Contemplating Composites

Lord Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, visits the Williams F1 factory in Grove to announce new investment totalling £22 million to further development of composite materials in the UK.

Credit: Alastair Staley/LAT Photographic

FIA – Belgian GP Press Conference – Friday

FRIDAY PRESS CONFERENCE – August 28, 2009

TEAM PRINCIPALS:
Christian HORNER (Red Bull),
John HOWETT (Toyota),
Adam PARR (Williams),
Simon ROBERTS (Force India)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Question to all of you. We see vastly varying performances from your cars from weekend to weekend. Or it seems that way. Are you happy with the consistency of your car and, if not, what is the problem? Where is the inconsistency? Adam, would you start? For example, your two cars were virtually at the bottom of the time sheets today.
Adam PARR: Well, actually this year I think we have been very pleased with our performances. It has been much more consistent than in previous years. Today has been a bit of a set back and we obviously need to do some serious work to put on a more competitive performance tomorrow afternoon. But so far this season has been much more consistent.

Q: Is there any idea what was happening?
AP: Today? Well, I hope someone has got an idea. But we are in the debrief right now, so hopefully we will know a lot more later on.

Q: Simon, what about you?
Simon ROBERTS: Well, I think that this year everything is a lot closer, so as teams move from race to race we are finding it really difficult to guess where we are going to be. That’s happened to us this afternoon. Like Adam we are in the debrief now looking at the data. I think with the tyres we thought that the softs would be the tyre to be on. We could get it to work early on but later on in the session we were not so sure. I think it is good in a way. Everyone changes a bit race to race and even small increments in performance improvement can make quite a big difference and I think that is all you are seeing really.

Q: John, Toyota seem to have been up and down a bit even in these last eight days.
John HOWETT: I think all teams have been varying. I think our biggest problem in the last two or three races appear to have been pretty strong race pace if you look at fuel corrected pace but, actually, a problem with one lap pace. We started very strongly. We seem, relatively, to have dropped back but the biggest issue we feel in the last two or three races has been the one lap pace.

Q: Christian, your consistency seems to be not bad.
CH: No, we have been reasonably consistent. Obviously, Valencia was a blip but I think on a day like today we treat it very much like a test day. It is impossible to predict what everyone else is doing with fuel loads, with revs, with engines, with set up, so we work through our own programme and we are reasonably happy with the day’s work we have done today.

Q: Adam, the form since Silverstone seems to have been really good. You seem to have taken a step up. What is the plan for the future?
AP: I think what’s happened since Silverstone, well, probably since Monaco, is actually we have been finishing the job. I think we have had a reasonably competitive car all season up until today but it took us a few races to really start bringing home the points. But I think it has been consistent since then. We have had fourth and fifth position through pretty much every race, so the main thing is just getting the job finished and we have been doing that much better recently.

Q: Is that going to be enough to hold onto Nico Rosberg?
AP: That’s a very good question. I think you will probably have to ask him whether we are doing a good enough job to hold onto him or not but we are certainly doing the best we can in terms of giving him a good car, good strategy and trying to finish it for him.

Q: What about Kazuki (Nakajima)? He seems to be having a lot of bad luck.
AP: Well, it is just absolutely awful to put a driver out there and then have a reliability issue or a pit stop issue and I think we all feel that we would like to see him doing the whole job himself and us doing our bit. It is difficult to blame a driver when you are not doing the full job yourself, so we need to look at our own performance particularly, for example, in Valencia.

Q: What is the engine situation likely to be for next year?
AP: The engine situation is still a work in progress but I think we are relatively clear on which direction we want to go in but obviously it is not finalised yet.

Q: Simon, can you tell us what your function is at Force India.
SR: I joined the team as part of the collaboration and the contract between Force India and McLaren Mercedes. It gave the team the opportunity to review its management structure which was done before I got there. I am there to run the team for Force India and that is what I do. Fundamentally because I know how all three organisations work I am pretty well placed to do that. That enabled us to take a very late decision and design and build a car around a new engine and a new gearbox and get out to do at least a couple of week’s winter testing which the team did a fantastic job doing. Really since then my focus has just been more on the internal running of the team, improving things every weekend, and helping the guys down the tunnel and the design team to bring upgrades to the track just like any other team.

Q: And the performance curve seems to be improving all the time.
SR: Yes, we are quite pleased. We are a small team and we have to be careful how we spend our money, so we had a strategy which we have been able to deploy. We took up significant upgrades to Silverstone and Valencia. Both those worked and we are still on the back of one of those here. We still have some stuff to come for later on in the season. That’s how we are doing.

Q: Presumably the target is World Championship points?
SR: Yes, we talk about it between every event. What do we need to do. What more can we do to make that a reality and all we can do is keep pushing, keep trying to improve our performance, and try and make some luck. We have been close a few times this year. We were close last year but you just have to be there. We have got ourselves into what we think is a solid Q2 team now and we think if we can run near the front of Q2, then we can score points when the opportunity arises.

Q: John, there have been all sorts of stories about the future of the team. Can you give us your point of view on that?
JH: I mean there is a lot of speculation about a lot of teams. I have no reason at all to question that Toyota will be here for the next three years and no information to the contrary. I think there was some story about budget and fundamentally our budgets are always approved in November and I genuinely was explaining that this year it was a bit more difficult to know what is likely to be approved and we have to accept that there is a very tough economy out there.

Q: How important is it for Toyota to supply another team?
JH: I think we did it really because we wanted to contribute to Formula One. I think at that time Ferrari were supplying and nobody else did. I think we are very willing and open to supply. We basically have an agreement with Williams to supply in 2010 but I think Toyota generally is normally a sensible company and if somebody does not wish to continue trading with you, we will consider favourably that decision. But, as such, as I sit here we do have a binding contract to supply Williams with engines in 2010. But we don’t gain a huge amount of material information from it. We are not developing a new engine. Therefore, I am not sure if we gain a material amount from losing supply at this current time.

Q: Jarno Trulli has outqualified Timo Glock eight to three times but they are level pegging in terms of race performances and results. What about Timo as he always seems to improve more places than any other driver this season?
JH: His race performances are always enormously strong. It is really clear that he seems to be happy. He had problems in Valencia where he was hit by (Sébastien) Buemi but when we actually look at the first two or three laps he did in the race, fuel corrected, he had an amazing pace and he continued the stints very strongly. I think really we are working very hard with him to try and improve the qualifying performance and I think if he can get there he has a really strong performance capability.

Q: Is he lacking something in qualifying?
JH: I don’t know. Last week I think he was six-tenths up on his previous lap time and would have been quicker than Jenson but had small problem in turn 13. We have got to understand whether it is the car too much on the edge or driver or set up but I think really we believe he has got it and we are working very hard to get him up the grid, so he has a good starting position.

Q: Christian, some interesting challenges for you. First of all, could you just explain to us what the situation is with Sebastian’s engines, what he’s got left, what he hasn’t got?
CH: The situation on engines is quite clear. Each driver is allowed eight race engines; four of those are consigned to shrapnel, unfortunately. But he’s got two new race engines and two used engines available to him. We will strategically use the two new engines, so we will be running one here, one possibly in Monza and then with the used engines, we will spread those out over the remaining Fridays. So if we’re frugal with the mileage on the Friday and go for quality rather than quantity, then hopefully we can avoid taking a penalty. But if we use any additional engines to those eight, then we will incur a ten-place penalty.

Q: You would never run an engine over a specific mileage that Renault have given you?
CH: Well, Renault obviously have a target mileage and as they gain confidence in those engines perhaps going beyond that mileage then we might extend but they’re working with us on that and obviously trying to support us in the best way they can.

Q: In terms of Sebastian (Vettel) and Mark (Webber) and their championship positions, how do you manage that – or do you not?
CH: Very simply; we support both drivers equally. We have brought the same upgrades to the cars at every event this year and it’s really been down to what they do on the circuit. It would be wrong from a team perspective to be favouring at this point of the championship one driver over the other, so we’ve treated both with an equal hand.

