he has the
advantage, so he has quite a comfortable gap but we are here to fight,
we want to win races and today I think we did the best possible job, it
put us in the best position for tomorrow’s race but still it’s a long
race. I can tell you now that we have a fantastic car. We have a chance
to win tomorrow but you never know what will happen, so we will
definitely fight. Of course, I would be lying to you if I said that I
hoped that Jenson (Button) was straight behind me, so it’s good to hear
that he’s not sitting with us in this room now but on the other hand
it’s a long race. I think they have very strong pace, they have always
proven so far on Sundays that they are extremely competitive, so even
if he starts sixth I think he can still come back and score a lot of
points – which I hope he doesn’t but they have proven in the past that
they are able to do it, so let’s see tomorrow. We focus on ourselves, I
focus on myself and we try to have a clean race and try to do the best
we can.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Your second
consecutive pole, of course Sebastian, but the car seems to have been
good all weekend, your name has kept popping up to the top of the
timing screens throughout the weekend.
SV: Yeah, it’s a
good thing for me, obviously. I’m very pleased with today and also I
think big, big compliments – I know usually everyone says this at this
stage – but big compliments to the team. On Wednesday, prior to the
Grand Prix, I have been in Milton Keynes and it was incredible how much
work was behind all that. We brought a couple of some quite new parts
to the car and it was a huge effort by the team, a hell of a lot of
work and they have been working flat out to make this happen and it’s
good that both of us are in the top three and we have proven that the
new parts are working, so I think we’ve made a step forward. But this
is Saturday, you get points on Sunday, so the main task is tomorrow’s
race. Two weeks ago we were also in a very strong position on Saturday
but then on Sunday, unfortunately, we were proved that there is still a
little bit that we have to improve. But I think this weekend the
circuit suits us very well, it’s a pleasure to drive here. It’s only my
second time, so it’s a shame that we won’t come back. But yeah, I
really enjoy this circuit and today has been a fantastic day. I was
struggling a little bit in Q1 and Q2. I didn’t really feel the car but
then in the last run in Q2 with the soft tyres I was able to get a
proper feeling and improved a little bit here and there, so was able to
make a step which was, I think, very important, and then for Q3 the
first run I was quite happy and then on the second run with new tyres I
was very pleased, the lap was very, very good, very close to perfect.
There’s obviously always a little bit to come but I would say it was a
very strong lap and I think we should be in a strong position for
tomorrow, so let’s see.
Q: Looking at the
modifications, particularly the new nose and new front wing as well,
you seemed to use them all day yesterday, yet you reverted to the old
wing this morning for a little while.
SV: I think the wing you put in qualifying is the preferred one. I don’t think we have to go into that.
Q:
What about the tyre temperatures here; it’s quite cool, yet you have
quite a hard tyre as well. How difficult is that to get up to
temperature?
SV: It’s not easy. You can play around with
pressures and the way you bring the tyres in, the pace you have on the
out lap and so on and some of the guys are weaving more, some are
weaving less, so it’s quite tricky. The first lap is extremely
important, you start a lap here and then you go down through turns one,
two, three, four and five, very high speed corners. Apart from having
the pressures ready and the tyre ready, the temperatures, you need to
have the confidence to do it, otherwise you lift your foot too much and
you lose time. I think that’s the big secret. It was quite tricky. With
the hard tyres you’re struggling a little bit more to get the
temperatures in whereas with the softs it seems to be a little bit
better but I think both tyres are pretty similar, there’s not much
between them, so we will see tomorrow. It will be a challenge which
tyre to use at which stage of the race but we have a night to think
about that.
Q: Rubens, similar question to you: has it been a bit more difficult for Brawn to get the tyres up to temperature?
RB: Overall,
it has been a little bit more difficult to get the lap done. Basically
we seem to be where we wanted to be but we think Red Bull just made a
step and they are better, so I’m delighted to be here, right now,
splitting them because it was a really good effort from me with the car
on the track and from my engineers to put everything together. It was a
good thought this morning but the car was still not the way I like.