Q: We know Sebastian has got a contract until 2012, what’s the situation with Mark?
CH: Mark – we were delighted to secure his services for a further year, which we announced in Germany, the weekend that he won his first Grand Prix. So we’re really happy with the driver line-up we’ve got for 2010. I think it’s one of the stronger pairings in the field, it’s a great blend of youth and experience and there’s a very strong working spirit between the drivers, that’s professional and very collaborative, so from a team point of view, we’re extremely happy with the pairing that we have.

Q: And probably happy to have that issue settled unlike quite a few others.
CH: Yes, absolutely. Obviously we’re into the driver merry-go-round at the moment and the fact that we’re not part of that is very settling from a team point of view. They know exactly who we’re working with for next year.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mike Doodson) My question is about aerodynamics because last year you guys sent your engineering wizards to lots of long meetings to resolve the problem of overtaking. I think the FIA had some input into that. The result, though, has been that these cars look as though they’ve been made out of Lego and there has been absolutely no improvement at all in the overtaking. I’m interested in knowing just how important overtaking is to the show as far as you’re concerned, and what is the next step?
CH: I’m not an aerodynamicist, so my answer won’t be particularly qualified but I will give you my observation. Obviously a lot of work was done through the Overtaking Working Group. It’s not rocket science to see that the lap times at several circuits this year are quicker than last year. Unfortunately, the double diffuser has played a part in that, I think, with the wake that the cars are now developing and the drivers do find it very difficult to follow each other closely. But I think the amount of development that has gone into these cars with the aero package that is there is just as critical as it has been in previous years. I think you also have to look at some of the circuit layouts. There are some circuits where you see more overtaking than others. I think you will see more this weekend at a circuit like this than you will at Singapore, for example. Unless you go back to really taking pretty much all the downforce off the car and going back to 600hp almost Formula Fords you’re not going to see a big difference in the overtaking at the current circuits that we race at. Is it important for Formula One? Well, I’ve been watching Formula One since the 1980s and I don’t think there’s ever been a huge amount of overtaking. Obviously the show is important, it’s important that drivers are able to race closely with each other and I think we actually have had some very exciting racing this year but it’s obviously something that can be worked on in the future and hopefully improved.
JH: I honestly don’t think I’ve got much to add to Christian’s point. I’ve been watching Formula One for a long time and there are those great overtaking moves but I’m not sure that in the last twenty years at least that there has been a huge amount. I think certainly FOTA now wants to look at how it can contribute generally to improving Formula One value to all the stakeholders and clearly overtaking is an issue that will need to be discussed and raised, but immediately, now, we have a formula that we’ve moved to, it hasn’t really achieved the objectives but we have had some fairly good races, the performance between the cars looks very, very close. If you look in qualifying this year there have been some circuits where it’s enormously close: nine cars in less than one second or more, so it’s something to be studied for the future but no need for panic.
SR: Yeah, I think I support everything the guys have just said. There is overtaking, certainly for our drivers in the early laps of some of the races, sometimes a little bit too exciting for us watching on the pit wall but I think it’s circuit dependent as well. As Christian said, I think here we’re expecting overtaking, I think probably the same at Monza but on the street circuits it’s very, very difficult.
AP: I think hopefully next year with the lack of refuelling and perhaps the impact that has on the tyres etc. there could be a bit more fun, but I think fundamentally, if you have ten or twelve very competent teams and double that number of very competent drivers and you line them up in order of speed it’s improbable they are going to overtake. And of course the closer they are in performance to each other, the less likely anyone is to pass anyone else. I was slightly surprised when Frank (Williams) said on Monday this week ‘we’ve got to do something about this’ and he said ‘let’s just split the race into two – have a morning race and an afternoon one on a Sunday and if that doesn’t work, let’s have a reverse grid in the second one.’ I think, personally, Valencia was quite exciting if you were in a team in the garage but quite frankly, if we carry on putting on races like that I think we will only have ourselves to blame if nobody carries on watching.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Christian, the Brawns are down in 17th and 18th today; does that give you cause for optimism or is there a little bit sandbagging going on from them? Is there more to come, do you think?
CH: It’s a lot of sandbagging if they are sandbagging. As I said earlier, I think that everybody goes about their own business on a Friday. They’ve obviously been looking at different wing sweeps and so on as I think all teams have been up and down the pit lane. You can’t read too much into today, they tend to obviously run quite a bit of fuel and so it will be interesting to see where the performance is tomorrow and on Sunday. We’re quite happy with the preparation that we’ve had today and there are a few other cars in the mix as well this weekend. Lewis (Hamilton), if you look through the session, looks quick again, Heikki (Kovalainen) looks quick, Kimi (Räikkönen) looks quick, so it’s going to be an interesting weekend.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) If I could ask Christian about his team’s engine supply and how soon you’re going to make your mind up and where you’re tending towards?
CH: Well, it will definitely be a V8! We’re obviously in a position where, as an independent team, we have a choice of engine. We’ve been very, very happy with the supply that we’ve had from Renault for the last three years. Any decision that will be made, will be made not on the outcome of a single weekend but based on what we believe offers us the best opportunity of performance and relationship for the future. We haven’t made any firm decisions yet but we’re obviously nearing a time when we need to make a commitment for next year.

Q: (MC) Is there a deadline?
CH: Well, Ross (Brawn) only chose his engine in January, so it shows it can be done pretty late. We obviously don’t want to wait that long but I would think that within the next couple of weeks we’ll hone in on a decision.

FIA – British GP Press Conference – Friday

FRIDAY PRESS CONFERENCE – June 19, 2009

TEAM PRINCIPALS:
Ross BRAWN (Brawn GP),
Christian HORNER (Red Bull),
Adam PARR (Williams),
Martin WHITMARSH (McLaren Mercedes)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Just one question from me. What is your position regarding the current situation in Formula One? Christian, can I start with you please.
Christian HORNER: Right. It has obviously been a busy 24 hours but I think it obviously dates back well beyond that. We have effectively reached a position of stalemate between FOTA and the FIA. I think a huge amount of effort has been made by the teams to try and find a compromise because at the end of the day we do have a duty of care to the people that we sit here and represent, the employees, to the fans, to the sponsors and to the public. The intention and effort was to try and find a compromise, a solution. As I say we find ourselves in a position of stalemate and the decisions that were made that resulted in the press release that you all saw this morning weren’t taken lightly and after a lot of deliberation that was the position that collectively the teams arrived at. Whilst it was a difficult decision to make I think unfortunately we have found ourselves in a situation that the conditions of the entries that we looked to put in have been effectively rejected and I think the teams reached the stage where they felt they could go no further. Therefore, as I say, we have effectively reached a stalemate and we are faced with the situation where we either stop or we look at something else. Certainly from a Red Bull perspective we want to race against the best teams, against the best drivers, with the best sponsors in the world. If that cannot be Formula One then we will have to consider what the alternative is but being ever the optimist I think we have gone as far as we can. We have reached this position and that is where we are today. Situations can change but that is certainly where we are.
Ross BRAWN: Well, I think after the shock of Honda leaving Formula One there was a lot of concern that we reacted in a correct way and we started with the correct initiatives or intensified those initiatives as in fairness there were a lot of initiatives already started by the teams I think with general support from the FIA. The engine manufacturers within FOTA had introduced the eight million Euro engine and next year it is five million Euros, so for my team that is a godsend. There were a lot of initiatives already underway and perhaps with the economic environment there was a need to review those initiatives and see if we could intensify them but in a structured way and a balance needed to be kept because there were many reasons whey Honda left Formula One but it was not only an economic argument. There was a strategic argument as well and the reaction needed to be the correct reaction. In our view it did not need to be as dramatic as occurred and that is really where the differences of opinion have come in the dramatic reaction the FIA felt was necessary in the circumstances to protect Formula One. I think the balance between the opinion of the teams and the FIA has been different and it has been difficult to reconcile those differences and in trying to reconcile those differences the relationships have suffered. At the present time there is a very difficult relationship between the teams whose, I think, genuine ambition is not to take over Formula One but the teams have a massive investment in Formula One and they want their investment respected. Formula One doesn’t belong to the teams. I don’t believe it belongs to Formula One. It belongs to the people. Formula One belongs to all of us. It is not something which is owned by anybody. It is like the Olympic Games, the World Cup. It is an entity in itself. It needs respecting and nurturing and it needs to be developed. Really the teams do not share the same opinion as the FIA in the way that it needs to be developed and we have ended up with a situation where some teams have now entered Formula One with a different set of regulations to what the other teams wish to race under, with in fairness a proposal from the FIA to change those regulations again but no guarantee that those regulations can change. They have to be changed with the consent of the teams that are already in Formula One, so we are saying ‘come and join us and we will change the rules again’ but what guarantees do we have. It is a very difficult situation. We want to find solutions but if we can’t find solutions we will have to find another championship to race in.
Martin WHITMARSH: I think Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, which is the team I represent, wants to race at the pinnacle of motorsport. It wants to race with all of the teams that are represented here, including Adam. We want to race with all the big names, the stars, the history and the heritage of this sport. Clearly the pressures that exist within the sport were in danger of really dividing most of those names between two camps. I think last night it was clear that the majority of us wanted to be together. We wanted to be at the pinnacle of motorsport. We want transparent governance. We want one tier of regulations and perhaps a philosophical difference as to the future of the sport. I think there have been tremendous efforts from many people to try and find compromise, to find a way forward but time pressures were placed on the teams and under those pressures we had to make a decision. A decision had to be made today and the teams within FOTA have come together. We have had clearly two teams that have slightly different positions from the majority but the majority of teams have worked together incredibly well. Since FOTA was formed in September, the first time that all of the teams in the sport have come together in the history of Formula One, we have worked to try and bring down the costs. There is no doubt that the initiatives that came from FOTA have been the most significant in the history of the sport. We have got certain teams here today that wouldn’t be here but for FOTA. We have put forward a structure to further reduce costs. Everyone wants to reduce costs. There is no doubt that costs were running away in Formula One. FOTA’s position isn’t that we don’t want to save money. Plainly we do. We have put forward proposals and mechanisms by which all of the teams believed that was possible and had already made that progress but ultimately we are very close in many things and that is perhaps the sad thing. If you look at FOTA’s position and you look at the position of the FIA there are a lot of areas where there are very many common views and yet ultimately perhaps because of relationships or whatever we were unable to come together. A deadline was placed upon the teams and consequently we had to make a decision and in fairness to the FIA we had to come forward with our view on that. To take a positive view the teams are working together I think in a most productive way certainly in the 20 years I have been involved in the sport. We look forward to racing with as many teams as we can next year.
Adam PARR: Williams is a Formula One team.

Q: Is that all you are saying.
AP: That’s all there is to say.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) To one or all three of the FOTA members. You will be aware probably that within the last half an hour the FIA have issued legal proceedings against all eight FOTA teams. I just wondered if I could get your thoughts on that first of all. And just beyond that how much has that further damaged the credibility of the sport?
RB: I think it is quite difficult for us. We have not seen the details of what has happened. I don’t want to avoid the question but it is quite difficult for us to answer as we heard just as we were coming into the press conference that that had happened. I think we need to understand what has happened but unfortunately I don’t think any of this episode of what is going on at the moment in the short term helps the sport. We all know that. It is just perhaps with a vision of better things that we are prepared to go through it.
MW: I think it is important that we do not get drawn here. We are at an FIA grand prix and we should respect the fact that a press conference is given here and therefore as Ross said, one we don’t know the facts and two, I think it isn’t the most appropriate format to comment on. I think certainly Formula One squabbling amongst itself is not a positive message. I think we have got to get to try and get to a point where we are concentrating on what happens out there on the tarmac and I think we should avoid getting into an examination of the correspondence that may be going backwards and forwards between FOTA and the FIA.
CH: I completely agree with Ross and Martin. I can only sympathise with the public who must be, as Formula One fans, confused and to a certain degree dismayed with what is currently going on. We have got a wonderful championship this year. It is Silverstone’s last Formula One grand prix and to have politics that are difficult for the general public to comprehend and understand and Formula One should be all about what happens on the track. I think it has taken up far too much of not only our time but other people’s time. We have reached the situation we are in. I think it is impossible for us to comment. I haven’t seen what has been provided by the FIA. I think it is a great shame and certainly from our perspective we have got a race to run this weekend. We are determined to try and stop Jenson Button winning yet another race. That is where our focus now immediately turns to and that’s for every member of our team. We owe that to the fans, to the public and to Silverstone at what is an important weekend.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Adam, on a commercial level how important is it for you as a team to be racing against Ferrari and McLaren? How hard is it going to be for you to go to sponsors and say we want your money but we are racing against Campos, US F1 and Manor?
AP: Well, I think that it is going to be very difficult to raise sponsorship revenues in the future but it has always been difficult in the past. I think one of the reasons why we are doing what we are doing, which is trying to reduce costs in Formula One, is because nobody can sustain the spending that we have had in the past few years. It is simply ridiculous and we have to stop it. Therefore we have supported both as a member of FOTA and now outside the measures that people want to take to reduce costs. That is essential. I don’t think that this situation is good in our discussions with sponsors but I am hoping it will be resolved and I am hoping that nobody really intends to create a breakaway series as I don’t think it is going to be good for anybody if that happens.

Q: (Lee McKenzie – BBC) To the FOTA members. Your proposed championship. Will eight teams be enough to sustain a championship or will you be welcoming invites from other teams, perhaps the likes of Lola and Prodrive?
MW: I think that certainly eight teams would be enough but we would welcome any new teams or existing teams for that matter. Certainly there has been an expression of interest from some of the names you just mentioned and I think a lot of the teams want to be racing against the Ferraris, Red Bulls, the Brawns and hopefully ourselves. Formula One has not done a good job in my view at developing the number of teams that compete and in developing a series which is focussed on what the fans want and I think there is a lot of opportunity to do a better job and to have some fresh energy. Whilst inevitably there is some sadness in a day like today I think you have got to be optimistic about the future. I think sometimes out of these changes, out of these challenges, are new eras, new opportunities and we have got to be positive. But clearly we have had already in the last few hours quite a lot of interest from some other teams that want to be part of this series and we are going to do everything we can to encourage them to be part of it. I think just as FOTA has already demonstrated its assistance to retaining teams and assisting the independent teams I think that has got to be part of the ethos of any new organisation.

Q: (Geoff Sweet – The Sun) Were Max Mosley not the President or if he were to be removed fairly soon could this problem go away virtually overnight?
RB: In no way is it a condition of the conditional entry that the FOTA teams have made that that is the case. It is not something we are pushing for or asking for. It has not entered the discussions. We have had a breakdown in relations and we need to find a way of getting back to a balance between the regulatory body and the competing teams.
CH: I would endorse totally what Ross says. At no point has there ever been a condition from FOTA of anything along those lines. We have actively tried to engage with the FIA over the past few weeks to constructively find a solution. Mr Mosley represents the whole of the FIA, so this is not pointed personally at any individual.

Q: (Mike Doodson) This statement from the FIA seems extremely provocative to me. Are any of you aware of any developments that could prejudice the running of this race meeting this weekend or the remaining races in the championship?
MW: No and I think as we said earlier we have not actually seen any detail at the moment. We heard on the way here and I can’t personally imagine anything that is going to prejudice this weekend and the rest of this season. Certainly that is not the intention, I am sure, of any of the teams represented here or any other teams within FOTA. I think we owe it to the public and the fans to put on as good a show as we can here this weekend and that is what we are going to be concentrating on doing. There is a great championship. Unfortunately we are not participating as closely in it as I would like but the two gentlemen behind are involved in I think an interesting championship and we on the lower steps here have to make sure that we try and drag ourselves as close to that as we can.
RB: Can I just say I hope something does prejudice this weekend as they are too quick. I think we are going to have trouble this weekend.

Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) By any measure this is an unseemly mess. Shouldn’t you all be ashamed of yourselves for allowing it to get to this situation and to become such a shambles? It is the future of Formula One on the line. It is not something that should be taken lightly.
MW: Rightly or wrongly I can only speak for myself. I don’t feel ashamed of the situation. The teams I think have the right values. We are looking to the future of the sport, to seek, to build and develop it for the fans and everyone who is involved with it. We are looking to create stability. I think anyone who has looked on Formula One in recent years there has not been the stability that we should have. There hasn’t been the clarity of what the championship should be for the fans. That is not pointing the finger at anyone. We have all been part of it. Some of us feel that we have got to do a better job than we have done in the past. Can anyone up here say that they have not made a mistake. Clearly lots of mistakes have been made in the evolution and development of Formula One but I think we have taken a positive step to say that we are committed to race together. We were heading whatever happened, it seemed in the last few days, towards a split. It could have been some of those teams currently in FOTA disappearing from the sport completely. I think anyone who has been watching and listening would have been very aware that a number of major manufacturers were almost inextricably leaving the sport and I think that would have been highly damaging. I think we are inviting all those that participate at the moment and any new entrant to participate in what we believe will be the pinnacle of motorsport.
CH: Again, I fully endorse what Martin says. I think what’s been achieved in the short space of time that FOTA has existed is significant. I think the cost savings that we’ve seen this year have been driven by FOTA and certainly, as an independent team, we have seen the benefits of the lowest-ever engine prices, probably in the last 25 years in Formula One, in budget reductions, probably for all teams, anywhere in the region of 15 and 25 percent, with proposals on the table to reduce budgets by probably up to 40 percent going forward. Each team has had difficult decisions to make and I, in particular, would just like to pay credit to Ross Brawn and the decision and the commitment that he’s shown to FOTA because he’s stuck to and believed in his principles in a situation, as an independent team, and I think that’s absolutely commendable at difficult times. They have no other form of income other than going grand prix racing. Red Bull are involved in other categories, McLaren have other initiatives within their group and I think that the unity that the teams have shown, the way that they’ve worked together and Ferrari have also been a huge player within this and I think that what has been achieved is significant and it’s a great shame that we’ve reached this stalemate because I think progress was being made, albeit, lumpily and positions have obviously hardened recently and we find ourselves in this situation. I certainly think there’s nothing to be ashamed of.
RB: Thank you Christian for your kind comments. I’ve not been an independent for very long but I’ve seen both sides of the coin, and I’ve seen life at Ferrari, I saw life prior to that at Benetton where we won the World Championship on a total of £30m a year and I’ve seen life at Honda and I’ve seen life as an independent and the key to all of this is finely balanced between the needs of all the groups, all the teams in Formula One. We’ve got to have systems so that the smaller independent teams can survive with support from the manufacturers where need be and other initiatives. But if we have systems that shut out the manufacturers completely, I think it’s to the detriment of the sport. The manufacturers bring a huge amount into this industry, they bring a huge amount of investment, they bring a huge amount of employment, people, so manufacturers bring in an awful lot to Formula One and we’ve got to be careful not to destroy that and not to shut that out completely. It can’t be left unharnessed, we all know that but the door shouldn’t shut completely on the input that manufacturers make. It’s the investment of Mercedes-Benz that gives me an eight million Euro engine, five million Euros next year. It’s the investment of Toyota that’s giving Adam an engine at a price that is incredible. Leasing a Ferrari engine a couple of years ago was 25m Euros. We survive because of the manufacturers. They absorb the research costs, they absorb the development costs and they give us an engine – not a subsidy but an engine that is provided on a cost-plus basis and they are not taking any profits out of it, they’re just doing it as a service to independent teams. So we have to find that balance between what Formula One can offer for manufacturers and what it can offer for independents. We can’t go too far in shutting out the manufacturers because it will be to the detriment of the sport.
AP: There’s a lot of what Martin, Ross and Christian are saying that I whole-heartedly agree with. We recognise what the manufacturers have brought to Formula One: tremendous status, as Frank says, fantastic, reliable engines and in many cases they’ve been very good friends to this team over decades. So it’s awfully difficult to find ourselves on the other side of the fence. To some extent, we are I won’t say bystanders because that would be disingenuous but I would say that we have contracts in place with Bernie and we’ve always said with Max as well and we enter the championship in light of those contracts. I’m impressed that Ross, as an independent team next year, let’s say, that actually has to raise money in the way that we do, feels that he has the ability to do that in another championship but we simply could not. There’s no way that we could walk away from our contracts and raise the sort of money that we would need to compete with the manufacturers, the Red Bulls and so forth. So we have a mutual dependence with the FIA and with FOM that is enshrined in contracts that we will honour. But it’s very, very sad for us that in so doing we’ve drifted away from people that we like and we respect and we like racing against. The question is: is it a disgrace that we are sitting here in this situation? I don’t know what we could have done differently than what we’ve done. We’ve tried to be at all times open, transparent, honest about our positions. Nobody can say that they didn’t know what we were going to do or when we did it and it’s very, very difficult for us and very sad. I think that the moment when we were asked to leave the room in the FOTA meeting a few weeks back was absolutely dreadful and something we will always remember with great sadness but I don’t know what we could have done differently. Let’s just be clear of one thing: we are the only team in Formula One this year that will raise money without asking its shareholders for one penny. The only team in Formula One. I’m not saying that others don’t depend on sponsorship because they do but every other team in Formula One raises a significant proportion of their budget from their shareholder or shareholders. We can’t do that. When I look at the future, the past few years that we’ve been through in Williams are just not sustainable, it cannot continue like that for us. Anyway, we are where we are. We’ve made some tough choices, we’ve lost friends as a result of that perhaps but I don’t think we could have done anything differently. We take no pleasure in it but that’s the facts.

Q: (Joe Saward – Grand Prix Special) This is for the FOTA teams: do we have any preparations that have been made for any new series or are you going into it from nothing? Specifically I would like to know about the Monaco Grand Prix.
MW: As I think people know here, it was a decision made late last night and I think therefore to talk about preparations ten hours later or whatever it is now would be premature. There have been lots of ideas, suggestions that have been thrown at the teams but the fact is that there’s a lot of work ahead of us and that’s a challenge. There are tinges of excitement and concern in it because doing any new venture is just that. But there’s been a lot of interest and a lot of support that’s been voiced for the teams. We’re open to any way forward but I think in the coming weeks and months we’ll naturally be better equipped to answer those questions.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Next Wednesday we will have the World Council meeting in Paris. Do you think there is a better forum to discuss what is best for Formula One next year, where a group of people make decisions on behalf of the FIA instead of an individual?
RB: I think there has been a system for trying to make these decisions, through the F1 Commission, through the teams but unfortunately that system seems to have disappeared or certainly not been used for a long time. There are systems which I think have been established that could be used for this purpose, so I don’t think we necessarily need to invent anything new. The difficulty now is that decisions have been made and how do we reverse out of those decisions? We should learn from what’s happened, to try and avoid getting ourselves into this situation in the future but there was a system under the old Concorde that wasn’t perfect but it meant that the teams were involved in all the key decisions and that seems to have disappeared. I don’t think there’s a need to invent a new system, just refine what was there before.