Silverstone, for me, is very special, I love it and I took everything I
could out of the car in qualifying, apart from Q1, when I could only
manage one lap because of Sutil’s accident. I was really, really happy
with the lap and I thought today P3 was the best I could manage and P2
is one better and I hope I can do one better tomorrow.
Q: How much did you change the car overnight, how much did you change the car between this morning and this afternoon?
RB: Well,
Formula One nowadays is funny, it’s really good to work on it because
you change so much from day to day. It’s not like it used to be: a
touch on the front wing or a touch of this or that. You change things,
especially with myself and the enthusiasm I have to change things
overnight, you just do so and see what happens. If you don’t you have a
baseline on which you can faith. We did change the car a little bit
from yesterday, it wasn’t that good this morning but then we fine-tuned
for qualifying which was to my liking again.
Q: Tell us a little about your love affair with Silverstone.
RB:
I’ve had two pole positions here. For me, there is a positive and a
negative about it. The negative is why the hell are they taking this
race away from here? You can see the fans, you can see they made such a
big effort on the outside to make the traffic better. I know they
cannot make an effort to improve the weather but that’s England. If you
change to anywhere in England it’s going to be the same. The track is
safe. You saw Sutil today walk from what looked like a very hard
impact, so it is safe. The positives are that I love this place that
since Formula Three I’ve run here so much and I get on with the
circuit, so it’s really nice.
Q: Mark, I guess there’s real disappointment not to be on pole or at least on the front row?
MW:
Well, second is not the greatest starting position but I would like to
be on pole, of course. I was happy with every lap I did in qualifying
to be honest, except the last one. It was a pretty good lap, I had a
big distraction from Kimi because he was totally asleep on the back
straight. He couldn’t have done a better job to distract me into Stowe.
He sat on the racing line and just basically didn’t care what was
happening, so that was very frustrating for me because it broke the
rhythm. These laps need to be absolutely perfect, so it wasn’t the
tidiest and cleanest of laps to finish the important lap and the most
important part of qualifying, so that’s some frustration inside, but
hey, I’m not tenth, I’m third. Seb did a good lap, the team’s done an
incredible job this week, so there’s still a huge amount of positives
but obviously these days, when we’re aiming a lot higher, it’s easier
to get more disappointed. That’s the way it was today.
Q: What about the progress over the weekend, particularly with the modifications that have come on the car?
MW:
Yeah, we’ve made a few changes and they’ve definitely helped us. This
is the quickest the car’s ever been this year. Slightly little
modifications to the nose and engine cooling and a few things like that
have put us in the right way, yeah.
Q: And they’ve obviously been very positive.
MW: They’ll be staying on, I’m sure.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q:
(Bob Bull – BBC Three Counties Radio) I know the guys back at Milton
Keynes have had some very frustrating seasons, so how pleased are they
when you actually get back to see them? Do you get a positive reaction
from them?
SV: Yes. They are very happy, every single
one. Just yesterday, before I went back to sleep, I was in the garage,
spending some time with the boys and independently, whether it’s the
guys at the circuit or the factory, they are very, very pleased. You
walk by, the music is playing and everyone is kind of dancing but still
focussed and working very hard to get the car ready. I think we have a
fantastic atmosphere. If you have such a good car and if, as a driver,
you enjoy every single lap so much, especially on circuits like this, I
would almost say it’s your duty to perform well, you have to deliver.
The boys deserve that and you have to deliver. It’s a fantastic
situation for us, the drivers and obviously for the team which, as you
said, hasn’t had a very easy time over the last few years, so now it’s
our time, which is very good.
MW: I was also at
the team when it was under a different name, so there have been many
personnel there who have gone through a lot, as the questioner referred
to. They’re now in a new situation, they’re incredibly proud. Obviously
the work that’s gone in has been working because there’s nothing worse
when you’re breaking your balls and it doesn’t work. At least now we’re
definitely on the right path and we’re doing our absolutely utmost to
get the best results and trying to race Brawn who have been doing an
incredible job which has been a big challenge for us. There’s still a
long way ahead in both championships, we’re aware of that and we’re
doing our best to close up.