Q: (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport) To the three FOTA members: is there any possibility that you look for any further confrontations with Max Mosley even behind the supposed line of today?
CH: I think the position that we reached yesterday, after a huge amount of deliberation, we’ve felt that significant compromises had been offered and been made and I keep referring to this effective stalemate where we reached a position where the teams felt they could go no more. The FIA obviously made their position known and clearly felt and so effectively we end up in a situation where you have some very difficult decisions to make and the collective and unanimous feeling within that group was that we could go no further, therefore the position, as it was stated late last night, early this morning was one that was arrived at collectively, after a great deal of discussion and debate but it was one that was unanimously reached by each member of FOTA.

Q: (Miran Alisic – Pop TV) For all of you: could you just maybe clarify the last sentence from this last press release from the FIA and your position on it? What is the real reason behind this, that ‘publication of the final 2010 entry list will be put on hold?’
MW: I think all three of us and probably Adam as well were told of the FIA press release on the way here. It’s probably in any case, even if we’d studied it in great depth and had time, it’s not for us to interpret the meaning of that. I suggest that’s got to be something that the FIA would clarify for you if you need that clarification. We understand that the entry list was going to be published today. We had to make a decision last night. We made our decisions last night but any further comment on that is up to the FIA to clarify.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) At the beginning of the year there was a long dispute over the double diffuser and it concerned the members of the FOTA family. How will you deal with problems like this in the future?
MW: I think that in truth the double diffuser argument as it was characterised was a strong test of FOTA and a lot of emotions and that’s good. Formula One is meant to do those sorts of things and going racing and having competition. But I think the fact is that FOTA survived the tensions that arose from that. We’ve all got opinions, whether it’s right, wrong, should have been allowed, shouldn’t have been allowed but I think everyone accepted that all the teams acted in good faith and I think it’s something that could and should have been clarified earlier but out of it came, I think, the realisation that the teams ultimately have a lot of common interest. I think anyone who’s involved in motor racing and Formula One in particular, within the teams… it takes over your life, you don’t do it unless you’re very passionate about it. We’re very fortunate, all of us here, to be involved in this sport and I think we realised that all the teams have a common interest to sit amongst the teams with Ferrari, McLaren, on the same side of the table, realising that actually our goals are very similar, our approach to the sport is very similar. There’s a developing camaraderie within FOTA which is certainly unique in my experience. I think probably Ross is one here who has been here slightly longer than me but in twenty years it’s unprecedented. I think the manufacturer teams and some of the bigger teams made big compromises, I think, big efforts to reach out to the independent teams to assist during the first phases of FOTA, as a consequence of which the independent teams involved in FOTA see… and Ross talked about a compromise necessary. Inevitably when you’ve got a Toyota involved in Formula One and you’ve got a Toro Rosso at the other end, finding a compromise between those companies at either end of quite a large spectrum is quite a big challenge and unless there’s goodwill and co-operation you won’t find that accommodation and I think it’s been fantastic what’s been achieved within FOTA. I think it’s going from strength to strength. I think people last night knew the scale of the decisions that were being taken and I think people came out of it feeling incredibly positive about what’s been achieved and with a real belief that we can, by working together, we can make the sport greater and better than it’s ever been.
RB: I think this issue of finding compromise between the teams… I accept Michael’s point it was a pretty fraught period and if this proceeds we have to have a regulatory body that sits and covers those things impartially for the teams. But I think FOTA has been – and I have been there a very long time – it has been a great initiative. It was never set up to be a challenge to any of the authorities within Formula One or the commercial rights holder. It was set up for the teams to try and work together to present solutions which they had all agreed on. If I give you one small example: wind tunnel usage. There are completely different ends of the spectrum in terms of people’s wind tunnel facilities. You’ve got Toyota with two wind tunnels running flat out 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they made a concession to reduce the hours they run in the wind tunnel to sixty hours total, that’s sixty hours total for all their wind tunnels in order to compromise with the smaller teams who didn’t have the budget to run two wind tunnels full time, 24 hours, seven days a week. So that’s one example where compromise has been found, between the FOTA teams, where the large groups have accepted compromise in the interest of the smaller groups. Now, as a smaller group, I can’t ask Toyota to come down completely to my level but I know that there’s a smaller difference there between what we can afford to do in the wind tunnel and what they can afford to do. So there has been incredible movement within FOTA. I mentioned the cost of engines; these are all FOTA initiatives, they’re all things that the teams themselves have worked together to…. The testing agreement is a totally voluntary agreement between the teams. It wasn’t an initiative started by the FIA, it was an initiative started by the teams. We all agreed to it and to my knowledge nobody has ever breached the testing agreement, and that’s purely voluntary. So it is possible for the teams to see the way forward and act honourably and sensibly in these things. At one end there is a diffuser argument, at the other end there are the teams sitting down and really working hard to find solutions amongst themselves.

Q: (Tony Dodgins – Tony Dodgins Associates) There seems to have been quite a few concessions offered by the FIA at the last debate. What actually stopped a compromise being reached? I notice they are still going to run the Cosworths with the higher rev limit. Was that the stumbling block or is it the fact that you couldn’t sign up to something without any guarantees?
CH: I think the fundamental issue is the concept of entering a championship without regulations fully sorted, without the governance issues that have been raised and discussed and agreed to be debated, without those being dealt with in advance. It’s impossible to enter something and say ‘we’ll sort it out after you’ve entered.’ I think the position was, it has to be sorted, clear, concise, for every member to enter the championship, rather than entering something with goodwill but no clarity, no guarantees, open to debate with other members – we don’t even know who they are at the moment. Therefore, I think that’s very much the position that we found ourselves in, that without that clarity, without those concrete compromises, solutions in place, I think it was an untenable position for the teams.
MW: What was important, I think, to FOTA, was that we had the ten original teams all stating a willingness to enter into a new Concorde Agreement and to compete until at least 2012 and that was an achievement that was brought about by the cost-saving initiatives of FOTA. I think we couldn’t reach a point where all the FOTA members were prepared to dive into a championship without certainty in terms of the Concorde Agreement, in terms of the governance, in terms of the regulations. I think there was a strong feeling that we want to try and stay together, we want to be inclusive, we want to keep as many involved as we could have done. I think any of the teams here had the choice and the opportunity, I’m sure, at various times to break away and to sign up but I think we knew that in doing that, we would be irreparably fracturing the group that currently competes in Formula One and I think that would be very, very damaging. So the view at the end was that we want to race against all the big names that are involved in Formula One today and the path that we’ve chose at the moment represents the best chance of us achieving that.
RB: One of the dilemmas that the teams have, touching on what Christian mentioned, is that the rules are published, five teams have entered under those rules including Adam’s team and the rules, as they stand today, are that next year there’s a £40m budget cap. You can have a movable rear wing, you can have four wheel drive, you can have double strength KERS, you have any number of things. Now in fairness, Max has said that he will correct those, he will put those back to how they should be and we’ll operate under one set of rules but by definition, we’re asking for governance which would mean that the governance needs those teams to agree to those rule changes, otherwise it’s not governance, so how do we get those teams to agree to those rule changes if the governance, by definition, means that they have to agree to it. I don’t know what Adam’s position is, he might quite happily say here that he will agree to all of them but there are five teams involved and there are no guarantees. Max, quite genuinely, may believe that he can swing it but we’ve got to enter the championship on the assumption that those things will be corrected and sorted and I don’t know how it’s done, maybe inducements that are made to the teams to give them support in some way because obviously they’re going to struggle in Formula One but we’ve got ourselves into this sort of vicious loop. Some teams are more relaxed about finding a solution to that than others but collectively, as a group, it was very difficult for FOTA to accept that.
AP: Because Ross has almost asked the question I would like it to make it very clear that Williams would do anything that met with the approval of the FIA and the FOTA teams that could result in a solution. We will never prevent or be party to anything that would prevent that from happening. I have to say, having heard what the three guys have said, that it seems to be that the situation is not intractable because what each of them is talking about are process issues: how do you know what the rules are, how do you get governance sorted out, how do you have guarantees about what you’re entering into? I have to say that having not really spoken to many people for a while, I find it quite encouraging actually. I hope that everybody out there who has an ability to help find a solution is listening carefully because I think what’s being said is that it is possible to find a solution. Certainly Williams will play any part we can in making that happen.

25-May-09: Williams Submit Entry for 2010

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It’s the 25th May 2009, and this is F1 Minute.

Williams have lodged their entry to the 2010 championship, despite the fact that FOTA have said they are united against the regulations. Adam Parr of Williams said they have joined in the teams association as they write to the FIA, but they have to adhere to the FOM contract they signed to appear in Formula 1 until 2010 –they have already been paid for doing so. Apparently FOTA are expected to meet again this week to decide what to do about their own entries – the deadline for submissions is this Friday.

Meanwhile, Toyota president John Howett has dismissed claims that the team will use the row to exit the sport regardless of whether the issues are sorted out or not. He said he’s urging the team not to panic in respect of their poor performance this weekend, and that it is their wish to find a compromise and enter the championship next year. The rest of it, as he says, is spin.

That’s all for now, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

21-Apr-09: FOTA Determined to Stick Together

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This is F1 Minute, and it’s the 21st April 2009.

Various members of FOTA have spoken about the challenge they are facing to stay together, as several different arguments threaten to break down their united front. The diffuser row is the main problem, with Mario Theissen saying: “So far we have successfully kept apart the work on the future direction of the sport and on the other hand the operational daily business at the race track. This is definitely a test to FOTA.” CEO of Williams Adam Parr, who has come under fire recently from Renault boss Flavio Briatore added: “…if FOTA is to be a long-lasting institution, it cannot be based about people feeling good about how they are going on the track. Because not everybody is going to feel good.”

Elsewhere, Adrian Newey has said that Red Bull probably won’t have a double diffuser before Monaco, as it’s going to be a tough one to fit to the RB5. Despite the 1-2 finish in Shanghai without it, Newey says it is worth having and does give a performance advantage.

That’s it for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.

FIA – Malaysian GP Press Conference – Friday

FRIDAY PRESS CONFERENCE – April 3, 2009
TEAM PRINCIPALS:
Ross Brawn (Brawn GP),
John Howett (Toyota),
Adam Parr (Williams),
Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren Mercedes)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: A question to you all. Could you give us an update on how you feel your teams have done so far looking at Australia and today. Adam?
Adam PARR: Well, if you got points for practice we would be doing very well but obviously we need to do better than we did in Australia, that’s for sure.

Q: How has it gone today?
AP: It has gone okay but it does not really count for anything, does it?

Q: Ross, your feelings so far?
Ross BRAWN: Well, obviously Australia was, as has been said many times, a fairytale. Thinking about what the team has gone through for the past few months then to have the result we had in Melbourne was unconceivable and unbelievable. I have been through many things in Formula One. I have been lucky enough to have some very special experiences and that certainly ranks as one of the best, if not the best of my career. It was achieved with a lot of things from within the company but there are a lot of people outside the company who helped us survive. Martin was one of them and Ron did his elder statesman part and did a very good job and I must say FOTA rallied around. We would not have survived without the help of those people. Whilst it was a wonderful it shows that even though we are going through a little bit of a difficult period with protests and things at the moment there is another side of our business which is very united and very together in trying to solve and improve Formula One.

Q: Martin?
Martin WHITMARSH: I think we are already on record as saying that our car is not quick enough and I think that was evident last weekend and it is evident again this weekend. I think after the two massive championship seasons, frankly, fighting through to the end of the year we put a lot of resource into that. It was a decision we felt was right in Brazil but as we stand today we know we have got a lot of catching up to do. On a positive note I think in week 11, Barcelona test, I think we were very slow by comparison to every car. I think the team has made a spirited fight-back to try and drag itself into the pack but the truth is we have got a lot of work to do and we have got a lot of development necessary to get ourselves into a position we would expect to be in.

Q: John?
John HOWETT: I think it is too early to say really. We had a fairly challenging weekend in Australia. In qualifying if you look at fuel corrected pace, definitely Timo (Glock) had a very strong lap and in race pace when we were running in relatively free air the car was competitive. We need to wait at least another couple of races, different type of circuits, to really judge the relative performance of all the teams.

Q: John and Martin, you both had certain events during last weekend. Any further comment on what was happening last weekend and what continues to happen now?
JH: I don’t think so. I mean we have issued press statements on it, so we will have to wait and see in terms of the diffuser what happens on April 14. I think as a team we are very confident that we have interpreted the rules correctly and we have had verification that our interpretation would appear to be correct and we just need to wait to see.

MW: Well, okay obviously I have got to comment on what for our team is a very sad day today. We have suspended a long standing Sporting Director, Dave Ryan. I think many people in this room will know Dave and will know of Dave. He has been with the team for 35 years. I have personally known him for 20 years and I think anyone who knows him, knows that he is a very straight forward, dedicated, hard working individual. However, it has become clear from discussions with Dave last night and through into this morning that during the stewards’ meeting he was not entirely full and truthful in answers that he gave the stewards and consequently we had no alternative today other than to suspend him. As you can imagine I think it is a very sad day for the team. We have got to deal with this weekend and we have got to look in a bit more detail at all of the events that surrounded that. From my perspective obviously it is a point of deep, deep regret. It is not how I wanted this year in particular to start and it is something for which the team and myself are not only deeply embarrassed but deeply regretful. I think for Dave is has been a shattering day for him.

Q: Another question for both of you in the front row. Relating to KERS, how do you feel KERS went and how you have used it so far?
MW: I think at the moment it is still early days and frankly we had some difficulties with KERS today and Lewis’s runs in the afternoon were without KERS. It was an incredibly challenging range of technologies to package KERS on a Formula One car. I think Mercedes Benz have done a fantastic job and it was a really successful use of it in Australia. Here it has been a bit challenging but again it is early days. I am confident that we will find our way through those difficulties. It’s a technology that is important to Formula One and there has been just a huge effort to make it work. I can appreciate that some teams have decided wisely not to bowl in there with KERS. I think Mercedes Benz and ourselves rolled our shirt-sleeves up and got stuck into it. It has been a massively expensive and challenging programme. But we are going to stick at it. When it is working there is some advantage and we will, I am sure, have benefit of it as the season progresses.

Q: Will you persevere with it this weekend?
MW: Yes, we will. I think we had one glitch which caused us for safety and practical reasons to turn it off. I think we had a small cooling pump failure which meant we couldn’t run with it on Lewis’s car. We will obviously look into that and see whether it is anything particular to these conditions or whether it’s the fact it is a very new technology and we are working hard to develop it and solve those problems.

Q: John, when will we see KERS on the Toyota?
JH: We are still monitoring the situation. We are still continuing development in Cologne. I think we have always said that when we start to see the advantage in terms of lap time or a competitive advantage we will try to install KERS on the car. Here you have fairly long straights and a reasonably long run into the first corner, so we need to evaluate what advantage KERS will give in those situations.

Q: Adam, can you say when your slightly different system of KERS will be used?
AP: Very similar to John. We are just working on it flat out and we are also waiting to see whether it will generate faster lap time. But I think one thing was quite clear in Melbourne which is that regardless of lap time there may be tactical advantages in having it on the car, so we are more determined than ever to have it on as soon as we can.

Q: Both of you in the back row are independent teams. You have both tasted a certain amount of success in various ways. How important is that from a  commercial point of view? Ross, obviously, has got the Virgin sticker on the car and that’s about it. How important is success for you from a commercial point of view? Adam, perhaps you could start?
AP: It is why we are here. We were very fortunate in the last few months of last year that I think 10 of our partners renewed their sponsorship with us and I think including four upgrades for this year, so they showed a lot of faith in the team at a time that, as you will appreciate, was extremely difficult to make a decision like that. We are very grateful to them and the only way we can reward them on the track is by performing, so it is absolutely crucial to us to perform.

Q: Ross, has the phone been ringing with people wanting to give you money since last weekend?
RB: It is not quite that simple but there has been a lot of interest and of course given the result we had last weekend it was perfect to develop the commercial side. If we had been at the back of the grid it would have certainly been a lot more difficult. But it is a tough market out there at the moment and we all know what the economic situation is.  But things are developing reasonably well but the key objective for us is to find partners that we can have for the next two, three or more years, not just someone to come along and have a quick splash and disappear. We will take our time to develop the right partners. With Virgin it is starting small but with a lot of potential for the future, so I think we have made as good a start as we could have dreamed of with the results we have and the car we have got. With regards to KERS it is not high on the agenda for us at the moment. We had to make some compromises to change the engine in the car, so the car has got to be heavier now than originally intended and that makes it quite difficult to install KERS. We will have to work hard to get some weight out of the car before we can get to a position where KERS is a possibility. Like the rest of the group we will be monitoring the situation. This, I think, is one of the best tracks for KERS according to our simulations when we did it and I think you may see that KERS-equipped cars will be more to the fore here than they perhaps would be on other circuits.

Q: Someone suggested last weekend that is costs more money to have KERS. Is that right?
RB: It certainly costs money.

Q: Is it part of the deal? Is it extra?
RB: No, our engine agreement with McLaren Mercedes is purely an engine supply agreement. We have had some tentative discussions about KERS but it is a little bit early for us to engage properly on that.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Talking about what happened to Mr Ryan. Does it mean that he was lying then to the stewards?
MW: It means he was not truthful and full in his answer which is what I said (becomes inaudible).

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Martin, to follow that up. The impression we are getting from the statement is that Dave Ryan did this on his own. Are you telling us that there was no-one else involved in McLaren, senior to him, in this process?
MW: Correct, there was no-one else senior. I think anyone who knows Dave will know that he did not set out with any deliberate intention to mislead the stewards. He went to that stewards meeting with Lewis, I am sure, with the intention of being very clear and straightforward but I think during the course of that meeting, as we explored it more with him, over the last 24 hours it became clear that he was not as full and comprehensive as he could have been.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Could you explain also what Lewis’s precise role was because the stewards made it very clear to us that both Dave Ryan and Lewis specifically said that the team had not told them to allow (Jarno) Trulli to go past. So what did Lewis do? Did he follow Ryan?
MW: I think Dave was the senior member of the team there and Dave has to take responsibility for leading that process. I think Lewis is going to talk to the media later and I am sure he will give a full account from his perspective. But this is something that was still unfolding until literally minutes before the first practice session. I had to take an incredibly difficult decision. I have personally known Dave for 20 years. If you go around this paddock and ask any team in any organisation of their experiences of Dave in terms of his dedication and commitment, so he is shattered by what has happened today. We need to take stock of that situation but there were two people in with the stewards but Dave is part of the management, he is the Sporting Director of this team, and as such he had the responsibility to ensure that the stewards received a full and entirely truthful account of what happened.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) There have been some very harsh things said about the team, particularly in the British press, including a suggestion that McLaren is contaminated by a culture of cheating. Is that the case?
MW: No.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) What is the case?
MW: The case is that Dave made a very serious error of judgement in going into that stewards meeting and he is paying the consequences of that. It is something that he deeply regrets, Lewis and I and the team regret, and it is something that we have got to put right.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) You say that Dave was not entirely truthful in front of the stewards but what about Lewis, was he truthful in front of the stewards?
MW: No, I think that Lewis was not entirely truthful but we have spoken to Dave, he was the senior member of the team and they went into a situation together and I think they were trying to deal with the situation but they got it wrong. Dave, as the senior member of the team was responsible for what happened and therefore I took that decision this morning.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) Martin, what is the procedure or the process in terms of deciding what was going to be said? You were on the pit wall and so was Ron Dennis as much as Dave and anyone else. When this process was unfolding and you knew he had to go to the stewards what was done? What happens?
MW: In truth the situation was that during this incident we were asking the stewards, well, we were asking race control, for a decision because we realised that Trulli had been let past. We did not think that was right because in fact the original overtake of Trulli was entirely legitimate as Trulli was not on the circuit. We believed that when all of the facts were presented to the stewards that they would recognise and they would restore the positions, so we asked for the race control and the stewards to look into it and Dave and Lewis went to the stewards to give their account.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) But did they talk to you about what should be said?
MW: No. They did not because it was not necessary. We knew what had happened and there was a belief that a true and honest account of that would get the result, that the positions would have been reversed.

Q: (Jonathan Legard – BBC) So what got lost in translation? Lewis gave this interview or interviews saying ‘I was asked’ and then said ‘no’ in the stewards’ inquiry. Why, why did that happen?
MW: Well, I think Lewis got out of the car and gave a truthful account of what happened. I believe that whilst they were at the stewards, Dave, who had been party to what had happened in Spa, was highly sensitive and I think in the heat of the moment, his judgment was to not give a true account, and I think Lewis was then led by that.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Martin, I was just wondering what we should believe is the next step, given that Dave Ryan has been suspended as opposed to sacked or resigned. What does that mean, how will that develop?
MW: What it leaves now is that this is something that happened literally minutes before the first practice session. Dave has been sent home and we need to, during the course of this weekend, understand exactly what happened and make the decisions about Dave’s future.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) And finally, from me, I was wondering if you, given all the fall-out from this, have given any consideration to whether you would resign from your role?
MW: I think there’s a lot of things going through my mind today and it’s happening during an event in which we’re trying to do the best job we can. I think, as a team, at the moment, we’ve lost someone who is very much a significant anchor in this organisation and we’ve got to make sure that we pull together to do the best job that we can this weekend. I think we’ve got to reflect on everything that’s happened over the course of the Australian weekend, after this race has finished.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) So you don’t rule that in or out?
MW: I don’t rule anything in or out. I think at the moment, what we are keen and earnest to do today is make sure that we put our hands up and say it was a serious error of judgement during that process and that we make sure that we come clean on that fact.

Q: (Ingo Rörsch – Sport Bild) Mr Whitmarsh, have you had the chance to see the precise words which were spoken between the stewards and your two team members?
MW: No, I haven’t. Ordinarily they aren’t minuted and I believe one of the stewards didn’t bring his notebook from Australia but we have no access to that. All we can do is ask the driver and the team manager what was said in that meeting.

Q: (Ingo Rörsch – Sport Bild) But shouldn’t that be recorded for the future?
MW: Well, again, I think at the moment it’s not for me to make that judgement. I think what the stewards should rely upon is that when the teams are called before them, they will give a totally true and open account of what happened.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) John, relations between FOTA and FOA are a bit strained and tense; do you see that getting better or worse?
JH: Between FOTA and FOA? Well, I think at the moment we have progressed significantly. There was, as you know, some tension over historic payments. They haven’t, I think, in the teams’ opinion, all been settled but a significant  proportion have been settled and whilst we’ve been in Australia I believe our lawyers together with FOA’s lawyers have made significant progress, so I think in terms of the actual agreement, we all believe, we are extremely close to actually reaching a final conclusion.

Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) To all of those who are using KERS: how much of an advantage can it be at the start? Is it quantifiable? Is it possible to know?
MW: Yes, it’s quantifiable. There are a number of factors but clearly if you can discharge going down to the first corner, then you do get a quantifiable advantage that varies from circuit to circuit depending on whether you’re grip limited and the length to that corner. It also, frankly, relies upon you being able to deploy that much additional energy. If you are frankly languishing further back on the grid as we were at the last Grand Prix, then it’s very rare that you can go to the first corner braking point at full power, even with or without KERS, so its benefit is greater, clearly, if you’ve got a clear run at the first corner.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Ross, how do you see the situation here compared to Australia one week ago?
RB: It’s still a little bit too early to say. We’re struggling a little bit with the balance of the car today, it’s not quite as nice as Australia. Despite what the perceptions are of the car it has actually very good low speed grip, it’s very good on traction. It’s not a track that perhaps rewards those elements quite as much and neither driver was particularly happy with the balance of the car today, so we’ve got to do a good job tonight to improve that, but I think we’ll be near the front and fighting at the front. Whenever anyone said a car or a team were going to be dominant, don’t believe it because this business is too competitive for anyone to be dominant. We’re going to have to fight very, very hard to get points this weekend and hopefully get podiums.

Q: This is for Ross Brawn, can you explain for us the development plan for your car this year? Do you have enough resources to develop the car while other teams develop their cars, of course?
RB: Yes, we’ve been through a pretty traumatic winter and unfortunately that still continued this week because we had a lot of restructuring of the team to do. We’re not a team with a budget that Honda had, so this week there has been some unfortunate restructuring. We hope we’re going into next week with our new team and we can then look forward and the restructuring has been very focused on performance. It would be no good having a team with fantastic production facilities and no ideas, so the team has been structured very strongly around maintaining a good development programme, so we’ve tried not to impact the technical areas too much and yes, the development is on-going. We’re planning an upgrade for Barcelona or just after Barcelona. We obviously have this appeal hearing next week or the week after next and we need to see what comes out of that because that may change direction. I’m reasonably confident but you can’t be one hundred percent confident. So yeah, we’ve got to move forward. I think these new rules, by definition, being a new set of rules, the rate of progress will be very rapid as Martin touched on. At one stage in winter testing they were quite a long way behind and now they’re getting into the pack and making rapid progress, so it is an era of very rapid progress and we’ve got to progress as well as our competitors if we want to have a hope of winning another race this year.

Q: (Benny Casadei – Il Giornale) Ross, which is the most important thing you learned at Ferrari that you are applying leading your new team?
RB: Non mollare mai – you never give up and there were times over the winter when it was easy to think this was actually not worth it. It was very, very difficult at times. The great thing, I must say, is that the team stuck together. I’ve said before, I had some black days over the winter. Luckily they didn’t coincide with Nick’s black days or some of the other management team’s black days. As I said at the beginning, the support from McLaren and Mercedes was exceptional. They didn’t know whether we were going to make it or not but they just gave us 110 percent all the time. There was no doubt from their side that they were going to give us everything we wanted. So if I took something from Ferrari and from Luca (di Montezemolo) and Jean Todt and Michael (Schumacher), it was just never give up.

Q: (Chris Lines – Associated Press) I want to ask all four guys what they think of the speed and method of Formula One’s decision-making with penalties with the Hamilton-Trulli situation, with the diffuser situation. Is there any way these can be sped up? Fans attend the race or they watch on TV thinking they’ve seen one result; they get home and it’s completely changed. Is there anything you can think of to improve that process?
JH: I suppose fundamentally FIA is the Federation, it’s their championship and it’s their right to determine how they manage it. It could be something that FOTA, if the members so desired, could try to discuss openly with the Federation, but I think one has to respect the fact that as in football, the stewards are there and appointed and have the right to decide, and I think it’s something that could be expressed as a future opportunity to improve but I don’t believe it’s something that we have the right to really interfere with directly.
AP: Yeah, I think one has to distinguish between the sporting regulations and the technical regulations. I think the sporting regulations, you have to try and sort it out as quickly as possible and the only reason to come back at any distance from the race is if there’s new evidence that is very significant. On the technical side, I think it’s extremely difficult because obviously over the winter or before that, we’re developing cars, we’re seeking clarifications from the FIA as to how to interpret rules or confirming that we’ve correctly understood them and it’s not necessarily until we come up to the new season that people get a sense of what other people are doing. And then the process demands that you protest after an event or during an event or after scrutineering. If you look at the process we’re going through now, we were protested on the Thursday which was the first opportunity that anybody had to do it. It was well signalled by the teams that they would do that, very transparently, and we’ve now got a hearing which is exactly 16 days after that process. You need eight days for the submissions from the appellants and eight days to respond, and I think anything less than that would be very difficult. It may look like a very long drawn-out process but I think it’s dictated by the nature of the sport.
RB: I think it is always a bit unfortunate when fans go away and there’s still debate going on about decisions and I wish it were possible to walk away from a race that was black and white but it’s a very complicated sport, particularly when you start to move into the technical side. I think the process that we’re going through is fair and proper. I’ve been on the wrong side of protests and appeals, I’ve been on the right side of protests and appeals and it is a very, very complicated sport, and particularly with new regulations coming in, three teams took an interpretation which they’re very comfortable with and several other teams aren’t happy with that interpretation. It has to be resolved, so I think the process is as good as it can be. On the sporting side, even if you make a final decision and it’s the wrong decision that’s probably worse than it being a good decision that takes a little bit longer.
MW: I’m afraid, no particular ideas, but I think inevitably that we have to try and get everyone to work together, the teams and the Federation, to ensure that we find ways to shorten that process because clearly we recognise that it’s not the best thing for the sport but I think the teams are as much a part of that as the Federation. We’ve perhaps got to be more transparent, more clear in our dealings with the sporting body, so I think we shouldn’t be looking to any one party, we’re all part of this sport and we’ve got to look at how we can contribute to improving it.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – The Daily Mail) Where do Lewis and his manager stand with the team at the moment, how are relations between them and you and whether their reaction to what’s gone on was the factor in Dave Ryan going and whether it’s still a factor in how you’re evaluating your next step as well?
MW: No, it’s not a factor. Lewis is not only a very committed member of the team, he’s a long-standing friend of many of us in the team who have known him since he was a lad. Anthony is similarly well-regarded. They are solid supporters of the team, consider themselves to be part of it. They weren’t involved in the sad decision with Dave Ryan, they learned after the event, Lewis didn’t know until after P1 this morning. So they had no bearing on it, they weren’t involved in it. We have to manage the business, they know and understand that and I would say the relationship – at the moment, it’s a very difficult time for the team. We’ve got to make sure that we come out of it understanding and learning and hopefully with even stronger relationships than we started with.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Ross, I wonder whether you could clarify some points please. After your restructure, will the team be a small big team or a big small team? Secondly, for what reason was the team accepted as a new team and not a continuation of the Honda team? And then finally, with regard to the commercial Concorde Agreement, where the team stands in that regard at this point?
RB: Well, I hope it’s both. I hope it’s a big small team and a small big team. In terms of the structuring, we looked very carefully at where we felt performance came from, reliability. We will be pretty lean in terms of the number of spares we carry. I think we’ve got 55 people here whereas last year we would have had 90 at a race. So it’s a different era for us but one which is quite exciting and quite challenging. There will be times when we will be very frustrated, because we can’t do something that we would have liked to do and that was a luxury and a nice thing, and I don’t mean travelling at the sharp end of the plane, I mean the engineering things that we were able to do with the number of people and the budgets that we had before. With regard to the entry, the FIA determined that we were a new entry. I understand the reasons why they made that decision and we respect that. On the commercial side, it’s not something I feel I want to comment on but something I would say that FOTA has been very supportive of, and FOM in finding a solution, to give the team the best chance of a way forward in the future.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) There’s one thing that I don’t understand very much, Mr Whitmarsh. Does it mean that you only learned this morning from Mr Ryan that he was not entirely truthful, because yesterday when you talked to us, it was something completely different, and it was after you read what the stewards sent out as a press release that you saw there was some inconsistency from what you said and what you knew?
MW: I think in these situations people strive to convince themselves that they have been entirely true and honest in all of their answers and of course you can technically answer something and convince yourself that it is truth. Dave was clear that he had not lied and we believed that. As we dealt with the unfolding situation of yesterday, the more that we discussed it, the more that we believed that the answers that were given were not full and honest in the way that we would expect them to be.